(This is a log of my players run through the Out of the Abyss campaign (After a brief dabble with Harried at Hillsfar first. Spoilers abound, though it’s likely the team won’t play the module in the way you, the writers or sanity intended).
A simple recovery of a lost artefact turned into an enraged dragon burning the entire city down. A desperate hail-mary with a magic item teleported the party away from the slaughter and now they investigate where they ended up.
For the first time in the tunnels of the Underdark, the caves were well lit, illuminated by a forest of bioluminescent fungi. It was a wonderful combination of colours, and the party descended into the grove to investigate, led by the ranger, WhiteEagle.
Zook: “This place is incredible.”
WhiteEagle: “I don’t know; after all these weeks skulking about in the dark all this light is a bit creepy. There’s no way to hide anything in here, we’d be totally expo….”
With a grunt, WhiteEagle fell across a body lying across the path, being nursed by Stool, the myconid they helped rescue (see Post 4, True Believers).
The body belonged to the seriously ill Sarith, another of the prisoners the party helped back in the day. Back then, the party had noted he suffered from a strange fungal infection and then promptly forgot about it. Now the disease had accelerated to the point where he was barely recognizable. But it wasn’t the poison that almost killed him….
After WhiteEagle was able to to cast some simple healing magic to stabilize Sarith, a tale of betrayal and woe was told by Stool (using a release of hallucinogenic spores).
Aiyu: “Bepido! He stabbed Sarith in the back and kidnapped Eldreth!”. He turned back to Sarith and Stool. “See! I told you we were trustworthy!”
Targen: “Trustworthy?”
Aiyu: “About this one specific thing? Yes.”
Stool also explained the heroes were in the middle of a large myconid colony lead by the monarch, Phylo. The monarch, a huge, pale myconid, soon approached and greeted the team, joyously explaining that they’d arrived at a time of great celebration.
Zook: “What’s happening?”
Phylo: “The Great Seeder is coming! The great rot is almost here!”
Targen: “No red flags there whatsoever.”
The team spent the next day, moving across the cavern with Sarith, Stool and the other myconids. They killed a corrupted Grick, investigated the spread of corruption and saw the divisions in the myconid community. all the while moving towards the ominous plateau and enormous fungal tower they could see in the distance. As signs of demonic influence in the grove grew, Sarith became increasingly ill as the mushrooms spread across his body.
Climbing up the plateau, the party saw signs of humanoids absorbed into the fungus and a cacophony of moans, cries and hisses got ever louder as they neared the tower.
WhiteEagle: “This is creepy and I am unsettled.”
A weak voice called out to them from the vegetation. A barely recognizable female Drow elf, half merged into tightly woven mushrooms, weakly waved a bloated arm at the party.
Drow: ”Kill me….. The Great Seeder… trap… the Lady of Decay….Zuggtmoy….. so weak…..please… kill m….”
Before she finished the words Anastasia stepped forward and removed her head with a single, clean blow.
WhiteEagle: ”Bloody hell!”
Anastasia: “Hmm. I wonder what happened to her? And what was all that about Zuggtmoy?”
Zook threw his hands up in frustration: “If only there had been some way to talk to her more before she died!“
Anastasia, shrugged: “Just the way of things I guess.”
The heroes paused to get their bearings.
Targen: “I’m sure we’re forgetting something.”
With a gurgle, Sarith collapsed as a fungal creature burst forth from his body in a cloud of spores.
Targen: ”Ah, yes. Right.”
Luckily the creature was weakened by it’s traumatic birth and a combination of some incredible shooting from WhiteEagle and a crushing blow from Targen soon defeated it. As the party caught it’s breath the moans and cries carrying through the cavern suddenly sounded fearful as something moved across the foul ground towards them.
A disgusting larval creature rose up before them, showing vestigial fungal growths that hinted that it might once have been a myconid.
The aberrant myconids voice gurgled as it spoke out loud, with a ghastly echo reflected in the minds of the adventurers.
