Session logs from 2020

A year of Underdark, Discord, and slime, 2020 was indeed a year that happened.

Click here for campaign and one-shot diaries from the previous year: 2019, or the following year: 2021.

## Session 68: Krûl and Unusual

January 4, 2020

After a long rest in their mossy hideout in the flumph cave, the party brought Percy up to speed, and Durthee was introduced to the party. Durthee carefully opened three small boxes Sannl had found in the Artefactium in Krûl, and Sannl read the Qualith inscriptions on the tablets within, gleaming some of the mind flayers' history on Thindrel, including knowledge of a failed index that became a giant spawning ooze due to demonic influence before the closing of the Ley lines.

After much deliberation, the party wend back to Krûl in the guise of a travelling trade caravan. In the smithing district, the party found an armory where a fire giant was forced to work for a mostly mindless duergar smith. In the armory, Durthee managed to steal some armor, including an elven chain recognizable to the party. In the market district, Sannl and Neeril persuaded J'kae Rhithiss to buy a trio of Barendain's paladins free from the duergar, in return for a favor from Neeril.

With Willow's eyes of night, the party spotted a mindwitness floating above the city, watching them with one lazy eyestalk. Escorted by scores of guards, the party was brought before Baron Graldain Ironpike of Krûl. The Baron held a sword in his hand, a mind blade containing the psyche of Otiskar Blackscream, and influenced by the sword, the Baron commanded the party be killed. However, the party acted quickly, calming the guards and banishing the Baron and the blade. When the Baron returned, the party had convinced his son Lerrek to stand down, so they could free his father from the Blackscream's command. Between Percy's swift mace action, Durthee's deft use of mage hand, and Galad's new *disintegrate*spell, the mind blade was destroyed, and the Baron was freed. The baron was grateful enough to let the party go, and he was even talked into allowing the party to hunt down the aberrations in his city, on the condition that they cause no further trouble.

Now, naturally, some trouble was caused. A purple worm tunnelled up through the ground and spewed forth a wave of monsters, including a mind witness and two mind flayers. in the chaos, Percy had run down an alley to look for armor in her size, finding three duergar children and a small-sized chain mail. The children agreed to help Percy, who then hurried back to the action after stopping a wave of mind-controlled sewer rebels. A hidden mind flayer tried to catch Percy off guard, but was slain by Durthee with her psionic crystal blade. When the purple worm swallowed Kas and dug back into the ground, Galad followed suit and killed the worm with a guiding bolt. Percy stepped through a dimension door to escape a swarm of cranium rats and reach Kas to heal her inside the worm. The others hunted the second mind flayer over and into a building, where Galad blindly fired a fireball, accidentally killing a trio of dwarflings, but also hurting the fleeing mind flayer so Willow in her white dragon form could kill it with her frost breath.

The purple worm was looted for treasures it had eaten, and Sannl found the dead body of Grellik Ambereye. Galad tried his best to console the duergar children's foster mother, before taking off to help fight through the chaos of the city. The party split up to raid a gemstone storehouse, fight some duergar disciples of the mind flayers, and free the fire giant from the armory. Percy, who recognized the three duergar kids, cast gentle repose on them and had them placed in a temple in the Baron's fortress district. Galad stayed in the temple, while the others camped in a *tiny hut* inside the armory.

## Session 69: Nice

January 19, 2020

At the fire giant's workspace in the armory in Krûl, Kas worked to remove the demon from a plate armor she wanted, leaving its ichor in the hot coals. When the ichor started to move, Percy took a shovel and shoved the ichor into a tub of water. Sannl and Percy went upstairs to raise Grellik Ambereye from the dead, while Kas refitted the armor for herself. The ichor eventually grew into a water demon, attacking the party, but was quickly smote by Kas, returning it to its blood-like ichor form. Unsure of how to destroy the ichor, the party had Willow fetch Galad to banish it. After eight attempts, the ichor was finally gone from this plane.

Willow offered to teach Galad Sylvan, knowing his growing interest in the Feywild.

With Kas on the ground, and Willow and Galad in the air, the three went out to hunt for those star-palmed duergar who seemed to control the people of Krûl. Meanwhile, Percy and Sannl went snuck out to look for loot and scribing materials, winding paper, ink, and Sannl's hat of wizardry. Percy then failed to scry on SlimeBronn, and Sannl failed to read a Qualith tablet, rendering her affected by multiple forms of indefinite madness.

Kaeth, a deep gnome scout from Quarzendorf, who was called by Durthee arrived in the armory and offered his help in getting some diamonds recut to fit the spell needed to bring back the three dead duergar children. In exchange for some money, Kaeth promised to return with the recut diamonds and some diamond dust.

Kas was left to fend off the mindless masses in Krûl's market while the star-palmed duergar slithered around invisibly, puppeteering the crowd to attack Kas one at a time, and Kas to strike down one of the mindless marketgoers. After a while, she gave up on finding the mind master and took refuge on a building, where she, Galad, and Willow found a cache of strange artefacts gifted to the past Baron's of Krûl. After Willow dispelled the wards in the building, a silver sword lifted itself up to attack her, but Kas caught it in time to stop it.

The party reunited in the armory, planned, identified items, and were met with Helper the four-armed treasure goblin assistant to the Jackal Fiend. The party, unhappy with the new prices, decided not to take part in Helper's loot crate gambling. To get some alcohol, Kas went back to the market and killed six duergar guards, returning with three bottles of vodka and an amulet with a horse emerging from a wave on it. The group spent some time discussing relationships between age and race, and Percy spoke about her written will and her feelings toward reincarnation. Galad promised to get Percy back as herself should she die. As the conversation slowly died out, the group got a long rest. In what can only be assumed to be the next morning, Kaeth returned with the requested gems, and fighting a headache and having to deal with still maddened Sannl, he informed the party that the City of the Glass Pool is the ancient Kuo-toa city of Doomoodpool, and that the party had only seen the very top of its ruins. Kaeth himself had barely escaped from the glass pool itself, and warned the party not to go near it. With the diamonds dust, Sannl was cured of her madnesses, much to everybody's relief. Sannl then recalled the urgency of helping the trio of paladins purchased by J'kae Rhithiss who had most likely already left the now war-torn Krûl. Percy was concerned for Kaeth given his headache, and Sannl cursed the loss of her ring of x-ray vision. Before leaving, Kaeth delivered a message from Durthee's husband Snichtick, in the form of a kiss on Durthee's cheek.

