Chapter 11 Finale: A new bond
General Summary
The party woke from their rest in NER[The Cave of Longing] to find a strange shadowy figure standing in the hallway and staring at Fen's Leomund's Tiny Hut spell. The party recognised the figure: The Woven Providence dagger that bonded with Mimsi during the party's time as level 5's in Edmonton.
However, rather than assaulting the party as expected, the dagger instead showed the group it's home: a back cavern in the cave of Longing where it had built a collection of trinkets, objects, artefacts and niknaks... as well as most fascinatingly a group of 6 Peak Cats that were still in their young stage of life and whom the dagger ghost was cooing and fawning over before telling the party they had found these peak cats alone wandering down The Mammoth Peaks and so they took them on to protect them.
The party spoke at length with the dagger who revealed they had taken on the role of the speaker of the Cave of Longing; though they admitted they often were not aware of the correct advice to give to those that asked questions but was happy that they could learn about the softer and kinder side of mortals wihtin this role. The dagger then told the party that the Knowing was higher in the Mammoth Peaks, preaching to all who would listen that disaster was coming and warning the monsters to emigrate south (a story in line with The Elemental Meisters the party interacted with outside of Aria) and the dagger felt this thing needed to be stopped.
With that resolved, the party said their farewells to the dagger (with Mimsi promising to protect the dagger's Peak Cats should it die as she left) and they set about climbing the mammoth peaks and beginning their skill challenge.
The climb was harsh, exhausting and difficult (or at least would have been if the party weren't effectively unkillable super heroes at this point), during their climb the party met and interacted with three giants that were stranded on the mammoth peaks in a hot spring centered area: a cloud giant named Rthkin, a fire giant named Bmsjwp and an ice giant named Nhfvdkn). The giants revealed that Nhfvdkn had gathered them in the community of the ice giants where the community announced they were going to move to, and support, the city of Freyfrost for their protection. When Nhfvdkn voiced their displeasure at this, they were assaulted, had their arm removed and were banished along with the cloud giant and Bmsjwp.
In a moment of madness, Fen fell for the deception of the cloud giant and teleported them to Blackstone, specifically Peaches Pitts where, when Fen teleported back, he realised the cloud giant was unwilling and he had accidentally loosed them in the party's own city and also botched his teleportation, leading him to have to fly and hike back to the party camp where he, shame-faced, was obliterated by the party for loosing a cloud giant on the city of Blackstone.
With that, the party completed a long rest with the remaining giants: with Fen promising to teleport them both to Mount Naggrom where Bmsjwp claimed he had a workshop and also claimed they could let Nhfvdkn live with them.
The next morning came around and Kodo was greeted with a sending from Lyren Killian in which he told Kodo that SOMEHOW a cloud giant had broken into the Peaches Pitts but was torn apart and destroyed by the ghost residents of the party's home (something that greatly relieved Fen when he was notified), Kodo was notably open with Lyren and the tiefling wished him luck on finding the Knowing while they said they were 'keeping their head down' in Blackstone for the time being.
The party then decided to regenerate Nhfvdkn's arm and also told them the cloud giant was killed in Blackstone (to the joy of both giants), meanwhile, Bmsjwp struck up a small bond with Olympia after notably showing deep respect for her friendship bracelets and calling her a 'craftswoman of real talent and skill'... he also then told the party that if they ever visited Mount Naggrom they could call on him as a friend and he would have his own crafts to thank them for their hospitality, aid and talents.
Saying goodbye to the giants, the party continued climbing across the Mammoth Peaks and came to one of it's upper echelons, a series of broken and rickety bridges scattered by high winds that was designed to be a dangerous and near deadly encounter for the party that tested their teamwork, navigation and skill... then Ez cast Animal Shapes to eviscerate the encounter entirely.
With that, the party reached a strangely peaceful plateau where the snow thinned and the wind almost entirely disappeared and, in the centre of this plateau, was a single cottage in which they were welcomed by The Spectre who told Olmypia that the Knowing was waiting for her in the basements of the building and they then told the rest of the party to get comfortable and figure out who, amongst them, were the one lying to the others.
SECOND SESSION STARTED HERE
Olympia descended the basement stairs and found herself standing in a room made entirely of parchment, empty apart from paper running across the floor, walls and ceiling with this paper constantly being filled by nonsense writing and half-scattered thoughts. Olympia announced herself in the room and watched as the parchment wilted away, died and revealed the true room with a MASSIVE tome in the centre and a pool of ink in front of it from which rose a creature of stitched limbs, the Inked Penitent.
Meanwhile, Thordak moved to the Spectre's kitchen to confront the accusation from the wizard who, after making tea and serving it to the party, revealed that they believed every member of Persicorum was a liar as they all kept claiming they were trying to do the right thing but opening the door for the Grand Mix was actually just as calamitous as following the plan of Xan Prayerkeep to close Alturis away from all the other planes for all time.
