Session 158 - The Beginning of the End

Dark days ahead for the world, and for the Barrowmaze party.

Will they survive? And even if they do, will they survive the end of days?

- The Word of Seraph Dawnstride continues

- I have been baptised!

- Galaxy Johnson's wrist-mounted energy cannon designs

Session 158 - The Beginning of the End

Campaign Date:

Wednesday, 18 November, 1600

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent

Zodiac: Libra

New Backstory:

- Bertha married POWERLAD! for money at first, but over time she's come to love him dearly. (+1 Intelligence)

- Ratimir was sent to Room 101... as the rat that got put in that face cage. He feels great remorse for doing the work at the behest of the ruling human overclass... even though he went back to his torturous work night after night. (+1 to repeat a successful action)

- Before Coalminer Dan found Galaxy Johnson's soul gem, it was found by a group of grubby goblins. He chose not to possess them because they were below his station, but they truly adored their strange glowing god. (Henchmen standing next to you are immune to morale)

Enemies Defeated:

- A bunch of mongreloids (40 exp)

- Some giant flies (100 exp)

- Some giant spiders (200 exp)

Total: 340 exp

Treasure and Equipment:

- Poison fang

- Potion #197

- Potion #248

- Ring with catseye gem (1100 exp)

Total: 1100 exp

Exploration:

- Explored 10 dungeon rooms (200 exp)

- Secret door found (50 exp)

- First party to find the Pit of Souls (1000 exp)

- 4 wandering monsters rolled (200 exp)

- First party to pass through Rote (500 exp)

- First party to enter Fortress-City Fate in half a century (1000 exp)

- Travelled like 100 miles (850 exp)

Total: 3800 exp

Events:

- The party awaken in the forest glade, statue quiescent. The ground trembles. As they stumble back to Helix, blinding white light burns briefly through the leaves overhead. (50 exp)

- Galaxy Johnson and Seraph feel their Elven powers waxing to maximum - this is the time of the New Moon. Galaxy Johnson's skin dulls to an ashen grey, and Seraph's head is set with a glowing halo of light. (50 exp)

- The party emerge from the woods to find everyone in Helix standing around gawping at the sky. Seraph takes the opportunity for some good old fashioned "THE END IS NIGH!". (50 exp)

- Galaxy Johnson uses his enhanced climbing powers to spookily crawl his way up the church spire to get a better look at the goings-on. (50 exp)

- It's looking crazy out there. Objects are falling from the heavens, the earth shakes, wiggling lines emerge, and a violent spear of light beams down towards something over the horizon creating shimmering aurorae. (50 exp)

- Seraph is gripped with the need to warn the Fated Queen about what has happened, steals a horse, and rides out. Onwards! (50 exp)

- The rest decide that following the map to the danger zone will lead to the Ossuary of All Bones and thus control of all Dead in Loegria. The team set off to the Barrowmaze once again. (50 exp)

--- Team Seraph

- Seraph heads out alone under the falling sky. The ferryman to Treehole comments that the water level of the river seems to be getting lower. In every town she passes, people are out of their houses staring. Those who see her are amazed and fall down, praising. (50 exp)

- The road is long, but Seraph keeps going. Passing through Fisket and heading off down the coast at a steady pace. As she passes through Rote, she checks out outgoing vessels in the port. Several seem interesting, but she continues along the road. (50 exp)

- As she gets closer to Fate she sees it has a roiling cloud of steam rising above it. Spikes of light keep beaming down in the distance. She reaches the outside tramline station of Dead End and takes the fancy Fate transport links all the way to the Sciotherico. (50 exp)

- Seeing the several long queues into the audience chamber, Seraph tries something fancy - she snorts a line of fairy dust and rises above the crowd. With her golden halo and her beatific smile, the crowd are amazed and part for her! (50 exp)

- The crowds have bowed down, and the guards ask her what she needs with worshipful eyes. She says she has been sent from heaven to speak with the Fated Queen, and does not mention that she took the tube here. (50 exp)

