Session 25: Defeating the Death Blossoms and A Zombie's Story!

General Summary

Contents

Defeating the Death Blossoms

ROUND 1, FIGHT!

When last we left off, Hysteria was being dragged up into the air by some vines while Namina tried to keep him from being eaten by a big scary plant. She was able to pull them free of the vines, and the two of them landed in the mud and stagnant swamp water as one of the smaller flowers launched some nasty glob of acid directly at Namina.
Frode, uncertain of just how truly hostile this creature is and hoping to protect his prone friends from future danger, decided to take a more defensive stance between the plant and them. His shield and spear holding the line against some future attacks and definitely drawing a bit of agro. Hysteria lifted themselves out of the muck and lifted Namina as well getting her ready for future. Combat! ACTION! Agave did what Agave does best and provided a bit of moonlight to illuminate and damage this plant. Kaswink, meanwhile, ran forward and began cutting into this plant with her wacky muckfish arms. In doing so, she discovered that strange mists, powders and biles tend to spill out of this plant when it is struck, a warning for the future combatants. While she was about to be properly punked by this punctured plant, NAD was able to pull her away from the noxious, wretched stuff.
You saw something rising to the surface of this swamp. A tuft of hair attached to a rotting head just lying there motionless as it surfaced for some unknown reason. It didn’t seem terribly threatening, but its existence was a reminder of your own mortality and what this plant might do to you.
Frode was then struck by some nasty acids from one of the smaller plants, though he was able to cover his eyes before he was blinded. Hysteria, on the other hand, was less lucky and the acid that stuck to their legs immobilized them and glued them to the ground. Kaswink was also struck by one of the smaller flowers as it bit into her arm and latched on. Bugbear blood mixing with the poison dripping from the plant's teeth, though Kaswink's resilience prevented her from experiencing much in terms of negative effects.
Namina briefly illuminated the surrounding area providing a beacon of hope that blessed and warmed the hearts of her nearby comrades. She then sacrificed the rest of her existence during these six seconds to pull Hysteria free of the sticky gloop that had immobilized them. NAD, seeing an opportunity to make a name for themselves in this combat, ran forward and demolished a nearby smaller Death Blossom. Petals and goop filled the air, but as they settled it was revealed that the flower wasn't really destroyed but rather trimmed into a tiny topiary of Kaswink. NAD used this to hopefully intimidate the other flowers.
Then it was time for the big ol' queen Death Blossom to do a thing. The large flower exhaled, and the smell that was experienced was far more putrid than anything that had been smelled in this swamp. Sour, biting, with a bit of mildew, rotting vegetables, and old bad meat. The green, brown and black gas that filled the air provided a great deal of different ailments to those close enough to fully experience it. Kaswink ended up becoming berserk and poisoned, Frode and NAD both were able to hold their breath after taking a small amount of damage though they were slowed with this need to not breathe. Additionally, all of you that had to breathe this in began suffering levels of blight. With the Corrupting Breath filling the air, Frode was also struck by some vines in the confusion and became grappled as one was able to wrap around his arm.

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ROUND 2, SUFFER!

Frode had an opportunity to act yet again, though, slowed as he was, he was limited in what could be done. He decided to take the opportunity to lash out at this vine that was grappling him and was able to free himself while killing another flower. He also moved Namina away from the potential danger of Kaswink. Hysteria launched an arrow at the big main flower, and their attack was swiftly met with several vines striking out from all around them. Agave, meanwhile, began casting a spell with the hopes of drying this creature out a bit to make fire a bit more effective. Kaswink reached forward, her long arms allowing her to reach this big flower, and yanked a petal off of it. In one fluid motion she threw this petal onto a nearby smaller death blossom with hopes of preventing it from spitting or biting.
The flower, however, had other ideas and decided to just bite through the petal, chewing it up a bit before spitting it back at Kaswink.
The motions through the water and underground were causing still more corpses to come to the surface of this thick, filthy water and you heard a little *bloop* as something splashed through the surface a bit more violently. Instinctively turning to look at this noise you saw, for the brief moment that you were distracted anyways, a detached arm, rotted and bloated from the muck, was thrashing about in this swamp. The noise from this limb continued, but Namina felt a hand grab at her wrist. It’s flesh was peeling from the hole-filled meat beneath it as it tried to pull her down into the mud.
She failed to resist the pull of this creature, her upper body was pulled downwards and she found herself submerged completely in the swampy murk that had, until this point, only been up to her knees/lower thigh. She was blinded in this water, and whatever grabbed onto her arm was now repositioned to wrap its arms and legs around her as she fell prone in this muck. She was prone, grappled, and, despite her amphibian nature, was having a hard time breathing this swamp stuff.
Namina, grappled by this zombie, began to channel the divine might of her deity. The undead grappling her and several that weren't seen suddenly turned partially to dust and partially to loose bits of meat and hair as they vanished. Namina was no longer grappled, but a bit of nasty zombie hair drifted up into her face as she as able to stand back up and see the state of the world again. She spent some time healing Kaswink as well. NAD, though slowed, moved towards the big flower to do a shocking series of attacks. Each of their 8 attacks brought them higher up the flower, each strike splashing bits of bile or fumes into their face. They made it to the top of the plant, but as they landed and admired the damage done they found themselves paralyzed, poisoned, severely blighted, and in a precarious position.
The flower then looked up, its mouth opening to bite down on NAD and swallow them whole. It was successful, but, thanks to Namina, slightly less successful than it could've been. NAD was gone, possibly forever, and it was up to everyone else to make sure NAD burns alive inside this plant.

