OttL Session 11: Technobabble in Stasterry

General Summary

The party engages in some minor pre-travel shenanigans. Natsu uses Vecna's Orb on Murdoch and sees a vision of a giant building-sized cannon, meant to be used to go to space, which had exploded unexpectedly when it drew power from a previously undiscovered Ley Line.
Memento Vitae removing mirrors from his room and asking Izar for some religious training. Memento Vitae also has a visitor during the night, and words are exchanged privately over discord DMs. After this, Natsu hears a strange sound coming from Button's tank. The sound to have been Button himself, who profusely apologizes for waking her up with the sound of his teleportation. Natsu asks him why he did this, but he says it is a secret and he can't tell her.
The party then flies to Stasterry, capital of Durhambia. This city is the most technologically advanced place anyone in the party has ever seen. Of particular note are the trains. Hobbs convinces Natsu that said trains eat people. Izar directs them to a large bronze-plated tower which he says is Murdoch's office. Izar knocks on the door, using his head. Eventually a halfling, who is short even by halfling standards, comes and opens the door. He is clearly struggling, and so Natsu assists him. This man is later introduced as "intern Craig".
The party then makes small talk with Murdoch for a while, and he remarks that he has seen them before from the Tikipedia. Topics of conversation include:

• The mountain Hobbs is seen on appears to be Polaris mountain, or perhaps the nearby Thul.
• Natsu is an awakened Conduit, but also her Hand of Fate title is just "the conduit". This implies the most noteworthy thing about her is her conduit power, which is highly unusual
• Natsu is confused about how Murdoch could go to the moon since the moon is not always there.

After this, Murdoch and Ignacio Icarsus discuss the mechanics of interplanar travel.

• The position and orientation of an object on the prime material plane can be described with the Cartesian coordinate system. This uses six numbers: X, Y, Z, Pitch, Yaw, Roll.
• To do the same on other planes of existence, it is theoretically possible to use just one number. However this proves to be considerably unwieldy, because planes are infinite, and yet can contain other planes. (For instance, the nine hells is one plane that contains 9 other planes), and also some planes are observably "closer" to one another than they are to others. So instead they use a further six numbers for planar space: QX, QY, QZ, QPitch, QYaw, QRoll
• Time flows differently in some planes than others, but time is far more constrained (it only moves forward). As such, only one figure is needed to account for time, the "Chronal Offset"
• These 13 numbers only have meaning if there is a point of reference. The point of reference is the position where the system is centered upon (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0). The chosen point of reference is the center of Sigil, hovering in the center of the torus, exactly where The woman in a glass coffin sleeps.
• A coordinate system and point of reference so chosen, a massive book (fetched by Craig, who was smaller than the book itself) was compiled with the coordinates of every location. These coordinates proved quite effective until recently, when their point of reference moved, along with everything else, thus invalidating five years of data gathering.
• Murdoch and his team have no explanation for why things were moving around, but Hobbs steps in with one of his own: "You have to tie them down!"
• The prototype on Barry the Airship is fully functional, however due to the above complications actually aiming the jump proves difficult. If there is recent data available for the intended destination then the trip can be made relatively safely. If such data is not available then it will be remarkably easy to end up in an unintended location.
• The actual transportation is a variation of the well known spell "plane shift". The traditional rules are that up to nine people that are touching each other, including the caster, can transport themselves to another plane along with anything they can carry. Barry the Airship, having formerly been a bee, can take the part of one of these creatures.
• The weight of the cargo would normally be too much to enable a plane shift, however, his team has installed levitation runes underneath all of the floorboards. These runes nullify gravity within the ship for about a minute prior to the jump, which allows the trip to complete along with all of its passengers and cargo.

The mechanics of interplanar travel now being complete, the party asks Murdoch about his plans to go to the moon. The moon is so far away that it takes light roughly 17 months to travel from the moon to Prima itself. The distance from Stasterry to the moon is actually orders of magnitude larger than the distance between Stasterry and the depths of The nine hells. Even the gods themselves have not been able to reach it. Their most recent experiment involved a giant cannon. The cannon exploded, but in the process they inadvertently discovered Ley Lines, magical currents of power flowing through The multiverse. These Ley Lines have made it much easier to mass produce magical goods.
The nerd talk thus concluded, Ignacio Icarsus, Izar, and Murdoch go back to Barry the Airship to make preparations for travel. Murdoch suggests some nice places to visit in town, and gives Natsu a large umbrella so she does not get wet.
Considerable time is then spent on minor shopping shenanigans. A new piratey hat is purchased for Hobbs. Bosgosho acquires a new wizard hat, which is nearly identical to his current one. Thaiva Phenol buys a long scarf to use as a replacement sash and ties the old one around Memento Vitae's head to use as a new blindfold. Memento Vitae acquires a cloak of protection. Natsu gets +1 armor. Thaiva Phenol gets a +2 longsword. The party also stops by the tavern.
The party returns to Barry the Airship just as Murdoch is done walking Ignacio Icarsus through the various controls. He also leaves Ignacio Icarsus with a copy of the Tikipedia.
The party then engages the prototype, in order to travel to Avernus. Ignacio Icarsus rolls four subsequent arcana checks, passing them all. As the transition happens, everyone on the ship makes constitution saving throws. Ignacio Icarsus is the only one who fails, and takes some cold damage. After this, the entire party rolls wisdom saves. Bosgosho is the only one to fail, and his alignment is changed to lawful evil "until further notice".
The ship arrives in Avernus, otherwise unharmed. The cargo and contents of their quarters have been tossed due to the temporary loss of gravity, but no serious damage was inflicted. They have no map of Avernus, and so they are lost. After extended discussion, and a quick sending from Izar to Penguin, the party decides to follow the river upstream. Before they set off, Natsu gives Hobbs Vecna's Orb to hide on her behalf.
Avernus itself is a menacing place, with a strange air to it.  The sky is a dark orange, and the River Styx below them is a rapidly flowing pale sludge.  The more perceptive members of the crew can hear screams echoing up from the river.
Izar also asks the crew if they hear voices in their heads, seems to realize something, and then retreats into his office. Bosgosho turns invisible in an attempt to follow, but rolls quite poorly on his stealth check even with advantage and so the party hears him plodding down the hallway, and he abandons his efforts. Izar later returns, but refuses to elaborate on what happened.
Along their way, they see a small ferry boat sailing down the River Styx, barely keeping itself from sinking.  It is captained by a bone devil with a small banjo.  The party discusses this scene at length, but the ferry seems to maintain control and so the group ultimately decides to leave it alone.  They travel for a few more hours before spotting a large city on the horizon.  The place is extremely well lit, in particular along a clearly visible main thoroughfare in the center of town.  Overlooking the city is a large hill, with a few rings of fire around it.  Atop the hill lies a large castle, which the party theorizes is where they will find Penguin.  The session ends there.

Report Date

19 Jul 2020