Recap - 2026-01-29
After waiting for Angelus and Chibro to finish the many and myriad verses of the songs of their people, the group split, with Tag and Gobbie going back to the boat, and the rest of the group going to visit Togek for one last supply stock.
Angelus tried to wheedle and deal and managed to get a Staff of Charming for a decent deal. Chibro, Kor, and Josiah also all restocked. Josiah asked for a high quantity of bullets, and Togek managed to pull all of them from under his magical table, but with some difficulty. As he handed them over, it was in sacks of 10-20, and each bag looked different. Josiah took cursory glances at them, but didn’t inspect further, merely choosing to reload his gun and pack the rest away.
Chibro, while gathering up his items, noticed Grebo talking to a Spirit Naga, and Grebo wearing/holding several new magical items. Grebo happily returned to the group, and made his way back to the boat. Chibro informed Angelus of the source of his “father’s” new items, and Angelus went to interrogate the snake, posing as Grebo’s kobold son.
After some failed questioning, Angelus cast Zone of Truth, interrogating the Naga and her Arcanaloth friend. The Naga didn’t give much away, even under the Zone of Truth, but did share that the items she gave were, in fact, cursed.
Angered, Angelus cast fear into their hearts, rooting them in place with his protective anger, rooting them in place. Chibro and Kor tried to lift them up and throw them, but to no avail. The Naga, hissing oaths and swearing revenge, dimension door’d herself and her compatriot away.
The group returned to the raft, and began to load up to continue their trip. Dreri, seeing Tag’s extremely wounded condition, healed him, and welcomed him aboard, making some snide but warm comments about the group and their willingness to engage so blithely with the denizens of the outer planes.
While waiting for the rest of the group to board, Tag noticed his golden-haired elf friend sitting at the table near the dock with a handful of slaads. Through some magical means, he encouraged the slaads to leave their seats, and gestured for Tag to join him.
The elf, a melancholy look on his face, informed Tag that Naghig had already left the Molten Curtain, and Lonsorran had taken the Brazier of WildFire and left for the Beastlands. The Molten Curtain was already being overrun by fiends, and the Night Market no longer had a place that was a shelter to those who sought refuge from its fiendish denizens.
However, the elf recognized that, ultimately, the actions the group took freed Naghig, and opined that giving someone a life to live, and the freedom in which to do so, is worth a great deal. He gave Tag a golden dragonchess set, saying offhandedly that it was one he carved and crafted himself, then wished Tag well. Tag asked if there was any chance they would see each other again, and if he could call upon the elf if in needed. The elf responded that he was not an angel or a diety, and would not be summoned to help in that way, but instead would make his way to where he was needed next, to help the next Naghig. He then vanished into the crowd.
As the boat pulled away from the shore, Brooze called out to Chibro, wishing his new “deformed” friend good luck, and hope that he finds his purpose. Chibro responded in equal goodwill, and the night market receded behind them.
As you push away from the shore and continue your upward spiraling ascent, you can look out over the side of the River and see far down the plane. Your travels up this river, winding and interrupted though they have been, have brought you far up the massive central volcano of this plane of Khalas. The air here has become almost unbreathable.
As you gasp, and choke, struggling to breathe, you continue around the side of the volcano, and there, closer than you’ve ever seen it, is the Crawling City, its dozens of enormous legs scrabbling on the side of the volcano, finding purchase where it can. It is moving in your direction, slowly, but you estimate you’re not more than another half-day’s journey at most.
If not for the awful poisonous air of the plane, you would take a huge sigh of relief. But as you feel your shoulders relax, you hear a massive cracking sound from above you. Dreri lets out a curse.
“By the nine hells! Everyone hold on!”
You look up and see an enormous section of the volcano on the slope above you has sheared off, and is tumbling end over end down the volcano’s slope in your direction with no way to avoid it. You’re kicked back as Dreri pushes the boat to its fastest speed, but you watch as the building-sized chunk of stone crashes into the river in front of you, piercing the side of the volcano, immediately swallowing the river, and cracking the ground beneath you.
Before you can react, the boat tips up, over, and into the hole, tossing you out into the darkness.
You land, hard, but alive. The boat, you realize, cushioned your fall, but tore itself up in the process. You see pieces of it all around you, shattered, and as you watch, the pieces turn to a golden mist and float away. Whispered memories echo through the chamber as the boat disapperates. You watch as the river hisses and spatters onto the lava all around you, turning to steam. Then, like flame following smoke, the water follows its own steam up into the air, flowing upward, away from you, leaving you in this sweltering cavern.
Dreri sits, hugging her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth slightly, staring at the last wisps of her boat floating away.
Tabi lies splattered, smeared across the ground, further down the cavern behind you, an enormous chunk of rock on his armor. He is not moving. The Sphere of Fire Immunity that was bobbing in his head is laying on the floor.
The crates and their elemental carriers seem largely undamaged, though one Myramidon has a partially shattered leg. It stands at a slight angle, holding the crate with its partner.
As you stand to your feet, the ground shakes, and three enormous creatures emerge from the flowing lava around you, bellow furiously, and charge.
