8th session:
A friend of ours joined for this session as the deep gnome rogue "Schnetherti".
Day 37-40
The party prepared for leaving the shore. As they started to push the rowboats into the water, sounds from the tunnel emerged. No one wanted to fight demons or an illithid again, so everybody hurried up. Running out the tunnel came a dwarf and a deep gnome. Upon seeing the PCs and their boats they screamed and asked for help. As neither, Eeria or Vanya stopped pushing the boats, the dwarf took the deep gnome and ran over the water (ring of waterwalking). He caught up with the boats rather quickly and threw the deep gnome and himself into one. It was at this moment, that 8 dratches, 2 hezrous and 2 vrocks emerged from the tunnel. Everybody rowed as fast as they could. Veldyn cast burning hands for further acceleration (like a jet engine). The demons did not follow.
After a little while the party stopped. To the surprise of everybody the waterwalking dwarf turned out to be Thar’dens long lost brother Filgeal. He told the party that he was searching the Underdark for their sister who was followed by cultists. Thar’den and Filgeal hugged each other and talked a bit. The deep gnome told the party she was called Schnetherti and that she had accompanied Filgeal for the better part of the last two weeks. The PCs decided to keep rowing in shifts and not take a proper long rest until they crossed the Darklake.
Vanya got a telepathic message in abyssal that urged her to believe in herself and her powers. Nobody in the party knows about this.
During the first “night” Thar’den had vivid hallucinations of his siblings, seeing their images in the lake. As a result his mind slipped. He donned his armor, took his weapon and shield and stepped into the Darklake. Eeria (who was awake at the time) managed to get a hold of him, as a water weird emerged and started grabbing Thar’den. It pulled Thar’den into the lake and started fighting with the party. The fight ended without much damage to the PCs after just a few rounds. Eeria and Vanya jumped immediately into the lake, light being cast on their weapons. They dived and searched for Thar’den but were not able to find him. Filgeal who was sleeping on the other boat didn’t realise what happened at first. When a very wet and depressed Eeria told him Thar’den probably drowned he was shocked. Eeria, mistaken his silence for a lack of emotions slapped him. Filgeal, now shocked even more, tried to hit her with his warhammer. He missed and hit the boat. A short brawl ensued, during which one rowboat caught fire and was destroyed mainly by missed weapon attacks. Everybody besides Filgeal got into the other boat, which barely stayed above water. Calmed down, Filgeal started to mend the broken rowboat. The party made sure Eeria and Filgeal were on different boats.
During the next three days nothing important happened, as a slightly depressed party of 6 (plus Ebert) crossed a big part of the Darklake.
Day 41-43
The party approached the eastern end of the gigantic cavern that they know as Darklake. As there was no shore or tunnel the PCs followed the cavern wall for a while. They encountered a floodgate with a hand-sized button on the right. As they pressed it, the gate opened and water started to flood into a tunnel behind it. The boats were pulled into the tunnel that was descending 45 degrees vertically. The PCs tried to hold on to their boats, but Veldyn, Vanya and Filgeal were thrown overboard. Filgeal, able to walk on water, managed to grab Veldyn and Vanya. It took the party a while to reunite, but (especially thanks to Filgeals ring of waterwalking) nobody drowned.
The party traversed an enigmatic flooded tunnel system, realising the Darklake is more than a single big lake. After roughly two days they left the tunnels again and were in another large cavern. As “evening” approached it became very foggy. The PCs could hear another boat approaching but were unable to see anything. As the noises passed, the characters could hear gargling voices. Thinking that these are voices of Kuo-Toa the PCs remained silent. After some more paddling the party finally saw a tunnel leading out of the water onto dry land. Eeria destroyed the rowboats in a depressed rage.
Day 44-46
The party aimed for Blindgenstone, failing most of their navigation checks.
Vanya was again contacted telepathically in abyssal. The voice promised her help and that no one will suffer anymore. Then Vanya saw a small bat that dropped a coin in front of her. The coin has an inverted triangle on it. She took it. Nobody in the party knows about this.
At the third day they saw 8 tall creatures at the end of a tunnel. One creature slowly approached the party. The Duergar on top of a steeder greeted the party in undercommon, started to speak with Schnetherti and proposed to trade with them. Eeria, angry, sad and not speaking undercommon walked away. At the end of the tunnel two Duergar on steeders tried to stop her (not attacking her). Furious about this, Eeria attacked them. The rest of the party rushed towards Eeria. After seeing their leader and two archers killed, the remaining Duergar started to flee, taking most of the steeders (pack animals) with them. During the fight Vanya managed to get on top of a female steeder. She tried to steer the giant spider into the direction of the fleeing Duergar but after an initial success the creature threw her off. After the fight the party looted the dead Duergar and one dead pack animal. They all find +1 maces and +1 hand crossbows, as well as more black coins, ammunition and some golden trinkets. Additionally the Duergar merchant wore a mithril chain mail.
