Dark Lake Part 2:
Sloobludop
Sloobludop
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
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto
Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter and Orvald's wife
Prince Derendil, the Quaggoth who thinks he's an elven prince under a polymorph curse, and that he's the best at everything
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian
Topsy and Turvy, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins
Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome
Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube
Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer
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- taken by kuo-toa for sacrifice
Stool, the Myconid Child- taken by kuo-toa for sacrifice
Friendly fire overall: 12
Friendly fire dealt by Aura: 4
Party members killed: 5
Overall party members lost: 8
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.
***** Mirtul 16, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)
As the boats of kuo-toa approached, Orvald ripped the head off of the one that seemed to be the leader of the assault on us, planning to throw it at the ones approaching when they got close enough. That mouse really likes using appendages as weapons, it's a little disturbing.
Suddenly a voice rang out across the lake, and each of us heard it in our native tongue. She told us not to attack, that she had seen what happened and that it wasn't her people who did it. The woman said that her name was Ploopploopeen, and that she was the ruler of Sloobludop and the archpriestess of the goddess Blibdoolpoolp, whom the kuo-toa call the Sea Mother. Yeesh their names are a mouthful, I suppose if you're a fish they are easier to say, but those names are horrible when you have a normal tongue and vocal chords. Ploop requested our help in exchange for rewards; apparently she had recently been challenged for leadership of her people by her daughter, Bloppblippodd, who had become the priestess of the Deep Father, Leemooggoogoon. I seriously hate this race's names for everything.
Ploop said that a few weeks ago Blopp started having visions that the Deep Father was the new god of their people, and she was granted powers from these visions. Now their people are split into two factions, those who follow the Sea Mother, and those who follow the Deep Father. Ploop told us that Phil and Stool were likely being taken to sacrifice, and helping her defeat the Deep Father and destroy his altar would allow us to get our people back. We agreed to help Ploop save her people, since it would give us a chance to save Phil and Stool; plus, money.
I saw what looked like a massive tangle of reeds sprouting from the water, with parts glowing from phosphorous mushrooms. As we drew closer, I realized that the city was a series of towers that were attached by rope bridges, seemingly without pattern to the build. The entire city was constructed to be under water, even the parts that were above the water seemed to have been built to be beneath the surface. This place was fucking weird, but it seems that everything about the kuo-toa is weird.
Upon our arrival to the city, it was decided that Glabbagool should stay behind with the boats, so he wouldn't cause panic amongst the kuo-toa. Ploop led us to the shrine of the Sea Mother, which stood at nine feet tall, carved out of wood, and shaped in a vaguely feminine humanoid figure. The head and claws, instead of being made of wood, were made from the severed head and claws of some sort of crab or something; those bits reeked of rotten fish, and were attached with bits of rotting entrails. There were tons of shells, rocks, fish, and mushrooms were strewn at the statue's feet and strung around its neck. It was disgusting, and Ploop told us that everyone who comes to the statue has to make an offering to the Sea Mother. Not wanting to offend Ploop, I made an offering, as did everyone else- with the exception of Orvald and his spider kisser.
After making the offering to the Sea Mother, Ploop ushered us into a small shack and told us we could access all of the potential offerings- junk recently salvaged- to see if there was anything we could use that would help her save her people. About and hour later, she returned with a plan: she wanted to use us as bait, telling Blopp that we were a peace offering and sacrifice to the Deep Father; then, we attack. We were to destroy the altar and slay the cultists once we got close enough. We were already there, so we may as well help, and it seemed like we had to help whether we liked it or not.
Ploop and some of her flock took us to the altar of the Deep Father, which was equal parts disgusting and disturbing. This altar was some sort of hide cut into a shape like a manta ray, which was stretched out and attached to a couple of poles. There were two dead octopuses on top of that, with their tentacles arranged with care, their heads were tied together and painted blue and red. A stone altar was below all of that, stained with so much blood it was nearly black. It smelled even worse than the Sea Mother's altar did. I hate this place.
