“I think you are a very bad man," said Dorothy. "Oh, no, my dear; I'm really a very good man, but I'm a very bad Wizard, I must admit.” - L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz
I used to deliberately / get into bar fights / with anybody around // now / as the world / nears its end / I hear reports / of the dinosaurs being / sighted again // time / for me to / go back to the / bars
- Charles Bukowski
"
Too many barfights? How do you think the Rock of BRAWL got it's name?"
- Slab Midships, Ursean Prize Fighter
A human Sentarean noble enters the Elder Brain’s chamber, silently picks his way through the rubble and reaches his hand out to one of the creature’s extended tentacles. After a moment’s communion he introduces himself to the party as Andru Prince, Director of the Vector Corp and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Rock of Bral. Two other well dressed humans now stand guard at the entrance. The party has inadvertently uncovered both the Rock’s greatest secret and stopped the greatest threat it has ever faced. The Elder Brain is Bral. It was already ancient when Prince’s kin arrived on the asteroid hundreds of years ago. Taking the Architects’ example, Bral worked to create a microcosm of the Spheres themselves on the asteroid it had overtaken from the illihid. It would be made a place where all manner of sentient species could live in freedom and harmony. For aeons Bral played the role of “gardener,” weeding here, trimming there, always with an eye to letting life flourish as unhindered as possible. Of course the Illithid wanted none of that. Having learned the true nature of the Rock of Bral, the mindflayers set out to reclaim the creature (and the Rock), which they regard as rightfully their own. Prince is confident that the Board of Directors can handle the approaching Ylfen and Psurlon threats. However, given that the party is partly responsible for bringing them down upon the Rock, it seems only fair that they help Bral restrike a balance in return. The Elder Brain entreats the party to seek out and assist the Okkallappa – a revolutionary movement of Illithids it has been cultivating in the hopes of disrupting the Collective. With the Illithid so distracted, it will be easier for the Prince to handle the remaining threats. The group returns to the surface of the Rock with much to consider and to a host of more mundane challenges that have accumulated while they have been adventuring in the Middledark: following up on playbills for a performance by Lewis at a local cabaret; an ensuing barfight; sudden membership in the ACLU and another mission; information about the slavers and a lead on the whereabouts of Carmy Belhain; an urgent entreaty from Shilynn and news of repairs to their ship now underway; the discovery that Blaine has gone missing, seemingly kidnapped; and of course, investigating the gravesite of Hooper Meadowtop! Oh, and Charolette has been turned into a bug. You know what they say about the Rock of Bral: retail plot and wholesale trouble.
A Meroielle human enters the great hall, though here as you recall, they are the Merubigo. He is thin and tall with deep set eyes that penetrate the gloom. Dressed in what you recognize the latest catfolk fashion, he is impeccably groomed and smells of exotic spices. If you had walked past him in the street, you’d have thought, “This guy gets it.” Two other Merubigo enter as well and stand on either side of the entrance. They are dressed casually, but their bearing says “stone cold killers”
The first walks right past you as he moves through the room, taking it all in. If he had feathers, none of them would be ruffled. He shifts some rubble with his foot and makes his way slowly towards the pulsing brain. A tentacle reaches out to meet him, wrapping gently around his outreached hand. He closes his eyes, bows his head and lets out a long sigh.
All of this is over almost as quickly as it began. He turns and introduces himself, “I am Andru Prince. Chief Executor of the Vector Corporation – and Chairman of the Board of Directors.”
He speaks in heavily accented Sentarean common as he gestures at you with a steel stone tipped cane. “Before you got here, the Imperyion and the Supremacy both threatened to destroy the Rock – one if you set foot upon it, the other if you left. You got here yesterday. Today, you discovered Bral’s most carefully guarded secret, and in the process, probably countered the greatest threat it has ever faced. I’m trying to decide whether to put you on the payroll, imprison you, or get you to leave.”
“We probably couldn’t afford you. You’d probably just break out. Or probably just come back. Clearly you have powerful allies,” he gestures to the elder brain, “so killing you is no longer an option. As you can see. I have a dilemma.”
“What would you do in my position?”
Notable Comments
Hooper Meadowtop – an adventurer specializing in eccentric books. One of several I believe. Dead, I think? Quite boring. What do you want with him?
“Bral is the Shattered Sphere.”
