Thug Muggers in the Sewers 8/26/23
Table Talk:
Last week when Ari demoned out, i meant to have everyone roll Con saves or take Fear and be unable to move towards her in any way. I forgot. Dang. Oh well, but man… that could've gone so much worse with Ari coming to and also seeing everyone backing away from her… Dang.
I asked Nymbus to be thinking about Cypress’s reaction, as a holy man, to seeing the literal devil in Ari.
Everyone got 150 XP for the Wretched Sorrowsworns, and 300 for the Thugs.
Sorin collected jewelry off the second Thug. He got a simple hammered brass and leather bracelet and a necklace that has a plain medallion with an Orcish rune on the back.
Cypress got a letter from the first Thug. The envelope has the address “North - Kymax - Easter Ridge Woods - The Last Kairn” written in large spaced out lines that can be easily crossed off as it gets handed down the line to its destination.
I had an apology to the players, that this session has a long amount of prewritten sort of ‘cut scenes’ in it. So prepare for about two pages of me just reading out loud from a sheet of paper. Sorry in advance.
Lastly, i finally got a logo made up for the “Bread Berry”. Those delicious crazy square rations grown by The Logg and Kells Alchemy Collective.
Now everyone, give me a Constitution Check for a thing that will happen later on.
“But he was alone. Can you imagine the mind, emptied by that thing, without even a tourmentor for compnay?”
-Captain James T. Kirk —Gene Roddenberry, “Star Trek: The Original Serries; Season 1 Episode 10”
🎲🗡️🔔✨🌿
Chapter 11: Zaanth and the Rat King
🎲🗡️🔔✨🌿 Chapter 11: Zaanth and the Rat King
Inside is not the simple office of a hard-working live-in frog. It is not the friendly, well lit atmosphere of the office above. Inside… is a disaster. The room looks as though a small war came rampaging through. All the furniture is broken and scattered around. A large desk lays in three pieces surrounded by wood chips and splinters. The two pillars are just laid out stone circles on the floor, and we can see chunks of ceiling pushing in the corners from the holes where we can see the dirt showing through. An iron cauldron is knocked on its side with a thin brown liquid still inside it. There are parts of the walls and floor where thorny roots are poking out, before they were cut and smashed apart. There are a few crates surrounded by smashed debris that might have been boxes or barrels of even decorative chests, who knows with only the little bit that’s left. There are three rugs and two look to be burned to ash, with the third cut and frayed in the middle. Several corners have thick spider webs in them that make you wonder what spider could have made them. And entangled in one of these webby masses are the broken remains of a gargoyle. In the center of the room, clearly mounted in the roof is a chandelier that now hangs at a shaky angle about to fall at any time, its thick arms bent and broken at various angles, clearly not what the artist had in mind.
And there, under the chandelier and just to the side in case it falls… is Bostra. He’s sitting on a large sack, maybe pulled out from one of the corners and he’s stirring a pot held over a little campfire. The smells of delicious potatoes and butter, and basil and turkey fill your nose as you see the soup simmering in the pot, it looks like there might even be some carrots in there softening up too. He motions you over and gestures to the four bits of broken chairs and boards that he's dragged into a little ring around the fire. “Have a seat.” he says, pulling a cigar out of his mouth and sitting it next to the fire, “We should talk about what happened to the Frog.”
The table erupts in cries of “Wait, that's not really Bostra!” and “rEaL FooD!? Uh huh!” Everyone, make an Insight check, for me.
Cypress and Ari both fail their check and walk up to Bostra, taking a seat. Unnoticed by the other two, they go very still.
Sorin is skeptical and remains on guard. He cautiously approaches and takes a seat. While intently watching Bostra, he doesn't notice the little pinch.
Raelle-the-Skeptical decides to stay standing. She walks over and crosses her arms, glaring at the maybe-imposter.
Bostra looks up at Rae and gestures to the make-shift chair.
Rae shakes her head.
Bostra shugs. He clears his throat to begin explaining…
Suddenly he flings the soup at Rae. She is caught off guard as the disguised potion hits her chest.
