OttL Session 30: Meandering and Indecision

General Summary

RP Roundup

• The party mourns Memento Vitae
• Natsu grows a sixth tail
• Natsu asks for one last vision to see what is in store for Memento Vitae:

Natsu, You see a wide open field, surrounded by dense forest on all sides. The clearing is huge, perhaps about half a mile in diameter. In the enter lies a hill, and on top of this is a familiar tree. For a 27 you know, without having to ask, that this is symbolic of The Hanging Tree, from ages past. It is still called such by the locals, though for different reasons. Near the bottom of the hill, you see Memento Vitae and Femtid fighting side-by-side. Their opponent is a blue dragon, and the fight is a losing one. Vitae is slain by an attack from its lightning breath, and Femtid is clearly not in good shape either. It is about to finish her off when an explosion can be heard in the distance. The dragon turns, concerned, and a feminine voice comes from it. "Sconce?" The dragoness seems to lose interest in the conflict in an instant, flying in the direction of the explosion, and leaving Femtid behind. She mutters something in draconic, and starts climbing up the hill towards the tree. She is softly singing to herself as she goes, but this vision is not about her, and the image fades before you can make out the words. Suddenly, you see a town . It is small, but lively, taking up most of the landmass on the island it inhabits. There is a thick fog over the water on all sides, giving the place a vibe of being lost and lonely. Despite this, the inhabitants appear to be in good spirits. There are streamers in the streets, and a festival appears to be on going. A large banner proclaims "DEATH DAY PARTY!", with a disturbing amount of enthusiasm. Just below this banner, Vitae materializes in the street. He looks around for a moment, and then heads towards the bar with a wry smile. He sits down at the bar waiting to be served. He does not wait long; over the next five minutes others trickle in. A tiefling he calls Sconce. Femtid. An enthusiastic elf named Madani. They drink together, and be merry. It's just another day.

• Memento Vitae says his farewells
• Thaiva Phenol feels that her bounty on Faren was completed.
• Thaiva Phenol seeks comfort from Daisy
• The crew all get their own rooms at The Wandering Tavern. Natsu teleports back to her home, briefly, to retrieve her wedding dress.
• Kei visits The Wandering Tavern, providing comfort to his daughter Natsu and, later, the rest of the crew
• Natsu teleports back to Shippo, and lets out her inner displacer beast Himitsugami to teleport repeatedly and escape town. She is wounded, but Kei heals her upon her return.
• Kei apologizes for his own death, saying he should have listened to Natsu's vision.
• A wedding is hastily planned and executed. Amadeus and Memento Ipsum are invited, and Tsukiko goes to retrieve them. They try to invite Kiri, but Tsukiko refuses due to Kiri's ties with The nine hells
• Thaiva Phenol asks to speak to Tsukiko privately and confesses her involvement in Faren's death. Tsukiko expresses sincere gratitude for the death of her underling.
• Natsu vows to become a goddess for her own reasons, and not because of her obligations to Penguin
• Kei refuses the opportunity to be resurrected
• Tsukiko hears about Faren's demise from other sources, and debriefs Natsu. Arrius is blaming the death on Natsu.
• Wedding poker. Femtid and the Kitsune take most of the winnings. Caerbor Klaedris busts repeatedly
• Kei teaches Natsu and Hobbs how to make star bits
• Olidammara makes contact with Natsu. She tells him to try again after her wedding.

A New Party Member

• Tsukiko reveals Faren's death to the whole party, and they discuss implications for a while.
• Tsukiko agrees to order Yori and the others to try and do some damage control regarding Natsu's reputation in Shippo
• The Ouroboros Pendant that was on Faren was recovered safely
• Tsukiko offers to provide an agent from Ouroboros to assist the crew in Memento Vitae's stead. This individual is Redacted , an individual in full body metal armor and his face obscured in darkness by a magical hood.
• Introductions are made, and the new individual is welcomed into the crew.
• After some debate, they decide their next destination will be to visit House Klaedris in Xumasha, to discuss details of the new protection contract.

