Thug Muggers in the Sewers 2/5/23
Table Talk:
I handed out a card for Ashley to have for Akris. It has his stats, the time to re-summon him, and his limitations. “Akris is a Low level Demon Summoned into the body of a flying snake. He is semi-ethereal and can pass through some walls and structures with enough holes in them. He is 'snarky' and inclined to tattle on those around him, disclosing recent mistakes or failures to anyone who will listen. - Once fully 'tamed', Akris can interact with objects less than 2 pounds, and can hypnotize small creatures of less than 5 INT on a successful CHA contest.” It also has 10 dots at the bottom to slowly fill up. Whenever Sorin succeeds in a will contest with Akris, Ashley can fill in a dot, and erase one every time Sorin fails a will contest. Every dot will act as a +1 to these will rolls, to reflect him gaining mastery over Akris. Once all 10 dots are marked, then the bond is complete. Meaning, Sorin will no longer have to roll to get him to do things, and Akris will get some new abilities.
"I think I’m going mad!”
“Now, now,” said the Archchancellor, patting him on the shoulder. “You don’t want to go around talking like that. That’s crazy talk.”
-The Bursar and Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully The Brown —Terry Pratchett, “Moving Pictures”
🎲🗡️🔔✨🌿
Chapter 13: A Gelatinous Puzzle
🎲🗡️🔔✨🌿 Chapter 13: A Gelatinous Puzzle
Alright, so here we are. It’s still the morning of the 4th, and what an exciting morning it’s been! Ari and Sorin are standing in front of a large stone sign blocking their way, on one side. And on the other side, a three foot tall Baby Gelatinous Cube, is getting anxious in its leash. Behind it, Cypress is without a crate lid to use as a shield, and Rae is trying her best to hold the Cube’s chain tight. So, what are we gonna do? How are we getting this cube, past this sign and into the room? Let's find out in today's episode of ‘Sewer You Think You Can Dance?’. No? Okay, how about ‘Cube Cab’? You know since you’re moving it around? Meh, i’ll think of something.
“I have a plan.”
Everyone looks around to try and find who that strong authoritative voice is, but only sees Sorin with his hand raised like he’s sitting in class.
“It’s a relatively brilliant plan if Ii do say so myself.” Sorin lowers his hand to his chest and straightens imaginary lapels. “I’ll cast Spider Climb on the Baby Gelatinous Cube,” he pantomimes an up-and-over gesture, “and then, the creature shall easily crawl OVER the sign.” He says with an air of a lecturer or a 1940’s salesman.
Rae turns away from him with a decisive cough, “Any other ideas?”
Silence.
Well, not technically silence, the Cube is making jello gooshing noises and there is a muted sizzle from inside it as the acidic flesh burns through the wooden lid hovering there. And there are little sounds of dripping, and groaning pipes, and water flowing, and bricks settling, but no one is talking about any other great ideas.
Rae sighs and turns back to Sorin. He grins at her. “Do we think it would actually work?”
The Cube is not used to spending so long just sitting next to so many edible things and not eating them. It lurches at Cypress and does 7 damage as it attempts to engulf them.
Rae goes to pull the cube away, but Cypress raises a hand to stop her. He calmly backs away from it, slowly pulling his leg away.
“Go ahead Sorin.”
This is a very smart move from Cypress. Gelatinous Cubes aren’t used to having magic cast through them, and Spider Climb can only be cast on a willing creature. So, when no one, including Cypress, reacted to its attack with violence it didn’t get riled up. And since Cypress stayed calm, the Cube stayed calm, and Sorin gets advantage on a Charisma Roll when he tries to cast on the monster. Sorin gets a 19, beating the Cube’s 11 to resist. The Cube is willing (or at least not unwilling, so it’ll work).
