Chapter 11, Session 5: Sisterhood

General Summary

You want to know why I am still adventuring? I honestly don't know...

• Olympia opens up about her current state as an adventurer.

As Gwendolin goes to pay to take part in the battle of the bands, Ez showers Olympia in compliments/positive affirmations via Enhance Ability - Olympia returns the compliments and Ez drunk-girl cries. Ol gets asked if she’s entering - solo or group - solo. She pays entry & goes to start warming up with other entrants. Ez grabs chairs on the front row for the party to cheer & support. Mimsi sits front and centre to stare Gwendolin down when she performs. Kodo manspreaded himself in the centre of the tavern and then goes to get drinks - ‘Iced Teas’ for him and Mimsi, and a double shot of vodka instead of water for Ez. As the party settled, Gwendolin, in her disguise, steps up and performs a song, stating it was dedicated to a moment of discovering something she thought was once lost.  Gwendolin's music was magically and Talented enhanced and it made a point of reaching inside the minds of the party to give them visions relating to an emotional/melancholic event of them finding something.
Ez vision: Standing on a desert plane completely endless/void-like. Miles of desert & bright blue skies with no clouds. Feel himself searching for something in the heat. He finds something in the sand and digs deep deep down and finds a boy. Race unsure. He clasps their cheeks as their skin is cracked and dehydrated, lips broken, and gasps out 3 final breaths before dying: Where were you? Tears start streaming down Ez’s face.

Kodo: Vision of the moment he was reunited with the Wanderer after going through the End door.

Mimsi: Hook and Knife  factory, watching a tortured Crystal Dragon fighting for its life in the centre, Fen eviscerating a tank with a fireball. Mimsi breaks the dragon free, kills an inquisitor, feral talented nearly kill Kodo, the dragon bays and pulls everyone close and calls them their associated name: Young. Mimsi feels an overwhelming sense of finding her family and, without wanting to, she feels tears roll from her eyes.
Everyone in the tavern is crying - Ez tries dispelling magic but nothing happens - strange. Olympia steps up to perform and fucking NAILS IT, ABSOLUTELY CRUSHES IT FUCK YEAH! She wins and receives a prize! A heavy chest of 125 gold and a gold cast flute. Olympia tries to moderate the alcohol consumption for Kodo and Ez. It does not work. Kodo starts coming up with fun cheese recipes - mozzarella sticks! Olympia tries to persuade the kitchen staff to let Kodo attempt to make it - success! Kodo goes in and takes over the cooking - the food tastes pretty fucking good even with Kodo very drunk.

We take our food out and spot Gwendolin looking for us. (Kodo calls the food Cheese Staff). We group hug Gwendolin as she says she’s happy to call us family now, before proceeding to drink *a lot* - Mimsi levels. As we start to relax, Ez offers to take the group to the tavern Veil Walkers - a place he visited ‘many many years ago’. As we walk Gwendolin goes up to Olympia to tell her she’s really talented. Adds when you play music you understand a person - you played something that was honest and earnest and I can trust someone like that. Olympia tries to brush off the compliments. Gwendolin states she has a complicated relationship with honesty and really wants to be with people like Olympia. Asks if Mimsi is like it - Olympia confirms absolutely. Gwendolin adds she usually tries her best to get rid of people before it hurts, so apologises if she hurt any of the party when we first met her - Olympia reassures her that isn’t the case and all is ok/understandable. Gwen pulls Olympia closer as she feels out Olympia’s face. She says ‘It’s so strange, I thought you were her’ ‘Thought I was who?’ ‘Someone important to me, I used to play with them.’ ‘Who was it, was it Poppy?’ ‘yes’ ‘That’s kinda my sister sort of, it’s weird’ ‘It’s weird, you feel just like her’ ‘Yeah well, she’s my sister, we’re gonna feel the same cause we’re not human’ Olympia demonstrates. ‘But you’re completely different. When she did anything it was lies and reaction and interaction because you’re kind and she wasn’t. When I found out what happened to her I didn’t even cry. We played together for a year and a half, we bedded together, we’d been together, and when I found out her fate the only thing I felt was that I wish she hadn’t brought me down with her. Gwendolin revealed Poppy had been found by The Inquisitors, was placed in the Spired Gaol (the prisons of King's Bay and killed a few days ago, found dead in her cell. She’s being kept in the Hall of Divines and Gwendolin claimed that someone 'destroyed' her. The Clerics are waiting for permission to cast Speak with Dead. This broke Olympia and led the party to promise that they would find and see the body the next day.

