Session 154

General Summary

• The party finished up their discussion with Siraye about Riley.
• After they described what had happened to Baxton and the others after they had used their "arcanum" abilities, Siraye got concerned that Mirage Prime might have it out for Riley now that she's used her arcanum ability against Dazki.
• Even Sending a message to Riley is a dangerous idea — Siraye knows this firsthand.
• Riley had left in such a hurry that she seems to have forgotten to bring along her "stick", which turns out to be one of Annu's control rods.
• Before they could leave, the glass-encased worm creature from before made its way into the estate, encased Dwardazik and Kris in whirlwinds of fog, and hosted a game show to see which one of them its heart would "go out to" — meaning that it would devour them.
• The worm seemed conflicted, shifting back and forth between two different personalities: a game show host and a more traditional monster.
• Dwardazik "won" the game thanks to Gemineye helping them cheat, and Theran convinced the worm to "risk it all", in a double-or-nothing round.
• The worm vomited out its heart, and Marvin very handily destroyed it.
• Dazki gave Siraye the trove of documents that they had stolen from BFI, and the two parties planned next steps.
• It came out that Marvin had stolen Annu's control rod when no one was looking. Siraye hesitantly trusted the party to hold onto it.

Full Recap

Dazki tries to get the party and Siraye refocused on going back towards the nearby dwarven mining areas, or at least to explore something. According to Siraye, while she doesn't know where the "Quicksilver Wizard"'s area was, she can say that "before all this", according to Riley's story, she was "mostly in the middle of nowhere, in the savanna; kind of an up-and-coming halfling town... 'Spring Belly', I think?".   They have some more discussions about "the sycophants".

