ANGUISHEDWIRES session three

After a long hiatus, it's time to run ANGUISHEDWIRES again! Or rather it was, since I ran it last night. The usual crew couldn't make it, so it was up to Litho resuming his role as Octavia, and a new join, Goliath, who dropped in with Zo, a man almost religiously devoted to martial prowess.

I'd finally written up enough of an equipment list to start using it, so it was time to shop. Between sessions, Octavia had recruited a cadre of eleven hirelings, for a mere 56 SP per day. Four men-at-arms, two crossbowmen, three porters, and two thieves, all of them 2nd level. At thirteen strong, the party crossed the river and marched into the dungeon.

Their first stop was Dario's bar. The trip down was uneventful, thanks to quickened movement rates through previously explored areas and lucky encounter table rolls. Dario mentioned some orcs had stopped by in his bar a while ago. "They seemed to be running a protection racket of some kind, not sure for who. Sure as hell wasn't me, though. At least not once they figured out, you know," and he grinned, baring his fangs. With that out of the way, they continued on towards the train station.

The ornate wagon was still sitting on the tracks. Zo recognized the nine-pointed stars etched onto the doors as a protective ward used by the Starhelm, and order of undead-hunters. Octavia sent Skenobard, one of her crossbowmen to look in through the smashed up windows. They were too small to crawl through, but he could see two creatures inside and a lot of expensive things. Smelling fresh meat, the ghouls began to whisper and wail. "Please, let us out, we've been trapped here so long. You can have all the finery," they scooped up a handful of jewelry and held it up to the window, "we promise to be good." When Octavia accused them of just wanting to get out so they could eat everyone, they shrieked "We only want a little snack, just a nibble!" After some brief discussion out of earshot of the carriage, the party set up a kill box and flung open the doors.

Crossbow bolts thudded into the back of the carriage as the ghouls flung themselves at the tastiest targets, the men-at-arms. Fortunately, Octavia had sprung for the higher price point and outfitted them in half plate, so the ghouls claws just scrabbled over their metal exterior. The men with zweihanders proved too slow to catch the ghouls, but distracted them long enough for the axe-wielding men-at-arms to get some hits in. The dwarven ghoul found a weak spot in Verzana's armor and tore out a chunk of her flesh in a spray of blood. She fell to the ground paralyzed with spasms of pain as her comrades chopped the elven ghoul into pieces. Facing two morale checks (for first blood and reduced to half strength), the dwarf-ghoul scampered off into the darkness. As soon as it was gone, Verzana's pain subsided. Zo reassured her that she was not cursed, and this was merely one of the many forms of dark magic found among the undead.


After dumping a thousand or so silver pieces worth of finery onto the porters, the party examined the ring on the twice-dead elf-ghoul. It was clearly of dwarven manufacture, but aside from the fact that she could probably sell it for some decent cash, Octavia couldn't figure anything else out about it. The crew began to theorize that maybe it was cursed to turn the wearer into a ghoul, but Verzana objected. She'd gotten a very good look at the dwarf-ghoul's fingers when he was trying to rip her face off. Octavia shrugged and slipped the ring on. Immediately, a sense of comfort washed over her, like someone was carefully watching over her shoulder. She dubbed it "the ring of good vibes" and everyone headed east, down the tracks.

In the distance, they heard skittering and squelching noises. Octavia sent the two thieves to investigate. Melinda and Durina covered their hooded lanterns so they only shed enough light to keep their footing and crept ahead. They reported back, "The noises are coming from animal pen made out of a packed dirt berm. There's a herd of...acid-spitting cow beetles? and two ant-people. I think they're shepherds or something, they have those hooked staves." Octavia cast Comprehend Languages on herself by sprinkling some glowing powder on her tongue and stepped over the berm with Zo. When Octavia introduced herself, the antlings' first reaction was "Holy fuck! You can talk?" They were very apologetic, explaining they'd thought everyone was just dumb meat with legs. They also didn't entirely grasp the distinction between different humanoids, asking if those "grayish green bipeds" were their sisters. They also asked if giant rats were people, as they'd been in a war with them for quite a while. Zo shrugged, "Maybe," Octavia said, "I'd have to meet one to be sure." When Octavia and Zo learned that the antlings had been mining some "soft yellow metal" out of the rock, they asked if they could have an audience with their queen. 

