29 - Welcome to Halloween town
Previous session: 28 - An Even Newer Frontier
Trivia at the base...
Upon waking up, as we're not sure what to do yet, and as we still haven't got the contract yet, Nesvalyn goes to check Sprigg to ask him some questions about the whole situation, followed by Persy. We find him in the mess hall, taking his breakfast.
[Insight - Pass ✔] It's fairly easy to assume he is, as he's trying to deflect the subject.
Sprigg turns around to press his point, but it's only us in the mess, with Azzy and "Reylynn" joining the discussion.
he gets into the room next door and throws a tube to the group, and Azzy catches it.
Azzy opens the tube, revealing the following parchment:
Location: HT-112943
Rank: D
Reward: 20 000 credits
Target: The One who ties the noose.
Sprigg returns to his breakfast, and we start to head towards the Space docks.
While "Reylynn" is starting to prepare her spell, the first thing we wonder is how the magic is affected on this plane, and when quickly testing, it just needed some time to adjust.
The second thing is what to say to Fen. After deliberating, we're sending this message:
We're sorry, we got teleported far away in the commotion. We're wondering how you're doing, if that's alright.
"Ok cool, thanks for letting me know where you are, I'll come find you."
We're not replying back, and we focus on our first contract, and discovering our ship.
Discovering our Spelljammer...
We arrive at our Spelljammer after passing the ones from the Operation SideSpear crew, which emphasizes really on how dusty and old is ours. We notice a crate filled with a month worth of rations for the party near the helm.
Azzy gets to the helm and touches it. After a while, it pulsates with rainbow lights.
We hear a surprised yell, who calms down after a bit.
And as often, the party has an internal debate in the middle of a discussion , this time focusing on how we should name the ship...
A slot on the board gets visible, which seems to await the Star Map. Azzy installs it.
Azzy inserts the coordinates from the contract.
Naus works as an auto-pilot for the Spelljammer, a diagnosis system and the local guide. The ship has a D.R.A.G Unit (Dissimulative Reactionary Autoadaptive Glamour), which is a device that casts a Glamour on the ship and on the group to disguise them within the realm they landed.
The below dock contains a few cabins where we can rest, with a few support beams.
Naus boots up and prepares to leave:
It then does some strange noises, mimicking engine sounds, then we start to get away, finally beginning sailing on the Astral Sea by ourselves, after a rough start.
The story so far and our goals...
As we're on a cruise speed and it's going to take a few days to reach our destination, we take a moment to summarize what we've done so far for the new party members, and share our goals in the Astral Sea.
Current goals of the party:
- "Reylynn" wants to kill her mistress, which we suppose is Raina.
- Persy has the same goal.
- Azzy wants to know who he was and what he wants to be.
- Nesvalyn is looking for his fiancé (and finding a cure).
Persy mentions also the Portable Hole, which Azzy takes interest into, and wonders if they can summon their gun from there (to avoid having it at all times on them).
When we start to set the Portable Hole, an alarm rings from Naus, which explains that it has to be used far away from the Spelljammer Helm, as it would do the same effect as two dimensional elements put in each other. So they're making the test in the Cargo Deck who's far enough.
After testing, Azzy is able to summon their weapon from the Portable Hole, which could be useful for infiltration quests.
As we observe the panorama, Persy asks again if Azzy recovered some memory after seeing other Plasmoids.
[Insight] Azzy recalls being from somewhere in the Astral Sea. They also realize there are people like them here.
A bit later, Nesvalyn decides to reveal about his condition, and asks if Azzy or "Reylynn" recall or know something about the Minero Morphosis.
[Insight - Pass ✔] Azzy recalls about being a parasitic entity.
Party's first autonomous travel in Space...
The travel lasts 3 days, until we approach a crystal sphere with a silvery light, looking like a full moon.
Naus scouts around the crystal sphere looking for the portal, and we're entering the wild space to reach the plane. The spelljammer begins picking up speed as the planets are close to the portal.
There are two linked planets as mentioned, with the one we're going seems similar to Earth, except the lands are bright oranges and deep red, and some softer yellows. As we're approaching, Naus is "Engaging D.R.A.G", as the ship changes under our eyes as we also change, until it stabilizes, we're all sitting in some carriage we've never seen before with windows. We see some picturesque towns with a gorgeous view. It then dives down and lands in-between two buildings.
Upon getting out of the vehicle, we notice we were inside a yellow school bus. We all appear to be close to our regular appearance, but there's a catch:
As we leave the alley we're in, we go out and to our left, we notice the buildings look like it's in a colonial style, with pumpkins and cobblestone everywhere. We also notice a large group of people far away.
We make our way to the crowd, and as we approach, we see that the town square is 50ft away. They are all gathered around a giant carved pumpkin.
Halloween town...
Upon closer inspection of the crowd, we notice many ghosts, werewolves and various monster versions of these, but in an exaggerated version of their original counterpart.
Standing on the platform in the middle of the Town Square with the pumpkin, is a man with a black nice tuxedo with a vampire cape, calling out everybody.
