Sx11 — You Thought It Couldn't Get Worse... SURPRISE!

***You Thought It Couldn't Get Worse... SURPRISE!*** is the 11th session of the campaign*.* It is preceded by Sx10 — Curses, Carapaces, and Cyclops', and followed by Sx12 — Hugging on the High Sea.

This session takes place over two days: Tetarti the 17th of Leontes and Pemti the 18th of Leontes. Notable moments of this session are fighting the bagman and finding the Godkiller in the sewer labs.

## A Bad Night at the Crow's Post

Begins with the group talking to Miteus, who reveals that he made a bet that we would win the fight. This information let him in on an illegal slave trading ring being used by the The Myth Enders down in the sewers of Artemis Sentry He asks the group to help us infiltrate the facility to gather more information.

Everyone then takes a long rest and while everyone else slept Oto and Leoven made plans to sneak into Khantos' room to steal the item that Leoven has been tasked to steal from Khantos. As we approach the room however we hear the sound of the window opening and closing. Oto picks the lock and opens the door, which triggers Ayleth to make a noise to wake up Khantos We start to argue about why we were in his room and then the dead body of a child drops from the ceiling.

The child appears to be around 8-9 years old and seems to have suffered some kind of extreme necrotic damage. We find claw marks on the window that don't seem to be any known animal and begin to appear very quickly. Also notice that the bag of holding is slightly open. Adrasteia (who has been woken by the noise and came to the room) reaches into the bag and gets scratched by claws - later learn that it cannot be healed.

Also through this Leoven and Khantos are arguing and Leoven begins to come clean. She says: - Leoven made a deal to get everyone out of prison and safe from being hunted by the The Myth Enders - They want something from Khantos but don't know what. Why do they want this? It feels off-brand for the The Myth Enders to ask someone else to do their work? Do they want discretion?

Oto leaves with the seal given to Leoven to find a guard as to make the group look less suspicious (we are not getting arrested for child murder) The guard doesn't seem to believe it was us and gets the man in charge. Oto did lie to the head investigator, saying he doesn't have anything that could do necrotic damage.

Adrasteia's symptoms looked like the effects of a Mummy. We then learn that getting with 5ft of the bag causes a CON save and you take necrotic damage.

## Battling the Bagman

Using Oto's \*Mage Hand\* we transported the bag to an arena controlled by the Artemis Sentry and tipped the bag out, revealing \*\*The Bagman\*\* Throughout the battle, Oto used \*Blink\* allowing him to see things hidden in darkness. The Bagman is not venerable to fire The Bagman has an AC 16 or lower The Bagman can throw unconscious bodies.

The missing kids (including Ishin) are found confused but alive.

Carban and Leoven both go unconscious at the end of the battle and Oto takes the opportunity to steal their cursed weapons to get them de-cursed.

## Curse Removals

After stealing the Cursed Axe and Sword of Vengeance, Oto travelled to the Temple of Artemis to find the high priestess and ask for her help. She questions the kind of curse that is on each weapon, and after an Arcana roll learn that the Sword of Vengeance is possessed by a spirit, whilst the Cursed Axe holds some kind of divine magic. The High priestess said that it would take an hour to prepare and then return with the owner of the sword as they are needed for the curse removal. In the meantime I went and took the Axe to the ocean and walked it to the depths where it couldn't be found again. I also bought a Battle-axe for Carban for 8 g.p

Oto then looking for and found (an angry) Leoven who grabbed Oto by the collar, Oto then used \*Blink\* to get out of her grasp. I then persuaded Leoven to come with me to the temple. The High priestess explains that it is possessed by an evil spirit and there are two ways that Leoven can defeat it. She can either follow it's path of vengeance (which would keep her cursed but be significantly safer - would also have the result of breaking her paladin oath) or she could use a divine smite to attempt to kill the spirit with the risk of killing herself and everyone in the room. Leoven choses to attack the spirit using a divine smite and using his last sorcery point to give Leoven a 2nd level spell slot. This then led to the destruction and defeat of the spirit. On it's death it said: >"I'll return for you brother."

MEANWHILE: Carban chases Oto but is unable to find him and then reports him for theft, this didn't ever go anywhere as Oto did not have the axe in question. Leoven also chased Oto and eventually ran into him (see above) Khantos and Adrasteia remained in the arena where we fought the Bagman and found a pendant that was left behind. An identify spell found it to be a "Talisman of Keys" - a key to other dimensions. They then returned to the Crows Post to find Carban and then travelled to the shrine to Ares where Carban sacrificed the eye of the cyclops and in return was given a powerful axe. This is where the group came back together.

