Primina (episode)

"Primina" is episode 14 of SuperQuest Saga. Primina has lost herself in a transformation she cannot control, and now she turns her fury on her only friends.

Introduction

 * Will Stark will be your excellent dungeon master for this evening.
 * Josh Freeland is playing Sebastian Crenshaw, half-orc paladin.
 * Your Special Guest Jake is playing Persephone Goldpetal the firbolg druid.
 * Brian is playing Carter Huttenburg. Level 4 warlock.

Recap
Last time the party had made it down to the bottom of the mines below the water facility where they found an enormous web of humanoids being kept and fed upon by the psychic flower, the Nymphae Collosus. They also found the Nymphae Collosus itself, which tried to warn them off using a little girl as a psionic puppet. They recognized the girl as Vander’s daughter, Zoey. The party refused to back down so the plant sent some fungal thralls at them, which they made quick work of. Then it psionically paralyzed everyone, but Primina lost her fucking shit, transformed into a giant monster, and destroyed the flower. She is out of control and has turned her ire upon Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian.

Let the Boss Fight Begin
Sebastian hooks his axe back onto his belt loop, opens his arms and puts his hand out as he says “Prim, wait! It’s your friends, your family, your home! I’ll buy you ice cream, I swear. But it’s us!” Persephone and Carter look over with wide eyes. Primina pauses for a moment, lets out a scream, and keeps moving forward. Carter puts a Hex on Primina, and casts Armor of Agathys on himself; he opens his little box and a spectral frost covers him. He moves back. Primina spreads her angel wings, rises 10-ft in the air, moves forward, opens her mouth and breathes a cone of blue fire on Sebastian and Persephone. They are too shocked to dodge as the blue fire washes over them. Persephone maneuvers under Primina and shoots some poison spines at her. A quill flies forward and hits Prim in the neck, she seizes and falls to the floor paralyzed as Persephone dodges out of the way.

Sebastian takes a moment to use Lay on Hands on himself to heal, and drinks the Hot Shot they found earlier. Carter hits a paralyzed Primina with an Eldritch Blast. Primina breaks free from the paralysis and gets back up. Persephone moves forward and attacks Primina with her claws, hitting twice. As the claws slice into her skin, a blue light seeps out of Primina instead of blood.

Sebastian moves forward and takes a swing with his axe, and imbues the hit with Divine Smite to deal extra damage. The radiant damage doesn’t deal as much damage as it normally would. Carter hits her with another Eldritch Blast, and all the places that she has been hit are seeping that blue-white light. Primina attacks Percy with her claws, horns, and a bite attack, hitting with the claws and the bite. Persephone drops the Jiankoto Scarab form and returns to her firbolg form. Primina recharges her fire breath and takes flight; Persephone and Sebastian take opportunity attacks but miss. Persephone casts Cure Wounds on herself to heal, and Wild Shapes back into the Jiankoto Scarab.

Sebastian pulls out his BFG and shouts an apology to Prim as he aims it at her, but his attack misses. Carter shoots an Eldritch Blast and misses. Primina flies in and uses her breath attack on Persephone and Sebastian before hovering over Carter. Persephone dodges some of the damage but Sebastian takes the full damage. Percy moves closer to Primina and Carter, and prepares a poison spine attack.

Sebastian yells for Prim to come back his way and fires the BFG, hitting her with the shots. Carter moves closer to Persephone and Sebastian as he casts Vicious Mockery. He tells Prim that she is a “dirty, nasty, crazy lady.” She takes some psychic damage and grabs her head, flailing and screaming. Primina flies directly above Persephone to get to Carter, dodging the poison spines, and attacks Carter with her claws, horns, and bite. Her claws and horns miss, but the bite hits. As her jaw clamps around Carter’s shoulder, she takes cold damage from his Armor of Agathys. Persephone walks up to Primina and hits her twice with the blade arms, dealing critical damage on one attack. The blue-white light seeps from cracks all over Primina’s body.

