Session 36: Since U Been Gone
General Summary
| Quest | fin | What's up with that? | fin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kill Incandus Carthelian | Pathfinders' Legacy | ||
| Find the Stars | Planeswalkers' Folly | ||
| Go to White Plume Mountain | OD, ND, PF | ||
| Remove the Morningstar from Andy's hand | |||
| Get Universal Solvent | |||
| Horses! |
Clocks
| Event | Segments |
|---|---|
| Hours to Midnight | 12 |
| Hours to Dusk | 13 |
| Days until the next the next full Totalis and Felicitus (Vinum 30) | 16 |
| Days until Dorian's Birthday (Vinum 26) | 12 |
| Lorelai: Tome of Leadership and Understanding hours studied | 8 of 48 |
Recap
Vinum 12 to Vinum 14, 3033: Year of Darkness
The session began in the smoldering ruins of the Woodthrush Inn. The wizard, recently slain, was called back to a semblance of life to answer the questions of the party, as their new member Orianna cast speak with dead on the corpse. However, the agent was less than inclined to give useful responses, as it had little interest in speaking to its killers.
Why are you tracking us?
You are persons of interest.
Why did you want us alive?
Wanted for questioning; though we could have questioned you dead. Easier, even.
What does ND stand for?
New Dawn.
What is the goal of your organization?
Peace in our time.
How do you plan on achieving your goal?
Bringing the Nine together.
Shortly afterwards, an Aurelian patrol, arriving from a nearby farming settle, had come to investigate the disturbance. Under a zone of truth, Andy explained to them what happened; how the wizard attacked them in the Woodthrush after the owner attempted to poison them. When the group went to investigate, the wizard activated a delayed blast fireball, destroying the tavern. Then, they defeated the wizard in combat.
Satisfied with their story, the patrol left, taking the body with them, but not before Amara had slipped three rings off of its fingers: a matching pair of signet rings to the pair Helen had, one marked with a shattered sun, the other with 16 interlocking rings in an outer circle of nine and an inner circle of seven. Andy commented on the number of things they know with nine entities: the Divinity, the Apostates, the Nine Heroes, but only one organization of seven: ROYGBIV. The rest of the night passed uneventfully.
The Arcane Sanctum
Nearing Handelberg, the Omens happened across a traveling merchant, Beedle Derabin of the Arcane Sanctum, Equal Exchange Emporium. They were allowed to trade their magical items for an equivalent exchange.
- Amara exchanged her Hither Thither Staff for a Universal Solvent; her robe of scintillating colors and her Sword of Sharpness for a Belt of Storm Giant Strength; and her Belt of Fire Giant Strength for a Bag of Holding and Glamor Weave.
- Andy exchanged the Ring of Evasion for a Bag of Holding and a Bag of Tricks.
- Anya exchanged her potion of polymorph and Bronze Griffin Figurine of Wonderous Power for a Tome of Leadership and Understanding; and the new Staff of Power which will not be given to Dorian for his birthday for Eyes of Minute Seeing, Boots of Elvenkind, and an Amulet of Health.
- Augustana traded two potions of healing for a Helm of Telepathy; and the Bracers of Archery and her Pipes of Haunting for her Canaith Mandolin that she lost to the Talons card. Everyone made note of this and gave Beedle a suspicious side eye as he played with a deck of strange cards.
- Orianna did not make any exchanges.
Beedle explained the process of his emporium, and noted that he once had storefronts in every major city across the Seven Nations, but unfortunately they had been raided under suspicion of teleportation magic; which he was of course, guilty of. Now, he and his associates Mistress Nyx and Mister Knax are forced to travel the countryside to peddle their wares. Outside the ship, the Omens applied the Universal Solvent to Andy's hand and the Morningstar, freeing them from it and enabling someone not pacted with Aspen to attune to it.
Wild West Aurelia
Arriving in Handelberg, the group asked around town to find the best place to get horses. They were directed to the Silverbird's Saddle, where they purchased incredibly fine horses called Andalusians. They spent some time at the Greasy Spoon Saloon, where Augustana performed with her new banjo, Andy played cards with strangers and drank, Orianna drank, and Anya worked on her crocheting and drank sarsaparilla. Amara got drunk.
After a few drinks, Orianna left the bar to get up to some fey shenanigans. She went fishing, pulled a black and yellow striped fish from a muddy pond nearby, which concerned the nearby fishman. He asked what that was, if she was some kind of fey, and Orianna leaned into it, causing him to toss down a fistful of salt to try to force her to count it. She resisted, throwing the fish she just caught at him in recompense, knocking him over. Before he could get up, she turned into the wind, giggling and laughing all around him as she returned to the Greasy Spoon.
The group reconvened to leave in Andy's mortar and pestle, and their departure could not have been more timely, as the fisherman lead the local sheriff to the fey that hit him with a fish, but too late as they took off into the night sky. Anya trailed the Aspen Tongue off the side, and it radiated dog-with-its-head-out-the-car-window energy while burning crop circles in the nearby field.
