Session 77: Heph makes some phone calls (March 13, 2024)
Last session, our heroes took a moment to breath after the Dagger left the safe house he had guided them to. Heph said he needed to step out for a breath of air, but Maho followed a moment later and discovered he was gone. She tracked him through Bad Zamdorf, but he told her he needed to talk to his dad on his own. Eventually, Heph turned invisible, and Karrl started leading Maho back to the safe house.
We then had three separate separate conversations. Elias and Ash got some time alone to catch up, going over what happened in the Nor’Southern Isles, their shared blame and guilt for what happened, and beginning to broach some unspoken things between them. And it wasn’t even a little bit awkward. Elias suggested that it would be best for Ash to share the intel she had gathered on her father with the rest of the group, and they took off looking for them. On the way they discussed what they want to do when this is all over, maybe staying in the material plane.
Maho met Tertel on a rooftop. He turned out to be The Hermit, the archfey who had given the hourglass to Aelos. They touched on The Hermit’s past visit to Hojo at a time when “the people there were a lot bigger”. He told her to be careful about Hooded Beth, and that there were a couple giants in town in Bad Zamdorf, as well as a giant treasure nearby. The Hermit was impressed by Maho’s devotion to the cause she was fighting for, and by the fact that she never once asked him for a favor throughout their conversation. He offered his help if she needs anything from him, and in response to her reasonable reluctance, said she and her friends have already given him much, holding out the piece of temple Heph had given him and causing a cold chill to blast through Maho. He disappeared, his offer to help still hanging in the air.
And Heph went into the carapskit biker bar Hell’s Shells and found his dad attempting to order a drink. Heph told him he’s in town to kill some people, a conversation which led Spraus to down a lot of ale and attempt to provide fatherly wisdom which he was very out of his depth for. Grasping for ideas, he suggested doing hallucinogenic mushrooms, which he had done in his youth, and Heph bought some off a couple of recently awoken bar patrons, sat with his dad on the Seat Belt, and went on a trip. The mushrooms literally allowed Heph to step outside himself, meeting Leo the Grammarcist. Leo talked about a defining moral problem of his time, his opposition to oragasts, and Heph immediately interjected with a counterpoint citing Jarles coming into his own. Leo tried to impress on Heph that this demonstrated he was capable of making the correct decisions himself, but that he needed to carefully weigh his options and priorities, and be careful that achieving his own goals did not come at too great a cost.
Heph woke up craving stew, and as his Seat Belt deactivated, Spraus fell to the floor, and Elias and Maho entered the bar, he called out to the bartender, ordering some.
- Heph helps his Dad up and gets him settled into a seat while
waiting for the stew
- Spraus seems to be struggling a bit, he’s a bit out of practice with drugs
- Elias and Maho come join us at the table, and Elias says hi to Spraus
- Spraus offers to buy them drinks, and Elias asks him what the most expensive thing on the menu is, but Spraus doesn’t really know, just saying that the large ales we had were pretty expensive
- Elias decides to order himself some mimosas, and the bartender asks if it needs to be orange juice
- Elias wants it to be citrus, and after some back and forth ends up asking the bartender for the cheapest clean liquid he has
- He gets some liquid from barrels, goes into the back and does some stuff, and then comes back out with liquid with unmixed reddish stuff in it, Heph cleans some cups and flavors the liquid, but Maho starts drinking it before he finishes
- It is surprisingly sweet, but it’s not bad, and Maho seems to be able to stomach it alright
- Elias drinks one after it’s flavored to taste like a mimosa, and drinks it seemingly without any ill effect
- Heph and Spraus also drink the liquid without any issue, and Ash downs it without waiting for flavoring and asks for more
- Heph picks up another glass with a bit leftover, and being unable to figure out anything about the liquid, downs the rest of it
- Elias asks about Leo, and Heph explains a bit about his
hallucination, and Elias asks about the wisp of smoke
- Realizing that a piece of Leo’s soul might be in the bracer, Elias pulls out Jarles to try to tap it, and it just thunks
- Heph asks Jarles what his quality of life is, from 1 being so bad he wishes he never existed to 10 being he loves exploding heads
- He replies that he is actually quite hopeful for the future, he loves all the eyes and wants to do everything he can to get more eyes which is kinda like his job, and he eventually concludes he’s at a 5
- He would like to find his old mistress and ideally get some more autonomy
- Heph turns the conversation back to Spraus, asking who
he spoke to, and when Spraus objects the whole group turns their
attention to him
- He talked to Bongle the Combustive, which is a name that is familiar to Heph as a mad scientist type who was into alchemy
- He invented a lot of things, but 99% of them were by accident, and experimented on himself quite a bit
- Heph asks him if they had a good chat, and Spraus responds it was a decent conversation despite one or both of them being on fire for most of it, and Bongle suggested he try mixing lots of random things
- Heph suggests he really should head back to Ivalgo, and probably should call Amble to check in with her
- Heph suggests Spraus could hang out for a day or two and visit Hexicon, but should stay away from the evil people
- Elias, realizing Spraus is not great at reading people, draws him a rough sketch of Sentin, who Spraus recognizes from seeing around town
- Heph gives Spraus the beacon to send a message home, while Heph turns to Elias and Maho to ask what they’ve been up to since he ditched them
- They ask Heph a bit more about what happened, and Heph
tells them his main takeaway is that we probably shouldn’t have killed Kelner
- Elias and Maho don’t quite agree, and they debate for a while, and agree to disagree
- Elias says he and Ash were just catching up, and Maho says she ran into Tertel