When the party defended themselves, the Spectre revealed that they simply were trying to make Persicorum think of their actions having consequences before giving them some advice, to seek out a goblin researcher known as Timble Dimmed in King's Bay as they had almost completed research on how to selectively reform the Grand Mix, making the door ritual more complex but, if the party were to complete it, they could potentially open the door whilst also pushing out The Feywild and keeping Dashilla the Dark Queen locked away from the other planes for all time... while also giving Persicorum time to prepare themselves and go to face Dashilla on their terms. The party agreed to consider this and then the Spectre revealed their past as Fen continued to drink and morosely eat rice balls in worry and concern for Olympia.
Olympia started her challenge with the Knowing by going straight towards the tome in the centre of the room by using misty step and haste to flip open the pages and start searching for the Knowing's questions to answer, understanding she could only continue reading if she gave satisfactory answers.
Working through the book Olmypia offered friendship bracelets, proof of her accumulated knowledge, the truth that she was barely managing to continue her adventure due to the mental strain it had placed on her and even a life transference to help the book as she slowly moved page by page, answering questions about herself, the world and dreams as she went.
Whilst doing this, Olympia expertly defended herself against the penitent by using her haste and shield spell to dodge most of the creature's greatsword attacks and managing to save herself from being affected by the limb sacrifice ability of the Penitent and it's forceful spectral limbs that tried to force her away from the book while also responded to it's barbed comments about her curiousity being dangerous and her inability to save her friends.
Olympia eventually finished by promising the Knowing that she was not perfect and that she understood the entity ran on rationale and that she could offer that to it through her desire to learn and grow and change. At this admission from Olympia, the Ink Penitent collapsed into the ink pool, whispering to Olympia as it did so: 'Understand that they have chosen to trust you AGAINST my judgement.'
With the lethargy, the emotional turmoil and the lack of certainty setting in, Olympia collapsed for a time.
The rest of the party listened as the Spectre revealed that they were an Arch-Inquisitor once and that they were close to Xan Prayerkeep before she commented on the fact he 'changed' and their sentiments changed from hunting evil mages to hunting mages in general. That was when the Spectre left The Inquisitors and was assaulted by Prayerkeep and a squad of Inquisitors who took the Spectre's arm and badly injured them in the fight.
This backstory was then followed by the Spectre making a request of the party. In the Mammoth Peaks there was a creature known as the Prowler that had been engineered to hunt and kill mages. Whenever the Spectre had tried to fight it the Prowler was too overwhelming a threat... but Persicorum could likely succeed due to their talents in combat and their numbers.
The party agreed to do this and discussed their approach: soon after this led to Thordak consulting the Hunt who revealed their physical animal form- A black-footed cat- as they told Thordak that The Prowler was an apex predator created by a fanatic of the Hunt years ago and devoted to the slaughtering of mages, the Hunt advised Thordak to lure the Prowler into a trap by making a spellcasting cast a potent spell to draw attention as the Prowler would be unable to resist the spell, the Hunt then told Thordak he should eat the Prowler and keep it as a trophy of his victory as, if he succeeds, destroying an apex predator would take Thordak to the next level of the Hunt.
Plan in mind, Thordak returned to the party and announced a plan that involved making Fen stand in the snow and cast a potent spell as bait... what followed was the stupidest series of events carried out by Thordak and Ez concurrently as Ez, for some upset by Thordak's assertion that Fen was a powerful spellcaster, decided to prove his own potency by going outside with Thordak and casting a 7th level cone of cold that heavily damaged Thordak and, more worryingly, immediately summoned a snowstorm summoned by the Prowler as it detected a spellcaster.
In response, the Spectre forced the cottage to sprout a pair of mechanical legs and it immediately started fleeing from the Prowler as Fen and Kodo jumped from the building to join Ez and Thordak...
Olympia was raised from her lethargy by the house moving and she reached towards the Knowing tome that immediately reduced it's size to a pocket-book that Olympia could carry in her pocket... however, with no time for proper introductions, Olympia rushed out of the basement and jumped out of the building to try and help her friends.
The Prowler proved to be a complex foe, leaping, bounding and calling lightning whilst also having the ability to absorb spells cast on it to heal itself (as Olympia learned when it absorbed her 7th-level Negative Energy Flood), the party fought the creature and began to beat it down when they learned that the reason for it's seemingly endless speed and reactivity is because there were actually two Prowlers harrassing and harrying the party, though, soon enough the party managed to dispatch the pair of Prowlers and, upon defeating them in combat the storm stopped and you all levelled up!
Report Date
23 Nov 2024
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