Session 76: Heph’s Hallunication (February 27, 2024)
Last session, our heroes regrouped after their fight with Aelos Zinnan and the Mistguard. Heph called Ash back, and they set about licking their wounds and cleaning up before the fight was discovered. While carrying one Mistguard back to the empty building, Maho heard the sound of approaching metal boots. Elias turned her invisible before the Central Command soldiers could see her, disguised as Ash, trying to hide a body. But just then, a hail of arrows was unleashed from a nearby rooftop, driving Central Command back. One individual approached the party from these mysterious plain-clothed interlopers who Maho recognized as Markus Edelmann, “The Dagger of Laugen”, a tough-looking man with the tattoo of a dagger on his cheek who worked for her ex boss Tyvus Kenig. Maho whispered his identity to Heph, who on a nat 1 insight impressed The Dagger with his knowledge.
Markus offered them a safe house, and they followed him to an empty building which served as a front for an old children’s clubhouse. Maho, still disguised as Ash, emerged from invisibility to surprise attack The Dagger with Aelos’s old sword, catching him very off guard and making him immediately impressed with her skills. Elias tried to one-up her by revealing the secret entrance to the inner safe house, but Markus seemed pretty set on Maho being in charge.
The Dagger provided them with their reward for killing Harris Kelner, sent through him from the Swordfish. He also explained that after Maho associated the agent goliath attack on the Eken Institute Library with TK, they and Central Command have been having an increasing number of skirmishes, both legally and otherwise. He said that the party’s continued campaign against Sentin was not necessarily against the interests of Herr Kenig, since he had already made his money by setting up and facilitating the deal in the first place, and allowing Central Command unfettered access to Lucien Blinds could be too much competition for him. The party discussed, offering up the possibility that TK also help take out Kogar, a player who it seems the criminal organization was not previously aware of. This discussion led Heph into a bit of an ethical crisis, as he realized just how much this adventure had taken him from his innocent roots.
We left off with Markus handing Heph a Sending Stone to get in touch when he is ready, and leaving. Maho asked if a noticeably struggling Heph was going to be okay, and he attempted to justify the acts he had committed. The party decided to take the opportunity to rest, talk, and plan what comes next.
- Elias jumps in to correct the record and explain that he wasn’t
trying to take credit from Maho, just trying to also be impressive
to the Dagger
- Heph takes the moment of them briefly arguing to step outside and get some air
- Elias says he should go check on Heph, and Maho goes to go with him, but Ash calls him back to say they need to talk
- Elias sends Maho off to talk to Heph, and Elias heads to talk to Ash
- When Maho gets outside, she doesn’t see Heph anywhere for a moment, but then she spots him
- She calls after him but he doesn’t answer, and she catches up to him, and has a brief conversation with him where Heph explains he needs to find his dad and he wants to do it alone, but Maho seems reluctant to let him go by himself
- Heph starts to walk off, and Karrl relays a location to Heph of what seems to be his father, and he starts heading off towards Tertel’s Little Heavy with purpose
- Maho follows at a brief distance, attempting to escort him
- Back at the safehouse, Elias is sitting with Ash in
awkward silence
- Elias tries to start up a conversation, saying the material plane is sort of alright, to which Ash agrees
- She asks how long Elias has been in the material plane, and he explains it’s only been a couple of weeks, if you don’t count the time he spent back in the Nor’Southern Isles
- They express some discomfort about how consistent time is in the material plane, and Ash asks Elias if he is more punctual now, which he isn’t
- Elias asks Ash how she’s finding the material plane,
and she thinks it’s okay, although she is very confused by the sleeping
- And the frogs are a lot less dangerous
- She asks Elias if he’s looking forward to meeting her dad, Elias says no, but it’s very awkward because he implies they are a thing but then realizes he doesn’t want to imply that
- Meanwhile, Heph is heading into the area of town with Hell’s
Shells, where Karrl spotted his dad head inside
- Heph decides he doesn’t want to be followed, and ducks down the next alley he finds and turns invisible
- Maho follows down the alley, but is not able to spot him, and she spends a couple of minutes going up and down the alleys, trying to find him
- She climbs up to the roof and spots Karrl, and Heph instructs Karrl to start to lead her back towards the safehouse, away from him, and Maho follows on rooftops wherever possible, not noticing numerous agents of TK patrolling roofs and keeping track of Central Command watch her go by
- She also doesn’t notice the Dagger watching her from a rooftop, thinking she is a genius and masterful at what she does
- Heph drops his invisibility and heads into Hell’s Shells to find his dad
- In the biker bar, last night’s partiers are still present, some of whom are
just now waking up, and Heph sees Spraus awkwardly
