First Day of Sunsebb, CY 580

Things were not looking good for our heroes. With Sir Fenius unconscious from drow poison arrows, two party members unarmed, and a Blade Barrier blocking their escape, they needed to act quickly.

Dalron used the Lolth artifact to walk on webs and ran up to the nearest drider and started to attack. But being outside of the protection of Sarril's Minor Globe of Invulnerability meant he was susceptible to spellfire, and sure enough, another drider hit him with a Ray of Enfeeblement, sapping his strength make him much less effective in battle (but since he uses dagger anyway, he was still able to fight).

Sarril's first course of action was to cast Neutralize Poison on Fen to wake him up so he could then use his holy sword to dispel the Blade Barrier. This worked the next round Fen did just that, allowing the party to escape the onslaught. They closed the doors and ran north. Dammac attempted to listen at the next door, setting off a Glyph of Warding in the process and taking some damage. The party then ran through that door and the double doors that followed, which opened into a large room.

The room was 100 ft, square with 50 ft high ceilings. Across the far end of the room was a large pyramid and flanking the room were three smaller pyramids on each side. Also in the room were about 16 zombies and half as many skeletons shuffling around. The undead turned to the party and begin to advance.

But the party had a plan. They wedged one door shut and kept the other open, then stood in formation around the door. The intent was to let one undead through at a time and kill them. It looked like it was going to work, until one of the zombies coming toward them stopped to cast a spell. It was a Flame Strike, and it got most of the party, including Dammac, who failed his save. The damage from the Flame Strike, on top of the damage previously taken by the glyph, was too much and he went unconscious.

Just as this happened, the door behind them flew open. It was the four remaining driders from previous room, and they began shooting arrows and making melee attacks. Another party member dropped from poison this time (I think it was Sarril, but don't recall). The party realized they were not prepared for what was happening and shut the door to the undead room and wedged it shut, then went after the driders. It took a couple of rounds but they were able to bring them down easily when not separated by webs. They then picked up their unconscious comrades and fled.

While the Demonweb is long and twisted and confusing, it doesn't branch, so running in one direction eventually leads someplace. In this case, retracing their steps back to the sanctuary room where priests and priestesses of a peaceful deity offered them safe rest.

The party knew not to trust these people, but with the paladin unable to effectively Detect Evil, they really had no choice but to spring whatever trap was waiting for them. And a trap it was. These eight clerics were transformed Jackweres, waiting for the party to go to sleep before attacking. Jackalweres are not particularly tough and they don't have especially harmful attacks, but they can use a special gaze to put their victims into a magical sleep from which they can perform a Coup De Grace.

I know a lot of people don't like instant-kill options in AD&D, and many DMs won't use the optional Coup De Grace rules at-all. My house-rule on this is to split the difference. Allow automatic hits against unconscious foes for normal damage and after two consecutive, uninterrupted rounds, the victim is dead regardless of remaining hit points at the end of the second round. The victim has a chance to wake up after each hit, but it is not automatic. I think this is fair in that it gives allies a chance to wake the victim or intervene to save them, and even gives the victim a chance to wake up on their own, while still allowing creatures like Jackalweres their ability to be a little frightening.

The Jackalweres weren't able to do much against the conscious party members, but they attacked on second watch when only Pontus and Tyril were awake. Pontus fought and yelled while Tyril tried to physically wake up the others. Things got difficult as the jackalweres were putting party members to sleep almost as quickly as they were waking up, and Dammac went two rounds with a jackalwere at his unconscious throat. It was Dalron who came to his aid just before his demise, but it was close. The party managed to survive another encounter and now they had an actual peaceful room to rest in, so they did.

The next day, after studying for what spells could be gained in the abyss (clerical spells of 3rd level and above were out), the party decided to go back to the pyramid room and tackle the undead again. Being at full strength, they believed they could handle things better this time around. It didn't quite work out.

They started by charging into the room, hoping to identify the spellcasters quickly and take them out. The working theory is that some drow spellcasters were using illusions to disguise themselves as undead. It was a decent theory, but one they did not get to fully test, as one of the first things that happened was black fog-like tendrils flowed down from the far pyramid and began engulfing the room in darkness. It completely snuffed out all Continual Light coins and other light sources, allowing only those with infravision to see. But since undead don't emit heat, the party was effectively blind. Worse yet, none of the undead were standing out, so either the illusion was good enough to work against infravision (which is not difficult) or this was something else.

Dalron was pretty far into the room, as was Kohvo (the new half-orc that was rescued with Pontus). Both had to use their listening skills as best they could to find the enemy before they could even attack with a -4 penalty. This made things difficult, but not impossible for these high-level fighters. Then the rest of the party heard Dalron yell "I'm held!" (the results of a Hold Person spell) from somewhere in the darkness, a few moments later a wall of fire erupted from within the room, through the doorway, engulfing several party members. Though the wall emitted no light, those with infravision could see its heat, and everyone could feel it. Some small amount of damage was taken by most party members, but the screaming coming from within the room was unmistakable. Dalron was trapped within the wall itself, still unable to move. At maximum damage, it will only be a couple of rounds until he is burned to death.