Sebastian rushes in with his axe and hits her. Carter puts his hand up to her face, shushing her, and casts Shocking Grasp; but the spell fails. Primina recharges her fire breath and flies up in an attempt to catch them all in the blast. All three of them get opportunity attacks on her; Sebastian misses, Persephone hits, and Carter misses. Primina rises up and looks down as a plume of blue-white fire pours out of her mouth on all three of them. None of them dodge and they all take the full force of the damage. Sebastian drops to the ground, unconscious. Persephone recharges her poison spine and stands protectively over Sebastian’s body.

Sebastian fails his first Death Save. Carter moves to stand opposite of Persephone and fires an Eldritch Blast, but misses. Primina sails directly at Carter and comes down with her claw, horns, and bite; all three attacks hit and Carter drops unconscious. Persephone’s quills start shaking and she emits a frequency to call to her swarms. She runs over to slash Primina with her claws, hitting once. Percy comes down with an x-scissor right across Prim’s back; Prim lets out a howling shriek and her wings begin to dissipate into energetic light as they fade away and she falls to the floor, unconscious.

Vander Comin in Clutch
Persephone stands alone among her fallen friends. She checks Sebastian first and has no luck waking him up. She hears a voice behind her say “Maybe this will help.” And she turns to see Vander holding the healing syringe. Persephone uses the two remaining charges to heal Sebastian and Carter.

Sebastian sits up and says “This needs to stop happening, guys.” Persephone agrees. Carter asks where he is, and Percy asks what he saw on the other side. Carter hasn’t closed his eyes like that in quite a while. As they patch themselves up, Primina begins to revert back to her normal size and form. Vander looks around, he’s very overwhelmed by the people in the walls.

Sebastian walks over to Primina to check if she’s alive or responsive. He finds that she is alive and unconscious; all the wounds the party inflicted on her are gone, she seems unharmed. Prim’s transformation tore through her clothes, so Persephone wraps her in a cloak and picks her up. They hear the voice of a little girl from across the room, “Where am I? Daddy?” and Vander looks over to see Zoey. He runs and takes her in his arms, weeping as he holds her.

All the humanoids in the branches of the plant begin to stir and free themselves from the wall. Hundreds of humanoids step forward, confused. Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian see people they recognize; the ice cream man, some kobolds who match the family picture they saw in the den from earlier, and Duke Solus the department manager with his family. Carter whispers to Sebastian that they shouldn’t tell Duke Solus they raided his desk stash. The humanoids all gather around the party and ask what happened.

Carter pulls up a list on his bracer jack and starts checking all their accomplishments. Vander steps into the center of the missing people to give them an update. “You’ve all been missing for a very long time. Most people thought you were all dead but not everyone gave up on you. These three, actually I should say these four, rescued you. They rescued all of us.” A murmur runs through the crowd.

Sebastian is uncomfortable with everyone looking at him. Persephone greets everyone and tells them she’s glad they’re safe. Carter pulls up a news feed to get an update on what’s happening on the surface. There seemed to be some fires and riots that broke out in Sableside, but now all of a sudden everyone is dispersing. There are reports coming in from all over the districts of other strange happenings, but no one actually seems to know what is going on.

Carter and Persephone collect samples and data. Vander approaches and suggests they start leading people out, everyone is getting restless. Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian lead a mass exodus of people out of the mines and the water facility. Before leaving, Persephone saw her scarab swarms swimming off into a corner to live their lives. She tried to warn Duke Solus, but he told her to tell law enforcement since he needed a break from work.

The Next Week Is a Chaotic Blur
A number of fires burned out sections of Sableside during the psychic-driven riots. A huge number of the populace had come into conflict with law enforcement as they attempted to storm the restricted area of the municipal water facility. Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian gather that the plant was trying to call reinforcements to it. Many were wounded and there are ongoing relief efforts to heal the wounded and find the missing people.

