Dramatis Personae
+Frotz Self as Varouj
+Ronnie Whelan as Ronnina
Loot
14 Alchemical Essences, worth 250cc each. Sold for xp.
That’s 3500cc, or 1750 cc/xp each
NPC Interactions
Dividia Gaym died.
Robot Monster did not really notice Dividia had ever joined the party. Loyalty is unaffected by her death. Remains 10.
Sheniqua is sad Dividia died, but thems the breaks in the adventurer life. Loyalty remains 11.
The Hangman – Her real name is Suzan. Hah!
Rotwood – A servant of Penelope the Seleucid. Wears a blue duster, and had his mouth removed.
Penelope the Seleucid – A Comet Caller wizard who seems to know a lot more than the party does about The Internet.
Rulings: Doctor Visits
If players have at least 3 hours to spare, and are in a safe, populous area of the dome, they may pay for help from a doctor. (This can only be done once).
Doctors automatically succeed at the Heal skill. Players must pay 1000cc per level of success they want. Ergo, 1000cc will buy 1hd of restoration, 2000cc will buy 2hd of restoration, and 3000cc will buy 3hd of restoration.
Rulings: Animate Drone
Ronnina animated a sort of remote controlled zombie drone. Here’s how the hit dice were divided.
1 to animate the creature with 1hd.
1 to see through its eyes
1 to direct its walking movements by thought
1 to perform basic actions with it by thought
1 to be able to use one of its special arm attacks (but not the other)
4 for added hit dice.
Highlights Recap
As the two door guards moved off to check on the noise from the window Varouj broke, the rest of the party decided to bolt for the entrance to the compound. As they ran over the four mounds of dirt around the entrance however, another one of the guards jumped up out from each, surrounding the party and preventing them from moving any further.
Meanwhile, the two guards who went to check on Varouj noticed his footprints, and began to follow them. Varouj tried to lead them on a wild goose chase, but their sense of hearing was good enough to pick up on where he was, and they attacked. (At a minus 6 penalty due to his invisibility).
The two groups struggled in separate combats, with severe injuries traded back and forth on both sides. Dividia was killed early on. Ronnina managed to insta-kill two of them by opening up a fire portal beneath them, and dropping them into the fire plane. Varouj took some heavy hits, despite being invisible. He peppered his attackers with stabs, but it took a dozen or more to take one down.
The larger group finished managed to overcome their foes first, and split the party. Sheniqua went to help Varouj, while Ronnina and Robot Monster prepared to throw a pipe bomb into the entry hall of the building. Before they could open the door, however, the creatures inside opened it, and attacked again.
Ronnina managed to roll the pipe bomb into the room between their legs, blowing the new group to pieces in an instant. Meanwhile, Sheniqua and Varouj mopped up the two they’d been fighting. The party regrouped, their strength much depleted, and prepared to enter the building.
Varouj turned 3 of the viable corpses into Alchemical Essences, while Ronnina animated the last to create a kind of “remote control drone” with limited abilities. The party stepped inside.
There they were greeted by a giant mouth, which asked them why they heck they had done this very stupid thing that they had done. Varouj stepped forward, and answered that the party didn’t really want to make a mess, they were just here to flip a switch, and then would be on their way. The mouth replied that this sounded reasonable enough, except that they were trespassing, and that the mouth’s job was to kill trespassers. Varouj suggested that they might work out a deal, and perhaps even be willing to pay for the damage they’d caused. The mouth agreed that while that might satisfy it, it wasn’t the one that needed to be satisfied. It was just doing a job for someone else, same as the party.
Varouj asked if perhaps they could talk with the person in charge, but the mouth countered that this would require him to let the party live, which was explicitly against his mandate. Varouj pressed the point, saying that the party would leave for a bit, and come back at a specified time. The mouth considered this, and agreed. The party should leave for 3 hours, then return. If nothing else, it would give the mouth time to prepare an even more robust defense. Varouj agreed, and the party retreated.
They visited a doctor to get their injuries tended to, and spent some time getting a nice meal, before returning. As they crested over the hill of cars, they saw 6 of the guard creatures around the door, with 12 more digging themselves into holes. Varouj called out to them, asking if the party could approach. They were waved forward, and continued back inside.
There, they again met the mouth. This time, there was a man in a blue duster with curly greaser hair standing on the balcony above the mouth. The man’s own mouth was sewn over, and he seemed to be gesturing in time with the larger mouth below.
The man, Rotwood, welcomed the party back, and asked them to wait a moment. He went to a nearby door, knocked, then opened the door slightly to say something to someone inside. He then closed the door, and stood quietly beside it while everyone waited for about 5 minutes.
An old woman came out. She looked to be about 50-60 years old, and was 4’11” tall. She introduced herself as Penelope the Seleucid, and asked what interest the Internet had with her facility.
The party was momentarily speechless. They’d never encountered anyone outside the Internet who had heard of it before. The woman pressed on, asking “which one of them sent you?” When the party answered that they worked for The Hangman, she replied “Ah, little Suzie! Well, she knows what it costs to do business with me.”
The party asked what it would cost, and she asked what it was they were after. The party explained that they just needed to flip a swtich, and Penelope studied them. She said they’d need 36 souls if they wanted to flip it, and sent Rotwood out to go find the switch in question.
Since the party didn’t have the souls on hand, she dismissed them, and told them to see her when they could afford it. The party left, and immediately contacted the Hangman. They explained the situation, and when The Hangman learned that Penelope the Seleucid owned the building, she responded with a “FUUUUuuuuu!” rageface meme. She asked if Penelope had revealed anything, and the warty wisely lied and said “Just that she knows you,” without revealing that they’d learned The Hangman’s name.
The Hangman replied “good.”
The party then asked The Hangman how they might most effectively get some souls. She said she didn’t have any herself, but that there was probably two or three Soul Extractor’s floating around the Internet. She could arrange for the party to get in contact with someone, but they’d probably want some work done in exchange for being allowed to use it.
She also mentioned that there were probably a number of Soul Extractors in Comet Caller territory (where the party was). She could furnish them a list if they liked, and they could either steal it, or try to pay to borrow it.
The party decided to retire to a fancy hotel while they planned their next move, and the session ended In Media Res