The party abandoned a village being invaded by an evil church to flee onto the next town. They begin to head their and got attacked by two giant vultures. Now, they are on the road to the next town, not knowing that an ambush lies in wait on the second day of their voyage.

(That's it, my sessions are short).

Oh Lord do I have a story!

So my party (A human fighter, a kobold cleric, a half elf fighter, and a kor wizard) arrives in a new town and are resting in a inn. The half elf decides to visit the local magic shop run by an old lady who trades her more valuable items for happy memories. The half elf makes some deals and heads back to the party. The next day the Kor (Lawful Neutral btw this is important) goes to the same tower to gain some info about what the half elf did (the kor was fairly new to the party and still suspcios) but the old lady refused to give her any information.

After this the kor buys some spell components and then decides on a whim to rob the old lady...... so she casts Tasha's hideous laughter and the lady fails. so she steals 40 spell scrolls and over 1000 gold peices!!!! and in the middle of all this she sets the old lady on FIRE!!! and so after stealing all these things she pulls the lady out of the fire and tries to put the fire out with random EXPERIMENTAL potions effectively making what our party calls the gay fire (it was rainbow)

So the kor grabs the biggest most valuable thing she could carry (A big pearl) and runs out of the tower. She quickly finds the rest of the group who are at the blacksmith's (who happens to be the old ladies grandson). So the blacksmith runs to the tower followed by the half elf. Yeah the old lady is dead and the half elf runs back to yell at the kor.

The kor promptly uses all the magic in the giant pearl she grabbed (Nat 20...) and attempts to infuse the pure essence of magic into the half elf (the half elf has been searching for a way to understand magic perfectly in order to deafeat an evil? entity he accidently sold his soul to.) So the kor uses all the spell scrolls she stole effectively killing herself and the half elf and destroying both the spell scrolls and the pearl.....

So yeah next sesion is gonna be fun!

Had prepped for a showdown on planet Glyth, in the ruins of the Illithid empire, with a couple of corrupted crystal dragons guarding an artifact that would make it possible to travel to Ilsensines domains.

In actual play, my party spent the whole session roleplaying the preparations for an assault on an Illithid-controled Duergar city under High Moor.

Great fun as usual, but second guessing my players and prep correctly is a challenge sometimes. But no railroading, right ;-)

Tuc finished his meal >> Next steps >> What does Renear know, Pt. 2 >> Description matches Urstul Floxin, Ravensong >> Urstul Floxin entered Gralhund Villa >> Ironwatch spoke with Lord Gralhund assured no one has broken into the estate >> Back to Trollskull >> Dishes are clean >> Tolly leaves some spirits for the Spirit >> Tuc goes to work >> What next >> Wren does not want to get arrested >> Go to the Villa promoting the tavern? >> Tuc at the docks >> Perform an extra-fine repairing the Stork >> Some extra coin >> Word on the street that the war between Ravensong vs. Ravensong and Ravensong vs. Zonthall Guild is heating up >> Fancy ships Heartbreaker, Hellraiser, and the Eyecatcher >> Morning next steps >> To Northgate and the Worchester neighborhood >> Walk around the Villa >> All is quiet >> Wren uses the Nimblewright detector >> Detector goes crazy >> Nimblewright is here >> Tolly buys some bread and cheese at a vendor >> Questioning the vendor about the Gralhunds >> Take a seat and watch the Villa >> Post watch on the north and south of the villa >> Wren is conflicted >> Tolly and Tuc catch up about Tempest >> Myst and Sebastian see the groundskeeper and his dogs >> Meet up five hours later >> To the park >> Talk next steps >> Wren concerns >> Talk to the House of the Inspired Hands? >> Talk to Cromley? >> Take a carriage across town >> Arrive at the House of the Inspired Hands / Temple of Gond >> Meeting up with Valetta >> They found the Nimblewright >> The price you pay >> Give Valetta the location >> Back to the Trollskull >> Tuc contemplates >> Sebastian and Myst pays Vincent a visit >> Tolly Brews >> Wren waits.

