Abyss Modified Session 28: Witches and Airships

Dinak the drow gloomstalker ranger, Buttercup the tiefling swashbuckler bard, Orion the tiefling way of the long death monk, Xanaphia the human wild mage, Godric the half elf hexblade bard, and Drifting Cloud the tabaxi grave cleric of Anubis talked with the gnomes for a bit and found out their leader, Nanfoodle, was an artificer of great skill and the gnomes were thankful for their lives. The worked on the broken balloon and old the party about the orcs that had captured them. The orc tribe worshiped Orcus and were looking for sacrifices for their dark lord and the orcs left behind a few holy symbols of Orcus. The gnomes were traveling between Baldur’s Gate and Daggerford and were attacked by the Misty Wood. The party rested and awoke to the gnomes having expanded the balloon for the craft and attaching a small boat to the bottom of it. the party was excited to have a much better mode of transportation, now knowing their quest would be taking them far across Toril. They thanked the gnomes and headed off towards the Spine of the World to meet with the devil friend hags.

During their travels they saw large swaths of the land were diseased and corrupted by something, wolves with multiple heads and two beaked crows passed by under their airship. They eventually hit the mountains and noticed that the ice coated peaks were melting, another sign of the corruption. They found a clearing with a large gingerbread house and figured they were in the right place. They left a few friends in the ship and climbed down the ropes to investigate further. The walls looked to be gingerbread, the stairs and porch licorice, the windows made of a thin sheet of sugar and the door a large gum drop. Godric played CSI: Forgotten Realms and found large almost two-foot-long foot prints in the snow. The party discussed the joy that could be gained by eating the ginger bread house and heard someone shout from inside the house asking if sister was back with the food yet. The party said no, and a long pointed blue nose stuck out the creaking open front door.

           The hag looked ancient, her frame bent and hobbled. The party mentioned they were there to bargain with her for information so she invited them in. Drifting Cloud offered her some venison jerky as well, making a fast friend. On a taffy couch they saw another hag, bundled up in a ridiculous number of white pelts with just her nose sticking out. The group told the main witch that they were sent to look for the lost temples of Mystra and she excitedly told them she could help, but would just need a favor from them as well as a trade. They gave her four drow dresses Dinak had been holding on to, setting them on a large double cookie with frosting in the middle table. Godric showed her the Slaad soul gem he had but did not hand it over. She asked the party to help deal with a minor problem, she and her sisters had captured a dumb pig demon many years back within a lesser shrine to Mystra and needed that cleared out before she could really help them.

Loud booming footsteps shook the house as they were informed the youngest sister was returning. They looked out the sugar glass windows and could see a gigantic hag with multiple dead yetis over her shoulder running towards the gingerbread house. The main witch sent them with her giant sister to a cave in the mountains, the site of the shrine with the pig demon. The ice around it was melting but after a few feet of traveling into the tunnel they realized the water was running back up to the surface against gravity. They saw a green light ahead of them and noticed a strange band of runes across the threshold Gordic, Orion, and Xanaphia went into the main chamber, which had a green glowing altar on the far side. Godric had turned invisible and gave a quick look around the area. At that point they heard a booming laughter fill the room and echoing down the hallway. Orion and Xanaphia had approached into the room as well, the three of them saw a horrible pig faced with a bear body and winged demon clutched to the ceiling. Its greasy fear aura hit them and Godric and Xanaphia were instantly terrified of this creature and wanted nothing more than to run away. Orion resisted but got caught in the effect the next round. The beast hopped to the ground, walked up to the trio and almost bit Godric in half, his invisibility did nothing, and clawed both Xanaphia and Orion. The group outside the room rushed to the edge of the magic barrier and looked in to see blood flying out of their friends and the demon.

Dinak launched arrows at the monster, hitting with only one and expending his elemental bow string to make it fire, seeing a lesser effect than he had hoped for. Buttercup flew in and stabbed the demon and retreated out of the room again by disengaging. Drifting Cloud dropped his guardian of the faith, a spectral Anubis wielding a khopesh, dead center in the room. The guardian lashed out at the demon, forcing it to rethink its options, not having any way of avoiding it. Orion broke demon fear and launched into multiple strikes against it, Drifing Cloud gave Dinak the holy weapon spells, adding radiant damage to every arrow he shot, Dinak also summoned a healing spirit to try to help out Godric, Xanaphia, and Orion. Godric misty stepped away from the demon but it followed him moments later. The demon bit Godric again and lashed out at anyone else close enough for its claws. It was finally brought down by Orion, causing it to melt into grimy soot. The group watched as the green corrupted light on the altar gave way to a more healtyh looking blue light. In the walls of the chamber they could now see faint magically webbing, representing the weave of magic. They collected the tusks from this demon and put some if its sludgy ashes into a few jars.

