🐺87. in sheep's clothing

session 87 • august 15 2023 • 1,231 words

🌑 DAY 28 • 📅 MARPENOTH 18

STAY!!! CLOSE!!!!

An exasperated Droop confronts Soren, “we need to have a talk” Because he was instructed by Hugh to protect Soren, he is thoroughly frustrated by Soren’s movement in the fight, and especially with his “disappearance”. Droop insists that he cannot protect Soren if Soren KEEPS MOVING AWAY FROM HIM!!

Soren is taken aback but touched by Droop’s concern for him. He calls Droop a “knight in shining armor”, confusing him, before apologizing for his silliness and promising to stay close from now on.

Droop is satisfied.

New Clothes

We rifle through what we found in the remains of the traveling cart that seems to have been devoured by spiders. Among other things, we find several pieces of clothing, some of which rather nice and almost like that of nobility / showman outfits.

We split the clothes—when Soren saltily comments about “you’re not giving these ones to the children too?” Will points out that they SHOULD give a set of clothes to Sunny, who is dressed in underwear and is small and built like a literal twig. Soren is like “wait no I wasn’t fucking serious omg—“ and sulks in a corner.

Will asks that Soren be the one to give the clothes to Sunny. Though reluctant and sulky because he wants the party to prioritize himself, Soren eventually relents bc Will has very big and wet puppy dog eyes.

Gruffly, Soren summons Sunny from the NPC group, trying to sternly present this as a “reward” for her. My boy wants to exude top energy so bad. Unfortunately, he immediately softs when Sunny loses her mind about getting such nice clothes, as Sunny immediately thinks that this is a trick to get her punished—due to her lingering fear of drow, including Soren.

Soren changes tunes, reassuring her that there would be no “trick orders” like in Menzoberranzan, and that she should take the clothes. Sunny expresses excitement and gratitude, but quickly realizes she had no idea how to put on this frilly shit.

New Skin

With encouragement from Will and Sildar, Soren (the resident frilly clothes expert I guess) hesitantly accompanies Sunny to a secluded corner of the cavern to help her change. Sunny is EXTREMELY uncomfortable at the idea of Soren being so close / touching her. Noticing this, Soren casts Disguise Self on him again and to look like a human counterpart of himself.

Sunny is SHOOKTH, and immediately wrongly assumes that Soren has been disguising himself as a drow. Soren debates telling her the truth, but eventually “admits” to her his “big secret”—he spins a whole story about how he is actually a human man who was enslaved by drow, and how he now disguises himself as drow because he is too scared of walking around the Underdark as his true self.

The metaphor here makes my little writer heart go doki doki.

This seems effective in calming Sunny, who immediately shows a comfortableness and closeness to Soren that he had not seen before. Soren shows Sunny his scars and whip lashes on his “human” form, to further cement his story, and Sunny abruptly takes his hand and tries to comfort him out of compassion and solidarity.

Emotional, Soren thanks her, then helps her finish getting dressed.

Sunny expresses her excitement at having another human buddy, noting that she hasn’t really gotten to know any aside from Will and Sildar. She wishes that she could train to see in the dark like Will, and Soren offers to teach her Dancing Lights.

Sunny reacts in shock, noting that she could never magic because she was just a stupid iblith. Recognizing these insults as likely being what Sunny’s former masters called her, Sorennar grimly smiles and declares that “my master used to say that about me too.” He promises to teach her magic to prove them wrong.

Will, who is within earshot, translates this conversation to Sildar and expresses his disapproval about Soren feeling the need to hide his true self. Sildar does not seem as bothered as Will and notes that it’s not necessarily a bad thing that Soren is trying to make Sunny more comfortable.

Both of them, however, agree that Soren cannot hide himself forever, and that this may damage his relationship with Sunny more in the long run once she finds out.

More Spiders! : (

Before rejoining the group, Soren tells Sunny to "remember, I am your friend". Will compliments Sunny's new clothes and she is happy and feels nice ;-;

As we continue forward because no one wants to sit here among skinned spider corpses for any longer, Will marks the cavern walls as we pass so that we don't get lost.

Eventually, we stumble into another branch in the cavern. Remembering Jakoth's advice to "keep left", Will suggests continuing to do so, but we find evidence of more spiders to the right. Soren, fueld by 89% resentment and eager to test the limits of his newfound "we can kill spiders and Lolth can't do anything to us", suggests that we might find more loot to the right.

The party and Nezznar are surprised by his sudden willingness to face spiders, but let him lead the way. We find another nest of spiders chillin, and engage in a fight. This one goes much more smoothly, and Soren starts us off by sending a blazing fireball into the nest. Between this and Will using Produce Face, we obliterate much of the webs and spiders.

Nezznar tries to match Soren's energy but misses most of his attacks out of discomfort for fighting spiders.

The path routes deeper to the right, but Will and the party express discomfort at forging deeper into these spider-infested caverns. Reluctantly, Soren agrees to go back to the left, and the party leaves the spider caverns.

D&D Plans

Honestly this part is a mess, I don't think we really reached a conclusion and we ended up talking so much out of character that I'm not sure what was canon. In essentia:

• As we walk, Eldeth wonders what the fuck our plan is

• Will tries to suggest "we'll figure it out closer to the village" but Soren, who continues to exude salty bitch energy, notes that we are only a day away and it's just like Will to be unable to make a decision.

• Shuushar pipes up with "I shall go talk to Plooploopeen, the Head Priest of the Sea Mother. He will help us" except "Plooploopeen" is said super slowly every time and is funny as fuck

  • He suggests that if he talks to them nicely, they'll let us trade

• Soren is racist and says that the kuo-toa will sooner meet us with spears and nets and try to eat us because they're uncivilized stupid barbaric creatures

• Party suggests sending Soren in disguised as a fish with Shuushar to meet Plooploopeen.

  • Soren is super doubtful that this Plooploopeen fellow will actually help us and suggests that Shuushar go and talk and probably get killed instead while Soren scouts for supplies for the party

• Soren doesn't wanna go in alone at all and suggests pretending the party is his and Shuushar's slaves. No one (even Soren himself) is pleased with this idea. It's scrapped (??)

• The plan of "fart into a bag of holding" is somehow mentioned at some point. I dont remmeber the context and frankly I do not want to