save u4

.vscode/settings.json

@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@
         "Luskan",
         "Luskans",
         "Methrammar",
+        "metropoleis",
         "mindflayer",
         "mindflayers",
         "mindwitness",

acl.cool/site/draft/umbral4 copy.dj

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+# Umbral Gaze 4: Candle-head
+
+Portal network to Neverwinter.
+
+Do some shopping and get some rest. Clementine buys a gilded acorns; Gottlob buys a diamond worth 300 gp.
+
+The next morning, at Tasha's behest, the Wintershield Watchmen[^ww] brief our heroes about the Cake Pile. The dwarves who explain call it Brog Burgest, "cake pile", because to call the travesty a mountain would be an insult to mountains.
+
+*what do they say?*
+
+{.thematic}
+***
+
+A warm, sweet breeze like the scent from a bakers oven tousles the party's hair and delights their nostrils. Their boots squelch in inches of buttercream frosting as, rocking back on their heels, they crane their necks upward to regard the point at which cliffs and gulleys of cake meet azure sky. Our heroes have reached the base of the cake pile, Brog Burgest, and consider now the optimal path to the top, where it can only be assumed their quarry lurks.
+
+There is something like a path, and Almuth does detect traps on it. He finds some, but (Clementine casts "pass without trace", so most of the party is quite sneaky, and we walk up anyway and are not struck. Louisa flies all the way up to the top, stumbling upon an otherworldly scenes that seems to bleed into reality from somewhere else. a keep is surrounded by farms of blue grain and redcap slave masters grave dead-eyed humans in the fields. Louisa sees her form among them. It looks like "______". She spits on a redcap, the one with her body, and is thrown from the mountaintop by an apparition of her curser. Alm. and Got. dance with 4 frosting thralls after she lands, totally unharmed, and gottlob is very graceful, for some reason. Almuth too eventually gets free. The rest of the party snuck past.
+
+Carrying on, we get the the top level. Torches burn in purple and orange atop statues of snarling dragons. There's a beholder there, but it doesn't notice us immediately. Checking it's alignment, (LN) Alm. walks forward and talks to it. It gives its name in the course of insisting that we leave immediately unless we wish to be devoured. He doesn't want us to be eaten, because humans give his friend indigestion. Shit. A fat red dragon, Themberchaud, appears with the full intention of eating everyone along with the cake on which they stand. Almuth prays to Eldath, divine intervention[^divine] and boom, dragon no longer eats humans. on a diet. The dragon asks Cogyth to leave us alone, says he no longer eats humans so there's no sense in killing us. We fly up into the air to escape the cake surface, which the dragon still wants to eat. Clementine is a pterosaur and louisa doing her usual fly thing. The two have a happy reunion. "Themberchaud has finally respected my wishes about... his health?". 
+
+{% What happened in part 2? %}
+
+At end of 1, cheshira, freed from her contract to the beholder, raced down the mountain to claim the victims she had trapped in cogyth's name for her own pleasures. As she does so, we intercept and louisa asks her what her problem is. She climbs on a roof and causes a plane shift (or something). The hag summons two eye drakes (did she smoosh them together from a dragon and a beholder? maybe? ask.)
+
+{% be sure to mention that tasha said in sending that she's not going to help us much for a little bit. she's busy. She also mentioned an air elemental sent by the cyclone with warm regards; laeral has thereby discovered our ruse and holds the elemental captive--- she wants to talk %}
+
+[^ww]: The [Wintershield Watchmen](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Wintershield_watchmen) is a local volunteer militia that polices the city of Neverwinter and sees to its interests in the surrounds.
+
+[^divine]: A natural 20 at the most opportune time
+
+{% ---------------------------------- %}
+
+Fresh on the heels of their victory over ____, the party take a portal to Neverwinter and the City of Skilled Hands, where the next beholder waits and which offers plenty a nook and corner store from which our heroes may obtain much-needed supplies. Come dawn, members of the Wintershield Watchmen[^ww]--- at Tasha's behest--- brief our heroes on their quarry, and the burly dwarves who explain leave the party with an impression of otherworldly absurdity.
+
+The beholder's lair is known to the denizens of Neverwinter as Brog Burgest, "cake pile", for to call the dulcet travesty a "mountain" would be an insult to mountains, but "pile" fails to capture the scale of the topography. Brog Burgest's peak vanishes upward among clouds.
+
+{.thematic}
+
+The party departs with haste, though the journey to the mountain is not long, and soon a warm, sweet breeze like the scent from a bakers oven tousles the party's hair and delights their nostrils. Their boots squelch in inches of buttercream frosting as, rocking back on their heels, they crane their necks upward to regard the meeting of caky cliffs and gulleys with azure sky. At the base of Brog Burgest, out heroes consider aloud what is their optimal path to the top, where it can only be assumed that a postprandially-obsessed beholder lurks by some gargantuan oven.

