D&D 5E DMing "Out of the Abyss"

[Motorskills]

For those wanting to add a little whimsy, RPGnet is compiling a list of 1000 vaguely interesting things you could find in a Dungeon.

Easily tweaked for an Abyss campaign.

 

[Goodmania]

A list of combined encounters

I was a bit wary reading the comments about the looseness and lack of detail, but it's actually a complete boon. I have spend a lovely Sunday evening building random encounters: terrain + creature + couple of minutes thinking how the two would play together: Here's my (updated) list so far for the first 22 days. Almost totally based on the dice where they fell. I recommend everyone to give it a try.

I've prerolled the lost levels based on a decent survuval level (+3) which adds significant time.

• Day 1 evening: Sinkhole + Escaped human slave (commoner or new PC). DC 12 Dex save or fall into 20’ pit 2d6 damage. Slave has a club. The party can choose to rescue the slave or not. they then have to decide what to do with him.
• Day 3 evening (camp attack): 1/2 orcs and 1 orc eye of Gruumsh raiders (8 50p gemstones)
• Day 5 morning: Lost 3 hours. Underground Stream + 6 Kuo-toa trader/fishermen (bit mad) with rotting fish guts in jars (22 gp of general goods + 12 days of provisions for sale). Know way to Sloopbludoop. If anyone wants to buy rotten fish guts they can. They are disgusting but fortifying. DC 10 constitution check. Fail lose 1 hp, save gain 1d6 hp. They can buy 4 jars for 1 gp each
  
• Day 6 evening: Fungus cavern + Ochre Jelly. Nightlights, Timmasks, Bluecaps, Ripplebark. Orchre jelly has killed and digested a humanoid. What’s left is the skeleton clutching a Longsword)
• Day 7 morning Lost 8 hours : Muck pit + 4 gas spores (Beholder Memory - suffering grievous injury after fierce battle with Drow Archmage)
• Day 9 morning: Gas leak + Mad Duergar with scroll (cantrip - Minor Illusion) trying to breathe the gas.
• Day 10 Lost 2 hours
• Day 10 evening: Dance of the Boneyard skeletons. The party enters a cave filled with piles of weird bones and horns. The bones reassemble and rise up into 1/4 skeletons who start performing a weird clickety-clackety dance. If the party attacks and kills the skeletons in 1 round the encounter ends. Otherwise the dance of the Boneyard Skeletons creates a minotaur skeleton which rises up and attacks.
• Day 11 Lost 5 hours. Cliff and Ladder + Mad Deep Gnome Sliding down ladder with a weird patchwork robe flapping in the breeze as a makeshift air brake. He is quite mad and has not a care in the world and is more or less oblivious to everything going on around him. The only way to get through to him and get the cloak is to a) attack and kill him, b) to cure him of madness (greater restoration), b) to charm him or enchant him to give you the cloak d) to Persuade DC20. Intimidation or any other kind of approach just makes him cackle with laughter. Robe of Useful items: 2 daggers, 2 bullseye lanterns, 2 steel mirrors, 2 10-poles, 2 50’ ropes, 2 sacks, portable ram, iron door, 4 potions of healing, scroll lightning bolt, scroll spider climb, riding horse with saddle bags, rowboat (12’), 10x100gp gems, bag of 100p, silver coffer 500gp, wooden ladder 24ft, pit 10’, 2 mastiffs, window 2 x 4 x 2 deep. Get Robe without killing Gnome
• Day 13 Lost 1 hour
• Day 14 morning Lost 4 hours: Steam Vent + 3 escaped goblin slaves (crazy and hostile). “Ha ha don't you dare step over the line thats the edge of our house” (if party stop at line they are all caught by steam vent) then the goblins attack.
• Day 14 camped: Horrid sounds DC11 wisdom check or madness level increases by 1
• Day 15 morning: Narrow tunnel (1-abreast). Lava swell, Tremor opens up lava filled fissure behind them. But it is moving very slowly. Drow pursuit drops by 1. Up ahead a gelatinous cube fills the passageway. See shimmering up ahead, DC10 perception check to see that it is a cube. Must kill it in less than 4 rounds or lava catches up with them. If they let the lava touch them they take 3d6 damage each round. (650 xp). They can run into the cube and try to burst through taking 3d6 acid damage (DC 12 strength check to escape out the other side.
• Day 15 evening: Hundreds of feet of Webs extending into tunnel + 4 giant spiders. Travel distance cut by half for the day.
• Day 16 evening: Rope bridge over river (if cut reduce Drow pursuit by 1) + 6 piercers disguised as stalactites 30 ft above the bridge. Every piercer that misses has 50% chance of damaging bridge by 3d6. The bridge can take 25 damage. If it is smashed through everyone must take a Dex saving throw (DC 12) or fall into the river taking no damage but being attacked by a giant lamprey (treat as giant constrictor snake with blood sucking ability instead of constrict 1d6 damage each turn unless strength DC12 throw). (XP piercers 600, lamprey 450)
• Day 17 evening: Orog lair. Human corpse wearing Chainmail Armour. 2 Orogs perching on ledges 40 ft above. Hurl javelins down. If the party inspect corpse first the Orogs can gain surprise.
• Day 19 morning: Gorge 300 ft deep. Difficult climb. Travel Slowed by half. Giant Roctopus lairs at bottom of gorge in a crevasse. Gains surprise automatically unless the party is being vigilant, has advantage on initiative. Inside crevasse is an obsidian statue of Lolth (100g)
• Day 20 morning: Crystal clusters, Fist sized chunks of quartz Faerzress infused crystals. As party are inspecting the crystal an Umber Hulk bursts out of the wall. Making one of the crystals explode. It is blinded for 1 minute. Disadvantage to attack and can’t use confusing gaze. Inside the wall where the hulk burst out there are 5 50 gp gems, a +2 shortsword, a staff of charming (charm person, command, comprehend languages 10 charges, 1/day immunity to enchantment spells), bracers of defense (+2 AC if you are not wearing armor or shield)
• Day 22 evening: Rockfall + Society of Brilliance (Grazilaax the Mind Flayer). He is examining a Faerzress infused rock patch and has a small hammer and chisel. One last whack and the rockfall starts. He is buried and cannot escape without the party’s help. He uses his telepathy to beg the party to rescue him from the rubble.

