The Stench of Bad Flesh Report

General Summary

The party wakes up back in Marianne Snowden's home, where she is making pancakes in the small kitchen. Dimitri Markov, as any good guest would, starts looking through her cabinets for wine, but Marianne doesn't stock any - probably because of her toddler Callie, who she brings out and sets down at the table with everyone else. Callie, still in their shifter form, is immediately charming to all of the guests in the Snowden home, even Rishaa Parbat, who is at first very uncomfortable with being in the presence of such a young, vulnerable child.   Still, Rishaa is the first one to reach out to the child, taking her into the other room and giving Callie dulled dart and beginning to teach the toddler how to properly throw a dart.   Meanwhile, Rickee Lee finally learns the truth: Nadine Vermillion is dead. Dimitri, feeling sorry for the young bard, offers some of the wine he stole from the tavern to Rickee, but Marianne slaps him and forces him to put it back into his bag. Unfortunately, Marianne is much stronger than she looks and ends up tearing a long line across Dimitri's cheek with her nails. Luckily, she has an herbalism kit in the washroom and with many apologies, begins patching up the wizard.   Rickee, looking very pale, asks to use Marianne's washroom himself, to which she responds, "you already did last night, but sure, go ahead."   In the living room, Rishaa and Callie are playing cards together, but Callie is losing and throws a tantrum, beginning to eat the cards in protest. Panicking slightly, Rishaa redirects the toddler to some arts and crafts.   Marianne, still feeling rather guilty for getting these strangers mixed up in the things going on in her town, offers to let them stay with her for 1 silver a night. But the party decides to stick together to try and uncover the mysteries of Tafeld. Dimitri mentions wanting to go out and sell the wine he has, but Rickee, suspicious, writes him a note in thieves' cant, which Dimitri can't read. What did the note say?  

"If you can't read this, you're gonna get ripped off."

