Jeanne
Jeanne
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Was born to relatively well of winemakers in Kamordah. As the third oldest (middle child) of the family, expectations were high and life was strict. It didn't really get any better when her oldest sister took off from home after their parents tried to arrange a marriage for her (they were pretty close).
As the now oldest and only daughter of the family, all the expectations on her pretty much doubled. Though it was very toxic, they really tried not to disappoint their family, though they could also never really identify with a lot of the "refined" and "womanly" things her parents tried to convey to her and when it came to potential suitors awkward would've been a kind word to use.
Things then changed in a big way, when in a freak accident, They burned down one of the big storehouses of their families winery down to the ground, almost killing herself in the flames. As they already angered their parents a couple of days earlier by scaring of a potential husband, One thing was clear to them, their parents would most likely kill them, so they took the only way out that they saw, they ran away. Ran away from that family that showed them on a daily basis that they were inadequate, ill fitting, no matter how hard they tried.
This should become one of the most important decisions in their life, as after several days on the road with little food or water and on the verge of collapse, they met him. Their eyes might've deceived them, but they were sure they saw huge wings descending when he first appeared, but they were already far too dizzy to see clearly then, barely holding themselves upright.
He would then take them into his household, a huge mansion, in Rexxentrum, the heart of the empire. He never told them what he saw in them, why he had taken them in, but he did right by them, taking a big interest in their education and wellbeing, quickly becoming something of a second family.
It quickly became clear though, that he wasn't about to let them become complacent so instead of only allowing them to indulge in magical training, they also insisted on them taking on chores and smaller errands.
They even gifted them a small animal companion to care for, to educate them in the proper care for another being, this companion is still by their side today.
After a couple of years, he then brought them into contact with 'some trusted friends' of his, which should later be revealed to be deeply connected with the Augen Trust.
So after a couple more years, they themselves became affiliated with the Augen Trust, taking on a couple of surveillance jobs and other errands, before they were sent on their first mission further away from their new home, to a small island with a local cobalt soul presence.
There seemed to a huge crater, running deep into the earth which held information that was deemed valuable to the Augen Trust.
Unfortunately their intel on the exact nature of the crater was lacking, so they underestimated the dangers that came with quickly climbing up inside of it. Well to be fair it was either that, or being eaten by a rather nasty creature. But still, as soon as they reached the of the cliff they were climbing, a huge shock went through the body, their skin burning like years before in the storage building.
When they came back to their senses there was a strangeness to their own body and they quickly realized why, not only had they started sprouting small scales on several small patches under their clothes, there was also a big lump of scaly flesh squeezed into their clothes, which quickly revealed itself to be a scaly lizard tail, somehow akin to one of a dragon, all with glistening brass scales, all while a new spell inscribed itself in their black book, primal savagery.
Rosohna stuff
So yeah Rosohna
Heidan goes information spreading in the Firnaments
Get ourselves to the conservatory
Stuff is being identified
Get to some selling of stuff
Get to some buying of stuff
For selling we end at about 1400gp for the magical stuff (omshi necklaces + rings of shared suffering)
Though it also costs Heidan communications to Rosohna
Mort then also asks about the Kopesh
Rosohna I guess?
Oh yeah big ghostly boy
Oh and the big guy takes a antimagic field with him, that's fair
Aaand the strings snap
Well that's our prompt to go I guess
So yeah, everyone packs up in a hurry
And the antimagic field doesn't look like a constant thing it's got active
So everyone skips out with help of our big dragon friend
New big spooky boy
So yeah still at the weird cleansing ritual thingie
Then weird zombie creatures show up
Welp at least no ghosts yet?
Oh and they are super fast
And they have fat zombies that explode which is rather nasty
Okay so we fight a little and of course more zombies show up
Oh and also the ghost creatures as well, fun times
We even manage to kill one of the ghost, when a big ghosty boy appears
Just some nice battle preparations~
Sooo resting time~
Calry stays in human-ish form
And it seems like Fray is super bad with armor stuff
And Heidan spends some time with her
There's some awkward emotional stuff between Mortimer and Calry
Calry gets an extra longsword from the group and stays with us for the day
Also she wears one of her own scales as a necklace?
Heidan's reaction to that is her asking whether she's shedding
We're asking about what we can do about ghosts
And I show the hobbling thingie and the ghost grapple hook chain
And after some more talking we're wandering towards this cleansing site
In the jagged place here there are a couple of sooty corpses as well as the ghostly creature?
Fray is placing little stakes around the place
Then using some weird of weird rope stuff
The ritual should take about 10 minutes
I'm concentrating on Protection from Evil and Good on Fray as her getting hit and failing concentration might screw up the whole ritual
A chill evening with Fray
So we killed the monsters and only one ghostly thing got away
And it seems the person we rescued knows Sivrit and he knows her
Thazz and me get to carrying this weird stinking dog
It's a pretty heavy dog for it's size...
With that we get going and the person is called Fray
Seems like they also want to get to Rosohna
After of a bit of a march towards the road we get ourselves a rest site
Also these ghosts are called Quells?
