Session 31: Plumbing the Depths
The session starts amidst a pile of bodies. So, so many cultists have died in here.Alexei casts a three-action heal to patch up the party.
Linden turns to the party. Soo, is this what you guys get up to on a regular basis?
Yeah.
Yeah!
Yeah...
There's less fire than normal.
Party discusses next steps.
They have the bell intended for the door demon, but they're sure that guy won't be pursuing them unless they initiate. They have yet to find Sibyl, so hunting her is the next goal.
But, first, hunting for the key that Quartermaster had dropped in the water!
The party moves into the common area. Linden rolls a 20 on stealth to sneak in and make sure the place is empty.
It's a pretty well-stocked kitchen, all things considered.
Hanging from a wall is a wand in a little holster.
In the southwest corner is a little channel that water flows through.
Linden passes the Sprite a rope, which he ties about his waist, and the Sprite flaps down to hover over the top of the water.
The water level is lower than it should be, and the stream isn't exactly flowing. There is a smattering of chicken bones.
Further down the pipe is a pretty bad clog.
The Sprite checks that the rope is securely tied about his waist, gets real close to the clog, and casts Gale Blast.
The clog blasts out of the way and all the backed-up water barrels into the Sprite. He takes 4 bludgeoning damage from his own Gale Blast, and gets washed away.
He is soaked, and it sucks.
Linden, meanwhile, pulls up an empty rope.
The Sprite finds himself in a room of showers.
The humidity of this warm room speaks to its frequent use, and the floral scent speaks to its purpose. Showers line both walls, each stocked with a scrub-brush and a bar of pink, rose-scented soap. The cabinet on the eastern wall contains tons of toiletries for the cleanly cultist.
He uses Message to tell the closest party member, who happens to be Clarence, that it smells really nice in here.
Alexei had wandered into the larder to feed Timber, and ended up stress-binging himself. The larder contains a lot of meat, vegetables, seasonings, and garum, plus plenty of salt pork and preserves.
The Sprite searches the showers. It seems he fell out a side pipe and the key isn't with him. He does take the opportunity to sift through the cupboards, and takes one of the fancy rose-petal soaps for himself.
While he roots through the cupboard, the DM asks him to roll a stealth check; 23.
A cultist acolyte walks into the showers and rummages through the same cupboard, completely blind to the Sprite. The acolyte grabs some soap and toiletries, then sidles into one of the stalls and starts showering.
The party heads to Kelso's bathroom in search of the Sprite. Wrong bathroom.
The Sprite messages Clarence again; there's someone in here showering with me, but the soap smells really good. Clarence shares the message, rather unsettled.
Rutana rolls a nat 20 on listening for a shower.
She hears the guy showering and whistling, and she hears a different cultist fighting for his life on the toilet.
Understanding they're about to do battle once more, Alexei asks, do we have to?
Linden raises his shield and spear and waves Clarence over, suggesting they go in arms raised and demand the cultists surrender.
Linden and Clarence advance into the bathroom, but they don't see the two cultists in the toilet stalls.
The Sprite, however, sees Linden beneath the privacy door. Knowing he has backup now, he emerges from the cupboard to electrocute the showering acolyte.
The party hears a wet turkey running in the hall and then the bright crackle of Electric Arc. The showering acolyte takes 20 damage, dying instantly.
Linden taps on the stall door.
"Occupied!" the cultist growls back.
"The Quartermaster wants us out. Pinch it off and get out here."
"He's really angry, he lost his key."
When the cultist still refuses, Linden reaches over the top of the stall door and casts Acid Splash. ("Oh no! Acid from both sides!")
The party hears just a horrid screen. The most horrid. The final acolyte quickly raises his feet to the toilet seat.
Sartorii calls out, remember to flush!
Linden offers the final cultist to Clarence.
Alexei asks if everyone's okay. Rutana responds, eh, everyone they care about is okay.
Clarence knocks on the door.
"Hey, um, please don't kill me? Now this may sound hard, and you're going to ask yourself, should I kill the man in the bathroom? And the answer might surprise you, but you shouldn't."
Clarence looks over to Linden for confirmation. Linden shrugs. Eh, cultists.
Clarence kicks the door in, but misses his claw attack. The acolyte jumps up and waddles out of the stall, dodging another claw strike, but gets sliced up by the third.
Despite his better judgement, Linden opens up the toilet stall to loot the body. 5 copper.
Clarence gets 2 copper from his guy.
The Sprite walks out of the showers with an armful of fancy soaps. He steps right over the dead acolyte on the floor and holds his bounty up to Rutana for the bag of holding.
