(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).
After a peaceful boat trip ending in a much less peaceful bout of mass-murder, the party has arrived at the Kuo-Toa town of Sloop’s people.
Our gang of heroes entered the town of Slubludob under the watchful eyes of the Kuo Toa guards. They were being watched with suspicion, but they’d gotten used to that. What was more unusual was that many of the towns-people were eyeing each other and muttering as well.
Anastasia: “Something seems wrong here.”
Targen: “Maybe they can smell murderous maniacs.”
WhiteEagle, looking around nervously: “You don’t think that’s true, do you?”
Zook: “There’s definitely an undercurrent here.”
Anastasia was whispering to a large Kuo Toa in ceremonial robes, decorated with carved fish bones.
Anastasia: “The ArchPriest wants to see us.”
Aiyu: “You can speak with them?”
Anastasia: “They speak Undercommon.” She ostentatiously burnished her nails. “I thought everyone spoke Undercommon.”
Aiyu squinted: “I let swords do my talking.”
Sargen: “Those little things? No wonder you’re so quiet.”
Aiyu: “We can’t all be made up of three layers of muscle. Some of us have to get by on our wits and skill.”
Sargen nodded while sympathetically patting Aiyu on the back.
The Kuo Toa priest let the adventurers through the damp backstreets to a a tiny hovel. Inside, a Kuo Toa in even more intricate ceremonial attire introduced himself as the Archpriest.
“I am Ploopploopeen, archpriest of the Sea Mother Blibdoolvpoolp. She answers my prayers by delivering you. Help us, and you will be rewarded for your service.”
Anastasia: “He says his name is Ploop, Archpriest of Blib.”
Zook: “You’re making this up, aren’t you.”
Anastasia: “No! Honestly! He wants us for some job.”
Targen: “What kind of job? And what about getting to the surface?”
Anastasia conversed with Ploop for a few minutes before turning back to Targen.
“His daughter Blophas is trying to usurp his power and persuade people to follow a new religion to Leemooggoogoonthe the Deep Father. Apparently, many of the towns-folk have gone over to the new cult and they’ve already been performing sacrifices near the lake. He wants us to help crush the cult and capture his daughter. If we do, he’ll give us some supplies and sort us out with a trip on a boat with some traders that may take us to the surface.”
WhiteEagle: “Sounds like a good deal. I’ve dealt with priests before, they’re not much good in a fight.”
Zook: “Can he get me some inks and paper to create a new spell book?”
Anastasia: “He says they’ll stop on the market on the way to the new shrine. He’s just waiting for his Captain of the Guard to get back so they can go in force. He was out patrolling the river ways looking for people to help and he’s long overdue.”
Targen: “Oh oh.”
Zook: “Any chance we can get these supplies now in the off-chance we need to leave suddenly? Purely hypothetically.”
Eventually Ploop gave up waiting for his guardsmen and led the heroes to confront his daughter, pausing on the way to allow Zook to peruse the knick-knacks and bargains available in the market.
Aiyu: “Did you really need to go shopping now?”
Zook: “Look! Paper and inks for spells! At bargain prices! Plus some new socks. It’s really hard to get gnome sizes with good quality.”
Sargen: “Those bandages you bought smell bad.”
Zook: “They’ve got some special chemical on them that helps healing.”
Targen: “I think they saw you coming from the other side of the lake.”
Next to the docks on the lake, the shrine to Leemooggoogoonthe the Deep Father was a dead manta-ray pinned across a hide, with two dead octopuses died purple and blue tied up across the top. The whole thing reeked of decay.
Targen: “Urrgh, that’s not right.”
Zook: “The blue and purple, two heads, tentacles and corruption thing rings a bell. Something from some of my studies at the acadamy. Can’t quite place it though.”
A Kuo Toa wearing blood-stained ceremonial robes with a crazed look in her eye strode forward and started loudly arguing with Ploop. The crowd around the arguing pair looked more and more hostile and the atmosphere was dangerous. Soon an oppressive silence descended on the docks as the two priests glared at each other.
At that point, a large Kuo Tuo warrior staggered into the space between the factions. He was bleeding profusely and two of WhiteEagle’s arrows were embedded in his body. He gesticulated weakly at the heroes, gurgled out a final accusation, staggered into the shrine and then died on the ground. With a scream, the two factions drew their weapons and launched themselves at each other and at the party.
WhiteEagle: “Why must things always end in violence?”
After a brutal, close-quarters fight the last Kuo Toa had either died or fled from the dock and the Arch-Priestess of Leemooggoogoonthe made a final, impassioned appeal to her master before dying on his shrine. At that point the chill touch of evil magic pulsed outwards from her body and across the town. A split second of tense silence was followed by a pair of demonic roars as a huge two-headed monstrosity burst out of the centre of the lake, thrashing around with its four gigantic tentacles. The demon was the size of a large building and it soon focused the gaze of one of it’s baboon-like heads on the town where the heroes stood.
Zook: “Oh, right, NOW I remember. It was Demogorgon.”
DM Notes: Everything went pretty well at first here, with the players keeping their murderous members in check, getting some needed supplies and linking up with one of the factions in the city. The previous murder-spree did catch up with them which turned the final fight into a more chaotic and risky fight than it could have been. Demogorgon rising was pretty cool 🙂
Herring's Fishbait 