acl.cool/site/draft/umbral4.dj

@@ -1,28 +1,29 @@
 # Umbral Gaze 4: Candle-head
 
-Portal network to Neverwinter.
 
-Do some shopping and get some rest. Clementine buys a gilded acorns; Gottlob buys a diamond worth 300 gp.
+[^divine]: A natural 20 at the most opportune time
 
-The next morning, at Tasha's behest, the Wintershield Watchmen[^ww] brief our heroes about the Cake Pile. The dwarves who explain call it Brog Burgest, "cake pile", because to call the travesty a mountain would be an insult to mountains.
+{% ---------------------------------- %}
 
-*what do they say?*
+On the heels of their seafaring victory over [the Cyclone](/writings/umbral3/), the party takes a portal to Neverwinter[^neverwinter], "the City of Skilled Hands", lying not far from the next beholder. The settlement offers plenty a nook and corner store from which our heroes can obtain much-needed supplies, and they stock up with vigor. Clementine is lucky enough to find some gilded acorns; Gottlob replenishes his stash of components for "revivify". Come dawn, members of the Wintershield Watchmen[^ww]--- at Tasha's behest--- brief our heroes on their quarry, and the burly dwarves who explain leave the party with an impression of otherworldly absurdity.
+
+The beholder's lair is known to the denizens of Neverwinter as Brog Burgest, "cake pile", for to call the dulcet travesty a "mountain" would be an insult to mountains, but "pile" fails to capture the scale of the topography. Brog Burgest's peak vanishes upward among clouds. A beholder is known by the locals to have taken up residence at the pile, and since it arrived, townspeople and passers-through have vanished at a terrible pace. A correspondence must be assumed.
 
 {.thematic}
 ***
 
-A warm, sweet breeze like the scent from a bakers oven tousles the party's hair and delights their nostrils. Their boots squelch in inches of buttercream frosting as, rocking back on their heels, they crane their necks upward to regard the point at which cliffs and gulleys of cake meet azure sky. Our heroes have reached the base of the cake pile, Brog Burgest, and consider now the optimal path to the top, where it can only be assumed their quarry lurks.
+The party departs with haste, though the journey to the mountain is not long, and soon a warm, sweet wind--- as from a baker's oven--- tousles the party's hair and delights their nostrils. Boots squelching in buttercream frosting, they rock back on their heels to regard the meeting of caky cliffs and gulleys with azure sky. Now at the mountain's base, our heroes discuss what path they should take to the peak, at which they can only assume a dessert-obsessed beholder tends a gargantuan oven. Dutifully, flight-capable Louisa goes ahead by air to scout the narrow path that meanders its way upward along the mountainside--- clearly not laid for easy passage--- but as she ascends through quickly gathering clouds and roiling mists, the solidity of her surroundings wavers; temperate farmland replaces slopes of sponge, and the wizard senses powerful dimensional magic permeating an otherworldly scene before her.
 
