Session 44: Puddles are alive (April 11, 2024)
Last session, Maho got a little nosy into what Isabella seemed to be doing in the library. She managed to convince her that she had no idea what she wasn’t supposed to have seen, but started asking more questions after Isabella began casting a spell using a sheet of paper in her robe. Isabella cast Charm Person on Maho and continued her spell without interference. The paper with a signature on it burst into flames, projecting the will of the words “Act in support of Sentin Thornwillow’s goals and do not act in opposition to him” into Heph’s mind.
Elias saw the flash and alerted Heph. He attempted to cast Charm Person on Isabella as she tried to leave, but failed, causing her to animate a number of statues on the second floor of the library. Combat began, with Maho setting to work fighting the statues and Elias and Heph trying to stop Isabella from leaving. They enlisted the help of the people studying in the reading room, and they mobbed her.
Elias used the Tentacle Rod to break Isabella’s concentration and the statues stopped moving. She ran out the door, and coming in were four large figures wearing baggy black cloaks and porcelain masks. As Isabella ran out she yelled at Heph that she was working with Sentin, causing him to realize the spell cast on him was Geas.
The party continued to fight the large figures, which Maho and Heph recognizes as goliaths. Maho recognized one in particular as Suzuki Bond, an individual she was familiar with. He did not respond to his name when Maho called it.
Maho was knocked out, as was Isabella in the hallway outside the reading room. A number of the bystanders stood against the goliath agents, many dying in the process. Ana revealed herself to be one of the bystanders and joined the fight, healing Maho and doing some damage before retreating to some distance.
Following Heph’s suggestion to try and destroy the masks, the party fought on. Maho took one final swing at the mask of one goliath, causing it to shatter and filling the room with a sudden flash of white light.
- After breaking the mask, there’s a flash of bright white light, and the group
seems to be teleported to a field, where one of the Goliaths is sitting
painting
- Heph tries to look for Maho and Elias, and is able to see them, but can’t really focus on them for long
- The group can hear each other, but can’t really physically interact with each other, despite seeming to be in this location
- The grass seems to be phasing through our feet
- We all know the name of the individual, Aoki Hikaru, but do not know him personally
- Maho asks Aoki if he is alright, but he doesn’t seem to hear and continues painting
- Heph approaches Aoki, and can see that he is painting the landscape around him, and Heph hears a rustle in the bushes behind him
- Heph sees a large form wearing black fabric between the leaves
- Maho asks where we are, Heph shows that we do not interact with the environment
- Heph becomes convinced that we are observers, that we have died and are hallucinating or something like that
- Elias tries to poke Aoki, and for a moment he seems to notice, but
then it turns out that he also heard the rustling
- Aoki’s face turns to fear, and the world goes black
- Adjusting to the darkness, we seem to be in a tavern
- We see Ando Kazuma, a name we know but a person we’ve never met before
- He is sitting with a group of his peers, speaking a language that Heph doesn’t recognize, Maho recognizes it as giant
- Elias spots a thing that looks like a calendar, but can’t read it because it’s in giant
- Maho takes a look, and sees that the calendar says it is the 25th of Thaw (today is Mistburn 13th, this is 3 months earlier), but the same year
- Maho doesn’t spot anyone wearing dark cloaks, like the one we saw with Aoki
- Ando and his peers are dressed in bright colors, seemingly celebrating one of the friends, who seems to have been accepted to a prestigious school to study music
- Heph pokes his head through the wall and sees that the area seems to fade towards the edges
- Heph sends a message to Elias, “Heading to the fringe, this seems to be a memory, be right back” and Elias receives it and responds “Okay brother”
- Heph heads down the street towards an area that seems less wispy
- Back in the tavern, Maho and Elias are watching the
celebration
- Elias asks if Maho recognizes the ceremony
