OttD Session 12: Where's Tornac?

General Summary

Vun Roade and Pestle awaken after a long rest in Penguin's safe house to find Tornac missing. According to Pestle he left during the night, but he did not ask him where he was going. Meanwhile, Zerrof is having a vision of Mazu. He finds her arguing with The Bronze Prince, who leaves shortly after Zerrof enters the room. Exposition ensues: When The Shattering began, it began in Elemental Plane of Water. Mazu's father, Persana was slain before anyone in Neprius knew an attack was happening. When an army of primordials arrived Mazu, in fear for her life, deserted her followers in the city and hid in Zerrof, turning him to stone in the process. Because of this she was able to survive, but she is still haunted by guilt from her actions. She is plagued by the idea that perhaps, had she stood and fought, she could have stopped the invasion before it went on to kill so many other gods. After all of this, Zerrof is speechless. Mazu continues, however, telling Zerrof that she must now put her faith in him to find the right way to restore her faith. After all, he is the only one she has left. Zerrof awakens to join the others in conversation about Tornac. They eventually conclude that Tornac can take care of himself, and prepare to leave. They are stopped, however, by a knock at the door. Vun Roade turns invisible for this scene. Pestle opens the door to find a very short and fat albino tielfling who introduces himself as Griffon. He says that he lost a hand of poker to Penguin when he "cracked his aces on the river with an inside straight", and came to give Pestle "a way to see things that the gods cannot". Pestle interrogates him about his background, and Griffon shows him a brand on his hand that shows a silver crown above the number 38. Multiple attempts to explain this brand go nowhere, as the brand inflicts pain on him whenever he tries to speak of certain things. Eventually, Griffon manages to explain that he has some sort of history with Tornac and also a human man with an arrow painted on his head by the name of Griffon. He says that the three of them were in a "terrible, terrible place"for quite some time, but he thinks he is the only one who remembers it. He is also relieved to hear that Tornac is not actually in the building. After this non-explanation, Griffon moves on to delivering what he actually came to deliver. He presents Pestle with a small metal amulet that resembles a steel ball on a chain. The ball has a visor which, when opened, reveals a glass sphere containing an eye floating in a mysterious liquid. The eye, Griffon explains, is sentient after having been in contact with the Far Realms. The eye introduces itself to pestle using several names, first a bizarre noise, followed by Bob, Steve, Dave, and SteveDave. Pestle eventually settles on calling it Dave, and "introduces" it to Zerrof. Griffon leaves, seemingly thrilled to have the item out of his possession. As the party travels to Penguin's home on the shores of the River Styx, Pestle makes telepathic conversation with Dave. Dave says a lot of things, but ultimately does not clarify anything important. When they arrive at Penguin's house, they see one of his servants feeding a goat outside of their property. Pestle points Dave at the servant and asks why he resembles Penguin so closely. Dave quickly responds that the servant is Penguin's father. The party then proceeds to knock on the door and inform Penguin that Tornac is missing. He sends Izzik out to search for him. Once inside, the party updates Penguin on events from the day before, including three more intelligence saves from Pestle to gain additional information about the dissenters, and asks him about who the dissenters were. More exposition ensues: Penguin was born in Rainy Grove, where his flock raised him to be a hunter. In the year 709, however, Penguin discovered that his parents were plotting to steal something from Bhaal. He was unable to do anything about this himself, however he struck a deal with Izzik where he would put himself in slavery for five years and Izzik would do "whatever it takes" to stop his parents from following through with their insane plan. Izzik held up his end of the bargain by enslaving the entire flock. Unfortunately, when his tribe was enslaved by Dispater, penguin was taken with them. Penguin kept himself busy during his slavery, though, earning his namesake and serving as a ferryman on the River Styx. He volunteered to serve in one of the most dangerous jobs available: being a ferrymen on the River Styx. For mortals this work has a life expectancy of two or three days, but Penguin performed exceptionally well. He learned much from his passengers, and even found true love when he met Ophelia. Over the course of a year became a minor celebrity and gained the attention of Dispater. Shortly after Penguin earned his freedom, Dispater "rewarded" him for his service by giving him his own parents as slaves. Penguin did not want this, but fears freeing them would be a disrespect to Dispater and therefore result in their death. Some members of his flock understand and even support this, but others consider Penguin a traitor and seek his death. His story complete, Penguin proceeds to discuss future plans with Zerrof for some time. He proposes that the two of them both work out of the same church. This results in quite a bit of negotiation and theological debate, which is interrupted when Pestle decides to ask Dave where Sconce is. @Pestle fails an intelligence save, but still sees a vision of Sconce in some sort of unknown plane fighting werewolves in a bleak forest. After receiving this revelation, Pestle proceeds to go insane and hit Zerrof over the back of the head with his quarterstaff. A brief "combat" ensues, and Pestle is eventually subdued and restored to his normal self. Afterwards, the party discusses where they will go next. They offer to help Penguin with the dissenters, but he says he would prefer they go back to Sigil and protect Pixo while he sets up the new church. The party agrees to go check on him, and then plan to travel to The Cobalt Sanctuary to help Zorkul Clalthicul with an Orc problem. Just then, Izzik returns with news about Tornac: he is under attack! The party rolls athletics to arrive on the scene as quickly as possible, and do fairly well. They are informed that Tornac will have three rounds of combat by himself before they manage to arrive to assist him. Upon their arrival, they see Tornac fighting with a dwarven woman who matches the description Tornac gave for his wife in Session 11: Disgruntled Avians, wearing a symbol of Bhaal and wielding a bloody scalpel.