D&D Out of the Abyss - Part 1 Sloobludop

*Yes, part 1 means we're still in part 1 of the campaign, though Sloobludop can be visited later too but it will be in ruins or in the process of being rebuilt following the final scenarios presented in this chapter of the book. These final scenarios are important for establishing the stakes of the campaign.

What is Sloobludop (Sloo blu dop)?

• Appearance: Rickety towers connected haphazardly by bridges of planks which stand out among seaweed with phosphorescent spots.
• Society / culture: Village of 500 or so kuo-toa (fish-folk). Madness is common to their people.
• Politics: Sloobludop has a theocratic government to Blibdoolpoolp the Sea Mother.
• Economy: Trade (fishing and diving) and ferrying services.
• PCs can resupply here or hire a guide for Darklake.
• Religion: Blibdoolpoolp the Sea Mother is the established religion.
• Leemooggoogoon the Deep Father is the new controversial religion causing the conflict.
• Military: Militia formed of all able-body members of the village.
• Conflict: Currently, there is a lot of religious tension over a new religious faction that has formed to Leemooggoogoon, the Deep Father.
• The Drow will not pursue the players here. Reduce pursuit by 1 for every day spent here.

Major Locations

• Gates: Walls on the north and south, each have a gate guarded by 4 kuo-toa whips. The walls are actually nets with sharp fishhooks fixed into them like barbed wire.
• Docks: On the west side. There are several docs with keelboats moored at all times. It is patrolled by five groups of three kuo-toa monitors lead by one kuo-toa whip.
• Shrine of the Sea Mother: In the center of town is the shrine to the Sea Mother, and is a central feature of the town. Visitors are expected to make offerings or regurgitate. 4 Kuo-toa monitors stand guard. 2d4 Kuo-toa worshippers are present at any time.
• Ploopploopeen's Hovel (home) is adjacent to the shrine and contains as treasure the various offerings made to the shrine. It is attended by 4 kuo-toa.
• Altar of the Deep Father (Leemooggoogoon): The altar is located near the docks. 6 Kuo-toa work here to arrange offerings which are usually living creatures sacrificed on the altar, or ones own blood. Non-kuo-toa humanoids are captured immediately and delivered to the archpriest.
• Bloppblippod's Hovel (home) where a duergar prisoner is kept as an offering.

The Two Factions and Notable Characters

1. Established faction of Blibdoolpoolp the Sea Mother.

• Leader: Ploopploopeen (male), archpriest. Leader of the village.
• Lieutenant: Glooglugogg, kuo-toa whip and son of Ploopploopeen

2. New, controversial faction of Leemooggoogoon the Deep Father

• Leader: Bloppblippod (Blop blip pod), archpreist and daughter of Ploopploopeen. 
• She is mad, sadistic, and bloodthirsty. She believes her new god will rise and bring glory and lead her people.
• She has recently professed to having powerful visions of Leemooggoogoon and declared him the new god of her people. She has been granted powerful magic and new followers have flocked to her.
• Lieutenant: Klibdoloogut, kuo-toa whip and keeper of the Alter of the Deep Father
• Prisoner: Duergar weapon smuggler named Hemeth. His intent was to cut a deal to sell weapons to both factions and profit off both sides of their conflict. He is now a bound and beaten sacrificial offering. If the PCs for save him, he is willing to return the favor if the PCs are captured in Gracklstugh.
• Note that it's important for the GM to understand that Leemooggoogooon is actually Demogorgon, chaotic evil demon prince. This is not a nice religion at all.

Scenarios

There are several scenes or scenarios presented in the book. I have listed them in chronological order with minimal summaries.

