#buppido

[immortalarizona]

my drawings of the Out of the Abyss NPCs in order of how likely I think my party is to try and romance them

for probably obvious reasons, Sarith Kzekarit (who I am Totally normal about y’all and who I am desperately hoping my party manages to save) is at the top of the list. the children are at the bottom for equally obvious reasons.

also yes I made Stool cuter and Ront green and in possession of a new backstory and also I replaced Eldeth with my own character because I’m the DM and I can do what I want >:)

please excuse the kinda janky coloring I did these on 3×5 notecards to hand out to my party later so I didn’t have much room for error

[the-aviarys-models]

"Captured by the drow! You wouldn't wish this fate upon anyone, yet here you are—locked in a dark cave, the cold, heavy weight of metal tight around your throat and wrists. You are not alone. Other prisoners are trapped in here with you, in an underground outpost far from the light of the sun."

Our models of the prisoners. This is a long post, so they'll be under the cut!

There will be spoilers for this module!

We have versions as prisoners and normal versions. Tokens available upon request but will not be included in this initial post due to how many images there are.

Old/outdated versions of the models available upon request (or if I feel like reblogging them in later) since this is already a long post.

Buppido- Talkative and cunning derro

Prince Derendil- Quaggoth who claims to be a cursed elf prince

Eldeth Feldrun- Shield dwarf scout from Gauntlgrym

Jimjar- Deep gnome with a gambling problem

I rolled items for the NPCs, Jimjar ended up starting with the metal bar club.

Ront- Orc bully

Sarith Kzekarit- Drow accused of murder

Sarith here has multiple models that show the progression of the spore infection, (hey, I did say there'd be spoilers!) ending in a model of him as a spore servant. You'll also notice my stylization of elves... I like how pathfinder gives them funky eyes, and I stole it to make D&D elves look cooler.

Ideally, I'll switch out the tokens between chapters/sessions and pretend nothing has changed until the later stages where it's very obvious something is wrong with him.

Shuushar the Awakened- Kuo-toa hermit and mystic

Shuushar has a weapon, but he doesn't use it for combat. It's more of a utility tool for him.

Stool- Myconid sprout

I made it a lot different from its art so that it has hands to hold items with. Stool is the only one who didn't receive a new model after the face customizer dropped, because, well... it wouldn't have benefitted much.

Myconid base is from here!

Topsy and Turvy- Deep gnome wererat twins

I love face customizer because I can give them slightly rat-like features without making it too obvious.

Also, Turvy's starting item was the flint dagger.

Honestly, I forgot to make wererat models for these two until making this post. The rodent head wasn't in the face customizer when it first released, so I figured I'd do it later... and then I forgot! So I whipped some up real quick. I tried to go for that look of animal eyes gleaming in the darkness.

[thanako]

old buppido fanart (circa 2021) that i think still holds up :)

[theartisticintrovert]

Commission Me! (Regular | Furry)

forgot to post this! this is mae, my firbolg druid for the new dnd campaign we're doing! she's the Most Autism Girl and i love her so much lmao. yes im aware firbolgs are more humanoid than this but like.....i couldn't help it ok my brain just said "fluffier. more. FLUFFIER." and i ended up with a bear

her hair is made of vines thanks to her stint in the feywild, and she's already used it to her advantage for infinite rope hacks. current strategy for prisoner transport: tie them up in vine rope and stuff em in her backpack. thanks to powerful build, she has literally no trouble carting around a derro burrito lmao

also she can turn into a giant lizard which is sick as hell

[geckmen-arts]

[Oota] Buppido

[lumendelmari]

Because I know a dungeon crawl can be a little confusing…here is an updated version of the Whorlstone Tunnels map detailing the path the adventurers have taken thus far (up to chapter 30).

1)    Entrance

  1b) Buppido’s Lair

2)   Diseased Pool

3)   Chamber of myconids (called Parade of Fools in the module)

4)   Fungi Thicket

5)   Raucous Mesa

   5b) Assassin’s tunnel

6)   Assassin’s den

   6d) Northwest barracks

   6e) Mindwitness chamber

7)   Assassin’s headquarters

   7c) Pathway up to the Grey Ghost territory

9)  Fountain of Evil (as told to the adventurers by Elgrim; now home to a hydra instead of the Water Weird from OOTA 77)

14) Obelisk room

    14b) Unknown room

    14c) Thief barracks

and now added...

