Out of the Abyss Part 1

The heroes and a dozen escaped prisoners raced through the dark. They pulled off the path to don armour, established a marching order and pushed into the Under Dark.

The drow seems to know his way, Stool (a little mushroom dude) and the deep gnomes (Jimjar and Topsy. the 3rd gnome Turvy just snarkles) cautiously approve his directions

The radiant warlock's quiver - the well of light- throws a magnesium bright glare around the centre of the party. The outrunners are amongst shadows, creating false trails, listening for danger. After 8 or 9 hours of pursuit, the group finds a cosy nook can beds down, taking careful watch.

On waking, bland food and water is conjured into hats and gourds by the priestess of life and some fungus scavenged. 

This continued for days, into the dark, no sign of life- then

 light, crystals and the sounds of dwarvish speech.

Three dwarves, with shackles, lit by natural crystals infused with faeress.As the party appraoched,  cracking and rumbling - an umberhulk attacks!

The beast went down before the affects of some truly confused party members could be felt...

The dwarves, rory, mac and finn joined the party and the trek continued.

Several days..

Strange howling sound haunt the party , no source can be located... but the party keeps it's spirits up.

A few more days

A cliff, only 40ft high but with drow at the top blocks progress. The outrunners report back, apparently unseen. A surprise attack with missiles and flight is launched. The drow go down in the first volley. Turns out they are all fungus infected zombies.With their gear and items intact. Bit of mystery.

A couple of days later..the Darklake. The party discusses going round or to the nearby Kuo-toa settlement, where water transport may be procured. The pacifist kuo-toa sage traveling with the party is keen to visit his home.

After some discussion, the party agreed to accompany him, using waterwalking, a disused dock and the gassy corpse of a chimera as a barge... 

The party was then attacked by kuo-toa.. during the fight, Stool uses his spores to establish communication and "sees" they want to drain the party's blood into the lake. The party's kuo-toa was also attacked and he claims these are a new faction, worshipping a new god....

Out of the Abyss 0

This is the first recap for out of the Abyss. These will come out fortnightly, giving regular players a reminder of what happened last week, keep casuals up to date and give the opportunity for folks put their hands up for a drop-in game if they wish.

The 14 enslaved folk, cooped in a cell, were asked by a scarred and dis-figured male drow if they would take the opportunity to escape if it was provided.

The drow left the cell door unlocked (it was one large holding cell for the lot) between shift changes. As the prisoners got their sneak on great cries rang out. A pair of gigantic mangy vultures pursued by demonic flies torn throuhg the cavern. Drow guards were soon ingaed in the battle. In the chaos, the prisoners snuck into the guard tower,- slaying the 2 drow with a hunk of flint (shaped into a dagger by the dwarf) and ..the martial arts and claws..of the monk.. recovering their gear from the armoury. 

They leapt down from the webs into the waterfall and scarpered out of the cavern.

The Chasme (demon flies) brought down a Vrock (bloodied) in the reach of the fleeing prisoners- half armed, and unarmored, they laid in blade and boot- the Vrock- gave little back and died leaving a black stain of spores and feathers.

Among the other prisoners- 

Jimjar -the roguish deep gnome, proved quite good at espionage and 

Rolt the orc proved self interested. 

The Derro and the Kuatoa were level headed, perhaps not sufficiently concerned about their safety to be sane. 

Topsy and Turvy- the twin deep gnomes behaved like reckless brigands- leaping over ledges, holding nothing back. 

A strange diseased drow prisoner and "stool" the young myconoid plan their path

And with that, the prisoners fled the purple moss lit cells, into the pitch-black of the deep underdark, 

The Factions

Karkoth Empire:

50% evil, 50% chaotic

ghouls, zombies, wraiths, skeletons, dracoliche, black arks, necromancers,  night stalkers

unusual stuff you might see in this area

plagues of bats, wolves
corruption, cultists, sacrifical circles
werewolves, bound demons
zombie-hulk, sculpted undead flesh and bone
deathknights, nothic
fallen temples, ancient ruins,

underside- ghoul kingdom, drow cities

The Iron Circle:

50% lawful, 50% evil

hobgoblins, bugbears, iron golems, red dragons, triremes, pact magic and warlocks, vestiges

unusual stuff you might see in this area

Humans in pacified farmlands ruled by...

