Team Ice: Adventure 5: The One Where the Spymaster Befriends the Dog
Team Ice continues their adventure and we’re bringing you the latest summary! Last time the party defeated a sea snake on their way sailing to Caminus. What - or who - will they encounter this time?
The Cast - TEAM ICE
Skids by Soundwave (human rogue)
Tailgate by Butter (dwarven barbarian)
Cyclonus by Ren (tiefling paladin)
Nautica by Robophelia (half-elf wizard)
Velocity by Cee (high elf cleric)
Brainstorm by Bex (air genasi wizard)
First Session | Second Session | Third Session | Fourth Session
After the party gets their various loot from the dead sea snake, and Prowl rejoins them on the deck of the ship, they are met by a bright magenta aarakocra - Misfire - and a bronze dragonborn - Grimlock. Shortly after realizing that the commotion has all been resolved, Grimlock goes over to the side of the ship to throw up, hiccupping fire over the side as well. The crew yells at him that he better not set their ship on fire.
Misfire explains that Grimlock was seasick, which is why they hadn’t left their room until they heard the commotion and Grimlock insisted on coming up topside to make sure everything was okay. Skids comments that staying belowdecks is actually worse for seasickness, and Misfire says that that explains a lot. “Grimsy! Hey, did you hear -” And Grimlock flips him off.
A goblin climbs out from under Misfire’s wing - it’s Spinister! He climbs up to Misfire’s shoulder and says “I don’t like the scaly thing, I’m going to shoot it.” He hops off and goes to shoot the sea serpent’s corpse repeatedly with his crossbow. Misfire comments offhandedly that when Spinister had said ‘I don’t like the scaly thing, I’m going to shoot it’, it could have gone either way - it was a good thing he hadn’t meant Grimlock. Velocity is a little concerned about the wasted arrows, but Misfire says that Spinister always recovers them - and indeed, he comes back with bloody arrows. When Velocity asks if he’s going to clean them, he pokes Misfire in the shoulder with one - which Misfire is not amused by - and, having confirmed it’s still sharp, puts it back in his quiver.
Grimlock compliments Lotty’s bright hair - she believes that hey, why let nature set the colors when we can have prettier ones, and Misfire approves - he has bright magenta feathers. So does Grimlock - apparently some dragonborn paint their scales for similar reasons.
The parties introduce themselves. Misfire says there would normally be more of them, but Krok and the others stayed back at the clinic. Velocity makes a mental note of this in case she ever wants to look for another job. The three of them - Grimlock, Misfire, and Spinister - are on assignment from someone called the Curator to retrieve up some kind of Camien artifact, it’s supposed to be good money. When the party all jumps to ask further questions about the artifact, Misfire says he wishes he knew more, but the Curator is being unusually cagey for this one, even for him - he’s supposed to find out more when they get to Caminus.
Grimlock asks if Velocity and Nautica are from Caminus, because he doesn’t see a lot of elves going away from Caminus and coming back. Velocity awkwardly extricates herself from the conversation - but it’s not for bad reasons and she’s not lying! - and goes to huddle with Nautica to decide what they should say, because … they didn’t really talk about what they were going to say, they ran away from home, and no one really knows that, in Camien terms, they’re pretty young. They decide that they should tell the truth, they’re from Caminus. Velocity comes back and says this, and promises it’s not a lie even though they had to go off and talk about it. Misfire says she may be giving Spinister a run for his money. Velocity says she’s not great at socializing yet because on Caminus you could be set for a three hour conversation just by commenting on someone’s painting and letting them talk and not listening. Here you actually have to talk back and forth.
Skids drags Prowl for not having shown up to help with the sea serpent, and Prowl says he wouldn’t have hired a ship that couldn’t defend itself, but he’s glad the rest of them had it handled when they decided to get involved and didn’t manage to get themselves killed. Velocity and Skids ask Prowl if he’s heard of this Curator. Prowl says he knows of several people who trade in powerful artifacts who go by that handle. Tailgate asks if we can’t just patent these things; Prowl says people sticking to one name, (that is, one person per name) would make his job a lot easier.
The ship docks in Caminus, and after getting through the checkpoint at the docks, Prowl gave everyone pendants that made them look like elves so they could blend in. Luna was disguised as a normal dog. Tailgate became Tallgate. The group ducked into the only bar on this side of Customs, so Prowl could ask the barkeep where to find his contact, Arcee.
When they come into the bar, they find Javelin standing at the door of the bar, with a pirate eye patch, dyed purple hair, and dressed in lots of purples and pinks. She carries a shortsword by her side, and is standing as the bar’s bouncer. Acceleron, an elf with dyed pink hair, is standing behind the bar and gives them all a friendly wave. At the bar, Skids and Prowl order the beer on tap, Lotty gets a non-alcoholic version of the house cocktail and Nautica gets a very alcoholic version. Prowl asks whether Arcee still lives here, and Acceleron tells him that she and Aileron just moved to a house by the beach, on the southwest side. Prowl tips her extra for the information.
