S05E25: The Gang Finally Finds Him

## Aside

The group has canonically decided that whenever we find stuff on the whiteboards in the physical meeting rooms we’re in to play D&D, it’s like our characters finding stuff leftover in our pocket spaces from a janitor or previous group accidentally leaving it in.

## Background

We made our way to Doin Gloin and have been driving around in our giant magical lobster tank-aquarium.

Last time we went to the kiln and retrieved a bauble that appeared to lead us to Qualish’s laboratory, which contained the hearts of possibly his old crew, a Power Armor, an imprisoned Mind Flayer, and a magical not-television-set mounted on a wall that opened a not-zoom-conference that showed a horrifying Medusa that almost turned Kanye into glass.

We then backed out and went to the ballroom instead, where we found 2 baubles. One led us to a dark and shadowy realm populated with what appeared to be ghosts, the other led us to a swarm of dancing glass automaton and a clipboard with notes from Qualish about his experiments in that space.

Tl;dr We have found 5 baubles that appear to have taken us to random destinations and 1 bauble that took us to a specifically Qualish place.

## **Session**

Nissa contemplates if there’s been any pattern to the baubles we’ve found, that would help us better decide what to do next.

Kanye starts talking about pocket dimensions and explosions. Averlyth calls out that 3 of the baubles in our possession appear to be actual pocket dimensions, but 3 of them appear to be links to other realms.

The group spends 20 minutes debating if we’re prepared to kill a Medusa, given the risk she may be in the Medusa building. Nissa thinks we could take her on if we can solve the whole “turning into glass if you make eye contact” problem. Averlyth thinks we could negotiate. Um thinks she is completely insane and not at all worth interrogating, as she reminds him of someone that’s been in solitary confinement for way too long, completely detached from reality.

While brainstorming our options, Um scans the city again and notices a suspicious glint from the roof of the Medusa building. The group decides that’s the next best lead, but that we should first  sleep for the night to recover spell slots.

Kanye takes first watch as usual. Nothing bothers us, and the night passes uneventfully.

In the morning, the group votes on whether to take a path above or below/through the slime - we choose to go below, with the hopes of finding more portable dimensions on the way.

Our lobster tank does a bellyflop onto the slime and then slowly sinks onto the ground level.

Everyone keeps their eyes for baubles as we approach the Medusa building. Um notices one of the many stone statues of Medusas in the area is holding a crystal ball.

Kanye retrieves the bauble. Right before Kanye flips the switch to open the portal, Averlyth interrupts the group, questioning if we’re ready for whatever might be associated with a Medusa statue.

Averlyth and Um decide to close their eyes as a precaution. Nissa first casts an enhancement on Kanye (advantage in constitution saving throws) and then also closes her eyes.

Kanye turns the portal on with his eyes wide open, confident and excited for another day trip.

He proudly steps through and finds himself in a very familiar looking place: a large interior hall, with a massive skylight at the top and a series of shackles bolted to the wall. It appears well maintained, and the shackles contain a lot of prisoners of varying species and expressions.

As he stands there, taking in the scene, he hears 2 things.

First of all, echoing from the rooftop, he hears a lot of bird-like cawing, cackling, and cheering.

Second of all, he hears the sound of an enormous snake slithering towards the prisoners, from behind him.

Kanye promptly steps back through the portal and closes it.

The group discusses what to do next, considering the idea that this may be the Medusa building from the past, or some other “variation” on it somehow?

Um questions if the cawing noises sounded like they were “aware” of Kanye’s presence in the room - there wasn’t enough time to evaluate any sounds of surprise, however.

Averlyth, recognizing the shackles in Kanye’s description of both places, asks Kanye if the hall is the same as the one he saw back in the window in the laboratory. He hadn’t arrived at the conclusion himself, but the group is prepared to reopen the portal to check.

Kanye reopens the portal and combat rolls into the hall.

This time, he thinks it’s definitely the same place.

This time, he is also confronted with the back of an enormous Medusa, who is making her way down the line of prisoners, turning them gradually into glass.

