S48 Recap: Flesh-Warped Barbers, the Tentacled Guardian, and the Chained Sagathi

TL;DR

On a new vault floor crawling with Morlocks and flesh-warpers, the party fought through three encounters in one marathon session. First: the Absalom bounty hunters they'd met before — now flesh-warped into hulking abominations that explode in "cancer blood" on death — whom they ground down and looted (turning up a wanted poster and a journal that outed the squad as the Bloody Barbers, an Absalom barber-gang). Second: a huge, scarred, already-frightened flesh-warped elf with 20-foot tentacles and a mind-lashing attack, guarding a stairway down to the devils; it nearly stunned Venerus to death before the party put it down. Third: a chained, Aklo-speaking Sagathi (with a Grothlet pet) who turned on them as "intruders" and was one-shot by Venerus — but he was a weak one, NOT the named Sagathi they're hunting. The session ended on a cliffhanger: Venerus's F10 key fit a plinth and a sealed laboratory door began to open.

Previously on

The party had been exploring a new floor and the Warp Brew tavern, where the Morlocks are eager to be flesh-warped by the Sagathi while the band and other patrons stay neutral. Cid talked to a Morlock bartender who told them about the Sagathi roaming this floor. They believe a specific named Sagathi is here, and their current goal is to push through the double doors and figure out what's going on.

What happened

• Advancing in the dark toward heavy, distant thudding, Venerus crashed a door open on a nat-1 and rolled the whole party into initiative. Cid peeked out and recognized the enemies: the same Absalom "fake guards" / bounty hunters who once came to capture the party's bounty — now flesh-warped into meaty, hulked-out abominations wielding war razors, led by a dwarf.
• A long brawl followed. Venerus opened with a rapier sneak-attack crit for 53; Cid flanked and tanked behind a tower shield while his martial/Dread aura buffed the party; Abbas threw Divine Lance; Veve sustained Courageous/Rallying songs and chucked rocks and daggers. The flesh-warps explode in cancer blood when killed, forcing reflex saves on everyone nearby — Cid's tower shield helped shield Veve and Venerus from the blasts. One bruiser swapped to a crossbow and critically shot his own ally in the back.
• The party looted the bodies: three war razors (one +1), a regular crossbow with bolts, manacles, a climbing kit, a 30gp wanted poster for a red-haired tiefling bounty hunter (with island locations noted on the back — a crossed-out town, Otari, and a lighthouse), and a locked journal stamped with a barber's shaving-knife symbol.
• Cid recapped the floor's lore: a beat-up devil (Aravian/Rabian) one floor below was contracted by Belcorra to raise her an army and is now trapped honoring the contract since "the Cora is dead." The party also recalled the Zebub janitor (Sazlarin) and the Vordeen Horloc prison-guard they'd met earlier.
• Venerus picked the journal's lock, revealing the squad belonged to the Bloody Barbers — an Absalom barber-gang that "gives a Crimson Shave" (cuts throats) and runs burglary and narcotics; the GM flagged it as a potential whole side-campaign.
• Manny (Venerus's player) had to leave to pick up his kids; the GM kept the game going, with Speaker B also running Veve.
• Listening at a door, the party opened a holding-cell room (shackles, fetters, bloodstains) with stairs leading down — guarded by a massive, scarred, already-frightened flesh-warped elf with 20-foot tentacle reach and a mind-lashing attack. It crit Venerus for 38 and stunned/paralyzed him with an "empty void" vision, then slashed a nerve (slowed). The party slowly wheeled it down with hero points and killed it; a recall-knowledge later ID'd it as a cruelly flesh-warped elf, likely another Sagathi experiment.
• Scouting the side rooms turned up a Zebub flying in a hallway (like the "cleaner" devil), a tomb-jelly slime room digesting Morlock corpses (loot left intact: steel shield, chain shirt, pick, caltrops, chains — left for a later, predictable fight), an old prison with a single hoofed-devil trail and large worm drag-marks, and a cave sloping down.
• Finally the party found a Sagathi chained near a handrail beside a stairway, with a dim orange glow and sulfurous stench rising from the devils far below. It spoke Aklo (only Abbas understood), called to a Grothlet guardian, then turned on the party as "intruders." It proved weak: Venerus dropped it in a single Sonic-Blow barrage. The party mopped up the Grothlet (Divine Lance crit + chakram).
• They looted the Sagathi: a plain longsword, an alchemical/chemical toolkit, a key for the Grothlet's manacles, and a wand of See Invisibility (2nd-rank). They concluded this was NOT the named Sagathi (Jafaki / "Jeff Key") and decided to check back with the mummy NPC (Chafkin/Shefkin) for hints, or research at the library.
• Exploring further, they found a clairvoyant transparent-stone wall overlooking a flooded cavern with two still huge formations (presumed hydras), and reached a laboratory antechamber with two keyed plinths and a handleless door. Venerus's F10 key fit the eastern plinth and the door began to open — and the session ended right there.

NPC and location notes

• The flesh-warped bounty hunters / Bloody Barbers: the Absalom barber-gang the party had previously talked to and walked away from; flesh-warping turned them hyper-aggressive. They explode in cancer blood on death.
• Belcorra ("the Cora") is dead, but a devil (Aravian/Rabian) is still trapped one floor below, bound by contract to make her an army.
• The Sagathi are flesh-warpers who turn captives (including elves) into abominations; the Morlocks idolize them. The party is hunting a specific named Sagathi (Jafaki) and this session's chained Sagathi was a weak decoy, not him.
• Side rooms scouted but left alone: a tomb-jelly/slime room, a Zebub devil hallway, an old prison, and a cave/flooded cavern with presumed hydras.

Decisions made

• The party fought the flesh-warped Bloody Barbers rather than trying to talk (they'd already turned hostile).
• They chose to push on through the floor instead of chasing the named Sagathi down the orange-glowing devil stairs.
• They left the slime/tomb-jelly room and the Zebub hallway for later as known, manageable threats.
• They opted to research the Sagathi (return to the mummy NPC / library) rather than guess.
• Venerus tried his F10 key on the laboratory plinth — opening the door at session's end.

Open questions / reminders for next session

• What is behind the laboratory door that just opened (the F10/eastern plinth)? What does the western four-hole plinth key to?
• Who and where is the real named Sagathi (Jafaki / "Jeff Key")? Go back to the mummy NPC (Chafkin) before he leaves, or hit the library.
• The devils below (Aravian's contract for Belcorra's army), reachable via the orange-glowing stairs — still unaddressed.
• The flooded cavern with two presumed hydras, the tomb-jelly room, and the Zebub hallway are all still waiting.
• Venerus is carrying a flesh-warp affliction (suppressed clumsy) that will worsen in about a week if untreated.
• The Bloody Barbers / the red-haired tiefling bounty on the wanted poster — a potential side-plot tied to Absalom.