Cygnus and the Maw

Overview

There were two primary components of my scenario:

The general arc of expeditions was to:

  1. Explore with Cygnus as transport and get a sense of the Firmament and the dangers out there, map the locations of some Worlds, and… lose Cygnus to the Maw.
  2. Explore the World of Runnymede in more detail and begin to understand more about connections between Worlds.
  3. Explore the World of Keebler and make connections between it, Runnymede, and Bayeux.
  4. Explore the World of Saguaro and make connections between it, Runnymede, Bayeux, Keebler, and Yap to create the first Constellation.
  5. Explore an object in a very low orbit around the Maw, discover that it is Cygnus, and help Cygnus decide what to do next.

Open Wide!

Fri 17:34 - Sat 02:05 (8.5h)

Player Characters

Agnes Syquis, Human Wizard (Divination)

Dr. Wyndilakrius, Kenku Warlock (Maw)

Elrhana (Lia), Kenku Bard

Kvasir, Dwarf Druid

Palle Lorek, Tortle Fighter

Senchan Haddock, Kenku Cleric

Stealthephant, Loxodon Rogue

What Happened

We need to know more about the Maw! An astronomer and an astrologer are outfitting Cygnus, Beverly's calf, to go on a scouting mission. When the party arrives, they see that Cygnus is "only" 600ft long, and does not yet have any permanent structures on him, like there are on Beverly. Various modules are connected via flexible leather tubes. A gnomish crew maintained the modules and tubes (which were fitted for the use of small creatures).

Agnes was an astrologer, and had an interest in checking in with them first. The party introduced themselves to Da'anorli (Dan for short), a high elf; Sibyl Rider, a tortle woman who enjoys going on aether walks; Cassandra Waite, a tabaxi woman who goes by "Mama Cass". Dan has been a foil to the astronomer Gillian (see below) in debates between Astronomers and Astrologers. To the surprise of many, he supported this mission, but only if the Astrologers were also represented. Senchan expressed his concerns about the mission; to assuage his fears, Dan laid out a Tarot reading that … that did not look promising to Agnes's eyes.

Dr. Wyndilakrius was an astronomer, and confidently nervous to meet the other astronomers onboard. Dr. Gillian McRae was a human woman who was responsible for organizing this expedition. She is well respected within the Astronomer community and wants hard evidence on the nature of the Maw that can only be gained through study of it in closer proximity. She hypothesizes that the Maw is not a physical object, but a magical shroud. If that's so, it raises the question: what is it hiding? She has two assistants to help with her astronomical equipment and readings. Dr. Alex Durant, a loxodon man, and Dr. Marcie Lewis, a halfling woman.

There are also three of "Beverly's children" on board to be the Voice of Cygnus. Palle, Kvasir, and Stealthephant entertained the children, and bonded especially with Michael. On their journey they encountered an emotional nebula in which each person experienced an overpowering emotion; sadly, while Michael was distraught with sadness, Palle was gripped with apathy. In order to go around the emotional nebula, they ventured into the middle ring around the Maw.

They made friends with aether dolphins, who followed Cygnus and the free food that the party fed them.

They did a flyby of a flat planet (its name was later found to be Runnymede) and mapped what they could from afar for later investigation.

They spied a small planet in the outer ring, and in going to investigate, discovered the time dilation between rings: 1 month was passing in the middle ring per day in the outer ring. The planet in the outer ring was a sphere with a large tree growing on it (its name was later discovered to be Keebler).

Back into the middle ring, they encountered the World Loom of Bayeux and met the weaver, a Lapin (an anthropomorphic rabbit). He called Hildegard von Blingin' from the world weaving, and she left for Vega Cluster on a borrowed aether dolphin.

Finally, they headed for the inner ring to scout the Maw. Cygnus was grabbed by a tendril of darkness extending from the Maw, and the party evacuated everyone they could, connecting the "escape pod" of dolphins to a module they detached from the structures on Cygnus and getting a boost from a tail slap. The party blacked out from g-forces, and woke up later and returned home with their findings. Gillian stayed behind to be with Cygnus, and Agnes sacrificed themself to buy the party time (though once Cygnus managed to stabilize his orbit, Gillian picked up Agnes and brought them onboard).

The Great Charter

Sat 09:10 - Sat 13:07 (3.9h)

Player Characters

Chester "PeaceBringer" Lucian, Tabaxi Monk

Gareth Firebringer, Tiefling Wizard

Glide, Kenku Cleric

Severen Lighteyes, Half-Elf Bard

What Happened

Revisited Bayeux to better assess the damage to the World Loom. The shuttle is cracked and unusable, and the frame will require more wood to repair somewhere down the line. Rabbit recalls that the wood for the Loom came from the Mercer Oak on Runnymede, so the party decided that's where they would go next.

