Session 369 - Piercing the Blood Seal

Date: 19 March

Moon: Waxing Gibbous

Zenith: Eris

New Backstory:

- Whenever people disregard Sydney's advice it always leads to trouble... according to Sydney at least. Get a reroll against the consequences of someone disregarding your advice.

- Divinity's grandfather told her the secret that shattered her world on his deathbed... he never truly believed. A death bed un-confession. +1 Wisdom.
- Hagan the Heretic was being mocked by others for his worship of the Old Miner, and to prove his faith he walked into a furnace and emerged unscathed! +1 Strength.

Events:

--- Chased by a Table

- Sprinting down the stairs, followed by a rolling round table that is on fire and only gaining speed, our heroes are in a bit of trouble!

- They aren't fast enough, and the table's alchemical reagents smash everywhere! Hagan is stunned, Divinity gains Clairaudience, Sydney suddenly gains the ability to empathise! Sydney also realises something odd... their slime familiar is missing.
- The remains of the table shatter against the far wall. The wall itself is strangely smooth cavern stone. More importantly... a blob filled with bones!

--- Familiar Face

- The ooze begins spitting out skeletons... and there's worse. Mysterious ominous laughter, following them down from above!
- As they fight back against the skeletons the source of the laughter appears - it's Sydney's familiar in demon-form! A faceless mouth of slime wreathed in smoke, creating water from the air! It mutated when Sydney died and came back! It screams "you die yet you live! You die yet you live!".
- Hagan, still paralyzed, is tossed into the cart and Divinity is off and running. Sydney hangs off the back, trying to negotiate with the demon-familiar! Good thing they got that book of all demon names, since having a demon's true name lets you make binding deals!
- After much negotiation, the demon agrees to return to being Sydney's familiar... but when Sydney's soul returns to chaos they will switch roles and Sydney must obey the demon! To Sydney's immense disappointment, the demon returns back into being a blob.
- With that out of the way they make fairly short work of the undead ooze.

--- Sigil Time

- They explore now that there's less excitement. Hagan finds a cool brooch under a pile of bones, which makes him go partially invisible near walls! Nice one.
- Further they discover the stairs down! Amazing! There is however some sort of floating sigil in front of it. Sydney ascertains that this is a "Blood Seal" which is impermeable to blood. It looks like someone tried to get through it on the other side and got exploded.
- Sydney's ooze is sent to investigate and returns declaring "vast treasure" is below. The team don't particularly trust the ooze.

- Divinity calls forth the miracle of Augury, allowing her to talk to the God who is overhead today. But wait... it's Eris this week! Will anybody pick up?

- Something does... it has a scratchy voice and says that Blood Seals are tied to blood drinkers. A vampire must let you through.
- Divinity has another question - who are you? Eris claims to be called many names. Eris, the Source... the Old Miner!
- Hagan is taken aback. Could this be??? His God and Eris are one and the same?

--- Ye Olde Vampire

- The party consider nibbling their way round the blood seal, since Hagan can eat rocks and all. Sydney starts drawing a Change-Air rune.
- Green gas starts slipping through the cracks in the door. A vampire is here!
- Unfortunately for the vampire it gets ganged up on and destroyed in short order. Divinity wipes Null Paint on its face to remove its fangs and head, Sydney is resistant to teeth and claws, and Hagan is just tenacious.
Divinity smites it and it explodes back into gas and flees.
- Double unfortunately for the vampire, Hagan knows how to find things he's lost. They follow his lostness-sense towards the vampire so they can kill it for good! Guess he's a good vampire hunter after all!

--- Crystal Eyes
- On the way to the vampire they poke their heads into a cave and see... a black ooze! Not this again!
- Sydney steals the room, transporting it to their sanctum. The only downside is that the room extends out into a prehistoric jungle, bringing up the possibility that their flat is now dino-infested. Ah well!

- Continuing on, they find their way to a hall with crystal-eyed statues. They're fine with Hagan and Divinity... but Sydney has to dive behind the cart to avoid their laser eyes! The cart explodes!
- They seem to seek Chaotic beings, so how did that vampire even get through? Sydney feels very victimised.
- They turn a corner and... more crystal eye statues. Ah well, better take the door.
- Inside is a large hall. The centre of the room is a descending helix of spiral stairs. At the bottom is a big version of the statues, calling itself an Imperial God - a psychopomp who guides the Dead to the afterlife. It destroys the Undead who enter here.
- Divinity and Hagan descend to receive a blessing against the Undead. The Imperial God is ultra-impressed that Divinity is canonically from Rome, since it is of the Romans.