Sorin steps forward, and Cypress locks eyes with him to help keep him calm. He winces a little as he touches the Cube’s skin. He takes 1 damage, but he knew that was a risk. The Cube tries to suck his hand in deeper, but Sorin locks his arm and concentrates. Sorin opens his mind again to the universe and takes another look at the Cube. Inside it he can picture the various nodes of its existence. The node of its relative size, the Array of its senses and concentration, the line that is its pathway through time. Sorin searches and finds the part of the Cube that attaches itself to the ground; that little voice of gravity inside everything (except birds and jellyfish) that says we belong ‘down’, that voice that we challenge every time we jump. With a nervous exhale, Sorin tweaks this instinct inside the Cube, and suddenly it no longer knows it has to be on the ground. It knows it has to be attached to something, but that it can be anything in any direction.
He pulls his hand away. “Okay,” he says with a nervous smile, “It should work.” Then, like any college kid unsure of how a project will turn out, he hedges any expectations. “I’ve never cast it on a creature before though, so it might be a little different.”
Ari walks past the sign, backing into the room and keeping an eye on the Cube.
The Cube tries out its new ability to ooze along any surface, and starts pushing up the wall. Only one problem, it’s the wall away from the direction we need it to go. Rae heaves on the chain, pulling it off the wall with a popping suction-cup sound.
Trying to spook it into moving forward, Cypress casts Thorn Whip and, like a lion tamer, hits the ground right behind the cube. It works and the startled Cube lurches onto the other wall.
Ari watches the Cube slorp up the stone sign and Casts Thaumaturgy to make more Stirge noises.
Cubert does not not care. It keeps hearing those flapping, chittering Stirge but hasn’t found them yet, clearly they are too far away or just too fast for little baby Cubert.
Sorin ducks around the Cube and backs into the room next to Ari. Before anyone can stop him, he takes his knife out and slices the palm of his hand, Squeezing drops of fresh blood on the ground. Everyone groans, but no one was paying attention to stop him.
Cubert scents the air and-
Thwack One arrow slams into Ari’s shoulder.
Fwick One arrow flies between Ari and Sorin.
Thud One arrow hits Sorin’s Back.
Everyone backed into the Room and so didn’t see the three Skeleton Arches in the tunnel to the Church of Faerick Crypt.
“Ow!”
Ari lets out an angry roar, draws her sword and rushes them. She thrusts out her rapier and hits the first Skeleton in the eye hole, her blade pops out the back of its empty skull for 11 damage. Suddenly, the Skeleton looks as if it barely has the energy to stand any more. When she pulls the blade back, the head comes with it, and Ari shakes her sword, dropping the skull free on the ground.
Back in the hallway, Cypress lion-tamer-whips behind the Cube again, coaxing it up to the top of the sign. It starts the weird process of shifting gravitational directions moving to the other side of the sign.
Rae ducks under the Cube as it perches atop the sign. Once in the room, she tugs hard on the chain. With a 19 strength, she manages to pull the Baby Cube completely off the sign. Then, realizing how close she is to its fall-path, she rolls a 15 dex and dives out of the way.
Quick ret-con here, Sorin, give me a Con Save. I forgot that getting hit can make you lose concentration on a spell, so this is for right after you got hit. If you fail, then the Cube is still on the other side of the sign, on the ground, and we’re back to Cypress’s turn. 15. Okay, good, no problems in the chain of events.
Sorin quickly casts Firebolt and hits the middle Skeleton in the face for 7 damage.
The skull goes flying and the body seems to look around in confusion. It draws an arrow and points around randomly. It loses the arrow and it ricochets cartoonishly off the walls, hitting nothing.
The Skeleton that Ari decapitated also moves around wildly, seemling to look for something. It fires an arrow and it too bounces around hitting nothing.
The third Skeleton, which does still have a head, fires at Ari, sticking her other shoulder for another 6 damage.
