19 Cuersaar 837
Pandora subtly messages Paige to ask whether or not she should clear the air before Jon arrives.
Paige is unhelpful, and denies Pandora’s assertion that she’s more of a people person than Pandora.
“Compared to me, yes you are.”
“No the fuck I’m not.”
“The most contact I have with people is when I kill them. I’m going to need some advice here, Paige.”
“No, no, I’m…oh my God. I’m not, just, I told you what to do. Just tell the fucking truth. I know that’s hard for you, but just fucking do it.”
Pandora and Paige proceed to make faces at each other while the others watch on. Once everyone gets set up for a short rest, Pandora camps out in a shadowed corner with mood lighting via thaumaturgy and umbraturgy. Paige throws a pebble at her and points to Aida, so Pandora pretends to pray and tells Paige as much.
Paige proceeds to watch Pandora fake pray until Jon arrives to wake Aida.
“What is this dream? What’s going on? Have you learned a spell that could let me see you in dreams.”
Jon giggles.
“My gosh, my dreams made you giggle. This is, I have to wake up, this is a nightmare.”
“Shh. Go back to sleep. Paige…Paige messaged me. Everything’s gonna be okay now.”
“What is this? This dream has so much meaning. I have to wake up, I have to wake up.”
“Oh this is not a dream, Aida. This is not a dream at all.”
“What?” Aida stands up and grabs his face with both hands. “Why are you here?”
“Paige asked me to.”
Aida turns to stare at Paige.
“Paige said there were problems, and so I came to help.”
Aida fights with Paige over calling Jon back to join the party, saying Jon would be safer in Zephrah.
Pandora, Rumis, and Rodreck watch on.
Aida proceeds to tell Jon he can return to Zephra, and Jon asks if she wants him to leave. Aida rambles about learning spells to help wipe the scary things from his memory, offers to pay for his travel to Zephrah, and offers to learn teleport to send him wherever he wants to go (while telling him he can fly away and not fight if he wants), and Jon cuts her off with a pointed question.
“Do you think that I went to Zephra to get away from you?”
“I think it’s related to Stillben. I think that was a lot to process and take in. We just saw something happen that we couldn’t really help with. I think that impacted you in a negative way very heavily. And I get that, that we couldn’t be able to save that. And you needed to go to a place that’s far from the chaos. Somewhere safe, somewhere that you had good memories in. And Zephrah was your calling. I don’t blame you. It’s a nice place.”
“Aida, it is. You are correct. I left to find myself. Not to escape any of you, most especially you.”
Paige, nearby, says, “Maybe Pandora, but that’s different.”
Jon, without missing a beat, “Shut up, Paige.”
Jon explains his feelings about who he is with Aida/outside Aida, and that The Voice of the Tempest reminded him of what really matters to him, which is Aida. Aida hugs him and cries, and Jon says feelings are gross.
Jon investigates Paige’s tattoos, and asks Aida if she got any (because he’s got a thing for tattoos).
They discuss the miscommunication, and after Jon admires Paige’s tattoo, Paige informs Jon that Pandora also got a tattoo, before making a quick escape as Pandora curses her over message.
Jon asks, “Did you talk to Aida, yet?”
“No, it didn’t feel like a good time. She was pretty broken up after you left, and it wouldn’t have been right to bring that up.”
Jon looks slapped and recognizes the fact that Pandora manipulated him as a way of deflecting. “We should fix this right now. Aida, would you come over here please?”
Pandora continues to yell at Paige, who has stopped to unabashedly watch Jon corner Pandora with Aida and force them to talk.
Jon apologizes for hurting Aida, and tells Pandora that she has hurt Aida to and should clear the air about that. Aida tries to tell him it isn’t the time, but she can see that he is feeling defiant and isn’t willing to be side-tracked from this.
Pandora expresses confusion about hurting Aida, stating that she was always going to leave, she left a letter, and she’s not a good person to be mixed up with, so she doesn’t know why Aida would be upset or hurt about anything regarding her departure.
Jon affirms that it can hurt to be abandoned by people that feel like family, and apologizes for leaving once more, while Pandora once again expresses confusion when Aida says she forgives them both since she hasn’t apologized.
On an insight check, Pandora sees that Aida is being genuine in her forgiveness, which only adds to her confusion, and Jon gets pulled aside by Paige for a talking to about forcing issues.
Heroes of the Netherdeep vs Monstrosity
The Dauntless Crew and the party come across a monstrosity a mere ten rounds away from Kymal (Tal’Dorei).
