The Lady Kamisa

"The Lady Kamisa" is episode 60 of SuperQuest Saga. The party has reunited The Child with her staff but her advice has them a bit nervous...

Introduction

 * Will Stark shall be your genius dungeon master for this evening.
 * Josh Freeland is playing Sebastian Crenshaw, The Forsaken.
 * Your Special Guest Jake is playing Persephone Goldpetal the firbolg druid.
 * Brian is playing Codename: Echo the magical space pirate wizard.

Recap
Last time a lot of things happened. Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian met The Child. The Child was asleep and unresponsive until a symbol on her forehead showed a hologram of her nightmare, which gave them a clue of what they needed to find for her: a golden scepter with a rose quartz on the end. The party backtracked to The Princess to return the hyoshigi, and they learned a little information before she gave them a part of her soul. Persephone gained a bunch of new Wild Shape forms. The party found a bathhouse that they did not rest in. Then they found a lab with the golden scepter, which they were able to grab without incident and return to The Child. Her hand unconsciously took the scepter, her symbol glowed and projected a hologram of her in a magical girl uniform.

Oh, No. Oh, No. Oh, No, No, No, No, No.
The girl standing before them has long blue ponytails, big rosy eyes, and she opens her mouth to speak to the party. “Who are you? Where am I? What is this?” Echo tells her that he tries to speak to her mentally earlier and gestures towards her body. The projection turns around and reacts with dismay when she sees her body. She asks how long she has been here. Echo tells her that it’s been a really long time according to The Princess, perhaps hundreds of years.

Susa guesses they talked to her sister, and this situation isn’t good because it means the plan hasn’t worked. She tells them she needs to talk to Kamisa and starts walking past them. Echo tells her to wait a second, and asks her for some of her soul because they have a plan. She ignores him and tells them to follow her, but as soon as her hologram crosses the room she begins to fade. She realizes she can’t leave the room and tells the party that they must find Kamisa, she’s the only one who can stop this. Echo asks for more details. Susa tells them this has been an experiment to bring back their friend, but if it’s gone this long then it didn’t work and it needs to stop. Persephone asks what plan and what friend.

Susa moves back towards her body and her hologram becomes more stable. She says “A long time ago a dear friend of ours sacrificed himself and Kamisa said that we couldn’t bring him back. At least not as long as we remained where we were from. So she brought us here because she said revival is easier here. So we enacted a plan that we agreed to, and I don’t think it worked. It shouldn’t have taken this long. But I don’t know anything. Maybe something changed. But you’ll have to go talk to her. Tell her that if she doesn’t get me and my sister, and us out of here, I’ll never cook for her again.”

Sebastian is confused. Echo asks when the last time she cooked was, and Susa tells him it was last time she was awake. Echo says that it’s been at least a couple centuries, then, that Kamisa has gone without her cooking. Susa reveals that’s why she’s confident the ultimatum will work. Echo asks if she wants to know about the party and what they’re doing on the ship. She apologizes for being rude and asks who they are. Echo points to Sebastian and says he knows all about it.

Susa asks what they are doing because it is weird that they’re here. Sebastian tells her they are there to kick some ass. That’s what they’re here to do. Taking the Soul Eater is their main course; take the Soul Eater, kill some people, whatever they gotta do. Susa tells them that from her understanding, the Soul Eater should be sealed away with her power combined with that of Aya, May, and Kay. Susa is interested in making a deal with the party; she’ll give them some power as long as they go talk to Kamisa.

Persephone says they’re under the impression that Kamisa is not a very good person. Susa tells them that Kamisa has a complicated past but she’s sweet; she’ll talk to them if they tell her Susa sent them. There’s no way that the party can take both of them, they need one on their side. This wasn’t supposed to go this long and Kamisa knows that. Echo finds this pretty agreeable; Persephone and Sebastian agree to go talk to her. Echo would like to talk to her because he heard from the quasits that she might buy his materials card.

