Out of the Abyss Campaign (Spoilers!!!)


5th Edition (And Beyond)

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Update:

So I'm not too big of a fan of magic marts, but I do enjoy having my players be able to purchase magical items from time to time. So to compromise on that, I like using random magic shop generators to simulate that you can purchase a magic item, but these are what it available. You can't just get whatever you want. It's like a novelty or antique shop. You can only get what's available.

However, I couldn't find a 5e magic shop generator that I liked - none of the ones I found came with pricing, and I didn't want to make things up on the spot for pricing. So I used one for 3.5/PF. As far as pricing goes, it works really well. PF has an excellent pricing system for magic items. But many of the magic items don't translate well, so we had to alter some of the rules to fit 5e.

Based on that, the Wand of Shatter they purchased in Session 18 works like a Wand of Magic Missile: It has 7 charges that recharges 1d6+1 at dawn.

Other magic items, like the eagle splendor one, I didn't want to work like 5e. I wanted the want to give a boost specifically to charisma in order to boost up Spellcasting and charisma checks. So that one I set at a number of charges that never recharges. Once it is used up, that's it. And I set it for an hour at a time - so that's a rather powerful magic item. Consequently, it was a rather expensive wand; around 5000 GP if I recall correctly.


Bit of a hiatus for a few weeks. Two of our players are attending a wedding this weekend, and next weekend I'll be gone on vacation (5 year anniversary). Hopefully we can pick it back up for the 4th of July weekend, otherwise it'll be the weekend after that.


So, my two players (Ron and Aryndren) showed up after the wedding! We were actually able to get a little bit of game time. The other player (Cicero) had come over earlier because I was deep frying a turkey. Unfortunately, by the time we got to actually play, Cicero's player had to leave to GM his own game. So I did a quick session with Ron and Aryndren.

Session 19.

While the party was browsing the market looking for supplies and specialty items (aka magical equipment), they heard some screams coming from the ther end. They went to investigate, and two gelatinous cubes had found their way into the market. One Svirfneblin was aready engulfed!

Aryndren immediately cast Reduce to try to shrink the cube, in hopes that it would force the gnome out. The gnome, recognizing what was going on, tried to escape, but he could not. Unfortunately, the cubes could hold up to their own size, and a small gnome still had to struggle to get out. But it did manage to reduce the damage it could do! Ron charged the other cube with Dawnbringer, and diced deeply into it. But it wasn't enough and the cube responded by attacking him back and trying to engulf him.

Aryndren decided he couldn't risk it and turned into a bear. With his newfound strength, he reached in and pulled the gnome out. The gnome was seriously injured, the acid causing his flesh to drip in waves, but he was alive. Ron ran over to help Aryndren and the two of them focused on the smaller cube together. Since they ignored the larger cube, it started making its way toward the crowd.

As it slowly edged it's way to the crowd, Aryndren and Ron ran over to it to try to stop it, and the smaller cube toile chase. As they were rushing over, they heard another wave of concerned yells from the crowd. Looking up, another gelatinous cube was falling from the ceiling! Rom steeled himself for yet another opponent, but as it dropped they recognized the eyes inside the cube - it was Glabagool! The intelligent cube put itself between the crowd and the larger cube and attacked it, trying to engulf it. Ron rushed in to attack, and somehow go between the two cubes when one tries to engulf him - and succeeded! Ron continued to attack it from the inside with Dawnbringer.

Aryndren came up with a brilliant idea, and turned back into an elf to dig through his stuff. He found a pygmywort mushroom and tosses it at the larger cube, which it immediately ate and within a round it reduced in size, from large to medium. With the reduced size came reduced damage, which ended up being the key to Ron's survival.

At this point, the players remembered that they could use Cicero, so he entered the battle to help! Cicero attacked the cube fighting Glabagool while Aryndren turned into a bear again and attacked the cube Ron was in, while Rom fought on from the inside.

Cicero and Glabagool managed to defeat their cube, and Ron and Aryndren defeated the other, but not before Ron succumbed to the damage inside the cube, goin unconscious. Cicero was able to heal Ron enough to bring him back, and Ron healed himself up some more, then found the acid injured gnome and healed him up.

As the crowd cheered for their saviors, and voice called out, "Aryndren, is that you?" Aryndren turned around to see Kazook Pickshine, his old friend (Aryndren's background involved him meeting Kazook after his parents went missing, and Kazook helped him try to understand the secrets of his temple; see this post about Aryndren's background).

Kazook invited them over for dinner and they all caught up on what they've been doing since they last saw each other.

Then Kazook said that he found the secret to Aryndren's Temple - it's the gate to the Great Library of the Underdark.

Background on the Great Library:
As a reminder, here are the implications of Aryndren's Temple:

The Great Library of the Underdark has been something Cicero has been looking for ever since he left for the Underdark. It wasn't mentioned in his background post back on Page 1, but we've been talking about that library the entire campaign while at the table. This is huge for Cicero, and when I revealed this, everyone literally gasped in surprise and immediately started texting Cicero's player to tell him about it.

The Great Library is also a location the entire group wants to go to, because they believe it will reveal a way to banish the demon lords back to the Abyss. Ever since they discovered Zuggtmoy's plans, they've been talking about trying to find the great library. Literally, almost every session since Ron learned about Zuggtmoy back in Gracklstugh, the great library has been brought up at the table.

Aryndren's temple is now underwater. They immediately remembered this and started talking about ways to get water breathing up on everyone so they could explore it. They also discussed the implications of the library being under water as well, and wondered how many books would hold up to the water damage.

At the end of the session, they were discussing plans for getting back to Aryndren's Temple and abandoning the idea of getting back to the surface. They did mention that they wanted to go back to the surface at least to get Prince Derendil, Brin, and Berk out of the Underdark.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I think your calendar is broken--deep frying a turkey in June???

:-O

;-)

And you have an intelligent ooze named after an Italian sandwich meat???

GONZO!

:-D


SmiloDan wrote:

I think your calendar is broken--deep frying a turkey in June???

:-O

;-)

And you have an intelligent ooze named after an Italian sandwich meat???

GONZO!

:-D

Lol. The turkey has been in my freezer since November. My company gave out a free turkey to all their employees as a thank you, but it happened a day after I already bought one. So I froze it for later.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Hahaha!!!

Are you having trouble sleeping? Did you get a box of red wine and home movies from George Costanza's childhood?


Session 20 - Part 1

The session started with a recap of the previous session for the benefit of Cicero, who had to leave before we started to play. Kazook Pickshine let them on to the secret of Aryndren’s Temple – that it led to the Great Library of the Underdark. Cicero reminded me that this library is more than just a legend for him, it’s literally part of his dreams and nightmares throughout his journey in the Underdark.

They discussed whether going to the surface was still in the plans, and decided that yes – they should still go, as they have promised to take certain people home. But they may not stay long themselves. They also pondered the implications of the library being underwater – how much of that knowledge has been destroyed? How much can be recovered? Knowing there was little they could do at this moment, and knowing that they still wanted to take their companions back to the surface, they decided to focus on helping the svirfneblin. And that had to start with decided which Operation to undertake – Operation: Ooze There?, Operation: Exterminate?, deal with the ghosts, or deal with the Rockblight.

They decided to sleep on it.

The next morning, after a good night’s rest, while deciding what to do for the day, a young gnome ran into the Inn asking for help – apparently his family had been kicked out of their new home! They ran off to see what was going on, and inside they found a torrent of furniture, dishes, cutlery, and more swirling around like a tornado inside the gnomes’ home. The family was all outside looking in with apprehension, as if expecting something to happen. As they walked into the home to better see what was happening, they found someone had already beaten them to the punch – three gnome youths were in there trying to solve it themselves! But apparently not as well as they would like, as one of them was caught in the tornado of junk and the other two were trying to find a way to get him out.

Cicero immediately recognized that this was a poltergeist. He told his friends as much and then stepped in to try to grab the young gnome, only to get cut by flying debris. Aryndren, ever clever, decided to cast faerie fire to try to make the poltergeist visible (they’re naturally invisible, as Cicero helpfully pointed out). As soon as they had eyes on it, Ron charged up to a heavy desk and leaped over the top of the debris to bring down Dawnbringer onto the poltergeist. The thing screeched with rage and tried to pull Ron into the storm, but he was too strong. Cicero and Aryndren managed to get the youth out of the debris, while Ron took a second swing. The tornado died down and all the flying debris settled as he vanquished the tormented spirit.

Talking to the young gnomes, it turned out that they were part of a new (technically ancient and reemerging) organization called the Burrow Wardens. They were very appreciative of their help, and asked them to come meet their leader. They group agreed and followed the youths to the catacombs (wait – wasn’t this where the ghosts were?), where they met Burrow Warden Jadger, a ghost! Jadger explained that the ghosts were reawakening due to the disturbance in the city and some strange force in the Underdark at large, and as more gnomes moved in, more spirits would reawaken. It was the Burrow Warden’s job to keep the city safe from the inside and deal with these problems. Since they were so helpful in removing the poltergeist, Jadger asked them if they would help with some other troublesome ghosts. Ron asked if they could be made official Burrow Wardens, too, and Jadger agreed. Cicero wanted to know what they would get in return for helping, and Jadger offered three things: 1) they could keep any treasures they found in pursuit of removing these troublesome ghosts, 2) they could use the catacombs as a secret tunnel to various parts of the city un-assaulted by the ghosts under his control, and 3) they could make one request from him in the future. They agreed.

Their first task was easy – remove another poltergeist that was nearby the temple. Ron managed to smite it with his first swing and destroyed the evil spirit in a single hit.

Their second task took them into the Rockblight area – and they figured they could try to kill two birds with one stone.

...To be continued in part 2


Session 20, part 2

They made their way to the staging area (only taking Topsy and Turvy), where they found several deep gnomes and some cave badgers. Aryndren took particular interest in the cave badgers, as it was a new animal he could become. A gnome, who introduced himself as Sark Axebarrel and claiming to be the leader of this outpost, asked their business. When they said they had a mission to stop the Rockblight, he warned them of a Medusa and asked for any information they could give. He would give 50 gp for info and a diamond worth 1k gp for proof of her death.

Upon hearing of the Medusa (and thinking of one ever since they came across their vial to remove petrification, which was completely random as it came up from a random market generator I found online), they went back to the market to get some mirrors. After returning to the Staging Area, the gnomes then opened the massive gates, requiring a bar to be lifted and four gnomes simultaneously turning four different keys. The group was allowed to go through, and the door was shut behind them. The pitch black room was quickly lit by dawn bringer, and they found themselves in a short and skinny hallway with another barred door on the other side. They lifted the bar and entered into the area known as the Rockblight.

Unsure where to go, but wanting to deal with the ghost first, they had to guess a direction. They headed left and found another locked door and a set of stairs leading down and to their right. They headed down and found a large open room absolutely glowing with colors. There were crystalline pillars throughout the cavern and it refracted the phosphorescent moss into multiple colors. The scene was stunning in its beauty. Attached to the larger cavern were two stairways headed up, both towards the left, and two doorways with another hallway splitting them, towards the right. Cicero decided to check one of the doors and found a small army of stone drow all lined up. As he walked through the ranks, one of them moved and tried to attack! He quickly ran out only to be pursued by six drow statues!

“Don’t worry!” Cicero said to his friends, “I have a plan!” He then turned invisible.

Ron, not believing Cicero would have any other plan than saving his own skin, prepared for battle. Aryndren turned into a bear.

But Cicero actually did have a plan, and he planned to find that Medusa while he was still invisible. He snuck over to the other doorway and found the Medusa, sitting regally in her throne. She looked a statue herself until her snake-hair started moving and hissing, sniffing the air with their tongues. The medusa’s eye snapped open, and she immediately saw the footprints left by the invisible Cicero. Just then, the sounds of battle started echoing into the room. The medusa decided to follow the sounds rather than the footprints, which gave Cicero the opportunity to sneak up next to her. He put the mirror in front of his face and attempted to stab her. Even though he missed, the attempt was enough to break his invisibility, and there he was – mirror in hand – with the medusa staring down at him. She saw her own reflection, but was already intent on turning this whelp to stone (rolled constitution save in the open, as always, and she failed by 6!). She was immediately turned to stone!

Meanwhile, back in the colorful luminescent room, Ron and Aryndren were dispatching the stone drow. Cicero came back out to tell the news and join in the fight. It didn’t take them long to finish up.

They decided to take the stairs up, and found the stone menhir they needed to find to remove the curse of the Rockblight. They set the gem and the first of the deranged earth elementals attacked. Cicero ran behind the menhir and hasted Ron. Aryndren, already in Bear form, started in on the massive beast, while an ultra-fast Ron swung twice as often as he used to. They defeated it and a Galeb Duhr arose in a defensive position next to the Menhir. The second earth elemental appeared, this time focusing on Aryndren, who barely survived by the time they defeated it. The second Galeb Duhr appeared exactly 33 degrees away from the first around the menhir, and they clued them in that there was one more earth elemental to fight. Damn these things were tough! They steeled themselves for the last fight and barely managed to overcome it. But they were successful, and the gem glowed bright white, shedding a hallow effect across the region. They banished the Ogremoch’s Bane! The other clue that they were successful was that the constant threat of nightmares in the back of their heads disappeared like it did in every other holy sight they have come across so far.

They decided to deal with that last ghost a bit later and returned to the Speaking Stones to talk to Gurnik. He used the power of the newly hallowed menhir to grant them their blessing.

Ron chose to gain a +1 AC and +1 to all his saves.
Cicero and Aryndren both chose to gain resistance to acid damage and advantage on saves vs acid, in preparation for the upcoming fight with the oozes.


Session 21

An update to Session 20: At the end of the session, the PCs asked the gnomes of Blingdenstone if they would use the stone medusa as a center piece of a statue memorializing the battle against her and the drow. The city agreed, and it will include Cicero with a mirror against the Medusa, Ron and Aryndren fighting the insane Earth Elementals, and Topsy and Turvy (as official heroes of the city) placing the gem that clears the Ogremach’s Bane from the city. It’s not how it actually happened, but that’s the story that will be immortalized.

A second update: Aryndren decided to go with the defensive boon instead of the acid protection boon.

Session 21 starts off after a good night’s rest at the inn. The next day, they head back into the Rockblight to see if they can find that last ghost to deal with. As they explored the abandoned residential zone, they could hear sounds of battle – always in the distance. Where ever they moved, the sounds of battle were always just beyond their light, sometimes even coming from a different direction. They knew the ghost was nearby. They could also hear rushing water, but that seemed to stay in place.

Suddenly, a deep gnome comes at them, a ghostly visage of horrific fright. Ron and Aryndren held steadfast, but Cicero was so frightened that he immediately aged 30 years (to the age of 50). Cicero’s immediate reaction was to thunderbolt it, and he was so scared that he didn’t even notice that he got Ron in the blast area. The ghost fled, screaming “They are coming! Everyone must hide!”

Ron and Aryndren took chase, while Cicero conjured up an illusory wall to hide behind. They found the ghost headed into what looked like a dwelling – there was no door, but the ghost stopped to open a non-existent door and closed it behind itself. Ron walked through, ready to smite. The ghost hide under the bed, and before Ron could do anything, he realized that the skeleton on the ground reaching for the bed must be the ghost’s original body. He collected the bones to return to Burrow Warden Jadger. He also looked under the bed and found a small chest with a magic potion and some valuable gems.

