The Wicked Garden
Dramatis Personae:
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Gunslinger and Inquisitor of Bahamut
Lady Claire Thundersword, the Human Swordcaptain of the Purple Dragon Knights and wielder of Dawnbringer, who compulsively collects trophies from slain foes and has an imaginary version of Dawnbringer that only she can see and it's the only thing she can trust
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Champion from the Zhentarim who compulsively keeps everything she finds
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Assassin who can't sneak
Lady Claire Thundersword, the Human Swordcaptain of the Purple Dragon Knights and wielder of Dawnbringer, who compulsively collects trophies from slain foes and has an imaginary version of Dawnbringer that only she can see and it's the only thing she can trust
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Champion from the Zhentarim who compulsively keeps everything she finds
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Assassin who can't sneak
Topsy and Turvy, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins; Turvy cannot resist ingesting any drugs or alcohol that cross his path
Stool, the Myconid Child
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube and a great warrior
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child
The residents of Bahamutsville: 97 kobolds with party
Kibbik, the Kobold Paladin of Bahamut and leader of the kobolds
Sillis, the Kobold Bard
Vevvev, the Kobold Gunslinger
Cyrryc, the Kobold Gunslinger
Renner, the Kobold Rogue
Xiccix, the Kobold Weapon Master
Mezzem, the Kobold Priestess of Bahamut
Gabtar, the Goblin Inquisitor and Kibbik's squire
The residents of the Wicked Garden:
Princess Annarei, the Succubus Disciple of Graz'zt
Zeks and Edsel, the Duergar Crawler Commandos
Suortin, the Umber Hulk and Annarei's bodyguard
Giggles, the Ogre
The residents of the Wicked Garden:
Princess Annarei, the Succubus Disciple of Graz'zt
Zeks and Edsel, the Duergar Crawler Commandos
Suortin, the Umber Hulk and Annarei's bodyguard
Giggles, the Ogre
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 last seen in Bahamutsville under Zin-carla
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter-abandoned the party because Orvald died last seen in Bahamutsville
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian-
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter-
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Fidget Stonegear, the Deep Gnome Inventor who thinks he's a myconid and everyone is out to get him, and thinks like a kobold- big badda boom
Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon- bigger badda boom
Kazul, the Copper Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut- skull caved in by another rock from Fidget
Friendly fire overall: 84
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Claire's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the knight can't be everywhere at once.
***** Flamerule 8, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)
After the fight with the mummy, we climbed out of the pyramid and went to see what was on the other side. The path on that side wasn't nearly as well traveled as the one we were on, which was odd since it was all one direct line. On the body of one of the drow we found a tattered parchment that looked blank, I thought the ink might be invisible. We collected the drow's pack lizards, and once we had finished looting their bodies, we met with the kobolds to begin getting around the fucking pyramid.
All of our food was rotten, and the water gone. We had two choices: go back to the mushroom cavern, and lose half a day's travel, or press on and hope we could forage. We chose the latter, and couldn't find a scrap of food for the rest of the day. Mezzem told us Bahamut had given her a spell that would let her create food, and another that could fix our food stores, but she needed to rest in order to use either of them. Everyone went to sleep hungry that night.
***** Flamerule 9
The next morning Kara showed Mezzem her arm where the mummy had touched her, it was disgusting and looked like the flesh was rotting off. We all spent some time trying to figure out what the hell it was, since Mezzem's healing spells weren't fixing it. Eventually she was at a loss, and decided to use a spell that ends curses- that one worked.
Mezzem spent the rest of her magical energy fixing our food supplies, and creating new food, deciding that she would do that, then rest again before we continued travel. Since travel was completely uneventful, Mezzem was able to expend her energies when we reached camp that night doing the same thing. We did that again the next day.
***** Flamerule 11
As we traveled that day, we came into a cavern with "fist sized, oblong crystals protruding from the walls, lit from within by some unknown force, providing a brightly lit lane to travel upon."* Unfortunately it was a single-file tunnel, and we could barely fit Glabbagool in it, so we broke up and put ourselves spread out in between the kobolds. "As we moved along the passage I saw sudden
movement above us– [as] tentacles drop from above, striking at the crystal formations in the walls."* The faerzress exploded, blinding me- Sajin and Kibbik were also blinded- and I heard cries of surprise from around me.
