Summary

  • Begin with a challenging prison break to level up your party in the Underdark.
  • Explore extra dungeons for early level-ups before major encounters.
  • Surviving BBEG encounters and resolving plot points can lead to milestone level-ups.

Dungeons & Dragons has many iconic locations in its multiverse, but few have the same eeriness as the Underdark. This land with no sun is where many powerful and evil creatures live, along with societies of people just trying to get by or civilizations with twisted morals, thanks to the deities they serve.

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Out of the Abyss is an excellent pick if you want an adventure in the Underdark - it even has demons to make things more intense. That said, it's a long adventure, and not every DM enjoys focusing on how the party's experience points are doing so they can reach the final showdown at the maximum level. Thus, here are some milestone ideas for you.

There will be spoilers.

11 Prison Break

They Deserve It

Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer by Joshua Raphael

The beginning of this adventure is quite tricky. You have a level one party imprisoned by relatively high-level drows, so escaping through force is not viable. Thus, they have to succeed through their wits, connections with fellow prisoners, manipulating guards, or if a Deus Ex-Machina made by you.

Regardless, escaping such a situation is worth a level-up. Besides, the monsters from the Underdark are extremely dangerous to a level one party, so leveling them up prevents a likely TPK.

10 Extra Dungeons

For An Early Level-Up

Art by Richard Luong

Before going into any specific locations, the main Underdark area has a few extra dungeons: the Hook Horror lair, the Oozing Temple, and the Lost Tomb. They're all pretty small and, individually, aren't worth a level. But all three? That's a different story.

These areas can be particularly hard for a low-level party, especially the Hook Horror lair, but the experience (and the legendary weapon in the Lost Tomb) can make them worthwhile.

You don't need to do all three in a row, either. Once all three are complete, the milestone happens.

9 Surviving Sloobludop

Enter The BBEG

Out Of The Abyss By Tyler Jacobson

This part is where the Demogorgon (or whichever demon lord you're using as the big bad) first appears, showing how powerful they are by attacking the place. As you're likely aware, they have no chance of fighting a demon lord this early, so the point is to run away.

Thus, escaping - and potentially saving NPCs they liked in the process - is also another thing that's worth leveling them up for.

8 Going Through Gracklstugh

A Mini-Campaign Inside the Campaign

Duergar Smiths via Wizards of the Coast

Gracklstugh, the duergar city, has so much going on; you can have two, three, or even more milestones here - just see which tasks the players are in the mood of doing, award them for those, and move on. Some milestones here could be:

  • Tracking down and dealing with the derro Droki;
  • Dealing with the succubus;
  • Dealing with the dragon egg;
  • Completing the other side quests (some relate to the things stated above);

Don't forget that there's a demon invasion going on. You can have demons attacking any location at any point, and you can even make this attack a hard encounter that is also a milestone, meaning you can have a milestone that triggers whenever you feel like it.

7 Surviving Zuggtmoy

Another Demon Lord Strikes

Myconids by Caroline Gariba

The journey may also lead to the Neverlight Grove, where the demon lord Zuggtmoy plots her schemes. There's a good chance this will end with your players fighting Yestabrod, but whether this is how it ends or not, concluding the story of this area is worth a level-up.

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This area is relatively simple from your standpoint but also offers good narrative material by showing a demon lord's might, so it's worth doing if your players head there.

We're offering more milestones than you need to reach level 15. This way, you can choose which ones you prefer or still have options in case your players choose not to go to certain locations.

6 Dealing With Blingdenstone

One Or Two Milestones Work Here

Elemental Evil Player's Compendium by Wizards of the Coast

While the deep gnome city isn't as big as Gracklstugh, it's big enough to afford more than one milestone. The obvious milestone here is dealing with the Pudding King, which closes the narrative of this area.

However, there are quite a few strong monsters here, including a mini-boss in the form of a medusa (though her difficulty depends on your party's current level). Killing her or getting rid of the monsters in general could be another milestone.

5 Escaping The Underdark

Or Re-Entering The Underdark

Bruenor Battlehammer by Wayne Reynolds

This campaign is divided into two parts: Escaping the Underdark and going back to deal with the demons. This event is the turning point of the adventure and, up to this point, the party's primary goal.

Thus, leaving the Underdark or returning there is worth leveling up. As an extra tip, we recommend your players to be at least level eight when they reach here because the campaign will get harder from here on out.

4 Getting To Gravenhollow

Or Dealing With Fraz-Urb'luu

Fraz-Urbl'uu via Wizards of the Coast

Out of the Underdark, the party will be tasked with finding a place called the Gravenhollow. However, they don't know where it is, and the place that has information about it has issues with yet another demon lord, Fraz-Urb'luu.

It is up to you whether you level them up when reaching Gravenhollow and/or preventing Fraz from becoming a bigger problem. These events are too close to one another for a double-level up, though you can do it if they skipped too many events beforehand and are under-leveled.

3 Learning About What's Going On

The Plot Thickens

Candlekeep Mysteries art via Wizards of the Coast

Unless you give more narrative focus to your version of this campaign, things will feel somewhat loosely connected (or not connected at all) until the party talks to Vizeran DeVir. Thus, having the party learn about what is actually going on could be a significant milestone, narrative-wise.

Still, similarly to the previous entry, this meeting happens relatively close to getting to Gravenhollow - the explanation can even be there if you want to. So, we recommend either not using all these milestones so close to one another or maybe adding some issues along the way, like a random demon attack.

2 Getting The Components

Three Milestones Here

Vizeran will talk about a ritual that can summon the demon lords in hopes of having them fight one another, allowing the party to only have to deal with whoever is left. There are quite a few ingredients that can be obtained in a few places.

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That said, some of them require visits to three particularly hard locations: the Wormwrithings, the Labyrinth, and Menzoberranzan. Because these are harder to get, getting everything they need in each location could be worth a milestone.