April 20, 2024

Hook

Arachnids Anonymous 11 (Sea of Fog, Beihui Village)

Plot Synopsis

The party travels two weeks by Hex's ship to return to Beihui Village. Upon arriving, they inform Chang Fen of their progress and leave to wait for repairs to be complete, returning to the tavern where Bai Guo's mother, Bai An, works. While there, Fan Jin fixed a broken stove (with minor puzzles attached, as well as a flame that changes colors and the ability to play a song) and confiscated Bai Kun's toy horse bomb and gave it to Beretta for safekeeping. Various shopping activities occurred in preparation to travel back to the cultist base, as well as plans to encourage a relationship between Bai Guo and the Puzzle Man.

After a few days of waiting, the party is awoken by tremors in the ground. They (along with Guo, Tian, and Puzzle Man) head toward the sound to see two mechs, the sky serpent and the tortoise fortress (deemed the Tortress), attacking an on-fire Marutuk ship meant to help in their assault on the cultists. The party quickly splits, with Bai Guo, Blue, Vladisk, and Berretta moving to put out the flames while Hex, NPC, Ace, and Tian board Hex's ship to fire at the Tortress and keep their attention. Tian and Ace's spirit eventually ferry Ace and NPC to the Tortress to disarm the cannons in its back via C4, while Hex remained behind to continue fire. Once the flames had calmed, Fan Jin suggested infiltrating and blowing up the Tortress, and so the entire party, minus Hex, moved into the Tortress to take it out.

Hex spent most of the battle fighting the sky serpent and the Yoyida, who was riding it. Almost dying, he managed to use the onager to take out 2/3 of it before the Marutuk ship finished the job. The Yoyida flew away with a pack of emergency mechanical wings, and while both ships were barely afloat from the barrage of the Tortress, they managed to survive the fight.

Meanwhile, the party discovered that the walls of the Tortress could move on their own, as it initially blocked them from threatening mechanics repairing the cannons. Ace projected his spirit to scout through the walls and find the control room, and then led the charge there. However, the walls split Beretta, Blue, Bai Guo, Fan Jin, and Tian from NPC, Ace, and Vladisk. The trio made it to the control room, and took out those piloting the Tortress fairly easily. The Xiansheng, who was in charge of the cult, was also felled despite his shield and wall-manipulation.

The other half of the party, forced to take a detour, met with two cultists. Blue and Beretta made quick work of one, and managed to avoid a heavy-hitting attack made by the other, as did Fan Jin. To prevent Bai Guo from taking the blow, Tian pushed him out of the way, becoming unconscious in the process. Come the cultist's second attack, Blue caused the attack to land on the caster, killing him, while Beretta and Bai Guo healed Tian to consciousness, although his altered wings were fairly damaged due to his stunt. They then found a door that led out of the Tortress and escaped, with the other three not far behind as the Tortress walls started rising and falling randomly after the death of the Xiansheng.

The successful party escaped the Tortress on their barely floating ships, and secured their agreed upon payment from Chang Fen. Staying around for a few more days, the party was happy to hear that Bai Guo and Shi Tian had entered a romantic relationship. Most opted to keep in touch with Fan Jin about a potential Puzzle Palace business endeavor, and he gave those who had significantly helped in fighting the cult various puzzle boxes with magical items inside.

Noteworthy Postgame Events