Chapter 17: “Basements are bad” (2026/08/08)
Point form recap is all I can muster this week!
- - The party fought the tiny vampires. The wounded knight got super stressed out and fled.
- - Tiny vampires read the way this is going and then also flee the room.
- - The party hears the knight get murdered outside, then a few bearded devils bust in.
- - We fight them for awhile too but when they realize we will probably win, they yell in Infernal to fall back to the line. They flee too.
- - We ignore that very obvious clue about more devils being nearby and chase them to the threshold of the building, killing all but one.
- - We do some introspection and figure maybe we shouldn’t follow him outside, where there will absolutely be more bearded devils. Vaantrik is bummed we didn’t get them all.
- - Oz explores more of the house, finding a couple of rooms that could lead somewhere, while Flea looms at the top of a downward staircase.
- - Honey studies the two and tries to figure out which one she thinks is wiser (Emily rolls for this.)
- - Flea possesses a certain “Je ne sais quoi” here, and so Honey trundles down the basement stairs, looking for what’s next. We need to get out of sight before that devil comes back with friends. The party follows.
- - We are in a storeroom, stacked high with crates of merchandise. We search for signs of the vampire kids, our quarry Spurnyte Mal, or somewhere to hide.
- - Honey finds a hole through the stacked crates. Eventually she, Sima and Vaantrik venture through and find an open, hidden space. A coffin is there and the wounded vampire kids are in there sleeping.
- - We need a rest and we also need to figure out what to do about the creatures.
- - Vaantrik wants to kill them outright, because they are clearly monsters. Honey doesn’t think it’s sporting to kill something under these circumstances but would do it if that’s what the party decides. Overall the party is pretty indecisive about what to do next. Lulu hysterically wants us to “THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!”
- - After much hemming and haw-wing, we stack the lid of the coffin with crates and attempt a rest. Vaantrik, Sima and Honey with the coffin, Oz on top of the stacked crates with Lulu, and presumably Flea (+Talon) outside in the main area.
- - Partway through our rest, the two elves are untranced by weird noises coming from inside the coffin. They wake Honey and we aren’t sure what to do. A little bit passes before Honey unstacks the crates from the coffin lid and rips it open, revealing an empty interior.
- - Just then, a gross necromancer guy (presumably Spurnyte) enters the main area on the other side of the crates, holding the vampire kids. He accuses the party of hurting the “children” and throws down, after gently laying the still sleeping vampire kids on the ground.
- - He casts Darkness on the space - it sucks. Coffin-side crew try to scurry over to where the action is. Vaantrik throws a web to also try to control the field. Honey got temporarily stuck in the hole and is blocking Sima’s exit. But don’t worry because Oz hit the bad guy and he dropped Darkness.
- - Back to the fight next week!
We also had a little cutscene in the realm of Dusk and Shadow. We saw Thelania (the fey queen of Dusk, with a witchy, tree-like aesthetic) pick a story off the shelf in her chambers, opening a pale blue and well-read book titled “Magpie, Oh Magpie”.