Here is a fun encounter that I wrote for my players in Out of the Abyss. It is designed to be played when they are travelling by boat, or raft or some other conveyance over the Darklake. My players hit this between Sloobludop and Gracklstugh.

As the encounter begins, show the image above and read aloud:
“Your travels carry you between caverns and tunnels, all making up the interconnected waterways collectively referred to as ‘Darklake’. You travel down a rather narrow tunnel-way only about 15ft until in either direction all you can see is murky, watery, narrow tunnel.”

While they are still ~100ft away from the encounter, call for an WIS (Perception) roll (with disadvantage for anyone with only normal darkvision)
DC 13 – “Just at the edge of your vision ahead, you think you see a large silhouette of something blocking the water way. You can hear the sound of the current gently lapping against something large ahead as well.
DC 17 – “You think you can feel the current slow in this tunnel as well”

If the players continue on down the passage way, again, when ~50ft away from the encounter call for another WIS (Perception) roll as above:
DC 15 – “You can see the the river had changed to a small creek, moving slowly around two incredibly large boulders and debris in the water. The boulders completely block your path.
DC 20 – “On the right side of the tunnel, in the small gap between the boulder and the tunnel wall, you see the reflection of two tiny eyes peak out. You’d swear you saw a smile as well before they ducked back out of view.”

Setup

The eyes the players saw belong to a goblin of higher than average intelligence, named Rith. Along with him, is a huge Fomorian. The two of them come out from the shadows and say that “…it sure is lucky we happened to be in the area and can help out an advenuring party down on their luck, like you! For only 100gp, my large friend over here (the Fomorian) can move those pesky rocks.”
They’re grifters.. obviously. Or at least Rith is. The Fomorian has dead eyes and seems to just do exactly as he’s told and no more or less.
Rith is incredibly patient and will let the players sit and argue as long as they want Their other option is, of course, to head back (this should increase pursuit level). Rith will strongly imply (without ever saying so) that the Fomorian (whom he calls Foamy) will fight if he is threatened or intimidated. If the players decide to pay, Rith may get greedy and try to get more; telling the players that 100GP was for ONE rock, and as they can see, there are two blocking the path. Roleplay or charisma rolls can determine how you play this. In the end though, Rith doesn’t want a fight and will take the gold and let the players move on as he resets his scheme for the next poor adventurers.

Rith – Goblin Boss – Adult

Uses Goblin Boss stats except he has a +4 to Deception and +4 to Persuasion
Physical Description: Rith has a slightly misshapen head and has only wisps of black, greasy hair that he has tied into a ponytail.  The left side of his face has an old scar.
Character: Rith is not particularly pretty or charismatic at first.  But he has a kind of used-car salesman aura once you’re talking to him.  He’s incredibly well spoke for a Goblin and is always working an angle.
Details: Rith was nearly killed in an attack by a xorn years ago.  His Goblin pack left him to die in the Underdark and he’s been a wily survivor ever since.  He trusts no one, but knows he isn’t going to stay alive on his own strength down here.  Rith has a Fomorian enslaved to him.  A gift from an Aboleth he once made a deal with.  He mainly uses “Foamy” as an intimidater, but has found a new scheme for him as a heavy lifter.
Occupation: Schemer.  Rith is always running some kind of con, extortion, or generally trying to make a GP in the underdark.  He has been quite successful if you consider staying alive a success.
Rith knew enough about the Enslave spell to know that actually having Foamy fight anything much stronger than himself had the possibilty of him actually getting hit!  Which could break the spell.  So instead, he devised a scheme where Foamy placed 2 large boulders in the way of one waterways off the beaten path of Dark Lake.  A little bit of extortion and intimidation from Foamy and the Duergar were handing over the gold!

“Foamy” – Fomorian

A Fomorian enslaved by an Aboleth a long time ago, and whose telepathic domination has been transferred via magical pact to Rith.  Foamy has no control of what he does and is completely enslaved.  Reference Aboleth.  If ‘Foamy’ takes any damage, he can make a DC 14 CHA saving throw. On a success, the effect ends and he is free.  If ‘Foamy’ is more than a mile away from Rith, he can repeat the saving throw once per 24 hours.  If Rith dies or is on another plane, the effect automatically ends.
Foamy is not particularly intelligent, but not a dope.  He will shout, “I AM NO SLAVE!” if freed.  DC 18 CHA (Persuasion) to convince him not to fight or run away if he gathers the party is too strong.

Hidden Entrance

Beyond the two rocks that are blocking the way, and close to where Rith and ‘Foamy’ are standing, a part of the rock wall is actually just a well packed collection of rocks.  DC 18 WIS (Perception) in the general area or DC 12 INT (Investigation) in that specific to notice this.  

A 10ft wide and 15 ft.long passageway leads to a room carved into the cave wall, roughly 25ft wide and 20ft deep, covered in spiderwebs and other detritus.  To the left is a small table and chair with a candle on it, and a sleep pad.  In the far back corner you see the bones of some long dead creature.

Treasure

• 50GP on the table
• 100GP additionally buried in the corner – DC 14 WIS (Perception) to notice the displaced dirt
• Signed Pact with the Aboleth –
  • Magical to the touch
  • Reads: “As payment for services rendered, this pact conveys control and dominion over the enslaved Fomorian [drop of blood] to Clanless Rith. This pact can be annulled at anytime by [There are strange symbols here]. This pact may be transferred per the appropriate ritual only once.” with Rith’s name signed in blood.
  • DC 16 INT (Arcana) to know that the signature is in Deep Speech.
  • DC 20 INT (Arcana) to know the particular ritual to transfer control of ‘Foamy’ to another creature. This may only be done once.

