Chapter 4, Session 4: Drowning, Dreams and ELEMENTA

General Summary

The Planar-Forges always have a cost Sigholdt Sofiasson.

• Peregrine warns the party about the risks of the Planar-Forges.

Peregrine stripped off and dove into the water after Mallus Somnium in a blind panic, as Hermione of Vallea was distracted by the sky rails above her and was still recovering from her injuries. Esmerae and Sigholdt Sofiasson spotted the lake cleaners in the distance realising something had happened and were starting to approach to help the party. Meanwhile, Peregrine began to swim down, realising she couldn’t connect with the Message cantrip, but with her True Sight activated, she was able to spot an area of silt disturbed by an impact, though it seemed to have reformed and recovered. Deciding to try and help, Esmerae grabbed a skyhook from Hermione and used it to move out over the water carefully, lowering a rope into it for Peregrine and Malus to use. Sigholdt’s sense, only 60ft, no longer pinged, and as he felt the creature that had taken Malus was a member of The Quori , he chose to sit back and wait, while Hermione cast a Floating Disc on the water for people to climb onto if needed.


Malus was dragged down through the earth and silt, taking damage, before breaking through to a new layer - an underwater city under the lake. He realised the creature was familiar to him, and realised he was awake after checking his Dream Trinket. Deciding to see where things took him, Malus let the tentacle drag him down. He thought he might be seeing Luyarnha as he was dragged sharply to the right over the city, just as Peregrine clawed her way through the layer of silt. Needing air, Peregrine swam back up to grab the rope Esmerae had lowered and informed her of what she’d found, before dashing back to the hole she had made in the silt layer, bringing the rope with her. Esmerae got Sigholdt and Hermione to throw her their ropes to attach to her own to make the length longer.


Malus continued to be dragged further but was angled to look down on the city. With Eagle Vision, he could see a gated, rusted trap door. The Quori spoke, telling him to “Forge the Truth”. Malus realised the tentacle had gone and swam down toward the trap door. After testing it, he ripped it off and saw a descent into darkness. After looking around he found a sea creature and, casting Beast Sense, dropped it through the trap door. Malus looked through its eyes to learn it fell 50ft. Meanwhile, Peregrine cast Dancing Lights and used her glowy horns to search for Malus, seeing the city before eventually spotting him. Using Subtle meta magic to cast magic, Peregrine Messaged Malus, confirming he was ok and would search for an air pocket as he explored, as Peregrine had to go back up due to needing to breathe. Peregrine swam up, using the rope to locate where she broke through the silt layer, only to realise that the hole had filled in and the rope had been severed. Running out of air, Peregrine started to desperately claw, after healing a little in preparation for the damage she was going to take. While Peregrine was starting to drown, Malus continued to explore, discovering a forge with writing on: “Fill your order, the Planar Forge listens”. He asked out loud about forging his truth, but nothing responded or happened. Malus then tried to move the forge, but it started to get wet and waterlogged so he stopped. Instead, he tried to just touch it, and with an arcana check realised he could detect that very powerful magic was once there, but had now long gone. Finding nothing else, he chose to leave.


Above the water, Esmerae continued to travel along the Skyrail, before suddenly realising the rope had been cut. She shouted to alert the others, but Sigholdt merely stood up by the shore, choosing not to act. Peregrine managed a nat 20 athletics, finally bursting through the silt layer and out of the water. Half-drowned, she clambered onto the floating disc Hermione still had activated, and Hermione brought her back onto land. Malus soon appeared after, and the pair filled the rest of the party in on what they saw. Sigholdt stated Malus had found a Planar Forge, which Hermione knew to be an Artisan’s Dream. This was because she believed one didn’t need ingredients, materials or skills to be able to create something there. Peregrine however knew that it was a place of danger and communion. Planar Forges are watched over by The Quori and The Nocta Mori gods, who take part in the process of creating - the act was more like asking something from them, and it was generally considered heretical to enter a forge. It was also very dangerous, as no one who goes in comes out the same (for example: The inventor of the Sand Speeders lost his mind in the act of creating them). With this discovery, the party agreed it was possibly time to contact The Waking .


