Session Notes
The constables took Xambria back to RHC HQ and locked her up. After a little while, she came to her senses, and started babbling about Sijhen and some group called the Obscurati. However, she realized that Sijhen was still in control, which forced its hand -- everything turned transparent, and Sijhen escaped through the ceiling. The change also revealed a group of killers sneaking in to the basement, using this surprise round to kill the guards at the other end of the cell block, as well as an empty and incomplete subrail tunnel below RHC HQ.
The constables immediately agreed that pursuing Sijhen was the right thing to do. They all made it up the stairs and onto the first floor, but Bela and Reginald decided to continue on to the second floor. More accurately, Reginald kept a consciousness fragment on the first floor, placed a memory shard (or something... he has 3-4 different pyschic projections that he can send floating around) on the second floor, and placed himself safely outside the building. On the second floor, they found a worm maw trying to break into Delft's office.
With the second planar pulse, a group of implanters appeared, scattered around the first floor. They began attacking whoever was closest -- bystanders, constables, enemies.
Bela darted through the wall into Delft's office while everything was transparent, and tried to convince Delft that he wasn't here to eat his boss' brain. Delft was unconvinced, but as long as Bela didn't attack him, he was willing to have both of them fight the worm maw. Delft was deranged enough that he would fire his pistol even while the walls were solid, but Bela waited for opportunities while continuing to try to talk Delft down.
On the first floor, the kill squad pursued the constables and engaged them in the long hallway. Murdok charged into a group of 5 Kell-Guild thugs, who focused their attacks on her and dropped her in a single round ("They were supposed to be minions!"). Viveen assisted, trying to keep both Murdok and herself on her feet. Vesta engaged as well, while still keeping tabs on Xambria -- who, as a Vekeshi Mystic, he could unerringly track. Xambria had split in two, though, so all he knew was that one copy was outside the building and circling it, while the other copy was in Lady Saxby's office.
The leader of the kill squad was a nethermancer, and he suppressed the light in the hallway and created a zone of shadow tendrils that held several squad members in place. He seemed quite focused on killing them specifically, over other targets like guards or staffers.
On the next pulse, while everything was transparent, Viveen managed to inspire the nearby bystanders to help them. I don't recall the specifics, but it was an Endurance power that granted temp HP to all allies in burst 5. So it applied to Viveen, Murdok, Vesta, 2 RHC guards, 3 staffers, and the B squad of Carlao, Dima, and Serena upstairs. I allowed that to rally the guards and staffers, gaining the party some allies.
Murdok was up and down like a yo-yo; once she was healed by Viveen, then she rolled a natural 20 on her death save (not the first time; IIRC she also did it in the warehouse battle with the witchoil golem), and then Viveen helped her up again.
Just as Carlao knocked on Saxby's door to see if she wanted assistance, Saxby attacked Sijhen and called for help. Carlao and Dima burst inside, but all three of them failed to hit Sijhen, who decided that it really was in Saxby's office and not outside the building. It then turned invisible and dropped through the floors all the way down to the subrail tunnel.
Vesta immediately followed, not wanting to lose the chance once the floor became solid again. He saw the Seal of Apet mounted on the stone wall, surrounded by a circle of howling lanterns...
The worm maw burst into Delft's office, but Bela managed to finish it off with some help from Reginald. This calmed Delft down considerably, and Bela was able to convince him to assist. Delft began to rally the staffers on the second floor, dealing with the Apet creatures that had appeared there, while Bela dropped down through the floor into the evidence room and the ran out into the ground floor hall to help Murdok.
Reginald dropped his physical form through the ground to the subrail tunnel, as did Viveen. With some help from Carlao, Serena, and Dima -- who were escorting Lady Saxby out of the building but couldn't get out without encountering the kill squad -- Bela and Murdok were able to subdue the remaining killers. Murdok called out to Carlao that Saxby was on the side of the enemy, but Saxby replied that Murdok was a liar and that Carlao should follow orders. Carlao looked apologetically at his former squadmate Bela, but nodded his assent to Saxby, and the three of them saw her safely away. Reginald's consciousness fragment followed them, however...
Seeing Vesta appear close by -- with no attempt to sneak up -- Sijhen concluded that there was no choice but to rush its ritual. It coded the portal for Gidim, then became visible and attempted to parlay with the party, saying that it just wanted to get home. At this point, though, none of the constables trusted a word Sijhen said, so it sighed and attacked them, dropping Vesta immediately. However, Vesta's first death save was a natural 20, so he wasn't out of the fight for long. Reginald, Viveen, and Vesta engaged Sijhen and managed to render it unconscious. Vesta was certain that the only way to force Sijhen out of Xambria was to kill her body, though, so he did so. The constables sensed her consciousness floating around the room. Vesta agreed to accept it, immediately sensing tremendous relief from Xambria that she was not dead, and seemed to be in the body of a somewhat kindred spirit (Vesta's History training granted an immediate +2 concordance bonus, ensuring that Xambria would be at least neutral).
Murdok and Bela rounded up the two killers who surrendered, cuffed them, and locked them up. Just then, some more Apet creatures appeared, so they refocused their efforts on dealing with those.
In the subrail tunnel, killing Xambria's body did force Sijhen out, and it attacked, attempting to dominate Viveen. These attacks failed, however, and so the three constables engaged Sijhen's thoughtform.
That was where we had to stop, so we'll continue the battle next time!
DM Notes
The adventure text is unclear on a couple of points:
- I waited to start the scene until the PCs had Xambria locked up in a cell. The text doesn't specify, but based on the description of the kill squad's arrival, it's implied that the scene should actually start as soon as the PCs return to RHC HQ -- i.e. while they and Xambria are on the first floor.
- What happens to Xambria's consciousness if she is reduced to 0 hp with nonlethal damage -- i.e. if she is unconscious? I read through the text and the call-out blocks about her and Sijhen, but it was unclear if it was possible to separate them without either Sijhen being willing or one of the two being dead. I decided that it was impossible to separate them without killing Xambria unless Sijhen left willingly. I also decided that Xambria knew that, so I didn't penalize Vesta when he was the one to accept her consciousness.
Phew! We spent six hours on this scene and it wasn't all done. Definitely the closest the party has come to TPK so far, but they're still (barely) standing, thanks to two very fortunate natural 20s on death saves. Murdok was within 5 hp of actual death, too, having been caught in the shadow tendrils while unconscious.
If The Thing from Beyond comes out, though, it's going to be tough for them. So far they haven't focused much on the ritual, since Sijhen has kept them quite busy in the subrail tunnel.
I'll be very curious to see if they split up the next time there's a huge setpiece. They've done so every time so far and it has generally resulted in near-disaster. Maybe they're getting the wrong message...
