Written by: Zachary Velcoff
Our adventure begins with its would-be heroes imprisoned in the drow outpost of Velkynvelve, where they await transport to Menzoberranzan by their dark elf captors. After the party’s daring escape, they flee the drow through an Underdark in the process of succumbing to burgeoning Abyssal influence. The demon lords of the Abyss, driven from their plane by Lolth, Demon Queen of Spiders, now threaten to engulf the subterranean realm beneath Faerûn. Should they succeed, it is only a matter of time before madness and destruction overrun the surface. The party and their allies are all that stand between their homes and the hordes of the Abyss.
Out of the Abyss was released on September 15th, 2015. This blog post will highlight ten Czepeku maps compatible with it–to supplement the maps from the module and to empower Dungeon Masters who are running the campaign with visual aids for locations the book describes but does not explicitly depict at battlemap scale.
Needless to say, this post contains big spoilers for Out of the Abyss. Players, proceed at your own peril!
1. Modular Caves
Any Underdark adventure is incomplete without caves, caves, and more caves! Most of the major settlements and destinations of the module are made up of or surrounded by caves, caverns, and tunnels. A party crossing the Underdark is likely to meet a Terrain Encounter (p. 25), many of which lend themselves well to the variants of this map, namely:
- Boneyard: the Bone Pit variant
- Crystal Clusters: any Crystal Caverns variant
- Fungus Cavern: any Mossy Mushroom variant
- Lava Swell: any Lava Mines variant
- Rockfall: any Rockfall variant
- Ruins: any Ruins variant
- Shelter: any variant with a single point of entry and nothing particularly scary going on
- Sinkhole: any variant with a hole in it. Particularly if there is a corresponding variant without the hole, which you can swap out at a moment's notice when an unwitting PC triggers the collapse:
◦ Crossroads 01 to another Crossroads variant
◦ Narrow 01 to the Narrow 02, 03, Hole or Small Hole variants
◦ Two Exits to Small Hole or Big Hole
◦ Mossy Cave 05 to 02 or 04 to 03
◦ Rockfall 02 to 01 - Slime or Mold: Underwater Springs Toxic
- Underground Stream: either Underwater Springs River variant
- Warning Sign: Stalagmite Room
- Webs: Creature Cavern Spider Nest 4 Exits
2. Harpy Cove
After escaping from Velkynvelve, the party must find their way across the Darklake, an immense underground waterway. The Underdark variant of the Harpy Cove map is perfect for the treacherous shores of the Darklake, whose rough currents and jagged shallow bottom threaten subterranean sailors with a deadly collision. Bioluminescent fungi grow at the water's edge, and the wreckage of an unfortunate vessel lies battered against the rocks. Here, the party could encounter one of the duergar or kuo-toa keelboats that traverse these waters or meet one of the Underdark’s deadly aquatic denizens: an aquatic troll or water weird, a group of ixitxachitl or merrow, or a swarm of hungry quippers.
3. Underground Dwarven City Center
Across the Darklake, the party reaches the duergar settlement of Gracklstugh, the City of Blades. The party may be safer from the drow here, but other threats abound: Themberchaud the Wyrmsmith, a massive red dragon; the Council of Savants, a cabal of derro sorcerers sworn to Demogorgon, Prince of Demons; and the duergar themselves, whose Deepking, Horgar Steelshadow V, is succumbing to the madness of Graz'zt, the Dark Prince. The Original Night variant of this map–or the Depths variant, if Themberchaud has met an early demise and can no longer light the city's smelters and forges–serves well to stage a derro riot, a pickpocketing attempt by the Gray Ghosts thieves guild, or an ambush by invisible duergar patrols.
4. Mushroom Infested Mines
When our heroes arrive in the myconid colony of Neverlight Grove, they find it splintered between two factions: one led by Sovereign Basidia, the other by Sovereign Phylo. Phylo and its followers have fallen victim to the corrupting influence of Zuggtmoy and are helping the Demon Queen of Fungi prepare for a very special event. The Mushroom Cave variant of this map makes a great stage for an exciting (and possibly deadly) discovery in a fungi patch, a thrilling hunt for a grick alpha, umber hulk, or shambling mound, or a bloody wedding rehearsal in the Garden of Horror.
5. Gnome City Centre
Characters seeking to flee the Underdark are likely to head to the deep gnome settlement of Blingdenstone, whose people are in frequent contact with the surface and the dwarven city of Gauntlgrym. Like the rest of the Underdark, however, Blingdenstone is the target of demonic influence. Juiblex the Faceless Lord leads a host of oozes against the deep gnomes; fiendish giant spiders, remnants from last century's drow invasion, lurk in the dark corners of the haunted settlement; and in the nearby caverns of Rockblight, an ancient force lingers, corrupting the stones themselves. The Underneath the Dark variant of this map is, unsurprisingly, ideal for encounters in Blingdenstone: whether with the specters of the dead who fell to the drow some 100 years ago, the animated victims of the medusa Neheedra Duskryn, or the wererats of Goldwhisker Warrens.
6. Dwarven Throne Hall
Just when the party thought they were out, you pull them back in! On the heels of the PCs’ escape from the Underdark, they are summoned to an audience with Bruenor Battlehammer, King of Gauntlgrym, who has heard of their adventures and is concerned by dark tidings from below. Representatives of the major factions of Faerun–the Harpers, the Order of the Gauntlet, the Emerald Enclave, the Lords' Alliance, and even the opportunistic Zhentarim–have gathered at King Battlehammer’s request for a feast in the Vault of Kings. With tact and tactics, the party has an opportunity to forge alliances with these power brokers and gain advantages for their return journey to the Underdark. While Gauntlgrym is not as dangerous as the Underdark, it still might pose a threat to our heroes. Should an assassin or spy steal into the feast, should fire elementals escape Maegera's Fiery Pit and crash the party, or should driders from the Underdark breach the sacred halls of the Iron Tabernacle, this map will come in handy.