The party made their way to Krûl's temple, narrowly persuading the Baron's son to let them in. There, they spoke the the duergar foster mother and offered their help. After a long and emotional ritual, Percy completed her raise dead spells on the duergar children, returning all three of them to life. She payed the kids for their help with the armor the other day, and offered the little family sanctuary on the surface. Percy told the kids to make trouble, but also to remember to be nice. Especially to their mother.

With a promise fulfilled, and three more lives saved, the party made their way back to the armory, preparing their next move. Some made a quick visit to the factory district, finding the workers pretending to work, but all in a state of mindless, repetitive imitation, accomplishing no real work anymore. Perhaps the time had come to leave Krûl behind…

## Session 70: Goodbye Krûl World

January 28, 2020

A fog of spores rolled through Krûl, killing a few citizens and putting the others into an even deeper haze than the stupor they were already in.

Persephone and the Great Eagle Ruler of the Surface World brought the three duergar kids and their mom to Syllior via *word of recall*. There, Kelp and Habla agreed to give the grey dwarves a home at the Obelisk.

The remaining party escaped Krûl, with Kass sealing some of the gates to stop the spreading of the spores. Neeril and Durthee led the way to Ryldz'tes while discussing the surface world (a truly horrifying place). While passing under a hidden cave where Neeril could sense an unmoving aberration, strange visions came to the party as mild hallucinations or vague impressions of otherworldly sights and unfamiliar creatures.

In Syllior, Percy and Willow arranged stuff with the people there: Sir Angus will make a lost of possible magi to replace Dalion Sohl as court magus of Willow's ward. Percy and Beans spoke about Dill and how best to communicate in the future. Willow and Percy then rejoined the others in the underdark through the portal mirrors, each in the form of a tiny beast.

The party entered the drow town of Ryldz'tes, There, they met with Neeril's cousin Shurynda Orlyar, the captain of Ryldz'tes, who was very impressed with Neeril's trophies from Krûl, particularly two mind flayer tentacles harvested from the Mediator, one of which Shurynda got to keep. In return, Shurynda extended her kindness to the party, gave them three potions of poison resistance, and told them where to find J'kae. Before leaving Captain Shurynda's home in the stalactite at the top of Ryldz'tes, Durthee spotted an odd skull in Shurynda's possession, which Sannl identified as that of Rhilin Farspire, a late archmage of Mythhold and former member of the Circle of Guardians.

The party found J'kae Rhithiss in the weavers' house, where she offered to get them all some fancy silks in payment for helping resolve Neeril's favor by going on J'kae's mystery quest below Ryldz'tes. J'kae explained the nature of her quest: To seek out the dragon Sazzanith and gain access to her vast underdark maps. She also informed the party of her preference for a non-violent solution, so she could make the dragon her ally (wink wink). J'kae then escorted the party to see the paladins Tullr, Mezmin, and Hathrat, all tired but unharmed since their time in Krûl.

   With J'kae being on a schedule to return in time for the final trials of a new generation of priestesses, the party set out to find the dragon Sazzanith and either kill her, rob her, or help J'kae ~~seduce~~convince her. To get there, they had to pass a number of kobold traps and tricks, which Durthee helped with by enchanting one of the kobolds for an hour. This kobold now considers Durthee a dangerous trickster.

   In the purple dragon's lair, J'kae led the negotiations with Sazzanith, but the dragon also interrogated some among the party. Sazzanith was persuaded to give up copies of her underdark maps to J'kae, and the sword Starlight to the party. In return, J'kae would give the dragon sanctuary and status within the drow queendoms, and the party offered critical information and warnings concerning the mind flayers.

Backtracking through the kobold tunnels, the party found a place to rest, huddled up in a tiny hut. Throughout the long rest, several people spent some time in quiet, one-on-one conversations. Notably, Percy got some answers from J'kae, and Neeril had a much-need talk with J'kae and later with Sannl. Durthee rattled through the maps Sazzanith had given to J'kae, making sure to steal each copy that contained information about the location of Quarzendorf. While going through these many maps, she noted a number of new pathways mapped by the purple dragon.

## Session 71: Knowing Makes All the Difference

February 16, 2020

J'kae and the party bypassed the kobolds outside Sazzanith's lair with a sleep spell, that caused some minor wild magic, entering the clumpy cave from below. However, no flumphs were present, and in their place, a troop of Kuo-toa worshippers of Hydrapytra trudged about in search of sacrifices to their many-headed deity. between J'kae's insect plague, and the party's deft barrage of spells and attacks, the zealous fish people were slain. Naturally, Neeril harvested their bodies for useful parts.

While heading back to Ryldz'tes to fulfil the agreement with J'kae, the party experienced no visions like they had previously in that area. Neeril could still sense the aberration's presence, and Willow could see the light of flumphs in the hidden cave above. Curious, the group decided to investigate on their next pass through.

In Ryldz'tes, the party retrieved their new silk products and paid J'kae to let the paladins free. The party spent some time at Neeril's place comparing notes and maps, and discussing what to do about Sazzanith, now knowing that the dragon possessed knowledge of Quarzendorf's location. A fiendish spider familiar was spying on the group, but Kassiopeia made sure to kill it (thus possibly committing a capital crime in Drow society). The group quickly packed their things and left, parting ways with Tullr's group who were headed upwards to search for more lost paladins of Barendain to unite with.