Everything on Bral always an imminent threat. Bral is always about to be destroyed. A Psulron Phlogikinetic Battlefleet is on its way here to find you, or it could already be here. How would I know? An Imperyion Armada has begun passing through the Grinder, doing the same. But the Illithid as well… this is becoming a problem.
“I now have something to use against the Ilithid. That is valuable. I couldn’t possibly expel them. Who would keep the Derro and the Neogi in line? Besides, have you ever had a frontal lobe massage? It’s magical.” He recommends Happy Endings brain massage near the temple ward.
The Lost Sphere is nested inside the Shattered Sphere. Why the Architects did this we can only imagine.
The maelstrom is the gateway to the Lost Sphere and Sentar.
Sentar is the hub world. It’s the linchpin of the Lost Sphere. It’s the reason that there are multiple planes of existence. Something to do with the fact that it is a nested sphere. Control Sentar, and you control the Cradle of Creation.
Sentar can defend itself. The Federation is a formidable force, is it not?
I cannot be seen to be helping you or hindering you. I’m sure you understand. You must be just another group of visitors to Bral. The entire order depends on it. Especially now, with so many faction set on destroying you, and sifting through the contents of your brains.
With Prince as interlocutor, Bral – the Elder Brain – indicates it has a mission for you. One that should help to secure a balance and roll back the illithid threat all at once.
Bral has cultivated a rift amongst the Illithid. There is now a frowned upon “Woken” Counterculture Movement, the “Okkalappa,” that has resulted. Many of its adherents are regarded as revolutionaries, and they want to remake the political order of the Illithid Collective
Seek out “Periatal Lobal” a.k.a. Perry Lobeman the Mindflayer
He can be found “chasing the dragon” at the “The Drunken Octopus” (111) – a club that caters exclusively to the “contemplative absorption of addictive hallucinogens. Drugs: Yaba, Shabu
The entire external corridor where the entrance to the ancient temple was hidden has now been sealed off by Prince’s forces. Goodboy is being held inside the perimeter. His silence is being accounted for. Andru comes out with you and gives you all permission to leave. He tells you that “Janks will meet you at the Edge.”
“Deals are being struck even now,” Prince says.
Goodboy is rattled. He does not speak the entire way to the surface. Clearly, he has a lot to process. Back on the surface of the Rock, something like night has fallen, brought about the slow rotation created by the sails.
Free of the Middledark, Goodboy sighs and loosens up, “You certainly know how to draw attention to yourselves.” This seems to be his way of making sense of it all.
You are making your way to the Edge when you notice a paper playbill nailed to wall with a crude yet unmistakably familiar face drawn on it…
[Placeholder: image, Lewis' Playbill]
Janks is waiting in the lobby of the Edge. She is frowning. Her mood does not improve as she approaches.
“Your membership in the ACLU has been expedited. Frankly, I’ve never seen anything like it. And I don’t know that I like it. You should know, I recommended a battery of loyalty tests – but we’ve compromised and there will be one... there are certain travel waivers that we have sought. They have agreed to require this one mission of you.
"I like you, though I don’t trust you. You clearly do not recognize the risks you and your crew pose. But. Someone apparently does, and they see a way to leverage them.” She pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs. "This is why I'm not in management. You are now covered by a sponsorship from the ACLU."
The Waivers: The documents sought are travel waivers sought bearing the Great Seal of the Sublime Lady, herself (Spiritual leader of the Imperyion). In theory, they would allow unhindered passage through any part of the Shattered Sphere – the ultimate backup plan against the Compact. The Hive possesses two and is willing to make a trade. The ACLU wants one, if you can get your hands on them, the other is yours. The ACLU can’t be seen to be involved… I’m sure you understand…
The Slavers: You’d asked for information about a place where slavers might gather. There's a tavern, a real unaccountable place, called The Obedient Thrall. It’s dominated by the Superior Races’ Rights and Slaveholding Cultural Practices Protection Union Corporation for Good Group, which is one of the most powerful corporations on the Board of Directors. Several minor slaver guilds find some protection there. You’d be pretty bold to walk in there wearing Neogi ownership tattoos, but that’s your business. If you want to know something about Yesyr (the slave trading asteroid in this sector), that’s the place to go.
“Skrik” is a suave preying mantis person – he runs a fairly classy establishment - Skirk's Cafe Braleain. There's a gambling den in the back. Cabarets and burlesques featured in the front. Some of the apparently quite daring and innovative.
