Session 30: Cult Hideaway Blues
(DM: "Oh shit your face!")The Sprite casts Magic Missile. Deals 13 damage.
Alexei follows the cultist acolyte into the training room, just to watch the acolyte take three missiles to the chest. The acolyte slumps lifeless into a panicked Alexei's arms.
Linden comforts him, and asks where the acolyte came from.
Alexei haltingly describes how the dungeon changed on him, and he saw several cultists sitting down to dinner. He led one here. There are more.
He apologizes to the dead body.
The dead body does not respond.
Linden peels the body off of Alexei and dumps it on the floor.
The Sprite loots 7 copper off the dead body then scuttles into Sartorii's pocket.
The party gathers around the blue-flame plinth and activates it. They are greeted by the smell of food and the sight of a hellhound in the dining area beyond.
Having seen the occupants of the dining room, Linden suggests pulling another Alexei Maneuver. He sends the rest of the party back to the training room and sidles forth himself to try luring the cultists into an ambush.
Linden approaches the cultists, listening on conversation.
It's mostly lunchroom chatter and gossip. The quartermaster seems to have lost his key.
"The Red Swallow, huh? Isn't that an appropriately named place," Linden tries. He grabs some random food to try and blend in by eating.
The quartermaster hasn't seen him before, asks his name.
"Lin."
The quartermaster assumes Lin's a new recruit, complains about how they don't tell him enough to do his job.
Linden tells the quartermaster he saw someone playing with a keyring, implying they stole from the quartermaster.
Incensed, the quartermaster gestures for three other cultists, Lin, and Sparky the Hellhound to follow him to the training room.
Linden leads them inside, then turns and thrusts his spear at Sparky, missing entirely.
The party rolls initiative.
The Sprite drains his bonded item to restore Magic Missile, and immediately launches three missiles at the Quartermaster, dealing 8 damage total.
Alexei holds his turn.
Sartorii drawsher Bow of Erastil and rolls a 1 for her first attack. Expends a Hero Point to reroll. Second roll hits, dealing 11 damage to the Quartermaster.
Linden's turn for real, he breathes a Puff of Poison at Sparky. Sparky gets a critical failure on his resistance check. Linden deals 9 damage and 4 persistent damage.
Rutana draws her shortsword and stabs at the dog twice, missing both times.
Clarence steps forward and scratches at Sparky. ("Hiss, I say, hiss!") He deals 6 damage.
Clarence claws at Sparky a second time, but he misses. Too caught up in the dog-scratching game, he forgot to raise his shield.
The Sprite casts Floating Flame, dropping a fiery orb atop the Quartermaster. He succeeds at his saving throw, halving the damage to 7.
"Ah, a wizard!" the Quartermaster exclaims.
The cultists finally rouse themselves from the surprise round. One cultist stabs Clarence with his dagger, nailing a critical hit. (The party then realizes, 30 sessions in, critical hits double All damage.)
Clarence takes 16 damage, which is immediately negated by Alexei breaking out of his Sprite-induced stupor with a fervid prayer to his goddess and healing Clarence for 28.
Alexei also infuses Clarence's claws with Divine Infusion to deal an additional 1d6 damage on a melee attack.
Sartorii repositions and shoots at the Quartermaster, striking once for 3 damage.
Linden splashes acid on the Quartermaster, for a total of 5 damage and 1 persistent.
The Quartermaster's turn.
He makes the dog big.
"Fetch!" he yells, and Sparky sprints toward the Sprite. The dog snaps at the Sprite, dealing 4 damage.
At the end of the Quartmaster's turn, he takes 1 persistent damage and Sparky takes 5.
Rutana steps forward and stabs at the Quartermaster, missing. She expends a Hero Point, and succeeds, dealing 3 damage.
A cultist steps forward and attacks Rutana, landing one strike out of two and dealing 8 damage.
Clarence swipes at that cultist with his freshly-manicured claws, dealing 12 damage. Another 9 with his second attack ends the cultist, and then he raises his shiny new shield.
The cultist at the rear scrambles back the way he came and activates the blue-flame plinth, forcing several combatants forward one square as the floor in the entryway raises.
The Sprite sustains his Floating Flame, dealing 8 damage each to the Quartermaster and remaining cultist as it washes over them both. He then sneezes out a Gale Blast which Sparky gets a critical failure against. Sparky is pushes 10 feet away and takes 8 damage.
The remaining cultist activates his Fanatical Frenzy and unleashes a slew of missed dagger stabs.
Sartorii unleashes a hail of arrows at Sparky, managing only one hit and 3 damage.
Linden takes a free action to gauge how injured the enemies are. The Quartermaster and Sparky are both bleeding quite a bit, but the cultist is hardly fazed.
He splashes more acid around, getting a nat 20 and dissolving Sparky into a puddle of burning goo.
He then rolls a 1 attempting to stab Sparky again, uses his Hero Point to reroll into a 2.
"You killed my dog!" the Quartermaster screams.
"It's a devil, it'll probably respawn or something like that. If you'd like, we could send you to meet him!"
