¶ Session 031 - School's Out, Mother Fucker 📚
The quest to find their lost companion, Snax, pushed The Soots's into the most unwelcoming of places: a derelict school, half-sunk beneath the waves. The air was thick with the smell of decay as Otto, Nitro, and Clutch stepped onto a second-floor atrium, the entire level below them a dark, submerged void.
Their path was immediately cut off by a patch of dangerously sodden floorboards. Never one to wait, Nitro hefted a nearby trophy case—ominously labeled "Truancy and Shame"—and hurled it onto the rotten wood. The floor gave way with a wet crunch, swallowing the cabinet into the tetanus-filled water ten feet below. Left with no other choice, the heroes took a leap of faith. Clutch, the party's stoic monk, gracefully flew Otto's cat, Motto, across the chasm before the others jumped.
Safe for the moment, they faced two doors. From the right, Nitro's sharp ears caught the faint sound of a child crying. Otto inspected the door and found a key already waiting in the lock. With an investigator's touch, he turned it. The key itself let out a single, piercing, magical shriek that echoed in the hall before falling silent. The door clicked open.
¶ 🦴 Into The Attic
Inside, The SOL's found the source: a small, skeletal child, an undead creature they identified as an "Attic Whisperer", huddled in the corner, sobbing for its parents. The spirit, Cassiel, seemed just a lost soul, but when the party announced they were leaving, its tragic sorrow twisted into a cold malice.
"They always leave, I wish they would never leave"
it whispered.
The door slammed shut. A black, venom-like ooze began to bleed from the walls, pooling on the floor and congealing into a horrifying, squirming mass of tiny black worms. A chaotic battle erupted. Otto tumbled through the swarm, tossing an Alchemist's Fire that set the mass ablaze, revealing its weakness. Nitro, meanwhile, used a spirit snare to immobilize the wailing ghost-child. With the child locked down, she turned her full fury on the worms, declaring,
"This is your final worming!"
as her spiked chains shredded the swarm into nothing. Clutch then rushed the stunned child, tripping it, giving Nitro the opening to move in and permanently silence the spirit's cries. As a grim trophy, Clutch scooped up the child's haunted-looking stuffed animal and tossed it to her.
¶ 📕 The Office
The second door opened into another office, this one guarded by a poltergeist. The moment The SOL's entered, books launched themselves from the shelves. Otto, a man of letters, was ironically pummeled by a volley of flying hardbacks, taking a staggering amount of damage. Dodging the literary assault, Clutch snagged a few strips of bloody, orange cloth from a corner before the party beat a hasty retreat, slamming the door on the papery chaos.
¶ 🏫 Lecture Hall
After Otto took some time to bandage his wounds, the cursed, shrieking key suddenly reappeared in his pocket. Baffled but undeterred, the party pressed on, entering a large, dark lecture hall. At the front of the room, on a table, sat a giant, open clam shell filled with saltwater.
Was this the portal? Impatient, Nitro threw the haunted stuffed animal into the water. Nothing happened. Frustrated, she decided a more direct approach was needed and swung her chains to smash the shell.
Her attack was caught mid-air by a ghostly hand. A spectral teacher faded into view, his voice cold. "Please don't touch the teaching material". With a gesture, the professor summoned his spectral class, and ghostly students materialized, surrounding the heroes.
Clutch yelled,
"School's out, motherfucker!"
taking a swig of High Tide whiskey and rushing the teacher. His fists connected, but the spirit's incorporeal form resisted the blows. Otto's crossbow bolt passed right through him. The session ended with The SOL's trapped, surrounded by a faculty of the dead, their search for Snax having just become far more complicated.