Thug Muggers in Dreams 9/10/23
Table Talk:
I asked a question that’s been on my mind for a while now about the gameplay number in these summaries. Should I be including all the rolls? No rolls, just keeping it a narrative? Or somewhere in between? Everyone agreed that I should keep some rolls, based on their significance to the events taking place.
This past week i made four bracelets based on the simple hammer brass and leather bracelet Sorin found on the last Thug. Everyone got to pick one out. I also made a Necklace of Fireballs for Brooke, since Ari used up the last of the one in the game.
The main mechanical thing to discuss was phases in turns. Basically, everyone has four things they can do during a turn.
A Movement, which can be broken up around the other phases, but moving away after a melee attack creates an attack of opportunity.
An Action (hit, dodge, help, use, etc.) which is the main thing you do on your turn.
A Bonus Action, which you selection from any Bonus Actions available to your character through Traits, Feats, etc.
And a Reaction. This takes place during another character/creature's turn when they take an action. You can use any Reaction available to you from abilities, items, etc.
Also, everyone reached level 5! I allowed all the players to choose an extra Feat with this level. Mostly, because at level 4 they got an extra ability point, but did not know they had the option to trade that for a Feat instead.
Cypress Witchazel: (took 3rd level in Cleric)
New Max Hp: 43
Spell Slots: (5 know spells) Cantrips= 3 | 1st= 4 | 2nd= 2
New Spells: Aid (grant 5 extra/temp. Hp to up to 3 creatures), Prayer of Healing (up to six creatures you can see gain 2D8+[Spell Mod])
At 3rd level, Clerics get 2 new spells based on their domain. Since we have been going back and forth on if Cypress is Life or Nature domain with the druid classing, i let Nymbus pick one spell from each. They chose Spiritual Weapon (create a glowing spiritual weapon that does 1D8+[Spell Mod] damage, and can be moved on a bonus action to attack anywhere within 20 feet), and Barkskin (touch a willing creature and no matter what the target is wearing, their AC cannot be less than 16 for 1 hour).
New Feat: Inspiring Leader - Cypress can spend some time (probably around rests we decided) to bolster up to 6 creatures, who gain [5+CHA] temporary Hp once per Long Rest.
Raelle Woodmaker:
New Max Hp: 48 Proficiency Bonus is now +3
Ki Points: 5
New Ki abilities: Stunning Strike (When Rae hits with a melee weapon she can spend a Ki to attempt to Stun the creature she hit, they must roll a Con save against her Ki save DC [13])
Unarmed Strike now does 1D6 damage, and Rae’s speed is now 75.
New Ability: Extra Attack - When Rae attacks for her action in combat, she now does 2 full attacks (note, this only applies if she is attacking as a main action, she cannot use a health potion and then this extra attack).
New Feat: Sentinel - even Disengaging creatures within 5 feet are open to an opportunity attack from Rae, and she can use her reaction to attack any creature within 5 feet of her that makes an attack against anyone else.
Sorin:
New Max Hp: 47 Proficiency Bonus is now +3
Spell Slots: (13 know spells) Cantrips= 4 | 1st= 4 | 2nd= 3 | 3rd= 2
New Spells: Speak with the Dead (as seen in the D&D movie, ask up to five questions of a corpse; they can only answer with what it knew in life, and the answers are often cryptic.), Gaseous Form (touch and transform a willing creature into a misty cloud capable of hovering and moving through narrow gaps with a movement speed of 10 for up to 1 hour)
New Feat: Skilled - Sorin can take profenceny with three new abilities. Ashley chose acrobatics (based on all the parkour and Spider Climbing), Sleight of Hand (something Sorin has been practicing in secret, during rests to impress Ari), and Persuasion (based off of studying the notes and behavior of the cult).
Zevari Valros:
New Max Hp: 46 Proficiency Bonus is now +3
Spell Slots: (4 know spells) Cantrips= 3 | 1st= 4
Sneak Attack now does 3D6 additional damage. Ari also gains the Darkness spell (create a 15 foot bubble of magic darkness blinding any creatures without Darkvision, non-magical light and magic lights below 2nd level casting are extinguished) from being a Tiefling.
New Ability: Uncanny Dodge - Ari can use her reaction in combat to halve damage done to her by an attack she can see (so not sneak attacks, or when blinded, or from behind, or unseen magics)
New Feat: Savage Attack - once per turn, Ari gets advantage on the damage rolls for a successful melee attack!
