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Monday, February 20, 2017

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

Into the Abyss Part 2:
Bounties Hunted

Dramatis Personae:
Lady Claire Callalily Thundersword-Petunia, the Human Wererat Swordcaptain of the Purple Dragon Knights
Riddle, Claire's baby basilisk
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Urthstripe, Claire's Alabaster Badger Figurine
Rosebud Goldenrod Petunia, the Halftaur Wererat Berserker, "The Destroyer;" who sees magic where there is none and collects things that aren't there
Lily Trillium Petunia, the Green Dragonborn Lore Bard, and mother of the Petunia clan; champion of the Living Dungeon
Astrid Oleander Rockham-Petunia, the Longstrider Shifter Evocation Wizard
Calipso, Astrid's Lizard Familiar
Kazul, the Copper  Platinum Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut who has fallen from grace
Seluna, the Moon Elf Drow Totem Warrior Circle of the Moon Druid and Silverstar of Selûne
Geophry Cherry Blossom Petunia, the chair that used to be a boy
Flimflam Pebblehead-Petunia, the Deep Gnome Selkie Arcanist who has to collect everything he finds
Alfalfa Cover Petunia, the Halftaur "Crocling" Wererat Fighter, formerly Rosebud's other half who can't take anything seriously and thinks he's the greatest at everything

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 met group briefly on route to Mantol Derith for trade
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 attacked the party at a gateway they found
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter- abandoned the party because Orvald died last seen in Bahamutsville attacked the party at a gateway they found
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- big badda boom 
Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon- bigger badda boom
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube- stayed with the kobolds
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Wererat Champion from the Zhentarim- vorpaled to pieces by demon Easter bunnies
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child- frozen by demon Easter bunny was raised by Mezzem and went missing, it is believed that Stool ate him
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Wererat Assassin- got stoned and kissed a pretty Medusa
Yklwa, Tali's Deinonychus animal companion- devoured by corbies
Natali, the Tiger Therinthrope Beastmaster- wished herself home
Roswyn Darkshooter, the Deep Gnome Delver- grick kibble
Mezzem, the Kobold Wererat Priestess of Bahamut- stayed in Blingdenstone
Vadania Nailaza, the Wild Elf Oakroot of Rillifane Rallathil- dust in the wind
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Wererat Gunslinger and Inquisitor of Bahamut- retired in Blingdenstone
Stool, the Myconid Child- stayed in Blingdenstone
Galothel Nightbreeze, the Moon Elf Alchemist- MIA after the Battle of Blingdenstone
Topsy and Turvy Goldwhiskers, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins- stayed in Blingdenstone
Twyla Alderleaf, the Moon Elf Scout- MIA after Astrid's wish
Mithrilye, the Sun Elf Entertainer who will do anything to achieve her goals, and believes that anything that can bring her pleasure should be enjoyed immediately, not saved until later- MIA after Astrid's wish, believed to be trapped in the Abyss
Niles Rubusthorn, the Moon Elf Shadow Dancer- stayed on the Material Plane
Amin of Citadel Adbar, the Shield Dwarf Alchemist- stayed on the Material Plane
Lith, the Bronze Dragonborn Scholar- stayed on the Material Plane
Fitzzle, Lith's violet faerie dragon familiar- stayed on the Material Plane
Arwenel, the Elf Scholar- stayed on the Material Plane

Friendly Fire: 296
Overall party members lost: 39

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.

***** Nightal 9, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), Azzagrat, 45th Layer

       When we'd finished resting, Momma decided to let Not-Kazul out of his flask to see if he could figure out what's wrong with her. She looked at us all dully, as if she wasn't entirely registering us; she was completely impassive, and when Momma brought up Bahamut, she shrugged and said she guessed he was her God. Momma told her to use her acid breath, and it was a really weak spray; after that Momma used the spell that gives him information and came to the conclusion that Not-Kazul had fallen for killing the unicorn, and Bahamut was punishing her by revoking her powers. That explained why her scales looked tarnished.

       While Momma debated on what to do with Not-Kazul, Rosebud began yelling at Flimflam, demanding he shift into his seal form. He shifted and threw a bolt of flame at Rosebud. My crazy halftaur brother then picked Flimflam up and began running in a circle with him- creating a circle of seal shit. Flimflam was cussing him out the entire time; it was hilarious, and a wonderful distraction from Not-Kazul, who Momma had decided could stay out of the flask.

       We'd been traveling for about half an hour when we heard a vrock screech. Rosebud decided to lead it away from us, by making false tracks for it to follow and concealing our actual tracks.