12) Narrack’s hideout (where the party is currently)

. . .

Also featured, close up maps detailing the obelisk room, the Empty Scabbard Killers/Qualax’s hideout (formally the Grey Ghost’s alchemist hideout/garden), and Narrack’s hideout.

You can read the story here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/35100307/chapters/87436915

or

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13962836/1/The-Grey-Warriors

[vanhelsingapologist]

i am not allowed to know what the fuck is going on with sarith but stool will not change. sarith will get wavy hair. probably.

i guess all these guys are pretty young but i like a bit older jorlan and ilvara.

eldeth is not changing much. i like sideburns for her. Mr. Darcy Eldeth. buppido and jimjar are fine as is, but who knows. they'll need outfits. I'm gonna wait on the prisoners and see who makes it out. I feel like Ront is surviving, the bastard.

i think rothe wool is gonna come back in a big way, and you can make fibers out of certain mushroom mycelium. lots of metalwork. rothe hides, lizard hides. bug casing armor in the outlands of the underdark?

out of the abyss design talk

i know small descriptions of the drow in the opening chapter. i think many will die but i can't help but overcomplicate a design.

i don't know how well i'm going to stick to salvatore's drow hair rules, because i don't want to throw it out, but i want some diversity in hairstyles or we'll have the same white/grey/long hair combo. so blue/grey/purple will come back in a big way.

that jorlan fellow will be getting an eyepatch/cloth (a la iorveth?) over the mangled half of his face. maybe a side shave too, because the damaged skin will run up his scalp.

shoor is supposed to be pretty but the urge to make him jorlan but a little to the left is really appealing. i think I'm gonna go for a wyll ravengard type, though.

asha will wear similar clothing to ilvara, but i think she'll have a delicate look. very out of place at the outpost to signify her newness. no armor, since she weaponizes kindness. she and shoor will have similar palettes.

ilvara is going to stay closer to her book description for now. I might alter the ponytail, but the long, long hair is fun, even though i want to give her a fuckass bob.

drow stuff is pointy canonically but i wonder if i can incorporate more spider-silk into things.

[ocelot-art]

Face shape/expressions practice part 2/2: our current (humanoid) Out of the Abyss companions!

From left to right: Buppido (derro), Sarith Kzekarit (drow), Bardrak Doomcrag (homebrew-ish deep gnome) and Graz'zt (resident demon lord currently disguised as a tiefling named Vice).

[krunk-mcdunk]

Top 5 RPG moments

idk if this is for video games or tabletop so i’ll do both

5. every interaction with the moon man mascot from outer worlds, wish i could free u king

4. you do not have proficiency in shield was legendary despite its origin

3. choosing whether Daud lives or dies in dishonored cause he’s such a rad character and i can never bring myself to kill him

2.  literally fucking everything from out of the abyss but especially my husband Buppido and My Child My Sweet Precious Baby Stool, that run was so fuckin killer ahaha get it :’(

1. once we were sneaking into a cult den and several of us successfully pretending to be one cultist named clark until we didn’t so we had to blast a dude apart and he screamed “clark why” and for some reason i said “i’m sorry old friend”

that phrase became our wifi/password for a while and i got my friend who was dm’ing a lil coffin that says “clark why” on it

also it was during a poppy themed campaign so

[immortalarizona]

hi! i’m curious about how you’re characterizing buppido in your OotA game—in my experience playing and planning to DM, i’ve had trouble connecting with him and figuring out how to make his twist surprising and impactful.

also if you have any similar thoughts for shuushar, that’s another blorbo i don’t know how to make compelling lol

I'm soooooo flattered to have gotten this ask from you!!!! first off, I would like to apologize if this is largely incoherent; I have spent a solid seven (7) of the past 24 hours playing two different D&D sessions, both of them pretty brutal combats. this is gonna be a loooooong post, so my answer is under the cut :]

also, if anyone reading this post happens to be one of my players going snooping for my blog, STOP READING NOW.

okay cool

I'll start each character section with a quick description I wrote for myself on each of their personalities (or my interpretations of them, at least).