They returned the bones to the crypt, completed the tasks set forth by the ghosts.

Next, they sought out the Goldwhisker clan. On their way there, Ron fell into a pit trap full of spikes, nearly impaling himself. While he was down in the pit, four wererats jumped out to accost Aryndren and Cicero. Cicero managed to talk the four gnome-rats out of assaulting them, and instead guiding them to their leader (he rolled a nat 20 on this diplomacy check). Meeting the chief, they offered an alliance with the Diggermattocks after he mentioned how they would be rid of the wererat “problem” soon enough (leaving the reason seemingly vague). He said that he’s been wanting the same thing, but they’ve been treated as second class citizens. As they discussed what’s been happening in the city as of late, the conversation turned towards the ooze problem. Chief Chipgrin perked up at that, and told his own story about the wererat’s problem with the oozes, and how the Pudding King has been drawing oozes to the city. They ended the long conversation with promises to secure a meeting.

The quickly secured the proffered meeting by speaking to the Diggermattocks, who set the meeting for the next morning. The next day, the two sides met and talked of the incoming threat and discussed potential alliances. I had the group roll an averaged diplomacy roll, treating a 20 as two 20s (with an extra number for the average) and a 1 as two 1s (with an extra number for the average). They rolled a nat 20, 18, and 17, and created an alliance between the two sides of the city. True to his word, Chipgrin led them to the Pudding King, where they discovered hundreds of oozes gathered in the outskirts of the city. A voice boomed in the room, “What’s this? Visitors? Not now! We are not ready! Go away, pests, I will call upon all of Blingdenstone to announce the glad tidings of the Faceless Lord!” Cicero tried to negotiate with the voice, but it responded with sending a wave of oozes at them. They quickly escaped (with Aryndren throwing a wave of his own in the form of a magical tidal wave to clear some space).

After warning the city council of the magnitude of the threat, the Diggermattocks and Chief Chipgrin set up a council meeting to discuss how to deal with the problem of the oozes. At the council meeting, with representatives of all the different factions in the city, the party learned of one more task they could complete to give them one more one-up against the oozes – find Entemoch’s Boon.

…A few days later, and they’re at the temple where Entemoch’s Boon was (I’m fairly certain they rolled more nat 20s this session then they have the entire campaign so far). The temple contained a lot of oddities; weird statues that had strange bite marks in them and lots of statues of rodents. Recognizing the potential threat, Cicero turned invisible. As if on cue, two Basilisks came out looking for food. Ron immediately closed his eyes. Aryndren turned around and summoned a polar bear, who immediately got turned to stone, then drank a potion of invisibility. Seeing only one target, the basilisks both charged after Ron (who used Dawnbringer to tell him where to attack). Cicero hid behind an illusory wall.

Despite Dawnbringer’s guidance, Ron was having difficulty hitting the lizards. One of them got a solid chunk out of his leg, and then Aryndren (who was now a bear) grappled one of them and then closed his own eyes, trying to rip out the eyes of the creature. Cicero cast spells from hiding place, hasting Ron. The extra attacks turned the tide, and Ron was able to rout the creature. He chased it down and killed it. Aryndren got in a solid hit and ripped out one of the eyes of the remaining basilisk. Ron chastised Cicero for hiding and challenged him to get out and get in the fight. Cicero relented and started aiming his crossbow – only to be turned to stone himself! Ron, with eyes still closed and using Dawnbringer to tell him where to step and where to swing, walked back to the remaining Basilisk (with Aryndren still grappling it), and finished it off.

They grabbed the Stone Salve and brought Cicero back from petrification.

They made it back to Blingdenstone to tell the good news and prepare for the battle, which they planned to start in a few days (after a scout team could secure the temple and they could summon more powerful earth elementals).


Session 22

The Battle for Blingdenstone

Before we get started on this week’s adventure, I’d like to give some advice if you ever run this battle. During the battle itself, my players often forgot about the benefits they were granted by accomplishing their deeds. To alleviate this, I recommend adding in an initiative count for “the battle.” Then, once per round, describe what’s going on for the battle at large (outside the rooms your PCs are in).

This serves two purposes. 1) It provides some wonderful cinematic descriptions for the battle and reminds the players that they’re just a small part in the war large, and 2) reminds the players of the benefits they’ve earned in this chapter that they can use in the battle.

In addition to the Earth Elemental NPC card, the PCs had an additional Earth Elemental (with an extra 15 HP for finding Entemoch’s Boon and cleaning the temple of Ogremoch’s Bane) that was under my control. I did allow the players to order it around, but I was in control of this elemental. Their equipment was immune to the acidic effect of the oozes due to a modification of the equipment quest – instead of fetching material from Neverlight Grove, our druid gave up every last fungus he carried with him (which was quite a lot). The artillery reward was also modified – instead of fetching weapons from Gracklstugh, I allowed them to receive this reward for bringing in the wererats (the Goldwhiskers manned the crossbow artillery instead of the normal deep gnomes). This granted them +2 damage to every attack. And lastly, since they completed the ghost quests, they were granted on reroll on any attack or save d20.

The +2 damage is what my players forgot the most often, and they didn’t actually remember it until the very last swing, for which the last bad guy was 2 HP from death when they all cried out at once, “the artillery!”

To reach the Pudding King, the book says to go through 1d4+2 encounters of oozes. I’ve seen quite a bit of complaining about this on the net, calling is a slough though. However, my players didn’t have to do any of them, as you’re supposed to subtract one for each Blindingstone task they accomplish. As such, they managed to go straight to the main fight, as the ghosts, wererats, and deep gnomes were able to clear a path for them.

As soon as they saw the Pudding King, the insane deep gnome pointed to them and cackled, “Devour them, my precious children!”

Princess Ebonmire, an intelligent black pudding, and Prince Livid, a psychic grey ooze, oozed out of the walls to confront the PCs. The Princess kept her distance and lobbed pieces of her body at the, while the grey ooze kept to the back and hit them with psychic attacks. Ron cast Compel Duel and forced the Princess to stay close to him. She tried to stay as far as she could and still launched her pudding attack at them. Cicero used his Vicious Mockery to keep them at disadvantage and Aryndren cast Protection from Energy on Ron.

Ron used his smites to eliminate both of the oozes. The fight was over in just a few rounds – very quick.

(DM note: I made this fight a bit too easy. I had some difficult terrain that the Princess stayed in; she ignored the difficult terrain. The Prince I had try to hide in the wall, but I made a bad call and allowed them to identify where it was through its psychic attack. I wouldn’t do that if I played it again. As a tactical battle, I’d recommend keeping the Prince hidden on the ceiling somewhere or in some other very difficult place to be seen and launch its psychic attack. Don’t ever let it reveal itself. The Princess should have come in from the ceiling and stayed up there, using her ranged attack to target them. Probably who ever looks easiest first. Also note that this room should have had a few more bad guys in it, so instead I moved them to the next room to be a part of the battle for the Pudding King himself).

After they dispatched the two oozes, they moved on to the real throne room. This room was covered in green slime, making it very hazardous to enter. Every round, they had to make a DC 12 dex save or be hit with green slime. Once hit, they start taking 5 acid damage every round. Ron got hit earlier on, but Aryndren’s Protection from Energy reduced it to 2 damager per round.

This room contained all the green slime, the Pudding King in the back of the room slinging spells, 2 black puddings protecting the king, 3 grey oozes charging the PCs, and two ochre jellies towards the entrance ready to pounce on anyone who came through. In addition, I placed a Gibbering Mouther in the throne room (moved from the room with the Prince and Princess) and had it start acting on Round 2. The Gibbering Mouther did not take sides and treated everyone else in the room as enemies. My players tell me that they *really* enjoyed this battle. It felt like a true boss fight.

Ron charged in straight at the Pudding King, from which he (the king) ripped his skin off to reveal his true ooze self. Two black puddings and a grey ooze went after Ron, while two grey oozes and ochre jellies went after Cicero and Aryndren. Cicero cast haste on Ron, while Aryndren went bear. The pudding kind cast blindness on Aryndren and succeeded, making the bear blind. It only last a few rounds before he could shake it off. Ron went full on smite against the pudding king while Cicero did his best against the two ochre jellies and two grey oozes. Aryndren used his bear powers to try to sniff out the ochre jellies location so he could attack. A successful survival check assured it could happen.

In round 2, the Gibbering Mouther awoke and immediately started babbling. It caught Ron and the Pudding King both. Ron just stood there doing nothing while the black puddings and grey ooze tried to bash him. The Pudding King wondered off and outside of the range of the Mouther. The following round, the Pudding King cast Cloudkill and focused his efforts on the immobile paladin (this spell almost killed both Ron and Aryndren during the battle). Meanwhile, Aryndren managed to hit one of the ochre jellies, splitting it in two – literally. Slashing damage cuts them in half to form two jellies each with half the HP of the “parent” jelly. Cicero used thunderwave and other spells to kill them as fast as he could. The earth elemental then was able to pounds the two smaller jellies into paste. Unmoving, dead paste.

After casting Cloud Kill, the Pudding King used his camouflage ability to hide so no one could find him. It worked for a short bit. Cicero got his hard, which caused him to lose his concentration on haste, which immobilized Ron for yet another round. The cloud was starting to really hurt, but fortunately it was moving away from the caster (which gave a hint as to where he was hiding) and the next round he would no longer be in the cloud. Aryndren, by this time, got his sight back and used his intellect and ability to track to figure out where the Pudding King was hiding. The King itself, seeing it coming, ran into the cloud for protection (he himself it immune to poison). Aryndren took chase, knowing the cloud would hurt him. The Gibbering Mouther moved over to Ron to try to eat him. And the black puddings and grey oozes still pounded against his armor. One of the black puddings left the paladin and went after Aryndren, scoring a crit and dealing significant damage.

Since the Pudding King moved into the cloud, he changed the direction of the cloud flow and it started moving back towards the paladin! Aryndren, still in the Cloud Kill, took enough damage to knock him out of bear form. Taking a risk, he pulled out his necklace of fireballs and backed away, giving the black pudding an opportunity attack. And it crit! Again! (I rolled advantage and got two 20s; the table was stunned). Aryndren was down. I gave him the option of letting his entire necklace of fireballs go off right there in his hands – it would kill the pudding king and save his friends, but at the cost of his own life. He chose to risk it. At the same time, his NPC Companion, Prince Derrendil, also went down.

NPC Notes:
According to the NPC Cards document, linked in the first post of this campaign log, whenever a PC gets hit with a crit or goes unconscious or takes more than X damage in an AoE, they have to roll a d20. 10+ the NPC is ok. Otherwise they take one wound. In this instance, Aryndren took two crits and dropped in two rounds, causing three wound checks. Derrendil failed all three and went unconscious. From there, the NPC goes by the normal dying rules for PCs.

Ron was finally able to do something again, and even made his save against the Mouther. He smited it, and between the smite and the damage it took from the blight spell, he killed it. But the Cloud Kill just reentered his location, and did some significant damage as he failed his con save. With the earth elemental finishing off the last of the oozes attacking Cicero, he ran in to save Aryndren and Derrendil with some healing spells – but it was really close. Derrendil got to two failed death saves before he could be cured.

Ron ran over to stand over his elven/bear friend and protect him; he used his last smite to take out the Pudding King, which ended the Cloud Kill. The earth elemental came over to help finish off the black puddings. (it was against the last of these black puddings when they hit it and I mentioned that it had 2 HP left, and then they remembered the artillery that grants 2 extra damage).

Ron was barely alive. Cicero was well injured. Aryndren almost died and only did due to a bit of luck and help from Cicero and Ron.

At that point, the gnomes sounded the call for retreat. While the Pudding King was gone and the oozes were no longer under his control, there were still too many to fight. It was a victorious battle, but the war would continue on. Three Galeb Duhr came to escort the PCs out of there and back to safety.

At this point, they leveled up to 7.

With the battle over, they had to decide what their next plans would be. Should they head up to the surface or go back into the Underdark in search for the Great Library? As of the end of this session, they chose the Library.


Another note:

They've been worried about Prince Derrendil and debating whether he's a real elven prince or just a crazy quoggoth.

They decided to put it to the test. Cicero cast Dispel Magic on him and rolled a Nat 20, dispelling even a 9th level spell!

I'll leave it up to you!

Is Derrendil an Elf or a Quoggoth? Please PM me your opinion!


Session 23

Cicero cast Dispel Magic and rolled a Nat 20 on the first try. Targeting Prince Derrendil, the Quoggoth transformed back into an Elf! Every thankful, he promised to do whatever he could to help them out, but he still desperately wanted to get home.

The party wanted to find the library rather than go to the surface, so they parted ways with the good prince. Derrendil, Brin, and Berk all left for the surface. The same offer was given to Fargas, but he decided to stay to see more of the adventure. Aryndren asked Kazook Pickshine if he wanted to join their quest. He most certainly did! Jimjar and the twins wanted to stay in Blingdenston.

Fate of the NPCs
With the Party:
Sarith (cured of madness)
Glabagool (sentient/sapient gelatinous cube)
Fargas (Halfling who knew where Dawnbringer was located)
Yuk-yuk & Spiderbait (web surfing goblins)
Droki & Prinket (reformed demon summoning Derro)
Dawnbringer (intelligent sword)
Earth Elemental (gift from Blindgendstone)
Hook Horrors (infant, x2)
Kazook Pickshine (miner in Blingdenstone and part of Aryndren’s backstory)
Waffles the Donkey (Ron’s pack donkey)

Home or headed home:
Prince Derrendil (cured; reverted to elf form, left at Blingdenstone)
Eldeth (left at Gracklstugh)
Ront (left at Gracklstugh)
Jimjar (remained in Blingdenstone)
Topsy & Turvy (cured of lycanthropy, remained in Blingdenstone)
Shuushar (remained in Slupoodop)
Stool (remained in Neverlight Grove)
Berk and the escaped slaves (Berk left in Blingdenstone, the rest left at Grackletugh)
Brin (previous PC, left at Blingdenstone)

Dead:
Buppido (executed by Brin just before Gracklstugh)

They had to decide where to go next. They knew the entrance to the Library was back at Aryndren’s temple, but it was caved in. The best way to get back was the way they came in – through the river feeding into the Darklack, back near Gracklstugh. Unfortunately, that was clear on the other side of the lake (not to mention they were a week out from the lake itself). They acquired a map of the Underdark from the Diggermattocks (the gnome leaders in Blingdenstone). Sarith – having a contact in nearly every major outpost throughout the Underdark, was able to show the location of Mantol-Derith on the map as well. That was only a week away right on the Lake itself. Gracklstugh by itself was nearly a month’s force march from them. They decided to go to Mantol-Derith, and then take a boat across the lake. Between Aryndren and their ability to forage, they would have enough food and water for everyone.

Cicero’s player changed up the Lore Bard’s spells. He dropped his paladin spells and grabbed some new Warlock spells, believing it was a better representation of his character (he’s slowly going insane).