***** Nightal 10, Azzagrat, 45th Layer

       After about eight hours of travel we were actually able to make out the shapes of the trees; we'd be entering the forest soon, we hoped. Then we heard the sound of vrocks coming from all angles. Momma told us to gather in close so he could drop a Hut on us, and to only step out of it if we had a clear shot.

       Vrocks began to surround us, and their screeches stunned most of us. I started chucking my javelin at one of them, and Rosebud finished it with a toss of his hammer. Then dretches began pouring out of the woods and another vrock swooped in with a screech. Flimflam cast something at it that looked like a beam of pure sunlight, then a phantom carrion crawler appeared next to Flimflam, apparently it was his steed now. Magic is fucking weird. Flimflam's beam didn't kill the vrock, and it managed to poison Astrid before flying back up; Rosebud and I hit it, but apparently we didn't hit it quite hard enough this time.

       The dretches released clouds of poison too, hitting Astrid and Geophry as they began to surround us. Not-Kazul moved to start pounding on the dretches, but she stumbled instead and three of them ripped into her. She's definitely Not-Kazul. Flimflam banished another vrock to the Celestial Plane, and Momma yelled that we needed to get rid of the damn dretches before he could put up the Hut. Alfie actually managed to stab one of them, and Astrid released a spell that looked like a rainbow- which killed the three in front of her. Rosebud and I finished off the last six of them.

       Suddenly Rosebud was unable to move, vrocks can't do that so we must have another enemy we haven't seen yet. Shit. Then Astrid released that rainbow spell again, only this time it was aimed at me, Rosebud, and Not-Kazul; something was controlling her. We still didn't see anything to attack, so Flimflam used a spell to try to clear the poisonous cloud that was still lurking near us. Flimflam turned to us and unleashed a group of multicolored beams at us. Geophry vanished, Astrid was hit with fire, Alfie was struck with poison, and I was struck by acid and cold, and I was suddenly exhausted again, and could not stand without something to lean on.

       Then I was engulfed in flames as Astrid dropped a fireball on me and everything went dark. Lily was charmed by the unseen enemies and told Rosebud that Claire had turned on them and he needed to bind her. Seluna realized what was happening and charmed Lily, overriding the charm the unseen foes had cast; she told Lily to break the enchantments on the others. Flimflam summoned two Hands, going for Rosebud and Lily; he missed the halftaur, but managed to scoop up his adopted mother. 

       Alfie shot his blowgun at Astrid and she went down; he went to retrieve the dart, and somehow managed to completely kill her in the process of removing it. Rosebud had been ordered to stabilize Claire, but keep her subdued; he gave her a potion and whacked her on the temple to keep her unconscious. Lily tried frantically to break the charms on the group, but so far it didn't seem to be working. Flimflam managed to grab and pin Seluna with his Hand, and Rosebud had Alfie in a hold he couldn't break. 

       Kazul ignored the plight of her companions and decided to head for the trees, which attacked her. The monk responded by setting one on fire; she had entered the Viper Forest. Kazul continued trekking through the forest, killing any tree that attacked her- and many of them did. 

      The unseen assailants finally began appearing, it was a group of cambions. Seluna shifted into a huge dinosaur and hit one of the cambion so hard with her tail it dropped. Another cambion went for Lily, with Rosebud's help; but Lily escaped the moment he was hit. Seluna hit the other cambion and it fell to its knees. Lily realized one of them wasn't actually down, it was awake and attempting to subtly cast a spell. 

       One of the cambions decided to head into the forest to go for Kazul, who was still ignoring the battle behind her in favor of killing trees. The cambion did some serious damage to the monk, and she attempted to hide from him in a bush- that was full of thorns. 

       Seluna was faced with little choice other than to beat on Rosebud; still under the charm, he could drop everyone who was still up. Lily pulled out his iron flask and put Rosebud in it, while Seluna worked on killing the cambions. Between the two of them, they managed to drop the three cambions.

       Lily cast a spell to revive everyone, but before the spell went off, a small hole appeared at his feet- which stopped the spell. Another appeared at Seluna's feet, and a third at Kazul's; they were all trapped in force cages. 

       Their captor announced that they needed to surrender if they wanted to live, he would rather take them alive. Lily began trying to force an attunement to his Staff of the Magi to get out of the force cage, but something in the cage prevented it from happening. He released Rosebud from the flask and commanded his son to break them out of the cage.

