Interlude II: Blue Eden

"Interlude II: Blue Eden" is episode 17 of SuperQuest Saga. Carter, Persephone, Primina, Sebastian, and Victoria have fled to the Galaxy's Outer Rim and finds themselves at a run down diner where they have the first time in weeks to just talk.

Introduction

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

Recap
Last episode a lot of crazy shit happened; the elves attacked, the party got away, there was a dragon, Sebastian lost an arm.

The Premier Dining Experience of Blue Eden
It’s been a week and Carter, Persephone, Primina, Sebastian, and Victoria are sitting in a booth of a rundown restaurant on a small way station in the outer rim of the galaxy. The way station is named Blue Eden, likely after the cerulean nebula it orbits nearby that can be seen from the window of the booth.

The restaurant seems to be owned and run by a couple of green insectile humanoids with four arms each and heads that are reminiscent of praying mantises. One of these aliens walks up to the booth with a pen and paper in two of their hands while a third hands serves water cups from a tray in their fourth hand. “Welcome to Blue Eden Diner, the premier dining experience of Blue Eden. I’m Gladys and I’ll be your server, what can I get for you?” There are only six items on the menu: beer, water, Akrenian Beetle Sashimi, Gikas Fried Noodle, Chicken and Egg Soup, and Arboreal Salad.

Carter tells her she has a lovely name and orders the noodles. Persephone orders the sashimi. Sebastian looks at the back of the menu to see if there’s more, and asks if he can just get meat. Gladys tells him there’s some in the fried noodles. Sebastian halfheartedly orders two since he has no clue what any of these things on the menu are. Primina orders the soup, and Victoria orders three beers. Sebastian, Carter, and Persephone all tack on beers to the order as well. They hear Gladys call to the kitchen, “I got one heartburn, three fried doorstops, one wet mystery,” and someone from behind confirms the order.

She returns with the six beers pretty quickly. Victoria cracks one open and downs it. Sebastian doesn’t know why he didn’t start drinking alcohol sooner, he thinks it is fantastic. Carter agrees that alcohol is fantastic, though it doesn’t do much for him anymore. There is a moment of silence, then Victoria begins to speak, unprompted.

Damn, That Sucks
“I was born on Mechanus.” Victoria does not look at the party while she speaks. Everyone looks away, uncomfortable. “Primary world of the Cyber Federation. I’ve lived most of my life under dwarven rule. I grew up in the streets of Kraghammer, a slum neighborhood in the capital city. I know none of you probably know this so I’ll just fill you in. The Cyber Federation is built on a fairly rigid caste system; at the top you have the Thruun caste, which is made up of an elite aristocracy of highborn dwarves. Below them, is the Rakk caste, essentially a middle-class society of dwarves. Some are wealthy and influential but others are much closer to the poverty line than any of them would care to admit; all have more rights and privileges afforded to them than any of the castes below them though.”

The two other castes are the Ord, made up of the numerous gnome clans of the Federation, and the Cadrel caste, made up of the largest population of warforged in the galaxy. Then there are the Casteless, some call them the Lost Caste, which is made up of everybody else.

“My mother raised me and my baby cousins on her own until I was about ten years old. At about that time she became ill, and within a year it was me taking care of her and my cousins. Both Dag and Dirk were only five at the time. I wish I could say I did a good job of it, but begging and odd jobs in the ghettos of Mechanus isn’t exactly a lucrative endeavor. We couldn’t afford a doctor, and we could barely afford food; my mother was dead within two years.”

“Somehow I managed to make it to the age 16 and, at that point, I did the same thing every Casteless does when they don’t have a future or any options; I joined the military. They trained me up, they gave me a uniform, put a plasma rifle in my hands and they assigned me a post on a base in bum fuck nowhere. The food sucked and the pay was shit; half of that was going to my cousins back home. The watches were long and soul-crushing. Honestly though, it was the most well-off I had ever been at that point, and I didn’t complain.”

“Then two years later, two years into my eight year enlistment, the Third Goblin War broke out. There never was a good war, or a bad peace, and the damn Thruuns had no qualms sending the Casteless to die. I saw my fair share of action. Almost every friend I made was killed in action, so I stopped making friends and I started drinking.” Victoria takes a long draught from her beer.

