Saturday, June 29, 2019

Abyss Modified Session 19: Probably not the last unicorn


***Out of the Abyss spoilers as well as classics awesome fantasy tale spoilers***

The party of Thelrum, Xanaphia, Dinak, and Godric with their Npc gnome guides, Telegar the Eladrin mage, and Eldeth the dwarven fighter made their way into Guantlgrym via way of magic portal. They were in the Iron Tabernacle, the burial chambers to be exact and making their way to the king’s chamber. They saw different clerics and priests of the dwarven gods repairing broken grave sites and were waved through to the higher levels, Eldeth having run ahead to talk with her uncle and announce her friends.

They found King Bruneor seated on his throne with advisors standing at attention in the wings. King Bruneor greeted them and thanked them for returning his niece to them, he asked them for any information they could share about the underdark and their adventures. Godric started from the very beginning, helping beet farmer girl, the kobolds, jumping to the mindflayer and the floating baby, the back to Jimjar eating his own arm due to madness. The advisors stared on in shock, unsure how to deal with any of the information. The group helped fill in some of the gaps in the memory of the bard. The king and his advisors were dumbfounded the party had survived as well as escorted this mage Telegar and Eldeth as far as they did. Having no other choice, King Bruneor invited the party to return to Gauntlgrym in three months time to help advise and possibly lead another adventure into the underdark.

Having been told about the party needing to get to Baldurs Gate, King Bruneor also said that three different caravans would be leaving soon headed in that general direction. There was Dunar’s Imports selling mostly wines from the south heading to a town a little north of Baldur’s Gate, there was Pletha’s Traveling goods headed to a small town in the mountains, and finally Daddy Fate’s Traveling Menagerie of Magical Monsters. (For those of you who have read or watched the Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle you may know a bit about what I have planned for this arc) The party looked at each other and chose the menagerie. They all rested for the night, except for Godric, who chose to hit up the night life of Gauntlgrym. He ended up sharing stories and drinks with Daddy Fate and a few of his crew and found his room in the morning to hear the wake-up call as he laid down.

The group found Daddy fate and his crew of about twenty hunters and trappers, mostly rough looking humans and half orcs, and possibly a gnomish clown, waiting in the upper tunnels for them. Before them were seven burly horse drawn carts and they could hear the snarling of a few animals from within the carts. They chose to join the drivers on a few of the carts instead of walking. When they stopped for the noon day meal, they watched a few of the hunters return with a few deer they had killed. They kept some for a communal stew and the party got to see them feed the animals of the menagerie. They tossed in an entire deer for the troll, another for the manticore, two halves of a deer in the serpent’s cage, and placed some grain in the unicorn’s cage. They also had what they said was a harpy where they threw in a quartered deer. There were terrible sounds that came from that cage. The manticore seemed powerful, having a winged lion body with his spiked tail and man-like face full of way too many teeth, but he was shaggy and his muscle seemed to hang of his bones, it growled at anyone that got close. The serpent just looked like a writhing mass of snake and the party gave it almost no attention. The troll was massive and asleep moments after finishing its deer. The unicorn was odd, it had strange bracelets just above its hooves and what seemed to be a fake party cone shaped horn. Thelrum sent his spider familiar under the cone to find a real unicorn was being obscured. The party discussed and questioned each other on why they might have a unicorn, why it wasn’t talking to them, and why did it seem to be missing its magic. They found out its name was Branix. The party also peered into the harpy’s cage and saw large owl eyes staring back at them, she was almost as large as the manticore, wings wrapped around herself, her anger was palpable.

