Session 15: Aberration Cubed
After hearing Gregor Cartwright's story, the party begins the hunt for knowledge.(Black puddings are aberrations???)
The party finds a library and disperses to find books!
Given how this thing moves around the house, they guess it is a Monitor Protean. It is a native creature to the plane of the Maelstrom.
The Maelstrom is infinite, ancient, spawned all the other realms, surrounds them like an ocean of raw quintessence. Formless chaos. Primordial energy from which everything is made, and to which everything will return.
It could be any Protean, anything from a void wyrm to a giant fucking nightmare creature whose name went straight over my head.
At a guess, either an Akazendry or Azuretsy. Weird, serpentine creatures who like to fuck with people and find humor in lack of meaning. Whatever it is, it is sucking the life out of Gregor basically as a prank.
An Outsider is basically immortal. If it is killed in the material plane, it would return to its own world.
If the party wants to kill something like this, they need to use lawful energy, and it would calcify.
After their trip to the library, the party heads to their Celestial lesson with Astrafel in the guard house, a tower just south of the heart of the city.
He has a bunch of different books available, and an austere-looking woman with him. Not very tall, long black hair that goes to the small of her back, woven with gold strips. Her long braid is held together by a clip at the end, shaped like a golden key. With her is a much nicer-looking young man holding a bunch of books and wearing a mortar cap.
Astrafel turns and greets the party as they walk in.
"Ah, welcome. I am here to introduce you to your teacher." He turns and gestures to the young man, an elf. "This is Auran, a clerk with the Church of Abbadar."
This church runs a lot of the blanks and courtrooms here. Beside Oron is High Judge Arabella.
Sartorii thanks them for coming all this way just to teach us.
Arabella, sorta snottily, responds that she is just here for business. "I know who you are. I hope you are staying out of trouble, young lady."
Astrafel stands up for the party, saying this was the group who saved Greenwall.
After a long pause where Arabella sizes the party up, she smiles gently. This is not a courtroom, and she is not here to judge. She says her goodbyes to Astrafel and leaves.
Oron is a huge nerd, going on about how heaven has a better justice system than Brevoy (Astrafel: wtf???), and how Celestial is easier to learn as a second language than Common is.
(DM Aside: The party could have a working knowledge after about two weeks of lessons. It's based on Latin.)
Clarence, Rutana, and the Sprite got the basics. Sartorii got distracted contemplating the differences between Auran and Strix.
(Would've been the difference between Auran, Auran, and Strix, but it turns out his name is spelled Oron and this was the point I learned that.)
The party asks to see Astrafel about their current Problem. He is, unfortunately, incredibly busy, but he agrees to see the party.
Astrafel is just stamping papers, reports of arrests or jobs done or construction done or paperwork done. It's a bit better in terms of the things coming in, but it's still a huge pile in his inbox.
The Sprite describes their problem.
Astrafel sets his stamp down and slides the ink pad away from him. He puts his hands on his face, rubs his eyes for a moment. This man is far too overworked, and logically he knows the party coming to him with this stuff is for the best, but. Every single time the party comes in, it's some wild-ass shit.
"So here's what your going to do."
Astrafel takes out a piece of paper and his rad fountain pen. He writes down an address and the name of a person the party should see.
He stamps it and hands it to the party.
"Ask for High Judge Arabella, you met her a few hours ago. She is the most powerful priest in this province."
Sartorii asks if there's anything Astrafel needs.
"Kill the Outsider and we'll call it even. I am so very tired..."
Sprite: "Maybe next time we'll try to make sure it's like an evil pillow that can only be defeated by you sleeping on it for a couple hours."
If the party successfully deals with the Outsider, Astrafel will take the next day off and they'll all go to drinks together. Sartorii also offers to help him with some paperwork.
Cathedral of Abadar location:
It's basically a law office. Marriage licenses, land trade negotiations, banking, criminal execution. If it has to do with the law, it's done here.
The Cathedral is bustling with people. When the party hands a clerk their stamped slip of paper, the clerk perkily drops a "Lane Closed: Back in 5 Minutes" placard on their counter to the suffering of everyone in line behind the party.
The clerk leads them up a set of stairs at the back of the building, up into one of the towers. This tower has a good view of the bell tower, which has the Key of Abadar inscribed on compass points.
Lots of stained glass, pretty high up, nice and warm.
The party enters into a vast office filled with gold-trimmed filing cabinets, silk-cushioned couches, and bear-skin rugs, the living quarters and working quarters of the highest-ranking priest here.
As the party enters, Arabella says, "Astrafel sent a runner. He says you are having Outsider trouble. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I will send five clerics with you (did I say six I meant five). Hopefully they can help you drive out this vile beast, or kill it if necessary."
