Divine Lojack #MoreTentacles - December 23, 2022

 - Osiris surfaces in the Material Plane, Rusty is no where to be seen

- There is a kerfuffle about the missing Rusty

- Osiris Sends to Rusty, "Where are you? Are you alive? I thought you would be back with our friends. Please don't tell me you're dead."

- Meanwhile, Rusty wakes up under a cloudless blue sky surrounded by sand being nearly blinded by the sun, "Not dead. I think I'm on the  right plane. I think I'm in a desert. Lots of sand. No clouds. Bright sun. Let you know."

- "How is he gonna let me know?" LOL.

- Raiàn says that he might be in the desert where she's from, which a long way away, but there are other deserts in the world

- Theophania takes charge and assigns Lyrielle the job of parkouring back to the city guard (Dunkin McCloud) who showed up to check on them because they've been gone for THREE DAYS, tells Osiris to commune with Mishakal and see if she can get some information about Rusty's location, and then Raiàn, Tina, and she will work on closing the portal

- Osiris gets an answer! She sees the entirety of the Material Plane like a globe spinning in space and she starts zooming in on the northern continent and it moves further and further west past the mountains into the desert (west of Rhoanor and north of old Laufburg in the middle of the desert)

- Raiàn, Lyrielle, and Dunkin see a tentacle pierce the surface of the "liquid"

- Lyrielle dashes across the surface of the "lake" and jumps onto the rope Dunkin has lowered from the level above

NOT MORE TENTACLES!! (BATTLE)

- Theophania casts Flaming Sphere next to the Tentacle monster and deals 17 fire dmg to it

- The Tentacle Monster moves away from the ball of fire and then grabs Lyrielle in a tentacle and yanks her towards it

- Raiàn throws a fireball and deals 26 fire dmg to the TM

- The Beholder Guy surfaces and moves closer to the group protecting Tina and shoots Tiff and her boots magic is suppressed

- Lyrielle breaks free of the tentacle holding her, then takes Patient Defense, and moves back towards the entry to prevent the monsters from getting up into the city

- A dog-looking creature that has pointy spider feet instead of paw surfaces (Spider Dog) runs up to Tiff and stabs her twice for a total of 18 piercing dmg

- Dunkin McCloud slides down the rope and ends up waist deep in the "lake" has a moment of shock and then shoots his shortbow at the TM, but he misses twice

- A SECOND SPIDER-DOG APPEARS and then runs over and stabs Tiff twice for a total of 13 piercing dmg

- Osiris pulls out her shield interposing herself between Tina and SD2 and she casts Greater Invisibility on Tina

- End of round: The lake of inky darkness shrinks by about 5' from the far edge

- Tiff graze the BG with her FS for 6 fire dmg then she takes the Dodge action

- TM tentacle grabs Lyrielle and Dunkin and pulls them both 25' towards him then moves to them 10' and bites Dunkin for 20 piercing dmg

- Raiàn takes a step to the side and then casts another Fireball on the BG and both SDs (12 fire dmg to the BG and 25 fire to the SDs)

- BG moves closer to the group around Tina by 15' then shoots an unaffected Osiris with something

- Lyrielle whacks the TM biting Dunkin for 13 bludgeoning dmg and then misses punching it then kicks it for 9 bludgeoning dmg, but it manages not to be Stunned

- SD3 appears and runs over to Lyrielle stabs her for a total of 13 piercing dmg

- SD1 stabs Tiff once for 7 piercing dmg

- Dunkin takes a deep breath (bonus Fighting Spirit) and swings four times for a total of 68 slashing dmg (2 crits, 1 miss, 1 hit) and he cleaves it in half! then he moves around Lyrielle to be adjacent to SD3

- SD4 (Ack! FOUR!) appears and moves over to Lyrielle and Dunkin and stabs Dunkin for 4 piercing dmg

- SD3 crits on Dunkin for 12 piercing dmg

- Osiris averts her gaze from the Beholder and she casts Spiritual Weapon and hits SD2 for 8 force dmg then she casts Word of Radiance on the same critter for 9 radiant dmg

- End of the round: Half the large chambers is no longer portal

- Theophania pulls her Flaming Sphere 30' straight towards her and grazes SD1 for 6 fire dmg then she casts Cure Wounds on herself for 17 HP healed

- Raiàn casts Fireball in the same place as her last one getting BG and SD1 for 30 fire dmg

- An enraged BG shoots Tiff and she falls over, then he shoots Osiris and she is Paralyzed for 1 min, then it shoots Raiàn for 10 necrotic dmg then it moves back away from the FS

- Lyrielle whacks SD3 for 7 bludgeoning dmg then punches it for 7 bludgeoning dmg then misses with her kick

- Dunkin moves to flank SD3 with Lyrielle (SD4 misses the OA) and then misses his first attack then slashes into it for 12 slashing dmg

- SD3 misses Lyrielle twice

- SD4 stabs Lyrielle for 6 piercing dmg and then again for 6 piercing dmg

- Osiris is Paralyzed 

- SD5 and SD6 appear

- End of Round: The entire large chamber is no longer in the portal lake.

