Session 10 - "Echoes of the Undercity" Report
General Summary
Kona 25, 1246
The party gets up the following morning, and begins to pack up to leave the decrepit estate. As they do, Aglaia and Micaiah speak about past lovers, with Aglaia bringing up that she once had a vampire partner (and literally no one reacted to this news).
Ali tells the group about the fire they and Aglaia saw in the distance last night,but Foenix eventually determines that the direction of the fire does not set them on a collision course whomever that fire belonged to, so they discard the notion.
As they pack up and continue their journey, Aglaia puts out a hand and gifts Thais her eyes of night, enabling the paladin to continue into the gloom without fear of what may be lurking about them. Thais thanks the new party member.
The party makes it to a desolate bridge, broken apart and crumbling, with a locked portcullis on the other side (the key to which was given to Foenix by the Glowbug Wickett). The bridge itself is very much an unsafe prospect: the stones are breaking apart and wooden planks, unmoored to either side of the gap they bridge, are the only way to cross.
Feeling the danger eminent in this place, Foenix takes out a rope and grimly starts to lash everyone together. The order eventually ends up being as follows: Micaiah, Ali, Thais, Foenix, Aglaia, and Olena.
Thais as well pulls out her climbing gear, and Micaiah the tools she used when cat burglarizing the homes of Brillante.
As they are walking across the bridge, the first trial of the day soon makes itself apparent, as a fleshy tendril wraps itself around Thais's leg and tries to pull her into the chasm - thankfully, she doesn't lose her footing, though the sudden appearance of a threat leaves Olena and Aglaia unable to react for but a moment.
Ali, directly in front of Thais, returns to her and begins to try and cut and grapple at the tendril holding her hostage, eventually managing to peel it off of her after using their battle mastery expended.
The tendril disappears into the depths of the chasm - about 30 feet down - and Thais's new darkvision allows her to see the monstrosity that has attacked them: a roper. She quickly takes out her sword, cutting herself free from the rope line, and secures her own (separate) rope before rappelling down to the bottom of the chasm and leaping onto the roper's head. Her sword clangs off the thick hide of the creature, doing no damage.
Micaiah, at the front of the line, strums a few notes on her lute, and a blindness engulfs the creature - hopefully keeping other members of the party out of its wildly waving tendrils. Jonquil takes the opportunity to also shoot at the creature, and not only succeeds, its little barb buried into the roper's conical body, but the roper becomes poisoned from the sprite's barb.
Foenix follows behind Thais, cutting himself free and running over to Ali. He grips the grappled tendril tight and zip lines down its length, burying both his dagger and the pearler's blade with his off-hand into the roper.
The roper's tendrils lash out, wrapping around Thais, Micaiah, Ali, and Foenix. Foenix, the closest one, is pulled right into the roper's waiting mouth. It doesn't need its singular eye to see as it bites down, creating a crescent shaped wound from his right hip to the right shoulder.
The tendril that attacked Ali was one already gripping them and, somewhat weakened by Ali's earlier tussle, is easily dispatched by Ali, while Olena rallies herself and runs forward. She unties rather than cutting the rope at her waist, before climbing down and dashing over to the roper, her rage building up as she does so.
Aglaia stays right where she is: at the back of the once-line, still on solid ground. She puts out a finger and a bright streak of golden light hits the roper solidly [critical hit with guiding bolt], then raises her arm up to will her magical-girl-moon-sickle-spiritual-weapon to hit the still-illuminated monstrosity, which it strikes solidly.
Thais also tries to slice off the tendril attached to her, but misses, while Micaiah manages to slip free from the one holding him. Unfortunately, Jonquil doesn't have much more luck than Thais when it comes to hitting the roper with a weapon attack, and its dart sails right past the creature.
Foenix nearly takes another bite from the roper when his blade slips fail, but luck is with him, and he manages to once again strike twice with his blades, both sinking deep into the body. But that isn't enough to stop the roper from eating its newest meal, and Foenix's knives are left embedded into the roper's flesh as the last chew from the creature leaves his eyes rolled back into his head and unconsciousness takes him.
Thankfully for the others, however, the other tendrils that lash out at Micaiah, Olena, and Ali all miss - perhaps it is too distracted with its current meat.
Ali unties themselves from Micaiah and leaves the last two (the other being Aglaia) on the bridge while they rush down Thais's rope and stabs the roper in the singular eye, killing it. It's tendrils wave around like that of a dying insect before its mouth goes slack and Foenix rolls out onto the ground. Aglaia calls out a healing word to him to get Foenix back on his feet.