“The war was the first time I ever saw one of the damn pointy ears. Everyone knows the Cyber Federation answers to the Elven Empire, but they rarely collaborate so closely as they do during war. They were like nothing I’d ever seen before; they were tall, graceful, strong. They have faces that look like they’re carved from marble, and glowing eyes. I once saw a drunken dwarven officer challenge an elf soldier to an arm wrestling match. That officer wasn’t just strong, he was dwarf strong, and that elven soldier snapped his forearm mid-match. I once witnessed their sorcerers create a cosmic storm that swallowed a goblin dreadnought whole. They… they terrified me.”

“Most of the war was a blur until they stationed me at a lunar outpost on Rocknar-5 defending military supply lines. There was a lot less fighting, and that’s where I met him, Asimov Starbrand. He was an engineer and mechanic that kept up various ships and vessels on base. He was a dwarf from a fairly well-to-do Rakk caste clan. He was young, and handsome for a dwarf, which is not a word I use lightly when describing dwarves. He had a certain naivety to him that only the young and privileged can achieve, but he was also the smartest man I’d ever met. Naturally, I completely despised him.”

“To be fair, I despised all dwarves at that point in my life and I had nothing personal against Asimov. I hardly even knew he existed except as one of those nerdy science dwarves, until I got myself into a bit of trouble due to my sharp tongue and a serious alcohol problem. I was out getting plastered at the local bar, and some slimeball dwarven officer decided to take advantage of the situation and come onto me. Normally, I know how to schmooze my way out of those situations diplomatically, but on this night I was particularly drunk and particularly angry. I don’t remember what exactly I called that officer, but I will never forget the look of absolute shock and embarrassed anger on his ruddy, bulbous face.”

“He lifted his hand to strike me, and suddenly, there was another person standing between us and facing him. The officer tried to push past him, but the new dwarf stopped him. Then the officer spit a slur in my face that I will not repeat here. The newer dwarf, who I recognized at this point as that Asimov fellow, threw out what I found out later to be the first punch of his life. It was a pretty good one, he broke that lecher’s nose. Asimov may have been the smartest man I was yet to ever know but, in that moment, I was much smarter. I fled while everyone was distracted by the commotion. He didn’t, and he got landed in three days of solitary confinement for striking an officer of the Thruun caste.

“It took me a week before I decided I needed to thank him. I tried to just forget about it, but the thought of owing anything to a dwarf, even a simple thank you, was galling for me. I ended up finding him in a garage on the outskirts of town. He was covered in grease and oil, elbow deep into an engine of a private star cruiser that probably hadn’t flown in fifty-plus years. Before I could say a thing, he asked me if I knew my way around an engine. I told him I didn’t. He asked me if I wanted to. Fast forward two weeks later and we got that hunk of junk airborne. I never did end up thanking him like I had meant to.”

“We became two peas in a pod after that. He taught me mechanics and completely bored me out of my mind with the higher sciences. I taught him how to fight, and made him laugh with stories of my exploits and cleverness. I started to spend less and less nights drinking and more and more nights out stargazing and talking with Asimov. It ended up we both had resentment for the Federation and the caste system that exploited and oppressed its people. He told me the story of his life and how he had foregone his family fortune and his family name by joining the military; disowned by his overbearing father. I told him the story of my mother and my life in Kraghammer. That was the first time I’d ever told anyone that story.”

“I don’t know at what point I had fallen in love with Asimov, but I remember the moment that I realized that I was. I woke up one morning and had an epiphany that not only would I rather spend my time with him than go report to my watch, but that I’d rather spend time than do any other thing in the universe that I could think of. I realized that just the thought of never seeing Asimov again made me wholly terrified, and I realized that I needed to tell him how I felt. So I did. That night after my watch I sprinted to his housing unit. I pounded on his door until he woke up, and I told him that I loved him and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. He got down on one knee and asked for my hand in marriage. I said yes. And in that moment, we both agreed that we had a huge problem.”

“You see, dwarves marrying outside of arranged marriages is unorthodox. Dwarves marrying outside of their caste is extraordinarily rare and almost borderline taboo. A dwarf marrying a Casteless is absolutely forbidden; to do so was to risk imprisonment for him and worse for me. So we deserted. We had no long distance transportation of our own, so we bartered a passage onto a religious missionary vessel passing through. The Cyber Federation doesn’t have an official stance on religion and they allow religious groups to preach to the troops in exchange for a little bit of money and that they provide some form of entertainment for the bored soldiers.”