The bird-like cheering from above continues. Because Um had mentioned it, the group faintly notices some sounds of surprise amidst the cawing.

Kanye does his favorite things and introduces himself to her.

**Kanye**: “MY NAME IS KANYE CANTALIBER, OF THE HOUSE OF CANTALIBER”

Kanye flails wildly with his flaming long sword, trying to hit her before she’s able to make eye contact, and then spends 5 minutes debating with the DM around how the “flaming” part affects gameplay.

His first hit glances off, but his second one makes contact and she hisses angrily. Kanye tries to look down to avoid eye contact, but finds himself magically compelled to make eye contact.

With Nissa’s enhancement, Kanye is able to shake off the glass paralysis, pissing off the Medusa. She swings her short sword at him twice and misses twice - one of her snakes attempts to bite him too, but also misses.

*-- aside --*

During these past few days, Nissa has been telling the group all about Medusas, including the fact that Medusa’s can freeze themselves if they look at a mirror for too long.

Um has discovered a mirror in his inventory whose description even mentions Medusas specifically.

Prior to entering the portal, Um ties his mirror to his face

Kanye feels chills because something awesome has happened somewhere, though he does not know why.

*-- resume --*

Um crosses the portal and makes a beeline for the wall, with the intent of going to his favorite place (the ceiling).

Nissa is loudly singing “Shake it off” with her eyes closed - the Medusa is hurt by the impression.

Averlyth summons a Guardian of Faith to appear on the other side of the Medusa, dealing radiant damage upon entrance. She closes her eyes immediately after the spell as well.

Um crossbows the Medusa with a surprise attack, bloodying her. She turns around and glares at Um, but he has just enough warning to close his eyes.

Nissa starts sassing the shit out of the Medusa for doing so poorly - she is at disadvantage for her next attack.

Kanye is excited about the smashing success of the flaming sword but sees it is no longer flaming. He tries to sheath it as fast as possible, switching to the berserker gloves, and then accidentally makes direct eye contact while trying to sweep the “leg”??

**Kanye**: If my eyes glaze over, does that count as a mirrored surface?

He shrugs off the glass paralysis gaze again, misses an attack, and then gets a goading attack.

The Medusa is now furious at Kanye - one of her swings hits him, and the snake bites him too.

Averlyth runs up and slaps Kanye on the back to give him Protection from Poison. There’s no poison to neutralize at the moment, but he’ll be resistant for the next hour.

Um takes another hard-hitting shot, quickly pointing the mirror towards the Medusa in case she looks in his direction again.

Nissa insults Medusa. She retorts “Hey, I am doing the best I can” and is unaffected.

Kanye goes to trip her and kills her dead-dead instead.

Suddenly, something really weird happens.

Kanye, Nissa and Um all see a flash of white light, and then what looks like everything rewinding - like time reset. We find ourselves once again standing in front of shackled prisoners and we can hear the slithering of a giant snake behind us.

From Um’s position, he can see Medusa alive and well, approaching Kanye from behind.

Nissa has no idea what happened because her eyes are closed and she’s not even in the same room.

Averlyth is almost positive she saw the word “Error” floating in front of her for a second, followed by the words “Simulation reset” and then the same blinding white light and rewind that everyone else saw.

Um, completely motivated to leave the scene, runs down the wall to bolt into the portal, slapping Kanye on the shoulder as he does so. Averlyth, totally ready for this, punches the button to close the portal when both of them return.

Averlyth tells the group about the weird floating words, and how the last time that happened was “some History Channel bullshit”. Averlyth also reminds the group that we haven’t yet checked out the shiny roof of the Medusa building yet.

Kanye exaggerates his wounds from the simulation-Medusa. Averlyth refuses to use a spell slot to heal.

The group drives the lobster tank to the Medusa building. Unlike the other buildings we’ve explored so far, there are no windows or holes allowing us to look inside. We drive up the wall to inspect the roof, where we are able to see a shimmering dome composed of glass statues, pressed tightly together.

While the statues on the ground were in casual, life-like poses, most of the statues here look agitated, like they’re protesting. We don’t recognize any of them from the previous fight, but they do look like they have been shackled. Quite a lot of them are kenku.

