Perrinor

Session 96: The Sinking of the Flagship (November 20, 2025)

Last session, our heroes resumed their combat aboard the flagship of the NSI fleet invading Ivalgo. Bartolomeo Burton pulled Peg-Leg Steve from the rapidly spreading flames. Eden, understanding the necessity of action from Bartolomeo’s words, healed Steve and sent off a blast at Admiral Patricia Drowingdeath. Maho engaged in pitched combat with the Admiral, giving everything she had to fight not only the woman but also the soldiers and sailors who crowded around her and, not long after, Bartolomeo. They fought back to back, dodging attacks and weaving in and out of fire.

Meanwhile, further below decks, Heph discovered a hidden door leading into an unusual room to find on a ship: a child’s play room filled with toys and dolls, in the center of which was an animal-eyed child who looked up blankly as Heph entered. Heph Arcane Locked the door and started walking towards a doll that looked like Mort, only to be telekinetically moved to the other side of the room and touched by a deep, otherworldly chill, as the door to the room vanished.

Eden overheard Bartolomeo telling the now healed Peg-Leg Steve “It’s too big of a risk”, and Steve seemingly in agreement leapt out the hole and ran away across the sea. Eden sensed magic down below and Dimension Doored next to Heph, coming face to face as well with the Brig. With a series of tight rolls, she and Heph re-animated Mort and stayed un-toyified long enough for him to bend his powers of magic to the limits and Teleport them out of the Brig’s fey snare onto the deck of a nearby ship.

We return to our heroes, in the middle of Eden’s turn. Maho locked in a duel against Admiral Drowningdeath, a glistening of sweat, and a gleam of respect, painting each of their faces as they fight to determine just how even their match is. A crack of timber and a burst of sparks, as the ground beneath both of them collapses.

