Vorach "Constantine" Briar

Vorach was once just a normal half-orc boy, quickly gaining muscle and adventurously joining his mother Garna on expeditions through the woods, attempting to learn to become strong like her, rather than soft as his merchant father, Sebastian, who ran the town's general store and had amassed a small amount of wealth. A debt unpaid during Sebastian's youth would draw the ire of a powerful creature of shadow who had blessed him with fortune in his youth. When Vorach turned 16, a cloaked creature with skin like dripping ink and glowing eyes beneath his cowl manifested within his house, appearing only long enough to utter a damning curse: "Sebastian Briar, you have taken of me my power and grown rich in gems, gold, and land. Yet in your prosperity you have forgotten that which granted you this boon, and now a price must be paid." No matter how Sebastian protested or Garna threatened, the figure was nonplussed and continued to speak, "For this crime, you shall lose your most valuable treasure. See it falter and fail before your eyes, and know that it is only your own negligence which is to blame." A great-axe passed through the robe but a moment later, but the figure was little more than liquid ink, dropping to splatter against the floor in a despondent signature to an otherwise lovely birthday meal. For two years, the family stood on edge, wondering when their lives would be uprooted. Yet apart from two particularly cold years, there was naught different to be seen. Then, one day, Varoch stepped downstairs only to be slammed against the wall by his mother, who was demanding to know his identity. He looked into his mother's eyes with fear and recognition sparked within, the terrifying transition more cutting than the knife which had been held at his throat but a moment before. Gone was his deep, forest green skin - his body instead paled to little more than a pastel green-grey, a paleness so sickly as to be almost unrecognisable to even the woman who had birthed him. As Vorach became steadily more and more ill, his mother departed into the world with a satchel at her side, swearing to find the being which her husband had made the deal with to return the item he had been given and save her son. She kissed Vorach gently on the forehead even as he begged her not to go, but the sickness overtook him and a violent 20 minute retching period saw her vanish before he could wave her off. Now, five years later, Vorach has found his health steadily worsening to his father's shame and chagrin, a rift between the two formed as the young half-orc blames his father for the loss of his mother. To make matters worse, he began to develop strange magical abilities; shadow responding to his call and emotions at terrifying extremes. Filled with too many conflicting emotions to bear, Vorach abandoned his home in the dead of night. Hoping to find his mother before he can die waiting for her, he now searches the world for any chance encounter with the entity which has cursed his family or the mother who left to save him. While it remains obvious that this young man is cursed as he travels the world, his endearing smile and heart-warming attempt to bring light to his surroundings despite his situation has endeared him to many who mistrusted him at first. Distinctive Features: Cracked left tusk, dark bags under his eyes, pale/cold skin, smile

A sallow half-orc whose cheerful disposition belies his tumultuous health. A sorcerer of shadow without an ounce of darkness in his heart.

View Character Profile

Alignment

Neutral Good

Species

Halforc

Ethnicity

Rovers

Other Ethnicities/Cultures

Artynian

Age

Date of Birth

12th of the third Fire Moon, 1597

Birthplace

Woodside

Family

Briar Family

Parents

Garna Briar

Sebastian Briar

Children

Gender

Male

Eyes

washed out grey

Hair

black

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

ashen grey

Height

6'1

Weight

110 lbs

A letter to Sidna

Setting out for our journey, we stopped by the shrine to Thrae in Norbank, thankfully close to where we would be departing from the city! It was a slow walk, thanks to Melli's gait, but we left early and were only briefly waylaid by an evangelical heretic preaching about how the dragons are false gods. Melli was distraught, but we kept going and I made sure we didn't make eye contact to have to give him any coppers. In the temple, I left a few silver for any travellers that need them, then went to watch over Melli. She pulled out a few bags of flower petals from her garden and scattered them, then watched the sky for a bit. "Mighty Thrae, your voice is the wind. I beg you continue to aid my knight." I won't put the rest in here, but it would touch your heart, I think, to hear her voice as she prayed for you to be well. I think it will work, because the wind took her offering. Unfortunately the preacher was in the fountain square, so I had to put our first break off a while longer - the pebble in my shoe was really hurting at that point anyway, so it was a good idea. She fell for it easy, and even agreed to take a little bit of her medicine for pain (though I did have to make her feel a little guilty, I'm afraid. Sorry! *there is a drawn sad connie face here, flower included*). When we got to the docks it reeked, but Schwartz stepped ahead and talked to someone in charge, then came back to tell us we could go. Fuck boats. I ended up putting myself to sleep, but Melli and Schwartz had Finn with them when they met with the captain. They had to choke down a bowl of some really gross gruel, because my magic kept me out for eight hours, but the first thing I did was start cooking when I woke up. People were looking at me weird the entire time, for some reason, though.

The Journal Entry’s title

As Zeal sends off his messenger to chase down the person who was stalking him, he shifts into a large puma and begins deftly climbing up the sides of the alleyway's walls, but the rooftops provided no sign of his quarry and left him to chase the remaining trail of his animal messenger over rooftops and alleys, but he lost the trail as he approached an enormous plaza where members of the church are already beginning to set up for the day's festivities. As he slowly makes his way down to the ground before changing back into his normal shape and approaching the nearest people with a mask (there were too many masks in the city to detect one he didn't have any luck). Though he asked after someone wearing a mask with a wave, they could only tell him that they'd heard tell of someone who might be from the far east wearing some sort of mask that looked like the wave - though, that's strange because masks are supposed to be connected to the aspect of Air. They also told him that he should know it's taboo to discuss the path of the last journey in public. They're bad luck! Disgruntled, Zeal attempts to connect with his familiar only to find his link to it tethered - apparently it had been destroyed. Somewhat perturbed by this, Zeal mutters to himself and hurriedly makes his way towards Camellia's, where (after a lovely fade transition) we see Camellia giving a lecture on what can(not) be done during the festival. These include such gems as "don't complain about the baghorns" and "don't litter", alongside more gentle, respectful notices of what *to* do. Connie slings a new bag, full of supplies for an outing with her, and she brandishes her cane and fur coat before we begin to slowly make a procession down the road. Connie has flowers to offer that he pressed from places they travelled through. As we pass into the start in central district, head to norbank, spiral out Zeal's offerings don't get taken end at redbank,

Loss and Longing
8 of 8

Begin writing your story here...Heading back to Camellia's, Connie briefly dips into a shoppe on the southern side of the inner city, purchasing two wax bags of those same candied oranges before re-joining the party. Sidna walks through the gate to Inner Fairbank as though she owns the place and guides everyone swiftly to the house. Inside, Schwartz is impressed by Connie's manners and Sidna sends him off to get refreshments while Sidna heads upstairs to check on Camellia, leaving the rest of the party behind in a guest room. There, Connie and Zeal engage in a thrilling discovery of Connie's privilege and upbringing, though even those antics aren't enough to draw Serafina from the deep turmoil in her head. Upstairs, Sidna finds Camellia playing harpsichord and quietly watches her finish; spooking her when she turns around. She has been reading Sidna's journal, and is awestruck at the dragon, and Sidna affirms her oath as well as commenting on the talking mushrooms she was certain would have been Camellia's interest. As Sidna mentions that they have guests for the evening, Camellia got excited and bade her retrieve them, which she happily did. After making sure everyone washed up before going in, the party entered to meet the lady of the house. She noted Connie was new and curtseyed as he bowed back at her in his normal, delightful tone. She looked at him with a piercing stare and said he didn't have to pretend while he was there. He was so taken aback by this that he introduced himself again with his orcish name - causing much upset with Serafina, who hadn't heard it before. The party sat and when Vorach produced his candied fruits and handed them over, Sidna quickly had to hide Vorach's gift before Camellia could eat them all. Serafina, likewise, clutched hers to her chest as Camellia asked for any tales that Vorach had and he asked what type of story she would like, that he mostly knew tragedies. She insisted, and so he offered up his tragic tale, including the story of how his mother and father met. At the end of it all, there was some shocked silence before Camellia moved to embrace him and tell him it was okay - he didn't have to be strong here. Vorach wept. Sidna set in stony silence, covering her mouth defencively to hide her emotions as she looked into the distance, with Zeal mostly unphased while Serafina seemed likewise shellshocked. After such serious conversation, we decided to lighten the mood with song; Sidna and Vorach beginning to sing an old orcish drinking song 'The Hunter Who Stalked the Wolf' after much pleading, Serafina joining along with her flute in a stunning rendition that blew Camellia away. With spirits much higher, Vorach asked for and was shown to a small kitchenette by Sidna, the two began to cook a small dinner together. Partway through, Vorach quietly spoke in Anuic, confessing his burden of conscience in that he was a kinslayer. Sidna listened to his explanation, and offered him a gentle rebuttal, but he told her that only his chief (his mother) could pass judgement, and he wasn't sure he was able to continue on to find her anymore. Despite the dour talk, the party had a lovely dinner with Camellia getting her delightful carb overload in the form of a hearty vegetarian lasagne with some delightfully creamy mac n' cheese. As Sidna takes care of the dishes and Camellia gets through the Itis, Serafina and Vorach sit and quietly talk, the latter asking the former if they are okay. Serafina and Vorach bond over their shared experience of losing a heavy burden suddenly, and feeling hollow for it; him assuring them that at the very least, he was there for them. He also told her he thought Adrian was a total bitch because he was a wizard, which makes him a scrawny nerd. This touched Serafina, and when Vorach asked if they would like some space to breathe, they asked instead if he wouldn't mind just sitting there with them, which he happily obliged to. After being let out of the room, Zeal went to the library whilst Serafina and Connie were shown to guest rooms. Though he studied voraciously, he couldn't find anything that helped him and decided to head out for a night of drinking before shooting a message to his friend Gio requesting advice, companionship, and a drink.

Downtime activities ---

Zeal delivers his letters! One of them offers him a little extra gratitude and tips him a silver! He meets with Gio and learns how to cast a new spell with a "beautiful" metaphor: you don't shit it all out at once, you squeeze it out a little at a time. Zeal then asks for helping trying to figure out what the fuck is up with Echo, and while Gio warns that he should be careful because it's a different type of magic than he is able to readily work with. Zeal attempts to summon Echo and intentionally fails the wisdom save associated, and in the back of his mind he feels a dull ache; as though someone were struggling to break free and were incredibly weak. The realisation that there are two souls in his body is a breakthrough for Zeal, and as he relays this to Gio the other man offers a strong opinion: if there's a soul in his body that isn't his, he should get rid of it. After more discussion, Zeal was told to head to a nearby magic shop before leaving the city and to tell them that Gio sent them, the "stuck-up" guy who works there would be more open. Doing more research, 5 years ago the war between Roveria and the Clanlands. In the back was a comprehensive list of deaths, and Zeal saw Wisteria Redmark (not dead) listed as the commander of a battalion of mostly casualties. This war is where High Clanlord Fjor rose to power. No mention whatsoever of the Winter Queen in these books he can find, though. --- Connie and Serafina head out to their reservation at a restaurant called Zoppa, sharing a lovely afternoon and discussing their upbringing; Connie asking about her siblings and Sera asking about his hometown. They share a chicken gnocchi order, with a special dessert being special ordered from the same restuarant where he got the chocolate oranges: a chocolate chess pie! Over dessert, the two discussed Serafina's future, with Connie acknowledging that he thought she should have hope - with them able to convince one person of her innocence who was dead-set on killing her, perhaps they'd have an easier time of it in the future! He spun a fanciful story of meeting her family and getting to see wehre she grew up, and a flustered Serafina confessed that most of the people she turned into were dead. Though she expected Connie to be upset by this, she was momentarily stunned thinking he was some sort of necrophiliac, though it turned out he was just poorly explaining he thought it was better to not be talking to a mirror of someone he might run into in the future. Seeming touched, Serafina happily accompanied Connie on a small errand after their meal, heading up towards the gap to look for a member of Connie's village. Unfortunately, though they were able to find Nathanael without much issue, there was another person in the hovel in which he was staying: a robed figure whose most defining feature was the porcelain mask (white, slit, decorated with a yellow swirl). This is, in fact, the same member of the Path of the Last Journey (super hospice/make-a-wish) they had already seen in the fishing hamlet. Connie, struck speechless, stammered an apology and assured they'd meet again later. A little less cheerful, Connie explained to Sera on the way back that that he was unfortuantely familiar with the Path, because he'd been terminally ill for several years and they'd lingered on the periphery of his life during that time. Though they separated back home, Connie was soon found by Sidna for afternoon training just as Camellia brought Serafina for an equally important task: watching the orcs training. Though Connie gave his all and was clearly familiar with the motions, his body's decomposition underneath the surface was too much to repair in a short amount of time, no matter how good the training. After serious conversation and discussion, Connie said that he had made a choice: to stay behind with Camellia and continue training while researching things for the party and attempting to gather resources and support to make sure they always had a safe home to return to. Of course, he would also be certain that Camellia would always have a close friend nearby who didn't treat her like a pitiful wastrel. Of course, it was not just their decision. Sidna took Connie to talk with Camellia, who listened to his reasoning and logistics before happily enthusing she'd be delighted to have a friend with her, and she happily accepted Connie's offer of companionship (Sidna even gave him a proper badge!). With that being decided, Connie told both Zeal and Serafina of his decision. The former appeared somewhat stunned for a moment before continuing on as normal, though there was a definite hint of pride and sadness in his voice. Serafina, however, had her world rocked - no sooner had the kindest guy she'd ever known taken her on a date and told her he cared for her enough to plan to the future than did he announce he wouldn't be travelling at her side anymore. The session appears as though it is set to end on a bit of a painful, somewhat bittersweet moment. But of course, our dm is a bastard and genius both. In the last few moments of an evening out on the 7th, the day before the holiday ends, Zeal caught an unfortunate glimpse out of the corner of his eye: a masked figure, stalking him in impossible places just beyond his perception, moving from alleyway to rooftop and more without remaining still long enough to be confirmed to be there.