Things to note: Foamy won’t attack unless forced to defend himself OR commanded to by Rith. Foamy will continue to follow the last command if Rith is dead or unconscious. Because the players aren’t aware that Foamy is under the Enslave spell, they don’t know that he can make WIS saving throws against the effects if he takes damage. This can set up interesting situations where the party may be able to transfer the pact to themselves, attempt to use Foamy in battle, only to have Foamy turn on them in the middle of the fight if he makes his saving throw! Good times!

Additionally, you can have the Aboleth play a larger role later in your adventure. If you want the translation of his name on the pact from Deep speech (Espruar) is “Herbert”. In my world, the Aboleth is also gone mad from the influence of the Demon Lords and similarly to Shushaar, this had made the Aboleth turn to a rather silly and Good alignment. Have fun with that, it can make for some lighthearted fun.

Here are a few assets used on Roll20 when I played this out.

My players are still in Gracklstugh and met with Werz Saltbaron after saving his life from the Empty Scabbard killers. He thanked them handsomely and asked them to help him trackdown evidence of the killers and pointed them towards Droki and the West Cleft distract (just as every other NPC has it seems). My players surprised me and asked if they knew anywhere else to stay that was cheaper than Ghohlbrorn’s Lair (which is pretty pricey since its the only place outsiders can stay). He told them that since he was going into hiding and laying low, the party could stay at his home in the nicer part of Laduguer’s Furrow (I decided that since the West Cleft and East Cleft were Derro territory, that the closer you were to the gates, the worse an area it was, even for the Duergar part). I’m still mulling on whether or not the Empty Scabbard Killers may show up at the apartment — but if they do, it needs a battle map!

Duergar apartment

Couple of interesting things going on in this map. Werz’s apartment on the West and is probably larger than it should be, but I have enough combat in close quarters, so I made it larger. Where lit, the rooms are dimly lit by flickering gas lighting.

• 1. Werz’s Great Room – Kitchen and lounging area in one. Duergar don’t do a lot of lounging. Gas is piped in to fuel the main hearth as well as a stove and fire pit for the cauldron. Foodstuffs and Darklake Stout are plentiful within the kitchen area. There is a hallway to the west and a strong iron door to the east.
  • 4x Barrel (20gal) of Darklake Stout
  • 20+1D10 rations worth of food
  • Iron Door
    • DC 16 Thieves Tools to pick
    • DC 20 STR Check to break down
    • DC 16 INT (Investigation) to see that the door is trapped with a small cable inside the door
    • DC 18 INT (Investigation) to understand how the cable attaches to the door and how it can be disarmed by reattaching to the door frame
    • DC 12 DEX (Slight of Hand) to disarm if understood (DC 20 otherwise)
• 2. Werz’s Bedroom – Large bedroom with a simple bed and desk. A bathroom is connected with plumped water and waste.
  • Desk
    • Number of small rough crystals – 1GP
    • Transaction ledgers – Intelligence Check (Advantage if you have a Merchant background)
      • DC 12 – You recognize these as ledgers going back years. You see all kinds of trades of minerals of all sorts. Werz has done quite well for himself
      • DC 17 – You notice some inconsistencies in the numbers. You recognize cooked books when you see them
      • DC 20 – They aren’t labeled as such, but you know enough on how its done to see there are two sets of books here. One obviously “official” and the other showing some shady deals. Smuggling most likely.
  • Footlocker
    • Full set of Miner’s Tools
    • Full set of Jeweler’s Tools
  • Wardrobe
    • 3x Fine clothes – 15GP
• 2a. Bathroom – Running water and pipes taking waste away. A toilet as well.
  • Water
    • Fine for washing or bathing, but unclean for drinking.
    • DC 10 CON Saving Throw or be Poisoned for 6 hours. Saving throw may be repeated every hour.
  • Wardrobe
    • Towels and bathrobes – 5GP
• 3. Extra Bedroom – Nothing of interest
• 4. Werz’s Storeroom – Immediately in the room you see large raw stone under a lamp. There are tools next to it. The rest of the room is filled with rows of shelves with samples of various minerals. The minerals come in many forms, crystal, rock and even powder. Additionally there are several storage crates around.
  • Trap – If they knew it was trapped ask for a perception roll, otherwise use passive
    • DC 16 INT (Perception) to notice a small lever behind the door that a small cable is pulled through that was connected to the door.
    • 30 seconds to find and actuate the lever or else the room begins rapidly filling with gas from large pipes on each wall.
      • 1D10 damage every round in there.
  • Secret Entrance
    • DC 18 WIS (Perception) to notice something in that corner
    • DC 14 INT (Investigation) to discover
• 5. Secret Room
  • 65GP in random gold on the floor
  • 1D6 50GP Gem stones in the bag
  • Log book containing all illegal shipments and correspondence to the Gray Ghosts. This log makes it clear he is a member of the thieves guild.

The players are now deep into the story of Gracklstugh and are no doubt headed soon for Whorlstone Tunnels. The map provided by the module for this is HUGE, and a few areas have encounter maps that are higher resolution, but not enough. This is due to the fact that I’m still running Gracklstugh Revised from DM’s Guild and they have a LOT more encounters. Almost every area (and some that weren’t even marked on the original) have the potential for an encounter.

My plan is to run this like an exploration, utilizing the map and fog-of-war as they explore. When an encounter does occur, I switch to the appropriate map. They should immediately recognize it from the map. I actually scaled the map appropriately, and brought each section into Dungeondraft and traced the basic shape. The internal stuff is all modified per Gracklstugh Revised, rather than the original. The difference in colors, generally depends on how much of Faerzress is present in that section, though honestly, it may not be 100% accurate. Still, having all of these maps available REALLY helps in the event they want to have a battle. I also added a generic “tunnel” map for the random encounters.

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