Gracklstugh, the City of Blades Part 2:
The Whorlstone Tunnels: Buppido's Shrine and the Massacre of the Myconids
The Whorlstone Tunnels: Buppido's Shrine and the Massacre of the Myconids
Dramatis Personae:
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress who injures the party almost as much as the enemies
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian
Fidget Stonegear, the Deep Gnome Inventor
Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee who has another presence in her head
Topsy and Turvy, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter and Orvald's wife
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian who can't take anything seriously
Stool, the Myconid Child
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube
Ol' Sparky, the "blind" Derro Beggar with a magic cane
Codsworth, the polite Flumph
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child
Ol' Sparky, the "blind" Derro Beggar with a magic cane
Codsworth, the polite Flumph
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child
Contacts in Gracklstugh:
Ylsa Henstak, duergar merchant
Errde Blackskull, the captain of the Stone Guard
Gartokkar Xundorn, the leader of the Keepers of the Flame
Themberchaud the Wyrmsmith, the adult red dragon who keeps the forges burning
Comrades we have lost:
Ront, the Orc Fighter- turned into hamburger by Pwent
Buppido, the Derro- left with duergar merchants
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
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished in a puff of smoke and brimstone
Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer- parted with group in Gracklstugh
Quests in Gracklstugh:
Find out how the derro are getting surface coin and jewelry for Ylsa in exchange for directions to Blingdenstone.
Meet with Errde as soon as business with the Keepers of the Flame is concluded.
Comply with whatever the Keepers of the Flame ask, but report everything to Themberchaud first.
Find the Gray Ghosts, confirm their involvement in the disturbance, and bring their magic to Gartokkar.
Find Pelek's hand and lay it to rest in Blingdenstone.
Friendly fire overall: 38
Friendly fire dealt by Aura: 16
Party members killed: 8
Overall party members lost: 12
Derro killed: 41
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Lythana's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the hunter can't be everywhere at once.
***** Kythorn 11, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)
After spending several days collecting debts owed to Mephisto, Zarrus was sent to an empty room in Ghohlbrorn's Lair in Gracklstugh- the inn the rest of the party had been lodging in.
I woke up to the sounds of fighting coming from the common room, and hurried out with swords in hand to see what the fuss was about. There was a group of derro tearing up the common room, likely in retaliation for the airhead killing Droki. Orvald came up to the room and shouted at them to stop, which resulted in three of the fuckers charging at him- one of them was instantly killed by the mouse. Aura turned the other two into ice statues- without hitting Orvald. Another pair of derro killed a patron of the inn, who had the misfortune of choosing to have breakfast shortly before the attack; Orvald and Pwent were on it in a second, and the barbarians made short work of him. I saw a couple of them hurl bottles at Elle, which thankfully missed, and before either of us could respond, Aura killed them off.
Turns out there was a full scale riot in the streets, with derro everywhere. Before we could sort out anything, we heard "a thundering roar and the sound of crumbling rock."* We turned to see "a two-headed, gray-skinned giant burst through a gate, howling madly and lashing out left and right, littering the plaza with rock and stone debris. As he bellowed, one of his swings connected with a duergar soldier, whose broken body flew through the air and crashed near us with a sickening crunch."* Orvald embedded his dagger in the giant's chest, while I rushed forward, slashing my palm to activate a blood rite as I went. Just as I reached the giant, his fist slammed into me, knocking the breath from my lungs momentarily. Aura threw a bolt of electricity at the giant, hitting Orvald too- fucking airhead. the blast knocked the giant unconscious, and it died quickly.
Another giant came through the gates as the first fell, and hurriedly conferred with the guards about what the fuck had just happened. He gathered the heads of his fallen brethren, and left the way he'd come, shaking his head sadly. Orvald heard the giant muttering to himself about the Stonespeaker not being happy that another giant had died.
With the insane giant disposed of, we were able to turn our attention back to the riot, which seemed to have paused during the giant's assault. The derro swarmed out of the buildings, all of them seemed to be coming right for us. We hacked through the little bastards in a matter of seconds, they provided no challenge for us whatsoever; I killed twice the number Pwent did, he challenged me so of course I had to win. After we surveyed the carnage of that mess, we decided it was time to get back to the West Cleft District, and see what was beyond the fissure Sparky had shown us yesterday.
