Thug Muggers in the Sewer 1/15/23
Table Talk:
A reminder for Sorin that today is the evening of the 3rd. He is meeting with Matteo on the 5th. And, he is expected at the Artificer’s shop with the other 60g for his goggles on the 11th.
I posed to the group that i think it might be interesting for Rae to have some kind of scar or permanent injury on her leg that got sucked on by the Gelatinous Cubes. Sarah is going to think about it and let us know in the next couple weeks.
Ari and Rae rolled D10’s (Rae rolled two), but they don’t know why yet.
“The challenge you have in front of you is the same one we face: to survive and stay alive. In order for this noble mission to continue. Or live an ordinary life, but so as not to be ashamed at the hour of death. You think you’ve changed. That the world has changed. But look; the world’s the same as it’s always been. Quite the same. And you’re the same as you used to be. Don’t fret.”
-Zoltan Chivay —Andrzej Sapkowski, “Baptism of Fire:Chapter 2”
🎲🗡️🔔✨🌿
Chapter 12: A Soggy Soggy Rest
🎲🗡️🔔✨🌿 Chapter 12: A Soggy Soggy Rest
It’s late evening on the 3rd day of Kythorn, the sun has set and people grumble to themselves as they walk through the muddy paths and roads of Nibiru. Young children play little games as they walk, trying to step only on the stones that poke out above the puddled water. Occasionally, one slips on a rock and falls in the brown water, getting laughed at by the others.
The rain water flows in little streams and collects in grates around the roads. It washes down in hundreds of little veins, like the vascular network of an earthen giant.
Underneath the city, in the sewers, the water floats and bobs along various pipes, collecting in spill pots and sometimes getting measured in catch basins. The pipes fittings and overflow-holes drip out water in a constant drip drip drip. It covers the floor of the sewers with just enough standing water to cover the bricks and tiles, but not enough to soak into a good bare of boots.
The water flows past a couple of spiders as they pull their web-nets up the wall. Behind them, they drag two pieces of their husband and father. The bigger one whispers in a tiny hiss, “Oh Ricky,” her microscopic tears join the flow of rainwater and get carried away into the spill drains.
In another room, deeper in the sewers, the water blends and mixes with the toxic gooey meniscus of a dead Gelatinous Cube. With no life-glow holding it together, the gloop sloshes in the water and slowly dissolves. It spins away in little green eddies around the burned leg of the unconscious Raelle-the-Wet as she lays soaking on the floor.
The water splashes in little circles around a pair of worn leather boots. The boots stop and little ripples flow out from them. One boot slowly lifts up, and the leftover drops fall off of it before the toe of the boot prods into a soggy tunic.
“What’s wrong with you!?” Cypress says as he smacks Sorin in the thigh. “Don’t poke her with your foot!” He glares up at the wizard.
Sorin backs away muttering something about ‘just trying to help.’
Cyprus kneels down in the muddy water and examines Rae. After a minute he reaches into his little bag of healer supplies and pulls out a small leather bellows. He puts it in Rae’s open mouth and starts slowly pumping. He watches Rae’s chest move up and down. When their rhythms are matched, his other hand pulls out a small vial of green and brown powder. He holds it up and bows his head. Cypress’s mouth moves in a prayer of Cure Wounds in a pitch that only gods and certain breeds of dogs can hear. The powder in the vial starts to glow and when it does, Cypress quickly upends it, dumping the powder in the bellow’s air holes and forcing it into Rae’s lungs.
Rae sits up suddenly, gasping and making the bellows squeak, expand, and contract until Cypress removes it from her mouth. Rae coughs trying to get the taste of rusted brass out of her mouth. Ari reaches down, and pulls Rae back onto her feet, slapping her back to help the coughing.
“We need to rest. A good long rest too.” Cypress says in his best, ‘I’m your doctor dammit’ voice as he packs the bellows back into his bag.
“What? No! We should keep going,” Sorin says in the voice of the toxicity-optimistic, “Besides, I’m still at full health, not a scratch on me.”
