(A quick note here, I've added these synopsis for people to go back and remind themselves about what happened or if people come in later and don't want to start at the beginning, they can read these really fast, but they are not a replacement for watching our videos as they are not full descriptions. If you don't want to video, you will miss most of the comedy and all of the fighting as I am not going to do a play by play of each attack. So, please check out our videos)
Day 18 12/7/2022 Episode 29 recap
The “Hut”
After heading down the stairs, we see a laboratory. More specifically a place for dissecting. A tank at the top of the room has a blue liquid in it. Otherwise, it has things that would commonly be in an alchemist's laboratory. Xander goes to check the desk, and as he’s rifling around, the top smashes down and almost lands on his fingers, but he is just able to slide his hands out before it slams down. The desk attacks. We fight the desk and out of the dissection tables, blood appears, forming into two masses that also attack us.
We win. Xander checks the desk and the notebook on it does have information about the red dust and a mass disposal system. But the last page is ripped out. Idham goes to the tank with the blue stuff and realizes that it will likely heal stuff. He gets some out and puts it on his injury. It stinks and stings but it heals him. After Gwyneira puts some of the liquid into a lockbox, we head down the stairs.
This floor is the main laboratory. It has transmutation tables, enchanting tables, empty vats, and a large crystal ball. Idham goes over to touch the crystal ball and black clouds begin to swirl. He channels some magic in and the ball turns completely black. Nothing else happens. He starts to think about our camp on the island and changes the magic flow to shadow. An image begins to appear and he can see the island from quite a way up. He believes he is looking down at the island from above the dais. He can see the ships, and the masts on the ship are up, but it’s too high to see much more. Smoke comes from the camp, just a trickle. He thinks more about the camp. The ball starts pulling on Idham’s energy. It zooms in on the camp where Idham sees what looks to be a heavily cloaked Drow, in front of the forge, working a piece of metal. The ship looks much better. The Raya is the only ship there. Idham steps away from the orb. Xander had stepped up and watched this happen as well.
Xander tries touching the orb as well. He tries to think about this room in the past, the day previous, trying to see the room upstairs where the lizard man lies dead. The ball glows a bright light, and inside he sees just outside of this house, circling. It sucks some power from him and tries to head to the top floor, peering in the window. He goes inside the upper level. He sees a very long haired elf and a lizard man arguing with each other. The elf is Rashakk. He puts in more power to try to hear what they are saying. The ball starts to vibrate as he goes even closer, and he shifts into the body of the lizard man. The lizard man is scared because it’s too powerful and he won’t use it, but Rashakk says it’s what he wants it to be. The lizard man tells him to take the money back and heads to a safe hidden in a wall. He puts in a combination, 24 7 17. He pulls out two bags from it and slams it shut and throws them at Rashakk and tells him to leave. Rashakk walks to the desk and places his hands on it, takes something off of it before heading back over. He tells the lizard man he wins and he’ll leave. He holds a little vial of red dust in his hand that he slams down the lizard man’s throat. He pulls his hand out and it’s covered in the red dust. He burns the top layer of his skin off and regrows it, takes the money, and walks away as the lizard man stumbles backward and falls onto the bed.
Idham and Xander sprint up the stairs, a mad dash to the top floor where the safe is. Felix mediates with his staff and Gwyneira looks around the room, looking for anything interesting. Felix talks with the Staff of Fangar. Idham and Xander sprint up and make it back to the bedroom. They open the panel and put in the combination. Inside are two leather pouches full of balls of lump gold. They are processed and refined but haven’t been turned into coins. Xander pokes the back of the safe. They find a false panel as Idham helps. Inside is a rack of vials that are green.
Idham and Xander both drink one of the green vials. There were 30 vials, now 28. They both take 42 points of damage. They are both lying on the ground, in dire agony. They feel heat and steam coming out of their pores as they writhe on the ground. It subsides as a faint red mist slowly settles to the floor. Their health comes back. Idham grabs the rest of the vials. They get up and look back inside and see two more bags. Idham’s has four diamonds. When Xander opens his bag, a small puff of red comes out. He looks inside and sees six vials of the red powder, one of which is cracked. The gems have perfect clarity. They search thoroughly and find nothing else. They head back downstairs. They head to the main floor and down to the aviary where they meet, Rashakk. And he is leaning against one of the cages and perched on top of it is an enormous bird. Idham has heard stories about this bird, though he’s never come across one. If he’s right, it’s an elder phoenix. The stories say that they are reborn from their own bodies, have the ability to bring the dead back to life, it doesn’t need to be a predator because it’s smart enough to convince other birds to bring it food, and it is very strong. These used to fight dragons and win. Xander asks Vulkus about it and Idham taps into Xander’s head. Cutting its head off typically works, she says, it gets dead but won’t stay dead. If it’s a friend it's good company, but since he’s not a friend, the bird is also not likely a friend.
