Scarlet Citadel Session 9 – Acid Burns & Slimy Thoughts

Here’s the write up for our first Scarlet Citadel session of the year. Hopefully these write ups will prove useful to others running the adventure. 

You can read earlier posts here. This post contains spoilers for Scarlet Citadel.

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We’re now back on a fortnightly schedule for the campaign and had all five players there for this session. I wanted to get into the action straight away so kicked off the game with the characters in the Water Torture Chamber on Level 1, ready to go down the stairs to Level 2.

After a lengthy discussion about the trap on the stairs and how to make sure they didn’t trigger it again, imagine my glee when Farthrum did exactly that by stepping on the pressure plate on the far side of the grate. Even funnier, he was the only PC to avoid being damaged by the trap!  

With poor Torander unconscious yet again and everyone else badly burned by the acid, the characters decided to withdraw upstairs to rest, only to be attacked by spectres, now free to wander Level 1 in the absence of the Gaoler, Scar and Ushulx. Once the spectres had been dealt with, the characters were able to take a short rest.

Next, the characters headed downstairs again and returned to the distillery. This time Torander left the alchemical notebook he’d found on the floor in the antechamber in case the ink guardian reappeared. They searched the desk but decided to leave everything intact for now. 

Heading north to the holding tanks, the characters were very wary about the goo on the floor which they soon established was acidic. Torander misty stepped into the middle of the chamber, only to find himself encased inside something. Luckily, he was able to escape capture by leaping forward and then cast misty step again to return to the corridor. Dimitar, Cauldvyr and Torander proceeded to attack what appeared to be an invisible force field of some sort, while Allia and Farthrum hung back at the bottom of the steps. When Dimitar was reduced to 0 hp by telepathic contact from a terrifying alien presence, the party decided to leave the area, heading west down the corridor.

Passing the entrance to a room with strange pink energy tearing across it from north to south, the characters caught a glimpse of a spiky-haired gnome – Cagoth-Ze, Gellert the Gruesome’s lieutenant. 

We finished the game with the characters hiding in the chamber to the southeast, discussing what to do next….

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Main image by David Auden Nash