And this is where we left off. It is the 2nd Day of Sunsebb, CY 580, and this may be the party's toughest challenge to date.

28th Day of Ready'reat ??, CY 580 - An Old Friend Returns

We left off the last session with the party still asking questions and drawing cards from the Deck of Many Things.

Dammac the dwarf decided to ask if his family was safe. He drew a card. Comet, just like Sarril had drawn earlier. He understood that the next encounter with a monster had to be single-handedly defeated by him and, if he did so, he would gain power. But Sarril had drawn the same card earlier, and they couldn't both single-handedly defeat the next monster the party would encounter. So this, of course, raised another question, one Tyril would be happy to ask on behalf of his dwarven brethren.

So Tyril asked how both Sarril and Dammac could benefit from the cards they drew, and then drew a card of his own. His card was one that raised his primary stat (Strength) by 2 points. So Tyril now has a 20 strength. Wow! The answer was simple. They had to split the party and go their separate ways, so that the next monster encountered by Sarril and the next one encountered by Dammac would be different.

This turned out to be simple. First, Sarril stepped out of the room with Dalron, and waited for a wandering monster. It took two hours, but eventually, two giant pedipalpi (whip scorpions) came along. Sarril easily killed them both with cones of cold. Sarril was then filled with power as he gained a level (past his racial maximum, which he felt extra good about). Next Dammac stepped out and he faced a single pedipalp. He had to work a little harder, but he managed to kill it, gaining a level for himself. The party then got back together and decided they did not want to risk drawing any more cards and left. When they opened the door again, the skeleton with the cards was gone, and a new room had replaced the old.

This new room as 50 x 70 ft and completely littered with bones. The occasional gold coin or gem could be seen, and Dalron even saw a scroll sticking out in one place. An obvious trap, the party concluded, though they were willing to spring the trap. Across the room was a set of large brass double-doors. The party entered the room and spread out to search the room while Dammac listened at the brass doors. Shortly thereafter, 15 ghouls and 5 ghasts erupted from the floor. It was a complicated battle, but nothing the party couldn't easily handle.

Once the ghouls were dead, Tyril tried to open the door. Though he wasn't successful, he did rip the large brass handles off (did I mention how strong he is now?). The rest of the party searched the room and found a potion, but decided they needed to leave come back after they have figured out the secret to opening the door.

And so off they went, spending another few hours in the Demonweb, eventually coming to a new door they haven't seen before. Inside were some people dressed in robes, who offered blessings of peace and tranquility. They offered food and drink and comfortable rest in safety. They mentioned that they are priests of a generous and peaceful god who are trapped here in the abyss, but their god has granted them sanctuary to share with those who come to fight Lolth. They said that others have come and gone over the years, but none have ever defeated her. The party was skeptical, but still tempted to stay, and they were long overdue for rest. But they eventually decided it just didn't feel right, and so they left, saying they would return later.

They eventually came to another door. This one opened into a short hallway and another door, which was trapped with a Glyph of Warding. Tyril set off the trap and took some lightning damage. Another short hallway then came to another door with another glyph. This time, Sarril cast Minor Globe of Invulnerability and opened the door, setting off the glyph which could not harm him. Another longer hallway had a door at one end, and a set of double doors to the left. They opened the double doors to reveal an immense space with no walls, ceiling or floor within sight. Only natural-looking vertical columns spaced 50 to 100 feet apart, with thousands of webs running between them as far as they could see.

Working these webs at various levels were driders, along with thousands of large and giant spiders of various types. Trapped within the webs were the bodies of people. Most dead, but some possibly still alive. At the nearest column was a half-orc whose head was still moving, and appeared to be talking to someone, and spoke the name "Pontus." Sarril and Dalron knew that name, and decided they needed to rescue this half-orc to see what was going on.

As they considered what to do, the driders began hurling fireballs at the party, but Sarril's Minor Globe was still up and the party was bunched together close enough that it protected most of them except Sir Fenius, whose Holy Sword granted him magic resistance. The driders then started shooting bows with poisoned arrows at the party as five sword spiders approached and attacked.

Dalron pulled out the Lolth Idol and used it to command all of the giant spiders to attack the sword spiders. Although the giant spiders were no match, it did keep them occupied long enough for Sarril to cast Wall of Force as a bridge to the column where the half-orc was tied up. When they arrived, they saw the other figure the half-orc was talking to. It was Pontus of the Cold Crow, the party's former companion. His body was physically present and he was very much sentient, but Sarril knew that he wasn't really alive. For some reason, when Pontus died, he was not reborn in the Hall of the Valiant in Ysgard, but here in Lolth's layer of the Abyss. That should not have happened according to Sarril's religious understanding, but however it happened, he was living his afterlife in the Abyss, and permanently if they can't find a way to get him out of here.

