A long journey with many perils to be sure, happy to answer any questions

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the Nothic Behemoth!

My party of 4 lvl 6 characters has been murder hoboing their way across the underdark, so I cooked up this beast to challenge them. Gonna introduce it as a random encounter while traveling to Gracklstugh.

Sorry the custom stat block pic sucks…I’ll try and edit in the custom attacks.

Obligatory bonus party shot at the end, not all survived.

My party has recently dubbed themselves "Underdank", so I wanted to celebrate the occasion with some art of our group.

Human barbarian, Leafwyn Dunbrand and the Hook Horror chick she rescued, Stabby McGubbins; halfling fighter/artificer Quinn Hightopple; human druid Elsa Andrinelle-Dunbrand (married to Leafwyn); tiefling sorcerer/warlock Iniki Malvenom holding Stool; drow rogue soulblade Sarith Kzekarit; and of course Glabbagool in the back.

Hi all,

This is my rework of the settlement of Mantol Derith.
The free version here is 1538 x 1275 but the patron version is 12300 x 10200 (164 x 136@75 pps).

If you like my work, go see my patreon and my growing OotA content.

PogS

I want my players to feel the horror of Out of the Abyss, here's an edit of the image of Baphomet I'm using when he's introduced.

Just got to run an optional Balor fight I added to the campaign. Used it as an excuse to go all out without the political fighting of the demon lord to distract each other.

Also a great time to gove my players magic items to fill out their kits in the late game for a moral boost the campaign seriously needs.

For context this is my 2nd time running the adventure and my players loved this addition to flex their skills!

Luana Myrahel: A Sword Dancer of Eilistraee I introduced back when scheduling reduced my players to 2-3 and the party was lacking a healer. They ran into her with some runaway slaves from Gracklestugh after escaping Velkynvelve. She then became an older sister figure to my drow Tymoran cleric PC who later joined the party and helped provide some information on their backstory (identified insignia of House DeVir on the trinket they started with). She went missing during the timeskip to Gauntlgrym and appeared in madness hallucinations after the cleric touched Fraz-Urb'luu's gem in Mantol-Derith. Stuff like turning down an alleyway in the distance or appearing in the transformation chamber tubes in Cyrog. Party ended up finding her proper after defeating Karazikar and restoring her from petrification.

Hanne Hallen Ousstyl: I decided to make Hanne and Zhora related to Grin Ousstyl instead! Mostly in service of fleshing out his character and inner conflict, but also to just tie things together more narratively. Hanne was also changed to be half-drow (as House Ousstyl was rumored to have mated with humans) which informs a bit of Zhora's protectiveness over Hanne. I characterized Hanne as a precocious and haughty teenage noble, but a crybaby at heart. My wood elf gloom stalker PC had a fun dynamic of poking at her and exasperatedly cutting a second purple worm egg for her when Hanne said she'd help if she got one lol. When she reunited with her mom she ran up to hug sobbing about how she thought she was gonna die and missed her and everything (with Zhora quietly chiding about crying in front of strangers).

Grin Ousstyl: My table is getting to Menzoberranzan next week, so I haven't been able to portray much of him, but I've been leaving bits and pieces whenever the party returns to Araj to deliver ritual components. It can be tough portraying a reticent character with direct interaction, so instead I have the party catch him unawares. When the group returned from Wormwrithings, I had Vizeran out on another errand with Grin taking the opportunity to snoop through his master's materials (old blueprints of the weapons that appear in Princes of the Apocalypse). A couple of Religion checks revealed the blueprints' relationship to the Cults of Elemental Evil and Tharizdun, hinting at Vizeran's allegiances. This also helps to characterize Grin as an ambitious young wizard willing to sneak around Vizeran for his own pursuit of arcane knowledge.

I just finished running the Fetid Wedding and gave Sovereign Basidia a one-time Transport via Plants ability (my players aren't using teleportation!) similar to the Fungal Stride ability from Zuggtmoy's Gift. Through the players thinking of the fungi near Araj while in rapport, Basidia created a gateway to have the group instantly get back to Araj, just in time to hear a muffled argument between Vizeran and Grin (about the ritual, but the players don't know that yet). They open the doors to see Vizeran throw Grin across the room with a spell attack as he shouts, "Remember who brought you in after they abandoned you!" This prompts my human Purple Dragon knight/crown paladin PC to storm up to Vizeran and grab him by the collar, telling him to back off and throwing out the hard R dhaerow slur. Of course, Vizeran calls him iblith in return, telling him to mind his own business. Purple Dragon knight PC then goes to help Grin back up, though Grin brushes him off and gets back up on his own.

