The Adventures of the Big HELP, Session 26

General Summary

• After dispelling all of the wards in the Library of Ages, Larka received a telepathic message from Hespiro. He said that they would march upon Cathedra within the hour and that his soldiers would know not to attack them. To his surprise, Larka kept up the communication and managed to ask what they should do. Hespiro told her that they should do as they choose before Larka couldn't maintain the connection any longer.
• The Big HELP decided to rest and regain their strength before Hespiro's attack. Hest took some time to investigate the White Book she had found to no avail while Bigwig decided to start using her new Nightcrystal Rapier. Larka looked for records on other people with psychic abilities. She found precious few reports in the Church of Gorthag archives. What she did find suggested that they would rather kill the few who developed these powers than allow a new power that did not derive from the gods.
• The HELP started to hear the sounds of battle towards the end of their rest. They snuck out to avoid any attention, eventually passing by Punch's room. Her ragged hyperventilation caught their attention and they went in to check on her. They found her, axe in hand, standing over a decapitated vargar fighting for Hespiro. Hest tried to talk Punch out of her catatonic state while Bigwig wrested the axe from her. Punch began to to cry and revealed that she had never killed in battle. All of her previous fighting and training had been in mock fights.
• Both Hest and Bigwig sat down with Punch to talk out her trauma while Larka gave last rites to the dead vargar. Hest tried to tell Punch that, if killing someone makes her feel this way, she didn't have to keep fighting. Bigwig told Punch that what she was feeling now was normal after someone's first kill and that she needs to work through her feelings before moving onwards with battles. In the end, Bigwig's words resonated with Punch more than Hest's and Punch began the road to recovery. The HELP convinced her to sit out the battle in her room. Bigwig locked the door on the way out. Larka used her thieves' tools to jam the locking to keep anyone from coming in and told Punch to knock the door down. Bigwig disapproved.
• The HELP followed the sound of leonin roars in the direction of the arena. On the way, they were cornered by the assassins that had targeted Larka. Zorvin joined them, seemingly aware that the HELP were responsible for allowing Hespiro into the city. Larka countered by demanding to know why Archbishop Darvus had sent assassins after her. Perplexed, Zorvin said they were just the Archbishop's personal guard. Larka tried to show him Petrichor's memory, the time she overheard the Archbishop order Larka's death, but failed. Hest pointed out how the Archbishop had watched Larka in the battle. Zorvin listened to her, admitting that the Archbishop had voiced concerns about Larka to him after the tourney.
• Before he could make a decision, Darvus walked out and commanded Zorvin to listen to him. He told Zorvin that Larka was a student or servent of the Leonin Tyrant and that she could not be allowed to live. He then cast the Enlarge spell on himself before challenging Hespiro.
• After watching the HELP from afar, Zinnia hopped in to help them fend off Zorvin. She thanked them for taking out the wards, admitting that she wasn't sure if they would. Larka said she hadn't been sure either. Hest spent her time dodging the assassins and hurling thunderous Chromatic Orbs at them. At one point, she used her Thunderous Step spell to escape and inadvertently caused a Wild Magic Surge that turned Zinnia and Larka invisible. Bigwig handled both an assassin and Zorvin herself. Larka dodged the assassin's attacks, narrowly preventing herself from being buried under a pile of crates when Zorvin used an Erupting Earth spell.
• The party heard the roars of Hespiro and Darvus during their fight. When he heard the archbishop cry out in pain, Zorvin fled the fight. The HELP finished off the assassins and turned to Zinnia. Larka asked about her family members. Zinnia said that several of them were here and that her mother would be glad to see her. Bigwig made jokes about Larka's mother and Zinnia dating. Larka disapproved.
• The party arrived at the arena to find Hespiro and Darvus locked in combat. Hespiro wielded a broken sword in battle. Beyond the breakpoint, his sword glowed with psychic energy, much like Larka's daggers. Darvus got an early heavy blow in, smashing Hespiro's left arm with his war hammer. During the battle, Larka was distraught to see her eldest brother, Kenji, fighting alongside Hespiro.
• Despite his wounds, Hespiro was evenly matched with the Archbishop until a crystal gauntlet he wore began to glow. Hespiro let out a roar in Darvus's face that everyone in the arena felt. Magic users felt their abilities flicker for a moment. Everyone looked down at the Archbishop and saw a pink sigil on his forehead. Darvus was unable to use his magic and quickly fell to Hespiro. Hespiro urged the archbishop's fighters to surrender. Afterwards, he was taken to the infirmary.
• Larka used this opportunity to speek with Kenji. Kenji was excited to see his sister, but was less excited when she began asking how he could fight for Hespiro. Kenji tried to dodge these questions by introducing himself to Larka's friends. Unable to hold off any longer, he admitted that Hespiro gave him an opportunity, not just to save the world but to surpass their father. Their parents did not share opinions on Hespiro. Their father, Kagero, had tried to rebel against Hespiro. Their mother, Leelu, decided to join him after initial reservations. Kenji suggested they speak to Hespiro directly before he himself was ordered to lock up the unconscious ex-Archbishop.

