Griffin O'Callahan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
icastsword) wrote2022-04-01 06:00 pm
icastsword) wrote2022-04-01 06:00 pm
Entry tags:
Session 100: Brewing Chaos & Eating Magic Relics
Can Shane Brew Chaos? Let's find out.
How's the earth realm crew on the day after our boss rush?
Griffin's not doing great. He sat up with his parents and talked things over after he got home and they were very reassuring, but he was not very reassured. In the end he still fucked up and he has to deal with that. He barely slept, but he makes it in to work on time. It's not like he has anything else going on.
After Serra got home she had a big ol' glass of wine. She's concerned about what's going on and worried about Nellie and Crimeny. She's not on time to work the following morning, but she's never on time so that's not remarkable.
Ryo: Vote for me! I make memes. I make memes come true.
How's Jericho? He sat down with a real big glass of whiskey and had a nice little consult with Verona. He asks her about everything she knows about Interplay, and ways to get more information from Interplay. He'd also ask her about the best way to keep Interplay off somebody's scent when they're on the lam. Jericho rolls an Unnatural 20 to survive the whiskey. He always survives the whiskey. He spends a couple hours going over Verona's methods. She gives him a couple of names of cleaners who can help sweep crimes under the rug. He does not hit on her at all during these several hours. He's very serious because this is about his people and his people are in trouble. There are definitely people in Interplay who can be paid off with favors who can make some things go away. She's got people in all six known realms she recommends.
As Jericho talks to Verona, he starts to see that Interplay isn't as unified a front as it presents itself. There absolutely Earth Realm First hardliners, but there are other people (usually not human) who are more about freedom of information/freedom of the realms. Maybe interestingly, it's the non-earth natives who tend to fall in line with Ambrosia. One of the names that comes up is Ronan - he is absolutely loyal to Ambrosia.
There is a definite divide in Interplay's ranks.
If Jericho sleeps that night, it's more like a cat nap. He saunters into the office at 9:15. Serra will be there around 10:30. Shane will be roughly on time because Chungus woke him up for breakfast.
What's our first move once everyone's in the office? Let's get a rundown of the meeting with Watkins. Shane does the world's worst explanation of his meeting. Griffin has no idea what Shane is saying. Shane tries again.
Did Watkins join Jericho's OnlyFans to try to keep track of him? Watkins didn't do it, but he assigned it to someone else. All of Jericho's social media is being watched by someone in Watkins' employ. Jericho is going to upload some really weird shit now.
If anyone decides to take a nap today Jericho is not going to penalize us for it.
What we know is Ambrosia has given us the all clear, and Watkins can't do anything about it but he's going to try.
Jericho shares what he learned from Verona.
What's our next move? Get in contact with our missing coworkers. Didn't Crimeny set up WiFi? Are we just iMessaging? Basically. There is a little bit of a delay though.
We have a hilarious cross-realm SMS chat. Crimeny's going to try to source a alchemy set in Midshade and Shane can come along to do the potions at Calico's place.
This chaos potion crafting is not going to be a one-day process - you gotta let that chaos simmer. Is the whole earth crew going to hop over to the Feywyld? We know Watkins is still watching us, so is that wise? We roll some Insight. Serra rolls a 22, Griffin rolls a 19, and Jericho rolls a 16.
With our combined insights: Now that we're a little more awake, we take a look outside. In the past we've noticed a lot of the same people on the street corner. The people who have been watching us have been taken from their posts. Whether that's by Watkins' doing or by Ambrosia's decree, we can't tell. It doesn't look like we're being actively surveilled right now.
We may still want to avoid the normal crossing.
But it seems like a bad idea for all of us to go. Maybe Jericho should stay in New Orleans since he's being watched. Maybe just Shane and Serra will go to the Feywyld while Griffin and Jericho stay behind.
We all head to Griffin's house for some Brunch and another Plane Shift spell.
