Session 81: Animaesus and Tarrasque: Bleeding: Spines, Sides, Suns
General Summary
Amu meets with his Archdruid, an Erethiz, or porcupinefolk, named Swampur. He is elderly, over 60 years, but he looks much younger, and his quills are covered in moss, fungi, and other growth. He sits above the swampy land, on a larger boulder, where Swampur sets up a ritual gathering for the upcoming winter. At this, Amu walks forward, and he knows, with how druids work, he could easily start to lay claim, of territory and control as a new Archdruid; but this is not Amu's concern; the City of Salt, the upcoming war, the tax and turmoil that has ransacked these lands, in this time. It must come to an end, and Amu has come here to try to convince Swampur of such, and to know what to do, with this spinal fluid bottle he carries around, with Birdman's mutations from drinking it, with the Rise of the Beast, and the hopeful avoidance of the City's fall. Birdman has cured a curse not known to have a cure, and now he becomes the candidate for the beast's shadow. Amu will support him, and he will return the spinal fluid for Birdman's alcoholic consumption, but he also leaves some with Swampur, who will experiment with it, to hopefully know how they can better help the Shadow. With these conversations, Amu comes to an epiphany: Jacq, the entity, the deity, the force of nature--he came to Birdman, and he is showing the Birdman the way. The beast must rise, change must happen, and they must do it now.
With this, Amu returns to the tree, and travels through its rooted, swampy core once more. Yet, back to the city of salt, under what's left of the 10th House district and manor, the tree, this ancient monolith from the moustelin's past, it creaks and moans; it nears the end of its life cycle, and Amu, with that, will lose the ease of access he has had with the city. Thus, he prepares an growth spell for the plants in the immediate area, but he knows he must activate it more than once, many more times, to gain its benefit.
Yet, he needs to meet with his 'brother', Pio, and the Binder Lord of the 10th Seal, and they must confer about what to do next; there are gods at play, beasts asleep--for now--and Binder-Lords attacking each other under the guise of anarchy, under the guise of a false Shadow of the Beast.
Meanwhile, Faurwiin is nearing the end of a 14 hour spell crafting, a planar shift conjuration, but now he that he finishes, he must travel further into the tower of Eember, this magical monolith that Orcafor once claimed as his own. He first finds a room surrounded by treasures, and where most assuredly many are mimics in form. However, Faurwiin chooses correctly and opens to find magic and treasures (listed below but as he looks up from the gold in the chest, he sees a handful of others begin to animate, mouths and tongues, they attack, and Faurwiin is able to dodge and parry away, continuing his way down through the stairs of this odd magical tower.
The next floor has many shelves, cases, and spell scrolls, and Faurwiin gathers a handful before he sees the mirror in the corner: at first, it bears the sandy waterfalled symbol of the great earth elemental Sunnis, but then he calls for Bane, and the magic upon the scrolls in front of this mirror go to match that of the deity present in the mirror, their controls, domains, and effects. He then asks Bane for a scroll for hold monster, and to bargain, the deity only leaves one scroll instead of three; Faurwiin agrees to the bargain, and he is more powerful because of it.
On the next floor, he finds a storage library for Orcafor with more than 10 years of his 200 year reign as Binder Lord accounted for on its shelves; so many pages of journals, logs, and ledgers pretaining to the past of the 11th House. He will read them later, so he continues. On the next floor, he finds a section of the tarrasques spine, harvested at some point in the past, and it continues to regenerate and grow. It is being used, for the following floor, and perhaps the final, as some sort of umbilical to connect to an odd contraption above, below--it's now clear, but he feels it nears its end. In this room, with regenerative spinal cord, there are also research notes on cloning and crafting different ideas from the remains of the tarrasque. Yet, seeing the stairs continue up, he follows the umbilical upstairs; the directions of up and down matter very little right now.
Once upstairs, he sees strange contraptions, those made from Anton's science, magica, and catalytic pressures and inventions. Yet, there is another personage, a vestige of one at the least--an astral self? Boccob is here, the Lord of Magic, Knowledge, and the true Seeker... His vestige takes the form of an elderly wizard, in purple and silver robes, bearing a large spellbook in the same colors, and staff garnered out of ancient dragonglass, dark like the night.
