Session 8

## Session 8 - The Escape

Brig continues to be swallowed by this flesh mound, and struggles to break out. Equuleus and Reffins try to do damage to it from the outside, Reffins finding purchase with his arrows instead of his sword, but Equuleus misses her swing and falls forward into the flesh mound, then is grappled into it. The corpses try to fall onto Reffins but is tugged away by his cloak just in time.

As Equuleus is swallowed by the flesh mound, she struggles against the bodies pushing against her but manages to see a baby corpse within the pile. She also finds Brig making a bunch of funny noises with his lips. Equuleus relays to Brig the location of the baby and he makes an eldritch blast that clears the path to it from the inside. Reffins, from the outside sees an explosion of green energy from within the mass expand and decompresses as come bodies begin to slump off.

Equuleus takes this opportunity to try and make her way to the baby. She grabs it and goes to attack but holding the baby reminds her of long ago in her time at the monastery where she took care of infants realizing the baby is afraid. She remembers an old lullaby that used to calm the children, and begins to hum and sings and rocks the baby corpse as the fleshmound continues it’s pressure. Ignoring it, she continues, and slowly the corpses begin to slump and decompose and dissolve around them.

Brig and Equuleus find their footing, and Reffins notices them emerge from the bodies evaporating around them. The baby takes a few more shallow breaths as it calms and dies in Equuleus’s arms holding her finger with its tiny hand. It begins to decompose like the rest of the bodies, becoming a bundle of baby bones.

The cloak begins to speak to Reffins on the way up, asking him who’s the safest as he wants to be safe. Brig understands that this is essentially a cloak that has the same properties as a cloak of protection, just that it has sentience due to the imprinting. From a behavioral point of view, it looks like it just wants to stay alive and not die again.

As the three approach the staircase that leads back up to the attic, the specter of nursemaid Anya appears before them, saying she felt a disturbance within the basement and she had to check. Reffins notifies her that they have her baby and nudges Equuleus, who steps forward and hands the bones of baby Walter to Anya who’s outstretched arms take the bones. She begins to cradle the bones and rock and hum to it, and they notice that it takes the appearance of a ghostlike baby, who begins to giggle and coo as they fade away.

They ascend the stairs and once they reach the attic they notice the house has begun to change. The windows have bricked up, the stoves are billowing smoke, and the doors have been changed into scything blades. Brig decides to run past the smoke and blast open the furnace that’s billowing smoke, erupting the furnace into a gaping hole. Reffins goes to clog it and Equuleus decides to try to time the scything blades. Brig then goes to the window and tries to blast it open.

Running out of time with the smoke filling the room, Reffins and Equuleus go to lodge some furniture into the doorway to stop the blades and manage to stuff it just in the way to wedge the blades stuck and create a crawl space. They move through and get to the staircase.

Brig works on the window and eventually decides to follow the group. Reffins makes it through the second scything blade door to the staircase leading to the 3rd floor with Laila in his arms, as Equuleus poorly times the blades and comes tumbling down the stairs after being slashed quite deeply. Brig begins to shoot at a wall to open it and sees swarms of rats crawling and skittering in the walls. He eventually blasts it open leaving the swarm of rats to pour out and into the main room.

Meanwhile downstairs Reffins and Equuleus arrive into the Nursemaids room, and rush into the nursery where they begin to bash against the bricked window. Brig makes his way down and joins in as well. The cloak is unsure of this plan and begins to tug Reffins out of that room.

Reffins and Equuleus decide to make their way through, and while Equuleus makes it past relatively easily, Reffins fails and as the blades are coming down on him and Laila, the Nursemaid Anya appears and pushes them forward out of harms way. The pair descend and make it to the first floor entrance. Brig continues to attack this window as the swarm of rats are inching their way towards him. The rats eventually make their way to him as he begins to juggle breaking the window, fighting off these rats, and keeping himself alive with magic False Life.

With the smoke quickly closing around Reffins and Equuleus, they manage to time the first set of blades to pass through without damage, but both are sliced pretty heavily on the second set when they’re rushed. Equuleus collapses from her wounds but is brought back by Reffins magic.

Meanwhile Brig whittles the rats down the rats as they bring him dangerously close to unconsciousness, and finally manages to make a hole to fit through in the bricked window. Hearing roses and thunderous footsteps approaching, he quickly goes to the balcony and levitates himself off to go down.

Just then, a giant hand rips through the house and goes to grab Brig, but Rose and Thorn appear and stop the hand, allowing Brig to make it down safely.

At the ground reunited, they hear a voice and see Davish near them watching the house begin to burn in astonishment.