Session 20: The one with dancing horses (June 11, 2023)
Last session, our heroes regrouped after battling masked agents at some stables in the east of Ivalgo. Heph recognized one of the combatants as Toddle Rustweather, a gnome who was in the Alchemist Guild with him up until around a year ago, when he left to work for a weapons manufacturer in Fleetwood. On Toddle’s body he found a note in even, measured handwriting that read “Don’t force me to make this your fight.”
As the party was looting and investigating the aftermath of the battle, Governor Literi along with Constable Haxa and some city guards arrived. Literi said that he had scheduled two demonstrations of these “agents” for possible purchase, but the party having defeated them twice had convinced him they were not worth his money. Specifically he was doing business with Lucien Dynastic, a company in Fleetwood run by Sentin Thornwillow with the aim of manufacturing soldiers rather than typical weapons. He also said he owes the party a massive favor, and that he as a powerful individual can make things happen for them that money alone would never be able to do.
Heph, disgusted with Literi for his use of these soldiers and testing of them on his parents’ home, cast Identify on the masks worn by the “agents” and learned that they are affected by three spells: a binding spell to attach them to the agents’ faces, a enchantment that will dispel all other magic on death, and the primary effect: a powerful impulsion that forces the wearer to obey a command no matter the cost to their body.
The party then returned the two unconscious bodies to Potion Pitstop and enlisted the help of Mortimer Slaan, the wizard Rormir had received his Find Familiar ring from. Morty dispelled magic on the masks and set to work getting the agents back to health in exchange for room and board at Potion Pitstop. He also read basic identifying information from their minds, learning they were both prisoners before they were fitted with the masks.
This information gathered, the party returned to the stables, where they were matched with the fastest horses available to begin their journey north to Kolonie.
- As the party heads off on the horses, Heph immediately falls off his giant warhorse because he doesn’t know how to ride
- Elias takes the puzzle box from Heph
- Throughout the day of travel, the party sees several small merchant groups
traveling
- The merchants didn’t appear to be especially armored or defended, but it was hard to tell
- Heph suggests they stop at a particular spot, and everyone agrees
- Elias and Rormir offer to take the watch, and let Heph sleep
- Heph immediately passes out, and Elias tries to draw a mustache on him, but ends up drawing it on himself somehow instead on a nat 1
- Heph is snoring loudly
- Rormir covers Heph in poison ivy to muffle the sound, and his own hands start to get red and itchy
- Elias takes first watch
- He hears some birds, but the night passes largely uneventfully
- In the morning, Heph is extremely itchy but feels well rested
- In the morning, the party takes off again
- Heph spends some time playing with the puzzle, and with his renewed vigor he manages to unlock it completely
- The puzzle box finally transforms into a cylinder made of red clay with a dusty outside texture
- It is covered in a large amount of minute bumps and ridges
- It doesn’t seem to open in any way
- Upon further inspection, the ridges appear to have a distinct pattern
- They form lines that curve around the outside of the cylinder, and flow together to form shapes of some sort
- They do not seem to be a language, but it is hard to tell what they are because they are small
- Elias has some parchment and ink, and the party covers the cylinder in ink and rolls it out on the parchment
- It seems to create a map
- Elias and Rormir have no idea what it is of, but it looks strangely familiar to Heph
- It seems to center on an island in a river or stream
- Heph can’t immediately place it, but will likely figure it out when the party gets to Wildeport
- Rormir is pretty out of touch with desert lands, and can’t quite
tell what’s what
- Heph notices and tries to help him out, and also looks around for a campsite
- Meanwhile, Rormir casts Speak with Animals to talk to the horses
- Heph and Elias notice Rormir and the horses dancing around more and exchange a look
- Rormir checks with the horses to see how safe the path is and get some information about the desert
- Elias and Heph and really confused with what is happening with the horses as theirs start to dance under them as well
- The horses warn Rormir about the magpies, the big birds that come down and steal things from the riders
- They also say there are sometimes bears and other riders with swords
- Rormir asks the horses to give him some sort of sign if they spot danger, and he will reward them with apples in Kolonie
- He suggests launching Heph off the horse as a sign, and the horse seems excited to injure Heph
- Rormir fills Heph and Elias in on what the horses said
- The party sets up camp
- Heph pulls out his beacon, sets it up, and sends a message: “Setting up camp for the night. How are our friends?”
