outoftheabyss

Faran Magebane We negotiated the agreement for oils to protect weaponry from acid in the coming gnomish dessert war. In the meantime, Soggy got stoned, Elania (?) ate some of Creeper’s green dragon jerky and felt sick, and Creeper himself got briefly arrested for trying to smoke Larry the mushroom. The rest of us asked for something we could do to pass the time while the three stooges sobered up, and were invited to go after a shambling mound that had been bothering prime mushroom-land.

Faran Magebane We cleaned up the last of the elements attacking us with the help of a Shatter spell. The familiar feeling of hallowed ground told me the mission was complete, and we headed back to the Foaming Mug for some well deserved rest. We woke to an elf removing Creg’s eyes, waving a wanted poster at us when we went to interfere. Not one from the drow, but from the surface.

Faran Magebane The next morning, we explored further, finding a large room with a central pedastel. The pedastel was surrounded by stone pillars, and had a stone structure in the center, covered with sockets as if gems had once been held there. One large gem remained, remarkably similar to the one the earth elemental had dropped. The rest claimed this was a something-something we were supposed to clense to stop the dessert wizard.

Faran Magebane We met with the wererats, and despite my best efforts to provoke a fight, ended up with an agreement in principle to mutually defend the city with the deep gnomes. However, the agreement hinged on our group tracking down the source of the ooze and slime invasion nearby. Information from the wererats indicated the pudding invasion had a leader; Speaker for Puddings, or Oozemaster, or God of Slime, or something.

Faran Magebane We made arrangements for the repair of my armor and went off to see the wizard – err, the chief gnomes. On the way we met a musician playing a vast crystalline bowl like a musical instrument; Creeper and I joined in. He had some kind of flute, and I had the god of storms and war, by which I mean thunder. Creg chose that moment to speak up about an animated hand he had been carrying the whole time.

Faran Magebane Turns out there were at least three puddings and dessert was planning to eat us. And, oh yes, the water levels were visibly rising and someone had peaked inside the watery room and noticed large cracks in the walls from which water was pouring in to the whole complex. Someone had the clever idea to use the cube to block the puddings and buy us some time. Well two of them.

Faran Magebane A cave-in blocked off the passageway behind us, and we were forced to look for alternate routes. We found a strange passage into the depths after a brief search, though the passages showed evidence of water leakage. I thought about warning this group of misfits that the caves were likely unstable. But then, it was the only path forward we could find, and we had just had a cave-in.

Buzz Stonebrew It all started over a barrel of dwarven ale. My barrel, that is, which I planned to enter in the guild of brewers’ contest. But the night before the contest, I started drinking early – a bit of a pre-celebration of winning. And then I woke up before daw, head pounding, to discover that my prize-winning barrel of dwarven ale was one of the barrels we tapped the night before.

Hey, Peanuthead! What’s that? Hey, pesnuthead! C’mere! It’s like my daddy’s voice when he dreams of torturing the souls I eat for him. Except… No, this way! “Can the rest of you hear that?” Apparently they can. This is new. Also, my demonic daddy never called me peanuthead. We decided to investigate. I sent my second son – or was it third? anyways – ahead to scout and he promptly got lost.

Alamar I didn’t even get the chance to introduce my son around before we were attacked by four more huge spiders. The goblins promptly fled, leaving us to face them alone. Soggy was drugged out of his mind and did nothing useful. Creg was awake but spent more time wrapped up in webs than casting spells. Faolain was barely managing to keep us alive and Prim was the only star of the fight, killing all four of the spiders herself, though I made large contributions by hurting two of them very badly.