Session 29: Workplace Grievance
OOC notes: Notekeeper can't hear out of right ear. This notes will be silly. lol.Notekeeper also discovered you cannot copy text out of Foundry chat, then discovered you can copy the HTML by F12, inspect element, click the chat, right click the HTML element, copy inner HTML.
Alexei licks the 6 mystery potions and determines them to be fire resistance potions. (No, he sipped it like a good person!)
Thick, viscous, grants 5 resistance against fire for one hour.
Littlebox from cabinet 13:
3 scrolls of cleanse cuisine
Wand of mending
1 platinum, 34 gold, 58 silver, 38 copper
DM wrote down everything the party got from the lockers, combining this latest list and those from previous session:
6x Healing Potion (Lesser)
Wand of Flense
6x Scroll of Forced Mercy
Blue Key
Flayleaf x10
Tindertwigs 6x
Potion of Fire Resist
3x Scroll of Cleanse Cuisine
Wand of Mending
Ruby Daggger
Gold Pipe
1P; 34G; 58S; 37C
The tall folk in the party are dressed in cultist robes, with the Sprite hiding in Sartorii's pocket. Sartorii wears the Sprite's pimp hat of disguise in case and illusion is needed.
If the party acts suspicious, enemies would roll perception against DC of each party member's Deception (or Rutana's Occultism) + 10.
Party's first course of action is inspecting the door with the light coming from beneath.
Sartorii rolls 22 on thievery to pick the lock, to no avail. Rutana and the Sprite also try, and get nowhere near as close.
Linden requests everyone back away and proposes melting the door.
The acid fails to leave Linden's body. He receives Doomed 1.
Clarence's turn. He kicks the door, but with an 18 the door holds fast...just barely.
Sartorii tries again after 10 minutes, this time succeeding in picking the lock.
The next room has no business being in a sewer. Sandalwood incense beats back the dank scent of the underground. Wooden veneer covers the walls, a king size bed sits to one side and bookshelves to the other. A clean, orderly desk draws the party's attention.
Sartorii rolls 29 on perception to loot this place.
Inbetween books on the bookshelf lies a wand of Sigil.
A door to the south leads to a private bathroom with a big tub inset into the floor and really good soap, plus cucumbers for some reason. (Okay. I'm not touching that.)(Some of them are sliced!!)
When Sartorii pulls the wand loose, all the books except for one lean to fill the empty space. She pulls on the rigid book, the shelves part to reveal a small hideaway.
(copy pasting the descriptions from GM))
The room you've entered has no business being in a sewer cave. Sandalwood incense holds back the mild earthy scent to the whole place, and rugs carpet the floor pleasantly. Wooden veneer covers the walls, and a king sized bed sits in the eastern end of the room. Two bookshelves sit full on the northern wall, beside a desk that looks orderly and clean.
The shelves part to reveal a small hideaway. Upon the wall is a large painting depicting the 9 circles of hell in visceral, upsetting detail. On the tables north of you, a few trinkets sit around a small disk set upon an angled stand. The disk is made of black iron, and the image of an inverted pentagram is cast in relief across the surface. This pentagram is stained red by years of prayer to Asmodeus. Beneath the tables is a bin, blackened with ash. Inside, a half burned letter remains within an envelope compromised only by flame.
On the back of the envelope is written the letters KEL, and on the back is signed Sibyl.
Sibyl's locker contains all the letters of adoration from Kelso. Kelso's hideaway contains the ashes of all the letters he gets in return.
Bowl of semi-precious gemstones, offerings to Asmodeus.
Very ornate umbrella, steel shield with a mirror finish.
Alexei identifies the shield as a Shield of Heroic Memory. Shield for Clarence!
Rutana rolls 29 (plus 2 circumstance bonus from Read Aura!) to identify the umbrella as a Manasol. Fancy staff for Rutana!
All loot aside, Sartroii notices a the northwestern wall looks a bit...wibbly wobbly. She touches the wall and walks straight through, much to Alexei's alarm and chagrin. Alexei shouts, but luckily no one hears him.
The end of this secret hall is a one-way mirror. In the larger room beyond, Sartorii sees a bunch of cultists training.
One swings a heavy mace at another, cleanly impacting the man's skull. When the mace pulls back, the man is left bruised rather than pulped. An instructor walks up, heals the bruised man with a scroll, and proceeds to thoroughly critique both cultists on their form.
The last item within Kelso's quarters is a picture frame with a sketch in it. The sketch shows a dark-haired man in a prim and proper suit standing next to a man with long brown hair, a large sword, and angel wings.
