Aplha Out of the Abyss
Credits
Written by Sajan "Gnas" Patel a.k.a. Wiltren Leadvein
Special Thanks to
Joe "Sylv" Guadagni a.k.a. Wizzy Fizzlebottom
Bowen "Tea" Han a.k.a. The DM
Ryan "Deltoramasta" Hardey a.ka. Actarius Indigo
Sajan "Gnas" Patel a.k.a. Wiltren Leadvein
Tara "Tararizer" Schulze a.k.a. Banshee Wail
DJ "Ryu" Walker a.k.a. "Amelia Tanith"
Ted
Out of the Abyss
This narrative recaps the adventures of a seven-member party exploring the Underdark in the Out of the Abyss campaign. Six of these characters are imprisoned together in the Underdark and venture out together after escaping. On their journeys, they encounter demon lords, insane myconids, an obese dragon, and pudding royalty. The last of their party, Alexander and Seraphina, meet them in Gauntlgrym after they finally return to the surface.
Act #1
Characters
| Name | Race | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Actarius Indigo | Myconid | Druid |
| Amelia Tanith | Human | Monk |
| Banshee Wail | Kenku | Bard |
| Onyx | Warforged | Fighter |
| Wiltren Leadvein | Deep Gnome | Artificer |
| Wizzy Fizzlebottom | Fey-Gnome | Wizard |
The first act of this adventure covers the party's initial capture and travels through the Underdark while searching for a way to the surface. The party witnesses several demon lords rise to power during this time. The act ends with the party reaching the surface city of Gauntlgrym.
Session #1
The party has been imprisoned by Mistress Ilvara of House Miserum, who is flanked by the male guards Jorlan and Shor. Jorlan has scars on his face, appears sullen, and is out of favor with Ilvara. The two guards vie for her attention and she reminds us every day to accept our fate as prisoners.
The party has no equipment or gear other than some trinkets they have found in their prison. The party is also imprisoned with several other NPCs.
Party Status
| Name | Imprisoned | Trinket |
|---|---|---|
| Actarius Indigo | 19 days | flawed carnelian |
| Amelia Tanith | 20 days | rusted iron bar |
| Banshee Wail | 16 days | 5-foot long silk rope from Ilvara's chambers |
| Onyx | 15 days | befriended a large spider |
| Wiltren Leadvein | 22 days | a crossbow bolt coated in drow poison |
| Wizzy Fizzlebottom | 30 days | a golden coin |
Prisoners of the Drow
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Buppido | Talkative and cunning derro |
| Prince Derendil | Quaggoth who claims to be a cursed elf prince |
| Eldeth Feldrun | Shield dwarf scout from Gauntlgrym |
| Jimjar | Deep gnome with a gambling problem |
| Ront | Orc bully |
| Sarith Kzekarit | Drow accused of murder |
| Shuushar the Awakened | Kuo-toa hermit and mystic |
| Stool | Myconid sprout |
| Topsy & Turvy | Deep gnome wererat twins |
At the start of the adventure, Banshee, Wizzy, and Actarius are mining rocks while Wiltren and Onyx are cleaning the mess hall. The main mess hall contains four tables made of zurkhwood. There is a heavy brazier for heat in the middle and a large pile of stacked rations. Amelia is cleaning Elvara's chambers, which contain various jewelry and a locked chest.
We were eventually taken to the edge of a lake where Eldeth and Ront were fighting. They were punished by Ilvara by being pushed into the lake and consumed by a grey slime creature.
Onyx convinces his spider to climb up Ilvara's leg
and cause her to approach the lake, distracting the
guards. We dart for the exit after Wiltren casts
grease and Banshee creates a cloud of smoke
with a cast of prestidigitation. The drow are in
pursuit and will likely continue to be in
pursuit. We don't have any time to grab
our belongings.
We set up camp inside a small
cavern with Buppido, Prince Derendill,
Stool, and Sarith. We sleep on the floor;
it's hard and cold. We all experience
nightmares while sleeping, and many of
us wake up in a cold sweat. As we wake
up, we notice some black and orange
mushrooms (which we later learn are
timmasks). As we grab one, spores are
released and we become incapacitated
for an hour. We do manage to grab one
mushroom.
We don't hear any running water
nearby and are deciding which way we
should go. At a normal pace, Neverlight
Grove is 36 days away and Slooludop,
located past the Darklake, is 8 days
away.
Session #2
We set out towards Sloobadoop at a slow pace for the day. We find: 5 blue cap mushrooms (spores can be ground into flour) and 5 waterorbs (squeezed for water). Together they can be ground into the equivalent of one ration. We find an alcove to rest in and notice some faerzress, wild magic around the Underdark.
On his watch, Actarius notices a patch of ground that is missing fungus. Buppido is familiar with the path that goes along that round, and as we cross over the patch, we fall into a cavern under the ground. We find ourselves in a cave in. The air is stale and limited.
We hear a babbling brook in the cave in. As we move through the tunnels, we notice that they are shaped by water over the course of many years. In the next chamber, we find some stagnant pools of water and very polished stone walls. As we stand in the chamber, a greyish ooze-like creature (similar to the one we saw in prison) emerges from the wall. We defeat the ooze.
We move into the next chamber, and find the skeletal remains of a drow, a dark metal mace, and a scattering of coins floating above the ground. Amelia throws a rock at it. A gelatinous cube that is able to communicate directly into our minds is suspending those objects inside its body. Its name is Glabbagool. He tells us that we're the first creatures that haven't tried to attack him. We follow him but lose track of him and end up in a chamber with carvings depicting various oozes and four tunnels. All of the tunnels have cracked floor panels. As Banshee tries to move over the cracked panel, a black pudding emerges out of it.
We defeat the black pudding and find a stone door. We enter the room and there is a small fountain with a broken statue atop it. All that remains of the statue are
two clawed feet. There are also seven niches along the wall. Three are emtpy and four have statues of strange, formless creatures. We find 40 gp inside the fountain but do not touch the statues.
We find another dead end in the cave and notice water seeping in. Actarius climbs up the rope and shatters the ceiling, causing water to rush into the cavern. As the chamber fills, we swim up through to a river. Along the shore, we find a foul smelling, vile looking mushroom that apparently tastes very good (ripplebark, equivalent to 10 pounds of food) and three mushrooms that look like human tongues (tongues of madness, which make people compulsively say their every thought).
There is a small abandoned hovel along the shore. Inside, we find a piece of hide armor, a hammer, and a pair of lockpicks. We make camp inside the hovel. Everything is made of stone, similar to what a deep gnome home would look like.
Session #3
We sleep in the hovel and experience more bad dreams. As we prepare to leave, Buppido sits at the edge of the stream and catches many small fish (enough for one day's worth of rations). Amelia and Actarius notice that as he's snapping the fish necks, he has a grin on his face.
We continue down stream, and hear a roaring waterfall rushing down a sheer cliff. In front of the waterfall, there appears to be a series of platforms held together by spider webs. The webs are extremely thick and are likely made by a large spider.
As Wizzy is poking the web with a mage hand, two goblins (Yuk Yuk and Spiderbait) show up and say they can show us how to get around the spider webs. With some convincing from Banshee, the goblins agree to take the gold coin on which Wizzy has used prestidigitation. They show us that we can move across the webs without getting stuck by applying grease to our feet and sliding across the webs. They keep the grease in a small gourd.
We traverse across the web and see a chest entangled in the web. Banshee convinces Spiderbait to go across the web towards the chest. He approaches the chest and is immediately devoured by a mimic.