They started heading back to the gingerbread house and the youngest but largest sister picked up the badly wounded Godric and carried him back, he was covered in blood. They talked with the quest giving hag, whose name was Thessrel, and traded their items for her information. She was happy they killed the demon. The temples were not close together, one was in the Anauroch desert, another was in a cloud giant ruin, one was in Chult, another was within the Sunset Mountains, one was on the Moonshae isles, and the last was in Thay. The witches showed them on their maps where the locations were as well as the path the cloud giant ruins usually took, since it seems to travel. The witches gave them a strange chest that was cold on the inside and was full of yeti meat. Drifting Cloud received a gingerbread catfolk cookie.

The group got into their flying ship and wanted to grab some more supplies for the trip, checking their map for any nearby bigger cities. They settled on Longsaddle, knowing it had some magical folk living there and possible could get some more solid information on Mystra as well. as they flew to the south west they watched over the sides and saw more of the corrupted landscape and by chance happened to see a few cloaked figures heading to a small mound as the sun was setting. They headed down to the mound and found four skeletal mages incanting prayers to Orcus and seeking his blessings. The party did not like the sound of that and could see there was something stirring magically between the undead. The party snuck up and killed all the skeletons before they could react. They tracked the skeletons from where they came from and after again a chance clue, found a rift in the ground with four mostly unembellished stone sarcophagi that had a sigil to Orcus on each. As a worshiper of Anubis, Drifting Cloud remembered Orcus and his army of undead would have goals that go against the will of Anubis. Having a secondary goal in might the party made their way back to their ship and from there Longsaddle.

Abyss Modified Session 27: Contracts

Buttercup, Dinak, Drifting Cloud, Godric, Orion, Thelrum, and Xanaphia started the nights adventure in the bar discussing contracts with the Companion. Thelrum used magic to see if there were any magical secrets hidden within the text. There were many.

The basics of the contract were as follows “This contract does legally bind the following members of the adventuring party known as (still no party name) into the service of one known as The Companion, Bearer of Many Names, the Nine Crowned King. The service will involve but will not be limited to destroying the demonic plague that is tearing across Toril. The way they complete this task is up to them and the one offering this service will not be held accountable for their actions unless they are successful in removing the mentioned threats present in relation to demons. If they fail in this task, they and their belongings will be inherited both body and soul to above mentioned employer.” Standard contract stuff. The party signed.

As the odd red ink dried the group watched at the Companion’s white bushy beard pulled back into a deep pitch-black goatee and his skin became a devious shade of crimson. They were dealing with a devil. It seemed the devils and the demons don’t really get along and have been fighting in a war for quite some time. Thelrum took out his book on the Blood War and started verifying the Companion’s story. It seemed the old goddess Mystra had a few temples hidden across the land and the party was to go and fix all of them. A difficult task for most but their locations are only known to a group of hags up within the frost of Icewind Dale. The Companion told them to travel there and bring a gift with them for the hags, so they don’t try to eat the party. Also the group was not to tell anyone about their contract or that they knew the Companion.

Godric and Drifting Cloud talked to a wizard in town trying to figure out what a few of their long-owned items were and dumping out old liquified rations from the Underdark out into the trash. They figured the Slaad gem they had would make a good gift. Taking in this pile of information the party grabbed cold weather gear, told their skeletal horses to follow the hot air balloon, and took to the sky. Their first day of travel was mostly boring, with only one shimmering white movement on the horizon, they figured it was probably a dragon so not much they could do about that. When night fell Dinak cast his rope trick and a few of the party climbed into the extradimensional space and tied the hot air balloon off to the aforementioned rope. The rest of the party slept in the balloon. During the night they heard hooting of well distant owls and saw figures searching the forest below them for something.

