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These are our adventures — compiled and written out for you to read and enjoy.
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Thug Muggers under Nibiru 10/12/24
Ari pops a balloon, Rae skins a brain, Sorin gives coins to a lizard, and Cypress gives a shield to a ghost.
Table Talk:
I got the Vortex Warp spell card made for Ashley (i had to make one because, surprisingly, i couldn’t find one anywhere)... now i just need to remember to print it out next time… oops.
Three things about maps.
When you scroll down to the end of this week’s summary, you might notice that i’ve adjusted the format of the maps i put on display here. All the big maps that show multiple levels are now vertically stacked instead of horizontally. I decided on the change to make it easier to see more of the details when casually scrolling. This site is built on squarespace and i like the system, but it does have a set horizontal width so the images can’t be panned side to side (let me just insert a small reminder here, that i do style these pages more for desktop and let the auto transition to mobile do its own thing, so the best way to read these will always be on a larger screen). Just remember, that i always double upload and link the map files in those galleries, so anytime you can click/tap on any of them to see the full file, zoom in and pan around. The full level maps in particular may be of interest because they include some of my DM notes including monsters and their HP so you can see each fight played out again in the numbers.
Brooke is bad with maps. It’s true, i’ve known her for a couple of years now, and i’ve even ridden in a car with her once or twice now, so i’ve seen it first hand. I may poke fun (accurately) at her about this, but i actually do want to help. I’m still very much a boy scout in my heart, and that part of me only wants to help her learn how to read and use maps, and that’s (part of) why i make fun of her. In this spirit, i’ve started a new project based on her request to have some transparent maps to overlay, and i intent to make a little booklet of all the maps that demonstrates scale and perspective in a way that i hope can help her brain learn how to see maps as a representation of spatial logic – instead of what her brain sees now, which is just funny paper with weird lines on it.
Brooke may not know how to read maps (or which way to hold them/side of them to look at), but Ari does. Also Ashley (as a former ROTC kid) does know how to read maps, but city-boy-Sorin doesn’t. This has posed a bit of a problem for us in the game, so i am re-implementing a mechanical component. When we need to do a map-based-action, the players can roll a Survival (wis) Check. This will give us a solid idea of how well they do, so i can explain the answer to a player who doesn’t know how to do a map what they’re character knows; or codify to a player that understands the map too well what their character just cannot figure out.
Enough about maps. They represent the space of the world, but i want to know what’s happening in it!
I fear what we’ll uncover, ’cause if there’s anything I know about the past, it’s that there’s a lot of nasty shit layered underneath history. And it sure does kick up a stink when you dredge it back up again.
-Ropafadzo "Ropa" Moyo —T. L. Huchu, “Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments: XXV”
🧠🧠🧠🎈🛡️🎲🗡️📿✨🌿Chapter 25: It’s Been a While, But We’re Back in Style
🧠🧠🧠🎈🛡️🎲🗡️📿✨🌿Chapter 25: It’s Been a While, But We’re Back in Style
The man opens the door of his little top floor apartment shouting, “Can you speak up, your knock was so quiet I could hardly know you were there. I know it's a small room - but…” the last word is a whisper. There in the shadowy hallway stands a demigod, the Viney Watchmen himself there. Thunder crashes outside and the lightning flashes from the window.
The man breathes out a chuckling sigh, “Yes, Constable?” Not the Viney Watchmen, much too round and red in the face.
“Sergeant, actually.”
“Yes sir, sorry, Sergeant. What can I do for you?”
“Do you have a chair? Actually it's something I can do for you.” The constable pushes his considerable belly into the room and looks around, then frowns and sits on the only stool, setting a very familiar bit of luggage on the small table.
The man gasps out in relief. “You found it!” He grabs and hugs the worn leather case, opening it up, “and with the money inside! Amazing!”
“Yessir.” The constable barks. “The fool thought to ‘awk it as the very same bankin’ establishment wherein we did discover, sir, that you had taken out the primary-age loan, in the first place, sir,” the sergeant says with blown up self importance, clearly trying to weedle his way to some kind of reward.
The man laughs. “Thank you si-sargent. How can I ever repa-thank you?” At the last second, the man switches the words, all too suspicious that this rotund constable might actually ask for repayment.
