#session

Out of my way. I’ve got exams to deal with.

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SP+EN+FR

We remind you that today there is THE Jazz-Jam SessionatKater Holzig Club !

                So remember it starts at 22:00, see you all there! :D

Well, we finally did it.  We now have more followers than posts.  In celebration, we are having a wonderful F/m session this Sunday. 

If there are any msub or gender-egalitarian spanking blogs out there who would like a submission from this coming Sunday- send us a quick question with your preferred implement (trust me, whatever it is we probably have it) and we will try and send you a nice, original content submission.  Just in case our inbox gets exploded with requests, which I doubt- keep in my we might not be able to get back to all of you immediately.

This is also a great way to see if anyone actually reads on tumblr.  Do you?

When we last left our heroes, they had found themselves trapped in the grand hall of a fire giant’s palace on the Plane of Elemental Fire, bloodied, surrounded, and outnumbered….

Note: This session report is really long! We played for ~4.5 hours and the party completed 4 main quests, bringing them up to level 8. I’ll try to keep the uninteresting stuff brief, but a lot of exposition happened this session. Enjoy!

The crew of the Gigolo’s Slipper scarce had time to catch their breath after striking down Nalduru, the would-be lord of the Palace of Cinders, before they heard a racket at the doors to the throne room. With Captain Tuso Staymor unconscious and down for the count, the party was down to three members to fight off the counterattack organized by the fire giant’s remaining servants: a legion of fiery azers, determined to take revenge for the slaying of their master.

Luckily, Vadim’s polymorph spell still had Minghira transformed into the shape of a giant ape, and his magic and Veloxi’s bladework managed to wipe up whatever forces escaped the fists of the mad gorilla. The crew didn’t give an inch as they systematically took out each of their foes, defeating the counterattack and clearing out the Palace of Cinders for their ally, the efreeti known as al-Zaqim.

After coercing the fire giant’s butler to open the way for them, they succeeded in reconnecting the Palace of Cinders to the Material Plane, granting al-Zaqim access to his stronghold and resources once again. They had secured a powerful ally against the fight against the Maharajah in times to come, and the efreeti lord swore to uphold his end of the bargain to Balasaryx, the blue dragon that acted as lord of Port Sapphire.

The party’s next task led them to the small seaside town of Seven Strands in Waldermore to follow up on a lead about a criminal captured by the mysterious Grey Rangers.

The Grey Rangers acted as scouts, pathfinders, and guides for the military of Waldermore. As a part of their mystical training, Grey Rangers are some of the only beings who knew how to navigate through the mysterious and magical forest known as the Walderwood, where paths could disappear and reappear the next day, and the courses of streams and roads would shift with the whims of the forest. A Grey Ranger captain named Vimmirkin, had captured an agent of the Maharajah near some elven ruins deep in the Walderwood.

Apparently, the crew took a little too long to arrive in Seven Strands to follow up on this lead, as Vimmirkin reported to the party that they had executed the intruder several days ago. All Vimmirkin had was the dead tiefling’s testimony and possessions, which included a small notebook with undecipherable text scrawled across it. According to Vimmirkin, the tiefling had been found researching the ruins of an ancient elven laboratory, once used long ago to develop magic to control the flow of time.

As Vimmirkin explained, ancient elven legends described the elves using time control magic to slow their own aging process, giving them unnaturally long lives that they passed on to their descendants for generations. Rumor has it that they also mastered the ability to accelerate time on certain targets, aging them hundreds of years in the span of a few moments. The elves of old considered this line of research to be too powerful and dangerous to explore, and abandoned their focus on time magic, satisfied with extending their own lifespans. The reason for the Maharajah’s interest in such magic remained a mystery for the time being, as his agent was dead and buried in an unmarked grave in Seven Strands.

Undeterred, Vadim found a local cleric of Athena to cast speak with dead on the executed tiefling, allowing the party a few moments to ask some pertinent questions. The corpse revealed that indeed he was studying time control magic, and that his indecipherable notes were the transcribed research notes on time acceleration magic. What’s more, the tiefling revealed that he wasn’t captured by Vimmirkin at the ruins, but Vimmerkin had led him to the ruins.

The party confronted the Grey Ranger, looking for answers. Veloxi grilled the Ranger until he broke down with the truth: the tiefling had paid Vimmirkin under the table to guide him out to the ruins to do some research, but Vimmirkin got suspicious of the tiefling’s intentions. He had him imprisoned and executed to keep from revealing Vimmirkin’s wrongdoing when he heard agents from Port Sapphire were on the way, but the Ranger had nothing to do with the Maharajah himself. The crew was content to report the Ranger to the local authorities and call it a successful mission.

