Call of the Netherdeep session 6

Rangu, Woolf and Jazco head out to check on Ayo. They head towards the infirmary and come across the sacrifice engine. It's a pit with lines of silver blades. The doors of the infirmary have signs of a hand, that glows slightly with magic. Inside, the place is packed with beds, with injured soldiers resting and sleeping. It stinks. We notice a female drow priest chatting with another female drow. The priest, Bautha Dyrr heals up me and rara, 13 points for me and 11 points for Rara. I return almost to full health. She looks at Rara and asks what happened to her. Rara says she was eaten by a Gloomstalker, and asks if she can be returned to her original appearance. 

Dyrr says that healing that kind of injury takes a long time, and requires really powerful magic. Dyrr is dressed in very simple dark grey clothes. On her lapel, there is a pin in the shape of a black wing. It is the holy symbol of Xalicas, a legendary solar who served as the right hand of Corellon The Arch Heart before falling in the Calamity. He did not die, but even the gods could not heal him up. During the calamity, the Gods put up a gate to keep out demons. Xalicas was unable to fly or see. She still walks around with blindfolds over his eyes, gathering followers in Wildemounts, attempting to heal the war scarred lands and healing. She lends her powers to creatures she feels are worthy. She cannot escape Exandria. 

We ask her about Ayp. Dyrr says that the party came to help them, and points towards a door and says, "They are in the other hall. Just go through there and you will be able to find them." 

Woolf does a vibe check and senses some amount of sadness and disdain in her voice when she mentions the dead and wounded, almost as if her heart isn't in what she is doing. Woolf senses some conflict, but does not understand why there is some conflict. Dyrr says, "If you need any healing, you can always come back here, and I will help all I can. Be careful and try not to make too much noise."

We make our way towards Ayo, and the person that we see her talking to, calls out to us. "Hey! Hi! You there! Could you help me out a bit please" The female drow guard. Naevyn puts her hand in her mattress and takes out a small carving of a rabbit. It is made out of bone of some sort. "I was planning on visiting the wall of the forgotten... before the mouthers attacks..." Woolf asks "are you dying?" Naevyn says "all of us are this place. If you don't mind, I'm going to rest now." She then passes out. 

We make our way to Ayo's gang, who seem pretty okay even though they took some scraps. "You guys here, that means you guys took care of the creatures." There is a massive hole in the wall, that is splattered with black ichor. The hole is also why Maggie is in the room. "Yeah we had a fight. We killed a bunch of them, and the guards herded the remaining mouthers into the pits, and someone turned on the lever, and it was...." "Glorious" Galsariad finishes. 'Remember the thing that attacked us outside with the guards? We had one of those here as well. It got cordoned off into that spinny thingy of death. Also, amazing news, we have a sponsor for a mission. We were fighting, and Maggie came crashing through after she tackled one of these creatures. Inside was this lady lying down on one of the beds. After everything got over, she hired us to take her in. We are headed on a mission to the Betrayer's Rise. We are going on our own adventure now." Galsariad looks happy, while the others look grim. Ayo says. "This is where we part ways then. We are in Baxxozan for a bit. Best of luck to you guys/"

Rangu goes hugs Maggie goodbye. It is very weird, she is on her knees and pats Rangu on the head. Galsariad and Yazhi exchange looks, and Woolf does another vibe (insight) check. Dermot comes up to us and says, "We are staying at the Ready Room. Maybe you will see us there sometime. It is right next door. Farewell then, best of luck to you all." Then scurries back. Ayo and her group have taken their leave, looking for adventures of their own. 

Woolf asks where the wall of the unforgotten is to an injured man, who says it is behind the Ready Room. We see a massive double door, on which hangs a sign that says "The Ready Room" in undercommon, orc, goblin and common. We continue walking past that, and just behind the Ready Room, where the inn ends, we see a stretch of a stone wall carved with name, reeking of dried flowers.  There are necklaces and charms that are hanging or in front of the wall. The ground is strewn with trinkets.

There is a man in a grey robe preying in front of the wall, with a chitinous armour. The drow who was praying says "Be respectful, they have earned their rest." I tell him a soldier gave this to me to place at the wall. "He takes the trinket, looks at it, and says, "This is a practice taken up by the younger soldiers, if they cannot make it" He places the the figuring near the others, then continues praying. After he is done, he gives Woolf, Rara and Me a Mote of Possibility by blessing us. We can get an advantage roll any time. He utters the words, "Blessings of the Luxom be upon you." 

The priest has a heavily scarred face. He then gets back to his prayers. We then head to the Ready Room. It's the afternoon and there aren't many people. The place seems like a typical in. There are tables, chairs. There is one old orc drinking by himself in the corner, eyeing us as we enter. In the far end there is a bar, with a woman cleaning. Far away, there is a drow in normal clothes, taking care of the bar and not noticing us approach, On the side of the bar, there are also tools, and weapons and supplies. There is food and rations hanging from the bar. The bartender is not paying us any attention at this point. The bartender is named Prima. "We don't have much of a selection. The beer is decent, the whiskey is shitty. We have food and rooms as well. 

