Session 3.13

September 18, 2019

Present: Chen, Fallynde, Jespora, Nihilus, Rael, Root

The weather is warming up.

And lots of shit has been going down lately.

Lucien is still catatonic and being taken care of in custody of the Silver Flame, as Hawk has ordered. Jespora visits her children.

Fallynde makes sure her classes are covered at the GTSB.

Rael gives Susanna a “pep talk.”

They go to trade some Hyla coins at Ralraw’s War Laws.

Fallynde: A Gas Mask! That fills with a choking gas while you wear it.

Rael: A chest of Forgetful Hiding

Jespora: Foldable BATH. 4x7x3, includes warm water and soap

Chen: A Sticky Stick.

Fallynde stocks up on dried meat for the journey, in case they run across any “Vegetarian Only” communities.

The crew heads west on their mounts and gets to Viven.

 “Davros Bar is still hoppin’!” - Fallynde

“Oh, come on!” - Rael

Jespora does not want to take the ‘Want to see where Loth died?” tour.

Everyone but Rael go off to see Jeljon (while Rael goes off to a bar to flirt with Samus, a tall blond lady)

Chen muses, “We really should have an Ambassador for Viven.”

Jeljon is at the ritual space, and the group finds him battling conflicting emotions. While he is overjoyed that his people are free to return to the lakes and live outside in the open, his beloved city, that he’s dedicated his whole life to, is dwindling. “Viven needs a purpose.”

Chen give Jeljon some bottles of ale brewed from Timtam and asks for feedback when he’s able. Jeljon expresses that they’d LOVE more Simsum wine! Fallynde, who now carries ALL the magical bags of holding, produced two from her haversack and gifts them to the elder.

They want a purpose. They need people to come here and stay.

Chen suggests a trade hub. Jeljon says, “That’s kind of Hardholme’s thing…”

Nihilus says maybe the Silver Flame could move here and make it a fortress. Fallynde backs this up by saying that Buckler has already arranged for barracks in Viven and has moved some of the soldiers to Viven. Jeljon says, basically, “That’s a Beatrix thing.”

Jeljon is torn. He gets it, but he’s sad.

Nihilus muses, “We really should have an Ambassador for Viven.”

They leave and find Rael in Davros Bar, chatting up Samus.

This bar is POPPIN. Fallynde gets a drink, since they’re here, and they all decide to spend their evening in Viven.

* They find a table and Chen recaps what he’s learned about the current scientific efforts:

All of the attempts to contact Davros from This World SHOULD have worked. But they didn’t. Which leads the scientists to believe...

* It is entirely possible that Davros is GONE.
* All of the Pods existed in the Void at the same time and were pulled out mostly in order.

Chen has killed the mood. Root gets a drink.

(Chen learns from Rael that Natmine has left Viven for the Illithid ship crash site.)

Sooooo, Viven is super depressing now. Even the 8th is thinking of leaving. Maybe Hardholme? They just don’t know what to DO in Viven.

Rael tries to lighten the mood with a jaunty tune.

Nihilus and Jespora proceed to get wasted. Fallynde keeps her wits about her. (She only gets trashed when she can make out with Buckler in a corner, it seems.)

Drunkenly, Nihilus invites everyone to come to New Moira. He uses persuasion with a 7 Charisma… and the Drunken Savant. He pleads to Bacchus for help with his invitation. While it doesn’t work on the Hyla, who have no interest in leaving one cave for another, the 8th are intrigued and say they’ll consider it! Nihilus will check on them again later and make sure they have accommodations for their visit.

Rael is playing so well, that they Hyla are singing along, even though they don’t know the words.

Chen sees his drinking buddy from that one time! This big, meaty Hyla walks over and slams a shot down in front of Chen. Chen accepts the challenge wordlessly and shoots it. Big Hyla Dude keeps them coming! (Fallynde orders a round of waters for Chen, which he blatantly ignores.) Chen manages to out-drink this Big Ol Hyla Dude. Big Hyla passes out, and Chen raises the Hyla’s limp arm in Victory!

Root draws a picture of the drinking battle for Big Hyla Guy, in case he can’t remember why he’s sleeping on a bar table the next morning.

