Last Session 49>> into this session 50 ((recap))
When last we met, the party were in the middle of combat with 3 treacherous Tainted beasts, one had already been slain.
Whether it was due to accumulated stress levels that finally broke her and made her run, or perhaps it was a tactical retreat to gather her thoughts and come up with a new plan of attack on the fly… Scarlett decides she is going to head back up the stairway away from combat, leaving the rest of the party to fend off the creatures.
Rhyker uses his Holy Fire to burn the tainted within range all around him, and tries to slice one with his axe, but fails.
Ophi – in the meantime… is down, and fighting her kind of battle against the cold grasp of death. Her warmth globe that she cast previously though DOES help her in healing her open wounds, and she manages to stabilise herself pretty quickly as a result.
However, upon seeing that she recovers enough to become a threat, the Tainted once more target Ophi and strike her down to the floor once again.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the passageway, in the far corner, the assault on Aurora continues, as two Tainted focus their attacks onto her.
One after the other they tear through her armour and into her body, ripping out chunks of skin and flesh, crimson streaks of blood, now covering the walls and floor, dripping down to form puddles of blood where she stood.
Baxter seeing this, rushes to the aid of Aurora and skewers one of the Tainted from behind with his spear, but fails to hit the second one.
Zrin fires off a firebolt at the most injured of the Tainted, which had just attacked Ophi, and with an almighty force of his power behind his casting, he utterly destroys the creatures head in one impact, leaving nothing but empty space on the shoulders where the head should have been.
However, it was at this moment that the final strike came from the last remaining Tainted towards Aurora, who was overwhelmed by the attack… Two huge strikes of the sharpened claws came raking across her body, and this was it for Aurora… She is killed instantly, and was left laying in her own blood pool.
Rhyker manages to sneak behind the beast and deliver a powerful hit to it’s back, severing its spine in one cut, causing the creature to collapse, and die… He frantically then tries to use his Lay on Hands ability, a powerful healing skill that only Paladins learn, but try as he might, it doesn’t revive her.
Baxter tries to cast Cure Wounds, the party carry Aurora’s body over to the Warmth globe, Bosa tries to scream at her to wake up and snap out of it… All of these attempts simply fail to have any effect on Aurora.
Rhyker tries one last time and uses a Prayer of Healing, but again, nothing comes of it.
Scarlett pipes up from nowhere, “She’s dead! she’s gone!” and the realisation soon sets in for everyone else too.
A moment is spent deciding how to deal with the situation, not wanting to just leave the body off to one side and be forgotten about, Rhyker has an idea to place her into a coffin and set it alight, but Baxter refuses and wants to take her body back to the Rogues up in camp.
Eventually, the party do decide that Baxter should take her with him to camp, and they part ways for now… Before leaving, Baxter gives his scroll of town portal to Rhyker, helps them all do a quick loot search of the area, and then picks up aurora and leaves the party, heading for the surface.
The rest still in the catacombs, press on.. Scarlett, now mixed with emotion, too much loss over a small period of time has left her mind a little broken, and her heart is most definitely scarred… She takes point, in usual Scarlett fashion, by just walking off after becoming really impatient.
A door is noticed off to one side of the passageway the party now (with Scarlett too) have noticed… Bosa takes charge here and knocks a few times before pushing the door open, to reveal a living quarters, and a very nice living quarters at that.
He steps inside and instantly sees two chests, one situated in the corner, another sat on top of some large wooden crates next to a book stand with a book on it.
The smaller box of the two gets his attention, and he picks it up, only to find that the writing that was hidden on the lid, is now visible after being in contact with someone, as a group, the party decide to open the box up and try to solve the riddles held inside, and they did so.
As a result of answering all the riddles correctly, the party were rewarded handsomely, with two UNIQUE items, and a very important runic skull… among other useful items.
Rhyker was given a key by Ophi, who was more interested in the book stand, which held the diary of what could only be described as a madman, but the diary showed that over time the depravity kicked in more and more, as the days went on.
Ophi realised there was nothing of value from the book, and left it, Bosa thought otherwise and took the book with him, he also checked out the armoire near the bed, and found some elaborately, lavishly designed armour, once worn by the highest of the clergyman here.
Rhyker in the meantime opened the locked chest in the corner and grabbed a handful of antidotes and another runic skull.
With all this done, and nothing else in the room, the party depart back into the passage and head further along it, but before pushing on further just yet, they decide to head back to town to get the items they have, identified, and to use the runic skull to revive Aurora, and so they leave and head to the way point above, but a reluctant Scarlett does not want to leave, and remains behind, Rhyker hands the scroll of town portal her got to Scarlett, and off they go.
Back in camp, the party emerge from the way point to see Baxter and Kashya in conversation, she’s grilling him over the death of Aurora, but soon calms down enough to speak to the others.
Bosa tries to butt in and shows the runic skull to kashya, exclaiming they can revive Aurora with it, but she outright refuses, and explains to him and the others as to the traditions they follow, and how once dead, they do not allow revivials, for fear of soul corruption and mind not being right upon returning back to the living.
Accepting the Rogues decision, the party say their farewells to Aurora, and during this difficult time, they also hear from Warriv and Kashya that the camp resources are wearing much thinner, and supplies can no longer be easily gained, therefore, food upon resting here will no longer be available to them, and there will be a limited supply of items in the stores.
Wishing Baxter farewell as he wants to remain in camp and help with funeral preparations, the party head back through the way-point and go to join Scarlett, who waits impatiently back in the catacombs for them.
They eventually meet up, and pass through the passageway together until they find a room that has familiar fire traps situated near the middle of it, opting to not go through that, the party wait and see what Scarlett finds in the opposite direction, and sure enough, its more of the same thing… The only option to avoid the traps triggering, was to back track, and go back through the passage… Ophi, at the rear of the party with Nix, soon realised this and headed back, only to run into a room of Dark Ones, who promptly ran after her in her tired state, they gave chase.
As she ran back to the rest of the party however, she screamed to alert them the enemies were following after her, but in doing so, she alerted other denizens of the dungeon, and a group of nearby Goat Demons were instantly on the move too.
The party spent a moment in preparing themselves, and took up defensive positions at the end of a thin passage, and battle was soon under way.
Ophi has managed to outright kill the first goat Demon that appeared, with a Fire bolt that tore through his chest, and out the other side, leaving just a big hole where his chest and vital organs should be.
It’s here that we pick up the start of today’s session… let the battle, commence!
Act One: Episode 50 – Only Fools Rush In!