7. Minotaur Labyrinth
After returning to the Underdark by way of the Zhentarim outpost of Mantol-Derith, stopping in the stone giant library of Gravenhollow to learn the reason for the demon lords’ arrival in the Material Plane, and getting a shopping list of MacGuffins from the drow archmage Vizeran DeVir, our heroes might make their way to The Labyrinth. Here, the party must evade warring demon lords Baphomet and Yeenoghu in order to acquire six angel feathers. In these winding halls, they might meet with minotaurs and goristros loyal to Baphomet, Prince of Beasts; with a frenzied gnoll pack or human cultists of Yeenoghu, the Ruler of Ruin; or with a group of modrons, lost along their Great March in the vicinity of the malfunctioning Maze Engine. I’d recommend the Cultist Lair variant for its darker color palette.
8. Drow Manor
In pursuit of Gromph Baenre’s grimoire or on a mission to place Vizeran's talisman in a fitting location for the demon lords' final showdown, the party makes their way to Menzoberranzan, the City of Spiders. Should the party visit one of the noble estates of Qu'ellarz'orl or the magic academy of Sorcerere, the many floors of the Drow Manor will be perfect for the party’s encounters with yochlols, giant spiders, and drow wizards.
9. Mycelial Gate
Having attended the rehearsal dinner in Neverlight Grove, our heroes shouldn't be surprised to receive an invitation to the wedding at Auraumycos, an immense fungal organism that occupies several hundred square miles of the Underdark. Araumycos itself is Zuggtmoy’s unwilling betrothed, but Sovereign Basidia hopes that our heroes can stop the ceremony before a vast swath of the Underdark falls to the Demon Queen of Fungi. Unfortunately, our heroes aren’t the only wedding crashers: while Zuggtmoy wants to marry Auraumycos, Juiblex wants to eat it. The Shadow Lands variant is perfect for the Gray Dream, the Astral realm of Araumycos's consciousness in which the wedding–and the showdown between the rival demon lords–is to take place.
10. Spider Queen Throne
If the PCs go along with Vizeran DeVir's plan, then the final showdown between any demon lords still left in the Underdark will take place in Menzoberranzan. Even if the PCs reject the drow archmage's proposal and opt to stage this epic combat elsewhere, they may end up venturing to the Demonweb Pits themselves to confront Lolth, the mastermind behind this demonic incursion into the Prime Material Plane. In any event, a climactic battle deserves a suitably dramatic map. If the demon lords are duking it out in the City of Spiders, with the PCs hoping to pick off the weakened winner, I’d use the Original variant. If this is a battle with the Demon Queen of Spiders herself, the Baby Spiders variant is perfect; Lolth’s plan, after all, is to exploit her rivals’ convenient absences, sending her newly hatched babies to take over their layers of the Abyss.
Honorable Mentions
The following maps didn’t make the cut for the Top 10 but are still likely to prove useful for your Out of the Abyss campaign:
Darklake Shores
- Chthonic Lighthouse. Although the module mentions no lighthouses on the shores of the Darklake, this map is so cool and so unique it’d be a shame to not include it in your Out of the Abyss campaign. Perhaps it was fashioned by duergar engineers to help guide their keelboats around a treacherous stretch of coast. Perhaps the kuo-toa worship it as a god. Perhaps the kuo-toa’s worship of it has turned it into a god. Perhaps a pair of lighthouse keepers, played by duergar Robert Pattinson and kuo-toa Willem Dafoe, is slowly going mad in its thrall.
- Haunted Ghost Ship Exterior. The Bridge Chthonic variant works nicely for a bridge over a stretch of the Darklake. You might also use the Bridge Abyss variant for a crossing over some vast underground chasm.
Elder Brain Series
The illithid colony of Cyrog, named for the elder brain that rules it, lies far to the east of the Underdark regions featured prominently in this module. While in Gravenhollow, however, our heroes may learn of the elder brain's conversion to undeath by Orcus, the Shadow that Was. Orcus is likely to fall to Demogorgon in the final battle before the players have to deal with him, but an illithid colony loyal to the Demon Lord of Undeath poses a dire threat to the Forgotten Realms. Should the players travel east to expunge this threat, have them fight through the following maps:
- Elder Brain Sacrum Shrine. Have the party fight the illithid’s intellect devourers and thralls in the Dead Brain variant of this map.
- Elder Brain Spine Mine. Let the party face off against the mind flayers themselves in the Dead Brain variant of this map.
- Elder Brain Lair. In the dead Brain variant of this map, the party gets the chance to destroy the undead Cyrog once and for all.
Even More Caves
Since it can’t be an Underdark adventure without caves, here are even more caves you might choose to include in your Out of the Abyss campaign:
- Necropolis Dungeon. Any of the Level 4 variants will do nicely.
- Blacksmith Secret Grotto. Any of the natural variants should do: Caves, Dry, Earthy, Flooded, Magic Ore, Natural, or Verdant Caves.
- Bone Mill Lair. You might use different variants for different locations: Spider Infestation for the Spider Nest in the Worm Nursery, for instance, and Toxic Cave for the caverns of the Pudding Court.
- Experimental Surgery Theatre. The Floor 0r Natural variant is great for this.
- Pseudodragon Lair Underground. The Underground Spider Infestation variant is great for any number of arachnid-infested caverns outside Velkynvelve or Menzoberranzan.
- Badger Hill Underground. The Dark variant works well for a stretch of Goldwhisker Warrens or another settled tunnel network.
- City Streets. The Potion Shop Basement variant works nicely for a small cave with several points of egress.
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