Rise of the Drow — The Dark Is Coming Up to Meet Us
A drow matron has made a pact that costs her nothing and everyone else everything. You're the only ones who followed the raiders down to get revenge.
$15.00
/ Session
Details
8 players following this game
Weekly / Monday - 11:30 PM UTC
Session Duration / 2–3 hours
Campaign Length / 30–45 Sessions
2 / 5 Seats Filled
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Meet your party members
2/5
About the adventure
The Hook Rybalka is a frontier town of snow, timber, and vodka, and for one night a year nobody worries about what lives under the mountain. That night, the raiders come. Not orcs. Not bandits. Something silent that takes people and leaves the doors open behind it. You are the ones who follow them down. What starts as a rescue turns into a descent through fungal forests, dwarven holds under siege, and slave markets lit by ghostlight — all of it leading to Holoth, the City of Spiders, where a drow matron of House Gullion has struck a pact with something older and hungrier than her goddess. She's paying it in souls. She has not yet run out. Twelve miles of stone stand between the surface world and everything it loves. Nobody up there knows. Nobody up there is coming. What You'll Actually Do Survive the Underdark. Light is a resource. So is trust. The dark has rules, and the people who live in it have been keeping them for ten thousand years. Play the game beneath the game. Holoth isn't a dungeon, it's a city — noble houses, blood feuds, informants, and a slave underclass that would very much like a distraction. You can fight your way through it. You'll live longer if you don't. Meet drow who aren't villains. Exiles, abolitionists, and the odd matron who'd rather rule a living city than a dead one. Some of them are lying. Working out which is the campaign. Fight things worth fighting. Ropers, driders, mind-shattering horrors in the deep dark, and eventually a matron mother at the height of her power, in her own house, on her own terms. The Table Tone: dark fantasy with real warmth at the table. Grim setting, not a grim group. Jokes are welcome; the stakes stay real. Balance: roughly equal parts combat, exploration, and intrigue. Roleplay is rewarded mechanically, not just narratively. Your choices stick. Who you save, who you spare, and who you betray in Book One walks back onto the board in Book Three. The city remembers you. Safety tools: Lines & Veils and an X-card, set in Session Zero. Slavery, spiders, and body horror are in the source material and are handled at the level the table agrees to. What You Need A mic and a quiet-ish room (we play over Discord voice) A free Foundry VTT account — I host everything; no purchases, no downloads Any 5e-legal character; full session zero to build together and tie your backstory into Rybalka New players welcome. Bring a character with something to lose.
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Dungeon Crawl
Combat Heavy
Hexcrawl / Exploration
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(3)
4 years on StartPlaying
3 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Visual Aid, Inclusive
About me
I'm best described as a DM who thrives on creative, collaborative, group storytelling with ample room for players to explore their ideas cohesively (not side quests packaged into the main storyline). A successful session is one where we all had a good time, felt comfortable, and had a few "Woah!" moments. I love when we all become creative partners collaborating on a project (our game), with the players directing their characters and parties' fates. At the same time, I control outcomes and ensure the storyline and themes of the game stay intact. I've been DM'ing (DnD) and Storytelling (Storypath, World/Chronicles of Darkness/Exalted) for 20 years. I'm well-versed in impromptu scenarios and lean heavily into 'theatre-of-the-mind' (and artwork) as I do explorable and professional combat maps. I'm 60% narratively driven, with strength in realism and/or horror, 20% combat driven, 20% exploration and puzzle driven when it comes to DnD. A Chronicles/World of Darkness game that I tend to run feels more like 80/20 with an even heavier narrative and roleplay focus. In short, I love stories and complex motivations! I run games as a hobby to meet new people and expand my player group, and I mostly have a charge to seek committed players who vibe with my game style. My prices will always stay reasonable--the number of games I run is small. If we have a good time, I'm likely to invite you to play with my friend group for future free games, as I use this site to expand my closed private games as much as anything (just friends, no charge to play). I love writing, roleplaying, improv, fantasy, & horror! I intend to leave everyone with a wonderful, unique experience. I run homebrew or HEAVILY modified source material games, adapted around, and cater exclusively for a party of players with character ideas that vibe with the themes and tone of the story. Send me a message if you want to chat! I'm always open to questions and feedback.