Session 9. - Not So High Above The Mucky Muck
General Summary
26th of Last Light, 1439 A.P.
The sewers were oppressive. Attempting to sleep in a cramped room with a sewage line flowing five feet away was almost futile but the party were so worn out from their travails that they tried anyways.
Despite being exhausted, the party made sure to set a watch. Their paranoia at camping inside an enemy base was not unfounded. Thankfully though, the first couple of hours were uninterrupted. Suljurn, Arbor and Urith's watches all passed uneventfully, though every strange noise or distant splash heightened their stress. As they huddled as far from the sewer as they could, they had uneasy dreams and their rest was fitful at best.
After Urith retired for the night and Angrar began the last watch things quickly took a turn. While Angrar stood guard, a distant booming crash was heard and dust showered down from the ceiling above onto the party. The sewers played havoc with the acoustics of the sound but Angrar was pretty certain that the noise had come from the south, back towards where they'd come from. He woke the others, who were none to happy to be woken (even after such a rough night) and informed them about what he'd heard. Once the others were awake, they all headed back south through the cistern, not even noticing the lowered water level and the few gold coins and trinkets that glittered in the now shallow pool. When they came to the entryway and the stairs leading back up to the Marchement Brothers Warehouse, they were greeted with a pile of rubble. Large boulders and cracked timber sprawled across the narrow hall blocking all ascent. Despite being scent numb, Arbor was certain he caught a whiff of smoke but it was gone before the others could confirm. With their apparent exit blocked, the party resolved to delve deeper and see what The Hand were up to. After a quick debate, they decided to start at the door across the hall from the blocked passage, mainly for the convenience of it being right there than for any master plan. Unfortunately, the lock stymied all Oorr's attempts to open it ("He's NOT that type of rogue!") and after several minutes the party were forced to move on. They headed back to to the main chamber with the stairwell leading down but instead of opening the gate and heading downwards, they tried following the now day-old trail of the rat-man that escaped after their last fight. They headed south in a corridor parallel to the blocked stairwell that ended in doors on both the eastern and western walls. Oorr tried opening the eastern door as they presumed it led back towards the door they hadn't been able to open. He was able to get the door open and they discovered a dark, cramped hallway that presumably led back to the first door. Before the party blundered forward, Oorr threw out his arm and stopped them suddenly. Something about the floor didn't feel right to him. He leaned in for a better look and sure enough, he noticed the floor of the hallway was perforated with holes. The party puzzled for a few minutes about how to get around the trap before Urith questioned why they were even bothering. They headed back and tried the other door. Thankfully it wasn't locked. It opened into a small hallway that, based on the flickering torchlight, looked like it opened up into a room beyond. They could hear distorted voices coming from around the corner so Oorr decided that maybe he was that type of rogue, and snuck up to see what was going on. When he rounded the corner, he saw a small central pool with sewage flowing into it from the east and exiting again to the north. Dangling above the pool was a metal cage with a naked feathered humanoid trapped inside. A rat-man had his back turned to Oorr and he was giving orders in a harsh tone to two humans in the room. Oorr struck first, and stabbed the were-rat in the back and the fight was on. The others poured into the cramped room to help and as they did, they realized that the feathered prisoner was in fact Deadeye. He looked worse for wear and as they stormed in, one of the humans kicked a lever that dropped his cage into the sewage. The fight took on a strong sense of urgency as Deadeye struggled to keep his beak above water. Suljurn attempted to leap over the fast flowing sewer line to get to the other human, but slipped on the wet stone and landed in the middle of it. Oorr weaved in and out while Urith pincushioned their foes relentlessly. Arbor and Angrar both jumped the sewer channel to get at the crank to pull Deadeye's cage out but only Arbor made it with Angrar also ending up in the sludge. After climbing out of the sewage, they dug into their foes while Deadeye struggled to pick the lock with a chicken bone. He