Theran: I just want to see if there's a pattern here. When I went to the Red Desert, it was making art pictures and really paranoid about someone being able to listen. But apparently, not being able to see... has anyone ever heard Mirage Prime talk? Or breathe?   Dazki: There was one time when we heard words we think are from Mirage Prime.   Theran: Did that happen before or after the breathing guy got taken?   Dazki: Before and after, we've heard it once or twice... if it can't see, it might be because we've removed its eye, in Baxton?   Theran: OK, not to say that it wouldn't be a good idea to have people's souls get reclaimed by Mirage Prime, but it seems to be making him and his remaining followers more powerful?   Siraye begins to look lost in thought around this point of the conversation.   Dwardazik: So, you're saying we shouldn't break the ring that has Baxton's soul in it?   Dazki facepalms, as Siraye is right there.   Dwardazik: ...oh...   Marvin: Good goin', wise guy!   Theran: I don't know how any of this works... it's just a pattern I've noticed.   Dazki: So, Baxton's way of escaping his deal with the devil is, he had a ring that his mind is now trapped in. And we managed to acquire that ring.   Siraye: So, does that mean that... the Prime thing doesn't have eyes now?   Dazki: I think it means that Prime does not have eyes that he can use to see out here.   Theran: Maybe Prime "lends out" his body parts, and then reclaims them when people don't do a good job at using them? It also might be that he sends them out so that they can grow more powerful, and then when they come back, he can see more / hear more, or something like that.   Siraye: That must be why Riley is holding back, then.   Dwardazik: I don't understand? She's trying to get stronger, or something?   Dazki: She's trying to keep her strength from going to Prime.   Dwardazik: Why would she have to hold back?   Siraye: The arcanum. It's a warlock term.   Dwardazik: I don't know that voodoo.   Siraye: Riley never uses it.   Theran: Is that, like, a super-secret-special thing that they get, and if they use it, then bad stuff happens?   Siraye: I've never even heard of the thing that she did to you, Dazki.   Dwardazik: The only thing I know about warlock power is that it's borrowed for something, and you just have to pay a price. That's about it. So, I guess if it's just like that, then I can understand why Riley may be hesitant. Using great power, she'd have to pay a price to Prime?   Dazki: Well, think of what Baxton did too, when he did his thing where everyone got moved around in the room, and apparently most people were confused about who was who?   Dwardazik: That is a good point. I remember how dang difficult it was to find anything to hit.   Theran: So, the eye guy messed with your ability to see what was real and what wasn't?   Dazki: Yeah.   Siraye: Well, if you concerned her enough to tap into that untapped resource, then she could be in real danger!   Dwardazik: Does that mean that Riley is touch? Or hands?   Theran: I mean, just with the [[unintelligible]] stuff, it kinda makes sense. Also, is "ice" an element?   Dwardazik: Isn't it just a different thing of water?   Siraye: It's just water... right? A certain part of the plane of water, where water and air touch?   Dazki: That's what I thought.   Theran: Is it pure elemental stuff? I was thinking —   Siraye: I'm sure you could freeze pure elemental water.   Dwardazik: You getting at something?   Theran: Just curious. There was a concern earlier about Riley not being able to fully remove "Mother Girth"'s corruption, and there was a concern that it's because Mirage Prime might limit the powers of his followers so that they can't interfere with one another, but because I'm not tuned-in to thinking about this stuff, I wondered "is it because ice isn't a 'real' element?"... but yeah, ice is water...   Dwardazik: Well, at the moment, I don't think we have a real weapon against Turmoil.   Theran: I could always summon more elementals to run at things, but that's not a big solution. It's a small, "let's not die" solution.   Siraye: We have the support of the government, here.   Dazki: And I had a thought of something we can try as well. There are spells that can banish creatures to other planes. If we could acquire the ability to do that with, like, a scroll or something... it would be a one-use thing as a scroll, but being able to immediately send a creature off to another plane? Turmoil doesn't even do well in harmless little demi-planes like a bag of holding.   Theran: Doesn't it just freak out? It doesn't necessarily get destroyed.   Dwardazik: You're suggesting banishing it to the plane of fire or something?   Dazki: The spells that I'm thinking of aren't powerful enough to reach the plane of fire. The one that we could probably have access to would be just a harmless demi-plane like a bag of holding. For, like, a minute. But I don't know if it would damage the Turmoil, or weaken it, or do anything at all...   Dwardazik: We could try an experiment with it. Maybe get two of 'em, and if we see a Turmoil creature on the way down to the mines, we could experiment with one?   Siraye: ...maybe... sorry, I'm still distracted by this whole, "my teammate might be in mortal danger" thing!   Dazki: Fair. All right.   Theran: We could try Sending and seeing if she's OK?   Siraye: Not a good idea to Send to Riley, I've found out.   Theran: What happens?   Marvin: Just keep a positive attitude, and everything will be just fine, all right?   Dazki: Why isn't it a good idea?   Siraye: The "taking" thing isn't... necessarily... just physical touch. It seems to be any kind of "touch".   Theran: So, even spells affecting them. OK.   Dazki: What about Scrying?   Siraye: I haven't tried that.   Theran: I would like to have my ability to scry not permanently removed, please...

A Sticky Situation

Apple joins the conversation, confident that Riley will be back soon: the witch seems to have left without bringing her "stick". Apparently, this "stick" is a magical rod that she always carries with her. After some probing, the party wants to look at it, and Siraye is OK with letting them see it as long as they promise not to touch it. Observing it, (Arcana 24 / History 17) the party are fairly confident that this is one of the control rods for Annu Adabra.

