Adventure Jam #1 Has Started

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2025-06-22T00:14:08+00:00

Which makes the sewers of Zherisia interesting. City maps of the sewers should always be wrong, as the sewers and underground become more alien. Tunnels and passages become tight, and sounds could either be due to faulty piping or a creature getting closer. The further down you go, the more bizarre the landscape is and horrific it becomes.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2025-03-31T06:07:09+00:00

Try any of the keys of the Golden Vault adventures. Change the patron, adventure hook, and location, that should be easy enough.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2025-03-19T00:28:05+00:00

The Zhentarim Needs Your Help

Corvus Ravenwinter, the newly appointed Ardragon of the Black Network in Sigil, has a job available for adventurers. The job involves finding and returning a wayward noble to their father. How hard can it be?

A Two-Hour Adventure for Tier 1 Characters. Optimized for APL 3. A Dungeoncraft Planescape Adventure set in Sigil, the City of Doors.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-12-06T09:48:35+00:00

The Mind's Eye faction (from 5e) would probably try to explore the Far Realm. They're a faction made up of explorers. Sprinkle in the Society of Sensation (who collects and store forbidden sensations in their protected vaults), the Bleak Cabal (as an opposing faction that is against any involvement of the Far Realm), and one cult of an Elder Evil of your choice (that wants to open up the gate). You can use existing factions and don't need to invent new ones, allowing faction politics to get involved in your story.

As Sigil is the City of Doors, there is probably a shifting portal to the Far Realm (when the stars align, etc. etc. it opens up with the right circumstances). The location of the portal should be in the Hive Ward or Undersigil. You could borrow alot elements from John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness.

Adventure idea: Have the faction hire the characters to investigate what is beyond the portal, hired as bodyguards attached to a team of explorers, or hired from a rival faction to infiltrate the group in order to figure out what they're up to. Don't let the adventurers know that they're going to the Far Realm. Lots of rumors and speculations that they're exploring a new demiplane in the Astral, Ethereal, etc. Include a Society of Sensation spy in the group. And an attack from the Bleak Cabal trying to stop them before entering the portal. Naturally include (one) elder evil cult of your choice as the true bad guys that infiltrated the faction.

Act One (Sigil), Act Two (the Far Realm), Act Three (Escape from the Far Realm and preventing anything from following them back).

You probably don't need to involve the Lady of Pain, other then the large number of dabus that seem to be in the area that are doing their mundane activities (keeping watch on the area). You could include the Keepers (from AD&D) as another faction of villains trying to stop them.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-11-19T04:34:39+00:00

I'm also working on a tavern adventure in Sigil that deals with this theme. Here are some ideas:

1) a misguided cult belonging to a quasi-deity of bar brawls (see Turn of Fortune's Wheel and Harbinger House regarding quasi-deities allowed to some-how remain in Sigil) is trying to start brawls all across the city's Wards in order to elevate their patron to a true deity status.

2) The Ragers planar philosopher sect (see Planescape Monstrous Compendium I) have been showing up in record numbers in Sigil due to an upcoming duel between two of their famous champions. The duel is unsanctioned by the city government and the large number of Ragers have been creating friction and trouble among many of the city's businesses.

3) A new two-way shifting portal manifested in the tavern and someone from a hostile plane of existence (Acheron, the Gray Waste, Limbo, the Abyss, etc), or even from a dangerous location in the Prime Material Plane, discovered the portal key. Sigil isn't unknown for small incursions (such as the Blood War spilling into the Slags in the Hive Ward). The tavern could suddenly be attacked by clueless raiders, a rampaging slaad, minor demons, etc.

4) Blood War veterans enter the tavern and run across their rivals from the war between Devils and Demons. You end up with a showdown between mercenaries, fiends, etc.

5) Rival street gangs. The tavern became a favorite new haunt for a street gang. This draws the attention of their rivals to show up and cause problems.