Buppido

Buppido Diirdeklin is surprisingly talkative and friendly given the situation everyone is in. In fact, he doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything, diving into even the thick of battle with his perpetual, almost uncanny cheer. He seems to be very devoted to some deity unknown to non-derro, as after every battle, he kneels over the bodies of any enemy he has slain and appears to pray in silence for a few seconds. Buppido’s faith is the only subject which he remains reticent about, but he will happily engage in discussions of almost anything else with anyone else. He claims a desire to return to his people in Gracklstugh in order to help liberate them from their lives as second-class citizens under the duergar.

basically, how I saved Buppido thus far was through a lot of guilt-tripping the player characters and using what I knew of them (only what I reasonably figured he would know at this point; he's not secretly omniscient like Jimjar so there's only so much meta knowledge I can apply) to manipulate them. the angle I'm taking is that he wants something objectively good (for the derro to not be treated like dogshit) but is going about it in The most fucked up way possible (ritual murder because he think it'll give him back his divine power, which he can then use to fucking obliterate the duergar and free his people). he is very polite and has this veneer of kindness with which he treats the people he's manipulating. he will say whatever it takes to get the person he's talking to on his side, regardless of whether he actually believes it (but I do think it's more interesting if he genuinely believes he's doing the right thing). as an example of this in action, here's a copy of the monologue he gave the rogue when she was like "hey dude, I'm getting Real Bad Vibes from you, what's up." keep in mind that she is a tiefling.

"I heard what Kzekarit said to you a few nights back--so I trust that you will understand what it means to be judged solely on the basis of your blood. The duergar"--he almost spits the name--"have given us many names, none of them fit for polite company. Even our name in Undercommon comes from their word for 'derelict.' The audacity, when it is them that have forced us to live in the streets--if they allow us to live at all!" Buppido's voice has steadily been raising in volume this entire time, and he has to take a moment to catch his breath after that. When he continues, his voice is quieter, but no less passionate. "I have lived a long time. But I am blessed beyond measure. I am the exception. I am what is known among my people as a savant--one who has manifested magical powers. We are respected, yes, but. . . magic changes you. I have seen. . . things. . . in the shadows that I can never unsee. Things much worse than intellect devourers." His grip on his staff, which he is currently using as a walking stick, trembles, and he closes his eyes. "I have to believe that it was worth it. If I don't deliver us. . . no one will." He looks up at Promise again. "Do you understand now, little thief?" he asks, but it's not a question. It's a plea.

(for context, Sarith called the rogue "demonspawn" before promising that he would not hesitate to stab her if he saw a reason to do so when she asked where his loyalties lay.)

similarly, Buppido appealed to the ranger's sense of sympathy/pity with an excuse about nightmares and not entirely being himself when he woke up from one, which is why he tried to stab the twins. this was a bit of metagaming on my part, but the ranger is haunted by nightmares despite not sleeping (drow moment). it worked, and when the ranger had a mini emotional breakdown, Buppido then appealed to his sympathies further by patting the ranger's hand and saying that he would hug him, but he is not very tall, and his poor back can only take so much strain. the ranger then kneeled down, cast cure wounds to help Buppido's back pain, and gave him a hug. Buppido thanked the ranger for giving him another chance (as he had similarly given Sarith another chance) and told the ranger that he has a "good heart" and to "never change." (what he really meant was "you're so fucking easy to manipulate and I would prefer for that to not change.")

so, y'know. a lot of Manipulate Mansplain Manslaughter, with a side of Moral Complexity. like, man's a fucking serial killer, but he also has an ultimate goal which my party at least seems to empathize with. as for the emotional impact, you really only get as much out of the reveal as your players put into the character during the lead-up. my party has a Massive found family dynamic going already (Topsy has already sarcastically called the ranger, who she accidentally bit by the way, "dad," to give you a sense of how things are going), and Buppido fits right in as a sort of grandpa figure. he will find the most emotionally vulnerable PCs, worm his nasty little way into their hearts through false displays of kindness, and try to drive a wedge between them and any other characters who see through him. (I suggest giving him expertise in Deception. it feels appropriate.)

Shuushar

Shuushar the Awakened claims to have spent a lifetime in contemplation and solitary meditation in order to overcome his people’s legacy of madness, and it shows in the aura of enlightened calm he exudes despite the horrors he has suffered during his imprisonment. Nothing seems to be able to drive him to anger, and he is utterly unafraid to die for his belief in peace and goodness. He is always happy to offer tidbits of wisdom to those who ask for them, and also to those who don’t. Shuushar hopes to return to his hometown of Sloobludop in order to share his enlightenment with his fellow kuo-toa, as well as anyone else he encounters along the way.

