Session #5: Decks of Chaos  8/22/21

Day 19, Duvin 54: So I am writing this from my own room in our new manor house.  There is … a lot to discuss.  I’ll do my best to relay the insanity of what happened today.

We entered the city this morning, with all the surviving refugees of Redorn.  The guards were stunned by the news and suggested we take them to the Town Hall.  I looked back at the cart and as I commented that we didn’t need it any longer, it immediately faded away as a shiny coin clinked to the ground in its place.  I just identified it before starting to write this entry and it is called the Coin of the Stampede.  One side has a horse and cart and the other has a group of horses in mid gallop.  Flipping the coin either summons a horse and cart which remains until dismissed or it summons riding horses for every person within 30 feet which last for 8 hours.  Those horses would have been very useful on our trek through the tundra.  Maybe a few more people would have survived.

So as we brought the refugees through the city, Vos-trin rushed up to us, eager for news of what happened.  He brought the four of us over to Ander’s tower while the rest of the travelers were escorted to the hall.  Both Ander and Vos-trin were alarmed by the fate of Redorn and its people. 

All of us were having difficulty telling everything that had happened because of the memory blocks that Sorjn had put into place so Ander examined me and dispelled the lingering effect.  As we discussed the meddling of these beings, Vos-trin told us about his experience.  Duvin had unleashed a horrible plague that was devastating the population of Veer.  Arevia assembled a party of adventurers led by Vos-trin who destroyed the plague, though it had taken them five years to accomplish this.

Something had been nagging at me and I finally asked the hero why he had invited us to his wedding.  Elairiel knew the bride personally so it was understandable that she was there, but the rest of us are nobodies.  Vos-trin was unable to answer.  He had no idea why he had done it.  Ander moved to examine him like he had done with us, but a voice stopped him.

A young girl in a purple dress sat on a nearby desk and she warned the wizard not to do anything.  When the man didn’t stop, the child made a motion with her hand, and he flew back to thud headfirst against the wall.   He dropped to the floor unconscious, and I rushed over to administer a healing potion.  At the same time, Vos-Trin fell into a dazed state and made no reaction to the presence of this newcomer.

The child identified herself as Duvin and she seemed very amused at the situation.  We had been told that she had been the one to transport us to the Core and when we asked why, she said that she liked our chemistry and what we would evolve into, whatever that means.  We tried to get answers regarding the motivations of the six witches (demigods?) but all she would say is that they had been playing with the world since the first Culling when they destroyed the kingdom of Veer and divided it into the nations we know today.

To show her appreciation, she gave us a “gift”: four decks of cards.

I knew immediately what these were, but before I could say anything, Morchid pulled one of the cards from his Deck of Many Things.  There was a flash as Morchid began to glow brightly.  His body melted into a pool of light which separated into two individual forms.  The light faded and there were two new beings standing before us in Ander’s tower.  One was even larger than Morchid, with thick brown fur over a massively muscled frame.  He had long curving tusks extending from either side of his trunk.  I recognized his species as a Loxodon, specifically a variant that lived in colder climates in the north.  The other newcomer was shorter, but equally massive.  A wide-eyed reptilian face extended from a thick, broad shell that was covered in moss and mushrooms.  He was a Tortle and in one thick hand, he held an enormous pipe with foul-smelling smoke curling up from it.

The pair introduced themselves.  The Loxodon spoke in a slow, deep voice and said his name was Dooldrozh, or Dool for short.  The Tortle had a higher pitched raspy voice and introduced himself as Xopa.  He offered his pipe around to everyone, but I declined.

We turned back to Duvin and demanded to know what happened to our druid friend.  She told us that the card he pulled was a modified version of the Donjon card.  (It seems that these decks have many alternate versions of the usual cards.)  This caused his body to dissolve and his soul to be spilt and merged with the two new beings before us.  At our insistence, she told us the Morchid could be brought back but she had to do some research first and she disappeared.

Vos-trin came out of his stupor and Ander woke up soon after.  Both men were understandably upset by what happened, but they were willing to help.  We told them that we needed a place to call our own in the city, a base of operations, and money was likely not going to be a problem.  They offered the manor house of an old ally who had recently passed away, Merodye an Elder of Vorin.  I had heard of him and his loss came as quite a shock.  We purchased his house for a 7500 platinum! 