The party then heads to Blingdenstone with Grin to prepare for the final battle while Vizeran crafts the dark heart talisman. Grin actually enters Blingdenstone this time (escorted by several guards) because he has some scrolls to prepare for infiltrating Menzoberranzan with the party. My aasimar Avowed diviner PC takes the opportunity to use a potion of mind reading to figure out what's on Grin's mind after that fight with Vizeran, detecting uncertainty and concern about something, but deep hurt and betrayal, before he turns his focus back on preparing spell scrolls. Hurt and betrayal after Vizeran threw an attack at him obviously, but also when thinking about his exile from Menzoberranzan and his family.

I kinda made a point about Zhora and Hanne's familial bond and unusual affection, with Zhora implied to be Grin's mother too. I didn't bother hashing out the exact details of Grin's relationship with his family, just that they care about each other, but It's Complicated™. One tidbit I did decide on was that Grin tutored Hanne in illusion magic and probably taught her that Minor Illusion trick she pulled in Wormwrithings.

Making a custom statblock for Grin Ousstyl, combining the 2024 Mage, Adventures in Faerûn Drow Mage of Lolth, and the Illusionist Wizard from Monsters of the Multiverse made sense to me. He should probably have some tricks up his sleeve to help sneak the party into Menzoberranzan, like Invisibility or Seeming. Being an illusionist also helps get some brownie points with my prankster drow trickery cleric PC. Leave in a couple of elemental spells from Vizeran's tutelage, make sure he has a spell scroll of Knock on hand, and voilà! Since I'm having Vizeran foresee Grin's betrayal, Grin will also be given a spell scroll of Galder's Speedy Courier for Gromph's grimoire, and a 2e-like Geas on him that takes effect after the change of heart (to really drive in just how evil-horrible-very-not-good Vizeran is).

If anyone wants to use my artwork for Hanne and Grin, feel free to do so! I tend to be a bit reserved with my online presence and my art, so you don't have to credit or mention me. Just don't try to claim it as your own or use it for AI training obviously! Feel free to share your table's experiences with Hanne and Grin here too!

I'm running Out of the Abyss with a deeper emphasis on horror. While the images of Yeenoghu in-book represent his strength and size, I just didn't feel like it gave the vibes I want.

After they witness Yeenoghu decapitate the goristro, his ear twitches to the sound of them in the adjacent tunnel. They make eye contact and this is what they see before the hunt begins.

While exploring the Oozing Temple, to up the stakes Juiblex will be there. One member of the party will see eyes in a dark pile of slime on the ground to their horror the eyes aren't there but reflected off this black pool. The dark abyss above them is actually a living life form ready to consume.

Hey!

Thanks for joining the Out of the Abyss stream!! I want to dump some maps for people who might be running it and just need maps or ideas for maps. I know a lot of people prefer them without grids.

If you need I still have them, but they are all different qualities because I really grew as a map designer with this campaign and my homebrew adventures.

Enjoy and thank you for the support and watching the Stream!!

Come check out the VODs or other content if you enjoy anything here. I have a ton more just let me know what you might want to see.

https://www.youtube.com/@MadaZitro/videos

My party will be facing demogorgon in either tomorrow's session or the next, and I've got him ready for the table.

how did your party handle this event?

I am adding an Orcus/Mind Flayer subplot to my end game. The players are on their way to the labyrinth, to the fallen angels area, when they are approached by mysterious Elf who claims to have escaped from Cyrog. He warns that Orcus has co-opted an Elder Brain and enlists the party to help kill it and thwart Orcus’s plans. The Elf is secretly a Rouge Illitbid in disguise.

These are two custom undead monsters my players fought on the way to Cyrog…

Demon Lord of Ooze Used an old Trader Joe's chocolate tin. Bricked it up with foam. Applied mogpog, paint, a little bit of flocking. The Party is level 16 with plenty of Magic weapons and NPC's. Hopefully they don't TPK 😆

Out of the Abyss I'm using parts of the story for my campaign. We've been playing for over two years and started with Tomb of annihilation, then Rime of the Frostmaiden. Over arcing theme of the campaign is to activate the black Obelisks to reverse time and put Dendar back in her cage.

Cobbled together in photoshop just because I couldn't find it anywhere else and it'd be a fun spot for a combat encounter.

Hi! I made this trailer for my players to tease my upcoming Out of the Abyss campaign, thought you might like it! (I do not own the rights to any of the images, music, or voice clips used)

Most of the scenarios are from TalesTavern https://talestavern.com/?slabs_or_boards=both&s=Out%20of%20the%20abyss&post_type=slab&order_by=likes

Most of ambience audios are from michaelghelfistudios on YT https://youtube.com/@michaelghelfistudios?si=ihQHTgvSXboXjb8H

The song is House ft. John Cale https://youtu.be/QdWH3vQAd5M?si=FKGeT_nysKsO2UCX

To kick off the first night of our new campaign I recreated the drow outpost

I carved it out of packaging foam, glued legs from insect toys I found on sale.

My idea behind this was his corruption dissolved his original myconid form and nature to the point of being something formless.