Perrinor

Session 51: The Wolf in the Woods (June 20, 2024)

Last session, our heroes met someone unexpected: Elias’s actual real-life not-made-up sister, Delilas. She communicated with him telepathically, calling him over for a reunion, only for him to do the historically-un-Elias-like thing of bringing his friends over to confront his past with him.

Delilas explained through her recently-acquired telepathic powers that Kogar Mistwall and Ash were currently in Bad Zamdorf. Kogar had never traveled this far out of the Nor’Southern Isles before, and it seemed he was on the lookout for a weapon to completely crush the resistance and to aid in an invasion of Perrinor with an initial focus on the Saraian Empire and Homeburr. That weapon was the Lucien Blinds the party was also pursuing. Delilas and her small band hoped to interfere with Kogar’s plans if possible, gather intelligence, and if the opportunity arose assassinate him far away from his palace and army. Maho, initially slow to catch up to the conversation, made the point that if Ash knew Elias personally, she may have passed on the identities of his parents to the Mistguard.

After it was discovered that Delilas’s and the party’s missions may be intertwined, they agreed to aid each other. Heph passed Delilas a list of supplies to acquire for his mask-removal device. Delilas informed Elias that Kogar and Ash were staying in Vogue Alley, entirely occupying a building called the Cedar Sash along with a number of Mistguard.

Delilas took her leave, and the party set about trying to find a room before settling in for some spa time. Heph searched for the cheapest lodging in town and came upon “Tertel’s Little Heavy, <:)3”, a small “bed dan berakfist” in the Town. They brought Thom there and met the proprietor, a creepy man named Tertel who showed them to their doll-filled attic chamber, complete with locked chests and a vanity mirror covered with a sheet. Elias climbed to the roof to find a place to sleep, where he found the chimney with a strange sweet smell emanating from it. Maho decided to look for a larger room for her and the goliaths elsewhere and came across Hell’s Shell, a carapskit rider bar with an arm wrestle entrance fee.

The party then met back up in Aria for their massage. Karrl returned to Heph with images of a building in Vogue Alley with curtains over the windows, Nor’Southern Isles banners hanging on the outer walls, and two guards standing watch. Karrl seemed to have seen something else as well, however, but was hiding it from Heph.

