Myrdynn's journey Out of the Abyss

I've been keeping my PC's story through this campaign and keeping on my dropbox. I have been sharing it with a closed group, but have decided to put it up here instead.

It goes without saying, that this thread contains SPOILERS for Out of The Abyss

This is the story so far as remembered by Myrdynn, so probably not 100% accurate. I’ve tried to avoid a turn by turn account.

I might add more detail for the PC backgrounds later, but for now I don't have easy access to them.

The main protagonists
Boriel the zealot dwarf cleric
Jorvin the morbid elven monk - leaves us at session 18 due to real life things
Ifer the do-gooder dragonborn ranger
Anton the pirate chef/thief half-elf
Myrdynn the sneaky human wizard
Hektor the savage (barbarian/druid) - Joins us once we escape the underdark.

Welby the bard: In place of Boreal while he is petrified.

The other prisoners:
Bupido the Derro
Shuushaar the fishman
Prince Derendel the elf
Sereth the drow
Stool the Myconid
JimJar the deap gnome
Unnmaed female deep gnome
Unnamed male deep gnome

Session 1 - Imprisoned

After some time being led around the darkness Myrdynn was ungraciously thrown into a jail cell with a number of other, mostly strange, creatures the like of which I had never seen. There was one dwarf that I tried to befriend, but she seemed despondent and unwilling to try to escape and I have never had much time for those who don’t want to help themselves. I spend the next few days watching and learning what I could. There is some kind of magical field that prevents any form of magic within the cell, but once out I can cast freely.

Over the next few days, more surface dwellers were added to the cell and things have become a bit more interesting. A very brief fight broke out when an elf monk threatened to punch Stool – some kind of sentient fungus. Stool has the protection of a drow prisoner named Sereth who wrestled the offending monk to the ground, pinned until hostilities had died down. A dragonborn showed that he can destroy the manacles with a blast of acid, but getting more than one or two prisoners freed this way could prove dangerous. I should be fine during the escape with manacls on as they don’t hinder my magic much and once we are away I could get the manacles off, but this could prove to be crucial for those require their hands to fight.

After some plotting and scheming, driven mostly by the latest arrivals, a half-formed plan has begun to develop. Getting out of the jail cell seems to be the least of our concerns, but fighting the whole outpost garrison would certainly be suicide. No escape is possible without rushing the two duty guards occupying the guard tower, an easily defended position. Once that is done we could jump down from the guard tower into a giant web, cut through that and fall to the water below. We’d be wet and without provisions and – most importantly – my spell book and most assuredly perused by their captors within minutes. We could try and fight our way to the lift that raised us all to the outpost from the cavern floor below, but that would likely be too slow and would require some to stay behind to operate the lift.

One of the prisoners, who claims to have been a pirate, appealed to one of the guards. The guard appears to have been disfigured and fell from the graces of the outpost commander, his motives are unknown to us but he left a key or the manacles and instructions to wait for the next shift change if we wished to escape.
Not willing to wait for a trap to be fully set Myrdynn, having conjured a lockpick, managed to pick the lock to jail cell. But was not able to do so without being noticed, though the guards did not appear to care and merely looked at the now unlocked prisoners.

Session 2 - Escape

Despite unlocking the gate I am slow to act, Boreal is first out but he attracts a shot from a drow guard that knocks him unconscious. He is quickly followed by Derendal, who shows little regard for his own safety by leaping across the opening and grabbing a window legde.

The flood gates now open, most of the prisoners rush the guard post, quickly dispatching the two guards. Jorvin confirms his hot-blooded aggression by threating Eldith for shouting her battle cry. Stealth is important, as we could not hope to face the outpost in its entirety, but I’m not sure that is the best way to deal with that. We find a good stash of weapons and armour, allowing many of the prisoners to arm themselves, and some climbing equipment.

I slice a piece of leather off one suit, a critical for spell casting since I currently do not have my staff, and immediately armour myself with my magic. Without my spellbook my abilities are limited and I managed to convince JimJar to try and find it for me. It turns out he can become invisible, a useful skill for sure, and I bet him he can’t retrieve my spellbook, with my stake being a gem I found in the outpost. It isn’t that valuable to me – certainly far less valuable than my spellbook.

The gnome turned invisible and headed out into the outpost, but the strange opening and closing of the guard post door attracted the curiosity of one of the drow captains. Desperate to buy Jimjar some time I and some of the others rushed him, a brutal fight broke out attracting the attention of a quaggoth, who was quickly dispatched but the guard captain fled – presumably to seek help.

