Dramatis Personae
+Chris Wilson as Dawn (a.k.a., Cockvedawnya)
+Red Flanagan as Classified
+David Carli-Arnold as Asheron
+Ronnie Whelan as Ronnina
Loot
A few short swords, taken from corpses and sleeping folks.
The head of Jerry the guard.
The head of another nameless guard.
NPC Interactions
Jessy the Octopussy
Private First Class Bower.
Injuries
Asheron: Scar on leg. Broken nose (-2 Cha)(1 haven turn).
Highlights Recap
The session began with blood spraying from the stump of Jerry’s neck, misting the whole room with red. Cockvedawnya, a hireling who has totally always been here, but which the party never really noticed, decided that this was his breaking point. These clowns who called themselves an adventuring party were going to get him killed if he didn’t start taking a more active role in the decision making process. He decided to become a PC, and +Chris Wilson was elected to portray him.
Ronnina’s hopes for a peaceful agreement having been dashed, the party debated whether they should try to escape through the room’s one door (outside which, there were definitely a number of people), or try their luck by going out the window. Ultimately they settled on the door, since nobody wanted to leave without the equipment that had been taken from them. Before any consensus on a good plan had been reached, Asheron opened the door, hoping he could use his silver tongue to talk the party’s way through this tribulation.
When everyone in the adjacent room started screaming, it occurred to them that Jerrry’s decapitated body was visible behind him. Asheron tried to cover up his complicity by screaming along with everyone else, but they’d already made up their minds as to what happened. Clearly, the party had murdered Jerry–who had always been a good friend to everyone.
Ronnina cast Sleep, which took out most of the normal workers and attendants, but left the four guards still standing, weapons drawn, and eager to take vengeance for their fallen comrade.
Aside from the soldiers, two women were left awake, and attempted to flee together down the hall. Asheron gave chase, and by luck of the dice, immediately cornered them by an open elevator shaft. They both drew short swords, and Asheron & Spooky prepared to fight them, unarmed.
Back with the rest of the party, a tense battle raged. Ronnina took several powerful hits, while the rest of the party spread out and grabbed short swords for themselves off the sleeping folk. Cockvedawnya, apparently gaining quite the morbid streak in the transition to become a PC, took hold of Jerry’s decapitated head, and used it as a cudgel. Petunia and Questoria moved to flank the guards, while Classified focused on throwing weapons before grabbing a shortsword of his own.
Given the close quarters, Ronnina and Sheniqua tried to avoid using spells, aside from a single Magic Missile. But, as the combat grew more desperate, with a few curious onlookers showing up to see what all the ruckus was, Ronnina decided it was time to use a Fire Portal.
The column of flame incinerated most of the party’s opposition, but there wasn’t enough room for the full column to go off to the side, forcing it back to fill much of the room, and severely injuring some of Ronnina’s companions.
Cockvedawnya delivered the final blow to one brigand, crushing face in with Jerry’s face. The final guard surrendered, told the party where their equipment was being held, (next floor down, evidence lockers B34-B36). Ronnina then knocked him out, and, while she was walking away, Classified sawed off his head and Cockvedawnya took it, now wielding double heads.
Hoping they might minimize people’s shock and anger, Ronnina created a Blood Ooze, soaking up all of the blood that had spattered in the room, and ordered the creature to move all the (now drained) bodies into the suite the party had been held in.
While all that was happening, Asheron and Spooky were contending with antagonists of their own down by the elevator. The two groups paired off and started trading blows, but Spooky’s foe found herself distracted by Spooky’s stunning good looks. Asheron flipped over his foe, which magically caused the elevator doors to open into an empty shaft.
Spooky attempted to push her foe into the elevator, but her push was weak, and her starstruck foe took it to be an affectionate embrace. Only when Spooky and Asheron worked together were they able to send her careening into the shaft, a look of betrayal on her face as she plummeted to her death.
Shortly thereafter, onlookers began to appear, curious as to the source of all this noise. Spooky found this exasperating, which caused an Octopussy to appear.
An Octopussy is a fairly common sort of pet on mars. It’s the head of a cat, on the body and arms of an octopus. The whole thing is covered in soft fur, and each of the eight arms ends in a paw, with a full set of cat claws. Spooky quickly picked up this creature, and threw it at the other woman. As it sailed past her, it reached out with all eight of its claws to try and grab hold, tearing up the woman’s face and sending her stumbling. Spooky then leaped forward, and pushed the off-balance woman into the elevator shaft, sending her plummeting to her death–though not before she was able to snatch the Octopussy back into her arms, saving it from falling along with her.
The onlookers, having now seen this pair push a woman down the elevator shaft, surged forward in anger. Asheron managed to resist the two who pushed him, but Spooky was overwhelmed, and tumbled into the shaft. As she fell, she attempted to save herself by casting Suicidal Flight, but the spell failed halfway through, and she landed hard on the elevator below, snapping her neck, and killing her.
With all four of the antagonists now ready to focus their energy on Asheron, he knew he had no chance, and so flipped himself into the elevator shaft of his own volition. The magic of his flip caused the elevator to begin working again, rising up the shaft to make the fall slightly less dire. Asheron’s fall was also softened by the pile of bodies down there. But, none the less, it was a devestating hit, which reduced him to 0 hit points.
Just then, Ronnina, her Blood Ooze, and the rest of the party came around the corner to find four people looking down the elevator shaft. Ronnina ordered her blood ooze forward to push them all into the shaft, which was easily accomplished.
Down at the bottom, Asheron had to jump and dodge around to avoid the falling bodies, and was mostly unsuccessful at it, taking a number of injuries.
Ronnina then used her Blood Ooze to form a kind of platform in the shaft, and pried open the elevator doors on the next floor down. While everyone else was back behind her regrouping and assessing their options, Ronnina suddenly found herself in a barracks, filled with tough looking soldiers.
Ronnina explained to them that “something terrible” had happened upstairs, and suggested that a wizard had used some kind of magic to cause people to start dying, and having their heads twisted off and such. The man in charge, a low ranking officer, seemed to be convinced by this. Lords of Light are always wary of wizards, after all.
The session ended In Media Res, with Ronnina hoping a peaceful resolution might be salvaged.