Session Date: 7/17/2023
After the wispling, Pippin is somber while Tabby is glad we managed to get through it all. Mary feels we got very lucky, while Bosch is glad it wasn’t focusing on us. Faylen is vaguely bothered that it seems that this group of hobgoblins were went to be killed. Overall there is no interest in us going out to try to save the main hobgoblin settlement from the bigger threat of the actual umbral dragon. We ultimately leave the hobgoblin fort with those that we saved and that survived and travel with them for a short while.
From where we are, the closest civilization is the grippli village. We decide to go that way and hope for somewhere we can sit down and rest and have a few beers. We enter the forest to head that way. On the way, we run into someone fishing at the creek. They’re napping as they have their line cast into the creek. They’re a lanky humanoid, notably not a grippli — they’re a strix, actually: mostly humanoid with some birdlike features. She’s wearing a cloak over her wings so they’re not sticking out all over the place.
Bosch greets K’Whu, saying hello and asking if she is a grippli. K’Whu is a tall humanoid with gold eyes and no pupil - definitely very unusual. They are femme-presenting and flails, before grabbing her fishing pole and just gawks at us as she looks across all of us. Faylen looks behind the group to see if something was behind us, and Bosch compares K’Whu to Greenbean to determine that K’Whu is likely not a grippli, actually. She finally greets us and asks what is happening here, gesturing at the group. Bosch explains that we are looking for a bar/tavern and K’Whu hasn’t been into the village yet.
Clouds begin to form over the village, and they look like storm clouds. They’re definitely weird clouds and K’Whu and Mary can tell that they are less real clouds and that they were actually put up there. There is a singular lightning bolt that is striking into town as we hear the thunder echoing from where we are standing. K’Whu is going to yell crap, fill her bucket with water, and run into the town. She moves incredibly fast, seeming more to warp than to actually run.
We hustle after her and find that there is no fire in the town, but at the center there is another cloud - misty, swirling in the center. Grippli are around with buckets and spells of water also waiting to see what is happening. We hear a voice coming out of the misty swirling, a voice Faylen recognizes: AHA YOU CANNOT KEEP A GOOD WIZARD DOWN, then he coughs and says that this isn’t good. The first voice is definitely the sage from the train, with a second voice that Mary recognizes and Faylen might. The mist dissipates and we see the Tyro Clement - lanky, blond, glasses on his head, robes are singed, and he is holding something in his hand.
The Grippli charge at Clement with spears, demanding who he is. K’Whu throws her bucket of water on him. He’s holding some sort of an orb in his hand. It’s a roughly cut piece of glass or crystal and there is some sort of energy swirling inside of it.
Tabby tries to calm the townspeople down and it’s not particularly successful. Pippin walks up with hand on sword, but not drawn, and he does a soldier turnabout and looks at the grippli here. They put all their spears away while a small child stares on in awe. K’Whu is also intimidated and drops her bucket, which Pippin hands back to her.
Faylen asks Clement what is going on, how he got here, where the Sage is, if he’s okay, if Clement’s okay. Clement just offers the orb to Faylen and the voice of Sage Axamonar comes through the orb. Tabby asks what happened and Axamonar was going to be destroyed, but now he’s an orb? Axamonar explains he was blown up and his physical form didn’t survive that exchange. K’Whu laughs at the joke, not realizing that this guy isn’t alive anymore, and Bosch chuckles. Mary stares, while Tabby smirks.
Clement explains he went to help the people and sent everyone to a nearby outpost and then went back to see what was going on with Axamonar and the THING (wink wonk) and he explains that he saw a huge crater in place of what was the fight. Axamonar speaks up saying he was able to reconstitute something and now he’s a rock.
Mary asks what the creature was that attacked us and Clement explains it’s likely from the Dark Demesne, or that’s what they understand.
K’Whu offers that she has a campsite not too far off if we don’t wish to stand in the center of the village. The spell caster from the grippli say that if we could at least not stand in the middle of the town. Tabby asks if there is a pub nearby and they sigh and take us - it’s not very comfortable for some of us that are taller because of how small the Grippli are, but we make it work. They tell us to stay here while they figure out what to do with us. There is an (1) alcoholic beverage provided — it’s something ale adjacent, algae ale or something to that effect.
Bosch looks around and sees a bottle labelled “Poison Dart” — Bosch asks what would happen if he were to drink that. The bartender says it depends if Bosch is tough enough or not and Bosch asks for a glass. The barkeep definitely plays it up with gloves, tongs, etc, as K’Whu asks if he is going to absolutely drink this and Faylen reinforces this. Bosch takes a sip of the drink but he manages to keep it down. K’Whu moves so she’s not in direct projectile vomit line and Bosch requests a small bottle he can take away, which the barkeep obliges.
Faylen quick explains how they got here and what happened to K’Whu, then Mary asks how Clement and Rockanomar got here. Axamonar explains that he used a teleportation spell and did his best but without arms it’s a bit hard to cast precisely. Clement and Axamonar mention the shard of the seal of infinity has gone missing and Faylen explains that we picked it up and ran from the scene. The bartender brings over a plate of crickets for us to snack on.
K’Whu asks what is going on and what piece we have and Axamonar has Clement cast a silence spell. We explain that it’s a piece of the seal of infinity. In the city of Jewel there was an attack on the chamber of the seal and the seal was shattered. The majority of the seal were taken to the Dark Demesne, while we have some smaller pieces still in our position. We were taking this piece to Brex Grana because they have a special magical vault that could store it in an adjacent plane so that the Dark Demesne hopefully can’t find it, then forces would be marshaled to recover the rest of the pieces of the seal to put together.
Axamonar explains that he and Clement need to ask us for help: could we take the sliver to Brex Grana. Faylen explains that we already intended to, and Axamonar is glad that we have it and not the Dark Demesne. K’Whu asks if we will be paid. Faylen says that safety of the realm is above payment, and K’Whu says sure, but we still have to eat. Axamonar tries to stumble through saying a payment could certainly be arranged, but respect would certainly be given to us. Axamonar starts to warm up to the idea of paying us. K’Whu points out you can’t eat respect and Axamonar very much considers that. Axamonar ultimately tells Clement that they need to trust us because he and Clement need to go to Jewel while the rest of us will take the sliver to Brex Grana. Clement hands us a seal of the organization that they are part of. It will create a paper trail of where we are going but it will afford us certain conveniences that we wouldn’t otherwise have.
Axamonar says he will wait for us at Brex Grana, we just need to get the sliver to that city and he will have rewards ready for us. K’Whu asks if people will be trying to take it away from us on the way there. Axamonar explains not just people, but also strange creatures. He does explain that the sliver can give us some benefits if we can manage to tap into the power of the seal in times of great need. We all agree to do the stuff and the thing together.