4th Day of Sunsebb, CY 580 - Cheshire Cats, Worms and Hookahs. . . Oh My!

This was our first session back in-person in over a year. The DM was rusty and slow, but slowly getting his groove back. The players were anxious for an exciting adventure full of killing things, though not much of that actually happened. We will get there.

We also decided that Fantasy Grounds is too cumbersome. I don't want to knock FG, as I think it is a great tool, but there are three factors at play here.

1. As with any software, there is a learning curve. The more you use it, the easier it becomes. But we seem to only get together once in a blue moon, so its like we have to all re-learn the software each time we get together.

2. I'm definitely having some performance issues. Lots of staring at hourglasses as we try to move things around. I believe this is partially because I decided to move the software onto an older Windows 2019 Server. The server, which has dual 3.0 GHz XEON processors (8 cores total) and 40GB of RAM, is very good as a media server and file server, but I don't think FG is optimized for this architecture as most people run it from their PCs. I just didn't want to drag out my PC each time, and I wanted a perpetual server running so players could manage their characters outside of game time. This just isn't how the software is designed to work.

3. Most importantly, FG, like all virtual tabletops, requires a lot of preparation from the DM before each session. While there is a lot built-in, and many pre-loaded modules you can buy, most of the older stuff (1e/2e) isn't available, and so scanning and importing maps, configuring Line of Sight, building out NPCs and monsters, creating magic items that aren't already in the database, etc., takes a very long time. I've loaded most of Dungeonland and its sequel, Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, but only because I've had a lot of downtime during the pandemic. I also have most of Q1- Queen of the Demonweb Pits ready to go, but after that, not so much. The software was purchased to save time and speed up gameplay, but its not really accomplishing that for us.

With all of that said, I decided to keep FG around and just use it for character sheet management and for looking up information. It is good at those things, even if slow.

Anyway, we left our heroes in the Tiny Garden, having just defeated a Hangman Tree using makeshift weapons and spell power. Their next act was to explore a cottage to the north. They entered and found what looked like a normal cottage, though something was a bit off. Sarril could tell there was an illusion of sort at play here. The party decided to take some time to search, and they all soon realized the illusion disguising the fact that they were inside a stone box, and the walls were closing in fast. Fen immediately used his holy sword to  Dispel Magic, which failed to stop the walls from moving in, but Sarril followed up with his own Dispel Magic, which worked. The party quickly escaped the kill box and decided to take their exploration elsewhere.

They eventually happened upon a well, which Ava immediately climbed into. While there was nothing in the well, there was a trapdoor nearby that the rest of the party explored. The trapdoor led down into a small hovel with a cot, a desk, alchemical supplies, and several books (most likely spell books, labeled I - IX). Sarril grabbed the books and cast Detect Traps. Realizing they were trapped, he put them away for later.

The group reconvened and decided that whoever owns these spell books may have some insight as to where they can find the sword they were questing for. They decided to investigate two smaller cottages on the other side of the orchard. The first cottage contained two large porcupines sitting at a kitchen table having a meal. They decided to leave them alone and go to the second cottage. This scene was similar, but instead of porcupines, it was two huge lizardfolk. The party decided to barge in without knocking, much to the surprise of the two lizardfolk living peacefully inside. The party appeared to be menacing, and the only exit was the front door, so after the party started demanding information, one o the lizardfolk decided to try to barrel past the party, which had decided to block the door to prevent escape. Enraged, the lizardman attacked in order to escape and was beaten down for his efforts. The remaining lizardwoman was shocked that the party had just murdered her partner, and also scared of what was about to happen to her.

Meanwhile, the two giant porcupines from the other cottage came to investigate the commotion happening in their neighbor's house, saw the attack taking place, and fired several quills at the party. The party moved into the lizard cottage and closed the door. One of the porcupines then ran off to get help. It was at this point that the paladin in the party (whose player was absent, so the DM had to step in) refused to let the party attack or threaten the lizardwoman. Seeing what was going down, Varys the cleric decided to heal the lizardman, who was not quite dead yet. The party apologized for the intrusion and the mistake and started a dialog with the lizardwoman. They learned that this place belongs to the wizard Charldos, but lizardfolk know nothing of the sword the party seeks, nor even what is outside of this Tiny Garden. She did confirm that the exit is to the very south. The party decided they should probably leave before the wizard comes back. Sarril understood very well what spell books labeled VII, VIII, and IX mean, and what sort of wizard would own something like that).

On the way out, Ava somehow talked the party into exploring more of the Tiny Garden, to make sure they covered everything. While this is normally a good idea in any dungeon, it is probably not wise when you just stole the spell books belonging to an archmage. One of the first things Ava did was start drinking from one of the waterfalls. The water turned out to have random potion effects, so, of course, she drank several times just for fun, finally ending up enlarged for a time (but nothing else permanent or debilitating, luckily for her). She also decided to spend some time listening to the Jack in the Pulpit, who espoused the virtues of plants and growing and protecting plants. This had the effect of a permanent alignment shift to neutral, but since Ava was already of neutral alignment, the end result was primarily to give her a desire to become a botanist (maybe even a druid at some point, we shall see where it goes).

