Out of the Abyss 2020: Sessions 12-13

Hi all,

I previously posted some warts-and-all email summaries of the ‘Curse of Strahd’ campaign I ran in 2017, and the ‘Tomb of Annihilation’ campaign from 2018. CoS was the first campaign I sent summaries to players by email after each game (I was a bit lazy prior to that). Here’s another campaign – 2020’s ‘Out of the Abyss’. Each session was approximately 4 hours long. Some of the summaries may be amusing, but don’t forget these are unedited emails, so please forgive their somewhat chaotic nature and poor sentence structure/grammar. If you’re a D&D fan you may enjoy them. And maybe even if you aren’t.

Game on!

Steve 🙂

Session 12 – The Lost Tomb

The party delivered Droki to the Stone Guards, got to replace their Drow armour and weapons with regular ones and everyone headed off to see the Stone Giants. Hgraam met them and gave the party a summary of all the information he had given before (Stone Giants must be like elephants) and added that the party should speak to Dorbo and Senni Diggermattock, leaders of Blingdenstone, the Deep Gnome colony. “They will have contacts in Mantol Derith, a trading outpost in the deep dark. Perhaps from there you will be able to find your way to Archmage Vizeran and the Library of GrayvenHollow to find a way to defeat this demonic incursion.” Hgraam gave everyone a…rock…and said it would serve them in their time of need.

Leaving the city after a long rest, the party had a choice of going to Neverlight Grove or Blingdenstone. They chose Neverlight Grove to drop off Stool and Rumperdump, who wanted to return to their home. The party travelled for three days through the Underdark tunnels, encountering Duergar traders and some Derro and Deep Gnomes from Blingdenstone, who provided a map showing a route to Blingdenstone.

The Glabrezu demon with the warpstone in its chest pursued the party briefly, but they escaped through a tiny side passage using pygmywort mushrooms.

A female voice called to them from a ravine. The party abseiled down, Mission Impossible-style, and found the entrance to a lost tomb. In they went, defeating several Spectres and a Wraith. They found lots of treasure and magic items, including Dawnbringer, a sentient sunblade which was the voice that telepathically called to them (Peter’s Rogue got that).

AND everyone advanced to 5^th level – yay!

Next Week: Neverlight Grove…

Session 13 – Neverlight Grove

The party bought a pack lizard from some Svirfneblin (Deep Gnome) Merchants, which Jeremy’s Monk christened ‘Fifi’. They travelled to Neverlight Grove to take Stool and Rumpadump home.

At Neverlight Grove they fought a Shambling Mound and were introduced to Phylo and Basidia, dual Myconid Sovereigns of the colony (unusual, as Myconids usually only have one Sovereign per colony). Phylo seemed a bit strange, raving on about the “wondrous and glorious surprise” brought by the “Great Seeder”.

Basidia took the party aside and told them they were unsure of the strange behaviours and spores in the grove. They recommended the party not linger as other ‘softers’ similar to them came a few weeks ago and had not been seen since visiting the Garden of Welcome on the hill. Basidia asked for assistance to find out what was going on and took the party members to meet the leaders of the various Myconid Circles. Basidia explained that the Myconids usually all rapported together at the end of the working day, however Phylo had decreed that circles do so amongst themselves, and that only the circle leaders now rapported together (and strangely, Yestabrod, from the Circle of Masters, sent a representative in his place to rapport). This was bizarre behaviour as the Myconids shared a group mind/familial bond when they all rapported together.

The party killed 3 Grick Alphas to help out the Circle of Hunters. After meeting each of the circle leaders (some of which were a bit crazy, others not), they made their way up to the Garden of Welcome where they found a garden of Underdark races, including Drow, swallowed up by the earth and covered in fungal mushroom growths. One of the Drow declared that Zuggtmoy, demon goddess of fungi, was here!

Sudddenly, the mutated fungal creature known as Yestabrod appeared with 2 Drow Spore Servants and 2 Myconid Adults, declaring that “the Great Seeder would embrace them as one of the chosen!” 

Roll initiative…

Next Week: Showdown in Neverlight Grove and the Wedding Rehearsal…

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