The gate to West Cleft was slightly ajar, and the area was eerily quiet- it seemed deserted. We couldn't have possibly killed all of the derro that lived in this district. Elle asked the twins to check the gates for traps, the pregnant silence made it feel like we were walking into our doom. The jackasses set off a bunch of firecrackers at Elle's feet- didn't hurt her, but my Sister was not pleased- especially when I started laughing along with them. As we walked through the open gate, we saw the bodies from last night were still strewn about the street, but they had all been stripped, and their entrails were hanging out- the derro had salvaged what they could of their fallen kin, and eaten the rest. I fucking hate derro.
Sparky was not waiting for us at the entrance to the tunnels like he was supposed to be, so we went in blindly without him. We walked into a cavern that was lined with stalagmites and stalactites, with water dripping from them to form small pools. "The glow of faerzress casts an eerie soft light across this cavern, swirling into spiral patterns lining the walls. The air smells and tastes slightly metallic, and the sound around us is strangely muted. The dripping of water makes no echo, as if we stood in open air."* This place was fucking creepy. We decided to fan out to explore.
I spotted three yellow quaggoths- I've never seen them come in yellow before- in a small trench which I promptly fell into. I landed on my feet, which would have made me feel better if yellow spores hadn't ballooned out of them on collision- poisoning Elle. One of them made a swipe at me, while another tripped, and the third lashed out at Elle. With each move they released more of those stupid yellow spores, and I saw Elle fall.
Aura threw one of her stupid ice knives at them, and more spores erupted, hitting both Elle and I. The spider kisser dumped a potion down Elle's throat and drug my Sister away from the toxic quaggoths. Orvald leapt into the trench, and another cloud went up- this one poisoning poor Stool. Pwent followed him into the fray. Zarrus threw a bolt of flames at one of them, and all of the mold on it burned up- we had to set the assholes on fire. Fidget took Stool to safety, and discovered the myconid was on the brink of death, he quickly healed the sprout.
I tore into one with my blades and it fell, but the cloud that erupted from it hit me hard- I felt myself falling, then I knew darkness. Zenit frantically tried to set one of them on fire with her flint and steel- she failed, so Orvald took it from her and managed to get that one burning. I felt the warmth of Elle's healing course through me as I came to my senses. I saw a rock cave in the head of one of the quaggoths, and it knocked its friend over as it went down- the cloud hit me hard again, and down I went- though I don't think I was out for long, since I came to in time to watch Orvald set the dead one on fire... those fucking spores hit me again, and I felt myself slip back into blackness. The next time I came to they were all dead and Fidget had wandered off.
Fidget found Sparky just around the corner, filthier than ever; while derro was using an illusion to appear sparkly clean, the svirfneblin saw right through it- though he didn't bother to tell anyone. Fidget decided he needed to harvest some of that fucking mold for bombs, and asked Aura to create a breeze that would push them into a bedroll that was inside of a tent- that was his version of containment. That backfired, and the spores hurt not just Fidget, but also Aura and Orvald. The mouse snapped and completely went off on the inventor- it was really funny. He told the gnome that if he wanted the spores, he had to harvest them himself, then he stormed off in anger.
While Fidget worked on his stupid spore collecting, the rest of us moved a little further into the cavern to rest, and get the fuck away from any accidents he would create. The glowing patterns of the faerzress crystals made me dizzy, and I couldn't quite keep my balance. Pwent suddenly started laughing hysterically at nothing- I think the poor dwarf lost his mind. He lost the ability to take anything seriously, and the more serious something is, the more hilarious it is to him.
Fidget rigged up the spore pack with a grapple hook so it could be moved without anyone touching it directly. There was a small patch left on the ground, and he called for someone to burn it away- the twins quickly obliged. Somehow, even though Orvald had just told Fidget he wouldn't help, the svirfneblin got Orvald to carry the venomous bundle. We all made sure to get clear of that. Of course I wasn't surprised when the mouse dropped the stupid pack, and it exploded- badly injuring himself. After that nonsense, we all decided we needed to rest in the cavern- but Orvald wandered off to explore instead.
Orvald found a small, narrow crack in the wall of the cavern, with a ton of mushrooms surrounding it. The crack was the one that the party had just come through, but the mousefolk had gotten turned around in his anger, and didn't realize it until he slipped through it. He looked around a bit more, and found something shiny sitting in the spore patch- a buckler that was completely intact. After a moment it shrunk to fit the mousefolk.
