Heart and Clockwork Soul - 27/02/2024 - A Kavel Perspective

A Win for Timing

Captain Ivan Erikson, my thicc bro human comrade, was on shore leave and had come to see me, his goliath bro, in the Thicc Boi Compound for some scheduled strength training together.

I was already dressed for the exercises I had chosen for the strength training. I wore only a langot (loincloth) and gamcha (light rectangular cloth wrapped around the waist for the purpose of strength training. Kind of a towel). The langot and gamcha are the traditional garb for heavy club and mace swinging where I come from.

Ivan took his time putting on the langot and gamcha. Ivan also took his time warming up. During all this time, I had already pushed around a 2,000lbs sled and performed over 100 hand only press-ups. When Ivan was ready, I demonstrated how to swing the heavy clubs and mace, using a pair of 225 lbs clubs and a 250 lbs mace. It was now time for Ivan to have a go with the clubs and mace I had selected for his strong human body. But, Ivan wanted to arm wrestle. So we did that.

I put the heavy clubs and maces aside and fetched some chalk. While I did that, Ivan said he was just going to take a sip of water from a special bottle he received while sailing to a town full of frost giants. Apparently the water is very pure and good for his body. He did not let me have any - limited supply.

Ivan beat me in the arm wrestle.

Perhaps I have underestimated how powerful Ivan’s greataxe swinging arm truly is? Or maybe he has been making giant gains since he’s become a captain? The extra amount of training I did before the arm wrestle could be a factor too? Although, if I had voiced that last thought, I was certain Ivan would have ridiculed me all day for it.

Fortunately, there was no time to linger on Ivan’s victory, as Sorrel, my badass human sister, had sent me a mental message using her stone from the Sending stone pair we share. She said our friend, comrade Derthaad, a dragonborn City Watch member, as well as fellow adventurer, needed our help with Watch business. It was an urgent matter. A theft in Mechanus, and the thief was here in the Dawnlands.

I asked Ivan to come back to the city with me to help. He had already understood we would be changing our schedule from strength training to adventuring - he had changed back into his captain clothes. I was still in my langot and gamcha - no shirt, no shoes, no time. We left immediately for Daring Heights.


8 Hours On The Clock

In the city, Sergeant Derthaad was with Sorrel and our wizard and vibrant fiery-haired fire-genasi friend, comrade Glint.

Comrade Derthaad must have had a busy morning. Normally I see him up above me in the morning flying Ulhar, his blue dragon summon. Sometimes they fly off to the Spines, where my Ironstrong Bros had set up a gym in the mountains in a nice temple. I had met Ulhar, the real, non-spiritual summon version before. This all happened in a weird memory and time travel inside my friend’s mind. In this strange adventure, we had taken on the appearance of some dwarven traders from Derthaad’s memories, while Derthaad was his younger self in the memory. We sadly witnessed the tragedy of Derthaad’s old squad getting killed, including his fiance.
Ulhar, the real Ulhar, was a cranky old fella, and a bit short for an adult dragon. Still very powerful though. How Ulhar became Derthaad’s draconic spirit summon, I’m not quite sure. But it had something to do with the clockwork arcane power that was being misused at the time, and dragon magic. Derthaad’s own sorcerer powers derive from the clockwork cosmic power that arises from Mechanus too, and he is also part dragon being that he is dragonborn. Somehow this combination of facts bonded Ulhar’s spirit to Derthaad. It is all very weird to me.

Comrade Derthaad explained the details of the important assignment that Captain Thundercog charged him with. We had to find the djinni that stole the prototype known as Augment C65-Delta, and return it to Mechanus, otherwise a marut, the most powerful of contract enforcers from Mechanus, will come to the material plane, come to the city, and start forcefully retrieving the prototype. This would not be good for the buildings of Daring Heights, nor its citizens. Critically, we only had around eight hours left to complete the assignment.

Sergeant Derthaad had many eyes and criminal informants around the city. He managed to learn that a djinni hired a horse and cart the day before he brought us together and headed east, to Swampside, after arriving through Portal Plaza. The djinni was carrying a large mechanical looking container with her.