Tentacles emerged from the ceiling and grabbed at Thecker- she shot them, but they still grabbed her easily. Another set of tentacles grabbed Mezzem; six grell were attacking the group. The grell holding Thecker began pulling her toward the ceiling, and the gunslinger shot it with one of her sleep bullets, it went out and both of them crashed to the floor below.
Mezzem used her inflict wounds spell, the one that had saved her from being a meal for two different behir, but this time it wasn't enough to kill her captor. Its beak slashed towards her, and she twisted in its grasp to evade- she didn't get bitten, but it pulled her fully into its hole in the ceiling.
I could hear commotion around me, so I closed my eyes and willed Dawnbringer to cure my blindness; Claire believed her imaginary sword cured her, when really she overcame the blindness through her own force of will. At the mouth of the tunnel, Sajin overcame his blindness and killed the grell in front of him- it exploded, and some of its innards splashed in Sajin's eyes- blinding him again.
Mezzem was flown higher up the dark passage, and it began biting her again. She blew up the grell that was holding her, and attempted to open her wings to slow her descent- the passage was too narrow. The kobold braced herself for the fall, just as another grell grasped her. The grell's venom paralyzed Mezzem as it began trying to make a meal of her.
I threw my javelin at the grell I could see vanishing into the ceiling above me, I think it hit, since it didn't clatter to the ground in front of me. I then threw my grapple up the hole, and it sunk into something, but I couldn't pull it back down; I asked some of the kobolds around me to help pull, but even that didn't do anything. At that point, I suspected I'd hit the stone instead of the beast, and began climbing the rope with Thecker hot on my tail.
When I reached the top of my rope, I realized we needed another grapple to finishing getting up the shaft- Thecker used her grapple to get us the rest of the way. Below us, Kara began climbing the rope; the shaft was way too narrow for her to fly up.
Sajin had finally regained some of his sight, and began heading towards the rope. Thecker reached the top of the shaft, which opened into a chamber- their lair. The grell were ripping into a kobold- thankfully, not Mezzem. Mezzem overcame the paralysis, and healed herself before joining the attack on the grell; another grell scooped her up before she could do anything.
The moment I reached the top of that shaft a grell appeared in front of me, and I proudly cleaved through it with Dawnbringer. Another grabbed me, but I broke free instantly. Thecker knocked one out with her sleeping bullets, killed the grell trying to grab me, and knocked out the one holding Mezzem. That girl is insane with her bullets. I retrieved my javelin and hurled it through two of the grell, killing one of them. Sajin reached the top of the ropes and barely touched the final grell- so he spends the entire fight useless, then shows up at the end and doesn't even hurt the beast- wow, he's bloody useful. A shot rang out as Thecker killed the final grell.
We looked around the room and discovered an ornate ring, which Sajin demanded as his- even though he did nothing for the entire bloody battle. So greedy, useless, and cowardly. Hope we reach Blingdenstone soon, I do not trust him or want him watching my back in a fight, he's as likely to run away as he is to actually engage in the combat. Then Sajin demanded that Kara fly him down, and got huffy when she told him she couldn't unfurl her wings in the corridor. The idiot fell when he tried to climb back down- if he's so bad at climbing, I don't see why he bothered coming up in the first place, except of course because he wanted to claim things that he didn't earn.
Three more kobolds were lost in this battle.
At camp that night, Sajin attuned to the ring we'd found, and instantly turned into a fish... It was hilarious watching him flop around on the ground- perhaps he'll learn a lesson in his greed, but I doubt that. Thecker grabbed him and he transformed back into himself, then bitched that the ring wasn't as useful as he wanted; sucks to be him.
***** Flamerule 12
We came to a split in the tunnel, after a couple hours of travel and split up, with Kibbik's group going down one branch, and ours going down another- Mezzem stayed with us. We found nothing up ahead, but Kibbik's group came across something that he needed to deal with; his group would handle that then meet up with us in a couple of days.
Kibbik asked for a better weapon, but Kara refused to give him one for some reason. She got really possessive of her blades. The twins then asked me to give Kibbik Dawnbringer, which of course I refused. The twins stole the real Dawnbringer from Claire while she wasn't looking.
***** Flamerule 13
We spent the day "moving through an interconnected series of rocky and crystalline tunnels. Quartz, calcite, and gypsum deposits are frequent in the walls, which sparkle in even the faintest light. These interconnecting tunnels intersect each other once in a while – rarely doing so from the same horizontal plane. While traversing a long, tall, wide tunnel, we noticed a large vertical shaft above – and hear a strange clattering sound.