trying to get the bartender’s attention
- Heph heads up to the bar and sits next to Spraus, yelling at the bartender to pay attention to his dad
- Spraus is shocked to see Heph but pats himself on the back for finding Heph
- Heph asks him why he’s here, and he explains he was trying to find Heph
- He asks Heph why he’s there, Heph says he’s there to kill some people, and after a moment of Heph staring him down, calls the bartender to get some drinks, with much more confidence and authority
- Back in the safehouse, Elias and Ash are still talking
- Elias is telling her about how he sent the trees from the forest to go after the palace, although Ash doesn’t seem to quite believe him
- She seems glad things are maybe on the up and up back home, and Elias explains he’s worried about how quickly Kogar would respond to that
- As far as Ash has heard, he is unaware of the uprising on Dalin yet, but she hasn’t talked to him today
- Ash seems to be circling a topic she wants to talk about but is nervous to bring up, and Elias prompts her to talk about it
- In response, she asks “why the fuck aren’t you mad at me? I would be so much more mad at me”, very perplexed as to why Elias isn’t more upset with her
- Elias gets a dark look on his face and turns away dramatically, saying he blamed himself for what happened for over a year, he thought it was his fault he trusted her, and he was the one who made the mistake
- He’s not mad at Ash because he got more than enough of that out of his system, and he’s just glad that Ash is the person he originally thought she was
- She takes a breath and says “oh, that’s heavy”
- Ash explains she also blamed herself for what happened, and asks Elias if that makes him happy, and to think hard about his answer
- She made the pact and has been trying to figure out what her father is up to to try to make up for her mistakes
- Elias expresses they can learn from their mistakes together, and leans over and puts his hand on hers
- Maho is jumping from rooftop to rooftop, following
Karrl back to the safehouse, feeling very clever for realizing she
could follow Karrl to Heph
- A few rooftops in front of her, she sees a comfortable looking couch, with a side table and potted fern next to it, with a nice well-worn rug in front of the couch, and someone who kind of looks like Tertel is sitting on the couch
- This person is less stooped over and wearing a different outfit than the Tertel Maho knows, and is wearing worn leather traveler’s clothes sitting comfortably on the couch
- Maho approaches him and asks if he’s seen a gnome in heavy armor, and the man replies he has not, the last he saw the gnome he gave him a good gift
- Karrl flies in and lands on Maho’s shoulder as she realized that this man is Tertel, he has a different manner and accent so it took her a bit to notice
- He explains it is his wandering outfit and he is between places, so he should look the part
- Maho apologizes for her part in the loss of his home, but he explains moving is part of life, and he is always going to be moving, and Maho seems to get it a bit from her trips through the wheat fields
- Tertel asks what lead Maho to take her long walks through the wheat field, and she decided the simplest approach was to just take the direct path, people beat around the bush too much and just going for it might get us there faster
- Tertel understands desiring the journey, and asks Maho to sit, with her friend
- He asks why Maho is with Karrl, and she explains that Karrl answers to Heph and she was following him to try to find Heph
- Maho sits, and Tertel continues on to tell her that her friend -- Maho interjects to ask which one
- Tertel is talking about Heph, and says that he knows a wanderer when he sees one, and Heph is currently attempting to get from one place to another, and is a bit lost in the middle
- Right now he is attempting to see if he can arrive somewhere
- Maho notes that she guesses Heph needs to sort some stuff out, and Tertel says she also has something to sort out, and asks if she has any more of the wine
- He picks up two wine glasses from the end table that were definitely not there before, and offers to have a drink with Maho and talk
- In Hell’s Shells, Heph has ordered two goliath-sized ales
- He says to Heph that we should probably talk, and Heph launches into a huge list of everything that has happened, and then downs half his glass of ale
- His father takes it all in, says it’s going to be that kind of situation, then downs half of his ale as well, and seems remarkably stable after doing so
- Heph explains he sought out his dad because he needed to talk through everything
- Spraus has a brief moment of panic thinking Heph might be going to prison, but Heph thinks he might be okay because Central Command is also criminal
- Heph then goes into the whole story about Harris Kelner, interspersing details of their trip to the Fey Wild into the story, which is quite a bit for Heph’s dad to take in
- We finish the drinks and order more, and while waiting Spraus notices some folks waking up and excitedly taking some drugs which look like brown ground powder in a bag
- Back in the safehouse, Ash is awkwardly looking down as
Elias puts his hand on hers
- Elias pulls his hand back and apologizes, and she stammers a bit awkwardly saying it’s okay, and reaches out and awkwardly pats his hand in return