Prince Kohvo Koravel

And so the party cut both the half-orc, who introduced himself as Prince Kohvo Koravel (which must be a joke), and Pontus free. As they did so, the driders continued to shoot at them. One arrow managed to pierce Sir Fenius' armor and he succumbed to the poison, falling fast asleep. Tyril picked him up and the party ran back for the entrance, only to see that there was a blade barrier in the way.

Thus ended our session. It is biologically First Day of Sunsebb, CY 580, though, here in the Abyss, no one can be sure what calendar day it is.

28th Day of Ready'reat, CY 580 - Into the 66th Layer of the Abyss

This was a short session today as we had to end early for holiday festivities, and we were also testing out Fantasy Grounds (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/home/home.php) for the first time. We had a lot of technical hiccups, but overall, it was worth it, even for an in-person game. I highly recommend Fantasy Grounds as it makes administration for the players and DMs both easier and gameplay is smoother, once you get used to it.

We started with the party having just entered the Abyss, seemingly at Lolth's invitation. They found themselves among a maze of hallways, 20 feet wide. Fog formed the walls and ceilings and the floor was made of a smooth stone that appeared to have moving swirling patterns within. Closer examination revealed twisted bodies and tortured faces writhing around in anguish.

Walking along in one direction, the party came across what looked like an overpass. Shan-Ju pulled out a Rope of Climbing that he was able to use to climb up and the rest of the party followed suit. This brought them to another pattern of hallways which they followed for a while until they came to another overpass and repeated the same maneuver. Eventually, they came to an overpass 10 feet overhead and did it again, then eventually came to the same overpass. They realized they had been going in circles and, rather than go overhead again, they decided to go forward, following the hallways as it turned left and right. After about an hour, they came to a turn in the hallway where there was a door on their right and driders approaching from the other side.

The driders were dispatched quickly, and the party decided to enter the door. They found themselves in a very large, strange room. Everything seemed warped - curving up and away from them the further away it was. Above them on the ceiling was a table with a cloaked figure sitting on one end. The party could see that the room appears to a large sphere, and decided to walk forward, ultimately approaching the table, which felt right-side up.

The cloaked figure at the end of the table was a skeleton holding a deck of cards. Seven chairs appeared around the table, and the party members decided to have a seat, with Sebastion asking "Who are you?"

The skeleton answered "I can answer questions you have, Sebastian Silvertongue. For each question you wish answered, you must draw a card."

Sebastain was more than happy to participate. He asked "How do we find Lolth?" and then drew from the deck and went catatonic - his soul sucked away from his body (The Void).

The skeleton said "A question was asked and a card drawn. Lolth can be found in her Spider Ship, which is accessed from a door on the fourth level of the Demonweb. You are currently on the third level. To access the fourth level, you will need a key that you already have on you (it points to Sarril). To enter the ship, you will need a key that you still must obtain."

Shan-Ju then decided to ask a question. "Where is Slerotin's tunnel?" He then drew a card (Throne) and his Charisma was raised to 18 and he became aware of a new Monastery that belonged to him somewhere in the Flanaess.

The skeleton answered the question in great detail, explaining exactly how to find the tunnel, including looking for some ancient runes and how to activate those runes to reveal the tunnel.

Sarril decided to go next. "Why are some priests unable to commune with their gods? and he drew a card (Comet). He is now aware that if he single-handedly defeats the next monster encountered, he will be rewarded with power.

"There are two answers to your question, and I will provide you with both. The first answer is simply that many of the gods are now dead, though their worshippers do not know it, or refuse to believe it. The second answer is that a being of great power has discovered the secrets of the mists from the Domain of Dread, also known as Ravenloft. This being is using these mists to cut-off the connection between the Prime Material plane and the Outer Planes, thus limiting the connection between deities that exist in those planes, and their worshippers in the prime."

Seeing that things were going well, Dalron took a turn. "How do we defeat Lolth?" he asked, as he drew a card (Key). A treasure map then appeared in his backpack.

"You already have the tools you need to destroy Lolth. It won't be easy, but your best chance is for the paladin to use his holy sword against her directly. The rest of you should do everything you can to help make sure that happens."

Unfortunately, Dalron was disappointed in this answer as he had already planned on this strategy and was hoping there was some super-secret way to kill her that they were unaware of. But not this time. They would have to do things the old fashioned way.

At this point, the pressure was on. Everyone still had questions, but the risks were high. Everyone had seen their companion disappear and weren't sure what happened to him. Finally, Shan-Ju decided to ask the question on everyone's minds.

"How do we get Sebastian back?" he asked, then drew a card and disappeared (DonJon).

"To retrieve your friend, you must unmake the universe" came the answer.

And that ended the session. It is sometime, perhaps the 28th Day of Ready'reat, CY 580, somewhere in the 66th layer of the Abyss.

