Chapter 6, Session 1: Navigating the Monastery

General Summary

'You sewed a rather dark seed here Rook, you left and the Long-Stride was gone and many of us have been restless ever since.'

• Delthea discusses her feelings about the last 15 years since she saw Kodo.

The party entered the Monastery of Flowers with a mixture of excitement and trepidation with Kodo explaining that there were a variety of people he wanted to check in with as it has been a while since he'd visited, meanwhile Mimsi admitted to feeling exceptionally nervous and so she wished to stay with the party where possible out of fear of becoming the quiet outcast once more.  Thordak and Fen however, started exploring and moved towards the training fields where they observed a variety of different monk classes taking place but Thordak was drawn to the Sun Soul training being led by a young and attractive tiefling monk who answered the pairs questions and offered Thordak the chance to complete a few starting manoeuvres in the Monastery before explaining her name was Master Asharra Zenkei and she ran the sun soul school. With their questions answered, Fen and Thordak made their way to the Monastery Scriptorium before being stopped at the door, told they needed to be supervised by a monk of the Monastery to be allowed inside. Mimsi, Anastasia and Kodo where about to begin making their seperate ways before Kodo was stopped by a strange, rather short monk with a pair of blades at their side, the monk called Kodo their 'greatest rival' and claimed they had been in a spirited competition when they were younger, though Kodo admitted he had no idea who this person was before he was reminded their name was Asterion The Undefeated and they sought a rematch, which Kodo quickly refused. Mimsi took some time to be amused by Kodo ever having a rival before they split up, with Mimsi staying with Anastasia to visit the Scriptorium. On her way to the Scriptorium, Mimsi was visited by Daedric Marx, the leader of the Petals, who offered his deep apologies as he was not aware Mimsi was a monk and gave her an amulet that protected her against being scryed on. He explained that he knew about the 'great work' Persicorum had done in Alturis and that he deeply respected the group who had allies with the Petals. Anastasia noted with satisfaction that the Petals were the only group that looked at Mimsi with anything akin to respect. With the party split, the largest number of them entered the Scriptorium (despite the grumblings that Mimsi did not qualify as a 'real' monk of the Monastery) the party visited the head librarian Elder Aspirant Gruggz, an Orc monk who gave Thordak some advice on books and tomes he could look at. With Thordak gone, the monk then explained to the rest of the party that the Scriptorium housed tomes for monks to use mainly for theory on Ki and martial arts. He laughed off Fen's request for information on Dashilla the Dark Queen and claimed he could search in the childs fiction areas, though he did admit the Monastery housed tomes on The Unwaking as they are seen as enemies of the monastery. Gruggz then explained that most information on the shelves is for public use but there is a section of the scriptorium that is restricted and was only allowed to be entered if the party had a reputable monk to give them access. The party asked if Mimsi qualified and Gruggz responded that she was certainly not respected, this prompted an angry response from Fen who ranted that Gruggz didn't come close to the monk Mimsi was due to his cowardice and unwillingness to travel, Fen's anger led to Gruggz summoning two more monks to escort the party (with the exception of Thordak) out of the Scriptorium... this nearly escalated after Anastasia threatened them if they touched her but the party agreed to leave whilst Thordak was still inside, with Fen expressing his distaste with the Monastery and agreeing they would wait and watch the training monks until the rest of the party reached them. Though Mimsi noticed the teacher of the Open Palm school were not teaching a good lesson at all and she took joy in commenting on this. Meanwhile, Kodo travelled first to the kitchens of the Monastery, there he found a familiar sight of aspirants preparing meals, new passions for food being kindled... and the usual frustration for those that had no patience or talent for the culinary arts. Kodo took a moment to assist a young goliath boy who was struggling to peel potatoes by showing him a method of peeling for larger handed individuals before he moved through the kitchens and found the individual he was looking for, Delthea. They had a cheerful reunion before Kodo told her of his adventures across Alturis and Delthea passionately noted down any of his eating place recommendations, she then explained that she had been planning to adventure across all the different lands in Alturis and sample all the different meals there... she had been planning this trip for the last 15 years since Kodo left and Long-Stride died. Delthea then described Kodo as a 'troublemaker and anarchist' who 'sewed a seed of restlessness in the Monastery' she claimed she had been itching to adventure ever since but could not find the courage to do so... with Kodo's news on the outside she decided she would leave it a little longer. With that, Kodo then warned Delthea about press ganging Crownsguard on the outside of the Monastery, to which Delthea told Kodo that Elder Caste must be notified immediately before asking that he visit Delthea again to exchange recipes with her.  With his first task done, Kodo took on the hard task of visiting Long-stride's grave, a fine looking tomb set beneath a cherry tree, Kodo took the time to light some incense and paid his respects, wishing his old master was here to give him advice and meet his friends;, he thought Long-Stride would like them after all. With his respects paid, Kodo took in the scene and the semi-privacy he enjoyed before finding the rest of his friends. All gathered, the group told Kodo what happened at the Scriptorium and discussed what they wanted to do with Kodo offering to show them the inner sanctum before Mimsi showed him the poor lessons Master Onnithrael Clack was delivering on the Open Palm, though Kodo kept his confusion to himself. With that, lessons came to an end and the group were approached by Asharra Zenkei who came under the pretense of seeing her 'fellow monks' but the atmosphere very quickly turned hostile as Mimsi had no time for Asharra's feigned interest and couldn't understand how she reached the rank of master so quickly. Amid this atmosphere, Asharra responded that she felt the difference between her and Mimsi was simple... Asharra belonged and Mimsi did not. She then heard several insults before leaving for the inner sanctum. Upon her leaving, a bystander told the group they were brave to insult Asharra, she was prestigious in the Monastery and was now allegedly dating Daedric Marx the leader of the petals with many believing she will convicne Marx to give up his 'dark' ways. The party decided that they would visit the inner sanctum tomorrow as Kodo wanted them to meet his friend Temperance upon hearing Thordak's desire to become a monk. The party found the sushi making tiefling and enjoyed a relaxing evening with him where he expressed his own growing interest in travelling despite his age, explained Kodo's 'rivalry' with Asterion, extended an offer of training to Thordak in return for being able to enjoy the Orcs weapon collection and he also elaborated on the fact he knew soething was wrong with Elder Tai Shan the night before he died as well as his suspicions about Daedric Marx and the monk's ambition to become an elder and thus force the Monastery to pay attention to his political inclinations. Kodo promised to visit again and Temperane offered to get the party reinstated to the Scriptorium in the future. With that, the rest of the party stayed together in Pilgrim's Rest where they took a long rest; Thordak completed some training with Asharra who expressed her displeasure with how the rest of the party responded to her and explained to Thordak that Elder Caste wished to discuss things with the party in private... she then gave Thordak a rose-shaped ring tjhat she claimed she gave to all of her apprentices and allies. With that, the party took a long rest and session came to an end.

Report Date

05 Mar 2022

Primary Location

Easthaven