The areas outside Sableside also suffered some major disruption. There was a mass phenomenon of confusion that broke out all across the district. People were falling unconscious in the street, vehicles were crashing all over the city, there were people freezing in place and just not moving as they fought for control of their minds. Not everyone was affected, but it’s become known that roughly 12% of the population of District 4 was affected. So far no reports indicate that any of this happened outside of District 4.

When the party exited the water facility with the hundreds of missing people, they were intercepted by law enforcement and held for questioning. Carter claimed he does not remember anything. The story that law enforcement pieces together is that an alien life form had infiltrated the city and attempted to enslave the populace, but Carter, Persephone, Primina, and Sebastian found and destroyed it. They saved Outlaw’s Horizon. Once the story reaches the media, it spreads like wildfire. The party is now semi-famous in the city and it has been difficult for them to go anywhere without being recognized.

Victoria, Watt, Dag, and Dirk were thrilled to see the party when they returned. Victoria was surprisingly emotional about the situation. She tells them that they had to fight off mobs from The Brunhilde because the enthralled people were trying to stop all ships from leaving.

The Bullock Brothers were arrested for smuggling contraband into the city and 10,000 counts of reckless endangerment.

Carter, Persephone, Primina and Sebastian are invited by the District 4 Mayor, Samville LeBlanc, to be the guests of honor at a ceremony rewarding them for their services to the city.

Primina spends most of the week locked in her room on The Brunhilde. She is extremely quiet and aloof, she eats little and she says less. Sebastian tries to check on her to see how she is doing. She’s not very responsive but one time he heard her openly sobbing in her room. He also tries to leave ice cream outside her door, but she does not touch it.

Persephone spends a lot of her time with Yuma going over the plant. When Persephone tells the story, Yuma opens her personal notebook to take detailed notes since there is very little information about the plant or the Jiankoto. Percy also gets some tea from Yuma and tries to share it with Prim, and leaves it by the door when she doesn’t get a response. Later, Percy sees that the tea was still untouched.

Carter saw Primina’s door open, but he just walked by. He spends time trying to compile data on psychic energies to get the full scope of the thrall. Carter joins Persephone when she visits Yuma one time to gather data from her. He also tries to test his own psychic capabilities on some animals he has purchased. Carter takes care of the animals, but slowly runs tests on them over time. Persephone caught wind of his pets and now has her eye on him. From his studies, Carter discerns that the plant fed on psychic energy. The more psychic energy it got, the stronger it became. Releasing the spores was not necessary, they weren’t poisoning or directly controlling anyone, but having spores in the bloodstream made someone more susceptible to the plant’s psionic power.

The party was able to resist the plant’s effects until they were right by the core because they are strong-willed adventurers. Carter suspects that Primina is highly resistant to psionic abilities. Regarding the ice cream, Carter thinks that it was a test run by the plant to see how far it could bend the will of people before it made a move to take over. The ice cream itself was very bland and normal, but to those under the plant’s influence it tasted amazing while Primina’s survival instincts made it taste terrible to her. Same with the scent from the flower itself, Primina thought it smelled terrible because her instincts were warning her of its nefarious nature.

Carter compiles the data; he adds to his file on Primina and reviews his notes on mindflayers. He deduces her strong psionic resistance came from her close proximity to the mindflayers. He resolves not to get caught up in anything like that again.

Carter also checks his street cred; they inadvertently saved a lot of Dreadstar lives so the gang owes them one now.

Sebastian tries to keep things as normal as possible. He returns to his duties at The Iron Legion, and they are very pleased with him. His actions provided excellent P.R. for the Legion and he gets raised to the rank of Corporal. Iron Legion Jake and Brian are so stoked, Sebastian is their new role model.

So Do We Still Get the Key to the City?
The party finds themselves in the center of downtown, the metropolis section of District 4. They are seated with Prim, Victoria, and Watt on a large balcony that overlooks a huge courtyard on top of a very large skyscraper with other skyscrapers towering around them. Media cameras hover in all their faces and they are semi-blinded by the flashing of many cameras snapping all over, from around them on the balcony and the thousands of people down below in the courtyard.

