Session 56

*** Live Notes ***
Yatish steps out of the portal with another Tiefling, someone from her group with Yolda. She says to not count this as a favor and nudges the other tiefling forward. Her name is Karis and she says "Is this punishment for stealing your food?" Yatish just says to introduce herself and Karis steps forward and says hello. Pippy speaks up and asks why exactly she's here and Yatish says it's about keeping the gods happy and yada yada yada. Pippy then asks the group if they agreed to work for Yolda and Wi Po and Zandro say that they agreed to and that it's better than Baoth. This sets Pippy off and Yatish shushes everyone again. Yatish then asks where Raui is and Zandro tries to explain but Wi Po says that Raui blew herself up. Yatish says "Fuck". She's frustrated at people loosing. Zandro offers Yatish a deck of cards and she turns them down. Some in the party say it's the wrong time for cards. Zandro then offers up that he killed a guard and Pippy calls him out for killing someone when she hasn't (to everyone's knowledge). Wi Po offers to make people some drinks and Marge helps him get things together. Marge is embarassed by the mess in the place but tries to help.
Meanwhile Karis is trying to make friends with the owlbear and it comes up to her, pushes her down and lays on top of her, kneeding her like a cat and suffocating her. Karis starts flailing for help and Snow high fives her instead. Vaan comes up and speaks with the owlbear and says that they are so sweet and that the new friend is dying. It immedietly stands up where it was and comes and sits near Vaan. it's name is Raig, and Vaan gives its pets.
We then discuss what to do next and Pippy suggests going back to the scene of the trial to see if we can locate the king and any remains of Raui. Some think that the ones on trial shouldn't come along and Pippy suggest going invisible or changing their appearance. Vaan mentions tieing her up and leaving her behind and Karis is confused. Snow then realizes that no one has introduced themselves to Karis and instead takes a moment to introduce everyone to Karis. Yatish goes to leave and Karis asks for directions or orders and Yatish says to not kill anyone in the party and to keep their mouth shut. Karis then says "so I should not kill the weak little one then?" Pippy glares at her. Zandro then reminds everyone that Astral is on their way here as well and Yatish says she can no longer leave us. Pippy welcomes her to the party and Yatish gets upset and repeats that she is not a part of the party and she's never going to be a part of a party. Vaan sees Yatish grabbing at her chest as she can't leave due to what was just said but only Vaan knows this.
Yatish says she'll follow us wherever we go and Zandro says that he'd like to get out of the water and Karis says "We're underwater?" Pippy then welcomes them to the land of the Tritons and her and Zandro start explaining all about the people here. Zandro then remembers that if the Tritons pop the bubble that Karis would not be able to breathe underwater and Yatish gives Karis a ring to help them breathe underwater and orders her to not take it off. She puts it on and immedietly asks to take it off. The group goes back to talking about what to do next and they decide to find the king and the artifact. Pippy and Snow start talking about the battle with the king and the power he can do. Wi Po then asks the Marge if she has any idea where the artifact may be and we discuss that he had a shoulder piece on that may contain the artifact. Marge mentions how she can't be seen and Pippy offers to make her invisible as well. We decide to head to the colleseum.
Karis goes in the front with Vaan who's on their weasel. Snow makes themselves invisible, Wi Po, and Marge invisible. Pippy casts it on herself and the rest of the group starts to head towards the colleseum. There is a lot of people around trying to see whats going on. The group decides to go through the castle, to the dungeon, to get to the colleseum. As we walk in to the castle we see the court room is filled with a lot of fancy looking Tritons in elegant robes. We see Durthan, the King's son, and he runs over to our group and stops us to ask if we know where Marge is. Karis introduces themself and then Durthan asks who Vaan is and Zandro introduces her. The group plays off that they have no idea where Marge is. He then says if we see her to let him know. Zandro asks what it's about and Durthan says it's family business.
The group continues on and Zandro starts to sneak and Karis says that there is no need to do that as there is no one there. Wi Po whispers "that's bad for your back" and Snow mentions that he didn't realize they could talk while invisible and Wi Po whispers in his ear "Boo". Karis meanwhile starts to walk with a handstand. Vaan and Thydrom start to talk and Vaan mentions how she ran into his dad and that Gunta didn't show up. Thydrom fills her in that he talked with Gunta recently via a sending spell. Vaan scolds him for not telling her sooner. As this is going on and we walk down the hallway, Karis spots two individuals trying to hide behind a box. They are wearing dirty looking clothes and doing a terrible job at hiding. Karis handstand walks right over to them. She gets onto her feet as the two individuals call out to stop. One of them points at Zandro, frightened of him. One of them says that they need to go now and they start running. Karis and Vaan go to cut them off from running away. Pippy calls out from her invisibility and asks what hedid to these two. Zandro explains what happened in the cells and he says he kind of killed the guard in front of them. Zandro suggests letting them go and Karis suggests punishing them for causing Zandro issues earlier. Zandro tries to get Vaan and Karis to let them go. Karis is now wanting to interigate them and Vaan agrees. Pippy chimes in to Zandro that this is the consequences of his actions. Vaan asks them if they've seen the King and they say that they just left their cell. Vaan says that they are telling the truth and Karis lets the one go. Pippy is still taunting Zandro about being a murderer. Vaan starts lecturing Karis about grabbing people and that it's reckless and Karis says that there is no danger in grabing someone that is weak.