Olympia trails the group - Ez goes to hold her hand as Kodo puts his hand on her shoulder reassuringly & Mimsi stands with her to offer comfort. Eventually, we reach the Veil Walkers. Ez hesitates but reluctantly opens the door for the group to go in. Olympia turned Ez invisible to make him more comfortable - he freaks out. Esteem recognises his voice and looks up, demanding where he is and Olympia goes full protective mode. Esteem instantly changes tact and goes comfort mode as Ol states her sister’s dead. Esteem is unsure how to help so calls Meera who takes over drink orders. Esteem gets excited at hearing we’re an adventuring party (also adds she won’t stab Ez but is grumpy that he vanished for 25 years). Kodo lays the staff on the table & Esteem casts identify on it - she’s VERY impressed. Olympia starts pulling random items out of her bag.
Esteem asks if the party loves adventuring - Olympia stated she doesn’t anymore, but loves the people she adventures with. Kodo says he wouldn’t describe it as ‘love’ but can’t not do it. Olympia drops the invisibility and Esteem punches Ez in the face before focusing back on Olympia, who says she’s not sure why they’re still doing this anymore. Esteem offers advice: If you don’t see the value in adventuring, there will always be others who will step up to the plate. Olympia points out that if we don’t keep going, world-ending shit will happen, and she is really struggling with all the losses. Esteem reassures her that it will be worth it if she makes it to the end as during her adventuring she fell in love and got to marry the woman when they were done. Esteem then took some shots at Ez for not coming back for 25 years as it turned out Esteem and Meera were part of Ez's old adventuring party... ones who managed to survive and chose retirement. 
Meera and Esteem Trevalis both get drawn into the stories of the party (Ex: Proto/feywild) - very impressed by the connections with the old legendary heroes. Esteem asks what is the most interesting thing the party has seen or done. Kodo stated vampires in Fallrock. Gwendolin claimed her favourite adventure was meeting Xan Prayerkeep  and playing in Blackstone. Esteem immediately failed to hide her hatred for Xan and Olympia explained her situation with Poppy before asking if they knew about the Cave of Knowledge Esteem claimed it used to be known as The Cave of Longing until around a year and a half ago and she gave the party advice for getting to the cave through the The Elected Crown of Alturis. controlled Edmonton... Have a good cover or a good reputation as it is heavily fortified and defended. Meera and Esteem then reveal that they had actually been watching Persicorum and, like many adventurers, were huge fans.
Ez apologises and they still dig at him a bit. Persicorum realises they forgot about killing a Beholder. Mimsi discovers Fen and Ol are now dating and is upset she wasn’t told before now - Esteem is very impressed. Olympia gives them both friendship bracelets. As the others joke about nearly dying Ez asks for the strongest drink and Meera states ‘We missed you bud’ and hugs him. As Esteem and Meera finish hearing the drink of how Olympia and Mimsi almost died, they leave and Olympia goes into a pit of despair.
As the party wind down, Ez goes to speak in private to Esteem and Meera. Meera tells Ez off for dwelling in the past and on the negatives. He’s in a party now that’s equal to/more powerful than him. He gave them their happy ending and it was now his responsibility to give Persicorum one too - Meera also gave permission/ordered Ez to not come back until he’s saved the world and has a better story than the one he always tells. They part as friends and Persicorum retired for the night. 
The next day the party agree to go with Olympia to see her dead sister. Gwendolin asked Mimsi why she came to look for her - Mimsi told Gwendolin about The Talented and Bazzle Strum-Strum in Wakefield as well as their dragon mum - Gwendolin is taken in deeply by all of this and clearly had a desperation for family as she reacted dramatically and emotively whenever Mimsi mentions anything linked to the family. Gwen gives the impression of someone who spent so long being told she’s alone/being used by others, that she’s struggling to contain a desperate joy at learning she isn’t.

The party agreed to go to Wakefield within 24 hours and Gwen went to retrieve her things from King's Bay. Ez tells the party Esteem & Meera’s concerns about the party being targeted/bad things being too coincidentally timed and they kept that in mind before agreeing to go to Poppy, they also planned to take Temptation with them to Wakefield in order to check her dreams. As we enter the building, Ez asks Olympia if she wants to reincarnate Poppy - Olympia asks if she’d even want to come back and Ez doesn’t lie but adds that even if Poppy wasn’t a good person, she could have a chance of being better if she got to know Olympia - Ez and the party got better for knowing her. He also adds that it’s ultimately the soul’s decision, so why not offer the choice? Olympia agreed and we go to the body (guarded by 4 Crownsguard). Poppy looks identical to Ol at first sight but there are clear differences between the two of them based on their experiences and lives. 
The guards told the party what they know - Poppy was once a famous Silver Pipes  in the city but was arrested over a year ago for hosting a masked ball at her home and was found to be an aist mage. Was generally a good prisoner, lived in finer quarters, and entertained other prisoners. A few days ago guards came in the morning and during the changeover, the guards found her dead.

