Session 72: Terminal Excrescence Report

General Summary

Session 72 – Wednesday March 6, 2024 – Terminal Excrescence

4-hour Boss battle Session 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM

The Stone Bearers. Party of 5

It is the 9th day of the month of Hammer (Deepwinter) in the 51st year of the Age of Enialis (Early Jan)

• Abrash – Wood (Desert) Elf, L12 Druid – Jacob Munson (Remote)
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L12 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi
• Cassidy – Human, L12 Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L12 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Juan Peyote – Gnome L12 Paladin – Will Johnson

Going Stealthy.

Cassidy sneezed and Gazlowe appeared (counting his gold) as Ajani disappeared. The others brought Gazlowe up to speed while Vor’pat wanted to rush in and kill all the creatures. The party tried to keep everyone quiet. The party heard more creatures behind them in the tunnel, so Abrash cast Pass without a trace. Cassidy offered Juan a poison that he quickly drank. Juan realized he was tricked as his intelligence was raised to 24 by the potion Cassidy gave him.   The party crossed the flesh bridge that extended over the cavernous pit. They discovered that the pit was wider and deeper than they could see. In the center of the pit the fleshy tendrils held a massive orb. There was a dim light shining at the top of the orb where the party could see shadows of something moving.

Climbing the orb.

The orb was roundish and made of flesh with protruding bones and tusks. Juan gave Isabella some rope and Isabella climbed up the difficult portion of the orb and lowered the ropes. The others made it up much easier this way. Cassidy pulled out her climbing picks to help climb but Juan suggested that might not be the most intelligent idea as the orb seems to be alive. They had tied a harness to Bird with the intention of pulling him up but by the time they reached the top, they were spotted by a floating brain.

Fighting the guards.

Isabella went into a rage and quaffed a potion of speed. She jumped to the top and saw a couple of floating brains, two Illithids and a musclebound creature with just a brain for a head. She began slashing into the first brain she saw. Juan left bird and hopped up to the top and channeled divinity frightening 3 of the creatures. Abrash tuned into a bird, grappled the muscle creature, and dropped it off the edge. The creature grabbed ahold of the Sinew and held on to the edge.   The brain (a Mindkiller) struck and grappled Juan. Cassidy destroyed the other Mindkiller with her whips, turning it to a mushy pile of brain matter. The Illithid tried to use a mind trick on Juan, but with Juan’s increased intelligence, he shrugged it off. The Illithid pulled out a pistol and shot Juan. Gazlowe saw the pistol and cast Heat metal on it, but the Illithid (a voiceless talker) wasn’t affected.   Vor’pat ran in and started slashing the Voiceless talkers. The 2nd Voiceless talker shot out a cone of psychic energy but everyone he targeted evaded part of the damage. The Voiceless talker was very concerned that Isabella and Juan were so smart! The muscle-bound brain was climbing back up and Abrash, the Giant eagle tried to grapple it again, but the creature resisted.   The Mindkiller grappling Juan tried to open his skull to go inside, but again, Juan’s mental resistance was just too much. Cassidy, with her whip, destroyed the floating brain. Cassidy then critically hit one of the Voiceless talkers and killed it. The 2nd Voiceless talker ran to the top of the platform they were fighting on and descended to the level below via some sort of liquid elevator.

Splitting the party.

Gazlowe looked through a window on the top and saw the Voiceless Talker descending below. Gazlowe forced it to drop its gun. Gazlowe then jumped onto the liquid elevator, dashed to the bottom, and picked up the gun. Vor’pat teleported into the lower level and bloodied the Voiceless talker.   Up above, the Hulking brain punched Abrash the Eagle 3 times, connecting on each punch, and knocking Abrash out of his wild shape. Isabella ran to Abrash’s aid and slashed the Hulking brain with her axe. Juan slid down the edge to help Abrash and bloodied the Hulking brain. Cassidy dashed to help Gazlowe.

Cold Storage.

