[17e01] Alye'bonjour!

Downtime activities

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Callie’s Journal

Cal considered the contents of his bag of holding, which we previously loaded up with all kinds of magic artifacts from Invictus’s manor. Cassandra tells him that some of the items from Invictus’s ritual room are fundamentally, cosmically evil, and says that therefore the SPI cannot use them, but that someone like the swamp hag might be interested in them. (I feel like I should get used to calling her by her name, just in case she’s sensitive about the whole “swamp hag” thing. Grainne. G r a i n n e. GROH - nee - ah.) Does he want to take them along as barter, or would he rather they be destroyed? After considering carefully, Cal chooses to destroy them.

I have 240 gold in back wages, which is nice, but not enough to buy a whole new chest armor. I ask Mallory to requisition Half Plate armor for me. I will have to return it in “perfect condition,” which I guess I can achieve with Mending, hopefully. This armor is also heavy and gives me disadvantage on stealth, but I think my fancy elven boots will make me only normally bad at stealth.

[Before we left the changeling village last time, we asked if we could have their teleportation sigil sequence. They don’t write it down, so our party smart people had to open our minds to telepathy and memorize it. Only Bec and I were able to remember it, so I’ll handle the teleportation this time.]

We teleport to the changeling village and end up in a laboratory with Rotesabal. Vondal had previously agreed to be an anchor for one of the changelings, but now that he’s flux-tainted, it’s too dangerous. He’ll need to get un-warped if he wants to follow through. Anyway, we go to ask if there’s a hag around somewhere. (That patented Vondal charm at work.)

Freki’s interested in what Rotesabal is doing and offers to hang out while the rest of us go investigate. Rotesabal is “experimenting,” meaning he’s randomly mixing stuff to see what happens. He has some sort of not-monkey friend. Neither one of them likes outsiders too much, so Freki heads out to rejoin the rest of us.

Some of the folks we saw last time are here. Rejal Bickerbeard, Ki’woo’ya, and others. Well, it’s not like they can leave. There’s a goblin woman trying to get Bickerbeard to help with a problem. Which is like magic words to us, so we ask what the issue is. Her people are in jeopardy!

Bec asks if Rotesabal is quite alright, and Bickerbeard assures her he’s fine. The plants keep him busy. Anyway, we’re here to talk to Anorje. Bec tactfully explains that we’ve been “changed,” which is kind of an understatement, although admittedly it’s not dangerous…as far as we know.

Grimma the goblin demands that if we want their help, we need to help her. I don’t think that’s how that’s supposed to work. But anyway, she says her clan is under attack from a far inferior goblin clan. Is this really what we’re supposed to be doing…? Before any of us can say anything, Vondal is sticking out her hand to agree. He’s a helper. Grimma says, with full confidence, that her tribe is blameless and she has no idea why anyone would ever want to attack them. Indeed, butter would not melt in her mouth.

Grimma goes on that the SPI didn’t help last time, when that owlbear came out. Suddenly enraged, Vondal says that guy owes him a new bathrobe! She also gets in a dig on dwarves, like, out of nowhere.

Another goblin, Mirga, offers to just tell us where Anorje is. “Not until they agree to help!” Grimma protests. “They already did,” says Mirga with a long-suffering sigh. She tells us we should forgive the princess (whuh?), because the monthly merge makes her “more herself than usual.”

Mirga leads us out into the woods. Anorje is out here gathering plants. She remembers us! It was a memorable time, when we last visited. Mirga stands near Anorje, guarding her. Bec and Vondal ask if she can assist us with…“all of this?” Anorje correctly surmises. “I must warn you, my counterpart walks between two worlds. There are some who would call her monstrous.” Anorje is just an herbalist. Freki sees the use of everything she’s gathering. She knows what she’s doing.

Cal asks what Grainne will want from us. “A part of your soul. Potentially a memory, or rare alchemical goods. But her real interest will be in taking your afflictions. She will take them and store them. She is a collector of such things, from…all around the world. Go with respect, and if you see a very large plant outside of her house, do not antagonize it. It guards the domicile.”

