Session 379 - War Crimes Good Times

Date: 16 July

Moon: Waxing Gibbous
Zenith: Alaunus

--- A Surfeit of Frogs

- We begin at the cliffhanger! But for real this time!
- It is the fourth floor of Dwimmermount where all the stuff from the Foundry gets teleported to. Glass boxes built into the walls contain strange plants and creatures. Lights flicker.
- Sydney is midair in the middle of the room, grabbed by a sticky hand-tipped tongue, flying towards a the mouth of a giant four-eyed frog monster. Sydney is looking back across the room at the opposite barricade behind which swole unicorn-men are aghast.

- Aximander acts quickly and casts Shackle to the Earth. Sydney is abruptly on the ground, chained to the floor! Hagan follows up by setting the frog monster barricade alight!

- The frog monsters pull back from their burning barricade. Sydney stands... and vanishes! It's been too long since they said the phrase, so they've vanished into the teleport maze!

--- Deep Negotiation

- Hagan, who knows Deep One like most people apparently, tries to negotiate with the frog monsters.

- They say that they require the God Parts and Azoth because they want to create a Frog God who can clean the waters of in their part of the sea. A full third of the ocean is still blood, you'll remember, as a result of the closely averted apocalypse.

- Hagen counters that there are big ol' pyramids out to the east which can clean the ocean. Maybe they use that technology instead? It's been proven to work already!

- Hagen also gets some good info. It turns out the the God Parts themselves don't teleport, which is why it's so hard to fight over them. There's also a faction of Unicorn Men, and a relatively neutral faction of Ratmen who aren't taking sides. 19 God Parts to collect in total, and most of them under the control of the Deep Ones.

--- Split Session

- Sydney is alone in one of the teleport maze zones, and oh shit! There's a beautiful women here! Her pheremones suffuse the air... but Sydney resists!
- With nobody around to worry about insta-killing, Sydney snap-casts Cloudkill! The woman chokes... and vanishes. Too long in the teleportation zone sucker!

- Muttering the safety phrase "Ave Vespusian", Sydney inspects the double doors out of here. There is a map carved into the wall! Sydney gets their bearings...

--- Real Succubus Hours

- Aximander and Hagen, meanwhile, have bartered their way into past the frog monsters with the promise that they can solve the situation diplomatically.
- The frogs follow warily as the two adventurers approach tall industrial doors at the end of the corridor, a straight shot from the elevator if this teleport maze wasn't quite so in the way.
- They enter the tall cylindrical chamber cautiously. In the centre is a wide pentagram, and within is a winged frog woman! They've both plugged their noses against the pheremones, so the frog woman pouts.
- It quickly becomes apparent that this is no frog lady, 'tis a demon! Specifically her name is Melissia and she was summoned here by a cut-rate wizard ages ago, like two decades if you can believe it. He summoned her, felt a rumble, went up to check out the end of the world, and never returned! She's been trapped here since.
- In the mean time she's allied with the frog monsters, who believe her to be a queen frog or something, and has been helping them by pushing the God Parts out of the summoning circle for them to take. She can't leave though, and is hoping they'll let her out soon.
- She also knows how the frog monsters breed! Eggs that sink to crushing depths hatch into male Deep Ones. Eggs eaten by another creature eventually become female Mermaids. They have got some sort of brood-mare somewhere that's hatching them without the crushing depths being necessary though...

--- Sydney's War Crimes 2: Frog in a Pot Edition

- MeanwhileSydney has worked out exactly where they are! More importantly, they know that beyond the nearby submarine hatch door there must be a whole bunch of frog monsters!
- They draw a sigil on the door - Turn Heat-Heat - and fire up the metal until it's white hot. Those frogs are going to boil!

--- Marine Politics

- The others have negotiated with the demon to strike a deal. Aximander will grant her freedom, but in exchange she must bring them four God Parts.

- She tries to wriggle out of it by giving them a fake name, but Aximander's Elf abilities let him get the real name out of her - Dezriuth'uth.