Sidna's Glowing Tits

As Connie grieves in the darkness, he notices with some fuzziness a glowing firefly blinking lazily as it bumbled throughout the air, and he morosely stood to try and usher it outside. It landed eagerly in his hand, but refused to vacate, leaving Connie to stare at it before hearing a voice in his head comment that "his flower was wilting". Startled, Connie looked at the bug before the voice clarified it was internal, and continued to hassle him for a "deal". Knowing this to be the fae entity responsible for his rebirth, Connie was not super eager, and only gave it a ten second sales pitch in which to convince him before ultimately refusing the offer to help find his mother with the eyes-and-ears spies that were the fireflies. Connie, telling him that being given the time of day was more than he should expect at the moment, terminated the negotiation before trapping the firefly under a glass that he covered. He noticed that there was an orc downstairs, prepared to stay the night, but as heavily as he was in his own head he could not bring himself to leave his room. -- Across town, Camellia grows tired and so Sidna gently ushers Zeal and Serafina on their way, with Serafina only briefly considering Camellia's offer of rooms for the evening (it is a nice place) before Zeal comments that they sent Connie out to get a room and he needed to pet his cat, as he had promised her earlier in the evening. On the way out, Sidna reprimands Zeal for asking for a favour without bothering to get to know her first, and then bid them good evening. Zeal asks if the animals and cart can remain, and it is graciously granted, with Zeal saying that he is more than capable of guiding people through town. The two begin to make their way towards the Prancing Pony, ready for the evening to conclude. --- Inside, Sidna closes the door to see Camellia already inside, readying herself for bed. Camellia is very interested in the party and seems to like us! She thinks Serafina's powers are super interesting, and that Zeal is ugly as all hell, and Sidna comments about his previous immortal beauty. Sidna admits she is extremely tired as well, and that much has happened over the past two weeks, but that she'd prefer to have an easy evening before looking at the journal tomorrow. --- On the way to the Prancing Pony, Zeal warns Serafina not to purchase anything at the inn unless she's intending on getting into trouble, though she should be fine with her powers so long as she can break line of sight first. Passing over the bridge into the central district towards Norbank, they note how quiet and dark the night has gotten even in the liveliest part of town here. Further into Norbank, though, sees the amount of guards lessening. Zeal leads Serafina towards the Prancing Pony, where a bouncer stands outside looking tough. Calling out to him, Zeal introduces himself and says that he's planning to get a drink and meet up with Connie inside. As Zeal states that they're here to meet with Constantine Briar, the guard nods and welcomes the two in. Immediately, it doesn't look like any sort of standard inn or tavern. It smells like shit and seedy deals, and Serafina is immediately off-put and asks if they have to stay here, surely they could find a Ye Olde Hiltonne around. Zeal says there's probably one around, but they have to find Connie first. Looking around, he spots an old dwarvish acquaintance passed out at a table and re-introduces himself in his new face. Varric, his companion, can scarcely believe it, asking what happened. After all, he went north only a few weeks ago, and he's only looked like this for a week or so. Apparently, though, the last time his friend saw him he was heading south. As Zeal explains his dealings with Beans, Serafina approaches in the shape of old Zeal and sits at the table, a dagger quickly pointed in her direction at that. Serafina gently asks to not be killed, as a half-orc she knows would be very upset. Mentioning that half-orc, Zeal asks if Varric has seen Connie, with Serafina shape-changing into Connie to help show - almost getting a dagger thrown at her for it. Zeal encourages her to stay in one shape for now before continuing on to say that he'd like to male some sales with this person as well. He wants to sell the secret for the ingredient to grow something. Unfortunately, the dwarf doesn't seem too terribly interested in this, disregarding druidry and herbology in general as profitable. Zeal and Varric plan to move to a private room to negotiate this while Serafina looks around for Connie, going around to the various non-humanoid races and asking if they've seen an orc around who looks like her. She roughly explains that she's trying to find her twin, which they seem to buy, but no one seems to have seen him. Zeal follows Varric to a private room, picking up the passphrase with his excellent hearing. After being allowed in, Varric sits Zeal down at a desk before instructing him to get to the point, no riddles. Zeal nods, and says plainly that he knows how to grow fleshwort, an incredibly rare potion in healing potions of superior quality. Zeal carefully explains the significance and rarity of bloodwort, expounding on its nature, and Varric asks if he has a sample. As the deal progresses, Varric asks how Zeal became so fucked ugly, and Zeal explains that he traded his immortal beauty to a fae being for his friend to be resurrected. He also finds out that a *second* Zeal Hawke has apparently been around, and a week ago set off southwards. (In the background, Serafina is calling out for Connie loudly now) Zeal realises that there is an imposter attempting to ruin his name, or otherwise cause him harm, and after finalising his deal with Varric, makes his way up towards a figure who's a mafioso named Briarbrush (sp?). Secret details ensue! After, Zeal returns to Serafina who confirms that Connie is nowhere to be found. The two begin their tavern crawl across the city in search of their friend and Serafina's room for the evening. Coming back towards central Mornhaven, they pass by the central portion of the city again before finally losing patience and moving to ask the guards if they'd seen Serafina's "twin brother". The guard gives the note that Connie gave over to someone on the previous shift, and as they open the letter they see that in fact there are two sets of directions in there, one which leads to the Old Stick in Twinham, whilst the other leads to another inn in Outer Fairbank. The barkeep is surprised to see Serafina come in since she's still disguised as Connie, who is upstairs, but the twin brother story is enough to get her recognised and to be told there's someone upstairs. Serafina is taken aback, however, by the orc sitting at the bar. He has a Chantesian insignia on his belt, one that a guard might have, and is easily recognised as 'Hirol Smith'. Serafina rushes up and tries to open Connie's door, but it's locked and he's unresponsive. Downstairs, she talks to the clerk again and finds out that there was a second room paid for for a 'Serafina'. Before she can go to claim it, however, she hears a voice behind her remarking on the name. It's Chantesian, after all. She grows nervous as the guard who was sat at the table is now explaining the story to this half-orc. Apparently a rampaging purple lizard had killed a Serafina Zelreth, and he's here to see it dead. As Serafina tries to explain that she's not herself, Zeal steps in to lie on her behalf, and while he manages to convince the guard that the "monster" was last seen in Clearwater, he unfortunately lets loose the fact that it could speak as a human could, and he invites the two to sit. Hirol tells Mr. Serafina to sleep tight, getting a death glare, and he and Zeal move to sit and drink (with Serafina paying for their drinks). Panicked slightly, Serafina readies herself for bed in the dark and lies down, a wax paper under her head crinkling and causing her to yelp and jump up. She discovers the candied oranges that Connie had left for her, and her heart softens as she tries one and discovers that they're legitimately good: better than an establishment of this quality could afford. Sadly, the yelp alerted Connie to her presence, and she doesn't hear his silent tears through the rest of the night. Downstairs, Hirol and Zeal converse over drinks, Hirol telling Zeal about Chantesy where he's from and where Serafina's "rampage" had happened. He says that one of the victims was a young girl named Seraphina Zelreth, the daughter of a chocolatier. Three other victims besides her were confirmed, killed quite gruesomely dessicated and scattered, with Serafina's remains entirely unfound. Zeal pieces together the puzzle and gently suggests that there was a curse he knows of which caused one to change the shape of another at the cost of a life. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case, Hirol says, and the man morosely continues into his cups. Justice has been escaped for so long, he says, that the only justice he can hope for is the blade. Zeal continues speaking, much to the GM's delight, and lets slip that the "twins" are from Woodside, and the man is suspicious considering they have different accents, and claimed to be from different places if Zeal is to be believed. He manages to spin some of Connie's tragedy in and distract with Garna and talks of orcish culture, even getting Hirol to say that he would keep an eye out for Garna. Zeal leaves a note with the barkeep for Connie, explaining that Serafina is now his twin brother to keep her safe. [failed insight check?!] Heading home, it's a pleasant walk through familiar vistas - surprisingly less drunk than usual, hoping that Mrs. Hudson is going to be understanding when he gets home. After some time, he approaches his home - an apartment within a larger building that resembles an inn. It's dark, Mrs. Hudson is already asleep, so Zeal heads upstairs to his room. Unfortunately, when he digs through his coins to get to his key, he can't seem to find it. He replays the events in his memory, he knows he locked the door when he left, but he can't seem to remember what's happened to it. After some thought, he goes and knocks on Mrs. Hudson's door gently, and she shuffles to open the chained door. Apparently he has done this before, her chiding him for losing it again, before fetching the spare and going to let him in. She gently pats his arm before letting him go for the evening, allowing Zeal to graciously greet Aida, who recognises him even in his changed shape and is a cuddly, purring delight before setting in for the night. Back at the Old Stick, Serafina listens to Connie's light snoring for a little bit before whispering a quiet good night to him and passing out in her sleep. Unfortunately, she fails a perception check in the middle of the night. That's not worrying in the slightest. She wakes up to a sudden stabbing pain. Over her stands Hirol, who has buried a longsword in her stomach, and she screams. No sooner has she done so than does Connie appear in a shower of incandescent firefly-like lights. Seeing the situation, he quickly reaches up and grabs a petal from his orchid before plucking it, going through a magical boy transformation into his fae-fueled former face. Now fully buff, he rushes forward and frees Serafina before beginning to lay into him with a glaive manifested of the selfsame firefly light. While the two exchanged blows, Serafina managed to escape out the window - Connie launching over to close it and bar it with his body. Unfortunately, he failed a wisdom saving throw and was Commanded to Surrender, which he promptly did after dropping to his proper self. The man said that Connie had no idea what he'd just done, but shook his head and turned to leave. Though Connie looked out the window, he could see no sign of Serafina, who had turned into a guard before quickly fleeing into the night. Serafina awakens the next morning in an alcove next to a shop, somewhere in Ferryside, though she doesn't know this herself. She gets up and heads into the shop, disguising herself as Poppy, and finds that it's a weapon's dealership. A somewhat older elf woman, when Serafina reveals her wound, the woman asks what happened and seems to disbelieve Serafina when she says she was stabbed, but rushes her to medical attention while yelling for her husband to take over the shoppe. Quickly, Serafina is ushered to a barber-surgeon named Morning Oak. With a trusty needle and thread, he administers treatment to Serafina and though it's a painful process, he carefully sews her shut. Serafina thanks him for his help, and asks if he knows where she is, to which he answers: his clinic. Serafina drags her hands down her head, and the man brings up payment. Unfortunately, she jumped out the window without her coinpurse, and so the man says that he will have to re-open her, then. Fortunately the elfen woman offers to pay, and while Serafina attempts to storm off afterwards, she cannot make it far. The woman carefully meets her and accompanies her back to her shop, introducing herself along the way as Rapunzel, with Serafina introducing herself back as Poppy. --- Back in Inner Fairbank, Sidna awoke and carefully untangled herself from Camellia's clutch after the best night's sleep she's ever had. Enjoying the view of the city from the balcony for a few minutes, she dressed before making her way downstairs and helping Siegfried prepare breakfast. They talked, and Sidna clarified that Anatoly and Rhyiem were both, in fact, the same person: Serafina. She also said to expect an actual third guest, and the two talked comfortably before he handed over Camellia's favourite breakfast: Oatmeal with honey and tea alongside. --- Across town, Zeal wakes up and cuddles with Aida for a luxurious amount of time, even beginning to speak with animals so he could speak with her more personably. She's an adoring cat, who's just so happy to have him there. Aida mentions that Mrs. Johnson likes to steal things, but she comes in very regularly to feed her, so it's fine by Aida. Apparently the last time she saw Zeal, he didn't have the red balls he's been tracking with him. She loved hearing what a dragon was, and wants to hunt one herself one day! Zeal greets her from Camellia and Aida suggests she could cuddle her, too, if that would make her feel better. Zeal says he will see if she's up to it, and then goes to meet with Mrs. Johnson. She is surprised by his appearance, and while Zeal asks for a new key, she tells him that apparently he was here all the previous week, and had given her no indication that he wasn't normal; going around spouting about the great fire of Rante while dressed in his formal robes. Zeal thinks this is odd, because he didn't really wear his formal robes very often. He asks if she remembers where he said he meant to go, and though worried for the state of his mind, she says she last heard he was going south to help those poor refugees. He thanks her and says he's got to go do some refugee work. He thanks her and then asks after the refugees, even going so far as to ask after Connie's dad, a man with the last name Briar, thinking it would be nice to help Connie find him. Unfortunately she doesn't know any person like that, though she does have a room for rent now! Zeal purchases that room for a month, and Mrs. Johnson says that she'll have a copy of his old key ready for him by the end of the day. --- Connie, having been directed to the Necropolis, found his way upon an enclosed, small stone building. It's a simple temple, a small tower rising from its very middle. Inside, Connie is met by a figure covered head-to-toe in white robes. He says he's there because he heard Sebastian Briar had been interred here, and they lead him through a courtyard to a set of doors that open to a spiral staircase leading down past hundreds of rows of dead. On and on it continues, past a veritable legacy of bones; one of the latest, though, has a shiny plaquard and bears his father's name. The priest steps aside, and Connie quietly addresses his father, admitting his crime of patricide and promising to find his mother and tell her, too. He's trying to help people, he promises. A few more passionate exchanges and an incense-fueled vigil later sees him ask for guidance, brought back to the surface to the noonday sun. -- Last night notes: CAMELLIA CAN READ THE SHIT ON SIDNA'S TIDDIES. Translated exactly from Primordial to Roveric, "Flow across the elements, leaving Soul and Life untouched. Disperse the poison, disperse the dark." These apparently look just like the runes that are on her mentor's body. The runes, though, only started to glow recently. Sidna returns to Camellia and finds her slightly upset in bed. She brightens a bit when she sees Sidna has breakfast, but Camellia's face falls and she admits she was afraid Sidna had left because Camellia had woken up from a nightmare. She admitted, as well, that she was worried because the previous guard she'd had before Sidna had been forced by her father into war efforts under Wisteria's command, and they'd sacrificed themself to protect her. Camellia's nightmare was that Sidna had done the same for her. Sidna says it's true, she would, but Camellia is upset by this. Sidna swears she will endeavour to make it not happen, but she has sworn that were there no other option she would sacrifice herself for Camellia without hesitation. Camellia brings up the runes again, saying that something must have happened to spark them flaring up. She demands answers, and Sidna sighs before beginning her explanation. She starts by giving a little bit of background to Connie, and his ailment that was so similar to hers. Camellia was boggled by the idea that he was able to use the sickness as magic, and is excited to meet him. She asks why Connie didn't come last night, and Sidna waffles before answering that it was because Connie had been killed. Camellia is alarmed by this and immediately asks after Sidna's health, and as they embrace Sidna continues the tale and explains Connie and Sidna's exchange, making Camellia promise to not get mad at her before explaining they had made a blood pact. She explains how when their blood connected she felt strange, and how Connie had grown sicker whilst she had grown less so. Thankfully this wasn't what killed Connie, but Camellia's concern grows, and she wonders if Sidna might be cursed, too. Sidna says she might be, and only Mystras could know. Sidna explains how Connie died, that it was to get rid of his curse -- swearing that she wouldn't do the same -- and continued to explain that Zeal made a choice to revive Connie in exchange for his beauty. Camellia sighs and says that she loves Sidna, but she's awful blunt. She gives her a ring that's too small for anything but her pinkie, and when Sidna acquiesces, Camellia asks if Sidna will promise her (as she will promise her) that whatever happens, they will come back to each other. Sidna smiles and says her oath stands, and she will swear it as many times as Camellia wants to hear it: she will come back to her. Always. Camellia explains this ring will show that she is more than just a knight, she is Camellia's. The ring is small and pure silver, with an amethyst set within. Sidna almost restrains her joy before remembering she is with Camellia and begins to smile unenthusiastically. Sidna remarks her present seems a little lacklustre now, but after making Camellia closer her eyes (NO CHEATING!!!) she finally placed the box of chocolates within her hands. Camellia is touched and consumes three without breathing before Sidna removes the box; only returning it when she promises to behave and not consume them all at once.