In the time the party is there, another elf, with dyed blue hair, white and blue clothing, gold sunglasses, and a three-eyed parrot on her shoulder, Proxima, who comes in through the back door of the bar. She kisses Acceleron before walking across the bar to give Javelin a kiss and take Javelin’s place so Javelin can go watch the lighthouse. Acceleron introduces them as her wives, and says that the three of them run both the lighthouse and the bar. Proxima sees Luna where she’s waiting patiently outside the bar and immediately goes into full dog-lover mode with lots of pets.
Looking at the dyed hair all around him, Tailgate decides he wants to dye his hair, probably blue or purple. Acceleron says that Lotty’s hair looks really good, so he can probably go to whoever she has do it, but if he wants to go to someone in town, she has a recommendation for the stylist who does it for her, which she gives to Tailgate. Prowl, however, reminds them that they’re all on mission, and if they could have some baseline minimum level of efficiency… he doesn’t sound terribly optimistic about this request paying off. Lotty insists that he needs to let the party have their silly sidequests, like learning to bake a cake! She says Prowl needs a hobby. Prowl insists that that’s not a real word, he would have heard of it.
The party notices when the Scavengers come into the bar, having clearly also bypassed the checkpoint. Meanwhile,Tailgate is still adjusting to his new center of gravity as Tallgate, as he now looks like an elf and is much taller. When Acceleron, seeing him looking kind of wobbly, asks if he had one too many before getting here, the party just says he’s seasick, and Acceleron makes him up a tonic for seasickness. Hearing this, Grimlock comes over to the bar - he could use a seasickness tonic too. While waiting, Grimlock gets very flustered by Lotty. “Anything to help pretty a lady - fuck! Anything to help lady a - fuck!” He flees the bar. Velocity asks the party if it seems like he was okay, or if he needs help. Skids says he was just flustered, but Velocity doubts that. Skids asks if she has an ulterior motive for wanting to go over and check on him, like a crush. Lotty uses shameless obliviousness. It's super effective.
Nautica, stressed out by returning to Caminus, had a strong drink. Lotty talks to her, asking if she’s okay, and if she’s only okay because she’s drunk enough to feel sort of okay, to which Nautica says yeah, probably. Lotty says that if it ever gets to a point where it’s too much and she wants to leave, they can leave together.
The party considers how to get through customs into the town itself where Arcee lives, and the rest of Caminus - particularly whether they’ll have to smuggle Luna through customs. Prowl says they aren’t going through customs - he’s trying to say it so Acceleron can’t hear, even though Acceleron wouldn’t give a fuck if she did. Proxima, on the other side of the room, is immediately distracted by the mention of a potential new animal friend, looking out the window and dashing out to pet the cute dog.
After leaving the bar (Lotty waving goodbye to the Scavengers) and extricating Luna from Proxima, the group sneaks along the rocky beach, Lotty carrying Luna. As they go, Prowl does a walk-and-talk about the people they also saw disembarking the ship - the blonde man he recognized as 7-of-12, and the other two humans he assumes are guards based on their dress, but he didn’t recognize the half-elf, and he doesn’t like that. Skids suggests that she might just have been brought along so that someone part-elven was with them to help pacify the Camiens, Prowl says he hopes that’s true.
They arrive at Arcee and Aileron’s door, and Aileron answers. Aileron is an elf with her red hair kept short. She’s short for an elf, wearing layers of ones, one of which is magenta and too long for her. Aileron realizes that is the Prowl she’s heard of when he’s particularly brusque in asking for Arcee, and she calls for her. Arcee comes to the door, she’s a tall, ripped, goliath woman in pirate clothes, wearing lots of magenta. The party can guess that the two women borrow from each other's closets. Arcee asks what on earth Prowl is wearing, and recognizes Skids (by pictures and description, they haven’t met before.) Arcee also recognizes Nautica from her time living in this town, calls her ‘little minnow’ and asks how she got mixed up with all of these folks.
Arcee and Aileron let the party into their house, have a whispered conversation in the kitchen, and then bring the party water and finger foods. Arcee wants to know why they’re there, and - she adds - it better be important, because she’s retired, Prowl explains about the Functionist party and the potential alliance with Caminus. In the discussion, Prowl mentions Arcee having settled down in an obviously disparaging way, Velocity objects, even if that’s not what Prowl wants, he has to respect other people’s choices. Skids and Velocity get into a discussion about Prowl and relationships “- not everyone wants -” “He doesn’t have to get married, but everyone wants friends,” and Chromedome gets brought up “he clearly cared about Chromedome, maybe they were friends, maybe they were something else -”
Prowl, to Arcee: “I’ve changed my mind, just kill me now.”