After seeing the monsters, Thelrum used arcane lock and alarm on a few of the cages just in case. They started their journey again after their meal and came across a downed tree, as if someone had attempted to block the road. Daddy Fate called for the troll and had his cage opened, Thelrum speaking the password to allow the cage to open. The troll stood almost twenty feet tall and quite rotund squeezed himself out of his larger cart and approached the tree. The troll noticed bandits in the tree and threw it at another nearby tree that also had a few bandits in it. Having seen the power of the beast the remaining bandits ran away, the troll got back into his cart and the party continued on their way. That night they made camp, most of the party sleeping in Dinak’s magic rope extra dimensional space. Daddy Fate had also set up what appeared to be a large tent that he shared with no one, the other hunters and trappers set up to guard the perimeter and the carts were circled for protection.

The party took shifts watching for threats and they noticed the trees were full of owls, and every one of them was staring at the harpy cart. Finding this odd, Xanaphia informed the second watch about the owls. Godric summoned a magic hand and poked one of the owls to see what would happen, causing the owl to give him a dirty look and move further away from him on the branch. They found one of the hunters towards the end of the watch and asked him about the owls, finding that they had been showing up since they caught the harpy. It seemed they had only just recently caught the harpy and had lost a few men in the process. The guard walked them to Daddy Fate’s tent and they talked with him about the strange owls and the other monsters for a bit.

The next moring they reached the halfling town of Thistlebottom. They worked on setting up a larger tent in the shape of a semi-circle and helped the halflings from the town bring out benches. Godric used his bardic skills to draw in the crowd and his mask of many faces to look more outlandish. Xanaphia used her magic lute to make words in the sky above the tent. The party was asked to help come up with some new acts as well.  They brought out the manticore which begrudgingly did a few tricks, the serpent came out and seemed to grow to enormous proportions, wrapping around the entire tent and audience. Gordric made himself look like a snake person and scared the kids in the audience. The gnome came out in his clown get up while riding on the unicorn and did a few tricks as well. Dinak took aim at a target and the arrow fell short. Thelrum put a pumpkin where his head was, having pulled it into his shell and had Dinak shoot again. Dinak used his magic charm to start his arrow on fire and shot it straight through the pumpkin. The audience started screaming until they remembered Thelrum was a turtle man and could pull his head in. Xanaphia and the troll got to do the finale, the troll threw Xanaphia into the sky over sixty feet straight up, and feather fall brought her down. Illusionary fireworks filled the sky and everyone was happy. The halflings of Thistlebottom were so grateful for the entertainment that they gave the party a feast while Daddy Fate set up his private tent where halflings went to buy merchandise from the show. They talked with the village elder and found out a rather famous dark elf had been in the area awhile back, which is why Dinak’s lineage did not bother them. The next morning the party found they had free time before everything needed to be packed up so they asked the elder if there were any odd things they could do to help out.  He mentioned they used to have a silver mine but some kind of monster had taken it over. They party agreed to look into it for them and we ended there for the night.


Monday, June 17, 2019

Abyss Modified Session 18: The poor grooms bride is a spore.


We had a small group, recovering from the combat with the drow assassins, Xanaphia, Orion, Dinak, and their companions set forth completing the looting of the dead and repacked up their camp. Now with two carts they continued down the winding tunnels towards what the gnomes assured them was the way to the dwarven stronghold. After a few hours of uneventful travel, they found a large crystalline dome shaped chamber that fantastically reflected their lights. They could hear strange knocking noises and across the chamber they saw a pale wide-eyed creature that looked about the size of a goblin or gnome knocking on the wall with a pickaxe. The party gave the creatures a wide berth and made it out of the chamber safely.

The tunnels started to fill with warmer air, vision clouded with heat waves. They found the next chamber to be a multibridge cylindrical chamber that descended hundreds of feet and faintly an orange glow could be seen. The bridges started off pretty narrow but were fifty feet across at their widest point. There were a few close moments as both Eldeth and Xanaphia almost fell but were caught by Orion and Dinak throwing a dart and shooting an arrow respectively, pinning their clothing to the cart and saving them from what would have been a bad day. The snails slipped on the stone surface a bit slowing down the journey. Dinak spotted what appeared to be a floating green flamed skull by the exit of the chamber and shot off an arrow at the undead. The arrow went off into the abyss and the flame skull charged closer to the party, shooting beams of fire from its eyes. They quickly dealt with the first skull, Orion bludgeoning it and noticed many more below them in the steamy depths, two of which were alerted to the party when the other skull had exploded. Combat was quick, the other two skulls were shot and punched off the bridge and exploded down below. The party made haste and got out of that chamber, resting after a few hours of a quickened march.