The sergeant sighs, “Just doing our civic duty, sir!” The last word is another sharp loud bark, but then he looks around and whispers. “Just between you, me and the four - er sorry - three bed posts of your rooms sir, what is it you plan to do with the money? I know a good landlord if you-”
“No, no I have much much bigger plans than that money, I’m going to help the entire city!”
“The entire city, you say, well, amazing I do say.” Then standing up with eyes that scream ‘get me away from this insane man’ he bows out of the room with a final, “g’day sir.”
Deep underground, in a dimly lit cave, the young wizard Sorin cast Alter Self, once more giving himself aquatic adaptations, his jugulars shifting forward to make way for gills then his interdigital webbing and thenar space moving up his knuckles to form a thin webbing in between the fingers of his hands. He looks at Ari, blinking his nictitating eyelid, and trying to sound like a sexy hunk, “I can get wet.”
“Ew.” Ari and Rae both gag walking away.
We all step carefully back through Gurf’n’s farm and line up on the little two-rope-bridge turning to balance the arches of our feet on the bottom rope, and holding the hand rope behind our backs. Cypress jumps first, Wild Shaping in mid air to a Salmon. Then with a nudge from Rae, Ari jumps in after him. Rae nods to Sorin and goes next, followed by the magic fishboy, and Bostra taking up the rear in his cloak-boat.
When we come up for air, we’re in a spring familiar to Ari. Not because it’s the same one she saw before, but because it has a very similar feel to that one. The funnel shaped ground, the bubbling water, the ring of hard stone like a tiny beach, and the water pouring out of a small archway into the main caves like the little plexiglass opening in a combination indoor-outdoor pool window at an outdated Days Inn hotel.
The party wades through the tunnel and into the main cave, feeling a sucking pull around them as the water is sucked away into little cracks and fissures in the rocks, leaving only a small puddle on the other side.
“Teshuel nae nehel’feer!”
We look for the sore of shouted Espruar Deep Speech to see a fleshy Balloon like a wide beach ball made of slimy skin and eyes float up to the roof of the cave. As it moves towards Ari, we have just an instant to spot the other tree monsters. Three horrible pulsating brains each with a huge sharp yellow bird beak in front and no eyes levitating towards us on tentacles covered in sharp needle like barbs!
Roll initiative!
Kinda… i mean you all came out in a set order, but i need to see what place the monsters are in that order, you know?
The fleshy balloon floats to Ari and swipes out a clawed chicken foot. She raises her forearm, letting it cut into her there to save and shield her face. She can feel the welling rage compelled by her accursed sword, but wills the anger back from her mind (saving on the Wisdom Roll).
Cypress summons the Spirit of Sheela’s sickle then, before anything else, takes a second to look these creatures over (Nature Check) for any tell-tale signs of weaknesses. He can’t see anything (fails the roll) that would indicate—
—”Aargh!” he shouts as the beak of the first brain monster digs in and grabs his arm. But by Sheela, Spiritual Weapon is there (prepared opportunity attack)! The sickle hooks the brain and pulls it away from Cypress. Even as it does, a tentacle of the beast flies out and wraps around the halfling, its myriad of tiny barbs fail to find his veins (they succeed on the poison Con Save), but the tentacle is tied tight around them (grappled) as the hoovering menace pulls him away from the others.
Even without the compulsion of the curse, Ari is pissed.
“Ari, remember, don’t pop the balloon, we need to check it to see–” Sorin tries.
She ignores him, moving to touch the Circlet of Blasting on her head. Before she can fire off the spell, the floating balloon begins to glow (using a reaction from the ████ feat it has from being █ ██████████ ███████ ██ ██████). Its eyes begin to pulse until the one staring at Ari glows and a ray of scintillating light shines through her (for 5 damage). This time, the sword’s curse does take over (failed Wis Save), and Ari pours her fury into the Scorching Ray from the gemstone on her head.
Hey, Ashley, can you just peek at the HP of this thing real quick? (it’s 7). And Ari, how much damage does the spell do.
Brooke, confused: “Uh, 14, plus…”
Ashley, laughing.
So this is – was – a Goon Balloon and they have a thing that when they die they kind of pop and emits-
Ashley, not laughing: “Dammit!”