Finally, the Lake Cleaners arrived, and the party made a deal with them: they would sponsor us in Elementaball if the party wore matching green jackets with a lake-cleaning slogan. They were impressed when the party stated they had dealt with the tentacle monster. The party headed back to the tavern and put on a burlesque performance to earn free rooms. Sigholdt, Peregrine and Esmerae performed with Hermione doing tech, and Malus was considered too young to take part. With a successful performance, they got free rooms and board and settled in for a peaceful night. Peregrine asked her dreams what to do now they were in The Diamond: Find, retrieve, turn, make. (part of this being a joke about Peregrine being considered a cog/screw by her dreams).
The next day, the party went to get the matching team jackets but was interrupted when a mage from the Magus Arcana teleported into the tavern. Realising he had been sent by the Necromancer they had contacted the previous day, Peregrine and Esmerae took him outside, where Esmerae was able to trick him into giving an extra 100 gold, earning the party 1100 gold in total. The mage claimed his boss had told him the book was too dangerous to touch, and had looked down on Peregrine and Esmerae, so they pretended the power of the book was burning Peregrine up and she was about to explode. Terrified, the mage panicked, peed a little, ran and teleported away. After the successful prank, the party regrouped and bought the team jackets before heading to the Ruby Vanguard Centre for Excellence and Sporting Achievement. Their sponsors were confirmed as the Lake Cleaners, led by Cherish Gray. The party headed to the waiting area where Peregrine and Esmerae scouted the room to learn names and chat with other competitors, Hermione scouted to learn people’s roles in their teams, and Sigholdt checked out the vending machine, with Malus accompanying the others.
Group 1: Kaechaek United, a group of Kae with the slogan ‘Do not let your dreams be dreams’. A team of 6 in red uniforms, they have a tiefling leader named Artial (striker, asshole) and a half-elf named Elonora (mage, nice).
Group 2: Peridot Diamantes, a group in tough, beaten leather armour. Their leader is their Goalkeeper, and they have a dwarven striker woman named Dareth. They looked beaten down, wanting to ‘win it for him’ (after losing a player to drug use).
Group 3: Vanilla Ice, a group of human fighters with blond crew cuts and pure white classy tracksuits. They’re not assholes but are pretending to be for the bit/branding.
Group 4: The Bonesorrows, a group of super muscular gymbro fanboys. They all changed their names to Cassius Bonesorrow (legally) and their logo is the scimitar and hammer crossed. They also attempted to adopt Malus.
Group 5: The Blue Boars, a relatively young team with an older ‘coach’, threatening to end their careers if they didn’t perform well. Dressed in blue tracksuits, they have a nice kid called Vetelle, and an asshole leader named Stappen.
Sigholdt struggled with the vending machine but was able to trick the Blue Boar leader Stappen into using his token on the machine. When Sigholdt then stole the snack, Stappen lost it and ended up getting banned from playing. The party - named the Incognitos, got drawn up against Kaechaek United - a team of 2 strikers, 2 mages and a Goalkeeper. The party decided their roles: Malus as Goalkeeper, Peregrine and Hermione as casters, and Esmerae and Sigholdt as strikers. In the initial round of preparation, Peregrine cast Haste on Sigholdt’s tile/Sigholdt. Hermione cast Mirror Image on Esmerae’s tile/Esmerae. The game began and Sigholdt hit the dummy forward, with Esmerae shooting it forward with Eldritch Blast. Peregrine twinned a Ray of Frost to hit and slow down the 2 enemy strikers, as Hermione threw her 3 Aether Lances to push 3 opposing team members back from the dummy. Malus transformed and threw an insult at Artial:
“Your attack is like my breathing, non-existent”
“No, I’m really good!”
“So was your mum last night!”
The rogue dragonborn striker was then Misty-Stepped by Elonora to drop onto the dummy for extra momentum/damage. Sigholdt moved to block the dummy, taking damage but limiting its movement, as Artial used his leadership abilities to boost the other striker’s next attack, as the last mage targeted Sigholdt with a fireball. Seeing the flames, Peregrine froze as she failed her Wisdom save, triggering a panic attack.

Report Date

29 Jul 2024