D&D 5E Out of the Abyss - A Kobold Slave's Story [SPOILERS]

[Creamsteak]

OOC: A friend of mine is running Out of the Abyss on Roll 20. I wanted to share my experience so-far. As such, this thread will contain some campaign spoilers. Further, I would prefer it if nobody spoils things for me, so keep tight lipped on any of your thoughts or commentary about the game outside of what is explicitly known in this game.

- - - - -

Our Cast so-far:

Lightswitch
Lawful Evil Kobold Male Slave Dragon Sorcerer 1

A thief once came upon a dragons nest in a mountain and a clutch of eggs. He thought that perhaps he would get rich by stealing the dragon's eggs and then selling them to the highest bidder. Little did he know that the eggs he gathered were not full of little baby dragons, but rather kobolds. One such egg was purchased by a wizard hoping to experiment on this egg. Much to everyone involved's disappointment, the eggs hatched and out popped little kobolds.

Lightswitch was just one such kobold. He has lived his entire life in slavery. He has been traded time and time again between various sorts of masters. His most common duty has been to stand in one place like a piece of furniture and cast a light spell when his master claps. Thus he believes his name to be Lightswitch. Or lamp. Or "I can't see." He's not really sure.

His previous masters were attacked and killed. The drow almost didn't notice him standing perfectly still in the corner of the wizard's apartment till one of them clapped and the kobold turned on his glowing rock.

Therut Cypher
Tiefling Male Fighter 1

A member of a sellswords group that was captured by the drow. He seems occasionally cruel and rude, but he's strong. Fiercely strong.

Uthil "Elf-smasher" Uthagoogaloo
Goliath Bard 1

Apparently a circus act at some point in the past. The circus caravan was attacked and he was captured. The only kind of elves he knows are drow. He didn't get out much.

Brew Carmine Scamble
Human? Rogue 1?

This player was not at the first session. His character basically hung around with the non-combat slaves. He has amnesia.

Darrik Drowarse
Dwarven Cleric 1

I never found out much about him, except that he is a dwarf and a cleric. And something about drow arse.

- - - - -

Exotic Cast
Lightswitch had been in the drow pens for the past ten days. He has been worked hard and deprived of his precious cooking implements and other equipment. That said, he seemed to be in good health, and he had made many "friends" in that time.

First among them was Buppido. Buppido is gregarious and talkative, with a keen mind and disarming manner. He tries to stay upbeat. He was captured 2 weeks ago. Being a Derro, he knows life down here is tough, but trusts that his god will get him out of this jam.

Then there was the hulky Prince Derendil. Prince Derendil appears to be a Quaggoth, but claims he is a gold elf prince from Nelrindenvane, who has been transformed by a curse! That said, he doesn't handle stress well, and it shows when he starts putting his new form to use, smashing and thrashing at anything in his path. The only way to snap him out is to remind him of his true heritage.

Of little note to Lightswitch was the female dwarf Eldeth.

Jimjar was someone Lightswitch would eventually learn to get along with very well. Jimjar is a male deep gnome with a fondness for coin, a devil-may-care attitude, and a gambling problem. Everything - random events, squirreling things away from the guards, who wins between the Quaggoth and the Orc. It gets old after a bit. He's weirded out by the twins, Topsy and Turvy.

Ront was an Orc meany-face. No reason to get along with him.

Sarith was a drow captured by drow. I have no idea what to think of him.

Shuushar is a fish-man. He comes from Sloobidoop.

The Stool is Lightswitch's best buddy. They both know what it's like to be furniture.

Topsy and Turvy are creepy as hell. They seem to be gnome children? I don't like them.

- - - - -

Session 1: Escape Escapade
Our adventure begins in a slave pen. Our mighty kobold hero almost immediately slips his restraints off so he can wander around talking to everyone. This seems to make all the large strong types jealous because they can't just break free. Lightswitch advises them that "Escape is how you die. Good slaves obey. And then die." He takes up mentoring everyone else on slave life. His advice does not seem to be appreciated. He then slips back into his shackles just as easily. Apparently magic just doesn't work here. All I wanted to do was wash myself.

Eventually the guards change and some slaves are dragged out to do hard labor. Lightswitch goes completely unnoticed, as usual. Those dragged out are worked hard and summarily beaten for not working hard enough. Or working too hard. Same difference.

When they return, one of the guards lingers. Some drow in a red cloak. Apparently he is a very weird master and tells us all that he wants to embarrass the other master drow by letting us escape. This seems strange, I don't understand why a master would dislike another master, but I'm a good slave. I'll follow orders.

OOC: I wasn't sure if this was the easy mode version of how to get out of the module or a trap.

When the red-cloak master leaves, he leaves behind keys and two knives. Lightswitch grabs them all and proceeds to unlock everyone's restraints. I attempted to pick a new master from among the slaves. The tiefling rejected me. Eventually the goliath agreed to help in exchange for one of the daggers. I happily agreed to my new master/servant relationship.

Somehow "Elfsmasher" manufactured a crude club from the floor-mushroom substance and returned the dagger. Jimjar asked Lightswitch for the dagger. Seeing as Jimjar is a friend, Lightswitch cooperated.