-There is something like a path, and Almuth does detect traps on it. He finds some, but (Clementine casts "pass without trace", so most of the party is quite sneaky, and we walk up anyway and are not struck. Louisa flies all the way up to the top, stumbling upon an otherworldly scenes that seems to bleed into reality from somewhere else. a keep is surrounded by farms of blue grain and redcap slave masters grave dead-eyed humans in the fields. Louisa sees her form among them. It looks like "______". She spits on a redcap, the one with her body, and is thrown from the mountaintop by an apparition of her curser. Alm. and Got. dance with 4 frosting thralls after she lands, totally unharmed, and gottlob is very graceful, for some reason. Almuth too eventually gets free. The rest of the party snuck past.
+Humanoids--- humans, mostly--- labor in fields of blue-topped grain. Gnomes in bright red hats[^redcap] keep the workers in line, their sickles and whips employed eagerly to _encourage_ any slaves who seem to fall behind. Chained manacles at the ankles of the fitter of their charges seem aimed to prevent escape, though where a runaway could escape _to_, Louisa cannot tell; all is only fields and cliffs as far as she can see.
 
-Carrying on, we get the the top level. Torches burn in purple and orange atop statues of snarling dragons. There's a beholder there, but it doesn't notice us immediately. Checking it's alignment, (LN) Alm. walks forward and talks to it. It gives its name in the course of insisting that we leave immediately unless we wish to be devoured. He doesn't want us to be eaten, because humans give his friend indigestion. Shit. A fat red dragon, Themberchaud, appears with the full intention of eating everyone along with the cake on which they stand. Almuth prays to Eldath, divine intervention[^divine] and boom, dragon no longer eats humans. on a diet. The dragon asks Cogyth to leave us alone, says he no longer eats humans so there's no sense in killing us. We fly up into the air to escape the cake surface, which the dragon still wants to eat. Clementine is a pterosaur and louisa doing her usual fly thing. The two have a happy reunion. "Themberchaud has finally respected my wishes about... his health?". 
+Rendering herself invisible with a spell, the llama swoops closer to investigate, but cold fingers of dread grip her heart at what she discovers. The wizard's own body, her _human_ body, threshes indigo grass at the edge of the nearest plot; the gaze of a scythe-wielding slave master fixes... her? it..? in cruel contempt from a flanking position. The intensity of labour demanded by the redcaps shows itself in her body's condition. Thin, trembling arms beat the grain at increasing intervals, just today's hours of hard labor taking their toll of strength. Her dark hair sports bits of straw and chaff among its tangles; her olive skin is caked with dust and sweat. Whether the glassy, unblinking eyes are a product of exhaustion or of whatever magic moves her presumedly uninhabited form, Louisa only wishes she could tell.
 
-{% What happened in part 2? %}
+The wizard pauses here, for a moment, to consider her options. She knows that all the desperate longing in the world cannot overcome the tactical reality of the situation on the farmland below--- there is no way she can rescue her human form alone--- but she is determined to get some sort of consolation all the same. Making a diving pass, the llama spits mightily upon the redcap slave master that pokes mirthfully at her vacated flesh, but as she does, a twisted old woman appears, black cloth obscuring all but her hands and her spiral-horned head.
 
-At end of 1, cheshira, freed from her contract to the beholder, raced down the mountain to claim the victims she had trapped in cogyth's name for her own pleasures. As she does so, we intercept and louisa asks her what her problem is. She climbs on a roof and causes a plane shift (or something). The hag summons two eye drakes (did she smoosh them together from a dragon and a beholder? maybe? ask.)
 
-{% be sure to mention that tasha said in sending that she's not going to help us much for a little bit. she's busy. She also mentioned an air elemental sent by the cyclone with warm regards; laeral has thereby discovered our ruse and holds the elemental captive--- she wants to talk %}
+
+[^neverwinter]: [Neverwinter](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Neverwinter) is a northern city of craftsmen and artisans regarded as among the most cosmopolitan metropoleis in Faerûn.
 
 [^ww]: The [Wintershield Watchmen](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Wintershield_watchmen) is a local volunteer militia that polices the city of Neverwinter and sees to its interests in the surrounds.
 
-[^divine]: A natural 20 at the most opportune time
+[^redcap]: [Redcaps](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Redcap) are evil, bloodthirsty fey--- gnome-like in appearance--- known for their brutality and need to kill for self-sustainment.