SESSION XI - Part II - Amongst the Underdwellers

Session XI - PART II

Having discovered that they are under a murder indictment by parties unknown, and that Drusilla's family/clan are not happy with her the party determines it must find the deed to the Old Brewery and hand it over to the corrupt Fist Officer Lieutenant Tsu to escape trial and execution.

The Cast

Huxley McTeeth - (m) Fighter (Lvl 2) - Short, strong, grizzled, armored, and wielding a magic white saber from the tomb of a Rocket Man.

Grimgrim "The Seared of Monstcrom"- (m) Cleric (Lvl 3) - Recently extra fervent. pig masked.

Druizzilnax (aka Drusilla) - (f) Elf (Lvl 1), physically frail, spear wielding, hideous armor wearing and from a society of militarized cannibals.

Nell Hassenphafler "The Topstown Gore Bird" - (f) Assassin (Lvl 3), Scarred face, sinewy physique, fancy purple metal dress and poison hatpins.

Lemon Jackson, Evoker - (m) Magic-User (Lvl 2) Gun totting & hell-bolt flinging,

Gurgur, Greymol - (m,m) Moktar, Moktar Holy Tom, (Lvl1,Lvl1) Moktar henchmen , serious catbrawn. 

The boarded window pivots smoothly on hidden bearings and within a mere moments the worried band is back inside the Old Brewery again.  The room they enter is remarkably clean as if it had recently been scrubbed clean, and indeed a mop bucket full of filthy bloody water stands in the corner.

Opening the door cautiously the party peers into the room that hold the Brewery's central stair.  Directly opposite them is the former guard post, it's door now ripped off its hinges and the interior charred with fire.  Close examination of the guard post reveals signs of violence and a pile of burnt corpses.

Shaking their heads at the violence of gang warfare, the party returns to the stairs and shifts the steel plate to descend into the Brewery Depths.  The warm, tidy brick chamber below is decorated with glass cases and daguerreotypes in glass frames.  The East wall has a dark passage and to the West is barred by a steel grate.  Examining the displays the party finds that it's a museum of sorts dedicated to the brewery's operational days.  The Weedstone Family is featured prominently, and most of the photos depict the mildly unwholesome process of making mushroom beer.  Grimgrim (Wisdom Check's are good for noticing things) finds one strange photo of a young Weedstone in what appears to be a large cavern lit with sodium lamps hugging some sort of large, white plated fish to his chest.  The cavern in the photo contains a pool and great rafts of giant mushrooms, growing in wooden boxes. A peeling label says 'Brewery Mascot "Bleachy Pete" and Master J. Weedstone'.

The Old Brewery - Gambling Den

The Old Brewery - Area  13 and 14 - The Gambling Area.

Sporting Types all seem to know about the Grunkie Pit.

13. Gambling Den – Unless a fight is being promoted in area 14 or happening in area 24 this room will be empty and reek of stale beer, sweat, blood, mildew and cinnamon scented candles. There a several scuffed tables of varying quality and numerous chairs scattered about. A huge chalkboard dominates the wall closest to the door to area 14 and rickety bar with several kegs of mushroom beer stands in the center of the room. This room is used to rally the gamblers for fights in area 24, set odds and take bets. If the PC's somehow managed to arrive during a scheduled fight (Every 3^rd Saturday) or on other rare occasions, the room will be teeming with assorted toughs, jaded aristocrats and other aficionados of bloodsport. Most of the entertainment staff from upstairs is also likely to be present. 

SESSION X - The Searchers

In which the adventurers, having learned to respect magic missile, find a sinister patron and seek devious entry to the Brewery's upper floors for the purpose of foul assassination.  Then things get freaky grimdark.

SESSION X

Grimgrim – Fighting priest of the fierce God of Dooms, Monstcrom! (M) C2

Lemon Jackson – A pistol brandishing wizard with strange yellow eyes and who tattooed with his spellbook. (M) MU2

Huxley McTeeth (Hux) – A gaucho with a past, heavily armored, possessed with in strength disproportionate to his years and small frame. (M) F2 with henchman Graymol the Moktar Shaman and Gurgur the Moktar.

“Eyestabs” Nell – A scary woman armed with many poison hat pins and a dead dwarf's crossbow(F) A2

Drusilla – Eleven lass of surpassing beauty(for a creepy eyed, fanged, and slit-nosed monster), disturbingly unpleasant affect and taste for human babies - Pole arm and scimitar (F) Elf 1

After the foray into the Old Brewery and a narrow escape from the elven drug cartel within, led by what appears to be the world's largest elf, so far know only as "Capo", the party needs time to recover.  The adventurer's injuries range from sprained ankles, serious magic burns (1 hp left in Lemon's case) to  exhaustion and minor abrasions.  Recovery is complicated  by the fact that the party did manage to "rescue" Ms. Piddles (Exalted brother Joohanssanville's 7th mistress), who is currently going through terrible drug withdrawals tied to a chair in the party's apartment. 

