Beholder Group - "Awww, a sweet little doggy. SHIT!" - Session 12 Devon's Mission
10th Sep 2019, 7:45 – 11:15pm
In-game timeline: Start of session, 1489DR, Eleasis 2nd. End of session, Eleasis 3rd.
We join our Heroes locked in a prison cell in a town called Flint Rock, accused of something they didn’t do, with a hubbub of unknown origin going on outside.
As they discuss next steps, and work out how to escape their predicament, a very loud “Thud!” is heard from upstairs, and the lone guard, Greyal, heads upstairs to investigate. Devon seizes his chance, summons Nige, and sends Nige out hopping (? Why hopping? He’s an OWL!) into the corridor and round into the now empty office. Nige spots a set of keys hanging on the wall, and with a flourish of great dexterity Nige lifts the keys off their hook and drops them into Devon, who quickly lets himself and the other members of the party out of the cells.
Bumping into a very flustered Greyal, they attempt to convince him to let them help out with the current situation outside – it seems some of the ‘monsters’ in the carnival have escaped and are running riot around town. Greyal is unconvinced, but has bigger problems, so, after they all failed in their attempts to open the front door which has become blocked by the large stone statue that was originally in the town square, he just left them to their own devices – he was unable to do much to stop them on his own anyway.
The party release Erky and tell him that he should come with them, and not to try to escape. They head down into the dungeons, after recovering their possessions, and a sewer map from Wendel, who they leave in his cell – he has no desire to escape.
They find the execution chamber – a dark, oppressive place that smells of death – and walk in on The Executioner, who was sitting reading a comic, or ogre-porn, depending on your point of view. The Executioner challenges them, but with some skilled negotiating, the party manage to convince him that they are authorised to be there, and that the guards need his help upstairs. The Executioner grabs his great axe and rushes upstairs to help, leaving the party alone in the execution chamber.
They move the execution block aside and find the grate into the sewers. Lifting the grate they lower a rope and slowly climb into the sewer area, Devon managing to recover the rope afterwards using his mage hand.
In the sewers they are surprised to come across Ripley, a human female bearing a glaive, who has apparently chased a Halfling into the sewers after it stole her money. The party explain that they are trying to get out of the Stockade but that the front door is barred, so they have come into the sewers. No mention is made that they were locked up in the Stockade, though later conversations amongst the group do seem to imply this.
Alwaith is convinced that the evil in the town, and possibly the cause of Wendel’s behaviour, originated in the Chadstone Manor region, and wants to head in that direction. The others eventually agree and, after failing to open the door to the north, Ripley and Drogan head across to the island in the middle of the stream running through the sewers. When they arrive, they feel the ground begin to shake, and two large insects burst out from the ground in front of them!
Deciding the insects are not friendly, despite no indication one way or another, they attack the insects. Devon manages to take one out before they get a chance to attack, but the other gets a nasty bite on Riply, injecting acid into the wound. As Ripley retaliates, the ground shakes even more and suddenly a much larger version of the young insects emerges in front of Drogan and squirts acid in his direction, hitting him before he has a chance to rage. Drogan gets his own back though and, now raging, smashes it with his axe. Some hefty hits from the rest of the group – including an impressive strike from Erky who is throwing a kitchen knife – take down both the adult and the young insects, though not before the young one gets another hit on Ripley – Dwarrow quickly gives her some healing after the fight.
Deciding not to press on in that direction, and now having it confirmed that the symbols on the sewer map may relate to “Here Be Monsters!” instructions, the party once again try the door to the north – this time armed with a vial of acid that Devon managed to dexterously extract from the insect using his invisible mage hand. The acid makes short work of the lock on the door and they head into the corridor beyond.
Devon summons Nige again and sends him off to investigate the area to the west. Nige manages to fly straight into a large spider’s web, despite his good perception ability! Before Nige can struggle too much and warn whatever owns the web, Devon dismissed Nige back into this other plane. The party decide to give that area a miss.
Instead they head to the latrine area. Dwarrow is keen to try to find the lost mayoral chain of office, believing it to be somewhere in this area. It is however a large, dirty and smelly area, so he first tries detect magic, which shows up nothing of any use. He is ready to get on his hands and knees and search the shit-covered area by hand when Drogan convinces the group to instead press on and the head across the stream and towards Chadstone Manor.