“You never played any team sports growing up did you?”
After a few minutes loudly bickering, Sorin relents, “Fine. We can camp here and then keep moving in the morning.”
“Here? In the place we just fought two gelatinous cubes and several Stirge!? In this open room attached to a crypt without any sealable doors!?”
Right on cue, an Ash Zombie comes lurching into the room from the red bricked crypt beyond. (An Ash Zombie is an undead creature made of the reanimated remains of a person who has been cremated) It staggers towards the sound of Sorin’s voice as he shouts.
“Zombie, guys, Zombie!”
Rae, Ari, and Cypress all look at eachother and grin. “Nah, you got this, mister ‘I still have full health.’” They lean against walls, and Cypress sits on a ceiling rock poking out of the water. “This one is all you.”
Panicking, Sorin casts a Firebolt at the Ash Zombie. It lands for 15 damage directly in its chest, forcing its staggers to a halt.
The Ash Zombie looks up at Sorin, then down to the ground, then back at Sorin. It charges. The full weight of the Zombie plows into Sorin for 6 damage. After Sorin burned such a large chunk out of it though, there isn’t enough mass to fully knock him down.
As the creature slams into the wizard boy, Rae giggles deliriously. Pointing and shaking her head.
Sorin succeeds in un-grappling himself from the Ash Zombie, and uses his movement to run to a corner. Getting some distance between him and the creature so he can cast again.
“Did he really just get body slammed, and then move to put his back to a wall?” Cypress asks as he chews a granola bar.
Rae nods, unable to answer through the tears of her silent, light-headed laughter.
The Ash Zombie charges again, slamming Sorin for 7 more damage, and now pinning him to the wall.
“Uh, guys, a little help?” Sorin says looking over the Zombie’s shoulder, “This isn’t funny anymore.”
“Nah,” Ari says as she stands up and rolls her shoulders. She walks over to the two of them grappling against the wall, “it’s still pretty funny.” She pulls out her rapier and slashes. She cuts the Ash Zombies legs at the knees and it topples backwards into the water. The ash dissipates and dissolves.
Only then does Sorin notice the little puddles of wet ash in the water everywhere the zombie stepped. It must’ve been slowly dissolving and taking damage, just being in the room. “Um, thanks Ari.”
Ari slides her rapier blade along Sorin’s coat cleaning it. She slides it back into its sheath, “What did we learn?”
“Talk shit, get hit.” Sorin says as he hangs his head.
“Good.” Ari says and light pats his blushing chin. She turns around as the others get back on their feet. “We should close these grates before we rest. Who knows how many Zombies and Shadows and Skeletons and Crawling Claws will get out before we get the new Gelatinous cubes in place.”
“Agreed”
And so we walk back into the hallways towards the cranks.
“You know,” says Sorin idly in the back of the line, “I wonder how big the Baby Cubes are?”
“I don’t know.”
“I wonder if they have one I could put in like a little jar,” he says.
“Why, you trying to start a collection like Rae?”
“Nah,” Sorin says, “I was just thinking”, he continues, idly staring at the ceiling. “If we ran into any more Thugs, we could integrate them, and I could use the little Gelatinous cube as a threat.” He bumps into Everyone as they stop and stare at him. “You know,” he continues in a mock threatening voice, “‘tell me everything, or I’ll open your mouth wide and drop this Gelatinous Cube into your throat, Thug scum.”
Everyone stares.
“What is wrong with you!?”
Ari and Rae head towards two cranks and Sorin follows Cypress saying something about “I’ll help you reach.”
Rae giggles listening to Cypress's angry ‘What did you just say to me?’ as she turns her crank. Then she hears Ari calling her for help.
While Ari and Rae turn that crank, Cypress fails to turn his.
Sorin walks up and starts turning it with an am-i-good-puppy-smile, “See I helped, couldn’t’ve done it without me.”
“Oh?” Smirks Cypress, looking up with a wicked grin, “and who's gonna believe you, wizard boy!?”