Echo asks Susa where they should go to find Kamisa. Susa doesn’t know, this place was built after they gave themselves over to the experiment. Echo thinks that it is crazy that the ship is built around them. Susa confirms that’s what happened, she doesn’t know anything. Kamisa has done way crazier things than this. Echo expresses frustration at not being able to read the language, and Susa says it makes sense that they wouldn’t be able to read it. She suggests talking to Kamisa will help make sense of things. Susa turns around to look at her body and gives an exasperated sigh.

Before they leave, Persephone approaches Susa and asks what the experiment was. Susa asks Percy’s name, and after introductions Percy asks for more clarification; was the experiment to go to the future to revive somebody? Susa says that it wasn’t the future, it is hard for her to understand the things that Kamisa talks about, but the way she explained it was that there is a mulit-verse. Different universes have different sets of laws, Kamisa found a way to traverse and brought them here. Echo says that helps make sense of some of the rooms around her. Persephone asks who they were trying to revive. Susa looks sad as she tells them it was a dear friend. She’s afraid that if this hasn’t worked then nothing will, but maybe Kamisa knows something they don’t. Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian set off to find Kamisa.

Some Howl's Moving Castle Shit
Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian make their way back to the bathhouse room to figure out where to go next. They decide to head east, and hop across the stones in the water to the wooden door. Echo opens the door, he pushes first but it is a pull door, and reveals an enormous room full of working specters at computer consoles on multiple levels; a huge portion of the ship’s activity happens here. Across all the activity is a wooden door with a wheel on top of it that has five colors, and an arrow pointing at red. The specters pay the party no mind.

Echo tries to maneuver across the room without disturbing the specters. He makes it across and stands in front of the fairly nondescript, wooden door. He finds a lever next to the door. Persephone touches Sebastian’s shoulder and says “The galaxy guides you!” as she casts Guidance before she tries to get across the room. As Persephone crosses, she takes cold damage as some ghosts pass right through her. Sebastian makes it through safely.

Echo attempts to inspect the door and is unable to figure it out. Sebastian steps up and tries to use his cybernetic expertise, but also fails to figure it out. Persephone casts Guidance on herself and says “The galaxy loves you!” as she also looks at the door. She notices that everything that’s been out of place with the “undead” theme of the ship has had to do with the pocket dimensions they keep encountering. She thinks that when the colored wheel is turned, the door opens up to a different room. Sebastian says that’s what he thought too. Echo is befuddled by the door.

Persephone leaves the dial on the red color and opens the door. The door is pushed open by a hot wind and the party is floored by the sight on the other side as it essentially is an ocean of roaring fire. It is almost like the surface of the star; it is utterly horrific as fire burns against the black sky. Echo and Sebastian urge her to quickly close the door and she slams it shut.

Persephone pulls the lever next to the door and the wheel ticks over to the next color, green. She gingerly opens the door, and they are assaulted by a horrific smell as they see a rotting bog beyond. Green, brown, black, and muck as far as the eyes can see, with reeking fumes. Echo and Sebastian urge her to close the door quickly again.

Echo pulls the lever and the wheel changes to blue. Persephone flings the door open and beyond is a frozen ocean against a black sky. It is beyond frigid, more frigid than the rooms with the cyberwights they found earlier. Almost as chilling is the utter and complete silence; there is no noise from beyond, no wind, nothing is moving, it is completely dead. Persephone shuts it.

Echo pulls the lever again changing the color to white, and Persephone opens the door. Beyond are rolling hills colored white with a powdery dust. Covering the dusty hills are spines, upon which are the bloody bodies of the dead. Looking out, they see there is no place for them to step; if they were to take a step they would be stabbed by a spine and then fall into more spines, never to get up again. Persephone closes the door.

Echo pulls the lever a final time to change the wheel to black, and Persephone opens the door. Most of the room beyond is a black void with a clear glass path winding through it to a floating door on the other side. They follow the path to a door that looks like it belongs to the ship, but it floats in space. Echo touches the door and discerns it is real. He presses the button to open it and reveals a mostly empty room. The floor is made of steel, there are odd burn marks on the floor in the center. There are two, tall feminine statues on the north and south sides; both are wearing a hard body suit of armor and bear pistols pointing down. One has wavy hair in a ponytail and one has long straight hair with a headband. Directly across the room is a door.

No One's Punching Anybody
Sebastian starts walking in and immediately gets hit with a bunch of laser damage. Echo grabs Sebastian and pulls him back out the room. Echo says that was way faster than he thought it would be; he was expecting them to talk first. Sebastian suggests the statues won’t let the party pass without a special treat, like a soda or a water. Echo throws his sword into the center of the room and it lands amongst the burn marks on the floor. He summons it back to his hand and puts it away. Echo pulls out his pistol and fires some shots at the statue with the headband and straight hair; it ricochets right off and the statue begins to rotate towards them. They back out of the door and retreat.

Sebastian asks what the fuck that was. Echo has a way to get across the room, but only for himself. The party decides to backtrack since they can’t think of a good way forward. They maneuver their way back through the specter work room and find themselves back in the bathhouse.

Sebastian is curious about the water in the hot spring and thinks the water is a little off, but in a good way. He asks Echo and Percy to check it out. Echo takes a gander at the water and realizes it has some sort of healing blessing on it. They decide to take a short rest in the relaxing hot springs; Echo doffs his armor and creates an illusory pair of swim trunks, Percy hops in as-is, and Sebastian removes his heavy plate armor.

They return to the dusty lab and find a big, heavy, metal door on the east wall with a button to open it. Echo presses the button and peers within. He sees another void room where the floor appears to be made of a dark, mirror-like substance that makes it difficult to see where the room ends. At the room’s center is a feminine figure sitting on a floating chair; she wears black scholar robes with a white waistband, her hair is long and salmon colored. She is working on a computer console, a translucent, free-floating module with a keyboard that is reactive to her touch. She does not appear to notice the party.

That's Not Canon
Echo calls out and she doesn’t seem to respond. He steps inside with Persephone and Sebastian following. Echo casts Prestidigitation to create an arrow on her computer screen that points in their direction. She looks at it, blinks, and starts to turn towards them. As she does, the party falls into the mirror-like substance of the floor; the fall only lasts for a second because suddenly they land prone on the floor. When they look around it appears that nothing has changed.

The woman looks at them, she has a round, pretty face, and asks who they are. Echo introduces himself, Persephone, and Sebastian, and tells her they were sent by The Child. Persephone adds that The Child’s name is Susa, Aya’s sister. The woman blinks and says Susa is supposed to be asleep. She stands and starts walking towards the party, saying “Which means you’ve been all over the ship and I haven’t noticed.” She starts eyeing the party, taking particular notice of Echo and Sebastian. She asks who they are, she’s never seen anyone like them, and she walks up and starts poking and prodding them with a little stick. She seems friendly but she is not respecting boundaries.

Sebastian says “Excuse you.” and she cheerfully responds “Excuse you!” She likes him and asks if he wants to be a guinea pig in her experiments. Sebastian does not. Echo tells her they are inundated with a task of their own and asks if she wants to help them with their experiments. She seems skeptical and changes the subject. “If you got this far, that must mean there’s been a naughty fox on board this ship.” She turns to her side, puts out her hands and a translucent keyboard appears. She starts to tap and three someones appear in the room; The Meijin sit before them. They look around confused and say “What? What is this?” and they sigh, “Kamisa.” The woman, Kamisa, addresses them. “You three have been up to something, and I want in. What’s going on here?” Echo waves at The Meijin. The Meijin look at the party, then they look at Kamisa, and they say “We have no idea what you’re talking about. We’ve never seen these three in our lives.”

Echo pulls out the soul orbs and tells Kamisa that he got them from The Meijin. She snatches it from his hand and starts looking at it. She turns to The Meijin when she realizes it is a soul gem and asks what they were planning to do with those. The Meijin deny everything and say the party stole the gems. Echo tells The Meijin not to be like this; the party slept in their house, they had a sleepover together. He asks what bullshit they’re trying to pull.