Sangorgiocritza and the Five Omens
The Omens flew through a star-filled night sky as Andy stirred them across the continent. As they passed through the Aurora and broke through the cloud cover, they saw something strange had cropped up in Millich; a small tent city, maybe about 100 occupants strong, filled with scribes and archeologists. And it was studying their property, living in their Forge. They rushed in, two pairs splitting to cause a ruckus, one on the surface, the other pair seeking out Sangorgiocritza Aentari inside the mine.
Bukra caught up to the group on the surface and told them she would explain, but then the pair going deeper was hit with the news that it had been over a year since they entered the Pathways. Pushing onward, they made it to a research base as inside Georgie was hastily throwing on clothes because she had been asleep. But, Andy crept up as she pulled on her shirt, revealing a swirling golden tattoo that seems to cover her entire body. She held out her hand and called up on Drown, the trident of Olhydra, and answered the door. At around this time, Bukra and the others arrived from up top and gathered the lower pair, though conflict had already deescalated. Bukra led them back to the Black Sheep to spend the night and they'll sort everything out with Georgie in the morning.
In the Black Sheep, Bukra explained that when they went into the caves beneath the Forge and they weren't heard from for three months, the town assumed the worst. They memorialized them, though, with the portrait of the Omens after winning the Superb Owl. It came shortly after they left.
As the Omens looked at this portrait, hung behind the bar, a heaviness settled onto their chests, and a pressure built up beneath their eyes. It is mostly as they remembered it. Mostly. Grouchy manager, soon to be arrested for infecting his team with the Verdancy. Guady tournament leathers, styled after the fires of a phoenix. But standing off to the side, smiling proudly in the uniform of a coach rather than a teammate, is Dorian.
Hot tears began to slide down their cheeks, but none of the Omens, save Augustana, knew why they felt so sad. They didn't recognize the jubilant halfling smiling in the center, holding the Superb Owl trophy above her head, golden hair thrown in a spray as the painter caught her in motion. There's no reason her image should make you feel like you're going to break down.
They looked to each other, wet cheeks and dewy eyes across the group. And a thin trail of blood dripped from each of their ears.
Night Springs, Day 2I remember Kira. I remember the kind, bubbly halfling who was first to welcome me to the Omens, splashing over to me in the waters of the Ocean, back in the Pathways, and using broken ASL to communicate back and forth. I remember how she traded off casting tongues with Dorian so it wouldn't put too much strain on him. I remember working with her to straighten out her ASL and working together to teach the rest of the Omens the alphabet. I remember the countless times she brought us all back from the brink of death with her divine magic.
I remember the warmth she brought to every room she entered, how she tried so hard to make me feel included when I first joined the group, scared and alone in an alien world. I remember the way the light reflected off her golden-brown hair when she prayed to the Monarch every morning, the party's cleric dutifully blessing our travels. I remember how the Call seemed to dance around her as she laughed. She was my friend. Maybe she could have even been my best friend, given the chance.
I've tried to tell them what happened. I begged them to go back, but their eyes glazed over when I said her name. They don't know anyone by that name; it's always just been the six of us. They're chuckling over how easy those cultists in the well were to fight, but I know there were no cultists in that well. I don't know what that creature was, but it was worse than anything that has haunted my nightmares. Its seven humanoid heads moved at the end of serpentine necks, bobbing and swaying above a fetid mass of stagnant flesh that served as its body. Saliva woven with veins of blood dripped from its gaping maws, lined with needle-like teeth that vibrated with hunger for our flesh. Its seven pairs of empty eyes with glazed yellow sclera lacking iris or pupil lingered on Kira as she led the charge and the six of us rushed in to end whatever sick spell it had over the town.
And then, it began to sing.
I remember the soft, pleasant smile Kira had on her face as she stopped her charge and turned around, congratulating me for my use of heat metal on the cultists' ringleader, asking if I needed any healing. I signed frantically at her, reaching into her mind and begging her to turn around, but she just kept smiling as the beast tore into her exposed back. The others were already leaving, oblivious, but I watched in horror and disgust as the beast tore into my smiling friend. As an eighth head rose from the creature's mottled flesh, too-long neck growing with each grisly piece of my friends body it devoured. An eight head that watched me, its too-wide grin dripping with viscera and beaming up at me from beneath greasy locks of golden-brown hair. I had to drag myself away as my friends "searched" the bodies. I couldn't watch any longer.
I tried to turn the others around, but they wouldn't go. I bring up Kira, but they just look at me confused. "It's only the six of us," they said. "Did that last fanatic land a blow on your head?" I reached out into their minds, skimming their surface thoughts, but they had no recollection of the creature I faced, only fighting a group of cultists that had been stealing from the townspeople above. Their ears are bleeding, but they don't seem to notice.
I can still feel the haunting melody of the creature following me throughout the town, its presence grating across the Call like a saw blade over violin strings.
And I've noticed just how many of the townsfolk have blood trailing from their ears.
Rewards Granted
Missions/Quests Completed
Get Universal Solvent. Easy, all it took was one fateful meeting with one Beedle Derabin.
Horses! You did it! At long last, you have some good horses from the horse capital of Andali
Remove the Morningstar from Andy's hand. And now, you have a functioning Divine Raiment.
OD, ND, PF. Omniscient Dawn, New Dawn, Pathfinders.
Notes
