The Collective - Session 52

This is the fifty-second session in The Collective campaign and the first session in the In The City storyline of the Current Arc. Player feedback ranks this session at an 8.6.

Notable Events

 * The party met Enoch, the tubermancer, and learned of the Mages of the Vaudevillian Order.
 * Gorrn spoke with Vega and learned of her new sense of unappreciation.
 * The party was introduced to the voice of Levin, the king's spymaster and their new handler, learning about the message spheres and both receiving information from and providing information (the existence of Gnorbitt, Enoch, and OTIS) and questions to him.
 * Badger witnessed Calhoun snap at his foster father, David, revealing an uncharacteristic and thus far unseen element of Calhoun's personality.



Summary
MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1001: Forced to sleep on the floor following a fruitless evening of hacking away at vines covering the door to his new room, Flynt awoke in the morning to continue his removal of the overgrowth, waking most of the house in the process. Heading over to investigate, Gorrn, Badger, and Roscoe assisted Flynt in opening the door, revealing the room to be covered with more vines and roots, with a gigantic vegetable having planted itself in the center of the room. Entering the room, Flynt was surprised by a tapping on his knee and discovered that a small Halfling man, adorned in green robes and sporting yams in his eye sockets, was waiting inside for him. The man introduced himself as Enoch, a self-proclaimed "tubermancer", and explained that he had taken up residence in this clearly abandoned room for the last 6 months while the party was away at sea. In an effort to get him to leave, the party asked about the giant tuber in the center of the room; Noah, as the tubermancer referred to it as, was a tuber construct that he had been growing "for the sake of wreaking havoc and chaos" because "he thought it would be incredibly funny". Threatening to have Noah attack them for fun, the party instead convinced him to allow them to battle the construct outside in exchange for his departure from the room, to test the capabilities of his creation for revision later. Enoch accepted, and the party watched as the construct pushed through the door, breaking off pieces of its own body on its way through the doorway that quickly returned to the being's body.

Gorrn, Badger, Flynt, and Roscoe headed to the yard overlooking the bay to do battle against the gigantic tuber while Enoch watched, with several smaller tuber "spawn" rising from the large chunks ripped off of Noah during the battle. Alerted to the commotion outside after ending his sleep protocol, OTIS proceeded to question Enoch about his identity and observe the battle from a distance, opting not to enter combat. The party successfully defeated the construct and were each awarded a golden tuber from Enoch, who revealed that he was a member of a group called "The Mages of the Vaudevillian Order", of which many other powerful magicians such as himself were members, including a "skilled cryomancer" and an "umamimancer", whom the party immediately identified as Methuselah, the meat mage who had plagued them several times in the past. Departing from the estate, Enoch teleported to Flynt's room to clear the vines while Gorrn gathered the remains of Noah and placed them inside several food barrels within the house, preparing to cook breakfast for his companions. During this time, he spoke with Vega, who showed a significantly fouler attitude than he had encountered before, sharing with Gorrn that she had felt very scorned and neglected during their time on the ocean and that she, having grown larger and developing into a humanoid form, complete with small arms and legs, wished to be treated better. Gorrn promised that he would speak with Badger about this in due time.

While Gorrn continued to prepare the fresh potato flesh, Badger noticed that a small burlap sack, clearly containing two spheres inside of it, had been placed on the chair next to where he was sitting. Calling the party over, Badger emptied the sack to reveal two metallic spheres covered in etched runes, one sphere glowing and one dull, each with a button on the top. Roscoe confirmed that the spheres were not dangerous, and decided to test the glowing sphere's button. The sphere emitted a low crackling sound before an unfamiliar voice emitted from the sphere. The voice introduced itself as Levin, who claimed to be the King's spymaster and their new handler. He immediately began by saying that they'll be communicating using this method, stating that they don't need to know what he looks like and he doesn't give a shit what they look like so long as they're helping the kingdom. Explaining that the spheres they held were called message spheres and that they only functioned in pairs, he informed the party that they were using this form of communication for several reasons, including:

1.) The King is busy running the city/kingdom and doesn't have the full time to dedicate to monitoring their progress. He will give them assignments that will be passed through and handled by Levin, who will act as the group's supervisor.

2.) They will be performing clandestine, delicate work for the Kingdom and cannot risk some of the information falling into the wrong hands, so using these orbs for communication will be the safest way to avoid unwanted ears from hearing it.

3.) On the surface, they're going to be celebrated as heroes by the King and the people, but there are some things they might need to do that don't need to be made public. Overall, the communication orbs are there for safety of information exchange. Both orbs are required for either to work.

After presenting this information, he told the party that "yes, the pair of messenger spheres comes in a ballsack. Go ahead and laugh now.", and throughout the message prompted the party to "nod if you understand", despite mentioning that the message spheres only recorded audio and that Levin could not see or hear anything they were doing until they made their own recording in the second sphere. At the time, Levin had no assignments for the party but instructed them to begin putting together a list of notable individuals within the kingdom, such as "suspected terrorists, enemies of the state, mages, or anyone that could prove useful/dangerous to the kingdom", including in this list each individual's name, appearance, description, status, and any other notable miscellaneous information. Once they finish their preliminary list, they are to drop the spheres off in two designated pickup locations: one in the gutter of a marked house near the Triangle Market, and the other rolled down the cliffside outside of the party's estate.

Discussing what they had just heard, the party formed a plan to provide Levin with several pieces of relevant information and to ask him questions regarding their employment and payment. OTIS was introduced to the party, who asked Levin "What is the happiest moment in your life?". The situations with both Enoch and Gnorbitt were also described to Levin in detail. Gorrn asked how often the party would receive communications from Levin and how they would contact him outside of the spheres. Badger and Roscoe both asked about their payment, including how much they'd receive, how frequently they'd receive it, bonuses, and otherwise. OTIS rambled for several minutes about benefits, mentioning boats, wagons, skills, and many other things that ultimately did not make much sense, and Flynt (uncharacteristically for a Dwarf) asked about their "vacation days". Satisfied with this message, the party rolled the first sphere down the cliff as instructed and, leaving OTIS to contemplate the concept of eating and to "sleep", headed to the Triangle Market to deposit the second sphere. After locating the sphere following a few minutes of searching, the party deposited the second orb into the gutter and began to depart. Badger, however, hearing a commotion coming from Calhoun's house nearby, decided to investigate the noise. Peering inside, he watched as Calhoun tore into his foster father David about his actual heritage, David's cowardice, their terrible situation, and all sorts of other issues present in Callhoun's mind, with the Twins (having mentioned moving in with Cal temporarily while they decided what their next move was) actively holding him back from David, who was clearly on the defensive. Reaching a breaking point, Calhoun escaped the grasp of the Twins and hurled a chair past David through the window, ending the argument with an angry "Get the hell out of here!" before disappearing into the house. Badger, now disguised as a peasant woman, watched as the chair was quickly stolen before observing the Twins follow Calhoun deeper into the house and David heading towards the door.