“Every single one of us has a fanged beast hidden within the depths of our mind it lies there waiting in the dark reaching for a persons soul and it appears at our lowest moment.”
—Kurenai Yūhi & Masashi Kishimoto, “Naruto: Season 8 Episode 21”
🎲🗡️🔔✨🌿
Chapter 12: An Interlude of Dreams
🎲🗡️🔔✨🌿 Chapter 12: An Interlude of Dreams
Rae and Sorin stand over the desiccated husk of the Rat King. The lights in all the open skulls have gone out, and the room is now just littered with charred sewer rat corpses in all directions.
Sorin looks around and sees Ari unconscious on the floor. He runs over, powersliding onto his knees shouting “Aaaaaarrriii, nooo!” as dead rats fly out of his way like his knees are highway snow plows. (Gross, what does it say about me that i MADE that visual).
Somewhere in the void Ari fails a death save and slides a little further away from her body. Actually, she has 1 success and 1 failure so she’s balanced at 0.
Cypress wades through the Rats to Ari and pushes Sorins head off her chest to get a good look. After a minute of assessing her wounds, he gets out a couple acidic smelling leaves and puts them on Ari’s lips. Immediately, Ari gasps and her mouth opens, though she remains unconscious. The cleric takes out a small brush and applies some sacred oil to the roof of Ari’s mouth. After a prayer, he lights a long tapered match and carefully brings it towards her open mouth.
🎲🗡️ Two Opposing Teachers . . .
🎲🗡️ Two Opposing Teachers . . .
Ari, make a dexterity saving throw.
All players: “Oh no.”
15. Excellent.
“Excellent!” the voice says as your rapier ‘tings’ and deflects the blow. “Again.”
Ari, make another dexterity saving throw.
16.
Ari’s rapier glides through the air and effortlessly parries the swing of her teacher.
The man circling Ari with a long straight saber held in an aggressive ready is a tall Tiefling, and the gilded hilt of his sword is unforgettable. He has no hair, but his agent horns curl back over his ears, behind his neck, onto and over his shoulders, to come together in a manicured twist over his chest. He is pacing with delicate footwork, stepping lighting and moving in careful arcs. It is difficult to see his feat in the ankle length black cassock with its red lines, like a lightning storm turner upside down. Your teacher, the famous bard and swordsman, Yoffes Van Graff, De Sonnes Kirrsone of Elctish Mon-Barr stands there with a straight back and a sly smile. (Like vampires, elder Tieflings love to accumulate names and titles; it's something to do to while away the centuries, i guess.)
He steps back and adjusts his cape so that it drapes, covering his hand and the gold hilt of his rapier. “Now,” he says, and for the first time we can see Ari.
It was only a few years ago, but Ari looks so much younger. She stands there with her sword arm raised and her other arm out for balance.
“You won’t be able to see my feet or my hands, can you parry with no foresight into my movements, or will the dancing sway of my blade tip hypnotize you to a draw?”
Ari, make one more dexterity saving throw.
7.
With no warning at all, the demonic teacher lunges forward, but Ari was expecting it. In a blink her quarta blocks the faint, she steps forward, pushing her rise into the teaches forte and then locking his gold inlaid quilion in the forward guard of her basket. She smiles anticipating a ‘very good’, but hears only silence from her opponent. She looks at Yoffes and his eyes flick to the side of her face where a stiletto is just an inch away from her ear, resting comfortably in his relaxed grip.
Ari nods and with a twist she releases his sword to step back.
“Remember, Ari, a cape hides much more than just movements, and your opponents will not always fight fair.” He stands back, and hooks his rapier into a special frog at his hip. With his back to Ari he starts lecturing her on technique, “You need to always be aware of your surroundings. Be aware of the faint, be aware of the dodge, be aware of someone approaching you when you least suspect it—”
Ari, this time, make an attack roll.
14.
Prudent to her teacher's lecture on unfair fighting, Ari waits for him to turn completely. When he is occupied in sheathing the stiletto. She lunges forward, her sharp blade singing at her teacher.
In less time than a single thought, Yoffes has his blade out, his terzo thwacks against her center of precision, and sends her blade sailing up and off course, then his shining golden ricasso knocks against her basket. With a twist of his wrist, his inlaid knuckle guard grabs her quillions, pulling the sword from her hand and sending it flying across the room.