Ari’s Scorching Ray pierces a hole straight through both sides of the fleshy balloon and with a sound like a cartoon fart, it falls to the ground. When it does, we hear a loud pop as the top flies off, and the wet sides split open releasing a cloud of green poisonous gas. Our heroes all suck in a lung full of clean air and cover their mouths as the mist settles around them, avoiding the toxic dust (everyone passes the Con Save).
The second brain monster lashes out with tentacle and beak at Rae, but even with one hand over her mouth, she dodges left around the beak, simultaneously batting the tentacle back with her staff. Rae can feel her own fury now, and she lets go of her careful monk training, not suppressing the anger, but instead coaxing the fervorous bloodlust to a burning bubbling boil inside her (going into a Rage). She swings the staff down on the brain (15 damage) and watches it cleave into the crack of between the hemispheres. The beast lets out a surprised squawk, but Rae is already turning and striking again (for 9), she tries to push her Ki out to stun the monster, but her Ki is in a tempest around her enraged blood and the unfamiliar feeling makes her lose the control of on the Stunning Strike (the creature saves).
The last of the three monsters floats up then descends on Ari, its beak pecking at her at the same time as its muscly ringed tentacles whip at her. Fortunately for Ari though, it's flailing, just an imprecise glancing blow, and none of the venomous barbs dig in or wrap around her (she succeeds on the poison and grapple Saves); unfortunately, the attack surprises her, and she’s unable to quell the sword’s fury inside her (she fails the curse’s Wis Save) as her vision clouds in a red vignette, focusing in on her attacker. As her vision tunnels in on her foe, Rae lands a (Sentinel Feat) strike on the brain (for 14 damage), sending it back from Ari against the curving cave wall.
Sorin is trying to take in everything happening all around him, but gives up to avoid the whiplash on his neck. “Good luck” he shouts, casting a quick Haste spell on Rae, before tucking back under the stone archway.
Akris rolls his eyes at his master, somehow managing to pronounce ‘coward’ with seven S’s. Then he flies out and bites at the monster grappling Cypress (for 1 point).
With a wave from Cypress, Sheela’s spiritual sickle slices through the tentacle holding him in place (and doing 6 damage), freeing him as he Wild Shapes into a fearsome Black Mamba. With a whip forward and back, Snykpress flicks out to the brain (1 damage), and sprays his venom in the wound (the creature fails the Save on the poison and takes 3 more poison damage).
I put way to much effort into these jokes.
The monster lashes out at Cypress again, trying to snare them in its tentacle, but only the beak manages to bite at them as they’re snake body coils and twists around, avoiding the swiping tentacles.
With an unsuppressable wicked grin as the mental poison of the blade flows back into her, Ari lashes out at the hovering brain monster (for 10), then backs away on her right heel and the ball of her left foot readying her rapier to defend (using Cunning Action to Dodge).
Rae’s Gre- i mean brain monster – shrieks out another squawk flailing at her with beak and tentacles alike. But between her Rage and Haste, she’s just too quick for it, dodging one instant and blocking with her staff the next.
She swings again, knocking the horrible thing to one side (14 damage). It shakes its floating non-head, but all too soon, Rae’s staff is back, knocking the brain down to the floor (12 damage) and sending its tentacles splaying out in all directions. She lets go of the staff, letting it float in the air to brace a kick (bonus unarmed attack), but the bloodied brain rolls to one side, trying to rise again. With a howl, Rae summons her Ki to let out a flurry of blows, the first punch misses as the beast rises, but she follows it with a rising uppercutter that connects and tears the beak from the brain, killing the beast!
Hey Ashley, can you just look at this number here to verify what the monster’s HP was.
Ashley, sighing: "It had 1 Hp left, guys.”
I was really hoping that that last Flurry of Blows punch would miss so it would stay around a while with just 1 health too… sad…
Sarah, sarcastic: “Oh boo hoo for you.”
Ari’s monster slings a barrage of beak and thorny tendrils at her, but she’s ready for it, weaving through the flailing bits, staying unharmed for this turn.
She strikes back, but now the monster is ready, weaving through her slicing swinging blade also staying unharmed for the turn.
Sorin ducks back through the water, under the rock, just long enough to check on the fight and cast Chill Touch at the brain thing locked in combat with Cypress, before ducking back behind cover.