In thanks for being set free the twins decided to offer Lightswitch a "present". Reluctantly... very reluctantly... Lightswitch accepted and was summarily bit by the little monsters. Lightswitch panicked and ran around the room in circles complaining about the two feral monsters. One day I will get my revenge.

OOC: This is going to "bite" me really hard sooner or later, isn't it?

Operation "blindly escape" began. Our stealthiest characters (Sarith, Jimjar, oddly "Elfsmasher" and Lightswitch) proceeded to sneak up to the tower just in front of the slave pens. There we found a sleeping elf guard. Jimjar and Lightswitch proceeded to sneak up on the guard with our daggers and simultaneously stab him.

Surprisingly, this did not kill the elf. In a panic, we stabbed him again. And again. Oh god he's going to fight us!

OOC: Lightswitch rolled maximum damage and even crit for maximum damage. Jimjar probably sneak attacked a bunch, but we don't see those dice rolls.

Nope. The elf died. His equipment was invaluable in getting some decent gear on people. Apparently Lightswitch missed that there was a trap-door and ladder above us. He went ahead with the stealth-crew... believing everyone else would quietly wait behind and remain hidden and not tamper with explosive potions and supplies in the tower. He was wrong.

As the stealth crew bypassed the next bridge and door (we believed that our equipment was further in this direction, and we wanted that first) we got a notice that someone had somehow woken up a drow sentry group that was above our position at the tower. At this point, Lightswitch regretted letting anyone and everyone out of their shackles. We would have been better served with just the small stealth crew for now.

In a panic, some of us ran back for support. This was apparently the WORST idea as the noises we made interrupted the love-making session of a particularly mean drow priestess and her subordinate. As our vision was limited Lightswitch ended up at the tower we had killed the sentry in as support. Our mighty orc slave did a lot of damage and then summarily was knocked out. I believe our female dwarf lady was knocked unconscious. Stooly was safe, so Lightswitch felt alright with that.

Some people... notably the male dwarf Cleric, Sarith, the Prince, and Jim Jar stayed behind to try to fight the priestess and were all beaten. They maybe inflicted some damage. I wasn't there to see it. Only the cleric escaped that fight and rejoined us in the tower.

The sentry tower was locked and we fought a pitched battle with the drow. Luckily, when the last drow sentry decided to attack poor Lightswitch, Lightswitch (17 AC base) cast Shield (22 AC) and managed to avoid all damage. We also had a surly goliath throwing the drow down the trap door to the mob below.

With the tower vaguely secured and the door barricaded, the Priestess summoned some sort of weapon to attack the door. Buppido proved brilliantly useful as he somehow figured out that the potions in the store-house area we were in were explosives... mumbling about the "potent powers of my peoples' perniciousness."

Buppido proceeded to crazily throw some concoction at our safety-door opening a hole for the enemies to get at us, but also knocking the most wounded drow unconscious. I didn't know if he was, perhaps, insane.

The next fight was basically impossible, but she-elf could not roll a successful save or concentration check for her life. Our kobold hero did almost no damage with his random bonfire spells, but she just kept failing saves and losing concentration on spell 1, 2, 3, etc.

Somehow our cleric and our bard got into flanking around her on a bridge. All her allies were knocked unconscious or killed one way or another.

The goliath grappled her. Lightswitch lit a fire under her. The cleric... attempted to beat on her. She summoned an insect swarm that damn near killed our tiefling even on a low roll.

OOC: I laughed because I knew we shouldn't be doing this well on this fight, but the dice gods were with me this night. Also, I should introduce one of our house rules that affects my character and the drow. It's pretty severe. Light Sensitivity affects you under ANY bright light. As such, the poor drow, any time they could be baited into any source of bright light, were at disadvantage. This is also why all my offensive spells are saving throw spells or magic missle. I didn't want to deal with disadvantage on attack rolls. This also helped because the Drow lady's AC was too high for most of our melee... so we relied on alternate means.

Eventually we beat her down, made her burn most of her spells, and then finally our goliath threw her into the giant spider webs that covered the entire region. Two spiders summarily attacked and supposedly executed her as she had lost the favor of Lolth (cause god those dice rolls She couldn't get higher than a 2 most of the time on her concentration saves).

OOC: I was a bit more interested in killing and looting her, but everyone was afraid she'd finally regain control of the fight so they chose to shove her off the bridge. I asked after the session and she apparently only had 12 hit points left at that point. The spiders... from our perspective... seem to have killed her. I sort-of doubt this. And that's where we left off. My loose understanding of this module from previews is that we are now in the most unlikely scenario. The priestess is "dead" and we have a lot of drow gear. Most of the NPC cast is dead or unconscious. I think we went the "wrong" way, I guess, and we were supposed to be recaptured at best, but somehow... by Buppido fiat?/Crazy dice luck?/unlucky priestess? we are poised to escape.

 

[Daern]

You guys are doing great! Totally on the right path! Good luck!

