3rd Day of Sunsebb, CY 580 - Into the Rabbit Hole

 It certainly has been a while. The pandemic has made playing in-person a non-starter for us, and I was having a lot of technical difficulty with Fantasy Grounds the last time we tried a virtual game, so I had given up, hoping we would all be able to play again in-person soon. When I realized that wasn't going to happen, I decided to dig into my technical issues and try to solve them once and for all and, barring that, have a "plan B." Plan A is Discord and Fantasy Grounds. Plan B would just be Discord with a dice bot. And so we did it. Fantasy Grounds worked, for the most part, with a few hiccups, but hey, we got to play again, and that's what matters.

I also had to get used to being a DM again, and that was just as rough as any technical challenges, but I'm feeling pretty good that we will be able to keep this game going on a regular schedule from now on. So if you are reading this blog again after the long hiatus, welcome back!

When last we left our heroes, they were standing on the edge of a craggy cliff, looking into a valley below in which the city of Istivin was sitting. It was clearly somehow pulled into the Abyss, and that had something to do with the black bubble they saw back on Oerth. Lolth was said to be in a spider-shaped ship floating above the city, but there were thousands of demons between the party and the ship. As the party was discussing how they might get there, Sarril pointed out "even if we get there, we still need a key."

"Did someone say something about a key?" came a gravelly voice from behind them.

Everyone turned to see a quasit perched on a nearby rock. "I can get you into that ship," it said. "I only ask a very small favor in return."

"And what is that?" came a response from the party.

"Oh, just a little thing, really," said the tiny demon. "I need you to retrieve a sword. It is in a place that I cannot go - but you, you can get there just fine." The quasit described a two-handed sword with some specific magical runes etched into it.

"And who is this sword for?"

"It belongs to my master. He would like it back."

"And who is your master"

"Ah, I get to keep some secrets to myself" came the reply.

Sir Fenius, the paladin, really disliked the idea of doing anything for a creature of the abyss, and the holy sword at his side was just itching for abyssal blood. "And why should we do this for you?" he demanded - which was just obligatory defiance as he already knew the answer.

The quasit held up his hand and a rectangular object the size of a playing card appeared. "This is the key you need. I will give it to you. And I will get you past the army and to the ship where you can use it, too." The card then disappeared in a puff of smoke. "But you get nothing until you bring me that sword. You can find me here when you have it." The quasit then pointed out where they need to go, and disappeared.

Realizing they had little choice, or perhaps the meta-game knowledge that the DM was forcing them along a particular path, they headed back to the hall of doors and opened the door the quasit told them to. They had been to this door before. It was a dark shaft that looked bottomless, except for some very small pinpoints of light very far away. Tyril decided to lower Pontus down a rope to test. It was dark and Pontus could not see. Sarril dropped a continual light coin down and said "catch." The coin fell ever so slowly, allowing Pontus to catch it easily. The rest of the party realized that whatever magic was causing the coin to fall slowly would probably protect them as well, and they all jumped down the shaft, one after the other.

As the party floated down the shaft slowly, for what seemed like forever, they noticed that every now and then, there was a small shelf carved into the sides of the shaft which contained a small diorama, much like a doll's house. Each of the party members reached into the dioramas in passing and grabbed items. Very small shields, cloaks, clothing, armor, etc. - all sized for a small doll.

Eventually, everyone landed softly on the south end of a rectangular room with six doors along the east and west side and a set of double-doors at the north end. Between each of the doors was a lit wall sconce, reflecting off of the lacquered and highly polished red wooden walls and ceiling beams. In the south wall was a small door, barely one foot high, and just before that was a pile of rubbish with a small table on top. A flagon of liquid was on the table, along with a salver with a piece of cake. But also in the room were two women - one a human and the other a dwarf.

The human woman introduced herself as Ava. The dwarf woman introduced herself as Varys. They both said they had just fallen down the shaft moments before the party, though they did not come from the Abyss. Their story is that they were investigating the source of some strange magic items that had shown up in the City of Greyhawk, and were following up on rumors that some adventurers brought them back from a cave in the Cairn Hills. While investigating the cave that they believed to be the source of the rumor, they slipped and slid down a steep slide that eventually dumped them into the shaft above. Seeing that these two were friendly and capable, the party accepted them into their group in order to work together to find the sword and, hopefully, a way out.

