Session 66: Agave's Drowned Memories

General Summary

Freeing Agave

The session picked up still at the base of these desert mountains. Bobcat had recently realized what must be going on, and the remainder of the area was explored. Behind a rock formation, you could hear the sound of liquid sloshing back and forth as if in some small container, and some of you began to question if it should be explored or perhaps murdered. Jade moved first and discovered another lil murid on the other side of this rock formation. He was drinking and appeared to be rather catatonic aside from the minimal movement needed to get the bottle of booze to his lips. His eyes were kinda clouded over, and Jade along with Turquoise began to hypothesize that he might be mentally unhealthy. When Turquoise first saw him, he had strange half-memories of this murid, and his past seemed to almost be shuffled with memories that included him and Bobcat. Some of the recent journeys especially were being conflated with Agave/Bobcat as a central figure. Turquoise also posited that this new murid might have been the person that sent "those water guys" after you as both Lily and Red Pancake were somehow alive again and with Agave. Bobcat moved to see this new development, and was able to finally see what Jade and Turquoise were describing. He saw Agave for the first time from this perspective, and seemed to be almost relieved by his presence. Agave seemed to be completely unaware that anyone was there besides these two rat-like water elementals. Bobcat tried to get Agave's attention, and he seemed to tilt his head in the direction of Agave's voice, but he quickly went back to drinking and ignoring you all.

Jade felt as though this strange lil guy might be possessed or something, and she took a risk to move closer and help him out. She provided some protection against both nefarious and divine forces, but upon touching Agave she was nearly maimed by a blade of water that extended from one of the elementals. Theories developed that touching this person would incur the wrath of these two, rather dangeous, water murids. New plans began to be hatched, especially since Jade's spell also caused a hidden contentment spirit to be revealed behind Agave's shoulder. Bobcat shouted a warning about the spirit that had just appeared, and Agave looked around for them but was clearly still both blind and more concerned with the alcohol in front of him. He suggested restraining Agave, but Jade reminded him and the rest of you that touching this person may be a bad idea. She offered to instead probe the mind of this new murid for answers, which Bobcat tried to provide some insight into. Bobcat explained that he is being held there by what makes him comfortable, that there is something driving him to drink, something about this moment that Agave has not revealed. Jade also suggested talking to him, and Turquoise continued to insist on holding him down...if it came to it. Though, before all that, everything else needed to happen, and there was a worry that any combat would be lethal due to your previous injuries. Jade started to play a song with hopes of distracting these enemies, and her efforts paid off as she was able to start retrieving bottles with the use of some magical hand spell. Agave and the elemental rat folks seemed to enjoy the music, though no real words were exchanged and Agave's eyes and demeanor were still mostly catatonic. Gila's Tail also joined the rest of the group, and, similar to Turquoise, seemed to recognize this newfound murid and the two rat water elementals in a strange half-memory sort of way.

Bobcat used one of the empty bottles to brew up some Societea, and Jade made one last move to grab the bottle that Agave was currently drinking from. She succeeded, Agave was without a bottle, and Bobcat started to move the brewed tea into position. With Agave enjoying this tea, another attempt at communication was made. Jade played off the theft of Agave's initial bottle as a part of her act which the elementals seemed to enjoy. Bobcat's speech was received by the two of them with more attention than it had before. Jade joined in hoping to help and trying to play to the elemental's sympathies. She mentioned that Agave would surely die of hypothermia if he were left out here in the rain and cold. "I think our dear friend Agave is in danger. I don't know if you can understand me or not, but, please, he needs our help." It even earned a response from the two elementals as they replied to all of you psychically. "We are all he needs." This response was met with doubt for the most part. You all disputed this, but Bobcat spoke with the most authority on the matter: "He will die out here in the cold. He drinks himself into a stupor where he becomes completely helpless. How do you plan on helping him while he sits there and whithers away. Let us bring him back to the village. We can do that. That is what he wants: is to be back, I am sure." The elementals responded again, "He wanted us." Again, this was largely doubted. Gila's Tail spoke up this time, "I don't believe that. That doesn't make sense. Even if he's content, he seems miserable." While Jade suggested that spending too much time in comforts can lead to death. The elemental murid creatures acknowledged this, and their response seemed...cold. "Perhaps that would be better."

