Session 72: Maho Eats a Mussel (January 23, 2025)
Last session, our heroes stood in the Northrun as it emptied of trees, the spirits making their way to wreak havoc on Kogar’s forces. With Gelian sent ahead to get civilians out of their path, the party decided their next moves. They sent Karrl off to gather Delilas, and just then noticed two naval vessels approaching the island, making their way towards the area of the Old Palace. Heph, being provided Thad’s pants missiles, set about rigging fireworks to shoot at the ships. During the process, Delilas arrived, and a bit of time after her Ana with Elias’s parents. With everyone on the “Penisinsula”, Darryl appeared in the water along with a boat large enough to carry all of them. With Delilas nervous about the fireworks and Darryl eager to see what would happen, Heph fired them off at the ships, missing. Elias had more luck, igniting a barrel of oil on one ship and gunpowder on the other. The ships alerted and heading in their direction, the party decided it was time to leave.
They all started to board Darryl’s ship, but Delilas was unable to, a faint sigil glowing on her forehead. Darryl explained that she hadn’t followed the rules when she stopped rowing after the kraken had knocked Elias unconscious, and she could no longer travel in his ship. Elias said a mournful goodbye to his sister, and asked his parents to stay with her. Delilas passed her mission on to him, and asked him to give Ash a piece of her mind when he finds her. Victoriias expressed concern that Elias would now be carrying out this dangerous mission all alone, to which Maho affirmed that he wouldn’t be alone.
With goodbyes said, promises made, and the island of Dalin situated to become independent of the Lord Emperor for the first time in many years, the party pushed off from shore with the naval ships in pursuit. They explained to Darryl the situation with Kogar, and angered by his destruction of the old ways and powers summoned Bessie the kraken to bring the ships to the bottom of the sea.
Eventually, the party made it back to the shore bordering the vast expanses of grain fields. Maho returned the seashell that she had initially taken before setting off, and found upon looking back that it was now giving off a pale blue glow. She picked it back up and saw that a small mussel-like creature was in the bowl of the shell, pulsing slightly with light. She then began her months-long journey back to the windmill, eventually arriving with everyone else and taking a well-deserved long rest.
The next…morning?…whatever it is here, the party climbed back up the rope, Maho having some fun with gravity, and arrived back at Tertel’s Little Heavy <:)3 earlier in the morning than when they had left. Maho looked up at the sky and noticed more stars than when she had last looked. The party sent Thom off with 3 of the 40 or so resistance members who returned with them to get food at Hell’s Shell, and then woke up a naked Harris Kelner to begin interrogating him. He asked who they were, and Heph said he will be asking the questions and asked Kelner what he wants with Sentin.
- Kelner starts asking more questions, and Heph reiterates that he
needs to answer Heph’s questions first
- Elias is really nice to him, and offers him tea and massages, sending Maho out to get the tea
- He explains that he was trying to make a deal with Sentin, and tries to stand up
- Elias pushes him back down and Heph demands he tell them more
- Heph pushes him to explain why we shouldn’t kill him, and he gives a couple of bad reasons
- Pushing him harder, he starts to make up a story about being a philanthropist
- The group doesn’t believe a word, and Heph starts using Prestidigitation to play with fire and intimidate Kelner
- His ranking of the players is Elias up top, then Heph, then Maho who said some shit about being easy to kill people they don’t know and also didn’t get him tea
- He finally reveals he was the Swordfish’s accountant, and he embezzled money and that’s why he’s wanted dead
- Elias straps knife wielding dolls to his ears and blindfolds him, then the group huddles, tasking Jarles and Karrl to keep an eye on him
- Elias, Heph and Maho huddle and discuss what
to do next
- They decide they probably shouldn’t kill him
- Elias and Heph agree that we shouldn’t just let him go, and Elias isn’t ruling out killing him
- While debating what to do, Kelner unties himself and jumps out the window, managing to quickly climb down the side of the building
- Elias follows, Heph and Maho close behind, Heph casting Feather Fall as the group jumps so the group can glide down safely
- When Kelner gets to the ground he calls over his shoulder that he’s not a bad
guy and not to take running as an admission of guilt
- The group unleashes on him all at once, dealing a total of 59 damage and taking him out in one shot, Maho managing to land a killing blow and store his soul in the sword
- The curtains of a nearby house quickly close, looking like somebody saw but didn’t want to have anything to do with the issue
- Maho grabs the head, arm and rest of the body and stuffs it into a trash can, and Heph uses prestidigitation to clean up the blood
- The group walks through the front door of Tertel’s, and the mannequin is
sitting by the door
- Heph approaches the mannequin and pulls out the stone from the collapsed temple, giving to the mannequin as a gift
- Getting back to the attic, Elias kicks open the door and says “Feedin’ time!”, then closes the door
- About 30 seconds later we open the door again, and the dolls are rearranged, and there’s just a pile of bones where Harris’ body was
- We put both skeletons into the trash can, and around the same time Thom comes back with a few bags filled with food
- He sees Elias putting the last skull in the can, and Thom asks what we’re doing, and Elias says hi like nothing is wrong
- Thom seems a bit freaked out and decides to eat outside the room, and the group joins him and the Eladrin for breakfast
- We decide the important next action is to deal with Kogar before he meets with Sentin in a few hours
- We decide to leave the Eladrin Squadron behind in Tertel’s, and head out to meet up with Delilas’ people in Sal’s Castle, intending to see if they can help us locate Ash, and calling in the Squadron later when we are ready to attack Kogar
- We hear metal footsteps outside, and peeking outside Elias sees a
group of about 20 Central Command soldiers approaching the front of the house
- While debating how to handle the situation, there is loud knocking on the door, and Central Command yells “open up!”