Siraye: Wait, is it, like, super illegal or something?   Dwardazik: Nah, nothing like that. Just, people want it for themselves.   Siraye: Wait, I wasn't just tricked now, was I?   Dazki: What did Riley tell you that it was?   Siraye: I dunno, I never asked! Just, whenever she gets nervous, she fiddles with it.   Dazki: Have you heard of a (former) man named Annu Adabra?   Siraye: Oh yeah, I know more than I need to about that guy. Real jerk, apparently. According to Riley, anyway.   Dazki: Can't disagree with that. He has been helpful at points, though.   Dwardazik: Why would Riley know about Annu?   Siraye: ...I'm not supposed to say that part...   Dwardazik: Shit, I think Theran's onto something, this might really be it!   Dazki: Yeah. Well, I think this is a way to control Mr. Adabra.   Siraye: ... ...So, Riley is convinced that Annu is being "held captive", because there's "no other reason" why he would have denied her work.   Dwardazik: Huh? She worked with Annu? What's their relationship?   Dazki: She wanted to. We know that she met with him when she went to Ashport.   Marvin: Jeez, Dwardazik! Do you have a case of ALE BRAIN?! Seriously! Pay attention!   Siraye: First, she tried to work at the House of Crystal at the Capital, because, you know, that's the biggest one. But apparently, it's also run by a jerk named "Tex", so... she just assumed that that's just another power-grabbing mage fella. Then she went to Ashport, and Annu basically said the same thing. But since Annu can't lie or whatever, then he must be being controlled by somebody. """OBVIOUSLY""", if he had his own free will, he would've hired her immediately. (As she says this, Siraye's tone is one that is often accompanied by a very large eyeroll.)   Dazki: I mean, on the one hand, she's right that Annu didn't have a lot of his own free will...   Siraye: """It's just the same power hogs, pushing their agenda, through him!"""   Dazki: So, the entire story is that when he was stopped, they made three control rods for him, to control the lich. One to control the mind, one to control the body, and one to control the soul.   Dwardazik: So which one is this, then?   Dazki: I believe the "mind". This would be used to maintain partial control over the lich.   Siraye: ...OK. So, Riley's right, then?   Dazki: Yes, that he is under someone's control in the government.   Siraye: And you think this here, this is your proof? I guess?   Dazki: It's not necessarily our proof. He was recently shut down and "put into storage" recently, because he was able to disobey direct commands from people in the government.   Siraye: He's the one who sent you down here, right? With your list?   Dazki: That's the last thing he did before he got "put into storage". He basically pinned everything that he had on us.   Siraye: I'll bet he'd be really useful in taking care of this whole Turmoil thing.   Dazki: He was.   Dwardazik: There's no way we can break him out.   Dazki: This might give us a chance...   Dwardazik: But we'd have to go back to Ashport, right?   Siraye: Well, if Riley's evil, then we... don't want to help the lich? And if Riley's good, then we... do?   Dwardazik: I'd like to think that Annu's more like a tool. Can be directed for either good or mischief.   Theran: Just because Riley interacted with him in some way, that doesn't mean that helping him either helps or hurts Riley.   Dwardazik: I just think Annu wants to absolutely destroy Turmoil.   Siraye: Annu wants the world to be perfectly calculable. He's, like, the opposite of chaos. But I don't know if that's any better!   Dazki: It's not.   Theran: All things are OK in moderation.   Dwardazik: Gambling would suck! Casinos would go out of business!   Dazki: But yes, he's proven to be a valuable — if challenging — ally against all of this. In much a way that Riley has been a valuable — if challenging — ally.   Siraye: OK, well, we definitely don't want to be caught here. So, maybe we... go?   Dwardazik: We have to take this with us.   Siraye: No-no-no! You said you wouldn't!   Dwardazik: It's incredibly dangerous! If someone were to take this... ...look, I'm just saying it's a very dangerous item to leave here.   Siraye: OK, but what happens when the very dangerous person finds out that we took it?!   Dwardazik: ...well... ... ...at least we found Riley, then!   Theran: She'll come looking for us.   Siraye: Now, I've never personally taken a powerful entity's powerful artifact, but it can't be a good idea. It just can't.   Marvin: I offer myself as tribute!   Dwardazik: No. I will take it. I will bear this burden.   Theran: Now, wait, wait. Hang on. Let's think about this real quick, all right? Riley's convinced that she can't "give" anything. It's entirely reasonable to interpret her leaving behind something very valuable as a desperate attempt to be able to "give" us something?   Siraye: Or — and this is a reasonable idea for adult people — somebody scared the crap out of her, made her vulnerable to the one person she's actually afraid of, and then she had to flee for her life.   Dazki: And I'm somebody.   Theran: It took her an awful long time to flee for her life?   Dazki: Well, I interrupted her in the middle of the night. Just like most magic users, she has to actually fully rest before she has access to her magic. We couldn't teleport away yesterday back from the ghost-and-beholder incident, so it's entirely possible that she did it as soon as she had the magical power to.   Theran: Oh! Did you purposely choose to confront her when she couldn't teleport away?   Dazki: Yes, and that's why I also brought the Dimensional Shackles, which would prevent her from being able to use any short-range teleportation. (The Dimensional Shackles are still here, so Dazki collects them back.)   Dwardazik: So, our plan is to basically ignore this, make our way down, and see where BFI is mining, aye?   Dazki: It feels really bad ignoring this.   Siraye: We'll know where it is, right? So, it's not like ignoring it. It's really putting it in the safest possible spot, if you think about it?   Dwardazik: ...right, the same place that was attacked by a bunch of worms? I'm sure nothing terrible could happen to it... but, maybe we could focus on other things? Like our journey down to BFI's mines?   Dazki: I feel like, because of the worm attack on the city yesterday, that is the most pressing issue. We don't know how long it's going to be until whatever happened to the other locations where the worms attacked also happens here.   Dwardazik: What do you mean by that?   Dazki: Remember how, in the places where The Quicksilvers stopped the worms, when we showed up there, there was something different-Turmoil-related that completely transformed the entire area.   Dwardazik: Hmm. I get what you mean. I really wish we had some pure-elemental, Turmoil-killing fire.

