Session 47: Living the Dream
Session starts with Sartorii and the Sprite scoping out the caves, with the Sprite extinguished stuffed safely in her pocket. Sartorii rolls a new Stealth roll, 20. She sneaks into the room containing a mostly-digested wolf man and successfully retrieves the staff from its clutches.Clarence pops back out of the mirror and describes what he saw to Rutana. He plans to go back through again and let Rutana shepherd the villagers through.
(Sartorii: Where did my token go? DM: Oh I destroyed you cause we're about to leave.)
Sartorii returns to the main hall just as the last villagers are shoved through. Rutana notices Sartorii has the big goopy staff. Sartorii steps through the mirror, followed by Rutana and Cortez.
They exit to that same large room, greeted by the smell of beer and liquor and cooking meat. Rutana spots her younger brother amidst the crowd, helping the wolves get settled. He is immediately aghast when he sees her.
"Where are we? I would expect to see you at home, which this very much not is."
"Sooo we have some catching up to do..." As he says that, all the torches go out.
At the top of the stairs, through a slightly broken arch, a single light comes down from nowhere and illuminates a dark-skinned, androgynous person. They smile brightly, showing off very sharp teeth. They practically bounce on their feet seeing all the new people in the room.
"Thank you for this bounty you brought me! Ladies and gentlemen..."
Everyone else in the bar raises a hand and says, very unenthused, "Tulamac."
"Oh, you're no fun. Did I hear that someone's sister is visiting?" He wraps an arm around Rosado and claps him on the back.
Rutana gives her brother the silent wtf look. Rosado shrugs, "They're nice."
"Oh don't worry about that, it's their first time meeting everyone, they're probably nervous. I know I am! Now..."
Perception/religion rolls!
Sartorii immediately gravitates to the bar where a large minotaur is pouring drinks. It's mostly sacramental wine and beer.
"What do you want?"
"What have you got?"
"...You met Gertrude, didn't you." He indicates Tulamac had named the monstrosities.
Sartorii notices the cups have the symbol of Desna, goddess of fate and protector of travelers.
Clarence and Sartorii both notice marks like the head of a jackal with three eyes on the walls. The goddess of beasts, corruption, and change, the mother of monsters. This was once a chapel of Desna, and now belongs to a cult of Lamashtu.
Tulamac walks out to Rutana and holds out his hand to shake. "First meeting, we're all nerds."
Rutana shakes his hand. It has more give than one would expect.
"As one would guess from the beautiful decorations, I am a cleric and the only 'human' child of my beautiful mother."
"Kaaay...? Okay. Not a subject I know a lot about."
"Fair, I would be happy to teach you sometime. But! You and yours, you ran into..."
"We met Gertrude," Sartorii pipes in.
"You saw Gertrude! She's safe!"
"Well, not really... More like she didn't see me, I wouldn't be alive otherwise. She was about to turn these fine folk into..."
"I do not condone doing that to someone against their will, mostly!"
"So you know what these villagers are?"
"Yes, mostly!"
"Don't put your mouth on them, I'll muzzle you."
"You'll need more than one!"
Meanwhile, Rosado is standing there looking a little sheepish. "Look, I needed some help, and Tuly offers a special service."
"What kinda help are you looking for?"
Tuly: "Oh go on, tell her, she'll be so happy!!"
Rosado sighs. "Rutana, you should... You should come with me. Your friends can join if they like, but they're also free to mingle and enjoy the amenities. We don't have much, but we take care of each other here."
When Rosado is talking on behalf of this group, he seems a lot more confident than when he is talking to Rutana.
Clarence looks to Rutana. He will follow her call. She motions for the party to stay here.
Upstairs is a larger worship area. There are more people, including serpent people. Rosado leads Rutana to a side passage with warmer air and leads the way downstairs. He remains silent if unprompted.
Rutana asks how everyone back home is.
He sigs. "Mom's fine. Everything's been sort of boring since you left. Dad's still running the smithy, (name) is in line to inherit it as Dad is on the way to retiring."
"I haven't heard of anything big happening."
"Well, something big will happen soon!" Jazz hands!
"A lot has happened for me up north, I would like to tell you about it sometime."
"Yeah, that sounds nice. A lot happened for me too. I haven't really been able to tell Mom about it—"
"Rosado!" A bluebird guy appears and hugs Rosado, preens at his neck in lil bird kisses.
"Wait wait wait, not here. This is my sister!"
"Oh greetings! You can call me Viri!" He immediately turns to Rosado. "Have you told her yet have you told her yet have you told her yet?"
