The cast of characters so far:
Bronson Ford, fighter, mercenary
Travers Sløt, barbarian
Grelf, poet and burglar, and...
...Pickles! A really good dog.
Tawny Thunderthicc, Drowned Wizard
Bromund Sowfield, philosopher & gentleman farmer
Old Nan, Thief, grandmother, bridge player
Dunk, philosopher & psychiatrist
And the urchin follower of Bronson, known only as Lantern Boy
Session One: Bronson, Grelf, Dunk, and Travers meet up with their contact Jalester Silvermane, who has a job offer for them. Grelf and Travers are drinking buddies who met in the last few weeks since Travers rolled into town. Pickles is 'Grelf's' dog, although ownership is uncertain, since they are both vicious curs dredged from the meanest of gutters (although Pickles is, nonetheless, a very good boy). Bronson has been drifting south looking for work since the War ended, and Bronson introduced himself to Grelf, since the poet is something of an urban legend among the underclasses, both for . Dunk, a student of human nature, has been hanging around taking notes, hoping to learn something about the 'madness' that takes hold of adventurers, and the 100 silver pieces offered sound like they would go a long way towards funding his studies.
The Yawning Portal, a place of some renown in Sasserine, features in it's centre a stone-mortared well, beneath which lies an open pit to the underworld. Around this well, people meet, and drink, and make merry.
Once they meet up, Jalester informs them their contact is late, however. He offers to buy a round of drinks while they wait.
"Bonnie! Some buskum for my friends, please. Bring the bottle."
They've scarce finished their first round before a scuffle breaks out.
"Ya pig! Like killin' me mates, does ya?" Shouts a burly man with eye-like tattoos all over his shaved head. He and half a dozen other brutes menace a lone green-skinned woman who stands half a head taller than the tallest of them. She sneers at his attempt to shove her, revealing sharp tusks.
"Teach ya to mess with me'n my friends." She ducks his wild punch, roars, and tackles him to the floor in the midst of his friends, who pile in around her, pummeling her and trying to pull her off the death-grip on their comrade.
Never one to turn down the opportunity for a rumble, (and with somewhat of a weakness for orcish ladies), Travers thunders towards the fight. The rest of the group watches with some interest in the proceeding, while the dog, Pickles, takes advantage of an overturned table to gobble up some of the stew and beans.
Travers grabs one of the goons by the shoulder, and with one punch knocks him cold. His compatriots turn on Travers, and their wild swings, while mostly glancing, send him staggering back against the bar from the sheer onslaught. Grabbing a half-drunk bottle from where it sits, he downs the remainder and staggers back into the fray. (Mechanics note: Travers now had 2 points of Drunk)
Durnan, the barkeep, reaches under the bar for a large wooden bat. "No fightin' inside, ya degens" he bellows. "Keep yer damn war to the streets, ya hear?"
Grelf, meanwhile, leans over to a scruffy-bearded blonde at the nearby table. With a few choice words, the poet appeals to the warriors sense of honour. "Durnan's a good man, he shouldn't have to deal with this alone." The man sighs in agreement, and stands, finishing his tankard."I'll take care of this, Durnan" he shouts. "You can buy me a drink after"
"You Zhent bastards haven't heard the last of the Xanathar Guild!"
The orc introduces herself as Yagra, and offers to buy Travers a drink for his trouble (3 points of drunk). Travers notices the distinctive tattoo of a winged black snake Yagra has on her neck.
Bronson and Grelf strike up a conversation with the bearded man, who turns out to be named Meloon Wardragon. He pontificates, when prompted, about the recent gang war- "a power vacuum created when Rowyn Kellani fled the city- they've been at each other's throats"- and mentions the need for sword arms to keep the peace. "Maybe you'll end up joining Force Grey"
They are interrupted (again) as a new commotion breaks out, this one festive and raucous.
"Dip! Dip! Dip! Dip!" The chanting begins in one corner and grows in volume as it spreads around the room.
A young man with tousled sand-coloured hair stands up, goes to the bar, and slaps down a silver piece. Durnan nods, slides the coin off the bar, and then gives him a wooden cup and a silver bell.
The young man strips down to his underwear as the dipping song begins:
Deep and dark down below,
where only fools and braggarts go,
O monstrous doom and danger mortal,
few survive the Yawning Portal,
So stand your ground or ring the bell,
and hope you make it up the well!
