Perrinor

Session 110: Origami Artificery (June 18, 2026)

Last session, our heroes defended Rei’s Books against a group of assassins who definitely knew what they were getting into and weren’t caught off guard at all. Despite some early success nearly knocking out Eden, a combination of Maho’s crowd control, Eden’s multi-debuff spells, and Heph’s full mesmerization quickly dispatched the assassins and allowed a number of them to be captured. Rei, not having seen Maho since she was a mid teen, was impressed, and instinctively looked towards the mountains in the north upon witnessing her prowess.

One of the captured assassins, the one who Eden had winked at in the tree, turned out to be enthusiastically cooperative. His name was Harry Nickel, and while he couldn’t provide any specific sensitive information about Central Command’s operations in Cryptop, he did say he was serving mostly to observe and clean up at the outskirts of the village between incursions. There seemed to be multiple Central Command encampments scattered throughout Cryptop, with the nearest to Hojo having a hundred or so soldiers in it. Rei was told to get Io Hojo, the second-youngest child of the chief and head of the guard, and they headed off, opening their letter from Joerg as they walked.

Another of the assassins managed to escape his bonds, but upon being discovered by Maho didn’t escape, instead saying she should kill him before he kills her. She happily obliged, swinging down her axe at him. The axe felt lighter in her hands as Hooded Beth swung it with her, and Maho was transported out of her body, sharing consciousness and will with all the shadowy creatures below. She saw how they were created, originally mortals who hoped to merge their minds into the ultimate community, only to have their Parish visited by Hooded Beth. They were offered a path beyond life or death, and lived for hundreds of years in the shadows of Wichthafen until Central Command discovered, masked, and captured them. Maho came to, but just as she saw into the minds of the Parishioners, they saw into hers. And as she accepts help from Hooded Beth, that connection would only grow stronger.