Before heading out, Ron cast Find Steed (he’s finally able to cast 2nd level paladin spells) and gets a Giant Lizard to ride. They headed out at a normal pace (8 miles per day) to Mantol Derith. At this pace, it should take about 6 days to get there. On Day 2, they came across four dead Gricks. The creatures looked like they were mauled by a large creature with giant claws and teeth, and the tracks leaving the corpse went in the same direction they were headed. Even though the creatures were killed with claws and bites, they weren’t eaten – instead left for the insects and fungus to consume the corpses. The claw and bite marks did not resemble any known Underdark creature, and the party started guessing at what it could be: hypogriff, griffon, other large surface world creatures. They were uncertain. With this uncertainty came a slower pace, as they did not want to be caught unawares. Aryndren started casting Pass without Traces to hide their tracks.

As they travelled, the tracks were more “fresh,” meaning that the tracks were newer the more they followed them. This alerted them to the fact that they were gaining on their quarry.

On Day four, they could smell a prominent stench coming down the tunnels, and not too much longer later they turned a bend and saw two large creatures with giant claws and large open maws full of teeth. Its reddish skin was covered in spikes. Worse, though, is they were only 100 feet away. The creatures turned and saw them (they chose not to be stealthy believing that Aryndren’s spell would keep them from being followed), and one roared as the other started charging their way.

Cicero acted immediately, casting Hunger of Hadar, enclosing the demons in darkness and pain. Aryndren prepared his new Polymorph spell while Ron cast Protection from Evil on Cicero. They made it through, but not unscathed. Between the distance and Cicero’s spell, the demons could move up to the party, but not close enough to engage, giving the PC’s the advantage. Cicero drew Lament (his magical rapier) and Cobble (his magical dagger) and engaged one of the demons, while Ron – wielding Dawnbringer – engaged the other. Aryndren’s polymorph spell failed, as these demons were more resistant to magic than they expected. The demons attacked back and they hit hard – two claws and a very powerful bite. Aryndren got knocked out of bear form twice and nearly killed from over-damage. He activated his one-time magical obsidian ring and gained Stoneskin, which saved his life. Cicero had to retreat and cast spells from behind Ron when Ron lost his concentration on the Protection from Evil. Cicero finally cast haste on Ron, which helped changed the tides of the battle. With haste up, he could attack three times per round and tactically use his smites (which he ended using every last one before the battle was over).

In the end, they were victorious, but it was a very difficult battle and left them drained of nearly all their resources. They took a long rest right there, and Ron made a necklace out of the claws of the Hezrou. After that, they resumed a normal pace and continued on. A few days later, Kazook randomly passed out for about half an hour. They never figured out why. The morning before reaching Mantol-Derith, all of the NPCs got sick from consuming tainted mushrooms they foraged (all the PCs made their saves). Ron, though Dawnbringer, was able to cure Sarith of it with Lesser Restoration. Aryndren and Ron could cure the rest of them the next day once they got a long rest and could re-prepare their spells. Meanwhile, they were at the doorsteps of their first destination.

Sarith lead them into the city, from which the entrance was a large open trench (where the inhabitants could fire upon you and you had nowhere to hide). He lead them to an elevator to get them up to the city (his contact was in the Drow District), but it was broken. So they had to climb up. Ron had his Giant Lizard who could climb walls; Aryndren changed into a giant spider and started carrying their companions up the walls. Once at the top, they heard a loud roar and the sounds of battle. They noticed two enlarged Duargar chasing a pair of blurred deep gnomes through the city, the deurgar crashing through carts and small buildings.

End Session.


Just had a scare this week - Ron's player got a promotion to full time (yay!) but was told his weekend would be Monday-Tuesday. Which means he won't be able to join the game anymore. Fortunately, it got switched at the last minute, and his weekend will be Sunday-Monday. So we'll be moving our games to Sunday's instead of Saturday's.

Also, no game this weekend on account that I flew across the US to attend a wedding.


Session 24

Once at the top of the trench, they realized something was very wrong here. The place was devoid of the sounds of the market, which they were expecting based on Sarith’s description of Mantol-Derith. Replacing that were sounds of battle. Looking across the trench to the other side they saw half destroyed town with giant (large sized) deurgar hunting down and killing deep gnomes. They immediately started heading back down into the trench to get to the other side. Except Cicero, who proclaimed he could jump the entire 20’ wide gap, and then cast dimension door.

Once on the other side, they witnessed two deep gnomes running towards their own gates, hoping to get past the locked doors while two giant Duergar were crowding them in. Nearby in the destroyed market place, another deep gnome was doing a very poor job of hiding. Cicero cast Hunger of Hadar and entrapped the giant Duergar in the inky blackness of the spell. Aryndren ran up to the spell’s edge and tossed a bead from his necklace of fireballs into the blackness. A giant deurgar came charging out at him, only to fall dead at his feet. Ron checked on the deep gnome that was hiding and questioned him on the battle. He said he didn’t know what was going on, he only got here a few days ago.

They ran up to the two surviving gnomes and asked them what was going on. They claimed not to know precisely, except that the deurgar started killing gnomes in the marketplace. Just then, they heard cries of pain from the inside of the gnome headquarters, and Ron cast knock to unlock the doors. Inside, they saw three more giant deurgar wrecking havoc. Ron charged. It didn’t take long for him to put them down, but as he was doing so, four invisible deurgar snuck up on Aryndren and Cicero at the gates, nearly killing Cicero. The bard fled towards Ron while Aryndren turned into a bear to face the new threat.

After the battle was over (and one of the deurgar was left alive), Ron started questioning them for what was going on. The gnomes claimed they were attacked by the deurgar. The deurgar claimed that the gnomes stole a precious gem and assaulted their base. Apparently, this all started a few days ago – and Ron made a link to a gnome who was hiding in the marketplace. He whistled him over and the gnome took heed. The new gnome claimed he didn’t know what was going on; Ron asked what was in his pack.

“Oh, you know. Things. Flint knives, thread, canteen with water, the usual.”

“Dump it”

The gnome followed Ron’s orders and it was exactly as he said it was. The gnome also claimed not to know anything about any gem, he was here investigating the presence of a beholder.

Flustered, Ron decided to cast Zone of Truth, and everyone but the deurgar failed. The Duergar told his story:

“A friend of mine came to the city with a valuable gem. I recommended Yantha Coaxrock for appraisal, but she lied and told him it was only worth a few gold. Then she kept it. Since she refused to give it back, we sent a party to get her and force her to give it back, as is our right. Then the svirfneblin wrongfully attacked our enclave, so we retaliated. And now we’re here.”

“That’s it,” Ron declared, “we’re going to the deurgar enclave.”

They tied up the deurgar and headed towards the deep dwarf camp. On the way there, Cicero remembered that they could be invisible, so Ron asked their prisoner if there were any invisible guards.

“A few. It’s standard.”

“Well, you better tell them to back down.” Ron said.

“No,” Cicero said, “I have an idea.”

Cicero walked up towards the deurgar enclave, pulled out something from his pack, and declared in a loud voice, “Agents of the Wyrmsmith! Show yourself!”

Just then, eight deurgar appeared around them. Recognizing the legitimacy of the badge, one of them said, “Welcome Agents. Right this way.” And with that, they were escorted into the compound.

In a very short amount of time they found Yantha, tied up, wearing a robe threaded with gems, and handing upside-down over a hungry Xorn. A deurgar was holding a rope, droping her closer and farther from the Xorn. Ron declared himself an Agent of the Wyrmsmith and took the rope from the dwarf to get her down. Cicero ordered the two deuargar in the room to leave them.

Once Yantha was down, they took the gem-robe off her and gave her something better to wear. When they asked her about the gem, she claimed to not know what they were talking about.

End Session – we had to end early due to my kids suddenly getting sick.


Anyone still read this?

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Yes!

I look forward to it. :-D

Sovereign Court

Yep! Likewise!


I am.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Can you give us a run down on the PCs?

Alignment, background, race (sub-race), class (sub-class), level, feats and attuned magic items? Typical equipment and spells used?


Thanks guys!

Yes, I'll give a character update. I actually have another session from this week that I need to write up. I'll post character updates after that. May take a bit, as my son is having a birthday party on Sunday and I have a lot to do to get the house and yard ready for it.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Cool!


SmiloDan wrote:

Can you give us a run down on the PCs?

Alignment, background, race (sub-race), class (sub-class), level, feats and attuned magic items? Typical equipment and spells used?

I sent this to my players and here's what they sent back:

Cicero. Chaotic neutral. Half elf. Bard (Lore). Lvl 7. Ritual caster feat (wizard). Drow studded leather armor +2, Lament (+1 undead forged rapier lets me speak undead), Demon Short sword (+1 shortsword gives me demon voice 300ft)
Spells: Haste, hunger of Hadar, dimension door, thunderclap, and vicious mockery.

Aryndren. Neutral good wood elf moon druid, lvl 7. Lucky feat. Saline (+1 studded leather) Cave Bear preferred transformation with claws and bite. Ioun orb of wisdom +2, Book of zen wisdom +2, necklace of fireballs (7 remain) Druid Choker (+1 nature) usual spells used are Goodberry, Barkskin, protection from energy, polymorph, healing word, Thunder clap.

(DM Note: he also summons animals occasionally. Always bears.)

Ronald James. Chaotic Good Human Paladin(Freedom) 6/Cleric(Light) 1. Feats: Resilient(STR), Heavy Armor Expert. +2 Intelligent Longsword(Dawnbringer), +1 Shield(Requiem), Victorious Quiver. I also have a few +2 arrows. Spells: usually used for smite, but use zone of truth, knock, Prot good/evil.

(DM Note: Ron is a special case for his multiclassing. Due to roleplay progression, he's decided to never use his cleric powers again (lost faith). So as he levels up, he loses one level of cleric until they're all gone. Right now, he's level 7 (p6/c1). Next level he'll be a level 8 paladin.)

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Neat! Thanks!

I've always thought that paladins and druids would make an interesting team.

I haven't personally seen a bard in play yet. How does the player like it? Do they like the change to full (potentially 9th level) spellcaster?


Considering the player in question is also a musician, and that the bard is his favorite class, he absolutely loves it. The bard has become one of the most powerful classes in the game - and with their ability to steal spells from other lists, they can sometimes easily overshadow other classes.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Cool. I made a spare drow bard for my RotRL campaign in case my cleric stayed perma-dead. I wanted to fill the support role, still, but I didn't want to be dwarf cleric 2.0. I considered a warlock dip for that bard, too. He was "dark and mysterious." LOL!


Cicero is going the warlock route with his bard as well, simply by picking up some warlock spells. That's what Hunger of Hadar was for. :)

But he isn't planning on multiclassing at all.


Forgot to mention last session: New Companion NPC – Peebles! Peebles is an expert on Aberrations (granting extra damage when you fight aberrations), can cast blur when he has inspiration, and when loyal can perform emergency surgery to save you from one death save at the cost of exhaustion.

Session 25

After rescuing Yantha, they immediately set to asking for her side of the story. She went back and forth between claiming that she didn’t know anything about it to they’re lying that she took it to her assistant took it to claiming to have never seen it. It was clear she was lying.

Cicero asked if they could deal with this the next day, as he was exhausted. Ron suggested they take Yantha back to her shop and they all stay there tonight. And so they did.

At Yantha’s shop, they continued to question her. Ron started getting pissed at her for lying. They were questioning why they were even there. What was the point? Why were they even helping these people?

They came here to get a boat so they could row across the Darklake to get to Gracklstugh. There’s no need to stay. Except they need a boat, which means they need merchants to deal with. They decided to stop dealing with the liar and head over to the Drow – maybe find Sarith’s contact. They left Yantha at her shop to lie to herself.

On the way to the Drow they found Sarith’s contact: Zilchyn Q’Leptin. The drow had acid scars down side of this face, but seemed friendly enough. He claimed to be a wizard who was missing his spell book. Cicero pulled out one of the spellbooks he recently found and asked “Q” if it was his.

“Um.. yes. Yes. That’s it. That’s it, indeed! Thank you for finding it!”

Realizing the drow wasn’t exactly telling the truth, Cicero put the spellbook back in his pouch.

“We should go in and see what the Drow know about all this.” Suggested Aryndren.

“Wait,” said Cicero. Then turning to Zilchyn, he said, “Hey Q, which family is running this place right now?”

Zilchyn responded, “House Baenre.”

Sarith said, “They’re allied with House Mizzrym. We shouldn’t go in there.”

New Companion! (my player’s shouldn’t read this):
Zilchyn Q’Leptin is a wizard who has lost his spellbook. He’s also a little crazy, being affected by insanity that causes him to randomly steel and not even realize he’s done it. Fortunately, he’s not very good at it.

As a companion, his abilities are: teleport up to 30’ once per encounter, lightning bolt with inspiration, or cast evard’s black tentacles with loyalty once per long rest.

Just then, Aryndren and Ron both spotted a deep gnome hiding in the mushrooms. Aryndren took chase and a quick hold person spell caught the little guy. Questioning him, they learned his name was Flink and he was the assistant to Yantha.

‘Look Fink,” Cicero said, “we want to know what’s going on here. You’re boss has been causing a lot of problems, Flack. And it’s causing us a lot of headaches, Frick. So Frock, why don’t you tell us what really happened.”

Flink confessed to it all, saying that she did indeed take the gem. She handed it to him, and he immediately knew what to do with it – sell it to the drow for components to an invisibility spell.

“Wait, Flock. What the hell do you mean you sold for it spell components? There’s no way that gem was worth that little.”

“But I didn’t sell it,” protested Flink, “A gargoyle stole it from me. I’ve been staking out here looking for him, but he’s not with any of the gargoyles guarding the drow enclosure.”

“Frack, We’re taking you back to Yantha to get this sorted out.”

Flink was obviously uncomfortable with that. He pleaded for them not to take him to her as she would be very angry with him. They didn’t care.

Back at the shop, Yantha didn’t even seem to notice her apprentice’s return, but despite that he was still visibly upset and fearful that she would yell at him any moment for losing the gem.

Upon further questioning, Yantha continued to lie in every conceivable way. And that’s when it hit them – she was being compelled to lie. She couldn’t tell the truth to save her life. Cicero put it to the test, asking her questions that she would have absolutely no reason to lie about, like “are you wearing pants” or “what number am I holding up?” She lied every time. “Ok, let’s try this: How much is that gem not worth?”

“it’s not worth around 30 to 40.”

“30 to 40 gold?! That’s what all this is over? A measly 40 gold?” Ron asked, incredulously.

“She means 30-40 thousand,” corrected Flink.

“Damn. We need to find that gem. That’s got to be what’s causing all this. If only we had some way to locate it.” Ron said. “Oh, wait. I have Locate Object.”

Cicero just glared at him. “This is Gracklstugh all over again, isn’t it?”

DM Note: Read the last paragraph of this post to understand Cicero's reference.

One spell casting later, with the help from Flink about the gem’s description, they were on their way towards the Zhentarim’s enclave. Once there, both Aryndren and Ron spotted the gargoyle up high on the wall, looking down at the area. Ron was contemplating a way to either attack it up there or lure it down to him when he realized that his Locate Object spell wasn’t directing him to the Gargoyle. “It may be up there,” he said to the group, “but the gem is still down here. Someone else has it.”