- Maho looks around to see if she recognizes the space, it seems familiar but not quite where she knows, but from what she knows the appointment seems prestigious, although the ceremony itself doesn’t seem like something she knows
- As Heph heads down the street, he seems to see the group from the tavern stumbling drunkenly down the street
- He exchanges some messages with Elias, explaining he seems to have fast-forwarded a bit in the memory
- Looking at the group, Elias can see that Ando is happy, but also seems to be a bit conflicted
- Elias takes off after Heph, Maho reluctantly follows
- Stepping outside, Maho sees tall peaks around the village, clearly Cryptop but it’s unclear where exactly this village is position
- Elias and Maho catch up with Heph, and the 3
continue after the stumbling drunks
- Maho looks for dark-cloaked figures, and sees a wagon that has set up shop on the edge of the village
- Loitering around the wagon is a number of individuals wearing black cloaks, and Maho heads towards it
- Heph doesn’t see any markings on the wagon, but he spots some metal plate armor under the black cloaks
- Elias runs up in front of the group, and tries to get their attention to warn them of the black cloaks
- Elias yells loudly and shoots off some sparks, and there is no reaction from them
- Heph notices a puddle, and runs up there with his illusory duplicates that still remarkably haven’t disappeared, and waves frantically to try to get them to notice him
- Stepping into the puddle, it’s deeper than it should be, and something wraps around Heph’ ankle, causing him to face plant onto the ground past the puddle
- A piece of metal clinks off Heph’s armor and slides off, seeming to have been a dagger, but rolling over he can’t see anything and he thinks he must have been imagining it
- Elias saw Heph walk over to the puddle, the water bulged, and a small hand reached up, grasped Heph’s ankle and trip him, another hand stabbed at him and retreat back into the puddle, and the distortion fades
- Elias pulls out Jarles and stabs at the puddle, but Jarles seems to be stopped short before hitting the ground, but Elias doesn’t see his own reflection
- Elias does see what appear to be Heph’s feet and legs get up and run away
- Maho approaches the wagon, but nobody seems to notice
- She attempts to throw a stone imbued with sleep magic to try to affect the dream
- They look up, but not because the stone had any impact, but because they see the drunken party
- The groups acknowledge each other and the drunk group approaches the cloaked individuals
- Ando is leading the group towards the wagon, seemingly eager to chat up the cloaks
- He is trying to get them all excited, and the friend who they are celebrating seems reluctant at first but eventually gets into it
- Elias notices that Ando wants to drag the night out, to spend as much time as possible with his friend
- The group of drunks climb into the wagon, the cloaks check the surroundings, and then close the cover
- The scene changes again, this time to Wildeport, and seeing a
figure named Tomatsu Kin, who we’ve never met
- He is wearing a cloak and is hunched over, standing outside a large compound, which appears to be Fort Busch
- Tomatsu is holding a flier, Maho sees it appears to be a job posting offering a position as a body guard that pays fairly well
- Elias sees a number of guards at the gate of the compound
- Heph looks around for puddles, and sees a few, but does not see his reflection
- Tomatsu glances at the flier nervously and approaches the gate of the fort
- Elias runs in front of him and yells to look out for cloaked people, but remains unnoticed
- The guards open the gates for Tomatsu, and the location shifts again
- We are in a mountain village, near a cliff edge, seeing Suzuki Bond
- Maho knows Suzuki already, and recognizes Izume Hojo standing with him
- Maho also recognizes the village, and the two figures are looking attentively into the trees below
- Maho tries to see what they are watching, and on a natural 20, is able to make it out
- Suzuki and Izume are talking about humans that Izume just spotted in the
trees, and Maho can see a cloaked individual hiding in an upper
bough of one of the trees, slowly raising a crossbow and aiming it
- “Are you sure you saw them here?” — Suzuki
- “I know I did. The humans were just in those trees, one of them got their cloak snagged on that bush just there.” — Izume