Beta-testing the sci-fi concept for the next campaign.  I wanted to try to expose the kids to some non-Star Wars sci-fi, but the gravity of that galaxy is strong.  Lot of ARC trooper/Mandalorian/Jedi character concepts.  I’m honestly wondering if I should just give them what they want and reconfigure things.  

Hmm visited a magic shop, met a potential bad guy part of a larger cult looking to takeover the world(cliche as hell). But of course ignored the danger I described and angered said bad guy, blowing up the building they were in, insert nonsense and pandemonium. Now they have a new questline to explore alongside their main. 

Temporary campaign while our "main" campaign is on hold, but I almost expect the "main" campaign is going to be dropped, as one of our party members for that campaign is super busy with college and an internship she doesn't have much time to even say hi, let alone play D&D. Wish she could, but I totally understand.

Anyways, the party is traveling to where the real meat and potatoes of this campaign will be. They are part of a Cartography guild, whose goal is to map out as much of the seemingly infinite world as possible. The parties mission is to investigate a continent called Ceannan, which according to rumors is home to a golden city, El Dorado style. They need to map as much as they can while also finding out what happened to the PREVIOUS guild members that went through to investigate about a decade ago. But, they're still travelling to this destination. 

Currently, they're travelling through a vaguely Hawaiian inspired continent. The session started with them getting off of the boat they took to get here. A murder mystery that they solved happened on the boat, and so the captain wanted to take them to the port police to give their report. Before they could make it there, the local guildmaster of their guild noticed them and took them back to the guild hall. RP ensued while the party tried to find an inn, despite having free room and board at the guild hall, and then shopping. They set off after about an hour and a half into the session. Since this part of the game has time super zoomed out, I settled on making each of the four legs of the journey have their own skill challenge or survival roll. Their first stop was at a farming town, but they weren't particularly interested in stopping to chat, so they continued into the jungle, where their first roll happened. In the end, it was a good forage roll, but they got ambushed by Monkey Goblins (from Pathfinder 2e, check em out! theyre great :D) that were able to snatch some of their food. 

They made it to a canopy village in the jungle that doesn't like outsiders, because outsiders don't respect the jungle. The people in this canopy village integrate with the jungle, and I used the Gadabout from the SJ preview to show it off. They were allowed to stay the night, but were told to leave first thing in the morning. The innkeep was way more understandable to their plight than the guardsman was, though, and let them sleep in a little bit.

Finishing up this island, they moved on to a fishing village that's friendly with the guild. They were willing to give the party a ride across the channel to the next island, the volcanic island of Aln'ui. On Aln'ui, the shore is ever expanding due to volcanic activity. So fast, in fact, that the sea-level ground acts almost like a water bed, if water beds were full of magma instead of lava. The nature of the islands meant that the mountains are ripe with tons of mineable resources, so the first planned stop was at one of the mine locations, where they'd see that the workers in the mines have horrible working conditions and whatnot. Buuuut, one of my players decided to use Speak with Animals on the local fauna, Magma Crabs, which eat rocks and live in the lava pools, so they have EXTREMELY durable shells. Enough so that, even when the island had adult red dragons living here, the Magma Crabs could completely ignore them. The player asked where there was less lava and more solid ground, so the party was told to go up into the mountains. 

They went into the mountains, and the first thing they saw was a kenku sitting by his carriage and horse. It turned out he was a magical item merchant! He flipped the counter down from his carriage and showed his goods. I intended for this shop to be EXTREMELY sketchy, and shown by the fact that I was putting legendary weapons in at 500 gold, but they bought a couple items- a (fake? cursed? not sure yet) Dagger of Venom for 50 gold, and a (also fake/cursed) Dragontooth Dagger for 10 gold. When the Kenku Merchant left, he simply closed up shop and walked away, leaving the carriage and horse behind. The party looked at him to shout, "uhhhh hey dude you left your stuff", but when they looked back at the carriage, it was old and beaten, and there were scattered horse bones where the horse stood. They looked back at the kenku, who was nowhere to be found.

