Infernal Pact

H&Y Infinite Open Table Session 8 Notes (Back to the Underworld Observatory)

In Attendance:

Starting Date: Summer 16, 6023

Arthur was greviously injured from his escapades the day before and was anxious to recover his wounds as soon as possible. He remembered the healing fountain deep below the Underworld Observatory and resolved that it was time to go back. Arthur also had the thought that convenient healing accessible in Circlebrook might be worth paying for and so he thought to make this new excursion one where he brought back a few barrels full of the healing water.

Arthur gathered up a few delvers from town and they schemed to get supplies for their coming expedition. They got a few mules and hired Donut, Baguette and Filet the mercenaries to join Fondue, Arthur's existing mercenary. Valerian bankrolled the logistics and purchased two empty barrels, hiring Trout and Salmon the porters to haul them on their journey. (Arthur also secured the services of Flamagio as a ferryman via non-diegetic communication methods).

The party headed up to the Buzzing Temple aboard the S.S. Eggbert, and then from there into the depths. As they traveled deep beneath the ground on their 2-hour hike to the Underworld Observatory, Arthur remarked that it would just be a quick trip, no danger expected between here and there. It was during this remark in fact that he missed spotting a duergar scout standing watch in the tunnels. The duergar hurried away to alert the rest of his fist (squad) as the PCs continued onwards, oblivious.

The party got to the top of the waterfall and the rope that Aster had left the week prior. As they began to climb down, they saw lights from the bottom coming up at them, 4 duergar climbing up from the balcony below! At this moment, Xavos and the porters also began shouting from the back of the tunnels that duergar were rushing them there as well!

Valerian cast Animate Rope on the climbing rope, knocking the climbers off and pulling the other end up to the tunnels above. Stelle cast Elder Putrefying Geyser from her Chaos Tome, growing a stunted acid-dripping elder tree in the tunnels between the duergar and the porters. The acid tree prevented the duergar from shooting their crossbows at the party but was also a potential trap for the party: the section at the top of the waterfall was by nature downhill from the rest of the tunnel and the acid would eventually flow down to them. The porters continued screaming and crying as the party ineffectually traded crossbow bolts with the duergar further back in the tunnel. Valerian scared the fallen climbers away from the balcony by casting Big Scary Snake and sending it down the 60' hole to terrify the duergar below.

Seeing this stand-off as one they'd eventually lose, Stelle cast the other spell from her Chaos Tome: Orthodox Absorbing Hound. She summoned a wolf to absorb the acid from the elder tree and attack the duergar. Arthur doused a spare rope in kerosene and tossed it on the elder tree before lighting it on fire in another attempt to break the stalemate.

The tree finally burned down enough to get around it a few rounds later, allowing Valerian, Xavos and Arthur to charge the remaining duergar and finish them off. They recovered the duergar's crossbows and returned to the waterfall to see if they could reclaim the balcony below.

A replacement rope was provided by Arthur and attached to Aster's piton from before. The party slipped down the rope, anxious for any ambush at the bottom. Finding none, they crept through the doors to the rest of the Observatory complex and heard the sounds of shouted conversation from the "Dining Hall" they had seen before. Xavos peeked through the door to see 2 fists of duergar (8 duergar) trying to determine what to do about the party and holding Ramblin' Ralph the merchant hostage.

Valerian scattered caltrops and Arthur tossed in some burning rope into the room as the rest of the party provoked the duergar into rushing them. There was a bloody scuffle in the doorway made worse by the 3 remaining crossbowmen in the back of the hall, but the party eventually were able to triumph. Valerian kept the attention of the crossbowmen 1v3 as the rest of the party moved to ambush them from behind, even knocking it down to a 1v2 by the time they got there.

Once the duergar were finished off, the PCs helped Ralph retrieve his wares. Ralph let them know that the 4th and last fist of duergar that were here had left to go report back to the First National outpost a few hours before and that they would be back soon. The party quickly hurried to the library, knowing that the duergar would need to return through the hallway there. They covered their lanterns and hid behind the shelves, waiting for the lights of the duergar's lanterns to betray them. They were very quickly rewarded with the arrival of the returning fist and slaughtered the group of them in a flurry of crossbow bolts and axes.

Fearing that more duergar would be on the way, the party quickly hurried down the tunnel, terrified porters in tow. They quickly reached the "STREET ENTRANCE" room but stopped short when they heard an arguement in the room ahead. There was a conversation between two groups, one duergar and one other group that the PCs couldn't identify. The second group was demanding more resources and corpses as supplies to attack a nearby town. The PCs didn't have enough context to figure out what was going on but the groups left before they could get any further details.

The party quickly snuck into the room and went beyond into the hedge maze room. They crept through the maze and successfully reached the fountain at the center, everyone immediately drinking as much as possible to heal all of their wounds from the fights with the duergar. They filled the barrels with healing water as well before fleeing the entire underworld as fast as possible. Once they reached the surface in the Buzzing Temple, they rolled the barrels back through the River Gate into the S.S. Eggbert and sailed back to Circlebrook.

Summer 17, 6023

After they had returned, Arthur put forth his business plan:

The party agreed that this was a great plan. They did regret that their extensive hiring spree had completely exhausted Circlebrook of available labor though, and resolved to figure out how to deal with that some other time.

xp split: 1124 per share, 2284 xp per PC coin split: 74 coins per share, 148 per PC

[Note: I counted each of the available doses they had to sell as worth 20xp, thus the extremely high xp/share. Further profits are just coins, not xp.]

#HaY Infinite #Session Recap