After resting they made their way to a group of three damp tunnels the gnomes knew but grew confused when they arrived. Something was growing out of the right and center tunnel. It seemed to be a fungus and the party attempted to talk to it with to no avail. One of the gnomes with them paged through his book of underground dangers and mentioned some kind of fungus called Araumycos that was smart and giant, bigger than some of the smaller countries on the surface. Fear grew in the eyes of the gnomes and the party could hear skipping from the left most and clear tunnel as four mushroom men appeared, dressed up in fancy duds of surface folk. They gesticulated widely and the party all made their saving throws, resisting the rapport spores, the only way to talk with the creatures. One of the gnomes failed and translated, it seemed the creatures were preparing for a wedding between this giant fungal mushroom creature Araumycos and the demon queen of fungi Zuggtmoy. The party wanted no part in this wedding and promised to come back with a gift and went down the left tunnel, finding tiny mushroom men walking in procession. One of the snails ate one but within moments they could see the legs growing back from the remains. They made haste again, eventually resting for the night.

Dinak and Orion took the first watch, they noticed a troll in the distance watching them but it ran off. Later Eldeth and one of the gnomes took watch, and the troll struck, trying to eat the gnome. The party fought off the troll and Dinak, practically invisible watched as large frog demon ran and flipped one of their carts. The demon proved tougher than the troll and potentially was hunting it but the party looked to be easier prey. It took a few bites out of Xanaphia but was put down.

The next day they found their way to a side tunnel with strange ornate stone doors flanked by large dwarven faces. The gnomes made some sort of hand motions and whispered to the faces and the doors cracked open. They saw two large stone golems that looked like armored dwarves pushing open the doors and around their feet were thousands of what appeared to be goblin and elf bones. The snails made a path and the party rode a few hundred feet to another open set of doors with what appeared to be simple chamber with a large stone archway and a mummified dwarf sitting on a throne. They talked with the mummy for a bit, found out this was a secret way of the dwarves and no word of this secret should be uttered, or the golems would get them. With a smile it opened the portal and the party made their way into the underbelly of Gauntlgrym.


Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Abyss Modified Session 17: A floating baby and a showdown


*Contains Out of the Abyss Spoilers somewhat* 

Our party consisted of Dinak the drow gloomstalker ranger, Godric the half elf bard/ hexblade warlock, Thelrum the tortle abjuration wizard, and Syre the Yuanti whisper bard recovering from their last mission within their free rooms at the local pub in the underdark. Two new characters met with the party for adventure, Paige the half elf bard and Argus the elven wizard. They had been in Blingdenstone and had assisted with the defense of the city with gnomes. 

The group investigated a report of a missing child and visited with the parents. They two gnomes only remembered a strange bearded face telling them to sleep and when they woke up their son was missing. Godric could hear strange whispers from his sword that lead him and the rest of the party on the trail of the missing child. They passed strange oversized worms digging through the stones as well as a group of impoverished goblins that seemed relieved when the party passed them in the tunnels. 

The group came to a section of cavern with multiple tunnels leading deeper into the dark. Dinak and the others heard a voice in their head asking why they had come here. They responded with a myriad of answers from “searching for a lost child” to “money” and the voice seemed confused for a moment. Strange creatures started climbing out of the tunnels, muscular gray skinned humanoids with smooth flesh where their eyes should have been. The voice informed them the child had talent that would have been wasted in such a temporary town, and the grimlocks charged the party. Godric was able to hold off a few of the grimlocks while Dinak and Argus started picking them off at range. A few of the grimlocks got in good hits on Godric, dealing significant damage. A strange tentacle faced creature descended from a spot on the ceiling with a strange gnomish baby swaddled on its back.  