Later that evening, Vadim began to piece together his theories on the Maharajah’s plot. Given his interest in owning dragon eggs and time acceleration magic, Vadim postulated that the Maharajah was looking to rapidly age an army of dragon whelps into adulthood to challenge the might of Balasaryx, the ancient blue dragon that acted as the ruler of Port Sapphire and the Maharajah’s eternal enemy.

Next on the party’s task list was to make contact with Vyska, a mysterious woman who was said to be the ally of Balasaryx in ancient times, and whose power and support was required for the times to come. Imagine the surprise on the party’s faces when they discovered that Vyska was an ancient medusa.

Vyska agreed to pledge support to her old ally, but felt slighted by the fact that Balasaryx had seemingly forgotten about her for years. She wanted something imposing to intimidate and impress the diplomats that Port Sapphire would send in the near future. She asked the party to bring her a large, imposing, exotic creature for her to petrify and display in her halls, alongside her other victims. She needed a centerpiece for her gallery of statues, and tasked the crew with finding her masterpiece.

After a quick brainstorming session, the crew decided that the only creature that would do was a dragon turtle.

Tracking one down was the easy part. Tuso performed a dubious sensual favor to a merfolk to learn the location of a dragon turtle, and the crew formulated their plan. Veloxi, the master of disguise, would pose as a rich damsel in distress, preying on the turtle’s thirst for treasure. So, on went the ballgown as Veloxi was cast overboard to act as bait for the turtle.

Veloxi was soon rescued by the dragon turtle, and driven by her promise for additional treasure if he delivered her home, she managed to trick the turtle into bringing the both of them to Vyska’s island stronghold. By the time the turtle realized it was a trick, it was too late. Vyska had petrified the turtle for eternity on the shores of her island, a symbol of her power and influence. Satisfied that the crew held up their end of the bargain, she too pledged her allegiance to her old ally for the fight to come.

The crew’s final mission was to look into the recent activity of General Torgo Victus, a Black Band officer who almost exposed the party at a magical item auction a few weeks back, only to be magically paralyzed by Tuso as they escaped.

The report suggested that Torgo Victus had set up some sort of Black Band operation in an abandoned Temple to Zeus on the sea-cliffs of Thuria. The party’s task was to assault the makeshift base and figure out what the sinister mercenary company was up to.

So, assault it they did.

The temple was well-defended, being nestled in cliffside caves 70 feet above the water and defended by muskets, griffons, and mercenaries. The crew elected to divide and conquer, and after a few hectic minutes they managed to fight their way into the stronghold’s inner sanctum to find Torgo Victus. Ever a fan of irony, Tuso decided to cast hold person on the general again, immobilizing him while Minghira restrained him.

Under severe duress, the general revealed that the Black Band was planning troop movements into Wythover, the homeland of Vadim. The Maharajah had instructed him to begin this operation, but would not give him a reason why. Curiously, after looking through his plans, the party deduced that the Black Band mercenary company wasn’t planning on invading Wythover, but occupying it. Puzzled by the implication, the crew decided that it was time to formally report all of their findings to their employer, the Sapphire Sultan, the ancient blue dragon who ruled Port Sapphire and Thuria.

Veloxi made sure not to leave Torgo Victus with his eyes.

After high-tailing it out of Brondorion, our heroes, the intrepid crew of the Gigolo’s Slipper, found themselves tailed by an enemy pirate ship. Despite heavy winds, being holed by cannon fire, and Veloxi’s apparent inability to climb up the side of an enemy vessel, the crew prevailed and destroyed their would-be attackers. They elected to set out for the village of Mornheart in Norhollow, where more disappearances had been reported.

The crew didn’t feel like their encounter with the hydra adequately explained the strange happenings in these coastal villages, and after searching the village they learned that a new priest of Poseidon named Father Gilbert had come to Mornheart, and was taking the faithful offshore to an island known as Shrine Rock to present offerings to Poseidon, attempting to placate his anger and prevent more attacks from the hydras.

At Shrine Rock, however, there was no evidence of any of the villagers. Veloxi discovered a hidden passage underneath the altar on the island, and inside they found their answers.

