Joseph Lieberman
First Post
Long time lurker, first time poster, thought it would be fun to relay the shenanigans our intrepid group has been up to. We finally decided to test the 5e water and I drew the short straw to DM it... and so our adventurers antics shall be recorded for all history here as punishment.
There are *spoilers a plenty* of course, so if you're saving the surprises OotA has in store for you (and there's no shortage of them!) - go away!
The Setup:
I went with standard point buy and rejected the variant humans, but gave the lame-humans an additional skill. The real twist was given the nature of the start of the campaign no player was allowed to consult the other players as to what they were making. In short, it was a blind party creation. Not only does it fit the theme, but it cuts down on some potential powergaming. My group has good habits, but I prefer not to tempt them too much.
The Result:
1 Draconian Fighter (2-H) (Her very first D&D game ever!)
1 Half-Elf Fighter (1-H)
1 Human Monk
1 Shield Dwarf Barbarian
1 Gold Dwarf Cleric... War Priest.
Apparently this means we've got nothing but FRONT LINE TANKS. I knew it was going to be a good time.
Session 1: Welcome to Hell. Please deposit all your gear in the locked box where, without a rogue (or anyone with any stealth skill at all) you're certain to never see it again.
Our party lands in their cells, pretty much naked, and throughout the setup of meeting the NPCs, their drow jailers, and each other, I begin immediately feeding them creepy dreams each night that are a portent of things to come, as well as some that are just random nonsense. Additionally they get their "one random item" which turns out to be 10 total feet of rope, 1 gold coin, and the Drac rolls a lucky club (which ends up being a giant broken ladle handle used by the Quaggoth she smuggles out during an altercation between Jimjar and the chef.
The setup out of the way the party is immediately distrustful of the two deep gnome twins and is already planning a way to kill off the Orc - who to be honest, is also planning on finding a way to ditch these do-gooding heroes somewhere soon. Otherwise they seem pretty on board with every other NPC and I am excited to see which NPCs are going to make it out of the jailbreak alive.
The Jailbreak:
The PCs take the corrupt Drow's offer for him to unlock the cell and make their break for it. However, they do NOT trust him enough to jump straight into the water below. Instead they concoct a plan to use what rope they have, tie it to the spiderweb, and lower themselves down a better way. Their lucky break is that the one place they break into before their escape has swords and 400ft of rope in it, plenty to make it all the way down and drop safely into the water below. Unfortunately I determine it will take 4 rounds to get the rope safely tied off by the only one who feels confident they can tie something safely to the spider webs: Sareth. The PCs also come up with the not very humane idea that the Koa-toa should be the first into the water. They believe he can outswim the Ooze they learn is down there and lead it away from them.
Our huge party then descends down onto the webs in pairs, Sareth gets to work, and it's no shock to anyone that 6 giant spiders make themselves known on a dangerous surface. The PCs and NPCs valiantly form a wall to protect Sareth, who is pretty much thanking Lloth that he's the guy in the back.
Things go wrong:
The whole point of this and the following session is to teach the party that the Underdark is no place to take chances. The adventurers put up a mighty fight, but its in round #1 of combat the priest takes a single blow that drops him to zero. The fighting is fierce, four NPCs are on the walkway above the players raining down bolts and Prince D, the Quaggoth is literally holding off two spiders on his own. Not much help, however, is the cowardly Ront, who immediately sells out his newfound companions and decides to take his chances with jumping into the water. Sadly he immediately fails his roll to move through the sticky webs and will be stuck there for quite a while.
Round 4 rolls around and Sareth finishes, but not before Prince D finally goes down. There's just a handful of spiders left but the players are now down their Quaggoth one man shield-wall, the H-elf fighter goes down this round. The sound of battle has now alerted the drow outpost of the escape and all hell is starting to break loose.
The 4 NPCs on the bridge yell about the impending horde of drow that is on their way and head down. Everyone is fighting with the expectation of death in their future now. They slay the final spider and try to make a break for it. The PCs picking up their two KOed teammates and trying to carry them down the rope. The plan is set in motion. The Koa-toa goes down first, the were-rat twins don't give a crap and just jump for it. Ront finally breaks free and embarrassingly rejoins the plan.