Shuushar,,, drives my players a little bit insane, and I definitely haven't been utilizing his full potential (the players have been mostly fixated on Sarith, the twins, and the cleric NPC I brewed up to replace Eldeth). I've mostly been using him as a vehicle for foreshadowing through what I call Shuushar Stories. he's just. the Worst Fucking Storyteller and it's delightful to write, actually. here are two of the ones I feel contribute most to his characterization:

#1: Darklake Hag

“Yeah, so when they threw me out of Sloobludop, they didn’t even give me a boat, so I had to steal one. Or I was planning to, but then my friend Bloppdagadil snuck out after me to give me her spare boat and also a bag of crawlers. They weren’t fresh, but it was still a great gesture. What a gal. . . Shame the merrows got her. Nasty surprise when the fishermen I was traveling with pulled bits of her out of the Lake in their nets. . . Anyways, yeah, so I was traveling in Bloppdagadil’s boat when suddenly, I’m stuck on a sandbar! So I get out and try to push the boat back into the water when this weird green lady appears out of nowhere and asks me if I want to make a deal with her—I think it was for infinite wisdom or something. I told her, ‘No thanks, I’m good,’ and I push the boat back into the water. Enlightenment is more about the journey than the destination, really, and it wouldn’t mean anything if I didn’t earn it. . . The boat got caught in a whirlpool a few days later. I think it was the green lady’s fault. She said goodbye very ominously.” 

the key takeaways from this one are these:

the Darklake is dangerous, and Shuushar exists in a world where it's just Normal for people to die. you accept it. you move on. it is what it is.

he believes in the journey over the destination. the end does not justify the means.

he has a strong moral code and refuses temptation at every turn (you could play with this in your own campaign depending on how well your players take to him).

he is just a Weird-Ass Guy (affectionate).

foreshadowing for the green hag in the Darklake which I'm gonna present as an option to save Sarith (but at a COST, mwahahahaha).

#2: Funny Story, I Was Exiled

“I will warn you that I didn’t leave Sloobludop on the best of terms, really. Everyone was always moving, moving, moving with the land currents, but I just wanted to stand still for a minute. Ploopploopeen didn’t like that. He didn’t like that at all. . . Oh, Ploopploopeen? He was the archpriest of the Sea Mother—had just been promoted, and his first act was to tell me to never come back. Said I was a ‘bad influence’ or something, and that his daughter would get the wrong idea, watching me. . . I’m not mad about it. Love and fear, together, are a strange thing, and either one alone can drive people to do things they know in their hearts are wrong. Tost about by unseen currents. . . I wonder if he remembers me. I want him to know that I forgave him a long time ago.”

what this monologue was meant to convey:

foreshadowing, mostly. tryna set up Ploopploopeen's motives a bit better than in the module.

Shuushar has hidden depths! he's not some dumbass stoner (though I do try to portray him like he's constantly high, because I think it's funny), he has philosophy! and compassion! and an incredible ability to forgive those who have wronged him! he's a genuinely good dude!

the delivery of these really helped his character come across, tbh. (these ones were given during the session proper, not between via text chatting.) he's just spacey and--not monotone, exactly, but very level in his tone. he's calm. he's unshakeable. maybe your players will appreciate that, or maybe they'll find him annoying and want to stuff a rag into his mouth to get him to Shut Up. (and even that in itself can become compelling; I think we've got a bit of an in-joke developing that We Don't Let Shuushar Tell Stories.)

thanks for the ask, and I really hope this helped!! it was delightful getting to ramble about my own devious machinations, and I would be happy to chat further about my takes on each of the NPCs if you so desire :D

[the-aviarys-models]

We keep forgetting to post our NPC models for our Out of the Abyss campaign whoops. We don't have any for Neverlight Grove because we can't do the myconids justice- we just stole art from BG3 instead.

Anyway, we decided to set duergar apart from every other gray-skinned Underdark race by giving them a fiery aesthetic, similar to darkiron dwarves from WoW.

The derro stayed the same because we decided to do this design after the game started (so the party met Buppido but no duergar). We decided the reason was because derro had their fires "extinguished" when their minds were broken by the illithids.

Also, we changed Gracklstugh from being under Demogorgon's sway to being under Graz'zt's influence. It works pretty well if you have the practical duergar acting uncharacteristically greedy and hedonistic!

Deepking Horgar Steelshadow V

Droki, based on his official art

Hemeth, who's technically a Sloobludop NPC but shh

Gorglak Ironhead, the corrupt guard

Errde Blackskull- my players never actually met her since they stayed out of trouble.

