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 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.
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.
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.
