13A:Play/8 Gnomish “Help”

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Starring: 📜Elistheren, 🐾 Kaelon, 🌲 Qistis, Steinar, 📚 Annalana
Guest Starring:
Location: Stranglesea, New Port, Eldolan
Date Played: 2017 January 31

Interrogating the Dwarves

Steinar

'Morgath the Wary slunk through the corridor, making sure he was light in foot as he went. "Can never be too careful," his motto. He nervously peered around each corridor, making sure he would not be seen as he left the inn that night. Nefarious deeds were afoot, after all. Despite all of his precautions, a thread would be his undoing, for, you see, Morgath had a fondness for fineries, and his mulberry cloak was one in a million. A stray nail and a loose threat; their starstruck meeting is just was Detective Banson needed.'

"Banson Rides Again: The Unhallowed Havens"

🌲 Qistis

The dwarves have been dealt with but I'm reluctant to leave them to their own devices here. We draw up an official contract of surrender which we manage to get the captain to sign and Annalana assures us they will follow the wording to the T. In the incinerator we find a the remnants of a turtle but unfortunately no Inigo. Steinar, however, uses the bones as a focus to track Inigo so at least we have a heading.

Tracking The Head

Steinar

Hey, the group was actually pretty heroic this time. Not too many extra casualties and they mad good on their promises. Yep, I bet they are really turning around. I'm not really good for much at this time and I find the machines really baffling. Then again, I'm just a background character and this feels right. But hey, no more broken promises!

📚 Annalana

With the dwarves defeated, Annalana searches the engine to find Inigo and he is missing. There is a hand that leads us away, but first Annalana insists on a signed document of surrender from the dwarves.

The hand leads us to the goblin encampment, with a bronze head on a homunculus made out of turtle bones. Annalana and Qistus both race to tackle the head, with Annalana getting there first, kicking the goblin leader in the face in the process.

Elisthereen helps the woman, who invites him inside. She whistles and all the goblins go inside. She tells Elis about decided to become peaceful.

Annalana enters the goblin vessel where Inigo yells RAPE. The goblins are concerned about his being held against his will and we begin to argue about the rule of law.

Qistis, once she leaves, takes off running for our ship. Annalana yells out to her to slow down, which she does, however Inigo has begun to wiggle about in her hands.

Annalana reveals a secret to have the boat appear, telling everyone that she was responsible for destroying a dark elf orphanage with fire during the war. As our boat appears, Inigo start to spout what sounds like nonsense words and Qistis tries to stop him but doesn’t. The boat says “Self destruct sequence activated”. Qistis rage spikes the head and casts Thundersnap, forcing the head into the water. Annalana and Steinar dives in to get the head.

While underwater, Qistis’ familiar is upset about my secret and shreds a dozen pages of a random journal.

Elisthereen gets in the boat with Inigo and at the end of the countdown the boat activates self-destruct phase 2, which is to go to Omen, the island of the Lich King. We then proceed to bicker about what to do with Inigo.

Qistis manages to repeat the self destruct code spoken by Inigo, who then again activates phase 2, though now we are directed to the Isle of Fire.

🌲 Qistis

We find Inigo among the goblins, of all things. Annalana makes a dive for the head and thankfully we manage to apprehend him. Inigo is, as to be expected, more than reluctant to leave this floating island as it seems this is his only bit of freedom. Frankly I could care less than what he thinks. He's out ticket off this damned place and we need to be leaving this place as quickly as we possibly can. I'd would very much like to avoid killing everything that lives here, though if it comes to it I certainly wouldn't object at this point.

📜Elistheren

I've noticed that everyone on this strange island has their own mysterious agenda. I had hopes of rescuing everyone and freeing them from their bondage on that mysterious island, but it is not the weed mat that imprisons them- it is their own natures.

And, strangely, it is the goblins who are the most free, within this island. By embracing their faith, they've found a peace with the weed mat that the dwarves will forever be denied.

As for Inigo… he's a chattering nuisance. I keep him under my hat.

Inigo & Departure

Steinar

And then there were broken promises. I mention that we should go back for the squid man, but it fell on deaf ears. It's pretty obvious that they wouldn't wait for me either if I went to get him. Well... ugh.

Inigo is interesting. He is telling me lots of stories, most of which he is inserting himself as the main character. I play the fool, as the group already told him that's my role. I've taken some time to pick apart his choice of placement in the stories. Always the tragic hero. Yes, yes, that is quite cliche. What is interesting, though, is the supporting cast he seems to modify. Perhaps a disappointing father figure? A betrayal he distances himself from? Now that's the real story, and I doubt he even knows he's telling it.