Linden tells Clarence as an aside, we don't tell this story.
Rutana spots another door at the other end of the room. The DM moves her over to the door since she noticed it but she protests, instead instructing Clarence to stand in front of the door with his shield and open it instead.
This room is cool and the plinth inside is topped not with a flame, but with a glowing, blue, glass ball. The glow emanating from the center of the ball paints the room in wavy, blue light, giving it the illusion of being underwater.
While the party inspects the new room, the Sprite taps Clarence on the shin. Healing, please?
Clarence casts Lay on Hands on the Sprite.
Sartorii had wandered off, so Linden wanders to gather the party.
On the way, Linden checks in with Alexei to see if he's okay. Turns out, the cultists make decent sausages.
("I wonder what these sausages are made of?")
("Hold on I'm posting something I just saw that is totally not related to what she just asked.")
("No it's not cannibalism")
Linden successfully gathers Sartorii and Alexei and herds them into the new transition room.
"Why is this in here?!" Alexei proclaims upon seeing a dead body in the bathroom.
The party activates the plinth. The walls do not change. The orb rises and shines a diagram on the wall; the plumbing can be controlled from here. There's even hot water! Rutana can detect a whiff of brimstone, heavily filtered, surmising there might be a hell coal somewhere heating the water up.
All the waterways are perfectly clear of all obstruction, and they drain out to the sewer proper. There is a grease trap to catch any object that get washed out.
The party heads to the sewer proper to dig through the grease trap. Within is a bunch of hair, chicken bones, and the glittering red crystal.
The Sprite mage hands the crystal out of the grease trap, cutting off Rutana who was just about to suggest that.
The party now has two matching red crystals. One remains, in the hands of the Jailor.
The party returns to the cultists' lair, gathering about one of the remaining doors they haven't checked yet.
Linden listens at the door, rolling 26 in perception. He hears sobbing, several people crying, and smells flayleaf wafting from under the door.
Linden whispers his findings to Clarence, along with his suspicions that there are hostages in there.
The door is locked, bearing an indent matching a sapphire crystal that Sartorii holds. As soon as she touches the crystal to the lock, the crystal crumbles into dust and the lock clicks open.
Linden peeks in the open door. It's very dark. Around the corner is a flickering candle, and occasional puffs of smoke.
Sartorii, with her dark vision, can see the captives.
Vertical iron bars set close together hem the captives in with a rusty gate, the floor inside covered in stains.
Sartorii rolls 23 to sneak into the room, meeting the Jailor's defending perception roll.
The Jailor is sitting in a chair with his boots up on a table, reading a book by candlelight and smoking a pipe.
Sartorii rolls a 29 to inspect the room; against the wall behind the Jailor are sigils and buttons. Cracks run to the wall near the door and near the cell gate.
At least three of the prisoners are from the Church of Abadar, people the party had sa4ved from The Cube.
Sartorii sneaks closer to the Jailor, drawing her rapier as she goes.
She rolls 28 for attack, dealing 11 damage.
The Jailor startles and immediately slaps a button. A magic circle appears on the north wall, spewing fourth four imps.
Spurred to action by the demons, Alexei casts Runic Weapon on Clarence's claws, giving him a holy manicure.
Rutana casts Exploit Vulnerability on the imps. With a 13, her attacks against imps are magical.
She slips past the party and swings her shortsword at the first imp, cleanly missing.
Rutana finds herself surrounded by imps; one strikes her with its stinger, dealing 5 damage. She passes one fortitude save, but fails the second, getting poisoned.
Linden rolls Arcana to figure out if the imps could be banished, but with a 12 he doesn't see anything.
Another imp swats at Sartorii, she spends a reaction to dodge.
The Sprite zaps a couple imps with Electric Arc, then scoots up behind Linden. He inspects the room with a 25 Arcana roll. He surmises the magic circle on the wall needs some time to recharge, but can summon imps whenever activated after cooldown.
Linden steps forward and casts Puff of Poison, killing one and damaging another.
Sartorii hops up on the Jailor's desk and stabs down at him, hoping to distract him from his buttons.
Her first attack deals 7 damage, and her second misses after spending a hero point to avoid a nat 1.
Clarence steps into the room and claws at one of the imps, dealing 10 damage. He ends turn by raising his shield.
One of the imps swipes as Linden, missing twice.
The Jailor hits another button. The cell bars begin to glow a soft blue. He then attempts to shove Sartorii off the table, knocking her clean off. He jumps atop the table and again shoves her closer to the bars, rolling a crit success.