Upon our arrival, Ploop walked up to her daughter and told her they were joining the Cult of the Deep Father, and we were to be her sacrifices; she asked her daughter if she would accept us. While they talked, I noticed Phil, Stool, and a duergar all waiting to be sacrificed next. It was going to be difficult telling the difference between the two factions once the fight began, all kuo-toa look the same to me. As the other kuo-toa began preparing for the sacrifices, Shuushar slipped away and blended himself into the crowd; he took up position as Pwent's "guard." There was one cultist on each of us, so it was easy enough for Shuushar to pretend he belonged.
As soon as the cultists approached the altar with Phil, Stool, and the duergar, Ploop attacked her daughter. I whipped around and killed the fish on me instantly, then I lost my grip on one of my swords, again; it flew right into the head of another kuo-toa, killing it instantly. Damn I'm good. I saw Derendil attempt to fight, but he got his sword stuck in his shield and was again useless in battle. The insane mouse began swinging one kuo-toa around, using it to beat others, then throwing it across the courtyard when he was done with it. He then leapt to Blopp and joined Ploop in that attack. Blood was still flowing, giving the Deep Father the sacrifice he needed; the party was making the sacrifice even bigger than planned, feeding the Father. There was no way to stop the blood from entering the water, and they couldn't end the fight or move it.
Pwent rammed a kuo-toa with his armor, killing it, and it got stuck to his armor. The dwarf wasn't as macabre as Orvald, so he did not use it as a weapon. Zenit disappeared into a hut near the altar- the one they had seen Blopp emerge from earlier; the drow would rather look for treasure than help her comrades.
I heard weird, gurgling screams, and saw kuo-toa vanishing beneath the water, with blood bubbling up in their place. Blopp cried out in excitement- the Deep Father was coming. Fuck. In response to Blopp's excitement, Orvald decapitated her. Manta rays- ixitxachitl- began coming out of the water and joined the fray, cause it wasn't annoying enough already or anything- I think they were demonic. The airhead launched a bolt at an ixitxachitl, and hit Pwent instead; it pissed the battlerager off so much that he smashed the manta ray Aura missed.
The water continued bubbling, and tentacles began to rise from it, this wasn't looking good. Then a two-headed monster rose from the lake, with its eyes full of bloodlust; it stood at least thirty feet tall, and when it was fully out of the water it roared- a sound so terrifying it chilled me to the bone. The roar caused Lythana to retreat into her own mind, Fidget became terrified of the creature and began to run away, and Derendil began to suffer from temporary amnesia- he forgot everything that happened over the next thirty hours. Hemeth, the duergar sacrifice, would potentially suffer from confusion for the next fifty hours if he was struck by something. Almost all of the kuo-toa began chanting "Leemooggoogoon," and it disturbed Derendil so much that his mind broke a little more, and he became convinced he was the absolute best at everything. And Derendil's ego grew three sizes that day.
The beast was actually Demogorgon, one of the Demon Lords.
I came out of my daze to see Elle shaking me, before me was a giant demon that needed slaying; it is my sacred duty to slay such horrible beasts. Derendil began running from the beast, while Elle began trying to drag me from the fight. I couldn't just leave these people defenseless; that thing would destroy the city. Everyone except Orvald began running away; Elle still wouldn't let go of me. Zenit knocked Lythana unconscious with pleasure, allowing Elle to get them out of there easier. Aura decided to take on the Demon Lord by herself, so Orvald threw a grappling hook at the genasi, and began reeling her towards him.
Demogorgon reached the shore and began lashing out with his tentacles, smashing every kuo-toa in his path, and decimating the city. The mousefolk began reeling Aura in even quicker, but she got snagged by two ixitxachitl, and between the two of them, the sorceress was unconscious and bleeding profusely. Pwent stopped running to assist Orvald in getting Aura out of there, and Zenit dumped a health potion down Aura's throat to get her moving so Orvald would leave. Demogorgon had begun smashing the Sea Mother's shrine. With everyone finally moving, Orvald, Zenit, and Pwent began running away whilst the demon began leisurely decimating Sloobludop.
