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Monday, July 25, 2016

Tales from Toril- The Underdark Escapees: Book One, Chapter Twelve

Bahamutsville Part 1:
The Holy Quest

Dramatis Personae:
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress who injures the party almost as much as the enemies (the blue one)
Fidget Stonegear, the Deep Gnome Inventor who thinks he's a myconid and everyone is out to get him, and thinks like a kobold (the foolish one)
Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon (the fuzzy one)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout and former slave of the duergar who thinks she's the greatest at everything
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Gunslinger (the mouthy one)
Topsy and Turvy, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins (the matching ones)
Stool, the Myconid Child
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube and a great warrior
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child

The residents of Bahamutsville:
Kibbik, the Kobold Paladin of Bahamut and leader of the kobolds (the winged one)
Sillis, the Kobold Bard (the singing one)
Vevvev, the Kobold Gunslinger (the booming one)
Cyrryc, the Kobold Gunslinger (the other booming one)
Renner, the Kobold Rogue (the sneaking one)
Xiccix, the Kobold Weapon Master (the fighting one)
Gabtar, the Goblin Inquisitor and Kibbik's squire (the different one)

Comrades we have lost:
Ront, the Orc Fighter- turned into hamburger by Pwent
Buppido, the Derro- smashed by Orvald
Eldeth Feldrun, the Shield Dwarf- killed during escape
Hera Adaar, the Abyssal Tiefling Wild Sorceress- swept away
Luna Trelawny, the Human Divination Wizard- skull caved in by rock thrown by Fidget, then finished off by black pudding
Sarith Zekarit, the Drow Scout- drowned
Phillip Johnson, the Human Cleric- in a seemingly irreversible coma, left in Hemeth's care
Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome- eaten by grell
Prince Derendil, the Quaggoth- killed by sea troll
Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa- turned into shuushi by sea troll
Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer- parted with group in Gracklstugh
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian- became a squeaky toy
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter and Orvald's wife- abandoned the party because Orvald died
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto (the red one)- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the "blind" Derro Beggar with a magic cane (former master)- vanished after cave-in

Friendly fire overall: 69
Friendly fire dealt by Aura: 24
Party members killed: 13
Overall party members lost: 18

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Kyri's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the scout can't be everywhere at once.
Also, Kyri doesn't refer to many people by their names, but instead gives them designations. The terms in parenthesis next to the character's names are what the minotaur calls them. She also doesn't understand gender, frequently getting the pronouns backwards, and calling people "it."

***** Kythorn 22, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)

       We ran from the gnolls right into a dead end that had scratch marks on the walls. The fuzzy one said she smelled a trail of others that went straight to the wall- as if there was a secret passage. I pushed on the wall, since I should have been able to break it open with ease, and it was loose, but wouldn't budge. The mouthy one said it was on some sort of mechanism and we needed to find the catch to operate it- the matching ones found it and the wall lifted up.

       The tunnel was only five feet tall, I was way too big to fit in it, so the mouthy one gave me a shrinking mushroom so I could fit comfortably- I was still able to carry Master Stool and Master Rumpadump with ease. Glabbagool couldn't fit through the tunnel with the foolish one's stupid barrel thingy, so he ordered him to take a different route and meet up with us. Glabbagool was much more important than his stupid hidey-hole, but not to the idiot. I need to eat her.

       As we moved through the tunnel, we could hear the echoes of gnolls cackling, but I don't think they found the way in. The mouthy one stepped on a pressure plate and two crossbow bolts flew at us, though luckily they missed. Whoever had this tunnel didn't seem to want anyone to find them. After a time we came up to another hidden door disguised as a dead end.

       When the door opened, a bunch of torches lit up on the other side, and we were face to face with a huge dragon statue made from silver-like metal, and had red sapphires for eyes; smoke billowed from its nose. Thecker and Fidget both believed the statue to be a real dragon, and Thecker poised to fire at the statue. As the mouthy one raised his boom stick at the statue someone yelled "stop" from behind it. The mouthy one tried to move closer to it to see who had called out, but it saw her and he stopped in its tracks.

       The fuzzy one told us the statue was of Bahamut, some dragon god I'd never heard of. It spoke to us, telling everyone except the fuzzy one to lay down our arms. She explained to it that we had been caught in a cave-in, and were escaping some gnolls, but that didn't seem to satisfy the god. We were instructed to bind our hands, and confess our sins; even after she told it that the foolish one was the only evil-doer with us. I was confused. I'd never had dealings with gods, and had only heard of them in passing; I also wasn't really sure what sins were.