 

[CapnZapp]

Hopefully, not a too necromantic post...

SPOILERS though

I'm finding the description of how the Maze Engine works very confusing. It could be interpreted that you roll on the Maze Engine Effects table 1 time, 2 times, 12 times, or 13 times.

The best I can guess, you only roll once (on round 12), unless the party does something to stop it from falling into the lava, in which case you roll repeatedly. It's pretty unclear, though.

Like I suggested back when, perhaps someone has reached this stage of the adventure now that a few months have passed!

 

[CapnZapp]

Also, I've been thinking alot about EXITS from the Underdark. The module basically says to let the characters out after they've discovered that demon lords are infesting the underworld, but does not give actual exit points. I'd like to offer some choices and excitement with the actual escape besides the obligatory drow fight.

Now that I've restarted the thread, I can add that you can find A LOT on this in various realmslore.

Just to take a single example, I easily googled forth the following information on Gracklestugh:

Passages to the surface include:
* caves in the Sword Mountains
* via a major trade route from Skullport through the Labyrinth
* tunnels from Beldabar's Rest in Yartar;
* tunnels from Luskan
* tunnels from Mithral Hall

So if you want to dangle an escape in front of the characters when they visit the Duergar city, just have a NPC mention any of these in passing. (Regardless of whether you actually intend for the Duergar to keep that promise, or simply let them back out on the Darklake...)

This is an instance when it's actually great to have your module set in such a detailed setting as the Realms - you don't even have to make up details like this

 

[CapnZapp]

On the subject of "only 1-2 random encounters a day?" I'm toying with the following idea:

Require a save DC 10 to gain the benefits of a long rest. Failure means all that time was "wasted" (counting only as a short rest). You still can't long rest more than once a day. What save? I would allow players to choose themselves, given a reasonable rationale. (Con and Wis are the givens; Int: "I sleep in a clever area"; Cha: "I persuade Mr Beefcake into letting me use him as a pillow"; and so on). The point isn't to make this an exceptionally hard save to make; but to put the fear into the players since the long rest is no longer a certainty.

Just to report back that this worked like a charm.

My purpose was to add a teeny bit of uncertainty to those days where you'd have only a few encounters or even none at all. Specifically, wrest the players away from the notion "we observe how few encounters there are per day; let's stop holding back and spend more resources per fight".

Now that the PCs are fifth level, I'm probably going to retire the mechanism. Most if not all random encounters as specified by the module are completely trivial by this point; I'm thinking the phase where the Underdark itself is a "danger around every corner" threat is over.

Time to switch to the other suggested way of handling Underdark travels: downplaying it. "You travel for two weeks and have a dozen or so encounters but nothing you can't handle".

Instead, the focus needs to be on prepared set-pieces.

Regards,
Zapp

 

[ddaley]

I was a bit wary reading the comments about the looseness and lack of detail, but it's actually a complete boon. I have spend a lovely Sunday evening building random encounters: terrain + creature + couple of minutes thinking how the two would play together: Here's my (updated) list so far for the first 22 days. Almost totally based on the dice where they fell. I recommend everyone to give it a try.

I've prerolled the lost levels based on a decent survuval level (+3) which adds significant time.

I was starting to do the same! My group is still in Velkenvelve, but will most likely escape in our next session. I'll probably borrow some of these.

 

[zaratan]

Hey guys.

Soon I'll DMing OotA, will be my first 5e campaing and I'm liking what I'm reading. But the first thing that bothered me was about Velkylvelve scale. Some places like guard tower, ilvara's quarter, shrine to Loth are like 10 x 10 feet, the elite barracks are even smaller and the lift have 2 square feet (and carry four medium creatures, lol).

Anyone played with that scale? And the ones that resaized, what was the new measure?

 

[janosicek]

I just realized that the rare sword (Sun Blade) has a huge drawback. It emits sunlight! Let's list all characters that are harmed by sunlight:

Sunlight Sensitivity: Buppido, Shuushar the Awakened, Sarith Kzekarit
Sun Sickness: Stool

Also one extra benefit is that it can be held by monks (shortsword proficiency is enough to wield this longsword)

Anyway, I don't feel this is overpowered weapon. My party will be almost level 4 when they get this item. Single +2 weapon is nothing. And there are 4 characters in the party that are harmed by being close to this sword.

 

[Awesome Adam]

The fact that it emits sunlight is the most useful trait of that sword.

In our OOTA adventures, Shuushar falls back when the combat begins, and Buppido, Sarith, and Stool have all moved on, to the afterlife.

 

[janosicek]

In my OOTA adventure, Shuushar has moved on, Stool is protege of party fighter and there is one drow PC Sunlight will be frowned upon.