Dark Squad in the Secrets of Saltmarsh
Session #085: Into the Moon Pool Part 2.
Dark Squad (in alphabetical order, no egos here).
Daktari (played by Haggis) Male Human Uthgardt Sky Pony Barbarian Lvl 8
New Tricks (played by Bear) Male Tabaxi Warlock Lvl 8
Ramshambo (played by Kev) Male Half-Elf Rogue/Fighter Lvl 7/1
Vincenzo (played by Haggis) Male Shifter (Wildhunt) Druid Lvl 8
Nicholai Barbaros Kostyiev (played by George) Male Dhampir Cleric of Twilight Lvl 8
NPCs
Inverna Nightbreeze (played by George) Female Wood Elf Fighter Lvl 8 (Sidekick)
Garumn Male Mountain Dwarf Paladin of Moradin Lvl 5 RIP*
Tarbin Tul (played by goonalan) Male Human Bard RETIRED
Ubmo (played by Goonalan) Supreme Being Lvl 1
*Trapped in the Land of the Bad Dead Ancestors.
Servants/Familiars
Gerald (Bat/Giant Bat) servant/mount of New Tricks
Owly (Owl) Vinnie’s familiar
The Dark Squad’s to-do list-
- To the Moon Pool to glimpse the future.
- Remember, we've got to find the other four Symbols of Ub, one was left in Deepbridge (Duergar fortress in the Underdark). The others need to be found, they belonged to- Rambles 'Shambles' Bowspirit (halfling killer), Antonio De La Crane (posh kid druid alchemist) & Giggles (crazy wood elf). All of these folk lived in the Saltmarsh region, the Dark Squad have found the De La Crane Manse (in the Dreadwood) and the De La Crane Crypt (in Saltmarsh Cemetary).
- Return to Fallowstone Holy, church of Oghma, pick up info (Witch's Tor & Pact of the Flame, although the Dark Squad probably know all about this stuff already). What else do you need to find out about? See above, and below.
- Warn Ashby- the Soggy's (Sahuagin) are coming!
- Vinnie needs to be back for the next Saltmarsh Council meeting on the 1st Kythorn (June).
- Nightshade is in the Deep Dreadwood?
- Blackedge and the Goblin Stair?
- To join the Pact of the Wild Flame you need to find the hidden weapons left to fight Ashardalon.
- To join the Pact of the Wild Flame prepare the Witch's Tor for the coming of the starfall.
- To join the Pact of the Wild Flame track down the last member of the Pact, a wild elf adventurer called Giggles- and finally put her spirit to rest, and also recover her maze button. SEE 2. ABOVE.
This is session 85, and yet another good 'un. But, I'm still behind in my write up here- we played session 86 last night, therefore this might be another short one.
So, in the Moon Pool and time for the second batch of visions/prophecies, next up then is... Newt.
Yep, that's right- Newt's first encounter here was not Moon Pool related, that was Belphegor calling his agent in for a chat, that didn't go well, the Pit Fiend is now aware that Newt has also promised his soul to another- Humphrey Far-Fer-Nar.
Basically, Newt is two-timing him.
It's worth noting that one of Belphegor's final lines included the following- “Him, he's not even a proper fiend!”, the Pit Fiend was talking about Humphrey. Newt is therefore now fretting a little, who or what is Humphrey?
But, that's for another time.
Let's get into the vision, but not before reminding ourselves that the PCs cannot be seen (or heard etc.) in their vision (except by Nicky) and they cannot interact (much) with their vision. Basically they're not really there...
So, Newt suddenly finds himself in a small plain stone room, it's dark in here- there are stairs heading up. There's a single metal-looking door with a small square window in it- beyond the door the tabaxi can see a stone chamber of immense proportions. There are markings on the floor and walls of the cavernous stone chamber – although none that Newt recognizes. Also within the revealed chamber are what looks to be a large metal object, maybe two stored perhaps within the cavern.
The warlock would investigate further but the portal before him is locked, he further notes that beside the door is a small metal box with a number of lights and buttons upon it, the lights are a variety of colours, and there are symbols on the buttons. He recognises the language- draconic, but cannot translate.
Frustrated Newt presses a series of random keys, a bright light suddenly illuminates yet more draconic text, then flashes brighter, insistent, but... Newt has no idea what is going on here.
He screams and caterwauls a little and then turns and rushes up the stairs, into...
