Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Abyss Modified session 7


OUT OF THE ABYSS SPOILERS AHEAD  

The party searched the remains of the troglodytes finding very minimal useable gear and their lair was full of refuse. The shaman did have some mold and a few odd mushrooms on its person, which Godric pocketed. Shuushar mentioned they would need to cross parts of the waterways and unless they could swim, they might want to find a boat. Dinak called out to the dwarves again and eventually they rowed back to the group. For a few sapphires they bought passage to a shore near Sloobludop. Dinak had seen three dwarves during their first interaction and once aboard noticed two more that were below decks. There were two spell casters, a warrior, and two that knew their way around traps. The party made themselves at home on the boat, Slim Jim wandering underdeck and finding chains covered in blood, sized for both large, medium, and small creatures, it seemed these dwarves trafficked people as well as mushrooms. On their water journey they traveled between large waterways, passing a sunken city, avoiding falling piercers, fended off a scrag troll that grabbed onto the back of the ship, bumped some long eels with the boat, but made it safely to the banks within sight of Sloobludop. 

They thanked the dwarves and started looking around for any supplies to fill up on, like mushrooms. They soon noticed they were being watched and a group of Koa-toa stood up from hiding. Their leader, a priest of some sort invited the party to surrender and be willing sacrificed to the Deep Father. After deliberation Annahatta started throwing spells, sick of standing around and talking. The party made quick work of most of the goons, Shuushar getting caught in most of the net, Dinak sinking multiple arrows into the priest, Godric using booming blade on the priest after running up to him, Orion cutting through the minions, Fione using flame blade, Xanaphia using chill touch, Slim Jim was able to get in a few good sneak attacks, Lady Hestia got in some inspiring words, some mocking words, and some healing words, Annahatta used some magic missiles, and their allies were able to stave off death from taking them. The priest did not like what was happening. He cast spirit guardians, which gave Godric a rough time, the next round lost concentration on the spell by using hold person on Godric and entering melee with the rest of the party. The priest walked up to Lady Hestia and domed her with his electrical crustacean topped staff, knocking her out with one critical hit. There was a slight panic for the party, their wizard bard and their bard warlock were both effectively out of the battle, which was about half the healers. The rest of the party ganged up on the priest and eventually he fell, and Lady Hestia was healed before having to make any death saves. 

After they looked for loot, divvied it up, and healed a bit another priest wearing different colored robes approached them, no visible weapons. He said his name was Ploob, his daughters’ minions had attacked the party and seeing that they had survived they had skills he required. He was a priest of the Deep Mother and was in the midst of a turf war with his own daughter. He seemed trustworthy to the party. If the party would help him, Ploob would give them supplies for the road as well as advice. He would not go into detail out in the open so the party followed him into the city of the fish men and in his house were feasted and offered wine. The food was un-poisoned and the wine seemed to have some kind of blood so the party passed on drinking that. Root, their kobold came out of hiding and ate an entire giant isopod himself, sleeping in the shell afterword. They made plans to overthrow the daughter’s regime of the Deep Father by pretending to be a sacrifice of surrender from Ploob to his daughter’s cause. 

In the morning they made their way to the sacrificial grounds. All was going to plan until the ground and water seemed to shake. Strange evil looking manta rays in the water started grabbing swimming Koa-toa and blueish blood sprayed from the depths. The sound of stomping came from the water and a huge two headed baboon with tentacle arms rose from the depths, Demogorgon had come to Sloobludop. Panic hit the watery street, some of the koa-toa dropped down in worship, some ran the other way. Many of the party succumbed to madnesses from demon lord proximity, Annahatta, Slim Jim, and Lady Hestia were paralyzed, Orion babbled, both Xanaphia and Godric hallucinated vividly and saw dark realms with empty thrones, and Dinak and Fione were fine, just trying to wrangle the rest of the group for fleeing. They watched as the drow with the spore cough jumped into the water, Jimjar started eating his own arm, Shuushar got smashed by an errant tentacle. The orc and the dwarf were oddly holding hands, but Telegar was able to get them to carry the paralyzed party members. They all fled, behind them hearing screaming and death, eventually finding a secret way out of the city, stealing some boats, and traveled down a narrow stream, and after a few hours of drifting they found a crystal lagoon. 

