Thug Muggers in the Sewers 5/12/23
Table Talk:
Just a side note here, I think the hardest role playing i’ve ever done has been in this campaign. When i make the little notes and things you guys find, i have to say that trying to roleplay a character’s handwriting is very hard!
I asked everyone about a mistake i made last time. Akris technically should have taken damage when he went through the holy shrine instead of just going down stairs. But, the whole group was quick to jump on me, and say that they don’t want Akris hurt. So i guess this time, i’ll just toss it off as my mistake.
I explained more on the XP i dulled out last time. Basically i’m treating it a bit more like completing quests in a series; ‘Get 9 Thugs’ ☑, ‘Investigate Thugs and Cult Connection’ ☑, ‘Discover and Prove the Cult’ ☑. And so now they are on a quest of ‘Deal with the Cult’. That's basically how i’m looking at it in terms of XP for the main plot (though not actually how i have it laid out in my notes). A sort of series of interaction and events that are furthering the plot.
Lastly, i clarified the Matteo will be trying to meet them in the second lever crypt starting tomorrow night, not tonight. So they do not have to rush for it.
“You blobs, you sit there, chillin’ in this room and I can smell the rot of dead animals soaking in the acid of your guts. You suck the life from the innocent creatures of this world just so you can clock another day. You’re machines that run on the terror and pain and mutilation of other lives. You’ll scrape the world clean of every green and living thing until starvation goes one-eight-seven on every one of your sorry asses, your desperation to put off death leadin’ to the ultimate death of everybody and everything. Dude, I can’t believe you ain’t all paralyzed by the pure, naked horror of this place.”
-Justin Monster ’Shitload’ —David Wong (Jason Pargin), “John Dies at the End: Chapter 5”
Halfway down the pipe, stopping at the first sewer level, we pause for Sorin to use the Message spell to contact Bostra, now that we’re in range (not truthfully within range, but i’m letting it slide for expediency, and because i don’t want to pull out all the first level maps). Sorin brings the small piece of thin copper wiring up to his face, and holds delicately on either end just in from of his mouth, then whispers:
“Ahem. Uh, hey Bostra, Sorin here, you know, with the Thug Muggers? Anyways made a major breakthrough in mugging Thugs , and so we have a lot to tell you to catch you up. We have a new little camp set up on the South East side of the second level of the sewers. It’s just south of the Church of Shadow’s Crypt and pretty much right under the Gelatinous Cube room up there. Please meet us here so we can talk.”
Sorin lets go of the wire, and it floats in the air, vibrating with the sounds of his words. Sorin closes his eyes and sends the Copper Wire down the tunnel.
The wire floats through the air turning and spinning and humming, sensing in some strange way the bond Sorin placed in it. It is compelled like a magnet, drawing itself ever closer to something. It moves through the tunnels like a stick in a river, the air around it bouncing it back to a central current. It squeezes through a crack and floats on, turns, turns again, and slows, hovering down.
Bostra sees the little Copper wire floating in the air and thinks, ‘hmm.. Message spell.’ He sets down his bowl, ‘I wonder if it’s actually Sorin, or if the Thug’s caught them and used his voice to set a trap,’ he wonders, tightening a strap on his armor.
“Ahem. Uh, hey Bostra, Sorin here, you know, with the Thug Muggers?” the wire hums by Bostra’s ear, playing out the message.
Bostra relaxes thinking, ‘No, that's definitely Sorin.’
After the message finishes playing, the Wire goes still and quiet. Bostra turns and whispers to it, his breath vibrating the little metal string. Then, like a yo-yo being yankind upwards, the copper wire flies back to Sorin. And this time as it hums to itself, the humm is deeper.
After a bored couple moments waiting, Sorin sees a glint of brown metal in the darkness. The wire floats back to him and stops, just barely touching his ear. The vibrations are faint now, but Sorin can just make out Bostra’s voice. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. If I am not there tonight, wait for me there until morning.” At the last, the fragile piece of metal cracks, having vibrated itself apart, and the tiny copper dust falls to the sewer floor.