1. When the party arrives within one hour of travel of the village, they are ambushed by Kuo-toa worshippers to Leemooggoogoon and captured.
2. Following the previous encounter, the characters meet Kuo-toa worshippers to Blibdoolpoolp led by archpriest Ploopploopeen who will rescue the PCs if they were captured. Ploopploopeen has a proposal for the PCs.
3. Ploopploopeen, archpriest of the Sea Mother, proposes to use the PCs as bait and infiltrate the rival faction under the guise of a peace offering. If PCs refuse, Ploopploopeen will use them anyway. The goal is to disrupt the other factions' rituals to create an opportunity for the worshippers of the Sea Mother to behead the leader(s) of the rival faction and return order to the village. 
4. Ploopploopeen with escorts (optionally, and the PCs) visit the shrine of the Deep Father. 
5. Members of the two factions fight on the shores and docks of Darklake while a ritual is performed to sacrifice several offerings with the intent of calling forth the Deep Father.
6. Demogorgon rises from Darklake. All witnesses make a check / save against madness. Demogorgon reaches the shores in 4 rounds and begins attacking Sloobludop.
7. Escape Demogorgon. If escaping by land, mad kuo-toa may attack the PCs. If by water, ixitxachitl attack.

D&D Out of the Abyss - Part 1 Darklake

*Yes, with Darklake we're still in part 1 of the campaign book, although Darklake can be visited in part 2 of the campaign.

What is Darklake?

• The name Darklake is a misnomer. It's not a lake, it's a network of waterways and canals that spans 100 miles. Some of them are connected by falls and locks. The locks were built by duergar engineers.
• Darklake is dark. The only light is what the PCs bring.
• The water of Darklake is unsafe to drink. It is not recommended to swim in Darklake.
• Darklake is impossible to navigate unless you've spent years learning to navigate it. The Kuo-toa (fish-folk) offer ferrying services, but they only speak Undercommon.
• One the west shore is Gracklstugh. On the east shore is Sloobludop (sloo-blu-dop). On the north shore is Mantol Derith; however, Mantol Derith's precise location a secret and so we'll avoid mentioning this settlement at all until part 2.

Traversing Darklake

Anyone traversing Darklake by keelboat or raft can do so at a rate of 1 mile per hour or 8 miles per day.  This requires rowing. Any more than 8 hours of rowing a day for an adventuring party is considered a forced march. This means that a navigator who is knowledgeable of Darklake can traverse Darklake in about 2 weeks which is faster than walking around it.

Player Characters should be advised not to cross Darklake on their own. If players dare to travel Darklake, they should stick to the shoreline. Should they leave the shoreline, navigation checks should only be allowed with a map.

Note the Drow will not pursue PCs on Darklake. Reduce the pursuit level by 1 for every day that the players travel across Darklake.

Encounters

If on a watercraft, the book recommends rolling for encounters every 4 hours on Darklake (2x per day) where a 1 to 13 on a d20 (65%) means no encounter. If swimming, roll for an encounter once per hour. Consult the book for the table of encounters. For the interest of expediency of play, I would suggest one or two encounters per week of travel.

Terrain

The encounter table asks the GM to roll on the terrain table to randomly generate the terrain (like finding rapids or an island). Details for some terrain results call for situations requiring ability or skill checks to safely avoid some harm. Assume that a navigator who is knowledgeable about Darklake will not put the party into one of these dangerous scenarios and overrule these results. Consult the book for the table.

Crafting a Raft

Characters who want to create a raft must spend the crafting time or downtime. Materials must be at hand, or else they must be foraged, like Zurkhwood fungus for its wood stocks and Trillimac for its leather caps that can be made into strips to lash wood together. The raft has half the HP (or durability) of a Keelboat.

D&D Out of the Abyss - Exploration

There is one table in the book that will be very valuable for the whole game, but is too literal and precise for my taste, so I have modified it. My modified table shows you the distance from one location (settlement) to any other in weeks of travel. It replaces the need for a map of the Underdark.

Location	Velkynvelve	Sloobludop	Gracklstugh	Neverlight Grove	Blingden-stone	Menzober-ranzan
Velkynvelve	-	1 week	4 weeks	5 weeks	4 weeks	4 weeks
Sloobludop	1 week	-	3 weeks	4 weeks	3 weeks	3 weeks
Gracklstugh	4 weeks	3 weeks	-	2 weeks	3 weeks	4 weeks
Neverlight Grove	5 weeks	4 weeks	2 weeks	-	3 weeks	3.5 weeks
Blingden-stone	4 weeks	4 weeks	3 weeks	3 weeks	-	1 week
Menzober-ranzan	4 weeks	3 weeks	4 weeks	3.5 weeks	1 week	-

Traveling to any location takes at least one week, and frequently three or more weeks. Therefore, I recommend simplifying travel by treating one turn of travel as one week rather than one day unless your players are really into daily exploration. Treat fractions of a week as negligible, except see travel pace and failed navigation.

