Session 13

Fact Sheet: DUNKING (ON) THIS DEMON

Date: 04-01-23

Date in-universe: an unspecified Sunday

Players present: Ecchima, Marty, Meinhart, Tuur. Dins was our DM. Vinnie was excused.

Major developments:

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Notes

While Hali and Fyllion are with Skourja, Ezra and Frei head over to Akram to report back on the situation in Nawa. As they walk from the Moonflower Inn to the central square, they notice the town isn't looking its best anymore: the drought and its ensuing social unrest is having an effect, both on the population and on the town itself.

When they arrive, it’s Basri who welcomes them, since Akram is in a meeting with other council members. It fits his role as newly appointed merchant-king of the guards.

While they're standing around, waiting till a message can be brought to Akram, Ezra hears a voice in their mind. It's Nasser, who wants to talk to them! He threatens them with the potential reveal of our crew's use of magic.

Yielding to this potential blackmail and mainly curious what Nasser could possibly want now, Ezra makes their way to the cells (where Saatia was also imprisoned). Ezra saunters up to the guard and lies he's needed elsewhere. The guard is frustrated about the guard being understaffed, but since Ezra will keep an eye on Nasser, he hurries off.

Nasser snarks he’s impressed by Ezra's lies on the fly. He promises them his silence won't be cheap, but he figures bartering is more respectable than straight-up blackmail… His proposal is:

we can keep Aqueel, he won't resist that (Ezra bristles that child slavery was never an option for us)
we will destroy the Sable Serpent (getting paid by the council) without handing in any (further) evidence against him, Ezra won't testify against him & we'll leave town
he won't reveal our magic
he doesn't expect us to free him

Ezra agrees easily because Nasser’s wording was pretty sloppy: nothing was said about the evidence we already handed over, and Ezra can convincingly argue Nasser only requested Ezra’s silence, not the entire crew’s silence. With a satisfied smirk Ezra saunters out again.

They circle back to ask if Nasser would like to shake on the deal and when he says yes, they use their claws on his hand! Nasser doesn’t take it lying down, he bristles at Ezra: “just so you know, when we came here from the Vale, we made this place better than we found it. You mercenary types don't understand any sense of community, all you care about is coin”.

Ezra leaves him to it without replying, and heads back out. When Frei asks what Nasser wanted, Ezra shrugs it off as further frivolities, so Frei and Ezra commiserate cynically about nepo babies and their lack of sense.

Akram returns from his meeting & Ezra reports:

the water in Nawa is no longer drinkable
we brought a handful of survivors to the queen of respite

Akram confirms Skourja and the council will be able to use Nasser's assets to harbour the fugitives. He hopes we're now ready to join the guard in an attack against the Sable Serpent, preferably under the cover of darkness. Ezra concurs but reminds him that the crew is a democracy. They’ll need to confirm with the rest of us.

Ezra mentions Nasser is behaving like a slippery eel... Akram explains the trial is planned soon, so we shouldn’t worry. There’s no chance he’ll manage to weasel out of this situation: the judge will need our testimony against Nasser, since he's refusing to show his magic. Ezra explains they can't testify (they don’t mention they made a deal with Nasser, shiftily they blame their family name as too complicated to go on record anywhere) but promises to get a written testimony from the others. Akram agrees with that situation.

On the way back, Ezra explains Nasser's deal to Frei, who looks worried about it, especially where Aqueel’s fate is concerned. She suggests they talk it over with the crew, once we're in private.

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Storm and Eldrin head to the temple. In the temple zone, they see several fresh graves being tended. In this heat, with the lack of water, the offerings of flowers and fruit rot quickly.

Inside the temple it's a bit cooler. Several worshippers are praying, several people of the cloth are going about their business with scrolls. When we enter the temple, the statue in Storm's bag vibrates uncomfortably. Storm hears Virgil snapping "a temple, really", he was trying to listen in!

Sabor is talking to someone & when his conversation ends, he greets us with the Soliman greeting. At our request we head to Sabor's private rooms (since no one has an office here in the temple). Eldrin hangs back a bit (because IRL Vinnie couldn’t join the session) while Storm shows the statue we took from Virgil’s minions. Sabor immediately recognises it as a fiendish artefact of tremendous power!