Aida asks the Tome of Ioun what the monstrosity is, and Ioun’s only answer is dangerous. This indicates that the creature is beyond the realm of knowledge of the gods, or that it is protected by some means from divination.
Aida attempts to communicate with it via sending, and the spell rebounds in a giant-spider polymorph attempt. Aida narrowly saves from the effect. Paige runs onto the deck after her to make sure she doesn’t fall.
Rumis casts Speak with Animals in an attempt to communicate with the monstrosity, but only gets the vague sensations of hunger. It does not appear to be capable of being reasoned with, and so combat begins.
Paige empties her bag of holding, and Pandora empties one of the portable holes into the other portable hole and some bags of holding.
The party manages to damage the monstrosity’s scales with an astral bomb. Rodreck places the portable hole on its back with mage hand, and Paige mage hands her bag of holding into it. This does not kill it, but it slows it down a little bit.
Pandora tries to scoop some blood out of the wound for her channel divinity, but falls in. Rodreck casts fly on her, and Paige summons a blister-coil weird in the wound. Rumis shoots the elemental with fire arrows to help increase its size. Aida attempts a Vortex Warp, but it fails.
Pandora, immersed in the monster’s blood, passes a con save to avoid being poisoned and paralyzed and proceeds to expend both uses of her channel divinity and seven-levels worth of spell slots in order to force the monster to fall prone. Channeling this energy strains her, and grants a point of exhaustion. This buys the party several rounds.
Paige continues to blast her elemental with fire to increase its size, and as the monster tries to get up, it explodes and knocks it back down.
Rodreck drops concentration on Fly once Pandora is back on the monster, summoning a flame strike to continuously help the elemental grow.
The party continues to attack the monster – Aida hitting it with a Psychic Lance that prevents it from attacking the party – and try to keep it from reaching Kymal. Aida casts sending to Keyleth, who comes to their aid and helps them take down the monster.
Towards the end of the fight, Aida thinks to cast slow, and the Tome of Ioun offers a suggestion in the handwriting of someone else: slow its heart.
Aida does, and after the monster is taken down, she asks Ioun who it was that told her that. Ioun shows her the first page of the Book of Vile Darkness, and she learns that Vecna, the writer of said book, was the one to write. Ioun did not allow it, he simply found a way.
The party each receives a prize for their part in taking down the monster. Rodreck gets a deal with Keyleth for her to read his poetry and distribute it throughout Zephrah. Rumis gets one of the monster’s teeth. Paige gets a favor from Keyleth, to be determined later. Pandora gets Tarrasque poison. Aida gets a kiss on the cheek and a hug from Keyleth.
Paige informs Keyleth of Orcus and warns her that someone should probably look into that.
Rodreck’s Poem
In the city of Kymal the world grows dim.
But the sun has not set, but blocked by shadow.
A monolith, a living mountain makes hopes turn grimm.
Step by step it moves ever so slow.
They brace for pending doom, their lives soon to be ending
Paige‘s Night
Paige got drunk at a bar, was accused of grabbing a prostitute’s ass (without having done so), was pickpocketed by said prostitute, and led the others to a bar called the Rock Bottom.
When Paige was drunk enough, she began singing a song, got kicked out of the Rock Bottom alongside the party for being too depressing and for “trying to steal valor from the Air Ashari”
Paige plays in the streets with the help of prestidigitation and minor illusion to bring about lights and the full band effect alongside Rumis and Pandora. As a crowd gathers, she gets drunker and drunker, eventually jumping on a broom to play without being covered in people.
Paige wakes up in the Maiden Fair, which is a combination tavern and brothel with an all-elven staff (specifically high elves) with long, blonde, silver hair all eager to serve Paige’s needs (up to and including sex, though they don’t push when she rejects the offer). A seamstress presents her with an exquisite nightgown exactly in Paige’s size, and Paige takes it and makes it sluttier (to the shock of the staff, who find the alteration of a gift rude).
Rodreck‘s Night
Rodreck tries to convince a homeless man named Chicken Tom to give him a drink, but he refuses because his brother tells him not to.
Rodreck then runs into a little girl named Tasha with her reanimated cat, who gives him a gift and calls him her friend. Rodreck is confused by this.
Rodreck initially settles in a bar called Inner Peace before shifting to Outer Peace due to the atmosphere. The bartender serves him a shitty version of rum that he pays to keep coming. He also asks the bartender how his relationship with his mother is, to which the reply is less than positive.
He sets his mother’s skull on the bar and talks to it, successfully deterring anyone from approaching him.
When he gets incredibly drunk, he uses cantrips to make the skull talk to him, before eventually deciding to go find Paige.