Arcee: “Nah, that’d probably get these kids in trouble.”
Arcee breaks up the discussion and says not to be too hard on Prowl, he chose the mission and she couldn’t, she has something to lose now.
Arcee says that she saw a few human men and a half-elf coming out from customs, who she assumes were the Functionist Delegation, because otherwise non-elves wouldn’t be allowed beyond the fence in Caminus. Aileron saw the half-elf in the context of her work at the library, and also around the temple. She says the half-elf claims to be a devotee of Solus Prime, but that her holy text looks like nothing Aileron recognizes, and that the half-elf messed up simple prayers to Solus Prime. Maybe the Functionists thought they were bringing along an expert on Solus Prime, but that wasn’t what they got. Whatever she’s here for, she’s probably up to no good.
Arcee lays out the most likely route the Functionist delegation would take to the capital, based on how expensive goods are transported - it’s not like an isolationist country has foreign dignitaries travelling to the capital regularly. The route, Velocity notices, but doesn’t tell the others, goes through her old hometown.
The group discusses their next move. Skids suggests that if, say, they killed the Functionist party, now, looking like elves and able to be presumed to be Camiens, their deaths would be blamed on Caminus, and the Empire would no longer want to seek an alliance with Caminus. Others point out that they would still eventually be identified as outsiders, even if they look like elves, Caminus is insular enough to be able to identify when people aren’t from there - and it’s not like elf-Skids looks that different from human Skids. Lotty doesn’t want to murder anyone. Lotty and Skids argue about the difference between murder and killing someone in a fight, and whether putting their own lives at risk makes the consequence of someone else’s death morally different - is there a difference between stabbing some and yelling ‘hey, we’re here to stop you’ and then stabbing them when they start to fight? Tailgate suggests that yelling ‘hey, let’s fight’ would be an even more efficient way of starting a fight, if that’s the necessary prereq. Lotty says that she won’t be involved with flat-out murder; she’s not trying to blackmail the rest of them into changing what they’re going to do, she’s just saying what she’s going to do. Cyclonus doesn’t think that murder should be their first option but he acknowledges that it might be a necessary last resort. Nautica is with Lotty on team ‘no murder’ - she’s also concerned that if the Empire does blame Caminus, it will drag Caminus into an international incident; even though she doesn’t have great love for this place, she doesn’t want to see that happen to it. Skids would prefer something else to murder, but still thinks it might be necessary.
The party also discusses whether it makes sense to try and warn Camien officials about the Functionist delegation. The issues discussed include the fact that they don’t know what the Functionists’ plan is exactly, so they don’t know what to warn of, and they have no idea if Camien officials would listen to them. The party asks the two Camiens whether Camien officials would listen to them. Velocity appeals to Prowl. “I’m a cleric, I don’t know anything about politics. Prowl, do you know about politics?”
Prowl chuckles - he’s been looking amused through this whole conversation. Looking at Skids, he says, “Well, at least you haven’t lost all the sense that made you a good agent.”
Arcee laughs and looks at Prowl. “Well, I guess you still pick them the same - he almost reminds me of me.” More seriously, she continues: “Look, Caminus is a little island, they’re isolationist, they want to be able to defend themselves - I certainly wouldn’t want to take on all the Torchbearers at once, though,” she adds, “it would have to be all of them for it to be a fair fight - still, wouldn’t want to if I didn’t have to. But, that said, you don’t come to Caminus for an army, or military might. Now, when I was working for you,” she looks at Prowl, “what we were finding on the Functionists was that they were looking into artifacts connected to the Guiding Hand, mainly Primus. Now, I don’t know why you’d come to Caminus for that, but that seems like the only explanation. And if whatever they’re after here is important enough, they won’t stop after one dead delegation. I’d bet the priority needs to be figuring out what it is what they’re here for.
Arcee continues, “Now, I’ve never found Camien officials to listen to much, unless it’s,” and she raises an arm and flexes. “But they’re nobs and they’re going to be travelling like nobs, so if you’re willing to cut off the road a little - not into the deep woods, of course - but you should be able to keep up with them, keep track of things and figure out what they’re after, if you haven’t lost all of your spy skills.” She elbows Prowl teasingly.
The party generally agrees this is a solid plan. As it’s getting into the evening, Aileron offers the party a meal and to stay overnight as the Functionist party probably won’t be leaving town until morning. Aileron offers to let them stay in their guest room and living room - though some of them will probably end up sleeping on the couch and the floor given how many of them there are. She adds that they’re welcome to go to the inn across the way if they want to try and fool the staff there that they’re all actually Camien. Skids says that staying here is probably safer, so they decide to accept the meal and stay over. Skids stretches out on the couch as people get up to get food, and Aileron asks if he’s okay and if she should bring food over to him. Lotty drops Luna on him in retaliation for the murder plan and he sits right up to lift Luna off him.
