Chapter Twenty-Seven: Possession

Vex reports back to the group, telepathically, about the results of her meeting with the preserver Aris.  We don't have the reputation to start trading wood from Kledd.  We are going to make a lot of enemies by freeing slaves.  One potentially ally is House Wavir, which doesn't keep slaves at all, as it was founded by an ex-gladiator.

                 If any of us want metapsionic enhancements, I'm going to go meet with Diya. We go to visit Diya on Trader's Row. Vex purchases psychic surgery for Rod of the Pact Keeper +1 for 1,200 silver.  Vex owes everyone else a total of 700 silver.

                 Aruna has to stop Xa'oc from interfering with Diya's surgery.

                 Vex wakes up!

                 Xa'oc is super chatty.  Kriv asks Xa'oc if he's feeling alright.  Turns out Amara has taken over Xa'oc's body and can't get Xa'oc back.

                 Kriv casts shadow blade

                 Amara: "We were all in Mist Song, and we're all part of him now, and I was just supposed to be his arms, but now I'm him."

                 Vex casts detect thoughts to try to find Xa'oc.  She feels a lot of minds, and instead of finding Xa'oc, she finds something that feels like a big singular presence (big, intimidating, welcoming, it feels similar in power to Nibenay), in addition to three normal minds. The surface thoughts are an unfiltered string of random thoughts.  The voice of someone else is asking for Bug.  Vex telepathically tells Kriv and Aruna that she's going to go ask Diya for help.

                 Aruna: "Did you search anywhere else?"

                 Amara: "Like under the bed? It's really annoying that Xa'oc doesn't sleep. He wouldn't even teach me how to summon Mist Song."

                 Kriv: "Where were you before you possessed our friend?"

                 Amara: "In the sword. He pulled us from the Caller, including my goblin mentor."

                 Kriv: "What does 'in the sword' mean'? You're not sitting inside steel. So, what does it mean for you to be inside a sword?"

                 Amara: "It's kind of like a murky blackness"

                 Kriv: "And you put Xa'oc there, and he's gone."

                 Amara: "I didn't think he could move.  And Navarro is trying to find him, too."

                 Aruna: "Can you look in other places?"

                 Amara: "I'd probably have to change places with somebody else, I don't know how to do that while I'm out here."

                 Aruna: "Does everyone in the sword know what you know? Can they hear us?"

                 Amara: "We can hear Xa'oc really well, but not the rest of you. It's very muffled."

                 Amara: "The longer it's been, I think we're in his body, and the sword is its own thing, I think. I'll check on that next time I'm back. If I can get back. What if I'm stuck?"

                 Amara: "I could switch with my goblin mentor, but he doesn't talk as much as me."  Vex asks for Diya's help, but he'll only operate on people who are willing.

                 Vex telepathically tells Aruna and Kriv this.  Kriv tells Amara: "The psychic expert can help us find Xa'oc. so that's what we're going to do."

                 Amara: "I feel like I don't have much of a say in this"

                 Kriv: "That's accurate and that's not what you're going to tell the doctor."

                 Amara: "I want to find him! And he was starting to trust me!  Think of how cool it would have been!"

                 Kriv: "You are wrong."

                 Aruna: "The risks outweigh any reward!"  Amara signs the contract for Xa'oc.

                 Diya: "So, as far as payment for this, this is experimental so I'm willing to lower the price significantly.  How does half up front and half if I succeed sound? The total would be 500 silver."

                 Kriv: "Fine. And the goal is to find our friend's mind and put him back in control of his body.  If you're able to get rid of other minds, that would be ideal."

                 Vex offers to guide Diya to make sure he finds Xa'oc and not anyone else. Diya is extremely worried, but Vex and Aruna manage to convince him to let his curiosity override his caution.  Kriv and Aruna agree to stand guard over us.  Diya warns us that sleeping might be a weird experience for Xa'oc and puts Amara to sleep with two gems.

                 Diya to Vex: "Looks like you're going to get that free lesson after all"

                 Diya uses two more gems and Vex puts her hands on them, and Vex is able to follow Diya into Xa'oc's mind.  It's similar to the Gray, and Vex notices the same minds as before, and Amara is talking nonstop.  Vex feels someone reaching out towards her, the big thing, but she finds it easy to brush it off.  Vex warns Diya so that the entity doesn't affect him.

                 Xa'oc feels two more minds in there with him.

                 Xa'oc's first thought: “Who is using Mist Song?”

                 He recognizes one as friendly, and the thing that Xa'oc was observing wants him to stay, but he moves towards the friendly mind.

                 Vex points Xa'oc out to Diya, but Xa'oc resists.  Vex tries to intercede, so that it feels like Vex is reaching towards Xa'oc instead of Diya.  Xa'oc feels the same pull from before, and something attempting to reach out after him, and he gets to wake up for the first time in his life.

                 Xa'oc and Vex wake up, and Diya looks exhausted.  Xa'oc leaps up and wields his gythka wearing a cape made of mist.

                 Xa’oc: "Where am I?"

                 Kriv: "You let a gnome a possess you!"

                 Xa’oc: "It was an accident.  I was learning something. Why did you pull me out?"

                 Kriv: "Because a gnome was possessing your body"

                 Aruna: "Amara could not find me and we weren't sure you were coming back."

                 Vex: "You can't do this alone. we're a clutch, we help each other."

                 Kriv: "We need to get rid of the sword. It's absorbing souls and minds to feed the entity from the Gray that is possessing you."

                 Xa’oc: "The Other has not possessed me."

                 Kriv resists the urge to blast everyone with lightning.  "It's trying to."

                 Xa’oc: "Which is why we need to learn how to remove it."

                 Kriv: "Yes, with the sword, which is how it get a hold of you."

                 Xa’oc: "Our goal should be to remove it without removing the sword. those other minds know things that we don't. Things we can learn. Navarro can continue to teach me how to fight"

                 Aruna: "And so can living people!"

                 Kriv: "You don't need it. and obviously those minds can possess you. Amara is merely annoying, but she possessed you."

                 Xa’oc: "The sword is just a tool. if we can use it correctly, then... its curse has been purged. it no longer affects me the way it used to."

                 Kriv: "Except there's an entity inside you trying to possess you"

                 Xa’oc: "At this point I don't know if I even could get rid of the sword. I think something... the sword and my ki seem to have become merged so that I can wield the sword as easily as I can wield harm or healing.”

                 Kriv: "You were going to tell me if you lost control of this." K walks out.

                 Aruna: "I'm not sure he's going to get over it that easily."

                 Xa’oc: "He is afraid. a lot of things happened in the Gray that he doesn't understand. Aruna, you're probably the only one Kriv trusts now."

                 Aruna: "I'm not making any deals with any entities inside swords. I think he wants you to talk to him more before you do things. I don't know why you are so ambitious.

                 Xa’oc: "When we were in the Gray, Kriv died. Vex died. I could not save them. I will not let them die again. If that means I have to die in their place, that's what it means."

                 Aruna: "You seem to be going after death, not trying to prevent it"

                 Xa’oc: "Not after death, just after strength and power."

                 Aruna: "You aren't being cautious. you have to tell someone before you do this."

                 Xa’oc: "Kriv is going to yell at me whether I tell him or not."

                 Aruna: "There are more people in your clutch that you can tell than just Kriv"

                 Xa’oc: "Aruna, you and Vex do not yell, and Vex is even creepier than I am. She talks with beings that we don't understand either, but we trust her beings."

                 Aruna: "No, we absolutely do not."

                 Xa’oc: "That's reassuring."

                 Aruna: "Vex is more cautious approaching her beings. At least, tell me, so that I can protect people from a murderous rampage."

                 Xa’oc: "I will do that if I am able."

                 Aruna: "You planned this, so if you're planning to do anything abnormal, you should tell someone. about anything that has to do with something that was once in the Gray."

                 Xa’oc: "Very well, I'll let you know when Amara wants to do another experiment. but if you had her in your head talking to you as incessantly as she does, you would probably have allowed her some small leeway to attempt something"

                 Diya makes sure to get payment, but would love more details if we're willing to share them

                 Xa'oc mind melds to ask Diya: "What did you see, assuming it was you with Vex."

                 Diya: "Your friends told me you have dead people from the Gray in your mind, and there was a real big one that was intimidating and dangerous."

                 Xa’oc: "What did you learn about that one?"

                 Diya: "I stayed as far away from it as I could.  And I think you should do the same."

                 Xa’oc: "I need to know about him so that I can make him go away"

                 Diya: "I am more than willing to help you learn more about it, if we can do so safely. It felt considerably stronger than me."

                 Xa’oc: "I need to go find Vex and find someone stronger than you" Xa'oc goes to find Vex, who is just waiting.

                 Xa’oc: "Vex, you were in my head. You could see what was there. What did you see? Sense? Feel?"

                 Vex: "What I saw in there scared me. The fact that it felt welcoming to me made me very worried for you."

                 X: "He didn't welcome me, he called me the host. He wants out, and we need to find a way to get him out. Could you please ask your shadows? They may know about the Caller and the Gray."

                 Vex: "We need to take our time. Kriv and I turning on you would be worse than us simply dying"

                 Vex: "Kriv is scared about you getting possessed like you did before, just like you're scared of us dying again."

                 Xa’oc: "One more request. Would you please ask Kriv not to yell at me anymore?"

                 Kriv goes to look at the wares, casually inquires about caravan guard opportunities. He's asking about where merchants are headed next.  A lot of the traders are from merchant houses, mostly Tamlador (slaves), Wavir (grains, ceramics, precious metals), and Rees (money lending)

                 Wavir is open to hiring guards, and are willing to pay 2 copper a day, plus expenses, thanks to Kriv's impressive show of strength.  They are headed towards Tyr  They say they are in town a few more days.

                 Aruna doesn't want to leave Vex and Xa'oc alone considering they both had psychic surgery.  We find roasted mekalot, it's very tough.

                 Vex and Kriv chat

                 Vex proposes that we stay here for a few days and try to talk to Diya and others to get some ideas about how to fix Xa'oc.

                 Xa’oc: "I put my trust in the clutch."

                 Vex starts asking around about sources of information that aren't Nibenay's library.  One person has seen a doorway leading off to nowhere and everyone who has investigated has not returned.  It’s in some ruins near the mountains south of Altaruk.  Vex intends to commune with her shadows.

                 The Caller started out as a bunch of souls who were worshippers of Dregoth, and other souls have been drawn into it, and Nibenay has been trying to control it.

                 Vex: "Is the entirety of the Caller inside Xa'oc? or is he just connected to it?"

                 Pyreen: "We don't think he could contain all of it, so he's somehow connected to it."

                 Vex: "Can he be severed from the Caller?"

                 Pyreen: "We have never seen anything like this before, there are very dangerous things inside the Caller, so continuing the search for how to sever him would be wise. Although, we remind you that we brought you back for a purpose, and feel we have been very forgiving in letting you pursue this."

                 Vex: "We need Xa'oc to destroy the orbs."

                 Pyreen: "Would he be willing to accept one of us? Temporarily to get information, and then we would return to you. You won't be sustained while we are gone, but we won't be gone long enough for your body to start decaying. We don't have any ill thoughts towards you."

                 Vex: "Any other options?"

                 Pyreen: "Only things we think you wouldn't like"

                 Kriv is keeping an eye on the party, and is holding himself aloof.

                 Xa'oc is mixing poisons to present to Kriv as a peace offering.

                 - he can buy ingredients for snake venom for 200 silver: DC 11 CON for half of 3d6 poison damage.  Aruna buys it for him and Xa'oc makes 3 doses.  Xa'oc goes to Kriv and says "It's for your arrows, poison so that you will poison the person you are shooting with your arrows."

                 Kriv tucks them in a pouch and says, "Thank you"

                 Xa’oc: "Vex says she will talk to her shadow people and see if they know what to do about the entity that was absorbed from the Caller. I will not let Amara do any more experiments, no matter how loud she asks. Good night," he says and he leaves.

                 Kriv seems unconvinced.

                 Vex intends to speak again with Diya.