Woolf, me and Rara meet the others in the Ready Room. Yazhi guesses that the priest gave us a blessing. Woolf says "We got touched by a priest." Both me and Yazhi go "Ooookay". The bar is also a general store and has a bunch of supplies. Rara is interested in the weapons. We buy a longbow and a thief's kit by paying almost double for it. We also get two rooms. 

A woman in blue robes walks down and passes us, without giving us a second look. She seems to be carrying a sketchbook though. She has monastic robes. They are very simple rooms. There are just mattresses, and a stool, no cupboards. Both the rooms are the same size, but have different layouts. There are two corridors in the inn. A section of rooms, corridor, another section of rooms, and a corridor, and another corridor that connects the two corridors. 

We gather in room 7. Rara is caressing her new longbow. The others talk and make plans while I fall asleep. 

The others meet a blogger called Question. 

Met a bunch of Clubhouse friends today

 So my first clubhouse meet took place. We initially planned to go to Social at Cyber Hub, at 2:30. I took the metro, switched over to the "rapid line" from the yellow line, which goes in a stupid little circuit and arrived at the place at around 2:00. The Google Maps location was wrong, so I corrected it. So the social looks really cool, with small little booths that are done up like apartments. But one of the people was pissed that we had to order using a qr code and an app, so we hightailed from that place. 

We went to another place next to the Drunken Botanist, which had really good food, and the bar kept giving us complementary shots, so it was a fun experience. Got to talk to a lot of new people, and everyone was really kind and friendly. Four of us made the journey back in the metro as well, which was fun too. 

Mongi Lal and Dingu Daaku

My dog stepped on a bee

I could not pee

Kaindi kudi something si

How did Babur go home so quickly?

He knew a short cut

Mongoli Lal's chatta baccha kho gya

What do you call a person who does not fart in public?

A private tooter

What do you call a sleeping dinosaur?

A dino-snore?

How do you cut a sea in half?

With a see-saw

What do you call a fish with no eyes?

A fish. 

Phone pe shembud gir jayega

Why was the mushroom always invited to the party?

Because he was the only fungi

I woke up a bit early, jumped into clubhouse and walked into a bunch of craziness. 

Oh, also had a dream. Was going to dinner, at an apartment overlooking pools. There were violet and white candles. Menu was thai. Taking a nap again. Bye. 

Dungeons and Dragons - Call of the Netherdeep Session 5

Rara wants to investigate the well, with elcato helping everyone with the investigation. Yazhi sends his white owl skeleton into the well. At the bottom of the well, the owl finds the top bit of a skull. Rara tries to draw two specs on Yazhi, who feels it and slaps her hand away. The skeleton is 64 feet below. Yazhi uses his catapult to extract the skull after bending into the skull. El Cato tries to catch it, but misses, but Yazhi catches it. 

We have one skull of a creature. It looks humanoid, but we cannot figure out if its a human or an elf. The box fits into by backpack so I keep it. Yazhi fastens the skull to his belt. Galsariad gives him a weird looks and walks away. 

We then continue on our path, happy with what we have accomplished. We face no new challenges on the road, and set up camp. The next day we all wake up with a little burst of energy and excitement. We see this red mountain range towards the east. We know that somewhere of that base is the city of Bazoxxan. 

While we are travelling, we are sticking to the path, and not travelling through the wilderness. On the path, we often see aurora watch patrolmen resting on the sides or walking along the path minding their own business. These are the only other travelers we see on the journey. It does not surprise us when we see around six to seven aurora watch patrolmen when they are ambushed by a creature. 

We cannot see the creature. They enter into a formation and start fighting the creature. Woolf, Jazco and Yazhi hide. Rangu wants to fight, and so do I. We roll for initiative.  

Ayo attacks with the longbow and misses both times. Dermot attacks but can't do much. Galsariad attacks and does 12 points of necrotic damage to the monster. Irvan cannot do anything and goes closer. Maggie also edges closer, but cannot attack at this point. The creature continues to attack the soldiers around it. Jazco sneaks up to the action, while staying hidden. Rara also edges closer, and is just out of reach. 

Rara casts the Crimson Right bonus action, cutting herself a bit and letting the blood fall on the crossbow, which absorbs it and starts shining in a crimson glow. 

The guildmaster goes 'Jesus Christ'. 

Rara sees very little of the monster, but manages to shoot it. Rangu lobs some cards towards the creature, but misses and hits Maggie instead. It grazes her armour, and Maggie glares at Rangu and asks, "What are you doing?"

I hear the sound of a rock closeby, I turn around and see another creature just looking around, not taking any action, but ready to pounce. I lob three magic missiles at the creature, doing 13 points of force damage. The other creature is about 20 feet away, and on a ledge that is 20 feet high. Woolf looks at the second creature and casts bane on it. The Bane does not work. Woolf tries to scoonch around the edge of the rock.

It's the guards turn now. 4 of the guards are poisoned, while 2 manage to escape the effect. The 4 have to fight with a disadvantage. One of them manage hit it with a longsword attack, dealing 10 points of damage. Yazhi attacks. Dermot listens to me and does a searing wrath attack, which hits, blinding the creature. Galsariad also turns its attention to the one behind and does the same attack, drawing dark shadows from the body of the creature. Irvan goes right next to the monster and does a twin dagger attack, the first one hits, doing two points of damage with his little knives. Maggie comes down on the monster with a giant maul, but ends up going right into the hit, taking 7 points of bludgeoning damage. 