This is the first time Serra's been alone with Shane since she learned who killed LaRue. Serra is reminded of the day Shane comforted her during the Midshade Arc after the warehouse explosion. They pass by the building where he comforted her on the roof. Then she remembers that Shane brutally murdered her good friend LaRue.
She's feeling nostalgic for her friend. Both for the friend she thought she had in Shane and for her friend Remy LaRue. Serra is content to walk in silence and do what they have to do. Shane doesn't want to piss her off. They travel in awkward silence.
Shane's take on it is, if she wants to talk to him, he'll let her do the approaching. He's the one who fucked up, so he's not going to get into her space. Serra keeps an eye out for Majnab.
They meet up at Fantasy Denny's. Pippinella is freshly bathed, so she's not meeting her friends covered in syrup. Crimeny has cleaned up all the detritus and viscera from last night's excursions.
A hostess on the corner yells out, "We can brew up some good chaos together!"
Shane pulls out a vial of blood. He has no time for Hostess Majnab. Nellie grabs Shane and leads him away from Majnab before he can summon a demon on his ass.
The crew head back to Calico's safehouse, where Calico has procured a very high-grade alchemy set. This is going to take several days.
Griffin will tell Chad Shane is going to be out of town for a few days.
To brew this potion, Shane needs to roll Arcana and Survival.
He's rolling Survival as a means of understanding the nature of what he's brewing so he doesn't overcook it or explode everything.
Day 1: 25 Arcana, 21 Survival
Shane spends the day testing things, suspending the shard of chaos in a solution to see if the solution will take on any of the properties. The same with a sample of the Foodzamuth leavings. He makes great progress figuring out how to distill the shard. He has to be judicious with the Foodzamuth juice, because it's a finite resource.
Shane takes a point of Exhaustion because he hasn't slept for over 24 hours.
Day 2: 23 Arcana, 10 Survival
Shane leaves the chaos shard in the solution over a low burner. At the start of the second day he gets a small amount of solution that resonates with the chaos frequency. When he tries to combine that with the Foodzamuth, the reaction is an awful fetid gas that needs to be vented. The room needs to be vented for the rest of the day, and he can't really do anything after that. Shane rolls 21 Constitution and is mostly unaffected by the gas. He is able to rest for the remainder of the day and recover from Exhaustion.
HILARY: The more Shane risks his health the more I'm glad the healer is here.
Day 3: 19 Arcana, 19 Survival
More good progress is made. Shane distills the opaque chaos liquid. Instead of directly adding the Foodzamuth sample to it, he filters it and extracts some juice, breaking it down into its base components. By the end of the day, he's able to start mixing things in very small batches. The potion is starting to take form, but it's only maybe a quarter of a potion, because this is a painstakingly slow process.
Is Shane taking meticulous notes? Yes, actually, he's a big nerd when it comes to this shit.
Now he has to roll Con with Disadvantage for Day 3: 14 Con. He takes a new point of Exhaustion. He gets the feeling that if he leaves things for too long, the solutions would go stale.
While Shane brews potions, what is the rest of the party doing?
Crimeny continues to give Toit stabbin' lessons. They also return the Superscope to Holt, and also give him the data. Crimeny also shows Holt a picture of the news report showing the explosion at the top of the HWC. Holt is fucking delighted.
Nellie's in Midshade, she's going shopping for wizard spells. Does she want Crimeny to help her find good deals? If they want to come along, sure! Nellie rolls a 29 to investigate for spells. While they're walking along, she spots a sandwich board that might at some other time have been easily passed over. But this one says, "Books and Rare Finds" and an arrow that points down an alley.
NELLIE: You got that stabbin' knife on you?
Crimeny pulls out like three knives. One for each hand, and one that slides out of their mouth.
They head down the alley. It's super narrow just like in the Yakuza games. They follow it until it bends to the right. Set into one of the buildings is a small archway, and a door, and no windows. There is another sign here that says "Books and Rare Finds"
NELLIE: Well, this will be either exactly what we're looking for, or one of us is about to get shanked. Let's go!
