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.