Session Sixteen

Sunday, 2nd December 2012
Chapter IX: 
Womb of the Black Witch
Part 1

The Party spent a bit of time on the ledge, wondering how to find their way into the lair of the Black Witch after Karl.  Mormocar decided to take the rowing boat out to the middle of the slime covered pool - despite not knowing how to row.  He managed to drop the oars into the water and drifted randomly before falling in when trying to row using his sword.  He was immediately attacked by a big one eyed serpent and a Nurgling...

Meanwhile, up the path towards the rest of the PC's trundled what was left of Tobias from earlier in the campaign - (Session Eight - "As Tobias died, a strange alien like organ tore free from the dead flesh, sprouted limbs, and escaped through the hole in the back wall...") - only now, it has degenerated into a barely humanoid mass of bone, tumours, and hair - Tobias' face sometimes pushes out of the skin on its body and silently screams.  It attacks and the PC's kill it.

Mormocar is wounded by the one eyed serpent, and fighting underwater alone is taking time - he manages to kill the serpent and spots at the bottom of the pool a thin membrane, covering what looks like a cave mouth... everyone else dives in and battles a serpent and a nurgling but all get through the membrane relatively unharmed.  Ish.  Gregor does get a nurgling touching him which then absorbs into his body completely, but aside from that and a Wound or ten they are mostly OK.

The pond is really a water-filled pit that’s wider at the top than it is at the bottom. A pale slime covers the rocky walls, and about 5 yards below the surface is a strange spongy section of wall, about a yard wide and two yards tall.  The surface is elastic and gives to the touch. Putting any kind of pressure on the wall enables a character to push through it and enter the opposite side, thus entering the Lair of the Black Witch. As they pass through the membrane, it closes behind them, so when a character finally reaches the other side, a brief squirt of pond water accompanies him before the hole closes again.

As soon as they are through, Gregor vomits out the Nurgling, which has doubled in size.  It calls him 'Mummy' and jumps into his arms -  but it does not live very long as the characters all attack it.

Light is needed, so Mormocar casts Marsh Lights before realising they are the size of fireflies, and then he casts magic light.

Ralf lights a torch.  They are inside the Black Witches lair...

It’s humid, and there’s a disgusting stench here - an uncanny blend of rubbish, excrement, and decay. The walls, floor, and ceiling are a dull grey colour, slick with condensation. A closer look reveals they are riddled with tiny blue, red, and brown striations.

Hanging from the ceiling in places are spongy orange tendrils, sort of like roots but more fleshy. Black oily water collects in puddles here and there, and things move in them, sending ripples across the surface.

The PC's explore this strange environment, losing Fate Points and plenty of wounds along the way.  They manage to pick up several keys in several rooms, and kill two Vampires - Lord De Trois and Lydia Von Carstein - and collect keys from them, too.

They managed to explore maybe a third of this place, and left plenty of caverns unexplored.  In one  strange chamber the PCs hear whispers in their heads (which cause a few insanity points...) This small room is dark.

When the PCs enter this area, among the whispers they hear:

• “The keys fools, the keys! They are the answer!”
• “Seek out the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. They offer the true path!”
• “Orcs are funnnnnggguuussss… fuuuunnnnggguuuuusssssssss!”
• “Beware the Halflings’ pies!”
• “Her remains… destroy her remains…”
• “Eat not the yellow snow!”

A lot more happens - every room it seems has some new danger -  much too much to list here - but the place feels alive.  We shall leave this sessions write up here, with them deep inside this strange womb-like dungeon...