Behold H'Catha (Part 4)

JubalBreakbottle · March 21

Celsior Loriniscil, Prince of Alfheim

Inspiration Yes | HP 27/27 | HD 4/4 | Step 2/2 | Shield 1/1

Bladesong 1/2 | Recovery 2/2 | 1st-level 4/4 | 2nd-level 1/3

Standing next to Searthe, Celsior hears him react in pure disbelief. "What happened, sir?" He wonders if it's the ship following them, or antics with his crew.

Mechanics

Active effects: See Invisibility

Action:

Reaction: probably Shield to AC 23

BobtheWizard · March 21

"Lou" Louis Dufray (Goblin Ranger 4) sheet

AC: 16 | HP: 40/40 | Initiative: +4 | Passive Perception: 17 | Features

Opal AC: 16 | HP: 25/25 | PP: 14 | Features

Lou looks to Searthe.

"We should still get out of here."

Over the next few days, Lou tries to befriend the Death Kittens. Even Opal gets in on the act, finding she has more in common with them than she originally thought. While she enjoys just playing catch and tag with them, Lou tries to train them to use their death rays on command. He hopes to be able to put down his bow and use one of the cats as a gun itself - a Laser Cat - trading pets and treats for being able to choose its targets. But instead of gaining a weapon, Lou mostly just gets several holes in his clothes and body. While his goodberries manage to keep his body in one piece, his clothes are wrecked by the time they return, his pants and jacket full of burned out holes.

While he never completely gives up, he realizes that he will need better treats than the ones we have on the ship if he wants any chance of realizing his dream.

Mechanics

Main Hand: bow
Off Hand: none

Lou's Action: animal handling
Move: none

Manipulate: none

Bonus Action: command Opal

Opal's Action: help Lou
Move: none

Manipulate: none

Bonus Action: none

Reaction: none

Gnarley's Knack: You have Advantage on the next roll you make regarding ship repairs or ship weaponry.

Edited March 21 by BobtheWizard (see edit history)

JubalBreakbottle · March 21

Celsior Loriniscil, Prince of Alfheim

Inspiration Yes | HP 27/27 | HD 4/4 | Step 2/2 | Shield 1/1

Bladesong 1/2 | Recovery 2/2 | 1st-level 4/4 | 2nd-level 1/3

During the return trip to Toril, Celsior has two objectives, besides hanging out with his crew without the death kitties. He first wants to examine the Githyanki for clues. He missed most of the action and wants to understand their interest in Minken. When trancing, he asks his ancestors about Githyanki and Star Lancer riding.

His second goal is to get to know Saerthe and Tarto better separately. There seems to be quite a lot of drama at the academy, and the prince would perform better with more information.

Mechanics

Active effects: See Invisibility

Action:

Reaction: probably Shield to AC 23

KingGoblin · March 22

Lazuli Lazali Lulura, AKA Squishy

Saves: Str -1 | Dex +3 | Con +1 | Int +2 | Wis +6 | Cha +0

Resistances: Acid and Poison

Lazuli makes another boneless shrug as the kitten and gith fall away. "Pretty much exactly how I expected that to go," they comment, to whoever happens to be nearby.

Then, they get to work putting out the fire.

During the long trip back, Lazuli continues with their normal activities, although they seem less interested in eating kitty. They take up macrame. Tend their collection of skulls, which seems to be growing suspiciously despite the lack of victims. Try to get everyone to eat their goodberry spores, assuring them all that they are in no way poison. And other duties as assigned.

DM-Tareth · March 22

"Cindy Clawford!!! No!" Yahs exclaims as the kitten follows the Gith tumbling down the gravity well. But alas there is nothing she can do as the two flickering lights slowly disappear.

Saddened by the kitten's loss, the plasmoid deckhand can barely muster herself to scrub away the soot and smoke stains of yet another fire manifested aboard the stone ship. That same inner voice that is always yakking in her head, but rarely of any practical use, can't help but mutter about how fortunate she and her cadet companions were that they hadn't been assigned to a more traditional wooden ship. What eventually pulls her out of her malaise is the question of why the gith was so certain Miken was still aboard their ship. There were other questions such as, who was the employer she had mentioned? His fiancee? Parents? Based on what little she knew, both had enough funds and potential resources to add trouble to the Fleet's already rickety situation. And how did they even know she and her crew were infiltrating tyrant territory? Fleet security was a lousy sieve. But she couldn't do anything about that. What she could do was give the ship another complete search.