Half of crowd cheers, whereas the other half is surprised from this.
[Perception - Pass ✔] Azzy and "Reylynn" notices four roads going on each side of the square. On the other roads, we can see figures that seems to be fighting in the background. They're grabbing a small figure and carry her down the street away from the crowd.
He points a tall building.
The windows open of the building, and are being thrown from these are four people with a noose, being hanged from these top windows. They're all dressed with velvet robes and pointy shoes. The crowd explodes in a mix of cheering and shocked reactions.
After the crowd calms down, the mayor resumes.
The crowd begins to disperse.
That random dude leaves, and we decide to check that building where they hanged the "Witches". We hide and Persy casts [Invisibility] on Azzy, sending Ozzy with them to keep us in touch.
A white blank sheet gets over Azzy when Persy casts the spell but no one else can see them.
When Azzy is getting closer to the building, two Pigmen are there, complaining:
The first Pigman let go a grumble, then after a silence that seemed an eternity, resumes
And they keep going doing small talk about their life and family. Meanwhile, the rest of the party gathers intel about the mayor and what's been happening.
[Investigation - Pass ✔] The Mayor's name is Raba, a vampire who's been a mayor for 13 years, who's gotten more extreme in his decrees in the last years.
He's locking himself in the Town Hall with guards when he's not outside proclaiming the news and the progress.
We also learn that he's been removing the counter powers in the Town Hall, granting him more and more political power.
Last week, several witch houses burned except the Cromwell.
The townsfolks have mixed view of Witches, but no one really speaks in favor of it.
The group reforms and share their gathered information.
Persy suggests to get help from the Cromwelp.
Nesvalyn reminds the idea behind the contract and the concept of the Operation SideSpear, making him pretty sure that the Mayor Raba is the target.
The enemies of my enemies......
We decide to head to the old Cromwelp house to get help from them. On the way, once we start to reach the countryside, we notice many burned houses. We notice a single room standing with a wooden door not burnt.
The party is unsure with how to process with this case, until we decide to knock and announce ourselves.
After knocking on the, golden letters start to form, stating this:
With pointed fangs I sit and wait
With piercing force, I dole out fate
Over bloodless victims, I proclaim my might I can eternally join with a single bite.
What am I?
Persy immediately answers "Vampire", but it is incorrect. He then tries "Gargoyle" after thinking a bit, which is also incorrect.
After a while, Nesvalyn answers "Stapler", which is correct, and the door seems to speak to describe part of the riddle on how a Stapler behaves with paper.
Persy opens the door, and we all smell an odor of stew and food. It leads to a cosy fireplace with a cauldron hanged, with a stew bubbling in, along a spoon stirring by itself to keep the stew smooth, with other various events happening, like the broom working by itself, or the dishes done with a sponge moving by itself.
Upon observing further, the room seems bigger in the inside, but mostly it doesn't seem to be impacted from the fire. On the other side of the room. sitting in a rocking chair, is a very old woman with pointy shoes (similar to the hung witches we witnessed) peacefully asleep.
We knock on the door again, but she doesn't wake up.
Ozzy wakes her up (in the idea that it could be her familiar), and she let out a scream, and grasps her chest, then collapses back into her chair.
Persy runs to her to cast [Cure Wounds], but she turns into a pile of candies when he touches her.
Looking at the source of the voice, it's the old lady, being on the other side of the room.
All the candies get by themselves into a bowl, then she sits back in her chair.
She leans closer to us.
She gets up and walks across the room to reach the wardrobe.
She pulls out a broom with a bright yellow line and green paints, and starts to describe it, being called the Wind Sweeper 5000. It was really the top of the line when her sister bought it.
We have a Broom of Flying as a helping tool until we save Ms. Piper's grand daughter.
With these new informations, we're heading back to the town square for the feast.
The feast...
There's a pyre in front of the giant pumpkin.
We find places to seat and enjoy the feast while waiting for the Mayor. A yellow light appears along the Mayor. He walks up and clicks against the glass with a spoon.
The crowd cheers. He keeps going for a while, insisting by being the pride and joy of Halloween town.
He claps his hands, and a werewolf appear while pulling a chain, and a bunch of witches are pulled until they all reach the pyre. The werewolf chain them around it, then jumps down.
Most people cheer.
He points the shortest person, matching the description given by Ms. Piper.
A werewolf starts to get closer to the pyre with a torch.
[Persuasion - Pass ✔] Nesvalyn manages to raise the crowd against the Mayor Raba.
He removes his cloak and the false teeth, then starts pulling out one by one his fake nails.
After removing the last nail, he starts chanting in Latin. suddenly the Jack O' Lantern flares up, and it floats a bit into the air.
He gives the order to throw the torch into the pyre.
This Jack O' Lantern has brown vines growing, and acting as legs and arms, blocking our way to the pyre and by the way, blocking our way to save the witches. The werewolves start to position themselves to intercept us, and the civilians are running away.
Chaos is general on the Town Square.
Next session: 30 - Chaos in Halloween Town