Bounty Hunters - Session 35

Dripping Goo, and Tunnels Too

Consciousness returns to you in a rush, your senses assaulted by the stench of damp rot and the briny tang of an alien sea. You find yourself in a chamber carved from slick, mottled grey stone, its walls pulsating subtly as though alive. The light is dim, emanating from luminescent fungi that cling to the walls and ceiling in clusters of sickly green and blue. Around you are countless pods, each large enough to hold a man. Some are intact and thrumming with an eerie energy - but many more have been ruptured violently from within. From these broken vessels seep a viscous ichor that pools on the floor in sticky puddles. The residue inside the shattered pods is dark and reminiscent of dried blood, clinging stubbornly to the interior wall like a horrifically hatched egg's remnants. The air itself feels thick with foreign psychic energy, leaving your minds feeling violated and vulnerable as you regain your bearings in this grotesque new landscape.

• The party members find many of their spell slots extended.
• They have all their gear, though none of the items identified as talismans for traveling the planes, nor any of Helongum's diaries and journals.
• There are sounds of conflict, from all directions, but some of the noises are more immediately in vicinity.
• Undead are locked in battle with some unsettlingly familiar enemies, led by a scuttling being with a toothy, tentacled maw where a head should be. The Bounty Hunters join the fray, and as the undead seem the least hostile, they focus on the intellect devourers.

• The one remaining undead is also the least brainless of the bunch, (with abilities similar to a warlock, a "Deathlock"). It raises its hand, and shimmers--it is now suddenly wearing the face of Bern's daughter (a distressing development). It does not speak.
  • A very one-sided game of charades ensues, the gist of which seems to be that it would like the party to get back into the pods. There is no obvious connection to Bern's daughter other than the face the undead wears.
  • They are obviously broken. Joana plays along, and the deathlock just moves to the next party member--but when she gets back out, it focuses back on her, urgently requesting her recompliance (as far as anyone can tell).
  • Bern resists more openly, and is immediately hit with a barrage of eldritch blasts.
• The party responds violently, and the deathlock is removed from existence. They take a more careful note of their surroundings.
  • There is no obvious signage, and no obvious tools, only rows of pods similar to the ones they emerged from.
  • They are hard. None have an obvious way to be opened. They are also rank, smelling strongly of decay and foulness.
  • Whip attempts violent entry, without success. They have tarried long enough to attract attention

"Subdue yourselves, make this easy on us all."

• A mass of pink, lobed flesh comes into view, clearly a construct, but of massed brains rather than the materials the party is more familiar with. The voice is not coming from the golem, which advances heedlessly; rather, it seems to spring directly into their brains, from no particular direction.
• They rush to meet their enemy. As they approach, an even more alien being emerges from the shadows. It hovers, as if not even deigning to grace the rank soil with its touch. Long robes conceal a humanoid form, headed with squid tentacles and deep eyes, glimmering with a cold intellect. He immediately slaps Whip with a stunning mental blast.

• Session ends.