Under the guise of continued kitten training, now accompanied by Lou and Opal, she does her best to search the entire ship just to make sure Miken wasn't aboard, or any other stowaways or other potential threats.

Perception to Search

Animal Handling for Kitten Training

Edited March 22 by DM-Tareth (see edit history)

Cointhief · March 23

Celsior, at first glance there is not much to the heavily scratched corpse of the space raider. She seems to have been well equipped for a variety of scenarios (the obvious exception a surprise kitty strike). A dynamite stick in her boot survived the splash of alchemist fire. A jewel encrusted belly button ring seems like it might be worth something.

On a whim, you light one of your last remaining fart-scented candles that tips your consciousness closer to the realms of the Weave. Scanning the scorched corpse with this additional layer of scrutiny, a magic symbol fires aglow at the raider's wrist...the symbol of Vocath the mercane. If only someone had questioned the raider, or now perhaps had access to a Speak with Dead spell, could some insight into the horribly failed raid come about.

In your trance, and later confirmed by Saerthe and Tarto, the current prevalent theory seems to be that Star Lancers come from the many husks of dead gods litering the Astral Plane. The gith believe the creatures are reincarnations of the god's most zealous supporters, some clawing remnant of a soul that refused to abandon the fallen deity. The Great Vicario (an expert on Astral Sea lore and your mother's uncle's brother's former roommate) posits that the number of star lancers in the universe is a constant. When one dies, it returns to the husk to be born again. One of the sage's writings chronicles an epic journey through a psychedelic mental landscape, the exciting but strange collision of xenomancy and diplomacy used by the telepathic gith that not so long ago befriended the alien species.

As for Saerthe and Tarto, they are similar to the kind of professors that really prefer not to be teaching. Saerthe is ever absorbed in alchemical nonsense, while Tarto leans heavily towards the administrative side of things. Sure, they each have their own certain charm, but clearly the Academy prioritized coaching over academic instruction. Perhaps that isn't a surprise given Mirt's quasi-militaristic goal of Realmspace dominance.

Mistaking your inquiries for interest, Sarthe captures you in a long discourse one evening about his research. Apparently he has been studying the strange gravity altering Void Bulbs that frequently find their way back from deep space missions. He explains how he has developed an extract with a heightened effect compared to the raw psionic bulb alone, and hands you a vial to try.

This can be thrown up to 60 ft, shattering on impact. A 15 ft radius gravitational distortion results, dealing 4d6 force damage as it sucks objects, creatures, and light itself into a single, infinitely small volume with a failed DC 15 strength save.

Lazuli, one Solar cycle just before your shift, just as you are about to complete knitting a clever string thing that holds a glass orb, you hear the clattering clack of bone on bone. Sensing food, you investigate your skull collection and give it a quick inventory. Sure enough, and just like an hour ago, your count has increased by one. Then you see it: *claCk* The skull divides in two like cellular mitosis, replicating itself.

You vaguely remember suspecting something after the bloodstained demonic symbols carved into the bone were translated. Still, you didn't let something as silly as an abyssal promise of a generational curse or the ever-present sound of whimpering children sour your budding collection.

You have a pet Bone Swarm which prefers to live inside your membrane, but that can be unleashed as an Action. The bone swarm can make a Swirling Bone attack where it chooses a melee damage type to deal 4d8 with a +7 to the attack. It hungers for the blood of virgins with a voraciousness you can empathize with. Prof bonus uses per long rest.

Yahs and Lou, your efforts have at least taught a few kittens that your pockets are a good source of nibbly treats. They follow you around, always hiding in the shadows or mewling loudly in your face. Indeed, in times of peril, they just may consider your deaths to be not such a great thing after all.

