S07E10: The Gang Supports the Local Economy

== Previously on MCVFD ==
Last time we ran into a glitchy tree village managed by a lovely halfling elder named Lululemon, and discovered there’s a million things we could consider buying while we’re here!
== Session ==
=== Barnstable ===
Kanye finds a master lutemaker to observe; after watching him for an hour, he can now make a bedazzled lute for Nissa to give her the Critical Dance ability. The lutemaker notices Kanye has been watching for too long and tells him he gotta pay up if he wants to keep watching. Kanye tells Woodhouse to pay the man, completely forgetting and not noticing that Woodhouse has stayed behind; Nissa takes 100 gold out of the band fund.
The rest of the group is seriously shopping at the various stalls. Kanye has apparently gotten fascinated by his inventory and is digging through old items he forgot about.
The DM has suddenly learned that we have accidentally accumulated approximately 17000 gold in our band fund, but never spent any of it. Apparently it was deposit only.
Um has discovered a lovely set of gloves of missile snaring, priced at 500 gold. They will be a very cool thing.
Sorith found a lower quality Cloak of Displacement, at 1500 gold, but hasn’t bought it yet.
Nissa says everyone could aim to spend 2000 gold.
Averlyth reminds the gang that we previously bought the Slicer of T’pire Weir Isles, which can be used to trade in for anything.
Kanye is getting a Coiling Grasp Tattoo, covering his scalp and making a distinctive mustache, at 500g.
Nissa is purchasing a Lyre of Power, which will let her mend, earth bend, and summon Modrons for 4000g, as well as a Cloak of Billowing for 50g.Kanye: Can a bard wield multiple instruments?Nissa: No…Averlyth: This is the point at which we’ll start asking Qualish to build ways for Nissa to store her instruments on Kanye’s back. Nissa: Can you install a lute-rack please?Kanye wants his own Cloak of Billowing. Averlyth points out they could just share an extra large one, since she’s on his back.
Kanye snags an extra prosthetic limb just in case, for an easy 100g.
Averlyth is getting a Cloak of many fashions (100g), Boots of false tracks (100g) and an Amulet of Health (3000g).
Sorith sees a shiny Staff of Striking (5000g).Nissa: It’ll take us down to 3000 gold, buuut we have like 20,000 gold worth of stuff in the band fund that we just haven’t sold yet.Sorith: I have 15 gold, so that helpsDM is letting us sell things while we’re here if we’d like. Sorith offers to sell some items - Nissa tells him we’re not all that worried about cash yet.Averlyth: We have future heroin, it’s fineNissa: We have present heroin and future weedAverlyth: Easy mistakeThe group has spent a lot of their gold. Nissa: We spent 14,000 gold today!Averlyth: It’s called retail therapy guysNissa finds out we can get a temporary portal for 50g if we want. Averlyth polls the group on whether or not we actually want to do that - Sorith admits Momma P is sketchy so he’s not all that excited to report back to her. Kanye wants to leave her hanging for fun.
Kanye is stoked about the underground dragon chess club, but he can only participate if he plays a real game of battlechess, betting with ingame money for real world consequences.
We emerge from Barnstable and we see the glitched out forms of Moody and Woodhouse waiting for us. Nissa says “He Who Sleeps” and glitches back in. Averlyth is relieved because she forgot the password; the rest of the group follows suit. Woodhouse takes all our shopping bags and organizes our receipts.
Woodhouse takes a rag to Kanye's face and attempts to wipe off the smudge under Kanye's lip. Woodhouse: Is this permanent??? Nissa, you were watching him.Woodhouse: well, at least you didn’t lose all your money on dragon chess againKanye: I actually can’t talk about that yetWe tell Moody we want to go to the Spawning stone research station, Gamma. The journey remains confusing, abstract and chaotic. We’re continuing to learn how to tune the wild out. Eventually we approach the Spawning Stone - a bizarre artifact.
=== Spawning Stone Observation Station Gamma ===
We’re used to Limbo being incredibly chaotic - meanwhile, the Spawning Stone looks basically like a giant Rubik’s Cube, orderly and hanging in space. It exudes order. It doesn’t just look orderly, it practically radiates orderliness out from it. The space directly out of it is noticeably less chaotic.
The side effect is all the chaos it absorbs literally spawns Slaads from it.
We’re moving towards the observation station. Unlike the others, this one looks a little different. It appears to be a short tower, about four stories tall, surrounded by heavy protected ring walls. Almost like a castle, with a keep in the middle.
We can’t see inside it since we’re on the same plane as it because there’s a big wall.
Averlyth casts Clairvoyance just inside the castle walls - half visual and half audio again.
In the courtyard, there are many dead Gith Zorai guards about 20 dead red and blue Slaads. As far as she can tell, the fighting ended up some time ago. There’s a couple of bored looking red Slaad poking at the bodies. The heavy blast doors into the facility itself are still securely closed. Near the door, there’s a keycard with a green circle.
Also there’s a few out buildings near the area - she guesses they’re likely barracks and cafeterias.Averlyth: Heeeey Kanye, I have good news and bad news.Kanye: Is there a waffle bar?Averlyth: Actually yes, that’s the good news.Kanye questions if the dead bodies in the courtyard are actually dead or infested with Slaad babies - but she couldn’t really tell with the Clairvoyance scan.Kanye: We have morning after pills right?Averlyth: sigh I have 2.Kanye has learned that he can pull a Red Slaad to exactly 10 feet away so that he can hit them with a glaive, but they can’t hit him.Kanye: “Oh my god, I love this tattoo already”Kanye is becoming more and more reassured about the upcoming combat with Red Slaads.DM: My understanding is it’s a ranged grapple, which is a weird concept, but somehow it works.Sorith: TentaclesUm climbs the keep wall and then snipes the closest Slaad to him. Sorith is immediately running in to hit the same one. The first attack misses.DM: Oo, not quite a hit. Anything you could do to goose that?Sorith: Yes, I could hit him againHe misses again, and then uses another Qi point but misses it too.