• As the crust of Mort’s screwing around flakes off and he expends a ton of effort to push his magic to the maximum, Heph and Eden noticing that we seem to have traveled a massive distance, much more than makes sense for how physically far we are from where we started
  • Heph in particular notices for a split second as we push through the fey barrier that he is high up and passing through fabric like a curtain, and the fabric of Mort’s robe is covered in stitched stars
  • The other ship we land on is also in a state of chaos, and is being bombarded by the catapults from the shore, Heph’s plan to draw in the ships having worked
  • Around us there are a bunch of sailors, soldiers, and commandos, and a captain manning the wheel at the back, and a revelmaster, who all turn in surprise at the group that has appeared on the deck
• Eden looks around at the soldiers and sailors and says “Hello, we’re just passing through. Mr. Heph you can fly right?” and when Heph responds yes, she decides to take herself and Morty out of there
  • Eden grabs Mort and casts Dimension Door, visualizing the stair area past where Maho was fighting before falling through the floor, appearing in the swelteringly hot space and spotting Bartolomeo fighting a few individuals, and she yells out to him “Captain, where is Ms. Maho?”, to which he replies “Well done lass, you came back. You’ll find her there” as he stares down into the fiery hole
  • She asks him if he needs help, and he replies that as much as he needs help Maho likely needs more, and telling him she’ll help when she can, Eden jumps the railing to go downstairs, and lands on the stairs next to a few soldiers, calling out to Maho to let her know that she is there, and she yells up to Morty and Bartolomeo “Ms. Maho has fallen!”
  • A commando takes some swings at Bartolomeo but misses both, a few dash from below decks and head up the stairs to the deck where Maho and Eden are, and a couple of commandos approach Heph, one landing a critical hit
  • Bartolomeo looks around him, deciding to jump down to where Maho is, taking a bit of damage in the process, and stabs the Admiral with one of his daggers, and look at Maho telling her that she has to get out of there, because she’s much more important than him, and the flames take him down and knock him unconscious
  • Heph turns invisible and flies away from the deck of the ship, back towards the original ship where Morty was
  • A bunch of soldiers start to run to the top deck of the ship, 5 of them hitting at Eden on the way and a couple of them landing, and a couple swing at Maho, dealing a bit of damage while the rest run away
  • A bunch of sailors also run towards the stairs, trying to scramble off of the burning ship
  • Morty, a bit disoriented, walks towards the edge of the fire and hole in the ship, and looking down and Maho and Bartolomeo casts sleet storm, attempting to avoid hitting Maho, and fully extinguishes the flames on most of the lower deck of the ship, and calls down and says “Uh… it’s time to fucking… chill out? I dunno, I’m new at this. Get out of here!”
  • Maho stands up and swings at the soldier north of her, eviscerating him, following through to cleave at the Admiral, blocking a few hits before Maho finally lands a killing blow, the Admiral feeling a sense of contentment that Kogar’s promise to find her a worthy death is fulfilled with his very greataxe as her head is severed from her body
  • Maho uses her bonus action to second wind and tactical shift Bartolomeo away from the remaining soldier towards a door, and yells to Eden to get to her if she can
• Heph dodges as a giant rock flying from Ivalgo barely misses him and tears through the sail of the ship, and the fire spreads a bit, wounding the soldier Maho left behind but not quite killing him
  • Eden rabbit hops away from the hoard of soldiers and takes a few damage as she runs through the flames, dashing to the side of Bartolomeo, yelling “Captain, no!”
  • A couple of commandos dash through the flames towards Maho, Eden, and Bartolomeo, and one takes a couple of swings at Mort, landing one hit
  • Bartolomeo fails a death save
  • Heph flies towards the original ship, getting close to the stairs but not quite sure what’s going on belowdecks
  • The soldiers and sailors all run up to the top deck, trying to escape the flames
  • Mort looks at the commando who hit him and casts Maze, banishing the commando to a demiplane with a maze that he must try to escape, and then looks down into the fiery hole in the deck and yelling “Alley-oop!” he jumps down to the lower deck and says “hey fuckos” to the commandos, looking at Bartolomeo he then looks at Maho and Eden and says “Good to see you again, we should leave him and get out of here”
  • Maho swallows the bivalve, picking up Bartolomeo and shoving a potion down his throat, then kicks open the door, connecting it to the warehouse that Elias’ smuggling group was in in Ivalgo, and drags Bartolomeo with her as she steps through the door, deftly dodging the commando’s attacks and glaring at them from the other side, seeming to shake their resolve
  • Mort notices Maho eat the snail and notes that he thinks she must have an oral fixation and she should stop eating random things
• The fire spreads a bit
  • Eden runs through the door, giving Mort the side-eye as she does so, and sorcerous bursts one of the commands through the door, zapping one of them with some electricity, and communicates to her owl to tell Karrl to tell Heph to go back to Ivalgo
  • The commando trapped in the maze manages to escape, and the two next to Mort swing at him, one of them managing to land one attack for a chunk of damage
  • Bartolomeo sits up and looks back through the doorway, seeming to want to run through the doorway but he is held back by Maho and Eden
  • Heph seems to get a sense from Karrl that he should head back to shore, but he flies up higher and hangs out for a bit to make sure he isn’t missing something that is happening
  • The soldiers are prepping lifeboats, and some of them are jumping overboard
  • Peg-Leg Steve is running towards the shore
  • The sailors are helping prep the lifeboats