was unsuccessful and barely kept his head above water. The fight continued fiercely with the humans shifting into something more bestial and the were-rat giving the party a tough go. Eventually Arbor got to the crank and started trying to lift Deadeye but it was more than he could lift unaided. The best he could manage was to prevent it sinking further. The battle turned fairly quickly with Angrar dispatching one of the half-weres and then helping Arbor turn the winch, bringing a sputtering Deadeye back up above the waterline. The were and the other flunky both went down soon after. They quickly searched the room and found a key on the were-rat's body as well as Deadeye's gear that was stuffed in some crates nearby. They also discovered a note written in Elven on a slate board. It read:To ensure our success, Turn Five, then Eight, then...The rest of the note was obscured, either intentionally or accidentally and couldn't be read. The other thing they noticed was an oddity in the wall behind the storage crates. The stone wall itself felt "soft and spongy" and anyone pushing on it met with little resistance. Oorr and the others were hesitant to push through, not knowing what was on the other side but Suljurn had no such fear and pushed his halberd through with ease. It sank into the wall and eventually met resistance about 5 feet beyond. Not waiting for the others to hesitate further, Suljurn stepped through the wall. To the others it looked like he was slowly sinking sideways into a pool of mud. He found himself in a small narrow corridor that smelled strikingly different than the sewer. The air had a rich, earthy smell and the hall was lit with dim phosphorescent mushrooms and plants. The stone sewer walls quickly gave way to soft, moss covered ground and eventually opened up to a large natural cavern with several stalactites hanging from the ceiling. A few natural flowing columns connected the floor and ceiling and a shallow pool covered the southern half of the cave. Suljurn went back to inform the others of what he'd found and they all climbed through into the cave. Once they were all inside, Arbor realized that there was something very familiar about the area but he couldn't quite put his finger on it but it certainly gave off a sense of menace. Before he could share his feelings, movement from behind one of the far pillars drew their attention. an small, insectile-like creature came into view, wading through the shallow pool. Above the noise of it splashing through the water, it could be heard chittering in some alien tongue to another creature on a hidden ledge up in the far northeastern corner of the cave. It paused briefly before screeching some sort of warning in it's alien language before attacking. The party were caught flat footed when the creature disappeared suddenly and then reappeared in their midst. Waves of palpable fear gripped all but Oorr and Angrar who shrugged off the aura. He was unable to shrug off the paralytic venom of their claws however and remained frozen as the second creature joined the fight. Arbor too fell victim to the creature's venom and the party struggled to adapt to the teleporting creatures and the palpable fear they projected. Thankfully, Urith and Deadeye consistently managed to attack them at a distance when they teleported away and Oorr was able to shake off the paralytic effects. In time they dispatched the creatures and then rummaged through the room. After a quick search they and found a magical quiver, some loose coin and 4 small amethysts tucked up on the ledge along with some human bones Urith commented that this would make a perfect campsite, should they need to camp out again and the others agreed. However, once they headed back into the room with the cage, they heard a distinct popping noise and the passage to the cavern had disappeared and the wall was once again solid stone. The party seemed to shrug it off and investigated further down the other hall, with Urith now scouting ahead, almost invisible in the unlit gloom of the sewer. They followed the sewer stream westward and it opened up into a large chamber that was pumping loudly. 