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Summary
The party are stalked by a tentacled monstrosity as they try and escape the catacombs under Paris. Eventually they cross a bridge before the creature finally attacks.
Synopsis
Hamid is in shock and manages to cast 'Prestidigitation'.
Sasha sneaks down the cave towards the terrible stench which is almost overwhelming. After a long time, the stone around her becomes more and more unrefined before eventually coming out into a huge cavern. Inside it is pitch black, putrid water which is the source of the smell. Sasha edges around a ledge, seeing various pipes pouring into the fetid pool below. One of the pipes doesn't have anything pouring out of it, but is covered in plant slime.
Hamid tries to get Zolf to cheer him up, but isn't able to.
Sasha heads up the slimy pipe to investigate. She decides to head back to the party, but finds a splatter of the water up on the side of the wall where she previously walked. She hears an alien sound just behind her. She swings behind her wildly, hitting whatever it is and she can hear the unnatural scream.
Zolf and Hamid hear the scream.
Zolf, Hamid, and Sasha run from the tentacle monster. Art by @littlebluejaydraws on tumblr. Used with permission.
Sasha moves as quickly as she can across the ledge. Emerging into the corridor she hears something slithering ahead of her along the corridor.
Zolf sees Sasha entering a room with two tentacles over her head and the dwarf shouts at the rogue. Sasha runs back to the party but the tentacles retreated. The party hear the distant scream again, and Zolf sees a tentacle with an eye on the end, which Zolf flashes with the torch, causing it to retreat although other apendages appear out of corridors before retreating again. Sasha throws a bomb down the corridor, causing distance ceiling to fall as Hamid casts 'Mage Armour' and Zolf casts 'Floating Disc', which he climbs on.
The party heads off down corridors to get out, eventually finding more tentacles which Sasha throws her final bomb at and Hamid casts 'Sleep' on, causing it to retreat. Sasha throws a Fire Bomb, causing no damage to the creature. Eventually, they find a bridge over a ravine. Hamid heads over the bridge, holding a rope that Sasha has the other end of. Sasha gets on the floating disc and they float over the bridge. As Hamid pulls them across, Zolf's torch catches a hint of deep purple: a barbed tentacle wraps itself around Zolf's leg, pulling him into the ravine. Simultaneously, a similar tentacle grabs Sasha's leg, pulling her off the bridge, but she's able to grab onto the bridge. As Zolf is pulled off the bridge, he sees the creature: a being with countless misshapen limbs and tentacles with a gaping mouth. Zolf throws his trident at the creature, missing. Sasha throws her fire bomb at it, missing.
Hamid watches on in horror.
Quotes
- Alex: Who are you playing?
- Bryn: The distressed and broken, dirty Hamid.
- Lydia: The “ughh I guess I’ll have to sort it out again then” Sasha.
- Ben: Zolf “Legless” Smith.
--
- Bryn: Between me and Zolf, we have now 5 functional limbs.
--
- Zolf: Hamid, why don’t you, um…why don’t you clean yourself up.
- Hamid still pretty out of it: Oh, oh. Um, yeah, that…that is…I should do that. Um…hmm. I normally…this hand, um, ohhhh...
- Zolf: Well, treat it as a learning experience. You get to cast spells with your off hand now.
- Hamid: It…but I use both.
- Zolf: Ah. Well, there must be some…one-armed wizards.
- Hamid: Maybe…maybe it’ll still work.
- Zolf encouragingly: Give it a go. Hamid manages to cast Prestidigitation. There you go! Come on, Hamid. Buck up. Could be worse.
--
- Hamid asks Zolf to teach him a cheery song to pass the time.
- Zolf: Yeah, most sea shanties are…are about death.
- Hamid: Well, let…let’s not sing one of those, then.
- Zolf: Yeah, not much of a…a singer. How about…
- Hamid: That’s okay.
- Zolf: How about you teach me one of your old university songs?
- Hamid: Oh, I don’t remember any of those. I know some opera…that’s mostly about death too.
- Zolf: Okay…just very very slow.
- Hamid: Yeah…
- Zolf: Uh…play I Spy?
--
- Sasha: How…I didn’t hear anything behind me. Nothing sneaks up on me, Zolf. Nothing. Are you sure you didn’t imagine it? Nothing sneaks up on me.
- Zolf: It’s pitch black down here. It will be designed to hunt in complete darkness. The only sense is sound. That’s why. Right? So…
- Sasha sounding a little panicked: It’s hunting us. It’s hunting us. It’s hunting us in the dark, it’s hunting us in the dark. That’s fine. Maybe I can set it on fire.
--
- Zolf: Right. Here’s how it’s working. I have another 15 minutes of this. After that…I can’t move. At that point, you leave me and you go.
- Hamid tearfully: We can’t leave you here, Zolf!
- Zolf: Well…okay. At that point, we both die.
Dice rolls and Mechanics
Hamid, still in shock, casts prestidigitation to clean himself up.
Sasha makes a stealth check to explore: 10
Sasha makes a perception check: 12
Sasha makes a stealth check: 24
Sasha makes a perception check: 10
Sasha stabs behind her, rolling an attack roll: 22, dealing 5 damage
Sasha makes a perception check as she runs: 12
Sasha makes another perception check: 22
Zolf casts floating disk.
Sasha tosses a bomb: 5
Hamid casts Mage Armor: nat 20
Combat Breakdown
Initiative order: Hamid (21), Sasha (19), Zolf (10) [Note: initiative and time run sort of weird here - the party is continuing to run the entire time]
Hamid continues to run.
Zolf keeps the torch lit and counts so he knows when to cast the floating disk again.
Sasha tosses a bomb behind her. She rolls a 22 to hit and deals 9 damage and 2 splash
Hamid casts sleep, unsuccessfully
Sasha throws a fire bomb down a tunnel. She rolls an 11 to hit but doesn't hear a scream of anger.
Zolf casts the disk again.
Hamid starts to cross the bridge.
Sasha hops on the disk with Zolf and starts pulling them along.
Zolf makes a perception check, but doesn't see anything on a 6. Sasha makes a perception check and gets 23. A tentacle wraps around Zolf's bad leg and the barb sinks in. It yanks, and Zolf, failing his reflex check with an 11, is pulled off the disk and tossed into the ravine. He takes 8 damage.
Another tentacle wraps around Sasha's leg, dealing 8 damage from the barb. It yanks her as well, but on a reflex save of 23, it loses it's grip on her.
Zolf throws his trident at the thing, but misses on an attack roll of 4. He falls.
Sasha throws a fire flask into its mouth, rolling an 11 on the attack.