D&D5e (2014) Out of the Abyss

[mikeawmids1]

Out of the Abyss, Session #1

GM (Alex)

Elin Warmhand, Dwarf/Cleric 1 (Bane)
Erasmus, Gnome/Wizard 1 (Tom)
Greyscale, Kobold/Rogue 1 (Mike)
Kiri Smoothpaw, Elf/Sorcerer 1 (Tony)
Morloc, Human/Fighter 1 (Doug)

Our heroes awaken in the dark. Not just any old dark. The Underdark. We have no idea how we got there, and we're not hanging about to find out. We appear to be locked in a grungy stone cell. Sturdy metal bars obstruct our egress. Morloc bends the bars wide enough for Greyscale to slip out onto a wide ledge abutting a fast-flowing undergound river. A drow patrol passes by on their way to an inverted guard tower hollowed out from a huge stalagtite. Greyscale lifts a ring of keys from the last man and unlocks the prison door.




Our heroes are free! We also release a host of colourful NPCs from the adjoining cells, including;
Stool, a short-arse mushroom man surrounded by a cloud of mind-altering spores
Prince Derendil, a brutish - yet eloquently spoken - quaggoth who claims to be a cursed elven princeling
Ront, an orc; thuggish and short tempered
Shooshan, a fishman zealot
Topsy & Turvy, a pair of creepy deep gnome siblings

There is an unconcious lvl 1 gnome wizard slumped in a corner of the cell. He does not respond to any external stimuli, almost as though the sentient force governing his actions is absent at this time. Morloc throws the slumbering gnome over his shoulder, resigned to lug the little fellow around until he wakes up.

The drow confiscated everyone's gear, so we raid the janitor's closet for makeshift weapons. We assault the guard tower armed with mopstaffs and nunchuckets. The drow are taken unawares and quickly overwhelmed. We raid the drow armoury for better gear.

The escape is going suspiciously well thus far. We peek ahead and see the drow are distracted by a demonic incursion from the other end of the prison. On the assumption that the enemy of our enemy is also our enemy, we keep a low profile on our way to the exit - pausing only to desecrate a shrine to Lolth and steal from her priestess. We bag some healing potions and an off-brand Spiderman mask from the drow equivalent of Temu. Kiri wears the mask and immediately begins to fret over the wellbeing of her beloved Uncle Ben.

We reach an elevator to the cavern floor and head down. We sabotage the mechanism to frustrate drow pursuit after they've dealt with their vrock problem. We have escaped captivity, yet remain helplessly lost in the lightless depths of the Underdark!

TBC

 

[mikeawmids1]

Out of the Abyss, Session #2

We rejoin our heroes during their flight from the prison camp Velkynvelve. We don't know where we're going, only that we need to put as much distance between ourselves and the drow before they come after us. Stool telepathically communicates there is an exit to the surface world near Neverlight Grove, the enclave of sentient fungi they call home. Elin, Kiri and Morloc are natives of the Overworld and wish to see its clear blue sky again ASAP. Greyscale, Ront and Prince Derendil however have spent their whole lives underground and loathe the blinding, hurty rays of the Overworld's bright yellow sun. Erasmus the Wizard has yet to wake up, so his opinion is not taken into account. Topsy & Turvy steal some of our rations and slip away to fend for themselves.

We plot our course. The path ahead will skirt the edges of the Dark Lake and pass near the fishman city of Sloopadoop, where Shooshan is eager to return. We set off towards the Dark Lake, then onward to Neverlight Grove!

On the second night after escaping Velkynvelve, our rest is interrupted by a gelatinous cube oozing into camp unannounced. Morloc is nearly engulfed by the corrosive blob before raising the alarm. Erasmus the Wizard bolts upright - finally awake - and hurls a Firebolt at the hungry ooze, reducing it down to a bubbling puddle of caustic slime.

The next day, we enter a cavern filled with glittering crystals. Kiri believes the crystalline shards emit a burst of blinding light when shattered, which could be useful against the darkness loving denizens of the Underdark. Erasmus tests this theory by throwing a crystal at the ground and blinding himself indefinitely. Just then a group of drow raiders turn up. Kiri pretends to be a dark elf, which the real drow find culturally insensitive. They attack!




