Session 360 - Sweet Sweet Azoth

Date: 21 November

Moon: Waxing Gibbous
Zenith: The Dead God

New Backstory:
- Deletion Snels met with the gods via secret uplink, they gave him their blessing to kill the false god Terms Termax. When you make a deal with an adversary, gain +1 on reaction rolls for the rest of the session.

Events:

--- Punching Drywall

- We begin in a familiar place - the waterlogged bowels of Dwimmermount. Deletion Snels is busy digesting a giant frog monster and gaining its ability to breathe underwater.
- Conveniently for all involved, Jojo is here with her Passwall spell! She heads past the globoblin and punches a hole straight through the wall, granting everyone access to the big lake of Azoth beyond!
- It's black and sparkly like the night sky, a wide lake of glugging black mercury. Of course they grab a bucketful!

- A strange greenish rainbow light starts building up deeper in the lake. They flee before the big lamprey-mouthed monster can get to them.

--- Experimental Machine

- They take this pure Azoth to the mysterious machine in a room of the dungeon. Sydney discovers that the pure stuff is almost actively neutral. Magic just slides right off.
- Various straws and bits unfurl from the machine and slurp from the bucket of Azoth, filling up the bowl! There is a big dial on the front with six settings, but it keeps reverting to the top option.

- It's taking ages. Sydney decides to animate the machine with their Animate Furnishings spell, and brings forth the gregarious soul of the machine! It explains that it's a bit broken, it can only consistently do Refined Azoth. Anything else is a bit of a pot luck.
- Since it's going to take a few more hours, Sydney summons their Safe Space and everyone troops into the flat to wait out the remainder. Spooky shadow stuff occurs out the front door.

--- Book Learnin'

- There's plenty of time to kill, so they hit the books! Sydney grabs out some wine and breadsticks, and everyone settles down to read through some stuff from the small library.

- Jojo discovers that there's an Azoth refinery in the Ninefold Cathedral (more or less the Vatican).
- Deletion reads that the Forest of Moondin is, indeed, still a forest.
- Sydney finds out that Panchrest, currently being generated by the machine, is a cure-all panacea! Very useful! Alkahest, by contrast, dissolves everything.

- Jojo is obsessed with the Ninefold Cathedral now. She reads that the Ennean Pope is protected by Cardinals, and buried in the Pope's balcony is a book of all demon names. Even better, there are demons imprisoned in the catacombs. Sounds like a Christmas Heist Special!

- Sydney is interested too, and finds out all about Nonanism. Those demons in the catacombs were worshipped as gods by foolish foreigners. When Nonanism came to town, it stole the "gods" away and replaced them with the real deal. The demons (and other such beings) were worshipped as Aspects of the Nine.

--- Panchrest Packed

- Christmas Special plan concocted, they head back out and see if the machine is done yet. It is! Sydney duly stores away the Panchrest in the fridge.

- They chuck another bit of Azoth into the machine and decide to explore the water level, long drowned by the mysterious frog men. Luckily they've all got silver suits that let them breathe!

- They open the hatch from the Globoblin room, flooding the place and causing the bubble-helms to slide over their heads. Sydney crafts a Beam-Ice rune to form icicle spears and they swim into the murk beyond...

--- Tick Tick Tick

- They swim under drowned ratmen, one of whom is clasping a mysterious idol in their cold dead hands. Snels wants it and grabs it... only to have something spike down through the ratman's body and into his hand!

- After a struggle, Snels manages to overturn the rat and drag whatever the spiky thing is into the cold water. It's a huge tick! It quickly freezes to death. Safe!
- Snels grabs the statue (he's earned it) and finds that it's a mysterious squamous statue of a horrible deep sea monstrosity. Dagon!
- Thankfully Snels has that Apostate Brooch that protects him from un-Saveable nonsense. He's fine!