28th Day of Ready'reat, CY 580 - Infiltrating the Fane of Lolth

After spending the rest of the day in the market at Erelhei-Cinlu, the party made their way back to the inn to have dinner. Underneath Sarril's plate was a note instructing the party to meet with two wizards of the black tower at a specified location in the city. The party decided not to wait and to go directly there.

Inside seemingly abandoned building they met with two wizards who explained that the party was to pass through the Noble Gate of the city and go to the manor of House Eilserv. No non-drow are allowed through the gate and even then, only those who are members of the royal house or on official business may pass. Disguises and illusions will not work, so the only option is to polymorph each party member into a drow - which, of course, comes with risk of death or of losing one's identity. The party agreed to the terms and the two wizards polymorphed everyone, one at a time. Each PC made their system shock roll and intelligence check to remain alive and retain their self identity. The party was given a platinum token with the symbol of House Eilserv on it, which would get them through the gate and up to the manor house. The party, now each a drow, headed there immediately.

The party made their way to the manor house and showed their token and were invited inside and offered some fine drow wine while they waited. Eventually, Viconia came out to speak with the party. She was not interested in a long drawn out conversation. She made stated that she would provide the party with a means to access the Fane of Lolth through a secret passage underneath the temple. If the party would go tonight, there will be minimal guards to deal with. She provided simple instructions on how to get to the upper level where they can use the egg to open up a portal to Lolth's lair in the Abyss.

Sebastian asked what Eilserv would do in return for the risk the party is undertaking and she laughed, saying merely that they would allow the party to live to accomplish their mission. "Is there not a large black bubble on your surface world spewing out demons?" She asked.

"Fair enough" replied Sebastian, who then went on to ask about the Elder Elemental God that House Eilserv seems to worship. Viconia offered to introduce the party to her god if they would like. They declined and went on their way.

The path to the secret entrance required taking a special boat docked beside the Pitchy Flow, an underground canyon and river that leads to the Sunless Sea. The Pitchy Flow consisted of fast moving rapids that would not be navigable by normal means, but the boats provided were magic boats. Stepping inside the boat, the party invoked the name of Lolth, which caused a Hezrou demon statue to come to life and call forth a crew of ghouls to operate the boat and take them down river, stopping at a cave entrance which was their destination.

Just as Viconia said, the cave led to a long tunnel that eventually came to a narrow flight of stairs up to a secret door. The secret door was easily opened from this side and the party found themselves in a large room with a sacrificial altar in an alcove to the south. The altar had recently been used, as there was fresh blood all over the altar and floor.

To the west was a web filled passage which the party chose to avoid, choosing instead to go north where they found a staircase going up. Dammac used his Ring of Invisibility to invisibly and silently sneak up the stairs and scout. The stairs were covered in spider webs, making it difficult, but not impossible, to push through. About halfway up, he was attacked by a giant black widow spider. The spider wasn't much of a match for Dammac, but it did manage to wound him before he killed it and he was no longer invisible.

Dammac returned down the stairs and explained what happened. Sebastian decided the two of them should sneak up the stairs together and scout things out. At the top of the stairs they could see a large hallway going left and right. To the right, the hall opened into a large diamond shaped room with an amber pool in the middle. Floating above this amber pool was a large black spider with a female drow head. Listening checks revealed that there were others in the room, though they could not see them from where they were. They headed back down and reported what they saw to the rest of the party.

Believing the spider may be Lolth herself, the party decided to rush up the stairs and face whatever was in front of them, without casting protective and enhancing magic first. As soon as they entered the main temple area on the first floor, a drow woman stepped forward from behind the illusory image of the Spider Queen. This woman was finely dressed and wearing the broach of House Noquar. She also held aloft the golden idol of Lolth that Sebastian had previously traded to her house. As she spoke, two driders came to join her from side hallways, and the back hallway behind the party began to fill up with drow soldiers. Another drow priestess, wearing a broach with a golden spider on it, and a drow male wizard could also be seen.

The woman directly in front of them spoke "Did you think we did not know what the traitorous House Eilserv was up to? We will deal with them soon enough. But as for you, thank you for returning the egg to us."

"Oh, we will be holding on to this egg" replied Sebastian as the fight broke out.

The very first thing that happened was Dalron focused all of his effort on the drow wizard. Any other wizard would have been dead from the amount of damage put out, but drow wizards typically have fighter levels, and this one had more hit points than the average wizard. He was nearly dead, but not quite. Sarril cast Haste from his ring (at-will) and placed a Wall of Force to block off the southern hallway, allowing the rest of the party to focus their effort on the two drow priestesses. Fen rushed up on the High Priestess of Lolth and did a significant amount of damage to her before she cast a Lolth priest version of Repulsion to push him back. Still, that consumed her spellcasting for the round, which made a huge difference.

The matron of House Noquar cast Hold Person on four of the party members. Only Shan-Ju failed his save, and was now held in place. Tyril was able to then rush up on the matron and begin savagely attacking her, rolling three 18s in a row and nearly killing her in the first round. The wizard, seeing that he would not survive another round, cast Haste on the priestesses and driders before, at the top of the next round, Dalron finished him off. Dalron then turned his attention to one of the driders while the other attacked Tyril.