Mornhaven!

Having passed through the midway point of the year, the evening that finds us winding our way down the road into Mornhaven is a warm one. Twilight shows that while there's a lot of people in the city, there's a lot less people on the road beyond a few traders and the farmers who've shared the path with us most of the day. The gates themselves are left open, with a fair amount of guards loosely clustered in front of it. Giant banners sporting the purples and whites that Sidna wears hang from the gates, and as we approach we can overhear a shouting match between guards and one of the farmers. Sidna turns and says that this is where she comes from, so we ought to be on our best behaviour. Vorach asks if we have to wear her colours, but she shakes her head and Zeal says that we should avoid being nude or otherwise rambunctious. Serafina shifts into her purple dragonborn, but then Zeal comments and asks how come she doesn't use her powers to look like her original self. She gives it a try, and then swaps back to one of her purple dragonborn form, saying that it feels weird to be herself compared to the others. Vorach asks Sidna if the shouting match between the farmers and the guards are common, and she shrugs, saying that she's not a gate guard - though both she and Zeal remember previously seeing things like this, especially with farmers from the southern lands. Serafina pales and apparently has farmer baggage, Vorach assures her that he can talk to farmers and keep her safe. A guard approaches and asks what our business is, but Sidna flashes her badge and the man begins to bug out, asking if she wants them to handle the situation, but she waves it off and tells them to practise patience, and to let things go as otherwise - she doesn't want to raise a fuss. After a little bit, the sheep that had been the issues are finally herded through the gates and Sidna starts the cart again, taking us through the Gap, which is a region of the city that is a bunch of poorly built shanty-towns. Connie passes out fruit, including to people he recognises from his village. He calls back to the man to meet him here this evening, at the border of the Gap. We feed as many as we can, but the road continues, and Sidna pulls us into the Central Square, where it's very Norman (French) in architecture and bustling with restaurants, people, shoppes, musicians, and more. We also note that on the south side of the city, which is higher up and across the river, Redmark Keep is visible on a clifftop overlooking the harbors. Connie is blown away by the castle in the distance, and after a little conversation (Serafina finds out Connie has two names, asks for his orcish name, Connie is flustered and tells her Constantine) Connie splits off to go get rooms in Norbank before the rest of the party continues across the river to Fairbank. Turning into the walk, a guard recognises Sidna and as we are stopped, addresses her by the name of Lady Sidna. He asks who the rest of the company is, and Sidna responds that they're her adventuring party. He begs her to keep them out of trouble, and she responds that he doesn't need to worry about it. It's gorgeous here, full of separated, high-standing manors and the sweet scents of a tailored society. Within Inner Farbank, rather than turning towards Redmark Keep, the party begins taking a side road to a manor: a place where people care. Zeal asks if this is her place, and she responds that it is, and the party notices a crest adorning the threshold that matches Sidna's armour. As she circles around to the back, she notices the stable is empty of horses and staff both. Despite this, she parks the cart and tidies herself up after stepping off the cart and turns to tell Zeal and Serafina that unless they're staying in the cart, they need to understand a few things. She directly serves under Lady Camellia, daughter of the Redmark family. Zeal roughly recalls a rumour of "a Redmark princess, locked away in a castle". Some say it's because she's cursed, others say it's because she's secretly a dragon. Zeal comments about this and Sidna states that every rumour has a grain of truth, and asks that people behave again. Zeal attempts to posture himself well, but considering his immortal beauty is gone, it's kinda...unsettling. Serafina meanwhile asks who the Redmarks are and if she can get filled in, and Zeal explains that the lady Camellia is the grand-niece of the current king, who is a Redmark himself. Names are linked in the campaign, go do some research! Sidna quietly confesses that she holds little loyalty to the king, her loyalty is to Camellia itself. This is not something that she wants advertised, of course, but is something she offers to give them some context. Serafina begins to remark, "Oooohhhhhh," but Sidna assures her it's not *that* type of situation, but Serafina only repeats the remark, getting Sidna to quip, "Shaddup," before turning to flip her hair and walk to the door. She knocks on the door, her signature volume carrying some acknowledgement of her person, and is met by a slightly older, and chiselled (if pudgy) elfen man with grey hair, a goatee, and moustache. He graciously welcomes Sidna, and she remarks that they're her companions. Zeal bows and introduces himself as Zeal Hawke, priest of the cult of Rante. Serafina bows as well in the form of a hot mediterranean man with curly hair, introducing herself as Anatoly. Wasting no time after they are let in, Sidna asks how 'she' is, and the butler remarks that she's...well enough. She has received the package, but is waiting for Sidna to use its contents. The parents, as well, are apparently out. He introduces himself as Siegfried Schwartz, the butler, while Sidna ruminates. Zeal refers to him as Mr. Schwartz, to remain polite. Sigfried tells Sidna she knows where to go, and that he would take care of the guests in the sitting room. Sidna seems appreciative, and shoots Sera/Zeal one more warning look before turning and heading further into the manor. While Zeal asks if the Duke and his wife are out, and if they were struggling with Camellia's condition, Siegfried answers first yes and then that he can say very little due to his station, but that yes - they struggled. In a smaller, more private parlour off to the side, Siegfried Zeal and Serafina with glasses of red wine before moving to the kitchen to prepare refreshments. Sidna climbs in a rush up several flights of stairs, huffing slightly at the top before composing herself. She washes her hands in a small fountain at the side of Camellia's door, and the moment she finishes the door opens, with a quiet, yet eager, voice on the other side saying, "I knew I could hear you!" This is the ONLY warning she gets before she is pounced, and Sidna carries her as well she can without using her wet hands; waddling the two into the room before kicking the door shut and greeting her properly with an embrace. It's a room with orange light, full of carpets and gentle, warm, softness that only feels like home because of Camellia. After drying her hands on her pants, she pulls Camellia in and places a big ol' SMOOCH on her. She says how much she missed Camellia, and she responds that she missed her too before devolving into a fit of coughs. She orders Sidna to sit and stop fussing over her before moving to get her present, drinking the healing potion which has near immediate effects. She says that her father is still searching for new cures, and listens as Sidna fills her in on what's going on in the countryside. She says she has bad news: her father wants to take the family to "the island" to be safe. And worse: She's feeling as good as she always is, apparently. Wisteria has to go off to war, though, and has to remain with her unit to keep people in top condition in preparation of anticipated battles. She expresses her worry and sorrow that Sidna may be drafted to the war effort as well, and while her father is attempting to keep the deal she's struck honoured, the king is apparently mustering forces. This may mean that the promise Sidna was given may be overruled???? Still, though, Sidna crosses her arms and she says, "Well, if I must I must, and if I don't I don't. But I promised to come back to you." Camellia reaches out to grasp her hands, and says, "And I do, too. I won't allow it. You're not going with the army." This also means, though, that Sidna won't be able to go with Camellia - if she tries, they'll grab her and toss her into the barracks. 'Not again' is Sidna's joking response, though it falls a bit flat in the somber mood. Hearing that Sidna has guests, Camellia REALLY wants to meet them, but Sidna wants some alone time for now. Sidna admits they're her friends, but makes Camellia swear to never tell anyone. As Sidna recounts more of her journeys, the two confess to each other that they've read their correspondence every night. Sidna admits that as she was travelling, in desperation she turned to prayer, despite not really caring much about religion. Camellia admits that Almighty Frei must have hard her if Sidna heard her words on the wind. Camellia now demands to meet her friends, and sends Sidna down to collect the party. Downstairs, Siegfried enters carrying food. Tonight, he has prepared: traditional pheasant in the Tiberian style, covered in a red wine sauce, and served with carefully prepared potatoes (french fries). However, when he looks around, Anatoly isn't here, and as he asks where he might be Serafina enters as a tall dark skinned ginger with curly hair enters: Rhyeim (Deception 16). Siegfried apologises for his error, and Rhyeim pats his cheek before sitting and joining the feast. Sidna enters and seeing Serafina in a different form, she loses the happy expression on hers and instead deadpans, a furrow in her brow and a sigh in her throat as she expresses her disappointment. She tells the others to grab their food and follow, they're eating upstairs. ----- Meanwhile, across town, Connie has entered into Norbank - an industrial marvel despite its lack of machinery, with workhouses ranging from smithies to arcane laboratories. As he travels, Connie keeps an eye out for passersby, and eventually approaches an elderly man smoking a pipe outside of a workshop, calling out, "Excuse me, grandfather!". The man turns, and reveals himself to have only a single eye, and he gives Connie an intense searching look before appearing a bit befuddled. He asks what Connie's there for and is told that he's gotten turned around and been recommended an inn, hoping to get some directions. Inbetween laughs, the man asks which inn, and Connie answers the Prancing Pony, which makes the man laugh harder. When he recovered his sense of self, he explained that Connie should only go there if he was looking to get mugged or killed, then insinuated that it was only good for a person like Connie if he was after illicit goods, and asked if he was there to catch birds. Connie, confused, answered that he preferred to use bows to handle birds, returning an equally confused squint. Now understanding, the elderly man kindly directs Connie towards the eastern side of the city, Twinham and Ferryside, if he's looking for a comfortable place to rest his head. He also refuses when Connie attempts to thank him with a silver coin, saying he works an honest job and recommends Connie keep an eye on his coin. Following the old man's directions, Connie passes through the Central District again before approaching Twinham, which is a very quaint one that instantly is nostalgic for Connie and reminds him of his home town of Riverside. As he ventures in, he quickly finds an inn called the Old Stick, whose hanging sign is that of an aged, big tree. Connie gives it a few seconds and then chuckles before entering, quickly renting two rooms (4 silver total) from the man before using his desk to write a note giving instructions from the bridge in the Central District to the Old Stick. Heading back to the Central District, he approaches a massive, wide stone bridge that rises from a wall erected to keep people from falling into the river - stretching across to the other side of the river to the southern side of the city. Hailing a group of local guards, he catches the attention of one and asks her if she wouldn't mind holding a note at this post until Sidna passes through, giving her description as "Lady Sidna, a knight of the city? She's a large orcish woman, a bit withdrawn but as long as you're polite she's quite kind." The woman assures him that while she doesn't have much previous interaction with Sidna, she's looking forward to seeing her, and will make sure the note is delivered. After a sheepish ask from Connie, she also happily