--- Fear of Depths
- They explore further, heading through a temple to Dispater and onward to the room where the frogmen live! Conveniently enough, all magic shuts off for a few minutes as they arrive. The big pitted iron ring on the floor is deactivated!
- They see that across the room are a row of nude Dwarves, heads encased in big metal orbs, clearly being used to breed more of the frog people.
- Sydney tries out a Turn-Magma rune on the ring as it reactivates, revealing the infinite depths of the ocean below! Far far down it's like a city of frogspawn, and black tongues emerge from the portal...
- The Magma rune boils the water and the tentacles, but more emerge! It's a froggy doom portal! One of the tendrils catches Sydney, but luckily they escape by the skin of their Meta-Manipulation magic!

- An enormous froggy eye peers through the portal and our heroes flee back to the safety of the globoblin room! No eldritch horrors today thank you! 

- The refined Azoth is ready when they return, and Deletion takes a little sip. It feels good and he slops into a little puddle of happy jelly!

Total: 7000 exp

Treasure:
- Horrible deep sea idol (8000 exp)

Total: 8000 exp

Enemies:

- A big tick (20 exp)

- Several black tentacles (100 exp)
Total: 120 exp

Exp Totals:

- Carter / Sydney, Level 7 Magic-User: 99804 (Level up at 144000)

- Ollie / Jojo Fullbeard, Level 6 Muscle Wizard: 68724 (Level up at 72000)

- George / Deletion Snels, Level 4 Cyber-Inheritor: 14795 (Level up at 18000)

Session 359 - Down Where It's Wetter

Date: 7 November

Moon: Waning Crescent
Zenith: Minerva

New Backstory:

- Deletion Snels remembers back to his former incarnation. He was meant to be watching over his wife when she was murdered, and he took the blame. He left Chavsby in chains. If a henchman dies, +2 to Saves.
- Odo Grumblebelch is a member of a secret society in Mt Grumblebelch - the Followers of the Yawning Eye. Once per session, find a trustworthy society contact in any city.

Events:

--- Globoblin Mind Jelly

- We open outside the Globoblin room in the depths of Dwimmermount. The walls are smooth, the doors have submarine-hatch wheels. There is a smell of ozone and, from within the Globoblin room, fresh vegetation.
- The Globoblin itself is a big mass of green goblin bodies, jammed together and overgrown. Floating jellyfish-like mushrooms float about on vines, feeding from the leaking pipes.
- Deletion Snels deploys his own goblin from his digital flesh and sends it into the room, where its head is immediately glommed onto by a mushroom. From its goblin throat, a voice speaks...
- The Globoblins' name is Few. It is guarding this place from the deep sea, which has filled the chambers and corridors beyond. Beyond are the frogmen and they hate Globoblin blood.
- After some conversation about getting rid of the frogmen, it allows them to continue on! Odo grooms her beard into a Stowing Beard that keeps in oxygen, like a hairy helmet, and she opens the door...

--- Frogman!

- Cold ocean water blasts into the room, throwing Odo back! She struggles through the deluge and pulls the door shut, twisting the wheel closed. Beyond... in the flooded corridor... she sees a frogman swimming towards her...
- Odo thrusts her sword forward, warning it, then tosses it an apple. The apple spins through the water and a long tongue flicks out. It went for her instead!
- It sticks to the wall and starts to reel her in, so she charges instead with reckless Barbarian strength! It's an instant kill, sword scything through the water and cutting the frog in twain!
- Before the blood can reach her beard, a sphere shooms up around her head! The silver suit provides air!

- She swims back, dragging the frogman corpse behind. Weird white globules have attached to her suit.

--- Mindspeaker

- Before Deletion Snels can devour the corpse, the Globoblin gets there first! The mushroom-jellyfish descend, flensing and dissecting its flesh, feelers groping into its brain...
- One of the mushrooms keeps floating around the partys' various heads, poking a feeler towards the backs of the necks. After some arguing, Sydney takes the hit. A mushroom plops onto their head, and their mouth talks on its own...
- The Globoblin tells them what it gleaned from the frog man. It considered this dungeon to be an old forgotten outpost, it missed its family, and the portal to the deep sea cannot be sealed.