In the southern hallway, the female leader of the drow guards dispelled the Wall of Force, allowing the guards to flood the back row. Sarril responded by summoning a hydra while Sebastian summoned a Fire Elemental. That kept the drow guards busy and bought the party more time to keep their focus on the priestesses. The matron, now nearly dead, tapped her demonic staff on the ground and transformed into a Glabrezu demon, healing herself as she did so. Tyril was now facing melee with a hasted Glabrezu and hasted Drider, which began tearing into him hard.

Sarril cast Dispel Magic and successfully dispelled the Repulsion on Fen, who, now hasted, was able to rush back up on the high priestess and do some more damage to her. She responded by casting Blade Barrier, which forced him to back away (for now).

DM's Note: I'm missing a lot of details as this was a chaotic battle that went for three rounds. At some point, the high priestess attempted to cast Slay Living on Fen, but failed, and Sarril was able to get out a lightning bolt. Other attacks back and forth were made and some of the drow guards were killed, as was the hydra. At the end round three, two drow guards are dead, the summoned hydra is dead and the drow wizard is dead (or dying). None of the party are yet dead, but a few are close. The battle took so long that we ran out of time, so this is where we leave off.

It is the middle of "night" (whatever that means in the underdark) on the last day of Ready'reat, CY 580. The party noticed that there is at least one more drow hanging out behind a tapestry and a few more driders coming up the side hallways. There are also temple guards outside that could rush in at any moment. This is not going to be easy.

20th day of Ready'reat, CY 580 - A drow vampire? Really?

Yes, it was a vampire. Specifically his name was Belgos, not that he introduced himself. He wasn't happy that the party just sent his lover back to the Abyss. Belgos swiped twice at Shan-Ju, who was invisible to him at the moment, with clawed fingers. Both attacks missed. Belgos tried and failed to charm Fen, the paladin, but failed. Now it was the party's turn, and the melee fighters did over 60 hit points of damage in a single round - despite that fact that hundreds of bats were swarming around Belgos to give him additional defensive cover. He soon went gaseous, and disappeared under a nearby boulder.

The party decided to go after him, and managed to push the boulder out the way, revealing a circular staircase going down. At the bottom of the stairs was a plush bedroom with lots of fine treasure, but no sign of a coffin. The party began searching for secret doors and eventually found what they were looking for, and opened a passage into what looked like an ancient crypt.

Coming up to a T intersection, there was a room down the right hallway with an eerie green light emanating from it. That must be what they were looking for. But as the party turned to go down the hallways, twelve wights rushed at them from the hall to the left. For any other party, this would have been frightening. But for the badass motherfuckers, it was a lightning bolt followed by a couple of sword swings and it was all over.

Moving into the room with the green glow, there was a coffin in the middle of the room and spider webs all over. Before the party could approach the coffin, a giant black widow dropped down from the ceiling, surprising everyone. The spider could not connect its fangs through the superior armor classes of any of the PCs, and they soon hacked the spider up into bits. But the spider wasn't the real threat. It was primarily acting as an alarm for Belgos, who was now fully regenerated within his coffin. The lid sprang open and Belgos leaped out. The party pivoted and responded with nearly 100 points of damage to the vampire lord before he even had a turn. He turned gaseous and reformed in his coffin and Dalron immediately staked him through the heart, cut off his head and shoved garlic in the stump. The party then burned the corpse. It was possible that some of the steps were unnecessary, but it gave everyone great pleasure.

Within Belgos' chambers the party came across a golden idol of a spider with a woman's torso attached. This was most definitely Lolth. Sebastian picked up the idol and instantly gained several powerful abilities. . . though likely at a price. He placed the idol in a bag and the party went about their way. Searching the rest of the place they found some treasure, some interesting goggles with pink lenses, and a basin full of what they identified as Oil of Etherealness. The latter had been used recently, and Sebastian put it on himself and walked through a wall to another part of the crypt. This part eventually led to another exit elsewhere in the underdark. It seemed like someone else may have been here with Belgos and escaped before the party made it down.

Among Belgos' clothes were some fine drow clothes, which the party took, and a Cloak of Protection that Sarril thought looked odd. Sebastian figured it might be another Cloak of Poisonous, and understood that the only way to know for sure would be to put it on, and so he did. And promptly died. Sarril removed the curse and the poison and cast Raise Dead on him. Down another con point, but just a little bit wiser, Sebastian relayed a harrowing tale.

While dead, Sebastian was unable to move on to his proper afterlife. Instead, he found himself among a sea of lost souls in an empty waste, marching toward a figure upon a rock. Vecna. Sebastian was certain of it. He knew the legends, what little there were, mostly about the eye and hand, but this skeletal creature was most certainly missing an eye and a hand. The fiendish being looked at Sebastian with his one glowing eye and spoke through his mind "you escaped me once before, but now you have returned. I am inevitable." That's all that he saw before being snapped back to life.

