#((now I've got one more week to procrastinate maps and quests! :D))

[springvaletales]

((Session fourteen is wrapped!))

Before the session, Thiori’s player DM-ed me through Discord to talk about splitting Thiori from the party for a bit - not long enough that he’d have to sit out the session, but just long enough to justify some major physical changes that Thiori needs to go through to due to a few feats and bonuses his class has triggering after last session’s level up.

The party scavenged five broken feathers from the rubble of the fight with the mutant roc that give them +2 to lightning resistance.

“You won’t take AS much damage if Zeus decides ‘fuck YOU in particular’.”

Player suggested magic item: Hard Hat of Disguise. Those in the immediate vicinity must succeed in a wisdom save to realize that the wearer does not belong. It’s not actually an enchanted hard hat. It just plays to the power of suggestion.

Me: “Hey just so you guys know if you want to try out a new character your old one doesn’t have to die first.”

Asahi’s player: “If she dies, she dies.”

Thiori bounced to get rooms at an inn the moment he had the opportunity.

“If the Tabaxi Postal Service can hold a conversation with your package, they will not ship it.”

August wrote up a bunch of invitations to all the local noble houses and sent them out via Arcana bird to invite them all to an ‘important meeting’ regarding the sudden disaster at the Aviary.

“It was a tiny bird, and you gave them a proportionally large dose. They’re gonna be invisible for a while.”

Asahi and Ena translate between August and Willowbeard, and ask for the Arcana birds to deliver the invitations, so that the nobles will be guaranteed to come.

August then attempted to pray to ‘the god from her dream’ (Skaadi), and OH BOY was she successful.

The party took a short rest, and Baglby broke out his bedroll, his pillow, an eye mask, and a little music box. I will die for him.

Asahi took a power nap with her eyes wide open. I am afraid.

Thiori returned just in time to meet the nobles, whom I failed to script dialogue for and had to basic bitch the narrations of.

The party strung the noble representatives along with some interrogation-esque questioning for a few minutes, even though they’d already made up their minds to merc the family heads as a warning to the rest.

Baglby’s player caught on immediately to which noble was the least involved in the corruption, and suggested OOC that we spare him and focus the questioning on him to get more information. I love it when the players figure things out!

August and Baglby had one of the nobles - Barthel Hitherwisp - pulled away from the group by Ena before suddenly and brutally murdering the other three. Barthel will never sleep again.

Thiori spontaneously sprouted massive crab claws from his shoulders in dual sprays of blood, and crushed the last noble to death with the claws. Baglby immediately asked if Thiori had ever been to a clam bake.

Murdered NPC nobles:

Ularora Winderthorp (mother, elven)

Fitz Tasso of House Wendelin (grandfather, human)

Wysanna Sunheart of East Bethraea (grandmother, elven)

Baglby declined to rob Barthel while he was unconscious on the grounds of “he doesn’t look like he has anything good”.

Thiori: “We should probably get rid of these bodies…”

Willowbeard, reaching her roots out of the floor: “Look away, dear. This won’t be pretty.”

Baglby blocked off the Aviary door by casting the illusion of a solid wall over it, along with a small wooden sign that read “Door moved. Please use other entrance.”

Thiori hit the door frame on both sides upon returning to the inn, sighed heavily, and shuffled in sideways.

“The lobby is empty, and there is a small, hastily-written note sitting on the counter, which reads “Having a crisis. Assist yourselves.” in script handwriting.

Baglby, to Thiori: “Do you still have your human arms, too?”

Thiori, currently using his human arms to hand out the room keys to the party: “No.”

Baglby, softly: “Oh my god….”

Poor Thiori has to literally crab walk anywhere indoors now bc his big meaty claws are too big for the spaces.

“Thiori does appreciate that Ena did not ask to eat his arms.”

The party then spent five minutes wondering if it would be ethical to eat Thiori’s new crab arms in the event of a survival emergency.

“With Thiori’s new strength, yeeting you will not be much of a problem.”

“Oh yeah didn’t we have seven other NPCs traveling with us? We should probably touch base with them.”

Baglby’s player, after returning from a snack break to see a sketch of Thiori that an artist drew a dick on top of: “Please explain.”

Asahi’s player, the artist: “No, I’m good.”

Barthel woke up at last, and Asahi and August asked him a few more questions about Joscinda, the situation with the false construction, and etc. He doesn’t know much, but I can give them a little lore. As a treat.

Baglby tried to ‘help’ with Thiori’s long-awaited nap by lending him his music box and casting Sleep on him. The spell didn’t work, but Thiori pretended that it did.

The rest of the NPCs finally caught up with the party, and they were very frazzled. They’d been having a lovely day of shopping before the city centre exploded.

Ena: “We’re not gonna mention that we murdered grandma.”

Asahi: “I…totally mentioned that we murdered grandma.”

As the party slept, August had a dream of some great presence watching over her. Haaruma and Naoka had a ‘reunion’, and Asahi, on the other side of their wall, got no sleep. Ena also grew a tail overnight, and poor Asahi got to watch that happen.

Thiori’s PC finally told the other players some more lore about Thiori’s race/class, which had been kept semi-secret for story reasons.

Baglby’s PC submitted a .txt file for a homebrew casting class: The Kleptomancer - a thief/caster that steals items of importance to their target and uses those items to power up their spells. It was approved, of course.

The Tabaxi Postcat returned in the morning with three responses to Asahi’s letters. Only the Winderthorp family gave no response.

Baglby successfully used his homebrew kleptomancy to steal a sentimental pocket watch off of Barthel, and cast Suggestion to get him to get his shit together and take up (temporary) leadership of the city.

The party pays another Tabaxi Postcat to take a catalogue of all the addresses in the city, and then assign them to all the people living in the shantytowns outside the city’s main gates.

Asahi then went back to A Pawful of Potions to check on Vaxa’lian, and ask him if he would be willing to stand in as part of city leadership until such time as his brother could take over/his curse was broken.

Asahi: “Do you want someone to watch the shop for a while?”

Vaxa’lian: “This shop could sink into the depths of the earth, and I would not give a single fuck.”

Asahi:

Vaxa’lian:

Vaxa’lian: “I would like to keep my cushion, however. It is very soft.”

I left to take the dogs out for a few minutes and came back to a mechanical discussion on whether or not Willowbeard the Awakened Tree warlock could use the spell Comprehend Languages or Tongues most effectively to communicate with non-tree citizens.

Ena snuck out to the forest while the rest of the party worked on getting the shantytown populations moved into the city to meet with her patron, and talk more about Michael, as they had agreed to in an earlier session.

I got to lore-drop about Michael, his curse, and his pre-story living situation as much as I dared to clear up some story questions.

We left off there so people could get some sleep, but we’ll be back again next week!