Zandro asks Marge if going through the cells to get to the colleseum is the best way to go and she asks which cell area he was in. He explains where he went and what he took from the chest in there and he mentions this deck of cards. He says he doesn't know what these cards are and Snow says that maybe they are Savage Guardian trading cards, Pippy suggests playing a game of cards later. Zandro decides to pull a card out of the deck. As he does, it transforms in front of him into an elvish bow, an oath bow. Pippy asks him if he just pulled a bow out of the deck of cards and Zandro says yes. Snow and Karis get really excited about this and ask if they too can get a bow. Zandro hands the deck to Snow and he pulls a card. He looks at it and says "the void?" We see is soul leave his body and enter a crystal ball. We hear the ground shake around us and we see this being pop up, a large creature that's 20 feet tall. He reaches down and grabs the crystal ball that appeared and took Snow's soul and then disappears. Snow's lifeless body falls to the ground. Yatish is pissed. Karis goes to pull a card and Yatish says to not touch the deck but Karis is already pulling one. As they are drawing this card they hear something running towards him and stops right next to Karis. The kneel to Karis and say "I am at your service". It's another tiefling, they don't know why they are there but they do know that the gods brought him in front of Karis and they pledge themselves to them. Zandro pulls the cards away and Wi Po says that was a bad idea. Karis then orders Raziki (Raz for short) to carry Snow's body. and to follow Vaan. Vaan says no and points to Zandro. Yatish storms ahead, upset with us all. Wi Po is upset and talks to Yatish about what we can do about Snow as he's is distraught about loosing him. Yatish explains that SNow's soul is some other plane of existence and that we need to kill the beast to take the soul back. Wi Po turns into a crab and Yatish lets him crawl up her and sit on her head like a hat.
As Yatish leads the way Karis calls out about being in the lead and Yatish lets her lead. We get to the three doors that Zandro told us about and Karis pokes their head through the second door as this is the one Zandro told us about. Karis sees four gaurds in this room, one sitting on the each side of the doors and two walking back and forth. Karis opens the door and the guards turn their head to her and scream "who the fuck are you" and draw their weapons. Marge rushes over and tells them to hold on. They see her and bow and she tells them to stand up. She explains that she is bringing us to the spot where her father may or may not have perished and they agree as long as Karis lowers their fists along with his new buddy Raziki to lower their fists. The guards say that they will send a note to her brother about her being at the colleseum. She is upset by this but says she will meet him at the castle when she's done here. She walks us through the jail cell and we see a lot of buff people in the cells with weapons and practice dummies in the cells. They are prisoner gladiators.
As we get to the colleseum we see a lot of the stairs broken down, the center where the fight happened is now a crater. There is no stage or solid level ground, just a crater. Pippy runs up to the crater and looks into it. She sees a pair of gloves, they are Raui's. She grabs them and puts them in her pack. We are all looking around for any sign of the artifact and as we are, Vaan hears something walking towards her. She draws her bow and turns around and sees Durthan, Marge's brother. He says "Hi, don't mean to fight, I just came cause I heard my sister was here." He says he is there to speak to Marge and Vaan says she doesn't know a Marge and he points at his sister. Marge looks up, with dirt in her hair and says "Ohh oh... hiiii Durry". He asks her to not call him that in front of others. He says they need to discuss her departure so they don't have to fight for the throne. Zandro asks if the King is dead and Durthan explains they haven't been able to find any remains of their father, the heirloom, or the trident. Durthan explains that he doesn't want to fight her. Zandro then explains that the heirloom is an artifact and Durthan is convinced we are trying to steal the heirloom. Pippy laighs at him and says that he has no idea who is coming for it and that he can't handle the person coming. Durthan is ticked at this and sees it as an attack on his ability to be king. Zandro also tries to convince him but to no availe. Zandro then says that he is going to do a demonstration using the artifact he has to show Durthan a taste of powerful Astral is and how powerful we are. Zandro taps into his power and as he tried to control it to lift the crater up but instead he lifts up a rock, a larger one, and his hand shakes a little bit. As it shakes he throws the rock at Durthan. Wi Po in crab form is panicking and clacking his claws in frustration at the group. The rock hits him and damages him. Durthan wipes the blood from his head and stares Zandro down. Vaan immiedetly casts cure wounds to try to heal Durthan but barely heals him.
