2024/03/13: Defending Zyth Part 2 Report
General Summary
Buzz, Knight, Kal'vus, Terana, Zaran
Some literature available in the cult base. Mostly demon summoning stuff. The party burned that stuff. Some useful info on religion and government.
Local government is United Worlds Government. Something like the UN. Has a number of different, very conflicting government entities, from health and aid organizations to literal dark lords who act as dictators of their areas. There are multiple demon lords, only one celestial representitive, various councilors, a prime minister, generally a jumble. Lots of conflicting ideas in here. Lots of differing governments that are overlapping in area. It's as if a bunch of warring factions just suddenly decided they were on the same side but didn't change their titles.
"So You Want To Learn Magic": A primer for kids on the different types of magic. According to the UWG, there are 7 types of known magic and 8 types of magic from a legal perspective. Arcane, divine, psychic, celestial, dark, mana, "spiritual essence manipulation". Last basket of unknowns called "emergent magic". Emergent magic is mostly seen as all the other schools of magic interacting to make something new.
The cult hideout is basically in a ghetto. The building above it has been condemned. The cult got a lot of takeout.
The party asked Ernie about the devil tracks. Apparently the boss could summon demons, and sometimes they'd show up and give him orders.
There's at least one red-haired little girl who wanders around the inner city. She's apparently a red dragon. She tends to torture anyone who tries to assail her.
Buzz detected some weird dimensional nonsense coming from near the altar. Apparently a nascent portal to hell or something.
Knight used the sky gem to try to locate something he'd recognize as a temple to get some information. All he got was a view of lots and lots of square grey buildings with a sort of bombed-out look. There are actual craters that people are starting to build back into. This may have been a warzone not too long ago. There were no recognizable temples in sight.
Zaran and Terana blessed a bunch of water and dumped it on the altar. The portal got angry. Out of a pool of blackened, strange-colored smoke came a large, scaly, clawed hand. A very angry demonic gentleman arrived.
He promptly had his arm twisted behind him by Azhar, got pulled out of the portal and stabbed repeatedly by Terana, and had all of his attempts at counterplay intercepted by Knight. He ended up with his spirit being held in an arm bar by Azhar and being forced to answer questions.
He works for the demon "Zulat". Not a demon from this realm, but he's looking to move in. This guy had been bound to work as a portal for the cult. The party didn't have much to ask him or a way to bind him, so they let him go.
Zaran had gotten a bit bigger and more scaly in the excitement, but he shrank back down after a bit once the fight was over. Apparently his elf rage spell was working, but wasn't exactly stable on this world. Zaran headed upstairs: He did not want to unintentionally turn to huge dragon form in the middle of a basement.
The font they typically use around here is very tilted and sci-fi looking.
It was getting very late at night. Ernie said he needed to head home. Meanwhile, Zaran noticed a man in a skull mask and cloak loitering around across the street, and the man noticed him as well. The man nodded to him.
Knight tried using his Sash of Safety before the day was over. It worked, but it was a bit slower than usual, and with a lot of green-white lights.
Aside from a young raccoon that saw Kal'vus and ran, the party didn't get any nightly visitors.
The party did their morning training, memorizing, and praying. Ngel Sfet revealed that she had discovered through some investigation that the building is apparently cursed. It's always falling apart in a dangerous way, but will never actually fully fall apart. The bricks that are falling regularly disappear after a while. It's a sort of security protocol.
The party started wandering around the city, looking for information and less conspicuous clothing. Most of the nearby buildings were in poor shape, but the party did find an operational bodega. There was a place named "7-10" selling things.
The party ran across the little red dragon girl. She was getting territorial at Zaran. Zaran just managed to explain the party's plans (and the cult's destruction) and reassure her that he wasn't going to muscle in on her territory before Terana, vibrating in excitement, couldn't resist anymore and started cuddling the adorable dragonling. (She had to resist Terana's affections for the sake of appearances, but she clearly wasn't resisting as hard as she could have. She liked the attention.) The conversation was amiable after that. Zaran introduced himself and learned that the dragon's name was Telissa. She gave directions to the nearest area with temples to good gods, which was in a better area.
Apparently this world is locally called Earth, or at least it was called that. It was originally nonmagical and just had humans. Then portals came, and dozens of dimensions with demon armies and magic and so forth started invading pretty much simultaneously. The humans mostly submitted and stayed out of the way while the attacking factions tired themselves out on each other, then made a coalition of everyone who had lost in those wars and took over again.