While the flumphs were still swarming in the hidden cave, Neeril performed a rope trick to allow the party passage into the mysterious, crystalline lair of what was revealed to be a mind flayer. Visions flooded the adventurers' senses, and psionic energy impeded their movement through rows of small metallic columns. With flumphs to aid them and Starlight aglow in Kas' hand, the group pressed through and made their way to the Monitor's strange throne, where the mind flayer sat unmoving, static, dreaming. Kas beheaded the mind flayer while Sannl's *arcane hand* picked it up. Percy inspected the metal columns and found them to respond strangely to *speak with dead*. The spell allowed her to speak briefly with a being that considered itself chosen for a higher purpose for its unique perspective. The columns turned out to be connected through worm-like tubes to brains encased in the crystal floor below, most in the form of intellect devourers, but a few as people — one among them being Maegra Tuskheart of Barendain's monastery. Finding her to have died around the same time as the mind flayer had been slain, the party unplugged Maegra's brain from the tubes, and copper coins were bound over her eyes before she was lowered gently back into her crystal repose.

Understanding that flumphs feed on excess psionic energy, and knowing this can have a calming effect on overly anxious creatures, Durthee pointed a flumph in Percy's direction. At first, the flumph simply drifted over and fed on the ambient energy around her, but Percy quickly became the center of a feeding frenzy. A quick escape later, the party decided to smuggle Percy past the flumphs that were drifting back to their cave, and Sannl put up a *tiny hut* at the entrance to the kobold-infested tunnels below. During this rest, Percy noticed that her shoes felt a bit loose and about a centimeter appeared to be missing from her usual height.

The following morning, Percy decided to get a biopsy to gauge what would happen to her body, should she die. With the party's help, a skin graft was removed from her leg and kept in a glass vial for later observation. The group then squeezed their way through the smaller kobold tunnels, where a bait-trap activated and partially collapsed the tunnel while greatswords of fire giant make swung down at the party. Sannl narrowly shielded herself with a spell, while Kass caught a sword in the leg and was slowed down while the others faced off against a small band of kobolds led by one with a grudge against Durthee. Eventually, the group made it through the kobold territory and repelled down into the fungal cavern below with Neeril's help.

In the fungus-infested cavern, tiny beholder-kin and gas spores assailed the party, commanded by a beholder that was carving out its lair in the walls. This beholder was identical to a vision that had appeared briefly to the party while in the Monitor's crystal lair the previous day. Kass and Percy took a dive on Willow in her eagle form. The others formed a parachute team with *feather fall*, drifting down almost too slowly to help those in combat with the beholder. Percy was petrified, Kas almost died multiple times, and after Neeril had weakened the beholder with purple worm poison-tipped arrows, Galad disintegrated it, leaving only a pile of dust. Percy was restored with greater restoration, and Willow checked on the skin sample from earlier, which by then had become a coagulated blob of red slime. This revelation gave Percy and the rest of the party much to think about as they ventured through the Cloaker Caves. Deciding against exploring the caves, the party spent the rest of the day trekking and climbing their way to the dead stone giant, fighting a single gelatinous cube on the way. Thus ended the moon of the Owlbear 853 CL.

## Session 72: Kobolds and Kuo-Toa

March 1, 2020

In the early morning, Willow and Neeril spotted some odd creatures seemingly playing in the tunnel below the party's resting spot. One was a pale kobold, the other a dark fox that disappeared into the earth, walking effortlessly through the stone and leaving no trace in the rocky surface. The kobold scrambled on all fours and ran, but before it was completely gone, Willow checked the Delver's Cube and saw the dragon rune was glowing.

When everyone was awake, stories and knowledge of nature above and below the surface were swapped, and no one could make sense of the earth-gliding fox. Percy had spoken to Hermes in the night, and received a few revelations. Sannl was sent through the magic mirror where she could safely cast sending to Lo-Tha in the astral plane, and thus research the mind flayers' enemies and the limitations of Thindrel's closed ley lines. The others ventured forth into the familiar kobold lair, watching out for traps this time.

Through fire, ice, and fungi, the party made it through the lair, though Galad was nipped in the butt by a quipper and Percy breathed in some fungal spores from a ballon-like fungus that resembles a beholder. The kobolds had been caught somewhat off guard and retreated quickly. As the party left the lair, a final trap caught Neeril in a leech-infested cell, slowly filling with water, but with a rope trick and some hill giant strength, this proved to be a minor setback.

And so the party trekked on into the cave with the caustic geyser, where a cult of Kuo-toa were capturing the local goblins as sacrifices to their god Hydrapytra. A fight broke out, as the Kuo-toa thought to make sacrifices out of the party as well, but Durthee and Percy managed to convince two of the cult leader's three heads to accept the party as a fellow cult to Hydrapytra, and killing the third head. The crazed fish people then warily accepted the party as allies for the time being, and invited them to accompany their cult back to its mighty god. On their way through the roper lair, a few goblins and Kuo-toa were caught and eaten, but the party was unscathed. The now two-headed archpriest explained to Percy how the cult had once been of one mind, but upon leaving the sea and witnessing Hydrapytra's presence, they had been granted their own minds, divine magic, and a purpose: to conquer the dry land in Hydrapytra's name.

To lead the party towards Hydrapytra, the cult showed them through the broken doors into the cave containing the mongrelfolk village where Stankelmus lives and the mind flayer laboratory where the party had first slain the Distiller. This time around though, the laboratory was in ruins and overgrown with slime molds and algae. The party decided to ignore the mongrelfolk village for now and head towards the lab, following the Kuo-toa into an ambush by a pack of cave fishers. After this encounter, the group spent about half an hour exploring the lab, discovering that its conch shell was seemingly once home to an enormous mollusk with large tentacles, fins on its shell, and a hollowed out structure containing the mind flayers' instruments and some strange biological mechanisms. The shell also seemed to later have been hidden from prying senses through a mix of psionics and arcane practice, possibly to keep the laboratory secret, even from the old Distiller's kin.

   The group then followed the Kuo-toa through the back exit of the ruined lab, crawling through a small tunnel under the lab and emerging through a curtain of kelp and algae into a vast cavern with no end in sight, even for Willow's endless dark vision. Through the dark fog, Willow could see distant mind witnesses floating around in the air, a singular mind flayer leaving a small structure in the ceiling, and some miles away, an island with huts like those in Doomoodpool, and faint lights like nothing of the mundane world. After taking this in, she bestowed that same sight upon the others, and before they could truly process their view of the City of the Glass Pool, a shape moved through the still lake that covered almost the entire cavern. Several large heads rose from water, barely disturbing the clear surface, carried on long, frilled necks all connecting to the same huge body of a hydra, and the Kuo-toa all fell to their knees in humility before their god, Hydrapytra.