Freki wants to know more about the plant. Its name is Claudius, and it’s a Purple Blossom. The Orcs call it something that means “horrid plant.” She isn’t going to tell us more, because if we aren’t hostile we have nothing to worry about. And if we are, well, she isn’t going to help us. Fair enough.

“What is the true nature of her bargains?” “Grainne is not a true night hag. Because she is a changeling and I was not transformed, my night hag potential is unfulfilled. I am more human than monster. This helps Grainne when she comes home. It renews her humanity. The memories she takes help her stay human. Without them, the changeling may also lose her humanity, so she’s happy if we offer some memories.”

“Tell me about her hidden motivations.” “Grainne pretends to be purely transactional, but she keeps a cosmic ledger. She believes herself to be a necessary evil, removing evil souls from the cycle of death and rebirth. In this way, she serves a unique role.”

“What is the price of power?” Anorje says Grainne has to endure every affliction she cures, even if only for a moment. Cal wonders what our Flux ailments will do to her. Anorje tells us Grainne will feel what we feel now. “Lots of bats,” says Vondal knowingly.

Finally, Anorje tells us that Grainne has experimented with time magic. This old crone is only 44 years old! Grainne has targeted evil beings across time and space, destroying them moments before they otherwise would have died. Anorje wants us to understand the pivotal role that Grainne plays in the world. Bec previously thought chronomancy was bullshit, but Anorje seems to really believe it.

Mirga leads us back to the village, stopping at the secret entrance point that looks like any other random spot. “Be my guest.” Vondal starts walking as if he knows what he’s doing, feeling a tingling as he walks across the threshold. Last time we broke the door and accidentally let in marauders, so we shouldn’t do that again. But also, I remember speaking the password before, in Erathis’s voice. I could try just doing that, minus the destruction. I step forward and say the word: Alye’adu! It works! That’s way better.

Grimma complains about how long we were out. We promise to help her, omitting when precisely we’re going to get around to that. But sure, suffering, yadda yadda.

We telepathically link with Grimma and Anorje. We see a lovely little cottage incongruously perched on swampland. Claudius the plant is twining around it. There are three different trunks. It might also be connected to the lily pads, and the foundation of the very house itself.

Cal decides to cut his tusks off. It’s disgusting, there’s blood everywhere, and I have to go somewhere else while he’s doing this. Mirga gets some herbs from Anorje to help with the pain. She doesn’t get why he did it—she thinks his tusks were the most impressive thing about him!—but she respects his stoicism.

The swamp is some 500 miles away, which is really a lot, even on a flying carpet. Fortunately, Rajal can teleport us, but he isn’t prepared today. It’ll have to be tomorrow. While we hang out in the village, Cal and Freki are reading this Manual of Gainful Exercise book they got in Arallu. Cal starts talking up Malak, which is pretty weird. I thought he hated the undead. Vondal tells Bec she should study harder and learn Teleport. “I’ll get there!” she says, a little defensively. [GM’s note to Vondal: “Why don’t you studyFlux harder and learn Teleport? Huh? Nothing could go wrong.]

I decide to spend some time practicing with my wings. Really, it’s just the glitter I don’t like. The wings are okay! Ki’woo’ya comes over to observe. She looks like she wants to give me flying tips, but her wings and my wings are pretty different.

Ayinalef, the priestess of Sehanine, asks if Cal wants her to heal his hacked-off tusks. He agrees, so she heals the part that was cut and it stops bleeding.

We try to ask Enneiah Trueborn about Saint Benedor, but we all forgot how to people-talky and she is reticent. But she does tell us that “our father is a very measured person, benevolent, but can be rigid. Mayaheine sometimes finds that frustrating; when we merge, I feel her burning desire to change things. It’s like standing too close to a fire—warming but dangerous.”

I wouldn’t have minded meeting a fellow cleric, but maaaaaaaybe we wouldn’t have meshed well with this guy. We tend to be more flexible. Ethically, I mean. [GM’s note: “flexible” = doing what it says on Oz’s SPI badge]

It seems like this village must need a whole lot of teleport crystals, given that every one of them needs to teleport back and forth once a month. They probably have someone positioned inside the DeBeards crystal cartel! I should see if they can supply my shop too. Can’t hurt to ask, right?