"Looking up a red glow can be seen from the tunnel shave above, glimmering and shimmering reflected light on the crystalline deposits in the walls. The glow is moving – getting closer. In a moment, something – no, many somethings- emerge from an intersecting shaft of that chimney. A dozen or more multi legged, black, foot wide beetles with glowing red bellies come swarming down from above. Yet that isn't the most bizarre thing I saw. Trailing behind the beetles are two Grey Dwarves mounted on large, tentacled, multi segmented, multi legged worms."*
One of the duergar pulled up on his reigns while moving above us, and as he herded the beetles down the tunnel, he called to us "'If you need a bite, follow us. Princess Annarei's table is up ahead and to the left. Food aplenty!'"* We decided to follow, since food was scarce when you had near 100 kobolds in tow.
"The narrow tunnel, six foot in diameter, is strangely round, with glimmering crystal flecks in its walls. A shimmering glow illuminates the tunnel from its end, 100 yards or so ahead. The further along we moved, the brighter and more colorful the glow gets. Red, blue, purple swirls of light are at the end of the tunnel.
"The massive gallery beyond is an amazing spectacle to behold. The herded fire beetles have joined dozens of others crawling around on walls and ceilings, producing a constantly moving light show that reflects upon large crystal structures of white, green, red, blue and purple.
"The beetles aren't the only light source – the crystals themselves are infused with their own internal lights, while glowing phosphorescent fungi, nightlight mushrooms, and Ormu add their own illumination to the deliriously beautiful, ever shifting light show. Mushrooms, from hip size to giant, are scattered about in abundance as well, and you see at least two gentle streams, one fed from a cascading waterfall, meandering through the chamber.
"As my eyes get used to the light I noticed people sitting about, leaning on crystals, laying on mushroom caps, gazing up at the wondrous lights. A Duergar here, a svirfneblin there, and an ogre meandering about between two giant Zurkhwood over there. Nearby, a goblin, lazily lollygagging on its back on a four foot mushroom cap, lifts its head, grins at you and nods a welcome.
"From a path between mushrooms we were confronted by even more beauty – an elvish woman, raven haired, rosy cheeked, lightly freckled, with kind welcoming blue eyes, wearing a flowing breezy light dress and a glimmering onyx pendant, approaches. Escorting her is a nine foot tall, yellowish brown, armor plated segmented biped with a bizarre set of four eyes, two bug like, two human like, arrayed above its massive mandibles.
“'Hello!' says the fair maiden. 'Welcome to my garden. It's so wonderful to have guests.'"*
This place was weird. The elf introduced herself as Princess Annarei, She told us of her Dark Prince, and his gift to her, a necklace with the symbol for Graz'zt- a demon lord who encourages seduction and the basest pleasures of life. Annarei apparently thinks that life should be lived in nothing but excess. She invited us to stay as long as we wanted to, and ushered us further into her garden, saying dinner would be served soon.
"We followed the path from which Annarei emerged through her bizarrely beautiful crystal and fungal garden. At the center of the cavern sits an ancient, crumbling ruin of chiseled black granite – the foundation of what must have been a grand structure ages ago. Steps on all four sides lead up six feet to a level, black granite floor, rectangular, 40 feet wide by 70 feet long. The crumbled remains of what might have been obelisks adorn each corner, and at the back sits a cracked and crumbling altar.
"In the midst of this platform sits a recently constructed ten foot long Zurkhwood dinner table, with 8 toad stool seats arranged about it. At the head of the table is a grand mushroom cap constructed chair, shaped like an inverted egg. Annarei takes this seat, and the Umber Hulk heads off to a kitchen carved in a Zurkhwood to fetch the meal."*
Sajin took off toward the lake as soon as he spied it, and turned into a fish. The twins, seeing this, followed Sajin and tossed a net out to go fishing- they soon caught Sajin and tossed him into a barrel with the rest of their catch- but the barrel was full of Gresyl Wine, a substance Annarei makes in the garden. Being completely submerged in this wine, essentially breathing it, made Sajin completely wasted. The svirfneblin turned back into himself in the barrel, and jumped right back into the water, thinking he was still a fish... Thecker started throwing rocks at the plastered idiot, and managed to hit him right in the face! It was hilarious. Sajin made it back to shore and passed out.
