Recap

Brought everyone up to speed -> Riverboat next.

Session

Chapter 1 - Riverboat Shenanigans

Fate Rolls?

Lazlo - 1
Oona-Lynn - 3
Shamoiah - 4
Sasha - 10
Martok - 9
Theo - 7

The Riverboat

Entry to the boat

We catch up with Oona-Lynn and Martok on our way to the Riverboat.

We see this large, beautiful and elegant, multi-leveled riverboat. 4 levels on top, main level, and possibly 1-2 floors going down into the boat.

There is a bit of smoke that comes out of a chimney. It almost looks like it is spitting out the same low hanging fog that hands in the air.

It has large propellers, but they are more like claws on tread, to walk itself through the water. The "water" is extremely viscous. It is thick and muddy. A normal paddle wouldn't really work.

There's lights and music, people aboard. Roughly 200 people can fit the boat. Probably low hundreds of attendees. One of the flew places in the city, that doesn't feel like being in the city. The vibe is more lively.

The casinos in town are more run down opposed to the excitement of the riverboat. This riverboat attracts tourists. Not a whole lot of children, more adult like. We do see families of younger adults kids walking onboard. A blend of races.

A lot of the crewmen and workers are nicer looking ghouls, a bit more put together. Not a lot of decay about them. They have hair, teeth, eyeballs, etc.

Standing at the edge of the dock with a couple security guards, we see: a man in a white uniform, militant style but relaxed. He has a captains hat on: small brim, white puffy top. He is a very portly individual, quite rotund. He is greeting everyone, but we notice he has a pig face, almost, with small tusks. Very boarish. He doesn't have a snout.

Lazlo sees the man he gave his handkerchief to, to hold the boat. He remembers the captain being a lot older than the captain now. Lazlo skips the line and moves to the captain and begins to flatter him, offering introductions.

Captain Hognose: Son of the captain Lazlo used to know. Lazlo notices his families crest isn't at the top of the list anymore. Captain Hognose mentions someone else is a bigger doner.

As this is happening, we see an entourage of goblinoids coming down the dock to the boat. They are gnarly looking but are very well dressed. THE GOBLIN MAFIA.

Two little ones, two hobgoblins, and one orc. The orc has a backpack on with a "tent on his back". He drops to a knee and a staircase unfolds. A small, very small man, looks human but is smaller than a halfling, but proportioned, steps down the staircase. Just shy of 2' tall. He has slicked back hair. Pencil thin mustache, little pointy goatee, pin stripe suit.

Lazlo is dismayed. Captain Hognose directs his attention to the small man. They make pleasantries. Lazlo is waiting to be introduced and it doesn't happen. The little man asks for his table and the captain takes him.

Then appears a familiar half-orc man, a box with him. Torric appears. He hands us a box and apologizes for not thanking us before at his sister's wedding.

Sasha takes it. Inside it are: 6 greater healing potions; one for each of us. "Take this as a small token of our friendship."

Torric struts past the captain, asking us to follow. Torric tells us the little man goes by Mr. Pea (pixie). His origins is in the fey. The Fey Wild is a place of strange and magical creatures. A place of oddness and strangeness but nothing bizarre. Everything is just a little off. Entrances are hidden all over the place.

We make our way up the dock, the captain tells us he hopes we enjoy the ride. Lazlo asks if anyone else is representing his family tonight, he tells Lazlo a cousin.

The Riverboat Proper

It is lively: People dancing, gambling, smoking, drinking.

Martok looks for an empty instrument with the halfling band. There is ONE not being played, it is a piano. He saunters up and plops down at the piano to play with the band. The trumpet player tells Martok to take the lead and they will follow.

It starts out great, but starts to go poorly. Martok tries to correct it and overcorrects. The band then overplays Martok and he bows out. Quietly walking away.

We meander around, find seats, check everything out.

Gambling w/ Mr. Shade

We play games! Lazlo and Theo find a high stakes game. We are led into a semi-private lounge room. A blackjack game is going on.

Sasha and Shamoiah come with as guards.

Theo snatches a full tray of food and some punch.

Shamoiah sees 3 pixies flitting about on the ground. He can't catch them.

In the room, sitting at the blackjack table is: A beautifully ghoulish woman, dealer. One other person at the table, is a Mr. Shade. Lazlo begins to converse.

We situate ourselves at the table. A bit too drunkenly Torric stumbles into the room. "Is there a card game going on here?!" He falls into a chair. He isn't plastered, but has had far too much already.

We failed, horribly. Torric won the game. Lazlo spent 450gp for this!

Mr. Shade

Is a shadow. He has a profile and whatnot, but is purely made of shadow.

Lazlo strikes up conversation. Mr. Shade says Darkwood is dying and he is trying to get out of here. Lazlo's family casinos are dwindling. The money isn't coming in. They discuss the new comers, from the Fey Wild. Mr. Pea has a lot of money, which is odd because the fey don't really need money.

The 3 sprites are Mr. Pea's children. They cause a lot of mischief.