Directly above is a large screen showing close-ups of their faces for the benefit of the audience so that everyone in the crowd can see them. At the front of the balcony is a podium where Mayor Samville LeBlanc speaks into over a dozen microphones. The mayor is a short and rotund, green dragonborn of fairly advanced age. He is a rather jovial, if a bit bumbling, fellow. He’s been giving a rather flattering speech about how Carter, Persephone, Primina, and Sebastian saved the city. Other important officials sit alongside the party, facing the crowd. The mayor’s speech draws to a close.

“And without further ado, I, with great honor, present these champions, these heroes of Viananaelius, with the bestowal of full citizenship.”

As the crowd cheers, a flash in the sky interrupts the mayor’s speech. All eyes rise to see a fleet of Imperial Elven war vessels floating right above the barrier, huge dreadnaughts of sweeping wooden branches that encase blue-green glass orbs. The screen above goes to static for a moment before changing to a shot of a silver haired elf in a burgundy military uniform that the party recognizes.

''“Citizens of Viananaelius, I am Imperial Marshal Dennethar, Son of Anaduir, in the name of His Holiness Solastaran, The God Emperor of The Eternal Empire, I declare military occupation of Viananaelius. Do not resist us. If you cooperate, there will be no bloodshed and our stay will be short. Resist and face divine punishment. We are here to locate two war criminals we know are taking refuge here.”''

The screen changes to show two photos; on the left is a photo of Primina in a black bodysuit, on the right is a virtually life-like and accurate drawing of Sebastian Crenshaw.

''“The female criminal is a terrorist who goes by the name of Primina. On the right is her most trusted accomplice. Both of these terrorists are responsible for countless atrocities and lives lost. If you have seen them or know their whereabouts, report this immediately to an Imperial scout.”''

As he says this, hundreds upon hundreds of pods erupt from the fleet vessels, penetrating the barrier and raining down upon the city. Outlaw’s Horizon is now under occupation.

The Party

 * Sebastian Crenshaw: A half-orc paladin. A war criminal?
 * Persephone Goldpetal: A firbolg druid. Thinks Carter is kinda sus.
 * Carter Huttenburg: A human warlock. Collecting so much data.

NPCS

 * Primina: A young woman of mysterious origins. The MacGuffin. A war criminal?
 * Vander: A halfling man. A commoner who finally found his daughter.
 * Zoey: A halfling girl. Reunited with her dad and no longer a plant puppet.
 * Duke Solus: A lizardfolk man. District Manager of the water treatment facility. Needs a break from work.
 * Victoria: A tiefling woman. Captain of The Brunhilde and employer of the party. Actually does care about them.
 * Watt: An elderly gnome. Crew member of The Brunhilde.
 * Dag: A tiefling male, brother of Dirk. Crew member of The Brunhilde.
 * Dirk: A tiefling male, brother of Dag. Crew member of The Brunhilde.
 * The Bullock Brothers: Smugglers who brought the Nymphae Collosus to Outlaw's Horizon.
 * Samville LeBlanc: A dragonborn man. The fat and happy mayor of District 4.
 * Yuma: A wildin. Owner of The Natural Elixer and mentor to Persephone.
 * Iron Legion Jake and Brian: Two members of The Iron Legion chapter in Outlaw's Horizon. Such good bros.
 * Imperial Marshal Dennethar, Son of Anaduir: A male elf. Promoted from Magister to Marshal.

Music

 * SuperQuest Saga Theme - by Brian
 * To Fight a Friend - by Brian
 * Here Come The Fucking Space Elves - by Brian

Nat 20's (3 total)

 * Freeland (Initiative)
 * Special Guest Jake (Attack as Jiankoto)
 * Freeland (Medicine)

Nat 1's (1 total)

 * Special Guest Jake (Attack as Jiankoto)