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 - Continuing the Battle in Lolth's Temple

With seven player characters and over 20 high-level enemies on the board, this was the most complicated battle I have ever had to run as a DM. The last session was chaotic and slow as I flipped through books to look at NPCs, we lost track of initiative more than once, and it was hard to remember who had what spell effects on them. Some people were going on the wrong initiative, took too many attacks per round, or not enough attacks. I spent the intervening two weeks putting together a spreadsheet with all of the relevant information that we could step through in initiative order. I shared the spreadsheet on a screen for everyone to see, which means the players could see the effects and hit points of the enemies, but the sanity was well worth it. I also invested in purchasing digital, searchable scans of the Priest Spell Compendium and Wizard Spell Compendiums (thanks DM's Guild https://www.dmsguild.com/) so I can quickly search for spell descriptions as-needed because despite playing for decades, I have never memorized what any of the spells do.

Despite all of this, the remainder of the battle still took four hours. I couldn't begin to describe the details here, but I can summarize some highlights.

 - The hasted Glabrezu cast Reverse Gravity, which didn't affect the drow who could levitate, but everyone else "fell" 50 ft. to the ceiling, taking some considerable damage. The demon was killed shortly thereafter, ending the Reverse Gravity spell, and causing everyone to take damage again from falling back to the floor.

 - The paladin, Sir Fenius Agrivar (Fen), was the star of the show. With his Holy Avenger, combined with Gauntlets of Ogre Power, he was doing +22 damage per hit to all of the chaotic evil beings in the room (which was all of the enemies). The drow tried everything they could to take him out of the fight, but the 50% magic resistance bestowed by his sword, combined with bonuses to saves and the ability to dispel magic, he shrugged off just about everything thrown at him.

 - At one point, the High Priestess cast Lolth's version of Sticks to Snakes, which creates giant spiders. She filled the battlefield with 16 giant spiders to keep the party occupied while she cast more spells. Sebastian responded by pulling out his Pipes of the Sewer and summoning 90 giant rats, which engaged the spiders to a standstill, effectively taking them off the board.

 - Another dozen or so drow, all high-level, came down from the upper levels to join the fight. Two captains were using Death Lances, which can drain levels on a failed save. Dalron lost three levels and was rendered unconscious.

 - Fen dispelled the Blade Barrier around the High Priestess, then killed her, thus getting rid of the spiders. Shortly thereafter, one of the clerics coming down the stairs cast Silence 15 ft. Radius on Sebastian, silencing his pipes and causing the rats to disperse.

 - Sarril cast a large Wall of Stone over the stairwell, causing a massive amount of stone to crash down and get rid of all of the new drow that were coming down. This allowed Fen to finish off the last couple of drow captains, avoiding level drains as he did so, and bringing the party to victory.

But this was not the end. Standing by the tapestry, behind the illusion of Lolth, was another drow. The most beautiful drow woman anyone has ever seen. Her dress was flowing in an eerie, irregular way, which the sharp-eyed PCs could see was because the dress was made of thousands of tiny, living spiders crawling around. There was no doubt now that this was Lolth herself.

As it turns out, Lolth had been summoned by the high priestess shortly before the party infiltrated the temple. That was why the altar on the lower level was covered in fresh blood. Lolth appeared in a room at the end of the webbed corridor, which the party decided to ignore. Had they gone immediately into that room, they could have fought Lolth first, while at full power, and easily defeated her. Once defeated, all of her drow followers would have been temporarily stripped of their power, including magic-resistance, and the party would have been able to easily defeat everyone in the temple. But they, unknowingly, took the hard way, and now have to face Lolth after being severely weakened by their previous fight.
Lolth held out a platinum egg that looked exactly like the one they already possessed. She addressed

the party "I know why you are here. The egg you have is a fake, planted by me personally. This is the real one, and if you want it, you must prove your worth by defeating me." She then transformed into the spider-demon depicted in the images everyone has now seen.

As Lolth was speaking, the party was desperately quaffing healing potions. Fen decided to commune with his holy sword, asking it to grant him the power needed to defeat this goddess of evil. The sword answered, giving him the power to cast a full Heal on himself. The battle started with Lolth jumping up to the ceiling and casting Slay Living on Fen, who made his saving throw but took serious damage nonetheless. She was actually waiting for the party to get close enough together that she could dispel the effects on them, like Haste, but the party was smart enough not to clump together. Dalron headed south to collect daggers from dead drow while Sarril cast Fly on Fen and Tyril who flew up and engaged her in melee.

Lolth responded with a Mirror Image of her own to slow down the dagger attacks against her and cast a Cone of Cold, catching both Fen and Tyril. Being a high-level caster, she was able to penetrate Fen's magic resistance and he subsequently failed his save, taking a lot of damage. Her next move was to put up an anti-magic shell, enveloping herself, Fen and Tyril. With nothing to anchor themselves to the ceiling, Fen and Tyril fell to the floor, with Fen taking enough damage to reach negative hit points (though, as a paladin, he was still able to fight).

Lolth could have stayed in her anti-magic shell indefinitely. Since she requires magic weapons to take damage, and all weapons entering the shell become non-magical, she was effectively immune. But this limited her ability to do damage as well, and she wasn't going to allow them the privilege of entering her realm without fully testing them. She dropped the anti-magic shell and cast a full Heal on herself to wipe out the damage done so far (which was significant due to the extra damage from the paladin's holy sword). She then cast Feeblemind on Sarril, who, due to an amazingly lucky saving throw, was able to resist. And that is how we can describe the rest of the fight. Lolth throwing multiple offensive spells per round and each party member making their saving throws while slowly whittling down her hit points. Sarril read Bigby's Clenched Fist from a scroll and, even though it failed to penetrate her magic resistance on most rounds, it did connect a few times. Altogether, it was enough, and Lolth's avatar was soon defeated.

The truth is, Lolth could have chosen to gate in demons every round, or even teleport away, buff herself, and come back stronger, all of which would have made the fight much more difficult. But that was not the goal. This was a test. Lolth was sizing up her enemy so she can prepare to fight them in her own realm. She accomplished her goal.

Once her avatar was destroyed, the egg fell to the ground, where Shan-Ju, who had been climbing a nearby wall, leaped at the egg and caught it. The party decided they needed to act quickly before more drow showed up, but they were unsure which egg was the correct one to use. Sarril cast Identify on the original egg and got no useful information, so he placed it in the impression to try. The temple began to rumble, there was a flash of light, and then a Nalfeshnee (Type IV) demon appeared and attacked the party. The demon was able to damage several of the party members with an area of effect spell, but the party responded to bring the demon down pretty quickly.

Figuring it must have been the wrong egg, Sarril swapped the eggs and the tapestry before them came to life, opening a portal into a foggy scene beyond. Not having time to search the bodies, but figuring the high-level drow in the immediate vicinity must have good loot, the party tossed the dead bodies through the portal before jumping in themselves.

They now found themselves in a strange fog-filled tunnel. The portal behind them was now gone. Light penetrated the fog 60 ft. ahead, revealing a wall of fog 10 ft. to either side and 50 ft. above them. The floor seemed to be made of the same gray fog. This must be the Abyss.

It is evening of the 28th Day of Ready'reat, CY 580 - at least on the Prime Material Plane it was.