Session 7: Island Interlude / The Other Side (1)

General Summary

Island Interlude

1 - Jen' Mart

-The cloud giant Jeniffer (not to be confused with Jennifer from D'voire Rejarde) runs the Evik Jen' Mart. -Everyone got a coupon for 400 gold off a Jen' Mart purchase, as a thank you for saving Evik -Jeniffer claims that there are nice Jens. The party seriously doubts this

2 - Corothir - Island of Conjuration

-To learn more about Madness, and to chat with Privellundra, the paladin leader of the Void Military, the party heads to Corothir (except for Liam who went to Enthallus, the capital of Vithala). -Privellundra tells Ezre that she has Madness in her as well, and especially while she was growing up in the Astral Plane, she had to use the power it gave her in order to survive. She says that if you can keep control of it and not expose yourself too much, you can use Madness without it destroying you. She hasn't found a good way to completely cure the Madness, so has accepted it as part of her -Sieg asks Privellundra if she'd be interested in joining an order of paladins to fight against demons. She said that her duty is to protect this archipelago, but that she could teach him a way to summon her if he was in need of aid -A dwarf technogunner appears and tells Privellundra that Corothir miners in the Elemental Plane of Earth are under attack by a crazed Earth Elemental. Privellundra takes the party to the tunnels of the Elemental Plane of Earth and they attempt to rescue the trapped miners -Ezre is submerged in the earth and borrows the power of Madness to engulf and acquire her Earth Elemental form. She manages to resist growing any more mad

3- The Islands of Abjuration

-On the way to Corunveil, the island where Del's parents supposedly died on (see The Execution of Ballistae Naido and Orsik Hallows for more info), the party comes across a minuscule island, just big enough to host two statues, similar in build to the Statue of Liberty. Ezre picks up that these statues are of Costica and Temparell Jathana. Costia is the God of Tempest. Historical accounts from Mendor said he had a sister who he sailed with on his journeys before his godhood, but that she never came back -Sailing past the statues, the party comes to Corunveil. The island looks less like disaster struck this island 30 years ago, and more there was never even a city here. it is almost completely flat, as if the city had been sliced off its base. Nature has of course taken its due: long grass grows on it and crabs dart in and out, dodging seagulls. Empty drink bottles pollute the land, nearby to poorly constructed fireplaces: clear signs of squatters or partiers. There are also gravemarkers all over, but the party gets the sense that they are more symbolic than actually indicating where bodies are. As far as the party can tell, the bodies were obliterated with the city -The party looked around the island and found a partially submerged cave. Inside, Del found a secret door that opened only to her touch. Within it, they found a skeleton, who said that every few-ish years, he saw the city appear, shrouded in mist, but only for a few minutes. This led him to investigate the island. He managed to trick the secret door into letting him in, but he could not get out and was trapped and starved. -The party deduces that this is a similar situation as with the destroyed ship from Session 1: Doomed -The party goes further down the tunnel, up some stairs, and finds another door that opens to Del's touch that leads to the centre-ish of the island

4- The Seeker's Society

-The party picks up Liam on the way back to D'voire Rejarde -The party manages to get in and out of the Seeker's Society without having to have an awko-taco talk with Alvrond. You do learn however that he founded the society with his inheritance with the main goal of finding his parents, hopelessly believing that they're still alive. Too bad he's not a main character -The party picks up this mission:

The Evergrowth

Location: Nor/Nil, Islands of Necromancy Attached by a bridge to Nor, the island where Vithala buries its dead, is Nil, where the majority of fruits, and vegetables of the Archipelago are grown. Nil is home to the Evergrowth: a small forest where fruits grow in a day. Despite the essentiality of Nil, there is no transparency. Very few are allowed on the island. The most the public is allowed to see is the dark cloaked figures that dart around the outskirts of the forest and deliver the resources to merchant ships. Nil has always been a mystery, but as of late, our interest in the island has grown. There was a priest snuck onto the island, investigating a suspicion, but he was caught by the Cloaks. He managed to escape, but he was never quite the same, never quite all there. We interviewed him a couple months ago and spoke with shaken breaths that the Cloaks were not humanoids. "Fiends," he said, "Fiends power the Forest. They siphon our sustenance from their superior. They rot our roots and cascade our carcasses. We're all eating demon poop." He died at midnight, devoured by his nightmares, and was laid to rest near the island that broke him. Mission (8,000 gold): Investigate this conspiracy. Are we really being fed by a demon? If so, the island's Guardian may be a warlock, so we may need to be wary. Be careful not to collapse our source of food, but do your best to bring back concrete proof of who is really running The Evergrowth, and what their intentions are.