The village disappearances, the hydra attacks, and even Father Gilbert were all lies. Phorcys, the demigod of black waters, and the one-time patron of the Captain Tuso Staymor, was behind it all. Phorcys sent the hydras and Father Gilbert to wipe out the villages in an attempt to draw out Tuso and to kill him, in revenge for Tuso sapping his divine power. To ensure Tuso’s demise, Phorcys sent a servant: an aboleth known as The Drowner.

Confronted with this horror of the deeps, Tuso ordered the crew to retreat above ground and flee aboard the Slipper. Vadim, the party wizard, had a different idea. Vadim polymorphed the monk Minghira, transforming her into a giant ape. Vadim and Minghira would not back down.

The battle was one-sided. The iron-hard fists of Monkey Minghira were too powerful. Beaten by the monk’s ape-fists and battered by the wizard’s tidal waves, the Drowner was soon smashed into an inky, mucous pulp, and floated down into the black waters from whence it came.

Having barely escaped the clutches of Phorcys yet again, Tuso and the crew decided to sail off far away to Mazama Island, to perform a job for al-Zaqim, an efreeti warlord and ally of Balasaryx, the crew’s employer. The efreeti needed his palace and his slaves back, as they had been conquered years ago by Nalduru, a fire giant and the efreeti’s former lieutenant. There was one complication, however. Al-Zaqim’s palace was on the Elemental Plane of Fire.

The efreeti lord offered to transport the party as far as the City of Brass, but from there they would need to find their way to the estate themselves, infiltrate it, exterminate Nalduru and his host, and connect the portal between the estate and the Tethys Sea.

They found their way to the estate soon enough, and infiltrated it via the roof, using illusion magic to appear as if they were escorted by one of Nalduru’s many azer guards. They bluffed and cajoled their way past githyanki slave-buyers, an azer garrison, and Nalduru’s salamander manservant, and they headed straight for the head of the operation. The crew stormed the throne room, hoping to take the fire giant by surprise.

Nalduru cast off the harem that was draped over him and begun a fierce melee with the intruders, swinging about a red-hot sickle and trading blows with the party. Tuso was struck unconscious by the fire giant’s assault, but Veloxi’s cunning bladework and Minghira’s new-found gorilla fists (courtesy of another of Vadim’s polymorphs) struck down the fiery usurper, and his pathetic reinforcements of kobold kitchen-servants.

With Tuso unconscious and the rest of the crew battered by giant-sized dinnerware thrown by the kitchen kobolds, the crew barricaded themselves in the throne room, astride the corpse of a fire giant, awaiting the counter-attack by the azer garrison inside the estate.

Afterprocuring a mysterious egg from the Bank of Ancivium, Tuso, Minghira, Veloxi, and Vadim decided it would be best to look into determining what exactly it was and what to do with it. They also had a job to go to the Library of Demonology to research rakshasas, located in the distant inland city of Black Pass, south of Port Sapphire. Tuso had the idea to knock out two birds with one stone. If they were going to a city famous for its archives and libraries, they might as well try to research their hard-earned parcel as well. They decided to stop in their home port for a night before heading south overland to the city of Black Pass in Tammarand.

Word on the street was that two strangers in Port Sapphire were looking to meet the crew of the Gigolo’s Slipper. Veloxi went undercover to determine the strangers’ identities and motives, but found them to be hulking, brutish foreigners of some sort who wanted to speak with Tuso directly. A meeting was arranged at the south gate of town, and the strangers revealed themselves to be a pair of asura, magical beings subservient to rakshasas! They drew their blades, transformed into their true shapes, and attempted to kill the crew of the Slipper on the orders of the Maharajah.

The asura downed Veloxi, and bolstered by their supernatural healing abilities, turned their sights to the rest of the crew. Their breath was cold as the winter winds, and only under the combined might of Tuso’s magic, Minghira’s martial arts, and Vadim’s copious fireballs were they defeated, vanishing into dust and returning to whatever hell they emerged from.

With the knowledge that they were being tailed by the Maharajah’s assassins, they decided it would be a good idea to skip town and head to Black Pass at the speed of hippogriff.

Black Pass is a city of knowledge, sat upon the shores of the Black Lake, in the shadow of two enormous mountains on the border of Tammarand and Thuria. Its libraries and archives hold a wealth of mortal knowledge, and before long, Vadim uncovered that the egg in the party’s possession was laid by a bronze dragon, as they had suspected. A bronze dragon’s egg can only hatch after it has been struck by lightning or the breath of its mother, so they decided to shelve that idea for the time being, and head to the Library of Demonology, only to find it inaccessible.

