Session 071: Moa Money, Moa Problems

Tal searches Moa over by the entrance to the cavern, gets a nat 20 on searching her head to toe. He finds standard Adventurer Supplies, 120 platinum, a spell scroll of Geas, a spell scroll of Telepathic Bond, and an obsidian ring with a pearl embedded and engraved with the symbol of the Grays. In going as far as to peel off Moa's socks, Tal locates spell runes tattooed on her heel. Zenith examines the tattoo and determines that it is designed to allow the bearer to cast a spell targeted upon themselves. And the spell is Power Word Kill.   They determine that dispelling the magic would be difficult, that remove curse could potentially work, that cutting off the foot would work, but simply marring the runes probably wouldn't do it. However, Zenith recalls that it requires a verbal component. Tal remarks that cutting off a tongue would be better than cutting off a foot, to some debate... The group ends up simply gagging her and moving on for now.   The party turns their attention to the cavern, moving back into the space to look at the statues, the braziers, the runes. The statues seem to be preserved by their magic, untouched by time. However, the earth built up around them betrays their age. The brazier at the feet of the statue on the left appears to be burning brighter and larger than the other two. Jack, a glimmer of dark energy in his eyes, deciphers the ancient draconic runes; they are channeling the magic of this space and the ore in the earth to transform an item struck upon the anvil. The item must be struck three times: once to call upon the magic of fire, twice to call upon the magic of earth, thrice to combine and cool them into a stable form. Jack notices also, alongside the draconic runes and the crystalline structure pictured atop a mountain decoratively carved on the side of the anvil, there are newer demonic carvings. The demonic carvings invoke Wrath and interact with the original runes, likely activating upon the third strike when the most magic is flooding the anvil. The party recalls that Wrath was one of the demons invoked in some of the failed demonic rituals mentioned by Priest Jackamina.   (We also learn, after like four years, that in this setting, demons and devils are interchangeable and infernal/abyssal can also be used interchangeably.)   The party tries to figure out if they can do anything about the demonic magic. They decide to try to dispel it, taking the risk of also dispelling the anvil's original magic. With Zenith's guidance, Tal manages to dispel only the demonic magic, leaving the draconic magic intact.   Zenith takes his rapier and, after a moment of thought, strikes the blade against the anvil twice more, fire flaring around it. Zenith now holds a flametongue rapier threaded with veins of purple and gold.   Tal eyes the anvil, wondering if they can enchant multiple weapons. Mohr goes next, smashing her hammer on the anvil thrice, vibrations and rumbles rocking through the space as waves of intense energy and fire ripple out from the anvil. Mohr walks away from the anvil with a luck warhammer now threaded with veins of purple and silver. The warhammer imparts a feeling of immense potential, as though just once (with the one charge) the item could be used to make almost anything happen.   The rumbling in the space does not dissipate, however.   The party recalls Sir Kerria's warning that the tunnels were old and unstable...   The party begins to rush from the cavern as rocks begin to fall and the tunnels begin to collapse. Aphid returns to mouse form and hops into Jack's pocket. Moa is put onto Pearl's back. Talasea decides to risk staying behind to strike his trident thrice upon the anvil, taking the risk of further worsening the crumbling of the tunnels. His luck holds out and the collapse is not affected. For a moment the magic flooding into the trident leans towards life stealing, but then snaps into defense. They Dimension Doors up to the rest of the party with a defender trident glimmering blue and gold.   They face three checks to escape the tunnels. The first time they take max damage from the falling rocks. The second time the mushroom spores choke them and expose them to further farm. The third time, they come to a chasm that has opened in the path.   Tal makes it across. Mohr gets hit by a rock and almost goes unconscious while leaping, but pops back to one thanks to her half-orc heritage. However, Pearl snatches her up to save her from falling. Zenith almost misses the edge. But Verity reaches out and an invisible force pulls Zenith into Verity's arms.   Which leaves Jack. Jack, who also misses the edge.   As he leaps just short of safety and begins to feel the gut-wrenching sensation of free fall, time freezes for him.     The familiar voice of Avarice curls into Jack's ear as he hangs suspended in this moment, staring down at the black depths below, at the desperate faces of his friends above. Jack asks what that means.     Zenith considers throwing himself in after Jack and Dimension Dooring back up, but his attention catches on Jack too late. Tal polymorphs into a Giant Eagle and dives after him, but cannot fly fast enough to catch up. Mohr tries to use her Steps of Night to fly after them, but is even slower than Talgle.   Aphid, wriggling in Jack's pocket, is out of wild shapes.   But Jack is not aware of any of these desperate bids to save him because time is stopped. There is a deal on the table. Jack, who would never choose to take a life if it were only his own on the line, realizes that he's also responsible for Aphid. So he makes a choice.   A life for a life.   Time resumes for Jack, his stomach lurching as he continues falling at terminal velocity. Brie appears at Jack's back, transforms into a giant, horned, winged beast, digs claws into Jack and bears him upwards. When the others look on in confusion, Jack urges them out of the cavern. They manage to escape before any further harm can come to them...   The party successfully exits the cavern, meeting a very concerned Springish guard. The guard runs off to tell someone that the city is collapsing. Not too long later Sir Kerria runs up leading a group of people. She takes those with druidic abilities into the tunnels. A healer attends to the party real quick.   