Road to Auer update

On January 8th I will be starting up a new campaign here in the store. Characters will start at first level for this game. I would prefer you use the base players handbook for this game, making things a little simpler if people are jumping in with new character at the store. Special cases can be addressed if need be. We will be using a modified standard array, 16,15,14,13,11,9. I am attaching a list of NPC characters for character background reasons, I would like each player to pick an NPC to have some sort of bond, be it a child hood friend, enemy, or ally. If you would like to make up a contact for me to add to the city instead, that is cool too.

The adventure takes place on what is called known only as the Northern Island. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings live together in three larger towns and two small trade cities nestled among mountains and forests. Tieflings, half orcs, and dragonborn are more often found in the small trade cities, they are not normally trusted in the larger towns.

Four giant brothers built this land and became gods, one betrayed the others, destroyed the town of Auer, and was soundly defeated by his brothers. They bound the betrayer to the bottom of the sea, hoping he would never return. His minions still gather in hordes and attack the cities but recently their attacks have been growing bolder. Dark things are stirring and it is up to the party to thwart them.

The people of the Northern Island have knowledge of the other two larger islands out there, one is a wild place of cat people, monsters and nature. The other island was rumored to be a land of tribal panther worshiping orcs that had been wiped out by hobgoblin invaders, it is far enough away to be someone else’s problem. Occasionally traders will make it as far as the northern island and they are met with suspicion.

The adventures will be starting in or near the town of Jarl. Job boards are always a great place to find work and can be found in Smithy’s, the local drinking hole for most of the city. Being an island there is plenty of work out on the sea as well. Odd disappearances have been happening on the trade routes, strange lights have been seen out on the water at night, people are starting to get worried.

Npcs of note:

Smithy: owner of Smithy’s, has a soft spot for adventurers and can help party members get in touch with guilds. He is a retired adventurer, now operating the only bar and black smith in town.

Cervantes: strange information broker and mage. Good natured and has a tendency to get overly excited about magic.

Reginald: traveling wizard, wears brown robes and gets himself into trouble.

Lord Umben: ruler of Jarl, more like a mayor. He and his family have been in charge of the city for many generations. He married into a merchant family.

Bran-Lee: ruler of the thieves’ guild, the Coffer. She is rarely seen but has her agents everywhere.

High priest Felton: she runs the temples of the Three. The people worship the three giants, gaining strength and spells from their power. Gods of the northern island: Korten, the god of warriors. War domain. Telln, the god of travelers. Knowledge and Nature domains. Roth, god of law. Protection and life domains. Neln, the god of secrets and betrayal (evil, players are not able to worship him)

Janriss: she runs the magic guild in town, the Ilris Arcanum. Promising students are usually scouted out when they are young and brought to the Arcanum.

Lady Umben-Jericho: high captain of the merchant guilds, her useless husband runs the town, she rules the sea.

Common foes to the societies: orcs, gnolls, ogres, and red cap goblinoids. Dragons are far less common place. The ocean is without salt, many creatures that normally would be found only in salt water have adapted to this odd ocean. There are many small islands between the Northern Island and the other big islands, many of which have been left unexplored. Ships have shown up to trade with both Moco and Ellic, strangers have started wandering the land. Undead are a common problem.

Towns:

Auer- once the capital and home of the king, Auer is now a ruin. Neln and his forces destroyed the city, killing the inhabitants. Now only ghosts and the undead remain. The old king was a mage of great power before his death. Before he was king, he was known as the Crimson Count until he won the throne by conquest. After the fall of Auer none wanted claim to the throne, fearing his spirit might come back or calamity would befall the other cities. For almost three hundred years the city has sat lifeless.

Ellic- home to the inventors’ league, Ellic is a dangerous place to walk without watching your step. Many gnomes and chaotic types call Ellic home. Strange contraptions are for sale, most are only slightly useful, like an automated hat tipper or wind up mice. Odd cloaked figures have been seen coming off ships from the other islands, they obscure their bodies, wearing heavy robes at all times, they have been bringing all sorts of new technological ideas to the island. The city has a regent, Lord Nailes, a self-named lord, conducts the legal and political business of the town, seeking trade agreements with outsiders as well as maintaining the peace. The local law enforcement are called the gears, for they are the well-oiled machine of the law. 

Moco- the lighthouse city. Moco was heavily influenced by elven architecture and has tall buildings looking out over the ocean, lit with ever burning lanterns to help sailors avoid the reefs. The elves of the city work in tandem with the elves from the southern forest. Many have sought the elves in Moco for guidance, they have been around much longer than the other peoples, and remember a time before the fall or Auer.

Jarl- the city of the steps. The city is broken into rings, the main gate and the highest ring are level with the rest of the island, the other rings descend the cliff face down to the ocean. The grand stairs run from the highest district to the lowest, connecting the town like a main artery. The lower district houses more the warehouses and the docks, the next highest has more of the businesses, the next three layers are residential.

Telas- a smaller trade route stop, Telas is a wild outpost with all manner of clientele. Many taverns and inns dot the streets and a large market square dominates the town center. Occasionally giants come to trade down from the mountains, people claim they even have seen dragons, which is silly. Telas is run by an elf named Corsco Wightbane. He can be usually found within one of the many taverns gambling at all hours.

Rensfield- larger than Telas, Rensfield was built near a large crater that proved to be rich in mineable minerals. The odd wealth has led to larger than expected population boom. Rensfield and Ellic readily trade with eachother, each needing different things from the crater. This trade stop is run by Alindia Copperhelm, an exiled dwarf hailing from Blagengast, and unable to return for reasons.