Gazlowe, Vor’pat and now Cassidy found themselves in a frigid chamber. They saw their breath as white whisps lingering in the air before them. They saw frost covering the fleshy interior. Bits of bone and tusks protruded from the fleshy walls and there were countless eyes embedded in the walls, all of them seemingly staring at them. Gnarled hooks made of extruded bones and teeth dangled from the ceiling. Each hook suspending a mutilated corpse, some were formerly humanoid and others, perhaps monstrosities. In the north, just over a footlocker made of flesh hung a motionless Troll with no legs. Ten coffin-like pods circled the chamber and meaty growths from the walls were starting to overtake them. At the south end of the chamber, a huge metal plate protruded from the fleshy floor. In the middle of the square platform was an embedded 10-foot diameter purple crystal in the floor, humming with energy.   The Voiceless talker stood near the 3 Stone Bearers he seemed to be concentrating. The eyes around the room blinked and 13 Mindkillers came out of hiding from around the room, 10 of them seemed a bit smaller and younger. Gazlowe, a bit concerned, cast mirror image. Vor’pat screamed out, “Death to the mind flayers” as he charged the voiceless talker.   The Hulking brain hit Isabella and Abrash and then Isabella finished it off with her axe. The Hulking brain fell into the pit and landed 50 feet below with a splash. Isabella ran up to the top and climbed down the liquid elevator towards the others in the cold storage. Juan tried to pull up bird and realized it will take too long so he and Abrash both ran towards the others.   The Mindkiller minions destroyed one of Gazlowe’s duplicates. Cassidy finished off the Voiceless talker with her whip. Gazlowe cast thunder wave and killed 6 of the minions. Vor’pat killed the remainder of the minions and hurt one of the bigger Mindkillers. The Mindkiller hurt Vor’pat and grappled him. Another did the same to Isabella. Isabella broke free of her grapple and hit the creature with her flame sword. Abrash cast blight on one of the Mindkillers shriveling its body to a thin dry husk, and then finished it off with a stary mote. Cassidy finished off another, splattering brain matter everywhere. Gazlowe and Vor’pat aggressively laid into the last of the Mindkillers leaving it badly bloodied as Juan casually held out his sword while coming down the elevator and finished it off with a slow-moving blade.

Searching the room

After the battle, the strain of the Shadowfell overcame Isabella and Cassidy. They both became filled with despair and apathy and felt that they just weren’t making a difference anymore. Cassidy moved over to the footlocker beneath the troll and the Troll bit into Cassidy. The troll gained some health and the legs started to grow back. Isabella killed it with her flame sword and then her potion of speed wore off as she fell to the ground exhausted. Cassidy said, “Whatever” and threw a vial of acid on the dead troll just to be sure.   Cassidy searched the footlocker and found 2 dungeoneering packs. She looked in all the pods and found that all but one were empty. She couldn’t see exactly what was in the occupied one as its glass window was coated with frost on the inside. She spotted a control box on the outside, but everything was written in Undercommon, and she couldn’t read it. She changed her whip to fire and started melt the ice just on the glass. She saw what could be a female orc or perhaps half-orc in the stasis pod.   Abrash helped to heal those who were hurt, and Isabella threw a splash potion on Juan. Gazlowe examined the crystal platform for about a minute and discovered that it was a transportation pad. After a minute of carful study, he understood how it worked and one simply needs to stand on it and after about 6 seconds it will transport whatever is on it to someplace else, probably close. Juan was finally able to retrieve Bird.   The party debated a short rest, but they knew that Juan’s intelligence would be back to normal within an hour and that might be bad. Gazlowe told the party to wait here while he uses the pad to find out what is in the next room. Isabella ran to the pad to go with him as she drank a potion of cloud giant strength, and the others, not wanting to split up again joined. Before they left, Abrash cast greater restoration on Cassidy to remove her apathy. Cassidy also drank a potion of flying.