Jack in the Pulpit

Given that Ava listened and cooperated with the creature, the party didn't have to fight its protectors, and so they moved on. The next thing they found was that the statue of the rabbit had gone missing. This was curious, and some surmised that the rabbit may have been the wizard Charldos in disguise, and that he was now on the move. Possibly stalking them invisibly. And, as it turns out, that is exactly what Charldos was doing. You see, Charldos is a powerful archmage, but he is also quite insane and reclusive, avoiding interacting with people as much as possible. But the party attacked his servants and stole his spell books, so as much as he had hoped the party would just go away, he had to do something about that.

It was about this time that the party made the very smart decision to rest and recover hit points. They chose the peaceful alcove where the plants let off a healing aura that also gave them the temporary ability to speak with plants. They setup watches and slept through night, getting healed and refreshed. Charldos took this opportunity to invisibly sneak into the camp and steal his spell books back. Luckily for the party, no one noticed this, so that meant avoiding a fight with an archmage, which was probably for the best. Still, had they just taken the books and ran, Sarril could be taking inventory of some cool 9th level spells. Oh well, this is how the game is played.

The party woke up refreshed, but also changed in one other significant way. Everyone had lost a point of Wisdom. It isn't clear if this is a temporary or permanent effect, but it was noticeable, especially by Sarril and Varys, whose clerical spell bonuses were affected. The party was anxious to find this sword as quickly as possible and get out of this place. They moved south and crawled through the rabbit hole and got far away from the Tiny Garden.

They found themselves in a forest of tall fungi. Of course, it wasn't that the fungi was tall, it was that they were all still tiny. Whatever it was that they ate to become small seemed to be permanent - at least until they found something to reverse it. The party noticed an interesting blue mushroom ahead in the distance and decided to check it out. Atop the mushroom was a caterpillar (actually a behir that was shrunk down relative to the party's size, and disguised to look like a caterpillar). The behir/caterpillar was smoking a hookah and blowing smoke rings. Ava thought that was cool and immediately tried to catch one of the smoke rings. It turned into a valuable gold necklace. The party decided to ask about the sword, to which the behir replied it knows about a sword, and told them to catch the rings, blowing some more smoke rings. Fen tried to catch one of the rings, which turned into a rope of ensnarement, ensnaring and trapping him. The party decided they would have none of that and attacked the behir. It wasn't much of a match for the full might of the party, even without their weapons and armor. They took the hookah for good measure.

Moving on, the party encountered a cat in a tree, which turned invisible as they tried to interact with it. They decided to leave it be and continue on their explorations, but the cat had others ideas. It invisibly stalked the party, snatching up the lagging party member, which happened to be Tyril. It looked like he was swallowed whole. The party decided to follow the cat back to its resting place in the hopes of getting Tyril back. A lightning bolt from Sarril caused the cat to spit out a severely injured, but still living Tyril. The cat decided this game was no longer fun, turned ethereal, and ran away.

It was around this time that someone remembered they can all speak with plants. Speaking with plants is not easy. Plants don't communicate like humans, so even being able to speak their language doesn't mean they can understand and communicate human concepts. It took some doing, but they were able to learn the path out of the fungi forest, and that the mushrooms were the key to growing large and small. It turns out that the blue mushroom with the behir contains the special magical properties that will both grow and shrink the party (and this must be what the food and drink they first encountered was derived from). By talking to the mushroom directly, they were able to figure out which part to eat to grow or shrink. They each took bites as needed to return to normal size, which was good because now the cat would no longer be a threat.

The party also found a wall with a series of four doors. These four doors opened up into the opposite side of the long hall where they first entered. On the other end of the hall was all of their equipment. Between them was a pool of water with some creatures in it that the party would rather not deal with, so Sarril cast Fly on Fen, who flew back and forth with the equipment. Feeling less vulnerable now, the party made their way to a path in the northeast corner  of what is clearly now a small clearing of mushrooms in a much larger forest.

They traveled for a few hours through the forest and eventually emerged onto a larger road traversing through the countryside. A giant dog came running up the road toward the party. It seemed to be friendly, but also in some distress. Ava discovered three giant ticks on the dog's neck. The party killed the three ticks and seemed to make a friend in the process. It is now, maybe, the 4th Day of Sunsebb, CY 580, back on Oerth, wherever that is.

This is where we left off. Being our first time back together, I decided to smoke a brisket, and it was now time to eat. The players decided to take this time to have a DM intervention. Basically, they hate this module and want to skip it. I appreciate the feedback. The game needs to be fun for everyone, and if people aren't having fun, it is the DM's job to change things up. At the same time, I don't want to be in a position of simply having the players decide that if they don't like what is happening, they can just skip over something, as that defeats the entire purpose of the game. It wouldn't be good to simply say "okay, here is the sword you are questing for, now back to Lolth." So I have some thinking to do. How to either change things up to be more exciting, or find a way, without breaking the integrity of the story, to skip over the bulk of the module and get straight to the parts that matter most.

I hate to railroad players, and I think that is part of the problem. Freedom for players to make decisions in an open-world and do what they want has to be balanced against the fact that often times, players will spend a lot of time chasing things that don't advance the story, and then get bored. It's been a year. I just have to get my mojo back. I think the players had the most fun when they were playing the Temple of Elemental Evil, and I need to get back to the roots of what made that so engaging. We plan to reconvene on June 12th (settling for playing once per month now, instead of every other week), so I will definitely work on ways to speed things up and keep the action flowing. We will see how it goes.

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.