Sorin passes along the message to everyone, and we all head back down to the second level.
🎲🗡️🔔✨🌿
Chapter 5: A Cold Familiar Darkness
🎲🗡️🔔✨🌿 Chapter 5: A Cold Familiar Darkness
It’s late afternoon on the 6th of Mirtul. In and around the City above, the children and families are just beginning to trickle home from the local farms. They talk about ‘washing those muddy little hands,’ and ‘all the fun we had today, isn't that right,’ and ‘now when we have salad you’ll know where it came from, maybe it will even be your lettuce,’ and other generic parent platitudes. Somewhere up there an Aarakocra with a sly-beaked grin is asking, ‘how much will you give me for this then?’. And in the north part of Nibiru, a hotel clerk is in a back room, pricking his finger with a lancet, and smearing the blood on a card to clock in for their shift. All of these people go about their lives, not knowing that nearly 50 feet down below them in the earth, a team of brave adventurers is trying to save the very soul of a local community. (how’s that for fantasy intro bullshit, not bad huh?)
Ari is the last one to step off the welded-rungs of the pipe, onto the grate surrounding it, and then onto the cobble stone floor. She turns and looks around. Nothing has changed, it’s the same little workbench area where they were yesterday morning. Ari looks around nervously, remembering the Gray Ooze that ruined her armor.
Everyone rolls Perception checks. Rae and Cypress’s roll somewhere in the twenties. Sorin and Ari get circital failures.
Sorin and Ari both see it in an instant.
The shadowy gray shape writhes on the workbench before ducking underneath it to hide.
The wizard casts Blade Ward on himself.
Ari draws her knife.
Rae looks at Akris, moving in front of the torch light.
Cypress’s face is still as they try not to laugh.
Akris giggles then shushes them and moves again.
The shadow lunges from under the workbench, but Ari is ready! She stabs down at it for 3 damage.
Rae, Cypress and Akris all burst out laughing, and Ari notices she did 2 damage to the floor and 1 to her knife (now a -1 dagger).
Cypress laughs, “That’s coming out of your pay.”
Ari and Sorin grumble, but the joking is good natured and everyone is smiling.
“Okay, so where now?”
“We could go sit and wait for Bostra?” Sorin says.
“Yeah but then, we’re just sitting and waiting for hours.” Ari complains.
“I’m with Ari, let’s explore or something.”
“It’s a good point, plus we'll know more about what’s around here when we go to wherever we go next.” Cypress says, scratching their chin.
“Yeah,” Sorin whines, “but we’ll be safe and not have to fight anything if w.”
“There was that door we saw back there, at the end of that hallway.” Rae says, pointing east and ignoring the wizard.
“Two if i remember.”
“Yeah a stone dore and a metal gate”
“And one up there, plus the side passages we saw.” Cypress says, pointing to the passage north.
“Okay fine.” Sorin says, walking over to the adjacent wall, “if we’re really doing this, then let’s just do this one, it’s close.” He tests the handle, “And, it’s unlocked.”
“Okay, great, open it.”
“What, no, I'm always in back.”
“Come on, open it.”
“Open it, open it, open it.”
“Ugh okay fine.”
When Sorin cracks the door open, the little leather flaps on the side of the door pull apart with that special wet sucking noise leather has sometimes. Then there is a hiss of cool air. He pushes the door open and we can all feel the difference in the air. This air is cool and clean, it smells like ice water, and feels like a light blue breeze in the depths of a dark green lake. Beyond the door are the lime gray and ochre walls of a cave. It is a natural tunnel, the roof isn’t doomed, but it isn’t straight and flat either. The floor of the cave is uneven, but worn smooth in the middle like a trail, in fact it looks like there are even some ruts like wheel tracks running down the tunnel. Along the striped and speckled walls we can see a couple narrow passages and the lead somewhere else. We also see a pillar, a heavy stalimit in the center of the tunnel, almost reaching the ceiling, with the faint glow of light from behind it. Between us and the pillar is a large puddle of muddy muck the same color as the orangy brown in the walls. Sorin cranes his neck to the side and he thinks he can see a long puddle of water behind the pillar.
