Into the Abyss

Session 1: The players must navigate natural challenges to transition into the Abyss Zone and the city of Nymwaddle.

Session 2: The players are introduced to one of the town NPCs - most likely the mid-30s innkeeper for the inn they're staying at (Tivven Croakmantle). The innkeeper will inform them of an issue he has been having that will send them into the underwater catacombs. Soren and Gravuk will need a helmet. To get the helmet they'll need to speak with a local enchanter NPC (Thessira Fenroot) who will be willing to trade two helmets for a service. The service will be an extermination of some pests near an area that is known for growing a certain moss that Thessira needs as a reagent for some of her potions.

• What Tivven Croakmantle, the innkeeper needs: His sister (Kessri Croakmantle) has gone missing. She's younger (early teens). Tivven and Kessri's parents were killed by one of the monsters that were being drawn to the lure so Tivven is Kessri's caretaker. Considering Kessri has a reputation for being a trouble-maker and risk taker, no one is really taking the concern seriously. Tivven overheard his sister talking with one of her friends, Onnelle, about heading into the underwater catacombs. Kessri wanted to see if it was really as scary as everyone made it out to be. Tivven is willing to give the players free room and board for as long as they need if they're able to find her and bring her back. Kessri and Onnelle have been gone for a whole day - not something that is all that unusual in and of itself, but Tivven is concerned Kessri and her friend have gotten into too much trouble.
• What Thessira Fenroot. the Enchanter needs: There is a rare moss that grows in a specific cave system about an hour's walk from the shore of the lake. Thessira says that it is guarded by a harvester spider. If the players clear the cave of threats, Thessira will give them the helmets. The players were completely uninterested in this - the session was ended prematurely.

Session 3: The feedback for the lack of interest in Session 2 was that one player didn't like the spiders at all and the other player felt like clearing a room full of low-level monsters was too monotonous. The first player said that they were really looking forward to going into the catacombs, though. So, let's lean on that.

We'll fast-forward and hand-wave the last session. I'll ask the players to summarize how they would have liked it to have ended and move on from there. At the very least, they will have harvested a bunch of the moss that Thessira needs for her potions, even if they won't have cleared the cave. They'll still need to get underwater, so this session will assume they are heading to the catacombs.

The question I need to answer it this: How do I make the catacombs interesting for them while also trying to set things up for a larger "boss" fight after they get done in the catacombs? I am currently thinking that I'll need a few things for the catacombs to be more interesting:

1. Rooms with purpose: The rooms need to have loot and mystery without pointless enemies - find some kind of loot tables to use. Let them find some epic gear that compliments their builds.
2. Traps - Maybe the ribbets of Nymwaddle set the catacombs up with traps to ensure any creatures from inside of it couldn't get out. So, as players move through the map, they start to realize the traps are on the insides of the doors instead of the outside. Use the GM Toolkit book for traps to pick some out.
3. Interesting monster(s) that don't feel monotonous, but that also aren't a slog to fight: Look through the CRB, first, for what monsters there are there. If nothing interesting sticks out, find something from Pinterest. Regardless, the monster needs to be caught in the act of feeding on Kessri and her friend (or holding them hostage, depending on the monster that is chosen) and the players need to beat it to free them.
4. A segue into the next session that leaves them on a bit of a cliffhanger: maybe there is a GIANT monster looming in the distance from under the lake? Maybe the Lure repair has already started and monsters are being drawn back into the caves, again?

I also still want Soren to have a magically induced vision about him being related to Hylaeus.

Also - I want the ribbets of Nymwaddle to be able to justify their argument to NOT fix the Lure. What if when they get to the Lure, they find that the dragon cultists are actually trying to repair it because the dragon has figured out a way to not be affected by the Lure and he likes the idea of easy prey (other creatures being lured into the caves). So, the best way to help everyone is to kill the dragon and re-destroy the Lure.

• Claustrophobia
• Exploration
• Problem Solving
• Survival

This upcoming section will focus heavily on Dusk and how his ancestry ties him to this journey. Dusk's seemingly broken compass will come into play here.

Dusk will learn that one of his Ribbet ancestors was a member of this underborne Ribbet city called Nymwaddle located down in the Abyssal zone. The Ribbets down here chose to stay to protect the lure. However, in time, they began to wonder at the wisdom of protecting the Lure considering the increase in dangerous creatures that Nymwaddle was forced to recon with since then. The Ribbets being honorable creatures, though, continued to protect the Lure until it stopped working recently. Now, the Ribbets will try to convince Dusk , Soren, and Gravuk not to repair it.

While the Lure's existence keeps the surface world safe, it creates a world of additional dangers for the underborne.