As Sorin stands there open-mouthed, they hear Ari scream in the distance.
“Are you kidding me with these damn spiders!”
Two spiders fall on Ari, dive bombing on the ‘beast’ they’ve been tracking for the last hour. One bites Ari right on her ear lobe for 6 damage, and she thinks she hears a tiny whisper, “My sweet Ricky!”
Cypress and Sorin run up to help. Cypress reaches into his bag, readying another Cure Wounds, just in case.
Sorin opens his hands and burns a spell slot, casting Magic Missile on two little spiders. They have 5 Hp between them, and he singes them to an instant death.
A short time and two hallways later, Sorin is cautiously tiptoeing around the corner of a wall. It’s the opening to the room with the drain pipe, where Akris went scouting the lower level. Why are the players so cautious about THIS one room? I have no idea, really i don’t. I know how that sounds, but there's nothing in here. Not, there’s nothing in here hehehe, just really. It’s just a room. For real. No trick.
Curled up at the base of the pipe, Akris is looking sad and lonely as he laps up some water (it drips right out of the bottom of his mouth). He sees Sorin and flies to him. “You took sssssso long, I didn’t know where you were.” He says, surprising everyone by looking glad to see Sorin. “I wassss in sssuch a predicament,” his head bobs left an right describing. “Ifff you’re going to be ssso long sssshould I go back down and ssscout sssome more. Or willl i misss you coming back iffff I’m not here..”
After a moment to reunite, Cypress looks at the wall, and notices something. He motions everyone to gather around before sliding a copper penny into the circle of Devin’s mark. The penny disappears in a puff of smoke. After a long moment, another small puff of smoke appears. It is much too small for Devin, but a little slip of paper flutters down. Cypress snatches it before it can hit the water.
“Thank you so much for attempting to summon me, valued customer. I value and respect the time of all of my shoppers and clients. That is why I am not leaving the client I am with to come and see you right now. If you remain at this spot I will be with you as soon as I can. Thank you and have a dungeon-tastic day.”
“Are you kidding me?” Cypress grunts, crushing the note in his hand, “We got his fantasy voicemail?”
The good news is that waiting for Devin gives the team a chance to take a short rest. Cypress stands watch by the arch to the hallway. Ari and Rae roll both their hit dice. And, Sorin attempts to get Akris to help him map out the lower level. However, Akris is too nervous and anxious after being left alone for so long, he can’t concentrate on the map. And, the attempt just looks like nervous squiggles. (they both got low rolls, Ashley has one more attempt today, then each day after will have increasing disadvantage as Akris’s memory fades)
Devin’s heads poke out out of the wall and look around, “Oh wow, you’re still here.” He disappears.
A large wave of smoke comes out from the wall and when it clears, Devin is standing there. He is gently swaying back and forth, like a snake hypnotizing a mouse.
“Alright,” says one head, “Who’s buying?”
“And who’s selling?” Says the other.
The Thug muggers crowd around him and he grimaces, “Alright, selling first. Everyone, line up and pick a number from b҉r҉r҉a҉k҉o҉h҉m҉a҉k҉ to seven.”
“Seven,” Sorin says without thinking.
“Alright, then you’re last.”
Ari steps up, “Do you have a price for me on the severed Zombie hand?”
“Yyyes!” Devin hisses in a gleeful voice, “It turns out I have a client, a necromancer, who needs an assistant. I’ll buy it for 1 gold.”
They swap and Ari pulls out a small ornate knife, “I have this brass dagger I need to get rid of.” She says, continuing to rummage in her bag.
Devin’s eyes sparkle with an internal greedy light. “Oh fine fine, I could take it off your hands for,” his tongue flicks nervously, “oh say, 2 silver?”
“Yeah, fine.”
“Great, perfect.” Devin’s hand lashes out like lightningand grabs the dagger, “Remember, no take backs!”
Ari hesitates for a second, and holds up a wooden spoon, “uh.”