As they progress, the whole party get an uneasy feeling – a sense of dread, and whispers in their heads – but no other effects are felt. They come to a gate with a pick and hammer motif in wrought iron. The gate has a lock, but it seems to be broken. They push through and Drogan decides to stealthily enter the area without a torch to investigate in advance. He sees some alcoves leading off of a large cave, a couple of which have bars and iron gates, and a raised area with crates and tables. He reports back to the others and they push in.
As they approach the raised area, suddenly two naked human males appear at the bars into one of the alcoves, looking hungry and scared, and asking to be let out. They explain that they were captured from the woods the night before by a pale dwarf and brought here. Alwaith thinks that these are the people plotting to ambush them from the campsite that they discovered the night before. After they interrogate them a little, but learn very little, the party decide to intimidate them to shut them up – which Alwaith manages by revealing his true, pale, scarred half-elven form - and throw them their clothes that they find nearby.
Investigating the crates and cages, they spot what seems to be a dog in one of the cages. As Drogan approaches it, it wakes and throws itself at the bars, revealing itself as not a dog, but a two-legged creature that is mostly mouth and teeth. Drogan kills it through the bars of the cage, shutting it up. The rest of the area seems to be a crude laboratory of sorts, and, when Devon unlocks a drawer in the table, Alwaith finds a basic lab journal confirming this. The journal mentions experiments, creatures called the wretched, and someone or something named Goldie. Alwaith tells the rest of the group that he knows that the Chadstones were attacked a number of years ago by Orcs, and Lady Chadstone was killed. He wonders if Lord Chadstone has been doing some sort of weird experimentation since then. Drogan is pissed off that Alwaith kept all this to himself all evening. Alwaith retorts that if Drogan didn’t manage to hack off every member of the public that he came across, maybe he would learn useful stuff too. The rest of the group drew up chairs and popcorn to watch the show. Everyone then calmed down a little, and went back to threatening the locked up humans instead.
As Dwarrow checks out the trapdoor at the top of a set of stairs, Drogan heads to the other barred alcove, which doesn’t seem to be locked, but is instead tied shut. Spotting some sort of creature in the darkness at the back, but not being able to see it properly, Drogan and Ripley head in, and are promptly attacked by a group of six of the same creatures as that in the cage. Three of them latch on to Drogan, causing significant biting and necrotic damage, though luckily Drogan managed to rage before they did this, and so managed to resist some of the damage – ensuring he didn’t fall unconscious from the bites.
The party slowly picked off the creatures one by one. When there were just three left, in an attempt to stop Drogan from being bitten again, Devon cast color spray, managing to blind all the remaining creatures, but also catching Drogan in the spray and, with Drogan on reduced health, also blinded Drogan too! The creatures, including Drogan, flailed around wildly, though the barbarian still managed to kill a creature even in his blinded state. The rest of the group finished off the last of the creatures whilst Alwaith commented from the far end of the cave that he hadn’t even been hit at all.
A very battered and bruised Drogan, with rotten flesh dripping from his bites, and a slightly battered Ripley, with acid dripping from hers were keen to have a brief rest to heal up a little. As they rested, a voice again came from way back in the room exclaiming that he’d never been with a party that rested so much! Alwaith dusted off a small piece of dirt from his otherwise pristine armour and he tried to remember how to cast a real spell, as Drogan and Ripley tended their deep wounds - physical and mental.
What to do with the human prisoners was discussed at length. ‘Softee’ Dwarrow and Ripley were keen to let them go, or at least to separate them in case one tried to eat the other. Alwaith and Drogan, in agreement for a change, wanted to keep them locked up and didn’t care much if one ate the other. Devon just sat and played with his two sets of manacles that he took from the stockade. Eventually it was decided to manacle each one to the bars on opposite cages. The humans weren’t happy, but were in no state to argue. We will see if anyone remembers to unmanacle them before they starve to death in a sewer.
And so we leave our Heroes ready to head into the area above, probably Chadstone Manor, not knowing what they face, but with thoughts of undead, necromantic magic and strange feelings and voices in their heads…..
