Session 31: What Souls Are Worth

The Devil's Own Luck

Summary

Wand Haggling

The Floof

Anything bigger?

The Gambler

I said demure!!!

Shattering the Coin

The Shaper of Ponds

The Ring Merchant

What are the odds?

The Devil's Own Luck - Alternative Version

The party returned to the Beetle Bazaar to spend their plundered jink, threading through a string of strange merchants and witnessing Unit 137's geometry-themed upgrade -- a silver pentagram on his forehead and a freshly summoned lemure, promptly named Happy. Sent to seek leave from Ribcage's new ruler, they reconnected with Xarannos at the Citadel of Cinders, who confirmed Zelza had been eaten by Bel and explained the moral economics of soul coins, wincing over an innocent girl who'd sacrificed herself for her brother. Diedric clocked the implication immediately. In their curtained suite at the Gymnasium of Steam, they sorted the Moss Hag's thirty-three coins, identified three innocents, and watched Unit 137 lance each with hellfire to release the souls in silver light. Morning brought another shopping run -- a sharp-toothed gambler who vanished into a sudden inrush of air, a reed-thin pantomime ring-merchant, and a split-orange-bearded dwarf with an actual Selunite Shield of Vigilance looted from a Blood War battlefield.

XP Award

• 600 XP for navigating the Beetle Bazaar's stranger merchants and emerging better-equipped
• The Rule of Three: 333 XP for three soul coins shattered with hellfire
• 2000 XP for liberating the innocent souls from the cambion's scheme, undoing the harm at its end-state
• Total: 2933 XP
• Current XP: 61631 XP -> 64564 XP (Level 10!)
• (Required for next level: 85000 XP)

Things That Happened

Shopping the Ribcage Bazaar

• Date: Greengrass, evening, 1372 DR
• After laying waste to an elderly woman's shop, the party got to work spending their hard-plundered gold.

Search for a Cloak

• Octavius perused the Beetle Bazaar, seeking information on a Cloak of Displacement that he had read about in a tome.
  • He idly spotted a Scroll of Flame Shield on display.
  • He ultimately spoke with an elderly gnome, who bore a Wand of Wonder, plundered from a treasure trove belonging to followers of Gond.
  • A feeble attempt to haggle led to the gnome dismissing him.

The Goggled-Floof

• Lilia, meanwhile, in the form of an ankylosaurus, spoke with Fingers McFinney (who now bore a few artificial fingers) about googles that would allow her to see in darkness.
  • He had two, a red that would allow the wearer to see any creatures bearing blood, and black that provided darkvision.
  • He asked her her true form, and she reverted to it, bleeding out on the ground. He squealed and she changed into a fluffy canine.
  • Shaking coins loose out of her fur and piling them with her nose, she purchased the black goggles, wearing them in her dog form.

Something Bigger?

• Glenn approached, asking what the wooden handle with a metal tube attached was. Fingers explained that it was a blunderbuss.
  • Octavius went into detail describing the island of Lantan, the invention of smokepowder, and gnomish engineering.
• Glenn asked if Fingers had anything bigger.
  • Fingers pulled a large cannon with a rope, but judging its weight and size, Glenn found it not a viable purchase.
  • Glenn inquired if there was anything that would let him hold a greatsword in one hand. Fingers suggested he just become bigger.
    • Fingers mentioned in passing that some gnomes in Mechanus built mechanical suits you can step into.
  • Glenn purchased a pocketwatch.
  • When sundials were mentioned, Fingers asked what a sun was.

The Gambler

• Seeking enchanted stones to improve their fortune, the party inquired and a series of touts ultimately led them to a thin man in black leather armor and multiple earrings.
  • He mostly sold gambling fare, cards, dice, and other games of chance.
  • In a low voice, he explained that some of what he sold was forbidden to be used in Ribcage.
  • The party agreed to his price, stating that they needed to appraise their soul coins prior to the purchase, as he told them their value can vary.

Happy the Lemure

• Checking on Unit 137, Kraxx'Tor revealed his upgrade -- a pentagram inscribed in silver on Unit 137's forehead.
  • With intense focus, Unit 137 demonstrated inscribing an infernal pentagram, and with the words "Ad-zekar. Vel-kuthar. Sothiq." (I inscribe. I bind. Rise.), summoned a fleshy creature of despair and suffering, a lemure.
    • The party immediately named it Happy.
  • When ordered to speak, the Lemure just responded with "Observation..." repeatedly.
• Unit 137 dismissed it with a metal expression.
  • Smokecale and Kraxx'Tor were both proud.
• The party inquired as to where they should spend the night.
  • Kraxx'Tor explained that he wasn't sure if they were still welcome in the Gymnasium of Steam, and to check in with Ribcage's new leader.