📜Elistheren

Inigo also wants freedom. It's unclear to me if he wants freedom from his own nature, or from life itself. He begs for us to destroy him, and does his best to make the chore tempting. Death seems supported by the boat- which is set to "self destruct", first by going to Omen, and then to Fire Island. Since the latter requires going through a narrow strait, we beg for the shipping traffic to take us off the boat. It's a steep price they charge- piracy, most like- but we pay it.

We're placed in Drakkenhall, the City of Monsters. When I left the Cathedral, that was one of the first places I stopped in my quest to find all the sins of the world. There are still some known to me- specifically a group of Nihilists bent on killing the Great Gold Wyrm and bringing an end to the cycle of eternity. They consider the toe of your foot holy.

📚 Annalana

We set watches in pairs. During the shift with Elisthereen and Steiner, Inigo talks with Steiner to try and manipulate him with stories of tragic heroes.

Qistis owns up to her familiar ripping some pages out of Annalana’s book. Annalana accepts the apology and offers one herself for the deeds of her past self. The missing pages were “…on the way to the court…” through arriving at Dragonhall.

As we approach Drakkenhall and the Koru Straits, we plan to flag down some ships.

A gnomish ship approaches us, and demands payment. We negotiate for a while and eventually have to surrender all of our gold to them. We are dropped off at Drakkenhall.

Elisthereen manages to arrange passage with Nihilists while Qistis tries to sell her magic sandals to Fizik the dragonkin but he doesn’t want to buy.

The trip wasn’t great but was uneventful. They get close enough to Omen to see it and then we land at Santa Cora, the home of the Priestess. Our ultimate destination is New Port.

We then head back west towards Eldolan. The Nihilist ask for help escorting them to the Golden Citadel.

🌲 Qistis

If I didn't think that killing Sharp would lead to my own death I certainly would have done so at least 5 times by now. This infuriating excuse for a talking head set the boat to self destruct after we make it appear. I admittedly let his actions get to me more than I should have let them and with his head in my hands I throw him into the weed mat as hard as I could muster. I had forgotten how thin it was here and he quickly begins sinking. Annalana dives in after the head. I should have helped but my rage clouded me, like something dark inside was stirring and taking over. Umbra pulls me towards Annalana's journals and begins to shred at one of them. I manage to pull myself out of it to stop her, but not before she could get at a few dozen pages.

Thankfully they both resurface and it seems the self-destruct mode sends the boat to dangerous places. First it went towards Omen, a place I have extremely little interest in ever visiting, and then to Fire Island after I had repeated the words. While still less than ideal, this will put us close to Drakkenhall to hopefully be picked up by one of the ships in the strait.

Inigo attempts to pit us against each other on the ship but thankfully his machinations go nowhere and we manage to keep him secure within the hat. During mine and Annalana's watch I apologize on Umbra's behalf for the destruction of the journal pages. I can only hope there wasn't anything too pressingly important within.

We get picked up by a less than scrupulous gnomish captain. He takes all of our money and the our vessel in return for rescue. If that captain ever finds port somewhere while I happen to be there we'll see who really who holds all the card then. Regardless, we manage to get passage to Santa Cora thanks to Elistheren's connections then make our way by foot to New Port to drop off Sharp.

With our task done we serve with a caravan to make our way back to Eldolan to meet back up with Elviro.

Back Home in Eldolan

Steinar

'A chance crossing of the River Styx

a one-way trip down a path

from which no one can return.

To stay your hand, a still death awaits

and to cross you find yet unknown pains

or salvation, with a price to all.

"The Stagnant Choice"

📚 Annalana

“You’re just back in time”, as the semester has started. Elis is Intro to World Religion; Qistis is Cantrips (children); Kaelon is assisting with an herbalism class; Annalana is truancy duty; Steinar given a mop bucket.

📜Elistheren

So many introductions to religious study are focused on a boring recitation of facts. The facts of faith?! To understand religion, one must create a religion with your on hands. As I teach the new semester, I draw my students into religious study the only way I know how.

Thus is born the god of Stairs and Pools, Escala.

🌲 Qistis

Children...really Elivro? CHILDREN?! I swear I don't know why I ever agreed to this damned faction, or ever let them have Elviro be our "manager". I'm to teach simple cantrips to children. I did not study at the Silver Spire for almost 10 year to teach cantrips to children...but it seems I have little say in this matter. Thankfully the children are well behaved and seem to understand my lessons well enough over the weeks. Their techniques for Prestidigitation should give them decent foundation for other spells they'll learn in the future.

GM Section

Icon Relationships

Used

• 5, -/GGW, Elistheren

Outstanding

• 6, -/Diabloist, Kaelon
• 6, ?/Archmage, Quistis
• 6, +/Druid, Kaelon