Aura randomly decided it would be a good idea to eat some mushrooms we couldn't identify- the one that looks like a human tongue- and as soon as she swallowed began talking to herself. After she finished rambling to herself, Sparky demanded his promised reward- sex. Aura went back and forth with the derro for a couple of minutes on the subject, before she finally decided that she would go through with it. Eew. They started walking away and completely vanished. After an hour they came back, and while Aura's memory was hazy, she was pleasantly surprised by the encounter.
We began heading into the next cavern, and were greeted to "a stench of rotting meat... The floor was carpeted with humanoid remains in varying stages of decomposition, arranged in a spiral pattern around the cave's center. An off-key humming came from a hunched humanoid figure working busily at something on the floor.
'Oh, there you are!' The figure is Buppido, [I learned later that he was someone who had escaped the drow camp with the others]. He wiped his hands on his vest and smiled viciously. 'I didn't expect you to find me here, with my shrine nearly finished! And power! My faithful are finally honoring me! Are you...? Yes. Yes, I sense that you are ready to receive my truth into your hearts!'"* Orvald decided to play along with this insane derro, the others seemed to know. Every corpse in the room had been a sacrifice he made to gain power. The spiral pattern in the room looked similar to the pattern the faerzress produced in the room we had just come from.
Orvald told him we were just going to get him some more sacrifices, and turned to leave when the room flared with power. The mouse leapt across the room and knocked Buppido out instantly. Sparky whirled his cane around and a spectral mule-like creature landed on the derro's body. It looked like Orvald had killed Buppido, but the spiral was still glowing with power. I watched in horror as the derro stood up, and sprouted another head. All around us zombies rose with him, and they all had two heads- one of them was a fucking ogre. When Orvald killed Buppido the first time, he provided the last sacrifice the derro needed to increase his power.
As one, the zombies swarmed Orvald, trying to protect their God. He dropped one zombie quickly, but it kept getting back up. I ran forward and hacked one of the nasty undead to pieces, while Orvald made Buppido fall again- though knocking the derro down didn't stop the zombies. Sparky whirled his cane around and all of Buppido's wounds dried out- he had cast a blight on the derro to keep him down. The zombies kept coming at Orvald, while in front of me the ogre ripped its own arm off and attempted to use it to club Pwent- its hand slipped and I got hit with the arm instead. Zarrus launched a fireball at Orvald, and killed all of the zombies around him- the mouse didn't seem to be phased by it. Pwent and I hacked laboriously at the damned ogre while the others finished off the rest of the brood. Pwent and I got trapped in a web that Sparky loosed from his stupid cane, and the ogre's fucking arm animated and grabbed my thigh... That fucking hurt. The spider kisser finished off the ogre, but the severed arm kept squeezing me. Zarrus loosed some magic that ended that. Ow.
Before we were able to really collect ourselves from that battle- have I mentioned ow?- a fucking ghost popped up in the middle of the spiral. He said his name was Pelek, and that he had been traveling from Blingdenstone when Buppido came across him. The derro had killed the svirfneblin not terribly long ago, and hacked him into pieces to become part of the shrine. Pelek asked us to take one or more pieces of him to Blingdenstone, and lay them to rest so his soul could move on; the problem was that there were so many parts of various creatures we couldn't tell what was his. He recalled a strange magic that animated his hand and it wandered off- but he couldn't tell us which way the hand went. Pelek asked us to look for his hand- which we would know was his because of an obsidian ring. We told the poor soul that we would try to find his hand. I looked around a bit, but there was too much gore for me to find the prints of one tiny gnome hand.
As we left the carnage behind, a voice rang out in all of our heads, saying "You can help!" A flumph emerged from the shadows beyond, and introduced himself to us as Codsworth. He told us he had been following the telepathic energies of derro cultists in the cavern system, and wanted our help to stop them from whatever it was they were doing. "They must be stopped," he told us- I'm not sure what they were up to, but we seemed to be here to kill derro anyways. We asked if he'd seen Pelek's hand, and Codsworth said he had, it was near where the cultists were. He asked if he could accompany us, which we agreed to, though he tended to stick closer to myself, Aura, and Elle- the others were too douchey for him I guess.