Xalith Masq'il'yr, the scout keeping tabs on the party for Ilvara. We had her take the place of Xinaya in Neverlight Grove for a bit of continuity. Why have some random drow they've never met show up there when it could be the very one they had to outsmart in Gracklstugh?

Lorthio Bukbukken, the alchemist

Stonespeaker Hgraam

Ylsa Henstak, the merchant

Gartokkar Xundorn, of the keepers of the flame. Why is his beard smoky instead of fiery? Idk we just felt like it. Maybe he's just really old or maybe it's a genetic thing.

If there's any NPCs we didn't include.... we forgot. Gracklstugh is very big.

[trollsinadungeon]

The Forgotten Realms: The Revengers

After battling several large spiders, our party’s new goblin friends continued on their way. The rest of the group made their way to Dark Lake, and were cautioned by the kuotoa Shusar of potential unrest and religious upheaval in his hometown nearby. Party members also became aware that their derro companion, Buppido, seemed to be mentally disturbed. After building several rafts and foraging for mushrooms, our adventurers noticed a mysterious boat appear in the lake. A small party was sent to investigate, and were attacked by a group of duergar. A well-timed blast alerted the group on shore; can they arrive in time to help their friends?

[roll4persuasion]

Unfortunately the Drow took Xylaris’ bagpipes...

Into the Abyss - Session 1

The story started with the three adventurers waking up in a Drow outpost, stripped of all their equipment and about to be enslaved. Humble beginnings indeed.

They weren’t alone in their imprisonment as the Drow were quite industrious when it came to slaving. They had managed to amass three Deep Gnomes (Topsy, Turvy and Jimjar), a Dark Dwarf (Buppido), a Quagoth who says he’s actually an Elf prince (Prince Dendril the Quagelf, if you will), a sentient mushroom (Stool), a rouge Drow (Sarith), a pacifist Kuatoa (Shuushar) and a Dwarf (Eldeth). Add on the large, green Dwarf (Sakibena), the Dragonborn (Xylaris) and the halfling (Tokken) and you had quite the motley crew.

The Drow took advantage of the free labour in the outpost almost immediately and there was a great tragedy when one of the Deep Gnomes, Topsy, knocked and smashed a fragile figurine that belonged to the Matron of the Drow. Her punishment was to be thrown to the spiders below and her death inspired a mutiny.

The escape was made all the more easier by a guard with a curious burn on his face offering the key to their prison. Sakibena saw no ill-motives in the Drow’s actions but the others weren’t so sure. Still, it was the best chance they had to escape and so they waited for his signal.

Sneaking into the guards house was easy; as the guard had promised, the replacements for the previous guard shift were absent. Tokken snuck up to the higher level and dispatched the lone guard and managed to find the group a bunch of armour and weapons to arm themselves.

And not a moment too soon as the guard shift arrived. And so did a bunch of flying demons!

Choosing the easy route, the group jumped down a waterfall, skipping the battle entirely.

[amtrax]

Also in the same session tonight we found out that a member of our group was murdered (had his neck slashed while his guard was down). When we narrowed it down to one potential suspect (a Derro named Buppido), Gnaash threatened them by saying that if he confessed, she would let him leave, but if he lied and she found out later, she would eat him (she’s a big Dragonborn, and would absolutely do it). Buppido ran after I rolled a 19 intimidation check, and another player thorn whipped him back toward Gnaash, who grabbed Buppido by the throat. She asked why he did it, and he said “because I could! Because I wanted to” and I responded with “Gnaash snaps his fucking neck.” The neck snap didn’t finish him, but The eldritch blast from another member of the party ABSOLUTELY did. Gnaash loves to make people happy, but that shit don’t fly with her.

Oh boy I had my first “D&D Almost Made Me Cry” moment tonight. My character, Gnaash, just found out from her brother (played by my friend Mark) that she and he are the only two members of their family left (Gnaash ran away from home and has been gone for 15 years). Her response was to stomp away, scream a pillar of flame into the air, take a deep breath and convince her brother that he needed to start taking care of his own health so that they could both live.