After briefly mourning, Yuk Yuk continues to guide us across the webs. Wiltren, Wizzy, and Banshee fall through a section of the web down 100 feet. The three who fell manage
to break free from the webs they got tangled in. Spiders appear from below and Actarius produces some vines for us to climb on. Wizzy carries the rope of climbing higher with a mage hand so that Onyx can hold onto it and pull us up. We continue climbing and a spider manages to climb up the rope and bites Banshee. We pour some oil of slipperiness down the rope and the spider slides off to its death. We continue climbing up the rope to safety and leave the webbed area.
We stop along the banks of the river to rest for the night. Actarius finds a hoard of zurkhwood before we rest for the night. We experience more bad dreams but still don't know much more about the dreams. Buppido lets us know that we're coming up to the Darklake. We gather as much usable zurkhwood as we can and fashion a crude raft, the SS Spiderbait.
We begin sailing across the water and see a waterfall up ahead. There is a duergar lock at the end of waterway. We manage to activate it and prevent ourselves from going over the falls. As we continue along the water, we see a well-made boat with a lantern, revealing six duergar in the distance. We also notice there appears to be some sort of cargo on the boat, but can't tell what it is. We opt to lay low and wait for them to pass by before we continue rowing.
As the day ends, we tie the boat to a rock at the edge of the water and take turns taking watch. On her watch, Amelia notices a boat anchored in the distance. We wake up and see that the boat is still there. We approach it and notice that the boat is empty. We see that the oars were strewn about and that it's empty. We also see bubbles in the water near our raft. We move onto the other boat and prepare ourselves for what could be in the water.
Session #4
As we continue to move along the water, the ceiling drastically lowers. Taller members of the party need to lower their heads. The area is illuminated by bioluminescent fungi. The smaller members on the boat notice a large, jagged gash in the ceiling (giant chunks of rock missing as well). Wizzy investigates the ceiling and can tell that the rock is very difficult to disfigure and would have had to be done by magical means.
We continue through the lowered area, and make our way back into the open cavern. We find ourselves trailing another vessel, but can't see anything other than the boat.
We stealthily row closer to the other boat, and notice silhouettes of some kind of objects or creatures on board. We get closer. They appear to be quite large. They look like cloth draped over something. We pull up along side the other boat and see that the boat is identical to ours.
Underneath the cloth are several zurkhwood boxes marked with Dwarvish and a dead duergar. He has a stab wound through his chest that appears to be a day old. Inside the boxes are a thousand pounds of unrefined iron ore. We hop aboard the new boat and kick the old boat into the distance. We also remove the markings from the boxes and make camp on the water for the night.
After an uneventful night, we continue along the water and notice another vessel in the water. It's much smaller. We get closer and notice a kuo-toa fishing vessel, with five kuo-toa on board. They scream "SACRIFICES FOR THE DEEP FATHER" in Undercommon and jump onto our vessel and attack. We fend off the kuo-toa.
As we're licking our wounds, we see another boat approaching, with nine kuo-toa on board. Ploopploopeen, Archpriest of the Sea Mother, calls out to us. He tells us that the inhabitants of Sloobludop lived in harmony with the Sea Mother, but he says his daughter Bloppblippodd has converted half of their people to the Deep Father's cause. They have been sacrificing people and throwing them into the Dark Lake.
Kuo-toa Deities
| Kuo-toa name | Common name |
|---|---|
| Leemoogoogoon | Deep Father |
| Blibdoolvpoolp | Sea Mother |
We arrive in Sloobludop at the docks. There are rope bridges connecting the structures and they look rickety. We are taken to a statue of a humanoid female with claws of a giant albino crayfish adorned with fish guts. Glooglugogg, son of Ploopploopeen, comes to the statue. He places a shiny rock at the base of the statue and immediately vomits upon it. We all do the same to show our appreciation of the Sea Mother. He advises us to stay away from the altar of the Deep Father to the north. He takes us to a guest hovel and we rest here.
Wizzy looks through a closet and finds 300 gp, a strand of pearls worth 500 gp, 2 potions of healing, 1 potion of water breathing and 1 scroll of light. We don't take any of the items.
We take a week to long rest in Sloobludop. After we finish stocking up on supplies, Ploopploopeen comes to us with an idea to use us as bait to infiltrate the Deep Father's cult and kill his daughter Bloppblippodd. The next morning, Ploopploopeen ties us up with loose rope and takes us over to the altar of the Deep Father. It is a large hide cut roughly in the shape of a manta ray and stretched out across two poles with a dead manta atop the hide and several octopuses atop the manta. There is a roughed up duergar here as well, about to be sacrificed.
Ploopploopeen offers us as sacrifices and his daughter accepts. The kuo-toa cheer as we are handed over. As Bloppblippodd turns around, Ploopploopeen stabs his daughter in the back, sending blood everywhere. The followers of both factions are sent into a frenzy. We attack Bloppblippodd and Ploopploopeen stabs her through the throat. The entire altar is covered in blood, and the kuo-toa in the surrounding water are pulled under. The water begins to foam red with blood and a 50-foot tall two headed tentacled creature emerge from the water. The kuo-toa acknowledge it as Leemoogoogoon, the Deep Father.
Session #5
As the corpses pile up along the altar, we realize that Leemoogoogoon was summoned because of all the blood sacrifices. All members of the party except for Wizzy and Wiltren are subject to visions of madness. Actarius falls unconscious, Banshee begins uncontrollably screaming, Amelia is frightened and cannot approach Leemoogoogoon, and Onyx's mind grows hazy and experiences an overpowering urge to eat something disgusting.
We begin to flee and Sarith directs us towards the east gate. As we're approaching the gate, we come across a boat at a dock. We jump onto it and begin making our way through the red water. In the distance, we see the water bubbling and small winged manta ray-like creatures emerge from the water, pick up kuo-toa on boats, and take them towards the ceiling. We quickly jump off the boat in a panic and make our way through the gate to the east.
We don't really know where we are, but Stool and Actarius have a vague feeling as to where Neverlight Grove is. We start off on another trek towards the grove.
After four days of travel, we begin to hear clacking noises in the distance. We see two hook horrors being chased by a group of gnolls. The gnolls ask us if we want to join them hunting the hook horrors. We agree and follow them and proceed to corner the hook horrors.
Banshee, Actarius and Amelia try to tame the hook horrors to the confusion of the gnolls. In the confusion, Onyx realizes that the gnolls won't be too happy without a hunt, and swings his mace at the nearest gnoll. As we proceed to fight the gnolls, they proclaim "Sacrifices for something unintelligible" As we fight the gnolls, they jump into a hole in the ceiling and find a nest of hook horror eggs. We manage to save one hook horror egg and Banshee convinces one of the hook horrors to travel with us, who we have named Klik Klak.
We continue traveling for two days and begin to hear a soft, feminine voice in our minds. We follow a fork in the path and come to a bronze door that is green with age. We can feel magic in the air. We push the door open and enter. The ceilings are 15 feet high and on the wall is a large diorama of a half-elf female sorcerer surrounded by attendants. We can recognize her as Brysis of Khaem of the empire of Netheril.
Across from the diorama is a painting of a landscape of floating cities. We descend a series of staircases and find the paintings on the walls in the next area defaced and an altar of pale marble that is cracked and gouged. We investigate the room and notice that the damage is recent, but we notice no tracks of any kind.
We enter a door to the south and enter a room with a sarcophogus and canopic jars of dissected organs. Wiltren identifies a magic mouth spell on the sarcophogus. We open the sarcophogus and realize that the the lid is much lighter than we thought it would be. As we open the lid, the voice from the magic mouth spell curses Wiltren and Amelia (with disadvantage on attacks and saves until the next day). The statue inside is very beautiful and adhered to the sarcophogus with sovereign glue. We smash the statue inside, but nothing more happens.