It turns out that this bedroom was the perfect place to rest, and so the party spent the night, safely and comfortably. The next day they headed out toward the drow outpost, another three day journey, but this time unobstructed.

The party was interested in getting through the outpost quickly and safely, and let Sebastian talk his way through, saying they wished to trade in Erelhei-Cinlu. The drow agreed to let them pass through, and so they did. On the way through they passed multiple slave pens with dwarves, svirfneblin and human slaves which were being sold to the Kuo-Toa. Sir Fenius, being a Paladin of St. Cuthbert, was appalled, but kept his cool, knowing that they had to get through to accomplish their mission, but there was no way he would not be coming back to rescue these prisoners. After moving through the outpost, it was three more days to Erelhei Cinlu and the party arrived on the morning of 28th Day of Ready'reat.

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The party emerged into an enormous cavern known as the Vault of the Drow. The cavern itself is thousands of feet high at the center and several miles across, all lit by a soft green glow. Underground rivers and fungi forests gave the place an alien outdoor feel. Donning the pink goggles, everything came alive with color - reds, oranges, yellows and greens. It was a sight to behold. Ahead of them loomed a large black tower on a mesa. A paved road led left and right in front of the tower. Sarril's familiar scouted overhead and could see the road to the right led to the city gates, and so that's where they went.

Approaching the gates of the city, they were halted by the guards there, who stated that outsiders are not allowed within the city without the express permission of one of the twelve great houses. Sebastian explained that they were merchants who wished to trade within the city. The guards explained they would need a merchant medallion. Sebastian asked what house the guard represented and he responded "Noquar." Sebastian then asked who within house Noquar he could talk to, and flashed some of the party treasure at him. This piqued his interest, and he directed the Sebastian to speak with Raerna of House Noquar a the envoy compound outside of the city and gave directions, so that's where the party went next.

While meeting with Raerna, Sebastian cut immediately to the chase. Without further negotiation, he presented the Golden Lolth idol, which turns out to be a lost artifact of great power and importance to the drow. He offered it as a gift in exchange for a merchant medallion. Of course the deal was accepted and the party was given permission to trade within the city as representatives of House Noquar - with 10% of all proceeds to the house, of course. Sebastian was all too happy to be rid of the artifact, as he began to notice strange black hairs growing on his neck. Evil artifacts always have a way of changing people, Sebastian knew.

Inside the city, the party was directed to the foreign quarter where non-drow are allowed to stay. They found an inn run by a duergar and purchased rooms for the week. Their instructions were to enter the city and then get word to Eclavdra's agent in the slave pens that they were in the city. So after settling in, they went to the slave pens (without the paladin, who was already struggling hard to avoid killing everything in sight) and gave a message to the drow they believed was the right contact. "We are from the surface and we are here to trade with House Eilserv" followed by where they are staying and where they will be setting up shop in the merchant quarter. The drow did not respond, but Sebastian walked away, confident that the message had been delivered. Now there was nothing to do but sit and wait.

The party did set up shop in the merchant quarter, trying to sell their wares. Business was not great the first day, as most of what they had to sell was jewelry collected from various dungeon exploits, and jewelry is a matter of taste. But Shan-Ju managed to find a mind-flayer merchant selling the most exotic, high-end magical equipment the party had ever seen (thanks to some excellent rolls of the dice). We are talking about magic items that cost 100,000 gp or more (+5 weapons and unique named magic items). It just so happens that the party has been accumulating a lot of wealth in the portal hole for many years, and this looked like a great time to spend some money. Most particularly, the party had an item, the Book of Vile Darkness, which would be hard to sell on the surface, but a more perfect market could not be found than here. The mind-flayer recognized its value to the drow and offered a full-value trade for two magic items. A Holy Sword for the paladin and some special Bracers of Defense for Shan-Ju which appeared to be an artifact from his ancient order and, if he can figure out how to use them, would provide additional benefits.

This is where we left off. The party is still talking to the mind-flayer and intent on making additional purchases while they wait for Eclavdra to contact them. It is the 28th Day of Ready'reat, CY 580.

17th day of Ready'reat, CY 580 - The Shrine of the Kuo Toa

As the party approached the Kuo-Toan city, the Svirfneblin guide bade them farewell. He explained that, while the svirfneblin do trade with the kuo-toans when necessary, they don't like to spend too
much time with them. They worship a demon-goddess and are very unpredictable. He advised the party to use caution when dealing with them, then went on his way.

The party continued north into an area where the walls were carved and everything glowed in an eerie green light. Large slugs were moving across the walls and ceilings and the air had a salt tang to it. Up ahead they could see what looked like a large nude woman with a lobster head and claws, which was revealed to be a malachite statue as the party got closer.