- True names exchanged, the deal is struck! They break the pentagram and she whizzes away in a puff of smoke!

- The frog monsters are very surprised at this, of course. They explain that the Frog God idea wasn't even theirs, but aquapolitically they agree with the idea of cleaning the ocean. It's a great bargaining chip with other subnautical polities.

--- Strongus Amongus

- Finally the pair decide to go to the Unicorn Men and see if they can negotiate for these God Parts. The core conflict has been them versus the frog monsters, you see.

- The frog monsters make a path through their barricades and our heroes stride heroically in! There they are confronted with an unusually posh and snobby unicorn man who declares that the unicorn men are open for bargaining!

Total: 8000 exp

Enemies:

- Some frog monsters (150 exp)

Total: 150 exp

Exp Totals:

- Carter / Sydney, Level 8 Magic-User: 202959 (Level up at 288000)

- Kitty / Julian & Aximander, Level 7 Languid Wastrel: 117335 (Level up at 144000)

- George / Hagen the Heretic, Level 7 Dwarf: 95207 (Level up at 128000)

Session 379 - Vespjulian the Ninth God

Date: Never

Moon: Waxing Crescent
Zenith: Alaunus

New Characters:

- Janus, a Cleric who worships the ancient arts of POWERLAD rather than the man-become-dragon-become-god Himself. Was once a management consultant of niche renown.

Events:

--- A Surfeit of Frogs

- We begin at the cliffhanger! It is the fourth floor of Dwimmermount where all the stuff from the Foundry gets teleported to. Glass boxes built into the walls contain strange plants and creatures. Lights flicker.
- Sydney is midair in the middle of the room, grabbed by a sticky hand-tipped tongue, flying towards a froggy doom. Sydney is looking back across the room at the opposite barricade behind which swole unicorn-men look in shock.

- Sydney lands in the jaws of a huge toad and the foam-flecked teeth BITE. Stun poison! He screams but does not struggle.

- Aximander leaps into action, bounding over the unicorn barricade, begins summoning a beam of fire  and.. forgets to say the activation phrase that disables the teleport maze. He vanishes!

--- Unicornucopia

- The Swolicorns are not so foolish. They yell "Ave Vespusian!" as they leap over the barricade, run across the room, and leap across the enemy frog barricade into battle!
- The frogman attacking Sydney is slain instantly by a brutal unicorn horn to the heart! Sydney drops and considers how much pain poison is running through his veins. One move and he could pass out instantly.

- The frogmen retreat, croaking their dismay. The Swolicorns roar in victory!
- Razylymvaer in Sydney's head says "oh ho ho, you're weak aren't you? Just relax, we've got this". Sydney's slime familiar opens up into a smile...

--- Bifurcation 

- Aximander is alone. Truly alone. There's not even the hint of Julian inside him. What has happened?
- Floating next to him, an orb of light. It's... Julian?
- They talk for a while. Julian is fine with Aximander being the body's owner, he just wants a body himself.

- Aximander puts the floating orb onto his flaming sword where it turns into a huge uncut ruby. They're a team for now.

- An extradimensional door opens next to Aximander - inside is Elf Sydney! In fact, many Elf Sydneys! It's the Safe Space of the Sydnot. Aximander enters cautiously.

--- My Mental Roommate

- Meanwhile Sydney is well fucked up. The unicorn-men convey him safely back to to Vespusian and lay him on the altar that Vespusian once rested on (it's the only place to lie down).
- Sydney is offered the blessing of the purple rags. They try to speak... but their mouth moves on its own! They - he - Razylymvaer, speaks through Sydney's mouth! "Grant me the blessing, mummy-man!".

- Sydney passes out, but his body yet moves. Bandages dripping with eldritch purple gunk are wrapped around his damaged limbs.

--- The Sydnot

- Aximander meets the Sydnot, the council of Sydneys, and gets on well because they are all Elves. They collectively trash talk Sydney, a mere mortal. Gifflewim is there too because he loves an Elf party.