The Paladins of Athena have locked the library down, claiming that it had come under attack from demons accidentally summoned through a researcher’s spell. The paladins offered to let the party into the locked-down West Wing of the library, on the condition that they would not be allowed to leave it until they had proof of the extermination of the demonic incursion. Tuso decided that this wasn’t his fight, and the information wasn’t going anywhere, so the party left town and left the job of demon-slaying to the paladins and wizards of Black Pass.

The next major event on the party’s schedule was an auction of magical and wondrous equipment in Brondorion, a port city in the elven nation of Oryth. The elf-clans enjoy holding such events to show off their wealth and decadence to each other, and the Gigolo’s Slipper can never resist a good party.

At the auction, they met Sabia Fomova again, the mayor of Gontium, and the woman that they stole the diadem of the endless shoal from several months ago. Needless to say, she was furious with the party’s presence at this high-society event, and they barely managed to slip away from the event before ending up in a nasty fight. The party didn’t leave empty-handed, however! Vadim managed to have the winning bid on a magic warhammer from Wythover’s history, a weapon known as Wulga’s Bell-Ringer. With Sabia Fomova and a Black Band general on their tail, the party beat feet out of the city to the safety of their ship.

With the Gigolo’s Slipper repaired and a new officer aboard, it was time to get back to business. There was a half-dozen missions available on the to-do list, but Tuso decided to investigate the disappearance of small fishing villages along the northern coast of Norhollow, first.

After making dropping anchor near the small village of Bogmoss, the crew asked around and learned that fishermen who went upriver would not return. Minghira, from the far-off land of Saramance, home of the swamp-clans, found herself in her natural element. She caught the trail of a hunter, and the crew canoed through the swamps until they found a small pond away from the main river. Upon investigation, they discovered the pond was not the home of five alligators, but home to a vicious, man-eating hydra!

After chopping off a dozen heads, the creature finally rested in pieces at the bottom of the bog. The crew was unsatisfied with the idea that this one creature was the cause of disappearances all across the region, so they trekked on. Eventually, they found themselves in an abandoned swamp village, with a curl of smoke rising from the central hut. Inside, the crew came across a defiled temple of Athena, and a coven of bog hags brewing potions. They did their adventurer’s duty in slaying the coven, but left the region empty-handed, yet unsure of the source of the disappearances.

After some rest and relaxation aboard their ship, the crew decided to follow up on a lead from their newest officer, Veloxi. Veloxi was a smuggler who deposited a parcel in the Bank of Ancivium in Osmis, unaware that she was working for the Maharajah, a rakshasa-lord with schemes to conquer the Tethys Sea. The parcel was in a gilded wooden box about the size of a large melon, and was much heavier than it appeared. Whatever it was, it was important that the Maharajah not have access to his artifact. So off to Ancivium it was.

Ancivium was once a glorious city, but the wear and tear of Osmis’ war against its neighbors has reduced the city to a fraction of the splendor it once had. Its bank and vaults, however, were some of the most secure in the region. The crew had their work cut out for them.

After a few days of careful surveillance, the crew determined that the bank’s two greatest defenses were zones of antimagic surrounding the vault that protected against magical intrusions, and dwarven-made guard automata that could detect and eliminate intuders. After some research and gold spent, Vadim learned the spell dispel magic to render the automata useless.

The night of the heist, Vadim used misty step to enter into the locked bank lobby, dispatching the automated guards and gaining access to the vault area. Veloxi worked her rogue’s magic on the locks to the main vault and popped it open without raising the alarm. With the front of the bank covered by Minghira and Tuso, the group fled into the night, now one parcel richer.

On the open sea, away from the prying eyes of local authorities, the crew’s curiosity got the better of them, and they elected to open the box they took from the vault. Inside, they found a single, scaly, bronze-colored egg…

After an unplanned hiatus in the middle of an adventure, I decided to skip to the conclusion of the adventure, get the Gigolo’s Slipper back moving again, and get on to new things. Here are the important take-aways:

Tuso Staymor, the fearless captain of the Gigolo’s Slipper, was taken to the depths by Phorcys, his warlock patron. Phorcys, the demigod of dark waters, was displeased with Tuso’s lack of devotion. Tuso was saved, however, by Triton, son of Poseidon and eternal enemy of Phorcys. Tuso would again live and exploit Phorcys’ power, but would no longer be bound to serve him.