The stiletto Yoffes was sheathing clangs on the floor, followed by the clang of Ari’s student rapier.
A look of disgust crosses his iron hard face. “Perhaps it is a pity you were not born a humble thug, perhaps you would have done well in a simple tavern brawl.” He frogs his rapier and stands to his full height, and his expression softens to one of a patient loving teacher with a troublesome pupil. “While I appreciate your effort in learning to anticipate the unexpected, know that what you just did is a shameful act. I am not teaching you to be some street barbarian, Ari. Some back-alley harrier, taking potshots and slugging your victims when they’re not looking. Remember your heritage, remember your family. Princess, you are royalty. You are nobility. You have noblesse oblige. You have the obligation to carry yourself as a noble should. This means that you do not attack blindsided. Always be ready for it, but never do it yourself. Remember who you are.”
This memory fades.
And then, you have another memory. Ari, you are still in the hells. But things are falling apart. Disaster has struck. Your family is fleeing, they’re running out the portal, and the castle is falling. There are pit fiends storming the gate, there are chain demons falling on everyone.
And you think, ‘wait, how can I remember this? I was gone by the time this happened.’
Suddenly you realize, this is not your memory. You realize this because you feel a heavy weight on your chest.
As you move your body around in this memory, you feel the weight of armor. But the true weight you feel is the weight of the horns that have grown over your shoulders, and twisted on your chest. Then you see yourself lift up a strangely familiar, gold-hilted rapier. One that you saw, just a moment ago, fling your own blade aside.
And you see the pitfiends come.
And you see the hellhounds come.
And you see the Nalfeshnee and Goristro
And you see through the eyes of Yoffes Van Graff, De Sonnes Kirrsone of Elctish Mon-Barr as this famous blade flashes and dances.
And it is beautiful.
It is textbook, literally. All of the texts that you ever read in your instruction, when you saw the diagram of lunges, this could be an instruction in and of itself.
Every thrust, pinpoint.
Every parry, exact.
Every cut and slash, precise.
When the rapier thrusts out, you see the hand holding it is limp and delicate like a conductor with a batton.
The blade reems through the eye of a hellhound, and twisting this body you are somehow remembering inside, you fling the entire beast away into the oncoming hoard.
But it’s not enough.
Chains begin to break through your defenses.
Barbed whips rip through your armor,
Spiked clubs and blunt axes pound through your chest.
You feel immense pain wrack your body as one of your horns is shattered, broken from your skull but still twisted with the other one, now hanging on your chest.
And you hear your own voice, the voice of your mentor, as he looks back at the gate. And he says, “We will never forget you. We will never forget who you are, no matter how far you go. I will never forget you all.”
You turn and you see the gate, and you feel his love.
“Remember that we’re here for you, always. Always hold yourself as royalty, wherever you go. And always hold together.”
Then you remember running for the gate, and you think, ‘but he never came back’.
Now you see why he never came back, why you never saw his broken horn twisted on his chest.
You feel the memory in this body. It runs at the gate. That old familiar blade changes in Yoffes Van Graff, De Sonnes Kirrsone of Elctish Mon-Barr’s grip as he drags his palm down it, leaving white hot demonic blood on the blade. With a casting, the blade turns to fire and watch yourself through his eyes, ripping apart the gate. Giving in to a demonic urge that your teacher held at bay for decades, his blade becoming part of him. Tearing at the rocks and sinking his teeth into the stones, he pulls the gate down around himself, saving your family.
Silence at the table followed by “Simba, remember who you are!” and then laughter. Yeah i didn’t realize until i said it out loud, but that’s exactly what i was doing.
Ari, make a dexterity saving throw.
Brooke: “Oh come on!” 17.
Ari’s memory shifts again in this weird death dream. She ducks easily out of the way of the wooden beam being swung at her face.
Make two more Dex saves for me. 8 & 14.
After the fence post swings over Ari’s head, we can see Tank on the other end of it grinning, “Haha! Very good! Very good, I knew you’d be fun!”
It’s just a few days before Ari will meet Rae and flee the town to go west, but she doesn’t know that. Here and now, she is crouched on a rooftop, sparring with Tank. She is standing with her back straight and her arm, wielding a slim cane, extending in a classic dancing pose.
