Session 15: Angelica Town Report
General Summary
Ayame Shiori leaves the tavern, looking for a store to peruse. She remembers seeing one store that looked to be closed, but a smithy directly next to it, with a ludicrously trope worthy bald man and a scar on his face, hammering away at a cold piece of steel.
Ayame approaches the smith, waving to him, while he waves back with his hammer. "Hello!" says Ayame
"Hello traveler, is there something I could get for you today?" The smith replies.
"Ah Actually yes, I was wondering if you sold weapons" Ayame says, returning the smile, her tail swishing slightly, as sebastian catches up behind her.
"We don't sell a lot of weapons in this town. Too peaceful. instead, we make horse shoes here. Is there something specific you have in mind?" he says, hammering away on the metal.
"Ah..I see" Ayame says with a pout "I was just looking for a sword."
"Well, im afraid we don't have swords here. Too dangerous says Mayor Gregory."
Ayame tilts her head "I've heard a lot about this mayor, what do you think of him?"
The blacksmith smiles. "I think the mayor is the greatest member of our town. He even taught me how to smith." he says hammering away at the metal again. Ayame, actually notices now that she is closer, that the metal is actually making a sound. But its lest of a "ting" sound, and more like someone is saying "Ting" every time he hits the steel.
Ayame squints at this "Oh I see...is that some kind of special metal? It sounds strange when you hit it"
"Just Iron" replies the blacksmith while he hits it, letting lose more "Tings" from the metal bar.
"Uhuh..." Ayame frowns and shrugs. "Well thanks for the help anyways, so I suppose there are no weapons to be found in town?"
"Well... im sure there might be a guard with a weapon." he says as Ayame hears someone marching down the street behind her. Ayame turns and sees a guard making his rounds, with a polearm with a blank white flag on it. he does look more like a soldier than a guard however.
"Well. thanks for the chat! I don't suppose you could point me to where I might find the mayor? I'm eager to meet him"
"The mayor is indesposed at the moment, but maybe another time you could get ahold of him at his manor." he says hammering away at his "Tingy" metal.
ayame nods. "Well, thanks for the help" she says with a smile before returning to the inn, rolling her eyes a bit once he cant see. On her way back to the tavern, she spots a book lying in the grass. Picking it up, she notices the title, 'The Great Homestead.' Shrugging, she decides to read it to get some sleep for the night.
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DATE: Poviott 25/625
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The next morning, Naomi knocks on Eleanors door back in the tavern. Eleanor opens the door, her jacket removed and hair somehow messier than usual, as though she just got out of bed, her axe sitting on the floor next to a rock. "Oh... Greetins naomi, what can I help ya with?"
"Good day Miss Eleanor, I wanted to speak with...well I wanted to speak with everyone if possible, but you're a good start. Is it fine if I come in and sit down?"
Eleanor raises a brow and shrugs, gesturing to her room, speaking in Undercommon. "mi casa es su casa" before contiuning in common, "sure thing Nao, dunno where everyone else might be."
"Miss Shiori went out shopping for some more armaments..." says Naomi. She peers down at the messy looking axe Eleanor has on the floor "Something I'm sure you could relate to with her. But that's not what I'm here for." Naomi walks in and takes a seat at the edge of her bed. "Pardon me for my bluntness, but what exactly is it that you want Miss Primrose? I seek only excitement and adventure, for example. To that end I've attached myself to Miss Shiori as a guard of sorts. The only thing attaching you and Miss Raflesia to us is the fact that we all shipwrecked togther... So, I ask again. What is it that you want?"
Eleanor gives Nahemah a blank look for a moment, looking like she's trying to form an answer. She lets out a groan and rubs the back of her head "Well you got me stumped there Nahemah." she lets out a halfhearted chuckle and sighs.
"I'm not sure myself, I've been a pretty aimless individual for as long as I can remember. If I'm being brutally honest, its just easier with y'all so far. Surviving is about my only goal in life, I'm not what most would call ambitious." She winces a little as though stumbling into a bad thought and sits down on the bed, "That's about it really" she chuckles softly to herself, "It's just not been bad."