Another small stone chamber, with another door, and another window- through which the tabaxi spies an oddly illuminated dirty-ish passage or corridor, the light beyond the glass is glaring. The door here is also locked, and there's another identical keypad here too. Alas the thing is still incomprehensible. So, having already reached peek frustration point the warlock launches a fiery blast into the wall-mounted flashing box.
The object resists the attack entirely.
But again, another very insistent light winks on and off- this one with vehemence, illuminating yet more draconic text.
Newt screams obscenities into the hollow space of the stairwell for a short while, and then... for the want of something better to do, he races up another flight of stairs.
The chamber above?
It's exactly the same as the one below, and now the tabaxi has started to note a few more things- the stone walls here are seamless- they must be magically wrought, the lights have an odd scratch and buzz, they flicker and shimmy and exude an unhealthy pallor- likewise magical he presumes. Even the balustrade on the railing he grips on the stairs is wrong, it appears to be made of some sort of slightly flexible shiny ceramic (maybe) the entire place somehow reminds him of Tao.
Up another flight of stairs and...
It's exactly the same, another small stone chamber, another door- only a shadow moves across the viewing window of this portal. The tabaxi is quickly over, banging, screeching, screaming, caterwauling.
This kind of thing-
“I AM NEWT THE MAGNIFICENT! I DEMAND ACCESS! LET ME OUT OF HERE OR IN THE NAME OF BELPHEGOR I WILL … I WILL... WILL.”
But truth be told Newt doesn't know what he will do, so he runs up another flight of stairs, the last- as it happens, and straight out of the door and onto the roof, or at least...
There's a lot to take in, it's night, it's raining (which doesn't improve Newt's mood), he seems to be somewhere very high up, it's very foggy- although he can see that all around him are similar structures to the one on which he stands, in fact- there are dozens, perhaps even hundreds of them, as far as he can see.
The roof area is illuminated by more garish lights, these lights however shape and dance all the while- there are a dozen or so screens each one of which produces a constant flow of images.
Newt watches the nearest screen- enthralled by the moving image, it shows a small but long-handled brush (seemingly made from the same flexible ceramic he saw below). A great hand and arm appears and manipulates a tube or small container of some sort, dispensing and distributing a white gummy like paste evenly onto the bristles of the aforementioned brush.
The hand appears again, grabs up the brush and... puts it bristle end first into an equally enormous mouth, and then for some unknown reason works the white paste into the teeth within the mouth, it brushes and scrubs, then rinses and spits. We see the mouth again- a smile, the teeth within shine. One pearl tooth crescents and births a starlight gleam that for a moment illuminates everything, even Newt's midnight soul.
Involuntarily Newt reaches for his own mouth, and then notices for the first time the wan-looking creepy-dude dressed in platemail that is staring at him, the figure looks as oddly out-of-place as Newt does, on the roof of the building. The wan figure points at Newt, and then points up.
Newt follows the arrow, he looks up.
In a gap in the clouds he sees the massive scaled body of a roiling serpent, the break in the clouds is only for a few seconds long but the movement of the scaled body across the space is continuous- no head, no tail, just the coils of a massive serpent.
Newt guestimates that the body of the great serpent is as large (as round) as the building on which he stands.
He stands mouth agape.
Then however the wan-fellow starts shouting at the tabaxi, bad idea- Newt's not having that. There follows the third in a series of weird conversation as Nicky introduces himself to Newt and vice-versa. Although, Newt goes straight to threat mode, it swiftly becomes apparent that Nicky's options are- answer the tabaxi warlock's questions, or prepare to be incinerated.
So, long story short- Nicky, he explains, is having a wild old time seemingly skipping from one marvellous and interesting place to another, lost in some sort of malfunctioning gate- actually a magical mirror, Nicky further explains. Newt doesn't understand all/much/any of this, but he doesn't let that bother him, because he has more questions that Nicky needs to answer, like-
WHERE THE FLIP-DICKINGS ARE WE?
Nicky mostly shrugs, he offers the answer, “in an alternative future space”, but Newt does not recognise those words in that order.
WHAT IN THE NAME OF MIGHTY BELPHEGOR IS GOING ON HERE?
Just to make absolutely clear, Newt is doing an awful lot of shouting at this point.
