The Aftermath of Alden - 23

SESSION NOTES
 
~~13/11/981~~
 
Today the adventuring party was back in Prith. Raymond was nice enough to make a big breakfast for everyone, he also shows us his new ocean god related powers. Lei hasn't heard anything from a God just like Ander. I wonder what this means about my own seeming connection to Sláine or this mark connecting us all to the "dead god", maybe the other gods are trying to save us from Morhan. I stabbed Dmitri to show off my new dagger too, Raymond had me stab him too he says it hurts, I guess I should remember that...
 
Ander and Dmitri have been spending a lot of time learning languages, but Ander is claiming to know a lot more than I thought, He was at least lying about the Dwarvish.
 
Dmitri wants to go to Oddstoke tomorrow morning to visit some family. His family is kinda strange, I think we are meeting up with his maybe "uncle".
 
Before we leave we spent the day visiting around Prith. Adrin is staying with Simon Simons and Haste, at least if the cat was Haste? Simon must be able to feel how much I want to kill him he was pretty afraid, I hope he has the smarts to stay afraid of me >:). While having tea with Adrin, Ander returns his locket we totally found in the rubble of Alden (oops). Speaking of rubble Alden is gone, there are no people left and the actual buildings are deteriorating very fast. The party think it may have been a magical field that caused the actual disaster., but I don't know what to make of the lack of bodies. Adrin thinks Morhan and the cult are behind this, and I cannot help but agree. Adrin has a theory that Morhan has used a lot of his power to destroy Alden, and may need more time to "recharge" his powers, the working theory is that he is the god of destruction so I am worried he will come back stronger after this stunt. Adrin is still mourning, maybe I should send him flowers or something, he is our friend... I am not very good at having friends.
 
On the subject of friends we went to visit Scaley too, he has been staying with Gus and he seems much happier than when he lived with Ander. He seems a bit resentful to Ander which is completely understandable... I wouldn't like Ander much either after uh ya know... that
 
Achievement is supper swamped in paperwork dealing with the refugees from Alden, I hope she gets some assistance soon... maybe some of the refugees have time to help out? If they volunteer that is Achievement is sensitive about working for no pay. I spent some time in the relief hospital with Bonnie to try and help out a bit. The people look terrible, I have never seen injuries like this before, the people look like they have been shredded? It was a rare moment that inspired me to pray, I can't imagine the destruction this could cause in a larger city, Sláine help us. It felt really great to help people with this gift, maybe having the responsibility from a god may not be all bad.
 
Bonnie and Tier are going to leave for Bright crest tomorrow, I am glad she will have a stable home. I gave them some gold to cover a cart and maybe food. Bonnie is worried bout the fire magic outburst from the fae wilds, she is reluctant to tell her sister but I hope she is careful just in case it is dangerous to herself or others. I got Bonnie a new quarterstaff for the journey hopefully that will help make them feel safe, I pray she doesn't need to use it.
 
Ander and Dmitri went off to the tavern to study languages while I was in the hospital, to my untrained ear, it sounded like the same word pronounced differently over and over again. I worry about Dmitri sometimes he has such drinking problems... today he tried and throw a pint on me but was so drunk he just missed. It seems to be rubbing off on Ander too because he was talking to nothing and punching the air, I'm going to try and encourage them to lay off the spirits.
 
During my time adventuring with our marked group I have become significantly stronger. I really have come so far... if only I could go back now, maybe I could have helped Kiera and Gordon. They could have had a family by now... but no matter how much I wish to change the past, I can't. Every time I heal someone or save a village it chips a small piece of my guilt away. I fear the guilt and regret is too great for a lifetime of saving people to heal and it will always be with me... I don't think I could ever balance out the lives that were lost because of my failures, but I will certainly try.
 
We leave for Oddstoke in the Morning, I hope it is an uneventful trip but knowing our party it will not be...
 
~~14-19/11/981~~
 
While travelling to Oddstoke we were playing truth or dare and the topic of me being in a shipwreck to come to the country came up.... Ander thinks that I shipwrecked a pirate crew I was supposedly travelling with because I did not like them. If only he knew...
 
