OttL Session 15: Dave

General Summary

(note: the person playing Memento Vitae is absent due to weather-induced power outage. The one playing Bosgosho has left the campaign.) At the top of the session, Memento Vitae, Natsu, Thaiva Phenol, and Ignacio Icarsus are all in the lower section of the prison. Up above, Izar has ordered Hobbs and Bosgosho to stand down and accept their arrest. Hobbs elects to cooperate for this, but Bosgosho does not. As the guards approach, Bosgosho mumbles, holds up a middle finger, and promptly turns invisible. The guard gives chase, but some of them are occupied with Izar and Hobbs and Bosgosho himself is invisible, so he escapes with relative ease. Izar is escorted elsewhere, while Hobbs is taken downstairs to the rest of the crew. Upon arrival, Memento Vitae is arrested for interrogation as an "enemy combatant". The actual interrogation took place offline between sessions; see Session 14.5: Vitae's Interrogation. Hobbs, Thaiva Phenol, Natsu, and Ignacio Icarsus are all gathered up in a single cell. The door, having previously been proven flimsy, has a great many chains placed across the the entrance and nailed into the walls. The party takes a long rest to recover from the traumas of the day. In the morning, they are visited by Tsukiko. She had apparently gotten bored and decided to come chat. Nobody sees her enter, and at first she tries to stay quiet, talking only to Hobbs. This state of affairs does not last long, however, as Hobbs himself is not terribly subtle and he invokes a significant amount of laughter from Tsukiko during small talk. Natsu is the first to wake up, and immediately starts interrogating her mother. Both of them immediately demand to know why the other is in the Vale of Aaqa. Natsu and Tsukiko proceed to bicker, first about the abandonment, and then the number of tails, and then why Natsu did not tell her about Kei. Tsukiko actually apologizes for rescuing him, claiming she did not know she was coming and did not intend to "steal her thunder". Hobbs tries to quell the fighting, but it quickly starts up again when they accuse each other of hiding things. Tsukiko knows that something happened in Avernus, but Natsu refuses to explain. In the other side, Tsukiko insists she has not been lying about anything, but does admit to hiding things. She says she is under strict secret orders not to reveal why she left, and is not allowed to disclose who said orders came from. She also demonstrates her magical daggers, Push and Pull, and jokes around a bit with Hobbs. Natsu, becoming increasingly intent on escaping the conversation, tries to find a way out. Hobbs attempts to assist, but fails, and this invokes a considerable amount of interparty conflict shenanigans as Ignacio Icarsus attempts to prevent the escape. Most notably, Ignacio Icarsus places Thaiva Phenol inside of a Resilient Sphere, which is essentially a giant magical hamsterball. Tsukiko does not partake in this, but she does laugh her ass off. This eventually comes to an end when a guard arrives with Izar. The guard interrogates them about who killed the dead guard. Nobody takes the blame for it until Ignacio Icarsus calls out Natsu and Thaiva Phenol as the culprits. This spawns a fair amount of debate, but ultimately the charges are dropped thanks to some string-pulling on the part of Izar. Izar and Memento Vitae both have to remain in the Vale of Aaqa for now, but they will be allowed to return to Barry the Airship. Discussion regarding what will be done with the guard's corpse extends into a larger conversation about Auran "burial" Rituals and Ignacio's Triangle allowing him to come back from the dead. The party wants to help, however, and so the guard asks them about Drummer, a kenku sent to the Vale of Aaqa to participate in the Elections for a new God. The current ruler, Nadroc, was rendered mortal in The Age of Mortality and is set to pass away in the near future. Natsu uses her orb to see the moment of his death, but does not describe the full scene to the party Show Spoiler

you see a faint outline of tsukiko, just like tornac was in an earlier vision, sneaking into the room and swapping out one of the wine bottles on the shelf. she doesn't even leave the room. She just stands in a corner and watches as drummer comes in, looking celebratory, and takes a drink from it. he is dead less than a minute later the outline then takes a big swig from the old bottle, switches them again, and walks out

