Session 51 - Scene 4 (of 5)

Down in the underdark shallows, Xunrar Torar is beginning to worry.  His mistress was supposed to be back over a day ago.  The men are beginning to grow restless while lying in wait to ambush the group of interlopers she was supposed to bring back to them.

Xunrar decides something may have happened and that the best course of action is to go seek her out.  He grabs five of his best men – Nyloth, Ryltar, Ildan, Vorn, and Balok – and heads up into the lower catacombs.

The paladin leads his men down the passageway Yathrin was supposed to take the group.  But at the end, he finds a catacomb wall has collapsed, blocking the passageway.  It appears to have happened at least a couple of days ago.

Xunrar looks around for tracks.  He can see someone passed through this area but never came back.

He realizes the likely scenario is that Yathrin found her way back blocked and was forced to take an alternate route.  Since they have not really explored these catacombs fully, Xunrar isn't sure what she may have ran into.

He directs Nyloth to lead the way down one of the alternate passageways, hoping they can find Yathrin.

After a short time, they come upon a cavern up ahead with a large hole in it.  Nyloth scouts up ahead to investigate.  As he moves around looking at the hole, an umber hulk emerges.  It reaches up and claws into the drow, ripping out his organs.  His lifeless corpse falls into the tunnel below.

Balok yells out a battle cry and charges at the umber hulk, cutting into it with his sword.  Vorn attempts to follow his example, but the chitinous hide of the monster blocks his attack.

Ryltar has better luck, moving around to a flanking position and striking the creature.

Xunrar holds back, placing an assassin's shroud on the monster and attempting to illuminate it with his darkfire.  The darkfire blast misses, as does his shout of condemnation.

Ildan has no better luck.  He advances and attacks, but misses.

The umber hulk lashes out with its claws.  One blow takes off Ildan's head, while another knocks Vorn down the chasm, screaming all the way to his death.

Balok begins to get nervous.  He hits the creature with a sold blow then steps back, hoping to avoid attack.  Ryltar is more courageous, striking twice into the monster before it rips him in half.

Xunrar places another of his assassin's shrouds on the creature then fails to hit it with astral thunder.  Balok charges in again, but is twice fended off by the giant insect.

The drow paladin releases his shrouds then moves up to flank.  He strikes hard into the hulk with his strength of valor.  The umber hulk strikes Xunrar back in return, while Balok fends off a blow.

Balok hits the creature in return and steps back again.  He's hoping it will kill Xunrar and then he can finish it off, making him Yathrin's new favored one.

No longer flanking, Xunrar misses with his radiant smite.  He curses Balok's treachery and cowardice.

The umber hulk slams another claw into Xunrar's shield.  Balok is then surprised when he finds himself still in range of a second attack, and the hulk's claw tears off his arm.  He collapses in a pool of blood, quickly bleeding out.

Xunrar finds himself facing the umber hulk alone.  The two exchange a flurry of blows.  Minutes drag on as the two fight back and forth, neither able to penetrate the other's defenses.

Finally, Xunrar manages to hit the creature enough to injure it.  It retreats back down into its hole.

Session 51 - Scene 5 (of 5)

After taking a moment to recover, Xunrar continues along the passageway.  He hears something up ahead, but can't make out the sound.

Approaching cautiously in the darkness, he discovers the passageway leads to a large cavern.  As he enters, he spots a magical waterfall flowing from nowhere into a pool beside him.

Looking around, he also spots a pool of bubbling mud and an area covered in magma.  From a continuing passageway near the mud, he can hear more noises.

Xunrar heads down the corridor to investigate the source.  He can tell it is people talking.  He spots Yathrin up ahead, arguing with that elf Krolec.

While arguing, Krolec spots movement in the darkness behind Yathrin.  He alerts the others.

Xunrar slowly steps out of the shadows, revealing himself.

Krolec notes to Yathrin that one of her associates is here.  Seeing Xunrar, she simply says "Excellent".

Xunar heads over to her to report.  He says simply there were issues and he is the only one left.  She responds the others were not worthy.  Xunrar agrees.

While everyone finds the callous discussion of Xunrar's dead comrades to be somewhat unsettling, Krolec carefully looks the man over.  He is wearing chainmail, carrying a heavy shield, and has a sword.  The elf inquires to Yathrin if her man is a warrior.

