Session 22*

Recap:

- Started in combat
- Cassandra blood-screamed and let out a crazy thunderclap ("mahp")
- Victory. Cassandra needs Der'ik
- Into the tower. Meet a dude. Tzon drags him downstairs and then massages the trauma out of him
- Into the Cathedral with Lulu and not Reya.
- CRAB FIGHT! Maybe a tasty snack?

• Balsam moves out of blocking the doorway. Barc gets a swipe in on Bean. I lance at him a few times hitting with one attack in the lower carapace pulling up to flip him over.
• Skraps stabs at Pubis killing him. He dodges a lil claw attack and slices it off kicking him down the stairs. Offhand throws a dagger at Legs missing. He then runs another 15 feet up the stairs to peek. He sees a sick organ. Its on a balcony that overlooks the entranceway. The white keys seem to glow, and the black seems to absorb all light. He moves up to dance on the organ's keys. It surprisingly sounds good. He plays a solid version of The Entertainer. It gives an extra d8 (on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw within the next some amount of hours) to all who can hear it.
• Cassandra holds out her holy amulet and through it Aurelia feels lil pinpricks as she heals up.
• Aurelia attacks Legs, So Juicy. Stabby stab with a rapier. VEXED. Missed with the second though. Short sword lands killing. Cracks him in half.
• Lilith blasts at Dreborah Bush landing strong with both add on that lil bonus hexxx. Back to behind a wall for cover.
• Barc flips himself and claws at Tzon, missing twice
• Queeny Liz swipes at Bean. Landing one.
• Vore swipes at Aurelia landing and grappling her. It drags her away closer to Dreborah.
• Trevick yells "UNHAND HER" and stands up rushing towards Vore and Dreborah.
• Lulu moves closer to a wall for cover. She looks at Cass and is like "Quite a kerfuffle in there!"
• Tzon attacks Barc. Killing him. Gets down in a coffeegrinder Crits on Queeny killing her too with the kick. Moves down onto Vore. Flurry of blows on him. Hitting both. Killing him too. it's a continuation of that spinny kick.
• Drebarborah Bush (she/her) smiles at Trevick and lashes her tail at him. Lands, big damage, he goes down. She then claws at Tzon. He deflects the attack but still gets grappled. She takes some damage still though. She drags Tzon away taking a lance in the process.
• Balsam screams "RELEASE THE HALFLING". Running start with Bean. Lance DIVINE SMITE Lance!! All land.
• Skraps continues playing his song.
• Cassandra moves centrally and casts Beacon of Hope.

  Aurelia yells over to Cass "Truly crazy I thought music was sort of my thing. Its actually so good though. Thats SUPER cool (eye roll)" She runs at Tzon with the intent of being launched over Dreborah. He can tell what she wants and he drops to his back to launch her with his feets. It goes fuckin GREAT! She lands on the rubble for the advantage. Stabby stab. She kills him with a tuck and land and coming up with the rapier through the chin.

  VICOTORY!!!

  Lily makes her way inside. Trevick is still bleeding out. Lulu reacts. Tzon stabilizes him with another crit. Aurelia's rapier Bon Vivant. Short sword is Socially Inclined. Balsam names their lance Mr. Bitches. Balsam picks Trevick up to throw him on Bean but Cassandra heals him midplace. Lily and Aurelia stop Skraps from playing music still. It's been real loud. Lily picks him right up. Trevick panicks again I tell him that he will come out the other side stronger and that I promise he will survive. He gathers himself. He'd like to stay on Bean with me though.

  Cassandra heals up Aurelia again. I heal myself which also heals up Bean. Skraps and Tzon go and check out some weird little private chapels with curtains. Each one contains dead guard bods. Skraps searches a dude and that guy is like "OW!" He sees what appears to be in a guards uniform that doesn't fit them. "I'm friendly" that dude says. He was playing dead. Skraps calls him out for not fighting with honor. He asks if we took out the guys and how many. I call out that Tzon took out most. Aurelia goes and checks out if the loud ass song attracted any attention from outside the building. She doesn't see anyone incoming. She does see Reya peeking around a corner. "What's going on in there? Is it safe to enter?" Aurelia waves them in (a bit reluctantly. She really doesn't like Reya.)

