Nightwick Abbey - Session 91 - “They did in fact get mad at you for kink shaming them."

Previously, in Nightwick Abbey: Ulf was unable to delve into the horrors of Nightwick last week, but at the Medusa's Head he heart the tales of horror, of how the noble cleric Voorhis fell to the piteous worm Balotis, but the party was able to avenge him by killing the foul beast.

Want to learn more about the world of Nightwick from Miranda Elkins? You can follow her blog here and the ongoing development of Nightwick Abbey at her Patreon here.

Session 91 - 18th of Elders, 1398

This week's adventurers:

Blossom (Rogue 6)

Mayfly (Magician 5) 

Mechtilde (Fighter 5)

Ulf (Magician 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 4)

Poppy (Fighter 3) 

Krupe (Cleric 3)

Thekla (Magician 2) 

Lump (Frogling 1)

Hirelings: Niklaus (Fighter 1)

Downtime in the Village

This week in downtime, Thekla learned a new spell. Which one was it, Ulf wasn't paying attention. He spent the week getting caught up on the exploits of the last week - noble Voorhis died slaying Balotis - the piteous, radioactive worm that haunted level 2. 

This week, we're going to the other level 2 in the abbey to find the Bleeding Baroness - the other "boss" of level 2 after Balotis.

Boss Hunting

We make it down to the landing of level 2 without incident, stepping out onto the floor in a 30' by 20' room decorated with two columns, carved to depict the Lady of the Church bleeding, with actual, thin blood trickling down the columns.

We go west from here - we don't know where the Baroness is, but we've well explored the eastern part of the level, so west is the obvious choice.

We pass through the room of Law, where we recovered the Shard of God, to the room painted all black (I really need to include more pictures of the map in these posts) and from there, west through a secret door.

The Practical Application of Phantasmal Force

The door opens to reveal 5 robed figures - one has been hitting the heads of the other 4 with a gavel.

They turn to us and combat begins.

Liminal Space uses Phantasmal Force to blast them with a fake Fireball and they all fall from the explosion.

Mechtilde approaches, intending to finish them off with Dhinron, but as she approaches, Lump spots a glint in their eye as the Cadaverites leap up - having faked their deaths.

Two of them land hits on Mechtilde, tearing out a chunk of her cheek.

Lump fires into the melee and avoids hitting Mechtilde to land an arrow into one of the undead.

Mayfly, fed up with this, hurls a Fireball behind the Cadaverites, blowing them all up.

We patch up Mechtilde's wounds and move on.

Liminal Continues to Make Friends

Finding no treasure in the room, we force open the door west - revealing a T-junction with passages north, west, and south.

Through the darkness, Liminal spots large, muscular figures down the hallway ahead of us in the darkness, he thinks they're hiding behind rubble, laying in ambush.

Liminal steps forward and calls out to them, "Hello there, we're seeking to meet with the Bleeding Baroness."

"You seek to meet with our mistress," a response comes from the darkness.

"We bring tidings from Lichgate and the Mistress of Death," Mayfly calls out, remembering out time infiltrating the Brotherhood (of Thieves and Assassins).

"You with to supp?"

"Oh yes a dinner party!"

We approach and we see nine large figures, the physique of body builders, wearing armor made from human leather and with mouths stained red from drinking....something.

They offer to take us to the Baroness, but demand we drop our weapons, which we do not want to do.

Liminal Continues to Escalate the Situation

After some unexpected negotiations, Liminal casts Hypnotism, ordering two of the bodybuilders to hug each other.

This is considered a hostile action and Thekla follows up to puts four to sleep and Ulf casts light on the last awake, unhugged, unhypnotized Berzerker.

We quickly slit the throats of the hypnotized and hugged berzerkers, then the blind and sleeping ones, ending the fight.

Into New Territory

We finally have a chance to look at the room they were it, it's a long hall, stretching to the north and south.

There are three doors out of this room on the western wall, and listening at them all, we hear nothing

Of the three doors, left, center, and right, we opt to take the left door.