Blagengast- home of the dwarves. Most of the mountain dwarves can trace their history to the halls of Blagengast, where as the hill dwarves are more common among folks seen within the rest of the cities across the island. Blagengast itself is a work of art, high vaulted ceilings, carved scenes of ancient battles, mines that reach deep into the stone, and warriors that fight against any evils that attempt to escape onto the surface. Kagorack Stonehaven is the Forge King, ruling the mountain dwarves as their all-king. Other stone homes have popped up where rare stone has been found, acting like satellite cities of Blagengast.

Gods of the northern island:

Korten, the god of warriors. War domain. His followers seek to prepare the masses for possible battle. With the dark portents recently unveiled there is fear agents of the betrayer are on the rise again. His sigil is a flaming sword.

Telln, the god of travelers. Knowledge and Nature domains. His followers have built great libraries in the temples, offering knowledge to all that seek it. They also train travelers to safely travel the wilderness, many adventure into the woods and onto the ocean and should have at least basic knowledge of what is out there lurking. His symbol is a winding road.

Roth, god of law. Protection and life domains. Roth’s followers seek to keep the cities safe from the wilderness, dark things seek to end civilization, and it is up to the civilized to protect themselves. His healing light allows for people to survive otherwise lethal ordeals. His sigil is a stout castle.

Neln, the god of secrets and betrayal (evil, players are not able to worship him)

Abyss Modified Session 37: The Final Showdown

They had their big battle. Godric, Tamin, Xanaphia, Orion, Drifting Cloud, Syre, and Thelrum were faced with a dark decision. The big wizards had fixed the scroll in a way that it could be used to summon the demon lords together and hopefully cause them to fight each other and pick off the survivors. The party was given the choice to pick the place the battle would happen. This led to numerous ideas and plots. Options were weighed, caution taken, and a choice was had. They hunted down a volcano and looked for vents leading for any underground chambers nearby that could have a thin crust of cooled rock above a pool of liquid rock. Syre helmed this search and found a suitable location. The party prepared themselves the best they could and let the wizards finish the spell. Their allies consisted of Acererak, Eliminster, the Companion, Professor Pulldiver, Thuds the troll, and Anchor the oni. They planned on dividing the forces, letting them fight a bit, and taking out the survivors. Drifting Cloud cast forbiddance to damage the demon lords every round and Thelrum set up a wall of force to keep the demon lords stuck in the room as long as possible. As the party set themselves up and cast the spell I read this aloud to them.

“Tangible magic courses around you. You see as the weave buckles and bends, chains of light fill the chamber and create vortex of magic. The cave darkens and a loud tearing sound along with the rushing of water fills the world around you. Larger than imaginable, a massive worm like creature with random atrophied limbs crashes head first into the ground, its neck snapping instantly. Dark forms follow it, bouncing off its bulk and slipping in the waves. Orcus, demon prince of death stands up and looks around, seeing the dead fiendwurm and starts digging into its side. Another form rises, his horns wide set, Baphomet roars out a challenge for anyone to face him. Two massive baboon heads lift from the carnage, for a few of you, this creature is familiar, last seen destroying the Koa-toa town of Sloobludop . Demogorgon’s rage shakes the world around him. A smaller form can be seen sprinting away from the other demons, a large drow like figure that could only be Graz’zt himself. Attached to the large worm creature a black and green slime oozes, Juiblex searches for those who thwarted his attack on the gnomes of Blingdenstone. With a scream like a thousand screeching hyenas, Yeenoghu rolls to his feet, already swinging his flail in the air. A large cloud darkens part of the giant worm as mushrooms the size of houses blossom across its form. Zuggtmoy makes her presence known. You have your allies with you. How will you proceed?”

Pile of demon lords

The fiendwurm caught the party off guard. They realized that it was responsible for eating the krakens they had seen dead in the ocean, the water it had been swimming in had cooled the chamber and created steam. I gave the party a few moments to choose which of the demon lords they wanted to fight. After a few minutes they decided to fight Orcus and Graz’zt. Their allies watched each chose a few to fight as well, the mages took Juiblex and Zuggtmoy and the Pulldiver’s Delvers took Yeenoghu and Baphomet. Each group teleported to another chamber to duke it out. the party quickly realized Demogorgon was left in the room with them as well.

The crowded hallway

The party watched as Orcus walked over to punch Demogorgon, who did not like the damage he was taking from the magic in the chamber and climbed into the ceiling, digging into the magma tubes. Graz’zt looked at the wall and teleported within the party to sow discord. The group watched as Orcus carved a wicked smile into a ball of flesh he pulled out of the dead wurm and craft it into a pseudo beholder zombie with stringy gristle legs. Graz’zt started cutting into the party with his acid coated sword, dominated Godric’s mind with crown of madness, causing him to swing at his allies. The group was able to focus fire on Graz’zt while dealing with his brutal attacks and counter spelling his efforts to make more allies for himself. Orion made great work of him with many punches and kicks, he was able to resist the stunning attacks too well.

Orcus was approaching the wall of force as the party was phasing their spells through the wall, like tiny birds pecking at him as he took constant damage from the forbiddance spell. Thelrum dropped the wall of force and changed it up to a globe of invulnerability, shielding himself and others from lower level spells and Syre cast magic circle, to give everyone bonuses on saving throws.

Orcus

Graz’zt was the first to fall, the combined efforts of the entire party were enough to remove him from the situation, leaving only a pile of dissolving goo and a large great sword, Godric took the sword. At this point Orcus had made it to the party was swinging away with his club like wand, trying to clear a path out of the forbiddance spells. Xanaphia cast a storm sphere, filling that part of the room with lighting and Drifting Cloud dropped a dawn spells, spilling radiance into the chamber. They noticed falling pebbles above them and grew concerned, figuring that Demogorgon was in the rock above them. They watched as the fleshy monster Orcus made exploded into four smaller creatures from the storm sphere’s lightning damage. The group was not surprised with Demogorgon reaching out from a hole he made in the ceiling to attack Drifting Cloud. The group split their efforts against both foes, aiming to take them down as quickly as possible. Tamin took this chance to escape, and did.

