session 19

There Will Be Blood¶

We were in a fight for our lives. The unspeakable horror that had emerged from Callista’s remains terrified many of us in the lab, rendering most of the Hetai warriors useless, cowering in corners of the room. The horror killed several guards before it oozed and shambled out into the hallway. Both Gwen and Stigs had raced out of the room to find better tactical positions, and to warn the rest of the guards. Gwen was able to give notice to the recuperating kidnap victims in the infirmary that they must flee – they were led by the medical attendant Alaric out of the infirmary and into a nearby kitchen where they were sure to lock the heavy door.

As the horror was pursued by Corinth and those guards who had managed to regain control of themselves, it let out an enormous blast of necromantic energy, which nearly killed Corinth, and did kill poor Q’uiel Lightchaser, along with several other guards. They were reduced to withered husks in a just moment of dark energy. At this point Gwen unleashed her own tempest in the form of an exploding fireball. The horror was clearly burned but it continued to ooze and lurch towards the jail cells.

Gloopwing was able to bring Garos to his senses and the group proceeded to focus all their fire on the rat swarm. The jail room was pure chaos. Saros killed one of the Hetai, but Ryalith couldn’t be stopped, and she kept bashing away at him. Meanwhile the rats pierced the minds of everyone about them, sowing confusion and paralysis among us. Finally thoug Stigs was able to get his crossbow, and Gloopwing her sword, and the tide of battle began to turn. The rats tried to flee but were taken down by a psychic blast from Sita. Gloopwing made for Saros and finally put him down with a vaulting leap from off a wall of the narrow cell, bringing her blade down on him, nearly cutting Saros in two.

However the horrow was still moving, having lurched its way to the door of the cell. Stigs, in a vampiric frenzy, did the unimaginable and bit the horror – this resulted in a face-full of acid for Stigs, but he seemed to heal almost as quickly as he was damaged. It was a terrifying sight. In a final paroxysm of destruction the horror let forth another enormous blast of necromantic energy. Sita and two guards were killed, Stigs collapsed, and Garos nearly went with him. Finally the horror was undone by a firebolt from Gwen, its horrid figure collapsing into a pool of gore and ichor on the flagstones of the jail entryway.

Exhausted, and with combat over, we tended to the wounded. Gloopwing noticed Saros’s corpse shuddering and made haste to try and capture the ceremorph (aka “skitter” or “brain bug”) that emerged from his body. The ceremorph attempted to flee down the toilet, but Gloopwing grappled it, engulfing the horrible creature in her plasmoid body.

Will she be able to maintain a grip on it, or will this creature slip through our fingers to continue with whatever terrible scheme it has planned?