Meanwhile Thydrom casts a spell to try to detect the artifact. He can sense the artifact but it's coming towards him. Zandro notices from the corner of his eye a giant piece of rock being torpedoed at him. He is able to dodge out of the way but takes a bit of damamge. He looks over and sees the King walking towards us. he's bloodied but his shoulder piece is glowing, he has Raui's arm as an arm, and he has little to no clothing on except a loing cloth. There are all sorts of sewing imprints on him, like his leg isn't his, like he's made of different body parts. Thydrom sees this and remembers reading in his journal about how he gained things from people. It clicks for him that this man has made his opponents a part of him. He walks towards us slow clapping. "So... you came back..."
He asks why Zandro attacked his son and Zandro tries to explain what his intentions were and Zandro repeats that someone is coming for the artifact. The king then shows off the arm he got from Raui and how she is a part of him now. He then asks about us taking the artifact from him and Wi Po speaks up about why we need the artifact. He then says that he can protect himself or he can protect everybody. Thydrom explains that his goal is to wipe out all life from the entire world. Pippy explains that is why we came here originally and then mentions how it makes her uncomfortable to see him wearing his friend's arm but that she's willing to let that slide if he hands over the artifact. The party then suggests that he give the artifact to his daughter and that she comes with us. He says that we have 24 hours to come up with a reason to have him give the artifact and how he can keep his kingdom safe. The king looks around and asks where our werewolf friend is. We start to explain but Pippy cuts them off and suggests that the king draw a card from this powerful deck of cards that bestow gifts to those that draw from it but in return we get the artifact. Vaan and Wi Po speak up about how it could be a bad idea. Pippy shushes them and pursuedes the King to pull a card cause he's strong and lucky as a king. He agrees and gives the heirloom to Marge and instructs her to provide the artifact to her brother if something bad happens to him.
He draws a card and everything around us starts to swirl, cracks happen in the universe. He pulled the fate card and can erase or avoid an event as if it never happened. A light starts to shine right next to him and it takes on a humanoid body. A Triton is now floating next to him, a female Triton. She looks around and floats down. She starts to come to and she looks at the King and says "Honey, what are we doing here?" Marge immiedietly goes over and hugs the Triton, her mother. Durthan goes to his knees and starts to weep, Vaan pats his head as he sobs. The King then turns to us and says that we get what we asked for since we gave him something he never expected. Thydrom looks over his shoulder and sees Astral looking down upon the King and shooting his lazers. Thydrom goes to cast banishment and in slow motion we see that he tries to get the King out of there and beem coming towards the King, who is ready to take it on but is taken to a different plane. A massive explosion happens where the King was standing. Astral comes over and says "you're missing some". Yatish immedietly goes towards Astral but before she can get to him he puts his arm up and causes her to stop. He says "My dear daughter, what are you doing?" He lifts his finger up and her neck pulls up and he says "I told you, I am with you always." Vaan and Karis run over to protect Yatish. Thydrom moves to get the queen, Marge, and Durthan to go away. But Astral calls out to Thydrom first "where did you take the damn king to?" Thydrom says that it's none of his damn business. Astral notices that Marge is holding the artifact and Thydrom tells her to run. Pippy remembers that we aren't supposed to get within 20 feet of Astral and she calls out to Vaan and Karis telepathically to stay back away 20 feet. Thydrom repeats that we need to run.
Wi Po starts to reminince on everything that has happened in the past few hours and his entire body starts to warm up, and pink beams of light start to pour through him. He says "I've got a yummy rumbly in my tummy" as he feels a need to protect. These vines come out form him and he puts them around Marge and everyone around her. He puts them deep into the ground and with his other hand he causes them to wrap around Astral which helps Yatish break free from his grasp. As he grabs he can tell that Astral is not fully there, but it's a projection of him as he disappears. Yatish falls down and is choking on her breathe and Wi Po has caused this version of Astral to dissapear. AS he looks around him he sees these fireflies shielding him and protecting him. Yatish grabs her throat and is catching her breathe, Vaan kneels down next to her to comfort her. Wi Po then heals her. Wi Po and Zandro gain an undertading of their artifacts more and they hear this low and calming voice say "I am with you". As the artifact goes away it reveals a tunnel that Marge crawls out of. She says that she can't do this but thanks us for giving her mother back but that she can't take this artifact and she's willing to walk with us all but can't handle the pressure. Thydrom holds out his hand and says that he'll help her bare it and she requests that he takes it. She hands it to him but first has Durthan get the key for it. The key is a Trident. As the open up this shoulder piece the artifact is a swirling water like gem, as Thydrom grabs it, it wraps around his arm. He goes to breathe and the water goes down his throat as he becomes one with it. His fingers now have blue swirls around them, almost like a tattoo. Thydrom now hears the same voice, "I am with you" and it gets louder for all three of the artifact holders. Pippy starts to feel happy that things worked out, Baoth got what he wanted as someone got the artifact. She hears in her head "Pippy... You have fulfilled another quest for me. Thank you. Do you know how many favors you have left for me?" She thinks and says that it's two. He then says that he will combine those last two into one task for her. He is about to share what that task is and then the session ends.