The Meijin look at Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian and angrily tell them that they weren’t supposed to get caught by her, they were supposed to stop her. Echo tells them that they didn’t say anything about that and Persephone agrees. Kamisa stands back and asks Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian to tell her what is going on. Since she likes Sebastian, Percy and Echo encourage him to tell the story.

Sebastian tells Kamisa that they were on a little mission to get the Soul Eater. Kamisa tells them that they infiltrated what could be the most dangerous ship in the galaxy and they aligned themselves with three very mischievous devils, demons, or fiends (she doesn’t remember what they are called in this universe). They wandered into the smartest woman in the galaxy’s laboratory, and then told her that they want to overthrow her daughter’s grand plans. How is this a good idea? Sebastian stutters.

Kamisa's Help
Echo tells her that he heard there was some delicious food in it for her if she helps them carry out their plan. Kamisa is impressed that they actually did talk to Susa; The Meijin actually almost did it. She is silent for a moment, then asks The Meijin if they think that Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian can really take her. The Meijin look at the party and say that it is difficult to tell such things since Ryoka’s power is impressive, but one of them is tied to Ramazall; he sent them, presumably with the intention of success.

Kamisa is not a fan of what is going on around here anymore and it is time for them to return to their universe. Ryoka is out of control and needs to be stopped, but she is also Kamisa’s daughter. Kamisa will provide a limited amount of help if Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian swear not to kill her daughter. Echo tells her that is not the mission. Persephone adds that it was strictly a snatch and grab, but if they could kill her then that would be cool, but it is not their intent to do so. Echo adds that they’ve been operating in a way to avoid confrontation so far.

Kamisa confirms that if they try to take the Soul Eater, Ryoka will attack. She reveals that Ryoka is not really a lich, it was just the closest approximation they could come up with in this universe. Ryoka is more closely described as an individual with the abilities of both a death knight and a sorceress. She is not undead, she can die, but she can also be incapacitated; most of her power comes from three gemstones kept on her wrists and neck. If the party can separate her from the gemstones, it will pretty much neutralize her. She is powerful, so it will not be easy.

Echo has a couple questions. He asks how Kamisa is doing the cool portal magic and asks for literature he can take. Kamisa has some but doesn’t know if he will understand it; she is the smartest person in the universe. Echo thinks he is pretty smart as well. It sounds like she is the smartest person in this universe but perhaps not where she is from. Kamisa tells him that’s fair enough and pulls up a flood of data on her monitor. Echo records everything.

Kamisa tells the party that they will need to get through the steel doors to get to the Soul Eater, which means they need the power of pretty much everyone on board, excluding herself and Ryoka. She asks to see if they got Susa’s power; Persephone tells her that Susa asked them to talk to Kamisa before she would give it to them. Kamisa approves of this tactic, and asks if they got The Princess. Echo shows it to her, and she asks how they did it. Echo shares that they returned the hyoshigi, and Kamisa asks whose idea that was. Echo looks at The Meijin. Kamisa asks them what the plan was for the others then. The Meijin state that the forlorn souls require that which was taken; the scepter for The Child and the Blazing Emblems for The Warriors Two. Kamisa scoffs at “The Warriors Two” title.

Echo comments that they keep running into duos and they are having trouble figuring out which pair is the one they’re looking for. Kamisa tells him that they took a security role on the ship. Persephone asks if they are the two large statues that blasted Sebastian, and Kamisa confirms. She’s surprised that Sebastian is alive. She thinks about what the “blazing emblems” could mean and then disappears. The party falls through the floor and onto the other side. Kamisa apologizes for the sensation but she has installed the mirror dimension into pretty much every aspect of the ship as a security measure. She instructs them to follow her out of the lab.

The Blazing Emblems
Kamisa leads them back to the room with the odd, wooden door. She calls up her floating computer and opens the door; a path appears in the void and she tells the party to wait as she heads in. While they wait, Percy asks how they plan to get the rocks off of Ryoka. Echo has some tricks up his sleeve; since Ryoka has magic he was thinking he could use his to counter that. He thinks ambush and surprise would be the best play. Percy asks if they could hold her in place with some magic. They think that stealth and holding her down somehow may be the best way to remove the stones.

