Session 53 - "What's That Strange Bite-Mark on Your Neck, Derrick?"
12th August 2022 - 19:45 - 11:20
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Nightal 3. End of session: 1489DR Nightal 3
Our "Heroes" finish their 1-hour rest and decide to form a barricade from the children's' beds. No more sleep for them, then! The self-appointed "leader" of the group, a boy named Talfen Strong looks up to Derrick in a way no one else does. Derrick feels he has a new disciple for his Church. The party tell the kids to lock the door behind them and not open for anyone unless they play a specific tune on a lute.
Our "Heroic" adventurers leave the children and head further into the depths of the ruins. They search the room of the lizardfolk leader who they killed earlier, finding a few goodies for their trouble. Then they head to the final room on this level - the staircase going down.
Karoshi and Iwee stop to admire the impressive bas-relief carvings - this time seeming to show a Titan infiltrating a war camp of the Gods and enabling the assassination of one of the Gods, saving a Titanic town from destruction. The other two can't really make out the carvings on the walls in the dark.
On the level below, they progress slowly along a corridor - torches lighting the way. As they faff around for quite a while, eventually a door opens in the wall of the corridor and a humanoid figure steps out. They try to hide, but Karoshi and Derrick decide to run *towards* the door to get behind some crates. Unfortunately they are seen, and the figure quickly ducks back into the door and shuts it. The element of surprise, assuming they ever had it, has been lost!
The party quickly gather outside the door from where the figure emerged and plan their storming of the room beyond. Iwee blows a smoky odour through the keyhole, hoping to encourage the inhabitants out. It seems to have no obvious effect. Eventually they decide to open the door.
As soon as Karoshi pushes open the door he is pierced by a spear that flies towards him. Derrick, who is waiting to throw a javelin into the room is targeted by a javelin thrown from further up the corridor they are standing in. Derrick's javelin throw does manage to hit one of the figures in the room.
To avoid being attacked from both sides, the party run into the room to face the two wolf-like creatures within the room, closing the door behind them.
With Iwee at the back, Derrick, Karoshi and Jaxii rush forward and engage the werewolves in melee combat. Our "Heroes" try to dodge their bite attacks, and are slightly less worried by their claw attacks. Blows are traded, teeth, with infected saliva, dodged. The two werewolves in the room are slowly worn down, though the party need to expend some spell slots and ability to do so. As the focus in on the two lycanthropes in the room, Iwee is suddenly confronted with another who enters via the closed door behind them.
The little gnome quickly gets out of the way, and her protector, Karoshi, chases the werewolf out of the room as it runs off, having seen both of his parents killed in cold blood before his eyes. As it runs up the corridor, Karoshi turns back and rejoins the others in the room. Meanwhile Derrick runs out of the opposite door on his own.
As the ladies loot the room and the bodies, Derrick runs north, hoping to cut off the escape of the fleeing werewolf, and Karoshi, after tutting at Derrick's usual impulsiveness, follows him. Derrick runs blindly up the corridor and meets the werewolf running in the other direction. With Karoshi too far behind to help him out straight away, and with Derrick outside of Karoshi's protective aura, the fighter enters melee combat and gets bitten in the neck, feeling some saliva sink into the wound. Spurred on by the thought that he may now be infected by The Curse, Derrick responds by killing the beast with his next blow. But he now feels a little… strange. Only Karoshi saw this, however, so maybe Derrick will try to keep this to himself?
Jaxii and Iwee meanwhile have found some gold and silver to potions of healing (handed to Jaxii and Karoshi) and a set of silk scarves in the room, which is obviously the living quarters of the were-family they just slaughtered.
Our "were-Heroes" head out of the room to check out the large, ornate, wooden doors at the joining of the two corridors. Standing at this apex they look down the corridor they were originally in and see a pile of rubble on the floor. Investigating this before the doors, they see a large hole in the wall, maybe about 5' wide and 5' high, which leads off into darkness, though the hole has a rather repulsive stench coming from it, and the sound of running water. Derrick confirms with Pacino their belief that this may be the same tunnel that Pacino flew down from the other direction, and where he encountered something with "teeth" before escaping back out, just. Our "Heroes" decide to ignore this tunnel for now.
They return to the large doors, which are closed, but seem to be unlocked. Karoshi pushes the doors open, and they open with ease, swinging inwards…