A short, combat-heavy session that cleared two of the floor's nastiest residents. First the party finished off Jafakai, a large Morlock flesh-warper who clung to the ceiling and kept turning invisible — they baited him out by smashing his entire laboratory, mercy-killed the captive Morlock head wired into his flesh-golem machine, and looted the lab clean. Then they went back to the floor's mummy spellcaster they had a bargain with, took its corrected map of the floor (revealing the real location of the portal chamber), and double-crossed it: Abbas Silenced Cid to muzzle the mummy's spells, the party fought its maddening invisibility for nearly an hour, and finally burned it down with Holy Light and Rosa Argentis. Everyone hit level 8.
The party was already mid-fight with Jafakai, a large Morlock researcher in the depths of the Abomination Vaults. He fights as a skirmishing spellcaster — clinging to the ten-foot ceiling, turning invisible, and refusing melee — while Cid and Venris fought hasted from a corridor and doorway.
| 00:00:02 | Corridor cat-and-mouse with the flesh-warper The session opens mid-combat. The party is fighting a large Morlock researcher (named Jafakai) who clings to the ceiling, can turn invisible, and refuses to come into melee. The party fights from a corridor/doorway: Venris throws light hammers (with conceal checks because the enemy keeps going invisible), parries, and retreats; the enemy tumbles/skitters along the ten-foot ceiling. Both Cid and Venris are hasted. The party deliberately funnels the fight back toward the enemy's own laboratory. [S53 · 00:00:02 · turn 0001 · scene 001] |
| 00:19:11 | Wrecking the lab to flush out Jafakai Inside Jafakai's laboratory, the party decides to bait the invisible enemy by smashing his research. The walls are lined with shelves of bottles, vials, smoking glass, and slime. Cid finds and throws a 'bottle of lightning' at a Morlock head kept alive by a machine of tubes and wires; it overloads, electrocuting the Morlock head which screams in agony. The party then gleefully smashes obsidian files, bottles (acid, herbs, jelly), and bookcases to enrage and provoke Jafakai, who is reduced to lobbing bottled lightning at Cid's shield from a distance while clinging to the ceiling. [S53 · 00:21:46 · turn 0189 · scene 002] |
| 00:48:45 | Pinning and killing Jafakai The haste finally runs out and the enemy is visibly weakened, covered in scaly off-color patches. Cid lands a 48-point strike, then uses Rosa Argentis to 'nail in place'/pin the creature against the wall (choosing to drop the weapon to keep the pinning effect). The GM notes a slashing choice would have done triple damage and even decapitation. Venris dives in below the creature and stabs twice with his rapier/striking blade for heavy precision damage. The flesh-warper is killed. [S53 · 00:51:30 · turn 0431 · scene 003] |
| 00:59:50 | Mercy-killing the Morlock head and looting the lab With Jafakai dead, the still-screaming captive Morlock head is mercy-killed: Venris makes an occultism check to disconnect the machine, letting the Morlock rest peacefully. The party searches the wrecked lab thoroughly (twenty minutes). Loot recovered: a ~200gp staff, a crafter's eyepiece, a vial of moderate antiplague, a four-prong round key (from Jafakai's body, who is named in foundry as J-A-F-A-K-I), two wands (Peaceful Rest and Magic Missile), Jafakai's +1 striking rapier, a +1 composite longbow (no striking), an expanded alchemist's lab, a superb repair kit, an alchemist's pouch/vial bandolier with infused elixirs (misform elixir, bottle of lightning, plus mystery green/white potions), and Jafakai's personal flesh-warping research notes. The flesh-golem machine is deliberately destroyed so the dangerous flesh-warping knowledge does not spread. [S53 · 01:04:46 · turn 0566 · scene 004] |
| 01:26:49 | Break and the betrayal plan The party takes a short break to refocus (recovering focus points, waiting up to twenty minutes; they have until midnight). They confirm out-of-character that this is roughly a 10-level campaign and they are about to hit level 8 and near the end of the Abomination Vaults. They then plan to revisit the floor's mummy spellcaster they had a bargain with: Cid will deliver 'the goods' (a soul item) and collect their reward (information), while Abbas pre-positions to cast Silence on Cid so they can shut down the mummy's spellcasting and ambush it. The mummy's aura inflicts paralysis on a failed will save. [S53 · 01:33:01 · turn 0806 · scene 005] |
| 01:42:01 | The bargain, the gift of the map, and the double-cross The party enters the mummy spellcaster's room. Its paralysis aura locks down Cid (crit-fail nat-1) and frightens the party. They go through with the bargain: Cid hands over the soul-item bag, and the mummy 'smiles' and gives them parchments — a corrected/updated map of the floor showing where the portal chamber is (it is not where they thought, by the kitchen) and how the laboratory connects via the upstairs stairwell. As soon as Cid turns to leave, Abbas casts Silence (a subtle 10-foot emanation, one minute) on Cid to muzzle the mummy's spellcasting, and the party turns on the mummy. A successful deception check sells the fake retreat. [S53 · 01:43:40 · turn 0902 · scene 006] |
| 02:01:52 | The invisible mummy nightmare A long, frustrating combat against the mummy spellcaster. Venris trips it, but the mummy goes invisible (a 'calmly put his hand to his chest' invisibility) and then slips away, exploiting that the party is deafened by their own Silence aura and so cannot hear or smell the invisible foe. The mummy casts Dispel Magic (level 4 counteract) at the Silence and fails. The party debates the invisibility/hidden/undetected rules at length, seeks repeatedly (mostly failing through body-blocking allies and crit-fails), and tries to flush the enemy: Veve throws junk and uses Spray of Stars (cone) to set the bed/room on fire to reveal it via smoke, while Venris 'snakes' cell-by-cell to physically bump into the invisible mummy. Venris eventually bumps it and points it out, but attacks keep missing. [S53 · 02:14:17 · turn 1178 · scene 007] |
| 03:16:50 | Holy light, Rosa Argentis, and the kill Abbas casts Holy Light at the now-revealed mummy (it has the unholy trait), doing ~15 fire + 19 spirit damage and lighting it on fire so it is at least concealed by smoke rather than fully invisible. Cid charges in with Rosa Argentis, the party rediscovering the sword's silver/peachwood and ghost-touch properties that punish undead (effectively +2 vs undead). After a string of crits — Veve/BB throwing a dagger, Venris cleaving 'between his neck and shoulder' — the mummy spellcaster falls. The GM notes both bosses 'died effectively in one turn once you actually connected.' [S53 · 03:18:52 · turn 1761 · scene 008] |
| 03:40:21 | Level up and wind-down The session ends with the mummy's body and scrolls burning in divine fire. The party levels up to 8 ('blind fight on level eight finally done'). Cid gets the MVP marker (twice in a row, for the killing blow). The players celebrate beating two invisible/floating bosses and look forward to fighting something that isn't invisible. They agree to plan their level-up choices offline (Venris checking whether his thrown-rock damage die improves) and sign off. [S53 · 03:42:47 · turn 1993 · scene 009] |