The party woke the next morning and found themselves... finally... with some downtime in
Oar's Rest.
With this in mind,
Persicorum had time to themselves and made the most of it in their own ways... generally by training consistently every day whilst they waited for
Lyren Killian to arrive.
- Olympia purchased a magical parasol from Xander Bandobras the day after her wedding to Ivanka ... Though Xander increased the price due to the short time she was given to make the item and the fact she had to cancel her honeymoon trip to get the item done. After this, Olympia spent her time training in magic, testing to see if she can improve her magical capabilities further through more practise... notably using Gwydion and Mimsi as test dummies.
- Kodo worked on redesigning The Broken Oar menu to help them become a respectable seafood eatery and not just a pub food drinking hole while also training, albeit with less intensity than the likes of Gwydion and Olympia. He also chose to meditate during the break and found himself still able to peacefully relax despite the strangeness of the past few days and despite his time since he'd had any formal training.
- Gwydion devoted the entirety of his week to training. The threat of Archania Weave seems to have motivated him to begin pushing himself harder as he uses Baralas and Olympia's magic to train himself to be more dextrous and reactive in combat.
- Mimsi started her daily routine in the early mornings with parkour practice before Olympia would take her away for spell dodging and general dangers in the afternoons... during one of these parkour sessions, Mimsi ran into Steppen who explained that he was yet to receive proof the party had dealt with Steep Digger and that their reward was ready when they brought him proof. Seeing Mimsi hesitate, Steppen remarked that she should return with 'one of the bright ones' which led her to trip him up and eventually find Olympia and Gwydion who accepted Steppen's reward... when he asked them if the party had a name they hesitated... Steppen knows that The Artificer's Soul occasionally employs outsiders and 3rd parties to get jobs done and he is more than happy to give the faction the party's name in case they want work whilst in Blackstone specifically.
Away from this, the party spent their time relaxing and waiting for Lyren Killian. After 5 days, his ship arrived. A varnished, expensive and brand new looking ship called
The Mistwalker that notably had a black exterior but it's flag was entirely black with red horizontal lines running across it.
Lyren found the party and apologised profusely for making them wait. Simply explaining that things happened that he didn't account for and that it had been a stressful experience getting the Mistwalker. Though he did express how uncomfortable he found small villages and the group left quickly... with Lyren introducing the party to the rest of the crew and mercenaries on board the Mistwalker. During the introductions, Olympia told
Lyren that she thought there was something unapproachable about him that was most likely his face before leaving the tour early... prompting Lyren to go down to the captain's quarters and avoid the party and crew.
Baralas and Thordak, within 5 minutes of being out at sea, became extremely seasick and struggled to leave their bunk beds without suffering poison and nausea and so were bed bound for the first day.
Gwydion took a liking towards
Frederick Cornwallis quickly, a blind mirrored assassin and thief with 'singing' blades. He also made a point of using his chat with Frederick as an excuse to watch Archania from a distance.
Mimsi was unsure of things and immediately set about training and doing various parkour tricks across the ship.
Kodo inspected the ship's kitchen and supplies to gauge what he can and cannot cook for the crew and ensuring he had enough rations to last the entire journey to the mammoth peaks.
Olympia, found herself arguing with
Panic and
Archania intensely. Archania was trying to warn Panic that someone on the ship was a
The Weaving Providence assassin and, when Olympia assured them that it wasn't Mimsi. Panic explained she thought Mimsi lacked the focus and killer instinct of a Providence Assassin... at that, Olympia warned the two women to not talk badly of her friends... a deep threat that Panic seemed to take seriously.
At this time, Archania made the rounds on the party; she approached Kodo as he was cooking and tried to get to know him, she explained that she knew nothing about cooking but seemed to have a good palette, notably Kodo wasn't interested in conversing with her beyond pleasantries until she mentioned the settlement known as
Fallrock and he brusquely rebuked her. After that point, she paid a visit to Mimsi and asked to train with her before Mimsi revealed that she wasn't training but, rather, was simply playing and having fun... at which point Archania challenged her to a race, offering Mimsi a large bottle of expensive rum if the goblin won, BUT, if Mimsi lost, she would owe Archania a favour. The two raced and both employed underhand tactics to beat one another before Mimsi emerged as the victor of the race. Archania handed her the bottle of rum and insisted they would have a rematch some other time.
