Session 295 - Down with the Veins, Rise Up the Servants

Date: June 24, 21 p.p.
Moon:  First Quarter

Zenith: Vorn

New Backstory:
- Amanta chased a theatre troupe, lost below the earth, from her cave back when she was just a translucent cave mantis.

Events:

-- Deep beneath the Earth
- Swan the Swift and Eegor come across Amanta in the city of the knotsmen. Despite never having met before, trust is immediately established. Two player gang initiated.
- Eegor, being an underground guy, countermands the intended "ha ha you cannot escape" vibe and leads them towards the surface.
- Many caves are gone through. Much climbing and squeezing.
- After some time, they come out into a vast low-ceilinged limestone cavern with a citadel cut into the side of a deep abyss.

--- The Citadel
- Eegor declares that this is where his masters first set out from on their attempt to find the surface.
- Our heroes investigate the fortress in the hopes that food is available. Instead they find a bunch of largely eaten corpses, and ahead a fair number of Knotsmen and their slaves. These guys are peering down the chasm, chattering about the massive horrible bear golem that killed the others.
- Oh fuck oh no IT'S HERE! An ancient prehistoric golem carved by human hands and surmounted by an ancient bear skull! It fucking demolishes a Knotsman and throws the bleeding corpse back down the chasm!
- Swan lobs a rock to judge how strong the clay bear's HP is, but accidentally hits a Knotsman. Somehow they assume that Swan and Amanta are in league with the bear. Our heroes rapidly abscond.

--- Exit the Veins
- Moving swiftly on, screams in the distance, our small group follows Eegor as he tries to find the way back out of this underground hell. As per his little sheet, he's good at finding his way, so after some time they find themselves at the cheesewired worm tunnel where they originally entered the Veins.
- The wounded Knotsmen are gone, or gnawed to the bone, and the cheesewires are mostly slack. Easy to traverse. There is evidence of the Olm, subterranean salamander people, but this is stated offhand by Eegor so not gone into particularly thoroughly. They live down here, basically.
- The route up is extremely difficult for Swan, but easy for Amanta and Eegor. Together they help him up, out, and onto the glorious surface.
- High risk high reward underworld remains an option, but for now - fuck no.
- They lie on the ground and stare at the sky for a while.
- Also it's still a fucking heatwave. Last week. Can you imagine.

--- Meatgate
- They go north, considering there's a dragon along the road back to Kink, and come to a strange little town beyond a crossroads.
- The shattered Dino-Dome and the flailing flesh-tree called the Dharga frame a town mostly made of meat. Leathery flesh tents, houses built with bones, the occasional shrub-based roof. That sort of thing.
- A veiny man with a small extra head that repeats his vowels stumbles out from under a skin canopy and welcomes the pair, and Eegor, to Meatgate.
- This is the last town before the Meatlands, apparently, and crawls to the east over time because the Meatlands are expanding. Rebuild the close houses at the back, and if you can't find food you can always gather mutagenic flesh from the meaty meadows beyond..
- If you go north there's a lake of horrid juices, so the best way into the dome, and Mt Death Frost, is via Salisburgh. It's called Salisburger or Salivasburgh now, depending on who you ask.

-- Samuel's Saloon
- I legit cannot find content for this area despite my searching, so our heroes travel back to Samuel's pub to do a bit of cheeky carousing with some of the gems they received in the depths of the earth. A demon pub is safer than meat town!
- Swan holds his liquor impossibly well, while Amanta who has never drunk alcohol before gets extremely fucking drunk. Samuel creates a male mirror of Amanta in an attempt to drain her charisma, as is his way, but she bites off his fucking head and eats it. That's how mantis do.
- Swan and Samuel, horrified, have a drink-off. Swan actually wins against the demon! Absolute barbarian style!

Total: 6000 exp

Carousing:
- Swan - 4000 exp
- Amanta - 1600exp


OOC:
Three each -
Kitty x3
George x3



Exp totals:

- George / Swan the Swift, Level 5 Barbarian: 21425 (Level up at 32000)
Level up! +1d8 HP! +2 barbarian roll! +backstory!