When Kamisa returns, Echo asks her how it went and she responds that it went fine. She asks why he wants to know, and he tells her he’s just curious. Kamisa hurries them away since this is not only her ship and Ryoka could be around any corner. They return to her mirror dimension lab and she presents two items; floating sigils made of three rings of light that rotate around a translucent cube, inside which is a shining bead of light like a star. She reveals these are transformers issued by the Galactic Police, and The Warriors Two probably want them. If the party wants them, they can take them, but Kamisa can’t provide any more help. Once they exit the door, they are dead to her.

Echo asks if she has any cool spells or tricks she can teach him, and Kamisa tells him she’s not a spellcaster. Sebastian asks for any other advice, and Echo chimes in to ask for money. Kamisa has no money, but her advice is “don’t trust fiends.” The Meijin was going to use the soul gems to free itself instead of actually helping the party. Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian look over, and The Meijin shrugs. Echo asks how to kill The Meijin, but Kamisa tells him not to bother; once this is all over The Meijin will be sent back to where they came from anyway. Echo asks how to send The Meijin somewhere else. Kamisa says it’s tricky.

She asks if they met The Needlemaster with his unique gift, and Echo unenthusiastically replies that they know him. Kamisa urges them to go, they might be able to talk more after this is all done. She can’t be incriminated by associating with them further, but she and The Meijin will watch their progress from here with her viewing monitors. Persephone asks what the transformers do, and Kamisa impatiently tells her to hold them up and something nice will happen. She pushes the party out of the room and orders The Meijin to watch with her.

The Warriors Two
Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian return to Susa, and she immediately asks if they’ve spoken to Kamisa. When Echo says yes, she immediately asks what the plan is and what’s going to happen. Echo impatiently tells her to just get into the ball and her hologram disappears, then a beam of light transfers the energy from her physical body into the soul gem. Echo calls out his thanks.

The party makes their way back to the area with the statues and Sebastian asks who wants to go first; he did last time and didn’t like how it ended. Echo takes the emblems from him and walks into the room, holding them up. They float above his hands and the rings begin to spin, the light shining brighter, until two beams shoot straight at the two statues, passing into the stone. Both statues explode. Rubble flies everywhere, but Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian are fine. Sebastian angrily says “that’s what you get!” As the debris clears, the party sees two feminine figures integrated into the wall, both look identical to their statue counterparts. The girl with straight hair and a headband has teal hair, and the one with curly hair and a ponytail is blonde. Both appear to be passed out.

Echo casts Prestidigitation and splashes water on the girl with the teal hair. Only the front half of her is jutting from the wall, everything else is integrated with pipes and wires. She coughs and sputters, asking what is going on and where she is as she looks around. Echo tells her they talked to Kamisa. “What has that dreadful woman done to us?” She yells. Echo is surprised that she is unhappy, everyone else they talked to so far seemed on board with Kamisa’s experiment. She tells him they signed on for a security position, not whatever this is. Echo tells her that they shot Sebastian, and Sebastian chimes in to say it hurt. The girl looks over and asks who they are. Echo tells her they are friends and that they are here to get her out of this, eventually.

The girl looks around the room and calls to the other girl, who is knocked out. “May! May, are you okay?” Sebastian tells Echo to do the water thing, and May wakes up coughing as she looks around. May calls out, “What? What is this? Kay, what happened to us?” and she struggles against her integration. Kay tells May to calm down; Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian are here to help them. She doesn’t know what’s happening, but it’s going to be okay. Kay asks for more details from the party.

Persephone explains that they spoke with The Princess, Aya, and her sister, Susa, and they said they signed up for some sort of experiment to revive somebody. They were in a similar state as the two warriors. The party just spoke to Kamisa, who gave them help to get the Soul Eater. Kay thinks that sounds good and asks what the plan is. Persephone explains they need fragments of May and Kay’s souls. Echo adds that in order to help them, the party needs help from them. May expresses her hesitancy to Kay; she doesn’t want to give up part of her soul, she needs that, right? Echo tells her that the other two didn’t, and pulls out the two soul gems to show her. Kay asks what those are, she doesn’t understand.