Jespora passes out.

Niles casts Hypnotic Pattern for funzies. The Hyla and Chen can’t help but stare into this cool-ass light show. Chen has an idea and wants someone to try to mind control him. Rael does, effortlessly, with an outstanding musical performance. Chen. Loves. Everything.

While he’s controlled by Rael, he is asked, by Rael:
“Tell me what you REALLY think of me.”
“You are diverting your path in a respectable way [because of the challenges you face and stuff that is very Chen and zen and calming in a way that tells you what you want to hear without telling you anything at all, but it’s all very nice]”
“I love this guy!”

“I am not yet finished,” Chen continues… before he starts talking about wanting to go meditate in the ritual grounds. Root thinks that sounds fun, and wants to go with him.

Chen changes the subject entirely to tell Nihilus about Arthas.
“You remember Arthas?”

“The guy Zevine was in love with?”
“Yeah! That one!... oh… awww, remember Zevine?”
And then they were super sad about their dead friend.

Rael, trying to raise their spirits, “It’s okay, Chen. I can be your special tiefling friend!”
“...”
“Wait. Not that way-”
“Technically… your sister was also--”
“Did I make it weird? I made it weird. I didn’t mean like special! I meant… uh..” Rael just goes to bed.

“SO, ARTHAS! Still a punk, but also a powerful immortal being.”

Rael didn’t go to bed, he curled up in Root’s bag of holding.

Nihilus drinks more out of remembered grief, because his friends died on Landing.

Chen goes to meditate and try to open a portal at the ritual ground. He drunkenly falls asleep while there.

Root carries Jespora up to the room Fallynde got for those not sleeping on the ritual grounds, and also takes Rael out of his bag of holding while up there, so he doesn’t die. Rael makes himself sober.

Admits to Root that he ate a sandwich while he was in the bag of holding. It didn’t have mustard on it… wwweeeiiiirrrd…

(Is there a MUSTARD THIEF on the loose? Find out NEXT TIME on HARDHOLME.)

And they finally all go the fuck to sleep.

### Day 2

Jeljon finds Chen in the ritual space and wakes him, kindly saying, “Still no portal, buddy.” He stumbles back to Davros bar.

Hangovers. Fallynde, who is not hungover, passes out waters. Rael cures his party of hangovers.

Nihilus thinks of this great idea for Viven: Drive-thru Daiquiris!

Rael passes around some good-good, French Press coffee. Chen makes Tea: Viven Breakfast Blend.

There is a lot of Coffee vs. Tea talk. Some think cold coffee is heresy. There is general disagreement about coffee temperatures.

Chen decides it’s time to leave, so they do.

They head to the Northmost portal and see lots of Silver Flame guards on patrol on both sides. Fallynde gives them all high fives and Root gives them his warmest regards.

Once they come out of the Portal and get to the river, they take out the folding boat and load themselves and their mounts aboard. Nihilus casts Unseen Servant to help the rest of the party, row the boat. Rael gives them some haste.

The group reaches the mountain by midday.

Rael warns them that once they go under the waterfall, there may be some things above them. He doesn’t know what they are, but it’s possible that they’re hostile, even deadly, so we should be very quiet. They proceed underneath.

Soova Falls spills onto the ship and they find themselves in a cave on the other side, on an underground lake. The ceiling is so high, and the tunnel they go through is long, until it comes out into a really wide chamber. They can see two specks of light in the far off distance, probably exits. They head towards the northmost light. A small stream of water trickles down from above.

Nihilus levitates to check out their surroundings. On his first look around, all he sees are stalactites, stalagmites, and rock formations. He goes about 600 feet higher and sees large, hollowed out recesses with nests and eggs and Psora. It’s hatching season. All the eggs are guarded. He still can’t see the top. He comes back down to the boat and lands quietly.

The light they’re following in the distance starts to fade, so they do their best to keep going straight.

Unbeknownst to them at this time, they fail miserably as a group, and are actually now going the wrong way.

In their confusion, they end up making a bit of noise, which results in an unwelcome SQUAWK.

The sounds of wings fill the air.