Rashakk talks to them. Idham asks the bird its name, and it reaches its head down closer to people's head height. It replies with her/his/their name. Altaya. Idham formally bows to it and it blinks and inclines its beak a bit. Rashakk asks what they are doing here. They say that we are here for Aping. He grins at the red powder being a success, and they see that all his teeth are filed to points. Rashakk asks if they are taking the antidote to the outpost and when Idham says maybe, he asks how much for the antidote. He offers a couple of brown leather bags that he had originally given them to the lizard man. Idham says favors are much better. He offers four months that he won’t try to collect Idham’s friends (Gwyneira and Felix I assume). Four months he’ll leave us all alone. He says the rest of the Hex won’t either, other than his lady. Xander asks what he means about multiple friends since he only knows Gwyneira. He says another of the group is interesting even if he didn’t know. He says he’s happy to leave us with some of it, he doesn’t care about the Delet soldiers, they were just a testing ground. Idham and Xander believe that he will follow the letter of the deal, but don’t trust him that he won’t find a loophole. Idham counters with eight months for 15 antidotes and three red vials. He says six months. They will not approach, will not speak to, will not interfere with our effort, not try to capture, will not touch, will not harm Idham and his companions. Idham counters with seven months and gives him four instead of three red vials. Rashakk agrees. Idham asks Altaya if she was here previously when the other tenant was alive. She says yes but she wasn’t here of her own volition. She is pleased that the lizard man is dead. Idham makes certain not to show Rashakk what else was in his pack. They shake on it. Rashakk levitates himself onto Altaya’s back. One caveat he says, should we search them out, then they will have to respond. If we raid one of their safe houses, there will be repercussions. But if we seek them out they will talk in turn. He says he cannot speak for his lady but no one else in the organization will not. Seven months. The wall behind them shifts and opens. Altaya takes a few steps back and spreads her wings and flys away. All the birds coalesce around them and they turn and fly toward Delet. Xander and Idham chat.
Gwyneira peeks down the stairs. She sees the bottom and it’s full of shelves covered in materials. She realizes quickly there are no chests and that this is stuff that would be known and useful to an alchemist and maybe we could spend some time trying to figure out what each of these things are, but they are probably higher level. It might be hard to grab things randomly. It would be better to try and sell the whole place instead of trying to get random items.
Idham cleans the vial that had the antidote in it that he took. He goes to the kitchen and finds some boxes that hold vials. He tries to pour the red dust from the cracked vial into the other vial, and is able to do so successfully. He puts the box into his bag. They decide they should probably come downstairs to tell us what happened. They reconvene with us. We talk. We decide we should definitely send some vials to Delet to see if someone can replicate it. We decide 6 antidotes to Delet, 4 for us, and the last 3 for the outpost, giving one to the leader directly and trying to dilute some.
We decide it’s time to leave, and all but Felix head up the stairs. He takes off all of the flamboyant clothing that he had on and leaves it on an enchantment table. He puts the hood up after having basic clothing on. We head upstairs. There is a lock on the door but we don’t have a key. Felix tries to pick the lock to lock it, and is able to do so. Idham decides he wants the orb, and Felix tries to open the door again, and is able to do so easily. Idham tries to pick up the orb. It is 80 lbs and he is able to do so. It is awkward and he won’t be able to fight, but he is holding it. He heads back out and Felix locks the door. We head back to the outpost and it is night. Once we head inside the quarantine, there are still some fires lit. They tell us to leave, and we tell them about the antidote. He has them leave the vials away from us and they bring out a hand cart for us to carry the orb. They try the antidote diluted in the water skin and one does a whole vial. The whole vial works, but it doesn’t seem to work diluted. We all continue along, coming across another Delet patrol. Azazel passes them two of the vials to take home. Just as dawn begins to break, we arrive at the city of Aping. Valira is complaining. Idham gets her on his shoulders and gives her a foot rub, and we head back to the dwarf with our magical items.
We head to the camp, and Gwyn puts an illusion on Az to make him look human again, and gets directed to the main building. We are not directed to him but to Grand Master Eugerel. We head in and he’s a large human man, bald in full armor. He sees us enter and goes to sit behind his desk. He wants to know why his master enchanter ran off with a new sword and staff after we visited him.
See some names or information you don't know about, check out our other blog post "Who Are These People? Character Names" here: https://neko-maoh-games.wixsite.com/home/post/who-are-these-people-character-names
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