As they leave Riley's bedroom, they see a reddish fog leaking under the double doors at the estate's entrance. It forms up into the form of a giant worm, its skin made of glass — very similar to the glass worm that actually used to be outside of the estate, in fact. Inside of its body, there are various treasures, and a large veiny heart that more quivers than beats. It "speaks", in a sense: there's a psychic hiss, and though it doesn't speak in a language that anyone understands, the meaning is somehow clear:

Chip Foley, the Host with the host: Before I dissolve to this betraying energy, I must eject to a safer shell.

Combat Summary

• Conventional attacks are profoundly ineffective.
• Theran's initial move was to run off to the bedroom as quickly as possible, even using magic to get there more quickly. He rejoined the combat just as quickly.

Chip: I sense suitable brother shells!

The worm vomits crimson red mist, thick onto the ground. Heavy smoke rises up, upon reaching Kris and Dwardazik's knees, engulfing the two dwarves and obscuring them, leaving only silhouettes for the rest of the participants to see. The worm rears up and is about to attempt to devour Kris, but it instead suddenly jerks and jitters violently. A smooth crystalline rod pops out of its mouth, tipped with a small emerald. The tail curls around to grab it, and a voice comes from the worm once more:

Chip, more chipper: Where are my manners?! You can't devour a person's internals and inhabit them like an awful shell... without a proper romantic connection! Let's find out who actually gets to win my heart, in: "My Heart Will Go Out to You", episode 1!   The worm suddenly resumes its more monster-like demeanor and posture.   Chip, defiant: No, wait, this is wrong! Let me go devour the dwarves!

The worm seems to struggle internally a bit for the next few seconds before the more chipper personality dominates.