directs him to a nearby restaurant that's perfect (and decently priced!) for an evening out with lots of soup and bread meals to choose from. Glancing at the sky, Connie heads across the bridge to the central square on the southern side of the Central Distrcit, buying a bag of candied oranges dipped in semisweet chocolate (1 gold) and waits half an hour in the central square before turning and heading back towards the Gap, beginning to make his way there to meet his rendezvous. EDITOR'S NOTE: Jess pointed out that Sidna forgot to tell anyone she would be staying at Camellia's the entire evening and would not be going back. Nico then pointed out this means that despite Connie being responsible, Serafina will probably still end up going to the wrong inn. xD ----- As Sidna, Serafina, and Zeal approach Camellia's door, the latter two see an oddity: a strange basin off to the side of the chamber entrance. Sidna takes their plates and nods to the basin, instructing, "Wash up properly. To the elbow." Zeal enthusiastically begins while Serafina, now standing in Elysion form, chimes, "Yes, ma'am!" After they do so, Sidna carefully opens the door and announces, "Guests are here." Entering, the two new faces notice that this room is the size of a banquet hall, with skylights that are currently showing the stars in a high ceiling. Down below, the room is divided with what appears to be a mixture of standing panels and bookcases, sectioning the room into different purposes. Trinkets, desks, and more are scattered throughout the room and are from throughout the world. It's super cozy, tonnes of thick fabrics alongside the aforementioned carpetting, and it's comfortably warm in the room. As they follow Sidna further into the room, Camellia comes into view: she's frail looking, and it's difficult to tell, but she's probably half-elven, with more of her elfen features showing (though it's not clear if that's because of how sallow she is or the elfen nature). The party notices as she rises regally that she winces slightly, hiding the pain she's in. Zeal bows and introduces himself as he did with Siegfried, adding that it's an utter pleasure to meet her. She curtsies in response, "Lady Camellia Arakhoren of Redmark." Sidna shoots Serafina a glare before she can do anything, and Serafina asks if Camellia can avert her gaze for just a moment, and she reluctantly does so, allowing her to change into her purple dragonborn form. Camellia is delighted and asks if she can change again, and before Serafina can acquiesce, Sidna interjects it might be better for dinner. Slightly flustered, Camellia apologises for her overeager behaviour, and as Sidna moves to get the dinner table, Serafina explains how she got her powers to Camellia, Zeal remarking a similar deal cost him his beauty, and he then shows off his shapeshifting as well - turning into a dog and causing Camellia to stare with delight. Serafina returns to her default shape after Camellia gives permission for Sidna, as she is (after all) the boss lady. Serafina's transformations continue on to Sidna and then to Camellia herself, but Camellia's delight (and untoward thoughts) is cut short when she's overcome by a raucous coughing fit. Camellia apologises for her poor constitution and though Zeal offers a cure, Sidna shoots him a glare and Camellia shakes her head. Instead of eating inside, Camellia offers for dinner to be taken in the garden. The party is thrilled by this and Sidna even gets a peck on the cheek as she passes, causing the others to see her happy beyond her stony exterior. Zeal summons Echo out on the balcony and speaks with Camellia more franky, saying that he needs help and that their journey isn't done yet - though Camellia remarks that Sidna hadn't mentioned that at all. Slightly concerned, Camellia reminds Sidna of her promise, which acknowledges. Camellia says she's fine with the plan to venture south, but only if they promise to keep her knight safe, which causes Serafina to remark that she's likely keeping everyone else safe with her good hands. Zeal explains the glass orbs to Camellia, and his theories regarding his connection to the Queens of Summer and Ice. When Camellia queries the second, he remarks his belief that resolving the problem in the south might resolve the problem in the north. Camellia reticently explains her middle name: Morrigann, explaining it means either Great Queen or Queen of Darkness. Discussing further, they realise they may need to spend a few days in the city and Zeal encourages Sidna to not rush on his behalf, he's got things to attend to and respite is in good need. Camellia, when hearing that Zeal needs to attend to his cat, asks with a tone of heartbreak that he hug it extra firm for her, as she loves them but she gets very sick around them. Sidna states that we should save all business talk for the next day, and just enjoy the night. Camellia stares up at the moon and asks if Serafina would go to the temple with her in four days, if she's still in town. Sidna asks if it's that soon, and she responds that the moon is almost full. Serafina notices (Perception 21) that Camellia looks a bit nervous, and has stealthily taken Sidna's hand. Deciding to ease her tension, Serafina vanishes for but a moment before returning with her viol, sadly underperforming as she's unused to playing without her claws. ----- Nathanael owned a butcher shop next to Connie's dad's store, he was a young dad then. Keeping an eye out for this man, Connie has taken his gold and put it in his shoes (probably unnecessarily). Chewing on a toffee, Connie waits for a while before seeing the man approach, now scruffy and unkempt, having been through a rough time. He and Connie catch up - this is the first time he's seen Connie since he was well, and after explaining that he's been gone about 11 months, Connie asks after his dad, Sebastian, and Nathanael suggests he sit. Connie does, and he's told that when the ice came, Riverside evacuated and Sebastian was among them, safe. They were turned away at a few cities before arriving at Mornhaven as well, but unfortunately, illness got to him. Connie feels ice in his stomach as Nathanael describes how the very night that Connie died and was brought back, Sebastian called out in his sleep and was found dead the next morning. Connie immediately understands the implications of his statement: his dad died because of him, as a consequence of Connie choosing the curse to be ended the way it was. The man offers condolences perfectly suited to lift the spirits of any human, and offers Connie his inheritance, which Connie immediately returns a portion of with an earnest plea that Nathanael use it to help the other survivors from the village, and remember his dad as a good man who loved his family and his home. He agrees, and Connie sets off to the Old Stick, leaving the waxed paper bag of chocolate dunked candied oranges on Serafina's pillow before laying in his room in total darkness: staring at the ceiling. Kinslayer. Kinslayer. Kinslayer. Crying in the dark, he would eventually pass out, silent as the grave.

Hesjingmajak Again
1 - 8 - 1621

We enter into Hesjingmajak late in the evening, ushered in through the gates by hanging lights at its entry. Serafina knows this place is named this because it is "Given by Hesjing", signifying its religious implication to the founders of the place. Serafina explains this to Connie as he nods in excitement, taking in the surroundings. Most of the buildings are made from marble, styled in the greco-roman style with plenty of splashes of colour accenting the alabaster surface, mostly blues. We pass by a gorgeous artistic mural depicting the Founding and Serafina infodumps all the lore the GM wrote in a beautiful soliloquy. They sip spiced tea together while observing it before Connie stepped forward to pray and sacrifice a healing potion at the base of the mosaic's portayal of Ixen. Zeal leads us back to the temple, where Vorach steps up to a guard and asks if the High Priestess is still awake; seeing that we have the relic, he nods eagerly and offers to lead us to our destination himself, passing by the hall where we first met until we got to the overlarge doors leading to the inner sanctum. He steps off, with Zeal offering the letter he carried (to whom it may concern), to fetch the High Priestess, who returns and greets us while wiping away sleep from her eyes. She leads us through the Inner Sanctum, passing by the statues we fought before (now in a more solemn pose with hands resting on the shield). As we enter into the pool room, we notice that the water is diminished several meters - with Zeal and Serafina stepping forward to take a closer look [PERCEPTION: 17|4 respectively]. Serafina is blinded by the egg she is carrying, though Zeal can see deep below there is a point that the water is surging in from, an archway barely visible at the water level. Apparently Ulharst didn't like to share his pool with others. As Serafina and Zeal head down to put the egg in the water, Vorach asks about and we discover Zeal doesn't know if he can swim, so we tie a rope off around his waist while Sidna and Vorach hold onto it from the top. Getting to the edge, Serafina jumps down a few meters into the water and the moment the egg touches it it grows massively heavier and she begins to sink before she begins to kick and fight, straining with all her might [ACROBATICS: nat 20] to keep her head above water, but she's clearly sinking. Zeal jumps in after her, and begins to swim towards her, his feet getting cold immediately. Serafina fully submerges, and when she does she discovers that only when she goes underneath does the water turn crystalline clear, bars blocking the inlet to the lake from larger creatures. Looking around, Serafina realises the walls are lined with wall graves, with the bottom of the pool too far to see. Serafina finally releases the egg and it begins to sink like a stone. With one swift stroke she kicks her way to the surface and breaches, though Zeal has a much harder approach, leveraging his magic ice feet to try and help him carefully balance his way to floating back to the surface and tugging on the rope to signal Connie. The orcs pull up Zeal and then toss the rope down for Serafina as well. Zeal attempts to give Connie a vial of healing water he filled while he was down there and the High Priestess almost has an aneurysm. Zeal's disadvantage with charisma checks causes her to not believe the truth: we are allowed to take this water, but Vorach was planning to return the water regardless and him doing so so quickly smooths things over. Zeal reports about the village, and Connie pipes up to offer a more precise diagnosis. She notices now that he's no longer visibly cursed, and comments, soon realising that the bundle of soaked scarves she was talking to was actually Zeal and freaking out briefly. Fortunately, she agrees to meet with us the next day (an hour after midday) so that the party can get some rest. Connie and Serafina share a room while Zeal and Sidna got their own, private rooms. It is established that Zeal loves taking the piss by sneaking up behind Vorach and being an unsettling presence before scaring the shit out of him. Connie and Serafina talk for a good long while about nicknames and their homes before Connie helps Serafina settle a bunch of small inconsistencies in her shapeshifted form to make them appear more pleasing, and then the party settles in for the night. The morning brings us to the Second Air Moon, a new month! Just a little over 8 months left in the year. (16 days to a month, 16 months to a year, plus 1 day) Zeal awakens with a wisdom saving throw, and he feels as though something in the world has changed, and he's not sure it's for the better. Anxious to get started, he hurries to the others' doors and knocks on them, but Vorach refuses to wake up early after completing a mission and Sidna isn't there to answer. Serafina seems content to get up when Connie does! Waiting only how long is sensible, Zeal moves to meet with the High Priestess and shares his foreboding feeling with her, and his suspicions that the troubles experienced int he north would make their way south. Through a misunderstanding, Zeal slowly comes to know of the Ice Queen, a person whose title is not inherited through blood but is instead seemingly...given to them? This Ice Queen was originally to be captured with the relic we used to save Jingahar. Apparently the Ice Queen has an echo, who's like her but not quite. When the People first came, they met a powerful fae who introduced herself as the Queen of Summer, where her throne rose above all. She brought peace and prosperity.

