Moonspring

Last week I lost my sublime text file and (sob cry) couldn't recover it so here are the cliffnotes!
 
While Zeal was off being a superhero and saving the village from the fungimen, Connie and Sidna found out that his dark powers were capable of absorbing Shadow from others, though at a terrible cost. Serafina was willing to put her own safety at risk by contacting someone from her past who might have an answer for such awful situations, but the party was waylaid in the absence of their friend. Now together, we resume...
 
---
 
Back in Poppy's house, Constantine is nearly catatonic in a chair with Poppy hovering nearby, fretting over him and Sidna as they recover from their horrible no-good very bad experience. Zeal, returning to the house, speaks with Gio about his magic and the strange conjunction between his magic and its sources, and Gio says that it is because he is undisciplined and not focused, offering to teach Zeal. -- Zeal recognises that while he is a guard of the envoy, he is not from the Northerlands. -- Zeal considers this, but when Gio then also offers him to follow along with the envoy Zeal turns down the offer. After a moment of consideration of Zeal's situation, he tells Zeal to wait a moment before flipping through his spellbook and finding a spell that he "doesn't use much, but might help you out".
 
He points at Zeal and begins chanting in a very harsh language that Zeal doesn't recognise, flinching at the end of his spell (He takes 15 and heals Zeal 30). Zeal thanks him, and again when Gio says that Zeal has gonads, explaining that he did what he did because it was a helpful thing to do - and he hopes to be helped in the future.
 
Going to check on the others, he didn't see Serafina but found Sidna and Constantint sitting across from each other and commisserating in aNUIC. The two did not offer much, with Zeal commenting on how he had handled saving the village, but the two of them looked even worse than him. Vorach, fed up with the entire day, whispered "Sleepy-Bye" under his breath before passing tf out. Sidna relaxes a bit when she sees this, and goes to ask Poppy for a place to lay down, with the woman setting up the tables in her workshop to serve as makeshift beds.
 
Zeal also approached Poppy to ask for some herbal help, receiving a spongy moss ball that he took outside to attempt to smoke. Serafina stepped out to ask Poppy the best way to deliver her letter, and Poppy said the best bet would be to head to the tavern and hire someone there or ask the tavern keeper to, or to pass it off to a member of the Cult of Rane'fete, which is free but the slowest. Serafina nods before heading back to bed, and Sidna contemplates writing some herself before bed but realises that her hands are shaking too much to write and so instead pulls out some of her alchemist's ingredients. Briefly using her bed for its original purpose, she makes herself some more of her special antidote, utilising Poppy's help (Medicine check 21!) to make two doses.
 
As Zeal lights, a faint purple smoke begins to emit from the end of his pipe, and he takes a deep inhale before exhaling out. As the drug hits (con save 6, wisdom save 15 (dis)), he starts to feel so tired that he crosses his legs and begins to relax, beginning to extend his senses out to feel into the night and try to be beyond himself. As he does, he feels a sense of peace that's emboldened by the drugs he's been using, yet as he drifts to this moment of meditation he goes even beyond that - eyes falling shut enetirely. In the darkness, it's like there's warm fog everywhere, and he wakes in what seems to be a meadow at daytime. As cold begins to engulf his outer extremities, a sudden warmth and scent of spices embraces him (wisdom save 22) - a familiar one to that which comes off of Echo. Turning, he sees a female figure next to him, different complexion. Slightly tan, she's beautiful but he can't look at her face, and as they sit together though days seem to pass the day never fades and he begins to feel a pulsating warmth within himself again as his fire reignites and he feels as though something...unlocks.
 
He closes his eyes, feeling peaceful, and "ignites". When he opens his eyes next, the meadow around him is entirely engulfed in flame, and the person sitting beside him is no longer humanoid, but instead the familiar form of Echo. Then the sun which he feels on his face is not that of a drug trip or a dream, but the real sun, and he finds himself awake the next morning.
 

TIME BULLSHIT, Sidna also hears things! They're private, but she had something at night --

Walking back inside, Zeal is met by Gio, who remarks that he must have had a pleasant dream, with Zeal agreeing that he saw a beauty before going to sit down and get his morning brew. Zeal mentions that he reconnected with his fire, and Gio asked if he intended to keep practising. Zeal says he will, and if it looks fruitful then he'll give it is all, seeking more refined control over his magic and himself. Gio nods, agreeing that it is dangerous, and that the key is what he said the previous evening: control.
 