       The foolish one began nervously rambling off petty things he had done from childhood on, and it actually listened for the whole half-hour it took for it to go through them all. The mouthy one said someone was in prison for a crime she had committed, but that the person had been a tyrant, so it was framed to free the people; she wasn't sure if that was a sin. Apparently, sins were things like killing people- I had done a lot of that, though almost all was done by the orders of my master; I think it would have been satisfied with that if the foolish one hadn't piped up that I tried to kill it yesterday. It skipped over the matching ones, Master Stool, and Master Rumpadump- it said my masters were innocents.

       It passed judgement on all of us. The blue one lost her pinky finger, the mouthy one lost her ring finger, it gave the foolish one mercy to change its ways, the fuzzy one was told to confer with her patron, and then it turned to me. I told it if it took my hands I could not protect Master Stool and Master Rumpadump, so it instead took both of my thumbs and melted my collar off, telling me that I was free and to change my ways.

       After it was finished shearing off fingers, the statue told us that the gnolls had invaded their holy city, Bahamutsville, and that they needed to be removed. We were given the divine quest to help them cleanse the city, which I told it we were completely capable of doing, and readily accepted the mission. A group of kobolds emerged from around the statue, with the leader having wings. The winged one healed all of us and we went to prepare to take back their city.

       Meanwhile, Glabbagool was making his way through the tunnels when he got attacked by six gnolls. The cube managed to trap all of them inside him long enough to kill them, then continued on his way, planning to relax for a nice meal after finding the rest of the group.

       The winged one led us through the tunnels to his camp, and introduced us to the rest of his helpers. He told there were about 100 kobold refugees in the camp, that was all that survived the initial attack from the gnolls. A different one- who wasn't the same type as them- came up to the winged one and reported how low they were on supplies. Me, being the kindest and most generous person in our little group, handed the different one my pack full of fresh food and dried rations, along with several healer kits to help them.

       We decided that we needed to hit the knight's building inside the city for supplies. I would go to the main gate with the mouthy one, the foolish one, the winged one, and the singing one. Another team, comprised of the fuzzy one, both booming ones, and the fighting one, would create a distraction at the back gate, by blowing it up; they would have to leave tomorrow to reach the back gate, it was a little over a day's journey to get there. The final team would have the blue one, the matching ones, the sneaking one, and Glabbagool; they would go in the barrel thingy inside Glabbagool and swim in to sneak up to the knight's building to claim the supplies while the gnolls were distracted by the rest of us.

       First we had to find Glabbagool, so the foolish one and I went off to search for him with the booming one. We found an area that looked as if it had been scrubbed, like stone usually appears when Glabbagool has gone through them. There were discarded weapons everywhere, but no bodies; we called for the cube and found him lounging in a hut, eating gnolls. We told him the plan and he agreed to help, even though that meant he'd have to leave his feast behind to carry the barrel thing- he called it Orvald's Barrel. On the way back, Glabbagool told us he had been attacked by the gnolls, and of his heroics in slaying them. He is a great warrior.

       We spent the rest of the night preparing for the siege, The foolish one gave me a shoulder ballista that shoots spears and javelins- like a really big crossbow; it was awesome. That night Kibbik had a talk with Glabbagool about the light of Bahamut, and the cube readily converted to the faith. 

***** Kythorn 23

       Elle's group left the next morning to travel to the back gate of Bahamutsville. On their way they were attacked by a group of goblins, who turned most of their focus to the priestess. They made short work of the goblins, and found their camp a little further down the way; it was around the point they planned to stop for the night anyways, so they took it over. 

***** Kythorn 24- the main gate

       When we got to the gate, the winged one and the foolish one crept up to the gates to lay the traps and explosives. The singing one wasn't not as quiet as he was supposed to be, blowing her hiding spot, and drawing the attention of the gnolls stationed on the gate. I jumped out and speared one with my shoulder ballista, hurting it badly; perhaps the foolish one is more useful than I originally thought. The mouthy one knocked one of them out with her boom stick, and the one I speared threw my javelin back, and missed me completely. One leapt off the gate and ran at me, hitting me, but getting its mouth caught on my horn. Before I could kill it, the winged one shot it in the back of the head- its brains exploded all over my face, some of them getting in my mouth. The fuzzy one was right, gnolls taste terrible- I vomited all over the corpse.