The young man goes over to the portal. At the edge of the portal he quaffs his beer, throws the cup down the portal, and grabs the rope. His friends begin lowering him.
After a round of betting on how long he'll stay down, whether he'll survive at all (Grelf tries to make a bet with Meloon that he'll survive, but Meloon says he 'never bets against a fellow adventurer'), the lad returns up, full cup dripping with well water. He makes it a dozen metres before a great, beclawed hand emerges, grasping the side of the well, and heaving the massive bulk of the troll up behind it.
Once again, Travers leaps into the fray- but this time joined by Bronson Ford, Meloon, Yagra, Durnan the bartender who grabs a greatsword that's hanging behind the bar, and Pickles. Yagra and Travers were still over by the bar flirting and getting a drink, so they quickly have the troll surrounded on three sides, with it's back to the well it crawled out of. The hapless, half-naked 'dipper' manages to scramble out of the way of the claws as Bronson moves in to cover his retreat.
The battle goes as well as can be expected, against such a fearsome foe. Travers tanking a big hit that puts him down to 3 hit points. Dousing the troll with grain alcohol from the bar, Bronson attempts to light it on fire with a thrown torch grabbed off the wall, but it goes wide. Pickles, seeing a thrown stick, goes chasing it, and the troll smashes him with it's fist, sending him flying and breaking his leg. The torch goes spinning and lands near Travers, who picks it up and drives it into the troll, lighting it on fire. Durnan, wielding his greatsword to keep the troll at a safe distance, pushes it back to the very edge of the pit. Yagra and Travers, together, charge in, and with their combined strength, the troll trips backward over the edge, and falls smoldering and screaming into the blackness.
Volothamp Geddarm approaches, applauding profusely. "You bested that beastie, I have no doubt you'll have no trouble finding my dear friend!" He explains that, the previous night, he retired early to work on his book, leaving his drinking buddy Floon Blagmaar at the pub known as the Skewered Dragon.
"He hasn't been heard from since! His wife tracked me down here in the Yawning Portal around midday and told me that Floon never came home last night. This was doubly surprising, as I had not previously been aware that he was married. And what with all the violence in the streets these days, I'm worried something unfortunate has happened to him."
The group accepts the job, and after a few more questions, and Volo agreeing to pay an equal share to the dog, they resolve to start their search in the morning. Grelf and Pickles go off to wake up a veterinarian who owes them a favour, and Travers likewise retires early to heal up his bruises after his pummeling by the troll.
Grelf takes the time to visit Floon's home, and met Floon's wife, Nalza. Extremely worried, she gave Grelf one of Floon's shirts, so that Pickles the dog might be able to track him by smell. Grelf also inquired about Nalza's and Floon's relationship, which Nalza assured him was very loving- 'Floon's always been a bit of an idiot, but he's never gotten in trouble like this before. I wouldn't be as worried as I am, except Volo seems to think something must've happened...'
Session Two: 'Fowl Play' Note: several of the players couldn't make this one, so I chalked up their absence to some hard partying the night before.
In the morning, Bronson, accompanied by Pickles, leave their hungover and/or still drunk friends at the Yawning Portal, and head out to start investigating. On the way to the Skewered Dragon, they come across the scene of a fight: eight corpses being lined up against one wall by the town watch, two of them clad in distinctive black, with three more black-clad figures in manacles and surrounded by watchmen. Travers recognizes one of the dead men as the eyeball-tattooed bald man from the brawl the night before. Pickles uses his sensitive nose, and notes that a few of the dead have the distinctive whiff of sewer clinging to them. They're moved along by the watch, but not before they confirm that the casualties are the latest in the escalating gang war, and noting the black snake tattoos on the black-clad men's arms- the same winged snake Yagra had, from the night before.
The Skewered Dragon is a sagging wreck, all the glass in the windows broken out ages ago. A few regulars are passed out on benches, or playing poker veeerry slowly in the corner, and a handful of elderly women playing bridge.