Bye, Don't Die!
Echo is confused how these two are not on board when everyone else was cool about the situation. Kay tells him that no one tells her anything, ever. Everyone that she is affiliated with is ridiculous. Echo breaks it all down for her. Kay sighs and tells May to calm down and focus; they will try to impart some power. Echo asks if they know what universe they are from, and he gets shushed because they are focusing.

Kay and May do not know how it works, but it does. They both begin to glow with soft light that transfers over into the soul gem. Kay and May are both sweating, that was exhausting but it somehow worked. Kay tells them they can’t move, so they can’t provide more help. She wishes them luck. Persephone asks if they know where the Soul Eater is from here; were they protecting the way there?. Kay likes to imagine she was. Echo thanks them and the party heads off.

Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian exit through the eastern door and find themselves in a hallway that stretches east before turning to the south. Echo sends Jhank forward to scout, and Jhank sees an extremely long hallway with no doors. At the very edge there are two doors, one facing the south and one facing the west. The door to the south appears to be made of some heavy stone and covered in some pretty foreboding symbols. The door to the west is a large metal door with a button. Echo relays the information and recalls Jhank.

They head down the hallway and Echo scans for traps, he doesn’t see anything and they move forwards. When they reach the doors, Echo looks at Sebastian in his big, brown eyes, and when Sebastian gives him the go-ahead, Echo pushes the button to open the metal door. The door opens revealing a long, tall stairway that ends at a big heavy door with a glass orb with gold inlays set inside it. Echo turns around to check out the foreboding door and discerns that it is magically sealed, no handle, hinge, or doorknob. The symbols are a mixture of things Echo does not understand and some infernal runes.

Echo heads up the stairs to investigate the orb in the door and discerns that they probably need to transfer the souls in their soul gems into this larger orb. Echo holds all three soul gems up to the orb in the door; the purple one, Aya’s, begins to glow, and the energy transfers from the small gem into the larger orb. The orb and the golden inlays begin to glow as well and there is the sound of something opening, then the door slides open to the side revealing more stairs. At the top is another door with an orb. Persephone takes Susa’s pink soul gem and presses it to the orb and the same thing happens; the door, orb, and inlays glow pink and it slides open to reveal more stairs. At the top is yet another door with an orb. Persephone takes the last soul gem, transferring the gold and blue energy over, and the door slides open to reveal more stairs. These stairs end in what appears to be a very large, open, round room.

Echo looks into the round room and sees an empty room with floors made of a mirror-like glass. This appears to be a central pillar or shaft that runs through the center of the ship. At first it seems like this is a meaningless room, but when they look up, they see a floating, 3-ft black, void orb that is sucking the light into it. Even as they look into the orb, they feel a pull on themselves, an odd tug, and it is without a doubt, the Soul Eater. Before they can do anything, a voice echoes throughout the room.

“What is this? So you would come into my home and steal the one that is most precious to me? I will make you pay for this. You will pay!"

The Party

 * Sebastian Crenshaw: A half-orc paladin/warlock. Does not like getting shot at.
 * Persephone Goldpetal: A firbolg druid. The galaxy loves her.
 * Codename: Echo: An elf wizard/rogue. He just wants some answers.

NPCS

 * The Child: A young girl named Susa who is integrated with the ship. Magical girl who keeps her promises.
 * Kamisa: A scientist and the mother of Ryoka. The smartest person in the universe.
 * The Meijin: A trio of arcanaloths. They've been naughty foxes.
 * The Warriors Two: Kay and May, two Galactic Police officers who signed on as security. They are not down with any of this.
 * Ryoka: Pirate Lich Queen and dungeon boss. Not an actual lich.

Music

 * SuperQuest Saga Theme - by Brian

Mechanics

 * The benefits of resting in the magical bathhouse rest are 10 temporary hit points and advantage on the next ability check or saving throw.

Nat 20's ( 1 total)

 * Special Guest Jake (Dexterity Save)

Nat 1's (2 total)

 * Brian (Arcana)
 * Freeland (Cybernetics)