Ep 40: "The All-Garlic"

The group had spent the last few days getting things done. Rosie had been spending time getting her Sunflower Song stuck in “everyone’s” head. Pip spent time with Wobura the tortle, attempting to befriend him. Owen spent time in the Dawn District and spoke with Holly about the details for the hospital. Meanwhile, Nathan went on a date with Mari and had been conducting research on the Vessel. He discovered that ‘The Vessel’ is a title, an honorific belonging to whichever being happens to carry the power and influence of a demon or devil.

Saxi went to Pinbòl and asked more questions about recovering her memories. He seemed a bit crestfallen when she told him what she wanted to talk about, but did so willingly. Saxi had him clarify what would be required to happen in order for the ritual to be complete. He stated that while it would be a trek, it would be manageable for them. He also told her that if the ritual was successful, Saxi and Oisin would likely lose most, if not all, of the knowledge and experiences they had gained since their memories were taken. Saxi stated that she wouldn’t be willing to participate in the ritual if it put the efforts of the Resistance at risk.

Pinbòl asked her if she felt any moral obligation towards the person that she was before. She told him that she felt a sense of duty to discover who she was before, but not at the risk of things that were happening currently. Her last question concerned the shared memory between her and Oisin and whether or not one of them participating in the ritual to undo the memory loss would affect the other. Pinbòl admitted that it was a possibility. He further explained that the rituals would not have created memories, it merely merged personalities and moved them to new places. This meant that all the memories, even the vague ones, that Saxi and Oisin had were real memories from someone’s life.

Pesk had been eagerly waiting for Mezri at the Divine Foundry, spending time working while she waited. Mezrilokk arrived with a delivery and Pesk quickly grabbed a gift she had hidden away. It was a beautiful, handcrafted leather bag. The bag had been designed for a lizardfolk of Mezri’s size, with several compartments of various sizes to allow for better functionality. He thanked her for the gift and she admitted that she had made the satchel out of the leather that he had given her. In their conversation, he mentioned that his city would be leaving the following week. Pesk, holding back her sadness over him leaving, expressed interest in going to see the city and its dragon turtles before he left.

The morning of the 14th of Iseris, the party met with Zreet in that day’s predetermined safe house. She was running a little late, so the party discussed what they had been up to while waiting for Zreet. When she arrived, Zreet gave the group their quest for the day: head back into the Undermyst and travel to Sativorum. There, they would speak with Princess Amaryl and obtain a clove from a magical bulb of garlic. They needed the garlic for the ritual to cure vampirism.

The party decided to take Owen’s boat to the docks and exchanged work for the ability to piggyback on a larger boat as it descended to the ocean via the boatlift. As the boatlift got halfway through its descent, one of the arms slipped and shifted, knocking everyone about. Despite the momentary excitement, the rest of the journey was uneventful. They disembarked and began to row towards the waterfall. Pip spotted a large, LARGE, hump in the water across the lagoon and pointed it out to the party. Nathan seemed the most affected by the news, but not the party simply watched it carefully.

The party made their way into the Undermist and decided to seek Pesk’s friend Allium, the onion man, for directions to Sativorum to find the princess. Along the way they run into Encoat, a trader that some of them had met before. Pesk asked him if he might have something that would work as a present for the princess. Without being able to be more specific about their gift, Saxi suggested that Pesk ask for a gift for Mezri. Something to communicate over long distances, perhaps. Encoat produced two rocks that could be used as Sending Stones. They turned out to be large, petrified goat testicles.

Saxi asked him about weapons and he produced a longsword with images of prancing satyrs playing pan flutes along the blade. When swung, the sound of pan flutes could be heard all around. Various instruments were asked for by Rosie, the most obscure one he had of was a sackbut. He also produced his most prized possession, a magical deck of cards. The price for which was one phylactery of a lich. It turned out that Encoat didn’t know what the deck was capable of, as a fae it didn’t seem to do anything when he drew cards. Pesk volunteered to test it by drawing a card from the deck and telling Encoat what happened in exchange for the sackbut. He agreed, she drew a card, and obtained the Star. There were no obvious effects, but Pesk felt more dextrous and the party continued on their way.

After a short while, they came across Allium’s farm. As they approached, Pesk attempted to summon the farmer. He appeared and they convinced him to lead them to Sativorum since they had a meeting to discuss the deal to obtain the magical garlic. He asked them, “the all garlic?” stating that it was the only magical garlic of which he was aware. They party was not sure, but assumed it must be and he led them through his farmland, planting seeds seemingly randomly along the way.

They came across a barrier of sorts, the realm beyond seemingly large and jungle like in its growth. The party met several guards bearing weapons, who confronted the party and demanded they explain their presence. After it was relayed that they were expected by the Princess, they were led through ruins of an old city. They walked through an archway and found themselves before Princess Amaryl.

They described their task to her, and she seemed hesitant but willing to trade goods or services for the clove of the Allgarlic, their people’s most prized possession. Pesk and Pip attempted to barter with frostcrest, skyberry, pepper, coffee, saffron, nutmeg, and allspice. She mentioned that, while some of the items were difficult to come by, none were all that rare and therefore not as valuable as the clove the party wanted. There was an item that she was interested in obtaining, but it was very dangerous. The party assured her that they were willing to undergo the trial, and she told them that she wanted an egg. Pip, ever the hunter, asked the manner of the creature they would be obtaining the egg from.

The creature was described as an Arcanaphage, and a number of recipes can be crafted from its eggs. It had a companion creature called a Minlock, with which it had a symbiotic relationship. The princess stated that the eggs of the Arcanaphage were carried inside its body, which meant that the party would need to extract them. The alternative was for Owen or Nathan to eat a magical egg, then they would lay an egg every day for close to a year. If the eggs were buried in the Material Plane, then this second process would birth creatures in the Undermyst. However, the eggs would have been very large. The party decided to take care of the Arcanaphage and struck a deal: they would obtain the eggs, bring one (or several) back to the princess, and she would provide a clove from the Allgarlic.

Guards lead the party away from Sativorum and directed them to head along a river, deeper into the woods. The jungle was filled with lush green foliage as they continued toward the area the guards had indicated. Through the leaves they could just barely make out some bright colors.  Nathan, to gather more information, sent his familiar over to where the vibrant colors had been seen. Using Beast Sense, the familiar spotted a white slug with rainbow tentacles hanging onto a tree. A smaller creature was seated on it. The creatures descended from the trees to drink from the pond and, after debating the morals of killing the creature, Pesk decided to act and attacked with a spell.

The party soon found out that it was called the Arcanaphage because it could “eat” magic. It absorbed several magical attacks from them before they fully understood. The Arcanaphage flew across the river to attack the group, engaging Pesk and Saxi in combat. Saxi was able to call on her paladin abilities to smite the Arcanaphage quickly. The Minlock was eliminated by  Nathan, Pip, and Pesk working together. The group harvested the eggs, taking both the eggs and the body back to Sativorum.

The princess stood in expectation as they arrived and motioned to a bowl centered in the courtyard. Owen had Pip place the eggs in the bowl. With their task completed, the group turned to the Princess for their reward. Princess Amaryl reached up and tore a clove off the back of her own head, the clove of the Allgarlic. The group thanked her and began to make their way back to Cinderhaven. On the way out, Pip made a trade with Allium the Royal Gardener for close to 200lbs of fae veggies. In return, he traded the ability no longer see a very particular shade of purple.

The group returned to Cinderhaven and gave the clove of the Allgarlic to Zreet.