I Hate to Leave; I Have to, Though

As Vorach slowly comes to, groggy from death, and is startled by Zeal's gravelly voice and covered body. Sidna called out to him, but seemed to lose her words when he turned to look at her. Zeal confirmed to Vorach that he had died, and that Zeal had made some sort of deal to bring him back. He tried to summon his magic, realising that he was having trouble seeing, and Serafina handed over a lantern to help him as Sidna helped him up. As we all turned to leave, ready to get out of the swamp, Serafina noted some movement from the corner of her eye and turned to see an enormous flower blooming atop the fae tree, from which a bark-skinned Zeal (naked, but in a ken doll fashion) emerged, explaining that he used the beauty he won from Zeal as a vessel for movement. He kisses Serafina's hand and introduces himself as Specht, not bark-Zeal. Specht is interested in the dragon's egg, but Serafina won't trade it, and he explains that even without that, she has plenty of value for him to trade for: her name, her allegiances, etc. While she is considering this, Vorach and Sidna call out to try and dissuade her from making a deal, but she reaches out a claw to shake. Specht grabs onto her hand and the rest of us see Serafina buckle, a blanket of moss covering her from sight from which a single flower sprouts. After minutes of frantic pasting, the flower blossoms to a fruit, turning into a strawberry that Specht plucks and consumes: claiming that to be Serafina's magic. He begins to sing in a voice that sounds like a mix between Zeal and Serafina's voice, which heals Vorach by a small amount as he casts healing word. Serafina now comes to, recognising sensation, and feels something like a blanket over her, and she begins to take it off. The rest of us see a creature with skin that shifts and dances with colourful fae magic, and Serafina is reborn as a changeling, though she feels a complete loss of her magical ability. Splecht asks if she is satisfied with the offer, and she touches her face. She realises all she has to do is think about changing her body and it does, as she thought of claws her hands shifted, and she seems...satisfied. Her curse isn't broken, but this magical gift allows for her to no longer share the form of a dragonborn. As the magic settles, her skin in its natural state turns into an alabaster, marble white that makes her look almost like a mannequin. Sidna and Vorach realise that her choice was her choice, but that her choice may have been influenced by the fae magic hanging in the air. She turns and rushes away, with Vorach running after her and asking for confirmation that Zeal had also made a deal with that fae to bring him back. Her shoulders tense and she slows enough to confirm that, leaving him to quietly say that we won't be able to kill it then and free Serafina from the deal she made. Sidna says that it was their choice to make and not for the orcs to interfere with, though Vorach threw a snide remark back about Zeal's choice. Sidna, unusually softly, said that was true, but not for the reason he thought. Zeal realises that the water in the swamp is continuing to freeze around him, though not fast enough for him to naruto run over water (yet!). He turns and asks Serafina if she's satisfied, and she says that she's worried about Connie's curse still being there, if the fae didn't break her curse, and Zeal says they can worry about that after they get to Hesjingmajak, pointing out that the frozen disaster in the south where Connie's from could potentially be related, and worth investigating. He asks how she's doing without her magic, and she blithely comments how she doesn't use it as much in her daily life, only when she's in absolute need. Zeal says that they can figure something out, if she wants, and she shrugs, saying she should be able to make do without it. She turns the questions back on him, asking how he is doing in his bundles and with the deal he made. He says that the dragon gave him knowledge that his current body is a rental, and so he was happy to trade its beauty for the life of a friend. She asks if that meant he was planning on "not paying rent" on this body until it was repossessed, and he shrugged, saying he was hoping one day he'd find the body that matches his soul, and if he couldn't then he'd at least try to find a way to change his form in a less animalistic way that he had. As we arrive back to Moonspring, we pause briefly as Vorach actually sees Serafina, eyes wide as he realises how different she looks, and even wider (and slightly nauseous) when she changes into the form of a tall man with pale skin, dark hair, and blue eyes, and Sidna leads us towards Poppy's. Outside, we see Gio is standing guard, and he cheerfully greets "Lady Sidna" before saying we made new friends. He lets us inside after they explain our companions are actually still themselves, and he heads up to wake Poppy up after we confirm we only want to speak with her, not the envoy right now. While he goes up, Vorach moves to the kitchen to start making tea for everyone, and as he offers one of his smiles the party sees he's not in as much pain, even if he doesn't realise it, and they turn and quietly thank Zeal as the half-orc vanishes into the kitchen. Poppy makes her way downstairs, and Sidna apologises for the hour, but that the party wanted to check in. Sidna first explains Serafina is really herself, and gestures to her, where male-Serafina waves back at her. Poppy is a little too confused to consider that, but is grateful Serafina is okay. Sidna moves on to Zeal, who is little more than a bundle of blankets and scarves, clutching a steaming mug and sipping through a tiny slit. Poppy asks if he needs healing, and when Sidna says that he doesn't, she says she'd rather not know what's underneath. Vorach emerges from the kitchen with more tea, and she remarks she's glad to see him alive and unharmed, to which he gets a small thousand-yard stare. The party continues to report in, and we suggest that Poppy and only people she trust make contact with the fungimen in the woods, Vorach recounting their struggle with the frost and that they might appreciate some mental security in knowing they have an ally nearby. Sidna agrees with this and the two also share directions, making sure she won't tread too close to the Faewild. It turns out her son can speak Undercommon, so she'll be taking him to help her. Poppy heads back up to bed, tired and confused, but grateful for the help and offers us lodging for the evening. Sidna moves to the workshop and begins to set up tables for the bed, while Zeal takes clean-up duty from Vorach, who heads outside, saying he'd like to camp under the stars tonight. Serafina helps briefly with clean-up before moving to join Vorach, while Sidna sits at the window watching the backyard. Taking advantage of the distraction, he moves to Poppy's make-up table and looks himself over in the mirror. He believes himself to deserve this, if he truly betrayed his Queen, and that at the very least he helped Constantine, which is good...right? He heads outside to take some night air and consider things, Serafina briefly finding him to commisserate. She, too, has lost her beauty, and she wants to offer him a shoulder in case he needs it, but he seems entirely content and urges her to "go get some orc". Vorach, simultaneously, is staring at the sky and realising that his eyes are completely shot, he can't see in the dark like he's been used to for years, and so he just slowly closes the lantern at his side. Serafina approaches, and asks after him, changing from her man-shape into her more familiar purple dragonborn self. She asks how she looks and he answers, she's beautiful but he's not used to her, it's like looking at the sun too long when she changes and he can't look away in time. Of course, she's flustered, and as the two talk, she tells him that she wants to share her past with him but is worried he'll hate him. He says he can't promise he won't, because he don't know what she'll say, but he promises to think for a while before reacting, and to not react angrily. Back in Chantiso she was well known for being pretty, well-connected, and she had suitors aplenty. However, out of all of the men who were interested in her, she only had eyes for someone she couldn't have: Adrian, another man with a love of his own. Seeking him for herself, she brewed together a potion to put his love to sleep so she could disguise herself as her and renounce the love's interest in Adrian. It seemed to work, but when Adrian came to visit Serafina she found herself drugged and then woke up tied to a chair, where he interrogated her until he found the woman's whereabouts. Unfortunately, Serafina's alchemy was potent, and the deep slumber was instead death, so Adrian placed a hefty blood curse on her that turned her into her "dragonborn" shape, decrying her as a monster and running her out of town. Vorach asks her how old she was, and if she learned her lesson. She answers it was a while ago, and that every time she looks in the mirror she's reminded of the lesson: that because of her selfish desire, another person lost their life. She seems genuinely remorseful, and Vorach assures her that he doesn't hate her. He's glad she learned, and he's concerned she might be in danger, and he promises to help her and be by her side, but asks for the rest of the evening to himself: he's still coming to terms with the change. She nods, and lets him be, heading back inside to her own rest. Sidna can't sleep at all, overcome with thoughts of Vorach and the deal Zeal made, and she turns her symbol over in her hands. She gets dressed and goes out into town, walking somewhat forlornly before stumbling across a shrine to Thrae, and when she makes a move to step away she feels a wind on the back of her neck instead and turns back. The shrine is little more than an open-element stone on a small, raised pedestal with the symbol of Thrae carved on it and several, empty plates and a few scattered coins scattered around it. "Mighty Thrae, Your breath is like. No wait, that wasn't it. Ugh... Your. Fucking hell. Look, Thrae, this whole prayer thing isn't really my thing, or religion. But. There's no denying that what You've done for me and for her has had great affect and has helped me greatly. I don't know how it works, or worked, and I heard her voice praying clear as day. So I hope that You will hear mine; let me try this." She peeks an eye open, closes it, and then continues, "Mighty Thrae. Your voice is the wind, let mine be carried alongside Yours. Mighty Thrae. Your voice brings rest, ensuring my safety to my flower. May she blossom strong still in my absence. I thank You, for Your guidance; now, in the past, and I hope in the future, too." As she finishes the prayer, she hears the lightest echo of her own voice and feels the wind blowing, and she gasps and looks up as if to trail her voice on its way into the sky before pulling out her satchel of felsoul and sprinkling a bit on a plate nearby. Walking around town some more, Sidna realises that she can hear the faintest echo on snatches of wind with another voice. Realising this, she quickly detours to find a nearby low building that she can scale to try and get a better feel of the wind. Unfortunately, no matter how she strains, it's impossible to catch more than she already has. With the thought of a brazier of ice holding flame, Zeal conjures the image of echo in his mind and prays, "Merciful goddess, mother of the forlorn, who watches over all those who have no place to call home. Fire for Argeth, Fire for Argeth, and I the ash to kindle the flame." In this moment of respite, he takes self-stock, and feels his pride and determination of his actions through the day, and ends up trying to pick together any piece of his "other self", the one that doesn't belong to this body. In cold air, out fire, and the meditation continues in simple repetition before he finds himself at rest. For the briefest of moments the fire in the brazier in his mind takes on the shape of a face, a single tear rolling across its cheek, before the fire goes out, leaving him to flop on his back. We all get our long rest! During the night, Vorach is woken by a coughing fit, as bad as when his disease was at its worst: and it starts thick and black, tar-like almost. While he's racked by coughs and can't sleep through the rest of the night, the blood does slowly clear up from being entirely black and turning into a super dark crimson through the hours. In the morning, Zeal is the first to awake from his short slumber, seeing the younger male guard who'd been accompanying the envoy approaching with the reins of their three horses, Zeal happily seeing Greg, though Greg is a little bit unsure about wtf happened, which is quickly explained in a flurry of neighs and whinnies. Heading inside, he finds Connie sitting in the kitchen, exhausted and ill, with a bucket and a bowl in front of him. Dropping his staff with a clatter he lunges forward and seizes Vorach, asking how he is. Vorach starts to answer but is interrupted by another coughing fit, blood escaping his mouth. He looks to Zeal and quietly says, "I don't feel so good," before passing out. Zeal catches him and takes him back to the workshop, setting him down before Sidna and Serafina can wake up and turning to clear up the bowl of black blood and the bucket of mixed blood. He readies breakfast while Sidna and Serafina wake up, Serafina both defaulting to her neutral state and noticing a faint glow in Sidna's chest. Zeal says they should let Vorach sleep, that he had a rough night, and explains he theorises that Vorach was expelling the last of the shadow from his body, and explained it had come out super violently with a mix of blood and vomit. But since he only put him to bed an hour ago, they're content to let him rest: especially since Serafina points out Sidna's glow. Along all of her ribs, she notices faintly glowing glyphs. She asks if they have any idea what this is, and Zeal casts detect magic, noticing that it looks like Life magic, the runes looking very familiar to Zeal. He can actually read it, it's Primordial! It's a spell to redirect Shadow, and blessings against Shadow, looping in on itself to reinforce its own power. As he says someone probably put this on her, she feels a sense of relief and allows herself the faintest smile. Serafina is a little upset about Connie still being asleep, but since Sidna appears to be staying here, she agrees to go along with Zeal so that way he can have a guard while he cleans himself up. He jokes that perhaps they can scare some children on the way back, and she laughs before turning into a darker skinned woman, slightly southeast-asian looking with dark eyes and hair, about 5'10. The two head out towards the inn to attempt a private bath, and while some try and dissuade him towards the river instead, they preservere and he manages to get a bath at the inn (where the innkeep didn't recognise him in the slightest). Serafina grabs a drink in the inn while she waits for Zeal, asking the barkeep if they know about the situation happening in the south. Apparently it's gone to shit, he responds, with a massive ice storm that's blanketing the land. Apparently it's *spreading*, too, like the ice itself is crawling across the ground. It hasn't gone further south than the Silvertooth mountains, but it keeps going north, and so the innkeep is readying a holiday. Woodside, Veiltown, and Roverdam have all been evacuated - Marshport is currently being evacuated. (search for Marshport in general chat, displayed map shows what's iced.) Zeal is able to pick up letters to deliver, 2 to clearwater, 1 to hesjingmajak, and 3 to mornhaven. He asks if Serafina's thought of getting something for her boy, and she wonders what he might like. He suggests that as a half-orc, it needs to be either useful or meaningful. She considers this, and in doing so realises that she should probably pick up a new outfit for herself as well, since she's no longer covered in a bunch of scales. Fortunately, she's able to pick up some pretty nice clothes for herself in multiple forms. Zeal asks if she's considered picking up Vorach something, but she thinks about it and says she has something at home. Over the next few hours, Sidna has had her morning workout and is setting Poppy's workshop in order when she realises Vorach is waking, groaning and shaking. Worried, she runs over and is distraught to find out he is sore, and then annoyed when she finds out he left the room quietly and didn't wake anyone when he was ill throughout the previous night. She attempts to cheer him up, but finds that he's sullen and unresponsive, and she grows angry as he begins to tell her that he believes it would be better if he'd stayed dead, and how he was sad that he'd been brought back to life. She "yelled" (more of a sternly worded loud whisper) at him that he didn't know what he was talking about, and that he should be grateful he's surrounded by people who care about him enough to go through that sort of endeavour for him, and he snaps back that it's another choice that was made for him about his life before storming out. With tempers flaring between the orcs and the obviously heavy weight the topic of death and resurrection brought to, Vorach ended up making food while she finished cleaning (angrily). Serafina and Zeal return to find Vorach sitting at the kitchen table, crying motionlessly as he stares down at a plate of griddle-cakes with strawberries. They clear their throats and he wipes his face before turning and offering them both a genuine smile and a cheerful hello, asking Serafina if she'd like to help him finish his breakfast. Zeal and her are worried at first, but he casually lies to them and says that he already ate, and these are extra. Honestly, he explains that his senses have returned and he's not...numb anymore, so it's all a little much. Zeal, fortunately, understands overstimulation and with this encouragement Serafina happily and hungrily digs into Vorach's food (he's definitely doing the cooking in their relationship) before Sidna storms out. When Zeal notes that, Vorach just says that we probably should be moving, it's a long journey, and that he'd get the horses ready. Zeal tries to stop him and tell him to eat, but Vorach falsely assures him that he's eaten all he can and just doesn't want to be sick on the journey, he'll eat more when they make camp. Zeal seems to accept this, but warns Vorach to think about what else the bargain could have been made for, and to be careful and gracious with the extra chance at life that Zeal gave him. Vorach nods, with a strangeness to his smile before leaving and slamming the door behind him - only forgotten by the arrival of the envoy who wished to see us before we were off. After some small discussions and determining that after they get their stock of healing potions they're also heading to Mornhaven, Zeal gave the envoy a letter to deliver on his behalf. ["Well, it wouldn't make much sense to deliver my own mail, would it?"] Ready to move to Mornhaven, he goes out to saddle his cart (Sidna's in the larger, ready to go) while Serafina quickly grabs Connie's attention. She pulls out an intricately twisted pendant on a rose gold chain, and after confirming that it's a gift in his culture (friendship) not hers (betrothal), he gratefully accepts and asks if she's willing to sit up front with Sidna today, explaining that they had a small tiff and just need some time to cool off. Session ends as we load into the cart, ready to be off!