Now the first monster attacks the first guard, biting down on him. The guard's body is shredded by the creature. The second monster scrambles down, but takes a misstep because he is blinded and falls flat down on the ground, and is also prone, using up half its movement to get up. 

Jazco makes his way straight towards the monster in a running dash and attacks with his rapier. Rara attacks with her crossbow, and does 13 points of damage, and then curses it with the Bloodcurse of Bloated Agony. Vermillion arcane wisps surround the monster and go into his body, making him sluggish in his movements. Rangu tries to lob cards, and uses his bonus action to summon tentacles to attack the monsters. I split chaos bolt and hit both of them. Woolf tells the second monster 'your catwalk stinks' and casts vicious mockery. Then Woolf gives me bardic inspiration. 

The guards fight back a bit, but are struggling. Ayo misses again. Dermot has an advantage and does 7 points of radiant damage. (Guildmaster says so much maths). Dermot rushes up to the monster and makes a warhammer attack, but the hammer bounces off the natural armour. Galsariad makes the same attack again, and has advantage, dealing 26 points of damage. 

That's an insane round from the spellcasters. 

Irvan continues to attack the monsters with daggers, and misses on both attacks. Maggie gets poisoned, and has disadvantage on the attack, taking 6 points of damage. 

The monster attacks guard and hits two guards. Jazco is about to attack with a rapier, but gets poisoned and feels like throwing up. Rara attacks and deals 11 points of damage and looks super weak. Rara amplifies it by cutting her middle finger. Rangu sends out tentacles that straighten up and then converge at the mosnter, blooming like a flower with cards on the tips of the tentacles. The tentacles rotate very fast brrr and release cards one after the other, slicing through the middle parts of the monster. I bless Galsariad, Dermot and Yazhi. Woolf casts some spell and lies down. 

One of the guards tries to resuscitate the guard that went down. The other guards start moving towards the other monster, stepping over Woolf. Yazhi attacks. 

Ayo finally manages to hit the creature with a longbow, but the creature is unfortunately resistant to the damage. Dermot jumps up the monster's knees and sticks his Warhammer into the creature's mouth, puts the other arm into the creature's mouth and lets off a bolt of energy that lights up the monster, and them summersaults backwards. The creature falls down next to Dermot. 

"That was pretty cool wasn't it, I usually don't get carried away like that." Dermot rushes to the other guard who is bleeding on the ground and casts spare the dying, and then casts cure wounds as well, healing him up a bit. 

The other guards come up to us and say, "That was quite an event, we had no idea where they came up from. Aren't you guys from the emerald loop caravan stop?"

Yazhi and and Rara go to investigate the bodies, and Rara is angry that her one drop of blood got wasted. Similar to the Udaak, the Gloomstalker, and the Roc, all of the fiends seem to dissolve and evaporate after being killed. A similar thing happens to the creatures, their bodies cannot sustain themselves in this plane of existence, and turn into pools and puddle of black ichor. 

Rara is about to kick the creature but stops herself remembering what happened the last time she does that. One of the guards who was right next to the fallen guard, thanks him. "Looks like Will is really, really hurt and we want to take him to Bazoxxan." Rara checks the guards and senses that they are all somewhat relieved right now. 

The guards offer to travel with us to Bazzoxan. Dermot smiles and nods at us. Ayo goes up to Jazco and says "This might actually be a good thing. From what I have heard, getting into Bazoxxan might have been a tough thing to get in without these guards."

Jazco says "Yeah I was pretty ready to fight."

Ayo says "yeah things worked out well."

Jazco quizzes Ayo on what the team was planning during the event, and Ayo tells her she was planning to have a go at the event on her own, angering Galsariad. Ayo does an insight check and realises she is telling the truth. "I wanted to see how good I am against you people, and I wanted to do it on my own." Jazco tells, "Dermot told us to tell you something after the event, but I cannot remember what it was." Ayo says "They just wanted to know what to do after the event, but that worked out well doesn't it. The celebration after the competition, oof." Jazco does another check, and understands that Ayo seems to blurt everything out, and easily shows the emotions she is feeling. " Thanks for being straight with me. I come from a pretty not-so-ethical collective, some might call it a cult, but I don't like cults. I just wanted to know you guys." 

Ayo asks, "What are your plans?" Jazco says, "My father has a business. He is in the trade business. My brother is posing a bit of a problem in taking over. I'm adventuring right now, going wherever life takes me, and prove my mettle." Ayo asks "What about the jewel, what was that all about. We all know that you have visions, what did you hear? What did we see?" Jazco describes the vision to Ayo. Ayo says, "It sounds like you were chosen, what would I not give to be in your position. That is what I wanted my entire life, to be adventurer, and have my name spoken about throughout the world."

The hurt guard is moaning, despite the restored health, so we start moving towards the east. Dermot tends to the hurt guard a bit, poking his innards back into place. It takes us a night and half a day to reach Bazoxxan. When we wake up in the morning, we have levelled up! But fuck me because while adding HP, I rolled 5 straight 1s followed by a 2. That was such a streak of bad luck for me that people thought that DND Beyond was glitched. 