       The bomb the others set on the gate went off with a massive explosion, the gate and walls went tumbling down, and the archers went flying. The mouthy one began firing her boom stick into the space where the gate had been, while I charged in and speared a hyena with my horns; the winged one finished it off. We all worked methodically to take out the gnolls and their hyenas, and I was taking a lot of damage. Kyri and Fidget were both knocked unconscious by the gnolls, but Sillis healed them quickly, allowing them to rejoin the fray. 

       As I rose, freshly healed by the singing one, I saw a few of the gnolls hitting each other- it was amusing watching them kill each other for us. The foolish one was speared by gnolls again and fell- if they killed her, at least I'd get to eat his flesh; but the singing one revived him again. I slaughtered another gnoll while the mouthy one knocked another unconscious, and killed a second one.

       Kibbik killed another one while Fidget was dropped again. Since there weren't any others to kill, I mutilated the hyena attacking the foolish one; the gnoll that was attacking him looked terrified by the mess I made of its pet. The mouthy one knocked it out while it stared at me, jaw slacked in terror. The revived foolish one stabbed the one who had been stabbing him, and I finished it off. There were no more gnolls in sight, so I headed to the knight's building, there were a bunch of them in there, so I charged in.

       A huge, burly gnoll emerged from the hatchery flanked by hyenas dragging the corpses of kobolds in their maws. It told the hyenas to feast, and they began turning into gnolls while they devoured the fallen kobolds.

       Fidget hurled a bomb at the gnoll- a Fang of Yeenoghu- but it didn't do much to him. He then harassed Kibbik into chucking his bag of bombs at the group that was moving toward them. The gnolls caught the bag and tossed it back at Kibbik- they didn't know the bombs had to be lit to go off. Thecker took the bag, set it ablaze and threw it back. It didn't hurt the fang, but the other four around ti were blown to smithereens. Fidget shot one and took it down. Kibbik struck down the fang, and the rest of the main force retreated, heading back to the refuge.

***** The back gate

       Elle's team made it to the back gate in time, and waited for the signal to begin their assault.As soon as they heard the explosion of the main gates, they began working on the charges. While Elle and Vevvev set up the charges and traps the gnolls stationed on top of that gate peppered them with crossbow bolts. They fled as soon as they finished their task. 

***** The knight's building force

       Glabbagool and Aura's team made it to the water and swam up to the grove where they would hide until they got their signal to go. Once the explosion went off, Aura's team began moving toward the knight's building. Two gnolls and a hyena went after Aura's team, but the twins and Renner killed them instantly. They snuck through the city to the knight's building, as the sounds of battle raged all around them. 

       They made it to the knight's building, and found a gnoll and a hyena inside. Aura tossed an ice knife into the room. The twins teamed up on the hyena and dropped it instantly- then turned to finish off the gnoll. As they gathered their gunpowder, the team heard noises from upstairs- Kyri. 

       I was surrounded by gnolls, but I wasn't worried, I was an amazing fighter, and could easily slaughter them all. I began by slaying the one that was directly in front of me. The twins and Renner made it out the the knight's building with their bags, Aura was supposed to be right behind them. Aura went upstairs, arms full of gunpowder, and saw the gnolls. She couldn't see Kyri in the middle of them... The genasi gave a squeak of alarm, threw the bags of gunpowder at the gnolls, and then used her fire breath spell...

       I heard an odd squeaking noise before flames erupted around me. I felt my flesh being burned away as I tumbled into darkness. Aura vaporized herself, Kyri, and every gnoll in the building. Lythana predicted that the genasi would get herself or someone else killed, and her lack of wits indeed caused the untimely death of herself and Kyri. 

       The twins and Renner made it back to Glabbagool safely, and began their escape. Shortly after emerging into the tunnel, Glabbagool announced that there were people "like Orvald's friend" up ahead of them, moving toward them. The rogues got out of the apparatus, and found a group of moving toward them.

*****
45 gnolls, 6 pack lords, 15 giant hyenas, and 1 fang of Yeenoghu were slain in this battle.  


Photo from Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast

Aura's dice being shamed for the deaths of Kyri and Aura

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