Spixi Longbonk
The Journal Entry’s title
Begin writing your story here...
False Faces
The crew is dangerous. The work that we do is dangerous. However, for this particular mission we agreed to escort a whole family to a place called Mimic Land. The Captain was pretty transparent when accepting the mission that we were only doing it for the money, and while I enjoy having the money and the prospects of being able to upgrade our ship as much as the next person, I couldn't help but worry that this family would not make it to their desired destination. Upon meeting the family for myself when they met up with our ship, it was clear that they were the type of people that I hated from society. At the time of accepting the mission I refused to enter the High City due to my lack of appropriate attire, but had I known these people were the ones we were going to see I wouldn't have minded treading a bit of dirt on their entryway, even though their servants would have to clean it up. Being around them for the short time I was also reminded me of home, and how I would take any opportunity to escape the never-ending parties and politically charged balls in order to read. Seeing their complete “better than thou” attitudes also explained why they thought having a scavenger ship escort them would be a good idea, they didn't mind the idea of some “excitement”. People like that think they are too rich to die, I thought perhaps this trip would teach them better, I didn't realize how right I would be.
The trip to Benzinspace ended up being more dangerous than even I anticipated. The trip started simply enough, we ran into a few undead sharks in the astral sea and took care of them rather easily. We were visited by a group of Devas of Palor who told us of a white dragon that was murdering its own kind and offered a reward if we were to kill it. We took note of the details, but we all looked at each other wearily, we doubted we'd be able to actually kill the Dragon if we came face to face with the creature. It wasn't until we were almost to our destination that things took a real turn for the worst. Rai noticed a large tentacle outside of her dome coming up from underneath the ship. After she re-oriented her dome she communicated to us that a Kraken was on our tail. A kraken in the astral sea is not usual and I was immediately confused and worried. There's no way we could defeat the beast, the only way to survive would be to get it to leave us alone, I however had no idea how to accomplish this. At first Valtish attempted to psychically link with the Kraken to try to convince it that we meant it no harm and that, seeing how he was so far away from water, we'd be willing to lead it to the nearest water planet. The Kraken was not receptive to bargaining and began attacking our ship while we thought of other ways we could avoid death. In the end the Captain asked that Laylin attempt to communicate with the beast and try to convince it instead of Valtish. I don't know how she accomplished this but she managed to get the Kraken to agree to being lead to the water planet. I can understand how she could get humanoids to do what she wants, she uses her body in ways I didn't even think was possible, but convincing this Kraken to allow us to help him shouldn't have been possible and makes me think that there's something more to her persuasive personality than simply flaunting her body around.
When we arrive at Mimic Land the family we were escorting offers to pay for our entrances as well as a thank you gift. The entire time the man of the family opened his mouth, it was somehow insulting to the mother of his child. It was disgusting to listen to and we asked the woman if she was alright, she appeared as though she was used to how she was treated and was giving a hollow smile and non-committal answers as they walked toward the park entrance. I hated seeing her treated that way, but if she wasn't receptive to help I wasn't going to force it onto her. I genuinely debated going into the theme park, but ultimately decided to suck it up and go for the experience of being there. The person taking tickets at the front window was missing the majority of his fingers and seemed to hate everything about his job, he even had a scripted response when one of the crew asked him if he was a mimic. I truly did not envy this man or indeed any of the workers that we saw within the park. He told us that adventurers were able to find mimics and kill them and turn their uvulas in for rewards in the adventurer gift shop. The party immediately split up. We lost sight of Valtish, Lottie, and Punkin upon entering the park. The rest of us watched as the child of the family we escorted here walked to a trash can to throw something away and got his arm bit off. Valtish ran over to try to kill the mimic but not before it bit the child's head off. This was how we learned that each ticket comes with one free resurrection, after that there is a hefty charge. I was scared of this place. It appeared bright and cheerful on the surface, only showing the danger when poked by curious patrons. I didn't want to die even if I had a guaranteed resurrection and I did something that I haven't done since I was a child, I took the hand of the person who currently is the best constant in my life, the Captain. I am aware that as a gnome I am small and people do mistake me for a child, I am also aware that I am the youngest person in the crew and as such I may be perceived as helpless, and usually I hate that, but in this moment the need to feel grounded overpowered the need to be viewed as an adult. Luckily the Captain did not seem to mind and let me behave as a scared child as we looked at the rewards in the Adventurer shop, we also discovered there were two shops, one for new timers and one for returning patrons. I made the promise to myself then that I would not be coming back, next time I would simply stay on the ship. There was a couple of items that did draw my attention in the gift shop, a stone speaker crystal, and a painting labeled Constintori's Portrait. The portrait seemed a bit sharp witted and asked Rhui to stop staring while she was investigating it, this meant that I would of course ask it some questions. It turns out that he was painted by an expert artsmith who dabbled in magic and was a gift for a crimelord. He enjoys learning and seeing new things and we decide that if nothing else, we would kill enough mimics to get the painting. We mange to enjoy a few rides and experiences while killing a few mimics without major injury or loss of limb in our party. While I didn't directly kill any of the mimics my crew was still generous enough to buy me the stone speaker crystal before leaving. The Captain took the painting and decided to hang it in the bridge of the ship. At the end of the day we all met up and started toward the parking area when we see Livian, the matriarch of the family we escorted here. She hands us a large bag of coin and tells us we don't need to wait for her family to be revived and that she will make her way back herself. We all take note that she looks notably happier now than she did upon arrival and that in itself made me feel a bit better.
