Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep

The Calamity

A cataclysmic war among gods and mortals occurred on Exandria centuries ago. This war, known as the Calamity, ended when the Prime Deities locked their evil brethren—and themselves—behind a Divine Gate that prevents the gods from directly interfering with the affairs of mortals. The gods can still bestow power upon their faithful and send powerful supernatural beings to help enact their will, but they can't directly touch the mortal works of Exandria.

Certain events of the Calamity are of paramount importance in this adventure, particularly the story of one forgotten hero who was favored by three of the Prime Deities and stood against the evil Betrayer Gods. As with other Critical Role stories, this tale involves a Vestige of Divergence, a magic item born out of the Calamity that grows in power alongside its bearer. This Vestige, the Jewel of Three Prayers, is described in the "x" section, and its magical properties are detailed in appendix B.

Xhorhas

Xhorhas, on the continent of Wildemount, was once a land dominated by the Betrayer Gods. It was their seat of power during the Calamity, and after their defeat, it was left a war-scarred wasteland prowled by demons. Today, it is a land populated by diverse creatures and people often considered to be monsters by their neighbor, the totalitarian Dwendalian Empire. The dominant political power in Xhorhas is the Kryn Dynasty, founded by drow who fled the Underdark and escaped the fell influence of Lolth the Spider Queen. They have discovered the power of an unusual deity of light and rebirth called the Luxon. The Bright Queen Leylas Kryn leads her people to glory in this blighted land.

Many beings lived in the wastes of Xhorhas before the drow of the Kryn Dynasty escaped the Underdark and built their civilization on the surface. Goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, orcs, lizardfolk, kobolds, and countless other beings have banded together under the banner of the Kryn Dynasty—some willingly, others under duress.

Xhorhasian locations the characters will visit in this adventure include the settlements of Jigow and Bazzoxan, both described below.

Ank'Harel

The continent of Marquet is scarred by a vast, arid desert, which was created long ago when the Betrayer God known as Gruumsh the Ruiner struck a cataclysmic blow with his spear into Marquet's lush jungles. Within this desert is one of the greatest city-states known to the mortals of this age: Ank'Harel, also called the Jewel of Hope.

Traders who needed to traverse the desert to sell their wares founded Ank'Harel around an oasis, unknowingly locating their new home above the sunken ruins of an elven city called Cael Morrow, which was destroyed by Gruumsh in the same spear thrust that laid waste to much of the continent.

Several factions are active in Ank'Harel, and the characters can receive help on their mission by joining one of these groups. Descriptions of the factions are presented in x.

Cael Morrow

Beneath Ank'Harel lie the remains of a former Marquesian metropolis. Its true name is lost to time, since nearly all records from before the Calamity were obliterated when Gruumsh destroyed the city. Modern scholars call it Cael Morrow, the Drowned City. The epithet refers to the fact that the ruins are submerged in a vast underground cistern—part of the same body of water that feeds the oasis that gives life to the city.

Hidden within Cael Morrow is a rift to the Netherdeep, which the characters discover in chapter 5.

The Netherdeep

A realm of despair, the Netherdeep was created when the spear of Gruumsh pierced through the Material Plane and into the Elemental Plane of Water. It is an extraplanar labyrinth of lightless trenches, infused with the distorted emotions of a demigod who is both the Netherdeep's prisoner and jailer. This location awaits the characters in chapter 6.

Ruidus

[image: Ruidus, the Moon of Ill Omen]

Two moons hang in the sky of Exandria. One is Catha, a large, pale orb that cycles through its phases once per month. The other is Ruidus, a ghostly vermilion satellite that circles Exandria once every six months.

Catha's brightness is constant, its phases predictable. Conversely, Ruidus exhibits strange behavior, seeming to glow more brightly at times or suddenly casting off its shadow to appear full. The vermilion moon often disappears from the night sky entirely, while at other times it unexpectedly flares with bright, ruddy light.

Though this story presents Ruidus as a subject of superstition and folklore, it intentionally avoids discussing the moon's actual magical power. Any mystical powers that nonplayer characters in this story claim to receive from the vermilion moon are related to Ruidus only so far as people believe them to be. In truth, the powers those characters wield comes from a figure called the Apotheon. The true nature of Ruidus is a topic to be explored in other Critical Role stories.

