Session 9 - Leo's Ruinous Journey

General Summary

Leaving Willow Springs

The party has a leisurely morning in Willow Springs. Most members of the group have breakfast and coffee, while Meera has a double shot of whiskey, to the bewilderment of others (especially Talitha). Biscus encounters yet another former flame and quickly flees outside. Meera learns that Biscus slept with her and her sister without either's knowledge. Whoops. These things happen.
Krud has been waiting by the carriage after catching lake trout for breakfast. As the party gets ready to leave, he feels a presence behind him, and it's the small turtle-obsessed child (Brendan) they rescued from the previous town. He insists that Krud kiss his pet turtle before leaving, which he does, and then the child runs off again. "'kay, bye."

First Traveling Day

A peaceful day of travel in open plains. Big skies, visibility for miles, and only happy deer and wildlife in sight. Biscus and Piers take watch for the evening, with Biscus lighting up his smoking pipe. He playfully offers Piers a puff or two, but Piers, to the surprise of no one in the land, politely declines. What a good boy.

Second Traveling Day

Around midday, the party comes across a strange depression in the earth that resembles a dry riverbed. But there's no evidence of a nearby river. And the ground looks undisturbed by running water. A few members of the group are able to deduce that it's not a natural formation -- it's too straight, and it bends in unnaturally sharp angles. It is part of an ancient network of trenches and battlements that have seen been overtaken by the earth. Meera, for some reason, is aware that this region used to be the site of numerous battles throughout history. It is likely that this system was built and used for the Hall of Heroes civil war.
Hart, Meera, and Abbit stay up for watch. Hart wants to know more about the people he works with. So he asks them a standard get-to-know-you question: What's your favorite foot? Abbit says big juicy grubs from his home. Meera says she loves nothing. Hart says his favorite food is tacos! A strange delicacy! This prompts a discussion on where in the hell is Hart from, exactly?
Talitha sneak attacks her way into the conversation, to the shock of the others who believed she was asleep.
"Go back to bed, Talitha!"
"Well, you all won't shut up!"
Hart reveals he is from a place called "Texas!" Strange. No one has heard of it. Abbit reveals he is from Windfall Island, which Talitha and a few others recognize as being to the south of Koridai. They continue to banter until bed time.

The Snakehead Ambush

The third day is calm until around 2pm, at which point Abbit notices a large group of armored figures marching east (toward the party) on the road. Biscus and Abbit abruptly veer the carriage off the road and into the fields, to the bewilderment of everyone else. Abbit's spyglass reveals they are Olimandias troops. Shit! Everyone gets out their instruments to pretend they are a simple traveling band. They play. Most of the group does well, but Meera's harmonica is more of an unholy screech and Piers's voice falls flat today.
A knight in gold-plated armor is at the front of the column. He demands to see identification. When they are not forthcoming, and instead play music louder, he approaches. The presence of a Gerudo is a bit alarming to him given that Uradiel has declared a crusade on the desert. He starts to inspect the whole group with greater interest. They seem to match the description of a band of terrorists who killed a federal agent in Hatena. Did they come from Hatena?
Well, you see....
As Abbit plays his bagpipes as loud as possible, a shot rings out from behind the party. A ginger dwarf and a whole team of masked Lost Woods soldiers attacks from a distance. Numerous Olimandias soldiers drop in this sudden surprise attack. The party assists in taking down the soldiers, who are defeated rather quickly.
Hart begins stuffing the golden knight in a barrel for reasons. Meera starts looting. The dwarf introduces himself as Leo Crimson, captain of the elite Snakehead unit, but just holds his hand out awkwardly while the party rushes around. Piers is decent enough to shake his hand and introduce himself. Leo is on a mission to discover what is causing the recent march of the undead across the land. They are apparently all headed toward the Lost Woods, far as anyone can tell. He's being led to an ruined fort by Ballard, an elderly Labyrinth veteran. Who is certain it's around here somewhere! It's been a while, though.
Leo is alarmed when Abbit mentions Hoo'Ax'Dyuu and sees the axe in the form of his Spiritual Weapon. Apparently he is a well known menace to Lost Wood society, and recently possessed someone named Gabe and forced him to open a tomb. Shortly after, all the undead started marching. But they haven't been able to figure out why. Abbit insists he just made up Hoo'Ax'Dyuu. How is this possible?!
Leo makes them an offer -- help him search the ruins for clues, and the party will be rewarded with any loot they find so long as Leo gets to keep the intel. The party accepts. Leo is later put more at ease when he learns they're affiliated with the Legends Alliance and have worked with Gertie.
Ballard is focused on Talitha and says her red hair reminds him of someone. Then he's reminded he is actually surrounded by gingers. He looks startled. "Oh, shit." The red hair reminds him of someone. Chikara! Yeah, that was her. Tiny thing. Could fit in a small pocket and be carried around.