Suddenly your whole body feels as if it’s trapped in warm ice. Your muscles strain, but your skin is frozen in place. Your breathing is shallow and hot, with your chest still and unmoving. The illusion of Bostra shimmers and changes. The woman standing there now is a short and bulky half-orc. She looks small enough to maybe just be a tall dwarf, and you can see the rough stubble of a five o'clock shadow on her cheeks. She’s wearing a tunic of thick leather straps somewhere between a breastplate and a smelter’s apron. Her shoulders and neck are a mass of puffy green scars and her hands are thick and veiny with long agile fingers. With a look of disgust, she kicks the cigar into the fire and then stands with one foot one up of the sack she was sitting on.
Under her gladiator style saddle, the sack illusion fades, and you see Pulgrok there, bound and gagged. He struggles for a moment then sees you all and goes very still. “Do you know how annoying you all are!?” she says with disdain. “Maybe you all just never got read any stories growing up. I don’t think you understand how the game was supposed to go.” She starts to pace around the fire and Pulgrok’s arms shift behind his back, readjusting from the change. “Once you wound up in jail, you were supposed to *”*escape*”* and fight us for a bit in the tunnels. You did that part just fine.” She ticks along on her fingers. “A few of us knocked down, you open more of the gates for us, et cetera et cetera. But then… see, then you were supposed to stop. You take the money, you go back ‘upstairs’ and a new batch of little wandering chumps gets sent in after you.” She pauses in thought, “Or maybe if you’re smart, we talk to you and hire you as help and you join us in what’s coming.” She turns and a vein on her head seems to throb in frustration. “See, the others, they all understood, they all got it, just fine. They knew the plot and how it should go. But you!” She sighs and breathes deep to calm down. “Well it’s no use getting angry is it? You can’t get angry at idiots, it’s not their fault Zaanth,” Then turning back to you, she garabs Rae's chin and moves it lazily up and down like a puppet. In a mocking voice she says “We're sorry we’re so dumb Zaanth, please don’t hurt us,Zaanth!” and laughs. “You thought… what? You’d get a medal, a plaque, your name in shiny fireworks and free drinks for life? Or maybe it’s honor. ‘Gee good job gang, we did it, we beat the bad guy,’” she says in a Fred Jones voice. Then in a harsh empty tone, “No. No, you just get to die. You get to die in agony. See, this is much bigger than you. It’s bigger than the sewers or some cheap gang of thugs. This is more than one little cult run amok. This is… hehe no you almost got me talking there. They say the best way to get someone to open up is silence *laugh* well you all are *mocking* so good at being silence. Ahaha *content sigh*. Anyways, I have to get going now. But don’t worry, the paralysis should wear off… just in time for you to start screaming. Tata. Now, I have an audience with a king, and I mustn't keep him waiting.”
Zaanth picks up Pulgrok from the floor, lifting him over her shoulder. Then she kicks the campfire at you, singing your pants with embers. “I do have your reward, though, brave heroic adventures. It’s right here in that box.” And she points her foot to a wooden apple box just beyond the ring of light the campfire had made. “Have fun with it… It’s definitely going to have fun with you!” Then she laughs and carries Pulgrok out of the room. Right at the door Sorin sees Pulrgok manage to wiggle around, and then hears a clink. Before the door closes, he sees something small roll around behind the debris by the door.
The box in front of you shakes. Once. Then, you feel a voice. It rasps through your bones and grinds across the broken cobblestones. “Come. Be. My. Eyes.” You feel the paralyzer start to loosen and your heads turn just enough to see the rats. In the darkness all around you, you see pinpoints of glowing red eyes blink into being. The pairs come forward in a huge mass. A circle all around you. As the rats come forth from cracks and holes, even digging in from the exposed bits of ceiling dirt, you think you see the item Pulgrok dropped get carried into their mass.
The least upsetting version i could find to put up here and be less upsetting, but go ahead and do a image search… Just be warned.