While they eat, Luna - who’s still slowly getting used to the concept of not being used as a ‘lean and mean’ guard dog and being regularly fed - has scarfed down the bowl of food Aileron provided and is shamelessly begging for food from everyone at the table. Prowl is feeding Luna scraps under the table, and Arcee, noticing this, grins in amusement. Skids, disapproving of the dog being fed elven food, suggests that Luna should have a bowl of food. Aileron, not having noticed that Prowl was feeding Luna under the table, looks over at Luna’s empty bowl and goes to refill it. Prowl keeps feeding Luna under the table anyway, Lotty allows it, not seeing any apparent harm in his actions. The party considers that they may need to get Prowl an animal, since he’s clearly trying to befriend Luna.
Over dinner Nautica catches up with Arcee and Aileron. Since Arcee moved in with Aileron and left the shipping/spy business, Arcee and Aileron got married (“We would have sent you a wedding invite, but we didn’t know where to send it!) Arcee’s still working the docks, unloading, doing repairs and other odd jobs, and Aileron has moved from working in the church to working in the library, and she really enjoys the work.
After Arcee and Aileron gave the party the appropriate host tour of the house so they could find places to sleep and everything they needed, the two of them turned in for the night. The rest of the party stayed out and huddled in the living room. Everyone wanted to know how Nautica knows Arcee and Aileron. Nautica explains that she’s known them for most of her life; Aileron has lived here for as long as Nautica’s been alive, and worked as a cleric in the church in town for most of that time. Arcee’s been in and out of town for much of that time, working shipping and sometimes stopping in when her trade routes took her to Caminus. She’d left the shipping business and moved in with Aileron shortly before Nautica left Caminus. Nautica says that Aileron is one of the few elves who treated her like everyone else despite her only being half-elven; and that Arcee helped inspire her to leave Caminus, because she made her curious about the outside world. Nautica’s not feeling great about being back here...
Tailgate comments that if she hadn’t left Caminus, she would never have met this whole new party. Lotty adds that she wouldn’t have met Luna. Or Prowl. She would have missed out on friends! And Prowl.
At the mention of Luna, everyone looks around for her, and notices her and Prowl both over by the kitchen. Not everyone can quite tell what’s going on, but the more perceptive party members realize that he’s got some leftover table scraps that he’s using to try to get Luna to practice ‘sit’, keeping his voice low to try and go unnoticed by the others. Tailgate sees All, and could probably tell you what cut of enchanted ‘meat’ the table scraps were from and what kind of dog training school Prowl ascribes to, had the DM come up with either of those details to share.
Lotty asks Prowl how he knows Arcee. He looks a little abashed at having been caught out feeding Luna, but keeps patting Luna’s head while he answers. He explains that he and Arcee used to work together, and when she got into shipping and transportation she served as a cough informant, letting him know what was going on in other places, who and what was going where, doing things when they needed to be done somewhere else. She stopped doing that when she decided to settle down in Caminus, but Prowl acknowledges that she’s still keeping her eyes open and helping them out now, and admits that Aileron is keeping her eyes open too, and being helpful.
Eventually the party all falls asleep, ready to head out in the morning...
session 6!
Team Ice: Adventure 8: The One Where it’s About the Vibes
Team Ice continues their adventure and we’re bringing you the latest summary! Last time the party made their way to Lotty’s hometown, Lotty might have had an encounter with her deity, and the party spots the Functionists meeting with the High Priestess and makes their way into the temple.
The Cast - TEAM ICE
Skids by Soundwave (human rogue)
Tailgate by Butter (dwarven barbarian)
Cyclonus by Ren (tiefling paladin)
Nautica by Robophelia (half-elf wizard)
Velocity by Cee (high elf cleric)
Brainstorm by Bex (air genasi wizard)
First Session | Second Session | Third Session | Fourth Session | Fifth Session | Sixth Session | Seventh Session
The party is in the temple in Paradisus Arbor. While they are looking around the temple, the Functionists return with the High Priestess, heading up to the High Priestess’s office. Skids sneaks up to spy on the Functionists up in the High Priestess’s office. He hears some small talk where the High Priestess is trying to cover that she’s surprised that there is a non-elven delegation here, she didn’t know anything about the Functionists coming, so she’s trying to get at why they are there. Seven of Twelve alludes to something about the temple, and the guards are asked to leave the office, heading out onto the stairs where Skids is hiding. Skids runs down to the prayer area below and fake-prays so damn hard that the guards step back onto the stairs and out of sight for the sake of his privacy, not wanting to disturb such apparently devout prayer.