And they reaaally mess with divine spellcasters
While sharing names and stuff, it seems like she's not really fazed about the dragon stuff with Mortimers partner
Seemingly Cheerful is reading some stuff or so
There's some smalltalk and Fray talks to Cheerful in a different languages
Also seems like we should keep our loyalties to us and keep away from the city center
Aaaand Fray is part of some noble house
Also she has a potential quest for us regarding a site she wants to review
Something about a gray to black valley thing and stuff inside it (living, undead - mostly and objects)
There needs to be some magical ritual taken care off
Yada yada guided by Selekas and something about cleansing the land yada
There might also be magical stuff in it for us
In the evening preparations we talk about spells and stuff
Siv gets 2 vials of holy water from Fray
And it seems like Thazz also has a vial of alchemist fire or something
After some time Calry also finds us
Heidan brings up the immaterial rod to trap the ghost
After that it's night watch time and stuff
And it seems like Heidan can't answer me telepathically, which is interesting
So it seems like maybe only the brain worm people can?
Also we'll keep a close look at Fray and her cleansing ritual
She also has a book very similar to mine, which is interesting~
Weird dogs and tentacle ghosts
Before resting Cheerful seems to be communing with a random bird
After that as previously mentioned it's straight into a restful night's sleep
Then it's time for breakfast and it's still equally not filling X.x
Meanwhile Calry does morning stretches
While Calry takes off for some time, it's off to the barbed fields for us!
Surprisingly I guess Mort is our main guide with some help by Cheerful?
And seemingly there's some weird dog things around
Okay after some explanation by Heidan kind of weirdly aggressive wild dogs
Siv doesn't want to fight them, Thazz does though
And they're not even tasty according to Thazz and Heidan.....
In the end it comes down to a vote and we agree on taking the initiative with them
Then one of the dogs goes missing
And it's again a fight which ends before I could even react, darn
That was exactly like the frog fight with Heidan back then
Siv asks about my book
Seems interested about magical writings
So it Heidan btw.
Also Heidan hails from Nogvurot, that's super close to Rexxentrum
Port Sun/Tzun something for Mortimer
Siv is from north of Rexxentrum, way up north
Thazz comes from near Pride's Call
And Cheerful comes from a small village that was wiped out and grew up in Rosonah
After some day a hawk flies to Cheerful
Seems like there are dogs and two larger things ahead
Also those creatures have someone or something trapped
Heidan takes off for an aerial scouting
While we stick to travel by foot... well not like we had much of a choice
After some time Heidan is back
9 dogs, 2 ghosts
Seemingly barking orders in infernal
We immediately start making plans
The one that we settle on is me making a fake dust cloud with a spell and then us using it as cover
Meanwhile Heidan should fly around and cast the sleep spell on the dogs, which then is our turn to attack
Though as soon as we get to the ledge some of the dogs seem to start smelling us
The fight starts and our plan goes.... a little awry
The dogs start swarming us from behind which leads to Cheerful and me taking the brunt
Yeaaaah~~~
Meanwhile the ghosts aren't looking all that happy at us clobbering dogs
And it seems they can block divine magic stuff
Also I get to taunt a couple of dogs to protect Cheerful and they happily take the opportunity it seems
Aaaand of course the first spell-like thing I try using in the fight immediately gets negated by the ghost thingie
One gets away, the other one gets killed by us
Can you even talk about killing something with undead?
Cheerful tries taming one of the dog things
And gets Siv's net and my rope to tie it up
Meanwhile Heidan calls out that the hunted person can come out and we'll offer sanctuary
Mort the dragonlayer
So we're riding on the shiiiiip~~
Some of the group are actively helping out or learning
There's some talking with Heidan and he advises me to talk to Cheerful, especially after I point out some changes with my scales and my new found peckishness
Some time later we actually find some time to talk and there's some interesting stuff to talk about
E.g. she also has a curse, though hers is more along seeing stuff potentially going wrong and having visions and stuff
And it seems my curse might lead to becoming a half dragon?
That's kinda neat and interesting and wow and stuff
Though also a little terrifying after all
Also it might cost me my job I guess, after all this stuff doesn't hide very well
But hey at least I don't become a mindless lizard
And it seems she's rather keen on finding
Though after some talking I have to break off because my stomach is hurting badly
Definitely gotta get something to eat
Even though I already ate recently
That's really strange.... and annoying >.<
After that it's one rather easygoing and nice day
And a night of rest
The next day also is rather chill and neat overall
As this day comes and goes and we have another day behind us, there's another night of rest
On the next day there's land!
With that it's finally solid ground under our feet again
And it seems the ship comes around this place every couple of weeks
We're really in the middle of nowhere
And that hunger is getting really annoying >.<
And suddenly there's a gold dragon O.o
And it's stepping on Mort oo'
Then the dragon takes on a half-dragon-ish form after a short detour of the elven form of Mort's fiance
Fancy! o.o
So Mort says he's okay
Seems like the dragon lady fished Mort out of the water at some point
And she doesn't have a special reason for the relationship with Mort
Also she was always a dragon
She also gave me some scale care tips
And it seems she leaves if she gets bored
Long story short, everyone seems pretty weirded out by a dragon dating Mort
Also they're not exclusive
With this we finally get going
We have a nice day of travel and at the end of it we see stuff in the distance
Before actually going to sleep there's loads of talking about the details of Mort's dragon relationship
And it's another night to rest
We don't sell drugs
So still kind of downtime-ish time
Mort goes selling drugs
Meanwhile I get Heidan to let me copy the notes on the tentacle people for my dad
And he actually heard about my dad before ô.o
Well that's a first
Anyway, he even helps out so I can get a letter out faster
Also he called me a friend, which I think was a first?