We load back onto the ship and notice that Punkin does not make an appearance. We decide to continue onto Nulborn for my mission for Kaiber and we can come back to get Punkin after she's had her fun, she was looking forward to this trip for a long time. It was also around this time that I reminded the Captain that we still needed to send a message to the Unknowable one about whether we would allow them to continue their plan without trying to stop them. It was decided that we would not interrupt the Unknowable One's plans for now, allowing him to get rid of the corruption in the city in his way and that when our goals stopped aligning down the road, we would reassess our agreement. The Captain was hesitant to allow the Unknowable One to do as he pleased, but I made sure to play devil's advocate and remind him that the corruption would still be there and if we were to go against the Unknowable One, not only would we have to defeat him, but then we would also have to purge the corruption ourselves. He reluctantly agreed to a temporary agreement.
In our relatively short trip over to Nulborn we unexpectedly see a ship flying a flag that resembles a genie lamp. It appears as if the Captain was curious about the ship and ends up hailing them. When we pull alongside them we see...well...not much. A floating bicorn hat and mustache are waiting on the ship and moves as they answer the questions the Captain asks. They are flying under Mysteon the Mighty, the Captain later would tell us that he thought that ship had been flying for hundreds of years. Stanley the Stalker was the invisible man's name and while he seemed friendly enough, I know that invisible stalkers can be very deadly. I stay on the ship while Captain, Rhui, and Helion travel over to greet the other captain. I am anxious while they are gone and try to busy myself with taking notes on our journey so that this entry would be easier to write and making small talk with Constintori's Portrait. After a while the scouting party comes back and the crew is updated with information that Mysteon the Mighty's ship is entirely crewed by Rhui's kind and that one of them Rhui knew! This was very exciting and when asked if I would go on board to detect thoughts and see if there were any magical reasons that Rhui's friend wouldn't recognize her. It turns out that Mysteon offered to sell the aarakocra to us for the amount that she owes him and this “Valkyrie” was actually Rhui's love from her home who she has been looking for since becoming a member of this crew. Going with Captain and Rhui to speak to Valkyrie was rather enlightening and it became very clear very quickly that she did not remember Rhui and that Rhui was extremely hurt and disheartened by this fact. I casted detect thoughts and determined there was no reason to dig deeper upon her initial thoughts being about hating being on the ship and then wondering why Rhui and Captain would want to talk to her. I would be lying if I wasn't a little annoyed that she was so startled when I spoke, I was standing here the entire time, but I wanted to make sure there was no magical reason she couldn't remember and asked if I could touch her for a moment in order to cast “Identify”. She agreed and asked if she could also pat my head, while I was a bit put out at the idea of another crew member treating me like a child, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy headpats, I agreed and determined that there was no magic at play. We paid for Valkyrie after asking if she'd be willing to travel with us for a while instead, and then made our way back to our ship where her and Rhui went somewhere to talk about the past.
I'm not sure what's going to happen with Rhui and Valkyrie, but I hope whatever happens brings them both peace and happiness. I can't imagine not remembering where I came from, and I'm sure it's hard for Rhui knowing the person she was searching for so diligently isn't really the same person anymore. For now Valkyrie is our crewmate and I hope that everyone gets along well, she seems nice enough though a bit standoffish, though after what she's been through perhaps it would be more strange if she wasn't. However, there is no doubt in my mind that Valkyrie will be a great asset in our line of work and I hope she sticks around for a while. Our mission for Kaiber starts tomorrow, we are approaching Nulborn and I'm excited to be a part of some real ground breaking research for a change!
