Episode 25: Regrouping and Moon Planning Report
General Summary
The Curious Case of the Melting Grag
The crew distributes their new gear. Spark starts working on making a magical weapon out of the comet staff. Nia gets the Fireball Wand Way gets a Brooch of Shielding. Chagroth mentions trading for Ilsensine's Ring. Luggribosk's head goes in a windowed preserving barrel.
The last grag gets interrogated by Nia. He offers hexocybin mushroom spores for passage, but the captain is far more interested in the truth. The grag balks, and Nia just uses her magical charms on him. He reveals that his people are duergar and have infiltratated the grags and the illithid want their tasty duergar brains.
Spark and Nia both get suspicious about the number of hidden duergar grags, but this grag shoves all the spores in his mouth and melts in a magic overdose. As he does, illusions fade revealing him to be a duergar and almost completely covered in cancerous boils.
Nia fights off revulsion longe enough to snap an image. She shares it with Throim Burnside who mentions this may help turn many more dwarves agianst the grags.
Ambushed by Fang and by Clang
The crew than pass out on the ship to recover before heading back to Gold Arrow Station where they are assaulted by a pair of bounty hunters Kansa, a dhampir, and Rendar, a half-orc, along with their companions a cleric and a warg. El recognizes them as the assassin squad known as Fang and Clang.
A sneak shotgun attack wounds Nia, but a little magicking and Coyote Rose firing a dispel magic out of spell cannon removed the attackers advantages and they leapt over the rail to escape.
Getting Down in Tower Town
The party headed back to their warehouse/hq in Tower Town and were visited by Moon Breeze who wanted to reward Nia for getting rid of the illithids. She blessed Nia with an upgrade to her familiar making it a Baku.
Lord Maximillian von Razak also stopped by for a visit before heading home. Lance discussed the idea of his taking his position seriously in the church and taking the Cone of the Sun. A surprised dad promptly agreed to help put the wheels in motion for that.
Lance also told his dad to steer clear of General the Baron Aginnad. He relayed the same to his mother Lady Fransiska von Razak and asked her to look after his old man.
The crew has a few days downtime, Spark goes to Magister's Enclave to investigate his families bond mark sitation. He finds only his two twins - Of the Forge the Sweat and After the Storm the Shine had outstanding marks that he paid off with the sweet Nia discount.
Of Selenelion Barrelmen and the Talino Sense of Humor
The crew briefly sought the advice of Lola Carly about Ilsensine's ring. She said it was horrible and they should give it to Chagroth.
Nia inquired about what gave Lola the idea to make a babingka that produced Lance's monstrous trouser snake. She laughed and said it was just like barrel man. She pointed to a wooden barrel on the shelf hiding a grinning man. Removing the barrel revealed what he was so happy about.
Lola chuckled and gestured to another figuring nearby, "and that's his sister", her barrel hid a matching endowment of breasts. The crew found them a bit... tacky, but Lola Carly remarked, "Everybody loves them!"
Spark with his engineer's curse wondered why'd you need two and retreated to his tinker tools to create a barrel person who changed sexes and endowments depending on the direction you removed the barrel.
When the crew visited the Navigator of Worlds, the Navigator's Guard implied that they should present Chagroth Durinhelm with a gift.
Spark clumsily offered his newest creation. Chagroth noted it with glee, appreciating its frivolity. They then traded the Ring of Insensine for an adamantine hedron capable of summoning Chagroth Durinhelm, once.
Queen Mother on the Blackjack Sky
They have an audience with Dowager Queen Mother Aphedril. She requests that the Crew takes her home on the Blackjack to the Kingdom of Amredhel.
El was just catty up to 11 insinuating the queen should sleep with the goblin, pole dancing to answer quesions, but, finally, relenting to the business at hand.
They presented the head of Luggribossk and she was impressed. As reward, the Third Flame of the Crown of the Sun and Moon was presented for loan. It's magic is the STRONG. Nia is currently using it.
When the ship passes over the border. The elf border patrol tries to harass them about losing part of the Hart, but the Dowager Queen waves them away like insects.
The Hunter King
On the flight, El returns to dressing in male clothing with much consternation to present as the Exalted of Dreams. In the capital, the crew meet Cabron Elf-King, whom the crew also recognizes as the Shadow Huntsmaster Joh Maang.
El, also keen on a gift for the king of the elves, commissioned Spark to make a second barrel person. The king studied it critically, but then declared his love for the "Selenelion Barrlemen". The crews relief only somewhat overshadowing their akwardness.
When the crew get their jaws of the floor, El's official position is recognized and she is presented with the Moonblade of Heskiloth, forged from a Shard of the Ginunting ng Thaya (goddess revival ritual piece acquired!) . It is so overflowing with magical energy Spark has to wear googles when he casts detect magic around it. Now the crew just has to sweet talk the king into surrendering a moon ship.