Meanwhile Siv is working on his poison darts
And I guess cheerful looks for a captain?
Heidan also actually makes drugs out of the moss stuff
He and me make a deal on who loses a game of chance has to watch and document the other one tripping out
Of course I'm game
And damn that stuff hits hard, not really that tasty, but awesome
Everything is so colorful
And it feels like there's dozens of small ants crawling over my skin
Aaaand Flavius talks without proper magic!
Lasts for about an hour
Then home we go
At dinner the drugs come up again
As well as the research notes
After some back and forth Mort tries some
But is decently annoyed with it
Also he doesn't like that stuff
Anyway we get another night of sleep
There's some minor preparations for the trip
We also gotta plan for some part of the trip being near the barbed fields
Very magical, very unhealthy from back from the last days of the calamity
Also magic things from back then could be there
As well as extraplanar creatures?
After a little shopping off to the harbour we go
The ship is called the Twilight Dream
On the ship there's some kind of twilight spell
On the way there I get the message to my dad on the way
And with that we're off
It's complicated
So we're on our way up in the Maw
Yeah there's definitely some discomfort on the way up
Heidan once again is a formidable guide for our group
Getting up is still pretty darn gnarly
We quickly find ourselves a neat resting spot
There we take an 1 hour breather
After that it's back to the way up
In the early evening we get to the next restingpoint, the water cave thing near the houses
We pretty much skip ahead and go for the drug moss
I try to magehand the moss, though something is in there so it can't get a good grip
Small toothy maw things biting the hand
While I hold the mage hand, the others try to get rid of the critters
In the end they're drenching the critters in alcohol from the magical decanter
All of that over the time of an 8 hour rest for our group
After that it's us going up again
As we get to the surface, there's a bit of wiggling moss left
The rest of the way up is less nasty, though especially hard on a couple of us
Especially Heidan, Siv and Thazz
Though at least we're in sight of the town again
Finally we're back
Heidan wants to make a quick trip via the archive
I stick with him
There's some new tiefling person in the archives
And she has very black eyes
Heidan then provides Nedris with the notes
And the tiefling wants to know about Clover
Stays at the Hag's Brew
Wants to tag with us to meet Clover
Well, lets see how that goes over with the rest of the group
Also Heidan doesn't want me to tell the others about the tiefling with the pseudodragon
Fair enough, though I'm still interested in why she wants to meet Clover
2gp for boots & 10gp for wool slippers for Zelis
Heidan pays for new clothes for Zelis as well as a dagger sheath in the boots
Zelis pretty happily takes the clothes
They then start sleeping on Iacopo's bed
Also there's a new person there
And there was cooked food, which is neat
She calls herfels Calrykar and seems to have a connection to Mortimer
And she's kind of in a relationship with Mortimer
He says it's complicated
While we eat Heidan tells the others about Cheerful
After some time Heidan goes to bed and Siv steps out for a little
Then a little time later Siv comes back with Cheerful
After that it's downtime time~~~
Or before it's some more planning stuff on the next morning
Seems like Cheerful had a pretty traumatic event in their past
And she wants to find out more about it
Seemingly she's friends with Clover
Creepy crawlers and waystation interlude
So nasty centipede critters are around
At least it's 'only' three of them surrounding Heidan, Thazz and Mort
They get killed quite quickly
Then back to the lodge we go
Or not because Heidan goes checking the centipede corpses
Yep he takes beastie parts with him
Then it's back to the lodge, which works out pretty neatly
Aaand we present our haul
I then go first for the curse removal
Aaand it feels super weird
Kind of like I'd imagine getting a hickey would feel
Never got one
But that feels like a soul hickey I guess
But hey, no more gills and stuff
And seemingly no frog stuff either
Though Clover was weirdly flirty I guess?
Anyway all directly cursed people so Siv, Thazz and me get uncursed
And it seems like Clover is some kind of curse conduit?
While the group does some stuff I stick with Heidan and we take apart the centipede
We get at the poison glands
Not super much as they're very efficient
It's mostly painful, less damaging
If injected does 1d6 poison damage with DC13 Consave, otherwise incap and wracked in pain for an hour
About 3 vials worth
Siv also provides Heidan with a Dossier regarding the Omshi
For him to fill
And Siv is affiliated with a circle of scribes with which he'd like to share it
Anyway Heidan gets a copy of that stuff
I want one too in the future when we're back up there
Ori the probable dragon person meanwhile shifted to a more female form down there
And I take a little time to talk with Clover about the curse stuff
Seems like it can't easily be taught
But needs some really bad kind of curse beforehand
She for example has really bad burns, in parts intermingled with tattoos und it seems there's a slight flicker every now and then
I also show my burn scars from back then
When I get myself a curse that's as bad, then I can ask her again about that stuff
Seems like my draconic tail isn't enough
Though I'd have to start with the basics
At least she hangs around this waystation every now and then
Well that's a decent point to start on in any case
Definitely better than becoming a demonic fishperson or something like that
Could be super useful after all
So yeah, lets see whether I can find a fitting curse
We hang out over the day
In the evening the other party comes back
Yep they still have spells to uncurse part of the party
Mort gets the magical collar off
After we get a nice night of sleep
On the next day we start preparing on the way up
We take a route away from the way of the center when going up
We're still on our way up
Lore stuff, failed stunts and mad cows
So Iacopo kind of splits away from the group
We can take his stuff and Moose though
Oh yeah we have to start hunting creatures
Soooo we get a nice overview of all the curses currently involved with the group
Also the coins were cursed, oh well
Coin curse
+1 Damage per time they take damage
Corruption inflicted curse
Got three stages, first stage (ours) there are scales and the item is not needed anymore, stage two is rather unhealthy for mental stuff, stage three is pretty much become seaspawn - remove curse/lesser restoration helps for 1 level, greater restoration helps for full transformations for up to 1 month (after that it's only wish and stuff)
Emblem Curse
Can't be removed without command word or with greater restoration and stuff, constantly need water on the gills or no resting/sleeping (everyone pretty much has that at the moment)
Heidan Curse
Feathery stuff and few things said about it.
