3.1.2 IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT, WORM

SESSION DATE: May 31, 2023
PRESENT: Maltrixxian, Nyrael, Parzivel, Lim Dul

Deep Dive

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World Anvil Journal

We decided to follow the escaping Dolgrim so that we could hopefully catch him before he's able to warn anyone else to our presence. However, before we could find our Dolgrim friend, we encountered a foul beast made of chattering, gibbering mouths and a red gloopy substance. Its terrible aura of cacophonous incoherent gibbering made it nigh impossible to approach. As I move in to attack, I am blindsided by something that blinded me. I'm still unsure of what it was. Eventually I was able to shake off the mental effects and blindness, to land the final blow to this detestable aberration. As it lunged toward us one final time, I wiped the smile off of each and every mouth of this creature by way of my greatsword. It moves no longer. Never in my days have I seen anything like this. Not even in Hell itself. I was able to get a nice piece of armor for myself though, which, coming from this thing, is the only silver lining to this particular cloud. We decide to rest for a bit before continuing on.
 
The escaped Dolgrim must have been a pawn because when we finally caught up to him, he was already slain, lifeless on the ground in the hallway. As we passed him by and turned the corner, we came face-to-face with the cultists we had hoped to rid the world of. So the rumors were true.
 
Whilst I may be looked upon from the outside as one who should himself be vanquished from this life for the vile things he has done, I do not wish undue harm upon anyone, as I have learned most people believe. What those people perhaps don't know, though, is that I do not wish to be the way I am. I was raised in quite literally the most hellish place in existence, by a noble family in Dis. They, like many others I know from Dis, worship Dispater. I was forced, perhaps brainwashed, into his beliefs and teachings. I'm proud to be able to do the things I can do, but I did not -- and still do not -- wish to be his underling. However, my curse binds me to him by way of the hag who clouds my mind with her (and his) will. All of this is to say that these cultists were doing some truly evil things and needed to be dispatched.
 
We realized we were nearly out of time when one of the cultists yelled for their companions to hurry to finish their ritual. Time was of the essence, and we had to be quick and efficient. And so we were. Or at least we would have been, but we had to quickly open the locked door which stood steadfast in our way. I lent Parzivel my crowbar. After some coaxing, the door finally gave way. We made it into the room featuring their ritual site to find them in the middle of the nearly-completed ritual. The runes on the ground were pulsing with magic and energy, and the lone cleric, who could have been a sacrifice or focus, was well guarded with magic and other cultists. Without missing a beat, the cleric summoned an animated weapon to defend them, but it made no difference. Nyrael, the incredible musically-talented support specialist himself, was able to put some of the ritualists to sleep, allowing us to more safely make our way to the cleric. With a little effort, we were able to end the ritual before it could be completed. Lim Dul got the killing blow on the central cleric, and we picked off each of the remaining cultists one-by-one.
 
Lim Dul suggests we dismantle the ritual site, and so we do. The paladin urinates on the ritualistic skull, desecrating it with what I can only guess would be considered holy water. I'm still not sure about that. After the site is completely ruined, we bed down for a longer rest this time. The rest goes by uneventfully.
 
Shortly after waking, we discuss whether we should continue or head back to town. There are good arguments for both, but we ultimately decide to do what we can to make sure the place is cleared before heading home. This decision very nearly cost us all our lives.
 
While trekking through unfamiliar parts of the hideout, Parzivel, who had taken the lead, found himself stuck inside a gelatinous cube of acid. These are no joke. It quickly engulfs him, and the fight is on now to take out this cube, and extract Parzivel from its grasp. During the encounter, I believe all of us but Nyrael found ourselves surrounded by acidic gelatin at least once, and all of us except Nyrael go down. Nyrael tells us he was able to defeat the cube with his frightening lightning breath, allowing himself to bring the party back to consciousness once more. Nyrael has truly done a lot for us throughout this adventure. I would be proud to call him my friend if he would allow.
 
In fact, I would like to be able to call all three of them my friend if they would have me. Parzivel is a hearty person, if not a bit rash sometimes. I like the cut of his jib. Lim Dul and I are from two sides of the same coin, the coin being Dispater's tenets. While I was forced into being a follower, Lim Dul seems open to Dispater's persuasion. I think it would be great to hash out our differences with open minds. I know he feels far superior in his power and is clearly proud of it. But I wonder if he knew where my troubles lie if he would be able to show a bit more compassion. It shouldn't be about who is more powerful, or capable, in my opinion. It should be about how we use the power and capabilities within each of us together that makes a group whole.
 
