Session 4: Luck of the Draw Report

General Summary

Two cards remained unresolved fully: Xander's 'Staff' card and Celeste's 'Stairway' card.   Xander's Resolution: After being blinded by a flash that exploded from the suspended card, Xander found himself in a familiar space: the golden, etheral void in which he received his warlock powers. Face-to-face with the same, glowing essence for the first time since his near-death experience, its attempt at direct communication fell flat as before. However, after said riveting conversation, without explanation, Xander was bestowed a gilded staff unknown to him. Then, the essence relinquished a part of itself to imbue within the staff, giving it sentience. With another flash, Xander found himself back within Mammon's Locker. Due to his unfortunate mortality, Xander's body struggled to endure the stresses of the space he visited (gained one level of exhaustion).   Celeste's Resolution: The 'Stairway' card duplicated itself, forming a ring around Celeste's head, and began to revolve around them. With a sudden increase in speed, the private room within Mammon's Locker began to fade, replaced with the gust-producing blur of the enlarging cards. Once they slowed to a halt, Celeste found themselves within an unfamiliar, hazy void complimented by an unpleasantly familiar dark magic from a memorable journey through parts they should have avoided. One card in particular found itself directly in front of Celeste. It had no face like the others entrapping them but instead had what seemed to be a mirror. Out from this mirror emerged something recognizebale yet not, something vaguely representing a humanoid yet not. This ever-morphing entity, before even fully revealing itself through the mirror, sent Celeste to the floor, clutching their head as if to physically prevent it from breaking apart. Wastling little time, it approached the debilitated Celeste and manifested a flutter of regular-sized cards at its feet. In time with the final card's collision with the others, Celeste, like Xander, found themselves within the safety of Mammon's locker with more than ill side effects from their visit.   Once the final card was drawn and its consequences bestowed upon the drawer, Oddlewin made his swift exit but not without advertising his community of business, the Seelie Market. After sustaining very apparent injuries from the Deck of Many Things, and bringing up concern around such, Verity Kye offers the party respite at a Tavern owned by someone who "owes her a favor." The Guardian Prosperity once more proposes his deal to the party. However, they manage to persuade him to give them until the next morning to finalize their decision. As he begins to depart, a frantic message can be heard coming across on his sending stone, which causes him to put some extra pep into his step.   Verity Kye takes this opportunity alone to remind everyone of her proposition. The party accepts and before she can get into further details, Gimml suggests everyone get moving to the Tavern she mentioned. The party made their way to the Brine Widow, which happens to be conveniently close to the Afterlife Casino's campus. After a brief re-introduction between Verity and Huang, the cat-loving Tavernkeeper, Huang shows everyone to their rooms and allows them to get settled in before showing them the cellar that will be their "base of operations." Half an hour later, Huang fetches the recovering new patrons leading them to the cellar beneath her bed and gives the gang, Verity included, further privacy. No time is wasted before an unseen servant is casted to begin cleanup of the...rough-looking storage hole.   As cleanup commenses, Verity is proded as to why she wants to execute such a grand heist, anad she reveals her simple motivation: revenge. She explains how her and Quentin Togglepocket used to be close gambling buddies and even closer friends. Since meeting, they toured the gambling circuts across Vespía claiming pot after pot to contribute to their shared dream: opening and jointly operating a casino in sin city itself. However, once their hoard had piled up enough, Quentin suddenly vanished without a trace. Coincidently, the Afterlife Casino let its River Styx flow not long after this unexpected betrayal, cementing in Verity's mind what Quentin's true intentions were. Now, she wants to humiliate worse than he did to her, and she needs the party's help to do so. During this gut-wrenching story, still-drunk Xander not-so-subtley steals a displayed portrait hanging in the cellar after feeling a sudden, strong urge to do so.   Once the cellar looked adequate enough, everyone decided to turn in for the night. While Celeste and Verity fell into a dreamy slumber, Gimml was not as lucky. As he laid in his bedroll, he was haunted by a dream of being suspended in a black void lacking any semblence of anything tangeable, living or not. However, as soon as one opened its invisible eyelids, so did another and another and another. Eventually, Gimml found himself surrounded by tired, bloodshot eyes all trained onto him. In reality, the shitfaced Xander partially awakes to see a blue-grey, spindly creature hovering over the sleeping Gimml. He throws a pillow at it attributing it to "weird druid shit" and returns to sleep. Startled, the creature retreats through a portal that closes quicker than it opened. Gimml did not have a restful night (gained all effects of Long Rest but gained one level of exhaustion).

Rewards Granted

Xander

• Gilded sentient rod? (Immoveable Rod)
• One level of exhaustion
• Valuable portrait

• Deck of cards? (Deck of Oracles)

• One level of exhaustion

Character(s) interacted with

??? (Xander's Encounter): After a poor attempt at communication, it bestows a gilded rod upon Xander.   ??? (Celeste's Encounter): It promptly gifts Celeste a mysterious deck of cards with no attempt at communication.   Verity Kye: The party accepted her heist proposition, and she led them to the Brine Widow to establish their base of operations. She also divulged into her reasoning for wanting to pull of this heist.   Oddlewin: He made a quick exit after fulfilling his purpose but encourages the party to pay him a visit at the traveling Seelie Market if ever find themselves there.   The Guardian Prosperity: After pursuasian from the party, he gives them until the next morning to come to a decision about his offer before running off to deal with an important and unexpected issue.   Huang: The Bring Widow tavernkeeper relinquishes three rooms within her tavern and the cellar for the party's use.