Not all people fear Ruidus, but superstitions about it are widespread across Exandria. Some of the more well-known superstitions include the following:

• Harbinger.. Those who are born on a night when Ruidus is full are destined to bring suffering to others or to experience great tragedy in their own lives.
• Malice.. Those who study Ruidus and become obsessed with its secrets are compelled to cause misfortune and woe.
• Misadventure.. Plans made or set in motion when Ruidus is full are doomed to failure, often due to betrayal or miscommunication.

Rise and Fall of the Apotheon

[image: Alyxian was born in the full light of Ruidus and lived a cursed life because of it]

During the Founding, a time when the gods still walked the face of Exandria, the world's divine creators discovered an unidentifiable power seeping through the fabric of reality. Legends assert that this alien influence was a threat to all life on Exandria, and the gods banded together to banish it.

This cancerous incursion of dark power is said to have crystallized into Ruidus, the small, vermilion moon that hangs in the sky along with Catha, the world's natural moon. The gods agreed to create a tale about Ruidus to conceal its alien origin from the mortals of the world, informing them that it was a moon of ill omen, and its magical influence was always to be avoided. This tale concocted by the gods was not a lie, for Ruidus's alien magic twists the fate of those who are born or embark on ventures while bathed in its vermilion light.

Some eons later, a schism rocked the pantheon of Exandria, splitting the divine beings into Betrayer Gods and Prime Deities. The Betrayer Gods strove to ruin and dominate the world, and they battled the Prime Deities in a war called the Calamity.

Near the beginning of this war, a boy named Alyxian was born in the lands of Wildemount, the seat of the Betrayer Gods' power, beneath the full light of Ruidus. He was said to be cursed from birth and was viewed with suspicion by all around him, except for his parents. As a young man, he sought to defy his fate and distinguish himself on the field of battle. Alyxian found himself embroiled in the most vicious battles of the war. He fought selflessly and begged the Prime Deities to help him protect the innocent people caught up in their war. Thrice he asked, and thrice they answered, granting him greater and greater power. He was more than a champion of the gods; he had become the Apotheon—a noble warrior so suffused with divine energy that he was halfway to godhood himself. In those times, he wore a gods-gifted amulet known as the Jewel of Three Prayers as a symbol of his divine covenants.

Eventually, the war brought the Apotheon to the great jungle city now known as Cael Morrow, a utopian domain of elves and orcs. These orcs were the first generation of their kind, who had been transformed by the spilled blood of Gruumsh the Ruiner. Although fear had reigned for a short time after the transformation, the two peoples soon realized they were still kin. The city was the jewel of the lush and verdant continent of Marquet, and its people gave thanks daily to Corellon the Arch Heart for their protection.

The Ruiner despised the Arch Heart and swore to annihilate Cael Morrow and all of Marquet with a single stroke of his spear. He strode into the center of the city, smiting all who dared raise a blade against him. When he reached the city's heart, Gruumsh raised his spear to strike the earth with cataclysmic force—but his blow was intercepted by the Apotheon at the last possible second.

The Apotheon's intervention kept Gruumsh from annihilating all life on Marquet, but the force of his spear thrust still brought the lands of Marquet to ruin. Fire raged across the lush jungle, turning verdant beauty into blasted desert, and Cael Morrow was shunted deep into the earth. Towers toppled, stone crumbled, and all trace of the great civilization was wiped from the face of Exandria.

In that moment of destruction and death, the Apotheon's connection to Ruidus flared to life. A rift was torn between worlds, in which alien energy from an unknown realm and the waters of Cael Morrow's oasis mingled to produce a lightless realm of water and strange magic. There, in what came to be known as the Netherdeep, the Apotheon has been trapped for untold ages, consumed with sadness, furious over his defeat, and yearning for his freedom.

In time, the immortal Apotheon fell into a long and troubled slumber. In his dreams, the barren caverns of the Netherdeep began to shift. His memories filled the darkness, and a cocoon of melancholy formed around his body. From this Heart of Despair emerged a crimson element that embodied the Apotheon's power. It spread, growing and crystallizing as it moved, until all of the Netherdeep was suffused with its power.

The Apotheon Awakens

Centuries have passed since the Calamity, and life has returned to the desert lands of Marquet. A grand city called Ank'Harel has been built around a desert oasis. Little did its founders know that the water of their oasis originated in the Netherdeep, and that beneath the new desert metropolis was an underwater cavern holding the ruined city of Cael Morrow.