Adroven of Waldermore was called back to his homeland to attend to a matter and the crew recruited Veloxi, a smuggler from Svetheim with special knowledge of a bank vault containing property of the Maharajah…

The party also managed to parlay with al-Zaqim, an ancient foe of the Maharajah. Al-Zaqim is an efreeti that resides on a volcanic island in the Tethys Sea, and was frozen in a spell cast by the rakshasa lord over 400 years ago. The crew of the Slipper woke him from his slumber, and in response the fiery genie vowed to help Balasaryx rid the region of the Maharajah’s influence.

Our story picks up several weeks later, as a new wave of jobs comes to the crew of the Gigolo’s Slipper…

Adroven, Minghira, Tuso, and Vadim were surrounded. They were deep in the woods of Norhollow, following their dragonborn friend Fishbone’s lead on a green dragon’s lair. They unknowingly stumbled into a centaur ambush, and it didn’t look like they were going to be able to talk their way out of this one. 

Vadim sensed an enchantment on the centaurs, and deduced that they had been magically dominated by Cymeraxas, the green dragon that ruled the area. The party didn’t give a satisfactory answer in time, and the centaurs charged in with their lances.

Adroven and Tuso made quick work of one of the three monstrous humanoids, subduing it with flail and trident. Fishbone, the dragonborn dove for cover and covered with his crossbow, while Vadim the wizard and Minghira the monk found themselves trampled underhoof by a pair of centaurs.

Once they were heavily outnumbered, however, the centaurs soon fell to the spells and blades of the party. After taking a short rest to dust themselves off, they explored a nearby ruined tower and found a trapdoor on the ground floor. Beneath, an acrid fog that reeked of poison billowed forth. They knew they had found their entrance to the dragon’s lair, and the party imbibed their antitoxins to protect against the dragon’s poisonous breath.

Dragons are intelligent creatures, and do not leave their lairs defenseless. The party broke through a small tribe of lizardfolk living in the caves beneath the forest, and a pair of elven musketmen guarding the lair. Fishbone traded his crossbow for a musket, and the party elected to stop for a short rest. It appeared that Cymeraxas’ living area was near, and it was a good time as any to rest and recuperate.

Cymeraxas never gave them a chance.

The great green wyrm burst through the corridor, howling for blood. This was his home, and he would defend it at any cost. Noxious green gas erupted from his jaws, but the crew of the Gigolo’s Slipper was prepared. Their antitoxins absorbed most of the poison, leaving them time to retaliate. Vadim teleported to the far side of the dragon, and readied a length of chain. Tuso and Adroven peppered the dragon’s hide with spells and weapons, but Cymeraxas was giving them just as much back. Suddenly, a thicket of thorns sprouted up in the cavern under the dragon’s command, and separated Minghira and Fishbone from the party.

Minghira failed at fighting off the poison and rending claws of the beast, and fell unconscious. Fishbone leaped to her aid and stabilized her. Meanwhile on the other side of the thorny thicket, Vadim has looped his length of chain around the dragon’s neck, and was holding its head in place. Adroven, the paladin of Nike, whispered a prayer to his deity. He threw down his flail and his shield, drew his two blackpowder pistols, and took two shots. One bullet struck a scale and was deflected away, but the second struck the great serpent directly in the eye. The great beast fell to the cold earth, dead as a doornail.

After the appropriate amount of time required for healing and celebration, they began to comb the lair for the dragon’s treasure hoard. They encountered a bard named Fynnegan that had been forced to sing the dragon’s praises. He gladly led the party to the dragon’s hoard.

They found the fabled Brand of the Black Owl, which the warlock captain Tuso claimed as his portion of the hoard. He attuned his magic to the blade, making it his pact weapon. Vadim the pyromaniac wizard claimed the wand known as True North, and Minghira elected to wear the newly discovered boots of elvenkind. Amongst other art objects and monetary treasure, the expedition was most definitely profitable.

The party took a shortcut back to Rigger’s Bay, arriving a little over a week later. The town was crawling with corrupt Black Band mercenaries searching for privateers to harass, so the party made for their ship directly.

When they arrived, the officer they left in charge, Kitha, informed them that they had been invited to the Winter Ball in Port Sapphire by the Sultan himself, an ancient blue dragon named Balasaryx. The Sultan wished to have a private audience with the crew of the Slipper at his lavish ball, and it seemed like an offer that would be hard to refuse. It seemed the crew had a habit of attracting the attentions of dragons, so they elected to set sail back to their home city of Port Sapphire to hear what Balasaryx had to say.

Rope :Alex DirtyVonP

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