## Session 73: Heads and Tails

March 14, 2020

The hydra gobbled up the captive goblins, and two of its heads shared a Kuo-toa, before then sniffing around the party, threateningly inspecting them with open mouths and pulsating nostrils.

Persephone Buckthorn convinced the Kuo-toa that Hydrapytra would accept the party as part of its cult, using invoke duplicity and thaumaturgy to sell the idea that the hydra could speak. Strangely, the duplicate didn't resemble herself, but instead bore the visage of Marigold, who doesn't speak Undercommon. With her *tongues*spell still active, Percy "translated" the hydra's divine message, and as the two-headed archpriest and its cult began to believe her, the hydra withdrew from its aggressive stance and disappeared back into the water.

The party was invited to stay with the cult and rest in the old Kuo-toa ruins at the edge of the water. Willow went through the magic mirror to fetch Sannl, and the two decided to go shopping for diamond dust in Syllior before heading back to the Underdark. When they did return, it was mid-combat.

Percy's attempts at exploiting the power of the fish people's faith resulted in her hearing voices as if the hydra was speaking directly into her mind. Its words of hunger and sacrifice served as a warning, and Percy told the others to scram before it returned. They backed up a little, and Durthee hid in a ruined hut. Soon the hydra returned, stretching its long necks out of the water to bite at the party and then disappearing back under the surface, where magic seemed ineffective against the monster. Percy briefly convinced the Kuo-toa that this was a test of the cult's loyalty, and that they should protect the party from the hydra, though when its heads started coming off, the Kuo-toa turned their weapons on the party once more. By targeting the hydra's severed necks with fire, as Durthee did with her *green-flame shadow blade* (edgy), the cauterised wounds couldn't regenerate, as they otherwise did into two new heads in place of one. When the hydra retreated, it had gained two heads over the course of the fight, and Durthee had very nearly been eaten.

Seeing the water's effect on magic, the party wracked their minds over its unnatural properties, wondering if it was psionic slime or some planar well, though Sannl could confirm it was neither. They tried to fix Neeril's new slime gun she looted from a kobold inventor, but without a proper tinkerer they had no luck.

In a peaceful *tiny hut*the party waited out the rest of the day's hours, Sannl delivering her few findings from her sendings to Lo-Tha. Percy invoked her Marigold-duplicity again for a brief conversation. Galad took some Sylvan lessons from Willow.

Durthee gave Sannl the Distiller’s spell book, allowing the wizard to transcribe the spells *nondetection*, *mind spike*, *detect thoughts*, and *life transference*. The book included notes on how to copy the effects of arcane spells with psionics. The party discussed whether help was needed against the "Alvins", as well as the possible consequences of bringing in different otherworldly beings to fight the mind flayers.

After a long rest (Kas attaining 12th level), the party backtracked into the ruined laboratory, where Starlight's glow revealed a strange creature to Kas. The small, malformed, aberration introduced itself as Kaeth "Pebbletoes" Svarthand. Durthee had heard from Underthane Umbra of Quarzendorf that Kaeth had not returned to the other deep gnomes since delivering the gems and dust to the party while in Krûl. Durthee and Percy consoled the now tentacled, mutant that Kaeth had become, and despite Percy's protest at Kas' looming presence above the creature, Durthee urged Kas to proceed with her intentions to slay the former deep gnome. Kaeth was then buried near the mongrel village, where the party was headed.

While exploring the sorry excuse for a village that was the home of Stankelmus and other odd and mutated beings, the party spoke with Globulon the psychic gray ooze, and found that Grugnirhad made his way all the way down here in his search for treasure. Grugnir told the adventurers about a dwarf paladin, likely Ezerina Steelsinew, who had accompanied a mind flayer through the cavern above.

When the party passed by Kaeth’s grave, which they had constructed out of small stones and pebbles, they found it had been shaped into a solid sarcophagus with the likeness of the gnome's original shape. The earth-gliding fox showed up then, and bowed to the party before disappearing into a stone wall. Galad managed a *message*cantrip to it, and received an answer from the fox, thanking the party. Durthee figured that the Kavaadic saint, Celes, was probably involved somehow. Percy was sickened, puking up a cloud of spores. With a touch, Kas cured the cleric of poisoning and of gas spore disease.

Setting course back to the lake, Sannl fabricated a couple of boats from cave fisher carapace and the broken remains of the laboratory's shell. The party then rowed out onto the lake towards the City of the Glass Pool.

## Session 74: City of the Glass Pool

March 28, 2020

Cool, so I've lost my notes from this session. Oh well.

The party crossed the dead-magic lake on their fabricated boats. While rowing across the eerily still surface, the group was assailed by kuo-toas, chuuls, giant electric eels, a mind witness, and finally the hydra. An enlarged Kas hauled the hydra just far enough out of the water to make it vulnerable to the party's magic (F Hydrapytra). Having sustained some damage, and spent quite a few resources, the party was eager to find a place to rest on the central island. Mistaking the first option for the best one, the party entered an old kuo-toa dome full of guards. When they later decided to find a safer place, they were once more attacked by thralls of the mind flayers. Among those was Trufzo dominated by cranium rats, Harran subject to the mind flayer's enthralment, and Neeril's mother Draada similarly enthralled. The group managed to defeat the other thralls while freeing Trufzo and capturing Draada and Harran. The place the party chose to rest contained rounded stones with spiralling messaged from long-gone kuo-toa scribes. These lore tablets where translated while Willow wildshaped through the magic mirror to Syllior, bringing Trufzo along to send him home.

## One-shot: The Monster of Lake Virdenia

April 12, 2020

A group of adventurers and knights of the Rose Order were hired to retrieve a lost ring from Lake Virdenia where undead soldiers and other monsters lurk. The group slew a huge, tentacled monstrosity that dwelled in the deep and compelled sailors to join it as its servants. One such sailor was saved from this fate by the group, and surely many others in the future.