We have a discussion on what passive investigation is all about, which God says has mostly to do with detecting traps. 

We start walking eastwards, the red mountain range starts getting closer and closer. Around afternoon, we see hints of the city. There are tall dark spires jutting out from the red sandstone. There are two spires in particular that are looming over the city. We have heard of the place, The Betrayer's Rights, a fortress leftover from during the calamity. A vast gate blocks all entry to the military outpost of Bazoxxan which was once a city, sitting in the shadows of the Betrayer's Rights. 

Crumbling beneath the Betrayer's Rights are crumbling iron structures. We can see Aurora Watch soldiers patrolling the walls. We make our way towards the gate, by which time it is noon. As we approach, a guard on the wall notices us walking towards the city. 

"Identify yourselves"

"Friends of the Dynasty, we are guards of Bazoxxan, these people helped us fight some Hezrous, one of us is injured, let us in."

There is a scraping noise and the gate opens. The guards take their leave. One of the guards says, "There is a sort of inn in this place. Just head north, past the engine of destruction and the whirling blades, you should be able to see the Ready Room. Maybe I can introduce you to the task hand Verin Thelyss, who is in charge and will be happy that you have helped us. Best of luck to you, try to stay out of trouble and take care." The wounded guard is still limping and needs the help of the two guards to walk. 

We start making our way through the town and notice that everyone here seems to be a soldier. The more perceptive ones do see some who are soldiers, who seem to be scurrying busily carrying boxes or caskets. While talking to the bugbear and the drow, we hear a rumbling. The two scurry off. 

We start walking, past a weathered looking bugbear fixing a wheelchair while a drow with crutches waiting for the bugbear to finish. The drow seems like a young guy and has a morose look. Jazco stays "you don't look particularly happy." "It's Bazzoxan, what is there to be happy about?" The bugbear gives a chuckle. 

With three thumps, two hands and a tentacles reach around a building. It is a fleshy creature with many appendages, many eyes and many mouths sort of rolls and slides out from the side of a building, followed by four more. Trumpets are blaring all around. We hear marching and clinking of armour. We hear the soldiers of the aurora watch, drows, bugbears and orcs rushing towards the commotion. Right through us, a drow stands in front of us taking a look at the situation 

The drow says get ready to fight or run to safety. Ayo and team run off to safety. We face the creatures. 

We roll for initiative. 

Verin casts fairy fire, and then he uses his bonus action to create an echo of himself that is grey in colour, but on the top of one of the roofs, that is doing the same actions as Verin. The creatures are gibbering mouthers. 

Yazhi attacks with his dagger. The ground that he is moving on is moving like how dough would move. It is not sticky, but it is like stepping on quicksand, but not sinking through. As Yazhi starts making his way to the creatures, he starts hearing whispering and clacking noises, but Yazhi fights the effect, and attacks them with daggers. Rangu is up next and attacks them with tentacles. 

Rara says its Urotsukidoji. 

The creatures are easy to hit, and the cards slice through them easily. Some of the tentacles get cut away. Wolf attacks next, and hides behind the statue. Rara tries to climb a building and almost falls down, then thinks about casting darkness on Rangu, but instead casts crimson right on herself and attacks the gibbering mouther in the centre, dealing 11 points of damage. The guards move in and attack the mouthers with their spears. Jazco uses the Jewel of Three Prayers and moves towards the 'bozos' and attacks M1 with a rapier. 

Jazco is not sure if he is a thief or an assassin, finds out it is the former. 

I cast Melf's Minute Meteors, and six balls of lava surround me, emanating light and heat. One of the mouthers burn to a crisp, with flames coming out of its many mouths, and slumps into a formless flat shape. Then it starts dissolving into a pool of black ichor. Another one goes down too. 

Three of the mouthers eject a blog of green goo that explodes in a blinding flash of light. I am the only one blinded. 

I am in character, I cannot see anything happening at this point :)

I unblind myself, and then cast the two meteorites right between the two pairs of mouthers, managing to kill one of them. 

M2 goes towards one of the guards, opens its mouth wide and beheads the guard, and with another mouth, absorbs the body of the guard into itself. The guard is gone. One of the mouthers bites me all over and I take 15 points of damage. 

Verin regains consciousness, somehow breaks free of the effect of the mouthers, overcoming the noise invading his brain and rushes towards towards M5 making 3 glaive attacks, all of which hit, doing 29 points of damage, shredding M5 completely into tiny ribbons. Then Verin creates another copy of himself, exactly where he was. Yazhi is pretty far away but nonetheless has to make a wisdom saving throw, succeeds, and walks back into the fight, catapults a barrel at M3, dealing 20 points of bludgeoning damage. Yazhi walks up angrily, points at a barrel on the ground, swings her arm catapulting the creature away with it, up into the air, falling somewhere far away. Yazhi stabs the last mouther, which is a glorified letter opener. Rangu manages to make the wisdom saving throw, and uses the bonus action first to attack with the tentacles, dealing 12 points of cold damage. Then walks up to M3, extends his little finger and casts inflict wounds. 

The creature withers away, and is dropping bits of pus on the ground. Woolf fails the wisdom saving throw. Rara gets a nat 20 on the wisdom saving throw, and an unnatural 20 on the strength saving throw, and attacks the M3. Rara uses the crossbow to turn it into ribbons, making a gaping hole right in the centre, finally killing it. 