This question generates a little more traction. Nicky can only tell the tabaxi what he has seen so far- the great snake/serpent above, oft glimpsed through the clouds and always in constant motion, and the two strange looking fellows- an elf and a dwarf (best guess) that proceeded Newt up the stairs.
This pair went through the door over there.
Neither Newt nor Nicky can read or else make much sense of the moving picture screens, the great serpent up above roils and flexes... but there's nothing else to keep Newt entertained up on the roof, and he knows he doesn't have long in his vision (he was last out to escape the maze, remember).
“Come with me, you creepy fool. And be useful or else I will incinerate you, understand?”
Nicky nods at Newt, turns to a fresh page on his shield-clipboard and continues to make notes, stumbling after the tabaxi in his ill-fitting platemail, and into the building on the rooftop into which the elf and dwarf passed earlier.
The place is... it's all hard bright lights, with more brightly coloured surfaces- a small reception area, a machine/device hums, another screen shows more glaring images, and weirder still there's a goblin, only... Well, the female goblin is wearing white skin-tight leggings, large clumpy white shoes (massively cushioned and with twinkling lights), a tiger-print top with protruding shoulder pads, and the largest pair of glasses that the tabaxi has ever seen. What's more the female goblin's hair seems to have been styled and made to stand up from her head. It is bouffant, and for a moment Daktari comes to mind.
The goblin seems to be shouting in its foul and unintelligible tongue through an open door into the unseen chamber beyond, more goblin voices sound from in there. But... Newt leads Nicky on.
Note, fortuitously every portal that Newt aims for is opened by another equally gaudily dressed goblin, even as he approaches the door- every time. Serendipity?
Keep in mind no-one here can see this pair.
There are more chambers in the building complex, and more goblins- two hunched over smaller moving image screens, the pair entirely engrossed with the events that play out before them.
There's a chamber with what looks to be a bar, another with a table at which more goblins gamble, and eventually- in an office all the way through the building are the two individuals that Nicky saw enter here earlier.
The elf and the dwarf.
There's something about this pair, Newt thinks.
It takes a while for the cogs in Newt's brain to turn, and time goes on... all the way to the point at which the Newt's vision/prophecy comes to an end, and he (and Nicky) fade from this reality.
But... he's got it.
He's worked out who they are.
The tabaxi finds himself back in the Moon Pool, grinning.
The elf and the dwarf, they've both made changes but, it was Buggles and Gwen.
But that's enough of that revelation.
Vinnie suddenly finds himself before an open doorway, he enters in- a stone walled and floored chamber, it looks to be dwarven work- he's seen a lot of it of late, a storeroom in a dwarven holdfast, Vinnie thinks (or else guesses).
The druid however is in a rush, and keen to get to the interesting part of his vision, room after room follows- all of it, he's certain, screams dwarven- there are statues here to the dwarven gods, and runic inscriptions and prayers and pleas, and eventually, at last, there's a door that leads... outside.
Note the place thus far has proved to be empty, uninhabited.
The door to outside.
That is until now.
Vinnie is back up in the heavens, he's standing on a large stone perch or platform, situated on a vast ball of rock floating high in the heavens. As he strides forward he becomes very aware of the extent of this rocky world, he spots the edge, beneath him is the blue-green swirl of Toril.
There are two other things, or rather persons, to note here.
The first is Nicky, the wan pasty-looking fellow in the platemail. Nicky waves at Vinnie in welcome, offers half a smile, and then gets back to making notes. The dhampir cleric of twilight stands atop a rune inscribed dais, a shimmering curtain of force constrains him to this place.
The second thing, or person, is actually a goddess.
“Vincenzo Del Vino, I am Sehanine Moonbow, and you... are very much at my service.”
Sehanine, elven goddess of the moon (and secrets), possesses a beauty beyond the constraints of mortality, beyond the constraints of Toril. She sparkles, she dazzles, and Vinnie swoons.
For a while he stutters through a lot of platitudes and compliments in his broken French accent, and then Sehanine explains.
“You have seen Tao, and much of the game- you must have questions, I will answer some of them, and as truthfully as I can. Your first question is?”
Note, Sehanine (and the DM) further makes it clear that Vinnie's questions must be precise/exact, not just rambling enquiries, no version of- “What's going on here?”. The goddess also makes it clear, she does not know everything, she does not possess all of the answers.
The druid prevaricates a while but eventually (with a little help from his friends) gets his questions straight, and the answers he receives are-
That the Eyes in the Night were on the same quest as the Dark Squad, however they failed in their attempt. There follows a short discussion about the cyclical nature of history.
