Session 7

Fact Sheet: well, well, well, what’s in this well?

Date: Wednesday 14-09-22

Date in-universe: an unspecified Friday, before lunch

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

Major developments:

Yeah, we called the rat, asked about the water and the ring. He told us something went down under the city and he found the ring on the dead body in the well. So we went down the well and found the body, got attacked by a water weird who normally protects the well and keeps the water clean. It got corrupted by trying to keep the water clean despite the dead body and the poisonous dagger he was stabbed with.

Then we found a little contraband room with the sable serpent’s sign on a crate, a little pouch that seems to be Simeon’s that was covered in blood as if the guy got attacked and barely got away. As we went deeper, we found a children’s room with a few books of magic that led us to believe he’s the one responsible for the water flowing in the city.

There was a seashell in that room that looked like the one Ezra saw Nasser clutch earlier and a door that we think goes to his house.

The other exit lead to another contraband room where we got attacked by bandits of the sable serpent, which we obliterated (rest in pieces) and the last surviving guy told us that they were supposed to kill Simeon, deliver the child to their boss and rejoin their lair but that at this point he was sure he was going to die so he’d be more willing to help us than run, especially if we can help him start over somewhere else.

Notes

Some of the inverted waterfalls stopped after the earthquake. Several people in the streets are panicking, many others are baffled, like we are. Hali checks with the water elemental in her waterskin, but there's no response & no movement.

Frei explains

the waterfalls start in the reservoirs under the town
there are underground canals to circulate the water around town
Newtown is built on top of the older, smaller Koh’Shar from before the circle event. It obviously needs water, but it flows uphill in mystical waterfalls because Nasser wants to be extra

Ezra touches one of the new earrings in their asymmetrical assortment of ear jewelry. They call on the cheese buying rat. Unfortunately he’s preoccupied with several cave-ins trapping his family. He's still willing to meet up with us, though, so we head to the square.

While walking towards the square, we see Nasser's mansion & also Skourja and Sabor heading to the guard HQ, as well as

an elder elf woman
a half elf black man

They both look like council members.

Akram is at the door of the HQ, in the process of seeing the cheese vendor out. He welcomes the council members for an emergency meeting. He insists we look into whatever happened. Ezra is hesitant but Akram convinces us.

While we crawl around to find a grate in order to talk to the telepathic rat, Nasser arrives, looking very stressed despite a great entourage. Thanks to a NATURAL TWENTY Ezra notices he's clutching a conch shell... is it an amulet? Is it a symbol of wealth to indicate his family's connection to water? He's babbling about maintenance works needing to shut off the flow, it's not that dramatic.

When we find the rat, Ezra poses their questions:

what happened & how can we help
where did you find the rings

The rat doesn't think we can help with the collapse, we don't look strong enough. He does mention he found the rings “on the dead guy who's been lying in the well for several days” and seized the opportunity to barter for that delicious cheese.

Eldrin offers the rat a ration as reward, but he rejects it as too pedestrian (he's not surprised when he looks at us).

.

We debate what to do about the body. Hali wants to pretend we know nothing, but the rest of us prefer to check it out. Hali's already visited this well: she remembers the bucket was broken, but the rope is still there. Rather than trust the well’s rope, we prefer to tie Eldrin's own rope to the well shed.

Ezra goes down first, Eldrin follows.

They arrive in a natural cavern, with a natural body of water in. Several channels connect to other parts of the city. Those parts are roughly hewn, they look like man-made expansions of this cave. There's a person floating in the water. Ezra works to get it out of the water, because that's not sanitary.

Suddenly they feel something entangling their legs, though nothing is visible! Ezra warns Eldrin, who warns Hali! Ezra is pulled under water! It's probably another water elemental!

