OWA-02: Ratted Out

Roster

• Soot. Gnome Artificer (Artillerist) 3.
• Abner. Kobold Fighter (Champion) 3.
• Kori. Revenant-thingy Warlock (Hexblade) 3.
• Rivi. Shadar-Kai Sorcerer (Shadow) 3.
• Caleb. Human Rogue (Thief) 3.
• Cirix. Plasmoid Cleric (Knowledge) 1 / Wizard (Thermodynamics) 2.
• Oliver. Wood Elf Ranger 3.

Objectives

• (Quest) Solve the mystery of the darkening gates.
  • Find the source of Dabus corruption.
  • Interrogate the hostage.
  • Find the identity of the cult leader.
  • Secure passage to Undersigil.
  • Determine meaning of the red runes.
  • Investigate Far Realm suspects.
• (Quest) Exterminate cranium rat swarms in the Hive Ward.¹
• (Quest) Apprehend the suspects at the Gatehouse Night Market.
• (Cirix, Soot) Return library books (29 days).
• Check out the Tower Sorcerous.
• (Abner) Find a dragon to serve.
• (Abner) Conquer fear of water.
• (Kori) Feed a soul to the lich.

Summary

At the start of the session, our GM established a new rule: dynamic initiative (in which everyone re-rolls initiative based on planned actions every round). We also wrote up little cheat-sheets for often-used abilities so we didn’t have to spend so much time looking them up.

Once everyone had arrived (this took about an hour), we started character introductions:

• Abner, kobold champion. Wants to serve a powerful entity, ideally a dragon.
• Soot, rock gnome artillerist. The party’s blaster. Started by studying as a spelljammer engineer, but fell into the Astral sea and met a god.
• Oliver, wood elf ranger. Abandoned in the woods, and only recently discovered that people exist. Has a cow animal companion.
• Kori, revenant(?) hexblade. A highway robber executed by being drawn and quartered. Reanimated by a powerful necromancer who serves as their patron. Uses a gun to cast spells.
• Caleb, human thief. Amnesiac? An entertainer who supplements their busking with light fingers.
• Cirix, plasmoid heat mage. A weird slime thing that was created and raised by a magic university. Trying to finish a Ph. D. thesis in thermodynamics.
• Rivi, shadar-kai shadow sorcerer. Fled the plane of shadow because she got bored. Moral compass is a roulette wheel.

Then we got back to playing.

Surrounded by the devastation of our previous battle, we got back to investigating. Oliver tied up the cultist who surrendered and tossed him on his cow. It was starting to get dark and rainy, so we decided to head back to the Fixers’ HQ in the Market Ward. Before we left, Soot grabbed the sigil stone from the deceased cultist and found a worm crawling from the body. He took both, placing the worm inside a jar.

At the Fixers’ HQ, we placed the cultist—whose name was Mandek—in one of the anti-magic cells. Soot locked himself in alongside Mandek and started pouring him cider while asking him questions. Soot repeatedly gave reassurances that we would protect Mandek, though Rivi, Abner, and Caleb complained at this.²

From questioning Mandek, we learned that he was recruited in Nowhere, a place beneath Sigil.³ Mandek was promised gold and fame by someone in a mask with a deep voice. Although he couldn’t get us into Nowhere, he knew someone who could: Khirr, an Aaracockra swashbuckler.

Instead of going directly to find Khirr, we decided to try to earn some extra cash. On the job board,⁴ we found an array of side quests. The one we chose was supposed to be simple pest control: clear out some swarms of cranium rats that had taken over a few abandoned buildings in the Hive Ward. It sounded easy, so we headed over. We had no idea what lay waiting for us.

We found the cranium rat swarms sitting in a small house. Cirix immediately tried to web them, but, being swarms, they were immune to the spell. Cirix’s only tactical utility exhausted, it retreated. Soot boldly moved to block the door, occupying the chokepoint and trying to prevent the rats from escaping out to attack the rest of the party. The rats covered Soot and ravaged both his body and mind, leaving him unconscious. Then they did the same to Abner. The rest of us ran, shooting whatever ranged attacks we had at the rats. After a grueling combat that left us bloodied and bruised, we dragged Soot and Abner back to the Hive Ward for treatment.

While we licked our wounds, Kori received a visit from their patron, the lich necromancer who had restored their body. Part of the lich’s soul was bound inside Kori’s revolver, and it seeped out to demand tribute: a victim, a soul. This was largely ignored by the rest of the party.

After resting up, we decided to find Khirr. We headed to the Bottle & Jug, the second-seediest tavern in Sigil. Laplace, Cirix’s mimir, initiated a lore dump that we promptly forgot as we ordered drinks. We found Khirr sitting in an appropriately suspicious corner, and hired him as a guide to get through the Ruins of Thought and into Undersigil.

While we did this, Rivi and Caleb, paranoid as they were, waited outside the tavern. A Dabus approached Rivi and gave her a compass with alignments written on it—literally a moral compass. The Dabus bound it around her neck and warned her that if she acted out, there would be consequences.

We all reunited outside the tavern and followed Khirr into an alleyway, where he pulled out a special key and opened a portal in the ground. Then we followed him into the void, finally entering the passage to Undersigil.