They confer on purpose and task--wizard to wizard--and Orcafor's death, the achievements of Faurwiin and his new commanding of the Tower of Boccob controlled by his daughter Eember. He now can speak to her telepathically whenever Faurwiin wants, needs; Faurwiin knows now the tower is closer to being under his control, and he moves to examine the tarrasque clone in the room; this final room, and he knows the tarrasque that rose from beneath the stagecourts was first incubated here; Orcafor, and presumably Anton, were trying to incubate another; however, they cannot be alone in their actions.
Rats and goblins at odds, Birdman is at the 4th House Warehourse, The Ramshackle Manor, and he has been drug into the rooms of this manor by the riled up, rallied ratuess--after Aleplu used Birdman's tale of shadows and beast to his advantage to rile up his ratuess kin--and Birdman sees a kenku spirit, another vestige of the primordial of change, Jacq, and he confirms he must follow inside, that the unity or discord and civil war between the 4th House is critical for the next events of the City of Salt's fate--he tries to reason with Aleplu first, the Ratuess leader, but the cleric of the primordials and the weave, is not swayed--the power of the 4th House will be his. Yet, this is not new change, this shift betwen houses, especially the 4th, is a common event--but rarely at the time as this, when the beast already breathes again, when the mouth stretches wide, with all too soon being the new time, the new fear, when those jaws chomp down with purpose and fervor. The dwarves will eventually come, too.
So, he then gets passed the door, convincing Trundle, and his goblinkin, to let him in, to hear his peace. However, Trundle is not so easily swayed, and soon, outside commotion rises, as another part of the manor is attacked. Raving roars, fear, and squeals echoe the hallways first, and it would seem Birdman is the first to discern that the ratuees, who were trying to circumvent and peel their way in like water into a cracked stone, they were stopped by a third force. The undead, the wrath, it is warned, and the Ratuess fall, and Birdman warns. Trundle only hears death, and Birdman then rushes to the back end, where he finds Mel leading her thralls, her pawns, her nulls of undeath, into the 4th House Manor. He yells for her attention, and a few of spawn soon engage with Birdman in immediate response, but they fall short of any other engagement, for the Lady and Mistress trails behind. She walks forth, and Birdman clarifies and warns her of the engagements so dear here--why take advantage, why listen to him, Ssech? Well, Mel wants to entrust the city to those she trusts, and Trundle and the Ratuess are not those whom she does. Yet, Birdman knows this is not her, and he approaches closer and embraces her. She almost melts, and she knows that this is not the right task, that a deception has been made by her friend Ssech, a means to thwart the Binder Lords power and awaken the beast. Mel cannot let this abide, so she makes her people retreat to find the Shadow, Ssech--but he is already gone. Birdman then returns to Trundle and Aleplu.
They are almost ready, the goblins and Trundle, to toss a large binding of dynamite into the Aleplu's crew, but Birdman intercedes, and he begins to try to stop their aggressions, but he is unable to fully convince the ratuess cleric. Aleplu casts a powerful spell, the weave contructing a wall of magical armaments to rip through the manor and the goblinkin foes, to trap them and allow for a further flanking maneuver. However, Birdman jumps over it, and he tries to get his bow ready; yet, before he does, a shadowed and monstrous form appears, mostly a head and shoulders, from the dark corner. All are shocked and surprised, and the shadow breathes a dank and dark magic into the room, blanketing Birdman and many others with its force. With this, Aleplu loses concentration on the magical wall of arms, and Trundle charges to the shadowed form, his goblins offering covering fire with Birdman as well. The creature, after hit by Birdman's radiant arrows, stares at the wood elf, and eventually it disapates and flies away.
Birdman leaves the 4th House, but only after making sure they can find some common ground--that now they do see a common enemy. The 4th House, the City, cannot afford to be divided now.