Some questions, and a small bribe to the bartender Berca, reveal that Floon was met by another friend after Volo left: Renaer Kellani, a 'snooty-nosed noble who likes slumming it,' and brother to the disgraced Rowyn Kellani. 'These gangs are just children fighting for the scraps she left behind- yeh, she fled town, but don't think fer a minute that she lost...' Berca also includes the information that as the pair were leaving, a few black-clad men followed them out- 'no doubt to make good friends of 'em, and join in their merriment and all'
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| Davil Starsong, by Sara Morello. Also check out this illustration by. |
They explain their situation, and how they suspect that it might have been Zhentarim who kidnapped their client's friend. Davil explains that the local Black Network has been fractured, since the wizard Bargle moved into town and cleaved off a large chunk of their operation for himself. Davil's group, the Doom Raiders, have been trying to go more legit, and the recent gang war has been causing them problems.
Davil drops hints that he might have some idea where Floon could be, but that he can't really share that information with anyone outside the Zhentarim, since even though there's a schism, they still have a code against ratting to outsiders. "We do have an open recruitment policy, however..." To entice them, he describes a job they could help him with. There have been a series of murders, all elves, all beheaded. The Watch is in over it's head, and stretched thin with the gang war, so certain parties have reached out to the Zhentarim for aid. "This might be something you could look into, if you prove adept at finding people. But you'll have to take care of your current business first."
Bronson agrees to join, after being assured that the snake tattoos are optional (Old Nan already has one, gleefully displayed on her calf- of course, on the other leg she has the Xanathar Guild sign...) Davil also tells them that leaving the guild is very simple - 'we're in this to make money, and it wouldn't do if our successful members couldn't retire in comfort... all we ask is, when you leave, you cannot take any Zhentarim jobs or contracts with you- you must hand them off to us. And you can never share sensitive information about the Network, retired or no.' Instead of a tattoo, for now, Bronson gets a coin with the winged snake sigil on it, and directions to a warehouse where the Zhents aligned with Bargle would likely have taken Floon.
The warehouse is easy to identify, once they find the correct street, as the door has a winged black snake painted under the handle. A dead winged snake also lies in the muddy yard- pierced by an arrow and trampled by heavy boots. They walk around the building and find no other doors (other than the large freight door, also in the front of the building), and a back alley strewn with rubbish.
Noting that the warehouse they were investigating shares a wall with another warehouse to the left. On the wall of this building are the words 'Stonetie & ----' but the second name is faded and washed out (a call-back to an earlier campaign, which I thought might be a throw-away when I incorporated it, but turned out to be much more integral to the plot, and we'll see later.) Old Nan decides to pick the lock and see if there's a way to sneak in from one building to the other.
Bronson stays back to keep watch. From an upper story window of the Zhent warehouse he sees a dark round eye, like a bird or a lizard, it's face lost in the darkness, peer down at him, then disappear. He waits apprehensively, as the door to the other warehouse is finally opened and Old Nan goes in to investigate.
Inside are wine barrels, bottles, cups on tables, the signs of a party. Also the sound of snoring. Investigating, Nan finds a pair of boots sticking out from behind the barrels, and at the end of the boots, the dwarf they belong to. Still clutching a wine bottle, Nan decides he's out cold, and carefully removes his sturdy boots, replacing her own rather worn-out shoes. She also fills up a tankard with wine to take with her.
A quiet, but thorough, investigation of the warehouse reveals no means to move between the two buildings, short of breaking through a seemingly thin section of wall. They decide this would be too noisy. Pickles, sniffing around, is able to detect the smell of vinegar or perhaps, appropriately, pickles, on the other side of the wall.
Having exhausted other option, the three of them approach the main door of the Zhent warehouse. Noting that the door has been crowbarred open, Bronson gives it a push. It opens silently, having been recently greased. Bronson ventures cautiously into the darkened room.
As his eyes adjust, he sees blood on the floor, and a dozen corpses lined up against the wall, their weapons arranged by type and size on the floor nearby.
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| Kenku - illustration by Jonathan Elliott |
Ever prepared, Old Nan fishes a torch from her bag, and lights it. The illumination reveals small scruffy black shapes, some already charging towards the party, leaping down from atop crates and boxes to attack the intruders.
One of the ravenfolk, standing on the balcony above, growls in an orc-like voice: "the Xanathar sends it's regards"
One of them lands on Bronsons back, and begins laying in with it's dagger (it hit once, and I told the players it would get to attack again at initiative 0- and keep attacking until it missed). The first blow was but a scratch, and before it could do more Nan smashes it off with her broom, and Pickles pounces on the creature to finish it off.