Ari turns and looks at the Skeleton. Her eyes burn with a pure unadulterated hatred. For a brief second, all she can see is fire. It’s the deep dark red fire of an infernal pit. A home she’s never known, but a home her demon blood remembers. It remembers burning, and rage, and pain, and damnation, all the things that fueled her long ago ancestor to writhe in their fiery caves. Without a thought, she points her finger at the Skeleton and speaks a single unholy word. It’s a sound like a soul cracking in half, like a god giving up, a sound like the bones of the damned melting. “H̶̳̘̳̥͛͆͛̚e̶̢͉̪̖͉̔͜l̴̛͚͉̔̿̌̀͗́̏̚͝l̵̘̆̍̈́͒̀͌̚ḯ̶͎̺̩̋̒͛̾s̷̫̼̤͙͙̑̿͘͠h̸̨̩̟͎̮̋̔̆͆͘͘͜ ̶̯̩͚̮̞́͋͗̽͝R̴͕͈̬̀̋͗̈̚͝e̴͓͎̩̮̜̋̌͒̀̽̇̊̕͜ͅb̴͖̯̬̔͐̐͑͝ų̶̓k̵̛͓̃̚e̵̮̗͆̓͑͐͐͛ͅ” (Hellish Rebuke). The fire in her eyes leaps out, two deep red burning dots flying along the path of her finger. The Skeleton has a chance to save, but with a Nat’ 1 it steps towards them. They hit its chest in an instant, it’s gone. A puff of bone ash, a smell of brimstone, and a sense of screaming agony is all that remains where it stood. Its bow falls to the floor, rocking back and forth.
Now Cypress runs into the room, casting Sacred Flame at the first Skeleton Archer. His aim is true, he casts it in the exact center of its chest. Since he wasn’t in the room earlier, he doesn’t know the Skeleton is headless, and still stumbling around. It stumbles back, trying not to fall and the sacred fire illuminates the spot where it just was.
During all this, Cubert has gone back to the sign, and is slorpily oozing his way back up it.
Rae tugs on the chain and successfully pulls it off the wall, “Sorin, how do you stop the spell?” she yells.
“Oh yeah, sorry.” Sorin shifts his concentration, letting the natural state of the things return to the Cube and ending the Spider Climb Spell. After a breath he instead refocuses his mind and casts Blade Ward on himself.
“Finally,” Rae says, turning to give him a nasty look. When she does, Cubert lurches forward at her for 2 damage.
The first headless Skeleton fires up at the ceiling doing 0 damage. Then the second headless Skeleton shoots an arrow at the ground, but it bounces up and grazes Ari for 3 damage.
Ari swings her rapier at it, but it is still recoiling from shooting the bow, and stumbles back against the wall, and out of the way of her swing.
Cypress whips out at the other one, but it is also still recoiling from firing its bow, and it too stumbles against the wall and Cypress misses.
Rae drops the chain, now that the Baby Cube is in the room. She runs over, punching at the Skeletons…and also misses.
The first headless Skeleton fires down at the ground and the arrow falls over harmlessly. The second headless Skeleton shoots an arrow up at the ceiling, where it bounces down and grazes Ari for 3 damage.
In a rage, Ari swings at the Skeleton and finally hits it for 12 damage (it had 1 hp left). Without any life force left, the bones collapse in a heap on the ground.
Cypress whips out at the other one, but it is also still recoiling from firing its bow, and it too stumbles against the wall and Cypress misses.
Rae punches out…and hits the wall as the Skeleton stumbles up to stand straight again. Rae has enough of this. She summons her Ki for a furious Flurry of Blows, doing 5 damage (it had 1 hp left). Without any life force left, the bones collapse in a heap on the ground.
That might be the most cartoonish fight scene i’ve ever written. i wish i were an animator and could make a clip of that to play on loop.
Sorin goes over to the Cube and, approaching cautiously, unhooks the chain.
Cubert senses a figure close by. He bunches a pool of gelatinous ooze on one side and releases it, lurching towards the figure.
Sorin jumps back, dodging the Cube, but keeping the unhooked chain hook in his hand.