"The revelers are now thoroughly enjoying the effects of their drink – babbling on, looking dumbfounded, or gazing into space. My eyes wander off the platform and to the gardens beyond. A few other revelers shuffle along at the back of the garden, mindlessly wandering it seems.
"No, they aren't mindlessly wandering – three of them have just set upon a passed out goblin and gutted him, while a fourth creature – a pale gaunt biped with hideous claw – places his claws upon this victim, who seizes in terror and falls limp and dead."*
At the sight of them Thecker opened fire, alerting everyone else at the table- who was conscious- to the threat. Annarei was horrified at the sight, and sprouted wings, revealing she wasn't the elf we thought her to be. She began calling out names of the zombies, apparently they were former guests of hers who she thought had left- they had instead become zombies. We asked us to help with them, which we were of course willing to do.
I pulled out the little basalt wolf figurine that once belonged to Elle, and told Hans to get to Orvald's Barrel to protect the children. I drew Dawnbringer and charged three of the zombies, knowing she would drop them easily. While the first two went down easily with my blade, the third was apparently a super zombie. It kept getting back up every time I thought Dawnbringer had finished it off. If Claire had actually been using Dawnbringer, not punching them, the last zombie would have stayed down, but the Purple Dragon was unaware her radiant sword wasn't real.
I collected a finger bone from the super zombie, a trophy that I knew would make a great story in the barracks back home. Hans succeeded in protecting the children, who had followed their instructions and gotten in Orvald's Barrel the moment trouble arose. Annarei told us that there were three goblins, two gnomes, and one orc missing at the end of the battle. She asked us to help her deal with the undead threat to her garden, and would provide us with provisions if we did so.
Sajin looked around the ruins and found a secret door, which was the most logical place the zombies were coming from. We left the twins with Annarei, and I set Hans up to guard Orvald's Barrel, keeping the children inside until we had dealt with the threat.
As we descended into the tomb we saw carvings in the stone of drow fighting one another. It was clear that one faction was Lolthites, but there were no markings of who the other deity was. In some areas the stone was completely blank, as if the carvings had been drawn out of the stone. The unknown deity was Kiaransalee, who was once the drow goddess of death, until she decided to take on Lolth and Eilistraee in a game of sava- the same game of sava that killed Vhaeraun and Eilistraee. Mother and daughter teamed up against the Lady of Death and destroyed her, completely erasing her from all of existence.
We reached what seemed to be the end of a hallway, and entered a darkness so thick that Dawnbringer couldn't expel it; had Claire actually had her sword it probably would have been able to clear the darkness away. The air swished around us as something in the dark began attacking us; we tried fighting back, but couldn't tell if we were actually hitting our marks.
Thecker blindly slammed into something, and seemed to open a passage in doing so. What the gunslinger had opened was a sarcophagus, and poisonous gas began flowing out of the casket as the mummy within it rose. A small light sprang up around Kara, and Mezzem cast something that cleared the darkness away. There were a bunch of zombies- including a zombie ogre- and a mummy before us... shit. Between Dawnbringer and Mezzem's holy magics I hoped we would be able to take care of this. In a single, fluid move, Thecker sliced off the mummy's head- now we had only the zombies and a couple wights to kill.
In a blaze of holy light, Mezzem killed six of the zombies, while a dark energy began to coalesce from within the coffin. A cry turned to a wail as a spirit rose from the sarcophagus, and the sound made Sajin fall unconscious. She began coaxing the spirits from her wights, and I felt terror down to my bones; I felt my body weaken as I turned to run away. Claire had just aged 70 years; the Purple Dragon became 99 years old.
Thecker dumped a potion down the fallen Sajin's throat to revive the assassin, while Kara polished off the ogre. One of the spirits possessed Kara, while another tried and failed to possess Thecker. The spirit made Kara attack Mezzem, and the priestess went down. Sajin surveyed the battle, and decided to run away instead of helping his comrades. A blur shot past me as I ran to the stairs- I couldn't stop shaking with fear as I ran to escape this tomb.
Mezzem somehow was able to come to, and she crawled over to Thecker's unconscious body, reviving her just in time- had she waited a moment longer, the gnome would likely have died. Mezzem took stock of their injuries and began healing them with the little magic she had left in her that day. I emerged from the tomb on Sajin's heels, just as he announced to Annarei that there were ghosts behind us. The princess swore and summoned a vrock- I don't know why she didn't just do that to begin with. Kara came out of the tomb next and stalked toward me- she stabbed me.