Electricity races up Sartorii's back, dealing 15 damage.
"Smells like chicken for dinner tonight!"
Meanwhile, Alexei casts his very first attack cantrip! He flings a Divine Lance at the imp assaulting Linden, using a hero point to actually hit, dealing 12 damage. A very pretty rainbow lance skewers the imp, turning it to glitter.
He then rolls religion to recall knowledge about imps. They are weak to holy, resistant to fire, and immune to poison. He shouts for Linden to use something other than poison.
Rutana plays makes volleyballs out of the imps between herself and Clarence.
Her first strike deals 5 damage, eliciting a squeak. Her second and third strikes miss.
One of the imps uses Diabolic Healing to regain 4 health, then turns invisible.
The second imp also turns invisible and flits to the corner of the room. The DM then figures out how to make the imps actually disappear.
The Sprite steps closer behind Linden and casts Electric Arc at the Jailor, dealing 12 damage.
Linden casts Purifying Icicle at the Jailor, dealing 11 damage. He closes out his turn by raising his shield.
Sartorii, a little singed, attempts to stab the Jailor and misses. She runs past him and slaps the electric fence button, turning it off.
With no one else to target, Clarence turns his claws on the Jailor. He misses twice, then raises his shield.
The Jailor hops back and casts Savor the Sting on one of the prisoners. The prisoner takes 1 persistent damage and screams in pain, empowering the Jailor.
He swings his maul at Sartorii, misses.
Alexei casts Faerie Fire, tossing a ball of glitter into the room and revealing the two imps.
Rutana rolls Esoterica to see if she knows anything about the Jailor's spell. She doesn't know much about the spell itself, just that it's stronger than the average Chillaxian cultist, but she can clearly tell by the bruises, burn marks, and scars on the prisoners that this guy likes torture.
She takes up a flanking position beside the Jailor and stabs him, dealing 6 damage. Her second attack misses, also using a hero point to avoid a nat 1. (Lots of those this session!)
The imps, no longer invisible and sad about it, wail about the unfairness.
One stings Clarence, dealing 3 damage.
The other stings Rutana for 2 damage.
Bother Rutana and Clarence pass their saving throws.
An imp stings Clarence again, scoring a crit and dealing 10 damage.
The other imp stings Rutana twice more, dealing 8 more damage. She fails her saving throw and gets poisoned again.
The Sprite casts Electric Arc at the imps, dealing 4 damage to each. He then moves into the room, standing in front of the magic circle.
Linden casts Acid Splash at the imp near Clarence. It deals 3 damage, with 1 persistent, and he raises his shield.
Sartorii stabs at the Jailor, rolling a 1 with no further hero paints left to avert it. She fumbles, smacking her head and falling unconscious until the end of her next turn.
The prisoner takes 4 damage from Savor the Sting, and fails his saving throw.
Clarence swats the nearest imp out of the air, killing it instantly. He then moves down and swats at the imp assailing Rutana, but misses.
Seeing he is surrounded on all sides, the Jailor shouts "Glory to Asmodeus!" and throws a jar of alchemist's fire at his feet. Rutana and Clarence both pass their saving throws, taking 1 damage each. Sartorii and the Jailor takes 2.
"Barnabus will burn if he is not already!" he shouts, then swings his maul madly, hitting nothing but air.
Alexei steps into the room. "I heard explo—oh, oh this is bad, oh there's an imp there!!"
He casts Divine Lance at the remaining imp, missing completely.
Rutana swings twice at the imp annoying her, skewering it on her sword. She stabs at the Jailor with her imp-kebab, but misses.
The Sprite flits further into the room and flings some fire at the Jailor, but misses.
Linden also advances further into the room. "Y'know, I'm pretty sure your god has abandoned you. You could give up if you want, that would be smart."
Regardless, he casts Acid Splash. As the DM is saying "I'll tell you what he says after this hits or misses," Linden rolls a 1.
Hero point.
22, 2 damage and 1 persistent.
The Jailor smiles as the acid sears into his skin. "It shows what someone like you knows. We are exalted in death. This is a test! For my loyalty I will be risen!"
Sartorii wakes up!
The prisoner passes his will save!
Clarence swipes at the Jailor.
1.
Hero point.
Misses with 14, and then 12, and then 20, but at least they aren't 1s.
The Jailor swings wildly at everyone around him, managing only to hit Clarence for 13 damage.
The party descends on the Jailor afterward. He dies smiling.
Alexei casts the three-action Heal, healing everyone in the room for 21.
Next session, Alexei plans to guide the prisoners out of the sewer, taking any excuse to leave.