GM notes:
On the Darklake, the PCs took turns rowing. In the meantime the other PCs “rested”. As this results in shifts of roughly 1h rowing and 2h resting per character they did not get exhaustion. The players argued well that 16h of “resting” per day are enough to compensate the long rests. The only thing I did was to adjust their travel speed to fast, which results in harder perception and stealth checks etc.
The demon lord who contacted Vanya telepathically is Fraz-Urb’luu, the Prince of Deception. He is aware that Vanya is an Aasimar who lost touch with her angelic guardian and wants to trick her into becoming an agent of chaos. He sent Vanya a token to use as a new spellcasting focus. He knows, that Vanya would not follow a demon lord, but wants to make her believe that he is a helpful and good being. Fraz-Urb’luu is already trapped in a black jewel in Mantol-Derith. He needs powerful allies to free him from his prison. Vanya is one of the beings he reaches out to.
I use an alternative currency for the Underdark: black and grey coins (basically GP and SP). There is an exchange rate (that the PCs are not yet aware of) of 10:1. Only races/merchants that trade with dwarves or humans is willing to take GP/SP. Bad rolls during trade negotiations result in high exchange rates. On the other side the Underdark economy is flooded with cheep and magical weapons and gemstones, as Duergar and Svirfneblin make most of their money with selling those. Because the party decided to avoid Gracklstugh they could not benefit from trading with the Duergar so far. The traders at the end of the session were supposed to give them an understanding of the Underdark economy – sadly the encounter resulted in a fight where most of the steeders (packed with magical weapons and armor) fled.
Vanya nearly took control over a (tame) giant spider but sadly had a very bad roll on the final animal handling check. She also failed a dexterity saving throw and was thrown off. The party remains without a mount. Too bad, I would have liked a fallen Aasimar paladin riding a giant spider. Maybe there will be another chance in the future.
I spoke with some players after the session. The overall moral seems to be at an all time low. Thar’dens death/suicide was not well perceived. I don’t know if I did a bad job GMing and setting the scene during the last session or if the gritty campaign and harsh environment is getting under the skin of some players. I guess we need to address this before next session. I do not want anyone to be frustrated or unhappy with the way our campaign goes. Thankfully the party is on its way to Blindgenstone where more heroic adventures with “good” characters (that speak common, yey!) await. Probably a good idea for the party at the moment.
A friend of ours joined for this session as the deep gnome rogue "Schnetherti".
Day 37-40
The party prepared for leaving the shore. As they started to push the rowboats into the water, sounds from the tunnel emerged. No one wanted to fight demons or an illithid again, so everybody hurried up. Running out the tunnel came a dwarf and a deep gnome. Upon seeing the PCs and their boats they screamed and asked for help. As neither, Eeria or Vanya stopped pushing the boats, the dwarf took the deep gnome and ran over the water (ring of waterwalking). He caught up with the boats rather quickly and threw the deep gnome and himself into one. It was at this moment, that 8 dratches, 2 hezrous and 2 vrocks emerged from the tunnel. Everybody rowed as fast as they could. Veldyn cast burning hands for further acceleration (like a jet engine). The demons did not follow.
After a little while the party stopped. To the surprise of everybody the waterwalking dwarf turned out to be Thar’dens long lost brother Filgeal. He told the party that he was searching the Underdark for their sister who was followed by cultists. Thar’den and Filgeal hugged each other and talked a bit. The deep gnome told the party she was called Schnetherti and that she had accompanied Filgeal for the better part of the last two weeks. The PCs decided to keep rowing in shifts and not take a proper long rest until they crossed the Darklake.
Vanya got a telepathic message in abyssal that urged her to believe in herself and her powers. Nobody in the party knows about this.
During the first “night” Thar’den had vivid hallucinations of his siblings, seeing their images in the lake. As a result his mind slipped. He donned his armor, took his weapon and shield and stepped into the Darklake. Eeria (who was awake at the time) managed to get a hold of him, as a water weird emerged and started grabbing Thar’den. It pulled Thar’den into the lake and started fighting with the party. The fight ended without much damage to the PCs after just a few rounds. Eeria and Vanya jumped immediately into the lake, light being cast on their weapons. They dived and searched for Thar’den but were not able to find him. Filgeal who was sleeping on the other boat didn’t realise what happened at first. When a very wet and depressed Eeria told him Thar’den probably drowned he was shocked. Eeria, mistaken his silence for a lack of emotions slapped him. Filgeal, now shocked even more, tried to hit her with his warhammer. He missed and hit the boat. A short brawl ensued, during which one rowboat caught fire and was destroyed mainly by missed weapon attacks. Everybody besides Filgeal got into the other boat, which barely stayed above water. Calmed down, Filgeal started to mend the broken rowboat. The party made sure Eeria and Filgeal were on different boats.
