#All jokes aside tho Zoro was right to make sure they didn’t go inside to aid their captain | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

3d10fire-damage · 4 years

Text

red sun summary 6/4/2020

the party returned to Etaqu and approached the guards, saying that they’d brought Amata for Kissare to question. one of them went to check with their superiors about that, meanwhile calypso held Amata above her head like a prized fish or something. Amata started some serious wiggling and actually caused calypso to fall down. calypso told her to stop her wiggling or she’d bop her one, and phosphorra said that that was mean. calypso countered that Amata was a jerk anyway, so whatever. once the party was allowed to bring her into Zabu (and Kissare)’s office, Kissare greeted the party cheerfully. she told zoroe she appreciated the cleric’s allegedly “saucy” response to Sending, and zoroe got flustered. the party collectively teased zoroe about this (”were you sending spice to her, square?”) for a bit before everyone got a little more serious about the situation at hand. (Amata was not pleased to realize she had apparently been kidnapped by the gay circus.)

zoroe explained what the party had done since the last time they had been in Etaqu, how they had fought cultists and infiltrated the tomb hideout to get Amata. phosphorra also revealed that, based off of a feeling she got while Amata was speaking with him, the King might very well be a dragon, or at least something that can fly. Amata seemed to tense up at this. Kissare told the party they could keep anything Amata was carrying on her person, so calypso set about taking those things from her. phosphorra asked if doing this in front of Amata was rude, to which calypso argued that Amata had shot cold magic air at the party and so she could stand a little rudeness. what calypso found was some gold, a Bag of Holding(!), and a Wand of the War Mage. phosphorra took the wand and calypso held onto the Bag of Holding, once it had been emptied of its contents (trinkets and some books, including diaries in code). it was revealed that the King had declared himself the ruler of what is now called the Kingdom of Thorns, which consists of the area surrounding and including Susanbal, Mahiru, Melu, and Bet Tabti.

moving on to the party’s next steps, Kissare (shoving Zabu out of the way) retrieved some scrolls for the party, intended for noting information about the King’s highest ranked troops. she offered a few options; trailing some King’s caravans to see where they were travelling to and from, finding where the King might be, hunting down A, L, or the tiefling mercenaries, or finding information by acting as bandits. phosphorra asked if she looked at all like a bandit, to which the party and Kissare were like “yes, actually.” phosphorra insisted she was too soft and quiet to be a bandit. calypso said that she also didn’t look like a powerful sorcerer that can fling Fire Balls, and yet here she was. the others assured her it was a more of an attitude thing, confidence. “well, i don’t have much of that.” calypso insisted that she had enough confidence for both of them, so by proxy, phosphorra could be a bandit. the conversation diverged back to plans, and phosphorra mumbled more about being soft and friendly-looking. she startled when calypso responded to her, but smiled a little when calypso did the classic >:P maneuver.

Kissare also mentioned that she was planning on maybe starting a riot in Melu after smuggling some weapons and setting a network of contacts over there. calypso was Very into the idea of joining in on that... and surprisingly, zoroe was also into it. the group settled on the plan of locating the King and his subordinates, then heading back to Melu to help with Kissare’s mission there. zoroe, still flustered by Kissare’s demeanor and muscles hurried the party out of the office, claiming that time was of the essence. once outside, there was some debate over whether zoroe was simply embarrassed for being accused of flirting with Kissare via Sending or if she was flustered by Kissare like in a gay way (also phosphorra being uncertain of calypso’s use of the word “spice”). zoroe didn’t give a particularly straightforward (haha) answer. calypso pulled zoroe aside and asked if she shouldn’t make jokes about zoroe re: Kissare (as per a very personal conversation zoroe and calypso had while on the road). she even offered to tell the others to step off if need be. zoroe said that it was okay as long it wasn’t in front of Kissare.

the group then did a little shopping for some new armor and brewer’s supplies. cluk briefly entertained the idea of starting a business. the party then set out on the road, headed north to trail some caravans. passing through Melu, it appeared that there were many more King’s troops than before, a result of an incident at the parade. eventually, the party set up another stakeout, and spotted a caravan with various stuff on it, pulled by donkeys.