Laughing, Rae pushes the young wizard, “come on, keep it going, you big strong muscle man! You go first this time.”
Sorin stumbles, as he steps onto the uneven floor of the cave, losing his balance on the unfamiliar terrain. Still trying to stand up from Rae’s joke push, he falls back on the floor laughing.
Cypress is helping him up when in ha[[ens.
The orange puddle had been creeping along the cave floor towards the door as soon as it heard the voices. Now, just a couple feet away from Sorin laying prone, and Cypress trying to help him up. The orange puddle wiggles, and jelly rolls make little waves all along it, culminating in a rising pillar in the middle of its body, like the reverse of a slow motion video dropping a pebble in milk. The pillar rises up and up, becoming a sort of oozy mud-slime tentacle.
Sorin is getting to his knees when it hits him. He lets out a painful yowl as the orange slime tentacle lands heavy across his chest for 6 bludgeoning damage, the shiny acid surface of the muck absorbing in his shirt and burning him for 4 more points of acid damage.
Suddenly, Ari’s hands are up in front of her. She steps up right behind Sorin and casts Burning Hands, feeling the fiery lakes of her youth flowing through her. The monster hisses and steams in the cone of flames taking 11 damage.
Rae steps up next to Ari and looses a crossbow bolt at the thing for 4 more damage.
Now that Sorin is mostly standing, Cypress turns to face the thing, and flicks out their Thorn Whip for another 2 damage.
Back on his feet now, Sorin cast Magic Missile doing 11 more damage (that’s almost 30 damage in less than a minute, wow). The first missile severs the waving tentacle in a shower of sparks, the second seems to bore a hole through the thing, and the third explodes like a firework in the dark cave.
When the sparks clear, we sigh with relief. The missiles have cut the thing in two.
The two half size ochre puddles jiggle and wobble towards us. The first one swipes at Cypress and misses. The second whips out like a lizard tongue and slaps Sorin across the face for 10 bludgeoning damage, and 2 points of acid sizzling on his cheek (ooo maybe it’ll be a cool scar). Sorin, having just stood up, falls unconscious and collapses on the ground.
Ari looks down the tunnel, and sees another, full sized one of these things squelching and bouncing its way towards us around the pillar. She hesitates for just a second and then reaches under her new chest plate and plucks a bead off the Fireball Necklace. She throws it. The tiny little red bead sails peacefully through the air. In its arching flight, its shiny surface reflects a tablough of the fight and a reflection of cave walls. Then it descends. It hits the ground just a step away from the slime thing, and explodes. An eruption of heat and fire hits the second creature for 39 points of damage, and we can’t even see it anymore.
Rae pulls Sorin’s body back into the workbench room, muttering something about ‘squishy idiots’.
Cypress touches his leg as she drags him past, casting Spare the Dying, and backs into the room with them.
Ari watches her fiery explosion for a second and then retreats to the others in the room.
Sorin makes a death save and his eyes blink open. The world feels muzzy and wobbly, but he’s alive (0 hp but conscious). He staggers to his feet, bracing himself against the wall. He turns out and, lets off a Firebolt, then turns back, shielding himself behind the door just like he did in the Crypt fight. So, he doesn’t see the spell land and split one of the blobs in two again.
The first tiny orange blob lashes out again, missing Ari by only a few inches, but the second tiny one pushes a long arm out of itself, aiming low and it hits Cypress in the leg for 6 bludgeoning and 1 acid damage.
The medium orange blob monster clings to the door frame, pulling itself up the sides and stretching out into a sort of thin, ochre half-door gate wall. Then it thrusts some of itself forward and hits Cypress for another 8 and 4 damage, springing back to the door frame and rippling like a water balloon.
Ari pulls her rapier and slices* the tiny one closest to Sorin. Then she looks over the jelly-door-wall and sees the two other tiny things coming at us. They must be the remains of the big one she ‘sploded.