Into the Woods It's time to Go

In bear form, Zeal takes the egg on his mighty back before attempting to lead the party forward towards the path deeper to our target. Serafina, in her own thoughts, hurries after him, leaving Sidna and Vorach to bring up the lead - Vorach briefly getting stuck in the mud, though Sidna was able to help him out. Serafina saw this and rolled her eyes, continuing on. When Zeal releases his wild shape, he passes the egg over. However, as we continue, Zeal seems a bunch of cocoons the same size as forearm length maggots the party had seen previously. Vorach's eyes go dark, and he sees Shadow churning inside of the cocoons, and he says that it'll be infinitely worse if they hatch, so he and Zeal dispatch them after Sidna and Serafina get a closer examination of them (they're crunchy near the surface and gooey inside, like the world's most disappointing souffle). They burn, and Zeal notices the black sludge he expected to escape them and flee towards the fountain aren't, instead burning up. As we continue, looking on, Serafina notices a humanoid shadow flitting through the trees and stops the party. When she explains what she saw and Zeal starts calling out in Undercommon, a fungimen approaches and makes motions for him to keep quiet. Everyone is able to tell that this one doesn't appear rabid. As it approaches, Vorach speaks to it in Undercommon (Zeal apparently doesn't know the language, just a phrase) and it offers small statements back in a broken version of the language. He explains there is a dangerous beast prowling in the woods (near the fountain) and that it's not safe in the village. He also gives a grave warning that frost is coming, and that their tribe has nowhere else to flee to; the frost seems to chase them? Vorach urges them to stay safe, and even teaches this phrase to Zeal, who begins echoing it to more fungimen who watch us as we turn our way back on our path. It's very similar to the phrasing of good-bye. Zeal slips as we travel, and manages to land on a rusty spear, but is able to patch himself up without too much issue. Vorach moves to try and offer him a rope harness to tie themselves together and keep them more secure, but Zeal distrusts Vorach would be able to help. Serafina is fed up and stomps over to tie herself off to Zeal instead and say that they need to keep moving. Zeal insinuates that maybe Connie will have a chance ahead to prove that he's a real orc, and Vorach gives him the dirtiest look before calling him something so foul in Anuic it stuns Sidna for a moment before he also stomps off. Zeal seems weary, but satisfied with this, as we're all moving in the right direction. It's barely 5 pm but it's already dark as evening, and we approach a huge bank of fog. Vorach's eyes glaze over with darkness, and his eyes provide sight beyond what he's even used to: clarity and focus offered to reveal a humanoid shape standing atop where the water should be ahead near a mass of darkness that churns and folds in on itself. He snaps back and attempts to make sense of this, saying he doesn't know what he saw, and snaps at Serafina to shut up when she makes a snide comment, shocking her. Sidna steps forward as Zeal ineffectively questions and elbows him quiet, giving a good orcish interrogation before moving everyone forward. As we arrive at the site of the fallen dragon, we discover that only one of its claws remains bound to the rift, which appears to be an almost fourth dimensional churning mass of reality that's painful to look at (and comprehend). The water has frozen over to ice, and standing near the dragon is an extremely pale elf in black robes with a high collar. He looks at us with disdain before sneering at Zeal and saying something in a foreign language with unmitigated disgust, and initiative begins. Vorach wheels around a shadow that the elf thing summons in front of Sidna, attempting to strike it with his own shadow, the necrotic damage that he attempted to deal not as effective as he hoped. Zeal, meanwhile, runs towards the actual elf and screams, "Where is my fother-mudging soul?" "Foolish traitor. You've disgraced your people and you will fall," it responds in Primordial, something that only Zeal can hear. It tries to grasp its head, but he natty 20s a wisdom saving throw, and its arm falls off into shadow before reforming at its side. Serafina lashes out with wicked psychic magic towards the shadow as Sidna and Vorach fall onto it, attacking it in tandem. At least until Vorach falls onto his butt on the ice. Zeal summons Echo and the two begin attacking the elfen figure, but he feels an ache in his chest as the cold begins to spread. You are the one who betrayed our queen, and I will spit on your grave. frozen wastes, his hands clean, being taken away. The rest of us see Zeal's skin begin to turn The dragon speaks to Zeal as the battle ends and expresses shock and joy that he's returned, for Jingahar thought we'd be too late. Zeal promises that we're there to help, and then we hear the faint roar of thunder in the distance that grows louder over half an hour, revealing itself to be Ulharst's wings. As it approaches, Zeal confides in us that he's lost his soul, and that all of his memories could be fake. He was just shown in some vision that the fire took him from that place. Although he has no idea who that elf was, he knows that he said he was a traitor to his people, apparently having betrayed some queen. Sidna asks if he knows about joining the cult, and he responds that the memories he trusts the most are the ones from after he joined the cult. While we're waiting for Ulharst, the markings on the egg begin to shift and move around, drawing Serafina's attention. Eventually, Ulharst does land, shattering the ice with his weight, and he greets us warmly, happy that we made it (though he had his doubts). He asks if we are ready, and in one swift motion he seizes the portal and slams it shut with his enormous paw. He asks for the egg, to relieve Jingahar of her pain, and Serafina raises it. As she does, Jingahar's bones, broken free from the ice, have started to move on their own to bind alongside the image of a translucent silver dragon, resplendent with beautiful, shifting patterns, stepping forward to be sccccchhhhhhhhhhhhlllllorped up by the egg. The text fades as it does, and the egg appears to be covered in silver scales rather than the intricate scrollwork from before. Vorach warns him that the surrounding land seems afflicted and there may be dangers, but Ulharst assures him that he's far stronger than anything around and will be fine, that he believes the shadows will come for him instead of the villagers. Having completed our task, he leans close and addresses Zeal first, saying that he's lost a soul, but that is not all he's lost. He is not truly what he thinks he is, and that his soul has lost a body, rather than the other way around. He is a puppet of the Elements, not Shadow. Someone sculpted this body, but it's not the person he thinks it is. Ulharst takes a moment to search, but it would seem the person who took Zeal's soul has already scattered her own. This is the most literal pilgrimage to find yourself ever. --Sonny, 2023 Serafina is covered in a layer of shadow magic and her curse can't be broken without either killing the person who put it on her or sacrificing someone she truly loves, just as the curse was placed on her (someone sacrificing someone they truly loved). She doesn't seem satisfied with this and asks if there's any way around this, and asks if there's any other way around it, but if there is it's beyond even him. He advises instead she learn to live with it, which wrinkles her. Sidna, similarly, gets offended when the potion which she is owed for her own, mysterious reasons is insinuated to potentially be squandered, her distaste clear even to the most oblivious of himbos standing down the row. And it was to the slimbo at the end which the dragon turned to last, though Vorach attempted to turn him away. He didn't have anything Vorach sought after, or so he thought. Sidna asked, on his behalf, if the dragon could cure him of his curse. The dragon considered Vorach before saying that he could free him of the ties to the entity, yes, and Vorach stepped forward with disbelief. When Ulharst touched his claw to Vorach's forehead Vorach was internally engulfed in shadow, and his patron pleaded with him to abstain, but Vorach shouted that he wanted nothing to do with him, raging for the being to get out of his body. The patron agreed, he was just a victim, but Vorach was *his* victim, and if he wouldn't suffer for his father's crime, then his mother would. Immediately Vorach lurched away from the dragon, pleading with the shadows to leave his mother alone. Seeing this, Sidna instead suggested that the creature might be destroyed, which the dragon agreed was a possibility - though it would be a greater challenge to Vorach's body, especially in his weakened state. Vorach agreed without hesitation. After all, he's an (half-)orc. If he can kill his enemy, even if he should die it will be an honourable death. Sidna agrees to carry him to Hesjingmajak if he can't walk, and he steps forward again. This time, when the claw connects, a bolt of lightning shoots from the heavens and strikes Garna's spear, surging through Vorach's body and doing EXACTLY enough damage to kill him outright. The spear was left upright as Vorach collapsed, dead. Immediately, the party rushed forward, cries of disbelief spilling from their lips and magic from their fingertips as they attempted to stir their friend, but it was for naught. Nor, it seemed, could the dragon do anything about this course of events - to restore life to this creature was beyond his power, especially when it was his power that fried him, and Zeal hurriedly floated the idea of a fae bargain, which the dragon said could potentially work. Zeal wasted no time and grabbed Vorach's body, running back the way they had come, with Serafina grabbing Garna's spear and Sidna shooting the dragon a particularly rancid look as they ran towards the entryway to the Faewild they had passed not so long ago. He runs so quickly and with such focus he does not realise that he no longer is treading through the water, instead freezing it and running atop. -- In death, there's no more black void. Instead, Connie wakes up in his childhood home. He, for a moment, is sad...as if he knows something bad would happen. But that can't be possible, because it's his birthday! His 18th! He's a man today, in his father's culture, and he's agreed to go into town to learn more about his side of the family business. He races downstairs, past the descending portaits of his family's growing homestead and indeed a gallery of his own life, from a bump in Garna's belly to the smiling boy in the portrait from last year in matching cloaks with the other occupants. His father is making his favourite: griddlecakes with slightly overripe blueberries. His mother is working on some leather contraption at the table, carefully shaping it to repair something for his father. It is rare that a child is appreciative of all the good in his life, but Vorach has been raised well, and he is grateful and happy for his peaceful existence. Nothing could ruin this. -- The party races through the archway, Serafina turning once more into an elfen woman. Sidna hesitates for but a moment before chasing after, and Zeal runs up to place Vorach's body on the altar. But...he's moving. Constantine opens his eyes, his healthy, large frame stands up, and he smiles happily at his friends, though he's confused. Where's Serafina? The party interrogates him, but his confusion over minute details, such as his own death and the fact that he had magic, are enough to convince them that he is an imposter. He's confused, but follows them to a nearby altar, in front of which there is a ring of unlit candles. Zeal lights one, which sprouts a flower rather than a flame, and that flower entrances Serafina, who sees a little mouse on her shoulder. Only she sees this, and when she talks to it, she's actually doing it in her head, although she thinks she's speaking aloud. They agree to smell flowers together, and spend a great deal of time doing that, until Connie manages to shake her from her reverie. Unfortunately, his appeals to Zeal while she was tripping balls were not met, and he seems deadset on making a deal with the fae entity which has manifested in the form of an enormous oak beyond the altar (sorta like the Great Deku tree). He bargains his beauty, at last, for Vorach's life - although Vorach again pleads with him to reconsider making any sort of magical deal with an entity he doesn't know, saying that everything in his body said this was wrong. Zeal continued, regardless, and Constantine vanished in a puff of smoke after he walked into the gaping mouth of the tree entity. Sidna turned, realising that Vorach was instead laying face-down on the threshold to the fae realm, and as she and Serafina rushed over they were relieved beyond measure to discover some of his colour had returned to chase out the grey, and that he was breathing far faster than he did when he was cursed. Zeal exits the tree, looking...awful. He's got a hunch, he's got mussed teeth, his hair is barely there, and his unearthly elven beauty is gone. But, seeing Sidna and Serafina with Vorach, he smiles and pulls out a silk handkerchief before beginning to carefully clothe himself, covering his new features before approaching and healing Vorach with a spell. As the man stirred, his eyes no longer a shadowy grey but a soft pastel green the colour of mint. "I own your ass," he said, before pulling the half-orc into a hug. Vorach, in disbelief, looked down at himself as Serafina approached and told him that if he ever died again, she'd kill him, kissing him on the cheek and drawing a hard blush to his face that threatened to send him unconscious. However, in the moments before, there was something that almost went unnoticed. However, Sidna is well aware of orcish emotions, and caught a rare insight into Vorach's mind, and saw a sadness in his eyes that was quickly dashed away by his embarrassment over the kiss. For some reason, she felt a deep cold in her stomach, and that's where we ended the session.

