The Adventures of the Big HELP, Session 29

General Summary

• The Big HELP arrived at Arazid's Altar via Teleportation Circle. The altar was an enormous castle that had long seen better days. Statues of varying detail matched depictions of Arazid.
• The Fireblood followed them and used her powers to command her followers to treat Bigwig with absolute respect. She seemed to demonstrate the ability to control those with the blood of Arazid. Beyond eager and excitable, the Fireblood asked if there anything she could command her mess hall officer to get for them. Bigwig requested a turkey leg and the rest of the HELP decided they wanted some, too. The Fireblood issued the command to her officer, Demitrius, and returned through the Teleportation Circle.
• Demitrius arrived with four turkey legs. Bigwig and Hest ate theirs like normal people. Larka asked for seasoning on her turkey leg and then tried to stick the whole leg in her mouth. This failed and she just ended up jamming a turkey leg into her face and got her face all oiled up. Petrichor asked for BBQ sauce on hers and ate it with only minimal mess.
• The party then decided to split up and search for clues. Looking through the windows, they realized they were now in the snowy northern mountains of Udarich, one of the northernmost points of land in the world.
• Bigwig and Larka walked up some stairs. They ran into a cultist one cultist in that room. Bigwig saw he was guarding a couple of chests. The guard didn't recognize the two and suggested they report to one of the dorms for lodging. When Larka asked about the prisoner that had come through recently. The guard said she was being held in the cells below, set to be used as a sacrifice as she had killed many Arazid followers.
• Hest and Petrichor went to a bar. They just wanted water. At first, the bartender said they don't do that here before laughing, saying that would be stupid thing to say about water, then serving them water. Petrichor looked around and noticed that one cultist in particular was drinking more than the rest. She was a high ranking cultist and called them over, despite being very drunk. She challenged one of them to a drinking game, claiming that it was to get to know the new recruits better. Each drinker would accept a drink from their opponent and, if they remained upright, get a chance to ask their opponent a question. Hest remembered that her Wild Magic had left her unaffected by alcohol and took the challenge. Petrichor was glad it wasn't her.
• Hest stomached the first glass, hating the taste. She asked about the ritual. The cultist said it was the Fireblood's attempt to reach the spirit of Arazid. The ritual would bless his followers with his kindness, knowledge, and powers. The sacrifice would sanctify the ritual. Hest asked if the ritual needed a sacrifice but the drunk cultist refused to answer a second question from the same drink. On her drink, the cultist asked Hest what brought her to Arazid's faith. Hest downplayed her lack of faith by saying that they joined the faith due to Bigwig. On Hest's second drink, the drunk cultist confirmed that the Fireblood's magical calculations required a life sacrifice.
• After her second drink, the drunk cultist asked Hest where her Mark of Arazid was. Hest convinced the cultist she had one in an unmentionable location. With her third drink, Hest learned that Helena was in the cells below. The drunk cultist couldn't finish her last drink and fell unconcious on the stone floor. Petrichor saw that she hit her head and was bleeding. Hest asked the bartender for help and he said they really don't do that there, but her room was right by the bar. Petrichor carried her to her bed while letting Hest think that she was helping to lift the cultist. Hest asked one cultist for help. The cultist didn't want to help because he thought the drunk cultist was mean. Hest said all of Arazid's followers were mean, offending the person she was asking for help.
• Petrichor checked on the drunk cultist and made sure she was alright. Before leaving the room, she noticed a locked chest under one of the beds. She easily unlocked it with her lockpick and found 50G, a bone caltrop, and a pipe that blew bubbles. Her keen eyes noticed a false bottom. Removing it, she found a diamond worth 500G and an onyx dog figurine with unknown magical ability. Petrichor pocketed all items, feeling a little bad that she stole the other diamond earlier that morning.
• Bigwig and Larka checked out the dorm room they had been pointed towards. Inside, a creaky voiced cultist offered to set them up with a bed, though only one was available at the moment. Bigwig was fine sharing, but Larka did not want to. She was eventually relented when she thought about it being cold and when she realized they weren't actually going to sleep in this bed at any point. Larka was further freaked out when the cultist guard said that it was his responsibility to watch over this room. She said she didn't want anyone watching her while she slept, even thought he didn't look in the direction of the beds. Bigwig convinced her to drop it.