Laughing at his master, Akris swipes a tail-whip at the same monster before flying up to the ceiling and out of harm's way (using flyby to prevent an opportunity attack).
Cypress the snake, the third mamba mention of the story, darts out to bite the beast again, but the tentaclur brain jump-levitates back. Cypress flicks the mamba tail to the side, guiding the sickle as it pierces the brain again (8 more damage).
The monster rips away from the sickle, and curls a tendril around our cleric, the damage (8) is just too much for the wild snake body, and now with the fifth mamba mention of the story (the Mamba no. 5 if you will) it peels way the Wild Shape magic, bringing Cypress’s halfling form back. As Cypress’s body grows, he feels the spiky barbs dig into his flesh and spirit (a mechanic about changing sizes when grappled we first discussed first with the Shambling Mound), the pain (12 more damage) is intense, but the glow of his spirit in his changing shape keeps the venom at bay (he succeeds on the poison Save). He gasps out, just in time to have the thing plunge its beak at him (5 more damage) as it tries to pry off his arm with his pauldron still attached.
Once again Ari swings her evil blade at her hovering foe, but once again – seeming to taunt her, like a cat toying with a mouse – the beastly brain avoids her sharp and swinging wroth.
She sets back on her heels to defend again (using Cunning Action to Dodge), just in time to see Rae come flying in overhead. The monk swings her staff like a bat at the creature, connecting on the right with a squelchy squish (11 damage); only to then spin it back in a flurry around and behind her neck to come again from the left (14 more) splatting the beast into the stone wall in an explosion of brainy gore. Rae plants her foot on Ari’s shoulder and kick-flips back darting at speed (using Haste to change targets otherwise she’d have to stay on one) to Cypress’s aid. With her mind on her Ki now, she lets out a Flurry of Blows, the last one connecting (13 damage) and sending the foul beast back with the force of her spirited anger. Cypress shouts as the barbed tentacles wrapped around him are pulled away, ripping his skin (6 damage), but he breathes in a sigh of relief to be out of the monster's grasp (no longer grappled).
Finally Sorin dips his head back out, aims at the exploded body of the balloon, pauses; turns and aims at the dead beakless monster, pauses; turns to the splat on the wall, pauses; turns and finally takes aim at the last of the foes – the float-beak-brain-spiky-tentacle monster creature levitating away from Rae and Cypress. He breathes slowly (higher level) and casts a Firebolt. The flaming magic arrow leaves his hand at the same time the brain tilts back attempting to spin-flip away. The Bolt enters in the cluster of nerves under the brain where the tendrils meet and with a sizzling goosh, it exits the top of the brain, leaving a flash and smell of burning nerves as it disappears.
Hovering in the air, the brain staggers, and then collapses, falling flat and sideways to the floor of the cave.
We’re out of combat now, and Cypress fails a nature check to figure out what these things are. After he fails, Rae tries next, but she’s exhausted from her rage. After a few more tries from everyone, we learn that the aforementioned the float-beak-brain-spiky-tentacle-monster-creature-beast, are Grell, and the exploded-bouncing-flesh-sack-with-chicken-feet was a Goon Balloon. They think that upsets everyone the most as we stand here discussing these dispatched adversaries, is the fact that the Goon Balloon spoke. It takes some time to work out the words, but eventually we’re able to get a rough translation. The skin Balloon told the Grell to attack us, it was able to rally and command these normally solitary hunters of the dark, to gather them into a force and instruct them against us…
After some heavy panting to get her breath back, Rae starts harvesting the bodies with Cypress helping – acting like a short living rehal, holding up her book from Devin. After some time, she collects the skinned hides of the two mostly unmarred Grell brains, and two vials of the the Grell’s poisons, from the exploded one – seeing the splatted open part where the tentacles use to connect to the living brain, and digging around in the valves and sacks to find the tubes where the brain pumped the toxin down inside the muscly rings of the tendrils. (By hard lines, it would only be one vial, but we’re using this Thieves Guild harvesting and loot site and since Rae rolled over the numbers for the hides and the poison [here], i rounded those combined overages into an extra vial.)
After some small discussion, we decide to head to see Devin and Krubos and get rid of some things weighing us down.
As we leave, Sorin goes to Ari as she wipes down her blade, “Okay, so we’ve learned right, that is we see a big round thing like a balloon, we don’t pop it, yeah?”