In the morning they started drifting further along their path to Icewind Dale and noticed smoke coming from what appeared to be a burning caravan with an encampment beyond it. They got closer and spotted a well armored orc by the largest tent. He ordered someone to bring him food and reentered the tent. Thelrum launched a fireball into the tent, destroying it and angering the still hungry chieftain. Chaos reigned and the orc summoned his wizard, who threw a fireball at the hot air balloon. The party did not expect this. The balloon ruptured, the basket caught fire, and the party started flying. Thelrum used his ring of feather fall, Buttercup used her wings to fly off, and Xanaphia cast feather fall on everyone else. As they made their way down the orcs started firing bows at them and several orc warriors and an ettin started running up to intercept the slowly falling party. Also three gryphons with orc riders took to the sky. The party slowly made their way to the ground and proceded to murder the orcs, vexing the wizard, the chieftain started running away, the ettin put up his best fight, and the gryphons were driven off after their riders were killed, one of which did perish and land on top of its rider, snapping the orcs neck. Orion was able to get in many good hits, Xanaphia danced away from wild surges, Buttercup impaled orcs and gryphon riders, Thelrum dazzled the party with a feat of martial magic, attacking multiple targets with melee strikes and teleporting between them, Dinak took out the distant threats, Drifting Cloud summoned a swarm of scarabs which started eating people, and Godric fought valiantly against his foes with booming blade and hexes. As the chieftain was throwing his minions behind him Dinak did him in with arrows.

The rest of the orc force ran away once the leader started running, leaving behind the gnomes they had attacked and captured. The gnomes were traveling merchants and engineers and as a thank you for saving them were going to fix the balloon and make it better with gnomish enchantments. We ended there for the night.

Abyss Modified Session 26: Nobles and Dragons

Our adventure tonight started with the party fresh out of the magic extra-dimensional tent, Thelrum, Tamin, Drifting Cloud, Buttercup, Syre, and Dinak taking the halflings back to Thistlebottom. The travel went quickly, they had both the kirin and the unicorn with them, scaring off most of the monsters. Once arriving in the empty town, they helped the halflings rebuild their lives, or at least helping them build a fence to keep out bad things. The halflings bid them farewell and thanked them for all they did to help them.

They spent some time discussing whether or not to fly on their hot air balloon to Baldur’s Gate or if they should take their new steeds, the skeletal horses. After a few minutes of option weighing they chose to take the skeletal horses, that way Syre’s white dragon cohort could follow along. The rest of the party that was not actively there took the hot air balloon and Telegar to Baldur’s gate ahead of the rest of the group. The white dragon had been charmed but the time the party spent in the magic tent expended the duration and the dragon just stuck around because it had no clue where its family was. So, the party made their way west, watching as the cute dragon kept making strange cooing noises and staring into the sky, looking sad and flying about, ogling shining thing like coins or buckles.

Eventually the baby dragon grew very excited and the party heard a roar, much louder and closer than they would have liked, and suddenly a large sized white dragon busted into the scene, attacking Syre, the one between it and the baby dragon. The group attempted a counter attack, from skeletal horseback, some tried turning invisible, but dragons have blindsight and hilarity ensued. Both Syre and Dinak were caught in the breath attack of the larger dragon, taking massive damage. The little dragon realized he could do this too, and also hit them with its frosty breath. The party started launching a defense but the larger dragon picked up the baby, took to the sky, and started flying away, leaving the party frost bitten and without a dragon. They had lost a few of their skeletal horses in the scuffle as well.

They picked themselves up, healed, and argued about for a bit, blaming each other, eventually hitting the road again. They traveled until night fell and made camp. Thelrum used illusion to mask their camp to look less like a clearing and more like a forest. During Tamin’s watch he heard talking in the woods so he went to investigate, finding two younger humans trapped in the illusion. They were complaining about the thickness of branches barring their path. Both Tamin and Buttercup snuck up and disarmed the pair.

It turned out they were two noble brats that had run away from home with most of their father’s cutlery and nice dishes slung in sacks over their backs. They wanted to make their own adventuring group and were attempting to track the party to steal from them. It turned out they were terrible at this as well. Drifting Cloud set up a zone of truth spell and with the rest of the party interrogated the two young adults, Hengle and Franzwort. They had no life skills so Syre, Buttercup, and Dinak wanted to kill them. Drifting Cloud wanted to keep them alive and Thelrum suggested to take them back to their parents and maybe collect a bounty or reward, and with them being nobles possibly even warm beds and food for a few days. Tamin, having somewhat of a thieving streak himself, vouched for the kids and wanted to take them under his wing, which they were thankful for.

They tasked Hengel and Franzwort in setting their camps, catching and preparing food for dinner, and carrying their heavier gear. They proved to be somewhat useful in this but potentially murderous eyes of the party watched them, the party making sure they did not get betrayed and poisoned by talentless noble brats. The kids turned out to be pretty good hunters and gatherers, showing up with entire deer and a wide plethora of vegetables for every meal. The group was suspicious so they summoned another zone of truth and found out the pair had found a deer trapped by a farmer that was trying to keep the deer out of his fields and had also pillaged said fields themselves for their meals. They claimed it was fine, their dad was in charge of this area anyways. The party made them apologize to the farmer and return what they taken. They continued their journey well into the evening, knowing they would make it to the noble estate the next day.