“1 copper”
“Uh, sur-”
“Great. Here. Anything else? No? Who’s next?” He says, dry washing his hands, and clearly trying to move on before Ari can say anything. “△, who had the number △, next in the queue?”
Rae raises a timid hand, “I think I’m triangle?”
Devin rolls his eyes at her pronunciation.
“I have a bottle of ooze from a Gelatinous Cube, and a bottle of goop from a fire beetle,” she says, raising them up for inspection.
“And do you want me to price them for when I see you next, or buy them outright?”
“Price them, please.”
He opens the cork on the Fire Beetle jelly and dips a claw in its faint glow before tasting it. “I can,” he says as he re-corks the bottle, “but I'll tell you now that the Fire Beetle jelly won’t be any good in about a day. I can offer you 3 silver for it now, though.”
Rae agrees and they exchange items. Rae steps back and Sorin steps up.
“I’m seven.” He says.
“No,” Devin says flatly. “Seven is last, what about you Cypress?”
“I’m not trading today, but thank you.” Cypress says over his shoulder while he stands watch. “Oh, but Devin, did you think of this; you know how ‘Wizard’ rhymes with ‘Lizard’, well ‘Seven’ rhymes with ‘Devin’.”
A shudder washes over Devin in a rippling wave from his feet to his head and he coughs trying to regain his composure, “Sor-Sorin,” he says with a little voice crack.
Sorin tries hard to start flirting with the lizard man, but Devin is having none of it, and after a few failed attempts, he sells his light crossbow for 20 gold and steps back.
Until now, Devin’s second head has just hanging limp, like a puppet with no hand in it. Suddenly it pops up and looks around, “Alright now, who’s buying? Pick a number and queue up?” When this head pops up, the other head flops down limp, then tilts up and winks, before going limp again with its tongue dangling out. “Today, I have some Modest Rations, a Shield, a Greatclub, a Handaxe, a Holy Symbol Amulet, a Flute, a few Potions of Healing, an Iron Pot, some Blowgun Needles, a Pitcher, a Forgery Kit, Sealing Wax, a Set of Dice, Painter’s Supplies, some pages of Parchment, an Enchanted Staff, and just acquired recently, an Enchanted Sacrificial Brass Dagger.”
Rae looks over at Ari and tries not to laugh.
Ari sighs, “I guess I’ll be a҉d҉s҉f҉a҉ again.”
The lizard eyes in front of her blink slowly, “I wouldn’t recommend you try to speak Lizardfolk. I don’t have any ‘human stew’ for sale today, and frankly, I doubt you’d like the taste.”
Embarrassed, Ari only buys a Health Potion and steps back.
“What’s the Enchanted Staff?” Rae-The-Eager-Child asks as if she's looking in the window of a toy store.
“This is a Staff of Consciousness,” Devin says, pulling the long stick out of…somewhere... “It has its own will. It cannot be sheathed or bound, but will follow its owner, hoovering behind them until they call upon it.”
“How much?” Rae asks, already counting out her coins.
They Haggle back and forth and my notes are missing what the final outcome was, but Rae does buy the staff, so full details to come.
A grinning Sorin steps up. “So, uh, you can get things if I request them right?”
“Sure”
“So how much would it be to get a baby Gelatinous Cube in a jar from you?”
Devin blinks. His head lifts up over Sorin as he looks around at everyone else, “Okay, any questions that aren’t extremely illegal?”
Cypress nudges Ari, “Ask him about the Dagger.”
“What?”
“He said it was a sacrificial dagger. We’re down here chasing a cult.” He says with mildly annoyed patience, “What if we need it?”
Ari sighs again and goes back to Devin, “So, what’s that dagger?”
Devin pulls out the small ornate brass knife, “This is a Sacrificial Dagger, it can only be used three times before it breaks, but every time you cut someone it is critical, and it is coated in poison.” (If any attack roll succeeds over the target’s AC, it automatically is a critical hit, and does 1d4 poison damage per turn).
