I've been playing since 1981 and have been in more groups than I know what to do with. I have had some great DM's and some crappy ones. Some good games, some great games, and some terrible games. I've played at conventions, hobby shops, schools, college groups, meet ups, homes, and everywhere else you can imagine.
So I can tell you that one of the ubiquitous situations from original era D&D is the melding of two dissimilar groups for a game or two where they have a like goal and adventure. I've done 1-shots for this sort of stuff but never a chance to actually run it for any of my groups.
Until now.
My daughter's long term group is a bout 5th/6th level and going through the TOEE at this point. They have found the Thane of Zuggtmoy and at least once went into the Earth Node. But they have angered the fungal queen and she had summoned enough dark matter to portal them to her realm in the Abyss.
My other group is in an area where Jubilex (an aspect of) is the end boss - with small presence of Zuggtmoy, Lolth, and Graz'zt. So here I was with a chance to bring both groups together and have them fight a demon lord together. A chance to combine both groups for a joint adventure. It was a labor of love and ran late - but both groups really enjoyed it.
Follows:
The group slammed through the barrier out of Midgard and then after slewing through the Etheric Plane, sliced sideways until they hit the Astral. A brief turn of the Rainbow portal they were on and they found themselves parallelling a long vibrating silver spear radiating down 666 layers to the bottom of the Abyss, acting as some dimensional anchor. The party smashed through the edges of the Abyssal layers, catching glimpses of numbers and names along the way. It seemed our bridge melded with another, and another adventuring party was also falling on through, intermingled with ours. 222 layers down the portal shifted slightly and deposited the parties onto the edge of the plane, just near a wooden sign that read “222, Sh’d’kl’h. Mycorgi”
The mud brown sky had green clouds and a torrential rain of filth from it to the hellscape below. The reek was unworldly. 30 miles away a castle made of dozens of skyscraper sized yellow and brown mushrooms, surrounded by poisonous puffball mushrooms. 2 miles or so from here was the remains of another smaller missing top castle, at an angle and mounded with lots of piled dirt and plants. Both parties were dumped at the edge of the Abyssal plane, under a 30’ diameter red and purple mushroom near an outcropping of rocks. A narrow path seemed to be cut in the edge of the stone. The air was moist, warm, and smelled of decay.
Shim rolled to his feet dizzyingly sick, and looked around. Besides our group, there were 6 others, adventurers by their look. 2 of their party – another gnome named Pestle, and a half-ogre in poor fitting platemail named Furd, were also awake. They had come from someplace called Greyhawk and were in a Temple investigating some elemental evil when a Zuggtmoy portal opened around them and they ended up here. Shim shared our recent past and especially the Abyssal/Juiblex issue we had at the Strongohld of Donnegarten. Right now no magic was working, and there were some giant brains on legs, Obliviox, also known as Intellect Devourers looking for a chance to get a quick meal.
We decided to work together and Furd was dragging the party members through the cleft in the stone to the other side away from the Obliviox. A partially eaten man, more fungus than person, named Xanthor was here and gave the two gnomes a top down view of the plane. He and his group came here some time ago at the behest of someone called Beshaba, hoping to take down the Lady of Decay, but she had killed them all and he was stuck here as a warning to others.
They could get away, and would need to open another planar bridge. No one can do it. Ok, ok. Can go to the palace and jump in one when either her or Juiblex open one – sounds stupidly dangerous. Last option was to go to the former castle, Mycorgi (the broken one 2 miles from here). The Mechanism to open one would still be there, they just have to turn it on. Enough dark matter would speed it up. And once it was going on, it would alert Zuggtmoy who would come running to check it out. Kill her, or at least cut off her head? That would power the Bridge up real fast.
Ok, we had a mission and a heading. Both parties were awakened and we had quite the list: Gnomish Sorcerer Shimlagesh, Dwarven Cleric/Thief Dizzy, Human Monastic Connal and his mule, Knox, Human Ranger Eoghan and his dog Quiver and Lathandar touched Rabbit Jessie, Elven Druid Wilhelm and his giant lynx and 2 cats Jack and Louie. We also had the Gnomish Wizard Pestle and her familiar the pseudo dragon Paprika, the Half Ogre Paladin Furd, the Human Wizard Sir Albert and his familiar the fire mephit Zephyr, the Elven Monastic Arcadia, and the Human Cleric Ophelia. Away from the edge of the Abyss, our spells and magics were at full and we proceeded the long and slow slog through the foul and verdant fields of Shedaklah.