Once the guards are out of sight, Skids returns to the party. The group decides that they have to hear more about what the Functionists are asking after. They make a plan: while Velocity distracts the honor guard, Nautica will cast invisibility on Brainstorm. Brainstorm will then levitate up to the window of the High Priestesses office. Tailgate will distract the guards with Luna to make sure they don’t notice anything funny.
Velocity talks to Roadbuster, the honor guard of the temple, about how Solus Prime never really clicked with her, and so she wants to be taken out of the register here, so that she’s sure she’s in her new deity’s register and there’s no confusion. Roadbuster insists there’s no register, though they can switch her raven mailings down to twice a year, and that she’s a Camian, so she’s always affiliated with Solus Prime. Roadbuster says that they should go down and review the texts and rediscover what, uh, what was the word, clicks? Clicks with Velocity. Velocity insists that Solus Prime doesn’t vibe with her.
Roadbuster: V-vibes??
Velocity: If you don't know what vibing means, it means you've never vibed with anything. Maybe this religion isn't right for you!
Velocity agrees to go with Roadbuster down to read the texts of Solus Prime in exchange for Velocity sharing some of her texts, some recipe books…. recipes with sugar!
Meanwhile, Tailgate has struck up a conversation with the guards, who are two nondescript human men named George and Andrew, which are definitely pre-planned names and not ones the DM made up on the spot. No one finds these names weird, despite this being a world where characters are named ‘Tailgate’ and ‘Roadbuster’. The guards stop Tailgate from going upstairs, because Seven of Twelve and the Head Priestess are in an important conversation. They recognize Tailgate from when they met him on the road and Tailgate introduces Luna as his lost dog, now found! Andrew immediately starts cooing over Luna. George is not amused; this happens every time they see a dog. Every. Time.
Tailgate says that Luna got further away than they thought, so they decided to stop in this town. Tailgate watches branches move as Brainstorm, invisible, levitates past the stairs. To distract the guards, Tailgate asks why they’re there, and Andrew says they’re on the way to the capital. Tailgate says it’s been a long time since he’s been there, since, he claims, he’s lived most of his life in the Port Town, and he and Andrew get into a conversation about how Port Town has more variety; more non-elves, different foods coming in with different people - why, they even sometimes get things with sugar in Port Town. They begin a discussion of desserts.
Having levitated up to the office, Brainstorm presses his ear to the window to listen to Seven of Twelve and the High Priestess. Seven of Twelve asks about the history of this temple, and the story that it was built on top of an older temple, built shortly after Solus Prime first arrived on Caminus. The High Priestess insists that she doesn’t know what he’s talking about, this was the first temple in this city. Seven of Twelve says that he’s here for important alliance negotiations on behalf of the Functionist Empire, and that her honesty could forward such negotiations, and that her dishonesty could forward, say, their displeasure. She still insists she doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but that the Functionist party can stay overnight before moving on to the Capital. They start to discuss housing arrangements, and Brainstorm exits stage outside-the-window.
Once Brainstorm is back down with the others, they reassemble the party. Cyclonus goes up to find Tailgate in the midst of a conversation with Andrew about cupcakes versus cakes. Cyclonus does not so much ask for Tailgate to come back to rejoin the party as much as loom ominously until the guards leave. Tailgate and Cyclonus come to the agreement that cupcakes are appropriate in any situation that cakes are, even if cakes would be considered more standard - like at weddings! They’re just miniature cakes!
Nautica comes down to rescue Velocity from Camian chick tracts and finds Velocity bamboozling Roadmaster:
Velocity: - and see, this word is spelled differently here, so what does it really mean? If we don’t even know how this word is spelled, do we really know anything?
Roadmaster, about to faint from the Heresy, practically shoves Velocity and Nautica upstairs. As soon as Velocity and Nautica are out of sight, Velocity does a hair flip, and Nautica high fives her.
Brainstorm recaps what he heard from the High Priestess and Seven of Twelve. Velocity notes that the High Priestess had lied: this was not the first temple in this city, the city is too old for that. Velocity has found some of the petrified remains of the old city off of the roots of the new city when running around and trying to get out of her art classes as a kid. She also knows that there are doors in the basement roots of the temple, though she never managed to get through them.
After some discussion, it’s decided that part of the party - Skids, Cyclonus, Nautica (because there are books!) and Brainstorm - will go and try to investigate the basement, and the other part of the party - Velocity, since she knows the city and the high priestess, Prowl, because he knows the politics, and Tailgate, because he knows the guards and is generally likeable - will go and talk to the high priestess and try to persuade her to help them thwart the Functionists. Prowl exhorts Brainstorm not to blow the temple up, but Brainstorm is skeptical. Velocity eventually managed to persuade him that ‘Trees are alive, don’t kill things.’ Brainstorm agrees to this, but only because he likes Velocity.