When the group made it out of the city, Derendil began accusing everyone of kidnapping him. After smoothing things over with the prince, Elle woke Lythana up. I came to outside of the city, seeing the demon destroying it in the distance. We decided to sneak back to the boats and escape by water, we couldn't leave Glabbagool. The duergar who was supposed to be the sacrifice was still following us, he introduced himself as Hemeth, and said he was an arms dealer. Hemeth said he had a weapons cache nearby, and if we took him with us, he would help us get supplies, and guide us to Gracklstugh.
***** Mirtul 17
The next day we piled back into our boats to head towards Hemeth's stash, which the duergar assured us was only about 4-5 hours away. We were in the middle of a tunnel when he said the water was getting shallow, but before we could do anything, the boats stopped suddenly, and Aura and Fidget went flying out of the boat they were in. Our boats had gotten stuck on some stupid sandbar thingy, so we all had to get out to push the boats over it and back into the water.
As we were in the middle of pushing one boat, while Zenit levitated another one, the airhead got attacked by something. Then Fidget was suddenly grappled by something and pulled into the air. Grell. Disgusting brain-looking tentacle monsters. Jim Jar was the next one to be grabbed by one of the beasts, there were three of the fuckers. We had to get them out of the air or this fight wouldn't go well. The spider kisser put the one trying to eat our genasi to sleep with her poisoned bolts, while Orvald threw a grapple at the one that had Jim Jar in its clutches; the mousefolk's grapple is the only thing that kept it from escaping with the gnome- there was a lot of blood falling from it, and it didn't look like it was all from the grell.
Hemeth grew huge and battered the one on Fidget with a boat oar, while his highness finished off the snoozing grell on Aura- I swept in and freed the paralyzed airhead from its now-dead clutches. The grell holding Jim Jar tried to flee again, but Pwent yanked on the rope Orvald had it grappled in, and pulled the beast to the ground. It responded by ripping poor Jim Jar's head off, and trying to escape again; it's really bad at getting away though, the barbarians shredded it as revenge for the loss of the svirfneblin.
A few hours later we arrived at Hemeth's stash, it was in a small cove with a false wall, and there were tons of weapons inside. Since part of our deal with Hemeth was that he would arm and armor us, we each gathered what we thought we would need; hopefully I can hang on to my swords this time, the bloody Underdark seems to be my bad copper for hanging on to my weapons.
Hemeth also traded Zarrus an immovable rod for this odd magic box he had found that none of the mages could read the runes of. Hemeth conned the tiefling out of a floating boat, which could have carried the entire party with ease during their journey.
After some deliberation, we decided we would take Hemeth to Gracklstugh with us, we'd need more supplies by the time we reached that end of the stupid lake anyways. The duergar wanted to spend a couple of days at his stash, but insisted he'd catch up to us soon, or meet us in Gracklstugh if we managed to get too far ahead of him for him to find us.
***** Mirtul 18
The next morning we packed ourselves up and headed out on the boats. We had to get through some nasty rapids to get out of Hemeth's cove, so we had to be super careful about our navigation of the boats. Orvald's boat was fine, but Aura's hit a wall and took some damage. Elle and I weren't so lucky, apparently we're fucking bad at boating... Our boat slammed into the wall and snapped in half, Elle and I were gripping pieces of the boat and praying we would make it through these rapids alive; Phil and the twins had been in the back of our boat, and there was no sign of them.
Frantically, I called out to Glabbagool to get help for us, but I'm not sure if the cube heard me. Glabbagool heard the half-drow, and did ask Orvald to help them, but there wasn't much the mousefolk could do in those tumultuous waters. I clung to my part of the boat, and began thinking I might survive this when the rope got snagged on a rock, smashing my piece of the boat to smithereens. Elle's half kept going, and I managed to get to it, but the fucking thing capsized from our combined weight. We still managed to hang on, and keep our heads above the water.
