Session 17 - Back From Bion'd

General Summary

We’re waiting for Avra to return, it looks like we’re in the clear, no threats or anything right now. Ionessa goes to speak to the Statue Formerly Known as Isadora about choosing a new name. They go through a lot of names together, SFKI is more interested in the meanings behind the names and who the people were that bore them. They do not settle on one, but agree for her to be called Adelpha (which means beloved sister) until she chooses another.
Avra returns with three potions to help us breathe underwater, which is great! She and Niklos also say they want to take Pearl off our hands until we can find a place to bring her, which is also great but also a lil sad but she’s definitely not safe with us. We agree and say our goodbyes to her, it’s very sweet. We set off and go over the plan again on the way, we find the ember, bring it to the surface, revive Bion, look at the ember, examine it, see if it does anything cool like open Neo’s staff, then hide it again until we know how to return it to Fytanke.
We wait until morning, a storm has approached in the night, rain and wind rocks the ship. Ionessa gives us a motivational speech! We chug the potions and head into the water and enter a different world! We can talk but we establish a little sign language for funsies. We meet some fun sea critters, but there are probably some not-so-fun sea critters too. For example, we encounter jellyfish whose tentacles can melt the flesh of humanoids, but at least they look pretty.
Eventually we reach the seafloor. The jellyfish have congregated, creating something of a fence around the crag where Ionessa hid the ember. Xanthos and Ionessa spot a blue speck in the distance, hovering over the crag, but bigger than the jellyfish and moving around against the natural flow of the ocean. Ionessa pushes them away with an underwater current and makes a gap for us, but as we approach the mysterious larger creature starts heading for us. We snuff out the lights and try to move stealthily into the crag. We avoid the creature and the tentacles.
Ionessa spots a warm red glow coming out of the crack where she stashed the ember. She squeezes in to get it, Xanthos spots something moving nearby, eel-like fins that remind him of Kovu. Ionessa is warned before she heads in, and opts to speak to the creature. It is the EEL KING! THIS IS IT’S DOMAIN! We set up traps and prepare, then taunt it to come out. It evades our trap and reveals itself to be A HUGE HYDRA KINDA THING OH GOD THE EEL KING IS A HUGE DEAL!
We fight the eel king, it’s powered by the ember, giving it immense fire and regenerative powers. We defeat it and it explodes into a husk, leaving the ember visible embedded in its body. Ionessa chisels away to bring the ember out. It’s a baseball sized orb of burning fire, as if an ember just taken out from a fire in spherical form. Neo examines it.
We encounter the creature that was following us before, it is a hybrid jellyfish-woman, who is a GOD! But not a very powerful one. Ektikori, Marine God of Jellyfish and Secrets. We consider that she might be here trying to hide the ember, the jellyfish were blocking it off after all. We decide to speak with her. She speaks in a whisper carried by the water.
“What then is this? Land dwellers brought to our domain?
She asks if we know what we’re carrying. When we mention Fytanke, she reacts with alarm, there are those who would hear it. She warns us that people who want strength and power from the ember will be corrupted by it, whereas if we use it to resurrect Bion it should not have that effect. She also warns us that word is going to travel through the marine life to our enemies, and they will know that we have the ember. She offers to keep the secret from spreading, but in exchange we must each share one secret with her. We must do our best to keep the secret from being revealed.
Kestor whispers a secret to her, a tentacle wraps around his hand and he feels the sting for a few seconds as she whispers, “thank you, your secret is safe with me.” This repeats for Neo, then Xanthos, then Ionessa and Ophia. She will keep the secret for us. We ask if she can help us hide the ember if need be, she says she could but would need a great favor in return. “A time will come when I require champions. If you were to swear to be to act on my behalf when that time comes, then I believe I could hide the ember for you. But know that we would be bound in a manner mortals cannot comprehend.”
She reaches out her and towards Ionessa with a circular bauble with a singular jellyfish floating inside, it lets off a faint blue light. “Should you decide to accept the bargain, release this creature into the sea, and I will find you.”
We reach the surface and get back on the boat. Captain Leos ain’t happy but he hopes that we can handle this. We bring the ember to Bion’s body. Ionessa asks it to bring King Bion back, and the ember guides her movements to place it against his heart. She chants in a language that none of us understand. At Ionessa’s feet, the wood planks seem to come alive, sprouting twigs, bark forms over it, a layer of sap. The ember shines bright, the room heats up. Leaves begin to form, a flash of light and heat bursts forth and hurts Ionessa but then fades and inside the box, King Bion’s eyes open! WE DID IT!
Neo gives Bion his book back. He wants to get back ASAP because things are really falling apart, given Korymour and all. We tell him about Dexamene as well, he doesn’t seem super pleased about it. He sees the ember, he recognizes it from the final battle, Zenodoria was taking it! He has no interest in using it but he believes there are those who ought to know; he will compile a list of those who he thinks should know and we can decide together who to tell.
We inform him of Demarchos Iros’ death, Bion is more concerned with the kraken. Turns out he has lost a bet to Isadora about how Iros would die, she bet a kraken, he bet a dragon. We also tell him about Adelpha and about Parmenion’s schemes to capitalize on Vas’ instability. He says he’ll get in touch with his contacts about it.
We have exactly 7 seconds of celebration before we realize we’re carrying a very dangerous orb. We discuss whether to give it back to the sea yet but decide to examine it and research Ektikori before making a deal with her. Kestor and Xanthos have a funny duel, then Xanthos asks how Ionessa is sleeping. Some of the best sleep she’s had above water, BECAUSE THEY WERE CUDDLING! SHIP ALERT SHIP ALERT SHIP ALERT! But what about Rhoecus oh no!
The end!

Rewards Granted

1 new friend (octopus)
1 old friend (king)

Missions/Quests Completed

Bion'd The Grave (Resurrect King Bion)

Character(s) interacted with

Ektikori, God of Jellyfish and Secrets

Notes

I uploaded this while Cas and Kane were unironically arguing about anime after a D&D game :)

Report Date

03 Oct 2022