Olympia eventually moved down to Lyren Killian's captains quarters in an attempt to reconcile with him, eventually convincing Lyren to let her into his captains quarters to speak. While down there she noticed the Half Elf
Olond seemingly passed out asleep on the bed and still in full armour as well as noticing Lyren had a series of books on a nearby bookcase with what looked like several masks hiding behind them as though quickly thrown there. Olympia attempted to apologise to Lyren who only half accepted her apology and explained that he just wanted everyone to get along on this job, at this Olympia began to dramatically cry which forced Lyren to leave the captain's quarters in a panic to find Gwydion.
While Lyren was gone, Olympia stopped acting and moved towards the book shelf and, searching deftly, she found
Four Masks of different colours that look like they were made to cover the face entirely and were designed with a streaked, tribal vein design running across them and they each felt distinctly magical. Gwydion didn't notice the masks but, in later interactions, agreed that the party should consider looking in the rooms if they get a chance.
Moments later,
Olond came onto top deck and grumpily addressed the pair, explaining that they ruined his sleep by making Lyren cry. He then explained to Olympia that he finds bards and performers far too dramatic and didn't seem to get along with some of the crew for this reason.
After this, Kodo brought dinner out to the crew that everyone found delicious. During that time, Gwydion sat next to Archania and they spoke plainly to one another, Archania hates losing to those she doesn't believe deserve the victory and so views Mimsi with distaste. They spoke 'assassin to assassin' and Gwydion explained his disadvantage in this fight between them as he didn't like to get to know the people he was going to kill... he found it easier to see it as an accident, in contrast, Archania goes through painstaking steps to get to know her targets, she wants to understand them and warm to them before ultimately mourning them, she believes it is the key difference between the weaving providence and
The Mirrored... the main reason that the providence are so aggressive towards the mirrored.
At this point, Archania reveals that she is deeply frustrated with her abilities as a providence member as she is able to constantly watch Gwydion but she is not capable of truly seeing him. Explaining that she doesn't really know Gwydion and simply desires to know him more before their time runs out. Towards the end of their conversation Gwydion expresses that perhaps in another life he could have been a part of the providence as opposed to being trained by the mirrored... Archania laughed at that and expressed that he didn't understand quite how true that statement was.
Gwydion moved back to the party at this point where he revealed the situation with Archania and asked the party to not involve themselves when she decides to strike as he did not want to risk putting their lives before his own... the party mostly didn't understand Gwydion's view here and, though Kodo expressed that he will be respectful of Gwydion's wishes if he fights Archania on equal footing, the party also explained that if Archania attacks Gwydion then they will all move to protect him. Gwydion was infuriated by this before coming to terms with the friends he has chosen.
During the night, the party decided to push together a group of bunks on the ship in order to accommodate Kodo and slept together in one bed together whilst Gwydion rested on the upper bunk.
During the night, Mimsi realised she had run out of alcohol and raided the kitchens to find 4 bottles of cooking wine that she knew could get her through a day... possibly 2 if she was smart.
The next morning, Olympia attempted to brew wine for Mimsi while Mimsi began to brew her own sugar based prison-wine.
For the most part, the party relaxed throughout the morning before sighting another ship in the distance that was called 'The Howling Princess'. A Goliath captain stood on the prowl of the ship and announced to the Mistwalker 'I'm giving you all one opportunity to hand over the ship and the one who commands it... The Spectre's child will not make it to the mammoth peaks!'
He gave them three minutes to hand over the ship. The party prepared for battle at that moment and Archania decided to cast Haste on Mimsi... Gwydion then advised Lyren to go below decks where he will be safe while they deal with the pirates.
The pirates arrived. Summoning themselves onto the ship in a small column of dust and sand. As the pirates teleported in and engaged the party they didn't prove to be too heavy a threat and were dispatched fairly quickly. As they fell to their deaths the pirates crumbled to ash that was scattered in the sea wind... as the party wiped out the last pirate, the Goliath captain bellowed with laughter and announced that the real attack was now to begin as more pirates were summoned to take the Mistwalker.
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