Escape from the Underdark

A High Forest Adventure

Introduction: This is and adventure I wrote to play with my son, who is 4. This
isn't so much an adventure as it is a campaign hook. Detailed inside I will explain
what brought me to get my son interested in D&D. Also, what it took to slowly
build his interest in the game. The scenes from this adventure are very
dangerous and were meant for a DM to push the new characters through, rather
than allow them to do their own thing. It is not for everyone, but if you want to
make some drow characters and blow away an afternoon, check this one out.

A 1-hour adventure for 1st level characters

by Chris Janssens

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Escape from the Underdark

Escape from the Underdark

Those who dream by day are cognizant of
many things that escape those who dream
only at night.
Edgar Allan Poe

Setting
It is assumed that the person running this
game has a copy of the core rulebooks for 5th
edition D&D. This is the first of hopefully
many short adventures I will have played
with my young son (4 years old). In this
adventure I am going to go into depth about
how I got him interested in D&D and, more
importantly, how I make it understandable
for him. Also, how I make it fun for the both
of us. Where we get to a point that we are
playing with miniatures as if they were action
figures with very specific rules.
This adventure takes place in the
Underdark deep below Faerun in the
Forgotten Realms. Feel free to insert
whichever city you would like the characters
to be fleeing from. Chances are that the
characters are subterranean races but you
could insert any reason why another race
could have been below the world. Provided in
the appendix are a list of bonds that one or
more characters in the group could use to
insert themselves into this very rare
situation.

For kids who love stories

From a very early age our child has loved to
listen to us read. As long as it was short and
simple and had some sort of tiny furry animal
as the protagonist. So naturally, as a life long
DM, this peaked my curiosity. We continued to
read to him until he was old enough to talk and
understand what we were actually reading
about. At this point I started telling him stories
without a book, simple ones with clear lessons,
such as 'The Boy who Cried Wolf' or 'Little Red
Riding Hood'.
When it came down to our first session, he
glared at me intently while I described that he
and his mother's characters were from
Menzoberranzan (he pronounces Mezobaraza)
and why they were fleeing their home. I'm sure
he didn't understand most of it, but he learned
some new words and found out all of the
powers his wizard could cast (via Chromatic
Orb). He was excited.

The Story
At least one of the characters should have
one of the bonds listed in the appendix of
this adventure. They will provide the
reasoning for the group's departure from the
underdark.

Fleeing From the Drow

For the past few days the characters have
been making their way out of the underdark.
A group of bloodthirsty drow have been host
on their heels. The drow are after a few
members of the party and must take them
alive. Anyone else is expendable. The Drow
are relentless until the characters arrive on
the surface.
Combat situations will be decided by a skill
challenge involving 3 rounds. A round
represents a half-day of running through
underground caverns, tunnels, and mines.
Try to be descriptive as possible and really
make the players feel like significant time
has passed. The characters can use a couple
different skills for the check: Athletics,
Nature, and History. Athletics represents the
ability to keep the party moving, by carrying
characters that are too tired to continue or
simply leading the charge. Nature
represents the ability of the character to
read the Underdark passages and get to the
surface as quickly as possible. History can
be used to recall tales of the particular
passages in the Underdark or remember
from which direction the character had
entered the Underdark in the first place. Use
each skill at your own discretion or even add
others that may be missing here. If half the
characters or more succeed vs. a Drow
athletics check, they successfully avoid
combat.
There are six drow following the
characters. Any time they enter combat
they will be outnumbered and out-matched.
This gives us an opportunity to add some
special environmental triggers that can help
the characters escape. Thhere are three
different scenarios I have prepared for this:

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Escape from the Underdark

Duergar Mines

In the first combat scenario, the characters

are running through an ancient Duergar
mine. The shafts are supported by ancient
wooden beams. The beams have AC 9, hp
5 and are vulnerable to fire. If destroyed
they cause a cave-in within a 20-foot area.
Dexterity DC 11 to escape or 2d8
bludgeoning damage. Maximum damage
means a character is buried. If it doesn't
cause the party to be divided from the
drow, then it gives the players a couple
rounds of confusion to escape.
You've entered a system of ancient Duergar
mines. Their maddening complexity has
confused you to the point where you've had to
backtrack several times already. You just feel
lucky that these mines are abandoned and not
full of short-nasty dark dwarves. You hear a
shout in the deep speech of the drow from
behind you. You turn and realize that the drow
pursuing you are now no more than 80' away.
Regardless of how fast your run they
continually seem to gain more ground. You and
your companions are forced to face them
before they start shooting arrows.
There are few defensible positions available so
you just stop in the main shaft to give
yourselves some breathing room. Around you,
holding the ceiling in place are ancient, wooden
beams, possibly carved from some form of
giant mushroom that dominates the area. As
you turn, a trail of dust and small pebbles falls
from the ceiling, as if it could give at any
second.

For kids who love toys

When my son was about 2 he started playing
with my miniatures and wanted to make them
fight. Ignoring my instinct to halt the fixation
with violent, I obliged him. It gave me the
opportunity to teach him different combat
roles. Casters have powers like Elsa that they
use to stop the bad-guys. Rogues use shadows
and cover to sneak up on the bad-guys and
scare them, like hide and seek. Healers fix the
good guys and make them so they can fight
again. Before this we just had foam swords
from Disneyland that we used for getting
zombies.
When we played with the miniatures we were
already really playing a form of D&D. He would
get a complete, balanced party out for each of
us. His favorite scenario was actually from the
Little Einsteins episode Fire Bird Rescue.
Where the Einsteins used their music power to
stop a bad ogre that was stealing the music
from the land. We had an Ogre Mage from my
miniatures collection that was designated as
the ogre from the show. This lead us through
countless adventures where we basically flew
the miniatures around the how and casted
powers at each other. Still, there was a
general story involved that we both
understood.