Rae hands her last health potion to Sorin, and then slams her staff down on the one Ari hit, popping it like a giant orange Boba Bubble.
Cypress reaches out and casts Poison Spray on the last tiny one. The concentrated jet of acid hits the tiny jelly and scours it off the cobbles like a pressure washer.
“Quick, Follow me!”
Everyone turns to look at Sorin. He pulls the end of a rope out of his satchel and throws it up at the ceiling, casting Rope Trick. It hangs in a perfectly straight line, dangling from the ceiling. Waving at the others to follow, Sorin climbs the rope. Quickly passing hand over fist, he climbs through and disappears into the ceiling.
“‘Kaaaayy, um…”
Cypress ducks another swing of the slimy muck tongue-tentacle as the medium blob creeps its way up the door.
The two tiny remains of the ‘sploded big one are in the room now. One lunges at Ari, but falls short. The other jumps up and lands on Rae’s bare foot. It slams down, feeling impossibly heavy for something so liquidy and fast, and does 11 bludgeoning and 2 acid damage.
Ari throws out her hand and casts her own Poison Spray at the one that attacked her, but it jumps up and back, seeming to taunt her.
Rae swings her staff at the one stretched across the door, and her staff cuts through in a wet splat.
Up in his little ethereal tree house, Sorin drinks Rae’s health potion for 9 Hp and relaxes.
Down on the ground, the two tiny jellies fling themselves at Ari and Cypress, with Ari taking 16 total damage and Cypress 9 total damage. He’s very bloody now and just barely still standing.
Ari’s eyes flash with a familiar anger and her Hellish Rebuke leaves the ochre puddle that hit her nothing more than a tiny charred lump on the floor. Then she swings her rapier in a dramatic flourish… and the ghost of Ridolfo Capo Ferro groans. She rolls a nat’ 1 and the jelly parries. It snakes and coils around the blade and knocks the hilt from her hand. Now the tiny orange blob has an oozy tentacle around the sword and is swinging it around wildly.
Rae swings her staff down at the little blob, but it parries with the sword. It knocks her staff down and up and the back end of her own staff hits against her chin. Her teeth click together with a painful clack and she takes 1 damage. (Rae also rolled a 1). Rae uses her bonus action though, and knocks the sword out of the thing’s clutches.
Cypress grits their teeth, and casts Poison Spray again, and the concentrated stream of acid rips the tiny jelly blob apart.
Now that it’s all over, Sorin comes down from his magic hidey hole, “How come none of you followed me?”
“We were in… a fight!” Rae says with sassy emphasis.
“Yeah, and we could have rested… in the rope trick,” Sorin retorts with mocking emphasis.
“Either way,” Cypress says, throwing up his hands to break them up. We’re resting now.”
“Okay,” Sorin gloats, “then let’s do what I suggested in the first place, go back to-”
“No!” Cypress puts his foot down. “I’m your healer and I’m almost dead. Rae, shut the door. Ari has the first watch. Rae, you take the second watch, we are resting here and now.”
Sorin pouts his lips then says, “Okay, fine, but I am NEVER, going in first agin!”
[BLACKOUT]
‘Your creator isn't kind,' Saint said, 'he warned you about the forbidden fruit, laid the laws out for you. You broke them, ate the fruit. It's something of a mercy that he punishes you this way instead.'
'I disagree on every count. I was the one who made me, who defined myself. This creator is no God, only a cruel, short sighted man.'
-Dragon and Saint –Wildbow [J. C. McCray], “Worm”
Table talk:
So, this fight was an Ochre Jelly, actually two Ochre Jellies. Which are a Challenge Rating 2. I hadn’t initially planned for them to be a combined fight, but it worked out as a Medium CR with 1350 XP, so approximately 1/5th of the team's 6800 XP daily Budget.
This hit knocked the Jelly to exactly 1 Hp, i even had to show Brooke as proof. This cracks me up because these players have the worst luck with this i’ve ever seen. Over half of their encounters have, at some point, had a creature knocked to a single Hit Point.