Huxley is sent with Greymol (both having been relatively uninjured in the fracas & leap to safety) to leave a note for Monty (A servant of Joohanssanville) at a haberdasher on the street of worthy servitude (A haberdasher who looks suspiciously like an older Monty) and in only a few hours Monty and three other young rakes arrive in a a pair of carriages.

The Old Brewery - Deep Cellars

26. Deep Cellar – Clear running water rushes through this natural cavern. Once it supplied the brewery with water and now the stram provides the degenerate halfling tribe with it's water and the blind cave fish who thrive in the rich fungal pools and cave insect filled stream that dominates this chamber. A narrow wooden ladder formerly descended to the pebbly and cave fungus strewn floor of this room, but only holes in the rock remain to hint at it's presence. It is 80' from the cave floor to the lip of the pit described in Area 15. The rich environment holds only one real danger, the pool marked with an X has a froth of vibrant green slime (yes, sometimes it's actually green) that will injure who touches or wades through it.

The Old Brewery - Why we fight.

THE OLD BREWERY - ADVENTURE HOOKS AND A NOTE ON SOURCES

DM's Notes:

This adventure location is a vile urban nightmare, but it is based on an actual location in 19^th century New York, that according to the hysterical imagination of its times shares some topographical/name elements and a general environment with the fantasical location I've written up. My primary source is Herbert Ashby's Gang's of New York (itself fodder for many an adventure), and Luke Sante's more studied “Low Life” on the same topic. None of this matters, but if you like this adventure it owes a lot to the purported actual character of early American urban life (with added grunkies).

The Old Brewery, Den of Thieves

 The Old Brewry - Area 2 - The Den of Thieves

 GM's Note:  As a matter of play majority of the denizen's of the first level are not evil, simply the poorest and most pathetic of a the fantasy city's residents. They are weak and sickly, and frankly using them as a lesson about XP and alignment is not a bad idea. I would give the full (paltry & maybe a bonus) XP to Lawful characters for trying to help them (ineffectual though it will be) and full XP Neutral characters for bypassing them, Chaotics of course are simply in it for the money and thrills, but I still wouldn't give them XP for slaying scabrous children, feeble beggars and drunken wastrels. I would also provide an XP penalty for any character who engages in wholesale slaughter of these people simply because they are so feeble it doesn't even comport with the diabolic evil of a worthy anti-hero to kill them – it's just sad. It's so sad there won't even be consequences from local law enforcement.  Of course there are other nasty surprises related to the halt and the lame.

Jacob Riis - 1853

2. Den of Thieves - While this room contains thieves. The chamber is crammed with the lowest sort of petty pilferers and diseased kleptomaniacs, but most of its residents are simply the desperately poor. A huge, filthy, stinking chamber with tall ceilings lost in soot and darkness. Wooden Pillars with filthy sheets and assorted rags strung between them block the view, except for a gaping doorway at the far end. Several small fires provide the only illumination while the scent of rotting garbage and smoke sting the eyes of anyone entering.

The back half of the room is shadowed by the a loft (Area 7) 14' above the floor. Thick curtains drawn tight conceal the loft, but if the room below is quiet and dark dim light and soft hypnotic music will be noticed leaking through the curtains (they magically keep sound out, not in). A ramp leading down to the cellar used to serve as a way to roll beer kegs up from below for distribution and brandy kegs down below for aging. The huge wooden doors to the cellar are now barricaded (on both sides) by the mutually distrustful inhabitants and trash is piled five feet deep against them. Opening the doors would require much work including hacking the doors off their hinges.

Old Brewery - Murderers' Row

OLD BREWERY - AREA 3

Bandit's Roost - Jacob Riis - Pre 1890

3. Murderers' Row – This series of fourteen small rooms was once offices and work spaces for the brewery, but now they are private residences of the more intimidating and dangerous poor. The hallway connecting them is dingy and smeared with streaks of black greasy soot.  The entire area smells of woodsmoke and urine. For each room entered roll on the table below to see who currently resides in it. These inhabitants can change with each visit as there is much competition for these spaces.  Special areas have been given their own notations and descriptions.

The Old Brewery - The Mushroom Caverns

THE OLD BREWERY - AREA 25.


25. Mushroom Caverns - Beyond the door to the Pit (Area 24) is a series of natural caverns that were used in to grown beer brewing fungus in massive quantities during the Brewery's heyday. Many of the strains still predominate, providing a rich jungle-like garden of food for the hundreds of grunkies that live in the darkness. The mushrooms come in a variety of colors and shapes, but the most common are brewing mushrooms, 2' to 6' tall yellowish brown species with peaked caps and a nutty flavor. Ceilings in the caverns are from 6' to 12' tall and the walls a smooth stone, wet with condensation and slick with fungus. The air is misty with poor visibility as spores and blind cave insects are stirred up with every step. Almost all the fungus within the cave is non-toxic, though a careful and knowledgeable searcher will find both poisonous and hallucinogenic fungus within the cavern. The entire cavern smells intensely of mushrooms and damp, though not unpleasantly.

Drusilla and Huxley explore the Mushroom Cavern