“I thought,” her eyes narrow as she twists the blade in her hands for emphasis, “that we just had a long conversation, about how I can't help it right now.” Her last words come out in a staccato rhythm, followed by her slamming the rapier back in its sheath, letting it the foreguard of the basket clink against the metal locket-throat.
When Ari walks away fuming, Sorin looks up at the ceiling and lets out a sigh, “Sure, but I'm not allowed to even carry a bottle of poison.”
Sorin puts a coin in the wall and steps back. We wait. And wait. Cypress and Ari turn to look at each other, raising their eyebrows. “Well,” Sorin laughs nervously, “I guess we’ll just have to.. to… does anyone else hear that?” He asks as Ari’s bow chirps.
Everyone, roll a quick Dex Save, the lowest loses.
We hear a faint whistling sound and a dim hissing end of a sentence, “-at get in my way!” Sorin looks up just in time to see Devin falling. With a crash, Devin slams down from the ceiling onto them. “Thank you, Sorin.” His other head looks more concerned. “Sorry, did that hurt?”
“Um, yes?” the boy tries.
Devin’s other head looks down at Sorin, “Good, builds character.”
If he’s answered “no”: “Devin’s other head looks down at Sorin, “Oh good then I don’t need to offer you anything.””
In a confusing display of merging moving fingers, Devin dry washes all three hands together in front of him. “Now then… what do we need today?” One head starts, tilting out of the way as the other head swings in to ask, “Money, or supplies?”
For a change, Sorin is the first up this time, holding out the apothecary trade tokens he found in the bottom of the pulpy cage of the dead man in the witch’s lair (5/26/24). With a thoughtful expression and a claw tapping on one of his front teeth, Devin hisses, “I’ll buy them off you at half price.”
Sorin waffles his head back and forth for a bit before giving in, “Meh,” he gestures up at the fortyish feet of dirt, “I’m not gonna be able to use them anytime soon. So sure, it’s a deal.”
Okay, so a Trade Token is a common item or a discount, and a common potion is 50 Gp, at half that 25 Gp, and you have four so 100 Gold.
Next, Rae steps up with her recent Grell acquisitions. Devin eyes them thoroughly with two hands holding the hides taught as the third hand feels it for holes and imperfections. “Hmmm… not bad…” the second head turns up to her, “You’re coming along well, Rae, I’m proud of you.”
Raelle-the-homesick (it’s been a while since i had one of those) chokes up a little and coughs, “Stop, Devin, you’ll make me cry.”
With lightning quick reflexes, Devin’s left tail zips around, propping up a reference book as the first head scans a table on an open page. After a heartbeat, the book slams shut, it and the tail disappearing behind the strange merchant, “Nah, your tears aren’t too valuable yet.” “Still,” the other head says, “good job.” It drops the 140 Gold into Rae’s hand with a wide grin.
Before he leaves, Rae buys another pack of 10 more vials for *#* Gold.
*#* Kai forgot the amount and needs to look it up.
Now then, if you’ll excuse me.” Devin hunkers down and looks at the cobble stones. “Ah hah,” he points a middle finger (that is the index finger on his middle hand) up, and then reaches out. His claw pokes into the mortar around the stone and he pulls. Several of the cobbles slide back, telescoping into each other. Beneath, instead of dirt, is a large open hole… filled with sky and rushing wind. Devin quickly snaps on two pairs of goggles and jumps into the hole. At the last second we see his tail whip pack and pull the sliding bricks back into place.
Sorin rushes forward and finds the same brick. Quickly, he starts pulling it. He feels it move. He looks down. There is a large beetle that glares at him, and then digs down into the dirt, kicking grubby moist sand into Sorin’s open mouth.
Back in Krubos’s lake chamber, Rae breathes out a sigh of relief, kicking the heavy cursed armor (that we all very conveniently decided not to think about how she was carrying this whole time) into the lake with a splash.
The lines of darkened shadow between the mortar of the bricks flow down, skimming over the lake before slowly stacking and piling in a voronoi patterned shell around Krubos’s glowing green eyes piercing through the universe atop of his crumbling pedestal. (It’s been a while since we’ve been here and since then, i actually have a new figure for Krubos, which is this Voronoi PacMan Ghost by Hatch scaled down and clipped at the bottom, then painted in Black 3.0 paint with UV reactive neon green eyes coated in Turritopsis Nutricula Invisible Ink and a then layer of glow in the dark paint over it for added effect.)
