Screaming in Agony
| Screaming in Agony | |
|---|---|
| Date | 6/07/23 |
| Storyteller | Doug |
| Tier | Expert |
| Player Characters | Serene Leyvald, Femi, Satori, Bright Eyes, Zeal, Dar |
| Rewards | 300 exp, 200 gold, mask (Plague), Replacement Filter (Level 5) x2, Addlebrain (Formula), Antipode Oil (Formula), Giant Wasp Venom (Formula), Antipode Oil x2, Giant Wasp Venom x2 |
| Result | Success |
| Author | Zeal |
Log
The Kodama reported on screaming near their camp, presuming it to be something of a scouting party. Not wanting to reveal the location of their camp, they could not send their own people. Thus, we were summoned to go handle the issue for them. Aside from Dar and Satori leading a risky plan involving jumping down the lengthy cavern hole instead of walking the safe route, and an incident involving Satori and a dying fish, the trip was as uneventful as always. Within the grove, we headed to the area it was supposedly located in, taking care not to head to the Kodama first lest we draw the very attention they wanted to avoid.
We found a valley, echoing with the screams of a woman. She was screaming almost impossibly loud, and constantly. We could only assume this to be more of the healing-and-torturing the ogres were shown to do, though it was much more efficient than anything they had shown before. Upon exiting the valley and finding what looked to be a giant ant hill of a structure, things became more clear. Green smoke spewing from the opening at the top, and multiple doorways. One was ogre sized, to be expected. The other, however, was more humanoid sized. Something more appropriately sized for those lower-ranking oni we suspected would be around.
Inside, the area was infested with moss, green crystals, and slime. We encountered four ogres, one of which was more competent than the rest. Aside from some tricks involving tripping or throwing fire at brown mold to spread its spores far and wide, the three less-capable ogres went down without much issue. The more capable one, however, ran up to a metal panel on a wall, uttered a phrase, and vanished beyond the solid wall. Though we tried to give chase, the panel with the instructions was written in some old form of Jotun. Serene was able to roughly translate it, and Satori's knowledge of "The Old Country" allowed him to glean its intentions. We needed to wish suffering upon someone in the name of a Lady Nanbyo. I suspect this will have real-world repercussions for what we've spoken, and as such I will not be listing what everyone spoke in order to bypass the wall. None should cause problems for those of the town, however.
Beyond the wall, we traveled a tunnel into an opening that presented the source of the screaming. A multi-colored lake with a stone hand jutting partially out of it, with tubes running from the water into the body of a half-elf woman. She was dying and being brought back to life repeatedly, the accelerated decay process growing mushrooms out of her skin that slave kobolds would harvest. Beyond that were two ogre spiders, the ogre that had ran, and an Oni. Past this oni was a familiar spectral sword, though it remained dormant while Satori spoke with the alchemically-trained oni. The fight broke out inevitably, and it was then that we discovered the room had a weakening gas floating about it.
During the fight, the oni spoke to the sword and requested help from Aku. The sword then spoke out and summoned a small fireball that launched into the sky then followed me, dropping on me after a moment. The fight was messy, but we managed to bring the enemies down. I got the plant people out of there and Satori retrieved the body of the half-elf. Before we left, Aku's voice came from the sword once more, speaking his displeasure in regards to the failure of his fellow oni and the slaves. The oni's heart stops despite Serene only knocking it out, and the collars on the kobolds detonate.
We tried to take the bodies back to the kodama, but they called the three abominations and demanded they be put out of their misery outside of the grove. We left with the bodies.