"No, not yet, I was kinda waiting for the right time."
"Okay well this is going to come as a bit of a shock, what do you know about Tuly and his proclivities? Nothing? He's been blessed with a certain passion by his divine parent."
Viri leads them down the hall to a series of labs. Different vats with bubbling liquids inside. Some have clear tanks, some with things that have no real shape.
"I hear people have been calling him the Fleshweaver. It sounds pretty bad for what he actually does."
"It does sound pretty bad with zero context, Rosdao."
Rosado: "It's just his sense of humor. He likes to be spooky."
Rutana: "Okay well the place we came from had evidence of some very weird and bad things happening to people."
Viri: "Well that's weird and unexpected. That was a pretty rough introduction, I will say."
Rosado: "The year after I left, I met a traveler, Viri here, who was out to see the world, but he had to leave. The year after he stopped by again and never really left."
Viri: "Well I just couldn't stay away! It's rare to run into people of your descent out here, and there's something just so comfortable about being around him."
Rosado: "Sooo Rutana if you want to, you should probably give your brother-in-law a hug?"
She hasn't missed the wedding, it's complicated. Rutana offers to help out if they have the wedding up north. Since they're doing reveals now, Rutana shares that she and her friends are nobility now. Rosado flabbergasted.
"What did you do, save the nation??"
"Yeeaaah and fought a cult and we're building a church now."
Rosado: "There's one other thing. See, Tulamac is very persuasive, and we didn't know how long he was going to be in town for."
They stop in front of another door. It's very warm in there. There's another cult member there wearing robes like Viri and tending a fire. In the center of the room is a dais. Upon it is a pile of straw cradling an egg, about a foot wide and a foot and a half tall, blue and speckled with purple. Viri and Rosado look at each other then give jazz hands. "Meet your nephew! Or niece!"
"Okay I see the concern is with the wedding not having occurred yet. I am sure it will be fine." She's freaking out actually.
"Turns out if Tuli has the essence of any two beings, he can make another being out of them, and you see, Viri and I aren't actually compatible in that way—"
"Okay we don't need the details."
"Oh phew"
"So did someone have to lay that?"
"Absolutely not. Tuli created it in a vat, he was just spooky about it."
Viri and Rosado do some chores around the church while the egg is cared for.
While Rutana is off with Rosado, Tuly is entertaining the rest of the party. He meets the Sprite and immediately squeals, "Oh you're so small!!"
"And you're not."
"Can I have some of your blood?"
"No, but you can have this!" Gives him trail mix.
Tuly eats the bag with the mouth in his hand. He then flits to Sartorii. "Heeeey, I've never seen one of you before, what are you?"
"Strix."
"Can I have some of your blood?"
"For how much?"
He reaches into his pocket, down into where his chest should be, and pulls out a vial and three gold.
"Sure, as long as it's painless."
"Alright! Look at that up there." Points up at a symbol on the ceiling.
"Be aware, there is alcohol in my blood now."
Rutana and Clarence see Tuly extend his index finger. A large mosquito-like proboscis comes out of his fingertip. Clarence rushes over and tries to push her out of the way. He shoulder checks Tuly into the wall, and it makes a sound like throwing a paper bag of eggs at the wall.
Sartorii: "What did you do that for??"
Clarence: "He was going to stick you in the neck!"
Tuly: "It's completely painless and I did pay her!"
Sartorii shrugs. "He asked nicely."
Tuly stands up. He also offers to buy Clarence's blood for three gold, it's totally painless! Clarence refuses.
Since Clarence knows Sartorii agreed to this, he wanders off. Tuly asks for an apology, Clarence refuses. Rutana gives him a little wtf shove.
Clarence: Are you kidding me?
Rutana: This isn't a place we want to make enemies.
Tuly leans in and whispers, "Especially not me."
Clarence begrudgingly apologizes.
"Thank you. Blood tiiiiime!"
Tuly pricks Sartorii and takes just a couple drops, then smooths some healing ointment on the wound.
He then goes on about a theory that all beings are descended of one creature, how they're shaped by environment and rewarded for change, but there's no name for this theory. Sartorii proposes the theory of evolution.
Tuly: If you want I can experiment on you a bit, get your eyes to move!
Sartorii: Oh that would be great people find it creepy.
Tuly: One man's yuck is another guy's yum!
Tuly explains about the other side of the mirror.
Upon discovering the other side was empty, he sent Gertrude out to investigate. He planned to follow her through, but the mirror stopped working, and he assumed she broke something on the way through.
Sartorii asks if he made all of them over there.
