BBQ on the Barge (Suns Apart - Campaign 2 - Session 7)

 PCs:

Naniz - Mysterion (Goetic 2nd degree); Blue scholar

Xeni - Shaper (Maker 1st degree); School of Matter, expert in smoke

Casamere - Postulant (Vance 1st degree)

Cudi - Journeyman Weaver; wielder of Blood and Wind

Hell yeah it's another Garbage Barge session!

• Slight retcon from last time: instead of immediately joining the Zyanese explorers on their catamaran and heading onto the great sewer river, Xeni and Naniz excuse themselves for a moment to "go collect their things" from another room of the ruins, saying they'll be back in a moment.
• They actually head back to Satyrine through Ultan's door, and Naniz manipulates the Goetic wards on the door to de-sync the portal's time lock. This means every hour they spend in Satyrine will only equate to a second passing on the other side of the portal.
• The main in-fiction reason for this is that Naniz wanted to go turn Fire on the Velvet Horizon into his order immediately to minimize the risk of losing it or otherwise not completing that quest.
• The main IRL reason for this is that we had a mixed group of players (Cudi and Casamere's players were just there for a one off) and it made more sense to do a side adventure rather than pick up right where we left off
• Xeni and Naniz beeline to The Goetic Hall of Records and meet with Naniz's supervisor Agravain Stormstrom (whose head is like a meteor shower).
• Naniz hands over Fire on the Velvet Horizon (the lost text he was tasked with finding) and is congratulated on a job well done as Agravain hands it off to a toad-like being to take to the archives.
• Xeni coughs in a "and my reward is?" sort of way and mentions that she assisted in retrieving the book, at some personal expense. She lost a whole spellbook.
• Agravain doesn't miss a beat. "Certainly you may be compensated for your loss. You have brought something of great value to the Goetic Order and we do not forget our debts. See the Master of the Fallen on your way out."
• Agravain pulls Naniz aside to tell him he is eligible for advancement to second degree which Naniz readily accepts.
• They perform the ceremony in one of the Hall's many ritual rooms, which involves recitation of Goetic oaths in the presence of a spiritual witness, in this case an angel of judgement from Silver.
• At the end of the ceremony Naniz is expected to banish the spirit (banish is a new ability gained at second degree), which he handily succeeds at.
• Agravain also refreshes Naniz's stipend of magecoins. Apparently it's an "if you don't spend it all you get less next time" scenario so he only gets enough to take him back up to five.
• Naniz resolves to spend them on something, probably commissioning a magic item from Xeni.
• Meanwhile Xeni is ushered over to the Master of the Fallen (looks like many layers of robes draped over a cavernous being), who is responsible for managing the affairs of Goetics who die in the field, and advocating to the Pale court on their behalf.
• He apparently has a bunch of ownerless spellbooks retrieved from dead Goetics, and he produces two of them from the vastness within himself to compensate Xeni for the spellbook she lost.
• Two full spellbooks! Six new spells!
• Xeni and Naniz head to Zero's (a popular vislae bar that may actually be a demon in bar form) to celebrate.
• There they meet Casamere: a first degree Vance just returned from traveling in the Ultraviolet Grasslands across the Alone (the sea to the West of Satyrine), and Cudi: a firebrand Weaver looking for adventure. They sit together at a table and share a few rounds.
• Cudi is telling the group about a cabal of rogue mages called the "Copper Wizards" who apparently live on The Garbage Barge which is currently beached on the coast of the Hollows district. He wants to make contact with them because he's fascinated by their anarchic existence.
• The other members of the party think that sounds pretty neat and are also interested in potentially finding some treasure among the discarded junk on the Barge.
• The four vislae head from Zero's to the gateway arch which connects Fartown to the Hollows. 
• They find that much of the West side of the district is flooded since the run aground Garbage Barge has clogged up the Narrow Sannyasa river which normally empties into the Alone from this district.
• They wade their way to the Barge and head aboard, asking after the Copper Wizards.
• The barge workers in the slums tell them that the Copper Wizards definitely live on the Barge but they meet in secret and nobody is sure where. Except Kat over at the salvage armory. She might know.
• The party crams into a big plastic capsule and rocket through the Barge's "subway" (actually a magically enlarged pneumatic tube message system) to Kat's salvage armory.
• Kat's workshop is in a junkyard... within a junkyard. She has culled so many interesting finds from the massive junkyard that it is essentially a second junkyard sprawling around her living space.
• Kat has a dog which only seems to walk backwards. Naniz properly discerns that it is actually a demonic familiar. He takes note of the shattered Testament of Suns that Kat wears around her neck. Apparently she's an apostate who at this point is more interested in making things than summoning.
• Xeni refrains from commenting on the rudimentary craftsmanship, and the group manages to be diplomatic enough to get some useful information. Kat is drinking buddies with the mage who cast the enlarge spell which created the Barge's subway system, John "Bat-house" Coughlin. She knows the Copper Wizards are meeting today at the Wall of Doors, several stations away.
• The party crams into the subway again and rockets through the twisty interior of the Barge.
• After a few minutes of nauseating rushing through the rancid dark, the capsule slows to a halt, far too early for them to be at their destination. The vislae can see spikes drilled into the tunnel walls, apparently designed to slow down and snare passing capsules.
• In front of them, they can see a shaft of light infiltrating the tunnel as a manhole cover is removed from above and some sort of little trash goblins are dropping down and brandishing weapons.
• "Give us everything you have! This is Yuhoo territory!" they shout in garbled Indigo. It's a highwayman routine.
• The gremlin-like beings are an unfortunate chimerical mix of goblin, rat, cat, cockroach , pigeon and seagull, dressed in makeshift armor that looks like they're wearing torn apart Chuck E. Cheese animatronics.

• Casamere tries to talk them down. "You don't want to do this. We're vislae, we have credentials to prove it. It's best not to anger powerful Orders by--"
• "Credentials? You ain't got no stinkin credentials we care about!"
• Xeni brandishes a rocket launcher. "I got some credentials for you right here. Valid anywhere."
• The Yuhoos... freak out.
• "She has a blaster! PLAN B!"
• They slide one of their smaller members forward forcefully enough that they wedge partially under the subway capsule.
• The rest of the Yuhoos hastily climb back up the hole they came through and try to replace the manhole cover.
• They vislae hear a concerning beeping coming from within the Yuhoo now stuck between the capsule and subway tunnel wall. Bomb!
• Naniz is the only one who passes initiative, but he makes it work by casting Primeval Surge on himself to double in size and gain enhanced strength.
• Now nearly filling the tunnel circumference with his bulk, he forcefully rips the suicide bomber Yuhoo out from under the capsule and lifts the manhole cover they retreated through to chuck it up after them and them slam the cover closed again.
• There is a muffled explosion.
• Naniz removes the manhole cover again and Casamere clambers up to survey the situation since Naniz does not fit.
• There is a small room that looks like it's connected by some now collapsed crawlways to a what is likely a warren of tunnels the Yuhoos have been living in.
• The room is now a mess with the carnage of exploded Yuhoos everywhere.
• Casamere manages to retrieve some mostly undamaged experimental weapons from the mess and distributes them among the party. An Engine Gun, a Bassoon Gun, and a Taser Spear.
• Naniz unsticks the capsule and ends his Primeval Surge spell successfully without flying into a rage. Everyone clambers into the capsule to await another pneumatic burst of air from another station to send them on their way again. Of course it comes just as they start to relax and startles everyone.
• At the Wall of Doors, the vislae gaze out onto a vast amphitheater-like space with a truly staggering number of assorted doors fixed into a gargantuan retaining wall. Naniz can sense a lot of extrasolar energy. Many of these doors are likely portals.
• Cudi spots an arcane mark (visible only to spellcasters) on a door about five rows up.
• The party clambers up there and heads into what turns out to be a grassy little pocket dimension only 30 yards or so in diameter, ringed by a circle of standing stones.
• Sure enough, the Copper Wizards are here and the party just crashed their meeting.
• These rogue mages all wear flat copper welding masks and are big on reclaiming the term "wizard".
• Cudi displays staggering diplomacy and the party does not fight the Copper Wizards, but rather has a chat about their values, swaps notes about magic, and is informed of the leader's plight.
• Her name is Alejandra Bernal and she used to be a Goetic, but left the Order on bad terms. Their parting gift was a curse: she has rings of sigils burned into her skin all over her body, which are slowly smoldering their way deeper into her flesh. They pain her greatly, and eventually they will burn into her bones which will be fatal.
• Cudi promises to try and find a solution.
• The party is invited to the cult's post meeting barbeque.
• Bat-house is grilling up some barge rats and deep frying some bilge clams in a makeshift grill made from a door lying flat across two cinder blocks. Two smaller inset doors lead to pocket dimensions, one filled with hot rocks and the other with boiling fry oil. He lowers the food down in to cook it.
• Bat-house shows the PCs his most recent find: a shrunken head with a Vance tattoo on the forehead. He is convinced it still contains spells.
• Casamere is persuaded to examine it and confirms it does still contain a spell. One he doesn't know yet. He silently swaps this into his own brain to examine later and replaces it with one of his own spells he knows Bat-house will like: Subuchin's Surprise Party.
• Bat-house has figured out a way to stimulate the spell into casting itself, effectively making this shrunken head a one use spell grenade. He's been waiting to use it until he knows what the spell inside will do.
• Bat-house decides that the absolute best thing to do with this party grenade would be to go prank the crew of a trash digger drill he knows by sneaking up in the middle of the night and suddenly setting off an instant rave.
• Cudi is in love with this idea and the rest of the party is feeling loose enough to take a "why the hell not" attitude.
• They do exactly what Bat-house outlined in his plan and the digger crew are very surprised to be woken up by a party explosively appearing out of a shrunken head.
• Just calm and the sounds of barge crickets, and then suddenly lights, music, a food spread, and little festive hats on everyone.
• The theme of the party turns out to be "murder mystery".
• The digger crew is surprisingly chill about all this and enjoys the festivities.
• Deciding they really ought to get back to their companions in Blue, Xeni and Naniz see themselves out and leave Cudi and Casamere to party with their new friends on the Barge.

End of session!