Had to wrap it up there, but the next session they're going to meet the owner of the mining operation on Aln'ui, who just so happens to be the wife of one of the characters they met a couple sessions back! Hopefully, they'll also meet an important character, Orlaith, who's a treasure hunter from Ceannan. Why isn't the treasure hunter from Ceannan hunting treasure in the city of gold, I wonder...? 

First time playing DnD, the setting is Age of Antiquity. Me playing a Cretan fighter together with a Persian Paladin and a Gaulish Druid start what is supposed to be a campaign in Macedonia. Turns out it is a monster hunt...my brave Cretan in full Hoplite mode leads the investigation into the lair of the Basilisk. Three rounds, and maybe an hour into the game, and my character is dead. Somewhat amusing given all the work I was expected to put into the characters backstory etc.

Currently running a session where 2 of the 3 party members are suffering from an affliction that makes them see and hear hallucinations. I'm also meant to tell them they gain the flaw "I don't trust anyone", but if I did that, then they'd know their cursed. Because we have a fairly unrestrictive VTT, there are some things I've been able to do to mess with them including:

- The Rogue see all tieflings appear to be devils (I make it so only the Rogue can see the devil model and the other 2 can only see the tiefling) and now the other two think the Rogue is a racist.
- The Cleric believes his shield has gained conciousness and is talking to him, suggesting that he should make the other two go through doorways first, the other two think he's gone mad
- The Rogue found a note that suggests one of their NPC allies is going to betray them, conveniently the note disintegrated before he could show it to the others
- The Cleric 'saw' a doppelganger turn into the Paladin
- The Paladin adopted a goat and the Rogue occasionally see's its eyes glow red and it pointing at Rogue and drawing its hoof across its neck 

Last session ended with a 30 minute long argument with everyone thinking everyone else is acting suspicious or stupid, this'll either go down brilliantly or end up with the party killing each other.

Quote from Doug_Booshaka >>

Currently running a session where 2 of the 3 party members are suffering from an affliction that makes them see and hear hallucinations. I'm also meant to tell them they gain the flaw "I don't trust anyone", but if I did that, then they'd know their cursed. Because we have a fairly unrestrictive VTT, there are some things I've been able to do to mess with them including:

- The Rogue see all tieflings appear to be devils (I make it so only the Rogue can see the devil model and the other 2 can only see the tiefling) and now the other two think the Rogue is a racist.
- The Cleric believes his shield has gained conciousness and is talking to him, suggesting that he should make the other two go through doorways first, the other two think he's gone mad
- The Rogue found a note that suggests one of their NPC allies is going to betray them, conveniently the note disintegrated before he could show it to the others
- The Cleric 'saw' a doppelganger turn into the Paladin
- The Paladin adopted a goat and the Rogue occasionally see's its eyes glow red and it pointing at Rogue and drawing its hoof across its neck 

Last session ended with a 30 minute long argument with everyone thinking everyone else is acting suspicious or stupid, this'll either go down brilliantly or end up with the party killing each other.

 that IS brilliant

In the aftermath of the horrible betrayal, my group survived the combat and retreated out of Undermountain to the surface where they met the Crown Princess of Mithral Hall, handed over a little plot token I'd introduced and were promised substantial payment for the beer stash they'd located. During the night they were attacked in their home base by the Xanathar guild who were more than a little upset at the damage done to their attempts to secure a couple of levels of Undermountain.

Several horrible tactical decisions and unfortunate dice rolls later, with their home secured from the invaders, 1 party member is dead by Intellect Devourer, 1 is dead by Mind Flayer brain chomp and the character created by one player to change out for his original character (who'd had a massive crisis of confidence as a result of the previous encounter) was also dead by Intellect Devourer, having not spoken to the party or done anything other than attack the Mind Flayer alone and died with the intelligence he'd gathered for the party's benefit lost forever.

What was intended to be a relatively easy subplot driving encounter turned into a 50% party kill because of:

1) The artificer couldn't kill a 27hp bugbear at level 7. 10 attacks, 7 misses.

2) The wizard stuck to cantrips for about 4 or 5 rounds before finally breaking out Lightning Bolt to kill a different bugbear and a gazer.

3) The rogue who had discovered the Mind Flayer with 4 Intellect Devourers on the ground floor of the home base aggroed that group then Leeroy'd her way around the building and ran into the second group of enemies.