Carrion Crawler Escape

The characters stumble upon the lair of a
carrion crawler. Luckily, the beast has
just made a kill and is preoccupied. The
area is littered with large stalagmites,
giving the party ample opportunity to
hide. There is no way around the carrion
crawler without provoking it. If the
characters hide until the drow arrive, and
stay out of combat, the crawler kills two of
the drow before driving the rest back down
the cavern. This encounter has a lot of
opportunity to go another way, let the
party make mistakes but give them many
opportunities to escape (that is the theme
of the adventure after all).
The tunnel opens into a large cavern. To the
left and right of the path are stalactites and
stalagmites. Enough of the latter to conceal
several humanoids very easily. You then realize
the putrid smell that assails you once you enter
the cavern.
Just on the other side of the room is a
monstrous beast with the body of a centipede,
it's hovering over something and looks very
engrossed in what it is doing.

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Escape from the Underdark

100 xp: for each of these scenarios that the

characters survive.

Underground River
The tunnel the characters have been
following ends abruptly at a fast-flowing
underground river. Combat should begin
immediately to force the characters to
make a decision between the white-water
rapids and certain capture and/or
execution. If the characters jump into the
water they are carried down the swift
moving river. Make the players roll
Strength saves against a DC 10 to keep
their heads above the water. Otherwise
they take 1d6 bludgeoning damage. They
are carried 100 feet down the river until it
ends in a calm wading pool.

Choose the scenario that sounds the most

pleasing to use at the time. Remember this
is probably just a hook for the characters to
have further adventures on the surface. It is
supposed to be exciting but non-lethal, they
are supposed to feel that they had some
small victories and are not just constantly
running (which would be boring). Event if
the victory is them choosing their own fate
by jumping into deadly rushing waters. The
series of encounters is designed so that the
party will only have to endure one of them
but it is possible they may play through two
or all three.
If the characters do end up taking out the
band of drow, they will need to be replaced
with more to simulate the threat. Six drow
are scary to 1st-level characters but the idea
is that the characters are being chased all
the way out of the Underdark. The
characters should realize that this is a nowin scenario for them. Make sure to slip in
comments such as: You hear the echoing of
dozens of voices further behind you. and
The Drow horde sounds as if it may be
approaching. Or other mechanics to make
them believe that they should keep running.
If they are insistent on fighting then relax
and be as accommodating as possible, give
them ample opportunity to escape right up
to the end.

Exiting the Cavern

The characters finally arrive near the
surface, but the way out has been halfconcealed by debris. Clearing the path to
the outside will take 5 successful Strength
checks (DC 15). Each check is 2 minutes of
moving stones and digging. Two characters
are capable of digging at the same time,
which would expedite the process since
each character could win a check during the
same 2 minute interval. There are also two
guard posts, abandoned thousands of years
ago on either side of the exit. Inside are dust
covered bones and long rusted pieces of
iron. A lone drow approaches the party
depending on what they decide to do in the
previous situation it may be in the tunnel or
in one of the alcoves.

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Escape from the Underdark

forced out of the tunnel if they have finished

digging or be forced to the digging site if
they haven't.
There is a black bear that has taken up
residence in the cave that this entrance to
the underdark is a part of. She is currently
sleeping and takes disadvantage on
perception checks. If the characters attack,
the bear is surprised and will take normal
actions on the second round of combat.
Otherwise the characters can simply exit the
tunnel and take a breath of fresh air.

Into the Woods

Once the characters exit the cavern they are
in the woods. A Nature DC 15 after about an
hour of exploration reveals it to be the High
Forest. From here the characters can either
head to their next destination or determine
where they are.

A Family Adventure

The Drow that approaches the characters

wears leather armor and carries a rapier and
whip. He is bald and has hideous scar that
crosses his face from across his right eye,
through his nose and lips, below his left
cheek. If the characters are familiar with
him, they know him as Nekdim the Slave
Tamer. If they do not know him, he can
introduce himself and provide a short, gruff
role-play break. This Drow is an experienced
bounty hunter and is cool, calm, and
calculated (much like a Terminator). He
does, however, enjoy the hunt and will not
stop the characters from escaping the
Underdark at this point. If the characters are
taking their time or they still have a lot of
digging to do he will eventually attack them
if they haven't done so to him already.
However, instead of having Nekdim die, the
tunnel will collapse forcing the party to
make a Dexterity DC 10 save or take 1d8
damage on a fail. The players will either be

I played this adventure with my wife and son

so you might want to make the encounters
slightly more difficult, maybe add in a drow or
two with the pursuit group and with Nekdim as
well. We had a lot of fun playing this and I hope
you all do as well.
The content in this adventure is was not
exactly what I played with my son. But the
ideas were the same. Many things I would have
spent more time on with adults were either
simplified or glossed over completely.
However, the goal was to bring him into a
game that he sees me an my wife play with
others on a regular basis. And that is what
brought him the greatest joy.
One thing that didn't work out too well was
rolling the dice, he thought the goal was to
bowl down the miniatures rather than read the
numbers. I do have a couple ideas to help him
learn a little bit about counting and hopefully
some about math as well. This went over well
so I will be releasing a second adventure along
with this one.

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Escape from the Underdark