Session 1 - "Drip, Drip, Drip" Report
General Summary
Kona 18, 1246
We begin our story in the early morning, in the city of Brillante. Thais Argyri is just entering the city, and already finds it quite hostile to her.
A Brillantan girl, flanked by house guards and with a general air of superiority, peppers her with questions about who she is and why she's in the city. Thais answers the questions with little patience and far less grace, which upsets the girl. She orders Thais to apologize, which Thais refuses to do.
That upsets her even more, and she orders her guards to force Thais to apologize. The sight of the four guards makes Thais relent slightly, and she gives the tersest of apologies to the girl.
That's still not enough, and the girl demands Thais's hair - which she had quite rudely attempted to touch when they first met - as recompense. Once again, the guards approach, even if one of them seems reluctant to hold this foreigner down to attempt to shave her head.
Thais, for her part, is even less thrilled with this turn of events, and grabs the man's arm before he can touch her, staring him down. He backs off, but Thais uses his blade, still grasped in his hand, to cut off a chuck of hair and throws it at the girl before stalking off, already very unimpressed with the city.
Meanwhile, Olena is dealing with problems of her own.
Even after travelling all this way, under the cover of darkness and sneaking into a city closed to her - for the very reason she dares enter into it - Dr. Sage refuses to treat her.
Or rather, he takes one look at the disease ravaging her body and panics, masking up and covering his skin, lest he be infected too, and pushes her out of his office post-haste, insisting there is nothing he can do for her.
Micaiah Louvre, from his position on the edge of a window sill above Sage's building, watches as Olena walks away from the "doctor's" home dejectedly.
Prudently, he decides it's not his business, and begins to scale his way along the scaffolding of the street - the entire block is being built up, which is great news for a cat burglar such as Micaiah.
Unfortunately, he is not as great of a thief as he thinks, and his shadow passing across Olena's face as he leaps from support to support catches her attention. She shields her face from the early morning sun, gazing up to catch a glimpse of the warlock. But when she calls out for him, he does not respond.
Eventually, she gives up, and begins to walk away.
That is when everything goes wrong.
Micaiah is the first one to hear the splintering of the scaffolding - far down below the city streets of Brillante, the support structure that will someday be leveraged to build the mansions and manors above, is giving way.
He runs for it, but unfortunately it is too late. The scaffolding gives way, and then the makeshift street (boardwalk) below follows suit, taking both Olena and Micaiah down with it.
Thais, only a block east, sees the scaffolding coming down like dominoes. Her instincts are good enough to take out her shield and brace herself as the cascading destruction finally reaches her, taking her down into Havre-Ordure with the others.
Meanwhile, Foenix Stolnent and Alimony Symphero are on the streets of Havre-Ordure and in the process of having the sky collapse in on them. For Foenix, this is nothing new - the construction projects are seldom stable until they near completion, and while this may not happen daily, that doesn't mean he hasn't had to deal with this before.
He darts for a doorway, somewhere with enough structural integrity to keep him safe from the debris, while Alimony just runs, having only been in Havre-Ordure for a week or so before this catastrophe and having never experienced anything like this before.
Foenix, in the chaos, notices Micaiah's form falling with the debris. His selfish nature takes ahold, and he grabs a discarded bedroll from the piles of trash along the side of the road, flinging it out just fast enough to cushion Micaiah's impact with the ground.
The scaffolding crashes down all around the motley band, but thankfully most of them are (mostly) uninjured. Olena, trapped beneath a pile of rubble, concentrates her strength and wrests herself free, tossing the rubble to the way like so much garbage.
Foenix saunters up to Micaiah, eyeing him up and down before saying, "you're welcome."
Micaiah, realizing that Foenix was his "savior," quickly responds, "ah... thank you. How can I ever repay you?"
"Five gold," leaves Foenix's mouth, even more quickly than one could comprehend that Micaiah had said anything at all.
Unfortunately, the ordeal has not completed yet, as Foenix suddenly feels the cracks in the concrete splinter under his feet. Then this level gives way, plunging the three topsiders and their new additions into the further levels of the undercity.
