03/21/2023

A few years ago, I was running the D&D 5E adventure Out of the Abyss for a group of players at a local gaming center (which is no longer around since Covid took its toll).

I had run this adventure for others at the gaming center, but in this last group I wanted to have fewer NPCs in the escaped group so I decided to remove most. Since we were playing at a gaming center, we were required to accept new players anytime they showed up and wanted to play. There were 6 or 7 tables playing at any one time. My table was at 7 players so I thought the fewer NPCs the better.

I always keep Stool (since someone in the group always latches onto him) and Buppido (since he is fun to roleplay) then decided only to keep Shuushar and Jimjar too. I had Topsy and Turvy jump off the platforms at the beginning of the jailbreak (they are wererats and wouldn’t die from the fall. They showed up later in the adventure to help out when the party was in need) and the rest were killed in the fighting.

There was a teenage boy in the group that liked ‘my Buppido’ so I roleplayed Buppido talking to him in secret about being a follower of his new religion. Buppido wasn’t good at fighting but he would always run over to a deceased body and begin poking and prodding it. He would show the player different parts and explain better ways of killing humanoids.

When the group was at Sloobludop and witnessed Demogorgon emerging from the lake, the group was split and fled into the caverns. Buppido failed his madness checks so badly that I said he was completely changed to the point he acted like a normal dwarf.

When the party helped out Themberchaud in the city of Gracklstugh, he had magical items forged for each of the players that would be unique for them. I pulled out my 4E books and got to work making items that were all fired-themed (he was a red dragon after all). I attached the magic items to this post if you want to use them at your table.

Later when the players escaped the Underdark and were rallying forces to go back down to stop the Demon Princes, I decided that I would give each follower to run to bolster the group without any more work from me in combat. I had just received the Strongholds and Followers book by Matt Colville and made henchmen for all of my players. I brought back Buppido as a Diabolist and gave it to the teenage player, saying Buppido had some memories from before and was grateful for the treatment he had received from the player. I made handouts to give to the players for all of the followers with all of the spells too so they didn’t have to have the player’s handbook. The retainers are attached to this post as well.

Unfortunately, we never got to finish this adventure. Covid hit and the gaming center closed down for a while. When it came back, it was in a very limited capacity so my group shrank down to just my friends and wife. After a while, the gaming center changed how it handled open group play and it killed the business.

Keep on gaming!