Kolibra the Astronomer

The Sisters #

Princess Bathtilda of Logia was despondent after losing touch with uncle Karo Ermine, princess of Nomos. The party of Jules, Penelope, Prof. Weil, Ruth, Shemeber, and Sylvester discovered, talking to various people on Logia, that all forms of communication and travel between the sister planets had broken down, including the Amber Ladder, the royal carriage, and the Tabaxi taxi service. Investigating the Soobers Tabaxi taxi company, they discovered contract negotiations over profit-sharing and the handover point had broken down. They convinced taxi pilot Zeetra to take them to Nomos in order to talk to the other taxi company, talk to Princess Karo Ermine, and see the other side of the coin.

After delivering Bathtilda to the curmudgeonly Princess Karo, the party put pressure on taxi boss K’Bye to open services again and relieve the hunger on Nomos. After a harrowing encounter with the Lion of Pride within Mr. K’Bye’s inner dungeon, they allowed K’Bye’s common sense to emerge so that he could meet Soobers Taxi company representatives at the negotiating table, and with the help of the astronomers within the party, come to a fairer agreement and restore delivery and taxicab service between the Sisters.

Then, addressing the still-despondent Princess Bathtilda with the encouragement of Princess Karo Ermine, the intrepid party delved into and overcame her nightmares, opening the world heart within her and allowing the connection to be relit.

The Sacrificed King #

Erlhana, Glide, Senchan, and Echo found the Kingdom of Ur enthralled by tragic prophecies and a desire to avert them via sacrifice—a goat for an orchard-keeper, and a man for King Erra-imitti. Fearful that the beloved king would meet an unfortunate fate, the priests arranged for a simple gardener, Enlil-bani, to assume the crown, planning to kill him in order to satisfy the prophecy of regal doom.

After puzzling out a convoluted web of characters, the party uncovered a plot by Princess En-bara-zi, sister of the king, to break the magic circle around the real king’s retreat in order that the deadly fate would find him. Re-interpreting a new prophecy read in the entrails of a sacrificed goat, the party convinced the real king to stand up for justice against an institution that would sacrifice innocents. At his behest, they challenged the scheming sister, hoping she could be redeemed and that she would rise to share some of the duties of administration. They entered her inner dungeon as her ruthlessness attempted to kill the respect, honor, love, empathy, and humility that she thought were holding her back from gaining ultimate power. In this they were partially successful, stopping ruthlessness, but not before her honor and love were destroyed.

Returning with the news that En-bara-zi would plot against him no longer, the heroes arrived just in time to see the king’s original fate find him, as he overindulged in some piping-hot soup and choked to death—but were able to revive him. With the first prophecy now ameliorated and the second reinterpreted, the re-seated king gave the adventurers his warmest thanks and equipped them for the journey ahead.

Names of people on mission:

Glide, Echo, Mell, Senchan

Where did you go? Who did you meet? What did you do while there?

We went to Ur, where Enlil-Bani is crowned New King. However, we soon learned this was to avoid a prophecy of the previous King’s death. We attempted to foil fate by interpreting the prophecy ourselves and trying to save the true King Erra-Imitti from the prophecy + Enlil-Bani from sacrifice to avoid the prophecy.

We found Erra-Imitti’s sister plotted to kill him, and found THE MAW had imparted her with ruthlessness. We took this corruption away, but not before she destroyed her love + honor.

Is there anything else your fellow adventurers should know about or be wary of? (i.e., what problems remain to be solved? Are there potential connections to be made?)

Ur is in need of copper—potential connection.

Erra-Imitti did die by choking on soup suddenly, but we revived him.

The Parable of the Peppercorn #

Brummuki, Nargullur, Screech, Jinx, Moc, and Stealthephant responded to a request by Dr. Kisa Urssenbeck for peppercorns—from a house in which nobody had died, and from someone who had never known loss.

After realizing that the despondent Kisa had given them an impossible task, they failed to comfort her as she stomped off, carrying the body of her husband, who she hoped to cure with the fabled peppercorns. In her wake arose a host of ghosts, which flooded into the busy tavern. The party fought them off, but not before a number of bystander patrons were possessed and knocked out.

The adventurers then caught up with the doctor outside and delved into her inner dungeon, a grand hall of candles, each burning the flame of a life. Kisa forlornly remembered her husband while Death watched over her, wary that she would attempt to steal wax from another’s candle to refuel that of her lost love. Fortunately, while fighting off more undead apparitions, the party was able to convince her to move past denial to reach acceptance of the death that had happened.