While this was going on Sarith started a small fire and set the webs below the guard post ablaze, allowing us to jump into the pool below the waterfall to freedom, but just as those in the fight were about to leave Eldith cried out about not leaving her shield behind and ran in to the priestess’s quarters. Following her I find myself facing the biggest spider I have ever seen.

Session 3 – Flight

I find myself fighting a giant spider alongside Eldeth, until Anton joins the fight in the room. I need to buy Jimjar time to get my spellbook and Eldeth is desperate for her shield. Outside, the drow outpost comes under attack from some sort of deamon, distracting the guards from us. The rest of the prisoners call out, they’re jumping down to the pool we hope is under the waterfall. Jimjar appears with armfuls of stuff – my spellbook I hope – and heads to where everyone is jumping. Anton and I finally convince Eldeth to abandon her shield and follow us.

I jump down. Splashing, to my great relief, in a dark pool. The other escapees call to me, there is something in the water. I the dark I can only head towards their calls. Once on solid ground a summon some light, not enough to see the whole cavern, but it gives our band of escapees a central point. Shushar helps get everyone out of the pool, most importantly Jimjar, who was fighting with some unseen monster under the water. Sadly Eldeth doesn’t follow us down, and we begin a map flight east towards Sloobludop, led by Sarith and Shushar.

Once it is clear the drow aren’t following us immediately, we stop briefly to gather ourselves. Much to his credit Jimjar held onto the stuff he salvaged from the priestess’ quarters. His end of the deal complete I hand over the gem. He also has my wand, I could live without it, but components here are going to be hard to come by, so I promise him 20GP for the wand, something that he accepts. Many of us heard a voice calling us to the service of the faceless lord. My study leads me to believe this is Juiblex, the deamonlord of oozes and shapeless things. Could the monster in the pool have been an ooze?

After our brief stop, we set off at a steady pace, hoping to gather food and other supplies along the way. We are rewarded with some edible mushrooms and some that can be processed into dye for trade, without some means to carry them though, we are limited in what we can take with us.

After some time, the temperature drops and the ground begins to freeze. According to Sarith this is not uncommon. Slipping along the icy floor, we come across a body, fumbling around in the dark reveals nothing, but when I summon a light, 3 piercers drop from the ceiling attacking. We manage to quickly dispatch them while Jimjar helps himself to whatever was on the body. I try to confront him about it, but there is nothing I can really do without resorting to violence and I am unwilling to test the rest of the groups loyalties to that degree. He didn’t get everything though as I managed to find a pouch containing some dust of disappearance.

Under Sarith’s direction we find somewhere safe to stop and rest.

Session 4 – Travel

We wander through the underdark, led by Sarith and Shushar, for several days at a pace that allows us to forage as we go. We seem to do ok finding edible mushrooms and some that would make good trade goods, but our ability to carry things quickly becomes the problem.

On our third day out a deep gnome trader, mounted on a giant lizard finds us and offers to trade. We have little of value but we offer a shield, a dagger some of the dried ormu and a drow crossbow and bolts scores us some fish a bedroll and crucially two backbacks and some waterskins. Sarith tries to convince me that we cannot leave this trader to go his own way. I certainly share his fear, this gnome owes us no loyalty and could certainly gain some material wealth for simply telling our pursuers where we went, but I am not willing to stoop to cold blooded murder.

The next day we find ourselves facing a pocket of corrosive gas. Ilfer, being resistant to acid due to his draconic ancestry, pushes through to see how far it goes, it proves to be short enough that we can dash and hope for the best. I follow, but my god it burns if you inhale any, I won’t be doing that again. Ilfer and I find ourselves facing a party of duergar offering to sell us slaves. I do not like slavers but I am not sticking my neck out for anyone who isn’t trying to help themselves. Ilfer apparently feels different and things nearly escalate into a fight.

After a rest we came across an illithid named Grazilaxx. Despite what I know of Ilithids, this one seems friendly, helpful even, he claims to be a member of the society of brilliance. He offered us a map of the area we are traveling through, with just the promise that we would treat the other society member kindly. Getting the map did take some time that we could ill afford.