A new form of conflict entered the story when the Allegiance of Allsight, an influential group of academics in Ank'Harel, discovered a strange mineral in the sunken ruins beneath their city. This substance—a slick, oily stone veined with blood-like streaks—possessed unknown magical properties. The Allegiance tried to keep its discovery secret, but the news soon attracted the attention of a rival faction.

The Consortium of the Vermilion Dream—a secret occult society obsessed with the magic of the Moon of Ill Omen, Ruidus—heard a rumor about the discovery of this mineral. Consortium agents broke into the Allegiance of Allsight's excavation site in Cael Morrow and learned about the discovery firsthand. They dubbed the mineral "ruidium," because its red veins and its mysteriousness reminded them of the light and power of Ruidus.

The consortium continued sneaking into the excavation, hunting further deposits of the mineral, and discovered a planar rift within the ruins. One of their agents succeeded in getting inside the rift—and when that agent returned, she claimed that she had entered a dark, underwater realm where the walls themselves were veined with ruidium. She managed to recover a sample and escape before the water's intense pressure crushed her body.

When that sample of ruidium was torn from the Netherdeep, the shock of the extraction roused the dormant Apotheon from his slumber. All at once, centuries of accumulated grief crashed down upon him, and the Netherdeep roared with the strength of his tempestuous emotions.

The power that flows from the Apotheon is no longer truly his own. Try as he might to hang on to the memory of the hero he once was, he is driven entirely by his tortured emotions. Throughout his centuries of isolation, the dormant, dreaming Alyxian had hoped for someone to find and rescue him. But when mortals discovered him, they seemed interested only in stealing his power for themselves. The furious Apotheon tapped into the alien nature of the Netherdeep to cause ruidium to slowly corrupt all who hold it.

Alyxian beseeched the three gods he had prayed to in ancient times—Sehanine the Moon Weaver, Avandra the Change Bringer, and Corellon the Arch Heart—to send heroes to save him. Despite being sealed behind the Divine Gate, the gods were able to propel the Jewel of Three Prayers to a site where Alyxian once beseeched the Moon Weaver for aid long ago. The jewel materialized within a sunken temple in the Emerald Gulch near Jigow, and the gods hoped that a good-hearted band of heroes would find it, learn of the Apotheon's plight, and rescue their tortured champion. The Jewel of Three Prayers is currently dormant, waiting to be awakened by a determined hero.

The Apotheon's Call

The first chapter of this adventure begins in Jigow, a Xhorhasian town populated mostly by orcs and goblins brought together by the Kryn Dynasty. Smaller populations of other peoples live among them. Unlike some other Kryn settlements, the people of Jigow have maintained their city's distinctive culture. Jigow's most popular event is the annual Festival of Merit, in which locals and visitors compete in tests of strength and cunning. Rivalries are forged, bets are won and lost, and bragging rights are secured for the year—until the next festival.

During this event, destiny calls to two adventuring parties: the characters (run by your players) and a group of rival adventurers (run by you). The grand finale of the Festival of Merit sends both groups into an underwater grotto. Here, the characters discover a place where Alyxian prayed to Sehanine the Moon Weaver centuries ago. Here, the Jewel of Three Prayers waits to be found. The discovery of this item and a vision in which Alyxian pleads with the characters to save him from his prison of darkness and despair set the adventure in motion. If the characters answer the call, they will come into conflict with the power-hungry factions that awakened the Apotheon, the alien evil of the Netherdeep itself, and the rivals who have dogged their path since the festival at Jigow.

Character Advancement

The characters begin the adventure at 3rd level. If your players are creating 3rd-level characters from scratch, assume that each character has the normal starting equipment for their background and class.

If you want to run this adventure as part of a campaign that starts at 1st level, the adventure "Unwelcome Spirits" in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount is ideal for a group of 1st-level characters in Xhorhas and can be used to advance the characters to 3rd level.

The Character Level Advancement table summarizes when the characters gain levels during this adventure.

Adventure Structure

Call of the Netherdeep is divided into seven chapters, as shown in the Adventure Flowchart.

Swimming

Unless aided by magic, a character without a swimming speed can't swim indefinitely. After each hour of swimming, a character must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain 1 level of exhaustion.

A creature with a swimming speed—including a character with a ring of swimming or similar magic—can swim all day without penalty and uses the normal forced march rules in the Player's Handbook.

