Perrinor

Session 48: The owlbear, the owlbear… the owlbear and the owlbear? (May 16, 2024)

Last session, our heroes prepared for their departure from Eken. Elias went to Thong Paradise, a totally normal name for a bow workshop in a universe where canonically underwear doesn’t exist. He spooked the proprietor with his talk of stabbing people, resulting in him grabbing a bow and as many magic arrows as he could carry before Misty Stepping to the roof and away, unfortunately leaving an unintended tip behind.

After saying their goodbyes to Barth, the party headed for the northern border of the city. On their way Karrl returned, showing Heph images of a cordon of Central Command soldiers who seemed to be setting up a perimeter around Sender Manor, discouraging some visitors from arriving. Then, realizing that they had almost forgotten about the goliaths, they located Ana who lead them to an old wine cellar where they were being kept. There, Maho revealed she was half goliath, and she caught up with Suzuki. Suzuki said he was with Izume Hojo when they were attacked, and struggled to remember where she was. The goliaths agreed to accompanying the party to Bad Zamdorf in hopes of undoing some of the harm that had been done, and potentially recovering their lost friends.

All disguised up, the party rented a second horse and began their trek out of the city. After being briefly stopped by some Central Command guards, they left and boarded a Belay Rail car down to the base of the Tischberg, where they would begin their journey through the forest to the spa city where Hexicon was being held.

