🎁93. gift exchange
session 93 • october 06 2024 • 1,810 words
🌑 DAY 29 • 📅 MARPENOTH 19
Half-Breed Healing
Confused, Will responds to Hugh's question by stating that weddings are... fine?
Myco prompts Hugh to ask Diana how she feels about them; she loves them, of course! Myco demands to know what gift she'll bring; she asks for the wedding's theme. Hugh and Myco are like.... mushrooms :) decay ... :)
Diana, Hugh and Myco have a back-and-forth about good gifts; Diana wants to bring Zuggtmoy,,, the demon lord of decay herself,, a dress! Myco is unimpressed. Hugh is very impressed.
At this moment, Sarith clutches his head in pain and doubles over. Diana rushes over to make a medicine check, despite Sarith's angry protests about being touched. As Diana tries to Cure Wounds him, Sarith casts Darkness to prevent her from doing so. She persists anyway, calling him a big baby and d healing him, though Will pulls Diana away, not trusting Sarith.
Sarith, bristling about being healed against his will and by a half-drow no less, calls Will a "worse headache" than the one he had, and threatens Diana--"never touch me again, half-breed, or I'll kill you."
Diana, of course, does not take this lying down, and tells him that she'll let him die next time.
They squabble briefly before Sarith goes to sulk in a corner.
Shortest Friendship Ever
Thurmond, the brother of the duergar twins, compliments Diana on being "the only sensible one of the group". Diana is pleasantly surprised, until Thurmond reveals that he only thinks so because Diana was rude to Sarith, whom Thurmond thinks should be murdered in cold blood.
Diana expresses some concern about murdering someone. Thurmond tries to sweeten the pot by saying Sarith was probably only in pain because he has some "horrible contagious disease".
Diana once again expresses hesitation at straight up killing a sick person, citing her cleric domain of life as a reason.
Thurmond immediately turns against her, citing her as illogical as the others. Diana tells him to fuck off.
To Steal A God
When Will goes to gather some water to process with his brewer's tools, Hugh takes Glitter to pet pet. Will returns and notices the kitten missing.
Sildar, who witnessed Hugh do this, jokingly tells Will that Glitter ran off, pointing him towards where Hugh is. Will frantically calls for Glitter as he follows the direction, until Sildar feels bad and straight up tells him that Glitter is with Hugh.
Will does not find this funny. He finds that Hugh has put Glitter in their new spider-walking slippers, and takes Glitter back.
Morning Workout
Back at the main group, Hugh asks the party what the plan is.
Soren is still wary of the kuo-toa, but admits that they are badly in need of supplies, which Sloopbloodop can provide them. He decisively notes that we should go to the kuo-toa village to see if we can trade for any supplies, perhaps do them a favor in exchange, then leave as soon as possible.
Hugh seems down for this plan. Will repeats that they just need to be careful, Hugh accuses him of "copying Soren", flustering Will.
Sarith and Thurmond are having a sass-off, with Sarith making thinly veiled threats ("I know of a dwarf who wandered too deep--never found him again. Isn't that a pity? :3") while Thurmond insults Sarith's existence.
Diana struggles to put out the campfire; Will helps her with Druidcraft, which she is quite impressed with.
Shortly after they depart from the campsite, Hugh invites Diana on a workout, which involves tossing Droop back and forth like a basketball LMAO. Diana agrees but stumbles and drops Droop on the ground. Hugh immediately asks her to go for a run with him; Diana isn't able to keep up and eventually, wheezingly, rejoins the others.
Will offers Sunny his arm as they walk. Sunny is taken aback but takes it after Will expresses that he wants her to do so.
Repentance
As the group forages, Nezznar joins in--an occurance that seems increasingly common. We've done it boys, we've softed the BBEG.
Eventually, Nezznar brings his forage to Soren. Soren immediately recognizes one of the mushrooms as poisonous, and points it out to Nezznar.
Nezznar contests this, as he had once fed Soren similar ones on their hunting trip--not realizing that Soren had been too afraid to point out his mistakes back then and so just endured the effects of the poison.
In stark contrast, Soren doubles down on, and, when Nezznar insists, challenges his former master coldly: "you're welcome to try them then, Nezznar."
Nezznar silently puts away the mushrooms. [Mel: does he put them into his butt?]
Nezznar questions Soren on the events last night between Hugh and Soren--when Hugh apologized for hitting Soren and gave him his flail to "hit him back" with. Soren is, at first, defensive--thinking that Nezznar was angry about Soren asking him to identify magic items.
When Nezznar demands to know what "the dwarf and you were doing", Soren confusedly notes--"a hug?" LMAO. Eventually, it becomes clear that Nezznar was asking about the flail situation. Soren explains that Hugh was apologizing for hitting him, but drily notes that "repentance" might be out of Nezznar's vocabulary.
