The finale of Call of the Netherdeep is, of course, the Netherdeep. It culminates the sequence of excellent, varied dungeons that form the backbone of the campaign — the cerulean neon of Emerald Grotto, the gothic horror of Betrayers’ Rise, the ruined grandeur of Cael Morrow, and the haunted existential terror of the Netherdeep. It also continues the underwater theme which has marked Call from its beginning.
Like the other dungeons, the Netherdeep is filled to the brim with a flavorful key and great map. (Not just visually great, but great in its design.) So there will actually be very little for us to do here.
MEMORIES OF THE APOTHEON
The basic concept is that the Netherdeep is an extraplanar extrusion of a demigod’s traumatized mind. Alyxian the Apotheon’s memories are made manifest within the layrinths of the Netherdeep, and the PCs have the opportunity to interact with these memories and affect what his emotional perceptions of them are. The outcomes of these interactions — and what the PCs learn during them — will then shape the final confrontation with Alyxian, who appears in three different forms representing the different coping mechanisms he used in mortal life.
These toxic behaviors are made mythologically epic, and ultimately the PCs will need to literally and emotionally grapple with them.
The basic structure of this is built on two tracks:
Track 1 features experiences geographically keyed to the map, which the PCs discover by exploring the dungeon. These experiences are generally interactive.
Track 2 takes the form of twenty short visions drawn from moments in the Apotheon’s life. These are triggered by various stimuli or actions, and the idea is that the PCs will be able to “piece together the Apotheon’s whole story.”
This all works great.
There are two things I would do to juice this up.
First, as we’ve already discussed, you should pull some of the lore surrounding Alyxian’s biography back into the rest of the campaign so that (a) the PCs will be more invested in puzzling out the enigma and (b) major beats will land with more recognition and emotional significance.
At this point, though, all that work is done.
Second, the book recommends that the twenty Track 2 visions should be played out in a strictly linear order. I strongly recommend ignoring that advice: Having the visions appear out of order will force the players to puzzle out the underlying sequence, which will invest them more deeply into the narrative. This is Good Actually™.
Plus, the twenty visions are already on a conveniently numbered table. Just roll a d20.
RIVALS AT THE FINALE
The finale of Call of the Netherdeep is structured around the fundamental choice of how Alyxian should be handled: Should he be killed? Unleashed? Redeemed?
This is also the culmination of the Rivals and their relationship with the PCs. If you’ve been using the Principle of Opposition, as described in Running the Rivals, then this all-encompassing rivalry reaches its ultimate conclusion in a debate whose consequences are literally world-altering in their scope.
But, again, the work to set this up has been done. All you need to do is close the deal by playing the Rivals hard and true in these final moments. Really challenge the players and make them feel the momentous stakes of their choice by forcing them, through their Rivals, to justify and think about that choice and all of its implications (ethical, practical, and otherwise).
CONCLUSION
In short, if you’ve done your groundwork, then the Netherdeep will sing.
I’m hoping that you have a couple of take-aways from this series.
First, that Call of the Netherdeep is a good campaign. There’s a lot to love in what James J. Haeck, Matthew Mercer, Christopher Perkins, Makenzie De Armas, LaTia Jacquise, Cassanda Khaw, Sadie Lowry, Dan Dillon, and Taymoor Rehman have created.
Second, that the work required to turn Call of the Netherdeep from a good campaign to a great campaign is quite reasonable and well worth your time.
I’m not sure that I, personally, will ever have the chance to run Call of the Netherdeep. There’s just a lot of stuff competing for my limited gaming time right now, and no gap in the foreseeable future. But if you have the opportunity to do so, then I am quite jealous for you and your players.
Let me know how it goes!
ADDITIONAL READING
Review: Call of the Netherdeep
Call of the Netherdeep: Running Betrayers’ Rise
Call of the Netherdeep: Running the Rivals
This has been a really fascinating series, and I hugely appreciate the added insight into how you approach published material!
I am, however, surprised that you see the final choice so favorably. When I read through Netherdeep, my biggest takeaway is that I wouldn’t ever be comfortable running its climax, due to two issues. First, despite theoretically centering player choice, there is a very clear breakdown of “bad” “mediocre” and “good,” with very little apparent room for other options (I guess if the rivals aren’t present, the PCs might also manage to simply leave without resolving anything, but that’s not a very compelling climax to a campaign). Second, it would be obvious to almost anyone who has read a fantasy novel or played a “choices matter” CRPG which of those is which. So, no matter what the characters might think, the players know what they’re “supposed” to do, and their choice is merely whether to go along with it, or spite the campaign to see the fireworks.
Obviously, you don’t see things that way. Frankly, I’d rather not see them that way, either, so I’d love if you could talk a little more about how you would run it, and your vision for that final confrontation as the climax the campaign deserves.
Just present all sides equally. It’s as simple as that. Killing him is safer for the world but it dooms the Apotheon. Trying to redeem him is riskier, but if you believe he doesn’t deserve to die then its an option. And not all parties are good aligned nor do they perceive good the same way. Unleashing, Killing, or Redeeming merely depends on the morality of the characters.
Everyone’s players are different, but the groups I’ve played with who were so laughing mad that “ruin is coming to Exandria” would be an acceptable ending never cared nearly enough about other people to be interested in a campaign hinging on empathy for a stranger. I would expect that campaign to break down way before entering the Netherdeep.
And, of course, if your players do somehow convince themselves to free him for altruistic reasons (Maggie Keeneyes: “But he’s in pain! You can’t just murder him! He deserves to be free!”), inflicting the self-described Worst Ending on them feels pretty cold. Sure, you can continue the campaign, but if I signed up for “Critical Role-inspired investigative game,” I’d be a little swerved by an abrupt genre shift into desperately begging the gods for power as cities are annihilated every day. Starting with the one where most of the game’s recurring NPCs are liable to be found.
The sad thing is, dramatically, that still feels a lot more interesting to me than the good endings. The PCs doomed the world, now the only way to even slightly ameliorate their mistakes is probably becoming champions of the gods… and they spent the previous ten levels learning that the gods will absolutely throw their champions under the bus at any time with no warning. Instead of asking the PCs “how much do you care about this other guy’s life,” that endgame demands them to learn from their own experiences and make hard choices. But I find the effect is somewhat lessened by the knowledge that if you had just clicked the box the writers wanted you to, the result would be better for, literally, every person on the planet.
But I can see I’m picturing things very differently from other people reading the adventure. That’s exactly why I’d like to see more discussion of running the ending! I can tell that other people are picturing events very differently than I am, and hearing more development of those ideas could maybe help me see some value in an adventure with some really great ideas which I’d like to find more value in.
I come here after having finished running CotN a month ago. I did end up adjusting a lot of things, and my group took a long detour through Wildemount, I changed how “friendly” rivals reacted…. And my players, bless their hearts, unwittingly unleashed the Apotheon un redeemed. I decided my players could go after him, and I introduced Highbrowbarbarian’s suggestion that the gods don’t really take care that much of their champions. To summarize, the campaign ended with them redeeming him, two of the PCs died, one was resurrected, one stayed dead (champion of the Changebringer – said player had been watching CR and did a coin flip to decide – it was epic)
Sounds like an amazing campaign, Laurence. Congrats!
Gotta say, when I came back to this page to see whether anyone ever had a response to my issues with the core of this adventure, I wasn’t expecting that response to be “those were interesting issues, so I put them in the game.” Huh.
Really glad to hear that your campaign went well, Laurence. And… that really does sound like it was a lot more interesting than the good endings. 😛