## Session 75: Spying Eyes

April 13, 2020

Willow returned from Syllior through the magic mirror, bringing along Beatris Louhi. Keeping watch, a member of the group spotted a dwarf matching the description of one Ezerina Steelsinew. The dwarf was lead closer to the group's tiny hut, where she spoke to Sannl, who managed to talk Ezerina out of giving in to the mind flayers' promise of knowledge. Ezerina seemed adamant in her pursuit of knowledge, but out of respect for her elder and her fellow acolytes, she relented and shared some texts she had transcribed from kuo-toan lore tablets. They planned for Ezerina to return after some hours had passed.

Being elves, Galad and Neeril completed their rests early, waking from trance having developed ideas and emotions they would later suspect to have originated from a foreign influence. The two elves noticed a rumbling beneath their group, and woke the others as a group of tentacled ankhegs hollowed out the ground beneath Sannl, thus dispelling the dome of force as they burst from the ground. After relocating the tiny hut, the party tried to get some more rest in. when the others were sleeping, Neeril spotted the silhouette of a figure not unlike a drow, and soon noticed that the hut wad been magically dispelled. Thralls of the mind flayers attacked the party, expending most of their remaining resources (this was when the notorious "scoobaguy" appeared). After beating back the island's guards, the party finally completed their long rests. However, in the meantime, they too had developed certain invasive thoughts, with the exception of Persephone.

Realising that Ezerina was supposed to meet the party at their previous hut's location, Durthee snuck back to the agreed-upon meeting place and avoided any guards on her way back with the dwarf paladin. The party discussed their new thoughts, the "Index", and what to do next. They agreed to let Ezerina watch over Harran and Draada, while they followed her augured path to mostly woe in the central temple atop the island, as Ezerina kept an extra eye on them with a *clairvoyance*spell. The group was quickly noticed and followed by more guards. With a well-timed fireball, Sannl pushed the enemies back and gave the group time to access the temple doors. Kassiopeia hurried to the entrance, pulling at the enormous door handles. Seeking refuge, the party hurried through the gates, only to quickly turn on their heels and run back out at the sight of two massive giants. Kas and Neeril closed the doors, and the party readied themselves for a few seconds before the resounding footsteps of the giants thundered up to the gate. With a fiery shield bash, one giant smashed a door to pieces, flinging large chunks of debris everywhere, crushing Sannl. The fire giant continued to plow through the area with two massive, spiked shields. the other giant, a stone giant peeked out over the still intact door and joined the fight. Kas slew the fire giant, lodging her sword and forearms in its chest as it toppled down onto her. An intellect devourer appeared as a crawling brain next to the giant's head, climbing down towards the buried Kas. Meanwhile, Durthee, Galad, and Beatris' skeletons felled the stone giant, which also released an intellect devourer. This one targeted Galad, reducing his mental capacities completely before being pelted with arrows. A desperate attempt to save Kas arrived just in time, as the devourer had reduced her to unconsciousness, but had not yet infiltrated her head and snatched her body. The devourer was burnt to a crisp by one of Sannl's spells.

Between Percy and Willow, the two incapacitated characters were magically healed and restored. Some time was spent harvesting parts of the giants and healing those party members in need. Following this, the party reentered the broken temple to investigate. They quickly noticed a thin crack in the temple floor, and decided to take a closer look after noticing the sour scent that drifted from the opening, calling to mind the shelled laboratory where some of them first encountered the Distiller. Realizing that the strange thoughts that appeared after their rest, the party tried to sever whatever link might still connect them to that influence. Once all had succeeded, the entire group was placed under *nondetection* spells to evade prying eyes and meddling minds. examining the crack in the floor, Percy found her arm oddly malleable, able to bend through twists and turns in the thin opening in the stone. As it was decided that she and Durthee should enter through this backdoor, the two groups said their goodbyes. Perslimigold and a rat that was Durthee disappeared into the floor.

## Session 76: Split Up

May 16, 2020

The party is split, and the time is slime. Yes, I have started updating the entries again.

Tricksters: Perslimephone and Durthrat slipped down through a narrow crack in the floor of a ruin in the City of the Glass Pool. Here, they eventually found a cell containing a singular, short-furred quaggoth. Recruiting the quaggoth (called "1"), they managed to escape the prison chamber and fin themselves in a slimy corridor.

The others: Those not in the aforementioned group continued towards a building where they had spotted hooded figures climbing around on a spiral staircase. On their way there, they heard the ramblings of several enthralled humanoids on the way. While climbing the stairs, Neeril spotted a figure not dissimilar to her cousin Shurynda. Descending into the building, they found no people, nor a secret entrance to the place below. Instead, Galad found a small well or pool with some symbols carved into its floor and sides, depicting a triangle giving directions to three different monoliths. Here the group fought some cloaked duergar cultists possessing mystical powers. When that was done (as most encounters are in one sentence or less in these entries), they went back out to find a different way in. In the ruins just outside, they met an old man with an alien dialect identifying himself only as "old sod", and prodding fun at the party. The stranger seemed amused at their lack of certain knowledge which he proclaimed to have himself. He offered the group clues and information in return for treasure. Neeril made simple deal with the man for magical harvesting powers in return for every amethyst gemstone she will ever find. The old sod pointed the group towards the ruins of a tower, saying among other things "the way was a climb but is upside down," before he disappeared.

Tricksters: Durthee and Percy investigated an organ library with their new friend, 1. This quickly attracted the attention of a number of guards that captured 1 and started carrying the quaggoth away. When the quaggoth called out for "Pursee", the halfling cleric could only do one thing: save that quaggoth. The guards were killed, but a psychic effect started emanating from behind the door the guards had entered from. A particularly large mind flayer with many long tentacles blasted the group as they tried to find a way through the door. Læderlap got poofed, but a small whole in the door was made. In the following fight, Percy went unconscious, 1 died, and Durthee managed to fend the mind flayer off and hide away with a stabilized Persephone. Durthee also did hypnotize a bunch of duergar reinforcements first, and for good measure, she made sure to stab them all to death. A green, flaming, and bladed death.

