Session 18 - Cat's Park Crisis Continued

General Summary

The horrible White Space event has caused tremendous changes which seem to be widespread across the world. An adorable emissary arrives in Urveth after hearing stories of the Badger Castle with a single, plaintive plea, "Please help save Cat's Park!"

There are game sessions that last four or five hours, and then there are game sessions that last for upwards of eight and you realize at 11:00 PM that you've not made dinner because things kept happening. Buckle up for quite the game session!

Asking For Help

As the session began, most of the group was at Jungle Errant Hospital, with only Lanasia who had fallen asleep in the Corduroy mansion within the planar rift. Cadok's siblings Tarken and Rivia were still recovering, the Lattee buns had been in and around the hospital both helping and hindering by turns, and their friend from the excursion to Roderick, little Milo, was sleeping off a sushi-induced food coma care of Arabella and Lanasia.

Into this serene (if slightly chaotic) setting, a newcomer appeared. Ferrus Moonshadow, a catfolk refugee from Cat's Park in Estrella, arrived seeking assistance from those who could do so. And seeing as the group had allowed Castle Roderick to walk, Ferrus (not unreasonably) thought that the Chaos Marked could help him. Answering many of the questions of the group set to him, discussion of course turned to whether Ferrus was indeed correct and that the group could help him.

Of course, part of the group was concerned about Ferrus' capacity to take care of himself, and there was a sudden surfeit of gentle ribbing. It was then that Ferrus revealed his Eidolon and his capacity for magic. At the same time, Cadok headed to the Corduroy demiplane to discuss with his mother about the possibility of planar travel, only to find her outside of her own home, which was glowing brightly from within. After discussing what had occurred, Lanasia appeared, covered in the item she had just crafted: a hat for Happenstance that allows her to store items within. An altercation broke out between the two.

Meanwhile, Xia Mae Li gave a gift of a Voice Box to Verne, the Drainberry Bush merchant. Incredibly pleased with this newfound ability to effectively communicate, Xia was given a gentle hug by the ambulator plant who declared his intent to "talk to people in town," and departed for Urveth. The argument between Cadok and Lanasia spilled out of the demiplane and further discussion led to a suggestion that Xia and Lanasia had a focus spell capable of getting them to another plane, but not necessarily with a way of getting back.

There And Back Again

Quite understandably, the group didn't want to help out only to be stranded, which is when Xia brought up Cadok's ability to return to the Tonbarony he had recently acquired control over directly from Jareth. It was then decided that a number of the group members would test this by shifting from the Corduroy demiplane. Happenstance, Osburne and Deekin all joined Cadok in the demiplane and Cadok attempted to bring them all to the Tonbarony. The attempt was basically successful, but there were flaws: Osburne ended up nearly-impaled-but-quite-stuck in the metal railings of the "apartment" building within Tonbarony; Happenstance appeared in thin air far above the ground, but survived thanks to Lanasia's weapon which conferred the ability to slow fall; and Deekin ended up on the roof (though as a sniper this wasn't exactly a novel or difficult place to get to or from). After Deekin used the weapon Lanasia had made him to carve Osburne loose without harming him, the group returned to Jungle Errant Hospital to plan their next moves.

Before the team could head out, however, the group needed to properly gear themselves up, and elected to split into two parties: one who would add a resilience rune to Happenstance's armor, and a second to create handwraps for Osburne. The former group consisted of Cadok and Happenstance, while the latter group consisted of Lanasia and Xia and Osburne. Both groups completed their work and now prepared, Lanasia and Xia both cast the Blazing Dive Through A Starry Sea, the spell that Lanasia had assisted Xia in coming up with to try and help Xia with her aspirations to reach actual Phoenixes.

A Whole New World

The group safely arrived through the planar aperture created by the combined spell, which nearly instantly healed behind them, stranding them in a place that Arabella identified as Shardport. Built on the remains of a divine being associated with truth in bygone era, the group worked to try and find passage through the Astral Plane to where they needed to go, using Ferrus as a compass. Both Ferrus and Cadok attempted to find berth on ships, but while Ferrus found a decent orc with rippling muscles and an imposing visage named Glorf; Cadok found an undead pirate that stole from him. Glorf, being a generous soul, taught Cadok a phrase that cause thieves and liars to burst into flame, chasing off the undead pirate and giving the group a good laugh. Berth found on Glorf's ship, the group headed out, deep into the darker expanses of the Astral Plane, and to a terrifying prison complex of some kind built right on the edge of the Void, a dangerous part of the Astral Plane through which dead souls traveled to their final destination, and which no living creature could survive touching. Now aware of the stakes, Glorf dropped the group at the entrance of the structure and bid them good luck.

The group quickly advanced into the jail, encountering tieflings and strange blue-skinned goblin-looking creatures. This didn't slow them much, especially as several members of the group dropped tiny suns on their heads. Quickly realizing that their preferred method of overwhelming force wasn't going to work against the Chaos Marked, the second wave of creatures called in a heavy hitter: a White Dragon. Not that this helped very much, as Lanasia ripped the creature apart with disturbing alacrity and a bit of assistance from Happenstance. Meanwhile, realizing that their position was quickly becoming untenable, the as-yet unknown mastermind put call to the legions of creatures held in reserve, hundreds of minions that a team of Arabella, a huge-ified Deekin, and Ferrus held off to give the rest of the group time to clear the way to the objective. Though diminished, the group pressed on.

Now desperate, the mastermind threw a trio of trolls at the party, but these creatures were defeated as well, though is must be said that Xia nearly gave up her life to help accomplish this. Realizing the need, Arabella and Ferrus continued to hold the line and warned the rest of the group of the incoming legions and the need for haste. Destroying the trolls, the group found themselves partially disabled by the mastermind. However, sensing the true undead nature of the mastermind, Cadok was able to bluff the creature that their Lich Touch had paralyzed them. In addition to this Osburne successfully intimidated the creature into dropping the Wall of Force it had put up to come face them, even though they were nearly dead and dizzy with pan and bleeding.

With the Lich's defenses all down, Cadok was able to step up a cleave the creature in half lengthwise, Sundown continuing to be true to its name and ending yet another undead life. Now clear of those who would stop them, the group began to search around for a way to extricate Cat's Park from the prison the mastermind had placed it whithin. Deekin was instrumental at this point, figuring out that this prison was built by dragons and successfully using their breath weapon to open the locked doors. Cat's Park Rift Crystal in hand, Cadok used their power to return the group to Tonbarony. A bit more successful this time, the group ended up at the foot of grand fountain in the central plaza.

Winding Down

Returning to the Tonbarony, Cadok jailed the surviving Tiefling that had surrendered to them. Happenstance then headed toward this cell to play cards through the bars with said survivor, named Kluthel, and keep them company. Xia, physically and metaphysically exhausted by the events of the day, promptly collapsed and had to be carried to nearby Jungle Errant Hospital. Lanasia, disgusted at the way Cadok had treated her for most of the day, decided to leave for the hospital as well and spend time with Hortense.

The rest of the group headed up towards their newly acquired apartment homes and everyone did their best to rest.

Combat Highlights

• Happenstance did a SpeedBall special, throwing Lanasia right at the White Dragon's face
• Happenstance is quite a decent taxi service, and spent time helping Ferrus around as well
• Osburne spent most of the fight running to different areas of combat, because apparently combat was afraid of him (perhaps this is Togalt's fault?)
• Lanasia, with defensive help from Happenstance, beat the dragon to death. To. Freakin'. Death. Nearly solo. Well done!
• Thanks to this aforementioned awesomeness, Happenstance is more sure than ever that Lanasia is a Chaos Goddess
• Xia nearly got sucked into the void, but did so to take out other enemies who themselves were sucked into the void.
• Cadok batted a tiefling into the void. Jury is still out on whether this counts as a home run or an error.
• Deekin scared an enemy into not only surrendering, but disarming one of their compatriots, trying to save them as well.
• Deekin held the line along with Arabella and Ferrus to allow the group to successfully complete their mission. A lot of mooks got crunched and fried to keep the group safe.
• Arabella likes making mountains out of molehills, or at least turning physical combatants huuuuuge
• Osburne learned that being a deer is awesome
• Osburne learned that deer can scream a scream to sunder the bravery of men and beasts
• The troll found out that Osburne's antlers come off
• The big bad guy, who might have murdered Cadok all alone with him in the cell, was instead duped by Osburne who dropped the wall of force to come out and take him and the others out
• Cadok is not a great actor, but the opponent was, thankfully, an inperceptive moron.
• Between Deekin and his acidic weapon and Lanasia and her fiery fists, several trolls were sent screaming to their doom
• Sundown's undead bisection count is now at 7 8

Report Date

16 Apr 2023