Guiding Adventurers in Out of the Abyss

[aarduini]

I'm DMing OOTA and the party wants to head to Mantol-Derith rather than Grackelstug after the Kuo-toa city. I see no reason not to let them, but that is chapter 9. Should I let them? Is there a definite order to the places they can visit in order to keep the story cohesive?

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

One thing I like to do is remind them of the travel times listed in chapter 2. The longer the trip, the harder to stay supplied. They can take the much longer trip, but their chances of surviving the trip go down.

 

[Coredump]

The other two issues
1) Some of the NPC want to go to Gracklstugh....none of them want to go to M-D
2) DO they have someone that can guide them to M-D?

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

BTW, the Society of Brilliance can be used to teleport the party closer to their destination. After my table encountered Blurg and befriended the SoB, they were able to convince Sloopidoop (met after the fall of Sloobludop) to teleport them to Y, who would be the member closest to Gracklestugh.

That's one way to get them closer to where they want to go without a billion random encounters along the way. SoB members can provide verbal directions to any of the major cities.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

That whole section is a little tough, because it's a sandbox, but there are parts that work better as in a narrative sequence.

Why do they want to head to Mantol-Derith? Are they just trying to hightail it back to the surface? I’d allow them to make that choice, but maybe one of the NPCs asks them if they could go by way of Gracklstugh? Or once they get there, some hook takes them back to one of the other cities?

Another option, which would require more work, would be to transport the events of one of the cities over to Mantol-Derith (but then you’d also have to figure out what’s going on in the original city).

 

[aarduini]

They wanted to go to Mantol-Derith because they heard it is a neutral city. That was my fault I guess. Its ok though. I read a little more and realized that Mantol-Derith is hidden. The Druegar Hemeth reminded them of that, and now they are going to Gracklestugh. Thanks for your replies though