4) The bard backed himself into a corner thinking the paladin would be able to protect him. Said paladin was not wearing her armour and was incapable of preventing the bard getting flanked by an Intellect Devourer and was out of aura range when the Intelligence saving throw was required.

5) The rogue ran back out onto a balcony, attempted to assist the hitherto unknown fighter against the Mind Flayer, rolled a Nat 1 on her acrobatics check to faceplant into the ground from a first floor balcony. The loss of 50% of her movement to stand up meant she couldn't close to melee range with the intellect devourer before it nommed the fighter.

We have an aftermath session on Monday.....

I was the DM in the last session and all the players had a lot of fun. There were some particularly funny, and memorable moments in the adventure, it is more comedy based though so expect some absurd stupid stuff. So it started off with the players trying to get into a nobles house in the town of Bunny town (A town with a large bunny trade, and there king is a sentient bunny.) This noble was a supposed benevolent charity worker but that was all a ruse, in the session before the players had figured out that he was part of a large conspiracy and he was the leader of a cult known as "The Glooper Cult" They worship a creature known as the glooper who sprays goo everywhere. So as i was saying the players were trying to break into his house but he had been locked in his own house for months and nobody knew were the key was. The town guard told the adventurers how his key was stolen by a group of rouge Modron pirates. They bought a giant flying bunny and took to the skys. Eventually they located the rouge Modron skiff and it shot harpoons at there bunny, modrons ballanced on the string of the harpoons and got on the bunny, but the party pushed them off pretty quickly. Then they advanced the bunny closer to the skiff and they tried to jump onto it. 2 of the players got on, one of the players who fell was saved by a DC 20 dexterity saving throw success. The other 2 players was saved by our fighter who knitted a rope out of the bunnys fur to save them in time. Once on the ship they got in the cabin, and were greeted by a Dueragar mind master using an arificat to control the modrons. Long story short the duergar gets gravely wounded but then makes a comeback with his mind poison and kills a player, but his ring of mind sheilding saves the player from permenant death, soon the guy gets killed they get the aritifact and now they get to control modrons, and they have the key to the nobles house.

Still fine tuning for the upcoming space campaign with the kids.  I have bowed to popular will and am now setting it in the Star Wars galaxy.  I really didn't want to, but: a) every single player really wanted to; b) I mean, the shared body of knowledge, the shared visual language, essentially the shared lore...it'll add something.

The campaign outline can be preserved, I think.  Kick around a space station; Lead ragtag fleet to safety from the Necrofreak Armada of Orcus; Regroup and kill Orcus.

So what happened this time was that an unusually unhinged Madalorian and a Dathomiri force warlock tried to reanimate a nigh-invincible cyborg using fresh organic tissues and attaching it to the old artificial parts.  I was really never crystal-clear on what they wanted to accomplish, but what ended up happening was that the cyborg's eyes started glowing green and it announced in a non-cyborg voice:  "Sub-creatures! Orcus Peremptor, he who is Uxas, who is Sutekh, Volguus Zildrohar, the Traveller comes!  He rides a dead horse through the darkness, bearing the gift of Anti-Life!  He will cure you of death!  He will cure you of life!  He will cure you of hope!"

 The cyborg then fought its way out of the operating theater and barricaded itself in the morgue where it set to work creating more undead cyborgs.  The players struggled valiantly, but the entire underworld hospital vessel they were on was soon overrun by Necrofreaks and the players had to retreat to their cruiser and blow up the hospital vessel to contain the outbreak.

So my lvl 10 party, who are mostly dex fighters, tanked their group stealth check on what I thought would be their most difficult encounter for a while, one I had designed to be very difficult, even if they got a surprise round. It was 4 Minotaur, 3 Vrock, 2 Hezrou and a Glabrezu, basically a Baphomet worshipping demon warband. The party get found, but they move into a corner of the map, blocking their only chance of an escape and making me thing a TPK was coming. What I hadn't realised was the corner of the map allowed the 2 party members with the highest ac to block the archers from the demons, and because the demons were large, only 2 of them could attack the party at any one point because of the small gap. It was a slog, I hadn't realised most of the demons didn't have ranged attacks, the barb resisted almost all damage, I rolled low on attack rolls and they rolled high on con saves against the Vrock's stun's. It was slow and it took up the entire session and wasn't that exciting.

