OttL Session 9: Selling Drugs to Moonbrook

General Summary

As the party returns to the ship to sleep, Natsu discovers two daggers embedded in her ceiling, dubbed Hide and Seek. These items clearly require attunement and so she decides to attune to them during the night. Meanwhile Memento Vitae conducts some more prayers.
In the morning, Thaiva Phenol is extremely hung over. As they are discussing this and making other various small talk, Memento Vitae emerges from his room with a newfound medusa's curse. The party freaks out about this for a while, including a scolding from Ignacio Icarsus, Natsu poking his "scar" just to discover his lips had merely expanded to cover half his face, and Memento Vitae trying (and failing) to unhinge his jaw. The party also discusses what fey spiders (specifically Button eat), and Natsu plays with Hide and Seek to determine what they do. Izar also gives the party their pay.
After this, the party discusses next steps. Izar agrees to let them try to help Lenora, but they also need to keep up with the business, and so they decide to discuss with Amadeus and Memento Ipsum what it is they should be buying to sell to Moonbrook. Upon arrival they find Amadeus has reverted to his normal self, but Memento Ipsum has yet to go back to normal. Amadeus hesitates a little to answer, so Memento Ipsum answers for him, suggesting lots of drug, booze, sex toys, and "a couple hookers if you've got 'em". Evidently anything that can be used to suppress or satisfy the populace's more "primal" urges is in high demand.
An extended series of shopping scenes ensues, including Izar getting explicit permission to carry large quantities of drugs from the king himself and Memento Ipsum and Lenora somehow managing to locate a stunning quantity of the stuff by means unbeknownst to the party. During shopping Natsu, Ignacio Icarsus, and Hobbs help Hobbs with his monk training by throwing various projectiles (mainly knives) at him.
The party then travels to Luna Woods. Joining them are Lenora, Memento Ipsum, and Kiri. Once there the party discusses at length who will enter Moonbrook proper and who will remain on the ship. Memento Vitae and Hobbs remain aboard and the others all travel.
Memento Ipsum is initially a little lost, but quickly finds her bearings and leads them through the woods. They immediately notice they are being followed by both a hawk and a wolf. Natsu shouts at the hawk, telling it to actually approach them instead of "being creepy". The hawk does so, but it cannot speak so communication does not go well. Eventually Memento Ipsum bends over, and briefly shows it a golden medallion she had hidden under her shirt. The hawk nods and immediately flies ahead of them in the direction of Moonbrook. Along the way they also encounter some Will o' Wisps, fey creatures that like to lure travelers into dangerous places or keep them away from their intended destinations.
A bit further in, they finally find a path. Along the sides of the path are bodies and heads of Polaris guardsmen on spikes. Memento Ipsum explains that these are to scare away outsiders and warn them of how dangerous Moonbrook is.
The party arrives at a cave, which Memento Ipsum claims to be Moonbrook. She enters by herself to warn the residents inside and get approval. While she is inside the wolf that had been following them approaches, along with a panther and a lion. The wolf is making it quite clear with its body language that the party is not welcome, and things get further heated when Ignacio Icarsus tells the wolf that he "got what he deserved" and should consider himself lucky to be alive at all. This escalates repeatedly, and the wolf eventually transforms into a hybrid werewolf form so that it can talk to them. The party explains themselves and the three Therianopes finally enter the cave and leave them alone.
Once Memento Ipsum emerges, she has a large gash on her face. She had apparently encountered the werewolf on her way back out and got into an altercation with him when he said that . She was initially unaware that the slap had actually drawn blood and easily heals herself. She then leads everyone inside. They get through a long tunnel and eventually emerge in a large cavern filled to the brim with cages. It more closely resembles a prison than a town. Some of the people are monsters in various states of mania; a few even have blood spilled in the bottoms of their cages. The saner individuals, however, are doing much better. Some cages are directly against a bar, such that they can sit inside a cage and still drink at the bar and converse with the barkeep and the others in adjacent cells. There are others playing cards.
Lenora doesn't see her children anywhere, though. They are quite young; elves at the ages of 15 and 17. Very unkempt. Memento Ipsum approaches someone - a tall human clad in heavy, worn armor comes forward and escorts Lenora to a chamber in the back. The party opts not to follow, and instead stress out and nervously make small talk with Kiri at the bar. She tries to reassure the party, explaining that these cages and chains are a comfort to the residents. None of them want to hurt anyone, and so everyone feels better when they can be under lock and key. She even points to two empty cages right next to each other which she claims belong to herself and Amadeus.
When asked about the guards on spikes, Kiri says that the city had sent 30 guards in order to capture many of the residents who had standing arrest warrants. Things got heated and one of the more powerful residents "lost it", quickly starting to slaughter the guards. According to Memento Ipsum it took five other residents to calm her down enough for any of the guards to escape alive at all. The corpses were put on spikes as a warning to others.
Natsu takes the opportunity to use Vecna's Orb and check on Lenora. She sees Lenora and the human guard standing amongst some cages with monsters that have clearly lost their minds. There is a large stirge repeatedly banging its own head against the wall. Adjacent to this are an alligator which is eating its own leg and an owlbear that is frantically pawing through the bars of its cage. She attempts to show this vision to Thaiva Phenol and Kiri, but neither of them can see it. To them the orb appears completely inert.
Eventually Kiri also calls over another resident, a tall elven woman by the name of Haru. Haru asks a few questions and then leads Kiri into another room. Thaiva Phenol hesitates for a moment and then decides to follow, where she sees Haru setting Kiri down and teaching her some basic meditation exercises. Kiri seems to be taking the lessons well, so Thaiva Phenol takes the opportunity to look down the hallway for signs of trouble. Instead of trouble, what she sees is her brother Caerbor Klaedris.

Report Date

05 Jul 2020