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[CAMPAIGN] Out of the Abyss [SPOILERS]
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<blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 6817177" data-attributes="member: 5834"><p><strong>Further into the Garden of Welcome</strong></p><p></p><p>This is a section of narrative DMing with some Madness Checks for the characters. I did not feel the fights would have been challenging enough to run and the fight with Demon Queen of Fungi at this level in her home would have been death. I chose to handle this with a hopefully interesting narrative combining what is in the module and adapting some of it to my particular set of PCs. Feel free to use it in your campaign adapting it to your group of PCs.</p><p></p><p>____________________</p><p></p><p>You destroy the Garden of Welcome with spell and weapon progressing deeper into the place beyond driven forward by Destrian’s rage at the blasphemy of a place that would cause the dead to suffer so before dying and still not allow them a proper burial. </p><p></p><p>Near where the drow woman died, you find her belongings: +2 studded leather armor, +2 shortsword, bag of holding containing 2 scrolls (remove curse and spider climb), 40 days rations, and 320 silver pieces. You retrieve them and press on.</p><p>Just past the garden you come upon the following sight. </p><p></p><p>Echoes spill from the misty cavern beyond, a cacophony of wheezing voices that wrap together like some kind of discordant music. The remaining heads planted in the Garden of Welcome begin to croak and groan, joining the horrible song.</p><p>Through the mist that shrouds the smaller cavern, you see the parade of creatures responsible for the melody. Their bodies are only vaguely humanoid, with clusters of luminescent lichen and tumescent growths forming chaotic patterns on their decaying flesh, their voices stabbing into your minds, both insane and gleeful in equal parts:</p><p></p><p><em>From rocky bed the toadstool rose, </em></p><p><em>From chaos dark, her love She shows.</em></p><p><em>Wish! Yearn! Laugh!</em></p><p><em>The Lady will be wed!</em></p><p><em>Crave! Hunger! Dance!</em></p><p><em>Her joyous spores will spread!</em></p><p><em>Youth is gone, beauty rots,</em></p><p><em>Araumycos and Zuggtmoy!</em></p><p><em>joined together, heart to heart,</em></p><p><em>Becoming one 'til death do part!</em></p><p><em>Hail! Haifl Hail!</em></p><p></p><p>You watch rapt as the thralls enact a mock wedding, with a chamberlain and a bridesmaid standing in for Araumycos and Zuggtmoy. Spore servants go into the burning garden taking up the pieces of f Yestabrod and carry its corpse, moving it like a puppet to play out the part of priest. At this point of the ceremony, you experience a vision.</p><p></p><p>The tableau of the mock wedding is replaced by a vision of the inside of a great tower. Spiraling stairs and balconies are carved into its walls, with the interior lit by phosphorescent patches of mold growing in whorls. In the center of the open space floats a humanoid figure, womanlike in form, but made entirely of fungi and mold. She is easily three times the height of the fungal bridesmaids that move up and down the spiraling stairs, tending to their giant mistress. They croon a strange, soothing song as they weave the substance of the giant figure into delicate lichen veils and a long, mycelium train like a bridal gown.</p><p></p><p>The vision ends when the ceremony does. After which the creatures file solemnly back to Yggmorgus.</p><p></p><p><strong>Madness Check:</strong> DC 10 Wisdom save.</p><p></p><p>You follow them to Yggmorgus, a mushroom of titanic proportions. </p><p></p><p>The cavern around Yggmorgus is huge. and the giant mushroom nearly fills it from floor to ceiling. You have no clear reference to judge the towering mushroom's size at this distance. Thousands of smaller fungi cling to the main stalk, which itself splits into several lesser stalks, each long enough with a cap big enough to be the top of a great tower. The cavern floor surrounding the stalk is covered by a carpet of fungi.</p><p></p><p>An eerie luminescence pours through slitted windows carved into the trunk, with the same cacophony of atonal music heard earlier echoing within. A stench of rot and decay wraps around you, seemmgly threatening to penetrate your flesh and pervade your soul.</p><p></p><p>Yestabrod's Garden of Welcome is a pale reflection of the true horrors surrounding Yggmorgus. A 20-foothigh crescent-shaped ledge hugs the cavern wall and gradually slopes down to the lower basin. The ledge is covered with a carpet of moss and fungi, scores of variously sized lumps, and pockmarks where pools of vile fluids suppurate and ooze, some drying out and scabbing over.</p><p></p><p><strong>Madness Check:</strong> DC 10 Wisdom save.</p><p></p><p>Characters can discern the shapes of writhing creatures inside each lump. Most of these are humanoids, though a few of the lumps are occupied by what appear to be gricks, nothics, and giant spiders.</p><p></p><p>This is the Great Garden of Rot, nourished both by the creatures subsumed within it and the faerzress pervading this cavern.