Back to main page
Back to Great Cavern
This encounter will hopefully deal with a few loose ends at once. It plunks the redundant trolls of Book II into their rightful encounter section while making a full "trollkill" unnecessary. The trolls themselves take a more active role here. With the kuo-toa encounter this also explains where one of the ledgeways hazards ends up, and gives another reason the kuo-toa might avoid the place. Lastly, the river itself is a convenient device: to allow the kuo-toa a bypass, to carve out a formorian sector and to bar the ettins from it, and to pen the tenebrous worms to a more concentrated region.
This river thus cuts the lowest passage encounter systems into two provinces, a southern province with ettins and a northern one with formorian giants. The orientation of the river vis-à-vis this entry tunnel therefore decides the province in which the party starts out. I want Night Below to reflect Sargent wherever possible, so the party should start in the ettin province; therefore I've oriented the river such that it is north of the entry passage after the chasm.
Like most natural caverns, this corridor was a river once. Over the centuries the river has settled further into the depths, leaving the corridor high and dry. The river did not change its direction, though, and in this spot, where the river runs directly below it, the corridor has collapsed. Eventually some race (probably drow) built a bridge across the resultant chasm. Since the drow left, the crossing has been exploited by whatever group of bandits could keep it. Right now, a couple of troll tribes have laid claim to the area.
As the party approaches, mention that they start to hear a dull, echoing roar and feel a slight breeze. When they arrive:
|
The right wall disappears! The passage leaves you teetering on a narrow ledge over a vast canyon. A distant thunder echoes blackly from the unfathomable deep. The canyon stretches around the corner of the wall behind you, and stretches beyond sight before you. Your ledge narrows into the left wall ahead, but fortunately some kindly soul has installed a bridge across it. |
The above is essentially a schematic. Scale and even redraw at whim.
To handle the ledges (defined: within 5' of the chasm) and bridge, refer to the ledgeways hazard in DM Reference Card #3. If a person falls, in addition to the usual damage s/he gets swept into the current. Unless s/he is prepared (c.f. the kuo-toa encounter) the poor fool will enter the Sunless Sea in a few days - over a period of days - in little chunks.
And there are those eager to expedite the process. Secret doors on either side lead to troll hideouts. When the party is halfway across the foul creatures hope to spring out on either side, and (being fond of tradition) try to extort a toll. It should be a good test of the players under adversity.
The troll lair - moved from Book II - is off to the side somewhere to the south of the chasm. You can decide whether to exclude the troglodytes, or to replace the pools with wells (holes leading to the river), or to flip the orientation of the map. Most of all, you - rather, your party - can decide whether they really want to go hacking trolls.
Started notes in 13 August 2001 in conjunction with the aboleth region. 15 August, published.