How We Roll

==Season Twelve Season Premeire==
Followed by: Season Twelve, Episode Two: This is the Way the World Ends
Introducing: Semna Ashtad
==Summary==
: The party arrives at Port Nyasa on the Jade Kracken III and Epitome. Cicero, in his temporary role as party leader, decides the party should go into town to mingle a bit before the Sirius reaches the port. Prince Avimeus says the Pinnacle Society has a clubhouse he can get them into, which sounds like a good introduction to town.
: The clubhouse is underground, with a series of glowing steps which change color between red, green, blue, black, and white. When Avimeus touches the door, all the lights turn to purple and the door opens for him. Inside is a bar worked by a dark-skinned man, with a few other guests. A bulletin board on the wall has constantly changing notes. A blind woman with large bat wings and a swanky suit sits alone, sipping some wine and somehow reading a series of legal briefs set before her. Ashra, in her usual disguise as a foppish aasimar, reads the top page at a distance: it is a procurement contract for Vishnu.
: The bartender appears to be a short human in his late thirties. His black hair is streaked with white, he wears round glasses, and he has heavy scarring on his eartips. He appears to recognize Aether, who asks if she's slept with him in the past. When he answers no, she signals that they should meet in the bathroom to chat. She goes first, and he follows a moment afterwards.
: The man reveals that he is a drow who mutilated his own ears in an attempt to fit in with human society. He is surprised to see a woman like Aether living openly. Apparently, drow have been under heavy scrutiny in the city since a massive port theft of wormwood. Wormwood mixed with absynthium creates a psychoactive poison, but it's not what drow would be likely to use.
: Somewhere during their chat, the woman with the legal briefs gets up and follows Aether to the bathroom, listening in. Ashra takes the opportunity to look even closer at her papers. The contract is procuring the services of a diviner to search for Vishnu with Discern Location. The attempt was without results, however, and had cost several thousand gold pieces. Neither the employer nor the diviner is named; there is a symbol on each page of five tallymarks which increase and decrease in size. The letters are not raised, but they are handwritten in a very rich black made of strange ink. Ashra does not disturb the papers, but sees another poking out which mentions a 20% yearly tax on something. Her experience as a tax collector tells her this is a very high tax.
: Cicero refills the glass that the winged woman had been drinking from, then sits down opposite with a glass of his own. She returns to her seat, and he introduces himself and quickly engages her to examine the company's charter. Since the charter was written by Ashra, working with Ethan and Yolanda, he worries that there are legal loopholes in it that Ashra will exploit. The woman introduces herself as Semna Ashtad, and agrees to come to the JKIII the next day to sort out legal matters. Ashra watches her and identifies her as a half-devil descended from an erinyes.
: When they return to the ship, Leilah tells Ashra she wants to speak to her in private. When the two are alone, Leilah explains that she no longer wishes to give Ashra special treatment because of her species. This is meant as an olive branch, since Ashra hated being restricted from doing anything due to Leilah's fears that she would be discovered as an illithid. Ashra thinks it means that Leilah will no longer shield her, and wishes to allow her to die the next time an Inquisitor comes by. Ashra yells at her in front of the party to kill her herself if she wants her dead. Leilah is offended and stalks off.
: The next day, Semna comes over and goes over the charter with Cicero. Ashra hides in a closet while Cicero introduces everyone, shows her the company, etc. Semna goes off to consider what she can do for the party.
: Kruglor makes an awkward attempt to mediate between Aether, Ashra, and Leilah, but it is to little avail. Aether has a bit more luck talking directly to Ashra. Ashra explains that now she is medicated, her resentment is really only for Leilah; she never trusted Aether, so Aether's betrayal did not hurt her emotionally. Aether says she was only doing what she thought was best for the party, she often doesn't know if what she is doing endangers the party, and she feels somewhat protective of Ashra now. Ashra says she'll advise Aether as respectfully as possible if she thinks what Aether plans is unwise, but she hopes Aether will not take this personally. Aether agrees, and advocates for Leilah, saying she doesn't intend to hurt Ashra. Ashra grudgingly accepts that Leilah may mean well, but says their friendship can never return to what it was before the mutiny.
: Semna abruptly returns, and Ashra holds very still. She says that if Ashra Puzzlesolver is on the ship, she should come to the cargo hold of the JKIII to discuss legal matters.
: Ashra waits, then goes to meet her. Semna greets her, introduces herself, and offers her commiserations on being unpopular species in the area. She explains that she has worked out an arrangement that Ashra may be interested in. Semna wants to draw up charters for two companies. The first will be the real Bona Fortuna Inc., under Ashra's direction, which will be a part of an overarching Vishnu corporation. She then wants to make a second company, a small tax firm intended to handle diplomatic presents to the Prince Avimeus. The two companies will be related in such a way that Ashra can be the CEO of both without a conflict of interest. The purpose of giving Ashra authority over the tax firm is that Ashra will then be classified as a Malvont tax collector, a position for which she is qualified, and will share in Avimeus's diplomatic immunity while on the Epitome. Technically the immunity may not extend off the Epitome, but few people want to risk the international incident which may result from threatening a diplomat.
