Session 6: Sightseeing Report

General Summary

We return to the Chromista level of the Uncanny Valley in the weak light of dawn.

Tendrils of light crawl up from the horizon and struggle to find purchase, in search of hand and footholds as they snake higher and higher into the sky. At the edge of the unusual forest of Talmhan Stand a strange party slumbers in a circle around a nexus of dying embers: creatures of myth and beasts of legend doze side by side in twos and threes, fitful even in repose. In the interest of good fortune and their continued survival Healer Vermilia and Gahariet of Flesh and Claw accompany the ragtag band of explorers - there is a glint of violet as the young therianthrope opens a single, lazy eye at the sensation of being watched, shortly followed by the other as his keen senses direct him unerringly to the ghostly figures hidden well out of sight in the canopies of the trees, eyes pupilless and glowing like a sea of stars overhead. Will he raise the alarm? Will it end in bloodshed as so much in the Valley often does? The forest holds its breath. The things hidden in the forest hold their breath. Flesh and Claw smiles and the glint of violet disappears as he rolls over onto his side and returns to his slumber.

Free to observe unobserved, we return to our contemplation.

Though their journey has only just begun and some of them are so young, they are the first in more than a decade to successfully cross the Field of Shattered Shields and that is no small thing. They seemed to know the place, though the name they called it was different and sat oddly on the tongue, and perhaps that is why they have not wandered into the mists never to re-emerge like the fools that preceded them. One carries a book of impossible familiarity while two, twins, look a great deal like the Once and Future King. These children cannot be those warned of by the Forgotten Son as enemies of the Uncanny - they carry no heavy armaments, they do not crush the underbrush beneath their feet in an endless march of conquest. They look frightened. They look unscarred. They look beautiful.

And at last, a reason to distrust the lot.

The first of the lot do not begin to stir for several hours, lulled into peaceful sleep by the comfort of well prepared waybread - the sun has firmly taken hold overhead by the time they are all awake. Long before that, though, one of them - twin, clearly royalty of some kind based on her carriage, quietly nods to Gahariet and Bathsheba before slipping a light pack onto her back and climbing astride Concerned with the business of the hour and the long trek ahead of them, not one of them ever looks up.

When the eyes of our travelers open, each steps from a blissful dream they cannot remember into the waking world of Albion. At first, the slow, sleepy climb to consciousness convinces them that they are at home in their own beds, the familiar sounds of Camelot wafting in through an open window into an airy room — but the birdsong eventually registers as wrong for this time of year in Camelot, then they note the absence of the ever-present smell of roses, instead switched to forest loam and something slightly acidic they can’t place that burns their nostrils just slightly.

The whole of the previous day surfaces for each of them and as reality settles firmly into place, they realize that Godiva and Silvesse are gone.

They hear a deep, rumbling voice coming from somewhere nearby:

“The young lady left shortly after sunrise - I met her on my morning walk through the mucosal fields - Rainbow Pretty Bugg and I like to take a daily constitutional to keep ourselves fit, you see - and upon reencountering Queen Bugg, she asked if we might pass along a message.”
A troubled Absabeth, clearly distressed at her sister's disappearance sans note, reaches the end of her patience and demands to know to whom the disembodied voice belongs and why it is plaguing their party. After a seemingly affronted pause, the underbrush parts to reveal a miniature lion white of fur, mane, and tail, glowing blue eyes focused on the Princess. His mane is tufted, less dense than the rest of his hair, wisps of white shedding off him as he walks only to be swept away by his tail. "I'm Dandy Lion," he says. "I'm a dandelion."

It takes Absabeth and the party a moment to process this information and in the silence, Dandy goes on to explain further: “A…Barden of Burgess, it seems, is in need of some aid - something about trying to enter a city in amber, I’m not entirely sure what she meant by that bit but she did ask me to tell a Princess Absabeth that she’s riding out to meet him and muster the free people of Burgess? She seemed quite confident in her abilities.” Even Absabeth cannot deny her sister's social prowess and she accepts that her sister will catch up after seeing to Camelot's nearest allies, prompting the group that remains to pack up their campsite and begin the 30-league trek to the outer city of Applescab.

First, they walk through the forest neighborhood of Talmhan Stand (Common trans. "Tongue Forest") where the wet, blackened trees still present produce black to brown, club-shaped fruiting structures on soil or on decaying wood. As they walk through the dead underbrush, escorted by none other than Dandy Lion himself, they follow the diminutive swath he makes, the path crisscrossed at random intervals by other small, strange folk that make their home in the tiny houses that seem to grow from the trees now far underfoot. Adaleis forgets to keep on eye on her feet and instead places both on a still processing Absabeth just before stepping onto ground that looks stable but immediately crumbles beneath her feet to reveal a small pit filled with a smoking liquid that burns her flesh. The nearby Lady drags her sister free of the so-called “mucosal pit” and heals her damaged limb with the same water she used to heal her own (unfortunate) stab wound the previous day.

As Dandy leads them on through the woods, the party crosses a small clearing and suddenly finds them in a section of the forest drenched in twilight: The Druxy Forest, its trees black and petrified and stretching to create a canopy that blocks out most of the light. There is enough light, however, for our party to notice that their shadows seem to be delayed, as though they are trying to see what their target will do next - at least, for a little while. As the party walks through the dim wood, their shadows catch up and then exceed their speed - they now step before our party members can step as if a detailed prediction of the future. Before much alarm can be drummed up, however, Lady managed to surmise (with Dandy’s input) that it is not a malicious or threatening presence but a potent wellspring of ambient magic in which they stand: they have woken the wood, and it is simply responding to their presence. Our heroes befriend their shadows, happy to box them and each other until they at last exit Druxy, finding themselves in a clearing filled with faint song.

The Lonely Grove is awash with a wordless, plaintive song. Lady Lake draws her violin and begins to play in harmony as she walks, accompanying the forest as it accompanied them - Absabeth recognizes them as wailing widows from her longtime correspondence with her aunt, Morgana Le Fay, and is in the process of explaining them when Grifflynn is suddenly and unceremoniously hit in the face with a burst of powder from a creature that slowly reveals itself, hovering in the air before her. The Itsmy Moth is well known to the Animist members of our party, who join Adaleis in explaining their most popular traits: they’re incredibly useful in terms of magical components due to their food source: ambient truth. As each of our heroes looks closely at its iridescent wing panels, they are shown a flash of their own uncomfortable truths. Adaleis goes on to explain that they display a startle response when confronted with a soul being untruthful or working to obscure truth, and that Grifflynn may be in for a rough patch.

It doesn’t take long. When asked if she is, in fact, okay, Grifflynn is compelled to tell the truth about her Feelings: her confusion over the sudden reappearance of her mother, the magnitude of the mission on which they’re currently embarking, the abrupt supplanting of Eleanor’s personality wither Mathilde’s, and the strangeness of the wood. Finally relieved of her burdens, Grifflynn’s Feelings tracker reverts to zero as she asks the others how they’re managing to keep it together. Each attempts, in their own way, to offer comfort — +1 String to the entirety of the party for reaching out to Grifflynn in her time of need.

Exhausted both emotionally and physically, the party finally exits the clearing and looks upon the Valley’s outer city of Applescab for the first time. On thé far side of it, still a dot in the distance, Sourstrath and the mysterious Molthoe Malenfant await their arrival.

Rewards Granted

LORE KEEPER AWARDED:
Real World Experience
+2 XP to party for expanding their horizons and learning more about the realm of Anima.

LEVEL UP! Players gain one advancement and are one advancement shy of a new playbook.

PLAYER AWARDED:
Homies Help Homies
Grifflynn - +1 String to Malcolm, Mathilde, Absabeth, Adaleis, and Lady for the Power of Friendship

Character(s) interacted with

Notes

CONDITIONS ACQUIRED

Absabeth (x):
Cleared by striking a deal with Dandy Lion
Adaleis (x)
Godiva (1):
Bewitched, -2 forward
Grifflynn (1):
Bewitched, -1 forward
Lady (1):
Guilty, -2 to Emotional Support
Malcolm (1):
Bewitched, -1 forward

PERSONAL TRACKERS
Grifflynn (The Trickster, Feelings Tracker): 0
Malcolm (The Beast, Feral Tracker): 1

Campaign

La Naissance D’Une Reine

Protagonists