- Elias tries to fight off the awkwardness by saying they should get his friends and figure out how to take down Kogar
- Ash is really weirded out by Elias calling Kogar by first name, and Elias asks what to call him, and Ash suggests it’s just easier to call him Lord Emperor
- Elias reminds her he isn’t actually the Lord Emperor of all the Nor’Southern Isles, so they settle on calling him a Count
- If they are calling Kogar a Count, then that would make Ash a Countess, so Elias calls her Countess Ash Mistwall, which she hates, so he goes back to calling her Ash
- Elias decides if they are going to talk intel, it’s best to get his friends back in the room, and he goes to step outside to get Heph and Maho
- He finishes explaining how stable and sturdy they are, then upon not seeing them, comes back inside and notes they are now missing
- Ash expresses that Elias has really rubbed off on them, and then Elias heads out to try to track them down, and with Ash’s help starts following Heph’s footsteps
- Tertel is holding out the glasses, and Maho uncorks the wine and
pours it into the glasses
- She asks him what is next for him, and he replies that he will wander for a bit, perhaps head back to the other side of the Shroud
- He mentioned it had been a very long time since he had last tried that variety the first time Maho gave it to him, and he emphasizes it has been a very very long time, and the wine reminded him of Hojo and he might head there
- Maho mentions Sentin has been kidnapping and enslaving her people, and Tertel says he’s heard that, and also heard she’s been doing something about it
- Maho asks how he’s heard it, and he explains he likes to keep tabs on the guests in his home
- She continues to explain that we are trying to take him down, and it turns out he’s a bitch who just likes to run away, so Maho is gathering all the help she can
- Tertel asks what she plans on doing after defeating Sentin, given that she now doesn’t have a job, and she left Hojo
- Maho hasn’t thought that far ahead and doesn’t have an answer, and Tertel expresses that he likes that Maho is a very one foot in front of the other type of person
- Maho says she has learned her friends are in the ACE, and she might try to do something with that after it’s all over
- Tertel asks if she knows of Bloody Mary, Maho has heard of her; Tertel has been keeping an eye on her but she and Maho would probably get along well
- Maho randomly asks about “The Hermit”, and Tertel says she probably isn’t asking rhetorically, so he explains he is “The Hermit”, a powerful Archfey
- Maho explains that we ran into one of his “guys”, Aelos, and Tertel is happy Maho saw his fate through
- Aelos hunted a unicorn and brought it to Tertel as a trophy, and Tertel was upset about him killing a unicorn, so he gave him a boon that was more of a curse
- Maho’s response to his “boon” is that it is pretty fucked up, and Tertel says “thank you, he wasn’t a good person”
- Maho seems relieved she and Tertel are on the same side, and then she asks about Hooded Beth
- A bit of a shadow falls across his face at the mention of that name, and Tertel says he hasn’t seen her in a long time, she has designs she likes to see to their ends and likes to plan far ahead
- Tertel doesn’t like to plan that far ahead, he’s much more like Maho
- Maho explains her friend’s girlfriend made a deal with Hooded Beth, and Tertel says we should all be very careful
- Tertel expresses that Maho leads a much more interesting life than him, but the last time he was in Hojo was a much more exciting time in his life, the folks there were much bigger and could drink a lot more
- He mentions there are a couple of giants around now, and Maho realizes he is referring to Jörnann
- Tertel says Jörnann’s sister is also here, and she is recently awake, but Maho has not run into her
- Maho asks if the giants have any stake in the Sentin thing, and Tertel says they don’t, but Maho might be able to give them a stake
- Tertel notes it is interesting that these ancient creatures, nearly gods, are awakening around the same time as everything else happening
- Back in the bar, the two guys are doing some drugs, and Heph and
Spraus are waiting for their drinks
- Heph is breathing heavily having been ranting for a bit, and Spraus is thinking
- After a bit, he says the Kelner incident is in the past, and asks what Heph is trying to figure out
- Heph mentions he doesn’t want to turn into Sentin, and he mentions that he had a talk with Leo, which his Dad takes in stride remarkably well
- Spraus continues to note that Heph can tell Sentin is evil, and what he needs is a better way to get an outside perspective
- Heph mentions Rormir used to give that perspective, and Spraus suggests hallucinogenic mushrooms as a way to get that perspective
- Heph approaches to two people doing drugs and asks to buy their drugs, they offer to sell them for 5gp, and Heph pays them 10gp and comes back
- Spraus notes they’re not as pure and well refined as what he could do, but they would work
- He wants Heph to take the drugs here with parental supervision, so he can chaperone the trip
- He turns to the bartender and tells him to make sure they aren’t disturbed or Heph will kill him
- Spraus tells Heph to talk a little bit to get out of his own head, and the two of them sit on Heph’s utility seat belt and take a carefully measured portion of shrooms