: Ashra is very interested, and asks what Semna wants in return. Semna says she wants an officer position in Bona Fortuna, which Ashra promises her, though noting she will not have the formal authority to follow through on the promise until she is restored to office. The two make their deal, and decide to keep its terms secret until they become relevant to the rest of the party.
: Meanwhile on the Epitome, the rest of the party is meeting with Tiemp Hiss. He has Vishnu in a bubble prison: a clear magic item the size of a fist with a tiny, sleeping Vishnu inside it. Avimeus really doesn't feel like giving up his Rod of Rulership, so he takes advantage of the neogi's compulsive gambling habit to challenge him to a game of dice. Avimeus wins, and gets to keep his rod and get Vishnu. Tiemp Hiss scores an invitation to play again in Malvont sometime, and leaves before it can be revoked. (I wasn't there for this encounter, I was talking with Semna -- details please, if you remember them! I'm pretty sure it was more awesome than I've recorded.)
: Semna introduces the idea to the rest of the party. Leilah resents the special loopholes being made for Ashra, but the party agrees to adopt the new charters. Since Cicero is finding that leading the party is really hard, Ashra asks for her right to call to a vote whether the mission on the Sirius counted as her first mission of suspension. Cicero had ruled that it did not, but now votes against himself so that he can get out of the role faster. To Leilah's annoyance, the motion passes. Ashra has Cicero read a letter she wrote to the party; Leilah leaves the room and refuses to return until the letter has been read.
: Semna goes off to write the companies' charters, Kruglor settles into his nap, and Avimeus goes off to exfoliate. The remaining party members decide to go on a simple combat mission for morale reasons. They decide to go after the Plague Brush in Norgassy. Aether decides at the last minute that she won't be much good against it, and decides to stay on the boat.
: Leilah gives a tactical briefing on plague brushes. The party get their buffs lined up and swoop in over the small, battered town. Ashra flies off the ship and illuminates a square on the ground. She writes "Bunker incoming: get in here if you want to live" with an illusion in Common. The dwarves below are confused, and she changes the writing to Dwarven as soon as she sees them. Leilah removes all the water from the lake with Control Water, as she's worried that the plague brush will roll into it and turn all the water into poison. Ashra spots a glinting amulet at the bottom of the empty lake.
: Ashra gives Cicero a cast of Fly, and he flies down to the ground. Leilah also flies off the ship and starts putting together her battle buffs and making a bunker with Wall of Stone. The dwarves pile into it.
: The plague brush is visible on the edge of town. Leilah lays an Acid Fog over it, delaying it. The party shoot it as much as they can with spells before it arrives, and start an informal damage-dealing competition.
: It rolls through the town. Ashra flies into the air, Leilah runs out of the way, and Cicero gets run over by it and DDoors back to the ship to be tended by Sam.
: The plague brush reaches the end of its run and turns around. Leilah stands aside, still buffing herself. The giant weed bounces into the air, wraps itself around Ashra, and smacks her to the ground; she rolls with the blow, timeraging, and uses Time Hop to fling herself into the future so she will not be trapped by it when she reappears.
: Her buffs finished, a ten foot tall Leilah wades into melee with the plague brush. She is immune to its poison and sickness, and she has made herself immune to its attempts to grab her. It bounces up and down on top of her as she hacks at it with her sword. As she damages it, its innards crack open and sarasin mist begins pouring out. Ashra pops back into existence and stays far away from the fray, firing long range spells at the plant. Once Cicero is healed, he flies back down and contributes his own attacks, also from a safe distance.
: Leilah's mighty blows are winning the damage competition by a fair margin, but it is Ashra who knocks the plant unconscious, and Cicero who deals the killing blow. The plague brush explodes in a burst of saracin, which gets Cicero high as a kite. He wanders off in a drug-fueled haze, and Leilah gives Ashra a time limit to extract the saracin before she uses Destruction to get rid of the rest of the plant's poisonous remains. Ashra quickly extracts as much saracin as she can and packs it into vials in her bag. Leilah reduces the rest of the plant to dust.
: Cicero, in his wanderings, has found a drunken Inquisitor who calls himself Stoneswallow. The man was hiding out in a tavern while the plague brush raged, and is now both high and drunk. He comes out to meet Leilah and Ashra, stares at Ashra, and asks "What is that doing here?"
: Ashra checks that she is still disguised as an aasimar, shits bricks a little that he can see through her disguise, and explains that she is one of the people who just saved his town. He shrugs, says his cohorts will be there in a matter of seconds, and "that had better not be here when they arrive." She DDoors onto the ship and talks to Mister Bait Snugglesworth about the oppression inherent in the Nyasan system.
: Leilah gets confirmation that she was the one who killed the Plague Brush so that she can receive the reward. She also grabs the amulet from the dry lake and takes it with her. Then she grabs the still tripping Cicero and leads him back to the JKIII.
: The three pick up the reward, then return to Port Nyasa. Cicero gives Ashra back her feather, as this is the end of her final mission of suspension. The Sirius has yet to arrive.
Category: Episodes
Category: Season Twelve Episodes