Deep in the laboratory level, the party broke through a master-locked plinth (Venris rolled four thievery successes in a row) and fought their way through two more flesh-warp Sgathi spellcasters, learning to control the see-through walls via a glyphed altar. They freed three prisoners — a deep gnome, a drow named Falksy, and a skulk — and discovered the second caged Sgathi was Falksy's own flesh-warped brother, Roxy; with no cure possible, they granted a mercy kill, letting Falksy strike the final blow. A pack of electric, needle-jawed "modified Morlocks" ambushed them, but the party crit them apart. The mummy Shafkim then dumped the floor's whole history: the master flesh-warper Jafki ("Jeff Key") was Belcorra's chosen, built her perfect-soldier program, killed the bone devil Tarkina, warred with the contract devil Urvane, and was eventually tricked and imprisoned by a brightly-dressed "Cheery Man." Back in Otari, the party found the Menham child cursed by a Denizen of Leng (the word LENG scratched into her wrist by a dream-visiting "Motley Man"). Veve dispelled the curse, and the source was revealed: a Leng ruby hidden inside the girl's plushie.
The party is deep in the Abomination Vaults laboratory level. They've been killing flesh-warp creatures that explode when slain, looted a diary tying the level to a flesh-warp operation, survived a brutal fight with a massive Sgathi that nearly killed Venris, glimpsed hydras in the caverns, and arrived at a room with two plinths.
| 00:00:00 | Pregame setup and last-session recap The group settles in, deals with stream/Foundry setup, and recaps the previous session: they're deep in the Abomination Vaults laboratory level, have fought exploding flesh-warp creatures and a massive Sgathi (one nearly killed Venris), looted a diary tying the place to a flesh-warp operation, peeked into hydra caves, and arrived at a room with two plinths. The GM and players debate house-ruling lockpicking (one attempt vs. multiple) before letting Venris try the second plinth's door. [S49 · 00:01:02 · turn 0013 · scene 001] |
| 00:14:44 | Venris cracks the master plinth with Glide-lock and a hero point Venris uses a 'glide-lock' key that casts Knock (+1 status) plus his thievery training to attempt the master-level four-pronged plinth lock. Against the odds he rolls four thievery successes in a row (with a hero point), opening the door despite the GM's certainty it shouldn't have worked. The GM jokingly promises he'll 'enjoy dying later today.' Behind it lies a second identical door. [S49 · 00:18:05 · turn 0150 · scene 002] |
| 00:20:05 | Combat: the gray Sgathi spellcaster in the gallery Beyond the door is a gallery overlooking the bloodstained room where they once killed a Sgathi, fronted by a window of cloudy stone. A gray Sgathi (a flesh-warp worm-creature, subspecies of the purple one they killed before) charges, demanding to know where the party got their keys. It casts shield, wields a wand and a poisoned longsword, and screams a sonic 'destructive harmonic.' Venris disarms its wand, recalls its will save is weakest, and the party taunts it. The casting Sgathi's harmonic scream is resisted. Combat is interleaved with a long table discussion of how emanation/burst/cone area templates are drawn. [S49 · 00:22:45 · turn 0190 · scene 003] |
| 00:48:07 | The ethereal walls drop; a second Sgathi behind glass The first Sgathi interacts with a glyphed pedestal/altar that drops the see-through walls, turning them ethereal and exposing a second similar creature below. The party drives the gray Sgathi spellcaster down (Venris crit, 40 damage) and finishes it, then Abbas/Visigok investigates the altar, learning it is a magical control mechanism for the walls and gaining the ability to raise and lower them at will. He raises the walls again to wall off the second creature. The party realizes both Sgathi are effectively the same statblock (one black/gray, one white/purple). Loot: empty writing slates, chalk, the poisoned longsword, and a wand identified as a Wand of Status (2nd level). [S49 · 00:48:42 · turn 0433 · scene 004] |
| 01:13:47 | Freeing the three flesh-warp prisoners Venris listens at a door, then sneaks in to find a meeting room repurposed into a filthy prison: three captives in wooden pillories — a deep gnome warrior (the longest-held), a drow named Falksy, and a skulk (later named Jadzeli). Venris easily picks the shackles. The party debates their own in-character prejudices about drow (evil reputation) and skulks (fringe scavengers) before deciding to escort them out. The GM frames a moral contrast between misjudged outsiders and 'true evil' aligned with Belcorra. [S49 · 01:23:42 · turn 0763 · scene 005] |
| 01:36:09 | Roxy: the drow's flesh-warped brother and the mercy kill Falksy realizes the second Sgathi behind the glass is his brother Roxy — it wears their mother's bracelet. He begs the party to save or free him; the GM and party establish (Fullmetal Alchemist style) that this flesh-warping is irreversible and Roxy is too far gone. Abbas configures the wall to carry sound both ways so Falksy can speak to Roxy; the screaming and a sonic blast confirm Roxy can't be reached. The party agrees to a mercy kill: they lower the walls and let Falksy deliver the finishing blow (with a borrowed longsword) on his own brother, a heavy emotional beat, while the rogues hammer Roxy down. [S49 · 01:38:16 · turn 0889 · scene 006] |