Mr. Shade tells us times are changing. Ever since the new council member was elected, it's been different. The officials are around more and it's becoming more corporate. It's more of a tourist attraction than anything.

Mr. Shade thinks Mr. Pea is into espionage and thuggery. They are well dressed and well paid.

The last few months there has been an uprise darker activity. Up near the temples, especially. Apparently there has been a "leak" from the place of shadows. Something came through. Everybody blamed Mr. Shade and their cult, but it isn't their fault.

Shamoiah mentions the lights went out again and Mr. Shade asks us how many died. We tell him. He tells us he has been looking into what's been going on there. It has something to do with a realm called the Shadow Fell, a land parallel to the Fey Wild.

Mr. Shades parents are from the Shadow Fell. He's always lived in Darkwood, but it's getting hard to sustain anything.

Torric

Lazlo engages with Torric and begins to tell him we scryed on his sister. Shamoiah tells Torric what we saw. Mr. Shade departs and Torric snaps to it. Lazlo asks the dealer to leave, she does.

We explain it further to Torric.

Oona-Lynn brooding in the corner, she looks out the windows, as we pass a part of the city we haven't seen. She sees a woman staring at her as we pass. She is in a traveler's cloak.

We try to explain it further to Torric.

We have an entire conversation about why we cannot go back and fight The Duke now. Shamoiah wants to go back now and take care of it, but we explain to him we can't do that, we don't have that kind of power.

We tell Torric to find One at the temple and he might be able to assist him.

The Remainder of the Night on The Boat

Sasha decides to try to pickpocket some folks. Theo attempts to help her with different little illusions to distract the targets.

Theo attempts to try pickpocket one person. He bumps into someone and manages to get a pure silver pocketwatch.

Martok sits down at the piano one more time. He does a better job at it this time. He gets some nods of approval from the house band. <3

We dock and people start to disembark from the riverboat.

Post-Riverboat

Martok tells us he is going to look for a bookstore, Torric reaches into his bag and hands Martok his journal on vampires: How to get rid of ghouls, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, etc.

We decide to head back to Mystic for Oona-Lynn and Martok to get a reading.

Mystic's cat's name is Glitter. :)

Martok

She tells him to dip his fingers into the pool. The water ripples and swirls the nebula within.

We see a swirl in the clouds in the water as it zooms into a face, one familiar to Martok, the creator. Sitting at a table with a mess of papers at a table, hair all frazzled. He is scratching notes and crumpling them up and throwing them. Not a lot of sounds around, we can hear some instruments. The vision pans in the room and we see a flash of green light, outside of this study area. His attention is drawn to the window. He stands up and the chair falls over. He takes his glass of whiskey and throws it against the wall, where it shatters. "After all these years, he's the one to do it before me. Bastard. To think we used to be colleagues." We see this haggard old man standing near the window, "You'll pay. You'll pay for it all. Something far worse is coming for you."

The vision fades. Mystic mentions that was interesting.

She says we are an interesting group, but she doesn't see us. She sees our "auras", instead.

She tells Martok he is made of up many colors, but shines white at its core.

Oona-lynn

She dips her fingers in the pool. The water ripples and swirls.

The vision swirls and we are brought to a cave. Something surrounded in stone. We see a group of four individuals, one she recognizes as her ex-boyfriend, Wolf. He is standing poking at a small fire. You don't recognize the others, as who they are, but he has talked about them. A tabaxi female, platinum silver grey color. A human man, but something isn't right about him; parts of him don't seem organic, seems to be mechanically put back together (his jaw, one of his arms, one of his legs). The third guy is a gnome, he is pretty typical of a gnome. They are staring at the fire.

The robotic man looks at Wolf, "We're out of money, what are we going to do?"

Wolf, "Well, we can try to do some work for the farms again. But I'm not going back to Ishka, somethings not right there. More people are going missing every day."

Tabaxi, "What do we give a shit about people who go missing. We can take their shit and make money."

Gnome, "We can't steal from people who are kidnapped. What if they come back and their stuff is going. It's not right."

The convo continues and Oona-Lynn sees a figure come out of the shadows: Grey traveling cloths, auburn hair that looks wet in a way. They have blue skin. It's almost like she is staring at you, then fades back into the shadow and the vision fades away.

ONLY OONA-LYNN SEES THE BLUE SKINNED LADY. She looks kinda mermaid like.

Oona-Lynn mentions the blue lady. Mystic asks about it. We go back and forth about it. It seems this woman appears when consciousness is low. Oona-Lynn thinks it might happen when she sleeps.

Her aura is quite purply, like a swell of comfortable purple clouds. Every so often there is a sparky of electricity. Like a storm cloud.

Theo tries to tip her and she refuses again, saying she will see us again.

Martok approaches Glitter and asks if he can pet them. He gives the cat all the skritches.

Sasha asks Mystic to tell the rest of us our auras.

Lazlo: Almost clear. Very easy to read. (Lazlo goes to the ethereal plane, we are go into a negative version, but Mystic looks exactly the same as she was). He exists in between. The realm of ethereal is an interesting place and overlaps everything, yet is far away as well. Like stepping into a shadow that you're already standing in.