It attempted to dominate Thelrum’s mind but he countered the magic. The mind flayer used its mind blast ability, catching most if not all of the group in its cone of psychic damage and stunned both Syre and Godric, turning their own minds against them. On their turns they each broke out of the magic effect. Argus used flaming sphere to great effect, bouncing it between foes while Paige used vicious mockery to break down her foes. The fight went bad for the Mindflayer when the child on its back started screaming and was detached by two very fortunate arrows to the shoulder, missing the child completely. The party was confused when the strange child burrito floated about three feet off the ground, seemingly safe. Syre turned into a giant ape with polymorph and got ready to smash down the mindflayer but Dinak put an arrow through its head. They cleaned up the last grimlock and found a stash of coins and a broken potion bottle. Syre the giant ape led the floating child balloon back to its parents and found out they knew about its latent psychic abilities, having to collect floating silverware and tucking in the child with weighted sheets to keep him from drifting away. 

They took the rest of the night off and in the morning met up with the caravan they would be traveling with as well as Eldeth and Telegar. The group said goodbye to Keg and Root the kobolds and Ront the orc, they were staying behind to help rebuild Keg's trading empire. The group rode off on three quick snail drawn carts manned by six dour gnomes that look like they had seen a few scuffles. The group chatted with them a bit and almost missed an epic sight, the cavern wall disappeared silently as the party pulled to a stop. They watched as delvers, an ancient mining creature that resembled a slug with larger digging claws made to move copious amounts of dirt into its mouth while leaving behind various unworked stone and gems. The gnomes explained these were ancient creatures that were only seen once or twice in a generation. As they looked on a goblin that had been following them attempted to steal some gems in the wake of the beasts and the group watched as it dissolved in the slime trail the delvers left behind them. The group used mage hand to collect and clean off some gems for themselves. 

They traveled for a few more hours and made camp. They circled their three wagons and kept their snails in the center. Dinak created a rope trick dimensional space for himself and the rest of the party slept on or around the wagon situations. They all failed to notice the approach of assassins. The first gnome fell over with a bolt in his neck, drow sleep posion coursing through his system. The noise roused the party, Dinak looked out of his rope trick space and saw two figures standing down the tunnel, Drow, and important looking. Magical darkness separated the tunnel and a large ball of fire hit the first wagon, killing off one of the snails and mortally wounding the sleeping gnome. The party jumped into action. Godric walked into the darkness, having made a deal with his patron to see even in magic darkness, and engaged two of the four drow footman running towards the burning camp. He could also see what appeared to be a drow wizard in the back of the tunnel near the other important looking drow. The group engaged the drow fully, sinking arrows and blades into the dreaded foe. They found out from Telegar that these were the drow that he had rescued the other survivors from, and he had a score to settle. He threw spell after spell at the drow and Eldeth, his dwarf companion took out as many knees as she could. 

A lucky shot broke the priests concentration on the darkness, the gnomes and their remaining mounts ran back into the deeper tunnels to wait for the combat to die down with Argus and Paige heading with to protect them, and heat metal was cast on a drow warriors armor making it a bad day for him. The warriors fell quickly to the group and the important drow in back started summoning. The mage attempted to summon a shadow demon but Thelrum countered it and the high priestess finished her casting, bringing forth a handmaiden of Lolth. The lesser priestess fell to the might of the party and the mage could not keep up with the damage he took, going down in flames. The high priestess lost concentration on her summoned help and fell to the party, leaving them fighting the shapeshifting handmaiden, transforming from a tentacle monster into a giant spider with a terrible bite attack, scoring a few powerful strikes against the party. Eventually the beast fell and the party collected themselves, and will pick up from there next time.