Game Show Summary

• During the encounter, an unseen force — eventually understood to be Gemineye — invaded the minds of the rest of the party, sending various hints to the party members about what the worm happened to desire at each phase of the encounter.
• The goal of the game show was to figure out which of the two "bachelors" would get devoured by the worm, which apparently is what happens when a team wins.
• The worm would ping-pong back and forth between the game show host personality and the more monster-like personality that just wanted to devour everyone.
• The Quicksilvers sat out the whole thing, completely confused about what to do in this format.
• The first round was won by "bachelor #1" (Dwardazik) when Marvin ripped off his shirt.
• Dazki slashed Marvin with a knife across the chest in order to win the second round.
• This triggered the "lightning round", which was just some lightning that zapped everyone.
• For the last round, Marvin successfully cast an Ego Whip spell on Dazki. This went to the "judges", but it was good enough to bring the game to an end.

Chip, defiant: Yes! Finally! Devour! Before I am eliminated! Please, for the love of god!   Dazki: Wait just a minute! Don't we have to say goodbye to the studio audience at home? And see the credits?   Theran: Oh, but since we've made it to the end of the round, now we have a final contest! You can choose to either take your prize and go, or you can risk it all in the double-down! (Persuasion 31)   Chip, defiant: No! Stop it! Stop it!!!   Chip, chipper: Well, I mean, we have no choice but to see what's behind the special mystery prize door!   Chip, defiant: What do you mean?! DEVOUR!!   Chip, chipper: I'm puttin' it all on the line for this one, Jerry!   The worm rears up and vomits up its own heart in front of the party.   Chip, defiant (and sarcastic): Oh, yes, yes, yes, right, of course, we don't need the bachelors anymore, what was I thinking...   Chip, defiant: NO, DEVOUR THEM, PLEAAAASE!!! (He starts sobbing, little glass tears pinging onto the floor.)

Dwardazik, now freed, instantly smashes his hammer against the worm. The rest of the party go to attack the heart, and Marvin destroys it handily.

Post-Game Analysis

Kris sees a statue that had spawned during the game show, and he runs away in fear.   The heart disintegrates into the same peculiar square-shaped kinds of dust fragments that the other "secondary infection" nodes have been dissolving into — very much unlike the writhing, fleshy mass that the worm and its heart started off as.   Dwardazik begins snorting up the dusty remains of the heart into himself.   Theran uses "Whooshy Whoosh" to blow it away.