We enter the room to the east of the previous chamber and see four sarcophogi with figures in repose on them. We investigate further and see that one sarcophogus is able to be moved, revealing stairs that go deeper. We find a very ornate, gilded sarcophogus and remove the lid. A wraith emerges in the image of Brysis and states that our deaths will free it.
Session #6
We defeat the wraith and as we approach the sarcophogus, we stumble upon a magically locked, invisible stone chest at it's base. We remove the ornately crafted lid from the sarcophogus and find inside a sentient sword with a sunlight blade named Dawnbringer. We also carefully strip some of the gold from the lid and carry the chest back out of the tomb to fasten atop Klik Klak.
We travel for fourteen days without any issues and Actarius thinks we're only a few days away at this point. There are many ornate fungal patches over the next few days. We eventually find ourselves in a large fungal cavern filled with a variety of edible and inedible mushrooms. Actarius feels that there are other myconids nearby and we begin moving at a quickened pace.
We come across an even larger fungi patch with several myconids and spore servants (shambling husks of various creatures) tending to the mushrooms. They offer to show us the way to Neverlight Grove. We make our way into Neverlight Grove. The entire cavern is lit up by bioluminescent fungi. Far in the distance, we see a gigantic mushroom that towers above the rest. We make our way into the valley, known as the fungal wilds. The air and ground are both damp.
As we navigate through the wilds, we are eventually approached by Sovereign Basidia and Sovereign Phyllo. Stool immediately runs towards them. In this area, we see a large clear pool, and a dry central mound. Phyllo welcomes us as "softers" and says that we are here at a glorious time. He tells us that the Great Seeder will be able to answer any questions that we might have and that we must experience her abilities for ourselves. He also tells us to avoid the eastern plateau where the Circle of Masters resides.
The Circle of Hunters
pursues creatures
down in the wilds.
The Circle of Builders and the
Circle of Growers reside in the
northern terraces. The Inner Circle makes
important leadership decisions. The Circle of
Spores deals with reproduction and spore servants
and the Circle of Explorers ventures beyond the grove.
There are two sovereigns here, which is not normal for myconid colonies. This is a result of Basidia's approaching Phyllo after arriving with her colony. Phyllo welcomed Basidia's colony.
Basidia offers to take us on a tour of the grove, and on this tour, we notice that many myconids appear to be behaving more extravagantly, dancing and feasting.
When we arrive at the Circle of Spores, we meet Yrberop, who is in charge of the Circle of Spores. Basidia looks uncomfortable as Yrberop appears to be swaying to music that only he can hear. We ask him about the Great Seeder and he tells us of the lullaby of the Great Seeder's wedding to the Great Body. Banshee begins playing a tune on his viol and that seems to snap Yrberop out of a trance of some kind. He asks where he is, and when we ask him what the Great Seeder is, he goes back into his swaying.
Loobamub (leader of the Circle of the Hunters) and Basidia are worried about Phyllo's "new way" of not melding with the entire colony. They fear that Phyllo has contracted some sort of disease spore. They believe that a clue might be found in the Garden of Welcome. Basidia also gives us each a potion of invisibility.
We proceed to the north of the grove to the Terrace and meet Rashroo, who shares Basidia's concern about Phyllo. Rashoo tells us about hidden entrance from the northern terrace to the upper terrace. We sneak up to the upper terrace with our invisibility potions and begin to hear muffled murmuring. The murmuring becomes the sound of moans, cries, and hisses.
We see the heads of dozens of humanoid Underdark races popping out of the ground in various states of decay. One of the heads is a female drow that notices us and begs for us to kill her. She cries out about the "lady of decay." We see what
is barely recognizable
as a myconid
but is now
a fungal larve with spores
spewing out of what would be it's mouth. Actarius frees the suffering drow and Yestabrod, the infected myconid, notices something moving where we are. As he approaches, Sarith reveals himself to be a spore servant under the control of Yestabrod who asks if he is here for the wedding rehersal.
Actarius despises what he sees and immediately rushes to attack Yestabrod and we all follow him. We ambush Yestabrod and his servants out of invisibility. After killing one of the servants, the corpse produces a cloud of spores. During the battle, Banshee and Wizzy are infected with spores that inflict them with different sorts of madness. We also begin to hear chanting and echoing coming from the gigantic mushroom in the distance.
Session #7
The rhythmic chanting grows closer as we continue our battle against Yestabrod. As we slay Yestabrod and his followers, Actarius notices a small pile of objects (bag of holding, a quarterstaff, and two scrolls of spider climb). We jam a drow crossbow bolt into Yestabrod's head and go hide in a small section of mushrooms.
The buried creatures in the grove begin to wail along with the beings in the procession.
♫♫ From rocky bed the toadstool rose,
From chaos dark, her love She shows.
Wish! Yearn! Laugh!
The Lady will be wed!
Crave! Hunger! Dance!
Her joyous spores will spread!
Youth is gone, beauty rots,
Araumycos and Zuggtmoy!
Joined together, heart to heart,
Becoming one ’til death do part! ♫♫
Zuggtmoy is a demon lord. Araumycos is the largest mushroom network in the Underdark. As the procession approaches the grove, we see the image of the inside of a tower and a female humanoid that appears to be dressed in a wedding gown made of mycelium. The vision of this causes Amelia to go blind, Onyx to go into a frenzy, and Banshee to think that he's a pool of water. Wizzy manages to cure them of their curses.
We report what we found to Basidia, who doesn't believe us and wants to investigate the situation for himself. Wizzy follows him with his owl and sees pockmarked areas along the giant mushroom, with empty sacs all around. There are also various creatures all along the mushroom, including the image of the demon that we saw previously. Basidia returns and is distraught at the state of what he saw. He gathers his circles and leaves Neverlight Grove. We leave the grove with him, and look to make our way towards Blingdenstone or Gracklestugh.
On the way to Gracklestugh, we encounter Grazilex the Mind Flayer. He's part of a group called the Society of Brilliance. The group travels the Underdark doing research. We regale him with tales of the unusual events we've seen on our travels. In return, he helps us with a way to enter Gracklestugh; a counterfeit trading license.
We arrive at the gate and are met by four duergar who inspect our license. They appear to suspect us but grant us access to the city. They let us know that we need to renew our license after one week. We make our way over to Gholbrorn's Lair, the only inn that allows outsiders. We spend the night here. Buppido also appears missing the next day.
In the morning, the same guard who greeted us at the gate approaches us and tells us to give him something valuable or he's going to report us for being here under false pretenses. He also tells us to meet Whirz Saltbaron. While we're on the way to meet Whirz at the docks, Actarius realizes that someone is following us. We lure the pursuer into a trap and she reveals herself as Xalith Masq'il'yr, who was sent by Mistress Elvara. She attempts to flee.
Session #8
We hold Masq'il'yr in place and set her ablaze with a fireball. She continues fleeing through the bazaar and we chase her and keep attacking. She misty steps away and tries to throw us off by casting darkness. Amelia chases her into an alley and knocks her out.
A patrol of guards approaches the ruckus that we're causing and Banshee tries to distract them with his performance. He gets beaten up but manages to distract the guards long enough for Onyx to make his way to the rope
trick portal that Wiltren set up.
Everyone except Banshee hides out
while the guards look around for us but can't
find us. As we emerge from the portal, a member of the Keepers of the Flame appears before us and says that his master, Gartokkar, is interested in our abilities and has use for them. We follow him across the bridges to the southern part of the city.
