Session 13: Deeper, Deeper, Down We Go

Monday, March 15th, 2021 7pm-10pm EST & Monday, March 22nd, 2021 7pm-

General Summary

[Dear Lani, write something here later.]

Session 13a - Deeper, Deeper

With discussions of traveling by wagon once again dominating conversation, Lodun Ó Scolaidhe reveals that he had a specially made custom wagon for the party, which can specifically only be broken if they intentionally attempt to do so. It overall appears like an ordinary wagon, though it can comfortably seat at least seven, with four in the cabin, two in the front, and one off the back. As it is designed for the party itself, and bear mounts have become a popular trend, it is equipped to be bear-drawn by Ms. Chompsky herself. Despite the design of the carriage, Slab still elects to sit on the roof.
When they finally return to Fairgate, they discover that the city has most certainly been attacked, and recently enough so that there is still smoke pluming from some of the buildings. Arriving in the city proper, they see that the buildings and everything in them appear to have been ravaged, with a few drag marks left on the ground heading down the far end of the street. Most of the party disembarks from the carriage, with Lavug, largely disinterested, remaining to study his books, expecting the mission to be a short one. Going forward, Slab goes to investigate the well at the center of the street, noticing a curled-up, humanoid creature of some sort at the bottom of the twenty-foot deep well. He called out to the apparently female gnome, causing her to jump, startled. With half of the party possessing no Rope, Duul steps forward to offer his to aid the woman up. Retrieving her with minimal issue, Duul offers her his spare Cloak for warmth. Handed some chalk and slate from the rubble, the gnome tells that she has been mute for many years, and that the town fell under attack from mysterious monsters after the Asylum caught fire. Currently, the remaining survivors are hold up in some of the shops around the town's Zumna statue, with supplies too limited for them to try to leave en masse safely. No one that has been sent out to seek help has returned or sent any sort message back. It is shortly after her explanations that Lavug returns to the group, seemingly exasperated by the fact that this is not, in fact, a short mission at all.
Being lead to the other survivors, Lavug and the crew try to see what they can uncover along the way. As this party doesn't exactly communicate with each other, they lack a pool of information for them bounce knowledge off of, this leaves them crippled on this front. Duul reminds the party that they possess the sigil chalk that will allow them to draw portals to the mansion, indicating that it would be the fastest and safest way to evacuate the civilians. As they proceed through the ravaged streets, the party encounters a collection of hostile creatures bent on their destruction: two tentacled humanoids and and a collection of four-armed goblinoids. With this, combat begins. Notable occurrences of this encounter included: Lavug blasting a hole in one of the tentacled bastards; this is immediately followed by Emyr turning the same creature into a lovely pincushion by use of his Bow of Doubling; and Duul accidentally got himself grappled and was later healed by their gnome maiden. With combat ended, the party proceed onward, reaching the Zumna statue that Slab had polished clean on their previous visit. Around it can be seen lightning strike scorch marks and thusly fried corpses of the sort of damned creatures the party had just encountered. The nearby shops and taverns are all boarded up, and she requests a candle with which to signal to the other survivors that they're safe. Duul retrieves one of his candles, lighting the wick with his mouth before handing it to her. Taking the candle, she slides it into a lantern and uses some form of morse code to signal their arrival and safety. The shutters open and the party is signaled to come inside.

13b - Down

"The Awful Steed" tavern greets them with a collection of nine survivors, where Sadon thanks them for saving Malie and invites them to stay for as long as they might need. He fills them in on the gaps in the story since they'd left, unaware that the party is who caused the fire that ignited all of this. When he finishes his story, he steps aside to allow the party to explore the bar and get comfortable. In the side dining area is a lizardfolk eating his meal while writing in his notebook, which is a rare species in this post-Calamity times. He, however, appears to be mostly oblivious to their presence, distracted as he is, even as Emyr brings Chompsky through the very unwilling doorway. Duul does some investigative work through talking to the barkeep, Diana, inquiring about the former asylum's presence in the town. She tells him that people were going crazy every other week, prior to the asylum's opening, though its presence seemed to have remedied the issue. Focus shifts to the tavern's supplies, where she informs him that they're running low on most everything; in fact, they seemingly only have water, some grog, and a single barrel of beer left. Duul offers a couple of days' worth of rations and a mess kit, to be paid back as Diana sees fit when they're able. The lizardfolk beside him waited his turn to speak to the barkeep, requesting water but otherwise not interacting with the party as of yet.
Before much else can happen, Sadon hurriedly instructs everyone to dim the lights while he and some others reinforce the boarded up windows. The tavern falls silent while creatures outside rap and scrape at the building and the windows from the outside, and Duul does what he can to silence the room by using Pass Without a Trace from the center table, effectively covering the majority of its occupants. Sadly, it does not cover everyone, and Diana accidentally knocks over a few of the tankards in her attempts to dim the lights. This attracts the attention of those outside, and a collection of claws and tentacles begin to try to break their way in through the four windows while something else begins to bang on the door. The party begins to do what they can to trap-set and prepare for a fight, with Emyr mounted on Chompsky, a collection of Caltrops* arranged in front of the door and three of the four windows, and the party drawing their weapons. With their preparation phase having run its course, combat begins. After eliminating the threats that went after them and in the process saving Thrari from capture, the tavern occupants regroup. Sadon instructs people to begin breaking the tables in order to start boarding up the windows and door once more. Meanwhile, the party itself discusses their next course of action, proposing that they use the sigil to teleport the survivors back to the Lodun Estate. They are uneasy about the magical usage, but accept the help nonetheless, going through the portal to the safety of the mansion. Under the safety of the replaced barricades, they move into the kitchen for the night. Here, Slab retrieves a Cheese Wheel and investigates the barren cellar. Other than this, however, the night passes by uneventfully, and the party, with its new lizardfolk member takes a long rest in peace.
In their downtime, the party gets acquainted with Vex, the lizardfolk. He explains that he had seen something on his home island that he has been unable to explain, but it haunts him to this day. The lizardfolk seeks to uncover the mystery surrounding the creature, and has elected to join the group due to their constant exposure to all manner of abominations. Vex also tells them that, somehow, whatever it was that he saw has influenced his growth and development as a Barbarian, causing the tentacle that springs forth from his back whenever he rages.