And then it was followed by another one, oops. Gnaash has this mentality that the best way to get to know people is to fight them and then break bread with them. Well after they all escaped a Drow Prison, she broke bread with two NPC’s named Ront (orc) and Eldeith (dwarf) (they fucking hate each other). She found out that  Ront is the only member of his clan left after Eldeith’s clan wiped them out (and Eldeith hated Ront’s clan because they were a conquering band of raiders). That night, during an overnight watch, Gnaash convinced them to work together for now, and then got Ront to be her friend after saying that he could be a part of her and her brother’s clan once they all escaped the Underdark. She told Ront that he doesn’t have to forgive Eldeith or her clan, but that they needed to work together to escape and that maybe with time, they could learn to respect each other.

My big strong girl is gonna protect this fucking family so hard, you guys. I’m super leaning into the Neutral Good Protection Fighter. It isn’t going to go how I expect or want, but good fucking hell I’m gonna try.

[ootacampaign]

Adventure #13 - Gracklstugh

After a week on Darklake, the group has finally reached Gracklstugh in hopes to find a way to the surface. Docking in the district, Hemeth deals with the duergar dockmaster to attain a permit of stay while the others look over their supplies. Buppido grumbles about getting some fresh meat, Ront agrees but with ale to which Jimjar bets he could drink more then the orc, and Stool asks what the big deal is about ale. Hemeth then goes to find his contacts about selling the duergar ship while the crew stretches their legs. In an hour, the smuggler returns and throws Caduceus a bag of gold.

“She was a tough negotiator but I was able to get two thousand gold for ye. Now to our agreement I will take some of the gear & booty before I leave for my city & friends.”

“Of course, good Hemeth. Thank you for your aid, we would done so much more poorly without you,” replies Aryn to which Hemeth gathers up some items and is given some coin & jewels from their previous adventures.

“If ye need a smuggler...”

“Of course.” and with that the duergar lugs his heavy sack into the streets of Gracklstugh.

“Well shall we find a buyer of some of these extra weapons and armor?” asks Aryn.

“And I could use some actual clothes. Can’t believe I’ve worn these slave rags for three weeks!” exclaims Caduceus.

“Derendil, Eighteen, and Jimjar; you’re with us. The rest of you keep an eye on the ship.” says Aryn and looking at Ront, “And don’t get in any trouble.”

“Aye aye captain.” grunts Ront with a touch of sarcasm.

“Ikki is in charge,” adds Caduceus as the aarakocra fluffs up his feathers proudly.

A few blocks away the four find the Blade Bazaar, the best market in town. Every underdark race could be seen, with a few oddities thrown in. They find a smith sharpening a blade.

“Good dwarf, may we bother you a moment,” greets the eldritch knight.

“Hmmmm, surfacers. Whatcha need?”

“Well I am in search of a suit of fashionable plate armor.”

“Fashionable? You humans always looking for something flashy. Whatcha got to sell? Those for me?” answers the duergar as he looks through the assortment of extra arms & armor they brought with them.

“Yes of course.”

“Oooooh, I like this. Oh and this! I couldn’t live without this. My favorite color, metal! Hahaha.”

“Yes and the plate armor you have?”

“Oh yes, good suit will fit you quite well. Here look here.”

Caduceus looks over the suit while the dwarf continues to look at the pile.

“How much?”

“How much for yours here?” asks the dwarf.

“Well what do you offer?”

The duergar begins naming off prices, but to their surprise it was all retail value. 

“Yes that sounds great, but the armor? Say 1,500 gold?”

The duergar spits at the human’s feet. “No sale!”

“2,000?” and once more the dwarf spits.

Aryn changes the subject back to the looted equipment, “We have more back at our ship, why don’t you take it off our hands and Caduceus will walk away with the suit of armor.”

“More ye say! Love it bring it all to me!”

Aryn points to Derendil and Eighteen to go back and fetch the remaining unclaimed gear for the smith.

Caduceus begins trying on the plate while the smith continues looking over the loot.

“I am glad we can come to an arrangement duergar.”

“Name’s Kuip, Kuip Gathergood.”

The two return in haste with a larger selection.

“Oh yes this is so good!” exclaims the dwarf.

“And we have a deal?” asks Caduceus.

“Yes yes,” the dwarf was more preoccupied with the new weapons, “Kuip happy.”

“Then we can walk away now?” and with that Caduceus and the group walks out of the stall.

“What was that Eighteen?”

“I don’t know, the smith seemed broken in the head.”

“Agreed, he had plenty of items for sale so why buy more?” asks Aryn.

“Things don’t seem right in my city.” answers Eighteen.

“Now let’s get some answers and see about some magic,” says the triton as they walk to a spider silk hut with a star for a sign.