The scent in the air changes from acrid to repugnant. There are crudely carved homes instead of the finely crafted houses we saw earlier. We travel for about an hour and come to a giant cave entrance, where we meet Gartokkar, master of the Keepers of the Flame. A loud voice bellows from the cave and reveals itself as Themberchaud, a morbidly obese adult red dragon.
Themberchaud tells the priest to leave us, and we have an audience with the red dragon. He is resting on a giant pile of gold and treasure. He wants us to spy on the duergar, who he believes are up to something. He calls Gartokkar back and Gartokkar presents us with gold badges that will allow us to freely traverse the city.
Gartokkar lets us know about the Grey Ghosts, a group within the city that has stolen something important from the Keepers. He also notes that he felt a great disturbance in the Underdark, like something ripped a hole in the Underdark.
He lets us know about a small derro named Droki, who works as a messenger from the Grey Ghosts. He lives around the west clefts. We meet with the dragon and the Keepers again and tell them that we've yet to find out much. The dragon appears disinterested.
We head over to the clefts and begin looking around for some derro to speak to. Wizzy uses disguise self to changes his appearance to look like a derro and we convince some derro to tell us more about Droki. They tell us he has a strange hat with two tentacles on it, as well as where he lives. We pick the lock on his house, and wait for him.
We notice him pacing outside his house while we're waiting for him, and Banshee casts hold person on him through the window. We drag him inside and we say that we're with the Grey Ghosts and he appears relieved to hand us several items and to be done with the Grey Ghosts. He also leads us to the entrace of the Whorlstone Tunnels where the Grey Ghosts are located.
Droki gives us a mithril medallion with an emblem of an arrow breaking on a shield, a scroll encased in a copper tube, and several pouches of stone giant toenail clippings, each labelled with a different name.
We enter the cave and come across a fork in the road. We head north towards a patch of mushrooms, some purple and some blue. We inspect them further and find out that the purple ones make you grow larger and the blue ones shrink you. We consume some of the blue ones and find ourselves small enough to move through an opening in the wall behind the mushrooms.
We end up on the other side of a dark pool of water we saw earlier. Wizzy takes a dip in the pool and contracts a case of cackle fever, which Amelia cleanses with Dawnbringer.
We then move through a mushroom forest filled with almost every kind of mushroom we've encountered so far, and a few new ones. We come across another fork and see some myconids dancing in the cavern. Their dancing is similar to the myconids we saw at Neverlight Grove. Banshee plays some music on his viol and slows down their dancing, but draws the attention of one of the myconids who wasn't dancing.
Session #9
The myconid that was not dancing approaches us and extends his spores out. He introduces himself as Rumpadump. He says that he and his group came to this cave at the direction of the "Lady" (the one from Neverlight Grove).
We convince him that his Lady is manipulating him and his group, and he breaks down in tears. We offer to let him come along with us, but that we do not want the gift of the Lady.
We continue down the tunnel and run into Buppido, who is arranging corpses of various humanoid creatures into a spiral pattern. He greets us and wants us to submit to him or face the consequences. We refuse him and he animates several skeletons and two carrion crawlers erupt from the ground. Actarius uses entangle to create a giant overgrowth of plants to slow down our enemies and Wizzy ignites the foliage with a fireball.
As we defeat Buppido and his skeletons and worms, the ghost of a deep gnome that was sacrificed named Pelek appears. She wants us to take some of her remains to Blingdenstone to lay her to rest. She also tells us that one of her severed hands scuttled away into the cave. She also mentions that there is a way to the surface by Blingdenstone. We agree to help her and the ghost vanishes.
We continue back the way we came and go towards the other fork in the mushroom forest. We hear a swarm of insects that eventually grows fainter. We move down the path and see a xorn in our path eating some rocks. It sees us and asks if we have any metal or gems for it to eat. Wiltren offers up a chain shirt, which the xorn devours. It also tells us about a planar disturbance that it felt in the earth. When the xorn leaves, we come to another fork and go north.
We come across a corpse infected with yellow mold, which Amelia cleanses with Dawnbringer. We find a +1 shield on the body with a raven emblazoned on it. We go towards a pitter patter sound down a narrow corridor. We shrink down and find ourselves surrounded by white, sticky, threads. We quickly leave this area and move into a mushroom garden, with mushrooms in neat rows.
We look up and see three duergar overlooking the pit we are standing in. They don't notice us. There is also a copper tube pointed into the pit that appears to be dispersing some sort of fertilizer. We ambush the duergar and tie them up. As we begin to interrogate them, they tell us that they are working for a duergar alchemist named Lorthio Bukbukken, who is working for the Grey Ghosts. He is creating some sort of poison for a ritual they are planning.
We move down the chamber and find Lorthio's workshop. We try to deceive him into telling us what he's doing down here, but he doesn't go for it. Instead we ambush him and force him to tell us what he knows. He tells us that Nerek is looking for a black medallion (that we have), and that Lorthio is looking for some message from Droki. He also tells us that Nerek is looking to create a poison that will drive the giants insane in Gracklestugh. The giants are an influential group within the city.
We also find a trapdoor that leads out of the caves and up towards the docks along the Darklake in Gracklestugh. Lorthio tells us that the guard that was looking to blackmail is also works for the Grey Ghosts and that they were looking to kill Whirz Saltbaron.
Session #10
We venture towards the door to the southwest. The doors are wooden and poorly constructed. We can hear dripping water on the other side. We walk through and find outselves back in a similar looking part of the cavern. We venture towards the door to the southwest. The doors are wooden and poorly constructed. We can hear dripping water on the other side. We walk through and find ourselves back in a similar looking part of the cavern. We walk along the path, and find ourselves a fork in the path. In the middle of the fork is a dark pool of water with a water weird inside.
We try to see if we can get a reaction out of it by floating a spore servant, a mushroom, and a rock into the pool. We find out that the water weird will attack anyone that attempts to walk across the upper path. We launch a series of spells into the pool in an effort to get rid of the water weird.
We move across the upper path, and through another patch of mushrooms where we find another fork in the road; one way leads towards a set of stone doors covered in mushrooms, and another is a small crack in the wall. We shrink down and move through the small opening until we get to another fork. One way we see the faint image of humanoid figures, and the other way, we hear a growling sound.
We go towards the humanoid figures and find ourselves in a chamber that reeks of death and decay filled with zombies and a derro overseeing them. Amelia sneaks by the zombies, jumps up the ledge where the derro is, knocks him out, and drags him back tiny. We distract the zombies with some magical tinkering to create noise and escape with the unconscious derro.
We wake the derro up while he is still tiny and intimidate him into thinking that we are giants (we're just normal sized). He tells us that the zombies are Narrak's experiments, and points us in a direction where he thinks Narrak is.
We move through the cavern into a large chamber. We see a cage and a derro in the distance, and hear some chanting coming from deeper into the cavern as well. We take a few steps forward and notice a shrieker in a mushroom patch nearby, but as we get closer, Wizzy and Actarius trigger a pit trap, and while Wizzy misty steps out of the pit before he falls, Actarius falls in. We pull him out and take a little more caution moving through towards the cage.
We shrink down and move through a mushroom patch to avoid triggering the shrieker. We turn the corner as see a giant rune etched into the floor with derro surrounding it. In the middle of the rune a humanoid statue that we see grow a second head.