Dwardazik: If I don't take care of it, it's going to spread!   Theran: And having it spread to the inside of you is any better?!   Dwardazik: Ugh.   Marvin: Better this soil than in your mind.   Dazki: You tried this same thing after Vicra. Why?   Dwardazik: It's because I can consume the Turmoil and make it more orderly.   Siraye: Wait, what?   Theran: Well, that would've been good to know a little earlier!   Dazki: You know when I asked you about things that you or your guest could do...?   Dwardazik: Well, I don't know if it'll work! I just have a feeling it'll work!   Marvin: Yeah, 'cause that's ALWAYS turned out GREAT for us!   Dazki: Even that suspicion would be exactly the kind of stuff I was asking for you not to keep secret, Dwardazik!   Dwardazik: I don't know if it would work! I just think it works! Like adding clay to a sculpture, the more clay you add, the bigger it can become.   Marvin: And what if you add it at a weird angle, not center-of-mass, and it fuckin' falls over? 'Cause it's TURMOIL? And Turmoil never fuckin' stacks in a perfect straight line, an orderly fashion? It's in the name!   Theran: Or if you have a bunch of yellow clay, right? And you want to get the blue clay off the table, so you use the yellow clay to go pick it up, but you're never going to get that blue clay out of it, it's going to change the color of the yellow forever.   Dwardazik: Look, I don't know if it would've worked. It was an intuition I had, and Gemineye wanted it. But honestly, it's not a big deal.   Dazki takes a deep breath and walks over to Theran.   Dazki: Put it back.   Theran: Put what back? ...you're the one who has it.   Dazki ignores him and walks over to Dwardazik.   Dazki: Stop keeping secrets from us, especially about these important things.   Dazki walks out the door. Once he's out of sight of the others, he pats through his pockets to see if the control rod got stashed on him somewhere.   Marvin: What was he on about?   Theran: OK, so, worm comes in. Obviously, I freak out and I assume "oh no, the Turmoil is taking over the area, quick, we gotta get the rod", because we can't have Turmoil taking control of Annu Adabra, right? But it's gone. I thought maybe Dazki just, like, slipped it into the bag of holding or something so that there'd be plausible deniability, you know? I was planning to do the same thing.   Dwardazik: Wait, what?   Theran: Yeah, the rod is gone.   Marvin: You ran over there right when the worm came, right?   Theran: Yeah! Again, I was scared that "oh no, the Turmoil is coming, we can't let it get the rod", right? That's bad. So I went to go get it, in case we needed to run, but it was already gone. So I presumed that Dazki or somebody else just, like, pocketed it when nobody was looking.   Dwardazik: That would be a typical rogue thing to do...   Theran: I guess the question is, where the heck did it go?   Marvin: Oh, wait, you mean... (he produces the control rod from his pocket) THIS?   Theran: Goddamnit, Marvin. (He walks to the door and yells out to let Dazki know that Marvin has it.)   Marvin tosses the rod up in the air and catches it.   Dwardazik: ...huh?   Marvin: You think we could just, like, summon Annu here and maybe help us out? Oh wait, no, he can't leave the city.   Dwardazik: Marvin... are you OK?   Marvin: I just keep getting surprised how you guys just never notice when I'm trying to be stealthy! Even Dazki!   Dwardazik: "Nathan", are you OK?   Theran: I'm fine, but are you OK? You were the one trapped in the weird fog bubble.   Marvin: So is Dazki concerned about us touching this, when Riley gets back? Is that what he's concerned about?   Theran: I think his concern is "oh no, she's a touch warlock, maybe there's touch curses", but if this really is Annu's rod, then maybe it's not actually cursed.   Marvin: Yeah...   Theran: And the fact that she was fidgeting with it whenever she got nervous, maybe that's, like, when Annu has been more clear?   Dwardazik: It looks like everyone's doing OK.   Theran: So, you are doing OK, Dwardazik?   Dwardazik: As OK as I can be, after trying to do a couple of lines of Turmoil.   Theran: OK, I'm not really angry about any of this — because it's entirely possible for someone to not know what sort of powers they have access to, or what the consequences of that are — but yeah. Not a great look... immediately after the fight is over, to try to snuff it all up.   Dwardazik: It's what Gemineye wanted!   Theran: I get your reasons for wanting to do it, but it looked kind of desperate, and it probably freaked Dazki out.   Dwardazik: It might have used up a lot of energy trying to communicate to you guys. I think that's how Gemineye worked.   Theran: I know, but... it's really easy to get scared of all of this happening, when nobody understands what's going on.

They all calm down, apologize, collect themselves, and rejoin the Quicksilvers to discuss what they all should plan to do next. Apple and Siraye are trying to drag away the statue that had spawned, because Kris is very afraid of statues.   Dazki hands Siraye the deeds and documents that they stole from BFI. Siraye flips through them, commenting that the places are "probably sacred or something" and remarking that BFI are using some kind of loopholes to chop down trees """for research""", even though there's very little research to be gained by clear cutting the forest. She's interested in trying to reunite some of the people that BFI exploited back where they came from — and some of these properties are probably "where they came from". She accepts them happily.   Dazki lets it slip that Marvin has the control rod, and it starts a whole thing. Marvin hands the rod to Dazki after Siraye gets into a fuss. Dazki decides to leave it up to Siraye, offering for her to take it if she entirely trusts Riley. (Persuasion 16) Siraye pushes the rod back, conceding that while she may not entirely trust either side at this point, at least Dazki isn't being pursued by something like Mirage Prime. The decision seems to take a heavy toll on her.   The party group up and prepare to head out to gather more information,the Quicksilvers heading to the House of Crystal in Axecut, and the party heading out to gather information from the dwarven prospectors. Dazki hands Siraye the bronze hummingbird so she can contact them if needed.