Krubos’s cracked and jagged mouth opens in a gasp of delight as four items bob up from the depth of the water: a Rope Cobra, an Oathbow, a Potion of Speed, and the Wings of Flying cloak.
There is a hushed and taciturn whispering debate as Rae and Ari count coins, then with a sigh because she can’t afford the Potion of Speed (235 Gp). Rae solemnly drops the 219 Gold into the lake and points to the Oathbow. It flows over to her, rising up on a pillar of Krubos’s interstellar darkened soul. She takes it with a gulp, then grins a wicked grin, imagining how many times she will whisper Zaanth’s name to it.
The group turns to Bostra, and Rae asks for the Rage Powder that we put in his safe keeping. Then as one (though i can’t imagine how – maybe each touching a corner?), the Thug Muggers drop the little baggy into the lake.
Now when the soul of Krubos punches through reality, a Bag of Holding, a Potion of Animal Friendship, a Potion in an ancient and unfamiliar vial (random table), and a Robe of Eyes float atop the water.
This time around, it’s hardly a discusion – really just a few nods all around – and everyone points to the Bag of Holding. When Krubos’s ghost lifts it up, Raelle Skinner, Collector of Many Gross Things that Ooze and Squelch, the Parts Mistress Beneath Nibiru, is the one to put it on. We might expect Sorin to gripe at this, but the wizard shrugs, “I’m just hoping that having a magic bag will finally mask the smell of putrefying organs.”
Everyone is digging through their gear to see if there is anything else to proffer, when Cypress finally remembers his shield of an unknown magical nature.
“I can cast Identify to see what it is.” Sorin volunteers.
“Nah,” Cypress shrugs, “don’t waste it, I'll just attune to it quick.”
Rae coughs, looking at Ari, “Unless…
“Unlessssss….?” A harmony of ghostly voices rises up from a haunted doll in the depths below.
“Unless it’s cursed.”
Ari looks down, then up at Cypress, “Didn’t you find it in the Hag’s room?”
Cypress pasuses, “Okay, maybe we just have you Identify it quick.”
“Good call.”
“Plus,” Sorin beams, “it’ll clear up a space in my Spell Storing Ring too.” The wizard pulls the shield up, holding it by the sinister point and dexter base. When he closes his eyes, the ring on his hand flashes and the light traces the outline of the magic within the shield appearing to us like a strange circuit of connecting points and lines hovering above the wood. In a moment a name comes to Sorin’s mind and he opens his eyes, “Probably a good thing you didn’t attune to it,” he says as he hands it back to Cypress, “ It's a Shield of Missile Attraction.”
After some wild googling at the table, Nymbus let out an ‘argh’ loud enough to make his mic cut out. He spent a long time pining over this because – while this shield is a death sentence to squishy Cypress – it would be an amazing item to help his other cleric in a different campaign… where that cleric is built to be a tank.
With a small sigh of regret, Cypress pushes the Shield into the water.
As the stands of Krubos’s soul come together this time and we see the irregular mountain peak line of his mouth take shape, we also see an extra line on either side – a slight incline where the ghost appears to have the beginnings of a smile.
The water bubbles up in four more spots of this deep bright green glowing reservoir and four more items float up to the surface, swirling and tumbling up end over end until they splay out on the surface of the enchanted water. There are two Bracers of Defense, some interlinked Horseshoes of a Zephyr, the Wings of Flying cloak, and again, another Bag of Holding.
This time the debate starts off fiercely. Cypress quickly realizes (after i tell him) that the Zephyr Horseshoes can be worn by tZulèe as bracelets to help him get around, meanwhile Ari wants Rae to get another Bag of Holding because she thinks the idea is hilarious, Sorin – as a wizard who can’t wear armor – wants the Bracers to raise his AC, and Rae wants to increase her speed even further by getting the flying cloak of wings.
Once Ari gives up on the joke idea, she and Cypress start actually making points about effectiveness for the group as a whole… completely ruining Rae’s plans for the cloak.
With her hopes to be faster tempered, Rae earnestly thinks over the remaining options.
