MoM Session 3

## Recap

After a long rest in the infirmary, the party exits the haven into the half-destroyed High Church of Lathandar. Ileao teleports them out, closer to the sewers they're heading to, but has some trouble with the magic due to some unhelpful angelic whispers. Alex helps by casting a spell to make himself "lighter" - the magic loosens his connection to this plane, but opens him up to being seen by an all-encompassing shadow for a second. Still, they get to the sewer maintenance facility, where an earth genasi agent (named Xoma) from a local bureau is threatening to fire the manager for delays to the centennial sewer renovation, in order to keep up with the new level of the city at the bottom. Jilla, the manager, tells the party that when a pair of workers went to survey the tunnels for what would need to be changed, only one of them returned - and she was missing an arm.

The party talks to the injured worker, who is barely able to introduce herself as Sama before breaking into another coughing fit. Alex uses magic to draw the disease out of the poor woman, hurting himself in the process. This allows her to talk more clearly, so she explains how an area of built-up sewage exploded and attacked her and her partner. She didn't see much after that, but her arm was bitten off and she barely escaped, disease-ridden and alone. Her wounds start to bleed more heavily without the disease staunching the flow, so Kevin and Ileao work to redress the arm. Alex asks her to go through the memory slowly and Sama says "The eyes above the rest!" before devolving into inconsolable sobbing.

They head into the sewers, Jilla locking the gate behind them. They light a torch, then Alex falls into the poo-stream, Ileao jumps in after him, and Kevin drops the torch into the sewage. Ileao teleports back to the side of the tunnel with Alex, but now they're stinky and in the dark. Alex tries to find his glowstone, but notices it floating in the sewage. Just then, they begin to hear voices - one generically calling for help inside their minds, and another doing the same aloud, claiming to be Bode, the other sewage worker. They climb down a ladder to a lower tunnel and find the dwarven worker, near-dead from his injuries and sickness, as the telepathic voice gets more and more ominous. Alex tries to use magic to lift the dwarf so he can carry him to safety, but channels too much and shakes the man too hard - if Bode isn't dead now, he's got only a moment left. Kevin tries to help as well, but there isn't much he can do.

The Hunters finally head towards the telepathic voice, recognizing it's probably a trap but going forward anyways. A giant mass of waste and rubbish bursts to show the elephant-sized *otyugh*, a creature with a massive maw and three long tentacles ending in leaf-shaped palms covered in razor-sharp teeth. It picks up each of the Hunters in turn, slamming and biting and covering with diseased saliva. It says in a simple telepathic statement that it's so hungry since the food from above - referring to the trash chute in the ceiling of the room - was stopped recently. Alex gets the killing blow right as the entire head of the creature falls on top of him for one last bite, trapping him and injuring him greatly. Alex says for Kevin and Ileao to leave him behind, which Ileao hates. Kevin uses his lycanthropic strength to heave the monster's head up just enough for the angel to drag the human out of the way. They once again crawl into their infirmary, covered in filth and disease.

## TL;DR

The Expert fails to keep his balance. The Monstrous fails to save a dwarf. The Divine fails to protect eir charge.