That night they set up camp and watches as normal. They noticed there was an oversized owl that was watching over them and it nodded and flew off. Later, Buttercup saw a strange ghostly figure standing in the mist on her watch. The figure watched the sun come up over the hills and silently screamed as the sunlight hit it, dissolving in the beams of light. The next morning, they continued their journey. They passed a few other travelers, their two thieves avoiding eye contact with anyone on the road. They eventually made their way to a well-manicured estate northeast of Baldur’s Gate. They followed the topiary flanked main road to a large main house, seeing other buildings in the area and noticing servants working to maintain such a lavish estate.

The group was met by a small elderly gnome butler that thanked them for returning the soon to be punished young lords, who at that point had been grabbed by a few guards from the manor and taken inside. A few in the party mentioned it was a good thing they did not kill the young lords while in front of the butler. Butler informed them that if they had so much as backhanded one of the young lords they would have been hung. The party looked around the premises and noticed most of the gardeners were watching this conversation and up in the manor house they could see a massive man in a robe drinking from a wine bottle. One of the party recognized him and realized that was Lord Thaddeus Bloom, the paladin who, along with his friends, drove off Tiamat and the cult of the dragons less than ten years ago. The group was led to a smaller building, the field house, to use as their lodgings for a few days as a thank you for bringing back the wayward boys. Guards were posted to make sure nobody wandered away.

They made themselves at home, exploring and finding a large library, a modest kitchen, rooms for each of them, and a rather comfy sitting room by the front door. A few of the party investigated the library, finding all sorts of strange books on the history of dragons, the history of the Bloom family, and a secret cubby space. Syre and Thelrum looked into the space to see a large golden book, realizing it was bound in gold dragon scales and locked with adamantine chains. Two bright eyes appeared, belonging to a small clay person, which informed them the book was not for them, and closed the cubby space from the inside.

Buttercup looked around and found a painting of the strange misty figure from the night before and did some digging in the family history side of the library. She found out this elf, Kanther of Lan, was one of the ancestors of the Bloom family and ended up going insane and fell into darkness. It seemed the Bloom family had many intermingling encounters with elves.

Tamin attempted to arrange a meeting with Lord Bloom and impressed one of the stewards assigned to stay with them, claiming to be a distant Lord Snow. They watched as the steward ran back to the main house and started to talk with the older gnome butler. The gnome motioned for him to lean closer and slapping the steward across the face. The steward returned to the party and informed them the lord would not meet with any of them, his thanks was enough for lowly adventurers. They could see the steward’s teeth were bloodstained and his face was already bruising.

They rested for the evening, setting up a watch and a few alarms just in case of funny business. In the middle of the night one of the servants triggered the door alarm but was just bringing in meat for the next days meals. In the middle of the night Dinak felt something strange, noticing a shift in his vision. He woke his allies and they felt ground tremors, just around midnight and an hour later. They had no clue what the source was but none of the patrolling guards seemed to pay it any mind. The party hung out for another day, investigating even more of the books and ended up trading a few with the strange clay man and learned a bit about the Bloodwar, an odd topic but it sounded important. They also were treated to basilisk eggs for breakfast. The gnome butler arrived and told them the lord would not be meeting with them and they would be expected to leave in the next few hours. The party eventually made their way out of the estate, leaving that life of luxury behind.

They quickly found their way to Baldur’s Gate, finding an active if dodgy larger city with a hot air balloon tethered to a guard tower. The guards informed them a group of “heroes” had arrived in the blasted thing and that oddly was the best place for it. They stabled their remaining skeletal horses and told the guard they were looking for the Upturned Flagon. The guard summoned a small adorable child from the street, Billiam, and he took them on a lightning tour across town to a rather trashy dive bar called the Upturned Flagon. They gave him two gold and a silver and he ran off into the crowd before they could adopt him.

Once inside the tavern they saw many other hero types sitting at horrid smelling tables, including what looked like their friends and the strange man from so long ago, the Companion. He summoned them over and they talked about their adventures, Telegar chiming in with bits from his point of view. Companion asked the party about what they wanted for a reward, some wanted money, others wanted magic items. The Companion thanked them again and told them about another bit of work he needed done. There was terrible trouble brewing in the Underdark, and he did not expect it to stay there. The meeting with Bruenor might be to late to stop what was already brewing. Drifting Cloud took this chance to take a step away and commune with Anubis, his patron. He asked a few solid questions, should he stay with the group on this errand, should he work for the Companion, and would Anubis step in if things got bad and help. He got some answers, some clearer than others.

