Beneath the City of the Ives: Session 2

Man, having an extra week to write this didn't help at all.

Anyway, without any further ado, and hopefully much more succinctly than last time;

Briefly, the Party:
- Quinn: Blue Elf warlock, a few stars short of a constellation.
- D.S. Forge: Human warrior, definitely a policeman with lots of police friends.
- Ratty: Ratman, sneaky boy, fond of lurking and sneaking.
- Lulu: Human Necromancer, continues to be disappointed by her Toll the Dead cantrip.
- Verdigris: Dragonborn sorcerer with a wide variety of cultural weapons, and continued butt of the universe's thirst for violence and needless harm.

We continue from where we left off with the group entering the deserted 'Research' section of Grand Valve Alpha. Immediately, they notice small vine-like plants growing through the gaps in the door, and along the walls, which only grew thicker the further they delved.

Within the first room, they discovered a strange machine, with a 6 figure input device; it was all rather strange and mysterious all told. They find a few research logs, and in particular they pick out the name Hexiclaricus, the science-wizard, who seems to be the top dog in the lab (or at least, the most prolific author).

Delving further, they discover a man, somehow glued into a corner of a corridor by a mycellium-plant-vine-thing. After some sleuthing and talking, it is determined that he is (or maybe was) a laboratory technician-equivalent, who had been glued in place for maybe half a decade, without food or water, or even light. Despite all this, he was "quite alright, not uncomfortable at all."
There is a small discussion about whether he should be mercy killed or not, whether he should be cut away from his plant-glue at all, but these are put to the side for the moment.

Continuing on, they find another control room for the other major valve, only it is completely overgrown with vines. With some carefully angled fire-bolts and judicious axing, and a decent amount of noise, the controls were cleared and weighted for later application. the noise did attract some eel-hounds, now mulling around the far side of the great valve...

Doubling back on themselves a small amount, they enter the main labs. The tables were strewn with old lab equipment, and everything was overgrown. A number of rooms branched off, a few doors completely sealed off by plants, save the one at the far end, which was all but burst off its hinges by the vines, which wound thickest at that end of the room...

After clearing some of the tables for potential valuables, they began to explore the side rooms, taking a few vials of golden nectar, which luckily for them, raised their max hp a few points variously.
They also found a strange orchid which stank of ozone. With no obvious use forthcoming, they pocketed it for later.

Application of Create Bonfire managed to get them into the two sealed rooms. After a quick encounter with rose-headed monkeys who tried to nick their weapons, and a room full of putrid, rotten plant matter that didn't end up infecting D.S. Forge, they opened the penultimate room and recovered a mushroom of prodigious size and merit.

Which left the last room.

Going first, Quinn was assailed by the scents of the huge flower from which the plant infection sprouted. He passed his saving throws, mostly, and was left with just an impulse that he should dunk his head in the flower's nectar. He didn't have to.

But he did, with a front-flip and a swan dive to avoid his team-mate's desperate attempts to restrain him from his idiocy.

The flower wilted, the vines shrank back a small amount. Quinn seems to be fine, as fine as Quinn has ever been at least.

At this point, they decide that now is the time to retreat, and after a bit of agonising, they cut mushroom-plant-glued-man (who thinks his name is Orchid) from his gluey prison and cart him out.

However, as they head out of Research, they run into a group of 4 Ratmen being chased by a dozen Troglodytes. Two of the Ratmen pushed their fellows in the path of the Troglodytes and ran further into the darkness.

Ratty, reacting the quickest, calmly slunk up to the front and put a crossbow bolt through the head of one of the ratman, while Verdigris shoots a chaos bolt into the crowd of Troglodytes, rather unsure of what to do. The other ratman, spooked to high hell pulls a handgun on Quinn and shoots, but its aim is terrible. A few thrown spells and such later, the party and the Trogs establish that they have no beef with each other, and that they are both after the ratmen (mostly due to Ratty's vehement hatred of them). As one of the Ratmen throws a grenade that gasses a few Troglodytes to death, another flees down a side tunnel and is apprehended by Quinn and Forge for questioning. The last Ratman, cornered against the closed valves, stands and fights, and cleaves open one of the Troglodytes before being trampled beneath the Troglodytes and thoroughly butchered.

In the chaos, the Party recover some of the tech the Ratmen wielded against them, and Ratty kills the prisoner without hesitation. With a few parting words of warning about the Ratmen, the Troglodytes carry off their dead and leave.

At this point, the Party decide that yes, now is definitely the time to go.

Lessons Learned:
- If you're going to have a major subsystem of Downtime Activities that will make up a decent portion of the game, try and actually fill it out before you need it...