Faurwiin has, with Eember's help, found a powerful floor within the 11th House Tower. It has created a place for a convergence and conduit between the four elemental planes: air, earth, fire, and water. The center point is a direct acces to the weave, the forge it seems that Boccob himself can use to craft magic material, conduits, and powers. Here, Faurwiin will attempt to evolve and harness a deeper power within his magical sword, a sunblade tinged reddish and orange already from his Syth leanings. Here, he gathers his sons, Tenebris, and Thelas to witness his new magical ascension. He claims his hate and contempt will pour into this weapon to aid it, and he brings Orcafor's skull, and Boccob's blessing, to the forge as well. His hands penetrate within the conduit, and Boccob's form takes over Faurwiin's, and his sons, Tenebris, and Thelas witness Faurwiin take his weapon, and he fuses it. Boccob does. And when he pulls it from the center, the glows stop, and his blade ignites into a dark sanguine color.
Into and through the rubble and ruins, only smallest, most agile, and mostly likely to squeeze into small spots attempt these areas, one because they can, and two because they are cheep real estate. This is where Amu and Pio started, their first thoughts, their first hopes of the city, their first gangs, their first movements into the City's Ways, the Crimes and Salts, the Lost People and Found Hopes. This is maybe the only home they have left.
Pio is back to drinking, the consequence in the City of Salt, but also he is Binder Lord, one of the ones still left (but one who chose a piece of the pie, the beast, but not one who was truly given one). The Tailstones were where he didn't see booze yet, to where he was more. Amu looks at their old play house, their hideout hidden in rubble and ash.
Pio jumps down to greet him, and his eyes are enough for Amu to know the question and the worry. Why are you late, why will we leave the city? Should we?
Amu shows Pio the spinal fluid bottle, and how half is gone, given away. Amu, the druid of spores, a musteli and brother in trade, arms, and heart to that of pio--takes a fervent stance. Jacq, the ancient deity, Change Maker has chosen Birdman; Amu must follow, he must. There is a contest at play on a larger spectrum, and Birdman has been chosen as the tool, not stome Paladin of Yore.
They agree, that they must cancel the reasons, the same for the army and gathering, the elite warriors who will break passed the gate. They must also find a means to confer with the other houses, to know and to see how the unity of the City CAN benefit them together. How to convince Faurwiin? The Druidic power Amu has unlocked--the power to regenerate to increase longevity. And, Amu has more--gravity's power will soon be his, he has seen it, the Change-Maker must be guiding the actions, the words and the hands for his most faithful of nature, of the Seasons and power of Barur and her Nature.
Birdman and Mel, Amu thinks also, their past will hopefully serve them well. Pio doubts this, but bonds can even topple the Mounts of Elysium, and the planes beyond.
They are mistakes and eathquakes, but the drunk and the druid still come together. Amu then changes to a bird, and he carries Pio to the 11th House.
With this, Amu returns to the tree, and travels through its rooted, swampy core once more. Yet, back to the city of salt, under what's left of the 10th House district and manor, the tree, this ancient monolith from the moustelin's past, it creaks and moans; it nears the end of its life cycle, and Amu, with that, will lose the ease of access he has had with the city. Thus, he prepares an growth spell for the plants in the immediate area, but he knows he must activate it more than once, many more times, to gain its benefit.
Yet, he needs to meet with his 'brother', Pio, and the Binder Lord of the 10th Seal, and they must confer about what to do next; there are gods at play, beasts asleep--for now--and Binder-Lords attacking each other under the guise of anarchy, under the guise of a false Shadow of the Beast.
Meanwhile, Faurwiin is nearing the end of a 14 hour spell crafting, a planar shift conjuration, but now he that he finishes, he must travel further into the tower of Eember, this magical monolith that Orcafor once claimed as his own. He first finds a room surrounded by treasures, and where most assuredly many are mimics in form. However, Faurwiin chooses correctly and opens to find magic and treasures (listed below but as he looks up from the gold in the chest, he sees a handful of others begin to animate, mouths and tongues, they attack, and Faurwiin is able to dodge and parry away, continuing his way down through the stairs of this odd magical tower.
The next floor has many shelves, cases, and spell scrolls, and Faurwiin gathers a handful before he sees the mirror in the corner: at first, it bears the sandy waterfalled symbol of the great earth elemental Sunnis, but then he calls for Bane, and the magic upon the scrolls in front of this mirror go to match that of the deity present in the mirror, their controls, domains, and effects. He then asks Bane for a scroll for hold monster, and to bargain, the deity only leaves one scroll instead of three; Faurwiin agrees to the bargain, and he is more powerful because of it.
