OttL Session 23: post-dungeon travel shenanigans

General Summary

Between sessions, the party has a considerable amount of small talk with the NPCs present at the tavern, including Amadeus, Memento Ipsum, Nihilo, Kiri, Lenora, and Caerbor Klaedris.  This is mostly small talk, with two notable exceptions: The first is that Thaiva Phenol discovers an Ouroboros Pendant has been slipped into her bag at some point, and the second is that Thaiva Phenol volunteers to help "test" whether or not Kiri is still contagious after the experimental separation of her Moon Plague soul into its own body.  The two spend the evening together in the same spa Lenora was bathing in before, and Thaiva Phenol is still uninfected when the two emerge in the morning. 
The session begins with most of the party spending the evening in Duncat, with the exception of Ignacio collecting various samples from local Moon Plague patients before leaving to spend the night on Barry the Airship.  He places a request with Izar to stop by Stasterry to have Murdoch assist in analyzing samples.
In the morning there is assorted downtime shenanigans in the tavern.  Pirate Ape is missing, and so Hobbs uses the bag again to summon a bear and ask it to help look for the ape.  Hobbs spent his time as a displacer beast eating the various bits of spider he had gathered up during the session prior, and is difficult to rouse.
Hobbs believes that he and Natsu should remain in Duncat with the other Moon Plague patients, but Natsu is not amenable to this.  The two argue for a brief period before Natsu storms back to Barry the Airship.  The rest of the party follows, but Memento Ipsum stops to give Thaiva Phenol two sets of enchanted chains suitable for holding displacer beasts, which apparently Nihilo had worked through the night to enchant.
Back on Barry the Airship, Natsu is alarmed to see Button, who she had previously seen eaten alive by Nihilo in Session 21: Wait That Corpse had Moon Plague?, casually standing around in his tank as if nothing ever happened.  
The spider is subsequently interrogated, but he is dodgy and avoids answering questions in meaningful ways.  He claims that he was never eaten, and Natsu thinks this response is honest.  Button also says no when questioned if a friend of his was eaten, but this response appears to be a lie.  Further questioning provides no meaningful answers, after which Button goes to talk with Thaiva Phenol.  He asks her if she has "changed" in some way, because she is "all mysterious now".  Button refuses to elaborate on the question, and Thaiva Phenol claims not to know anything, so the conversation fizzles out pretty quickly.
Hobbs finds Natsu, and the two talk for a while and eventually settle their differences.  Hobbs is still hesitant, but is persuaded to remain on Barry the Airship with the rest of the crew.
Thaiva Phenol takes her new Ouroboros Pendant to Ignacio for identification, but he does not seem to know much beyond that it has traces of the divine to it.  Thaiva Phenol herself uses detect magic to determine it is from the school of abjuration, but learns little else.
Natsu has an extended conversation with Izar to explain what happened and that she is still doing okay.  Izar crits an intelligence check and suggests the possibility that there are actually multiple spiders on the ship.  It is entirely possible that Button exploded into more Buttons.  Thaiva Phenol later catches Button trying to sneak into her bag of holding, but manages to prevent him from making it in there.  Thaiva Phenol decides to wear the Ouroboros Pendant herself in order to keep it safe and whatever protective enchantment it has active.
Hobbs gets Thaiva Phenol to help chain him up on the deck of the ship so that nobody is put at risk due to his Moon Plague.  During this he talks to her about how concerned he is about her attacking him in the previous session.  She tries to explain herself, but the details of charm spells elude Hobbs and he still does not entirely understand what happened.
The party travels back to Lucileastil.  This trip takes two days, during which Hobbs transforms twice and Natsu transforms once.  Nobody is harmed or infected as a result, though it does raise tensions around the ship significantly.  The party arrives in Milcia on February 14th, which is both Lurue's Day and Natsu's birthday.
Hobbs wants to remain in chains, so he convinces Izar to cook on his behalf.  Izar rolls well, and follows directions thoroughly to create marble cake, which is of course a cake containing literal marbles; the same ones he purchased in Session 20: Meet the Tail. 
This cake and related shenanigans consume almost the entire remainder of the session.  During said shenanigans, however, Natsu receives a sending from Faren:

Hey, I know we haven't talked for a long time, but could you come back to the tavern? It's important.

She responds:

Why, after all these years. On my birthday?

At first there is no answer.  A long time later, just before the session ends, she finally gets another sending:

Sorry, had to get another scroll. Its not safe to talk about over a sending. We need you here.

At this, Natsu grabs Hobbs and, without warning, activates her Badge of the Wayfarer to take the two to The Wandering Tavern.  This marked the end of the session, however the players involved opted to have their scene in the RP chat channel instead of as a private session.  See Session 23.5: RP chat lore dumps for details on this and other RP chat shenanigans that have ensued after the session proper.

Report Date

17 Oct 2020