Session 13c - We Go

Morning brings with it a short bit of tailing as the party sneaks from the damaged tavern shelter to find a cart being towed by a pair of hooded figures. To no one's surprise, the pair lead them to the outskirts of the asylum ruins, where they pass through the remnants of the gates and out of sight of the party. The smoldering ruins of the asylum, upon closer inspection, houses more than just these two, as they are going back and forth from the cart to the main building, dropping off large, humanoid shape bags inside. With both of the side wings crumbled to ruins, they lack most of their ability to sneak in the way they'd come through previously. Thanks to Slab's shield, the party is able to learn that the hooded figures seem confident in their ability to "restore the pool" and make sure that "the doctor's death won't have been in vain." They stealthily trail along after them, finding them continuing to throw the bodies further inside, this time into a makeshift lift that leads somewhere down below. Eldin, Vex, and Duul move forward to shove the pair into the hole after the bodies.
Unbeknownst to the rest of the body up until they propose lighting the hole beneath them on fire, Emyr has been being called to by something in the hole below. He insists that he needs to go down the hole, even going so far as to lash out at the party as he attempts to leap to the bottom. Both Emyr and Vex attempt to restrain and catch him before he can descend, though this fails miserably as he manages to break free of them and drop to the bottom. The party follows along after them, though with his lead Emyr begins dragging the crippled bodies of the two hooded figures that had been knocked down before him.
Slab and Lavug go down the hole directly while the rest of the available party takes the elevator down. In the room they end up in, Slab and Lavug find the notebooks of what seem to be cultists' ramblings about how the Calamity was ended too quickly and the Old God involved in it needed more time in order to bring the world to its proper state. Lavug connects the dots to realize that this could be tied to the strange liquid that Emyr consumed when they were in the asylum previously. Lavug collects the journals before the pair make their way to try to find their crazed companion.
In a fair corner of the basement, Duul, Eldin, and Vex arrive to the sound of vague voices to the south, as well as the sounds of chains raddling. After a short bout of exploration, they manage to meet back up with Slab and Lavug, who fills them in on what he's learned. Moving further onward, they encounter another pair of hooded figures, which Slab immediately shrouds in Fog Cloud. Though Slab passes them unseen, Eldin fumbles and combat begins. Since he has avoided the fight, Slab pushes forward to find a room at the end of the hallway, which houses a large pool of blood at its center, a sickly red mass coming out of it, and Emyr talking to something within. The Half-Elf quickly tells him that he needs to get out of there immediately, to which the Dwarf-Orc naturally refuses, and with the aid of a mysterious mouse in his beard casting Firebolt, combat begins anew.
With the fight ended, Emyr falls to the ground clutching his head, and is rendered unconscious. With Lavug rejoining the party, they begin to investigate the room in question, finding etchings in Deep Speech. This, they discover through their latest member, Vex, who actually knows the language. Finally having found someone that grasps the language, they begin to pool resources to translate the various journals they've found on their journey thusfar. With some minor measures of searching done, as the place is still in ruins, the party gathers to make their way back, along with the new party member. Emyr reawakens along the way, an expected outcome for a week long trip as he is going by carriage. 

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*^{("As an action, you can spread a single bag of caltrops to cover a 5-foot-square area. Any creature that enters the area must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or stop moving and take 1 piercing damage. Until the creature regains at least 1 hit point, its walking speed is reduced by 10 feet. A creature moving through the area at half speed doesn't need to make the saving throw.")}

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Rewards Granted

Duul:
-2 Days' Rations
-1 Mess Kit
-Spare Cloak

Eldin:
-80 Caltrops, four bags (+40 Retrieved, two bags; +20 Bloodied*, one bag; one empty caltrop bag)

Slab:
+Wheel of Cheese (Eaten)

Lavug:
Cultists' Journals

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Character(s) interacted with

Survivors of Fairgate
Malie (Mute Gnome found in a well)
Sadon (Fairgate town guard, human)
Thrari (dwarf town guard)
Quinn (human townsfolk)
Gavin (human townsfolk)
Bula (orc)
Diana (half-elf)
Rine (halfling female)
Marigold (human, bard?)
Vex (new party member)

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Notes

We have started using D&DBeyond's integrated settings with Avrae that allow the party to roll on their character sheets and have the rolls displayed in a designated channel on the server's discord. Chompsky has been added to the CritterDB Bestiary.

Report Date

15 Mar 2021

Primary Location

Fairgate