It's a mockery of the divine totems of communion. Those are consecrated or enchanted objects that establish a connection with Soliman or Lunaire’s celestial envoys

Depending on the belief of the faithful, the response can vary from nothing, to a message, to guidance or a blessing, to actual physical touch or a bonafide miracle
It’s a tradition that started after the war envoy Eluvelon died: their death made all other celestial envoys wary of visiting the physical plane. Consequently, the other envoys don’t interfere directly anymore and stay on the celestial plane. Nathaniel, the current religious advisor at the Rosarian court is a regular human, whereas his predecessors were actual angels. It makes the value of Fyllion’s mantle of feather fall even more valuable, those feathers are both rare and antique

Here in the temple, the divine totem is a statue of an angel-like deva, with folded hands. Virgil’s statue is a fiend, with contorted legs and one arm over its neck and the other arm over its forehead. Sabor doesn’t think this posture means anything, since the vessel an sich doesn’t mean anything. It’s the consecration or enchantment, and the faith of the supplicant that matter. As far as he understands the workings of these totems:

We can’t force Virgil to manifest physically
We can’t reliably block Virgil from listening or manifesting through the totem
Only a paladin or a skilled magic user would be able to destroy the totem

Sabor is worried, why would fiends and hellhounds work together? When the transportation event brought the strange city with all its water to Koh’Shar, there were some random hellhounds which seemed to follow such events, but they appeared mindless beasts, without mission or plan. Even when Marduk set hellhounds on Nasser and let Frei take the fall, the extent of his plan was where he released them, they weren’t trained or anything.

Given this disconcerting information, Storm proposes we store the tiny statue in holy water. Sabor agrees it’s a good idea, but he’ll have to spend all night to consecrate enough water to fill an amphora. Though he doesn’t request payment, he’s quite pleased when Storm donates 9 gold to the temple’s funds for the poor.

As Eldrin and Storm leave the temple grounds, Storm interrogates the statue:

Virgil, are you a tiny insignificant demon? The temple doesn’t know your name. Can you tell us who your daddy and your mommy are, maybe we’ll know them
Oh, so sorry my tiny machinations deep-fried your little friend Anastasia. Also sorry for shooting at your firebird, you know. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, we're even: I killed a few of yours, you killed a few of mine… and in Nawa you sorted out my problem since I didn’t want to bring those salamanders home, and I’ve let you leave since my focus is Eluviel!
That’s all very nice Virgil, but why is your statue doing this little dance? Are you jealous of my skills?

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On the way back, Eldrin and Storm see people with the Moonflower livery carrying letters. It’s the invitations for Fyllion's concert tonight!

Upon our return, Storm shares what we learnt about the statue. Ezra also reports on the meetings with Nasser and Akram. They ask us to write out our testimony, coherent with the lies we've already told. Hali and Fyllion detail Skourja’s plans to help the refugees. Fyllion doesn’t reveal she gave him some of Simeon’s stuff.

Enza and Aqueel return from the Slumbering Sands. Aqueel is happy he met other kids and is more motivated than ever to learn common. He's only ever played with his older brother, Horace his sea horse and some servants. Ezra sympathises with that: people being ordered to play with you...

While Enza and Ezra convince Aqueel to take a nap, so he can stay up a little later for Fyllion’s concert, Frei gets to talking with Fyllion about his origins:

Fyllion was born to the Spring Court, but when he was very young, he was taken by the Night Court. He doesn’t remember his parents
Ifykon, a satyr who was an important counsellor to Fyllion's parents in the Spring Court, managed to save Fyllion from the Night Court and decided to raise him in secret. The bond between Ifykon and Fyllion grew from nanny and baby to mentor and mentee
the Night Court still hunts Fyllion (though to the rest of us, it’s not very clear why)
being hunted by the Night Court is Fyllion’s motivation for his presence in Breheima, as well as for all his concerts and shenanigans: the more famous an arch fey is, the stronger their magic is. With sufficient magic, he’ll be strong enough to return to the Feywild and (safely) reclaim his birth right at the Spring Court

At Fyllion’s revelation that as an arch fey, he's immortal, a barrage of questions starts:

what if he gets stabbed and killed: his essence would create a new body for him, but that would take, like, a century
has he ever been in the body of a chicken: he doesn’t deign to answer that
how many bodies has he had: he reveals this is his first body, he was born only 27 years ago… as arch fey go, he’s a total baby!
is this reincarnation ability the reason he doesn’t wash his hands, since he doesn’t have to worry about infections or gangrene being fatal: again, he doesn’t deign to respond
how worried is he about Night Court assassins: he’s very worried, that’s why he joined our crew (famous for its loyalty), and why he always travels with a phial of holy water, a wooden stake and a sturdy set of manacles

Ezra wonders about his decision to join our crew, wouldn’t that increase the risks he’s running? He was lucky he never boarded the Flensed Servant, that was a ghost ship with undead pirates under the deranged command of the cursed Captain Calabran!

