Never Leave Dry Land (Session 156)

 SESSION 156: The Watcher in the Waters

            Leaving the torture chamber we contemplated departing the city altogether as we were feeling rather flush but that old murderhobo itch is hard to scratch. In the not so distance, beyond a rusted and broken fence, lies a strange cylindrical tower, broader at the base then the top. A weathered stone path encircles it and leads to the top. What the heck? What could go wrong? And so our grimy band made their way to the strange structure and began to ascend the path. Reaching the summit they looked down into the open-topped cylindrical tower. Within it rested the bodies of the dead. 

Even from 75’ up we could see the twinkle of rings, jewels, and other personal belongings of the dead, available to any who were willing to root through the sea of corpses. They were a little hesitant to just jump in. After some experimentation they did observe some writhing from the bodies. “Maybe they is just mostly dead and need some helps?” And so three lines were dropped to the bottom of the chamber and Steve, Biff, Carla, Nara and the thieves made their way down. Touchdown provided that the corpses had moved beyond dead and a legion of them were actually ghouls hungry for hobo. Thirty of them dug up from their cozy corpse bed. Ding-We didn’t like the look of things so he took a risk and called down an ice storm. The ghouls were annihilated at the cost of the loot team getting a little bashed up as well. It was worth it, there was lots of assorted grave goods. 

            During the looting the whole of the group aside from the thieves went down to do the dirty work. Meanwhile Bunny and Rammer stood guard invisibly up top. They spotted something. A dwarf creeping in the general direction of the tower. They went down to see what was up with the bearded runt. They snuck down and confronted the beastie. He was Greymin, the last of an adventuring group and was not all that off balance from the voices without bodies he had seen all sorts of things and he was really preoccupied with finding some precious metal. All dwarf all the time – addicted to mining the good stuff. However, even though he was obsessed he realized that travelling with a group would greatly improve his chances. 

            Finishing the looting, the ever expanding horde pressed on to the next non-descript ruin. It was a chamber that was largely empty except for two large bronze doors installed into the floor with four carved stone light houses set at the points in the back of the ruin. We did not really look closely at anything, so there could have been hints but we will never know. The toughs each grabbed a conveniently placed handle and swung open the doors. It appeared to be a forgotten cellar loaded with barrels, chests and other implements of storage. For some reason Carla decided to toss a light stone in. It disappeared with a plop. “An illusion!” Yes it was. A disgusting slimy tentacled fish-slug like thing with three vertically arranged long red eye slits burst from beyond the broken trap. The fight was on. To make things even better two giant octopi also breached the water and attempted to drag hobos to their doom. No such luck. Our gang survived yet again but more fun was coming. It was felt that there must be loot, “down there somewhere”. Steve, Biff, Rhags and Bunny prepared and then jumped in. Slowly descending by rope they shone their abundant light stones through the inky depths. It would probably have taken some time but Carla’s initial light stone had conveniently or magically landed on the slime-thing’s treasure pile. The divers zeroed in on the loot not noticing the death machine silently gliding by. The final guard or minion of the tentacle blob-thing thing was a giant shark nearly 25’ long and it was insatiable. First Bunny was consumed and resorted to a potion of gaseous form to make her escape. Then Biff was gobbled up as he faced imminent death but got lucky when Rhags was consumed right after and was able to gut the beast to save the two of them. Never get out of the boat. 

Bags were filled and the divers returned to the surface exhausted and bloody. Steve immediately prepared a fire and chopped up a 10’ octopus tentacle to grill up before moving on. 

  

ROLECALL

Carla the Green High Priestess of TMB (C9) 244747 xp +10% <300001> CRT 1d12/III

            Scars: permanent loss left index finger and scarring on arm

Bimbles the High Priest of GSS (C8) 208987 xp +5% <300001> CRT 1d12/III

            Lasting injury: -1 STR, mashed arm

Hobo Steve the Superhero (F8) 206632 xp +5% <240,001> CRT 1d24/V

            Brain Damaged: reduced mental capacity (tough night on the town)

Rahgnar the Dwarven Superhero (D8) 171469 xp <280001> CRT 1d20/IV

            Serious wound: permanent loss of an eye (-1 to missile fire)

            Critical Wound: disembowelled less able to process poison (-1 penalty)  

Raul the Voyager (MD8) 183014 xp +10% <240000> CRT 1d12/III

            Serious wound: permanent loss of CHA -4, 

Removed one of his own nostrils.                               

