Session 35 (January 10, 2024)
Last session, our heroes boarded a ship to Eken, aiming to escape Wildeport without drawing too much attention to their identities. With a fiery distraction from Peg Leg Steve and Peg Leg Steve, Heph and Elias paid for passage on the Midlane while Maho hid in an orange crate and was carried below decks with the other cargo. The party divvied up the coins acquired from Mandel and from General Angst Störung’s casino desk, totaling 2300 gold (minus the 20 used in payment for the voyage). Then, after Elias failed to spook the sailor in the crow’s nest with a ghostly floating candle, they all finally slept.
Maho woke up the next morning to a pigeon and hawk playing with a brass cylinder, and a woman she had never seen before seated up against the wall, watching. The woman introduced herself as Ana Cardi, and seemed trusting but somewhat wary of Maho. She seemed pleased with Maho’s view of Sentin, and discussed further Maho’s opinion of the other members of the group. She then placed the cylinder in Maho’s hand, suggested she ask Elias about it, and clumsily Misty Stepped into a crate of peaches.
Heph spent his morning Identifying some of the items on him. He learned the secret properties of the blessed vials of venom once belonging to Rormir before his mysterious disappearance, granting abilities such as Revivify, Command, and Remove Curse, as well as being able to dispel the effects of the Lucien Blinds. He also attuned to Rormir’s ring and managed to repair the bracer he was given by Farley, gaining the Metamagic Adept feat and feeling like the bracer was made just for him.
Maho sent Salty to fetch Elias, who had just finished forging a patent of nobility for Duke Pippinpadolopsocopolias the IVth. He came below decks, as did Heph, who felt a pull from his newly-attuned ring. Immediately upon approaching Karrl, Heph was struck with nausea and realized he was looking through Karrl’s eyes, which he continued to experiment with. Maho held out the cylinder and asked Elias about it. It was, as it turned out, a pocket watch, consisting of an inner ring with regions numbered 1 through 16 and an outer ring labeled with the days of the week. Two scratches marked the number 11 and the day of Wholement. Through Karrl’s eyes Heph spotted additional scratches, written in Elvish, which he could somehow comprehend. They read “Don’t be late again. — Ash”. Heph handed the watch back to Maho, turned to Elias, and asked “Who is Ash?”.
- Maho asks Heph what it says, and Heph
explains he can read it through Karrl’s eyes
- Heph can’t read it on his own, and doesn’t recognize the language
- Elias identifies it as Elvish
- Elias, recognizing he has nowhere to run, removes his cloak and sits on a barrel
- He says “She’s the reason I’m here isn’t she”
- Heph asks Elias what he did, and Elias acknowledges that it’s fair to assume it was his fault
- Elias explains he got involved in a rebellion back home, a typical overthrow the king sort of deal
- The movement found him, and Ash found Elias to leak some information
- Heph asks Elias to continue, he is literally on the edge of his seat—he sits down on the utility seatbelt and scootches towards the edge
- Heph keeps pushing Elias for more information, and he explains that Ash wanted them to meet at a regular interval to keep passing information
- They would meet once a week, on the top of some buildings in the capital city
- They would meet at night, and Ash would pass along information about the nobles, seeming to be one herself
- A friendship bloomed, talking until the sunrise
- Elias finally reveals he actually has no brothers, and they are all disguises
- Ash was a disguise as well it turns out, and she was really using Elias to get more information about the rebellion
- Lord Emperor Kogar Mistwall was the king, and nobody particularly liked him
- Ash’s real name was Petunia Ashlyn Mistwall, daughter of Kogar
- She used all the information she gathered from Elias to destroy the rebellion
- Elias felt it was all his fault, and decided it was best for him to get out of town
- Lucien Dynastic has some connection back to Elias’ homeland, which is why he is so interested in what is going on there
- Maho asks if it matters what Mistwall is doing, and Elias explains he can’t really be free until that situation is resolved
- Heph tells Elias that he appreciates him finally being
honest, and offers to help him resolve his situation once Lucien
Dynastic is dealt with
- Heph remembers that Elias told him where he was from,
but Elias reminds him it was the Nor…Southern
Isles
- This place is north, or south, or east, or west of Perrinor
- Elias is unable to get rid of the watch, it keeps coming back
- Ana’s arms and legs pop out of the barrel Elias is sitting on, and she pats him on the back and says she’s proud of him
- Elias and Heph have a brief discussion about how sometimes it feels like we’re in a story arc, and stare directly into camera
- Heph remembers that Elias told him where he was from,
but Elias reminds him it was the Nor…Southern
Isles
- Maho is a bit confused about what is going on, but notes that
civilized life doesn’t seem all that civilized
- Heph spends an hour creating Alchemist’s Supplies, and Elias gets bored a few minutes in and walks away
- Maho tries to stack apples in a tower on top of a crate while this is happening
- She is only able to get a few layers of apples stacked before it all collapses
- After about an hour and a half she finally succeeds, and skewers the apple and gives half of it to Heph
- When Elias gets bored, he disguises himself as the Duke again and heads back up on deck
- He sees Wildeport disappear as the boat goes around a bend, and starts to see some buildings barely visible on top of the mesa on the port side
- He also sees the elevator mechanism that is used to lift people and supplies up and down to Eken
- The crew is stirring, seeming to prepare for arrival
- Elias wants to get a better view, so he climbs up to the crow’s nest
- As he approaches the crow’s nest, he sees a human woman curiously watching him climb up
- He offers her an apple, which she snatches from his hand
