OWA-03: Secret Tunnel
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.
- Find the identity of the cult leader.
- Determine meaning of the red runes.
- Investigate Far Realm suspects.
- Enter Undersigil
- (Quest) Return Pellet to his hive mind.
- (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.
- (Kori) Feed a soul to the lich.
- (Abner, Soot) Overcome fear of rats.
Summary
The party entered the Ruins of Thought, following Khirr’s instructions. Laplace immediately noted the ruins were home to the largest swarm of cranium rat squeakers in Sigil. The party, having recently learned firsthand the threat of cranium rats, was understandably frightened.
Upon entering the ruins, Oliver noticed a lone cranium rat sitting on the floor. He picked it up. The rat began to speak directly into Oliver’s mind. It’s name was “Pellet,” and it was part of the hive mind “Us.” Pellet asked to be returned to its hive mind, to which Oliver acquiesced.
As the party traversed the caverns, Cirix noted a collection of strange creatures on the ceiling. They looked like humanoid heads with wings. Khirr identified them as vargoulle reflections, another horror native to Sigil. The party attempted to sneak past them, but a critical failure from Rivi and some lackluster stealth on Caleb’s part meant that we had to fight our way through. Luckily, Soot’s eldritch cannon combined with a party of only ranged fighters meant that the drowsy vargoulles went down fast. It was a sharp contrast from the previous session’s combat.
After the fight, Cirix picked up one of the vargoulle heads to carry around for fun and profit.1
Further on in the catacombs, Rivi alerted a group of skeletons when she tried to pick up some bones from the floor. We passed through yet another entirely forgettable encounter, curb-stomping the poor undead within a few rounds. Nobody took significant damage, and we continued onwards.
Then we ran into a swarm of hostile cranium rats and a corrupted dabus. Fortunately, we got the drop on them. Our folly in our previous encounter was allowing them to get within range of us, so we prepared out spells and arrows to attack them from a distance. Although our foes gave chase, we were able to bombard them from afar and slew them before they could reach us.
Finally we arrived at the center of the catacombs. There, we found an enormous solid mass of cranium rats—Pellet’s hive mind. Unsettling, to say the least. Soot and Abner both decided to wait outside while the rest of us spoke with them. Pellet happily returned to Us, and Oliver was rewarded with a thousand little rat hugs. Us also gave the party three questions which it would answer to the best of its ability. We asked about the robed cultists, the darkening gates, and what lay ahead for us in the catacombs.
Of the cultists, Us knew little. They were a new force in Sigil, recently established in Nowhere. Of the darkening gates, Us only knew rumors: perhaps demons or gods were at work. The hive mind confirmed the presence of some aberrant influence, which matched with our previous theories about Far Realm actors. And of the path ahead, Us said only that there were many sahaugins.
The vargoulle head acted as a sort of psychic gaze attack. Cirix accidentally used it against Khirr, and is still entirely unaware that the dead vargoulle still has powers. ↩︎