13 Duscar 837
Heroes of the Netherdeep | Emon (Tal’Dorei) | Session 12/21/23
- The party gets ready to fight the false hydra, and Jon tries out sarcasm when Pandora remarks that connecting with the false hydra would be a bad idea.
- Paige notices what a glowing mood Pandora is in today, but no one else does. She knows part of it is Pandora getting laid, but can tell it goes beyond that in a way she can’t help being suspicious of.
- Rodreck takes the Essence of Ether when he goes underground, and Pandora has to use Lesser Restoration to rouse him back to consciousness. Pandora then casts Motivational Speech, telling Rodreck to get his shit together and telling everyone to not die because that would be embarrassing. The party collectively prepares to fight the false hydra, aware of the incredible danger they are in and how important it is for them to not lose.
Heroes of the Netherdeep | Emon (Tal’Dorei) | Session 12/28/2023
- We fought the false hydra and won, woohoo!
- The group discusses Elsewhere with Fennec, and she cuts the False Hydra’s heart out of its chest. In doing so, she finds a Periapt of Health wrapped around its heart - guaranteeing an eventual death while maintaining its size - with a signature: “I thought I told you to leave. Love, Armand.”
- Pandora casts Message at Adrian, telling him as the others are distracted, that “Phase Two begins.”
- Tully Sends Pandora a message, informing her of an invitation from Armand for tea with Aida the following day at noon.
- As the False Hydra’s death begins to reveal the hundreds dead, the Night of Mourning begins.
[You hear] a lot of wails of grief in the streets, hundreds upon hundreds of people are mourning dead that they had forgotten were dead, and now it’s all come crashing back down on them.
- Pandora discusses the importance of focusing on getting to Vasselheim with Paige, but her lack of overt interest in vengeance on Armand sets off alarm bells. Paige uses a sorcery point to subtle cast Detect Magic and examine Pandora for external influences, beyond what she already knows of, and illusory magic. She finds that the spider ruby is divinatory magic, and Pandora’s other magic items are sickening to look at.
The crown itself somehow lights up while it drinks up everything that is light and beautiful and holy in the world, and is filled with just a miasma of fucking different kinds of magic. Like, it makes you physically ill to look at it for too long. Likewise, the sword. Her fancy new rapier makes you physically fucking ill to look at it too long.
- Paige drops it for now, suspicious but unable to find anything to back up her suspicions yet.
- Fennec, in a quiet moment, casts Divination to ask Him what he wants her to do. His response is earsplitting, and mind-rupturing, as is the case with creatures of Elsewhere, as he tells her to “find the one who profaned this Hydra and make sure they never do it again.”
- Paige guided the group to an inn called the Sapphire Ego in the Erudite quarter the night prior - the name being a subtle dig at the Cobalt Soul - as she has grown fond of it in the weeks prior.
- Paige, Fennec, and Adrian catch whispers of speculation among the people in the bar about what could have possibly caused the incidents that have occured in Emon.
- Rodreck recites the poem “The False Hydra” to the bar, while Paige and Fennec sit up late and drink together.
- Adrian gives an Irish goodbye, disappearing into the night for an unknown destination.
- Paige talks to Fennec about the spell she cast in the sewers.
“So,” Paige says, handing Fennec a drink. “You want to explain that spell you cast down in the sewers?”
“Which one?” Fennec asks.
“I think you know the one. The one that wizards can’t cast.”
“Well. I think my deception has served its purpose. Anyway, the hydra is dead isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Very well. You caught me. I’m not a wizard.”
“Saying you’re a fucking warlock doesn’t… I don’t really give a shit unless you have something, a reason that makes me not want to trust you.”
“You may not give a shit, but many people do.”
“Okay. I get that. I don’t blame you for lying about that specifically, but it sounds like there’s more of a story to it. And I’ll be honest, if you want me to trust you more, then I need you to tell me that now.”
“You’re not the first party I have been a part of, you know that. I told you as much. My anecdotes and stories were all factual, even if I might have twisted facts somewhat to make them less obvious or more relatable to this age, I suppose. The fact of the… The nature of the quarry that I hunt means that I need resources. Reasons to be with groups. Other than the actual hunting. You see, if I approach a group knowing that I cannot take care of a hydra on my own, not fully, and I need help, and I ask for help, then the first moment that they are affected by its screams, by its singing, they will… They will forget that. They will thus forget about me, and that I have asked them for help. I have tried being honest before, it does not work. So I…manufacture things.”
“Like being Aida’s sister?”
“Like being Aida’s sister. I have not had the pleasure of meeting your friend. If we are related, which I suppose is possible, it is… I am distant. But…I know of her. I regret that the deception was necessary and apologize for it, but… I will not…I apologize for… Having done it, but not for having had to. What else do you wish to know? My offer of help, by the way, was sincere. I do owe you a rather big debt of gratitude, and…
Though, as I said, I don’t have the pleasure of having met your friend, I did do quite a bit of research on all of you before I showed up. And I don’t think that she deserves to be in prison. I have reason of my own to wish to take care of this lord, and I see no reason not to help you break out your friend while I’m at it.”“Alright. Um…So I guess, you know, we’ve gotten through the main motives you came- you had to come by-“
“Are you disappointed?”
“Not really.”
“Would you rather have tried to con you? I can if you’d like.”