However, after the fight, the party decided they were going to betray their quest giver and kill him because he has a crossbow the ranger wants. The quest giver is a Drow Arachnomancer (Legacy) living in a spiders den alongside a load of Chitine (fodder) and an Alhoon. The area is open, the 2 strongest monsters have ranged attacks and the majority of damage dealt will be poison damage, which the Barbarian doesn't resist. The barbarian also gets disadvantage on intelligence saving throws due to a cursed magic object, something that makes them very vulnerable to the Alhoon, which can stun and then cast Disintegrate, so I'm quietly hopeful that I give the party a proper scare this time around.

Our last session two of us died. And this was two sessions after the first member of our party died!

Our Druid led us down a garden path and followed a Clown Gnome right into a beholder's lair. Two of us died, and the other three barely escaped with their lives, and the DM called it right there (in the midst of fleeing).

Other than that not a bad session, the Druid (again), and Barbarian nearly skewered our chances of finding where we needed to go, but we were able to talk our NPC helper into trusting us, my Character (Gnome Wizard) having an affinity with the NPC was mightily put out at the other two characters and remonstrated hardily. 

So a fair bit of emotional story play there :)

Looking forwards to next session where we will meet the character of the first player to die, and hopefully the other two as well!

Day 1 >> The next morning >> Tuc is at the docks >> Myst is restless >> I need to find out about the Ravensong >> You can find me at the Diamond Toads >> Tolly, Wren and Sebastian talk about what next >> Barnibus and Cromley visit the party >> Inspired Hand visited Gralhund Villa >> Was rejected at the door >> Inspired Hand took it to the watch to get their property back >> Watch investigation corroborates muck of what the group has said >> Their investigation may conclude tomorrow and business can reopen soon >>Too easy? >> Barnibus seems too happy >> Wren bit of wisdom >> Who is responsible?  >> Ravensong vs. Ravensong >> try not to get in between gang warfare >> Avoid danger >> Not upset if I found trouble >> I would be upset if we found trouble >> Go visit the Jade Rose? >> Pass by the Gralhund Villa on the way >> Mage Armor Up >> Larger guard presence in Northgate, Worchester neighborhood >> Vist at Phaulkonmere >> Field of the dead >> Skeletons rising from after-effects of Battle at the Hall of Heroes >> Ripple effect some dead returning >> Jedborourgh outcome >> Discovery at the cave >> Tracks leading under the Keep to the sewers that lead into the city >> What happened in Jedborourgh >> Transmutation circle >> Mind control liquid >> Populace transmuted into Babau >> Why >> Invasion of the city? >> Need help >> Not at the moment >> Melenaoor wants to visit the tavern >> Back to Trollskull Manor >> Board at the city >> Day 2 >> Cromley visits >> Results >> A magistrate provides the City Watch with a warrant to search Gralhund Villa >> Officers arrived to find Lord Gralhund unconscious, Lady Gralhund in shock, and their half-orc bodyguard bloodied but unbowed. >> Apparently, the Gralhunds had been held hostage for more than a tenday by agents of the Ravensong. Most of the Ravensong was killed during a bloody revolt led by Lord Gralhund himself. >> The Ravensong leader, Urstul Floxin, was among those who got away. He’s still at large. The Watch plans to step up its search for him. >> Of the nimblewright, there was no sign. According to the Gralhunds, the construct was delivered to Gralhund Villa weeks earlier. The family took it in, not realizing it was a Ravensong spy. Lady Gralhund reported that it stole her necklace of fireballs. >> Cromley stays for a drink >> Honest question >> What if we were to get involved at the Villa >> Honest answer >> It would be interference with an investigation but If we didn’t know it happened how would we know. >> Is there a reward for Floxin? >> Not yet, but I’m sure some compensation would merit. >> Ravensong Who’s Who? >> Cromley first customer to Lifted Spirits >> Looking for a save play to keep our valuables >> Back in Business >> Round up the Staff >> Fireball drink >> Day 3 >> Early  dreams >> Paper bird come a calling >> Note from Myst, come to the House of Inspired Hands >> Armor Up >> The writing looks ike Cat scratch >> The burning of the House of Inspired Hands >> Sebastian look at  bodies >> Tolly looks for Valetta >> Wren helps put out the fire >> Wren goes looking for Nim in the attic >> Tolly and Sebastian follows Wren >> Attic door closed >> Dwarven lock pick >> Backdraft >> Wren does not see Nim >> Attic acrobatics >> Wren falls through the floor >> Feather Fall >> Tolly and Sebastian do not see Nim >> Attic floor collapse >> Wren running for the exit >> Sebastian and Tolly blocked at the stairwell exit >> Shatter >> Shatter >>Sebastiann escape stairwell >> Sebastian losses some rubble >> Tolly and the crowbar >> Tolly escape the stairwell >> Out of the House of the Inspired Hands >> Wren recovering >> Group recovering on the steps of the House >> Myst leaves a note >> Meeting Myst and Tuc in the back all >> One man and an army of Ravensong did this attack >> Tolly pays Myst to find any survivors >> Tuc shows Nim >> Nim dead? >> Friends parting ways >> Tuc takes Nim back to the manor >> Watching activity at the House >> Back to the Manor >> Staff gets read for work >> Opening for business >> Wren focuses on Nim >> Tolly greets the customers >> Tolly gives a tale >> Closing time >> Day 4 >> Tolly and Wren talks about Nim >> Need a wizard from Latnan island >> Sebastian. Tolly and Wren talk >> Wren tries the Nimblewright detector on Nim >> No response >> Who did it? >> A day for business >> low turn out >> Wren works on Nim >> Closing early >> Next day will be better >> Day 5 >> Wren hears a noise Chew Toy scream>> Armor Up >>  Wren hears voices >> Wren open his bedroom door >>  Thugs