In-game timeline: Start of session, 1489DR, Eleasis 2nd. End of session, Eleasis 3rd.
We join our Heroes locked in a prison cell in a town called Flint Rock, accused of something they didn’t do, with a hubbub of unknown origin going on outside.
As they discuss next steps, and work out how to escape their predicament, a very loud “Thud!” is heard from upstairs, and the lone guard, Greyal, heads upstairs to investigate. Devon seizes his chance, summons Nige, and sends Nige out hopping (? Why hopping? He’s an OWL!) into the corridor and round into the now empty office. Nige spots a set of keys hanging on the wall, and with a flourish of great dexterity Nige lifts the keys off their hook and drops them into Devon, who quickly lets himself and the other members of the party out of the cells.
Bumping into a very flustered Greyal, they attempt to convince him to let them help out with the current situation outside – it seems some of the ‘monsters’ in the carnival have escaped and are running riot around town. Greyal is unconvinced, but has bigger problems, so, after they all failed in their attempts to open the front door which has become blocked by the large stone statue that was originally in the town square, he just left them to their own devices – he was unable to do much to stop them on his own anyway.
The party release Erky and tell him that he should come with them, and not to try to escape. They head down into the dungeons, after recovering their possessions, and a sewer map from Wendel, who they leave in his cell – he has no desire to escape.
They find the execution chamber – a dark, oppressive place that smells of death – and walk in on The Executioner, who was sitting reading a comic, or ogre-porn, depending on your point of view. The Executioner challenges them, but with some skilled negotiating, the party manage to convince him that they are authorised to be there, and that the guards need his help upstairs. The Executioner grabs his great axe and rushes upstairs to help, leaving the party alone in the execution chamber.
They move the execution block aside and find the grate into the sewers. Lifting the grate they lower a rope and slowly climb into the sewer area, Devon managing to recover the rope afterwards using his mage hand.
In the sewers they are surprised to come across Ripley, a human female bearing a glaive, who has apparently chased a Halfling into the sewers after it stole her money. The party explain that they are trying to get out of the Stockade but that the front door is barred, so they have come into the sewers. No mention is made that they were locked up in the Stockade, though later conversations amongst the group do seem to imply this.
Alwaith is convinced that the evil in the town, and possibly the cause of Wendel’s behaviour, originated in the Chadstone Manor region, and wants to head in that direction. The others eventually agree and, after failing to open the door to the north, Ripley and Drogan head across to the island in the middle of the stream running through the sewers. When they arrive, they feel the ground begin to shake, and two large insects burst out from the ground in front of them!
Deciding the insects are not friendly, despite no indication one way or another, they attack the insects. Devon manages to take one out before they get a chance to attack, but the other gets a nasty bite on Riply, injecting acid into the wound. As Ripley retaliates, the ground shakes even more and suddenly a much larger version of the young insects emerges in front of Drogan and squirts acid in his direction, hitting him before he has a chance to rage. Drogan gets his own back though and, now raging, smashes it with his axe. Some hefty hits from the rest of the group – including an impressive strike from Erky who is throwing a kitchen knife – take down both the adult and the young insects, though not before the young one gets another hit on Ripley – Dwarrow quickly gives her some healing after the fight.
Deciding not to press on in that direction, and now having it confirmed that the symbols on the sewer map may relate to “Here Be Monsters!” instructions, the party once again try the door to the north – this time armed with a vial of acid that Devon managed to dexterously extract from the insect using his invisible mage hand. The acid makes short work of the lock on the door and they head into the corridor beyond.
Devon summons Nige again and sends him off to investigate the area to the west. Nige manages to fly straight into a large spider’s web, despite his good perception ability! Before Nige can struggle too much and warn whatever owns the web, Devon dismissed Nige back into this other plane. The party decide to give that area a miss.
Instead they head to the latrine area. Dwarrow is keen to try to find the lost mayoral chain of office, believing it to be somewhere in this area. It is however a large, dirty and smelly area, so he first tries detect magic, which shows up nothing of any use. He is ready to get on his hands and knees and search the shit-covered area by hand when Drogan convinces the group to instead press on and the head across the stream and towards Chadstone Manor.