“The Faithful of Unity, thankfully, was intensely empathetic to our situation. Honestly, we couldn’t have made up a better story than the truth for them, it had everything they loved; two individuals oppressed by an atheistic regime, breaking down the barriers of caste and race, and uniting despite all outside resistance through love. They ate that shit up. As soon as we made the first hyperjump, the Faithful officiated our marriage, and they took us as far from Imperial and Federation influence as they could. We ended up in the Draconic Star Sovereignty. Along the way, I picked up the religious bug; partially because I was thankful to the Faithful and partially because their teachings resonated with me.” Victoria starts flicking her medallion.

“I’m gonna fast forward this story here… We got on our feet. We started a business. We hired people to extract my cousins off Mechanus. We built a ship and we named it after my mother. Those were the happiest years of my life. But in our happiness, we were careless. I don’t know what mistake we made to tip off our identities, but regardless, both the Empire and Federation had enough information to identify us when a job took us near the border of Imperial space.”

“We stopped at a way station, not unlike this one, we were intercepted as we exited The Brunhilde, elven headhunters. They told us to drop our weapons and put our hands up. Asimov yelled a directive code at Artax, who immediately shielded me and started carrying me back on board. The headhunters opened fire, Asimov ordered Dag to start the ship, I saw three plasma bolts strike Asimov in the chest, he collapsed. I struggled free as Artax closed the door behind us, and as The Brunhilde lifted away, I watched through the window as an elf approached and stabbed my husband through the heart.”

At this point, the food comes. Persephone is bawling. Sebastian sits there frozen with his hand on his beard. The waitress moves away, and Victoria takes another long chug of her beer. “So that’s who I am.” And then she falls silent. After a pause, Carter says “Damn, that sucks.” Victoria takes another swig of beer and ignores him. Persephone thinks that’s one of the saddest things she has heard and now understands why Victoria hated them when they first met.

The fried noodles have a pork-like meat, Carter pulls the meat out of his plate and puts it on Sebastian’s. The beetle sashimi is a plate of raw beetle wrapped around rice balls, and Percy asks for some space sriracha. There’s another awkward moment of silence as they sit together in the booth.

Smooth Segue
Persephone doesn’t know how to create a smooth segue to follow Victoria’s story. “You guys know, I guess you don’t know too much about my past, but I was from a tribe of firbolgs in our time. We were kind of like nomads, just kind of going from forest to forest. And our people are kind of rare in our time, people don’t usually take well to us so we try to stay pretty far out in the mountains or pretty far out in the forest so no one sees us. But you know that’s not too easy when you kind of stick out like I do. Fribolgs usually, I mean you saw those Gardener people, they’re like gray kind of and I’m white. I stick out a bit. So it’s a little bit hard for me to disguise myself and the disguise thing I can do only lasts for an hour and then we’re kind of screwed.”

“So when I was younger, long story short, my parents… when they were packing up camp and leaving, they just kind of left me when I was two or three. They all packed up and sat me behind a tree with a bag and stuff and just kind of left.” Victoria reaches across the table to crack open Persephone’s beer and passes it to her. Percy cheers her and chugs it.

“So you know, I was by myself a lot. Somehow I figured stuff out; me being a firbolg, I could kind of talk to animals so they kind of helped me every now and then. If I was hurting for food or hurting for shelter or something like that I would talk to one of them and they kind of helped raise me. So I’m not super… I wasn’t very acclimated to being around a lot of people. You guys are the closest thing I have ever had to a family, which is, you know, nice.” Carter cringes and pulls out a flask.

“That’s kind of why I took the druid path that I did, because I’ve always kind of been more animalistic than others and it kind of made sense for me just to be that connected to nature and creatures. And then I met you guys and we traveled through time and then all sorts of crazy shit has happened since then! But yeah, that’s… that’s me.” And she drinks her beer.

Sebastian puts his hand on Percy’s and tells her he’s sorry since that sounds rough. He emphasizes that she has them now, they’re family. Carter says, “Damn, that sucks.” Percy thanks them for their sentiment.

It's Not Tragic
Sebastian speaks. “My story pales in comparison, it just doesn’t stand up to the both of yours. It’s not tragic, well… I guess it is. Now that I think about it, man that shit was tough!” He sighs and takes a swig of his beer. “Yeah, that shit’s good. Growing up with my father and my mother, my dad didn’t allow us to drink alcohol...couldn’t have spicy food...everything was bland. Everything was...nothing to mess with our senses or dull our senses. Everything we had to stay sharp at all times.”