Blood Spear (Thazz)
If someone is taking revenge on him, he has vulnerability against the damage done by that creature.
My curse
To be added later
After some bickering we go critter hunting
Yep dragon is definitely inside the building
So Ori is most likely the dragon
Also we're not really sure what to hunt
There's a cave with unknown predators
Or the option of randomly hunting big dragonflies
Or going after the angry flying chickens
Seems like we settled on insect hunting
Okay or not
And we also find a huge cow thing
But don't go after that either
So we settle for the birds with Mortimer as bait
Okay Heidan is the bait to get the swarm
While Siv and I hold the net to catch them
We easily get 3 of them
Meanwhile Heidan flies to the cow thing and crashes into it
And gets flung very badly
There is some running and Mort and Thazz reach him
I'm a couple of seconds behind
Aaaand there's skittering creatures~
Three in fact
Nice waystation times
So as expected last time, we get back to the waystation
It's mostly quiet, though not necessarily empty
Also we start doing nicknames or codenames I guess
I go with Chimera, Chi for short
Sivrit: Architect
Heidan: Pierrot
Thazz: Stout
Iacopo: Sterling
Mortimer: Bishop
There's also a new person in there and otherwise there seem to be quite a few people asleep
The new person is a drow I guess?
Okay 2 new people, also an earth genasi person with a quarterstaff nearby them
One of the people there seems to have curse removing stuff at their disposal
We're telling them about the slavery sea tentacle people
And also about the collar things etc.
The group will be away for about a day
And after that there might be some healing for us
Also this drow person with the purple eyes seems to be able to transfer curses?
But they need a new vessel for the curse that is also big enough to hold it
If the new vessel is to small, a new one is needed and fast
After that it's a short rest
Well or not because we start talking about Zelis instead
Where she should sleep
And whether she wants her curse removed
And what she wants to do after
And seemingly her fish thingie isn't a curse
Before we actually start sleeping (Zelis bunks with Heidan and me) Heidan asks her quite a few questions
And of course I still listen intently
It's mostly clarifications and questions about the power structures with the tentacle people
Seems like we killed the village leader of the village called Dundrok
They mostly speak Deepspeech and Undercommon
And it seems Zelis could teach us
Seems like Heidan wants to be the little spoon?
And it seems to have been meant as a joke from him
Well in any case it could've been arranged
Anyway, Heidan and me share a bed and he jokes some more
And I'm decently weirded out by it, since he didn't seem the type
He also mentioned something about business before pleasure and stuff before then apologizing for it
Night otherwise is pretty restful and nice
Breakfast consists of poultry & some kind of eggs
Siv then tells me he knows there's a dragon close by
Seems like he doesn't believe me that I saw a caretaker this morning
Well I didn't, but it seems like our group likes joking around
But no, he's dead serious
Could be a small dragon though, or a really big one, in any case it's really big
And less than 120ft. away
So it seems he wants us to go out and see before causing a panic?
Then a new guy steps in, rather flamboyant person
He calls himself Ori, looks rather elven
And joins us at our table
Seems like the Deepspeech words are pretty random, one was "Laundry"
Pretty weird and invonvenient
So anyway, Sivrit wanted to go scouting with me
Out of the tentacle village
So after some time with the early generation hobgoblin-esque lady
Yep we're definitely still on the run.... or swim I guess?
