Exploring Suwirsha
The fellowship has gathered in Suwirsha, has met with Aysha, and is ready to charge out and save the world! But first, time to get some rest and explore this city of sunlight.
First, to finish the talk with the Observer. The Observer told them that, if any of the Nemeses got ahold of them, they could be "reset" - allowing the Nemeses to coordinate perfectly like they were originally intended to. Also, that there is a difficult process that could nonlethally dispatch the Nemeses - a kind of sacred weapon that could depower an incapacitated Adversary. The first (and probably the most dangerous) step in making such a weapon would be the blood of the true body of a Nemesis - and, in Dina's case, her body when it is fully infused with the Martyr's power.
With that out of the way, the Architects went home and finished looking over their newly strengthened abilities. Arzet talked with two of their new Vestiges: Thuma, a horribly violent squiddle ex-paladin of Theia, and Siru, a former alchemist of the Healing church. Makar got to shape their appearance more carefully, expanded from any species to imitating any individual. Potha's powers rose to include large elementals. Kipilu found a hint that they have Nine charges of something (likely nine lives). Most of the team experimented with their new magic and mastered third level spells: Revivify, Sending, Fear, Bestow Curse, Hypnotic Pattern. But, for Revivify, they'd need diamonds - and they also wanted to get Arzet a scroll of Waterbreathing to let the whole party explore underwater.
Makar and Arzet went to go explore the bay of Suwirsha to check out the underwater situation. What they found was the debris of an ancient reef-city destroyed centuries ago, with a small fortified settlement in the cliffside walls. The squiddles were initially cautious, but once it was established these these weren't Apex-aligned strangers they were allowed in. The settlement shared what they could with the Gods, and told them of the old stories: that once this reef prospered, but the Elder Leviathan known as Apex destroyed it completely and even burrowed deep tunnels into the earth in their efforts to tear Aysha down from the cliff. Since then, the undersea community has collected what they could, fought off Apex raiders, and patched together what they can - but they have little to spare or to build up their town with. Makar gave them architectural knowledge from Orpora, but the townsfolk lacked the resources to act on it just yet (but maybe, one day...). Makar and Arzet continued to the selkie isle to the Northwest, where they got the shark paladins to go and support the town.
Meanwhile, Potha and Kipilu went out shopping in the Three Market district. First, they bought a (probably stolen) revivify diamond off a peddler named Boyd; then they went over to the bulk market to order 60 gp worth of fish (which, in bulk sale price, is quite a lot of fish!) for the reef Makar and Arzet were off supporting - giving them enough food to focus on other things for a bit.
After this, the two groups met at the Bayside beach. Makar slipped Kipilu the cursed sword from Asalay, and the sword began to talk to Kipilu via seagull proxy. The group took the sword back and identified it as Cowardsbane: a cursed longsword that becomes +2 when attuned, but encourages aggression - to avoid danger or aggression drains the user's life, but the more one gives in, the more one's disposition changes.
Next, the group went to Suwirsha's wizarding academy to get access to the Waterbreathing Spell. They were able to get past the annoying gatekeeper by using the Knock spell to prove their arcane proficiency, and they were brought to meet the Academy's Dean, a solar named Sacrifice. Sacrifice was weird, kind of rude, and pried into their personal information, but ultimately was willing to sell them the spell for 100 gp (with the dyed thread for adding to the spellbook costing 150 gp more). They group pried into the details of the snooty solar, and found out that he was an associate of Darza's back when she was here in Suwirsha - and, according to him, he came up with the idea for the Darzan University (and its structure) before she stole the idea and cut him out. They had creative differences: he felt that the University should be a gatekeeping device to "protect" the "younger species" and mortals from the potential hazards of advanced wizardry. Darza cut him out of any deals moving forward, and so Sacrifice has sulked here in Suwirsha for a century.
