OttL Session 23.5: RP chat lore dumps

General Summary

The following is a synopsis of notable conversations and events in the RP chat after Session 23: post-dungeon travel shenanigans. These began on 10/15/2020.

Wandering Tavern, Part 1

Natsu uses her Badge of the Wayfarer to take Hobbs with her to The Wandering Tavern with no advance warning. Present are three NPCs:

• Faren, Natsu's ex fiancee
• Tsukiko, Natsu's mother, the thief "Viper", head of Ouroboros, and owner of The Wandering Tavern.
• Simolio, a centaur who looks almost identical to Hobbs and claims to be his brother.

All three are wearing Ouroboros Pendants. They react with surprise at the sudden arrival, before Tsukiko groans and hands Faren a few coins. Startled greetings are exchanged, in which Tsukiko claims to own the tavern and Hobbs and Simolio accuse each other of stealing their bodies. Simolio is offended by Hobbs not recognizing him, but is still friendly enough. He also refers to Hobbs as 'D', just like Dreamonskii does.
While these two are conversing, Natsu simultaneously talks with Faren, who is still upset by her sudden departure from the tavern the moment he spotted her on her previous visit. It has been 13 years since the last time they were able to speak to each other, and he is clearly hurt by the lack of contact. Tsukiko grabs him by the shoulder as he is talking, forcing him to calm down so that she can get to the point.
Tsukiko explains that Natsu and her friends are on a hit list. It is "high paying", and technically anonymous, but Ouroboros is pretty sure Lolth is responsible for it. Faren interrupts this explanation with questions of his own:

Faren: Why her, though? That doesn't make sense. It's backwards, isn't it?
Tsukiko: How many times do I have to tell you that isn't how any of this works? Of course something different would happen. That was the whole point. You're just confusing them now.
Faren: Do any of the prophecies mean anything anymore? Is it really that different now?
Natsu: Prophecies?
Tsukiko: 'Prophecy' isn't quite the word I would use.

This is a dead end, so Tsukiko changes the subject:

Tsukiko: Let's start from the beginning, here. I told you before that I am under orders, right? Who do you think could give me orders?
Natsu:I dont know. But if you tell me the Elders I'm leaving.
Tsukiko: Ha! Fat chance. They're all pricks.
Faren: Even-
Tsukiko: Especially him, yes.
Natsu: I'm guessing then whomever that symbol belongs to.
Tsukiko: I guess that's not entirely incorrect.
Faren: Come on, you've got this. I believe in you.

This, too, is going nowhere. Tsukiko changes subjects again, asking if Natsu knows why there are two versions of Tsukiko. Natsu does not. It is actually Simolio who explains this, saying it is the result of a time traveling music box.
This conversation becomes waylaid as Hobbs is becoming increasingly agitated and confused. Natsu lements her terrible birthday. Both Hobbs and Faren attempt to comfort her, and Faren visibly tenses when Natsu kisses Hobbs in front of him. Things get chaotic from there, with Hobbs summoning a baboon from his bag and Faren giving Natsu a Tea Weird for her birthday. Eventually a saddened Faren attempts to explain why they dragged her here on her birthday.

Faren: Listen, I'm sorry. I picked today because I wanted it to be special. [...] I just wanted you to see how much support you had here. I've been working hard for you.
Natsu: Support in what?
Faren: I guess I don't know what we're supporting, anymore. Clearly none of this is what it was before Red used the box. I just know I want you to succeed at whatever it is.

Faren goes on to excitedly talk about how he has been trying to build up Natsu reputation in Shippo. He claims to have some help from other members of Ouroboros, but Tsukiko interrupts to stop him from going into detail about exactly what kind of information he was spreading around town. She is becoming increasingly concerned that she is disobeying orders by talking about this stuff, but Natsu eventually manages to get a bit more of an explanation from her mother:

We fucked up, alright? Brought a lot more attention down on you and your friends than we meant to. Not the good kind, either. It didn't help when you personally showed up in Zargos to try and save Kei.
They were trying to get leverage on me. Because they knew. Now they have a lot more, because they know who you are and who I am. Penguin alone would have been fine, but when Lolth found out it painted a giant target on your back. Then you all foiled an assassination and sieged one of their holdings.
It's all snowballed way out of control, now. But I want to take responsibility for it. We were only trying to help. So if something happens... if you and your friends need somewhere to hide out for a while, you have it here, okay? She can't see you here. None of the gods can.

Natsu: and if I become a God?
Faren: Like I said from the beginning, I believe in you. We all do.

Tsukiko cuts Faren off once again, before Natsu shifts the focus back on her mother to talk about having been abandoned. Tsukiko echoes a sentiment she shared before during Session 14: Attack on Aaqa: she had no choice about leaving, but Natsu can handle herself. She even goes so far as to say Natsu is doing better without her presence.
Hobbs confronts Simolio, because he is angry and confused and doesn't know what in all of this is important. Simolio doesn't seem to know either, but insists that everyone in this room wants to protect Natsu. Hobbs gives an impassioned speech about how much he cares for Natsu, which clearly infuriates Faren but Tsukiko forces him to settle down again by threatening to stab him in the kidney. Natsu uses the amulet again and takes them both back to the ship. Natsu, endeared by Hobbs' earlier comments, invites him back to their cabin for some "private time".