  • Mort looks at the two commandos walks through the door, casting circle of death back at them, Heph noticing the ripple of black energy appear on the port side of the ship, one of the commandos drops dead and the other one barely hangs on, and Mort looks at the still living commando and says “Tell your emperor that Mort did this” and the door closes behind him, the sound of screaming and fire subsiding significantly as the door slams shut
  • Maho sees Mort through and notes that the mission must be a success, and Maho asks where Heph is, and Mort puts his hand on Maho’s shoulder and says “he didn’t make it”
  • A moment later he says he was just kidding, and Maho takes off running on the water with water walk, and Eden looks at him and asks him if he has Skywrite
  • Eden asks him to write a message, and from the water Heph looks around and notices the message “Just let Mr. Heph know that we are all on…” appear in the sky above Ivalgo, underneath it more clouds coalesce to spell out “LOL”
  • After a minute Maho comes back to shore and asks what boat he was last seen on
• Heph meanwhile flies back to shore, dodging a few projectiles on the way
  • Another message appears as he heads back underneath LOL saying “I like this rabbit”
  • Eden runs to Bartolomeo and throws her arms around him, saying how worried she was, but he responds that he wasn’t worried
  • Heph shows up and is relieved that everyone made it, and Maho especially is relieved, Mort’s comment having been very much worrying her
  • Looking out at the fleet, the flagship is riding low in the water and seems to be devoid of crew, and the other ships are being bombarded with the catapults
  • The fleet is still standing, but it is significantly slowed, and the danger of the fleet landing seems much lower as the people of Ivalgo seem to be holding off the invasion
  • Heph turns to Mort and asks how he got turned into a doll, and he seems surprised that we managed not to
  • We decide to rest a bit and assuming that the invasion is in decent shape have Morty teleport us back
  • Heph notes Morty must want to go to Hexicon, and he indicates that he might be wanted there, and Heph suggests Ana could help take care of disguising Mort, at which point Mort pulls of a mask and reveals that it’s really Ana, and the real Morty is sitting on a crate about 30 feet away eating sandwiches that his unseen servant is bringing to him
  • Ana tries to teleport to Hexicon and misty steps 30 feet away
  • Bartolomeo turns to the group and notes that we’re all headed out, and he says that as a sea captain he belongs on the water
  • Maho notes he did a good job with his daggers, and he seems shocked with how well he performed
  • Maho asks if he named his daggers, and he responds that they are called pointy and spike, and he asks Maho if she’s named her daggers, and she pulls out all 6 and lists off their names
  • For some reason the daggers’ names seem familiar to Eden, and she thinks there are some politicians or something from some region in the Fey Wild with these names
• As the group rests, it seems like the invasion has turned more into a siege, and that there likely is no landing imminent anymore
  • Heph pulls out his sending stone to Bloody Mary and says “Invasion at Ivalgo downgraded to a siege, going well. The invader’s Prince is nowhere to be found. How is Arkos?”
  • On the edge of Maho’s axe, Bloody Mary’s face appear, her eyes appearing ringed in a deeper red than the last time we saw her, her hair is grown, and her teeth seem sharper
  • Her hair is waving in the wind and only her face and upper body seem visible
  • Eden notices her and gets a weird vibe, but doesn’t really know a lot of what is going on with Bloody Mary
  • Mary notes it’s going well, and Eden seems a bit freaked out by Mary and ends up hiding behind Maho’s leg
  • Mary explains that things have been going well in Arkos and she’s been having a lot of fun, and asks for a suggestion for where she should go
  • Eden notes from the flowing of her hair that she seems happy and is on a ship
  • Heph suggests that she come to Ivalgo, flying a bloodred flag to let the defenders know they are friendlies, and she seems very excited by the suggestion
  • She notes the burning ship, and Heph points out that Eden set a ship on fire, and Mary suggests she could earn money for killing
  • Maho seems to be caught up in some bloodlust looking at her reflection, and Heph uses Mage Hand to turn the axe away from her and tries to get up in her face to snap her out of it
  • She doesn’t seem to remember what she was doing when she was being weird, and Heph convinces her to give it to him to investigate, which he does using identify while Maho plays with her daggers
• Heph figures out the stats of the weapon, but also detects some Fey Bullshit™️
  • When objects are used they create furrows in fate and time, and when they are used often and the furrows become deeper, they tend towards their habitual usage, no matter who is using the tool
  • There is no inherent malevolence to the axe inherently, but there is an inertia towards what it has been used for, and in addition, the rut it has carved is adjacent to other ruts that have been dug and furrowed out by other actions and people, and there is a thinness in the walls between this axe and other furrows created through similar actions
  • Heph does his best to explain to Maho that this axe will give her a bloodlust and she needs to be careful, and she should try not to behead people to minimize the effects
  • As Heph explains this, he and Eden have a brief Messaged conversation, Eden wanting to take the axe away and Heph telling her we can’t since he promised to give it back
  • Maho seems to understand, but is very reluctant to give up the axe, and is pretty convinced that it’s worth it, at least while we’re fighting Sentin
  • Eden seems pretty horrified about the killing, and tries to give Maho an illusory axe, but she sees through the illusion, and eventually takes the axe back and Eden meets Jarles for the first time
  • After some discussion with Jarles, Heph adds giving Jarles legs to his list of tasks