Tuly stops and holds up his hand for quiet. For the first time, he has a serious expression. The whole room goes silent.
"Ladies and gentlemen! And all others! I wish for our guests to be made comfortable. Find someone to their wounds, their hunger, their entertainment. I'm going to take our intrepid heroes to my office for a small discussion."
He gestures for the party to follow.
In the chapel, a snake man walks up to Tuly. "Father. I have something to discuss with you."
"When we have time. I have to debrief our friends here."
"Friends? We're just allowing outsiders in now?"
Tuly pats him on the cheek. "They are of use to us, my son. They are of use to us."
Sartorii: "Aw, I thought we had something special here."
Tuly: "You might have use to me, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends. After all Rutana, your brother got help from me!"
Everyone looks at Rutana like wat. Tuly is very much enjoying this. He leads the party down the same halls Rutana was previously led. Tuly calls these labs his love shack!
Tuly's office is a bit of a mess. Piles of cushions and burnt Desna pamphlets, curtains, a big skull in the center supported by two crossed sickles. He crosses behind a desk and plops facefirst into a bean bag chair, then rolls over and gestures to more bean bags. "Please, sit!"
Clarence tries to find somewhere to sit but is very uncomfortable trying to sit on the edge of a bean bag, then gives up.
"So. It is polite to answer questions before making requests. I will not lead you on, I might have a small request. I am here to answer any questions you might have, I will be completely honest as often as I can. There was not supposed to be more than just Gertrude. She was supposed to be just a big slug designed to clean up that place."
Sartorii mentions the flesh wall.
"Ooh is this a new mutation? My request was I accompany you through the door and assist you in cleansing that place."
Rutana interjects, the exit from the main hall collapsed. The mirror is stable, but the front entrance can't be reached.
That's nothing Tuly can't fix given time.
Rutana asks why he's moving into the River Kingdoms.
"For lack of a better explanation, I dreamed that I should be here. My mother sometimes, well... Since I was born again, she's been distant. When she requires something of me, she sends me dreams."
Lamashtu is the goddess of nightmares.
"I was assured that there was a new and growing power in this place. The power not just to meld two beings together, but the power to grow life from the ground up. I could live up to my mother, to make anything I could imagine. I do not know what this object of power is, nor do I fully understand its connection to my work, but I was drawn here to find it."
"Odds are if you were drawn here, you're not the only only."
Tuly sighs. "From the far east, I had nothing of horrid interactions with all manner of swamp creatures and crawling carcasses. Those beautiful and pittering fae from the north. I've been dealing with quite a lot. It's all I could do to shore up this church and keep my people safe. Sure, eventually a creature or two might escape out into the woods, but who goes walking in the woods at night? It would be borderline sacrilegious of me to tell my creatures to deny their nature. Tell me, feline, what god is lucky enough to have your faith?"
"Bast."
"Truly, and a dead goddess grants you power. Things are changing."
"I have her favor, and that is all that matters."
"Oh, do not mistake me, whether a god be living or dead, far be it from me to judge your worship."
So, the request. Keep the smaller creatures off of Tuly while he deals with Gertrude.
"However, I would like to know I can trust whoever is watching my back. I'll ask a question, you ask a question. We'll go until we're all satisfied. Does that sound fair?"
"We've had worse deals before."
"Yeah it's no getting sent to hell, is it..."
"Alright, let's start with that, what sequence of events got you to deal with Asmodeus?"
The Sprite very vaguely describes driving the cult away.
"Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Asmodeus doesn't give one fuck about his cultists. If he spoke to you, I don't think he's done with you."
"That's just our luck."
Clarence motions for a huddle, but the Sprite can't see that from his spot in Sartorii's pocket and asks: What is your plan opening a church here, close to population centers?
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't relish torching Desna's symbols and raising this church. Other than that, this is just the first place we found! As long as the people from Willowvale don't stray too north, nothing should really happen."
Clarence: So you don't venture toward the towns?
Tuly: Well a man has to buy apples and eggs.
Clarence: No, influence.
(Banter about eggs and cooking and Rosado's egg)
Tuly: So you think I'll slither into town and start fusing people?
Sartorii: Well he keeps bringing up consent.
Children don't just end up 15 miles into the woods for no reason. Tuly's mother is the patron of the disfigured and scorned. Parents leave children in the woods to die if they are disfigured, and he would take those in.
Clarence is still anxious about this, distrusts and on edge, but he can't really bring anything up.