Wandering Tavern, Part 2

After everyone has settled down, Natsu explains the events to Thaiva Phenol and asks if she would come along to visit the tavern again to try and get more information out of Ouroboros. Thaiva Phenol is a bit drunk, but agrees to come along. The same three NPCs are present as before. Tsukiko and Faren appear to be having some sort of argument, which Tsukiko immediately interrupts the moment that the players arrive.
After some initial small talk, they get down to business. The only two being "directly" targeted are Natsu and Thaiva Phenol, but Tsukiko says that hardly protects the others around them. They try to ask about the music box again, and it is clear Faren knows more, but Tsukiko shuts down his attempts to explain that matter further. When Thaiva Phenol asks why Faren is there at all if he talks so much more than he is "such a leaky faucet", Tsukiko responds in draconic so the others don't understand:

Friends close, enemies closer...

Faren is still convinced he and Natsu belong together, and he just has to wait until Natsu is ready to come back. Thaiva Phenol calls him delusional, and Faren simply responds "I get that a lot." Natsu tries to get Faren alone, but it seems Tsukiko had already foreseen this and threatened to stab Faren in the kidney if he and Natsu are ever in a room alone with each other. Tsukiko speaks of her own motives only in broad, vague terms:

I'm playing the system a bit. I can't help directly but I can knock down the competition.

When Thaiva Phenol complains she doesn't know much about Tsukiko, she actually does prove willing to talk about herself a little bit. She won't talk about what made her leave home, but after that she travelled around a lot, trying to be stronger. She found a mentor in Hobbs, who was an Archfey at the time. She already knew how to steal, but Hobbs was the one who taught her how to read people. She learned under him for about 16 years before she left to found Ouroboros.
Natsu interrupts here to ask what exactly happened to Hobbs, but Tsukiko only knows bits and pieces.  A few years after she left, Hobbs quit his position as an Archfey to go work as a detective on the Prime Material Plane.  He was good at it too, and even caught "some famous serial killer or other".  After that he had another drastic career change when he became a sailor.  Tsukiko hired him to take The Music Box to Xumasha, when his ship the Sedna was attacked and sank.  Hobbs had a memorial for his crew in Polaris, and was found dead a few days later.  The evidence pointed to murder, but Tsukiko was skeptical, because Hobbs "should have been better than that".  
Tsukiko did see him in his afterlife from time to time on the Astral Sea or in the outer planes, but his memories from his life before were all gone.  She had help from him and two other unspecified people to steal Vecna's Orb from Penguin.  They got caught in the act, so Tsukiko made a distraction to let the others escape.  She never saw Hobbs again after that until he turned up, alive and well, in the Vale of Aaqa.  Tsukiko has no idea how he managed to come back to life.
Tsukiko uses this to segue back into talking about herself.  She founded Ouroboros to "take gods who need to be knocked down a peg and knock them".  She left Vecna's Orb orb for Natsu in Polaris, but She thought that she would have to tell Natsu where to find it.  She wasn't expecting Natsu to find it all on her own.  Tsukiko caught a lot of negative attention by giving away that orb, because she was supposed to give it to Lolth.
Faren becomes notably fidgety when the subject of Lolth comes up. Thaiva Phenol tries to press him on it, but his response is interrupted when Tsukiko spins around and backhands him across the face. Natsu attempts to comfort Faren with some tea from her new tea weird, before realizing what she is doing. Her and Thaiva Phenol depart shortly after.

Femtid and Thaiva get drunk

Back on the ship, Thaiva Phenol is getting drunk to mourn Arianna Weskey and Femtid is getting drunk to quit thinking about her Conduit power. They talk for a while about how difficult it is to live with her visions, before Femtid asks Thaiva Phenol what has been bothering her. Thaiva's switches to draconic for privacy, and her explanation causes Femtid to have another vision on the spot. Femtid can never tell if she should be sharing her visions or not. Thaiva encourages Femtid to talk about it, and persists even when told that the vision was about Arianna Weskey.
Femtid explains that she saw a vision of Arianna being tortured while Thaiva watched. Femtid couldn't hear them talk, but she thought they were trying to get something from Thaiva and using Arianna as leverage. It is also unclear whether Daisy was alive at the time or if this torture was happening in the afterlife. Femtid wasn't sure, but she thinks the torturer she saw was Hinfyire Soriel.

Thaiva asks Natsu to confirm Femtid's visions

Later, Thaiva Phenol gets Natsu alone and asks her to confirm the warnings she got from Femtid. First she tries to see Arianna's future, and sees her running down a hillside, chased by bees. When the question is made more specific (Will Arianna be taken from The Toad's Boardwalk?) The response is:

You see her boarding a ship on the astral sea. She looks nervous, but maybe also a little excited. There are others around, which are mostly feathren... think humanoid gryphons. You don't recognize any of them other than Arianna herself. The vision cuts, briefly, and then you see her leaning over the bow of the ship, barfing.

Natsu also attempts to see Zarinn in Vecna's Orb, but all she sees is a gravestone.

Report Date

17 Oct 2020