Cosmic Conversations & Owlbear Bops . . .

It always surprises me how stealthy Doc can be with his hooves clopping: wonder if he wears orthopedic horseshoes to deaden the noise? He snuck past a Mama Wyvern with ease and found us a nook to spend the night in.
 
The next morning, we unfortunately came across a party of Mercy Killers. They were hunting the wounded Githyanki we’d met the day before, saying they were going to “feed them to the Wyrm.” Most of our party did not get good vibes from them, but Søren must really trust authority because he immediately told them that we saw the three of them North of us the other day. I tried to cover for him, leaving out the baby dragon and saying we weren’t sure about the timing cause we’re Clueless, and Søren was able to deceive them a bit, but I’m really nervous the restoration and supplies we gave the Gith won’t be enough to save them: The Mercy Killers seem like a pretty hostile bunch.
 
After they left, the group started arguing over whether it was right to give up their location, with Søren arguing the Gith overtly broke the law. I’m personally of the opinion we need to donate the money the Mercy Killers gave us: I feel gross for even having it. Before the conversation could get too heated, we all got really hot when a chimera showed up and breathed fire on us!
 
We were able to defeat it, but not without Søren coming very close to death. It really makes me nervous that Clarity is the only one that can conceivably heal him, and she has to get within touch range to do so. She and I discussed the arcane aspects of Repair Light Damage, and I’m wondering if I can change the properties enough to allow the spell to carry over a distance. However, I’ll need to speak with someone from Mechanus who’s an expert in the spell before I can even consider developing an entirely new spell. Søren thinks there might be a person in one of the Material Planes that could assist us. He seems really excited about the idea, which makes me really nervous. I don’t want to get him and his people’s hopes up and write another failure of a song…
 
Clarity, Doc, and Søren were able to work together to harvest a flame sac and some powdered horns from the chimera. Clarity thinks we can use the flame sac as a bomb or infusion or at the very least sell it for 50G! The powdered horns she’s less sure about, but maybe someone will be interested in it?
 
We found the lair of the chimera, and I scrounged up 100G from the nest, as well as a pound of something Søren calls Ignium. It was pretty hot to the touch, and when Søren tried to hold it all at once, he got burned, so I’m carrying half of it for him now. :)
 
Away from the chaos of battle, we had some time to open up some more to each other, which felt nice. Søren told us that the Assembly instructed him to investigate The Revolutionary League, which explains why he wants to bring whatever blooms to Curst. However, he committed to helping us join a Faction, especially after Clarity shared about her many debts to The Fated. She apparently has to complete 7 favors for them, one for every layer of Hell they helped her escape. We don’t want her to feel like she needs to join a criminal organization, so once we get back to Sigil, we’ll consider helping her join one of the stronger factions (like The Society of Sensation or The Transcendent Order). Hopefully, they can help her find an alternative, less illicit way to pay off her life debt without threatening her or her family’s safety. Until then, she’s going to hold to her deal with Tivvum (which explains the whole bag thing that happened).
 
Everyone is so open and forthcoming in this group, I feel like I need to be too. Doc knows the highlights, and maybe it’s nothing, but I am worried about the rumors I’m hearing...
 
We were nearing the Caverns of Thought, when we found an arcane mage named Ryleth Saraxh. I deduced that he was a member of The Sign of One, based on his unique views, and he challenged us each to make a prediction. Clarity and Søren were really good at it: I think theirs are definitely going to (or already did) come true. I predicted that Ryleth would trip and fall on his way back to Sigil - wouldn’t that be funny if it happened? Apparently that’s some sort of rite of passage to joining The Sign of One, and he encouraged us to find him in the Hall of Speakers if our predictions came true.
 
We spoke with him for awhile (I played one of my favorite campfire songs, Hips Don’t Lie), and the conversation was absolutely fascinating. Søren seemed less enthused by the Ryleth’s responses, and while I do agree there were a multitude of contradictions in his belief system, it was incredibly interesting to discuss his point of view, one that is apparently shared by many of the inhabitants of the plane he hails from, Nyx. He told us it is tied to the gate town Mystra and is known as a manifestation of existential fear, or the Void to some. I’ve heard people use the same terms when speaking of the Ethereal plane, and I think Ryleth worded my views on the concept quiet poetically - “Darkness just hides another mystery to solve.”
 
Ryleth told us A LOT about the different factions, which was really helpful. He also recommended not planting the rose in the first void-touched place we come across, as that might not be the most void-touched part. Before we left, Clarity tested out her ice powers, deducing that they were likely stronger on her plane than on this one.
 
We finally came to the entrance to the Caverns of Thought, and we had to make Søren big in order to be able to fly us all down. Some of the tunnels seem newer and carved by The Bloom, while others appear more ancient: jury’s out on whether the void-touched parts are in one or the other. The entire time we’ve been down here I’ve heard faint whispering in the back of my mind: wonder if I should be worried about that...
 
The first tunnel we went down ended up opening up to a cavern with some owlbears and a turtle man named Gulbid (idk if that’s the way to spell it, but we’re going to roll with that). He said he was from a subset of The Transcendent Order in the Beastlands, and he’d been accidentally transported to the Caverns with these owlbear cubs and their mother. I played a funky tune (Take a Chance on Me is a big hit with most beast-like entities), and the whole family bopped along while the party wrangled and healed them. We’ll need to tell the Order about Gulbid, so a rescue party can be sent for the whole group - I hope they’ll be okay until then. As we parted ways, he gave us some Greenweed, which he said could be used to craft a Cloak of Elvenkind or some other similar item - neato!