#merano: delphie

[maydaymadier]

The Docks and The Return (session 8)

Welcome back to the Merano campaign!  All character names are in bold, spells are in italics.  Party members are tagged “merano: [character name]”.  Locations visited (cities, specific establishments) are tagged “location: [NAME]”.  Important npcs are tagged "npc: name." All posts for this campaign are tagged “campaign: merano”.

INTRODUCTION:

The party splits up, Marasmius leaving to go relax for a bit. Calypso, Delphie, and Hugo start looking around for jobs and find a job board with several gigs listed. They end up following up on two. First helping a woman in the Doors with some griffons in her garden. Then heading North to the Upstream district to get a gig as musicians for the opening ceremony of the Radiant Festival. And have a run-in with someone from Hugo's past. Before the day is over, they find a place to stay while they're in town and drown out the unpleasant encounter by having Calypso teach them how to tie knots so they'll be prepared to try and get the gig at the docks tomorrow.

IT IS MORNING AT THE RUSTY BLADE

The next day, the three of them make their way back to Upstream, the Skytouch Port specifically.  They still have some time before the bard gig and the festival, so they’re gonna try and make some money.

Calypso makes sure to pick up their axe before leaving the Clouds.

It’s pretty easy to find the guy they’re supposed to talk to, there’s a long line of people waiting to talk to Constantine Ocea.  Long enough that it takes twenty minutes for the three of them to get to the front of the line.

This Constantine person is dressed in a similar uniform to the captain of the Ceretal’s Fang but dressed down for the heat, more importantly, he bears a shocking resemblance to Calypso.  Same build, same hair, same coloration (though not as muscular or tall).

He’s obviously nervous and ends up sending the three of them to the Singing Port on the other side of the district and to just tell them that he sent them.

Hugo guesses that the two of them must be related, not that any of them have any way of knowing.

As they double back to go to the Singing Port, the three keep an open ear for any rumors flying about.  The word on the street seems to be that there’s a wedding coming up, one of the noble families, not sure who.  But if it’s true, this’ll be a large, sprawling event that becomes a public festival.

The two names they keep hearing are Yildirim and Cortese.

The manager at the Singing Port briefs everyone that they need the docks cleared in the next two hours, it needs to be EMPTY, that includes the workers.

Calypso is directed to a larger ship on the far end of the dock for more heavy lifting.  Delphie and Hugo are paired off for helping unload a nearby ship with more delicate cargo.

Calypso blends right in and starts unloading cargo no problem.  Delphie and Hugo are keeping an eye out for anything arcane as they work.  Delphie finds a box of gold rods that shine with conjuration magic.

Hugo catches a falling box, small, about the size of a shoebox, and he catches it gently with a soft clink as it lands in his hand.  He opens it to get a peak at what it is, it’s a box of star rubies.  When he shows Delphie she recognizes them as being used for spell storing.

Calypso tries to keep an eye out for anything suspicious but only sees decorations for the festival.

Back on the other ship, Hugo tries to pocket one of the gems but gets caught, another sailor shouting him down, snatching the box from him, and marching away.

The two hours pass, and everything is cleared out, the ships leaving as well as the people.  Hugo and Delphie go to catch up with Calypso.

Calypso asks around, trying to find out why the dock needs to be empty.  An annoyed sailor explains that one of the noble families paid out the ass to clear out the port so that they could bring someone in to Keystone Island by water.

They’re suspicious that the Virastis are behind this.

The three of them meet back up and decide this is too suspicious, they should try and snoop.

So Delphie casts Invisibility on herself and Calypso.  Hugo decides to go hide in a box.  However, the only box he can find is next to the Gatekeeper Box, where the controls for the gates to the lake are, and the only person still in the port.

Hugo utterly fails at any attempt to be stealthy but the goddesses must be smiling at him because the people in the Box are too enraptured in an argument about a show they saw at the local community theater.

A small, ornate ship, decorated in green and gold, rows itself down the river.  A sheer-canopied tent obscures a slumped over figure behind it.  Whoever it is seems to be alive, but unconscious.

The gates swing open, with a heavy slosh as they push through the water, and clank shut behind the ship as it enter the lake.

They all wait for another minute or two to regroup.  But immediately come to the conclusion that whoever was on that boat is going to be an ‘unwilling participant’ in that wedding.

When they go back to the Skytouch Port to get paid, Constantine starts to ask Calypso a question that sounds like it should be ‘how old are you?’ but he can’t get himself to ask it, gives them their money, and sends them off.  Everyone is very confused though.

Deciding what to do next, well, they decide fuck the bard gig, they’ll go follow up on that posting for the guard job.

Hugo Sendings Renon, to quit and mentions that he told Agatha where he is.  The reply: “You could have just killed me yourself.”

The Ozdemir Watchtower is also in Upstream so they’re headed that way.  When they get there and ask around about the job, they’re redirected to the workshop of a halfling man named Argo, who’s working on tuning up a clockwork robot when they come in.

He’s willing to hire on all three of them but needs some convincing that they can all hold their own in a fight.

Hugo sticks his foot in his mouth, mentioning fighting the Storm Warden but correcting himself and insisting no, that he’s strong enough that he could fight a Storm Warden.

Delphie does a little demonstration with Magic Missile, Calypso finds a plank of wood to hold up as a target for her.  She pulls it off with enough precision that it does push them back five feet, but they don’t take any damage.

Argo makes sure they’re okay with the travel and let them know to be at the Stonehome Fortress at 7pm, they’ll be there until the guards change off at midnight.

They ask if he thinks they’ll have time to help with the hippocampi they heard about and are told, “they’re large and stupid” instead of an outright no.

So all three head back to the Clouds and decide to do something fun and touristy.  This district is very eclectic and a major cultural center so they stumble their way into an art gallery, with plans to go axe throwing tomorrow.

This one, in particular, is a show of mosaics made out of salvaged materials, cool in theory, sloppy in execution, and the three of them clown on the artist mercilessly.

Before they have to arrive at Stonehome, they stop back at The Rusty Blade to check on their stuff.

When they get there, they notice the goblin and dwarf from earlier with a water genasi and they are having a hushed argument in the common area on the first floor.  While eavesdropping, Hugo notices the name Tobias and Delphie hears a little more, that they’re arguing about this Tobias.

Hugo approaches them and the genasi is not interested in talking but the goblin is fed up with his companion and squeals, explaining that he’s Boggle, the dwarf is Urist, and the genasi is Hippor but there’s one more of them, Tobias, he went to go follow up on a job with the Families, that was two days ago and he still hasn’t come back yet.  That he most likely went to Keystone Island.

The party’s concerned and promise to keep an eye out for him once they get a description.  That Tobias is a halfling, in plate mail, he’s a paladin, with curly brown hair and mismatched eyes.

They grab a bite to eat before they leave the district and as they’re traveling, they notice the Merchant’s Guild Hall from across the lake, a grand, domed building, flying pennants in the black and gold of the guild.

Upon taking the bridge to Keystone Island, there are seven sprawling mansions arranged in a circle, the circular green space in the middle is well-maintained and neat.  This area is being set up as event space.

Once they find Stonehome Fortress, it turns out to be the Virasti family home.

The three of them are split up and posted in different wings of the fortress.

Calypso is assigned to the front entrance.

Delphie is posted in the east wing.

Hugo is sent to the south wing.

Calypso starts up a conversation with one of the staff guards.  They find out that the permanent staff are getting underpaid and overworked, especially in comparison to the urgent temp hires.  In fact, there’s even some talk about striking.  Especially with the festival coming up they’ll have leverage.  Calypso is hands-down in full support of the idea.

Delphie immediately notices that this hall is filled with enough magical items and cast spells that she can more or less see, though she is alone in the hallway.  Until she hears something activate in the room across from her and the Storm Warden comes out, looking frazzled and in a rush, clearly looking for someone/something, holding the book she left behind in Dire.

The south wing is some kind of large greenhouse with a dining area.  There’s another guard there too, but isn’t interested in talking when Hugo tries.  Kitchen staff are setting up the table.

Hugo inserts himself into the conversation the kitchen staff are having.  They’re complaining about being asked to make another place setting at the last minute.  They’re not even being paid overtime.

Hugo casually suggests that she should quit if they’re treating her so badly.  He’s so casual and sensible about it that she does, she quits right on the spot and leaves.

Calypso sees the Storm Warden marching out, heading across the green to meet with a man whose hair is half cloud, the two of them immediately start arguing.  They ask the guard they’d been talking to who the cloud man is.

The guard is also confused, because that’s Lord Tuono, the Storm Warden, Crescenzo, works for him and the Tuonos and the Virastis are good friends, visiting each other pretty often.  Before the shift wraps up, Calypso notices a blip in the sky for a second.

Delphie sees nothing else of notice in the hall before the shift ends.

Hugo sees a woman enter, she walks with an air of authority, finely dressed, with solid amber eyes, hair that turns into wheat, and she has a marble staff, the top carved into a motif of clouds.

The three of them exchange all of the information they’ve learned once they meet back up with each other.

Skipping ahead to the following afternoon, the party returns to Keystone Island for their next shift, as crowd control for the opening ceremonies of the Radiant Festival.

The musicians are warming up and a certain someone is conspicuously absent.

There’s a dias in the center of the green space, the three of them need to be in front, maintaining the distance between the crowd and the stage.

About an hour before the ceremony is set to start, a group of Storm Wardens and druids arrive on the island.  They step up onto the dias, the wardens forming a circle along the outer edge and the druids begin what looks like a color guard routine.

Ending with all of them pounding their staffs into the dias simultaneously, conjuring a massive updraft of wind that clears all of the clouds out of the sky.

Calypso is keeping an eye out for the guard they were talking to last night but can’t find them in the crowd.

Hoever Calypso does notice someone who fits Tobias’ description.  They go to talk to him and tell him that his friends are looking for him.  But he’s never heard of his friends, his name is Tobias but he doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

Delphie checks out the situation and can see that something was cast on him but can’t tell what or how recently.

Visitors start coming in, so they have to go back to their posts.

At the start of the ceremony, seven chairs are brought out for each of the heads of the seven families.

One of them, a middle-aged man with hair that turns into ginkgo leaves, in crisp green robes stands and approaches the gathered crowd, this is Lord Virasti.

He begins a speech, which starts as follows:

Welcome, welcome, people of Feolinn!  It is that time once again!  The goddesses have reached out to each other across the universe and are finally within reach!  This will be one for the histories!  It has been a bountiful year for our amazing city and we will only become a brighter beacon of excellence as time wears on.  I would like to thank the guilds for their help in arranging the festivities, our seven families for their commitment to this tradition, the Temple of Storms for their tireless efforts throughout the city, the Circle of The Stars who ensure that all of us can always see this stunning gift, and most importantly, the citizens of Feolinn!  Tonight is the first of three amazing nights and I expect you all to enjoy them to the fullest.  I will not keep you here long.  But I do have one announcement to make, in conjunction with the Radiant Festival.  Cybele, Cesare, will you both please join me?

Two people join him on the stage, coming down from the nobility seating behind on the dias.  The same woman Hugo saw the night before, though now they know her name is Cybele, carrying the same staff with her.  The second person has long, light brown hair that turns into vines, solid jade green eyes,in a crisp black and gold ensemble, gazing out into the crowd with a thousand-yard stare.

And continues: I would like to announce a day that I will hold close to my heart.  My eldest daughter, Cybele is to be wed to this dashing young man.  We are eager for you to join our family, Cesare.  The wedding will coincide with the final night of the festival, and our celebration will keep yours going for a few days more!  The city of Feolinn is invited to celebrate this momentous occasion with us.  With that…let the festivities begin!

Once the last scrap of sunset has succumbed to the night sky.  It erupts into a dancing, dazzling light show, the Radiant Storm has begun.  Fireworks zip into the sky, the crowd on the island and watching from the shores of the lake erupt into celebration.

[maydaymadier]

The Clouds and The Keys (session 7)

Welcome back to the Merano campaign!  All character names are in bold, spells are in italics.  Party members are tagged “merano: [character name]”.  Locations visited (cities, specific establishments) are tagged “location: [NAME]”.  Important npcs are tagged "npc: name." All posts for this campaign are tagged “campaign: merano”.

INTRODUCTION:

Failing to blend in with the crew of The Dapper, the party enters combat with the Storm Warden. He's a heavy hitter, dealing serious damage but the party puts together a plan to deal crowd-control damage and Control Water to punch a hole in the hull of his ship to force him to retreat and help his crew. Realizing that their enemies are using the token to track them, they toss it into the river. Though Captain Monpress is furious about this and has them locked in the hold, kicking them out the moment they dock in Feolinn. The party immediately notices that the city is preparing for a festival. So they decide to look around, try and find new clothes to blend in, keep an ear to the ground for the current rumor mill, and trade in their weapons for some new equipment.

IT'S TWO DAYS UNTIL THE START OF THE RADIANT FESTIVAL

After trading in their weapons, the party heads on to keep looking for festival outfits.  But more importantly, Marasmius is tired, so he’s gonna treat himself, have a little spa day, take some time to just chill.

The party heads further into the Clouds to go find festival outfits.

While in a shop, the party notices two people come in, a goblin and a dwarf, there to ask the shop clerk to collect their payment for a job and leave.  Though the clerk makes sure to mention that they don’t have any more work for them.  They should go check the board.

The party asks what board they’re talking about once the other two have left, and are pointed in the direction of the Leaf-in-the-Breeze Tea Shop.  While there, they also pick up a sachet of loose-leaf tea for Marasmius.

The board has a handful of job listings on it, some more formal than others, including:

INCREASED SECURITY NEEDED AT THE STONEHOME FORTRESS: Inquiries can be made at the Ozdemir watchtower, Upstream District. 50gp/day

WANTED: Session musicians for special performance at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Radiant Festival.  More shifts can be negotiated upon request.  Ask for the Crowsen Bardic Guild, Clouds District.  25gp each

NEEDED: Experienced deckhands for seasonal work, in preparation for the festival.  Contact Constantine Ocea at the Skytouch Port.  30gp/day

GRIFFINS ARE GETTING TOO CLOSE TO MY GARDEN PLEASE HELP, Anthea, Doors District.  Can barter for magical items

HIPPOCAMPI ARE GETTING TANGLED IN THE WATER LILIES, NEED HELP SETTING UP A FENCE, Tango, Stars District.  

Lamia and manticores spotted prowling outside the Clouds, see The Unbroken Chain adventurer’s guild for more information, Clouds District.  100gp/proof of slain creature

H.N.

The party decides over their little tea break to do one of the smaller jobs first, heading east towards the Doors to go see Anthea about some griffons.

Upon getting there, a frazzled tiefling woman, Anthea, meets them at the door and is relieved that someone’s here to try and help her.  For whatever reason, these griffons have been climbing over her fence and absolutely devouring her cabbages.

They don’t have to wait long for the griffons to make an appearance, three of them come up to the fence and the most adventurous of the three climbs over it.

Hugo approaches and tries talking to it but it just ignores him.

Delphie on the other hand, notices that the griffin is behaving exactly like a chicken and paying closer attention to her magical sight, these are chickens!  Someone transmuted chickens into griffons.

Delphie goes back to tell Anthea what’s happening and she is incensed immediately having someone in mind for who could have done this.  A neighborhood shitty teen sorcerer named Hocus.

The party go and lead the three griffons, renaming them Houdini, Colette, and Gerbers while they walk, Anthea leading the way.

Anthea knocks on the door and immediately starts to demand to see Hocus, that he needs to drop the Polymorph and APOLOGIZE for ruining her cabbages.

Hocus is being a little shit about the whole situation, hand-waving any concerns with ‘oh come on, they’re just chickens, it’s fine.’  Anthea reiterates that it is NOT fine, they DEVOURED her cabbages.  Delphie also chimes in to chew him out because chickens CAN be dangerous and turning them into griffons doesn’t change that.

Thoroughly cowed, Hocus drops the spell and awaits whatever punishment he’s going to get for his little escapade.

They stop back at Anthea’s house so she can pay them in magical items, though she does also promise to vouch for them if anyone asks if they’re good for a job.  She gives them three items, a jar of fey honey (they decide to hold onto it for Marasmius), a witch’s ring, and a bottle of Liar’s Breath potion.

With that under their belt, the party decides which of the bigger jobs they should look into next, briefly considering the position at the docks but Calypso is really the only one who knows the ropes and is good at heavy lifting.  So instead of splitting up, they head towards the Crowsen Bardic Arts Guild in Upstream.

Hugo gives Delphie and Calypso a marraca each so they can be backup musicians for him.

On their way through the Doors, they notice a large stone temple, the Temple of Storms and come to the conclusion that this must be where the Storm Warden is from.  Hugo flips off the building.

This is their first time in Upstream, and it immediately strikes them as a swanky uptown district, much wealthier than the rest of the city.  There are even rudimentary clockwork robots carrying out simpler tasks, couriers and the like.

The inside of Crowsen is a nice lounge on the first floor, though it’s too early to be properly open.  When asked about the job, the hostess at the front directs them upstairs.

When they get to the office, it’s with the stomach-churning realization that Hugo knows this man.  Renon Hetroux, a middle-aged purple tiefling man, hair graying at the temples, a broken horn replaced with an amethyst dupe.  He seems surprised to see Hugo, Hugo seems ready to burn down the building upon seeing him.

Renon explains that they just need more musicians for the opening ceremony of the festival though there will be more opportunities throughout.  If he’s interested all he has to do is audition, he’s listening.

Calypso and Delphie can obviously tell something is going on but for the sake of getting in and out of this interaction as quickly as possible, tell Hugo that if he wants out all he has to do is say “falseberry” and they’ll leave.

Hugo whips out his kazoo and proceeds to play notes that should not be possible on such an instrument, a jaw-dropping display of skill.

Renon is stunned, and tells the three of them to be at Keystone Island 3 hours before sunset in 2 days.

Once they leave, the party is able to get some information out of Hugo.  

The two of them ‘dated’ at one point, the problem being that Hugo was 19 and Renon was 40.  Agatha ripped his horn off when she found out.  He had no clue that he’s run off to Feolinn when he skipped town.

Calypso and Delphie don’t recognize the name, so he also tells them that Agatha is essentially his mom.  He shows them a little magical picture that switches back and forth between the two of them when he was a kid and him as an adult.

They quickly decide that they ARE NOT going to take up that job and if Hugo wants to they’ll gladly rip the guy’s head off.  At the very least they’re going to scare him.

In the meantime, they head back to the Clouds to find a place to stay while they’re in town.

They find an adventurer’s flophouse called The Rusty Blade, the rooms are two beds each and first come, first served, the top floor is the least busy right now and they do manage to find an unclaimed room.

They put together a plan for sleeping arrangements and agree to barricade the door since there aren’t any locks.

Hugo stays behind while Calypso and Delphie go find something to eat.

Hugo casts Sending to Agatha, telling her that he’s alright but Renon is in Feolinn.  In response: Love you, glad to hear from you, I’m gonna kill him. 

Calypso is determined to get Hugo A Little Treat (lassi and candied almonds).  They attempt smalltalk with Delphie but they both come to the sudden realization of how awkward it is, they haven’t really interacted one on one much so far.

The barricade backfires a little bit because it’s harder getting back into the room than expected.

Hugo thanks them for the Little Treat and everyone settles in to come up with a plan.

Calypso decides to teach them both knots so they’ll be prepared going down to the docks tomorrow to try and get a gig there.

The three of them spend the rest of the day diligently learning knots.

[maydaymadier]

The Tempest and The Festival (session 6)

Welcome back to the Merano campaign!  All character names are in bold, spells are in italics.  Party members are tagged “merano: [character name]”.  Locations visited (cities, specific establishments) are tagged “location: [NAME]”.  Important npcs are tagged "npc: name." All posts for this campaign are tagged “campaign: merano”.

INTRODUCTION:

After leaving Dire, the party is headed Northeast up the Starfire River to the city of Dire. They are plagued with nightmares and wake rattled. Calypso wakes up first and notices that the ship from the night before has gotten closer. Delphie can see that the token they've been carrying with them is glowing with magic. The party scrambles to hide it, but it isn't before long that the large merchant ship, Ceretal's Fang is abreast of The Dapper and being boarded, claiming to investigate stolen goods. Delphie uses Major Image to disguise the party. Captain Niko Kellne and her associate, the Storm Warden board and keep the crew in line. Kellne takes a few of her own crew to come and help her inspect the hold, the Storm Warden staying on the deck to keep an eye on everyone. The party tries and fails to act natural. Fail enough that, the Storm Warden notices, and combat begins.

IT'S TIME FOR COMBAT ON THE DECK OF THE DAPPER

COMBAT BEGINS, with the party still disguised in their illusions

Marasmius goes for it with a Command spell, Hugo at the ready with a Silence in case that doesn’t work.

Calypso enters their rage and has a good first round.  The start of the fight is mostly people trying to get into position for what’s to come.

The Storm Warden unleashes a massive radiant lightning attack against Hugo, dealing massive damage.  Delphie narrowly avoids being downed with this same attack when he turns his attention towards her.

Delphie uses Control Water to punch a hole in the hull of his ship, this forces him to either stay and let his ship sink or flee and help his crew in the next three rounds.

Delphie attempts to use the Dreamspire Powder that Hypnos gave her previously twice, but neither attempt is successful.

Hugo gets in a hit against the Storm Warden with a Burning Hands.

Calypso and Marasmius team-up, Marasmius casting Spirit Guardians and Calypso grappling him to keep him in the spell and taking damage from it, all of this with Hugo’s Silence up.

The fight taking a turn for the worse, and his ship sinking, the Storm Warden calls for Captain Kellne and her men to come back and flee back to their ship.

The party gets in attacks of opportunity against Captain Kellne as she flees The Dapper.

The crew springs back into motion, getting The Dapper as far away from Ceretal’s Fang as possible, with the party headed back below decks.

The Virasti token is lying abandoned on the floor where Captain Kellne must have dropped it in her haste to escape.

Dante slams the doors to the hold shut behind them and gives an apologetic explanation that it’s captain’s orders and they’ll let them out at Feolinn.

Delphie uses the Sending bracelet to contact Hypnos, asking for advice on what to do next, asking, “Virasti medallion led them to us, we chased them off, but now are being forced to hide in the hull, Feolinn is near, what now?”  Hypnos responds, “Ditch it, noted planar activity last night in your direction, I’ll ask Crescenzo.”

Delphie tosses it out of a porthole with Mage Hand.

The party decides to settle down, Hugo rearranges the boxes to say ‘sorry.’  Calypso starts whittling.

Delphie is a little upset that the dreamspire powder didn’t work, “The dreamspire powder didn’t work, I feel like it kinda wasted it.”  Marasmius reassures her, suggesting that, “Well maybe he’s so powerful he doesn’t need to breathe.”

Hugo, still mad about getting smited by the guy, starts going off about how he has a dumb face and of course it wouldn’t work on his stupid nose, which Hugo isn’t willing to budge on

Marasmius calmly insists that every nose is beautiful, which, well, Hugo’s still pissed, he isn’t willing to budge on this.  But Marasmius matter-of-factly insists that no, the Storm Warden is hot, he’s always scoping out the hotties.

Delphie makes some chamomile tea and Hugo makes a blanket nest, both of them inviting the others to settle down for the night.

The Dapper hits Feolinn first thing in the morning, with Calypso being the first one up, and makes sure to wake everyone else up.

Captain Monpress kicks them out the moment that they’re docked, warning them that he never wants to see their faces again, he also doesn’t want the scrutiny of having gotten into a fight with the guild, if they don’t say anything, he won’t say anything.  Dante tries to apologize and wish them well but he can’t really get a word in edgewise.

Now properly in the city of Feolinn, the party has departed in the docks at the Stars district, there isn’t much here.  This is where the city grows their waterlogged crops, there aren’t really any people here.

Trying to get their bearings, Delphie did some research before leaving to get prepared.  The city is divided up by four rivers, with a lake at the center.  The Stars where they currently are.  To the east is the Doors district, which is majority residential space.  To the west, is the Clouds, where adventurers coming from over the Cloudjumper Range like to frequent.  To the north is Upstream, a high-powered uptown district where most of the guilds have headquarters.  Keystone Island is at the center of the lake, where the seven noble families of the city leave.  The city is prone to flooding so most of the city, especially near the mouths of the rivers so those areas are all built over the water, the whole place is a mess of interconnected bridges and platforms.

They also notice, that the city seems to be preparing for the Radiant Festival, a 3-day aurora borealis, said to be what happens when the goddesses reach out across the universe and hold hands.  Everything becomes shimmery and rainbow-themed for the duration.

To ‘blend in’ the party decides to head east to the Doors to try and find a shop to get bits and bobs for festival outfits.  They find a few things but it’s not quite what they’re looking for and Marasmius is interested in upgrading his warhammer so they decide to try their luck elsewhere in the Clouds.

As the party is on its way, they notice the buzz of rumors, that the Virastis are going to announce something at the start of the festival.

The Clouds are a lot more lively and artsy, catering to traveling adventures of all stripes, from all over, and they find a weaponsmith with relative ease.

They don’t have the money for anything new, but the shop is willing to do trade-ins, Marasmius trades in his old warhammer to get a Hammer of Little Miracles with some help from Delphie.

Hugo buys an Alchemist’s Bane dagger and ends up giving it to Delphie.

Calypso trades in their axe so it can get a +1 enchantment.

And with that, the Radiant Festival is set to start in two days.

[maydaymadier]

The Hand and The Capitol (session 5)

Welcome back to the Merano campaign!  All character names are in bold, spells are in italics.  Party members are tagged “merano: [character name]”.  Locations visited (cities, specific establishments) are tagged “location: [NAME]”.  Important npcs are tagged "npc: name" from this point on. All posts for this campaign are tagged “campaign: merano”.

INTRODUCTION:

Last time, our party met the powerful cleric, Yüzük Hypnos, in her tower the Dreamspire, where she took an interest in who was trying to kill them. She's suspicious but the party decides she's being truthful and let her know that they're tracking down some suspicious activity originating from the Virasti family in the city of Feolinn. They learn a number of things, there's a planar scar over the ocean, the Tuonos are close allies with the Virastis and patrons of her research, the rift outside of the Embers switches back and forth between the different elemental planes, and the Denethor Meteor Shower 30 years ago had massive magical effects that can only be accounted for by planar involvement. She also takes an interest in Delphie, knowing someone plagued by visions when she sees them, and offers her a warning to brace herself for what's to come. She also gives her a Sending bracelet and the party a bag of Dreamspire Powder. Setting out back for The Dapper, Calypso ends up alone with Captain Monpress who confronts them for being a pirate and asks what they were going to do with an arcstone. They insist they knew nothing and wiggle their way out of the conversation. The party regroups below decks and settles in for the night, starting to come up with a plan for what to do when they reach Feolinn the next day. Hugo makes a faux pas and leaves, when Calypso tries to reassure him, Marasmius and Delphie start gossiping amongst themselves. Night falls, with a ship headed in their direction.

IT IS NIGHT ON THE STARFIRE RIVER, AND THE PARTY’S SLEEP IS FRAUGHT WITH NIGHTMARES.

Marasmius is back in his office at Akonerry, the space is flooded and destroyed, his life’s work reduced to nothing, the figurine of Orsum on his bookshelf watches over the destruction, her eyes glowing in the darkness.

Calypso is back in their apartment in Kerras, waking up stiff and sore.  The morning is unassuming until their prosthetic arm starts to rip itself free from their shoulder.

Hugo is stranded over top of the open ocean, with nothing to see for miles.  There is a mind-numbing pain in his skull, invisible hands are trying desperately to patch his head back together.  The sky is split in two by lightning and he falls into the water, the hands still scrambling for him, trying to save him as the sky above lights on fire.

Delphie is back at Akonerry, in the courtyard, and her friend Cassandre is there in her shroud, standing between two statues of Hecare where the Cornucopia would normally be.  She asks if she’s ready for what’s to come, and turns to dust when Delphie tries to hug her.

Calypso wakes up and goes above decks, the rest of the party is still out of sorts upon waking up and Marasmius has just decided that this morning is a wash and goes back to sleep.

Calypso can see that the ship from the night before has gotten much closer, not right on them yet but getting even closer.  It is a massive, very well-maintained merchant’s ship with green trim and flying pennants in the colors of the Feolinn Merchant’s Guild.  There are a few people milling about on the deck and a little clockwork starling is flying around it.

Below decks, Calypso rejoins their friends, where Delphie has pulled out the coin to work on their plan just to find out that in her vision, it’s glowing purple.

Hugo starts trying to hide it in Marasmius’ robes while Delphie starts whispering that she thinks someone might be trying to spy on them magically.

At this point, they can hear some commotion above them.  Delphie hides the coin again a little better in some of the cargo.  As they go above decks, Delphie casts Major Image centered on all of them to disguise themselves as generic half-elves.

The merchant’s ship has caught up with The Dapper and is now astride them.  One of their crew has flagged down one of the crew to go get the captain.  But Monpress barely has a moment to get to the railing before the much larger ship puts down a wooden plank and two figures board his ship.

Seeing things start to escalate, Hugo slips back to go wake up Marasmius and get him to join the rest of them.

The first of the two figures, clearly the captain, is a leaf-green tiefling woman dressed in a crisp black and gold uniform, a leaf charm pierced through one of her horns.  The second is a ship’s cleric, wearing plate over his robes, wielding a mace, his eyes are a solid ice-blue, in stark contrast against his dark skin, and his hair is worn naturally, graying at the temples, and turning into ice halfway down

The captain, Niko Kellne of the ship Ceretal’s Fang, boldly claims that she’s here because she has reason to believe that there are stolen goods on board and they’re going to search the ship.

The party immediately freezes up, confused at first but realizing she might mean the coin.

Captain Kellne bullies her way into this, daring Captain Monpress to try and stop her, he backs down, and she takes a few of her crew below decks to help her search.

The Storm Warden (the ship’s cleric) stands guard above deck, ordering the crew of The Dapper to line up and stay out of the way.  He doesn’t talk much but offers some platitudes that they’ll be out of their hair shortly, sorry for the hold-up, etc.  The clockwork starling lands on his shoulder and chirps something to him.

The party tries very hard to act natural, and ends up striking up a conversation with the Storm Warden, while the rest of the party is hamming it up, Calypso manages to act natural.  But it’s not enough to fool the Storm Warden, suspecting that something is up, he goes into a fighting stance with his mace and calls out, “To the ACTUAL crew of The Dapper!  Get out!  OF MY WAY!”

APPENDIX

There's a little bit of art I can offer here! Captain Niko Kellne of Ceretal's Fang

[maydaymadier]

The Tower and The Storm (session 4)

Welcome back to the Merano campaign!  All character names are in bold, spells are in italics.  Party members are tagged “merano: [character name]”.  Locations visited (cities, specific establishments) are tagged “location: [NAME]”.  Important npcs are tagged "npc: name" from this point on. All posts for this campaign are tagged “campaign: merano”.

INTRODUCTION:

Last time, our four heroes were headed up the Starfire River on their journey toward Feolinn. The ship they were on had to stop in the city of Dire to offload some cargo, leaving them the day to look around and explore. After breakfast, they went and checked out a visitor center to learn more about the local history and afterward visited a temple to Hecare, The Temple of Sleep and Peaceful Death, and a temple to Orsum, The Temple of Transformation. They leave offerings and try to participate with both to the best of their abilities. As they're walking through town, a bird lands on a railing and their ally Sabine's voice comes through it to tell them that the saboteur, Nariav, was found dead in his cell that morning. Almost immediately after, they enter a marketplace and get attacked by a chimera. After the fight, Delphie gets a Sending spell from the mysterious inhabitant of the floating tower, Yüzük Hypnos, inviting them up into the tower, claiming that it's safer there.

In the aftermath of the battle, having just entered the tower that floats over the city of Dire...

Stepping into this workshop, the party meets Yüzük Hypnos, she is a drow woman with dark purplish-black skin, long black hair pulled out her face in a braid, wearing midnight blue scrubs with a warm fuzzy white jacket worn over top to keep out the chill of the tower’s stones.

She wants to know who wants the party dead, and figures they would probably have the best idea.

The party is immediately suspicious of her and they all try to get a read on her.

Marasmius excels at this, can tell she’s being genuine even if she is suspicious.

Calypso is distracted.

The party decides to just go ahead and tell her that they’re investigating the Virasti family in Feolinn over suspicions that they’re behind some nefarious scheme.

Hypnos finds the claim funny, if anything, according to her, the Virastis are boring old scribes and paper-pushers, nothing to write home about.  Though during this, she mentions that they’re close allies with another noble family in Feolinn, the Tuonos.

Though with this new information about the Virastis she muses on how that would involve the Tuonos, another noble family from Feolinn.  They’re her patrons and about once a month, they send a cleric down the river to come collect her data and he should be getting here any day now.

Wanting to know more about her, and her whole deal, the party asks what the tower is for.

The Dreamspire, as she calls it, is her research laboratory for monitoring and studying planar activity, she was the one who built it on top of one of the meteors from the Denethor Meteor Shower, and her work studying it is what got her her Yüzük title.

She has several large devices on a large wheel and spins it until she gets the one she’s looking for, a map of the world, a gyroscope projecting planar activity onto it.  She activates the whole thing, to follow up on the party’s story, zooming in on the map to the southeast, where they started in Kerras, and again, northwest in Feolinn.  She sees nothing exceptionally out of the ordinary.

The rest of the group isn’t too familiar, but when asked what exactly the Denethor Meteor Shower was, Delphie swoops in with an impeccable explanation.  Thirty years ago, a massive meteor shower lit up the sky over all of Merano, even visible across the oceans in some parts of Corran-Ciocan and Bulaklák, the full scale of it isn’t fully understood but it was deeply magical.

Hypnos is able to elaborate that the Denethor Meteor Shower was some sort of planar event.  The meteor the tower is built on top of in particular had strange narcoleptic effects on the town and otherwise caused large sleep disturbances that she’s still studying.

But her real white whale as it were, is the planar scar where the Medrano and Crystana Oceans meet.  This is familiar information to Calypso, who knows that where those two oceans meet is impassable, but didn’t realize that was why.

Hugo and Marasmius have a little conversation off to the side, Hugo decides to name this planar scar Archibald the Crack.  There’s some discussion on if they wanna check it out but it’s in the middle of the ocean, in the exact opposite direction of where they’re headed.

Since he literally has a planar expert here in front of him, Hugo asks if Hypnos can use the map to find Petrichor, explaining that he’s a friend of his and the last time they saw each other was when they left the rift outside of The Embers to the Elemental Plane of Air.

Hypnos lets him know that a single person coming in or out of a rift usually doesn’t cause enough of a blip in activity to detect but she’ll check/keep an eye out.  She also mentions that it’s good the two of them got in and out quickly because that rift isn’t permanently connected to the Elemental Plane of Air, it shifts every so often to the other elemental planes.

As the party prepares to leave, Hypnos has an eye for people plagued by their own dreams, and focuses on Delphie, warning her that “Hecare is the end of all things, she’s the only one who can tell you how something will end.  If she decides you’re capable of wielding this power, there isn’t much more you can do than brace yourself.”

She gives Delphie a copper wire Sending bracelet, so she can report back her nightmares and Hypnos can see how they plot against any planar activity.  She also gives the party a bag of Dreamspire Powder, it has 10 uses and can either be thrown into someone’s face to make them fall asleep, or brewed into a tea to cast the Dream spell when consumed.

Upon leaving the Dreamspire, Delphie is just going to safely use Mage Hand to help her get everyone down, instead, Hugo gets impatient and just jumps straight off.  Hypnos catches him (and the rest of the party) with a Feather Fall, though it doesn’t last quite long enough for him to make it all the way to the ground.  Calypso catches him the last ten feet, and just, doesn’t put him down, carrying him the rest of the way back to The Dapper.

When the party gets back to the ship, the crew is in a tizzy talking about what’s happened, most of them having seen the chimera and deciding that was enough Dire for one day.

Captain Monpress, as usual, tells the party to either be useful or stay out of their way while they get ready to set sail.

As usual, Calypso goes about helping the crew, the rest of the party getting comfortable for the evening below decks.

Once alone, Captain Monpress corners Calypso to interrogate them about their past of piracy.  He doesn’t know them personally but could put it together pretty easily from their description.  He asks if they knew what they were stealing when Hecare’s Fury tried to attack Ayvali and what on Talos pirates even would have done with an arcstone.  Calypso insists that they didn’t know anything about it.  Captain Monpress caps it off with a warning to not tell Dante why they were really in Kerras and a passing heads-up that they’ll reach Feolinn in the next 24-36 hours.

Calypso goes belowdecks to be as far out of the captain’s line of sight as possible while being on the same ship.

Calypso asks Delphie if she knows what an arcstone is, she’s confused about how they know what an arcstone is because according to her it’s a powerful magical item that can be crafted by high-level wizards.  They offer up a floundering lie that isn’t all that convincing.

MEANWHILE, Hugo has finished their blanket fort for the night.  And the party starts planning their next moves.

There’s a general agreement that they should find a way to use Nariav’s coin since, well, they do have it.  Calypso suggests that at the very least they should be in disguise.  Hugo really likes that idea and starts pitching disguising themselves as rocks and trees.  Delphie reminds that group that she can just cast Invisibility.

At some point in their planning, Hugo comments on a plan that it might work, being a “Hit two birds with one stone” solution, which ruffles Delphie’s feathers.  Hugo feels really bad about it and keeps trying to backpedal but just ends up sticking his foot further in his mouth and ends up leaving the fort.

Calypso goes after him to try and reassure him that it’s all okay.  Though this is happening on the other side of a blanket fort, Delphie and Marasmius can hear them both. 

Marasmius turns to Delphie and without skipping a beat says, “By Orsum’s light, those bitches are gay…” and the two proceed to gossip quietly amongst themselves.

It is a peaceful night, a beautiful, calm night on the Starfire River, there’s a boat coming down the river in the opposite direction, towards The Dapper…

[maydaymadier]

The Saboteur and The Cornucopia (session 1)

Welcome to our first recap of a Merano campaign session!  All character names are in bold, spells are in italics.  Party members are tagged “merano: [character name]”.  Locations visited (cities, specific establishments) are tagged “location: [NAME]”.  All posts for this campaign are tagged “campaign: merano”.

INTRODUCTION: Along the east coast of the continent of Merano, is The Akonerry Academy of the Arcane outside of the port city of Kerras is home to a magical fountain called The Cornucopia, which constantly pours Goodberry juice.  This fountain means no one in the area needs to go hungry.  However first thing this morning, the team working maintenance on it reported that it was broken.  In the meantime, the normally open campus has been closed.  All evidence points to sabotage.  The head groundskeeper has hired on the three of you to track down the saboteur.

prepare yourself, my notes got long

The three of them meet up at The Cornucopia, a bronze fountain of a sleepy-faced shepherd with a cornucopia slung at his hip.  Delphie (she/her) is a student at the school and was hand-picked from the student body.  Calypso (they/them) is formerly a pirate, currently on Fantasy Parole and is here doing mandated community service.  Hugo (he/him) just saw a help wanted sign.

A big fluffy white dog (Nimbus) comes trotting up to them and brings them to the head groundskeeper's office, Sabine Zhang.  Nimbus is wearing a collar with a Sending stone on it that Sabine is using as a walkie talkie.  Leading them up through the library to the offices on the top floors, she barks once to get her to open the door.  It is a well-used if sparse space.

Sabine gives them all the run down.  Including that only 6 people know how to get into the Cornucopia proper/are allowed to work on it, the passwords change frequently, and all 6 of them have been cleared.  According to the team that’s working on it this year, there is no evidence of forced entry of any kind.  There is no evidence of any entry.  She also suggests that the two main weak points where someone would've gotten in are the flying platform looking over the cliffs used for practicing flying spells and the barred-off openings of the underground tunnels that lead out to the cliffs below left over from the school’s construction.

The party arranges to go talk w the Cornucopia team, Nimbus collects them and they meet back up at the fountain.  Hugo suggests it could be octopi (long story, some stuff happened in a one-shot).

Meet the team back at the fountain, Mayday the half-elf and Misty the felis (both wizards) and Avril the half-elf (artificer),  Avril handles the mechanical workings of the machine, Misty and Mayday work on the enchantments.  Each year three students (usually one from each section of the school but there's no bard this year) are selected under a highly competitive process to be put on the team that gets to work on the Cornucopia.

The team explains that they reported it was broken the moment they came to check on it this morning.  They didn't see anyone/anything suspicious at the time.  Explain that the control room for it is underground in the tunnels.  And the three of them agree to guide them through.

Take an exterior entrance down into the tunnels on the artificing campus.  There's a little goofing off where they check inside a janitor's closet and find a bottle of ~Fantasy Windex~ (magical-strength degreaser).

While on their way, Hugo takes his helmet off to see better in the low light (nat20 on perception), notices wet footprints and goes charging in.  There's a BAMF sound and combat is triggered as two merrow appear.  During combat, Calypso whiffs an attack on one of them but notices one of the merrow say something to the other in Primordial ("The bastard ran off!").  Delphie notices the dregs of Misty Escape mist with a Detect Magic.

Once combat ends, the team comes running back out of where they'd been hiding in the janitor's closet.  Mayday coming to the conclusion that it was a distraction, slams both hands onto the wall to activate the sigils and open the hidden door that leads to the Cornucopia room.  They stay behind to hold the door open.  Misty and Avril, once you get to the door proper, they flank either side of the door to activate the sigils and hold it open for you.

Taking in the room, the magic makes your hairs stand on end, but everything feels dead.  Mechanisms lie still, sigils and runes have had the magic choked out of them.  Hugo can recognize the bard influence on this design, it uses infusions of Bardic Inspiration as fail-safes.

Avril and Misty had been peering around the doorway to keep an eye on them.  But they both take their hands off the sigils when they duck out of the way of a knife that comes out of nowhere at them, the doors close, the party is locked inside.

The saboteur is revealed.  A roguish figure with flat black eyes and half-water hair in leather armor, ready for a fight.  Triggers initiative.

At first, seeing the enemy teleport this seems to be a daunting task.  Calypso enters their rage, revealing a horrifying undead sea monster transformation and unleashing a blood-curdling scream.  A clutch use of upcasted Magic Missile speeds this along.  Everyone whales on him before he can even get a chance to get away.

Hugo offers up a fishing net from his inventory to tie him up with.  Calypso wraps him up in it.  Avril and Misty open the doors again.  Keep going, Mayday and Avril are going to stay behind to take care of this while Misty runs ahead/leads the way to take the party back to Sabine.  She guides them up through a less-traveled, ‘back way’ path through the abjuration tower to get to her office.

Reach Sabine's office, come in and just sort of...plop the unconscious rogue on the ground.  Seeing as there aren’t enough chairs for everybody they all sit on the floor huddled around, petting Nimbus while they explain what happened and with Misty backing them up.  Calypso mentions that the guy is teleporting, the wizards in the room suggest anti-magic.  Sabine pulls out a 'rolodex' of sending stones and calls the dept head of abjuration, Syd to come help.  Makes another 'call' to someone in the city.  Soon after, Syd and 5 city guard come to take the unconscious rouge elsewhere.

She thanks the three of them (plus Misty) and the hired three get paid 100gp each.  They all decide to leave campus and wind down for the night in town.  Go to a tavern called The Late Hag down by the docks, it’s a bit of a dive but nothing all that sketchy.  Have some 'getting to know you' chat between the three of them.  Delphie casually mentions that she’s blind when the others comment on how cool her eyes are.  Hugo and Calypso are taken aback but she explains that while her light-vision is terrible and she’s by all means, blind, she can use divination magic to see magical signatures.  However if something is not magical she cannot see it at all.  The subject of Calypso’s transformation comes up, though they don’t provide many details, just that it’s something they can do.

Finally having a moment to breathe, Delphie puts it together that Calypso is on Fantasy Parole and has a Fantasy Ankle Monitor.  She’d seen some flickers of abjuration magic on their wrist but considering the circumstances she hadn’t had a chance to think about it.  But now, when things have calmed down, she can see the glimmer of the adamantine bracelet poking out of their sleeve.  She makes excuses to try and leave, hiding in the bathroom, Hugo gives her the out when he goes to check on her.

Calypso and Hugo hang out for the rest of the night getting tipsy, they invite him to spend the night when he realizes that he hadn’t made any plans for lodging before coming to Kerras.  Delphie goes home to spend the night at her family's house.  Her parents are surprised but happy to see her.  The night is raucous but with the comfort of normality.

[maydaymadier]

Character Profiles pt.3

Delphie Screech (she/her)

Class/Subclass: Divination Wizard

Race: Owlin

Physical Description: Delphie is small, standing at just barely 4’10”.  She’s a fluffy grey screech owlin, her starry blind eyes emphasized by the thick-lensed round glasses perched on her beak.  She wears an amulet of Orsum and Hecare depicted as a two-faced goddess.  Dressed simply in a hooded wizard robe clasped shut with a crescent moon charm, over her school uniform in shades of purple.

Backstory (brief): Delphie was born and raised in the port city of Kerras by her parents Athen and Apolla.  She was a lively, imaginative child with an interest in the strange and magical who would regale her parents with her visions of strange creatures and worlds.  Her mother encouraged her to follow her passions but it was her father who steered her in the slightly more practical direction of attending the nearby Akonerry Academy of the Arcane.  Though her visions took a dark turn after an untimely tragedy.  She’s hoping that specializing in divination will give her some greater insight or control over these glimpses of future darkness.  It’s unclear if it has, but at least her efforts have gotten her to being the valedictorian.