kingtycoon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kingtycoon) wrote2014-04-26 12:04 pm
kingtycoon) wrote2014-04-26 12:04 pm
Day 3 in the Fabulous Unknown City
Having fled the mysterious Basement Priests via the electric canal - the party finds themselves with few good options. Return the way they had come? Looking for another way out? But you can hear the chanting of the priests behind! In the dark! In the deep, stygian underworld? Even as they ponder their next moves, lit only by the occasional arc flash from off of the canal they can hear the muttering doleful song behind them, gaining in volume. Ahead of course is a rockfall, the canal's support having collapsed long-ago. But they've come across what might well be a way out - a break in the wall with a dug out path upward through old masonry and clay. Do they dare? Do they dare to do nothing? Wait for death? Perhaps this is the best choice.
No, they go forward, Edard recalling that he's got just the faintest bit of mystical power remaining calls forth a cloud of fireflies, spitting them out of his mouth and giving just a little illumination.
They climb the dangerous borehole tunnel and find that it breaks into another structure, also underground. Close-fit flagstones, smooth and unmortared. The ceiling is vaulted and the stones are smooth and ancient. It is still incredibly dark, unbelievably dark. The fireflies are barely sufficient to reveal their hands in front of their faces. It's no wonder they're startled and surprised by an enormous hideous worm. Like a colossal hydra:
It creeps up on them but Wincey, jumpy and frightened, leaps to attack! Tossing one of his firebombs he illuminates the scene just slightly, just enough that Diodenne and Sunday can rush in and snicker-snack the beast to death. Now, much more guarded, they continue on the upward path - the downward path of the stairwell seemingly leading toward the worm-creature's lair.
Up is marked by a sign - a long rambling warning offered by... The Sisters of The Being of Nothingness. Who? Whoever they are they don't like the Basement Priests at all, and they've posted a warning along with some tally-marks, seeming to indicate that there have been some murders on premises. There's even a mean-spirited rebuttal, it's noted and gratified over by Eoynon - who's a mishmash of private jokes and confusion.
They make it up to a doorway, and daring fate they enter - though beyond they can hear some singing, some grating and some whirring - weird noises! What do you do when you hear weird noises? You equivocate at the doorway until you finally go inside. What's inside?
Why a dusty old mausoleum, all broken open and full of scattered, broken bones and rags. What's up in here? Who's to say - but in the terrible darkness they're not taking any chances, and what the heck is up with that whirring & grating sound?! Well, it's made manifest pretty fast - Skeletons!
Kind-of.
There are robot-parts, metal & wooden prosthesis - obviously mismatched and ersatzed together - they lurch around and rush at the party. Monsters! again... One of the prosthetic skeletons goes down like a tin-can being crushed under Diodenne's rairoad mace - but that reveals the terrible engine that had driven the skeleton! Some kind of hideous quicksilver blob with coppery veins and quivering tendrils. The skeletons go down fast and easy, but the goo inside fights on and is much more dangerous - they whip aggressively and where the tendrils land, there's a burning, acidic coppery sheen that clings to the flesh and eats through their clothing. Gross. Rays of frost and NPC intervention bring down the beasts - and it appears that under their quicksilver husks they're rigid gelatinous messes full of inexplicable liquid organs. Gross. The party is looking pretty weak - no spells, bombs or hitpoints to speak of - and half the team has gone down - between fighting out of the Yellow Hex station and up out of the electric canal the party is beat the hell down. Desperate times call for desperate measures - and they elect to entomb themselves in the empty tomb-drawers and hope that they can stop the bleeding at least. That course of action probably would have doomed them all but for the sudden appearance of Colden - the Half-Trulk madman who'd arrived on the cable-car with them. Raised in the utter-dark he's got no problem with the dark, no problem tracking people by scent and not enough sense to fear danger. He shows up and says, with characteristic nonchalance that he'll guard them in their sleep, all the while managing to seduce Sunday away from Eoynon by virtue of his avuncular shamelessness. It's decided that he'll guard, but he gets distracted and fights another of the prosthetic skeletons when the door it was stuck behind mysteriously opens. It proves to be too dangerous - and Edard, reckless as ever, starts opening the drawers to get help. The beast goes down pretty quickly though it brutally scars Colden with it's acid licker. Once it's down though they find that there's a room and in the room is a hole in the ceiling and from up the hole they hear some singing
They call up insisting they're not evil priest (just regular type evil - just Zeroes). They're allowed up and once up they find themselves in an abandoned boarded up church full of emaciated women! Delightful. These women - who they believe to be 'Dusty Sisters' having heard this particular slur around, call themselves the Sisters of the Being of Nothingness - they sure do want people to die so that they can eat their bodies. But aside from necrophagy and a persistent appalling drooling problem - they're pretty friendly, going so far as to stitch up wounds. All the while they're begging people to kill themselves to avoid life - which they contend is pain.