  They all come in. They look around in horror of the condition of the cathedral. The guy in the guard suit reacts to Reya's prescence and runs out to give her a hug. "You're allied with these knuckleheads?" She is like "some of them are good. They are effective" He is like "its been hell here. Literally. There are survivors in the crypts below. More baddies have gone downstairs though."

  Tzon finds nothing much of interest in his. Lily investigates another area. Inside is a desecrated altar. It decidedly has a fiendish air. It's covered in sinew and intestines. It has the iconography of Zariel. She notices a stairwell behind. Everyone who isn't investigating places gather a bunch of crab meat. Lily feels her body change. Her skin feels dry and her bones feel brittle as she steps closer to the altar. SECRET SECRETS HAPPEN! Lily murmurs to herself and touches her necklace and casts Blade Ward. It comes out as a gold coin armor forming to cover her.

  Lily walks out and puts a little normal-ish smile on her face. A smirky lil thing. It's very obviously a performance. She claims there is nothing in there and no one should go in there. Cassandra immediately goes in. She feels a very evil presence. The magics of the previous altar of Torm have been altered since the descent into Avernus (haha the name of the book) SECRET SECRETS. Cass investigates some more but nothing else seems to be interesting. The energy is clearly coming from the Altar.

  Cassandra investigates the fist thingy. She notices that in the palm of the hand there is a secret panel that she opens up and it reveals a concealed staircase that descends. "It wasn't to put something in, its the way into the below."

  Reya recommends that we don't sleep up here. We should make it to the survivors downstairs. She also tells us she will close it behind after we descend. I have to leave Bean behind and we descend further. I switch to the mace so I can keep my shield up.

  We enter into a small isolated tomb, Lulu and Trevick came with. It opens up to an area where there is a body of a young woman with a gleaming greatsword at her side. Cassandra knows that before the companion arouse a red dragon caused a lot of issues. A woman slew it, and everyone came to reward her but as they approached she died. She was put up in the catacombs and her body never decomposed. She tells us about it. We debate taking her sword. We demand Skraps empty his pockets. We see a bunch of stuff but also another pair of women's underwear. Lily snatches them. They seem to be hers.

  We move through a hallway and it opens into an area that used to be used for private cermonies. Each alcove has an upright coffin each holding various priests of Torm. We also debate looting the coffins. And also maybe talking to the heroes corpse and see if we could loot the greatsword. Cass asks Lily to hold her as she sends out Der'ik to scout out. We are all a little thrown about it. As Der'ik moves his way through a lil path I peek into one of the coffins. In a few alcoves he can see a few little mausoleums. Further is even more coffins. It's labeled as the "hall of scholars" Its full of people who served torm through their knowledge.

  Cassandra scans around and sees behind the bones on a shelf are 9 red amethysts and a potion full of deep red liquid. We decide to move forward but first, I pop open a coffin pretty loudly. Inside I see a partially decomposed body and the personal effects of the body. Jewelry, gems, and a locket. Skraps takes them. Skraps pops open another. De'rik makes his way back. I go to give Skraps cover. He is able to pop it open with his thieves tools. A mummy leans forward.

  INITIATIVE!!!!!!