We shared our stories and tales as we walked on, eyes peeled, picking our way across the blasted landscape. Eoghan and Wilhelm led the charge as we traveled on. About a third of the way to the Castle Mycorgi, the sky began to open up with a feculent downpour of…filth. Just filth. We needed to get out of the scummy rain and the ranger led us to a stony outcropping where part of some outlook tower had fallen partially over. Leaning at a solid 30 degrees, we managed to squeeze our way inside and wring the worst of the sickening liquid out of our clothes.
Set of stairs went up to the 2nd floor and a few of us checked it out. More than 3 or 4 and the tower would list too far over, so most of us stayed on the lower floor while a couple of us went up and looked the place over. The 2nd floor was a repeat of the 1st, but a green glow was coming from the floor above. So Connal and a few others risked going higher. A figure was sitting on an iron chair, silver diadem on his head, bony hand holding a faintly cracked glowing green sphere. Had numerous brown moldy patches covering itself and the iron chair. Getting too close, and the mold seemed to grow and get big, sucking warmth away from whoever came up there. Detect magic let us know the diadem was magic, and the gem – only a little bit.
We tossed around a few ideas and settled on Connal getting Protection from Elements spell. Allowed him to ignore the growing cold. So the monk then ran up there and proceeded to try and remove the crown – but his warmth was STILL feeding the mold which began to spread REALLY fast. The party then ran for the stairs and down as Connal ripped the head from the body and booked it. It took a bit but the mold did stop growing and we took a better look at the diadem. It was a Diadem of Mindfulness. Effectively a tool for a wizard to speed up their studying, improve their listening, and can glow like a candle for a few hours.
There was some back and forth on keeping it or not with Dizzy getting into Sir Albert’s face on the matter which put a bad taste in the other group’s mouth. With the weather clearing, Wilhelm let the group know we can risk taking the trip out now. So we left the broken tower and returned to Shedaklah, heading towards Mycorgi. We came next upon some Shriekers, Wilhelm and Eoghan stopping us. The noisome fungi would bring everything in the area down upon us. And the area had some 12’ wingspan Abyssal bats that were occasionally flapping about.
We thought to go around the Shriekers but it seemed they had been planted around Mycorgi, acting as an early warning beacon. Good news was it wasn’t that thick of a barrier – 50’ or so? Solution was to cast silence 15’ radius on an item and everyone crowd around, walking through the field to the other side and not set anything off. We stayed low and together. At some point we came upon a few dead adventurers here, most covered in corpse fungi and really juicy. One was still pretty clean – sporting a red and green celtic designed vest. We dragged her out and after Ophelia was checking on the magical vest, declared it was a Vestment of Brigid, magic bit of clothing from an alternate healing goddess that would empower any cleric’s healing spells.
At this point another conversation was touched off to maybe hand this out, but Sir Albert fired off Dizzy’s words from earlier about we aren’t doing that now and we should just pouch the items. Bad blood was stewing. Eoghan wanted us to move on, so we did.
We arrived at the shores of Mycorgi next. The castle was missing the top floor and the entire eastern end of it was a mass of overgrown vines, dirt, and fungi. There was a 60’ moat around it, blocking the place off from easy access, a yellow effluvient river of whatever there. A bridge led to the front gate but it fell down some time ago. A barge was on the eastern side, a heavy chain going from one shore to the castle itself, running through a huge metal o ring at the top of the barge. Ok, we could get about half the party across on the barge at a time, Connal polling and Furd pulling the chain. There was a constant mist on the water’s surface which didn’t make it any easier.
So we half loaded up and started to pull our way over. Through the mist, a good 15’ from the other shore, there was a mass bound to the chain by webs, and thick robes of mycelium. We had to stop the barging and while looking the mass over, heard the odd “bloop” noise from around the barge. And it was picking up in volume and occurrence. Something in the moat was approaching us. The decision was to head back across to the other shore and pull ourselves out. The blooping stopped and the strange eddies and swirling water calmed down.
Wanting to cross and not risking flight, we went through our retinue of things before Pestle pulled out a potion of Sweetwater. Taking the lid off, she dumped it into the moat and it radiated out, clearing up the entire length of the fetid water – and liquefying and killing the fungal zombies at the bottom of it. The entire plane seemed to shake and shudder at the presence of the clean water and Eoghan let us know that the area around Zuggtmoy’s castle seemed to have an uprising of dirt, filth, and other floor detritus. We cross the moat again, getting to the mass and cutting it free. It was a thief at some point, desiccated and more husk than anything. We went over him and found a set of Baldur’s Gate Second Story Bracers (has a set of adamantine thieves tools inside the length of them as well as bonuses to climbing and opening locks and disabling devices). We pocketed them and made our way to the entrance.