We all went to the dwelling and found that it was a massive cathedral inside a walled off, wooded area on the southern edge of town.  Ander said he would get to work right away on converting it over to our needs.  I took the others to the markets in town to purchase food to stock the pantry.  Once we returned, I made a simple meal for everyone, including a vegetarian option for Dool.  As we were eating, Duvin arrived and told us what needed to be done to get Morchid back.  There were two essential tasks.  She was willing to do one of them, but we had to do the other.

First, she needed several items to conduct the necessary ritual: the heart of a drake, an ancient phylactery, and a stinger from a large creature.  She said these items could all be found in the Mithral Mountains far to the southwest.  The other thing needed was a body, preferably that of another firbolg. When asked, she suggested going after members of an evil cult located in the Old Woods and we decided this task would be the easier of the two.  Unfortunately, that was the same area we had just come from, and we definitely weren’t prepared to go on another trek like that so soon.  She offered to give us a way to travel there quickly, but she insisted that one of us to pull a card.

I had already decided I would not pull a card, ever, but Squish agreed and pulled the Comet card.  Nothing seemed to happen, but with these cards, you never really know. I shudder to think what unfortunate fate may befall my friend.  Duvin handed them a map and when we examined it, the parchment had an incredibly detailed color image of a region in the Old Woods with tiny moving figures.  Our new allies agreed to join us and we gazed intently at the map until we found ourselves being pulled into the parchment and in the blink of an eye, we were in the woods.

Xopa sent his owl familiar to scout ahead and in a nearby clearing, there were five figures in robes standing around a central altar.  As Xopa watched, another large figure arrived, carrying the dead body of a firbolg covered in strange mushrooms.  After reporting what he had seen, Xopa conjured and distributed several enchanted blackberries (not unlike the ones that Berry had used to heal the festival goers after the wedding in Vorin).

As the cultists gathered to do some kind of ritual, Squish and Elairiel snuck around to one side of the group, moving quietly and unseen.  I sent Callie along with them to help if needed.  Xopa and I stayed back out of sight while Dool charged the group, trumpeting his rage as he plowed into them.  Squish and Elairiel unleashed a deadly attack from range while I launched a rock into their ranks using my Catapult spell.  I also put Caleb to use for the first time as the little eldritch cannon sent bolts of force into the enemy.

The fight was over fairly quickly with no severe injuries.  The cultists never really had a chance.  The last of them was a firbolg and I finished him off with some lightning that stopped his heart without doing any significant damage to the body.  We gathered the corpse and looked at Duvin’s map again.   Now it showed the layout of our new house and with another rushing sound, we were transported back there.

Duvin arrived shortly after with the rest of the items, including the stinger from a purple worm, an enormous and fearsome creature!  I am glad we didn’t choose to get those items.   Duvin completed the ritual, extracting the portions of Morchid’s soul from Dool and Xopa and melding it back into the body of the firbolg.  Morchid awoke, confused and alarmed at the differences to his body, which was shorter and had reddish fur.  Duvin had said that she would alter the body to be more like Morchid’s original form and did so without any difficulty.  (Another astounding feat of magic!)

After a round of chaotic introductions and explanations, Morchid retrieved his deck of cards and before we could stop him, he pulled three more!  Luckily for everyone, they seemed to be “good” cards.  He was presented with a magical cloak and a butler that looked just like him but dressed in a tuxedo and willing to do anything he asked. The third card is the one that concerns me.  The Moon card gives the recipient the ability to make Wishes and that power in Morchid’s hands is terrifying.

As the others discussed the cards, I decided to leave the chaotic group and explore the house.  Ander had finished the magical renovations and it was magnificent.  I ended up back in the kitchen where I made a large pot of fish stew and a second pot of vegetable stew.  I knew Morchid would be hungry.  While I was working, I noticed Squish sitting on one of the high shelves behind me.  They handed me their deck and told me they were done pulling cards.  As the stew was simmering, Elairiel brought in a large red crystal shaped like flames.  It seems she had pulled a card called “Flames”.

She handed me her deck and Morchid did as well.  I took all four decks to my workshop and locked them in a hidden box (strangely, one of the ones I had made for Olvar so long ago).  The others toured our new dwelling and eventually we all sat down to a nice meal.  Afterwards, I identified Elairiel’s crystal and the coin we received from Sorjn, using two of the many pearls I had purchased from Ander.  I plan to buy some more items from him soon, but that is for another day.  I am exhausted and looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.