Their dirks and daggers of the remaining half-dozen crow people prove no match for Bronson, who cuts through several of them, as they harry him and hop around, trying to get close enough for a meaningful bit of blood. Still, he's beginning to wear down, when the sixth kenku on the balcony above fires a crossbow bolt into the shoulder of his armour. Wincing, he cuts through another of his assailants, and takes cover behind a number of crates, joined by Pickles, who is limping around on his broken leg.
Nan cudgels the last of them with her broom, and dashes towards the stairs, intending to take the kenku while it reloads. But it flees when it sees her coming, and she hears it slam a door, and then another, as it retreats.
At the top of the stairs is a door labelled 'Office.' Cautiously Nan makes her way over and opens it- only to be confronted by the kenku's crossbow, the creature having taken cover behind the desk. It makes another 'door slamming' noise as she ducks back out of it's line of sight.
Negotiating through the door, Nan agrees to let the kenku go without a fight if it tells them what happened to Floon. In the same borrowed orcish voice as before, it says "No time to search the place! Grab the prisoner and let's get out of here" and then in a nasally drawl "Follow da yellow marks in the sewers."
When Nan tries to question it more, it makes a 'clunkety-clunkety-clunk' sound, like a winch. Then it makes a sound like a fist pounding on a door, and says "Open up in there! This is the watch!"
Meanwhile, downstairs, Pickles has followed the smell of pickles to a storage closet under the stairs. Brine has spilled all over the floor, and ragged breathing can be heard from inside a barrel against the far wall. Peering under the tarp covering the barrel, Bronson discovers a young man, who sheepishly climbs out of his hiding place. He introduces himself and Renaer Kellani, and explains that when the Xanathar guild attacked the warehouse, he took advantage of the confusion to slip his bonds and hide.
"They must have been looking for me" he explains. "My sister embezzled an enormous amount of money when she was on the Dawn Council, and hid it somewhere in the city. People are looking for it. My captors must have thought I knew something about where she hid the money, but I don't. My sister and I haven't spoken in years."
Renaer is surprised that the group didn't actually come to rescue him, but rather, Floon. "I suppose that's justice" he muses "It's my fault Floon got caught up in this mess. When the other gang attacked the Zhents, he was upstairs in the office being questioned. They must've mistaken him for me."
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| Renaer Kellani & Floon Blagmaar. A passing resemblance by Stian Wegelmoed & 'unattributed' |
Everyone flees up the stairs, and Nan pulls a rope from her bag and ties it around the desk leg. Bronson puts Pickles under his arm and scoots down the rope. Renaer pauses to grab something from the desk, and hastens out the window as well, as the sound of heavy boots comes up the stairs.
Pickles quickly finds the scent of the kenku, and they flee down the alley before the watch can get a good look at them from the window. The kenku's trail leads to a half-open sewer grate, which leads to a ladder. Everyone piles into the tunnel, except lantern boy who is sent to get the rest of the group to come provide reinforcements.
There's a yellow circle, like an eye with ten points coming off it. The eye is looking left, so they go left. This leads to another eye at the next intersection, and so on.
The 'sewers' under Sasserine is a bit of a misnomer. Half of the tunnels are sewers, half are smugglers' tunnels or storage areas or access ways. The city is built on an island system, predominantly, and it needs a lot of storm drains. As the party walks, they can hear the occasional sounds drifting down from the street overhead: they are in the very shallowest part of the underworld, just under it's skin.
Eventually, they catch one of the chalk yellow eyes watching them. Offended by this, Nan tries to sweep the chalk off the wall with her broom: the bristles turn icy, and the water at the base of the wall begins to freeze up, as the eye defends itself. Now it's a biological lump, in the middle of the criss-crossing chalk lines. Old Nan takes her torch and burns the eye out of the wall: it slides down the stone, a slurry of vitrious fluid and limestone.
Not much further on, they spy a door, painted with the same yellow eye. Arrowslits guard either side of the passage on the approach. Bronson goes first, and when he isn't peppered with arrows, the others follow.