The Other Side (1)

1- This is How a Drug Deal is Supposed to Go

-The party heads to Pyre, the only town in the Islands of Necromancy. Pyre is where people all over the archipelago bring their dead. Their bodies are preserved at the At the Temple of Audieu, and end of each month, there is a ceremony to celebrate all of their lives. After the ceremony, their bodies are sent off on boats towards Nor, and the Guardian of Necromancy buries them. While there are locals to work the temple, hotels, and stores, many of the people in Pyre are here temporarily, to mourn.

-Del decides that she wants to deal some drugs. She does so by setting up her Secret Base in one of the few stone alley walls, and sticking her head out, asking if passers by wanted drugs -She sells some to a rich looking goliath couple. As they walk away, Ezre pokes her head out and asked Del if she should steal the rest of their money. Del says yes, so Ezre gets to work -She turns into a bear and tries to rob them. She succeeds in knocking down their ice cream, but the goliath woman pins her to the ground while her husband calls the police. Ezre turns into a sabertooth and wiggles out of the hold and bolts -The police come and Del tries to sell them drugs. They end up hold personing her and taking her to jail -Sieg and Ezre manage to buy her out of jail. No lessons were learned.

2 - Eavesdropping

-Since no one is allowed onto Nil, the party decides to collect information to figure out how to get on it, so they go to a bar to get some info -They overhear an orc kid bragging about how he snuck onto a merchant ship and snuck around the side of Nil to get into the forest. Specific merchants are allowed to dock on Nil and receive produce which they then sell in Pyre as wholesale, and merchants there take it across the archipelago. These merchants however, are still not allowed to enter the forest, so the kid snuck off. It as going well until he picked one of the fruits. It caught fire, this green flame, and almost instantly, he was surrounded by the cloaked figures. He thinks he would have been devoured if not for the Guardian of Necromancy commanding the cloaks to go away and sending him back to the island -The kid was kinda annoying so the party gave him a bit of a fright and he ran off. His less annoying friends filled the party in that there is a creature of some sort that guards the waters around Nil, and that they'd want to avoid that. They also tell them how they can get merchant work -The party goes to the docks and makes an arrangement with a merchant to help them carry the produce the next day

3 - Nil

-The next morning, the party goes aboard the ship with the rest of the workers. As they get close to the island, they use one of the golden apples to distract the crew and jump overboard. Using Ezre's Water Breathing spell, they swim unnoticed to the southern cliffs of Nil. Well, almost unnoticed. Right before they surface, the guardian, an adult green dragon, notices them. They manage to hide by Ezre making a stone wall right next to the cliff -After it seems safe to emerge, they get up the cliff fine. They traverse some of the forest without being noticed by the cloaks, and careful not to pick any of the unmatching fruits and vegetables that grow from the trees and ground (there is a close call with Del and some mushrooms, but fortunately, she resists) -There is sounds of battle above. They reach a clearing and see a stone golem blasting spells at a huge toucan made of bark, moss, and vines. The latter takes hefty hits, but the stone golem does not get away: thick vines reach out of the forest and pull it down into them. -The party decides to head towards where they fell but run into one of the cloaked figures, who seems surprised. A green light explodes from the figure, blinding them all

4- Well, Fuck

-Their vision comes back a moment later, and the forest is on fire: green flames that seem to be rotting the trees instead of burning them. They look up and what was previously late morning sunny sky is pure black void. -They encounter hordes of demons: small goat like ones with green flamed torches, and huge armoured frogs that breathe green fire. They hold some off for a bit, but it is a losing battle -An old man in bark armour with moss and fungi growing from him slashes his way through some of the demons and asks the demons to leave them alone, saying that all newcomers have the right to free passage to camp. The leader demon (the biggest of the frogs) argues that arrival day passed a few days ago, and that the rules are that anyone out in the forest at night is demon-food. She agrees to give the party a ten second head start. The party complies and they follow the man, fighting demons as they go -They make it to the shore where there are a few wooden cabins -On the fence sits a stout, ragged man, wide and gremlin-like with jigsaw teeth and gleaming eyes that peak out from beneath a large brimmed hat. A pistol is holstered to each of his hips. He strums a banjo that is accompanied by a chorus of crow caws that come from nowhere. In between puffs of pipesmoke, he speaks: Welcome to purgatory. Make yourselves comfortable. If ya work hard enough, and if yer lucky, you might just get to stay awhile.