3 mechanical golem like humanoids were monitoring various pumps and gauges and seemed to be testing the sewage. They seemed oblivious to the group. As the Forgeborn didn't seem to be aggressive, the party decided to sneak past them and thanks to some helpful tips from Oorr, they managed to wind their way through the room undisturbed and back out the northern passage that eventually led back to the main chamber with the stairs heading down. Feeling like The Hand had more secrets hidden, they decided to backtrack to their campsite and head further down the other tunnel. They came to the end of the tunnel and uncovered a veritable rats nest... of rats. The swarming mass seethed forward in a seemingly endless stream. Urith and Deadeye made as many rat kebabs as they could skewering them from a distance as Angrar had them crawling all over him. Suljurn and Oorr stepped in and stabbed where they could and eventually the tide of rats lessened and finally ceased. Urith snuck into the partially collapsed hallway in the south and slowly maneuvered past some rocks into another chamber. It was strewn with rocks and covered in a gritty brown dust. The others followed and set about examining the remnants of the machines in the far corner when a small four legged creature stuck its head up from behind a rock and scrabbled immediately towards them. It sent a wave of panic through Oorr and Angrar as soon as they recognised the beast as a rust monster and they instinctively cowered back from its metal devouring attacks. As it scuttled forward, Oorr struck it with one of his rapiers only to watch the blade corrode and weaken even as it bit into the creature's flesh. Angrar almost instinctively blocked another attack with his shield before pulling it away at the last moment. The party were merciless and the combination of Angrar's magic sword and Arbor's spells along with the arrows of both rangers, brought it down relatively quickly. As they surveyed the wreckage of the room, Oorr lamented on the damage to his blade but was grateful it hadn't been much worse. Urith offered to trade it out for his own rapier, as he rarely used it and Oorr gratefully accepted. Other than a thick layer of rust and a few scraps of metal, the only thing of note that they found was a shortbow that Suljurn said was magic. Once again, they backtracked, and headed up a short broad flight of stairs half way down the long main line of the sewers. The stairs and the hallway it opened into were relatively well lit to the west whereas the eastern passage lay in darkness and gave even Oorr a sense of foreboding. Opting for the well lit branch, they came to a door and thankfully Oorr remembered what kind of rogue he was supposed to be and managed to get it open after only a little effort. It seemed to be a storeroom of sorts with several crates, boxes and sacks along one wall and a wine rack against the other. A spiral staircase made of rusty metal led up into darkness. They rummaged through several of the crates and restocked their supplies of rations. While most of the wine and alcohol was common fare, one of the bottles caught the eye of the goblin. A closer look revealed a bottle of Arabani Red with a vintage of 1222 (just over 200 years old). Trudging through the sewers had taken its toll and the rat bites Angrar had suffered were throbbing mercilessly. The party debated setting up a camp in the storeroom, but the staircase deterred them. They eventually decided to brave the eastern passage and the light from the torches quickly dimmed and faded behind them. Only their natural vision allowed them to see within the darkness. The passage twisted left and right and eventually opened into another 30 foot room. Two bodies were visible. One was mostly a skeleton, twisted up in the corner half buried under a pile of broken crates and pieces of ladder. The other, was much fresher and lay in the center of the room. As the party examined the corpses, two shadows manifested out of the darkness and attacked. Arbor was struck and quickly felt his strength leave him in a rush. The creatures were extremely hard to see and kept fading in and out of sight in the gloom. Thankfully the party made some lucky guesses at their location and hit them hard. Angrar and Oorr bore the brunt of the shadow's attacks and felt the strength slowly leach from them. After a very brutal fight, they dispelled the shadows and the sense of dread they all felt in the room leaving just the skeletons. Gripped in the hand of the fresher corpse was a shortsword with a wolf's head on the pommel and a silver sheen on the blade. Suljurn said it radiated magic as well.
Exhausted from the fight, the party set up camp for the night and planned to head deeper into the sewers in the morning.
Rewards Granted
- 321 xp
- Magic Quiver
- 4 small Amethysts
- Magic Shortbow
- A Magic Shortsword
- A Bottle of Arabani Red Wine
- 2 Healing potions
- 17cp, 123 sp, 18gp
Notes
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Deadeye Cliffhanger
Oorr Rosetta del Hilltopple
Chaotic Good [Tar] Faun (City Watch / Investigator)
Rogue 4
Sorcerer 1
Rogue 4
Sorcerer 1
37 / 37 HP
STR
10
10
DEX
18
18
CON
12
12
INT
8
8
WIS
12
12
CHA
16
16
Urith Thane
Arbor Nox
Angrar Ironbrow
Report Date
27 May 2023
Primary Location
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