Averlyth summons a Guardian of Faith in front of the open gate - any Slaad that comes within 10 feet will have to roll to avoid taking radiant damage.
Kanye runs in, positioning himself in a spot where he’s about 15 ft away from both Slaads. He tries to mustache-grapple the Slaad that no one has hit yet; the Slaad swats it away.
Kanye has named the damaged Slaad, and is now attacking him. He bloodies it with the first attack, then uses an action surge to strike him again with his average-sized glaive.
Nissa looks at the unhurt Slaad and goes “If Ani is short for Anakin, and Obi is short for Obi-wan, what is Luke short for?? A STORMTROOPER!” The Slaad thinks her joke is so funny, he’s now prone and incapacitated from laughing so hard. As a bonus action, Nissa gives Sorith some bardic inspiration.
Our surprise round is over, and it’s Um’s turn again. Since it’s harder to shoot a prone target, he takes another shot at Fred.
Sorith knocks the Slaad’s head clean off its body. He then makes his way over to the prone Slaad and hits him for a bit.
Averlyth sends a guiding bolt at the prone Slaad. She hits him solidly, despite the smaller target. Feeling sassy about the success, she changes her new boots to leave tracks like she’s wearing stilettos (all the fanciness of wearing high heels without the discomfort).
Kanye grapples the Slaad with his hands, and begins to attack the ground with him. Averlyth: Can Kanye get 2 coiling grasp tattoos? Asking for a friendDM: Honestly, I don’t see why not..The remaining Slaad is still laughing. Nissa is now viciously mocking him.Nissa: You’re so dumb, you laughed at like the WORST of all my star wars jokesSlaad: (chuckles) It’s trueThe Slaad is still laughing through his turn. (Nissa under her breath: It was a good joke)
Um successfully shoots the grappled and still incapaciated Slaad. He’s now very bloody.Kanye: We made a Slaad pinata!Sorith smacks the Slaad with his new staff, smashing him dead after a round of attacks and thereby ending combat.
Note: The Guardian of Faith from Averlyth lasts for 8 hours, so it will remain parked in front of the gates for the next session.
We are now in the courtyard surrounded by a lot of bodies. Um goes to search some of the bodies.Um: I am going to investigate bodiesAverlyth: I’ll help, I’m used to bodiesKanye: I will not be touching anything until Nissa says it’s safe.Averlyth doesn’t find anything interesting - seems like the Slaads are just basic Slaads, and the Gith Zorai don’t have anything unusual on them. It seems like the front gate was opened, the guards killed, and then Slaads left.
Near one of the bodies, Um finds a paper airplane. He opens it up; on one side, it appears to be covered with what appears to be a journal entry (nice neat handwriting), on the backside, messy handwriting says “help us, trapped on level 4”.Journal Entry: Day One: New job! I’m so excited. As a Githzerai child with no interest or aptitude for martial affairs, I never fit in. I’ve always been interested in science and learning, but those aren’t things our culture places much value on. It’s not that enlisting in the guard is compulsory, it’s more that no one has ever not wanted to enlist before. My parents were confused by me, but supportive, and I was thrilled when my mother called on a contact from her reaving days to get me an internship with the human scientists operating out of the Spawning Stone research station. Their organization, Fresenius Research, was contracted to research the Slaad and find ways to combat the lethal infections they carry. I can’t believe I’m going to help them do science that will benefit everyone in Limbo!What we noticeably did NOT find on any of the bodies was a keycard.
Um is using his shoes of spider-walking to climb the tower. There are a couple of windows on the third and fourth floors, but not the first two.
Looking through the third floor window, Um sees a dimly lit room that appears to be some sort of science lab. It’s hard to tell with how dark it is inside, compared to how light it is outside. There appears to be work stations set up, notes, papers, and lots of bodies of what appears to be dead scientists. On the fourth floor, he’s not sure, but he thinks he sees some cages against the far wall. He sees a set of double doors on the far wall that are cracked open, and an ominous red light in there.
Um climbs down to tell us about what he saw.
There are great big not-barred windows for both the barracks and the cafeteria too. Um looks through the windows of the cafeteria: he sees cafeteria-type picnic tables, Limbo Drakeguard standard waffle bar in the far corner. The room is somewhat trashed, some of the tables are knocked over, and the bodies are on the far wall.
Peeping through the barracks windows, he sees it’s surprisingly large. It could sleep maybe 50 people, there are triple bunks, but there’s no dead bodies or signs of life either.
While the group is going to look for keycards, Nissa is going to carry Daals to every body and take notes on his reaction; the hope is that maybe he’ll learn how to determine whether or not a body is infested with Slaad babies throughout the course of this mission.
Kanye enters the cafeteria. The waffle bar has been miraculously spared. It is fully stocked and operational. He also notices the bodies on the wall near the waffle bar are all of human scientists that were all likely butchered by just one or two Slaads.
Kanye can’t remember whether or not the eggs can gestate in dead bodies, so he’s eyeing the bodies suspiciously. While Kanye is debating what to do, Averlyth searches the scientists and acquires a green keycard.
Kanye and Averlyth eat some dubious waffles. Kanye pockets a waffle for the road, and a scientist’s labcoat for his inventory.Kanye: I must say, this mustache saved my lifeReminder for the group: next time we should remember to close the gate