Session 3: Elysian Spa and Shifty Nubbins' Circus (Nov 20th, 2024)

The Players

Draxen the Shadar Kai Rogue/Sorcerer, played by Austin
Naivara the Wood Elf Druid, played by Nikki
Quarioli the High Elf Ranger, played by Chris
Eragon the Dragonborn Champion, played by Dean
Inala the Drow Elf Grave Cleric, played by Tait
Traugon the hill dwarf forge cleric, played by Hunter
Valhalen Vrocks the paladin, played by Kimble

The Void

The characters woke up in a void, the new members of the party were sealed inside the glass tubes. The party members who had worked for Prime before were seated at a nice conference table floating in the void. The experienced members seemed to find the panic and confusion of their new comrades amusing. Prime had left them a few snacks which they used Create Food & Water to improve.

After a few minutes, a window in space opened, revealing a silhouette made of swirling galaxies and stars. The familiar figure of Prime appeared, sitting in his rustic study. The figure introduced himself to the new members and after they promised no to freak out he moved them to the conference table to join the others. Prime told the new members they were lucky because their first trip would be really easy. He told them that he felt bad about sending the Troubleshooters to such awful places for their first few missions. He offered them tickets to a day spa in the paradise plane of Elysium, the Neutral Good plane of peace and harmony. The Troubleshooters were all very suspicious of the offer, which seemed to offend Prime. They questioned him about the state of Elysium. Was there a war breaking out there or some other disaster? That sort of question. He told them he was giving them the tickets because he couldn't use them himself for "work related reasons". After questioning him for a few more minutes, the Troubleshooters reluctantly accepted his offer. As each tore their ticket they turned into a column of sparkles and light and appeared to ascend into the sky.

Celestial Transport Hub #182

The Troubleshooters found themselves in a hall with walls of marble. At the other end of the hall was a stone table with a celestial in a strange uniform standing behind it. The celestial asked them a few innocent questions such as whether they were traveling together and what their destination was supposed to be. The party was again struck with great suspicion and questioned the poor travel attendant thoroughly. They even used a spell of Zone of Truth during their interrogation. During the questioning they found that Elysium seemed fine, the attendant checked the weather and news events and everything seemed pleasant and normal. They also asked about Prime and while she was reluctant to speak about him, it was clear she disliked him for some reason. After checking what she could say with her boss, she revealed that Prime was doing some sort of work release program after committing a number of crimes. His top crimes including revolting against the overgod Ao and the murder of 29 million sentients. The party also discovered that each time they traveled to another plane they apparently came through one of these travel hubs, but the memory was wiped each time afterwards so they transfer seemed instant. After heckling the attendant for some time they finally agreed to go through the portal. They were told to place their hands on the table. As each did so, an outline flashed around their hands. The outline was green for Naivara, Quarioli, Inala and Valhalen. The outline was red for Draxen, Eragon and Traugon. This caused another round of discussion and worry. After more questioning the attendant revealed that the red outlines indicated that they were considered criminals of some sort. She explained that Eragon was wanted for desecration of corpses, Traugon for chopping off a good storm giant's toe and Draxen was wanted for questioning due to his connection to the evil Shadowfell plane. After more back and forth the group saw little option other than to head through the portal to Elysium while hoping for the best.

Elysian Day Spa and the Tower of Holding Kind of Bad People

Naivara, Quarioli, Inala and Valhalen found themselves in an amazingly beautiful day spa that truly was a slice of paradise. As they didn't remember the transport hub it was some time before they began to wonder where their other party members were. Inala was particularly worried and questioned the staff about the fate of the others. They seemed reluctant to tell her, but eventually caved and said they were probably being held prisoner for their crimes. They would at the prison which was behind the majestic mountains, the location chosen to keep it out of sight. The staff told her to go down the nature walk, past the flower gardens and around the mountain to the valley where the prison lay. Valhalen was enjoying himself too much to leave, so he refused to help and stayed behind for some "quality time" with the bath angels.

Meanwhile, Draxen, Eragon and Traugon all woke up in separate cells in a rather strange prison. The whole thing took the form of a tall slender tower with two horizontal propellers. The cells were built into the propellers which were spinning fast enough to keep the prisoners stuck to the walls as if they were floors. Each propeller had a long halway down the center with small cells on either side. Draxen and Traugon were in the low security ward but Eragon was in the other propeller in the "high security solitary confinement". Draxen wasted no time lockpicking his way out of the cells, but at that exact moment an angelic guard in legionaire armor entered the long hall with trays of food for the prisoners. Draxen turned himself invisible and contorted so that the guard could pass. He also swiped the guard's keys off his belt. It looked like he would be able to slip out, but Traugon had other plans. He slipped his Daern's Instant Fortress through the food slot and commanded it to grow. It grew to its normal 20 foot wide dimensions and destroyed the end of the propeller before tumbling away like a giant dice. Draxen, the surprised guard and Traugen were all flung from the snipped end of the propeller but Draxen and Traugon used magic to land safely. The guard flew away to raise the alarm.

The rest of the party gathered from the day spa and approached the tower just in time to see one of the propellers explode into shrapnel as the instant fort flew out of it. From outside they saw the whole tower crack and shake from the propellers being made uneven. Eragon was being thrown around inside the other blade, so he used a scroll of Force Wall to create a cube of magic force around himself. This proved to be a safe idea, but was also the end of the propeller as the second blade was sheared off by the immovable force, throwing more debris around. The party was gathering at the base of the tower in the debris field, with a few of the party members grabbing shards of celestial steel. Eragon was still hanging a hundred feet above ground and had to release the force cube to get down. Fortunately, Draxen was able to use feather fall on him to get him down safely. The whole area was being surrounded by a horde of angry celestial militia, so Inala used a Plane Shift spell to carry the entire party back to Prime's Void.

The Next Mission

In the Void, Prime was surprised to see the Troubleshooters back so soon. He recalled Valhalen at "the worst possible moment". Valhalen was naked, but his gear was nearby so he sat down at the conference table seemingly unconcerned. Prime decided that since their vacation was over, that he should send them on their next mission. He was sending them to get a mask from an ex-Troubleshooter named Shifty Nubbins. Before the party could ask for more information, Prime opened transport tubes at their feet and whisked them away.

They found themselves in a strange plane with gray grass and a sky that looked like it was made piecemeal from shattered pieces of other skies. The area seemed empty except for a ragged black and yellow stripped tent. The party headed that way and the sharp ears of Quarioli detected rough voices making threats inside. When the party entered they found some rough looking planar travellers threatening a short goblin wearing a circus ringleader costume. The goblin quickly exclaimed, "See there are the guys I told you were bringing the money!" The party hesitantly asked how much the goblin owed and the thugs replied,"One million gold!" Draxen said, "Hell no.", and threw an envenomed dagger directly into the eye of the closest thug. This initiated a combat. The thugs did their best, but were out-matched by the party. The last tow tried to surrender but the party chose to angrily cut them down. After that, they began beating up the goblin, who introduced himself as Shifty Nubbins.

Shifty apologized and said that he knew Prime had sent them and that they would be able to handle the thugs for him. He asked that they stay and help him put on a show for a fey queen to completely settle his debts. The party refused. They planned to beat him for the mask, but he quickly broke down and told them that she offered wishes to those who pleased her. He was hoping to wish for his debts to be settled. With the potential for a wish on the table, the party decided to participate and they broke into pairs to create routines. The fey queen arrived alone and seated herself in the bleachers. For the first act, Inala raised the thugs from the dead and dressed them in costume and made them dance and singer the "Thriller" song. The queen was quite impressed by the unique performance. Next, Eragon and Quarioli worked together to make a light show involving juggling torches. It was impressive but not enough to win the queen's faver. The final act was put on by Draxen and Naivara, who had transformed into a bear, worn a tutu and performed a dance. The performance was good, but the queen still liked Inala's best. The queen cancelled Shifty's debts by "ordering those you owe money killed." Then the queen granted Inala a wish, which after some thought she asked for a "powerful magic item". The queen created a Deck of Many Things, a powerful but infamous magic item.

Shifty Nubbins rooted though the junk in the tent for a while before returning with a plain seeming painted wooden mask. The mask didn't seem magical, even with a Detect Magic spell, but Shifty assured them it was the correct one. Apparently its magic was in making the wearer seem unremarkable. With that, the party felt Prime's magic whisk them back home.