Immediately, Tyril, Ava, Pontus, and Varys decided to check out the doors the lined either side of the room. As soon as they did so, they found that the room had changed. It became larger, the rubbish pile and table disappeared, the double door at the north end of the room was replaced by four single doors along the north wall, over 100 ft. away. The north end of the room also appeared to be flooded, and in the middle of the water were four creatures looking back at them.

Sarril and Fen, who were still examining the table, saw none of this. Sarril was busy deciphering magical runes written on pieces of paper near the flagon and salver. The note on the flagon said "drink me" and the note on the salver with the cake said, "drink me." It wasn't long before the party members realized they were all in the same room seeing very different things.

As an experiment, even though Tyril could no longer see the table or the flagon of liquid on it, he asked if Fen could pour some in his mouth, and Fen obliged. Interestingly, it seemed to work, and Tyril then shrunk down to less than a foot high. Excited to try it for themselves, Pontus and Ava did the same, followed by Varys, leaving only Sarril and Fen remaining. Sarril was reluctant, and it was clear there was a limited amount of liquid, so there was no going back and forth. After a brief experiment with Fen giving a bite of cake to Tyril and Tyril growing back to normal size, Sarril felt comfortable seeing that a return to normalcy is possible, and he joined in. Everyone was now shrunk down to tiny size, but all of their equipment remained normal size. It became quite apparent why it was important to grab as many tiny things from the dioramas as possible. Everyone equipped and dressed as best they could with the doll-sized items, then Fen led them all through the tiny door to the south.

The tiny door opened up into a beautiful garden maze. The sun was shining, the air was cool, and a stone path with inlaid gems led south to a fountain. Ava tested the water in the fountain by drinking it. It was refreshing but apparently had no other effects.

The party decided to explore the maze a bit. The first branch led to what seemed to be a magical waterfall, with water pouring into a pool from out of nowhere. Within the pool were several fish with bright, metallic-looking scales. Knowing that they came to retrieve a sword, the party members searched the area thoroughly, but found nothing of interest, and decided to circle back and try another branch of the hedge maze.

The next branch seemed to exit the hedge maze, leading to the north/south path that was bordered by thick brambles. Here they found some beautiful flowers growing in a bed, and Ava decided to pick one. It let off a nasty little cloud (a very small Stinking Cloud, in fact), which Ava was able to avoid the effects of. The flower also let out a very sticky sap that stuck to her hands. She placed the sticky, stinky flower in her hair nonetheless.

The group headed north where they found a very large, old oak tree. The tree looked dead, and Varys decided this would be a good opportunity to use her weaponsmithing skills to fashion some weapons, and used an ax that they had found in one of the dioramas to hew a few thick branches that could be used. Meanwhile, Ava climbed the tree to get a better look at the place.

To the north, she could see an orchard, a house, and two small cottages. The south was the hedge maze, and the entire area was surrounded by impassable brambles. Ava reported what she saw and climbed back down. The party then headed to a secluded area (E on the right side of the map above) where they rested for about three hours while Varys carved javelins out of tree branches. While resting here, everyone noticed that their wounds were healed, and they all felt a connection to this place, such that they felt they could communicate with the foliage. It was unclear whether they could actually speak with plants, or if this was a form of hallucination. They decided not to risk what would happen if they stayed too long, and grabbed their javelins, and set forth.

First, they came to another flower bed (area F), where a strange cup-like flower appeared to contain a small man inside. This small man began preaching to the party, and they could feel that there was some magical mind-altering effect going on, which they managed to avoid, but they immediately left the area, heading south. There, they found a small hole dug under the hedge which looked like something they could crawl through to escape, but they decided they should finish searching the area before they do so. 

Across from this hole was a statue of a rabbit, standing, dressed in a suit. The statue appeared ordinary, and, after a brief search of the area and finding nothing more of interest, they decided to move on.

The rest of the hedge maze to the west appeared to be a mirror-image of the eastern portion. Searching as they went, they eventually came to another old oak tree, much like the first. This one, however, was not exactly like the first. When the party attempted to move past this tree, six tentacle-like vines struck out, grabbing several party members around the neck and lifting them up off the ground. This, the party would discover, is a Hangman's Tree, which strangles its victims before dropping them into a pool of digestive acid at the base of its trunk.

A difficult fight ensued, as the wooden javelins didn't do much against the thick bark of this very old tree. Varys had just moments earlier cast a unique spell granted by Kord called "Strength of One" which effectively sets all party member's strength temporarily to the strength of the strongest party member. In this case, that was Tyril, with a strength of 20. That was pretty effective in helping to defeat the tree, but a few of the javelins were broken in the process.

