Journeying to the apartment building is uneventful. The party gives it a good hard looking over and notices there are no external windows. Odd. The gnome is sent roofwards and discovers no access from inside the building, only vents – presumably for venting things. If only they could become gaseous…but no. Looks like the front door is the only avenue. So, they enter through the front door. Immediately things go south. A violet blob of jello drops on Digin’s head and attempts to dissolve him before it is slain with fire. Across the foyer is some sort of cocoon remnant, now crawling with brightly colored and presumably poisonous millipedes. As the party moves to deal with these issues, a pair of horrifyingly transformed tenants burst through the door from an adjoining apartment and the battle is joined. The group triumphs, but damage has been taken, so healing is employed.
Now begins a careful exploration of the partially ruined apartments. It is clear that most of the locks have been broken open and the signs of general violence are plentiful. Holes in the adjoining walls are large enough to see through and reveal more broken cocoons, millipedes and the like. There are few signs of the former occupants. Another cocoon blocks access to the second floor, so the group chops it open to reveal a partially transformed human – swiftly slain by the group. Another door leads to a bedroom with a hole in the floor, apparently carved from below. It seems like it could lead to the sewers, and investigation shows a rope ladder attached to the shaft wall.
A different door is explored and a couple of demons? are slain – one providing a key to an adjoining room in which are housed several apartment dwellers that all tell a similar tale. They were asleep one night when armed and masked figures broke into their apartments and took them captive. Some have been dragged away, never to be seen again. Bayga links the story to the vials of some strange viscous liquid and a syringe they discovered earlier. His hypothesis is that the cultists are injecting this stuff into people and forcing them to transform into the hideous creatures in the cocoons. Vile.
The hostages are set free and the party explores the hole – which leads to the sewers running beneath Oldtown. Some investigation is undertaken and a new metal door is discovered. It is opened, but an alarm is triggered. The party ventures a short distance down the stairs beyond the door but are confronted by a smokescreen that obscures vision. When the smoke starts to clear, the sight is alarming. A dozen giant rats, split into two wings that surround a dozen ratmen. EAch of the ratmen carries a large musket. Behind them are 4 cultist ratmen riding another set of giant, tentacle-maned rats. Zall gets the drop and unleashes a fireball from the wand he obtained earlier and blasts many into oblivion. The ratlords are left standing as are a few ratmen on the periphery. In the melee that follows, the party is sorely wounded by magic and missile fire coming from a peephole and an illusionary wall that covers a nearby hallway. They defeat the ratlords and charge ahead, pursuing the fleeing survivors.
They enter the ratlair and slay the remaining defenders, then regroup. They observe the entry hall and attempt to assemble a feasible solution. Bayga urges further action but many in the group are wounded and it seems more prudent to withdraw. Bayga wins in the end and the party uses an illusionary screen to mask their advance towards the doorway. It is found to be locked – attempts to open it are unsuccessful and so the decision is made to break contact.
They are walking along with the crowds on a major bridge when they become the targets of an attack. Fighters and at least one mage attack from various places in the crowds. Bayga unleashes a soundburst spell that stuns a group of the attackers and slays a half-dozen bystanders, while Zall prepares a sleep spell. Digin moves to melee while coming under magical attack. Bayga is struck by a magical acid arrow as well. Digin hews through the stunned attackers while Zaal’s sleep spell incapacitates two more, who are then swiftly slain b y Fingers and Co. The crowd flees and the party flees with them. There are no signs of further attack…perhaps the ferocity of the response was sufficient to deter further violence. Probably not. The party is justifiably paranoid – but they return to the flophouse and sell off many of the plundered rifles they looted from the ratmen. This leaves them fairly flush with cash and they relocate to a house near the southern entrance to the city – hoping that some distance between themselves and Delver’s Square might prove beneficial.
They settle in and look around a bit. They eventually decide to return to the apartment building to see if at very least there might be some more plunder to liberate. They find it burned to the ground, probably…maybe at the behest of the town council – given the depraved experiments and horrific transformations. Or, perhaps it was done by the cult in an attempt to obscure these experiments. Either way, the roof, the roof, the roof was on fire.
They set about excavating the rubble near the area where the opening to the sewer was located, and after several hours, they are once again able to access the sewers.
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