- They discuss the now ruby-form Julian. Gifflewim offers to trade for him, but Aximander has cold feet. There's got to be something weird with someone else owning your former self's soul, right?

- They agree that the Gods shutting off magic has got to be a bad thing, since they're all Elves and all. There are like a thousand Sydneys in here, so they agree to help collect the scattered God Parts.

--- Reunion!

- Aximander leaves the extradimensional council chamber at the head of a horde of Sydneys! He once again forgot to tell them about the teleport maze password, so they start teleporting all over the place!
- Luckily Aximander himself is warped back to the start point.

- He meets back up with Sydney, who is now wrapped in purple bandages. Next to him is a rather naked mummified Vespusian who insists the bandages will "grow back".
- Sydney also wants to be referred to with he/him pronouns now and keeps burping out fire. Aximander takes it in stride.

--- Launch! Launch!

- Without any effort from our heroes at all, the Sydneys have managed to collect all the God Parts! Unfortunately they may have triggered a new portal to the eternal depths of the ocean through which an incredible amount of frogspawn and frog-men have burst through.
- There is SO much water, but it's being weirdly messed with by the teleport maze, as though the ocean itself is a sentient thing which is getting teleported around!

- No time to lose! They hoof it to the elevator! Vespusian is coming with, he might be some sort of magical mummy but he certainly doesn't want to face the wrath of the sea!

--- Sacrificial Dragon

- They drag all the parts into the lift and - on no! - someone needs to be in the control room to activate it!

- Sydney growls out that he will volunteer! He is a dragon after all! Aximander finally "realises" that this isn't Sydney at all, but Razylymvaer in Sydney's body! Razylymvaer throws the slime familiar to Aximander, and sees that Sydney's soul has been transferred in there!

- Razylymvaer goes into the control room and salutes, slamming the button that closes the door. It's JUST in time! The ocean crashes against the elevator door... but it holds!
- Sadly approximately 10000 Sydney-Elves are immediately killed by the pressure and/or lack of oxygen as the sea smooshes them all into a big Sydney pancake.

--- All Hail the New God

- They shoot up the shaft to the top floor of Dwimmermount! The ocean slowly rising below as it starts to work its way through the plug of Elf bodies.

- Handily, the systems up here are all automated! Whirring waldoes emerge from the walls and take the God Parts away.
- Aximander follows, Julian in his sword and Slime Sydney on his back, all the way to the launch chamber!
- The Seraphim is complete! All that remains is to upload a mind...
- Sydney gloopily tries to cast Safe Space... but cannot! There's no access to the Old Miner! How are they going to manage this?

- Vespusian steps forward. He was a great technologian in the past, and he studied the Gods closely. He knows exactly how the upload works... but it needs more than one mind and he must be one of them to stabilise the doohickey.
- There aren't many minds going right now. Sydney demurs, he needs to be alive to get the Old Miner out in case something goes wrong. It won't accept Aximander, he's an Elf with no soul to copy.
- The only option is Julian. He wanted a body right? How's being a god sound?

- Cold water pools around their feet. The ocean is here! There's no time!
- They plug Julian and Vespusian into the machine. They scream as their minds are uploaded and... BANG! Vespusian explodes like a sack of old jerky! Julian shatters into a million pieces! Did it work??
- Lights turn on in the Seraphim. A robotic voice says "all systems nominal... launch procedure beginning". A weird cackling mixture of Vespusian and Julian cries out - "I AM COMPLETE!"

- Aximander runs as the launch procedure counts down, flames burning, and the top of Dwimmermount opens to allow the launch of this new God!

- Aximander sloshes in the knee-high water, Slime-Sydney on his shoulder, and realises that they've still got to work out a way to get out of here. The ocean is coming... and it's angry!