• As Maho comes back to herself, she knocks out Assassin #5 with one big kick
  • Eden lowers her hands, clearly having been about to cast a spell on Maho
  • Maho walks over to Eden and Heph and tells them she is connected to the shadow people and that they probably know where she is now
  • We discuss briefly what to do with Harry, and Eden asks him what stopped him from deserting Central Command previously
  • He didn’t want trouble, but he is going along with us because we are the ones currently with power in the situation
  • Eden asks if we could fake Harry’s death, and he seems pretty on board with it
  • She borrows a dagger from Heph and drags Harry over to the woods to “execute” him
  • She pretends to slit his throat, using Minor Illusion to produce copious amounts of blood, and Harry, being a pretty good actor, sells it pretty well and falls out of sight
  • As he falls he gives a thumbs up, and Assassin #6 sees this and looks pretty terrified that Harry has been executed
  • As Eden looks at Harry, he seems to not be ready to run, and is aligned with us for now, since we can get him away from Central Command
  • Heph messages him to tell him to get to Mana’s house and wait for us there
  • Karrl flies over to keep and eye on Harry, and he sees Harry get startled as Ana appears next to him
  • She disguises him with her in a two-person goat costume and takes him back to Mana’s
• Maho squats down in front of the last one, telling him that he is going to help us now, since Harry wasn’t that helpful, and he is thoroughly intimidated and seems ready to tell Maho everything
  • Heph interrogates him a bit, asking him questions about their encampments and plans
  • He overhead discussion from the brass about expanding operations, the current scale isn’t big enough and they need to think bigger before the people here catch on to what is happening
  • He implies that they might be preparing a full scale invasion of Cryptop
• A short while later, Rei comes back, followed by Io, wearing well-fit yellow robes with short-cut black hair, and a tired look in her eyes
  • Suzuki is also accompanying them, and he runs ahead to get to us first, and check if we’re okay
  • Io arrives a moment later, greets us, and eyes the various assassins, and asks Suzuki if everyone who is awake and unbound are his friends
  • He confirms that we are his friends, and the intruders have all been dealt with
  • Io walks up to Maho and gives her a hug and seems happy to see her, noting it’s been a long time
  • She asks Maho to brief her, and Maho explains these intruders are an advance squad of a larger group coming up the mountain
  • As Suzuki notes they are the group that captured them previously, Maho explains they are Central Command, and Io notes that her mom must believe what is happening now with all these bodies
  • Eden uses prestidigitation to clean up #6 who soiled himself, and Io is a bit surprised about the magic, asking if it is runework
  • Io points to #6 saying he is going to come with her, and says he will have 2 roommates in the two unconscious assassins
  • Io nods to a couple of goliaths with her, who tie up the other 2 assassins and pick them up
  • Io asks Maho what is bringing her back and if it’s related to the intruders, and Maho explains that she wasn’t necessarily planning to come back, but felt she had to because of what is coming for Hojo
  • We decide to accompany the goliaths to the prison first, to help secure the prisoners, and then split off to run the errands Maho wants to run
• We head back into Sate Row, heading roughly in the direction of Mana’s house until we turn South to head to the prison in Sport Row
  • We are attracting a lot of curious looks as we head through town
  • The main reason is the unconscious and bleeding individuals, the second is the very short people in the party, and the third is Maho herself
  • We arrive at the jailhouse, which is rather small and not well fortified
  • The jailhouse is basically a house, with one goliath guarding it, and a small room that seems like the cell itself, with a sliding door and a single window
  • Heph sets about securing the cell, starting by setting up an Arcane Lock on the door, using a physical key that Io happened to have, maybe to the original lock of the door, as the “password”, and also designating the party as people who can open it plus the list Io gives
  • Heph also spends some time strengthening the bars on the window of the cell, trying to make them a bit harder to break out of
  • When Heph is done, they dump the prisoners in the cell, and Eden cleans up the carpet in the room
  • Maho notes how nice the cell is, and says there are worse places to be, like at the end of her axe, and Eden chimes in saying her magic can also soil
  • This clearly seems to frighten #6 who once again soils himself, and Eden cleans him up again
  • Io sighs again, and seems rather unhappy to be in a position of leadership because there is nothing really for her to do
  • Io says they’re going to bury the two dead bodies and then head to Hake to have a meeting about it while we go run the errands we need to run
  • She thanks Maho for coming back and helping deal with the intruders, gives Maho one last hug, and tells Maho it’s been not fun having just Izume to talk to
  • Maho asks about Himeji, and Io explains that he has really come into his own and he makes things that do stuff, Heph might appreciate it
  • Eden curtsies as she says it was nice to meet Io, and Io heads off
• We head towards Rock and Scissors, Himeji’s shop, noting that each row we pass through seems to have a bit of a theme
  • We eventually arrive at a wooden building that is painted white, with a wooden signpost out front reading Rock and Scissors
  • As we approach, we can see all manner of colors inside the building, with shelves full of paper folded into all sorts of shapes
  • On either side outside the entrance is two humanoid shapes made of folded paper with painted on clothes that are almost comically formal
  • As we approach the figures they turn to face us, bow, and stand back up to face out on either side of the entrance
  • A bunch of kids run out excited with the things they just purchased, like a crane with flapping wings, or a paper airplane that seems to fly as if it is propelled
  • Heph knows of the natural artificery of elves, and the manufactured artificery of gnomes, and what he sees here also seem to be artificery, but it is unlike any approach that he knows of already
  • Eden is entranced by the folded paper creations and really wants to buy some
• Maho doesn’t remember any of this from before, and Heph encourages her to lead us in and go find her friend
  • The place is mostly full of toys, although there are also some tools and other devices mixed in