- She is led to the Queen's audience chamber, past the rows of bank teller-style boxes and the Actuarial Halls. It is guarded by stern men with brass helmets and steel spears. In awe, they let her pass. (50 exp)

- The Fated Queen sits upon her throne. It is, of course, Jade. Seated to her sides and behind her are her advisors - a skull on a pillar to her right, an androgynous high-collared bald figure on her left, and a man in shadow with black cloth around his eyes elevated behind. (50 exp)

- "Well, this is new" starts Jade, who fairly quickly surmises that Seraph must be an Elf like her, probably also a Wastrel, and demonstrates her own face-shifting ability. (50 exp)

- The skull on the pillar chatters quiet advice. It's Guido, of course! If only we could tell him that we're happy he made it out of Mt Death Frost, but alas, that was a former age. (50 exp)

- Seraph informs the Queen that the Mould is defeated as the result of a wish, but that same wish resulted in Shub-Niggurath beginning to rise. We now need every single person to help fight the abomination! (50 exp)

- An increasingly confused and angry Fated Queen thanks Seraph for the information, but reveals that she herself might be in over her head. Ancient failsafes are triggering, nobody knows what's going on, and it seems that the city itself is reconfiguring into "Battlefortress Fate" whatever that is. (50 exp)

- She dismisses Seraph to give herself time to think, but Seraph racks up another line of fairy dust. She zips in to nab Guido, discovers that his head is attached to a long spin going into the pillar, and then just flies away out the window giving everyone the finger. (50 exp)

- The crowds see the angel ascend from a shattered window of the Sciotherico, surrounded with glittering glass, and fly out and away. A great portent indeed! (50 exp)

--- Team Bertha

- Bertha, Nix, Randy, Ratimir and Galaxy Johnson jump off Grim Charlie's wagon and rush towards the Barrowmaze. It's speedrun time! (50 exp)

- They reach the snake-of-snakes room. Ratimir and Galaxy Johnson crawl across the ceiling to distract it while everyone else sprints through. Keep going! (50 exp)

- Some chanting from the temple room draws attention. Inside, some robed figures. Nix puts on her long-kept egg necklace and... hears their tentacle speech! They praise the tentacle! (50 exp)

- Whatever. They shut the door and run on at a rapid pace! In the rock monster room some muffled shushing is heard, and as the party run out the other side there is an audible sigh of relief. (50 exp)

- Some of those mixed-species mongrel people are in the way. Galaxy points his wrist cannon and demands to know where the Ossuary of All Bones is, but they flee screaming. (50 exp)

- The secret door aka the furthest point yet seen is reached. Inside, there is a strange buzzing sound... (50 exp)

- It's undead flies! Like, big ones. Obviously. Otherwise it would be silly. Nix takes one down handily, while Galaxy Johnson uses his new shadow-shifting-near-walls ability to evade attack. Bertha sucks down a Last Breath and breathes - "OBEY!" (50 exp)

- All three remaining giant flies are hers to command! Ratimir summons his rodent comrades and they speak much of communism, and that the next room contains spiders! (50 exp)

- Opening the door, there do seem to be a lot of dead flies on the floor. The map is consulted. It seems that whoever drew the map screwed up somewhere along the line... (50 exp)

- Fuck it. The flies charge in to kill one spider in a real role reversal, while Ratimir's rats swarm another with cries of "сука блядь!!!!" (50 exp)

- The spiders are pretty well owned. Good work. Galaxy Johnson seizes a venomous fang. Nice! (50 exp)

- A secret door is discovered and a lone skeleton is smashed before it can so much as mime "don't shoot!". I feel kinda sorry for him, he must have been waiting behind that door for ages. (50 exp)

- Also behind the door... a fountain! It says "Pay Your Dues". Nix flips some coins in and it totally works! Potions float to the surface. (50 exp)