- Tiff moves her FS and grazes SD6 for 7 fire dmg then she stands up and casts Lesser Restoration on Osiris who is no longer Paralyzed!

- Raiàn casts (you guessed it) Fireball 10' to the left of BG and deals 33 fire dmg to BG and SD5 and 16 on SD6

- BG shoots Tiff for 8 necrotic dmg, then miss her on its second shot, then misses her again

- Lyrielle whacks SD3 for 11 bludgeoning dmg then punches it for 7 bludgeoning dmg and it is dead!

- SD5 and SD6 runs up to Tiff and she is stabbed for 16 total dmg by the two of them

- Dunkin confirms with Lyrielle if she's got SD4 and when she agrees, he turns, pulling out his shortbow and shoots BG for 5 piercing dmg then misses his second shot

- SD4 stabs Lyrielle for 5 piercing then crits for 14 piercing dmg 

- Osiris casts Cure Wounds on Tiff for 20 HP healed then she Spiritual Weapons SD6 for 8 force dmg

- End of the Round: The portal shrinks to only be about 5' in diameter in the center of the small chamber.

- Tiff moves her FS and rams SD6 solidly for 18 fire dmg and he is incinerated! She pulls a little handaxe off her belt and swings it into SD5 for 6 slashing dmg

- Raiàn moves forward and slightly to the right and then casts Cone of Cold across the whole of the small chamber getting BG and SD5 for 20 cold dmg and there are two frozen statues!

- Lyrielle uses her self-heal for 30 HP then Disengages and runs towards her friends

- Dunkin moves over to SD4 an crits for 26 slashing dmg then he misses 

- SD4 misses Dunkin twice

- Osiris Misty Steps 30' next to the Beholder ice sculptor then she she casts Toll the Dead on SD4 for 13 necrotic dmg and she kills it! She then drops Greater Invisibility and we can all see Tina!

END OF BATTLE

Beholder and SD5 ice sculptures 

- Now that we can see Tina, she is obviously concentrating very hard on something, and that goes on for another 12-18 seconds, and then the portal swirls out of existence.

- There's a quick but fairly thorough description of the events that lead up to them being in this underground chamber fighting TMs and BGs (Tiff gets inspiration.)

- Osiris explains about how Rusty ended up on the other side of the continent

- Dunkin is flabbergasted.

-3,000 XP ea for 67,000 XP total ea.

Oops, All Tentacles - December 16, 2022

 - Theophania gives a healing potion to Tina and casts Spider Climb on her as well, and she and Lyrielle (who can also walk on walls because D.M.S.) head down to check out the source of the necrotic energy

- Lyrielle gets to a point where the tunnel is too smooth for her to continue on with Tina, so Tina goes on by herself down the tunnel

- Lyrielle yells to check on her, and after only 10-15 minutes so comes back and says mostly this tunnel is full of the necrotic ooze, and it doesn't seem to continue past the room where the altar was (described to her by Tiff and Osiris)

- Lyrielle and Tina come back and a discussion is had

- Osiris tries shooting the viscous necrotic liquid with Sacred Flame and a tiny little bit of it is destroyed, but then it flowed right back into the hole left by the cantrip

- Tiff then casts Spider Climb on Rusty and he ferries everyone through the tunnel, with Tina and Tiff together as the first trip

- Tina's hand accidentally touches the goo, and it tingles unpleasantly.

- There's a tunnel directly across that has bare stone only 15' or so from the edge of the necrotic liquid

- Rusty jogs back and gets Osiris and makes that trip no problem

- Rusty drops Raiàn into the good halfway through, and it tingles, but doesn't necessarily hurt, and she floats right on the surface

- Raiàn uses Misty Step to get out of the goo, and Rusty drops into the liquid after yelling for her, and because of his density, he sinks until submerged, but when he comes up the environment is changed (looks decayed) and his friends are gone when he swims over to the area he was dropping off his friends

- Osiris and Tiff and Tina call and call for Rusty, and he's not there

- Osiris sends a "Where are you?" message and he says that he thinks the goo is a portal and he fell through because he thought Raiàn fell in

- Rusty sees some kind of movement as he's going to dive back into to see if he can get back to his friends

- Rusty sees a creature that seems to be made entire of tentacles and a creepy mouth that seems to be watching the vibrations of the liquid, probably caused by him falling in and then swimming out?

