Run Date: January 24th, 2023
PCs
Richard: Lv2 Fighter
Rebel: Lv4 Monk
Malak: Lv1 Cultist
Return to Blackwall
We lost a good hour of session time between handling downtime and Malak rolling up his new character, but once we started it just kept going. The group reconvened with a plan to head back into Blackwall, the underground city below Oldtown Graveyard's central mausoleum. From Rebel's telling, Lazarus sent her a message requesting assistance. She spent last week asking Agatha and Henri about potential henchmen and assistants. Though the two old faithful wouldn't risk their lives, they did manage to find a Fighter and Cultist to assist. Meanwhile, Richard gathered Vance and Malak joined the crew.
The trip to the location was peaceful as ever since the recent consecrations. As the party descended into the cave system, however, they discovered that the black sludge was slowly working its way to the surface. Upon reaching the familiar landing in the first chamber, the party was assaulted by resurrected sludge creatures. The group remembered their particular weakness and made quick work of them. They even spotted that the creatures' hearts were bearing more and more "stitch marks."
With the initial wave out of the way, the party descended the stairs. Several members slipped in the thick sludge, and would later suffer ill effects. Until then, however, the party continued their navigation. The old "fish room" was much clearer than last time. Most of the wax had been chewed away and the water flowed freely. It was also still clear of any sludge. The group sat here for a few trying to remember which direction was which. To their credit, they're starting to memorize the layout. Eastward they went.
The jello door was right where they left it last time. Rebel had come prepared with some extra cloth coverings for everyone so they could avoid a horrible fate by suffocation. However, they discovered that a bed of spines had been carpeted right in front of the door. A couple party members poked and prodded at the taffy-like floor and found that it stretched but returned quickly to its original form. Malak made an attempt at carefully stepping across the carpet. He wasn't the most well-balanced, however, and nearly fell face first into the spines. Rebel was quick to catch him with her staff and pull him to safety.
The group pondered the situation for a few before deciding to just charge right through. Some decided to use their poles as vaults and others made the jump straight up. Nearly everyone made it through unscathed, and those that didn't suffered the consequences: tearing the sticky film from their flesh. It was only some chip damage, but it will be a while before some of that hair comes back.
As the group headed forward, they discussed the plan: find the heart and whale on it. They could hear the sludge-heart's beats as they walked through the slime-ridden streets. Two things would happen before they arrived, however. First, they spotted an orange glow coming from one of the abandoned buildings. Rebel took the lead to scout it out and found orange globes sliding through the sludge. She wondered if it was Lazarus and attempted to communicate; only to find that the creatures were simple fire beetles. Luckily, they were feeling rather apathetic and ignored her strange attempts at communication.
The second event was much worse. Enough time had passed that the effects from the first room were taking hold. Those that tripped earlier had to try and shake off an invasion in their body. Those that failed were now starting to hack and cough up bits of black mucus and bile. It hadn't completely set in, but the party knew they'd best hurry before things went further south.
The party arrived at their destination to come and look upon the heart (upon the heart). It continued its beats and undulations, and became more active the moment their light touched it. The group knew that their presence was detected and started trying to revisit the plan. Here is where things broke down hard. The players weren't sure what to actually do. They remembered what happened the last time they tried an attack, and decided melee wasn't worth the risk lest they be swallowed and turned into a sludge-monster. We broke narrative for a bit while they discussed other possibilities and tried to recall their previous visits. I let them flounder a bit (because I'm mean) before asking them about the city. "What is this city?" The answer, that they did not guess, was "Unexplored." They did manage to recall that the reason this sludge heart was released was because of Baldur shattering the crystal, and it took a bit of nudging to remind them of why.
The players finally caught on that there was still a large building here that had the mark of Lazarus on it. Before they shattered the crystal, it had a glowing rune on the door. Unfortunately, they didn't spot said glow anymore. The new plan, of course, was to find that door.
The group skirted around the streets to avoid a direct confrontation, but it was too late. The heart launched balls of sludge to cut the group off, surrounding them with six man-sized Rotmen. The group fell into initiative and quickly set their weakest to the center. The players decided that if they were going to get anywhere with destroying the heart, forward was the path they had to take. With this, the entire party rushed the 3 Rotmen on the frontline. The fight itself didn't last too long, but blows were exchanged on both ends. The group also realized that another wave would be coming soon if they didn't hurry.
The sludge-heart's undulations continued and another massive wave of 22 was launched. Luckily, the group had arrived at the building and were ready to go in... except the door was sealed. Rebel and Malak worked together, and through the absolute blessing that is a Reroll die, Rebel managed to break the seal (she needed a 1 or 2, btw). The group immediately rushed into the building and set to work holding the door.
While the Rotmen formed into a massive battering ram, Rebel and Malak rushed to explore the building. They continued to call out to Lazarus, hoping to find him within. Alas, no reply. They noted that the molding of the room contained his sigil and proceeded upstairs to find a town hall meeting room. A few inches of sludge decorated the pews and ceiling, but the primary point of interest was the giant bone heart upon the podium.
