Session 151
General Summary
- The party rushed to Axecut's central tree, Fae'lala Medui, to see what they could do to help fend off an attack from a giant worm.
- Several government officials — and the image of Biz Abrak — were already hatching a plan, but the absence of Jose Mightly posed a challenge.
- As they were discussing how best to utilize the party, the leader of the capital's House of Crystal, a high elf named Gorwin "Tex" Texylraan, teleported in. Tex used a scroll to conjure up a portal to the Plane of Fire, and several elementals streamed through it to defend the tree. He suggested that the party fetch Mightly.
- Jose Mightly's mansion under attack by a giant purple worm, but the gnome was more focused on defending a unicorn foal, so the party stepped in to help.
- During the fight, Dwardazik got swallowed by the worm; inside, a smaller worm started attacking him.
- He unleashed on the smaller worm, and when it tried to flee, Dazki landed the final blow on it, which killed the larger purple worm at the same time.
- After the fight, Riley transmitted a message to Marvin asking the party to return, which they did after dropping off Mightly with the rest of the government officials and exchanging some brief introductions.
- The Quicksilvers had their own worm problem back at the estate: Riley seems to have turned a large purple worm into glass.
- Siraye was frantically pacing around, worried about the attention that this would bring onto them if they stuck around.
- Dazki reminded them of the original plan to revisit the areas where the Quicksilvers had been, so they convinced Riley to teleport them to one.
- As before, the area was significantly different from how the Quicksilvers remembered it: rather than a geyser outside, there was a maze of stone walls and floors, which the party decided to start exploring with the Quicksilvers after a short rest.
Full Recap
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The party evaded the giant worms and headed towards Fae'lala Medui. A worm much larger than the others slams against a magical barrier just outside the tree, and a gigantic humanoid creature appears, wreathed in flame, bringing battle with the worm.
Tex: You have Capital support here. When Sir Mightly sees fit to return to his post, y'all be sure to inform him of the situation! (He tips his hat.)Tex casts a complex spell from a scroll, opening a portal to the Plane of Fire. He uses the flame from the portal to start an unlit cigarette and begins to take a drag from it, as beings of pure elemental fire stream through the portal. Dwardazik asks Tex where their party would be best deployed, to which Tex responds by directing them to fetch Jose Mightly. The dark-skinned genasi muses that Mightly is probably in his mansion, short-sightedly trying to save "some inane artifact from destruction". Theran confirms that Mightly is in the direction of his mansion, and they run that way.
A Mightly Fine Place You've Got There...
Inside Mightly's mansion, it's already been attacked by some worms, and rumbling in the ground suggests that they're not gone yet. Mightly is right at the front, inside a magical barrier protecting himself and a foal. A worm rises from a hole in the ground and smashes his barrier. Mightly insists that the party defeat the worm without his help, as he needs to keep the barrier up to keep the foal alive ("she's the last of her subspecies, I'm not letting her go extinct!"). The party proceed to attack it as it (and its tail) pop up through different holes in the ground for brief periods of time, before returning into its underground tunnel. As part of its attacks, it tries to devour its target, eventually succeeding once with Dwardazik. The dwarf realizes that there's a smaller worm down below, and he whacks at it a bit... once he does enough damage — with the help of an elemental summoned by Theran — the smaller worm exits above, which the others see as it leaving out one of the holes, and Dwardazik following closely behind, blowing his whistle and smacking it. Dazki hits the smaller worm with his bow, killing it along with the other purple worm in one hit. They regroup with Mightly, and Theran heals them all up, including the foal, which Theran and Mightly clarify is a unicorn subspecies. Marvin interrupts the conversation, saying that Riley has asked them to come back to "the ruined house place". Dazki insists that they escort Mightly to the tree, even if it means that Riley will have to wait. Back towards the tree, the situation is already looking better. Tex and the large fire creature are gone. The muscular elf points to a hole in the ground, saying that the large worm has retreated and that there had been a worm within a worm. The party reports on what they saw at Mightly's estate, indicating that as soon as they killed the inner worm, it killed the other larger one as well. They leave towards the estate of The Quicksilvers.Those Who Live in Glass Houses...
