Tuesday 19 March 2024

Session 368 - Sydney Undying

Date: 5 March

Moon: Waning Crescent
Zenith: The Lady


New Backstory:
- Hagan the Heretic pissed off a vampire by acting like a vampire hunter! Alas, he had to kill the vampire anyway. At will, cause a creature to prioritise you.
- Divinity adopted the stray dog she now brings with her everywhere! Pet beasts cannot break morale.


Events:

--- Ancient Grains
- Our heroes are deep inside Dwimmermount beholding the great pile of loot they won last session. Job well done! Divinity's dog Giuseppi sniffs around their feet.
- Sydney's prime directive is to seize this room with their new spell - Sydney's Stolen Sanctum - and add it to their extradimensional flat.
- But first they check out the next room. It's a supply room! Barrels of old flat beer, but also crates of ancient grain!
- Hagan needs to get blackout drunk to unlock a lorebond inside his Dwarven soul, so heaves a barrel of beer and guzzles it with gusto. Within minutes he now absolutely wasted. Look at that Dwarf metabolism go!!
- Sydney and Divinity roll the barrels and crates into the treasure hall, then they leave so Sydney can steal the place!

--- Black Ooze
- Sydney casts and... the room is NOT stolen. Instead the contents quadruple in size! Those are some big coins and some massive millet!
- To safely cast again Sydney needs to meditate for a bit. Luckily the next room is a sitting room, it's even got a fireplace. They settle into comfy chairs and Sydney starts rerouting Chaos in their head.
- Divinity takes the opportunity to root around the room, finding some scrolls! Hagan takes the opportunity to blearily stare at the ceiling. Giuseppi the dog takes the opportunity to curl up by the fire.
- Before Sydney can clinch the spell, the door bursts open! Outside, squelching in, is some sort of darkened glop. Divinity sees it and jumps off her chair. Hagan turns in his chair and shrieks! That's a Black Pudding!
- The shriek draws its attention and it pummels him, rotting his armour. Sydney gets slapped too, silver suit melting away at its touch! That's no good!
- Thinking quickly, Sydney fast-casts Stolen Sanctum. They're all teleported to the flat, including the ooze!
- They flee into the flat, Divinity heading straight for Jojo's old room. Inside she finds exactly what she after - a bead.
- She returns in time to see the Black Pudding digest a coatrack and chucks the bead straight at it! Dead hit! The Black Pudding vanishes!

--- Least Relaxing Yoga Retreat Ever
- Somewhere in the Wheatlands the Black Pudding emerges from an identical bead in the middle of Jojo's yoga class.
- On the plus side, dead people can't ask for refunds.

--- But I Always Lock That Door!
- Back in the extradimensional flat, they've discovered that somehow Giuseppe got into Sydney's bedroom and peed on everything. 
- At least there's a kitchen to use! Sydney cooks and calls the dish CaGeOl - it's Worm, Millet, Ale, Deep One, Wine. It's actually pretty tasty!
- Hagen reads his book, The Nature of Pre-Birth, over the evening. Apparently the nature of pre-birth is to be a quasi-soul in a world of pure contentment.

--- Strange Visions
- The next day, Sydney goes and finally finally manages to actually steal that treasure hall. It's zero gravity in there, plus enormous. Oh yea it's blitzball time.
- They catch up with the others who have found a ratman leaving a toilet. He seems nice enough, but heavily mercury poisoned.
- They continue and find stairs down! Alas, only a short set of stairs.
- At an intersection they inspect their options - one direction has a high-pitched whine, the other has a sweet mural of Terms Termax holding a lantern as demons cavort and wail before him.
- Sweet mural it is! There are even mysterious red-lensed glasses. Put them on and the mural animates, demon's souls swirl in multicoloured traceries into his lantern. It's beautiful, captivating...
- Hagen's too hungover for this so takes off the glasses. Divinity is not so lucky, gawping at the colours. Literally entranced. Hagen puts them back on and sees... understanding! He can now identify demon powers!
- They put Jojo on the cart while she's zonked out and continue, passing by the corpse (or maybe shed shell?) of a large stag beetle. There are whining voices ahead! Time to see who they are.

--- Mosquito Men!
- In the room are squat little men with big noses so thin and pointy they're like mosquitoes! They're grumbling to themselves about something or other. They say they'll be nice and only take one life from the party - they've got to at least show they've done some work for their master - Buzzlebreb the Boozler.
- Negotiations break down. Good thing Hagen now has a demon-sense. These are offcuts of a Sloth Demon and they teleport on miss!
- Sydney starts to cast Sudden Siege Engine and the others charge into battle! They keep missing and the little demons keep teleporting! Giuseppe the dog is murdered by mosquito nose, dog-soul sucked into the demon's mouth.
- Hagan gets hit by a crit and is blasted down the nearby stairs, rolling to a stop in the next room - some kind of alchemists' lab.

--- Sydney Sundered
- Several come for Sydney, knocking the spell, causing a Chaos Burst that makes them unable to speak.
- Then swiftly, mercilessly, they tear Sydney to shreds.

--- Sydney Returned!
- But what's this? A flash of light, a whiff of cocaine! Sydney is... back?!
- They're covered in loose flesh like a wolverine. The cocaine heart of a Red Elf has revived them!
- The demon mosquito men rear back in shock. Another demon? But how??
- The demons retreat, buzzing through the air to report all this to their master. They take the dog's soul with them as a final cruelty.

--- Alchemy
- Divinity, somewhat shellshocked, follows the now mutated Sydney down to the alchemist lab.
- There's a big table, various reagents, and a big stone head of Terms Termax in a sort of altar-alcove. Also, proper stairs down!
- The head demands reagents and Hagen discovers it's a potion maker! He puts some random alchemical reagants on a big spoon, it snorts it up, and the timepiece on its neck starts ticking down!

--- Fire in the Hole
- While that's going, some big stag beetles attack from the stairwell! Compared to the mosquito guys these little dudes are easy. A vial of acid from Divinity weakens their carapaces, a magic missile blast from Sydney hurts them badly, and they are soon dead.
- They hear a groan of satisfaction from behind them. The head has finished brewing the potion! It's even labelled - a Potion of Hope.
- It's such a cool room, Sydney just HAS to have it! They cast Stolen Sanctum and... BOOM!
- The contents of the room are ejected and on fire! The massive round table blasts over the top of the stairs, rolling on its side!
- Record Scratch. Freeze Frame. We end the session wondering how they get into this situation!

Total: 11000 exp


Enemies Defeated:
- A Black Pudding, technically (1000 exp)
- Stag beetles, handily (200 exp)
Total: 1200 exp


Treasures Seized:
- Millet (embiggened)
- Flat old beer (embiggened)
- Scroll #690 - Word Salad
- Scroll #6115 - Absorb Potion
- Scroll #6153
- Potion #2121 - Potion of Hope


Exp Totals:
- Carter / Sydney, Level 8 Magic-User: 144341 (Level up at 288000)
Level Up! +1d4 HP! +1 to Saves! +1 Mana! +Free Spell! +Backstory!
- George / Hagen the Heretic, Level 6 Dwarf: 39372 (Level up at 64000)
- Ollie / Divinity, Level 5 Battle-Cleric: 32185 (Level up at 36000)



























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