Banshee enthralls the guard in front of the cage and gets him to tell us that Narrak is performing some sort of ritual to invoke the power of the Demogorgon. Inside the cage we see a large death dog. Banshee and Amelia attempt to befriend the dog and manage to do so, while also naming it Edgar Allen.
Edgar Allen lunges at the derro that was guarding the cage and tears him to pieces. This alerts Narrak who calls on his ettin bodyguard and the other derro in the chamber to come after us. We defeat the derro easily, but the ettin slays Edgar Allen in two blows. We manage to defeat the ettin, but Narrak's ritual brings the ettin back to life with an extra head. We also increase to 6th level.
Session #11
As we continue our fight with Narrak and the ettin, the rune in the middle of the chamber begins to pulsate more quickly, like a heartbeat. Onyx slays Narrak but the circle continues to pulse. Actarius grows some spikes with erupting earth to disrupt the circle. With the runes broken, the circle stops glowing.
With Narrak and the ettin slain, we search the chamber and find a chest underneath the Narrak's desk. We find the key inside Narrak's pocket and open the chest, revealing 1,000 gp, 5 doses of Keoghtom's ointment, a recipe for Keoghtom's ointment, and some books with notes enclosed in them. The notes are from Droki but do not contain any useful information. Banshee also takes some bones from the corpse of Edgar Allen so that Wiltren can craft them into pipes of haunting so that we can keep the slain two-headed dog in our memories.
Now that Lorthio's employer has been slain, we convince him to show us to way towards the other object that we were told the Grey Ghosts were looking for, the obelisk.
Lorthio leads us to a very large chamber with a large obsidian obelisk in the center. There is also a large red egg in the chamber. We think the amulet that Droki gave us might be similar to the obelisk, but it's only similar in appearance. We see a derro (named Plinky) in the center of the chamber by the obelisk stroking it and seeing the faerzress flash brightly.
As we attempt to sneak closer, a spectator appears before us and begins to attack (also alerting the derro). We defeat the spectator and the derro after a tough battle. We find that the derro has a shilmaer in its possession. We approach the egg and realize that it's a red dragon egg, and that this is
likely what the Keepers wanted us to retrieve for them. We heat the egg a bit and find that it is still alive.
We then approach the obelisk and press the amulet against it. The amulet melds into the obelisk and one of the cracks on the obelisk repairs itself. Wiltren attempts to identify the magic at work within the obelisk and finds out that the more magic that is placed into the obelisk, the greater the effect. Wizzy and Wiltren both expend some spell slots (5 total) and channel magic into the obelisk.
The party and the egg are instantly transported to a plateau overlooking Gracklstugh. We discuss how we want to get the egg down into the city and Lorthio suggests that he work some of his connections in exchange for his freedom. We take him up on his offer. After smuggling the egg into the city by disguising it as a large rock, we rest at Gholbrorn's Lair (the inn). A few days later, the Keepers request that we meet them.
We shrink the egg down and place it into the bag of holding. We request that we meet Themberchaud before discussing what we found with the Keepers. We present the dragon egg to Themberchaud and he realizes that the Keepers were fattening him up to kill him more easily and replace him with a new dragon. He demands that we destroy the egg, and we feign our agreement to destroy the egg.
We then meet with the Keepers and Banshee regales them with an enthralling performance of our adventures down in the caverns. We convince them that all we could find was the shilmaer on Plinky's body. Charmed by Banshee, the Keepers buy our story, and award us with one uncommon magic item each.
Session #12
We rest for a while in Gracklstugh before making our way to Blingdenstone to investigate a path to the surface and to bury the remains of the deep gnome whose ghost we encountered in the Whorlstone Caverns.
On the way to Blingdenstone, we encounter several deep gnomes at work on the outskirts of the city. As we get closer, we ascend a large staircase that leads to a broad terrace. We arrive at the city gates (looks to be very sturdy) with eight deep gnomes standing guard. They ask us a few questions about what we're doing here. Once we enter the gates, a couple of the guards escort us through a winding path meant to deter invaders. After passing by many spell gems, battlements and other defenses, we arrive in the city proper.
The city is vibrant and warm. We ask about a path to the surface, but our escort is unfamiliar with such a path. He tells us that Odorbo and Sinnie Diggermatock (leaders in the city) might know more. He also points us towards the Foaming Mug, an inn. The innkeeper, Tappy Foamstrap, is eager to serve us and hear tales of our adventures since escaping the drow. He also tells us about the recent unfortunate events regarding wererat squatters, insane elementals, ghosts, and a plague of invading oozes controlled by the Pudding King.
We decide to head out of the city, and on our way out, we encounter a young deep gnome in front of a temple. He tells us that this is a temple dedicated to Segojan Earthcaller, a deep gnome deity. The young gnome tells us that we can lay Pelek to rest here. As we bury the hand, the spirit of Jadgar appears before us, who was one of Pelek's friends. He wants us to find the remains of Vazuk (went mad with grief) and Udhask (died investigating the Rock Blight) and lay them to rest.
We go to Vazuk's house, and find a cracked floorboard with several rubies, spell gems, and the corpse of a young deep gnome inside. A specter reveals itself and accuses us of trying to steal from it. We identify the specter as Vazuk and Amelia immediately lays it to rest. We inspect the corpse further and see that it is a child's corpse, presumably Vazuk's son. Actarius animates the corpse to avoid carrying it back to the catacombs and we lay the body to rest.
We hear beautiful music playing as we pass by, and see a deep gnome manipulating crystals to create the sound for an audience of children. Banshee plays a song and draws the attention of Gara Songstone approaches us after Banshee plays a song and we ask about a path to the surface.
We head towards the market and as we arrive, we hear a bell ring and all the deep gnomes in the area arm themselves and flee. We then see two gelatinous cubes appear, one of which has a deep gnome guard in it's body. We defeat both cubes and free the guard, who introduces himself as Mev. Mev agrees to help us find a way to the surface after saving his life. He says that he knows a way to the surface through the Wormwrithings. He tells us it'll take him a week to get ready.
We head to the south of the city and run into Sark Axebarrel (a guard). He tells us that there is a medusa running free beyond the gate here. We go through the barricade to investiage the Rockblight and hear what sounds like a battle going on. As we approach where we think the sound is coming from, it sounds to be coming from a different direction.
As Wizzy casts detect magic, a ghost appears. The ghost screams that "they're coming" and floats away. We follow the ghost towards an empty hovel with a skeleton reaching under the stone bed. Wizzy reaches under the bed and finds a hidden compartment that contains several rubies and a letter, revealing that the skeleton was Udhask.
We then head towards a waterfall in the south and climb several flights of stairs until we see two gargoyle statues perched higher up. We throw rocks at them to see if they will respond, but neither do. Banshee and Actarius feel a subtle vibration in the ground, and Banshee flies up towards the statues and tries to perch on one.
Session #13
We continue to feel and hear some sort of rumbling within the earth and move away from the terrace where the gargoyle statues were. Wizzy flies his familiar up to observe what's happening on the terrace and sees the two gargoyles begin to move and an earth elemental emerge from the ground. This elemental looks larger and reddish in color.
We deliberate a bit and make our way back up the stairs and once we're in their sight, we see the gargoyles and elemental start charging us. We destroy the gargoyles and earth elemental and investigate the remains. The earth elemental left behind an elemental gem (yellow diamond), but it has a reddish glow to it.
We continue down the path and come across a chamber illuminated by bioluminescent fungi refracting off of crystals all around the chamber. We see a walkway above the entrances of two caves. We travel across the walkway and find what appears to be a statue of a deep gnome holding a crystal. Upon further inspection, we realize that this is a petrified gnome. We realize that this is likely the work of the medusa that we heard about down here. We each take a crystal from the surrounding area, hoping to use it as a way to avoid gazing at the medusa.