As they pondered this development, they saw a Drow Emissary headed towards the Zhentarim. Then a human man walked out of the Zhentarim enclave with a couple of men and a maimed beholder following. It looked obvious that they were headed out to meet each other in the open. As they were about to shake hands, a drow leapt from a nearby rooftop and landed on the beholder, digging her two blades deep into its flesh and killing it instantly. Ron charged.

The Zhentarim and the Drow immediately drew weapons and started fighting each other.

Ron ran straight for the assassin and shoved her to the ground. She kicked up to her feet and tried to kill Ron, but could not get past his armor.

“Why are you trying to break up this meeting? It’s clear your forming an alliance, why would you stop it?” Ron yelled amidst the battle.

“Because I am Zhentarim,” She replied. “I was paid to kill the beholder.”

This floored Ron. For one, he absolutely did not expect the Drow to be Zhentarim. For another, why was she fighting her own people? Then he remembered Cicero’s words when they were headed to Mantol-Derith:

“The Zhentarim are assassins, and they follow their contract to the letter. It is perfectly acceptable for them to be hired to fight their own people, and then the next day be working together on a different contract.”

Back in the present, Ron responded, “But why here? Why try to break up the alliance?”

“I did not break up the alliance, I formed it. I convinced each side to see each other, it was the only way to draw the beholder out.” As she explained, she continued to try to kill Ron, but he continued to block her attacks (and any other attack between the Drow and the Zhentarim that he could). Realizing she was getting nowhere, she cast Darkness and made to escape.

(As this was going on, Peebles was slowly making his way towards the dead beholder. Once there, he started cutting off the eye stalks of the beast and placing them in his pouch).

Ron stood there in the darkness, a bit confused. Then something dawned on him. His Locate Object spell was still active, and the gem was moving away from him. She had it! The assassin had the gem!

“Oh shit.” He said. Then he yelled out to the crowd, “Uh.. drow? Zhentarim? You guys were coerced here by the assassin, but it seems like you actually want to form an alliance. Maybe you should do that?”

I called a DC 14 diplomacy check, and he rolled a 22. The fighting ceased and the two sides started talking.

Ron took off after the assassin.

End Session.

Sovereign Court

An intriguing way for that encounter piece to go. I'm waiting to see what happens next!

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I was thinking warlock 2/bard X, so I could get some cool invocations. I really like Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast for eldritch blast.


I do admit, selling one's soul to dark forces for the promise of minor power is enticing. However I am hero! Just like Toberin Quick-fingers I will instead steal the powers myself. With my capabilities and study of Lore I have mastered the Hunger of Hadar. And soon through Initiate Magic I will be able to Hex my foes and blast them with Eldritch Energy! Surely this is the better path, no? Muah haha hahahahahahaha! *cough* Sorry. Something in my throat. I need some fungus...

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Maybe. I've already mentioned my favor for Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast....

3 levels of warlock lets you get a Book of Shadows...

But that really delays your bard spell progression.


Session 26

Ron took off after the assassin.

And so did Aryndren. Cicero calmly walked after them, still invisible (he was late to the session due to work, and he wasn’t a part of the chase scene anyways).

For the chase scene, I used a modified version of Chase rules found in the DMG. For this chase, you can use a Dash Action followed by a second action (which may be another Dash) each round. You can use up to 3+Con Mod Dashes during the chase scene (+1 Dash for each 10 feet of movement speed above 30), after which you have to start making DC 10 Con Checks each round or suffer one level of exhaustion. After the chase, a single short rest will allow you to recover from all the exhaustion levels gained in the chase.

The chase is over when one side or the other can no longer participate or escapes.

Each round represents an interesting part of the chase scene, and as such is not directly consecutive in location. Round 1 may take place hundreds of meters from round 2, despite each round only allowing up to 60 feet of movement. This allows me to provide an interesting obstacle to overcome every round – no round is boring!

Ron started the chase on his mount, whereas Aryndren started as a bear (with 40’ of movement). Ron being mounted effectively gave him twice as many Dash Actions, because he dismounted as soon as his mount ran out and started having to make con checks. Aryndren, on the other hand, couldn’t use his wild shape to the same advantage – the exhaustion levels translated over (to represent both the physical and mental exertion of a high speed sprint/chase). However, being a bear did give him an extra Dash.

Each round, I rolled a d10 to determine the obstacle they had to overcome (in the DMG, there’s a table for urban obstacles, 1-10 provide something interesting, 11-20 is “no obstacle.” I eliminated all the boring options). Out of those 10 obstacles, four of them require a dex check with no other option. I rolled all four of them in five rounds. Ron has an 8 dex and is in heavy armor. Needless to say, he had a difficult time overcoming many of the obstacles – including crashing headlong into a melon cart! Aryndren, however, didn’t have as much of an issue; nor did the Assassin they were chasing.

By round 5, Aryndren was close enough to cast Hold Person, so he changed forms back to elf and cast his spell - and the assassin failed her save. Fortunately for them, she continued to fail her save every round. Aryndren then dropped the spell and followed it up with a Charm Person spell, which she again failed. She became their friend. They asked her for the gem and Ron grabbed it with a gloved hand. Once she gave up the gem, she drew her swords and attacked Ron twice, both failing to get through his armor. Then she kissed him on the cheek.

Ron was confused.

After that, she told them her story and how she got the gem – a gargoyle gave it to her and she immediately knew what she was to do. She was to kill the maimed beholder of the Zhentarim. No, the gargoyle didn’t tell her to do it, she just knew instinctively. So then she set up a fake meeting between the two groups in order to draw him out. It worked. After that, Ron let her go away.

They found a quiet place to get an hour’s rest. Cicero caught up with them. After their short rest, they decided they needed to talk to the three enclaves – the Zhentarim, the Deep Gnomes, and the Duergar. Screw the Drow. They’re jerks. Before they could go, however, a gargoyle was watching them, waiting to take that gem back. When they saw it, he spoke to them, “That gem belongs not to you, but to my true love!” And it attacked! It swooped down to attack Ron and flew back up to the top of a building.

Ron climbed up to the top of the building it was perched on with his giant lizard mount, while Aryndren turned into a giant spider and climbed up the wall as well (but not before webbing Cicero in an attempt to bring him up to the top of the building as well). The gargoyle proceeded to use his 60’ fly speed to fly to another building 30’ away. Then each round it would fly to them, attack, and then fly back.

Cicero, not liking being webbed, broke out and then jumped off the building. As he fell, he cast featherfall (which also happens to be upgraded in this edition and can affect multiple people). The gargoyle, as he attacked, grabbed Ron and pulled him off the building, hoping the fall would kill him. He floated down gently. Pissed that the armored knight didn’t drop like rock, it tried the same thing against Aryndren, only to have him gently float down as well!

They ended up killing the gargoyle through repeated uses of the Shatter spell (Ron had it prepared ever since he discovered they might be facing a gargoyle, and Cicero had a wand of it).

After the battle, they discussed the events. They had already figured that everyone who touched the gem was corrupted by its power, driven mad. They knew they had to talk to the different enclaves to talk about what happened and try to get information. They figured that they could use the gem to explain everything and try to get peace and order re-established in Mantol-Derith. They split up. Cicero went to the Zhentarim, Aryndren went to the Deurgar, and Ron went to the Svirfneblin.

Aryndren.

The druid went to the Deurgar because he was the least diplomatic person in the group and, as an Agent of the Wyrmsmith, would likely be believed no matter what he said. When he got there, he told the deep dwarves that the gem is causing madness in anyone who touches it and he would have to confiscate it as an Agent. He then asked to speak to the deurgar who first found the gem. Poor Krimgol was distraught that he would never get his gem back, but when we heard Aryndren was seeking him out to talk to him about it, he became excited. Aryndren told him that they had to keep the gem and that Krimgol was actually cursed by the gem. The dwarf didn’t believe him and demanded it back right away, but Aryndren managed to convince him that he would never get it back and he had to just forget about it.

After hearing Aryndren’s words, Krimgol believed that he would forever be Calassabrak and he would never regain his honor. This music could be faintly heard as the deurgar walked away.

Cicero.

The bard went to speak with the leaders of the Zhentarim. Once he secured an audience, he opened with asking if they had heard of the Kuo-Tao and the destruction of one of their cities. When they said yes, he mentioned how he spoke with some of the Kuo-Tao who survived the attack, and based on their stories he’s convinced it was Demogorgon, the Prince of Demons, who destroyed it. He then asked if they had heard of Neverlight Grove, but this was not a place they knew of. He told them that he spoke with a roving band of Myconids who told him the story of the city and how it’s become corrupted with demonic fungus. Cicero said he believes that Zuggtmoy, the Demon Lord of Fungus, resides there. And in Blingdenstone, there’s a story of a Pudding King, connected to Juiblex, the Demon Lord of Ooze. All these Demon Lords have come to the Underdark.

He told them of the Gem. Cicero suspected that a demon might be behind all of the happenings in Mantol-Derith and asked the Zhentarim to help him discover who it may be. Within a few hours of collaboration using the Zhentarim’s resources and Cicero’s experiences, they figured it was Fraz-Urb’Luu. They recommended he bring the gem to them so they could study it further, but he didn’t have it with him.

Ron.

The paladin went to speak with the Svirfneblin, believing he would be the best to comfort their wounds after the devastating loss against the Deurgar. He first asked to speak to their leader. When Yantha was brought forth, he then asked to address the entire enclave. There was no way he would speak to her or trust her to relay his words accurately. So he spoke to everyone there.

Addressing the crowd, he announced the he has personally “dealt with” three other demon lords – Zuggtmoy in Neverlight Grove, Demogorgon in both Gracklstugh and Sloobludop, and the Ooze Lord in Blingdenstone. He told of the Statue of Blingdenstone and how it tells the story of how he, Ron, along with Cicero, Aryndren, Jimjar, Topsy, and Turvy vanquished the Ogremach Bane aka the Rockblight, rediscovered Entemoch’s Boon, and killed the Pudding King – Juiblex’s avatar in the Underdark. He was trying to set up an image of confidence so they would trust him with what he had to say next. Ron promised he would take care of whatever was causing this new madness and he would find a way to cure it.

He told them he believed it was the Gem that caused Yantha to not be able to tell the truth. It caused the Deurgar to attack them, as they thought Yantha was intentionally lying. It even caused a Zhentarim assassin to kill one of the local Zhentarim leaders, a maimed beholder named Lorthuun.

Lastly, he told them that the Deurgar would no longer make war with them and he asked them to try to make peace, despite what happened. If they could promise that, he would promise to try to fix Yantha and everyone else affected by the gem.

When the three met back up, they discussed what to do with the Gem. Cicero told them what he found out from the Zhentarim, and with that knowledge, they decided to try to cast Identify on it, knowing that it would put Cicero at risk of becoming more insane.

Cicero cast the spell and touched the gem. It’s a DC 23 Charisma check to avoid gaining an indefinite madness. Cicero rolled a nat 1, but luckily had inspiration; he followed it up with a 27. Whew.

They learned that Fraz-Urb’Luu, the Demon Lord of Lies and Deception, wasn’t just causing the insanity in the city, he was actually trapped inside the gem! Whenever someone touches it, a bit of his influence corrupts them and they gain a madness which causes them to believe some lie. They learned that Fraz didn’t want to come to this world, and when the event occurred that drew the Demon Lords here, he encased himself in the gem in order to prevent himself from going. Unfortunately for him, he was pulled here anyways, but trapped inside the gem. They also got a series of images and memories which showed the progression of the Gem from when it was pulled to where it is now.

It all started with Krimgol, the deurgar who found the gem in the aftermath of a major battle. Touching the Gem forced him to believe he was Calassabrak – a deurgar without honor. He believed he had to sell the gem to buy back his honor in Mantol-Derith, so he came here. He took it to Yantha Coaxrock to get it appraised. When she touched it, she became incapable of telling the truth about anything. She lied about the value and kept the gem. This made Krimgol mad, as it would mean he couldn’t buy back his honor! So he went to his people and told them of the theft and the lies. The deurgar enclave sent out a strike team to kidnap her, which was successful. The svirfneblin responded in kind and attacked the deurgar to rescue her, but it failed. The deurgar used this attack as an excuse to finally rid the city of the deep gnomes and claim their territory for themselves, and they launched an all-out assault on the gnomes, killing as many as they could. The battle cause the drow and Zhentarim to retreat into their own enclaves.

Meanwhile, Yantha’s assistant, Flink, grabbed the gem to secure it. But as soon as he touched it, he became convinced that his boss was pissed at him and he needed to get spell components for her to hide from the Duergar. He took the gem to the drow to sell it to them, but on the way there a Gargoyle spotted him and stole it. As soon as the gargoyle grabbed the gem, he fell into a delusion of his own – he fell absolutely in love with the first person he saw, which just happened to be Kinyel, the Drow Assassin of the Zhentarim. He bequeathed the gem to her as a token of his love. When she touched it, she understood it to be payment for a contract and that contract was the assassination of the maimed beholder.

Once they learned about the gem, they argued over what to do with it. Ron wanted to bury it deep in the earth. Cicero wanted to destroy it. Ron argued that destroying it might release the demon. Cicero argued that the demon wants to go home, and if it does release the demon, he’ll just go back to the Abyss. To top it off, when he does, he’ll be thankful to them for sending him home. If they bury him, then one day he’ll be released, and then he’ll be pissed at them.

This argument was enough to convince Ron. He drew Dawnbringer and slammed her down onto the gem.

The gem broke into thousands of pieces as black smoke rose from it. The smoke formed into the shape of Fraz-Urb’Luu and laughed. It stared directly at Ron and smiled. Then it got sucked back into a singularity and back Into the Abyss.

All PCs have advanced to Level 8.


I felt like that was a good stopping point for the post, but it wasn’t the end of the session. After they destroyed the Gem and sent Fraz-Urb’Luu back to the Abyss, Ron said he wanted to go see Kinyel; he promised he’d pay her back for the gem, and just now realized that since the gem was dust, it likely wasn’t worth the 40 thousand it was before. Aryndren reminded him that she left a card on his shield with an address. (I forgot to mention that back in Session 25, fortunately, Aryndren didn’t!).

It wasn’t long before they found her home. Ron knocked on the door and the door swung open. Inside laid beautiful furniture and fancy artwork all around. She looked like she spent most of her earnings on expensive stuff for her house. Ron stepped in. “Hello?” he called out. He heard a scuff from behind a desk. “Kinyel? It’s Ron.”

Suddenly, Kinyel jumped out. She leaped off the desk with swords drawn and came down upon Ron, blades bouncing off armor, off shield, off helmet. She bounced around the room, flipping and jumping and twisting and rolling around, constantly attacking him but never penetrating his armor. Ron just stood there, slightly confused.

“Look. I don’t want to hurt you. I just came to –“ he was cut off.

“What took you so long?” She asked.

“What?” Ron said, confused.

“I gave you my card, why did it take you so long to get here?”

“Um.. I had a city to save. Anyways, I’m here to apologize.”

She continued to jump and leap around, slashing and stabbing at him.