Hopefully, someone says, “Sooo… they can’t see?” This is an incorrect statement.

Those with dark vision can make out 12 Psora, about 30-35 feet overhead.

Chen and Fallynde assess the situation before deciding what to do.

Rael cases Fairy Fire and highlights 5 of the Psora, so that they have glowing purple outlines and can be seen by the folks who can’t see in the dark. This gives everyone an advantage against them. Rael grants Mantle of Inspiration to everyone who doesn’t have over 100 HP.

Jespora casts a red light on her dagger, which illuminates the area, including the rest of the Psora.

Chen decides to climb the mast and is able to pummel the consciousness out of one of the Psora. He falls unconscious on the boat.

It turns out, they are easy to hit, and don’t have a lot of health, but they also have range and can pick you up, which is terrifying.

Root assess the situation.

Nihilus floats above Chen and casts our old friend, Hypnotic Pattern. 8 out of the 12 Psora are charmed by the spell (1 is unconscious on the boat). They hover in place and do not chase the boat.

The boat keeps moving and only 3 are now chasing them. 2 of them have purple outlines. Everyone can see all 3 of them.

Fallynde just keeps rowing, because she can’t reach a damn thing to hit it.

Root casts Compel Duel on one of the Glowing Psora, and now it’s compelled to attack ONLY Root.

While that one goes after Root, the other one with a purple outline goes after Nihilus, and the non-illuminated Psora goes for Rael.

Nihilus is hit, uses a shield as a reaction, but does not deflect the blow. In this shuffle, he misses his footing and the Psora lifts him off the boat and into the air. He manages to keep his Hypnotic Pattern concentration going, but he is TERRIFIED, and takes some damage.

The one attacking Rael hits him, but does not manage to pick him up. Rael has a bit of an internal struggle and suddenly gets the urge to MURDER THIS FLYING THING. He shoots it successfully. He has a wild look in his eyes, but everyone is too distracted to notice.

The one attacking Root misses so badly that it actually injures the Psora next to it.

Chen utilizes a move he has dubbed, “DEATH FROM ABOVE.” From his place on the boat’s mast, he jumps and lands on the Psora’s neck, in an attempt to create a neck hole.
He succeeds overwhelmingly, and it dies in the air. It, Chen, and Nihilus fall to the boat. Nihilus uses misty step to avoid taking landing damage. Chen lands on him.

Fallynde is trying to figure out if there is any way for her to be useful in this situation, other than rowing.

Rael speaks something angrily in Infernal, which no one understands. He shoots and kills his target.

Jespora casts spiritual weapon. A hammer shows up and smacks the Psora attacking Root.

Root throws a hammer and kills the Psora attacking him.

Nihilus’s concentration holds, and the party is able to row away, after some discussion as to whether they should kill the other 9. Most are against it, and luckily, their discussion didn’t take long enough for the trance to break. And they SUCCEED in rowing away safely and not having to face the 9 (8?) remaining Psora. (Fallynde rolls the unconscious one off the boat and into the water.)

They paddle through the night. Watches are assigned and taken.

1st watch is Rael and Fallynde. Rael is too amped up and is WEIRDLY excited about killing a thing.
2nd watch is Nihilus and Jespora

3rd watch is Chen and Root.

### 3rd Day

When the sun comes up and a tiny light is seen in the distance, they discover that they are even further away from the light than they were yesterday.

All of them focus and work together to get back on track.

They successfully determine that, oops, they’d ended up going toward Etherwood. They figure out which way is North and correct their trajectory.

The northern exit tunnel is much longer than the entrance was. They come out through another waterfall.

Emerging, they find themselves in a new land.

Tall yellow grass, soft as hair, stretches as far as the horizon.

It flattens with each gust of wind and springs back. Endless yellow

below the endless blue of the sky. Small, dispersed trees with flat,

green tops are strewed across the landscape. The air smells like good,

clean dirt and the bright sun shines happily down onto your upturned faces.

In this flat landscape, your party will stick out like a sore thumb.

There will be no place to hide. The river continues north.

Chen climbs about 20 feet up the mountain to survey the land ahead. More grass. More plains. More river. The tall grass moves with the wind.