Arguments continued with these elementals for a time, but Bobcat eventually turned his attention towards Agave. "If you are his thoughts, then Agave, I plead with you. You have been quiet. You have died and you have been lost. Please, you are trapped by some being that is trying to make you content wiht staying here and withering away. You must free yourself, Agave." The rest of you were rather baffled by this, though Bobcat was ignoring these other, likely nonexistent, rats behind him. He stepped back, motioned for everyone to huddle-up, and tried to explained that the spirits of Contentment were trapping you all in this place. He requested a status update on everyone's physical condition and taunted you all about your fear of death. It was decided around this time that a short rest would be beneficial, and Jade provided an accelerated form of this thanks to her rather fortuitous magic. After this rest, a plan was again made. Jade would move into position along with anyone else that would hope to abduct Agave from this situation, she would offer him his original bottle, Turquoise would be ready to grab him if something went wrong, and a third layer of redundancy would also be ready thanks to Bobcat who was getting ready to transform into a giant tentacle. I suppose either Ghost or Gila's Tail could also be ready to make him invisible. Jade's initial plan went off without a hitch though as Agave and her vanished before reappearing on the other side of the battlefield. Red Pancake immediately reacted to this and tried to capture the two of them with a bubble, but it failed. Combat proceeded and you all were able to defeat these two elemental yet again along with the last spirit of contentment. Agave's eyes cleared as the elementals were defeated and were fully cleared as the last spirit of contentment fell. He had regained his sight and his understanding of the situation. Agave released an uncharacteristically heavy sigh. His eyes were finally cleared, it was like he was seeing you all for the first time, and you could tell that they were watery and red. No words were said, but as he stood, he began to fade. By the time he was fully standing, he was gone and the mountains around you had faded as well.

Lost and Alone in ALT's Timeline

With the blink of several rat eyes, you found yourselves standing in a new place. There was as lot of confusion, questions, but with Bobcat's leadership you pressed on into the strange tunnels of the Howdigo. The walls, floor and ceiling of this place looked as though they were perhaps made of some sort of sandstone. Oozing from either random larger holes or even entire, more porous, walls, was a variety of different viscous fluids. Garbage was littered all over the floor. Some of it looked to be just generic trash while other piles were more devoted to gears or scrap metal. It was dark here, and the fluids all seemed to be similar shades of grey, but Bobcat tried tasting some of it. The strange, viscous fluid that he tested had qualities similar to dirty, used oil or even unrefined oil, perhaps straight from the ground. With that display of nastiness out of the way, you discussed the benefits of perhaps resting. Many of you were injured, Gila's Tail worst of all, and an extended rest sounded ideal at this moment. Some of you began that while Bobcat, Ghost and Turquoise moved forward to make sure nothing sinister would sneak up on you. They discovered several motionless and limp mechanical arms. These arms were rather large, each one longer than Bobcat, perhaps even longer than Turquoise. Turquoise was the first to approach one, and was shocked to see it suddenly awaken and try to push him away. It damaged him, but he was able to resist the pushing effect and instantly destroyed it with a couple swings of his sword. He alerted the boss and Ghost about this development, and the three of them met up at an intersection to analyze the limbs further. Bobcat tried to awaken one by tossing a loose gear at it, but the limb seemed unresponsive unless an entire body was moving towards it. They took this good news back to the group and you all rested for a good long while.

Upon waking up and getting all the morning rituals out of the way, it was time to explore and kill some of these mechanical limbs. As you fought these arms, you learned that some of them had flamethrowers, some had lightning cannons and one even had a gatling gun. You all made relatively short work of them, and some of you discovered another feature about this unusual place. Within the area with the mechanical limbs there was also a hallway covered in vines that grew over and completely obscured whatever was beyond. These vines were also constantly changing to take on a manufactured appearance similar to the forest around ALT when it was first discovered. As more became manufactured in this way, more also grew with their original organic appearance. These vines were ignored, avoided even, as Bobcat informed you all that they might be dangerous. Traveling away from the vines and beyond the now destroyed mechanical limbs, you all found yourselves at an intersection. To the right was a large treasure chest which was instantly approached and opened. Inside the treasure chest was a pile of scrap metal along with a horrific monstrosity. The being looked emaciated with grey skin and four arms that each ended in spikes. It tried to dig these spikes into the nearest person and embrace them, but it proved far too slow. You were all able to defeat this creature as well, but not before another chest at the end of another hallway was opened as well. This chest contained a pile of broken gears along with another of the same creature. Meanwhile, Turquoise was also opening the smaller chests that lined this hallway. He discovered that at least two of them contained a single skull, one was human and the other a tiefling. Jade was also busy finding something else to do, and she happened upon a room all on her lonesome where she was attacked by yet another strange creature. A long, stretching appendage reached out for her and stabbed into her. She was able to see that this new threat was another pale individual, though rather than being quite starved, this one had a distended stomach and bloated flesh around its face. She was grappled by this monstrosity, and the session ended with the remaining strange, spike-limbed creature missing another attack.

April 3, 2023 and some D&D on a Monday