Just as the last bits of flaming wood go out, you feel the voice push through you again. ‘Ah. What a thing to find in the shadows... A small feast. To feed my children.” Then you see more light. Pale blue bulbs wink at you in the dark. They emerge at single points pushing through the wall of Rat eyes. As you adjust to the darkness and more of these pale bulbs emerge, you see what they are. Each one looks like a large glowing walnut, until you see the faces. These new Rats are larger than the others. Their faces hang slack as black drool spills from their half open maws. Their heads look open as you stare in horror at the triple lobed brains pulsing behind a clear filmy skin like some kind of deep sea fish. These new Rats' eyes are unfocused as they stare in all directions at once. Then the voice rips through you again, an malicious disdainful tone that carries with it a pure and essential hatred for life itself. “Free me! Come forth and take away this stupid cage you mindless simple RATS!” The exposed brain Rats stagger forth to the box. Then the normal Rats with their glowing red eyes surround the box in a dazed circle. They stand on hind legs and carefully gnaw around the nails before lifting the planks away and passing them back to other Rats who scurry away into the dark with the wooden slats. When the cage falls away you see there by the smoldering embers a creature lost to myth. A nightmare monster of evil from children's fairy tales. The old kind of blood and bone. The Rat King stares back at the four of you with 20 milky eyes, its ten tails are a mass of pulsing flesh tied together. It walks like a spider with each individual Rat moving forwards, backwards, and sideways as it scuttles around to examine you. You feel the paralyzer wearing up, but fear keeps you sitting there, waiting for the moment to fight or flee. “Well now children, it is time.” The Rat King awkwardly backs away, to stand on the box lid and the voice comes through again, “To me children, to me Rats!” Then all the Rats move at once. They scurry forward and duck under the box lid, and under each other. Soon the wooden boards wobble upward with the Rat King carried aloft by a gigantic squiggly mass of squirming brown black and red Rat fur, tails and teeth. Here and there in the mass, pale blue lights blink on and off as the exposed brains become visible and then dive back into the shuddering tower of furry flesh. “First, their fear, then their bodies, my children. Now FEAST!” A few Rats run out of the pillar and the entire bulk of squirming Rats moves towards you.
The con check earlier was in place of an initiative roll to see who comes out of the paralysis first.
Cypress is up first. He falls backwards out of his chair, rolling in a summersault. When he comes up, his hands are outstretched, his palms flat with his fingers pointing up. Each finger writhes and twitches, and we hear the sounds of bricks cracking as vines and rootstocks emerge from the floor. They wrap around and squeeze down on the Rats.
The Rats scurry and flee from the Entangling roots, but the roots lash out and hold them down. About half the Rats escape, but half the Horde is trapped in place by the (Entangle) Spell.
Sorin lashes out with a Firebolt as he runs for the back corner of the room. “Ari, get the necklace ready! I’m going to do a Rope Trick and we can hide up there while it burns!
The Rat King casts Detect Thoughts. It probes the minds of our heroes, assessing their plans to gain advantage, and some of the straggling Rats begin to gnaw through the roots and vines to free the Rabble (i just learned ‘rabble’ is an accepted collective noun for rats, cool).
Rae throws a bottle of ooze at the main mass of the Swarm before running back to Sorin. “Oh come on, that’s just creepy… and frankly rude!” She shouts as she watches a Rat with vacant eyes climb to the top of the heap. It catches the bottle and then tosses it back harmlessly.
Ari runs to Sorin (a sentence i never thought i would type). She dodges the Rats in her way and readies herself to climb the rope and throw the last two Beads of Fireball down at the Rat King.
Cypress quickly casts Bless on their allies as they back away from the squirming Thrall in front of them.
Sorin casts Rope Tick. He throws his rope into and beyond the ceiling. Where it hits the bricks, a four foot hole opens around it, showing…I really need to ask Ashley what the inside of this little pocket dimension looks like… Then he scurries up the rope.
Rae is right behind him, climbing up the rope, but she gets a nat’ 1 and falls prone on the ground.
A few Rats climb on top of Rae and use her as a step stool to the rope, climbing into Sorin’s little pocket dimension.
Ari goes over and shoos the Rats off her friend, and then helps her back to her feet.
As Cypress casts Sacred Flame on the Rat mass, the Rat King’s Swarm rolls a nat’ 20. Through the nearly omniscient view out of hundreds of Rat eyes, the Rat King sees Cypress’s spell beginning to take shape. Three Rats near the floor pick up a board from the broken desk, lifting it in front of their king just in time. The holy bolt burns the desk board to ashes, as we feel the laughter of the unharmed Rat King.
The Firebolt leaves Sorin’s hand, but he doesn’t even watch it hit one of the Rats that ascended his rope. His arm hair tingles as he feels a powerful magic.
When the Rat King casts Dominate Monster, Ari goes blank. Inside her head is a deep and empty black void. And then there is a red glowing eye thrumming with rage and love. She feels a voice hiss “ Kill the Elf!” and she suddenly knows what to do. She is part of the Swarm… and the Swarm must feed The King.