Seems like some of us are struggling in the darkness
Welp
We try to get to out as quickly and quietly as possible
And yep of course there's guards in our way
Some of the small thingies seem to be swimming around with stuff we left
Though no idea whether it's some we saw earlier
We decide to go full on ambush on the wardens on the way out
I get my hit in and the fight starts
Nicely enough, they charge
They're super quickly killed
Aaaand get to the surface
When we get up we find a different tentacle man up there
Heidan seems to be fighting him
So we go full into him
Wam! I give them a whack with my quarterstaff
And he immediately tries to get back at me with weird fish corruption stuff ô.o
Well some more scales, and a little more need for water, I can work with that
As revenge the tentacle person gets knocked out by me
Heidan and Iacopo does a quick check of the other chambers for potential command words for these things on our necks
Sleeping person also might know it
We wake the tentacle person up
And Thazz and me start threatening them with servitude
Thazz fucks up the negotiation
Thazz and Sivrit also get some fishiness
He then tries to bullshit us about not knowing about the command words
Mortimer tries their luck persuading them
We get 3 of those command words for our collars
For Thazz, Siv and my collar
Goes off when someone else touches and says the command word
Gills go away, scales stay
Throat also stays a little raspy
We have some seaspawn on our way out
Under the cover of my darkness, we try to sneak out
Then we come upon one of the creatures
Not a super small one
We try to gang up on it quickly
We actually barely manage to dispose of the fish creature
And after that it's some tense, but quite proper sailing I guess
Then we go straight for the waystation~
So we finally arrive and enter the building
Death of the big tentacle person
Oh yeah tentacle people fight
Well that's gonna go over well
Oh and they actually sent the human person against us, as if that means anything ô.o
Heidan tries to fake kill the human
Which gets super quickly discovered by their master and they try to kill the human
Some fighting later we turn the fight in our advantage and the human lady kills the small tentacle guy master of hers
We push the big guy further and further
And it seems we're completely surrounded by water and void I guess
Our special dagger gets thrown around by the human lady and almost gets lost
But I successfully recover it~
Meanwhile the room is flooding worse and worse
After one mean fight Siv finally kills the big tentacle man
Siv goes down as the water continues to rise
And damn it's cold, not super bad, but rather annoying
Everyone of us gets out, and we're off into the city
Meeting Cthulhu's little brother
So we're still in the underwater city
Well at least at the moment we're in a halfway decently dry cave
Also the magic stuff is interesting and weird stuff
Thazz wants us to bounce
Also the group wants me to lead the talks with the tentacle people, well I can work with that
Also we see this visit thing through
The entity then coming to us looks not completely seaspawny
They also look pretty fancy and very tanned
Probably originally human and they have a platter with them
There's transparent stuff on it
It appears to be some kind of raw fish
There's also one of the gem things on their neck - similar but different than ours, a little rougher and more tarnished
Seems to be some kind of common speaking servant
The food also seems to be safe to eat according to them
The arbiters are meant to meet us soon-ish
We should act with care and not with direct defiance
Their name is Zelis and it was chosen by one of the rulers of this place (Kullusk)
When I ask about the reason she's special, she's wincing a little
Okay so she just showed respect and catched the eye of one Kullusk
There are some like them, but not many
Also seems like she's originally from the city of Blumenthal, a city of food produce near Rexxentrum
Dundrok = city
Also insinuating that the food is poisoned is super rude, but of course I'm the only one noticing that
The collar btw. is made to be worn by guests
The changing of people seems to be related to the gems, time spent here, the Omshi and their magic but not necessarily their food
Mort then tries to give them a playing card, they decline
Sivrit bullies them into taking the card, they decline
Thazz then tries a pebble and then instead pokets a thread from their robe
It seems it's for a spell and Mort might want to locate that person later to escape with them?
The heck? Seriously?
Also they're praying to Bane here, kind of a god of hobgoblins
He's also one of the betrayer gods
We're also talking about our plan when talking to the arbiter
Also Siv might have a super loose blood connection with those people here and his ancestors
If we appeal to their pride in combat or their wish to conquest
We might ask to prove ourselves worthy of the boons of shared ancestry
Okay Siv is half hobgoblin
And Bane was originally hobgoblin
Then off to the arbiters we go
Arbiter Ussungade will be attending to us today
The court of the arbiter was dried for us, normally it's filled with water
The arbiter looks pretty darn big and lacks most humanoid features
It's at least 10 feet tall, but sitting on a large chair
There's also 2 empty chairs next to them
After being led in, we show our reverence in different ways, Thazz, Heidan and me bow
Sivrit breaks the silence for a second
This then leads to more silence
We plead our case
Seems like we're sending mixed signals
According to them we are in need of guidance
So yeah some talking more
And we get to a trial by combat
We challenged the big guy
It ends in a fight against the servant and several of the small tentacle creatures
Graverobbing and adorable eldritch abominations~
So yeah we're in the resting place thingie
Also I'm bunking with Heidan
Seems like Sivrit has some business with Heidan
Something about a proposal and probably Dawnbringer
Ok Sivrit was thinking about who should wield the sword
Though I really don't care all that much
And whether I have any qualms about the party since we retreated?
Kind of a weird buildup and question, but oh well
The next morning we're 'hoarding' more buckets?
Seems like Sivrit is now the official wielder of Dawnbringer
After some strategy talk we then head out again with Heidan guiding the group
When delving we leave some marks with the boxcutter dagger thingie
Something is watching our way
But we're stealthing pretty nicely
Siv and me go diving to the room on the other side
We make quick work of the door
No idea where the crowbar from Thazz is
It's a decent bit of a struggle to get the door moving
We try and do our best to move that damn door, but it doesn't budge
FFS!
The others start piling into the tiny chamber
Together with Thazz and the pseudo magic rod we finally get it open!
At least there's air behind it!
There's some super slight sweetness in the air
In the remaining chests is some different stuff, like coins, a bloody spearhead
Also some silvery thing with a liquid in it
There's also a ring, probably magic
Also there's a second ring
The coffin is being opened and there is some sighing sound
And there's a pretty dead corpse in there with a nonmagical sword
It also has another ring
Meanwhile there are octopus thingies crawling our way
Seems like some things related to the Caretaker?
It also seems to speak common
And we talk to this "local"?
Okay it's a tentacle person
They don't seem to have a truce with the Ilithids
And so we're kind of part of it and therefore respected
The tentacle person calls itself Delunua
They don't have much contact with people on the surface
Last one was about a century ago
Those tentacle people are called the Omshi
This place seems to be a 'holy' place for them
They want to keep us as guests
Heidan mentioned the graverobbery stuff the group did
Well good thing I didn't take anything then
So I guess we're giving up stuff
Several things get chipped in, I chip in 1 silverpiece
The tentacle person then wants to show us the way to a place to spent a comfortable evening
I'm looking forward to their food
They're going straight for some kind of exit in a wall
Yep the whole gang starts following the tentacle people
Our way into the darkness goes deeep
They're then handing out some kind of crystal things (?)
