Session 38 – Bubble Snek Makes A Sale

Dramatis Personae

+Linlin Kins as Umquat
+Frotz Self as Varouj
+Ronnie Whelan as Ronnina
+Adventures of the Mind as Don Harper of Mars

Loot

47 Credits looted from a discarded clothing heap.
That’s 10 XP & Credits for Umquat, Ronnina, and Don Harper.
17 XP & Credits for Varouj, because he found them and decided to split them that way.

Umquat purchased a Sash of Holding for 6,600 credits. It holds 3 weapons which add no encumbrance.
Umquat purchased a hat made of a thin, crinkly metal that will break after it is worn once. The wearer is immune to mind effectin spells and psionic attacks, but cannot speak anything but incoherent babble while wearing it. It cost 3000 credits.
Umquat purchased a pair of gloves that chill drinks for 300 credits.
Don Harper purchased a blood red cube Ioun stone (#430) The next 3 times he hits 0hp, he will immediately jump back up to 1 hp. It cost 20,000 credits.
Ronnina purchased a peacock feather for 300 credits.
Umquat purchased a housecat sized Grizzley Bear for 5000 credits.
Umquat purchased an Arrow of Unmaking for 600 credits. Very fragile. Target struck must save versus Poison, or the arrow goes back in time and kills their parents before they were born.
Frotz purchased a longsword. On a successful hit, roll 1d4. On a 1, 2, or 3, the sword deals 1 damage. On a 4, it deals 12 damage. This cost 5000 credits.
Umquat spent 1000 credits to purchase a box of entrancing chocolates. When given to someone, they eat them, and their reaction becomes friendly.
Ronnina purchased a shortsword for 15,000 credits. It deals 1d6 damage. On a killing blow, the target explodes into a cone of boiling blood 20′ long. Anyone caught int the cone takes 3d6 damage, save v. Breath for half.

NPC Interactions

Bubble Snek – The party was polite, and purchased the whole inventory of the store! Bubble Snek regards them as excellent customers.
Robot Monster – Varouj showed great respect for Robot Monster, as well as transferring to him a great sum of money. Robot monster is very happy to have joined Varouj’s organization, and his Bond has leaped up to (4)
Twitchy Man – The party released him, and he disappeared before their eyes. It’s unclear where he went, but it does seem that he went somewhere.

Highlights Recap

After returning from the last session, the party retrieves the man they had tied up in their cart, whom they had believed to be undergoing mutation, but had demanded to be left alone. He is no longer twitching, but his body is completely limp except for his face. He is adamant that he does not want to go to the hospital, and does not consent to treatment. He claims to have a disease that will soon kill him, and that he just wants to die in peace. Also, when he dies, he will explode and kill people nearby, so he needs to be somewhere alone.

The party finally consents to this, and they wheel him out to a quiet, isolated area where he can be alone. However, Don Harper makes a sleight of hand check to set up a video chat on his phone, and slip the phone into the man’s pockets. After they “leave,” Don and Umquat sneak back to watch the man from the bushes.

For 10 minutes, there is silence, then the man’s mouth opened, and strange sounds came out of him. Inhuman sounds, similar in composition to the connection sound of an old dial up internet connection. A moment later, he dematerialized. The signal from the video chat dropped for a moment, and approximately 7 seconds later it reconnected. Unfortunately, the new signal was incredibly weak. Only two frames were visible: a kind of rubber, cement floor with a red color; and a wall full of lights. The party also heard four syllables: “Mal”…”Pare”…”ute”

With nothing further to be done, the party saved what they’d gotten, and moved on.

While investigating the disappearance of Galens Brook, Umquat learned that He, Virgil, and The Hangman had all gotten together to do drugs. Virgil had murdered his neighbor, and he and the Hangman ran off. Galens laid still for a long time, until the drugs wore off him, then chased after them.
They had gone down into a side street, where Virgil and the Hangman had fought while Virgil was passed out. The Hangman killed him, and all that was left was a greasy sludge on the ground, which the locals avoided.

Some months later, members of The Cult of the Cosmic Mind Cube appeared, scooped the sludge into a bucket, and left. The party has decided to delay further investigation for now.

Ronnina paid a hefty chunk of her now considerable fortune to purchase most of the remaining components needed for her immortality spell. A number of alchemical odments, some glass jars, she collected some blood from herself and from a friend, and paid the considerable expense required for a gold chain that could encircle 10′ of soil. All that remains is a sacrifical victim, and the blood of an enemy.

After some consideration, Ronnina settled on hunting down Mongrel the Magician, whom she had declared to be an enemy some time ago, and whose slaves she had helped to free. The party agreed, and all set out for the lighting tower on Elling street where Mongrel was said to keep his laboratory.

On the way, the party encountered a hole dug into the ground with a garden arch over it, reading “Casey’s Curios.” They poked their heads inside and met a snake, only slightly larger than an average Boa Constrictor. When it opened its mouth, bubbles came out, and when these bubbles popped, the sounds they made formed words. She greeted them warmly, and offered to show them her inventory.

The players purchased every single item she had for sale, which is fully detailed under the “loot” section above. The snek was quite pleased with her sale. When asked about Casey, she could give no particular information.
Further along, the party encountered a purple sand, with a gooey latticework running through it. They attempted to speak with the sand, but when it did not respond, they opted instead to backtrack a bit to go around it.

Now well within Comet Caller territory, the party encountered a skeleton work crew. One was pumping a bellows, made from living human faces sewn together. The bellows stoked a fire inside an overturned cement mixer. Another skeleton moved around the edge of the mixer, using human corpses to grease up the exterior, and tossing aside the corpses when there wasn’t enough meat to continue the greasing process. Two more skeletons worked to disrobe the human corpses (none of which had any visible signs of trauma) and tossed the clothes aside.

The party attempted to speak with the skeletons, but they made no reply to the inquiries the players made. The players rifled through the clothing, which the Skeletons did not object to. After 5 minutes, Varouj pulled out 47 credits.

Finally, the party came to the Lightning Bolt Tower on Elling Street. Made of cement painted yellow, and somehow balanced on its point, it looked reminiscent of the logo for an old television show–“The Power Rangers”–that the party had seen broken merchandise for scattered around the dome.

In front of the tower’s door stood a great big gorilla wearing a space helmet.
Varouj approached, and struck up a friendly conversation with the creature. It identified itself as Robot Monster. Varouj inquired as to whether Robot Monster would like enter Verouj’s employ for 5000 credits a month.

Robot Monster accepted the offer almost immediately, revealing that Mongrel the Magician apparently did not pay him at all. As if creating a creature from scratch meant that creature was bound to obey you for no reason. Varouj treated Robot Monster with notable respect and deference, despite the fact that Robot Monster demonstrated itself to be a fairly stupid creature, with an undue confidence in its own intelligence and understanding. None the less, it appears capable.

As the party prepared to enter Mongrel’s tower, we ended In Media Res