"I see..." Naomi sighs and places both of her hands on her lap in front of her. "So you plan on accompanying us, then? We could definitely use someone big and strong to take all the hits for us~" she says this part teasingly, giggling a bit...Before suddenly getting serious again. "Of course, if you got hurt, I'd be there to heal your wounds! Adventuring is no fun if you have a knife in your side!"
Eleanor lets out a laugh and nods, "I've never had a healer before so that sounds like a good deal." She gives Nao a few rough pats on the back and then lifts her shirt to show her lower torso, to say its riddled with scars would be gentle wording, "I've had a few literal knives in my side it seems before so I might need you more than a few times if we get unlucky"
Naomi's body gets moved by the simple pats on the back...She can't help but stare at Eleanor's scars for a moment before looking away and mumbling an apology... "I could possibly heal those scars for you in the future, if you so desire...Though something tells me that you use them as a trophy of sorts."
Naomi stands up and turns to face Eleanor, smiling. "Regardless of that, I'm glad to know that we'll have someone reliable as you with us. Thanks for listening to my question, as silly as it was, Miss Primrose." She says before bowing to Eleanor. "I will be needing to talk to Miss Raflesia to ask the same question, so excuse the interruption to your morning I've caused."
Eleanor frowns for a split second but her expression swaps back to an easy going one, "I'll do my best to be as reliable as you see me Nao, no worries about interruptin my morning, I've had ruder and less cute awakenings."
Naomi blushes at the compliment, and nods. "I-I'll be going now, have a good morning Miss Primrose." she says before leaving Eleanors room.
Eleanor hums and gives Naomi a wave, "see you in a bit" mumbling to herself, "Gosh that last name always feels too fancy.. should I change it?"
Naomi makes her way to Ragias room and knocking on the door. "Come on in!" Ragia calls out from her room.
Naomi opens the door with curiosity. "Forgive me for the intrusion, Miss Raflesia, I have a question or two to ask you.."
Ragia is on her bed, bouncing, but stopping as Naomi enters, still moving up and down from the ripples in the water bed. "Hey, what can I do for you?"
Naomi puts a hand up to cover her mouth to stifle a giggle. "Sorry for interrupting your fun Miss Ragia." Naomi takes a seat at the table and chair placed in the room, moving the chair to face Ragia.
"I have to ask you something about our adventures together thus far. Surely you realize we've been in danger lately, and that we'll continue to be in danger as we continue to adventure. For that reason, I must ask. For what reason do you adventure with us? And, do you have the resolve to face the dangers we're sure to face?"
Ragia sits down on the bed, crossing her legs and placing her hands on her ankles.
"fair question, my goal is to study magics of all kinds, preferably ones that aren't taught in school, to get the teachers jealous, tho the true end goal is to make myself a hoard of knowledge to surpass [the knowledge dragon of Rynasen. to that end, i'm pretty sure staying with this here group is going to give me plenty of such opportunities. i also don't mind danger, as it's the best way to prove my worthiness as a dragon to others, through my legendary achievements, but i'll make sure to get your names out as my trusty sidekicks"
Naomi stifles another giggle. "Ragia, that's perhaps the best answer you could have given. If I hadn't seen you...entertaining...those men in that bar, I would say you're the cutest lil' Kobold I've ever met. I just wanted to measure your resolve, thank you for answering me Miss Raflesia." She says bowing her head towards her friend.
"A dragon without a brood is pretty lonely, so I decided to start early on with that, I hope I wasn't making you uncomfortable with it."
"Of course I would be the cutest, how else would I seduce potential mates? it's not like I would be very sexy considering my current diminutive stature" Ragia brags.
Naomi starts to blush a deep crimson."N-no it's fine. It was just...I hadn't seen something like that before...S-seduce?!...Miss Raflesia, maybe we should just go get breakfast and see what that slamming sound from earlier was..?"