Travel Pace: For simplicity, players can travel slowly to extend the travel time by 1 week or fast to reduce it by 1 week (minimum 0.5 weeks treated roughly the same for purposes of running the game). Keep in mind the advantages and disadvantages to fast, normal, and slow paces.

Lighting: most of the Underdark is dark imposing penalties (i.e. disadvantage) on ALL actions or checks that require sight for those who rely on darkvision. Nightlight is a type of phosphorescent fungus present in some places which sheds light half as well as a torch. Also see faerzress below. In any given area, roll a 1d6. The area is lit on a roll of a 1 to 3, and dark on a roll of a 4 to 6.

Guides: Any NPC could conceivably act as a guide, depending on the NPC, and so navigation is automatically successful if they guide you. This can encourage PCs to be friendly or offer money.

Wandering Encounters: Roll three per week if you're generous, though in the Underdark their chances of occurring are one roll per day and one per night of travel. Wandering encounters are important for making travel in the Underdark feel risky. For each encounter:

1. Roll for terrain as the terrain varies greatly. See the book or make your own.
2. Choose or roll the encounter. See the book or make your own.
3. Roll or determine NPC reaction (attitude) to the PCs, including hostile, indifferent, neutral, or friendly.
4. Roll starting distance, direction of travel. Determine marching order.
5. Roll for surprise, or rather Stealth and Perception.

• Allow the players every chance to avoid combat by hiding, using speech or trade, or some other tricky, creative thing they can think of that could reasonably succeed.

Fixed Encounters: I'm not a fan of the idea of fixed encounters in the Underdark, and ones in the book might have a family-friendly-ier tone than I like. I would add it to the random encounters or make it a reward that the characters can discover with effort, say by learning rumors and following them.

Actions. Below is a list of actions that the player characters can make while traveling. Player characters are limited to one action per travel turn (or 1 action per week).

Navigating: Call for one check per week of travel. For game purposes, navigation is not about successful navigation, rather, it's about effective navigation. On a failed navigation check, the player characters add a few extra days to their trip (treat as narrative only for the purposes of running the game) though several failed navigation checks (say 3) can add up to an additional week. Additionally, a failed navigation check can be interpreted as the player characters finding more challenging or hazardous paths that make resource collecting harder and make encounters more likely and/or less fortuitous.

Foraging: DC 15 to find edible food; 20 in some places. Success means wild edibles (mushrooms) are foraged for a single person for the week. Alternatively, permit the players to make several foraging checks per week, one for every day. Edible fungi and one inedible, exotic fungus are listed. Other exotic fungi are omitted. Needless to say, Underdark fungi are fantastic. You can get creative.

• Barrelstalk: can be tapped like a barrel and drained of water.
• Bluecap: it's spores are like flour and can make sporebread.
• Fire Lichen: can be ground into a spicy paste. Can also be fermented into liquor.
• Ripplebark: resembles rotting flesh. Can be eaten raw or roasted.
• Trillimac: the cap is like leather for crafting, the stalk can be soaked in water and become like bread.
• Waterorb: sponge-like, squeeze out water
• Zurkhwood: spores are edible, stalks are like wood for crafting.
• Nightlight: lights up half as well as a torch. If uprooted, goes out in 1 round.

Tracking and Hunting: Players who track game (usually monsters) spend a day. May be better off relying on wandering monster encounters. Creatures slain can yield an amount of food based on size. Tiny: 1 day of food for one person; small 4; medium 16; large 32. Meat not properly preserved spoils the next morning. Alternatively, player characters can employ Counter-tracking to cover their tracks.

