session recap, 10/11/2012

CAST
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Mongo the Fighter (4), his henchpersons "Bunny" the Thief (1) and William the Sentinel (1), and his soil-bearers Malazar and Benarto
Gutboy the Cleric (4), his henchman Trezgar the Elf (1) and his dog Rufus II
George P. Burdell the Cleric (3) and his henchmen, Slick Eddie the Thief (2) and Seegar the Elf (1), and his dog
Razoe the Fantra Paladin (3) and his henchman Skwisgar the Elf(1)

The party had holed up in their 3-bedroom apartment, with all their henchmen, and their captive, Mr. Roper. They took the entirety of the party's rope inventory, some 300+ feet of it, and tied Mr. Roper into a coccoon. A coccoon that soon smelled like sewage, as Mr. Roper still had certain active biological functions that needed to be taken care of.  Mr. Roper issued threats for a while - eventually the party tired of it, and gagged the cyborg. With nothing to do but wait for the harvest festival in a week's time, they set up watches and hit the hay.

The night passed uneventfully, until it was suddenly eventful.  One of the windows was smashed open, and a cyborg child was tossed through. And another. And another.  Someone shouted the alarm, and everyone ran around frantically, killing the cyborgs as fast as they were thrown through the windows. The cyborgs grew older and more powerful as the assault continued, but the party managed to keep them down.  The adults snarled angrily at the sight of the dead children - "You have killed Cindy and Bobby! And Janet! And Peter! You shall pay!" - but their rage was short-lived, as the concerted efforts of the group took the cyborgs down.

The last cyborg through the window was Chrissie's corpse - the useless dead flesh was dragged along by the still-active cybernetics. Behind Chrissie, Janet marched through the window on four metallic tentacles protruding from her back. The evil and wicked Book was strapped to her as well, with wires running from Janet's body into its spine.  She hosed Mongo, Bunny and William with napalm, while flailing away with her metal tentacles - but she, too, eventually succumbed to the combined might of the party.  Gutboy and George poured their divine healing magic into Mongo and his henchmen as the napalm continued to burn them - finally the flames died out, and Mongo's dirt-bearers placed his charred body into a sack and filled it with nourishing soil. His henchmen received further healing magic, and their resulting scars were only slightly horribly disfiguring.

Mongo proceeded to remove the Book from Janet's body and methodically slash it to pieces. As he reached the spine, he encountered something unusual - a pencil-sized cylinder of metal, with wires protruding from magnetic end-caps. He pulled the end-caps off, and handed it to Razoe and Gutboy, who then escorted the metal to the Temple of Science.

At the Temple, the head scientist Gregory was roused and asked to identify the cylinder. "A demon!" he shouted. "A horrible fiend from a prior age!  We are lucky that it is damaged, and cannot fly.  See the charred vents here?"  Gutboy asked if he could destroy it, and Gregory consented - a highly Scientific laser was brought from the inner temple and Gregory used it to melt the demon to slag.

Razoe and Mongo informed Gregory of the many cyborg corpses. "It is good that you have destroyed these heretics. I shall send a recovery team to your apartment to remove the bodies! Many thanks are owed to you!"

They returned to the apartment with the Scientists, who dragged off the cyborg carcasses. Then, the long wait for the Harvest Festival continued, with Mr. Roper as the designated sacrifice.

Gutboy remembered his commission from Nisus - to place insects within the robot's body, so that all would be amazed at the vermin flowing forth when the robot's carapace was opened.  He purchased a crate of crickets used to feed baby grunkies at the Bazaar Incomparable, and brought it back to the apartment.  During his watch, while everyone was asleep, he cast hold person upon Mr. Roper, untied him, and shoved crickets underneath his cyber-parts as best he could. All in all, it was not very impressive, and most of the bugs were squished as Roper's limbs were moved around during the re-tying process.

Finally, the day of the ceremony arrived.  Gutboy, George, and Razoe carted Mr. Roper's well-bundled corpse to the temple. The other priests began whispering to each other in shock, and finally the high priestess Lunexia, naked except for her gold lobster helmet and lobster gauntlets, approached.  "Oh no, this isn't good. You don't understand. They'll try to one up each other! We can't have a human sacrifice! They're all going to want them now!"  George assured her that the god Kiod had ordered this sacrifice and she walked away in deep consternation.

Their turn at the altar came soon enough - and George decided, for safety's sake, to use the spell Kiod had granted him, Robot Swarm, to examine Mr. Roper and ensure it was ready for sacrifice. Scintillating flakes of metal appeared out of the air and self-assembled into tiny robot insects.  As soon as Gutboy saw this, he used the spell Nisus had granted him, Dispel Magic, and the tiny robots crumbled to dust.  Enraged, George decided that Gutboy should be sacrificed instead, and cast hold person upon him - but the other priests in the temple were outraged and George gave up on his murderous plan.

George dragged Mr. Roper up to the altar, bound in his 300+ feet of rope, and stabbed his former landlord with the sacrificial knife. No god appeared in the God's Eye above - this sacrifice was decidedly unimpressive.  He had been asked to provide a glorious robot, and had presented only a cybernetic stooge.  A pair of crickets hobbled away from the body as the ropes fell away.  The entrails presented no information either - truly the gods were disappointed by this performance.  Hecklers in the congregation began to shout "Lame!" and "You suck!", and George was hustled off the sacrifical platform.

The party regrouped at the apartment. For the first time in many months, they were free of demonic threats and divine obligations. There was only one thing to do - head to the moktar lair and look for gold.

They once again took a back route to the dungeon, encountering only four moktars heading away from the lair.  The party briefly tried to communicate with the lion-men, but all the moktars could do was make roaring noises.  Eventually the moktars shrugged and walked away.

Once inside the tunnels the moktars had occupied, they explored for a bit, finding the following:

a. A platform above a water-filled room, with four whirlpools swirling. A boat hook and some rope were resting on the platform

b. A room with a stainless steel sphere. When touched, it asked "What would you like to retrieve from the sphere?"  Repeated demands of "information" and "gold" provided no results

c. A room stairs leading to a watery tunnel full of giant killer frogs, easily slain. A chewed-up body of a furry man with blue crystals embedded in his skin floated in the water - the crystals were cut free from his flesh, to be later sold

d. A door with a yellow lightning bolt sign on it. Touching it zapped Razoe for a few points of damage

After the electrical shock, which it was agreed was predictable, the party packed it in, heading back to Denethix to sell what meager loot they had acquired.

Gains: blue crystals worth 500 gp
Kills: the entire cyborg Brady family plus Alice, dead cyborg Chrissie, cyber-octo-Janet, the demon in the Book, 8 frogs
Losses: none