Session 27: Divine Intervention

General Summary

Session 21 AUG 2019: We all awaken in a webbed/cocooned state, covered in pustules and many-legged creatures. Our minds are being invaded, and we’re covered in slime. The body of the Drow cleric we had been fighting is on the ground next to us. Detalosi’s mace talks to him, and (I’m pretty sure) he takes a favor from a panther Deity to revive all of us. Narrative:   “The world slowly comes back into being. You hang about ten feet above the stone floor, wrapped in the arachnid embrace of a cocoon. You struggle feebly, hopelessly. Your body pulses with pain. There's poison raging in your veins. You can feel it there, howling, quivering, yearning to begin its life by ending yours. The truth, you soon realize, is far more horrifying. As your eyes adjust to the darkness, you make out foul shapes attached to your body: sacs. Sacs in which things squirm. Things with far too many legs. You look about the webbed prison and see the corpses of past victims, dangling and ruptured from past births. Detalosi, through the agony, It explodes in your head with a blinding whiteness. You gasp as you feel your lungs contract, expand it feels like the muscles scream with the effort. As your eyes clear you see your mace haphazardly lying upon the bloodstained floor next to the abandoned corpse of the drow cleric you had most recently battled. Through blurry eyes you look again.. What is that? The mace seems to be again emitting the green glow from the emeralds within the jaguar face. You see the shape of the jaguar take ethereal shape below you as hear the screaming growl it begins to step soundlessly into the air and float between you and your companions. You hear the groans and gasps as you see them begin to move within. ” Upon revival, we all attempt to break free, starting with Sam. As he flexes his way out, Det tries to Sacred Flame his webs. This works, but definitely singes Feng’s scrote hairs.   Next up, a team effort to free Lorin. This results in Lorin getting dumped on Feng’s head with a flaming web-sack right behind. With some care, the rest of us make it to the floor, but I, most certainly, reach the ground with more panache than the others: having freed my arms, I set my grappling hook in the webbing, slash out the bottom of my web, and ride the hookline to the floor. With a professional tug, I free the hook and stow it back in my pack. What a bad-ass!   As we kill the growths in their sacks that are attached to us (Det’s and Feng’s are completely cured away), we realize that we can’t find Gnosh! There are no tracks that lead away, and no obvious corpses.   Det checks all of us for overall health, and though we all have this long-term poisoning risk and are battered and bruised, we are otherwise stable.   Lorin finds a pendant on the Drow Cleric of a bejeweled spider, some iron keys, some diamonds and pearls, and a valuable-seeming robe. As Lorin strips the corpse, she finds a vial of unknown origin/contents. I perform a Detect Magic ritual, in the absence of Gnosh’s Identify spell.   The room has many dessicated corpses hanging from the ceiling in a position similar to that which we had so recently vacated. There is also an altar, with the sacrificed body of a male Drow with a hole in his chest. The altar has some pulsing purple crystals at its base. Lorin and Feng attempt to pry loose these crystals. The stones are the size of Lorin’s palm; when she snaps one loose, the purple energy bursts a bit, and her wand seems to absorb the energy and takes on a new color. The crystal puffs away into dust. Lorin seems to recall that Magic, sometimes, can take physical form after the Weave was damaged, and she suspects that these crystals are pure, concentrated Magic. Det breaks another one free without the thing getting absorbed by anything, so it stays intact for a moment, but then gets absorbed into the mace.   Once we figure out that the crystals yield a damage bonus to weapons, we all rush in for a “taste of the Kool-Aid.” For my part, I try to imbue my rapier, but the purple goes to my dice!   The vial is just a healing potion. We seem to have picked this room clean, and we still have found no sign of Gnosh.   We find Marta and the half-elf Geldax in the room by the prison block. We hole up in the room for a long rest. During the night, we hear the Drow search for the Priestess’s killer, and take the body to the north. They seem to have a regular patrol schedule, with a one- to two-hour timing. We choose to E&E to the south after a patrol passes. Marta and the half-elf choose to leave the Dungeon, and we wish them luck.   We pass through some doors, and find a room with white silk hangings, some torture tools, and stuff. A sex dungeon? I take a whip. For later.   The next room has a ritual circle for the “Test of Lahl” (Fizzy got an Arcana 15 roll!), which transforms an unlucky Drow into a monster thing. Two adjoining rooms seem to be related to the troture/magic scene. There is also a rough tunnel with a wind blowing out of it, plus spider webs. Naturally, we choose to go further into the tunnel.   As we journey, we detect signs of past travel, but not recent or heavy. After many twists and turns, Lorin hears a voice that none of the rest of us hear. With the wind, nobody else hears this, but Lorin definitely hears “Make it stop!” from the voice. Lorin moves forward to talk with it, and finds a giant half-man, half-spider guy in obvious distress.   She talks to him, and it holds its hands up to its head, continuing to yell “Make it stop!” She tries to persuade the big thing to let us help, but it is too far gone in its madness. It attacks!   After some fancy attacks, shrouded by Drow darkness, we kill the crazed monster. There’s no real treasure to speak of, and we’re not sure what was perturbing the thing.