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Character Creation We build together in Session Zero. Come with a concept, not a finished sheet — the best characters in this campaign are the ones tied to Rybalka before the raid happens. Start: Level 1, standard array or point buy, max HP at first level Sources: Player's Handbook plus one additional official 5e source, run past me first Ancestry: anything from the surface. Drow PCs are possible but we talk first — it changes how Book One plays The one requirement: one connection to Rybalka. Family there, a debt there, a reason you were in town that night. I'll help you build it Tools: free Foundry VTT account, characters built on my server. No purchases required The Campaign Primer. AAW publishes a Rise of the Drow: Campaign Primer — the player-facing setting guide with the map of Rybalka, the Underworld cities, the Aventyr deities, and the surface and Underworld races. You do not need to buy it. I'll send everyone a spoiler-free setting one-pager before Session Zero with everything you need. If you want the full thing for your own reading, it's about $5 from AAW Games — entirely optional, and it gets you no mechanical advantage. What I'll ask you in Session Zero: who you'd walk into the dark for, what you want your character to be wrong about, and one line you don't want crossed at the table.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
How to Prepare (Before Session Zero) Roughly 20 minutes of setup. No purchases, no downloads. Book your seat and confirm the schedule. I'll message you on StartPlaying within 24 hours with the Session Zero time and the links below. Make a free Discord account at discord.com if you don't have one, then click my server invite. We use Discord for voice at the table and for between-session chat. A headset or earbuds with a mic is strongly preferred — laptop speakers cause echo for everyone else. Do a two-minute mic check. Hop into the server's voice channel any time before Session Zero so we're not troubleshooting audio on game night. Test the Foundry link. I host the game, so there's nothing to buy or install — you click a link and it opens in your browser. Use Chrome or Edge on a desktop or laptop. Log in once before Session Zero so we know it loads for you. Foundry does not work well on phones or tablets. Read the setting one-pager I send you. Two pages, spoiler-free: what Rybalka is, what's under the mountain, and what your character would already know. That's all the reading required. Bring a character concept, not a finished sheet. A class, a rough idea of who they are, and one thread connecting them to Rybalka. We build the actual sheet together in Session Zero, in Foundry, and I'll walk you through it if you've never done it. Show up to Session Zero. We set safety tools, finish characters, connect backstories, and play the opening scene. It's a full session and it's included. You do not need: a Foundry license, a D&D Beyond subscription, the Player's Handbook, physical dice, or a webcam. Foundry rolls for you. Cameras are welcome but never required. What helps: a quiet room, a stable connection, and a second monitor if you have one.
What NidhCthon brings to the table
What I Provide Every official 5e book. I run a D&D Beyond Master Tier campaign and share my full library with the table. Every player gets all official sources for character building at no cost — subclasses, spells, feats, species, all of it. You need only a free account. That's yours for as long as you're in the campaign. A fully prepped Foundry table. Lit, keyed maps for every location, token art for every NPC, dynamic vision so the dark actually behaves like the dark, and automated rolls so nobody is doing math in their head at 10pm. You click one link and it works. Handouts you can hold. Player-facing maps, letters, drow house heraldry, NPC portraits, and a shared campaign journal that fills in as you learn things. If your character finds a document, you get the document. A written recap after every session, posted to Discord within a day or two. Miss a week and you're not lost. Session Zero, safety tools, and a table that stays a good place to be.
Homebrew rules
Drinking a potion as a bonus action, no Darkvision (trade out for a fitting racial or cantrip), rations not consumed each day lead to exhaustion, we are using weight rules. Monsters can be eaten if you have a cook!
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How NidhCthon creates a safe table
Lines and veils set up front, an X-card in play, and a GM who checks in rather than assuming.
Content warnings
Safety tools used