The Gods found Sacrifice completely insufferable, and so went to the Dean of Faculty - Saifa, a friendly half-dryad. The School's leadership works on seniority, it turns out, but the Faculty leadership is internally elected among the teachers; Saifa and Sacrifice don't much like each other. Saifa offered the Gods treats, and talked about her research studying the sociology of the arcane. The group chatted with her and asked why wizards are such bastards. It turns out that the expenses inherent in wizardry are a major part of this: every wizarding institution is necessarily a state investment, which creates pressures that quietly push wizards towards competition, hierarchy, and chauvinism (not universally, of course). To create a culture of low-level "hedge wizards", you'd need better public access to cheap wizarding supplies, as well as reliable access to libraries and education - only people with access to a friendly priest or guild have reliable access to books in most places, unless they are rich. If these conditions were met, wizards could be seeded in communities instead of being curated in dog-eat-dog elite institutions - the Gods, particularly Makar, seemed interested in beginning such a wizarding revolution eventually. The team hinted that one day they would return and help Saifa challenge Sacrifice and the elitist solars that surround him in upper administration. For now, the Gods had their spell and were ready to continue on.
Next came a brief wartable and assessment. The plan is: send the Zeshem assassins back to Polikitza to gather information and support pro-diplomacy elements in Zeshema (instead of taking the two to the Khilaia send Kebri to be the apprentice of the Emesh-aligned selkie captain; send Sarket with Blessing until his family is freed; send Yago and the sharks to the Khilaia to campaign for shark personhood and foster undersea cooperation; hang onto Zofara, Eada, Dailio, Eada, Topin, and Imora for now. Also maybe revisit ships v teleportation.
Business complete, time to let loose! The group gathered to go to Club 17, hottest nightclub in Suwirsha. On their way, the group figured out that "Eada" is just Potha's other two girlfriend's names combined (Eora and Akada). Eada also picked up that the group was considering setting Kipilu up with a rebound.
The club seemed unusually modern: the club played with stained glass and other filters to color and distort Aysha's lights, and the bards used illusion magic to create unique electronic-style sounds that they played and mixed together. The conductor of this experimental band was DJ Sirius, surprisingly polite and buttoned-up for a DJ. Potha immediately went to dance with the prisms in the crowd, and Kipilu set to work learning how to make this kind of music. Makar ascended to the second floor to watch over the crowd, and Arzet went to the bar to get smashed. Arzet went about looking for a Dina-looking person for Kipilu, and Eada decided to shapeshift to fit the bill. Makar and Arzet wingmanned her with Kipilu, and the two went off dancing. Kipilu and Eada danced (with Eada going by Nadine), but Kipilu wasn't really interested in anyone and made that clear. Kipilu and Eada went out to get streetfood and talk about stuff instead.
Curiosity ended up finding someone who was giving out drugs for free (they seemed to be celebrating a subsidy deposit of some kind), and Arzet and Potha ended up doing rather badly with hallucinogens. Potha mostly got wasted on the dance floor about it, but Arzet ended up getting paranoid. Makar made Arzet's trip worse using magic and shapeshifting, and scared Arzet into the penthouse upstairs. Makar also targeted Imora for additional terrorism.
Upstairs, Arzet ran into a strange intruder who was waiting in the penthouse (which belonged to Blessing). The man helped Arzet calm down, and told him a story - the creation story of the Church of Ekaza. Arzet calmed down, thankfully, and started to rest it off. Potha and Makar gathered everyone, and they all went upstairs to retire while Blessing was still out mingling. Makar was approached by the intruder, who was a familiar face: Nezaret, the spy of Suwota from many months ago. Nezaret arranged a meeting with the Architects at a safe location on the beach the next day.
After a long hangover, the Gods went to the beach to meet with Nezaret. The spy wanted to see who these mysterious new companions of Makar were, to assess their true nature, and to deliver a message from Suwota. Suwota's message was to not rely on or trust Haru's gifts, to come to Runeva, and that the Gods (if they are Gods) should order the Lunar Pantheon to drop their blockade of and resistance to Runeva. When asked, Nezaret also revealed that a would-be usurper to Halcyon's throne already emerged in Runeva, but has been cast out (this is the Empress, presumably). A final part of this message was that Aysha was weak and easily fooled - how else could a spy approach the Architects so brazenly at the heart of her power?
