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View Full Version : Gamer Tales Random treasure and divine intervention. Tales from Out of the Abyss.



Darth V.
2016-04-18, 02:52 PM
Just finished the 8th session of Out of the Abyss last night and something sufficiently cool happened that I feel the need to post the story here.
First some background on changes I made to the module and what's happened so far.

WRT the NPCs the players meet in Velkynelve- I liked the idea but it didn't really sit right for me just having the NPC companions have static NPC stats. It seemed like they would inevitably overshadow the party for the first few sessions and then sink into irrelevance, so I rolled up PC stats for most of the non-monster cell mates.

Buppido was a rogue/assassin, he was helped the party escape initially but was separated from the group after the cave in that leads to the oozing temple. Later the party killed him when he showed up again in Gracklstugh.
Derendil had his normal Quaggoth stats but he died during the escape from Velkynelve (he tackled a Drow elite warrior off the side of the cavern, they both fell into the web and were eaten by spiders)
Eldeth was a ranger who ended up taking the deep scout specialization, she survived the escape from Vekynelve, was separated along with buppido when they hit the oozing temple but showed up again as a kuo-toa slave in sloobludop and rejoined the party.
Jimjar I rolled up as a rogue, but the drow killed him as an example after the party's wizard snuck into the priestess's chamber to steal back his spellbook.
Ront was a barbarian, he rolled a natural 1 climbing down from Velkynelve during the escape and fell to his death.
Sarith Kzekarit I changed more than any of the other characters. For one thing he became a she and I made her a CG cleric of Eilistraee. I did this partly because the party needed some healing and blasting support and a Light Cleric fit well, partly because the teenage Drizz't fanboy in me always liked Eilistraee and felt like fitting her in to an underdark campaign somehow
Stool joined the party but they basically just used him as a babel fish whenever they needed a translator and forgot he was there the rest of the time. This is probably mostly my fault as my players are good RPers and probably would have interacted with him if I'd given them something to work with, but I was busy RPing Buddido, Sarith and Eldeth and it usually slipped my mind.
The Kuo-Toa and the two wererats were more or less ignored and they didn't escape Velkynelve

The PCs were a Krynn Minotaur Battlemaster fighter, a Rock Gnome Transmuter, a Halfling Shadow Monk (Joined in the silken paths after the player's first character was killed by the cube in the oozing temple) and a Half-elf Trickery Cleric who was at this time polymorphed into a Derro. They were also accompanied by Sarith and Eldeth at this point.

The story of this session really begins at the end of the last session. The party had finished the questline in Gracklstugh and were on their way to Neverlight Grove to drop Stool off at home. In Gracklstugh I had added a side-quest of my own in which Sarith had been nearly overcome by her infection from Zuggtmoy's spores and slipped into a coma. The party had persuaded the Keepers of the Flame to fix her with Cure Disease as part of their deal to recover the Egg for them. They had also encountered the dancing myconids in the Whorelstone caverns so they were already fairly wary of what they might find in Neverlight Grove, though they didn't realize Zuggtmoy was involved yet.

At the end of the last session the party had gone through the "Hook Horror Hunt" mini-adventure. Since the party was getting a little tough for that adventure by this time I decided to make it tougher, so I added a few extra gnolls, an extra packlord and a Fang of Yeenoghu to top it off. After such a brutal fight I felt the PCs had earned a little extra loot so I rolled a random treasure horde for them, and on the random magic items table I came up with an 8th level spell scroll. I rolled a d6 to determine what class and then a d4 for the precise spell and ended up giving the 5th level party their very own scroll of Earthquake. They were impressed but they tossed it in their pack and carried on.

This session they arrived in Neverlight grove and went through the fairly typical series of events. The circle of hunters got them to hunt down a Grick Alpha and 3 of it's little gricklings. When they brought back it's body sovereign basidia gave them all potions of greater healing and asked them to check out the garden of welcome for him and they went off after a short rest. The fight at the Garden of Welcome was extremely brutal (I may have tweaked that encounter a bit as well...) Eldeth was killed and two PCs were knocked below zero HP (one of them twice). After the fight the PCs witnessed the demon fungi perform their bizarre wedding ceremony and had the vision of Zuggtmoy. At this point the PCs high-tailed it back to the valley floor. They cast gentle repose on Eldeth in the hopes of raising her when they got to the surface, then wrapped her body in a cloak and dumped it in a bag of holding after going through her pockets for loose change. They reported back to sovereign basidia and settled in for a long rest, mulling over whether or not to go back the next day, they ultimately opted in favor of the proposition and the next day they were marching back into the Garden of Welcome.

