shifty louts

Antarctica Campaign Session 13: The Parthenogenic Cradle of Giorro Concerto-Artea

Players

Summary

The Princely Offspring's Proclamation Day draws nearer. The speckled green Axolittian, Seaweed Point, joins the town guards as a seasonal contract worker to earn some extra coinage to spend while in Guanea.

In medias res, Josu, the Weedian, and Bagaglio argue with Giorro Concerto-Idoia (brother of Guanea’s most eligible bachelorette).

Seaweed Point patrols the riverside promenade of Apple Lane, whereupon they see strange figures arguing, twenty hunting hounds baying, as a man in a black military outfit runs away. Another man draws their crossbow and fires at the man who is running away from the group.

The crossbow bolt pierces the back of the man, who drops to the cobblestone street. The Weedian calmly walks over, checking the vitals of the man, Giorro, whom they pronounce dead. Some passersby urge the Axolittian armsman to investigate as Josu, Sabino, and Bagaglio grab the body of Giorro, rushing him into his townhome.

Bagaglio accuses Josu of the needless escalation, merely saying that he told him to stop Giorro, not kill him! Seaweed Point arrives as Josu, the Weedian, and Bagaglio, alongside the pelican butler Mr. Windup, discuss what to do with the body of Giorro.

Bagaglio attempts to bribe Seaweed Point with the deed to a ship to make it go away; the Weedian suggests finding a barber to occlude Josu’s looks, while Seaweed asks if there is a way to revive the dead brother of Guanea’s most eligible bachelorette.

Josu and the Weedian speak of having never come across such a magus, but suggest they preserve the body of Giorro until they can find one. Bagaglio agrees, suggests wrapping the body up in the ice-chest in his pantry, and tells of an antiquarian named Saladoba Platitude-Facultad who likely has the unguents and reagents capable of preserving the body.

Before they leave, the Weedian grabs paper and quill, writing that they could take the body of Giorro to the Princely Offspring of Azlurdina, a being capable of raising Giorro’s body once more. Bagaglio says that it's their best hope.

The Weedian pens a letter telling Idoia Concerto-Artea that Giorro had an “unfortunate hunting accident” and they are taking his body to the Princely Offspring. Bagaglio tells Mr. Windup to deliver the missive to the Concerto-Artea manse, worried about what her father, Segredo, will think.

The group of Josu, the Weedian, and Seaweed leave as Sabino assists Bagaglio. The group passes a public garden, followed by armsmen who recognize the Axolittian, leaving them alone. They find the shoppe of Saladoba Platitude-Facultad, a cramped bookstore that smells of ozone, herbs, and dusty books. Seaweed grabs a cerulean book with perfumed pages and flowers entitled Lomar's Meticulous Survey of Croplands, and the proprietor, a shrimp-like ancient man with coke-bottle glasses, finds them asking if they need help.

The group inquires about the price of embalming fluid, to which the man asks for the dimensions of the body. For a 5’7” man, Saladoba Platitude-Facultad tells them they will require a 50-gallon barrel for the price of 150gp. Josu pays this sum, while Seaweed attempts to inquire about any sort of potions that could change the appearance of a person. Platitude-Facultad asks if they have Love Berry, Green Choker, Gridelin Rose, Fulvous Creeper, and Black Root upon them, to which the Axolittian does not.

Seaweed then attempts to haggle the book for 5gp, but Platitude-Facultad retorts he only deals in rarer books, saying the book is at least 10gp. Seawood agrees to this price, hoping it holds information to help them find such herbs required.

The group returns back to Bagaglio’s townhome, wheeling the barrel into the back garden and into the pantry as the group quickly goes to work on pickling Giorro in the barrel. The Weedian passes a doobie of Martian Weed to Sabino, who proceeds to inhale and get the spins. Seaweed and Josu dislocate arms and legs to make Giorro fit into the barrel while the Weedian attends to their disciple.

With evening here, the Weedian watches over Sabino at Bagaglio’s townhome; Seaweed rests along the river outside, while Josu wanders Apple Lane looking for gambling dens, only to find the upscale Wobagon Club. Over a few drinks of industrial grass whisky, Josu watches a play entitled “The Unfortunate Rake” featuring witty depravity and some pratfalls. Another local described it as “a slap in the face of all decent people”.

