Ep 73: "Yothing Bad"

The morning of Wearis 18th, the group handled a lot of things before meeting. Oisin went to speak with Ezra at the Nature Temple around sunrise. They helped around the temple for a while silently and then asked Ezra what he wanted to speak with Oisin about. Ezra Wanted to know why Oisin wanted to devote themselves to Nature. Oisin said that it just felt right as they tended to follow their instincts, and Ezra pointed out that wisdom was also important along with instinct.

Oisin admitted they wanted to find out things about who they were and felt that being at the temple was helping. Ezra recommended that Oisin needed to face what they didn’t like about their past and told Oisin about the well in the middle of the forest. Ezra said that he sometimes would go there to speak to the forest and try to work through things

Yoth had been studying the books he borrowed from Pinból. They talked about the theory behind portals. He was able to get information on a how to close certain portals and how to make a short lived gate type of portal. The rituals to open a gate were very complicated, expensive, and the ingredients would be hard to find. They would also probably cost 10-15k gold. He did not find anything on how to weaken a portal, but he found information on existing spells that allow for quick travel to another plane that did not leave a portal.

Primeheart insulated the chicken coops at his camp for Kali. Lark helped Primeheart with the task before they joined the others. Saxi went to work, spinning her sign for the spa. Finkoo worked on his rifle prototype.

Primeheart, Oisin, and Finkoo arrived at the Beer Forge at roughly the same time. It was very slow day, but some paint stains on the walls were the only remaining signs of the paint bomb. They chatted with Ivy for a bit, then Saxi and Lark arrived. Yoth came in as a half-orc, since he was hiding from Ivy. He sat down with everyone and introduced himself as “Ulf.”

Yoth admitted to the group that he did not make an intelligent decision when he threw the paint bomb into the bar. Finkoo and the others told Yoth that he needed to apologize to Ivy, but he was resistant to the idea. They discussed what to do for the day, ultimately deciding to go to Arland’s and then go after the spider-dragon.

As they left the Beer Forge and headed to Arland’s, Finkoo lagged behind and spoke with Ivy. He told Ivy that the half-orc had been Yoth in disguise and she said she would wait for him to come to her.

At Arland’s Alchemical Oddities, Yoth asked about rituals to make traveling easier and took the scroll in a corner to try to copy it into his Book of Secrets. He realized that he did not have the ink or the time, but bought the scroll. Saxi asked about the spider-dragon and if Arland wanted any pieces from it specifically. He said that poison sacks or excretions from creatures were things he always had interest in buying. Yoth asked to put a Gate and Plane Shift scroll on layaway

Before going to the caves, the group stopped and got the Urn from Pinból’s. They went down the stale path toward the portal and kept an eye out for the spider-dragon. Finkoo stealthed out to the area where Kali had seen the creature before as Primeheart used a Light spell on an arrow to make it easier for Finkoo to see.

Finkoo didn’t see anything, so he picked up the glowing arrow and suddenly everyone else could see something appear in front of Finkoo. It was the Vessel, but she appeared to be a younger version of herself. She complimented him on his sneaking abilities and said that she put the spider-dragon somewhere easy to find.

As Oisin used the Sending Stone to contact Pinból about starting the ritual to subdue the Vessel, she informed the group that she left a present for them inside the spider-dragon. She also mentioned something about not remembering “her” name, which caused the group a lot of concern. They entered into the next cavern and discovered that it was very dark.

They heard a growl that sounded a lot more dangerous than the last time they encountered the creature. The party quickly used Light spells and torches to see within the cavern. Eventually they found the creature, but it looked like shadow energy had been added to it. Battle ensued, with the creature crawling along the wall and putting out the torches as best it could to make things darker. Primeheart cast Daylight on a dagger stuck to the creature and it dispersed the shadows clinging to it.

It started to contort, then ran away after regurgitating items and money. Yoth went into a rage again and started trying to climb the wall after the creature. Finkoo chased him up the wall to try and pull him back down. When that didn’t work, Saxi cast Hold Person on Yoth and made sure to break his fall. She told him he needed to calm down, since he couldn’t get back to his family if he died. Then she released the spell and healed him.

Finkoo looked over the items the creature had left and one of the items was a ring that looked familiar to him. It bore the Arasys seal and looked like Seldanna’s ring. He also found a very large ruby the size of a large coin that had a huge flaw in the center, but was cut. It was a gem with abjuration magic on it and, as he studied it, Finkoo saw a face within the facets of the crack in the gem. It was Juveha.

The group decided to head back to Pinból immediately for help as they didn’t know who else to ask. They arrived to find him playing checkers with the young girl from the caves and she asked if the group liked her present. She told them that Juveha was the one who had been carrying the Arasys ring. Pinból studied the gem and told them that it appeared to be the result of an Imprisonment  spell.

He said that the group needed to speak part of her true name in order to free her. The group had already said “Juveha” several times and realized that they apparently didn’t know her true name. Pinból sent a Sending to Seldanna to ask if she could give the group Juveha’s true name. Unfortunately, there was no reply from Seldanna. The group decided to try and find her true name. Lark mentioned a wish and several people saw Pinból look at an old clock on the wall.
While everyone else went to Pinból’s, Yoth headed to Eriss’ apartment. There was no answer when he knocked, so he kicked in the door and realized that Eriss just wasn’t home. The door had also been unlocked.
He dropped to his knees and broke down, waiting in the empty apartment for Eriss to arrive. When Eriss g ot home, they Conclaved again. Since Yoth had recently Conclaved with Eriss, this time it only helped a little. They talked and Yoth expressed concern about what mischief his old pod may be up to in the city. Eriss told him that Aldion was looking into it to try and find out.
Eriss also told Yoth that he knew a few other Braith who had gone over 10 yrs without a Conclave, but they had not gone to the Feywild. Eriss mentioned that if the Conclaving was a big problem, he could try being reincarnated. Yoth didn’t want to do that though, as he was proud to be a Braith. Yoth offered to repair the door and decided to stay with Eriss for a bit.
At Pinból’s, Oisin asked him about the old clock. He said the clock had been a gift. He’d been told that it could be asked for things and that sometimes it might happen. He said it had a very faint magical aura, but when he’d asked it for little things before nothing had happened. It was given to him by a person who traded in magical items that had worked with the Sub Rosarium. Oisin wondered whether or not to ask the clock for something, then Pinból wished for the tea to be refilled and nothing happened.
Saxi went to Mo’s tower to ask for help cleaning the items from the caves. Moira was outside by the door and Mo didn't want to let her in. He told her he wasn’t home and Saxi climbed up the tower to the slide opening to go into the tower. She asked Mo why he didn’t want to talk with Moira and he said that Moira just wanted his body. Mo told Saxi that Conflation was what Moira wanted from him. If they Conflated, he and Moira would join together and become a duodrone.  Mo would cease to be Mo.
His people were  based on math and an algorithm that was designed to count down to something very slowly. His people would Conflate to evolve themselves. Monodrones became duodrones, duodrones became triodrones, and so on. It usually happened on a different plane of existence, but they would come to this plane to do things as well. Mo wasn’t sure he wanted to be Conflated, but also was not sure he wanted to leave his people. He wasn’t sure what being removed from the equation would do to him.