Argua - Half-Orc Barbarian (271 points)
Masha Deathfoot - Human Martial Artist (265 points)
Puddin' Noddington - Gnome Thief (299 points)
Mahk Strawngmussle - Human Labourer (76 points)
Quintin Nenno - Dragonborn Swordmage (250 points)
Vaelcor Treehippie - Human Druid (280 points)
Jahn the Bear - Bear (209 points)
NPCs:
Jenny - Human Cook (62 points)
The Resplendent Bathhouse
Argua, Masha, and Puddin' started searching for the artwork of themselves that would get them out of this alternate dimension; Puddin' went alone to the second floor, but Argua and Masha stayed together on the ground floor in case of patrolling monsters. Puddin' took closer looks at the theatre where she'd noticed Quintin's fresco, but though there were dozens, if not hundreds of paintings, frescoes, and sculptures, all were of nude elves. Argua and Masha's exploration of the ground floor found a chamber where elves lined up to go up a backwards waterslide and into the ceiling, but again, none of the art pieces they were looking for.
Due to the poor timing of their entering this dimension, the party was now forced to forgo sleep, and exhaustion started to take its toll (-1FP per 2 hours). Still, the search continued on through several resets of the "time loop"; the various areas they searched slowly emptied out as elves went to the concert stage, then they faintly heard the beautiful singing of the in the distance, followed after a time by the screams of the slaughter of the elves. Argua and Masha combed through a spa complex and sauna, while Puddin' checked through what looked to be a set of hotel suites and a gambling hall, but their goal eluded them. All the while, they slowly but surely continued to fade away.
Melos 1st 2546, Night: Hot Springs City Ruins, The Ruined Bathhouse
On Quintin's watch, he heard a splashing noise in the water, and though he didn't move closer to investigate, he could faintly see ripples on the surface of the pool 4m away. A short while later, he heard a clanking off to the left, as though something metal had been knocked off a table. While Quintin peered off into the darkness past the edge of their feeble lamplight, a decorative gong that Archer had rigged as a noisemaker sounded from behind him, waking everyone but Jenny, and alerting them to its source.
Quintin turned and was shocked to see his own face staring back at him, stunning him for a second. Archer, Vaelcor, and Mahk, all saw their own faces, and were stunned for 5+ seconds, but Jahn apparently didn't understand the concept of self and was fine. Quintin saw his face, mounted at the head of a snake, slither out of the shadows and try to wrap around him, but he managed to parry and cut it slightly, though he failed his roll to recover from stun.
The Quintin-snake tried again to grapple him, now with a Deceptive Attack and in Close Combat, but he made the Parry at -8 anyway and cut it some more. Jahn finished getting up and battered what she saw to be a bear-snake in an All-Out Attack with her claws, but though she hit it, she rolled bad damage (still a 12) and only mildly wounded it. The face-snake switched to attacking Jahn, and coiled itself around her; Jahn tried to break free, but the snake held tight.
Quintin finally recovered from his fright-stun, and the face-snake started to constrict Jahn the bear, but she was still uninjured for now. Quintin ran over and slashed the snake's "neck" ("Is the whole snake neck?"), though its thick scales blocked most of the damage. The snake bit into Jahn for a minor injury, but Quintin followed up with another strike using the Penetrating Strike imbuement to pierce the scales and do some meaningful damage.
The snake, seeing that it was losing, tried retreating into the water but passed out before it could; Jahn smashed its head to pieces (Archer: "Nooo, the face is the tastiest part!"). The others recovered from their fright-stun, and Archer woke Jenny to tell her that they'd found dinner, and to get to work. Jenny yawned, responded that it was more like breakfast but she was still too tired to cook, and went back to sleep. Vaelcor inspected the snake, determined it wasn't venomous, healed Jahn, and everyone settled back to sleep.
Midnight: The Ruined Bathhouse
Later, on Vaelcor's watch, he heard a squelching, sucking noise off in the distance and woke the party. The sound got closer and closer, until a gooey orange hand reached out of the darkness into the lamplight; Archer fired an arrow into it, and the hand recoiled in pain, though the arrow sizzled where it had made contact. Whatever it was, the sucking noise slowly got further and further away. After another few minutes on high alert, the party went back to sleep.