There's another door across from us to the west and the hallway stretches to our left, south.

Tri-Dick

It opens to a 20' by 30' door with a statue in the corner. The statue is made of a black iron and depicts a three-pronged phallus with little wings and a halo.

The Bleeding Baroness

There is a door across from us and to our right.

Listening at the door to our right (north) we hear the sound of a woman enjoying herself and several male voices praising as if in worship.

Mechtilde kicks open the door to a room 50' wide and 40' deep with 8 columns and a tapestry of human skin on the northern wall.

To our left is an alcove with a throne. A woman sits on the throne with blood running down her eyes. Two cultists kneel at her feet, suckling at her breasts. Eight other cultists stand before her in worship.

This scene reminds Ulf of when the former cultist of the Bleeding Baroness, Assman, acknowledged that the cult was, "kind of a sex thing."

At least we were forewarned.

"Gross - that's undead milk!" someone from our ranks shouts out, which is enough to start combat.

The Magicians, Again, Do All of the Work

We win initiative and fire a volley of arrows into the cultists, killing 3.

Mayfly fires off a Fireball, killing the remaining 5 cultists, but the Baroness emerges from the fire, floating - we now realize that she doesn't have legs. Thekla casts Light upon her and she fails her roll!

Mechtilde effortlessly slices through her - it feels as if she was just blood floating in the air - and she turns into a glob of blood and falls to the ground, covering Mechtilde with backsplash.

Treasure!

She leaves behind only her shawl, which we take with us.

Liminal has heard rumors of a magical amulet that she held, so he begins searching the throne for any hidden treasure.

The columns in the room depict her receiving pleasure and behind the tapestry, we find a secret door, but with no opening mechanism.

Opening mechanism not needed, Mechtilde forces the door open with her crowbar to reveal a 30' by 30' room with two treasure chests inside!

Traps!

Mayfly reaches into his pocket, whispers something, and then a moment later declares that there is another secret door on the right wall (east) and that the latches of the chest are trapped.

Blossom recognizes powder made from the white lotus covers the latches

Mechtilde uses her bellows attached to a spear contraption to use water to wash off the powder from a distance and then Blossom picks the locks.

We find 2,000sp in silver coins in the first chest and in the second is a magical amulet - rumored to protect one from demons.

We Consistently Make Good Decisions

He immediately puts it on before we check for a curse and Poppy, inspired by the action, puts on the shawl.

Nothing happens.

Exploring the Baroness's Realm

We listen at the door east and hear the trickle of liquid.

Opening it, we find a room 30' by 20', with doors across from us (back to the berzerker room) and to our left (north).

There is a fountain of blood on the right-hand wall with a larger-than-life size statue of the Baroness with blood pouring out of her face.

We open the door north to reveal a 10' corridor that ends in a giant scab - impassible.

We go back and enter the berzerker room and, from this angle, see another door going east.

Liminal also spies, on one of the columns, a carving of St. Gax pulling aside a curtain and making a shushing motion. 

Mechtilde pokes the figure and it pops out to reveal a hidden compartment with 50gp.

We Just Explore Some More, Nothing Really Happens

We return to the tri-phallic room and go through the unopened door to the west.

It opens to a 10' corridor opening up to a 20' by 20' room with openings to our left and across from us.

Across from us, there is a 10' corridor ending in a scab and to the left (south) is a large room covered in bat guano.

Returning to the berzerker room, Liminal looks down the corridor to see it runs 50', ending in a T-junction.

Back in the Village

Feeling like we've done enough for the night, we return back to level one and the village, without incident, though we do have to dodge some cadaverites in the process.

Once back, we divide up the treasure - we recovered 2,500sp, for 263sp each. We each also recieve 480xp.

This is enough for Ulf's hireling, Niklaus, to levels up!