- Galaxy Johnson tosses a baggie of Otherpot in, but a hand grabs it and throws it back while an ominous voice says "this is mysteriously light for an ounce of weed!" (50 exp)

- Bertha cuts herself and drips blood into the fountain. The water-spirits within speak, and raise coins to the surface with their watery hands. Nobody takes their bait of entering the water to get the goooold. (50 exp)

- Consulting the map again, something's gone wrong. It takes a bit of backtracking to get back on the right path, but they do it! There's a portcullis in the way, but Nix lifts it easily with the help of Randy's size beam. (50 exp)

- A bunch of reliefs of different times the Dead sealed a tentacle are all the way along one wall. The next room, beyond another portcullis, has a bunch of holes in the ground... (50 exp)

- Bertha votes for ignoring them, but Ratimir has other ideas. He sends a rat down one of the holes... and it sets off some paralyzing darts! Nix and Galaxy go down for ten minutes. Oops. (50 exp)

- Ratimir sends rats down all the others, finding a few bits and pieces and a cat's eye gem worth a fair amount of money! Hurrah! (50 exp)

- It's the home stretch. With glee, Bertha leads the way towards the big double doors marked Danger on the map. Nice! There is a roaring rushing sound behind the door. (50 exp)

- It opens into a large room, a pit with purple-black energy swirling in it in the centre, and a big statue of a vampire in roman bronze at the back of the room. (50 exp)

- More importantly, there's strange creature chained so that it floats over the pit. A big eyeball with many other eyeballs on stalks around it's head. Finally a proper D&D monster - the Beholder! (50 exp)

- Nix puts on her tentacle egg necklace and hears nothing but screams. Randy goes for the Size beam again and increases her beefiness! (50 exp)

- She tries to speak to the Beholder, but it only cackles madly in several different voices. There is a great stench as three yellow fluid-dripping creatures crawl out of the pit as its eyes roll crazily. (50 exp)

- Its central eye goes black, and Nix finds herself shrinking. It's an anti-magic field! (50 exp)

- The ghouls rush Galaxy Johnson and Randy, and the Beholder shuts off the anti-magic field for long enough to zap Nix with an eye ray! She fails the save... and is charmed into wanting to protect the Beholder. (50 exp)

- Ratimir gambits, flinging a rat towards the beholder's head where it begins chewing through one of the beholder's eye stalks! (50 exp)

- Bertha takes aim with her crossbow and gambits, trying to blind the beholder's central eye... but she gets a double miss. The bolt goes wide and the crossbow string snaps back into her eyes. Bertha is blind! (50 exp)

- The party is left on a cliffhanger. Nix charmed, Bertha blind, and a bunch of stinky ghoul things in prime position to paralyze... things are looking dire. (50 exp) 

Total: 2500 exp

Misc:

- Absolutely Disgusting bonus (50 exp)

- Aggressive Negotiations bonus (50 exp)

- Best of Intentions bonus (50 exp)

- Brutal Kill bonus (50 exp)

- Classic Charles bonus (50 exp)

- Diplomancy bonus (50 exp)

- Fame bonus (50 exp)

- I Immediately Regret This Decision bonus (50 exp)

- Noblebright bonus (50 exp)

- Mad Inventor bonus (50 exp)

- Master of Disguise bonus (50 exp)

- Politico bonus (50 exp)

- Pundemonium bonus (50 exp)

- Split the Party bonus (50 exp)

- SpOOoOOoOoOoky bonus (50 exp)

- What Could Possibly Go Wrong bonus (50 exp)

Total: 800 exp

Party Roles and Individual Exp:

- Remembrancer (Charles / Galaxy Johnson - 100 exp)

- Caller (James / Ratimir - 100 exp)

- Mapper (Fraser / Nix - 100 exp)

- Treasurer (Fraser / Nix - 100 exp)

- Quartermaster (Kitty / Bertha - 100 exp)

- Guard (Tom / Seraph - 100 exp)

- Tracker (Kitty / Bertha - 100 exp)

- Chippo Man bonus (Fraser - 200 exp)

- JÜGBRINGYR bonus (Tom - 500 exp)

- Art Attack bonus (Charles, Tom - 100 exp)

- Artapalooza bonus (Charles - 100 exp)

- Attacco d'Arte bonus (Tom - 100 exp)

Rumours:

- There are goblins among the Dead, friend. They can't be turned into skeletons or zombies or nothin' so the Dead just ignore 'em.