Then the drow arrive. First a half dozen bolts fired, Buppido gets caught in the web and can't break free! So does Jimjar. The barbarian grabs the fighter and tries to carry him down the rope, but fails his roll and falls into the water anyway (after all that). Everyone else manages to make a break for it. The last PC on the webbing is the monk who has a decision to make: use his action to aid Buppido or use it to aid Jimjar. He picks Jimjar and his aid roll helps him get free. Buppido gets turned into a pincushion.
While that is going on I decide to have some extra fun with the Ooze, which I have given a slight buff to for its movement speed. There's no getting away from that thing in the water, it's fueled by the power of the faceless lord! Their plan to sacrifice the Koa-toa is a success, in that the thing spends the next two rounds eating the poor guy - who refuses to fight back of course.
The PCs drag their sorry asses out of the water. The Ooze is telepathically shouting all kinds of creepy stuff at them as it eats the Koa-Toa and everyone makes a break for it.
PCs have escaped slavery. Their Condition:
Two PC KOed (Stable)
Buppido (Dead)
Wererats (Missing)
Prince D (Dead)
Koa-toa (Dead)
Everyone else: Minimal weapons (only 1 crossbow made it out intact and everyone else has either a dagger, scimitar, a couple shields, and mild armor). No food. No water. Nothing to even carry them with.
Saving Them from Total Party Wipe
It's at this moment I trigger the air-combat event. With demons crashing into their outpost the Drow turn their attention towards the new, more dangerous, invaders, figuring they'll have plenty of time to track down their slaves.
They flee north, following their original plan and make their first camp. It is then they realize their first plan needed the Koa-toa (they feel) to help get them into Sloop. Without him they decide... (ugh) to go AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE: Destination: Blingdenstone. Since Jimjar is still alive they feel that is where they will be most welcome. That's over 1 month of travel in the Underdark to get there... and I haven't read up on it recently thinking that would be the LAST place they would go. Luckily... there's plenty of death between them and their destination.
We end session 1 with a broken and battered party with the Drow hot on their heels heading north into the darkness, the madness closing in around them.
Session 2: In which we learn that unexpected critical hits can really ruin your day.
The entire purpose of Session 2 is to get them most of the way to Blingdenstone or Neverlight (they're debating which is better suddenly) while outfitting them with mildly decent gear that fits their needs at SIGNIFICANT risk to they and their NPC companions. I've generated (randomly) a series of encounters, dreams, and madness inducing things that will put their luck to the test. It starts with a long abandoned town, home to a mere 4 goblin ambushers... who fail their stealth rolls, yet still manage to one-shot the cleric. For those of you keeping score, he has now died in the first round of combat for two straight sessions. The point: To get the party a little food and water and remind them that even exploring abandoned places is dangerous. It also lets me play up the madness, since no matter how badly it was going to Goblins did nothing but laugh.... all the way till death.
The PCs take off, encountering the bizarre world of the underdark. I decide I need to level them up because I am afraid I overdid it and the Ocre Jelly I have up next will literally just wipe everyone. So I level them up after the goblins (which was a bit early, but oh well). The H-Elf fighter takes a level in Bard and I fudge the whole "where'd you learn magic suddenly" part under the caveat that it was what he was working on just as he was captured. The Barbarian takes a rogue level (still no thieves' tools). The rest level up as normal.
No need for that level up moment apparently. The war cleric finally makes himself known and practically one-shots the Jelly. Oh well, that pendulum swings both ways!
The party go on, encountering strange Koa-Toa traders. Unfortunately, the party still has basically no resources to trade. I put this here as a test to see if they felt desperate enough to resort to murder. The Draconian suggests it, but is immediately rejected by the more good aligned members of the party. Tsk. They just ask for some information and move on.
More creepy dreams for the PCs as they keep spending nights in "lit" areas of Faerzress (which I am sure I just spelled wrong). Madness numbers are growing slowly.
Madness Time!