Wormholes and Regrets
The Rock of Bral seems to never be short on quests or tasks for people willing to help. We decided to prioritize some of the work offered and set out to bring a very nice man afflicted with lycanthropy to the Moon of Lunaria. It wasn't long after taking to the astral sea that we were unlucky enough to be dragged through a wormhole and crash landed on an unfamiliar planet. It is difficult for me to describe the way I felt when I stepped out of the crashed ship and onto the earth. The air was crisp, the ground itself felt unbothered and still. It felt like home. I knew that there was a high probability of this planet not being part of the AUC and thus finding a way to repair out ship would be difficult. Nevertheless our crew explored the area and quickly realized we were close to Phandalin, which did allow us to breathe a bit of a sigh of relief. We also discovered that we had accidentally taken out a group of people who were meant to deliver supplies to Phandalin and decided to finish their mission for them. We found Phandalin to be a mostly friendly little town, though not without their fair share of troubles. We found out that a "gang" for lack of a better word, settled into the town and were causing a lot of trouble. We quickly dispatched them, allowing the town to settle back into life as normal. There were a few other missions we went on while we were there and ultimately it did cause a moment in the group where a few members were upset with decisions made by the Captain.
I am a young gnome, I came from a very priviledged background and I'm not ashamed of that. While I did strive to separate myself from the jovial "non-caring" nature of my family, I am proud to be a part of them. I hope I can see them or at least talk to them all again one day. However, this naivety and inexperience has made it harder on my mental health. The Captain asked me more than once about the validity of his decisions and how I felt about using my magic to kill creatures. Making decisions that you think are for the betterment of those you love or for the survival of local villages isn't bad. In a land where there are such a wide variety of humanoids, monsters, and beasts it is difficult to make decisions to benefit one group without hurting another and any solutions that may benefit both sides may be more time consuming and harder to accomplish. While I have read many books on many subjects and I think have a good moral compass, I am no leader and often defer to the judgement of others. I am ill equiped to help the Captain with his questions on morality and was relieved when Punkin expressed her displeasure on the way he handled a particular situation. The situation in question came after we cleared out a castle of gnolls and goblins in order to rescue someone. After the battle we decided to rest in the castle but there was a hunting party of hobgoblins and goblins who came back to all their comrades' dead bodies around the castle grounds. They approached the doors and entered unthreateningly, after the Captain and the leader of the gnolls spoke (with some input from Helion and some non-commital reactions from others) the Captain made them leave their weapons and armor and leave the castle. At the time it seemed....unnecessary, but I didn't understand the cruelty of it until after the ship was repaired and Punkin appeared after being absent for days. She had saved the hobgoblins and goblins from hunters and got them settled into a new home with a new area to hunt from. I quite admire the insight she had to realize this was necessary. I hope that by observing and listening to her ideals and thought processes behind treatment of others that, not only I, but also the rest of the crew will realize that fighting or violence is not always the best solution.
When I was home I never thought that my magic would be used in an actual battle. I started by using them in order to read quietly without disruption from the rest of my family. The family wasn't exactly thrilled when I mentioned leaving the kingdom to go to a mage's college, but they were ultimately supportive seeing how passionate I was about learning. I didn't even know a damage dealing spell until after I found a scroll when traveling with the Captain for a couple weeks. I left my planet to learn and absorb knowledge out of the reach of my people and to grow to be.....something. I don't know what the goal was exactly, what I'd want to become. When I picture my future I usually just see myself reading in front of a fireplace, though lately there has been the addition of someone else in the room in my future. While I greatly wish for that to happen, I still feel as though I'm missing something of myself. General knowledge will only motivate me for so long, I hope that by keeping these journals and writing my thoughts and feelings along with our missions will help me realize what I want to accomplish in life.