Moonspring

Last week I lost my sublime text file and (sob cry) couldn't recover it so here are the cliffnotes! While Zeal was off being a superhero and saving the village from the fungimen, Connie and Sidna found out that his dark powers were capable of absorbing Shadow from others, though at a terrible cost. Serafina was willing to put her own safety at risk by contacting someone from her past who might have an answer for such awful situations, but the party was waylaid in the absence of their friend. Now together, we resume... --- Back in Poppy's house, Constantine is nearly catatonic in a chair with Poppy hovering nearby, fretting over him and Sidna as they recover from their horrible no-good very bad experience. Zeal, returning to the house, speaks with Gio about his magic and the strange conjunction between his magic and its sources, and Gio says that it is because he is undisciplined and not focused, offering to teach Zeal. -- Zeal recognises that while he is a guard of the envoy, he is not from the Northerlands. -- Zeal considers this, but when Gio then also offers him to follow along with the envoy Zeal turns down the offer. After a moment of consideration of Zeal's situation, he tells Zeal to wait a moment before flipping through his spellbook and finding a spell that he "doesn't use much, but might help you out". He points at Zeal and begins chanting in a very harsh language that Zeal doesn't recognise, flinching at the end of his spell (He takes 15 and heals Zeal 30). Zeal thanks him, and again when Gio says that Zeal has gonads, explaining that he did what he did because it was a helpful thing to do - and he hopes to be helped in the future. Going to check on the others, he didn't see Serafina but found Sidna and Constantint sitting across from each other and commisserating in aNUIC. The two did not offer much, with Zeal commenting on how he had handled saving the village, but the two of them looked even worse than him. Vorach, fed up with the entire day, whispered "Sleepy-Bye" under his breath before passing tf out. Sidna relaxes a bit when she sees this, and goes to ask Poppy for a place to lay down, with the woman setting up the tables in her workshop to serve as makeshift beds. Zeal also approached Poppy to ask for some herbal help, receiving a spongy moss ball that he took outside to attempt to smoke. Serafina stepped out to ask Poppy the best way to deliver her letter, and Poppy said the best bet would be to head to the tavern and hire someone there or ask the tavern keeper to, or to pass it off to a member of the Cult of Rane'fete, which is free but the slowest. Serafina nods before heading back to bed, and Sidna contemplates writing some herself before bed but realises that her hands are shaking too much to write and so instead pulls out some of her alchemist's ingredients. Briefly using her bed for its original purpose, she makes herself some more of her special antidote, utilising Poppy's help (Medicine check 21!) to make two doses. As Zeal lights, a faint purple smoke begins to emit from the end of his pipe, and he takes a deep inhale before exhaling out. As the drug hits (con save 6, wisdom save 15 (dis)), he starts to feel so tired that he crosses his legs and begins to relax, beginning to extend his senses out to feel into the night and try to be beyond himself. As he does, he feels a sense of peace that's emboldened by the drugs he's been using, yet as he drifts to this moment of meditation he goes even beyond that - eyes falling shut enetirely. In the darkness, it's like there's warm fog everywhere, and he wakes in what seems to be a meadow at daytime. As cold begins to engulf his outer extremities, a sudden warmth and scent of spices embraces him (wisdom save 22) - a familiar one to that which comes off of Echo. Turning, he sees a female figure next to him, different complexion. Slightly tan, she's beautiful but he can't look at her face, and as they sit together though days seem to pass the day never fades and he begins to feel a pulsating warmth within himself again as his fire reignites and he feels as though something...unlocks. He closes his eyes, feeling peaceful, and "ignites". When he opens his eyes next, the meadow around him is entirely engulfed in flame, and the person sitting beside him is no longer humanoid, but instead the familiar form of Echo. Then the sun which he feels on his face is not that of a drug trip or a dream, but the real sun, and he finds himself awake the next morning.

TIME BULLSHIT, Sidna also hears things! They're private, but she had something at night --

Walking back inside, Zeal is met by Gio, who remarks that he must have had a pleasant dream, with Zeal agreeing that he saw a beauty before going to sit down and get his morning brew. Zeal mentions that he reconnected with his fire, and Gio asked if he intended to keep practising. Zeal says he will, and if it looks fruitful then he'll give it is all, seeking more refined control over his magic and himself. Gio nods, agreeing that it is dangerous, and that the key is what he said the previous evening: control. As Serafina took pity to drag Vorach into the room, he wakes up early and guilts himself into an existential crisis that only worsens after he fails an insight check and thinks Sidna is in more pain, when she is - in fact - in less pain. They speak without speaking, using facial expressions and the jutting of their jaws, before getting up to clean - Vorach distraught and Sidna nonplussed, more on her mind than what was in the room. As she leaves to wash up, Vorach moves to wake Serafina and finds she's been awake basically all night, and she looks awful. He hands her some clementines, and she jokes "What, no pomegranate?" Unfortunately, he's so dumb that he's genuinely upset he doesn't have any more pomegranate for her and offers her a slightly mushy dragon fruit instead, with her disgust then causing him to throw it from the room in typical orcish problem solving fashion. One more miscommunication and the two were chasing each other from the room, racing to the kitchen in an attempt to make breakfast for the other(s). Sidna stepped aside with the envoy to discuss a message being sent to a particular noble: Lady Camellia of Redmark. The message was as follows: Tell her that her knight is fine and her knight is safe her knight is in good hands, and she will return to her as soon as she can. In one piece. Zeal, the dastard!, listened in on this conversation through a summoned mouse, quietly recounting it for those nearby who wished to hear. Overcome by embarrassment over having to spill her heart to the envoy, she doesn't even notice the tiny mouse. In the kitchen, Serafina and Vorach are neck in neck on the race to feed each other first, but Vorach has an advantage: institutional wealth. Pulling out expensive spices, he makes a truly fantastic flavour palette that is far too extreme [because of his curse, he is unable to taste most things unless they are extremes] and causes Serafina to sputter before stepping in to correct. He doesn't seem too upset by this, though, offering her an easy and charming smile before stepping off to serve (and in fact sharing some of his spices with Zeal for the original flavour). Over breakfast, they discuss their next step and agree that it's off on the way to the swamp, with Zeal remembering to help Poppy and Sidna giving fleshwort samples to help her resupply her stock. After a brief discussion on the ethics of using corpses that had not consented to grow fleshwort to do so, the party proceeded off with their enormous egg in an effort to fulfil their mission. Serafina makes a quick stop at the post office, paying two gold to mail off a missive to her homeland (finding out that there's an unending snowstorm that's making travel difficult throughout the southern end of Rovaria), and then we head out into the forest, with Zeal leading, Sidna after, Serafina with the egg, and Vorach at the end. Retracing the party steps, Vorach covers their steps and makes notice of the darkness in the maggot-infested pits throughout the forest, magically whispering to Sidna that *that* was what he had pulled out of her the previous night, eliciting a shocked reaction and a stern look that told him they'd discuss it later. Continuing on, they come to a split in the road, where Zeal becomes entranced with a path that leads towards a strange urban development with fireflies and an arched path. Vorach, however, has seen a vision of a twisting fountain of shadow in the distance that he is entranced by, stopped in the middle of the swamp path staring forward. Serafina is entranced by the firefly, and after Sidna raises her voice Vorach snaps out of his reverie and notices Serafina stepping away. As a firefly lands on him and is immediately destroyed by the shadow that flows through and around him, he calls out, "Stop her! Don't go in!" However, in his haste to stop Serafina, he didn't notice the archway himself and stepped past. Within, under a warm summer's embrace, Serafina and Vorach's previous forms were revealed, with the former being a beautiful elfen woman with pale skin, blonde hair, and striking violet eyes. His skin bloomed from grey to a deep hunter green, his build blossoming out to be strong once more and his voice deepening as he stood taller. He was a hunk! Unfortunately, Sidna didn't enter the magical dream bubble of take away your chronic pain, and she used her Big Girl Voice to do a D.A.R.E ad against peer pressure, Commanding Vorach out of it. Once out, he immediately returned to his awful, sickly state and thanked her after crying and retching in pain for a solid 6 seconds, standing. He used his darkness to let the others break the spell, but while Zeal could find his way out, Serafina was stuck, and Vorach ran in after tying a rope around his waist and handing the other end to Sidna. He was, sadly, able to drag her out and throw the two beyond the border, returning each to their altered forms and leaving both miserable beyond measure. Quietly, he tried to apologise, and she simply stood to continue on her way - ignoring his hand offered to help her up. Sadly, he asked if he did the right thing, but neither Zeal nor Sidna's reassurances could convince him he had. We'll continue next week!