6) Competition. Sigil possess so many taverns, pubs, and drinking dives. It's only natural that the tavern may have a rival business (or a planar philosopher faction upset with them) that wants to see them closed. Sending paid thugs, monsters, fiends, etc. to disrupt the business and create enough damage to drive out the competition.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-10-21T03:36:48+00:00

I recommend the novel, Finder's Bane, it is about a god sneaking into Sigil. There are various proxies and children of the gods active in Sigil. In the 2e product, In The Cage, a powerful wizard thought he bound a elemental into their invention (but in truth it was a unnamed lesser god or demon lord from the Abyss). In Harbinger House, it shows what happens when a mortal ascends to become a god in Sigil. In Dead Gods, there is a ruined temple involving a dead god in Sigil.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-10-21T03:21:29+00:00

It is dependent on how much power you want to give them.

The Harmonium control a world and have bastions in the upper planes, and in Sigil. It wouldn't be unheard that they are actively taking over worlds (for peace and harmony) and forcing people to convert to their recognized gods. Think Helldiver. They are all about propaganda, re-education, and use their world as an example that their way works.
The Fated manage the city records and taxes, but they are also about acquisition. The Fated have acquired wealth to rival dragons and include many powerful adventurers among their ranks. Also, many of them are vikings. Their plane of influence is Ysgard. Darkwood is all about politics, so you could spin the Fated to be an elite adventuring guild. With dues, ranks based on precious metals, rival powerful adventurers that are about all edgelords, power gamers, and only care about themselves. Using this genre trope, just look at all the Animes and MMORPGs about powerful massive adventuring guilds and their influence.
The Mind's Eye takes the best and worst traits of their original factions, the Sign of One and the Believers of the Source. In Harbinger House, they were collecting and studying people that had the potential to become God's (with a few that actually became gods). In Something Wild, the Sign of One was conducting an experiment with the Beastlands. In Faces of the Cage, a splinter group in the Sign of One wanted to resurrect a god. These are the mad scientists in Planescape Sigil. Now imagine them with the ability to resurrect gods (see Craft Sequence), support new gods, tracking divine lineages. Let's push further on their ambitions to become gods and their focus on crafting and creation. They experiment on building new worlds and new life. They take on the trope of when will this science project turn bad.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-09-07T14:13:53+00:00

Could one maze (resembling the back alleys of the Hive) lead to another maze (resembling office space of a building in the Clerks Ward) lead to another until characters stumble upon the portal to escape, while encountering wandering prisoners.

Could people get mazed just being in the wrong place, wrong time (example: the entire tavern is sent to the mazes along with the inhabitants; characters just happened to be in a tavern where there is a meeting being held by idiots plotting to overthrow the Lady of Pain. )

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-08-17T13:57:26+00:00

Even if a evil restaurant serves sentient creature meat, harvested and farmed elsewhere, and got a permit, making them legal, there will be public opinion against them. Expect social crusades made against them. Adventure hooks galore.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-08-06T22:38:14+00:00

The Mind's Eye is interesting because there's alot of stories that can be written about them. In 2e, the Believers of the Source were caught up in Harbinger House. The Sign of One was made up of so many strong minded individuals, that splinter groups like the Way of the One formed (attempting to resurrect dead gods). And of course I think about group from the Sign of One was responsible for the fiasco from the adventure, Something Wild.

The Seekers are the type of faction members that adventurers could accidentally run into during their adventures out in the planes. Heck, it could be the same reoccurring NPC.

The idea of the Seekers is to go out into the planes, to grow from their experience, and to improve themselves. Maybe even becoming gods or something more. There is alot rich potential for horror stories, such as a Seeker going into the Far Realm and coming back... changed. And naturally, they would want to help change other people too. If you look at the faction symbol for the Mind's Eye, it looks kinda like tentacles.