We have finally taken care of the immediate danger. We continue to hear alarm bells and horns from the city, that go on for an additional five minutes before finally coming to a stop. People start stepping out of their houses, looking around, and getting back to business. The bugbear and the drow come back out from a different place than they were originally, and continue working on the wheelchair. 

We see around us, many aurora watch people heading towards one place in the city, carrying wounded people, some being held up by the guards, others in stretchers. Verin looks at all of us, and says "Huh, well done. That's quite a complicated arrival for you guys. I would like to apologise on behalf of the people of Bazzoxan for this very unceremonious welcome. My name is Verin Thelyss, I am the task hand of Bazzoxan. I would like to thank you all for your help and assistance during the attack. You should meet me later at the barracks. I am usually around the baracks or the infirmary. I need to be on my way now making sure there are no stragglers." Then he walks away with the guard. 

Dream Diary urban exploration edition

I was visiting a relative's place. It was a swanky apartment complex. It was my aunt, living on the ground floor. It was a massive apartment complex with a huge lobby, similar to a hotel. Just off the lobby were additional spaces for residents to chill. There was a one seater sofa in a corner, with some potted plants, where one person could potentially sit and work or game or something. 

My aunt's house was at the end of a long corridoor. There was a bunch of rooms, with the kitchen just off the living room. The living room was strange in the sense that it had extreme French windows on all four walls, which was basically floor to ceiling glass with no frame. There was a white boundary marked about two feet from the edge of the glass walls, beyond which was a field, where people were playing cricket. 

This was not India, it was some south east Asian country, such as Malaysia or Indonesia, I forgot which, but the country had a definite name within the dream, and was directly mentioned. I went outside to explore the place. 

It was a huge ground, enough for 10 cricket stadiums to fit within it. There was an old, crumbling amphitheater, hat was split up into different parts. Instead of forming one continuous circle, there were four sections at the four corners of the field. 

The one on the top left had only one statue on the top. The one on the bottom right had a lineup of five intact statues. I started going around the field in a clockwise direction. Looking at all the scenery, I decided to take out my phone and take photos. Much to my surprise I found that I had a square iPhone! 

Somehow, within my dream I rationalised that this was a novelty device that was very good at taking photos. It is very close to this render that I found online: 

Only thing is there was a Joy-Con controller like attachment on the bottom which had a USB-C port, with a single belly button in the middle. That attachment made it look more like a regular iPhone. 

The bottom left corner had a temple, with the walls having some kind of old motifs. The temple was filled with Hijras, and I was taking photos. In one of the photos, there was a mirror, and other people were coming in the frame, and I feared they would scold me for taking photos without permission, but they smiled at me, not the camera, seemed to understand my plight, and did not seem bothered by my photography. In a room adjacent to the one with the mirror, people were serving food, like the traditional Brahmin food served in weddings, but in a buffet system where people had to collect the food, instead of the servers going around distributing it. 

I did not eat. 

My relatives had to go out later in the day, and I had to catch my flight back before that, and they were making food just for me, which I was to eat once I was done with my urban exploration. 

I then headed towards the middle of the field, which had some old giant eroded sandstone blocks, think red stonehenge in a billion years. There was a pig near one of the blocks, a bull near another. I avoided the animals. Right at the centre of the field was what looked like a dilapitated building, which had graffiti and vegetation growing all over it, and a crowd of kids doing nefarious activities. 

Seemed like a cool place to hang out, so I went towards it. There was a gate next to the building, and I peeked inside. Two people were sitting behind a table, with a money box on top. Beyond them was a shaded area, where there were a lot of plastic tables and chairs, where a seedy crowd was drinking and eating questionable meat. 

I did not eat or drink. 

I turned around and hopped on to the front seat of an auto guy, who was headed out towards the gate. He ignored me while I hitched the ride. I remembered thinking of paying the richshaw guy but realising I had only rupees. That country dealt in Rupaiyahs. I imagined within the dream, the rickshaw driver going home to his wife and showing off the fancy Indian currency he got from a strange, lanky customer who rode on the edge of the front frame of the rickshaw, even though the back seat was empty. 

People were playing cricket. There were two people in the middle of the field, and they started swimming through the field! One went off to the bottom left, and the other went towards the abandoned building in the middle. 

I then went to the bottom right amphitheater, and photographed a lone statue of an angel. Several vultures flocked around it. Below is a very accurate recreation. If there was a machine that could record dreams, this is exactly what it would have seen: 

Then I went back home, where the home cooked food was waiting for me. I left my shoes right next to the door, and went inside. I woke up just as I entered the kitchen. 

Dungeons and Dragons - Call of the Netherdeep Sessions 3 and 4

 After encountering the gloomstalkers and nearly dying, we encounter the corpse of an Udaak, an enormous creature. A bunch of quasits and vrocks from inside it emerge and we have to fight them too. We do that, and then carry on. Rara comes out of her cocoon during the fight. 

We also encounter the corpse of a gloomstalker, that Rara kicks out of pent up hatred. The gloomstalker, in a last gasp of life consumes Rara entirely. We have to cut her out, and they barely survive. We carry on, and see a board saying 'The Emaraland Loop Caravan Stop'. 

