March 10, 2025

Next stop, Curst!

The tower is marching along toward Curst. Outside we hear a lot of good-natured shouting. A group of decoratively painted lizardfolk are clustered around their leader, who is lifting a huge rock over his head to much applause. They shout for us to stop and ask for a ride to Semuana's Bog. The leader's name is Sesspech.

The party confers and ultimately agrees. To pass the time, Harvey suggests a jumping contest. The party wins! Then Sesspech suggests a liazardfolk trivia content. We lose. Sandro offers to swap recipes.

Zaythir chimes in to mention the time dragon's domain, the Mausoleum of Chronepsis, is nearby.  Renee is in no hurry and says she'd prefer to skip the stop and continue adventuring with us instead.

Arriving at the swamp, the lizardmen invite us to stay a while. During the visit we meet their head cleric, a massive lizardman named Kh'halmech. Sandro asks him for his thoughts on our reincarnation situation. He explains that sometimes people reincarnate in the place where there are "supposed" to be. Then he pauses and says, "But wait... your souls are not intact. Do you mind if I kill one of you to test a theory?" Botticelli volunteers and is subsequently beheaded. Within minutes, a new Botticelli appears.

The cleric observes that each of us has a fractional soul, really only a sliver. Perhaps that is somehow pulling you back. If you can find where the rest of your souls are located, perhaps you can gather your souls again.

More competitions! Nine and Fulton defeat Kh'halmech in weightlifting. Fulton defeats Kh'halmech in intimidation. Kh'halmech defeats us all in climbing. Fulton matches Kh'halmech while discussion lizardman religious dogma. The lizardman god, Semuana, appears to flex and congratulate us on performance in the competitions. He presents us all a trophy: a small lizardman skull, out of which flowers are blooming. It works as an Alchemy Jug. It can produce clear springwater, but can't create anything with calories.