Total: 10000 exp

Treasures:
- 19 God Parts (19000 exp)
- A new God

Total: 19000 exp

Enemies:

- Several frogmen (400 exp)
- Limitless Sydneys (100000000 exp)

Total: 100000400 exp

Exp Totals:

Obvs this never happened because we had to cancel the session oh welllll

Session 378 - Opinions on the Creation of a New God

Date: 2 July

Moon: Waning Crescent
Zenith: The Dead God

Events:

--- 19 Days Later

- It has been nearly three weeks in Sydney's increasingly busy extradimensional flat. Previously a simple place to crash for a number of PCs equal to level, it's now home to a bustling array of weird beings, hangers-on, and a techno-deity that is significantly older than life on Earth.

- During that time, a familiar face returns! It's Little Jack Tall on a flying visit after a long time in the far east! He pre-dates Mentor Multiclassing, so this Halfling Specialist is technically pure Specialist!

- Our heroes discuss their next steps. They're constructing a Seraphim shell into which they can place the aggregate mind of a new god. How much is enough? The Old Miner is the template for all current gods, and he contains the aggregate mind of a whole alien civilisation. The other gods contain copies of whole Dwarven arcologies. What's the minimum viable god?
- Just then they hear shouts of warning from the front door out to the real world! The Foundry is under attack!

--- Hellhounds

- Our heroes rush out of the front door into the Foundry. An emaciated Termaxian Priest manipulates levers at the control panel, printing out complicated Seraphim parts using the big cylindrical forge in the middle of the room.
- Bursting through the door - frankenstein parodies of dogs stitched from many bodies! Huge green-bellied flies swirl around their mouths!
- Sydney has a plan. Their spell, Escape Rope, will take you to where you entered the dungeon! They cast and... ZOOP! They're all... back in the Foundry exactly where they left the Safe Space. They did technically enter the dungeon from there.
- Luckily there are Dwarf-borg guards here to help! Combat is joined, the dogs breathe out metal-melting fly-breath, but between Sydney's incredibly powerful Magic Missiles,Aximander's incredible forge-lit use of a flaming sword, and Divinity's Sword of Ages, the dogs are summarily destroyed.

--- Jonathon Toast Welcomes All

- With the Escape Rope spell not operating as intended, Sydney tries plan B - the Mountaintop Gauntlet! He grabs Little Jack Tall and they both warp up to the peak of Dwimmermount. It's afternoon, but raining heavily.

- Holding hands, since unclenching the gauntlet warps Sydney back down, the two begin to descend in the general direction of the Red Doors - the entrance to Dwimmermount. There is evidence that Rudolphus was here fairly recently.
- Suddenly they are lit up by a searchlight! Somewhere in the rain a booming voice... it's Jonathon Toast!
- They follow the beam as it leads them down towards the flat ground in front of the entrance. Jonathon Toast floats above them, an obscene flesh-blimp. His floating bulk keeps off the rain... yet big warm drops are still falling wetly from his underside. Ew.

- The other change is that an ethnically diverse array of red shirt-wearing people are milling around, all connected by gossamer threads to the great sky whale above. They don't have much of a mind of their own. There are humans, red elves, green mutants from the dungeon, and even Brogi! Remember Brogi?

- They ask Jonathon Toast if he has any contact with the Wheatlands. Apparently he does! Connected by the long "guideline" threads, he's got a minion over there! The Wheatlands are luscious, but unfortunately the pawn at the other end is immediately killed when it emerges from the wheat and starts screaming.

- Jonathon offers Sydney the chance to be blessed, joining his burgeoning coterie of people. Sydney politely declines. They head towards the dungeon entrance.

--- Theology Ensues

- The entrance is barricaded, but Sydney and Little Jack Tall hear a voice and are beckoned forward. There is a green-skinned mutant man, wondering why the pair haven't been eaten by the horror above.
- They gain entrance upon showing that the backs of their necks do not have gossamer threads growing out of them. Sydney unclenches the gauntlet and pops back down, gathers the party, and Escape Ropes back up to the entrance. Easy!