Ragia bounces off the bed, perking at the mention of food. "Sure! im famished!"
Meanwhile, Ayame wakes up from her exausting nights sleep, groaning and stretching before making her way to a table.
As soon as Ayame sits down, the door to the inn slams opens, with Lacy, wielding a stilish new bag, and lacking her absurdly spiky breastplate walking in. She looks more slender than one would have you believe, but she still has a dull look on her face. "Well. at least you haven't burned the place down..." she says pulling up a chair at the table with Ayame, putting her feet on the table. "Yet..."
Ayame almost ignores Lacy and pulls out the book she found, flipping to the final page. As Naomi and Ragia make their way to the table, Naomi scowls at lacy. "Miss lovebind, rude! Don't disrespect our Inn provider!"
"I haven't bought a room yet. I owe this inn nothing." lacy says putting her arms behind her head, smirking at the overconcerned cleric.
"Guys," Ayame says. "I found this book here that completely details everything about this town in a shitty romantic comedy story"
"Sounds interesting, so what does it say?" Ragia ponders.
"It says... everything about this town like I said, its just a bad story, but its exact to everything that's in this town."
"So the town could just have been the book made real that nothing would look different from it's current state then." Ragia nods.
Ayame nods in confirmation. "Aside from us showing up I guess."
"That's probably in book 2, I hope it finishes with a happy ending."
Eleanor arrives at the table at this point and just barely holds down a groan upon seeing that Lacy has arrived here. She's only caught the past few seconds of conversation from when Ayame's started, chiming in, "Why's what this town is matter so much? Aren't we leaving anyways?"
"See naomi? My table scuffing doesn't even show up in the book." Mocks Lacy.
"But it could in future editions! you don't know that it won't!"
Lacy takes her feet off the table, crossing her arms. "Well... maybe ill find the author and give him some... creative criticism."
Naomi huffs, and looks to Eleanor. "Im not sure, honestly. Miss shiori found something about the town."
Listening to the party, Ayame also groans.
"Hey naomi, while we're all there, whose answers are you still missing? Or do you prefer to only approach the subject in private?"
Naomi thinks, placing a finger to her chin. "Well it wouldn't make sense to ask Miss Shiori, since I plan on following her wherever she goes for the tiem being... The only one I could ask is..." she slowly turns to lacy, expecting some delinquency.
"This is seemingly the perfect town, free of danger, with beautiful people all over, and I happen to find a book detailing the exact perfection of the town down to the smallest detail and you find nothing strange about it? At all?"
"No, I find it very strange." says Naomi. "But... I'm not a strong enough practicioner of the magical arts to find anything strange in the weave of this place... At least not yet."
"And to top it all off! We are the only ones here!" Ayame gestures to the empty inn.
"Maybe this is some twisted enchantment by a homesick sorcerer... I hear they get all giddy at the idea of building and playing in diorama cities." Lacy looks around the place nervously.
"It is of the utmost strangedness yes, which is why I proposed the hypothesis that it is the other way around. Were my hunch to prove true, it would be invaluable insights for me to study it."
"Well. Magic that could make an entire town is very powerful." Ayame says, before opening the book and writing 'And the door to the inn falls off its hinges.' to see if anything happens, to which it does not.
Ayame pouts. "Well it isn't the book... should we go and find the mayor?"
Lacy wipes some sweat from her brow. "I'd prefer to find a drink first." she stares at the bar, seeing no food, but a few barrels against the wall.
Eleanor sits on the table, tired of standing. "That sounds like a dangerous idea." she hums. "I feel like i've been weirder places and if i'm right, seeking out the ones responsible for the weirdness usually is a deadly coinflip."
"Mmm...If this town is so perfect the Mayor is likely not to tell us anything. And I agree with Miss Lovebind, actually...Something to wake myself up would be nice." Naomi says.