They walk inside to find an ancient drow female witch sitting at a table pulling a rat’s internal organs out of its dead body.

“What can Spiderdust do for you lads... and lass?” asks the drow.

“I have some backgound in the arcane and was hoping you had some simple scrolls of detecting magic and identifying it.” asks Aryn.

“Ah yes, I do.” she replies leaving the rat to look over a bookcase full of tomes and scrolls.

“And some answers, is there anything strange going on in the city?”

“Well, depends on your definition of strange...” cackles the witch, “duergar are acting like derro, and derro like duergar.”

Caduceus thinks over this omen. The duergar are quiet, hard working, and loyal to a fault while the derro were chaotic, unpredictable and never shut up when you need them to.

“Plus derro are showing up with surface coins.”

The three surface dwellers peak their interest at the news.

“What kinds of coins? Where do they get them from?”

“No idea, but the coins are from various regions... Waterdeep, Calimshan, and even the Dales.”

Thinking of Ikki, “Do you have an goggles to see in the darkness?”

The witch laughs at the request, “Why would I have that? It seems like an odd request but I guess ye are surfacers... I’ve had a pair but sold it... three maybe five years ago.”

“Thank you Spiderdust. That is all.”

The group leaves to rejoin the marketplace full of its activity and noise.

“I don’t know how much longer I could stay in that crone’s presence,” grunts Derendil. “I am certainly not a fan of magic nor drow.”

“But my prince, she gave us some interesting news. Keep an eye out for some derro. We need to know if they have a way to the surface,” commands Aryn.

“Can we get some clothes now?” asks Caduceus with Jimjar shaking his head in agreement.

The group walks a little through the busy bazaar to find a tailor stall run by four goblins who share a passion of fashion with the eldritch knight. In the end Caduceus walks out with a new suit of finery: wool pants, fashionable leather boots, long silk shirt and a leather vest fringed in wolf fur. Jimjar himself walks out with some pantaloons and a hooded caped shirt, which the goblins called a hoodie.

Derendil asks Aryn, “You do not need new clothes?”

“I am from the sea, what use do we have of clothes? You?”

“I sadly cannot hide the my cursed appearance with simple clothes.”

As they debate where to go next the bazaar noises and anvil sounds are droned out as to their surprise a two-headed stone giant comes rampaging through a gate and takes out the duergar guard in one blow. The giant continues its charge toward the five. Running on instincts Caduceus activates Dawnbringer and goes into a wall stance to protect his companions while Jimjar and Eighteen leap for cover behind a now empty stall.

“Stop giant or we will put you down!” commands the triton, but the giant only replies with a foamy maw shout and charges Caduceus who luckily throws a shield spell into the way of the attack. Derendil sweeps through the panicked crowd to get behind the giant and slashes out with his quaggoth claws. Jimjar answers with a hand crossbow bolt, while Aryn unleashes a Gust of Wind to keep the giant at bay. The defending eldritch knight tries to look over his opponent and is puzzled why a stone giant would have two heads, and then sees the eyes different from the two heads.

“I think its been corrupted by demonic forces!”

“More like possessed! Why does this kind of thing always follow us no matter where we go?” replies Aryn with magical blast to the giant’s face. 

“You were the one that suggested we bring only five of us!” shouts Caduceus as he holds off another strong blow with a Shield.

The giant moves past the knight to take a swing at the giant dragon statue in the middle of the bazaar. Finding his chance from an assault, Caduceus casts Protection from Evil on the giant, in hopes to break the possession but the giant just seizes up and its red eyes go white. “Take out the right head, its unnatural!” shouts Caduceus. Jimjar taking the advice kisses his hand crossbow before launching a bolt straight through the giant’s mouth, while Aryn finishes off the giant with a blast to the face, with Derendil luckily jumping out of the way from a tumbling unconscious giant.

[lumendelmari]

Inspirational images for Chapter 25 of “The Grey Warriors” based on the dnd module Out of the Abyss.

Our heroes stumble upon the lair of their former companion, Buppido, and attempt to stop his necromantic ritual intended to summon the demon lord Orcus to the Underdark city of Gracklstugh. During the battle, Buppido summons several waves of undead creatures, including two ghouls. When they are all slain and Buppido finds himself cornered, he makes the ultimate sacrifice to become a bodak, an undying servant of Orcus. 

Read the story here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35100307/chapters/87436915