On the next floor, he finds a storage library for Orcafor with more than 10 years of his 200 year reign as Binder Lord accounted for on its shelves; so many pages of journals, logs, and ledgers pretaining to the past of the 11th House. He will read them later, so he continues. On the next floor, he finds a section of the tarrasques spine, harvested at some point in the past, and it continues to regenerate and grow. It is being used, for the following floor, and perhaps the final, as some sort of umbilical to connect to an odd contraption above, below--it's now clear, but he feels it nears its end. In this room, with regenerative spinal cord, there are also research notes on cloning and crafting different ideas from the remains of the tarrasque. Yet, seeing the stairs continue up, he follows the umbilical upstairs; the directions of up and down matter very little right now.
Once upstairs, he sees strange contraptions, those made from Anton's science, magica, and catalytic pressures and inventions. Yet, there is another personage, a vestige of one at the least--an astral self? Boccob is here, the Lord of Magic, Knowledge, and the true Seeker... His vestige takes the form of an elderly wizard, in purple and silver robes, bearing a large spellbook in the same colors, and staff garnered out of ancient dragonglass, dark like the night.
They confer on purpose and task--wizard to wizard--and Orcafor's death, the achievements of Faurwiin and his new commanding of the Tower of Boccob controlled by his daughter Eember. He now can speak to her telepathically whenever Faurwiin wants, needs; Faurwiin knows now the tower is closer to being under his control, and he moves to examine the tarrasque clone in the room; this final room, and he knows the tarrasque that rose from beneath the stagecourts was first incubated here; Orcafor, and presumably Anton, were trying to incubate another; however, they cannot be alone in their actions.
Rats and goblins at odds, Birdman is at the 4th House Warehourse, The Ramshackle Manor, and he has been drug into the rooms of this manor by the riled up, rallied ratuess--after Aleplu used Birdman's tale of shadows and beast to his advantage to rile up his ratuess kin--and Birdman sees a kenku spirit, another vestige of the primordial of change, Jacq, and he confirms he must follow inside, that the unity or discord and civil war between the 4th House is critical for the next events of the City of Salt's fate--he tries to reason with Aleplu first, the Ratuess leader, but the cleric of the primordials and the weave, is not swayed--the power of the 4th House will be his. Yet, this is not new change, this shift betwen houses, especially the 4th, is a common event--but rarely at the time as this, when the beast already breathes again, when the mouth stretches wide, with all too soon being the new time, the new fear, when those jaws chomp down with purpose and fervor. The dwarves will eventually come, too.
So, he then gets passed the door, convincing Trundle, and his goblinkin, to let him in, to hear his peace. However, Trundle is not so easily swayed, and soon, outside commotion rises, as another part of the manor is attacked. Raving roars, fear, and squeals echoe the hallways first, and it would seem Birdman is the first to discern that the ratuees, who were trying to circumvent and peel their way in like water into a cracked stone, they were stopped by a third force. The undead, the wrath, it is warned, and the Ratuess fall, and Birdman warns. Trundle only hears death, and Birdman then rushes to the back end, where he finds Mel leading her thralls, her pawns, her nulls of undeath, into the 4th House Manor. He yells for her attention, and a few of spawn soon engage with Birdman in immediate response, but they fall short of any other engagement, for the Lady and Mistress trails behind. She walks forth, and Birdman clarifies and warns her of the engagements so dear here--why take advantage, why listen to him, Ssech? Well, Mel wants to entrust the city to those she trusts, and Trundle and the Ratuess are not those whom she does. Yet, Birdman knows this is not her, and he approaches closer and embraces her. She almost melts, and she knows that this is not the right task, that a deception has been made by her friend Ssech, a means to thwart the Binder Lords power and awaken the beast. Mel cannot let this abide, so she makes her people retreat to find the Shadow, Ssech--but he is already gone. Birdman then returns to Trundle and Aleplu.