- Theology ensues! Many ideas for what to put in the God-shell are thrown around. Perhaps they can put Jonathon Toast in there? He's basically an aggregate mind all on his own! Can he be trusted or at least influenced?

- Even more pressing - the first level of Dwimmermount is basically a friendly town these days. That means... carousing!

--- Realisation of the Sydnod

- While the others party, Sydney researches a new spell alone. Knock, that's a good one!
- Hagen is the life of the party in the town, using his alcohol-related Lorebond to induce a state of On the Lash!

- Everyone at the party swears blind they saw Sydney show up, even though they were definitely spending the week researching spells instead.

- Theories abound... was that Elf Sydney? Born from the moon when Sydney died that time? And hey, if that's the case, are there multiple Sydneys around? They could keep casting Lunar Womb and multiplying right?
- This theoretical Council of Sydneys is hereafter referred to as the Sydnod.

--- He is no Beast! He's a guy! In a can!

- Having spent many obols partying, the gang reconvene in the kitchen of the extradimensional flat.

- Sydney, the real Sydney with the slime familiar that hates him and the saggy skin, is baffled that they saw them at the pub. Sydney was researching spells the whole time, they swear!
- They were all told that the pieces of the God-Shell were being warped to level 4. From there they'd be taken to the elevator, transferred to the launch level, assembled, and fired up into space. That's all the Termaxian priest knew at least!

- So saying, the gang head to the elevator and descend to Level 4, known to some as the Halls of Lesser Secrets.
- They cautiously head down the wide corridor, and see a bunch of extremely buff anthropomorphic unicorn men. They wear purple bandages and are facing away, behind a barricade of upturned and very ancient tables, facing towards a similar barricade on the other side. They are armed with long sharp rods used as javelins.

- The purple-ragged unicorn men turn because they hear the party coming, largely because Sydney has animated a cart and it's singing terribly and loudly.

- Hagan strides forward - he's got a bone to pick with Vespusian. That purple-bandaged mummy motherfucker chatted shit about the Old Miner, and Hagan has new information! His Grudge-sense tells him exactly where Vespusian is hiding. In his room!
- Vespusian is shocked to see Hagan alive! They chat at length, and at last Vespusian apologises for calling the old Miner "a mere beast". Hagan reveals that the Old Miner is no beast, and is in fact an alien and impossibly ancient aggregate mind! It's also currently trapped in a can trapped in an imaginary flat in a room filled with water and also sea-goblins!

- Vespusian accepts all this and apologises. Hagan's Grudge is settled!

--- You motherfucker, it's a fetch quest??

- With the Grudge settled, it's time to chat. In Latin.

- Vespusian says that he's been helping out the Swolicorns because they've been trying to prevent the Frog Monsters from stealing all the god pieces. That's right, the horrible frog monsters are still around!
- He's got one piece in his treasure room, snagged by the Swolicorns during a previous battle, but the rest are out there somewhere.
- The big issue they have is that the teleport maze keeps warping people around. The wide corridors end at tall cylindrical rooms which warp you to any other. This makes it very difficult to get the God pieces to any one place, for both sides. Luckily the local Ratman population is staying out of it.

- They talk some more about the situation - there is a frog queen somewhere and hopefully killing her will stop the frogs. Also -

- Just then, Sydney yells "Ave Vespusian!" to pause the teleport maze and leaps into the cylindrical room! It is very brave! There is a croaking sound from nearby and a tongue SCHLOPS onto Sydney!
- We end on a cliffhanger, Sydney being pulled through the air by a long sticky hand-tipped tongue! What happens next?!

