Session 33: On a Trail of Cyan and Magenta

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The Battle of the Table

Summary

Octavius, too cool to turn around
Unit 137, the Guardian of Faith
Lilia, Batwoman
Suck Deep
Unruly Meeting Place
Kai Redeemed
A Game Conceded
The Trioptic Nic'Epona

The Unseen fell to Lilia's whirlwind of starry bats, which swallowed the Clay Golem and duergar both; the party looted invisibility potions, jink, and a scroll of Meld Into Stone and followed the smoke into Vos'Ultok, a dwarven suckhouse of hookahs, float-smoke, and a fez-wearing chimpanzee.

There, the gryphon-keeper Tormuund pointed them onward: Vistra had come two days prior for a bone spoon of his late friend Andren, breathed "Celestia," and been sent to Galenthias the deva. He asked the party to honor Andren, whose village a warlord had burned. Glenn won ninety-nine coppers at the table arena by hurling a halfling off the edge while shrunk hand-sized.

Back at the Velvet Harness, a gaunt Sulphaxus conceded his game of Motes to Galenthias, warning he'd haunt him "if the waters killed him." At the Trioptic Nic'Epona, Galenthias whispered into an amber gem and light swallowed the party -- Smokescale leaping clear just in time.

XP Award

  • 2500 XP for surviving The Unseen's ambush.
  • Total: 2500 XP
  • Current XP: 67464 XP -> 69964 XP
  • (Required for next level: 85000 XP)

Things That Happened

Encounter: The Unseen

  • Date: 1st of Mirtur, afternoon, 1372 DR
  • Highlights:
    • Octavius inflicting the drow with an electric blight, shredding his flesh
    • A comet hurled by Lilia trailing a wall of flame
    • Octavius firing a fireball from his staff like a bazooka
    • Lilia being cornered by the Clay Golem, narrowing avoiding being brushed by her Shield spell
    • Glenn taking a solid blow to the chest from a psychic warhammer, but withstanding half a dozen blows with his shield
    • Glenn stabbing at the giant duergar's ankles
    • Diedric fleeing the Clay Golem narrowly, placing a celestial incarnation of Unit 137 to keep him safe
    • Lilia summoning a whirlwind of starry bats, which proceeded to effortlessly consume the clay golem and screaming duergar
  • Looting several invisibility potions, some jink, and a scroll of Meld Into Stone, the party continued following the cyan and magenta smoke.

The Unruly Meeting Place

  • The abandoned mining project turned into a non-descript corridor, and then widened to a gilded underground road, with impressive stonework.
  • This then led to the entrance of Vos'Ultok, with a common translation for the name helpfully scrawled below the dwarven runes.
  • Inside, the sighted dozens of patrons smoking from strange, tall brass vessels, with flexible leather tubes coiling out from their necks.
  • Of note:
    • Dwarven throatsingers.
    • A dwarven woman painting the air above her by tipping a paintbrush into colored powders.
    • Men rubbing red moss between their fingers, inhaling the red smoke that issued forth.
    • A group of patrons smoking a substance that caused them to float into the air. A gnome was holding to an outcropping in the ceiling, afraid to let go while shrieking that he was fine.
    • A chimpanzee in a fez hat, with wise eyes, smoking and blowing smoke rings.
    • A strangely-organized betting pool on a shrunken dwarf and halfling using a table as an arena.
    • A green slaad smoking from three pipes at once.
    • An older dwarf petting a cat-sized gryphon on his table.
  • The party asked a staff member where they could find Vistra.
    • He licked his lips repeatedly, but eventually understood they were seeking the spiritseeker. He indicated the dwarf with the gryphon.

The Gryphon Keeper

  • He introduced himself as Tormuund, of Volunthaar, and the party asked about Vistra.
  • She visited him two days past, seeking a bone spoon (a spoon made of bone) that once belonged to a friend of his, Andren.
    • She held it and her eyes were drained of color, then she spoke "Celestia".
  • He routed her to Galenthias, a deva that frequents The Velvet Harness, for passage to that plane.
  • The part then spent a long time discussing the mechanics and appearance of baby gryphons.
  • He asked the party to do right by his departed friend, explaining that the village they came from was burned down by a warlord. He wasn't sure why the Red Death would be interested in him.