Sartorii pockets the sketch, taking it out of the frame. She finds it's folded in half. A jaunty human bard, a goblin alchemist, a dark-skinned human cleric, and an elf with a dog comprise the rest of the party. This sketch looks to be a rough draft of the painting in Arabella's office.
The party activates the flame pedestal in the cultists' quarters. Rumbling sounds outside the door, but nothing changes inside the quarters.
Sartorii opens the door. It looks like a dead end now. She rolls a 20 to inspect the dead end.
It seems that sections of 10 square feet either raise or lower depending on whether the lights are red or blue.
Party discusses what to do next. Debates whether to attack the training cultists or leave them be. Alexei requests doing what they came her to do without hurting anyone.
Rutana reminds everyone that these people kidnapped refugees and hurt their prince friend.
Linden reassures Alexei.
The cultists in the training room had Forced Mercy cast on them so they could go all-out without killing each other. The party is not affected by this, but they might have more scrolls.
The Plan:
Send most of the party to the west to enter the training room through the main door with the Orb of Fireball, while the Sprite and Rutana go through the secret tunnel to cast Horizon Thunder Sphere.
The Act:
Rutana spins the pedestal, allowing the flanking party to enter the training room. She then enters the secret tunnel to rejoin the Sprite.
"Ah, new recruits! ...Egh, what's that?"
And then an explosion.
Several of the acolytes are reduced to ash.
Linden flings an Acid Splash at the nearest cultist, melting his face straight off.
One of the remaining cultists approaches Linden. He grabs the blood seeping from his wounds, rubs it over his mask, and shouts, "For Asmodeus!" Reinvigorated, the cultist attempts to stab Linden. He fails spectacularly.
"Looks like Asmodeus has abandoned you!" Linden shouts back.
Sartorii emerges from the smoke and attacks the trainer. The trainer reacts by lifting a brass bell and ringing it. Sartorii fails a will save and gets afflicted by Enfeebled 1. Sartorii deals 11 total damage.
The Sprite, hidden in his secret passage, spends his turn charging Horizon Thunder Sphere for the first time.
The cultist trainer uses Exploit Vulnerability on Sartorii. He rolls 24 against Sartorii's class DC of 20, making his attacks against her magical. He swings with his mace and misses horribly with both attacks.
Rutana makes her way into the secret tunnel, behind the Sprite. From there she uses Exploit Vulnerability against the closest cultist she can see. Rolls 16, success against the Acolyte. Her strikes are now magical against the cultists.
The next cultist steps up to the trainer and casts first-level Heal. The cultist trainer heals by 15.
The remaining Acolyte runs forward and tries to tackle Sartorii to the ground. He flops uselessly against her, but steps back to try again. With a roll of 18 he manages to grapple Sartorii!
"I've got her, sir!"
The trainer just inhales sharply through his teeth. They don't send him anyone smart......
Alexei's turn! He holds, unwilling to hurt anyone.
Clarence steps forth with his shiny new shield! He sidles past Sartorii and brings his claws to bear against the acolyte grappling his feathered friend. He misses. He then uses Devoted Guardian to grant Sartorii a +1 circumstance bonus to AC.
Another cultist runs up to Clarence, and attacks him from behind in a Fanatic Frenzy. And he misses.
With the Foundry lighting glitching out, a new round dawns!
Linden flings some more acid at his cultist's face, nailing a nat 20. Target is dazzled until the end of his next turn. Deals 6 damage plus 1 persistent. For his last action he raises his shield.
Bird turn!
Sartorii rolls an 11 on Athletics to escape the grapple! She is no longer grabbed or enfeebled!
She moves to the other side of the acolyte and stabs at him! 5 damage, he's dead.
Linden's cultist takes another 2 persistent acid damage, fails recovery check.
Enraged, he attacks Linden three times. Still dazzled, all miss.
"Asmodeus really hates you, are you sure you're worshipping the right god?" Linden taunts. "Maybe he's powerless."
The Sprite launches a fully charged Horizon Thunder Sphere at the trainer, dealing 12 lightning damage.
The sphere explodes into a 10-foot emanation. Everyone caught in the emanation rolls a reflex save.
All party members make the save, receiving half damage; 5 damage dealt to Sartorii, Clarence, and Linden.
Two of the cultists die on the spot.
The trainer backs into a corner, drops his mace, holds up his hands and calls for parlay.
The remaining cultist starts to protest, but the trainer shoots him dead with a hand crossbow.
"Don't let someone so foul have words with us," Linden says. "Kill him."
The trainer pulls off his mask, pleading for mercy, appealing to their humanity!
Alexei hears someone begging for his life, but continues to cower.
