As we’ve been playing for over a year I did a campaign recap for my group.
I thought I’d post it here.
Spoilers for OOTA and Dead in Thay.
The Road So Far
(to be read while listening to ‘Carry on my wayward son'- by Kansas)
Dear Reader, this document was penned by me, Garl Glittertgold Himself. If there are errors it’s not my fault as I was not there and anyone who says I was is a liar!
NB: Before the party began their adventures thousands of demons and several demon lords were pulled into the underdark by an unknown force. This resulted in several effects: The first is the ‘Chittering’. This causes the affected to chatter their teeth and become irrational and aggressive. The second is the brown glow (known locally as faerzess) that causes magic to malfunction. Third, a creeping insanity causing a mild schizophrenia- paranoia, exaggerated mannerisms, inability to integrate sensory inputs leading to unreliable memories of events (
so if some of this is a bit different to what some might remember it’s an effect of the demonic incursion!).
Chapter One: Fitz, Abraxus and the Druid were invited by Fitz’s old comrade in arms Baron Wyndlas to settle an issue with goblins menacing one of the baron’s villages and to investigate ruins that held some significance to the baron’s meteoric rise to office. They we soon joined by Urso and Ginni.
There was a wagon but that did not work out.
They dealt with the goblin threat and set fire to their lair (destroying and evidence that may have affected the baron) but Ginni received a serious head wound, went a bit mad and her light spells became brown. Along the way Abraxus and Ginni left the party due to philosophical differences.
During the exploration of the lair a prisoner of the goblins- adventuring cleric, joined the party.
Returning to the village the party were lauded, offered food and wine by the village Squire. With some of the party incapacitated by poisoned food and wine there was a pitched battle with bear back tactics- however the party was subdued by the treacherous Squire and his villagers (who turned out to be a chapter of the local snake cult) and sold to drow slavers.
Chapter Two: The party awoke in a place called Velkynelve- a stop over for the drow where new slaves were held until the journey to Menzoberranzan. There were several other prisoners of various races- (
luckily there were some gnomes there so they already had a head start).
After enduring the hardships of forced labour there was a demonic incursion and with the aid of a scheming drow officer the party escaped after fighting a vrock demon.
Fleeing Velkynelve and being pursued by the drow high priestess the party made for Blindingstone- a svirfneblin town beset by demonic oozes, slimes and puddings- on the advice of Jimjar the svirfneblin (
a hansom fellow if ever there were). Along the way the party navigated an immense spiders web where one of their companions was killed by spiders (Shushar the kuo-toa). There they rescued Fargaz the kender, navigated a catacomb of a fallen Netherese undead queen and defeated her ancient spirit to claim the sentient sword Dawnbringer.
During their travels along the twisting tunnels of the underdark the party had several nightmares of tentacled things from a realm of purest evil and became aware of an entity known only as Pale Night.
Along the way the party first encountered the ‘Chittering’ among their companions (Saith the drow). As the party got near Blindingstone the svirfneblin Turvy(
pleasant fellow, knew what way was up- not so lucky with the down, though) fell from a high ledge and was killed. Arriving at Blindingstone and confronting an incursion of malevolent gelatinous cubes Eldeth the dwarf was killed by a cube and was buried with honours in the catacombs.
In Blindingstone (
wonderful place, full of courageous gnomes with a fine appreciation for the important things in life) the Druid and his steed Rhonni were turned to stone by a Medusa while helping the locals. The party decided to set off with the help of a disguised Varis to Sloobudop- city of the kuo-toa to find the high priest rumoured to be powerful enough to turn the Druid back to flesh. Using a teleport portal Varis was able to activate they transported to the vicinity of Sloobudop.
Interlude One: The party briefly appeared on a halo ring encircling a brown dwarf star and an ominous feeling of dread emanating from the brown dwarf star and a sense that they were being observed by Pale Night.
Chapter Three: Arriving with a flash at the shore of the Darklake (a hundred mile wide underground lake) the party followed the coast and encounter some demon possessed drowned corpses. Arriving Sloobudop the party become embroiled in an internecine clerical conflict (
none of my business, that one). Siding with the high priest against his daughter and encountering the Squire who had sold them into slavery (himself sold into slavery) the party had it away on their toes as the ritual they disrupted had caught the attention of none other than Demogorgon.
Fleeing on the high priests own boat (a grounded lifejammer- the treacherous Squire’s life force was used to fuel the ship boat) the party fled deep into the Darklake. After sailing for many days with water running low they encountered a scuppered boat near troll infested shores with much needed supplies. During retreat from overwhelming numbers the party encountered the Glory Wolf and helped him get back to his own dimension by gaining control over a Master teleport portal node. This network had a user interface that allowed access to a local, continental, planetary, crystal sphere, and sphere cluster level. The party were able to send Glory Wolf home to his home sphere cluster (
I had a look, didn’t like what I saw so I’m not going there) and jump back to Blindingstone with the high priest.
