The Price of the Underhive - Part 3

Participants

• Damek Lestus
• Tingle
• Kaladan of Norixius
• Arden Rook
• Zeek the Zapper
• Iria

Recap

Kal awoke suddenly, his scaled fist wrapped around his blade's hilt. The abandoned underhive garage where he and the rest of JKS lay resting was quiet, his companions dozing or otherwise resting quietly. Still, something in his core told him to be ready.

A low thud, almost imperceptible by his ears but felt deep in his chest, emanated from somewhere outside the garage. Then voices, muffled, shouting in anger, and drawing closer. Kal's hand tightened on the hilt.

The wall nearby exploded before the dragonborn could warn his guild of possible danger. A dark shape shot into the garage among the debris, splashing into the waterlogged depression of the lower floor.

Quick to their feet, the enforcers moved to investigate whatever entered the room, shattering any illusion of sanctuary they had created for themselves during downtime.

A battle had erupted right into the chamber in which they rested. A drow warrior, dressed in fine battle leathers, stormed in through the breach in the wall, after his quarry who lay in the water before him. Upon seeing a small force in front of him, he hesitated.

Arden did not. The bard, not waiting to find out the details behind this violent outburst, unleashed a psychic attack that caught the white-haired drow off guard. JKS follows suit with a series of attacks as the drow weathers the blows, exchanging a few of his own.

From behind the fray, some kind of magic began to concentrate on the unconscious man who lay in the water, swirling around him in a golden mist. It almost went unnoticed due to the violence unfolding, until a fully revived human monk rose above the water itself, floating just above the surface, the golden mist forming into a solid staff within his grasp.

Like a dawning realization that things had gone terribly wrong, the drow slowly turned to see a flurry of powerful blows descend upon him from the very man he thought he had defeated moments ago. This new fear was quickly replaced by the emptiness of the void, as the monk's powerful blow put all his thoughts into permanent blackness.

It was Kal who first recognized the man, now settled back onto his feet on the rusting underive factory floor. It was Damek Lestus, a former JKS enforcer, who Becky had let go from his duties years ago to fulfill a divine search. Damek sought out the scattered teachings of an ancient monk master, Dalora. Along the way, it seems, this search has garnered the wrong kind of attention. Unsure and rattled regarding why anyone would hunt him for this peaceful pursuit of knowledge, Damek is relieved to see friendly faces all the same.

Refreshed from the brewing of Zeek's ales, the mini-reunion quickly ends as the group still has a job to finish. Damek joins in, certainly welcome to be among allies when he could actively be being hunted.

Upon entering the garage, JKS stumbles upon a Kuo-Toa attempting to drag a large piece of plumbing with him out of the building. Moving quickly, the group cuts off any means of escape, but the fish-man remains elusive. Erodus finally puts a well-placed arrow through his spine to end the chase before it began. The last piece of pump-parts now in hand, JKS decides to clear the remaining area of the factory district of any Kuo-Toa infestation before trying to fix things up and head back home. The guard tower looms ahead, and they make a stealthy approach.

Tingle's spider skitters ahead, alerting the group to the presence of at least one hostile inside, potentially alone. It reports back, and the group formulates a plan.

Zeek might have been daydreaming about a new brew formula, as he suddenly realized he was tripping over his own feet as he approached the tower behind most of the group. The clatter of his armor broke all surprise they had, so he made the best of it in the only way he could, charging to attack, a spiritual hammer connecting with the soft amphibian skull in front of him.

The remaining members of the group quickly rush in and overwhelm the lone sentry, who had been tormenting some kind of prisoner locked up in a holding cell inside. Panicked, the fish-man tries to run, but JKS cuts off any escape, holding the need for any killing blow, but ready for it all the same. They launch into a brief interrogation.

The answers are the same. Someone, something is "coming". A "her", a "she". There is a sound, or a call, perhaps that is unrelenting, the shaking fish concludes as it trembles in fear. Those asking the questions are not able to get any more coherent information from it.

On the other side of the tower, the remaining members of JKS investigate the holding cells. One, empty aside from a large pile of bones and a rank smell of death. The other, filled with the moans of a large human, delirious with fever. He is unresponsive to any verbal communication.

A nearby lever opens the other cell without issue, and Zeek tries to remove the large man, but his skin seems to be toxic, slightly acidic. Letting go quickly, the cleric looks to the group for their opinion, but without a way to rid the man of his malady, and no way to transport him, the group must leave him to his grim fate.

Eyeing the upper level of the tower, JKS throws their Kuo-toa captive into the cell with the bones, Arden ensures his comfort was appropriately absent.