Swimming through deep water is similar to traveling at high altitudes because of the water's pressure and cold temperature. For a creature without a swimming speed, each hour spent swimming at a depth greater than 100 feet counts as 2 hours for the purpose of determining exhaustion, and swimming for an hour at a depth greater than 200 feet counts as 4 hours.

Underwater Visibility

Visibility underwater depends on water clarity and the available light. Unless the characters have light sources, use the Underwater Encounter Distance table to determine the distance at which characters underwater become aware of a possible encounter.

Netherdeep Water Pressure

The Netherdeep has the added danger of extreme water pressure, the effects of which are described in x.

Ruidium Corruption

When a creature is at risk of becoming corrupted, it must make a Charisma saving throw. The save DC varies based on the ruidium's virulence. On a failed saving throw, the creature gains 1 level of exhaustion (see the Player's Handbook) and becomes corrupted if it isn't already. From that point on, the creature takes 1d10 psychic damage whenever its level of exhaustion increases or decreases by 1, until it's no longer corrupted (see "x" below).

Ayo Jabe

As the de facto leader of a new, unnamed adventuring party, Ayo Jabe has a lot of responsibility on her shoulders. She and her companions have worked odd jobs around the town of Jigow for a few weeks now, and she's starting to feel confident that they're ready for real adventure.

Ayo is a water genasi who was born to orc parents during a terrible storm in the Emerald Gulch. Her family has lived in Jigow for generations, and she's eager to leave home and see the world.

Ayo picked up her combat skills while working as a hunter for the town of Jigow. She recently joined up with her childhood friend Dermot, as well as Maggie Keeneyes, a mercenary who came to town several weeks ago. Despite Maggie's brusque demeanor, she became a loyal friend of Ayo and Dermot, and the three of them have become inseparable, even as more adventurers have joined their party.

Ayo is hotheaded and appreciates people who make decisions as impulsively as she does. Nevertheless, she respects Dermot's even-tempered advice and dutifully plays the role of the wise leader. She has no patience for people who are indecisive, and she is infuriated by people who don't say what they really mean.

Dermot Wurder

When you're the twelfth son of a poor goblin family in Jigow, the only way to make a name for yourself is to become a great champion—someone who can win bragging contests in the local taverns night after night. Young Dermot Wurder, however, wasn't interested in performing feats of strength or agility that would win him a boast-worthy epithet. Fame wasn't for him, nor was the aggressiveness that becoming famous required. He was more interested in cooking, planting flowers, and sewing clothes—doing the work that kept his family together while his carefree siblings dove off waterfalls and wrestled stray dogs.

Dermot and Ayo Jabe have known each other long enough that their first meeting has vanished into the haze of youthful pre-memory. Dermot accompanied Ayo whenever he could, packing herbs and medicines when they went exploring in the woods. When Ayo recently told him of her dream to form an adventuring party, he started training to wear heavy armor and threw himself into studying the faith of the Luxon so he could wield the blessings of the light to protect those he cares about.

Dermot is fiercely protective of his friends and furiously rebukes anyone who disparages or threatens them. His deepest need—one even he doesn't know he has—is to make a friend who will help him realize what he wants for himself.

Galsariad Ardyth

Beautiful, ethereal, deathly, shadowy—all accurately describe Galsariad Ardyth, a drow in his two-hundredth year of life. He's recently taken up the study of arcane magic, and he's pursuing the life of an adventurer in hopes of improving his reputation within the Kryn Dynasty. Loquacious, snarky, and sarcastic to a fault, he's ready with a barb for any occasion—usually to mask his own insecurities.

A city-dweller from the Kryn capital of Rosohna, Galsariad is blessed with sharp aesthetic sensibilities and an interest in ancient lore, especially history concerning the Age of Arcanum, Exandria's long-lost magical golden age. He's also the newest member of the rival party, and both Ayo and Irvan are impressed by his ethereal elegance—and have a bit of a crush on him, even if he does talk too much.

Galsariad appreciates people who share his interests and are willing to spend time studying with him, though he also likes it when people treat him with respect even if they don't care about magic. He dislikes people who keep secrets from him, and hates when people judge him for being a novice at magic even though he's centuries old.

Irvan Wastewalker

The name "Wastewalker" conjures fear on the plains of Xhorhas, as the name of a clan of Xhorhasian nomads. Irvan—Irv to his friends—was born into that clan, but he hates the name. He left his family when he was a teenager, struck out on his own across the wastes, and made his way to the city of Asarius. Even though the "City of Beasts" is renowned for danger, Irv felt at home there in a way he'd never felt with his clan.