The Shaper of Ponds

• The party walked to the Citadel of Cinders, allowed inside by abishai who recognized the owlin.
• The statue of Zelza had been removed, only its base remaining.
• Inside the inner keep, they reconnected with Xarannos, his many contracts hanging from hooks in the chamber, ash swirling around the column of flame that led to Avernus.
• Xarannos, happy to see his tadpoles again, gestured to the pond they had helped him shape, and revealed that Zelza had been eaten by Bel, Lord of the Avernus.
• He granted them a free stay at the Gymnasium of Steam, in private quarters.
• When asked about the value of soul coins, Xarannos explained that it depended on the soul within. The innocent and those who had fallen after corruption were most valued. He felt one, wincing, lamenting about an innocent young girl who sacrified her soul to save her brother.
• Diedric: 🤨

A Curtained Suite

• The party flew past the Steam Gate, past imps bathing in magma pools, and entered the Gymnasium of Steam.
• They were led to their suite by a sullen, demure glassy-eyed woman in white servant's robes with jet black hair and pale skin.
• It was a two story chamber, with spiral marble staircases, but inexplicably sheer curtains instead of doors for most rooms, and to Octavius's chagrin, no study.
• Sliced beef and platters of fruits and cheeses and wine were provided.

Counting the Till

• The party ate and, after some discussion and arcane analysis on the nature of soul coins, Octavius agreed to allow the party to destroy the stones containing innocent souls.
• They then proceeded to pile coins into "good people" and "bad people".
  • Octavius was surprisingly resilient by the act of handling soul coins.
• After identifying three innocent souls (the young girl, and two bariaur who had been conned by The Moss Hag and the cambion Luciel), Octavius identified that hellfire could destroy the coins.
  • The party moved the table to clear some space, worried about an explosion.
  • Unit 137, after being stopped from drawing a pentagram on the coin, instead focused a thin beam of hellfire from a sharpened point, bursting three of the coins into inert chunks, freeing the souls within in a flow of silver light.
  • Lilia finally left her canine form, Diedric rushing forward to heal her wounds with Selune's blessing.
• The party claimed their rooms and retired for the night.

A Lucky Purchase

• Date: 1st of Mirtul, morning, 1372 DR
• The party returned to the Beetle Bazaar, presenting the thin black-leathered merchant with their soul coins and jink.
  • He ran his fingers over the coins, smiled revealing sharpened teeth, and fiddling beneath his booth and a false panel, handed the part four black bags.
  • Within each bag was a small clay tablet inscribed with a strange four-cloved leaf.
• Octavius used Identify spells to confirm their legitimacy.
• The man disappeared suddenly, air rushing toward the vacuum where his form had been.

The Reed of Rings

• Seeking magical rings, the party was led to a reed-thin woman nearly ten feet tall, with elongated limbs.
  • She pointedly did not have pale skin or black hair.
• She spoke in gurgles, and could not understand common, but Glenn was able to pantomime a ring to allow jumping, and Octavbius a ring to shield his thoughts from others.
  • Both rings were purchased, made of a simple bronze and iconography of a frog and an X.

The Shield Dwarf

• Diedric sought a Shield of Vigilance, common in the higher ranks of the Selunite order.
• He was led to a dwarven man with a split-orange beard, who indeed had an actual Selunite shield of that type in his inventory. It bore the symbol of Selune.
  • It had been looted from a battlefield in the Blood War. He did not know its story otherwise.
• The shield was purchased.
• The session came to an end.

NPCs Encountered (or mentioned)

• Kraxx'Tor, the Chain Devil
• "Fingers" McFinney, the Gnome Artificer
• Xarannos, the Shaper of Ponds
• Morwen Nyx, the Demure of Disposition
• Fizwick Ostlewinkle, the Ancient Gnome
• Vorne, the Gambler Merchant
• Yllumarra, the Reed of Rings
• Dornic Twin-Braid, the Shield Merchant

Memes

• "Can you be mean to me?" The fuck was that.

DM Thoughts

• I need to avoid black hair and pale skin with this party.