Once he's recovered enough, Foenix, Olena, and Thais begin to search around for anything belonging to the Glowbugs that would indicate that this is where they disappeared.
The bodies down here are far too old to be the Glowbugs, but they do find a coin purse (Foenix), a sheet of musical notation, sealed with golden wax and stamped with the image of a violin (Olena), and a set of eyeglasses with multiple focal lenses, giving the impression of a many-eyed insect.
Everyone climbs back up the rope and hurries across the rest of the bridge, reaching the portcullis post-haste.
Foenix uses the key to open it, revealing a long tunnel with a door to the district on the other side. This area is labeled "Customs and Inspections," but the actual defenses make it seem more like the old inhabitants of this place were looking to fend off an invasion. This point is made when Micaiah steps on a hidden pressure plate and nearly gets skewered by a spear shooting up from a hole in the ground, disguised amongst the plate stone and grout.
The possibility that this is not an isolated trap is immediately accepted by the rest of the party, who immediately begin to approach with caution. All that is, except Olena, who attempts to simply outrun the "mine" field. While she is fast enough to dodge one of the spears when she hits a pressure plate, she isn't fast enough to cross the entire tunnel, and is forced to retreat.
Aglaia decides to walk along the side of the path, next to the tunnel wall. She dashes forward, and breathes a sigh of relief when no trap catches her unawares. Ali follows behind Aglaia's already-proven path, and Micaiah follows behind Olena's forged trail.
Foenix joins the queue with Olena and Micaiah, but even as his well trained eyes inspect the ground he is unable to pick up on the difference between "safe" and "trapped" stones.
Thais follows Aglaia's lead and gets off the road - though she is on the opposite side of the tunnel. She tries to ensure that her path is clear, but the darkness makes it impossible to tell the difference failure, and as she walks forward she steps on a pressure plate and one of the spears jabs upwards, catching her in the upper thigh.
Olena tries to forge ahead, running for the other side. But again she is forced to retreat after she hits another pressure plate (thankfully she is quick enough on her feet to not get nicked by the spear that juts out of the floor).
Aglaia, meanwhile, takes her time and eventually spots a slightly raised bit of ground that indicates just such a trap. She carefully maneuvers around it before continuing on her way.
Micaiah is not so lucky - he hits no new traps as he walks around the previously-sprung traps to join Olena, but he doesn't discover anything new.
Ali tries to follow Aglaia's pathway, but misremembers her route. They move to the left too early and triggers the very same trap she successfully avoided, stumbling to the side and avoiding the spear by mere inches. They take a moment to breathe and calm their beating heart and look for themselves for more dangers, but are unsuccessful.
Foenix doesn't do much better - no traps are triggered, but he still can't spot any unsprung ones in the firelight. He has a thought, and throws out his mage hand to attempt to test for any traps. Nothing happens as the spectral hand pats out a "clear" path through the tunnel to the other side.
Thais follows Foenix's example, taking out a length of chain and using it to smack the floor in front of her, hopefully triggering anything dangerous before she is in its path. Her movement is limited in the tunnel, however, and when Olena tries another dash for it and triggers an unsprung trap, it becomes apparent to both Foenix and Thais that the weight their magic and equipment are exuding on the ground is not enough to trigger anything early. Olena is fine, thankfully.
Ali carefully inches forward the last 10 feet and their hands press against the tunnel wall - the first to make it to the other side.
Aglaia's eyes have finally failed her, but she's light enough on her feet to dance out of the way of the spear that triggers.
Micaiah gives up on trying to see anything beforehand, and simply minces forward, and the next time a spear flies up in her face she's ready, doing a graceful back walkover out of the way success. Foenix moves right up behind her, peering at the floor. When he doesn't see any signs of more traps in front of them, he decides, "fuck it," and follows Micaiah's lead, tumbling forward until he hits the wall. No spears trigger, thankfully, and he makes it to the other side without a single injury. Unfortunately, even his halfling luck doesn't help him discover the mechanism to disable the rest of the traps.
But his success helps Thais, who moves back onto the road and follows his and Micaiah's proven safe path, joining him on the far wall.
Olena finally gives up on running for it, simply walking forward carefully. Another trap triggers! But she dodges once again, steps around it, and finally makes it across. Aglaia joins her, but neither of the women find the disabling mechanism. It's Ali who manages, with a critical success, and they shut down the traps - making the path safe to travel back through on their journey back.
