2025/05/09: Downtime in Castle Darkstorm

General Summary

Knight, Buzz, Malakai, Rusti, Kal'vus   The party rested overnight at Castle Darkstorm. The next morning, with the evil wizard still having not shown his face, the party took a look at the remaining statues to determine what to do with them.   They "accidentally" broke the Old One. (Buzz shattered it.) It turned into gas that smelled like geometry.   The ninja, once freed, killed the spell effect Buzz had set up in case he was hostile. Kal'vus faced off with him in a battle of the mind: They concluded that Kal'vus would win, but would die in the process. This bought time for tensions to lower. The ninja had a nice talk with the party, said he was on a mission to kill the wizard, then vanished.   The party freed the scantily clad sorceress next. They used a spelljamming helm to strip her spells in case she was hostile, but her immediate response upon waking up was to be horny instead. Three winged weirdos pinning her to a chair, and she was sort of into it. They were confused and weirded out, she was disappointed.   Still, she was very forthcoming and honest with her answers in the subsequent talk. After being given the date, she reported that she had been stuck in the dungeon for 3 years. She had been hired by an isolated wizard guy. She also wanted to see what the Animus Society was up to, because they're powerful. What does she want to do now that she's been freed? She wants to go home to see if her social life is still intact. Three years is a long time.   In the midst of all this, a second Malakai showed up with Othar Spinebreaker's adventuring party. The Malakais merged. Now Malakai remembers that adventure as well. Apparently he got split or something and now has a shard of his soul back. Whatever the cause, Othar, Nyx, Garrek, and little Egwin are now in Castle Darkstorm.   Continuing through the last dungeon's loot, the thing trapped in the two plates was a pirate flag that belongs to the captain of the Kestrel, who happened to be at the castle as well. The flag depicts a mean looking bird with a sword. It's tattered and worn, the results of being passed down through generations. It's seen enough history that it's started getting powers. It can levitate and the captain coos and comforts it like a child. The standard has been around for at least 10 generations. (The captain is named Dev Boni.)   The next freed statue was a platinum blond individual. A big man in plate armor with a big two-handed sword. ~6'4". Alvidarian. He said he ran out of his house when he heard something happening to his grandfather, started choking on white dust, and doesn't remember anything since. He identified himself as Joshua Hellerson. He is definitely associated with "the Hellerson's blood", a sample that was found in the evil wizard's lab. His grandpa was an adventurer with lots of stories.   The party met a priest of Sith in a gambling den when Malakai was trying to make the research materials go away. (By losing at gambling.) Malakai: "I know your boss!"   Malakai managed to lose the recovered intel materials while gambling. He deliberately did not dispose of the evil skin-bound book that way.   The party considered resurrecting the samples they recovered.

One was a fairly standard violent adventurer type. Feregrin. Fighter/mage fire elementalist with an axe and a drinking problem. Neutral, dead for 10 years already. Fire genasi.

The arm and foot came from Seleneiauanasulia, an alasai spell-dancer, and Anunaulnaruielia, her little sister. Fairly alien people from spelljammer. Smooth, sparkly skin, tall, wispy people. They wear clingy sci-fi clothing with the thickness and appearance of tin foil. They have no or almost no body hair. They've got a confusing culture largely based on how they can sing things into existence. They do a lot of things with magical creation. Not much into the combative arts. They use impressive magics to not die in the relatively hostile area they live in. Extremely long limbs, too many fingers, big eyes. Their voices are extremely pleasant to listen to, sounding like singing, but really hard to understand.

The party finished splitting loot from the last dungeon. Buzz handed the elven full plate to Eldritch Leithien, who gave him a magic item in return: the Torc of Whispers. It is a twisted silver circlet that whispers secrets and hidden knowledge to the wearer.   The evil guillotine and wand were broken at the Church of Alvidar. Buzz got the Wand of Whimsical Fate in return. It can randomly up the levels of the wielder's spells and summon a flock of illusionary creatures.   After some more talking and minor shenanigans, some of the party members took Egwin through a training dungeon. This is the kid Othar's party rescued from Mr. Black and the spider golems a while back. The party is supposed to look after the kid, help him get stronger, and possibly find him an adventuring party of his own. Nyx has been keeping an eye on him and considering teaching him the sword. After some discussion, Malakai has decided to take him off Nyx's hands.   Knight did a shopping trip to Radaghast. They picked up 1000 gp (two large grocery bags) worth of silver dust, rare alchemical powders, high-quality paper, ink, and holy water for Rodger back in New Hallownest.   Malakai introduced Egwin to the full party. He has nice leather gauntlets and a not-so-rusty shortsword now. Rusti gave him a defensive and darkvision ring. Knight gave him their levitating shield.   Rusti bought lockpicks for her skeleton key. The idea of making a custom holster for the key and lockpicks was raised.   What to do next?

Malakai's two remaining Animus Society quest markers

Checking in with Eldrin and the superweapon crew near New Hallownest

Resealing the demon Ba'alzamon unsealed in that other continent (this is where Ba'alzamon has been since the colossal basilisk was killed)

Free Nadira

Investigate the golem target location near New Hallownest

Clear some areas of Rusti's tower

A bunch of quests that Rusti picked up from the light of creation

Knight and Kal'vus are going back to New Hallownest for a day, likely skipping the next adventure.

Rewards Granted

Torc of Whispers

Wand of Whimsical Fate

1 xp

Missions/Quests Completed

Clear the Animus Society dungeon on Kierst Isle

Get Egwin to safety

Character(s) interacted with

ninja, scantily clad sorceress, Dev Boni, Joshua Hellerson, priest of Sith, Egwin, Eldritch Sol Leithien