In this encounter the party learnt that a malevolent entity known as anobyrith had been manipulating the teleport portal to it’s own ends. While sending the Glory Wolf home the image of a brown dwarf star was repeated on the user interface before Varis was able to purge the network of the obyrith’s influence. This temporarily overloaded and shut down the teleport network. It was concluded that the obyrith was Pale Night.
The Druid and Rhonni were turned back to flesh but after the encounter decided to retire from adventuring and stay in Blindingstone. Topsy(
poor thing, her brothers death really got to her- I’ll let her know he’s doing fine, sometime soon), previously outed as a wererat decided to stay in Blindingstone with her kin.
During the Battle of Blindingstone the party fought the forces of the Pudding King- emissary of Jubilex Demon Lord of Slimes. This victory stopped the threat of malevolent oozes and slimes. The party were given the key to the city as reward and the cleric decided to stay and Nanno joined the party. The party departed with a caravan heading to Gracklstugh at the behest of Buppedo. Topsy left the party a letter saying that she thought Buppedo had killed Turvey.
Chapter Four: The party left Blindingstone to go to Gracklstugh. This is where they encountered Grazilaxx the Brilliant- and ancient Mind Flayer who told the party he had met them hundreds of years ago in a place called Gravenhollow (an immense library in it’s own demi plane). It advised them to ‘help the giant’. On the way they were attacked by demons but fled through the now functioning teleport portal to Gracklstugh. The caravan was killed by the demons.
Interlude Two: On using the teleport portal the party were transported to a hellish desert landscape with a brown sun with what appeared to be a ring around it. Fending off assault by demons the party found their way back to reality and emerged in the region of Gracklstugh.
Arriving at Gracklstugh the party had cause to help a giant that had been overcome by a the Chittering and had grown a second head and was in a berserk rage. They learnt about Dr Harris Bonkers, met the dragon Themberchaud, outwitted the Keepers of the Flame who were using Themberchaud to power the immense furnaces of Gracklstughand planned to kill him a replace him with a more biddable dragon hatchling, exposed to the Deep King that his advisor was a disguised demon and made off with a goodly proportion of the dragons horde.
While freeing Themberchaud by polymorphing him into human size and sending him through a portal to the surface the party learnt that the teleport portal network had been infected by a benign fungal entity known as Auraumycos. Auraumycos was curious about the network and was integrating into his biomass (Auraumycos is many hundreds or miles across).
The party bargained with local law enforcement to track down the leaders of the Derro criminal enclave and defeated Dr Harris Bonkers (a demon who was spreading madness by magical pamphlets) while exposing Buppedo as a psychopathic killer and giving him the death he so richly deserved after confirming he was responsible for the deaths of Prince Derindil (a quogoth who claimed he was an elf prince- stabbed in the back in the escape from Velkynvelve), Shushar- pushed onto the fangs of a phase spider), Turvey (pushed off a ledge and Eldeth (pushed into a gelatinous cube).
The party had an encounter with the Stone Giant Stonekeeper who told them about the ‘Wedding’ that had been hinted that was occurring between Zuggtmoy- demon lord of fungus and Auraumycos. He also spoke of his vision of an entity known as Pale Night: an obyrith- one of the former rulers of the Abyss. This would give Zuggtmoy access to the teleport portal network and the entire planet possibly the entire crystal sphere. The party accessed another ‘Master’ teleport portal to the Neverlight Grove intending to foil the ‘Wedding’.
Interlude Three: On using the teleport portal the party were brieflytransported back to the Halo ring and saw it had increase in size as was beginning to eclipse the brown dwarf star. Then just as quick they returned to the hellish desert landscape with a brown sun with what appeared to be a ring around it- only much bigger than before. It was starting to block the dirty brown light shining on them. However the party quickly found their way back to reality and emerged in the region of Neverlight Grove.
Chapter Four: Nearing the Grove they happened on an ancient shrine to a long forgotten god Tharizdun (
that One’s a wrong ‘un). Surviving an undead assault on the shrine Nanno unleashed a ‘green wave’ when he smashed a gemstone found in the shrine. The party felt themselves be affected by some form of (as yet undisclosed magical effect).
Arriving at the Grove they discovered two factions of Myconids. One lead by Sovereign Phylo (in thrall to Zuggtmoy) and one free willed (lead by Sovereign Basidia). Phylo was preparing for a symbolic ‘wedding’ of Zuggtmoy and Auraumycos. This would give Zuggtmoy access the teleportation portal network.
Sarith (who was infected with demon spores finally went mad and was knocked unconscious by Fitz). Stool the myconid was reunited with his fellows and was disconcerted with the aberrant behaviour of his kinfolk.
During an attempt to prevent the wedding the party were attacked by the drow who had finally caught up with them. At the same time Zuggtmoy sent two emissaries to stop the party preventing the wedding. These we swiftly dispatched and with the route to the wedding clear the party pressed on but were halted by a being off pure entropic evil- not a demon but clearly intending to stop the party preventing the wedding- the allegiance of this being is still unknown.
With the entropy entity dealt with and Fitz’s sacrifice of the sword Dawn Bringer pining the Master teleport portal closed the wedding was stopped and the teleport portal network was permanently shut down on a crystal sphere level and Zuggtmoy’s plan thwarted. The party were shown a way to the surface by a grateful Sovereign Basidia.