We spend the next week studying the shawl and the amulet. The amulet is one of Protection from Demons, the shawl is a Shawl of Protection +3!  However, Fighters cannot utilize the shawl so Thekla and Ulf roll off or it and Ulf claims the shawl!

Nightwick Abbey - Session 89 - "Old Men Crossed With Nude Mice"

Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...

Want to learn more about the world of Nightwick from Miranda Elkins? You can follow her blog here and the ongoing development of Nightwick Abbey at her Patreon here.

Session 89 - 28th of Primes, 1398

This week's adventurers:

Mayfly (Magician 5) 

Mechtilde (Fighter 5)

Ulf (Magician 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 4)

Poppy (Fighter 3) 

Voorhis (Cleric 3)

Krupe (Cleric 3)

Thekla (Magician 2)

Hirelings: Niklaus (Fighter 1), Assman (Fighter 1)

Down to the Abbey

This week we decide to play things safe and go down to level 2, to the realm of the Bleeding Baroness. Mechtilde insists that she needs to extract a sample from the Gibbet Cage monsters down there.

We enter Nightwick Abbey through the remains of an old bell tower that still sticks out of the ground. On our was through level 1, we come across a door swollen shut, blocking our path.

We suspect that something is behind the door so Mayfly casts ESP and shifts his focus to behind the door. He detects a group of very simple thoughts on the other side.

Baptize a Rat

Mechtilde forces open the door to reveal several Dregs - short figures that resemble old men crossed with nude mice.

They're grouped up around a baptismal font, trying to push one of their members up into the font to drink from it.

Nightwick Abbey - Session 88 - Battered by Ghouls and Buckets of Gold

 

Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...

Want to learn more about the world of Nightwick from Miranda Elkins? You can follow her blog here and the ongoing development of Nightwick Abbey at her Patreon here.

Session 88 - 21st of Primes 1398

This week's adventurers:

Blossom (Rogue 6)

Mayfly (Magician 5) 

Mechtilde (Fighter 5)

Ulf (Magician 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 4)

Poppy (Fighter 3) 

Voorhis (Cleric 3)

Krupe (Cleric 3)

Thekla (Magician 2)

Hirelings: Niklaus (Fighter 1)

Downtime in the Village

Ulf and Blossom spent the week carousing for XP and both wound up sick. Father Roderick of Nightwick Village offers to request a scroll of Cure Disease from the Bishop (for a price), however St. Samson left us with a bundle of such scrolls after we rescued him and we are able to use those to cure ourselves for free.

Mayfly attempt to do research on the lower levels of Nightwick Abbey, but only ends up losing a lot of cash to bad scholars.

It is a dark and stormy morning as we leave the village and head into the abbey. There's a noticeable change in air pressure as we enter into the crypts on level 3, which throws off Liminal Space's delicate Changeling sensitivities.

Nightwick Abbey - Session 87 - Phantasmal Force is Finally Effective

Previously, in Nightwick Abbey... 

Want to learn more about the world of Nightwick? You can follow the creator's blog here and the ongoing development of Nightwick Abbey at her Patreon here.

Session 87 - 14th of Primes 1398

This week's adventurers:

Blossom (Rogue 6)

Mayfly (Magician 5)

Ulf (Magician 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 4)

Voorhis (Cleric 3)

Krupe (Cleric 3)

Poppy (Fighter 3)

Hirelings: Assman (Fighter 1), Helusch (Magician 1), Niklaus (Fighter 1)

Downtime in the Village

Flush with cash, several of the party went carousing this week. Most had pleasant expierences, but Mayfly wound up in trouble after a night of drinking and was arrested by a figures known as Fingers who made him fork over a fine of 80gp to avoid arrest.

Swearing revenge against his new foe, Mayfly forks over the cash and remains out of prison...for now.

This week, we decide to return to level 4 for more exploration and hopefully treasure.

Down Into the Abbey

On our  way through level 3, Blossom, scouting ahead, turns a corner a spies a dozen cultists standing in our way, right outside the stairs down.

Liminal pops out of the corner and surprises the cultists with a sleep spell.

