The danger spreads
NB: Players, this particular session has been really hard for me to reconstruct at all ‘cause I was tired and frazzled that day, so for now I’ve just got to release the summary notes and call it good until I have the energy to write it up “for reals”. Feel free to drop a comment or send me an email if there’s a detail you especially want me to immortalize (don’t worry, Seraph, I didn’t forget you puking on Malak!). ~FemmeLegion
Raeb wakes up in Seraph’s body. A complete lack of hilarity ensues.
Seraph wakes up in Raeb’s body. He is now eight feet tall, hairy, with huge clawed paws and a sense of smell that allows him to perceive every dead fish and crabshell under the boardwalk. Amazingly, Morgaine recognizes him anyway.
Chosofi comes running pell-mell down the boardwalk and caroms off Berun-Seraph. A pack of Kymelions appears close behind her. Collin, Chosofi’s companion, shoots one. Morgaine steps in front of one to protect Chosofi from the poison spit. That draws Abbadon and Berun-Seraph into the fight. Marli, who knows Kymelions mean nothing but trouble, flying leap-kicks one into another, staggering them. Leno, who is nearby, cold-cocks one and cleaves another who has spit at Marli. Chosofi heals the wound, but there will always be a bald patch. At least it’s the same arm as the lack of hand.
Collin mentions that he and Chosofi are trying to go into hiding, and would like to be out of the street. Marli is surprised to hear that Seraph is also being prompted to follow the music, but since Leno says it’d be okay for everyone to hide out in a small room near the source of the music, everyone crowds in.
Chosofi is blind, but has absolutely no problem seeing Morgaine because she’s a projected spirit. When Morgaine mentions she’s lost, Chosofi does a little magic and locates Morgaine’s silver thread and gives it to her. Seraph understands her, much to Collin’s amazement, though Collin does find himself translating a lot for the rest of the time. Also, as soon as Morgaine has the thread in her hands, Seraph can see his way home too, though it looks very far.
Marli goes out to see the source of the music, and recognizes the man at the piano as the black-and-white thread in the tapestry. Collin calls her back, and she talks about the prophetic vision she had (and how she recognizes Leno and Abbadon and Chosofi as being part of it too), and about the child who needs to return to her mother or everyone will die. Conversation ensues about Marli’s vision-child versus the baby Florin took. The very strong possibility is that Florin has taken the child into the Dreaming, where time is all sorts of messed up, and that’s why Marli sees it as a young woman rather than an infant. Collin mentions that Chosofi had also been guided to find a rabbit-woman.
Thaddeus finishes his concert and returns to his dressing room, horrified to find a crowd in here. Marli creeps him out yet further by “knowing” that he’s going to Thistledorf, and offering to pay his fare if she can come along, since he’s part of her prophecy too.
When Marli recognized Abbadon, she also noticed that Seraph was dreaming (which also was part of her prophecy, that some who met her would be dreaming). Abbadon, on the other hand, was apparently transported via the blue bucket, which Seraph said contained water from the Oasis of Inyana. Abbadon insisted that such a place did not actually exist, and this prompted a heavy discussion about how, or if, Abbadon was going to get back to the Vale. They also weren’t entirely sure that Morgaine could get back because she’d been flung past the Dreaming into this world, but Seraph was able to contact Brandy, who seemed confident that if Morgaine attempted to wake up, Seraph would be able to find where she got stranded, and guide her back to her body. (That’s why Brandy picked Seraph!) So they’re sure Morgaine and Seraph can get back, but not so much about Abbadon. He accepts it stoically, since it seems they were sent here for a reason, and in any case it will be fun to try and thwart a prophecy by deliberately not attempting to travel with Marli. Berun-Seraph offers to kill Thaddeus and see how that affects the prophecy. Marli attempts to punch him, but Berun-Seraph is easily able to hold her at his arm’s length, which is very long. Morgaine then winks out, and Seraph wanders away. The rest of the people also split up, Marli and Collin and Chosofi immediately booking passage to Thistledorf.