- Forward!

- They open the door once more and as the water is about to reach their necks the bubble-helm slides back over! There's an oxygen bar and mysterious text is superimposed against the walls. Sydney's slime familiar bobs along beside them, reading the ripples in the water. The water itself is cold and clear.
- They head left, having no map, and come to a larger chamber. The door to the left is inscribed with strange green symbols. Through the porthole window in the door, goes through to a huge cavern full of black liquid like a starry sky. Azoth! However, not their goal.
- Elsewhere in the room are lockers. They open one and a silvery shape swoops out!!!
- Oh, it's just more of these silver suits. Good to have though. Deletion Snels grabs a drowned goblin corpse he finds. There's also a cool locket which looks bland in real life, but projects an image of a lady in AR.

--- Mysterious Generator

- After experimenting with the doors to see if they can drain the rooms (they can't), Odo scouts ahead. She finds a map mosaic on the wall! Very nice. They fill up some more map.
- In another drowned room is a big cylindrical machine, whirring despite being underwater. Deletion and Sydney swim in. They throw the goblin into the grinding gears and... splat! It's torn to pieces!
- In another room, Odo dives through some sort of office. Papers float in the water, ink long smeared. Under a pile of these waterlogged books, she finds a mysterious rod with a knob on the end and an I/O button. Mysterious code streams across her vision, then minimises.
- She finds some more bits in here - a Holy Symbol of Eris and a vial of holy water. Not bad!

--- Thralls of the Frogmen

- Sydney's slime familiar whispers in their mind... something is coming through the water.
- They scatter about the generator room ready to ambush. They are all confused to see several people in silver suits swimming in! Odo pops out and fires a crossbow bolt, missing! A Dwarf at the front mimes something while one of the people at the rear starts casting a spell!
- There are a frantic few moments before our heroes decide to stand down and let the spell finish. A shockwave goes through the water. The bubble-helms slide open. They're still underwater... but they can breathe!

- The Dwarf is called Gromli and he's from Ur-Barakh. He tells the party that his arcology was doomed by the blood tide at the end of the world, until they were saved by the Deep Ones. Now he is thralled to S-3 Neurocentre X and does their bidding in exchange for life.
- They chat for a while. Gromli tells them that the silver suits only have enough air for an hour - they were built for emergencies only - before needing to be refilled. That's why he keeps this witch around to cast the breathing spell.
- Leaving in peace, for now, the party head back to the Globoblin room. Their air is running low.
- When they get back and close the door, the water starts draining down the pipes. It's a little airlock! Sydney carves Make-Air runes on coins for next time, and Odo checks them very thoroughly. She's heard the famous tale of Bohemund the Barbarian who carved a Make Magma rune instead of a Make Air rune and ended up melting his own head off.

- We leave it here for now, ready for the next excursion into the watery depths...

Total: 7000 exp

Enemies Defeated:

- A frogman (50 exp)

Total: 50 exp

Treasures Attained:

- Holy Symbol of Eris (704 ob)
- AR Locket (500 ob)
- Vial of holy water
- Mysterious I/O Rod

Total: 1204 exp

OOC:
- Carter the Chronicler and Paymaster (200 exp)
- Tom the Expedition Leader and Chef (200 exp)
- George the Cartographer and Vanguard (200 exp)

Exp Totals:

- Carter / Sydney, Level 7 Magic-User: 94764 (Level up at 144000)

- Tom / Grumblebelch, Level 6 Dwarf: 35024 (Level up at 64000)

- George / Deletion Snels, Level 4 Cyber-Inheritor: 9755 (Level up at 18000)
Level Up! +1d6 HP! +1 to Saves! +1 MP! +1 Mutation Cap! +Backstory!

