Session 38: Haggling
General Summary
The hag teleports us and we’re whisked away to an island vacation suited to our needs with piles of gold and booze a plenty. At least, that’s what we were wishing for. Instead, we’re treated to the sight of shelves of books on dark magic and a bubbling cauldron full of god knows what. Tending to the stew is the hag we traveled all this way for. Amelia’s mother, Myrtle. Wait, what was that? Looks like we got the wrong hag as this is her sister, Lydia, and now we’re stuck in this dark, damp room with her until the rest of the coven arrives. Lydia’s shocked by our lack of fear in this situation, eventually going from an intimidating sight to a surprisingly hospitable host. Until we get on her nerves anyways and she shoos us from the room.
We’re left to wander at our leisure, so of course we’re going to take this opportunity to invade their privacy. They’re a coven of powerful beings, so surely they have treasure hidden somewhere. Down the stairs we go into a room that’s partially flooded with murky water. It’s full of trinkets and dried herbs hanging from the ceiling, but beyond that, there isn’t much of interest. Our esteemed guests, aka the prisoners the hags originally wanted; manage to get a shuriken from Brutus. The halfling goes to make his escape, only for his human friend to stop him before he makes the mistake of pissing us off. Spoiler for the very near future, they should’ve fucking ran while they had the chance. Unfortunately for them, we all carry on into a cavern littered with quills and bones. I’m able to piece together that this place is home to a bandersnatch and given that they’re highly dangerous, we decide to backtrack.
The next path we turn down leads us to an ogre, Grok, who’s been tasked with looking over the prison. He’s hostile for all of two seconds before we explain that we’ve been left to explore the place and he allows us inside. The prisoners currently locked up are far more interesting than the assholes we picked up earlier. There’s a handsome aasimar with wings made of light and his dwarven companion, who happens to a cleric devoted to a trickster god. They introduce themselves as Nyctos and Darcy, telling us that they know the human and halfling as the used to work together. When the hags captured Nyctos and Darcy, the other two abandoned them and fled. We don’t take too kindly to cowards on this crew, so me and TT decide that it’s best to swap them out. We bring the human and halfling in and as Nyktos tears them a new one, they realize their days are numbered.
TT frees our new, cooler companions and I shove the others inside to be locked up. They’re not thrilled about the current predicament and while that’s understandable, we don’t care to listen to their pleas. We head back to Lydia’s room and the rest of the coven has finally arrived. We tell them we sought them out to make a deal and Myrtle shoves her sisters aside, ushering the rest of us into her bedroom to talk business. On the way, she talks of how she has many daughters, the majority of them twisted princesses and queens. Except for Charlotte, who is the family disappointment for being too benevolent. Somehow the conversation manages to rope me into more personal stakes and my feelings for Amelia slip out like butter, leaving all of us shocked, though Myrtle is pleasantly surprised. She now has more to hold over my head, but I’m not going down alone.
The deal is this: she brings Amelia back right at this very moment and all that she asks for in return is a rakshasa’s eye. It’s a powerful component for spells, though she isn’t inclined to get into the details. Sure, we’ll get you a goddamn eyeball, but wait; there’s more! If we fail to complete this task within a few days, my soul will be eternally bound to her. We manage to convince her to give us a month and I convince her to take all our souls upon failure because like I said, if I go down, everybody’s going down with me. TT slips out of the deal because she hates Amelia and Brutus is freed from it because he wants to go on an adventure with Grok. They’re to find Myrtle a stronger bodyguard, so off they go, leaving the rest of us to wrap this up. Amelia’s revived in another room so that the hags can attempt to take control of her. The spell fails and instead, all they get is a lot of sass. She’s returned to us and when we all lovingly shower her in a chorus of “Pukehead”, she puts in the contract that we’re no longer allowed to call her that.
I can’t let that happen. If we keep that tidbit out of the contract, I assure Myrtle that we’ll get her a pair of rakshasa eyes rather than just one. Nobody’s happy about that, but the deal is sealed the moment we step into the binding circle. With no way of knowing where a rakshasa is, our chances of completing this task within a month is very low. We head back to the ship, only stopping so Amelia can do another one of her creepy rituals to raise Griffith from the dead once more. She takes an offering of my blood this time and we watch in horror as Griffith climbs to the top of the pile…only to be knocked down by a new skeleton. His bones are charred and two horns curl from his head. Our new baby boy, Lothric, is welcomed to the world, though he’s not greeted with any smiling faces. Once we arrive to the shore, our rowboat is gone, leaving us stranded thanks to Brutus.
Missions/Quests Completed
Mission: Bring Me To Life
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