The sound came back on Archer's watch, several hours later, and the party woke again, but it stayed in the darkness this time, and moved on without further conflict. Faintly, they smelled grapefruit, and Archer held her breath, though nobody else seemed adversely affected. For the rest of her watch, Archer butchered the snake, until she heard movement in the pool; she roused the others just in time to see something in the darkness pull the rest of the snake's body into the water.
The Resplendent Bathhouse
Puddin' continued the search, checking a sumptuously-appointed bar for her art, but none of the stained glass windows, engraved lamps, or wood and pearl screens showed a gnome. Now awake for over 24 hours, she had to rest for a while before deciding to check out the third floor, and took the staircase with nude elves riding dolphins for banisters up to a gargantuan room that seemed to stretch across the entire city block-sized building, supported by intermittent carved pillars.
In the distance, archways opened up to balconies, but instead of the city or the jungle lying beyond, there was only a deep blue. The chamber itself was divided into four sunken sections by a raised marble walkway that led to a golden spiral staircase at the center. The sunken sections were all drastically different in style. The one to her left looked to contain a number of semi-private chambers with libraries, preserved animal specimens, and many comfy seats where elves sat drinking; to the right, what looked to be a brothel, obscured by light, sweet-smelling smoke.
The other two were so far away that Puddin' couldn't see them clearly; one looked to contain a racetrack and a dance floor, while the other had almost no movement, other than glowing lights moving slowly up and down inside bizarrely-carved glass sculptures. Puddin' decided to finish the second floor first, and, after Gizmoing a snack, headed back down to check out a cluster of trinket shops, meticulously inspecting every bangle, every tapestry, and every amulet for an image of herself (or the others), but again finding none.
Back on the ground floor, Argua and Masha's search continued on to an implausibly large steam room, but none of the statues, gold sculptures, or beaded curtains were theirs. However, in the next room, a smaller bath chamber, Argua found their first target: a small marble statue of a nude Masha meditating. Masha thought on what to do for a while; they seemed to be between 50% and 90% faded out, so there might not be much time left, but she didn't want to abandon her friends.
Argua removed her signet ring and gave it to Masha, ordering her to find an heir to Ashina Village if she died. Masha made up her mind, and said she wasn't going to leave anyone behind; either they all made it out, or noone did. Their search continued into the locker room, but they could only access the woman's side, and, while there was nothing there, if one of their artworks was in the men's, they'd be out of luck.
They moved on to the main gardens, which were in far better condition, and noticed that the main archway that should look out over the city instead looked out into what looked to be deep, blue, swirling water. Another fruitless search later, they headed to the tiled steam room they'd already seen in the "real world". It, too, did not seem to have either of the remaining pieces they were looking for.
Puddin's searching moved back into the "bath" part of the second floor, into a tiled indoor garden, with artificial light from a miniature sun beaming down on the scantily-clad elves that rested and chatted on benches and chairs. She wandered between the topiaries and fountains for several hours, but again, found nothing.
Melos 2nd 2546, Dawn: The Ruined Bathhouse
The party ate a breakfast of fried face-snake, then got to discussing whether they should leave. While they were distracted, seven 8' tall green and black lizardmen leapt out of the shadows on all sides, surrounding and surprising the party. Three of the lizardmen had axes, two had spears, and the last two, which had jumped out of the main pool, were unarmed. One with an axe crit Jahn on a move and attack, crippling one of her legs, but the others all missed, though they did succeed at penning the party in.
Archer fast-drew her cavalry saber, and stabbed at the one of the unarmed lizardmen's "vitals", but it parried with its bare hands no problem; it counter-attacked, and she parried it right back. Quintin blocked an axe blow, but Jahn took one to the side for a major wound. Vaelcor blocked a punch and dodged a spear, while Mahk blocked the last spear with his shiny new medium shield.
Vaelcor Giant Stepped to get onto a side hex, and fired off a one-turn, 2d Lightning bolt at the unarmed lizardman near him, which hit for a grand total of 2 damage, but managed to stun it. Jahn tried to bite the lizardman that had crippled her leg, but he critically dodged, and she ended up off-balance. Quintin drew his broadsword, activated Penetrating Strike, and slashed an axe-lizard in the neck, and though black blood poured forth, it stayed on its feet.
Mahk drew the "Heartsplitter" spear they'd found near the giant dehydrating vines, though he didn't know how to use it, and Jenny readied her light club. Archer ran away from the rest of the party to flank and hopefully have time to get her bow ready, but the unarmed lizardman she'd been fighting with ran after her. Jahn got hit by two axes ("How much do you like your bear?" "Worst case, I can get another one") and sent well into the negatives. The axe-lizard with a gouged neck All-Out Attacked Quintin with a highly Deceptive Attack but missed anyway, leaving it in a dangerous situation.