Robin Nimblehands has been running around lifting various objects from us all day, so I offer to show them some card tricks to keep them busy for a while. Cute kid! They ask if I think they could snag Vondal’s pipe. “I’ve never seen him without it,” I say. “Challenge accepted!” says Robin. A while later, they come back with the pipe! “This is kind of smelly and very magical,” Robin reports. “It was blessed by a Djinn!” Cripes, how does this random kid know all this stuff? Could they be favored by Erathis? I’m not jealous, you’re jealous!

While we’re all relaxing and having a good time, Cal notices that there’s a changeling with no anchor and an anchor with no changeling, and yet, they aren’t connecting. Kinda weird. Sissae Moondrop is watching us all from afar, looking unhappy. Cal decides to approach her and talk to her. He senses grief from her. She asks if he’s not enjoying the festivities. It’s not his thing, and she just doesn’t feel safe here. “They’re all so deluded. Isis was trying to warn everyone, and they won’t listen, even after she died. The White Crane promised protection, but at what cost? What do you think? You were there, weren’t you?”

Cal asks what the White Crane is. “They say the tattoo brings good fortune and gives your life meaning. I try not to listen to it, but it hasn’t really spoken to me anyway, not since she died,” Sissae says. She asks Cal what happened during the showdown with Isis. Cal tells her there was a lot of magic and the details are fuzzy. “I was afraid of that,” she says. “Sometimes the changelings can cut through it, but I don’t want to ask for this. I don’t want them to know what I’m thinking or how I’m feeling anymore. It’s just so frustrating! They know everything that’s going on but—but then they still believe all this crap. Isis, she used to be this amazing druid. She’d walk through the wood and the plants would grow and the animals would do what she wanted, but then she changed. It’s all because of that tattoo. She had started to recognize that too, before the end.”

Cal asks if the tattoo is what corrupted Isis into a blighter (ex-druid). Sissae thinks it did, but not directly. It caused her to make bad choices and ramble about some kind of vortex. “All the events of the world swirling around something I can’t see.”

Cal invites Sissae along to see Grainne. Maybe she can remove the tattoo. Cal also mentions that he remembers Isis talking about a vortex and there was a gnome. A friend of hers?

Sissae recalls a gnome friend. His name is Peregrine Shackleton, an alchemist who started experimenting with blood magic. Isis tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t listen. He had one of those tattoos too, and he was more enthusiastic about it. Almost everyone here in the village has the tattoo, and maybe all of the changelings do. Sissae can’t remember, as since Isis is dead, her memories are fading. “Grainne may not be able to help. After all, she has one too. But there may be a reason that won’t raise too much suspicion. I can just say I want to leave the village, and maybe that will be enough.” Sissae excuses herself and leaves.

Freki notices Amisa Swiftaxe in changeling form, meditating. Not having seen one in this form for very long, he watches for a while. Cal notices him and shares some of what he discussed with Sissae. Freki asks whether Sissae would want to anchor another changeling, but Cal thinks she just wants out. They’re both exhausted from reading the Manual of Gainful Exercise, but they suggest to the rest of us that we try to find out more about the tattoo while we’re in the village.

Vondal asks Smiley, who he’s been helping with cooking. Smiley taps his own tattoo and says they bring good fortune. “You just get one from someone who has one. I could give you one!” Smiley says. He says he’s had a lot of good luck because of it, like, he doesn’t burn soup and everything is pretty good here in the village. Vondal is skeptical. Smiley says the villagers out in the field swear by the good fortune brought by the tattoo. It also gives them prophetic dreams. Huh! Interesting! He says we should ask Rejal if we want to more about it.

I follow up with Rejal about the tattoos, but he is suspicious of my motives for questioning. “If you get one, you should be serious about accepting its guidance and protection. Otherwise you’ll end up like Isis. She rejected its blessings.” I ask where the tattoo comes from and who had the first one. He doesn’t know, but they think it might relate to the Vanishing. In any case, he warns me not to go asking a lot of questions about the tattoo. That could endanger the village.