The party wanted to know more about the new work and had some questions about why the Companion had chosen them to ask for help. He gave them vague answers that were relatively unhelpful but felt convincing at least. He brought out a contract for them, and told them he could help them on their journey, but this time he just needed them to sign his contract. We ended there for the night.

Abyss Modified Session 25: Too Many Giants

The party had been in the tent for almost a day at this point and the halflings and the magical beasts guarding them had become antsy. Two adventurers came upon them and were hired to go and see what was keeping the party within the strange tent. Buttercup the winged tiefling swashbuckler and Drifting Cloud the tabaxi grave cleric of Anubis made their way into the tent. They followed the trail of blood and came upon a dead gorgon with foot print leading into a very nice library with a retracted circular staircase in the ceiling. They pushed on a book that was leaning off the shelf and the stairs came back down. Ascending the stairs, they found the rest of the party, Thelrum, Syre, Dinak, Tamin, Orion, and Xanaphia standing over the mangled and dissolving corpse of a glabrazu demon.

            The party introduced themselves to each other and a loud popping in the next chamber alerted them to the two bone devils that just teleported into the next room. They claimed they were searching for souls and the party said they would buy souls off of them, confusing the devils. Thelrum pointed to the dead demon and told the devils that was what would happen to them if they came back without souls for the group. The devils bid them good day and teleported away. They noticed a click on the eastern wall and turned to see a wooden door swing open, revealing a large chamber with four huge statues of giants, one holding up each corner of the room. One had lumpy skin, another looked dumb, another looked like his beard was made of fire, and the last one had a horned viking helm. There were three other doors in the chamber, each on the walls between the giant statues.

Tamin approached the northern door and failed to pick the lock and the lumpy statue looked at him and used its evil eye, wracking Tamin with psychic damage. The lumpy statue, a fomorian giant, which it turned out each one was just a dust covered giant in hiding, swung out and clipped Tamin with his club, rushing up to meet the rest of the party. Syre cast bane on the fomorian and the dumb looking statue, which turned out to be a hill giant. Drifting Cloud channeled the power of Anubis using spirit guardians in the form of a swarm of jackals to vex the giants. Dinak launched a hail of arrows into the fomorian, Thelrum used his go to dragons breath, Orion let loose a swarm of hits against the fomorian, Buttercup rushed in and gut stabbed the hill giant, and Xanaphia tossed elemental spells at her foes.

At this point the other two giants activated, both the fire and frost. Syre suggested to the fire giant that the frost giant was trying to kill him so the fire giant struck out against the frost giant, who attacked back, breaking the spell. The group took out the giants, one after another and finally the giants were dead. The party healed up and found each had a stone keyed to the doors. The east door led them into a stable full of skeletal horses and what looked like an exit. They closed that door and checked the south door, finding a barracks full of ogres with strong armor and loaded crossbows. They closed that door and went to check the north door, finding a huge man sitting in a recliner in a study with a human size bottle of wine. Thelrum sent in his spider familiar and the giant told it to be a good spider and kill the fly the giant had caught under a glass. The spider went and bit it in the face and the fly turned into an angry chimera which then came out and attacked the party. The noise of the combat attracted the ogres, which kicked open the barracks door.

Xanaphia dropped a sickening radiance into the middle of the ogre pile and caused a few of them to fall back. The ogres responded by shooting at the party with oversized crossbows, almost halving the health of a few of the party members. After it soaked attacks from the entire party, Orion killed the chimera and ran into the room with the giant, who had stood to his almost twenty-foot height and was doing stretches. Thelrum animated a few of the books in the study and had them attack the giant, Drifting Cloud dropped a spiritual weapon, a large khopesh, into the room to attack the giant, and everyone else was working on the ogres. The giant, not liking being hit by his own books or the khopesh summoned a lightning strike onto Thelrum, Orion, and Drifting Cloud, dealing massive damage (except Orion ignored it all with monk evasion). Drifting Cloud called a time out and the giant offered them their lives and a few skeletal horses if the group would just leave his magical sanctum. Looking around at each other, all battered, bloodied, and broken, the party took him up on the offer and left. They found themselves on the back side of the tent and watched as it vanished behind them. They rested up, gathered their halflings and wagons, and made ready to hit the road back to Thistlebottom to deliver their charges back to their homes.

Book Recommendations!

Here is my list of favorite books, compiled over a few years of book selling. 