As we travelled east through the Dawn Market, Sorrel and Glint went into the taverns to check if people saw a djinni with a cart and horse the other day. Ivan questioned people on the street, while I bought some meat pies from the market, because my thicc bro comrade had not been to the city recently, and hadn’t had the chance to try the new, tasty protein offerings. Ivan’s questioning method was a bit rough and certainly intimidating. It may not have improved matters that I was standing with him, 7’6” tall and just dressed in my langot and gamcha. People began calling for help. It was good that the information we had gathered encouraged us to keep moving east to the Swamp Gate.

Glint bought some very fancy wine on the way to the Swamp Gate. Apparently djinni’s like fancy wines. This was a very diplomatic approach to aiding the mission. Glint is very much a diplomatic-magic based wizard. The meat pies were excellent. Glint’s wine would have gone well with the pies, but he wouldn’t let me have any. Ivan shared his travelling beer though like a good comrade - thicc bois look after each other.

Derthaad confirmed with the guards at the Swamp Gate that they saw a djinni the day before with a horse and cart fitting the description we were looking for. We had learned that the djinni’s name was Furacao and she had wind-like hair. We also had a gold nugget that she used to pay for the horse and cart hire.
With this information, Glint tried sneaky voyeur magic to find the djinni. There is this spell known as Scrying, which allows the caster to peep at the target unseen. Glint tried this, but said that as he cast the spell, Furacao became aware that someone was trying to scry on her, and stopped the attempt.

Fortunately the spell set back did not stop us from following the djinni’s path, because as we left the city, the tracks were really easy for me to see in the mud road. Strangely, my tracking skills were the best in the party that day. It is curious to me how my sister Sorrel, an expert tracker, and Sergeant Derthaad, a very intelligent city prowler, are not as good at tracking. They both offered the reason why as being that they are ‘urban specialists’. This seemed kind of fair.
We followed the tracks. We soon doubled our pace though, as we realised that Furacao had taken the stolen prototype to Fort Ettin! Sorrel summoned some horses for us.


7 Hours On The Clock - Fast Pace to Fort Ettin and a Perspective Shift

We got to Fort Ettin in record breaking time. Jenna greeted us, and asked us why we seemed in such a rush. We explained who we were trying to reach and why. Jenna said Furacao was indeed in the Fort, and had booked one of the fancier rooms, room 6, above the Great Hall.

Led by Sergeant Derthaad, we all went up to meet Furacao, except for Sorrel, who climbed the wall outside to reach room 6’s window, and cover it as a potential escape route. When the rest of us reached the room, Sergeant Derthaad knocked on the door. We had pre arranged that there would be no City Watch based, forced door entrance type raid. Both comrade Ivan and I were looking forward to being in an official Watch raid. So, that was disappointing. But we took our lead from Derthaad; it was his Watch assignment after all.

We actually ended up having a good and interesting chat with Furacao. Oh and a good chat with Augmy, too, who was also in the room, and had been hiding in the wardrobe. Augmy had been hiding, because he was the prototype, and very much a sentient and apparently very unique modron. Augmy was designed to know love, and it appeared Furacao and Augmy were very much in love. Augmy was fitted with a device to stop him from being able to ‘cross dimensions’ or if you will, planeshifting. Furacao had Augmy travel in a container that prevented Augmy’s ‘dimensional lock’ from stopping his travel. Furacao was trying to remove the lock before we entered her room.

None of us were especially looking forward to handing over Augmy back to his creator on Mechanus, now that we understood the situation. Plus, doing so would have involved fighting Augmy and Furacao. The fight could have been challenging, I reckoned. But so too was the contractual element of Augmy’s ownership - too much for my head anyway.
Conversely, we could have ended up fighting the marut when it arrived instead, defending the lovers. I was looking forward to lifting the marut and wrestling it (you see, my other thicc-boi comrade, Varga, said she had grappled one before). But, then the problem with fighting the marut, would again be challenging, and possibly cause more destruction than fighting the lovers. Or so it seemed. It was a sticky situation regardless.
Either way, I thought, no matter who we fought that day, whether for the lovers or against them, I thought; we could at least let Furacao and Augmy marry one another; if they wanted to. You see, I reasoned that even if we ended up fighting them; I thought it would just be nice to let them marry, and Sorrel is not just a badass stealth assassin; she is also a cleric, so could do the ceremony.