From other chambers they could hear screams and explosions and hoped their allies were doing alright. Drifting Cloud spent most of the combat taunting Orcus trying to distract him. Orcus pushed against the party, trying to make it out of the chamber and into the hallway, but was having difficulty with the wall of heroes refusing to budge. His wounds became too much, the magics and constant radiant damage broke him, Drifting Cloud told him “Anubis says hello” as Orcus became ooze and gristle on the stone floor, leaving only his club like wand behind. Demogorgon pulled the rest of the way through the roof and started tearing into the party. The group, sensing the danger in this foe pulled back into the forbiddance room that would be their sanctuary or trap, having no other way out. Loud booms filled the hallway and from the western wall Baphomet burst through like a fur covered train, and started tearing into Demogorgon. The group double downed their efforts in pelting them with spells and attacks and eventually Demogorgon was brought down by a magic missile spell by Thelrum and Orion defeated Baphomet.

The Companion and the other survivors from the demon lords limped back to the party. The Pulldiver’s Delvers were defeated by Baphomet and Acererak had abandoned the rest to their own fate. Eliminster looked a little worse for wear. The group was given wishes from the Companion as a final payment, terminating their contracts as well. Godric wished to find his father, the whole reason he had gotten into adventuring in the first place. Thelrum went by the book, wishing for the entire party to forever be resistant to slashing damage. Drifting Cloud wished his khopesh of disruption to be sent to the next warrior that would need it in their quest against evil. Syre went the greed route, wanting money, and found her pockets were extradimensional spaces full of coins. After experimenting a bit, she realized it was one hundred thousand gold coins she could access from any pocket she wore. Orion wished for a tent like Daddy Fate's so he could set up a mobile orphanage to save kids in need where ever he traveled.

The party was successful, and much work would need to be done to push the minor demons from the realm, but for now their story is done. A new group of heroes calls for our attention.

Abyss Modified Session 36: The Tower in the Other World

Xanaphia, Orion, Thelrum, and Drifting Cloud returned to the flying ship after dealing with the beacon in the light house. They found Acererak and Ladwin interrogating a disheveled dark elf, Vizeran, who they were blaming for this whole problem with the demon swarms. Godric and Syre looked on very confused as the interrogation had been taking place in front of them. Their henchmen Ralph watched on in terror as well from an illusionary barrel he made. They talked with Acererak and found out the drow wizard had stolen Gromph’s spellbook and had been working with agents in the Underdark to summon all the demon lords to the same place, but something went wrong with the spell, it ejected the demons onto the surface world where they have been causing all sorts of problems.

Drifting Cloud called the Companion with his sending spell to ask if this Acererak was cool to be hanging out with them. The companion was confused by the question and teleported to the ship. He and Acererak gave each other a look, nodded, and set into a plan to help fix what went wrong in the spell. The group sailed the ship to the Sunset Mountains and followed the blip on their map to a strange swampy pond with three pathways that met in the middle. The party went to investigate leaving their employer and Acererak on board with Ladwin, Ixxon the imp, and Ralph the young halfling mage they pseudo adopted.

The party stood around using magic to determine what was going on at the crossroads for a bit until the sun set behind the mountains and a gateway appeared before them, leading to some desolate looking realm. they hesitantly entered and saw a large broken and ruined city with a central tower that had broken in numerous places, floating hundreds of feet above its original base. Thelrum used levitate to ignore the base of the tower and take everyone up to the top. He took Syre first and they discovered the top of the tower gave way to a flat platform with stairs down that appeared to have lost the higher levels as well as a marilith, a demon with six arms and a snake bottom. She was having a one-sided conversation with someone about the group not having arrived, possibly with a variant of the sending spell. The creature went on to explain her group was excellent at their job and would not fail. By this point the rest of the party had been taxied up and Drifting Cloud and Godric decided some trickery was in order. They approached the marilith and asked if she would be interested in purchasing some fine yeti meat they were willing to supply. The marilith was confused, but interested until one of her allies, an undead boneclaw came up from a flight of stairs situated in the center of the tower.

Combat was had, Thelrum banished the first boneclaw and a second one followed up the stairs and the Marilith resisted the spell. Godric pushed the marilith down the stairs and Orion was grabbed by the boneclaw. Drifting Cloud summoned a swarm of scarabs on the stairs, hitting both the feet of the boneclaw and the marilith. Orion was able to jump out of the way after pummeling the undead into the bug pile. Xanaphia and Syre used spells and threw around inspiration to the party. Eventually the marilith fell to the party and the banished boneclaw returned to its own realm via the magic of the spell. The group let the bugs clear out of the stairs and traveled down them, finding a strange doorway with shimmering energy inside of it. 

Through the doorway they found large chamber filled with odd walkways, multiple tables covered in historical documents, and a large wooden door on the opposite side of the chamber from where they entered. As they started rummaging through the room, they found out a few things. The ruined city was Andorel, it had disappeared and been stuck on the plane of shadow and been shunted around the cosmos for a few hundred years. It had been a city of mages before its destruction. They also discovered a strange scratching coming from the other side of the door. Thelrum used arcane lock to seal the door and Godric laid on the floor and looked underneath the door and saw massive strange feet on the other side, he tickled them with mage hand. The creature on the other side screeched and broke the door open. it failed to hit Godric with its massive claws. The creature looked similar to a bone devil and was some kind of guardian of this chamber. Thelrum banished it as well and another two showed up and they could hear noises from the back of the next chamber. As the party fought against the two strange bone creatures they were ambushed by three cloaked figures, bodaks, which tried to use their gaze attacks to kill the party. Many lightning bolts were thrown, many punches were made, and songs were sung. Eventually the party was victorious and decided to figure out what was on the next room.