Natsu hesitates for a moment, then asks about the crime scene. Drummer was found dead in his room, apparently having been poisoned. He was found lying on the ground near his wine shelf. This fits the MO of Lolth's people, but that would be quite strange considering the recent attack by their armies. Natsu does not reveal the culprit but does suggest that they search for another bottle of wine not present on the shelf. The other main candidate in the election, Zae, died during the siege. He died in honorable combat with Lolth's forces, and foul play would not normally be suspected aside from how close it was to the assassination of Drummer. This effectively halts the elections until new candidates can be found. Ignacio Icarsus presses Tsukiko for an opinion, but she dodges the question and stays out of the conversation. Some more small talk happens, then the party returns to Barry the Airship. It is docked on a large glass platform so that the sky can still be seen below. The ship is immediately searched, and it is obvious the place has been tossed. They quickly locate Button, who says that the chaos was due to some driders who had come onto the ship looking for something. They were not able to find what they were looking for, however, because "the ghost had already taken it". After some back and forth, it turns out that an invisible creature of some sort had come and stolen Izar's Box. When this is brought to the attention of Izar, he panics and goes to confirm this for himself. He is very upset, and quickly makes the connection that this "ghost" was actually Bosgosho, who had turned invisible and escaped at the beginning of the session. Izar explains that the box contained Dave, a cursed sapient eyeball inside of an amulet which answers questions. Dave is extremely knowledgeable, but asking him questions is dangerous and often results in insanity. He says Dave was responsible for the deaths of Griffon, a tiefling, and also Pestle, his best friend that is now the Baduhenna. Izar knew how dangerous Dave was, which is why he was trying to earn money. He wanted to pay Penguin for a gemstone he could use to cast true resurrection and bring back Nihilo from the grave. Nihilo, although deceased, is the only person Izar thinks could safely take care of Dave. Izar is incredibly guilty, and holds himself responsible for Bosgosho's condition. He also blames himself for the death of his former patron deity, Corellon Larethian, who would not have been in Ragnarok if not for Dave. Izar says he should have used his soul for collateral a long time ago to trade with Penguin. If he had taken care of the problem properly the first time, then this incident would not have been possible. He would only be trying to buy back his own soul, not trying to gather enough money to bring back Nihilo. Back on deck, the party is comforting Izar and talking amongst themselves, which is interrupted when Natsu passes out with a bloody nose. She is having another vision, depicting Bosgosho, Lenora, and a contingent of drow investigating a glass sphere with water flowing down the sides. The vision is interrupted when Lenora becomes aware of the scrying and one of the drow dispels it. Some other boat shenanigans occur, including Ignacio Icarsus repairing the engine and Natsu hiding her gold again. There was a considerable amount of money hidden in her cabin, but whoever was searching it had no interest in the funds and simply tossed them aside. Tsukiko shows up just as she finishes hiding the coin, hoping to try and talk to her about the extra tail again in a more private setting. Natsu says the extra tail came from when she successfully lied to Penguin to protect Tsukiko. Her mom immediately exclaims how proud she is and gives her a giant hug. This scene is interrupted by the rest of the party, and hilarity ensues. After the shenanigans settle down, Natsu asks Tsukiko about the note in her possession which she is not able read. Tsukiko does not recognizes it, but thinks "Prime" might. When questioned, she explains that she is not the "original" Tsukiko. The original, which they refer to as "Prime", is the one who rescued Kei from Zargos the day before. Natsu confirms this with a vision from Vecna's Orb, and Tsukiko gives her a Badge of the Wayfarer which the party can use to visit The Wandering Tavern and ask about it directly. Back on deck, Thaiva Phenol talks to Izar some more, trying to offer comfort. They eventually decide the party needs to go visit Bosgosho. Thaiva Phenol goes below deck to get Thaiva Phenol, who was having a private conversation with Hobbs. Thaiva Phenol arrives to interrupt just as things start to become romantic. Most of the party elects to visit Bosgosho, but Ignacio Icarsus stays behind. Button asks Ignacio Icarsus a lot of questions about the engine, so while the party is gone Ignacio Icarsus attempts to teach Button the basics of how the engine works. Izar leads the others to a mental ward, where the myconid can be found in a padded room, wearing nothing but his hat, painting "Dave" on the walls in blood. Izar says it is dangerous to enter the room, but they get Bosgosho's attention by speaking through the one-way mirror. Dave, hung from Bosgosho's neck, seems to be able to see through the glass. It stares directly at Natsu, and begins to speak into her head: Show Spoiler

Hi, I'm Dave! Do I know you? Don't worry, I'm nice! I don't bite! Not enough teeth! I can tell you about his memories! but he's my friend! He came looking for me! He says he needs my help!

As these questions happen, Natsu freaks out and immediately tells Izar what is going on. Izar sternly tells her not to ask Dave any questions, under any circumstances. She does not reply to the eye and the party decides to leave. As they go, the entire party hears an ominous voice speak in their minds: "OK Bye!" The party talks about the events for a while, and Natsu jokes about robbing a bank to get Izar the remaining money to perform a true resurrection on Nihilo. Izar is hesitant, but not nearly as hesitant as it seems like he should be. It seems he might actually be willing to support the idea, provided they find someone evil enough to be worth robbing. Thaiva Phenol also says they might be able to ask her parents for money, and they decide this is the best course of action since she needs to visit anyway due to her bounty. They then go looking for Memento Vitae. Once they finally find the room, they see Memento Vitae being interrogated by a buff aarakocra. Hobbs knocks on the door, and loudly asks when they can have Memento Vitae back. This decision is not up to the interrogator, but he thinks Nadroc will be approving the release shortly. They make small talk for a bit, and then Hobbs asks: