Session Report [T6]: Escape ... of a sort

I've missed posting for a few sessions, but mostly the party was wandering around the dungeon and trying to figure out what to do and who they wanted to align with (if anyone)!

What a session!  The Grim Nature of Dungeon Titanicus revealed itself fully this round - mutilation and death were everywhere and finished with an ending that even I could not have imagined. 

The Party

• Xion - Mage with a "special" sense of time and space
• Zigfried - Artificer with an nearly unfortunate sense of curiosity
• Katt - a weakling with an insecurity complex and a Silver Great Axe!
• Jorge - a Mexican spiritualist with a fondness for tamale and peyote
• Feldmutz - 30's gangster who made Capone look like a milquetoast pansy

Adventure Highlights

• Zigfried was Party Leader (we roll+sessions survived at the beginning of each session)
• While normally able to awaken in any "safe zone", the party was unable to awaken in the Deshi Nest! Ziggy felt something had gone terribly wrong.
• Waking at the Cave of Heinrich, they met two new companions: Ktt & Jorge
• Some time was spent chatting with Heinrich the frienly gentleman adventurer ghost.
• Ziggy crafted a mechanical "bridge" to cross the gap left by the burned up rope and plank bridge using his Artificers moves and a pile of parts looted the previous session.
• Crossing the bridge was perilous - both Katt and Jorge nearly fell off and died while attempting to be cool. Xion the Mage saved the day with some arcane leverage
• Katt was nearly devoured by garbage leeches as the party rested on the other side of the gorge. Napping in refuse is less than desirable.
• The party mucked about in the chamber of green flame pillars. Some had been here before and knew the pillars were bad news. The far end of the chamber was filled with dark cold water.
• A Forgotten Sister wandered in, combat, green flames gripping folks, an exploding door, and Feldmuts saving Xion from drowning.  Such action!
• Exploring a previously ignored chamber, the party found many useful treasures ... then shit went south
• Opening a cursed lock Ziggy went blind!
• Opening a similar cursed lock, Feldmutz became SO STUPID (his final INT dropped to -7) that his body forgot how to breath or even beat his heart!  His corpse was looted.
• Jorge ignored several warning that the crown he carried was evil, and moments later castrated himself to gain Insight from Beyond the Veil from a Necromancer Soul that inhabited the crown.
• The party managed to get some sort of ancient book (in a trunk in a pack worn by a dead monkey) and a scroll of numerous arcane spells (that was in a mineral deposit on display on a pedestal).  But was it worth it?  The magic looked particularly nasty.
• Enter Fredicus - a stoner from LA with a strange living crossbow growing from his arm.
• The party moved on and discovered that the Deshi Nest had been destroyed by the Journe, futuristic ant-men. Shit. The Journe had been previously encountered and are bad news.
• The party conitnued on to another known area - the Baths of the Oracle!  Healing and drinking from magic pools recovered some hit points and cured Ziggy's blindness.
• The party knew the Bath held some sort of power if they could just figure out the ritual, but they couldn't quite get it sorted out.  They decided that getting out the shaft above the baths (some 30' above the floor) was their primary goal.
• Then, through a combination of technology and magic, the party managed to get up the 300' shaft above the baths!  It was pretty sweet.
• The party encountered some sort of short large-featured humanoids that were clearly guarding the tower the party had managed to get themselves into.
• "Disguised" in women's robes similar to those found in the Palace of the Oracle and with some communication magic, the party convinced the humanoids (they started calling them gnomes at some point) that they were on a mission from the Oracle and needed to "get outside"
• As the spell wore off, the gnomes led the party to ...
• ... wait for it ...
• OUTSIDE!

Reeling from the sunlight caressing their faces and the cool breeze filling their lungs, we ended the session.  It was bloody and violent but, as usual, not super combat-heavy.  More importantly, the party is outside and has a general direction toward somewhere called "Haven".  They've been hearing about this place. A new phase of the adventure was about to begin. Praise Narkul!  Roll credits and play closing theme music.

GM Notes
Without fail, the more a GM plans, the less a group of players given free will will follow along.  I was certain they were going to follow up on a lead from last session to find the Vault of Serpents which lead to "a way out", but the buggers got clever and used one of the "teaser" exits and managed to overcome the guardians.  Awesome!  

Now I need to get the Perilous Journey rules meshed up with our playing style and work on the Overworld a bit more. But I'm ready! The Dreadful Wilderness is indeed dreadful, and will open up so many opportunities for exploring the setting outside of Dungeon Titanicus.  And who knows what they might find along the way to Haven ... if such a place even exists.  ooooh!  It was like the last episode of a season - and I can't wait for the next chapter!