Session 6: Boons and Bargains¶

In the aftermath of the Kuo-Toa fight, the party found treasure, met a creature too pitiful to fear, and struck a deal with a stranger whose smile held too many secrets.

The overflow chapel yielded one notable prize: a massive chunk of amber, beautiful and entirely inert. The Kuo-Toa had apparently kept it because it was pretty. To the right buyer -- a jeweller or a magician -- it might be worth a small fortune.

Deeper in the tunnels, the party encountered Skrang -- a revenant, though a far cry from the horrors that word usually conjures. He was pathetic, hunched and feeding on rodents, more afraid of them than they were of him. He told them he had agreed to be turned because he was sick and terrified of dying, especially now that “the gods are no more.” The party’s reaction was split. Alarise attacked him on sight; Ada tried to show him kindness; Lucien shouted at Shin and Alarise to stand down. Skrang escaped through a crack in the wall before the argument could be settled.

Back on the surface, the party found their way to the Opal Archways and a peculiar shop called The Verdant Veil, run by an eccentric figure named Dazz. Dazz had a proposition: a being called Caliban was operating out of three locations in the city -- a warehouse in the Skew, a place of power in the Sluiceweave, and a tavern in the Restless Wharf. Stop him at all three, and the party would receive three boons. As a show of good faith, Dazz handed over the first boon immediately -- a magical lantern and an ensorceled warhammer called Shining Smite that hummed with quiet power.

The evening took a darker turn when a mob descended on the carnival. Fear from the tsunami had curdled into anger, and the crowd had found a target. The tabaxi performers scrambled to escape as torches flew and carts overturned. The party arrived to chaos, but the night was already slipping away from them.

Three locations. Three boons. And a city that seemed to be tearing itself apart from the inside.