Prowl: Cyclonus, you’re the quietest and therefore probably the sanest of this group, you’re in charge while I’m gone.
Cyclonus, horrified: Oh god, okay.
Cyclonus now has babysitting duty!
The basement-investigation group finds a bookshelf of everything from chick tracts and worn-out prayer books to old religious texts. Cyclonus finds himself hyptnotized by a chick tract with just, the worst illustrations. So bad. Nautica finds some old texts of Solus Prime, including an illustration of her with her sword absent the large crystal that is usually depicted in the hilt. The party investigates the wardrobe to find it overrun with moths. Skids picks the lock on a trunk and finds holy water and silver dust, but decides against stealing it and relocks the trunk. Brainstorm investigates the door at the end of the basement, which is locked. Skids comes over and picks the lock, and the party stares down a long dark passage, slowly narrowing…
Upstairs in the High Priestess’s office, Velocity reintroduces herself to the high priestess who is surprised to see her back. She admits to the deception of the others being disguised as elves, and the High Priestess allows that as they are allowing the Functionist party of (mostly) humans through the city, so she can’t really be mad.
Tailgate also introduces himself.
Tailgate: I mean, I don’t know many things. I just got out of the hole I was in a few weeks ago.
High Priestess: You…. were in a hole?
Tailgate: Yup.
High Priestess: I… I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry?
Tailgate: Oh, I don’t think it’s anything you need to be sorry for. You know, when you’re down a hole, you’ve just got to get a shovel and dig yourself out.
High Priestess: That… is very wise. You know, Solus Prime can be very helpful in lifting you out of holes -
Fortunately, Prowl jumps in before the High Priestess can try to convert Tailgate. He explains that the Functionists are being dishonest about their purpose, that they found one of their party using symbols of Onyx Prime, one of Solus Prime’s legendary nemeses. He suggests that whatever they’re after in the city, they’re probably after it to nefarious purposes, and they won’t hesitate to take it if they can without your permission. He points to the fact that, well, he has experience dealing with them on the continent, and that’s what they’re used to there, and alludes to the resistance.
The High Priestess asks Velocity if she trusts Prowl, and she says he is right about this. The High Priestess is still not totally convinced, and says that they will protect the temple themselves.
Then.
Velocity.
Tries….. Something.
Velocity invokes that this mission has been called for and blessed by her deity, who cares about her. Her eyes begin to glow.
The High Priestess, not having been in the loop on Velocity’s general heresy, assumes that Velocity is talking about Solus Prime, and the mission is blessed by Solus Prime. With this blessing - well, what’s a priestess of Solus Prime to do? She gives Velocity the keys to go through either of the doors in the basement, though she says those doors have not been opened since she took on the position of High Priestess, and also her sigil, as a ‘I can do what I want’ card. Prowl asks her not to tell the Functionists about them, and she promises not to.
On the way back to rejoin the rest of the party, Velocity leaves an offering at Solus Prime’s prayer altar, some incense and a pipe she picked up in her travels, as it’s fitting of the arts. She feels inspired after leaving, because the DM just remembered about points of inspiration.
The party heads down the tunnel, until they find where the root tunnel breaks into a room of petrified wood. There’s one staircase leading down, and the party follows it until they reach another room, with one large staircase going down in front of them, and one large one going up behind them, and two smaller ones going up to the left and right.
Velocity asks her deity for help. Her deity sends the image of a glowing figure of Solus Prime, and then two other figures with her, neither of whom look like elves, one very small. This is a surprise to Velocity, as she was always taught that Solus Prime came to Caminus alone, to establish an all elf society.
Velocity’s deity is, however, unhelpful about directions, so the party decides to go down the big staircase heading down from the second stage at the end...
Team Ice: Adventure 7: The One Where The Party Considers Stealing A Tree (Or Possibly Becoming One)
Team Ice continues their adventure and we’re bringing you the latest summary! Last time the party started following the Functionists traveling across Caminus, and successfully fought an owlbear.
The Cast - TEAM ICE
Skids by Soundwave (human rogue)
Tailgate by Butter (dwarven barbarian)
Cyclonus by Ren (tiefling paladin)
Nautica by Robophelia (half-elf wizard)
Velocity by Cee (high elf cleric)
Brainstorm by Bex (air genasi wizard)
First Session | Second Session | Third Session | Fourth Session | Fifth Session | Sixth Session
In their camp in the Camien forest, the party wakes up tired, except Luna. The party examines the Onyx talisman again. It looks like part of a magical array and has a simplified, modernized version of Onyx Prime’s sigil. Tailgate is not impressed with the quality of the metalwork.