Young Reader Books: ages 9-14

Amulet, by Kibuishi *

Artemis Fowl, by Colfer

Aru Shah and the End of Time by Chokshi

Athena the Brain, by Holub

Bad Unicorn, by Clark

Bone, by Smith*

Candy Shop War, by Mull

Charlie Bone, by Nimmo

Copernicus Legacy, by Abbot

Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder, by Nesbo

Dragons Tooth, Wilson

Emerald Atlas, by Stephens

Fablehaven , by Mull

Fairy Tale Detectives, by Buckley

Glass Sentence, by Grove

Goblin Secrets, by Alexander

Golden Compass, by Pullman

Graveyard Book, by Gaiman

Gregor the Overlander, by Collins

Harry Potter, by Rowling

Hollow Earth, by Barrowman

House of Secrets, by Columbus

How to Train Your Dragons, by Cowell

Land of Stories, by Colfer

Lightning Thief, by Riordan

Lockwood & Co, by Stroud

Loki’s Wolves, by Armstrong

Magyk, by Sage

Maze of Bones, by Riordan

Middle School by Patterson

Narnia, by Lewis

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy, by Foxlee

Peculiar, by Bachmann

Pendragon, by MacHale

Red Pyramid, by Riordan

Redwall, by Jacques

Ruins of Gorlan, by Flanagan

Scepter of the Ancients, by Landy

School for Good and Evil, by Chainani

Search for WondLa, by DiTerlizzi

Seven Wonders, by Lerangis

Sherlock Cottages by Brinnington

Sidekicks, by Santat *

Spiderwick Chronicles, By DiTerlizzi and Black

Sword of Summer, by Riordan

Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer, by Grisham

Three Times Lucky, by Turnage

Thrones and Bones, by Anders

Tunnels, by Gordon

WildWood, by Meloy

World Without Heroes, by Mull

*Graphic Novels

Teen Books: ages 12 and up

5^th Wave, by Yancey

Alchemyst, by Scott

City of Bones, by Clare

Enders Game, by Card

Eon, by Goodman

Eragon, by Paolini

Fault in Our Stars, by Green

Fellowship Of The Ring , by Tolkien

Graceling, by Cashore

Hobbit, by Tolkien

Hunger Games, by Collins

Last Apprentice, by Delaney

Leviathan, by Westerfield

Looking Glass Wars, by Beddor

Sea of Trolls, by Farmer

Steelheart, by Sanderson

The Naming, by Croggan

Vladimir Tod, by Brewer

Chapter Books:

Beast Keeper by Coats

Beast Quest by Blade

Boris by Joyner

Dragon Masters by West

Goosebumps, by Stine

Ivy and Bean by Barrows

Magic Tree House by Osborne

Never Girls by Thorpe

Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot by Pilkey

Adult Books:

13 ½ Lives of Captain Blue Bear, by Moers

Age of Myth, by Sullivan

American Gods, by Gaiman

Call of Cthulhu, by Lovecraft

Children of Hurin by Tolkien

Dangerous Women, by Martin

Darkness Forged in Fire, by Evans

Dragonflight, by McCaffrey

Dragons of Autumn Twilight, by Weis

Eliminster: Making of a Mage, by Greenwood

Game of Thrones, by Martin

Heir to the Empire, by Zahn (Star Wars)

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, by Adams

Homeland, by Salvatore (Drizzt series)

Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by Martin

Lies of Locke Lamora, by Lynch

Magicians, by Grossman

Name of the Wind, by Rothfuss

Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Gaiman

Practical Demon Keeping, by Moore

Princess Bride, by Goldman

Ready Player One, By Cline

Red Shirts, by Scalzi

Storm Dancer, by Kristoff

Swords and Deviltry, by Lieber

The Fifth Civilization by Bingham-Pankratz

The R.X. Problem, by Magnusson

The Thousand Names, by Wexler

Theft of Swords, by Sullivan

Vector Prime, by Salvatore (Star Wars)

Way of Kings, by Sanderson

Wizard of Earthsea, by Le Guin

Picture Books:

Animalia by Base

Caps for sale by Slobodkina

City Dog Country Frog by Willems

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Willems

Dragons Love Tacos by Rubin

Edda by Auerbach

Extra Yarn by Barnett

Flora and the Flamingo by Idle

Grandpa Green by Smith

Heart and the Bottle by Jeffers

I Want My Hat Back by Klassen

Instructions by Gaiman

Journey by Becker

Julia’s House for Lost Creatures by Hatke

Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads by Shea

Knuffle Bunny by Willems

Meet the Parents by Bently

Monster’s Monster by McDonnell

Penguin and Pinecone by Yoon

Pirate, Viking, & Scientist by Chapman

Puff the Magic Dragon by Yarrow

Stinky Cheese Man by Scieszka

Stuck by Jeffers

Tea Rex by Idle

The Adventures of Beekle by Santat

The Book With No Pictures by Novak

The Circus Ship by Van Dusen

The Dark by Snicket

The Day the Crayons Quit by Daywalt and Jeffers

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by Joyce

This Book Just Ate My Dog, by Byrne

We Are In a Book by Willems

Where the Wild Things are by Sendak

Wilfred by Higgins

Abyss Modified Session 24: Into the Extra Dimensional Magic Mansion

Our adventure this week continued the storyline with Daddy Fate and the now freed halflings. Tamin, Xanaphia, Orion, Thelrum, Dinak, and Godric started the night off by pillaging the corpse of Daddy Fate, finding a wide array of magical gear.