- Elias is tracking Heph with Ash, and
Ash notes that being out in the open is a really stupid idea
- She starts to spiral a bit, panicking that her dad will find them
- Elias offers to disguise her, and uses Minor Illusion to give her a big mustache, and she starts laughing, and says it is perfect, no one would be able to tell it’s her
- As they are walking, Ash turns to Elias and says she needs to deal with needing to be okay that they’re going to stop and maybe kill her dad, but she continues to say she doesn’t think she’d be super welcomed back home after that’s done
- Elias explains he made a deal already, that he wouldn’t show his face in Dalin again, maybe killing the Count Emperor would change that, but hard to say
- Elias continues to explain he’s established himself in the material plane, and if she can’t go back she could probably stay in the material plane with Elias
- She wants to get a job, and Elias is confused why, and Ash says it’s because she is responsible, and Elias mutters “i guess it would never have worked between us”
- This makes things quite awkward and they walk in silence for a while
- After a bit, she expresses that she would like Elias to get to know the real her, and she needs some help learning to live like a normal person, rather than a princess
- Elias says Heph is the responsible one and could probably help her figure it out
- She clarifies she wants to learn to live as a vagabond criminal type, and Elias then offers to help her, which is what she seems to have wanted in the first place
- Suddenly Ash, squinting up into the sky a bit, notices Maho sitting in the air on a rooftop, and Elias calls out to her
- Maho is sitting on the roof with The Hermit, and he asks why she
left Hojo anyway
- Maho explains it wasn’t really by choice, they didn’t take kindly to her human dad, and they needed to go, and her mom stayed behind
- Tertel asks if she’s been back since, and she says she hasn’t, it’s a tough journey and she left when she was young
- Tertel seems surprised by the amount of effort she’s putting in a save a place she hasn’t been to in a long time, and Maho explains she had friends there that are still important to her, and at least one of her friends is caught up with Sentin
- Tertel offers to point Maho to Izume, which Maho is very interested in, and Tertel says he’ll make sure Maho finds her way
- Tertel goes on to say how many people make deals with Archfey, and he likes that Maho made him offer his help, and felt no need to ask for it
- He notes Maho is genuinely in this because she feels the need to help and does not want any personal gain from it
- She explains there is a lot at stake, and Heph and Elias are working hard to see things through
- Maho notes the people she has killed are not good people, and Tertel agrees
- He tells her that if she needs to ask anything from him, she knows where to find him, and he stands up from the couch
- Maho seems reluctant to make any sort of deal with him, and Tertel explains we have already been really nice to him, and he pulls out of the chunk of stone Heph gave him
- Maho feels a bone-chilling cold as he pulls out the stone and says he’ll be seeing her around, and then she feels a warmth push away the cold
- She throws up the mollusk, and is suddenly sitting on an empty rooftop, Tertel is nowhere to be seen, and she hears Elias calling out
- Moments later a rope appears above the roofline, and Elias and
Ash climb up
- Ash notes that Maho just threw up, and Maho says they caught her at a bad time
- Elias asks if she’s alright, Maho looks like she’s just seeing an archfey, and Ash chuckles
- Maho explains that she was talking to Tertel, he was all dressed up and said he was moving
- Elias is confused where Tertel went, and Maho just shrugs and said he was just here
- Elias suspects Maho was doing drugs and asks her if she was
- Heph and Spraus are leaning back on an invisible
couch, the bartender and a few other patrons of the bar watching us curiously
- Heph is concentrating really hard, trying to use his intellect to force himself into a psychedelic experience, but it is not working
- As he is concentrating, he hears a voice he recognizes next to him say, “you know, it doesn’t work if you try so hard”
- Heph opens his eyes and finds himself standing next to Leo the Grammarcist, and says “i dunno, it seems to have worked”
- Looking forward, Heph sees his body floating in the air on the invisible couch and Heph’s dad with his eyes open, darting around a bit
- Leo is a bit indistinct, and there is a trail of mist that seems to trace back to the bracer on Heph’s wrist
- Heph has a very intense conversation with Leo, where Heph ultimately concludes that he needs to make his decisions based on the cost they have, and to ensure that the cost never gets too high, which is where Sentin probably went wrong
- Towards the end of the conversation Heph gets very distracted by food, after Leo mentions stew
- Elias and Maho approach Hell’s Shells, and realizing
the tracks lead there, and they head in
- They see Heph and his dad on the invisible couch, clearly tripping
- Elias can swear he can see a small wisp of steam get sucked into Heph’s bracer
- As they take in the scene, Heph stands up, the couch disappearing and his dad dropping to the floor, and he turns to the bartender and says “bring me stew. Please 🙂”