Session 2 - 2025-12-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

Player Characters

Recap

While leaving the fork toward the path of their quarry Purrcival spotted something that was somewhat hidden by the now withering red plant. A dagger, a pouch and a vial. He brought it to the party’s attention and inspected it, piecing together that the vines must have grabbed at a member of the Pyrite Gang that had gotten too close to the hungry vines which had grabbed at him, shaking loose the pouch and vial. The frustrated gang member struck with the knife, but was attacked back and the group was forced to flee after angering the plants. The dagger was unremarkable and the pouch contained a couple of handfuls of coins, but Velvet looked at the vial and identified it as Improved Grindeltooth Venom.

While this discovery was being made, Rhys arrived at the Celestial Sips to find Lola and other speakeasy workers cleaning up and repairing things in the distilling room. He learned what had transpired and where the rest of the Sip's Crew had gone and quickly followed them down into the sewers meeting them up at the fork where the vines had attacked.

The group then moved on to their hunt proper throughout the winding sewer system. First following signs of the wounds from the gang member who was struck by the red vines, but eventually having to contend with the slippery environment, misdirections by the gang, and even a lunatic, whose body they gave to Purrcival’s Vulture. Eventually however, after dealing with muck, and stink and danger they came upon a clogged cistern filed with dead bodies, filtering into it only to find some of the bodies were undead.

A battle ensued where the party overall sustained a good number of wounds, but their combined might and ingenuity devastated the undead until all was quiet again. The group then debated the merits of rest vs looting, and chose to try to investigate the room first, however this revealed the dangers of some undead that were still alive, but pinned under the piles, one of which had grabbed Purrcival who was freed by Paul’s swift actions. The group decided rest was needed more than whatever secrets the still somewhat dangerous undead kept and retreated back a ways to a less smelly and more secure portion of the sewers to lick their wounds, clean themselves up a bit, repair their armor, and center themselves for what they hoped would be finally catching up with their quarry.

After the rest the group returned to the cistern and seeing the undead having returned to a more dormant state decided to try and examine the room a bit. Rhys used his magical senses to detect anything of note, finding a couple of things that emitted energies. Velvet tossed corpses aside with swift abandon to avoid retaliation, eventually finding a vial of liquid and a pair of boots that emitted the energies Rhys had detected. However, a couple of the corpses she tossed aside had been undead and now free of the piles gave chase to the group in the knee deep sludge. The group banded together and with Velvet at the lead were able to outpace the zombies and flee the room.

They quickly came to a place where they heard the echoes of voices and laughter. Purrcival, Gus in spider form, and Velvet all snuck toward the voices on reconnaissance and found a room filled with members of the Pyrite Gang who were partying and celebrating. As the trio listened they learned that the Celestial Sips was not the only place hit, but instead all the speakeasies in the neighborhood. The Pyrite Gang expected the higher ups to reward them thoroughly and implied that once they could make a killing selling all this stuff they could grow and try to take the whole district with similar tactics. They saw the crates, bags, and other stolen goods collected at the edges of the room as the Pyrite Gang waited for nightfall so they could quietly move their stolen goods onto a truck. After learning this Purrcival returned to the rest of the group and communicated what they found.

The group discussed and decided an ambush was in their best interest, using a Lunatic call from Paul to lure in some of the Pyrite Gang members and webs from Gus to prevent them from retaliating quickly and easily. The group fell back to a juncture and divided their forces and the plan worked like a charm, drawing out a significant number of the Pyrite Gang, who were cut down with brutal efficiency with the trap they laid. However, in the chaos of battle, one of the gang realized just how quickly they were being overwhelmed by a group of people who were not a Lunatic and called for back up.

That back up came in two forms. Firstly, the simple one of a number of gang members moving towards the ambush point to reinforce their defeated allies. But secondly a strange chanting began to echo from the maintenance chamber the Pyrite Gang had been partying in, and with that chanting came a magical dimming of the light sources of both the gang and the group from the Sips. The atmosphere was so oppressive it was hard not to lose Hope in the face of whatever ritual or spell was being cast. Unable to counter whatever was happening in the chamber, the party continued their assault on the Pyrite Gang members filtering out of the room, pushing towards the main chamber with each strike and kill.

Will they be able to disrupt the ritual? What will happen if they cannot? And how did a mid-level gang like the Pyrites get their hands on magic that powerful? Let’s find out!