Over by the corridor to the Church of Faerick Crypt, Ari uncorks and upends the health potion she got last night from Devin. As the healing spell washes over her, she hands the empty bottle to Rae’s pleading puppy eyes.
Rae gratefully takes the bottle, then pulls her hand back suddenly. “Ow, the bottle bit me.”
Nope, not the bottle. It’s the Crawling Claw that just jumped up and dug its long nails in the back of your hand for 4 damage, Rae.
Cypress sees the hand first, and casts Sacred Flame, but the Claw jumps off Rae’s hand (succeeding its Dex Save) and onto the floor, dodging Cypress’s spell.
Rae tries to stop on the skittering hand as it crawls along the floor, but misses as it zigzags between her legs.
Sorin lets off another Fire Bolt and hits the hands directly, leaving just a smoking burnt pile of fingers around a charred empty space.
Rae picks up the chain and coils it over her arm as we all leave.
Unbidden by anyone or anything, Sorin tries to show off, by parkour vaulting over the sign that caused us such a headache. I even double checked, but Ashley really wanted to roll for it, so, give me a Dexterity Roll. Nat’ 1.
Everyone looks on as Sorin leaps up, kicks off the wall, plants his hand on the puddle in the top of the sign, and lands gracefully on the other side. Actually that did look pretty cool. Good job Sorin.
Now it’s back to the Gelatinous Nursery for a Rest. We need to do some planning, and healing. Plus Sorin has some spells to cast to help with the plan and Rae wants to train with her new staff.
As we walk into the room, everyone turns and Ari draws a dagger when we hear Sorin yell.
He grips his hand by the wrist, turning it up to get a good look at his palm. “Ow!” The cut he made across the palm is sizzling from the acid puddle he put his hand in when he jumped over the sign.
Ari puts her dagger away, “Serves you right for showing off.”
There is a bit of table talk here about whether to take a couple hour Short Rest or spend at least 8 hours for a Long Rest. I don’t normally weigh in on these types of discussions between the players because i want to specifically build the world around them and not railroad the story, but this time i was specifically asked to weigh in. I pointed out that they know something is going to happen this evening at the Church of Shadows Crypt. And, while it’s completely up to them to go to it or not, I don’t think that a Long Rest would give them enough time to Move the last Gelatinous Cube, and talk to Pulgrok to finish the quest before that takes place. I also say (because i was asked, remember) that if they go to the Church of Shadows this evening, I don’t know if they will be back up to finish it anytime soon. But to be fair, i really don’t know what will happen. i don’t plan too far ahead because i keep the world open to whatever they do. They decide on a Short Rest.
Rae spends rest time training with her new staff. She runs through paces, stances, attacks, and blocks with it. The whole time as she trains, she pushes some of her Ki into it and talks to it. Around the fifth time through the 1 to 9 basic attack routine, she feels the staff beginning to move with her. It feels lighter in her hands as it begins to move itself. By the sixth run of the basic 1 through 9 blocks her hands are barely touching it as it moves. A little while later, the staff is hovering on its own and moving next to her hands. Then, a few minutes later it is standing apart from her, attacking and defending with her as a training partner.
After this is finished, Rae feels the attunement, the magical bond between her and the staff. She looks over her shoulder and says casually, “I’m gonna be in the corner, I need to cool down a bit after all that.” She walks nonchalantly to the far north corner, and sits right by the entrance to the halfway there. After looking around to make sure no one is watching, she pulls out a strip of cloth. She wraps it tight around the handle of the staff, and for just a moment before she turns it around, we can see the pattern of a temple crest dyed into the cloth. She whispers, “This was on the first staff I ever had, and then it was on the staff I took with me.” After a moment of choked breath she adds defensively, “It’s special to me ok?” as she tucks the last few inches in under the windings.
While Raelle-The-Sentimental is training, Sorin has an idea. And this time, even i think it’s a good idea. He spends his rest carefully transmuting each of the wooden crate lids that are left into Tin. This way, even the worm-eaten and half-broken ones will hold for the Cube to pass over them, and they will still be light enough to easily move around. The spell will last for an hour, so it should hold long enough to get the Cube into place. And, as an added bonus, they won’t be organic anymore, so the Cube won’t try to engulf and eat them.