Okay, so two days ago I ran the first session of my first homebrew campaign.

The party (all level 5: Kelvamir, the Half-Elf Soulknife; Mira, the Protector Aasimar Shepherd Druid; Portwater, the Rock Gnome Evoker; and Calebina, the Rock Gnome Drakewarden) wakes up in an underground dungeon, locked in cells without their equipment. They get out of their cells, kill some guards, explore rescue a couple of minor nobles, kill some more guards, reclaim their equipment, get captured by some more guards, and kill those guards. They then raise a small portcullis leading to a large, (almost) empty room, where a giant skeleton guards a staircase leading up. The druid casts fog cloud around the skeleton's head, and they all run to the stairs, but yet another guard - or they assume him to be a  guard, at least - comes sprinting from another area of the dungeon (which they didn't explore), telling them not to go up. They decide to trust him, and he leads them to another area of the dungeon they hadn't explored, where he opens a secret door at the back of one of the empty cells (this area is older and unused). The secret door opens into a narrow tunnel, which leads out of the dungeon.

Once out of the dungeon, they see that they are in the city of Galadhor, and have just come from the dungeons under Castle Galadhor, where the baron who rules their fief lives. (This baron is Kelvamir's uncle, Kelv's dad's younger brother. Kelvamir's dad was the baron, but the current baron took over, and Kelv and his parents had to flee. Kelv's dad was then cursed and died of an unknown disease. This is all known to the players, except that they think that Kelv's dad just died of some mysterious sickness.) The man who got them out tells them to meet him at the Lost Duck tavern. Once there, the man reveals that he's an undercover agent of a secret organization in service to the crown; this organization is called the Dragoneye. He offers them positions in the Dragoneye, and tells them about something the Dragoneye has recently discovered. They're pretty much certain that a secret society from 200 years before, called the Iron Talon, has resurfaced. The Iron Talon is dangerous, clever, ruthless, and virtually unknown by nonmembers. The Dragoneye also suspects that the baron is involved with, and may even be a leader in, the Iron Talon.

