Quartz 4

Session 42

12 min read

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IT’S THE CAMPAIGN’S 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

  • We receive two tokens: let’s go gambling coins, to either get a NAT 20 or a NAT 1
  • The entire party needs to agree before the tokens can be used (they can be used after a roll is made to retcon it)

We Awake

  • The gang wakes up from our dream with The Curator — in the distance, we hear someone on deck call “land ho!”
    • The gang gets their asses upstairs!
  • We’ve gotten used to seeing Vallen perched at the entrance of the top deck, near the corner.
    • He used to perch on a barrel, but now he’s on a chair
    • As we pass, we see him holding a dainty little teacup (filled with tea)
  • Kaya’s like “whatchu sippin on?”
    • Vallen is like “it’s just tea”
    • Kaya asks what kind, and he’s like “brown” 💀💀💀
  • CAL SPITS IN VALLEN’S TEA???
    • Vallen gets sad and dumps it on the ground
  • Cordelia is like “ig Cal is feeling better??” and Vallen is like “yeah”
  • Vallen leaves to get tea

Land Ho!

  • We pull up to the island where we first met Kade
    • Funnily enough, we park in the same docking spot that we pulled up to when we first entered Solmara… how time flies 🥺
  • As the boarding board hits the deck, the same aarakocra pulls up with their clipboard
    • He looks at Captain Seamus. Captain Seamus looks at him.
    • Quén is like “we’re here to pay our old docking fee”
    • Cal is like YOUR POOR MANAGEMENT COST ME MY ARM!!!
      • IT WORKS!!! the aarakocra stammers and runs off to get the dockmaster for us
  • Kade pokes his head out of the lower decks, asking what’s happening
    • We fill him in, and he’s like “cool 👍” and skedaddles down belowdecks
  • Ozwin comes up on deck, and is like “wtf is up with Kade? He was muttering something about not touching the ground out here”
    • Quén calls Kade on the Sending Phone, asking what his deal is
    • “Sooooooo remember why I left? Can’t have too many people asking too many questions”
  • Ozwin tells us that he’s going to visit the local library and magic shop — Quén tells him that they’ll join him soon.
  • A bigass dragonborn comes up to us, and apologizes to Cal, telling him that he wanted to apologize for his arm personally and asking him what he can do to make up for it
    • Cal asks for:
      • Waiving the docking fees from our previous visit and also today
      • Restocking the ship
      • HELLA eggs

THE GANG GOES SHOPPINGGGG

  • Cal goes to the dockmaster’s office

Magic Shop

  • The rest of the gang (Cordelia, Kaya, and Quén) go to the magic shop and catch up with Ozwin
  • Quén asks for diamonds
    • Ozwin buys them 3 diamonds worth 300 GP
    • He hands them two, and keeps the third
  • Cordelia searches for spell scrolls (looking specifically for Fireball, Detect Magic, and Polymorph)
    • She asks for 4 scrolls of Fireball, which would cost her 1,800 GP
    • She offers to read the salesman’s fortune, which gets her 100 GP knocked off
    • Quén offers to find “someone or something” for the salesman, and in return he tells Cordelia that he will give her a Fireball scroll for free in exchange
      • He tells Quén that he’s not going to ask them to cast a spell, but he appreciates the sentiment
  • Quén also asks for a golden reliquary worth 500 GP (for Planar Ally) and diamond dust worth 100 GP (for Greater Restoration)
    • Ozwin gives them the reliquary, and tells them that he will share his diamond dust collection if he can get a private moment with the shopkeep
    • Quén lingers for a bit at the door, and catches Ozwin inquiring about a book, but not what kind of book (they tell Cordelia about this, and she acts VERY suspicious at the mention at a “secret book”)

