After a couple of days of shopping and exploring the Rock of Bral, the party met back up at the low city’s Happy Beholder.
Charlie spent a good amount of time at the Mages’ guild with an introduction from Idakath. There, she worked with the local mages to buy components and craft a number of useful potions. She also tried to identify a mysterious bronze sphere Idakath had collected from the nightspider they overtook. She was able to find that it had magical qualities, but activating them was locked behind mechanical locks they had not yet figured out how to work.
Kevin also sought out natural and herbal materials to craft potions of his own. Discovering this common ambition led to them nerding out over future potion ideas. He took the opportunity to buy some improved hide armor.
Idakath made rounds throughout the city, figuring out the who’s who and getting known by the locals. They also found a particularly stylish trench coat along the way. Most importantly, they sold the extra spelljammer helm the party claimed, pocketing a considerable sum for everyone in the party.
Inrim made friends on the docks, which helped get the party’s ships repaired. He went looking for rumors or information about the Darkness Devourer. Along the way, he found someone willing to sell a magic chair that Inrim had been looking for. He then spent time fishing, catching a large enough fish to feed 20 people.
Xerek’s time in the market led to chancing upon a vendor with a helmet made especially for Thri-kreen. He spent a considerable amount of gold on it, but it offered not only added protection in combat but also a refillable air supply should he find himself outside of an air bubble.
Kiboko had an idea floating around in his head since the party captured the Dark Star: Make a last resort weapon out of their damselfly. He spent a lot of time in the markets looking for how to create a self-destruct option before a significantly shady someone approached him with an offer. The offer came in the way of four plates with glyphs of warding in exchange for nearly all of Kiboko’s gold. Kiboko installed these on the damselfly, though the party was not as excited about this revelation as Kiboko was.
Having exchanged stories, the party remembered why they had come to Rock of Bral in the first place: To seek out Commander Krux and find a way to save Toril from having its life force sapped entirely by the Xaryxian plot.
It didn’t take the party long to find Krux, knowing to look for a giff who loved his drink. They quickly spotted him in the Happy Beholder, deep in a tankard of ale with a parrot on his shoulder. When they spotted him, he beckoned them over. Despite his clear intoxication, the party bought him another tankard of ale from the proprietor, Large Luigi (the tavern’s titular beholder).
This cheered Krux up, but the party explaining what happened to Toril and their encounter with the Xaryxians afterward riled him up. He was especially excited when they revealed that they commandeered the Dark Star. He warned of spies and urged them to follow him back to their ship. The party agreed and got ready to leave.
On the way out, Kevin used his ability to speak with animals to ask the parrot for any more information. The parrot, named Mario, was unfortunately not very helpful. It seems his bird brain had its limits.
On the way to Krux’s ship, the party was waylaid by a group of Xaryxians looking to avenge their fallen comrades and finish the fight they began. Despite big threats and eventual efforts to run, their assault was unsuccessful. The party killed four of them and leveraged the fifth for their own ends.
They convinced the survivor to help them take over the star moth this group had at the docks. Compelled by Charlie’s suggestion, the astral elf complied. To the protest of Krux, the party made and executed a plan to get on board this star moth, complete in disguise.
There, the ship’s spelljammer found the party’s explanation of events peculiar, but he went along with it. Once in position, the party fought the spelljammer while offering to pay the ship’s mercenary crew to work for them. The enemy spelljammer died at the hands of the captive Xaryxian, which filled him with grief.
The party then turned over the captive Xaryxian to the city guard for murder. The party offered a signing bonus to have the hadozee crew strip the ship of anything of value. Idakath convinced the crew leader to go make a deal with one of their recent contacts, a chop shop operator, to further maximize profit potential from their sacking of this star moth.
With that, and Krux starting to sober up, they once again made way for Krux’s ship to make a plan for what to do next.
Next chapter: Spelljammer 2022 – Session 11, 2023-03-01