Session 25

### Session 25 - Acid Water Death

Preface: Lottie did not take good notes in this session. You’ll understand why after reading the notes but I was too busy hyperventilating in a corner and pulling out my hair in anguish to take good notes. I am relying on my good buddy, good pal Eughan to help me through the recap.

The gang starts by walking with Hoar for a bit and continuing on our journey before hearing a rumbling of sorts. Hoar calmly tells the group that they should head back through a tunnel we passed by as it would be safer, the gang asks what he means and he vaguely explains that some sort of eruption has occurred and that he would be safe unlike us - Hoar tells the group that he will meet us on the other side of the entrance. Telmund seems to passively aggressively suggest Hoar should accompany us meanwhile Xia seems concerned for his safety. This conversation is cut short however as the party notices a big cloud and rocks flying in our direction. Everyone starts running to make it to the cave that was mentioned but Telmund fails his check and is crushed by a huge boulder. Ejholan, Trip, and Melchior try to move the boulder with sheer strength (Melchior even changes his size with the ring), and a few others in the group try looking under to see if they can assist with any spells. In the end, Telmund opts to use the Mold Earth spell and unintentionally injures some of the group.

Upon reaching the safety of the cave, the group moved in a little further before deciding to take a short rest and recover a bit before moving on. During this downtime, Telmund asks Ejholan if he’s ever heard the story of the greedy troll: [ask Doots for the story, but basically a troll used to harass a village and take all their stuff, one day a family had nothing to give except their baby son. The troll took the boy and raised him and had the boy go collect payments of treasure and food from the villagers in his stead while he simply enjoyed being an evil lazy greedy troll. However, one day the boy came to collect stuff from the village and a family didn’t have anything and all they could offer was their baby. The boy had an epiphany about his origins and went back with the treasure he’s got for the day and the troll was happy and focused on the loot so he didn’t notice when the boy went for a killing blow and killed the greedy troll]. So Ejholan is slow to understand the underlying analogy Telmund is making here and asks “So you think someone is trying to kill me?”, Telmund breaks it down enough to the point that Ejholan understands Telmund believes Hoar to be similar to the troll and the group similar to the boy in the story. The group heads further in with Maggie leading the way, and then they notice the tunnel appears to be carved with almost a spiral pattern of ridges into the hard stone. A black serpent-like creature emerges and eats through the rock creating a separate tunnel, allowing the group to deduce that whatever that creature is it is likely what made the tunnel - the new tunnel being slightly wider in diameter. Melchior suggests the group continues down the newly created path as it would mean they would be behind the creature and less likely to be caught by surprise with it coming behind or from the sides; the group discusses briefly which direction to take but decides to continue on the original path to ensure they meet up with Hoar in a timely fashion despite the risks.

The group comes to an opening in the cavern that seems to be an almost circular space, noticeably there seems to be a trapdoor up in the middle of the ceiling. Melchior throws Trip up to pull the latch down and hops up to join her, they find a room with furniture that seems to be carved from stone to give the appearance of a room: in one corner there seems to be a box carved from the stone with a blanket covering the open top and it smells suspiciously like rotten meat, There also appears to be a hooded figure cowering in the corner of the room. Trip lights a Molotov while Melchior demands the figure come out and identify themselves, to which a red tiefling approaches slowly in a hooded cloak. They identify themselves as Jared, (say it in a scouse accent) but the bad cop duo takes so long interrogating him that other members of the party climb up to see what’s going on. The above room now has Trip, Melchior, Xia, Eva, Maggie, and a startled Jared as the group pieces together who the tiefling is and why he is here. Xia mentions Hoar, and Jared reaches for his rapier at the sound of his name, before Xia calms him down a bit. He explains to the group that Hoar has been hunting him for a long time and suggests that he is possibly doing it for sport, but he doesn’t know why. He tells us that he was cursed since birth and he is trapped here with eternal life. He explains that he just wants to return to the material plane to live a normal life and eventually die like everyone else. Meanwhile, below and out of earshot, Ejholan is teaching Telmund a traditional song from Puntor, but they keep occasionally hearing the party above say Telmund’s name followed by whispers. The attic squad is deliberating what to do as Xia reveals to them that there is a limited capacity situation with the Cubic Plate and she promised Hoar that he could come with them - already exceeding the planned number of people. Eventually, the group asks Jared if they hypothetically had a way out, but there was a capacity issue they couldn’t resolve, would Jared kill one of them to escape?  He pauses before saying he’s not sure what he might be capable of, but maybe. The party decides to let Jared tag along and introduce him to the dwarves downstairs, however, Jared claims they will not ‘see’ him again before remaining in the chamber as the group heads further down the cavern.

As the group travels down the stone corridor they come into an even wider opening with a set of stairs leading up to what seems to be a boulder with light emanating from behind it. Ejholan and Maggie are at the front of the group but are attacked by something, a blade injuring Ejholan in the neck as the group rolls for initiative.

Fight commentary [these spiky boys do a nasty cone-of-spikes attack that makes the group fan out so they’re not in a line, they also break off spikes from themselves to use as arrows, Melchior and Ejholan have a friendly Legolas-Gimli competition counting how many enemies they’ve taken down, Maggie and Xia have a bad time and eventually the group wins but are kind of injured badly. Also, Telmund is at the back, and instead of sparing a fleeing enemy, he silently uses a spell that psychically hurts them and they crumble in the tunnel the party just came from.

In the end, the group emerges triumphant and does some light healing on the most injured in the party. A few people have begun climbing a large boulder in the room, eventually, it is just Trip and Ejholan standing on the boulder as Melchior enlarges himself and attempts to move the boulder that is presumably blocking the exit. As Melchior manages to move it, there is a cascade of liquid that pushes some of the group back and immediately begins filling the room. At first, the group thinks it is water but quickly comes to realize it is acid, and there are nasty-looking fish that swim into the flooded room. Telmund’s magic armbands inflate instantly and he floats to the ceiling as the group struggles to make their way out past the fish; Telmund eventually deflates his armbands using an Elvish word and Xia teleports him to safety, and he uses Prestidigitation to clean the acid off of himself. Most of the group try to swim toward the exit, but the fish do fire damage and are not to be taken lightly. Notably Trip takes a potion that helps her grow gills and fins, whilst Melchior tries to wrestle one of the fish before leaving. Xia casts Vortex Warp on Eva to get her out, as she is struggling in the deep acid. Ejholan attempts to wrestle the fish so Xia can swim safely but is equally as unsuccessful and shrugs before swimming out to meet the rest of the group. Once Ejholan surfaces, the group begins to realise Xia is taking longer than she should have. Whilst still in the acid, Xia provoked an attack of opportunity while swimming past the last fish, and it successfully hit her, expelling the last of her breath, and rendering her unconscious. The group pumps the last of their healing into Trip, and Eva provides a buff that allows Trip to swim down and rescue Xia. Melchior assisted by joining to attempt to wrestle the fish again. Xia is healed immediately upon surfacing and while the group is ensuring she is safe and celebrating, they fail to notice their surroundings. Telmund looks around the new area to see Hoar sitting casually with his great sword behind his shoulder.

### Quotes:

‘Did you just call me a queef?’ - Trip

‘I’m gonna pry the bath bomb into her eyehole’ - Trip

### Point of Inspiration:

The point of inspiration for the week goes to