Hitting up the library

  • Before pulling up to the library, we run into Cal standing outside the ship, hand on his hip and foot on a barrel. He’s wearing a VERY cool captain’s hat!!
  • We straight-up HARRASS the librarian 😭😭😭 dude threatens to kick us out almost IMMEDIATELY
    • It’s ok tho bcs Quén donates 10 GP to him to smooth things over
    • The librarian is an elven man bee tee dubs
  • LIST OF BOOKS WE GET:
    • Cal gets…
      • A list of all named gods (in which Mystra and Lathander don’t appear)
      • Two nonfiction books about pirates
    • Kaya gets…
      • A book detailing the history of Langston
    • Cordelia gets…
      • Nothing
    • Quén gets…
      • 3 random books that they think Vallen will like
      • 1 random book for Kade
      • An ancient history book
        • It mentions that Amadeus made a deal with an unnamed devil
  • Cal pays for all our books!! (they cost 2 SP, but he pays 2 GP — the shopkeep pockets one coin and puts the other in the till)

Back on the ship

  • Kaya scoops up some dirt to keep!
  • We see the dockmaster LOADING BOXES HIMSELF
    • He tells Cal that he wants to make up for what happened, and that he will get to the bottom of matters and will ensure that it will never happen again
  • CAL HANDS ALL OF US REALLY BITTY CAPTAIN’S HATS!!! WE ALL MATCH :D
    • We all IMMEDIATELY put our hats on
  • Cal ordered 2 weeks’ worth of eggs 💀💀
    • Captain Seamus gets so exasperated that he hands Quén his clipboard and storms off to the captain’s quarters
  • 20 minutes after we pull back up, Ozwin shows up!!
    • His bag is LADEN with books
    • He’s curious about the books we got
      • When he learns that Eldorian gods (e.g. Mystra and Lathander) aren’t in the list of named gods that we acquired, he gets real curious!!
      • He asks Cordelia if he can borrow the list to go over in his own time — she gives it to him :]
  • Ozwin tells us that he’s going to retire to his room earlier than usual, but that his door will be (metaphorically) open to us if any of us we want to talk

Recapping with Vallen

  • We set sail!! An hour passes
  • We go down to the bar!!
    • Vallen’s sitting at our table, reading the “book” (the loose papers that Quén gave him — Vallen’s bound them in twine)
  • Vallen’s like? what were the crates being loaded onto the ship??
    • Cal tells him that it’s eggs, and hands him an additional itty bitty captain’s hat!! (Vallen puts it on 🥰)
    • Quén hands Vallen three new books! Their reasoning is that we spend a lot of time sleeping, and he needs something to entertain himself. The books are called:
      • Life Note
      • To Your Eternity
      • A History of the World
  • Vallen tells Cal that Foo called for him. Cal IMMEDIATELY runs off
    • When he comes back, Cal has a new arm!! (the fingers are rounded though, not clawed)
    • Foo warns Cal to be careful when casting Eldritch Blast, and to not do so willy nilly

Week-Long Downtime!

  • We take a week to travel to Silvanour

Kaya’s Downtime

Cordelia’s Downtime

  • She goes to speak with Ozwin! She wants to speak with him about…
    • The book he gave her
    • His weird behavior surrounding books lately
  • Cordelia knocks on Ozwin’s door — he responds by telling her it’s open
    • When she walks in, she sees him doing some in-depth reading about the gods of Solmara. He doesn’t look up until she asks him what he’s doing (he responds by telling her that he’s looking into the gods specifically)
  • Cordelia asks him if his odd behavior has something to do with the secret book he gave her
    • He says kinda. He has a theory that he wishes to posit to the Seekers as a group, and that she will want to read the book he gave her after she hears it
    • He also promises to not mention the book to the group
  • Cordelia realizes that he’s almost done with the book, even though it’s only been two days or so since we set sail
  • Ozwin closes the book and sets it down, telling Cordelia that she’s onto something
    • He thinks that there is logic behind why specific gods were locked away in Eldoria
    • He mentions that Mystra only reached out to Cordelia when she entered Solmara, and that magic casters were still able to access magic even while Mystra was sealed away.
      • They agree that EITHER:
        • There could be a second source of magic
        • Mystra might not ACTUALLY control magic
      • Cordelia looks in the camera like she’s on The Office
  • Cordelia asks to join Ozwin for her reading :] he says yes and shares his snacks with her

Cal’s Downtime

  • He tinkers!!
    • Specifically with new ammo types, and his arm (to see if he can get some upgrades)
  • He also drinks a lot and eats a lot of eggs