Then they reach the horrid wailing, three party members fail their save and gain madness, the Barbarian gets his SECOND level of Madness. He's roleplaying an ever growing paranoia very well and is starting to talk of a giant mushroom... The half-elf can't take it anymore and charges down the corridor they are in shouting and yelling about the doom of us all. The party gives chase, and the noise makes it certain that the Underdark is no place to let your guard down. A rocktopus snags Ront and hauls him up to the ceiling. The entire party FAILS their spot roll against the camo of the creature. They see where Ront is, but are totally unsure what has grabbed him. They begin firing arrows up towards whatever it is, mostly missing (arrows/bows from the earlier Goblins). One round later *snap* no more Ront (He only has 15 HP afterall and he took most of that when it grabbed him initially). The party decide discretion is the better part of valor and flee. XP is awarded for seeing a lost cause and letting it go. Plus nobody liked him anyway.
Hook Horror Hunt:
The next staged event is a slightly easier version of the Hook Horror Hunt, I removed 3 of the Gnolls, but plan on the leader and his 4 minions showing up in round 5 of combat. The party fights valiantly and carefully in the enclosed space. Everything is going pretty well until the half-elf decides to go toe to toe with the Pack Lord. Two lucky and high damage hits later and the fighter is KOed. Everyone else is majorly low on HP, including the Barbarian, who despite damage reduction too a critical hit from a spear and his now down to 5 HP. Things swing in favor of the players eventually after a somewhat long and not terribly interesting fight. The half-elf stablizes and the party decides very carefully NOT to go after the two hook horrors. They, in turn, leave the party alone while they guard their nest.
I award the players the gems and some badly needed food and water.
The Boneyard Trading Company:
The party enters a cavern that is littered with bones. We're talking ankle deep or deeper. The whole thing is another ambush event, this time two minotaur skeletons. The fight immediately goes badly for the group, the initial surprise round nearly KOs the Draconian and due to the marching order the groups are pretty much evenly split between the two. The difficult terrain is wreaking havok on the slow moving dwarves and then... Welcome to Critsville. The minotaur crits his 2d12 dmg roll against - who else - the Cleric. One shot and he's out like a light and starts making (and failing) his save rolls. The next round a SECOND crit brings down the fighter/bard before he can heal the downed Cleric! The party is on their heels, the first mino goes down but the Cleric rolls a 1 and is now on the verge of death. The Dwarf NPC Eldeth dives in heroically, ignoring the attacks against her and uses her skills to stabilize the Cleric at the cost of her own life. A DM sacrifice of an NPC everyone had grown to rely on for her survival skill (Another large part of our group that is just missing). The remaining Mino KOs the Draconian but is then brought down.
With some more effort than it should take, the PCs finally get their KOed members stabilized and just rest where they are, hoping no additional skeletons are lurking in the dark. What raised them? Is the Underdark always this dangerous? What the HELL is going on? That seems to be the topic of debate while they rest up.
Nearly halfway to their destination now, the bedraggled party is full speed ahead. They run into mildly friendly deep gnome traders and for once they have the gear and money to buy things. However, the gnomes know a good deal when they see it and jack the prices up to 2.5x book (in both directions). Still, with the 200gp in gems they are able to outfit themselves with the last key vestments that most level 1 players start with. Not quite perfect, but pretty close. The rogue now has thieves tools, the draconian now has a glaive from the Gnolls. They stock up on food (water being taken care of by the priest) and decide from here on out they're just going to put in a fast pace and get to where they are going before they're dead or caught... they still haven't quite decided between Blingdenstone and Neverlight, and the fork in the road is coming up soon...
End of Session 2:
The Results:
1 Mildly well equipped party
Ront (Dead)
Eldeth (Dead)
NPCs left alive:
Stool
JimJar (Owed about 15 GP from various bets he's making with the party)
Sareth
Will any of our NPCs make it to the first city!? And where the heck will they decide to go first? Even I don't know the answer to any of these questions, but one thing I do know:
The Underdark really is a terrible place. Why would you live there!?