They found two doors on opposite walls as well as a large pit with a writhing pile of teeth, gristle, and bones. The party threw some fire spells down at it but it seemed to have little effect. They checked the east door and found a room with a large brain eating monster in a glass jar and hundreds of empty smaller jars that once held brains. They locked that door and went to the western door. They found a hall leading north to a celestial map of foreign skies, which happened to be the heavens of Eberron. To the south was a closed door, which opened as they approached. At this point Godric had the idea to pull a prank on the strange pile of bones and teeth and relieved himself over the edge. At the same time the rest of the group found the last beacon of Mystra and lit it with holy fire.

The large pit filled with celestial fire, Godric assumed it was his donation that did it while the rest of the group came back to find him pulling his pants back up. The building started shaking so they fled. They feather fell to the ground and made it a good deal away from the structure before it hit the ground. They noticed a strange cocoon like structure made of bone slowly floating down from the sky and when they touched it a strange man in red robes with a long white beard woke up. They found out he was Elminster, a mage from their world, who had no idea about the demons. They gave him some jerky and he volunteered to help. He went through the portal with them and skeptically joined the group of mages working on the scroll to try to fix everything, or at least get all the demon lords into the same place. He had had some history with both the Companion as well as Acererak in this time line, and rather not talk about.

Now the group prepares, if the scrollwork goes according to plan, they will summon all the demon lords into the same place. With their blessings of Mystra they stand a great chance at turning the demonic horde.

Abyss Modified Session 35: the Quiet Chult

The party, tonight consisting of Thelrum, Orion, Drifting Cloud, Xanaphia, and Tamin, contacted their allies to fly above the dome of the Moon Well and drop a rope for them to climb out. They left the beholder behind, amazed the beast had not killed them. Back on their ship they contacted the Companion to see if their allies, Pulldiver’s Delvers, had finished up with the Thayan temple and heard back they were successful. The group decided to go to the temple on Chult next, the Sunset Mountains were not further away but sounded pleasant. While sailing above the water they watched for any strange monsters or demons and were lucky, nothing attacked or even noticed them. 

Eventually they could see an island off in the distance, and as they approached, they noticed the corpse of a giant dragon turtle split in half, floating in the water. They remembered hearing this creature was a protector of the harbor of Port Nyanzaru and guessed they would not have to pay tribute, so they flew on. Once they found their way into port, they found the town deserted. The normal sounds and sights were missing. Thelrum used see invisibility and noticed a leather clad figure breaking into one of the building’s rooftop vents and called out to him as the group dropped to the city streets, sending their airship to circle above. The figure, startled, dropped the wooden venting cover and it clattered loudly to the street. The group paused, feeling an odd quaking in the streets and could hear something large approaching.

The group turned to see from two of the alleys two huge sized tyrannosaurus rexes, no longer living but undead. The beasts roared and the party went into action. Orion charged up to one of them and laid into it with multiple strikes and was close enough to see dozens of humanoid forms within the belly of the beast, also zombies, pushing against the ribs trying to reach out and grab Orion. Drifting Cloud prepared to turn the undead when they got into range and the second rex charged him and Thelrum. Divine energy coursed through Drifting Cloud and hit the rex, causing it to turn and flee, but not before it coughed up a zombie, which turned to ash from the divine energy. Tamin made his way into one of the buildings and closed the door, finding himself surrounded by unmoving husks, corpses that had been mummified rapidly. Xanaphia slung eldritch blasts at the wounded rex, scoring multiple hits. The wounded rex coughed up more zombies around Orion and attempted to attack him but failed to find its mark. The zombies were ineffective as well. The group could hear someone bumping around in one of the buildings, hearing someone say that the group seemed to have it handled. Thelrum blasted the wounded rex with more magic while the turned Rex fled into the quiet jungle. Tamin made his away to the second floor of his corpse building and could see out one of the windows and launched a few arrows at the wounded rex, which eventually fell and burst open, releasing the zombies. The group made wuick work of them. The door to one of the buildings opened and a leather armored mask wearing figure came out to thank the party for their intervention. They could see a fancy jade dagger on his hip.

The figure introduced himself as Ladwin, it turned out he was scouting for any survivors and loot when the party came along. The group was rightfully concerned and asked what happened to the city. Ladwin explained that a new guy showed up and was pissing off his boss, taking control of the jungle and making an army of the undead. The party inquired about Ladwin’s boss and was told he specialized in making tombs, one was here on the island, the other had been around for a long time. He mentioned the name Acererak and the group went pale. A few of them relayed what they knew about the Lich and his Tomb of Horrors and Tomb of Annihilation. Ladwin asked if they wanted to meet the boss and they unanimously said no. He mentioned that the rival was some guy named Orcus, the group was equally pale from that name as well, knowing that getting between a demon lord of undeath and a super powerful lich would be dangerous. Ladwin took off his mask, revealing a skull and scratched his bare skull before returning it to his face.

Drifting Cloud broke off from the group to ask for guidance. He asked if Orcus was still on the island, finding Anubis answering yes. He asked if Anubis wanted him to deal with Orcus, and was given a strange no. He asked for a sign from Anubis, and was answered yes. The Khopesh Drifting Cloud was wielding lit up, now glowing brightly. When he started walking around with it out it glowed brighter when pointed to the south eastern direction. The party got back on their ship, Ladwin tagging along, and headed the direction the sword told them to go.