Names of people on mission:

Brummuki (Jan), Nargullur (Katerina), Eagle Screech (Kevin), Jinx (Andy), Moc (Joe), and Stealthephant (Sean)

Where did you go? Who did you meet? What did you do while there?

stayed on Beverly

Met Dr. Kisa, she requested a peppercorn from a house in which no one has died and from a person that has never lost a loved one to cure her husband, who died.

We explained to her that the peppercorn was a metaphor and unobtainable. We fought the ghosts of her loss.

Made her accept the death of her husband.

A new star (world) appeared in the sky.

Is there anything else your fellow adventurers should know about or be wary of? (i.e., what problems remain to be solved? Are there potential connections to be made?)

The Maw probably fueled her lost.

Aether Encounters #

On the spacelane between the City of Blight and Ur, our travelers, bearing samples of brass, encountered a nebula of remorse and a little planet with a remorseful kenku thief on it. The thief wished to return boots he had stolen, but those boots were in the custody of a mob boss, who fortuitously was out eating dinner. The adventurers went into the mansion, braving its deadly and tricky security measures, to recover the boots, but also picked up numerous other valuables that, as it turned out, also had been stolen from townsfolk.

After causing immense property damage, the party made good their escape. Senchan found the rightful owner of the boots in the tavern and returned the boots while disguised as the mob kingpin himself, prompting various bystander townsfolk to ask about the other stolen items. The crowd found the rest of the party, bearing those items, outside the tavern. Thus confronted, the party returned most of the items, but, with the blessing and encouragement of the townspeople, retained some useful items for the continuing fight against the Maw.

Names of people on mission:

Wolf as Dr. Wyndilakrius, Cory as Merry Smoke, Rishi as Narum, Sam as Palle, Anthony as Echo, Rayne as Senchan.

Where did you go? Who did you meet? What did you do while there?

We were dispatched with a flock of aether dolphins to establish a trade route between a brass quarry on the City of Blight and planet Ur. On the way, we discovered the parrot nebula, Otpelk. The emotion nebula caused feelings of remorse, so the small planet inside had a remorseful thief who requested we recover boots he stole. We did so, braving a nightmare booby trap mansion, and burned it down in the process. We recovered numerous valuable items and returned them to the townspeople they belonged to. We then continued on to Ur and successfully established the trade route, forming the connection between the worlds.

Is there anything else your fellow adventurers should know about or be wary of? (i.e., what problems remain to be solved? Are there potential connections to be made?)

Senchan cast Awaken on an aether dolphin. It is still around, somewhere.

There is a very angry mob boss in the nebula.

Saving the Saints #

Tracing the steps of the Kolibra the Astronomer, the adventuring party of Kaya Shohmer, Malkava, Oz Nasser, Pizzazz, Ruth Fallowkettle, Sir Luxembourg, and Stealthephant landed on Iona, a planet orbiting deep within the gravity well of the Maw. Most of its hundred-odd people had, over the years, been sacrificed via trebuchet launch into the Maw, which loomed huge in the sky, an overwhelming presence. After informing a tearful and old Cassandra, the local Astrologer, that forming connections, not sacrifice, is the antidote to the Maw, they followed Kolibra’s path by launching themselves.

In space, they were picked up by Cygnus, now maw-touched and grown massive, old, and built-over as a spaceship. They found onboard a number of refugees from Iona, as well as Kolibra, who, as an astronomer, had been studying the Maw for about a time-accelerated century aboard Cygnus. She relayed her theory that the Maw will never be truly gone, because loss and forgetting, the essence of the Maw, are inescapable aspects of life. This theory met little applause from the adventuring party, but Kolibra was interested in heading further into the Maw to learn about it and find Silgo, her friend, academic partner, and love, and so she and the party soon commandeered and stowed away aboard a scientific probe for Umbra.

Landing on Umbra, the planet in the heart of the Maw, they forged through the perpetual blizzard of dark ash to find the heart, guided by divinatory light toward the petrified figure of Silgo. Against the suffocating emptiness, Kolibra served as an inspirational beacon. Attacked by depressed antisocial ghosts that attempted to separate the party in the gloom, they realized that they could form connections by declaring their shared commonalities to unite against the Maw’s annihilatory pressure. The party then forged connections with even the spirits around them, accumulating a growing constellation. As they reached the crowd of petrified figures—Silgo had turned himself and the other exiles from Iona to stone in order to weather the storms of time-accelerated centuries—the spirits reunited with their bodies, and Silgo with Kolibra.

Cygnus in the meantime had come to Umbra, and hitching a ride, the exiles returned home.

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