Rodreck does drugs with Pandora and Rumis before the group gets kicked out, upon which time he separates from the group and heads to a brothel called The Raised Eyebrow. He requests an intelligent female prostitute that’s older and more experienced and receives a raven-looing aarakocra with a silver tinge to her feathers.
Rodreck introduces himself and uses her as a therapist for the whole night before passing out cuddling.
Rumis‘s Night
Rumis follows Pandora to the Dragon’s Hoard, which he quickly regrets as he’s left to watch her be flirted with and drinks a whole bottle of alcohol called cinnamon roll.
He then follows Pandora to get drugs and find Paige, upon which time they head toward Rock Bottom to do the drugs.
His question to the Raven Queen is, “who created the gods?” to which Squawk answers, “Matt.”
Some point between Paige beginning to play her guitar in the streets and Paige heading to the Maiden Fair, Rumis crowdsurfs with Paige’s help and gets blackout drunk while still high on the religious drugs.
Rumis wakes up on the front steps to the temple of the Raven Queen with no money, and no recollection of how he ended the night. Part of Rumis feels satisfied, but the rest of him that he’s used to dealing with every day is incredibly anxious and he has no clue why. There is only one name he remembers, as the name of someone he had a deep conversation with: Illyria
Pandora‘s Night
Pandora splits from the group with Rumis to head into Myriad territory, meaning to complete some business and IMMEDIATELY getting sidetracked at the first bar she enters, named the Dragon’s Hoard.
The bartender, Sindyl Trueshot, is flirtatious with Pandora, and when Rumis voices feeling like a “third-wheel” Sindyl tells him he can watch. Pandora thinks to herself that she shouldn’t have invited Rumis, and manages to forget all of the things she intended to do while in Myriad territory.
Eventually, after several more drinks, Pandora leaves the Dragon’s Hoard with Rumis in search of drugs. Sindyl seems crestfallen to see Pandora go, which Pandora finds particularly interesting.
After securing the drugs (Espiritu, a religious drug) and finding their friends, Pandora, Rumis, and Rodreck snort the drugs (guaranteed by the dealer to fuck them up, or he’ll kill himself) in a corner of the bar, Rock Bottom. Paige refuses to, so Pandora tells her via message she’s a buzzkill.
Eventually, once the drugs kick in, the group realizes that they can’t easily lie while high, and they get to ask a divine being a question. Rodreck comes to the realization that Pandora, technically, is a divine being because of her connection to the Matron and that she won’t be able to lie as easily as normal.
“Do you even like the Raven Queen?”
Pandora freezes, the question fully cutting through her buzz. “What?”
After some consideration, she says, “I don’t know what it means to like a god.”
“Well, you’re her pawn. You worship her, she gives you spells back. Is it a relationship you care for, or is it just transactional?”
Pandora tries to lie and finds she can’t. She says, after a pause, “Transactions are part of every relationship.”
Rumis cuts in, and asks, “What do you get out of it, Pandora?”
Pandora sinks into herself, and mutters, “This sucks.” After another drink, one that ironically sobers her up, she finds herself more capable of deception once more. “I get what is needed, and she gets what is needed, as is the state of an equal transaction.”
Pandora’s question to the gods is, “Is murder wrong?” to which Dione proceeds to possess a bunch of Luxon worshippers that are dragonborn to shout, “YES!” Pandora is reaffirmed in her decision to murder, much to the frustration of Dione (presumably).
After escaping the crowd Paige draws, Pandora returns to the Dragon’s Hoard to drink some more and sends a very drunken, u up? to Kallista Lavant via Sending. After the Sending, she fully blacks out.
Pandora wakes up in a goth-centric brothel called the Final Rest in a huge, four-postered bed between a masculine-presenting slender fairy that she is holding, and Kallista, who is holding her. Upon realizing this, Pandora decides that the complexities of sleeping with an ex is something that is later Pandora’s problem, and goes back to sleep.
Rodreck’s Tip to the Bartender/Sending
Where are you?
This bar is depressing.
I miss the crew.
You guys are a blessing.
Ode to the Prostitute
You bring joy to others with your intimacy.
Made all the sweeter thanks to your anonymity.A night spent in anothers warmth.
Allow me to bring my problems forth.For who better to speak to then one you will never see again?
Someone to hold as you speak, can bring your troubles to an end.
Paige’s Setlist
Aida’s Adventures in Romance:
A kiss on the cheek from Keyleth, talk about swoon-worthy!
An intimate night with Zelly. How steamy!