As they progress, the whole party get an uneasy feeling – a sense of dread, and whispers in their heads – but no other effects are felt. They come to a gate with a pick and hammer motif in wrought iron. The gate has a lock, but it seems to be broken. They push through and Drogan decides to stealthily enter the area without a torch to investigate in advance. He sees some alcoves leading off of a large cave, a couple of which have bars and iron gates, and a raised area with crates and tables. He reports back to the others and they push in.
As they approach the raised area, suddenly two naked human males appear at the bars into one of the alcoves, looking hungry and scared, and asking to be let out. They explain that they were captured from the woods the night before by a pale dwarf and brought here. Alwaith thinks that these are the people plotting to ambush them from the campsite that they discovered the night before. After they interrogate them a little, but learn very little, the party decide to intimidate them to shut them up – which Alwaith manages by revealing his true, pale, scarred half-elven form - and throw them their clothes that they find nearby.
Investigating the crates and cages, they spot what seems to be a dog in one of the cages. As Drogan approaches it, it wakes and throws itself at the bars, revealing itself as not a dog, but a two-legged creature that is mostly mouth and teeth. Drogan kills it through the bars of the cage, shutting it up. The rest of the area seems to be a crude laboratory of sorts, and, when Devon unlocks a drawer in the table, Alwaith finds a basic lab journal confirming this. The journal mentions experiments, creatures called the wretched, and someone or something named Goldie. Alwaith tells the rest of the group that he knows that the Chadstones were attacked a number of years ago by Orcs, and Lady Chadstone was killed. He wonders if Lord Chadstone has been doing some sort of weird experimentation since then. Drogan is pissed off that Alwaith kept all this to himself all evening. Alwaith retorts that if Drogan didn’t manage to hack off every member of the public that he came across, maybe he would learn useful stuff too. The rest of the group drew up chairs and popcorn to watch the show. Everyone then calmed down a little, and went back to threatening the locked up humans instead.
As Dwarrow checks out the trapdoor at the top of a set of stairs, Drogan heads to the other barred alcove, which doesn’t seem to be locked, but is instead tied shut. Spotting some sort of creature in the darkness at the back, but not being able to see it properly, Drogan and Ripley head in, and are promptly attacked by a group of six of the same creatures as that in the cage. Three of them latch on to Drogan, causing significant biting and necrotic damage, though luckily Drogan managed to rage before they did this, and so managed to resist some of the damage – ensuring he didn’t fall unconscious from the bites.
The party slowly picked off the creatures one by one. When there were just three left, in an attempt to stop Drogan from being bitten again, Devon cast color spray, managing to blind all the remaining creatures, but also catching Drogan in the spray and, with Drogan on reduced health, also blinded Drogan too! The creatures, including Drogan, flailed around wildly, though the barbarian still managed to kill a creature even in his blinded state. The rest of the group finished off the last of the creatures whilst Alwaith commented from the far end of the cave that he hadn’t even been hit at all.
A very battered and bruised Drogan, with rotten flesh dripping from his bites, and a slightly battered Ripley, with acid dripping from hers were keen to have a brief rest to heal up a little. As they rested, a voice again came from way back in the room exclaiming that he’d never been with a party that rested so much! Alwaith dusted off a small piece of dirt from his otherwise pristine armour and he tried to remember how to cast a real spell, as Drogan and Ripley tended their deep wounds - physical and mental.
What to do with the human prisoners was discussed at length. ‘Softee’ Dwarrow and Ripley were keen to let them go, or at least to separate them in case one tried to eat the other. Alwaith and Drogan, in agreement for a change, wanted to keep them locked up and didn’t care much if one ate the other. Devon just sat and played with his two sets of manacles that he took from the stockade. Eventually it was decided to manacle each one to the bars on opposite cages. The humans weren’t happy, but were in no state to argue. We will see if anyone remembers to unmanacle them before they starve to death in a sewer.
And so we leave our Heroes ready to head into the area above, probably Chadstone Manor, not knowing what they face, but with thoughts of undead, necromantic magic and strange feelings and voices in their heads…..