Savage Korvosa Session 26

The more combat heavy set of sessions continues in this session. After facing off against some Red Mantis assassins on the streets of Korvosa and at the Old Fishery, the group found a new hideout in a nearby abandoned warehouse. Pop nearly killed himself by trying on one of the Red Mantis helmets…narrowly spared by Aimar’s healing. And then a rather large undead creature came crashing through the roof of the new hideout seeking revenge! This last combat took longer than anticipated so we stopped the session right after a round where Darcy got a joker for initiative. We pick up with the fight after the break.

Adam had to miss this session and so Aimar had to suddenly “disappear” from the combat. Although I do not think there are any specific spoilers for elements of the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path, there are potential spoilers regarding some of the movers and shakers of Korvosa. As usual, my GM comments are in italics.

23 Pharast

• The battle against the undead monstrosity of the priestess of Urgathoa continues.
  • As Aimar maneuvers into position, the already stressed floorboards give way and he drops through. (Got him out of the way at the very start.)
  • The creature furiously attacks and takes out Stan and some of Mac’s summoned minions.
  • The battle is starting to get a bit desperate as our heroes are having difficulty actually hurting the thing, it heals itself, and their resources are getting low.
  • Fortunately, they are able to prevail before they are too hurt themselves. The creature melts into “ectoplasm” that starts to dissipate. (Sweep attacks can be pretty nasty when most everyone in the party is engaged with the opponent.)
• The group can hear that some folk, attracted by all the noise, are starting to gather outside the warehouse.
• They examine where Aimar fell through the floorboards. He went through more than just the floor. It looks like a small sinkhole was opened up by all of the activity above and their dwarven priest companion fell down it.
  • Pop, with his “undead” eyes, spots Aimar’s legs down at the bottom of the hole some sixty feet down and then suddenly they are yanked away. It looks as though something grabbed Aimar and dragged him away.
  • The group makes their way down the hole. Mac goes last, untying the rope that the others used and gently floats down using some magic.
    • At the bottom, there is a tunnel and drag marks for a short distance before they simply end. Pop takes the lead as the group gives pursuit in hopes of finding Aimar.
      • Fortunately, there only seems to be one way to go down this tunnel and so the group does not have to make any decisions as to which direction to go.
      • After a bit, it opens up into a larger chamber with a sewage pipe spilling into it along with a large pile of garbage and sewage. A trio of Korvosa’s “garbage disposals” (aka Otyughs) are munching away.
        • Pop spots a brief flash of motion in a tunnel across the chamber.
        • The group tries to distract and then make their way around the otyughs, but the light(s) carried by the group makes that quite difficult.
        • In a bit of a shock to the group, one of the otyughs speaks to them and the others chime in as well. One seems to be willing to go along with anything; another loves every idea suggested and seems enamored with Pop whom it calls Poop; and one wants to negotiate to allow the party passage. (I use Token Mold in Foundry which generates a random name for a token when it is dropped on a scene. These names often provide the personality for that creature. We had Compliant, Loving, and Rational and that’s why each was responding as they did.)
          • In the end, an arrangement is reached. The otyughs are told of the sinkhole that they can climb out to reach the surface and they, in turn, let the party pass peacefully. Loving is sad that they do not get to keep Poop.
      • Continuing on, the group eventually comes to a set of chambers and passages that were clearly constructed. One of the first rooms holds the remains of someone in Shoanti burial clothes. Perhaps one of the many “tombs” rumored to like below Korvosa.
        • Another chamber has a closed sarcophagus that begins to open as Poop, sorry, Pop enters. A horrible stench fills the room and a gaunt yet menacing and obviously undead creature attacks. It and Pop go at it claw to fang to fang. It is defeated after the full group catches up. (One of my favorite illustrations of an undead is from the cover of White Dwarf Magazine #19 way back in 1980 and so I used it as inspiration for my description of the creature. Here is a blog post about the whole issue that has the cover image.)
          • Inside the sarcophagus are a pair of leather bracers with various runes burned onto them. Pop takes them.
        • Pressing on, they pass through some other passages and chambers until they come to a larger chamber with various stone slabs/tables. On one is a largish skull. Before they can look around much, four undead creatures…similar to the prior one but not quite as scary…attack. They are defeated.
          • The skull is from some sort of draconic creature. It has feathers and various runes carved on it. It is magical (as are the bracers) and gets stowed in Darcy’s pack.
        • Continuing to chase after Aimar’s unknown “abductor,” they come to a hallway with two doors. Opening the first one reveals another sarcophagus. This one has a bas-relief in the shape of a Shoanti chieftain. The carving shows the person holding a battleaxe. Opposite the blade is a skull…possibly human…mounted to the haft.
          • Pop enters and the sarcophagus simply fades away as a deep voice, in Shoanti and so only understood by Pop, says something along the lines of who dares to disturb his slumber. A skeleton dressed much like the image from the sarcophagus and holding that axe stands in the middle of the room.
            • A fight ensues and it does not go well for the party. Despite wounding the thing a couple of times, it incapacitates Darcy and Pop with attacks.
            • Isabella passes out from the pain of a wound she suffers (Jen rolled a crit fail on a Spirit check to recover from Shaken).
            • Mac and Stan disappear as Mac seems to be drawn within Stan (another crit fail).

And that, of course, is where we ended the night.

Nearly all of this session was off the cuff. I did not have anything planned for this particular set of events. During our break, I was able to toss together a quick tomb map…relying on the wonderful maps at Dyson’s Dodecahedron as usual.

Did the party have to continue chasing after Aimar without tending to their own wounds and issues? Pop certainly thought they had to and the others followed, agreeing to this plan of action even if only implicitly. Did they have to fight all of the undead? Not necessarily…especially that last one. There were no other apparent exits from its chamber and there were still more areas to explore where Aimar may have been taken.

Is this a mostly TPK? I don’t know yet. I asked the group a couple of days later for their ideas as to what might happen. I got a couple of responses. One was to just let Aimar and Mac come to the rescue. I find that one unsatisfying. It kind of bails out the group and is a bit uninteresting. Another was to….well, I might use bits of it so I don’t want to spoil it for everyone since it was only shared with me. I believe that this is where I’m supposed to write something like, “If you dear reader have any thoughts for an interesting solution to this potential TPK predicament, please share in the comments,” as if anyone but my players read these!

I guess we’ll find out this next session. No point in prepping anything (again) since I don’t know what is going to happen. I’m kind of liking this minimal prep approach to running this campaign.