• Elias finds some background information about Bad Zamdorf in a brochure everyone picked up as we exited the Belay Rail
  • In it is a coupon for a free hot stone massage at Aria and a free drink at Sal’s Castle
• Suzuki and Maho are sitting at the front chatting, Suzuki expressing that it is really lucky that their paths have crossed
  • After some thought, Suzuki seems to recall that the kidnappers thought of Izume as an asset and are holding her
  • She would be useful locating other villages/providing an in to goliath society
  • Suzuki thinks Izume is well guarded, but Maho isn’t too concerned and says she will just smash through whatever the defense was
  • After establishing that Suzuki is better at smashing than Maho, they devise a plan to kill Sentin and then see what is going on at home
• Heph pulls out the schematic for the Lucien Blinds and begins studying them
  • He doesn’t understand the runes, and turns to Maho to ask for help
  • Maho and Elias trade seats, Elias taking over driving the wagon and asks Suzuki if he wants to see a magic trick
  • Woahdoe Boedough looks back, and seems disappointed when Elias wasn’t talking to him
  • Heph explains to Maho that the runes clearly affect the device, but he doesn’t know what they mean
  • Maho recognizes the runes, which are related to enchantment, some are similar to ones Maho has to increase str/con
  • The runes alone are not powerful enough, but combined with the artificer magic they create something greater than the sum of their parts
  • The runes must be physically in the object to work, and given that the masks are smooth they must be engraved internally
  • Maho explains that the runes contain power from the time of engraving, and Maho can tap into the flow of the runes to get their power
  • Heph is able to deduce that the artificer magic imbued in the masks could probably be channeling the effects of the runes to the wearer, and the porcelain material is also important to how this thing works
  • Heph remembers from the museum Arcanum had a “Magic of the Natural World” exhibit, and there was a sign about the magical properties of clay found around Zora’s Furrow
  • Some materials can absorb charms and magic better than others, and the way the material is constructed can also have an impact on how the magic flows
  • Maho has a piece of shrapnel from the masks exploding, and Heph sees some less dense parts in runic shapes, and some clear striations in the porcelain from folding
  • From this, Heph thinks he has figured out how to make a device to remove the mask, he just needs some materials to construct the device, costing a total of about 300gp and a short rest
• Meanwhile, Elias holds his stack of cards out to Suzuki, who pulls out a card
  • It is the Jack of Clubs, and when Elias throws it down a Berserker appears, wearing denim cutoff jeans and sandals with socks, with a He-Man physique, and carrying a club covered in rose bush thorns
  • His name is Thog the Destroyer
  • He raises the club and starts swinging it, Elias yelling that they need to run away, and Suzuki dives away off the hearse
  • Suzuki fluidly rolls after diving off the hearse, pulls out his sword and jumps back on the hearse to stab at the Berserker
  • Around the same time Maho stabs at it from a different direction
  • The swords go right through it, revealing it as an illusion
  • Elias is rolling on the ground laughing
  • Suzuki realizes Elias was playing a joke, and Elias commands the Berserker to float alongside the hearse and run in the air
  • Suzuki turns to Maho, says “you know what we do to pranksters in Hojo”, and he and Maho grab Elias under each arm, tossing him the entire length of the hearse, and he lands on the ground behind the hearse
  • While flying over Heph, he asks for help, Heph just rolls his eyes at him
  • Elias runs back to the hearse, and manages to climb back on
• After a few hours, Maho hears some noise from the brush while traveling, and she sees a humanoid figure following the hearse
  • The figure in the bushes is weirdly similar to Thog, wearing a pelt as a hat/cape, but made out of feathers rather than fur
  • She is fairly large and broad-shouldered, keeping pace with the hearse, she has no weapons but the pelt leads down into claws at her hands
  • Maho points out the figure to Heph and Elias, Elias knocks an arrow, and Maho calls out to her asking her what she wants
  • The woman, noticing that she has been noticed, stands up and stops, and Maho, who has since climbed back into the driver’s seat, stops the cart as well
• The women approaches the cart, as she does she seems to be covered in blood, some of which is likely her own
  • Maho jumps off the wagon and stands face to face with her, and she says “beast hurt, kill it, kill it, attack”
  • Maho tries to get clarification, and she just repeats “kill it, run”
  • Elias commands Thog to draw his axe, and the woman leaps at him and slashes at Thog’s neck, going right through him, steps back and slashes again, now looking confused and frightened, and says “beast, kill it, light, gonna blow, Kogar, kill it”
  • Elias jumps down off the cart, approaching her with his hands up to signal that he means no harm, she tenses up and prepares to strike, but approaches curiously without immediately attacking, and says “kill it?”
  • Elias asks how she knows the name Kogar, and she says “Kogar, kill it, run away”