“I promised you I would pay you back for that gem. Well, it turns out that I had to destroy it and I don’t really have tens of thousands of gold on me. Also, the gem imbued you with the insanity of a demon lord, and I’d like to try to fix that. Would you like to come with me, I’m going to a place where I think I can learn how to fix it and possibly pay you back for your loses.”

She stopped bouncing around and stopped trying to stab him. She sheathed her swords and hooked one arm around his, leaning up against him. “Ok. Let’s go.”


Session 27

Quick session this week.

Our heroes started off the session with some shopping – they were in Mantol-Derith, afterall. Unfortunately, they didn’t see anything to their liking, so they just exchanged some of the bulkier pieces of art for gems.

Before departing, they remembered that they heard rumors of a strange elf and an odd human (as if there isn’t one everywhere you look) on the outskirts of town. The elf has been there for a few days, and he doesn’t seem to be trying to get into the city; in fact, he doesn’t seem to know it’s there at all. The human has set up camp at another entrance. No one knows why either is there, and they don’t seem to have anything to do with each other.

They decided to visit the elf first. Ron and Aryndren went down to talk to him while Cicero secured boats for the group (Cicero’s player wasn’t at the game yet due to working overtime). He was sitting on the shoreline just outside one of the secret entrances to the city, his feet in the waters. As they approached, the elf turned around and looked at Aryndren.

“Son?”

It was Aryndren’s father; missing for years. (Name: Sladis Vadir. Note: Aryndren’s player never actually wrote that his parents died, only that they went missing. He also never wrote down their names or gave himself a last name, so here we discover that his full name is Aryndren Vadir.)

Aryndren was in absolute shock. He thought his parents had died. They reunited and his father told him what happened. While he was out on patrol with Aryndren’s mother, they were captured by the drow – House Baenre. About six months ago, Sladis and his wife were separated. He does not know what happened to her. Two weeks, he finally escaped. He made his way to this shoreline just a few days ago and has been living here wondering what he’ll do next.

Aryndren told his father that they were headed back to the temple, and that it was now underground in the Underdark (it used to be just below the surface), and it’s flooded. Sladis did not seemed to be concerned. He told his father that he discovered the secret of the temple – that it led to the Great Library of the Underdark, and he asked him why they never told him what the secret was. Sladis said that he was to be told on his next birthday, but they were captured before it could happen. Aryndren also asked if the water would damage the books in the library, but Sladis waved it away.

“No, the water won’t damage the books, in fact, it’ll probably guard them better than we ever could. The temple doesn’t house the library, it houses a portal to a path leading to the library. It’s one of four portals to Gravenhallow, and those are the only ways to gain access to the library. Their family was charged with preventing access by all but the most worthy.”

They went back up to the city to see how Cicero was doing acquiring boats (Cicero’s player arrived to the session just before this). He said, “Oh, it was easy. I just went to the Deurgar as an Agent of the Wyrmsmith and told them we needed boats to get to Gracklstugh. They gave us two without question.”

They took the boats down to the shoreline where the human woman was camping out. Upon arrival, they could hear her humming from the inside. None of them noticed the traps set up around the tent, and Cicero nearly lost a foot as he approached – luckily, he jumped away at the last second.

The woman was absolutely convinced that Cicero and the rest were there to kill her. She seemed hyper paranoid about it. But when Cicero recognized the harper symbol on her broach, he quoted a line from the Harper’s creed and told her they were allied with the harpers. That seemed to make her relax. Talking to her further, they discovered she was a Harper agent send down here to infiltrate the Zhentarim and learn the secrets of Mantol-Derith. But she was never able to locate it and she got lost. The longer she lived in the Underdark, the more she realized that just about everyone was out to kill her. They were the first people she’s met in over a year who wasn’t trying to kill her (or where they?).

Ron and Cicero decided not to tell her just how close she was to the city, but instead offered to take her back to the surface so she could go home. She seemed very relieved about that and agreed to travel with them.

“Just one catch, though – we need to drop by a library first. It’s about two weeks travel.” Ron explained. That was ok by her, as long as she got to stay near friends of the Harpers.

They put the boats on the water. Everyone packed in and they shoved off.

Not a day on the water had passed when Q spoke up that he wanted to go on a detour. He just wanted to grab his “stash” and promised it wouldn’t take long. It was only about half a day away. They agreed. Upon arrival, they witness an amusing sight: a kuo-tau with a net trying to catch giant grasshoppers. Q walked past the bug catcher and started climbing a wall towards the back of the cave. Cicero stuck up a conversation with the kuo-tau. He asked if it heard what happened to Sluublodop, and it admitted it did not. Then he asked it if had any family and friends; yes he did. So they told him what happened, and he was so concerned that he jumped in the water and started swimming home.

Meanwhile, they thought this was a good place to rest, and they asked if anyone knew a good grasshopper stew recipe. Sladis did, and he immediately got to cooking, adding a few ingredients of his own while he did it.

The next day they got back on the lake. Aryndren started casting Water Breathing on everyone, daily, using multiple rituals. Just in case. Their travel was fairly uneventful for the next few days. They did come across multiple dead Kuo-Tau bodies floating, presumably from Sloobludop, but they weren’t entirely sure. A few days later, several of their companions got very sick. It was determined that they contracted some disease from drinking the lake water, and Ron was able to cure them all immediately.

As they passed by Gracklstugh, Ron looked on with a gleam in his eye; Cicero recognized the look and promised him they’ll return one day to rescue the slaves there. It was only a matter of time.

The same day they passed by Gracklstugh, they found the river mouth that lead to the temple. The same one they came floating down when the last escaped the rising flood waters and escaped by digging up through the bottom of the river itself. They rowed upstream as far as they could, until the river could no longer support travel upon its surface. They found a bank to stash the boats, feeling it would be secure there as it was unlikely anyone would travel up this river that seemed to go nowhere.

With water breathing having been cast, everyone continued to travel upstream by walking underwater. Even the donkey traveled underwater, but he fought it as much as he could, because he did not understand the magic that was at work.

Not too much longer, they found the beachhead where they exited the ooze temple. It was only a matter of traveling downwards to enter the temple. They decided to sleep on the beach and prepared for the journey down.

End session.


Session 28

Another quick session this week.

Had to backtrack a little bit for this session, due to how I planned the next adventuring day. OotA doesn’t do the standard adventuring day as published in the DMG. Up to this point, there’s really only been two standard adventuring days with the 6-8 encounters* with two short rests: the escape from Velkynvelve and the tunnels beneath Gracklstugh.

*This is the common understanding, but I’ve seen calculations that show a standard adventuring day can be anywhere from 3-20 encounters.

We started the session on the Darklake at the mouth of the river. As they headed up the river, they noticed that the waters were murky and fouled in a way that wasn’t consistent with how they know rivers to be and with their experience with this river in particular.

When they got to the beachhead at the locale they knew to be where they first escaped the ooze temple, the ground was slimy and wet. If you recall from when they left the ooze temple last time, this beachhead has two exit routes: the river itself leading to the Darklake and a tunnel that was suspected to lead to Gracklstugh (but they never took that path to find out).

The druid tried investigating the foulness, but was unable to determine its cause. Everyone suspected that the ooze lord was having a strong regional effect. They camped out for the night to try to get some solid rest before trying the next day.

The druid had nightmares and was unable to benefit from the long rest, which also meant that he was starting this adventuring day with fewer spell slots. He prepared for his spells as he could (I gave him this one), and as he finished, a surge of water came up from the river and took some people with it: Kinyel (Ron’s new assassin friend), Kazook Pickshine (Aryndren’s mentor and friend from Blingdenstone and his character background), and Glabagool. These were chosen by having the players randomly pick one of the NPCs that they were currently attuned with (because we’re using the companion system, they only gain the benefits of the NPC Card if they’re attuned to the NPC like a magic item. They can attune to their charisma modifier, minimum 1).

Aryndren immediately cast water breathing, turned into a bear, and jumped into the water after them.

At that same moment, a Mind Flayer with a small army of Kuo-Toa showed up from the tunnel.

Behind the Scenes:
The mind flayer is looking for the library and has discovered its location here. But he also knows who is down in the depths and came with kuo-tao to root them out.

Who is down in the depths? An Aboleth, as our PCs will soon find out.

I’ve been planning this since Day 0. Once I found out that Aryndren was from a Temple near the Underdark and that’s how his character got captured, I had plans to connect his temple to the Ooze Temple in chapter 2.

Once I saw that the ooze temple floods, I knew I would have to bring them back to the flooded temple for some reason and face an aboleth. I’ve always wanted to put one of those in an adventure.

Then, when I read about the library in chapter 11, and knowing that Aryndren’s temple held a secret he was supposed to guard but never knew the secret, it all clicked together. His temple was the gateway to the library, but since it flooded an Aboleth took root.

The mind flayer addition was to add some extra depth to the adventuring day. When I first designed it, I thought it would give them a reason to go into the waters. With the water surge from the aboleth, I was afraid they might say “screw it” and just leave, so I wanted pressure from the other side to push them into the waters.

Turns out I didn’t need to do that at all. We rolled randomly to determine who got pulled into the water and two of them were people they really care about. Also, sometimes I forget my players aren’t murderhobos and actually care about NPCs, so even if it were Yuk Yuk and Spiderbait, they still would have gone in after them to rescue them.

The mind flayer started off with a Mind Blast, which stunned both Ron and Cicero. Everyone was resigned for a TPK right there and then. The kuo-tao walked up to them and grappled them, with the intention of having the mind flayer capture and dominate the PCs.

Out in the murky waters, Aryndren was trying to rescue his friends. But some Merrow swam up from the depths and started dragging them down before he could get to them. All except Glabagool, who’s digestive acids burned the merrow who tried to grab him. Glabagool simply bobbed down the river until he could make his way to the shore and come back to help his friends.

Aryndren was in a pickle. He didn’t know whether to go deeper to rescue Kazook and Kinyel or to head back to the shoreline to rescue everyone else. Ok, so it wasn’t that hard of a decision. He started back to the shore. As soon as he got there, he rushed past everyone to focus on the Mind Flayer.

Meanwhile, the kuo-tao were having their own problems. Cicero was attuned to his new mage friend, Q, who was able to misty step him 30’ away into the river, allowing him to escape custody. With the water breathing spell cast earlier, he wasn’t too concerned. Ron was protected by his armor, but it was only a couple of rounds before he broke out of his stunned condition and started cleaving through fishmen.

Aryndren, as a bear, was mauling the Mind Flayer. It tried and failed to dominate him (Aryndren has a massive wisdom save) and tried to mind blast him, to no avail. Finally, it decided he needed more help, so he plane shifted away, abandoning the kuo-tao. From Aryndren’s perspective, it looked like he simply disappeared, and he took a few moments to randomly swipe in the air trying to find him.

Cicero broke out of the stunned condition and swam back to the shore. A few rounds later, the kuo-tao were either dead or surrendering.

They did a quick huddle to figure out what was going on. Peebles, as an expert in aberrations (remember when he was sneaking through the battle in Mantol-Derith trying to collect Beholder eye stalks?), recognized what was going on. The fouled waters, the slimy ground, the water surge – it was an Aboleth. He described to them what an aboleth was, and the stealed themselves for what was to come.

Since Aryndren had already cast water breathing, they decided to only take the ten who he cast it on. Two of those ten were captured by the merrow. With them, Ron, Aryndren, and Cicero made up for the first half. Also included were Sladis (Aryndren’s father), Yul-Yuk and Spiderbait, Q, and Peebles. Ron’s sword didn’t need the spell. The rest stayed on the beachhead to watch over the camp and their equipment. (Note: this is based off memory, so I may update it next post when I get clarification from the players).

Ron walked into the water, his heavy armor keeping him at the bottom. Cicero, Aryndren, and the rest followed suit by swimming. They made their way down to the hole that they had originally made to escape up from the temple. It had been excavated to accommodate for larger creatures to get in and out. Remembering that there were four side tunnels full of oozes that dead-ended into a shrine, they decided to ignore that and head straight for the hallway that led to Aryndren’s temple. When they got to the longer hallway in the ooze temple, they were assaulted by three merrow and four kuo-tao working in concert. They were easily dispatched. The battle included a crit by a kuo-tao that did only three damage (rolled two 1s, with a +1 to damage), which was ignored by Ron’s Heavy Armor Mastery feat. Most disappointing crit ever.

They continued down the hallway to a side room just off the hole that lead into Aryndren’s old tunnel. They took a short rest here,

End Session.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

That sounds like a super fun session! Aboleth, kuo-toa, mind flayer, and merrow? Such awesome combos! And they're what, 7th or 8th level? Intense!

How does all the minions affect the CRs they can handle? At least all 3 PCs have some healing potential.


They're level 8, but for the purpose of calculating XP budgets, I assumed level 10.

We'll see how well that works out by the end of next session.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Cool.

And that's with only 3 PCs.


Yeah, looking forward to how this plays out, apparently bookrat has quite the dungeon ahead for us, shits gonna get real.

Also, Paizo, why don't you have more bear avatars? Get your shit together.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I'm sure they have lots and lots of avatars with lots and lots of tentacles...


Game was cancelled this week.

Two issues: my kids just got sick and needed extra attention, and one of the players' car broke down. He needed the time to work on it and fix it before his weekend was over (his weekend is Monday and Tuesday).

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Bummer! Hopefully the kids get better soon!


Session 29

We had a few weeks off due to illness and car problems. But we’re back on schedule now!

The heroes took their short rest in the underwater passage, and then proceeded to swim down into Aryndren’s Temple. His father was with him, and knew the route to take to get to the portal leading to the Library of the Underdark (also called Gravenhallow). Along the hallways of the temple, they found themselves faced up against a sea hag and four Duergar.

Ron made a comment about how powerful these Duergar must be – they can cast invisibility, enlarge, water breathing. Every one of them! All the time!

Cicero said, “No, they can’t cast water breathing.”

“Then how are they breathing water?” Ron replied.

No one had an answer.

They decided to try to fight. Aryndren opened with a polymorph spell and turned the sea hag into a squirrel.

“No!” cried Ron. ‘Not a squirrel! She’ll drown and just turn back into a hag! You should have made her a fish!” But it was too late.

Ron followed up with throwing a spear and impaling one of the Duergar.

Two of the Duergar immediately turned invisible, while one enlarged. The one impaled grabbed the spear and threw it back.

“I’ve got respect for that one,” Ron said.

They engaged in battle, and as they did a school of Ixitxachitl swam into to feed on what seemed like easy prey – they were killing each other. The evil manta rays (colloquially known as demon rays) attacked everyone in the area. There was even one that was a bit bigger than all the rest, and it seemed to heal nearly every wound inflicted upon it.

While fighting the Duergar, Ron realized that they must be enthralled. But he couldn’t do anything for them now. He’ll have to find that Aboleth and break the enchantment. He decided to avoid killing the Duergar as much as possible, but his allies didn’t seem to have the same notion of decency. In the end, every one of them were slaughtered. The Duergar, the Sea Hag, and all the Ixitxachitl.

They swam on towards the room with the secret entrance. Before they could reach it, though, a swarm of quippers attacked, brought to a blood frenzy by all the fresh blood spilled just down the hallway. Before any of them could do anything, however, both Aryndren and Cicero cast thunderwave and decimated the entire swarm.

