2.14.2021
Odrazin the Vivimancer (Dylan), & Usama the Fighter (Cullen) were joined by Naeve the Halfling Cleric of "Ean in their Prismatic form, a hummingbird," "fire, sun, rain, rainbows, & healing" (Tyr) & Owan Elf Fighter from the Icy Wastes (Martin), along with the henchmen from the previous session, Dervid the Oarsman, Otba the Physician, & Haug the Animal Handler.
The party decided to continue their exploration of Zagyg's manse focusing on fully exploring the ground level. They ventured in to a library which turns out was occupied by the ghost of Zagyg's brother, Nestor. Nestor was eventually able to communicate his desire that the party read him a specific story from his collection entitled, "Verdis", which is the name of Oerth's moon. The story revolved around a young wizard travelling to Verdis from Oerth who falls in love with a witch there named Sadie and their adventures freeing goblins who were enslaved there. One of the key moments was when Sadie and the unnamed young wizard discovered how to remove the green stone collars from around the goblin's necks, which was to tap them three times with a piece of silver (which is beyond rare on Verdis). The story concludes with a bittersweet ending as the young wizard returns to Oerth with some goblins seeking a new lives there and Sadie staying on Verdis to continue her work battling injustice.
After the story Nestor asked the party to find two of his books which have gone missing and read those to him. Maybe in the attic or the basement? The first is name "Oerth Home" and the other is "Mother". The party continued on to the one main room on the ground level they hadn't searched, which turned out to be the dining room. As soon as they opened the double doors the stench of the massive pile of rotting garbage inside hit their noses like a punch to the face. The room contained a very large ornate chandelier hanging over the pile of garbage and the large table was on its side on one end of the room.
Usama decided to grab the rat carcasses they had previously dispatched and walk in to the room like a waiter and throw them on the pile of trash. As soon as the rat corpses hit the pile the mound began to roil with giant centipedes investigating the disturbance and devouring the bodies.
The party hatched a plan, first they would try to distract some of the centipedes by throwing the body of the dead black goblin in to the room away from the garbage pile. A single centipede raced over to the corpse but the rest alerted to the party's presence started to race towards the door in 1s & 2s.
Ready with the second part of their plan, Owan had closed one of the double doors & the rest most of the party huddled behind the doors waiting should any get past Owan who stood ready to slam the door on the centipedes. The plan worked flawlessly & no one took any damage from the centipedes.
The party investigated the chandelier, noting it looked insanely valuable and discovered a wand with a ruby on one side & a sapphire on the other, Odrazin was elected to carry this. Investigating the garbage heap, the party discovered an "Emergency Medical Kit" which contained 3 potions of weak healing (d4), some gauze & bandges, and what turned out to be a scalpel +1 (d4+1). The party distributed the potions amongst themselves but gave Otba the rest of the healing kit including the scalpel.
Reasoning that they could come back for it later, the party raised the chandelier back up and continued towards the basement.
They found on the ground of the landing by the basement door, an oddly heavy wooden box with what looked like 4 glass tubes with metal caps on the ends and a spark of lightning dancing inside the glass. The party pocketed the strange item for the moment.
Opening the door, the party immediately noticed many bodies of desiccated rats covered in roots & vines on the steps leading down to the basement. Naeve volunteered to investigate the bodies & discovered that they were not old bodies but had been drained of all fluids somehow. Turning back to the group she also noted, in a bit of horror, that the backside of the door was covered in scratch marks, blood, & nails from the rats frantic attempts to escape whatever was in the basement.
Descending the party noticed a large pile of garbage & junk pile at the base of the stairs, which was covered in vines & roots. The party decided it best to burn the pile with a torch. As soon as fire was applied to the pile, creatures of one sort started rolling, skittering, & dragging themselves away from the heap. When the fire started to produce a lot of smoke they decided to retreat to the kitchen to see if this wizard's house had running water.
The house did have running water, which is very unusual but not unheard of. What the manse had that no other house they've heard of having were hot water taps, as well as a tap that flowed with wine, in addition to the cold tap. The party grabbed some nearby steel pails & soon had the fire put out.
Advancing cautiously in to the basement the party entered what looked like an old root cellar and were disappointed to find that most of the stores, including pickles, were gone. As they started to explore the boundaries of the room, they came upon another heap of refuse covered in vines. The creatures from the other pile seemed to have fled here along with the vine-y thing, which appeared to have onions attached to it. Along the base of the pile were what looked like potatoes with nasty spikes glistening with some fluid poking out of the "eyes". Atop the heap were potatoes with similar spikes but also vine-y spiky legs skittering over the pile.
The roller potatoes attacked in a haphazard wibbly-wobbly charge, some unable to even come close due to their irregular shape. The skittering potatoes, aka "Mutatos", were exceptionally fast and attempted to stab the party's feet and legs with their needle-like legs.
The party put up a coordinated attack & eventually overcame the creatures, burning both vine-y creatures & all present Mutatos, Rollers, & Onions. Odrazin employed the wand they had found earlier, pointing the red crystal at the enemy which produced a gout of fire. The vine-y creatures were burned, along with their Onions.
The party found a statue of an Elf-like humanoid of indeterminate sex, which was mounted on a pedestal proclaiming him to be Bakkab (who is a god of magic).
They found a silver mirror worked with serpent motifs, which turned out to be some kind of extra-dimensional prison for something that looked like the torso of an elf with 2 extra insectile claws tucked against his chest, with dark gray & black skin (with red highlights) and black hair atop an insanity of numerous spindly legs.
The figure beckoned to Owan, who noped the fuck out of there immediately. The figure started to speak very softly, although he appeared to shout at times, to the party but they eventually determined it was a trick to lure them close for some reason. They stayed back and after some insults were flung its way, the creature cast a spell creating visions of riches, treasures, & even people it seemed to be offering them for assistance. The party did not comply & went about their search of the place.
They found what had once been a summoning circle. An area with some shelves & storage for chairs & tables. A "Potionry" with some flasks & glassware which still bubbled & mixed themselves, etc. They found some potted plants, one of which had overgrown or had been tipped in to one of these experiments in progress.
The party found the formula for an alchemy recipe for a kind of invisibility potion which is probably worth something to the right person.
On a nearby shelf the party also found a couple oddly thick gold coins with images of dogs on them, a flint knife of exceptional quality, & a bit of coal that, while not on fire, radiated warmth. There was also a potion bottle filled with some liquid, containing bits of some kind of whitish/greyish metal (?) and a potion bottle with some kind of black sand.
Also on this shelf they found a strange contraption that that seemed to have a slot that the glass tubes seemed to fit in naturally & which produced an odd reaction the party observed for a while.