  • Heph, having sent Karrl out to do some scouting, sees rabbits and foxes, but nothing that strictly could be described as a beast, but there is a cave nearby
  • Elias investigates the woman more closely, noticing that she is wearing no clothing outside the pelt, which is feathered, and has the claws of a bear and the head of an owl
  • She is also wearing a necklace, a rough hempen string with an hourglass dangling from it, with plenty of sand at the top
  • Elias takes out some jerky and hands it to her, she grabs it and eats it, saying “run away”
  • Upon hearing owlbear, she says “owlbear, run away, hurt”
  • Elias asks if she is running away, she is stooped over, looks at the group, then darts off into the woods, taking off towards the cave, Elias following
  • Heph jumps off after Elias, and Maho is confused for a second, then asks Suzuki to watch the cart
  • Suzuki asks if this is normal, and Maho says it seems to be, then follows
• Running after the woman, we approach a hill, that has the cave in the side
  • Elias and Maho notice blood by the entrance to the cave, Maho noting broken branches indicating a struggle might have occurred, and a large number of tracks indicating lots of people, some that were wearing boots
  • The woman ducks into the cave and Elias follows
  • Maho shares the information about the tracks, then she and Heph follow Elias into the cave
• Entering the cave, it heads down, and Maho can see deep into the cave, and sees an owlbear curled up at the edge of the cave that appears to be fairly hurt
  • There are daggers, bedrolls, etc scattered near the owlbear
  • The woman looks back and says “run away, Kogar”
  • Elias follows her, keeping some distance from the owlbear
  • She walks up to the owlbear, which sniffs her, and looking back at the group says “hurt, kill it”
  • She seems pretty comfortable with the owlbear, Maho can tell they are very well acquainted
  • Elias pulls out a potion of healing, and approaches the owlbear cautiously, flipping his cloak around to be a feathered pelt
  • The owlbear hoots/growls a bit as Elias approaches, raising its claws to threaten, but allows Elias to approach
  • Elias uncorks the potion, and uses mage hand to float the potion over to the owlbear’s mouth, it sniffs at it and pulls back a bit
  • Elias pulls the potion back, pulls out more jerky, soaks the jerky in the potion, and mage hands the jerky back to the owlbear, which snaps it out of the air
  • It heals the owlbear a little, one of its eyes becomes slightly less swollen, and the owlbear seems a bit more positive towards us
  • Seeing this, the woman says “beast, attack, kill it, run away, Aelos”
  • Elias recognizes the name Aelos, and says his people have been there
  • Aelos Zinnan is a higher ranking soldier in Kogar’s employ
    • In the Mistguard, specifically
• Elias tries to get the woman to pour the potion in the owlbear’s mouth, she sets it on its back
  • Elias pours a health potion into a waterskin, adds jerky in, and feeds the whole thing to the owlbear, which eats it and heals up a bit more
  • The owlbear stands up a bit shakily and plods over to Elias, and nuzzles its head against him, and Elias cautiously goes to pat its beak
  • The woman does the same thing, and Elias pats her forehead
  • Heph pulls out another health potion, setting it on the ground, and Elias grabs it with mage hand
  • He feeds about half of it to each of them, each of them heal up a bit more
  • Elias explains that Aelos being here is bad news
• Karrl sees 2 more owlbears approaching, uninjured
  • The group decides to stay put, waiting to see how the owlbear and woman to approach
  • The owlbear and woman sniff the air and bare their “teeth”, and Elias pulls out his bow
  • Maho starts to head towards the entrance of the cave, to try to fend off the new owlbears, and Heph sends Karrl back to the cart to try to get the goliaths to come over
  • Maho makes herself giant, and runs down the cave, making a beastial roar as she does
  • This delays them enough to allow the other goliaths to come
  • Karrl convinces Tomatsu and Suzuki to come help, but Ando stays behind
  • Heph reaches out to Suzuki and asks him to hold position at the mouth of the cave, ready to help if needed
• Heph prepares to shoot at the two owlbears with his lightning launchers if they attack
  • Maho, seeing that the owlbears are about to attack, charges the owlbears and attacks the North one
  • The South owlbear swings twice at Maho, landing one blow on her
  • This triggers Heph’s prepared attack, and he lands one crit on the South one
  • At the end of South’s turn, Maho tries to trigger a rune, but the owlbear resists it
  • The woman, who Elias affectionately named Killit, runs up and casts Entangle, making some difficult terrain and ensnaring the North one
  • The North one hits Maho twice, despite being restrained
  • Suzuki and Tomatsu call out and ask if we need help, Heph says yes, and they run in, just out of melee range they throw javelins
  • They both throw javelins at the North one, hitting a few crits and dealing 42 damage collectively
  • The owlbear, which Elias has affectionately named Jerky, moves down the hallway, growling at the enemy owlbears but not yet engaging
  • Elias pulls out a Baby’s First Projectile™, aiming at the North one, aiming at its eye but hitting it in the head, and the projectile grants Elias a crawl speed of 40ft for one minute
