The Bottom of the Bottom? Campaign Diary

Back in the temple we were. Into the bag of holding went the dodgy gold band, best not touch it right now. The tunnel exiting the temple led to the last unexplored room of the fortress. Expecting deadly combat, the employees of Truetemper’s Solution braced themselves and hopped through. Inside, they found the next chamber was all but empty, with only a shaft of dark blue light illuminating the dark. M’narr inspected the odd faces carved into the stone of the walls, and Ragados searched for hidden doors and threw a bit of food (dried banana) at the light. Soon all that's left to do in the room was touch the light, so Ragados gives it just the tip. Of his finger. The light wanes and a monstrous withered figure appears: a balor, perhaps? But conspicuously weakened. It loomed over them with a wicked grin, and demanded they grovel. After briefly weighing up the situation, the party decided it best to grovel.

Thus began a conversation with the withered demon. Quick to take offence, it threw what spells it could at the party, but none to great effect. It spoke highly of its master, and of some power found in Nemausus. Ragados, M’narr and 12-Bar all took turns trying to persuade the Balor to sing, but nothing they offered could entice it to turn stag on its master. Frustrated, but just about able to stop themselves from attacking the berk, the three adventurers moved on.

Back in the temple chamber, Ragados’s frustration has grown. He throws a skull at the bell and misses, so commands Gerok to attack it. Gerok hits, and the bell rings. Only Ragados hears it. Its clamour rings through his skull. He tenses up and blacks out, and now M’narr's really starting to panic. He casts identify to diagnose Ragados’ problem, but before the spell completes, Ragados wakes up and three ghosts attack through the walls. The ghosts are quickly killed, but not before their fearful faces terrify M’narr and 12-Bar. They’re both aged. But while Modrons live for millenia, M’narr is aged close to death.

Meanwhile Ragados is acting funny. Hopeless and despondent. Between him and the suddenly geriatric M’narr, it’s down to 12-Bar to call the shots. He decides that fleeing to regroup is imperative, and leads the party back to the entrance, where they open the portal to Ranais and manage to rest. 12-Bar restores M’narr to his youth, and M’narr identifies a few magic items. They finish breakfast and jump right back into Tcian Sumere.

Their sleeves once again filled with their respective tricks, the party heads for the locked safe in the lab. 12-Bar gives a pep-talk and M’narr and Ragados attempt to disarm the traps. They do it. Ragados is just – just – able to open the locked safe. Inside is a huge tome with a claw on it. M’narr’s casting identify before Ragados can even put his lockpicks away.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Outlands: Planar Rules and Encounter Table

Encounters Check for encounters three times a day by rolling a d100. For the first roll each day, there is a 35% chance of an encounter. If no encounter occurs, the chances of an encounter on the next roll increase by 30%. If an encounter does occur, the chance of an encounter on the next roll that day decreases by 30%, to a minimum of 35%. Check for encounters once a night, again with a 35% chance. More information about the Planescape-specific monsters on these tables can be found in the AD&D book Monstrous Compendium: Planescape Appendix II. The below table is a modified version of an Outlands encounter table found on reddit . Roll 2d10: 2. Earth-berg. Floating chunks of earth and a scarred landscape remain after a chunk of land from the Outlands recently slid into another plane. Echoes of the other plane may remain. 3. Lost Blood War Patrol. A ragtag group of demons (MM), devils (MM), or yugoloths (MM) that fought in the Blood War and was cut off from the rest of the...
Read more

DM Resources for Planescape and Dead Gods

Looking to unpick how to run Dead Gods in 5e D&D, but don't know where to start? Start here. First things first. Realistically, I wouldn't recommend Planescape or Dead Gods for a first-time DM. Trying to stay on top of the adventure and the world is enough work without having to learn the rules of the game as you go. If you and your group all played Planescape: Torment and loved the world and know it well, then that's a bit different. Otherwise, run a simpler adventure or two first, and get to the stage where you're confident with the rules. Done that? Okay. So, obviously you have the adventure itself . I have a ringbound Print on Demand copy, which is fantastic, although 9 pages out of the 170+ have scanned badly, and some are illegible. Some copies of the pdf have this problem and some don't, so check before you buy. Either way, the illegible pages are all detailed in this useful free 5e conversion by Jarred Caldwell. It seems as if this pdf was formally a pa...
Read more

The Bottom of the Bottom? Behind the Screen

The visages’ defence holds. Still no one suspected their illusion last session. I used the Madness of Orcus d100 table from Out of the Abyss/Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes for the church bell insanity effects. Top Tip: Glyphimhor Decide in advance what Glyphimhor will talk about, and what he wants from the players, otherwise things will get comically awkward. I decided Glyphimhor mostly wanted to watch PCs grovel and beg for mercy, remind 'em of the good old days. I didn’t bother to stat him in full, but if a fight breaks out, use the same mental stats as a balor, give him about 65HP, remove all his attacks, give him the 3 spells in the adventure, i.e. fear, suggestion, ray of enfeeblement. Orcus or Tenebrous? I am going to call a spade a spade, and the Demon Prince of Undeath the Demon Prince of Undeath. Why not Tenebrous? Reasoning as follows: 1. Orcus is an exciting villain 2. The party’s played this game for ages, there’s nothing wrong with throwing them a frickin bone...
Read more