Day 31 — Liar’s dice

KahuPachinkoRyutoOona Katoa

Chapter summary

Liar’s dice, a revolutionary cave, and the theft of an everlasting fire from Pirate’s Cove.

Connections

Session notes

The ferryman is not very frequent, he only ferries once a week or even once in a month. He is not much into the details of the revolution. He says we must be glad to have him because the waters there are dangerous.

We’ve arrived at the shadow of the cliff on the south side of the island. He rings his bell. Then there’s an answering ring and then he approaches.

People at the dock are ready but not super wary. Charon is slowing down into the dock. The person on the dock was not expecting us today. “The Moe” is the one who is greeting us. Ryuto offers some tea that he brought with us.

We say that we don’t have much details but we’re here to help. He is convinced by our initial approach and sends us to the living quarters. The dock is manned by The Moe, there’s only a few people, there’s a cave system with damp and mossy rooms. More Gollum than Hobbit. There’s a barracks master drilling some recruits with the use of a spear. It’s only 3 recruits in this session. There’s at least one area which is cozy and liveable. There’s some chests from everyone living here.

Pachinko is an Olive Wood poppet due to his Carolingian heritage. We meet Bob, who is a card gamer and would like to bet.

Keep track of games

1 cp each

1 cp from Pachinko

2 cp from Ryu

3 cp from Kahu

4 cp from Oona

Bob wins first round

Pot is 15cp

Pot is now 20cp (1 from each)

Ryu 1cp

Kahu 2cp

Oona 3cp

Pot is now 26cp

Oona tries to sleight of hand a track but is caught by Bob. Bob is very lenient so it’s all good.

Oona pays a penalty of 2s 5cp

Pot is now 2s 31cp -> 5s 1cp

1 cp from each again

5s 6cp

Kahu 1cp

Oona 2cp

Bob 3cp

Pot: 6s 2cp

Bob attempts to cheat, he is caught so now he has to put 2s5cp

Pot is 8s 7cp

5cp in the pot

Pot is now 9s 2cp

1cp from Oona

2cp from Bob

3cp from Pachinko

Pot is 9s 8cp

Oona wins by calling BS

5cp from everyone

1cp from Bob

2cp from Pachinko

10s 6cp

We keep playing for hours,

Pot is 5g

Kahu wins the 5g after all the games. Then Kahu doubled or nothing and he lost on purpose.

We now talk to The Moe and Ryu is asking about the most impressive acts of rebellion he’s done. The people of the revolution are eager to do something explosive. Bob looks unkempt and his appearance belied his actual youth. All the people here are younger than they look, definitely in their early 20s and teens. The more hardcore religious fanatics are in the outer islands of Old Moa. Everyone is carrying random messages. Something we get to watch a delivery depot and report in a few weeks.

Bob is happy and is bringing out the garbage grog. As he opens the garage door, Kahu senses a flame ignite in his brain. Kahu staggers for a second, hopefully not too noticeably. Kahu casually asks what they keep in there. All the crap is stored there. Kahu suspects the relic is there.

Pachinko is now guarding the storeroom as he is the only one who can’t get drunk. Meanwhile, Kahu and Ryu spike everyone’s drink and everyone is in the zombie stage of drunkenness. Then Kahu goes to the storage room and passes Pachinko. Kahu’s minds eye calls to him.

There’s a burning wooden frog that’s not quite burning but it’s burning. It’s a carved wooden frog with its mouth open. It’s constantly burning and but it doesn’t burn Kahu. Kahu picks it up and feels like it’s something that has always belonged to him.

Outside the carousing continues, Ryu is on the lookout. We hear bells outside. Kahu is alerted by this and wants to run away. Everyone is drunk, Ryu casts invisibility on Kahu. We quickly walk nonchalantly to the dock. It’s a fast approaching boat ringing their bells, coming in the dark, dangerously approaching the dock.

On the Dock, there’s Moe and 2 guards. The boat is coming with half dozen people.

Ideas:

Hide and try to commandeer the boat

We are going to hide in barrels, Oona is hiding under the water and trying to listen what’s going on. They’re hauling someone and they are struggling to get on shore.

The Moe and the joes go to the caves. The boat people are 4 and we recognize one voice from the interrogation in the basement.

Oona drags one of the four down to the water. Then the other three look at a scary fire demon breathing fire (Kahu in his full form).

Two of them run to the caves, the other 2 fall in the water and we pick them up and put them on the boat as we all 4 jump in.

We push the boats with the Oars and get going. We get one of the two to help navigate the difficult waters. Oona is putting all her might into navigating the treacherous cove. The boat scoots out and we see torches in the background. Ryu does a Fireball in the air to get a fireworks effect.

Kahu is meditating, trying to divine the nature of the relic. Kahu knows about the everlasting fires, as a well traveled amnesiac. These were carved from the cyprus woods from Old Moa, they are worshipped as relics of the old gods but they are forbidden to be removed from their site of origin.

The Mink looked at the relic and started to renege on the deal, the initial plan was to sell it but the Mink got converted by the relic. The guy in the boat doesn’t know how they got the relic, they know it costed time and money. They also don’t know the buyer. This is the Wombat. Kahu is going to try and convert them.

Kahu is now offering the choice to these two poor people. He mentions that the Mink has now joined him as well. They can pass through the fire and become servants of the Fires of Moa or you can leave this boat.

The people of Moa are awakening, for too long, have Moans allowed themselves to be subjected by Outsiders, the flame will awaken us all of and will leave us more prosperous than ever.

The others denounce Kahu as a fanatic. The Moe is the guy that spoke most heavily for Syncretism.

Kahu screams “You call me a fanatic, deny me!”

It will take more time to convert them to the cult.

We arrive at Kapikala to big golden banners and big procession for the arrival of the captured ironclad that’s being towed to town as no one knows how to run it. We don’t see our own ship in the piers.