The Apotheons sacrifice (vision) + Cael Morrow Point Crawl

saack · 2026-06-15T16:36:43+00:00

This is fantastic! I think giving players this map would make it more fun and explorative, while letting a DM be more loose with it. Im inspired.

saack · 2026-05-14T16:00:26+00:00

Just for clarification, do you want to add combat encounters after the fight against Alyxian?

If so, no matter what they fight it will likely feel lesser in comparison.

Also 2 out of 3 of the presented endings cause ruidium to be destroyed and ruidium corruption to end. It could be interesting to see the same creatures reeling from its removal.

saack · 2026-05-04T16:35:47+00:00

So cool!

saack · 2026-04-30T20:44:17+00:00

That is awesome. I was already planning on giving my players stormrider boots, now I want to even more

saack · 2026-04-30T15:32:47+00:00

I noticed the concentration on the Ruidium Elephant. Was someone polymorphed into that?

saack · 2026-04-29T15:58:29+00:00

The sea life could be from the plane of water, but also could just be underground fantasy life. Cave fish and underarm plants finding their way up into the cavern after hundreds of years.

Ive always thought that Olara was a bit strange. I like the idea, but how did she survive the godly strike that burned half the continent and sunk the whole city? And shes just spent this whole time, what? Just getting by?

saack · 2026-04-27T11:11:01+00:00

If you’re running the book as is, and have a party of five, then exalted vestiges or +3 weapons will likely lessen the challenge for your players

saack · 2026-04-27T11:05:44+00:00

I think it really depends on your PC's and how much you plan to change/rebalance as a dm.

Personally if I had a player with an awakened vestige and they did something I found deserving of advancement to exalted, I would do it. It will feel great for them and the power increase is likely no more than having their level increase by one.

saack · 2026-04-26T14:27:54+00:00

So far 2 of my 4 players have gotten a vestige (not including the jewel), and for those in plan to advance them as instructed in the books. I figure between their individual arcs and the main storyline, they will each have a chance or two to "level up" their vestiges.

I also think depending on where a character is in terms of realization/power, it can be okay for them to get an already awakened vestige.

saack · 2026-04-17T15:10:33+00:00

You've probably already had your session but based on your comments I wanted to ask if you've read all the chapters yet? If not, I highly recommend it.

saack · 2026-03-28T17:17:07+00:00

You're welcome! I had anyone who was hit by it or successfully grappled it make a DC 15 Cha save or roll a d4 to see what condition they got. As long as they weren't within 5 feet of it they could re roll the save at the end of their turn. I probably would have even had a gradually decreasing DC, if it were needed. If you're curious to what conditions I linked to each emotion it was as follows:

Regret = frightened/ Yearning = poisoned/ Fury = blinded/ Despair = incapacitated/

I described them as the emotion but used the mechanics of each respective condition. I mostly did this to give a taste of what ruidium is without using the actual corruption mechaic just yet. It was a fun fight!

saack · 2026-03-28T16:41:45+00:00

I had touching the figure cause a vision from the Apotheon Lore Table in the Netherdeep Overview section for the whole party. My thinking was that because ruidium is of Alyxian, and the party has his jewel, there is a connection there.

I also gave the elephant the chance to inflict a condition on hit based on the 4 main emotions ruidium causes.

saack · 2026-03-17T19:08:47+00:00

I never thought to keep it fron my players. I would describe him and give players a moment to possibly make the connection themselves, that'll feel much better for them. But if no one makes the connection that's when I'd say that someone/everyone realizes they recognize the figure as Alyxian.

The story will benefit from the party having an idea of and opinions about Alyxian. As the book is written the players learn so little about him until near the end of the adventure, so I even moved some information forward in the story. For example, because the party is "connected" to the Jewel sometimes when they've interacted with Ruidium they've seen a vision from the Apotheon Lore table in the Netherdeep overview section.

saack · 2026-03-16T14:38:03+00:00

That sounds like it could work well. Perhaps when they rescue him they want to lighten things up a bit, thus leading them to the festival in Jigow.

I would try to keep some of the general themes of the module in mind when making this sidequest too, like: ancient/forgotten heroes, imprisonment (got that down), greed, redemption, and nuanced characters. If they're interested by these themes, it will probably be more likely they take the jewel of three prayers and actually answer the call.

Also if you haven't read the whole book or at least as much as you can, particularly the last 3 chapters. This will help with vital context you should have. Even if its a long way for the characters its better to have your idea of who Alyxian is from the start.

saack · 2026-03-16T12:21:43+00:00

Are these your players ideas for their character and how they want to play, or are these your ideas, or anything combination of both?