       After about ten minutes a ship appeared, descending from the air. Instead of wood, the ship was made of flesh and bones, a Ship of Chaos. A tiefling was leaning over the rail pointing a rifle at Lily, and an owlbear in robes was standing behind him. He told Lily that the group had bounties on their heads, everyone's was five hundred souls per person, except for Kazul, whose bounty was for two thousand souls. He said he would let Lily revive everyone if he surrendered peacefully; the entire time holding the gun on Rosebud, ready to kill him if Lily stepped out of line. 

       When I came to Astrid was a drow, and Momma explained to us that there were bounties on all of our heads. He said if we went peacefully with the tiefling threatening to kill Rosebud, we could make some sort of deal with him. We had little choice in the matter, so we all agreed. The tiefling said he'd take us to one of the outskirt bounty offices, instead of one in a city, so that we'd have an easier time escaping. He vouched for all of the Petunia Clan, so everyone except Not-Kazul, technically Seluna hadn't been adopted in, but that was only because she declined to be, that we would behave and not try to escape.

     The ship was the most peculiar thing I've ever seen. In the center of it was a massive maw where they fed living things to it, in order to keep it alive and regenerating. Where there should have been wood was bone, with flesh, and the rigging and sails seemed to be made of muscles. Needless to say, the thing was utterly disgusting.

       Since feeding souls to the ship was what kept it running, the captain told us that we would stay the night where we were, in hopes that someone would come walking by that he could scoop up and feed to the ship. We hadn't gotten the tiefling's name, but it seemed to be just him and the owlbear that he called his brother aboard.

       Rosebud randomly started beating up Alfie, and would not stop when Momma told him to; he was in big trouble now, and it was both amusing and terrifying to watch Momma berate my brother for ignoring him.

       After about seven hours, something was spotted in the trees below us. Momma, Rosebud, and Alfie jumped off the ship, while I pulled out the flying carpet I'd gotten from the dragon mummy and Astrid and I flew down. Not-Kazul stayed on the deck, watching us with her cold, dead eyes; it seemed I had not been wrong to send that letter to her temple, she was pretty much dead. I loathed what she had become, and wanted her out of my life for good.

       Trees began to attack Rosebud as soon as he landed, so Astrid shot some force darts at it, and it seemed to die. As we descended, I heard the captain tell Not-Kazul to go down and help us, she jumped off, but if this was anything like the last fight, she was just going to abandon us again; I don't think I've ever despised someone as much as I do her. Seluna became a bird and followed us to the ground.

       Below us Rosebud began beating on another tree, while one went for Alfie- who responded by biting the tree. Flimflam did his fire breath at a cluster of trees and was flung thirty or so feet away, landing in a bush, that began hurting him. I whipped at the bush, and it shuddered, then my brother fell unconscious. The tree Alfie had bit seemed to bite him back, and he froze as though he couldn't move. Rosebud and Astrid began slinging fire at the trees, and I revived Flimflam before killing a tree myself.

       Suddenly, green fists came shooting out of the ground, grabbing Astrid, and punching Rosebud and Not-Kazul; Astrid was pulled underground with the hands. I pulled out Urthstripe and sent him into the ground to find Astrid, just before a tentacle wrapped around me. I managed to sever it, but it still kept its hold- this place sucks. Not-Kazul was apparently uninterested in going after Astrid, though that shouldn't have surprised me, and she began beating up a different tree.

       The green fists came at us again, this time striking me, Momma, Flimflam, and Not-Kazul. Before they could retreat I stabbed one of them with my acid blade. Beneath the ground, Astrid struggled to escape the demonic treant, but it proved too strong for her. Urthstripe came across the treant and it killed him, reverting him back to a figurine. A bush began to strike me, and I retaliated- I couldn't help my friend and sister while being hit by that stupid bush. Flimflam set another section of the forest on fire, because he's a fucking pyro. Rosebud threw his hammers down the tunnel that Urthstripe had dug us, and from the cry of pain, I think he hit the owner of those green fists.

       A massive tree came partway out of the ground, and we all set our attacks on it. It died with a shudder, and we were able to free Astrid.

***** Neverwinter

       When Geophry vanished, he ended up back in Neverwinter, in the Tower. He threw a full on tantrum at being sent back, and began rampaging through the place. Amin barricaded himself in his room in the dungeon, but Arwenel wasn't so lucky. Geophry killed her, and Amin was the only witness; he told Lith and Niles that Geophry was an evil little monster, but they never found any proof of that. Lith and Niles were able to calm Geophry down, but unfortunately it was too late for them to save their friend. 

Image courtesy of thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com
*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.

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