Ironically by sheer random chance the PCs have unwittingly killed off the most dangerous NPC threats to them. Sareth should be a fun event and he and Stool are both pushing HARD for Neverlight as the first stop
There are *spoilers a plenty* of course, so if you're saving the surprises OotA has in store for you (and there's no shortage of them!) - go away!
The Setup:
I went with standard point buy and rejected the variant humans, but gave the lame-humans an additional skill. The real twist was given the nature of the start of the campaign no player was allowed to consult the other players as to what they were making. In short, it was a blind party creation. Not only does it fit the theme, but it cuts down on some potential powergaming. My group has good habits, but I prefer not to tempt them too much.
The Result:
1 Draconian Fighter (2-H) (Her very first D&D game ever!)
1 Half-Elf Fighter (1-H)
1 Human Monk
1 Shield Dwarf Barbarian
1 Gold Dwarf Cleric... War Priest.
Apparently this means we've got nothing but FRONT LINE TANKS. I knew it was going to be a good time.
Session 1: Welcome to Hell. Please deposit all your gear in the locked box where, without a rogue (or anyone with any stealth skill at all) you're certain to never see it again.
Our party lands in their cells, pretty much naked, and throughout the setup of meeting the NPCs, their drow jailers, and each other, I begin immediately feeding them creepy dreams each night that are a portent of things to come, as well as some that are just random nonsense. Additionally they get their "one random item" which turns out to be 10 total feet of rope, 1 gold coin, and the Drac rolls a lucky club (which ends up being a giant broken ladle handle used by the Quaggoth she smuggles out during an altercation between Jimjar and the chef.
The setup out of the way the party is immediately distrustful of the two deep gnome twins and is already planning a way to kill off the Orc - who to be honest, is also planning on finding a way to ditch these do-gooding heroes somewhere soon. Otherwise they seem pretty on board with every other NPC and I am excited to see which NPCs are going to make it out of the jailbreak alive.
The Jailbreak:
The PCs take the corrupt Drow's offer for him to unlock the cell and make their break for it. However, they do NOT trust him enough to jump straight into the water below. Instead they concoct a plan to use what rope they have, tie it to the spiderweb, and lower themselves down a better way. Their lucky break is that the one place they break into before their escape has swords and 400ft of rope in it, plenty to make it all the way down and drop safely into the water below. Unfortunately I determine it will take 4 rounds to get the rope safely tied off by the only one who feels confident they can tie something safely to the spider webs: Sareth. The PCs also come up with the not very humane idea that the Koa-toa should be the first into the water. They believe he can outswim the Ooze they learn is down there and lead it away from them.
Our huge party then descends down onto the webs in pairs, Sareth gets to work, and it's no shock to anyone that 6 giant spiders make themselves known on a dangerous surface. The PCs and NPCs valiantly form a wall to protect Sareth, who is pretty much thanking Lloth that he's the guy in the back.
Things go wrong:
The whole point of this and the following session is to teach the party that the Underdark is no place to take chances. The adventurers put up a mighty fight, but its in round #1 of combat the priest takes a single blow that drops him to zero. The fighting is fierce, four NPCs are on the walkway above the players raining down bolts and Prince D, the Quaggoth is literally holding off two spiders on his own. Not much help, however, is the cowardly Ront, who immediately sells out his newfound companions and decides to take his chances with jumping into the water. Sadly he immediately fails his roll to move through the sticky webs and will be stuck there for quite a while.
Round 4 rolls around and Sareth finishes, but not before Prince D finally goes down. There's just a handful of spiders left but the players are now down their Quaggoth one man shield-wall, the H-elf fighter goes down this round. The sound of battle has now alerted the drow outpost of the escape and all hell is starting to break loose.
The 4 NPCs on the bridge yell about the impending horde of drow that is on their way and head down. Everyone is fighting with the expectation of death in their future now. They slay the final spider and try to make a break for it. The PCs picking up their two KOed teammates and trying to carry them down the rope. The plan is set in motion. The Koa-toa goes down first, the were-rat twins don't give a crap and just jump for it. Ront finally breaks free and embarrassingly rejoins the plan.