With that settled we continued on "the tunnel opened into a natural cave, wherein we saw several fungal creatures dancing to a silent tune. Three of them stood five feet tall, while the others were half as tall. One of the small ones from the rest, its movements not nearly as frantic. Hunched nearby were two larger creatures that resembled apes covered with mushroom growths and yellow mold."* Great, more fucking moldy quaggoths. Stool pointed out to us that myconids don't dance, and said the one who wasn't dancing was his friend, Rumpadump, from the Neverlight Grove. The sprout was completely mortified that his kin was dancing. Codsworth told us they were his associates. Fidget heard the silent tune the myconids danced to, and began resisting the urge to join them.
They all seemed too caught up in their dancing to notice us, until Fidget announced he needed to save them from the music, and shot Rumpadump with his grappling hook- knocking him unconscious- Elle revived him instantly. Of course they responded to our attack with violence of their own- and telepathically projected the pain of their fallen friend onto Fidget as punishment- Stool was close enough to feel it too, and the poor boy winced in pain. One of the quaggoths slammed into Fidget, releasing a cloud of yellow mold- which hurt poor Stool badly enough that he fell unconscious as well.
A wisp of light came from the tip of Sparky's cane, and Zenit crumbled to the ground- I think he just killed the bitch. At the sight of this, Orvald's mind cracked, and he became revolved by Sparky for the next 9 hours, and was compelled to run away from him whenever he could see him. The twins were nowhere to be seen, and Zarrus set fire to the mold on one of the quaggoths. Aura, Elle, and I were yelling at the others to stop, but no one would listen to us. Fidget froze, stunned by one of the myconids, while Orvald threw himself at Sparky. This was becoming a fucking madhouse. I killed one of the quaggoths, since they weren't victims in this like the mushrooms were.
Aura revived poor Stool, and just as he came to, another spore cloud knocked him out again; Elle revived him that time. Zarrus burned away more spores, and I got hit by a psychic blast that stopped me in my tracks. Sparky woke the spider kisser up- apparently he had only hit her with a spell that fakes death- dammit. Orvald, seeing his love revived, slayed one of the myconids. For some fucking reason, the airhead decided to attack the shrooms, even though they only seemed to be attacking those of us who had harmed them, and screamed "stop!" Of course they reciprocated her assault, while a spectral horse came out of Sparky's cane... He's fucking weird. Elle finished off the last quaggoth, while Orvald and Pwent killed the last two adult myconids. The sprouts began running away, even Rumpadump. Elle went after Rumpadump, and Sparky hit him with a spell to hold him in place until she could get to him.
The rest of the sprouts ran into the small mushroom patch in the room, and Fidget felt compelled to follow them. They vanished as they reached the patch, and the moment Fidget got there, I heard him chant something and vanish too. Fidget had transported through the mushroom into another cavern where the sprouts had escaped to. That was a really weird fight.
*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. Anything with an asterisk next to it is a quote from the book.
Quests in Gracklstugh:
Find out how the derro are getting surface coin and jewelry for Ylsa in exchange for directions to Blingdenstone.
Meet with Errde as soon as business with the Keepers of the Flame is concluded.
Comply with whatever the Keepers of the Flame ask, but report everything to Themberchaud first.
Find the Gray Ghosts, confirm their involvement in the disturbance, and bring their magic to Gartokkar.
Find Pelek's hand and lay it to rest in Blingdenstone.
Friendly fire overall: 38
Friendly fire dealt by Aura: 16
Party members killed: 8
Overall party members lost: 12
Derro killed: 41
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Lythana's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the hunter can't be everywhere at once.
***** Kythorn 11, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)
After spending several days collecting debts owed to Mephisto, Zarrus was sent to an empty room in Ghohlbrorn's Lair in Gracklstugh- the inn the rest of the party had been lodging in.
I woke up to the sounds of fighting coming from the common room, and hurried out with swords in hand to see what the fuss was about. There was a group of derro tearing up the common room, likely in retaliation for the airhead killing Droki. Orvald came up to the room and shouted at them to stop, which resulted in three of the fuckers charging at him- one of them was instantly killed by the mouse. Aura turned the other two into ice statues- without hitting Orvald. Another pair of derro killed a patron of the inn, who had the misfortune of choosing to have breakfast shortly before the attack; Orvald and Pwent were on it in a second, and the barbarians made short work of him. I saw a couple of them hurl bottles at Elle, which thankfully missed, and before either of us could respond, Aura killed them off.