- Kitty / Amanta, Level 4 Mantis Specialist: 7522 (Level up at 14000)

Level up! +1d6 HP! +2 skill points! +backstory!
Level up! +1d6 HP! +2 skill points! +saves improve! +backstory!

Session 294 - Tapping the Veins

 

Date: June 21, 21 p.p.
Moon: Waning Crescent
Zenith: Minerva

New Backstory: 

- Iskander's town was beset by football hooligans in the pub, and helped Zulu chase them out before they burnt the place down! +1 Strength

Events:

--- The Dark Descent

- Down a long thin tear in the Earth, hanging by fingertips and squeezing through thin and claustrophobic cracks, our heroes descend down the twisting throat of the world. The liquid darkness oozes away from their light.

- They scrape through a tight squeeze and find themselves climbing up and out into a larger cavern that seems to have been eaten through by some great worm. There are whispers. Zulu dims the light.
- Bodies lie in the gloom. Fresh blood, so recently dead. Some have bites taken out of them. A cautious look reveals the ground has been set with thin wires, hammered into the broken rock and pulled taut. They try to lassoo a body and pull it towards them to investigate, but the corpse is cut to ribbons by the razor wire as it's dragged along the ground.
- It seems impassable, unless they climb the walls. Not going to happen.

--- The Legless Man and the Man-Legged Mantis
- They try to find a different way and soon find one. The Earth is riddled with caves, it seems. Crawling sometimes on their bellies, sometimes curling through cracks. It is in one of these long thin crawls that they hear a voice!
- They approach and see a man with a pith helmet and one leg trying to fish something out of a hole. It's his own leg! They ask him how he got here, and he tells them he was exploring an ancient temple, went through a crack on the lowest level, and never found his way out. His name is Huswan and he has been cursed by a witch! His leg is fetched from the hole, for which he is grateful, and he reattaches it. Witch curse, you see.
- Suddenly there is movement from the dark! Liber Quint is grabbed from behind by great mantis claws! It's almost invisible, entirely translucent. In the cramped space tactics are extremely limited. Celebus tries to stun it, but gets stunned himself.
- Liber shuts her eyes, reaches for the magic, and lets it run wild. Pure chaos surges through the dark, briefly lighting the walls with rippling energies. Both she and the mantis fall to the floor of the thin cave, unmoving.
- The corpses tremble and burst! Clawing their way from their former bodies, each being claws from its meat chrysalis and stares. One was reincarnated as a Halfling, panics, and immediately knocks itself out on a rock. The other was reincarnated as a human-shaped mantis being, calling herself Amanta. She seems, while confused, friendly enough to join the party with her Specialist mantis climbing skills.

- They talk to Huswar and find that he's a conquistador from Spain, who investigated a stepped temple in the search for the mythical city of El Dorito. 

- Celebus kills the Halfling and reanimates it as a zombie.
- Meanwhile Huswar's arms and legs are going absolutely haywire as the result of a trigger word. He asks to die too, and tells them to avoid the Deep Witch. Celebus kills him and reanimates him as a zombie.

--- Knotsmen City
- They follow their current tight squeeze of a corridor for hours or days, time is meaningless underground. The way opens up sometimes, or requires short climbs, but leads ever on.
- They crawl under a shelf of stone and suddenly find themselves in a vast underground cavern! A grand citadel is built into great edifice of stone, and a queue of dim glimmering lights snake up to a gate lit by lanterns.
- The queue is a queue of Knotsmen! They are waiting to get into the great tiered city and are not immediately hostile. Celebus spots a tradesman's entrance and investigates. The guard is bribed with Ferfect Fried Chicken and they sneak in.
- Guards are all over the place, unfortunately. They are stopped and asked for their permits, which they clearly don't have. More chicken is a sufficient bribe, and permits are hurriedly signed.
-A Knotsman with so many bulging knots of veins forcing him to bow over sees the commotion and comes to look. He casts a spell on Iskander that makes him own Iskander's very bones. A bribe is sufficient to reverse the curse.
- They continue on up to a market. Food is good currency here, and they trade some for a picture of a dead castle with an ominous look to it.
- Further up, only Knotsmen may go. They offer some of the last of their chicken to some Knotsmen up there, getting handfuls of precious gems in return. They're hooked on the chicken and wish to know the way to the surface where they might find more. The party looks in confusion at the gems - these would make them rich on the surface world, but down here they're being thrown at them like cheap beads.
- As we close the session for the day one question remains... how the fuck do experience points work when somethings' value is perceived so wildly differently?? Find out below!