The water was making the raft too slippery, and I felt myself losing my grip on the raft. Just as I fell away from it, Elle caught me and got me back onto the raft. Then Elle started to slip, but I somehow managed to catch her, and keep myself on board. Suddenly, the rapids were gone and we had spilled out into peaceful water. The others saw us and brought us aboard their boats quickly.
We decided to wait a couple of hours for Phil and the twins, and Orvald wanted to salvage while we waited. Of course the mouse found something random, a huge metal thing buried in the sand; which he made Fidget come help him dig up. Since Glabbagool could see what it was, Fidget asked him to "show" hi telepathically. The cube complied, and Fidget's mind crumbled a little more; the svirfneblin had vivid hallucinations for the next 100 hours.
Orvald asked Glabbagool to bring the metal thing up, and of course he complied. After about a minute a whirlpool began to form, spinning the boats above. Zenit had the cube drop the thing to stop the whirlpool; they didn't want to lose any more of their boats. The mousefolk wanted to investigate the hole that was under the metal thingy, but Zenit convinced him there wasn't enough rope.
I don't know what the hell happened to Fidget, but he came back up completely batshit. He was going to be a danger to us in this state, so I asked Zenit if she would use her poison to knock the gnome out. She gave him a weed, and with his hallucinations, that made him think he could feel magic. Not at all what I meant, though it did make him a little more amusing.
We found a little rock shelf nearby, and Orvald asked Glabbagool to haul the thing up onto it. It was probably just some crappy sunken boat, but arguing with that mouse is pointless. What he had found was a big, rusty drum looking thingy- the spider kisser found a switch on it, that made it come apart and put itself back together. Orvald kicked it, and a hatch sprung open. Something from within shot Zenit and bit her. It was a ravenous sea troll that was trying to eat the bitch; the thing was nothing but a skeletal, emaciated form, with its skin hanging loosely off its bones. I don't know how long it had been down there, but had it been most other things, it would have been dead by this point.
While I would have liked to see it eat Zenit, since I knew she would always choose the Sword over the Song, but I didn't dare try to give her the Sword while Orvald was around, unfortunately the bitch wriggled from its grasp. The mighty mouse sprung into its mouth and began stabbing; it tried to reciprocate the damage by clawing at Orvald and biting him, but it couldn't do near enough damage while the barbarian was in his rage. I sliced my palm, calling forth the powers of the blood hunter, and covered my sword in radiant acid- I hacked at the beast and finished it off. Poor Orvald was completely covered in its blood- and its natural regeneration powers made the mouse's fur and tail grow back overnight.
Orvald, wanting to try to eat everything, tried to cook the troll, but failed miserably. While no one was paying attention, Glabbagool snuck over to the troll's corpse and took the rest of it to eat.
What the party had found was a very old Apparatus of Kwalish.
*Author's note: Many of the events and characters that take place in this story are from the Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast.
I saw what looked like a massive tangle of reeds sprouting from the water, with parts glowing from phosphorous mushrooms. As we drew closer, I realized that the city was a series of towers that were attached by rope bridges, seemingly without pattern to the build. The entire city was constructed to be under water, even the parts that were above the water seemed to have been built to be beneath the surface. This place was fucking weird, but it seems that everything about the kuo-toa is weird.
Upon our arrival to the city, it was decided that Glabbagool should stay behind with the boats, so he wouldn't cause panic amongst the kuo-toa. Ploop led us to the shrine of the Sea Mother, which stood at nine feet tall, carved out of wood, and shaped in a vaguely feminine humanoid figure. The head and claws, instead of being made of wood, were made from the severed head and claws of some sort of crab or something; those bits reeked of rotten fish, and were attached with bits of rotting entrails. There were tons of shells, rocks, fish, and mushrooms were strewn at the statue's feet and strung around its neck. It was disgusting, and Ploop told us that everyone who comes to the statue has to make an offering to the Sea Mother. Not wanting to offend Ploop, I made an offering, as did everyone else- with the exception of Orvald and his spider kisser.