After some discussion, Cypress takes a look at the runes and symbols carved into the blade. He figures out they are fairly generic symbols, and probably nothing attached to the Church of Shadows or anything going on with the Wererats.
Ari passes on the dagger and Devin takes his leave. All four of his eyes are dead-focused on Cypress as he backs into the wall. Cypress keeps the eye contact going as Devin’s body slowly disappears through the brick work.
Now it’s back into the tunnels on our way to see Bostra. Hi-ho-hi-ho it’s off- Wait, what’s that!?
Milling idly around the grate to the crypt for the Church of Shadows, but clearly on THIS side of it, are a Skeleton archer, a Zombie, and a Crawling Claw (a severed but ambulatory hand, undead, and probably part of a zombie it is immune to poison damage and to ‘turn undead’). Clearly, they got out while the grate was open and haven’t gone very far.
Ari starts things off by shooting the Skeleton Archer with one of her remaining +1 arrows. She knocks it in the sternum for 9 damage, and the resulting shock knocks about half its bones off (the best i could think of for a Skeleton being ‘bloodied’).
Behind Rae, Sorin throws out a Firebolt at the Skeleton, igniting it in a flash of dried bone dust. One down, two to go.
The Zombie lunges forward and Slams into Ari for 2 damage, but fails to either knock her down, or even knock her into anyone behind her.
Right behind Ari, Rae swings around her shoulder, and punches the Zombie for 4 damage right in the jaw. Its jaw makes a pop and then a ripping sound, and falls to the ground. It leaves a WIDE open mouth dripping green and brown corpse slime.
On the Skeleton Archer’s turn…it’s dead.
At the back of the Line, Cypress casts Sacred Flame doing double damage on the Zombie as it drips on Ari.
While everyone is distracted, the Crawling Claw dashes around the corner and into the hallway going north and out of sight.
Ari stabs her dagger into the zombie for 6 damage. It doesn’t really have anything in the stomach area, so the knife passes up and into chest organs Ari would rather not think about. She twists the knife.
Sorin lines up his shot and explodes the Zombie’s head with another Firebolt. It knocks the undead monster back and away from Ari.
Rather than looting, everyone runs north after the Crawling Claw.
At the end of the hallway, we rush into the room where we fought the first Gelatinous Cube. Before i can have something attempt a sneak attack, everyone looks around, and sees both the Crawling Claw, and the Shadow in the room.
Ari throws up her hand and Poison Sprays all over... but the Shadow ducks to the side and around the attack.
Cypress is preparing a spell and looking around, when suddenly he sees the face of the shadow emerging from Sorin’s back. It flies straight at him and wraps around his arms and legs, bending them back for 9 damage, and taking his Strength (temporarily) down by 1.
Sorin turns around and pats his chest where the undead monster just flew through him, before quickly casting out three Magic Missiles. They sling around Cypress and explode in the Shadow for 7 damage as it continues to bend Cypress’s limbs backward.
A crossbow bolt lands in the ground a few inches away from the Crawling Claw, as Rae misses her target and groans.
The Shadow wrapped around Cypress can feel and sense his movements. It gives it advantage on the saving throw for Cypress’s Sacred Flame. With a Nat’ 20, the Shadow crosses in front of his face, and lets out a terrifying shriek. The Shadow shapes its head into the face of someone dying and screaming in agony.
The Crawling Claw, skitters on its pointed nails across the wet floor behind the corner of a wall and… somewhere… muahaha.
Ari stabs the Shadow with a dagger.
The Shadow tries to bend Cypress’s arms back further, but he resists.
Sorin hits it with another barrage of Magic Missiles.
Rae punches out at it, but the Shadow jumps off Cypress, and gets to try something.
Before it can, Cypress turns on his heel. His hands snap together and he shouts. “ɮʊʀռɨռɢ ɦǟռɖֆ,” the cone of flame engulfs the Shadow until nothing remains in the heat and light of the spell.
Cautious of the hidden Crawling Claw, we all head towards the hallway looking around on the ground for it. Should’ve been looking up, haha! The detached hand falls from the ceiling and lands on Cypress, clawing him for 2 damage.