One short rest later, Sir Kerria returns and escorts the party to a max security anti-magic cell where they deposit Moa. Sir Kerria takes the party over to a separate room to debrief on what's going on. As the party describes the situation with the Grays, Sir Kerria mentions that she has a role she plays in respect to the Verdant Quarter and knows that they are champions on their pilgrimage. She also mentions that she has dealt with Grays before and that the self-destruct spell is an option commonly given to them. They are trained to remove access to secrets by any means necessary.   Sir Kerria seems confused and a bit frustrated that the Verdant Quarter hadn't explained the deal with the Grays. She mutters about the choices of mortals and then admits that she isn't super involved with how they figure those things out. The Verdant Quarter's purpose is to "guide you on your way" while Sir Kerria's purpose is to ensure that the governance of the kingdom is going okay. So while she has a vested interest in the party's success it's not super her job to give them a primer on the Grays.   Tal points out that Sir Kerria is really dragging this out and should right the wrong of the party not getting the lowdown on the Grays. Sir Kerria defends her right to introduce dramatic tension.   She explains that the Grays originate as far back as the Era of the Dragons. Nobody is quite sure when they transitioned from being freedom fighters resisting the reign of the dragons into the group that they are now which is dedicated to waking the Dreamer. Nobody is very interested in giving a straight answer on why.   Some of the folks involved in the Somnolent Movement believe that the Grays want to wake the Dreamer because they think it'll give them some kind of control over reality. Sir Kerria believes that if that is the case then it is foolish, because every sign connected to the Awakening points to the degradation of reality rather than any control over it. Others think it's about trying to get to the reality the Dreamer resides in and believe that were our reality to collapse, it would result in a harmless transition of the lives in this reality over to that reality. Sir Kerria says this is again foolish because we have no proof that the transition between realities is harmless. What Sir Kerria and her sisters (to an extent) believe is that what most of the organization is told their purpose is is irrelevant. She thinks the vast majority of Grays are brainwashed and that there is someone pulling the shots that is perhaps in contact with the Dreamer themself. She hasn't figured out who that person is since they're quite fond of wearing other faces, but she knows she has talked to them at least once. A couple hundred years ago, for some reason, the leader let slip as they were talking to Sir Kerria at a political function that they had plans- for the world, for the Dreamer. All they would say in response to Sir Kerria's clumsy social maneuverings was that we had been asleep too long. And they disappeared. It was unfortunately not a place where Sir Kerria had jurisdiction and it took a bit too long to convince her sister that action needed to be taken.   Zenith asks who Sir Kerria's sisters are. Sir Kerria says they probably wouldn't appreciate her blowing their cover, but that they are similar in every kingdom and serve similar purposes.   Sir Kerria brings them back around to discuss the priorities of what they want to learn from Moa and how. She cautions them to use their time wisely, because they've never been able to hold a Gray for very long.   During this conversation, Sir Kerria notes that the Grays being so overtly interested in the champions is a new thing they haven't done before. Tal asks if Sir Kerria knows who the previous champions were and if she was one of them. She says no, that the champions must be mortal, but she does know who they are. It's a bit of a question mark how many are left, but she knows who they were. She validates Tal's frustration with not knowing much about being champions but admits that part of the magic is the magic of learning it as you go, which is part of why she's never been a prominent person responsible for making it happen. She just doesn't have the patience for that bullshit.   Sir Kerria also clarifies that the invisible note on one of the stolen letters on whether the "VQ1 has been extracted" probably means that the Grays had an agent on the inside that they were trying to get out of there. Her best guess at the meaning of planetouched: a person who has spent time in the Reverie or exposed to the Reverie. Sir Kerria promises to arrange for Tal to gain access to Other Worlds and notes that the Queen will probably want it to stay in the Palace. She also says in her opinion it is as much fiction as fact.   After some discussion they decide that they will start by bringing Moa to a magic-capable room, use a Zone of Truth from Sir Kerria and a Detect Thoughts from Zenith to begin with, and try to ascertain the following: What locations they are operating Where Onoana might be Confirm suspicion about them being the Red Hand Why they're hunting the party Who the Gray in the Verdant Quarter is   They play with the idea of lying and saying they've already caught Onoana, but decide not to in order to be able to ask about Onoana. They keep Geas as a plan B.   The group goes to collect Moa, who is now awake. She accepts the gag without protestation. Her eyes dart from place to place as she takes in every possible thing she could use to her advantage in a way that is transparent (at least to everyone that didn't roll a nat one). Moa clearly has not figured out her next move yet and is desperately trying to do so.   Sir Kerria casts Zone of Truth, which Moa (and a handful of others) fails. Zenith casts Detect Thoughts.   Moa is meditating carefully, reciting a book in her head in an attempt to resist exactly such spells as Detect Thoughts.   Zenith probes deeper....   And Moa fails the save.