The Quartermaster uses his first action to drink a potion, healing 25. He retreats a couple squares and flings a vial of Alchemist's Fire at Linden. The bomb explodes, dealing 10 damage and 2 persistent to Linden, and 2 to Clarence.
Rutana stabs the Quartermaster for 3 damage.
Clarence claws at the cultist, sans manicure, dealing 14 damage and dropping him. He then rushes up to the Quartermaster's side, but misses with his claw attack.
The cultist that had retreated returns with 5 acolytes in tow.
The Sprite sustains his Floating Flame back atop the Quartermaster, tossing in a Produce Flame for good measure and dealing 11 total damage.
Alexei's turn. He runs up to Linden in a panic and whips off his cultist disguise, using it to smother the flames on Linden.
"At the ready!"
The cultist raises a flask of Alchemist's Fire, and each of the acolytes behind him raise one too. The cultist flings his vile at Rutana, and deals an impressive 1 splash damage to Rutana. He approaches the Sprite, narrowly dodging three arrows fired by Sartorii on the way.
An acolyte flings a flask of Alchemist's Fire at Sartorii, dealing 4 damage and setting the table beside her on fire.
Linden starts his turn fire-free. He moves and breathes a puff of poison on the acolyte that had already thrown his vial. The acolyte takes 5 damage and 2 persistent.
"You should stop now, or you're gonna day."
"In death we will find glory in the 9 hells!"
"You're out of your mind if you think Asmodeus rewards minions."
"It's not too late to conveeeert!" Alexei shouts from behind a pile of dead bodies.
"Fool, you know nothing of true faith if you think it so easy."
"If your god cared, you would be winning."
The Quartermaster rolls backward, and when he looks up, the party sees a strange glow in his eyes. He names Clarence his prey, draws his heavy crossbow...and misses.
He takes 1 last persistent damage, then finally purges the poison from his system.
Rutana shuffles to the side so she's flanking the acolyte in the middle of the room, and rolls a nat 20 on attack, dealing 8 damage. The acolyte succumbs to his persistent poison damage and keels over.
One of the acolytes in the entryway throws his Alchemist's Fire, dealing 4 damage and 1 persistent to Rutana, and 1 splash damage to Clarence.
Another acolyte throws his vial at Linden, dealing 1 persistent damage to Linden.
The second-to-last acolyte drops his vial, dealing 6 damage to himself and dealing splash damage to those who surround him.
Clarence moves over to the Quartermaster in the corner, misses with a swipe of his claws, and raises his shield.
The last acolyte, an elf, steps forward and flings his vial, dealing 1 splash damage to Linden.
The Sprite sustains his Floating Flame back atop the Quartermaster for 6 damage, then shoots an electric arc at the cultist and Quartermaster for 4 damage each.
"Please, in the name of the goddess, just stooooop!!"
Alexei flashes Dizzying Colors at the four acolytes; one is unaffected, the others are stunned, blinded, and dazzled.
The cultist stabs thrice at the Sprite, missing cleanly each time.
Sartorii brings her bow to bear and nails the cultist twice, for a total of 8 damage.
Linden splashes more acid at the Quartermaster, dealing 2 damage and another 1 persistent.
Clarence gets caught in the splash, taking 1 damage.
Linden trods on the face of a fallen cultist. "Do you think that I will not destroy your bodies when I'm done? Throw down your fucking weapons."
The acolytes are unfazed.
The Quartermaster smiles and says, "Together, then?"
He smashes a vial of Alchemist's Fire into Clarence's face, dealing 14 damage and 2 persistent. The 2 splash damage is all it takes to fell the Quartermaster.
Rutana moves and stabs at one of the blinded cultists for a total of 7 damage.
She takes 1 persistent fire damage, then succeeds in putting the fire out.
The one acolyte that can still see retreats back to the blue-flame plinth.
One of the acolytes that was blinded has to skip his turn, unable to see to do anything.
Clarence rushes over to the cultist and sinks his claws into the cultist's back, dealing 6 damage, then raises his shield.
He fails to put the fire on him out, and takes 2 persistent fire damage.
The remaining acolyte fumbles around, also too blind to do anything.
The Sprite sustains his Floating Flame atop the dying Quartermaster. He then tries to ignite the cultist in front of him, but misses.
Alexei snivels and panics and delays his turn.
("You can't aheem heem whimper your way through everything!")
The cultist shouts, "Glory to Asmodeus!" and strikes the Sprite with a vial of Alchemist's Fire.
It deals 2 damage and 1 persistent, and the cultist takes 1 splash damage.
Sartorii, in a decidedly un-sneaky manner, fires two arrows at the fleeing acolyte, cleanly thunking into the base of his skull.
The party quickly mops up the rest of the acolytes after the main threats are eliminated.
The Sprite makes his saving throw to put out the fire on himself.
Clarence fails two saving throws in a row as Linden hastily tries to pat him out. The Sprite flits over and casts Create Water atop Clarence's head to douse the flame.
Clarence and Linden bond over stabbing the Quartermaster's corpse, which is still in the process of being teabagged to death by the Sprites floating ball of fire.