As Serafina took pity to drag Vorach into the room, he wakes up early and guilts himself into an existential crisis that only worsens after he fails an insight check and thinks Sidna is in more pain, when she is - in fact - in less pain. They speak without speaking, using facial expressions and the jutting of their jaws, before getting up to clean - Vorach distraught and Sidna nonplussed, more on her mind than what was in the room.
 
As she leaves to wash up, Vorach moves to wake Serafina and finds she's been awake basically all night, and she looks awful. He hands her some clementines, and she jokes "What, no pomegranate?" Unfortunately, he's so dumb that he's genuinely upset he doesn't have any more pomegranate for her and offers her a slightly mushy dragon fruit instead, with her disgust then causing him to throw it from the room in typical orcish problem solving fashion. One more miscommunication and the two were chasing each other from the room, racing to the kitchen in an attempt to make breakfast for the other(s).
 
Sidna stepped aside with the envoy to discuss a message being sent to a particular noble: Lady Camellia of Redmark. The message was as follows: Tell her that her knight is fine and her knight is safe her knight is in good hands, and she will return to her as soon as she can. In one piece.
 
Zeal, the dastard!, listened in on this conversation through a summoned mouse, quietly recounting it for those nearby who wished to hear. Overcome by embarrassment over having to spill her heart to the envoy, she doesn't even notice the tiny mouse.
 
In the kitchen, Serafina and Vorach are neck in neck on the race to feed each other first, but Vorach has an advantage: institutional wealth. Pulling out expensive spices, he makes a truly fantastic flavour palette that is far too extreme [because of his curse, he is unable to taste most things unless they are extremes] and causes Serafina to sputter before stepping in to correct. He doesn't seem too upset by this, though, offering her an easy and charming smile before stepping off to serve (and in fact sharing some of his spices with Zeal for the original flavour).
 
Over breakfast, they discuss their next step and agree that it's off on the way to the swamp, with Zeal remembering to help Poppy and Sidna giving fleshwort samples to help her resupply her stock. After a brief discussion on the ethics of using corpses that had not consented to grow fleshwort to do so, the party proceeded off with their enormous egg in an effort to fulfil their mission.
 
Serafina makes a quick stop at the post office, paying two gold to mail off a missive to her homeland (finding out that there's an unending snowstorm that's making travel difficult throughout the southern end of Rovaria), and then we head out into the forest, with Zeal leading, Sidna after, Serafina with the egg, and Vorach at the end. Retracing the party steps, Vorach covers their steps and makes notice of the darkness in the maggot-infested pits throughout the forest, magically whispering to Sidna that *that* was what he had pulled out of her the previous night, eliciting a shocked reaction and a stern look that told him they'd discuss it later.
 
Continuing on, they come to a split in the road, where Zeal becomes entranced with a path that leads towards a strange urban development with fireflies and an arched path. Vorach, however, has seen a vision of a twisting fountain of shadow in the distance that he is entranced by, stopped in the middle of the swamp path staring forward.
 
Serafina is entranced by the firefly, and after Sidna raises her voice Vorach snaps out of his reverie and notices Serafina stepping away. As a firefly lands on him and is immediately destroyed by the shadow that flows through and around him, he calls out, "Stop her! Don't go in!" However, in his haste to stop Serafina, he didn't notice the archway himself and stepped past.
 
Within, under a warm summer's embrace, Serafina and Vorach's previous forms were revealed, with the former being a beautiful elfen woman with pale skin, blonde hair, and striking violet eyes. His skin bloomed from grey to a deep hunter green, his build blossoming out to be strong once more and his voice deepening as he stood taller. He was a hunk!
 
Unfortunately, Sidna didn't enter the magical dream bubble of take away your chronic pain, and she used her Big Girl Voice to do a D.A.R.E ad against peer pressure, Commanding Vorach out of it. Once out, he immediately returned to his awful, sickly state and thanked her after crying and retching in pain for a solid 6 seconds, standing. He used his darkness to let the others break the spell, but while Zeal could find his way out, Serafina was stuck, and Vorach ran in after tying a rope around his waist and handing the other end to Sidna.
 
He was, sadly, able to drag her out and throw the two beyond the border, returning each to their altered forms and leaving both miserable beyond measure. Quietly, he tried to apologise, and she simply stood to continue on her way - ignoring his hand offered to help her up. Sadly, he asked if he did the right thing, but neither Zeal nor Sidna's reassurances could convince him he had.
 
We'll continue next week!