It’s the end of the rest now, and once again everyone is lined up around the edge of the pit. Time to wrangle us up a Baby Gelatinous Cube, pardn’r! Ev’rybody ready, Hiah!
Cypress is out of the gate first, passing their Dex save, and jumping into the pit. They run around dragging the chain in a wide circle around the Cube, successfully getting it into position.
Ari and Rae are in charge of the ramp this time, and they count off in unison to lift the ramp into position. “One. Two. Thr-”
“Wait, are we going on ‘three’ or ‘one two three’ and then go?”
Rae lifts her side of the ramp as Ari asks the question. She tries to catch it, but the ramp topples over and lands in the pit with a bang.
Ari rolled a 2, and Rae rolled a nat’ 1.
Cypress grabs the slack chain in one hand and the hook in the other. He pulls them taut and, with an 11 Strength, gets the chain successfully hooked. It’s not as tight as last time, but as long as this one doesn’t go up any walls, it should be okay.
Nervous, Sorin tugs on the chain, getting a feel for it. The Cube resists and starts oozing away, but Sorin holds firm and keeps it in place.
Cypress is debating whether to try and re-hook the chain tighter, when Ari jumps into the pit. He looks at the Cube, then the ramp, then the Cube, then the ramp. Finally, they decide to go help Ari with the ramp.
Sorin rolls a 14 Strength, and starts slowly pulling the Cube into position. This is the strongest he has felt his entire life!
Rae impotently tries to ‘help’ with the ramp, but she’s still standing on the ledge, and it's far enough away that her fingers can’t really get a grip on it. Together, Ari and Cypress walk the ramp into position.
Sorin feels like a mighty folk hero as he pulls the Cube towards the ramp step by step. His muscles ripple on his arms like worms on a stick. He rolls a nat’ 20 to pull the Cube into position. But, the Cube also rolls a nat’ 20 to resist him, and it has the higher Dexterity so it wins the tie.
Guadacubé pulls against the chain and starts inching away from Sorin and the ramp.
Rae-The-I’m-Not-Impotent-And-I’ll-Prove-It Jumps down the ramp, grabs the chain and pulls. With a 19 she starts pulling the cube up the ramp.
Ari goes over to the wall, and rolls out onto the ledge, picking herself up and dusting herself off.
Sorin runs away…to the other side of the room. He jumps up on the far wall by the fountain and goes behind it to the cauldron of dead things. As a student in a school of magic, Sorin isn’t very squeamish. He has dissected several small creatures, dealt with piles of foul magical oozes, and even used the communal toilets twice! But, even for Sorin, this is disgusting. I tried to explain why it’s so bad and how the grinder underneath mixed the different species and-Brooke stopped me because she was going to throw up on the table so i guess it has to stay in my imagination. He succeeds on his Con Save and picks out two dead Stirge.
With a 16, Cypress pulls himself out of the pit with ease, joining Rae as she pulls the Cube up the ramp. Together they heave-ho and pull the Cube onto the ledge.
Sorin jumps down from the fountain, and rolls his ankle. It's not bad, but it slows him down just enough that he won’t make it to be in the front position he’d planned, and he will end up behind the Cube with Rae.
As Rae pulls the Cube close to the south hallway, Cypress looks around to see Sorin just getting out of the pit. He uses his halfling Nimbleness and gets to the front of the line with Ari just as she bends over and picks up the now-metal crate lids.
“Ari, catch!” Sorin flings one of the Stirge over the Cube towards her.
“Huh?” she turns around, with a tin crate lid in each hand.
The dead Stirge hits the tin crate lid in her right hand as she instinctively reaches up with it. The corpse bounces off, and before she can do anything, it bounces into the pale near-transparent flesh of the Cube.