“Nah… I think you’re misunderstanding how much, like, I am hurt by you lying. I fucking hang out with Pandora.”
“I will admit that yours is a somewhat more complex group when it comes to matters of personal goals and personalities than the ones I am used to infiltrating.”
- They discuss Fennec’s deception a bit further, and Paige questions Fennec on the nature of her pact and her patron.
“I want to say you misunderstand, perhaps not fully, but there is a level of misunderstanding happening here. I was a warlock once. How do you define a warlock?”
“Well the more you get into it, the more muddy it gets, but really warlocks have a pact but then, like, you know, you look at clerics, they kind of also have a pact. It’s weird. But, like, warlocks have a patron that is not a god. They made a deal that is not based solely on faith. They made…They made a trade, basically.”
“The trade, I think, is the vital part of…the definition of being a warlock. I have made the trade. And I have completed it. Whatever I once got out of my trade, my pact, my deal with my patron, I have received it long ago. And… Well, now it is the repayment. And so it will be. I am not a warlock anymore. I am just a servant.”
“To who?”
“The King in Yellow.”
- They discuss Fennec’s quarry, and Fennec reveals she has little gauge for her humanity after Paige says she hopes Fennec isn’t a weird cultist without humanity.
“And I hope that, you know, you’re not like one of those fucking weird cult servants that lost all of their humanity. That might not be a question for you, but…”
“How would you know? I don’t mean how would you know as you, sitting there, speaking to me. I mean how would you know as said servant? It is something I have questioned. To what extent am I me? Where do I start and his directives end? And vice versa. Do I have any sense of self left over? I can tell you that when I was alive I must have had some connection to my body as a representative of who and what I am, but… You asked me the first time I met you what I was doing before I got to you. And I said I was stare- sitting and staring at a wall. That is because my body was in storage. I have no memory for it.”
- Fennec tells Paige that Elsewhere isn’t a place for the mortal mind, and cautions her against going after Rumis there. She says she’ll help with Armand until she has her next directive. Paige warns her that if she acts against them, she’ll combat her, and Fennec repeats that she’ll help while she’s able. Paige asks what Fennec would do if she was free, and she says that she does not know, but believes she was once an actress.
- Paige plays a sad song, and drinks herself into a blackout until she’s unconscious.
- Fennec sits up all night, experiencing the bittersweet reminders of what her life might have been like before she made a pact and became a puppet.
- Pandora sneaks out to give Tully a debrief on what has been happening, and her progress with her tasks. Tully has grown comfortable under Pandora’s thumb, and is easier to find then expected. She appears to be waiting for Pandora, which is not something Pandora likes as Tully isn’t meant to be keeping tabs on her. Tully has ordered her a coffee, and Pandora makes sure they can’t be overheard before speaking.
“Some information will no longer be able to be spread. I’ve ensured that. Now, we need to talk about Armand and your role in this, Tully, because I’ve done the heavy lifting.”
She gives you a very dubious and slightly insulted look, but then seeing that you’re looking at her she immediately masks it and it’s just like, “Of course. Tell me what I need to do.”
“He’s made you…shall we say… lesser. He sidelined you in your own city and outmaneuvered you in such a way you call it an alliance because you’re beneath him and see it as equality. Like it or not, he knows more of you than you do of him.” And I’m gonna give her a second to absorb this, I want the words to marinate but before she can say anything, I’ll continue. “Your machinations have been cast aside, your power thrown into question, and your control shaken. You can’t manipulate your way out of this one, Tully, I’ve done the heavy lifting but revenge is a crime that’s going to require some intimacy. You need to prove your worth, prove it in such a way that no politician making a ploy for power, nor an assassin with a hungry blade will doubt you again. He cannot linger perpetually under your thumb or you’ll be right back where you started in a few months time and I won’t be there to save you. You have to crush him.”
And at this point, Pandora is going to trace her heart with a little x. “I could kill him. I could do it, but where does that leave you? What power have you proven? What have you reclaimed? You have to kill him, Tully, to redeem yourself. You have to repent for your failings and the only repentance Emon is going to accept is murder. You have to save yourself. Kill him. Lolth will help.”
*She’s quiet for a long time. You can see her like turning this over, right? You have gotten such a good bead on Tully that you can see her like doubt what you’re saying, look for the barb of why you’re saying that, and wonder ‘why is Pandora trying to get me killed?’ and then dismiss that as a thought, like ‘she’s actually right’. And when she speaks up it’s just a single word: “How?”
- Pandora convinces Tully to help her murder Armand, and persuades her into a ritual Ceremony of dedication to her goddess, Lolth. Tully is uncomfortable with this, but submits to Pandora’s guidance and deft manipulations from fear and a slight attraction. Tully offers Pandora her resources, and Pandora leaves her with a kiss on the forehead as she crowns Tully a priestess of Lolth.
False Hydra
Down in the deep dark dim
Where the sun fears to tread
What you find is only grim
In this place of pure dreadYour memories are unreliable
Your numbers can’t be tallied
Your escape is not viable
Your senses can’t be ralliedThe creature hunts from underground
It’s hunger won’t be stopped
It’s victims can never be found
Till all its heads are chopped.
-Rodreck
Emon (Tal’Dorei) Event
- The Night of Wailing begins
- Defeat the False Hydra completed
Paige’s Setlist