Now wounded, but alive, the party regrouped to decide their next steps in this strange land. It is the 3rd Day of Sunsebb (we think) in the year CY 580.

2nd Day of Sunsebb, CY 580 - Where to rest in the Abyss?

We had a very short online session on Sunday using Google Meet and Fantasy Grounds. It's been a while since the group has been together and we wanted to move things forward a little. Using technology is hard. There were a lot of sessions getting hung and people getting booted. I think that was because most of what we were doing was logistic - people updating character inventory, players creating new characters, etc., and all of the changes were stressing out Fantasy Grounds. I am definitely looking forward to post-COVID when we can get back together in-person and play with miniatures on a table.

As the party took time to loot the bodies of the dead drow, Sarril noticed that the silver egg in his bag of holding was vibrating again. He pulled it out and it seemed to be pulling toward an indentation on the floor. Placing the egg in the indentation caused a black portal to appear. The party stepped through.

On the other side of the portal was a long hallway that appears to go on forever. On either side of the hallway, equally spaced, were identical doors, as far as anyone could see. Sarril recognized this place from a dream he had some time back in which he was running from door to door while being chased by a large black spider. He knew that these doors opened up to various worlds - other prime material planes, mostly, which Lolth has either conquered or plans to. The party knew they had to rest, and that without a connection to their deities, could not recover clerical spells. Perhaps if they can find another prime material world to rest on, they can pray and recover spells before coming back to the abyss. The only question is, can they get back? They would need to perform some tests.

Going to the first door on the right, which opened into a blue sky over rolling green hills. They were looking down from about 40 ft. in the air. Cresting over one of the gree hills were a half dozen knights on horseback, who rode by without noticing the party. They then shut the door so they can check some others.

The door on the left opened to an ominous dark forest. Fen decided to attach a Rope of Climbing around his waist and step through. From the other side, he could not see the door, but the rope disappearing into nowhere. He was able to use the rope to pull himself back through. They decided to check even more doors.

Other doors opened into more alien environments, some looked habitable, some not. As they moved toward the end of the hallway they could see a pair of double-doors at the far end. As they got closer to the double-doors, they could see the worlds on either side of the hallways became war-torn wastelands. Sarril explained that these are worlds that Lolth has already conquered and that the party's own world of Oerth would be next. From the destruction that could be seen, it looks like nothing was left behind. The party was getting a glimpse into their own future if they do not stop Lolth.

They decided to go back to the first door to see if it would be a good place to rest. They decided that the party will go down on a Rope of Climbing, leaving one person on watch on the other side of the door. Tyril took first watch while Fen and Sarril and Pontus climbed down. Sarril felt a connection to Boccob, and realized he would be able to renew his spells from here. But soon a came running over a hill. The beast has the head and neck of a snake, the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion, and the feet of a hart. It was soon followed by the six knights on horseback chasing it. One of the knights saw the party and signaled to some riders behind them to check it out. The party decided it was best not to stay, and climbed back up the rope. Just as the last party member made it back, a man in purple robes covered in stars, wearing a pointy hat, came up and studied the invisible door carefully and the rope was pulled back through.

They decided instead to select one of war-torn worlds. The good news is that there was nothing there to bother them. The only down-side is that everything was soot and ash. They made camp next to a burnt-out stone structure and rested, taking turns on watch on the other side of the dimensional door. This was effective at securing a much-needed rest, healing, and restoration of spells.

It was now the morning of what should be the 3rd Day of Sunsebb when the party went to the end of the hallway and opened the double doors. The scene before them was awesome in scope and intensity. They were standing on the edge of a rocky parapice overlooking a valley below. This was clearly still the abyss, as everything was dark and harsh. The rocky mountain on which they stood was all sharp, pointed rocks, lightning flashed all around from what seems like permanent black clouds covering every bit of sky. Below in the valley was a city that looked like it was cut out from a world that doesn't belong here. Surrounding that city was a transparent dome of what looked like smoky gray glass. Jutting up out of the middle of the city was a tall tower, and above that tower floated a structure in the sky shaped like a giant spider. A beam of dark energy flowed from the spider structure into the dome around the city.

Surrounding the city and covering much of the valley were what looked like hordes of demons. Tens of thousands of them swarming around. Amongst them were what must be gigantic war machines. Swarming over the dome were thousands of winged demons - Vrocks and other such things. It looked to the party like there would be no easy way to get to the city or the spider structure - which is presumably where Lolth is.