Fyllion’s plight has us wondering about our own families:

Ezra wonders about their mother and sisters: while Fyllion didn’t really notice any problems while growing up with Ifficon, Ezra never fit into their family (as Zoya), so they were barely an adult when they had to choose a new name, a new identity and a new life at sea… their mother was in quite a state during that time & they never knew much about their father
Hali grew up with relatives, and only very recently realised that she might be related to Hanaïn and Aqueel, since Hanaïn's brother is (or might be) her father… Frei muses she’s never heard about the King of Storms during her training as a guard
Eldrin grew up with loving parents who still support them, even during Eldrin’s adventures on the Young Kraken
Likewise, Frei had a loving home, though her father died a while ago
Storm also has loving parents: though he was born to teenage parents (a little scandalously), their subsequent relationship and other children bore out their love
Ezra realises they’ve only seen their father two or three times… might he also be royalty, given the pattern that appears within the crew? If not their father, perhaps Captain Magpie might have a royal connection? His past is pretty mysterious after all…

Frei and Storm aren’t too impressed with all these titles – a dynasty just means you’ve been repeating you’re king for more than one generation, after all.

While he’s in his sharing mood, Fyllion confesses he doesn't know who Skara is… alas, none of us have any idea and we can't help. Storm gets the brilliant idea to ask Virgil: "hey Virgil, are you listening? Do you know who this Skara is? Aww, you don’t want to answer? Is it past your bedtime? We were going to ask if you wanted to stay up late to hear Fyllion’s concert, but I guess your daddy sent you to bed already"…

Suddenly Virgil appears in the room! His eyes glow at Storm, who fails a wisdom save. Waves of comfort and trust wash over Storm. Storm doesn’t resist as Virgil heats up the stone statue, even when it gets red-hot and burns a scar into his hand. Virgil guides it to Storm’s face, with the threat that next time, he’ll force him to burn out an eye. As soon as Virgil disappears in a huff, Hali helps heal Storm’s hand. Fyllion snatches the still-glowing statue off the ground with mage hand before it can set anything on fire. He keeps it with him as it cools.

We figure it’s time to head to the concert.

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In the smaller concert space Skourja prepared for Fyllion, we see a dazzling array of Koh’Shar’s beau monde:

Gladiola and her dog Chalcedony have a backstage pass. Hali notices the borzoi’s wide gold collar set with flawless gemstones must be hugely expensive
Mondregen is in attendance though he's more reserved (or at least pretending)
Skourja's mother and sister are present, 2 very finely dressed half orc women
2 of Fyllion’s previous patrons who lent us camels
Rahima, the queen of craftsmen, is present, she’s an older halfling woman and she brought an assistant
several wealthy people making up the audience of 15 to 20 people

Aqueel remains asleep, but Enza joins us anyway. She’s cleaned up from the adventure in Nawa and from settling Miriam, Hamza and the children in the Slumbering Sands and she’s found a beautiful dress somewhere. She looks breathtaking to us!

Just as Skourja steps into the room to signal the start, Storm checks we're all in agreement about accepting the mission of the Sable Serpent. Everyone confirms, so Frei will soon be able to reassure Akram.

Fyllion starts his performance and focusses on enthralling Rahema, queen of craftsmen, Skourja, queen of respite, Mondregen and Gladiola. Only Gladiola remains unaffected by Fyllion's playlist:

leaving the fey wild
fire and fiend: all the locals are reminded of the hellhounds
flight of the night (about running from the night court): except for the crew, everyone thinks it's a metaphor
promise of power (his current mission): Skourja and her family recognise themselves, Mondregen figures the metaphor applies to him too
memories of death: doesn't ring a bell to anyone
promise to Skara: Gladiola is vaguely puzzled but can't quite place it, the others just figure it's a love song

The audience is happy, Fyllion gets lots of applause and the patrons offer quite a lot of gold (which goes to Skourja, as agreed to settle Simeon's debt). We see that the applause appears to add a glow to Fyllion. Frei is a little uncomfortable with the audience… Since Storm can't really applaud with his burnt hand, he pokes Frei "let's whistle for Fyllion" and both go at it with abandon! Fyllion grins at them & Mondregen makes a moue of disapproval.