• After some discussion of Eden’s wild magic, Bartolomeo recounts Eden’s heroics, and Eden is beaming, until he mentions how many people she killed
  • Heph and Maho seem to make her feel a bit better, helping her to understand that sometimes killing is necessary
  • The Constable runs up, saying she heard we made it back, and Heph fills her in on the fact that the Admiral is dead and a reinforcement fleet will show up
  • She is planning to set up some boarding parties to try to board the ships and take some ships over, and Heph tells her we will probably leave it to her then
  • Heph says that Morty will be back to help, and we look over at Morty, who is chainsmoking with the help of a demon he summoned
  • Heph also asks her to take care of the rampant crime against his parent’s shop, and she acknowledges that is probably warranted
  • She thanks Heph for his help saving the city, and Heph tells her that Bartolomeo was critical in the success of taking down the ship and should be commended, and she agrees to that, and she gets charmed by him when she looks over at him
  • Mort asks if we’re ready to go, and Heph suggests we swing by the parents to say goodbye
• We start to head off, and the demon can’t follow, so Morty dismisses him in a ball of flame and lights another cigarette
  • We stop by Maho’s dad’s place, and Joerg immediately runs out hearing us enter, and he looks relieved to see Maho and runs to give her a hug
  • Maho notes she is covered in blood, and Heph and Eden use some Prestidigitation to clean them up a bit while they embrace
  • Maho explains she is going, and Eden tells Joerg that Maho is really good at killing, and Joerg says Maho takes after her mother
  • Maho explains we are going to go back to Bad Zamdorf and take care of Sentin, but after that, Maho is planning to use some of the money she got from the Princess to enroll in school
  • Joerg seems very relieved that Maho is going to finally get out of this business and find a better path in life, and he tells Maho that she deserves a quiet life
  • He runs into the back and after knocking some stuff over comes back out with a pile of books and dumps them on Maho, telling her that she should read them when she has time and they can discuss them
  • Heph notices the books are dense encyclopedias on various flora and fauna and geography
  • Maho says it might be a bit before we are back, but she is hoping to return with her mother, and Joerg responds telling her to stay safe and kill Sentin and put an end to the crap
  • After we head out Heph runs back real quick to fill him in on the axe and the Fey Bullshit, and he darkens a bit upon hearing it, but continues to make sandwiches for us while he and Heph talk
  • Joerg notes that Maho’s mom seems to also have a one-track mind and got very focused on her skills as well
• While Heph is having this conversation, Eden turns to Maho and says “you’re very lucky to have such an affectionate father”
  • Maho explains it’s been tough on him but he’s doing his best
  • She continues to explain how Joerg was being pushed around by underworld businessmen, and only recently did they manage to escape
  • It’s been just Maho and Joerg for a while since her mom left
  • Eden asks why they left their homeland, and Maho explains that the goliaths weren’t fans of humans, so Joerg ended up having to leave, and Maho chose to go with her dad, since she also wasn’t getting along super well with the other goliaths in her village
  • Eden walks for a bit, silently thinking about something, and finally asks why Maho cares so much about her people if they kicked her out
  • Maho replies that she had friends in the village and people she cared about, even if the elders saw her differently
  • Eden asks if she thinks she’ll be able to go back, and Maho replies that she doesn’t know, and she isn’t even sure if she wants to go back, she still wants to get an education
  • Eden notes that seems new, and Maho explains that she hasn’t had the money to do that, she had to help enforce for the businessmen just to help make ends meet, and it’s new to her to have enough money to be able to think about what she wants to do
  • Eden points out she wasn’t really interested in school, she was training to be a diplomat, but developing her magic decided a lot of her life for her
  • She left her home to go to the material plane and study at the academy, and it was all paid for by her parents
  • Maho thinks she was studying to find a cure, but Eden says her parents didn’t think she’d find a cure, and she thinks her parents were just trying to get her as far away as possible
  • Eden seems to think Maho can relate to her since they were both kicked out, although Maho feels it’s a bit different because it wasn’t her parents that kicked her out
  • Maho is a bit upset about this on Eden’s behalf, but Eden feels she can’t go back until she has control over her magic
  • Maho asks if Sentin can help her, and Eden explains that he is a smart elf and seems like her best shot, but if Maho has any other ideas, she’s “all ears”
  • Maho explains that Heph is one of the smartest people she knows, and she also knows someone that is an expert in plants, because it could be a plant problem since Eden turned into a potted plant
  • Eden is pretty convinced that not just anybody can help her, and Sentin is the best bet she has, and Maho points out that she maybe doesn’t even need help, she seems to have some control all on her own
  • Eden takes some offense to this, she is upset about having used magic to kill people, and really wants to get back to Sentin, and Maho is trying to convince her that Sentin is the worst
• Heph finally catches up to the group, mentioning that he has sandwiches from Joerg, apologizing to Eden when he realizes that there are no vegetarian ones
  • She is not that interested in the sandwich and just wants to get back to Bad Zamdorf
  • Approaching Potion Pitstop there is a light on in the window, and we can see two gnomish silhouettes fighting, clearly Heph’s parents fighting as his father has made it back from his trip

Referenced in

• Calendar