“My father was a human; dark complexion, dark hair. My mom; orc, green skin. I do have gray skin but it’s probably just the way that the skin tones mixed between my father and mother, I came out with grayish toned skin. I’m kind of an outcast because of that. But with my father he kept us inside, he kept us sheltered. We almost felt like prisoners most of the time. My poor mother, what she had to go through was... she always wanted me to get out of there. She wanted us to leave some way, somehow, but we just couldn’t. We couldn’t go against my father. I never understood why, I just always felt that we could just run, just go, but we never went.”

“My mom was always telling me that her father was a chieftain and that we would be safe with her family, so I never understood why we couldn’t just leave. But I think my mom was just afraid, scared of my father, the power he had. My mom, she was just a strong, sweet person; rugged and beautiful. I...it’s...what we had to go through with my father was...I can’t even talk about it too much.” Victoria reaches across the table to crack open a beer and hand it to Sebastian. He chugs it.

“The discipline we had to go through, more myself than my mother, I have so many whip marks across my back for stuff I’ve done. Any time I tried to speak orcish I was punished. My mom would teach me on the sly without my father knowing so I picked up some words here and there, but for the most part... He made us push down the orc heritage. And then one day he caught me speaking orc to my mother. I can tell you one thing, that was not a good day. Have you guys ever had to hold buckets of water out, straight out to your sides?” Carter grimaces and Percy says she doesn’t think so. “Just straight out to your side, as soon as my arms started dropping, he whipped it with a cane. I will give him this though, it did teach me how to be strong and fight through pain, that’s for damn sure.” Victoria compliments his shoulders.

“And then one day, when my father was out on a mission of some sort, he didn’t tell me too much about his missions, he just told me that one day I’d be a champion of Sargonnas, his god. That was supposed to be the god that I followed, and I did follow. But while he was gone, five orcs showed up at our door and my mom recognized them. And I couldn’t understand exactly what they were saying, I only knew a little bit of orc, but I knew that they said they were looking for us for a long time and they’re glad they found us, and they were going to take us home. So we left; just grabbed the bare necessities and took off. We just left.”

“Out in the wilderness for two full days; just traveling and learning about the orc heritage, learning about my mother, learning orc. My mom even gave me her dagger that she kept hidden, an orc dagger, and on it is engraved “Our blood is our strength.” It’s something I’ve always kept with me, something I keep close to my heart. Probably about two days in, two wonderful days; I mean, this was the happiest I’ve ever been, those days traveling with them. Two great days. A storm came in at night time and we heard something in the distance coming. We didn’t know what it was. Part of the sky opened up and a beam of light shot down, and beyond the trees I saw my father just light up.”

“All of a sudden, the next thing I know, it was scary but beautiful at the same time just the way he moved. It was like music almost; he came running through the camp, just slicing his axe left and right. It happened so fast, I don’t know the details. I just know that within a couple minutes he was the last one standing among those five orcs that had taken my mother and I away. And some way, somehow, during that whole exchange, my mother got pushed and she fell onto a spike on the ground off a tree. It impaled her. And I could see the life just leaving her, so I walk up to her…” Sebastian looks down at the stump of his arm. “...And with my right hand I reached out and I touched her face. ‘Mom.’ and she just looked at me. ‘Mom! Mom!’ and she just looked up to me and said ‘You are special, keep fighting to become who you’re meant to be. I love you’ And at that moment I saw the life just fade out. So I don’t know if my father killed her or if it was just an accident. We did bury her, and we did go back. We left, my father and I. And to this day I don’t know if he’s the cause of her death or if it was just an accident.”

Persephone is crying as she hears his story and hugs him. Sebastian says “And for the longest time I didn’t know what to do with my father, seeing what he was capable of doing. The fear of life was.. I just… I followed his rules to the T, no matter what he said, I did. I just.. Yeah.” And Sebastian chugs his beer. Everyone turns to look at Carter, who says “Damn, that sucks.”

Carter's Story
Persephone asks Carter if he has a family member who is dead. Carter says, “Alright, alright, alright…”

“I grew up in a small town. My mother was a strict woman with a tongue sharp like a knife. My father was busy with his studies often, but he made time for me here and there, and made sure I studied as well. I’ve always been of the book and grew up as such. One day we came to some money from a deceased family member from across the pond and we moved, and there you have it. All of a sudden I was treated like a noble, like a very, very wealthy boy. Growing up, I went to private school, I researched history and arcana, and became exactly the person they expected me to be. And one day, when I was but a teenager in my third year of upper-class, I came home from my studies and my parents were gone. Disappeared. Vanished. Nobody knew where they’d gone. Nobody had seen them leave the house. No one had any record of speaking with them. I asked, I filed a report with the police, and there was no one to be found. I used their inheritance to continue my way through school. Got my degree and went to serve the king, and that’s when I met all you.”