To attempt to encourage laser antics in combat, you both spend an Action and roll Animal Handling. If both pass a DC 13 Animal Handling check, the laser kitten tidal wave fires its barrage of Death Rays at all enemies within a 30 ft radius. Each roll a d4 for each number you beat 13 by. This is the number of 3d10 necrotic shots that result (and insta-slay if the damage reduces something to 0). For example, if Lou rolls a 15 and Yahs a 14, 3d4 lasers fire. This can only be used once a day before the kittens get distracted by a piece of string.

Yahs searches every crack, crevice, eye-socket, and slime pool of the tyrant ship. She can never seem to shake her suspicions, that eerie feeling of being watched or followed...

It's probably just Mr. Bigglesworth fucking with you.

~~~

At long last, the snow-kissed gem of Toril emerges from the rainbow hypervelocity of the Spelljamming conduit. Saerthe manuevers the tyrant into the Tears of Selune as Tarto prepares a thick, earmarked mission report. The familiar Flighty Foundling soon arrives to blaze through the atmospheric shell and ferry you all back to the Academy.

Air. Air!

You forgot what fresh air smelled like (at least those of you with nostrils). And for all the wonders of Wildspace, something about the colors sunlight made when reflecting off the ocean seemed even more unique.

Tarto unceremoniously orders you to get some rest while she delivers the report to senior staff. Your hearts sink a few notches when she smiles and takes a drag of her cigar, because by now you know such puffs portend painful work "...report to the mooring on the Nexus deck in the morning for maintenence work. Oh, and just forget about Miken...he won't be with us much longer."

Edited March 23 by Cointhief (see edit history)

JubalBreakbottle · March 24

Celsior Loriniscil, Prince of Alfheim

Inspiration Yes | HP 27/27 | HD 4/4 | Step 2/2 | Shield 1/1

Bladesong 2/2 | Recovery 2/2 | 1st-level 4/4 | 2nd-level 3/3

Immediately after searching the gith, Celsior seeks out Searthe and Tarto, while the last remaining fart-scented candles continues to burn, to show them the magic symbol aglow at the raider's wrist... the symbol of Vocath the mercane. "Who is Vocath the mercane?" He asks them. He suspects it is the mercane who recruited Miken.

The first off-shift after searching the gith corpse, the prince relaxes next to Lou off shift. From his pack, he pulls a stick of dynamite and hands it to the goblin, "found this on the gith. I figure you might have a better instinct on when to use it than me."

That first trance after searching the gith, the astral elf asks his ancestors about the mercane and if any of them had encountered Vocath. So much to learn.

After returning to the academy and the crew split for personal time, Celsior visits the Stores to purchase the ingredients to summon his familiar Pulsar. Then, he finds a quite place to perform the magical ritual to return Pulsar from the Feywild. They spend the rest of the evening catching up of each of their adventures after Pulsar was knocked back to his home dimension.

Mechanics

@BobtheWizard

Action: Give the dynamite

Spend 10 gp recast Find Familiar

Edited March 24 by JubalBreakbottle (see edit history)

DM-Tareth · March 24

The surprising leap in progress with her feline allies boosts Yahs' mood and gives her a renewed sense of purpose following the disturbing events of their mission. Miken's betrayal, the loss of Cindy Clawford, the mysterious gith attacker, all had started to weigh upon her mind. Adding to that her sense of constantly being watched, it all nearly evolved into a full on emotional outburst, but then she witnessed that singulsr moment of synchronized laser fire vaporizing a half dozen makeshift gith boarder dummies and things clicked back into place for the plasmoid. Shortly afterwards they arrived back at the Academy and she felt a surprising relief once she was off the tyrant ship. Perhaps you could never really completely remove the darkness imbued in a craft created and inhabited by such deadly and evil creatures.

With the kittens safely smuggled past security and free of any further duties until morning, she decides to start some infiltration exercises with the kittens. The first target being the Fleet Quartermaster Stores and any recent deliveries of Scramsax Selects.

Cointhief · March 24