“Um?”
“I’ve got it. Try again.” says a voice a little lower down.
Nervously, Sorin lobs the second dead Stirge. We look on in slow-motion, like the final home run in a baseball movie. The Stirge drips in the air, its leathery bloated wings almost seem to flap. Guadacubé eats up the drippings as it flies overhead-uh-overtop. With hardly any effort, Cypress snatches the dripping dead beast from the air, pulling it away right as the Cube tries to lurch for it.
Cypress picks up the last metal crate lid, and heads out of the room after Ari, turning every few feet to wave the corpse at the lassoed Cube.
At the first corner now, Ari slides the tin lid over the grate. Cypress slowly backs around the corner, squeezing the Stirge to make sure there is plenty of fresh corpse juice on the ground to keep the Cube interested.
Rae keeps the chain tight to avoid any lurches as we turn the corner. And once we’re over the drain, Sorin picks up the tin lid.
The path the Thug Muggers decided on takes them through two of the mechanical rooms. And not just any mechanical rooms, but two of the Fountain Filter Rooms. The rooms that process the water, and help the city stay alive, one of the most important parts of the whole operation. We’ll have to get it through the center of the room, without letting it move an inch to either side. It’s going to be a tight squeeze, so i hope that the Cube doesn’t ooze on anything too expensive, or engulf something and damage the whole system...
Cypress runs to the far end of the room and stands there as tempting bait with their corpse puppet. Ari raises the other lid to use as a small wall shield, backing into the room, and keeping right up against it.
“As soon as it’s in the room, Sorin you need to run in. Get on the other side of it with your lid up as a shield.” Ari shouts over the gurgling of the mechanisms. “You and I will have to push on it and keep it in a perfectly straight line. Whatever you do, don’t let it touch anything in here.
Guadacubé glorps into the room still chasing the pustulous corpse smell in the air.
As soon as it’s in, Rae tights the chain-leash to keep it at a slow speed. Sorin runs in behind it, pressing his makeshift shield to its flank as it slorks along the floor. Air and Sorin maintain a constant pressure, like the walls of an artificial hallway. And after a few heart pounding moments, Ari backs into the corridor ahead of the cube, and Sorin pushes it from behind as we clear the room. We made it!
Cypress keeps its interests and Rae keeps it in line with the leash, shifting her weight on the chain from side to side.
Through all these rooms and hallways there are a LOT of dice rolls and checks, but i’m only listing the action here instead of a bunch of check and save numbers. At the intersection though, Rae gets a nat’ 20 and gains advantage on her next roll.
One down, and one to go now. It’s the same set up as we back into the second Fountain Filter Room. Cypress swings the bait at the far end, Sorin and Ari pushing in from either side, then Rae steering and slowing from behind.
As Cypress swings the dead Stirge through the chamber, it drips a pale whitish blob on the floor. The drop flies off and lands on one of the thorny roots in the funnel. The root twitches, thirsty for more.
Guadacubé senses movement to the side and can sense delicious corpse puss. Guadacubé lurches towards the funnel.
Ari braces against the Cube as it tries to push against her with her back to the funnel shaped pit in the floor. Trying not to fall into it, she staggers, and pushes back, hard. Her hand slips for a moment into the acidic goo, and she hisses through her teeth as she tries to stay quiet and avoid tempting the Cube any more.
The thorny vine-root settles and the drip is pulled into one of the glyphs lining the funnel. It disappears into the stone.
Guadacubé can’t sense anything but the annoying bird-thing that keeps dripping up ahead, so it keeps pushing that way.
A moment later we are out of the room. Ari checks her hand, but it seems to have only gotten her finger tips (1 damage), so she’ll be alright.
We’re at the next intersection now. A three-way T where one path goes up to the other Cube Room we just finished, and the other path goes south, towards where we need to go. Hopefully the sound of the other Cube won’t distract this one…
At the intersection, Rae rolls a 9 for Strength and pulls too hard, stopping the Cube. Cypress rolls a 12 charisma, but the Cube seems to have lost interest in prey that only ever gets farther away. Sorin tries to push it from behind with the metal lid, but only gets an 11 strength.
