Slither: Session 5

Last time on Slither: After Kiva and Desarim fought with goblins on a rope bridge and Pella selflessly sacrificed her body to save the others. They went to an armory where they found Aram, an elf rather traumatized from his imprisonment by the goblins. They found a doorway to a room full of chanting goblins. When Desarim opened the door to explore more, he was promptly shot in the face and died instantly.

Kiva and Aram in shock from what they just experienced, try to regroup their thoughts, they hear a cage rattling in the opposite corner of the chamber and go to investigate. Approaching the cage, they find another human who simply just stated that his name is Toram and that he had been imprisoned there for as a long as Aram had been.

 The moment Toram finishes talking, the goblins rush the door. The new companions run out back across the bridge to the collapsed Trodgor chamber. Here, they see a glimmer of precious metal, Kiva convinces Aram and Toram to search the chamber, saying “we need gold from this place or we can’t leave”. They agree so they take a few moments to further explore the ruins of the room, until each person found at least one piece of treasure.

Afterwards proceed down a side hallway, having to cross near the remains of the trogdor in the process. The sight of this giant fallen corpse causes Aram and Toram to shudder in the fear but they press on anyway. The hallway turns into a wider chamber. Pausing for a moment, the group can hear some mysterious scraping sounds somewhere in the unseen depths.

Moving hastily, they explore further down the passageway, looking for a way safely back to the surface all while avoiding the source of the ominous sounds. The further they walk down the corridor, Kiva senses once again, the evil presence that has periodically revealed itself throughout this entire journey, only this time, the presence seems SO overpowering and strong, that every one of her companions senses it too. IN FACT, there seems to be a door at one end of the chamber from which this presence radiates. Shuddering they decide to go any direction but nearer to that Thing, whatever it was. The only other option was through a doorway opening to a set of stairs leading downward. Although not exactly the direction they wanted to head, the party begins descending the staircase.

  Halfway down the stairs, they hear growling.  Aram turns around for a moment but then decides that he’s more afraid of the malevolent presence than he is of the growling. He regrets this the instant he sees the source of the noise. A group of hungry looking goblins are crawling up the stairs towards them. However, these are no ordinary goblins. These creatures appear only half formed; their shape not yet fully coalesced. Thinking quickly, they use their makeshift weapons to shove the creatures quickly off the open side of the staircase avoiding a full-on fight. Toram takes a bite to the leg but otherwise, the party remains surprisingly alive and unscathed.

They get to the bottom of the stairs and realize to their dismay that it appears to be the spawning pit, filled with many more of the strange half formed goblins, only these are more rapidly taking form. Aram attempts to mislead the creatures with a spell of mirage, but due to an accidental misfire, the spell backfires leaving him uncertain if what he sees is reality or a hallucination. Racing past the goblins as fast as they can, they run through a doorway and shut it hastily between them and misshapen goblins spawning behind them. This room is quite different from the previous room, as the floor is covered with dank vegetation and water trickles through. After surveying the room, Aram decides to try to pull all the moisture out of the bricks, hoping this would indicate the source of the water and thus a way out of the dungeon. However, his spell is only successful in that it creates enough of a ruckus that all the goblins in the adjoining room are instantly alerted to their location. They burst through the once sealed door, now fully formed and ready for a meal. As Kiva and Toram draw weapons preparing for a last desperate stand, Aram gets a flash of insight and once again uses his spell to drain the water from the bodies of the goblins, instantly turning their enemies to dust.

A slow clap ensues, as all of a sudden, the malevolent presence makes himself known, finally revealing his physical form to the party. A Lich appears, what may have been a man once, long ago in a former life, now only a wizened old corpse, with the tail of a monstrous snake where his legs should have once been. Introducing himself as Xiximanter, he begins his diatribe “I have been down here centuries, conducting my research… what a pleasure to finally meet you after all the disturbances you have caused. However, I am a patient soul. I would be happy to let you leave this place in peace….provided you each provide me with a small vial of blood and assist me in finding three blue mushrooms from this room”

Aram arrogantly asked him “ why  can't you pick your  own mushrooms” 

The lich laughs and replied “ because I’ve no longer the sense to see, smell or  feel them” Aram and Kiva exchange a look, but decide this task doesn’t seem too onerous. They hurriedly find him the mushrooms he desired, digging through the strange vegetation with their makeshift weapons stolen from the armory.

 “This is fine thank you greatly” says the Lich.  Toram gives a sample of blood from his leg wound as requested.

However, if the party expects this to win their freedom, they are sadly dashed of these dreams. The Lich turns to them all and says “Unfortunately this isn’t enough, but I will make you an offer. I’ll let two of you live if one of you stays behind forever” Toram, half mad with pain from his wounded leg and desperate for any hope of healing, immediately offers himself up as tribute to the others. Aram immediately objects and offers himself up as tribute to replace Toram. Kiva also voices objection, not wanting to see them both die. There are several minutes of arguing on who will stay behind and stubbornly Toram prevails and insists “I’ll stay behind, if the others go free”

“Excellent and yes of course” the Lich states, a small cruel smile almost cracking the wizened face.