Celsior, Saerthe, Tarto, and your ancestral memories do not serve up anything new about the topic that wasn't already researched or overheard regarding the strange space giant called Vocath, and the mercane species he is part of.

You tick through the known facts: A prestigious member of the mercane's universal merchant empire. Sells exotic wares, including Spelljamming Helms. Raised a mercenary fleet to rival Mirt's Academy, ultimately losing in a selection process overseen by Prine Andru of the Rock of Bral. Seems to be leaving his sigil on everything from the box of neogi, to the exploded Simulations Deck, to Ryeback's cooking surface, to the dead gith's wrist...

As Tarto told you before your jaunt into the beholder cave, Miken confessed to conspiring with a mercane. This terror sponsor was apparently funding Miken's engagement, however Miken never mentioned Vocath by name.

As you and your crewmates previously discussed, it seems to be too convenient of an explanation. Why would a saboteuring mastermind announce themselves so clearly? Some important detail seems to be eluding you.

The trip to Blip's storeroom proves fruitful for Yahs and Celsior both. In fact, there is a 2-for-1 sale on Scramsax brand items as the autognome seems eager to offload the many cases of the stuff. Apparently, some kind of mistake with the shipment documents caused 10 cases to be ordered instead of 1.

Celsior, you can prepurchase Find Familiar 'charges' if you want. Just mark a number of Find Familiar components on your tracker. Same with spell scribing materials.

Cointhief · March 24

@KingGoblin @BobtheWizard Anything else before I queue up the final scenes? You have an afternoon/evening at the Academy. All the same resources are available as before: storeroom, library, Nexus, sim deck, gym, etc. Miken is being held in a guarded, makeshift brig. All the other former crewmates and cadets are around somewhere. No biggie if not, just want to check since we are very close to the end here.

KingGoblin · March 24

Lazuli Lazali Lulura, AKA Squishy

Saves: Str -1 | Dex +3 | Con +1 | Int +2 | Wis +6 | Cha +0

Resistances: Acid and Poison

Lazuli spends the rest of the trip secreting themself in odd rooms, feeding bones to their bone swarm, growing odd mushrooms on the rocks, listening to too loud music, and generally being weird. You know.

Adolescence.

Edited March 24 by KingGoblin (see edit history)

Cointhief · March 25

That morning there was the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good was a beautiful early morning meteor shower, sending wonderful, quite colorful arcs of light across the sky. As you sipped the first fresh coffee you've had in a few weeks, you felt your mind slip back into a reliable routine...far removed from the bizarre alien worlds you were thrown into.

But then there was the bad news. Apparently, a certain Captain Scruffstache came to collect Louis away from the Academy late in the night. An incident from his pirating days was finally catching up to him, and the Academy had no choice but to obey the cold realities of bounty law (which had, from a legal perspective, been previously established with sufficient precedent that, despite protests from Tarto and Saerthe, the Fleet's administration could not simply wholesale abandon...).

The ugly was of course Tarto's task, a thorough scrubbing of the Flighty Foundling.

Not the work itself, perse.

Being moored just outside the large chamber of the Spelljamming Nexus, essentially bolted to the side of the large rock constituting the Academy, you all have plenty of fresh ocean air and sunshine. The gnomes are off harassing some new group of cadets with their manuals and procedures, so in place of their annoying mnemonic songs is only the crashing of waves some 400 ft below. Compared to lassoing a logbook from a deadly asteroid field, reprovisioning an abandoned beholder vessel, or one of Bacon's crazy simulations...it was not that bad.

The ugly was what happened next.

Deep in your tasks, the shadow of another ship zips over the slick deck. It appears to be preparing to dock with the level just above you. A Damselfly class, like a giant metal insect. Its hull gleams a metallic, starmetal sheen, reminiscent of the vessel briefly spotted just before the Star Lancer attack...a vessel Saerthe was urged to desperately outrun.

It seems they have caught up.