The initial conflict will be environmental. As the players begin their descent into the Abyss, they will walk down a corridor with glyphs carved into the walls. As they walk, the glyphs glow a blue-ish color. One of the glyphs will change to a red color once they pass it. As soon as they do, the floor will drop out from under them. Each one of them will fall into their own separate trap door.

The players will not be able to climb out - the trap doors they fell through are too high up, even for magic. They will each face a unique environment from the others.

• Dusk will be in a flooded cave system - Bartholomeow will hop off of Dusk's shoulder and fall into Gravuk's trap door
• Challenges:
• Instinct (navigation)
• Agility to avoid small underwater gysers powered by small magma pockets behind/beneath the stone
• Instinct (navigation)
• Strength reaction roll to resist a black poison ink cloud that a fish passing by emits when Dusk scares it
• Instinct (navigation)
• Agility to avoid taking fall damage when a strong current takes Dusk to a large hole where a lot of water is draining out of very rapidly which then sucks Dusk through it and slams him onto a stone platform (2d4+2 fall damage if he fails his Agility roll)
• Soren will be in a mini fungal forest
• Challenges:
• Instinct (navigation)
• Instinct (perception - Head on a Swivel) to see and recognize the toxic mushrooms that he is about to walk under. On a failure, Soren will continue to walk under the tree-sized mushroom and it will release toxic spores (like when the wind blows a cloud of pollen off trees on the surface during the Spring) and Soren will take 2d4+4 physical (poison) damage and he will need to mark 1 Stress. On a success, Soren sees the spores under the gills of the mushroom cap and avoids walking under it.
• Instinct (navigation)
• Agility roll to leap from one giant mushroom cap to another and then another to get across what looks like a deep chasm in the moss- and lichen-covered stone terrain. On a fail, Soren falls 40' (look up fall damage) and he will need to find another way back up to the other side of the chasm. On a success, he makes it across.
• Instinct (navigation)
• Agility reaction roll to maintain balance. After getting to the other side of the chasm, Soren sees a well-lit opening in a cliff wall ahead of him. There is a narrow, smooth stone incline to walk up to get to the opening. As Soren is walking up the incline, his vision blurs, his head starts spinning, and the scene around him changes. Soren finds himself on the shores of another very large subterranean lake. In the middle of it is a large floating crystal that is shining bright enough to light up the entire cavernous space. With a roar of air movement, a Obsidian Volcanic dragon rushes out of the darkness on the other side of the lake and it swoops in to attack the crystal. At first, the crystal seems to be rebuffing the dragon's attempts, but Soren also notices a group of hooded and cloaked people on the shoreline of the lake perpendicular to where Soren is and they seem to be chanting. The dragon comes in for another pass. This time, a claw makes it beyond the magical barrier and just barely nicks the crystal. The dragon, now energized by this initial success flies upward and then turns straight down allowing gravity to assist in its assault. This time, the dragon's maw makes it through the magical barrier and cracks the crystal. There is a silent explosion of light that nearly blinds Soren. When the light fades, Soren sees that there are dark cracks in the crystal and the room no longer lit very brightly. Soren's vision blurs again, and his head swirls until his senses are back to the present moment in the fungal forest. If Soren succeeded on his Agility roll, he maintains his balance. On a failure, he falls off the ramp for 20' and takes the appropriate fall damage.

There will be a success counter (d4) and a consequence counter (d6) for each player. There will be a series of environmental/skill checks that the players need to succeed at. If they fail 6 before they succeed at 4, there will be a consequence.

• Dusk will encounter an underwater enemy (T2 cave crocodile skulk - I will need to create this) and have to fight it alone
• Soren will have to face a lava wall eruption out of the ground blocking his path while three lava minions (T2 - I'll need to create these) come out of the lava and attack him.

If they succeed 4 times before they fail, they will make it to the end of their respective challenges:

• Dusk will get sucked down through a large hole in the cave floor the water is draining through where he will be deposited (forcefully) into a flat, round stone platform with a floating baseball sized stone that is glowing brightly; the closer he gets to it, he realizes his compass is spinning and glowing as well until he gets close enough where the the compass nearly locks on. There is an elder Ribbet in the room. The elder breaks the silence (if Dusk doesn't) and says, "Even broken, a compass points true if the heart is listening." Then, the compass locks onto the glowing stone and Dusk is transported out of that room.

Help the Ribbets of Nymwaddle and earn their trust; OR be successfully convinced of their side of the story and refuse to fix the Lure.

The safety of the surface at the expense of the underground or the safety of the underground at the expense of the surface.

Should the players fix the lure and re-endanger these people or should they let it stay broken and help their village learn to defend itself from the potential dangers that will return?

• Soren
• Dusk

• Gravuk

• Ribbets of Nymwaddle

• Natural enemies - plants, animals, monsters, and the environment
• We'll see if any "political" enemies arise as we play through

Nymwaddle inside the Plover Caves.

Plants, animals, and the environment.