The upper floor appeared to be absent of any additional squatters, looking to house some supplies, as the long derelict tower no longer required a vantage point for overseeing the area. The supplies, it seemed, were still guarded by devious traps, set by the Grehl ages ago to prevent thievery. As the group closed in on a dead-end room, they triggered a pressure plate, setting loose an enormous rounded stone down the hallway toward them.

Those who could ran for cover, as Tingle and Damek exchanged a knowing glance, and set up the immovable rod between them and the stone, wedging it quickly across the narrow hall. With no time to escape, the two enforcers winced as the stone's tremendous weight and momentum came crashing into the small metal pole between them and certain death.

Alive! Amazed by their own ingenuity, JKS was spared from being crushed to death, but now faced a new issue, as their only means of leaving the tower was now completely blocked. Any hope of moving the stone was likely futile.

Finding some much needed supplies and new tools for their treks into the underhive, JKS fanned out and began to look for a potential way out. After an initial pass turned into a frantic search, a false wall gave way to a hidden area of the tower, not used for decades. This room, likely used for holding Grehl secrets in days past, had deteriorated to the point where the iron floor deteriorated to the point where the group could kick out the fragile remnants of the material and slip back down to the lower level.

One more building remained until this sweep-and-clear was over, so the group gathered themselves quickly, and headed to the worker residence.

What greeted them inside was a macabre scene. Blood and bodies littered the area, distributed among the room, already much in disorder due to the partial flooding.

The dead, Grehl workers by the looks of it, were primarily concentrated near the door of one of the living quarters. By the state of the bodies, the grouped guess that this happened some days ago.

Across the carnage filled room, the embers of a fire still simmered, someone else had passed through here, likely leaving just before JKS entered this district. Aside from a bedroll nearby seeing signs of recent use, ideas regarding who this could have been remained limited.

As JKS investigated further, they moved deeper into the room, choosing their footing carefully, and searched for additional details. The wounds on the dead Grehl appeared to be from some kind of sharp, but ragged weapon, leaving less-than-clean cuts across the skin, which tore and ripped as well as sliced.

Close to the concentration of bodies piled up on the far end of the large main hall, one of the two private rooms with the doors closed showed signs of forced entry. The damage ranged between feeble scratches of claws and nail, to significant dents from weaponry into the metal portal. The door remained firmly in place, as Kal considered using his significant strength to force it.

As the group considered what to make of this, a small cracking and popping sound went almost unnoticed, as the top of the skull of a body at Zeek's feet burst open. The brain, moving with a new, rather deformed set of limbs, crawled out and burst towards the cleric with amazing speed.

The brain latched onto Zeek's face, its small limbs gripping tightly at his skin, muffled screams could be heard from beneath the fleshy quivering body. Erodus, momentarily stunned by the horror of what unfolded in front of him, suddenly snapped into action, his arrow finding his target with deadly accuracy. The brain was knocked from its victim, unmoving.

In a short time, another brain had wrestled itself loose from a body, but JKS was ready this time. While Damek took a quick hit from its slicing claw-like appendage, he remained unfazed, and Arden, Iria, and Erodus quickly silenced the freakish creature with a flurry of reactionary attacks. As soon as the small monstrosity was dead, a silence fell over the group once again, it was only then that they noticed something was wrong with Zeek.

His mind was gone. A glossy stare replaced the normal neon fire within his eyes, and a bit of drool dripped down his well kept beard. Able to stand on his own, but little else, the group moved to explore the rest of this building before heading back to take care of their own, and leave the horrors of this place behind them.

Kal breaks the momentary silence by managing to force the metal hatch open with brute strength. Whatever may have barred several attackers from getting into this room earlier, must have given way.

Inside the small quarters, the body of a female elf lay on the disheveled bed inside, blood from a single, star-shaped wound dripped onto the floor beside her. This wound, aside from the shape being different from those on the Grehl outside, was cleaner, smoother in its cut. The weaponry used clearly were not the same.

Erodus, seeing the elf who he was likely searching for, turned her over to reveal Nellulon markings on her garb. He then launched into a frantic search of the room, looking for anything in terms of clues or traces of the elf's work left behind. Tingle meanwhile scanned the room for magics, only finding a faint trace of magics leaving the body of the Nellulon researcher. It was during this detailed search that the group noticed the difference between the state of the bodies outside the room, and that of the elf. Whatever occurred here, may not have occurred at the same time. The Grehl appeared to have been dead for several days now, while the elf was only recently deceased. Within the last 24-36 hours.

With the area searched and cleared, JKS finally headed back to the pump station with their parts. With the aid of the manual, the pump started whirring again, and for now, with the kuo-toa infestation cleared, things should remain operational as long as Boundfur sends his men down here to reclaim the area. JKS gathered themselves to head back to the Rave, where home seemed like a clouded memory after the long days in the darkness below.

