Session 67: Ash’s Cave (November 13, 2024)
Last session, our heroes recovered from the loss of their friend Rormir in the collapsed rubble of an ancient underground temple. Without much time to lose, however, they set about working with the resistance council to evacuate the tunnels and find a new hiding place for them. The council’s decision to support more reinforcements against Kogar newly-validated, they worked on gathering up civilians and resistance members alike, fighting what Order of Steel members roamed the tunnels in the process with the help of an illusory hag well-versed in the origins of her own mythology.
Upon arriving at the surface, the party decided the best place for the resistance to hide (and also to reach the windmill) may be the Northrun, which would require finding the Root Stone to calm the spirits residing there. They sent John Wick ahead to try and convince the authorities in the Ministry of Unity that the mission was successful and he was the only one who made it out. They then dropped by Elias’s parents house, which was in the nearby neighborhood. His old neighbors Marta and Manaen were outside scoping out the place. It seemed his parents had borrowed Marta’s woodworking tools and disappeared before returning them. The party stepped inside, traveled up the many stories through pool rooms and pool (billiards) rooms and kitchens until arriving at Elias’s old “bedroom” on the roof. In the floor below Heph found a hidden map leading to a cove at the base of a cliff by the sea. Knowing John would still be some time, they climbed down the cliff and found a cavern, protected from high tide by a gradual slope.
After explaining the gracefully-swimming sirens out in the sea to Maho, they entered. Inside they found a room lit by candlelight. Comfortable, expensive-looking furniture filled the space, and shelves overflowing with books lined the walls. At a dining table, looking wild-eyed and disheveled and chomping down on some fish as if it were corn on the cob, were Elias’s parents, Mathias and Victoriias. His father looked up at him in surprise and said “Ellie?”.
- Mathias stands up and brushes bits of fish off himself, and awkwardly moves in
for a hug
- Elias awkwardly hugs back, and Vicki also comes over for a group hug, grabbing Delilas too
- Elias asks how long they’ve been living there, and Mathias hesitantly answers close to a year, but it’s hard to keep track of time
- He seems very surprised to see Elias back, and is curious how Elias found them
- Elias explains the map we found
- Vicki says she hid the map for Elias, so he could find them
- Elias is so proud of his parents for putting a map from their last known location to their current location
- Vicki turns to Maho, and notes how tall she is
- Elias introduces Heph as Junior and Maho as Horny Girl, and his parents as Mom and Dad
- His parents ask if we are Elias’ or Delilas’ friends, and Heph and Maho explain they’re with Elias, who is beaming because he has the most friends in the room
- Elias reveals he does magic by creating a wizard’s hat floating in the air, which he has to step sideways a bit to be standing under properly
- His parents seem surprised and a bit confused, but invite everyone in to have a seat
- Vicki goes to get better food, and Heph asks why they’re eating raw fish
- Mathias explains they have limited resources for cooking, and they are learning how to make do
- Elias tries to eat a puffer fish, and Delilas grabs it out of his hands and throws it away
- Vicki comes around the corner with a cloth covered platter, which is full of high quality salted meat and a jar of pickled vegetables
- Maho pulls out a bottle of wine, and offers it to them as a gift
- Mathias and Vicki pull out some nice goblets and pour the wine, and lay out the food they brought out
- Sitting at the table and munching on the food, Mathias tells us they’ve been
there for a while, and provides a bit of back story as to how they got there
- A cloaked woman came to their house not long after Elias disappeared, and she wasn’t sure if folks would come after them, so she hid them away to protect them
- The woman hasn’t been back, and Mathias hasn’t left, but Vicki occasionally goes topside to keep apprised on what’s going on
- Elias pulls out a medium-sized average-looking book and inspects it, finding a book of old myths and legends
- Elias continues to poke around the books, and finds some notes in the margins, in a handwriting that he recognizes from his pocket watch, and he does a spit take of the water he was drinking
- Heph had a hunch it was Ash’s cave, and tells Elias we should probably find her when we get back to the material plane
- Vicki asks Maho where she’s from, Maho tells her about the mountains, but they don’t seem to understand the other planes
- Vicki asks where Maho met Elias, and they have a whole exchange about how the group has come together
- Vicki and Mathias have lived in their house since they got married, and this cave is like their second house
- They mention the housing market is terrible due to everything being on fire and being ruled by a god-king, and Heph says we’re working on that
- Vicki asks if we want to see her board, Heph says yes, and she leads the group deeper in the cave, everyone grabbing some drinks or food and walking back
- She leads us down a much more cave-like hallway, with some carpets on the
ground but not as much decoration
- We follow her into a larder, where she explains she’s been making trips to the surface to piece things together, and she unveils a mess of pieces of parchment with writing and doodles connected by an impenetrable mess of yarn on the wall behind some boxes
- Heph investigates the board very carefully, and is able to see that it is forming a cogent picture of something, she seems to have been doing a lot of research into King Aeveron and his lineage, and times in history where the old palace was occupied and how previous monarchs dealt with it