Ding-We the Peg-Legged Sorcerer (W9) 398764 xp +10% <470001> CRT 1d10/I

            Critical Wound: Left leg obliterated, runs at ½ rate (peg required)

Bunny the Thief! (T9) 178264 xp <280001> +10% CRT 1d20/II

            Light wound: permanent loss of pinky finger, off hand

Ramrod the Cloned Magsman (T8) 112287 xp +5% <160001> CRT 1d20/II

             Serious wound: Bad Back (-1 stone CC)

            Scars: Neurological damage to hip, noticeable limp

            Missing six teeth talks with a lisp

 

            The Henchmen

Saffron the Mad Fairy Queen of Mad Ribbits (FY6) 127186 xp <130001> CRT 1d10/III

            Moderate wound: Scar on abdomen

            Lasting injury: -1 STR, mashed guts

Sloth the Bopper (L7) 135460 xp +10% <178800> CRT 1d20/IV or 1d6/G (vs. s, m)

            Mental Illness: Mummy-a-phobic

Nara the Nearly Naked Purple Siddha Girl (PS7) XXXX xp +5% <66000> CRT 1d6/I

Wraith Drained: -1 CON

Biff Bartley the Half-Orc Blackguard (HO7) 81667 <120000> +5% CRT 1d12/II

Lasting injury: Crushed spinal column -6”H, -5’mv, -10% thieving

Sasha Plasha the Warden (R7) 85567 xp +10% <100000> CRT 1d10/III

Dolec Da the XXXX (F5) XXXXX xp +10% <16000> CRT XXXX

Camillus the Myrmidon (F6)  56120 <65001> +5% CRT 1d16/IV

 

‘BOB’ the Deadly Shade (N7) 59275 <90000> +5% CRT 1d16/II

Felix Ignatius Hemlock the previously Skeletal Sleuth (I7) 42208 <80001> +5% CRT 1d16/II

Mason the Canon of Yrrrg. (C6) 40211 <50001> CRT 1d10/III

Yasser Imaphat the Djinn (D4) 30372 <32501> CRT 1d6/II

Gurn Hammerhand the Dwarven Swordsman (D3)

Wendul the Thaumaturgist (W5)

 

 

RESERVES

Charles in Charge the Myrmidon (F6) 45913 <64000> +10% CRT 1d16/IV

            REMAINING RECUPERATION: 0 DAYS

Critical Wound: Punctured lung (-2 CON) 

            Mostly DEAD. (-1 CON) -ADJUSTMENT REQ’D

            

Boris the Dwarven Lord (D9) 319718 xp +10% <400001> CRT 1d20/IV

            REMAINING RECUPERATION: 4 DAYS

Serious wound: permanent loss of CHA -3, carved up face

            Lasting injury: -1 STR, mashed arm

            Wound: Bad leg (-5’ MV)

            Multiple Injuries: lost 20 teeth, drools a lot CHA -1

            Serious Injury: Brain Drain -2 INT

 

Elapsed Campaign Time

339 days at beginning of session (also applies to recuperation) 

Join us for session One-Hundred-and-Fifty-Seven when we ask the questions:

Do we dare another unique building or even further ruins?

Really, what do we do next?

Tale of the Tape

Team Aquaforce somehow survived being eaten 

We found another Dorf wandering aimlessly in search precious metals

KILLS

Ghouls (30) 

Aboleth

Giant octopus (2) 

Giant Shark 

LOOT

• 1,000 Zaharan gold dodecs 
• 1,000 elven platinum súl 
• 32 various jade carvings of official figures from the Argollëan Empire (200gp each, 1 stone per 5) 
• Carved ivory figurine of a nude elf dancing with silks (1,000gp) 
• black sapphire(1,000gp) 
• facet-cut imperial topaz (4,000gp) 

·       A wrought orichalcum Zaharan prince’s crown (4,000gp)

·       flawless-cut imperial topaz(8,000gp) 

·       platinum reliquary of Zaharan make with stained crystal panes (7,000gp) 

·       gold ring of XXXXX inlaid with giant crab chitin and set with obsidian (apparent value 500gp). 

·       Electrum ring of XXXXX set with a moonstone (apparent value 2,000gp) 

·       Spruce wand of XXXXX with a glowing yellow sphere on the end 

·       twisted darkwood wand of XXXX with a bloodstained tip 

·       A pair of knee-high strappy brown leather boots XXXXX

·       A round shield +1 made of gleaming iron and maple wood colored a deep charcoal 

·       A yew shortbow XXX with a grip of shiny brown leather

·       8 ash arrows XXX with steel tips and red flight feathers 

In total, the treasure in this cavern has a value of 35,000gp and a weight of 14st. 

·       2 pp

·       6000 gp

·       Gems (11) = 1405