Field Mission 7: The Queen of Hearts, Call to Arms

[balancemod]

Minor problem, friendos. Looks like the Hunger's here and dinner's about to be served. Let's hope this works! NAVIGATION 1. THE ENCROACHING TIDES Three weeks past the celebration of H.R.H. The Queen of Heart's annual celebratory commemortating event of her coronation, the ground begins to violently shake with an unknown pulse. All throughout the kingdom, from the reaches of the Emberwharf to the tiny hamlet of Harrowyn, it's felt. For those of you who've begun to reclaim your memories, you know something just isn't right. The way the world churns, the lack in spots of your own detailed memories, the apprehension and dread that it brings... all of it seems to be one big sign of trouble. Karsus, now known to all as Merlin, the cryptic and helpful (questionable) wizard, resides in the Enchanted Forest, awaiting the Lady of the Lake to give him some sort of sign that she's still out there. As you may have guessed, she's actually Mystra, in hiding, and her role in this story is more important now than ever. Does she know who she is? Is she hating on Magi*Mari as much as everyone else? It's hard to tell. But time is starting to become a scarce resource. You look out to the horizon, and you notice something out of place. The Expanse. It's encroaching at an alarming rate. Around the perimeter of the wall, towns are engulfed into it and lost entirely. This star is dying, becoming consumed. The Evil Queen was right; there's no telling when this would happen, but it was always something that was destined to unfold. And this time, when you look out into the great abyss, it looks back at you. Eyes watching you- all of you, observing. If you haven't recovered your memories by now, a few of them might come rushing in. You can almost make it out. The thing that you've been told to fight. The thing that's been hunting Lucretia and her crew for 100 years. The Hunger's here, and waiting... just outside the bounds of this illusory world. It's time to put a plan that started a year ago into action. It's time to bring magic back to Faerun and take back your stories. But where is that relic?

Comments

[feytality]

Geeeet friendshipped on

[balancemod]

Time to get Mystra on our side! As noted, please let us know which roll you'd like to use your +3 (or any combination leading up to +3) on.

1. For someone who's used to Karsus' bullshit and has had to endure him for the last few thousand years, she's awfully used to him coming up with different schemes to get the best of her. Never mind it was his fault to begin with that she became a goddess! Never mind that he's doing everything he can to correct a seriously doomed timeline! This is personal. This is a matter of pride and dignity, and probably a little bit of love. Wait, what?

DC 10 to reach out to her. She should be pretty easy to converse with, even if she's a water spirit at the moment. She's just ignoring someone. From there, it'll be a DC 14 to convince her of what's up. Considering she's seen what you're capable of, she does... kind of know you. +1 to the outcome.

2. That doesn't work? Time to bring the conversation to her and act upon PROJECT FIND OUT WHATS UP WITH GOD. You can easily dimension door down there, she's currently sitting with her arms crossed, underwater, as her long, golden hair floats all mysteriously. We're going to give Aziraphale the opportunity to make a small miracle happen here, and what that looks like- we'll leave it up to you. But it's a DC 14 again, netting you a +1 to the outcome.

3. Karsus will gladly show you his gundam dragons. He's kind of a giant nerd, and he can't hide it. We'll roll a 1d100 on this and determine what random effect will happen with them. It's a side roll, so we're not holding it against you or anything.

4. ZONE OF TRUTH TIME. DC 12 since Karsus is extremely distracted talking about Mou and his dragon collection. We'll prop a solid +2 to that for expertise. After that, we'll see where this goes.

Sound good?

[feytality]

Yes! +3 for convincing Mystra, please!

[balancemod]

At first, you manage to make it over to the Enchanted forest and find Karsus sitting there, on a rock, sighing as he waits for Mystra to come out and at least talk to him. He knows that the world is on the verge of collapse, but he's keeping his cool about the entire thing, braiding his hair and just having soft, simple conversations with her about random things. Like the time Mystra punked him in the celestial realm and swapped his favorite shampoo with nair. Oof.

Maya and Aziraphale make their way onto the scene and for a while, the three of them just call out to her, now that the pretense of "she's the Lady in the Lake" is over, you just refer to her by name specifically.

She's not budging.

To pass the time, Maya converses with Karsus about his gundam collection and happily brings them out, talking about them passionately. He explains that they're actually enchanted figures that he can bring to life- you wanna see? OF COURSE YOU DO. He places one on the ground, pulls out his staff, mutters a few words, and wild magic surges the area around him.

With a 94 on the wild magic surge table, one thing in the area grows a size larger than its original form. And who would've guessed it? Aziraphale is now the size of a hill giant all of a sudden.

Karsus' eyes go wide. Oops?

Oops.

Mystra's fucking had it at this point, as goddesses of magic are wont to do. She finally gives up the ghost, appearing above the lake, hovering with a sword that eerily looks like a broken ass Excalibur.

"Karsus, how are you THIS STUPID?!" Her voice topples a few trees nearby, crashing as they hit the ground. Karsus gulps. Maybe he should leave? He picks up his gundam figurine as Mystra takes her heel off and chancleta's him straight to the head. "Fine! Fine. I'm here. What's going on?"

(For your getting her to appear, you rolled a 15, and for convincing her... you rolled---




a 15!)

You explain to her the dire reality that they're in, and she quickly regains her final memory in that moment. Yeah, even gods were brought to kneel before this relic. Remembering the moment she became Mystra, she does seem back to normal. Whatever is normal for the all powerful goddess of magic.

Taking turns dunking Karsus left and right, and Aziraphale one size too big for this conversation, he might offer everyone calm down and make some tea, because that sounds hilarious. Either way, if he tries Zone of Truth on her, it won't work. But eventually you're able to convince her to be prepared for the Weave to suddenly jump start back to life. You miss out on a crucial thing that's underpinned in their relationship dynamic, but both of you have enough wisdom to know when you look at someone and see that they're clearly in love with someone. Zone of truth or not. This is one hell of a weird relationship.

Congratulations! You've successfully completed this CTA. Mystra goes and attends to her station, getting ready to control the whims of magic once again. You may add +1 goddess sandal to your inventory as she flies off without it.