We avoided the large central chamber and looked over other rooms in the castle. We found kudzu clippings and seeds, a container of vinegar, a workman’s sized spool of spun copper, a crate of 80 lbs of silicate shards for glassmaking, and a pail with 2 lbs of dried yeast. At some point we spotted some fungal trees with a figure trapped within. Rubbery lengths came out and we had to beat them away before we could risk cutting the figure in mail down. Dragging him back it was a fighter with bronze style mail. We looked him over and he had a magic leather girdle on. Ophelia came through again and identified it as a Girdle of Horus, an item that would make a fighter move faster when loaded down as well as increase the amount of weight he could carry.
Heading off to the main room, we had a chance to look it over – 200’ square, no ceiling, there was broken copper rune work all over the place. 5 distinct large gaps ranging from 9” wide to 8’. We went back for the copper wire…and the crate of silicate shards. The wizards and priests all worked to relink up the copper runes across their gaps until finally the last one was pinned and crimped in place.
Which caused a sparking build of power to suddenly flare up and 50’ over the party’s head along the 50’ diameter rune circle, the start of a Rosencrantz Bridge flared into being. We had about 30 minutes before it would reach full mass, without an influx of dark matter, but…according to Eoghan, at the Shedaklah palace in the distance, lights were flaring from the sky and there was a rumbling under the ground and then…
Zuggtmoy burst out of the soil and earth here.
20’ tall and vaguely humanoid, she is covered in growths of fungi and draped in thick ropes of mycelium and lichen. 2 25’ long pale sickly blue pseudopods hung from her shoulders and twitched on the floor. 8 6’ tall Myconids exploded from the ground following over 30 smaller 2’ tall ones. They arranged themselves around her as she pointed at the party and screamed out in frustration at them.
And then the battle was joined.
The party raced forward and we did our best to hit Zuggtmoy right off. A crate of thrown glass shards and a gust of wind seemed like a good start but a mistoss and then an alter reality changed the outcome. Magic missiles and cones of cold followed. Shim summoned a monster, got a zombie that came from Orcus’ lair, refused to help him, and was then returned. Smaller myconids fell to the group as we paced around the battlefield. Zuggtmoy ignored some blows and took reduced damage from others.
Summoned gnolls came from deeper in the Abyss, loyal to Yeenoghu and Sir Albert and his Fellblade helped them focus on attacking the queen of fungi. Wilhelm’s cats ran interference for the druid and quiver and Jessie did the same for the ranger. We poured on the fire but Zuggtmoy was ignoring all but the strongest of attacks. It was a Prayer spell from Dizzy that gave the group a leg up, and then Furd drank his potion of Heroism, and his attacks became more sure and deadly.
As we fought her and her multitude of minions, it was decided to trim them down and then concentrate on the Queen of Decay. With so many people around her she was hard pressed to pick a single target out and kill it. When the time came to hit her in the head, she rocked back from the blow and the wizards all told the party to focus their attacks there. Connal went jumping up, a dagger of sharpness slashing at her neck area while Furd with a fly spell did his best to just hit her face and neck.
We poured on more attacks and she rocked back with all of them, overwhelmed by the fury we were delivering until a lucky blow severed her head from the rest of her which fell to the ground in a spray of corruption. Her head dropped and most of her essence swarmed towards her castle. The release of her dark matter fueled the Rosencrantz bridge above which quickly flared bright and wide. We had less than 5 minutes.
Her death also alerted Jubilex, who took on the form of a 100 foot tall oozing mass of slimy kaiju, shaking the plane as it swarmed towards us to kill us all.
In the mass of her ruined body, a heavy bronze tablet covered in Abyssal appeared. According to Sir Albert, it was an Infernam Tablet, a hellish artifact of great power that bestows protections to whoever holds it against any demonic or abyssal creature – something that would be fantastic for them in their quest against the Temple and eventually Iuz. As for the rest of the group, Dizzy commented that this item, this powerful artifact item – was NOT part of the Major Eddas, and would most likely be useful in powering the Desmondian Diamond.
We quickly split up the treasure – the group taking the Tablet, the Vestment of Brigid, and the Baldur’s Gate Second Story Bracers – giving the other party the Diadem of Mindfulness, the Girdle of Horus, and the Phoenix Feather. Jubliex grew very close as the Bridge fired to life and the party…both parties were planarly shifted out of the Abyss and back to whatever Prime Material Plane they originated from.
In another world, in another dimension though, the fight against Zuggtmoy went decidedly different with much more death and destruction against the 2 groups before they did each best her. But, that was somewhere…somewhen else.
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