She responds he is a paladin.  Krolec does not need to ask which goddess the man serves.

Krolec tries to introduce himself, but finds Xunrar even less forthcoming than Yathrin.  The drow states with an air of condescension that he does not associate with surface dwellers.

Undeterred, Leigh tries to introduce herself as well.  Xunrar completely ignores her in favor of inquiring to Yathrin about her well-being.

Yathrin tells the others they may address her companion as D'nilok, the drow word for paladin.  She then takes him aside for a private conversation.

As an aside to Krolec, Scrag notes his displeasure at having another "stupid drow" around.  As they all head back the way Xunrar came, Krolec knows that relations between the two groups will not be easy, but they may need each other to stop the man in the purple cloak.

Session 51 - Session Notes

This session took a little bit to get going, hence not a lot happened.

The first fight took up a fair amount of time, but mostly because the group was already weak and haven't had a chance to have a full rest yet.

Once again, there were some grumbles about the encounter being a bit difficult; but really other than Scrag, they were barely touched.  They don't seem to get that even if a guy has a lot of hit points you can't just put him in a position to get beat on by 5 different things turn after turn.  But as I've said, they really suck at tactics.

They completely avoided getting the big treasure from the elemental room, that was kind of funny.  The gems in the water were actually astral diamonds.  Oh, well, they never spend much money anyhow.

It was funny that Yathrin went straight into the trap.  I do love her prodding the group along though.  I also fail to understand why the Leigh player wants to spend 10 minutes or more arguing about whether or not they can get back through the passage they came when they know that it wouldn't lead them anywhere anyways and so is completely unimportant.  That's the kind of stupid shit they do session after session.  They are so genre blind it hurts sometimes.

Anyhow, the Xunrar introduction worked perfect.  I had a good excuse to kill off the other drow and we had fun by having each of the drow NPCs ran by a player.  The Balok drow was played by the Scrag player, who was very disappointed he didn't get to be the survivor, lol.

I really am loving the conflict coming back into gaming, which is only better now with two evil drow in the group conspiring together.  Because some players dislike it, the campagin began with a very goodie-goodie let's never argue kind of feel to it.  Granted, it didn't always play that way, but it was rather restricted.  Now it feels more open and realistic again.


So, where does this leave the campaign?  Well, I get the feeling some people in the group aren't ready to switch games just yet.  But, I've still working on my Traveller 40K designs, so that's fine by me for the moment.

One annoying thing - I bought a new computer last weekend.  Unfortunately, the whole "no more character builder install" thing is now going to cause me issues.  I can still use the old machine, but I hate having to have an extra desktop PC around just for that.  I also could use the one that's on my laptop, but it means I'll be doing everything for the game on this PC except for character files, which will be on another machine.  Sigh.


Final thought - as I was adding my Favorites back into this new machine (via import), I clicked on the WotC page.  I didn't realize before that their new Abyssal Plague series of books has an awfully similar plotline to my campaign with the whole herald of Tharizdun trying to release him to end the world thing.

How funny is that?  I mean, its not exactly a completely original idea, but its still a bit of an odd coincidence.

Session 52 - Cast of Characters

Sir Krolec Jar'Bin - Elven Ranger
Dame Leigh - Eladrin Wizard
Scrag Graveborn - Half-Orc Warden
Sa'lid Dra'lah - Human Sorcerer
Yathrin Talaste zyne'Phyrva Noquval - Drow Cleric
Xunrar Torar - Drow Paladin

And introducing...

Tarlyn Delal - Drow Barbarian

Session 52 - Scene 1 (of

Xunrar Torar leads his mistress and the surface dwellers back through the elemental chamber.  Electing not to warn the others about the umber hulk he encountered, the drow heads straight for the chamber with the large hole in the middle.

The paladin stops and points out the hole to the others.  He instructs the others to start heading around the hole along the wall.  Krolec suspects something is up, and calls out to Xunrar, telling him he can't help but notice that the drow is hanging back.  Yathrin responds by telling him to be quiet.

Just then, the huge umber hulk emerges from its tunnel.  Sa'lid is momentarily surprised by its appearance, but everyone else responds quickly enough to react.