## Apologies and Suspicions in the Crow's Post

Leoven apologises to the party and fully explains the deal that she made with the Athena group. The information we learnt was: - this deal would keep everyone out of jail and not hunted - he wore glasses - was athletic - surrounded by guards with bows - wanted Leoven to steal something from Khantos (was not at all specific) - probably the axe or the pendant ALSO - Miteus is very likely a plant - Leoven was told that someone would help them escape to keep Leoven's deal a secret.

As a result the group decides to agree to do the task Miteus had for us as a way to get more information about whether or not we can trust him. Also in secret Khantos created a fake replica of his pendant

## A Real Quick Shopping Trip

Oto purchased Boreas' Needle, a rapier that deals 2d6 cold damage. It is a blue crystal damage and is a kind of antithesis to the Flame Tongue Blade, a blade forged by Hephaestus. It is unknown who created this blade.

Also purchased a book on Tarokka and a novel called: \*"The Loxodon's Third Tusk - Book"\*

## Sewer Adventures 2: Electric Boogaloo

The task Miteus has given us is to break into a secret laboratory of the Athena Group where they test on slaves. We are breaking in to gather information about the slave trading system and how the Athena Group is involved in it.

Oto, Khantos and Adrasteia: found a library full of books on magical tattoos and magical augmentation - One of the books isn't real and is a lever. We pull the lever and see nothing happening. - Further down the path Oto goes down a path and failed a WIS save, this triggered 6 wild magic surges: - Fog appeared - Blinked - Feather beard - Turned into a potted plant (the Proto plant) - Turns blue - Found a room with a grate - The grate leads to a path that goes to the ocean - this is how they transported the slaves into the lab - Khantos found a room with a flight of stairs that seemed to have not been there before (triggered by the book) - the group met up here

Carban, Leoven and Miteous: Found a surgical room that has five tables and bodies on them. - Each body has a label describing: - Race - Date of arrival - Date of death - Bodies came back to life and attacked. - Carban is still cursed without the weapon. - Found a series of papers - Miteous specifically asked to look at the papers. On the papers he was interested was: - 2 Years ago one experiment went missing. - A half elf female - Deduced this is Miteous' sister. - The other papers describe whether each experiment is deployed or deceased. - The modifications seem to help STR, DEX, and CON - Joined the group at the stairs.

#### Up the stairs:

The room's walls are covered in runes, some of them stop people from scrying in the room and others seem to protect the room from time - later figured out that these would heat up the rooms to kill intruders and teleportation runes that the The Myth Enders use to transport. - There was a: - Desk covered in papers - An alter with a halfling torn apart - A tank filled with blue liquid with a body covered in runes. - The notes on the table say: - they found the subject to the north west in Bantheen Desert, near a city named 'Pomegranate Gardens' - haven't deciphered half of the runes on the subjects body - the subject has to be at least 3000 years old - the subject was likely made to kill a god - The body inside the tank, the group named this man "The Godkiller": - male - naked - hairless - covered in runes that are carved into flesh - unconscious - has many open wounds on his body (stopped from healing by the time stopping runes), the healing seems to be mid-cast - the Athena group are attempting to replicate this - doesn't seem to have been created in the same way as Oto - not found in a place near to where Oto woke up - eyes give off divination magic - arm was blown off in an explosion - leg was cut off surgically - has runes for alter self to cast at will - but are cut off at the elbow where the arm stops. - has runes to cast produce flames at will - runes to improve DEX, STR, CON - other runes are unrecognisable - The dead halfling on the table - runes burnt into the body - produce flame rune - has runes to improve DEX, STR, CON

Oto replicates the runes on the body of The Godkiller into his notebook. Then the The Myth Enders appear and attack us - surprise round. To escape Khantos created a hole in the ground and a wall between them. Everyone but Oto and Khantos went down. The burning tiles can be damaged by Cold damage. Leoven attempted to make another deal to protect Adrasteia, Carban and himself but was unable to. Khantos prayed to his unknown God for help and it temporarily stopped the fire damage we were taking from the runes on the walls, which gave us a chance to save the others and get out of the building.

Then the group returned to the Crows Post to rest.