During the next three days nothing important happened, as a slightly depressed party of 6 (plus Ebert) crossed a big part of the Darklake.
Day 41-43
The party approached the eastern end of the gigantic cavern that they know as Darklake. As there was no shore or tunnel the PCs followed the cavern wall for a while. They encountered a floodgate with a hand-sized button on the right. As they pressed it, the gate opened and water started to flood into a tunnel behind it. The boats were pulled into the tunnel that was descending 45 degrees vertically. The PCs tried to hold on to their boats, but Veldyn, Vanya and Filgeal were thrown overboard. Filgeal, able to walk on water, managed to grab Veldyn and Vanya. It took the party a while to reunite, but (especially thanks to Filgeals ring of waterwalking) nobody drowned.
The party traversed an enigmatic flooded tunnel system, realising the Darklake is more than a single big lake. After roughly two days they left the tunnels again and were in another large cavern. As “evening” approached it became very foggy. The PCs could hear another boat approaching but were unable to see anything. As the noises passed, the characters could hear gargling voices. Thinking that these are voices of Kuo-Toa the PCs remained silent. After some more paddling the party finally saw a tunnel leading out of the water onto dry land. Eeria destroyed the rowboats in a depressed rage.
Day 44-46
The party aimed for Blindgenstone, failing most of their navigation checks.
Vanya was again contacted telepathically in abyssal. The voice promised her help and that no one will suffer anymore. Then Vanya saw a small bat that dropped a coin in front of her. The coin has an inverted triangle on it. She took it. Nobody in the party knows about this.
At the third day they saw 8 tall creatures at the end of a tunnel. One creature slowly approached the party. The Duergar on top of a steeder greeted the party in undercommon, started to speak with Schnetherti and proposed to trade with them. Eeria, angry, sad and not speaking undercommon walked away. At the end of the tunnel two Duergar on steeders tried to stop her (not attacking her). Furious about this, Eeria attacked them. The rest of the party rushed towards Eeria. After seeing their leader and two archers killed, the remaining Duergar started to flee, taking most of the steeders (pack animals) with them. During the fight Vanya managed to get on top of a female steeder. She tried to steer the giant spider into the direction of the fleeing Duergar but after an initial success the creature threw her off. After the fight the party looted the dead Duergar and one dead pack animal. They all find +1 maces and +1 hand crossbows, as well as more black coins, ammunition and some golden trinkets. Additionally the Duergar merchant wore a mithril chain mail.
GM notes:
On the Darklake, the PCs took turns rowing. In the meantime the other PCs “rested”. As this results in shifts of roughly 1h rowing and 2h resting per character they did not get exhaustion. The players argued well that 16h of “resting” per day are enough to compensate the long rests. The only thing I did was to adjust their travel speed to fast, which results in harder perception and stealth checks etc.
The demon lord who contacted Vanya telepathically is Fraz-Urb’luu, the Prince of Deception. He is aware that Vanya is an Aasimar who lost touch with her angelic guardian and wants to trick her into becoming an agent of chaos. He sent Vanya a token to use as a new spellcasting focus. He knows, that Vanya would not follow a demon lord, but wants to make her believe that he is a helpful and good being. Fraz-Urb’luu is already trapped in a black jewel in Mantol-Derith. He needs powerful allies to free him from his prison. Vanya is one of the beings he reaches out to.
I use an alternative currency for the Underdark: black and grey coins (basically GP and SP). There is an exchange rate (that the PCs are not yet aware of) of 10:1. Only races/merchants that trade with dwarves or humans is willing to take GP/SP. Bad rolls during trade negotiations result in high exchange rates. On the other side the Underdark economy is flooded with cheep and magical weapons and gemstones, as Duergar and Svirfneblin make most of their money with selling those. Because the party decided to avoid Gracklstugh they could not benefit from trading with the Duergar so far. The traders at the end of the session were supposed to give them an understanding of the Underdark economy – sadly the encounter resulted in a fight where most of the steeders (packed with magical weapons and armor) fled.
Vanya nearly took control over a (tame) giant spider but sadly had a very bad roll on the final animal handling check. She also failed a dexterity saving throw and was thrown off. The party remains without a mount. Too bad, I would have liked a fallen Aasimar paladin riding a giant spider. Maybe there will be another chance in the future.
I spoke with some players after the session. The overall moral seems to be at an all time low. Thar’dens death/suicide was not well perceived. I don’t know if I did a bad job GMing and setting the scene during the last session or if the gritty campaign and harsh environment is getting under the skin of some players. I guess we need to address this before next session. I do not want anyone to be frustrated or unhappy with the way our campaign goes. Thankfully the party is on its way to Blindgenstone where more heroic adventures with “good” characters (that speak common, yey!) await. Probably a good idea for the party at the moment.