Another good discovery of edible mushrooms leaves us with plenty to eat for a few days. With two backpacks, we can now carry much more. This patch, is a mixture of dangerous and edible mushrooms, but my magic means that no one had to risk being poisoned while gathering the edible trillimac mushrooms. With two hours lost waiting for map and another here, our drow persuers are surely close. On the plus side, with a map and ample food we can pick up the paceuntil we reach Slubludop.

My thoughts that we might reach Slublupod without trouble are quickly dashed, when we come across some kuo-toa. Shushar converses with them in a language I can’t understand then said to us, “Hold out your hands, it appears we are to be taken prisoner again.” Shushar submits to the kuo-toa request, but the rest of us are not so meek.

Session 5 - A Fight and Almost to Safety

Not wanting to submit to captivity again all but Shushar prepare for a grim fight. The Koatoa are impetuous, charging at us with suicidal bravery. Although intimidating it proves to be a bad choice for them. Their leader appears to be a priest or shaman as he heals some of the attackers during the fight. Jimjar redeems himself somewhat in the fight, although I could not see him he was clearly by my side attacking the Koa-Toa trying to take me on.

After the fight we are left somewhat wounded and drained, but are renewed by Borieal’s prayer and faith. Ilfer detects another group of humanoids approaching from Slublidop, not a good sign in our current condition. Nevertheless, we spend a few minutes laying the bodies of the fallen Koa-Toa our with as much reverence as we can spare before leaving the battle sight.

Jimjar is nominated to go and scout on these, while the rest of us find a good spot to ambush the other group. This proves futile as the Koatoa are capable of seeing through invisibility illusions, Jimjar is quickly captured by them and leads them to us.

It turns out that there is some sort of schism in Slblodop, one faction, the one Shushar expected to encounter, followers of the Sea Mother, professes peace and co-existence, while the other follows the Deep Father and is much more violent and demands sacrifices of any other kind of humanoid they can get their hands on. It seems that surrendering to the first group would have led to us being sacrificed for the Deep Father.

This second group appeal to our sense of altruism. They wish to use us as a false offering of peace to the followers of the Deep Father and gain access to his temple in order to overthrow the Dep Father’s arch priests. Unless we fight our way out of this meeting as well, it appears we have little choice.

We accept their offer in exchange for passage on the Dark Lake and some other help. The escort us to Slublodop and give us some time to rest in their own temple before presenting is at the Deep Father’s temple. Ilfer disguises himself as a Koatoa guard, and I have managed to secret my wand away. Unlike the others, who’s bonds are loose and easily escaped, I am bound by my own conjured manacles.

Session 6 – Not so safe afterall

I grew weary of the two factions of koatoa talking and posturing I. I was also unwilling to see the results of their sacrifice. So, dropping my conjured manacles, I summoned a web, strung from the roof of the temple, to entrap the sacrifice and his two guards. This also blocked one of our flanks.

Gabbing their weapons from the friendly koatoa, the rest of my companions quickly overran a number of the hostile deep Father’s supporters, but their archpriest kept chanting her insane song. The fight took down a number of our group. Ront, Sarith and Shushar all perished in the fighting. Jorvin managed to fight his way to the Deepfather archpriest where, despite some minor injuries, Jorvin suffered some horrible backlash from some kind of protection she had up that left the monk unconscious on the floor. He did leave her in a bad way, and we were able to kill her.

Unfortunately, the Deapfather took this as the sacrifice, and some huge tentacles deamon emerged from the water. Not wanting to face this monstrosity we fled along the shore to find a boat, slipping past this deamon creature into the Darklake, now without a guide.

Following Ilfer’s sense of direction we headed towards the only humanoid he could sense. A 6 hour boat ride later and we found a solitary hut on the shore. An old woman emerged from the water and asked us what we were doing. After some negotiating we agree to bring her a humanoid heart in exchange for a compass that will take us wherever we want to go.

Session 7 - Travels on the Darklake

Barely an hour out from the hag’s hut, we are attacked by a boat of drow. A tough fight leaves us in possession of the drow’s boat, along with a hefty sum of gold and a note offering a bounty for our capture or corpses.

Bupido, during the fight, fled the boat after casting a powerful spell on one of the drow. It takes some effort to get him back into the boat after the fight, after which he is somewhat grumpy, he wants to split from the group and takes some convincing to stay with us.

The hag is not there when we return and we spend some time to rest, hoping she will return. After several hours she still hasn’t returned and we leave the corpses on her front step. Considering our debt paid.
Jimjar is quick to remind me that I owe him money while we split the loot, but at least I no longer owe him money.