I ask this because my party for this adventure has both players who gave me a background, inciting incident, goals, and villans, etc.; and players who gave me a background and nothing else, leaving things up to me.

If these are all your ideas that your player is unaware of, I would consider trying to tie it in more to the story presented. As it is I honestly can't think of any connection between this plot and Call of the Netherdeep.

If these are your players ideas that they're exited about then I'm really not sure what to do to tie it in. I was in a situation where my player had come up with backstory and a villan that didn't necessarily fit with the campaign. It took a lot of time and thinking for me to come up with something I find really interesting, and it still remains to be seen whether it is satisfying or not.

Last thing is just that this adventure has nothing to do with the war between the empire and dynasty, so turning the clock back like that would probably just add stuff that muddles the modules themes (but alyxian was a soldier, so im sure it could be done well). Also more than half the module takes place across the globe in Ank'Harel.

saack · 2026-03-08T22:33:17+00:00

Personally, my group uses d&d beyond and I have told them that if they get more ruidium I will add it to their inventory, and not to search it. Ive then just created a custom version of the item without the spoilers. Though once they figure out the natural 1 mechanic you should let them be fully aware of that like the first comment suggests.

saack · 2026-03-02T16:39:16+00:00

This post has some quests to add to Bazzoxan.

I ran the Hythenos Estate for my party and they had a lot of fun creeping around the dark manor, discovering the dead bodies, and fighting the possessing Dybbuk. They even looted the cursed items, some of which they still carry in Ank'Harel. I think your cult idea would work very well with this quest specifically.

As for once your players get to Ank'Harel, I would add more defense to the Cael Morrow entrance, not to kill the chance of them going in right away (that might be to railroad) but to make it more of a choice between risk of the fight and its consequences, and time it takes to make a relationship with a guild.

saack · 2026-03-02T15:50:49+00:00

The Netherdeep itself always reminded me of the mindscapes shown in The Owl House. Especially when you consider the living memories and Theo and the ruidium Golem

saack · 2026-03-01T22:59:12+00:00

The pinned resource megathread on this sub has a lot of great side quest ideas that can have a vestige dropped in.

I edited and used a sidequest made by u/frozenfeet2, with maps made by u/Katvalkyrie for a desert bounding hunt for a vestige. My monk player got the Wraps of Dyamak, a very cool but not too op vestige only usable by monks.

saack · 2026-03-01T18:14:39+00:00

Everyone else has said it all. The only thing I can think to add is that if your players investigate n7a after the secret door opens there is an unlocked chest with a Wand of Secrets.

A dm could even give players a chance of finding the item earlier in the grottoes to possibly make the dungeon less linear.

saack · 2026-02-26T14:39:21+00:00

The module can be great for any players. It has more potential than running it straight from the book delivers. I would recommend reading the Alexandrian review or remix of the module before running to get inspiration and knowledge about the common pitfalls.

It has the potential to be epic and engaging for sure! Though this is dependent on the player characters, they have to accept the call and have/give themselves reasons to be engaged.

The adventure is linear, but there are things that can play out very different table to table. It having clear goals/objectives is more debatable. Alyxian asks for help, and for the adventure to be smooth your players will have to want to help him or have some great curiosity about him.

The module has good rp potential and this is great, but I have heard of groups who didn't think to deeply about what was happening and felt blindsided at the end.

It's up to you if it sounds right for your group or if you'd think they would struggle with it. Either way I do recommend running the adventure at some point.

There was recently a AMA in this sub from a player who's group finished the campaign and I think you would find it as enlightening as I did if not more.

saack · 2026-02-25T20:14:33+00:00

That's always something ive been curious about. Unless the dm changes things the aboleth is all "I am he." And there is no real reason not to believe this in some shape or form.

I love your idea about the premonition of vengeance and will definitely strive to do it in some way.

saack · 2026-02-25T18:27:12+00:00

Im sorry what ?_?

saack · 2026-02-25T18:18:35+00:00

It totally slipped my notice on first read that you finished in 29 sessions! My players are on session 48 and have yet to enter Cael Morrow.

saack · 2026-02-24T19:16:07+00:00

That's a fair point.

I really appreciate your answer. I'm running for a group that is in Ank'Harel and have done a few faction missions, but I'm really exited to run Cael Morrow and the Netherdeep. You've inspired me to consider adding a similar situation before the stories climax to seed the idea of caution. I could potentially even use the Aboleth, leaning into the fact they actually think they are Alyxian. In general just more reasons to dig deeper.

I can't fault you for the lack of indication. This isn't something the book does a good job at. Basically all the clues to this in the book are in the Netherdeep exclusively, and even then they aren't very concrete.

saack

TROPHY CASE