Abyss Modified sessions 2 and 3

This will be the first full length adventure I will be running in the Forgotten Realms and I am excited. We are beginning with DDEX3-01 Harried in Hillsfar by Shawn Merwin, one of the 5E Adventure League modules. After that we are weening into the actual Out of the Abyss storyline with modifications to make it work for the stores play style, so there will be spoilers if you plan on playing these adventures.

For this adventure we had Dinak the drow ranger, Xanaphia the human wild sorcerer, Orion the tiefling monk, Fione the human druid, Fula Anahata the aasimar draconic sorcerer, Godric the half elf bard, Lady Hestia the tiefling bard, and Slim Jim the gnome rogue. Our story began with the party meeting a strange old man who died in their arms after delivering a cryptic message, something dark was stirring beneath Hillsfar. They have been given five clues, they completed the first two in one session. Their adventure took them to a farm orphanage full of non-human children as well as odd ailments, it seemed the goat in the barn was having labor difficulty. A few of the party went out to make animal husbandry checks and were horrified as a blood red two headed goat as well as a swarm of smaller red goats were born. The party wiped their hands, said job well done and as they walked out of the cursed barn the goats suddenly grew to maturity and attacked. The other half of the party heard the commotion and helped thwart the goat incursion, taking a few dangerous hits themselves. They also saved a tiefling child from a pack of wild dogs and met a druid faction member that thanked them for helping restore the balance of nature, dark things were happening everywhere. 

The next mission took them to a beet farm where jerk thug guards were attempting to intimidate the young farmer and demanded too much dye for one night’s work. The party approached as the guards left and found out there was drama aplenty on this farm. They found bodies in the basement with fungal growths covering them and an injured drow. As they investigated the lights went out and two assassins attacked them. They defeated the assassins, freed one of their captives, and found out foul things were coming out of the Underdark.

For the second session we finished dealing with the beet farm and were able to come up with a solution to the underage owner of the farm and were given a sack of beets for their troubles. Slim Jim and the gnome secret agent stayed at the farm to help deter unwanted attention. The group made their way to the third clue, something about a sacred grove with a blessed spring. 

On entering the forest, they found a battered man named Rigel whose beloved had been taken into the grove by wild dog creatures. On further inspection they realized the beloved was not a dog as they assumed beforehand, but the poor farmers betrothed, Elinore. Rigel gave them a silvered rapier passed down from generations of his family to help, he only had known farming, not battle. Rigel proceeded to find a few pit traps and Penelope the pseudodragon noticed something watching from the trees flying around. They found two more battered humans and quickly learned they were jackalweres, shapeshifting monsters that prey on the weak, and most likely the threat talked about in the warnings. They met a fairy dragon in the woods that lent them aid in the final battle. After a few close calls the party defeated the jackalweres and were able to reunite the young couple. 

The party then made their way to an old supposedly empty church and found two cultists outside with two large undead oxen. Fione and Godric charmed the cultists and sent one away and brought the other one with them. Under the church they found a chamber with six statues. Their guide, the charmed cultist thought he knew the proper way across the chamber and defeating the trap, but they brought the wrong cultist. They watched as he very quickly turned to ash, never even giving them his name. The party did the opposite of what he did and made it safely into another room with multiple open demon mouths as doorways. They chucked beets with light on them through each one until the beet wither came back undamaged or not smoking. Within the final chamber they saw a large magical ritual with an ogre body with a bull head sewn on to it and pillars spitting out lesser demons known as manes. The cultist leading the ritual saw the group and ordered his brute squad of lesser demons known as Dretches to attack. Once the party was engaged the smaller mane demons kept jumping into the ogre body and getting absorbed and other mane demons formed out of the pillars and took their place. The party took action to late, fighting the dretch brute squad instead of killing the mane demons. The familiar of Hestia did land on the ogre and was absorbed into the ritual, as well as the ritual leader after getting wounded took his own life and fell on the ogre to add his life to the magic ritual. The ritual finished, a large blast shook the party and in the broken chamber stood a Goristro, a very powerful demon, it nodded to them and teleported away.