"Also... Once you meet them, be sure to go over the axiomatic items they carry. They are weapons of law. From what I know of you, some of you cannot wield them effectively."
More often than not clerics deal with hauntings. Outsiders are very rare, and whoever finds them usually doesn't survive to tell the tale.
The five people are in training to be clerics, but have not yet graduated. This is usually the part of training where people drop out.
Basically, they're interns.
Arwel, human man, bearing a sword and shield. Generic. Blond, blue-eyed knight, out here to do good whether you like it or not.
Alen, dwarven woman with an axe. A very young dwarf, beardless.
Ageron, half-orc with hammer. Stoic, doesn't talk much. He looks around like he expects something to happen.
Suzana, human woman with spear. Bright-eyed, bushy-tailed.
Xalvador, an old halfling with a crossbow. The leader! He looks like he's been at this a while, more experienced.
In a place of prominence on each weapon is a symmetrical, complex rune.
The weapons have an aura of stillness to them. They are from the Cathedral's armory, and are incredibly important. Probably more important than the people.
The party thanks Arabella and greets their new teammates.
After a brief getting-to-know-each-other, they all pack into the cart and head to Cartwright farm.
They find Gregor sitting on his porch with a lighter and a pack of tobacco. No pipe in sight, which is odd. He never had one to begin with, they guess.
"Brought the cavalry, did you? Didn't expect that?"
Sartorii tries to explain what it is, Gregor assumes it's a demon.
"Damn thing never moves, so...it'll be waiting in the barn. Be careful. I know I called you here, but I don't want to be responsible for any more loss. For you guys dying."
Clarence: "You're not responsible, we're choosing to be here."
"I don't want to get my hopes up, but looking at all of you... Please bring them back."
Gregor gave the party the key to the barn. It opens easily, the massive chain falling to the ground with a massive flump. The doors readily slide outward, as if pushed from within by a difference in air pressure.
There is a circle of flat, unblemished ground. In the center is an earthenware cube, about two feet on each side. One corner is missing, a triangle smashed off. Inside is a flat, matte black.
Sartorii drops a piece of hay in the opening. The hay disappears entirely.
There is a number of runes engraved on the cube. Clarence identifies it as the language Utopian. It is the language of Axis, the plane of Law. The missing corner broke the ring of runes.
As the party inspects the cube, they can hear a slight hissing coming from within.
Clarence hisses back.
A serpentine eye appears in the darkness, looking out at the party.
"Now you are some faces I haven't seen before," the creature says in a terrifyingly modulated voice that terrifies half the players. Player Rutana's cat startles and runs off, glaring at her angrily from a corner much akin to the Outsider staring from the corner of his cube. "You all strike me as more learned than the dirt farmer outside, so let's not mince words. What can I do for you?"
Sartorii: "You can get your ass out here."
"Unfortunately, the best I can do is bring you in here."
The Sprite starts speaking, and the eye turns on him with a moist squick. Undaunted, the Sprite asks for help searching for something. He describes a piece of clay, maybe more like earthenware, perhaps looking like the corner of a cube with runes inscribed on it.
"This piece to my prison is dust now. The poor farmer boy did not know what he was doing when he struck it with his crude implement, but it freed me, to an extent. He is in here too."
The party proceeds to taunt the cubesnake.
"If you come in here, the people inside will not die."
He is not lying, but he is not telling the entire truth.
"And if you are freed from your prison, will they die?"
He does not think so, but he also laughs ominously.
Sartorii continues to insult him, but gets confirmation that cubesnake is Protean.
The Sprite walks up to the cube and whips out a pen. He feels a suction as he approaches though, so he backs away.
Arwel grows impatient and wants to break the cube, but Clarence stops him.
Cubesnake swears on his existence that entering the cube is not fatal, unless the party gives up while in the cube.
Sartorii whips out her sword and stabs at cubesnake's eye. She feels her sword become lighter, but also feels her sword thunk into something with some give. Gravity inverts, she feels as if she'd been standing on the wall instead of the floor, and she falls in.
Clarence jumps in afterward.
Rutana looks at the interns, exasperated. "Whelp, who wants to go kill an Outsider?"
The interns all follow in afterward, Rutana and the Sprite joining too.
The map transitions to......a completely black square!
And then some lighting!
Xalvador and Suzana cast light upon their weapons.
The party lands on paved stone and grass. A mansion rises from the darkness, a rectangular building three stories tall.
Rutana hears heavy steps. All around them, a rumbling effect in the distance.
"Welcome to my humble abode. Oh, beware the guard dog."
The heavy footsteps get closer and closer, and a massive pachyderm with a large horn steps into the clearing.
Turn order is determined, and then the To Be Continued is called!