We then travel down some stairs and find a menhir with empty sockets and vague humanoid shapes outlined along the walls. We place several gems into the sockets, and finally place the elemental gem into one of the sockets and an earth elemental emerges from the wall. Amelia then shatters the earth elemental gem in the menhir, releasing a reddish earth elemental. The two elementals fight one another, with the red one defeating the normal one.
We defeat the injured elemental and an unknown rock creature emerges from the stone. We continue placing spell gems into the mehnir and more stone creatures emerge. They communicate to us to complete the ritual and Amelia jams Dawnbringer into one of the sockets, filling the chamber with a hallow spell. The stone creatures animate some stones of their own to begin clearing away debris from a nearby cave in.
We move back towards the fork in the path and notice that one of the caves appears to have a snake-like trail leading into it. We have Banshee's unseen servant move ahead of us and confirm that the medusa is inside this cave. We light some zurkhwood on fire in an attempt to smoke her out. Once enough smoke has filled the cave, she rushes out and begins to attack us. The medusa appears to be a female drow with snakes for hair.
Session #14
We successfully slay the medusa and extract some of her blood and cut off her head. Actarius manages to slow its decay with gentle repose and we store it in our bags.
Wiltren also notices that there are several statues in the cave on the other side of the walkway. Inside this cave are several drow statues, similar in construct to the deep gnome statue we saw earlier (almost lifelike). Wiltren touches the closest one and it immediately crumbles into dust. Wiltren proceeds to touch the last statue and as it crumbles, a gust of wind animates some dust and the dust begins moving towards the cave exit. The presence of the cloud feels malevolent.
Actarius turns into a gaseous form, and tries to fly into the dust cloud, but nothing happens. The party follows the dust cloud as it approaches the stone creatures who were clearing the debris and watches as the dust cloud interacts with the stone creatures, making them fight one another. Wiltren tries
to inhale the dust cloud, only to start hacking it up. The party tries to stop the movement of the dust cloud by waving their arms around to produce a some wind to push the dust cloud away.
We also remember some physics lessons and remove all the items from one bag of holding, ignite some torchstalks inside the empty bag, closing it, and opening the bag after a few minutes. This creates a vacuum in the bag and as we open it, the change in pressure sucks the dust cloud into the bag and we close the bag.
We continue north into a very large space with a hollowed out rocky sphere in the middle. There looks to be doors leading into the sphere. All around the space and around the sphere are oozes shuffling around. We hear a disembodied voice address us and ask us what we are doing here. It also claims that he isn't ready yet. Banshee convinces the voice that we are here to pay tribute and the voice tells us that it will be ready "in two moons".
We then travel farther north, sneak around some oozes, and come across a pile of debris made of zurkhwood. There is a faint circle of fungi shaped along the edge of the debris. There are also several gray oozes all around the area. In his gaseous form, Actarius also notices a reddish-brown ooze in the middle of the debris and can also see that the ground is dough-like.
Wiltren lobs a stone onto the dough-like ground and a gibbering mouther emerges from the ground to devour the stone. Actarius tries to communicate with it with his rapport spores, but almost goes mad trying to do so. Actarius also finds what appears to be a throne in an adjacent chamber.
The throne is made of chiseled stone, with lidless eyes and gaping mouths etched into it. Wizzy approaches the throne and gets splashed by the green slime falling from
falling from the ceiling. He notices a pertrified mushroom used as a footstool at the base of the throne. He investiages it further and opens the top of the mushroom, revealing 1,000 gp, a potion of poison, and one nothic eye. We hear something approaching and decide to return to Blingdenstone to report what we saw.
We finally get to meet Dorbo Diggermatock and we tell him about the voice we heard. He tells us that was likely the Pudding King and that he wants us to assassinate the him. He also tells us that the dust cloud we trapped was Ogrémoch's Bane that was corrupting the earth elementals. We take one week to rest in preparation for the attack on the Pudding King and level to 7. Before we attack, Wizzy uses the nothic eye to cast a scrying spell to find the Pudding King. We see him prancing around his throne.
As we sneak back towards the throne room, we are attacked by two ochre jellies and one black pudding. Glabbagool (the sentient gelatinous cube) appears again and helps us by holding off an army of gray oozes coming our way. We fight off the two ochre jellies and one black pudding before coming face to face with the Pudding King. He calls forth Prince Livid (gray ooze) and Princess Ebonmire (black pudding) before fleeing towards the debris where the gibbering mouther is.
While fleeing, Banshee dimension doors into his path and the Pudding King transforms into a gray ooze.
Session #15
We continue our fight against the Pudding King and as we slay him, his head falls off his body, revealing an ooze. With his last breath, he says that the Faceless Lord (Juiblex) will come and feast at the banquet of the queen of fungi. The remaining oozes are cleared out by the deep gnomes.
We return to Blingdenstone and are congratulated by the Diggermatocks. They offer us a way to the surface and let us rest for a week before we make the journey up. They also provide us with two pairs of sending stones.
After resting for a week, we are shown the way towards a tunnel. It's noticeably colder and the fungi here are covered in frost. Before we can venture arther down the tunnel, we are ambushed by Mistress Ilvara of House Miserum (drow who imprisoned us). We manage to fend off all the drow (and their demon) and make our way to the surface. We come out of the Underdark to a snowy night on the surface.
We spend three months on the surface, going our separate ways until we each get a messenger carrying a handwritten letter bearing the king of Gauntlgrym's seal (Bruenor Battlehammer). We make the journey and meet up together at the gate. We are welcomed into the city and are escorted to an audience with the king.
When we arrive, we find that there are many groups represented in this audience hall. The Harpers, the Emerald Enclave, the Order of the Gauntlet, and the Zhentarim are all represented here. We tell the king about the terrors we saw during our journey throughout the Underdark and proceed to the banquet with his many guests. We strike up conversations with the following:
- Lord Zelron Roarington, who hails from a Waterhavien noble family. He represents the Harpers and offers us the aid of his pristine shield guardian in exchange forproviding him contracted services and information.
- Lord Tethrian, a youthful moon elf from Waterdeep. He represents the Lords Alliance.
Bruenor tells us that the Zhentarim have a trading post (Mantol-Derith) in the Underdark and they could point us in the direction of Gravenhollow, an ancient archive created by the stone giants.
Actarius feels that someone is watching us and Banshee uses see invisibility to detect that there is a shadowy, invisible figure in the corner of the hall. As we try to approach the figure, it flees.
Act #2
Session #16
From our social dealings in Gauntlgrym, two additional adventurers have joined our party.
Characters
| Name | Race | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Alexander | Human | Cleric |
| Seraphina | Dragonborn | Fighter |
Amelia has decided to retire from adventuring for now to raise her hook horror infant and red dragon wyrmling. We leave Amelia with a sending stone so we can keep in touch.
Davra leads us back down into the Underdark along one of the paths that the Zhentarim use to transport goods between the surface and Mantol-Derith. We travel for several hundred miles before getting on a raft and sail onto the Dark Lake again. After sailing for a few days, we arrive at Mantol-Derith, a city built into a giant stalactite. We sail around the city and disembark in a subterranean cave.
We come up to a wall of natural stone that Davra tells us are doors sealed with an arcane lock. He says "im'yat" (the svirfneblin word for "darkness") and the wall opens up. We approach the next door and Davra says "bellaern" (the word for "wealth" in Drow). We then find ourselves in a giant trench with a bridge above us. There are a system of mechanic lifts along the sides of the trench and a shattered crystal platform farther into the trench. There are lamp posts illuminating the cavern and light refracting off crystals. There are also many ornate fountains and fungal gardens throughout the city. In the distance, we can hear combat and also see a panicked deep gnome running from an 8 ft tall duergar.