Still, just to make sure, Aglaia nominates Olena to run back out into the minefield. Olena agrees, and barrels out into the path of danger. Since the mechanism did, indeed, do as they presumed it would, Olena returns without a single hole in her person.
Leaving the tunnel, the group finds a small alcove before taking a break for lunch rest, where Olena shares a mead from Valsáth, called Valkyrie's Blood. Micaiah thanks Olena for clearing a trail through the traps, and Foenix chimes in agreement.
The tiefling warlock also takes the time to send out her flock of familiars to look for any signs of the missing Glowbugs. By the time they've finished eating, one has reported back to Micaiah about a (very confused) looking man only a few blocks away. The party packs up and makes their way towards this point.
As they get closer, they see a man - taller than Foenix, but not as tall as the other medium-sized members of the party - wearing a red bandana over his nose and mouth. He seems rather confused about who he is and why he's here, but is able to give his name as Justin.
The party questions him further, but is unable to get much more out of him. Aglaia eventually notices a bubbling of red ooze by his boot and a smell of sulfur in the air. She snaps suddenly in Primordial for whoever or whatever is in Justin to vacate his body this minute.
Justin's head snaps to her, and in a voice not his own, he growls in Primordial, "I'm not in him - I am him."
Micaiah reacts immediately, coating himself in the icy rime of the armor of Agathys, and running around to the other side of Justin (having been the main member of the party conducting negotiations). Jonquil, for its part, shoots a barb at Justin, and while it hits, it is unable to poison whatever this thing is.
Foenix weaves into the midst of group to swing his dagger at Justin, but misses. Cursing, he retreats, disengaging out of the fight and giving others the room to get a shot in.
This unfortunately also gives Justin an opportunity to turn and stab at Micaiah with his dagger. The backlash of the armor is immediate: the ice spreads from the connection point, freezing Justin in place like a morbid half-gnome statue before breaking into pieces of... red ooze? Indeed, the body begins to turn scarlet red and the mass deconstituting into something resembling animated putty, rolling and bubbling over the ground as it rejoins a mass of ooze, covered in screaming, silent faces and, instead of tendrils like the roper had, pseudopods that slip in and out of the body.
Thais runs up to this creature and buries her sword into its body, with Olena following up with a reckless swing of her own, also hitting its bulbous form.
Ali runs to join them, but the tiny street that the confrontation has taken place in means that there's only barely enough room for Olena and Thais to stand shoulder to shoulder - and certainly no room for them. Instead, they must simply watch from behind the shoulders of the two women, waiting for an opportunity.
Aglaia, standing on the other side of the bridge that passes over some moat or sewer line or river with the barest inch of water in it, decides to not move any closer to the chaos and instead lobs a guiding bolt at the thing, hitting it in the side.
Then, from up on one of the roofs, a human with a sandy-colored bob slides down from the roof, aiming a boot right at Olena's face. Olena ducks, and the human lands on the other side of her. A quick glance at the human's feet confirms that it's another simulacrum of this creature, hereby referred to as an oblex (though the party never found out its name).
The oblex reaches out psychically to one of its attackers: the paladin, and Thais feels her muscles lock up as the oblex holds her in place. Another string of bubbling ooze begins to appear on the other side of her - another Justin (Justin II), who swings at her frozen body, only to clang off her shield, still held in a defensive posture.
Micaiah backs up away from the human simulacrum, who jabs at him with a dagger but fails to hit anything but air. He unveils his new lute, and strums a new song of heartache. It washes over the oblex, but whether it has the capacity to feel the emotions of loss or not, it seems unmoved by the pleas of the tiefling.
Foenix takes the opportunity to stab into the human simulacrum and kills the illusion, the form collapsing into a bubbling red mass, absorbed back into the oblex's body. He takes a moment to look around to the rooftops of the nearby buildings for more potential surprises, but doesn't see anything else coming for them.
Meanwhile, Justin II switches hands and stabs a dagger directly into Thais's shoulder, where the opening in her armor for her neck is paralysis. Thais strains against the command keeping her locked in place, but is unable to break free, and Olena flies into a rage as she turns to protect her friend. She swings out wildly attack, and hits Justin II with a thunderous smack hit. Justin II melts back into a puddle of ooze and Olena steps into his space, giving room for Ali to join them.
Aglaia calls out to the ooze in Primordial again, begging for it to stop fighting them, or else they'll kill it. But while it seems to understand her words, it doesn't respond. In frustration, she tolls the dead, but the oblex is surprisingly resistant to such calls of death success. Not one to be outdone, Aglaia calls down her spiritual weapon and lands a devastating blow on the ooze's body hit.