  • Elias takes the opportunity to crawl around Heph in a circle, before attempting to hide behind the wall unsuccessfully
• Heph moves across the room, firing two shots at the South one, hitting both of them
  • Maho takes a deep breath and roars, activating second wind and smacking the South one with her maul, attempting to shackle it but not quite managing it, and then smacking it a second time
  • The South owlbear smacks Maho, dealing a good chunk of damage
  • Killit dashes up to the South one, but doesn’t have any actions to follow up the mad dash
  • Suzuki walks up to the South owlbear, tells Maho “watch this kill steal”, then proceeds to miss his first attack, but lands the second one, managing to kill it
• Elias crawl weirdly fast over to Maho and the rest of the guys, and Jerky also approaches the downed owlbears
  • Heph follows Jerky cautiously, trying not to get too close
  • Elias feeds Jerky more jerky, and Killit looks at Elias expectantly, and he feeds her some as well
  • Elias uses Minor Illusion to blur out Killit’s private bits
  • Elias approaches to inspect the hourglass, and she lets that happen, he calls over Heph to take a closer look
  • Heph approaches, feeding Killit some jerky he is also able to take a look at the hourglass
  • On a natural 20 investigation, Heph immediately notices that the sand flows in the same direction regardless of which way the hourglass is facing
  • There is an engraving in elvish, Heph asks Elias to read it
  • Elias is confused how he missed this, but Heph catches him removing the blur a bit and staring at boobs, and Elias gets all defensive and says to Heph “no you’re a pervert”
  • The engraving says “Aelos Zinnan, Sand of the Life”
  • Heph asks Elias what that means, he doesn’t really know, and Heph steps back so Elias can remove the necklace
  • As Elias removes it, there is suddenly another owlbear where Killit was standing
  • Heph remembers back to when she was about to attack Thog, where he saw a tinge of blue around her claws, and sees the same blue as she transforms, and an animal-like unintelligence in her eyes
  • Elias forces the necklace onto Heph’s neck, but nothing happens
  • Heph takes it off, figures out that the sand will take years to run out, and then pockets it until he can spend some time to inspect it
  • Elias steals back the hourglass and runs out of the cave, gets to Woahdoe Boedough and throws the hourglass around his neck
• Heph, Maho, Suzuki and Tomatsu head back to the cart
  • Suzuki asks Maho if this happens a lot, and Maho says yes
  • Ando seems concerned that Elias is moving so fast, and Elias says its okay because he’s doing science
  • Woahdoe Boedough turns into a man wearing a black robe with pointy sleeves and red lining and says “Elias, Woahdoe Boedough, Woahdoe Boedough”
  • Elias repeats it back to him, and they go back and forth a few times
  • The rest of the group gets back, sees the horse as a man repeating Woahdoe Boedough back to Elias
  • Elias takes the necklace off and puts it on Mystery 2, which turns into a naked man with a horse head, and Elias blurs the bits
  • Mystery 2 identifies himself as Mystery 2, and then Elias takes the necklace back off and gives it back to Heph
• The group decides to camp out with the owlbears, and the goliaths stay with the cart by the road
  • Heph, Elias and Maho head back into the cave, and set up camp for the night
  • Heph spends some time inspecting the hourglass, and learns that it is part of a pact with something approaching a god, that is tied to the life of an individual
  • It was given in exchange for a favor, such that the person associated with it will not die until the sand runs out
  • The hourglass is otherworldly, and the transformation of the creatures is more of a secondary effect than anything
  • Heph explains to Elias that breaking the hourglass could help with defeating Aelos, and the group decides to hang on to it a bit before seeing what breaking it does
• Deciding to do some more experiments, Heph puts the necklace on Karrl
  • He turns into a 5ft tall dude with feather skin and a beak/hawk head
  • Karrl doesn’t have much to say, and Heph takes the necklace off of Karrl and puts it on Jarles
  • Jarles doesn’t transform at all and is insulted they think of him as an animal, so Heph takes it back off
  • Putting it on Maho’s katana, it doesn’t transform, but we hear Isabella’s voice again
  • Heph takes off the necklace and puts it away, and Maho sheathes the sword to shut it up
• Maho spots Salty pecking at a sheet covering Ana, and she says we did a nice job with the owlbears
  • She asks not to put the necklace on Salty, and Heph complies
  • Heph and Elias investigate the bedrolls and other stuff left behind in the cave, and it seems it was abandoned in a hurry, and there are char marks on the ground
  • Elias finds 2 daggers, 1 Hexicon pass with the name Kesefeon Giljor, and a pouch with 20gp
  • Elias tells everyone about all of it, except he claims it’s only 10gp
  • Elias gives Heph the Isabella Hexicon badge, and keeps the Kesefeon badge for himself
  • Maho spends a few hours practicing swinging her sword at a tree, trying to learn how to hit the tree from about 10ft away
• Elias and Maho snuggle up with the owlbears, and Heph sleeps on some bedrolls
  • First thing in the morning, Heph creates a set of Eyes of Charming

Referenced in

• Calendar