"Hey you. You're finally awake." Players taking part in the Out of the Abyss adventure will find their characters waking up as prisoners at the drow outpost of Velkynvelve in the Underdark. There, they must escape a cruel fate at the hands of the drow by fleeing deeper into the Underdark.
This adventure is now integrated in Maps. If you're like me and enjoy drawing inspiration from rules and established settings for your home campaigns, you'll find Out of the Abyss is a handy resource for your library. Let's take a look at how the adventure handles travel through the infamous Underdark.
Spoilers for Out of the Abyss below!
The Underdark, a Dangerous Realm Beneath Our Feet
Far beneath the surface world of Faerûn lies a network of caverns and twisting tunnels teeming with life—and danger. Known as the Underdark, this realm is home to innumerable creatures and alien plants and fungi. It is a harsh place to live. There is no sunlight, and food can be scarce and competition for it high. You're as likely to stumble upon poisonous fungi as you are to be captured by drow or discover the ruins of a fallen civilization.
But there's much beauty and fun to be discovered in the Underdark. A friendly myconid circle may form a telepathic connection with you to share their alien ways of life and to provide aid. Resourceful players may find creative solutions to present dangers. You might harvest phosphorescent moss to be used as a light source by characters lacking darkvision, set up camp near shriekers to alert you of any approaching monsters as you rest, or turn glowing crystal clusters into grenades of blinding light, for example.
The Underdark is a vast place with many dangers, and the surface world has innumerable entrances to it. Whether you're running Out of the Abyss or an adventure you've cooked up, a trip to the Underdark can raise the stakes of travel and present unique challenges.
Handling Travel in the Underdark
Chapter 2 of Out of the Abyss sees the characters escaping Velkynvelve and venturing deeper into the Underdark as they are pursued by drow. You'll find tons of information on the Underdark in this chapter, from the types of fungi the characters may find to encounter tables and more. Here are some pointers you can take from that book for your own game:
Set Up Travel Encounters with a Hex Crawl
A party of adventurers unknowingly journey into an area with dangerous fungi
Running travel using a hex crawl allows you to control the pacing of a game session. You can prepare for a travel montage by setting up various encounters the party will face, whether it's a harmless run-in with a friendly deep gnome merchant or a hoard of skeletons lurking in an abandoned lair.
In the GIF above, you can see that I've used our Maps tool to populate the hex map provided in Out of the Abyss. I've dropped in tokens and renamed them to remind me of potential encounters the party may face. This adventure has the party being tracked by a band of drow, so I've also dropped in a token to make it easy for me to track their movement.
When preparing a hex crawl, don't be afraid to have blank hexes. It's OK to simply narrate long stretches of time the party may have without encountering anything of interest. During such cases, I will ask my players to describe how their characters pass the time.
Highlight Areas Different from the Surface World
"It's dark, cold, and eerie here. And, uh, it's dark... and cold..." When you first envision the Underdark, you may think of mazelike tunnels of rock blanketed in darkness. And you would be right, the Underdark is those things. But there's so much more to this realm, and tapping into those details will bring it to life.
Here are a few unique things the characters may encounter in their travels, plucked straight from Out of the Abyss:
- The Silken Paths, a network of spider webs that stretch for thousands of feet
- An area filled with faerzress—a dangerous type of magical energy—and glowing chunks of quartz
- Patches of exotic fungi, such as fire lichen, which can be used to make a hot liquor or used as seasoning
Preparing areas that the party can explore and examine to learn more about the Underdark will help them understand that this realm has as complex of an ecosystem and civilizations as the surface world. As they grow more familiar with the Underdark, you can reward them by asking for fewer foraging checks or reducing the penalty for traveling at a fast pace.
Keep the Danger Ever Present with Pursuers
Out of the Abyss does a good job of keeping the party moving through the Underdark; they are in danger of being recaptured by drow. The adventure has rules for handling this pursuit, but you can use them in any adventure with long distance travel, and use just about any kind of creature with them. Perhaps the party loots a seemingly abandoned wizard's tower and catches the ire of a flameskull that seeks to reclaim its master's possessions.
You don't need to be secretive about the progress of their pursuers, either. Giving players a peek behind the DM screen to show how closely their enemies trail them could increase tension. This might encourage them to travel at a fast pace, which makes it impossible to forage.
About Out of the Abyss
Out of the Abyss is an adventure for character levels 1-15. It takes players into the subterranean realm of the Underdark. There, they will face off against drow and iconic creatures that lurk in the dark and uncover a plot that threatens the surface world of Faerûn!
When you purchase this book in the D&D Beyond marketplace, you'll unlock the following materials in the compendium and tools:
- The complete adventure for Out of the Abyss
- 75 monsters for use in the encounter builder and combat tracker
- 16 magic items to arm you against the creatures of the Underdark
- Detailed maps and tokens that are fully integrated in Maps, an official VTT (Master-tier subscription required)
Take Your Players Beneath Faerûn with D&D Beyond Maps
D&D Beyond Maps is an official virtual tabletop for Dungeons & Dragons. Using it, DMs with a Master-tier subscription can quickly prepare sessions to take their players to the Underdark and other realms. (Players only need a D&D Beyond account to join in on game sessions.) Drop in monster maps and tokens in a pinch, quickly apply fog of war, and you'll be set to terrorize your players as they uncover all the secrets of the Underdark!
Michael Galvis (@michaelgalvis) is a tabletop content producer for D&D Beyond. He is a longtime Dungeon Master who enjoys horror films and all things fantasy and sci-fi. When he isn’t in the DM’s seat or rolling dice as his anxious halfling sorcerer, he’s playing Helldivers 2 and Magic: The Gathering with his partners. They live together in Los Angeles with their adorable dogs, Quentin and Eliot.