 The next thing Toram knew, he is teleported to another chamber where he finds himself strapped to a torture bed surrounded by goblins. He says “Oh crap” and realizes it’s going to be a long eternity. Kiva and Aram are able to leave the dungeon in silence and after dividing up the spoils of the dungeon they go their separate ways. 

Slither: Session 4

Last time: Kiva and Jelle encountered Desarim, the sole survivor of a band of adventurers, who leads the way to the room where his party disappeared. Jelle becomes trapped burrowing into a tomb and meets an untimely demise at the wrong end of a Serpa’s axe. Desarim and Kiva are dragged into a pit by skeletal hands, where it’s discovered that at least one member of the Desarim’s party survived. A woman named Pella enters with a dramatic flair and lures a monster on top of Desarim and Kiva. (making it clear she has some questionable “history” with Desarim) yeah everyone is getting along splendidly.

 Kiva marches Pella towards the door exiting the chamber, continuing their verbal fight. As she pushes Pella a snake monster comes busting through the door. Kiva throws Pella in the path of the Trogdor but fails to account for Pella’s agility. She misses the Trogdor’s swing and states saucily “I’ve learned these moves in the club.”  Desarim and Kiva were also able to dodge the initial strikes by the Trogdor but the argument continues between Kiva and Pella. They are so distracted with their bickering that no one noticed when Trogdor came back until it landed a right hook, sending both of them sprawling back onto Jelle’s body. This attack comes with such a force, it takes out a support beam of the chamber in the process
Meanwhile Desarim stands by idly trying to come up with a solution to save them all. Despite the dangerous chaos of the situation, Kiva and Pella’s argument continues, this time fighting over who got the pleasure of looting Jelle’s body. “Who risked their neck to even get him down here safely, and was doing fine until you showed up? says Kiva heatedly. “Hey he was my brother! Back off hoe!” retorts Pella. They don’t let up fighting, even over the corpse of their former comrade, until they see Desarim trying to fight the Trogdor solo.
Pella teams up with Desarim at the last minute, using their magic to burn the Trogdor but only managing to  singe a scale or two. The Trogdor hisses “Did you really think that was going to work? Now I shall surely kill you all now, as I’m starving and   you look like a good meal.” While the Trogdor is being distracted by the flames and going off on a rant. Kiva ties a rope between it and the last remaining support pillar. She shouts “Run you Fools” after which they all run as fast as possible out of the chamber. As the creature attempts to chase them, it pulls the pillar and collapses the chamber.
 Running out as fast as their legs can carry them, they almost didn’t see the cliff shortly past the door; luckily, they stopped just in time. Taking a breather to glance around, they discover a rope bridge to cross to the other side. As they get about halfway across the bridge, Desarim spots two Goblins with his spyglass and readies his bow, the goblins spot them back about the same time. Luckily Desarim has his bow at the ready and as they begin to shoot, he shoots back. Meanwhile Pella grabs Kiva hiding behind her as a human shield.  This serves her well, as initial volley of arrows hit Kiva directly as the arrows deflected off her armor. Her breastplate is severely damaged beyond repair, yet she is luckily unharmed. Enraged, Kiva twists and forces herself to her knees, opening Pella up to take the next volley of arrows into her soft flesh. She drops to the ground with a thud. Desarim successfully shoots the goblins down and together he and Kiva loot the body of the fallen Pella. Afterwards Desarim pushes her body off the bridge so that no one would know they were ever there, stating “She was never my girlfriend anyway.”
They proceed down the bridge, and open a door into what appears to be an old armory. There are many abandoned shoddy weapons scattered around the room, pitchforks and brooms and the like. Kiva and Desarim each take a couple (“Backups never hurt anyone, especially in a dungeon!”) and continue exploring the room. In the far corner, they see another door, and a cage containing a haggard looking elf.
They ask him what his story is. The elf states that his name is Aram. He had been imprisoned here for several months, pointing to the markings on the wall where he had been keeping track of the days. He continues saying  that he had come here with  friends  but  that  they  had  all died, to which  Desarim mumbles  “Welcome to the  club  bro”,  and  states  that  most of them had  died at  the  hand of  the  Trogdor and  mentions  how  crazy  intense it was to fight it ( Kiva and Desarim nod in  agreement)  and  that  any  friends that survived the Trogdor attack were killed by the Goblins. 
They release Aram from his cage and Kiva throws him a pitch fork. Catching it, Aram tries to stab Kiva reflexively but due to his weak muscles and Kiva’s cat like reflexes he misses. Kiva glares at him, He quickly apologizes, explaining he had been tortured by the goblins his instinct just kicked in. Kiva shrugs it off but warns “Don’t let it happen again. They collect themselves and start to hear chanting from the next room.
Desarim bravely agrees to lead and opens the door first. He has just enough time to witness a crowd of goblins, all chanting and surrounding a crowned goblin on a throne. The goblins turn and Desarim is promptly shot in the face with a flaming arrow, dropping him right in front of the door. To stop the hail storm of flaming arrows Kiva and Aram quickly push Desarim’s body out of the doorway and shut the door before they are killed. Filled with fear Kiva and Aram plan for what their next move will be against this new threat.