He earned a reputation for being a party animal who could put down a dozen drinks in a night and still dance with the vigor and elegance of an archfey. Irv is young—just a few weeks past his nineteenth birthday—and he is secretly ashamed of his patchy beard and scrawny, human body. He has a bigger secret related to that feeling: he was consecuted in another life. The act of consecution is a sacred Kryn ritual of rebirth through the mystical power of the Luxon. Irvan has memories of his previous life as a bugbear of Den Hythenos, and he hopes to prove to himself that he can do great things without the aid of his powerful "family" in the Kryn Dynasty.

He met Ayo and her friends when he traveled to Jigow to experience its contests of strength and skill. He sticks with the group in part because he's interested in what adventures they'll get into, and also because he's smitten with the group's newest addition, a drow arcanist named Galsariad.

Maggie Keeneyes

People might laugh when a 12-foot-tall ogre orders a drink at a bar and says her name is Maggie, but they don't laugh for long. Some people fixate on her name, her enormous size, her muscles, or the weapon at her side. Wiser folk take notice of Maggie's bright blue eyes. All her life, people have considered Maggie a stupid meathead because of her size, but her eyes betray her intelligence. She can read others with a glance, whether in conversation or in a duel. When her eyes dart back and forth across a battlefield, they take in enough information to give her allies an advantage in the fight.

Things changed for Maggie when she first arrived in Jigow and met Ayo Jabe three weeks ago. She came looking for mercenary work to make ends meet but found a true friend instead. Ayo saw the intelligence in Maggie's eyes and was keen to hear Maggie's thoughts. They became fast friends, and Maggie would sooner die than let harm come to her new companion.

Maggie loves poetry and music with profound lyrics, as well as matching wits with people as clever as she is. She hates being stereotyped and has a dim view of those who are too quick to judge others.

Rivals' Goals

Each rival has goals. As the characters interact with the rivals, they might choose to help the rivals achieve their goals or use their own knowledge of those goals to manipulate the rivals into doing what they want. A Charisma check to ask for help (see "x" below) is made with advantage if the rival thinks agreeing to the character's request will help achieve the rivals' goals and is made with disadvantage if it goes directly against the rivals' goals.

The Rivals' Goals table summarizes each rival's goals at the start of this adventure. Some of them are broadly applicable and might never be definitively achieved. Others are highly specific (such as Galsariad's goal to match wits with an archmage). The rivals can acquire new goals as the adventure progresses, as you see fit.

A character can learn about one of a rival's goals by spending at least 1 minute in conversation with that rival and making a DC 10 Wisdom (Insight) check. No check is necessary if the rival is friendly toward the character and divulges the information willingly.

Rival Stat Blocks

Stat blocks for the rivals can be found in appendix A. Each of the rivals has three stat blocks; like the characters, they become more powerful as the adventure progresses. The Rival Stat Blocks table shows you which stat blocks to use based on the chapter you are running.

Relationships with the Rivals

When the characters meet the rivals in chapter 1, all the rivals have an indifferent attitude toward them. It's up to you to determine when a rival's attitude toward a character might change. For example, after a combat encounter in which one character saves a rival's life or helps a rival achieve one of their goals (see the x), you can decide if that deed enabled the rival to see the character in a new light, changing the rival's attitude toward the character from hostile to indifferent or indifferent to friendly. The rules for changing attitude are detailed in the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Session Zero

Before starting the adventure, consider spending a game session—colloquially called session zero—to establish expectations, share house rules, and help your players create characters. If you have a copy of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, see that book's "Session Zero" section for advice on how to lay the groundwork in session zero for a fun campaign that exceeds your players' expectations.

All the character races presented in the Player's Handbook are well suited for this adventure. If your players have access to Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, the race and subclass options presented in that book are available to them as well. With your consent, a character can also receive the Hollow One supernatural gift described in that book.

Additional race options appear in Monsters of the Multiverse, with bugbear, duergar, goblin, hobgoblin, kobold, lizardfolk, minotaur, and orc being appropriate choices for players who want their characters to come from cultures or societies with roots in Xhorhas.

All class options presented in the Player's Handbook can be used in this adventure, and players can choose options from other D&D books with your approval.

Pronunciations