It's a very small shop, and the walls are lined with books and scrolls and assorted paraphernalia. There's a grizzled half-orc behind the counter. "We got books, we got rare finds." He's got salt and pepper stubble, one of his tusks is broken. "What're you interested in?"
Nellie wants magic rare finds of the magic school of magic. She's looking for some more Divination spells.
But, as long as we're here, let's check out items - she says, looking at Crimeny, because looking through scrolls is probably going to bore them to tears. She asks if there's somewhere where she can browse. The proprietor gives her some convoluted directions:
Right at first fork, follow that to the end, make a left. Go down four aisles. After the fourth aisle, make another left, then stop and stay in place for 10 seconds, because all of the shelves will rotate. It's to stop people from taking things that don't belong to them.
Nellie glances at Crimeny to see if they're behaving. Crimeny is behaving. They don't shoplift from people who don't deserve it. Small business owners are off-limits.
After 10 seconds, everything will stop. WHen you get to the end, make another right, and you'll get to the room with my magic stock. I'll see you there. And he disappears.
Crimeny recorded the conversation, so Hilary and Scott don't have to roll to remember his instructions.
When they get to the Items Room, the half-orc proprietor is waiting for them. Is Crimeny magic? Not really. Well, maybe. Crimeny does the finger trick where it looks like you're taking off your finger, but they actually take off their finger.
There's all types of cubbies filled with nick nacks in this little rotunda.
We've only just started down this path of figuring out the bigger overarching plot, maybe they can look for anything related to the double-headed griffon from Ambrosia's bullshit book, or for something related to chaos.
Crimeny, roll Arcana: 15! Crimeny pokes around in the cubbies, and something catches their eye: It's a small wooden compass. The needle is constantly spinning, regardless of the position of the compass. There are no etchings or engravings. It's a plain wooden compass.
Out of sheer curiosity, Crimeny holds up a bit of the chaos eggshell from their pack. When they hold up the eggshell, the needle halts, and then redirects to point at the eggshell. It has found its true north.
The Orc's name is Dorok. He wants to know what the thing is Crimeny has. It's an eggshell they found. Dorok will sell Crimeny that compass, but whenever they find whatever the compass is pointing to, Dorok wants them to bring it back here so he can see, because he's curious.
Crimeny has four pieces of eggshell. He takes one of the pieces and hands it over. Dorok will accept this as collateral. "You go ahead and take the compass."
Crimeny nods and eats the compass.
Ant takes Scott into the time-out corner to have a private chat. Booo. But they come back pretty quickly and the following happens:
Once the compass hits Crimeny's robo-tummy, Crimeny feels something very strange going on with their body.
Oh no, buyer's remorse! D:
They physically warp in space for a moment, and then the face of the compass appears on the center of their chest. Crimeny has eaten a lot of things, but they've never done that before.
Dorok goes, "Uhhhh…well, that was weird."
Nellie wants to know if Crimeny has always been able to do that?
"....No?" Nellie asks if this is an update? Is this Crimeny's new thing? Crimeny just shrugs. Nellie wants to know if it's working? Get the eggshell back out. Dorok holds out the piece of eggshell Crimeny gave him, and the needle on the compass swings to point to the eggshell. When that happens, Crimeny feels a little tingle.
Uh oh, has anybody had the talk with Crimeny?
Nellie: I guess that's yours forever now.
Dorok: All sales're final.
Now that that's a thing that's happened, Nelle is going to spend some time looking around for items of protection, since a certain friend of hers has been spending a lot of time getting magic'd to the brain. She rolls Arcana: 24. Now roll Investigation: also 24.
She starts poking through one of the Pippinella-high cubbies. Something catches her eye, and she reaches into the cubby and comes out with a beautiful silver pocket watch. Dorok notes what she's found, and explains what it does:
Once a day, if you do something you regret, you turn the knob, and you go back a couple minutes in time.