Session 358 - Lair of the Globoblins

Date: 17 October

Moon: Waxing Crescent
Zenith: Dispater

New Backstory:

- Deletion Snels remembers the time before he entered the digital world and emerged reborn as a sentient virus, the time he adventured into the cliffside caves of a race of flying elves, the time he... fucked a giant bat then ate it. +1 Charisma

- Grogg Greedy is in love with Odo Grumblebelch. His enormous neanderthal forehead throbs when he thinks of her. He is not very subtle. When Odo would be harmed, dive in the way and take double the damage instead.

Events:

--- Silver Suits

- They have made it down a dungeon level. The walls here are smooth and angular. This is not Dwarven architecture, to Odo's judging eye. More like whole areas of the mountain just vanished. The doors, such as they are, are circular submarine-style hatches.
- As they watch, a strange heat haze rises in the room. All magical effects are paused! The Inheritors are trapped in their current forms, and Aximander is banished to the recesses of Julian's mind!
- Odo has also just had a short fight with a tall statue, so gratefully wolfs down some leftovers from Julian's Tupper's Ware.

- Grogg Greedy looks upon Odo with open fascination. Julian notices a giant spider on the ceiling!... but it's just a moult. Odo identifies it with her Folio of Unusualle Craetures - it was a giant rhagodessa.
- Grogg, Julian, and Deletion Snels explore further as Odo chows down on a second helping, and find a whole shelf of silvery bodysuits. They've got a big ring that goes around the neck, but no helmet. Julian, Odo and Deletion put them on, but Sydney and Grogg just grab a couple for the road.
- As they all change into the new suits... they are literally caught with their pants down! More giant maggots have returned, with their flailing pain-poison tendrils!

--- Maggots Once More

- Julian clips on the neck piece just in time to turn and see the huge maggot flailing at him! He intentionally retreats into his consciousness, allowing Aximander to appear just in time to go "what the fuck is going on?!" and get flailed at! Thankfully the body suit is largely maggot-resistant, so he's barely poisoned.
- Meanwhile Grogg eats a crit, slapping his weapon out of his hands and burdening him with a whole bunch of paralysing venom! Sydney, regretting not putting on a suit, eats even more!
- Deletion,  who consumed one of these recently with his digital Inheritor powers, returns fire with the maggots' own attack! Unfortunately he's not well-versed in the art of wiggly venom tendrils and crits himself. Alas.

- Odo uses her also recently acquired power - Lay on Hands - to heal Sydney's poison. Sydney blesses everyone with Blessings of the Nine in recompense. Grogg uses his last strength to crit a maggot, slicing off its tendrils... then faints.
- Aximander slashes the remaining grub but faints from the stun poison, falling onto it. Odo flies into a rage and demolishes the maggot, making it deflate like a sad balloon. When Aximander's eyes open, he sees Odo scarfing down yet more leftovers. It makes her less angry at least!

- They discover that one of the grubs, the one that Grogg sliced the tendrils off, is actually still alive! He plops it into the wicker jar containing a bone-snake, hoping that they get along or something.

- There are two maggot corpses left behind, so Grogg and Deletion immediately set to work eating them. Grogg does this in the traditional way as a pool of mutating clay and blood and demonic organs, Deletion is more of a big wall of code. Grogg gains the poison venom attack and dangly fingers, Deletion gains their wall-climbing ability and a segmented body like a maggot.

--- Back into the Flat!
- With everyone a little worse for wear, Sydney opens up their Safe Space apartment and chivvies everyone inside to safety.

- Grogg, a cavemen, begins being rude and crude and trashing the place. Sydney is stressed once again.
- Sydney goes to shower while the others hang out in the kitchen. Deletion is cooking a meal!