Morloc breaks another crystal. The drow are rendered blind - but so is Greyscale. Erasmus casts Minor Illusion, but his magic is amplified within the crystal cavern and the harmless cantrip manifests as a lvl 3 Fireball centered on himself! Everyone - friends and foes alike - are caught within the spell's radius. The drow are obliterated, and both Greyscale and Erasmus are down and dying (Greyscale was 2 HP shy of instant/permanent death due to massive damage!).

Elin heals the injured and spares the dying. Kiri searches the crispy corpses and finds a charred map to the lost mine the drow raiders were seeking. The entrance is not too far away, so we make a quick detour to scope it out. The mine is infested with giant spiders, which sucks for Greyscale as he suffers from acute arachnophobia (cue flashback to Greyscale spending several days cocooned in a giant spider's web, before narrowly managing to escape being eaten alive). Kiri takes pity on the terrified kobold and gifts him a charm that will protect him from spiders. It absolutely will not protect him from spiders, but Greyscale doesn't know that and takes some small comfort from the gesture.

After clearing a few web-choked tunnels, we rest in the mine overseers office. The overseer's skeleton is slumped over his desk, bony fingers gripping an empty vial we asume contained poison. But WHY did the overseer end his own life? There is a note, but we are distracted by a large pile of tarnished brass fittings on the desk, which Kiri scoops into her pockets, just in case we encounter a tat man on our travels.

After recovering HP and spell slots, we continue to explore the mine. The mess hall is in disarray. Erasmus has the mid-delve munchies and searches the adjacent kitchenette for something to eat. He finds an orange ooze that tries to eat him! Prince Derendil slashes the ooze with his claws and now we are fighting two monsters! We frantically search the area for makeshift bludgeoning weapons and beat the ooze/s to death with an assortment of rolling pins and metal pots.

TBC

 

[mikeawmids1]

Out of the Abyss, Session 3

Our heroes continue their exploration of the abandoned mine. We discover a sinkhole plunging down to a lower level of the dungeon. Greyscale spots a wand discarded near the edge of the pit, but fails to notice the phase spider lurking in ambush. Kiri casts Mind Sliver to drive away the scuttling horror before the oblivious kobold even knows he is in peril. Greyscale waves the wand experimentally and animates 10 small rocks, which follow him around. Erasmus covets the wand greatly, and plots how to take it from the idiot kobold.

Greyscale triggers a trapped chest and is poisoned. Kiri takes the lead, scouting ahead though the eyes of her spider familiar. She views a feral gnome chained to the wall, wild eyed and frothing from the mouth. Kiri casts Mind Sliver to put the wretched creature out of its misery. Morloc recovers a valuable ring (1,000gp!) from the corpse.

The final area of the mine is occupied by four rust monsters gorging themselves on a mound of unrefined ore. Concerned for the hoard of scrap metal Prince Derendil is lugging around, we leave them to their feast and return to the sinkhole. An unhappy Greyscale is lowered down on the end of a rope. The shaft descends 120ft into a horrifying nest of giant spiders. Dozens of oversized arachnids converge on the dangling kobold, plus one particularly huge and swollen monstrosity presiding over the cluster. The party hastily haul Greyscale back up the shaft, then chuck a load of burning debris down the hole to burn away the webs and scare away the spiders.




The smoke clears, and we descend the shaft. A few spiders were cooked by the flames, but most of them (including the big one) have scarpered. Erasmus finds a Ring of Spell Absorbtion among the ashes. A tunnel leads us to the banks of the Dark Lake. An unattended raft bobs on the surface of the still, inky water. There are no oars though, and no-one much fancies paddling. Greyscale flourishes his new wand and animates the raft, propelling it 600ft out onto the lake, before coming to an abrupt stop. Erasmus demands the wand, but Greyscale demurs. He just needs more practise! He waves the wand again, and the raft rockets forward another 600ft. Then - to Erasmus' dismay - the wand disintergrates. Erasmus splutters with outrage to see such a powerful item squandered by an idiot kobold with delusions of magecraft.