Shamoiah: Warm. Inviting. But also afraid. It bounces between confidence and wariness. But it is comfortable. He has a lot to learn. He talks about being depressed, but doesn't know why. He is said the trees here are dead. She explains it's an enigma and doesn't happen anywhere else.

Theo: Small but powerful aura. Tries to be chaotic. She is sure his chaos always has good intentions. No choice is the wrong choice. The hand aura is pure and mischievous.

Sasha: She tries to take off, but we stop her. Her aura is dark. But at the core of that void, of shadow and darkness, deep hidden away is a deep and warm with a weakened willed; like her emotions are being suppressed and locked away. The light is still there, just hidden.

Shamoiah doesn't have a physical heart. But not all heart is physical. It is more than just an organ. It is showing emotion, courage, care, intent. Showing who you are.

Lazlo converses with her further about getting assistance.

Tavern, Sleepy times.

As we lay down our heads, we are in a relatively safe place. Watch isn't required, though a few members don't need to sleep.

Oona-Lynn falls asleep into a dreamless slumber, for a while. She is not sure if she is actually asleep. About an hour passes and she is laying there, thinking her mind is empty. At some point she drifts off into sleep. She sees herself in her house, in her estate, sitting at a small table near a window, that is open. A gentle breeze. A woman appears across from her, blue skinned; mermaid like scales, patterns on her cheeks, kind of wet hair. She sits at the table staring at Oona-Lynn.

They begin to talk.

She has been following some of us for quite some time. Some of her people are detained by someone she knows. They are known as the Dreamless. They do not sleep, so they do not dream. She would like to acquire our help. She doesn't ask for a particular even to happen, she believes our goals are aligned. She asks about The Duke. She can bestow gifts and power in exchange for our help removing The Duke from existence and recovering her people.

Oona-Lynn asks how we know she's the good guys.

Her people walk through other's dreams making sure there is no fear, no nightmares. They attack and destroy those that hunt and prey on fear. Those that The Duke captured are her best fighters. For years, her people have been in war with The Dreamer. The Dreamer creates fear. Anxieties. Worries. Natural reactions to a terrible situation give him power.

She thinks if we all band together, we can overcome the destruction of that man.

She is in her home, in her palace. She is The Dreamwalker and she is offering Oona-Lynn power. She wants her to be The Champion.

Oona-Lynn is bestowed this information in sleep osmosis. -> Once a day, she will be able to cast Dream.

During the nightly routine, before Oona-Lynn's dream is over, Sasha is looking for nightmares and dreams. She senses it through a scent, it smells like sweat, cold yet warm; she is so familiar with. When she walks near Oona-Lynn's room, Sasha smells fear but isn't not Oona-Lynn's (though it is coming from her) and she tries to syphon that fear, it smells and tastes like spoiled milk. It doesn't feel like normal fear. This is terror, beyond what she can digest. And it's not Oona-Lynn and it doesn't feel human/ of this plane. The fear itself is not, she cannot see what is happening or push herself into that essence as she normally can.

Sasha pokes her head in Oona-Lynn's room, but she is sleeping peacefully, nothing out of place.

The feeling is there for maybe an hour, then the feeling goes away. And everything is normal.

We receive long rest and the morning comes.

Temple of the Spirit

We head back up the hill and approach the third temple, we skipped. It looks like a modernized chapel, down south church vibe. We head through the door. There is a service going on. A spiritual, sing song and dance situation.

Most of the attendees are spirits, ghost. They look similar to Lazlo, though he has more substance to him. There is roughly 30ish spirits. The preacher, who is singing and dancing, is a middle-aged southern black man. He's got the vibe about him, but he is also a ghost. The song goes on for way too long and there is 3 or 4 big finales, it keeps going and going.

We are just standing in the back. Lazlo joins in, feeling the spirit. Services last for another hour before it dies down. Conversations begin, some leave the building. This is a daily thing.

The preacher is organizing papers and books, not talking to anyone. Oona-Lynn approaches. They have a conversation. He explains the spirits come daily, they need a reason to stay tethered to the world. He explains that some of the spirits have living relatives.

He explains he does this about 7 times a day. We are all energy and have to go and do something, to finish our time before passing on.

Theo heads up when Oona-Lynn calls for him, he shows the preacher his hand. He accidentally walks through a spirit and it was like walking a freezer.

The Preacher cannot offer any information on Theo's hand.

We leave the temple. On our way out, we make our way down the hill and rolling into town is 3 horsemen armed, plate armor and they look to be city watch from the Capital. The leading officer clops up to our party. "You are all to come with me. You are all under arrest."

He explains they think we are affiliated with the bandits.

They ask if we want to come with them and we say no. COMBAT.

Oona-Lynn manages to put them to asleep and we pick up our shit and get out of dodge, posthaste. We gather our stuff and head out into the wilds, avoiding the swamps.

We are now between a rock and a hard place: We can't go to Cenos and we can't go back to the Capital City.

We head north and decide to stop to scry on Torric.

We level to 3.