The Gods were offput and disturbed by Nezaret's appearance, and Makar's Detect Thoughts was able to help them figure out how he tracked them so perfectly - aside from shipping manifests and the like, he was able to use special burrs that were sprinkled onto Makar's ship and companions. The group went and checked the ship for these burrs, and after a very costly and destructive search by Arzet (using evocation magic), they were able to find and destroy all of them except for one. Analysis of the last burr found that it was technically of Suwota as well as three other people - some kind of magical experimentation involving some grim costs had produced these burrs.
The next day, hangovers finally subsiding, the group had some chats. Makar talked with Ezia, learned that she had a childhood defined by the violence and secrecy of the Circles - she was groomed as a criminal accountant of sorts by her family. Ezia also had been feeling distant from Makar, as Makar had been becoming more divine and the stakes had grown higher. Makar and Ezia decided to spend more time together to reconnect, and to communicate more directly.
Arzet confronted Eada about trying to seduce the Architects. Eada said she wasn't trying to steal their genes or something, but just thought it would be fun and wanted to know them better. The two then flirted. Eada left to go on a date with Potha, where they cleared the air and re-affirmed the casual nature of their relationship over dinner. Afterwards, Eada took Potha on a little boat riding amusement at an old mill in the Bayward District - only to find it teeming with singing cats, which ruined the mood but provided a new kind of entertainment. Potha told the others about these strange cats, and Kipilu ran over to investigate. After Potha and Eada were done, Eada met up with Kipilu to go on an adventure finding these singing cats. The first place they found, an abandoned entertainment venue, was actively hostile to them and drove them out. But eventually the two found an abandoned circus at an unused festival ground where the cats seemed to be gathering. Kipilu notified Makar and Arzet - Makar raced over as a cat, and Arzet was nearby commissioning colored glasses (DJ Sirius had been wearing a pair), and was able to get over quickly.
The group entered into the condemned carnival's broken hall of mirrors. Most of the mirrors were taken and resold, but a number of broken funhouse mirrors remained as well as a lot of broken glass. The cats, which identified themselves as Pollicle Cats, chanted the role and nature of their ranks from 1 to 50 in a vague but unsettling hymn. Kipilu put together that they were a kind of warrior-jellicle hybrid - pollicles are a mythical kind of jellicle dog, but these cats seemed to think that warriors are a kind of dog. Despite supposedly following The Code, these cats seemed very jellicle in manner and aesthetic.
At the end of the path, the group found a main gift shop and administration hub, with a brass butterfly attached to a wall. The cats riddled, and Arzet followed their guidance to inspect the butterfly and remove a bronze cast of a bone from inside of it, allowing a hidden door to be opened. Inside, a hidden path led to a secret Vetevic shrine, now ruined and remade as a Pollicle temple. The group asked to be ranked, and they were taken to a fetid pool of water and promptly half-drowned. During the drowning, the Gods saw the pool as it once was (a clean Moonpool, a gate to the Cat Heavens ), as well as bits of the different Cat Heavens as the signal flickered rapidly. Arzet was ranked 21 (Hunter-Scout), and named Bottlibink. Makar ranked 3 (Conjurer) and was named Beezlebest. Kipilu ranked 19 (Conductor-Coordinator) and was named Ruffilchungus. The Memory Cat, the leader of this group, said a lot of ominous stuff and answered some questions (kinda).
This place was once a moonpool, but the city's expansion shrank it to a very small pond indeed. It was eventually absorbed by a building at the edge of the fairgrounds. This building collapsed and was replaced with the carnival, which was owned and operated by agents of The Final Choir of Vetevism for some purpose. When the agents of Aysha closed the carnival and raided its facilities, the two owners prayed here for guidance. Something encouraged one to kill the other ritually and dispose of their body in the old moonpool. Abandoned and never repurchased, the building was taken over by cats. Now the moonpool is a little bit off, and the cats have taken some element of the abandoned shrine into their hybrid religion.