Towards the mansion, there seems to be another large purple worm — but this one is perfectly still, and made out of glass. Almost like a large potion bottle, its innards are vaguely floating in some greenish goo. Siraye is frantically pacing back and forth, waiting for them. She's extremely concerned that the glass worm might draw too much attention towards them (especially Riley), and so she wants them to leave right away. Riley comes around the corner, eating a banana — (bananas aren't native fruits around here) — and calls the worm "Brother Girth", saying that it's "like, the main problem". Dazki brings back up the idea of checking out some of the other areas that the Quicksilvers have cleared out, to see if anything's different over there. Siraye agrees enthusiastically. Riley completely disagrees at first, thinking that it would be a waste of time since they had already dealt with it. Siraye and the party convince Riley to at least indulge them, and Riley teleports them all. They arrive at a teleportation circle, surrounded by walls and floors that seem "fuzzy". Despite having been here before, the Quicksilvers don't recognize the place (though Apple reassures them that it's the same place, as it still has her scent). Riley freaks out and goes into a corner, as Dazki passes a note to his other party members (not any of the Quicksilvers): "Don't touch her. When she feels, you do not.". As the other party members try to re-engage Riley, she snaps at them — first at Marvin ("what did you do, magic man?!") and then at Dazki ("you think you're so fucking clever") — accusing them of "messing up" her otherwise-"perfect" teleportation magic and/or the associated teleportation circle. (Insight 22) Riley isn't upset because she's unfamiliar with the location per se, but she's concerned that something she did has gone wrong, and she's trying to push the blame elsewhere... she was also expecting the place to look dramatically different, so she's freaked out that it looks like "this". Siraye tries to comfort her:Siraye: Riley. We'll just do this the same way we always do it, OK? We'll find the node, and when we get rid of the node, then all of the bullshit goes away. It's worked every time, it'll work this time too. Dwardazik: So, find the node, smack it into a bunch of pieces, and teleport out? OK, fine. Where's the node, then? Riley: There isn't gonna be a fucking node, OK? I just know. And... you don't have to know why! Dazki: If you want us to trust you, then we do have to know why. Dwardazik: We're all stuck in whatever the hell this place is, together, OK? Even if we don't like each other. I don't know if there's enemy monsters, creatures, or whatever down these tunnels. I'm sure you want to deal with us, and not whatever those things are. A little trust would help here! Riley: A little trust? I mean, clearly you're not trusting me, here! Dazki: We trusted you to teleport us here. Marvin: Yeah. That's a lot of trust. Dazki: Clearly, this is not what you expected. So, why don't you, in turn, trust us? Let us know what you expected, and why this is different? Dwardazik: What he said. Preferably before some creature, like a worm or something, bursts out of the floor. Siraye: The last time we were here, it wasn't some sort of weird underground chamber. It was more... well, it was outside, for starters! And this is the area where we set up camp, but it didn't look like this before. Dazki: What did it look like? Siraye: It used to have this geyser that just spewed out slugs and oozes and stuff. You know, like, typical gross worm things. It's what we've been fighting the whole time. Dazki: OK... Siraye: This seems neat and orderly, so far. I guess the nodes are learning new tricks? Theran: Are we sure that smashing them does something? Er... that it's not doing something bad? Siraye: We've been cleaning up the Turmoil as we go. I guess, it doesn't protect against reinfection? Dazki: So then, these places are probably being targeted for a reason? Riley: Yah, that's gotta be itt. It's not a problem with me. This arrea must be super-important. Dazki: ... ...possibly. We definitely need to investigate to find out more, once we've all taken a minute to catch our breath, so we can all think about this nice and calmly.(Insight 22) Siraye seems unsure and skeptical about this. Regardless, they take a short rest and discuss how to move further as Siraye starts up a conversation with Dazki.
Siraye: I feel like I've dealt with more Turmoil in these last months than I have in my entire life. Dazki: I would entirely agree. Siraye: And... this is gonna sound weird... a lot of it has been, like, somewhat thematic? Like, it's always something parasitic, or squirmy. And Turmoil's supposed to be chaotic, right? Dazki: Yes. Siraye: I feel like seeing the same things over and over again is... order, not chaos, right? Dazki: Yeah, that's kind-of my thoughts as well... Siraye: This space here feels different than the Turmoil we've been dealing with. I don't know how to explain it. Dazki: Maybe if it's being controlled by someone? I mean, just because it seems chaotic to us, that doesn't mean there isn't some kind of a method behind it once you dig down deep enough. Siraye: I mean, the walls are really weird! Dazki: Yeah. Siraye: And you said there was a weird obelisk in yours, does it at all seem similar? Dazki: Yeah, the obelisk was fuzzy, and it gave you a headache just looking at it. Siraye: OK. Well, when we cleared out that area, it was just more worm stuff. They would grow bigger and littler. And now, when you went there, it was different weird stuff. Dazki: Yeah. Siraye: So, does that mean... everywhere that I've tried to fix... is just re-fucked? Have I done nothing? Dazki: I... couldn't tell you. Maybe it's... on the path, to being unfucked? I'm honestly not sure. I really don't know. I wish I could be more confident about that, but I do not know enough about Turmoil to give you any kind of definitive answer about that. Siraye: Do any of your friends, maybe? Maybe the Prince? He seems to know a bunch of stuff he shouldn't. Dazki: He might have some ideas, yeah. Theran: Ideas about what? Dazki: Why these things 1) are always worms, and 2) after the worms are