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ROUND 3, AGGGH, I WAS EATEN BY A BIG FLOWER!

Frode threw a spear at this plant, watching as his weapon punctured the flower but also began rotting and melting as it was exposed to the plant's variety of wretchedness. He recalled that Agave had a plan involving the destruction of water, though, and ran forward with a torch hoping to burn the flower alive. The timing was amazing, but luck was not on Frode's side and the plant survived for the most part. As it rehydrated it turned its attention towards Frode and took the positioning to its advantage to bite down on him much like it just did NAD. Frode was gobbled up and joined NAD in the belly of the ... flower.
Hysteria launched another arrow at the plant, and was again met with the bludgeoning vines from all directions, avoiding another grapple and dripping some Homemade Organic Poison on the flower, it didn't seem to do much though. Agave moved forward and used his magic to attempt to purify this plant with hopes that it would stop poisoning those stuck inside. It's unclear if it actually did anything at all, but it might've! Kaswink continued demolishing this flower, her furious anger doing far more to it than it had the chance to do to her, however, one of its defense mechanism at last worked and she became a bit confused.
You heard even more rough splashing around you as the dead continued to rise. Moans and creepy whispers speaking of regrets or unknown events in the past filled the air as they moved about around you, far more formed than the severed arms or heads that had been seen by most of you up until this point. Skeletons covered in loose plant matter, zombies with thorns protruding from their bodies, all manner of plant-like undead meandered about adding difficulty and unpleasantness to this encounter. One zombie in particular seemed to still be stuck inside the flower and reanimated next to Frode and DAN. She reached out to Frode and said “Pleeeaaase, killll meeeeeee, pleeeeeaaaaaase, killllllll mm-mmmmeeeeeeee, it h-hurrrrrrrrrrrts.” while moaning and struggling to move.
Agave was struck by the acidic goop of one of the smaller plants, and in the moment of resisting whatever nasty effect would've befallen him he had a moment of insight. He realized a way to possibly create an antidote of some kind to cure the ailments caused by this plant. Perhaps a potion, balm or even food made from it could help cure most of the ailments. Namina, using the remainder of her religious fury, destroyed most of the undead that had appeared. Their bodies were reduced to ash, chunks of meat and general viscera as Namina used the remainder of her time to do some more healin'.
The queen then, perhaps involuntarily, regurgitated everything inside it. Bile, stomach acid, necrotic energies from beyond, and even NAD and Frode all spilled out. The zombie was there, still begging for death, and many more stacks of blight were gained for everyone nearby. Kaswink, Frode, NAD, the zombie person, and Agave were all covered in foul smelling goop. Flesh was burning and rotting away...

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ROUND 4, PIT!

Frode, recovering from the shock of being puked out of a flower, grabbed NAD's paralyzed body and began running as fast as he could, ignoring the zombie's pleas for death and freedom from suffering. He explained that there are undead to deal with to which Namina simply gestured towards the ash and meat specks filling the air. Hyteria launched another arrow and was again met with vines as a response. This time they became grappled and wrapped up in the vines before becoming prone and face-first in the fetid swamp water. Agave, hoping to not DIE, healed himself and ran behind a boulder. Kaswink, ready to continue eating this plant like a wild animal, instead stood motionless and did nothing.
No new bodies were rising to the surface which was either a blessing or a sign of something even worse to come. Bubbles were rising to the surface as the water was undulating from the center, almost like something big was coming to the surface or trying to dislodge from somewhere below… or perhaps something completely different. The ground continued shaking violently before a sinkhole opened up at the center of this area you are fighting in. It had a 20ft radius and became deeper the closer to the center it was. At the very center there didn’t seem to be a bottom as it suddenly dropped into a black pit about 5 feet wide with no light escaping. Along the sloping sides of this Sinkhole you saw an innumerable amount of undead covering the walls. They were stuck in the ground, just struggling with their free limbs but not really moving. Some of you had begun to slide down this slope, and in order to climb back to the top to the rest of your friends you needed to pass this wall of undead.

