way over my normal 4 hours. It was probably closer to 7. Therefore, this… what exactly are these, anyway? Session reports? Recaps? Anyway, this one will be in 2 parts. This is part 1. Part 2 will be out in a few days (hopefully). Just like premiers for TV shows are usually extra long (I think. I don’t watch that much TV), the beginning of my new campaign went forover my normal 4 hours. It was probably closer to 7. Therefore, this… what exactly are these, anyway? Session reports? Recaps? Anyway, this one will be in 2 parts. This is part 1. Part 2 will be out in a few days (hopefully).





I bought Out of the Abyss ages ago (2016), but only ran the first chapter. I ran it horribly. So, here we go!





I began with my usual three players (the ones from the Planescape campaign). We had:





· Robert as Mishann Duvahkin, a female Halfling Rogue (how original*)





· Wayne as “Jake 😊 ”, a male Half-Orc Barbarian (also original**) and





· Jason as Darrak Unqart, a male Hill Dwarf Wizard (slightly original***)





*Sarcasm





**Also sarcasm





***Not sarcasm





Note that Wayne told me at the end of the session that he wanted to a make new character, which I allowed. Unless he changes his mind, Wayne will be a Tabaxi Cleric (cat people from Volo’s Guide). Also, Robert recently told me he would be quitting the game.









We began in a Drow prison. The heroes had been captured on a raid. Also, it turns out that Drow is pronounced like drown without the N. The players refused to say it like this (we had always said it like it rhymes with row). I ruled that this was because they had a “surface accent”.





The Prison There were ten other prisoners in the cell. They were: There were ten other prisoners in the cell. They were:





Buppido, a mad derro (mutant dwarf) who secretly believes himself to be a god.

Prince Derendil, a mad quaggoth who believes himself to be an elven prince transformed into a quaggoth.

Eldeth Feldrun, a dwarf scout from Gauntlgrym.





Jimjar, a deep gnome with a gambling problem. He is secretly actually a god.

a god.



Ront, an orc who is very mean.





Sarith Kzekarit, a mad Drow who killed a friend.





Shuushar, a kou-toa (fish person) who refuses to fight and mediates a lot.





Stool, a child mycronid (sentient fungi).





Topsy & Turvy, twin deep gnomes who are secretly were rats.

As soon as the adventure started, Jake attacked Darrak so as to assert himself as the prison “top dog”, so that none of the other prisoners would attack him, and would do as he said when it was time to escape.





Because magic didn’t work in the cell, Darrak got massacred. When he went down to 2 hit points, and Jake wasn’t showing any signs of stopping, the guards came in to break up the fight. They did this by shooting Jake in the chest. He made his save against the poison (he has good constitution) and backed down.





mite. I don’t know. It came from the ceiling). Three more guards arrived soon after. Darrak took advantage of the open door to slip out. He rolled well on stealth. He was free! His next move was to come up with some sort of plan to get everyone else out. He tried to get Buppido’s attention (they’d been talking earlier). Buppido noticed, but so did the two guards. They chased him, but he climbed around a stalactite (unless it was a stalagI don’t know. It came from the ceiling). Three more guards arrived soon after.





Meanwhile, Jake decided to make another attempt to become “top dog”. Now, after my last campaign , I explained to the players that I wasn’t OK with child murder in my games, but I don’t think the message sunk in. He immediately attacked Topsy and Turvy, who’d been whispering to each other in the corner. Seeing as they were wererats, his punches did no damage to them. This weirded him out quite a bit.





He chased them to the other end of the cell, goaded on by Ront. Eldeth, however, stepped in and told him to knock it off. He responded with a slightly sexist comment.





and he had insulted her. Generally, Jake would smash Eldeth in a fist fight, but this time around he was cursed by the dice gods. Not a single hit landed, and Eldeth started to really beat him up. I wasn’t quite sure how to handle this, and after a moment of thought I had Eldeth attack him. Hey, he was half-orc (her people were at war with orcs), he was beating up kidshe had insulted her. Generally, Jake would smash Eldeth in a fist fight, but this time around he was cursed by the dice gods. Not a single hit landed, and Eldeth started to really beat him up.





poisoned arrow they had shot at Jake earlier. This meant they had a weapon! The guards noticed what was happening at this point, and broke up the fight. It was around this time that Robert realised the guards hadn’t taken back thearrow they had shot at Jake earlier. This meant they had a weapon!





The guards eventually captured Darrak, and took him to their leader. Along the way, they passed a shrine to Lolth that took the form of a giant spider statue. The adventure said that you had to make a check to realise it was fake. Otherwise, you thought it was real. Well, it turns out Darrak has arachnophobia.





Let’s just say the Drow were not amused by his attempts to set their sacred shrine on fire. He ended up dangling from the ceiling of the cavern upside down while real giant spiders scuttled around in their webs above him.





In hindsight, I should have given him inspiration for this. I will next session. If there is a next session.





After a few days of doing menial work for the Drow, during which Mishann managed to swipe a few crossbow bolts and a hand crossbow, they attempted their escape. Mishann began to threaten to hang herself with a 5-foot piece of rope she’d stolen if the Drow didn’t let them go. They came in to confiscate the rope. As they left, Jake slipped a rock between the door and the wall, so it wouldn’t close completely. I rolled really badly for the Drow’s perception.





A bit later, Jake, Mishann, Darrak, Eldeth and Ront charged out. They quickly disabled the guards and went for the armoury. They were challenged by 2 normal Drow and an elite Drow warrior. The non-fighters in the group branched off and headed for the cavern floor. The rest attempted to fight their way through, but were outmatched.





The non-fighters reached the cavern floor, but encountered two more Drow guards. Darrak ran forward, and heroically cast burning hands, taking them both down with a single spell.

A few rounds later, things started to get crazy. Flying demons attacked, which distracted the Drow for a couple of rounds. The heroes (who were about to become quite a bit less heroic) fled the scene, along with the rest of the prisoners.





The made it down to the bottom of the massive cavern, and decided to go down the south passage, which leads to Gracklstugh, Buppido’s home city.





I’ll end this part of the review here, but keep an eye out for the second part (a few days. Hopefully). Hang on! I’ll just quickly explain what they did to become less heroic.

ate Shuushar. They killed him, cooked him and ate him (Darrak refused to eat him, but didn’t object). And why did they do this? Because it was funny. The exact same reason they killed those two ten-year-old’s in my last campaign! TheyShuushar. They killed him, cooked him and ate him (Darrak refused to eat him, but didn’t object). And why did they do this?. The exact same reason they killed those two ten-year-old’s in my last campaign!





Sorry, I just needed to get that out. Anyway, some of the people in the party ate him, and others didn’t (leave a comment if you’d like me to try to remember exactly who participated in the cannibalism, or if you’d like me to answer any questions about the session.