The party decides to join the Dragoneye, and so the man takes them to the city's Dragoneye base, where they have rooms and easy access to equipment and information. Since it's late at night, he shows them to their rooms and tells them to report to the meeting room the next morning for their first assignment, the first step in taking down the Iron Talon.

In a sci fi game in a homebrew setting using star wars 5E, we had an...interesting adventure. We were hired to go into the sewers and figure out what was draining power. Rather than a sewer monster or something like we were expecting, we found crypto bros tapping into the power to mine crypto currency called...well it rhymes with bitcoin but I forget if curse words are allowed here lol. 

In this game we never know when we're about to head into a serious, character traumatizing adventure or a goofy one. Which is fun. 

My party decided that because their plan to lure a dragon out of its lair failed, they would instead get their quest reward by killing the quest giver. The mostly good-aligned party justified their actions by suggesting that because; the quest giver is a drow, lives in a cave filled with spiders and has deep resentment issues towards his family, that he is most likely evil and deserves to die. Their initial plan was to lure the drow outside, and they managed that, before realising they hadn't actually planned what to do once he left the base, deciding that launching a full frontal assault whilst surrounded by spiders, probably isn't a good idea. They allowed him to head back inside whilst they tried to formulate a better plan. They decided they were going to launch a full frontal assault, whilst surrounded by spiders.

The party were level 10, the base outside guarded by Chitine, Giant Wolf Spider's, Sword Spiders and Deep Spiders. The party had high ac, 2 of them were using flight to avoid getting hit and they were saving their best abilities for when the drow arrived. Now, this drow had another ally, an Alhoon he was sheltering from a nearby mind flayer colony in exchange for helping him fix a broken Retriever. The party was pretty much at full hp, had only used 1 spell slot the entire fight, and had taken out about two thirds of the force outside. Then the Alhoon walked outside, it used its Mind Blast ability to stun both the Warlock and the Barbarian. Surrounded by spiders now attacking with advantage, the Barbarian was downed on the next turn by spider venom. Being down by poison damage from a spider leaves you paralysed for 1 hour. The party knew this and had Greater Restoration prepared for this occasion. The problem was that the Warlock was the one who prepared it, and she was currently stunned. The Drow meanwhile, was in the Ethereal plane watching the whole thing unfold. As things started to look bad, the drow stepped out of the ethereal plane, and demanded the party surrender or his Alhoon friend will unleash the spell it was readying on the barbarian. That spell was Disintegrate. Despite the fact two of the party hadn't even lost any of their (non-temp) hitpoints, they felt they had to surrender. 

The drow used this opportunity to chastise them for betraying him and for giving up on his quest so easily. He revelled in the fact he had defeated them without using any of his attacks, nor losing a single hitpoint. Satisfied with their humiliation, he agreed to take the Ranger's weapon and armour, because the party claimed it was his idea, as compensation and left them with a long walk home. Normally the party were rolling in money, so losing a +1 weapon and +1 armour wouldn't normally be an issue to replace. However prior to going into the Underdark, they spent it all on building a base of operations. They did have a quest to hand in however which did have a hefty gold reward, however before they accepted the quest, they asked if they could replace the reward with a land deed for their base of operations. This base won't be finished building for about 3 in-game months. 

The Destiny of the Drow is decided!  After hours or even days of combat, the inner circle of House Køk has slain Lolth, Queen of Spiders!  There were betrayals and counter-betrayals, legendary weapons shattered, the ranger's beloved companion sacrificed its life piloting a mech suit into a dimensional portal and detonating the self destruct...

Finally, it came down to the group of seven cousins and the last pile of spiders (I used the spider monster from Mystic Odysseys of Theros).  The fight had gone a long time already, but I wanted them to all have a chance to do their level 20 limit breaker moves.  Appropriately, the mutant telepath Calura administered the coup de grace with his psychic knives.

There was general agreement that whatever remained of the City of Zijdespin should try to reach out to the rest of the elves of the world and reestablish friendly relations.  That story may not be told for quite a while, though.  

I was planning on doing a proper wrap-up, but everyone's attention has already drifted to a 5e Star Wars Homebrew thing, so we did a session zero for the official start up of that campaign in a couple weeks.