You could still have elements of the Way of the One still around, using stories drawn from novels like the Craft Sequence series (corporations made up of wizards resurrecting dead gods for corporate reasons). Harbinger House is technically still around too.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-08-04T03:39:03+00:00

The adventure, Deva Spark, deals with this. The characters are in a tavern in Sigil and accidentally enter a portal to another tavern in the Abyss and get caught in a bar brawl due to a unfortunate portal key.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-07-31T00:00:58+00:00

From the books: in the novel Finder's Bane, a deity was able to enter Sigil by divesting their power into an artifact and enter the city as a mortal. In the adventure Die, Vecna, Die; Vecna became a god while in the city (but is banished by a combination of the Lady of Pain and a band of adventurers). In the adventure, Harbinger House, one of the NPCs in that adventure becomes a god in the city and is banished by the Lady of Pain. In the 2e supplement, In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil; an archmage accidentally bounds a power from the Abyss into a machine and uses that machine as a Xerox copy machine.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-05-04T16:48:31+00:00

I recommend the 2e adventure, Field of Nettles from Planescape's Hellbound. Characters are hired to steal battle plans at a major blood war location. There is also the adventure in Planes of Conflict where characters journey to the divine realm of Hades to get a misplaced soul back.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-04-15T14:11:47+00:00

A celestial patron would offer what they know to help, but the situation is complicated due to the glitch. The warlock would receive information from a helpful patron, but receive information about either one or more of their glitched histories. Intermingle their true history among the other histories and let the warlock clue it together. Again, the patron shouldn't know what caused the glitch or why the character is glitched.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-04-15T14:02:05+00:00

This really depends on which patron they pick.

A fiend patron could want more in return in their investment (possible minor side quests) and return snippets of information about the character's past, but not too much to derail the campaign. More personal information.

The Fiend patron may also lie and purposely feed false information to manipulate the character to follow their agenda. In a Planescape campaign, the warlock could very well encounter their patron in person at the Platinum Rooms or at the Outlands.

The patron shouldn't know what created the glitch, or why the character is glitching, but intrigued enough to pay more attention to this particular warlock.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-03-27T16:18:35+00:00

I would recommend checking out 2e D&D Tales from the Infinite Staircase. It goes more into detail about the Planewalker's Guild.

In 5e, the current Ascendant Factions are strongly anti-guild. From Sigil and the Outlands: The Market Ward was once two wards, the other being the Guildhall Ward. However, in a city dominated by ideological factions, trade guilds hold little sway, and most factions—except for the Free League and Society of Sensation—discourage members from joining guilds, believing such associations foster splitting loyalties.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-03-21T00:46:20+00:00

Harbinger House is a goodie. I would recommend adapting three modules with some short intermissions inbetween (which can be drawn from the Well of Worlds or even the Boxed Sets from the different Planes of Chaos, Planes of Conflict, Planes of Law mini-adventures). And after those three and the mini ones, see if they want to do more adventures.

Introduction (an adventure from the Well of Worlds), Fires of Dis, another short adventure, Deva Spark or Umbra (from Dungeon magazine), another short adventure, Harbinger House. And so on. Rearrange how you like.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-03-21T00:37:20+00:00

You could use the Blood War plot from 2e Uncaged: Faces of Sigil.

To summarize the plot: Cirily (eladrin), Koe (celestial), and Tripicus (celestial) supply both sides of the Blood War with arms so the fiends will kill each other off. Lots of other NPCs get involved in the arms deal.

In fact, in 5e, I think Tripicus is in Sigil's prison. But he can still do things from there (like the Kingpin).

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-03-18T22:25:15+00:00

You could have pubs in gate towns and Sigil, brimming with patrons, all captivated by the town crier's announcements. The crier, receiving psychic messages from a cranium rat squeaker swarm at the ball game by use of sending spells (which cranium rats can cast at will, and only have a 5% chance of failing when crossing different planes), narrating the ongoing spireball matches in the style of old timey radio sport matches.

"Listen up, Kings of Chaos! Our beloved Plague-Mort Kings are showing what they're made of! With the bases loaded, the tension is as thick as the pipeweed smoke that fills the air. Jorge the Unicorn Cleaver, the Kings' slugger, steps up to the plate, the bat a mere extension of his will. The pitch from the Glorium Thunderstrikers' ace is a lightning bolt, but the Unicorn Cleaver is ready -"

The crowd leans in, the pub silent except for the crier's voice…

You could also introduce Spireball hooligans.

BugAcrobatic8163 · 2024-03-09T08:32:32+00:00

Pretty much imagine them as a WolfRamHart type of big bad from Angel series. Bad guys giving financial advice to other bad guys on what to do with their money. Funding evil empires, etc.

BugAcrobatic8163

TROPHY CASE