On the second night of travelling, we came across a lady names Pandora making camp after being attacked by goblins. She looked fine and we decided to make camp together and continue to Oddstoke in the morning. We played some truth or dare with a zone of truth but did not learn much about our new companion, but we did confirm Ander is extremely vain. While travelling we came across a camp of weird green creatures surrounded by human-looking remains, I think they may be trolls. They were not friendly and we ended up fighting, Dimitri blew one up with an exploding bolt. That was Pretty Metal. Pandora seems quite shaken by the whole thing apparently, she travels this route to visit her sister a lot and hasn't seen trolls in the area before. I have read before that they naturally regenerate in battle and it appears to be true, that could make a very interesting story villain...
 
This morning we got into Odstoke and Pandora went east to an upper layer of the city to visit her sister. We settled into The Rattling Rat for a drink, and it is undoubtedly the cheapest pub I have ever been to. Dmitri was meeting up with this Sasha character he seems to trust but is hesitant to tell us anything about. Sasha showed up with a woman who Dmitri seems to be very affectionate with, he hugged her and everything... this is the most emotion I have ever seen him shown.
 
It turns out that Dmitri is the son of a prominent gang leader who Sasha worked for, and the woman was Dmitri's sister Anastasia. Ander was getting kinda friendly with Anastasia, but I cannot tell if it was genuine flirting or an attempt to annoy Dmitri.
 
The assains (Ninjas) coming after us all this time were from the gang, and sent to kill Dmitri. I can only assume Anastasia has been dealing with similar issues and have been running away with the help of Sasha. They are planning on leaving the city but needed to update Dmitri on how his family is trying to kill him, FANTASY FAMILY HOLIDAY sure must be interesting. The visit was brief due to the people searching for them all and we moved on to find lodging for the night.
 
I performed a ballad about defeating vampires raised by a crazed wizard tonight at The Downward Dog, It may have been inspired by the vampires we fought around Magecrest. I was thinking maybe it was Varis who raised those vampires, so a story about a wee village girl defeating not only vampires but their crazy wizard overlord and saving the village and area! It was one of my best performances in a while and got us rooms for the week. Adventuring is really improving my storytelling as well, maybe this could be another book! I'll keep it in mind while travelling.
 
~~20/11/981~~

Today we met Dmitri's old friend Bronwyn who worked with him as the city guard, the people at the office were quite friendly to an ex-guard who supposedly was thrown out for taking very illegal bribes. Everyone was also quite surprised he was alive... I guess the gang is quite a power.
 
Bronwyn recognized my name, apparently, her girlfriend Audrea has heard about me... and she had read my book. We all met at the tavern later that night and we went off and discussed some stories by ourselves. I am really glad the rest of the party did not hear because I haven't been very upfront about my past and those books are not a great place to start. The books would bring up a lot of memories I do not want to have to explain or revisit. I guess if I were to eventually publish another book I would need to tell them or be estranged enough for them to not care... Ander is vain enough that he may be on board, but he also is not a fan of secretive pasts. I am pretty good at pushing people away though so it probably will not be a problem.
 
Bronwyn has recruited our group to go undercover at the Netherswans' mascarade ball to prevent an assassination tip in two days time. The assassin is expected to be in the brass band and has been hired by whoever wants the target killed. The assassination is expected to take place during the fifth song on an unknown target, but maybe we can figure out who it is by talking to party-goers. Bronwyn realllly wants us to try not to cause a commotion and preferably take the assassin alive. I guess I am glad I have that fancy pirates costume, now I just need to get an animal mask to match! This would also make quite a gripping storyline for our swashbuckling hero :D.
 
~~22/11/981 The Mascarade~~
 
Tonight was the Mascarade and oh boy, what a time.
 
The Brass Band was on first and we only had 5 songs to discover who was the assassin.
 
The hottest Tarenglade sibling was present tonight and Andraste gave us some tips on the
 
Death Ward Each of them to protect:
-Changing Jet showing lots of skin
-Inca in bright pink
 
The blue from brass band had bead with invisibility
used zone of truth to eliminate other suspects