Session 14: Zero Esscape Part 1: Operation Beach

General Summary

Catching Up

-Liam checks in with Luvisa and gives her an update
-Liam learns that Luvisa is impoverished by having bought the black box during The Goblin Market
-Arluna is living with her, also destitute because the AIB somehow found out about her money making genie and had pretty much all her assets confiscated
-Arluna found some advance Breach bullets in the Underdark
-Liam sends Luvisa all of the intel in his book
-Susan manifests as a giant leviathan skelton and gives Blue and Sieg pep talks and gives Del a +2 holy symbol

Breach

-We arrive at the coordinates, finding a flying golem who scans Ulys' passcard and reveals the island where the facility is
-We land. The island has a building built into the rocky hills
-Liam sneaks up to the door and picks the lock
-Inside there is rubbish on the floor and a painting of Humanity's Victory (a famous and mass produced illustration of humanoids sucking the power out of the Sea Monster Agathys and using it to chase away the Sea Monster Lord Fear, as the most powerful Sea Monster, The Elder Hag, vanishes into the Plane of Water, disappointed that no one here will be able to face her. Overhead, Brew, the Balancer churns the seas for the fateful battle).
-It looks like a normal lobby but Ezre discovers that most of the rubbish and dust is an illusion by using Detect Magic. She sees real footsteps going to the big door that is welded shut
-The door is sealed but Del finds a switch and turns it. We hear a "click" above the door
-We all search the room for switches (and drugs)
-Last one is behind the painting
-The door rotates and we all go thru. It rotates closed behind us, leaving us in a dark hallway
-Ezre has Detect Magic on so knows that there is a Glyph of Warding on the door of the elevator at the other end.
-Liam looks for another way down and instead finds a hollow spot on the other side of the thin metal place. It is a compartment with a box in it. Liam opens the box and poison gas comes out, but it's chill. There is a brass key in the box.
-Del dispels the glyph. We go down the elevator, waaaaay down.
-There is a larger hallway with 25 other rooms
-Sieg finds a list of scientists

1. Dr. Ghesh Da’ardendrian - Studies madness


2. Dr. Julius Opalheart - Magic weapons development


3. Dr. Lo-Mag Elan - Abjuration


4. Dr. Talulak Galu - Conjuration (inter-planar shit)


5. Dr. Corus Jhimas - Explosions


6. Dr. Morgan Bunaheim - Memory

-Ezre finds a secret door leading to a study. Finds notes of Dr. Da'ardendrian studying madness. She also finds a desk with a keyhole. Liam comes in and opens the desk with the key. They are letters from someone named "a brief breeze" that touch on past events and talk about Del as "a woman of prophecy"
-Ezre puts two and two together: "a brief breeze" is Aldos of the farts (Aldos of the Passing Wind), an Aspect of Bashira who was given free reign to move around instead of being sealed. She is a Tiefling shapeshifter who is protected from any magic that could track her or influence her mind. She cannot be captured by physical or magical means. She has worked for both the Fetchlings (diplomats between Devils and Fey), and for the Thieve's Guild, but has most recently popped up in history for being suspected of kidnapping one of the Goddesses of Trickery, who still remains missing.
-We leave. Sieg is killed, stabbed in the back by a blue Dragonborn, Xenethar Azularius, the benefactor of this project. One shot does 300+ damage. Ezre tries to grapple the Xenethar but he escapes and reveals his true form as Aldos. She speaks, gloating.
-Everyone is knocked unconscious. Ezre falls last, seeing a tall woman made of small moving parts, step out of the elevator. The woman greets Ezre, and then Ezre passes out.
-WTF Jazz