This time, all but Thais take some battering - having used her shield to block most of the damage. Of course, she is not completely free of damage, as a rock struck her in the forehead and left her bleeding from the first collapse and the second collapse brought with it a healthy coat of white wash all along her left side.
But everyone is alive. That's what matters. At least, alive for now, as Foenix looks around and realizes they've fallen into a sealed level. There is no one else around, and this place is so dangerous that even the starving, impoverished Ordure do not go down this far.
Thais makes to climb back out, but Foenix immediately puts out an arm to stop her: the collapsing scaffolding has not fallen all the way yet, having wedged itself into a narrow gap above the party's heads. They are liable to be buried alive if they attempt to climb out this way and dislodge the forestalled cave-in.
Instead, he looks around. He doesn't know this area well - no one does - but he knows a way that could potentially let them out. It's just a bit of a walk.
Thais and the others, having little other options, agree to follow him.
The walk is quiet and somber, Foenix warning against alerting the things that live down here by making too much noise. But he's a good guide, noticing a trip wire, wired to a clay disk carved with arcane runes strung across their path. He disarms it deftly, taking the disk and storing it in his bag.
Their path takes them down further into Havre-Ordure, and Thais takes out a torch to light their way. Foenix does the same, lighting his hooded lantern as they follow the path.
Micaiah mentions how he heard bedtime stories about the creatures down here - animals bloated to enormous size, who eat children that leave their beds at night. The others mostly tease him about it, but the threat of the animals (and, perhaps, the restless ghosts of the residents of Havre du Gais) still hangs heavily over the party.
It is while teasing Micaiah about his nursery rhymes that Foenix finally places Olena's accent as Valset - a most intriguing revelation, as the people of Valsáth are barred from entry into Brillante. He cautions her that she may want to do a better job of concealing her accent, but just at that moment his vision goes dark, as does Olena's and Thais's, and Foenix begins to choke and gag as something wraps its tentacles around his face and mouth and begins to squeeze.
Ali jumps into action, running towards the sudden mass of darkness and reaching into the darkness to attempt to get their fingers underneath the fleshy mass of whatever is attacking Foenix and pry it off, but he has little success.
Micaiah, for his part, also sees the darkness and experimentally reaches into it. The cold, clammy feeling makes him retreat, backing away from the fight.
Thais, unsure of what they are even fighting, attempts to use her god-given divine senses to determine not only what this thing could be, but to locate it within the darkness. It doesn't work, unfortunately, and she throws aside her torch in frustration as she reaches for her sword and draws it.
Still choking and suffocating, Foenix grasps for his dagger and cuts up and into the creature, slicing it open enough to get a gasping breath of air before it rearranges its tentacles and fleshy body to once again strangle him, and Foenix goes limp as it constricts its tentacles once again.
Ali, unsure what to do, turns their shoulder to the side to let Micaiah through, as he leaps forth and stabs wildly into the dark, somehow catching the creature with a wild slice.
Then Ali steps forward, swinging their sword blindly, and missing the creature.
It is Olena, using her head, who finally puts an end to the creature. She gingerly reaches out, feeling for its body. Then, when her fingers grip around its fleshy, bulbous head, she walks around it until she's lined up across from Ali, using their presence as a distraction as she howls out a warcry, raging into the dark as she punches forth, exploding the creature's body.
The thing goes limp, sliding off of Foenix as the darkness disappates.
Thais runs forward, putting her hands on Foenix. She winces as red welts from his face melt away, appearing on her own, before fading entirely. The guide gasps awake, alive and unharmed now.
Thais, remembering now a march through a manmade mountain pass during her time in the military, reassures Foenix that this is not his fault. Indeed, darkmantles - for that is what this thing was - are known to be impossible to detect when they remain motionless on cave ceilings until they drop down upon their victims.
Still, the group decides that now is the time to take a break. The area they find themselves in right now (a lane of stables and hitches for deliveries made to the businesses on the main row) is rather exposed. So they head for the main thoroughfare, to see if there are any places that are better suited to be a place to recuperate.