Then the drow arrive. First a half dozen bolts fired, Buppido gets caught in the web and can't break free! So does Jimjar. The barbarian grabs the fighter and tries to carry him down the rope, but fails his roll and falls into the water anyway (after all that). Everyone else manages to make a break for it. The last PC on the webbing is the monk who has a decision to make: use his action to aid Buppido or use it to aid Jimjar. He picks Jimjar and his aid roll helps him get free. Buppido gets turned into a pincushion.
While that is going on I decide to have some extra fun with the Ooze, which I have given a slight buff to for its movement speed. There's no getting away from that thing in the water, it's fueled by the power of the faceless lord! Their plan to sacrifice the Koa-toa is a success, in that the thing spends the next two rounds eating the poor guy - who refuses to fight back of course.
The PCs drag their sorry asses out of the water. The Ooze is telepathically shouting all kinds of creepy stuff at them as it eats the Koa-Toa and everyone makes a break for it.
PCs have escaped slavery. Their Condition:
Two PC KOed (Stable)
Buppido (Dead)
Wererats (Missing)
Prince D (Dead)
Koa-toa (Dead)
Everyone else: Minimal weapons (only 1 crossbow made it out intact and everyone else has either a dagger, scimitar, a couple shields, and mild armor). No food. No water. Nothing to even carry them with.
Saving Them from Total Party Wipe
It's at this moment I trigger the air-combat event. With demons crashing into their outpost the Drow turn their attention towards the new, more dangerous, invaders, figuring they'll have plenty of time to track down their slaves.
They flee north, following their original plan and make their first camp. It is then they realize their first plan needed the Koa-toa (they feel) to help get them into Sloop. Without him they decide... (ugh) to go AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE: Destination: Blingdenstone. Since Jimjar is still alive they feel that is where they will be most welcome. That's over 1 month of travel in the Underdark to get there... and I haven't read up on it recently thinking that would be the LAST place they would go. Luckily... there's plenty of death between them and their destination.
We end session 1 with a broken and battered party with the Drow hot on their heels heading north into the darkness, the madness closing in around them.
Session 2: In which we learn that unexpected critical hits can really ruin your day.
The entire purpose of Session 2 is to get them most of the way to Blingdenstone or Neverlight (they're debating which is better suddenly) while outfitting them with mildly decent gear that fits their needs at SIGNIFICANT risk to they and their NPC companions. I've generated (randomly) a series of encounters, dreams, and madness inducing things that will put their luck to the test. It starts with a long abandoned town, home to a mere 4 goblin ambushers... who fail their stealth rolls, yet still manage to one-shot the cleric. For those of you keeping score, he has now died in the first round of combat for two straight sessions. The point: To get the party a little food and water and remind them that even exploring abandoned places is dangerous. It also lets me play up the madness, since no matter how badly it was going to Goblins did nothing but laugh.... all the way till death.
The PCs take off, encountering the bizarre world of the underdark. I decide I need to level them up because I am afraid I overdid it and the Ocre Jelly I have up next will literally just wipe everyone. So I level them up after the goblins (which was a bit early, but oh well). The H-Elf fighter takes a level in Bard and I fudge the whole "where'd you learn magic suddenly" part under the caveat that it was what he was working on just as he was captured. The Barbarian takes a rogue level (still no thieves' tools). The rest level up as normal.
No need for that level up moment apparently. The war cleric finally makes himself known and practically one-shots the Jelly. Oh well, that pendulum swings both ways!
The party go on, encountering strange Koa-Toa traders. Unfortunately, the party still has basically no resources to trade. I put this here as a test to see if they felt desperate enough to resort to murder. The Draconian suggests it, but is immediately rejected by the more good aligned members of the party. Tsk. They just ask for some information and move on.
More creepy dreams for the PCs as they keep spending nights in "lit" areas of Faerzress (which I am sure I just spelled wrong). Madness numbers are growing slowly.
Madness Time!
