Planescape 5e Campaign Journal

[Helmamodaz]

I have recently started a D&D 5e campaign and someone on the planescape subreddit mentioned that they would be interested in reading it. As much for their and you, the reader's sake as my own, I have allowed the waves of nostalgia to wash over me and start writing this down.

A few preliminary notes: this is my first time posting on this forum so please have mercy upon my terrible editing skills. Secondly, English is not my first language and although I like to think my grasp on the language isn't too poor, a few unseen grammatical errors will slip in from time to time.

Now, why 5e? Although I do own both the dungeon master's guide and player's handbook for 2e AD&D and have read almost all the original 2e Planescape material in pdf form, D&D 5e is the only system my players are used to and some of them are still quite new to D&D as a whole. Since 5e is overall one of the more beginner-friendly systems out there and because the beauty of Planescape has always been the setting and not the mechanics behind it.

Next post will be a quick summary of the Planescape setting for those who aren't familiar with it, followed by the first session's recap and character introductions.

[Helmamodaz]

Planescape is a setting originally released for AD&D 2e that has seen criminally little love since its debut. The setting revolves around Sigil, the City of Doors, a great interdimensional metropolis built atop an infinitely tall spire at the centre of the multiverse. Planescape adventures are all about exploring the Outer Planes and engaging with the philosophical powers that sustain all existence. On the Outer Planes, Belief is Power!



Now, our roster of heroes (all starting at level one)! If any of my players are reading this, pike off ye peery sods!

Aasimar divine soul sorcerer, neutral good, STR 10 DEX 14 CON 13 INT 12 WIS 14 CHA 19
Ariah's real name is Callisto. She used to have a sister, thought to be the subject of an ancient prophecy. However, when her sister died a few years ago, Callisto decided to adopt her name and adventure in her stead to preserve her sister's legacy.

Half-orc bard, chaotic good, STR 15 DEX 14 CON 16 INT 9 WIS 11 CHA 17
Born a slave, Galdor used his musical talents to keep the flame of hope alive amongst his kin. However, when he later attempted to lead a slave revolt, nearly all of his clan was slain in the attempt, leaving him as the sole survivor. He roams the roads, a free orc at last, but at what cost?

Fairy paladin, chaotic good, STR 12 DEX 16 CON 15 INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 16
Oliver used to part of an order of knights who served the Seelie Court by protecting powerful fey sites in the Prime Material. However, when a young child one day wandered into the woods and was attacked by wolves, Oliver abandoned his post to save her. The feeling of warmth and completion when he returned the child to her parents was enough to make him forswear his duties and strike out as a knight errant, heedless of the consequences.



Wood Elf ranger, chaotic good, STR 11 DEX 17 CON 13 INT 13 WIS 16 CHA 6
Physis was the only child of an elven nobleman, born and raised in Evermeet. A few years ago, she was convicted for her father's murder, an event she has no memory of. In fact, she hardly recalls anything from before the murder. Forever an exile now, she wanders aimlessly from town to town using her skills at hunting and tracking to eke out a modest living.

Tortle artificer, lawful good, STR 12 DEX 17 CON 15 INT 17 WIS 12 CHA 5 and lizardfolk artificer, neutral good, STR 8 DEX 10 CON 17 INT 16 WIS 15 CHA 12 respectively.
Bettum and Okwu Tortellini (who, despite their clear racial differences, still insist that they are brothers), were raised by the renowned Tortellini family, tortle artificers who revolutionised the manufacture of magical items and allowed the city of Athkatla to soar far above its competitors. The two "brothers" were training to take over their parents' company when they discovered a horrible secret: the Tortellini family made use of slavery and the blood of sentient creatures (yes, Galdor's kin). The two fled their home with as much as they could carry and have been on the run ever since.

[JadedDM]

Are all of the party members Clueless? If so, that should make things pretty interesting.

[Helmamodaz]

Session 1: The Battle of Barrowsburg


For their own diverse reasons, six travellers met at Barrowsburg, a small humble farming village situated on the one the great trade roads that connect the cities of the Sword Coast and distant Amn. Bettum spent the evening sampling books on agriculture from the local Chauntean shrine’s collection. Meanwhile his brother Okwu was getting to know the half-orc Galdor that had helped them on the road, sharing a drink at the village’s only inn, where Oliver and Physis were dining as well.

When evening came, Ariah stayed up outside to look at the stars, as the townsfolk milled in and out of the inn.

It was she who saw it first. Across from the bench where she sat, stood the great facade of the town hall, stern and resolute in its vigilance of the town square. Without warning or portent, the arch of its great oaken doors began to shimmer with dim light and a great mirror-like surface appeared in the space, rippling like the surface of a pond. The wondrous sight soon turned to horror when a horde of demonic monstrosities came streaming out. They had heads like half-rotten goats and with bloated bodies covered in boils and oozing with puss. (Basically Bulezau)

Chaos erupted as they began rounding up villagers, demanding sacrifices of food and gold and threatening chaos and bloodshed if refused. Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, the would-be party leapt into action. Yet, as they fell upon the confused demons, something became evidently clear. As an arrow that should barely have pierced one’s hide struck right through its chest, spilling bright red blood on the cobbles yet revealing no injury on the creature, the party soon deducted the demonic figures to be mere illusions; frail human forms lurked beneath them. Evidently, the “demons” were equally as confused by their apparent mortality. With the battle no longer proving to be in their favor, the “demons” turned tail and fled back through the portal. Galdor, however, was able to successfully grapple and drag one of them away before the portal closed.