The leader of the cultist, in a silver mask, cries out as 6 of his companions drop and hurls a Fire Ball at the party. Mayfly is hit, and screams out in pain! Assman and Niklaus are also hit and drop down, dead!

Weirdly, the rest of the party, who made their saves, takes no damage from the fire and feel no heat coming off of it at all...

Poppy fires arrow off, but misses, and Liminal Space follows up with another round of Sleep, putting the rest of the cultists down!

Not Quite Dead

We inspect our "dead" only to uncover that they are unconscious - the victims of Phantasmal Force apparently, though Mayfly still insists that his burns are real.

On the cultists' bodies (after we kill them), we find 100gp and on the leader, a silver mask worth 100sp.

We continue on, reaching level 4 without issue.

A Game About Doors

We go south, to explore new areas, to the fountain room.

We continue on, and try to force open the next door, but fail so horribly that most of the party gets covered in slime spraying out from the door as the result of poor crowbar usage.

Eventually, we get the door open and come to a 20' corridor leading to a 30' by 30' room, with four pillars made to look like swords - this is where we fought the blind dead last week. Thankfully, there's no more undead here today.

To our west, we see a large room filled with a white fog.

To the east and south are hallways with additional doors.

Fly-Person Industry

We go east, to the first set of doors. Liminal listens south and hears the sound of a hammer hitting metal. Blossom listens north and hears sounds of rushing wind and hissing.

Before we can act, the door east opens up! We scramble into position as a Fly-Person, holding a glaive and a steaming sword in each hand, steps into the hallway.

Mayfly greets him, but he is curt and demands that he has to pass through the southern door quickly.

We see figures in the room to the east, crowding around the door, watching us. Then the northern door opens! And there is another Fly-Person, holding a hot iron rod.

We back up, and the three Fly-People watching us carry new, glowing hot swords to the north, before returning east. The one to the north brings his rod south.

This is clearly a smithing operation, though it is strange that its spread out across at least three rooms.

Mayfly glimpses a particularly large Fly-Person wielding a hammer to the north, banging on swords.

Iron and Tears

We decide to give the smiths some space and go back to the pillared room and go south.

There are doors to the east and west and further along, the hallway branches off to the sides as well.

Blossom listens and hears loud crying to the east and nothing to the west.

We open the door west to reveal a 30' by 20' room filled with crates.

We open the first crate to find it full of bloody, rusted iron rods.

We continue looking through the crates, but only find more iron rods.

After a turn, Poppy, who had been keeping watch, sees a Fly-Person walk around the corner we came from, see us, and turn away sheepishly.

Back to the Village

After a half-hearted, failed attempt to open the door east, to the crying room, we decide to call it for the week, and return back to Nightwick Village.

We return with 1,100sp total, for 137sp each, and we each get 281xp, with our hirelings each gaining a half share. A meager haul, but we also faced few challenges this week. Maybe that will all change next week, as we return to Nightwick Abbey!

Nightwick Abbey - Session 86 - Giving Level 4 Another Shot

Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...

Session 86 - 7th of Primes 1398

This week's adventurers:

Blossom (Rogue 6)

Mayfly (Magician 5)

Mechtilde (Fighter 5)

Ulf (Magician 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 4)

Krupe (Cleric 3)

Poppy (Fighter 3)

Thekla (Magician 2)

Hirelings: Two Big Shieldmen

Downtime in the Village

Happy New Year from the Dark Country! With the month of Primes rings in the new year. Anne, Lady of Blackleg is hosting a jousting tournament, and rumor has it that she intends to marry the winner...

...However, jousts do not interest our party and so we return to the depths of Nightwick Abbey, as single and celibate as ever. 

We decide to return to level 4, in an attempt to "milk" some gold out of the fly-men who gave us a bad time the last time we down there.

Happening in Nightwick

Ulf was absent last week and this week he notices we have two new hirelings - two large fellas with tall pavises (tall shields that can be stuck into the ground). He asks Mechtilde and Liminal Space the names of their new hirelings and they simply shrug and don't have an answer. 