The raft drifts aimlessly for some time. Eventually, the opposite bank comes into view, densely forested by towering fungi. We disembark and forage for supplies. Morloc discovers a zurkwood shack, seemingly abandoned. Stairs lead down to a cellar decorated with a statue of the demon lord Orcus. The mouth of the statue is hinged to open, so something can be put into it. Cue much juvenile giggling around the table as we suggest what to insert into Orcus' glorious hole. Morloc makes an offering of the 1,000gp ring, revealing the hidden entrance to a sinister workshop. A teleportation circle has been daubed onto the floor with old blood. The room extends further into darkness, blocked off by metal bars. We find the word 'DARVASHIUM' scratched into the underside of a blood-stained bowl. Kiri translates the word from Undercommon > Common, meaning "to be with the shadows".

Still sore from the (completely avoidable) loss of the Wand of Animate Objects, Erasmus encourages Greyscale to demonstrate his magical prowess by standing in the teleportation circle and speaking the command word. Greyscale disappears.

'That's the last we'll see of him,' Erasmus thinks happily.

But no such luck, Greyscale was only teleported to the dark area beyond the bars, where he finds a +1 rapier and a malevolent shadow demon. Being Small, Greyscale slips between the bars to rejoin the party, pursued by the demon. Elin brandishes his holy symbol to turn the dark entity, and Kiri tears it apart with bursts of psychic energy.

TBC

 

[TheSword]

Love this! Can’t wait to see how this progresses!

I love the underdark and have long wanted to tie it in with other underdark adventures. But I’m loving this as it is.

 

[mikeawmids1]

Out of the Abyss, Session 4

Realizing we are stuck on an island in the middle of the Dark Lake, Morloc whittles an oar from the hardy zurkwood so plentiful on this squalid rock, and we set out across the water once more. The voyage is long, and the raft is crowded with NPCs of dubious value to the plot. No-one has any privacy, and tempers begin to fray. What little sleep we are able to snatch is tormented by shared nightmares of a two-headed titan rampaging through the Underdark, destroying everything in its path. Caught up in a fit of religious ecstasy, the fishman zealot Shooshan (whom Elin has renamed Gil) leaps into the Dark Lake and swims away.

After several days floating in the endless dark, the raft is caught in the current of a great waterfall. Abandoning the raft, we swim toward the nearest shore, where we are ambushed by a party of fishmen. They have already captured Gil. Kiri attempts to negotiate our safe passage, but the fishmen are fervent in their devotion to the Deep Father and adamant on sacrificing us to their god.

We defeat the fishmen and rescue Gil. Apparenly the kuo-toa are experiencing a theological schism between the established faith of the Sea Mother, and the newly arisen church of the Deep Father. Who better to resolve this delicate devotional deadlock than a group of passing murderhobos?

Skulking into the kuo-toa city of Sloopadoop, Gil introduces us to Pluploplee, Oracle of the Sea Mother. She wants us to straight-up murder her counterpart Bliblidoop, Deacon of the Deep Father. Happily will we rid you of this turbulent priest!

We execute the tried and true 'Wookie prisoner' ploy to gain access to our target. Greyscale hangs back in case the plan goes sideways. The 'offerings' are escorted to the Sanctum of the Deep Father, where Bliblidoop (corpulent fishman in a soiled cassock) begins the rites of sacrifice. We renounce our role in this pontifical pantomine and assassinate the problematic priest. Kiri shifts into her panther form like a goddamned Thundercat. Erasmus has spent all his spell slots ensuring Morloc can see in the dark and has nothing but Firebolts left in the tank.

Greyscale does not participate in the fight against the fish cult, hanging back to watch for trouble. The surface of the Dark Lake begins to churn violently, as a colossal creature rises ponderously from the lightless depths. Black waves batter the harbour and flood the streets of Sloopadoop. The two-headed giant from our shared nightmare rises from the lake, towering over the fishman city.

Demogorgan has joined the chat.




TBC