The party plots their final moves of their sojourn into the Unfathomable Underworld!
The Campaign: Operation Unfathomable! and Odious Uplands!, both by Jason Sholtis
The Ruleset: 5e
Ye Dogs of Destiny:
- Brother Ded, a monk/political shit-stirrer. (absent)
- Mort, a fugitive from Imperial justice. (absent)
- Greta, a baby-eating hag-turned-Citizen Lich.
- Ulther, a ranger and artifact smuggler.
- Zinee, a wooly neanderthal druid/cosmetologist.
- Toljin, a magical boy raised by pirates.
- Doloth, an unwilling-Citizen Lich. (absent)
The Story So Far
Ye Dogs of Destiny have traveled into the Underworld to find the fabulous Nul Rod, found it, left it in the safe-keeping of Primordial Gods, fought the last remnants of the Cult of Nul, and returned to the flying saucer of a bear from the future for a rest. They went to check out the Spatio-Temporal Fistula to see if they could learn how their actions have affected the far-flung future, but caught a bunch of spore-induced mutations on the way.
Last session ended with the parties discovering a bunch of Security Forces from OmniCosmic University bivouacked in the same chamber as Spatio-Temporal Fistula. They immediately attacked by sending a flaming bear running through their midst and setting everything ablaze.
A very lopsided combat followed. The Security Forces have very good future armor (AC 19), but not many hit points, and their weapons are all non-lethal. This meant that when the PCs got an attack through, they were dropping opponents, but enough security guards were still standing and making progress knocking PCs out and binding their hands and feet with future zip-ties.
Greta, whose personality was radically altered when her nervous system was replaced with fungal tissue, decided to treat for peace. She had picked up that the Security Forces didn't speak the language past a few recorded phrases, so she went visual, using Control Flame to shape emoji-like pictoglyphs. This worked, and they entered into a very difficult conversation without a common language. Via gesticulation and holograms, they were able to communicate that they had seen Professor Gormontine, that he had died, and that Dr. Thontorius was still in the area. The surviving Security Forces (2 guards and their leader, Sgt. Ijewoda Zapsdotter) asked if the party would take them to Thontorius and his saucer. This is exactly the opposite of what Thontorius wanted. He had warned them that if anything had gone wrong with the Spatio-Temporal Fistula, Security would try to seize his saucer as the only means of returning to a home that didn't exist any more. Ye Dogs of Destiny had either forgotten this, or didn't care.
And just in time! Because a squad of worm soldiers burst in! There were twelve worm soldiers, three Eyes of Shaggath-Ka, and a massive Carrier Worm. Attached to the side of the carrier worm were nets containing some folks we haven't seen since Fort Enterprise: Shantora Lax and Kuwain Trylos of the Apis Irregulars, and District Investigator Reginar Eiffel.
The party was pretty effective at fighting the worm soldiers (especially in comparison to their first encounter, which involved a fair amount of running away). They created a pinch point for them, and then targeted them with area of effect spells, like Moonlight. The Carrier Worm, however, proved more durable. Zinee, still in the form of a flaming bear, gave up trying to attack the Worm, and started attacking District Investigator Eiffel instead, while he was helpless in a net. She was swallowed by the worm, and the Party scrambled to try and induce vomiting to get her back. Greta attempted to use her new toy to attack the Worm, but failed the check. This made the Sphere of Annihilation move ten feet closer to her. Fortunately, the worm was between Greta and the Sphere, so this proved to be as effective as a success.
They dispatched the worm at last, and released its prisoners. They bound and gagged DI Eiffel, who had survived Zinee's attention, so far.
Session 21
District Investigator Eiffel, whom I had forgotten was supposed to be gagged, started the session by demanding that he be released, that his wounds be tended to, and that they control their infernal fire-bear. "You fit the descriptions of individuals last seen in the company of the criminal fugitive, Mortimer. Can you account for his current whereabouts? Have you observed any further criminal activity perpetrated by this Mortimer? Have you faithfully pursued your mission as assigned to you by the Imperial government?" He expected compliance, of course, because he carried imperial authority. This had worked pretty well on the Apis Irregulars. Shantora and Kuwain were nervous that any disobedience might be magically reported back to the authorities in Mur. But ye Dogs of Destiny are made of more ornery/short-sighted stuff than that. They tossed the Investigator into the Sphere of Annihlation, after relieving him of 2 magic items: a Rod of Alterness and his badge of office that acted like a sending stone. They sent the badge into the Sphere, as well.
Then there was a long debate about what to do next. Most felt that there time in the Underworld was at an end. But, should they:
- Go right up the ladder, leave the Underworld, and hope the Murian authorities will be satisfied with proof of the Prince's death instead of the Nul Rod, or
- Use the Divine Favor to wish Thontorius' saucer to the surface and bypass the scrutiny of Mur entirely?
- Perhaps they could change their appearances and start new identities?
- And then there were so many possible assassination targets: Countess Ploomb,, the wizard Galandigrius (who had mind controlled Greta back at Fort Enterprise, and she has not forgotten), Auruna's grandfather...
This last one came up because, during this debate, Auruna's grandfather reached out on the chained sending stones to tell her that he was sending a servant to her with a message. Although Auruna was not with the Party, they overheard because the chained stones are a party line.
There was further debate over what implications this communique held for the Party, and everyone was pretty sure it was bad news. Then there were plans to intercept the servant and kill him, and ones to kill all the Apis Irregulars.
In the end, this all turned into taking the OCU Security guards back to Thontorius's saucer. They saw a few Underworld sights along the way: science fungoids dismantling the remains Experimental Fungal Farm after it's recent destruction, and the dead body of a giant Tyrannoclops corpse. Zinee poked this last one, which caused it to burst and dozens of squirming young slithered out, only to be quickly eaten by giant pill bugs.
Next Session is looking good to be the penultimate! Fingers crossed!
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