 

[Creamsteak]

The adventure continued briefly today. We were introduced to another slave we missed. An elven druid named Earthhawk. Lightswitch pondered the meaning of slave-hood and master-ness and attempted to postulate a slavery completeness theorem. Eventually it was decided that Lightswitch, Elfsmasher, and Jimjar would make their way further "south" across the bridges.

Lightswitch first explored the priestess chambers... or at least the top floor of it. A frightening giant stone battlemaiden spider-lady with four arms was there guarding it. Alas, poor lightswitch, we knew him well.

When he didn't immediately die... he opened his eyes again and realized it was just a statue. A statue with shiny eyes. His draconic blood lit up with glee and he climbed the spider to claim the jewels embedded there.

He also discovered that there was a rope ladder leading below the priestess chambers. Lightswitch did not feel particularly daring and avoided that for now.

When the group crossed the bridge, they encountered two big ugly underdark monster things... and reported this to Jimjar.

Jimjar wandered up and sniped the both of them with a hand crossbow knocking them unconcious.

The group then attempted to open the nearest stalagmite door... and found a DROW! And another big thugly thing.

So far we are 1:1 odds for finding drow behind doors.

A fight broke out. Elfsmasher once again did an incredible job of beating elves into paste... but alas... his efforts were not enough to protect poor sir Jimjar. Jimjar was first knocked out... then Buppido showed up and threw a fiery concoction at the elf and missed... igniting Jimjar. Jimjar was immolated and that was our first official known NPC death.

We looted this tower and found our equipment. We regrouped, and then spent a great deal of time debating what to do next.

Lightswitch does not support opening doors. Doors = drow it seems.

 

[Leugren]

Excellent recap! Thank you.

 

[Fore]

Love this recap you're giving us. Lightswitch sounds like a fun character to play as especially in this scenario. Hope to see more updates sometime soon. I'll be rooting for the kobold!

 

[Creamsteak]

The slave revolt started. The party attacked the drow in the northern tunnels first and then got the big ugly cave monster people to join us in attacking the remaining drow to the south.

With the drow basically defeated, we began our trek to flee from the drow. We decided that Stooly is our most trusted ally, and we wanted to get him home. During our flight we rested and leveled.

Our first meaningful encounter along the way involved a carrion crawler. Our grappling goliath bard wrestled it and the druid fed it goodberries... and I guess it joined the party as a mount?

I'm terrified.

So other than escaping, not much has advanced. We have most of the NPCs and 5 of the big ugly dudes with us. Onward to the Darklake?

 

[Creamsteak]

When we last left our band of escaped slaves, they had befriended a carrion crawler... somehow. The nearest city for us was Sloopididoop or something like that. Our pacifist friendly kuo-toa seemed to think we would be safe to enter the city... somehow.

Either he lied or he was fooled.

Only three players were at this session. Our Goliath Bard, the Dwarf Cleric, and our intrepid Kobold King-in-the-making.

While crossing through a tunnel to Sloopidoop, the group was accosted from all sides by red-painted kuo-toa in mass. They had three types of soldiers... the leader was a "Whip", and two thugs were "monitors". I think I can recall roughly ten regular kuo toa in the mix as well. We had been abandoned by our vanguard of huge underdark monsters (they didn't want anything to do with smelly crazy fish people)... so that left us with NPCs that were mostly non-combat oriented.

Our humble leader, Lightswitch, proceeded to enlarge both the Cleric and the Bard with a twin-spell. He then cowered behind rocks and generally tried to avoid any sort of attack.

The orc and dwarf NPCs that were with us took on the eastern and western flanks respectively... which did not work out well for either of them. As lightswitch saw a brilliant opportunity to turn our Buppido monster onto an entire three kuo-toa that had just dropped Eldeth... he made the call to attack. Buppido questioned Lightswitch's brilliance and the order to bomb their ally, the dwarven female. "Did I stutter?" was heard throughout the cavern.

The orc was also slain... he couldn't stand one-on-one with a single Kuo-toa.

As our Carrion Crawler went down, the tides seemed to turn against us. The Bard and the Cleric took turns healing wording each other to pick each other back up.

Lightswitch attempted to rain fiery wrath down on the enemy, but honestly wasn't that effective.

Somehow, we survived this battle... with a few stragglers running away.

The NPCs still left are Buppido, the Twins, the pacifist kuo-toa, and that drow Sarrith that never says or does anything. Oh, and Stooly. The most important one.

We fell back for a short rest. Our rest ended when another group of kuo-toa... these ones with blue facepaint approached.

Here's the story, best I can summarize it:

Poopy-pants the kuo-toa had a son and daughter that like regular kuo-toa teenagers do, turned on their father and his god for their hipper new god. So the crypts and bloods are in a secret gang war to prove who's religious zealotry is better or something. We could get smuggled into the city as slaves, rest up, and then be "sacrificed" to the daughter's god... but this distraught and loving father would rather we join him in a coup against his own children to prove his god is right. Needless to say, we agreed to become traveling assassin murder-hobos for one fish lord against his daughter fish lord... all in the name of good times.

We were smuggled into the city and constantly harassed by smelly fish people. We were oiled and slathered in slimy fish-goo and we got our fish-stank on.

Next session... probably the sacrifice and some new characters. Also we are level 4 now.