"Ah...my guess is the mayor created this illusion, the book ends with the main character being elected mayor" Ayame says before looking to the rest of the party, all quiet. "So... what are we doing then?"
Lacy stands up, pushing back the chair.
"Lacy you slept outside, seen any villagers on the way here?" Ragia asks.
"We should definitely speak to someone from the town." Naomi agrees.
"Look," says lacy. "Im going to be honest, I just got here, but something's definately strange at the moment." she says as she approaches the window to the tavern. "We should leave as soon as possible."
Eleanor sighs. Honestly I just wanna leave town, but if y'all wanna look around then I'll tag along"
Ayame nods. "Well, I'd like to take a look around and learn whats doing it, but fair enough." She says, vaulting over the bar counter and rummaging around for anything interesting.
"Can I check if the book got any clues in lingering magic that could help us understand what's happening to this town?" Ragia asks. ayame nodding and tossing the book to the kobold. Ragia catching, and studying it and the surrounding area for magical auras. Surprisingly, there was no magic on either the book, or the buildings. "Whatever it is, it's no illusion, or at least not of anything measurable, everything here is real and magic free as far as I can tell."
Ayame finds the coins they had paid the night before, and hops back over the counter with them. "Alright, lets go?" she says making her way to the door.
The party agrees, and steps outside, to find the streets cold and empty, with nothing but the main street of buildings to the left and right. To the right, the way they came. To the left, the rest of the city and the mayors house, as well as the way they were traveling in the first place.
"Time to knock on the mayor's door, nothing bad happened yet so this is just an uneasy feeling for me right now."
the party goes from door to door to the mayors house, looking through the windows and finding nothing but bedrooms and assorted candles in each residential window, and a normal shop in the window of the general store. However, the mayors house, as they approach, has blacked out windows, and no way to see inside.
"This place is a ghost town..." Naomi says.
"It doesn't look pleasant." Lacy murmurs, pulling a signal whistle from her belt, giving it a sharp blow, but still keeping an eye on the housing situation.
"Its like they are all shells." Ayame comments, also unnerved.
"There were people her yesterday though, I could swear." Ragia says with a voice of confusion.
"Another cult would be a lot of cults in one week, not a fan. Cults make my skin crawl a lil." Eleanor grumbles.
Ayame knocks on the door, but hears nothing as the sound of hoofbeats are heard down the road behind the party. "Mmm, what are cults but the devout seeking to worship? Fear not the cults but those who run them." Naomi quotes. "Or at least that's what my mom told me eheh..."
Eleanor hums at Nao's comment, seeming to contemplate it for a moment, "Just something about them gnaw at me the wrong way, but I guess you know more than I"
At that point, Lacy's horse drawn Chariot skids to a stop and neighs pitifully before its owner.
"Huh..." Ayame says, looking to the horse. "You have a very good horse."
"Don't encourage her." Lacy says tossing the horse some feed from her bag. It starts pawing at the ground and eating it, grabbing some things from her chariot while it muddles about. "Any answer yet?" she says to Ayame.
"Nope."
Lacy pulls a battering ram from the chariot. Ayame steps out of the way. "Ahem... Lady's first."
Eleanor blinks, "Have yall just tried... opening it?" she says as she and Ragia both push open the door.
Opening the door to the mayors house, they see a very strange sight, Fifteen people surrounding a pale faced, portly, balding man, with a splint on his leg, looking extremly sickly, all of them kissing his clothed body, while chanting, "Mommas kisses heal everything." The man looks to the party, seated on a makeshift throne of scrap wood and books and gulps. "T... thank god... please get this damn slime away from me."
Ayame blinks at the sight. "What the fuck."
Lacy drops her ram.
"Did you have an unfortunate meeting with a staircase?" Ragia asks.
"No Gregory!" The barmaid says grasping his hand. "We can heal you! just tell us about your mother. If I keep kissing you, Ill have your baby too! This is how happily ever after works right!"
Gregory gasps in pain, and Naomi can see that the mayors bandages on his arms are bleeding out.