As one antling ran off into the tunnels, Zo whispered to Octavia, "While you're talking to the ants, can you turn your face away from me? The pheromones you're breathing out smell real funky." A praetorian guard of four antlings escorted the adventurers to Major Agathon. The reaction roll was Guarded, but Zo made a good impression by explaining the martial tenets of his faith. The major told the adventurers to bring Queen Jocasta an interesting bauble or trinket from elsewhere in the dungeon. Then they would have gained the trust of the queen. She also promised they would reimburse them generously. They also noticed that during the talk of trade, Major Agathon grew quite uncomfortable at the mention of sugar cubes.


The party marched back to the train station. However, a lucky surprise roll warned them that one of the giant ruby-eyed statues was choking up its axe. After some deliberation, Octavia walked up to the archway. No response from the statue. She waved at it. It just nodded in approval. She stepped through the threshold. Still no response. Finally, she waved Zo over. Just to be safe, he sprinted through the arch as fast as he could. This ended up saving his bacon, as the statue took a swing at him. Fortunately, the massive stone axe just slammed into the ground. After some more experimentation, they realized the ring stopped the statues from attacking anyone entering the train station. Then it was just a matter of sharing the ring like it was a subway pass-card, tossing it from thief to thief on opposite sides of the arch. Octavia still had a dungeon turn or two on her Comprehend Languages spell, and squinted at the tiny runes inscribed on the inside of the ring, 'VISITOR.'

The party then headed south to the ticketing station. Octavia brought the march to a halt as her visitor's ring began to vibrate. She sent Melinda the thief ahead to check for traps. Melinda reported back that there was a pressure plate on the last step and that triggering it would probably have a blade or spear trap spring out of the walls. Everyone just stepped over the last step. The crew found a room with a frost rimed stairway going down and another room devoid of any description or furnishings. The first adjoining room they tackled was the ticketing office. Unfortunately, they had the porters batter down the door and lost one to the acid trap. It was at this point that Litho figured out the function of the visitor's ring. Next, they carefully searched the storeroom, finding a trapped stone chest. Melinda said she could try and pick the lock from behind so any trap would blast out into the empty storeroom instead of at her. This wasn't your typical lockpicking situation, so she had to roll and unfortunately failed. As one of the remaining porters began tucking it away in their pack, it was time for a random encounter roll.

The party heard the crunch of something heavy climbing up the frozen stairs in the other room. Octavia ordered her hirelings to hide in the various rooms, ready to mount a surprise attack if needed. She and Zo cautiously poked their heads out to see Pegora the ogre squeeze his way through the archway.

Pegora wanted to know why the party was there. Zo explained that they were here out of curiosity. This wasn't exactly what Pegora wanted to hear. He swelled up and started booming threatening questions until Octavia calmed him down by saying "we're really just here for the money." Satisfied they were not after the same quarry he was, he asked if they'd seen any interesting scrolls or pieces of machinery in these rooms. Before he left, he told them "If you see any of my tiny slaves, know that they are my emissaries." "And we should treat them with the same respect as you?" Zo asked, to which Pegora's only response was deep laughter and the squelch of his obese form squeezing down the stairs.

The entire encounter left Octavia shaking, because she knew what Pegora really was, an ogre mage. An ogre who had eaten so many wizards that it developed magical powers. One who wore the robes and hats of those he devoured and had to be careful of his next meal. Eat too many dumb people and he might find himself short of a spell slot or two. "That fat motherfucker is going to rip my head off and fuck my corpse."

The trip out of the dungeon was uneventful. They ran into some antlings and Luria. Luria asked about their encounter with Pegora, seeming entirely too calm about the whole affair. Octavia bemoaned the matter with Melinda over drinks as they planned how to use the thieves guild's facilities to open the stone chest without the guild taking a cut. "She's been down in there for too long and it's made her crazy. It's getting to me too, I'm already thinking about the 'next time.' God, this is a mess."

Overall, I think the session went well. Goliath told me after the session that he was interested in playing, but never knew when any of the sessions actually were, so he'd never showed up before. I also have to figure out the death tax situation between Octavia and the Porter's Union.