On Runnymede, the party spoke with the Eponai (anthropomorphic horses) and learned that the Great Charter had been lost. Without the Charter, they are now resorting to their ancient traditions of vis et voluntas, or "force and will" to decide their next King. The jousting lists are long. There are still some holdouts in Windsey Castle who support the Chancellor ("Ex-Chancellor!"). The party agreed this was Not Their Problem™ and asked about the Mercer Oak. The Eponai pointed to the swamps where the forest that was the home of the Mercer Oak used to be, and cursed the Vulpini (anthropomorphic foxes) for destroying the forest.

The party headed to the swamp and encountered a Kenku who gave a somewhat different story of what happened to the forest. She was partial to the Vulpini side of the story, explaining that the Vulpini were never part of the original Charter, and finally revealed that she was Marian of the Hood, leader of the Vulpini on Runnymede. She offered a plan to create a new Great Charter, and gave the party a vellum document that placed a Suggestion on whoever read it that the Vulpini should rule Runnymede, and a quill that could copy any person's signature. If the party could at least get the Vulpini a seat at the governing table, she would give them a piece of Mercer Oak, kept in safekeeping in the bogs, that was large enough to create a new shuttle for the World Loom.

The party agreed their ultimate goal was to create a connection of trade between Runnymede and Bayeux: wool from the goats of Runnymede in exchange for pennons woven at Bayeux, and the excess wool going to weave on the World Loom. Getting the wood for the shuttle would be key; however, they did not fully agree on how they would go about doing this.

They made their way to Windsey Castle to talk to (ex-)Chancellor Megan and (ex-)Chequer Daddle, who were initially wary b/c the party had talked to the "rebels" first. The Chancellor comes around when the party explains their mission, and explains more about the problem with the Great Charter: it disappeared from the Charter Isle, and in its place have appeared competing and contradictory versions of the Charter. The party goes to the Library, where they meet the WOL, an owlish Kenku who is one of the four Paragons that witnessed the original signing of the Great Charter. They learn he has been Keeper of the Charter since, and when the original Charter disappeared, he tried to write out copies to send to the Marshals of the Fields of Runnymede, but every copy came out different. He had been feeding his fear of looking foolish to the Maw, and the party helped him to write consistent copies of the Great Charter. This new Charter included Vulpini Marshals, was signed by all parties, and while Marian did not become Queen of Runnymede, she honored her bargain and gave the party a hunk of Mercer Oak wood. This was fashioned into a shuttle and taken to Bayeux along with a load of wool, and pennons returned to Runnymede, and a mutual connection established.

Bench Knives Out

Sat 13:28 - Sat 19:13 (5.7h)

Player Characters

A-ran-nis the Cursed, Elf Warlock (Maw)

Gully Foyle, Dragonborn Fighter

Liam, Human Bard

Siderius Noxx, Human Cleric

Visen Nightstar, Human Wizard

What Happened

The party was looking to make further connections between Worlds, so they went to this small spherical world with a giant tree on it. There they found a family of elves that looked more to their eyes like gnomes – small of stature in brightly-colored clothes. The Keeblers welcomed the party and explained that they needed flour, eggs, butter, and a sweetener in order to make their cookies. The party was all ready to go off and find these ingredients, but were drawn to the problem of the missing Erne Keebler.

Immediate suspicion fell on Roger, who had gone off to Vega Cluster and returned just a day or two before Ernie's disappearance. Roger was a high elf, adopted into the family many years ago, and apparently the cause of friction because of his seemingly constant need to innovate the types of cookies the family baked (at least, according to Ma Keebler). The party searched the house and Ernie's room, finding only some rainbow-colored crumbs that Ma said she had never made cookies with. A-ran-nis decided to eat one of the crumbs, and found it was poisoned. In his agony, his patron the Maw offered to ease the pain, but he refused and recovered.

That night A-ran-nis staked out Roger's room, and observed Roger leave via his window, and visit the brown lake of fudge that was near the tree. In the morning, Gully and Liam discovered Ernie's body in the lake of fudge, apparently dead from poisoning. A-ran-nis was now certain of Roger's guilt, though Siderius noted, "Every time I'm absolutely sure about something, I'm wrong." When they questioned Roger, he broke down crying and told them of how he felt unwelcome by some members of the Keebler family, his trip to Vega Cluster as the Princess of Keebler, his ideas about a new type of cookie with rainbow chunks instead of fudge chunks, and how he found the courage to return to Keebler. When he returned, Ernie was open to the idea of a Rainbow Chunks Deluxe cookie, but died when he ate one of the cookies Roger baked.

Now the party tried to pin down the timing of when rainbow chunks became poisoned, because they were suspicious that someone on Vega Cluster was behind it. Roger swore that he had tasted chunks on Vega Cluster, so the party turned to going over the facts with the other Keeblers. Ma Keebler revealed her Inner Maw, driven by a fear of the changes that Roger proposed, and the party helped her take responsibility for Ernie's death. She relocated to another planet, and the Keeblers were almost ready to start making cookies, but they needed a sweetener from Saguaro.