Ez asks if we have permission to cast Reincarnation/asks for any legal hoops we need to go through instead of waiting for clerics etc - with a good persuasion, they agree to turn their backs on it after checking it’s definitely Reincarnation and not Revivify. We proceed to check the body before any spells.

Olympia learned from her investigation: A powerful mage was behind the attack. Poppy had a hand in ruining Gwen’s life (but Gwen was an unreliable narrator), but improved guard/prisoner lives. Notices the burns aren’t ordinary fire - Poppy did something to anger something from another plane, as covered in abyssal flame similar to the abyssal flame Fen used when empowered by the Reaper hound.

Mimsi learns: does she have any defensive wounds? She has markings across her forearms - only one marking though rather than lots.

Ez learns: Is there something obscured by the burn marks? Hiding on the body is a strange symbol - like a set of glyphs. Ez recognises the glyphs to be from a type of magic recognised from the time in Fallrock- school of magic Planar feasting  (invented by the scribe of the Dread King) - the ability is for one person to draw a portal on something/a surface/a person and rip the energy out of them. Ez then explained to the party this could be linked to a cult-like group known as Brothers of the Crown who were hunted nearly to extinction by Drahz Grymhook.

Ol leads the Reincarnation, casting the spell and trying to persuade her to come back. Ez channels healing magic while encouraging Poppy to come back to meet her sister. Mimsi uses her nat 20 portent to intimidate Poppy to come back. We are successful, and she turned into a goblin in the reincarnation in a twist of fated irony! As she wakes up, she screams a single word before falling back unconscious from exhaustion: Magnolia.

Ez offers to scry on Magnolia - Olympia says yes but in the future after the party are back together. Ez also feels an overwhelming sense of frustration - not from him. He reaches out and touches the Feast symbol glyph to try and get a glimpse of who this person is. A majority of them are in Blackstone, and a piece of them is in Squall's End. Ez encourages the others to try - Kodo gets nothing but Mimsi and Olympia do! We learn his race is Changeling (used to be but is different now, still mostly changeling). His primary class is not Wizard, but Mastermind Rogue (don’t know if he’s a multiclass).

At this point we notice we all have an imprint of the symbol on our fingers - Ez tries to cut it off - it’s imprinted through to the soul. We decide ‘This is fine’ and grab Poppy, find Temptation, and meet up with Gwen. There is a relief in Gwen when she finds out Poppy is alive, but is also taking wicked pleasure in Poppy now being a goblin. We teleport to Wakefield (a day early).

Meanwhile, Thordak is trying to persuade Ardeth to take a break. After a week of this, she agrees to take a single day. Just as she agrees to this, Persicorum appears and ruins it. We follow to get a drink with her. Ez is very starstruck, but the rest of the party see an exhaustion in Ardeth. She asks for a day’s break before dealing with our bullshit and we agree. Gwen reads the room and heads off to go find Bazzle, and the party started filling Thordak in on everything. We agree to do Temptation’s dream/Aria/Kodo’s restaurant before leaving for the Knowing.

Kodo asks the Wanderer if he’s cool with answering some questions from Ez about the End. He is. As Ez asks about the End, the Wanderer shrinks back - clearly afraid, but Kodo offers support and reassurance, holding its hand.
The Wanderer's testimony on the End: “I haven’t interacted with the End in many millennia, I was locked away since then, he was not, I’ve been hiding and wandering. The end is the single worst thing in the world because it could spell the end of me. The end represents the end. It doesn’t mean death, decay, ruin, or destruction. It means the end, full stop. It is subsequently the least and most human, so chose a humanoid body - an undying one. It makes connections, lives a normal life, it makes friends, it goes mad, it vanishes, it comes back again.” 
Kodo & Ez ask if the End knows it’s the End when it wanders - it learns it’s the End and goes out of its way to forget. Kodo asks if this manifests in dreams - the Wanderer doesn’t know and goes out of its way to avoid the End. The end is family and wouldn’t wish any ill, but when it’s near, they are at risk. They take steps to disappear. The tethered entities are at risk and afraid. The wanderer leaves, done with the conversation.

Kodo checks on Ez, explaining the Wanderer doesn’t hate his sibling, is just afraid. Ez asks Kodo to thank the Wanderer for being willing to speak about it and then states he’s going to go sit with things for a bit before the Dream spell later on. The party ask if he’s ok and Ez says yes. Ko asks if he knows that even if this does turn out to be the case, he’s still family right? Ez pauses, says ‘sure’, and then wanders off.


Tasks: Swim with Ardeth Scry on Magnolia Dream with Temptation Day trip to Aria (Kodo restaurant, Alistair date, Mimsi sibling) Cave of Knowing quest (or detour via Magnolia if needed) Research Planar Feasting

Report Date

10 Aug 2024