The oblex pays no attention to anything but its current prey: a pseudopod extrudes from its body, attaching itself to the back of Thais's head, right where her skull meets her spine, and not only deals a good amount of direct damage to her person paralysis, but her mind is unable to muster up defenses as it begins to eat her memories, taking one of a warm, strong hand gripping her wrist and marigold colored eyes staring pleadingly into hers. Her eyes roll back into her head and Thais collapses to the ground, unconscious.
A third Justin separates itself from the oblex and strikes out at Ali, nicking them in the thigh.
Micaiah throws out the first eldritch blast he's cast since meeting the party - and unfortunately it's immediately clear why he doesn't use it often, as it completely misses the oblex miss. Jonquil, however, has the exact opposite effect, and manages a direct hit and the poison takes hold on the oblex.
Foenix runs forward, standing over Thais's body protectively as he attacks the oblex, then using his quick reflexes to disengage out of the fight and running back out of harm's way. The moment of protection is all it takes to give Thais an unconscious breath of fresh air and she moves one step closer towards stabilizing succeeded.
Justin III attacks again at Ali, smacking them in the back of the neck with the butt of their dagger in an attempt to daze them, while Olena attempts to just fucking kill this thing. Her weapon swings wide, so Olena takes a secondary approach, bringing with it the savagery of her ancestors and biting down on the ooze's half-solid form and tearing a chunk from it hit.
While Ali may also want to attack the source of their combatant, something in their blood screams for vengeance against Justin III. So they turn towards this simulacrum and swing out, savagely bisecting the thing hit.
Aglaia grits her teeth and attempts to toll the oblex again, who once again is unaffected. She also calls out a word of encouragement to Thais, and the paladin gasps to consciousness.
The oblex exudes another Justin, as he seems to be quicker than the human simulacrum it had waiting in the wings. A pseudopod shoots out of the ooze's side (do oozes have sides?), and strikes true on Ali, knocking them out. Justin IV takes out a knife and plunges it into Ali's body, bringing them dangerously close to death's door failed.
The creature's attention turns back to Thais, but this time when it attempts to take more memories from her, she steels her mind and forces it out success.
Micaiah runs over to Ali, fumbling through her bag and eventually taking out the potion of healing she got from the Hatchette house. She pours it down Ali's throat, but something goes... wrong. Instead of healing Ali's wounds, instead Ali begins to cough, blood foaming in their mouth. They shake uncontrollably for a moment, before going completely still, eyes staring at nothing. Micaiah calls Ali's name, shaking their shoulder, but they don't move. Dead.
Foenix lets loose an arrow from his bow, and it strikes true on the oblex, which begins to melt away like Jello in water, running into the river underneath the bridge. But he doesn't stay to watch, instead running over to Micaiah and Ali. Aglaia joins, and Micaiah gives her the potion to look at as they helplessly try to do something to help Ali.
Aglaia is just as perplexed. The potion smells right, looks right, even tastes right, but it killed their friend instead of helping them.
Thais stumbles over to the group, just as the party begins to argue. They can't bring Ali back from the dead here - no one has the means or the materials. Getting them out of the undercity would take too long and they aren't rich enough to pay for the service from a cleric of some type. Aglaia is especially upset, not only at Micaiah for killing Ali, but for none of the party understanding how incredibly bad this is for the tiefling. That Ali's only wish was to return home from adventuring and prove that they weren't like their father.
Thais gathers Ali's body up to her, praying to Syria as she does:
"Syria, this one has died honorably under your gaze. Guide them to rest where the wound never aches, the father never leaves, and the hearth is always warm."
Foenix and Aglaia notice something underneath the bridge, in the small amount of water still flowing. He drops down, finding the bodies of both Justin and the unknown human Glowbug. Solemnly, he pulls both of them back out of the water and lays them next to Ali, and begins to wrap them all in blankets to take back. Another argument ensues, that they can't carry all three bodies back with them, but Foenix refuses to leave anyone behind.
Everyone eventually acquiesces, and they gather around their fallen friend's body to mourn as Foenix continues to prepare the bodies for transport...
Rewards Granted
- 20 gp, 10 sp, and 6 cp
- speak with dead spell scroll
- eyes of minute seeing
Notes
Quotes of the Session
Caspian: "That's Foenix's knife water."
Caspian (describing Micaiah's climbing gear): "It might be what you would graciously call 'practical'."
