See this as a whole new opportunity for you, a new experience for your stomach is a thing to treasure.
- Kodo attempts to console Olympia after her transformation.
The party left behind
Wakefield in high spirits; told they would always be welcomed back by
Ardeth and their many allies and friends there. They met together in a former children's boarding house that had been repurposed into a makeshift tavern and came up with their next plan as they found they had many options to approach in their continued attempts to protect Alturis.
The group floated several ideas, including Mimsi's desire to find and kill
Archania Weave and the fact the party had promised
Temptation that they would head to
Blackstone to expose
Xan Prayerkeep once and for all. The main thing that
Persicorum realised they needed was more information on locations and advice on what to do and so they momentarily discussed tracking down
The Spectre as
Lyren Killian had employed them to do so long ago. Upon thinking about the Spectre the party concluded it would be challenging to find the mage due to their power and skill at remaining undetected for such long periods of time and so they decided to resolve their most achievable goal by taking their airship to
Oar's Rest and finally meeting with
Hayili Flickermask to pay her for her services and find out what she had discovered on her travels in the last 2 months.
The group made use of their flying carpet (towed by Baralas the owl) to make travel far simpler and they met no resistance on their trip from Wakefield to
Eastbourne, they spent the night with Fen training Thordak to learn the
shield spell and with Fen becoming continually more frustrated with his efforts to use magic without his
Grimoire of Envy, though he persevered, still inspired by
Ardeth and her belief that he did not need that book to be of worth to his friends.
The next day the party made their way to Eastbourne and found that there was a huge amount of gridlocked traffic going in and out of the city being checked by
The Crownsguard and
The Inquisitors in light of a recent assault against
The Hook'n'Knives research centre and the continuing investigation into the perpetrators of the assault. Seeing this search and the time it would take to enter the city, the party first attempted to get in touch with
Temptation to ask for assistance, to which Thordak received a curt response from Temptation that she was currently being placed under investigation in
King's Bay as it has been revealed that there is a spy amongst the Inquisitors.
With this in mind, the party decided to try hitching a lift from a boat to
Oar's Rest by waiting on the southern side of the city. Through a mixture of Thordak flying his carpet over to the boats exiting the city and the rest of the party completing an elaborate and strange calf themed strip tease, eventually this led to the party being welcomed upon a strange ship with music, drink and partying as the passengers were celebrating their friend on their upcoming marriage. During these three days, the party ingratiated themselves with the group and had a relaxed and enjoyable time travelling to Oar's Rest. During this time, the groom on the ship (a tiefling named Randel) found himself breaking down in front of the party; proposing to Olympia and Mimsi and begging the party to save him as he revealed his marriage is political and that he has not met the one who will be his wife... a character the party soon learned was
Asharra Zenkei, they gently rejected Randel's proposals and allowed him to walk away... with Olympia stealing his engagement ring as he walked away and gifting the ring to Mimsi.
Their trip over, the party disembarked the ship and went to say goodbye to the party group they were travelling with... but before that, Fen identified his three 'lucky' potions and found that one of the potions allowed an individual to grow a permanent set of goat horns, one allowed an individual to increase their armour class for a short time and the final potion allows an individual to change their race for up to six days.
Fen kept the armour potion but Thordak quickly claimed and drank the potion that gave him a pair of curling ram horns... permanently...
Meanwhile, in a moment of curiousity, Olympia took the potion of transformation and, as she took it, she felt something within her snap and a connection that she did not realise was there, was severed. The rest of the party watched as Olympia transformed and became a lithe, grey skinned Shadar-Kai before she promptly entered a panic as she felt the shock of mortality over her form, feeling hungry, tired, thirsty and nauseous all at once. Olympia then further spiralled into a panic as she realised that she had no memories of her family, the
Magus Centre Kings Bay and her home in
King's Bay. The party continually reassured her and soon left the ship behind and were reconnected with
Xander Bandobras who was continuing her work as a member of
The Crownsguard within Oar's Rest. She gleefully welcomed the party back to the town and revealed that they had both been looking forward to the group returning; the party also had to break the news to the Xander about what happened to Baralas since the party left.
Immediately after being welcomed, Kodo insisted that the party check out what had become of
The Broken Oar and found it had become an extended restaurant with fine meals and finer rooms, becoming a centrepoint for tourism in Oar's Rest. Upon the party entering they were warmly welcomed by Irena Hupperdook and enjoyed free meals and boarding throughout, especially after Irena revealed they had recently requisitioned a new chef from
The Maestro's named Gustar.
When the party had their meals, the quality was incredibly high, leading Fen to claim this new chef would be a rival for Kodo in the kitchen (a claim Kodo quickly dismissed). The party met this chef and found them to be amiable but eccentric, having a variety of nervous ticks and a strangely pleasant intensity to them along with a constant cigar they smoked. The party found them to be pleasant and, with introductions finished, they went to their rooms to complete a long rest in Oar's Rest for the first time in over a year.
As they slept, Olympia and Fen both had dreams, Olympia dreamt of a dank and dark room with a fuzzy and distorted view around her as an individual standing above her declared she was 'the best yet'.
Fen's dream was of a door in an endless silver expanse with a large door before him, one of the bolts on the door slowly slid open and a strange shape crept out as Fen felt himself spotlighted in darkness. The shape was built of incomprehensible sight and, as Fen felt it's powerful frame reach towards him, he was asked a single question 'Why does the Sun shun the dark?' as Fen took over Olympia's role as the avatar of
The Chaos.
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