The others: The larger of the two groups made their way into the ruins of an old tower and found a common room with surprisingly few guards. Kas skewered the stronger of the guards, and spent some time in prayer to Gruumsh, presenting the slain duergar as an offering. She also noticed some unusual stars projected by Starlight's glow. After considering their options and working to break through a gross door, they descended into the illiquid lair and followed the scent of fire and the drag marks of a small humanoid to the room where the tricksters were hidden away, thus reuniting the party.

Durthee had already had time for a short rest while hiding, and spent the time when the others were resting to resummon Læderlap. During this rest, Neeril told Beatris that she would rather die and be reanimated by Beatris as a skeleton, than transformed into whatever the mind flayers would want to make of her. Understandable. Sannl performed an augury ritual to tell which way was most likely to lead to a terrible, horrifying death by mind flayers, so that the party could go that way and find the mind flayers.

## One-shot: F holtarr

May 24, 2020

Fholtarr returned to Jharuul and challenged his sister Raishan for the title of heir to the Thunder Lord. He lost the duel, as well as the magical powers of his Thunderblood Mark, but his life was spared. Fholtarr was then exiled. His uncle Thrivakk supplied him with his confiscated equipment, including his spellbook, before he left the city.

## Session 77: Basements and Brains

May 29, 2020

TL;DR: Det gik fint, alle er i live. Alvin er nuttet…

With the party reunited in the mind flayer library of body parts, and somewhat recuperated from their encounters, it was time to follow Neeril and Sannl's pointers toward the mind flayers, down into the center of the City of the Glass Pool. The party went back to where the main group had entered. There they descended into a room, identified by a qualith tablet as "the distillery". The group had found they could open the locked doors by recreating certain movements with tentacles, which Willow could do while in the shape of an octopus. While exploring this room, the door behind them opened again, and a mind flayer entered, unprepared and vulnerable. Neeril swiftly dispatched the Distiller, which was then reanimated by Beatris as a zombie and a key to the doors, allowing Willow to return to her human form. Neeril also harvested the Distiller's brain, extracting her favored enemy's psionic ability to bombard minds, learning the *mind spike*spell.

Continuing down into the illithid colony, the group faced a number of guards and monsters, and managed to press through down into the lower chambers. Here they found a room aptly labeled the "brain library", where brains were stored in various liquids, and books were strewn across a table, along with square metal pieces inscribed with qualith text, and tiny shells. Persephone read the thoughts of some of the still-living brains while Beatris snatched some books from the table. Before exiting the brain library, Willow spotted a mind witness floating up through the shaft. Neeril extended her supernatural senses to pinpoint the aberration's location to ensure that passage was safe for the party. The next room down was the "transformation chamber", where various monstrous creatures were in the process of transforming into aberrant mutants: a beholder becoming a mind witness, a basilisk growing tentacles. Galad spotted a secret tunnel in this chamber's ceiling, which Percy explored just enough to determine that it led to an extended storage room of similar experiments, and was situated roughly under the prison cells. A scuttling was heard, and Kassiopeia, who was on her way out again, became motionless. Stunned and feebleminded by an intellect devourer, she was in a critical situation. Galad banished Kas to keep her out of harms way, while the devourer was killed. When she returned, Kas was (greater) restored to her senses by Willow.

Heading farther down, the party found a small "dreaming chamber", where a singular mind flayer levitated peacefully among a myriad of small crystals, each giving off a dim light. One crystal was larger and brighter than the others. The group was unable to attack the mind flayer in its reverie and decided to inspect the crystals instead. They grabbed the brightest crystal, and Durthee and Percy peered intently into its light. The two found themselves in an otherworld, with endless fields of sunlit tall grass under a dark and foreign night sky. Percy spotted a strange fortress in the distance while Durthee used dream logic to manifest her own winged boots to follow in flight. They then both agreed to head back to their own reality if at all possible. This proved to be trivial, and the others had simply seen the two small women stare into a crystal for a few minutes. Sannl began to set up a tiny hut underneath the levitating mind flayer.

## Session 78: Bodies

June 19, 2020

I kind of wanted to title this session "Godmorgen Morgenfrue", because that was an excellent quote.

In which the missing spellcasters are found and the search for the missing spellcasters continues.

## Session 79: Deep Storage

June 28, 2020

In which our heroes chill with the Archivist, and deal with the Regulator. Also, Aknarr. Also also, rats!

## Session 80: Secret Tunnel

July 13, 2020

The party had a wild time. There was combat, mystery, family drama, and even time travel!

## Session 81: The Elder Brain

July 16, 2020

The longest, most tense, and most epic combat encounter. Thank you all for that amazing and exhausting day.

## Session 82: Going Through the Remains

July 17, 2020

Looting the city, freeing some captives, meet martanna, bye shurynda, purple worm

## Session 83: Quarrel in Quarzendorf

August 23, 2020

Galad emotional moment, saving maegra tuskheart, zoom to cave of illusions, kas' curse drama, quarzendorf, grill night at durthee's

## Session 84: Sazzanith

September 13, 2020

As neeril heads off to ryldz'tes for a bit, the party plans to myrrh, myrrh-der, sazzanith. willow's (un)holy symbol? Rube Goldberg kobold machinery in sazzanith's lair, chaotic combat, beatris got the kill, more kas drama, but this time with a resolution. btw durthee died (marigold almost did too) but she got better.

## Session 85: A Breath of Fresh AAARGH!

October 3, 2020

Before joining the others in Sazzanith's lair, Neeril completed her business in Ryldz'tes. The lair was looted for treasure, and the party rested among the dirt and coins. As the party planned their next moves on the surface, Durthee said her goodbyes and disappeared into the dark. A while later, the fire giant from Krûl arrived and thanked the party for slaying the dragon and allowing the giant to return to its home behind the smoking obsidian gate in the back of the lair.