Mechanically: once a day, you can reroll a failed save with Advantage because you know what's coming.
Dorok wants to know if Nellie wants to make a trade for it. Nellie looks through her inventory. She does have this majestic royal robe she looted from King Alvar's bedchamber. She shows it to Dorok and tells him we don't really know what the double-headed griffon is. He wants to know why she's interested. She mentions the book we retrieved from the Feywyld for Ambrosia, and we don't know what the crest means.
Dorok tells her it doesn't look like traditional Infernal garb - It's different. Interesting! Where in the Infernal Realm did you find this? We started in Zok Vushur - Dorok interrupts. Someone broke the seal? People can visit it? Nellie tells him she does believe it is accessible, yes. But as soon as it got unsealed there were some complications?
Nellie, roll Deception: 9
Quick, use the pocket watch!
Quick, use the pocket sand!
Dorok's Insight beats that easily. Look, if you're not going to tell me the truth, you can take your business elsewhere. Nellie explains about Ozamuth's little competition. Dorok had heard some rumblings about that. "For some reason we were there…"
Nellie explains about the fire. How much of the city burned down? Nellie asks Crimeny how much of the city burned down. About half. Dorok is depressed at this news. Zok Vushur was one of the relics of the old world…! Nellie is also unhappy. But anyway, so she's interested in this double-headed griffon?
Dorok knows a guy. How long is she going to be in town? Nellie tells him they're staying with Calico, and they'll be around for a few days. Everybody introduces themselves. Dorok will show the robe to some of his associates, and he'll get in touch with her through Madam Redglimmer.
Nellie still has a functioning 3rd level Spell Slot rune from Goggles. She shows it to Dorok, and he's enthusiastic. He tells her to let Goggles know he's interested in getting more of these, if Goggles is interested in selling. She trades him that along with King Alvar's robe in exchange for the pocket watch.
Crimeny and Nellie have made a new friend-slash-contact. :)
Back to Shane:
Day 4 Potion Rolls, with Exhaustion: Arcana 22, Survival 13
Shane's not getting a lot of rest, just little catnaps. He is starting to finally make something. The bottle that he's been filling over the course of the last few days has a swirling pretty potion in it that looks like liquid metal. However, Shane has the heat of the burner turned up a little too high, so as he goes along it starts to boil over. As soon as it hits the table it starts to eat through it. He watches helplessly as his equipment tumbles to the floor. Thankfully he's able to scoop up the reinforced glass beaker before it spills everywhere. Shane rolls Sleight of Hand to catch it and fumbles the fuck out of it with a 7. He doesn't lose his hand, but the goo is pretty caustic, and he takes 12 damage. Now it's time for a disadvantaged Con roll: 7.
Shane's not sleeping tonight. He takes another point of Exhaustion, so now he has 2 Exhaustion points.
Day 5, with Exhaustion: Arcana 23, Survival Unnatural 20
Crunch time now - this is the finishing touches. At the end of the brewing process is a swirling cloud of smoke. When it dissipates, Shane has an almost eerily still-looking potion that looks like damascus steel. Over the past five days he's learned some things. During the process it is caustic. Now that is is finished, it can be imbibed. Shane smells it. It smells like Hell. It's not a good smell. It's dank. It smells like an old moldy, mildewy house.
These need to be chilled. If it gets warm, the compounds break down and the fetid gas happens. He's not sure how long a potion will last, but since Shane rolled really good Arcana rolls throughout this, he suspects that if Toit nurses the potion over time, one potion should last him a month or so. If Holt is careful once he starts brewing these, and refines the process, we can probably sustain Toit for about a year.
Shane keeps a couple of samples for himself just in case something should happen to Holt. He has a stash for his little dude.
Shane has solved Ant's Toit Puzzle.