A fierce battle ensued, with four enormous fire lizards attacking the party. The group, already weakened by their battle with Cwentus and Naghig, were hard pressed to stay on their feet.
Thankfully, the Sphere of Fire Immunity that Tabi (rest his soul) had in his head was able to keep the molten breath of these creatures and their grand pyroclasms from searing the party.
- Chibro handily pinned one in place with his fire rune, causing it to be immobile for much of the fight, and an easy target.
- Two of them erupted with great pyroclasms, spraying giant chunks of molten rock onto the group.
- Tag kept moving around the battlefield, firing arrows, staying well out of the creatures’ reach with his nightmare’s aid.
- Josiah laid shot after shot into the creatures, forced to rely not on his fire bolts but pure cold steel.
- Angelus slashed and cut with his Acheron blade, driving the creatures back, following Kor as they charged out of the protection of the sphere and into pitched battle. Though he lost his sword at one point due to the creature batting it away, he rebounded with his newly obtained Orthon’s Pursuer shield, slashing it with the sheer edge.
- Kor destroyed one of the creatures in a single mighty blow of his maul, being splattered with hot magma as a reward, but shrugging it and the many other bites and blows off and continuing to attack.
- Gobbie bounced around the creatures, alternating hitting with his maul and keeping his teammates up. Much to his teeth-gritting chagrin, he had to bring Grebo out of saving throws…twice.
The monsters defeated, the party regrouped. Angelus helped Dreri to her feet, but she was still largely catatonic. The quick and violent destruction of her boat in the fall seemed to do some sort of intense psychic damage to her, and she followed wordlessly as he led, saying only “My boat…” again and again.
Chibro, worried the crates would have been damaged in the fall, went to inspect them. One of the lids had popped loose in the fall, and one of the myrmidons had a shattered leg, but other than that, it appeared to be fine.
After inspecting the crates, Chibro saw Tabi’s bag, with a large DoomSpark Shotgun poking out of it. Deciding Tabi would no longer be needing it, and assuming he had purchased it in the Night Market, he took it, and the rest of Tabi’s possessions, and returned to the group.
You climb out of the chasm, wheezing, sore, coughing. The smog is overwhelming. The heat is overpowering. Every breath burns your lungs. You can’t see more than a few dozen feet in every direction.
As the last of you hauls yourself out of the pit, an enormous leg swings out of the smog, slamming down right in front of you. It stretches far above you, and as you look up, you see your long-fought destination faintly through the smoke. The Crawling City is slowly lowering to you, and a giant golden spiral staircase, large enough for Naghig to climb, is lowered over the side, the first step hovering several feet off the ground.
A voice calls down, “Welcome, couriers! We have been anxiously awaiting your arrival! Please, join us!”
The group, slowly, painfully, ascended the staircase.
Once they got to the top, the city immediately shifted and began moving down the volcano. The air up on the city level was much clearer, though still smelled of the sulfurous gases of the volcanoes.
As the city moves through the clouds of smog, there is a noise like a rushing wind, and the smog is pulled through the windows of various buildings, then a rushing wind of fresher air is blown back out, in an enormous sigh, almost as if the city itself is breathing in and out, clearing the air. The new air, the cleaned air, has a humidity to it, and a slight metallic scent.
The group was met with a welcoming party of eight yugoloths:
- Holofernes - A bulked-up Merrenloth with uncomfortably tight skin and the persistent skeletal face of every merrenloth.
- Ventidius - A fifteen foot tall Baernoloth wearing a long toga-style outfit, with a tight belt cinched around its waist.
- Sempronius - A Yagnoloth wearing a set of fine clothes, carrying a large book it was constantly scribbling in.
- Lodowick - Quartermaster of the High Prefect’s Office, City Maintenance division, an arcanaloth, Lodowick has a long scroll strapped to his waist that contains the current inventory of the Crawling City, plus a large pouch with various coinage of the planes within it.
- Four Canaloth guards, enormous fiendish dog-like creatures with rounded spiked maws and long lashing tongues.
Ventidius introduced himself and asked where Tabi was. The group shared of his demise, and Ventidius did not bat an eye, instead asking who the new leader was.
After some quick interparty discussion, they pushed Angelus forward, and Ventidius requested Angelus kiss the back of his hand. Angelus, whether not understanding the request or refusing to honor it, stuck out his own hand to be kissed.
Slightly insulted, Ventidius stepped back and Lodowick stepped forward in his stead. Lodowick asked after the cargo, and Angelus provided it to him, with Chibro providing assurances that it was good to go.
Lodowick thanked the party, then encouraged them to explore the city, stating it would be a three-day trip to get to their portal home, in the floating city of Nimicry. Then carried off the cargo, taking the canoloths with him.
Ventidius and Sempronius also departed without another word. The party stood and watched as Holofernes used a large golden crank to raise the golden staircase, then tucked the crank into a carrier on his back.
They then turned to the city, and set off toward the place of respite Lodowick had promised, their quest almost complete.
Song of the Session
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