Looking at the number of people in the bar, if Lewis is doing two shows a night, taking a quarter of the door and at least 5% of the drinks, you will not be able to afford him any more as a spacehand…
Dakota warms up the room with a series of “would-you-rathers” that she uncomfortably reads off a long scroll. This goes no a lot longer than it probably should. She asks people to raise their hands after each question (only a handful comply) and she dutifully tallies the answers. The crowd grows restless. The Ylfe in the corner are triumphant, mocking her relentlessly.
One calls out: “Would you rather be in a zoo or a museum?”
She responds, without missing beat: “Where would I have to spend the least amount of time breathing Ylfen perfume?” The room erupts into loud guffaws, as the table turns… The Ylfe who spoke is infuriated and stands as if to move on the stage, though even his comrades smile and laugh as they bring him back to his seat.
And that’s when Lewis’s act begins. How to characterize it? Offensively hilarious or hilariously offensive? Either way, it is without question one of the most brilliant and possibly seditious pieces of political satire you have ever seen… Nothing is spared, least of all the entire command crew of the Inordinate Amount. But the true target of his relentless comedic assault is the Imperyion and the entire Ylfen race. And the crowd loves him for it. Well, most of the crowd.
Highlights from the show
The show starts with a rendition of something like "Send in the Clowns". When the song ends, asking where are the clowns – a magical light shines on the Ylfe in the corner and Lewis sings "They're already here..." and tiny galloping unicorns run around above their heads pooping rainbows on them. Half the table smiles, the other scowls. Only one Ylfe laughs and claps, her eyes sparkling as she watches the unicorns prance.
At one point, Lewis dresses as a beautiful elven maid, with the assistance of Bronwyn and Dakota (muppet man); mid-joke, the beautiful elf is revealed to be three ugly goblins - the metaphor that the Elves have become the evil thing they vowed to eradicate is clear to everyone
He bites the head off a bat and spits out a half dozen flying white sparrows
At one point he pretends to smother an Ylfen child in its crib – it’s dark, but hilarious. I guess you had to be there.
At this point, none of the elves in the corner are smiling. In fact, they are clearly deeply offended and at one point. Notably there are two less Ylfe there than you saw before… the one that was smiling and clapping at the rainbow-pooping unicorns has left along with the person that was sitting next to her. Only 5 remain.
Lewis closes the show with another big song and dance number that is called "Ylfen Fucker." It goes about as well as can be expected.
At one point, the Ylf in the corner commandeer a piano and try drowning Lewis out with a duelling version of some patriotic Ylfen war ballad, but to no avail… (“Ylfen-Fucker” vs Ylfe Celestial Harp and the unofficial anthem of the Imperyion, “Onward, Saviours of Decency & Decorum”). However, “Ylfen Fucker’s” lyrics are too easy to learn and the melody far too catchy, that every drunken patron in the establishment is bellowing the song at the top of their lungs when the barfight breaks out…
It ends with Lewis setting himself on fire, and his outer outfit disappearing in a flash, to be replaced by a version of himself dressed in solid white spattered in fake blood, holding aloft the head of the Ylfen maiden he once pretended to be. This is a clear reference to the Sublime Lady, the Ylfen ideal of leadership, and a grave and deliberate insult (fake blood is spraying everywhere… a few if the severed head's golden locks are still smoldering and smoking).
As the place descends into chaos, Lewis stands above it all, his skald’s voice carrying above the din, he throws the fake head into the growing melee and shouts, “Are you not entertained?!”
Isn't it rich? The last of our race
Us here at last on the ground, on a Rock in Wildspace
Send in the clowns
Isn't it bliss? They don’t approve
Dabbling in Genocide here, to dampen the mood…
But where are the clowns, send in the clowns
Just when I stopped opening doors
Finally finding the one that I wanted, was yours
Making my entrance again with my usual flair
Sure of my lines, but nobody's there
Do you love a farce? You’re in the right place
I thought that you'd want what I want,
Chaos in space!