</p><p></p><p>As if on cue, one of the lumps closest to the characters bubbles up and bursts. A dense cloud of spores and dark, reeking fluid explodes outward. Even as the characters hear a piercing scream of agony and terror. Inside the pockmark left behind by the burst is a drow scouts or at least what's left of him. Other than a face, long white hair, and a breastplate, it is impossible to distinguish where the drow ends and the rot and fungi consuming him begins. The drow feebly thrashes, his screams rising ever higher in pitch, until he locks eyes with Destrian and abruptly stops screaming. A brief moment of lucidity replaces his terror, even as his eyes roll back into his head in some kind of bizarre euphoria as he goes limp and slowly sinks back down into the fungal muck. </p><p></p><p><strong>Madness Check:</strong> Characters witnessing this must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or gain one level of madness.</p><p></p><p>Throughout the entire cavern. loud moans and cries of agony answer the drow's screams in a terrifying and deafening chorus, drowning out all other sounds until eventually winding down into a low susurration of groans and burbles. The entire stalk of the giant Mushroom seems to shudder, almost as if in delight.</p><p></p><p>Destrian and Tytus enraged by the spectacle rush forward slaying the sickening creatures. The rest of you follow descending into the lower basin down the squishy, foul ground that slopes into the huge cavern that houses Yggmorgus.</p><p>Scores of deformed creatures dance around the base of the giant fungal tower. The revelers are a motley collection of humanoids and various other creatures, all sporting tumors, cankers, and putrid patches of flesh over their bodies. They are joined by dancing fungi vaguely shaped and twisted into forms resembling humanoids. Some of these creatures are spore servants enthralled to the Demon Queen of Fungi. Others are myconids and other fungal life forms infested with Zuggtmoy's spores.</p><p></p><p>The dancing creatures pay no attention to you until you join Destrian and Tytus as they slaughter them. They are no match for your burning rage.</p><p></p><p>Voices can be heard cackling and chatting amiably about Sovereign Phylo's success at "bringing so many new guests to attend the party!" You see drow dancing as if their bones were melting, duergar roaring with mock merriment and vomiting slime, and even nothics laughing madly as they leap and caper.</p><p></p><p>You observe the mad dance seeing a form rising up out of the fungal muck. It is the drow scout whose terrible end they just witnessed, wading out to join the other revelers in their mad dance.</p><p></p><p><strong>Madness Check:</strong> DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or gain one level of madness.</p><p></p><p>You’ve come too far to halt now. You must see what is in the tower, at least some of you must. </p><p></p><p>You enter Yggmorgus, the home that Zuggtmoy, the Demon Queen of Fungi, has carved for herself inside the great mushroom. The general layout is simple enough, with the hollowed stalk of the mushroom making a towering central hall.</p><p>Zuggtmoy floats within its center, surrounded by spiraling balconies where her growing number of bridesmaids attend her, singing as they weave her bridal gown to prepare for the fateful wedding day.</p><p></p><p>You come face to face with Zuggtmoy attended by twelve bridesmaids o fZuggtmoy She seems deep in meditation as her gown and veil are being prepared. She doesn't move.</p><p></p><p>Her bridesmaids shoo you off using spores for rapport, “Go, go, you mustn’t see the bride before the wedding.” They wail and scold about how it is unlucky for them to see the bride before it is time. </p><p></p><p>Dar, Apothicas, and Jharzzle have seen enough. Even Destrian and Tytus are momentarily stunned by the immense person of Zuggtymoy floating out of reach of weapons as though she is not bound by the gravity that binds all living things. The wiser of you know that challenging such a being in her home is akin to suicide and a failure of your quest. You know not what she can do and her allies appear limitless in her home. </p><p></p><p>Jharzzle pulls his brother back, “Tytus we cannot challenge such power in its home. We must flee.”</p><p></p><p>Dar grabs Destrian, “Priest, now you know what evil walks under the world. Let us not fight it in its home. We are not yet ready. We must leave. It is enough that you have allowed your god to see the evil afoot in the Underdark. That is likely why your god sent you because it could not see this evil without a follower or some aspect of his domain within sight of it. Let Kelemvor decide your next course of action rather than let you suffer this end.” He points to the surroundings.</p><p></p><p>You leave this place without awakening the Demon Queen of Fungi. You bring news of the horror to Basidia. He responds, “We cannot stay. The Grove is lost to us.”</p><p></p><p>You and the Myconids loyal to Basidia including Stool and Rumpadump depart from Neverlight Grove. You travel together for a time until your paths dissect. Basidia says, “We Myconids have not much power to withstand the evils you face. I am sorry we cannot be of more aid. I will give you what I can to help you.” He gives you each a mushroom gourd filled with a <em>potion of greater healing</em> and a moldy scroll of <em>protection against fiends</em>. “It is not much. These draughts heal living creatures. This scroll has words upon it that will protect you from fiends from the otherworld. If ever we meet again, know that you will be welcome with our people should any of us survive the infestation. We thank you again.”