“Welcome, travelers. Are you here for the wedding rehearsal? Friends of the bride or her intended? No matter! Let the love of the Great Seeder embrace you as you become one with her chosen, the Great Body!”
Lunging forward, the creature flung Targen and WhiteEagle into the ground, knocking them out. At the same time a lashing tentacle grabbed Sargen, who lost himself in rage and began hacking chunks off the horrific creature.
Waiting for ther best time to strike, Aiyu and Anastasia circled the beast while Zook began throwing firebolts.
As it recoiled from Zooks assault, the melee fighters saw their chance and carved the creature into decaying chunks.
Anastasia: “We need some answers here. What’s going on?”
Sargen: ”Why not do that Speak With Dead thing, Zook?”
Zook: ”Speak with what exactly? It’s in bits!”
Sargen, nudging one of the larger chunks with his boot: “I dunno. This bit was on the top, and it sort of looks like a head.”
Zook wasn’t entirely convinced but began casting his spell and asked his first question: “What is happening in the Grove?”
After a few minutes, silence was his only response.
Zook: “I didn’t think that was going to wor….”
“THE GREAT SEEDER WILL LEAD US TO THE PROMISED LAND!”
A dozen mouths burst open across the pile of severed body parts, screaming in a multitude of voices.
Zook, peering out from behind Sargen’s legs: ”Who is the Great Seeder?”
EVERYTHING THAT WAS PROMISED! EVERYTHING COMING TO FRUITION! DEATH AND LIFE!
Zook: “What about the wedding?
I WILL BE PRESIDING OVER THE WEDDING! THE GREAT BODY AND THE GREAT SEEDER!
Sargen: “Let’s go an crash the wedding.”
Targen: “That’s probably a really bad idea. But we’re going to do it anyway, aren’t we?”
Echoes spilled from the misty cavern beyond, a cacophony of wheezing voices that wrapped together like some kind of discordant music. The remaining heads of the planted bodies begin to croak and groan, joining the horrible song.
Through the mist that shrouded the smaller cavern, the party saw a parade of creatures responsible for the melody. Their bodies were only vaguely humanoid, with clusters of luminescent lichen and tumescent growths forming chaotic patterns on their decaying flesh, their voices stabbing into the heroes minds, both insane and gleeful in equal parts;
"From rocky bed the toadstool rose,
From chaos dark, her love She shows.
Wish! Yearn! Laugh!
The Lady will be wed!
Crave! Hunger! Dance!
Her joyous spores will spread!
Youth is gone, beauty rots,
Araumycos and Zuggtmoy!
Joined together, heart to heart,
Becoming one 'til death do part!
Hail! Hail! Hail!"
Zook: “I am now 100% on board with us getting the hell out of dodge.”
WhiteEagle: “Huh? Why?”
Zook: “Really? You have to ask?”
Suddenly, the party was gripped by a vision of the inside of a great tower. Spiraling stairs and balconies were carved into its walls, with the interior lit by phosphorescent patches of mold growing in whorls. In the center of the open space floated a humanoid figure, womanlike in form, but made entirely of fungi and mold. She is easily three times the height of the fungal bridesmaids that move up and down the spiraling stairs, tending to their giant mistress. They croon a strange, soothing song as they weave the substance of the giant figure into delicate lichen veils and a long, mycelium train like a bridal gown.
The party: “Run away!”
After racing back out of the cave, they paused only long enough to repeat what they’d seen and gather any myconids who were still not under the demonic spell before fleeing into the Underdark.
DM Notes:
The teleport got the party roughly back on track, and this was an opportunity to bring in some of the big villains (the Demon Lords) and show how powerful they were. I added some more Bupido action as the party loved to hate on him, plus some more NPCs to help point the team to a way out.
Everything was going swimmingly for the first time in ages; the team was close to an exit, they had some friendly guides and (most importantly) it looked like they'd learned not to do anything suicidal with Demon Lords.
Unfortunately that assumption turned out to not be 100 % accurate...
Herring's Fishbait 