Crafting: Most crafting efforts produce makeshift or improv-quality goods. Zurkhwood is a type of mushroom that resembles wood and can be foraged. Assume crafting can only be done while stationary (at camp). Making anything complex distracts a player from effectively keeping watch. Trillimac has a cap that resembles leather and can be used as parchment or paper. Giant Spider silk can be used as rope.

Mapping: If characters have the tools, mapping is possible. By relying on a map of a route between two locations that they have previously made, they can travel that route without having to navigate.

End of standardized actions. What else can your players think to do?

Faerzress (pronounced fae-er-zer-ess probably): a magical ethereal substance like a mist or lingering radiation that glows and permeates some chambers and tunnels of the Underdark. If spells are cast in the presence of faerzress, on a d20 roll of a 1, something goes wrong with the casting.

Madness: There are horrors in the Underdark that stress the mind and challenge spirit. Madness is tracked on a scale of 0 to 3. Characters begin at 0 and add 1 for any time they witness something weird, have prolonged exposure to faerzress, or receive psychic damage. At 1, they suffer madness for ten minutes; At 2, one week; At 3, until treated, usually magically. When mad, the character expresses strange behaviors or speech, and actions are generally penalized (disadvantage).

Death: What happens if someone dies? Suggestions for resurrection are a scroll of raise dead can be found as treasure, the faerzress can mysteriously revive someone but add 1 to their madness, and any dead left behind can be collected and raised by pursuing Drow who want to capture them. Replace characters by introducing new PCs in a random encounter, convert an NPC into a PC, or new characters might be meet and recruited in a location (settlement) of the Underdark.

Drow Pursuers: The Drow captors from Velkynvelve are actively pursuing the PCs during part 1 of the campaign. The lead priestess has taken their escape personally and wants to capture them. The pursuit is tracked as a number on a scale of 0 to 5. On a 0, the pursuers have been evaded. On a 5, the Drow forward scouts have encountered the PCs, and the main Villains are 1d6+4 rounds behind. Players begin at 4. Add 1 for every day the players travel at a slow rate, engage in combat, certain random encounters. Subtract 1 for every day the players travel at a fast pace, employs counter tracking to cover their tracks, cross terrain that obscures their tracks, or if the part split up. Adjust the pursuit by + 1 or - 1 if the players do anything that would reasonably affect the pursuit, including meeting any Drow in s settlement or publicly discussing their escape and pursuers. If captured, the PCs will be taken either to Menzoberranzan or Velkynvelve, whichever is closer. The Drow Pursuers conveniently meet the PCs at the exit of the Underdark for a climactic confrontation at the end md of Part 1 of the campaign.

Dungeons: There are three small dungeons in the Underdark: the Hook Horror Lair, the Oozing Temple, and the Lost Tomb. They have no fixed location in the Underdark; they can be placed anywhere by the GM, or discovered by luck or effort, say by learning about rumors and then following them. You can create and add your own too to break up the monotony of the game.

Warnings about Running Exploration: Exploring the Underdark in some ways must resemble the backrooms, if you're familiar with that concept. It sounds boring because exploring a nebulous and empty space for weeks at a time is lacking interesting dramatic conflict and it doesn't offer any sense of instant gratification or a feeling of progression that that is offered by other games or aspects of other games. I feel like it must have a very, very delayed sense of gratification, like boredom-torture or sensory-deprivation torture might have.

Further it lacks that sense of internal reward system where you do something and your brain rewards you with a hit of dopamine to encourage you to do it again. Effective gameplay loops take advantage of this. The Underdark by comparison is a game about earning things slowly. It is mechanically monotonous albeit flavorfully varied. It's conceivably a gauntlet of random encounters that have no value beyond novelty and material reward.

Therefore, I can only recommend that you speed-run or speedrun the exploration, or that you turn every encounter into an interesting and fun set-piece encounter where you establish a dramatic goal, an obstacle, and some stakes (stakes means consequences for failure) that the PCs presumably care about because their survival may be dependent on it. Give it a timer, a threat, and a treat.  Consider that there needs to be a good reward with an encounter or else the players may simply stop caring about encounters after a while. If an encounter isn't fun and doesn't offer valuable material rewards, it's probably worth skipping else the players will surely grow exhausted of the game.