They decided to head deeper into the tent mansion, exploring this strange extra-dimensional space. Following the route Tamin had used, they went up the western stairs, finding a chamber with four oddly shaped and vividly colored door on the western wall and a small normal looking door in the south eastern corner. They looked for traps and found none in the room and opened the small red door first. They found the hallway crudely carved out of soil, as if some kind of burrowing creature had dug its way into this earthen realm. not wanting to deal with it they shut the door and checked the next one, the purple door. Beyond it they found a bright airy realm with floating islands in the sky and it seemed the other end of the doorway was placed on one such island. Not wanting to fall to their deaths they shut that door as well. the third door was green, and beyond the threshold appeared to be a swamp, the stagnant water seemed to have something large swimming around within it. Fearing whatever large and most likely multi-headed monster dwelled within they decided to shut that door as well.

They looked at the last colored door, the black door, and when opened found a long hallway made of old stones, and at the very end over fifty feet away stood a cloaked skeletal figure. The party said hey, asked him why he was there and was informed that Herman, the skeleton man, worked for the Oni, Daddy Fate, as his ghoul wrangler. He did not seem sad that his master had been murdered by the party but sadly had to remain in his hallway to keep the ghouls in.

They investigated the last room, the small door to the south east and found what seemed to be a classroom with four large sized desks and a large slate chalk board. As they peered in papers and chalk dust kicked up in the air. The three invisible stalkers attacked the party. Godric had stepped into the door and was besieged by the first monster, ending up getting grappled and smacked around. Thelrum used see invisibility and could make out where they were, but everyone else was at a loss. Dinak launched a few arrows at the invisible grappler, just managing to judge where the creature was. The group was having difficulty hitting the monsters so Xanaphia cast sickening radiance, filling the room with a pale green mist. Godric teleported out of the mist finding the safest place in the room as well as a small gremlin hiding under a desk that kept trying to stab him with a sharpened hand broom. Orion, Tamin, Thelrum, and Dinak watched as the creatures became filled with the green radiance and were easier to hit. Once visible the party made quick work against the stalkers, and as always stealing kills from each other. The Gremlin attempted to run away but saw the green radiance and decided to surrender. Godric attempted to talk to the ugly blue gremlin and found they had no common ground language wise. Having killed the invisible stalkers, the group started ransacking the desk finding odd other worldly bronze coins, some daggers, a empty journal, and the nest the blue gremlin slept in. After pretty much robbing this gremlin they searched for any secret doors or chambers off this room and just found the chalk board was fragile and had a map of Toril marked with different places the oni were planning to either attack or capture animals. 

They left that room to go back down stairs, through the “boring” library I forgot to fully describe, up the metal circular stairs and into a chamber with a large dark metal door in the center of the northern wall and four large glass cylinders with metal furnishings. The cylinders also gave off a faint humming sound each one was a different color. Those with barding ability started humming to see if the tone or pitch would change anything and the green cylinder lit up. They tried to change up the pitch and see if other ones would light up, but found only the green one reacted to their sounds. They touched the green one and it stayed lit. They started touching all of the other cylinders and they each lit up when touched in the right order. The metal doors clanged open and a large demon with two big pincer arms, two smaller but still beefy arms, and a canine head roared into the chamber, attacking the party. Godric charged the beast but succumbed to its confusion spell, staring into its odd pecs. Tamin and Dinak shot at it with their bows, each having decent success, Xanaphia and Thelrum launched magical attacks at the demon with less success, Orion pummeled the demon with fists, and once Thelrum removed the confusion from Godric, Godric laid into the beast with his sword. In the battle Tamin attempted to flee back down the stairs to find they had pulled up and sealed behind the party. The beast put up a good fight but was overwhelmed by the party. We ended there for the night and the group is now level 9.

