19 - The nut behind the Winglight
Previous session: 18 - On the road to New Gnomoria
The negotiation...
Wingnut asks us 100k gold due to our promise, where we talk our way to say to ask the mayor and Graath as everything is back to Saltspocket.
They concert between themselves, and when they get back to us, they want all the money we own.
Nesvalyn reminds them how it went last time, and Ikellunt mentions he wasn't there so it will be different this time.
They propose either we pay, they collect the money on our corpses or we go through Mr. Magnifico House of Fun and Murder.
While we explain to Loyal the original deal and what happened before, the place shifts and it points to the "Menagerie Highway".
Entering the menagerie...
We enter a dark room, which becomes lit by 7 spotlight doing a demi-circle, with 6 carnival booths with different colors and shapes. The spotlight gets closer, with an Ikellunt puppet saying "Give us all of your money". The booths are:
- Test your might
- Ring toss
- Pie eating contest
- Guessing jar
- Ball swap
- Guess your weight
We hear Ikellunt say "Win the 6 carnival games to proceed. Lose and there will be consequences. Teehee~".
Test your might...
Willum gets closer to that booth, and there's a lever with a bell and a mallet. Willum tries to get closer to get more info, but an animatronic Ikellunt stops him with "Huh huh huh, no cheating."
Willum gets the mallet, and the animatronic saying "Hit the bell to win". Once it's picked up, the machine lights up.
Persy starts to prepare a ritual, and four Ikellunt robots stops him from casting.
Willum hits the mallet on the lever.
[STR Melee Attack - Pass ✔] Ding! The bell is hit.
The machine spurts a loop made of gold.
The light turns out on this booth.
Pie eating contest...
Persy gets closer, the booth seems empty then lights up, where we see a very robust housewife with Ikellunt's face. It rolls out and presents a pie to Persy. He looks down to the pie who seems delicious.
[Perception - Fail ❌] Definitively a delicious pie.
"Oh hello there, welcome the pie eating contest, you have 60 seconds to eat this delicious pie I made. Ring the bell when you're ready to go!"
Persy rings the bell. He feels his hands getting tied behind him, then has his face slammed into the pie, revealing rotten meat inside it.
[CON Save - Pass ✔] Persy takes a deep breath and eats it in 44s.
We hear "Ding", and Persy hands are unstuck. A little golden rod appears instead. Then it lights off.
The golden loop and rod snaps together.
Guess your weight...
Willum approaches that booth, where it reveals an animatronic with a big wheel. "Please strip naked", where Willum adds a "Buy a drink first, I'm married".
Once naked, the animatronic says "Approach the pedestal", and Willum executes.
"Please stand still while the algorithm runs by."
[Charisma Save - Fail ❌] It's not the proper weight by far, and Willum senses something poking him back. A giant wooden stake is placed right behind him.
"Best two out of three?"
Willum steps down, and the animatronic shows sparkles and explodes. Another animatronic appears and asks the same thing.
[Charisma Save - Pass ✔] The robot guesses the weight by one pound close, which is valid.
Another golden rod appears.
Ring toss...
Ball swap...
Reylynn gets closer of the ball swap booth. There's another animatronic dressed as a beggar with three cups and a ball.
[WIS Save - Fail ❌] Reylynn does a wrong guess.
The animatronic proposes another attempt.
[WIS Save - Fail ❌] Reylynn does a wrong guess.
The animatronic proposes a last attempt.
[WIS Save - Pass ✔] Reylynn notices he was cheating and finds the ball.
A golden F shaped piece appears.
Guessing jar...
Willum asks Persy to do this game, where they both argue a bit. The agreement reaches to Willum writing on a paper that Persy is statistically the smartest of the party.
Persy gets closer to the library shaped booth, where another animatronic rolls over and proposes him to play.
"How many human tongues are there in this jar?", with many organs of different shapes and colors.
[INT Spell attack - Pass ✔] Persy says there are 7 human tongues, and happens to be correct.
Another golden F shaped piece appears.
Willum hands over the promised paper to Persy.
A big door with an oversized keylock appears, where we form the key from the different pieces we gathered, which creates a much smaller key than the lock. Once inserted, it somehow unlock the door, and we progress through the antechamber. The archway says "Magnifico's metro dome".
Magnifico's metro dome...
Once inside this new room, darkness fills in again, and the lights flicker on, with another animatronic (Ikellunt face on Shakira's body).
There's a key present, with a Wingnut shaped as a trash recycler asking again for all our money at the entrance.
We pass by it and progress further.
Once we reach the middle, the floor lights up with squares with many animatronics.
[Perception check - Pass ✔] We notice some weird vitrail sparkles in the air.
"Welcome to Magnifico's metro dome, you will dance until you die!"
[WIS Save - Fail ❌] Everybody (excepts Reylynn) dances without any control.
Once everybody is back on the floor and the robot hits the ground, the door appears.
We proceed to the next antechamber.
Magnifico's menagerie...
Loyal and Willum are betting on the next room, respectfully a mirror room for Loyal and a gift shop for Willum.
We pass the archway, ignoring the Wingnut shaped trashcan asking for our money, and entering the dark room, with the lone spotlight, while being in a roman style coliseum. We're surrounded by 5 cages in darkness. The animatronic known as the "Beastmaster" cracks a whip, with the key at its end, then four out of the five cages open.
Revealing a menagerie of animatronics animals: three seals, a lion, two tigers, and finally one bear on a big circus ball.
The whip turns into another key, and the darkness dissipates from the fifth cage, revealing an elephant with raging glowing red eyes inside the cage.
Willum heals himself with [Lay of Hands] for 25 HP, Loyal uses his [Second Wind] to recover 5 HP and uses a potion of Healing, Reylynn uses her [Goodberries] to heal herself.
We unlock the door and reach another antechamber.
The auditorium...
When we get in, we see Wingnut and Ikellunt. "I see you manage to survive my Magnifico House".
"You won't be able to escape before you pass the final test"
Which is? asks Willum.
One of you must sacrifice your life to keep going.
On these words, we're all locked into seats, with buttons of the face of each party member in front of us.
Why are you doing this?
Because, I find it entertaining.
Nesvalyn shares his thought that we can either never vote, or if we do, we avoid arguing too much, as it's what they want.
Willum asks to pick him, as long we promise to find Ludwig.
Loyal draws Ikellunt's face on the panel, then tries to press it, but nothing happens. Then each party member manage to draw a button with Ikellunt, and the button becomes real at the last drawing, and the whole party picks the Ikellunt button.
We hear an animatronic voice saying "Invalid choice".
"We'll pick someone randomly then", declares Ikellunt.
Loyal is picked and released.
"Step in the middle and accepts your destiny", where a throne appears.
Loyal sits in the throne, and Ikellunt shoots a bolt on him, where it ends in flashing light, and all the chairs are facing the public.
Ah ah you fools, I've tricked you. I call it plot armor. To prevent you to kill me, if I die, your friend dies too!
Does that mean if I die, you die? asks Loyal
Yes.
Loyal points his crossbow to himself under his jaw. So if I leave in a bodybag, you leave in one too.
Well it was my plan so you wouldn't kill me out of it, but like that...
[Deception check - Fail ❌- (Took the Devil's Deal)] Wingnut is worried, and he takes Ikellunt to chat between themselves aside. After a moment, Wingnut proposes that we part our way, no money owed, no hard feelings and all.
After discussing and pressuring that Loyal is old and we're heading to a dangerous place, he let us go until he finds a way to break and dispel the Plot Armor spell.
We all leave Mr. Magnifico's Tent, looking for a place for the evening.
Next session: 20 - New friends, new troubles