Prowl finds it strange that a Functionist official was carrying an object related to a Prime, especially since Onyx is associated with necromancy and the undead. Usually Functionists are focused on Primus and the Guiding Hand, and if they’re worshipping or using sigils of Primes it’s Prima, Vector Sigma, or Alpha Trion. Velocity and Nautica confirm that Onyx Prime is kind of a bogeyman in Camien lore, because of his opposition to Solus Prime in the war of the primes. Brainstorm thinks this whole magical array and necromancy was awesome, but also, you know, bad.
Brainstorm and Nautica spy on the Functionist party while everyone else gathers supplies. They see that the Functionist party is packing up and continuing on the main road. While gathering supplies, Tailgate teaches Luna how to fetch while Lotty finds the motherload of food while foraging.
The party regroups and continues on through the forest Paradisus Arbor. Prowl asked Nautica and Velocity, as the two Camiens, if they were familiar with this city. Nautica and Velocity admit familiarity, but Velocity doesn’t admit that the city is her hometown.
As they get closer to the city, the trees they pass get bigger and bigger, Brainstorm considers that they would be big enough to build in, giving him multiple floors of lab space. Brainstorm becomes excited about the possibility of a tree heist, especially when Lotty tells the party that the city builds within trees. Everyone was supportive of the heist, considering that they should try when they leave.
"If you can pull it off, live your dreams" - Cyclonus
When they get close to the city, Velocity tries to climb a tree, falls because of carrying Luna, and has a bit of a breakdown at going back home and feeling like a failure. She wishes she could just stay here and become a tree, and the party discusses the feasibility and pros and cons of being a tree - but they make it clear that, tree or not, they’re sticking with her. Velocity admits this is her hometown and talks about how she’s afraid of coming back, not having excelled in anything the Camiens think of as important or become a super badass baker/cleric. She feels bad for only being a level four cleric, for only having gotten a patron relatively recently and not knowing how to communicate with her patron. When she says that last piece, she and everything around her starts to glow. The party has to point it out to her, and when she notices it it flares a little and then fades. The party recognizes this as something depicted as having to do with gods, as they’ve seen it depicted in religious texts, but has never actually seen it before.
Tailgate gives a speech about how Lotty is being forged, because Solus Prime is the god of the forge, and everything in that process is making her stronger, and she’ll come out stronger like Solus Prime.
"If anything happens to you I will fight god" - Tailgate
Lotty manages to get back up and agree to put aside her breakdown for later, given a group hug.
Prowl basically does this
The party heads into town, making for the temple while trying to keep the members of the party that the Functionists have seen out of sight. They catch the Functionists on their way out of the temple, but the Functionists don’t see anyone they recognize. Skystriker, the high priestess at the temple, recognizes Lotty but doesn’t want to make a fuss in front of dignitaries, leaving Roadmaster, the honor guard of the temple and Most Ripped Elf You Have Ever Seen, to deal with them.
Roadmaster: what are you doing here? (in your hometown which you ran away from, which no one ever does)
Velocity: sightseeing!
Lotty claims that Solus Prime isn’t for her and that she wants to go to the temple to basically put a pin in All That, which, on top of everything else, is enough heresy to basically break Roadmaster’s brain. Skids plays Good Elf who is horrified by heresy and just wants to visit the temple while on visit from Port Town. After being assured that Luna won’t make a mess, Roadmaster agrees to let them into the temple, if Skids keeps an eye on Lotty and makes sure she doesn’t cause any trouble and/or heresy.
Roadmaster: your friends seem like reasonable folk
Velocity: *hysterical laughter*
Velocity: Oh that? That was coughing.
The party makes their way into the Paradisius Arbor temple, with Roadmaster keeping a close eye on them...
Next adventure!
Team Ice: Adventure 6: The One Where It’s a Ride or Die Kind of Group
Team Ice continues their adventure and we’re bringing you the latest summary! Last time the party arrived in Caminus and met Arcee and her wife Aileron, who were able to give the party some guidance. Having rested overnight, the party is now getting ready to follow the Functionists...
The Cast - TEAM ICE
Skids by Soundwave (human rogue)
Tailgate by Butter (dwarven barbarian)
Cyclonus by Ren (tiefling paladin)
Nautica by Robophelia (half-elf wizard)
Velocity by Cee (high elf cleric)
Brainstorm by Bex (air genasi wizard)
First Session | Second Session | Third Session | Fourth Session | Fifth Session
While the party is sleeping the night at Arcee and Aileron’s, Luna stole Tailgate’s shoes in the night, and swapped them for a game piece Velocity was carrying with her. It’s a canine gesture of affection for their friendship… that leads to Tailgate and others frantically searching for his shoes.
After Tailgate finds his shoes, the party gets ready to leave. Before leaving, Arcee tells Nautica to take care of herself, noting that Prowl will always end up prioritizing the mission, so she has to look after herself. Aileron gives her a couple of the sweetest pastries they have for the road.