Passages to the right and left showed many doors, and the party decided they would open the first door and attack and kill anything inside. It turned out to be a barracks housing some low-level kuo-toa soldiers. Sixteen of them, to be exact. They were minding their own business when the party started slaughtering them. A few ran out the back doors while the rest stayed to fight. The battle took some time due to the sheer numbers, but these kuo-toa were no real challenge for the group.

Dammac opened a large door at the end of the room and took a look through. At the other end of a very long hallway to the east was a kuo-toa, who looked surprised to see a dwarf looking at him from the barracks. He decided to throw the door the rest of the way open and run down a southern passageway, leaving room for Dalron to run out and start throwing daggers at the now screeching kuo-toa. This kuo-toa was tougher than the others, and Dalron was not able to kill it in a single round. This gave enough time for its screeches to be heard by others from another passageway intersecting the long hallway from the north. Soon, Dalron and the others were dealing with five kuo-toa in the hallway.

Meanwhile, down south, Tyril joined Dammac and saw five kuo-toa coming up stairs at the end of another long hallway. Tyril started throwing daggers of his own, but before long, both dwarves found themselves magically held by a kuo-toa priest who had come at them from another passage to their southwest. It began to dawn on the party that they just entered an entire city full of these strange creatures and attacked them without provocation, and now might have to deal with hundreds, potentially thousands of them. An escape plan would need to be hatched quickly.

While Dalron and Sebastian finished off the five kuo-toa to the north, Sarril moved south the dispel the Hold Person on the dwarves. That's when he noticed that the priest was surrounded by six more kuo-toa and, from the western passage behind the priest, at least a dozen more were on their way. Dalron and Sebastian also heard more coming from the north, and decided to run south to recombine the party lest they get permanently separated.

Sarril let loose with a Boccob's Rolling Thunder to take out the priest and as many of the surrounding fighters as he could. This bought some time as everyone began running down the east passage toward the stairs going down. Soon the passage behind them was full of dozens of kuo-toa. Sarril, having just cast Protection from Normal missiles on himself to avoid the bow fire, waited until as many were in the hallway as he could get, then unleashed a fireball. The fireball killed half of the fishmen, and the other half were running around screaming on fire. He then ran down the stairs to join the others.

The stairs led down to a narrow hallway going north. All along this hallway for hundreds of feet were cell doors. Inside the cells were humans, dwarves, some svirfneblin and a few humanoids. Dammac picked the locks for the humans, dwarves and svirfneblin and left the rest. Among the human captives was Fenius Agrivar (Fen), a paladin of Saint Cuthbert who was investigating the black bubble around Istivin when he was captured by drow. The drow must not have wanted a paladin amongst their slaves and sold him to the kuo-toa to be sacrificed to their demon goddess. The party equipped Fen with some pretty good equipment, and now there are seven members of the Sarril-branch of the Bad-Ass Motherfuckers.

This dungeon appeared to go to a dead end in a storage room to the north, which effectively meant the party was trapped. They armed the prisoners as best they could and prepared for a full frontal assault to fight their way back out. Then someone had the brilliant idea to search the area more thoroughly. It turns out that there was a concealed escape tunnel in the storage room, which led a few miles north of the Kuo-Toan city. Everyone was able to safely escape.

The Svirfneblin were able to calculate the bearings and figure out the way home, to the south, which would put the party back where they started, having to go through the Kuo-Toa city again in order to get through to the Vault of the Drow (the name for the area that includes Erelhei-Cinlu and the Fane of Lolth). The party was left with a few choices:

1. Try to follow unknown passages to the north and west, hoping that they might find a path leading to the drow city (but possibly getting lost along the way)

2. Go southwest back to the Kuo-Toa city and take their chances

3. Go south with the Svirfneblin back to their home, and take another passage northwest that they were told goes around the Kuo-Toa. This alternate passage leads to a drow area that the svirfneblin avoid at all costs. These drow appear to have some kind of cooperation going on with the kuo-toa and the house symbol was described as a brass bar/rod. This was where the party decided to go.

After travelling south for a couple of days, the party was on their own. Trying their best to follow the vague map they have, they eventually came into a large open area where the stars and moon were visible. Trees and flowers were fully in bloom and the whole area smelled wonderful. In the middle of this "garden" was a statue of a beautiful woman plucking a rose. Sarril saw through the illusion immediately and recognized a succubus in place of the statue. The ceiling was actually covered in bats flying around and there were numerous giant rats all over the cavern. After Sarril shouted a warning, everyone else attempted to disbelieve the illusion, with some amount of success.

Shan-Ju immediately went invisible and rushed up behind the beautiful demon. Dalron, however, was enraptured by her, and yelled at Shan-Ju to leave her alone. Soon, Sebastian fell to her charms, just as Shan-Ju struck her from behind for 52 points of damage, nearly killing her. Sarril unleashed a lightning bolt at her that would have finished her off were it not for a lucky magic resistance roll on her part. Dalron then grappled Sarril to prevent him from casting again, but Sarril had his ring of spell storing which requires only a mental command to work. He unleashed magic missiles from the ring, which struck and killed the succubus who disappeared in a flame, breaking the charm on Dalron and Sebastian.