• Tzon runs in fear from the Mummy (starring brendan frazier) and hides behind the hero lady's corpse
• Aurelia swings over skraps head and attacks with her rapier at the mummy hitting true. She stabs past skraps' side to catch him off guard for messing with her it also hits. She then stabs with her short sword hitting true with that as well.
• Lily blast blast landing both strong damage. Tells Travick to save Skraps. He says he will!
• Cass does a true strike with her warhammer. Lands solid. bonus action back swing. Extra radiant too!~ She steps back and the lady Mummy swings with her fist but misses.
• Skraps cuts across the mummy's stomach and cuts deep. As she falls forward he tries to push her to the ground but she screams at him and stays upright. "Take a breathmint lady!" He runs back out of her reach. "Alright Balsam, you're up!" And he hides behind them/me.
• Trevick "DIE FIEND" and he rushes forward and slams his spear directly into the wall behind her snapping it in half, and he snags the sharp end of the broken one. "I got it guys!"
• Lulu "I believe in your trevick! You do got it!" and she hides back with Tzon
• The mummy glares at Aurelia. She is now frightened of the mummy. She then punches at Trevick, misses with the first and lands with the second, he takes a deep bruise of a hit and it starts to rot QUICKLY it like the necrotic energy shuffles down her arm and it lingers around him and he goes down again.
• Balsam moves up "I TOLD HIM I'D KEEP HIM ALIVE!" and they slam their mace down with a 2nd level divine smite killing her crushing her into a fine paste. Still in initiative.
• Tzon moves up "I knew you all could do it! It kinda puts everything into perspective" Aurelia calls him out and asks his takeaway. He responds that he could help out more.
• Aurelia says she's never been scared of the mummy. Tzon can clearly tell that she was so scared but he doesn't say anything about it.
• Lily looks down at her hands and notices that they are shaking "ok well that was exhilirating?? Shall we continue? Is Travick still on the ground?" and leans up against the wall casually staring at Cass.

  Cassandra stabilizes him with a med check. He is stable but unconscious. We debate taking him upstairs. I pick him up to bring him back upstairs. Lulu moves up and is like "Wait look at him!" Cassandra notices that when she put her hand into his chest and feels it sink in. He's not breathing. She pulls her hand away and his body turns to dust before us. "but I promised him" "The zombie did something to him" Lily is able to tell that the rotting fists of mummys carry curses and it reduces their life forces and that while cursed like that they can't be healed. And if you hit 0 you instantly die.

  Skraps notices some bracers in the bottom of the sarcophagus. Tzon and Balsam both do not handle his death super well. Skraps also finds a ring. Cassandra tries to calm both Tzon and Balsam down. Aurelia also tries to calm Tzon down. Kinda ignores Balsam. Also she drops an Expedition 33 quote. Lily and Skraps kinda call her out about it. Tzon looks for a momento of Trevick. He finds his clothes, armor, and amulet of torm. Tzon takes the amulet. I scoop as much of his ashes as I can and dump them into my bag "HE IS COMING WITH US" I say as people protest a bit.

  We move forward. Tzon and Aurelia lead the way. I hold up the back. Tzon sees, hiding in one of the corners, 2 children. He pulls himself together and gently approaches them and asks if they need help. "We got separated from our family" Tzon is like we have to take them with us. Cassandra is like maybe we should take them upstairs. We do so. Tzon asks about their names. Natalya, and Petward. Apparently Shen has a character named Petward. Something something siblings something something eberon idk It sounds interesting though.

  We bring the kids upstairs to Reya. I lean into Reya and whisper Trevick's fate to her and my plans to bring his remains to the end of the catacombs so he can hopefully get a torm burial. She starts a prayer. and I quickly drop back down and we continue our journey. We find 9 red amethysts worth 50 gp each and a potion of greater healing.

  Tzon leads us on, a lot of empty corridors, eventually we hear a ruckus. We see a blockade of debris to the right. To the left he can see a board room that is filled with a massive table with a bunch of cultists smashing the place up. "It must be somewhere!" we hear. Cassandra has an idea. A darkness. Skraps scurries on with some sneaky sneak with a helpful bonus from Cass. He wants to get a better image. He can see more cultists and a white Abishai, described as a white lizard. Lily knows that it's an abishai. Fiends of Tiamat. MORE SECRET SECRETS!!!!

  Down another hallway we can't see anything but it is long. We decide we should probably get the jump on the cultists and abishai. Cassandra offers to throw a fireball right down in the middle. She will throw it on her first turn and we will handle it from there. The cultists are smashing into the walls, and searching for something hidden.

  INITIATIVE!!!!!

  CASSANDRA WILL THROW A FIREBALL!!!!!

*Zoe smoked before this session so the notes might be weird