Down the passage on the other side of the door they discover a kind of jumbled coatroom, strewn with gear and purple cloaks. They each take one. In another room, they discover a blue-furred goblin, asleep at the arrow slit they had snuck passed. Nan slips closer to eliminate him, but her toe hits a cup where it had been carelessly placed on the floor, and the goblin wakens- getting in one high-pitched scream before it dies.
Session Three:
The scream helps Grelf, Travers, and Lantern Boy, who are sloshing around unhappily in the sewers, to finally find the rest of the team. They've brought with them rather fishy-looking wizard, Tawny Thunderthicc.
Taking advantage of the pause as the two groups reunite (and introductions are made), Renaer pauses to examine the locket he swiped off the office table in the warehouse. "This was mine. My sister gave it to me" He shows it to the others. It has been pried open, to reveal a secret compartment inside. "I didn't know this was there" says Renaer.
Exploring more of the area, they hear the sound of voices, and people dragging furniture around the next room. Listening at the door, Nan hears two people arguing: 'no no Zemko, a barricade's not going to stop it! We have to plug the bottom of the door with something'
Nan, Grelf, and Tawny sweep into the room. "You boys need a fixer? Xanathar sends his regards." It doesn't take much to convince the desperate guards to accept the offer of help. A grey ooze as slithered up from the privy, and while the door is shut fast, it is not-so-slowly eating it's way through the wood at the bottom.
One of the men, Krezko, has a purple Xanathar circle-eye tattooed right on the crown of his head. Grelf recognizes him one of the thugs who got in a brawl with Yagra and Travers back at the Yawning Portal. The other, Zemk, is an older fellow with a bristling mustache an tattered yellow shoulder pads.
Tawny declares that the only way to neutralize the slime's acid is with a large quantity of milk. With a bit of coaxing from Tawny and Grelf, Zemk goes hurrying off to get some. This takes some time, as he seems to have a bit of a bum leg, and the passageway is rather long. The others pass the time feeding blankets and other organic materials from around the room to the slime (Grelf taking advantage of the opportunity to see if there's anything worth looting.) Bronson, Travers, Renaer, and Pickles continue to lurk in the next room, in the darkness.
When the door opens upon Zemk's return, they can hear the distant but distinct sound of screaming. Zemk wipes the sweat off his brow and hands over the large jar of milk.
"Wow, yeah, they're really torturing the prisoner" he says. "Like, just going to town."
"Ya mean Nihiloor? That thing gives me the creeps." Zemk says in an almost-whipser. "It's just standing there... watching"
Concerned by this, Old Nan springs into action. She seizes the milk and dumps it all over the slime, which bubbles and froths happily as it begins to digest the offering.
"It's beginning to work!" she lies. "Now all we need is an alchemical regent! One of you, quick, head up to the city and go to Weirdbottle's potion shop! He'll know what to do!"
Since Zemk went on the last errand, and since the old man's leg is even worse now, Krezko hurries off, into the darkness of the adjacent room, where he is knocked over the head by a waiting Travers. Luckily, Zemk is hard of hearing, and doesn't hear the thud.
"Actually, he might need help!" Says Nan to Zemk. "What with all those Zhent bastards out there!"
"But my leg..."
"Well, I suppose you could stay here and deal with the slime..."
Zemk grimaces, and hurries off after Krezko, into the darkness, where he is knocked over the head by a waiting Travers. But he's wearing a helmet! A brief struggle ensues, but he is restrained before he can get out his sword. They question him briefly, but then on Renaer's urging decide it's taking too long and manacle him to the wall instead.
They hurry down the long corridor towards the screams. All pretense of stealth is thrown aside as they rush into the room. Inside, they see a large green-skinned man, flames wreathing his fists, as he stands with his boot on the chest of a bound prisoner. "Floon!' cries Renaer.
At the end of the room is a dias, upon which sits a tall figure, with bulging white eyes, and four tentacles in place of it's mouth. It rises, floating in the air, at the interruption.
*I have seen enough, Grum'shar* The voice seems to come from inside your own head. *The prisoner knows nothing. Take care of this interruption, then report to me* The figure floats through a set of double doors, which open on their own as it approaches, and then close behind it. As it leaves, it drops what looks like a tentacled brain, which scuttles into the shadows at the corner of the room.
