Session 6 - Medusa's Son?

Session Date: December 11, 2019

The session begins with the party having just defeated the Medusa outide the ruins they found in the swamp near Redcap.

After Topknot is done looting the body of the monster, Teddy decides to take its head and see if its petrification powers can still be used a few times even while it's dead. The large group of petrified soldiers and villagers begins to come to and sees the party around the slain monster, and Ivan up on top of the ruin with his creature.

One soldier questions the party and is told that they had slain the beast, and that the group would head to town after exploring the ruins to eliminate any other dangers within. He identifies himself as Captain Guy, and takes command of the rest of the bewildered soldiers and villagers and leads the group of 18 or so back to town.

The group hears a faint crying sound coming from within the nearby ruin entrance, and Topknot and Teddy sneak their way down into the ruin entrance to see what they can see, and they hear a faint crying but Teddy can't see shit in the dark, so he's not really as useful as he wants to be. After quietly following Topknot around in the dark a bit, they find a few doors, and while Topknot waits below, Teddy heads back up for the rest of the group, who clank and scrape their way noisily back down the stairs, ruining any chance of stealth.

Entering the following room, they hear the sound of crying intensify, and Dae is able to see a figure at the end of the hall sitting and weeping. Topknot is confused about why she can see that far in the dark but doesn't mention it at the moment. Topknot eventually approaches the figure, passing a door from which an acrid smell emits, and sees that it's a very dirty little boy with matted hair. Topknot tries to calm him with little to no success. Dae casts Calm Emotions, and this helps, so that Topknot is able to speak to the boy a little, and try to coax him out of the hallway and outside to safety -- that they'd kill the monster.

At this, the creepy little boy begins crying again saying, "Why did you do that?" Prompted to come outside and come home to town, he says "This IS home." If he is to be believed, it appears that this child is the son of the Medusa the party has just slain. He tells the party that his mother was mad at him because he broke a jar in the nearby room, and he was not supposed to have been in that room in the first place.

While Dae and Topknot are talking to the boy, Ivan pops his creature into the door where the foul smell is coming from, and he and Teddy see that the floor is covered with a slight mist, and that there's a greenish light coming from the room. The creature reports that the room is full of big jars, but that the gas and fog in the room was not dangerous to breath as far as it could tell.

Topknot, meanwhile sneaks back across the larger entry room into another small room that appears to be a bedroom, and finds a large scroll case, a journal, and a creepy book bound in patchwork leather of dubious origin. Teddy impulsively opens the door, and while describing what he sees to the others (several huge jars, the floor a sea of mist, and one of the jars broken and spilled all over), he is attacked by a puff of spores from a fungal dog-like creature, and a fight breaks out.

Topknot rushes back to join the fight, and Jakob steps up to stand in the doorway, keeping everyone else safe from the attacking mutated creatures - one huge frog-like lizard, a big crab/octopus/shark, and two of the fungal dog type things.

The large frog-like creature keeps attempting to lash out with it's huge tongue, but is unsuccessful at snagging any of the party as pray (a stroke of luck for the group). However, After (seemingly) defeating one of the dog-like creatures, the party notices it twitch a bit moments later and begin to raise its head, and then a few moments after that it stands back up and renews its attack. Realizing that their weapons aren't quite doing the job, the group begins a comedy of errors in trying to use flasks of oil, and/or acid and their torches to burn these creatures. They ultimately succeed, but it takes quite a few more tries than it really should have. Teddy decides to try out the medusa head he severed outside, and to his great fortune, it works wonderfully well and turns the giant frog-lizard thing to stone instantly.

After the fight is done, the group explores this big room, and finds it to be some kind of experimental laboratory of some sort, and notices a few other creatures in a couple of the other jars, but decides to leave it to the soldiers to clear up the rest of the mess. After some further exploring, finding a disused library with a lot of decrepit old books and a pedestal, the party decides to head back to town and rest.

Topknot, having read the Medusa's journal and now possessing some insight into what might help the boy, convinces him to come back to town, and that his sister is waiting for him there, and that they could find a new home together. He agrees, and the party sets out back through the swamp to town, but not before Teddy scores another batch of truffles, with his handy truffle-gathering gear and his keen eyes (as long as there's some goddamn light).

Back in town, the group fetches Casey Swan from the orphanage, which was otherwise empty of children now that the villagers and soldiers had all been saved. They then all head to the inn to rest, but before that they have a little group discussion. Topknot reveals himself to Casey and Adam as a goblin, and asks Dae about why she could see further in the dark than him, but she doesn't really know why her darkvision seems to be better than others -- that she always knew should could see really well in the dark but didn't realize she could see better than others with this same trait. After a short period of unresolved tension Jakob requests that they head to their rooms and rest for the next day.