Sorin casts Fire Bolt and misses, as the Claw crawls around on Cypress. He narrowly misses Cypress too and the flaming bolt flies off into the empty room.
Rae shoves Sorin to the side to try to pull the Claw off Cypress. There is a Strength contest as Rae pushes the wizard out of the way. She rolls a nat’ 20 and he rolls a nat’ 1. Rae shoves the wizard boy to the floor for 1 damage and knocks him prone, but she succeeds at grabbing the Claw off of Cypress’s arm, and holds it up.
“Quick,” Cypress says with a flash of inspiration, “High Five!” He holds up his hand.
Rae, sees the plan and grins. With the Crawling Claw in her palm, she slams her open hand down.
But, Cypress rolls a nat’ 1 and the Claw escapes. It claws back onto his arm for another 2 damage.
Ari looks like she's about to do something, but Cypress stops her. “Just let me get it!” He growls, clearly frustrated.
We forgot here that Cypress, as a halfling, has the ‘Lucky’ feat and gets to re-roll nat’ 1’s, so he gets another attack… He misses.
Completely disregarding Cypress’s request to handle it himself, Sorin wastes yet another spell slot. He casts his last Magic Missile of the day, on a creature with 1Hp. It dies.
Exhausted, bloody, and sore, our brave Thug Muggers open the hidden brick door to the Thug room where Bostra is camping. We walk through the tunnel and into the room of empty bloody cages. There, eating an apple, and filling the room with cigar smoke, is Bostra. He’s sitting on top of one of the cages, and smiling.
“The water is all over the floors in here,” He says as an explanation, “and, since the Thugs didn’t dig any drains in here, until it stops raining, it's just gonna be a big wet mess.” With a grin he adds, “Good thing the tops of these cages are Halfling and Gnome sized, huh Cypress?” He waves to the cage where he rolled out his little bed roll. “You three tall folk, are gonna have a hell of a time keeping yourselves out of the water, though.”
So basically, what this will mean for a long rest is-
“WAIT!” Sorin says, jumping up and down and splashing. “I have a scroll!” he pulls it out, “A scroll of Create or Destroy Water! I can just banish all the water.”
“Great!” Says Bostra sarcastically, “And, you volunteer to wake up and cast that every hour?”
“What?” Sorin blinks.
“He just said it’s still raining,” Cypress says, as he climbs onto an empty cage.
“Oh.”
So basically, what this will mean for a long rest is that everyone over 4 feet tall will not get a full Heal this rest. They will roll a single hit dice and subtract it from their total health, this is where they start the next day. Also, spell casters will be minus one spell slot per level/field. And, everyone will have one less hit dice to roll on Short Rests tomorrow.
Cypress helps Ari tie her rope into a ladder, for a sort of bed-roll-hammock between cages. Rae folds her bedding over double to try to get some extra padding, and sits on it on top of a cage, trying to find a comfortable position for the night. Sorin pulls out his hooked net, and wedges the hooks into cracks along the wall, before tying the other end to a cage and making his own sort of bed-roll-hammock.
Uncomfortable and wet we try to rest through the night, listening to the dripping water. Except for Cypress and Bostra who sleep comfortably and dream of happy little sheep. They let out content little snores through the night.
Red: Where did we go wrong with you Harold?
Harold: Well, was all those years of not getting the respect i deserved!
Red: You got what you deserved, it just wasn't respect, that's all.
—Steve Smith, “The Red Green Show: Season 11 Episode 17 ‘Red Green Does New Year's’”
Table talk:
Next time we see Devin he will have the price for the Gelatinous Cube Ooze, as well as Arrows for Ari, and Empty Vials for Rae to put her pervert juices in.
I will have the info and stats for Rae’s new staff when we start next week.
Diedrick will be getting me Cypress’s backstory. I won’t be putting it up on the Reference Page right away though, since it is still a mystery to the other players.
What will Sarah Decide about Rae’s leg…?