Storm jumps straight down & slashes at the water with acid claws, but nothing happens
Ezra is under water, the creature is crawling up their legs. They cast fairy fire to see if that reveals the creature. We can now see the glitter beast! Ezra shifts into their tiger form
the creature doesn't care it's now visible & keeps crushing Ezra. There's a majestic feeling about it: it's a water weird (HTML), who're usually protectors of bodies of water
Eldrin looks over Ezra & decides to drop into the water. While falling, thanks to inspiration, they slash at the water weird with their longsword... but the damage is only a NATURAL ONE
Frei cannonballs down & punches the creature twice (with a NATURAL TWENTY)
Hali recalls water weirds are a rarer type of water elemental, typically protecting a person or a body of water. They can be corrupted, though. To verify that, Hali calls out in Aquan
xi lpux vjot ximm xet dussaqvif, xi'si vszoph vu sinuwi vji quotup
The weird looks over to Hali in response: Hali notices there's a lot of putrefaction, as if the elemental absorbed something... and there's traces of a vile green ichor. As the weird still doesn't seem very friendly, Hali decides to try lesser restoration. At her touch and incantation, the green ichor disappears! Though the putrefaction remains, the weird calms down a little & lets Ezra go!

We get out of the water, removing the body as well. As we move the body, we see the green ichor trailing from it... its source is a poisoned knife in the chest! The water weird swirls up the ichor, keeping the well clean. It's not enough to anger it again. At Hali's thanks, it nods in recognition.

Ezra's sand storm shakes off the water, distinctly displeased.

We examine the body: a tan man, dressed in nice, dark clothes. He looks rich, though not as rich as the council members. His pouch has 45 gold and 10 silver (which Eldrin pockets).

We assume it's Marduk. Frei confirms his identity. She's doesn't know a lot about decomposition in water, but she reckons he's been dead for a day and a half, or maybe 2 days. She guesses he might have been killed before Jahadi.

The dagger is very lovely, filigreed with gold & it has a blue gem. As soon as it touches any kind of body, it starts leaking poison. Ezra keeps the dagger.

The filigree echoes the patterns we've seen on the more wealthy buildings in town. It's probably local make, for some rich person, though not recognizable as belonging to one house or artisan (to us at least).

Eldrin wonders about the broken bucket. We can see the pieces floating about.

Hali tries to talk to the baby elemental again, but there's still no response. With the words "I have a little friend for you", Hali pours it into the basin... but it looks like just dirty water with lung fluids. The magic that summoned the creature to our realm, appears to have ended. The water weird doesn't respond.

Ezra ponders the mysteries of calling forth an elemental, so Hali casts her mind back to the water colonies where she grew up & met elementals before. Hali explains weak casters can summon an elemental with concentration, with stronger casters can use timed spells.

Together, they figure the baby elemental was summoned by a weaker concentration spell.

Why was the concentration disrupted?

was the caster killed?
did they cast earthquake & thus disrupt their previous spell?
did the earthquake distract them?

Also, what about the spell that made the water flow uphill? Why did that stop, in some places only?

.

Ezra looks around in the cavern.

several grates close off the canals leading to the irrigation tunnels
there's a door with doorknob poking out of the wall, like a glitch in a video game

Ezra touches the wall, even though Storm warns them about mimics and our decision to poke it with an arrow first... Ezra's hand disappears into the wall: it's an illusion hiding a tunnel!

Storm suggests we check on Enza. She’s looking down the well. Since she can’t swim & since she figures she lacks the arm strength to pull herself up again, she’s hesitant to just jump down… There's a confusion about "a weird" and "everything I see when I'm with you is weird".

Eldrin asks her to warn Akram about Marduk's body & the water weird. After we thank her for agreeing to deliver our message, she leaves.

Ezra breaks the tunnel's illusion so we can start exploring. We find a well-stocked store room in a fully natural cave system:

art objects, statuettes, gold filigreed tableware
rare fruits
tightly regulated (if not straight out illegal) items: hallucinogens, tentacles in jars, etc.

Several crates are marked with the sketch of a serpent! Ezra notices a bag on the floor. It looks strangely familiar, even though it's now thoroughly empty, except for

phials smelling of the smoke which dazed the guards, allowing Saatia's murder
a scrap of purple fabric
a piece of parchment soaked in blood

The next room is incredible!

