House of Conti logs
Cast of Characters
- Luca Conti - A swashbuckler
- Raphael - A capable wizardly spy
- JD - a Sorceror
- Baradiel - A half-fallen angel
Down to the Sewers
Immediately following the last session, the party headed down the ladder into the city sewers. Raphael, having See Secrets up, noticed an engraved plate on the floor which included the coat of arms of several local guilds and the date the sewers were constructed. A Traps roll revealed that the plate could be lifted and rotated, and that it was some sort of combination lock. A few minutes passed while they tried various combinations, eventually figuring out it was related to the three guilds listed on the plate. When they figured it out, a Scryguarded secret door opened up into a small cavern lit with faintly glowing funguses. Inside, there were more of the Sewer Worms they had fought on the surface, as well as two gigantic Fleshworms (a SM 2, 40 HP juvenile form of Purple Worm that hasn't developed a stinger yet.) Raphael noticed a Sewer Crocodile trying to sneak up on the party. He told JD, who Stunned it and when it recovered it decided it wasn't looking for a fight and left.
Baradiel got hit with an early Critical Hit from one of the Fleshworms and took enough damage to take him down to 2 HP in one blow. Luckily, JD has healing spells, so he was able to recover quickly. Luca and Baradiel took the Sewer Worms out quickly, and focused on the Fleshworms. One of the Fleshworms went Berzerk from a big hit from Baradiel, so it took quite a lot of damage to bring it down. The other one never took enough damage in one blow to trigger a Self-Control roll.
After the vermin were defeated, they examined the area. It was strewn with the bones of fish, a crocodile, and three humans, two of whom were tied to crosses and had probably been eaten alive. They found another door on the other side of the room, Raphael detected spells on it, which he used Thaumatology to deduce were Meta-spells and Protection and Warning spells. He burned a 2-hex Dispel Magic-25 Scroll and eliminated them.
Baradiel got hit with an early Critical Hit from one of the Fleshworms and took enough damage to take him down to 2 HP in one blow. Luckily, JD has healing spells, so he was able to recover quickly. Luca and Baradiel took the Sewer Worms out quickly, and focused on the Fleshworms. One of the Fleshworms went Berzerk from a big hit from Baradiel, so it took quite a lot of damage to bring it down. The other one never took enough damage in one blow to trigger a Self-Control roll.
After the vermin were defeated, they examined the area. It was strewn with the bones of fish, a crocodile, and three humans, two of whom were tied to crosses and had probably been eaten alive. They found another door on the other side of the room, Raphael detected spells on it, which he used Thaumatology to deduce were Meta-spells and Protection and Warning spells. He burned a 2-hex Dispel Magic-25 Scroll and eliminated them.
The Summoning Room and an Affair At Dinner
They entered a circular chamber which featured a wheel-like symbol in the floor, well lit by Continual Light stones in a regular pattern around it. A dead woman, her heart missing, lay in the center. It was an enchanted Pentagram in a pattern "conducive to the spirits of Order." There was a chalk mark across it, meaning it had been purposefully broken. The pentagram itself was as old as the sewers, at least, meaning it had been there for at least two hundred years.
In a niche opposite the door they entered through, they found an enchanted statue of a white ape with bloody fangs, surrounded by offerings of various sorts. To the south, there was a door with yet more spells upon it. Raphael ceremonially cast Dispel Magic, and succeeded. Entering the next room, the heard voices in conversation. Raphael cast Insignificance on each member of the group and they snuck in to a meeting hall, with several cultists around a table and a guard at another door. JD cast Mass Sleep and critically succeeded (again!) It knocked out all the cultists at the table, another pair in another room he couldn't even see, and a wizard with a half-face mask on that the party hadn't noticed, because he had Insignificance on, himself. Raphael managed to notice him, and snuck up on him while the warriors engaged the guards. While they were doing this, JD got a thrown knife in the kidneys from behind as a woman he never noticed took a free shot from where he couldn't see her.
I should say here that I really like the Roll20 dynamic lighting options. They drive my players crazy. I've restricted the PCs to a 300 degree arc of vision, so even though she was on the map literally no one noticed her until she struck. This wouldn't happen on a tabletop map unless I didn't place her until after the attack.
The triple damage attack forced a Major Wound check, and JD failed by 5 so he was out. Luca engaged the woman, she Commanded him to stop, and he missed his resistance roll. On the next turn she cast Madness on him (one turn as she had it at 20), and even with Magic Resistance 3 he failed to resist. I ruled his Bless went away and he resisted instead. He attacked her again, she failed to Command this time, and he hit her, at which point he discovered she wasn't affected much by normal weapons and was actually a demon. A Succubus. She took only 1/5 injury from his attack, and even with him rolling 3d+2 damage that's only going to be a couple of points in the end.
In the meantime, the Half-masked Wizard stirred from his slumber, and Raphael struck him with his wooden rapier. The wizard got hit for a couple of points of damage, said "You've got to be kidding me," and cast Deathtouch. On the wizard's next turn, he hit Raphael, and I rolled 10 (on 2d) points of crushing damage and 18 points (on 3d) of Deathtouch damage. Ouch. Raphael succeeded on a Death Check, a Consciousness Check, and a Major Wound check in one go and was still standing. On his turn, Raphael stayed conscious cast a 5d Deathtouch himself ("This is how it's done!"). Baradiel by this point had healed JD, got him on his feet, and went to Raphael's aid. He defaulted Intimidation to get the wizard to surrender and rolled a 3. The wizard surrendered promptly. The Succubus, somehow aware of this, Teleported behind the wizard, made Baradiel drop his sword with a Command, then Teleported away with the wizard on her next turn.
Clean Ups and an Interrogation
Examining the area thoroughly, they came across a cell with a skeleton manacled to the wall. A Search roll revealed a key in a pouch on the skeleton's belt. They tested it and discovered it was the key to the cell itself (prompting "What a bunch of assholes!" from the players.) The room the Succubus came from was a small study, with a couple of Scrolls on a table, a magical scrying bowl (which gives +2 to Lecanomancy, as if it was a Crystal Ball,) and an enchanted painting on the wall. JD identified the painting as a Painting of Entrapment, which traps the soul of a viewer in an extra-dimensional prison, except this one seemed to be programmable as no-one in the group had been affected so far. They woke a cultist and interrogated him. He was extremely cooperative, and when asked why he said "You're going to kill me anyway, so I figure if I help you, you might kill me quickly." He revealed the password to the painting, which allowed them to move it and pull a lever for another secret door. They knocked him back out and continued into a small, mostly empty treasury. Luca opened a magical chest in the room, that hit him with a Lesser Geas to "drop what you're holding and leave this place." The session ended there.
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