They soared above the silent jungle, seeing large areas of devastation and places where demonic creatures were burrowing out of the ground. They chose to avoid all that nonsense. The sword led them to an abandoned lighthouse with golden flame iconography. The structure was overrun with plant life and the once glass covered atrium was completely shattered. From the deck of the ship they could see the torch or brazier for the top of the lighthouse was missing. When they made landfall, they went in the atrium windows and found numerous bodies of slain monks, now skeletal, laying around the ground. Drifting Cloud used eyes of the grave and they dinged as undead. He turned undead, causing a few to rise and flee into the jungle and another to stand up start mumbling about the snake men and the beacon. Thelrum cast detect magic and massive energies were radiating from the basement of the structure.

The group left the undead alone and made their way into the dark interior of the lighthouse, finding a large room stacked with bits of shipwrecks, broken furniture, lumber, kitchen supplies, and paper. The doorway was strange, there seemed to be numerous teeth set in lines across the threshold of the room. The room had a high ceiling and many of the items within were stacked about fifteen feet high, cutting off the party’s views of each other. They split up and started searching for the beacon and Thelrum could feel the magical energy at the edge of his spell, and suddenly it was charging towards him.

A large spell stitched creature with the body of gargantuan bipedal lion, odd mantis armor, and multiple eyes crashed through the garbage in the room, and around its neck was a large stone beacon. The group jumped into action. They were unsure if it was a construct or an undead, but either way they unloaded everything they had on the monster. Orion got in close and the beast knocked him down, it spread out its attacks, bowling over most of the party, mauled Drifting Cloud and Xanaphia /dealing massive damage, this monster was not messing around. Drifting Cloud put up a guardian of the faith behind it, dealing some nice damage. Thelrum attempted to banish it but the magic was resisted. Xanaphia cast eldritch blast and shot at the beast with her crossbow, hoping to get a bolt to stick for heat metal. One of her higher spells surged, causing her to teleport around every round. Drifting Cloud cast spiritual weapon, which followed the monster around, the khopesh glowing with radiant energy.

After a few attacks were traded they could hear Ladwin using a spell to talk to someone mentioning the terrifying monster. Moments later a figure walked out of a shadow. Covered in purple robes, metallic staff at hand, large demon faced amulet around its skeletal neck and a massive helm, Acererak entered the fray, and he was pissed. He threw magical bolts into the creature and granted Tamin greater invisibility. Ladwin jumped on the beasts back and started stabbing into it with his jade dagger.

Thelrum got in a great lightning bolt on the beast and could see the strange lich summoning a ball of pure darkness between his hands. Tamin used his sneak attacks to great effect, Drifting Cloud kept himself and everyone else alive while dropping toll the dead on the beast. Orion constantly was bashing on the beast with multiple landed punches and sword slashes. Xanaphia was able to land the killing blow with eldritch blast. They watched as Acererak passed the black orb of shadow over the body of the beast, disintegrating it slowly, and as he finished he grabbed Ladwin’s shoulder and they teleported away without a word to the group. The group took the beacon from the room and carried it up the lighthouse, finding a grove on the floor sized perfectly for it and lit it. the party gained another level for their struggle, now hitting 12^th level. 

Abyss Modified Session 34: Behold, a Well Below

Our adventure started with the group talking with the Pulldiver Delvers about an escape plan and raiding the rest of the treasure hoard. The professor had a way out and would share it with the group. The party heard the sounds of battle above them as battle was joined and the dragon was back from its banishment. Orion reported Haskan was gone as he rejoined the group. They teleported back to their ship, found a wayward Tamin on board, also hired by the Companion, and set sail as far away as they could get. Their journey to the Moonshae Isles was quick. They observed swarms of flying creatures above Waterdeep so they kept their distance. Large swaths of destruction swept across the land, strange monsters could be seen hunting animals and when they hit the ocean, they found the putrid green water polluted with the corpses of dead whales and what appeared to be a dead kraken. As they watched something bit the kraken in half and pulled it under the water.

They sailed higher in the clouds as to not be noticed by whatever was eating krakens, and eventually started seeing islands in the distance, almost glowing green on the horizon. They flew over majestic mountains and forests that seemed almost untouched by the devastation found elsewhere. There were castles that looked as if they were under siege by other worlds creatures, but helping them was not the groups goal. They checked their map and found Oman, the island they needed to find within sight. They eventually found a strange tower next to a large burial mound with a deep cave on its side. The party noticed the piles of corpses littering the ground between the cave mouth and the stone tower.

They called out a greeting and watched as one of the windows on the tower, an iron slab covering it, lifted up and a small head poked out and asked who they were. Before they could answer the slab slammed shut and another one opened, again revealing a small face and vaguely they could see red hats on the figures. The party asked about all the dead bodies and were told the people had tried to rise up against the tower, and for that were struck down. the group asked who was in charge and was told the master was down in the mound, doing some sort of magics. The group thanked them and headed into the mound, avoiding the pile of humanoid corpses.

The tunnel was a perfectly smooth cylinder carved out of the stone. It led miles upon miles down into the island and eventually the party lost sight of the light behind them. They came to a chamber with two stone figures sitting in the center, facing the entrance and slightly blocking the way out, another smooth tunnel. The party was not sure what the figures were and Drifting Cloud started casting detect magic. As soon as he started the magic the figures started talking to each other, placing bets if Drifting Cloud would finish his spell or not. He stopped and one stone man passed the other a few coins. The group grilled the strange rock men, claiming that they themselves had come here to work with the master, with a high deception check. The stone men, Galeb Duhr, claimed that Many Eyes had come down and was doing magic with the old Moon Well. Many Eyes, or Zaelzorb as they found out, seemed to be some kind of monster with undead minions and was further into the mound. The Galeb Duhr demanded the party, even if they shared the same boss, that they would need some sort of tax to let them pass. Godric asked if they would have to pay on the return trip and the creatures laughed. They gave the creatures a few coins and headed deeper into the mound.

