Bargaining, Aibaris, and A Resurrection

Characters

• Harold - Viper / Orochi Vipernox / Yuan-Ti / Samurai - Viper
• Alex - Jack / Kryodon / Pictomancer & Terentus - Rogue/Warlock? - Garlean
• Holden - Manson Black / Human / Warlock-Sorcerer
• Jocelyn - Ahna Desai /Wood Elf / Wizard (Divination)

Session Notes

After dropping Olin off in Gardenia, we are headed back towards Ixada. Pluck has to get a brush and something else there for Amanifus to complete her bargain with him. She was rather quiet and withdrawn, even from Manson after splitting from Renella and watching Starflower split from Cassie. She seemed to have a lot on her mind. She purposely avoided being around Amanifus whenever he walked about the ship.

 

Manson visits Amanifus

A little later, as I was sitting down writing and getting ready to rest, I heard someone knocking on Amanifus’ door. Yes, it was right across the hallway from my new room and my door was open. Manson motioned for me to go with him and I could see Ahna and Jack standing a few feet back. I got up to join them. Then I heard Amanifus “I thought I’d be seeing you soon.” Manson said, “I have Raven’s ashes here, what will the cost be to resurrect him? I hear Amanifus say, "Come in."

Manson again asks Amanifus what the price would be to resurrect Raven. There is a moment of silence and he says something along the lines of the ability to have this room available when I want, paint supplies, other things that Pluck has already agreed to. However, to resurrect him I will need a live person, as lively as possible.

I thought to myself a living being needed to be sacrificed to get Manson’s friend back. What are we getting ourselves into I wondered. The look on Manson’s face when he was told that, seemed to deflate him and I wondered if he would have the stomach to actually go through with it. Manson is on a road to hell with the deals he has made with the Oni, but still thinks of himself as an honorable paladin, when we all have learned that he no longer is one.

Then I heard Amanifus say “A life must be exchanged for a life.” Also, he would require Manson to deal with the people who excommunicated Amanifus must be dealt with. Manson responds, “So you need me to take out the trash...”

When Manson continues to ask questions to judge if the deal is worth doing, Amanifus tells him that he won’t do it unless Raven agrees to the deal. Raven has to understand and agree that someone will be killed to bring him back.

Suddenly, Amanifus reached out and touched Manson’s forehead and told him to talk with Raven.

Manson later told us that he was transported to the spirit realm and saw Raven standing in a grove of Wisteria trees, looking content and peaceful. Manson was worried that Raven was comfortable there and wouldn’t consider the deal. After talking with him for a few minutes, he asks if Raven is willing for another to be killed, so that he can live? Raven told him that he wanted to return to the living, and there are plenty of beings out there that no longer need to be living and that if one of them were used to resurrect him, then he was good with that. Once Raven agreed to the term, Manson is pulled back to the land of the living

Amanifus looks at Manson and says, “The sacrifice needs to be alive and who’s life has not yet been lived. You will give me the being - alive.”

Manson continued to attempt to get Amanifus to give us more information, “Will Raven be human or undead?” Amanifus responds, “It depends how much is left of his spirit and how much I have to recreate.” Then I can tell that he is getting tired of the questions Manson is asking and goes into evasive answers to his questions. During which Manson begins to get extremely agitated. I can’t remember much of that conversation after that first question, because I was thinking so much about how difficult this might be to accomplish. Then Amanifus gave the usual Fae indirect clues for those that he wants taken care of, giving their locations and descriptions:

• Ixada - One with eyes green with envy takes the faces of a thousand be they man or beast the face taken matter not, you’ll know when you find them as their eyes glow green with envy.
• Aibaris - A pure blooded chosen, who’s body gleams white as snow, and whose soul has been corrupted by the essence of another
• Crannog - in a land veiled with mist, one who has become one with the land, lives a life that is no longer theirs, seek out the man, who lives amongst the trees, be wary of the thorns from which they call patronage.

Finally, Manson realizes that he’s not going to get anymore information from him beyond riddles and stomps off with Raven’s ashes - frustrated. The rest of us look at one another and head back up to the mess deck.

There Jack sees Kenzo and asks about the deal to get the essences of Isabella and Finvarra to be a part of his paints. Kenzo lets him know that Isabella has said yes and that she tells him to say “Hi” to Catherine for her. “Dad probably will say yes, but you need to talk to him in person the next time we are there before he will grant you this boon.” Then Kenzo told him that he could talk with Amanifus who has many of the same abilities as Finvarra. Jack just tells him that what Amanifus has is not what he is looking for.

Someone then said something about “A jester who smiled in endless chaos.” I liked what was said, but it came out of the blue and I missed the context of the conversation, but I thought that Jack responded with “he’s here, I just know who you’re talking about.”

Jack then made pancakes for the whole party, handing them out, yelling down hallways asking if Ahna wanted any. There was no maple syrup. She did not want any.

Amanifus comes up to the mess deck and is offered some pancakes. Manson pauses Jack from handing them to him, telling Amanifus, “Three pancakes for three questions.” Amanifus agrees.