"I am not unfamiliar with the distrust you feel towards me. Even if I didn't present myself in such a way my nature is such that you cannot help to distrust me. While many of you are...touched, you are the only one firmly in the palm of a deity. I do not expect you to trust me, but I will not harm you nor any innocent in any settlement. I spread my lady's love. There are enough forces out there that spread her ire."
Clarence gives a reluctant nod. "I do believe that."
"Then you have already paid me more courtesy than most anyone I have met. Any more questions?"
Not currently, maybe later.
Tuly's last question. "Do any of you know someone who goes by...the King in White?"
What color does our king wear? Wasn't it blue? Or green? Nah it was blue.
Tuly smiles. "Excellent. I wouldn't want to associate with people who keep such unsavory people. He is a mage of singular power and singular disregard for the morality of people around him."
"Has he hurt many people?"
"Through negligence, perhaps? He has never walked into a village and set it on fire. Any mage who comes against him dies ignobly. If he is kept from what he wants, he can also be of singular cruelty."
"Is he an actual king, or is that just a title?"
"No one knows. He is a blank slate, a figure who wanders from arcanum to library looking for something. It's like he's fighting a war, but what, no one knows. I'll admit, there's a..." Tuly shudders. "There was a slight fear in me that I might have to come face to face with him should I keep seeking this object of power."
"Right. I'll call this a working relationship. You protect me, lead me to Gertrude. I will do everything in my power to keep her calm and drive her back here. She's only 10 feet long, she could make it through the gateway easy!"
"Uhhh. She's at least 20 feet long."
Tuly is very excited she doubled in size. "Once I remove Gertrude and all of her unplanned spawn, I will repair and clean that entire tower. I will also assure none of my creatures will venture anywhere north or east of it. Oh, and those chokers, they were just vermins."
Sartorii brainstorming tactics. She saw at least 20, plus Gertrude.
Tuly has an idea. They will have to talk to Ekkis, his serpentine son!
Sprite requests resting before they go back. Tuly offers rooms here, but warns that he will brook no disrespect to anyone under his care.
They will go in the morning, first thing.
Tuly requests Rutana checks on Viri, who might have overworked himself. Welcome to the family!
Time to find a room. The stairway that leads down to the larder, there are two more staircases branching off and leading up to rooms. There's a cracked window covered in tarp.
Rosado arrives with blankets to help the party settle in. Clarence greets Rosado, tries to talk Rutana up. Rosado shares how their family owns a smithy not far north.
Rutana asks when the baby is due. Not for a few months yet. Rosado impersonates Tuly to explain how mixing mammal and avian DNA makes it weird.
Rosado sets the party up with separate rooms then departs. The party huddles in one room, Rutana shares the news about the kid so don't piss these people off.
Sartorii gives the Sprite the staff for him to attune to.
Clarence goes downstairs to check on the survivors. He runs into a very tall wolf named Sable.
"Greetings. Thank you again for saving my people."
"You don't need to thank us, we came to help."
"Since coming here we have been fed exotic meat and we have found many others who do not look at us strange for what we are. Here we are welcomed."
Sable does not trust this place. Clarence agrees. Once this is all over, Sable will take the party to the village of the wolven to reward them.
Sable then berates another wolven for eating turducken bones and choking.
The party retreats to their beds.
Images come to them in their sleep. First, the smell of blood. The sound of movement around them. Somewhere far away resounds a distorted, warbling hyena laugh. A cool breeze and a rustling of trees.
Rutana hears an egg shell crack.
When they open their eyes, they are standing in an oasis savannah. The water is murky, tinged with red and rot.
The party see each other, but separate as they become aware.
The Sprite recognizes this as similar to what happened when Asmodeus summoned the party, but not entirely the same. Not foreboding, but pervaded by the sense that something is not right.
The oasis starts to burble, and it speaks.
"A son slain. And from his spilled blood so many more will be born. That which spawned of the crawling clan does my bidding in his own way. But for this, for this, a personal touch."
There is a sound like babies crying in the woods but they're wrong.
"Painful is the birth, but in its aftermath, new life. New adaptations. Fangs and claws to tear the world."
Sartorii calls out the god's name. She appears behind Sartorii.
"Greetings."
"I suppose it's nice to meet you."
"No." She reaches down and pulls a claw across her stomach. As it starts to bleed she runs her hand through the blood and anoints Sartorii across her forehead. "As Asmodeus, as Anadi, as Amadar, as even (another god). I will be watching you little mortals. You are all the hope we have left. Now fear me, mortals. Fear me with all your heart and soul."
She snaps her fingers. Malformed hyenas come out from the underbrush. Before they can rip the party's throats out they wake up, some screaming, some gasping. All wake up with the god's blood on their foreheads.