- He uses a bunch of extremely dubious techniques to acquire olives and calls it "The Most Delicious Meal Ever Cooked". It's made of Olive oil, boar bacon, salt, olive, and fried banana.
- Alarmingly... it's good! Potentially due to the various superlative adjectives, or maybe just because it actually sounds nice.

- The cleanup results in a lot of oil going straight down the drain, vigorous cleaning resulting in deep stains to the upholstery, and various other equity-reducing impacts. Also, Odo uses the kitchen to fix everyone's gear - reforging in the oven, quenching in the sink, testing the edge on the wallpaper, etc.
- Sydney emerges from the shower and is, as always, absolutely horrified. They turn on their heel and go read in their bedroom. Turns out the book on Sky Tyrants isn't about Gods, but various creatures of the upper air that live in, on, and around clouds.

--- Disturbed Entrance
- After a long sleep in the Safe Space, our heroes peek out of the door to find that a circle has been drawn around the front door. When Grogg steps over it, he hears a ringing in his ears. Rubbing out the circle stops that happening. Hmmm...
- Someone hails them from the doorway - it's a ratman! He was waiting to see if the mysterious door was full of friends or enemies.
- It transpires that the Ratmen help the "Globoblins" defend this area from the evil frogmen that lurk elsewhere on this level. Globoblin blood repels the frogmen, he says. The Ratman himself, called Sniksnak, also offers his services as a naturist cleaner to Sydney who would quite like a live-in cleaner.
- The "naturism" is too much. Grogg hires Sniksnak to follow Sydney around and make them uncomfortable though.

--- Hired Guide
- Pleased by the cash, Sniksnak gives the party a tour. Over there is a magic wall that blocks the way to a library. Over here is the weird machine that makes poison. And this way is the way to the frogmen!
- They defeat the magic wall and enter a "library" that is basically cool stuff on the walls and a record player. No records to see, unfortunately. Sydney is saddened, but tries Bookspeak anyway. No dice - it needs a disk.
- They mess with the "poison machine" and don't get much from depositing various stuff into it. The troubleshooting head has the solution - "needs Azoth".
- Another ratman shows up and berates his compatriot for hanging out with invaders. It also turns out that the "oil" that Grogg was licking off of wooden shards last session was... rat piss.

--- Licking the Azoth

- They poke their heads into the last room that leads to the frogmen and see a big mass of vegetation, vague shapes of goblins beneath the greenery. Feathery strings lead to floating jellyfish-like plants that have latched onto leaking pipes.
- Grogg thinks he knows what the black liquid in the pipes is... Azoth! He runs in and licks some of the fluid from an unjellyfished pipe... drawing the wrath of those creatures! He dodges back out before they can sting him!

- The Azoth courses through his system, pulsing through his demonic veins! Black goop begins to leak from his ears... but his head fills with spells! 

- He collapses against the wall outside, colours flashing through his vision, and we end for the night...

Total: 7000 exp

Enemies Defeated:
- Several corpse maggots (300 exp)

Total: 300 exp

Treasures Obtained:
- Several silvery suits
- 3 scrolls: Confusion, Shocking Grasp, Earth Cake.

OOC:
- Carter the Chronicler (+ bonus for noticing exp discrepancies...)
- Tom the Cartographer & Expedition Leader
- Kitty the Vanguard

- George the Chef

Exp Totals:

- Carter / Sydney, Level 7 Magic-User: 91812 (Level up at 144000)

- Kitty / Julian & Aximander, Level 6 Languid Wastrel: 43768 (Level up at 72000)

- Tom / Grumblebelch, Level 6 Dwarf: 32072 (Level up at 64000)
Level Up! +1d10 HP! +1 to Saves! +Lorebond! +Backstory!

- George / Deletion Snels, Level 3 Cyber-Inheritor: 6803 (Level up at 9000)

- Charles / Grogg Greedy, Level 3 Inheritor: 4744 (Level up at 9000)

Level Up! +1d6 HP! +1 to Saves! +1 MP! +1 Mutation! +Backstory!