Rae makes a second attempt to climb the rope… and rolls a second critical failure. Oh come on really! She falls prone on the ground again.
In this daze, Ari’s blank and unfocused eyes look almost foggy. But she doesn’t need her own eyes. Suddenly she can see from everywhere in the room at once. She draws her blade and swings.
“Protect me!” Rae shouts in desperation! At the last second, her Staff of Consciousness hovers in place above her, knocking away Ari’s sword. (Contested attacks of 13 and 14, so it was a CLOSE call).
Sorin Firebolts again at the Rats that keep climbing up the rope, sending one flaming Rat back down the hole.
The flaming Rat lands dead next to Cypress as he uses his movement to get Rae to her feet. With his other free hand, lets out a circling blast of Poison Spray. To his dismay, the Rats at the front all form a line. They stand up on hind legs and more climb on their shoulders in a Rat-Cheerleader-Triangle, with arms outstretched. The 9 of them take the blast full on, even sucking the poison gas in deep breaths. They go perfectly still and rigid, the poison killing them instantly.
After a blink, this tiny Rat wall is pushed over by the wave of oncoming Rats behind them.
The wave of Rats comes on and bites at Cypress. Several Rats bite into his skin for 11 damage, but then the psychic force of the Rat King comes through the bites like an electric shock! The added 10 damage almost brings Cypress to his knees. He clutches at the hanging rope to keep from falling.
Rae finally gets up the rope, climbing over Cypress and into Sorin’s pocket dimension. Two more Rats come up with her, snapping at her as they pass. She swats at them but misses as she stands up and looks around.
Right behind her, Ari’s glazed eyes emerge in the portal. Her half open mouth drips with the same black sludge as the Rats. She swings at Rae again, and the monk rolls out of the way.
“Sorin, what’s wrong with her!? Do you know anything about this?” Cypress says, emerging from the room and pulling a Rat off his leg, and throwing it back down to the ground.
Sorin backs as far away as he can in this time extra-dimensional room, and studies Ari. “Rae, you have to hit her!”
“What!?”
“Trust me!” Sorin says as he pulls up the rope, sealing them off in this little bubble.” It will help bring her back to herself!”
The Rats inside the Rope Trick bite at Rae for 11 damage. The mind of the Rat King is weak across the dimensions, but with the Cranium Rats there, it maintains its link and sends 7 more psychic damage into Rae.
Rae grits her teeth, stands up, walks over, and punches Ari.
Ari, take 5 damage and make a Wisdom roll for me. Nope.
Ari grins back with evil red fogged over eyes, and more of the black ooze pours from her mouth.
Rae sighs and uses her bonus attack to punch Ari in the gut, readying herself to use a Flurry of Blows on her best friend.
Doubled over Rae’s fist, Ari coughs and spits out a mouthful of black ooze. When she stands back up, her eyes are clear and once more her own.
“You good?”
“I think so, what’re we doing now?”
Rae points to the hole with the rope. “Fireball Necklace.”
Ari nods. “Got it.”
She kneels down and ignores the Rats that were guarding the rope as they bite at her. She opens the knot, looks down, and gently tosses the last two beads.
From below we just see a hand emerge from the ceiling bricks, and gently toss two glowing beads. Then… fire. (oooo i should’ve titled this chapter “A Room full of Fire”, ah well).
While Ari counts up the 16 D6 damage, Cypress Thorn Whips at the Rats still around the rope.
54 damage… except the Rat King rolled a nat’ 20 on its save, so it only takes half… oops… teehee.
No sooner does Sorin pull the rope closed again, than the Rat King Dominates his mind “OPEN THE HOLE!” Suddenly a part of the Swarm, he does as the king commands.
Rae knocks out several of the Rats with her staff and then she and Ari look out of the hole to survey the damage.
They see a room i described earlier as looking like it had been in a war, now devastated furth by roots, vines, Rats, poisons, fire, and blood. The ground is covered in charred and burnt Rat carcasses, all with vacant dazed expressions and posture. The smell of burning Sewer Rats is immense and potent. In the corner there is a lumpy sort of half dome. It takes a moment to make out what it is... Until Ari sees it crack open.
