Session 25 - The One Where They Ran Away
30th Oct 2021 19:45 - 23:00
In-game timeline: DR1489 Elesias 29 - Eleasias 29
Our "Heroes" stand above a flooded hold and discuss who will jump into the dark, wet hold. Carro asks the prescient question of "How much exactly are we bothered about getting this lockbox?", which is a strange question to ask now, having spent the last couple of hours fighting their way to this point in order to get the lockbox.
The question turns to whether they should face the fiend that TC detected in the fore cabin, behind the closed door. After much discussion, they decide to face the fiend!
Readying various actions, Kandi opens the door and TC peers in. Nothing obvious is moving, so no actions are triggered. The room contains thick webbing and four bundles of webbing are hanging from the ceiling. A mysterious pattern in chalk is drawn on the floor around the central mast in the room, and a table has what they later find out to be a golden chalice filled with blood and a ceremonial knife. TC uses his mage hand to get the chalice and knife without going into the room and stashes them in his backpack.
As TC burns away much of the webbing with his mage-handed torch, Carro goes in and approaches one of the hanging bundles of webbing, which seems to be moving. As Carro attempts to cut down the hanging 'cocoon' it suddenly rips open and a hideous creature which is almost all mouth and teeth with a few bulging eyes forces its way out of the webbing, seemingly sensing the living form next to it.
As the big-mouthed monster attacks Carro, the elf responds with some quick reactions and does some significant damage to the creature, and Kandi then steps into the room and viciously mocks the monster to death!
Unfortunately as that happens, the party spot another creature bursting from one of the other cocoons in the room - it seems the action in the room is exciting the previously webbed creatures! TC fires off an eldritch blast at it but misses. As the creature rushes over to Carro, who is still the only person in the room, the remaining two cocoons start to writhe and two more monsters break free!
The players are facing three of these creatures and blows are landed on both sides. Eventually TC works out that these creatures may actually be the fiends that he previously detected in this room and he channels the power of his Deity into trying to turn the creatures.
Two of them fail against the turning, and they run to the front of the ship - TC is standing in the doorway so the prow end of this room is the furthest they can reach away from TC. This allows the party to focus on the single demon that seems unphased by TC's divine intervention and it doesn't last long, with Carro dealing the final death-blow with his shortsword.
With two frightened demons cowering away from TC remaining, the paladin runs into the room and hits one of them hard with his magical sword. This breaks the fear and the demon responds by attacking TC. The other demon is still frightened, and with TC now away from the door and standing very close, it runs away, out of the door and into the darkness of the hallway beyond, from where the party came.
Mahtis is unable to see very far down this corridor, but hears a thud from the far end. She casts entangle at her end of the corridor, causing it to become difficult terrain to anyone walking over it. Kandi throws his bardic inspiration around as if it were candy, but they prove useful in aiding the others to kill the monsters. TC manages to take out the last demon in the room with his flaming longsword.
At this point, Mahtis sees a door open at the far end of the corridor she is standing in, casting light over the demon that seems to then flee into the far room, still running away from TC. Hoping that this buys them a little time, Mahtis retreats back into the room with the rest of the party, still maintaining the grasping tendrils of entangle in the corridor.
Unfortunately this proves to be the turning point for the battle, and for the players. As they regroup in the fore cabin, wondering about how they will take care of the last demon that ran away, they are confronted by a large ball of fire that suddenly appeared in the doorway of their room, and that proceeded to move towards Mahtis, burning her. Shortly after they see a giant spider scuttling across the ceiling of the corridor outside their room, and a large humanoid with slightly orcish features walking purposefully down the corridor.
TC tries to persuade the humanoid that they mean no harm, whilst Mahtis babbles something about crabs nipping tonight. The half-orc standing in the corridor ignores the mad ramblings of the dragonborn and tell the party to leave his ship. Now.
Mahtis thinks that this may be the previous captain, Cranfall Beaumont. TC thinks it may be captain Bree. It seems to be neither of them. The party are given one chance to get off the ship. They decide to at least head up to the top deck and discuss their options and so they quietly and somewhat sheepishly exit the room and, avoiding the giant spider and the half-orc, climb up the rope that they had left up the grate to the top deck. They are followed by the giant spider and the flaming ball of fire.
As our group of "Heroes" congregate on the top deck, they discuss their options. They (somewhat indiscreetly) talk about their chances of killing all the creatures they can see and still manage to get the lockbox. Their initially positive thoughts of battle are somewhat dampened when the giant spider and flaming sphere are joined by another large spider, which seems to magically appear right next to TC, before rearing up and baring its fangs, then disappears again.
They reassess their chances against this new creature, as well as the ones that have already seen, as the half-orc appears at the doorway of the navigator's cabin, having come up via another route. He walks out of the room, telling them to leave the ship immediately, and he is followed by another giant spider and an ettercap that emerge from that room too. The odds seem stacked against them. They are now faced by a half-orc spellcaster, a flaming sphere, two giant spiders and another spider that seems to be able to become invisible. And they are only the ones the party are currently aware of.
With their options getting fewer and fewer, low health and not too many spells available, facing bad odds, and all for the sake of a lockbox of unknown contents, our brave "Heroes" decide that discretion is the better part of valour, and they run away. They leave the ship, signalling the sailors who are waiting in a nearby rowboat, and escaping the ship.
And so we leave our "Heroes" retreating back to the Evening Mist, having for now given up on their attempt at getting the lockbox. Despondent. But alive!