Thread by @hexcrawl

Running Betrayers' Rise.

Our goal is to take the micro-dungeon found in Call of the #Netherdeep and present it in a way that's consistent with Betrayers' Rise being an ancient dungeon with vast, unexplored depths from which abyssal horrors are emerging.

This is part of a Let's Read of Call of the #Netherdeep. If you want to start at the beginning, follow this link.

https://twitter.com/hexcrawl/status/1505005530112307208

If you want to dig into the reasons WHY we're doing this with Betrayers' Rise, back up a little bit and start reading here.

https://twitter.com/hexcrawl/status/1507055594678722566

Remember that we don't want to actually map out a massive megadungeon.

Megadungeons are fun, but take (a) too much prep and (b) too much time for what this adventure needs.

OPTION 1

There are multiple entrances to Betrayers' Rise, which is a convoluted honeycomb of many different dungeon complexes (some connected to each other; others not... or perhaps only secretly or through interdimensional spaces).

This entrance leads to our micro-dungeon.

Query: How do the PCs know to use this specific entrance?

Answer: It has a specific connection to the Jewel of Three Prayers.

Keep it simple: There's a giant drawing or bas relief of the Jewel depicted on the entrance or near the entrance or just inside the entrance.

How do the PCs learn about this?

From the three scholars in Bazzoxan.

Or they can do their own survey of the Rise's exterior.

In fact, this can reach all the way back to some of the problems we having in Jigow, where there was no reason for the Elder to point the PCs in the direction of Bazzoxan.

Now the Elder can just say, "I was in Bazzoxan once and I saw this very Jewel depicted on the walls of Betrayers' Rise. Perhaps there will be answers there."

Expand it a bit more. Now the PCs can do their own research on the Jewel, discover references to it being depicted on Betrayers' Rise, and make their way to Bazzoxan. They don't need no stinkin' NPCs.

(And the Three Clue Rule is rockin' and a-rollin'.)

thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118…

OPTION 2

If you actually want to delve into THE Betrayers' Rise, then what we need is a pointcrawl.

This option will require significantly more prep, because you'll need to prep other points within Betrayers' Rise in addition to what I'm calling the Cyst of Avandra.

The way the pointcrawl would work is that the vast depths of the Rise would be abstracted - you'd narrate large spans of the journey as a sort of travelogue through terrifying-yet-empty vaults.

The Rise is not a beehive with every inch filled with demons. It is a wasteland.

If you want a touchstone for what this would look like/sound like in play, consider the journey through Moria in The Lord of the Rings.

The "points" of the pointcrawl would be points of particular interest/danger. They'd also represent key navigational choices.

In the movie version of Moria, these are the entrance, "I have no memory of this place", Balin's tomb, and the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.

In designing this for an RPG, you would need to include options for the paths Gandalf didn't take (so that the players would have navigational choices).

My guess is you'd want at least half a dozen points that are actually micro-dungeons. You could think of each of these as a 5-room dungeon.

roleplayingtips.com/5-room-dungeon…

And then probably another dozen or so points that are just individual rooms or cool landmarks (a statue, a strange chasm, a subterranean bridge, etc.).

Some of these might be better thought of as entire regions, out of which navigational choices can be made.

"You're in the Hex Pits. You see a number of stairs winding down. Or you could perhaps try to make your way up one of the great ramps."

OPTION 3

We can get some of the atmosphere offered by the pointcrawl, but wrap it in a simpler package (with near-zero prep) by simply requiring a guide.

What guide? One of the three scholars, of course.

And how do they know where to take the PCs? It's the depiction of the Jewel of Three Prayers. Rather than being on an entrance to Betrayers' Run, the painting or bas relief is located deep within Betrayers' Rise.

The scholar can guide the PCs there in abstract time (a montage of moments as they delve into the dungeon); perhaps triggering a few "random" (actually scripted) encounters along the way.

And then you simply refocus on now time as the PCs arrive at the depiction of the Jewel, which is also the entrance to the micro-dungeon.

thealexandrian.net/wordpress/3152…

You could enrich this a bit by having the scholars each propose/take differing routes through the Rise.

But there's probably not a huge value gain from that unless the PCs can make some sort of meaningful choice between route options.

The PCs might not need to take an actual guide if, for example, they steal Aloysia's research notes from her room. They can study the notes and then guide themselves.

For the encounters studded along each route, you can use (or at least start with) the encounters found on p. 63 of the book.

But try to have the encounters really reflect the vastness of the spaces through which the PCs are traveling.

They pass through a galley looking out over a vast underground chasm or chamber, lit by the ruddy light of a lake of fire on the far end...

....in the center of the lake is an island upon which is a slab of stone. And upon the slab of stone there is a sleeping balor.

Best not to rouse it.

Any of these options can have a variant where the Jewel-marked door can only be opened by someone with the Jewel. (You'll need some light rewriting to remove the Aurora Watch corpses… although perhaps they stumbled through some non-Euclidean route from elsewhere in the Rise.)

The Let's Read continues over here at the bottom of Betrayers' Rise!

https://twitter.com/hexcrawl/status/1507750257630842892