But where are the clowns, send in the clowns
They're already here…
Shut your fucking face, Ylfen fucker
You´re a cocksucking, ass-liking, Ylfen fucker
You´re an Auntie Ylfie, yes it´s true
Nobody fucks Ylfen just like you
Shut your fucking face, Ylfen fucker
You´re the one fucks all the Ylfe, Ylfen fucker
You don´t even sleep or mow the lawn
You fuck the Ylfe all day long
(*DANCE SOLO*)
Shut you´re fucking face, Ylfen fucker
You´re a boner biting bastard, Ylfen fucker
You´re an Ylfen fucker, I must say
(I fucked the Lady yesterday!)
Ylfen fucker, that´s Y-L-F-E-N, fuck you!
Ylfen fucker!
Suck my balls!
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?
Back at the Edge, most of the goblins are attacking the breakfast buffet. They just pulled up their chairs around the breakfast buffet tables and are snarling at any of the other guests whenever they appear to try to access the tureen of sausages and scrambled eggs. They are poking each other in the still red new tattoos that they all decided to get.
The tattoo is in part a common symbol for the Federation army: an upside-down pick head with the handle removed, but instead of freedom’s flame burning out of the socket, there is a flaming goblin skull.
Except Blaine, nobody’s seen him, and Charlotte. She came in with a pair of ratfolk. They left and she disappeared. Maybe she went to look for them?
Shroktath finds Charlotte in her room enveloped inside an unmistakable cocoon made of the stringy stuff that has been seeping from her pores, now congealed into a sickly looking sack. The cocoon is warm and spongy and warm to the touch and feels like a sack full of gurgling fluids. When she emerges... "I think I ate too many jellies."
[Placeholder: image, bug-Charlotte]
The next morning, you find a note from Shilynn waiting for you…
I need to speak with you as soon as possible. Meet me later on the Inordinate Amount – I heard that the liens have been raised and repairs have started on the ship. I will supervise. What the hell did you do?
Shilynn believes you urgently need to get off the Rock and far away from the Grinder - going deeper perhaps into the Shattered Sphere or somewhere else unreachable. The Ylfe and the Psurlon are no joke and she is genuinely worried for the safety of her crew.
Before you leave though, she has to make sure that a couple more people "get dead." She has some accounts to settle of her own.
So it turns out that the elder brain is the auditor’s information hub. Braal.
Prince Andrew, chief executor of the vector corporation and head of the board of directors showed up. Seeing what transpired here in the underbelly of the Rock, Andrew was armed with information to push back the Illithid threat. We learn that Braal has cultivated a group of revolutionaries Illithids housed at the drunken Octopus. They are known as the awoken or marrowbego. Help them and we protect Braal and return a balance of power between factions. We agreed to seek out the group and help them.
For some reason, the rest of my group wanted to chat with the brain and Andrew. As I was hungry, I urged us to find breakfast on the way to saving everything.
(Useerer follows Braal a few days behind. It’s a slave market and black market.)
As we surfaced out from the underbelly, our porter Goodboy leads us back toward the edge when we noticed a poster. From the poster we ascertain that Lewis our goblin companion might be in trouble at Café Bralein so we headed that way. Apparently, as a “real goblin” he’s the main draw. As we neared the venue, we could see that a large crowed had gathered.
Sending a message to Lewis alerting him of our arrival, when suddenly the door opens up and we get called for. Luckums surfs the crowd and gets the audience pumped up. As we enter the busy bar, Shorktath forces his way to in front of the stage. I jump up and ride the audience around the room, letting off pyrotechnics. Soon Dakota starts a series of “would you rather” and infuriates some ilfven. We came here to save Lewis, but he puts on a show that blows the audience away an makes fun of the ilfven. After two of the Ilfven leave, I make my way to the back of the venue and spot the kitchen. Hungry and for the love of cooking, I start helping the kitchen staff.
The room erupts into a battle of the bands between the evil orderly Ilfven at the piano and the chaotic goblin fun. Soon a bar fight erupts. I quickly motion to the other cooks, and we barricade the kitchen, ready to wait out the storm. Moving across the kitchen to the backstage entrance I stare in disbelief at the full raw chaotic frenzy of the goblins. It’s at this point in time that I realize that I’m not like other goblins. Shocked, I hide in the alley and avoid the entire mob scene. This has gone too far.
Returning to the Edge, our halfling sponsor had been waiting a long time. She gives us a mission to recover the compact waivers passes from the Hive. We are now members of the ACLU. In the morning, we get a note from Shilynn asking what we’ve done. She is at the ship where repairs have begun. Two of our crew are missing. With scrying we see that Blaine has been captured by the Ilfen. We find Charlotte in a cocoon, transformed by the Hive. God we have a lot of to do.