Total: 5000 exp

Valuables:
- A daguerreotype of a city in motion, blurred people walking through the long exposure. Some still figures must not have moved. In fact, one seems to be looking straight at you... (1000 exp)
- A string of flawless diamonds, worth 5000 obols on the surface. (500 exp)

- A single perfect emerald, worth 1000 obols on the surface (100 exp)
- Two handfuls of loose diamonds, worth 10000 obols on the surface (1000 exp)
Total: 2600 exp

Defeated Foes:
- A mantis shrimp, reincarnated. (250 exp)
- A recently reincarnated Halfling, murdered. (10 exp)
- An 'armless spanish conquistador (5 exp)
Total: 265 exp

Exp Totals:

- Ollie / Iskander Fullbeard, Level 4 Fighter: 11848 (Level up at 16000)

- Charles / Celebus Uppytus, Level 4 Necromancer: 10264 (Level up at 18000)

Level Up! +1d4 HP! +1 Mana! +free spell! +backstory!
- Kitty / Liber Quint, Level 3 Bibliognost
*REBORN*

- Kitty / Amanta, Level 2 Mantis Specialist: 2622 (Level up at 3500)

Level Up! +1d6 HP! +2 skill points! +backstory(?)

Session 293 - Eegor is Sexy Now

Eegor is Sexy Now

Date: June 21, 21 P.P.

Moon: Waning Crescent

Zenith: Minerva

New Backstory:
- Celebus Uppytus was the devoted follower of a bully, and ensured he was essential by drawing up a series of schedules for who they should beat up next. +1 to an action at least two others have succeeded at.

Events:

--- Wait Come Back I've Got a Quest For You!

- Our heroes leave the vicinity of the crashed angel petal, fog swirling around their feet. They pass by the three statues of Necromancer-Generals... and one speaks! 
- He declares himself to be Bezonaught the Boogeyking and offers his paralysing ectoplasmic gifts and treasure in exchange for the party killing off the Cyrus-worshipping Necromancers back there.
- The party duly writes the quest into their quest log and head off. Mount Death-Frost here they come! Why kill the Cyrus-worshippers when they can just go see the man himself?

--- Back Through Kink
- It's still a Heatwave but it's somehow even more heatwavey. Is it the humidity? Whatever it is, everyone's quickly absolutely exhausted. Celebus ejects his skeleton to escape the oppressive heat of his mortal shell and carries his sweaty meat over his skeleton shoulder. Everyone else just has to sweat it out.
- They barely make it to Kink and see that even the crabs are going red. They head straight for the river, upstream of the eggs obviously, and have a relieving dip. Swan spots some Swarm Minnows - streams of minnows that leap out of the water in big groups so they look like one big fish - and catches them in Celebus' skinbag body.
- Celebus himself catches a lobster! While everyone admires it, Swan sneakily nicks some crab eggs.
- They take their delicious spoils to the now-empty house of convicted murderer Barry d'Louse. He has a remarkably well equipped kitchen, so they cook up their new meal!

- It's called "Deliciously Fleasin' Lobster", using a combination of corpse flea meat, lobster, crab eggs, and minnows. It's not that tasty, but Swan really manages to make it work! Conveniently, the bonus is that it protects from weather effects! Heatwave begone!

--- Distant Dragon
- They set off north in the direction of Mt Death Frost. The road goes through the now infamous territory of a Crystal Dragon! They crunch across sharp crystal pieces, wary for dragonsign.
- They spot it in the sky! Floating crystal structure wings, sharp angular body, tough crystalline core... it's a dragon alright!
- They duck like chickens when a hawk passes overhead and thankfully it doesn't spot them, winging its way somewhere more interesting.

