Posted on October 28, 2013
Castaway Diary, Day 21, still continuing.
Last week I lauded the team-ness of the small team that fought the vegepygmies and how everyone found a party role defined by what other people were doing, making them a flexible efficient killing machine. This week,… I think we found a weak spot. That weak spot being “writing down who has the healing potions and making sure it isn’t just the people who can already fucking heal.” In general, as advice to players, I’d say taking the two rounds it takes to get someone back up on their feet is almost always worth it for the party: More actions, more winning. But that isn’t what happened, and I look forward to how loudly Orny gets to tell anyone to fuck off the next time they moan about needing healing.
I haven’t thought about HER in years.
The latest maps of the Underdark, showing their complicated relationship with the Shadowdark, the Grimdark, the Felldark and the Blackdark.
They decided to head over to the spire because they didn’t think they could set this grey shit on fire. The black, rocky spire stuck out of the water a little off shore. They didn’t fancy their chances swimming, except Uun who always fancies his chances. But there was another stringy bridge of vine-like mushroom ropes that ran between the two structures and that had worked last time (with a few near misses) so they decided to try that again. Failures the last time had made them a little gun-shy, but it was actually a fairly easy proposition to get from one end of the bridge to the other. Victor removed his armour anyway and then put it back on with Orny’s help when he arrived at the other side.
Nobody tried to determine if the fungus had originated here or on the larger island, but could make no definite decision. He did see that there were ONLY vines on the spire. None of the other types of fungus flourished but the vines formed a thick mat across the flat top of the spire. Floki scouted out the top of the spire and found a ledge 10′ lower on the south side that appeared to have a gap in the rock. Uun and Malicia went around the spire, finding a sloping way down to the little ledge. They confirmed that the gap looked into some kind of narrow passageway. Nobody and Malicia could see in such low light as the crack offered and could make out that the the passage led to a small flare in the passageway before narrowing to another crack. The narrowness of the crack was exacerbated by the dense covering vines that the walls had. The vines either led into the gap or were growing out of it, either way, they created a thick insulation on the natural rock walls of the passageway, giving the whole thing a weird organic vibe that made everyone feel a bit gross. Nobody and Malicia could also pick out shiny items inside the flare in the gap and Orny cast Dancing Lights to illuminate the area so that everyone could see what was in there, although the gap was so small, they had to queue to get a look in.
Inside were arranged skulls, both human and animal, as well as sea shells, polished and crudely carved/tied bones. The arrangement struck Orny as faintly ritualistic in nature, but as offerings or respectful adornment, rather than summoning or magical trap-creating. Uun took some time out of his vine hacking to mess up the little arrangement. Uun abhors interior design! They squeezed through the gaps, past the decoration and second narrow and into a larger cave. The walls and floor of the cave were covered in vines, so much so that the floor had a trampoline-like quality to it as it was a thick matted mass of interwoven vine. As the party pressed in, Orny cast another Dancing Lights spell, creating a a discotheque effect amongst the many stalactites that hung just above their heads. Stalactites and trampolines don’t mix, kids, don’t try this at home.
Stepping into the chamber and onto the spongy flooring, several vegepygmies ran into view from a curved passage from the other end of the cavern. Floki and Victor were on them in a second, walling them in and preventing the pygmies from getting further into the cave. That meant most folks couldn’t do much, but Uun had taken the Masterwork Longspear from the Night Voice and so ran up behind Floki and stabbed at the pygmies over his shoulder. The four pygmies did much the same, but to little effect. At the rear of the party, the vine mat underneath Orny and Nobody suddenly opened up, a surprised Orny plunging into the hole while Nobody caught himself and rolled out of the way as the vines whipped shut again. Orny, hurtled downwards into a dark cave and his fall was (fortunately) arrested by (unfortunately) two stalagmites which impaled him pretty badly. Consciousness hung onto the departing coattails of his luck and left him just as suddenly.
Malicia, halfway to the fight turned and looked at what had caused Nobody to grunt and noticed that Orny was gone, because no-one else had, despite Orny being their healer in Percy’s absence.
As the men at the front got on with killing the vegepygmies, the party became aware that maybe the floor wasn’t going to hold them up, at least not willingly. Uun shoved Floki forward to get at the pygmies faster but ended up skipping over the gaping hole that suddenly appeared where the Ulfen had been standing. Malicia, having gone over to investigate Orny’s disappearance was similarly swallowed by the floor, managing to ameliorate the fall by twisting in mid-air, only being bashed slightly by the landing amidst the stalagmites. As the floor closed suddenly above her, she had only a moment to see the impaled body of Orny and some large, conical, bulging thing looming over him.
The MOREL of this story is that not MUSHROOM in this cave for you and this PUNGUS. There, that seems better than trying to joke about necrotizing fasciitis on a rope.
Dungeons and Dragons lied to us.
The Violet Fungus fell, its mushroomy body quickly decomposing as they caught their breath/examined their horrific mushy wounds. As the fungal flesh retracted a set of bones began to protrude from the violet mass. On examination, it was a single skeleton, with only a few other items having survived being part of the violet fungus; a belt buckle and some brass buttons. The buttons has a feint device on them, not yet worn or corroded off – Nobody recognised it as the horizon-bound path symbol of the Pathfinder Society. They searched around for anything else, but found nothing of note.
Surprised by the intensity and viciousness of the creature Victor used his Detect Evil after a few well placed Laying On of Hands. Though dead, evil permeated the air around the fungal attacker, the remnant of a shockingly evil aura. The Iomedaean also laid some hands on Orny’s wounds, at least enough to get him upright, although he was groggy and sluggish, since JIM had headed home, having played an unconscious guy most of the night, with considerably less complaining than most players do when they’re just low on hit points. As the vines began to wither before them, they realized that the floor above them, treacherous as it was, was still their way out of this cavern. They dashed back up the sloping passageway and across the wilting floor, although Uun just waited for it to get out of his way and climbed up to the exit. Out on the spire, it appeared that the death of the Violet Fungus had started a chain reaction that was starting to be felt on the silent island. Rushing across the disintegrating vine bridge, hustling Orny between them, they made it to the wetly decaying hillside of grey fungus where they watched the unpleasant growths die and decompose before them. Faced with the prospect of a night crossing of the two difficult tidal causeways (the sun having set a little while after their descent into the spire cave) they decided to grit their teeth, hold their noses ignore the appalling wounds several of them picked and rest for the night on the slimy, stinking, horribly unpleasant island.
Day 20 was a long day. Happy third week on the island.
Due to this episode, I have been visualizing the effects of the drug Krokodil at the most inappropriate and inconvenient times. Thanks ever so much for that.
Geez, I leave for one week and the team nearly gets reduced to a pile of goo. Fortunately Percy will be in attendance on Thursday to cure all of your disgusting wounds.