First order of business, we visit our lien-free ship. Everyone thinks we have the crown of the lost sphere. Maybe it’s hidden at Hooper Meadow tops monument. Why did I mention that place to Prince Andrew.
At the end of the day, I think Mr. Prince was just negotiating with us. I thought Khalid read him really well. I think Prince knew damned well he wanted to work with us - make us useful to him - he just wanted to wrongfoot us, but Khalid pressed him, and actually got us a pretty good deal. Turns out, Mr. Prince managed to arrange for not only our immediate sponsorship in the ACLU (which Janks seemed a bit pissed about, more on that later), but also the end of all the stupid claims against the Amount AND a a lot of extra credit for repairs. All we had to do in return, was to make contact with a rebellious group of illithids - a group that didn’t just want to suck out everyone’s inferior brains and take over all of creation? - and get them onside. I think Prince was alarmed at the Illithids’ attempts to take control of the brain/Brahl. Well he should be, I reckon.
Just to make sure, I asked Brahl if this was what it wanted, and in that cute way it has, it reached out a tentacle, touched me, and without words let me know that it was.
Okay. So, still badly battered and bruised, and for Luckums and Hazel, largely out of spells, we make our way out of these gods forsaken illithid tunnels, and up to the surface. On the way we see a poster - Lewis is putting on a show at a bar. What could go wrong?
In the hopes of answering that question for the better, we head to the bar. We manage to squeeze and jostle and name drop our way in, which wasn’t exactly easy. It’s a mixed crowd, with a not-so-friendly group of Ylfe in the back. I’ll say this for Lewis - I never knew he had it in him. I’ve been subjected to his sense of humour for months now (“I like mushrooms. Do you know what that makes me? A ‘fun ghi.’ Get it?” Etc.), and nothing lead me to believe he could pull off anything like this. It was a masterpiece. Creatively, theatrically, he spewed offence in a wide arc, but especially and most hilariously towards the corner with the Ylfe. They showed about as much of a sense of humour as you might expect. Then Lewis, with some support from Dakota and Bronwyn, launched into a song. Let me see if I can remember the chorus… “Fuck you in the face, Ylfen fucker!” Something like that anyway. Subtle? No. Effective? Yes.
Things were near the boiling point, and Khalid, bless him, added a bit of salt to the water. The YLfen were trying to drown out our gobbies with one of their battle hymns, and had taken over an old piano in the back to help them do so. Khalid siddled over and popped an elbow into an Ylfen ear, and it was on.
It was wild. Booze, blood and various body parts flying… There was even a fun moment were I got to pop Dakota one right in the chops. How long would I have rather done that than listen to her? I’ll store that one away for a while. Honestly, I’ve been in more than my share of these before and I wasn’t too worried. I just wanted to make sure no one kidnapped our gobbies (or worse). It all worked out well. Khalid in particular was right in the thick of things, and more than holding his own. At one point, I think I saw Hazel dive off the bar in a he-man attempt to pile drive a group of brawlers. He missed entirely and cracked into the floor like an underripe gujamellon falling onto the dry earth that they prefer. What a great moment.
We dragged everyone back to our quarters, and fell into our beds for a well earned rest. Other news? Well, turns out those jellies Charlotte was practically pouring down her throat at the Hive? More than just food. She’d started to turn into a bug - face and arms. Not so cute, but a four-armed Charlotte? Maybe a blessing in disguise, and she didn’t seem too worried about the change. Blaine had been captured by some Ylfe, and was being held in a closet in a wealthier part of town. Luckums had a theory that the steelstone circlet/key thing might be in Hooper’s grave. Janks visited us, and made her displeasure at us having been so plopped into the ACLU’s lap known. I really like Janks, and felt for her - this wasn't how she liked to do things. I told her I was sorry and that I hoped we could prove ourselves worthy of her organization’s support. There were enslaved children to pursue, illithid rebels to contact, goblins to save, documents to rescue from the Hive, the Amount to repair, hostile fleets approaching the Rock…
Things were getting a little busy.