There are other deep basins in the middle of the floor. Grates shut off the basins from the canals, there are exotic creatures in these glowing pools. None of them belong in the middle of a desert, and some look so alien they probably don’t even belong to this plane of reality
there's a decorative floor marking with a ribbon of water ever swirling around it
there’s a reading nook with several books. The books seem expensive and imported. They're in a language we don't know, but several have illustrations, like a children's book
there's a bed with a blue conch plushie... Ezra figures the plushie is the same type of conch as Nasser was carrying

Is this a kid's room?? Would that explain in some measure why Nasser was so worried over the earthquake?

The room appears empty, Storm doesn't see anyone under the bed. Ezra addresses the creatures in the pools in Aquan, but none respond. They do notice that the tunnels behind the grates appear to lead up from the level where we are. Perhaps this is the place where the person lives who makes the water flow uphill? It might be a magically gifted child, hidden

because Nasser doesn’t want the mystery of his power to be revealed?
because of the looming war between Rosaria and Kharkhorin, in which the prince of Rosaria is conscripting wizards?

Would Nasser hide his offspring here to avoid the war? What if Jahadi found the child & the child panicked, conjuring the baby elemental to defend themselves (since the elemental said "protect master")?

Frei feels we’ve wandered far enough that we're under Nasser's mansion now... There's one corridor with stairs, leading up to a door with runes. There's another corridor, with a closed door.

.

Ezra opens the door stealthily, revealing a big room:

2 bandits are working on a collapsed area. From the scorch marks on the rubble, this was caused by an explosion
there is a significant puddle of blood… the trail started under the satchel in the store room, there were some droplets in the kid’s room & now there’s this puddle right at the edge of the collapse
2 more bandits are working with pick-axes to open a door covered in a thick layer of ice, to the right of the collapse
closer to the door Ezra just opened, there's also a leader, based on his outfit in Saatia's style and quality. Since he's pretty wounded, he’s on a ledge overlooking the room, trying to recover. From there, he notices the door opening, and orders one of his men to keep working on the collapse & the 3 others to take us out!

Eldrin hexes the leader & casts eldritch blast on him. The wounded captain is in a lot of pain.
Hali climbs the ledge (stacked with contraband) & hits him with a NATURAL TWENTY for 24 points of damage, blasting his wounded left arm clean off! Hali shifts into her starry form & hurls a luminous arrow, and hurts him some more
Ezra joins Hali and shoots at the same guy. Their sandstorm wraps around the arrow, smoothly entering the wound & bursts from his chest upon hitting. The captain is dead & Ezra and Hali high-five
the bandits look terrified, but who're they afraid of? Us or something else? Despite their fear, now all 4 of them take aim at Hali & hit. They look for cover.
Frei is far away, so just dashes into the room
Storm also dashes into the room, leaps over the water & lands next to the dead captain. One bandit is beguiled by his graceful movements through dancer's influence

Eldrin crouches behind the ladder and casts sleep. The beguiled bandit and another one fall asleep. Ezra high-fives Eldrin
Hali moves deeper into the cave and hits a bandit with another guiding bolt. Her starry form misses. The bandit groans in pain. Hali hides between some barrels, leaving a path for Ezra
Ezra steps forward & targets the same guy & kills him. Ezra's swarm carries them forward & they go prone to hide.
the only bandit still awake jumps up and stabs Ezra in their hiding place with the words: “Believe me, what's coming for me if I can't get out of here, is much worse than whatever you people can do”. He heads over to his colleagues, aiming to wake them up. Ezra responds with the poison dagger before he can move & he stumbles, deeply wounded, but still manages to wake up one bandit
Frei runs to the newly awake bandit: one miss, one hit
Storm takes a running leap, pushes of the edge of the ledge, soars over the water & stomps the guy to death. The last bandit awake is intimidated & when Storm orders him to surrender, he pees his pants a little & mentions we're just as terrible as Nadir, the leader of the Sable Serpent