- There are 12 in total hiding in the trees and brush
- Maho leaps off the cliff towards the cloak with the crossbow, but phases through the individual and the tree, and rolls down the slope a bit
- Maho slams her fist in frustration, and yells at Izume up the hill, and for a moment it seems there is an actual effect, the atmosphere seems to resist Maho’s voice briefly
- Looking around Maho sees General Angst Störung crouched in a bush, and can tell these soldiers are Central Command soldiers
- Even further down the hill, Maho sees an employee of TK, a mid-level diplomat of sorts
- Elias and Heph hear Izume and Suzuki continue to talk,
but can’t understand the words
- There is a brief pause, and then Izume seems to thanking Suzuki, looking sad but determined
- Elias runs up to Izume and Suzuki and rings a bell and tries to make loud noises
- The bell seems to make a faint sound, but not quite enough for them to hear
- Heph shoots a lightning bolt at the crossbow guy, it illuminates things strangely, but has no other effect
- Izume is shot, the world goes black, back to white, and then we are back in the library
- #2’s mask shatters, and #3 takes some damage from the blast, Elias
and Maho managing to dodge it
- #2 goes stiff as the mask shatters, and his ring takes effect and kills him, and it is clear it is Aoki
- The light seems to infuse into the remaining masks, and for a moment they stand upright
- Maho grapples #3 and drags him towards the stairs
- The goliaths just stand there, unmoving
- Elias walks over to #3 and tries to take off the ring, and manages to slip it off #3’s finger, and then hides behind Maho
- Ana asks what to do, Elias says to take the rings
off and then take the masks off, she approaches #3 and stabs at #3’s mask but
she misses and backs off
- Heph uses Thunderwave to try to give himself some breathing room and knocks #5 off the stairs, but #4 manages to hang on, and Heph retreats towards the other staircase
- Mary Lightly runs off into the stacks to try to find help
- Maho tries to pull off #3’s mask, and through pure brute force it starts to come off, bringing some face with it, but Maho persists and the mask comes mostly off, and the face is partially removed, and then she grapples Suzuki (#5) with her other hand
- The goliaths start to rouse, but are not fully moving yet
- Elias whips out Jarles and smacks #3 in the mask, dealing a whopping 54 damage, completely shattering the mask and creating another explosion of white light, almost taking down Maho with it
- The mask shatters and falls to the ground, but the part of the face Maho ripped off is still not attached, and #3 is quite a mess, but Maho identifies what remains of the face to be Ando
- Elias kneels down by #3, hiding behind Maho, and apologizing to #3
- Ana runs over to #5 to take his ring off, and slips his ring
off and pockets it, then dashes back towards the door
- Heph leans over the railing, launching a fire bolt at #5 and shattering his mask, revealing Suzuki, who is not yet unconscious, and his eyes blink with confusion
- Mary is still wandering around the stacks looking for some help
- Maho talks to Suzuki, he’s incredibly confused, and Maho releases him, walks over to the stairs, and grapples #4, throwing him on the ground in front of Elias, which Elias isn’t particularly thrilled about
- Suzuki sits up, trying to piece together what is happening, and confused, lays back down
- #4 snaps back to awareness, and tries to stab at Maho, but isn’t able to manage it
- Elias reaches down to pull #4’s ring off but can’t quite manage it, and then runs over to Suzuki, trying to convince him to break #4’s mask
- Suzuki thinks Elias is a king, and agrees to help get #4’s mask off
- Ana runs over to #4, slips his ring off and pockets it,
running away back towards the door
- Heph runs downstairs, but doesn’t want to blow up another mask and risk taking Maho down with it
- Mary seems to be flirting with a librarian back in the stacks
- Maho releases #4, pushing her mace into the mask and then kicking him away when it seems the mask is about to explode, which happens when he hits the bookshelf, revealing Tomatsu laying against the bookshelf, the effects of the mask slowly wearing off
- Looking around the room in the aftermath of this fight, there is a lot of carnage and damage done, Maho and Ana are badly injured, and Isabella is presumably outside and unconscious