r/OutoftheAbyss

Somebody in the comments of my terrain video asked me how the session went, I ended up writing way too much but figured Id drop it here.

Few things I did differently from the book I spose. For one I had everyone roll the d10 to see how many days theyd been in prison at session 0, and I opened the campaign with the lowest roll person (the goblin paladin who ended up dying btw) being brought into prison. I also laid out the npc's on little picture cards with brief descriptions at session 0 and forced every player to choose one with which they had a "history" (not a bond as the experience could be negative) This really allowed me to flesh out some connections between players and specific npc's they interest in. During the 7 days in jail the Drow hadnt let anyone out at all, but with this new influx of the most recent prisoners the pen has become so crowded and such a strain on food that the drow move into the pen to assign menial work to prisoners based on what theyre qualified for. During this the wizard pipes up saying he is a great warrior and is willing to volunteer as a battle slave. The drow consent provided he can win a lethal duel with their weakest quaggoth who they were going to execute for being disabled anyway. He ends up full dying, and ilvara raises him as her own personal "necroslave" as humiliation. With his soul being tied inside the tentacle rod, and him being an undead.

Beyond this, the proud players i.e. the elystrae worshipping drow (who the drow hate more than anyone), and a spanish esque paladin are repeatedly punished for their impudence. I cannot emphasize enough how much I focused on the brutality and cruelty of the drow. The spanish paladin attempts to lead a slave revolt during feeding time that is swiftly put down. Reducing everyone to being stabilized, and imparting level 1 exhaustion for everyone after they are raised from unconsciousness which is a house rule we do. As punishment, the drow roll a d10 at random (with each number being assigned to an npc) and pull them from the cell to be tortured in an iron maiden. This ended up being turvy.

The fey ranger, and goblin paladin express enough contrition and humility to be assigned work detail, with the goblin being assigned with the quaggoths to work the crane crank, and the fey ranger being assigned to torture duty assisting in the punishment of turvy with the drow executioner. During this she actually manages to full escape and hide amongst the craggery of the rock wall. The drow naturally punish the rest of the prisoners for this and take another prisoner at random. This roll happened to be topsy of all people! For this additional slight they straight up throw them to the spider pit, above which the ranger happened to be hiding as they are made to watch as topsy is wrapped and sucked dry to death.

I should mention as a quick aside that a good amount of time is devoted to menial prison pen politics, such as Ront bullying people for their soup as his prison bitches. Derrendil constantly refraining on the need for a feudal hierarchy amongst the group as a means of ensuring order and cohesion. Shuushars insistence on avoiding violence and his confidence in the rivers of fates leading all things to their proper place. Buppiddo finding a knife and shanking ront for his abuse etc. Great stuff.

During his work detail the goblin overhears the internal politics of two drow discussing Ilvaras callous treatment of Jorlan Duskryn and understands the depth of Jorlans hatred for Shoor. Jorlan is assigned to feeding duty to the prisoners (a task which is meant as a humiliation for his loss of station naturally) and is approached regarding the possibility that the prisoners could kill Shoor on his behalf if he would simply allow their escape.

Quick side note here: I hate the books advisement that after a certain period of time Jorlan will just let the prisoners out at the end of the chapter and they escape from there. Obviously Im droppin hints toward these internal conflicts amongst the drow like crazy, but this arbitrary "GO YOURE FREE NOW" rubs me in such a bad way. In fact I made it clear the exact opposite scenario will occur, that in 3 days time the entire prison caravan will leave for Menzoberranzan, during which escape will be even more difficult. This helps to increase the pressure even further for the prisoners to find a way out. At this point the scavenging has been shit, nobodies managed to break out of restraints without the drow noticing and punishing them further, nobody can cast spells due to the lack of materials and of course the spell wards and everybodies level 1 or even 2 exhausted and there isnt even enough food to go around. I also enforce a limited hit dice regen rule that keeps the damage from one day somewhat affecting the next, as opposed to the magic long rest full regen. Needless to say my players were getting super stressed at all this heaviness Im laying on them at this point, but theyre pros and take it in as much stride as possible.

Meanwhile with Ilvara, my wizard "necroslave" is being forced to wait hand on foot on Ilvara and shoor, as they make their rounds about the camp hurling abuse and engaging in sadistic sexual rituals before the altar of Lolth in her stalagtite. Needless to say this all involves a lot of seperate party members with seperate scenes in time we're cutting between at this point. Several more side events happen to add flavor and solidify plans, but this is already so long we'll skip to the escape.

After a good deal of convincing Jorlan will open the steel gate on the final night, but will not free them from their restraints as to avoid suspicion to his involvement. He also insists (due to shit persuasion rolls) on the party choosing one person to stay behind to attest to his lack of involvement and decieve the other drow that the group simply got out on their own. This ends up being Eldeth who volunteers which broke the parties heart as she was one of their favorites. The party attempts to stealth out, explore what they can, loot what they can, etc. They elect not to free turvy as its too risky as she is currently being tortured. I roll a lot of random dice tom determine which drow is awake, playing cards, operating the iron maiden, none or all of the above, random dice make the game fun for me as even I dont know whats going to happen this way. But I digress.