Vaelcor threw another 2d Lightning bolt at the one he'd hit before (this time with a crit), and again hit for 2 damage, and again it was stunned. Jahn finally managed to land a swipe with her claw and a bite; the claw crit for max damage, and the lizardman crit-failed to dodge the bite, which finished it off. Quintin continued to attack the wounded axe-lizard with Penetrating Strike, following up and landing another blow to the neck, and then moved around its flanks.
Mahk made an attack with the "Heartsplitter" spear and made the default roll, which apparently surprised the lizardman, because it failed to dodge and got stabbed for light damage. Jenny made an All-Out Attack at the skull of the tazed lizardman and connected, but her blow failed to inflict any damage. Archer dropped her sabre and drew her bow, but wasn't able to fire any arrows yet.
The lizardman Quintin had been fighting crit-failed an All-Out Attack and dropped its axe, then was parried by his Annihilating Weapon, which cut its hand entirely off. Archer was grappled by the lizardman near her, and one of the spear lizards finally managed to hit Mahk, but his shiny looted heavy segmented plate downgraded it from a likely insta-kill to a mere major wound. Vaelcor continued tazing the stunned lizard, and managed to roll 9 damage. Jahn tried to bite a lizardman, but crit-failed and slammed her face into the floor for 10 injury, forcing a death check, but she made it and wasn't stunned either.
Quintin decided to conserve FP ("Hey, if you roll at -5 you can use an imbuement for free. Unless you crit-fail, then it's 2FP" "Oh, cool") and tried to use Penetrating Strike for free, but crit-failed and lost 2FP instead. Still, he managed to land another blow to his lizardman's neck, finally killing it. Jenny landed another blow to the skull of the stunned lizard, and managed to actually inflict a small amount of injury this time. Archer failed to Fast-Draw an arrow due to being grappled, and then the lizard holding her's hands glowed a malignant black and she felt her life force drain away.
At that, though, the lizardmen seemed to have had enough, and those that could dove into the murky pool to retreat, leaving only the stunned one (which had just recovered), and the one grappling Archer. Jahn finished off the stunned one, Archer missed a shot taken while grappled, and then the lizard grappling her drained a bit more of her life force but then dove into the water. Archer landed an arrow at it underwater, but it wasn't enough to stop it from escaping.
Notes:
Everybody is afraid of Mr. X from Resident Evil 2 showing up in the Resplendent Bathhouse. So far, he hasn't.
I'm rolling secret Search rolls for the party in the Resplendent Bathhouse, so success or failure is hidden unless they get results or a crit. They can also take a penalty to search faster (-1 per 5 minutes in small rooms, per 20 minutes in big rooms). So far, they only know for sure that they have succeeded at checking the second floor tile gardens (crit), the first floor smaller pool (Masha's marble sculpture), and the first floor steam room (crit).
Minor rules mistake: during the fight with the face snake, Jahn attacked into close combat and I forgot the -2 penalty for doing so, which would have caused her to miss (though she could have forgone one level of Deceptive Attack and still hit).
Archer's lantern has enough oil for 24 hours, of which they have about 8 remaining. This presents a problem: they might have to leave before the rest of the party makes it out of the other dimension, lest they be stranded in the dark.
On another note, I should have checked whether her lantern broke when she crit-failed her fall last session.
Jenny's face-snake rations (20 in total) will have some sort of side effects, because she has the Recipe (Animals) perk and made her Cooking roll. Archer won't be eating them, and prepared another 2 rations for herself, as she doesn't trust Jenny not to poison her or something. It's worth noting that because Vaelcor is a Vegetarian, this doesn't help him at all.
During the fight with the lizardmen, Argua's/Masha's player suddenly asked Vaelcor to roll an IQ check, and upon his success informed the party that they had bought lizardman intel, and knew they would trade for pearls. His response was "We don't have any pearls!". On another note, I don't know where he got that intel from; I don't see it in any of the info they have available.
Base XP was 0
1 for combat with the lizardmen to Archer, Vaelcor, and Quintin
1 to Masha refusing to leave her friends behind due to Sense of Duty (Adventuring Companions)
MVP to Quintin for his first "real" fight
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