BSSS - Session 8

 A bit late, but here's a session report on last week's Between the Serpents of Smoke & Steel!

Summary

The party follows up on the last lead they have, have run-ins with ghouls and a rather demanding and haughty Sea Nymph. They also make friends with a water elemental.

Characters

• Esho - 4th Level Nercomancer Sorcerer 
• Shimsusa the Archer - 1st Level Fighter
• Maru the Witch - 3rd Level Diabolist Sorcerer
• Syphon Gandu - 2nd Level Diabolist Sorcerer
• Rajini - 2nd Level Sorceress 
• Athra - 4th Level Fighter
• Gal-Naha the Giant Gecko - 3rd Level Giant Lizard
• Tamri Ushar - 1st Level Fighter

Session Recap

The party, having run into a bit of a wall on their last expedition decided to follow up on another lead they had while they were down south - a treasure map they had found when exploring another dungeon previously was pointing to the ruins of a nearby small town. 

Packing up their camping gear they left the Bastion and travelled east, eventually running into an old (but still surprisingly sturdy) bridge that lead them into the town ruins. With the help of the actual treasure map they didn't really need to waste time searching through the ruins. The entrance was covered under some fallen stones, but with a bit of work they managed to get it cleared off head down and away from the constant rainstorms that had been going on for the past two days. 

Once inside the vanguard of the group ran into an oddly behaving puddle, which then turned out to be a small water elemental! A very very fortunate reaction table roll and one of the players using one of their extra language slots to declare they can speak the language of Water Elementals lead to them learning that the water elemental was part of a larger group of elementals which were somehow locked away behind one of the doors in the room. 

The door, upon examination, did have a magical field surrounding it, centered on a clearly magical lock pad that was put on it. The group promised the elemental they'll try and figure out how to get it back to it's people, then proceeded with exploring. After having to electrocute some very aggressive water leeches, the group heard calls for help behind a door rather suspiciously jammed shut with multiple metal spikes. After asking who the person inside was they learned that she is a daughter of the Sea Goddess.

Unfortunately all the yelling through the door attracted attention. With the aid of a helm of telepathy the party wasn't caught by surprise and managed to form up by the next door way as three gaunt, dog-headed figures rushed onto them. The first one taking a swing at the party's fighter and immediately paralyzing him and bringing him to the ground. Luckily for him the rest of the party managed to dispatch these monsters in very short notice, and after letting him recover they proceeded with a touch more caution.

Searching through some corpses and another ghoul attack later the party was 500 silver coins richer and somehow managed to not have a single one of them get killed by a ghoul! With that they returned to the trapped sea nymph and went inside to talk to her. She explained that she had been trapped for quite a while and wanted their help in being released from the fountain that housed her (a fountain, the party quickly noted, containing quite a lot of coins and a solid looking golden statue of the nymph's mother the Sea Queen). 

The party was all for that...until they learned the plan involved having to drown a human in her waters to release the spell, and also needing to obtain a blessed vessel of some kind so that the sea nymph can be carried safely (and doesn't just end up drowning them) to the sea. They said they didn't have anyone to sacrifice, nor any vessels appropriate for the task but promised they will be back as soon as they can!

The nymph was not sold on the whole thing though - she was an ancient and powerful being, essentially a minor divinity in her own right, and apparently others had been there before and had refused to help her, so she tried to use her magical charming ability on one of the sorcerers, but it didn't quite work. At this point one of the diabolists in the party cast Dominate on her...which was quite the mistake, as it now gave the sea nymph a direct mental link to his mind, charming him instantly and making him try and drown one of his hirelings. The rest of the party subdued him, told her to please stop doing that and that they'll help her later and all left the room, with the sorcerer now being VERY pissed off at her and trying to shout at her, but mostly being stopped by the others.

As the session was getting on in time, the party decided to simply try a few loose ends on that side of the dungeon before they headed back., They explored some of the ghoul lair and ran into a room filled with half-eaten and rotting corpses, the stench being so horrendous it made it impossible to even go inside. The party's necromancer got a glint in his eyes and gleefully reanimated a few of the less chewed-on corpses, making them search the room for them (finding some ghoul treasure) and then using them to explore some of the other rooms before, just in case the spell backfired, making them go back to the room and closing the door behind themselves. Well except for one of the zombies which managed to fall in a hidden hole in some water. 

The last thing to do was to open up a locked door that they had found a key for earlier, and lo and behold it worked! Behind the door they found a pair of well fed and actually pretty chill mountain lions, chained to the walls and clearly set as guards (the fact also confirmed by the party's fighter being able to use Beastspeech to talk to them). The group was not entirely sure what to do with these things, so they simply put them to sleep and then killed them, dragging their corpses back with them and presenting them to the company's cook for skinning and then cooking the meat.

Observations

So, this was quite the interesting session for me, as the dungeon is of my own design. I simply got a map off of Watabou (a truly wonderful resource) and then writing up the key for it. I do hope the party comes back to it again, as they really only have explored about a quarter or even a fifth of the actual dungeon! But we shall see where their whims take them.

The thing with the water elemental was quite fun, and one of the reasons why I generally try and use Reaction Rolls whenever I can, short of very very clearly aggressive or friendly encounters. It makes for such fun situations like this of talking to a blob of water with the intelligence of a smart cat, hah. 

In the days following the session the players have talked at length about the encounter with the Sea Nymph (who's name is the sound of crashing waves upon the rocks, which I am also proud of) and the player of the sorcerer that got mind controlled having a personal vendetta against her now, and declaring that his character will try and actively convince the others during Downtime to not free her but instead try and destroy her in some way, as he felt personally insulted that a being of such power would also act so dismissively towards people who are trying to help it. 

This kind of engagement with the game you can't really force or cajole out of players. This stuff simply comes from people actually caring about what is going on in the game and having a very genuine reaction (another example is the vendetta one of the players has against the one hireling which said she's quitting in the middle of the expedition, sessions back). It makes me happy to see it happen, and it makes me curious what the party will ultimatley decide to do with the Sea Nymph.