What follows is a desperate battle. The muscled wizard Grum'Shar summons six skeletons from thin air to aid him. Bronson and Travers are able to force their way through them, taking the fight to Grum'shar. Pickles, delighted at the presence of all these delicious bones, steals one of the skeletons legs and runs away with it. When it tries to give a hopping chase, it slips and shatters into disparate bones upon the floor.
Taking advantage of the confusion, Bromund Sowfield, who is being held prisoner in one of the antechambers of the room, slips free of his bonds and joins the fray. At his instruction (using the Philosopher class's 'obscure knowledge' ability) , the party begins knocking skeletons into one another, trying to bait them into fighting each other. Their clawing at each other doesn't seem to harm them much, but keeps some of them distracted.
The slinking brain creature in the corner gets hit by Tawny's dessicate spell, and beats a hasty retreat. Renaer fights his way over to Floon, and keeps the skeletons away from his friend.
Bronson is brought to his knees by the wizard's emperor palpatine-like lightning. As Pickles and Grelf pull him to relative safety, and more of the skeletons are destroyed, Grum'shar attempts a desperate spell. Flames erupt from his hands, scorching Nan and blasting Traver's leg off above the knee. The backlash from the flames blinds him however, and he staggers into a cluster of his remaining skeletons, who claw at him reflexively before he orders them to cover his retreat. With the wizard crawling away in a daze, the party takes the opportunity to collect their wounded and beat a hasty retreat of their own- or as hasty as can be expected, carrying their wounded as they are.
They almost get lost in the sewers, but find an exit, and come out in the basement of a tavern, to the astonishment of the mostly-Fafren patrons. They get directions to the nearest hospital for Travers from a bartender with thick bushed of ginger hair sprouting from his nostrils.
In the street, Bromund is accosted by a beggar, who clutches his arm, shouting a desperate warning. "Deep beneath the forbidden city, the ancient one gives birth to a terrible new god! The snake-people know! They KNOW!!" (this was a reference to Tomb of Annhilation, which is part of the other campaign I'm running with some of the same players. They were suitably creeped out). Tawny tries to grab the beggars arm as he flees, but she slips in a puddle of mud, and the mad prophet dashes away into the crowd.
Another man helps Bromund to his feet. "Don't worry about old XXX" he says. "His predictions are wrong most of the time." Bromund recognizes the wren tattoo under the mans' eye as a trade-mark of a nurse, and gets the man's help carting Travers to the doctor's.
The 'sewers' under Sasserine is a bit of a misnomer. Half of the tunnels are sewers, half are smugglers' tunnels or storage areas or access ways. The city is built on an island system, predominantly, and it needs a lot of storm drains. As the party walks, they can hear the occasional sounds drifting down from the street overhead: they are in the very shallowest part of the underworld, just under it's skin.
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| My concept for the gazer |
Not much further on, they spy a door, painted with the same yellow eye. Arrowslits guard either side of the passage on the approach. Bronson goes first, and when he isn't peppered with arrows, the others follow.
Session Three:
The scream helps Grelf, Travers, and Lantern Boy, who are sloshing around unhappily in the sewers, to finally find the rest of the team. They've brought with them rather fishy-looking wizard, Tawny Thunderthicc.
Taking advantage of the pause as the two groups reunite (and introductions are made), Renaer pauses to examine the locket he swiped off the office table in the warehouse. "This was mine. My sister gave it to me" He shows it to the others. It has been pried open, to reveal a secret compartment inside. "I didn't know this was there" says Renaer.
Exploring more of the area, they hear the sound of voices, and people dragging furniture around the next room. Listening at the door, Nan hears two people arguing: 'no no Zemko, a barricade's not going to stop it! We have to plug the bottom of the door with something'
Nan, Grelf, and Tawny sweep into the room. "You boys need a fixer? Xanathar sends his regards." It doesn't take much to convince the desperate guards to accept the offer of help. A grey ooze as slithered up from the privy, and while the door is shut fast, it is not-so-slowly eating it's way through the wood at the bottom.
One of the men, Krezko, has a purple Xanathar circle-eye tattooed right on the crown of his head. Grelf recognizes him one of the thugs who got in a brawl with Yagra and Travers back at the Yawning Portal. The other, Zemk, is an older fellow with a bristling mustache an tattered yellow shoulder pads.