Crimeny has assimilated a Chaos Compass.
Next week we're going to have a Chadical Adventure. Please don't let Chad drink Toit's Chaos Potion.
How's the earth realm crew on the day after our boss rush?
Griffin's not doing great. He sat up with his parents and talked things over after he got home and they were very reassuring, but he was not very reassured. In the end he still fucked up and he has to deal with that. He barely slept, but he makes it in to work on time. It's not like he has anything else going on.
After Serra got home she had a big ol' glass of wine. She's concerned about what's going on and worried about Nellie and Crimeny. She's not on time to work the following morning, but she's never on time so that's not remarkable.
Ryo: Vote for me! I make memes. I make memes come true.
How's Jericho? He sat down with a real big glass of whiskey and had a nice little consult with Verona. He asks her about everything she knows about Interplay, and ways to get more information from Interplay. He'd also ask her about the best way to keep Interplay off somebody's scent when they're on the lam. Jericho rolls an Unnatural 20 to survive the whiskey. He always survives the whiskey. He spends a couple hours going over Verona's methods. She gives him a couple of names of cleaners who can help sweep crimes under the rug. He does not hit on her at all during these several hours. He's very serious because this is about his people and his people are in trouble. There are definitely people in Interplay who can be paid off with favors who can make some things go away. She's got people in all six known realms she recommends.
As Jericho talks to Verona, he starts to see that Interplay isn't as unified a front as it presents itself. There absolutely Earth Realm First hardliners, but there are other people (usually not human) who are more about freedom of information/freedom of the realms. Maybe interestingly, it's the non-earth natives who tend to fall in line with Ambrosia. One of the names that comes up is Ronan - he is absolutely loyal to Ambrosia.
There is a definite divide in Interplay's ranks.
If Jericho sleeps that night, it's more like a cat nap. He saunters into the office at 9:15. Serra will be there around 10:30. Shane will be roughly on time because Chungus woke him up for breakfast.
What's our first move once everyone's in the office? Let's get a rundown of the meeting with Watkins. Shane does the world's worst explanation of his meeting. Griffin has no idea what Shane is saying. Shane tries again.
Did Watkins join Jericho's OnlyFans to try to keep track of him? Watkins didn't do it, but he assigned it to someone else. All of Jericho's social media is being watched by someone in Watkins' employ. Jericho is going to upload some really weird shit now.
If anyone decides to take a nap today Jericho is not going to penalize us for it.
What we know is Ambrosia has given us the all clear, and Watkins can't do anything about it but he's going to try.
Jericho shares what he learned from Verona.
What's our next move? Get in contact with our missing coworkers. Didn't Crimeny set up WiFi? Are we just iMessaging? Basically. There is a little bit of a delay though.
We have a hilarious cross-realm SMS chat. Crimeny's going to try to source a alchemy set in Midshade and Shane can come along to do the potions at Calico's place.
This chaos potion crafting is not going to be a one-day process - you gotta let that chaos simmer. Is the whole earth crew going to hop over to the Feywyld? We know Watkins is still watching us, so is that wise? We roll some Insight. Serra rolls a 22, Griffin rolls a 19, and Jericho rolls a 16.
With our combined insights: Now that we're a little more awake, we take a look outside. In the past we've noticed a lot of the same people on the street corner. The people who have been watching us have been taken from their posts. Whether that's by Watkins' doing or by Ambrosia's decree, we can't tell. It doesn't look like we're being actively surveilled right now.
We may still want to avoid the normal crossing.
But it seems like a bad idea for all of us to go. Maybe Jericho should stay in New Orleans since he's being watched. Maybe just Shane and Serra will go to the Feywyld while Griffin and Jericho stay behind.
We all head to Griffin's house for some Brunch and another Plane Shift spell.
This is the first time Serra's been alone with Shane since she learned who killed LaRue. Serra is reminded of the day Shane comforted her during the Midshade Arc after the warehouse explosion. They pass by the building where he comforted her on the roof. Then she remembers that Shane brutally murdered her good friend LaRue.