Scrag decides to take the direct approach.  He immediately charges at the giant insect, striking at it with his strength of stone.  He is dismayed to discover the umber hulk has thick armor.

The umber hulk strikes back, viciously slashing Scrag with its claws and grabbing him.

Yathrin immediately casts a healing word on Scrag then puts an assassin's shroud over the monster.  She tries to attack with a vengeful flare, but fails.

Krolec wants to fire a staggering shot at the creature to knock it back down the hole, but is concerned about Scrag going with him.  Instead, he tries to take it out with a hawk's talon shot, but the arrow bounces harmlessly off of the creature's thick hide.

Xunrar puts a shroud of his own over the monster.  He then steps up and attacks with astral thunder, but the creature weathers the attack easily.  Leigh has no better luck with her fireburst spell.

Scrag tries to break himself free, but finds the grasp of the creature too strong.  He also fails to hit it with his axe again.  The umber hulk responds by clawing into the half-orc further.

The spider priestess casts another healing word on the warden, knowing it is her last.  She then places a second shroud over the hulk and tries to blast it with the light of arvander but fails.

Aiming carefully, Krolec fires another shot at the hulk.  But his shadow wasp strike maneuver has no better luck than the hawk's talon did.

Sa'lid springs into action, casting a cosmos call spell.  Unfortunately, it, too, fails to affect the insect.

Xunrar places another shroud of the hulk then attacks with a radiant smite.  But the creature deflects his blade using its chitinous hide.

Leigh finally has better luck, hitting the creature with a shock sphere.  Scrag uses the opportunity to break free of the hulk's grasp and retreats back to safety.

With Scrag out of its reach and its old nemesis Xunrar the closest, the umber hulk charges at the paladin, slashing into him with one of its claws.

Yathrin releases her shrouds, planning to injure the creature with her zealous sanction.  But the gambit fails, leaving the monster with barely a scratch.  She has no better luck blasting it with her darkfire.

Krolec watches another set of his arrows harmlessly bounce off of the monster's thick hide as Sa'lid blasts it with his moon and stars spell.

Xunrar then releases his shrouds and hits the creature with a powerful attack, using his strength of valor.  Leigh follows up with a blast of her burning hands.

Sensing the tide turning, Scrag decides to leap back into the fray.  Ignoring Krolec's cries to the contrary, the warden charges forward and strikes into the umber hulk with his strength of stone then marks it.

The umber hulk turns its attention to the half-orc, slashing into him deeply and grabbing him again.  Krolec fires off a defensive volley that gives Scrag a chance to slightly roll with the hits.  But the warden is in bad shape.

Out of healing abilities, Yathrin tries to blast the monster with a sacred flame, but misses.  

Krolec moves himself to a better tactical position to fire at the hulk then lets loose another pair of arrows.  They are no more effective than the last set.  Sa'lid has no better luck with his swirling stars spell.

Xunrar senses Scrag is a lost cause and steps back, taking a moment to recover himself.  Leigh, however, fights on to save her comrade; she blasts it with a scorching burst.

The umber hulk's mandibles bite deeply into the captive Scrag.  Unable to sustain further injuries, he loses consciousness.  Then, as the party watches, the umber hulk descends back down into the tunnel, taking Scrag with him to feast on.

Session 52 - Scene 2 (of

Deciding the monster is gone for now, the group casually makes their way around the chamber to the other side of the hole.

Having seen so many of their comrades killed, the group is not overly shocked or saddened at Scrag's loss.  Krolec in particular feels Scrag was too foolhardy about rushing in to battle.

Xunrar explains the passage contains on a more or less straight path back to the stairs leading down into the underdark, with one passage off to the side ahead.  Krolec wonders about the side passage, but Xunrar and Yathrin give the impression they haven't really explored the lower catacombs much (though neither actually says so).

As soon as they are a distance away from the chamber with the umber hulk lair, but before they get to the side passage, the group decides to stop and rest.

Xunrar makes an off-hand comment discussing how strong the umber hulk is considering it withstood two battles.

Yathrin picks up on the comment immediately, and begins yelling at her servant for not sharing the info that he knew the umber hulk was there.  The paladin counters that he saw no need to share the information with surface dwellers.