Zaelzorb and his henchmen at the Moon Well

Finding cover

They found a large chamber with a domed ceiling and a hill topped with a green glowing well.there were broken buildings and a few pillars on the field as well, almost as if the ground itself had devoured this chamber to lock it away. At the apex of the dome a faint ray of moonlight trickled in. Two cloaked figures and a huge beholder were staring deeply into the water of the well. Mild panic set in and the group separated, Xanaphia and Tamin running off towards the broken building, Drifting Cloud, Godric, and Orion attempting to hide behind a large boulder. Godric only got as far as a smaller outcropping of rocks. The beholder, Zaelzorb saw them. He turned his central eye on the ruined building, catching Xanaphia and Tamin within its anti-magic cone. It blasted at Godric, Orion, and Drifting Cloud with its eye beams, they were able to resist most of their effects. Drifting Cloud dropped a spiritual guardian of Anubis, which took a few chunks out of Zaelzorb before getting out of range. The beholder took to the sky, wanting to reduce the effectiveness of the two melee fighters closing in.

Chaos

As the battle progressed the cloaked figures made their way around the ruins and the pillars and attempted to restrain the group with magic so their master could blast them easier, one succeeded in holding Drifting Cloud in place. Orion was thrown into the air with telekinesis, Tamin found magic oils do not work while within the gaze of a beholder, various members of the group were blasted with death rays numerous times. Godric was able to get on top of the beholder and lop off one of its eye stalks, driving the beast into a rage. Orion attempted to throw his javelin of lightning but it failed to activate, falling to the ground. Once Orion was free, he attempted to get the javelin again but the beholder hit him with a sleep ray. Xanaphia wild surged quicker spells, which only helped a little bit, allowing for a spell and full weapon attack using the almost forgotten crossbow. Tamin made great use of his sneak attack, picking his shots carefully and attempting to not draw attention to himself.

Pesky adventurer being tackled by a bag of bones on a beholder

Godric, atop Zaelzorb, continued to hack into the beast, eventually getting tackled by one of the cloaked figures, a deathlock. He was being sick of getting blasted with terrible arcane energy and fled with misty step to run and heal up a bit. Around this time, he noticed Orion asleep so he threw one of the juggling mushrooms from his pack at him, waking him from his badly timed slumber. Orion was then hit with a fear ray, which he elected to ignore being a monk. Eventually they took down the two deathlock cultists and Zaelzorb had had enough. He started fleeing but Godric was in his way. He used his telekinetic ray and just shoved Godric into the corrupted moon well. Zaelzorb started retreating towards the domes moonlit peak but was struck down by the combined efforts of the group, almost falling on the submerged Godric.

Moments before Godric was in the corrupted Moon Well

The group pulled Godric out of the disgusting water and he was in drastic pain, possibly even cursed. Drifting Cloud cast remove curse twice, once on Godric removing his goopy affliction, and once on the Moon Well. They harvested parts of the beholder, tossing it into braziers and cleansed the demonic essence from the burial mound. We stopped there for the night, and the party leveled to level 11.  

*I did not make the amazing battle map, it belongs to my FLGS*

Abyss Modified Session 33: Into the Dragons Lair

          Our adventure started off right where it left off, chaos. Orion failed her first death saving throw and two imps appeared on the scene, one by Godric, the other by Professor Pulldiver. The imps both were confused that two groups working for the Companion both went to the same site and panicked when they saw the dragon and started clawing at the wall of force. Pulldiver’s Delvers took their turn. The Professor ran foreword past Anchor and Thudds, who both stood at the ready waiting for orders, and used an item given to him by his boss, breaking the talisman. Cold motes of unlife filled the two slain dragons and they rose up skeletal and turned on their mother. Thelrum hit Big Momma with a fireball, also melting the wall of ice behind her. When the ice melted, he could just see the form of a shield guardian bearing the same rune on its chest that matched an amulet on the dragon. Dinak continued shooting the dragon and trying to remain unnoticed, which was counterproductive. Drifting Cloud ran into the center of the room and used mass healing word, giving both Xanaphia and Orion a new lease on life, albeit still in a danger zone. Syre still had her magic circle active and attempted dissonant whispers on the dragon, but it resisted the spell. Xanaphia stood up and also blasted at the dragon with magic, having a hard time hitting the target. Haskan charged up to the dragon and missed with his attacks. Godric also charged to meet his foe, blasting with eldritch blasts until he could get into range. The dragon moved closer to the group, engaging them in a rage, a whirlwind of claws and bites, it was bad enough the group killed her children, but they brought them back from the dead as skeletons and mocked her. The group could see that the shield guardian was also taking the hits the dragon was, dampening the blows.

View of the carnage 

          As the party and the dead dragons teamed up on Big Momma she took to the air, knocking a few of them down and damaging them. As the dragon maneuvered a few of the party members noticed that down the hall there were more of the elementals making their way towards them rapidly. Xanaphia lined up a great lightning bolt and fried the shield guardian in the process, damaged an elemental, and angered the dragon further. Drifting Cloud yelled at the Professor that he needed to help out more and the Professor yelled back he was controlling two undead dragons. The elementals surrounded Haskan and Orion, knocking out Orion and wounding Haskan. Thelrum used his sword dancing spell and attacked two of the elementals and the dragon, causing one of the elementals to start cracking, he also dropped the wall of force at the back of the chamber. Enraged, the dragon brought her attacks down on Godric, removing him from the battle.