- She found out he is a powerful Archfey, and he offered help, but that might not be a good idea
- Tertel also mentioned Sarnann, and Heph recalls stories that Jörnann built the ground of the world, her sister Frejnann hung the cloth of the sky, Sarnann made the water, her brother did the plants, and her father did the people
- Heph says that while the giant thing is really interesting, the Kogar/Sentin situation seems a lot more pressing, and Elias agrees
- Their meeting time is approaching, and Elias suggests it might be a good time to try to sneak in and rescue Izume
- We decide to head over ASAP and stake out Sentin’s hotel to wait for him to leave
- As we finalize the plan, the goliaths wander back into the bar, and Suzuki notices Maho and points at her, surprised that she is larger than she was before
- Maho tells them to pull it together because we are going to save Izume, and despite drinking all night most of them seem up to it, and they get ready to get going
- Heph approaches Spraus, who is just sitting on the
floor in the corner, with the beacon out, staring off into space
- The ships have been landing in Arkos and Passtown, and the last thing Spraus heard is that the ships were approaching Ivalgo
- Realizing Maho’s mollusk could get us back to Ivalgo quickly, the group debates what our next step should be
- Ash fills us in on the ships, Kogar has set his sights on expanding his empire further, and is launching ships into the material plane to get a feel for it
- His plan is multifold: The Shivered Sea is peaceful, making it a good target, and he is hoping his initial invasion to create enough shock and give him some political power
- Kogar is trying to figure out how to control where the Nor’Southern Isles appear, which would make invasion much easier, and he believes he can get that power from the giants
- We decide we probably need to stick to our original plan, but try to work out some contingencies
- Heph calls Bloody Mary and tells her “Heard there
is an invasion. How are things in Arkos? How big is the invading
force? PS I figured out some shit with mirrors”
- Heph hears a voice from behind him say “ah, you have been playing with mirrors haven’t you”, and taking off Aelos’ shield find Bloody Mary reflected in it
- She cocks her head at Heph and says “you have been interacting with your spectral double and you didn’t kill him”, and Heph responds he and Pheh are doing an experiment about having double the autonomy
- She notices Maho, and Heph introduces Maho, and Maho reveals that Tertel said Maho would get along well with Bloody Mary
- She doesn’t recognize the name “Tertel” but she smiles when Maho calls him The Hermit, and she laughs and asks Maho if she made a deal with him
- Maho says no, but she is pleased to meet Mary, and Maho is a fan of the ACE
- Elias asks about Jesus, and she responds that Joshy is still a bit troubled but he brings in the crowds
- She asks what we know about the invaders, and Heph gives her a brief rundown of Kogar and what we know, and she says there were something like 6 ships that landed
- She seems not sure which side she’s going to side on, and Heph tries to convince her that she doesn’t want to be under these people, and she takes it under advisement, but Heph doesn’t try too hard to convince her because he doesn’t really have any leverage to convince her one way or the other
- Telling her we won’t be able to perform if the invaders take over seems to help convince her a bit
- Elias tells her the invaders are confused by straight lines and don’t understand magic
- Heph pulls out the stone for Governor Literi
and tells him “Invaders coming, are confused by straight lines and magic,
leverage underground network if they are alive, will be easier to stop them
early, good luck”
- He responds “We saw some ships, hold on, you know more than me, I’ll try to reach you for more”
- Heph thinks for a moment, and calls The Dagger “Urgent development in The Shivered Sea, can you meet us at Hell’s Shells as soon as possible”
- He responds “looking forward to it”
- Heph explains he is trying to see what resources TK might be able to access to help the problem in The Shivered Sea, but Elias is nervous more bad actors may try to take advantage
- While debating this, Elias notices The Dagger approach stealthily, and pointing it out to the group, we all turn and stare directly at him, and he pretends he meant to be walking another way, and we all just watch him try to awkwardly hide
- Eventually he gives up and walks up to the group, and asking how we knew, Heph explains that Maho is just that good
- Heph ends up making a deal with The Dagger to share information, and The Dagger reveals that they are not big fans of Kogar, so Heph reveals there is an invasion happening in The Shivered Sea and it’s in TK’s best interest to help mitigate the damage from that
- Elias reframes the situation and explains to The Dagger that helping out in Ivalgo could get him into the Governor’s good graces, which could be beneficial to TK
- The Dagger decides our business is concluded, tells Maho it’s been a pleasure to work with her, and heads out
- Heph receives a sending from a woman’s voice he doesn’t recognize:
“Uh, this is, okay I think this is working. Okay, um, my dad wanted to reach
out to you, the governor, he wants to know-”
- Heph responds “know what? You need to be more concise”
- It is followed by another sending from a male voice he doesn’t know: “Uhh, what my sister was trying to ask is Dad wants to know where you are so we can get over there and have a-”
- Heph responds “We are in Bad Zamdorf, at Hell’s Shells. Get better at using sending, conciseness is key. Do you want to have a picnic?”
- Heph knows the two were likely Paula and Paulo Literi, the governor’s twins
- Heph tells his Dad to get back to Ivalgo as quickly as possible, and find the Pegs Leg Steve on the way home, and tell them to cause chaos back with Kogar’s ships in Ivalgo
- Heph has Spraus call on Isabella’s sending stone “stupid says what?” and we hear Sentin’s voice respond “what?”
- Spraus says goodbye to the group, and borrowing some money from Heph, gives Heph one last hug and heads out, seeming to brush past a large horse with a black coat on the way out
- The group reunites with Woahdoe Boedough, and gears up and starts to make their way towards Sentin’s hotel