Chapter 11, Session 6: The Cook-Out
General Summary
Persicorum return to Thordak who told the party about his planned surprise cookout for Ardeth. Olympia offered to help as Thordak went to keep Ardeth distracted, as did Kodo, and Anastasia. Fen went to try and break the curse on The Gifted Grimoire Xan Prayerkeep gave him, while Mimsi went to find Ez.
Thordak hung out with Ardeth, spending time sand castle building and swimming, and getting the local kids to help throw her into the water. As they messed around, joked, and teased together, some of Ardeth’s strain lifted. Meanwhile, Kodo was directed to a group of orcs prepping the cookout. He found Delthea leading them, who was happy to have his help. After reconnecting, Kodo told her of The Wanderer. Delthea asked Kodo if he’d been to Freyfrost , and told him that Temperance had settled in Edmonton and had found his daughter. Delthea was happy for Kodo.
Anastasia looked for kebab supplies, soon returning to the beach with sticks and an entire Axebeak. Kodo helped her with the deboning and prepping of the kebabs. Olympia supervised other aspects such as music, decorations, seating and fireworks. She sorted out and fixed instruments for the orcs, an act of kindness that meant a lot to them. After finding people to perform, she also summoned her familiar to play an instrument, as well as an unseen servant. With some tinkering, Olympia made ‘speakers’ to amplify the sound, and spent the rest of her time checking on the sleeping Poppy and making an extravagant and ornate friendship bracelet.
Fen was finally able to remove the curse on his grimoire. After attuning to it, he was then placed on firework duty - with a firm safety warning from Olympia. Meanwhile, Ez had found a small cupboard to curl up in as the world suddenly got too big. Mimsi was able to find him by channelling the memories of the scared kid she once was, and sat by the door. Slowly she convinced Ez to let her in and helped him slowly relax enough to speak. Ez expressed his pain and what he was dealing with as the End, and Mimsi was able to comfort him enough to come out, reminding Ez that he was her friend and family.
Mimsi insisted on taking Ez to hang out with Bazzle Strum-Strum , Gwen and the feral Talented ‘kids’. When they arrived, the feral goblins jumped Mimsi, then Ez, who turned into a Direwolf to tumble with them. Bazzle told Mimsi that their ancient dragon mother The Crystal Dragon had been gone for a week, and her behaviour had become more erratic. Mimsi in turn told him Hook was dead (he stated he needed to give Anastasia a drink for that). Silver Pipe Gwendolin revealed she didn’t know who Hook was, so they gave her a rundown on the family situation. Finally, it was time to head to the cookout.
Thordak led Ardeth there, as people jumped out to say surprise. Ardeth struggled not to cry when Olympia gave her the ornate bracelet. As people enjoyed the cookout, Thordak and Mimsi had a wrestling competition, with Mimsi winning making it 3/0 to her. The next day, Bazzle told the party about 'Planar Feasting'. It was usually used by monsters to feast on the border between planes. A few years ago a group of mages worked out how to use it to lengthen their lives, but it would twist them into monsters. More powerful ones could make their own dimension to feed off of. A Planar Inscription could hold a soul in stasis if used on a body, allowing the caster to feed off the soul for life. A Planar Parasiticism, if placed on someone, would mean there was no need to scry to be able to see them, and the mark could be transferred to anyone who touched it. The group most known for using these abilities were the Brothers of the Crown - few are left as they were hunted down by Drahz Grymhook. A revived soul with the marks would be very badly damaged and potentially still be fed from. As the party admitted they had marks, Bazzle suggested a dispel magic - Fen and Ez tried and succeeded, removing the marks from everyone. Thordak joked about how reckless the group were without him, leading to Anastasia admitting about not knowing what STDs were - Bazzle gave her books to study.
Later on, Fen and Ez cast Dream, bringing the party with them into the dream of Temptation. The first sound they heard was a voice saying “Oh, and you brought friends”. The party saw an adult Temptation crouched and screaming in a corner of a burning building. They then heard knocking at the door and the voice again offering for the party to open it. The party refused, having agreed beforehand to interfere as little as possible. The voice told them they’d see this situation for 15 minutes before the door would open. Eventually, a younger Temptation stepped through the door with two bodies. Throwing them on the ground, she pulled out a pistol as the real Temptation was forced to watch herself ruthlessly kill two people before walking out and whistling. The voice explained it was two aist mages. Arcana checks revealed the voice had made it impossible to identify who was speaking, and the Dream Spell causing all the visions was very very powerful. Perception checks saw the scene kept changing based on the whims of the voice, not Temptation. The voice was exerting a force over Temptation to make her watch. Insight checks showed Temptation was afraid of the voice, they knew her passably well and were enjoying the opportunity to make her suffer. Kodo thought they might be annoyed if the party continued not to act or react.
A new scene appeared, surprising Temptation. The voice stated they had been reserving this vision. An adventurer’s shop formed around the space, and Thordak’s grandma, Nirya Moonbrook, was behind the counter. Younger Temptation entered as the real Temptation shook and clutched at Thordak who now held her. Younger Temptation learned forward and accused Thordak’s grandma of infecting her and others with the Hunt, threatening her before storming out with urgency. The party saw a shift in the voice, who got angry at Thordak and said they were there to reveal the truth. Thordak threatened the voice as Kodo pointed out its hypocrisy. The voice stated Temptation did the same thing the party does: make it personal, bring pain on others, and was unworthy of being arch inquisitor, and wasn’t the one people needed. The party tried to goad the voice to name someone better and the voice replied that they believed in Dashilla the Dark Queen or the Dread King's generals.
The dream changed again, showing Temptation stringing up and burning down a building with an aist mage family trapped, then Temptation hunting in battle in wolf form, and many other dreams. All the dreams emphasised her joy in the hunt and in the killing of aist mages. Lastly, the dream changed to Temptation setting fire to a tree with two hanging people: her parents. The party left the dream and discussed Temptation, agreeing she was a bad person, but had regrets for her actions and was trying to atone. Kodo seemed to suddenly return to himself, revealing he had asked the Wanderer to track the voice. They took him to Squall's End - suggesting this was the same guy who cast the Planar Feast on Poppy. Fen noticed via a Detect Magic a burning hot mark on Temptation’s hip, as Olympia and Ez then saw 3 scrying orbs over Temptation. Olympia managed to dispel one of the orbs as Fen moved Temptation’s shirt to reveal a mark. After an Arcana check, the party realised it was a Planar Feasting mark. After Fen dispelled the mark, Temptation’s sleep became gentler as the nightmares went away, revealing the dream was being cast through the mark. Thordak thanked the party for their actions.
The party then agreed Fen should tell Drahz about the Brothers of the Crown. Fen summoned Harcourt to relay the information. Kodo also mentioned in his Wandering he saw Crown Worshippers around a plinth with a black shard on. After the discussion, Olympia then led the way to check on Poppy. She still hadn’t woken up, and Olympia realised Fen’s attempt at healing wouldn’t work. Reaching out, Olympia dispelled the Planar Feasting mark and realised Poppy hadn’t been asleep. Her soul was still being eaten away. Poppy snapped awake and started to panic. Olympia comforted and gently eased an update of information to her, including revealing her new appearance. Kodo offered broth as Anastasia offered kebabs when Poppy realised she now had a bio-digestive track. After getting food into her, Poppy asked about Magnolia before breaking down, being very traumatised. She told a little about what she went through - the guy who did this to her had grey/scaley skin and wore an aist mage mask. He told Poppy to say Olympia’s name, and then she died. Poppy revealed Magnolia had gone North to Frey Frost, stating she had a gift she wanted to share with the world via the aist mages.
The party left Poppy and Olympia alone to speak in private. When Olympia returned, she showed a badge Poppy had made for her, and Fen and Kodo both realised they’d been surprised with badges too. The party decided to rest up for the night - Ez curled up in bunny form in Mimsi’s arms. The next day, they planned to go to Aria to visit Kodo’s old restaurant and enjoy one last day of fun before the next mission.
Report Date
31 Aug 2024
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