• Heph can tell Karrl is hiding something from him, and conveys a feeling of mild betrayal
  • Karrl seems a bit remorseful, but is not remotely convinced to give up what he is hiding
• Entering Aria, it is a classy establishment, with lots of nicely arranged furniture seemingly meant for display only
  • Elias approaches the desk and hands over his coupon to the lady
  • She explains the services they offer, one of which being an eel bath, and Elias tries to get Heph to do it
  • Ultimately Maho agrees to do it, with Elias footing the bill
  • The woman books Heph, Maho and Elias for a throuple’s massage, a mani-pedi for Elias, and the eel bath for Maho
  • The woman rings the bell, and a guy wearing a robe in the style of the teletubbies steps out to do the massage
  • The guy doesn’t love that we are all cut up and bleeding, and wants us to clean up a bit first
  • He hands us some towels and steps out of the room, saying something about a free thing we might be interested in
• The group undresses, Elias pixelating everyone’s privates with Minor Illusion, and everyone rearranges the tables so the heads are near each other
  • After everyone climbs into the bed, the masseuse comes back in the room, carrying a bucket of hot stones and 3 vials
  • The vials are filled with clear, lightly fizzing and bubbling liquid, which he is keeping secret from his employers because he might want to go into business himself
    • He says he learned how to make it from a traveler from the far off land of Arkos
  • Heph remembers Wormwood from Arkos, and thinks that the vials contain something similar, but a different formulation that has slightly different effects, and likely fast acting due to the bubbliness
  • Heph asks if there are side effects, and the masseuse says he doesn’t know of any
  • Elias grabs a vial and downs it, it doesn’t make him feel like he wants to throw up, but he feels a tingling sensation spread through his body, and he immediately feels relaxed and great
    • He gets a long rest
  • Heph passes on drinking it, while Elias starts to calmly talk about how his past has caught up to him but how he doesn’t care because he’s so relaxed
  • Elias’ ranting causes Maho to pass on drinking the vial herself
• The masseuse seems a bit nervous about the party’s state and the past catching up, but he professionally proceeds as if there are no issues
  • An hour passes by quickly, and at the end he brings cold stones for Elias and Maho
  • Maho asks for even colder, and he brings back a bucket of ice
  • The masseuse explains that people normally slap him for putting ice on their back, and Elias jumps up and says “if you want”, but then decides he wants to relax and lay back down
  • After the massage, Elias pockets the remaining vials of Grace
  • The masseuse asks us to leave, because he doesn’t want to be caught in the crosshairs
  • On the way out, we spot people trying to clean out the towels we bloodied
• We cut to a room, Elias is sitting at a table getting a mani-pedi, and there is a tub filled with steaming water and eels, with Maho laying on the top of the water with cucumbers on her eyes getting nibbled on by eels
  • Legally the cucumbers are required, because it’s very upsetting to watch the eels with their big teeth
  • While this is happening, Elias summarizes that we essentially have two avenues that get to the same place, with Kogar and Sentin
  • After some discussion, we decide to find the dwarf we’re supposed to assassinate (Harris Kelner), and try to leverage them to give Lord Jeremias legitimacy to deal with Lucien Dynastic
  • We will also keep an eye on Kogar, but mainly try to avoid him and leave it to Delilas
  • Heph starts to get an anxious feeling from Karrl, and Heph sees him looking to the north nervously, after a minute he takes off and flies north
  • Heph comes back and explains what he saw, and the group decides to head after Karrl
  • Elias pulls out his sword, tips the worker and runs off, yelling “we’re going to murder some people!” while running out
  • The masseuse just so happened to be coming out of his room when Elias does this, and just about faces and heads back into his room
• Elias takes off running from the spa, meanwhile Heph and Maho calmly dress and load up into the wagon, and head off after Karrl
  • On the way, they catch up with Elias, and Maho reaches out of the cart and grabs him, pulling him into the cart as they go
  • Karrl is flying out of the north side of the city, and we follow
  • Elias is on drugs and super distracted by his immaculate blue nails, but Heph notices a shiny object by the side of the road, and he points it out to Elias to grab it with a visible Mage Hand that also has blue painted nails now
  • Elias sees the letters LD engraved on it in Elvish
  • Heph also spots a winged person circling overhead, an Aarakocra scouting overhead
  • Heph passes the picture of the Aarakocra along to Karrl, but Karrl is distracted
  • Heph points out the Aarakocra to Maho, and jumps into Karrl’s senses
  • Elias inspects the amulet some more, it doesn’t seem dangerous but it is giving off a faint aura of magic
    • It seems like it reacts with other magic, doesn’t do anything on its own
  • Heph notices that Karrl is looking at an encampment near the cliff up ahead, which Karrl seems to be flying directly towards
  • Woahdoe Boedough suddenly glows and then starts charging ahead faster
  • Elias can tell that Woahdoe Boedough just cast Expeditious Retreat on himself
• Heph comes back from Karrl, and relays that he is heading to the encampment
  • We keep moving fast, but Elias casts Silent Image to mimic the path under the cart so it looks like nothing is there
  • We rapidly approach the encampment, and spot two tents, each with an elf standing under it
  • One is holding tools like Heph’s, and the other is holding a bow
  • There is a strange device with 4 unconscious goliaths tied up behind it, and a massive red dire wolf in front
  • Karrl circles, flies down and lands calmly on the wolf’s back
• The Elves spot the rapidly approaching hearse, and seem a bit freaked out about it
  • The artificer runs up to the device and rapidly flips some switches on it
  • The bow runs up to the river and points their bow at us, saying “halt who goes there?”
  • Elias says “Hey, you found our bird! Can we have him back?”, which seems to confuse the bow a bit, and he doesn’t want to go near the wolf
  • Elias attempts to hide in the wagon and readies himself to fire an arrow, but doesn’t shoot yet
  • Maho readies herself to leap over the river the moment Woahdoe Boedough gets there
  • The dire wolf paws the ground and growls, then leaps over the river and dashes towards the wagon, Karrl taking flight but remaining circling over it
  • Woahdoe Boedough, with Maho’s direction, runs past the wolf up to the river, drifting to a stop, and Maho launches herself out of the wagon and over the river, landing right next to the device
  • Karrl has stopped really responding to Heph, and Heph climbs down from the wagon, approaches the wolf slowly, and holds out Rormir’s ring towards it, causing it to hesitate, and tells Elias to not attack the wolf
• The bow, seeming to trust the wolf’s instinct, lets two arrows fly at Maho, one of which hits
  • Elias shoots the shot he had ready back at the bow, landing a critical hit with a Cupid’s Little Prick, but the bow saves from the extra effect
  • The artificer continues flipping switches on the device, which starts glowing and lightning starts shooting between the various metal rods, forming a force field around itself, capturing the goliaths and the artificer, and Maho rolls into it as it forms
  • The device emits a rumbling, which shakes the ground, and some rocks seem to break loose, and the tent starts to lean over the edge a bit
  • Elias runs behind the cart, trying to hide but not quite managing it, and takes a shot at the bow, hitting him with a Baby’s First Projectile and causing him to speak in a baby voice for a minute, then Elias takes cover behind the cart
  • Maho taps the force field and discovers it is solid, then uses giant’s might to turn herself large, then slashes at the artificer twice, landing one, then action surges and lands a second hit, trying to grapple the artificer, but can’t do it
  • The dire wolf charges at Heph and snaps at him, but Heph manages to fend it off, and seeing the ring the wolf’s eyes soften for a brief moment, and Heph recognizes the eyes to be Rormir

Referenced in

• Calendar