Iacopo suddenly grows gills
All of us receive them, breathing air is a little harder with it, but not thaaat much
There's some slow swimming through dark water
We get to a pretty big settlement
They have various humanoid slaves wandering around in a daze
Though those have less fancy breathing helps and started growing parts
Then down to an underwater cave we go
Fish people and talkative swords
4 of weird creatures appeared behind us
They're vaguely humanoid, but weeeeird and covered in scales and ill fitting bits of anatomy that should belong underwater
And they have reflective eyes, neat I guess?
Also it seems Siv found a magical sword or something that turned into a burning lady oo'
But she doesn't like water
Okay all of us are fighting, meanwhile Thazz is looting x'D
Meanwhile there's more of the monster things
Iacopo seems pretty useful, but damn he's edgy oo'
Yeaaah we pretty much wipe the floor with the monster things
We get out of the fight without any losses, only a couple of injuries and bruises
Also the sword is named Dawnbringer?
Aaand she can speak in all of our heads
We agree on trying to get out, unfortunately there's pretty much only one way to take for us with the big moose
Also I fake a decent predator cry
Aaaand we get out safely
So after a second of thinking about the stuff we just witnessed we think about the creature
Those creatures were definitely humanoids corrupted by some sort of magical energy, kind of deep sea/underwater stuff
There's some stories about people that went out to sea to places they weren't supposed to be at coming back changed
On the surface they're called seaspawn and found on coasts, usually native near the Ki'Nau people (island people), living at the swavain islands
Then we're thinking about how to proceed
Dawnbringer wants a wielder
And Thazz calls his axe Dherngi
She'd prefer a devotee of the Dawnfather
And the drug thing with Mort kind of miffs her
Funnily enough, Mort serves the Lawbringer
We agree on taking the long way around, keep our eyes out for wild game and interesting places to explore
On our long way back it's storytime with Dawnbringer
She was crafted for a king, Ryllas, an elf
Which ruled a couple hundred years pre calamity
But it never worked out, because she was intercepted on the way
Seemingly by someone that titled themselves as "Wildmight" - fascinating
Though she really didn't like them
It seems they were some enemy to her rightful wielder
There was already a Maw here back then
We also have some kind of potion that should still be checked for poison
There's some Pseudochickenthings that are killed on the way back
But no really interesting places jump into our field of view on the way back
Also Mort becomes our wielder of Dawnbringer
When we get back there's a couple of people around
It's still a little more on the quiet side
The sword of course gets noticed by the gambler lady as soon as we're back
The sword seems pretty useful
And the potion is a potion of invulnerability
After that it's some nice restful sleep for all of us
Flying dragonfly things and murky caverns
So yeah, we're still at the whole resting spot thingie
About 10 people around here
In the morning there's most of the people hanging around
One of the parties are gearing up to go out early today
So we're talking about one potential place to clear out
Aaand we want to go north, which is okay I guess
Also I get to watch over our magic color shifting stones
So yeah we're trudging along for interesting stuff~
Oh and something seems to be hunting us
It's a flying dragonfly-ish-winged creature
Pretty opportunistic
Since the thing is flying we stick together and take cover in a cave
Though the moose is a rather tight fit
So we reevaluate the situation
Heidan at least finds a new place for us
Fighting that thing doesn't really pay
We have several hidey holes available
The furthest one actually giving us a decent fighting chance
Aaand we definitely take that one
Not really much sense in having us being hunted around and hiding constantly
The thing tries so swoop down and grab Mort
And yeah once again the fight is over before I even knew it started x'D
Also our group immediately starts salvaging the creature for parts
We also manage to retrieve 2 huge dragonfly thing wings
They're pretty rigid - We could make gliders out of them O.O
After that it's some cave exploring kinda deal
There's murky water and Thazz starts poking around in it with a stick
We stick together and sloowly push forward as nothing seems to move in the water
Iacopo is acting strange
He talks about someone being in there and being unjustly imprisoned
It's meant to be a sentient dwarven construct
And they weren't able to touch other minds before
Also Iacopo really wants to get to the edge of the water
Thazz and Siv join him in the possibly really stupid quest
Something something a thousand years ago used to be guards here
And that there might be stuff now
Then we come upon a smooth wall
After some thinking and looking around Sivrit finds a ring in the wall and starts opening the 'door'
We secure a rope and Siv dives through first
There seems to be a coffin and four chests
Thazz pretty quickly follows the way over there
Also there's splashing and ripples on our end
A moment of respite
So we were standing in front of the creepy house with the pair of eyes in the upper window looking at us
Heidan opens the door and it looks like the inside of a hunting lodge
And there's actual people there greeting Heidan with 'welcome back' ô.o
Calling us fresh meat.....