Our new found group conscience was tested after we departed from Toril. A large demon appeared in space in front of our ship asking if we had seen someone by the name of Maddox, he even provided a picture and a wanted poster. No one in our group responded that we had seen him, and most of us were telling the truth. In a moment of what I believe to be genius, I offered to cast reduce on the demon so that he could enter our ship and look for Maddox himself, he was convinced he was on board because he could smell him. In order to accomplish this the demon grabbed me and teleported me around the ship as I maintained casting reduce on him to prevent him from exploding the ship upon growing to his regular size. Laylen nearly distracted him too long and I had to snap them out of their moment of lust in order to continue the search. In the end he left, convinced that Maddox had somehow made it off of our ship. After he left we were discussing Maddox and wondering who he was and why he had jumped onto our ship to begin with. We were just considering me casting detect thoughts and wandering the ship the next day when it occured to someone to simply call out to Maddox to see if he was indeed on board. Apparently he had been shacking up with Rai and had threaterned her to keep his presence a secret. Upon hearing his story we descovered he was on his way to Bral to speak to Mister Strickland. It took me a bit of work to keep my face from exposing my familiarity with his name, but I managed not to tip anyone off. The next day I made sure I was out of earshot of anyone and sent Mister Strickland a message asking what his thoughts were, he asked we bring Maddox back to him. I am glad that his opinion aligned with mine and can only imagine how much more convoluted and difficult that situation may have been if Mister Strickland thought Maddox shouldn't make it to Bral.
Maddox seemed content to stay with Rai on the remaining trip back to the rock, despite a couple of crew members flirting with him incessantly. While he is an attractive man, I just don't see the point in throwing myself at someone unless they show at least a little interest first. Maybe that's just insecurity, maybe it's politeness that has been ingrained in me since birth, but I find respecting people's boundaries and only engaging in flirting when it's clear both parties are interested. Laylen is a constant wonder to me concerning this thought. Me and her have fun because I like her, not because I can't resist her body, but because she's funny and a good friend. It would be difficult to go months at a time without relieving myself and we have a good capatibility personality wise and sexually. I am often in awe at how she will flirt with seemingly everyong regardless or not having any commonalities, simply hoping they could sate her carnal desires. Though, I would be remiss to not admit that some of her conquests make me a bit...curious. I hesitate to say "jealous" because I don't think I have a negative emotion about it, but she is very boldly fullfilling many fantasies that i've come to have after years of reading some very sexy tomes.
After leaving our lycanthrope friend at Lunaria and making our way back to Bral, Maddox, Rai, and myself went to visit Mister Strickland immediately. I was happy to see how happy Rei appeared even though it's sometimes hard to tell what emotions she's hiding behind her beard. It was relief when Maddox asked Mister Strickland to assist him with getting a pardon from the bounty so he wouldn't have to go back to hell after being accused of stealing souls that he did not steal. Though of course he did take some souls...just not those ones. I decided to relax in the familiar location and ingest some of his spirits. I should have known better than to leave after drinking, especially knowing Mister Strickland's tastes, but my inhabitions got the best of me and I chose to celebrate with Rai. I am very grateful that Mister Ultram found me at the guild hall and allowed me to have my fun while keeping an eye on me. I am however, still very embarrased that so many people got to see such a side of myself. I hope I didn't let anyone down with my behavior and that I can make it up to everyone in time. I'm still too scared to ask Mister Strickland if I sent him any letters or magical messages while I was drunk, not because I think he would be angry, but simply because of the sheer embarrasment I would feel from his jokes. After recovering from my massive hangover at The Happy Beholder and having a small chat with Mister Ultrum at the guild hall, i decided to take a walk through the park only to be immediately kidnapped.
Now, this is not the first time I have been stolen away against my will, I dare to say it won't be the last though I hope all kidnappings are as civilized as this one. The mutated etin took me into the sewers were I was placed in front of the Unknowable One. He spoke to me about his desire to rid Bral of the current leadership and take over the role for himself. Naturally I was very hesitant to respond out of fear of his reaction, but as I opened up and asked more questions he was actually very forthcomeing with information about corruption in the city. I do not yet know what his end goal is, but it seems like for now his goals would benefit the citizens more than not. He let me go and gave me and my crew a month to decide if we would allow him to work to overthrow the governing forces, or if we'd work against him at which point we would have to be prepared for a very difficult battle. He did not let me go before admiting that he thought my brain would be especially delicious and that it reminded him of veal. Now....if there's one thing I take pride in, it is my intelligence and my learned knowledge, so I would be lying if that didn't make me blush just a bit. While I realize it was a thinly vieled threat, a declaration of what was to happen if he had the opportunity, it was also quite flattering. The etin (#8) also admited that if i had tried to fight him, he was given permission to eat my brain when kidnapping me, I thanked him for escorting me and for refraining from biting when we were alone. I do believe that the rest of the crew is in agreeance that while our goals align, we should work with the Unknowable One. Some of the corruption he described was truly horrible and graphic.