Ropes drop from the vessel, knocking the main deck with a soft plop near the stern castle. Two brawny, hippo-headed commandos zip down the lines on steel loops, hitting the deck with solid thuds. The Damselfly peels off rapidly to the opposite side of the Academy tower. One of the giff points at you, snorts, and says "Get off our ship."

...before pulling the pin on a Mk III Thermospatial Nills Bomb and tossing it right at you.

Only Lazuli seemed to have the mindset to react...

The Foundlings shipboard ballista are, as before, available to you. Your reduced crew size might not make that a great idea, however. 1 action to load, 1 to aim, 1 to fire. The mangonels are under maintenance and have no ammo. Reminder its a long way down.

@KingGoblin Lazuli up, getting the jump on them as the grenade is midflight.

Round 1:

Lazuli <--UP

Seal Team 6

Yahs, Celsior

Edited March 25 by Cointhief (see edit history)

KingGoblin · March 26

Lazuli Lazali Lulura, AKA Squishy

Saves: Str -1 | Dex +3 | Con +1 | Int +2 | Wis +6 | Cha +0

Resistances: Acid and Poison

With less brains than bravery, Lazuli rushes towards the grenade as they produce their wooden leg for a ~~kick~~ ~~punt~~ bat attempt back towards the giff. "YOLOOOOOOOOOO!"

OOC

Yeah, not sure what to roll for this, so I'll just roll a d20. Lazuli's proficiency bonus is +2, dex bonus is +3, but I don't know if any of that would apply to trying to bat an explosive pitch.

Edited March 26 by KingGoblin (see edit history)

Cointhief · March 26

@KingGoblin Sure, sounds like a dexterity check to me, so you passed a DC 15 just now.

As the others were daydreaming about giant goldfish bowls full of hot mermaids, Squishy squished instantly into action. With a gaseous *bbbrrrRRRP* the plasmoid flew through the air, and they were right on top of the offensive explosive lickety split. With a quick twirl and sashay reminiscent of Nut-thwacker's (the famous ballet) third act, the ticking time bomb was sent right back to sender with a big Fleet F-U.

"..." The giff hadn't anticipated such advanced tactics from mere cadets.

*KABLAM*

The lumbering, 7-ft tall chunks of meat tumbled sideways as a massive explosion disintegrated a 20-ft crater of the once majestic Spelljamming vessel, but not fast enough. They were both caught in the blast and buried in a rain of debris and for a moment, it seemed like they had vanished just as suddenly as they appeared...blown to bits.

But then the first shots were fired.

Springing up from mounds of rubble and upturned capstans, the musket wielding soldiers counter-struck with fantastic expertise...handling the smokepowder firearms with nearly doubly the speed you've ever seen Tarto achieve...

A hail of bullets streams across the deck. At first it seems like defensive suppressive fire, until a crackerjack shot catches Lazuli in their most sensitive vacuole.

Giff ignore loading on guns, so they can multiattack.

Giff are 60 ft from PCs.

Lazuli takes 14 piercing.

giff 1: -22

giff 2: -22

@DM-Tareth @JubalBreakbottle Yahs and Celsior to end round 1, and Lazuli can post again for top of round 2.

Round 1:
Lazuli
Seal Team 6
Yahs, Celsior <--UP

Edited March 26 by Cointhief (see edit history)

JubalBreakbottle · March 26

Celsior Loriniscil, Prince of Alfheim

Inspiration Yes | HP 27/27 | HD 4/4 | Step 2/2 | Shield 1/1

Bladesong 1/2 | Recovery 2/2 | 1st-level 4/4 | 2nd-level 3/3

Celsior could not believe the academy was being assaulted. Fortunately, Squishy reacted fast enough to turn their attack back on to the assaulting giffs. But even after the explosion, they did not retreat.

The prince shifted into his martial dance and charged them. But, instead of pulling out his rapier, he pulls out Saerthe's weird potion and throws it at the two giffs.

Mechanics

Bonus Action: Activate Blade Song, AC 18

Move toward giffs

Action throw potion of Void Bulbs

This can be thrown up to 60 ft, shattering on impact. A 15 ft radius gravitational distortion results, dealing 4d6 force damage as it sucks objects, creatures, and light itself into a single, infinitely small volume with a failed DC 15 strength save.

Reaction cast Shield AC 23 if necessary

Text_1	Text_2	Text_3	Bold_1	Accent_1	Mood_1
Warm_1	Warm_2	Warm_3	Bold_2	Accent_2	Mood_2
Cool_1	Cool_2	Cool_3	Bold_3	Accent_3	Mood_3
Bright_1	Bright_2	Bright_3	Bold_4	Accent_4	Mood_4

Behold H'Catha (Part 4)

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