Tank laughs again and the fence post comes hurtling at Ari as Tank thrusts with it. She ducks to the side, easily dodging the clumsy blow. Before she can react, Tank scoops up a handful of dirt and twigs from the roof and flings it into Ari’s face. She stumbles back and Tank lands a quick boxer’s 5-5 punch on Ari, and starts laughing.
“Come on, Ari! Come on, you can’t be such a royal princess in a fight! You’re always standing all noble, announcing your attack all the time! You gotta learn to fight dirty! Throw something at me, attack when I’m not expecting it! You gotta think on your feet, if you’re ever going to survive in a back alley fight. If you’re ever gonna manage to pickpocket someone, you gotta go with the flow. You can’t do this whole ‘oh, I’m so noble, huzzah!’ thing. You can’t announce yourself like that all the time! I see every one of your attacks coming! You gotta learn to bob and weave, you gotta learn to take the opportunity, and make the surprise attacks.”
A slew of unkind thoughts go through Ari's mind, directed at her new friend and captain. Then she slyly reaches to her belt. She circles Tank low and faints twice with the cane, she grabs the fake knife and throws it right at…. throws it right.. throws…
Yoffes’ voice in her head, “Remember who you are.”
Ari screams an infernal angry howl to mask her flowing tears, and throws the wooden knife at her feet.
Ari, you remember pretending that you’re upset because he beat you, but you’re upset that you couldn’t do it, because you ARE proud, and you ARE royal, and there’s a part of you that remembers that.
Now, you remember the wooden knife sticking in the roof as you tried to go against your teachings.
And the memory-dream shifts one final time.
You’re hanging off the bottom of the western watchtower, and in your confusion you almost let go. Then you hear Tank's voice coming from your mouth, “Where did you go, kid? Where are you gonna go…?”
It’s hours after you have fled town. And you know that because you remember watching yourself leave. No that doesn't make sense, you remember Tank remembering watching you leave… okay, that's not much better.
But, look at the sun. It’s gone down so much, and somehow you know it’s that same day.
In this memory, you feel yourself hanging off the bottom of the guard tower in a very spiderman pose, looking after the trail that you took.
You hear yourself, Tank, whisper. And the words are almost like a eulogy, for a friend you hope isn’t really dead.
He talks about how he always knew you were going to leave.
He talks about how you never really fit in with the gang.
He talks about how you refused to pickpocket people who were too poor, and as frustrating as it was, he respected that.
He talks about how he always hoped you get everything back, that that would be how you left.
And the last thing you hear, before coming to, is Tank whispering, “I’ll keep an eye on them for you. I hope that somehow, someday, you reach out, and I can help you come back, or help you any way I can. Just…Just…reach out. And I’ll be here for you when you do, Ari.”
Cypress lights the sacred oil in Ari’s mouth and with a ‘FWUMP’ it sends a puff of hot air straight into her lungs. She sits up coughing and spitting out soot. Cypress cast Cure Wounds on Ari for 6 Hp, bringing her back to 0, but conscious.
She almost bonks her head on Sorin’s face as he looks down at her like a nervous parent. Ari opens her mouth to yell at him, but for some reason she just can’t seem to be that angry at him. She gently pushes him back and rolls away.
With a high insight check, Sorin gets a glimpse into what’s wrong. He can sense that some memories came back to Ari and cracked through her tough exterior. In just a brief flash of her eyes, he saw she was touched that her friends care so much for her, and she didn’t want to hurt him when that was all he did wrong.
“Alright, wizard boy, come on.” Rae says, lifting the boy away by the back of his collar.
“I’m going, I’m going,” he says defensively, and then whispering, maybe the first socially apt thing of his life, “I think something really upset Ari, she seemed…ashamed that we care about her.” (Huh, maybe Sorin has turned over a new leaf.) Then Sorin goes poking through Rat corpses to find whatever Pulgrok dropped.
Cypress also tactfully removes himself to go look through the rubble and give Ari and Rae some time together.
While looking over by the door they find an interesting sheet of paper. It seems to have fallen from Zaanth as she carried Pulgrok away. It has a large angry red circle blotch on it and is covered in cryptic occult writings. They also recognize the strange monogram that was written on some of the other papers they found, which seems to be on here too in a couple places too. This paper will definitely merit further study.
Eventually Sorin finds what he was looking for in a pile of dead Rats. After some excited examination, he realizes it is indeed what he thought it was. It’s an Immovable Ball. A magic item with very special powers.