Sebastian listens to the story carefully and it raises some questions. Persephone cries some more, “Carter, your parents abandoned you too?”

“Eventually I moved to Castillian as a researcher working under a nobleman. I basically delved myself into study, that’s all I ever did. Studied magic, studied history; I had a wealth of books. I had a jar filled with taffy. I had liquor in my cabinets.” He sighs. “I was considered a sage in the town. People came to me for help with knowledge and advice, but eventually they stopped coming and I couldn’t figure out why. I offered them food and drink when they were at my abode, but you know, things change. I ended up taking contracts from the king, one of them being to research a magical signature, the likes of which had never been seen before in the land. And as I said, Ms. Victoria, when we first met, those are the circumstances in which we have now fallen under your care.”

Victoria responds, “I told you, I believe you.” Carter thought he didn’t for some reason. Victoria cracks open his beer and passes it to him. Beer doesn’t really do it for Carter anymore but he takes it anyway. Sebastian asks for some of what’s in Carter’s flask, Carter has spares and passes them around to everyone.

And My Axe
Prim takes one and takes a long draw before putting it down on the table. She begins to speak, and everyone listens attentively. Carter takes notes and a recording. “When I first awoke, before I was sent to live with the illithids, I lived in a research center run by Dr. Zahn and his scientific team. I didn’t really have much of a childhood, but Dr. Zahn liked to teach me things and to tell me stories. There’s one story he used to tell me fairly regularly when putting me to bed.”

“Long, long ago before the stars all had worlds of their own, there was one world; one land with one sky above it. And in this land, many kings and queens ruled over nations and peoples of this one land. Of these kings and queens, nine were counted as the greatest among them. They created many wonders and they forged the greatest nations. It is said that even their very names rang with power, and that their descendants were part of sacred bloodlines that held a deep and secret power. Though these nine were not united, and at times even warred against one another, under their rule the peoples of this one land grew prosperous and bountiful.”

“But nothing is eternal, and The Nine began to envision a world after their rule had ended. They feared a time may come when their subjects needed them, but they were no longer of this world. And so, The Nine came together to forge a sacred treasure imbued with their power. They hid it away in a place only those with the sacred bloodlines and the secret knowledge could find it; so that, in a time of great need, their power may be called on again.”

“The Nine did eventually pass from life, and with their deaths they performed a final wonder. The Nine sang out to the heavens to beseech the stars, and the stars moved by their power, created worlds of their own. Many lands, with many skies for the peoples of one land and one sky to find and to cultivate on their own. Dr. Zahn always told me that it was me who was meant to find the sacred treasure.”

Carter comments that it sounds like a long bedtime story. Persephone asks if she fell asleep in the middle of it. Prim heard it so many times that she could recite it in her sleep. Carter asks if she has ever gone looking, and Primina thinks that’s what the illithids were trying to do. “They did a lot of experiments and they never seemed too pleased by the results. Eventually their focus shifted to time distortion rather than space travel.” Carter asks why, and Prim doesn’t know; but she thinks it upset the elves. The time manipulation upset Carter too, he wants to know what’s going on.

Victoria grabs Primina by the hand. “I want to help you, Prim. Whatever it is that you want to do, I want to help you.” Carter also wants to help. Persephone and Sebastian agree as well. The party sits together in the diner on the blue nebula on the outskirts of space.

The Party

 * Sebastian Crenshaw: a half-orc paladin. He definitely had a tragic backstory.
 * Persephone Goldpetal: a firbolg druid. She definitely had a tragic backstory.
 * Carter Huttenburg: a human warlock. Damn, that sucks.

NPCS

 * Victoria: a female tiefling. Captain of The Brunhilde. The most tragic of backstories
 * Primina: a young woman of mysterious origins. Might be a treasure hunter.
 * Gladys: an insect-like alien. Waitress at The Blue Eden Diner.

Music

 * SuperQuest Saga Theme - by Brian

Level Up!

 * The party is now level 6.
 * Sebastian gets an Extra Attack now and has an Aura of Protection. He gets two second level spell slots and can learn one more spell. He has 57 hp.
 * Persephone can Wild Shape into CR2 creatures now, and her Wild Shape attacks count as magical. She can cast third level spells. She has 42 hp.
 * Carter can cast third level spells and gets a new Eldritch Invocation, he chose Armor of Shadows. He also gets Entropic Ward as part of his pact magic. He has 57 hp.