After the show, Fyllion spends a little while networking with the patrons over the drinks Skourja is serving in a different room. Soon he excuses himself to head to bed, though.

While most of us linger over drinks, Mondregen saunters over to Storm, with a rare compliment. With a sigh, Storm leans his head on Mondregen’s shoulder. Oddly sentimental over the decade and a half they spent training together in the Reinzinger Finnilash, they agree to train together the next morning. When Mondregen mentions the fascinating desert fabrics he found here in Koh’Shar, Storm calls Ezra over, knowing it’s also one of their interests. Like Storm, Mondregen does know the Saree family but doesn't recognise Ezra as the prodigal Zoya. When Mondregen leaves, Ezra remarks Mondregen didn't let either of them finish a single sentence… Storm merely grins: that’s Mondregen alright.

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Meanwhile with Fyllion… he finds a little broom closet as a private space to commune with the statue, lured in by Virgil’s promise of power. Despite the demon boy insulting his music as Katzenjammer, Fyllion and Virgil hash out the preliminary terms of a potential deal:

Virgil will give Fyllion the power to defend himself and his family at the Spring Court, either by giving Fyllion powerful artifacts or by making Fyllion a warlock (though if he becomes Fyllion’s patron, he wouldn’t be able to be too hands-on, since Virgil has his own targets and missions)
Fyllion will hand over Eluviel

Fyllion plays the game well, smiling “we'll see when we get there” when Virgil tries to press him for the motivation behind our plans to travel to the north. They agree to get in touch when there’s new info.

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Ezra hums a song for us, to alleviate any nightmares that might crop up.

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The next morning, Mondregen and Storm train together. Storm focuses on flexibility, discovering some forgotten muscle memory. Mondregen shows some exercises that seem to match that eerily… did he perhaps steal this from Storm during a previous meeting? Storm can’t remember, but the whole situation feels very uncomfortable. Still, all in all, it’s a relief for both of us to work together and train with someone equally skilled whom we know well.

After the training Ezra asks Mondregen about Koh’Shar’s textile industry. They’re looking for some very traditionally produced cloth for sturdy practical clothes fit for the desert & something to make a plushie for Aqueel. When Mondregen responds a bit snootily, Storm retaliates by trying to burn holes in his pants with primal savagery, but Mondregen evades it with a stormy look. He leaves Storm & Ezra to it.

While they’re walking into town, Ezra comments the training looked good, and inspired them for potential costumes… They do add a little word of warning for Storm: don’t be too reckless, you know how Mondregen would respond but Virgil remains an unknown quantity. Ezra’s such a great pirate mentor!

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In town, Storm picks up the holy water from Sabor. He looks exhausted, the poor man, when he hands over the amphora. Storm repeats our gratitude. On the way back, Storm has to haggle for a medium quality waterskin. The merchant only relents when Storm gives him a throat punch, and even then, it costs 1 gold. It’s clear more and more people are panicking about the lack of water flow.

Storm finds Fyllion at breakfast, to request the statue. Finally, we can dunk it in holy water and be assured Virgil won’t spy on us. Of course, Fyllion notices an angry vibration from the statue – Virgil isn’t agreeable to this plan at all! After a discussion and the judicious application of a suggestion spell, Fyllion manages to send Storm back to bed, keeping both the statue and the holy water for himself. As soon as he’s alone, he dumps the holy water & replaces it with regular water. Virgil’s statue does get dunked, but at least there’s no holy barrier interfering!

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Meanwhile, Hali visits Mi'Kal in his store. He quickly closes the store, so they can discuss the equations for water production without Aqueel as a child slave: he's found a theoretical way to combine Hali’s creation of water and the runes of perpetual motion (which Hali copied from Maggy’s country apple pie bakery), but he's still working through the practical application. His style is rather bookish, so there's still some work needed, esp. since he doesn't have power like Nasser or Hali herself.

Hali's interested in learning how to brew health potions for the crew. Since Sampson was better at this (brewing and potions being druid talents), Mi’Kal doesn't really have any ingredients or kits ready to go, but he can look through some books when the equations are done and gather some supplies for Hali.

Hali leaves before Mi'Kal can pitch his pan'demonium again. Upon her return to the Moonflower inn, she continues Aqueel's lessons in common, making sure he won’t be helpless.

Episode Line-up

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