The gang meets up with Ozwin

  • After reading for a while with Cordelia, Ozwin stands up and tells Cordelia “Let’s get ‘em”
    • Ozwin knocks on everyone’s door as he walks down the hall, and summons us to the bar
  • We sit at our usual table (Vallen joins us as well!
  • Ozwin tells us that Cordelia got him thinking about gods, and mentions that he knows that most of us have had less than positive encounters with the gods
  • Ozwin talks about the Raven Queen, and how - outside of Eldoria - she can be found in the Shadowfell, which is a purgatory of sorts
    • He talks about how she can see a little into the future, which is why she chose Cal to bestow with powers
      • BECAUSE of her foresight, she would have known about Solmara
    • He tells us that some gods (like Loki) have physical forms, and others don’t. But many are tied to specific locations (like how the Raven Queen doesn’t have a physical form and is tied to the Shadowfell)
  • Ozwin asks if there are gods for Eldorians and gods for Solmarians, since we as Eldorians were trapped with the same gods for so long
    • He asks if the gods are against Eldorians in Solmara
    • He asks how do we kill them, and if we should
      • Quén suggests that we could use the Pyramid to fight fire with fire, since it’s made of the same paracausal stuff as the gods
      • Quén also says that if anyone knows how to use the Pyramid, it’s Dr. Pope. Cordelia says that he has a LOT to answer for
  • WE GET A TIMELINE FIGURED OUT
    • Quén shares their Legend Lore vision from Session 38, during which they saw how Amadeus Wolfgang came to power and the general idea of the deal he made to come into power
    • Kaya realizes that Amadeus didn’t need to rule with a gentle hand if he could just USE THE CROWN to force people to do his bidding
  • Ozwin asks why some gods want to help us and why some don’t
    • Cal shares that - during one of his previous conversations with the Raven Queen - she mentioned that the Father was siphoning off her power and indirectly killing her
    • Ozwin posits that the Father is trying to kill the gods that have sided with the Eldorians
  • TL;DR:
    • Ozwin has made a list of Solmarian gods that we can kill, but he needs time to flesh it out and make sure that we’re not targeting any decent gods
    • Ozwin excuses himself to go back to his room and continue his research, but reminds us that his door is open for us
    • I FORGET WHEN THIS WAS, BUT:
      • Quén theorizes that Ihys gave the Eldorians her blood (the blood of paracausality), and the gods disagreed about whether or not that was a good idea. Those that sided with the Eldorians receiving her blood were the ones who were sealed away in Eldoria, and the ones who didn’t were able to remain in Solmara
  • Kaya shares the message she received from her mother
    • Aratish tells her that the water trials will simply “find Kaya”, and that there isn’t a guidebook on it (although she tried looking for one)
    • Aratish is also going to go deeper into hiding, since Thraxxus is hunting her
      • Quén suggests that she can hide in Eldoria, since that’s the safest (and most difficult to reach) place in the world right now, since Alexios has a key)
      • Kaya tells Aratish that, and she responds by saying “Good idea.”
  • Vallen recaps everything that we need to do:
    • Find all the pieces of the shapes
    • Find Eldorians
    • Take down the Father
    • Take down the False King
    • Go to Nexus
    • Rescue Julian
    • Kill the gods???????
  • We try to reach out to Balthazar, but we receive no response
    • “This recipient isn’t available at the moment. Your message will be delivered in the order it was received”
  • Cal inquires how the sending stones work
    • A target needs to ALSO have a sending stone to receive a message
    • Quén tells him that they can send a message for him - so long as they’re familiar with the target - and that the target doesn’t need a sending stone to receive the message
  • They workshop a message to Erin Thorne, telling him “Erin Thorne, we are coming.”
    • “Who the fuck? Oh! Quén? Hahaha I’m gonna kill you AFTER I kill your friends. Good luck loser!”
      • In response to this, Cordelia says that we should skin him to the shaft (or something along those lines)
    • They respond with “You are bad at trash talk.”
    • Erin Thorne responds to THAT with: “Sure, where was your brother buried again?”
      • Quén gets PISSED at this and asks Cordelia what she said we should do with Erin Thorne once we find him — when she answers, they agree that we should go through with it and walk away (they don’t share what he said with the rest of the party)
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