So…back to Zinyini-Raeb. Utterly baffled by his new turn of events (and not being able to smell anything), he attempts to sit up and start shouting. The rest of the party restrains him, and Red gives him a rapid-fire explanation of the situation which pretty much just confuses him into silence. Finally Red convinces everyone to try and rescue the other dwarf-looking creature on the grounds that he might know something about the bucket. It ends up being a very simple snatch-and-grab. Malak asks how well the drow fare in the light, thinking about using her own glow to blind them, but Red instead opts for a flash arrow. The carpet dives, Azis and Gorlon haul up the dwarf by his ropes, and the carpet takes off for the hole in the ceiling that leads into the crystal-tree room. The drow try to slow everyone down by casting a deep magical darkness, but the carpet doesn’t have eyes, so when Azis instructs it to travel to the hole from whence it came, it can still do so! The draw then cast some sort of flickering pink glow around everyone, probably to make them easier targets for crossbow bolts. Red quickly improvises a blind with her cloak.
As the party enters the crystal-tree room, Red finds herself looking up. In the glass roots, she sees Adam courting a lovely woman whom he calls Li’Marolf. She tears her eyes away, then has the idea to try and use the glass roots to scry on the drow. It seems having intent does allow one to control what one sees, and they’re not yet flying up after the party…
The dwarf is loosed from his bonds and introduces himself as Dohr. As Malak tends to his shoulders and wrists, he says that he actually came from the dwarven version of Heaven, and was very grateful to be free from the accursed drow. Red shows him the bucket, and Dohr translates the runes. They say that if the bucket is filled with water from the Oasis of Inyana, then one need only touch the water and chew upon some root (those runes are untranslatable) and one can be transported anywhere one desires. This in turn prompts Gorlon to insist that the Oasis does not exist, and the others to speculate as to why the heck Florin would have it all the way down here. The best answer they have is that the drow possess the needed roots, so Florin would need to either trade for or steal them to make good his escape with the child.
Zinyini-Raeb, not understanding any of the conversation but very thoroughly understanding the market value of the gems on the trees, takes the knife off his belt and reaches to pry a sapphire off a nearby branch. The others try to talk him out of it, Gorlon mentioning the acidic creatures living in the trees that will “eat your face off”. Zinyini-Raeb shrugs and says he doesn’t care ‘cause it isn’t his face, and continues prying. Malak, furious at this body-snatcher and his disregard for her grandson’s corporeal safety, blasts Zinyini-Raeb and sends him tumbling across the sand crust just as he finishes prying. The gem flies from his hand, and he cracks a hole in one of the crusted sand drifts as he bounces off it. Clear liquid oozes out, and begins very obviously flowing toward him – it’s another of those creatures! Zinyini-Raeb scrambles to his feet and rushes for the carpet. Gorlon, who’d hopped down to help him up, follows close behind. Malak lets loose another blast, which kicks up the loosened sand, burying and flaying the ooze.
After the fight, Dohr laments his sobriety. Gorlon obligingly digs out his flask of firewhisky and offers it to Dohr, who proclaims it the best alcohol he’s had since Tuesday. Zinyini-Raeb clamors for a sip as well. Malak objects, but is unable to physically stop him from seizing the flask and taking a pull. She then grabs him and begins to threaten his well-being if he continues to have such callous disregard for the body he’s currently inhabiting.
At about this point, Seraph’s and Morgaine’s journey through astral space is complete, and Zinyini-Seraph celebrates his return to himself by promptly vomiting up the firewhisky…all over Malak. Malak, too furious to have noticed any change, continues her beratement until Seraph addresses her by name, thus cementing that it’s really him in there now.
Seraph recounts his adventure in the Berun’s world, and says that nobody really knows how they’re going to get Abbadon back, but apparently there’s some sort of prophecy in that other world that involves him. At this point, the party begins to plan their next move.
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