But the priestess is still upset he didn't tell her.  Xunrar assures her that she was never in danger, but Yathrin continues to dress him down, explaining that he is always to give her all information and it is her decision what to do with it from there.  Xunrar is shamed by the conversation and submits to her will.

Playing to her ego, and with little choice given the circumstances, Krolec decides to let Yathrin take control of the group, even calling her mistress.  Yathrin proceeds with arranging the watch schedules so everyone can get the rest they desperately need after all of the fighting.

To the group's great surprise, the night passes uneventfully.

Session 52 - Scene 3 (of

After everyone is finished resting, Xunrar proceeds to lead the group along the hallway.

From talking with Xunrar, Yathrin knows that the last of her lieutenants, Tarlyn, is still lying in wait to ambush the group with her remaining three warriors.  She warns the others that up ahead will be a drow patrol, and instructs them to stay behind her, keep their eyes down, and not to attempt to grab their weapons.  She says she will keep the drow from attacking so they can all proceed with the mission to stop the man in the purple cloak.

Yathrin has Krolec and Leigh move to the back of the party to keep them as far out of sight as possible.  The two decide to put their cloak hoods up as well.

As they near the part of the hallway with the side passage, Xunrar stops the group.  Yathrin tells Xunrar it is his decision to either continue on or send up a scout first.

But Xunrar has difficulty trying to decide what to do.  Yathrin gets increasingly impatient.  

Eventually, Xunrar decides to let Krolec scout ahead.  Yathrin decides to follow.

The two quietly approach the side passage.  Krolec makes sure he sees no movement then carefully looks around the corner.

Looking down the side passage with the faint glow of the illuminated stone Leigh provided, Krolec can see the hall is empty.  He does notice some old troglodyte tracks, but decides they are at least from a week or two ago.

The two then sneak back to the rest of the group, with Yathrin accidentally causing some noise along the way.  However, it appears not to have alerted anyone.

Krolec quietly informs the others what he discovered.  He suggests they ignore the side passage and continue on ahead.  Yathrin agrees, and orders Xunrar to continue to the underdark entrance.

A short time later, Xunrar reaches the secret door in the catacombs leading to the stairway down into the underdark shallows.  Yathrin tells the others to get ready then starts to head down.

Down below, Tarlyn spots Yathrin descending the stairs.  He gives his warriors the signal to prepare to attack.

Yathrin spots her fellow drow getting into combat position.  She calls to them to halt.  As Tarly signals his men to stop, Yathrin has Xunrar halt on the stairs then heads down herself to talk to Tarlyn alone.

Heading over to the drow warrior, Yathrin informs him there has been a change in plans.  Whispering quietly, she explains she needs to keep the surface dwellers alive to assist in locating and killing the man in the purple cloak.  Her plan is to use them as her cat's paw, shielding herself and her men from the man.  Tarlyn does as he is told and instructs the rest of his men to let the surface dwellers pass.  

Up above, Krolec tries to hear what is going on down below.  He can hear a lot of whispering, but can't quite make anything out.

Down below, Yathrin plans what to do next.  With her normal route to the surface cut off, she knows of two potential ways to the surface from here.  One is a nearby cavern that likely heads into the Moon Hills area; however, it was filled with bones and likely the lair of a dangerous creature.

Her alternate plan would be to head over to the area of the underground lake and find a water-carved cavern back up.  She speculates such a path would likely eventually connect to the labyrinths below Thunderspire.

Yathrin instructs Tarlyn to have one of his men go scout out the nearby cavern.  He sends his best warrior, Brorn.  She then has Xunrar bring the others down.

A few minutes later, everyone hears a horrifying scream.  Assuming their soldier isn't coming back, Tarlyn callously remarks that Brorn wasn't worthy.  Xunrar, however, is more focused on making sure nothing is threatening Yathrin.

With a sigh, Yathrin states they will need to clear the path themselves.  She has Xunrar move to the rear to guard the "slaves" while Tarlyn stays at her side.  Tarlyn's remaining two men, Syrdar and Valas, take the lead.

Yathrin addresses Krolec and the others for the first time, explaining there is resistance up ahead.  She also explains about the two possible routes out of the underdark.

With the mention of the underground lake, Krolec recalls the entrance to the Astor Tunnel, known as the Devil's Attic.  He reminds Yathrin about it.  She agrees that perhaps they should inspect that area first.