With most of their business in the Underdark completed, the party returned to the surface, arriving at Gallo's Tower in Tradefall. Neeril got her first impression of the surface: cold, vast, beautiful. Persephone and Marigold had their real bodies back on the surface for the first time in years and decades respectively. At Tradefall Castle, the group was received by Dalion Sohl and offered a place to sleep, guarded and watched. In the morning, they were escorted to the docks and set on a ship to Syllior with Kelp Blackheart who had promised Willow to capture the party until they could verify that none of them were imposters. On their way to this quarantine, the party discussed how to restore Neeril's mother and Harran, and what to do about Galad's facial tattoos. Percy had the rest of the party fill out a form for medical and divine healing by the clergy of Hermes. Can I just say ?? That was really fun !!

In the dungeon under Longstrider Citadel, the party was scanned by Cathosta Honeypond using Sannl's ring before being released again. Sannl cast sending to Aknarr to ask where he was, but received only a riddle in response. Visiting Kassiopeia's parents, they learned of some of Maledictus' projects, including that Akaloth's horns had been stolen. When Sannl asked around, Kass' father Oren had an answer to the riddle.

To figure out what was up with Aknarr, the group headed to the sphinx under the theatre for answers. The sphinx had imprisoned him when she sent Willow through time, then created an illusion of him to ensure that Willow arrive in time to use the mirror. Time travel is messed up, but essentially, Aknarr broke the mirror while Willow took her long rest, then an hour later, he pretended not to know, and followed Willow to a secluded space, only to be trapped with the sphinx. Yea, sure why not spoil that Aknarr did that, it's not like you don't already know that that's basically what happened. No more time travel.

Willow read Sir Angus' list of possible magi and concluded that no, that wouldn't do at all. Instead, she offered the position to Marigold, who accepted and was instated as the new court magus in Syllior. In a conversation on the topic of the previous magus, it occurred to Willow that Neeril's acute senses could track the two mimics in the citadel. And so, they went on a mimic hunt, killing the one in the whine cellar, and sparing a bookcase that seemed well behaved or at least passive, which Dalion may later pick up.

A visit was paid to the Obelisk, where Kelp and the other followers of Osprem had received a few dozen refugees rescued from the City of the Glass Pool. The group was accompanied down to the chamber where lay Bronn's body and Faelor's corpse. Beatris had an emotional conversation with Faelor's corpse, asking its animating spirit about Faelor's wishes and forgiveness for being too late to save him. He was at peace. Percy sat with Bronn, telling his comatose body of the adventures he had missed out on. She visited him daily in the next week. Sannl returned to her monastery, began her research, and collected her apprentices to teach them new spells for their mission: establish a base in the City of the Glass Pool, learn their secrets, and uncover a way to restore the minds and memories of the people in the Archivist's storage. Galad went to Kelp to check on the Soulstone and found that it was no longer in her bag of holding. Persephone gave a stunning presentation on the olympians at the theatre, complete with slides and hilarity. The joyous mood was quickly washes away when Galad told the others of the stone's disappearance. Everyone went on high alert and started planning immediately. With Slonn (slime Bronn) and the Mediator at loose, most likely carrying the Soulstone, it was difficult to prioritise other goals. Just as the hag Adrienne was mentioned, a bird landed on the theatre and shone with the blinding, conical light so iconic of the hag's servants.

The search began quickly, but something seemed to block Willow's summoned elemental from tracking its quarry, as if the very air itself suppressed the stalker's abilities. In the following days, Percy and Willow managed to restore Draada's mind and identity, reuniting Neeril with her mother. The two drow bonded at the beach and saw the sealight algae of the Green Sea. Oh, also, Kelp's cat Tudsetrold was awakened! I wonder what he has to say… what he has *seen*.

## Session 86: The Missing Spellcasters

October 10, 2020

#TeamSlonnHunt assembled and accidentally unraveled a doppelgänger mystery in Mythhold. In their journey to Mythhold, they were helped by Yohannah Jauntlore, who brought them from the great guildhall in Kavaad to a teleportation circle in Agranor's capital. Neeril tracked the presences of an abberation and several monstrosities in the city, finding an archwizard experimenting with the Soulstone's magic, aided by an invisible mind flayer. The party later discovered that the eight archwizards of the academy had been replaced by doppelgängers some years ago. Lacking the wizards' magic, the doppelgängers were slain mercilessly by the party for their various crimes. In the battle, one of the doppelgängers used memories it had read from Percy's mind to change shape in an attempt to prevent her from attacking it. But as previously mentioned, the doppelgängers where slain. It was revealed that the real archwizards were magically contained within their own spellbooks. These books were left with Prof. Jauntlore.

## Session 87: Back to School

October 18, 2020

The team looked for clues, was partly arrested, and found some weird tunnels under the Mythhold Royal Academy of Arcane Studies.

## One-shot: What happens in the Feywild... (part 1)

October 27, 2020

Galad and Willow get some and almost end up in the Shadowfell.

## One-shot: Maybe we should just stay here? (part 2)

October 29, 2020

Galad and Willow encounter every single fairytale trope and jump in feet first.

Galad gets high on mushrooms, stares at his own reflection in silence for a long time, and pulls the ultimate prank. Willow does more druid stuff than she has done for the entirety of the rest of the campaign and gets a new preferred Wild Shape.

## One-shot: What year is this!? (part 3)

November 2, 2020

Galad and Willow return to Randers, changed by their time in the Plane of Faerie. Willow with her (un)holy symbol, and Galad now a splendid spring Aladdin (fuck it, autocorrect is right. what is an eladrin anyway?).

## Session 88: Stake Them Out Tonight!

November 7, 2020

The gang fight their way down the stairs into a strange creature's chamber. Some annihilation occured. Trevylla Dwarelph, once a wizard, now a book-eating nothic, relayed some cosmic theories and let the party rest in the dungeon. After sleeping till past noon, the gang headed out and split up. Percy had scried on Slonn, and saw three separate targets: A traveller on a rocky trade route, equipped with a sword and a bag of holding; a man in a field, and the magic shop worker Kahrin. Percy, Zephyr, and Mica spoke to the authorities. Beatris, Neeril, and Khrein visited Borna and interrogated Kahrin. Lo-Tha and Almalak went on a stake-out, and ended up sneaking into Borna's office to find Kahrin's address. The gang then uncovered a hidden slime that was influencing Kahrin, removing and destroying the slime, thus saving the poor shop worker.