During my work the next day I did my best to do the work of 2 or 3 people. Restocking supplies while escorting guests and being a perfect greeter. I hope I have earned back a little trust and respect from my coworkers. After work I talked Rai and Rhui into going to Maddox's new host club to show our support. Rai was a bit put off thinking that Maddox was entertaining others, but I assured her that the owner of the club would not need to do such. I was pleasantly surprised to see such a variety of gentlemen in the building and upon requesting for some tea and stimulating conversation was directed toward Jenkins, the mindflayer. After my interaction with the Unknowable One I was very curious about the conversation we could have and was very pleased with our talk of arcane and language knowledge. I think this may be a safe place I can relax after missions and not have to worry about embarrassing myself again in such a way. We have just a couple days left in town and I am a bit sad to be going again so soon, I hope next time we can stay a little longer, there's still so much i'd like to explore and people i'd like to interact with. I hope my next entry will be laden with successes and not so much regret.
Ghostbusting or After-life Therapy
Most recently one of our crew was informed of a series of grave robberies happening on the Rock of Bral. Lottie decided to research the robberies a little bit on her own and ended up a little over her head when she woke up walking out of an alley without any of her belongings. The captain insists that we remain on leave and we do not do any work that would be considered "crew jobs" while we are docked and on leave. This means that the crew was not instructed to pursue the matter of the robberies and that, unfortunately for Lottie, quite a few of us already had jobs lined up on the Rock while we were docked. Laylin decided to go with Lottie to the graveyard to investigate and it became clear that what happened to Lottie was more mystical than we had believed.
A ghost took control of Laylin's body and attacked Lottie. Lottie was able to let us know that she needed help but unfortunately no one was able to get there fast enough to prevent the battle. When we arrived we found both Lottie and Laylin unconcious in the graveyard. That night Laylin was visited again by the ghost and it became apparent that the ghost wanted all of the beings living on the Rock to leave and it planned to use Laylin's vulumptuous form in order to achieve this goal. We found out that the ghost's name was Moon-River in a previous life and that her nomadic space tribe stumbled upon the area of Bral long before it was seperated from its original planet. She was injured and asked to be buried facing the sun rise. Her body was a part of the chunk of ground that seperated from Erstia and became the Rock of Bral. She was furious that the lovely ground had been desecrated by more dead and stated that she felt like the people walking along the surface were ants crawling over her skin in the afterlife.
We tried to reason with her, telling her that it was too late for the rock to go back to the way it was before people settled here. However, no matter how much our words of truth made her light flicker, she was still determined to rid the rock of inhabitants and it became clear that her way of thinking was naive and rather innocent. In order to show this intention she decided to possess MY body to try to attack Laylin while she was attempting to reason with her. I believe that her taking over my body was purely an act of desperation and that she did not really intend to be rejected by Laylin. When she took posession I was already asleep (Laylin often sleeps in my room) so I was easy prey.
Being possessed is a terrifying experience, but not until after the fact. While you are possessed you have no conciousness. You cannot think because it is not your conciousness that is inhabiting your own mind. The idea that something could cause me to lose myself so easily is terrifying and honestly this experience has shown me that I cannot be too careful when it comes to self-preservation. I assumed I was safe in my own room, on our ship. However my mind was overtaken and I was forced to attack people I care about. Working at the guild hall has been very beneficial and I know that it shall continue to be as I start doing research on ways I can protect my mind from the invasion of outside sources.
Moon-River was stealing items and hiding them in the hopes of scaring people away and thought with Laylin's body she would be able to bewitch the people to leave on their own rather than needing to kill them. Personally when I heard her plan, I felt so sorry for her. She clearly was awakened by something we, the inhabitants, were doing to the rock. I wanted her to be able to rest and hoped we would be able to find her remains and transport them to a place where she could rest in peace. She didn't seem to keen on the idea of leading the rock since she had fallen in love with the area when alive, so we decided to take her to visit someone who had helped us before to see if we could rest her soul or come up with a solution that would help her without killing people.
We made a mistake by taking her to La'Luc. The thought was that as a mystic he may be able to help her soul to rest or instruct us on what was needed in order to do so. When we entered with the ghost La'Luc indicated his glee that we brought him a snack and promptly "ate" her? Absorbed her soul into his being? We are not quite sure what exactly has happened to her soul now and the crew (the Captain in particular) is a bit sad at the idea that we couldn't help her recapture the sense of beauty and wonder she had when she first encountered the land she fell in love with. I hope that by "eating" the ghost, La'Luc was able to put her to rest. Perhaps the next ghost we meet we will be able to help more effectively.