They swam to the secret entrance. It was behind a secondary altar in the temple, in a back room. Aryndren’s father reached behind the altar and moved a switch, which caused the entire altar to move up. Stone grinding against stone reverberated in the waters – the sound loud and piercing. Once it stopped, they could see two merrow faces peering up at them from the secret tunnel entrance. They merrow immediately swam away.

They took persuit down the hallway and eventually found a giant room – larger than 50 ft cubed. The portal could be seen on the back wall, glowing soft blue and illuminating the area directly in front of it. As they stayed there and observed, they could see silhouettes in the portal light. That one was a couple of merrow. They one looked humanoid. Maybe Kinyel? That one looks like a giant crab or lobster monster. A chuul? And that one looks like a giant eel. Oh f#@%, it’s the aboleth.

Cicero looked to Aryndren and asked, “Think you’ll be ok?”

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Good.” And Cicero cast dimension door, bringing Ron with him right next to the Aboleth.

The first thing Ron did was Channel Energy and Challenge Authority (Oath of Liberation – he can force an enemy to lose all their current charm effects inflicted on anyone; with a failed wisdom save, of course. Rolled a 2). The aboleth, enraged that it lost all its minions, struck back at Ron, but was unable to get past his armor and shield.

Aryndren turned into a bear and started swimming for the Aboleth to catch up to his friends. He felt something grab the back of his fur, and there was Kazook! He had been hiding at the entrance of the room waiting for them to come through and attack! But since the charm was broken, he now joined in on Aryndren’s side once more.

Cicero cast Greater Invisibility and got out of the range of the Aboleth. A harpoon came out of nowhere and hit the Aboleth. Looks like the merrow were pissed it mind-controlled them, as well. Then Kinyel cam swimming up and cut deep into the Aboleth’s flesh.

The Aboleth was quickly taken down, unable to face off against such odds. (it also didn’t help that the Aboleth’s highest roll the entire battle was a 10, despite getting 3 attacks per round and having legendary and lair actions).

With the Aboleth gone, the merrow swam away, ready to get the hell out of this area. The party reunited and started to head towards the portal, ready to finally get to the library.

Suddenly, a gigantic fish appeared out of nowhere. The thing must have been at least 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. It sucked the earth elemental (Ron’s NPC Companion) right into its mouth and then shrank down to the size of a 2 inch long minnow. Then it swam into the darkness.

End Session.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Wow! Sounds like an awesome session!


Session 30

updating Session 28:

Back in Session 28, I posted this:

“Since Aryndren had already cast water breathing, they decided to only take the ten who he cast it on. Two of those ten were captured by the merrow. With them, Ron, Aryndren, and Cicero made up for the first half. Also included were Sladis (Aryndren’s father), Yul-Yuk and Spiderbait, Q, and Peebles. Ron’s sword didn’t need the spell. The rest stayed on the beachhead to watch over the camp and their equipment. (Note: this is based off memory, so I may update it next post when I get clarification from the players).”

However, these were not the correct NPCs that went with them. The following is the corrected list:
Kinyel (captured by the Merrow)
Kazook (captured by the Merrow)
Sladis Vadir
Zilchen “Q” Q’Leptin
Peebles
Fargas
The Harper woman
The Earth Elemental
Dawnbringer

Ron launched a javelin into the waters, hitting the minnow spot on. “What?! It didn’t die? What kind of demon minnow is this?!?”

Aryndren, already a bear, chased after it.

Meanwhile, Cicero checked out the portal. He tried to swim through it, but it was like a flexible force field, gently bouncing him back into the water. He started to analyze the portal, and realized that there were three cleverly disguised buttons, each of which must be pressed by a different person. Just as he was figuring it out, a harpoon stuck into him. Two of those merrow were trying to kill him!

Ron swam to Cicero’s rescue; he decided to sacrifice his earth elemental inside the minnow to try to save the life of his friend. Cicero ordered Q and the Harper to each press one of the buttons, while he swam to the third. Peebles was obsessed with studying the Aboleth, despite the merrow nearby, and swam to inspect it. Ron killed one of the merrow.

As soon as Cicero pressed that third button, the soft green light from the portal became deep red, changing the illumination in the waters. The second merrow fighting Ron swam away, aiming to go through the portal. Cicero hoped for the best and followed suit. As well as Q and the Harper.

Aryndren grabbed ahold of the merrow and after several stabs of his claws and a few bites, he finally killed it. He knew it was dead when the earth elemental enlarged to full size. It promptly sunk to the bottom. Aryndren swam away and into the portal. With him were his father and Kazook.

Lastly, Ron followed. With him was Kinyel.

The earth elemental sunk to the bottom.

The first thing Cicero saw on the other side was a statue of a merrow. “This is odd,” he thought. “Oh shit! Basilisk!” he cried out and shut his eye. Aryndren came out of the portal ready to charge the basilisk when it spoke up. The creature admonished them for taking so long, and told them to hurry up and follow it to the Library, for he was sent there to escort them. Once they got over their surprise as the basilisk talking to them, they realized it was intentionally keeping its eye downcast, as to not turn anyone into stone.

At that point, Ron realized his earth elemental wasn’t with him. “Hey, where’d it go?” he inquired of Aryndren.

“I don’t know. It sank. I figured that’s what rocks did in the water.”

“What?! You killed it? We need to go back and check on it!”

Fortunately for Ron, the earth elemental was still alive; it was just unconscious. (Seriously, they lucked out. It made all three of its death saving throws, following the rules for the NPC Companion System, linked on page 1 of this thread).

They gathered Peebles as well and made their way to the Gravenhallow, the Great Library of the Underdark.

The library didn’t seem like much on the outside, but the inside was immense. Much larger than it seemed from the outside. Cicero was enthralled. They were told they could find nearly any bit of information, past, present, or future – they just had to will it and search, and the library may reveal what they sought. Each of them were granted their own room, and to reach it, all they had to do was will it. Once they desired their room, the next staircase they encountered led to it. Everyone took the opportunity for a much needed bath and a good rest. They were pleasantly surprised to find that none of them had nightmares – at all. It was a perfectly restful sleep.

The next day, the three heroes set off in different directions.

Aryndren’s Day: Aryndren wanted to find information on where his mother. As the druid wandered the halls looking for a book on his mother’s current whereabouts, he met an old dwarf with majestic robes, a crown on his head, and an elegant walking staff. The dwarf said he recognized him as one of the heroes who fought the demonic incursion of the Underdark so many decades ago. Aryndren was confused, but the dwarf insisted. Aryndren asked him if he knew about his mother, but the old dwarf did not. They discussed a bit more about the library, and soon the dwarf faded away. Aryndren never thought to ask him who he was. Soon, he found a book on his mother. It showed a couple of images, much like a comic book would, of his mother sweeping a floor. “Your shift is over, you know. You can head on home now,” a voice said. His mother replied, “I know, Eldath. I just want to finish up.”

Cicero’s Day: Cicero wanted to find out as much as he could about the library itself and about the demons. He learned the library was separated into three sections: The Archives of the Past, the Archives of the Present, and the Archives of the future. There were also three librarians here, with whom he could ask for assistance by willing to speak to them. Finally, if one had a Speakerstone Crystal, they could get up to two visions, depending on which Archive they were in and whether the Library had any information it wanted to give the person. The library also existed outside of space and time, and would sometimes show visitors “echoes” of other visitors from a different time. Cicero started thinking about where he could get such a crystal, when he came across someone else in the library. It was a rather young Stone Giant. Cicero introduced himself and mentioned that he had met some Stone Giants not too long ago. The giant’s interest was piqued, and asked him who he knew. Cicero thought for a moment, and said, “Dorhun and Rihuud. I even once saved Rihuud’s life.” The giant was impressed. He knew both of them, but neither one had even spoken of meeting a half-elf, much less one who had saved a giant’s life. Cicero added after a moment, “Also, Stonespeaker Hgraam.” The giant’s eyes went wide. “You must be from the future. I am Hgraam, and I have aspirations to become the Stonespeaker one day. This is good to know I will succeed. Since you seem to know me, perchance you can help me with a problem?” Cicero agreed, and they proceeded to spend the day in philosophical talk. Hgraam finished the conversation with, “It has been a pleasure to meet you Cicero. The next time we meet, it will be your first time. I will remember you.” The conversation with Cicero also brought back an interesting memory – Hgraam gave him a stonespeaker crystal! He could use it to see the visions.

Ron’s Day: Ron wanted to find out about dragons, specifically raising one, and then about Gracklstugh. But first he visited Kinyel’s room; she pulled him in and a few hours later he emerged with a smile on his face and a bounce in his step. As he searched the halls looking for information on dragons, he got more information than he knew what to do with (I gave the player the monster manual and said his character knows everything in there about dragons). He then looked into Gracklstugh in the present and discovered that there was a secret organization trying to free the slaves and take over control of the city. He was happy. While searching around, he met a young woman. She was pulling out a book on Khaem. Ron said a tentative hello, and he turned around and smiled. She looked him up and down and said, “Hello. My name in Brysis. Usually the library tries to make these meeting relevant. So who are you and how will you help me?” They chatted for a bit, and then it dawned on her why they had met. “Nice sword.” She turned around and faded away, but as she did so, Ron saw Dawnbringer strapped to her back.

When the three met up, they all discussed what they had discovered for the day. Aryndren was afraid that his mother had become a slave to Eldath, just like Ron once was. Ron explained that it wasn’t actually Eldath who was his master, but rather that she lived in the same culture as the ones who enslaved him. He believed she has seen the error of her ways, and that she had employed Aryndren’s mother. Otherwise she wouldn’t have used the word “shift.” When Cicero told them about the crystal, they all agreed to give it a try.

Cicero’s first vision was that of a drow archmage who tried to summon a demon and ended up losing control. He learned that it was this male drow who unleashed the demon lords into the Underdark, but he didn’t know who he was or how to stop it. His second vision was the rise of Demogorgon from under the waters, just before he attacked the Kuo-Tao settlement. Cicero remembered what happened after it rose up from the waters all too well.

Aryndren’s first vision was that of a deep gnome and his odd connection to some sentient slimes and oozes. It was clearly the Pudding King, and for a moment he felt bad for the gnome and his sad story. Until he remembered what that f!*#er tried to do them all. His second vision wasn’t a vision, per se, but rather a sound.

Ron’s first vision was of Gracklstugh burning and dwarves in the city chanting. He assumed it was due to him and the resistance movement he started back in the city. His second vision was the journey of the gem that he recently helped destroy back in Mantol-Derith.

Day 2 in the Library. The second day, they walked as a group, in hopes of seeing the same “echo” of other people in time. And they did. An older drow with a death slaad for a companion approached them. “It’s a good thing you’re not allowed to harm anyone in here, or I’d be very afraid right now.” The man introduced himself as Vizeran, the slaad his personal bodyguard, and explained how he was researching the demon invasion and how to stop it. The party introduced themselves, and said how they were currently trying to stop it. Maybe they could help each other. They discovered that their timelines were not too far off. Vizeran said he would search them out after he found out more, as long as they promised to help him with the same.

They used the Stonespeaker Crystal to gain some more visions, and they saw the arrival of each of the demon lords in the Underdark. Cicero catalogued them, and there were 7: Zuggtmoy, Demogorgon, Juiblex, Orcus, Baphomet, Yeenaghu, and Fraz-Urbluu (which they’ve already sent back to the Abyss).They also saw a vision of Lloth, but she was not in the Underdark. Thank the gods, for she saw them looking at her, and she peered into them and she raged. Their minds were protected by the magic of Gravenhallow.

Day 3 in the Library. They met with Vizeran again. He seemed to be excited. He told them that the fool Gromph brought the demons down. He said to them that he knew how to stop them, but time was of the essence. He just needed someone heroic or foolhardy enough to try. He wanted them to meet him at his tower, and he gave them a map and showed them where it was.

Cicero decided to speak with a librarian, and one came down. Cicero asked how they would be able to exit the library, and the librarian told him that they could exit by simply willing it, and the library would take them to any location they would like, so long as the library wanted it to happen. They could back to where they came from, or the Gracklstugh or Blingdenstone or even the surface. Ron was very tempted to go back to Gracklstugh. Aryndren wanted to go to the dwarf city to rescue his mother. Cicero wanted to straight to Araj, where Vizaren was located. Reluctantly, Ron agreed with Cicero. Aryndren was still concerned, and someone suggested that his father should go look for her. Aryndren loved that idea and left to tell his father about it.

Their last vision was of Sloobludop, where they tried to see how Shuushar was doing. They saw the settlement split into many different factions, each one worshipping some new god or one of the demons (sometimes there were more than one cult worshiping the same demon, with arguments over which aspects were the true aspects of the demon). Shuushar was there, a calm center in a hurricane of insanity, trying to keep the peace and serve as negotiator and diplomat to the many cults that have sprouted.

In the end, they sent Aryndren’s father along with the Harper (who wanted to go back to the surface anyways) to find his mother and rescue her. The rest of them spent as long as they could in the library (since it was “out of time,” they didn’t have to worry about wasting time; it would exit them within moments of when they entered), until the library revealed that it had no more to reveal to them. They would have to come back another time. They packed up all their things, collected all their friends, and left – exiting the library right next to Vizeran’s tower in Araj.

Fate of the NPCs
With the Party:
Dawnbringer (intelligent sword)
Earth Elemental (gift from Blindgendstone)
Kinyel (drow assassin, member of the Zhentarim, joined in Mantol-Derith, attracted to Ron)
Kazook Pickshine (miner in Blingdenstone and part of Aryndren’s backstory)
Peebles (deep gnome expert in aberrations, joined in Mantol-Derith)
Zilchin “Q” Q’Leptin (drow wizard, joined in Mantol-Derith)
Fargas (Halfling who knew where Dawnbringer was located)

Not with the Party:
Sarith (cured of madness, Left outside of Aryndren’s Temple)
Glabagool (sentient/sapient gelatinous cube, Left outside of Aryndren’s Temple)
Yuk-yuk & Spiderbait (web surfing goblins, Left outside of Aryndren’s Temple)
Droki & Prinket (reformed demon summoning Derro, Left outside of Aryndren’s Temple)
Hook Horrors (infant x2, Left outside of Aryndren’s Temple)
Waffles the Donkey (Ron’s pack donkey, carries all the group loot, Left outside of Aryndren’s Temple)
The Harper (send home from the Library to find Aryndren’s mother)
Sladis Vadir (Aryndren’s father, send home from the Library to find his wife)
Prince Derrendil (cured; reverted to elf form, left at Blingdenstone)
Eldeth (Home Safe)
Ront (left at Gracklstugh)
Jimjar (remained in Blingdenstone)
Topsy & Turvy (cured of lycanthropy, remained in Blingdenstone)
Shuushar (remained in Slupoodop)
Stool (remained in Neverlight Grove)
Berk and the escaped slaves (Berk left in Blingdenstone, the rest left at Grackletugh)
Brin (previous PC, left at Blingdenstone)
Buppido (executed by Brin outside of Gracklstugh)


If you're curious what that "demon minnow" is, it came from the Monstrous Compendium Volume 4, 2nd Edition AD&D. It is called a Death Minnow.