Rebel was hesitant to touch this bone heart, fearing that breaking it would only worsen their situation. The heart, unlike those "sewn" together in the smaller sludge-beasts, was "glued" together with crystal. She shouted a warning to Lazarus about not blaming her for any fallout, and then the downstairs door partially burst.
Two levels, two "encounters." The top floor contained Rebel and Malak while the lower floor contained everyone else. Those suffering from the infection were suffering immense disadvantages while desperately trying to split their attention between holding the door and fighting off the Rotmen that managed to burst through. The battle saw a strong back and forth with blood and sludge flying everywhere. The ground floor crew could only fell two of their targets, but the door held.
Meanwhile, on the second floor, Rebel decided to start blasting. Between her Ghosteel and Channel Spirit, she forced the shell to crack. Malak attempted to strike it with his steel blade, and found nothing but pain to his wrists. The follow-up strike by Rebel landed a critical blow, shattering the shell and revealing a crystal of light within. As she was about to gather it up, an immense screech echoed through the underground complex.
The party was temporarily deafened, and those that couldn't shake off the sound were knocked unconscious. The ground level crew were happy, however, as the screech had resulted in the Rotmen turning into inert sludge pools. The PCs regrouped as quickly as they could and started shouting ideas for their next move.
Admittedly, the players were lost. I'm a stickler for certain things and very much commit to the plan. In this instance, the group tried to use the crystal as a ward. No Effect. They saw that the bone heart being destroyed had harmed the sludge-heart and opened up an opportunity (a correct assumption). Malak and Richard tried to charge across a nearby bridge and slash open the sludgy mass. Unfortunately for them, the masses of blobs were still struggling against their aggressors. Malak was grabbed and nearly pulled under, but Rebel managed to tear her way through the stick masses to pull him free. Richard, meanwhile, sunk his blade uselessly into the sludge-heart. It retaliated by attempted to suck him in, but he tore himself free just in time.
The sludge-heart pulsed and beat and attempted to launch tendrils out to draw in various characters, but couldn't muster the strength. The tiny blobs, on the other hand, were beginning to become too numerous to combat. The party mounted a retreat, leaving behind one of their KO'd allies.
For the most part, everyone managed to rush out of harms way. Unfortunately, Vance, still coughing up black mucus and sludge, began falling behind. Richard turned and rushed to his friend, hauling him out of the blob mass that had started to pull him under. At this point, Richard threw himself into harms way to keep Vance from suffering anymore setbacks. In doing so, something magical happened: the blobs pulsed with magic (DDM time).
Richard rolled his percentile, and hot damn was he lucky. As Richard continued to assist Vance and pull away from the blobs, his body felt needles dig into his back. He stayed up through the pain, and a massive pair of sludgy rotted wings burst forth. Richard slowly gained speed and altitude, finally catch up with his party and truly freeing Vance from the blobs' pull. As the party approached the jello door, the crystal activated and created a spiral tunnel for their passage: no spines and no sticky film. Richard was the last to make it out, and the jello door snapped shut on his ooze-wings. It tore them from Richard's back with a loud rip, nearly KOing Richard with pain. Still he pressed forward, Vance shoulder to shoulder.
The group was relieved to be free from the city, but soon ran into a swarm of opportunistic stirges back in the "fish room." Rebel, still furious about everything else up to this point, did a massive baseball swing (Major Exploit) and cleaved half of them dead; sending the other half scattering into the darkness. As the party worked their way into the entry chamber and up the tunnel, they noticed that gravity was doing its work. All the sludge had begun to recede, albeit slowly. Whatever happened, they had managed to buy themselves some more time.
Rewards
10 xp
Downtime
Malak
Borrowed some money from Rebel (who had recently inherited a huge sum from the death of her friend Baldur) and began training.
Rebel
Rebel's focus is researching the crystal. She will be working with Agatha and Henri to find out if it has any special powers or clues as to what to do next.
Richard
Richard finally hit the threshold needed. After tending to his wounds for the evening (and making sure those wings did no permanent damage), he will begin training.
TAG
TAG returned from her time spent acting as liaison for the Baranklaw and started developing a scheme. She's friends with the people that robbed the Red Water Sanctum claim and planned to cover her tracks. At the cost of 90gp and 9 days, she'll have designed and executed on the perfect plan. She succeeded so well that the Gold Digger's Guild will pay her the reward.
Blackwater Cove Smugglers
They're continuing their thievery. Half success and half fail means they made very little, but so far no catastrophic results.
Afterword
The players were nearly ecstatic today despite a variety of setbacks and complications. They've been dealing with the graveyard situation for months now and to finally see a potential end (or at least some progress) has invigorated them. The question remains as to whether or not my clues were obvious enough for them to follow, though with Rebel's research I can at least offer another bone. Oh yeah, I think the local alchemists she hired were going to have a solvent ready for their next delve, too.
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