Session 15: The Bathhouse Massacre Report

General Summary

After speaking with the grandmaster and seeing to some personal business, Aien acquired a warhorse and rode to the bathhouse to meet up with the rest of the party. Along the way a half-burned flag whipped through the wind and struck him in the face. The flag bore the symbol of Aien's clan.
Upon arrival at the bathhouse, Zhi was busy coordinating a plan of attack to sweep the building with the others. Relieved, the party greeted Aien and caught each other up on the morning's events. 
Once ready, our heroes sprang into action, opening the doors to the bathhouse and making quick work of the zombies shambling around within. Zhi went with Aien and Jerry to the left while Seto led Astrea and Kit to the right, both teams expertly dealing with the undead before they even had a chance to react. Signs of a battle were scattered across the bathhouse.
Once the rooms were clear, the party headed outside to an area filled with magical pools and healing hotsprings. The scene was grim, however, as these pools contained the corpses of bathhouse patrons. Some were not entirely dead, but the party quickly dealt with the undead threat.
Ahead of them, cascading down from the pincer shaped mountain above, was a magical waterfall. After investigating some of the bodies, the entire party made their way to the base of the falls. It seemed as though the battle had started here.
Jerry and Spike wasted no time in getting soaked, Jerry making a fully armoured cannonball into the pool before getting blasted underwater by the pressure of the waterfall. Spike, however, caused a surge of magic to flow through the water, illuminating for just a moment a thin line stretching into the sky. This silvery thread seemed to be concealing an entrance into some hidden pocket realm and our party needed to know what lay beyond.
Astrea used her mage hand to split the stream of water, giving a clearer view of the silver thread that separated their world from whatever lay inside.
After throwing some ideas around, Aien fastened a rope to an arrow and let it loose towards the portal. The arrow sailed into the opening and made an impact with something on the other side. He then fastened the rope to a piton on the rock and shimmied his way across the rope, sloth-style.
Jerry used his athletic ability to swim against the current and pull himself into the void space with significant effort. Once inside, he cast a rope out and called the others to follow.
Zhi made her way into the pool, using the rope as a guide while Seto tried to run across the rope like a cat on a tightrope. Unfortunately, Aien's crossing had loosened the arrow and the rope could not take his weight. Though Aien tried to grab the rope and stop him from falling, Seto instead took the plunge into the magical water below, eventually spilling through the portal after Zhi like a drowned kitten. That did not go as planned.
Astrea and Kit made their way across with relative ease, though Kit was already soaked from an attempted 2-person misty step ten minutes before.
Upon arrival on the other side, the party found themselves in an ancient eldritch temple, filled with the undead. On an alter in the distance they heard two voices talking to each other in elvish. Behind them stood a portal into realms beyond, unlike any mortals have witnessed. 
"It seems we are not alone. Your puppet must have failed us."
"I will deal with them, my lord."
"No matter, it seems I will have a replacement soon enough. Goodbye, Onon."
With that, the mysterious half masked monk turned and made eye contact with Aien, who had already turned himself invisible to avoid such detection. This did not seem to matter at all to the monk, and so Aien let loose an arrow directly towards him. Hitting his mark, the arrow came flying back towards him seconds later, impaling the shinobi and spilling blood across the floor.
With that, the fight broke out. Seto and Jerry rushed forwards, slicing and dicing the zombies below as the others provided ranged support. The masked necromancer made his way down the stairs, pleading faintly for peace as he commanded his zombies to protect him.
As the battle raged on, Jerry made a dash on the back of Spike to attack the Mysterious Monk floating in the air, launching himself airborne an striking out with his Naginata.
Will his blow land? Who is the monk? What in the unholy hell is going on here?! Find out next week...

Campaign

Kiga Shogunate

Protagonists

Seto

Level 9 Tabaxi Monk - Way of the Kensei

/ 66 HP

Jerry Abershaw

Astraea Karasu

Chaotic Neutral Thylean Satyr (Astraea) (Anhropologist)
Bard 13
Warlock 6

122 / 122 HP

STR
12

DEX
18

CON
14

INT
14

WIS
16

CHA
22

Aien

0 / HP

Player Journals

The Bathhouse by Astraea Karasu

Report Date

27 Dec 2020

Primary Location

Kiga Shogunate