The lagoon seemed to have a few tunnels exiting under water as well as three unmarked exits on land. There were the remains of a small orc camp and the party collected some of the quartz crystals from the walls. The party decided they would attempt to wander and find Blingdenstone, the home of the deep gnomes. The other options were a kingdom of mushrooms, a drow city, or dark dwarves.

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Abyss Modified session 6

OUT OF THE ABYSS SPOILERS AHEAD  

We picked up with the party having just seen their derro companion Buppido getting smashed by the metal barrel and Dinak taking aim and launching arrows at the four-armed giant, known only as Breaker. Fione and Slim Jim were in the chamber and could see the giant bellowing out foreign words and brandishing a chest that looked to be encased in metal just like the barrel. Slim Jim ran along the chamber wall while the survivors, the rescued characters from the drow fort, ran off to hide on the other side of the chamber. Annahatta launched fire bolts at the beast while Godric used Eldritch blast and got closer to it, Orion also getting into a better position, Fione just ahead behind a different pillar. Lady Hestia launched a bolt from her crossbow into the giants face, the bolt barely breaking through its skin. Breaker approached the group while securing his metal covered chest to his back, sniffing and huffing the air as if having difficulty breathing, the party noticed deep scaring on its body as well as magic runes in a strange language they did not know.

The giant looked around madly and struck one of the pillars with all four arms, startling the party. Cantrips, bonfires, and weapons were sent against the giant, causing it to scream out in pain. Slim Jim climbed up Breaker’s back and cut the supports on the metal chest, sending it crashing to the floor, denting the tiles. The group of survivors made their way further across the chamber, finding the only other door out of the chamber. Lady Hestia used her dissonant whispers to cause damage to the monster’s brain as well as send it running across the room, taking out one of the support pillars on the way and almost crushing Slim Jim. Breaker charged Fione for summoning bonfires under his feat, attacking but missing Orion twice on the way and hitting Fione twice with giant fists. Telegar turned around and cast slow on the monster, reducing its four attacks down to one. Lady Hestia finished translating the runes from what she found out was an ancient titan dialect and the only distinguishable words were “Cursed, Endless, Madness”, which made sense why he was slightly crazier than Buppido the stain. Fione kept creating bonfires and eventually cast heat metal on the chest that Breaker had picked up. The chest burned brightly, revealing to the group that both the barrel and the chest were solid metal, and without contents, and in a way unbreakable. Breaker burned, losing most the meat on one of his hands, he extended one of his limbs towards the barrel, stuck in the wall, and it jiggled a bit in the masonry, the party made forceful jokes and the barrel stayed tuck.

They beat on Breaker as he still tried to pick up his chest and eventually fell on top of it. They started rummaging through his stuff, finding only a small sized skeleton and rotten food in a sack, as his body shuddered in his death throws, but took a step back when he started getting up again, he was somehow regenerating. They attacked its prone body again and the body rotted rapidly, and a glowing orb of pulsating life from within it and started growing back the body. The group realized this horrible thing could not be killed by conventional means they had at their disposal, and fled the chamber. They eventually heard him yelling again but continued their path for a while until they had to rest.

As they were breaking camp Annahatta started weeping, Godric began talking gibberish, a few of their rescues began screaming. It only lasted for a few minutes but everyone was shaken for a few minutes. Once they collected themselves, they were greeted by a strange well dressed Derro that introduced himself as Y. He was a member of the Society of Brilliance and was trying to figure out why there were demons in his home. He showed the party strange purple vapors that were causing chaotic rifts in magic and marks left on the caves to warn of certain dangers. He had one of the party cast a dancing lights spell into the vapors and watched it turn from simple floating orbs into tiny giants and finally popping like a bubble. Slim Jim asked if the mist could be inhaled or snorted and Y gave him a terrified look and told him no and that it would be a terrible idea risking one’s own life. They also gathered drinkable water and more mushrooms, not wanting to run out on the way to Sloobludop. Y also put them on the best path for getting to Sloobludop. They thanked him for his time and headed out into the caves again.