Then they reach the horrid wailing, three party members fail their save and gain madness, the Barbarian gets his SECOND level of Madness. He's roleplaying an ever growing paranoia very well and is starting to talk of a giant mushroom... The half-elf can't take it anymore and charges down the corridor they are in shouting and yelling about the doom of us all. The party gives chase, and the noise makes it certain that the Underdark is no place to let your guard down. A rocktopus snags Ront and hauls him up to the ceiling. The entire party FAILS their spot roll against the camo of the creature. They see where Ront is, but are totally unsure what has grabbed him. They begin firing arrows up towards whatever it is, mostly missing (arrows/bows from the earlier Goblins). One round later *snap* no more Ront (He only has 15 HP afterall and he took most of that when it grabbed him initially). The party decide discretion is the better part of valor and flee. XP is awarded for seeing a lost cause and letting it go. Plus nobody liked him anyway.
Hook Horror Hunt:
The next staged event is a slightly easier version of the Hook Horror Hunt, I removed 3 of the Gnolls, but plan on the leader and his 4 minions showing up in round 5 of combat. The party fights valiantly and carefully in the enclosed space. Everything is going pretty well until the half-elf decides to go toe to toe with the Pack Lord. Two lucky and high damage hits later and the fighter is KOed. Everyone else is majorly low on HP, including the Barbarian, who despite damage reduction too a critical hit from a spear and his now down to 5 HP. Things swing in favor of the players eventually after a somewhat long and not terribly interesting fight. The half-elf stablizes and the party decides very carefully NOT to go after the two hook horrors. They, in turn, leave the party alone while they guard their nest.
I award the players the gems and some badly needed food and water.
The Boneyard Trading Company:
The party enters a cavern that is littered with bones. We're talking ankle deep or deeper. The whole thing is another ambush event, this time two minotaur skeletons. The fight immediately goes badly for the group, the initial surprise round nearly KOs the Draconian and due to the marching order the groups are pretty much evenly split between the two. The difficult terrain is wreaking havok on the slow moving dwarves and then... Welcome to Critsville. The minotaur crits his 2d12 dmg roll against - who else - the Cleric. One shot and he's out like a light and starts making (and failing) his save rolls. The next round a SECOND crit brings down the fighter/bard before he can heal the downed Cleric! The party is on their heels, the first mino goes down but the Cleric rolls a 1 and is now on the verge of death. The Dwarf NPC Eldeth dives in heroically, ignoring the attacks against her and uses her skills to stabilize the Cleric at the cost of her own life. A DM sacrifice of an NPC everyone had grown to rely on for her survival skill (Another large part of our group that is just missing). The remaining Mino KOs the Draconian but is then brought down.
With some more effort than it should take, the PCs finally get their KOed members stabilized and just rest where they are, hoping no additional skeletons are lurking in the dark. What raised them? Is the Underdark always this dangerous? What the HELL is going on? That seems to be the topic of debate while they rest up.
Nearly halfway to their destination now, the bedraggled party is full speed ahead. They run into mildly friendly deep gnome traders and for once they have the gear and money to buy things. However, the gnomes know a good deal when they see it and jack the prices up to 2.5x book (in both directions). Still, with the 200gp in gems they are able to outfit themselves with the last key vestments that most level 1 players start with. Not quite perfect, but pretty close. The rogue now has thieves tools, the draconian now has a glaive from the Gnolls. They stock up on food (water being taken care of by the priest) and decide from here on out they're just going to put in a fast pace and get to where they are going before they're dead or caught... they still haven't quite decided between Blingdenstone and Neverlight, and the fork in the road is coming up soon...
End of Session 2:
The Results:
1 Mildly well equipped party
Ront (Dead)
Eldeth (Dead)
NPCs left alive:
Stool
JimJar (Owed about 15 GP from various bets he's making with the party)
Sareth
Will any of our NPCs make it to the first city!? And where the heck will they decide to go first? Even I don't know the answer to any of these questions, but one thing I do know:
The Underdark really is a terrible place. Why would you live there!?
Ironically by sheer random chance the PCs have unwittingly killed off the most dangerous NPC threats to them. Sareth should be a fun event and he and Stool are both pushing HARD for Neverlight as the first stop