goblinoid samurai

enchanted stone and iron statues, gargoyles

efreet, dao, fire giants 

hydra, hell hounds, doom bats

gibbering mouthers, chimera and warped creatures

volcanoes and chaos rifts

underside- troll barbarian holds, duegar cantons

Vailin Alliance:

50% good, 50% chaotic

elven archers, nobles, treants, cerilian dragons, skycutters, illusionists and sorcerers, sprites

unusual stuff you might see in this area

swarms of small fey creatures
verdant lands empowered by gaia

warbears, dinosaurs

flying fortress

nagas and storm giants sworn to pacts

a lot of flight, missile weapons and invisibility or illusion

underside- myconoids, feywilde

Nerathan League

50% lawful, 50% good

adventuring heroes, knights, stone giants, abjurers and sages, cogs and carracks, silver dragons, celestials

unusual stuff you might see in this area

draconians

colourful knightly orders

refugees from other areas
blessed lands and consecrated buildings
towns with both dwarves and humans
miles of ruined cities, deserted lands

underside- deep gnomes, dwarves

5th Ed Game reboot

Plot Points

So you get a plot point every level. It is an option straight out the DMG.
You can use it to insert something cool, change the story etc. You could use them to pick up a power from 4th ed, get a henchman, start a thieves guild, make a cool important itme (to them) a legacy item etc. Or you could just use them to save your butt. As the players start at 5th they might have spent a plot point or 2 already

Powers from 4th Ed

pick 3 powers from 4th edition- They are added to you roster of capabilities (spells, maneuvers, divinity, metamagic, ki). I would suggest 1 attack, 1 defence, 1 movement and make sure one is usable at 5th level, ie cantrip or 1-3rd level spell, or "at-will" under 5th.
The idea here is to give non-spellcasters a bit more flexibility, import some of the dynamic features of 4th ed.

Henchmen

So give players- familiars, pets, beast followers, sidekicks, apprentices
These could be spear/book carriers, replacement characters, entourage. I'm thinking they would max out at 2 levels below you with max feeding/care but most would be 3 or 4 levels below the players.
Start when players get to 6th.

Organisation or Holdings

So this is the establishment of a Guild, Monastic Order, Church, March Castle etc.
May be started after players get to 9th.

Legacy Items

The item becomes "uncommon" level magical and gets an "aspect" in the style of fate, which is usually flavour or some such. Every 5 levels it can unlock another level of magic and gets more personality.

Other Mechanical Custom Mods

Critical Hit Deck

From Paizo, changes criticals slightly, giving differing effects based on damage source.
http://paizo.com/products/btpy872f

Stats

Insert base profile (8-10-12-13-14-15)
Then assign 4d6x6. May move one dice per stat before rolling- for example,
 3d6x3 & 5d6x3
or
3d6x5 & 9d6x1
To stop too great a shenanigans, your base 8 must go on your lowest and your highest must go on 15.
then roll. If you get higher, get higher, otherwise go with the base.

New Races

Naga

Cambion

Derro

Gray Dwarves

Deep Gnomes

Goblin 

Try Me

Healing

Short rest is just a quick breather between combats- call it 15 minutes for spell durations. Otherwise works exactly as described in players handbook and dmg.

Long rest is 8 hours, max of once per 24 hours, you get all your spells back and all your "healing hit dice", but you don't heal on top of that, although you could then spend all your healing dice, leaving you with none until 16 hours and another rest later. On average that would heal you.

Down time is more than 24 hours, in a safe environment, with access to first aid, food and sleep. You heal completely and get everything back as well. Often 2 nights in a nice inn.

The Cycle of Nerath

Partially inspired by the art of William O'Connor, partially refreshed by battling zombies I present the outline of a new Campaign.

Next Game

So, the day before my Birthday I sent out a survey. I thought- cool surveys are cool. I'll make some light jokes and maybe get some feedback for future games and campaigns.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V8KVH5R

So people answered. Quite a few.
And I learnt some stuff.

Folks like..
Less magic- average 35% on 1-100
Lower-powered games - midtier
Games with Multiple dice
No phones but access to characters on laptops for some
Pre-gunpowder
Longer campaigns
and a range of genres.

With that in mind I won't be replicating "Cowboys and Aliens" or "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberron"

I also sort of have my GMing mojo back.

and want to get back into world /game building.