TOPIC: [R1] D&D Out of the Abyss

(I could not see a discussion thread for this game)

Submitting character for GM approval!


Greyscale
Tunnel Kobold Rogue 1
Banished from his village for hoarding mushrooms, Greyscle wandered the Underdark, until he was captured by opportunistic slavers. Due to the stress of surviving alone, patches of scales have lost their colour and started to flake away.

Stats I found for Kobold race;

Aberrant Mind Sorceror
Trained in convent in Sharn, City of Towers, the fastidious shifter unexpectedly portalled to Faerun and decided it was fate that placed to search for the magical research texts...
Kiri is a believer in fate, but not in hard luck, hardship or hard labour.

both of these are all good will do rolled stats on the night

I already did standard array 8-10-12-13-14-15 and am happy to let that stand if you are?

Out of the Abyss, Session #1

GM (Alex)

Elin Warmhand, Dwarf/Cleric 1 (Bane)
Erasmus, Gnome/Wizard 1 (Tom)
Greyscale, Kobold/Rogue 1 (Mike)
Kiri Smoothpaw, Elf/Sorcerer 1 (Tony)
Morloc, Human/Fighter 1 (Doug)

Our heroes awaken in the dark. Not just any old dark. The Underdark. We have no idea how we got there, and we're not hanging about to find out. We appear to be locked in a grungy stone cell. Sturdy metal bars obstruct our egress. Morloc bends the bars wide enough for Greyscale to slip out onto a wide ledge abutting a fast-flowing undergound river. A drow patrol passes by on their way to an inverted guard tower hollowed out from a huge stalagtite. Greyscale lifts a ring of keys from the last man and unlocks the prison door.



Our heroes are free! We also release a host of colourful NPCs from the adjoining cells, including;
Stool, a short-arse mushroom man surrounded by a cloud of mind-altering spores
Prince Derendil, a brutish - yet eloquently spoken - quaggoth who claims to be a cursed elven princeling
Ront, an orc; thuggish and short tempered
Shooshan, a fishman zealot
Topsy & Turvy, a pair of creepy deep gnome siblings

There is an unconcious lvl 1 gnome wizard slumped in a corner of the cell. He does not respond to any external stimuli, almost as though the sentient force governing his actions is absent at this time. Morloc throws the slumbering gnome over his shoulder, resigned to lug the little fellow around until he wakes up.

The drow confiscated everyone's gear, so we raid the janitor's closet for makeshift weapons. We assault the guard tower armed with mopstaffs and nunchuckets. The drow are taken unawares and quickly overwhelmed. We raid the drow armoury for better gear.

The escape is going suspiciously well thus far. We peek ahead and see the drow are distracted by a demonic incursion from the other end of the prison. On the assumption that the enemy of our enemy is also our enemy, we keep a low profile on our way to the exit - pausing only to desecrate a shrine to Lolth and steal from her priestess. We bag some healing potions and an off-brand Spiderman mask from the drow equivalent of Temu. Kiri wears the mask and immediately begins to fret over the wellbeing of her beloved Uncle Ben.

We reach an elevator to the cavern floor and head down. We sabotage the mechanism to frustrate drow pursuit after they've dealt with their vrock problem. We have escaped captivity, yet remain helplessly lost in the lightless depths of the Underdark!

TBC

Out of the Abyss, Session #2

We rejoin our heroes during their flight from the prison camp Velkynvelve. We don't know where we're going, only that we need to put as much distance between ourselves and the drow before they come after us. Stool telepathically communicates there is an exit to the surface world near Neverlight Grove, the enclave of sentient fungi they call home. Elin, Kiri and Morloc are natives of the Overworld and wish to see its clear blue sky again ASAP. Greyscale, Ront and Prince Derendil however have spent their whole lives underground and loathe the blinding, hurty rays of the Overworld's bright yellow sun. Erasmus the Wizard has yet to wake up, so his opinion is not taken into account. Topsy & Turvy steal some of our rations and slip away to fend for themselves.

We plot our course. The path ahead will skirt the edges of the Dark Lake and pass near the fishman city of Sloopadoop, where Shooshan is eager to return. We set off towards the Dark Lake, then onward to Neverlight Grove!

On the second night after escaping Velkynvelve, our rest is interrupted by a gelatinous cube oozing into camp unannounced. Morloc is nearly engulfed by the corrosive blob before raising the alarm. Erasmus the Wizard bolts upright - finally awake - and hurls a Firebolt at the hungry ooze, reducing it down to a bubbling puddle of caustic slime.

The next day, we enter a cavern filled with glittering crystals. Kiri believes the crystalline shards emit a burst of blinding light when shattered, which could be useful against the darkness loving denizens of the Underdark. Erasmus tests this theory by throwing a crystal at the ground and blinding himself indefinitely. Just then a group of drow raiders turn up. Kiri pretends to be a dark elf, which the real drow find culturally insensitive. They attack!



Morloc breaks another crystal. The drow are rendered blind - but so is Greyscale. Erasmus casts Minor Illusion, but his magic is amplified within the crystal cavern and the harmless cantrip manifests as a lvl 3 Fireball centered on himself! Everyone - friends and foes alike - are caught within the spell's radius. The drow are obliterated, and both Greyscale and Erasmus are down and dying (Greyscale was 2 HP shy of instant/permanent death due to massive damage!).

Elin heals the injured and spares the dying. Kiri searches the crispy corpses and finds a charred map to the lost mine the drow raiders were seeking. The entrance is not too far away, so we make a quick detour to scope it out. The mine is infested with giant spiders, which sucks for Greyscale as he suffers from acute arachnophobia (cue flashback to Greyscale spending several days cocooned in a giant spider's web, before narrowly managing to escape being eaten alive). Kiri takes pity on the terrified kobold and gifts him a charm that will protect him from spiders. It absolutely will not protect him from spiders, but Greyscale doesn't know that and takes some small comfort from the gesture.

After clearing a few web-choked tunnels, we rest in the mine overseers office. The overseer's skeleton is slumped over his desk, bony fingers gripping an empty vial we asume contained poison. But WHY did the overseer end his own life? There is a note, but we are distracted by a large pile of tarnished brass fittings on the desk, which Kiri scoops into her pockets, just in case we encounter a tat man on our travels.

After recovering HP and spell slots, we continue to explore the mine. The mess hall is in disarray. Erasmus has the mid-delve munchies and searches the adjacent kitchenette for something to eat. He finds an orange ooze that tries to eat him! Prince Derendil slashes the ooze with his claws and now we are fighting two monsters! We frantically search the area for makeshift bludgeoning weapons and beat the ooze/s to death with an assortment of rolling pins and metal pots.

TBC