Session 52 - Scene 4 (of

Travelling along in the underdark, the group gets close to the lake.  They can hear something moving out on the water.

With their dark vision, Tarlyn and Yathrin examine the area, but see nothing on top of the water.  They do notice, however, there is an island out in the middle of the lake, with a tower made of black stones on it.  

Yathrin can see some movement on the island.  She warns the others to be wary.  Everyone readies their weapons, but continue on.

A short time later, the group reaches the area of luminescent fungi that Krolec discovered before.  Along the cavern wall, still revealed, are the large metal doors bearing the initials, “J.A.”, for Jacob Astor.

Although the door was not trapped last time, Krolec isn’t taking any chances.  He carefully examines it just to be sure.  Leigh likewise makes sure the door isn’t magical.

Yathrin instructs Syrdar to open the door while Valas covers him.  As he opens it, everyone can see the large staircase leading down to the Devil’s Attic.

It takes some time to traverse down the long, winding stairs.  As they near the bottom, everyone can see the waste and sludge coming down the walls, and the mold and fungus growing everywhere.

The stairs near the bottom become slippery because of the mold.  Syrdar slips and falls, screaming until he is silenced by his skull crushing.

Sa’lid has trouble as well.  He falls forward, knocking into Yathrin.  Krolec tries to grab him, but fails.  Yathrin briefly catches his hand but lets him go when she feels he may take her with him.

As Sa’lid crashes to the ground, he wishes he hadn’t lost his safewing amulet.  Luckily, he manages to land without injuring himself too seriously and is up and walking by the time the others finish getting down the remaining thirty feet of stairs.

Leigh and Sa’lid look in horror at the spectacle of the chamber while the others remember seeing it before.

The walls no longer hold any lit torches, and they are all covered in mold and ooze along with the remains of the tapestries and the furniture.

On the other end of the tunnel stands the hut of skulls and the emaciated remains of the drow warriors spiked to the tunnel wall, with the spiral symbols carved into their chests; the symbols that Krolec and the drow now realize is the symbol of Tharizdun.

A bit further down the hallway is the soft glow of magma.  Sa’lid recalls a tale about a clan of greedy dwarves who once dug too deep into the earth while looking for riches; clearly Lord Astor had the same problem those hundreds of years ago.

Krolec wants to take a closer look at the hut of skulls, something he was unable to do previously.  Looking it over carefully, he can tell it has not grown any larger since he was there last.

Leigh moves up to assist, checking for any magic in the area.  She determines neither the hut itself, nor the symbol of Tharizdun, drawn in blood in front of its entrance, are magical.  However, she can tell there is magic emanating from something inside.

Stepping into the doorway, the wizard uses the illuminated stone to examine the interior of the hut.  She spots a magical power circle written on the floor.  It is a teleportation circle.

Session 52 - Scene 5 (of

Everyone stands around, debating what to do about the teleportation circle.  

Krolec wonders about having Leigh disenchant it.  Yathrin, however, feels it might be useful.

Sa'lid suggests having Snarg set up a trap for anyone attempting to use it, while Leigh examines it closely to see if the writing of the runes resembles that of Nimozarran, the High Septarch who the group suspects is behind everything.  From what she can tell, it is not his writing.

Yathrin is of two minds concerning the portal.  On the one hand, it may be their only way to actually find the man in the purple cloak.  On the other, it is far too dangerous to go through the portal without knowing where it leads.

Krolec argues that if they disable the circle, the cloaked man will not be able to use it to escape.  He notes the man already used it to escape from him when he was down here before.  

The priestess agrees they want to prevent the man from escaping, but she doesn't want to tip their hand.  She wants to use a method that can be clandestine.

Krolec suggests using the vials of alchemical acid Leigh has that Fogarty gave them.   Sa'lid has Snarg rig up a trap over the circle with Krolec's help.  Anyone attempting to enter the circle area will have the acid dumped down on them.  Xunrar applauds the brutality of the measure.

Yathrin is quite pleased with the plan.  They all head out back up the stairs while Krolec works to eliminate their tracks.

The ranger wonders about taking the corpse of Syrdar with them, but Yathrin believes it would be too difficult to cover up the death.  She feels it would be better to leave the body and let the man in the purple cloak believe Syrdar was the intruder, should he discover their trap.  