But drooling. And 'religious'.
The Sisters live in this ancient church in the middle of a huge old cemetery.
When asked, they offer some exposition - explaining that the ancient builders of the city died off when their gods died - and that they, the Sisters, keep a vigil at each of the churches to make sure the gods stay dead. It turns out that the Sisters of the Being of Nothingness are guarding against the re-emergence of some kind of harvest god they call the King of All The Worms. They're troubled because it seems like it's coming back to life and they offer a boon if the party will execute it.
Thinking they'd gotten the better of these gothic creeps, Edard promises to help them - knowing that they'd already slaughtered a big horrible worm in the basement. Turns out though, that was just one of the god's saints - and the team worries that they've bit off more than they can chew (more on this later). Eventually they remember to fetch poor Wincey from the mausoleum drawer where they'd left him - he cries pitiably and is comforted by the Priestess of the Being - Dodonna
Who tries to persuade him to die, but is generally friendly - for a drooling ghoul lady.
They rest until night, marshaling their resources before venturing back down. They make their side deals, trading goods between each other and earning a taste of the Sister's weird Drugs and medical skills - they further their own plots as the time to venture down and kill a god comes upon them.
Down they go, with lanterns and torches this time - they follow the stairs to their end and find a door - they open the door & rush inside - drugged and reckless and straight up just Brave - they barrel into a disused storeroom - inside they're quickly flanked by a pair of the worm-saints, crawling over the walls to get at them. They lash out with their numbing tentacles - paralyzing Coldon and Diodenne (not Dodonna - weird how that goes). This leaves everyone in a very bad situation when the God of Worms does appear -
It yells at them, which is gross, and it sends out it's huge appalling tongue from one of it's mouths - they're lashed by the awful tongue "It's a big long tongue thick as your wrist with a big fingernail at the end of it". It does it's best to ovi-posit them with one of it's yelling mouths - but there is a scuffle and betweeen Eoynon's guns and Coldon's handiness with the dead-giant-beehive's sword the god goes down - struck finally to death, the god flops on the ground, it's detached head still screaming. Coldon, half a trulk at least, takes the head and eats it raw - only able to gag down the nasty flesh by virtue of it's anesthetic numbing qualities. the rest of the party finds the well equipped remains of others who must have attempted to kill the God of The Worms - and are suddenly made capable of feeding themselves for another day or two - much more palatably than Coldon, who is seriously sickened.
And that's the end of their third day. I was pretty proud that the miniboss of their 1st level, the capper for their level gain was a god - not something I've done before.
There's a little subplot unfolding about how those stuck by the quicksilver plasms are gaining memories of the dead - we'll see if that's followed up on.
No, they go forward, Edard recalling that he's got just the faintest bit of mystical power remaining calls forth a cloud of fireflies, spitting them out of his mouth and giving just a little illumination.
They climb the dangerous borehole tunnel and find that it breaks into another structure, also underground. Close-fit flagstones, smooth and unmortared. The ceiling is vaulted and the stones are smooth and ancient. It is still incredibly dark, unbelievably dark. The fireflies are barely sufficient to reveal their hands in front of their faces. It's no wonder they're startled and surprised by an enormous hideous worm. Like a colossal hydra:
It creeps up on them but Wincey, jumpy and frightened, leaps to attack! Tossing one of his firebombs he illuminates the scene just slightly, just enough that Diodenne and Sunday can rush in and snicker-snack the beast to death. Now, much more guarded, they continue on the upward path - the downward path of the stairwell seemingly leading toward the worm-creature's lair.
Up is marked by a sign - a long rambling warning offered by... The Sisters of The Being of Nothingness. Who? Whoever they are they don't like the Basement Priests at all, and they've posted a warning along with some tally-marks, seeming to indicate that there have been some murders on premises. There's even a mean-spirited rebuttal, it's noted and gratified over by Eoynon - who's a mishmash of private jokes and confusion.
They make it up to a doorway, and daring fate they enter - though beyond they can hear some singing, some grating and some whirring - weird noises! What do you do when you hear weird noises? You equivocate at the doorway until you finally go inside. What's inside?
Why a dusty old mausoleum, all broken open and full of scattered, broken bones and rags. What's up in here? Who's to say - but in the terrible darkness they're not taking any chances, and what the heck is up with that whirring & grating sound?! Well, it's made manifest pretty fast - Skeletons!
Kind-of.