After making the offering to the Sea Mother, Ploop ushered us into a small shack and told us we could access all of the potential offerings- junk recently salvaged- to see if there was anything we could use that would help her save her people. About and hour later, she returned with a plan: she wanted to use us as bait, telling Blopp that we were a peace offering and sacrifice to the Deep Father; then, we attack. We were to destroy the altar and slay the cultists once we got close enough. We were already there, so we may as well help, and it seemed like we had to help whether we liked it or not.
Ploop and some of her flock took us to the altar of the Deep Father, which was equal parts disgusting and disturbing. This altar was some sort of hide cut into a shape like a manta ray, which was stretched out and attached to a couple of poles. There were two dead octopuses on top of that, with their tentacles arranged with care, their heads were tied together and painted blue and red. A stone altar was below all of that, stained with so much blood it was nearly black. It smelled even worse than the Sea Mother's altar did. I hate this place.
Upon our arrival, Ploop walked up to her daughter and told her they were joining the Cult of the Deep Father, and we were to be her sacrifices; she asked her daughter if she would accept us. While they talked, I noticed Phil, Stool, and a duergar all waiting to be sacrificed next. It was going to be difficult telling the difference between the two factions once the fight began, all kuo-toa look the same to me. As the other kuo-toa began preparing for the sacrifices, Shuushar slipped away and blended himself into the crowd; he took up position as Pwent's "guard." There was one cultist on each of us, so it was easy enough for Shuushar to pretend he belonged.
As soon as the cultists approached the altar with Phil, Stool, and the duergar, Ploop attacked her daughter. I whipped around and killed the fish on me instantly, then I lost my grip on one of my swords, again; it flew right into the head of another kuo-toa, killing it instantly. Damn I'm good. I saw Derendil attempt to fight, but he got his sword stuck in his shield and was again useless in battle. The insane mouse began swinging one kuo-toa around, using it to beat others, then throwing it across the courtyard when he was done with it. He then leapt to Blopp and joined Ploop in that attack. Blood was still flowing, giving the Deep Father the sacrifice he needed; the party was making the sacrifice even bigger than planned, feeding the Father. There was no way to stop the blood from entering the water, and they couldn't end the fight or move it.
Pwent rammed a kuo-toa with his armor, killing it, and it got stuck to his armor. The dwarf wasn't as macabre as Orvald, so he did not use it as a weapon. Zenit disappeared into a hut near the altar- the one they had seen Blopp emerge from earlier; the drow would rather look for treasure than help her comrades.
I heard weird, gurgling screams, and saw kuo-toa vanishing beneath the water, with blood bubbling up in their place. Blopp cried out in excitement- the Deep Father was coming. Fuck. In response to Blopp's excitement, Orvald decapitated her. Manta rays- ixitxachitl- began coming out of the water and joined the fray, cause it wasn't annoying enough already or anything- I think they were demonic. The airhead launched a bolt at an ixitxachitl, and hit Pwent instead; it pissed the battlerager off so much that he smashed the manta ray Aura missed.
The water continued bubbling, and tentacles began to rise from it, this wasn't looking good. Then a two-headed monster rose from the lake, with its eyes full of bloodlust; it stood at least thirty feet tall, and when it was fully out of the water it roared- a sound so terrifying it chilled me to the bone. The roar caused Lythana to retreat into her own mind, Fidget became terrified of the creature and began to run away, and Derendil began to suffer from temporary amnesia- he forgot everything that happened over the next thirty hours. Hemeth, the duergar sacrifice, would potentially suffer from confusion for the next fifty hours if he was struck by something. Almost all of the kuo-toa began chanting "Leemooggoogoon," and it disturbed Derendil so much that his mind broke a little more, and he became convinced he was the absolute best at everything. And Derendil's ego grew three sizes that day.