She's feeling nostalgic for her friend. Both for the friend she thought she had in Shane and for her friend Remy LaRue. Serra is content to walk in silence and do what they have to do. Shane doesn't want to piss her off. They travel in awkward silence.
Shane's take on it is, if she wants to talk to him, he'll let her do the approaching. He's the one who fucked up, so he's not going to get into her space. Serra keeps an eye out for Majnab.
They meet up at Fantasy Denny's. Pippinella is freshly bathed, so she's not meeting her friends covered in syrup. Crimeny has cleaned up all the detritus and viscera from last night's excursions.
A hostess on the corner yells out, "We can brew up some good chaos together!"
Shane pulls out a vial of blood. He has no time for Hostess Majnab. Nellie grabs Shane and leads him away from Majnab before he can summon a demon on his ass.
The crew head back to Calico's safehouse, where Calico has procured a very high-grade alchemy set. This is going to take several days.
Griffin will tell Chad Shane is going to be out of town for a few days.
To brew this potion, Shane needs to roll Arcana and Survival.
He's rolling Survival as a means of understanding the nature of what he's brewing so he doesn't overcook it or explode everything.
Day 1: 25 Arcana, 21 Survival
Shane spends the day testing things, suspending the shard of chaos in a solution to see if the solution will take on any of the properties. The same with a sample of the Foodzamuth leavings. He makes great progress figuring out how to distill the shard. He has to be judicious with the Foodzamuth juice, because it's a finite resource.
Shane takes a point of Exhaustion because he hasn't slept for over 24 hours.
Day 2: 23 Arcana, 10 Survival
Shane leaves the chaos shard in the solution over a low burner. At the start of the second day he gets a small amount of solution that resonates with the chaos frequency. When he tries to combine that with the Foodzamuth, the reaction is an awful fetid gas that needs to be vented. The room needs to be vented for the rest of the day, and he can't really do anything after that. Shane rolls 21 Constitution and is mostly unaffected by the gas. He is able to rest for the remainder of the day and recover from Exhaustion.
HILARY: The more Shane risks his health the more I'm glad the healer is here.
Day 3: 19 Arcana, 19 Survival
More good progress is made. Shane distills the opaque chaos liquid. Instead of directly adding the Foodzamuth sample to it, he filters it and extracts some juice, breaking it down into its base components. By the end of the day, he's able to start mixing things in very small batches. The potion is starting to take form, but it's only maybe a quarter of a potion, because this is a painstakingly slow process.
Is Shane taking meticulous notes? Yes, actually, he's a big nerd when it comes to this shit.
Now he has to roll Con with Disadvantage for Day 3: 14 Con. He takes a new point of Exhaustion. He gets the feeling that if he leaves things for too long, the solutions would go stale.
While Shane brews potions, what is the rest of the party doing?
Crimeny continues to give Toit stabbin' lessons. They also return the Superscope to Holt, and also give him the data. Crimeny also shows Holt a picture of the news report showing the explosion at the top of the HWC. Holt is fucking delighted.
Nellie's in Midshade, she's going shopping for wizard spells. Does she want Crimeny to help her find good deals? If they want to come along, sure! Nellie rolls a 29 to investigate for spells. While they're walking along, she spots a sandwich board that might at some other time have been easily passed over. But this one says, "Books and Rare Finds" and an arrow that points down an alley.
NELLIE: You got that stabbin' knife on you?
Crimeny pulls out like three knives. One for each hand, and one that slides out of their mouth.
They head down the alley. It's super narrow just like in the Yakuza games. They follow it until it bends to the right. Set into one of the buildings is a small archway, and a door, and no windows. There is another sign here that says "Books and Rare Finds"
NELLIE: Well, this will be either exactly what we're looking for, or one of us is about to get shanked. Let's go!
