Some context to start. This is an ongoing 3.5e campaign with a loosely Stargate kinda vibe. The players have access to a mysterious keep buried in the plane of Earth, that has a magical portal. This is a magitech style setting with an emphasis on planar travel and high magic. The group initially began using the random portal function to go on some wacky adventures but soon realised they were in the footsteps of another group that had died fighting an enemy they came to know as the World Enders. The whole thing is very tropey (I mean that bit is practically Power Rangers) but also allows for intense wackiness, especially when the players discovered that, with caveats, the portal can also take them through time. They also quickly found out that Mystra is quite disapproving of any meddling with time and that should they overdo it, they risk drawing her attention and with it, her ire. At the moment, the only protection they have is their secrecy, protected it seems, to some degree, by Tymora, who has a vested interest in the project, having provided the luck that allows it to function.
Our party consists of Ori, a dragonwrought kobold warlock who has already caused a bootstrap paradox, being responsible for his own existence. With him is Hugo, a Zenythri Shadow Hand Monk. We also have a recently arrived druid in the form of Illia, an elf and worshipper of Silvanus. Fleshing out the group is an NPC, Cabot the halfling street fighter, a member of the original group who survived but was held captive and eventually rescued by the party.
The group have recently discovered that the World Enders are actually a cult seeking to free Tharizdun from his chains. They seek to hasten his release by increasing the amount of entropy in the world by destroying planets and their inhabitants. The party have met a couple of the World Enders, including B'hecki, daughter of the erratic wizard B'hin Bhaag and, if the crazy old man is to be believed, the result of a brief fling between himself and Mystra. They know B'hecki went to Carceri to seek knowledge from a prisoner there and have made an effort to follow in her footsteps. They made their way to Candlekeep and, curious to explore the basement, went back in time to its construction to build themselves a secret passage. This allowed them to meet (and free) the ghost of a dragon, Miiryum, trapped beneath.
There's been a lot more, including a delve through the Tomb of Horrors, but this is simply a summary. The last session was their first visit to Carceri, at a mere level 9. Well looted and armed with knowledge, I knew they could take a few beats in this trip, but didn't want to overdo it. Demodands are pretty high CR after all.
The actual place they're going is Skullrot Prison, lifted largely wholesale from Chris Perkins' adventure in the tail end of the Shackled City, with my prisoner simply inserted into the mix. Information on Carceri is fairly sparse and so this was the easiest way of doing things as I had already squeezed what info I could out of 2e Planescape. This module was designed for much higher level characters so I had my nerfing hat on, ready to bring things down to a more manageable level.
First up, I made it so they would have options on how to get where they need to be, meaning they could essentially teleport straight into Porphatys, the fourth layer, in the general vicinity of the Bastion of Last Hope. I didn't want this section to take forever, so rather than rolling 5d100 for the Plane Shift variance, I rolled 1d100 and plonked them 40 miles from the Bastion. This allowed for some good description as I painted a bleak and eerie landscape of Porphatys, based on an image I found online.
Spoiler
Initially I had hoped they might trek through the ankle deep ocean but Illia decided to rely on an eagle wildshape and so they took to the skies. This was fine as it gave me a good moment to unleash the acidic snow upon them. Described in Planescape as bitterly cold, I figured it would be more unnerving if it wasn't cold at all. They soon realised this was not only causing skin issues (for which they drank their prepared potions of energy resistance) but also eating away at the rope harness the eagle was carrying. Attempts were made to clamber onto the eagle's legs, but the monk took a tumble. A mere 40ft drop, not too much of an issue for a level 9. He was snatched back up with minor wounds and the journey continued.
I also didn't want to drag out the Bastion too long. The module makes it clear the items there are insanely overpriced so I described the place as essentially a black market of sorts, stuffed full of stalls selling all sorts of illegal and nefarious goods. Because it makes sense and would speed things up, I included an information broker, run by a group of demodands. A steep price of 2k was set in order to find the way to Skullrot which the group paid without any attempt to bargain. Social skills are not their strong point (both the party and the players, lol). A further 500gp was parted with to find out if anyone else had sought such information, which they hadn't, much to the amusement of the demodand. The party had been warned not to trust anyone. Still, as the broker pointed out, even that information could be considered valuable. Finally, as a cheeky way of hurrying things along (The players are notorious stallers) the broker advised they could follow two others who were just leaving. The players took the hint and scurried off to Skullrot.
The module has a random encounter table but the encounters are tough and nerfing them just makes them lacklustre. I didn't want this section to be too combat heavy as there's already 2-4 planned encounters and the ongoing adventure promises a lot of dungeon crawling coming up, so I ignored the random encounters and led with the thunderbeast, swapping out the behemoth in the module for one of the lesser beasts. It wasn't going to be a long fight, but the beast can dish out a bit of damage and has an interesting debuff to throw a wrench in the works. Cue one deafening roar and now Illia and Cabot are deaf for hours on end. Heh heh. That's gonna be fun. Anyways, some damage was dealt, Cabot spent most of the fight vomiting having failed his fort save against the beast's stench, healing resources were used and we left on a description of Skullrot Prison from the outside. Somewhere inside is the mad priest Venedict.
