Session 9: The Crying Fields Pt. 3

General Summary

This article is co-written by therealdoenahareth and lawsofgodsandmen. After defeating the undead soldiers, Doe tries to offer medical aid for Quintus's back. When asked about the mark, Quintus said he's had it for a long time and tells Doe not to worry about it. Doe, worried, offers their orange gi top so Quintus can cover up his back. Quintus reluctantly accepts and sits by himself for a bit. Doe shares that the party should change its battle strategy. Why fight things when you can just... run away from it? It is revealed to Doe that not only can the party not run as fast as them, but they also can't catch projectiles in combat as Doe can. It is obvious that Doe experiences some sort of culture shock and gets spun up over it. The group searches for the grave Millicent sent them to find this ring. Zero goes off by himself while Doe, Quintus, and Alain look together in a group. While searching, Alain notices rotting decaying limbs that sink out of, then back into, the ground. Just as Alain points this out, Zero attacks the grave that he found. As soon as he hits the grave, a large warbling mound of flesh bursts from the ground. Pulling more and more undead into itself the Zombie Clot becomes huge! The party rolls for initiative! Combat Summary

Zero is immediately trapped and entombed in a sack of flesh by the Zombie Clot. There is no way for him to escape or break out.
Doe attempts to mind-link with the monster and they quickly hear multiple, distorted, pained, screaming voices. They roll for madness and fail their save, causing them to run far away from the group. Quintus manages to get Doe in a good enough mind state to fight. Doe tells Quintus to free Zero while they run and distract the monster because they believe they can outrun it.
Alain, unaware of the plan, turns into a giant crocodile using polymorph and starts to attack the monster. Doe, realizing this, runs over to free Zero. After freeing Zero, Zero takes pity on Doe and tells them to "not scream because it's annoying," before flying them back to Quintus.
Doe summons their Visage of Astral Self (Hareth) for the first time to try to help Alain.
While Alain is distracting and knocking the monster prone, Doe, Quintus, and Zero look for the ring in the grave.. Quintus and Doe look carefully and find nothing. Zero, impatient and reckless, grabs the grave and starts shaking it upside down.
Zero nearly loses the ring as it falls out of the grave, but catches it before it starts to sink into the ground with the corpse that the ring was on. Doe tells Zero to take Quintus and run, and they'll try to distract the monster long enough to let Alain catch up to the other two.