It's a very small shop, and the walls are lined with books and scrolls and assorted paraphernalia. There's a grizzled half-orc behind the counter. "We got books, we got rare finds." He's got salt and pepper stubble, one of his tusks is broken. "What're you interested in?"
Nellie wants magic rare finds of the magic school of magic. She's looking for some more Divination spells.
But, as long as we're here, let's check out items - she says, looking at Crimeny, because looking through scrolls is probably going to bore them to tears. She asks if there's somewhere where she can browse. The proprietor gives her some convoluted directions:
Right at first fork, follow that to the end, make a left. Go down four aisles. After the fourth aisle, make another left, then stop and stay in place for 10 seconds, because all of the shelves will rotate. It's to stop people from taking things that don't belong to them.
Nellie glances at Crimeny to see if they're behaving. Crimeny is behaving. They don't shoplift from people who don't deserve it. Small business owners are off-limits.
After 10 seconds, everything will stop. WHen you get to the end, make another right, and you'll get to the room with my magic stock. I'll see you there. And he disappears.
Crimeny recorded the conversation, so Hilary and Scott don't have to roll to remember his instructions.
When they get to the Items Room, the half-orc proprietor is waiting for them. Is Crimeny magic? Not really. Well, maybe. Crimeny does the finger trick where it looks like you're taking off your finger, but they actually take off their finger.
There's all types of cubbies filled with nick nacks in this little rotunda.
We've only just started down this path of figuring out the bigger overarching plot, maybe they can look for anything related to the double-headed griffon from Ambrosia's bullshit book, or for something related to chaos.
Crimeny, roll Arcana: 15! Crimeny pokes around in the cubbies, and something catches their eye: It's a small wooden compass. The needle is constantly spinning, regardless of the position of the compass. There are no etchings or engravings. It's a plain wooden compass.
Out of sheer curiosity, Crimeny holds up a bit of the chaos eggshell from their pack. When they hold up the eggshell, the needle halts, and then redirects to point at the eggshell. It has found its true north.
The Orc's name is Dorok. He wants to know what the thing is Crimeny has. It's an eggshell they found. Dorok will sell Crimeny that compass, but whenever they find whatever the compass is pointing to, Dorok wants them to bring it back here so he can see, because he's curious.
Crimeny has four pieces of eggshell. He takes one of the pieces and hands it over. Dorok will accept this as collateral. "You go ahead and take the compass."
Crimeny nods and eats the compass.
Ant takes Scott into the time-out corner to have a private chat. Booo. But they come back pretty quickly and the following happens:
Once the compass hits Crimeny's robo-tummy, Crimeny feels something very strange going on with their body.
Oh no, buyer's remorse! D:
They physically warp in space for a moment, and then the face of the compass appears on the center of their chest. Crimeny has eaten a lot of things, but they've never done that before.
Dorok goes, "Uhhhh…well, that was weird."
Nellie wants to know if Crimeny has always been able to do that?
"....No?" Nellie asks if this is an update? Is this Crimeny's new thing? Crimeny just shrugs. Nellie wants to know if it's working? Get the eggshell back out. Dorok holds out the piece of eggshell Crimeny gave him, and the needle on the compass swings to point to the eggshell. When that happens, Crimeny feels a little tingle.
Uh oh, has anybody had the talk with Crimeny?
Nellie: I guess that's yours forever now.
Dorok: All sales're final.
Now that that's a thing that's happened, Nelle is going to spend some time looking around for items of protection, since a certain friend of hers has been spending a lot of time getting magic'd to the brain. She rolls Arcana: 24. Now roll Investigation: also 24.
She starts poking through one of the Pippinella-high cubbies. Something catches her eye, and she reaches into the cubby and comes out with a beautiful silver pocket watch. Dorok notes what she's found, and explains what it does:
Once a day, if you do something you regret, you turn the knob, and you go back a couple minutes in time.
