Session 50 - You Don't Know Who You're F*****g With!

Wed 3rd Nov 20:15 - 23:45

In-game timeline: Nightal 17 - Nightal 17 DR1489

Our "Heroes" finish a short rest after a brief, but damaging, battle with a patch of moss. They spend a while looking around and spot some tracks heading northeast, as well as some older tracks heading northwest across the subterranean river. They decide to follow the freshest tracks across the water.

After some walking and scouting through some tunnels and caverns, with the density of spores getting less and less making it a little easier to breathe and to see, they spot light coming from a fire up ahead.

Devon scouts and sees a campsite, with a camp fire and a number of tents. There are some creatures looking a little like live versions of the body they found, and burnt, earlier, all seemingly busy around the camp. As Devon tries to get closer to get a better view, he seems to be spotted, so he calls the others over to join him.

The group put away their weapons and approach the camp. A voice, in broken common, tells them in no uncertain terms to stop and to go away. It states that this is a dead end, and that they have no reason to be here and so should leave. Unsurprisingly, Drogan ignores them and continues to approach, telling them that they don't know who they're fucking with - which is quite true, to be fair. He sees three of the creatures standing near to the campfire, watching him, armed with crossbows. When he ignores their second (and it turns out, final) warning to leave, he is rewarded with three crossbow bolts being fired in his direction. This does not deter the party and they draw their weapons.

The battle that ensues is quite drawn out. Our "Heroes seem to be fighting a number of these small creatures, who hide around the larger mushrooms and rocks in the area, making them tough to hit. Drogan, who is marching boldly into the camp takes the brunt of the initial volley of crossbow bolts, and since has not yet been able to rage, is quite damaged by them. The rest of the party run to hide around the cavern and there follows a sequence of pot-shots being taken in both directions.

As one of the creatures runs to engage Drogan, he soon realises how bad an idea this is as he is stuck down quite quickly by Drogan, aided by Devon. At this point, however, a lightning bolt shoots from behind a large mushroom and fires towards Devon and Drogan. Both manage to dodge, but Drogan takes a hit from the lightning.

Suddenly a large, Frankenstein's-monster type creature, which reminds them of Beryl from the ruins of An-Sen, appears right in front of Devon and slams into him, causing significant damage. The response is swift and hard, from both Drogan and Devon, who both score critical hits on the creature. It is badly damaged, but still standing.

While Dwarrow continues to take successful pot-shots at the small creatures from his elevated position on a rocky shelf, another bolt of lightning shoots out from behind the large mushroom, striking Drogan and the large, patchworked monster. Drogan takes more lightning damage, but the creature seems to absorb the lightning strike and heal himself from the delivered energy. It gives him a boost and he scores a critical hit on Drogan, managing to smash Cleave from Drogan's hand and knock it away.

At this point, however, the tide turns in favour of the party. Even with an injured Devon and a very injured Drogan, the party manage to start taking out the smaller creatures. Dwarrow sends his spiritual weapon over to help take out the large monster, with Alwaith managing to score the final blow.

The remaining smaller creatures are falling fast, and the spellcaster that was behind the large mushroom seems to run away, disappearing from everyone's view, not to be seen again. The last remaining small dwarf-like creature decides to flee, seeing all his friends taken down, but an invisible Devon appears behind him and gouges him in the back with a magical dagger, mercilessly killing him before he could escape back to his young family and two pet puppies, who are all now likely to starve, resulting in a slow, lingering death now that poor Daddy has been taken from them.

Business as usual, the party search around for the spellcaster, but there is no sign. Dwarrow searches the tents and finds some bluecap mushrooms - more than they currently have, but still not as many as they hoped to bring back. Drogan (surprise, surprise) burns the large flesh-monster's carcass, and then rigs up a simple trap around the crudely piled-up bodies of the smaller creatures, leaving a nasty surprise in the event that the spellcaster returns to check on them.

Seeing that this area is in fact a dead-end, and that the only obvious exit is back the way they came, the group decide to have another short rest - their second of the day - to regain a little more health. They then head back out of this area, following the faint and fading tracks of the spellcaster, they believe.

They eventually get back to the river, and decide that for completeness, they should check out the purple fungi to the southeast. Drogan, still quite injured and exhausted, stands guard by a narrow passage while the other three head into the area to see if there are any tunnels leading from this area. They find no tunnels or other exits, but they do find some violet, and violent, fungi that seem to lash out at them with necrotic tendrils. They don't do much damage, but there does seem to be a lot of these mushrooms around, all now starting to move slowly towards them, so the group decide to make a hasty exit, moaning about how dangerous it is down here.

And so we leave our "Heroes" deciding to follow the track northwest, following the edge of the river, hoping to perhaps one day meet something down here that isn’t out to kill them. It seems unlikely.