Eleanor gives a really confused look, "Now what kind of fucked up monstrous reality have you built up for yourself here?"
"Bloody. fucking. cults." Lacy says shaking her head.
"This looks different than a cult, similarly fucked up though"
"look like he need a medic, nao you up for it ? we'll keep the townspeople at bay if you need to get close"
"Oh goodness, what happened to you?!" Naomi says as she starts to enter the manor, as Eleanor pulls out her crossbow Calypso, pointing it at the man.
"Nao, don't approach him, we don't ,know what's going on yet." She says, staring down the mayor.
Nao silently steps back at Eleanors words. "B-but he's injured?!" Naomi retorts.
"Nao look around, what the fuck is wrong with these people and why's he the only one not completely insane seeming right now?" Eleanor says, keeping her leering gaze.
"For all we know he is an enemy, don't rush in an help yet." Ayame agrees.
"He's either very unlucky, or about to be." Eleanor says, aiming her crossbow.
From the ground itself, the party sees a lump of red goo come up from the ground, and form into the shape of Naomi, who gets on her knees and starts kissing the mans knees as well, chanting. "See! We have a healer for you now! You will be fine!" Calls out the bartender.
Naomi runs back behind Eleanor while Ayame puffs on her pipe. "Ok, i'm convinced, lets try and save him." as Eleanor in a panick shoots her crossbow at the newly created Nao.
The moment that Eleanors arrow hits the false Naomi. it is like a bubble bursts, and all of the "people" surrounding the mayor, dissapear... as does the buildings... and the rest of the city. All that's left is the man on his bookish throne.
Looking upon the confused party, the man grunts in a slight relief. "Finally... could someone help me? Its been five days since I had food that wasn't them trying to explore my insides."
"F-food? You want to eat us?" Naomi says, startled.
"Yes food. No, like... a fucking apple." says the injured man.
"Glad I drank my own liqour last night." Eleanor mutters.
"Are you actually a healer? I just want to leave." The injured man says in a pained desperate voice.
"I think he's safe to heal now, though I doubt that thing is dead.." Eleanor says, looking around, "kind of terrifying thinkin it was able to.. fake all of that."
"Y-Yeah." Says Ayame nervously.
"I... I am a healer yes... You promise not to jump at me when I move to heal you?" Naomi says, giving a tentative step forward."I promise." He says as Naomi carefully heals him.
"Any idea how you got yourself into this mess?" Ragia says as Naomi gives a light prayer.
"Its a family Curse." he replies.
"Still doesn't answer my question, or did your dad just die 5 days ago or something?"
The color returns to the mans face as he sighs in relief. He looks to Naomi and bows his head. "Thank you... to you and your goddess..." he says looking at Naomis staff. "Rhamnasia. Not a common one outside of Seconvale."
Finishing her chant, Naomi smiles back to him. "You're quite welcome. And you're right on the money with that guess, how educated you must be mr..."
"Thomas Gregory." he says, looking to Ragia. "My family line is cursed. Like you would see from werewolves. But, instead of turning into fuzzy beasts in the moonlight, we were given a curse that makes slimes and oozes attracted to us."
Lacy starts reattatching her ram to her ride, muttering to herself. "Killjoys."
"Those were slime... oozes??" Eleanor says confused.
"Ah, you wrote this uhm... interesting book." Ayame says, holding up the book she found earlier.
"Im a book salesman" Thomas says standing up from his chair. "If I stay in a place to long, it causes some issues in the local environment. Sadly, I have to keep on the move most of the time." He points to a nearby tree with a broken down wagon on it. "My cart crashed against a tree however, and when I woke up, a slime I never saw before was eating one of my bargain bin books..."
"Hmm... If I were a bit stronger I'd offer you help in the removal of said curse... Unfortunately, I am not powerful enough to dispel curses such as these."