That was the last session that I did not document, because I spent half of it sleeping, because of the heat wave. 

The caravan spot is a lively place with a lot of laughter, grunts and growls. We think there is something moving in the forest, but when we turn around, there is nothing there. Rangu looks around with his elf eyes and see trees all around, and some branches moving in the trees. Jazco does a history check and remembers that there was a tree ent here that gew the forest in the middle of the wasteland and handed over its care to dryads. 

We enter the clearing and see this huge horizonback tortoise, on top of which is a homestead for a goblin family, that is going in and out. There are a bunch of small tents, as well as a few wagons. There are people sitting around a large fire, sitting, cooking, playing instruments and generally passing the time. When we walk in, the music temporarily stops, people size us up and continue with whatever they were doing.

This is the Emerald Loop Caravan Stop. 

As soon as we start walking towards the fire, Justice walks up to us with Rice Pudding and says, "You guys made it! Well done. Just as promised, I have a reward for you. Give me a second will you?" He heads to one of the covered wagons, and gets us a package. "It is not much, it is what I have, and this is for you, for saving my life, from the bottom of my heart."

Woolf takes it from Justice, opens up the bag, and finds 55 gold pieces. Everyone pretends to be really impressed. There is a big mammoth cooking and Jazco asks if there are any Mammoth related drugs, perhaps those used to tranquilise them. Justice goes back to the wagon, comes back, and gives us all a bunch of googles. "These will help you see better in the night, and if you can already see in the night, it will help you see better". 

We go towards the centre, and there is a giant pot of food over the fire. There is a drow in an apron, who is constantly taking out some and serving people. There is another cauldron that has been taken off the fire and put on the side. When we go closer and see the drow, she seems to be wearing the thin armour, and wearing the armour on top. 

Once we go closer, we see large chunks of meat floating up on the cauldron. We also see large, thick pieces of red kor'rundl , which is a vegetable we are all familiar with. The drow, Gaeya welcomes us and ask us to eat the best mastodon kor'rundl found anywhere out of some place. 

The meat splits apart beautifully and it is very delicious. Jazco scores some booze from a pair of bugbear merchants, and sits down to drink with them. Jazco offers drinks for everyone, and we are immediately surrounded by a bunch of drow soldiers. Irvan and Valsariad walks towards us. We all start having a nice time. 

There are also some goblins in the circle, who keep to themselves. Jazco goes asks them if they are liking the drinks. One of the goblin says "we are not having any drinks". Jazco asks them "what brings you here?" "We are visiting our relatives, thank you for the offer."

"We came from Roshanna, it has been some time, it is big strain. Someone is an oldling" Jazco shows off el cato and the goblins comment that we do not see cats as pets here. Jazco says that offends el cato, and asks if we are new in these areas. Jazco says, "obviously, we are getting to know people here." The goblin says cats are a delicacy and they are all eaten up in Roshanna. The guards also get out their alcohol, which is some local shit. 

Jazco raises a toast to mingling and diversity, and Rangu casts silence. Jazco continues with her speech without people realising that she is silenced. Some tears form in Jazco's eyes, but none fall. 

Basim says everyone mute her. 

Everyoone is looking at Jazco with a puzzled expression on their faces, who has climbed on top of a wagon to deliver her speech. Rangu explains to the others that Jazco is doing some weird stretches and yoga. Jazco goes down on her knees, then jumps down. Rangu removes silence, and everyone is slow clapping. Yazhi casts minor illusion to show things crawling under his skin, and shows it to one of the drow guards, "look my skin is crawling with because of second hand embarrassment."

Jazco goes and bear hugs Yazhi, and continues to have a meltdown, mumbling something about her father. Rangu makes el cato appear back on Jazco's head, which consoles him a bit. We continue drinking and till the night dies down. 

While all of this is happening, Yazhi are approached by Irvan, and he says, "Hey, just let me if I am out of line here or anything, but are you consecrated?" Yazhi says "no", "So you are not a part of any family or clans?" "So are you planning on getting on consecrated, any plans of going and joining a house?" 

Yazhi thinks for a bit, and is unsure. "Uhh... I don't know, I am not much of a peoples person, I am not confident, plus I have a history with them that... well... let us just say I have reasons to not trust them. How about you?"

They are called Dens. 

Yazhi asks how long Irvan has been with his crew, and Irvan says about a year. He went from Jidao, and had worked with the wastewalkers, and my dress continues to be scary, but look at my body, it is not much. Then he says "Seems like you have a history. If I ever make my way back, maybe I can put in a good word for you. Yazhi says, "I do not know if I want to get back to that, maybe if we stick around for a bit, I will think about it, you are a pretty good travel mate." "I do not want to be on your bad side."

"Is Galsariad consecrated?" "Yes, for a few years." Galsariad and Yazhi talk for a bit, then Yazhi heads back. Jazco is sleeping with his drink and having a good time. Galsariad nods towards Jazco and says "maybe let him know that the dagger that he got belongs to a pair of wastewalkers sitting at the edge of the circle. 

Woolf sits near the fire for the longest, and hears loud snoring coming from the Horizonback Tortoise. Woolf interviews the acorn sisters, which is a name given to them by people. They are caretakers of the forest. "We take care of the forest for the wild mother. We try and diffuse some of the corruption that plagues this land. We don't know how many other forests are there, but we know of this and this is our home, and it is our responsibility to take care of the forest."

"What is your opinion of the Changebringer."

"The Changebringer is one of the gods, who is a betrayer. The followers are good and serve this world, and they are our allies." 

Woolf casts detect thoughts, and senses no thoughts. Woolf asks about favorite spots in the forest, and the Dryad says west and east, when the sun rises and the sun sets. Rara asks if there is any demonic energy in the circle, and gets a feeling of unease from the Dryad who asks "if there is anyone I should be worried about." 

Woolf thanks for the Dryad for the interview, and heads out to take care of the forest, after giving an unnatural bow. Woolf takes down some notes, and looks at Rara. Rara is covered in scars and boils. Rara was very pretty before being swallowed up by the Gloomstalker. Woolf casts detect thoughts on Rara, and only gets thoughts of snoring, as Rara is not dreaming yet. Rara is thinking about putting constipation potion into someone's food. Woolf casts lesser restoration on Rara, who does not wake up, but Rara twitches a bit. That's about it. Woolf does not see much changes on Rara's body. Some of the rashes are clearing up, but some of the boils are growing larger. 

Woolf checks to see if there are any new boils cropping up, and there does not seem like there is anything new. We all get two hit points except Yazhi, who is a loser vegetarian. There is an acorn right next to Woolf on waking up. Woolf casts identify on the acorn and finds out that it is a charm of vitality. 

The drow guards have disappeared in the morning. The two bugbears have set up shop. Jazco goes over to their shop to get something for the hangover. They offer a healing potion for 40 gold pieces, but Jazco does not have the money and goes away. 

In the morning, we approach the two wastewalkers, who become all defensive. Jazco says "we heard you lost something, we want to help you find it." One of the wastewalkers says "we haven't lost anything." Rangu says "not even a parent". "What do you know about that?"

Rangu says "at the party last night, we were told that one of the wastewalkers we encountered was your father."

"There was a hunting party, and many were lost, one of them was our father. What is it to you though?" 

Jazco tries to bargain without revealing anything about the dagger. One of them starts walking away, the other one holds him back. "We would like you to be direct". "I have your father's dagger." 

"When I was a young boy. I have trust issues. My father never kept his word to me. I have never had a best friend."

Yazhi casts charm person from a distance, but is not successful and continues with his story. "All I want to do is have transactional relationships, and I can never build real relationships with anyone, Rangu is a gambler."

One of the humans takes out a battleaxe and says they don't have any money. Jazco says "it is your birthright", and immediately grabs the battle axe. The two humans go into a corner and start examining the dagger. 

Yazhi says something to Jazco, who says "what the fuck dude, no one asked you for your opinion." Yazhi walks away and catapults a rock towards Jazco, which misses by a wide margin. 

We head eastwards, and Maggie points out to some smoke emerging a little more eastwards. Of course, we head towards the smoke. The source of the smoke is an overturned wagon. It is lying on the side of the road in a ditch. The creature that pulled it is nowhere is to be found. 

I crouch down and entered the wagon, there are rations and turned over crates, there's clothes and everything is dirty and unkempt. As I walk inside, suddenly the inside of the wagon starts glowing brighter, three balls of light start glowing. 

Enter combat. We all start fighting the three evil orbs of light. Instead of making a blow by blow account of the fight, I made this poster. 

Three more wisps come out of the wagon. They fight with the party. One of them shocks Maggie. We eventually kill all the sprites. I get a Charm of Restoration. Yazhi gets some Hill giant Strength potion and nicks 55 gold without anyone seeing. I want to take all the rations and if possible, the box. Rara wants to investigate the well. 

Frustrated with Swiggy delivery partners

 I am really frustrated with Swiggy delivery partners. They just show up beneath the building and say "I am standing here".

I am so tempted to tell them, well it is your choice, please continue to stand for as long as you want. I also want to ask them if I should dance.

These fellows do not seem to understand the concept of home delivery. There are plenty of places to eat right outside my house, so if I am going down at all, I can easily eat in any of those places.  

At times they get lost, and then don't follow the instructions, even though I have put in very precise directions to guide them home. I had to tell this one fellow 20 times to get out of where he was, and he just was not listening to me and insisting he was searching around in the right location. The app also does not show the accurate location. 

Fuck Delhi and its stupid delivery partners. 

Middle of the night

 I have found a nice group on Clubhouse, we play codenames, jklm, smash karts, stumble guys, songlio and some other games. 

I woke up in the middle of the night to eat sprouts salad, pop corn and finished watching all episodes of Big Fat Quiz. Im sad the content ran out. 

Despite my skinnyness, my beanbag is getting increasingly deflated every day, and I am fighting a losing battle in trying to maintain its shape. I have had to push up my rented Bounce from Furlenco increasingly closer to the bean bag, and use pillows to support my back. I don't know how much longer the beanbag will last. :(

The other two pieces of the Bounce now form my bed. 