Turns out there was a full scale riot in the streets, with derro everywhere. Before we could sort out anything, we heard "a thundering roar and the sound of crumbling rock."* We turned to see "a two-headed, gray-skinned giant burst through a gate, howling madly and lashing out left and right, littering the plaza with rock and stone debris. As he bellowed, one of his swings connected with a duergar soldier, whose broken body flew through the air and crashed near us with a sickening crunch."* Orvald embedded his dagger in the giant's chest, while I rushed forward, slashing my palm to activate a blood rite as I went. Just as I reached the giant, his fist slammed into me, knocking the breath from my lungs momentarily. Aura threw a bolt of electricity at the giant, hitting Orvald too- fucking airhead. the blast knocked the giant unconscious, and it died quickly.
Another giant came through the gates as the first fell, and hurriedly conferred with the guards about what the fuck had just happened. He gathered the heads of his fallen brethren, and left the way he'd come, shaking his head sadly. Orvald heard the giant muttering to himself about the Stonespeaker not being happy that another giant had died.
With the insane giant disposed of, we were able to turn our attention back to the riot, which seemed to have paused during the giant's assault. The derro swarmed out of the buildings, all of them seemed to be coming right for us. We hacked through the little bastards in a matter of seconds, they provided no challenge for us whatsoever; I killed twice the number Pwent did, he challenged me so of course I had to win. After we surveyed the carnage of that mess, we decided it was time to get back to the West Cleft District, and see what was beyond the fissure Sparky had shown us yesterday.
The gate to West Cleft was slightly ajar, and the area was eerily quiet- it seemed deserted. We couldn't have possibly killed all of the derro that lived in this district. Elle asked the twins to check the gates for traps, the pregnant silence made it feel like we were walking into our doom. The jackasses set off a bunch of firecrackers at Elle's feet- didn't hurt her, but my Sister was not pleased- especially when I started laughing along with them. As we walked through the open gate, we saw the bodies from last night were still strewn about the street, but they had all been stripped, and their entrails were hanging out- the derro had salvaged what they could of their fallen kin, and eaten the rest. I fucking hate derro.
Sparky was not waiting for us at the entrance to the tunnels like he was supposed to be, so we went in blindly without him. We walked into a cavern that was lined with stalagmites and stalactites, with water dripping from them to form small pools. "The glow of faerzress casts an eerie soft light across this cavern, swirling into spiral patterns lining the walls. The air smells and tastes slightly metallic, and the sound around us is strangely muted. The dripping of water makes no echo, as if we stood in open air."* This place was fucking creepy. We decided to fan out to explore.
I spotted three yellow quaggoths- I've never seen them come in yellow before- in a small trench which I promptly fell into. I landed on my feet, which would have made me feel better if yellow spores hadn't ballooned out of them on collision- poisoning Elle. One of them made a swipe at me, while another tripped, and the third lashed out at Elle. With each move they released more of those stupid yellow spores, and I saw Elle fall.
Aura threw one of her stupid ice knives at them, and more spores erupted, hitting both Elle and I. The spider kisser dumped a potion down Elle's throat and drug my Sister away from the toxic quaggoths. Orvald leapt into the trench, and another cloud went up- this one poisoning poor Stool. Pwent followed him into the fray. Zarrus threw a bolt of flames at one of them, and all of the mold on it burned up- we had to set the assholes on fire. Fidget took Stool to safety, and discovered the myconid was on the brink of death, he quickly healed the sprout.
I tore into one with my blades and it fell, but the cloud that erupted from it hit me hard- I felt myself falling, then I knew darkness. Zenit frantically tried to set one of them on fire with her flint and steel- she failed, so Orvald took it from her and managed to get that one burning. I felt the warmth of Elle's healing course through me as I came to my senses. I saw a rock cave in the head of one of the quaggoths, and it knocked its friend over as it went down- the cloud hit me hard again, and down I went- though I don't think I was out for long, since I came to in time to watch Orvald set the dead one on fire... those fucking spores hit me again, and I felt myself slip back into blackness. The next time I came to they were all dead and Fidget had wandered off.
Fidget found Sparky just around the corner, filthier than ever; while derro was using an illusion to appear sparkly clean, the svirfneblin saw right through it- though he didn't bother to tell anyone. Fidget decided he needed to harvest some of that fucking mold for bombs, and asked Aura to create a breeze that would push them into a bedroll that was inside of a tent- that was his version of containment. That backfired, and the spores hurt not just Fidget, but also Aura and Orvald. The mouse snapped and completely went off on the inventor- it was really funny. He told the gnome that if he wanted the spores, he had to harvest them himself, then he stormed off in anger.