Most of you fell into this Sinkhole, and some of you were either prone or unconscious. Agave and NAD fell unconscious, Frode was prone, and Hysteria was grappled and prone while Namina landed on her feet. Kaswink, however, was the only one to not fall into the sinkhole at all. Namina used her time to heal everyone nearby, bringing Agave and NAD back from their slumber. Namina insisted that you all get out of here, Frode agreed but brought up that there is some strange disease sapping his strength. NAD managed to recover from their paralysis in time to heal themselves and throw an ax at a zombie walking past. It "lived" through the attack long enough to get to the pit and jump in, creepy.
The big flower breathed again, briefly forgotten in the moment as this sinkhole was quite distracting, but it filled the air with the putrid black, green and brown gas. More negative effects and damage were delt leading to the unfortunate collapse of Frode as the sinkhole was filled with this offal air. Frode continued suffering in his unconscious state, Hysteria was prone and grappled by a vine, and Agave brought down the impressive light of the moon. Kaswink continued biting the big flower as the only one out of the pit, and was able to finally break through its stock and kill it at long last.

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A Zombie's Story

One last Zombie remained on the battlefield, the last bit of threat in this combat. She stared into the dark pit at the bottom of the sinkhole, a pensive look on her rotting face. Namina asked the zombie if she had some last words while Agave healed Frode back up.
“Please, save me. Not just me, but all that are like me. The pain of life is too much to bear. The pain of existence, the weight of eons, there is one that must be stopped before my brethren and I can rest or, hopefully, be reborn someday. I wouldn’t expect you to go right away, I’m sure you’re busy and wouldn’t want to impose, but I just wanted you to hear my story.”
Namina accepted these terms while gently resting a hand on the zombie's shoulder and noticed that this zombie seemed to have very slightly pointed ears, just slightly more rounded than a half-elf's.
“Long ago, during the reign of Ki’ur, The FIrst King-and-Queen, then known simply as King Uilan, we were given explicit instructions by The Psychic to build an impressive city. She said she had heard the cry of a distant god desperate for company, and as the construction continued and talk of the new realm we would visit spread… well, other ideals began to rise as well. The Necromancer began preaching the woes of each passing cycle. She would proclaim to all who walked in the streets that they are missing memories, that each life is more pointless than the last, that we should remember all of our lives or what’s the point in living them?”
“She had many persuasive thoughts and promises, and one of the most tantalizing to the majority of us was the promise of immortality. That death would never again claim us, that we would carry with us the weight of all L’huine knowledge for all time … it was too much to resist. I had curiosity and a crippling fear of what might lay beyond this life, if I were reincarnated without my memory well then, what’s the point of even living in the first place?”
“We finished the city and when we passed through to this Spirit World for the first time we all traveled here, to this swamp, and with the help of Božena we opened a gate to the land of rot using special mushrooms of her own creation, and as we chatted amongst each other a gate formed which we walked through to find our destiny.”
“Božena’s promises were supposed to be realized in this new Rotting Gate, and I still do not doubt her desire to break the Circle, but her desire for power was something that couldn’t be ignored. She channeled the energies of that gate to corrupt us, to spread horrific blights and plagues, and the immortality that was promised did not prevent our bodies from rotting as time passed. Our existence is pain, each moment is suffering, and she is still in that gate channeling the magics for millennia ever on the edge of greatness.”

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She coughed up a great deal of bile before falling to Namina's knees, staring at her with eyes red while gasping for breath.
Naminan continued comforting this poor zombie as the zombie begged for you all to cross into "her realm" and "stop whatever it is she's doing". The zombie continued gasping for breath before falling forward into Namina's arms completely relaxed. Namina offered her some comfort in an immediate death. "I could end your pain now, or, if you want to return to the cycle, I could come back for you when she's defeated."
The zombie didn't care much about returning to a cycle, wouldn't even know if she did, she just wanted the embrace of death which Namina swiftly granted using a bolt of radient energy destroying the zombie's head.

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The session wrapped up with some healing, status condition repairing, and plans to rest while cooking or preparing these flowers to help treat the blight they inflicted upon you.
NAD mentioned that these zombies seemed to get what they want though just not the way they want it, bit of a monkey's paw, and Agave was able to clear out some of the zombies in the wall with his beam of moonlight.

Created Content

In this session we discovered that Hysteria weighs 2 elven pounds. Since their official freedom unit weight is 90 pounds we can assume that each elven pound is equivalent to 45 pounds...for some reason.

Session Recording
Monday, April 18, 2022

In-Game Date:
Nurend 16, 308

Report Date

18 Apr 2022

Primary Location

Pluarsh ec Relovut

Secondary Location

The Sinkhole

Related Plots

• A Broken Cycle

Related Characters

• Her’aen, The First Zombie

Discovered Creatures
Zombies
Identified/Defeated Plants
Death Blossoms
Mentioned Creatures
L’huine
Mentioned People
Božena
Mentioned Locations
The Rotting Gate