With his habit of breaking into places, Um is pretty confident he could shimmy some of the statues around to let us in if needed.

Averlyth casts Clairvoyance past the dome with the audio on and can immediately hear the same sounds she heard through the television screen - slithering, insane muttering and grousing about traitorous priests. After a few minutes, it’s clear there’s nothing interesting about the complaints, and it also doesn’t sound like she can see the spell, so Averlyth changes it to sight.

She’s now able to see the undead Medusa pacing the main hall, and recognizes it as the space that Kanye described seeing in both cases. The Medusa is also wearing a gold necklace, gold bracers, and gold rings on each hand.

Nothing in the room looked like bauble. There are no glass statues, and there is no slime.

With her familiarity with religious iconography, Averlyth learns about the history of this city through the murals on the walls.

The Medusa was captured and then worshipped as a living god. Victims were transformed by her and then placed around the city as devotional objects - like the ones we saw above the slime, in the nooks and crannies above buildings.

There is no explanation for why she’s undead, where the slime came from, or why there are so many statues now posed in everyday life settings and scenes rather than devotional poses.

There is a wall on a far end with a glass monitor, whose location matches the view we saw from the laboratory. The wall looks like it used to have shackles.

The group decides there’s nothing to do about this Medusa for now, so Um scans the slime horizon for more shiny things. He sees a glint in the south, so the group decides to get back into the lobster tank and head in that direction, towards the arena.

We find 3 baubles on the way over: one bauble in the stash “belonging” to a statue of a thief, a bauble in a statue of a devil (a species), and a bauble in the head of a crystal mace wielded by a gladiator.

Kanye, emboldened by his continuing enhancement and resistance to poison, chooses the devil bauble. Opening up the portal, we are stunned to see a cockpit of another apparatus of Qualish in front of us.

Kanye does a mediocre combat roll through the portal. There is no one there.

Kanye looks out the window. He sees fire and flame.

**Kanye**: There’s no slime!

It is obvious to him that this apparatus is parked in one of the nine realms of Hell.

Kanye invites the rest of the gang to join him in Hell. Nissa and Averlyth pass.

Um steps in, pops the glove compartment and finds a notebook of Qualish. The details there indicate he was observing the plane for a period of time, when he was looking for a place for his lab. There’s no evidence he’s here now or was here at all recently - seems like he ruled this realm out.

As they turn to leave, Kanye hears faint static from the dashboard of the Apparatus of Qualish. Um gets closer and finds the sound is emanating from a round spot with a series of very fine holes (read: a speaker). The static is unorderly, and we can’t make anything out of it.

Um, who remembered using a microphone on the History Channel space station, guesses the knob next to the circle affects the sound in some way.

As he adjusts the dial, the clarity of the signal changes. He can’t quite find the spot, but there’s a section on the dial where the static becomes a more orderly sound.

Kanye questions whether or not there’s an audio-version of a Medusa. He can’t remember any examples himself, but he does remember he has a friend that probably knows the answer.

**Kanye**: Nissaaaaa is there a thing like a Medusa for your ear holes?

Nissa rolls a critical failure and is convinced there could totally be one. Kanye unnecessarily repeats her response to Um, who was in earshot of Nissa.

Um stops fiddling with it, but finds there’s a radio in our own apparatus he could practice on first. Nissa brings out the manuals for the Apparati since she obviously has them with her.

Kanye clicks the dial - static comes through the weird circle holes here too.

This time, Um is able to twist the dial to narrow in on the sound of a voice speaking common.

**Voice**: “Hello???”
Kanye starts beat-boxing. The group questions whether or not Kanye would really know what a “radio debut” is, and why he wouldn’t start with introducing himself as usual.

**Voice**: “Can you hear me? You’re all talking at once”

**Nissa**: “We can hear you, who are you???”

**Voice**: “I’m Qualish!”

**Averlyth**: “Oh great, we’ve been looking for you”

Averlyth questions - what if the microphone had been on this whole time and only the radio volume was down?