Thomas shakes his head. "My curse is unable to be removed. We've just worked around it and it works out just fine. Im more concerned about the ooze however. It was aparently intelligent, so it was actually reading instead of digesting the book... or both if you think about it... either way it lead to.. well" he says holding his hands up in the air, motioning to the empty forest surrounding them. "That happened."
"Glad it wasn't murderous at least. Though I didn't expect it to vanish like that." Eleanor says, crossing her arms.
"I've seen grey, black, blue, and a few alchemical oozes, but never a red one that made... people." Thomas shakes his head.
"An info eating slime sounds like a librarian's nightmare." Ragia ponders.
"Seems like they really wanted his mom too. Can you explain that, goo guy?" Lacy squints accusatorily at Thomas.
Thomas sighs and rolls his eyes. "In the book, the main character gets injured, and his mother kisses it to make it better... he then 'makes love' to his mother. Thankfully he didn't write anything specific about what 'making love' means because I was able to convince them that making love and babies was just kissing each other for a while. I don't know about you, but... I don't want to fuck my mother."
After a bit more back and forth, Naomi helps to repair Thomas' cart, and he repays the partys kindness with a small set of books.
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DATE: Poviott 26/625
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After another day of marching, and cheating on marching by using Lacys ride, the party finally starts seeing a thinning in the great forests of Vitium, opening up to a wide plain.
As the party reaches the edges of the forest, they see a towering city of white marble towers adorning a hill only a few miles away. However, now that the city is in sight, the sky is much more visible. Though it is nearly the middle of the day, the stars are visible too. At least, one would assume they are stars because they are so bright. But the tendrils of light now snaking from star to star in the night sky, squirming around like tentacles throughout the skyline really piques the interest of those watching.
"Uhm..." That doesn't seem normal." Ayame says as the group stop to stare at the daytime stars.
"No, it's definitely not normal... Yknow, when I signed up for adventure, I didn't think it would find me so easily!" Naomi says, feeling very excited.
As if on cue, this is when the ruptures began. Large, alien vessels streak across the sky in uncountable numbers, with vicious looking mishapen creatures with teeth as large as the moons looking directly at the world. It is then that in the sky, a large ring of hands appears perpendicular to the rings of Pondera, obviously magical in nature as the planet shakes under a large force upon it. Swirls of magic, in various shapes adorn each hand, in addition, a single eye in the palm of each one as the shaking suddenly stops.
The hands have dissapeared, the vessels no longer visible, but neither are the stars. Everything but the sun, the two moons, and the great ring of Pondera, has vanished from the night sky. Suddenly, the world seems a bit more cramped, and alone.
Eleanor, seeing this, appears frozen for a long time, snapping out of it to keel forward and vomit. Falling to the ground, keeping her hands on her knees and quivering into herself while cursing "Fuck fuck fuck," over and over again, interspersed with an occasional "Not again."
Ayame, completely unprepared for this kind of happenstance, allows her normally strong grip on her pipe to allow it to limp over her as Sebastian covers her with his shield, expecting something to happen.
Ragia falls unconscious, and starts frothing at the mouth, as even her and Ayame feel vast changes to the weave affecting both of them.
It was theorized that the last consumption of the Kainga was the beginning of the dark ages. It was only the harbinger, as truly, what could be more dark, than a starless night sky.
Rewards Granted
The Beastslayers Guide to Aberrations
A Busybody's Spellbook
Thirty Ways Your Fists Are Useful
Eleanor Primrose remembered a bit about who she is.
Missions/Quests Completed
Angelica Town
Character(s) interacted with
Thomas Gregory: A book salesman of the Gregory family line, a cursed family line that deals with slime attraction.
Franklin Eyates: A bored nobleman who has a penchant for creating the absolute worst fan fiction of towns within his family domain. Self publishes his own books using his parents money. Gets a lot of "Fan mail" asking him to please stop writing about their daughters.
Created Content
The Saving of Pondera has occured. A world changing event.
Notes
It was from this session that the mechancs have changed from a homebrew campaign to a pathfinder 1e campaign.