trailing behind the caravan, the party discovered the roads that simply end on the map actually continue, and lead to a branching path... and to a large fort of some kind. no one was sure what the purpose of this fort was; calypso suggested it was maybe a place for King’s troops to go be assholes. they continued following the path to a very large city. the city looked like it was very old and in ruins, but parts of it showed clear signs of restoration and activity. there was a very large palace, where the party suspected the King might be. there was a discussion of what the move was, to just gather information, or bust up the place. zoroe suggested they stay subdued for now, to which calypso sarcastically said that that was no problem. zoroe very nicely thanked her and ruffled her hair, which made calypso happy.

upon entering the city, guards stopped the group and demanded to question cluk. she had been spotted at one of the King’s outposts, putting on some kind of performance. cluk agreed to the questioning. the party waited outside anxiously, wondering how they would bust her out if they needed to. the guards said that cluk had apparently gone down into Amata’s scrying chambers around the time that Amata went missing. cluk was like “do i really need to explain what i was doing?” the guard insisted that she did, so cluk explained that she had a friend there that she took down into the chamber for intimate relations. the guard flustered and let cluk go free (nat 20 on Deception, god is real).

moving into the city proper, the group walked right into a party, which Davke discovered eventually was a wedding reception, for an orc and an aarakocra. it became clear that this city had much more food and drink than any other city in the area the party had seen. heading further into the city, they discovered a huge circular arena, which many people were filing into. phosphorra didn’t want to go inside, but the others wanted to go in to see, maybe find out some important information. calypso said that since she was confident enough for both of them, phosphorra didn’t need to worry about anything inside. but phosphorra kinda tuned her out (to calypso slight disappointment) and was ultimately convinced to enter the arena by zoroe, who insisted the party shouldn’t be split. the main event within the arena was a fight between the twin tiefling mercenaries, Sudabeh and Siyavash, and a group of aarakocra soldiers, who had apparently been apprehended during the disturbance at the Melu parade. if the aarakocra could win, they would be set free, and if they lost, there would apparently be some use for them.

at this point phosphorra became distressed, saying that the party couldn’t just sit there. calypso was confused, since phosphorra had specifically asked her not to get too excited or try to join in the fighting. zoroe told phosphorra to keep her voice down, and that their hands were tied right now. cluk asked what phosphorra had been expecting, seeing as this was an arena. phosphorra said that this is why she didn’t want to come in here, it wasn’t her fault. calypso said that the party had just been curious, and maybe they could’ve seen the King here. zoroe told phosphorra that they couldn’t just look away from things like this, and that witnessing what the King had wrought was part of bringing him down. “if anything, let this fuel you.” but phosphorra argued that watching this happen was just being complicit and that they should be helping. calypso asked if she wanted to jump in, but phosphorra said that she just wanted to leave. despite their advantage in numbers, the aarakocra were soundly defeated by the tieflings, and were led away as the crowd cheered for the tieflings.

once the party had exited the arena, zoroe began speaking very sternly to phosphorra. it was perhaps the first time anyone had seen zoroe angry. she said that she refused to be called complicit as she and the party were trying to stop the King, and that phosphorra needed to step up and look at what was happening rather than keep trying to run away from it. calypso tried to stop zoroe, saying that she should be gentle with phosphorra, but zoroe wasn’t having it and kept going. cluk agreed with zoroe, and calypso just frowned and remained silent. phosphorra wasn’t looking at anyone, just sulking and staring at the ground, so zoroe took her face in her hands and said that phosphorra needed to grow up and treat this situation seriously. phosphorra turned from her grasp and still didn’t say anything. calypso tried to move past the now resounding silence by asking what the next move was, but nobody seemed to be suggesting much. zoroe apologized for getting so angry. (it was such RP yall omg.)

phosphorra, still caught up in her feelings, suddenly felt this weird compulsion to go into some ruins in the northwest. she tugged on calypso’s sleeve and told her this, and calypso kinda glanced at the others before asking if she wanted to go with the others as well. phosphorra said that they should all travel together, so calypso told the others that they needed to head that way.

next time... well, who knows. great session tho

#red sun #dnd

1 note · View note