A fist sized ball of leather and metal, it can be placed anywhere becoming permanently attached to any point/object the holder can perceive (Wis DC 15). The ball remains bound to that point. If the object moves 3' north, the ball moves the same 3' north, if the object moves up an inch, so does the ball. The ball passes through anything in its way. Only the original caster (or a Wis DC 20) can unbind it. If the bound point moves into a different dimension, the ball follows to that dimension, still bound.
Anyone/thing hit by the ball takes 1D6 damage for any regular movement (30 ft/sec) and +D6 per speed above that.
Can be used once per rest
After spending some time talking it out, Rae and Ari split up to loot. Rae finds a strange mask fallen under some of the rubble.
There’s something about this mask… She pushes her Ki into it to see if she can feel anything…
A strangely shaped mask that surrounds the face and brows. It is said to have been worn by the fierce Taxabi warrior Ra in her epic battles. Some say this mask granted her speed and agility, though her dastardly cunning, was all her own. . .
In order to use these abilities, you must remain barefoot.
If the wearer puts on shoes etc. , the effects are nullified.
This mask grants +2 Dexterity to the wearer. It also has 3 charges of the "Spider Climb" spell and can only be recharged by a female artificer of royal descent. If the wearer has the "Rage " ability, all "Rage" bonuses, checks are amplified by 1.
From where she was laying on the floor, Ari was able to see something she hadn’t noticed before. And goes over to the broken desk. She pulls away broken boards, revealing an iron box. With a big heave she managed to turn the thing over on its back and reveal the face dial of the safe.
Ari’s eyes glitter as she pulls out her last set of -1 lockpicks. She goes to adjust the… to pick the… to wedge the… Suddenly Ari realized she can’t remember how to pick a lock (this was a result of a crit failure a few weeks back when an Ooblex Spawn sucked her memory). She can remember having done it… even in the past few days… but how… Eventually Ari manages to wedge the lockpick between the dial and the door of the safe, then use her dagger to lever it off the turning peg. After a little while pulling out gears and pushing things around, the bars slide back, and she lifts the safe door open. Inside is a small slip of paper with a pyramid and eldritch writing (a spell she can decode and learn later), and 5 gold bars (each worth 100 Gp).
5 gold bars…So that’s 5-1 for Ari makes 4. 4-1 for Rae makes 3. 3-1 for Cypress makes 2. 2-1 for Sorin makes 1… left for Ari right?
This leads to a conversation about what to do with the odd bar out. Sorin, Rae and Cypress suggest that this can be a communal pot. A group fund for things like baths and meals and lodging, or occasionally buying equipment if someone only has 48 Gp but wants to buy a 50 Gp health potion. So once Cypress and Rae and Sorin agree that Ari can keep hold of the fund and be in charge of it, she agrees as well.
I haven’t spent much time yet describing the room, and that’s because i’ve been dreading trying to explain the smell. Have you ever smelled a dead Rat? One that was in the sewer for months? A dead sewer rat with an exposed brain? AND that was lit on fire? Okay well if you have i don’t want to know why because i don’t want to be on a no-fly list just for knowing you. But this room has scores of them. Like around a hundred.
It’s like someone farted on a skunk, and boiled the skunk and put the boiled skunk water in a spray bottle and sprayed it up your nose.
It’s like if Axe body spray was a person who made a tiny house out of a retired city trash dump truck and invited you in for onion and garlic mint pie.
It’s like if you put durian fruit in a slow cooker and then used the water to marinate nose plugs you made out of Rudy Giuliani’s flip-flop socks.
It cracks me up, by the way, knowing that you have to read these in order to move on to the good stuff.
It’s like a boiled-cabbage-golem went wading through seaweed to fish and then rubbed the dead fish on themself then laid down on hot concrete.
It’s like someone made a “guano farm” scented candle and burned it in the processing room of the dirty adult diaper recycling plant.
It’s like if a stink bomb went off in a highschool boys locker room where they stored 1400’s plague bodies from the cemetery next door... and then a mudslide came in from the cemetery.
Are you still reading these, wow, you nasty!
Anyways Rae is looking around to try and crack a window or loot a small pine tree air freshener or something.
She pushes and strains against the doors trying to force them open, but they’re completely wedged shut. When she gives in and relaxes her arms she can hear the ‘thwump’ of things stacked up to barricade the door.
After Rae tells everyone, Cypress spends some time staring at the door, considering options.