Nihilus looks around and realizes that it’ll be very easy to see something approaching by the way the grass moves.

They decide to travel along the river bank with their mounts, just in case they are surprised by the local fauna. They spend the day riding north.

Nihilus sees the grass rustling, but finds no intelligent throughs.

Chen realizes that Nihilus can detect thoughts and thinks it’d make for a good experiment, given the whole mind-flayer situation. Nihilus agrees to revisit this back in Hardholme!

The grass is about 3 feet tall here. Fallynde and Nihilus are thankful they are mounted.  They notice little trails being made in the grass.

The sun is going down, so they set up camp and examine the little trails being made. Nihilus wants to know what’s rustling, so he casts levitate on one of the paths.

It’s a Mirage (bunnicorn)! Its coloration is a little different from those we’ve seen on the plains of Kazzaran’s Valley, but it’s the same species. It’s about as big as a Laborador, and there are SO MANY MORE than any of us have ever seen on our side of the waterfall.

Rael is HORRIFIED. “This is clearly a predatory monster!”

Nihilus just wants to pet it, but is hesitant, because pointy teeth. He finally gains the courage and is rewarded to discover the SOFTEST PELT EVER.

Root offers the levitated Mirage some jerky. It obviously eats it. It’s a forager.

Nihilus realizes it’s big enough to one day be his mount. This TERRIFIES Rael. Taking a piece of cloth offered by Fallynde, Nihilus ties a bow to the Mirage’s horn, so he can hopefully find it again later, and lets it go.

They set up camp again. There are no Wngas here.

1st, Nihilus & Jespora
2nd, Rael & Fallynde
3rd, Chen & Root

Nihilus had hoped BowBoi would return, but no one sees him again that night.

### 4th Day

They head north along the river more, looking for structures.

Nihilus casts fabricate on a tree to make a simple cage because he wants BowBoi back.

They see other creatures, who are large and scary and definitely dangerous and some more furry dinosaurs.

They come to a fork in the river and follow it North, along the western bank.

Nihilus keeps looking for more Mirages, but is unsuccessful.
Chen starts helping, and finds PLENTY, but not BowBoi.
Rael is not at all amused and is purposely trying NOT to find any mirages. Unfortunately, he fails at this, and finds BowBoi!

He screams.

Nihilus levitates BowBoi up again, and Root retrieves the cage and in the little fuzzy guy goes.

Rael cries with relief that “THAT MONSTER” is safely locked up.

### 5th Day

Following the river, they come to a lake, with several chunks of land in it...and boats.

Chen and Nihilus discuss the mortality of Griefer. Lots of pointless bird talk.

Nihilus sends Griefer off to scout ahead and find out what kind of beings are sailing on the lake. He reports back that the boats are full of Tiger People. The Tigris!

The crew hops back in their fold out boat and sets sale. Because he, too, is an animal person, Chen takes point. Root backs him up while the others row.

The boats are all heading toward a large city port.

LARGE city port. LARGE.

As the crew gets closer to the docks, they see all sorts of people, some with Elephant heads, Lion people, Gazelle headed people, Orangutan people, etc.

We are welcomed into the large port by Kennet, the Harbor Patrol, who begins speaking Abyssal to us. Fallynde translates. He asks if we are here for Business or Pleasure.

The party responds that they are there for both, and are Diplomatic Ambassadors.

Kennet, a Tigris, laughs and gives us directions to a dock in a crowded shipyard. “Welcome to Nyantys.”

They pay their docking fee, unload their mounts, fold up their boat, and start trying to figure out information about the town. While Fallynde is translating, Kennet notices the language the others are speaking…

“You speak the language of Light?” and he just starts speaking in common from there on out. He directs the group to the Temple of Light.

This city is HUGE.

We appear in a tropical city under the blazing sun. The old-familiar sounds of a harbor-creaking ropes, slapping waves, heavy barrels rolling across cobblestones-mingle with voices shouting and cursing in an unfamiliar language filled with clicks, inhalations, and singsongy words that make it sound almost musical. The aroma of unfamiliar spices and tropical fruit mixes with the wharf-side smells of fish, tar, and canvas.