She remarks at least then his death would be useful.  Tarlyn agrees, noting that Sydrar was not worthy.  Yathrin expresses disgust at Syrdar's weakness.

Session 52 - Scene 6 (of

Once the group is back up the stairs, they debate heading towards the tunnels that could lead to Thunderspire.  Tarlyn notes that they could attempt to find the other group of famous heroes in the region and recruit them.  In particular, the drow feels the goliath barbarian he heard about could be useful.

Krolec, however, is concerned about the amount of time it will take.  Such a trip would take them several days out of their way; and time is one thing they know they don't have.  Yathrin agrees, and heads the group back towards the cavern where Brorn died.

As they head back, Tarlyn spots movement ahead along the shores of the lake.  When the group gets closer, they see a large force of kuo-toa warriors.  The scaly, fish-headed creatures chatter amongst themselves in a language no one in the group understands.

Yathrin notes that the kuo-toa have not attacked yet and may yet be converted into useful slaves.  She has Valas slowly lead the group in closer as she and Tarlyn pull ahead to talk to the creatures.

The chattering of the scaly humanoids gets louder as Yathrin and Tarlyn get closer.  They ready their spears, but stop short of actually threatening the drow.  Krolec and the others ready their weapons in a similar manner.

The priestess calls out to the kuo-toa, telling the creatures to let her group pass or die.  The apparent  leader of the group responds in a broken drow dialect that she is to come with them.

When she asks the leader why, he responds that she is to come to the "great tower" to see the "great one".  When she attempts to get clarification, he refers to the entity as the "great one of the deep".

Yathrin gets increasingly agitated trying to understand the creature's rambling broken speaking.  She gathers the great deep one is some kind of aquatic creature living in the lake.  Krolec, picking up on a few of the words, suggests perhaps it is their deity.

The priestess still insists on knowing why she must go see the creature, whatever it is.  The kuo-toa appears to only know that he was sent to get her.  Krolec tries to calm her by explaining that if it is some kind of deific entity, the kuo-toa would naturally not question it.

Although she is concerned it is a trap, Yathrin also feels it could be related to the cloaked man and she can't pass up any opportunity for aid.

The priestess takes aside Valas and explains she will leave him behind, giving him instructions to go back to the drow city should they fail to return.   She then tells the kuo-toa leader they will go with him.

Session 52 - Scene 7 (of

The kuo-toa leader uses some kind of shell horn to call over another boat from out on the lake.  It docks next to the small boat already on the shore.  Xunrar notes how small the craft are and is amazed the whole force of the creatures managed to fit into one the first time.

The group gets in the rickety boats, with Yathrin, Krolec, and Xunrar in one ship, and Sa'lid, Snarg, Leigh, and Tarlyn in the other.  The fishlike creatures slowly row across the lake, eventually reaching the island.

The kuo-toa lead the group inside the large tower made of black stones.  Leigh can tell the tower itself is not magical.  She and Xunrar also notice several statues of Torog, god of the underdark, adorning the inside and outside of the tower.

Once inside the main hall, the group sees the kuo-toa shaman, who appears to be the tribal leader.  He gets very excited at seeing Yathrin and calls out.  Two large grimlocks appear in a doorway near the dais.

The shaman motions for Yathrin to go with the two primitive, troll-like creatures.  When she and Tarlyn start to head over, the kuo-toa warriors use their spears to make it clear Tarlyn is not allowed to follow.

Yathrin uses the head kuo-toa warrior to translate to the shaman, asking why she must go alone.  He responds only that it is the deep one's wishes.

After giving Xunrar instructions to fight their way out if she has not returned in a few hours, she heads in with the grimlocks, alone.

The two creatures seem to mindlessly take her to a room deeper inside the tower.  The room has a large chamber of water in it, apparently connected to the lake.

Out of the water emerges a large aboleth.  Inside her mind, Yathrin can hear the thoughts of the creature.  It tells her she has entered its domain, and commands her to speak.

Yathrin is confused, responding that she was asked to come to the tower by the kuo-toa.  The aboleth telepathically responds to her, explaining it wants to know why she was leading her group near its lake.