--- Samuel's Saloon

- They continue on and notice a strange cave with a neon glow. At first they think it might be the crystal dragon's lair, but they left the crunchy crystal behind about half an hour ago.
- They investigate and find themselves in... a saloon? The music stops, and some grizzled but surprisingly handsome cowboy-types turn to glare. The bartender nods and the fiddlers start playing again. The bartender himself is a beautiful man with soft bouncy locks and very kissable lips. It's Samuel! Known to the players as a lust demon and so presumably known to the characters by reputation.
- He offers love potions or to make people into handsome versions of themselves. Nobody takes him up on the offer until Swan offers Eegor!
- An extremely hot version of Eegor is here now. The original Eegor falls down in supplication. Handsome Eegor is somehow... more creepy?
- They stay in a tent just outside that night, and wake up to find that it's tipping down. Good thing Swan the Swift has a bunch of tupperware full of the weather resistance Lobster dish!

--- Ooga Booga
- The gang sets off, still heading north along the road. The rain abates into more of a light sprinkle, and through the rain they spot a fissure in the earth. There are Knotsmen there, poking around after crawling out of the fissure.
- There's a scuttling sound from over a nearby hill, and some crabs crest it and charge down the slope! Their stone shells are daubed with woad and one clutches a big wooden club in one pincer! Those who speak crab hear their words - "OOGGAAA BOOOOGAAAA!"
- The Knotsmen duck back into their fissure and the crabs charge over them, scuttling sideways towards the party! Swan the Swift swiftly tosses them some of the remaining rations and the crabs stop to inspect it. They are clearly caveman crabs, all "hmm... food... hmm... hmm.... good... hmm".
- Now they see the party as friends, one of them goes to investigate the fissure. He looks down and... SHUNK! A crossbow bolt nails it in the head! The poor crab slumps while the other crabs scuttle about madly!
- Celebus casts Death Rattle on the dead crab, spooking the Knotsmen down the hole! The rest of the party runs over and joins battle, raining bolts down on the Knotsmen hiding in their hole! Iskander manages to keep the stun going by echoing his noisemaker bolts off the walls.
- Liber gambits down the hole to attack one of them and gets the first ONE MORE! since the new gambit stuff came in! Swan the Swift joins the gambit and together they spin down the hole and behead a couple of Knotsmen!
- Celebus skids down the slope so he can catch a Last Breath! His first! Finally!

--- Into the Veins
- One Knotsman remains - they've got a crossbow, heavy armour, and every time they move they hiss with pain as the armour presses against their knotted flesh. He declares that he must kill the party now but won't say why.
- Liber slides up smooth and flickers her Bibliognost threads across his skin. They scrawl up under his armour and into his ears and she finds out a dark secret of the Knotsmen. Their ancestors faced destruction and so sold future generations to a forgotten god. The Knotsman hisses as another tight knot of veins clenches on his body - this is information that must never be known by outsiders.
- Celebus takes pity on the guy and ejects his skeleton. The Knotsman thanks him profusely, he's finally free of constant torment!
- The party notice that there's a way deeper down into the depths and decide that they might as well see how far down it goes... into the Veins of the Earth.

Total: 7000 exp

Valuables:
- Mostly food (20 exp)
- Handsome Eegor (priceless)

Total: 20 exp

Defeated Foes:
- 5 Knotsmen of various stripes (250 exp)
Total: 250 exp

OOC:
- Charles: Chronicler & Paymaster
- George: Expedition Leader & Chef

- Kitty: Cartographer & Vanguard
- Ollie: Quartermaster & Nacho Libre

Exp Totals:

- George / Swan the Swift, Level 4 Barbarian: 14125 (Level up at 16000)

- Ollie / Iskander Fullbeard, Level 4 Fighter: 9226 (Level up at 16000)
DING! +1d8 HP! +1 to hit! +1 to crit/fumble! +backstory!

- Kitty / Liber Quint, Level 3 Bibliognost: 8128 (Level up at 9000)

- Charles / Celebus Uppytus, Level 3 Necromancer: 7642 (Level up at 9000)