  Marianne decides to investigate the sigil that she discovered on the vampire that they all killed, and critically succeeded on her check. She already knew it was the symbol of House Nathara, the once-rulers of Vespmar, but she was able to find out quite a bit more information from her library.   Back in the 400s, Vespmar was a prosperous and sunny country, like its neighbors Mercercle and Adura , but something caused it to sicken. Around that time as well, Count Draven Nathara, the last confirmed ruler of Vespmar, withdrew into his home of Castle Nimue along with his children and wife. They have not been seen since - though the mayors and governors of the various provinces of Vespmar all claim to get their authority from a Count Nathara. Marianne knows that Draven cannot possibly be alive, as the Natharas were a human life and not privy to elven lifespans, so she posits that the vampire holding the crest did not have it by accident, but that Count Nathara was now a vampire.   It is at this point that Callie spills her cranberry juice, which spills across the books and parchment, soaking into a map of Lorannis like a bloody tidal wave.   As Marianne turns to try and get Callie cleaned up (who screams and thrashes throughout the entire process), everyone's attention turns to the ring, which Dimitri identifies as a ring of mind shielding, which can house the soul of the owner if they die whilst wearing the band. Dimitri offers to see if the vampire they killed was, indeed, housed within this ring, and everyone agrees it's better to be safe than sorry. Rickee picks up a frying pan, ready to smack Dimitri if the wizard should become possessed by whatever is in the ring, but Dimitri is unable to contact anything.   They decide to head out to gather supplies before going to Castle Nimue to search it. Rickee, not having any more fresh pants after having vomited twice last night and three times this morning, gets stuffed into Marianne's ex-boyfriend (and Callie's father's) pants, though he is not told that he is wearing a dead man's clothes.   The group drops off Callie with their grandparents in Lamplight Grotto, and as they make their way back, Marianne notices that the local butcher, a halfling man named Tam, in great distress.   She peaks into his cooling box, and notices that all his meat is destroyed. Eaten, rotted, yet still frozen. It's incredibly odd - odd enough that Dimitri casts detect magic to see if he can discover what might have caused this. Unfortunately, all he can sense is the low-level evocation magic used to keep the cooler box refrigerated.   The smell is enough to make Rickee throw up.... again.   Though a member of Ulfik's Pride heckles the group, Marianne and Rishaa are able to scare him off. They all offer to help Tam discover what destroyed his meat, so as he restocks he is not at risk of having it ruined again. He gratefully agrees, and the party begins to investigate. They discover a sewer entrance with the grate melted off in much the same way that the meat was melted, and slide down into the sewers.   They begin to follow along, listening carefully. Suddenly, they hear squeaking. Loud, and frantic, and suddenly an avalanche of rats come barreling around the corner, freaked enough to try and chew their way through anything in their path.   Rickee tries to scream loudly enough to scare them off, but it doesn't really work. Marianne leaps into action, stomping on the rats with all of her might as Rickee vomits again in terror.   The rats begin to close in on Rickee, but Rishaa steps forward to defend him, drop kicking a rat into the wall. The next one she picks up and dashes against the stonework and Dimitri tries to us magic to save them, but the rats are much stronger than him (as any wizard would warn him), and his spell does nothing. Marianne picks up to rats and smacks them together like a pair of sandals, and their little heads explode, coating her and Rickee with blood and brains. Rickee, still frightened beyond all sense, tries once more with his vicious mockery, screaming at the rats that they'll never make it to the rat-ture. Some how, this works and the last of the rats keel over dead as Rickee collapses into the water and rat viscera.   Rishaa, sympathetic to Rickee's plight, comes and sits with him to start cleaning him up.   After a short rest, Marianne volunteers to be the front guard, and begins to scout ahead. As she moves, she sees several rat corpses, similarly melted. One missing half its head in a diagonal slope, another cleanly bisected, another missing just one hind leg and its tail. It is as she moves that she notices a candle sitting on one of the ledges of the sewer and picks it up, examining it closely. She lights it experimentally, and immediately the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She barely has time to comprehend - let alone scream - as the gelatinous cube that is roaming these tunnels engulfs her whole.   It is very lucky that her friends are not far behind her, and leap into action when they see her slowly being digested by the ooze.   Marianne manages to pull herself free, skin bubbling sluggishly from the acid as she rages. Rishaa runs up to the ooze and begins hitting it over and over again, watching the flesh ripple with each hit.   Dimitri, meanwhile, unleashes a mass of unstable energy from his home country - ice - at the cube. It coats it in a thick layer of frost and freezes portions of it, which break off and heavily damage the ooze. The cube tries to engulf Rishaa, the closest person to it, but she backs off and it is forced to recede as Marianne takes up the attack stance, frantically striking at this thing that maimed her - and taking off chunks of it as she strikes.   Rishaa is the one to get the final blow, her dagger sinking into its jello-like body, which begins to dissolve into the dirty water, leaving behind only an ebony charm, shaped like a fox's head. Everyone takes a moment to breathe and take stock. Thankfully, most are fine, only Rishaa losing her shortsword and Rickee's dagger to the acid ... except for Marianne, who has a horrible scar along her right cheek like a burn scar - her skin is even still malleable and putty-like as the acid takes its toll.   Rickee offers her a mask - a copy of his own, but she refuses. Dimitri, looking to provide comfort in his own way, begins to braid her hair. It's simple, but it does the job, and Marianne comments wryly, "I guess you're not so bad after all."   Dimitri grins, and comments how there is no way that she should have missed seeing the cube, that it's like the world is out to make it worse for them (har har).    Marianne gives Rickee one of her hand axes to protect himself with, and they slowly climb back out.   Tam is horrified at what has happened to Marianne, and pays the company more than what they rightly should have earned as way of apologizing, though Marianne tries to brush it off. Still, with a little more money and their supplies together, they are ready to head off towards Castle Nimue.

Rewards Granted

• 15 gold
• Foxfire Charm
• Sentry Candle

Character(s) interacted with

• Tam, the local butcher (halfling)

Notes

Quotes of the Session

Marianne: "The vampire tried to snack on us, but he ended up being my snack."

Dimitri (to Marianne): "You. Miss Killjoy."

Dimitri: "I got wayyy into soul magic about three years ago."

Other Funny Moments

• Marianne's "Daily Swear Quota" - other parents limit swearing, but I try to do at least a swear a day
• Marianne and Callie's "high five, knuckles, fangs" greeting
• Mrs. Snowden ate Marianne's baby daddy after he joked, "my, what big teeth you have."