Mattiverse Next - Session 11

Demon Showdown

• The Boys get some shit together
  • Two scrolls of see invisibility, in case Bobwhite fucks up with the first one.
  • One scroll of calm emotions, just in case mind-affecting shit goes down.
  • Two scrolls of protection from evil and good, because demons.
• They get Garos to buff: darkvision and mage armor for everyone who gains benefit from either of those.
  • They also get her to sketch out a map.
• They swim on in through the path indicated. The cavern area is just as creepy as it seemed like it might be.
  • Cells for holding people lead to a secret door with more area for holding people, with some tools and big slab tables for pulling apart and stitching together corpses. There's also wine. Simply awful.
  • Beldon checks for the presence of the target lance piece but is only able to confirm that it is very near, but in doing so reveals that the lance piece believed to be in the Chrysanthemum Bay area has begun moving to the south. The suspicion is that Gerom's Gang has secured it.
  • They pass a door labeled "lounge" and find some locked jail-style doors. Bobwhite unlocks both, then jams the mechanism.
• The next hallway leads down, down, down. At the end is a _very_ large chamber, lit throughout with watery bioluminescence.
  • Bobwhite burns through a scroll, argues with Banner for a bit, then manages it on the second try. At the same time, Beldon shouts the alarm and...
  • ..."Manderly" is behind them!
  • He says some evil villain bullshit, then bursts through his skinsuit into phisrazu form.

• • He spits glittery web stuff that basically acts like faerie fire, but better.
  • He bites Beldon hard (to 1 hp), and poisons him to boot.
  • Party forms up and starts wailing.
  • Beldon blesses with Blessed Day, Four gets into full-ass whip mode, Bobwhite shoots half-damage crossbow bolts and Banner full-damage eldritch blasts.
• They get pressed down the staircase. The phisrazu takes a bunch of damage and start to back off, saying "he'll be back". Then "Manderly's" voice comes... from the giant chamber at the end of the hallway they're on!
  • Bobwhite is the only one who sees the other Manderly skinsuit, who is carrying... a wand!
  • He fiddles around with it in his fingers and ends up walking on the ceiling, as if gravity has changed its mind about him.

• Some monologuing happens:
  • He mentions his High Priest, who summoned him here.
  • He mentions a Spider Queen, who sounds fabulous.
  • He says they should join up.
• The party then finishes off the phisrazu and his tone changes
  • "Kneel before me!" he says, as he then casts a suggestion that splashes spectacularly against the field of scrappy luck that has evidently enveloped the party and fails utterly.
  • He refers to himself as a raklupis, as in "Feel the wrath of the cult of Raklupis!!", which were his words before turning into an even more massive, even uglier dog-demon thing than the phisarazu.
  • Four kakkuu pop out of hiding and start to advance. He spits a nasty cloud of venomous smoke but otherwise keeps out of line of sight.
  • The poison is nasty. Bobwhite and Bobwhite both get hit (Pepper bugs out with Beldon very luckily managing to keep an unconscious foot in the stirrup). Bobwhite uses a potion to bring him back up, but a second cloud brings Beldon down yet again. Bobwhite keeps up with a very scared Pepper and manages another potion.

• The general gist becomes: Bobwhite and Beldon hang back up the stairs taking potshots (and, in Beldon's case, slowly healing up) while Four and Banner engage the raklupis and kakkuu in melee (which raklupis further cements with a final poison cloud). The spider demons all skitter around attempting to envelop, but the line holds.
  • Beldon checks on the escape and finds it barred, with a chain and padlock. He hears Garos stalling someone.
  • As kakkuu start falling and the raklupis goes into the red, it backs off. Bobwhite takes the moment to check on the back field and sees what Beldon already saw, but also catches sight of a key. He pockets it.
    • As they piece things together afterward, they figure it was probably Garos who locked the gates to stymie reinforcements, throwing the key in so the party would be able to get out.
  • Bobwhite attempts to run through the clouds to chase down the raklupis, but is downed by the poison. Four breaks off the chase to pick him up and carry him out. Beldon also runs through, but has to leave Pepper in the cloud, and his luck finally runs out: Pepper dies a gruesome death.
  • The raklupis reemerges, looking slightly less damaged, and pounds Banner into the ground.
  • Four meets his foe, and the party manages to finish it off and bring Banner back up. Bobwhite immediately roots around in the raklupis hidey hole for the wand, and with it retrieved, they start planning how they're going to get out with it.

Milestones

• Downed the Demon Dog Porphyry House Infiltrator
• Found the next wand piece! (level gain will happen on attunement)
• RIP Pepper