| 02:08:42 | Combat: the modified Morlocks (electric needle-jaws) An oracular warning (Veve's curse-bound oracle power) triggers initiative. A blue arcane light heralds a pack of 'modified Morlocks' — metal-plated jaws that spray needles dealing piercing + electricity, and that physically stack ('dock') on each other for cover bonuses. A third Sgathi joins, licking its poisoned sword. The fight is rough: Abbas/Visigok is confused (forced to Divine Lance an ally) and Cid is targeted hard, but the party tears through with crits — Cid cleaves one in half (46 dmg), Venris lops the last one's head off (59 dmg with deadly). A secret tunnel is found where they emerged, with stairs up and a double-door hallway. [S49 · 02:28:38 · turn 1273 · scene 007] |
| 03:21:34 | The mummy Shafkim's lore-dump: Jafki, Belcorra, and the devil war The party heals up (ward medic) and returns to the mummy NPC Shafkim, who is nearly done packing to leave. He confirms flesh-warping is irreversible, then gives a long history: Jafki ('Jeff Key') was the first Sgathi Belcorra found and made into a master flesh-warper to build her 'perfect soldier,' granted full authority over the laboratory level. After Belcorra's death, a loyalist named Tarkina (a bone devil) tried to take command and was killed by Jafki, who declared independence. A months-long war between the Sgathi and the devils (led by Urvane, a contract devil) ended in an uneasy truce. Finally, a strange brightly-dressed 'Cheery Man' tricked and imprisoned Shafkim. He urges the party to hurry back and kill Jafki before he leaves. [S49 · 03:44:13 · turn 2003 · scene 008] |
| 04:06:49 | Escorting the prisoners out; the drow's origin and farewell The party portals/walks the three prisoners out via the Dawnflower Library, learning more on the way: the skulk woman is missing a hand (replaced by a hook) and obsesses over 'the man in colored rags' who 'takes hands.' Falksy explains he and Roxy are drow from the deep settlement of Yildaris, snatched on a foraging run by earth-hands, handed to devils, then to the Sgathi; he feared becoming a drider. The deep gnome offers to take the skulk (Jadzeli) to safety; the drow heads home to Yildaris. They part ways outside the caves, each declining to enter town, and the party returns to Otari (about three hours). [S49 · 04:21:07 · turn 2247 · scene 009] |
| 04:29:51 | Back in Otari: research tablets, shopping, and downtime errands In Otari the party reads the looted research tablets — Jafki's flesh-warp/arena experiment notes cataloguing specimens (hellhounds, a manticore, a drider, a greater shadow, a plague doctor, etc.) and 'arena battles' of beast-on-beast and captive-on-monster, including notes of the party's own fights. They split errands: Abbas takes the tablets to Morblin (who pays a few gold and explains Sgathi are near-alien beings 'from space'); Venris restocks light hammers and continues throw-weapon training with Rajani; the party plans to sell the Wand of Status but keep a wand of See the Unseen; they buy earplugs, a lock, a spellbook blank, and order a 3rd-rank scroll of mending from Absalom. They sort out Cleanse Affliction counteract rules for Venris's 'fail-strike tetanus.' [S49 · 04:32:04 · turn 2344 · scene 010] |
| 05:01:48 | The Menham child's curse: the Motley Man and the word LENG At the Menham manor the party finds the daughter (Doriana) far worse: feverish, regressing to childishness, scratching her right hand and raving about a 'Mommy Man' / 'Motley Man' who visits her dreams. Abbas crit-succeeds a medicine check (after Veve calms her with a performance) and reads 'LENG' (L-E-N-G) scratched into her wrist. Recall knowledge identifies the cause as a Denizen of Leng — a malevolent extraplanar being from past the dimension of dreams — and that she is under a high-level curse, not a physical disease. The party reconstructs the timeline (the curse started days ago) and connects the Motley Man's brightly-colored rags to the 'Cheery Man' who imprisoned Shafkim. [S49 · 05:15:00 · turn 2715 · scene 011] |
| 05:52:14 | Dispelling the curse and the ruby in the plushie After working through the counteract rules, Veve (with a nat-20 on her second try) successfully Dispel Magics the Leng curse off Doriana; the LENG writing vanishes and she stabilizes. Veve then telepathically hurls the girl's griffin plushie at Cid for a crit, cracking his skull — and the broken plushie disgorges a fist-sized ruby that had appeared inside it only after the toys were brought down two days ago. The family swears the ruby wasn't there before. A search of the attic finds nothing else magical. [S49 · 06:05:44 · turn 3114 · scene 012] |
| 06:18:55 | Wrin's intel: the Leng ruby is a focus; Urvane the contract devil The party brings the day's findings to Wrin Sivinxi (the Starseer). She confirms Jafki is a powerful 'floor leader / boss' beyond the party, and that Urvane is a Fistophilus (contract devil) — a high-level being Belcorra must have contracted, oddly still bound long after her death. On the ruby, she identifies the Denizens of Leng: travelers in black ships who use rubies mined from Leng's quarries as foci to extend the reach of their magics, warning the party to keep the ruby away from the child. Since the magic is already dispelled, it can't be traced back. The session ends here; play resumes the next in-game evening. [S49 · 06:33:09 · turn 3366 · scene 013] |