They're 2" long fish that can cast enlarge on themselves to make them Large sized. Once they're large, they use suction to consume one creature of large size or smaller. Then they cast Reduce on themselves and go back to being 2 inches long, shrinking their prey with them.

The prey takes 1d6 damage every round, plus any damage taken by the fish from outside sources. If the death minnow dies, the consumed creature returns to normal size.

No one is sure where these creatures come from, there is no natural population. But some believe they were created by an ancient aquatic race, such as the Aboleths.


Session 31

The first words upon exiting Gravenhallow were, “Ron, Waffles.”

To which Ron replied, “F$*@.”

They realized they had left all their gold, extra magical equipment, and half of their companions back at Aryndren’s temple, and they had no way of getting back.

Moving forward, they quickly found Vizeran’s tower. Upon knocking on the door, the handle turned and the door opened on its own. “Are we sure this isn’t an elaborate trap?” Cicero asked. “That was creepy as hell.” They continued into the tower, upon which a floating ball of light silently greeted them.

The inside of the tower was not what one would expect a wizard’s tower to look like; it was barren except for a stairway on the other side of an empty room, leading up. The ball of light moved around the edge of the circular room until it reached the base of the stairs and stopped. The party dutifully followed, careful not to step in the center of the room.

They headed up the stairs to the top floor, where they found Vizeran himself at a desk writing on some papers. “Good, you’re here. A bit earlier than I would have expected, but that just shows promise.” After some discussion, they found out that from Vizeran’s perspective, they had last met a year ago – whereas to them it felt like hours. Ron inquired how easy it would be to get back to the library, and Vizeran explained that while there was a portal relatively close, he could not enter the library unless the library wished it. He has tried many times, but has only ever entered thrice. Ron was visibly disappointed, and Cicero explained how they left some friends back at their entrance into the library and they wanted to get back. Vizeran warned them of the dangers of teleportation in the Underdark, due to the Faerzress, and especially now that there were demon lords on the loose. Their chaotic nature was altering the faerzress to spread insanity and madness throughout the Underdark.

Vizeran then explained the background of the problem up to now. Gromph Baenre was his only match in drow culture when it came to the Art of Magic, but he was also an excellent politician who managed to get Vizeran exiled. While he was exiled, his family was eliminated by the Do’Urdens (a curse upon their name). Neither Gromph or Vizeran had any love of Lloth or the matriarchal society of the drow, and both sought a way to bring them all down. Gromph was foolish though, and allowed himself to be manipulated by Lloth; in doing so she convinced him to not only summon a Demon Lord, but also convinced him that it was his own idea to do so. Up until that point, Lloth had told the Matron Mothers of the different drow houses to summon demons and bring demons into the Underdark. This was likely to sow chaos into the Underdark, as Menzoberanzen was getting to orderly after the Drow army’s defeat on with the dwarves on the surface. Gromph wanted to be the greatest power in the city, so he tried to summon a demon more powerful than any in the Underdark to date – a Demon Lord. Vizeran didn’t know which he summoned first, and doubted that he even attempted to summon more than one (as there was no way he was foolish enough to try to control more than one), but whatever he did, he failed and allowed the Demon Lords to set loose on the entire Underdark.

No one in the rest of the Underdark realize that it was the drow who did this, or every Underdark culture and city would be united in destroying the drow. Menzoberanzen is already destroyed as it is, as that’s where Demogorgon first appeared before travelling to the rest of the Underdark.

Ron interjected at this point to explain that not all the demon lords wanted to come – Fraz Urbluu did not want to come and tried to encase himself in a gem to prevent the magic from summoning him. Unfortunately for him, he was still summoned, but trapped in the gem. Vizeran was interested in this, and only a little disappointed when he learned they had already send the demon lord back to the abyss.

Vizeran did have a plan. He explain that he has been working on a ritual that could send the demon lords back to the abyss, but it required a bit of cleverness on the part of this new alliance between himself and his new guests. His ritual would magically lure all the demon lords back to the site of the original summon – Menzoberanzen – where they would fight it out amongst themselves. Demon Lords are wont to do that, as that’s pretty much all they did back in the abyss. They aren’t protected from the madness they spread, they are infested with it. Once lured back, they would destroy each other. Then, whoever is still alive would be weakened enough that they could defeat it in combat. As their bodies die on this prime material plane, their souls would go back to the plane of the Abyss, ridding the Underdark and the surface lands of the demonic presence. And that’s just as good as reversing the summoning ritual.

They all agreed to work together on the plan. For now, Vizeran needed them to go out into the Underdark and acquire some magical components. In the Wormwrithings was purple worm nest, where he needed an intact and unhatched live egg to channel the great physical power needed for the spell. They could also likely find the central eye of a beholder there, which was needed to break down the magical barriers of the demon lords. In the Labyrinth were angel feathers – he needed six feathers from six different angels as a celestial force to enrage the demons. They could also find the heart of a greater demon there, needed to reach the hearts of the demon lords themselves. Lastly, he needed a few drops of blood or ichor of a demon lord, to connect them to the ritual, thirteen timmask mushrooms grown in the footprint of a greater demon, to lure them back to the summoning site, and Gromph’s personal research notes, to better understand the summoning ritual.

To help them, he offered the tower as a base of operations for the duration of their alliance, as well as two magical items each: a one-time use amulet that protected them from demons, and a drow cloak of elvenkind.

All parties agreed, and they begin to draw out some plans about the future ahead.

========================================================================

The Surface World – Part 1

While Aryndren, Cicero, Ron, and their companions were meeting with Vizeran, Rystia the Harper (a Hunter ranger) and Sladis Vadir (Aryndren’s father, a land druid) were transported to the surface from the great library. They appeared in a forest on a pleasant day, with blue skies above and the sound of song and music nearby.

Investigating the music, they found a rather large beast with the head of a bull – horns curving from his head into the air – and the body of a man. Its body was covered in coarse brown fur, with more on his legs, arms, and head than on his torso. His legs ended in cloven hooves. It was singing a melancholy and wordless song while playing a harp; the baritone voice in pleasant contrast to the alto plucks of string on the harp. It was beautiful.

“That was beautiful,” Sladis said, approaching the Minotaur.

“No, don’t,” warned Rystia.

“Thank you,” the giant beast said back. “Not many seem to appreciate my music. So I often play to myself out here in the forest, where at least the birds and the trees will enjoy it.”

“Why don’t they appreciate your music?” Sladis inquired.

“I do not know. I always seem to be laughed out of every bar I perform, and then the city guards throw me out of town.” The minotaur replied, its voice somber, leaning on the depressed.

“Why do they laugh? Why do they throw you out?”

“I do not know.”

“Well, my name is Sladis. What’s yours?”

“My name is Milo, but most know me as…” With that, the minotaur stood to his full height, towering over Sladis and Rystia. He spread his arms out exuberantly, in a grand gesture, “...The Minotard!”

Sladis did an excellent job stifling his laughter.

The minotaur got visibly angry, “And that’s usually when everyone laughs. And then I get angry. And then I lose track of myself and the next thing I know, I’m getting kicked out of town. Why does everyone have to laugh?”

Sladis tried to explain, “Maybe it’s your chosen stage name?”

“What’s wrong with it? It’s a perfectly good name, encapsulating the two aspects of my character, that I am a Minotaur and a Bard. Hence, Minotard.”

Meanwhile, Rystia didn’t want anything to do with the minotaur bard, and decided to get some distance. She overheard the conversation, and did not bother to stifle her laughter, but also felt she was far enough away where it didn’t matter. As she walked, she heard someone else crashing through the brush. Investigating, she saw three minotaurs failing to sneak up onto Milo. One of them said, “Shh. If we’re going to prank the Minotard, we have to be quiet.” They weren’t quiet, but perhaps they thought they were as they giggled and tried to be stealthy.

Rystia would have none of it, and cast a bramble spell in their path to bring up thorns to stab them if they tried to move any closer to the bard and the druid. Two of the minotaurs seemed to ignore it and pushed on through, but one stayed behind. Seeing what was going on, Sladis joined in and cast a sleet spell, to make the path more difficult, and possibly make them fall down. Upon hearing the laughter and taunts of the new minotaurs, Milo howled in outrage. He charged into the bramble himself to fight them.

Rystia moved around counter-clockwise, only to see a very odd sight. It looked like a tree with a single human arm. The human arm was holding a battle axe. She investigated closer, and it turned out to be a trick of the eye; an elf was hiding behind it, wielding a battle axe! He whispered to her in elvish, but she was unable to understand. So he left to circle around the bramble to talk to the elf on the other side, while Rystia when back the direction she just came from, decided to help Milo out with a few well-placed crossbow shots.

The newcomer made his way over to Sladis, who also spoke elven, to talk about what was going on.

“I have seen what has happened here,” the newcomer said, “and I do not approve. Explain to me why you have attacked these minotaurs unprovoked.”

Sladis replied, “I take it you do not know the nature of minotaurs. They said they were going to play a prank on my new friend here. To minotaurs, a prank involved cutting off your head and pissing in it.”

“Oh. I do apologize; I am new to these lands. I do not seem to recall much of my past except the past few years in the Underdark, whereby I was trapped in the body of a Quoggoth.”

“Ah. That does seem to be troublesome, doesn’t it? I am Sladis. What is your name?”

“I am Prince Derrendil.” The elf replied.

By the time their introductions were over, Rystia and Milo had managed to kill off two of the minotaurs attacking them. The last minotaur and Milo were facing off, both heavily injured. Milo, his harp equipped with a large spike on the end, brought it up into the chest cavity of the aggressive minotaur, while the other brought its ax down upon Milo’s head. They fell to the ground together.

Sladis rushed up to Milo, casting a healing spell and brought him back from the edge of death.

The four of them camped out and talked about their past and experiences, with Sladis preparing dinner.

Over dinner and a fire, they learned of their shared connections to Aryndren, Cicero, and Ron. Prince Derendil was an Elven Prince (still is!) who was turned into a Quoggoth and spent years stuck as such in the Underdark. He was captured by the drow and about to be sold as a slave, when the three heroes helped plan and successfully execute an escape. The three of them then lead himself and the other escaped slaves across the Underdark as they fled the pursuing Drow and tried to bring everyone home. They even rescued a group of humans who managed to escape from the drow at a different encampment. They successfully brought everyone to their desired home, including turning himself back into an Elf. But while they were there, they witnessed the birth of a demon lord, Demogorgon, as well as evidence of Juiblex, Zuggtmoy, and more.

Once on the surface, the Prince tried to go home, but the other elves there seemed hesitant to believe he was who he said he was. It was preposterous. But eventually they saw the error of their ways. They gave him this Dwarven Axe he now held and he was currently on a mission to the dwarven stronghold of Gauntlgrym to speak of alliances with the elves against the demons of the Underdark. It was only proper that a noble such as he secure aid for his friends as they continued to fight the good fight down below.

Sladis in turn told his tale. He is Aryndren’s father, and he – like his son – was a druid dedicated to defending a temple located near the Underdark. He was captured by the drow as well. He and his wife (who he is now on a mission to rescue) we both sold into slavery. His wife was traded off just a few weeks before he managed to escape. After he escaped, he discovered a new truth about how the world worked and what his duty as a druid really was – the herd needed to be culled. That was the problem with the world – that too much weakness was allowed to unnaturally survive and that he was to cull the herd. He wasn’t long on his new mission, when he made his way to an island on the Darklake, where Providence happened him upon his own son! From there, they headed straight towards their old home, now flooded and underwater, where they battled an Aboleth for the rights to their temple. Once there, they headed into the Library of Gravenhallow, and then were teleported to here. Now, he has another mission: to rescue his wife, who was being held in Gauntlgrym by a woman named Eldath.

“Eldath!” Cried out Prince Derendil, “I know her! She was one of the slaves captured by the drow! She escaped with us! Back in Gracklstugh, she left with Ront and a bunch of humans to the surface. I’m sure she’s not engaged in slavery herself.”

Rystia also told her tale. She was a member of the Harpers, an organization dedicated to fighting evil. She was on a secret mission to locate Mantol-Derith and infiltrate the Zhentarim there. But she never found it and ended up being stuck in the Underdark for some untold time. Eventually, she gave up on her mission and tried to find a way home. But everything kept trying to kill her. Everyone she met seemed dedicated to wanting her dead. Even those who have helped her always seem to turn on her given enough time. And she was sure that even her companions here this very night would turn on her eventually. Everyone did. Everyone was out to kill her. But even so, she promised she would help find Aryndren’s mother.

Notes on The Surface World, Part 1:

Since my players decided to skip a few chapters, I had them make up some NPCs as 7th level characters so they could experience the chapters that they skipped. These characters are only intended to be played for a couple of partial sessions.

Prince Derendil was made as a totem barbarian, and the dwarven ax he wields is a berserker ax – a cursed ax that required the wielder to make a wisdom save whenever he takes damage or go into a rage. Such a rage will cause the wielder to attack *anyone* within 60 feet and he cannot quit the rage until there are no more people to attack within range. He is played by Cicero’s player.

Sladis is a Land Druid who has a permanent madness which causes him to want to cull the herd by killing and eating humanoids that need to be culled. He carries around body parts from his victims and incorporates them into his cooking. He is played by Aryndren’s player.

Rystia is a hunter ranger who has a permanent madness which causes her to believe that everyone is out to kill her. She is hyper paranoid about such matters and is very slow to trust anyone. She is played by Ron’s player.

Also, the minotard idea was shamelessly stolen from Robert Bevan.


Session 32

We got a chance to play this Sunday, so there will be two sessions this week!

After agreeing to work with Vizeran, they sat down to chat over some meals and discuss their plans.

They needed to decide which locale they would visit first: The Wormwrithings, the Labyrnth, or Menzoberanzen. After discussing the characteristics of each, they settled on the Wormwrithings. Vizeran gave them a map of the area with directions to the nearest egg nest.

This location was a vast series of tunnels creates by the purple worms themselves. Unlike the rest of the Underdark, the caverns would be easy travel – every area was going to be somewhat smooth, with 10 foot wide tunnels practically everywhere. In addition, the faezress would not bother them, as it stopped right at the edge of the area. It is uncertain whether the purple worms’ activity stops it, or if they simply chose a large area that’s unaffected and stop their own travels where the faezress starts.

Over dinner, Vizeran also made an observation that maybe these travelers, while strong, could use some extra assistance. He worshipped a deity tied to the elemental chaos below the inner planes (also known as the elemental planes). This deity of his had a strong dislike of demons, as he himself was once imprisoned by the demons. He seeks to be released from his prison, and in exchange for a promise to make an honest attempt to free him, he would grant them protection from the madness of the demon lords as well as additional knowledge in their quest.

Aryndren had a follow-up question about what the deity would do once he was released; his plan was to hunt down the demon lords on the Abyss to destroy them forever, and then close off the abyss itself permanently. Vizeran explained that the abyss was tied to the outer planes and the outlands, as all the moral planes were, but unlike the rest of the outer planes, it was also tied to the inner planes via the Elemental Chaos. It was unique in this fashion, that the Elemental Chaos helped twist the Abyss to what it is today, as well as the Abyss granting its own influence on the Elemental Chaos, which in turn twisted the Elemental Planes (aka the Inner Planes) and gave them a bit of an evil bend. His deity’s goal was to break that bond between the Abyss and the Elemental Chaos. But he could not do it from his prison, and he needed to be freed.

