OttL Session 31: On Second Thought...

General Summary

RP Roundup

See Session 30.5: RP roundup - New conduits, a shopping spree, and a change in plans 

To Esma

• Memento Ipsum and Amadeus are dropped off in Stasterry 
• The party discusses options for quite some time before deciding that the dragon fight is a terrible idea and instead choosing to use the engine to jump to Esma.  Only Thaiva Phenol and Redacted take damage in the trip
• Upon arrival in Esma, they could go to Kilead, Duncat, or Polaris 
• Kilead has smoke rising from it.  The people are evacuating towards Duncat 
• A large blue dragon can be seen sitting outside Duncat. 
• Polaris has smoke rising from it too, and the crew elects to investigate that first.
• While on the way to Polaris, they see the dragon move from Duncat to Polaris.  The crew continues, and stops outside the city to long rest for the night.  During the night the dragon, now perched atop the keep, is seen zapping a couple of citizens to death when their fighting strays too close

Haru the Dragon

• In the morning, just as the party is finishing their long rest and peace returns to the streets, the dragon approaches the airship.  The crew takes evasive maneuvers but attempt to communicate once it gets closer.  The dragon is speaking common, and the crew allow it to not only approach but also land on Barry the Airship 
• The dragon is actually Haru, a Moon Plague patient and priestess for Boldrei.  She is lead medic for The Pack. 
• Haru claims to have been protecting the castle, though she is concerned that the residents "got the wrong message" and that she was too scary for the populace.
• The crew brainstorms ways to protect the city with her for a little while
• Hobbs tells Haru about the strange space dragon Natsu and Femtid have seen behind the moon in their visions, and how Murdoch wants to go there
• Hobbs has a proposition: the crew protects the city in Haru's stead, and subsequently assist with the cleanup and treatment of patients, and Haru flies to Durhambia to take care of the red dragon there.
• Haru agrees to this deal pretty easily, saying her other self has been "restless" and a fight might "do them both good"
• Natsu asks Haru for advice.  She suggests bringing everybody together as best she can, uniting them into a single force in order to deal with the greater threats.  Haru believes this is the only way anything will improve

Visiting the Keep

• The party goes into Polaris and enters the keep, where they seek an audience with queen Promise.
• Their conversation is very terse, but the queen accepts help.  When asked about specifics, she instructs the crew to "kill anybody they have to to keep this place safe"
• Femtid is trailing behind as the party leaves.  Natsu hears a commotion from a nearby room, and takes a diversion to investigate.  There is a guard arguing with himself, and the party is immediately convinced he has Moon Plague.
• They encourage the guard to leave, but he needs the money to feed his family.  Various party members hand him a bunch of money to care for his family and he begrudgingly agrees to check himself in to The church of Olidammara.
• Femtid tries to sneak away for some reason, and Natsu tries to follow.  Femtid is not very stealthy however, and so the pair are halted by a guard
• Meanwhile, Hobbs goes back to the queen and asks her to gather up her people to check for Moon Plague infections.  She responds by simply saying she is not infected, and a nat 20 insight check reveals this is a lie.
• As Hobbs returns to the party to report this information, Natsu is sniffing around to try and identify what has Femtid so worked up.  She smells blood.
• Promise, who was following Hobbs, overhears this and demands to see, so the party follow Natsu's sniffer and finds a dead otter decapitated and strewn over a diamond large enough to cast true resurrection.
• Questions about the diamond, the otter, and the queen herself are not met with helpful answers.  Promise tells the crew to leave. 

Infiltration

• The crew leaves and discusses queen Promise and king Respect and Moon Plague in general.  Promise is supposed to be much nicer than the person they met today.
• Natsu wants to sneak back into the keep and investigate further.
• Hobbs uses his bag of tricks to summon an ape and have it distract the castle guard.
• Natsu sneaks in and, on the second floor, finds what appears to be royal bedchambers.  She is not finding much in her search of the chambers.
• During the search, Natsu overhears some guards in the hallway trying to figure out where the king went off to.  leaves the room and, instead of following the guards, pursues a horse with a crown that is slowly walking down the hallway.
• The horse goes to take a dump, is intercepted by guards, and eventually taken to a medical ward where the men give it some sort of drugs and then just hang out with it.
• Natsu goes back downstairs to eavesdrop on the queen muttering to herself.  She has to invoke her new diviner's dice to avoid notice, but hears her muttering about to herself in abyssal about her incompetent underlings.
• As Natsu leaves, the queen spots her and tells her to stop.  She interrogates Natsu briefly, and asks how she knows Natsu does not work for Lolth
• Natsu invokes the dice again to pass a persuasion check, after which Promise tells her to check in on her party members.  She reveals Redacted's identity as a drow.

Followed Out

• Natsu leaves to regroup with the others.  As they get back together, Natsu realizes she has been followed and physically points out the pursuer to her comrades.  They are shrouded in a black hooded robe.
• Hobbs approaches the figure and tries to converse.  It does not respond, but does hold out a hand as if to shake.  Hobbs shakes it, and one failed charisma save later both of them are in Pandemonium.
• The figure asks a question:

How many eyes lurk in the dark?

• When Hobbs cannot answer, the figure refuses to answer further questions but does send Hobbs back to the others
• As they discuss, Redacted says he recognizes that question.  The group returns to Barry the Airship
• The party discusses this for the remainder of the session, and Redacted explains that the question is used by followers of Lolth to identify each other.  He also takes the opportunity to publicly acknowledge his race and his history with Lolth's church.
• The party, especially Hobbs, is supportive with Redacted and his dark past.

Report Date

05 Dec 2020