cleared, it's always some weird fuzzy, hard-to-focus-on thing. Theran: I'm thinking, caterpillar --> cocoon, honestly. But, I'm a druid, that's what I do! Dazki: But if you squish the caterpillar, then it doesn't turn into a butterfly. Siraye: Yeah, we've been clearing 'em out as we go! Theran: Maybe it wants you to do that? Think about it, you guys mentioned seeing a bunch of those worm things in Ashport at some point, right? Dazki: They were little parasitic squiggly worms, like the ones that maybe came from the eggs, yeah. Dwardazik: You're talking about those little mimic things, right? Dazki: Yeah. Theran: OK, so what happened when you destroyed those? Dwardazik: They died. Dazki: The ones we destroyed, they were destroyed with elemental fire, things like that. That was how we were able to get rid of them. Theran: OK. Cleared out the worms. Did anything happen with them afterwards? Dazki: When the person controlling them got stabbed, they kind-of went crazy inside the person they were in. Theran: Oh, so this was the thing that Baxton was doing. Dazki: Yeah. Theran: Gross. Dazki: So it could be that killing them is causing some kind of change, but it's not necessarily getting rid of them. To do that, we would have to remove the head worm, and then cleanse everything with elemental magic. And also, we never really knew where Baxton was getting them — they were always just being imported, in a lot of false ledgers on ships and stuff. Theran: So, was Baxton getting the stuff from here? Dazki: Could be. Theran: That's one question answered, I guess. There's the whole thing from The Book of the Mirage, where, Turmoil can randomly do "anything", right? So "randomly", it might develop a different kind of Turmoil that's able to self-organize? Dazki: Yeah... Theran: So, maybe that's just part of this. If there's a Turmoil that's able to reproduce, and it's given instructions like "here's what you're supposed to do on stuff", then maybe it might be able to follow that. Like if Mother Girth is seeding the area with a bunch of children, so-to-speak, maybe she's just implanting a bunch of eggs that are all going to grow up around a similar lifestyle? Dazki: Possibly... Siraye: Gross. Theran: That's my theory on it, anyway. Dazki: My thought was some type of external control, but I'm not really sure how. I don't believe that anything is actually purely chaotic. I think there is an order and a method that we can use to understand all of nature. Where, if you could just figure that out, then you'd be able to give commands or instructions or use it in ways that would benefit you. Theran: The fact that they're all doing the same thing, that kind of implies that either they're getting active instructions to all still "do the same thing", or they're given instructions beforehand, "if this, do that", and the instructions could include "someone smashed your node? do this next time". Siraye: Well, I feel completely out of my element here. Dazki: Yeah. Give us a couple of days, and we might have something that might help with that... if you don't mind, with one of your two copies, Theran? Theran: I don't mind, but... I was going to buy a blank book and then worms started attacking... Dazki: OK, then, in a few days we might have a book that might be able to help. It's pretty dense, pretty hard to figure out. Theran: The person who wrote it wanted only the "initiated" to understand his "knowledge". Dazki: Which, unfortunately, was me. Along with a not-so-thinly-veiled threat on your life... Siraye: A-what-now? Dazki: Oh yeah, he gave me the book — and, at the same time, gave me a bottled wine from the exact winery that you were visiting. Not-so-subtly implying that I needed to read that book. Siraye: God, that guy just seems, like, the worst. Theran: He does. Totally. Dazki: I do not regret stabbing him. Siraye: You st—... you stabbed him? Dazki: Yeah, yeah, I killed him. With help from Dwardazik — Marvin and Theran were not around at the time —, Kesmet, and Grogery. Siraye, putting an arm around Dazki's shoulder: Are you OK, though? Like, you usually take things like that super bad. Dazki: I'm... working through it. I'm not sure how well I'm doing with it right now, but I'm trying to work through it, and I don't regret the actions. Siraye: It turns out, people just kinda stab each other a lot! I think we lived an overly sheltered life, or something! Dazki: Yeah, — Siraye: Like, a lot! Like, too much! Dazki: I knew Olivia sort-of initiated a lot of stabbings of people with her information gathering, but — Siraye: Yeah, but it just, like, ... happens! Dazki: It seems like a lot of just random violence and stabbings. Siraye: And the people, they yell, too! It's just, like, insane! Theran: When you have a lot to lose — an empire your building, a bunch of rich children you're trying to set up in specific positions — there's a lot to lose by just doing a violence and upsetting the status quo. But if the status quo isn't already treating you well, then sometimes people would rather take their shot with a weapon than just passively accept what's going on. Siraye: Has the Prince killed anybody?! Theran: I don't... think so? Unless it was definitely trying to kill us first. And not, like, a person. Siraye: Because I'm not entirely sure of the legal ramifications of, like, a prince of another country stabbing somebody... Theran: Nobody here is supposed to know I'm the prince of another country, thanks! Dazki: Also, aren't you not, like, the prince yet? Just, like, the most likely candidate to be married in? Theran: Probably? It'll be just my luck that all of this is going to upset that, but not a whole lot we can do about that now. Dazki: Isn't that what you want, anyway? To not be told whom to marry? Theran: Well, yeah, but it gets complicated, because —...Theran and Dazki go into a bit of a discussion about governance, and their viewpoints surprise Siraye. They wrap up the short rest deciding to split up in two groups: Quicksilvers / (Group of No Name), but swap Kris and Dazki. Dazki privately shows the spike from the Bag of Holding that he's still holding, showing that he can still be tracked in case things go south. They split up and start down opposite paths.