There are robot-parts, metal & wooden prosthesis - obviously mismatched and ersatzed together - they lurch around and rush at the party. Monsters! again... One of the prosthetic skeletons goes down like a tin-can being crushed under Diodenne's rairoad mace - but that reveals the terrible engine that had driven the skeleton! Some kind of hideous quicksilver blob with coppery veins and quivering tendrils. The skeletons go down fast and easy, but the goo inside fights on and is much more dangerous - they whip aggressively and where the tendrils land, there's a burning, acidic coppery sheen that clings to the flesh and eats through their clothing. Gross. Rays of frost and NPC intervention bring down the beasts - and it appears that under their quicksilver husks they're rigid gelatinous messes full of inexplicable liquid organs. Gross. The party is looking pretty weak - no spells, bombs or hitpoints to speak of - and half the team has gone down - between fighting out of the Yellow Hex station and up out of the electric canal the party is beat the hell down. Desperate times call for desperate measures - and they elect to entomb themselves in the empty tomb-drawers and hope that they can stop the bleeding at least. That course of action probably would have doomed them all but for the sudden appearance of Colden - the Half-Trulk madman who'd arrived on the cable-car with them. Raised in the utter-dark he's got no problem with the dark, no problem tracking people by scent and not enough sense to fear danger. He shows up and says, with characteristic nonchalance that he'll guard them in their sleep, all the while managing to seduce Sunday away from Eoynon by virtue of his avuncular shamelessness. It's decided that he'll guard, but he gets distracted and fights another of the prosthetic skeletons when the door it was stuck behind mysteriously opens. It proves to be too dangerous - and Edard, reckless as ever, starts opening the drawers to get help. The beast goes down pretty quickly though it brutally scars Colden with it's acid licker. Once it's down though they find that there's a room and in the room is a hole in the ceiling and from up the hole they hear some singing
They call up insisting they're not evil priest (just regular type evil - just Zeroes). They're allowed up and once up they find themselves in an abandoned boarded up church full of emaciated women! Delightful. These women - who they believe to be 'Dusty Sisters' having heard this particular slur around, call themselves the Sisters of the Being of Nothingness - they sure do want people to die so that they can eat their bodies. But aside from necrophagy and a persistent appalling drooling problem - they're pretty friendly, going so far as to stitch up wounds. All the while they're begging people to kill themselves to avoid life - which they contend is pain.
But drooling. And 'religious'.The Sisters live in this ancient church in the middle of a huge old cemetery.
When asked, they offer some exposition - explaining that the ancient builders of the city died off when their gods died - and that they, the Sisters, keep a vigil at each of the churches to make sure the gods stay dead. It turns out that the Sisters of the Being of Nothingness are guarding against the re-emergence of some kind of harvest god they call the King of All The Worms. They're troubled because it seems like it's coming back to life and they offer a boon if the party will execute it.
Thinking they'd gotten the better of these gothic creeps, Edard promises to help them - knowing that they'd already slaughtered a big horrible worm in the basement. Turns out though, that was just one of the god's saints - and the team worries that they've bit off more than they can chew (more on this later). Eventually they remember to fetch poor Wincey from the mausoleum drawer where they'd left him - he cries pitiably and is comforted by the Priestess of the Being - Dodonna
Who tries to persuade him to die, but is generally friendly - for a drooling ghoul lady.They rest until night, marshaling their resources before venturing back down. They make their side deals, trading goods between each other and earning a taste of the Sister's weird Drugs and medical skills - they further their own plots as the time to venture down and kill a god comes upon them.
Down they go, with lanterns and torches this time - they follow the stairs to their end and find a door - they open the door & rush inside - drugged and reckless and straight up just Brave - they barrel into a disused storeroom - inside they're quickly flanked by a pair of the worm-saints, crawling over the walls to get at them. They lash out with their numbing tentacles - paralyzing Coldon and Diodenne (not Dodonna - weird how that goes). This leaves everyone in a very bad situation when the God of Worms does appear -
It yells at them, which is gross, and it sends out it's huge appalling tongue from one of it's mouths - they're lashed by the awful tongue "It's a big long tongue thick as your wrist with a big fingernail at the end of it". It does it's best to ovi-posit them with one of it's yelling mouths - but there is a scuffle and betweeen Eoynon's guns and Coldon's handiness with the dead-giant-beehive's sword the god goes down - struck finally to death, the god flops on the ground, it's detached head still screaming. Coldon, half a trulk at least, takes the head and eats it raw - only able to gag down the nasty flesh by virtue of it's anesthetic numbing qualities. the rest of the party finds the well equipped remains of others who must have attempted to kill the God of The Worms - and are suddenly made capable of feeding themselves for another day or two - much more palatably than Coldon, who is seriously sickened.And that's the end of their third day. I was pretty proud that the miniboss of their 1st level, the capper for their level gain was a god - not something I've done before.
There's a little subplot unfolding about how those stuck by the quicksilver plasms are gaining memories of the dead - we'll see if that's followed up on.
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Really those are the ones that survive usefully between systems and editions, but when you're selling them off you always have to do a big box a ta time to get credit for the next edition... Whine.
Also it's funny that you finally played an elder scrolls game and figured out the dwemer ruins connection.
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