While Fidget worked on his stupid spore collecting, the rest of us moved a little further into the cavern to rest, and get the fuck away from any accidents he would create. The glowing patterns of the faerzress crystals made me dizzy, and I couldn't quite keep my balance. Pwent suddenly started laughing hysterically at nothing- I think the poor dwarf lost his mind. He lost the ability to take anything seriously, and the more serious something is, the more hilarious it is to him.
Fidget rigged up the spore pack with a grapple hook so it could be moved without anyone touching it directly. There was a small patch left on the ground, and he called for someone to burn it away- the twins quickly obliged. Somehow, even though Orvald had just told Fidget he wouldn't help, the svirfneblin got Orvald to carry the venomous bundle. We all made sure to get clear of that. Of course I wasn't surprised when the mouse dropped the stupid pack, and it exploded- badly injuring himself. After that nonsense, we all decided we needed to rest in the cavern- but Orvald wandered off to explore instead.
Orvald found a small, narrow crack in the wall of the cavern, with a ton of mushrooms surrounding it. The crack was the one that the party had just come through, but the mousefolk had gotten turned around in his anger, and didn't realize it until he slipped through it. He looked around a bit more, and found something shiny sitting in the spore patch- a buckler that was completely intact. After a moment it shrunk to fit the mousefolk.
Aura randomly decided it would be a good idea to eat some mushrooms we couldn't identify- the one that looks like a human tongue- and as soon as she swallowed began talking to herself. After she finished rambling to herself, Sparky demanded his promised reward- sex. Aura went back and forth with the derro for a couple of minutes on the subject, before she finally decided that she would go through with it. Eew. They started walking away and completely vanished. After an hour they came back, and while Aura's memory was hazy, she was pleasantly surprised by the encounter.
We began heading into the next cavern, and were greeted to "a stench of rotting meat... The floor was carpeted with humanoid remains in varying stages of decomposition, arranged in a spiral pattern around the cave's center. An off-key humming came from a hunched humanoid figure working busily at something on the floor.
'Oh, there you are!' The figure is Buppido, [I learned later that he was someone who had escaped the drow camp with the others]. He wiped his hands on his vest and smiled viciously. 'I didn't expect you to find me here, with my shrine nearly finished! And power! My faithful are finally honoring me! Are you...? Yes. Yes, I sense that you are ready to receive my truth into your hearts!'"* Orvald decided to play along with this insane derro, the others seemed to know. Every corpse in the room had been a sacrifice he made to gain power. The spiral pattern in the room looked similar to the pattern the faerzress produced in the room we had just come from.
Orvald told him we were just going to get him some more sacrifices, and turned to leave when the room flared with power. The mouse leapt across the room and knocked Buppido out instantly. Sparky whirled his cane around and a spectral mule-like creature landed on the derro's body. It looked like Orvald had killed Buppido, but the spiral was still glowing with power. I watched in horror as the derro stood up, and sprouted another head. All around us zombies rose with him, and they all had two heads- one of them was a fucking ogre. When Orvald killed Buppido the first time, he provided the last sacrifice the derro needed to increase his power.
As one, the zombies swarmed Orvald, trying to protect their God. He dropped one zombie quickly, but it kept getting back up. I ran forward and hacked one of the nasty undead to pieces, while Orvald made Buppido fall again- though knocking the derro down didn't stop the zombies. Sparky whirled his cane around and all of Buppido's wounds dried out- he had cast a blight on the derro to keep him down. The zombies kept coming at Orvald, while in front of me the ogre ripped its own arm off and attempted to use it to club Pwent- its hand slipped and I got hit with the arm instead. Zarrus launched a fireball at Orvald, and killed all of the zombies around him- the mouse didn't seem to be phased by it. Pwent and I hacked laboriously at the damned ogre while the others finished off the rest of the brood. Pwent and I got trapped in a web that Sparky loosed from his stupid cane, and the ogre's fucking arm animated and grabbed my thigh... That fucking hurt. The spider kisser finished off the ogre, but the severed arm kept squeezing me. Zarrus loosed some magic that ended that. Ow.