Nezznar remains thoughtful and surprisingly accepting of Soren's digs. Soren excuses himself from the situation sarcastically "anything else I can do for you?", but Nezznar continues to earnestly offer his magic item identification services.
What You Can Become
Soren asks Nezznar if he can craft magic items, and if Nezznar would teach him.
Nezznar explains--relatively patiently--that they don't have the forge, materials, resources or time to do so. Soren idly wonders if they can "politely requisition" one of the duergar forges at Gracklestugh.
Nezznar sneers at the idea that the proud dwarves would even let them into the city. let alone their forges.
On that note, Soren requests Nezznar lend him the spell-storing ring (the ring that Nezznar had given Soren to kill Sildar with, and which Soren gave back to him a nights ago in a moment of vulnerability).
Nezznar does so hesitantly, and Soren proudly casts Disguise Self into the ring, intending for Nezznar to use it on himself--since Nezznar cannot cast magic and desperately hates his new drider form.
Nezznar silently regards the ring, knowing--with his arcane expertise--that Disguise Self does not work for this purpose, because Disguise Self clearly states: "You can’t change your body type, so you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs." As such, a drider cannot use the spell to make himself look like a humanoid creature.
He solemnly asks Soren what his intentions were.
Soren's confidence begins to waver, and he prompts Nezznar to cast it on himself. Nezznar (with surprising patience) explains to Soren the limitations of Disguise Self.
When Soren embarassedly apologizes, Nezznar advises Soren to always look for the limits of a spell so he is not caught off-guard--, almost as a teacher would a student.
Nezznar ends the lesson about illusion magic with "you cannot turn into anything other than what you are", which is weirdly poetic for this campaign and totally not foreshadowing.
Soren inquires if there are any other spells that CAN help Nezznar regain a humanoid form, if not temporarily. Nezznar schools him about transmutation magic like Alter Self.
You Were Right
Soren attempts to excuse himself, but inadvertantly, instinctively, ends up apologizing for wasting Nezznar's time. Nezznar tries to brush it off gently but Soren becomes frustrated at himself for being unable to shake himself of his old habits.
Exasperated, he reminds Nezznar of Wave Echo Cave, when Nezznar had gloated to Soren that "long after I have died, I will continue to haunt your dreams". Soren admits angrily that Nezznar was correct: that even now, he couldn't wake up in peace next to Sildar; that he barely even slept nowadays because he was afraid he'd wake up the party screaming from nightmares.
Soren ends his rant with "whatever this is, whatever you're trying to do, stop it!"--referring to Nezznar's sudden recent civility, and storms off, leaving Nezznar to ponder in silence.
📍 Sloopbloodop Village
(HOLY SHIT we get use a location pin for ONCE)
We finally get to Sloopbloodop Village!!! It is a dank, smelly, small fishing village set on the shore of the Darklake, full of huts and rickety bridges and towers.
The village is full of hundreds of kuo-toa. Diana thanks us for saving her from the kuo-toa because "this would have been an awful place to die" LMAO.
The group grows anxious at the sight of so many potentially-hostile kuo-toa, though Shuushar reassures us that he will speak to the leader and grant us amnesty. Soren tries to speak to the kuo-toa with niceties, but they recognize us as "the ones who fought the Deep Father group".
Soren, seeing that there is some hostility towards said group, agrees readily that they were, hoping that will curry favor with the main group of kuo-toa. He affirms that the party is "very strong", citing Nezznar's drider form as "the company we keep" in an attempt to reinforce the group's strength.
The kuo-toa, seemingly satisfied, ushers us towards a giant statue of a crawfish-looking ass deity lady.
Soren tries to tell them that we are here strictly for trade and supplies, not religious ceremonies, but this seems to fall on deaf fish ears.
What We Keep
At the statue of a deity called the Sea Mother, the kuo-toa demand that we leave a sacrifice worthy of her before we are allowed into the village.
Diana considers leaving behind a family signet ring and Soren considers leaving behind his lute--the one that Nezznar gifted to him, further showing his estrangement from his former master. When questioned, he notes that music is useless to him now that he cannot cast through it.
Will stops Diana from leaving her ring, suggesting that we divide up the arrows we have and give one each. Soren is also stopped from putting down his lute--Will notes that it's something hard to come by and tells Soren that music is something that makes him happy, while Hugh, Sildar and Diana ask that Soren keep the lute so he can play for them.
Reluctantly, Soren keeps the lute.
In the end, here is what we give:
Hugh
Spider Fang / Harvest from a battle well-fought
Soren
Bioluminescent Algae / Native to darklake + symbolic of lighting the way for the kuo-toa
Will
1/2 piece of cheese
Diana, Sildar, Nezznar, NPCs
Arrows
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