After a few days travel they found themselves on a large underground lake, known as the Darklake. They walked along the odd sandy shore, keeping the cavern wall to their right. They could hear splashing in the water occasionally but could not identify the source. Dinak could see further than the rest of the party and could not see the other side of the lake. Eventually he noticed a group of duergar on a ship rowing on the lake. He shouted a greetings in dwarven and caught them off guard. Lady Hestia sent Penelope the pseudodragon to investigate but almost lost her to a heavy crossbow bolt, duergar don’t like flying things in caves. Dinak found out there were troglodytes along the shore up ahead thanks to some good diplomacy and the party made their way to the now ruined ambush.

They found a few strange statues on the shore and saw a few more standing in the water. As they approached the “statues”, troglodytes covered in sand and dirt attacked the party. The shaman of the troglodytes was hunters marked by Dinak, taking a arrow to the shoulder, and then turned invisible. Dinak could sense where it went, and it wasn’t good. The rest of the party made quick work of the other troglodytes and were surprised when the shaman leader appeared right next to Telegar and the other squishy mage types. the shaman tore tooth and nail into the party but the group was able to take him down as well, finding themselves standing amid the carnage and the end of the session. They have just reached level four. 

If you are liking these write ups of our campaign please feel free to share them on social media every little bit helps. 

Saturday, February 9, 2019

Abyss Modified session 5

OUT OF THE ABYSS SPOILERS AHEAD  

Our session started with the party fighting the monsters pursuing their new allies, the survivors. Two vulture demons and a bug demon came out of the tunnel, attacking the pile of survivors. The party watched as the dwarf fighter was taken out in one hit by the bug and the vultures engaged Orion and the other flew around to cut off the two groups. Most of the party spell casters had spells dealing fire damage, which seemed to do minimal damage against the demons, causing the group to redirect their actions. they watched as the orc survivor ran up to the dwarf’s defense and also got knocked out by the bug demon. Dinak got off a few arrows at the monsters, Orion had difficulty connecting any punches or stabs, Godric made use of his booming blade cantrip, Hestia offered the survivors protection within the ranks of the party, Fione launched rocks at the demons, Slim Jim made use of his sneak attacks having found the party once again, Xanaphia blasted away with cantrips, and Annahata followed suit with cantrips. The demons attacked indiscriminately, slashing out at the survivors and the party, they even knocked out the poor koa-toa, but after hearing the worst sound any of the party had ever heard the demons fled back the direction they came from. The party picked up the survivors, healed the fallen, and fled down another tunnel, hoping to create some distance from the demons and the drow most likely close behind as well. Telegar the eladrin asked if the group had made parley with the kobolds and if the way was clear, the party told him, yes on the parley, but the way had been collapsed by a burrowing monster.