Escape: Del and Liam

-Every player is given an envelope with some information and a new character sheet
-Del wakes up in a cell holding a corpse of a recently dead rat and a note that says "only the dead can guigde you". Door creaks open. She leaves.
-Liam, with a badly burned arm, wakes up in a metal room. 2 doors. Left door ajar. Liam knows what's in there. Right door is closes. Liam hears footsteps moving past the right door. Peaks thru. Elf walking by (Del)
-Liam hides
-Del finds a weird device on a door. As she messes with it, Liam sneaks behind her and into the room she came from
-Del can't get the device to do anything. Turns around and notices room Liam came from. She goes through the room, which is empty since Liam has taken the torch. She goes through the other door and finds the corpse of an Earth Genasi man who was stabbed numerous times and still has a curved swrod in his chest
-Del casts Speak with Dead on the corpse. Questions:

1. Where are we? A facility underground
2. How did you get here? He was a prisoner
3. How do we get out? You don't. You fight and maybe win their favour. Or you die.
4. Who are they? Scientists who want to see others suffer
5. Who are you? I was just a thief

-Del does not find anything useful on the body other than the sword
-Liam finds Del's bone room. Takes a femur as an improvised club
-Liam investigates the device. Finds a button, presses it, and a red laser comes out of it. He notices he has a barcode on his shoulder. He scans in and then the door opens
-Del enters the room with Liam's sword. They speak. Neither seems to know each other. Del refuses to give up the sword
-They leave the room

Escape: Sieg and Circe

-Sieg wakes up. Room. Door with device on it. Presses button. Red laser. Also one wall is heating up. Poked at it with a pole. Magma drips out of wall. Forms into a drow. It's Circe!
-They don't recognize each other
-After blasting through the door fails, they figure out the barcode, using Sieg's. They also find some weapons

Escape: Ezre and Blue

-Ezre wakes up chained to a wall, with Blue(?), but Blue is different. She is confident and well put together.
-Ezre has to cut off her own hand to get out of the antimagic bracer
-She dispels Blue's antimagic bracer so Blue gets out and reattaches Ezre's hand
-They open the scanner door

Penalty Game

-We all walk into the hallway at the same time and talk about how we got there
-There is a door with 6 hand prints, each perfectly fit to a member of the party
-We all touch the door. We have to vote for someone to play "the penalty game"
-Vote in secret. Only know who got the most votes: It's Ezre
-Ezre plays the Penalty Game. She is given three tarot cards upside down and "draws" one. She is told what the penalty associated with it is and can either take it, or reject it but be forced to draw more cards
-She draws the Ten of Pentacles and loses some spell slots
-Next: "Pairings" round. Prisoner's dilemma. Del(Ally)/Sieg(Ally). Circe(Betray)/Blue(Betray). Ezre(Ally)/Liam(Betray)
-Penalties:

• Dex: King of Wands - Dex goes down
• Sieg: Justice - At some point in the future, an old enemy will return from the grave to claim vengeance upon you
• Blue: Seven of Wands - Vulnerability
• Circe: Two of Pentacles (resolved next session)

-Ezre is given a choice. She can either draw three Penalties for herself, or she can give out three Penalties and take two Boons. She chooses the latter
-Ezre gets back her staff with the Seven of Swords, and with the Five of Pentacles, she regains a memory:

Ezre's Memory

-Ezre was trapped in a spherical prison for weeks. Aldos and a Wood Elf Druid game in. Aldos releases her from her "chains" temporarily and she instantly turns into a giant Earth Elemental. The other druid matches her.
-Aldos tells Ezre that they are going to destroy the Winter Cradle, AKA Snelfland. She offers her a job and says to consider this whole process and interview
-Aldos tells her that if she escapes from this place and wants to join them, she needs to go to The City of Doors and find the one working on: a wooden door marked with a violet pentagram, which will take her to Mendor
-Aldos introduces the Druid as Jasmine Tealeaf, the villain from The Missing Feast (https://www.facebook.com/notes/dungeons-dunces/incident-report-case-of-the-missing-feast/294554050945939/)

Penalty Distribution

-Back in the present, Ezre distributes the penalties

• Liam: Seven of Wands - loses resistance to poison
• Circe: Queen of Pentacles - loses strength
• Ezre: King of Wands - loses dexterity

-We are returned to the room. Circe is mad at Ezre but Liam defends her since she took a penalty to herself.

Report Date

12 Jun 2019