2011-01-28

Session recap, 1/27/2011

Here's the recap email I just sent for last night's session: 

Gentlemen,

Here is a recap of tonight's session.

Mongo opened the door to the west, and beheld 7 beggars, holding knives out in front of them.

"What do you be wantin' with us?"
Gutboy: "You're in no danger, I'm just looking for information.  Does anyone here know G'nax?"
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."
"Would silver help your memory?" (as Gutboy hands the beggar a piece of silver)
"Why yes, yes it does.  I know G'Nax well.  He's my uncle."
"Where is he?"
"Mind you, he's not a close uncle.  So if you've got a problem with him, it's no business of mine.  He's at the Street of Lesser Men."
"What's he doing there?"
"Uhhhh.... having dinner?"
"You're a liar!  G'nax is dead!  Does anybody here know G'nax?"
Another beggar:  "He is a liar!  I know G'nax!"
"You see, G'nax stole something from Thor, and he shall be smitten by Thor's mighty hammer!  Do you know what he stole from Thor?"
"Uhhh.... Thor's hammer?"
"Yes!" (as Gutboy hands this beggar a gold piece)

At this point, a door behind the beggars burst open, and the beggar chief burst in.

Chief: "What's all this then?  Handing out gold?  Never mind this lot, these are my boys.  How can I help you?"
"I'm looking for information about G'nax.  Do you know where he is?"
"Why sure, there are many legends about G'nax.  He was known so well for his stash of gold.  Holding some gold coins would help me remember him, I'm sure..."
Gutboy handed him a gold coin, and the chief continued.
"Well, the ancient rumors tell that he had a lair somewhere to the north.  Yes, to the north.  I'm sure you'll find something up there."
Gutboy: "Well, come with us and show us."
"Oh... right... Elkon'll take you.  Elkon! Take these guys north!"
Gutboy: "Oh no you don't.  Do you know about any other bands down here?"
"Ehhh?  Well, on the east side of the tunnel, if you head south, my boys have spotted some of the Society.  Very dangerous!  And if you head south on the west side, there's a tunnel they say is haunted by the living dead.  We don't go there, no sir."
"You should've told us that in the first place!  Now you're being useful.  I think we have a future.  What's your name?"
"I'm Grokon. And you?"
"Gutboy Barrelhouse."
"Hmmm.  I remember, when I was a lad, my father, he had a friend named Barrelhouse.  What was your father's name?"
"You tell me."
"My memory fails me.  But, my father, he told me before he died, that if I ever needed money, that Barrelhouse owed him gold.  He mentioned this Barrelhouse had a son named Gutboy, must be you.  So I'd be appreciating..."
"No, I don't think so.  Don't push it."
"Of course, sir, no time to be bringing up the old debts you owe."
"Anything else down here?"
"Well, grunkies.  And, some say, the were-grunkie!  Half-man, half-grunkie..."
"Grunkies, are they dangerous?"
"If enough of them corner you alone, they'll eat your face right off!  And... the were-grunkie..."
"Never mind.  We'll see you later."

The party left the beggars, and returned to the main storm drain.  Heading south, they came to a tunnel leading away from the drain.  Heading that way, they found it split into three separate tunnels heading north.

The first branch led to a small abandoned room, with nothing but an old chair, desk, and papers detailing shipments of bricks, mortar, and construction equipment.  The second branch was more fruitful, and led to a room with eight skeletons standing in the shadows.

Gutboy boldly marched into the room, brandishing his symbol of Thor.  The skeletons cowered in terror, and ran past the party through the tunnel to the south.  The dogs were terrified of these undead, and cringed visibly as they ran past.

Searching the room, the party found many mutilated rat corpses, and a mummified human arm, with a tattoo reading "G'nax + Marsha" in a heart.  Gutboy also found a loose stone, and upon pressing it, a secret door opened in the west wall.

Proceeding down the newly revealed corridor, they came to another room, this one with a portcullis on the north wall, and three levers on the east wall.  In the ceiling above the levers were several ominous looking holes.  And in the middle of the floor, was a one-armed corpse and small sack.

The party opened the bag and found that it held a key, a silver hammer, and 150 gp.  Examining the corpse revealed a tattoo on its one remaining arm, reading "G'nax + Brenda" with a slash through it.

Gutboy asked Frenchy to pull a lever.  Frenchy readily agreed, and upon pulling the lever, was impaled by several spears that shot down from the ceiling.  Showing a bit more caution, Mongo used his 10' pole to push a different lever down, and the portcullis raised.

The party headed north, and found themselves in a circular room, with walls, ceiling, and floor all painted black.  On the floor was a circle with mystical symbols, painted in white.  Guessing it was used for a summoning ritual, they decided to leave well enough alone, and headed back to the spot where the tunnel had split into three separate branches.

Heading down the third branch, they came to a locked door.  G'nax's key easily opened the door, and they continued onwards, coming to a ladder heading up after several hundred feet.  The ladder ended at an irregularly shaped section of stone, that looked like it could be pushed up.  Mongo heard many noises of people, crashing, and clattering from above, and the party decided it was too dangerous to investigate further.  They made their way back to the beggars, and bribed Grokon to show them the way back to the Street of Temples.

Back at Thor's temple, Father Gore complained of Gutboy's sewer stench, and then of several idiots who had been by claiming they had come to worship the Sewage God.  Gutboy brushed aside his concerns, and presented both G'nax's severed arm, and the silver hammer.  Gore brought the hammer and laid it on the altar, and Gutboy followed.

The God's Eye shimmered in various colors for a moment, and then darkened.  A few seconds later, the colors shimmered again, and the mirror was filled with an image of crawling beetles, centipede, and other squirmy things.