After a silent pause, Cypress adds, “I usually keep tZulèe out of the fight, but Sorin is often in the middle of it.”
“True.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Sorin, take the Bracers.”
With a silent nod (because Kai completely forgot if he could speak or not), Krubos extends an empty hand that sucks in the light around him as he moves. The braces float up and Sorin is able to slide them easel over his forearms.
As so, all geared up, our heroes are ready to set out once again.
However… a few moments before…
While the Thug Muggers are working on their business with Krubos – right after handing them the Rage powder – Bostra slips outside the room. He stalks carefully back to the coin slot with Devin’s mark around it. After a glance around, he puts the face of an unfamiliar gray-blue coin up to the mark, then pulls it back and waits.
Devin’s heads and his middle hand clip through the wall with the lizard man's tongues licking across his teeth from outside to inside – almost tangling in each other before he slurps them in at the last second.
Reader, even i – tracking him in the shadows as i am – dare not get too close here, lest either of these two experts in their field sense me. But for you, i shall endeavor to inch closer and hear what they say.
“Long … … house fall … great …” Are the only words i can hear from Bostra.
Devin is easier, because he is turned towards where i’m crouched, so his words carry better, but his hissing accent is harder to understand. “Hmm … calling … kee…sha… … t’Zanna? … … King … Call and ToTKoA …..akro…”
I dare not get any closer, but as i look around the pipe, i see a wisp of tail on the ceiling and then a falling sheet of paper. Bostra unfolds it, clearly annoyed and shows both sides to the heads jutting forth from the brick wall. Devin hisses out something with a laugh and then when his hand moves, a line appears on the paper.
Bostra nods and turns away just as both lizard heads look around – the left looking up and right, and the right looking down and left. For just an instant i think one winks at me, but i’m hidden again not wanting to stay and risk a longer look.
A moment later i follow Bostra back to the others, seeing his hand tuck away the paper as he steps back into the bright green room, completely unseen, this side mission unheeded and unnoticed.
Yes. There’ll be wars. Fought for the same reason most wars in ancient times were fought for: food. They’d use religion or glory or whatever as an excuse, but it was always about food. Farmlands and people to work that land.
-Eva Stratt —Andy Weir, “Project Hail Mary: Chapter 26”
Table talk:
Reader, kidding aside, i want you to know that my in-session voice is not nearly as good as it is in this blog. I do my best, to be sure, but if i was this good at coming up with descriptive tissue on the fly – well i’d have a better paying job for a start. I always do my best to get the basic images across to the players in-game, and of course to pre-write descriptions of areas and events when i can. But if you’re reading this and thinking ‘awe man, my DM isn’t this detailed when we play’, well neither am i. This blog, all these summaries, have a few key things working for them. Firstly they are written after the fact, so i have some reverse foresight into what happened and what is about to happen for narrative – making it easier to focus on or highlight certain things. Second, they're written over several hours (usually about an hour to every 3 pages raw). And third they’re edited; I go through each one with my own editing for content (rewriting phrases, making sure things line up, adding flare, etc.) sometimes twice – back editing the previously written section before i start on the next one; and then Brooke further goes through and grammar edits for me. Also as a fourth point, sometimes we are in a hurry for a hard out like this time with Devin and Krubos and i ditch the descriptive flowery language to get us out on time and not make us wait a week to finish shopping – then come back later and have fun imagining it in detail. So yes, this world is pretty real and verbose in these summaries (if i say so myself), and that’s part of the reason i make them, to fill in for the players what i couldn’t vocalize, or sometimes couldn’t even come up with in the moment.
That encounter was a Medium difficulty with 4,250 XP, and if you’re wondering, it was 3 rounds.
We retroactively let Rae sell her crossbow to Devin for 50 gold after she bought the Oathbow, just since this whole shopping trip was about prepping and getting rid of extra gear.
This week, i need the player to talk about where they are going next and which way they are taking to get there. This week, i need the player to talk about where they are going next and which way they are taking to get there. This week, i need the player to talk about where they are going next and which way they are taking to get there. I’m saying it three times because these discussions have a nasty habit of not happening…
We had a question about whether the Sentinel Feat allows Rae to use her staff, or just to punch someone, so i’ll look that up this week.