- The troop who made it across yell to Lyrielle and she manages to D.M.S. her way across the wall / surface of the water

- Rusty can see the ripples of Lyrielle running across the surface, but he doesn't know that's what it is because he's never seen her run across liquids. The tentacle monster seems like it's trying to grab the thing causing the ripples, but there's nothing there yet.

- Tina does some more examination and says she thinks this goo has dissolved the barrier between the planes

- Osiris jumps into the liquid, and surfaces in the decayed mirror world and immediately starts calling for Rusty and he can see the monster can hear her too

- On the ceiling, still spider climbing, Rusty starts heading for Osiris to try to head off the monster, which is easy to do because it's moving slowly and quietly to stalk the new prey in its lake

- Osiris climbs out of the liquid and then jumps back in again and she's back with Tiff, Tina, and Lyrielle

- Tina walks into the liquid does a little somersault, and she's gone and then she almost immediately comes back, so Tiff says they should go look for Rusty since Osiris couldn't find him and she jumps in

- Osiris jumps back in too

- They look around and see nothing. No Rusty and definitely not a tentacle monster

- Tina is popping back and forth erratically showing Raiàn and Lyrielle how to flip back and forth

- Lyrielle goes in

- Raiàn also finally joins the troop

- Lyrielle sees a floating head with tentacle stalks coming off it talking towards them

- She calls the women's attention to it, and so they finally see it

- Osiris finally looks around and sees Rusty clinging to the wall and a giant tentacle monster behind him

BATTLE IN THE UPSIDEDOWN

- Osiris casts Aura of Vitality

- Beholder Guy shoots an eye laser at Lyrielle and she dodges, then it shoots at Osiris and she dodges, and then it shoots a ray at Raiàn which hits for 26 fire dmg

- Raiàn casts Cone of Cold behind her and the BG takes 20 cold dmg

- Tentacle Monster1 flings out a tentacle and Grapples Raiàn then it does the some thing to Lyrielle then it does the same thing to Tina and then it pulls all three to its main body and bites Lyrielle for 23 piercing dmg

- Lyrielle wriggles but does not break free

- TM2 tentacle grabs Rusty, yanks him to it, and then bites him for 20 piercing dmg

- Rusty Rages, then misses hitting the tentacle holding him twice

- Tina panics and casts Magic Missile at TM1 that's holding her for 9 force dmg

- Tiff casts Melf's Acid Arrow on TM1 for 27 acid dmg

- Osiris uses her AoV to heal Raiàn for 11 HP, then she casts Sacred Flame on TM1 

- BG shoots Osiris for 8 necrotic dmg, then misses Tiff with a ray, then hits Lyrielle and her speed is halved

- Raiàn Misty Steps out of the tentacles then casts Firebolt on TM1 but misses

- TM1 misses Osiris and Raiàn with tentacles then bites Tina for 25 piercing dmg, then it takes 8 acid dmg from the melting Arrow

- Lyrielle wriggles out of the tentacle then she Disengages and dives into the good

- TM2 misses Tiff then bites Rusty for 10 piercing dmg

- Rusty cannot wriggle out of the tentacle grappling him

- Tina uses Benign Transposition to teleport out of the grapple and the nopes out through the good

- Tiff casts Melf's Acid Arrow on TM2 for 20 acid dmg then at Osiris's insistence she dives into the goo

- Osiris delays her turn for now

- BG shoots a beam at Raiàn but she dodges then shoots Osiris and pushes her back 10' and her feet is halved then it shoots Raiàn for 17 fire dmg

- Raiàn dives at Osiris's insistence into the goo

- Osiris takes a big calming breath, wishes Rusty luck, casts Banishment on him so that he poofs, then she dives into the goo

- 2,210 XP ea for 64,000 XP total ea.

How to Catch a Necromancer* (*Maybe) - December 2, 2022

Skill Challenge to catch Lady Blackmore the Necromancer

- Lyrielle starts running after her parkouring expertly around obstacles (Acrobatics - Success)

- Rusty also gives chase (Athletics - Success) "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Rusty!"

- Osiris casts Sending trying to imitate Henry to trick her into slowing (Deception - Failure) 

- Raiàn casts Hypnotic Pattern at LB (Arcana - Success!)

- Theophania makes a disorienting smoke bomb with apothecary herbs and her alchemy kit (Nature - Success!)