A female voice spoke:  "Thor is displeased with his servant.  I, however, think you can still be of use."
Gutboy: "What did I do?  I brought back the hammer!"
"You delayed his task to wander in the wilderness for days, and you called him the Sewage God!"
"Well, actually it was those other guys who said that..."
"Silence!  There should be more groveling!" (at this point Gutboy fell to his knees, and groveled, next to Gore who was already face down on the floor)
The female voice spoke again: "I am Nisis, the Goddess of Things That Crawl Underground.  You will be my priest now.  Thor sees no value in you, but I think you can be redeemed.  I have a task for you.  You will, in a fortnight's time, hold a service for me at the Great Temple.  Do this!"

The God's Eye faded to darkness, and Gore sat up.  "Wow, you really pissed Thor off.  Well.  Nisis.  One of the least gods."
"Who is Nisis? Where is her temple?"
"You heard her, the goddess of things that crawl underground.  She's probably got a booth somewhere on the street.  Now, get the hell out of the temple."

The party headed back to the Inn of the Repaired Wheel to clean the sewer stink off and get some sleep.

In the morning, they returned to the Street of Temples, and after much asking around were able to find the temple of Nisis.  It was a small stone building, 10' square, with a single wooden door with a broken lock.  Inside, there were three very small God's Eyes, each only a foot in diameter.  The first was in a frame carved with flowers, the second in a frame painted black and carved with bugs and centipedes, and the third in a frame carved with spoons and forks.  Everything was covered with dust.

Gutboy spent some time cleaning, and then asked the God's Eye:  "Nisis, I have cleaned your temple."
The God's Eye flashed multiple colors, and an image of bugs and other creepy-crawlies appeared.  "Good.  Get rid of that symbol of Thor, you should be wearing my symbol. You have 13 days remaining."
"What is your symbol?"
"A centipede.  Now go!"

Heading to the Great Temple, Gutboy asked one of the attendants for some help.
"I'm looking for information on Nisis."
"Hmm, nobody named Nisis works here, sorry."
"No, she's a goddess."
"Oh. Really?  Must be one of the lesser gods."
Gutboy, angrily: "Lesser???  You dare call mighty Nisis lesser?"
"Well yes, there are lesser and greater gods.  Did you go to seminary?"

The attendant brought Gutboy over to a large illustrated volume describing the known gods.  Flipping past the many-paged chapter on Blibdoolpoolp, she eventually came to a single sentence about Nisus:  "Goddess of Things That Crawl Underground."
"Oh, she's one of the least gods.  She's probably sharing a temple with a few other least gods. Do you want to know where it is?"
"No, I am her priest, and I am attending to her temple.  The lock is broken."
"Oh, I'll get that fixed" (as she wrote down a note)
"Do you need any money for that?"
"No, no, the least gods don't bring in revenue, so we don't take contributions from them."
"I am on a quest.  She has commanded me to perform a service for her in a fortnight."
"Oh, yes.  I see she picked one of the major festival days.  That's going to be expensive.  We can get you 10 minutes for 2,000 gp.  It will be a 10% deposit to hold the time slot."
"You don't do it for free?"
"If we did that, every least god would take up all the time, and there wouldn't be any left for the major gods."

Gutboy paid the deposit, and the party headed back to the Temple of Science, hoping to make some easy money by escorting Bob back to the dungeon and showing him the generator.  They were informed that Bob had left yesterday, however, and no, Head Scientist Gregory did not want to see them.

Suspecting they had been claim-jumped, the party immediately headed back to Chelmsfordshire, and from there, to the dungeon.  Their fears were realized, when they found three mules and a Scientist at the entrance to the cave.  Gutboy angrily demanded to know where Bob was, and the Scientist told them he was inside.

Passing by some more scientists in the well-lit upper level of the dungeon, they eventually found Bob in the Emergency Generator Core, examining the glowing green cylinder and many pipes in the room.  Gutboy offered to lead him to "the generator," but Bob seemed pretty sure he was already looking at it, and after some failed attempts to convince Bob to head down deeper into the dungeon with them, the party angrily stormed out of the room.

They made their way to the stairs leading into the deeper, dark portion of the dungeon, and turned south at the bottom of the 100' stairs.  This corridor quickly joined with a large 30' wide corridor or room heading southeast for as far as their torches could illuminate.  The hall, or room, was filled knee-deep with inhuman bones, some goblin, and some of species unknown.  Wading through the bones made more noise than the party liked, so they quickly left through a small side door they saw close to them.

This side door led into a small room, empty except for a few scattered bones, and another door exiting to the southwest.  They left through that door, entering a corridor heading south, to an intersection continuing south (and then turning west), east, and a door to the west.  The door to the west proved to lead to a triangular room containing nothing but a mop and bucket.

As they turned to leave the mop room, they were startled to see strange lights heading towards them from the north.  The lights were glowinga group of five glowing beetles, who marched past the party and continued on south.

Ignoring the beetles, the party headed east, where they found the corridor quickly met a dead end, with doors to the north and south.  The room to the north contained a crystal hemisphere protuding from the ceiling, and a small switch that caused the crystal hemisphere to brightly light up.  There was also a strange machine in a rusty metal cage, consisting of a metal coffin with many tubes and wires leading from it to 14 cracked glass jars.  The coffin lid swun open easily, revealing a soft foam interior, with a man-shaped indentation.

Leaving this room, they tried the southern door.  This door was swollen shut, and took Mongo great effort to open.  Inside was another crystal hemisphere and switch, and a man-shaped patch of 8-inch thick blue fungus on the floor.  Mongo prodded the "head" area of the fungus with his pole, and it poked right through.

And at this point, we wrapped things up.  I'll send a separate email to figure out when we'll next meet (either Wed the 2nd or Wed the 9th).

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