--- Perfunctory Vampire Battle

- They wander on, and Hagan's dwarven stone-sense tells them that there's a secret door!
- They break through, and find themselves in a grand chamber lined with silk curtains. In a pool there are two vampire ladies making out! They attack!
- Despite my protestations they force me to run a fight. I am however quite tired so it is a boring battle.  It was cool when a spell went wrong and made them start vomiting out silver coins, because it meant their regen stopped working for long enough to kill them. The party win after a while though they are nearly dead by the end of it.
- We swiftly leave the pub. It is assumed that the vampires were killed in their coffins and everyone went to Sydney's dinosaur-infested flat.

Total: 7000 exp

Treasure Found:

- 48 obols in trinkets (48 exp)

Total: 48 exp

Enemies defeated:

- A rogue familiar, re-bound (100 exp)
- Blob with skeletons in it (500 exp)
- A vampire (1000 exp)
- Two lady vampires (1500 exp)

Total: 3100 exp

Exp Calc:

- Carter / Sydney, Level 8 Magic-User: 147724 (Level up at 288000)

- George / Hagen the Heretic, Level 6 Dwarf: 42755 (Level up at 64000)

- Ollie / Divinity, Level 5 Battle-Cleric: 35568 (Level up at 36000)

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)

Session 367 - Treasure Haul ULTIMATE

Date: 27 February

Moon: Waning Gibbous

Zenith: Eris

Events:

--- Return to Battle

- We return in the midst of battle! Our heroes fight a purple-skinned and purple-wrapped Roman mummy and his zombie horde deep in the depths of Dwimmermount!

- Aximander cuts his elven flesh and bleeds, using his elven blood to blast fire at the mummified Velosianus!

- Ashen, he falls to his knees and pleads in Latin for his life. He waves the Roman zombies back into their chamber. Just let me live!

- The party give him a stay of execution and question him. He's guarding the treasure room nearby, which contains vast riches and also magic items. One is the Aeon Shield, a scutum which when broken transports you and your attacker to the past for a time. The other is the Last Chance Ring, which sends you and anybody dying nearby to an afterlife that may let you return.
- When asked by Hagen, he also says that the Old Miner is below Dwimmermount. It was sealed in a city deep below, inaccessible until the end times quaked the world. The Old Miner was copied to make Gods.

- Finally, he reveals that "Ave Vespusian" before entering a solarium will turn off the teleportation maze.

- They clear out the treasure room. The Aeon Shield has a sort of digital clock design, the Last Chance Ring has a sort of "Mewtwo face" whatever that means in the old tongue.
- Hagen leaves a silver piece and gives Velosianus his address, in case there's a functional mail system or something.
- They also take the ball of zombified Romans, just in case?

--- Moving Along

- Sydney tests "Ave Vespusian" on the teleportation maze and... it works!

- They settle down to eat some food, hurt quite badly by the fight. In the dark they see a corpse that looks just like Divinity! But at the touch of torchlight it collapses...
- They eat some more from Aximander's tupperware while Divinity remains on guard. But what's that? Two Divinities?! One guarding each side of the camp??

--- Doppelganger Chaos!

- Divinity casts Bless to prove that she's the real one.. and the other Divinity splits into three! They attack, two at Divinity and one at Hagen, shapeshifting into their target to make it hard to tell who's who!
- Aximander can use his magic-sense to tell the fakes apart, striking at a clone and marking it permanently with fire! Divinity follows up, splatting it to paste!
- Hagen is doing terribly against his copy, fumbling and faceplanting. Thankfully Aximander is there once more! He destroys the doppelganger with a mighty blow from his flame-beam sword!
- Sydney tries to help by casting Annihilate Superego at the remaining false Divinity... but hits the real one! Divinity's superego is annihilated, all bonds of humanity shattered and ego now fueled solely by the base desires of the id. This will continue for 70 minutes.
- Divinity destroys her remaining doppelganger, and turns, eyes glowing with white fire, to attack Sydney!

- The mighty blow knocks Sydney out instantly. who collapses to the ground, slumped and bloody.

- The others turn and persuade Divinity that going up to the pub will be a great idea! Id-led Divinity thinks this is a brilliant idea, and leads the way back to the lift while the others grab some loot before following with Sydney's unconscious body.

- Up top, Divinity goes straight to the bar to dissociate while the others take Sydney to the medic called Daniel Chirurgeon. He puts leeches all over Sydney's face. Fine. Everyone has a splendid sleep that night, even Sydney.

