Mattiverse Next - Session 9

It's Party Time

• The Boys roll up to the Porphyry House
• The door is large, heavy and ornate. Their knock is answered by an eight-foot-tall abomination of sewn-together corpse parts, in a suit and tophat.
• It stands there, unmoving, for some time, until suddenly its face animates and Klavin's voice comes from its mouth.
  • He introduces their "butler" as Kevin, and welcomes the Boys in
• Refreshments await. The dance floor is getting warmed up within. The gang wastes no time filling up on fancy victuals. Half the attendees are giving them confused looks, the other half gives them smiles of recognition.
• Klavin comes down after a bit and starts introducing them around. The reception gets a bit warmer. He says Manderly will want to chat with them later, but not yet.
• The building is extremely fancy--magical fountains, statuary, indoor trees, capped off with a magnificent glass dome that shows the sky.
• Beldon gets right to the dance floor. His moves are a hit.
• The rest focus on sales of Old Toby. Bobwhite sneaks around a bit, but doesn't push his luck. They do their best to look like they're just as wasted as the rest (Bobwhite with sleight of hand, Beldon with Deception, and Banner and Four by just powering through with Con saves).
• Banner and Beldon both separately go to the restroom. Neither find too much that's interesting, but they do fill in a bit more of the map.
• At some point, the wand moved from the House to somewhere else (South, West and down).
• Eventually Klavin says Manderly has called for them. Bobwhite gets super-paranoid (bombed Insight check), and fears the worst. He looks in every corner for an ambush, and spends a lot of time staring at Garos and Manderly.
• Manderly is in an upstairs room with another upperclassman named Garos. They tell the story of the demon spiders:
  • They'd been conducting a ritual and summoning small spider demons (they call Kakkuu) for ages, but about a month ago suddenly the same ritual summoned a much larger, much smarter, much more powerful version (they named it the Phisrasu) who immediately went invisible and started causing havoc.
    • This timeline very clearly coincides with finding the second lance piece.
  • Manderly, Garos and a third upperclassman, Trembly, were the team that finally cornered it and destroyed it. Trembly didn't survive the fight.
  • This entire time, Garos is visibly shook up from the trauma. Manderly is ice-cold. Bobwhite's paranoia goes into overdrive.
  • Banner notices a secret door in the corner where he's sitting. He doesn't immediately do anything with the information.
  • Manderly asks questions about what the Boy saw. Beldon carries most of the conversation, and tries not to give away too many details:
    • They fought a couple of the small Kakkuu, but never saw a large one, merely a statue.
    • They "didn't see" an elaborate summoning setup like Manderly describes ("maybe the circle in the front room?", is their dodge).
  • Manderly promises they'll get an invite to the next big fight. He says he's going to turn in, and Garos concurs.
  • Bobwhite hands her some Old Toby, trying to catch her gaze without Manderly noticing (he's hoping to get details without him present). Manderly is paying too much attention to split her off.
• The night proceeds. The gang mostly enjoys themselves and fits in bits of reconnaissance when they can.
  • Bobwhite finds a dictionary of Infernal (that he wants to sneak off with, but can't find a great way to that isn't suspicious). He also finds two down stairs:
    • The West ends at a door labeled "underclass Library Overflow", not locked.
    • The East ends at a door labeled "Thesis Work Archives", locked
  • Conversation with Klavin gives some background. Manderly and some of the others who are responsible for the bigtime summoning are "legacies".
    • This can mean either that they're townies hanging out post-matriculation, or that they are the sons/daughters of someone else who attended. In Manderly's case, it's both.
    • They are notoriously creepy. Coming from necromancers, this is saying a lot.
  • Beldon gets laid. In the process, he locates at least some of the underclassmen dorms.
• They leave as the party starts winding down to wander around and howl at the moon.

Townie Impersonation

• Dragging themselves out of bed around lunchtime, they compare notes.
• They decide to keep doing things in town while they wait for the invite. Four and Beldon will keep doing their labor (and trying to find a ride out), Bobwhite and Banner will try to find more supply for Halfling Boys' Pinch.
• Four is successful at finding someone shady enough to meet their needs, for both purposes. He sets up the meeting with Ratnot, Bobwhite and Banner.
  • He's able to get them up to 500 "units" (one gp per "unit"), at a 10% markup.
  • In addition to being at wholesale, it's also much better quality. They dub it "Gold Toby".
  • The Boys are able to sell each unit for 3gp. They order 250 units, which will arrive the next day. Beldon and Bobwhite spend the rest of the day staking out the frat house, but nothing interesting happens.
• Banner and Bobwhite sell Gold Toby the next couple of days. Beldon and Four do work (and make contacts) while Beldon tries to keep an eye on the wand.
  • The invite to the next fight comes from Klavin--it will happen tomorrow (the third night after the party).
  • At some point on that day, the wand does move. Beldon fucks off work and tracks it with Four to a drain, which is an entrance to the catacombs.
• They meet up for dinner and discuss.
  • In the middle of it, a very nervous, very tall halfling approaches their table.
    • Suspiciously tall.
    • She introduces herself as "Gretchen", which at least one of the brothers realizes he has never heard a halfling called before.
    • She makes various references to halfling culture that are off to various degrees.
    • She's asking for weed. The Boys dismiss her, figuring she might be with some narc.
    • Bobwhite also picks her pocket. As he reads the note (which is simply "Get their names" with Beldon and Four filled in already, and some notes about each), it occurs to him that the halfling looks almost like what one might imagine Garos looked like as a child.
    • They pursue. Frightened, she takes off. Banner uses friends to get her to hesitate, and Bobwhite cuts her off.
    • They talk her down from the subsequent friends anger hangover. She doesn't appreciate that they did that, but she is able to rationalize it off for the sake of having a discussion.
    • She relays that nightmares have given her trouble (in game terms, unable to long rest, since the encounter with the Phisrazu). The Old Toby she got from them and the bits she's been able to buy off frat members the last couple of days have been the only thing that's let her sleep deeply. It's come with the price of actually remembering her dreams, which is barely better--in them she sees Trembly ("You might not know, we were an item" (they did)) getting torn apart.
    • Interestingly, she also sees Manderly getting ripped in half.
    • Bobwhite's paranoia meter shoots up again. He immediately tries to convince her that Manderly is the demon, and that she should fuck right off out of town for her own safety.
    • She's not interested in listening to a couple of shady halflings she met a couple of days ago. She writes off Manderly's steely demeanor as the natural result of being a legacy.
    • The gang gives her some Gold Toby, and she fucks off.
    • They return to finish dinner. Three hours remain before the pit fight.

Milestones

• Party with Porphyry
• Chitchat with Manderly
• Old Toby Becomes Gold Toby
• Discovering the Catacombs Entrance