The beast was actually Demogorgon, one of the Demon Lords.
I came out of my daze to see Elle shaking me, before me was a giant demon that needed slaying; it is my sacred duty to slay such horrible beasts. Derendil began running from the beast, while Elle began trying to drag me from the fight. I couldn't just leave these people defenseless; that thing would destroy the city. Everyone except Orvald began running away; Elle still wouldn't let go of me. Zenit knocked Lythana unconscious with pleasure, allowing Elle to get them out of there easier. Aura decided to take on the Demon Lord by herself, so Orvald threw a grappling hook at the genasi, and began reeling her towards him.
Demogorgon reached the shore and began lashing out with his tentacles, smashing every kuo-toa in his path, and decimating the city. The mousefolk began reeling Aura in even quicker, but she got snagged by two ixitxachitl, and between the two of them, the sorceress was unconscious and bleeding profusely. Pwent stopped running to assist Orvald in getting Aura out of there, and Zenit dumped a health potion down Aura's throat to get her moving so Orvald would leave. Demogorgon had begun smashing the Sea Mother's shrine. With everyone finally moving, Orvald, Zenit, and Pwent began running away whilst the demon began leisurely decimating Sloobludop.
When the group made it out of the city, Derendil began accusing everyone of kidnapping him. After smoothing things over with the prince, Elle woke Lythana up. I came to outside of the city, seeing the demon destroying it in the distance. We decided to sneak back to the boats and escape by water, we couldn't leave Glabbagool. The duergar who was supposed to be the sacrifice was still following us, he introduced himself as Hemeth, and said he was an arms dealer. Hemeth said he had a weapons cache nearby, and if we took him with us, he would help us get supplies, and guide us to Gracklstugh.
***** Mirtul 17
The next day we piled back into our boats to head towards Hemeth's stash, which the duergar assured us was only about 4-5 hours away. We were in the middle of a tunnel when he said the water was getting shallow, but before we could do anything, the boats stopped suddenly, and Aura and Fidget went flying out of the boat they were in. Our boats had gotten stuck on some stupid sandbar thingy, so we all had to get out to push the boats over it and back into the water.
As we were in the middle of pushing one boat, while Zenit levitated another one, the airhead got attacked by something. Then Fidget was suddenly grappled by something and pulled into the air. Grell. Disgusting brain-looking tentacle monsters. Jim Jar was the next one to be grabbed by one of the beasts, there were three of the fuckers. We had to get them out of the air or this fight wouldn't go well. The spider kisser put the one trying to eat our genasi to sleep with her poisoned bolts, while Orvald threw a grapple at the one that had Jim Jar in its clutches; the mousefolk's grapple is the only thing that kept it from escaping with the gnome- there was a lot of blood falling from it, and it didn't look like it was all from the grell.
Hemeth grew huge and battered the one on Fidget with a boat oar, while his highness finished off the snoozing grell on Aura- I swept in and freed the paralyzed airhead from its now-dead clutches. The grell holding Jim Jar tried to flee again, but Pwent yanked on the rope Orvald had it grappled in, and pulled the beast to the ground. It responded by ripping poor Jim Jar's head off, and trying to escape again; it's really bad at getting away though, the barbarians shredded it as revenge for the loss of the svirfneblin.
A few hours later we arrived at Hemeth's stash, it was in a small cove with a false wall, and there were tons of weapons inside. Since part of our deal with Hemeth was that he would arm and armor us, we each gathered what we thought we would need; hopefully I can hang on to my swords this time, the bloody Underdark seems to be my bad copper for hanging on to my weapons.
Hemeth also traded Zarrus an immovable rod for this odd magic box he had found that none of the mages could read the runes of. Hemeth conned the tiefling out of a floating boat, which could have carried the entire party with ease during their journey.
After some deliberation, we decided we would take Hemeth to Gracklstugh with us, we'd need more supplies by the time we reached that end of the stupid lake anyways. The duergar wanted to spend a couple of days at his stash, but insisted he'd catch up to us soon, or meet us in Gracklstugh if we managed to get too far ahead of him for him to find us.