Most of the wars have died down. These days it's more local incidents rather than invasions. (Mind you, these local incidents can still involve demon attacks and meteor swarms.)
The one big gang in the area is the "Skull Boys", but they're relatively harmless for how big they are. A lot of them look undead, but they aren't. Mostly. "They have biology, it just isn't in this dimension."
The party got to Wendy's, which on this world was a clothing store owned by a nice old lady named Wendy. There were some teenaged elf girls giggling meanly about the "newbies" and their mismatched style, but one of them was nice enough to give Terana some information. She subtly handed Terana a holy symbol, a white Y-shaped eagle/seagull/bird-looking thing on a blue background. On back is the name "Ireffiel". Terana had James pickpocket a gold piece into the girl's pocket. (James came back with a pair of sunglasses from... somewhere.
The party got their clothes. Kal'vus already had his black trench coat. Azhar got something in leopard print that makes her look like the moll for some criminal organization. Knight got a suit and long coat. Zaran and Buzz got Jedi robes. Terana got a longish bomber jacket. Ngel Sfet was happy with her usual black robes.
After an hour of fashion upgrades, the party headed to the burger place Telissa had mentioned. The party passed a bunch of skeletons drinking and catcalling from someone's front yard. Fortunately, it didn't manage to activate Humphrey's anti-flirting contingency, mostly because Knight was somehow getting more catcalls than Terana. Apparently the skeleton gang likes 'em thin and bony, who knew.
At the burger place, the party saw an advertisement for an upcoming Zyth concert. Apparently the band was raising money for the troops. There were also some clips of the girls being silly and fighting giant monsters. The concert is in about two weeks.
While much of the combat footage appeared fake, there were kernels of truth. Analysis of what clues there were suggested the group was probably around level 15-20, but could be anywhere from 12 to 25 depending on clip bias. (Another clip showed cute bunny girl with a sniper rifle confronting a demon lord Bond villain. A bunch of her running from her own explosions, but the distance footage of a city exploding was clearly real. Whether that was something she did in the past with sheer volume of planted C4 or if they were just taking advantage of recordings from a real tragedy is unclear.)
The singer clearly has some real spellcasting chops. The princess is using magic that isn't standard arcane magic. The tiger girl has martial arts training. One of the members apparently has some major bard abilities (and possible accidental mind control magic).
The concert is happening about 600 miles away, in a major city. The party considered their options, then started putting together a plan to get/make a food truck and drive to the concert. Posing as food service might help them get in, too.
By noon, the party was set up in a junkyard and looking for parts. Terana made friends with the junkyard hydra (a brooding 8-headed female hydra named Nessie). The owner of the place, either a bearded human or a very large dwarf, was named Ed. (Terana revealed that Nessie had apparently had some quality time with a very nice gentleman dragon who showed up, so the upcoming kids are going to be dracohydras. Ed's going to have to get a lot more permits.)
While Terana got co-opted as the broody hydra's chosen nursemaid, Knight went literally salvage diving (it's very convenient when you can turn incorporeal at will) and Kal'vus made a nest of shiny things. Terana's loot detection led Knight to a vault full of gold and silver bars of different sizes and a bunch of papers, most of which were property deeds. This vault apparently predates the war and is probably an old mobster cache. The deeds cover some pretty major properties in the city. Ed offered the team a finder's fee while he would handle figuring out all the legal stuff. They'll also get a chunk of the money.
Ed's going to be building a dracohydra sanctuary with his newfound funds. (He kind of has to, with the eight incoming dracohydras.) The party, meanwhile, were now even more independently wealthy. They were probably still going to build their own monster food truck, of course.
Rewards Granted
Created Content
Notes
The "stop sign incident". Zaran once ate a stop sign. He was in a vehicle driving down the street, he realized the sign posts were metal, he was feeling peckish, so he leaned most of his body out of the window, caught a stop sign in his mouth, tore it out of the concrete, and ate it.
Roen is the android girl. Probably weighs close to 800 lbs., moves with cybernetic quickness, somewhat socially awkward.
Humphrey can fire guns 8 times in 3 seconds. As in, he can fire 8 separate flintlock pistols once each in 3 seconds.
Nessie is mostly a normal hydra but may have a bit of black dragon in her. Acid-breathing hydra.
Kal'vus
Zaran
Buzz Gizmo
Terana DelGarrod
Knight of Darkhome
Report Date
13 Mar 2024
Primary Location
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