- His mom replies that they are good, Mort eats a lot, and the party should prepare questions because the men are almost ready to talk
- Not long after, Elias hears a voice in his head thanking him for the job and asking him to think of questions for the masked boys
- They briefly discuss and decide to ask who hired them, how they were recruited or captured, and any details of the spell
- Mort responds back and says great, will relay the answers back tomorrow
- Elias says cool, give Jimmy a high five for me
- Elias is looking out for birds
- He spots an increasing number of them gathering in the air along the path
- They seem to be centered around a cluster of hills the party will be passing tomorrow
- Elias also notices a hill that he was pretty sure was flat but now seems to be rounded
- The curved top seems to be rippling in the breeze a bit
- Elias sneaks up to the top of the hill, and notices a giant
grass-colored tarp stretched out over the top
- He lifts up a corner of the tarp with Mage Hand, and sees a woman and a pigeon huddled down hiding
- Elias attempts to pickpocket Ana, just blindly reaching into her pocket and seeing what he comes out with
- The hand pulls out one of those clown handkerchiefs that goes on forever, and Elias gets distracted
- When he looks up, Ana has clearly noticed him and patiently waits for him to stop
- Since she has some free time, no longer being employed, she is following up on some threads that were pending, and she has decided the party is up to something interesting
- She confirms that the masked men came from Fleetwood and that’s likely where Lucien Dynastic is, and they are the ones who created the soldiers
- Elias leads her back to camp
- Ana says hi to Heph and Rormir, not
using their actual names
- The party shows her the map, she is able to identify it as an island
- She explains how to read the map to Elias and Rormir when they sarcastically thank her
- Elias asks her to tag along for a bit, and on a nat 20 she agrees
- She just sits down in front of the fire and joins the party
- Elias offers to let her stay hidden, but to sort of join the party for campsites and fights and stuff
- Rormir notices she seems to be slightly happy to be included in the party
- Rormir advises her to stay away from Heph’s horse
- As he sleeps, Rormir travels back to his home
plane and explores wide-open grasslands and deserts unlike the
forests he was used to
- These new areas were strange, but being home also familiar and comfortable
- In the morning, Ana is already sitting on Elias’s horse when everyone wakes up
- Heph’s horse suddenly bucks aggressively, and Heph is
almost thrown off
- Heph manages to barely hang on to the saddle, but is no longer seated
- While he is climbing back up, a large group of birds dive bomb the party, and the birds take Heph’s pearl
- Elias tries to take it back using Mage Hand, and succeeds, the pearl falls and lands in the dirt on the ground
- Elias snatches it with the Mage Hand and brings it to Heph super dramatically
- The birds are circling back towards the party
- Rormir shoots one down, Heph shoots at another
- It doesn’t kill it, and it grabs Heph’s smith’s tools
- Elias expertly snatches the smith’s tools back with Mage Hand
- Heph shoots down the one he electrocuted
- Rormir tries to cast Animal Friendship on the bird, it fails
- It looks mean, he tries to catch it in his aquarium tank but fails
- After it escapes, it flies away towards the cluster of hills where the other birds are gathering
- Elias and Heph know these birds are magpies and collect shiny things, and the one that flew away is likely returning to a nest of some sort
- There is likely treasure in that nest if the party chooses to follow it
- Heph says that they likely have a nest full of treasure
- Elias just takes off towards the nest
- Rormir sends Karrl off to scout the nest, and Elias paints Salty like a magpie and tells him to go get the shiny stuff
- Salty looks over at Ana, and Ana shrugs and nods and Salty takes off
- Karrl reports back that the magpie is entering a cave that seems to be their nest
- The group heads toward the magpie nest, and the ones in the sky seem to be keeping their distance
- The party actually catches up to Salty on the way, he is super exhausted from the exertion
- The party approaches the cave