- Given his newfound understanding of fey bullshit, Heph starts opening doors, which still open to brick walls, and Maho notices her shell start to warm up
- Central Command yells out that they have the building surrounded
- Maho tells Heph to close the door, holds out the mollusk, and opens the door, which still opens to a wall, but the creature seems to be straining towards Maho
- She holds it up to her ear, and she hears some squeaking
- The soldiers break the door down, and the Eladrin pull out the weapons seeming to prepare to attack
- Maho holds the mollusk even closer to her face, and it is straining to reach her mouth
- Heph tries to message the mollusk but it just squeaks back, and Maho gives it a kiss
- It glows pink instead of blue like it’s blushing, but nothing else happens
- The soldiers are opening and closing doors downstairs and things are clattering as they knock stuff over
- Elias ushers everyone back into the doll room, and using Silent Image makes an illusion of a brick wall to cover the door and closes it, Heph not muttering the password “monkey balls” so that it stays locked
- The group hunkers down to hide, Elias peeking out the window sees
another 10 guards outside the back of the house
- Maho can’t figure out what to do with the mollusk, Elias looks at her and shoves it into her mouth, and it seems to settle down
- After a moment of hesitation, Maho swallows the mollusk, and feels a knowledge fill her mind, and in her mind she can see every journey she has traveled and every threshold she has crossed, and is now filled with some of the knowledge and power of Darryl
- She connects the door to the attic to the door to Sal’s Castle with the Bidirectional Bivalve and opens it, and through it we see into Sal’s Castle
- Maho leads the way, Heph, Karrl, Elias, Thom, and the 40 Eladrin scramble through the door as fast as possible, managing to barely make it through into Sal’s Castle, the door slamming shut behind them
- Back in Tertel’s, they push through the wall (which has an illusory picture of a clown on it) and break through the door, finding their way into a room full of dolls and a trashcan full of bones, with one unconscious goliath sitting in the corner
- Crashing into the bar, there is one worker sweeping up to prepare for the day,
saying they are closed
- Elias explains our bus just arrived and asks for a recommendation for breakfast
- The worker, seeming a little thrown off by the sudden horde of people with weapons half drawn, and points towards the food court and says some of them might have food
- Elias tips the worker 1gp, which bounces off his head, so Elias picks it up and tucks it into his pocket and dusts off his shoulders, and we head out of the bar
- Outside, some people are walking around and prepping for the convention, opening their stores, and some people drunkenly finishing up their all night bar crawl
- Heph sends Karrl off to scout out Kogar’s hotel
- Elias heads back into Sal’s Castle, and asks the worker if there are other Eladrin, or elves, staying there
- He seems hesitant to tell Elias anything in case the group comes back in, and Elias reassures him that he is not going to attack with with another gold piece, and he tells Elias they are upstairs
- Elias tells the guy it’s a big world and he should go see more of the world (he had said he’s never been further than the food court), and tucks another piece of gold into his pocket, which prompts the guy to say he could go down the street to the barber now
- Elias has the worker lead him to the room, then tells him he can go get a haircut once he sees there’s nothing sketchy going on
- Elias knocks on the door to the room, and the worker leaves and heads back downstairs
- Elias hears frantic activity behind the door, and then a moment later a voice calls out “who is it?”
- Elias responds in a clearly fake high-pitched voice that he is Delilas and definitely not Elias her brother
- Elias uses his Mage Hand to unlock the door, opens it, and it catches on the safety chain, unlocks that and it catches on the backup lock, and opening that finally gets the door open
- A strong hand grabs Elias by the shirt, slamming the door behind
him
- Elias recognizes three people who he knows from the Nor’Southern Isles: Almer, Wyn, and Kel
- Wyn puts a dagger away and says “Elias?”
- Elias says it’s good to see them and hopes he didn’t wake them, and Wyn clarifies that he woke up Almer, and Elias uses Mage Hand to lift up his pants, after which Almer unhands him
- Elias fills them in on what happened in Dalin and that he has a group of 40 Eladrin to help further the cause, but Delilas is still on Dalin and couldn’t make it back
- Elias grabs everyone, and the small room fills up with 47 people
- They start to fill us in on what they know, that Kogar is staying in the Cedar Sash and Ash is also there
- They have been monitoring his movements, and Kogar has been mostly sticking to his encampment, but Ash has been heading out late at night and been returning in the morning, but they haven’t been able to track her
- Ash is usually back by 7am, but Wyn was out this morning and didn’t see Ash return before she headed back
- Meanwhile Karrl is keeping and eye on the hotel, and almost misses a figure working their way in a very convoluted path back to the Cedar Sash, and Karrl is able to spot long white hair and amber eyes