Party consents to Shuushar jumping in the waterfall, he can handle, party cant. He wishes them luck and promises to help later in any way he can. (other than violence lol)

They dont manage to find or loot their starting gear, but do manage to at least avoid drow playing cards and get some weapons and armor from the drow armory. Lots of group stealth checks during this part. They approach Ilvaras stalagtite and look for any sign of the wizard as they have no idea hes even involved. They dont know that the wizard has picked up on the same dynamic between shoor, Ilvara, and Jorlan and has been communicating telepathically with Jorlan. As such Jorlan has placed an insta-kill magic dagger behind Ilvaras mirror for the killing of Shoor. The tentacle rod that contains the wizards soul is connected to his neck with a spectral chain that can only be broken by breaking Ilvaras concentration (which she can maintain even while sleeping). The wizard notices the party out the window slit and signals them to approach inside. The cool part is he can either murder shoor as asked, or theoretically kill Ilvara to free himself in this moment. He chooses to murder shoor as requested by Jorlan, and the party sneaks in bashing Ilvara as much as they can, not to kill her, but simply break her concentration. This naturaly takes a great deal of effort. Does she use insect plague and simply fucking tpk the whole party? No, that would be a failure of her station, she can handle this. Her concentration is finally broken, during this commotion the whole prison is rousing, and the party makes every effort to GTFO.

Side note: The wizard manages to get both the fucking tentacle rod, and the wand of fucking globs. Which if anyone has had to deal with knows is so god damn OP, luckily I knew this, do yourself a favor, and make the wand only able to refresh its charges with the daily roll as opposed to automatically, and pray that they will roll a nat one some day lol. Hasnt happened to me, but inevitable math is math. Digressing again.

The alarm bells from the towers go off like crazy, and an unintended side effect for the drow is the arrival of the vrock and chasme demons. Thank god as well because without these fuckers running interference the drow would surely slay/capture the party all over again, which is of course the intended role of the demons anyway.

The exhausted, weakened, injured, restrained party flees from Ilvara and makes for the only feasible escape they understand, the crane. Crane has weight limits, takes 1 turns to go down to the water, 2 turns to go up. 4 at a time, oh boy. Thank god for the demons, Szariths darkness, and a lucky charm person on Ilvara. Party hurts itself greatly making a stand at the crane to secure their escape one cageload at a time. Goblin paladin is last one standing up top, loads injured unconscious remaining and vows to get them down safely. Saves them all holding the crank so it descends but not too quickly. Party is ferrying wounded through the water, and contending with the ooze in the pool all this whole. Ilvara closes in on him. No time to raise it for himself, no choice but to attempt to slide down the whole length of the rope as best he can. Bad roll. Falls too fast and slams into the cage in the water. Downed. No one around. Death roll fail.

"Shuuuuuussshhhaaaarrr!"

Shuushar surges from the water in an attempt to rescue him. He rises him from the water with his turn and finds a ledge to attempt a medical check to stabilize him. All the goblin has to do is survive one turn for Shuushar. Nat fucking one. 2 fails added to his previous 1. Fucking dead.

"God damn, you did your absolute best, take an inspiration point dude"

Uses inspiration

Nat fucking one again

Dead. Full dead. Nothing to be done.

You can tell this is the most intense part. Its great. Its almost like the goblins entire arc has been condensed into two sessions. He was a selfish snarky piece of shit (meant to be trickery) paladin. But you could tell as he grew he was going to reveal himself over the course of the campaign to be a true hero. But he found the only way out was with everyone or no one. He gave his life inadvertenly for these prisoners he just met. Arc complete. Gahd damn.

Prisoners recover body, limp barely alive to the shore. Funeral next session, Very sad,

Anyway, thats Velkynvelve! Dunno how much this helps you to expand or inform your own. But I gotta say even though Im an obsessive DM, every dm knows that the players and fate make the game. Thats definitely been the case here.

Im running The Fall of Cyrog and my players defeated Cyrog. Upon Orcus stepping through the portal and Mind Flayers appearing, the party decided at level 8 that hey why not fight him. After strongly suggesting the mind flayers are a diversion so they can get away, my experienced players pressed on. One person decided to use the Drax strategy and fight from the inside of orcus, the rogue ran away, the warlock straight up died, and the rest of them are all pretty close to unconscious.

I would like to keep the campaign going for my own selfish sake, but I feel like my players also should get humbled. Next session begins with the continuation of this fight, where I fully intend to summon a nightwalker. They will all get a turn to run before this happens. Ive never TPK'd a table before and don't know how to feel about it.

For those who have more experience then I, what would you do?

Hey!!

I just finished and decided to post my newest song for the Out of the Abyss Campaign. Though I have worked on and finished many over the past few months, I have kept them private.

THIS! However needs to be more accessible to my players as he is actually a larger than normal part of our Camapign.

He is hunting one of the players and has recently given a name to that player, which was just revealed and he is loving it. So for him and the moments before I Reveal the newest maps for this Maze Engine Arc, Come check it out.

I hope you enjoy it!!