Mattsters of the Mattiverse Session 21

...last episode

• Apt's soul is shuffled to beyond the Veil. The Summoner Yoa and her soulmate Try join the cause for another attempt.

Sewer Access Part Deux

• The party, with more sewer knowledge, decides to use its previous entry strategy.
• Hobgoblin sky patrols still occasionally blot out stars, following the pattern the party has already observed.
• Navigating the sewers proceeds quickly and without incident. They arrive back at the scene of Apt's untimely demise.
  • The corpses of the otyughs met earlier in the sewers have disappeared, carried away by denizens unknown.
  • In contrast, the carnage in the Otyugh Queen's den is relatively undisturbed. However, there are signs of humanoid (probably wererat) passage all over the grounds, although it has been days since there was last passage.
  • The party diligently ignores the splotchy pool of human blood among the rest of the refuse.
• A well breaches the surface into the sewer area, here. It comes up near a great square with a giant statue of Alexandria, only a few hundred feet away from the cathedral. After a bit of scouting, the party decides to exit the sewer here and continue the rest of the way aboveground.
• They approach the cathedral with some care.
• The windows are all blackened out, and their design is impossible to make out.
  • There is a lingering mist in the area. It seems to cling to the cathedral.
  • They discover on approach, with little surprise, that it is associated with strong magic. After several failed attempts to discern the source [ed: three ones in a row :/], it is discovered to be of the Conjuration(teleportation) school.
  • The party enters through the door on the cemetery side.

The Cathedral of... Alexandria?

• Inside, the cathedral is maintained and in good repair. Candles provide a soft light, and a mild breeze wafts through its chambers.
• In contrast to outside, the windows are clearly visible and lit from an unknown source from behind. Their designs are distinctly non-Alexandrian. In general, the iconography of the church is sinister, and in no particular order, the differences noticed by the party are listed below:
  • "The one on the south wall is of a figure cloaked in red robes with a skull for a head. Red embers burn in the place of eyes. He holds a scepter and an orb, and wears a crown of iron inset with a single, purple gem."
  • "The same figure appears in the windows to the west and east. These two feature the same figure, though in one it has no orb and in the other there is no scepter. Here, only, the figure is wreathed in flame. In the hand missing either the orb or the scepter, for both figures, there is an iron band around its wrist, where no such band appears on the south-wall-figure's wrists. The two figures also have crowns, but their gems have been replaced with coal-black stones."
  • "The alcoves are prayer nooks. However, the frescoes and carvings are of bones and ossuaries and chains, not of cherubs and martial scenes."
  • "This is a stained glass widow of a giant stone tower, from the perspective of a person on the ground looking up. The stone tower is wrapped in chains. At the top of the tower is a single window, an blood red glow atop a mountain of greys, blues and blacks."
  • In the nave: "These stained glass windows are all identical. A leering, doughy man with pinpricks for eyes wearing the outfit of a clown or a jester. But, there is no gaiety in the image: the colors are sickly greens and purples. He holds in his hand four bones, splayed out in two crosses like a marionette's control bar. At the end of six strings dangling from the bars are six cheap, fraying rag dolls. Though he, too, wears iron manacles, he still controls the grisly marionettes."
• The windows do not appear to be new construction and seem as old as the rest of the cathedral despite not matching Yoa's memories of the place before the fall of the city.
• As the party traverses the floor of the nave, the sound of crying children echoes faintly around the chamber, and a light breeze gusts softly around them. They notice a font of bubbling, thick fluid. From this distance, it appears to be blood. It slowly overfills its container and spreads slowly across the floor.
  • About halfway across the nave, the liquid begins to assert itself purposefully. Bringing itself together into a coherent mass, it forms into two [www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/oozes/ebon-ooze-fgg/ ebon oozes] that begin lurching across the floor.
  • At the same time, dust motes in the air coalesce into an incorporeal image of a child. It wears a burial shroud, and its fingers have had their flesh worn to the bone, as if from digging. It is a wraith. More appear in turns--in all, six assault the party, appearing directly next to party members as they show themselves.
  • Everyone starts getting into position.
  • The first wraith attacks Russ and sucks away some of his life force. Try retaliates on Russ's behalf, but doesn't finish it. Edi summons a spiritual ally, whose sword of force is able to remove the wraith from concern.
  • Russ throws a bomb at the oozes, which gets their attention very effectively. One immediately approaches him and slams a pseudopod, critically wounding Russ and enveloping him into its grasp (a critical, then a spectacular roll on the free grab attempt).
  • Try shoots arrows into things while Yoa brings up haste. Edi's ally finishes off another wraith while Edi channels a heal to bring Russ back into a safer zone of health. Gokar rushes the other ooze.
  • Russ, in a violent flurry of attacks, has a strongly negative impact on the structural integrity of the ooze that contains him. It dissolves around him as he breathes heavily, covered in strange fluids.
  • The other ooze lurches about, mindlessly snapping at Gokar, who very narrowly avoids the pseudopod.

• • Yoa summons a hound archon, who gleefully tears into the ooze.
  • Try's arrows puff a wraith out of existence, despite being at half effectiveness. He and Gokar both set into the other ooze, which is severely damaged by the assault, and then quickly finished off.
  • Another wraith dies in here somewhere.
  • Two of the wraiths have appeared next to Yoa and Edi, by this point. Yoa, not familiar with the wraiths' lifesense ability, attempts to disengage with a casting of invisibility. The wraith doggedly pursues her despite that, but does not connect a blow.

• • Gokar finishes the other ooze, and rushes back to protect Edi, landing a charging blow.
  • Yoa, noticing she has no way to damage the wraiths, runs back toward the entrance in a panic. Try moves to interpose himself in front of the wraiths. The hound archon uselessly attacks, as well, discovering the limits of its corporeal nature against the opponent.
  • Russ charges the wraith threatening Edi, and Edi's spiritual ally finishes it off. Try and Gokar each get another. The last one appears next to Russ. It misses, and Russ's full attack makes short work of it.
• After everything is put to rest, the chamber quiets. The sobbing sound, and the breeze, are gone. The font no longer overflows, the dark stain on the floor a still puddle.
  • They are able to get a better look at the fluid, now, and note that it is not actually blood, but some eldritch compound that smells of rotten eggs.
• The archon touches everyone to give them aid before it poofs back to its home.
• The party makes haste to investigate the rest of the chamber. Gokar drinks an extract of Detect Undead in the hopes of not being surprised by any more spooky wraiths.

Awards

• 600 xp to all from the oozes
• 1800 xp to all from the child wraiths
• 50 xp to Gokar for a knowledge check