  • There is a table along the back wall where Maho sees Himeji, a lanky individual, hunched over the table grinning and folding paper
  • He looks up and sees Maho, and is very confused and stunned for a moment before he stands up and says “Maho??”
  • She responds “Hey stickman! You’ve got quite a thing going on now”, and he responds “Hey runt” and runs over to give Maho a hug
  • Maho asked what happened to all the studying he was going to do, and he explains that what he is doing is that
  • He and Izume got into the scrolls and he found some stuff, and he turns to Heph and Eden and says he hasn’t been introduced to Maho’s children??
  • Maho explains we are her friends and not children, Eden curtsies, and Heph explains we are from places where people are much smaller than they are here
  • Eden says she’s from another plane and then holds up a paper bunny that is huge in her hands and asks how much it is, and he gives it to her for free
  • He pulls out a couple of huge chairs, Maho sits down, Eden jumps up into one, and Heph uses his seatbelt to walk up and sit in a high chair
  • Eden and Heph start to explain where they are from, and he grabs some paper and starts to take some notes
  • He is happy to see Maho but is wondering why she is back, and she explains that it seems war is coming to Hojo which is why she’s back
  • Maho explains that Izume and Suzuki were kidnapped by Central Command, and Maho has been fighting Central Command
• Maho asks how Himeji went from being a book nerd to making toys, and he explains that after Maho left Izume got more mischievous, and she decided they should break into the town archives
  • She knew there was stuff that had barely been translated locked in back rooms and convinced Himeji to go in with her and look at some of these secret scrolls
  • He explains that he found detailed step by step instructions about how to fold paper, and he found that when you fold paper in a specific way it strengthens it tremendously
  • Heph asks to see some of the papers Himeji had access to, and with Eden’s help he inspects the papers, and seems they are similar to schematics for items that Heph has worked with or written
  • Heph explains to Himeji that it seems he has uncovered a third type of artificery, and he shows off some of his more mechanical devices
  • Himeji, trying to wrap his mind around what is happening, recognizes that Eden does illusion magic, and then asks Maho if she is still doing runes
  • She explains that she is, and they are very useful for combat, which seems to be a little bit of a lost art
  • He is trying to understand what Maho is up to, and Heph explains that he recruited her, and then Maho jumps in to explain that before that she was sort of a punk for hire
  • Heph asks if he’s made anything super durable, thinking that he could make really strong and lightweight armor, especially combined with runes
  • He hasn’t done that, but he has made lock boxes, which Heph eventually asks for
  • He explains that it has a password which you set and then rip off a piece of the paper, and Heph pockets it for later study
  • Eden asks if he has made any paper instruments, and brings out an instrument with accordion-like ridges that you strum and a neck that you can use to adjust the notes, and it doesn’t sound perfectly pure
  • Eden tries to play it and it takes her a second to get a feel for it, but after fiddling around with it for a bit, she manages to stumble through a surprisingly coherent rendition of Wonderwall
  • Himeji is impressed by her ability to play it, although he isn’t a fan of the song, and he asks her to take it, but provide any feedback or improvements back to him
• Maho asks about what Himeji found about Sarnann in the scrolls, and he explains they found depictions of giants wielding massive weapons
  • Himeji has a pretty bad headache from everything we’ve told him, and Heph deploys one of his healing spiders to Cure Wounds him and he immediately feels much better, including his sore back
  • Heph suggests he could make his table height adjustable, so he can stand sometimes
  • Eden suggests he might be able to fold himself a Herman Miller chair, which we explain to Himeji is a gnome artificer who makes amazingly comfortable chairs
  • Himeji is still reeling a bit from all this new information, and then suddenly asks why we haven’t told the chief
  • We do reassure him that Izume is back and talking to her mom, and we have talked to Io, but ultimately Maho explains she just doesn’t want to go talk to the chief and wanted to delay it as much as possible
  • Maho asks about the “gumball” machine, and as she does, a kid comes up to the machine, puts in a copper coin, and gets a ball, which opens to reveal a frog
  • Himeji explains it’s called a gashapon machine, and it just gives out random toys and kids love it
  • Seeing this, Eden runs over and starts pumping copper coins into the machine to try to collect all the things, and ends up with various tiny versions of animals from the Bag of Tricks, giving many duplicates away to the kids in the store and trading for some
  • After she is satisfied she turns to Himeji and offers to invest in his business, and then gives him 1000gp, seemingly without any requirement to pay her back, although she suggests using the money for employees and materials for the upcoming war, but also to never forget why he really does it, which is the kids
  • He really insists that it is time to go talk to the chief, and Heph tells Maho it’s time to stop putting that conversation off
  • Eden folds up Himeji’s Strumbox, almost very wrongly but he helps her do it correctly
  • Himeji claps Maho on the shoulder, saying that it’s up to the outcasts to save the city now
  • Maho is very reluctant to the idea of meeting Izume’s brothers again, but Himeji reassures her that they haven’t heard of half of what she’s done and they’re the ones who should be afraid of her
  • He continues to reassure her that they need her more than they realize, and they will recognize that once they understand what is coming for them
  • Himeji essentially shoves us out of the shop and sits back down at his table to start researching how to make swords
• We head South towards Hake, entering Shrine Row, passing several shrines, and eventually coming to an ornately decorated one to Hake
  • Next to the shrine itself is a humble single story longhouse type building, which is the building where the chief holds court
  • We see Izume sitting on steps in front of the building, head in her hands, looking frustrated
  • She looks up at us and says “Oh, good, good. I hope you have had more luck than me, because if not we’re screwed.”

Referenced in

• Calendar