Davra says that he's interested to know what's going on too and tells us to look into what's going on before we him at the Zhentarim base in the city. Once we climb up the trench, we can see that all the stalls nearby are empty and in the distance, more giant duergar are chasing deep gnomes. We sneak closer and see that the the duergar look enraged and call the deep gnomes thieves while the deep gnomes flee.
We distract the duergar and see that the deep gnomes escape. The two giant duergar start walking towards the duergar that were attacking the giant stone door. We walk towards the deep gnome that was hiding and he tells us that the duergar just started slaughtering all the deep gnomes and captured a deep gnome mage named Yantha Coaxrock.
Actarius convinces all the duergar that the the black gemstone that they're looking for was in one of the stalls that they destroyed earlier. We take advantage of their leaving and knock on the door. The deep gnomes let us in, and we find out from Gabble Dripskillet (leader of the deep gnomes in the warehouse) the same information that we heard from the other deep gnome outside. We offer to take this information to Davra and the Zhentarim.
We make our way towards the Zhentarim encampment in the city and as we get closer, we hear some commotion in the north that sound like stone doors being opened. Wiltren walks into the pavilion in front of us and sees a meeting of drow. Wiltren tries to talk his way out of walking into the tent, but is then confronted by more drow and a group of Zhentarim.
Ghazrim Duloc appears to be in charge of the Zhentarim. He appears with a beholder named Lorthuun. Lorthuun is missing several eyestalks and has many scars. In explaining the situation between the duergar and the deep gnomes, Wizzy explains that Davra told us to find the black gemstone and the drow start attacking the Zhentarim and the beholder. We escape with Ghazrim to the Zhentarim base. He explains more about the black gemstone saying that it's exchanged hands many times, and that many people want it, but he doesn't know what it does.
We take a look outside and see that everyone is dead except for one drow (Kinyel) who we trying to flee. We knock him out and interrogate him. We feed him a Tongue of Madness and he tells us that a gargoyle gave him a black gemstone. We take it off his person and when when Wiltren touches the gem, Fraz-Urb'luu, the Prince of Deception and demon lord of illusions, speaks to Wiltren telepathically. Wiltren starts to experience violent delusions that make no sense to anyone else. He also does not say anything about what he heard when he touched the gem.
Ghazrim also offers us supplies and a ring that will point us in the direction of Gravenhollow.
When we exit the Zhentarim stronghold again, we see Pebbles retrieving the eyestalks off of Lorthuun's body. Pebbles tells us that his master will offer us something valuable for these eyestalks. We threaten Pebbles and he gives up the eyestalks. We also shackle him and tell him that we'll want to meet his master later.
We decide to find the captured deep gnome mage from the duergar and make our way to the duergar section of the market. We confront the duergar outside and after a brief discussion with them, we start to fight them.
Session #17
As the fire dies down, we make our way into the duergar hold. Inside we find bodies littering the floor. All the duergar and their mounts inside appear to have died of burns or suffocation. We find another door inside the hold and bust down a door. We find a female deep gnome, two duergar, and a xorn. Alexander wakes up the deep gnome and she introduces herself as Yantha Coaxrock. She reveals that she was dressed in a gem-laden robe and to be fed to the xorn. She starts screaming in paranoia about the guards coming to kill her so Banshee calms her down with an enthralling performance. Inside the room, we find barrels of food and water, weapons, and a magically locked safe.
Wizzy dispels the magic on the safe and finds a philter of love, cloak of the manta ray, immovable rod, and a potion of greater healing. When we pull the items out of the safe, Yantha asks that we return those items to her. Seraphina asks if she is really telling the truth and before she can answer, Wiltren attempts to use a modify memory spell on her. Wizzy uses counterspell out of Wiltren out of concern. We discuss plucking some of the gems from her robe and fixing the robe with mending. Before we can decide what to do, Yantha spontaneously removes her robe and hands it to Banshee.
We return Yantha to the deep gnomes and we convince them that they should leave the city. They don't seem to take the warning seriously, even when Wizzy showed them the beholder eye stalks. We leave the deep gnomes and as we
attempt to see what the drow are up to, Ghazrim approaches us and tells us that the drow are coming for us after several of them were killed in our last encounter. While we're speaking with Ghazrim, Peebles shows up and steals Wizzy's bag of holding. We stop him from getting too far, Seraphina kills him, and Actarius reanimates him as a zombie.
A piece of parchment falls out of zombie Peebles's pocket and Actarius picks it up, revealing a message that Peebles must retrieve the eyestalks or die and a crudely drawn map leading to Mantol-Derith. We believe that Peebles's master, Xazax, sent him to retrieve the eyestalks. We decide to follow the map towards Xazax before making our way to Gravenhollow. Ghazrim says he'll accompany us as well on the way to to Xazax and to Gravenhollow.
We arrive at the location marked on the map and find a giant hole in the ground. Alexander illuminates the pit with a glowing stone and the stone connects with Xazax, a beholder. He says that he sent Peebles to retrieve Lorthuun's eyestalks. He now tasks us with retrieving them in 24 hours or else he'll kill us. We opt to leave the eyestalks with the reanimated Peebles and escape Xazax's lair.
We continue traveling for several months until we are a day out from Gravenhollow. Along the way, we see many more demons infesting the Underdark. We eventually come across a basilisk that starts speaking to us and says that it has been waiting a long time for us. It escorts us to Gravenhollow. We come up to a pair of massive basalt doors. We walk through the doors and the inside appears to be filled with light compared to the general feel of the Underdark.
A stout rocky creature detaches from the wall and introduces itself as Hourm. It welcomes us and says that his stone giant masters (Ulthar, Urmas Ustova) are busy. It escorts us to our rooms and melds back into the wall. The rooms have almost anything that we require. After a few hours, the library appears to be moving beneath our feet. We also see apparitions of many famous figures, such as Bruenor Battlehammer. He appears to be older than when we last saw him. We also see a figure with a tentacled face that says that this place is able to see figments of the past and the future.
While Alexander is searching for books about phoenixes, an unseen servant hands him a book about phoenixes in the Underdark. We are then greeted by one of the stone giants who introduces himself as Ulthar, the keeper of the past. He and his brothers oversee the library. We ask him to provide us some guidance about the demons in the underdark.
We come across a withered drow clad in dark flowing robes and hulking grey-skinned monster resembling a giant toad. He introduces himself as Vizeran Devir and the monster as his bodyguard. He says that he's been researching a potential demonic invasion of the Underdark. He advises us to look into Gromph Baenre, the archmage of Menzoberranzen. We ask the keepers to provide us with a crystal to help us view visions of the past, present, and future.
Ustova, the keeper of the future says that he can only see a vision of the future that shows fire, destruction and death before dismissing us. We can use the crystal to receive a vision of events in the past, present or future, We ask the crystal about Gromph and we receive also shows us a vision of a drow conjuring a mass of energy (faerzress). We also conjure a vision of the black crystal that Wiltren possesses and see that it emerged from a rift before exchanging hands several times. We also scry the location of Lolth and she stares back at us before attempting to assault our minds. We then scry for more information about Zuggtmoy and we see a vision of a giant mushroom growing taller and taller, and hear a voice that says all will worship her. The last vision we see is a vision of a future in the Underdark that is not under the influence of the demon lords.
