S23: A Family Reunion

General Summary

Everyone is settled in for the evening at Castle Dimir, Todd Xarvarax and Amgil Sll'ab fast asleep on the couch, and Ashiok Dimir, Timber, and Stanlee (Luxieaux) asleep in Ash's chambers. Timber's having another dream, but this time, no nightmare. An expansive white nothingness stretches farther than the eye can see, with a dirty 20 on a history check, memories come flooding back to Timber. It's been an incredibly long time since Timber has seen this place, this is the nothing that Timber builds his dreams out of.   The ground in front of Timber begins to ripple like water disturbed by a stone, Damas rises through the floor.  

Timber. I congratulate you on defeating your nightmare. You've shown significant growth. I truly believe you can be a hero in time.   The threat you face remains undetected by the masses, and in an unfortunate way. When your enemy makes themselves known, they will have succeeded in reaching their goal.   I offer you this gift to guide you along your path.

  The button holding Timber's dagger in its sheath undoes itself, and Timber's dagger begins to levitate. The blade stops directly between Timber and Damas, and begins to disassemble. The blade and tang separating from the cross guard. Damas holds out his hand, revealing a golden half sphere. The sphere floats away from Damas and grafts itself onto the dagger.  

Take it. Now, throw it at me. I wish to demonstrate its power.

  Timber throws his knife, and an ethereal golden cage expands outward from the caged hilt of the dagger, trapping Damas entirely.  

Nothing but breathable air gets in or out of the cage, it takes a threat out of combat to buy you some time to think, or allows you to shift your focus to a different threat. Would you mind dismissing the cage for me, Timber?

  The ethereal cage folds away and Timber dagger rattles on the ground.  

Before Daybreak, I want to remind you of our pact. I will give you everything you need to succeed, in turn, you must show me what it means to truly be a hero.

      Team Hot Moms sits down for breakfast at Castle Dimir, a full American Diner-Style breakfast buffet, Ashe and Tobias I have a brief conversation about Ashe's future within the Dimir Trading Company, namely finding a title for Ashe to give him the same authority his siblings have within the organization. Ashe conveys everything he's learned about Chaerynn and The Cult of Xidis to Tobias before getting up.   Ashe notices Oz did not join everyone for breakfast and makes his way up to her room. The room is vacant. Oz's staff is lying on the floor, some splintering on the ends suggest the staff was used, but no evidence as to what it was used against. More searching reveals scratch marks in the wood flooring, leading from Oz's room to Ashe's, with the scratch marks stopping 5 feet away from the fireplace, matching precisely with where Stanlee and Timber were sleeping. Ashe keeps digging around for more clues, but notices something strange about the vanity in his room. Ashe approaches and sees a figure in his reflection. The figure is shorter than Ashe, and is as still as a statue. The shadowy figure looks like its made of black smoke and the slightest bit of movement from the figure reveals it has a corvid beak. The figure slides into the Bag of Holding as Timber, Amgil, and Todd enter the room.   Timber passes in front of the Vanity, and sees the same shadowy figure, and Timber begins to focus in on the magical aura the figure is emitting.   A flicker of recognition crosses Timber's face, and he dives head first into his Bag of Holding. An endless void. Ashe and Todd manage to grab Timber's ankles before he climbs all the way in. Timber hears a familiar voice.

TIIIIIMMMMMBBEEEERRRRRRR!   DON'T!

  Timber reluctantly crawls backwards out of his bag, and begins sobbing into Todd's chest.   Ashe calls up Ula Di'Nok to describe everything the party is dealing with, Ula responds nonchalantly, "Oh, yeah, that's a bagman. An unfortunate side-effect of mass producing Bags of Holding. Everyone wants to be an adventurer or a hero, but not everyone has The Stuff for it, and a Bagman is when a coward crawls into their bag as a means of escape, or in significantly worse cases, the Bag of Holding is used as a weapon against someone. This shouldn't be too much trouble for you guys, just stick your face in the bag, say 'Follow My Voice' three times, and The Bagman will crawl out. Shouldn't take you all more than 30 seconds to deal with it."   Timber carries his bag to the front Courtyard of Castle Dimir, sticks his face in the bag, and mimics Ula saying "Follow my Voice"   The shadowy figure slithers out of the Bag of Holding, and when his foot makes contact with the ground, a bubble of darkness appears, surrounding all the members of Team Hot Moms.   Tobias I and Alfred both run outside to try and watch, but they can't see anything through the Darkness.   Roughly a minute later, the bubble begins to collapse, and Team Hot Moms sees sunlight again. Amgil is missing a leg and Todd is lying unconscious.   After some first aid, Amgil has a new peg leg, and everyone needs a trip into town for supplies. Timber buys a new Handy Haversack and puts in an order for a Portable Hole and throws away the Bag of Holding.   Todd spends the next 3 weeks working on developing a potion in order to give Drathar the drivers wheel, but without any kind of guidance, Todd is making frequent trips into town to buy the supplies he needs, and the frequent trips to the apothecary and the ingredients he's purchasing, rumors about Todd begin to circle around Dragongrave. Is Todd going to poison Tobias?