Beyond all that, the city is an explosion of color. Buildings are painted in bright shades of blue, green, orange, and salmon pink, or their walls are adorned with murals portraying giant haired-reptiles and mythical heroes. Every building sports baskets and clay urns of colorful flowers or is draped in leafy, flowering vines. Multicolored pennants and sun awnings flutter atop the city walls. The whole city seems to be bustling, sweating, laughing, swearing, and singing.

The general muttering around the party is, “Why couldn’t we have landed HERE?”

The city has 3 ward, Merchant Ward, Market Ward, and Old City.

On the way to the Temple of Light, they see lots of different kinds of creatures, including a few, but not many, Blue Hyla.

Chen suggests a diplomatic mission to the Councillors. Rael suggests a shopping montage for Fallynde. They go with Chen’s suggestion.

Once in the temple, (Chen removes his shoes, and) they see a regal sight. Standing at eight feet tall, clad in the white robes that are becoming very familiar to you is a lion, standing on two feet.

A white hood frames his shaggy brown mane as his yellow-brown eyes peer at you softly down his broad nose.
Out of nowhere he yawns - a flash of pink then the sight of his long tongue. As he lifts his arms and stretches, you're reminded of a housecat - his wide, white sleeves slip down a bit, exposing two
glowing scars on his wrists.

His voice is so guttural and deep it shakes your shoes and any ideas you had of docile housecats disappear. "Fellow Travelers," he nods to you. . It seems WAY brighter inside than outside. Definitely magically.

A Lion wearing robes looks upon the party. He has familiar glowing scars on his wrists, the sigil of Maeve.

Rael introduces himself, “I am an Ambassador of Hardholme.” “Excuse me?” hisses Fallynde.

Rael introduces everybody. He’s very good at it.

Lion guy is so amused to see such a small Nihilus there. He leans over and tickles Nihilus behind the ear. Nihilus levitates up and returns the ear tickle.

“You look overwhelmed” the Lion man observes.
“Yeah, we’ve never been this far north.”
The lion man looks confused. “We are VERY far south… are you from the swamplands?”

Rael summons an illusory map to explain our journey.

Fallynde asks if they know any Illithid. He does not.

Chen asks if a meeting between our Councillors and theirs can be arranged. Lion guy agrees, but admits he does not have as much pull with the Merchants since he gave up his Mercantile ways to take up the cloth.

Nihilus, bored by all the talking and a little weirded out by the ear tickling, uses Suggestion to encourage him to try harder and speed the process up. It works!

Chen whispers, “We should have left you on the boat.”

Lion guy agrees, and rushes off to help the party.

They leave the temple.

Soon, Lion guy introduces us to Councillor Balaca, a Tigris, in his expansive manor in the Merchant’s Ward.  He’s one of the 9 Merchants on the Merchant Council that runs this town. Balaca is also an adventurer, and runs the shipyard.

Rael gifts him with two bottles of Simsum (from Fallynde’s haversack stash), Root offers Dinnerbird Jerky, and Chen offers fruit.

Balaca is impressed by the gifts, especially the Simsum wine.

Rael introduces everyone and brings the illusory map back to show him not only where Hardholme is, but to explain a little about the trip from the Void.

“How did you sail here? There’s a mountain?”
The group explains that there is a cave with tunnels behind the waterfall.

He did not know that. He is familiar with the Psora, though, and calls them pests.

Chen apologizes for the humble gifts offered. (He is being a very good Ambassador.)

Balaca reiterates that he LOVES Rael’s wine.

They do not know about Hardholme.

Rael and Chen mention being interested in setting up a trade between the cities. Balaca finds this all very fascinating, and is very interested in getting his hands on more of Rael’s Simsum wine, so he’s down for some trading.

Chen invites Diplomats from Nyantys to visit Hardholme. Balaca counters by inviting the party to stay for the week. He will personally sail them down the river to bring them back home on his own ship and will visit the town then.

It is worth noting that there are ships for sale here. Kamara will be interested to hear that.

The party spends a week in Nyantis, exploring and researching the exciting new city.