Morgan had fallen unconscious while we fought the dragon, and has a brief meeting with Ras Nsi.
He invites Morgan to bring the party and meet him in person. He’s also interested in catching up with Artus.
Catching up with Artus
“I killed a dragon. I can kill a couple of dwarves.” - Brysh
Artus is very against The Red Wizards of Thay, and Locke is trying to avoid the situation.
Xandala goes to chat with Valindra, and Locke boldly follows as backup. Somehow, he’s able to be Valindra’s therapist for a moment and achieve a breakthrough. He proposes she’s a self fulfilling prophecy, and she breaks into tears.
The following Morning
Locke gets a magically suit of plate armor. Locke gives them 50gp for ship repairs and to help get the mine started. They also agree to give the party a 40% split of the mine.
Artus was lent an artifact by Tamalka Village on the condition he returns The Lost City of Mezero to the material plane. He is friends with Ras Nsi, and suggests we visit him. Morgan is accused of being the red wizard, and fails to deny it.
Artus learns about Valindra’s mind blank when it wears off, and tells him she’s a lich. Artus laughs it off, but begins to question what he’s seen.
Artus: “Why does she feel so cold?” Brysh: “Women”
Artus agrees to withhold judgement until Valindra’s next mind blank, so they can chat about it properly.
Approaching Omu
We see a red wizard air ship fly towards the city, but gets stopped by some kind of force field. There’s a strange distortion and it’s as if space itself prevents the airship from approaching. However the ship collapses and somehow breaks through the field, but explodes on impact.
Locke briefly feels a force overcome him, and he senses Brysh’s mind. The force wants him to dominate her thoughts, but he resists.
Omu: The Forbidden City
We arrive about 4-6 hours after the air ship crash.
There’s stone gargoyles, bubbling lava, a circular citadel, and a river flooding the NE section of the city. For a moment, we see a vision of the former city and the sun expanding. A black hole expands as foul necromancy envelops the city.
There’s disembodied corpses of several Yuan-ti. Their wounds seems to be a mix of magic and blades that cauterized the wounds.
Small humanoid plants and fungus (Vegipigmis) are gathering around a tied up Grung. Brysh tries to communicate, but Locke doesn’t think it’s working. He presents himself as a storm god and utterly defeats the Vegipigmis. Afterwards he plays the flute, marks them with flour, and then leaves.
Valindra uses the hag eye to speak to the Grung. Apparently lots of people are mean to the frogs, but there’s two frog gods. Nangnang and Kubazan are trickster gods, and Nangnang is the pretty one. Imbok the Grung holds Valindra’s hand as they walk back to the flooded area.
Imbok says that a tenday ago a group of people arrived. They went to each shrine and killed many of the Grung.
We see a statue depicting Kubazan who looks an awful lot like a Froghemoth. Morgan is scared. However a piece of parchment and a knapsack appears out of a black spec.
PARTY NO. 4
Welcome to Omu! I see you have found the shrines to the dead trickster gods. Good riddance to them! They are now long buried beneath the city, along with their worshippers. The Omuans were very good at one thing though: and that is their love to archanomechanical death traps. In years past, the Omuans would use these shrines to test the mettle of their priests, now I use them as a…. “qualifier round”. Let’s see how you hold up to these delightful trials. If you pass, you may have the honour of a gruesome death to one of my own designs. PS: I expect you came prepared, but have this care package on the house. Now you have no excuse for whining.
The knapsack contains:
- 9-foot pole
- Immovable Rod
- Bag of Holding (empty)
- Chalk
- Flour
- 1000 ball bearings
- 10 pitons
- Parchment and a pencil Written at the top “Don’t overthink the puzzles, it makes your soul less tender :)”
We reach the crashed ship, and find a lone survivor trapped under the ship. Gargoyles attack!