Just then, one of the bats from overhead flew down and landed behind Shan-Ju, transforming into a male drow. This is where we ended the session.

It is the 20th day of Ready'reat, CY 580. Is this drow a vampire, or maybe just using a Cloak of the Bat? Either way, he looks pretty angry.

9th Day of Ready'reat, CY 580 - Deeper into the Underdark they go

A new party member, and another PC death. Just another day for the Bad Ass Motherfuckers.

After searching the bodies of the drow and resting overnight, the party decided to leave these caves through the exit they saw previously. Tyril was able to decipher the map and determine this was the correct way to go. Three days later, the party arrived at the shore of an underground river.

Searching along the bank for a place to cross, they came across a series of smaller caves and searched inside. They came across a dwarf hiding in one of the caves. An escaped slave named Dammac, who was part of the group with Shan-Ju and Tyril that was previously captured by drow. Dammac explained that he was being taken back to Erelhei-Cinlu and when the drow came to the river and started loading onto a ferry, he took the opportunity to slip away. The party gave Dammac some equipment and welcomed him to come along with them on their mission to the drow city.

Dammac was able to describe a very distinct whistle that is used to call the ferry boat operator. Dalron was able to duplicate the whistle, but not knowing what to expect yet, the party prepared by having Sarril cast Fly on Dalron and Tyril. Dalron then performed the whistle and a ferry boat, operated by a mad Kuo-Toa came rowing across the river. The Kuo-Toan only spoke in his native language, but Sarril cast Tongues and began negotiating. After some time, the party began loading.

First the subterranean lizards crossed, as Dalron and Tyril flew beside the boat. When they reached the other side and unloaded the lizards, Dalron and Tyril took to the air again, which, for some reason, caused the mad Kuo-Toan to go berserk and attack. This fight would have been extremely difficult if Dalron and Tyril could not fly, but they took to the air where they could not be reached and Dalron threw daggers at the Kuo Toa, who then dove into the water and disappeared.

Pulling the ferry with ropes while flying, Dalron and Tyril began ferrying everyone else across the river. The last trip was for the cart. As they were pulling the cart across, Sarril noticed something in the water moving at a high speed toward the boat. He immediately cast Levitate on the cart and lifted it up and away as a giant gar smashed the boat into pieces. Dalron then pushed the levitated cart to shore and the party went on their way.

On the other side of the river was a another series of caves that the party decided to explore. One of the caves appeared to be the living quarters for the mad Kuo Toa ferry operator. A careful search of the cave revealed a hidden treasure stash containing coins, some potions, drow items and a magical cloak. Sarril identified the cloak as a Cloak of Elvenkind, but this didn't look like a Cloak of Elvenkind that anyone has ever seen before. It was made of black wool, for one thing. Sebastian attempted a Legend Lore roll, but failed to identify it further, so he decided to put it on and see what it does. It was a cursed Cloak of Poisonous, which instantly killed him.

Now Sarril understood what the cloak is. It requires first a Remove Curse to remove the cloak, then a Neutralize Poison to remove the poison, then, and only then, can a Raise Dead be cast. Luckily for Sebastian, Sarril could do all of these things, though they had to wait a day for him to pray for the spells.

The next day, Sebastian was brought back to life, telling the party a harrowing tale of how his soul was trapped in a "nowhere" place, rather than moving on to the Happy Hunting Grounds he was expecting. He told of seeing a cloaked skeletal figure with one eye reaching for him, saying "Ah, another one for my army. . ." before his soul was ripped back into his body.

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Two more days of travel and then the party came upon another complex series of caves and needed to make sure they found the correct way out. Exploring the caves, they came across a small group of Sverfneblin (deep gnomes) counting gems. Again using Tongues, Sarril spoke to the gnomes and learned that their gem mines had run dry and that they were expanding their operations, searching for new places to mine. They have a hatred for the drow, who attack and enslave their people, and eventually came to an agreement that they would help the party, who seemed intent on doing harm to their enemies. The gnomes agreed to accompany the party and lead them as far as the Kuo-Toan city, which is the last stop before Erelhei-Cinlu. The gnomes would not go any farther than that, and would not enter the city, and if they encounter and kill any drow along the way, the gnomes would get to keep any gems found.

And so, with a contingent of 8 svirfneblin, the party continued on their way. One day into their trip, they came across a male drow patrol. A commander and eight fighters. The commander, who was a fighter/magic user, cast a fireball at the party. Unfortunately, the fireball took out the cart, caused the lizards to panic and flee, and killed all of the svirfneblin except the leader. The drow were no match for the party, of course, who quickly killed them all, but the damage has now been done.

It is now the 17th day of Redy'reat, CY 580. The party no longer has a cart for Dalron and Shan-Ju to ride in and may have to rely on a light source going forward. They may no longer have a guide to the city, either, though we shall see when we pick back up next session.