We tell Vizeran about what we saw in the crystal and he confirms that there is a way to banish the demons from the Underdark, but that he won't discuss it in Gravenhollow. He wants us to visit the Araj tower to discuss his plan.
Session #18
Vizeran's tower lies about 10 days' travel away from Menzoberranzan. As we get closer to the tower, the map begins to glow with the letters "Araj" in Drow (meaning vengeance). We need to move single file through a narrow corridor and emerge in a cavern. In the distance we can see a bleak, black tower carved from the surrounding stone (a stalagmite). The door to the tower is unlocked and slightly ajar. Wiltren knocks on the door but nothing happens. The party walks in and sees a floating orb of pale violet light illumunating the chamber, revealing stairs spiraling along the tower. As we enter the chamber, we all begin floating up the tower and arrive on the 6th floor, where we find Vizeran in his study.
He tells us more about Gromph and how he had political aspirations in addition to being Vizeran's rival. Gromph managed to arrange for the disgrace of Vizeran and now Vizeran holds a grudge against Gromph. From his tower, Vizeran kept watch on Gromph and saw that Gromph meddled in the faerzress and unleashed the demons out of the Abyss, leaving Lolth in a position to seize their domains within the Abyss. He plans to perform a ritual to summon the demon lords and have them weaken one another so we could banish whichever is left. He asks us to acquire some components for the dark heart, a talisman needed to perform the ritual.
- one intact and unhatched egg of a purple worm
- one central eye of a beholder
- six feathers from six different angels
- one heart of a goristro
- thirteen timmasks
- a few drops of blood or ichor from a demon lord
He offers us each a piwafwi and a scroll of protection from fiends. He suggests that we retrieve the worm egg first since we are on the edge of the Wormwrithings, and that deep in the cavern there is said to be a beholder. He tells us to be wary if we feel any rumbling in the caverns. We rest a few days in the tower before making our way towards the Wormwrithings.
On our way to the Wormwrithings, we see many humanoid lizards hissing at one another with one restrained against a stalagmite. Wizzy manages to figure out that the language is Troglodyte and overhears that one faction killed a drow scouting party and they are now fighting over the loot (including a very impressive sword). Actarius also notices a hole in the cave. After consulting his black gemstone, Wiltren is convinced that every creature we've seen in the cavern is a demon and requests that he be polymorphed into a tyrannosaurus rex.
The appearance of a dinosaur startles the troglodytes and several of them flee. The other troglodytes from across the river ambush the troglodytes on our side of the river. Wiltren charges in and immediately grabs the troglodyte champion of Laogzed in his jaws and throws him into the river as quippers devour him. As we continue to slay the trogs, Banshee feels rumbling beneath his feet and flies into the air before a giant purple worm bursts through the ground, devours the shackled trog, and burrows again, a bit confused by the antilife shell spell put up by Actarius.
Onyx climbs onto the dinosaur's back and continues to fight the trogs. We manage to evade the worm and see that
the trog chief dropped a +2 drow longsword, and the purple worm regurgitated a +3 plate armor.
We see another chamber filled with trogs and their captives (4 dwarves and 2 drow). Wiltren devours one of the drow and we help the dwarves get out. Wizzy helps the remaining drow out of the pit and he flees. We send the dwarves to Ghazrim in the tower. Actarius also notices a jet of hot steam emerging from one of the cavern walls. Wizzy notices the glint of gemstones inside the vent. Wiltren scorches himself grabbing 2 rubies (500 gp each) and 1 giant diamond (10,000 gp) from the vent.
We continue north and see that the cavern appears to be hastily abandoned. We arrive at an unlit section of the cave and Actarius notices an unusual series of rock formations (they appear to be unnaturally formed). Wizzy fires a scorching ray spell at it, revealing it to be a roper. We continue attacking the unusual rock formations through this section of the cave and reveal another roper and some piercers. We slay all the monsters here and find 250 gp and a ring of protection.
As we continue down the path, we see a clean pool of water down below and in the distance several trogs riding giant lizards. They appear to be waiting for something. Banshee presents them with the drow longsword with pierced fish. They decree that the sword coming to them is a sign from the god that their side is victorious. We leave the sword with them and make our way towards the Wormwrithings.
As we enter the Wormwrithings, we hear a voice in Undercommon yell to us: "Turn back or you will suffer a death so terrible you cannot imagine."
Session #19
The party opts to venture forth into the cavern and the voice yells for us to "flee now!". Wizzy detects this voice to be the result of a minor illusion cantrip. Alexander then spots a young female drow in the debris nearby. Wiltren tries to restrain her and Seraphina renders her unconscious. Wizzy feeds her a potion of greater healing and she introduces herself as Hanne, a member of a group of drow who hunt for purple worm eggs. She said that she was separated from her party and that she wants to come with us in the hopes of finding her group.
We continue down the cavern for a few hours down a long tunnel. We feel some more rumbling and the floor gives way beneath us. Wizzy and Wiltren fall but the rest of the party makes their way down. We continue down the cavern and see a collection of mushrooms in a clearing. We continue down the cavern and arrive in a chamber littered with skeletons of varying ages.
We see an opening in the wall at the end of the chamber and Alexander throws an illuminated rock through the opening. He continues moving through the opening and looks over a cliff leading into a giant chasm. On the other side of the chasm, the party spots a decaying corpse with a pouch alongside it. Wiltren spider climbs along the chasm to reach the other side and retrieves the pouch. As this is happening, another quake shifts the cavern, almost sending Alexander down into the chasm. Wiltren returns with the pouch and inside is a ring (we don't find out what sort of ring it is).
We move back into the chamber with the skeletons and find a worm has created a new passage into the egg chamber. We see several clusters of seven purple worm eggs suspended in the air by hardened saliva. To the north and south of this chamber are rooms filled with more hardened saliva that act as a way for the worms to detect movement. The party comes up with a plan to retrieve one of the suspended eggs. Wiltren casts a spider climb spell on Onyx and Onyx climbs directly above one cluster of eggs. He falls off the ceiling and activates the immovable rod, stopping his fall right in front of the eggs. Wizzy and Wiltren hold a web spell steady below the eggs and Onyx tosses the egg down. Actarius summons several poisonous snakes to create a diversion in the chambers north and south of the eggs to draw the attention of the worms. We manage to retrieve one egg, but a fomorian named Stronk appears wanting to protect the eggs.
Stronk stares Onyx down with his cursed eye, deforming Onyx and debilitating him. As Stronk approaches Onyx, Alexander casts wall of fire, Actarius casts cloudkill, and Wizzy casts wall of force, trapping the fomorian inside. Alexander manages to cure Onyx of his deformation and as the party looks for a way to leave the egg chamber, a purple worm arrives. Actarius attempts to distract it with several giant centipedes and Wizzy polymorphs it into a killer whale. The party then flees towards one of the new passages created by a worm. As Wizzy enters the passage, a darkness spell envelops the egg. We can hear some sort of commotion coming from inside the darkness.
The Underdark is a subterranean wonderland, a vast and twisted labyrinth where fear reigns. It is the home of horrific monsters that have never seen the light of day.
It is here that the dark elf Gromph Baenre, Archmage of Menzoberranzan, casts a foul spell meant to ignite a magical energy that suffuses the Underdark, and he tears open portals to the demonic Abyss in the process. What steps through surprises even him, and from that moment on, the insanity that pervades the Underdark escalates and threatenes to shake the Forgotten Realms to its foundations. Stop the madness before it consumes you!
A Dungeons & Dragons adventure for
characters of levels 1-15
For use with the fifth edition Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide