Tuesday, 18 August 2026

Session 458 - It Came From Outer Space!

Date: 11 August 1626

Zenith: Oberon
Moon Phase: New Moon
Moon Face: Dragon Face (Tidelocked)


Revealed Backstory:
- Mother Flotsam killed intentionally as part of her initiation into the arcane arts when she was younger (allegedly, because she's not a witch you see). Once per session, mark an enemy to add +2 to your crit range against it.


Events:

--- Falling with Style
- Staying the the Baron's house in the town of Bell (which features, naturally, a very large churchbell), our heroes are deciding what to do next. Outside the window it's drizzling from a flat grey sky.
- The Baron has a magic mirror that leads to the Gardens of Ynn, through which his son must have been swapped for a changeling. Perhaps inside there's the answer to this whole changeling situation?
- But wait! What's that outside the window? Bubbles are falling at an angle through the nimbostratus, sizzling through the rain, and soon landing in a blast of glitter in the pine forest known as the Witches!
- The changelings can wait, it's bubble time!

--- Benito in the Bubble
- Finding the crash site is fairly easy, the site marked by glittery smoke. Half an hour later the party comes to the edge of the recently formed clearing, trees fallen in the direction of travel. Up in the sky the clouds ripple like oil on water.
- The bubbles are opaque, and some of them are linked up already by shimmering pearlescent tubes. It's giving space base vibes. One of the bubbles is even a few storeys up as a watchtower, connected by a string of smaller bubbles to the base below.
- Benito Brazil approaches a lone bubble and raps on the bouncy surface. A circular translucent window appears, behind which is the visage of a Red Elf with fine robes and long ears pierced with rings and fingers fused into a three-fingered hand. It looks around confused, and finally looks down at Benito.



- With a look of shock and worry, he looks behind him at a few other Red Elves and quickly makes the bubble permeable so Benito can come inside. Apparently there's a tadpole lurking in the clouds above and it's hunting them.
- They relax when they see it's just one Halfling. The furniture in here is all soft edges and rounded control panels. Smeg vibes. According to the Elf, their bubbles were let through the Gods' defensive wheel by the chief god Deusix who has earned their respect. Alas, the tadpole flew through too while the barrier was open.

--- Swinging a Cat
- Mother Flotsam, meanwhile, has approached the bottom of the watchtower bubble. She can see in as she looks upwards, and sees several Red Elves inside who are themselves watching the clouds above.
- She swings her cat by the tail, underarm, and throws it up to the top of the bubble. It works! The cat can't see down into the bubble from here though, it's just shiny from above. The bubble is made of some sort of directional glass.
- The cat, and Mother Flotsam, gaze upwards to see the great big winged tadpole thing descending. It's body is as long as a dinner table, it's tail as long again, and thick outspread tendrils hold diaphanous wings. Goblinda, at the edge of the forest, thinks it's adorable.
- Mother Flotsam's cat does not think it's adorable as the tadpole summons a glowing orb that splits into countless shards that hit it from every angle. A scrap of fur floats down to an aghast Mother Flotsam, whose taxidermied cat is rapidly gaining new life as a far stiffer replacement familiar.

--- Weaponised Featherfall
- Fuck this tadpole. Mother Flotsam is going to take revenge for her dearly departed cat!
- She waves to get the tadpole's attention, and it descends slowly towards her. She sees leaves and detritus lifting into the air around her, then she starts floating up towards it!
- In the bubble, Benito asks how to kill the thing. The Red Elves tell him that it can't be killed, but luckily it has only an hour or so of aether to breathe in a bubble around itself. Wait it out and it has to return to space.
- Mother Flotsam floats up close enough to the creature to cast Feather Fall, and she and the tadpole are now forced to float down to the ground at a gradual rate. Effectively, it's trapped!

--- Firing my Laser
- The creature's huge eyes gaze at Mother Flotsam as it summons another huge glowing orb in front of its face. She realises that it's about to fire again, and after a brief flirtation with turning herself to Flesh Goop (which only makes one immune to weapon damage) she scrabbles around in her pockets for something that will save her!
- The orb charges up, nearly ready to pop.
- The not-a-witch frantically rummaging through her pockets, werthers originals and forgotten objects scattering to the ground below...
- The orb shatters into fragments! They scythe through the air, straight into her body and -
- ...stop.
- The empty bottle of Spell Ward falls from her hand. Just in time!

--- Skeleton Style: Upscaled Gulliver Technique
- With the tadpole locked down by Featherfall, the others come bursting from the treeline to help kill it!
- Masvani-i-Manavi's skeletons charge in with grappling hooks, whipping them upwards at the tadpole to snare its wings. Goblinda's goblins help grab the ropes and wrestle off against the flying beast.
- Benito runs in from the lone bubble, goes straight to Masvani, and says "throw me at that thing!"
- Masnavi delivers, ordering his hybrid crab-throne-creature to use its prehensile shield-wielding tail to catapult Benito up at the tadpole. It works!
- Benito smacks into the tadpole's face and attempts to mind control it!



- Alas, no. Stunned, Benito slides off and crunches into the ground below. At least he's got about a quarter less mass than your average person, so he bounces!

--- Minion Massacre
- The tadpole, assuming Mother Flotsam is simply immune to magic from the evidence available, starts spamming magic missiles at the skeletons and goblins pulling it down.
- It also extends its bubble of aether in a cone to the ground, encompassing Mother Flotsam and Benito in a field of thin unbreathable quintessence. Benito begins to "drown".
- Mother Flotsam grabs Benito and carries them both out of the field. Benito chucks a molotov at the tadpole's landing site, making the monster scream!
- Alas, on landing the creature is finally free of the Feather Fall, and swiftly reorients itself to zoom off into space! The skeletons attached by grapple fly up too, eventually losing their grip and falling to shatter on the ground below.

--- Friends to the Red Elves
- The Red Elves emerge from their bubbles ecstatic! These heroes actually chased it off!
- The party get more information from the grateful Elves. Mars has vanished, and those Red Elves upon it died and were reborn over and over until they became the tadpole creatures that could survive in space.
- These space tadpoles have invaded the moon bases which the "normal" Red Elves had been developing, forcing the Red Elves to escape in their bubble-craft to the Earth's surface.
- Of course, getting through the protective Wheel formed by the Gods required express permission. Deusix, pragmatic and just, let them through.
- Hearing that the town of Bell is nearby, the Elves set their bubble-craft to rolling mode and begin pushing them through the woods. Hopefully the people of Bell will be ok with these interplanetary refugees staying a while!

Total: 9000 exp


Enemies Defeated:
- A Space Tadpole, forced to flee (150 exp)
Total: 150 exp


Exp Totals:
- Carter / Masvani-I-Manavi, Level 5 Necromancer: 32402 (Level up at 36000)
- Charles / Benito Brazil, Level 5 Halfling: 28649 (Level up at 32000)
- Kitty / Mother Flotsam, Level 5 Magic-User: 21682 (Level up at 36000)
- Zoë / Goblinda, Level 4 Goblin: 12335 (Level up at 16000)

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