Mustering Magic
Reef and Market
Wizard Moments
Club 17
Intrigue
Talks
Pollicle Cats are Pollice Cats
Components
Goals
QUEST:
- Marshal Resources
- Defeat the Nemeses
- Create a Game Plan
- Talk with the Immortals and Demigods
Relations
Protagonists
Makar: The Masked One reborn, from Etekamo . Divine Soul Sorcerer, Courtier Background (?)
Potha: Halcyon reborn, from the Sarana Tribe . Beastmaster Ranger, Outlander Background
Kipilu: The Hidden One reborn, from Tezitkal . Glamour Bard, Acolyte Background.
Arzet: The Chimera reborn, from Adov . Conjuration Wizard, Sage Background.
- Darana, a Nefkan Vesper priest who can speak with dead and resist fear, but requires burial of the dead
- Kiji, a Calazan Kobold explorer who can help Arzet super-leap, returns thrown weapons, but requires curiosity
- Sarwen, an Inasan dryad scholar who can see disease auras and helps with research, but requires everything to be recorded
- Siru, a Bilgazan Healing Church alchemist who can help Arzet make healing potions and increases Arzet's speed by 10 ft/round, but requires that the secrets of alchemy be kept guarded
- Thuma, a Nafenan squiddle blackguard who can help Arzet turn invisible underwater (when not attacking or casting) and increases swim speed by 30 ft/round, but requires Arzet to take no quarter against any foes
Allies
Potha's Crew:
- Keen/Parsem: A Hunter of Norinar, a pious Zeshem assassin from outside of Polikitza
- Curiosity/Sinya: A Hunter of Norinar, an open-minded Zeshem assassin from the Zeshem capital
- Eada the Sellsword: A mercenary and shapeshifter experimented upon by a strange magician
- Prison Rat: The Prison Rat
- Zofara: A fatalistic warlock who presents as hyper-goth. Sworn to the Scarred One.
- Yago: A berserker from Imorask with a gentle spirit. A whaler who has renounced whaling and now seeks to lobby for shark rights.
- Dailio: A selkie childhood friend of Makar. Heading to get his pelt at the Khilaian isles.
- Ezia: A dryad childhood friend of Makar. Studying wizardry under Arzet
- Kebri: A paladin of Emesh . Naive adventuring boy.
- Fastfin: A shark paladin of Emesh.
- Topin: A Guardian of Hokzin, a child-soldier with a long rifle, a pious idealist
- Imora: A Sunekan Fox Priest, a Sunekan secret police officer who has become hopelessly cynical
Neutrals/Bystanders
Sacrifice: Head of the Suwirsha Wizarding Academy. An elitist to the core, who favors solars and condescends at any species who lives under 150 years, Sacrifice has a particular grudge with Darza. He is thankfully uninterested in coin, only power (magical and social), and he is skilled at subverting any regulations handed down from the state. Also has a petty feud with Majesty, a powerful solar wizard who once helped lead the Academy but felt that the regulations of the Saraja Family were becoming excessive. Is the self-appointed gatekeeper of wizarding secrets, who sees wizardry as a thing that should be kept from most petty kingdoms and mundane societies.
Saifa of Suwirsha: Faculty dean and vice-president of the Suwirsha Wizard's Academy, Saifa is much less powerful but much more well-liked among the dryad and human staff. A sociologist of the arcane, Saifa is an enchanter who is interested in how people perceive magic and how that perception warps magical use and spell effects, on a systemic and individual level. Saifa is friendly, talkative, and is more interested in helping her students learn and grow than accumulating magical power.
Nezaret of the Lianas: A dryad journalist in Kafia with friends in many high places. A member of the Lianas, the spy network of the Empire of Runeva. From all the way back in Kafia.
Sula the Bronze-Wearer: A squiddle warrior who protects the Suwirshan refuge.
Memory Cat Pollybindus: Leader of the Memory Court, one of three main cat communities in Suwirsha and general mystical heretic.
Plot type
QUEST
Parent Plot
Related Organizations
Related Locations
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