Before we were able to really collect ourselves from that battle- have I mentioned ow?- a fucking ghost popped up in the middle of the spiral. He said his name was Pelek, and that he had been traveling from Blingdenstone when Buppido came across him. The derro had killed the svirfneblin not terribly long ago, and hacked him into pieces to become part of the shrine. Pelek asked us to take one or more pieces of him to Blingdenstone, and lay them to rest so his soul could move on; the problem was that there were so many parts of various creatures we couldn't tell what was his. He recalled a strange magic that animated his hand and it wandered off- but he couldn't tell us which way the hand went. Pelek asked us to look for his hand- which we would know was his because of an obsidian ring. We told the poor soul that we would try to find his hand. I looked around a bit, but there was too much gore for me to find the prints of one tiny gnome hand.
As we left the carnage behind, a voice rang out in all of our heads, saying "You can help!" A flumph emerged from the shadows beyond, and introduced himself to us as Codsworth. He told us he had been following the telepathic energies of derro cultists in the cavern system, and wanted our help to stop them from whatever it was they were doing. "They must be stopped," he told us- I'm not sure what they were up to, but we seemed to be here to kill derro anyways. We asked if he'd seen Pelek's hand, and Codsworth said he had, it was near where the cultists were. He asked if he could accompany us, which we agreed to, though he tended to stick closer to myself, Aura, and Elle- the others were too douchey for him I guess.
With that settled we continued on "the tunnel opened into a natural cave, wherein we saw several fungal creatures dancing to a silent tune. Three of them stood five feet tall, while the others were half as tall. One of the small ones from the rest, its movements not nearly as frantic. Hunched nearby were two larger creatures that resembled apes covered with mushroom growths and yellow mold."* Great, more fucking moldy quaggoths. Stool pointed out to us that myconids don't dance, and said the one who wasn't dancing was his friend, Rumpadump, from the Neverlight Grove. The sprout was completely mortified that his kin was dancing. Codsworth told us they were his associates. Fidget heard the silent tune the myconids danced to, and began resisting the urge to join them.
They all seemed too caught up in their dancing to notice us, until Fidget announced he needed to save them from the music, and shot Rumpadump with his grappling hook- knocking him unconscious- Elle revived him instantly. Of course they responded to our attack with violence of their own- and telepathically projected the pain of their fallen friend onto Fidget as punishment- Stool was close enough to feel it too, and the poor boy winced in pain. One of the quaggoths slammed into Fidget, releasing a cloud of yellow mold- which hurt poor Stool badly enough that he fell unconscious as well.
A wisp of light came from the tip of Sparky's cane, and Zenit crumbled to the ground- I think he just killed the bitch. At the sight of this, Orvald's mind cracked, and he became revolved by Sparky for the next 9 hours, and was compelled to run away from him whenever he could see him. The twins were nowhere to be seen, and Zarrus set fire to the mold on one of the quaggoths. Aura, Elle, and I were yelling at the others to stop, but no one would listen to us. Fidget froze, stunned by one of the myconids, while Orvald threw himself at Sparky. This was becoming a fucking madhouse. I killed one of the quaggoths, since they weren't victims in this like the mushrooms were.
Aura revived poor Stool, and just as he came to, another spore cloud knocked him out again; Elle revived him that time. Zarrus burned away more spores, and I got hit by a psychic blast that stopped me in my tracks. Sparky woke the spider kisser up- apparently he had only hit her with a spell that fakes death- dammit. Orvald, seeing his love revived, slayed one of the myconids. For some fucking reason, the airhead decided to attack the shrooms, even though they only seemed to be attacking those of us who had harmed them, and screamed "stop!" Of course they reciprocated her assault, while a spectral horse came out of Sparky's cane... He's fucking weird. Elle finished off the last quaggoth, while Orvald and Pwent killed the last two adult myconids. The sprouts began running away, even Rumpadump. Elle went after Rumpadump, and Sparky hit him with a spell to hold him in place until she could get to him.
The rest of the sprouts ran into the small mushroom patch in the room, and Fidget felt compelled to follow them. They vanished as they reached the patch, and the moment Fidget got there, I heard him chant something and vanish too. Fidget had transported through the mushroom into another cavern where the sprouts had escaped to. That was a really weird fight.
 |
| Photo from Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast |
 |
| Photo from Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast |
No comments:
Post a Comment