At first, the creature refused to speak to them in anything but Abyssal. However, with Ariah being fluent in the language, she able to decipher his speech as a string of incoherent babbling, mostly just phrases like "Where is the exit?" "Good morning" "Do you speak Common?" He tried pathetically to try and keep up the farce, resorting to just adding -oth to the end of words in common but eventually realized it was pointless. The party interrogated him and he divulged the following information:

He was part of a cult known as the "Cult of the Dark Destroyer Reborn", who served the Demon Lord "Eki-eki-eki-eki-pikang-zum-boing-gumzowehzeh"
There were many of them, far too many for the party to handle (likely a lie).
Their hide-out was on the 789th layer of the Abyss (also likely a lie).
The key to get back through the portal was a small pouch of human ashes, which one of the cultists had on his person.
The portal would not remain active come the dawn.


The cultists eventually managed to convince the party that it was in their own best interest to take him back through the portal and use him as a hostage to bargain for a reward with their leader.

While searching the cultists' bodies for the ashes, one of the party members managed to find a small copper coin minted with the image of a feminine face surrounded by a jagged mane of blades.

The characters began bickering about how best to enter the portal. Eventually, Okwu decided he had had enough of their ceaseless inaction and decided to jump through the portal...

...tripping over a trap-wire that set off an alarm on the other side. (By now it had been nearly an hour since the other cultists had fled through). With the help of Ariah's light spell, the party was able to make out their surroundings: a fairly ordinary though dilapidated cellar. The characters made their way out of the cellar and into a hallway. Two doors lined the hallway on either side and at the far end there stood one large door. The walls were decrepit and the once-luxurious carpet now a mere tattered rag. After listening at every door and absolutely miffing every perception check, even with the help of guidance, the party eventually decided to barge through the main door.

On the other side, they found a long dining hall with a quasit chewing out the remainder of the cultists for having failed to bring back any offerings. For the quasit's voice, I went full used-car salesman. When he saw the party enter, he immediately asked to parlay.

The party tried to use Doug as a hostage to force him and the cult to surrender but unsurprisingly, Doug had been severely overconfident in his own value to the cult. Instead, the quasit convinced the party to discuss terms with him in secret, away from his cultists.

The cultists revealed to the party that this whole cult was a sham "Just a way to peel a bunch of gullible berks out of their jink, ye know?" He came to the "high priest" of the cult, claiming to be an emissary from a powerful Demon Lord, as quasits usually are.
Of course, this one in particular had recently fled the Abyss after stealing a wand of seeming from his previous master, Graz'zt, but naturally decided not to mention that detail.
Using a stolen page from one of Lyssandra Gatekeeper's portal-logs, he had the cult rampage across numerous prime material worlds. He'd "transform" the cultists into demons with the wand and then have hold the Prime village ransom, promising to spare them in return for "sacrifices", which mostly included gold, food, drink and valuables. Having collected the sacrifices, he would then "personally take them to our Dark Lord", all the while assuring them that the Dark Lord would smile on their efforts.

He offered the party a deal: if they agreed to leave his cult alone and to pretend as though they had been awed by the Dark Lord's power, he would let them take his wand of seeming. The party debated just killing him and taking the wand, but he informed them that should they do so, he would simply reform in the Abyss with vengeance on his mind. A successful arcana check confirmed this to be a fact of life for demons.
Of course, the quasit was bluffing. Getting sent back to the Abyss would be worse-than-death-sentence for him. In truth, the quasit was also keen to get rid of the wand and was thinking of selling it. The wand had Graz'zt's scent on it and was being used to track him.

The party agreed to his deal.

Bettum and Physis performed with no emotion or conviction and it was all Okwu and Oliver could do to keep their mouth and beak (respectively) shut. Galdor and Ariah, however, managed to deliver such a convincing performance (involving no small amount of melodramatic existential maddened ranting and rolling on the ground in horror) that the cultists were once more enamored and even surprised by the power of their god. The quasit congratulated them on their excellent show and shoved them out of the house.

They stepped out onto an alleyway and were greeted by a site completely foreign to their eyes. Strange buildings of mismatched styles and materials surrounded them, with roofs and arches that end in razor tips. Oliver thought to gain a better view by flying up over the houses to get a better look at the neighborhood. However, as he gazed into the distance, he realized that instead of curving downwards, the distant cityscape was curving upwards, as though his vision had been inverted. The discovery gave him somewhat of a headache and he descended onto the street again. Ariah thought to try and determine their location by finding any recognizable celestial bodies. However, as she peered at the thick smog that hang over the city, a pair of dirty gray clouds shifted to reveal...buildings above them?

Okwu grabbed a random passerby and demanded to know where they were. The strange pig-faced creature snorted at him, muttered "Clueless" under his breath and told him he was in "Sigil, the City of Doors."

Cue end of session.

[Helmamodaz]

Are all of the party members Clueless? If so, that should make things pretty interesting.

Yup, bunch of new players so I thought the endless expanses of options and myriad different factions would have overwhelmed them a little bit, but I did tell them where it'd be heading.

[SleepyShadow]

Good luck and have fun. Planescape is an awesome setting :smallsmile:

[JadedDM]

Here's hoping they stay out of the dead-book!

[Beleriphon]

Here's hoping they stay out of the dead-book!

Better the to in the dead book that have the Lady's Shadow fall on you.