Nymbus: “Can I wild shape into a worm and squeeze through…”
I don’t think there is a stat block for a worm.
Nymbus: “What if I turn into a tardigrade.”
Okay well I love tardigrades, so I want to say yes, but your moment speed would be so low it would take like a day to get through.
Nymbus: “I could transform into a beaver and eat through the doors!”
Yes, but the doors have been sitting in a sewer and caves for years so you’d have to make a lot of Con saves to not get sick.
Meanwhile, Ari has been looking around for another way out, and found a sewer pipe they could crawl through. But it's blocked by rubble and bits of broken drains.
With a 13 strength, Rae manages to dig through the rubble and peer into the pipe… but it seems as though all the fighting disturbed the ground and the pipe was crushed a few feet back.
Not knowing what else to do to get out, with Ari barely swaying on her feet, and Cypress also almost unconscious, our heroes decide to camp her for the night.
Sorin decides to attempt to use the Message spell as a distress beacon. Twisting the cast slightly so that the message is broadcast all around, but if someone hears it, they won’t be able to respond.
Rae gets a broken stick and fastens it to a plank of desk in a ‘T’ shape. She uses it like a push broom to clear a large area of dead rats for the team to have a clear space to rest.
Cypress brews up a pot of very strong herbal tea to make an area where the smell is at least masked a bit so that everyone can eat.
Ari staggers to her feet and heads to the doors when Sorin gently puts a head on her shoulder.
“You always take the first watch.” He says, “Let me take this one.”
And with a sour smile, Ari lays down and sleeps dreamlessly.
While Sorin stands watch, talking with Akris and thinking about possible ways out, Cypress and Rae fall asleep to the familiar sounds of Ari’s snores.
🎲🌿 God Feels Fuzzy . . .
🎲🌿 God Feels Fuzzy . . .
Cypress the tree basks in the sun.
The ultraviolet light is so delicious on days like this when it is filtered through the morning dew.
His broad leaves shake and quiver as the wind tickles at the pits of his branches.
His roots in the ground swell and clench and stretch as he sighs through his bark.
Cypress the tree is happy.
The golden light grows warm, almost hot and Cypress the tree turns to sun in wonder.
“Cypress…” the sun whispers.
This voice, this strange familiar life giving voice…
“Cypress…”
“Fffssssmmmm rrrssssshhhhhfff” Cypress the tree replies, delighting in the feeling of it all.
It is a voice that Cypress knows well. The voice of a goddess first gleamed in their youth as a spout.
A voice that made his acorn grow, that fed and watered him until his bark was like iron and his roots found new water of their own.
“Wwwwwwwssssssssuuuuuuuvvvvvv” Cypress the tree says, loving this beautiful voice of the lady in the sun.
But the lady is sad when she replies.
The lady is reaching her golden ray to Cypress’s leaves but the words are lost.
The wind comes far above in the sky.
Cypress the tree’s branches are calm and still, but the sky above floats by too fast.
The sun lady’s voice is faltering, her delicious light and love are reaching out, but the clouds are pushing her back.
Cypress the tree tries to reach for the sun lady's voice, but his roots are too deep to move.
“Shshshshsuuusssffffwwwwuuu” he calls.
The beautiful sun lady calls his name,
but now,
through the thickening clouds,
his name is only a whisper on his leave when the rain begins to fall.
Cypress wakes up confused but not panicking. Given a moment to have an action Nymbus rolls an insight check.
As they reflect on this vision, Cypress grows more and more troubled, though less worried about himself. He has a suspicion and decides to sit a moment in prayer. After some time he opens his eyes and sighs, at least the problem is not something they did wrong, but still...
The feeling of Sheela that he is so used to being right there when he needed it, feels dim. Like the clouds in his dream, or talking to someone across the street when a cart goes by, it just feels as if something is between them and their god.
The Daisy Child of Sheela tosses and turns, unable to return to sleep. Eventually they give up and decide to focus on trying to decipher the cryptic cult note he found. They’ll be tired tomorrow, but it doesn’t seem like he was gonna get much sleep anyways.
Not with Sheela so far away.
Across from them, Rae’s arms twitch in her sleep.
🎲🔔 Raelle Woodbiter . . .
🎲🔔 Raelle Woodbiter . . .
Rae, make an unarmed attack roll.
17.
And another.
11.
And another.
13.
And another.
23.
And another.
17.
And another.
9.