## Session 89: The Slearch (Slime Search) Continues

November 22, 2020

Having placed Karhin in the capable hands of the Golden Hope, 'Percy's Taskforce: Slonn Division' got a well-earned rest in the guild house. The party coordinated with Sannl Fireforge regarding Trevylla Dwarelph and the latest developments in their respective endeavours. Sending spells to Yohannah Jauntlore still yielded only static. The party spoke to the authorities (i.e. the captain of the Evocation Guard) to inform them of the "slime satellites" in Kernenvale, while they themselves prepared to set off for Kerrum to track down the most Bronn-like traveller from Percy's scrying. To make the preparations faster, the party split up to visit multiple magic shops throughout the city simultaneously. Some of them visited the Gemstone Emporium, where they bought an echo stone, which can enhance arcane teleportation spells, but disappointingly not in a meaningful way when it comes to party-transportation across countries. For Beatris to use this arcane lens, a specialised arcane focus was also required, so they visited the Worldly Wandwright as well, where such a focus was purchased. The NPCs were also kind of charming, right? I hope so. Meanwhile, Mica, Neeril, and Zephyr (with Percy on wind-walkie-talkie) went to Tressym Rd. and visited Brimbly's Boutique and Bestiary, a quant shop where common wares and uncommon creatures are for sale. The party members quickly grew fond of the half-orc employee Soren who was in charge of the animals. They even bought the displacer kitten, named Bingo, that he was caring for and gifted it to him so he could keep it.

With that all out of the way (and the DM unable to push the players to visit all the fun magic shops) the party travelled by teleportation circle to Kavaad, where they met up with Sannl. They further travelled to Skywarren House in Swordview to investigate if "Slonn" had passed through on his way to Kerrum. Khrein spoke with Quonen about the smaller slimes and how to exorcise them from their victims. The group went around the gem cutter's guild and tested the members with fire, and found no slimes among them. With Sannl's help the party was teleported to ~~Kerrum~~Botlode, where they hired a guide and rented some giant goats to ride out of the mountain valley and sat course for Kerrum. On their way out of the mountains, the party was encountered a fight between four young brass dragons and two adult blue dragons. The party hid while the blue dragons tore the young ones to shreds. Some of the goats were scared off, but the party managed to stay hidden from the huge dragons… at least or a time. One blue dragon spotted the party and informed the other, which turned out to be a dracolich. The dracolich proved a tough adversary, but once the party had learned to fight together, and Lo-Tha had obliterated the dracolich, the second dragon was no real threat in comparison. And so the journey continued.

## Session 90: Kerrum Roads

December 11, 2020

While Neeril Orlyar and Mica Zrika harvested the dragons' parts, Percy retrieved the last fleeing goats. As the guide led the party over the crest of the mountain valley, they spotted a harsh sandstorm to the east. By night, Percy set up a TEMPLE OF THE GODS, wherein Khrein and Neeril cooked a pretty delicious meal for the party and Almalak recounted events from his past in Thorothar. After a night's rest, Zephyr burrowed a whetstone from Mica, for his totally complete longswords that he really sharpened just over there behind that corner, totally, like that's just exactly what happened. Percy used her scrying on "Slonn" and saw five kernenvalians, among whom the last one had a panicked reaction to something. With an other scrying, targeting that man's location, Percy saw a half-orc woman and a young human beat up the last guy and grab some stuff from him, then noticing the slime and extracting it into a vial. Half-recognising the pair, Percy cast a sending to Foxtail to explain some of the slime and mindflayer stuff. He was shocked to learn and to hear from "Violet".

Continuing their journey towards Kerrum, the party was alerted by their guide, to a trio of hill giants: Go, Gar, and Gum having a rock-throwing competition. The party passed by unnoticed. It was a long day of walking, and Zephyr lightened the mood as a levitation ballon for a little while, dragged behind Mica by a rope.

Percy's next scrying revealed a disguised Slonn in an underground town, some kernenvale slime dudes chillin, two of them together, being weird and probably telepathic in some way, both at a dinner Kernentown. More sendings to Foxtail, describing two noble slime hosts in Kernentown, including directions and information supplied by Beatris. Foxtail thanked her, somewhat sceptically. Later, the party bypassed some basilisks after spotting their half-eared, petrified victims. Another day under the sun followed, and once again it was Scrying Time! No Slonn was seen this time, but three of the four slime hosts in kernenvale were spotting doing mundane things at an appropriate hour. The party trekked on past sunset, and in the night, Beatris spotted some winged humanoids in the dark outside Percy's Portable Pantheon.

On the next day, the party arrived in Kerrum and paid for the lost goats. They overheard a few stories about gnolls, creepy laughter, and strange shapes in the sandstorms. Also something about a weird dragon out there. In the Pillarfoot Camps, they were greeted by Ongor who recognised Lo-Tha from that time when they were both reincarnated, and Ongor's assistant Shyltana, who had maybe seen a half-elf Slonn in the city a few days ago. They got a brief intro to the city’s districts and planned how to enter its upper layers. With Lo-Tha and Beatris flashing some status and explaining that they sought a criminal, they entered the Shielded Sanctum, where they commissioned a repair job for Lo-Tha’s awesome boots. With Beatris put her delver's cube to good use and the party was only minimally lost in the Tunnelling Terraces. On their way, they met a barendain monk, found a ruined shrine and some zodiac cards. Percy scried on the slime collective again and saw just two nobles, entering Kernentown's church, where her scrying was barred and ended. Finally, they arrived at the HIGH HALLS!

## Session 91: Near Miss in the High Halls

December 30, 2020

That party encountered Slonn in a couple of different disguises, one of which was the dwarf Highlord Gûrran.

For the next year of campaign and one-shot diaries, see session logs from 2021.