Two weeks ago, Krupe had to cast Turn Undead to save our party from being overwhelmed by the undead. In response, the Abbey shifted around us. 

Last week, the party discovered that the graveyard entrance to level 3 in now to the northeast of where it used to be - in the middle of the level currently. Due to the Abbey's peculiar natures, we can enter through that door into the middle of the floor, but if we turn around and go back through the door, it will no longer take us out. We'll have to remap the floor to find the new exit.

Nightwick Abbey - Session 84 - Where We Explore The Abbey For 90 Minutes And Then Get Knocked On Our Asses

Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...

Do the horrors of Nightwick Intrigue you? Do you seek adventures on isles distant? Miranda, the Mastermind of Malevolence behind Nightwick Abbey is running another open campaign: set in the last bastion of a famed wizard, Cuccagna awaits you!

Session 84 - 22nd of Duodecember, 1397

This week's adventurers:

Blossom (Rogue 6)

Mechtilde (Fighter 5)

Ulf (Magician 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 4)

Krupe (Cleric 3)

Voorhis (Cleric 3)

Poppy (Fighter 3)

Thekla (Magician 1)

Hirelings: Niklaus (Fighter 1), Assmann (Fighter 1)

Downtime in the Village

Ulf spends his downtime researching and discovers rumors that within Nightwick Abbey there is a portal to the ruins of Ancient Acheron - the first human civilization. 

Liminal Space also trades the demon's smoke we recovered last week to Halfdan the Necromancer for a Potion of Rat Control. He promises us 500sp if we find out whether or not it works on the rat-crow Groans that we've encountered before.

Into The Abbey

This week, we decide to continue our exploration of level 3, still not feeling confident enough to return to level 4.

We enter through the graveyard entrance and travel to the far end of level 3. We loosely have a plan to go to the statue of Valax, Duke of Hell, and steal his crown (again) to sell it.

Outside of his room, first, we decide to explore north. In this next room, the walls are covered in green and purple carvings of hell depicting sinners being tortured. We see Mayfly, Mechtilde, and Liminal Space all carved into the wall for having sold their secrets to demons in the past.

Nightwick Abbey - Session 83 - Low Combat, Max Treasure

Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...

Session 83 - 15th of Duodecember, 1397

This week's adventurers:

Mechtilde (Fighter 5)

Ulf (Magician 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 4)

Krupe (Cleric 2)

Poppy (Fighter 2) 

Voorhis (Cleric 2)

Thekla (Magician 1)

Hirelings: Helusch (Magician 1), Niklaus (Fighter 1), Assmann (Fighter 1)

Downtime in the Village

Ulf was absent for last week's delve but was regaled with stories of the party fighting endlessly in a single 30' by 30' room. Since our last session, Blossom has also attained level 6! Alas, she and Mayfly both are unavailable this week for the delve.

During our downtime in the village, Ulf researches, gaining 800xp at the cost of 800 silver, but loses 2hp from paper cuts (worth it). Mechtilde ordered construction of a spear attached to a bellows for the purpose of sucking up the smoke that is produced when a Knight of Armadeus is killed. The offer of healing potions in exchange for smoke is still valid in the village.

Ulf also sought to restock on torches, but the village supply is somehow completely extinguished! Hopefully, he has enough for this week's delve. We decide to return to level 3 to continue exploring the unexplored bits.

Into the Catacombs

We enter the accursed  abbey through the graveyard entrance, straight onto level 3.

We traverse through the level to the four glowing sigils that once kept level 4 locked away.

At the first one, we go south to an intersection. This area is different than our maps show. The abbey must have shifted at some point.

Ahead of us and to our right (west), we see three alcoves with glints of silver in them.

To the east, we see a room - the details unimportant, we see a great black and shaggy shape moving in the darkness of the room. Surely it knows of us from our torchlight, but it seems to ignore us.