Zaanth grabs Rae's chin and moves it lazily up and down like a puppet. In a mocking voice she says “We're sorry we’re so dumb Zaanth, please don’t hurt us, Zaanth!” and laughs.
Rae’s paralysis is gone, this time and she punches Zaanth in the face.
Zaanth grabs Rae's chin and moves it lazily up and down like a puppet. In a mocking voice she says “We're sorry we’re so dumb Zaanth, please don’t-
Rae’s paralysis is gone, this time and she punches Zaanth in the face.
Zaanth grabs Rae's chin and moves it lazily up and down like a puppet. In a mocking voice she says “We're sorry we’re so dumb-
Rae’s paralysis is gone, and she punches Zaanth in the face.
Zaanth grabs Rae's chin and moves it lazily up and down like a puppet. In a mocking-
Rae’s paralysis is gone, and she punches Zaanth in the face.
Zaanth grabs Rae's chin - and Rae punches her in the face.
This wonderful cathartic dream shifts, and Rae sighs contentedly in her sleep.
Now Rae is sitting at an older style camp table. A collapsible table made of wooden slats that can rest on 3 legs.
Her greenish gray hands are sifting through pages of…
But Rae’s hands are pale tan.
And those bracelets. The only thing Rae has there is the simple cloth wrapping. These gladiator style chord bracelets are…
ZAANTH!
Rae clinches a fist but the finger on her hand barely twitches.
Something must’ve gone wrong when Rae didn’t sit down and she had to get paralyzed another way. Maybe something with her Ki, or her staff’s magic? How is she seeing this?
As Zaanth gets out a quill and ink, a Rat with an exposed skull and brain climbs on the camp table. Zaanth picks it up and cuddles it against her neck. Then, instead of scratching between its ears, she gives the Rat little scritches just behind the exposed third lobe of its brain. “You’re my good girl aren’t you? Awe! Yes you are. Raelle Woodbiter, you’re such a good little r-”
Back in her body, Rae furiously channels her Ki and in the dream-link she manages to flip Zaanth’s camp table.
As the paper flies up, Rae catches a glimpse of the monogram on the paper, two vertical lines with hard angles through them like saw teeth.
Zaanth’s voice is back in her ears now, coming out of her mouth saying, “Sorry there little Rae, I guess I'm angrier than I thought I was.” With a heavy sigh she leans her head back against something hard and looks up at a dripping cave ceiling. “I really really wanted them dead… the boss really wanted them dead.” Another sigh and she sits up to look at the fire, “but I guess he’s right, it doesn't matter now anyways. It’s already begun in the city…”
Sorin gently shakes Rae’s shoulder to wake her up for her turn at watch. She’d said she’d be next so Ari could sleep more, but now Sorin can feel himself starting to fade.
Suddenly Raelle-The-Furious’s eyes open in a blaze of pure hatred. Sorin stumbles back, falling over a rock and skidding back on his butt away from her.
After a minute Rae stands over him apologizing, “Sorry… Sorry, it's, it’s not you, it's just... just something in my dream, Sorry, Sorin.” She helps him up and then takes her position by the door, whittling on a piece of broken wood.
Shaking himself a little, Sorin lays down and goes to sleep.
🎲✨ Can Crystals Hurt? . . .
🎲✨ Can Crystals Hurt? . . .
Sorin, give me a Wisdom saving throw.
Ashley: “Oh come on! Really? 7.”
Okay.
Ashley: “Wait, can I use my last point of inspiration here?”
I guess yeah, but i wouldn’t re-
Ashley: “Okay, great, 19.”
Then later, i’ll tell you when, you'll have advantage on a thing.
The Wizard is standing in the cavern of the crystal lake. The colorful water ripples as the spring renews, and the lights of the glowing crystals dance in prismatic orbs across the clammy stone walls. In his weightless body, the wizard floats around the crystals, his feet dangling in the air above the healing waters of this magic cave. The rays of light from the biggest of the crystals become brighter and brighter and now we can see them as straight lines emanating from this center, like the spokes of a wheel. He stands back, moving to the cave mouth and watches with a smile as the lights begin to turn and revolve, even as the crystal stays in place.
(ah hell yeah, that’s that good fantasy shit right there).
Sorin, make a Dexterity saving throw. 19.
Suddenly the beams of light become hard and bent, one loops around his arm, a strange other worldly tentacle entering our world through these magic stones. The Wizard’s arm pulls away with lightning speed and his fingers flex into the 7th form of casting.