Cicero, the Lore Bard, agreed on the promise of greater knowledge. Ron, the Freedom Paladin, agreed on the idea of freeing an imprisoned god. Aryndren, the Moon Druid, agreed on the idea of hunting down the demon lords and sealing off the Abyss – he had dreams of ending the influence on all of the worlds and the planes forever.

They were told to each gather one element – Earth, Air, Fire, or Water – and then participate in an all-night ritual to seal the pact. Aryndren chose Air, to balance out his connection to the earth. Ron chose water, for the freedom it represents (it’s hard to trap water without it finding a way to break free). Cicero chose fire, for the passion it brings. Also, it matched his red hair.

They sat in the circle, performing the ritual for over twelve hours, and when it was complete, the number 333 etched itself on their right arm, like a tattoo. And each of them immediately gained a boon of knowledge in the element they chose.

Pact Details (my players do not read):
All three PCs immediately lost all levels of madness or insanity, freeing their minds from the influence of the demon lords. Additionally, they also are permanently protect from “nightmares” and no longer have to roll each night to see if they lose the effects of the long rest.

All three PCs immediately gained one level of Warlock, making them a 10th level character. Their patron is a homebrew, each one gaining abilities and spells based on the element chosen. From here on out, every time they go up one level, they also gain one level of warlock. This effectively makes them go up two levels at the end of each chapter until the book ends.

At the beginning of Wormwrithings, they will be 10th level. Half way though the Labyrinth, they’ll level up to 12. While in Menzoberanzen, they’ll level up to 14. After the Fetid Wedding, they’ll be 16th and ready for the Final Battle. After that, we’re going on a home brew campaign. First is the freedom of Gracklstugh, then the freedom of Vizeran’s deity (called the Chained One). After that, they’ll be off to hunt down the demon lords in the Abyss, followed up with a jaunt through the inner planes and to the elemental chaos to seal off the connection with the Abyss.

Since they’re “double leveling” each time, then they’ll keep going up in their base class as they gain levels in warlock at the same time. Once they hit level 20 in their base class, they should be level 10 in warlock. I’ll have them pick a secondary class to start off at level 1, from which they’ll keep leveling warlock until they get 20 in that class. I plan on having the homebrew campaign ending at level 50.

The next day, after the ritual and followed by a long rest, they headed off into the wormwrithings. The first day in they came across a group of Drow heading in the opposite direction they were. The two groups were going to pass each other. Ron placed a hand on the hilt of Dawnbringer, but did not draw it. Aryndren and Cicero both nodded, and the drow leader returned the nod. It seemed as if they were going to ignore each other in silence. And then Cicero spoke up.

“Hi! What are you doing in these parts?” Cicero asked perkily.

Ron sighed.

“We are hunting worm eggs. Why else would we be here?”

Cicero said they were doing the same, and promised that if he found any, he’d be happy to trade. The drow seemed to find this acceptable and they parted ways.

On day 2, they met their first purple worm. They felt the rumblings and soon saw it coming up behind them on the same tunnel they were in; its giant form filled the tunnel and it’s maw coming straight for them. Everyone booked it immediately, except Aryndren.

“What are you doing?!?” Ron bellowed to Aryndren, even as he fled.

“Wait and see.” Aryndren responded coolly.

As soon as the worm was close enough, Aryndren cast polymorph. (At this moment, Aryndren’s player declared he was going to use a Luck point, and he rolled a Nat 1; “The worm is taking this roll!”) And then the worm of enormous proportions was suddenly a tiny rat.

“All right every, let’s leave before this thing turns back. We’ve got one hour to get away from it.”

About half way to the nest, they came across a foul stench. Investigation led them to a troglodyte lair, where a civil war was ensuing. Cicero cast Comprehend Languages and soon relayed what he heard to the rest of the party – the chieftain recently ordered his men to kill a drow hunting party and they succeeded. The hunting party had a powerful magical weapon. The chieftain was claiming it as his own, but the war marshal figured it actually belonged to him as he was the one who actually killed the drow. The chieftain disagreed. The tribe quickly chose sides and were fairly evenly split. The War Marshal kidnapped the Chieftain’s wife and wanted to trade her life for the sword.

That’s when Ron decided enough was enough and walked in. Aryndren followed, and threw a bead from his Necklace of Fireballs right into the stream that split the tribe, causing no damage but forcing a lot of steam to rise up. He ran ahead of Ron to the stream and stood there until the steam faded away.

He took out some coin and showed it to the Troglodyte Chieftain, trying to mime that he would trade for the sword. The Chieftain, in Undercommon, said, “What the f!*% are you going on about?”

“Oh! You speak Undercommon! Good. I’ll give you lots of gold for that sword. What do you say?”

“Why don’t we just kill you and take it for ourselves? Everyone! Kill him!”

At that point, Ron stuffed back a chortle.

The two sides immediately forgot their animosity towards each other and started in on Aryndren. Cicero threw out an Eldritch Blast right into the Chieftain. Aryndren immediately started casting Ice Storm, which killed the Chieftain and nearly half of the troglodytes on his side of the stream.

“Ok, enough is enough,” Aryndren said. “Clearly, I can wipe you all out. That was just a single spell. I wasted a fireball just on my entrance. You are no match for me. Since we couldn’t trade peaceably, then I’m going to take this sword and leave.”

The War Marshal spoke up, “Leave the sword, and we’ll let you leave.”

At that point, Cicero started laughing.

Ron piped up, “There is no chance in hell you are going to take him out by himself, and there’s another 7 of us here.”

The War Marshal spoke up again, “Take the sword and leave, or we’ll kill you all.”

Cicero, still laughing, said, “Ok ok. We’ll take the sword and leave. Whatever you say, big guy.”

notes on the sword:
The sword is supposed to be just a +2 Longsword, but there’s a typo in the book. It reads, “+2 Long Sword. Ranged Weapon Attack…”

Since it said Ranged weapon, I decided to convert the Dwarven Thrower over to a drow longsword. It functions just like the Dwarven Thrower, except it deals extra damage against gnomes instead of giants. The lore behind the weapon is that it was crafted for the Drow battle against Blingdenstone.

They moved on.

Later that day, they found a small natural alcove off of one of the worm tunnels. Investigating it, a voice boomed out, “TURN BACK OR SUFFER A DEATH SO HORRIBLE YOU CANNOT IMAGINE! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!”

Ron replied, nonplussed, “I don’t know. I can imagine quite a few horrible deaths.”

Cicero pulled out his magical rapier, which allowed him to speak out in a booming demonic voice, “YOU DO NOT FRIGHTEN ME. SHOW YOURSELF!”

Despite that, all three of them saw a frail form hiding behind a rock. Ron pulled his sword out walked over. “Alright. Come on out of there.”

A woman came out, black skin and white hair of the drow. She was young and looked half starved. Aryndren offered her some goodberries and she ate them as quickly as she could. “Thank you,” she said, “I haven’t eaten in a few days. Sorry for scaring you, I was just trying to make you go away.”

After a little bit of discussion about why she was there to begin with, they invited her to come with them to get out of the worm tunnels. It turned out her mother was the leader of a hunting pack, and she had died along with the rest of the hunters. The young woman, Hanna, was the only survivor, and she was just trying to get home to Menzoberanzen.

The next day, a purple worm tunneled just below them, opening up a rift in the ground. Aryndren and Cicero managed to jump back just in time, but Ron fell down into a cavern that was half worm tunnel and half natural. He called up to them and Aryndren threw down a rope. Ron climbed up and told them what he saw. Aryndren made the call to investigate. The natural cavern lead back to a small room with lots of edible fungus, and they stopped to harvest. While they were harvesting, they felt the rumble of another purple worm, but decided to ignore it. After a while, they continued along the cavern. They felt another rumble, but didn’t see a worm. There was a steep slope – Ron and Cicero managed to climb up it just fine – and the turned around to watch and laugh as Aryndren seemed to struggle. He kept climbing up only to slip and slide back down the slope. Eventually, they threw a rope down to help him up.

The next area was lit by luminescent lichen, and the room was filled with bones of all sorts of creatures. Mostly humanoid, but plenty of unrecognizable creatures. The room had two side tunnels – one natural and one made by a worm. The natural tunnel lead to a room with a pit that led thousands of feet down. About thirty feet down into the pit, there was a skeleton with some gear. They dropped a line and Cicero lowered down to see what was there. The only thing of note was a magical ring (Ring of Free Action), which was given to Ron. Cicero performed an identify ritual on it, and while he was casting, they felt a third rumble, but still did not see a worm

The worm-tunnel out of the bone room lead to a significantly larger room, and as they moved in, Hanna spoke up, “This is it. This is the Purple Worm Nest.”

They found some large sticky beams that lead up from the ground at a slope, leading to the worm eggs hanging in the air. The eggs were suspended by the sticky beams (or strands). Like spider stands, but not that sticky and capable of traversing across. Aryndren climbed up one and made his way to one of the egg sacks. He started carving out an egg. Ron did the same and made his way to another egg sack to carve one out. The eggs were huge, easily three feet in diameter and a shiny silver. While they were cutting the eggs out of the stick strands, a purple worm showed up. Everyone froze, but Ron’s armor made a loud creak. The worm noticed someone was stealing his eggs, and as it went to screech, Aryndren cast Polymorph. (Again, Aryndren’s player called out that he’s using a luck point, and rolled a 4 for the worm’s save). The worm turned into a rat.

They collected two eggs and promised to give one to Hanna. Aryndren shape changed into a spider and wove some spider silk around Ron and Cicero, attaching one egg to each of them. With that, they made their way back out and started to head back to Vizeran.

Someone spoke up, “Hey, what about the beholder’s eye?”

Cicero turned to Peebles, “Hey Peebles, you’re obsessed with aberrations. Do you have a beholder’s eye in your bag?”

Peebles looked sheepish and clung his bag tighter to his body.

Cicero declared, “Yup. He’s got one. Sorry man, but we’re confiscating that. You can get another one later.”

End Session.


Session 33

Up on the surface, Sladis, Rystia, Prince Derendil, and Milo the Minotaur bard woke up after a relatively peaceful night. They discussed what to do next - Rystia and Sladis were looking for his wife, who was currently held captive by someone named Eldath.

Prince Derendil perked up at the name, claiming she was one of the people captured by the drow and who escaped with him. They soon shared their stories and learned that they were all connected through three brave men: Aryndren, Cicero, and Ron.

Prince Derendil said his mission was to head to Gauntlgrym to hand off a soecial ax as a gift to the dwarves from his elven kingdom. When he got back to the surface, he found his homeland. The other noble elves seemed reluctant to accept his title of nobility, but a solution was soon found. They assigned him to be an ambassador to the dwarves and they gave him a magical ax as a gift. He currently wields the ax as his own weapon, and when he dies so, he occasionally goes into a battle rage (the ax is the berserker ax from the DMG).

The four of them made their way to the dwarves city; it wasn't far, as the library exited Sladis and Rystia fairly close to the city.

The guards at the door were hesitant to let in two elves, a human, and a Minotaur into the city - and even more hesitant to give them directions to Eldath. Bt after a while they managed to convince them to let them in.

It took them a few hours to find Eldath - and when they did she was at first unbelieving that the elf in front of her was really Derendil. But he managed to prove himself with stories only they would know - such as what happened to Buppido - and she was ecstatic to see him returned to his true form. Conversely, she was instantly believing of sladis, and professed to have rescued his wife and employed her at the bar she owned. She had told Eldath many stories of him and Eldath was eager to meet Sladis.

They all spent the night at the bar drinking and sharing stories. The next day, they awoke to find Eldath over them, smiling. She had procured a meeting with the king for them. The king, Breunor Battlehammer, wanted to meet them and hear their tale.

They met with the the King, and after telling him their stories, he invited to to a banquet dinner. At the dinner, they were introduced to five of the major factions of the Realms. After the dinner, the king met with them privately again and told them his plan. He wanted them to go back into the underdark to help stop the demonic incursion. But first they would have to meet with the factions and win them over for support.

They managed win over support from the Harpers, the Order of the Gauntlet, and the Emerald Enclave, but not the Lords Alliance or the Zhentrim.

With the support they had acquired, they got ready to go back into the underdark. But first, they needed some magical support from the dwarves priests.

End session.


Session 34

Very short session last night, as we were more interested in the election. We're planning an extra session this week to make up for it.

After assuming that Peebles had a beholder eye, they forced him to upend his bag and empty the contents. Unfortunately for the party, Peebles did not have the central eye, only a handful of eye stalks. A bit peeved, they discussed the possibility of combining the eye stalks to see if it would have the same effect as the main eye, but Peebles reminded them that Vizeran needed the main eye for its anti magic properties, and none of the eye stalks had that ability. Angry, Cicero slapped Peebles.

They were forced to make a decision - do they head back to Vizeran's tower to return the unwieldy purple worm eggs, or venture fourth to find the Beholder's Lair. They decided to go back to Vizeran. On the way back, they had to traverse through the troglodyte territory - and the three of them made some very intimidating commentary to keep the trogs off of them.

About a day past the troglodytes, they ran into a group of Flumphs. Cicero was extremely excited, and decided to stay with the flumphs to talk to them while the rest of the party went back to the tower. Ron and Aryndren made it back without any problems, and stayed the night to get a good night's rest. Meanwhile, Hanna took her one egg and headed back to Menzoberanzen.

The next day, on the way back, Ron and Aryndren ran into the same drow hunting party they first ran into.

"Did you find any eggs?" the drow asked.

"Yes, but we only found one." Ron lied. He felt very uncomfortable about lying, and combined with the drow looking very angry for not finding them, Ron immediately suggested, "But we know the way there. Here, let me draw you a map." With that the drow were happy and took off, leaving them unscathed.

Cicero did not have an easy of a time. He spent a day and a half with peaceful bliss talking to the Flumphs, when a large two headed giant stumbled down the cave. Smelling fresh meat, it immediately charged Cicero and the Flumphs. The Flumphs scattered every which way, and Cicero cast invisibility and went to hide. Angry at the loss of food, the two headed giant ran down a corridor.

The party met back up and headed back to find the beholder. They passed by the troglodytes without incident, and came across the beholder's lair, according to their map, without incident. Once there, they felt like they were being watched. They could occasionally see an eye through a peephole or a humanoid head over a crag, but any investigation led to whoever was watching them fleeing.

Eventually, they came across a man with purple robes, holding a staff with a large eye adorning the top. The eye looked alive and moved about as if it could see on its own. The man was thin and had a shaved head, a score of eyes tattooed on his forehead.

"Greetings, wanderers. Welcome to Karazikar's Maw. Are you here to bring information or gifts to the Great Karazikar? Do you have information on the Maze Engine?"

Cicero immediately responded, "The Maze Engine? Why yes, we do! Please, lead the way to an audience with the Great Karazikar!" Although, he knew nothing of what the Maze Engine was (nor did any of them), he moved forward with confidence that they'd get to size up a beholder, treated like a god to this deranged man.

End Session.

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