Josu and the stranger talk of the competition and of Idoia’s protective brother Giorro. As Josu leaves the Wobagon Club, both he and Seawood see a man in a scholar’s outfit festooned with mirrors, accompanied by six factotums carrying large binders and stacks of precariously perched parchment, walk with purpose to Bagaglio’s townhome. The figure knocks repeatedly on the door, asking for Mr. Itsaso.

The Weedian peers out the door, writing that Bagaglio isn’t taking visitors, but the man insists, telling them it's official Guanean business and that the clerk, Horno Pedir (another top choice in the competition for Idoia’s hand), may be forced to execute a warrant to inspect the lack of paperwork signed by the new contestants who were last seen at his residence. Among the additional charges is the lack of a signed and notarized writ of arms regarding an Axolittian who sworn witnesses attest to serving in Mr. Itsaso’s interests.

As Josu watches from afar, the Weedian heads upstairs to find Bagaglio and Mr. Windup trying to buy time. Seaweed sees that the six factotums are capable and sneaks to the townhome’s back garden.

Mr. Windup and the Weedian proceed downstairs to intercept the pedantic clerk, Horno Pedir, bidding time for Bagaglio to come up with an excuse. Seaweed appears and says to quickly draw up a writ of arms for Seaweed, so they can present it to Horno. Bagaglio scrawls the contract as they appear downstairs.

Horno inspects the document, saying that while it's technically a binding document, it isn’t notarized; Pedir charges 15gp to Seaweed to properly notarize the writ of arms and leaves, losing on a clerical technicality this time. Horno admonishes Seaweed, saying that he hopes Bagaglio pays you on time.

With Horno out of their hair and gills, the group rests and awakens in the morning. Taking the body of Giorro to the aetheric fortress of the Princely Offspring, the group hopes that they can beseech the Princely Offspring to bring Giorro back.

The Weedian writes a letter to Sabino, asking Mr. Windup to read the letter to the disciple while they are away at the aetheric fortress of Azalurdina.

“Sabino, my Disciple, by the time you are reading this, or hearing this, I know not your literacy; we have left for the Aetheric Palace of the Princely Offspring. In the meantime, I trust your competency in an errand. We have lost track of our good benefactor, the Professor DuBoig, in the city. Your task, in our absence, is to find him. I wish you luck, my apprentice.”

Josu speaks on behalf of the group, saying they have found more armsmen who will assist them in stopping the Gluttounous Arkmagi, Asmithe Vollusc, from awakening the One Who Stood Apart underneath Heriotza.

They beseech Azalurdina, who agrees; the group asks if Giorro will be the same. The Princely Offspring say it matters not to them.  The individual sentience is embodied in space and embedded in time. A triplicate thing, a coherence of body, soul, and psyche. Once those components are decohered, that entity is ended. Even if those components are recombined, the result is not a continuity. It is a new birth, or rather, new creation. A new Creation is formed, shaped to resemble the one who was before, but not precisely the same.

The Princely Offspring asks for a dead relic of the Second Creation to assist in the transmortal communion. The Princely Offspring presses the military saber of Giorro through the skulls of the adventurers as their minds drift across the void-sea of non-existence. Their eyes roll, teeth gnash, and strange post-mortal tongues dribble from their lips. They stalk the threads of consciousness remaining in the All-Mind, dragging a thin, strained—barely workable— psyche of Giorro out into Creation. The Weedian vomits the psyche of Giorro back into the body.

Azalurdina asks if they brought an egg, to which Seaweed Point offers their eggs to create a parthenogenic cradle for the body and soul of Giorro to gestate and develop a psyche once more. Azalurdina summons the eggs from Seaweed Point’s body, as they painlessly no-clip through them. The eggs are affixed to the walls of the aetheric fortress while the Iguana-men attendants hoist the body of Giorro into the cradle to grow once again.

The group asks how long the gestation will be, to which Azalurdina utters that they will let them know. The group leaves the fortress with two days left to the Proclamation Day Cotillion, and Idoia’s choice is made.

Aftermath

Treasure Found:

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Deaths:

XP Awarded:

Notes

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