Jimjar, Sarith, Stool and Carry stayed in the underdark as the party found their way to the surface.
Chapter Five: Back on the surface the party decided to head to Gauntlgrym to tell the King of the dwarves about the demons, seek counsel and give news of Eldeths death.
On the way they encountered a magical marching forest. Trolls, forced out of the underdark by the demonic menace had found conflict with the local firbolgs and their resultant use of fire against the trolls had made the locale treants shift the forest northwards into the path of a humanoid town- this would have resulted in the destruction of the town.
Through force of arms and negotiation the party drove off the trolls, brokered peace with the firbolgs and treants, gained the friendship of the Emerald Enclave and part ownership of tavern who’snow owner was saved from the trolls cooking pot.
In the town at the market meet they met a portly human- this way the human shape Themberchaud was polymorphed into. He was furious as he could not turn back but was apparently powerless and was left behind in impotent rage.
From the town the party headed westwards towards Guantlgrym with a caravan meeting the renowned Kenku weapons master Savinien de Kyranno, de Bergost and the Blood magician Chakka D’mous and his Articifer companion Pliers (
stout fellow, a wonderful example to young gnomes everywhere!). Here the party learnt of the route to Gauntlgrym and engaged in what professional training they could.
During this few weeks of travel the party was approached three times by Raephiel Helspont. Granny Magda and Nathaniel Kiddkil with an offer of supernatural aid is return for a future service. The party rebuffed each advance; and with good cause: each of them was an aspect of Pazuzu- demon lord of the first layer of the Abyss (later discover to be possibly an obyrith) and the lower aerial kingdoms. For some reason this demon had not been forced out of the Abyss and had offered to help the party- the reason for this was not known.
Chapter six: Heading east to Gauntlgrym across open lands the party was attacked by landsharks, harried by gnolls who tracked them for days and Nanno was killed and eaten by a chimera. Dealing with the Gnolls and moving on the party encountered a magical tower that only exists at night.
Moving through the forest and nearer the mountains known as the Craggs the party dealt with fey threats and found a new friend in the form of Iouna, her companion Atlus and two old friends the orc Ront and Fargaz. With friends old and new the party began to climb the foothills to the route to Gauntlgrym.
After a challenging climb, a one sided combat with an eagle the party found the remnants of a dwarf forward camp, destroyed by an obviously dangerous beast. Moving into the mountains a dwarf warrior, half crazy with PTSD told the party of a creature of iron and blood on wheels who killed his companions. He was given healing and confirmed the route to Gauntlgrym.
Next the party found the dread beast already killed: bitten in half. Soon, the owner of the jaws glided out of the living rock and battle was joined with an adult cave dragon. The victory was hollow as the dwarf, Iouna and Atlus were killed.
Upon reaching a vast crevasse the party followed the dwarfs directions and came to a ruined bridge being repaired by drow. Choosing the perfect moment that party overwhelmed to drow and forced their priestess to raise Iouna from the dead. Traversing the bridge they entered the gates of Gauntlgrym.
Chapter Seven: Arriving at Gauntlgrym the party were reunited with Jimjar (
that one! He’s everywhere you want to be!), Sarith and Carry. And soon discovered that they were one of many groups of people driven to action and drawn to Gauntlgrym by the demonic incursion.
At audience with Breunor Battlehammer (
not a bad chap for a notagnome) it was decided that the party’s task (among the many quests the various teams were given) was to uncover the reason for the demonic incursion and that the best chance was at Gravenhollow- a magical library that exists within it’s own demi plane; separate from space and time but it was not known how to access it.
As luck would have a wizard from the Thay Resurrectionist movement had independently petitioned Breunor for aid in her insurgency activity within the nation of Thay. The wizard had access to the ‘Doomvault’. This existed in it’s own demi plane but with a functioning closed circuit teleport portal network that might be used to access the demiplane of Gravenhollow. Here, the wizard maintained was Shazz Tam’s lair with his lich’s phylactery and possibly a way to access the demiplane of the Gravenhollow library.
The Resurrectionist teleported the party into the Doomvault in a region seemingly constructed to test the fitness and intelligence of the demons held captive there. Areas were cut off from each other by white gates that acted as physical barriers.White crystal keys could attune themselves to zones to open them but ran the risk of burning out if used by people untrained in their operation.
There are also black gates that allow access to a closed circuit teleportation network to move from area to area in the Doomvault.These required black crystal keys to operate. But significantly also gives the keyholder access to a user interface for the same teleport portal network the party used when in the underdark (and subsequently shut down by the sword Dawn Bringer). This user interface was the same as the one encountered when sending the Glory Wolf to his home world and the Master teleport portal (in the Stone Speaker’s hall and the one held shut by Dawn bringer).
The party decided not to investigate the teleport portal user interface any further and continue to scour the Doomvault for a way to find Sazz Tam’s phylactery room and information for finding a way to Gravenhollow.
Any questions or queries please direct your prayers somewhere else.
Himself
Garl Glittergold. 
