Session 2: Where Chests are not Chests & Rats are not Rats

General Summary

The team starts this session by spending an inordinate amount of time deliberating which way to turn at a crossroad, ultimately deciding to clear a corridor that leads back toward the entrance and contained...largely nothing, except a door that presumably led back to the start. They then continue further into the dungeon, back to a door they'd previously disregarded. The room on the other side has the same cage traps as the room with the mephits but the cages are either empty or the things in them are quiet and invisible. The party proceeds on.
On the other side of the room, they find a chest sitting in the middle of the hallway. A little further down, another chest awaits.
While several people acknowledge this as fishy, Amanita Guttata and Wynnie Bishop are too stoked about the ability to touch a treasure chest to heed caution and are adhered to the "wood" of the chest, which is to say the head of a mimic that promptly slimes them with its pseudopod tentacles. The team dispatches of the mimic with little incident (other than Wynnie accidentally fireballing Num), Amanita gleefully roots through its guts to grab a few gold pieces, and they proceed onward.
(Let the record show that Kitanya, whether knowing what a Mimic with a capital M is or not, accurately predicted the chest was a mimic. Never doubt the wisdom of bimbos.)
The other chest does end up being safe (both from mimicry and from traps) and yields some handy treasures and a Botion of Healing. Unfortunately, while ALEK51 is diligently cataloging its findings, he takes an arrow to the kn--back as Wynnie Bishop and Tervik Likkus accidentally tag-team set off a trap that also zings Wynnie as the bolts fly by.
This dynamic duo then goes on to trigger the other trap in the immediate vicinity, with Tervik finding himself frozen in fear atop a large trapdoor and Wynnie frozen on a switchplate that seems tied to the trapdoor. The party yanks Tervik off the trapdoor through a quick yeet-by-rope and the trapdoor unleashes a ragged skeleton bearing the same types of weaponry as Num, a long-dead Ranger.
The skeleton is put out of its undead misery by a decisive shot from Num once he regains his composure, but the party is now 2 for 2 on encounters that left some ethical questions about Zedron's dungeon sourcing, between the skeleton and the mephits.
Speaking of mephits, the team sees one loose in the hallway and is able to dispatch it quickly via sneak attacks. They then continue down a winding series of hallways, deftly detecting and disarming a trap that would have unleashed two yucky enemies: an Ooblex Spawn and a Grey Slime. The trap disarmed, the slimey oozes are left in their Hexiglass (TM) containment units and the party moves on.
The next room sees 4 Giant Rats free-roaming: 3 normalish and one larger and slightly-different-looking ones. The 3 normies are easy enough to dispatch, although one lands a nasty bite on Kitanya Evermoon that seems to be infected quickly.
The slightly-off-looking one, however, seems impervious to any bludgeoning or piercing damage so spells are the primary way to deal with it. It also lands its own bite, this time on Tervik, who rolls disasterously low to fend off whatever toxin it's wielding. When the rat is knocked out via a savage ratapulting by Wynnie, it hits the wall and turns into a naked human-appearing man in the throes of death saves.
There is some deliberation on what to do about this, but Num puts it together that this man must be a wererat, and ultimately the party stabilizes him via Kitanya's Spare the Dying. They tie his wrists, grant him the dignity of a bedroll to cover his bits, and take a sidebar to vehemently discuss what to do while he wakes up.
Meanwhile, stage left, Amanita voraciously eating dead rats with little concern.
The man comes to slowly and asks what day it is. It would appear he has been stuck in his wererat form for a few weeks at least; he is surprised it is not the end of the previous month (Ink) and is instead halfway through the month of Ring. He introduces himself as Gerome and haltingly explains through quite the concussion that he is still not great at controlling his curse and was ratnapped into a bag before being dumped in this dungeon that, whether intentionally by Zedron Eefis or by his own ineptitude at controlling his form so far, he was unable to change back. Having spent so long in this form, he forgot himself for a time, going full Animorph as the kids say.
Ultimately the party decides it is too risky to bring him through the rest of the dungeon with them, but also that they can't let him be unbound, whether through a distrust of him or so he doesn't hurt himself exploring the dungeon at 0 HP, opinions differ. They assure him that they will be back for him, that he's safest in this room with doors he can close, and that they won't be long.
(The point is raised that they can't take long, lest Tervik be fine becoming a Wererat. A quick medicine check by Kitanya and Amanita verifies it is not a done deal, but that they shouldn't dilly dally on getting him to someone to lift the curse.)
The party does some quick heals, gives poor tressed-up Gerome some water to slake his thirst, and resolve to move on to the next challenge.

Rewards Granted

From chest: (all currently with ALEK51 )

• 1 Potion of Healing

• 9 GP

• 1 gold locket, sealed shut (value: 25 GP)

• 2x 50 GP gemstones (1 citrine & 1 bloodstone)

From mimic:

• 4 GP (currently with Amanita Guttata)

General:

• 5 roasted lightbalbs (then down to 4)

Character(s) interacted with

• Gerome, the unfortunate human suffering from wererat lycanthropy and the bad luck to have been scooped up in Zedron Eefis's sack-o-dungeon-fodder

Report Date

06 Mar 2024

Primary Location

Cities of Mercy and Wrath