This is where we left off. Technical difficulties prevented us from doing too much in this session. Hopefully next session will be smoother. It is estimated to be the morning of the 3rd Day of Sunsebb, CY 580.

2nd Day of Sunsebb, CY 580 - Another Near TPK

Today's session was a long continuation of the most difficult battle the party has faced thus far. It was a near Total Party Kill (TPK), though some managed to make it through. The basic setup of the room is that three of the pyramids contained a pair of drow, one female cleric and one male magic-user, all of 9th to 12th level. The floor of the room was crawling with dozens of undead creatures (skeletons and zombies) that, by themselves, were no match for the party, but they were designed to keep them slowed down and occupied while the caster blasted spells from their hidden locations atop the pyramids.

Complicating matters was the fact that one of the drow cast a specialty drow arcane spell called Hand of Darkness, that effectively extinguishes all light sources, without being cancelled out by magical light. Hand of Darkness only snuffs out light, not infrared radiation, so those with infravision could still see, but the undead were (mostly) invisible to infravision and the casters were skillfully keeping themselves out of sight regardless.

Further complicating matters was a drow priest spell of Lolth called Undead Focus (from the 2nd edition Demihuman Handbook), which allowed the priestesses to cast divine spells through the zombies. This caused the party some confusion and allowed the true spellcasters to keep themselves hidden a while longer.

Dalron was held in place, continuing to take 2d6+12 points of damage every round he remained in the Wall of Fire. Pontus immediately rushed to his friend's aid. Following the sounds of the screaming, he reached into the fire and pulled Dalron out, taking damage in the process. The drow wizards, seeing this, did not like it, as they knew from earlier spying that Dalron was currently the biggest threat to them as he could throw daggers with lethal results. In response, they each began casting magic missile at him, striking him multiple times and bringing him to near death.

Pontus carried the, still held, Dalron back to the rest of the party outside the doors while Fen used his holy sword to dispel the Wall of Fire. Kohvo and Tyril pressed forward into the room, determined to kill as many undead as they could. Meanwhile, Sarril used a Gem of True Seeing to look into the room so he could try to see the undead and, hopefully, whoever was casting those spells.

So, it turns out that using a Gem of True Seeing in the Abyss is not such a great idea. The Abyss is a strange place that is formed out of nightmares. What is seen by the naked eye is enough to drive any normal person insane, but the PCs are high enough level to avoid most of those effects. But within the Abyss roams a lot of things that were never meant to be seen by the naked eye. Hidden nightmares that the mind simply cannot comprehend if they were to behold. Sarril, with his very high intelligence, stood a good chance of handling it, but after a bad roll of the dice, he was driven mad by what he saw through the gem. Insanity effectively means that Sarril must roll a die before he can take any significant actions, with failure indicating he goes into a melancholy state and cannot do anything. This may have been one of most significant blows to the party at this point.

As several party members began to cluster in one place, one of the drow wizards took the opportunity to throw a fireball. That revealed his location to those with infravision. He was atop the left-middle pyramid, which gave Kohvo a driven purpose as he rushed that direction. Unfortunately, the fireball was too much for Dalron, who's hit points were driven into far negative territory.

Normally, I allow a single death save to prevent instant death and instead put the PC at zero hit points and unconscious, but because Dalron was already magically held and barely hanging on to life when the fireball hit, I did not give a save. Even if I had, further devastation was on its way, so this was the end of Dalron. He was truly a heroic force of nature. May he rest in peace.

More magic missiles and another fireball were cast from the other pyramids, and many, many failed attempts at Hold Person. Eventually, all of the drow were revealed and one of the Hold Person spells did eventually catch Sir Fenius, who was unable to dispel it. That would have made him a sitting duck if it were not for the fact that his holy sword still gave him 50% magic resistance, and he was able to shrug off most of what was thrown at him. Sarril, in a moment of lucidity, managed to drop a fireball in the room that cleared out most of the remaining undead. Fenius, even though held (rooted in place) was able to kill the rest that surrounded him. The room was now clear for the party to rush the pyramids.