Asks us whether it's our first time down
Okay Heidan was already here and it seems to be some weird mix of Waystation and Tavern
There's some weird brown fur on the floor
And interestingly enough a couple of people have their boots kicked off
People can stay here as long as they like, as long as they defend it and contribute to the food
There is also one big firbolg person around, that is responsible for maps
They have a biiig quarterstaff - well to be fair they are big and they are most likely magic
I'd say they probably studied magic (wizard), but for sure some kind of scholar
Aaaand one of us asks about the caretakers
Prompting one of the drow to speak up
Meanwhile Heidan ist having some 1on1 time
Also the others seem to like the idea of throwing rations into the lap of those people we just met
So okay yeah we got a map, but I'm still a little wary
Aaand Iacopo goes bother the Firbolg for Spells
Welp time to join Iacopo then
Though unfortuantely the Firbolg doesn't want any of my spells x.x
They'd still be willing to trade though
Though they also don't need anything I have >.<
Also people are playing cards here
Stephon = fightery dude, welcomed you
Lisette = rangery girl, probably cook, gave Heidan magic stuff
Kel = firbolg guy who is a wizard
Talra = probably a rogue. Drow
Then Heidan comes back with a new dagger
And he tells Thazz something about a glove that hurts when you put it on
Ooookay
Also there's some wounded people
And a goliath!
Okay food platters are going around
Also it seems like there are several adventurer parties of 2-4 people, with usually 2 parties a table
Also Heidan presents us spread out on a little cloth a couple of rocks with changing gemstones and some other bits and bops
The weird glove
A weirder magicky rod
And some illusion stones
And a 'very dangerous' dagger
Thazz takes and immediately puts on the glove
Okay Thazz hits super badly, but also takes some pain in return
Also it seems that the dagger slices through pretty much everything nonmagical (we didn't try magical stuff), but it's veeery short (only about an inch)
Okay and it seems like the rod can be fused to stuff
Then it goes to resting
The living conditions are pretty okay
Also Mort starts playing against the resident cheater at cards... well his choice
Yep Mort loses the game as expected xD
Organ harvesting and going down on the Maw
And so down we go~
Our current plan was to go down for one day and then go look around
And Heidan is our walking lexicon for all stuff maw related, pretty handy - as well as mobile with those wings
Takes some time to get down effectively because of the terrain
Some time down we take down one of the weird bird creatures flying around
It takes a couple of time, arrows and bolts because we can't hit for crap x'D
Also there's not much meat to the bird, but hey, it's something
Some of us even see the stuff we were looking for on our way down, even though we wanted to harvest the 'drugs' on the way up
Yep we definitely found the correct spotted moss
Flavius even confirms that it isn't poisonous
Aaaaand we harvest the drugs
Also the moss or something in it was moving while Heidan harvested it
To be precisely it seems to be a colony of teeth living in there O.o
We've got a quick talk about whether those 'teeth' are needed for the drugs
In the end we concur that we shouldn't take that stuff down into the maw with us, so it's a 'way back problem'
Heidan and Thazz are the ones leading the way down
And it seems like Heidan takes on a little bit of a tinge of the background
On our way is a big venomous arachnid waiting in ambush for us
In order to lure out the creature Siv tries to catch a squirrel with a net
And catches themselves
Thazz with his javelins is far more successful by gutting on of the little furry creatures
He then throws it into the hunting zone of the spider creature
Aaaand we killed the spider thing super quickly
We try to harvest the spider silk stuff, but loads of it is in pretty rough shape
We also try harvesting the venom gland with me roughly locating it
Mortimer is more or less great in actually removing the thing
But hey, paralyzing poison!
After that we press on and keep an eye out for a place to stay
Also the terrain gets continously rougher
We then find a 500 meter drop
And our prime solution is jumping and then using feather fall
There also seems to be some magical weirdness on the way down
When we arrive we see a dark old lodge
With dim firelight inside and a couple of eyes looking at us from the 2nd floor
Religious drug trades and Heidan bonding
It seems we're starting with a little downtime
And seeeeeemingly the people in the group already have another potential job lined up
Dunno how I feel about Thazz focusing on the glory in the maw kind of part though
At least there's some time to connect with Heidan and their bird
It seems we have a base of operations, even with some half decent locks
Nothing too big, but decent-ish
Also Heidan seems to have some Illithid related info
Spent about 4sp on lifestyle costs on 2 days
The talk with Ebrath (they) is rather interesting
They were sent to Heidan by a caretaker (there a a couple down in the maw)
The caretaker also gave them their sentience
Also they deeply care for Heidan
Something Heidan is pretty happy about
Mort thinks about establishing a temple
Also he worships Erathis o.o'
Okay it's the goddess of civilization and order
Kind of also innovation and community
Though he does seem like a little inexperienced
He even tried their luck with a religious consultation booth
Okay he's involved in a drug deal and supposed to get pink stuff from the maw
All for some stuff called ether
It also seems that their religious consultation stuff didn't go tooooo well
We have some nice talk about different stuff in the evening
Kind of what people want to do
But also how everyone perceived the tentacle person
At the next morning it's a rather okay day
A little foggy if anything
After a little shopping (tents) we start heading down into the maw again!
Worms and the tentacle man
We're still creeping through tunnels
Then we find some dead worm things and one gets thrown into the bucket
We then stick to the trail of dead worms that Heidan found
The worms seem to have died from some internal issues
Bla, whatever, something something
And in one of the bigger piles, we even find one alive one
It also goes into the bucket
After some scouting it seems like there are 2 humanoid creatures ahead
The bird of Heidan is acting a little weirdly, so is Heidan
And the question is raised whether someone could shed insight on it
So some of us are keeping an eye on the cave with the creatures inside
While the rest of us hang back for the ritual spell
Also there's loads of dead worm thingies here
Then there's quickly footsteps to be heard
And it seems we should come to them
Seems like there is some kind of butler person?