--- Concerning Jonathon Toast Developments

- In the morning they hear Jonathon Toast yelling, "They're here! These red bastards are here! Join me in fisticuffs!"
- The party sally forth, and see the huge meat-airship fighting off Red Elves in their bubble-crafts!
- Jonathon Toast is keeping them at bay easily. The concerning part is that he's clearly evolving. There's a clear sense that he's going to hold them off... but the more he fights, the stronger he gets.

--- Let's Make This Quick!

- The party speedrun through the level, katamari-ing the zombie ball before them, negating the teleportation maze as they go, until they reach the hangar doors at the end of the straight. They listen and hear fizzing... and terrified discussion of Jonathon Toast.

- Aximander casts Guiding Lights and asks them to find their way to "religious awe". Good one! They drift away from the hangar door and to a side exit. The party follows.
- Inside they find... a reading room! The lights continue to the next door, but the party stops to find some books. How did POWERLAD novels get down here?
- They continue, going through an empty room containing only clinking chains and a breeze, and follow the lights to another door. Whatever's behind it sounds like a modem.
- Inside are ratmen worshipping a big square box on a big square dais. The Guiding Lights wink out. It scratchily declares itself Alaunus Version Five but can't say much more. Divinity falls to her knees and prays.
- Via some cheeky Meta-Manipulation from Sydney, Divinity fixes the machine! It can now talk to them! They want to keep going though, so they leave it behind for now. As they leave, the God-bot gives them his blessing: +2 to melee attacks.

--- Mercurial Madness

- There are stairs down from this room, and at the bottom they find some ratmen! These are somewhat mutated, maybe even a little vampiric? In any case, friendly!
- They apparently love to drink the mercury pool nearby. Thing is, they can't leave or they die.
- The party try to sneak around the pool but - alas! - it comes alive! A tendril of ooze slaps into Aximander, creeping under his silver suit! With a metamanipulated wrestle, he throws it off!

- They plop the zombie ball onto the mercury monster and move on swiftly.

--- Treasure If You Fink Your Ard Enuff

- They come across writing on the floor and an arrow, pointing to a door. It says "treasure if you think you can take it".
- Aximander can take it! He busts in and sees an alarmingly large pile of treasure!
- The treasure spirals up and out into... A WORM! A big treasure worm! Its critical bite is warped by Sydney into a miss! Sydney, for their part, runs back to get the zombie ball.

- The others hold the line as more worm-heads emerge from the treasure pile. Aximander crits, throws a head back, while Hagan pins two to a wall.
- A worm-strike fractures Aximander's leg!
- He falls, Divinity heals him, and he casts a spell... alas it's a CHAOS BURST!
- A Realm Tear opens up... it's Zero G in here!

- Despite the setbacks, they slaughter the worms and loot their dripping corpse, coins and worm-blood splattering through the air with consistent momentum until they ping off walls.
- There is so much money in here. They were ard enuff after all!
- All Mana gone, the Elf-Soul Aximander is quiescent and Julian emerges once more. In a deep dungeon. Surrounded by treasure. Awful burning pain in his leg. Aximander did this on purpose.

- They field-dress the worm for food and leave Julian to drag himself and the money up to safety (since his player is going to be away for 8 weeks) before continuing on into the unknown...

Total: 8000 exp

Enemies Defeated:

- Roman Mummy Velosianus (750 exp)

- Some shapeshifters (300 exp)

- Mercury Ooze (250 exp)
- Treasure Worm (1000 exp)
Total: 2300 exp

Treasure Looted:

- 16000 silver Roman coins (16000 exp)

- 1300 gold Roman coins (65000 exp)

- Aeon Shield

- Last Chance Ring

- Vial of Acid

- Holy Symbol of Eris (100 exp)
- Vial of Spices (2 charges, +4 tasty)

- 30 worm rations (30 exp)

Total: 81130 exp

Exp Totals:

- Carter / Sydney, Level 7 Magic-User: 140174 (Level up at 144000)

- Kitty / Julian & Aximander, Level 7 Languid Wastrel: 79270 (Level up at 144000)
Level Up! +1d6 HP! +1 Mana!+Free Spell! +1 to Saves! +Backstory!

- George / Hagen the Heretic, Level 6 Dwarf: 35205 (Level up at 64000)
Level Up! +1d10 HP! +1 to Saves! +Lorebond! +Backstory!
Level Up! +1d10 HP! +1 to Saves! +Lorebond! +Backstory!

- Ollie / Divinity, Level 5 Battle-Cleric: 28018 (Level up at 36000)
Level Up! +1d6 HP! +1d6 Healing Pool! +1 Min Faith! +1 to Saves! +Backstory!
Level Up! +1d6 HP! +1d6 Healing Pool! +1 Min Faith! +1 to Saves! +Backstory!