Arcee recognizes Cyclonus as a kindred ‘tall and quiet with big weapons’ spirit and puts a hand on his shoulder and tells him to be sure to look after the others. He assures her he will.
The party makes their way out of the city and begins walking through the woods, staying off the main roads to avoid any runs in with the Functionists. Velocity shows others fireberries to pick while on the road, as she spent a lot of time in the woods growing up and recognizes some of the edible plants
When they make camp, Prowl sends Velocity, Nautica, and Brainstorm off to forage and get firewood, with exhortations to not let Brainstorm blow anything up
Brainstorm: But what if I need to blow something up
Prowl: … If you’re attacked you can blow something up
Brainstorm: How narrow is the definition of ‘attacked’? Say, if a tree branch falls on me -
Prowl: If you are being - if there is a reasonable chance that you might die, with reasonable being defined very narrowly, and blowing something up is the only way - look, Velocity and Nautica, can you just tell him if he needs to blow anything up?
Velocity: What if we let him use an explosion to light the campfire later?
Prowl: … If he can keep it contained… can we please remember we’re on a spy mission
Prowl sends Skids, Tailgate, and Cyclonus to go spy on the Functionist camp while he sets up warding around the camp. After some discussion, it’s agreed that Luna will stay with Prowl. Prowl acts grumpy about this but pets Luna anyway.
As they get towards the Functionist camp, the spy party sees the half-elf woman walking away from the camp, and manages to avoid her notice. She finds a clear spot, and recites a prayer in Infernal calling on Onyx Prime to continue to support her mission and to build his strength in this place, and buries a metal copy of his sigil in the ground. Skids decides to dig up the sigil after she leaves, and puts it securely in his component pouch. Tailgate worries that this will bring the wrath of Onyx Prime on them.
While sneaking closer to the Functionist camp, all three of the spy party roll terrible stealth checks all step on a branch, and 7 of 12 immediately starts yelling at them. Skids steps out and tries to cover the others to give them a chance to get back and pretend he was the only one there, but Cyclonus and Tailgate step out to try and have his back. They lie and say they are looking for their missing dog, Tailgate putting on an especially weepy performance. 7 buys the lie and tells them to go away, as the dog certainly wouldn’t have gotten this far into the woods.
Meanwhile, the foraging party has found a very lackluster haul. Velocity and Nautica discuss the limitations of Nautica’s shape water spell and whether it applies to water in someone’s body
DM: are you asking nautica if she can bloodbend?
They come to the conclusion that Nautica couldn’t shape water inside a person in terms of their blood or other fluids - so no bloodbending. However, she could maybe manipulate water as someone was drinking it if she could see the water - and if a person had water on them she could manipulate the water she could see, but more so to hit the other person with water, not to be able to drag them around by the water on them. And she can manipulate mostly-water fluids like tea.
That settled, Velocity asks Brainstorm about his sciency-magicy bomb making abilities, and also if he could make water guns for Nautica.
They’re so lost in this discussion, that they don’t notice the Owlbear until it’s nearly on top of them, and lets out a loud roar…
As the spy party heads back to camp, Skids discusses how dangerous it was that Cyclonus and Tailgate had stayed with him when they got caught, because if they had all gotten captured no one else would have known to come and help until too late.
Cyclonus: I made a commitment to look after you.
Tailgate: It’s a ride or die kind of group.
Skids says that they could look out for him by getting help from the others, and Tailgate says he’ll take it under advisement. Cyclonus hears a distant sound. Heading to investigate, they pass the camp, and Prowl, who had heard the roar more clearly and was just getting ready to investigate, leaves with them…
Back with the others Brainstorm attacks the owlbear with a flurry of snowballs. Velocity worries about attacking an innocent animal. Nautica tries to put the owlbear to sleep, but even under Brainstorm’s snowball fight attack, it’s still too strong. Velocity finally goes to shoot the owlbear, but it retaliates by slashing her with its claws. Brainstorm attacks with an ice knife while Nautica gives Velocity a potion of greater healing.
The rest of the party arrives, and together they successfully kill the owlbear. Velocity and Tailgate stabilize it and leave it some berries so that it won’t die, but isn’t healed enough to come after them quick either. They return to camp and Brainstorm uses his bonfire spell to light the small pile of twigs Nautica found into a roaring fire, satisfying his need for explosions. Skids shows the others the Onyx Prime sigil and tells them about the prayer the Functionist woman had recited. This is worrying to Nautica and Velocity, who grew up learning about Onyx Prime as one of the leaders of the old Primal war who opposed Solus Prime.
Led by Lotty and Tailgate, the group gathers in for a group hug around Luna - even Prowl gets close enough to pet her. Beside the fire, they rest for the night...