Abyss Modified Session 23: Another Side Quest

Instead of continuing with the plot we had a side adventure, we had a few new players and were short on tables. One of the halflings that had been saved from Daddy Fate disappeared in a strange cave near the campsite. Godric, Dinak, Thelrum, and Tamin were joined by the arcane cleric Good Mojo, Arshan the paladin, Enrique the druid, Rolin the goliath battle master fighter, Hidani the rogue/wizard.

They found the first chamber odd, there were two frog demons flanking an illustrated map of the croissant shaped dungeon and doors on the north and south walls. The demons were easily confused and could not agree on which door had opened last. Someone suggested that one of them might only tell the truth and the other lies, but it turned out the monsters were idiots. The party tried the south door first, and encountered a rage filled naga which attacked the group. The frog demons took that chance to attack the party, thinking that they had tricked the party into trusting them. Battle was had, one demon was banished and the other fell to the party’s multiple spells and attacks. Thelrum took every chance to alarm every door, hallway, and pouch that was in his reach the entire dungeon. The map showed the party that there was a secret door in the naga’s room. The demon they killed had instructions to try to trick anyone that came in the dungeon and attack them when their backs were turned, so at least the demons could read. They also found a few skulls in the naga chamber as well.   

They found a thin wall made of paper painted to look like stone but with a crack they could see torch light through, so they pushed passed it to find a smaller chamber full of floor pillows, hidden money bags, incense, a painting on the wall of a strange skeletal man playing a stringed instrument with lightning coming out of it, and a locked but not trapped door. They opened the door after looting pillows and found a strange cistern. There was a five-foot-wide walkway around a murky green pool. A few of the party, members decided to sneak across the walkway without touching the water. Good Mojo locked eyes with something large and squid like in the water and really felt like pushing his allies into the water to feed the beast, but being a small sized cleric had difficulty pushing anyone in. The group attacked the aboleth, Rolin jumping into the water to attack it and sinking rapidly. The group drove it off and eventually the domination effect wore off of Good Mojo, they might have used a spell to do it. Godric had found the next hall had three legless skeletons crawling to a closed door with burn marks on it. They used mage hand to bypass the most likely trapped door handle and entered a store room.

Numerous shelves of odd items greeted them as well as a large gear creature that called himself Ticktock. He looked like he was made of thousands of gear and levers and told the party about his numerous collections. His skull collection was his favorite so the party told him about a few skulls they had seen a few rooms back so it reached its long gear arm and stretched it past the cistern, the pillow room, and back into the naga room and grabbed the three skulls the group had passed and pulled them back to its room. The group was uneasy, this construct was odd. They asked it about magic items so it let them take some things that to it, seemed useless. It told them about the master Geb, a very powerful musician and magician as well as his pet dragon. The party thanked him, closed his door, alarmed it, and went back to the first chamber to rest, again arcane locking and alarming every door. Their rest went uneventfully except for the dragonborn paladin wandering out of the dungeon. They double checked the dungeon map and saw x marks on the rooms they had been in, a slew of question marks on one room, what appeared to be a room full of chairs in another, and what appeared to be poop in the smallest room.

They went through the north door and found a hall made of the finest marble, so fine it was almost slick. False pillars lined the walls and an obsidian door was to the north, and the hall hooked to the west. They could hear fine musical strumming coming from “chair” room and saw a strange skeletal man strumming on his stringed lute like instrument. Godric and Enrique played along for a bit and they started talking with the skeleton. Tamin took this chance to sneak into the obsidian door room and found the bathroom. There was another door on the north western corner, which the entire corner seemed to billow as if something was snoring behind it. The skeleton asked why the group was here and they told him about the missing halfling. He described the halfling perfectly and said he had not seen him. The party knew he was lying and asked about the dragon. He told them his pet dragon took the halfling after the little man stole some of his food from the feast hall table and now has a cuddle partner, so they most likely would never get the halfling away from the dragon. They went to take a closer look at the situation, casting protective spells against frost they expected from the white dragon and fanning out to not all get caught in the breath. Someone cut through yet another paper wall revealing a large white dragon cuddling a terrified halfling. They bargained with the dragon, which had no clue what they were talking about until Thelrum offered it a bag of coins. Its greedy eyes lit up and it began counting the coins, releasing the halfling. They group fled back to the first room, waving goodbye to the skeleton, which thought the coins were a great idea.

As they made it to the entrance, they saw two oni, one with blue skin and the other with green blocking their path. The two oni scanned the party with a magic device and could tell that four of the party were there when Daddy Fate had died and had to pay a toll… a toll of Death. Thelrum Arcane locked the door behind the party, so the dragon would have to break down the door, the group protected the halfling from danger, countered the cone of cold from both oni, and beat the tar out of the oni. They made it back to their camp and reunited the halfling with his people.