Underworld Speculation

Underworld Speculation was a little module I got for free on Roll20, as they are very generous when it comes to giving users free resources, especially users that have pro level subscriptions. Evidently, it is a promo thing for Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Looks like you can get the pdf from DM's Guild. 

It's small, weird, and funny. Very much recommend it as a little "interruption" sort of mini-adventure. 

Anyway, the premise is that the players are in Waterdeep and wake up on a dim, rocky beach inside what appears to be a flooded cavern or sea cave with a sort of alien glowing object, and no recollection of how they got there. 

The DM notes state that the map should not be shown to the players, as it may give away too much. Indeed, I have read other DMs saying that it runs "theater of the mind" just fine. However, I am a great lover of fancy maps and my players enjoy them (in one case, absolutely rely on them). So I recreated the map myself and adjusted the dynamic lighting (remember, I run on a virtual tabletop exclusively these days) and token visibility to account for the visibility described in the module. Letting players only see what they can see in low visibility doesn't really allow them to take in the lay of the land enough to spoil the adventure.  I've run this at least twice with an adjusted map and it worked just like any other dungeon adventure map. 

Virtual tabletops with dynamic lighting do have decided perks. 

SPOILERS!

The glowing object in the cave is all that remains of an aboleth that was defeated by the Xanathar of Waterdeep, has been trapped in the cave, and really wants out. This orb can communicate telepathically, but only tells them it prefers to be called "Dawn's Beacon" and that it needs the players to help them escape the cave and will confer water breathing on the party if they agree to take it with them on their escape. 

The party will have to swim through an underwater cavern to reach the exit. These caves are filled with creepy "sea spawn", which are kind of sea-changed former prisoners of this cave system. They will have to fight their way past a flail snail in the exit of the cave to emerge into a wide, underwater landscape. They can see a small castle off in the distance on the sea floor. 

There are aggressive kelp creatures and hungry giant clams to navigate. A giant shadow appears overhead. Is that a whale? A giant shark? It's...orange...? 

My nephew, Taijitsu of the Rebels: "We're in a fishbowl."

A distorted, fang-mawed face appears dimly through the glassy surface of the "cliff" surrounding the rocky plain. It looks disturbingly like a beholder. Beyond the walls of the fishbowl lie what looks like a nicely appointed study. 

The players will have to do some serious wheeling and dealing with their new buddy, Dawn's Beacon, to get out of this one. Someone in the group may have to enter into a Geas with the thing before it's all said and done. I believe Sir Peter from the Rebels made one, as did Atalaya from the Class. The geas is this: At some point any time in the future, if you get a clear opportunity to kill the Xanathar, do it. 

I mean...the Xanathar is a powerful crime lord. It's not like anyone is being sent to kill the Easter Bunny. And the alternative ain't great, either, so...

The Rebels have a little more straightforward campaign, as they don't play every week and so go on fewer side quests. So they were returned to Riverport, where they were when they were snatched. And I keep their sessions to two hours, because I keep sessions to no more than two hours when kids are involved. So this is a fine two hour session. 

The Class (who's sessions are much longer because we are all a pack of stir-crazy adults) were in Waterdeep when this happened, and were also dumped back into the town where they were picked up. However, they ended up being dumped back into the hideout of what turned out to be a minor crime boss hiding out with his gang of were-rats in a sewer. 

I used an adventure from MDT 5e: Level 4 Adventures, which is a great bundle I picked up on Roll20 Marketplace. It has a collection of small, quick mini dungeons that make great side quests. I used the adventure Thelamos from that collection for the crime boss encounter. 

I made the crime boss to be not particularly murderous, but he was definitely an opportunist.  And kind of broke (given that he was running his base of operations out of a sewer). And here was Boz Boswell, who had a large bounty on his head in Waterdeep by both the crime underground and the constabulary alike, dumped into his lap like a nicely wrapped Yule present. So the Class ended up having to haggle over who was going to have custody of Mr. Boswell when the Class and the crime lord's minions parted ways. Atalaya put up a ridiculous amount of her personal gold to pay the crime lord off and the group beat a hasty retreat out of there.