Rutana enters the training room and approaches the trainer.
"I'll give you something if you don't kill me!" the trainer pleads.
"Why can't we just take it from your corpse?" Rutana asks.
"You might not know how to use it!"
Rutana rolls perception to determine if the trainer has any other weapons or implements on him.
He only seems to be carrying the bell.
And now he gets a name. Antonius!
Rutana holds her hand up to call for the party to stop.
"Okay. If you want us to trust your surrender, hand over your implement."
Antonius is torn between fear and begrudging respect. He tosses his bell to Rutana.
"Alright, I think we should hear him out."
Alexei officially goes to cower in a corner.
Clarence begrudgingly does not kill Antonius, but approaches with his shield raised.
Sartorii keeps her bow trained on Antonius as combat drops.
"I will be happy to let you continue to breathe if you submit yourself to a spell I cast on you," Linden says.
He casts Charm Person.
It doesn't take.
"So what do you think about all this?"
"You killed all my friends. I just want to live. Go fuck yourself."
"I see you resisted my spell."
"I see it didn't take!"
Linden thinks this is a bad idea, but backs away with his shield raised.
"So I've been working on this thing, and if you promise to let me live, I will tell you how to use it."
The Sprite flits in. "Oh so was this the thing behind the guy guarding the door?"
The boss summoned that six months ago to make sure no one could get into the reliquary. Look, we're all here doing our national duty, serving our country and whatnot. I am, at least. I've been looking for someone to complain to who would take me seriously for quite a while. If you're gonna kill me anyway, at least I'll go to Asmodeus with a clear conscience. So first off, Kelso, everyone loves the guy, great, but like, he's been doing this for... Kelso and I, as well as the others in charge, we're all from Chelliax. It may sound weird, but Asmodeus is the patron god of Asmodeus. We all worship him. Being in the cult of Asmodeus is just normal. We're here to spread the faith, but people frown on faiths in shitty little countries like this one. Anyway Kelso's been leaving, swans off to Asmodeus-knows-where, doing the dark lord's work I'm sure, leaves us to do the day to day, leaves a bunch of sycophants who can't swing a blade to fight for us and has me try to whip them into shape. And whips don't last that long!
Ever since Kelso broke up that old adventuring party he's never stopped bragging about it. Every since he ruined the lives of those 'great people' he's ridden that high, and it's driving us all insane.
Antonius opens the chest next to him. The party hears a jingling as he pulls something out. He withdraws a little silver bell, holding the hammer so it doesn't ring. Celestial script circles the rim.
"I've been working on this for three weeks. I hate that you're the ones to use it, but if it gets me out alive..." He hands it to Rutana.
Linden asks, "How many other people are with your organization in this city?"
"About three dozen, in all."
"And where are your other cells?"
"Cells? This is it. Welcome to the hall of Asmodeus in Brevoy."
With Clarence's Lie to Me feat and Sartorii's perception, the party is pretty sure he's telling the truth.
"So what's the bell do?"
This gross little contraption I've rigged up... He looks at Rutana for a second. Why don't you tell me what it does?
Rutana rolls 19 religion.
The bell is made of pure silver. While fragile, it is holy. Even the wood is made of purified ivory. The celestial runes around the outside write a circle of protection. Inside the bell, the name of a specific devil is written in infernal. The bell wouldn't kill it, but would give it pause.
Antonius gives Rutana a little golf clap. "A lady of culture indeed! Alright, whelp. I'm going to leave."
He tries to rub the wall the Sprite came from, incensed to find it fake.
Rutana asks if Antonius was in charge of the attack the other day. Nope, that was Sibyl. She's in the chapel. You'll need keys from all of us. He tosses a star-shaped ruby to Sartorii.
Amethyst let them into the dungeon. Sapphire is something else. Ruby opens the chapel.
One key from each leader is needed; trainer, quartermaster, jailor.
Sartorii asks if Antonius likes anyone here, cares about anyone who's left.
He really has to think about it. He'd say the dog, but he's pretty sure it would attack. I'll miss Sparky, but if you kill him, he doesn't die. Antonius could summon him again.
Antonius leaves through the secret wall, Sprite's trail mix in hand.
("OBTAIN THAT BOY FOR ME!")
Because Antonius is leaving, the walls shift.
Alexei is on his own, dressed as a cultist and looking a mess.
An acolyte walks up to Alexei and inspects the clearly harrowed look at his face.
"Hey man, you alright? I know my first week was..."
"Something terrible has happened in the other room!" Alexei blurts out.
"Oh, well show me!" The cultist turns the pedestal.
The Sprite plans to open with Magic Missile immediately in the next session.