Starting to understand, Yathrin explains they were only passing by the lake.  She goes on to explain about the man in the purple cloak and stopping him from releasing Tharizdun.

The aboleth contemplates for a moment.  In her mind, Yathrin hears the creature explain it is of two minds.  On the one hand, she and her companions would make excellent slaves.  On the other, Tharizdun would be a great threat.

Eventually, she convinces the creature it is in its best interests to let her and her group go.  It warns her that her, her present companions, and especially the drow of her tribe are to stay away from this lake.

Yathrin agrees, but strikes a deal to be able to request permission to pass should they need to as part of finding the man in the purple cloak.  The aboleth finds the request acceptable.

It is curious about the purpose of her non-drow companions.  The priestess explains that she is planning to use them as a shield.

The aboleth then makes a request of his own.  Should they stop the minions of Tharizdun and the human, eladrin, and/or elf were to survive, the creature wants Yathrin to deliver them to it for use as its slaves.  Yathrin doesn't fully commit, but says perhaps a bargain can be reached – if they actually survive.

Session 52 - Scene 8 (of

When she comes back out, Yathrin explains very little about what happened and no one really questions her.  They head back on the boats to the shore, but find Valas missing.  Yathrin suspected as much would happen when she left him.

Eventually they reach the large cavern area.  Krolec spots fresh blood a short distance inside the cave.

Yathrin has everyone get ready and switches the group into combat order, putting herself in the rear and Xunrar and Tarlyn in front.

Everyone can hear the giant creature coming toward them as a towering, enormous carrion crawler makes its way down the passage...

Session 52 - Session Notes

All in all, this was an uneven session.

Scrag's death at the beginning kind of threw things off.  

Once again, I thought the days of PC deaths would be at an end for the time being.  They fought one umber hulk - a party of their size and power level should have been able to handle up to three of the suckers (this one was a level 10 elite soldier).

Now, there were a few different factors at play here.  I'm not sure why the "let's not rest before heading somewhere more dangerous" strategy was employed - particularly when they love to be fans of the 15 min workday.  I'm not sure why the Xunrar PC failed to warn the rest of them about the giant monster that killed five of his men and how it lived in the next room.

But mostly, I remain shocked by their absolutely horrible tactical combat abilities.  It's become shockingly bad.  They were actually a lot better a year ago.

In this case, at least pretty much everyone felt Scrag deserved to die so there was no outrage or surprise.

Anyhow, once Scrag is gone we have to come up with a new character.  And because of the situation, adding another drow in was pretty much the only way to go.  So, I took Tarlyn (who was originally planned as a NPC who was not going to go along with the idea of allying with surface dwellers, causing some conflict and decision points for Yathrin) and made it into a PC.  I don't even have a character sheet made up for him yet.

Characterization was kind of weak in this session, too.  I expected a bit more of the continuing conflict between the good and evil sides of the group.  It's almost as if the good side is now resigned to just go along with Yathrin's leadership.


Other Notes:

The side passage was always more of a red herring and to add some suspense.  If they wanted to go kick some trog butt and get some treasure, the option.  They chose not to, since they are once again in a "laser-focused" mode where they don't care about anything not related to their current task.

I wanted to give a lot of options in this part, without going full sandbox (because mapping out the underdark would be more effort than it would be worth).  Thus, they had the side passage choice, the two methods of escape choice, the choice on what to do about the kuo-toa, etc.

The three other drow in this session didn't get a name until the write-up.  We called them "that guy who screamed", "righty", and "lefty" (based on their positions in the marching order).  They were just there to add a death whenever an opportunity presented itself.

Going back down to the Devil's Attic was not anticipated by me.  I sort of get the logic (if we're trying to find the guy, check a past hideout) yet didn't fully understand what they were going for there.

Still, it was fun to revisit the area again.  Particularly since it gives me an opportunity to once again show how several plot points have been interrelated all along (weaving plot elements together to create the backstory is my favorite part of DM-ing).  The joke from the Sa'lid player about the Devil's Attic being too deep reminding him of LotR was a nice touch as well [the real reason there is magma there - because I didn't want to have to map out the whole tunnel].