- Lyrielle is blinded by Tiff's smoke bomb (Perception - Failure)

- Rusty uses the smoke to sneak around her to cut her off (Stealth - Failure)

FAILED

- The smoke clears and LB is gone.

- Tiff finally catches up to the gang, and she casts Haste on Osiris so she spends the next minute zipping around looking up side streets but doesn't find her.

- Osiris then casts Locate Object on LB's wand again and it seems to be pinging from her house on Winfair Hillock 

- She's nearly halfway there when the ping suddenly starts happening from behind her

- She runs back to the bridge and just as she crosses it again it seems like it's behind her again

- She circles around to the base of the bridge and looks under the bridge and just sees someone hiding in the shadows

- She casts Hold Person on LB who succumbs to the spell and then shouts to everyone

- Theophania whips up an Elixir of Flight and then hands it to Rusty (10' flying speed for 10 minutes)

- Rusty pockets the Elixir and dives into the river grabbing LB and dragging her to the bottom of the river

- Osiris in the flailing and grabbing and fight manages to knock the wand out of LB's hand and it floats down river in the current

- Rusty drags her through the river and then just walks up the bank with her, LB is quite defeated at this point

- They tie her up and gag her and the city guard convene to help keep look out

- Tiff ritually casts Detect Magic to check her over and then she also goes through all her pockets and pouches and confiscates all her material components and anything else that could be used to do magic, though she has no active magical items on her at the present

- Tiff lays all the components out and labels them for the guards 

- LB's sister and BIL have also been detained, but they seem very confused and can't believe that she would do such a thing

- Tiff has Rusty lift her up and she ungags LB long enough to get a confession that she was trying to take out the Black Bloods, which Captain Swinson witnesses

- Raiàn uses Prestidigitation to dry off Osiris so she doesn't get hypothermia 

- Tina is very impressed

- LB is escorted to the Hall of Justice and locked in a holding cell

- Osiris goes to visit Birel in the Rites wing to report

- After all that, Tiff and Tina go to her little workshop area so Tiff can show her her designs

- Raiàn and Lyrielle head back to the Curlywit Boarding House

- Osiris spends some time in the Temple gardens

- Rusty stays at the Hall of Justice to guard LB

- Everyone eventually meets at the boarding house for tea and petit fours

- A pleasant afternoon is had by all

- Later that evening, Lord Blackmore comes to visit his wife in lockup and Rusty is asked to step outside

- Rusty refuses and says that LB's gag is not to be removed unless a magic user who can supervise her is present

- Lord Blackmore is pretty understanding, but Rusty still thinks he's in shock and the gravity of his wife's actions hasn't sunk in yet

- The next morning Osiris checks in with Rusty who spent overnight doing guard duty then she heads over to see Rowan, who says he was going to head over to question LB, and Osiris thinks she and Tiff and maybe Tina to supervise

- Osiris Sends to Lord B to let him know when the interrogation will be happening so that he can hear it himself

- Rusty is given permission to ungag LB and he gives her some water before she is expected to do a lot of talk

- Q&A

- Why did you decide to unleash undead on the city? - Unleashing the undead on the city was an accident. She was only attempting to rout out the Black Bloods and she lost control.

- Why did she want to take out the Black Bloods? - Steal from the Blackmores and have killed their associates at the docks. The Black Bloods were a worse plague than the zombies to her

- She turned the servants because the Black Bloods attacked the Blackmore Estates.

- She had been studying magic for years after she discovered she had some minor natural talent, and she just did what she was good at.

- She bought the grimoires from a trader from the north. He might not have known what he had since they were written in Dwarven and most people can't read it any more 

- She discovered the Shadowfell portal thing in the old crypt while looking for sources of body parts

- The current body count from the night of the zombie attacks is around 50, maybe 53, but Birel would know the exact answer - LB looks perhaps a bit contrite at that

- She serves herself. She has no other master.

- She apologizes to her husband as Osiris is about to gag her again and then speaks a magic word and her body seems to catch fire then a blue light seems to stream from her chest and into the ground

- Theophania read the magic and the fire on her body just seemed to have been her self-immolating

- Rowan hasn't ever seen anything like that before either. He takes Lord B back to the Temple for like therapy.

- The group + Tina head down into the sewers and where they get to the hole where they had to repel down to get from the sewers to the ancient catacombs, the floor looks like a black pool of energy like what was leaking out of the portal(?) last time they were here

- Tina asks what it is and is told it's pure necrotic energy, and she has no idea what to do about that

- 2,200 XP ea for 61,790 XP total ea.