Live Notes

Short rest

• Kal awakes to the sound of two similar voices in conflict
• The wall explodes open and someone comes crashing through

INITIATIVE

• Two-bladed shmuck busts in beating on some other dude
• Some other dude takes a swing and misses
• Two-bladed shmuck lays into other dude, knocking him unconscious with a pair of vicious hits
• JKS starts giving this dude what for
• Arden slings vicious mockery
• Zeek cracks with a hammer
• Tingle shorts his hand
• Shmuck whiffs a few swings
• Arden starts to cook the dude's shirt
• Iria sinks an arrow
• something begins to dissolve and float out of the dude's pockets
• Zeek fails to connect with his hammer
• Erodus whiffs with his longbow, hanging back
• Other dude suddenly surges with energy, regaining all HP, floating 1" above the ground, quarterstaff bolstered, sinks a flurry of solid 20s
• A bunch of misses and weak hits follow from JKS
• Shmuck nails a few good ones
• Other guy gets fed up, steps up with a headbutt of righteousness that ends the aggressor

Reunion

• Awkward greetings and drink-sharing ensue
• Kal recognizes the dude as Damek
• Turns out Damek is old old old school JKS, been disappeared for a while
• He had left to pursue knowledge unattainable staying put, so left on good terms
• Damek suddenly remembers us
• Searching for ancient writings of master Dalora. searching for scroll when attacked by shmuck

To the Transport Garage

• We begin to investigate

Initiative!

• Tingle envelops himself in a block of concrete
• Some light insults and attacks are traded
• Arrows fly. Some connect, not for a lot.
• Erodus connects with one for several
• Ardens insults just aren't connecting
• Several solid hits connect with nothing in return
• Erodus ends it

To the Guard Tower

• Tingle sends Skinny The Spider in ahead to check things out
• He does a great job relaying the info
• Zeek tries to sneak up and immediately kicks us into

Initiative!

• We are aware of the fish dude from Skinny's intelligence as we approach the doorway from the outside
• Everyone strategically approaches in formation around the doorway. ready to rock
• Zeek enters. a spiritual hammer appears in midair and cracks fishy upside the dome for a few
• Monk rushes in. Flurries furiously, but does kind of not a lot
• Fishy tries to make a show, but decides to try to book
• Nick posts some weird shit. Cliff saves the day by scrolling it out of the chat
• Arden inclines for a momentary hesitation.
• Iria draws but holds in compliance.
• Everyone elects to ready but threateningly hold
• The fish yields
• Zeek: "What are you keeping down here?"
• Fish: "... no mercy... we only come to HER sound...". overcome, trembling in fear.
• Further questions are just met with further cowering
• Tingle shows him the "her" note
• The fish gazes at it in wonder "she comes, she calls us, the call never stops, it never stops..."
• Some of the party investigate the cell containing a fat naked guy
• Turns out flipping the lever opens the cell. Who knew!?
• The fat naked guy turns out to be difficult to move
• We try dragging him out by a rope
• At this point, and only this point, we decide to question whether physically removing him is necessary
• He can't really communicate and we see no reason to move him, so we prop him against the wall and leave him
• We lock the fish dude in a cage. Arden prestidigitates some shit in there with him.
• The group proceeds upstairs to the opening of a hallway. There are stairs down to reach the next platform.
• A wheel is beside the chasm. We turn it. A weak rush of air disturbs the torches, seems like a system that isn't really firing.
• Right about here, the cops show up to question Mike about using a fake hundo for chinese food
• A giant boulder starts rolling down the hall towards us Indiana Jones style
• Kal grabs the contents of a chest in the room while he can
• Tingle and Damek rig up a super clever plan with the Immovable Rod that stops the boulder cold... right in the hallway we used to get in here
• So... now we need to get out. 🤨
• After some investigation, we find a secret room that leads us out

To The Worker Residence

• Flood damaged, dead bodies (Grehl uniformed) floated and strewn
• Bodies appear to have been killed by single, ragged wounds from crude weapons
• A recent fire is smoldering, indicating someone was here within the last few hours
• Medical checks fail to reveal... well... anything, really
• Search sort of blindly around the room
• Tingle starts to search for magic
• A brain bursts from a body with weird animalistic legs

Initiative!

• We make a couple of preparatory moves against the brain
• The brain annihilates Zeek's intelligence
• Erodus takes the thing down with an arrow shot
• Another brain pops up and levels Damek
• Arden stabs one
• Iria lays in hard with an arrow
• Erodus finishes another one off

• Looting the rooms, we find a dead elf with a star-shaped wound
• A journal is in this room with a log of the last few days.
• Tingle checks magic - nothing from the journal, but a little from the dead elf
• Erodus recognizes the dead elf - it was who he was looking for
• Arden sets off a trap and gets fairly roasted, but we get a bunch of loot

🎉 Level up to Level 4 🎉

Loot