There's a pretty big creature as well (pretty tall) and sitting on air
About 9 feet tall and wearing very fancy robes
It also has a long staff and super lanky fingers
Some pretty tentacly tentacles are spilling down from it's face
Okay it's not mutated, but just some sort of Illithid....
Something something ulitharid or something according to Heidan
Heidan also bows to the creature ô.o
I do the same, as it would be really mean to be rude to a potential acquaintance or relative of Heidan
Iacopo then does most of the talking
It seems the creature is similiary annoyed by the worm things
They should die outside of this place
Also they want to know whether the ones with host bodies are dealt with
Strangely Heidan's lip is quivering, is he afraid?
Is it an unequal relationship?
Mother in law?
No that doesn't make sense
Illithid in law?
Oh and it knows about our worm in the bucket
Seems like that is pretty dangerous
So we're offered a choice
If we take it up to the surface, it would look away
If we volunteer it, we get a reward
It seems that lady that hired the group was pretty sinister to want a creature like that
Our tentacle friend pulls out a jar that's filled with a jar and little tadpoles
But it doesn't look like normal Illithid tadpoles
He says it's for Symbiosis
There's 2 slugs in that jar
There's only more to be had for more work
Bla wouldn't change our form
Bla wouldn't kill us
Bla would connect us to something
Bla it wants to remove the taint of those worms
And Mort says that the Mindflayer isn't telling us everything and holding info back?
The mindflayer seems a little offended by it
There's some disagreement on whether to trust them
In the end we relent and the worm in the bucket is killed by the butler via sword
It's now either a big bag of platinum or two brainslugs
4 of us are up for actually implanting them
Oh and it seems like we can take the tentacle person Caretaker
And when the tentacle person is just about to go Mortimer pisses them off
They even speak physically o.o'
Damn those two are sticklers for respect and stuff
He then asks Mortimer to kneel, but Mortimer doesn't oo'
I also put it on the rest of the group that I'm definitely for working with the tentacle person
So anyone that wanted a brain slug can get one
Heidan mentions that the tentacle person was somewhere between godhood and royalty
Okay so we bring up the tadpoles up to the surface
On the way up it's rather nasty
All of us are pretty fine, Sivrit and Mort less so
Heidan wants to share notes on what we ran into in the Maw oo'
Back up we take some time for food and a little rest
It's also decided that we do the whole procedure stuff in the archive of the cobalt soul
Where a woman named Nedris is the superior of Heidan
Then it's time to deliver the dead worm things
200gp are offered for the dead ones - they are also taken
Ends with 33gp for me
When it came to pulling straws - no brain slug for me ~.~
Then it's up to the Cobalt Soul thingie
Though the group definitely won't get away without taking on more jobs to get more things like that!
The procedure for Iacopo is rather loud, though clean
And it heals pretty quickly
The one for Sivrit is quite a bit more bloody and messy
Meanwhile I spent my time skimming over the research notes of the Cobalt Soul
Mostly stuff about the creatures from the maw
When both start getting conscious again they start saying the same words at the same time
Okay it's a hoax, then can simply talk telepathically to each other and the tentacle person
Our first cave diving
So slowly down we go
There's some abandonded houses by the side
Also damn this thing is imposingly big
Back in the day there must've been thousands of people living here
Almost as big as the capital of the empire
But not as much
We're looking for the origin place of the grub worm thingies
In order to go scouting, Heidan goes flying
When he comes back he tells us about multiple cave systems
He then soars off again to look closer
It seems he found a cave with a monster in it, that ate and spat out a coin he threw at it
So we kind of decide to go and mess it up
We climb up and start annoying the monster in the cave
It doesn't work
Then Heidan tries talking to it oo'
Only a distant scream answers him
Okay and it seems we're going in I guess
Haiden steps in and almost disappears
To the side there is a weird creature that looks like a super large round frog
Very rock colored and super glassy eyes
Okay Heidan got swallowed by the frog
The frog gets slaughtered rather quickly by our group
The cave was broad, but also rather shallow
After that we continue searching for caves
For that we slowly start going deeper
There we find a cracked house with a stream coming out of it and a strange glow on it
Now the real cavediving starts!
We start finding some weird stuff that started spreading
Okay and that stuff seems to be super adhesive
It seems to be able to be used for improvised wound dressings
We take some with us with our special buckets before we delve deeper
Heiden stealths ahead again
Then he motions us to stop
Finding a group for the descent
I first see the group in the tavern, when I'm sitting there with Mortimer
And they ignore most of my staring
Only the birdelfman
He also then later comes over and chats Mortimer and me up
We think about joining up their group
There were some reanimated corpses by worm like creatures
And they took care of a nest
And now they need a sample
They also seem to be pretty intelligent
They dislike fire and can be removed if you're quick about it
In regards to pay
We could either get equal shares with the group
Or get hired
Ok we're part of the group already
Heidan proposes to get reinforced buckets
To get the stuff with the creatures
Pack delving stuff for a week
The creatures like to swarm
And to sneak
Also conventional weapons don't work well, thunder and fire do
Iacopo can make stuff easier to hit
Thazz and Siv are both fighty people
Something is super flamable and has other properties
The creatures have mindaltering toxins
Most likely from bites
After some shopping time for the different people, it's one night of rest for all of us
On the next morning off we go!
We take the front way down into the Maw
Well at least we're looking down into the pit in a heroic manner~
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