I felt a pressure on my mind as something attempted to take hold of it, and was suddenly no longer in control of my body. Claire was possessed, again. Sajin destroyed the mummy's spirit once it came out of its tomb, but Claire and Kara were still possessed. He then knocked both of them unconscious, expelling the ghosts within them, who found themselves unable to seize another body. With the help of Annarei's people, the ghosts were taken out.
Mezzem emerged from the tomb just in time to revive Claire and Kara- Claire had been sitting on the brink of true death.
***** Flamerule 14
The princess invited us to spend the day in her garden recuperating from yesterday's fight. It was a much needed, very welcome rest. I received a potion of longevity from Thecker, which took me down to my 70's, I think. Then Kara planted some magic beans, and one produced a tree that brought me closer to my 50's, I think. I really hate the fucking Underdark.
Annarei did offer to petition to her Dark Prince to assist me, and restore me to the proper age, but I couldn't make a deal of that kind. It was wrong to make any sort of deal with any sort of devil, regardless of how much I hated being my mother's age.
Kazul, the Copper Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut- skull caved in by another rock from Fidget
Friendly fire overall: 84
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Claire's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the knight can't be everywhere at once.
***** Flamerule 8, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)
After the fight with the mummy, we climbed out of the pyramid and went to see what was on the other side. The path on that side wasn't nearly as well traveled as the one we were on, which was odd since it was all one direct line. On the body of one of the drow we found a tattered parchment that looked blank, I thought the ink might be invisible. We collected the drow's pack lizards, and once we had finished looting their bodies, we met with the kobolds to begin getting around the fucking pyramid.
All of our food was rotten, and the water gone. We had two choices: go back to the mushroom cavern, and lose half a day's travel, or press on and hope we could forage. We chose the latter, and couldn't find a scrap of food for the rest of the day. Mezzem told us Bahamut had given her a spell that would let her create food, and another that could fix our food stores, but she needed to rest in order to use either of them. Everyone went to sleep hungry that night.
***** Flamerule 9
The next morning Kara showed Mezzem her arm where the mummy had touched her, it was disgusting and looked like the flesh was rotting off. We all spent some time trying to figure out what the hell it was, since Mezzem's healing spells weren't fixing it. Eventually she was at a loss, and decided to use a spell that ends curses- that one worked.
Mezzem spent the rest of her magical energy fixing our food supplies, and creating new food, deciding that she would do that, then rest again before we continued travel. Since travel was completely uneventful, Mezzem was able to expend her energies when we reached camp that night doing the same thing. We did that again the next day.
***** Flamerule 11
As we traveled that day, we came into a cavern with "fist sized, oblong crystals protruding from the walls, lit from within by some unknown force, providing a brightly lit lane to travel upon."* Unfortunately it was a single-file tunnel, and we could barely fit Glabbagool in it, so we broke up and put ourselves spread out in between the kobolds. "As we moved along the passage I saw sudden
movement above us– [as] tentacles drop from above, striking at the crystal formations in the walls."* The faerzress exploded, blinding me- Sajin and Kibbik were also blinded- and I heard cries of surprise from around me.
Tentacles emerged from the ceiling and grabbed at Thecker- she shot them, but they still grabbed her easily. Another set of tentacles grabbed Mezzem; six grell were attacking the group. The grell holding Thecker began pulling her toward the ceiling, and the gunslinger shot it with one of her sleep bullets, it went out and both of them crashed to the floor below.
Mezzem used her inflict wounds spell, the one that had saved her from being a meal for two different behir, but this time it wasn't enough to kill her captor. Its beak slashed towards her, and she twisted in its grasp to evade- she didn't get bitten, but it pulled her fully into its hole in the ceiling.
I could hear commotion around me, so I closed my eyes and willed Dawnbringer to cure my blindness; Claire believed her imaginary sword cured her, when really she overcame the blindness through her own force of will. At the mouth of the tunnel, Sajin overcame his blindness and killed the grell in front of him- it exploded, and some of its innards splashed in Sajin's eyes- blinding him again.
Mezzem was flown higher up the dark passage, and it began biting her again. She blew up the grell that was holding her, and attempted to open her wings to slow her descent- the passage was too narrow. The kobold braced herself for the fall, just as another grell grasped her. The grell's venom paralyzed Mezzem as it began trying to make a meal of her.
I threw my javelin at the grell I could see vanishing into the ceiling above me, I think it hit, since it didn't clatter to the ground in front of me. I then threw my grapple up the hole, and it sunk into something, but I couldn't pull it back down; I asked some of the kobolds around me to help pull, but even that didn't do anything. At that point, I suspected I'd hit the stone instead of the beast, and began climbing the rope with Thecker hot on my tail.
When I reached the top of my rope, I realized we needed another grapple to finishing getting up the shaft- Thecker used her grapple to get us the rest of the way. Below us, Kara began climbing the rope; the shaft was way too narrow for her to fly up.
Sajin had finally regained some of his sight, and began heading towards the rope. Thecker reached the top of the shaft, which opened into a chamber- their lair. The grell were ripping into a kobold- thankfully, not Mezzem. Mezzem overcame the paralysis, and healed herself before joining the attack on the grell; another grell scooped her up before she could do anything.
The moment I reached the top of that shaft a grell appeared in front of me, and I proudly cleaved through it with Dawnbringer. Another grabbed me, but I broke free instantly. Thecker knocked one out with her sleeping bullets, killed the grell trying to grab me, and knocked out the one holding Mezzem. That girl is insane with her bullets. I retrieved my javelin and hurled it through two of the grell, killing one of them. Sajin reached the top of the ropes and barely touched the final grell- so he spends the entire fight useless, then shows up at the end and doesn't even hurt the beast- wow, he's bloody useful. A shot rang out as Thecker killed the final grell.
We looked around the room and discovered an ornate ring, which Sajin demanded as his- even though he did nothing for the entire bloody battle. So greedy, useless, and cowardly. Hope we reach Blingdenstone soon, I do not trust him or want him watching my back in a fight, he's as likely to run away as he is to actually engage in the combat. Then Sajin demanded that Kara fly him down, and got huffy when she told him she couldn't unfurl her wings in the corridor. The idiot fell when he tried to climb back down- if he's so bad at climbing, I don't see why he bothered coming up in the first place, except of course because he wanted to claim things that he didn't earn.
Three more kobolds were lost in this battle.
At camp that night, Sajin attuned to the ring we'd found, and instantly turned into a fish... It was hilarious watching him flop around on the ground- perhaps he'll learn a lesson in his greed, but I doubt that. Thecker grabbed him and he transformed back into himself, then bitched that the ring wasn't as useful as he wanted; sucks to be him.
***** Flamerule 12
We came to a split in the tunnel, after a couple hours of travel and split up, with Kibbik's group going down one branch, and ours going down another- Mezzem stayed with us. We found nothing up ahead, but Kibbik's group came across something that he needed to deal with; his group would handle that then meet up with us in a couple of days.
Kibbik asked for a better weapon, but Kara refused to give him one for some reason. She got really possessive of her blades. The twins then asked me to give Kibbik Dawnbringer, which of course I refused. The twins stole the real Dawnbringer from Claire while she wasn't looking.
***** Flamerule 13
We spent the day "moving through an interconnected series of rocky and crystalline tunnels. Quartz, calcite, and gypsum deposits are frequent in the walls, which sparkle in even the faintest light. These interconnecting tunnels intersect each other once in a while – rarely doing so from the same horizontal plane. While traversing a long, tall, wide tunnel, we noticed a large vertical shaft above – and hear a strange clattering sound.
"Looking up a red glow can be seen from the tunnel shave above, glimmering and shimmering reflected light on the crystalline deposits in the walls. The glow is moving – getting closer. In a moment, something – no, many somethings- emerge from an intersecting shaft of that chimney. A dozen or more multi legged, black, foot wide beetles with glowing red bellies come swarming down from above. Yet that isn't the most bizarre thing I saw. Trailing behind the beetles are two Grey Dwarves mounted on large, tentacled, multi segmented, multi legged worms."*
One of the duergar pulled up on his reigns while moving above us, and as he herded the beetles down the tunnel, he called to us "'If you need a bite, follow us. Princess Annarei's table is up ahead and to the left. Food aplenty!'"* We decided to follow, since food was scarce when you had near 100 kobolds in tow.
"The narrow tunnel, six foot in diameter, is strangely round, with glimmering crystal flecks in its walls. A shimmering glow illuminates the tunnel from its end, 100 yards or so ahead. The further along we moved, the brighter and more colorful the glow gets. Red, blue, purple swirls of light are at the end of the tunnel.
"The massive gallery beyond is an amazing spectacle to behold. The herded fire beetles have joined dozens of others crawling around on walls and ceilings, producing a constantly moving light show that reflects upon large crystal structures of white, green, red, blue and purple.
"The beetles aren't the only light source – the crystals themselves are infused with their own internal lights, while glowing phosphorescent fungi, nightlight mushrooms, and Ormu add their own illumination to the deliriously beautiful, ever shifting light show. Mushrooms, from hip size to giant, are scattered about in abundance as well, and you see at least two gentle streams, one fed from a cascading waterfall, meandering through the chamber.
"As my eyes get used to the light I noticed people sitting about, leaning on crystals, laying on mushroom caps, gazing up at the wondrous lights. A Duergar here, a svirfneblin there, and an ogre meandering about between two giant Zurkhwood over there. Nearby, a goblin, lazily lollygagging on its back on a four foot mushroom cap, lifts its head, grins at you and nods a welcome.
"From a path between mushrooms we were confronted by even more beauty – an elvish woman, raven haired, rosy cheeked, lightly freckled, with kind welcoming blue eyes, wearing a flowing breezy light dress and a glimmering onyx pendant, approaches. Escorting her is a nine foot tall, yellowish brown, armor plated segmented biped with a bizarre set of four eyes, two bug like, two human like, arrayed above its massive mandibles.
“'Hello!' says the fair maiden. 'Welcome to my garden. It's so wonderful to have guests.'"*
This place was weird. The elf introduced herself as Princess Annarei, She told us of her Dark Prince, and his gift to her, a necklace with the symbol for Graz'zt- a demon lord who encourages seduction and the basest pleasures of life. Annarei apparently thinks that life should be lived in nothing but excess. She invited us to stay as long as we wanted to, and ushered us further into her garden, saying dinner would be served soon.
"We followed the path from which Annarei emerged through her bizarrely beautiful crystal and fungal garden. At the center of the cavern sits an ancient, crumbling ruin of chiseled black granite – the foundation of what must have been a grand structure ages ago. Steps on all four sides lead up six feet to a level, black granite floor, rectangular, 40 feet wide by 70 feet long. The crumbled remains of what might have been obelisks adorn each corner, and at the back sits a cracked and crumbling altar.
"In the midst of this platform sits a recently constructed ten foot long Zurkhwood dinner table, with 8 toad stool seats arranged about it. At the head of the table is a grand mushroom cap constructed chair, shaped like an inverted egg. Annarei takes this seat, and the Umber Hulk heads off to a kitchen carved in a Zurkhwood to fetch the meal."*
Sajin took off toward the lake as soon as he spied it, and turned into a fish. The twins, seeing this, followed Sajin and tossed a net out to go fishing- they soon caught Sajin and tossed him into a barrel with the rest of their catch- but the barrel was full of Gresyl Wine, a substance Annarei makes in the garden. Being completely submerged in this wine, essentially breathing it, made Sajin completely wasted. The svirfneblin turned back into himself in the barrel, and jumped right back into the water, thinking he was still a fish... Thecker started throwing rocks at the plastered idiot, and managed to hit him right in the face! It was hilarious. Sajin made it back to shore and passed out.
"The revelers are now thoroughly enjoying the effects of their drink – babbling on, looking dumbfounded, or gazing into space. My eyes wander off the platform and to the gardens beyond. A few other revelers shuffle along at the back of the garden, mindlessly wandering it seems.
"No, they aren't mindlessly wandering – three of them have just set upon a passed out goblin and gutted him, while a fourth creature – a pale gaunt biped with hideous claw – places his claws upon this victim, who seizes in terror and falls limp and dead."*
At the sight of them Thecker opened fire, alerting everyone else at the table- who was conscious- to the threat. Annarei was horrified at the sight, and sprouted wings, revealing she wasn't the elf we thought her to be. She began calling out names of the zombies, apparently they were former guests of hers who she thought had left- they had instead become zombies. We asked us to help with them, which we were of course willing to do.
I pulled out the little basalt wolf figurine that once belonged to Elle, and told Hans to get to Orvald's Barrel to protect the children. I drew Dawnbringer and charged three of the zombies, knowing she would drop them easily. While the first two went down easily with my blade, the third was apparently a super zombie. It kept getting back up every time I thought Dawnbringer had finished it off. If Claire had actually been using Dawnbringer, not punching them, the last zombie would have stayed down, but the Purple Dragon was unaware her radiant sword wasn't real.
