OttD Session 31: New Neprius

General Summary

The party, fresh off of their fight with a dragon turtle, head off to New Neprius. Vun Roade gets tired along the way, so Pestle becomes an octopus to help him make his way there. Upon arrival Zerrof takes them to a guard, and announces his and Mazu's triumphant return. Mazu becomes corporeal again to wander the city with the rest of the group.
The trip to the palace takes some time, as the party pauses to look around and gawk a little. The city is not nearly as silver as it used to be, but it still shines with both silver and gold. There is also a lot of polished marble. Partway through Zerrof pulls Mazu aside to ask her if she is doing okay, and she says she is holding up fine. A successful insight check confirms this. Tornac goes off to find a bar while the rest go to the palace proper.
When they arrive, Mazu enters the throne room by herself while the rest of the party makes conversation. Pestle shows off his new wizard powers in the form of Dancing Lights. Eventually the throne room door opens and the group is invited into the throne room to talk to Deep Sashelas. He and Mazu have clearly just had some sort of argument, but he greets the party amiably and asks what Penguin wants. Throughout the conversation Deep Sashelas never references Penguin by name. Instead he simply refers to him as "the usurper".
What follows is around 45 minutes of intense role play. The conversation gets more and more tense as the party gets indignant about the behavior of the gods. As Deep Sashelas gets angrier over the course of conversation he actually attempts to attack both Pestle and Zerrof at various points, but he botches repeatedly and never actually deals damage. After some deeply impassioned arguments from Zerrof, Deep Sashelas is eventually persuaded to break the news to his people when the time is right.
Pestle, however, is still testy from the earlier arguing and threatens to dispel the magic keeping the throne room door closed if he is not let out. Deep Sashelas encourages Pestle to try, and he burns through several spell slots before eventually managing to dispel the enchantment. Unfortunately for Pestle, the door also had physical locks on it. He was unable to break these. As Pestle is admitting defeat, Deep Sashelas gets physical, grabbing him by the arms, and telling him that he is "playing a dangerous game". When Pestle continues to be defiant, Deep Sashelas turns to Mazu and asks her to give him "one reason not to kill this guy". Mazu replies, in celestial, that killing Pestle would not actually fix anything.
Deep Sashelas finally manages to calm down a little, and sends the party away. Zerrof pushes his luck one last time to ask for a space to use as a sanctuary dedicated to Mazu. Deep Sashelas suggests talking to the local forge master. This having been dealt with the party is once again dismissed, and this time they leave promptly and without argument.
Pestle crits on his attempt to convince Mazu to reveal what she said to save his life. They spend some time on this, and Mazu says that her brother has "always had a bit of a temper". Pestle, still expressing skepticism about the gods, asks Zerrof if he is really still loyal to Penguin. Zerrof says he is loyal to Mazu, so he is only on Penguin's side for as long as she is.
After some more conversation, Zerrof casts sending twice. Neither attempt gets an immediate response. First is a message to Penguin:

penguin, we had success. Sashelas is in on the plan.

secondly to Adoven Woodsoul:

Friend, We have concern for you. What are you doing? are you well? Do you need our aid? We are in Neprius.

The party schemes about their next steps. Options include the Elemental Plane of Air, Acheron, and Carceri. Of these three, the party unanimously agrees the plane of air is the most frightening. They plan to start negotiations with the wardens of Carceri while simultaneously making their way to Acheron to negotiate with the warring gods Gruumsh and Malglubiyet.
Just as this panning concludes, they hear back from Penguin:

good work. decide where you're headed next

Planning continues, but is soon interrupted again as Adoven Woodsoul's response comes in. His player actually logs in to roll20, delivers the reply, and then logs off again immediately after. It reads:

I appreciate the concern, but I am fine. I am dealing with a personal matter. Sorry, can't say more; I've been asked to remain discreet.

The group discusses this for a while, and then goes to secure lodgings. Once he is in a room, Pestle asks Dave for the exact location of the orcs that destroyed Vun Roade's hometown. Dave says that those orcs are all dead now, having been slain by Zorkul Clalthicul. Most of them now reside in Acheron, on "cube 37B". The party then takes a long rest.

Report Date

08 Jan 2020