Skypainting and Opiate Addiction

  • The party then approached the skypainting dwarf, who explained that these were drugs that she found also behaved in this manner.
  • They were varied colors, including yellow, orange, green, purple and blue.
  • Purchasing and experimenting with the purple powder, both Glenn and Lilia found their aches and pains draining away, and that they could see blurry "foreimages" of events before they happened.
  • The party remembered to re-summon Unit 137, who explained that he's been training Happy for obedience, pain being the primary implement.

The Disassociative Dragonborn

  • Octavius approached the black-scaled dragonborn, recalling from his studies that they were theorized to hail from a sister planet to Toril named Abeir.
  • The dragonborn was mostly unresponsive, looking at and pawing at objects that weren't there.

The Table Arena

  • Watching the halfling defeat a dwarf opponent by pushing him off the table, Glenn approached as the next challenger.
  • Octavius sorted through the organizer's confusion about how betting and odds functioned as Glenn was shruken down to hand-sized via a potion.
  • The halfling kneeled in respect and waited for Glenn to make the opening move.
  • The halfling charged him, unable to shove him away.
  • Glenn grappled him and lept 90 microfeet, throwing him off the edge.
  • The halfling stalked off, still shruken in stature, as the party enjoyed their 99 coppers of winnings, 9 of which went to a short dwarf.
    • This same dwarf soon fell into a stupor from a red moss inhalation.

Return to the Harness

  • Having enjoyed Vos'Ultok, the party traveled through Gurincraag, ascended The Gulp, and flew their carpet back to the Velvet Harness.
  • The exterior was busier than usual, with a large group of bariaur and satyr-looking creatures entering and leaving.
  • Inside, Kai trotted over to them excitedly, saying that Prince al'Suhail had whispered in her ear of their arrival.
  • He directed the party upstairs to Galenthias.

The Fiend and Deva

  • The fiend and the deva sat playing another game of Motes: The Convergence.
  • Sulphaxus's flames seemed to burn less bright and he appeared more gaunt.
  • Galenthias greeted the party warmly, introducing himself as "Paragon of Discourse" to Lilia.
    • When asked, he confirmed that he had opened the way to Celestia for Vistra, as her cause was just, and he would do the same for them.
    • He looked meaningfully at Sulphaxus.
  • Using his keen intellect, Octavius deduced that Galenthias had a hand full of planar locations.
  • Sulphaxus revealed his hand, which Octavius noted has an "infinite slaad sacrifice combo" that would defeat Galenthias.
  • The devil and deva discussed that in seventeen years of these meetings, Sulphaxus had never won a game. Galenthias offered that he had come close several times.
    • Diedric and Lilia could both sense that there was subtext here, and that they were not speaking of the card game, but perhaps instead of their past philosophical discussions on the nature of hierarchy in the Nine Hells versus the Seven Heavens of Celestia.
  • The devil conceded the game and stood, warning the deva that he would haunt him for eternity if "the waters killed him".

The Trioptic Nic'Epona

  • A short walk away from The Velvet Harness, Galenthias led Sulphaxus and the party to a 200 foot statue of a three eyed horse, each eye being a gem glowing in a different color.
  • Harmonium guards, recognizing Galenthias, stepped aside once he confirmed that all with him were authorized.
  • From his lore-accurate and appropriately-illustrated golden pauldron, he drew an amber gem, and whispered an unheard phrase into it.
  • It shone with an amber light, and a column of energy engulfed the party, Smokescale yelping and leaping back from it invisibly right before it took hold of him.
  • The party vanished from sight. The Harmonium guards returned to their vigil.

NPCs Encountered (or mentioned)


Memes

  • Bone spoon. It's a spoon made of bone. ...It's white and bone-colored.
  • Abeir? No ale.

DM Thoughts

  • Avoid loincloths.
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