I collected a finger bone from the super zombie, a trophy that I knew would make a great story in the barracks back home. Hans succeeded in protecting the children, who had followed their instructions and gotten in Orvald's Barrel the moment trouble arose. Annarei told us that there were three goblins, two gnomes, and one orc missing at the end of the battle. She asked us to help her deal with the undead threat to her garden, and would provide us with provisions if we did so.
Sajin looked around the ruins and found a secret door, which was the most logical place the zombies were coming from. We left the twins with Annarei, and I set Hans up to guard Orvald's Barrel, keeping the children inside until we had dealt with the threat.
As we descended into the tomb we saw carvings in the stone of drow fighting one another. It was clear that one faction was Lolthites, but there were no markings of who the other deity was. In some areas the stone was completely blank, as if the carvings had been drawn out of the stone. The unknown deity was Kiaransalee, who was once the drow goddess of death, until she decided to take on Lolth and Eilistraee in a game of sava- the same game of sava that killed Vhaeraun and Eilistraee. Mother and daughter teamed up against the Lady of Death and destroyed her, completely erasing her from all of existence.
We reached what seemed to be the end of a hallway, and entered a darkness so thick that Dawnbringer couldn't expel it; had Claire actually had her sword it probably would have been able to clear the darkness away. The air swished around us as something in the dark began attacking us; we tried fighting back, but couldn't tell if we were actually hitting our marks.
Thecker blindly slammed into something, and seemed to open a passage in doing so. What the gunslinger had opened was a sarcophagus, and poisonous gas began flowing out of the casket as the mummy within it rose. A small light sprang up around Kara, and Mezzem cast something that cleared the darkness away. There were a bunch of zombies- including a zombie ogre- and a mummy before us... shit. Between Dawnbringer and Mezzem's holy magics I hoped we would be able to take care of this. In a single, fluid move, Thecker sliced off the mummy's head- now we had only the zombies and a couple wights to kill.
In a blaze of holy light, Mezzem killed six of the zombies, while a dark energy began to coalesce from within the coffin. A cry turned to a wail as a spirit rose from the sarcophagus, and the sound made Sajin fall unconscious. She began coaxing the spirits from her wights, and I felt terror down to my bones; I felt my body weaken as I turned to run away. Claire had just aged 70 years; the Purple Dragon became 99 years old.
Thecker dumped a potion down the fallen Sajin's throat to revive the assassin, while Kara polished off the ogre. One of the spirits possessed Kara, while another tried and failed to possess Thecker. The spirit made Kara attack Mezzem, and the priestess went down. Sajin surveyed the battle, and decided to run away instead of helping his comrades. A blur shot past me as I ran to the stairs- I couldn't stop shaking with fear as I ran to escape this tomb.
Mezzem somehow was able to come to, and she crawled over to Thecker's unconscious body, reviving her just in time- had she waited a moment longer, the gnome would likely have died. Mezzem took stock of their injuries and began healing them with the little magic she had left in her that day. I emerged from the tomb on Sajin's heels, just as he announced to Annarei that there were ghosts behind us. The princess swore and summoned a vrock- I don't know why she didn't just do that to begin with. Kara came out of the tomb next and stalked toward me- she stabbed me.
I felt a pressure on my mind as something attempted to take hold of it, and was suddenly no longer in control of my body. Claire was possessed, again. Sajin destroyed the mummy's spirit once it came out of its tomb, but Claire and Kara were still possessed. He then knocked both of them unconscious, expelling the ghosts within them, who found themselves unable to seize another body. With the help of Annarei's people, the ghosts were taken out.
Mezzem emerged from the tomb just in time to revive Claire and Kara- Claire had been sitting on the brink of true death.
***** Flamerule 14
The princess invited us to spend the day in her garden recuperating from yesterday's fight. It was a much needed, very welcome rest. I received a potion of longevity from Thecker, which took me down to my 70's, I think. Then Kara planted some magic beans, and one produced a tree that brought me closer to my 50's, I think. I really hate the fucking Underdark.
Annarei did offer to petition to her Dark Prince to assist me, and restore me to the proper age, but I couldn't make a deal of that kind. It was wrong to make any sort of deal with any sort of devil, regardless of how much I hated being my mother's age.
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| Photo from Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast
*Author's note: Many of the events, locations and characters that occur in this story are from the Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast.
The Wicked Garden is from Journey Through the Center of the Underdark by Tony Petrecca, and can be found on the DM's Guild. Anything with an asterisk next to it is a quote from there. |
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