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| the players decided they were too adorable to just murder |
When the door opens upon Zemk's return, they can hear the distant but distinct sound of screaming. Zemk wipes the sweat off his brow and hands over the large jar of milk.
"Wow, yeah, they're really torturing the prisoner" he says. "Like, just going to town."
"Grum'shar must be feeling inspired by the presence of our guest." Speculates Krezko.
"Ya mean Nihiloor? That thing gives me the creeps." Zemk says in an almost-whipser. "It's just standing there... watching"
Concerned by this, Old Nan springs into action. She seizes the milk and dumps it all over the slime, which bubbles and froths happily as it begins to digest the offering.
"It's beginning to work!" she lies. "Now all we need is an alchemical regent! One of you, quick, head up to the city and go to Weirdbottle's potion shop! He'll know what to do!"
Since Zemk went on the last errand, and since the old man's leg is even worse now, Krezko hurries off, into the darkness of the adjacent room, where he is knocked over the head by a waiting Travers. Luckily, Zemk is hard of hearing, and doesn't hear the thud.
"Actually, he might need help!" Says Nan to Zemk. "What with all those Zhent bastards out there!"
"But my leg..."
"Well, I suppose you could stay here and deal with the slime..."
Zemk grimaces, and hurries off after Krezko, into the darkness, where he is knocked over the head by a waiting Travers. But he's wearing a helmet! A brief struggle ensues, but he is restrained before he can get out his sword. They question him briefly, but then on Renaer's urging decide it's taking too long and manacle him to the wall instead.
They hurry down the long corridor towards the screams. All pretense of stealth is thrown aside as they rush into the room. Inside, they see a large green-skinned man, flames wreathing his fists, as he stands with his boot on the chest of a bound prisoner. "Floon!' cries Renaer.
At the end of the room is a dias, upon which sits a tall figure, with bulging white eyes, and four tentacles in place of it's mouth. It rises, floating in the air, at the interruption.
*I have seen enough, Grum'shar* The voice seems to come from inside your own head. *The prisoner knows nothing. Take care of this interruption, then report to me* The figure floats through a set of double doors, which open on their own as it approaches, and then close behind it. As it leaves, it drops what looks like a tentacled brain, which scuttles into the shadows at the corner of the room.
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| These were 'confused skeletons' contributed by a players who couldn't make it to the game... |
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| ... but was following some of the action via the FB chat |
The slinking brain creature in the corner gets hit by Tawny's dessicate spell, and beats a hasty retreat. Renaer fights his way over to Floon, and keeps the skeletons away from his friend.
Bronson is brought to his knees by the wizard's emperor palpatine-like lightning. As Pickles and Grelf pull him to relative safety, and more of the skeletons are destroyed, Grum'shar attempts a desperate spell. Flames erupt from his hands, scorching Nan and blasting Traver's leg off above the knee. The backlash from the flames blinds him however, and he staggers into a cluster of his remaining skeletons, who claw at him reflexively before he orders them to cover his retreat. With the wizard crawling away in a daze, the party takes the opportunity to collect their wounded and beat a hasty retreat of their own- or as hasty as can be expected, carrying their wounded as they are.
They almost get lost in the sewers, but find an exit, and come out in the basement of a tavern, to the astonishment of the mostly-Fafren patrons. They get directions to the nearest hospital for Travers from a bartender with thick bushed of ginger hair sprouting from his nostrils.
In the street, Bromund is accosted by a beggar, who clutches his arm, shouting a desperate warning. "Deep beneath the forbidden city, the ancient one gives birth to a terrible new god! The snake-people know! They KNOW!!" (this was a reference to Tomb of Annhilation, which is part of the other campaign I'm running with some of the same players. They were suitably creeped out). Tawny tries to grab the beggars arm as he flees, but she slips in a puddle of mud, and the mad prophet dashes away into the crowd.
Another man helps Bromund to his feet. "Don't worry about old XXX" he says. "His predictions are wrong most of the time." Bromund recognizes the wren tattoo under the mans' eye as a trade-mark of a nurse, and gets the man's help carting Travers to the doctor's.
This was a rare thing: a session recap I could tolerate reading. Your game sounds fun. I linked some folks over here on my blog/podcast this week.
ReplyDeleteAww, thanks! Much appreciated, glad you liked it. Working on the second installment!
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