Personal Onboard Experience Steward (POES)
Session 15 January 2023
I woke up after a good night’s rest and immediately checked the scroll that had been given to me. I couldn’t understand the language it was written in, so I went downstairs to ask for help reading it. The white mage was busy eating and reading, so I asked Mohan, who was flying by, for assistance. He couldn’t read it either, but he suggested we try finding a translation book in Candlekeep.Mohan went to get one, and I waited impatiently. When he returned, the White mage had already offered to help and ws reading the scroll. It was written in Infernal and detailed a soul being put into servitude. The owner of the contract could summon the soul to do their bidding. I was intrigued and asked if he could help me understand more about it.The names on the contract are Patience and Zariel. There are also instructions on the bottom for a ritual that would need to be performed. We decided to perform the ritual outside of Candlekeep, as we didn’t know what it would do. I follow the instructions and a tiefling appers in the middle of the circle.”Master Zikran, what can I do for you? You’re not Zikran… Where am I?” The tiefling asks.I informed the tiefling that Zikran was in prison and that I am the one that found the contract. The tiefling immediately called me ‘master’, which makes me feel uncomfortable. Patience explained that he had not signed the contract voluntarily, but the alternative was not pleasant.As we discussed the situation, I asked if anyone had seen Jabari. No one had. Patience asked for some food so I handed him some rations. We quickly discussed to go to the astral plane to collect the bounty, but there would be an entrance to Undermountain there.Patience knows Stardock, the place where we have to deliver Zikran, but there was no teleportation circle as far as he knew. Maybe we could get there with plane shift if we described the location properly, and then take the ship he knew Zikran had stolen.We take some time to prepare for the journey.Later that afternoon, Mohan comes by with new items. I am already sitting on a bench and Mohan informs me that he has received approval and some items to support him. He calls it a mission: to retrieve safe information from Undermountain. We wait for Jabari to arrive, and at the end of the day, he finally joins us. We explain to him that we want to go to the astral plane and ask if he wants to tag along. We tell him our plan to go to Stardock, leave Zikran and head to Undermountain afterwards. He replies that he can join us later after his research. Mohan has Zikran on a floating disk and Patience gets an amulet that will send us to the astral plane. We have to wait for him to attune to the amulet and Mohan is saying goodbye to people.
Patience casts a spell and suddenly I find myself in a purple mist. I see a wooden deck below me and hear strange beeping noises. There’s gravity here, and I notice an autonomous construct on the ship that is maintaining it. The autonomous is called Stripe, and Patience slaps him a couple of times to get him operational.I see a trapdoor and a way down, and as I explore, I find closets and cabinets filled with scrolls and debris. I discover books and call out to the others. The heavy footsteps of the Tortle, almost squashing my head, as he heads downstairs. Patience sits on a chair and relaxes while it floats, attuning with the ship, as he did once before. I decide to sit on the deck and wait for the others.The mist is fading and I see a damaged ballista. I accidentally wreck the bow with my sharp nails, when k investigate it. The others come to the upper level and Mohan starts trying to fix all the damaged wings. I try to help fix the ballista and while searching for parts, I find some star maps at the below deck. I am fascinated and start studying them. I find the location of Stardock and another big asteroid that is near us, Brall. I inform the party, and Mohan compliments me.Mohan is fixing the wing with fabric and magic, and I have to go back to collect arrows for the ballista. The White Mage also asks me to span the ballista again, and I do it with two hands; one to hold the ballista, and one to span the rope.After the reparations are done, I am talking to Patience about his bound contract. I ask him how long he has been bound to it for, and he tells me that it has been more than 2 years. I inquire about how to get rid of the contract and he explains that it can be resolved, or if both copies are destroyed. I ask if he has any family members or people he wants to return to, Patience mentions his daughter and says he doesn’t know if she’s alive or where she is, but he wants to return to Bell, his superior. He explains that he was in the army and Bell helped him, and now he’s stuck here. I give him permission to contact Bell as long as he doesn’t use it to hurt people. “Thank you, master. I mean… Cross.”Mohan is almost done fixing all the wings, and Patience says the ship is ready to fly. I grab the maps from below, and we use them to position ourselves. We move and see a stoned old god next to us, which helps us know where we are on the map. We start our journey and see some ships but nothing really close. We decide to put the ship on an asteroid to have a long rest. I receive winged boots from the white mage.The White Mage reboots Strife, giving him a new name POES, Personal Onboard Experience Steward, and assigns him to do maintenance on the ship. POES begins scanning the deck and fixing it. He explains that he can do anything we want and we ask if there are dangers in the astral plane. It takes half a day to fix POES, and another half day to listen to the bot. We ask POES if there’s a safe place to rest. We land on Bell.43C to do so, but a couple of wings break during the landing. We ask POES to fix the wings and take a long rest.In the new day, POES informs us that the ship is fixed and that he worked all night. We are almost near Stardock, we see three ships there. We know that our ship is stolen and we have a bounty on it, and on Zikran, but we take the gamble and just park the ship. It’s difficult to estimate but we have to get there. We ask POES to start the docking sequence, but Patience still needs to land the ship. He crashes into the dock, making a lot of noise and I see a couple of guards near the docking place…I stand at the edge of the asteroid, looking out as a red dragon squints in the distance. The gith approach, their weapons drawn and they begin speaking in a language I cannot understand. The White Mage says something and the dragon descends towards us. I am confused, but then I hear the word “Zikran” and realize that they are here for the bounty and the ship.A door opens and someone exits on the back of a young red dragon, the dragon jumps towards us and I see a gith. The gith looks at us and asks, “What are you doing here?” I respond, “Good day. We’re here to deliver a bounty and a ship.” The gith looks at the crashed ship and I offer our apologies, explaining that our pilot did not have much experience. Patience says something back, but I cannot understand. The White Mage interjects, “This young man made mistakes, but this is a contract. A deal is a deal.” I assume they want to be paid, so I ask, “Is there a road to Undermountain here?” The gith responds, “Yeah… great treasures hide there. And grave dangers.” I confirm that we want passage to Undermountain.The gith tells us that if we assist them, they can arrange passage. They explain that they have been attacked by mind flayers and have lost most of their base. They offer a deal: “If you want to assist us, we can arrange that.” “What do you ask of us?” I introduce myself as Cross and the gith notices that I am not very buffed up. He tells me that I will need better equipment to defeat the Neothelid they want us to get rid of in exchange for passage to Undermountain, and snaps his fingers. I get dressed in the best armor they have. A sentinel shield, an adamantine plate, and I get a beautiful mace of disruption We shift to Undermountain and head to Skullport to prepare and get acquainted.
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