- It is the time of revelations! The earth is being torn asunder, angels fall from the sky to judge Man! Pray to the Nine, only they can save us!

- The merchant vessels from Rote go to new and strange lands, from the Northern Wastes to the Lost World of Darkest Africa!

- Mt Deathfrost has never been successfully invaded. Everyone who has gone there has died.

- Bring dogs with you whenever you must go into the deeper deadlands. The Dead detest dogs, and will always kill them first.

Active Businesses:

- Bone Alone. Wild. 318sp. (Zena's Stake: 212sp, Carrie's Stake: 106sp)

- Spicy Mac's Spices. Risky. (Liquidated)

- Honey Healing. Safe. 2014sp. (Nix's Stake: 1679sp. Bertha's Stake: 335sp)

Death Toll and Injuries:

- Bertha, blinded by a crossbow gambit gone bad

Exp Totals:

- Fraser / Nix Neckbiter, Level 6 Barbarian: 62312 (Level up at 64000)
--- Randy, Level 1 Hench-Dwarf: 777 (Level up at 2200)

- Charles / Galaxy Johnson, Level 3 Elf (Alpdrucke): 11309 (Level up at 12000)

- James / Ratimir, Level 4 Ratman: 6934 (Level up at 12000)
*DING!* +1d6 HP! Max rats: 16! +backstory!

- Kitty / Bertha, Level 3 Necromancer: 4891 (Level up at 9000)
*DING!* +1d4 HP! +1 level 2 spell/day! +free spell! +backstory!

- Tom / Seraph Dawnstride, Level 2 Elf (Living Saint): 3973 (Level up at 6000)

*DING!* +1d6 HP! +1 level 1 spell/day! +free spell! +backstory!

Absent or Retired:
- Andy / Carrie Meleste, Level 5 Cleric: 25557 (Level up at 28000)

- Kitty / POWERLAD!, Level 6 Muscle Wizard: 53279 (Level up at 72000)

- Yuri / Bjorn Gunnerson, Level 2 Barbarian: 2278 (Level up at 4000)

- Sunni / Larry's Legends, Level 1 Extras: 758 (Level up at 1500)

- Fraser / Tippin, Level 1 Ratman: 1458 (Level up at 1500)

- Charles / Zena, Level 6 Fighter: 41566 (Level up at 64000)

- Tom / Meteor Power Shower, Level 2 Barbarian: 3061 (Level up at 4000)

- Nix's Retainer

--- Huz, Level 0 Hireling

- Tom / Spicy Mac, Level 2 Halfling: 3457 (Level up at 4000)

- Eleanor / Mugg, Level 2 Fighter: 2357 (Level up at 4000)

- Kyle / Gimlass the Brave, Level 2 Dwarf: 2257 (Level up at 4400)

- Amar / Amar's Cleric, Level 1 Cleric: 1413 (Level up at 1750)

- Henry / Henry's Next Character: +2084 exp

- Ollie / Tremendo Picante, Level 2 Ratman: 2654 (Level up at 3000)

- James / Raaf van Held, Level 4 Fighter: 14838 (Level up at 16000)

- Eglė / Bob, Level 1 Dwarf: 434 (Level up at 2200)

- Ollie / Andromeda Spiderbite, Level 5 Muscle Wizard: 19872 (Level up at 36000)

- Will / Cecil Fulbright, Level 5 Cleric (Termaxian): 15063 (Level up at 28000)

- James / William Fox-Shitt, Level 3 Cleric (Zeanist): 4571 (Level up at 7000)