They are almost ready, the goblins and Trundle, to toss a large binding of dynamite into the Aleplu's crew, but Birdman intercedes, and he begins to try to stop their aggressions, but he is unable to fully convince the ratuess cleric. Aleplu casts a powerful spell, the weave contructing a wall of magical armaments to rip through the manor and the goblinkin foes, to trap them and allow for a further flanking maneuver. However, Birdman jumps over it, and he tries to get his bow ready; yet, before he does, a shadowed and monstrous form appears, mostly a head and shoulders, from the dark corner. All are shocked and surprised, and the shadow breathes a dank and dark magic into the room, blanketing Birdman and many others with its force. With this, Aleplu loses concentration on the magical wall of arms, and Trundle charges to the shadowed form, his goblins offering covering fire with Birdman as well. The creature, after hit by Birdman's radiant arrows, stares at the wood elf, and eventually it disapates and flies away.
Birdman leaves the 4th House, but only after making sure they can find some common ground--that now they do see a common enemy. The 4th House, the City, cannot afford to be divided now.
Faurwiin has, with Eember's help, found a powerful floor within the 11th House Tower. It has created a place for a convergence and conduit between the four elemental planes: air, earth, fire, and water. The center point is a direct acces to the weave, the forge it seems that Boccob himself can use to craft magic material, conduits, and powers. Here, Faurwiin will attempt to evolve and harness a deeper power within his magical sword, a sunblade tinged reddish and orange already from his Syth leanings. Here, he gathers his sons, Tenebris, and Thelas to witness his new magical ascension. He claims his hate and contempt will pour into this weapon to aid it, and he brings Orcafor's skull, and Boccob's blessing, to the forge as well. His hands penetrate within the conduit, and Boccob's form takes over Faurwiin's, and his sons, Tenebris, and Thelas witness Faurwiin take his weapon, and he fuses it. Boccob does. And when he pulls it from the center, the glows stop, and his blade ignites into a dark sanguine color.
Into and through the rubble and ruins, only smallest, most agile, and mostly likely to squeeze into small spots attempt these areas, one because they can, and two because they are cheep real estate. This is where Amu and Pio started, their first thoughts, their first hopes of the city, their first gangs, their first movements into the City's Ways, the Crimes and Salts, the Lost People and Found Hopes. This is maybe the only home they have left.
Pio is back to drinking, the consequence in the City of Salt, but also he is Binder Lord, one of the ones still left (but one who chose a piece of the pie, the beast, but not one who was truly given one). The Tailstones were where he didn't see booze yet, to where he was more. Amu looks at their old play house, their hideout hidden in rubble and ash.
Pio jumps down to greet him, and his eyes are enough for Amu to know the question and the worry. Why are you late, why will we leave the city? Should we?
Amu shows Pio the spinal fluid bottle, and how half is gone, given away. Amu, the druid of spores, a musteli and brother in trade, arms, and heart to that of pio--takes a fervent stance. Jacq, the ancient deity, Change Maker has chosen Birdman; Amu must follow, he must. There is a contest at play on a larger spectrum, and Birdman has been chosen as the tool, not stome Paladin of Yore.
They agree, that they must cancel the reasons, the same for the army and gathering, the elite warriors who will break passed the gate. They must also find a means to confer with the other houses, to know and to see how the unity of the City CAN benefit them together. How to convince Faurwiin? The Druidic power Amu has unlocked--the power to regenerate to increase longevity. And, Amu has more--gravity's power will soon be his, he has seen it, the Change-Maker must be guiding the actions, the words and the hands for his most faithful of nature, of the Seasons and power of Barur and her Nature.
Birdman and Mel, Amu thinks also, their past will hopefully serve them well. Pio doubts this, but bonds can even topple the Mounts of Elysium, and the planes beyond.
They are mistakes and eathquakes, but the drunk and the druid still come together. Amu then changes to a bird, and he carries Pio to the 11th House.
Rewards Granted
Faurwiin: magics: level 3 spell scrolls, level 2 spell scrolls; hold person; a chest of coin: 250 gold each: two silver necklaces with gemstone pendants; 2 small boxes of gemstone animal figurines; 1 carved ivory statuette of the tarrasque; 1 silk robe with gold embroidery--that of the clouds; a gold bird cage with electrum filigree; 800 copper; 4000 silver; 1700 gold; 130 pp--goggles of night & and a red blade, rapier, with blood imagery, and giant runes.
Created Content
Report Date
19 Oct 2024
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Plots
Comments