1. Can I hear the three people’s names?
2. Accidentally asked “Can I have their names?”
3. What are your plans for Renalla?

Amanifus never really answered any of Manson’s questions and gave the Fae evasive answers to anything he brought up. “You can hear them, you cannot have them, and it’s good to have someone to do things for me here and there. When they are done, they are done.” and wouldn’t say anything else about it.

AIBARIS

After landing, Pluck heads out without talking to anyone, other than to say she wanted to get this over with. Manson decided he wanted to go to the bank to see how much he can get for the statue in his bag of holding. Jack and I follow along. Inside the bank we see an ex-elevator operator that I was told was from the Playground. He recognizes Manson and after talking and negotiating for a bit comes out of the bank with 21,250 in gold coins. Asks for directions to a Smith and attempts to give him 50 gp for helping out, which he declines, saying that he can’t accept tips.

Manson sees the smith and attempts to sell the Flame Tongue Sword. After negotiating, he made some disparaging remarks to the smith for his “low-balled” offer and refused it.

While walking along, we saw Pluck leaving a church and caught up with her. She has a bag with her. Avoiding eye contact and doesn’t speak to any of us, it was obvious her mind was a million miles away. As we headed back to the ship she talks with Manson quietly and shows him the inside of the bag. I saw a paintbrush and a black box. Then she looked at Manson, telling him she knew that he made a deal with Amanifus to bring back Raven. She sighs, “Do you think that’s wise?”

Manson just shrugs and tells her Raven was his friend, “Probably not” and leaves it at that.

The Beggar

While walking back to the ship we see a young beggar boy following us and talk with him for a minute. He doesn’t have relatives, and lives on the street. I think we all thought about him being an option to give to Amanifus to resurrect Raven. Then Manson’s conscience gets the best of him and he says no and gives the kid some gold. Jack becomes insistent that we take the kid back to the ship for a good meal and to protect him. Manson didn’t agree and argued with Jack. Saying it is far too dangerous to bring the child on board with Amanifus around. Jack disregards this and takes the child by the hand, leading him to the airship. Manson, feeling like there’s no other option, attacks Jack, knocking him prone. While Jack was recovering Manson gave the kid 50 gp and told him to scram.

Jack angrily yells at Manson saying he wasn’t going to do anything beyond giving the child a good meal. He puts on a propeller hat and tells Manson, “Good day!” and flies off. Shortly then flies back down, “Now that I’ve had a moment, I can see where you’re coming from.”

On the way back to the ship, Jack apologized to Manson and told him should have been more direct. Manson didn’t understand that Jack was attempting to protect the kid, not give him to Amanifus. Too many others had seen the gold given to the kid. He was going to have someone take it from him dead or alive. He asks everyone “Are we good?” We all sighed with relief after he explained what he was trying to do. Pluck was shaky and commented, “I didn’t catch on, I was rather pre-occupied.”

We walk back over to the child. Manson offers to protect the beggar, but Jack recommends clown college. After talking for a bit with everyone, some agree that the child’s future has the best chance with Jack getting him into the school. He leaves to take the child there.

Then I got to thinking, we could have used the kid as bait to get one of the others to attack him, which might have satisfied Manson’s conscience. Though I have a feeling that Manson is going to have issues sacrificing someone to Amanifus, with just about anyone we find. If he wants to actually resurrect Raven, I have a feeling that more direct measures will need to be done. I wondered if Jack would come back or not, he did seem like an odd fit to the party, but was always there when we needed him.

Back to the Ship

As we returned to the airship, it seemed to be sunk into shadow. We see Pluck visibly shudder and Manson asked her “Pluck - What’s got you so spooked?” She just looked at him with a nervous look, “I’m more scared of him than my family and that should tell you a LOT.”

She sees a shadow approaching before we can board the ship and it takes the bag from Pluck and disappears.

Kenzo met us on deck, and I overheard only bits and pieces. “If you don’t want us here we can just go home. Talking with Grandfather, reminds me of Nalu.” There was more to that conversation than that, but the main gist was that Kenzo knows that Pluck and the rest of us are uncomfortable around Amanifus - he is just so damn powerful. Kenzo asked if Pluck was ready to take him to Crannog. He needed to talk to a Minotaur and Changeling.

Ahna tells the group that she is a Mantid and that she has been hiding that due to a lot of things that she’ll tell us more of when she gets to know us better. That the wood elf disguise was just to protect herself. We all entered the ship and got settled in.

Terentus Returns

Later, a tall man comes to the ship and introduces himself to Ahna who answered the door. His name is Terentus. He’s invited in and he looked at Kenzo, telling him “We need to talk,” and apologized. Someone is after him, probably Guillermo, he told us that his place got bombed/exploded. His servants that he had hired were killed. It happened at the same time that the explosion took place in the Dalazon Ball 2.0. He wants/needs to figure out who took away his happy retirement. Manson and Pluck welcome him back to fold, but Manson does claim it was probably Guillermo and now he has more to answer for. Then Terentus told Pluck he wanted to see the kiddos.