• At long last, Larka had her face-to-face converation with Hespiro, the Leonin King. He welcomed her to the infirmary ward as the healers tended to his arm. The HELP noticed a nervous youthfulness in him that they hadn't expected. Bigwig in particular noticed the king seemed exhausted, beyond what she expected even these wounds to cause. Larka wasted no time in asking why he had been waiting to meet her and why he wanted to conquer Udarich. Hespiro admitted he was curious to know her after learning they share the same gift of psionics, a gift he believed the world's people should have developed more by now. He feared something was holding back this evolutionary next step. Larka couldn't deny that she'd found records of the church killing people with this ability. Hespiro then revealed he had been lost in battle several years ago, swept into the Ribahrn River and nearly drowned. In that moment, he had a vision of a creature at the center of a dark maelstrom that threatened to burn the world in order to escape the confines of this cosmic plane.
• Once learning this truth, Hespiro decided not to return to his kingdom. He instead spent time meditating, communing with the memories of all those who had once lived. He learned that magic damaged the world, bending it to the caster's whim and leaving distortions behind. These distortions are what would allow the dark force to break the world some time in the future. In his meditations, Hespiro generated crystals of psionic power that would dampen the effect of magic and help stimulate psionic development. His earliest reactions were to outlaw magic and kill magic users, but feared what that might turn him into. He calculated how many crystals he'd need and that he'd need to plant them in specific locations around the continent to bathe all of its people in their power. He knew that the warring tribes would never agree to this, so he returned to his kingdom in preparation for uniting the continent through diplomacy or war.
• The HELP were appalled at Hespiro's beliefs. Larka asked if this threats truly required such a change in the way of life on Udarich. Hespiro said it did and, when he had fulfilled what he felt destined to do, he would accept whatever punishment he has earned for his actions. Hest in particular couldn't believe that he wanted to end her way of life. (Perhaps what Hest saw as a natural part of herself, Hespiro interpretted as merely a tool that could be exchanged for something safer and more efficient.) Larka asked how he received his vision. Hespiro explained that, after a soul dies and their life ends, their memory joins with all those who came before. People with psionics are subconsciously tuned into this collective memory and can access. Subconscious access may allow the person to navigate an emergency in ways they hadn't been prepared for. Intentional access could come in the forms of vision dreams or astral meditation.
• Hest questioned the truth of Hespiro's vision, trying to tell him it could have been someone manipulating him. Hespiro said that the collective memory was just that, memory, with no souls or intention to warp its message. Preservation of the memories is the only thing that could make them reach out with a vision. Hespiro then offered to share the vision with them, to which the HELP reluctantly agreed. In the vision, a dark tide swept across Udarich and the world. A blackened, skeletal figure pulled itself from the darkness before igniting the world in flame. As the world burned, flesh grew on the skeleton until the whole vision turned white and ended.
• Larka's worst fears were confirmed, that an unstoppable threat loomed over the future with only a frightening solution provided by Hespiro. Hest and Bigwig saw no interest in helping Hespiro and losing the magic innate to them. Hespiro tried to convince them that they would still be able to do the things they could do, just using a different pathway. He even offered to help Hest quell her Wild Magic and take on the same psionic power as him and Larka. Hest promptly refused.
• Larka asked how this could work if there were people immune to her psychic abilities. Hespiro had never encountered a being that didn't react to psionics and offered to meditate together later that evening to search for an answer. Larka agreed to come back later, too curious to say no.
• During the downtime, the HELP decided to go check on Punch. The barbarian tiefling seemed to have started working through her trauma and asked how the battle went. When she learned Hespiro had won the battle, she seemed more interested in learning to fight under him than any concern over the Church's fall. Hest and Bigwig were abhorred. Punch didn't really have a bid in a fight between magic and psionics, but believed Hespiro wouldn't change his opinions or plans if there wasn't anyone around who would challenge him. Punch then decided she needed a drink to internallize her traumas.
• Bigwig took some time to train in the arena with a Fell Tribe vargar and learned the Charger feat. Larka found her mother, Leelu, and asked how she could have sided with Hespiro. Leelu explained that both of her parents were despondent after the death of Larka's sister, blaming Hespiro. The night Larka killed Shoko, Leelu had a dream, saw through Larka's eyes the truth of Reina's death. Hespiro came to her and explained the ability Larka had and how she could save the future. Leelu couldn't let Larka take part in that fight without her, so decided to aid Hespiro. Leelu hoped that she was making a difference. She had already convinced Hespiro to ally with the people of Pascatia rather than conquer them.
• Later that evening, the HELP returned to Hespiro for Larka's astral meditation session. Larka was amused by Hespiro's attempts to sneak candy when his nurse wasn't looking. The group joined hands and started meditating. Larka and Hespiro looked far and wide through the memories of those who came before and found nothing to connect Amroth and Oten. Hespiro said that everyone who was born in this world, living or dead, should be connected. If the memories do not recognize these people, then they must be from beyond the connection.
• Peering through the memories like stars, Larka caught one of the stars watching her group, something sinister. Hespiro didn't understand how anything could be watching them. The star seemed to focus on Bigwig in particular.
• Before the meditation ended, Larka worried about Bigwig. Her concern rippled through the memories and she unconcsiously pulled forth information from them. The memories had Larka recall the White Book Hest had, how it had flickered to show an image of Arazid and a water genasi. Hespiro suggested she should use the book as a touchstone to learn more about Arazid and his cult.
• With the meditation ended, the HELP retired for the night. Bigwig was visited that night by Arazid in her head. He told her the Fireblood was preparing a ritual. He told her the Fireblood wanted to seize his power from her. Bigwig agreed to stop the Fireblood's ritual but wasn't convinced of Arazid's concern. She wasn't sure she and the HELP could defeat the Fireblood based on their previous encounter. Arazid revealed that he had used the Fireblood to gather the cultists. Now that they've been assembled, he has no need for them and would rather share his power with Bigwig. Bigwig decided to accept this power, knowing full well that Arazid was dangerous creature. The dream then ended.

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Report Date

25 Aug 2024