The dome is a hairy flesh bubble of Rats burned and fused together. The cracks spiderweb across the burned bodies of the Rats, and then we see more Rats inside, pushing at it from within. Chunks of baked and blood-glazed Rat husks drop to the sides as a tiny mound of Rats emerge from within, like a disgusting sewer egg. In the middle, The Rat King spider-walks around in anxious circles.
Ari lets off a round of Magic Missiles, and a few Rats jump and dive in the way of them, protecting the king. Then the last of the Rats up here with us bite at Ari, and the fury of the Rat king rips through her for 11 total damage. She slips into unconsciousness and slips from the Rope Trick portal. She falls to the broken bricks of the floor with a heavy thud.
Cypress also casts Magic Missile using the scroll he picked up days ago. But, he is unfamiliar with the spell and only one bolt shoots out, taking out only one more Rat. Cypress is also bitten by the Rats guarding the hole for 8 more damage.
Sorin climbs down the rope, looking at himself do so from the corner of the room. He watches himself step over Ari’s body and come closer, until he looms over his own vision and turns around. The wizard takes a combative stance and braces to defend the Rat King.
Rae is on the ground now and she walks over, and bonks Sorin forcefully on the head with her closed fist. His eyes clear and he starts spitting out the tarry goo in his mouth. Using her bonus attack and a flurry of blows, Rae attacks the Rat king. The awkward tangle of Rats does its horrible dance-skittering and ducking around Rae’s fists. Just as Rae is about to finally hit one of them, a remaining Sewer Rat jumps in the way, to take the blow.
In the inky black void, Ari rolls and moves an inch closer to live. In the space between realities, a demon softly chuckles to itself.
Cypress lands on the floor of the office and swings his staff at the Rats that followed him down. They thud against the wall and go limp. Now the only Rats left are the ones tied together,
Sorin stares down at the evil little minds of the Rat King. He can feel their hatred and malice boiling up at him. He points his hand. “¤·.ʘѲʘ¤·. ᘔり๔ň̴̒̕.”at such close ranges the Magic Missiles burn through the heads of the Rat King. Four Rat bodies lay twitching as blood pulses out of them in spurts. We all feel the scream of the last tied Rats.
“You will not survive! We will find you! We will eat you! Your eyes will feed us new life! We will-”
Their glowing brains make a soft wet pop.
And the world is once again quiet.
“I actually forgot a ending quote this time. Oops.”
—Kai, “Thug Muggers: Thug Muggers in the Sewers 8/26/23”
Table talk:
I handed out some special items that everyone will have found in the room, but I’ll save that for the next summary so it fits the narrative better. Cypress did open and read the letter from the gored Thug though, so here it is:
Dere Kevlan,
Well my brother, wut a turn up for tha books. This is a swich up for shur! I rote you last aboot my deal with tha captin of tha watch heer in tha city. Well. Thu Thugs I had bene sent down to tha suers to catch offred me a propper job. I am amaz ed to be shur and no mitstake! It duz feel weerd to swich sides like this but I have all reddy made enouff money to send you and Sis a few coins entcloo encloss inside this envel - letter. Also tha gang has promized to keep my iddeni i din iddanit my name a secert so i can still get mor work in tha future.I tink that this advenshurerer biznuss will be good for me and even bettr for tha far. I well rite you aggin win I can. Give sis my luv, and memmer to feed my rocks, ha ha.
—Rohhar
Just a quick FYI. There is no Rat King monster in any official D&D 5e texts, so to keep with the traditional mythos i used a slightly modified version of the Swarm of Cranium Rats (CR5 - which is the highest the Thug Muggers have fought yet). I allowed the swarm to break up and move a bit more freely. I also decided to use a clock of successful hits, instead of regular HP for it to symbolize the Rats being knocked out and killed diminishing the swarm. Of course this means that there was a point when it only had 1 hit box left (when Sorin killed it), but ALSO there was a point when i was tracking what would have been it’s standard Hp (starting at 79) and thought got to exactly 1 HP, so that was fun for me. The Thug Muggers did 101 total damage in this fight.
For anyone curious about how the Dominate Monster spell worked even though they were through the Rope Trick portal, and thus in another dimension; that is why the other Cranium Rats crawled all up in that hole. In my modified Swarm of Cranium Rats system for the Rat King i decided that the standing Cranium Rats would act as Pylons or range extenders.
Everyone is now Level 5! We will get together soon to have a table talk and stats session.