Total: 8000 exp

Enemies defeated:

- Several frankensteined hellhounds (300 exp)

Total: 300 exp

Downtime:

- Sydney learnt the Knock spell!
- Divinity spent 2400 obols! (2400 exp)

- Aximander spent 1800 obols! (1800 exp)
- Little Jack Tall spent 1000 obols! (1000 exp)
- Hagan spent 2000 obols while On the Lash! (4000 exp)

Exp Totals:

- Carter / Sydney, Level 8 Magic-User: 200242 (Level up at 288000)

- Kitty / Julian & Aximander, Level 7 Languid Wastrel: 114618 (Level up at 144000)

- George / Hagen the Heretic, Level 7 Dwarf: 92490 (Level up at 128000)

- Ollie / Divinity, Level 6 Battle-Cleric (Fighter 3/ Cleric 3): 61348 (Level up at 72000)

- Henry / Little Jack Tall, Level 4 Halfling: 14462 (Level up at 16000)

Session 377 - "But Before All That, We Need to Stop the Moon!"

Date: 25 June

Moon: Waning Gibbous
Zenith: The Scorned

New Backstory:

Rudolphus von Blitzenstrick broke it off with his first love. She was part of a cool group of friends but had to return to Denmark. +1 HD for the rest of the session when you break a lover's heart.

Events:

--- Rudolphus Gone
- In the dark depths of Dwimmermount, on a level defined by its circuit-board patterns and dim lighting, Sydney and Grog Greedy are gulping down snacks. Aximander is here too, cursing the moon. Finally Roland McDoland, the ill-fated wizard they picked up recently by telling him they'd guard him on their way to the Great Machine, is sort of just keeping out of the way.
- Hagan borrows the Mountaintop Gauntlet from Sydney and uses it to grab Rudolphus von Blitzenstrick, recently retainer-ised by the insistence of his absent player. Both are warped right to the peak of Dwimmermount!
- They blink against the sudden sunlight and see for miles! Wheat fields shine in the distance over the rotting meat of the Wheatlands. Jonathon Toast the flesh-blimp feasts upon apparently petrified foods - his central cephalopodic eye blissful. In the skies above a lumpen Red Moon flashes under the attack of some distant celestial object.
- Hagan lets go of Rudolphus and warps back down. To his surprise, Rudolphus doesn't come with him! Turns out the Mountaintop Gauntlet is a one-way trip!

- Hagan grimaces, says "welp that's interesting", and hands back the gauntlet. Sydney is aghast. By sheer accident, Rudolphus is now stuck on a mountain peak with no food, water, or equipment!

--- Battledworgs

- With the knowledge that they've been down here way too long and the very dungeon itself is warping to expel them, they hurry onwards.
- There is the sound of fighting! They approach, finding a scroll-filled library with few of those emaciated Termaxians fighting against Dwarf-borgs! It's the same Dworgs who chased after their "friend", actually the mind of a dragon patriarch switched into the Dworg body by Sydney, and it's all very confusing for all involved.
- The party charge in and aid the Termaxians while the dragon-brained dworg runs off. He doesn't yet know that Mind Switch is temporary!
- Aximander casts Magic Aura on his sword to give it more power, while Sydney GRABS a scroll off the stack and casts it without even reading it first. PHWOOM! A big cloud of darkness obscures a sword-wielding Termaxian and the Dworg he's fighting. Clanging and shouting comes from within the swirling shadow.
- During the combat the confusion mounts! The Termaxians insist that the Dworgs should be on their side, while the Dworgs themselves are just kind of erroring out!
- Meanwhile another Termaxian, this a woman in white Termaxian robes, casts spells from behind a turned-over table. She casts Shackle to the Earth on the Dworgs, magical chains wrap around their legs.

- Also meanwhile, Roland has finally buffed himself with a spell! He casts Deathless on himself to ensure that he cannot be killed! By the time he reaches combat, it's too late.
- One of the Dworgs is finally killed with a slice from Aximander's magicalised sword, and the other shrieks that "failure does not compute!" and detonates in an electical explosion!

--- Aftermath

- In the aftermath, the Termaxian warriors warily come back to guard their Wizard from the mysterious new gaggle of heroes who just helped them against the Dworgs.
- The wizard's name is Grizzibelle and she asks for introductions.