• Bigwig told Larka (though her Psychic Whispers) that she wanted to rob the personal belongings chests underneath the other beds. She would lay in the bed to make it look like both were sleeping while Larka opened the chests. Larka found 110G among all three chests, but forgot to check for traps on the last one. She was blasted by an ink-stain trap that dyed her face and hand fur a moldy-green. The dye would not come out without significant, long-term scrubbing. The cultist, whose name turned out to be Gilbert, shouted at them for breaking into other people's belongings. Larka tried to say she thought this was her chest, but it said "Property of Gilbert" on it. He pulled out his dagger and Larka responded by slipping around behing him and slitting his throat so he wouldn't call for anyone.
• Larka wanted to leave but Bigwig wouldn't leave the corpse out. She wanted to hide Gilbert's body in his chest so she tried to cut him up with her rapier. Larka saw Bigwig making a mess and started using her psychic daggers to finish the job. She regretted many of her choices in this instant. They fled the room and returned to the mess hall, reuniting with Petrichor and Hest. Demitrius saw them and was suspiscious about the blood all over Bigwig. Thanks to the Fireblood's command to respect Bigwig, she and Hest convinced Demitrius that the blood was a skin condition caused by the transformation. Demitrius suggested they visit the Fireblood's magic conditioning room to try and fix the issue. He offered Bigwig a towel to wipe off the blood.
• At this magic conditioning room, an Arazid priest welcomed the HELP. He explained that the Fireblood had offered the room's power to Bigwig and that it could be used once per day to enhance and stabilize one's magic. Larka was intrigued that it could stabilize magic, wondering if it could be used to help King Hespiro stave off his vision without sacrificing magic for everyone. Hest pretended to be the one who the Fireblood had offered the room to and stepped in. She triggered the room's magic but was unable to control the powerful current of magic released. She dispelled the magic before it could run out of control and harm her, but the amulet containing Ravenna's soul had cracked. Having used the room's magic for the day, the runes decorating the room were no longer glowing.
• Hest stepped out of the room and the priest consoled her, saying that even the Fireblood was unable to fully control the room and often left it in the same manner Hest had now. Before the HELP walked away, Arazid manifested. This was the first time Bigwig had seen him lose his calm, cunning demeanor. He raged that his Wellspring of Magic had been weakened millenia ago, believing that the gods of Charyba had done so after his death.
• The Big HELP knew that the ritual was going to happen soon. Helena seemed to have been chosen as sacrifice and they wanted to free her before it was too late. They ran down to where they were told the cells would be and found them full of people the cult had led here from Ghispar. Helena sat in a cell by herself with two cultists standing guard. Petrichor debated how they could free Helena and the tabaxi from Ghispar without attracting cult attention. The debate was cut short when Helena started to glow a faint red. A fiery Teleportation Circle was forming under her feet. The guards moved to watch her disappear.
• Petrichor and Bigwig silently moved to knock the guards out. Helena was relieved to see them but knew she was being teleported to the Fireblood for the ritual. She told the HELP that two components were needed, a gemstone to power the ritual and a sacrifice to finish it. She knew she was the sacrifice and that the Fireblood had carried an orange gemstone up a secret flight of stairs on the jail cell level of the castle. Bigwig asked how they could stop the ritual. Helena guessed destroying the gemstone might and, if Bigwig needed to, forget her and focus on that. Before being teleported away, Helena told Bigwig she hoped Bigwig would rescue her.
• The HELP moved find the gemstone when Bigwig staggered back in pain. She could feel the Fireblood summon her, forcing her to obey. Bigwig was unable to overcome the Fireblood's mind control until Larka stepped forward and grasped Bigwig's hand. She used her psionic powers to help Bigwig overcome the Fireblood's control. The last thing Bigwig heard the Fireblood say in her mind was that she would sacrifice Helena and take the power for herself if Bigwig did not come quickly.
• The HELP knew that Bigwig had to get to the ritual if they wanted to save Helena, but that they might not be able to stop the Fireblood with the ritual powered by this gemstone. They decided to split up. Larka would go with Bigwig to the ritual to help keep the Fireblood from controlling her. Petrichor and Hest would look for this crystal to destroy it.

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38 Days After the Crash of the Raziel

Report Date

30 Sep 2024