The Chipper Squirrel, Caster Falls

There was a very minimal amount of people getting hurt this time, which is both a really depressing achievement but also really good for us? I mean, there were some minor injuries, but it turned out fine. Nobody got seriously injured or died, even our 'enemies?' They were pretty shitty pirates and if they hadn't known any useful information we could've just completely avoided them without any consequences, so they weren't really enemies. More like roadblocks. Except only blocking half of the road so you can just walk right past.
 
Our first order of business was to deal with the mess M. Channail left us - Glow and Damiel seemed to have a good time looking at the blueprints Glow found on him, even though as far as I'm aware, that's neither of their specialties. Nerds.
 
I think if Damiel knew I said that about him I would die, but it's true and I regret nothing.
 
M. Channail's giant metal spider... thing... had some magical storage devices that were powering it, and that we think is what he was using the magic he stole from us and all those other people for. We decided to turn my bag into a bag of holding and collect them, in case we found some opportunity to unleash a giant amount of magical power (and with the problems we find, when won't we need huge amounts of magic?) But it's a little eerie, knowing I'm carrying around the stolen magic of a lot of people who died because of it. I suppose it's not that much different from using an enchanted item after the enchanter is dead, but somehow it being their magic directly is worse. Practically, it's better to keep them... but I almost want to get rid of them just on principle. What made them is definitely evil - would it be wrong of us to use it, even for good? I'm going to have to think on that a lot more.
 
We tried convincing M. Channail's spirit to tell us where we could find Tazra, but Radiance wasted two of our five questions and then he refused to answer anything else. Like an asshole. Even dead he's a dick.
 
Speaking of Radiance, it seems like finding Tazra is more personal for her than we knew. She was generally upset by all of the siblings we were running into, and... I guess I kind of get it. I would have liked to have a brother or sister, I think. But Radiance... she wasn't all that excited about talking about it, but I think Tazra did something to her sibling, and that's why she wants to find her and get revenge. Was Radiance's sibling one of the people who died in those magic-draining cells? Or did Tazra do something else that hurt them?
 
Sekhmet finally responded to me! It was only for a moment, and nothing more than an acknowledgement, but that's more than enough after wondering if something's wrong, if I'm doing something wrong.
 
We learned from Damiel that demons can be killed by combining silver weapons and enough holy magic, so we went to a weapons shop and, thanks to Damiel (where does he get so much money? We're all doing well enough, especially Glow because she's stingy as hell, but he hasn't been taking a share of treasure from most of our finds and doesn't seem to care...) we're all equipped with silver knives. I hope we're able to turn M. Channail's demon into a pincushion soon.
 
Zsoana and Radiance also picked up new weapons at the same time, which are really weird but also really cool - they turn on! And explode! It should be concerning, but I think those two will use it fairly responsibly. More so than Bell would, at any rate. Zsoana's usually careful, and Radiance doesn't seem like the type to hurt someone who hasn't earned it. Damiel got something too, but if it does anything interesting, I don't know - he did spend a long time nerding out with the brothers over the weapons, though.
 
Aside from weapons shopping, we stopped in at a bakery - they had a delicious berry pie, which I haven't had in far too long - it's a shame campfires aren't very useful for baking, or I would have made one for everyone by now. Damiel thought it was too sweet, which is the point of it? But I'm wondering if he might like a version made with just the fruit, instead of adding more sugar... Radiance bought Ilitari apology baguettes, for when they come back from sulking in the void. If anything's going to convince Iltiari to like her, baguettes will. As long as she starts calling them by their name or pronouns instead of 'it'. We also went to a magic shop - Truthful Terence's, which seems like a cheap knockoff of Legitimate Larry's - or is Larry's the knockoff? Anyway. I bought a blanket that can glow! It's very soft, and almost as nice as the one I already have.
 
Our shopping was, unfortunately, interrupted by Zsoana being given a note which is apparently a threat between pirates. We went to find out who had sent it to her, and encountered a bunch of drunk and stupid pirates who we tricked into telling us who wanted her dead. Although I wasn't party to the whole thing, since she, Nabith, and Glow were the ones who first went to investigate the ship of the Yuan Ti who sent it to her, it turned out that it had been sent by her younger brother! Which Zsoana did not seem happy about. There was a lot of not-swearing insults. Turns out he was being used by his father, a cult leader, to hunt Zsoana down because she left the cult and he blames her for others leaving to join a new demonic cult - joy - and he was being tracked.
 
After Glow almost froze the poor boy's arm off, we finally got rid of the bracelet that was tracking him, and he decided to stay in Caster Falls and work for the old woman running Truthful Terence's. Changing careers from a cultist slash pirate to a magic shop apprentice is a little drastic, but if it works for him...
 
So we decided to take the ship! Currently it's called the Lonely Maiden III, which is a monumentally stupid name and needs to be changed immediately, but we haven't managed to agree on a good one yet.
 
While talking to Damiel, the night that Radiance told me about her sibling, I learned that apparently Bell hadn't given me all of the information - elves don't just initiate a courtship with a gift, the initiator keeps giving them! For over five years! That would have been embarrassing if I hadn't asked... he probably would have been wondering what the hell I was doing ignoring him, and I wouldn't have had any idea anything was off.
 
Five years.... that's a pretty long time, by mortal standards, but... I think he might just be worth waiting that long, even if that's short by his standards.
 
Honestly, I'm more worried about if I can think of enough good gifts for five years' worth.
 
Since all of our shopping and pirate-intimidating and brother-rescuing brought us no closer to finding Tazra, our next try is to seek out the Cult of Daimos and see if they know where she is. There are... quite a few things I want to ask them about, but I don't know if I have any secrets valuable enough to trade, let alone one to contribute for Tazra's location. I haven't discovered anything revolutionary or learned any forgotten knowledge, nor do I have any interesting personal secrets... the only thing I can think of is that I'm supposed to be seeking Sekhmet's aegis, since that quest is probably still secret... but I want to ask them where it is.