The ice walls were elemental creatures

          The party looked on in horror as the dragon prepared its breath weapon again and brought it down on most of them. Godric’s life force left him and the rest of the group became pelted with shards of ice. Everyone was pretty badly hurt and both Dinak and Drifting Cloud became focused on healing, Dinak using his healing spirit spell and Drifting Cloud bringing all his magics to bare. He also attempted to have Anubis help out with some timely divine intervention, but it was not his day. A daring plan was stormed up to get around the dragon and get Godric’s body, knowing that even if they could not bring him back now, he had a bag of holding on him with most of their loot. Orion downed the potion of storm giant strength and ran across the chamber, grabbed Godric, ran about half way back and threw him towards Drifting Cloud. Godric’s body flew and slid on its face about fifteen feet, while out of the range of the dragon, and came to a rest among the party. Drifting Cloud quickly used revivify and reconnected Godric’s soul to his body. Many of the other members of the group had fled out the chamber once they saw how bad things had gotten. They found a staircase leading down with a closed ornate door.

Post breath weapon scatterings 

Things were looking terrible for the party, the elementals were closing in, the dragon was wildly sending fog clouds and stalactites at the party between her attacks and trying to focus down on dangerous foes. Thelrum used banishment, and for a moment the party was safe. They watched as the elementals sank back into the floor. Thelrum concentrated on the spell while Xanaphia started blasting away at the throne room dais where she could see gold and some strange metallic sphere under the ice. Spending almost a minute doing this. Haskan sat where the dragon has disappeared and started sharpening his blades, waiting for the beast to return, Orion watched from the doorway just in case. Everyone else was in the lower chamber looking at the door. They pushed it open, it was not locked or trapped and found themselves within a treasure trove of enormous potential. A huge sized staff crackling with energy sat in one alcove, a giant dormant brazier sat in another. The party lit the brazier with their Mystra energy they had gotten from the last shrine. Drifting Cloud called the Companion and asked if it was ok to let the Professor take the staff, because he really wanted it. The companion responded to let the Delvers take the staff and send them to another location

The professor grabbed the staff and it shrank from giant sized to about eight feet long, still crackling with energy. The party decided to send Pulldiver’s Delvers to Thay, not wanting to deal with the red wizards themselves. The party chose to head to the Moonshae isles to the west. We are going to pick up from there next time, seeing what happens when the dragon gets back and how the party gets out of the horde.

Abyss Modified Session 32: Castle in the Clouds

          Off their last victory, the group decided to hit up the convenient temple that was in the ruins of a cloud giant city, and also happened to the closest. Thelrum the tortle abjuration wizard, Syre the yuan-ti whisper bard, Haskan the dragonborn zealot barbarian, Dinak the drow gloom stalker ranger, Godric the half elf bard warlock, Xanaphia the human wild mage, Orion the tiefling monk of the long death, and Drifting Cloud the tabaxi grave cleric of Anubis made their way towards the flying city. There was a quick craft check and the fabrication of a bone scythe on the way. Orion also borrowed some of Godric’s sovereign glue to attach a demon’s horn to his own broken horn stump, it worked well.

They noticed in the clouds a group of shapes headed the same way they were going and found themselves at a landing platform meant for surface folk visiting the could kingdom. The city was constructed for creatures that neared twenty-five feet in height, larger than rational buildings lined the oversized cobblestone streets, with doors over thirty feet tall and roofs nearing almost one hundred feet.  A troll, a human with spectacles and scholars’ garb, and another armored human with a large sword stood on an ancient large flagstone with three gryphons milling about nearby. Thelrum went down and eavesdropped on the group while the rest of the party made their way down from their airship, leaving Ralph and Ixxon in command. It seemed the troll and the guy with the sword were the body guards of a strange individual named Professor Aldein Pulldiver.

The professor was running around and tasting soil samples while the others were on guard duty. The troll turned and pointed at Thelrum and stated “turtle” and the Professor claimed it was nonsense, because they were currently very high up in the sky and turtles lived on the ground. Thelrum said hi and the rest of the group caught up. Professor Pulldiver told them he was investigating the giant city, which was the third giant city he had been to on his daring adventures, looking for a magic item depicted on a scroll he procured and showed the party. The scroll showed a giant wielding a staff made of lighting that seemed to control the clouds and storms. He and his crew sought the staff to help combat the growing demon issues going on down below.

The party quickly assumed this guy was either a fake or crazy, watching him jump around and taking and tasting more soil samples, claiming he was looking for air soil. They agreed to travel with him as additional guards, figuring the Mystra temple they needed to find would most likely be where this weapon was as well. Professor Pulldiver introduced his associates of the Pulldiver Delvers, Thudds, the large troll gentleman that smashed its hands into the ground when he heard his namesake, and Anchor, the armored human with a great sword and was very quiet, mostly grunting at the party or nodding. Professor Pulldiver knew his quarry, the staff, should be in the treasury if it was anywhere on this floating city in the clouds. The party fell into a marching formation, now being eleven strong, and made their way towards the castle.

Drifting Cloud saw movement as they made their way across the city, a figure made of ice and stone was, of all things, repairing the damage to one of the buildings. When he brought attention to it the rest of the party did not see it, it had disappeared. Thelrum mentioned that many powerful mages had magical guardians to take care of basic tasks, the same way Ralph could now use unseen servant. Professor Pulldiver agreed and went into a tale about mages on the plane of water, and got distracted by a large ceramic pot outside a building, noting the fabulous carvings across the surface. The party gave each other side glances.