Guadacubé sits still.
After a moment of nothing happening, Sorin sticks out his hand, “I’m gonna cast a Firebolt and get it moving.”
“No!” Rae swats his hand away.
“Really!?” Sorin puffs up with indignation. “This is just ‘cause it’s me, huh? I noticed you didn’t have a problem with Cypress whipping at it!” He sticks his hand out again and aims at a spot on the ground just behind the Cube.
“Stop, okay.” Rae says and tries to move his hand.
Sorin casts (Dex 15) right as Rae pulls on his arm (Dex 21).
The spell goes off and the firing bolt slams into the chain. There is a heartstopping beat of silence, then the hook un-hooks and falls to the floor.
And that seems like a good cliffhanger to end on. See you soon.
Nah, we actually kept going a bit past that so here it is:
Guadacubé senses that whatever was holding it back is gone now. A shiver runs over it and it starts to move.
Sorin dives for the floor, he grabs the hook, and slides it into one of the chain links. It's looser now, but at least we're moving in the right direction.
And there we are, back on track and heading towards the Church of Shadows Crypt Drainage Room. I sure hope Belgruuse is done with the repairs, because we’re moving fast.
“Cuddy, belonging to a race that worked underground for preference, and Detritus, a member of a race notoriously nocturnal, had excellent vision in the dark. But mysterious caves and tunnels always have luminous fungi, strangely bright crystals or at a pinch merely an eldritch glow in the air, just in case a human hero comes in and needs to see in the dark”
—Terry Pratchett, “Men at Arms”
Table Talk:
When Ari cast Hellish Rebuke the question came up about whether or not the fire would catch on to other things, or do lasting fire damage. The spell description is “hellish flames” but doesn’t specify a lasting effect. So, it’s up to me as a DM if that is normal or ethereal fire. This led to a discussion about how i make some of these decisions when there are thin areas like this that are up for interpretation. In my head i have decided how each character's magic works, and what the source is, i’ve tried to show that in these summaries, as well as the narrative at the table. Cypress, as a Cleric, channels the will of Gods; their magic has to to be reflective of a conscious decision and a will to change the course of events (for instance the gods hands on his as heals). Rae’s Ki functions a lot like Chakra in Naruto; it’s a bodily force that has to be moved and manipulated, as well as trained like a muscle (for instance when she pushed it out of her foot for a double jump). Sorin’s magic is wizard magic from a school, it is about structure and the philosophical understanding of the world; his magic requires the knowledge of how to change something as well as the will to make that change happen (for instance changing the state of the feather and the rope for Feather Fall). Ari is a tiefling, her magic stems from her demonic bloodline; it is driven by emotions and desire and is directly attached to her ancestors in a literal hellfire-plane of existence, (that is why her Mage hand was a part of her with fire for skin and magical demon blood). So in the case of this hellish rebuke, i decided that the spell was an instant and instinctual reaction from her body. She pointed and it brought forth the fires of hell, but instead of casting them to a point of normal combustible fuel, the casting attached to the SOUL that hurt her.
Sarah asked about how i thought everyone did in terms of solving the puzzle (the stone sign being in the way) “I’m curious what you would have done.” Everyone seemed pretty confident that i wouldn’t make a puzzle with no answer, and that’s true. I had several things in mind when i set this up, some that involved parts of the map that are still unexplored. I told them that i thought the idea to cast Spider Climb on the Cube was incredibly clever. It’s not something i would have thought of, and i really liked it.
In some sessions coming up, i am planning to flesh out some backstory with everyone. We will probably do 2-3 sessions that take place in the past. One in each character’s childhood, one in adolescence, one in adulthood, and one just before we all meet. We can fill in some of the gaps of who our heroes are, and why they make the decisions they do.