A New Captain

• Once the crew is back on Barry the Airship, Izar says that he is thinking he would be of more use to everybody if he stayed in the Feywild and became an Archfey on the Seelie Court.
• The party is concerned about his departure, but supportive. He decides to move forward with this, and promises to help take down Arrius when the time comes.
• Thaiva Phenol is elected as the new captain, under Izar's recommendation.
• The party flies to Kaiserburg and drops Izar off before plane shifting away

Xumasha

• Thaiva Phenol arrives, with an imp from The nine hells in tow, and summarizes the terms of the contract.
• House Klaedris, under orders from Alibor Klaedris, is plotting rebellion against Ectraph Acdri, as vengeance for the death of Zarinn Klaedris
• They expect assistance from Ulmec Soriel, and therefore the Duchy of Tilum. Once they get another duchy to join in on the cause they intend to attempt to overthrow the king.
• Thaiva Phenol also takes Hinfyire Soriel to the side, explaining to her that she can "pull the trigger" on this deal at a time of her choosing. Hinfyire Soriel begins scheming ways to make use of this.
• Thaiva Phenol mentions that she was running away from Alibor Klaedris. Alibor Klaedris gets strange looks from other members of his house, but the argument does not happen in Thaiva's presence
• Caerbor Klaedris catches up with the rest of his family, but does not stay. He is still not welcome to remain in Xumasha due to his Moon Plague

Contacting Nihilo

• The party decides to contact Nihilo to discuss The Age of Coalescence and Moon Plague and her visions.
• Nihilo mentions seeing Tsukiko
• Kiri has not suffered from any Moon Plague transformations (with one exception, see below), but is still tied to her bird Luna, which used to be her plague soul.
• Nihilo describes an incident in which Luna should have died during a fight. The raven instead got absorbed into Kiri's body, and the two were forced into a hybrid state. Kiri went berserk at this time, but once the fight was over she "took a nap" and when she awoke Luna had been reborn with a new body. Both were in good health.
• Penoris theorizes, but has not confirmed, that this would also work the other way; if Kiri died before her bird she may yet survive by being shunted into the raven.
• Some fire elementals have burst out from where the beacon by Mirror Lake used to be. This invasion needs to be beaten back
• Moon Plague and the The Age of Coalescence appear to be very closely tied to one another, but further advancement there needs to be handled more by scientists than by adventurers
• Containment is an ongoing issue. It is predicted that Polaris will fall to ruin in three days' time when the next full moon hits.
• There is also insufficient manpower to prevent the Moon Plague from escaping the borders of Esma.
• Dave is still on the loose, and was supposedly seen at the beacon. Nihilo has not pursued this further because he has been focused on containing Moon Plague

Next Steps

• The party debates priorities for quite some time
• The Age of Coalescence is deemed the top priority, and as such the party decides to investigate the beacon by Mirror Lake
• history checks are rolled to ask when the beacons first appeared, but nobody passes
• They fly normally, without use of the jump drive. They pass by where the beacon was, and find what appears to be a portal to the Elemental Plane of Fire surrounded by fire elementals and a young red dragon.
• Instead of immediately engaging in combat, they go to Stasterry

Stasterry

• They visit Murdoch again.
• Hobbs is electrocuted by licking a laser in the lab
• No progress on duplicating the Ouroboros Pendant
• Murdoch believes the beacons were helping to hold the planes in place; after the one near Stasterry fell the planar coordinates of the region appear to be shifting much more quickly.
• The Avatar might be a thing; such as the beacons, or it might be a person
• if the Avatar is a person, it would likely be a Moon Plague patient
• Hobbs asks Murdoch how to kill a god.
• Gods typically have some sort of defenses in place to ward against their own death. That would have to be defeated before they could be killed

Visions

• Natsu invokes her conduit repeatedly to try and gather information
• What will be the next beacon to fall? Located in old Neprius. Deep Sashelas is seen examining the beacon just before it explodes
• What if Natsu touches the beacon? Her hand goes in and comes out with Dave in it
• What if Hobbs does? Same thing, but he gets it
• What if everyone does so at once? The beacon itself becomes Dave while their hands are all still inside of it

Contacting Nihilo Again

• Natsu contacts Nihilo again to discuss findings
• She encourages Nihilo to prioritize the beacons and Dave above the containment of Moon Plague.
• There are two in need of urgent attention: the one that will soon fall in the Elemental Plane of Water and the one that has just fallen by Mirror Lake.
• The crew will pursue the one by Mirror Lake and slay the dragon
• Nihilo will prevent the beacon in old Neprius from falling
• Kiri will remain where she is to aid in Moon Plague research and containment
• Additional diamonds suitable for casting true resurrection would go a long way towards aiding resource management
• Memento Vitae might also be a resource Nihilo can deploy, if he can make contact before he passes on to Vigrid

Report Date

01 Dec 2020