I had a dream yesterday which had a really funny joke that I forgot, of two brothers, Marco and Paulo, who are searching for each other. I also saw some movie within the dream that had 50s GI Joe movie, complete with what Im going to refer to as retro filters in my millenial lingo. The other one was like a paper cut out animation with a TRex in one window screaming at some dude in another window. I was watching it with some mysterious figure.

The nightmares and sleep paralysis episodes have finally stopped. Which is a good thing, but I miss the sleep paralysis. 

Going back to my low bed now, which I prefer sleeping on. 

And yeah, I also put on a hook latch to my door, which makes me feel much more secure in the new house. I checked out some properties in my area on NoBroker and found this really cool terrace flat with a large seating area. 

No matter how much I try, some of my indoor plants are dying, especially the succulents. I have ordered some mud and planters to try and resurrect them in conditions with more light. I have tried various watering regimens, so I think it is the light. Feel bad for not even being able to take care of a few plants, which are hardy and can survive almost any conditions. Maybe they could never recover from the week away. 

Going back to sleep now, good night. 

Bloody Moons

 There are so many names of full moons! These are apparently really ancient. It is interesting to find commonalities between abrogine, celtic and native Indian names of the full moons. 

We need some new names though, so here are some suggestions. 

Fail Moons: Full moons that are not supermoons. 

Derp Moon: Moon that appears yellow or red because of bad air quality.

Dipshit Moon: Moon seen after consuming too much moonshine and falling in a drain. 

Night Moon: Moon that you can see in the night

Surprise Moon: Moon that you can see in the day. 

Moon Moon: Is a round person who eats too many rasgullas, not a moon. 

Doom Moon: Full moon seen by Mars pioneers

Noom Moon: When you unexpectedly see a filthy homeless drug addict evacuating on the railway tracks/road

Dagad dalle Moon: Full moon seen after violent north Indians knock you out and leave you bleeding on the streets

Dream Diary Moon Dog edition

Moon orbiting satellites using RADAR spotted a strange creature at an unknown Moon base. It was a dog, which scientists suggest was used to either pilot drones, was the subject of an experiments to see how animals recover from surgical procedures in low gravity environments, or both. No country claimed responsibility for the creature, or the base, but experts suspect it was part of a Chinese or Russian mission, or a joint clandestine Chinese-Russian mission to run tests leading up to the realisation of their Moon base. 

A daring and hastily put together mission by NASA and ESA is used to rescue the dog. . It has cuts and bruises all over it, and teeth at the back of its skull, suggesting some genetic engineering as well. It's actual mouth was used for interfacing with equipment, while the secondary mouth was used for the biological functions. 

Moon dog becomes a hero. 

I made an island

So the one piece of furniture I am renting from Furlenco has finally paid off. It was raining in the morning, and I noticed a pleasant breeze wafting in. The bedroom is at the end of a compartment apartment (that's what they call straight, train compartment like houses in Delhi), and as I have mentioned before, it's hot! 

Anyway, the Bounce that I rent from Furlenco finally came to good use. I paired half of it with a beanbag and made myself a cool little island in the living room. It rained and water came in, but wasn't bothered at all because of the cool breeze. I am tempted to go to sleep with the door open. 

Ghetto Kintsugi

The Japoni have such specific words for everything. They use lacquer mixed with powdered metals to fix broken pottery. I did something similar to my thrashed ashtray and then used mseal to piece it back together. 

Layout by Instagram has some really nice layouts. 

Lakkadbagga

I just found out that a hyena is called lakkad bagga in Hindi. 

Did not know that there was an Indian word for the creature. The locals near Sandhan Valley don't know what to call them. A cackle of Hyenas have been relocated there by the forest department. So a few years ago, we were just walking there one day, after camping near Amruteshwar temple. I was eager to go into the valley, and I also knew the way, so I was leading everyone else. Then I see this majestic creature emerge from the trees, looking around. At first I freeze, because I had not seen anything like it. Then instinct kicks in, and I drop to the ground, looking at it carefully. I am a bit scared at this point, because I know the rest of the clan would not be far behind. 

The guy behind me walks up to me, clueless about the creature. I stop him from going ahead, point to the hyena and whisper, "hyena". That guy turns back to the rest of the group, and shouts loudly "arre jaldi aao, hyena hai". The hyena turns around and bolts into the woods. 

We visit the valley, these guys smoke, and then we are resting at the edge of the forest. There is something noisy in the jungle that comes towards us. The others get a bit apprehensive, but I am relaxed. No snake or wild animal is so noisy I think. I turn out to be right, it's an adorable puppy, and one of the happiest I have seen. I give it some water, which it drinks gratefully and immediately goes to sleep near my legs. 

We leave, and after walking for a bit, the puppy runs up behind us! I am worried it will get eaten by the Hyenas. 

Everyone agreed was a good detour (It was my plan to make a pitstop there), we head back to the base village of Samrad, where we ask one of the Bandes (not person, that's a surname of a family in the village) about the relocated Hyenas. I camp down the middle of the valley with my friends regularly, and the hyenas are news to me. He confirms my suspicions that they do not have a name for the creature. I ask if they have caused any problems, and he says not much, but that they have eaten a few chicken. 

Anyway, don't remember if I had blogged this before, decided to preserve the memory before it evaporates from my memory banks.