Player: I realized this morning that it might have been a bit strange for my fellow players not really knowing what was going on with Shroktath and his class these past few sessions. Long story short, Chris and I had been trying to sort something out, we went through several ideas, and I think we're at a fairly firm basis now (though open to further adjustment). He's a "Gardener," and you all know about as much as I do about what that means in our setting/story.
In game/mechanics terms, he's pretty close to a Paladin [DM: He bears the “Blood of the Gardeners” – basically one of his ancestors was one of the original Gardeners, tending to the Spheres on behalf of the Architects. So he’s a “bloodline paladin”]. We settled on a different source for his powers - he essentially draws on life force, thus Con replaces Cha as his base stat anywhere it appears for a Paladin. So as to try and limit the double up bonus for CON (a core stat for a melee character, as opposed to CHA), we decided to half the CON bonus everywhere it appears. Chris came up with the Vitality Strike mechanic, to replace the Paladin's "Smite Evil." Essentially, the Gardener draws on his life force (taking damage), in order to up his/her damage to ANY other creature (not just evil). It progresses with the character levelling up. We've settled on the spell use being akin to that of a sorcerer - so more of an innate ability than a studied one, and limiting the number of "spells" he knows. We're still a level away from that manifesting, but that's the plan.
So, that's what's been "going on," with some of the weird Paladin-esque abilities you've been seeing manifested over the last few sessions.
Dakarday Eoweek Korda 49th Annum Independencia - Day 200
Regaining ourselves, we met Andrew Prince after he seemed to commune with the Sphere. He was the Chief Executive of the Vector Corporation. He asked us for assistance to weaken the Illithyds and widen a rift in their ranks. The cause was a counter culture group called the Oakalapa, the Woken. They were based at a bar called the Drunken Octopus and we were to meet a man called Perry Loman. He asked us “to give them a little push”. We palavered for some time on many topics but our exhaustion got the be too much. We returned to the light.
While Goodboi was taking us back to the Edge to meet Jaxx, we had to divert to Skrik’s Cafe Braleain to find Lewis. At the bar we pushed inside to see Lewis, Dakota and Bronwyn working an elaborate show. The potential revenue for them was greater than anything we were ever going to make. Dakota’s “would you rathe” lit up the room. She eventually insulted an Ylfe during he rantings. Lewis however unleashed a ruthlessly brilliant satire of a myriad of topics but mostly the Imperiyon. [His impersonation of me was really quite accurate]. Going after everything the Imperiyon and the Ylfe held sacred and important incensed them greatly. Lewis had whipped the crowd up to an incredible height and the Ylfe tried in their heavy handed way to stop it. They began trying to sing some counter music: something banal, martial and plodding. The universe does not need their tiresome thuggery wrapped in arrogance. These vile minions were meaningless cogs in a machine seeking to shatter Creation and I did not need to hear them sing about it…poorly.
[Placeholder: image, fantasy barfight]
I shoved the pianist off his stool, his comrade shoved me and it started. I hit him with the stool in the hope it might improve their looks and the Ylfe harmony. His colleagues needed similar treatment. Lewis’s song reminded me of an older Durgoshi marching song so I started turning his song slowly into a legionaries’ paen. Shroktath was pushing the crowd’s attention to the Ylfe and the fight was beginning to surround them. It was still a rather good natured bar fight until one of the Ylfe stabbed me with his rapier. I turned on him and my smile disappeared as I glared as with a war-face that would have impressed Sgt Grott himself and my song changed:
we stand shoulder-to-shoulder
for every fight, never diminished
but facing us, you are finished
I did not hit him but instead magically cast a flare from my hands. He collapsed as the crowd tightened, dropped his sword and began crawling on the floor to get away. The Ylfe had to pay their way out of that bar to escape. His rapier’s blade was broken in the melee and I took the handle and guard as a trophy. The five of us went backstage to see our goblins. They were clearly not in danger.
We limped our way back to the Edge and talked with Jaxx. It was a flurry of topics but most importantly was a lead to find Carmy Bellhain. We dropped into bed with no fanfare.
Moraday Eoweek Korda - Day 201
I was bruised and sore as I went down to breakfast. We ate with Coalman, Brendon and Veronica. We were able to find Charlotte but she had transformed into some kind of giant bug. Luckums was able to scry Blaine apparently in kidnapped by some Ylfe. We went down to the dock to talk with Shilynn and her oversight of the ship repairs. We dropped off some things and gathered some more before we headed off to the Drunken Octopus.