3 Hours On The Clock - Sorrel Does A Marriage Ceremony

I made the marriage suggestion after Glint suggested Furacao could create a warlock pact with Augmy, causing a new contract that would conflict with ownership rights of Augmy between Furacao, and the inventor. Because of Glint’s suggestion, when I made my marriage suggestion, the others were initially less focused on the love element of it, and more focused on the contractual element - apparently a marriage contract would cause a contract conflict too, that we reasoned would halt the marut in its tracks.

So, Sorrel stopped hiding outside and came in through the window, and Augmy proposed to Furacao. Furacao accepted.

We only had a couple of hours or so before the marut arrived. Jenna allowed us use of the multi-faith chapel, and arranged for the tabards to get everything ready. The whole Fort seemed to get involved. Glint used lots of his illusion magic to really make the chapel extra nice. It was like summer inside the chapel, and it appeared as if we were outside in a lovely garden. Everyone’s clothing changed under the illusion too; all seemed to be well dressed for a wedding. But, a tabard gave me a bowtie to go with my gamcha, so Glint didn’t bother to extend the clothing illusion magic to me.

Sorrel performed a great marriage ceremony, especially given the late notice, and Derthaad was a great best man for Augmy, and perhaps more importantly a great registrar. Derthaad and Sorrel made certain that Furacao and Augmy registered their marriage after the wedding vows and kiss were performed.

Glint’s amazing illusion magic went a bit wonky at some point, and a few of us had illusion daggers sticking out of our chests. It felt like a bad omen. Glint’s magic was a bit wonky earlier too when we first met Furacao. Glint was magically reading Furacao’s thoughts, when Glint’s fiery hair flared up. I did say that Furacao’s wind hair was more magnificent than Glint’s fiery hair - I don’t know if that was a factor? Either way, Glint’s magic was going wild at times.


Time’s Up - The Marut Arrived

Jenna observed from the walls while we stood outside, my comrades, Furacao and Augmy, waiting for the marut.

The marut was huge. Augmy barely came up to the marut’s knees, but then again Augmy was small. There was a lot of metal to the marut, but I could still have easily lifted the marut and pinned him to the ground as my comrades smashed it, if needed. As it turned out though, none of that was necessary. The marut registered that the marriage contract was valid and now superseded the inventor’s claim on Augmy. The marut handed over the original contract to Augmy, and left.

Furacao and Augmy were both delighted. Furacao, granted comrade Derthaad a wish for all his help. Derthaad asked if Ulhar’s dragon spirit could be freed from his bond. Furacao granted this wish, and actually gave life to Ulhar!

Before us was the giant-ish form of Ulhar, given life anew! Ulhar was grateful to Derthaad, and himself granted Derthaad continued access to his dragon spirit if and when required. But also, Ulhar offered to awaken the clockwork magic in Derthaad’s heart. I suggested my friend agree - he’s already had an arm replaced and it went well for him then (despite the inadvertent large scale trouble that ended up causing in the Feywild and beyond). Ulhar made it so Derthaad can now become an awesome giant-ish blue dragon himself! Pretty badass. Also pretty thicc, too. Derthaad can now do his morning flight routine himself.

Ulhar went off to find a new lair. The old temple where my bros’ mountain gym was suggested by Derthaad. Sorrel mentioned Kavelland. But, Kavelland is a bit far and remote, which is a shame, since maybe Ulhar could have cleaned up more of the trinket junk inside the mountain for me. Funnily enough, Sorrel got some rings from my island when we last went there, and these were used in Furacao and Augmy’s wedding. I, on the other hand, got 100 year old chicken rations from my island. They are still good to be fair. This is impressive. More impressive is how I managed to find these rations on both my first visit to Kavelland and my second amongst the 100,000 plus trinkets there!


Council and Watch Rewards

The council rewarded us with much gold for our efforts. I was very pleased to hear that Captain Thundercog recognised how safely Sergeant Derthaad resolved the marut assignment, and so promoted him to Lieutenant. I am very proud of my friend and comrade, the now Lieutenant Derthaad. A promotion he much deserves for his hard work in the city. I hope to see him flying around soon. But also, I hope to see him at the Thicc Boi Compound in Kavel’s Corner. He may be able to do this focussed version of True Polymorph spell and transform into a big blue dragon, but he’s new to the form and will need to work on his wing strength. So, I will devise for him a wing-based strength and conditioning routine.