Session 5: Return To Ide Kayo Report

General Summary

After defeating the Demon Monkey King and resting atop his pagoda, the party awoke to the orange glow of a fire burning beneath them in the buildings where the monkeys made their nest. They quickly made their way to the ground, Jerry grabbing Rufus by the saddle and using his sword to slide down to the ground, scattering ancient prayer flags as he went and soon followed by Rei who could have sworn she heard her sword swearing at her as she made the descent, distracting her and causing her to tumble onto the ground, hard.
Astrea opted for a more elegant solution, using her music to call upon the wind to float her safely to the ground. Once landed, the party rushed through the burning gatehouse to see the extent of the fire as Astrea quickly got to work on dousing the flames with her magic jug.
Jerry and Rei stood back in awe of the flames as the sun began to rise and a group of firefighters from Yoshi appeared on the opposite hill. They seemed to have followed the pillar of smoke and immediately began attending to the flames on the bridge with bags of sand and the water from a giant toad spitting on the flames. On the toad's back were two grung priests busy chanting to the kami of rain as a third demanded help from Rei and Jerry.
Rufus was happy to oblige and took the opportunity to relieve himself on the flames below. It was highly effective.
As the grung made their way to the burning temple to assist Astrea, the priests begged for the others to join them in prayer, which they both did. To the surprise of the grung, the voice of a celestial dragon echoed out to all of them, asking what they sought. Rei saw the dragon up close, dropping its head from what looked like the surface of a clear pool hovering above her.
They asked the creature to help stop the flames from consuming the forest and the temple within, which it did by summoning a steady rainstorm. After a few short hours, the fire had subsided and the party was ready to head back towards Ide Kayo.
The grung thanked them profusely for rediscovering the temple and promised to tell their daimyo of their deeds. With that, the party set off into the rain, hiking to the pond they had rested at before and all the way to Ide Kayo's grave.
As they arrived at the gravesite, through sheets of unrelenting rainfall, they spotted a huge, hulking creature, seemingly searching through the ruins. Astrea recognized it immediately as a cyclops, urging the others to sneak past it and find somewhere else to rest.
Though the night was fast approaching, the others agreed and made their way sneakily back over the river without alerting the giant, eventually making their way all the way back to the broken Torii gate where they met Alleren.
Here they made camp for the night under Astrea's magical dome where she revealed there to be a water feature clean enough to bathe in. As she did so, Jerry made a second attempt to ask his kami for a blessing. He wished for Rufus to be a more capable battle companion, to which his gods responded, and Rufus disappeared out of sight.
After a few minutes of searching, Rufus was spotted clinging to the top of one of the tallest trees in the forest. Perplexed as to how he got up there, the group began discussing ways to get him down. Rei took the initiative and sprouted her skeletal wings which somehow managed to carry her up into the air to meet the terrified dog.
As she flew closer to Rufus, trying to calm him and pick him up, the dog disappeared between her hands, reappearing in a tree a fair distance away and leaving a few small wisps of smoke in its wake.
Astrea made the next attempt, running to the top of a nearby stone and launching herself into the air with incredible strength before disappearing into a cloud of silvery mist and reappearing behind Rufus. Establishing a connection between herself and the now seemingly fey creature, she managed to calm it down and return him to Jerry.
Rufus was happily reunited with his mouse-folk master and now has the powers of a blink dog. With that, the party took a night's rest.
The following morning they set out once more, reaching Kayo's Kollection a little before midday. The party was immediately invited inside and before they had even been offered lunch, Astrea revealed that their mission was a success, returning Ide Kayo's diamond to him.
His reaction was that of a hungry beast, practically drooling over the gem, while sitting nearby, another reaction was not at all what the party expected. Despite their delay, Lady Sumehime was not angry at all and rather sat and watched on, seemingly content and enjoying her tea. Her responses to questioning were absolutely calm, which coming from the princess was unsettling to say the least.
This led Rei and Astrea to question her, debating whether she was perhaps under some kind of mind control. Unsure, Astrea gave Aien the signal to join them as he hid in the treeline outside, fearing what wrath Lady Sumehime may have intended to unleash on them. Rei decided to look for the fish-man while Jerry tried to start up a conversation with the clearly-distracted Ide Kayo.
Rei found her fishy friend hiding behind the carriage and was immediately told to flee as the short, scaly creature tried to explain. When asked about Lady Sumehime he responded, "That's not the princess!" before going back to his mad babbling.
Aien arrived to meet the same suspicions but with immediate disregard for social etiquette as he abruptly went to check the princess' ankle for a red strand. Pulling her up by the ankle and smashing her face into the floor, he discovered exactly what they had all feared.
Pulling her up to her feet and placing his tanto to her throat, Aien demanded to know what happened to the princess, at which point the woman in his arms began issuing threats and thinly veiled secrets in an attempt to distract him. Upon realizing that this was no use, the woman began melting into a crimson red ooze which slopped to the floor before squeezing itself between the floorboards.
Ide Kayo apologized for his ruse and explained that the princess had left the morning after they did not return. Enraged, the party immediately stormed towards the exit to search for her.
"I'm afraid I cannot allow that." hissed Ide Kayo as massive red tentacles made of slime emerged from beneath the floorboards to fight our heroes. After slicing their way through a few of them it became apparent that the guards and humanoids in the shop were all mere simulacra created by whatever slime monster they were fighting with.
Astrea was caught by the creature's tentacles as it paralyzed her body and attempted to devour her memories, seemingly after the myriad of stories she claimed to have before. Meanwhile, Jerry was locked in combat with various slimy creatures inside. One of which was Ide Kayo, now transformed into some kind of skinless humanoid with slimy tentacles lashing out in every direction.
Eventually, Jerry was caught by one of the tentacles and drained of his memories before managing to slay the creature thanks to the help of another fireball thrown by Aien. Apparently the creature had a massive aversion to fire and immediately began trying to escape the second its tendrils were lit. It would not get very far, however, and our heroes swiftly laid waste to what remained of the oblex.
While most set out immediately to try and find the princess, Jerry now finds himself unable to remember the events of the monkey temple, nor the transformation of Rufus or the interaction with Kayo. He must roll 1d4 and subtract it from all attack rolls and ability checks until he receives a greater restoration or heal spell.
The last thing he remembers is the party agreeing to travel with him towards the road to Nishisawa and then waking up outside this strange building in the rainforest, covered in some kind of red goo while everyone else seems to be panicking about a missing princess.

Missions/Quests Completed

Completed Side Quest: Ide Kayo's Kollection

Character(s) interacted with

• Grung Firefighters
• Elemental Dragon
• Cyclops
• Ide Kayo (simulacrum)
• Lady Sumehime (simulacrum)
• Gulah the Oblex
• Fish-man 

Campaign

Kiga Shogunate

Protagonists

Seto

Level 9 Tabaxi Monk - Way of the Kensei

/ 66 HP

Jerry Abershaw

Astraea Karasu

Chaotic Neutral Thylean Satyr (Astraea) (Anhropologist)
Bard 13
Warlock 6

122 / 122 HP

STR
12

DEX
18

CON
14

INT
14

WIS
16

CHA
22

Aien

0 / HP

Player Journals

The Fire Force, One Eye and The Truth by Astraea Karasu

Report Date

22 Sep 2020

Primary Location

Kiga Shogunate