Professor Pulldiver screeched loudly and ran towards a building labeled, as both Thelrum and Godric had comprehend languages rocking, Smithy. Thudds charged the door, knocking it open large enough for the party to enter. Anchor stayed outside to guard and Syre opted to stay by and observe him, not trusting him alone. The rest of the group explored the ancient forge, finding a bandoleer of potions of resistance to fire, a giants tooth that turned out to be a luck stone, and a sentinel shield. Xanaphia did some additional searching and found a potion of cold resistance as well. Pulldiver told the group he had no need for these trinkets, but did look near the anvil and the furnace, finding some sky mithril, the group took some, it was somehow even lighter than normal mithril. They left the smithy and noticed a few more of the ice and stone elementals, which melded into the walls when they were noticed. The group also passed a golem creature watering a solitary tree, they said hi and it waved.

The group heard rustling from one of the nearby buildings and went to investigate. Haskan kicked the door open and revealed five demonic cambions stealing things from the house, more of a shed. The cambions were misshapen, a sign of the demonic powers flowing within them, and they attacked the party for interrupting them. Godric walked into the room and calmly sliced into one of the cambions, using eldritch smite, bard dervish dice, booming blade, and almost cut the poor guy in half. The cambion fell to the ground, went “Hey!” and blood shot out of his wound anime style. Syre attempted to intimidate the rest of the cambions pointing out the fallen warrior, two ran into the next room. Orion noticed one of them putting a giant skull into some kind of black fabric and launching into an attack, on the sly trying to collect more skulls. Haskan got hit with a spear, so he pulled it out and threw it back at the attacker, and then charged him. Dinak launched arrows into the necks of two of the cambions, Thelrum made great use of his dragon’s breath spell. Xanaphia used multiple chromatic orbs, seeing these creatures had numerous elemental resistances. Anchor attempted to strike the cambions but kept missing with almost theatrical and comedic proportions, Professor Pulldiver hid outside and kept telling the party that they were doing great, and Thudds had difficulty getting into the fray so he attempted to break down one of the walls. The cambions fell to the might of the party.

The group looked into the bodies and found they were dissipating into an orange muck, leaving behind their scale shirts and their spears. Orion looked at the strange bag the cambion had and found it was a portable hole with a strange potion and the giant skull. It turned out the potion was of storm giant strength and the skull had belonged to a cloud giant. Drifting Cloud used speak with dead to attempt to figure out what the giant knew. They had five questions, one of which they would allow the professor to ask. For their first question, they asked if the skull, when alive had seen where the item on the scroll was kept, and showed it the scroll with the staff depiction. The giant said it was under the castle. They asked if there were any traps in the castle, it answered no. Third they asked where the temple to Mystra was and it told them under the castle. They asked how they could gain control over the flying city and were told if they killed the guardians, they could command the city. Professor Pulldiver asked what the guardians were and was told dragons. With this information they made their way further into the city towards the castle.

On their way they found a library and excitedly made their way among the stacks, only to find everything was written on large cylindrical cones and flat tablets. Godric did find a story called “Among the Clouds” which chronicled the relationship between two cloud giant lovers from rival kingdoms but devolved into smut.

The party found the gates of the castle, claws of some enormous beast had carved into the stone terrible gashes. The party looked around and found fist sized white scales as well. they figured they were up against at least an adult white dragon. They noticed iced over chambers and the temperature started dropping, forcing a few to adopt their cold weather gear. The throne room is where they ran into trouble.

The start of the battle

Two white dragons, one sized large and familiar, the other huge sized and less familiar stood on the far side of the frozen throne room, gold coins and a broken throne were trapped within the ice. The large dragon looked like the white dragon that rescued its sibling from the party a few weeks back, the huge one must have been either the mother or an older sibling. Dinak started the fray by shooting the huge dragon multiple times, then backing up. Drifting Cloud tried to get into a better position while Xanaphia blasted the large dragon with a chromatic orb, growing a feather beard again with her wild surge. Godric entered the fray by blasting the bigger one with eldritch blast and hex while approaching across the chamber and Haskan charged up as well starting his rage. Syre cast greater invisibility before cursing her party for not attempting to talk first and ran off to the western side of the room. The large dragon spewed frost at the party, only hitting a few of them within the cone and the huge sized dragon engaged Haskan, taking very big bites out of him. Orion ran up to the huge dragon, launching into a suite of attacks and attempting to stun it, forcing it to use a legendary resistance. Thudds and Anchor charged the dragons, Thudds heading to the large dragon and realizing he could not reach it. Anchor attacked the huge dragon and was able to take a big hit out of hit. Professor Pulldiver on the other hand hid behind a pillar. Thelrum blasted one of the dragons with arcane energy.

Big Momma's arrival

Dinak pulled further into the hallway, trying to fire into the melee without being noticed. In his distraction he did not notice what was affectionately called “Big Momma”. Bigg Momma engulfed DInak with a bite attack, almost halving him in the process. the party all turned and saw a gargantuan white dragon blocking the way they came, and filling that area with a wall of ice. Once the ancient white dragon showed up Professor Pulldiver knew it was time to leave, he dropped the guise of human and returned to his backwards handed Rakshasa form and called for Thudds and Anchor to run. Anchor removed his human guise as well, becoming an ogre mage, or oni. Thudds just ran. The Pulldiver’s Delvers made to retreat out the back exit of the chamber but Thelrum blocked the door with a wall of force, hoping to force them to help with the fight. The party focused their attacks on the two dragons that were already hurt, to get them out of the picture so they could deal with the new threat. Big Momma watched as the party killed her two children, right in front of her, so she blasted them with her breath attack, catching most of the group in the cone. Luckily Syre put of a circle of power, lessening the blow. Both Xanaphia and Orion fell to the frost breath, both now holding on with death saves. The rest of the group did not fare much better, with only Haskan making his saving throw. We ended the night there, and I am excited and terrified to see how this interaction resolves.

sessions end (the giant hag is a spiritual weapon)