Lord Syuul

The party appeared in another large flesh covered chamber. Dim blue, pink, and purple light illuminated this vast chamber that smelled of blood. Two enormous square mouths filled with mismatched teeth protruded from the east and west walls. Statues of fused humanoid bodies formed two rows in the middle of the room. On the north side of the room, an enormous device made of flesh contained a translucent vat of viscous liquid. A voiceless talker gazed into the vat in front of him. He wore a massive crown, and gold jewelry adorned his face. He touched two metallic orbs that protruded from the floor on rods, manipulating the contents of the vat. Lodged in the center of the chamber’s ceiling, a 15- foot-diameter mass of brain matter pulsed slowly. There were 3 chests made of flesh on the east wall.   The large Illithid turned, and the party heard his strange voice in their head. It was alien but they understood what he was saying. He was impressed with how they took care of his guards but didn’t seem angry or defensive. He asked them if they would volunteer their minds for scientific study and research. Gazlowe, generally opposed to charity, declined so Lord Syuul attacked.

The Boss Battle

A wall of flesh sprouted in between the party, splitting them into two groups. Isabella and Juan were on one side while the others were facing Lord Syuul. Lord Syuul pulled out psionic pistol and shot two shots at Vor’pat leaving him badly bloodied with 1 hit point. He then overloaded Vor’pat’s brain with psychic energy. Vor’pat resisted some of the damage but still took 42 points of psychic damage and fell the ground unconscious. Gazlowe, asked, “So about those experimental studies…?”   Isabella raged and used her axe to slash a 5’ opening in the flesh wall. Abrash saw the brain in the center of the room and asked if that should be his target. Gazlowe suggested the big bad Mind flayer that just one-shotted Vor’pat instead. Abrash summoned his Green Fey spirit. The Green slashed into Lord Syuul. Bird slashed at the wall but didn’t break through. Juan used his misty step to get close but couldn’t land a hit on the Illithid.   Gazlowe targeted the Brain on the ceiling with his vortex warp and brought the brain down to the floor for others to easily attack. Lord Syuul used his lair action to force Isabella to only be able to see him. He then cast a cone of psychic flaying hurting Juan, Cassidy and Abrash’s fey spirit. Lord Syuul then struck the green with one of his tentacles, leaving it critically wounded. Isabella walked up to Lord Syuul and slashed him with her sword twice, bloodying him.

Was he ever here?

Unbeknownst to the party, Lord Syuul turned invisible, teleported 60 feet away and simultaneously an illusory psionic image of Lord Syuul appeared in the same space he left still gesturing and behaving as Lord Syuul. The Green landed 3 hits on the illusionary Lord Syuul. Cassidy noticed that Lord Syuul didn’t appear more damaged. Cassidy struck Lord Syuul with her whip and took psychic damage. She tried to brand it and realized that what she was attacking wasn’t real. She screamed, “Where is it?!” and started walking around the room trying to find him. Hearing Cassidy’s frustration (and being smart) Juan attacked the brain in the middle of the room. Gazlowe, cast haste on himself and punched the brain.

It's not looking good.

The two enormous square mouths filled with mismatched teeth protruding from the east and west walls moved toward the party. Lord Syuul made 2 tentacle attacks against Gazlowe but because of Gazlowe’s haste, only one landed. With Gazlowe Grappled, Lord Syuul attempted to transfer all Gazlowe’s Memories to himself, but with Gazlowe’s flash of genius, he was just barely able to avoid the horrific psionic fate. Isabella struck Lord Syuul with her flaming sword and badly hurt him. Lord Syuul used his last legendary action to shatter the mind of everyone in the room. Isabella, Abrash and Gazlowe took the full damage (66 points of psychic damage) and were dazed. Bird and Grabby were destroyed and Abrash lost concentration on his fey spirit. Cassidy was knocked down to just 2 HP and the unconscious Vor’pat was hurt (failed death save.) Gazlowe lost concentration on his haste and became exhausted.

Cassidy saves the party.

Abrash cast guiding bolt on Lord Syuul. Cassidy took advantage of the situation and struck Lord Syuul twice. With the 2nd strike, she wrapped the whip around Lord Syuul’s head and ripped it off. With a sickening sound, the head and body fell to the fleshy floor. The others focused on the brain and Juan destroyed it. As soon as the brain was destroyed, the huge mouths stopped moving and all the eyes in the walls stopped looking around. With all the visible threats gone, Cassidy ran to Vor’pat, and cast spare the dying on him…