They ignored Yestabod's rapidly composting remains and a few remaining drow spore servants tending the little garden of horrors and marched on into the adjoining cavern and got a good view of Zuggtmoy's evil mushroom tower. At this point the whole party was ready to bravely run away until someone remembered that scroll they got last week.
It was at this point that the party resolved to punch Cthulhu in the balls and run like hell. there were a couple of difficulties with the plan. For one thing since nobody in the party was 15th level the either Sarith or the PC cleric would need to make a DC 18 wisdom check to cast the spell from the scroll. Fortunately they did have an enhance ability spell on hand that would allow him to get an advantage on wisdom checks and give him a roughly 51% chance of successfully casting the spell. As you can no doubt guess from the fact that I am writing this up on GitP, the roll succeeded.

Now I found myself trying to improvise a suitably epic description of this earthquake as the foundations of Zuggtmoy's tower are shaken by infinite power of random treasure generation. Boulders fall from the cavern ceiling, bashing great holes in Yggmorgus' cap, knocking turrets from the side of the tower and crushing corrupted myconids and spore servants. A massive fissure splits the earth directly to the foot of the tower. Immediately the PCs see dozens of fungal creatures rushing at them from the base of the tower, but what starts as a charge swiftly becomes a rout as more fissures and falling rocks decimate their ranks.

The PCs conjure up a rope trick and take cover to wait out the cataclysm. While this is happening Alexei (the PC cleric) gets a religious epiphany and has his original half-elven form restored to him (it's complicated). The party can see myconids, spore servants and demonic servitors rushing by below them. After the longest minute of their lives the rumbling of the earth ceases and the Party peek their heads out to survey the damage.

Looking back toward Yggmorgus they can see that half of it's cap has been ripped off and fallen to the floor of the cavern. The towering mushroom leans to one side, scraping against the wall of the cavern and many of the lesser turrets lie broken and ruined in a mass at the base of the tower. As they watch the brief silence of the cavern is broken by a voice in their mind, an inhuman scream of rage and pain, slowly growing in volume and intensity. Amid the swirling dust at the base of the tower they can now make out a form, impossibly tall and thin, gliding towards them.

Now the PCs are sure it's time to run, beating a hasty retreat back to the garden of welcome. As they reach the entrance of the tunnel I wordlessly pick out a suitably ominous-looking miniature- the cultist from the wrath of ashardalon board game- and place it deliberately down in front of them as the Demon Lady teleports forward to cut off their retreat.

Before them the PCs see the monstrous figure from their early vision, made more terrifying by the damage taken in the tower's collapse. Her wedding gown is in ruins and her fungal 'face' has several chunks knocked free, revealing layers of mycelium underneath. She regards them with an expressionless, inhuman face, but her voice in their minds makes her rage abundantly clear.

I ask the party of 5, 5th level characters to roll initiative.

Sarith wins with a 21 and she rushes toward the demon lord crying out to her goddess. She uses her channel divinity, the radiant damage barely scratching the paintjob on Zuggtmoy. Zuggtmoy goes second with an 18 and makes 4 pseudopod attacks against the drow. Bad rolls and Sarith's good armor class let her evade the first two swings but the third makes contact, knocking her down to 8 Hp from 31, and the fourth smashes her against a nearby wall.

Next up is Efforia, the monk, who activates his boots of speed, uses a ki point for step of the wind and GTFOs at 210 feet/round, not looking back. The party wizard tries to beat a hasty retreat back to the still-active rope trick and Treister, the fighter, rushes forward, grabs sarith's limp body and runs after efforia.

Alexei, the cleric, simply mic drops the depleted earthquake scroll and stares defiantly at the Demon.

Zuggtmoy shoots catches the retreating minotaur with an entangle spell then moves in closer to Alexei. On her first legendary action she smashes him into unconsciousness with her pseudopods. The wizard manages to make it into the rope trick, which Zuggtmoy dispels with a gesture and then blasts him into unconsciousness with a ray of sickness. Treister manages to hack his way free of the entangle, but Zuggtmoy is already turning to pursue him. As Zuggtmoy is bearing down on him Treister hears Sarith, slung over his back in a fireman's carry, whisper simply 'the lady' when a sudden burst of soft moonlight sweeps over the party. The burst of radiation heals everyone with the power of a healing word and standing in the middle of the garden is a beautiful drow, wielding a silver sword and clad only in godiva hair. She leaps forward and strikes Zuggtmoy in the back, each cut glowing with the same starlight as the demon screams in agony. The party takes this as their signal to leave, limping away as the two demigods go at it. At the end of the next round the drow disappears in a burst of silver light, blinding Zuggtmoy who reels back stunned.

The PCs fight their way through a few berserk myconids, get back to their pack lizard and get the hell out of that crazy cavern. Everybody gets a fat load of experience and my players start googling the name Eilistraee. End of session.