Anyway, we continue past the cube where the others say they saw some gnolls watching the fight from afar. When we get back into the room, we find that it is now empty. They must have gone through the door at the other end of the room. Parzivel listens for signs of their presence through the door, and hears some splashing. It must be them. The door is locked, so I hand Parzivel my crowbar once more. The door, once locked, is suddenly free to open. Lim Dul opens it right up as if it were never locked. Perhaps Dispater favors him more than Parzivel's deity favors Parzivel? I don't know. Anyway, I put the crowbar away and get ready to battle once again. It's just the two gnolls in here, which make for an easy fight. Once they are no more, Parzivel quickly pounces on the locked chest in the corner. He attempts to open it, only to find out too late that it had been trapped. He is still adamant on opening the chest, so I hand him the crowbar one final time. With it, he is able to open the chest, and we gather its spoils before realizing there is coin to be had at the bottom of the nearby pool of water. After grabbing the coinage, we make the decision to head home.
 
There are still corridors we didn't travel down, as well as that hovering Spectator we left in the room by itself. But we called it quits and took what we found back to town with us. It was a fruitful, if not unforgettable, trip. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though we certainly came out worse for wear. I'll be sure to keep an ear (and eye) out for more rumors. I can already feel myself wanting to get back out there and discover what the West has in store.

Private Notes

• We decide to follow the Dolgrim that escaped toward the south. Inside the room we see a red, gloopy creature with several mouths as we hear a cacophony of voices. INITIATIVE!!!
  • Once again, my rolls fail me. As I move in to attack, I'm IMMEDIATELY snared and blinded. Can't move, can't see. I can hear the sounds of battle, but I ain't even know what's going on.
  • Mal does better when he's blinded. He's able to shake himself of the gibbering and moves toward where the gibbering is coming from and lands a good hit on the creature.
  • Mal can see now that he's no longer blinded, but is once again influenced by the creature's will. Luckily this turn he just makes a melee attack against a random nearby creature within reach, and the creature is only valid target. It's a hit!
  • Mal is finally able to rid himself once and for all from the will of the gibbering mouther and lands the final blow, ridding us all of its foulness. Combat over.
• After looking for loot, Mal finds an Adamantine Half Plate armor. He takes it for himself.
• We take a short rest so that Nyrael can attune to the wand we found before.
• We continue eastward into a room where Parzivel finds and steps onto a trap. Oops!
• As we continue further down the hallway, we come to a red torch light, which shines onto the Dolgrim that ran away earlier. It's now dead.
• Then we come into a hooded humanoid wearing a red cloak. INITIATIVE!!!
  • Mal takes aim using his new Light Repeating Crossbow even though the target has 3/4 cover. Just barely misses, but that sends him running and yelling for help.
  • We hear one of the cultists yell "Hurry, complete the ritual!" Mal takes off toward the voice, taking down a cultist along the way.
  • We find our selves at the end of the corridor with a locked door. It takes a moment to get it pried open using a crowbar. Once open, we see the room where the ritual is taking place. We're in a race against the clock (and our dice!) to end the ritual and the cultists taking part in it.
  • Nyrael puts two of them to sleep right off the bat, and we pick off a couple of the fringe cultists. Mal's focus is on the one in the center.
  • Lim Dul gets the killing blow on the Cultist Fanatic in the center. Nice!
  • We pick off the remaining cultists involved in the ritual that we can see. Combat over.
• We do our best to dismantle the ritual grounds and then loot whatever we can find.
• We get some cool stuff and decide to take a long rest in this room. Night night!
• TNGBU.
• We decide to move through the rest of the hideout just to make sure things are fully clear. And then Parzivel steps right into a Gelatinous Cube, taking a significant amount of acid damage. INITIATIVE!!!
  • We narrowly escape being TPKed by the cube, but not before taking it out. Combat over.
• We head back to the ritual room to take a short rest. After doing so, we head back to the cube room. At the other end of the room is a door. Inside the door are two Gnolls next to what might be a swimming pool and a chest. INITIATIVE!!!
  • Nyrael puts one of the gnolls to sleep, leaving us one to take out at a time. Nice.
  • Neither Mal nor Lim Dul can hit the broad side of a barn this combat. We taunt each other during the fight because of it.
  • Finally Mal gets the final blow on the last gnoll. Combat over.
• Parzivel goes over to the chest and tries to open it. He takes some damage after not realizing it was trapped. Oops again! After some coaxing with a crowbar, he's able to get it open. Inside is some loot. At the bottom of the nearby pool of water is a lot of coinage, which we grab before making our way out of the hideout and back to town.