Session 6: Intro to Plortsburg

*For a list of all sessions, see the page Sessions.*

The session begins during a long rest. Following the chaotic actions of the night, Athleo says a prayer of sorts as he is falling asleep: "Audrax, I will hear you." When he opens his eyes again, he is in an infinite black expanse with a wooden door in front of him. He storms through the door, into the domain of Audrax. He demands answers, asking to know things about his party members, about what happened to him. Audrax assures Athleo that without an anchor, he has no way of knowing anything about the mortal plane. However, he gives Athleo a way of getting that information. He tells Athleo that if he marks somebody with Audrax's infernal sigil, his name, then he will be able to know more. Frustrated, Athleo begins to leave. As he's doing so, Audrax invites him to an art show the following night. Then, the dream ends.

While Athleo has his dream, Inkcap has one of her own. Uneventful at first, until a wooden man appears in her dream, grabs her by the arm, and sternly commands, "Wake up!" Inkcap awakens with the fingers of Fellgrip wrapped around Roxy's forearm. Roxy reveals it moved on its own while Inkcap was sleeping, but they are both comforted to know that Inkcap seems to have full control over it now. As Roxy turns away, Inkcap must make a charisma saving throw. She feels Fellgrip briefly tighten on its own, then everything returns to normal.

The rest of the party wake to the dwarves packing up their supplies. Though the Godling has not returned, the party decides to continue their journey.

While travelling, Looney sidles up to Athleo on his horse to get his input on Stragos's mysterious jar. Roxy casts a message spell to Looney, telling him that she may have more information about the jar. Looney handing Athleo the jar draws Inkcap's attention, who attempts to lunge for the jar. Roxy casts a mage hand spell to stabilize the jar in Athleo's hand before it can fall. Looney catches Inkcap, who then unsuccessfully tries to literally stab him in the back with her sickle. Athleo casts a calm emotions spell on the party. Athleo attempts to toss the jar to Inkcap, but Roxy uses her mage hand to summon the jar to her hand. Looney shoves Athleo off his horse. Athleo points out the secrets being kept between the group.

"Maybe you don't want to see my ugly mug," Looney says.

"Take your mask off and I'll take mine off," Athleo responds.

Looney drags Athleo away from the party, out of line of sight and out of earshot. Looney takes off his mask, revealing his gray-white elvish face, with long black and white streaked hair and a missing eye. Athleo convinces Looney to take part in "a Seiran trust bond ritual." In doing so, he draws Audrax's sigil on Looney's hand. Then, Athleo reveals his true face. Red skin, two horns attempting to poke through his forehead. Just as quickly, he reverts to normal. They return to the party.

While Looney and Athleo are having their conversation, Roxy tells Inkcap what is in the jar. She describes gray maggots with pink marks around their mouths, packed full in the jar. She says that if the jar is opened on somebody, the maggots will attempt to mind control whoever they interact with. They do this by eating the brain of the host (*Author's note: nobody questions where Roxy got this information*). When Looney and Athleo return, Athleo accusatorily demands to know what the worms do. Roxy snaps that he should trust her. Inkcap says, "they eat you out from the inside in the worst way possible." Roxy storms ahead, and Looney follows.

While Inkcap and Athleo are alone, he expresses concern for Inkcap's health, as she has gone down in every fight. He offers her his shield emblazoned with the symbol of Shea and Stragos's studded leather armor, then invites her to ride his horse with him.

Looney tells Roxy that Athleo has gotten him into something and he's not sure what. He shows Roxy the symbol, which she identifies as an Infernal name.

Further along in their journey, they see a shepherd in a field. A black dragon flies down, creates a sheet of acid around some sheep, which seems to spawn an acid elemental. It pushes the sheep towards the dragon, who steals some sheep and flies away.

Mourd says, "I'm gonna fight that dragon," and chases it off towards its mountain. The party say goodbye to Crowguy.

As the sun sets and twilight descends, the party sees Plortsburg on the horizon. It is a Victorian-style, industrial-revolution-esque walled steampunk town. It is separated into four color-coded quadrants: buildings capped in red rooves, buildings capped in blue, buildings capped in green, and buildings capped in black. High above the city are four floating wizard towers, orbiting on mounds of earth. As the party approaches, they notice that the walls are guarded by soldiers made of metal. The metal men gesture to a sign telling the party to sign in. They do, then enter the Red District of the city.

Inside the city, the party sees buildings with labels that few of them recognize. Buildings labeled "factory" and "assembly lines." They also notice peculiar canals running through the city. While they watch the canals, a viscous, lava-based creature flows along the bottom. The party asks a nearby Plortsburgian what that thing is, and he calls it a "lava jelly."

Though some members of the party want to seek out the wizard, Odalite, the Opaque, Looney pushes to seek out a tavern as he's hungry and tired. The party easily finds a tavern thanks to the building labels, and in the tavern, they see Elara and the Godling. She tells the party that she followed the Godling using a see invisibility spell so she could talk to him and smooth things over. They asked her how she was able to speak to him, and she explained that she had a scroll of tongues that allowed her to speak to him for an hour, and that she has another one. They ask her his name, and she tells them that his name is Kitri.

Athleo leaves the inn to return to the sign in books at the entrance of the town. He attempts to flip through the book, but the metal guards stop him. He then seeks out a guard barracks where he sees mostly metal men and only two living guards. He speaks to them, asking for leads on somebody coming through town, and the guards tell him that information isn't accessible to the public anymore. Athleo learns of a takeover that happened within the last month by a man named Daedalus, who displaced the previous mayor, Mayor Pipley. Though they don't say it directly, the guards imply that many people of the town dislike Daedalus and his forces.

After Athleo leaves, the bartender approaches and asks if the party wants food. When he returns with their meals and leans over to place them on the table, Inkcap notices a familiar symbol around his neck: a lantern held by three tentacles with an eye where the fire would be. She alerts Roxy and Inkcap, and they all accept the information but do nothing.

After Athleo returns, Elara invites Looney up to her room. She tells him that every member of the party, including Looney, have an "other" presence about them. She tells him that she can see the "big shadowy thing" attached to him, and offers to help him talk to it. She casts a see invisibility spell, seeing the looming figure again, and asks "can we talk to you?" and it responds in a nod. Using Elara as a translator, Looney asks the figure many questions. After their improvised ritual, Elara offers to cast a tongues spell to allow Looney to speak to the Godling. Looney returns to the bar to fetch the Godling, then returns.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party debate what to do about the bartender's necklace. They agree to have Roxy distract him while Athleo and Inkcap attempt to look around the private areas of the bar. When Roxy flags down the bartender, he introduces himself as Max. She asks him about Daedalus, and he tells her of a group of people called the Enlighteners, a group that doesn't like Daedalus. He tells her of a passage he has in his back room to a series of tunnels where this group meets. He tries to enlist Roxy to help take Daedalus down. She asks why people don't like him, and Max tells her that a lot of people are out of jobs as their positions are filled with robots.

At the same time, Athleo and Inkcap sneak into the storage room behind the bar. They search around and find a locked trap door. Realizing they have no ability to pick a lock, Athleo attempts to break it down using his mace. Though he does crack the wood slightly, the most notable thing this achieves is making a loud splintering sound that interrupts Roxy's conversation, as Max runs to discover what is happening in his back room.

Inkcap attempts to bar him from entry, but she gets knocked out of the way as Max bursts in the door, who sees Athleo unsuccessfully take another swing at the trap door. Max threatens to call wizards down on them, his hand hovering over a notch on the wall. Inkcap casts a charm person spell on Max, and this seems to give him pause. He asks her to explain what they're doing, and she says she's heard of troubles that they're here to help with. Roxy very helpfully casts a message spell to tell Inkcap the words "the Enlighteners," so Inkcap says she's heard of the Enlighteners.

When asked why they're breaking his shit, Athleo responds, "We needed entry to the tunnels and we figured you were an easy guy to break into."

Inkcap claims responsibility over Athleo and apologizes on his behalf. Inkcap attempts to invoke the name of the Enlighteners again, but Max claims not to know what that is, then repeatedly demands Inkcap and Athleo leave. Inkcap, to no avail, attempts to use reverse psychology to goad Max into asking for her help ("Oh, I guess you don't need my help then," "Sorry, can't tell you that if you don't know who the Enlighteners are," "I guess that symbol means something else then," etc.), but when the party notices the many large and drunk patrons of the bar coming to Max's aid, they agree to leave. Roxy casts a message spell to update Looney, who then suggests meeting the following day.

When Looney returns with the Godling, Elara casts the tongues spell on him. Looney catches up with the Godling, telling him all the party's names (telling the Godling that Athleo's name is "Dickbag"). Looney asks Kitri if anything was different about him when he woke up, and Kitri tells Looney that he woke up with a worm in his brain. Looney asks if Kitri would check his brain for worms, and while Kitri is initially hesitant, he eventually agrees. He digs a thick dead worm out of Looney's ear and hands it to him. Looney keeps it in a jar.

Meanwhile, Roxy, Athleo, and Inkcap look for another place to stay the night. Roxy searches for a Rosebush of the Saints of Sekeria, but can't find one in the red quarter of the city, so they choose instead to just stay in a different inn.

The session ends, and the party levels up to level 4.