Slither: Session Three

Last Session... Jelle and Kiva had fought a few skeletons and scraped off some gold. They swam under a statue. Oh, there's some malevolent force that knows they're there. No big deal.

The following was kindly written by Will, the player of Jelle and... well.. you'll see in a minute, won't you?

Jelle and Kiva swim to an opening in the chamber that is narrower than the one they entered the chamber in, as they squeeze through the passageway and pass through the threshold. Kiva steps into the room first and she notices the gem-like ceiling and the marble-like floors and walls. Her gazing is interrupted by Jelle shaking off his fur to get dry and in the process soaks her even more. she glares at Jelle for getting her wet.”What?”, he asked.

 Out of nowhere a man with long dark hair and muscles that were about the size of Jelle's head and scars that suggests he was a seasoned adventurer. Jelle, paralyzed with fear, doesn't say a word. Instead Kiva questions him. He states that his name is Desarim and he was down here with another party but they all died in a large pit farther up the chamber. Kiva questions his sanity and trustworthiness, but invites him to join them.

 

They progress down the chamber and see serpa statues that overlook them as if they were formerly worshiped as deities and covered in gold, because of their buffed metal appearance. They walk closer to the pit and noticed a very foul smell coming from it, it reminded Jelle of sewage, because of the solid organic objects floating in the liquid. Desarim shutters with a paralyzing fear as they walked by the pit. Upon further review it appears to them the chamber is an octagonal shape that has five passageways, four of which look like they were sealed with the finest masonry of the time, but are currently worn and overgrown with algae and large roots. The only passageway that seems available is a door on the opposite side of the chamber.

Kiva prepares to use astral projection to scout ahead but as she begins to project, she feels that same malevolent presence she felt at the entrance, it appears to be coming from behind the door. She tells Jelle this and suggests that they loot fast and not go through the door.

 Jelle burrows under one of the sealed passageways, he is successful tunneling through the marble-like stone but as he enters the small sealed chamber the tunnel collapses and traps him in the room. Meanwhile in the main chamber skeleton hands emerge from the pit. After a moment in the tomb Jelle gets his bearings back and realizes there is a serpa with an axe that wants to kill him. Jelle attempts to fight him but he runs into a wall that knocks him off his feet and the last thing he sees is the handle of the axe and the feel of the blade against his neck.

 

Meanwhile Desarim fights off the skeleton hands and fends off one with his grappling hook but the other hand grabs him and pulls him into the pit, the skeleton begins to attack him. Kiva makes a lasso to pull the skeleton and as she pulls the skeleton off of Desarim she gets thrown into the pit. Desarim shoots his bow from a safe distance at the skeleton and kills it, dissolving it and it sinks to the bottom of the pit. Unfortunately Desarim broke a bowstring in the proces, rendering his bow a fancy walking stick at the moment.

 

Then a woman emerges from the pit in a very provocative manner as she gets out of the pit. She shoots a glance at Desarim saying “Hey babe”. There is a pause in the action as the woman fixes her hair and checks her nails. She states her name is Pella. Kiva, repulsed by her, asks Desarim why he brought that kind of woman down here and she's a disgrace to dungeoneering women everywhere. Desarim looks on in disbelief.

 

Seeing as she was getting no response about the new woman, Kiva pushes forward on her original goal, she searches the bottom of the pit for loot and finds a gold chain. The bodies of Desarim's friends start floating to the surface and he loots his friend Alfonzo's body. He finds a map that describes how to open the door a special way. Pella examines the chamber with a mirror she had brought and finds a beautiful bright emerald that she thinks would look great for a ring.

Then the axe wielding Serpa busts through the sealed passageway chasing Pella. She jumps the length of the pit; she clears it but not before she's nicked by the axe. She checks her nails as the serpa jumps into the pit with Kiva and Desarim. Kiva wields her sword and kills the serpa, who dissolves into a pile of bones that sinks to the bottom of the pit.

 Kiva gets mad with Pella and almost draws her weapon, while stating that Pella is worthless. How dare she lure that thing into the pit and then not help fix her mistake. She mutters to herself “Oh sweetie this isn't the place for you” and explains she'll be the first to enter the next room. When Pella gives a look of not caring at all, Kiva grabs her by the arm, she marches off furiously with Pella by the arm, she glances back at the passageway the serpa had come from and wonders for a moment what happened to Jelle.