Amanifus comes into the room and asks Pluck. “Will my grandson’s trip interrupt our task?” She told him no, we hoped to find one of his targets while down there. As he leaves the room, Amanifus looks at Terentus and tells him if he ever wants to find a new Patron that he would love to have him.

Crannog

The airship is capable of space flight, and is actually a Spelljammer. However, getting to Crannog was a bit tricky and having Kenzo there to guide through the spells that still surround it helped considerably. Home sweet home. I had a lot of different emotions and memories flood through me as we flew towards Crannog. Then Kenzo pulled out a globe and we shifted to Mirror Terra. We fly down to the little village of Kit Kat and land in a field of dandelions.

In the middle of the field was a very LARGE Minotaur dressed just in his Butcher’s Bib. Kenzo introduced us to Donkey and Theren, who assisted him in staying alive before he was adopted by the Majini’s. Kenzo talks with them and we see Mantids, Minotaurs, Satyrs, Elves and other beings that you would associate with a Fey kind of place. It was a bucolic scene and one where I had a feeling not too much happened.


After talking for a while, Kenzo suggested that Donkey and Manson compete against one another in a farming competition. He even bet 200 gold that Donkey would win. It took a little bit to get Manson to agree to it, even his Oni offered to lend him his strength and Pluck made an offer that made Manson grin and nod his head. People placed their bets and most everyone seemed to bet on Donkey. Hell I even wagered a bit on Donkey as well.

Surprisingly, the competition was close right up until the end, when Manson used his Silvery Barbs spell to change the outcome of the last test. I think that everyone had a good time with the diversion this little competition gave us. Donkey just looked sad that he’d lost, but not too upset by it. Pluck collected their winnings and laughed at Manson, telling him that he had to beat her to the ship.

I guess Pluck puckered up.

Viper’s Surprise

Since going back to the ship didn’t seem like a good idea for a while, I decided to take matters into my own hands about getting Manson’s friend Raven resurrected. Manson while heading down a path that is going to take his soul at some point, he still thinks too much like a Paladin with good intentions. Which is why I like the guy, but at the same time his conscience tends to get in the way of getting things done.

Figuring that even a place as quiet as Kit Kat must have criminals who they have to lock up, I headed over to the local jail to see who they had in there. I tell the jailer that we are looking to add to the crew and ask if he has anyone in there they no longer want to be a part of the village. The jailer had a young fella 17-18, whose parents died mysteriously a few years ago, who was doing a bunch of illegal stuff, including attempting to grope Donkey one night when he was drunk. Donkey simply punched him out and gave him to the sheriff. I asked if I could attempt to recruit him, using a lot of Fey double-speak that I'm sure Amanifus would have been proud of, to ensure that I told him the truth about him joining the crew and such. The kid agrees to what I told him and we bind him up. The jailer said his bail was 250 gp which I pay and take him back to the ship.

I stop at the Captain’s Quarters, talk to Manson and tell him that I have someone we can use for Amanifus and I’ll meet him down at Amanifus’s room. He gets there with Raven’s ashes and we knock on the door. We tell Amanifus the kid is our part of the agreement. Amanifus looks at the kid and then, he and boy entered his room. Then the screams began. Manson looks at me revolted, I can see Ahna there behind him, just watching us through her insect-like eyes, not judging, but weighing what she had seen us do.

Amanifus comes out of the door, looking quite satisfied and asks for Raven’s ashes. In the hallway he resurrects Raven as he was the hour of his death. After completing the resurrection, Raven is curled up in a ball screaming on the floor. Amanifus casts Silence on him. Then looked at Manson and told him he did his part of the bargain - Raven lives once more. Now he expected Manson to fulfill his part.

Manson sighs and nods.  

Once Amanifus goes back into his room and closes the door. Manson began to berate me, and told me he couldn’t bear to have me as a member of the crew any longer. Saying, “the boy wasn’t damned, he could have turned his life around.” He continued on for a few minutes, until he saw that what he said wasn't phasing me at all. It didn't elicit the response from me that he had expected. 

I didn’t take any of his ranting and ravings personally. I actually kind of expected this reaction from him. He is headed to hell and is so conflicted about who he is and what he needs to do that I just sighed, went inside my room, and packed my stuff. I didn’t even ask for the 250 gp that I had spent to get the sacrificial lamb out of the jail.

As I walked by Manson and Ahna, I stopped and looked down at Raven and looked back at him,, “You wanted your friend back, there he is. I did what you couldn’t or wouldn’t do, just because you still have some conscience left.” I walked away in silence and left the ship.

Though I didn’t wander into Kit Kat either, I figured that wouldn’t be a good thing. As I got to thinking, it seemed to me that perhaps it was time to return home and take care of my brothers and make my father proud of his fourth son and become the next leader of our land. It seems that my conscience doesn’t bother too much anymore when it comes to making “difficult” decisions.

Perhaps I am more like my father than any of us thought I would be.