Meera's Unlimited Power Surge

Interacting with Ballard, and especially being in this area, causes Meera to briefly disassociate and seize up. Her necrotic bolts fire wildly and without control, surging into nearby bodies and then into the sky. She has numerous visions of old battles here, where she's either casting magic into Olimandias soldiers, bounty hunting with a powerful bow, or rushing to a village's aid with a troop of armored Gerudo wearing hegemony markings.
She also has a vision of being very young, blinded by the sun, and taken underground by a man in a black cloak. The shade is much nicer and very soothing. More visions of attacking people in the darkness, except instead of using lightning, she is able to inflict pain using psychic screams. She snaps back to reality soon after. [Meera is now a Phantom rogue instead of a Revived rogue!]
The rest of the party: "The fuck is wrong with you??"
Leo is eager to move, and so they start marching north with Ballard's somewhat senile guidance.

The Ruins

Ballard leads them to the remnants of a town destroyed long ago -- stone walls overcome with vines and moss mark the location of old buildings. There's a hollow in the earth with an open doorway leading down in the darkness. The door is heavy stone, and it has recently been pushed open. Footprints lead out of the ruin. Mostly humanoid. One set of heavy hooves. Hmm.

The First Chamber

The tunnel into the ruins is narrow and claustrophobic. Leo and the party must drop down a collapsed staircase to access the floor below. The first chamber they enter is damp and smells of mildew. There are pools of water on the floor from condensation. There are multiple doors leading to other rooms. Abbit and Piers go to investigate a northern door, but pass near a pool of water. They are ambushed by a.... rapidly slithering pile of ooze with a horrible humanoid face that has no mouth and yet it must scream. They are able to evade its ambush. A second slithering ooze emerges from another pool and rapidly snakes across the floor toward Talitha. The party is able to defeat both creatures in relatively quick succession.
The door to the north opens, but Abbit notices a thin tripwire inside. He cuts it with his rapier and triggers an explosion from a small device over the doorway. He manages to avoid the shrapnel. It's an old barracks with ruined beds. Nothing of value, merely the impression that whoever put traps here was hoping to kill as many "explorers" as possible.

Oh No, Spiders

They head to the south next. They find a much larger chamber filled with webbing -- all over the ceilings, the floor, and between marble columns. Tapestries and tassels hang from the ceiling -- pale ropes all over the place.
Abbit critically succeeds on perception and notices numerous pale arachnids hiding on the ceiling, and that many of the tassels and ropes are in fact filaments hanging from their mouths, hoping to snare someone.
They whisper to each other and decide to attack. They get a surprise round on the first one and dislodge it from the ceiling, but a whole team attack isn't quite able to kill it. The other arachnids (cave fishers) begin to scuttle across the ceiling and join the battle. Krud takes running leaps at spiders and bats them off the ceiling with his warhammer. Talitha, Abbit, and Biscus fire off magical attacks. Meera and Piers take potshots with their crossbows. Critical hits manage to dislodge many from the ceilings, at which point Hart and other melee fighters can engage with greater gusto.
Though some heroes endure some scrapes from claw attacks, most everyone is able to evade the cave fishers' filaments and avoid more genuine harm.

The Southern Passage

The party proceeds into an open doorway further to the south. It's a more open cave system here. They are first met with a bronze statue of a Hall of Heroes figure. Peering around the corner, they see motionless humanoids wearing rotted wooden masks. Upon closer inspection, they are.... ReDeads.
[This dungeon crawl will be resumed next session!]

Report Date

14 Feb 2021