- Conversation ensues. Sydney leads, explaining that there are Red Elves invading who want to mine the Earth for its magic, which will eventually lead to no more magic for anyone!
- Aximander loots the room, grabbing some cool-looking scrolls from the library nooks.

- Grisibelle explains her position - the Termaxians up here are rebels who want to alter Terms Termax's plans. Terms wants to upload himself to the god-shell of Eris, shot down centuries prior. Unfortunately for the egotistical Terms Termax, Gods are aggregate minds made up of many individual minds. He wishes to be a God alone, which has thus far proved impossible.
- Grisibelle and her faction want to persuade him to upload with those who, like her, are loyal subjects who simply recognise the limitations of his plan. That's why they've taken over this level - it contains the Foundry that can create more god-shells (and other powerful objects) if they can only get their hands on Eris' shell.

- Asked if more god-shells can be created, she demurs. That requires Angel Metal, and they don't have any of that.
- Luckily, Sydney's spell shenanigans previously glitched out to create a whole roomful of Angel Metal! it can be done!

--- The Forge

- She guides the group to the Foundry, and oh crap on the way a massive smoke-breathing stone bull tramples towards the party! It is intercepted by a bunch of Dworgs, and the party dive through the door into the Foundry. Lucky!

- Inside, two more Termaxians are overseeing the Forge. It's a huge pillar, molten orange liquid running through it like veins. One Termaxian, at a control board, moves levers to cause huge moulds to self-form into a Dwarf-shape before their eyes. They fill with liquid, STAMP, and out comes a newly forged Dworg! The other Termaxian welcomes them to the world.

- Hagan asks for Sydney to make their slime familiar form a phone so he can ring God.

- There is a brief moment where the slime pretends to be the Old Miner and tells Hagan to kill Sydney... but then the real Old Miner comes over the phone.
- After some bargaining, the Old Miner agrees to go up to space (all he wants is to survive, he says, and Hagan persuades him by saying that he'll live forever up there). If they create a god-shell for him, he'll upload to it and enter the heavens.

--- Consequences of Previous Actions, Heretofore Unrecognised

- It's time to let the Dworgs into Sydney's house to help mine out the Angel Metal they need to create a new god-shell! Sydney does so, and to his surprise a man-shape formed entirely of black ooze tips his ooze-hat to him at the entrance. Seems that the Old Miner has given sentience to ooze-men?
- It's going to take nearly 3 weeks to print out the God-Shell components in the Foundry, so they decide to just spend that time researching spells and staying out of trouble.
- They also discover some other standard template constructs that the Foundry can print. There's the God-Shell aka Seraphim, the famous ISBM that was once used to blow a God out of the sky, some sort of interstellar Transport Vessel, a Type A Slaughtergrid Automaton, and of course a Fate-style Ark City.
- Sydney gets their essence Reknit a few times by Aximander until their intelligence is a bit better, and they learn them some spells while the others relax and watch Friends reruns. It seems the ooze man's body was the charcoalified corpse of Qing Po. Hmmm.

- At any rate, after some weeks Sydney will have researched Escape Rope and Aximander will have learned Shackle to the Earth and Deathless. Not a bad run!

Total: 6000 exp

Loot:

- Access to the Foundry!

- Scroll #6304 - Deathless

- Scroll #6240 - Shackle to the Earth

- Scroll #6383 - Blinding Beams

- Scroll # 6265 - Ulrich's Forceful Sigil

Foes:

- A couple of Dworgs (150 exp)

Total: 150 exp

Exp Totals:

- Carter / Sydney, Level 8 Magic-User: 198890 (Level up at 288000)

- Kitty / Julian & Aximander, Level 7 Languid Wastrel: 111466 (Level up at 144000)

- George / Hagen the Heretic, Level 7 Dwarf: 87138 (Level up at 128000)

- Charles / Grog Greedy, Level 6 Inheritor: 43008 (Level up at 72000)