The light tendril retreats and goes rigid once more slowly turned with its brothers on the point of the magic stone.
Sorin, make four more Dex Saves.
Ashley: “Uhhh…” 10. 17. 16. And 6.
The light tendrils turn again, and the Wizard braces his hollow feet against the empty air. Four more rays of light lash out at the Wizard’s other arm, his legs, and neck.
His hands and feet are fast, dodging the beams of light, but his head has barely moved when the last tendril closes in a loop around his neck. The light twists and bites itself and twists again. Now the Wizard can see that the tentacle is no more, and in its place is a glowing noose of pure magic around his neck.
When he goes to pull in a breath, the noose tightens and as he struggles for breath, this unholy ray of crystal light pulls at him. The Wizard is dragged, hanging in the air, to the tip of the glowing crystal. He braces a hand against its solid stone, but his hand passes through it, as insubstantial as a thought.
The noose of magic light continues to pull. Down and down and now the Wizard is poised on the crystal as if he is a common criminal, kneeling at the chopping block.
A final, quick decisive tug.
Not death.
But blackness.
The Wizard can remember the pulling, the feeling of sinking. The rush of land and stone and earth and molten angry rock, and then… this empty black abyss.
He remembers weight pushing on him as he fell, the pulling noose dragging him into more and more pressure until he was compressed smaller and smaller. And now he floats, a tiny dot on an empty sea.
Grabbing at his noose, the Wizard frees himself and stares. The tendril of light that brought him down here is emanating from a small hole of light above. It seems to be an ever widening hole leading back to the earth above and piercing back through the crystals in the healing lake of the cavern. Staring at how far he has come only leaves the Wizard wondering at how small he is now.
When he lets go of the magical noose of light, the beam changes, and once more it is a tentacle wrapping around his arms. He stares in abject horror at the sucker gripping his flesh. Here in this place, he can see the truth.
These are no ordinary smooth suckers of a sea creature. No, each of them is a tiny mouth. Every coin-sized sucker along this monster's tendril of light are really inset rows, circles of teeth, biting into his meat and sucking away his own light from within.
The Wizard brings his arm up to his eyes to look closer and is only horrified further. These mouths are under the same pressure he is. Here he is compressed down, a body the size of a pea benether the worlds, but these mouths, these monstrous creatures eating away at his very essence… each of them, in their true form is the size of a ship. The mouths must feed creatures the size of mountains, and he-
The tendril yanks upwards. And with horrified honor the Wizard knows he cannot let this creature loose into the world above. Pushing past his fear, the Wizard floats in the void. Hand over fist he pulls himself up the length of this hideous rope of light. The bottom of the tendril turns, like a viper. It rushes at the Wizard and he catches it in his chest.
The force of the striking evil snake of light carries the Wizard back up the hole in reality.
He screams as the weight of existence pushes back against him.
In one last action of pure rage, the tendril slams the wizard though the glassy surface of the crystal, and he falls, panting.
The Wizard kneels on the floor of the cavern of the crystal lake. The colorful waters ripple as the spring drains, and the lights of the glowing crystals pound hard prismatic fists, raging against the stone walls. Even in this weightless body, the Wizard collapses around the crystals, his hands trailing in the healing waters of this magic cave. The rays of light from the biggest of the crystals become dimmer and darker, and now we can see them as no more than faint orbs in the room. He inches back across the water, crawling to the cave mouth with an angry grimace, never taking his eyes from the crystal.
Sorin awakens from this nightmare taking 3d8 psychic damage. And this is where he gets advantage, from his 19 Wisdom save at the beginning, taking the lesser of the two damage rolls.
As Ari and Rae wake up they see Sorin grasping his temples in pain, and Cypress comes back from his place at watch to check on his friends.
And so we start the 9th of Mirtul.
“It’s frustrating. I can see the breadcrumbs laid out a head of me, but for all I know, they’re leading me toward a cliff edge.”
—Stuart Turton, “The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle: Chapter 44”
Table talk:
After the session, we checked everyone’s new HP to make sure they were correct, because Sorin’s seemed so high. Everything is correct, the issue is just that Sorin has a weirdly high Con modifier, and some of the others are weirdly low.
I provided Nymbus a picture of the Cult paper broken into parts, labeled with the amount of rests each section will take to decode. If any one helps him that will count as another rest added to the count of a given section.