Finally I have the ingredients I require to conjure my familiar. And he proves useful straight away when we come up to a submerged statue and a sarcophagus in the middle of the Darklake. Opening the sarcophagus a mummy springs out at us, along with some kind of water elemental. We do make short work of this, dispatching them quickly and searching the statue and sarcophagus we find some more treasure that could help if we ever find civilization.

Later, some giant ray like creatures start to follow us, Ilfer manages to get most of them to leave us alone, but one persists. Killing it provides us with a solid meal for the day.

Not long after that we hear a female voice in our heads begging to be let out. This leads us to the top of a submerged building with an entrance leading down. Bupido seems reluctant to go with us, but also the group is reluctant to leave him behind. Jimjar offers to stay as well, hardly belaying anyone’s trust issues.

Session 8 - Mushrooms

After resting to ensure everyone was ready we opened the tomb. Carefully checking the door revealed nothing of concern but when we opened it we were surprised when a dead body fell on us. There was nothing of particular interest on the body but his half elven features suggested that he was exploring the Underdark, or perhaps in a similar plight to ours.

The first room only hada diorama that had similar motifs to the tapestry we found earlier. We could discern nothing from this matching theme. There is a strange yellow haze that permeates the air. According to Ilfer, it is called fazeriss and this isn’t itself dangerous, but often indicates other dangers.

Heading deeper leads us to a desecrated alter room and burial charmer. My enthusiasm for loot motivates me to open one of the sarcophagi which awakened some guardians. A brief fight ensued which ended abruptly when Boreial tuned the creatures and send them fleeing back to one of the sarcophagi. After checking out the others we determined that the one the spectres fled to was in fact a secret door.

The secret room is below us and is completely dark, but when I try to cast light I find myself suddenly eight times my normal size. Something is making magic unpredictable.

The secret chamber is finely decorated and houses a large sarcophagus. As we enter another spectre rises and implies she has a use for us – possession of our bodies perhaps – but none of us are willing to let her. The fight proves tough as much of our weapons are not effective against such a monster, even my magic proves less effective.

The fight over, I start looting anything that looks valuable, the gold inlay in the walls pries out easily, but the real treasure is inside the sarcophagus. A perfectly preserved humanoid corpse is holding a sword hilt, that appears to be talking to Ilfer. Some investigation leads us to believe this is Dawnbringer, a powerful sword capable is casting light as bright as day – a potent thing in the underdark, as many creatures are sensitive to sunlight.

We seem to think that the corpse is of a Nethese, an ancient civilization powerful in the arcane arts. I would like to find out more about this civilization, but there seems to be little here to learn.

The rest of the tomb is unguarded and we find a magical bow as well. We also discover that there is a curse on the tomb, but by this time we had lifted the curse by banishing the spectres that were haunting the place.

Returning to our raft, we find that our trust in Jimjar and XXXX is not misplaced, the raft and out money is still there, though Jimjar now wields a weapon that looks suspiciously like the whip that the drow priestess used to beat us with as prisoners. He claims to have found it under the decking of the raft, but I wonder if he has been holding out since we escaped.

We decide to head to Neverlight Grove and drop off stool, he has been invaluable to us and I feel we owe him that much. Unfortunately, along the way we are swept over a waterfall, which damages the boat somewhat. I think it was only a web spell, cast to hold the raft together, that stopped us from sinking.

As we near Neverlight Grove, Stool starts to direct us, leading us to a shore, past a large mushroom forest to the hidden entrance to Neverlight Grove. There is a great sense of peace here and it is easy to forget that we are still in the Underdark.

According to Stool, we need to find the Sovereign, the leader of the grove. It doesn’t take us long to find a group of Myconids, led by Lubommob. He is welcoming and shares with us the recent news of the grove. Neveright Grove, unusually, has two Sovereigns, Filo, the newcomer and Bisido the original Sovereign of Neverlight Grove. Lubomoob tells us that there are creatures in Neverlight Grove that hurt the myconids, and the recently a group of humanoids have been taken to see Sovereign Filo.

Filo is trying to change the way the Myconids in this grove live. Every day the Myconids join in what they call melding. Under Bisido, all the Myconids meld every day but Filo wants to change that so that only the leaders of each group meld, then go and meld with their own groups separately. I am not sure what this means for them or how significant this would be, but as a group we choose to visit Bisido first.