The two dwarves went for the east pyramid while everyone else, led by Kohvo, headed up the west pyramid. Alas, poor Kohvo never made it to the top, as the wizard cast his one and only Cone of Cold spell against him (again, a death save would have been in order normally but had he made his save, he would have been killed by priestess's Flame Strike, which was coming up next, so we shall now say goodby to Prince Kohvo Koravel. His time with the party was too short). To rub salt in the wound, the priestess animated Kohvo's dead body into a zombie, which then attacked Pontus. Zombie Kohvo was no match for the party, but he was able to keep them busy long enough for the priestess to cast a Flame Strike on her next turn, severely injuring the party members climbing the pyramid (except for Sarril, who's magic resistance kicked in). The wizard, seeing the party was not yet down, cast Transmute Rock to Mud on the steps of the pyramid, sending the party sliding away. They would have suffocated in the mud, were it not for Pontus managing a couple of good rolls to grab his friends and hold them up above the mud (Pontus didn't need to breath since he is effectively a corporeal spirit).

On the eastern pyramid, Tyril and Dammic were doing much better. Dammic was able to get a good backstab on the priestess using his Ring of Invisibility, but unfortunately, that exposed him to the wizard, who then killed him (Rest in Peace Dammic Brickhouse - you were a fun dwarf and the party never did get to see just how much). Tyril, however, was able to quickly avenge his fallen dwarven brother. With a 20 strength and two attacks per round, the drow could not handle him up in their face. He killed both drow with extreme prejudice.

The two drow at the western pyramid levitated up and began pushing themselves along the wall to join the others at the north pyramid. The remaining party members gathered together under the protection of Sir Fenius' holy sword and Sarril's Globe of Invulnerability. The Globe negated the hold effect on Fen, allowing the party to move forward as a group. For good measure, Sarril cast Haste on the party, allowing them to close in quickly.

As they climbed the pyramid, the wizard, Rauklanin, cast Cone of Cold, which affected Tyril, but not the others. He then switched to using a Wand of Frost and cast another Cone of Cold before the party could finish making their way up the steps.

The other two drow managed to get the pyramid just as the party reached the top, but they had already exhausted all of their high-level spells and knew none of their low-level spells would penetrate the Globe of Invulnerability. So they began attacking with a Death Lance and a short sword. The short sword was effective (all of the wizards are fighter/wizards), but the priestesses both missed with their death lances. Sarril used a Wand of Paralyzation to paralyze one of the priestesses while Tyril and Fen finished off the other one. Rauklanin realized he wouldn't survive a round of melee attacks from both Tyril and Fen and was about to levitate away when Fen rushed up on him and, thanks to the Haste spell, was able to deliver three attacks, killing him dead.

The final drow wizard grabbed Rauklanin's wand and levitated up. He managed to get one Cone of Cold off before Sarril returned with a powerful blow of Magic Missiles, which penetrated the wizard's magic resistance and killed him. The fight was now over. BAMF Dead: 3. Drow Dead: 6. BAMF wins.

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At the end of the battle, Sarril looks around at the devastation and his dead party members. He then reaches into his bag of holding and pulls out an ornate scroll tube he had been saving. He opens the tube, unfurls the scroll and begins speaking the arcane words contained within. As he speaks each word, he begins to fill with immense power, the likes of which none of the party have ever seen before. Energy begins to crackle like lightning in the air, drawing the primordial power that holds together the very fabric of existence His hair begins to blow fiercely, his eyes turn white, and the energy is so intense that the party can no longer bear to be in his presence The scroll is consumed in flame, leaving Sarril standing, filled with unfathomable power.

He then speaks.

Each word is a command that echoes across time and space.

“I wish for Pontus, Dalron, Kohvo and Dammic to be resurrected right here, right now!”

His words are a command for reality itself to obey.

There is a loud boom as the energy is unleashed from his body, knocking everyone to the floor. When they stand back up and gather their senses, they realize that they are not alone. Standing in the room with them are two demons of immense proportion.

One of them says “Her excellency, the Mistress Lolth, Queen of Spiders and ruler of the Abyss, does not grant your wish.”

The second demon then says "But Lolth is a generous mistress. You may choose one person to bring back."

Sarril considers his choice for a while, then says "I choose my friend, Pontus."

"And so it is done," says the first demon.

With that, color returns to Pontus' face, and he begins breathing again. His memories flood back into his living brain.

The first demon says "Congratulations on passing this difficult test. Our queen looks forward to meeting you in person."

With that, they both disappear in a burst of flame.

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It is approximately late in the day (by biological time) on the 2nd Day of Sunsebb, CY 580. The party is still in the Demonweb - Lolth's layer of the Abyss, contemplating their next move.