Mechanically: once a day, you can reroll a failed save with Advantage because you know what's coming.
Dorok wants to know if Nellie wants to make a trade for it. Nellie looks through her inventory. She does have this majestic royal robe she looted from King Alvar's bedchamber. She shows it to Dorok and tells him we don't really know what the double-headed griffon is. He wants to know why she's interested. She mentions the book we retrieved from the Feywyld for Ambrosia, and we don't know what the crest means.
Dorok tells her it doesn't look like traditional Infernal garb - It's different. Interesting! Where in the Infernal Realm did you find this? We started in Zok Vushur - Dorok interrupts. Someone broke the seal? People can visit it? Nellie tells him she does believe it is accessible, yes. But as soon as it got unsealed there were some complications?
Nellie, roll Deception: 9
Quick, use the pocket watch!
Quick, use the pocket sand!
Dorok's Insight beats that easily. Look, if you're not going to tell me the truth, you can take your business elsewhere. Nellie explains about Ozamuth's little competition. Dorok had heard some rumblings about that. "For some reason we were there…"
Nellie explains about the fire. How much of the city burned down? Nellie asks Crimeny how much of the city burned down. About half. Dorok is depressed at this news. Zok Vushur was one of the relics of the old world…! Nellie is also unhappy. But anyway, so she's interested in this double-headed griffon?
Dorok knows a guy. How long is she going to be in town? Nellie tells him they're staying with Calico, and they'll be around for a few days. Everybody introduces themselves. Dorok will show the robe to some of his associates, and he'll get in touch with her through Madam Redglimmer.
Nellie still has a functioning 3rd level Spell Slot rune from Goggles. She shows it to Dorok, and he's enthusiastic. He tells her to let Goggles know he's interested in getting more of these, if Goggles is interested in selling. She trades him that along with King Alvar's robe in exchange for the pocket watch.
Crimeny and Nellie have made a new friend-slash-contact. :)
Back to Shane:
Day 4 Potion Rolls, with Exhaustion: Arcana 22, Survival 13
Shane's not getting a lot of rest, just little catnaps. He is starting to finally make something. The bottle that he's been filling over the course of the last few days has a swirling pretty potion in it that looks like liquid metal. However, Shane has the heat of the burner turned up a little too high, so as he goes along it starts to boil over. As soon as it hits the table it starts to eat through it. He watches helplessly as his equipment tumbles to the floor. Thankfully he's able to scoop up the reinforced glass beaker before it spills everywhere. Shane rolls Sleight of Hand to catch it and fumbles the fuck out of it with a 7. He doesn't lose his hand, but the goo is pretty caustic, and he takes 12 damage. Now it's time for a disadvantaged Con roll: 7.
Shane's not sleeping tonight. He takes another point of Exhaustion, so now he has 2 Exhaustion points.
Day 5, with Exhaustion: Arcana 23, Survival Unnatural 20
Crunch time now - this is the finishing touches. At the end of the brewing process is a swirling cloud of smoke. When it dissipates, Shane has an almost eerily still-looking potion that looks like damascus steel. Over the past five days he's learned some things. During the process it is caustic. Now that is is finished, it can be imbibed. Shane smells it. It smells like Hell. It's not a good smell. It's dank. It smells like an old moldy, mildewy house.
These need to be chilled. If it gets warm, the compounds break down and the fetid gas happens. He's not sure how long a potion will last, but since Shane rolled really good Arcana rolls throughout this, he suspects that if Toit nurses the potion over time, one potion should last him a month or so. If Holt is careful once he starts brewing these, and refines the process, we can probably sustain Toit for about a year.
Shane keeps a couple of samples for himself just in case something should happen to Holt. He has a stash for his little dude.
Shane has solved Ant's Toit Puzzle.
Crimeny has assimilated a Chaos Compass.
Next week we're going to have a Chadical Adventure. Please don't let Chad drink Toit's Chaos Potion.