I am running an homebrew Campaign, and the sizable portion of this campaign is in the underdark, searching for Ancient ruins of a long lost Civilization and Race, that has been buryied underneath a volcano, due to the transition of the land from an long dead Ancient Fire Dragon. So my question is how to make travel interesting in the underdark as the players navigate the different natural caverns and locations and as well how to create different paths that would lead into different areas without just saying your travel for x distance you see a new section of ruins. Basically how would one give some depths on the exploration side of the story.
5e's Out of the Abyss has an excellent method to describe moving through the Underdark, as well as special conditions during travel. There are also a plethora of stories on DMs Guild with derivatives pertaining to this.
Journey Through the Center of the Underdark is a good starting point IMHO. I reference it regularly enough to feel comfortable saying it can be used in a variety of ways without getting stale.
I ran an entire campaign in the Underdark! It's such a fun setting.
When I did it, I made the environment simultaneously eerie and beautiful. Lots of bioluminescence, alien terrain, and alternative physics. I had a river that flowed on a cave ceiling, an acid sea that had magnetized rocks forming a sketchy bridge, a rainbow ravine of alchemical pollution (get too close, make saves against random magical effects). I had darkness storms, silence storms, a giant dust devil comprised of living memories from illithid wars. I had flowers that gave off emotions, myconid colonies trying to resettle, stirges who evolved to eat magic instead of blood...It's the Underdark. Go nuts and let your players experience something really weird and cool.
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I am running an homebrew Campaign, and the sizable portion of this campaign is in the underdark, searching for Ancient ruins of a long lost Civilization and Race, that has been buryied underneath a volcano, due to the transition of the land from an long dead Ancient Fire Dragon. So my question is how to make travel interesting in the underdark as the players navigate the different natural caverns and locations and as well how to create different paths that would lead into different areas without just saying your travel for x distance you see a new section of ruins. Basically how would one give some depths on the exploration side of the story.
5e's Out of the Abyss has an excellent method to describe moving through the Underdark, as well as special conditions during travel. There are also a plethora of stories on DMs Guild with derivatives pertaining to this.
Journey Through the Center of the Underdark is a good starting point IMHO. I reference it regularly enough to feel comfortable saying it can be used in a variety of ways without getting stale.
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I ran an entire campaign in the Underdark! It's such a fun setting.
When I did it, I made the environment simultaneously eerie and beautiful. Lots of bioluminescence, alien terrain, and alternative physics. I had a river that flowed on a cave ceiling, an acid sea that had magnetized rocks forming a sketchy bridge, a rainbow ravine of alchemical pollution (get too close, make saves against random magical effects). I had darkness storms, silence storms, a giant dust devil comprised of living memories from illithid wars. I had flowers that gave off emotions, myconid colonies trying to resettle, stirges who evolved to eat magic instead of blood...It's the Underdark. Go nuts and let your players experience something really weird and cool.