They found a rope bridge over a deep chasm a few of the party just ran across while other made preparations to slowly make a rope line across. The party eventually all crossed and cut the ropes once safe on the other side. Godric found more mushrooms gaining around twenty pounds of food for the party. They took some time to rest in a safe and oddly clean cave and took stock of who made it out of the drow outpost, what supplies they had or needed, and found a kobold child had stowed away in their bag of holding. His name was Root, he had eaten a day’s worth of beets from their provisions, and had fallen asleep working on one of the larger beets. His first moments with the party were full of fear as Lady Hestia intimidated him for information. Annahatta stepped in and gave Root motherly affection and attention, finding out he had climbed into the bag during the shaky time in the kobold warrens and wanted to know where his mother was. The party promised the child safety and they would help him find a place to live. Telegar, the eladrin, informed the party he had come down here to save these people before the drow could sell them off, but was captured as well. Fione summoned a nature spirit to make a campsite in the cavern for the party. They took watch and noticed the derro with them was mumbling to himself oddly while staring at a wall. The orc and the dwarf were keeping distance from each other, the deep gnome was quiet, the koa-toa kept quiet as well, and the drow kept coughing throughout the night. They noticed some odd scraping ahead of them in the tunnels during the watch but did not see anything out of place, even after throwing a fire bolt down the passage. Fione talked quietly with Root for a bit. After their rest the group counseled to find out where to head, and after learning the distances between a few of the options decided to head to the koa-toa town of Sloobludop. They feared going to the gray dwarven city or the drow city would get them all captured instantly. Their fellowship of now fifteen mouths to feed made their way into the tunnels that would lead them towards Sloobludop. The party asked Shuushar the Koa-toa if his people were like him, calm and collected. His response was no, his people had hundreds of gods, most of which they made up on the spot, the only stable god was the deep mother, they ate meat, sometimes it was people.

The party was concerned but found the air around them growing humid and moisture collected on the cave walls. They had found steam vents with odd beetles biting at the steam blasts. They watched as the creatures would flash different colors and made strange clacking noises to alert each other when a good vent for food was about to burst. Lady Hestia took the chance to learn their clacks and repeat them, seemingly offending their honor as bugs and they rushed at the party. The party was about fifteen feet up on a ledge and just started picking off the beetles when the walls and floor shook and a Hook Horror burst out and attacked the crew. The group worked well together to slay the hook monster as well as the rest of the beetles harvesting quite a bit of food for the road in the process. Root even threw rocks at the hook monster. They also got to see their new allies carry their weight in the battle, even seeing the weird derro swinging around a wicked hook on a stick.

The group carried on, finding long winding tunnels and eventually on odd almost hammer shaped chamber with large mushrooms along the walls. As Dinak, with shield and silvered sickle out, made his way into the room scouting the mushrooms all started screaming. Having raised the alarm piles of goblins wearing mushroom bark came streaming out of hiding and started attacking the party. Behind the lines of minions stood a bulkier goblin wearing a crown of fungus and was directing his forces to attack the intruders, he was hard to hear with all the screaming. Some of the party started focusing on the mushrooms to silence the screaming, others rushed the line of goblins. Orion made good work on the goblin minions after a few near misses, Slim Jim cast sleep on the goblin boss and the mushrooms behind him, knocking two mushrooms out of the fight. Fione and Root threw rocks into the melee hitting goblins, Godric became a mushroom slayer, Xanaphia was able to keep the wild bits of magic at bay to throw an ice knife wounding a swath of goblins, Annahatta shot a scorching ray swarm at the boss, taking him in the shoulder with one, the other two detonating on the back wall. Dinak was able to take out a few of the goblins as well, having also been hit with the ice knife. Their allies charged in, the Derro Buppido sinking his hook stick sickeningly into the skull of a goblin and slinking back into the shadows, Eldeth and Ront worked together to take out a few goblins and a few mushrooms, Jimjar, Sarith, and Shuushar watched behind to make sure nothing tried to sneak up on the group. Telegar threw a few minor spells into the fray as well, conserving magic incase the party had to flee. The boss finally fell and the party looted the goblin swarm after putting down the still screaming fungus. They found a magic short sword and a pile of sapphires. They also found that Buppido started field dressing the goblin boss, and once noticed hid in the shadows again.

The group gathered up again and Dinak took point, they found a large chamber with pillars spread about forty feet apart. He could hear bashing and banging and could see a very large creature bashing a metal encased chest or barrel against a pillar. He went back to the party to tell them what he saw and Buppido got excited and saying the “breaker was breaking”. Fione and Slim Jim went with him to investigate and Buppido ran into the chamber screaming “breaker is breaking” and they witnessed the metal encased barrel smash into him, making him a stain on the floor. We ended the session there for the night.