Play Report 26 — Snake

Schedules struck again, and only Hant’s player could make it, so I let them play out crawling the dungeon that they entered that week until they decided to retreat.

This is the Abandoned Market dungeon from City of Poison, lightly modified for my purposes.

Hant (not yet aware this is a nightmare, just interested in the possibility of an illicit market) enters through the left, and gives the entrance hall a once-over, looking for signs of recent incursion. I provide the information that the floor is sticky and gross hand has recentish footprints visible, some with boots worn. By candlelight, he climbs the stairs and enters the Hair room. He cautiously looks around and sees the splatters of paint on the floor and wall. Once sure it isn’t blood, he walks forward into the room and directly into the paint-soaked hair monster that jumps for his face.

He manages to evade it, and in what is becoming his signature move, miscasts vulnerability such that it also casts web. The hair is now vulnerable to firearms and also coated in web, and Hant executes it with a pistol shot. This awakens the harpies in the next room over (cathedral on the map), who all start yelling at each other to pay more attention for intruders as Hant prods the hair-lump with his sword.

Hant cautiously peeks into the cathedral, and sees the six harpies flying around in agitation. He takes in the dim light coming through the stained glass windows, the cavelike hole in the east wall, and the architecture of the building — I describe it as reminiscent of an eastern orthodox cathedral, with the artwork deliberately removed or defaced. He reloads his gun and shoots one of the windows out. I decide that this reveals the sky described in the alien landscape accessible through Bashir’s House in city of poison, and that it lets the red and white light such that a light source isnt needed to see in the room. The harpies shriek in consternation, “why the fuck did you do that?” Hant, hiding in the doorway, must admit that he was just curious to see what would happen.

The harpies try to get him to break cover by demanding that Hant come clean up the mess of glass he made. He tells them he will, and steps into the room while shooting another window out. The harpies fly at him with murderous intent and he ducks into the nearby hallway. Luckily for him, the door at the end of it is unlocked, and he makes it into the market stall area.

Something else is there already — this is the point that the countdown die hit 0, making the crown of the nightmare appear. The Basilisk Man approaches, looking like a middle aged man in a robe and turban, expressing concern. He expresses worry that Hant might be lost, and warns of disappearances. Hant’s player wisely asks where the hand that isn’t holding the lantern is, but that isn’t the Basilisk Man’s mode of attack. I ask them if Hant has ever taken hallucinogenic drugs, and when they decide that yes he has, I say that Hant feels like he is tripping as this guy approaches. He loses 2 ferocity from the poison.

Hant backs away swiftly, trying to get to the exit. He briefly sees an ancient woman with iron for hair and glinting green eyes peeping from a nearby stall — this is the soul gem merchant, who a rumor of was why Hant came here at all. There’s no time to meet her though, as the Basilisk Man drops his facade. I made the call to describe him as a serpent creature coiled under the robes, puppeting a mannequin with a series of rods grasped in his coils. Hant breaks into a run and gets out just before the Basilisk Man calls down a portcullis to block the doorway.

The Basilisk Man raises the portcullis and waits at the entrance of the nightmare, asking if Hant will return, and Hant takes the opportunity to try to get some information out of him. The assassin learns the following:
The harpies moved in relatively recently, and the Basilisk Man finds them irritating.
The Basilisk Man presumes the puppet he uses is based on a man who lived here long ago, but he isnt sure. After all, when he formed he already had it.
The old lady Hant saw has “an interest in nothing but the mercantile, and makes for dull conversation,” according tot he Basilisk Man.

The Basilisk Man cajoles Hant by saying he could be allowed to explore freely, if he lured in other unsuspecting prey to the nightmare. Hant considers the offer. He hopes to trick the Basilisk Man by bringing the rest of the party here pretending to be unaware, in order for Akela to invent a new wrestling move that Hant’s player and myself name the “Serplex.”