OttD Session 32: The Local Customs of Acheron

General Summary

We begin with Tornac, yet again, waking up in an unfamiliar bed after a night of heavy drinking. It is a room in New Neprius, and is quite a pleasant place to spend the night. When he gets up encounters a short, fat, albino tielfling. The man in question is Griffon, the same one who gave Pestle Dave. He refers to Tornac as "boss", and it is immediately obvious the two have some history.
After a little drinking and small talk, Griffon gets to the point. He is sick of knowing things, and wants Tornac to kill him. Tornac requires no convincing whatsoever, and about 30 seconds later Griffon lies on the floor, dead. Tornac loots the corpse and obtains a robe covered in eyeballs and a large black shield. He immediately begins playing with the shield, and gets the attention of the entire building in the process.
Zerrof has already left, but Pestle and later Vun Roade arrive and Tornac explains that the two used to know each other. Pestle investigates the corpse and finds signs that this was not the first time Griffon had attempted to die. After some negotiation, he also manages to buy the robe of eyes off of Tornac for two thousand gold. After this, they go downstairs for food.
Meanwhile, Zerrof is at the forge asking the forge master if he could create an altar to Mazu. Fortunately, it turns out the forge master was a stickler for historical architecture and already had one as a monument to the old city. Zerrof designates this as his sanctuary, and then wanders around the forges for a while showing off Mazu like a proud parent to everyone who would listen.
When he returns to meet the others at the tavern, it is immediately obvious that Tornac had killed someone. They converse about this for a bit, in which Pestle declares it was "assisted suicide" and Zerrof is surprisingly forgiving.  As they are talking, Pestle hears a commotion upstairs that seems to indicate someone has discovered the corpse.  Pestle goes up to investigate and finds Hawk, one of the two Kenku they had traveled to the city with.  He makes it clear that he blames the party for this, but instead of passing judgement he says "we have to run".  Shortly after, he does in fact run away towards one of the other rooms.  Pestle goes back downstairs to inform the rest of the party.
As they are discussing what to do, several armed guards enter the building and begin to search it.  One stops to interrogate the party, saying that they have been asked to find agents of Penguin and bring them to the temple.  The party readily admits to being agents, and are summarily asked to come to the temple they had just left from the previous day.  Hawk and Dolphin seem to have escaped somehow, as the guards leave without having found anyone else.  As they approach the temple Deep Sashelas is there, who quickly says "not those ones" and sends the party away again.
The party is confused by this development, but decides to mind their own business and head for Acheron.  Their portal back to Sigil passes through old Neprius, which is now extremely dilapidated and covered in algae.  Entire city blocks have been destroyed, evidently crushed by some sort of massive tentacles.  Pestle gathers a bit of said algae, and while doing so spots Hawk and Penguin hiding in an alcove.  He goes back to report to the others, but by the time the rest of the group arrives the kenku have left.  The party again decides it is best to mind their own business and leave.  They go first to Sigil and then to Acheron.
Upon arrival in Acheron, they immediately spot a massive orc army (known as a WAAAGH!) heading in their direction.  Despite having come specifically to negotiate with orcs, the party decides those particular orcs are probably not amenable to conversation and flee the other way to another side of the cube they are on.  Unfortunately, this face of the cube ALSO has an army.  Instead of stopping to identify it they flee yet again to another face.  This face initially looks peaceful until Pestle realizes he can see some invisible creatures using his new robe.  The creatures are huge tentacle monsters of some description, and the group fails to identify them.  They are spotted by the tentacled monstrosities, and quickly find themselves trapped between the three tentacle monsters and an entire army of orcs.
The group decides to engage in combat.  What ensues is long and bloody.  The orcs are remarkably strong, and they are led by a particularly dangerous one in a pirate outfit who calls himself "Captain Bloodflag".  This particular one has a propensity to hit the entire party with exceptionally powerful AOE lightning attacks. 
The tentacle monsters, meanwhile, appear to be even more dangerous.  These beings were seen eating entire orcs whole.  Additionally, the properties of Acheron grant anybody who drops an opponent to zero hit points half of their hit point maximum as temporary HP.  This means the tentacle monsters are constantly healing themselves by the power of pure bloodlust, and after a few rounds of combat these creatures appear to be getting stronger, rather than weaker. 
Party members are knocked out three times during the course of the fight, including Zerrof.  When Zerrof drops to 0 Mazu herself enters the fray and immediately heals Zerrof and sets about healing the rest of the party.  At one point she even takes what would be a knockout blow to protect Tornac.  The group elects to run away.  Vun Roade is the first to escape.  Zerrof, with much trepidation about leaving Mazu behind, follows suit.  Pestle helps the others escape safely by polymorphing Mazu into a t-rex.  Everybody escapes back to Sigil in one piece, albeit badly beaten.

Report Date

17 Jan 2020