Beware the Worm

Sat 19:40 - Sun 01:35 (5.9h)

Player Characters

Lisha, Elf Rogue

Betsy Shell, Tortle Druid

Brummuki of the Angernanimel, Dwarf Fighter

Julian 'Jules' DuBois, Half-Elf Rogue

Marsh Potao, Kenku Druid

Nargullur, Half-Orc Barbarian

Ned, Tortle Druid

Prof Irving Weil, Human Warlock

Shemeber of Tzboiim, Human Wizard

What Happened

The party was charged with exploring Saguaro. Along the way, Brummuki and Nargullur were interested in investigating the fate of the World Chitt-crrt; heading to the coordinates given, they saw it being consumed by the Maw, but also observed an object in low orbit around Maw, which would bear investigation for later.

Saguaro's upper atmosphere was a shell of swirling sand… or was it sugar? They created a hole in the barrier to get to the surface, and found it was… sand, not sugar! Sand as far as the eye could see in the low ambient light, but were there figures on the top of that dune in the distance? In fact they were 3 large cacti (each 10-15' tall). Ned's attempt to carve a sample from one of the cacti resulted in a blow that sent them sprawling, and the party heard whispers in the wind: "Beware the Worm; Fear the Crow."

With the aid of an item that would point them in the direction of Saguaro's World Heart, they set off on summoned camels. After a time, they noticed that the cacti were not receding into the distance as expected, but it wasn't until they came upon the entrance to a ravine that they could be sure that the cacti were in fact following them, and that they weren't being impeded from making forward progress. Down the ravine they went, with cacti following, until they came to a space where several paths ended around an enormous blue agave plant, with what appeared to be a worm(?) on it. However, when the party debated destroying it, the cacti became aggravated and threatening. They eventually figured out how to communicate with the Cactus Folk, and learned that this was the larva of the guardian of the World Heart, and it needed light and heat to pupate, grow, and fight the Worm.

Armed with this information, the party decided to set a trap for, and attack, the Worm, which the Cactus Folk had described as being able to swallow three of their warriors whole at a bite. After 2 rounds of combat, the party was in full flight and reconsidered their options.

They built an enclosure that would be conducive to the larva pupating, and then left the planet for a while, returning when a year had passed (Saguaro was in the inner ring about the Maw, where a year would pass for each day in the outer ring). Upon return, the larva had become a giant moth, carried off the Worm, and tossed it into the Maw.

With these problems solved, the group had Connections between 5 Worlds and created the constellation of the Great Snacker!

In, Through, … and Beyond

Sun 09:34 - Sun 14:21 (4.8h)

Player Characters

A-ran-nis the Cursed, Elf Warlock

MFDOOMfan446, Tortle Paladin

Marcel, Tortle Cleric

Michelangelo, Tortle Druid

Sualdit, Tortle Wizard

Tukka, Tortle Ranger

noxcorp, Tortle Rogue

What Happened

A well-balanced party of adolescent tortles was joined by A-ran-nis to investigate an object in low orbit around Maw, which had been observed by a previous party. They went in a ship run by the AI Henry, who practiced their humor with the party on the journey. They had some difficulty fighting the Maw's pull until they neared the object, which turned out to be an enormous ship. In the space near the ship, they did not feel the pull of the Maw.

They landed Henry's ship on a docking port, and security (unseen, just a voice on a speaker) asked them to leave behind their weapons, but once inside, they seemed to be allowed to explore freely. They spoke to a number of people who had been rescued by this ship, and had apparently been doing so for decades. Going through research papers produced by the scientists on the ship, they found references to readings taken by Dr. Wyndilakrius 105 years ago, when they knew that these readings had been taken on that astronomer's trip to the Maw (see the cast of Open Wide! above).

Realizing the time dilation must be even greater for this ship than the rest of the inner ring, they explored the astronomy lab and then the astrologer's den, where they discovered that Agnes Syquis was still alive and grown to a very advanced age. From her they discovered that this ship was, in fact, Cygnus grown to his adult size.

The party eventually met with the half-elven Dr. Max Reinherz, captain and confidante of Cygnus, who told the party of her plan to go with Cygnus into the Maw at an angle that would transport them to a Firmament where Cygnus could be a child again, and live happily with his mother. However, other adventurers (see Dennis's recap) had stolen the probe that would give her the final readings to calculate the correct angle of approach. The party and Henry agreed to have Henry's ship updated to be able to get these readings.

While on this mission, they debated whether to enter the Maw on their own, ahead of Max and Cygnus, but ultimately decided against it. Word had arrived from Hireling Hall that many worlds swallowed by the Maw still existed inside the Maw, and they convinced Max and Cygnus to help the people trapped there.

Henry took all the crew and families on Cygnus who were afraid to enter the Maw back to Beverly.

Upon entering the Maw, the adventurers "entered a place so dark that it's impossible to see. You're there for a time that you cannot measure, until there is an explosion of every color of the rainbow, and you feel propelled at an unimaginable rate through a corridor of colors flashing by, until all has gone dark again. But, not quite. As your eyes adjust, you see an inverted glowing Maw set in a field of misty grey. Through the mist, you begin to pick out a number of little planets, dark and forlorn, and ready to be saved."

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