The Shifting Prison, Part 1

The Party: Arcturius-9, Corwen, Farrow, Khonshu

Still in the Green, the party found themselves with a completed negotiation as the splinter engine cloaked and took off, leaving them with almost a hundred freed Lanternwurm citizens. Arcturius-9 converted to drone mode suddenly and was pulled along. Farrow had a reunion with Einkhorn with contained emotions. He gave her a chime of opening he had created.

The party tried to contact Lanternwurm with their comm crystals but there was no reception in the Green. They traveled with the larger congregation back to the gripppli tree village and gained aid from their new frog friends. The grippli elder showed them an old tree with a teleportation circle within that could take them close to Fort Verdant Hope. The circle seemed a unique combination of planar technology and druidic stone work and magic. Farrow and Einkhorn watched the circle charging rituals as Corwen and Khonshu tried to further mingle with the grippli. Corwen impressed them with an archery game and Khonshu went over more map information in the Green.

A large figure emerged from the bag of holding with long limbs and wild hair. Farrow blasted it with her staff as Khonshu tried to help Corwen as he swung wildly and then backed up to the bed. Khonshu and Mule attacked the creature, the artificer’s branding smite drove it back into the bag. A disembodied voices was heard saying, "Save us from the prison." At this point, the three woke up back in the grippli village with fevers.

The transport went without issue and the large group made it back to the Fort and then to and pick up spot to return to Lanternwurm. The party downloaded their findings to Agent, including their recurring nightmares. They concluded it may be a distress call for the Shifting Prison. Agent asked if they would follow the last expedition of rangers into the prison and they accepted, feeling called to sort out their visions.

Farrow spent time tinkering with her comm crystal, trying to boost the signal using what she saw in the Green. Though not successful yet, she saw the potential for future use. She then spent time researching her dreams. She came to learn of the Bagman urban legend of a monster that would emerge from a bag of holding when it's name was spoken thrice into the bag.

Corwen brewed a healing potion and then checked his contacts for a person who could look at his necklace obtained from one of the nightmares. A wizard in the commercial area told him the items didn’t seem from this plane of existence.

Khonshu checked in with his administration duties and dealing with the new influx of returned people. He then took time to examine the chitinous armor they obtained in the Green, learning it provided some benefits to stealth and in hot weather but would also poison its wearer when donned.

The entrance greeted them, shifting blocks in the side of a mountain opened to a glowing red cavern. They carefully walked in deeper, finding a river of blood-like liquid with stepping stones to traverse. Farrow was able to spider climb up the walls to explore with her drone, mapping out some cavern paths, some submerged with red liquid, others leading up waterfalls. Tying to each other, the party crossed the river to island platform after one stone rotated on them, sending Khonshu into the blood. Planning their next moves on the island, a feverish Corwen fainted. Trying to revive him with potions and incense only caused Farrow and Khonshu to follow into blackout.

They each awoke in a comfortable place, in their own apartments on a building. Their memories were fuzzy, Corwen and Farrow held on to more of their recall, while Khonshu was immersed in his life here in a place called Stonepoint. They found each other and were served breakfast in the common area. Farrow heard the lullaby again and discovered she had her parents here, Oda and Boddynock Tinkerboot, who owned the apartments. They had lives here and knew some people, though details were blurred. They found Sister Sullivan here, looking like an average nun. The people were looking forward to a carnival coming to town.

Trying to follow Khonshu on his work day, a gargoyle fell from one of the buildings and struck the tiefling, knocking him out. As his friends and others crowded around to help, Farrow and Corwen also felt their fevers rising and all of them awoke back in the blood river cavern.

Continuing on his work day, Khonshu met with some unions to go over contracts. This place seemed to give the party what they wanted, with Corwen never having betrayed a community, Farrow having a home she belonged to, and Khonshu working on his maps and helping workers. This did not sit right still with Farrow and Corwen. As Khonshu worked, they checked out the large stone hand that marked the edge of town by the shore. An inn provided a legend that the hand belonged to a petrified giant. Climbing up the hand, Farrow found graffiti saying, ”Save us.”

Khonshu found out the carnival they heard of had been delayed to the next day. He reunited with his friends and they went to the abbey and cemetery to check on Sister Sullivan who was doing maintenance work. The cemetery didn’t contain the names of any of the missing rangers, it did have some family names, unmarked headstones, and one marked “IX”.

On the way home, they stopped by the abandoned mansion that reminded them of the dream house they had visited. Breaking in, they searched for clues, finding the bedrooms from their nightmare, with the marked mirror and signs of their combat with the Bagman.

As night fell, they decided to return to the apartments. En route they heard a scream and found a woman’s body and a large shadow standing over her. Farrow’s drone outlined it with faerie fire, showing a massive humanoid wearing a snake skull, holding a lantern and a giant sickle. Corwen threw the dagger he had on him, striking the figure deeply in the shoulder as Khonshu cast a spell to heat the weapon it held, causing it to drop the sickle.

The killer backed into the shadows and vanished as more townsfolk and guards arrived on the scene. The party was told to go home after providing their accounts. Sleeping, they awoke again in the shifting prison. They looked ahead and found more blood pools which fed the waterfalls. Turning around and investigating the path where the ash figure walked, they found the lower chambers ended in the blood river again. The drone found one side led to a pool with an unknown drain, and the other side contained an enclave with large glowing blue eggs, some containing coiled shapes. Farrow’s drone unloaded shots, destroying them all and releasing splatters of liquid and a cloud of blue mist that filled the lower chambers. This sent the party back into a delirium, they awake back in the Tinkerboot Apartments, ready to see the carnival that day.

At the festivities, Corwen checked out the strongman, checking to see if he matched the killer they encountered. He did not, but Corwen tried the hammer game while there. Khonshu looked at the ring toss game that carried an array of doll prizes. Two caught his attention, one that resembled Agent, and another that looked like Einkhorn. After some tosses, he won both.

Farrow ducked into the fortune teller’s tent, a white-haired woman greeted her and something about the witch lent an air of legitimacy to her divination skills. She said in the old times, they’d ask for something like your first born or your singing voice. But now she would take a cherished memory: a first kiss, a mother’s voice, a dream that inspired you. Farrow offered the memory of her meeting her parents yesterday for the “first time” and asked, “What was this place?”