OttL Session 20: Meet the Tail

General Summary

In between sessions, the party has been traveling for some time, talking amongst themselves, getting to know femtid, and some emotional moments from Thaiva Phenol.   In the morning, Thaiva Phenol finds Femtid looking out over the ocean.  Her eyes have gone black, and snap back when Thaiva addresses her.  It seems her eyes do this whenever she is having visions, which is a common occurrence.
During breakfast, Femtid mentions several disturbing visions.  She has seen Izar watching earth elementals attack the Prime Material Plane, near a large glass sphere that reminds Natsu of two of her previous visions.  Femtid also mentions seeing Ignacio Icarsus beheaded, and a Tarrasque explodes from the corpse.  Ignacio Icarsus and company attempt to comfort Femtid, with only mixed success.
The party discusses potential places to acquire diamonds.  At least one can come from Fresh Start Soul Traders, and other considered options are Hobbs' House, elsewhere in the Feywild, Rocileract, and stealing from the aristocracy.  After some more small talk with Femtid, the party continues traveling to Lucileastil.
Along the way, Thaiva Phenol and Memento Vitae hear a tremendous noise.  When they turn to look, they see a large water cloud moving upwards near the surface of the water.  There is much confusion about this, and the others are brought up from below decks.  Another one is spotted, but this time they are watching.  It looks like a giant water geyser just erupts from the surface of the ocean and then goes away.  The party initially does not know what to make of this, but Ignacio Icarsus later remembers hearing of a similar phenomenon during The Age of Sacrifice, when the Prime Material Plane was connected to the Elemental Plane of Water and the world began to flood.  Izar is not sure who to talk about this.
More small talk.  Hobbs and Natsu consider returning to the Feywild to visit their respective homes.  
In Lucileastil, the party begins to negotiate with Dreamonskii.  One diamond is easy, and he does have a second, but there is another buyer.  He would need a better offer.  Hobbs counter offers with an offer of some service.  Dreamonskii does in fact have a job: clearing out a large dwarven fortress located between Luna Woods and Polaris which his boss (Tornac) wants to take control of.  The place is full of spiders, and there are reports of other large and mysterious furry figures moving in and out.  After much deliberation, the party agrees to this task.  Natsu makes Dreamonskii sign an affidavit stating that the diamond will be kept on hold.
As Izar and crew return to Barry the Airship with the first diamond, Hobbs and Natsu split off to find a marble shop.  Hobbs buys a gallon of extremely high quality marbles from a shady dealer in a dark alleyway.  He is even given a loyalty card, which Natsu holds onto.
Once back on the ship, Ignacio Icarsus helps Izar perform a ritual to cast true resurrection on Nihilo, leader of the Einherjar.  This large boisterous tabaxi is grateful, and immediately has a lot to say.  A long lore dump ensues, highlights include:

• He is already familiar with the entire crew, in intimate detail
• He is even aware of, and criticizes, Memento Vitae's shifting loyalties regarding The Traveler, Izar, and Lolth
• He knows something about Ignacio's Triangle, even referring to him as "Asheidigamma".
• When Ignacio Icarsus informs him about the geysers, he concurs with the analysis that it is related to the Elemental Plane of Water.  Nihilo was not previously aware that these two planes had been connected, and is grateful for the report
•  He recruits Memento Vitae as a member of the Einherjar
• Nihilo "introduces" the party to his tail, which he says is named "Aliquid".  The names "Nihilo" and "Aliquid" mean "Nothing", and "Something", respectively.
• Nihilo has been told by both The Traveler and Lolth that he should consider recruiting Memento Vitae.  Adoven Verdonnet was against the idea, which just made Nihilo want to do it even more.
• Being Einherjar is terrible, dangerous work.  It involves fighting your friends to the death on a regular basis for the rest of eternity.  Memento Vitae agrees to it almost instantly.  He severs all ties with both gods and forges a new warlock pact with Nihilo himself.  This involves a short ritual wherein he carves a crown into Vitae's hand.
• He talks a lot about fellow Einherjar, including Kiri, Adoven Verdonnet, Madani, and Aria.  This last one is also his wife.
• Nihilo mocks Izar and crew for losing Dave, but thinks he should be capable of retrieving it from Bosgosho.
• Dave is the eye of a beholder.  It communicates with what was once called "the void" but is now called The World of Forms.  It can answer all questions.  It knows things even the gods do not know.  Unfortunately, to ask Dave questions is to invite madness.  This madness was responsible for killing multiple people, including Pestle, who is now the Baduhenna.
• Nihilo asserts that the Einherjar are capable of saving the world on their own.  While assistance from the crew would be appreciated, he asserts that it is not mandatory.  

Report Date

19 Sep 2020