</p><p></p><p>Before the Myconid depart, Stool gives Eraxis as human-like a hug as he is capable of. The Myconids depart into the darkness.</p><p></p><p>Now you know you must find Gravenhollow. There if the giants are right and Apothicas speaks true, you will find knowledge that will reveal the fullness of the events you have witnessed and perhaps give you insight how to fight against it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celtavian, post: 6817177, member: 5834"] [b]Further into the Garden of Welcome[/b] This is a section of narrative DMing with some Madness Checks for the characters. I did not feel the fights would have been challenging enough to run and the fight with Demon Queen of Fungi at this level in her home would have been death. I chose to handle this with a hopefully interesting narrative combining what is in the module and adapting some of it to my particular set of PCs. Feel free to use it in your campaign adapting it to your group of PCs. ____________________ You destroy the Garden of Welcome with spell and weapon progressing deeper into the place beyond driven forward by Destrian’s rage at the blasphemy of a place that would cause the dead to suffer so before dying and still not allow them a proper burial. Near where the drow woman died, you find her belongings: +2 studded leather armor, +2 shortsword, bag of holding containing 2 scrolls (remove curse and spider climb), 40 days rations, and 320 silver pieces. You retrieve them and press on. Just past the garden you come upon the following sight. Echoes spill from the misty cavern beyond, a cacophony of wheezing voices that wrap together like some kind of discordant music. The remaining heads planted in the Garden of Welcome begin to croak and groan, joining the horrible song. Through the mist that shrouds the smaller cavern, you see the parade of creatures responsible for the melody. Their bodies are only vaguely humanoid, with clusters of luminescent lichen and tumescent growths forming chaotic patterns on their decaying flesh, their voices stabbing into your minds, both insane and gleeful in equal parts: [I]From rocky bed the toadstool rose, From chaos dark, her love She shows. Wish! Yearn! Laugh! The Lady will be wed! Crave! Hunger! Dance! Her joyous spores will spread! Youth is gone, beauty rots, Araumycos and Zuggtmoy! joined together, heart to heart, Becoming one 'til death do part! Hail! Haifl Hail![/I] You watch rapt as the thralls enact a mock wedding, with a chamberlain and a bridesmaid standing in for Araumycos and Zuggtmoy. Spore servants go into the burning garden taking up the pieces of f Yestabrod and carry its corpse, moving it like a puppet to play out the part of priest. At this point of the ceremony, you experience a vision. The tableau of the mock wedding is replaced by a vision of the inside of a great tower. Spiraling stairs and balconies are carved into its walls, with the interior lit by phosphorescent patches of mold growing in whorls. In the center of the open space floats a humanoid figure, womanlike in form, but made entirely of fungi and mold. She is easily three times the height of the fungal bridesmaids that move up and down the spiraling stairs, tending to their giant mistress. They croon a strange, soothing song as they weave the substance of the giant figure into delicate lichen veils and a long, mycelium train like a bridal gown. The vision ends when the ceremony does. After which the creatures file solemnly back to Yggmorgus. [B]Madness Check:[/B] DC 10 Wisdom save. You follow them to Yggmorgus, a mushroom of titanic proportions. The cavern around Yggmorgus is huge. and the giant mushroom nearly fills it from floor to ceiling. You have no clear reference to judge the towering mushroom's size at this distance. Thousands of smaller fungi cling to the main stalk, which itself splits into several lesser stalks, each long enough with a cap big enough to be the top of a great tower. The cavern floor surrounding the stalk is covered by a carpet of fungi. An eerie luminescence pours through slitted windows carved into the trunk, with the same cacophony of atonal music heard earlier echoing within. A stench of rot and decay wraps around you, seemmgly threatening to penetrate your flesh and pervade your soul. Yestabrod's Garden of Welcome is a pale reflection of the true horrors surrounding Yggmorgus. A 20-foothigh crescent-shaped ledge hugs the cavern wall and gradually slopes down to the lower basin. The ledge is covered with a carpet of moss and fungi, scores of variously sized lumps, and pockmarks where pools of vile fluids suppurate and ooze, some drying out and scabbing over. [B]Madness Check:[/B] DC 10 Wisdom save. Characters can discern the shapes of writhing creatures inside each lump. Most of these are humanoids, though a few of the lumps are occupied by what appear to be gricks, nothics, and giant spiders. This is the Great Garden of Rot, nourished both by the creatures subsumed within it and the faerzress pervading this cavern. As if on cue, one of the lumps closest to the characters bubbles up and bursts. A dense cloud of spores and dark, reeking fluid explodes outward. Even as the characters hear a piercing scream of agony and terror. Inside the pockmark left behind by the burst is a drow scouts or at least what's left of him. Other than a face, long white hair, and a breastplate, it is impossible to distinguish where the drow ends and the rot and fungi consuming him begins. The drow feebly thrashes, his screams rising ever higher in pitch, until he locks eyes with Destrian and abruptly stops screaming. A brief moment of lucidity replaces his terror, even as his eyes roll back into his head in some kind of bizarre euphoria as he goes limp and slowly sinks back down into the fungal muck. [B]Madness Check:[/B] Characters witnessing this must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or gain one level of madness. Throughout the entire cavern. loud moans and cries of agony answer the drow's screams in a terrifying and deafening chorus, drowning out all other sounds until eventually winding down into a low susurration of groans and burbles. The entire stalk of the giant Mushroom seems to shudder, almost as if in delight. Destrian and Tytus enraged by the spectacle rush forward slaying the sickening creatures. The rest of you follow descending into the lower basin down the squishy, foul ground that slopes into the huge cavern that houses Yggmorgus. Scores of deformed creatures dance around the base of the giant fungal tower. The revelers are a motley collection of humanoids and various other creatures, all sporting tumors, cankers, and putrid patches of flesh over their bodies. They are joined by dancing fungi vaguely shaped and twisted into forms resembling humanoids. Some of these creatures are spore servants enthralled to the Demon Queen of Fungi. Others are myconids and other fungal life forms infested with Zuggtmoy's spores. The dancing creatures pay no attention to you until you join Destrian and Tytus as they slaughter them. They are no match for your burning rage. Voices can be heard cackling and chatting amiably about Sovereign Phylo's success at "bringing so many new guests to attend the party!" You see drow dancing as if their bones were melting, duergar roaring with mock merriment and vomiting slime, and even nothics laughing madly as they leap and caper. You observe the mad dance seeing a form rising up out of the fungal muck. It is the drow scout whose terrible end they just witnessed, wading out to join the other revelers in their mad dance. [B]Madness Check:[/B] DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or gain one level of madness. You’ve come too far to halt now. You must see what is in the tower, at least some of you must. You enter Yggmorgus, the home that Zuggtmoy, the Demon Queen of Fungi, has carved for herself inside the great mushroom. The general layout is simple enough, with the hollowed stalk of the mushroom making a towering central hall. Zuggtmoy floats within its center, surrounded by spiraling balconies where her growing number of bridesmaids attend her, singing as they weave her bridal gown to prepare for the fateful wedding day. You come face to face with Zuggtmoy attended by twelve bridesmaids o fZuggtmoy She seems deep in meditation as her gown and veil are being prepared. She doesn't move. Her bridesmaids shoo you off using spores for rapport, “Go, go, you mustn’t see the bride before the wedding.” They wail and scold about how it is unlucky for them to see the bride before it is time. Dar, Apothicas, and Jharzzle have seen enough. Even Destrian and Tytus are momentarily stunned by the immense person of Zuggtymoy floating out of reach of weapons as though she is not bound by the gravity that binds all living things. The wiser of you know that challenging such a being in her home is akin to suicide and a failure of your quest. You know not what she can do and her allies appear limitless in her home. Jharzzle pulls his brother back, “Tytus we cannot challenge such power in its home. We must flee.” Dar grabs Destrian, “Priest, now you know what evil walks under the world. Let us not fight it in its home. We are not yet ready. We must leave. It is enough that you have allowed your god to see the evil afoot in the Underdark. That is likely why your god sent you because it could not see this evil without a follower or some aspect of his domain within sight of it. Let Kelemvor decide your next course of action rather than let you suffer this end.” He points to the surroundings. You leave this place without awakening the Demon Queen of Fungi. You bring news of the horror to Basidia. He responds, “We cannot stay. The Grove is lost to us.” You and the Myconids loyal to Basidia including Stool and Rumpadump depart from Neverlight Grove. You travel together for a time until your paths dissect. Basidia says, “We Myconids have not much power to withstand the evils you face. I am sorry we cannot be of more aid. I will give you what I can to help you.” He gives you each a mushroom gourd filled with a [I]potion of greater healing[/I] and a moldy scroll of [I]protection against fiends[/I]. “It is not much. These draughts heal living creatures. This scroll has words upon it that will protect you from fiends from the otherworld. If ever we meet again, know that you will be welcome with our people should any of us survive the infestation. We thank you again.” Before the Myconid depart, Stool gives Eraxis as human-like a hug as he is capable of. The Myconids depart into the darkness. Now you know you must find Gravenhollow. There if the giants are right and Apothicas speaks true, you will find knowledge that will reveal the fullness of the events you have witnessed and perhaps give you insight how to fight against it. [/QUOTE]
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[CAMPAIGN] Out of the Abyss [SPOILERS]
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