Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...
Session 68 - 7th of September, 1392
This week's adventurers:
Blossom (Rogue 5)
Mayfly (Magician 4)
Mechtilde (Fighter 4)
Yevegniy the Coward (Cleric 4)
Cherwe (Cleric 4)
Verinka (Changeling 3)
Ulf (Magician 3)
Gerung (Magician 3)
Krupe (Cleric 1)
Bluegum (Changeling 1)
Downtime in the Village
Gerung returns to the sewing bee from two weeks ago, and inquires about reincarnation services for his recent master, Liminal Space. They claim they can perform such magic, but require 2,000sp to do so. The magician is short on cash at the moment, and so starts the Liminal Reincarnation Fund in the village to raise the money.
Ulf spent the past two weeks learning the spell Phantasmal Forces from the spell book he and Gerung received.
A new player graces our group, prepared to die horribly in Nightwick Abbey! Bluegum the Changeling arrives in the village and quickly joins the party, interested in retrieving the treasure hidden beneath the earth.
We previously "rescued" three cultists from the abbey as well. St. Samson, who we previously cured of being stone, has stuck around in our house and has been lecturing the cultists, admonishing them to return to the Church of Law.
Assman, another former cultist who we took out of the abbey, gives us some information about the Bleeding Baroness and her cult, which he was once a part of. He tells us three bits of information:
- The Bleeding Baroness is called the Lady by her cult as she is perversely venerated as the founder of the Church of Law within her cult. Assman is also very upfront in telling us that "it's kind of a sex thing."
- She is served by Berserkers, who we've previously fought, that gain their power by drinking the Baroness's blood.
- The Bleeding Baroness is incorporeal - she is a type of ghost, though apparently her blood is corporeal enough to drink??? Assman can't explain this part, he was fairly low on the cult hierarchy.
Down Into the Abbey
It's the 7th day of the 7th month and we decide to celebrate such an auspicious day by returning to the gardens on level 2 to fight the Manimals again.
We depart the village in the morning into the Fog-Bound Forest to reach the hill upon which the entrance to the abbey lies. On top of the hill lie two broken towers - we descend down the western tower into the abbey.
Devils in the Dark
The stairs down to level 2 are only 4 rooms away - west, west, south, west again, but behind the second door we go through, we find 2 Devilmen standing among a pile of junk.
"Foul beings of the abbey, what have you? Make way!" Mayfly exclaims.
"Foul?" One Devilman replies.
"I suppose you, of anyone, would know," says the second.
We ultimately come to an agreement with the Devilmen that they'll leave us alone if we leave them alone.
We go to cross pit trap on our path, but find that the boards we used to cross the pit are missing.
The Devilmen hand us the boards from behind their pile of trash with a snicker and, not entirely trusting them, Mechtilde crosses the pit first.
A Harmless Prank?
The board breaks as Mechtilde strides across; she lands 10' down unharmed, but peeved and now has to scramble up the side of the pit.
The Devilmen quietly laugh, but nothing further untoward happens to the party.
Gerung, however, angered at the slight, throws a dagger at the nearest Devilman for harming his friend, but misses.
A Magician Slighted
This is enough to start combat, and the Devilmen draw swords and Verinka is sliced across the nose.
Mechtilde pulls herself out of the pit, cursing Gerung for starting this fight, and rushes into battle.
Ulf raises his arms in arcane motions and a Devilman's eyes gloss over as he is charmed by the Magician. Ulf and his Devilman both call for an end to the fighting and their companions agree.
Ulf and the others interrogate his charmed Devilman, who informs the party that they're up here on the 1st floor looking for a golden skull for the Bleeding Baroness. She definitely wants the skull of the Master, though the Devilmen don't seem to know this fact. We also find out that we killed the Builder last week - the giant Tiger-Manimal.
We also find out from our charmed friend that the Devilmen tend to gamble in the chapel on level 3.
Before the Devilmen depart to the north, Mechtilde grabs Gerung by the arm and marches him up to the Devilmen."
"Gerung has something to say to you...Gerung, say you're sorry."
After some protests, the hot-headed Magician utters a halfhearted apology and we move on, safely crossing the pit trap south.
Beastmen in Ambush
In this room, we hear the bleating of Goatmen on the other side of the door, in the room with the stairs to level 2 - there's no getting around this group.
Blossom manages to peak through a crack in the door and reports 7 Goatmen, some hiding behind pillars.
Mechtilde goes to kick in the door dramatically, but fails.
She then takes the time to pry the door open. The Goatmen are waiting for us with a volley of arrows.
Mechtilde and Cherwe are each hit by an arrow and our front ranks charge forward, cutting down two Goatmen. Mayfly then casts Sleep upon the remaining Goats, leaving one standing.
It dashes up to Blossom, grabs her, and holds a dagger up to her throat.
A few terse moments pass and we wonder why it simply doesn't run away. We think it doesn't have intelligence, but rather has a simulacrum of intelligence (akin to a peezombie P-Zombie).
While we debate how to handle the situation, Verinka Sleeps the foul beast and it drops to the floor.
Goatman Biology
Mechtilde and Blossom chop the heads off of the sleeping Goatmen and make a gruesome discovery.
The Goatmen's necks contain a human skull - as if the goat head grew on top of a human.
We search their bodies and, in addition to their bows, axes, daggers, and arrows, the Goatman who held Blossom hostage was holding 3 cut garnets, each worth 1,000sp!
Down to Level 2
The fight now over, we descend past the bodies down to level 2.
Arriving in the entrance landing, Mayfly casts ESP and scans the surrounding rooms.
To the south he feels the presence of tortured souls, to the north he detects the hivemind of the fungal zombies.
We want to revisit the Manimals' cabin, to the northeast. Blossom listens at the east door and hears a single fire baby.
A Bad Baby
Gerung casts Invisibility on Blossom and she slips through the eastern door to scout ahead. The hallway ahead has doors on the left and right and continues ahead. Blossom hears the fire baby through the door to the left, that we need to pass through. She scouts down the hallway and hears a single, distant scream.
She returns to the party and we advance forward - down the hallway through the door on the left.
Mechtilde forces the door open and, sure enough, there is a single fire baby - a short creature made of rock and fire.
It raises its horrid, flaming, stony, baby arms and lets out a pathetic cry.
The baby coughs up ember and ash at Cherwe and she responds by caving in its skull with her mace.
"You kicked its ash!" exclaims Mayfly.
This room has 6 glowing buttons on the wall that control the Master's strange machines on this level, but we move past them on to the lair of the Manimals.
Remains of the Manimals
We enter into a large room with glowing overhead red lights and wooden cabins sprinkled about.
We check the first two rooms, finding only sleeping mats scattered about and no signs of additional Manimals.
In the third cabin, we see a room, half with an earth floor and half stone floor. In the back of the room is a hole in the floor, broken through the stonebed.
Blossom looks in the hole, but loses her footing and begins to fall!
Fun With Holes
Mechtilde grabs hold of her arm and stops her fall, but she's now in the hole, grabbing onto the Fighter. From this vantage point, she spies a little nook carved into the wall of the hole with a bag inside of it.
Blossom scrambles out of the hole and we tie a rope around her to act as a harness and lower her back into the hole.
She tries to grab the bag, but the outside is slippery with slime and it slips out of her hand, and falls into the darkness.
We wait for a couple of minutes but don't hear it hit the darkness. Mayfly lights up a torch and drops it down the hole and we watch it fall until its light fades out of sight, but it never stops falling.
Back to the Village
It's getting late at that point, so we call it quits and uneventfully depart from the abbey, back to the village.
We sell the garnets and each receive 300sp and 340xp for this delve.
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