- There is also a lot of information about what supplies are needed for the imperial army, although she doesn’t know where the supplies are coming from
- Heph asks her about the secret tunnels mentioned under the old palace, explaining that they may be useful for us very shortly
- She explains that the palace has a long history of being occupied, and the tunnels were used to get monarchs and soldiers in and out as needed, and the book that references them is not specific about where the tunnels are
- She has been investigating and has potentially found a few of the tunnels
- As she looks around trying to make sure nobody is listening, Elias reassures her nobody is around except them and his magical talking sword, and he pulls out his sword and introduces Jarles
- Vicki explains one of the entrances is in the Northrun, and there is also one in a very old tavern near the palace that took her a while to track down, in the wine cellar of the tavern there is a false wall that is likely another entrance
- Elias finally asks his mom about her floating wine cup, and she explains she’s developed some tricks that have helped her sneak around, and she frees up a hand, snaps her finger, and vanishes
- Heph isn’t super impressed and just continues to ask about the tunnels, which seems to confuse her a bit as she didn’t think it worked, and upon finding out it did she is a little sad that she didn’t impress us
- Elias asks how she learned this trick, and she explains she just sort of started doing it, she doesn’t really know how
- Delilas chimes in and telepathically communicates that it must run in the family
- Elias is upset that he had to work hard to study for that skill
- Heph asks if he can poke around to look for a tunnel entrance in
the cave, thinking it’s possible that Ash may have had an entrance
to get to the tunnel, and Vicki and Matty go to clean up from dinner while we
poke around
- Heph doesn’t find any tunnel entrances, and it doesn’t seem that Kogar lives in the old palace
- Heph thinks Ash established this place as a place to hide out, and is really on Elias’ side, given that she hid Elias’ parents
- Elias uses Minor Illusion to make an image of Ash, asking his parents to confirm if she is the woman who helped get them here, and Mathias seems to think it looks like her
- Having some time to rest, Heph spends some time identifying the staff he got from Rormir, and finds that the wood seems green and supple despite being dead, and is a type of wood that he is not familiar with
- Casting Identify on the feather, he finds it is a hawk feather from Karrl, and it feels like it has some sort of ancient primordial magic in it, as well as an energy signature Heph is rather familiar with, there is a chunk of Karrl’s and Rormir’s essence in it
- Heph focuses on making the feather flutter with prestidigitation, and suddenly a stronger gust blows forcing Heph’s eyes shut, and when he opens them again Karrl is perched on the top of the staff
- Karrl is now a bit smaller and more reddish-brown colored, a bit more suited to being a companion for Heph, but he is still undeniably Karrl
- Heph is very happy to have Karrl back, and Elias feels left out, and looks around for Salty, and hears him wheezing from near the entrance to the cave
- Maho looks at Heph’s staff, and notices the wood looks familiar, like the wood that forms the trees near Cryptop, and she points out to Heph what the wood is
- After some additional discussion about where Ash lived and how she might have gotten everything to the cave, the group decides to wait a bit, then meet up with John Wick, then head to the tavern with a tunnel entrance
- Elias is a bit worried about leaving his parents behind, and asks Salty to hang out and keep and eye on them
- Popping out of the cave entrance, Elias sees a couple of armored
people poking their heads over the edge
- Heph uses message to try to convince one of the Jeff Goldblums to come visit the soldiers, and manages to catch the attention of one of them
- Heph ends up ensnared by one of them, and starts trying to walk towards the water, but Maho grabs Heph and throws him against the wall and pins him
- Heph manages to snap out of it, and heads back into the cave, where Elias asks him to help explain to Karrl how to drop the card behind the guards
- Karrl flies out, circles behind the guards and drops the card, and a frost giant appears
- The guards are shocked and fall off the cliff, one falling into the water and one managing to grab on to a tree protruding from the cliff
- Heph attempts to catch the tree on fire with a Fire Bolt, but misses wildly and the Fire Bolt shoots up in the air sort of like a flare
- Maho climbs 20 feet up the rope and manages to knock him off the tree with a stone throw, and he falls into the water
- One of the soldiers manages to avoid being ensnared by the Goldblums, but the other one fails and sinks into the water, being chased by the Goldblums
- With that the group starts to climb back up their rope, Elias moving the frost giant down into the ground and silencing it
- As we get to the top Maho asks what the card summoned, and Elias pulls it out of the ground briefly to show it
- Heph asks Maho to pull the rope up while he removes the piton, and Elias covers the card with a heavy rock to prevent it from being moved
- Moving away from the cliff, we head back to the area where we had planned to
meet up with John Wick, who does end up showing up, right around when he was
expected to
- Seeing us, he picks up his pace, and meets up with us
- John thinks everyone bought his story, but couldn’t find any evidence of the root stone
- He is due for a commendation as a result of the mission success, and Heph suggests he might be able to be an inside man for the rebellion
- We decide to head to the tavern with the tunnel entrance and try to find the tunnel
- John is not aware of the secret tunnels, and has not really spent any time in the palace