"I am just trying to say... I'm here for you all... you're my family and my pack"
- Thordak makes his pact with Persicorum ... with the exception of Kodo because friendship is magic unless you're a firbolg key of The Wanderer.
The party woke the next morning and had their start to the day immediately put on edge as they saw a cavalry line of wagons led by black horses approach the party... an orchestra climbed out of the wagons and began to play before
Lord Alastair emerged and walked to the front door of
Peaches Pitts and, with a platter of coffees for the party, announced he was here to take Ez on a date and bundled the beleaguered druid into the line of wagons and left the party behind... taking Ez away from them for the day.
From that initial shock, the party started their mornings with Fen training outside and
Asharra Zenkei availing herself of the party's
King's Bay style bathhouse and having breakfast before giving an incredibly awkward and passive aggressive thanks to the party for inviting her to spend the night with them which soon turned violent when the party teased her and ended in Asharra angrily calling Fen 'hot' and storming out of the Peaches Pitts.
On her way out, Asharra went straight past Thordak who managed to return to the home of the party and he had ALOT to tell them about after he had a dream with Pelor and
The Hunt.
- Thordak learned that the entities had a symbiotic relationship with the world, they fed from the material plane and in return they influenced it with their emotions and magic.
- He also learned that The True Victory did not stop the first or second coming of The Dread King but instead that was his TENTH appearance in the world as he is fated to return and cause a calamity again and again, ensuring a cycle of destruction for Alturis.
- Pelor explained that the groups who felled the Dread King every time have been etched into legend and often ascended to godhood, leading to the party's growing concern that Proto was so powerful because he had ascended to divinity.
- Thordak also learned that the Dread King's crown was the reason for their constant return as the crown corrupted whoever possessed it and turned them into the next incarnation of the Dread King.
Upon Thordak revealing this information the party were warned of a disturbance at the gates of the Peaches Pitts and they looked outside to see
Temptation at the gates as she seemed to have been escorted by two
Gearkeeper city guards and, on joining the party, revealed that they had apprehended her for wandering unattended through the city of
Blackstone after she was refused access to Xan Prayerkeep.
She joined the party for their group meeting and they watched as Thordak shared the next part of his meeting with the Hunt and Pelor; they told him that in order to protect his allies from his lycan outbursts he needed to remind them of what they meant to him and, so, Thordak made a 'pack pact' with each party member: Telling Olympia how he would forever value her friendship and see her as a sister to him before she promised the same to him, Thordak then hyped up Fen for being the most amazing mage and warrior he'd ever met and they promised to stay at eachothers side, Thordak explained his competitive relationship with Mimsi and expressed that she drove him to be better and he then promised Anastasia that, even though she lost her family in
The Feywild he and Persicorum would also be her family if she wanted them.
In general it was a deeply successful pact for Thordak, with only Kodo refusing to take part despite his acknowledgement of the practicality of it: highlighting the contentious relationship between The Hunt and The Wanderer and the fact that tying himself down to a person or group would be counter to Kodo's nature.
The party then decided to discuss their next moves and agreed they had to gather and collect the various keys of the entities before others could who would seek to misuse them.
Upon making this agreement, the party asked to speak to
Xan Prayerkeep and found that he had blocked their messages to him and so they messaged
Lyren Killian who, using a
teleport scroll, tried to reach the party but needed to be picked up by Fen after appearing 12 miles away from the destination.
Upon going to pick him up, Fen flew on his owl over the city of Blackstone and saw it was devastatingly empty and abandoned with citizens dashing from street to street when the Gearkeepers and guards weren't looking and even watched as a group of civilians were stopped and forced to drop to the ground by a guard squad. Fen eventually saw Lyren and retrieved him, using Lyren's proof of
Masked Brigade status to navigate the city and get back to their estate.
When returned, Lyren explained to the group that Xan was convincing the government of Blackstone to go to war with the
Utrunks horde in order to expunge them as a threat and that he had asked that the party stay in their homes due to their rabble rousing and Thordak's links to the Utrunks clan.
At first, the party were happy to let Xan Prayerkeep do this, seeing this as him 'digging his own grave' and putting himself at risk. However, Lyren made two arguments to the party: First, he warned them that Xan Prayerkeep would kill every last member of the Utrunks clan innocent or otherwise and that, secondly, Xan knew the Stringed was with the Utrunks horde and intended on taking this entity for himself rather than risk Persicorum taking it.
This convinced Persicorum to act on this information and so, knowing they had 5 days before Xan Prayerkeep would attack the Utrunks clan, with that the rest of the party trained in the estate whilst Olympia and Mimsi snuck away and decided that they would spy on the Estate of Xan Prayerkeep while the rest of the party trained and Ez soon returned from a private date (I will not mention it here due to some private character interaction and roleplay points that took place here). Though he was decidedly red-faced and bashful when the party tried to speak with him.
Meanwhile, Kodo, Fen and Thordak trained together before they were approached by the head housekeeper of the Peaches Pitts who overheard the party talking about Ez's date and expressed that they felt that Fen was a good match for Asharra before reflecting on their own courtship with their deceased wife who was a necromancer that created a skeleton group of butlers to serve them a picnic for their first date.
The party then asked her for relationship advice especially for Fen and his desire for Olympia and she advised him to give her a gesture that could leave no doubt that Fen wanted them to date and so the group agreed that Fen would ask Olympia out to dinner by sitting together and making a romantic friendship bracelet for Olympia and that he would ask her to dinner and Kodo could cook it for them.
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