***** Mirtul 18
The next morning we packed ourselves up and headed out on the boats. We had to get through some nasty rapids to get out of Hemeth's cove, so we had to be super careful about our navigation of the boats. Orvald's boat was fine, but Aura's hit a wall and took some damage. Elle and I weren't so lucky, apparently we're fucking bad at boating... Our boat slammed into the wall and snapped in half, Elle and I were gripping pieces of the boat and praying we would make it through these rapids alive; Phil and the twins had been in the back of our boat, and there was no sign of them.
Frantically, I called out to Glabbagool to get help for us, but I'm not sure if the cube heard me. Glabbagool heard the half-drow, and did ask Orvald to help them, but there wasn't much the mousefolk could do in those tumultuous waters. I clung to my part of the boat, and began thinking I might survive this when the rope got snagged on a rock, smashing my piece of the boat to smithereens. Elle's half kept going, and I managed to get to it, but the fucking thing capsized from our combined weight. We still managed to hang on, and keep our heads above the water.
The water was making the raft too slippery, and I felt myself losing my grip on the raft. Just as I fell away from it, Elle caught me and got me back onto the raft. Then Elle started to slip, but I somehow managed to catch her, and keep myself on board. Suddenly, the rapids were gone and we had spilled out into peaceful water. The others saw us and brought us aboard their boats quickly.
We decided to wait a couple of hours for Phil and the twins, and Orvald wanted to salvage while we waited. Of course the mouse found something random, a huge metal thing buried in the sand; which he made Fidget come help him dig up. Since Glabbagool could see what it was, Fidget asked him to "show" hi telepathically. The cube complied, and Fidget's mind crumbled a little more; the svirfneblin had vivid hallucinations for the next 100 hours.
Orvald asked Glabbagool to bring the metal thing up, and of course he complied. After about a minute a whirlpool began to form, spinning the boats above. Zenit had the cube drop the thing to stop the whirlpool; they didn't want to lose any more of their boats. The mousefolk wanted to investigate the hole that was under the metal thingy, but Zenit convinced him there wasn't enough rope.
I don't know what the hell happened to Fidget, but he came back up completely batshit. He was going to be a danger to us in this state, so I asked Zenit if she would use her poison to knock the gnome out. She gave him a weed, and with his hallucinations, that made him think he could feel magic. Not at all what I meant, though it did make him a little more amusing.
We found a little rock shelf nearby, and Orvald asked Glabbagool to haul the thing up onto it. It was probably just some crappy sunken boat, but arguing with that mouse is pointless. What he had found was a big, rusty drum looking thingy- the spider kisser found a switch on it, that made it come apart and put itself back together. Orvald kicked it, and a hatch sprung open. Something from within shot Zenit and bit her. It was a ravenous sea troll that was trying to eat the bitch; the thing was nothing but a skeletal, emaciated form, with its skin hanging loosely off its bones. I don't know how long it had been down there, but had it been most other things, it would have been dead by this point.
While I would have liked to see it eat Zenit, since I knew she would always choose the Sword over the Song, but I didn't dare try to give her the Sword while Orvald was around, unfortunately the bitch wriggled from its grasp. The mighty mouse sprung into its mouth and began stabbing; it tried to reciprocate the damage by clawing at Orvald and biting him, but it couldn't do near enough damage while the barbarian was in his rage. I sliced my palm, calling forth the powers of the blood hunter, and covered my sword in radiant acid- I hacked at the beast and finished it off. Poor Orvald was completely covered in its blood- and its natural regeneration powers made the mouse's fur and tail grow back overnight.
Orvald, wanting to try to eat everything, tried to cook the troll, but failed miserably. While no one was paying attention, Glabbagool snuck over to the troll's corpse and took the rest of it to eat.
What the party had found was a very old Apparatus of Kwalish.
 |
| 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 |
