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Session 36: Closing the Ledger

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Overplanning

Summary

Vistra and her Quarry
A headdress borrowed
Vistra and the Mask

Two frogs agreed on no trouble -- and the party's wariness avoided the Flail Snail. Ignoring the second journal for now, they obliterated an Otyugh mid-meal, then followed the smell of coriander to a chameleoned dwarven woman stalking a cornered wolf and spectre.

Realizing the spectre was trying to communicate with the wolf, the party lent him their headdress of comprehend languages. Accepting the spectre's explanation for its past misdeeds, the spectre faded away peacefully.

The wolf promised kinship with the party and all wolves. Vistra thanked the party, and they hired her to find Navarra's spirit -- Arborea, on the edge of Aquallor's oceans and Mithardir's white sands. The session ended as the party plotted their next move.

XP Award

  • 725 XP for slapping the Otyugh around
  • 1900 XP for putting Andren's soul to rest
  • Total: 2625 XP
  • Current XP: 74177 XP -> 76802 XP
  • (Required for next level: 85000 XP)

Things That Happened

No Trouble

  • Date: 4th of Mirtur, evening, 1372 DR
  • Glenn strutted up to the Giant Toad, who sat in a toad loaf.
  • "No trouble. We good?"
  • Glenn agreed, and the rest of the party followed.
  • The toad recommended the party avoid the caverns below the temple, as they held malice.

A Scurrying Mouse

  • Octavius sent forth his mouse Alaundo to scout this level. He spotted the Flail Snail, curled on the floor, and a mirrored bedroom, more feral than its counterpart on the life side of the temple.
    • He also spotted a journal in some sleeping hides and, despite his best effort, could not drag it over.
  • The party scouted a larder with rotted grain and other sundries, crates being unceremoniously opened by a slightly confused dragonslaying sword.
  • The party also scouted a butcher's room, filled with bones, but no bone spoon.
  • The party deliberated for quite some time on the best approach, including shapechanging, invisiblity spells, passing without trace, and so on.
  • The toad hopped upstairs for its own safety.
  • Lilia identified that the snail could likely sense tremors on the ground, so the party opted to proceed to the third level without scouting.

Karasuthra's Below

  • On the third level, there were more signs of age and collapse, with increased warnings to the creatures below to stay out of the druid's domain.
  • Diedric led with his nose, following the smell of coriander.
  • Lilia picked up the sounds of a large beast eating down a hall.
  • Glenn turned a corner to greet the Otyugh, who dropped the two halves of a brown bear it was eating. It then responded by projecting images of how he was going to consume Glenn's entrails.
  • Encounter: The Feaster
  • Highlights:
    • Glenn, Hasted, grappling and slamming the Otyugh to the ground.
    • The Otyugh failing to stand as it was pummeled by Moonbeams and holy radiance from a celestial Unit 137.
    • The Otyugh being ripped apart by six Magic Missiles, Toll the Dead, and Glenn jumping up into the ceiling, crushing its neck and spine.
  • As the group continued their descent, the air felt icy to all but Diedric, who now bore Octavius's ring.
  • The party then encountered a badger tunnel, then reasoned there was another way around to the same location that didn't require crouching.

The Golden Chains

  • The continued to a dead-end, sealed off by a druidic gate.
  • There they bore witness to a Wraith, reaching out to a cornered wolf, cowering and whimpering.
  • Blending into her environment like a chameleon, a dwarven woman holding a scroll watched, motioning for silence.
  • She then stood, reading from a scroll in Celestial, conjuring golden chains to bind the spectre to her.
  • She read a list of crimes, including betrayal and murder, stating that he would be sentenced to 40 years of torment and then a final release.
  • Diedric and other party members noticed that the spectre was reaching out non-aggressively, trying to communicate with the wolf.
  • They explained the backstory of Tovaal and Andren to Vistra ("How do you know of the spoon"?), and she agreed to let them speak, as the victim has the right to close the Red Death's ledger against the spectre.
  • Diedric successfully got the spectre to shimmy to specific directions to communicate yes or no.
  • Fighting Octavius's disinterest, they ultimately borrowed his Headdress of Comprehend Languages and placed it on the wolf's head.
  • He craned his head curiously as the spectre spoke to him in howls.
  • "I would have done anything to protect my pups."
  • With those words, the spectre sighed in relief and faded away.

Vision of Navarra

  • The wolf bounded away, telling the party he would speak well of them to the Wolf Lord, and that they and the next few generations of their offspring would be packmates to all wolves.
  • Satisfied, Vistra thanked the party, explaining it took many days for her to make it into the temple safely.
  • The party requested her services to locate Navarra. She agreed for 100 gold pieces.
  • She took her broken wychlaran mask, her eyes turned white, then she intoned in a voice that was not her own: "On the edge of Poisedon's domain, an eternal ocean becomes a cliff's edge to white sands. Her isle swims in bluebells and nets hold her prizes."
    • She politely translated that Navarra had not yet merged with her plane, and that she was on Arborea, right on the edge of two layers: Aquallor and Mithardir's edge.
    • Not being sure if they were primes, she also provided other names for the plane:

Olympus and Arvandor.

  • The party deduced that with her mask and this image described, they may have a good shot of planeswalking directly to her.
  • When asked, Vistra explained that if the party ever need reach her again, they should visit the Mercykiller's headquarters in Sigil -- and that she's the best of their spirit seekers.
  • Vistra confirmed she had not seen an artifact similar to the sinuous half-circle the party bore.
  • The session came to an end as the party plotted their next move.

NPCs Encountered (or mentioned)

Memes

  • Bone spoon has had some staying power.

DM Thoughts

  • DM: "So Octavius takes the headdress off his stupid owl head--"
  • Nick: [processes what he just heard] "OK BRIAN. I FIREBALL. I FIREBALL THE WOLF, I FIREBALL THE SPECTRE, I FIREBALL THE DWARF. FUCK THIS CAMPAIGN. I'M JUST TRYING TO PLAY MY-"
  • Let's avoid insulting the owlin's beautiful visage.
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