The party eventually finds a building, marked with an eye above a brazier, and enter. Thais and Micaiah both recognize it as the symbol of the god Incenderre, but neither inform the group. Thais, however, once Foenix lights one of the braziers inside, does take a portion of food and drop it into the brazier, which causes it to spark violently for a moment.
The building itself is not a temple so much as a library, with tables and chairs at the front, and then halls of books with braziers in the middle between the shelves.
Though to call it a library would be to imply that the building is large - it was only about the size of a small bookshelf, but as the party began to pile the furniture in front of the two doors (one that led out into the main street, one that led out into the alley), the books became of much interest.
Each one, whether it was cloth or leather or even ironbound, was marked with the same symbol from the door, and the writing inside changes from Common to Thieves Cant with little regard for rhyme or reason. Each one is filled with secrets of betrayal and love and treason - though none of it is useful, unfortunately, as the people who lived those lives have been dead for centuries.
Foenix has the idea to look for a book that may have catalogued secret pathways and tunnels in the city - the thieves' ways that could lead them out quicker and safer... but unfortunately, that book is not only not there, but missing. A lighter gathering of dust speaks to its absence on the shelves, which means they are not the first ones in recent memory to come down here.
It puts everyone on edge as they eat and nap as best they can, with Foenix and Thais both taking a moment to study their companions more closely.
While Foenix may have uncovered Olena's accent and country of origin, it is Thais's keen eye that notices the bandages and white, mottled skin that mark Olena as a suffer of the deadly and highly contagious Skinning Disease. She says nothing to the others, but does move further away from the barbarian.
As the time for rest draws to an end, Micaiah stretches and yawns, but as he gets up to leave the chair he had curled up in, he feels the seat cushion move in his grasp. He gets out of the chair and lifts the seat cushion, revealing a bandolier of daggers and a leather pouch hidden beneath it.
The bandolier he tosses to Foenix, as he can make use out of them. The pouch he keeps for himself, and although the others may be oblivious to the deception, Foenix notices the sleight of hand, cataloging it for later.
The party continues one, eventually coming to a small courtyard with a fountain comprised of four lion's heads, each facing a different direction.
Foenix notices that the lion's heads, rather than being carved out of the same stone as the base, are instead slotted in like levers. He decides to take a look around, eventually coming upon the iron maintenance hatch - which has fresh scrapes across its surface. Once again, their mysterious visitor has gotten here first.
They decide to take a look, first with Ali trying their hand at opening the heavy grate with minimal help from Thais, but when they fail Thais tries herself - the slightest bit pleased that the Karasan would fail where she would succeed. Unfortunately, this was also not to be, as it is too heavy for her as well.
Foenix silently hands Thais his crowbar, and finally, the hatch is open.
Foenix climbs down into the maintenance hole once he ties a rope around his waist to keep himself safe, and looks about.
For the most part, it seems like a standard pump setup - the lion's heads are meant to be levers so that during the time that the fountain was off (probably in the evenings), you could press one of them down for a small drink of water - if you were willing to trust city water.
Speaking of that, the pipe meant to pull water from the city's main line and up into the fountain is pulled out of the wall, a small metal bottle screwed into place so that, should anyone pull the lever, they would instead get a faceful of whatever is in that bottle rather than water.
The bottle has a marking of a lightning bug - a firefly - on it, which after a moment's thought Foenix matches up with a marking on the back of the arcane disk trap he pulled earlier. This person has been busy.
He ties a rope around the bottle before reemerging and urging everyone to step back as he detonates the trap from a safe distance.
Once everyone is back, he pulls on the rope - hard.
The bottle breaks off, spilling its gaseous green contents. It begins to billow out from the lion's mouths like a green dragon's maw as the party stands in solemnity, watching death dissipate before them.
Rewards Granted
- a leather pouch (contents unknown)
- six daggers sheathed in a fetching, black leather bandolier, each pommel graced with silver filigree and monogrammed with an "M" on the handle
- clay disk arcane armament
- bottle with a lightning bug sigil on it
Character(s) interacted with
- Pierre, the house guard
- Dr. Sage, homeopathic healer