- She asks who he is, he explains he is Duke Pippinpadolopsocopolias and shows her his talking sword
- Nonplussed, she asks him what he’s doing on a cargo ship
- They have a strange conversation, neither of them seeming to know what a
Duke is or does
- She wants to be invited next time he hunts people for sport
- Her name is Peg Leg Stephanie, and the Steves are cousins
- As Heph is finishing up making the alchemist’s supplies, he notices
that people seem to be getting ready to come down and start gathering supplies
- Maho really doesn’t want to get back in the box, and Ana reveals herself and asks Maho what her favorite type of mythical creature is
- She says pegasus
- Maho follows Ana behind the crates, and Maho gets fabric thrown over her and senses activity around her
- Maho tries to sense if Ana is trying to kill her, but she has no idea what is going on and just waits a bit to see what happens
- After about 10 seconds, the activity stops, the fabric is removed, although Maho’s peripheral vision is removed
- Ana suggests Maho step out and see what Heph thinks
- Heph sees Maho step out, in a pegasus mascot-style costume
- Heph thinks this is more conspicuous, but Ana says nobody asks questions when she does this
- Heph tells Maho to wait two minutes then follow him up onto the deck of the ship
- He messages Elias and tells him to watch, he is disbelieving at first but Heph says Ana is involved
- Elias turns to Stephanie and bets her a pegasus will appear
- Maho walks up onto deck and the crew is amazed to see her
- They see it as a good omen, and give her a respectful distance
- Stephanie is not impressed, she can tell it’s a costume and wants
Elias to pay up
- She rolled a nat 20 investigation
- Elias casts Silent Image to make a pegasus that flies, and she can’t tell it’s a fake image
- She believes it, and the crew is amazed, and the fake one dives into the ocean
- Stephanie grudgingly hands over 2 gold
- Elias makes the pegasus pop back out of the water and seem to fly into the sunrise, making it smaller to give it the illusion of distance
- The crew shakes it off a bit and gets back to work bringing the crates up on deck
- Heph is largely distracted by the complex mechanisms being used
to lift things up the cliff
- A large number of cars and platforms, spread out over a mile of cliff face
- Some are roughly made, constructed of wooden planks with no walls or railings
- Others are made of smooth metal and glass, fitted with comfortable plush seats and attached to the cliff by pairs of tracks
- Maho comes up to him, snapping him out of it, and asks if he needs a better vantage point
- He says sure, and Maho lifts him up onto her shoulders and Heph keeps watching
- Maho asks Heph if he has family, and Heph
tells her about his parents
- She asks if Elias has family, and Heph says he doesn’t really know
- Maho says her dad is here in Eken, and asks Heph what he would do in Elias’ situation; what he would do with his family
- Elias climbs down the ladder, as he heads down Stephanie finishes her apple and says “to the hunt”
- Elias heads over to Maho and Heph, and shows them excitedly that he won two gold
- Elias drops one of the coins, explaining that he wants to share with his party now
- Maho picks up the coin, and the crew take that to mean that pegasus’ eat gold
- About 5 gold is thrown from the crew, and Maho picks it up, and divides it amongst the party
- The ship approaches a massive wooden dock, and it docks and the gangplank is
lowered
- The captain invites us to disembark, and Heph climbs down from Maho’s shoulders and leads the party off the ship
- It is early afternoon, and the dock is pretty busy, with lots of activity
- Heph asks Elias to get them a ride in a nice car, using Message as well as speaking so people can hear him in the crowd
- Elias leads the group over to one of the people with a
clipboard, near the entrance to the nearest fancy looking car
- He has a powdered wig and a well fitted, dark, collared shirt
- The guy asks “Coterie?”, and Elias seems confused, and he tries to point us to a less fancy car
- Elias tries to prove who he is by handing over his patent of nobility
- The guys seems vaguely impressed, but he has a list and Duke Pippinpadolopsocopolias isn’t on the list so he doesn’t want to let him on
- Elias tries to charm him, but it fails
- Heph throws a magical tinkering rock making the rail car sound to try to distract the guy, and Elias steals the list from the guy and tosses the list and the pen on the ground some distance away
- Using Mage Hand he adds his name to the list and then reverse pickpockets
the list back into the guy’s hand
- He also sees the below names on the list:
- Wachter
- Kohlburg
- von Riess
- Ehrhalt
- Hess
- Kenig
- Voit
- Schwanthaler
- He also sees the below names on the list:
- Elias points out Pippinpadolopsocopolias’s name on the list, and the guy is deeply apologetic
- Elias tries to make the guy say his name, but he really can’t figure it out and just sits down having a bit of a panic attack
- Elias leads the group into the car, and after a brief time another woman comes in and sits down with us, and then the car starts to head up the cliff
- Elias strikes up a conversation with the woman, saying it’s a
lovely day
- She is confused, and says she hasn’t met any of us before
- She asks if we are recently resident, Elias says yes and asks if she is less recently resident
- She identifies herself as being from the family Hess
- Elias leans over and whispers to Heph “she was on the list!”
- Elias introduces himself as Duke Pippinpadolopsocopolias the IVth
- Maho leans over and tells Elias to say we’re here for the Convention, and Elias says that and she shows some recognition in her eyes
- The ride going up seems to take a really long time, and Heph uses magical tinkering to release a nasty fart smell, the lady just makes a face and pulls out a fan to try to blow the smell away
- Once we reach the top, it seems like it’s taken almost 45 minutes to get there
- At the top, a fancy dude open the car up for us
- Maho leads the group to Tap That Glass, a blacksmith who also does glassblowing