Eldrin also intimidates him, with a NATURAL TWENTY. The bandit starts babbling:

they're part of the sable serpent
Nadir is terrifying, the bandit seems uncertain if Nadir is an it or a he. Nadir's punishment would be more painful that what we can do, even though Storm stomped a guy to death
the bandit wanted to be a farmer but was exiled & now his life if forfeit! We explain we helped Frei with her exile. Hali comforts the bandit with goodberries & we promise him a ride out of town. He figures he could be safe if he got to Thalm Sashari

Still despondent, but now clinging to some hope, he starts explaining their mission here:

Nasser has worked with the Sable Serpent for many years. They provide the contraband, Nasser allows them access to the irrigation tunnels, the clients pay well: everyone profits. Leafing through the documents that go with the crates and sacks here, Hali finds ample proof this is true
since the circle event provided so much more water (and Nasser managed to maintain control of all of Koh’Shar’s water), Nasser had another source of riches. He’s been less cooperative, allowing less deals to go through his tunnels… Fearing Nasser was planning to end the accord, Nadir felt the Sable Serpent had to respond. Nadir launched a three-pronged approach:
- have Marduk (the Sable Serpent’s agent in Koh’Shar) negotiate a new deal with Jahadi (as merchant-king of the guards and the roads, his help would probably be equivalent to Nasser’s help), in which case killing Nasser is also on the agenda
- put pressure on Nasser by kidnapping the magical child he’s hiding in the irrigation tunnels
- if Nasser doesn’t budge, or maybe even if he does, use the magical child as a sacrifice, in order to increase Nadir’s own power

Everything went sideways, though:

they found Marduk dead: did Nasser find out he was dealing with Jahadi and kill him for it?
the kid was a lot harder to capture than expected, and it’s hiding behind that ice right now
Simeon was suddenly also here, two days later than his contract specified. What caused his delay and why is he acting so odd? Perhaps he was the one who killed Jahadi? Either way, when they ran into him in the store room, they stabbed him with a poison dagger. He’s bound to die within the hour, but rather than submit gracefully, he had to try and run, didn’t he? He even used an alchemist’s flask to cause that huge explosion reverberating through all the tunnels, as if that’ll help him get to some hideout. That hideout is too far!

Still, the bandit wouldn’t mind having proof of Simeon's death. It would reassure him of our good faith & in exchange he'll show us the Sable Serpent's base on Ezra's map from Ghorann's hide-out.

.

The bandit prefers we kill his sleeping colleague, just to be sure that that guy doesn't continue the fight. Storm ties up the sleeping bandit, every finger to the corresponding finger of his other hand. Ezra and Storm joke about shibari and knotwork. Ezra heard about it from someone on the Young Kraken, Storm’s spent some time at the Rosarian court

.

We decide to look for the child. Hali weakens the wall of ice, so we can see the door behind it. Eldrin explains we're not bandits, we're pirates. Ezra adds we only want to help. There is no response. Eldrin casts a minor illusion beyond the barrier, singing a jaunty pirate song in the other room: we notice it's very, very muffled, so the ice is probably still very thick... Is there no response, or can we just not hear the response?

With the pick-axes we break through the ice which Hali had weakened. The door splinters away & we break the second part of the ice.

The room beyond is almost completely flooded. In the deepest part of the pool, there's a cage lying on its side with a tiny creature hiding. Water tentacles lash out at us & Storm is knocked prone! In Aquan, a tiny blubbering voice calls out

I dep figipf nztimg!

Ezra and Hali reassure the child in Aquan:

xi'si qosevit gsun vji pusvjisp tiet

Hali swims over to help the child out of the cage & notices it's a very young water genie boy, who introduces himself as Aqueel…

Translations from Aquan to Common

I’m still using the translator on https://lingojam.com/English-AquarianTranslator.

Hali in the well: we know this well was corrupted, we're trying to remove the poison
Aqueel’s voice from the submerged cage: I can defend myself!
Ezra and Hali responding to Aqueel: we're pirates from the northern seas

Episode Guide

Previously: session 6 Let the bodies hit the floor

Up next: session 8 Hello Aqueel, so long Simeon