And since they were poking around, they got to discover one of the great secrets (how the purple guy can disappear a lot - secret hideouts with teleportation circles).  Here again though was another of their bizarre logical disconnects (at least, to me).  Instead of trying to follow the man via the circle, they put a trap around it - just in case he comes back to a hideout he knows they know about and that he abandoned months ago.  Had they gone through, they would have made some interesting discoveries.  Instead, they wasted their acid.

The kid playing Scrag actually wanted to bring in his Goldar character from the other campaign rather than play Tarlyn (hence, the in-joke in the writeup about Tarlyn wanting to recruit Goldar).  I said if it made sense, we could do it.  But, the group ultimately decided not to travel towards Thunderspire so I think he'll be using Tarlyn for the time being.  I did have a series of adventures planned if they took that route (mostly call-backs to the other campaign).

The kuo-toa and aboleth encounter was there to add some decision-making opportunities, character interaction, and the whiff of exploration.  The underdark is a strange place filled with its own forces vying for power, and I wanted that feeling to come through.

And now they are at the carrior crawler encounter.  I figured I foreshadowed it enough.  They had the choice of quicker but more dangerous vs. longer but relatively safer, and they chose the dangerous route.  Will more of them die next session?  I guess we'll have to see.

Personally, I can't wait for them to get back to the city because there's a ton of plot points ready to be used there as well.

Session 53 - Cast of Characters

Sir Krolec Jar'Bin - Elven Ranger
Dame Leigh - Eladrin Wizard
Sa'lid Dra'lah - Human Sorcerer

Yathrin Talaste zyne'Phyrva Noquval - Drow Cleric
Xunrar Torar - Drow Paladin
Tarlyn Delal - Drow Barbarian

Session 53 - Scene 1 (of 7)

With the enormous carrion crawler crawling swiftly towards the group, Tarlyn moves into a tactical position, preparing to charge the creature once it gets close enough.  He attempts to blast it with his darkfire, but misses.

Sa'lid steps up a bit to stand just behind Xunrar, using the paladin for protection.  He then blasts at the monster with his arcing fire spell, scoring the first hit.

The creature shuffles towards Sa'lid, but can't quite reach him.  Its tentacles are, however, close enough to attack Tarlyn.  They lash out at him, poisoning him and dragging him closer to the gigantic insect's gaping maw.

While Krolec fires a defensive volley to keep some of the tentacles off of Tarlyn, Leigh blasts the monster with her fireball.  Krolec then follows up the attack with his ranger's recovery shot, making sure to send it flying just past Xunrar's ear.

Yathrin steps up to get within range.  She puts her assassin's shroud over the creature and prays for divine favor for Xunrar.

Xunrar then places a shroud of his own and blasts the creature with his darkfire.  He steps up and attempts to attack the creature with his astral thunder, but fails.

Tarlyn decides the crawler is too dangerous and needs to be taken down quickly.  He summons forth his black dragon rage, moving into a flanking position.  The surge of combat allows him to score a very powerful hit, with the monster both bleeding and burning from acid.

Sa'lid presses the attack, hitting the carrion crawler with an explosive pyre.  Leigh follows it up with her lightning serpent spell.

Krolec scores two hits himself with his adaptive assault as the creature lashes Tarlyn with its tentacles once again.

After saying a prayer to heal Tarlyn, Yathrin places a second shroud on the monster and releases them both as she hits it with her flame strike.

Xunrar also places and releases a second shroud on the crawler, but his shout of condemnation attack fails to have the full effect against the monster.  Tarlyn has no better luck attempting a rage strike, or Sa'lid with his swirling stars spell.

The carrion crawler itself also has difficulties, as Tarlyn dodges past its tentacles.

Leigh has better luck, slamming the creature with her shock sphere spell.  Krolec tries to follow it up with his boar assault maneuver, but is unable to hit it even with his elven accuracy.

Yathrin moves up behind Xunrar and tries to blast the creature with her darkfire, but misses.  She has no better luck attempting to use the light of arvandar.

Xunrar moves in for the kill, but misses with his radiant smite.  Tarlyn looks for the opportunity to score a killing blow as well, but the crawler fends off another of his rage strike attacks.

Sa'lid does better with his energy strobe spell, blasting the beast with shining radiance.

Near death, the crawler lashes out with a flurry of tentacles at Xunrar, but he shield blocks the attacks.  Leigh finishes the monster off with a fire burst, melting it into a pile of goo.