That Antonio De La Crane, the version of Vinnie from the Eyes in the Night adventuring party, ran home to his father's house, or at least one of them- the goddess doesn't know where he is exactly, only that Antonio remains in the place he fled to.
And lastly, that Ub is a primordial being, perhaps even the first primordial being, he has been on Toril from the start (pretty much) even before many of the gods. Ub, it is said- although Sehanine does not possess the details, betrayed another primordial being (name unknown) that took the form of a great serpent. Ub and the great serpent have been at loggerheads ever since, this feud- Sehanine states, has been working towards a showdown for quite some time. That time is obviously approaching.
Sehanine offers a few more details about Ub, and confirms the fact that the primordial seems to favour dwarven form (and forms, like Durgeddin the Black), and has already made links (and deals, she thinks) with the dwarven gods. As she stated earlier- Ub has been around for a long time.
The last act of Sehanine is to introduce the lost and desperate Nicholai to Vincent, and to charge the druid with looking after the fine fellow. Nicky's story will appear here courtesy of his diary, and so I'll leave it up to George (who plays Nicky) to furnish you with the details.
Then, we're all back at the Moon Pool.
Much more chatter follows as Nicky makes his formal introductions, and then the various members of the Dark Squad attempt to unravel all that have just seen and experienced.
Following this more chatter with Wildroot as the treant guardian of the Pact of the Wild Flame makes clear what the Dark Squad have to do to join the organisation.
Which (updated) are-
To join the Pact of the Wild Flame you need to find the hidden weapons left to fight Ashardalon, located in the dragon-in-flight shaped burial mound in Farrow Woods.
To join the Pact of the Wild Flame prepare the Witch's Tor, located in the Drowned Forest (situated in the Mere of the Dead Men) for the coming of the starfall. This means clear it out- there maybe hags, fey, undead or else who knows what type of bad things there.
To join the Pact of the Wild Flame track down the last member of the Pact, a wild elf adventurer called Giggles- and finally put her spirit to rest, and also recover her maze button. Location unknown.
That done the Dark Squad depart, they'll be back to the Moon Pool when they have accomplished the above tasks.
Then back to Burle, and then on to the Falcon's Nest, the Dark Squad have lots of jobs to do- lots of treasure items (both Bags of Holding are full) are packed up and sent on a cart back to Saltmarsh, the gang have a fence (Winston) who sells all of these items for them.
More chatter with the Falcon, although no new revelations, and then goodbye to Inverna, the sidekick fighter is further rewarded for her stalwart work, the cool elven maiden has a good word for all of her new friends (except Newt, of course) and will miss the Dark Squad terribly.
Then, a day or so later, and the Dark Squad are on the road, and all mounted again- Newt buys a new horse (Black Death his previous mount was killed by an Ankheg) and Nicky buys himself a fat little pony (called Alouicious). But here's the thing, the plan is/was to head off to Fallowstone Holy, a church of Oghma & Deneir (Knowledge & Writing) in Fallowstone. The priests there have been doing some research for the Dark Squad.
But...
But...
Nicky has had a good look at the Dark Squad's map, here it is-
And he really wants to go to Ubton, because... well, Ubton- the town of Ub.
Note, Ubton has been on the PCs map for... well about session 30-something. The PCs however only learned of Ub about 20 or so sessions ago.
So, hiding in plain sight (middle-ish of the map).
Four or so hours later and the Dark Squad are in Ubton, which is an immaculately kept, and well made, fortified settlement- the walls, Vinnie notes, are all dwarven work.
The adventurers head for the Inn- it's called the White Dwarf, and the signboard depicts- well, Ub (who also looks like Durgeddin the Black), a bald and bearded small pale dwarf. Good food and ale follow, and then after spending a little coin, a story. The tavern owner is happy to explain, Ubton was built by a dwarf called Ub, nearly three centuries past, or at least Ub paid for and helped to build the walls that surround the town.
The Dark Squad are suitably aghast, they have lots of questions, but alas the tavern owner doesn't have the answers (at least not all of them), perhaps the Dark Squad should have a chat with Durgan Ub, son of the town's founder, he's the captain of the guard here.
But that's all we have time for this session.
Stay safe and well you lovely people.
Cheers the Dark Squad and goonalan.