A Forest Without Bandits

Rest finds us throughout the evening, as the camera turns to Sidna's memories of her conversations with Svenna the previous evening. She sat down on her bed to be met with curious questions of how it went, and casually responded that the fact she returned means it must have meant pretty well, a cheeky grin on her face. "We did what we had to do." Svenna is flabbergasted, saying how surreal it feels, with Sidna remarking that they're just bandits, even going so far as to show her proof of victory in a backpack full of hands. She assures Svenna she'll get rid of them before turning in, she certainly doesn't want to sleep in a room full of exposed hands, and Svenna takes this opportunity to tell her about her new fortunes and her job here! Sidna jokingly brings her back to reality by waving Gir's hand in the air, getting a small laugh from her before Serafina rushes in to get help for Zeal. -- The camera pans out, now, and moves to the boy's room as Zeal wakes up. He notices his stitches and feels something weird: cold, not just heat and rage, inside of him. He remembers, though, Beans' scam and moves to out-cheat the cardsharp, lengthening his necklace so that he can look through it and win the game more easily. He heads downstairs, ready to win, and sees Svenna moving around with Lucy to get things ready for breakfast, and he orders himself an orange juice and a wine - making the world's first and saddest mimosa. Vorach and Serafina wake up in close proximity to each other, the former doing so first and sneaking downstairs before washing up in the stables. He waits outside, kicking the tarp under the awning and noting that it's very likely to rain today, then sitting at the door and waiting for someone else to come downstairs so that he won't be alone in the room with him. Serafina stretches before pulling her flute out and beginning to play, an enchanting disney princess like melody that really brightens everyone else's morning. Sidna, hearing this, has a bit of a spring in her step and decides to take a bath, passing Zeal and taking Vorach's place at the barrel. He groaned and wished her a good morning before offering her privacy, stepping inside and sitting at the table with Zeal as the two exchange awkward morning greetings. Serafina comes downstairs, but also moves to the barrel, exchanging her greetings with Sidna, who dunks herself before heading back upstairs to get dressed and write in her journal before coming back down. When Serafina comes back in and sits from the barrel, Zeal (thinking they are a couple) moves over to play with Beans, who is grumbling about the fact that he lost half his gold overnight somehow, to which Zeal offers to help him maybe fill it back up! He sets down a wager of 5 gold and gets him excited. Zeal uses his magic necklace, which he can see through, to get the upper hand and takes Beans' pot, winning 20 gold. Serafina is trying hard not to laugh, and reassures a sad looking Connie that he does NOT have to give Beans any of his gold. Zeal, excited about his winnings, goes and gives Svenna and Lucy a gold each before sweeping his hair out of his face and going back to the table. There, he concentrates for just a moment before summoning a pitch black crow companion, whom he names Krowk. A farmer takes note of this, and asks if he's a wizard. He affirms that he's, instead, the familiar, and when the farmer is confused Vorach mimes to him that Zeal might be drunk. Sidna heads downstairs and asks why there's a spirit inside, and Zeal explains he summoned it. As she sits down, Vorach pipes up and demands, "No more executing prisoners," explaining that if it happens again he's going to start swinging and he'll take down whoever does it. Then, he apologises, saying he had a plan to have Serafina help him say shit so he wouldn't be an asshole, but he's gotta be honest. Sidna fortunately is on his side, and chastens Zeal when he doesn't take it seriously, the party coming to a consensus to no longer act in monstrous manners. With the weight in the air cleared, Vorach's personality almost seems to swap, and he happily encourages Zeal's skill at cards and then offers to handle the cart and corpses while the others head into town to collect the bounty for the bandits. In the Lawmaker's quarters, they gave 6 goblin hands (5/per 30g) and 5 bandit hands (25/per 125g), and even convinced her that the extra effort with the leader would net them an extra 10 gold for a total of 165 gold. Serafina is handed the chest of gold by Sidna to look out for. A little bit into the journey, Sidna unclenches her jaw and as casually as she can asks Serafina for some travelling music, with Vorach piping up that he likes bluegrass after Sidna says that she's good with anything. Not much longer after, the rain starts. While the wagon is comfortable and three of us are dry, Zeal, Greg, and Krowk have their own impromptu session in the rain (fuck the Lawkeeper!). A few hours later, closer to noon, we approach the checkpoint and Vorach hops out with 4 copper and a peach for the guard, wishing him a dry evening! However, Zeal is a sly man, and as the guard goes to eat the peach he creates the sound of thunder right behind him, startling him and making him drop the fruit, to which Zeal sends Krowk to fetch it, cleaning it off on his vest and eating. The rest of the journey passes without issue, with no oncoming traffic. Sidna posits this may be because they're no longer selling the potions that Moonspring was known for. As we approach, though, it's *notably* dark and quiet, with the only figure we see that of a lumbering one with a floppy hat that ran away from us. We agree that it's not our problem until they make it our problem, though, and we continue onwards - Vorach suggesting maybe we look at the tavern to see if something's wrong. Sidna doesn't notice much on the drive there, but Zeal does seem to notice that there's a bunch of people in the houses who are peeking out and then quickly hiding when they see some of us are out there. Sidna and Zeal's senses of divinity and magic both feel a sense of wrongness in the air, and after a quick game of Vorach Telephone we start to move towards Poppy, the alchemist's. As we move through town, we notice way more of the shamblers, and Sidna steps on the gas, so to speak, as we make way as quick towards Poppy's with minimal detours. They keep skittering off before we can really get any look at them, but Zeal manages to notice through his special eye necklace that we're being followed, and Zeal encourages us to step on it even further. Sidna tells Serafina to keep an eye out behind us, and we zoom! On the way closer, we come across a cart stationery on the road, with a bunch of shapes moving around it. Connie fails a perception check miserably and notices nothing, but Zeal does hear a lot of grunting! As we get closer, figures begin to approach, rather than fleeing. We approach and see it's in fact a bunch of fungus like people, who Zeal starts to speak to in Undercommon, yet they don't...seem to respond, properly. They're feral. Sidna sees two guards standing ahead with spears outstretched in a defencive position. Sidna looks to the others, and Vorach affirms "I'm on your 6". She elects to ignore the mushrooms around us and move towards the guards, no use fighting the things around us. She takes the wagon in a wide circle, and we see the guards trying to fight off some fungimen who are attempting to drag a horse into a pit full of bodies. Sidna tries to question them but can't get all her questions out in time, so Vorach leaps out of the wagon and flings some black fire towards one of the fungimen, calling out, "Burning's not better, light 'em up!" More fungimen charge Zeal's cart, being full of corpses, but are seemingly unable to do much more than smack at his horse, Greg, and so he uses a withering touch spell and kills a fungimen in one hit. Sidna calls to the guards and Vorach, and the three pile into the wagon at the first chance they can, with Zeal speeding up and attaching his cart to the wagon before hopping off. He asks Vorach if he can burn the bit, and Vorach says his magic's not strong enough - fire isn't really his thing. Zeal says he'll take care of it, and as the wagon speeds off Vorach throws a final dark flame towards the fungimen to kill one before Zeal runs ahead to throw down a layer of vines and plant growth over the pit. They're able to get out of the tangles, unfortunately, but Zeal still manages to get over and throw a huge gout of fire from his hands, killing fungimen, fungiwomen, and fugichildren alike. At Poppy's, Sidna rushes to Poppy's to get the party sanctuary as Vorach moves to the back to help everyone off of the wagon. She notices that the interior looks barricaded and dark, which she deems to be a good sign. She pounds on the door with her palm and shouts to ask if Poppy is in there, a faint yeah answered a few moments later. She doesn't remember who the party is, but Sidna reminds her that they'd previously done her a favour, and we're allowed in: a short little halfling named Gio di Pace there instead of Poppy, who was expected. It was a terrible choice to make, but we cut the horses loose and set them free to run - they're smart enough and this is spooky enough that they know to run for their lives and avoid the fungimen, thankfully! Sidna, Serafina, the guards, and Gio run in, with Vorach staying outside and dropping magical darkness to keep a watch out for Zeal and offer him a bit of safety. Back at the corpse pit, Zeal summons Echo, who shrivels one of the remaining corpses before exploding the other, the two of them taking care of the pit to wither it entirely and keep them from propagating. Quickly, he ran into the house and assured the safety of the farmer inside, then ran towards Poppy's, finding Vorach waiting for him and then popping inside to the house after Vorach explained the door was still barricaded. To his credit, he went to have his Echo teleport out and bring Connie in, too, but instead Connie jumped in through the window and tumbled across the floor a few times. Damn impatient orcs! Inside, there was Poppy, a half-elf dressed very well, two human guards we brought in with us, Gio the halfling, and a small figure in the corner somewhat hiding, with the torso of a person and the bottom of a horse. Vorach asks if they can tell us what happens, Sidna echoing his demand to know, and Poppy stammers out her answer: After Sidna and Zeal's party brought back the mushrooms the last time, Poppy started to breed them in the pit to keep potion production going, and it seemed to be going pretty well until today when it got cloudy and super dark, they went feral and appear to be avoiding light and fire. The envoy isn't contributing much to the conversation, and is instead just being a posh fuck. Gio is a master of the arcane arts, thankfully, and can provide us some arcane support. Zeal asks if he can get some alchemist's fire from Poppy, and Sidna has a realisation and makes to follow her into her workshop. Serafina and Vorach work together to make sure the guards are okay - they aren't really cut up, having taken a lot of bludgeoning damage - and seem to be doing okay, they just need to rest. Back in Poppy's workshop, Sidna worriedly asks if she's managed to sell any of the mushroom potions the past few days, or the raw materials. No to each, thankfully, with nothing leaving Moonspring. They put their heads together, but with no obvious factors beyond the dark clouds coming in, they can't seem to figure it out. Zeal asks the centaur if he has heard anything weird about the farmer, since he's the only other local beyond Poppy, but the boy only knows that the farmer likes money. Zeal heads off with Echo to try and investigate the farmer's house further and see if he stole some mushrooms to grow in his cellar. Sidna continues to ask about local details, and finds that some have gone into the forest to harvest for local things, but apparently the forest has felt cold lately. Unfortunately that's the only strange thing, other than it's a little...cold, which they attributed to winds coming in from the mountain. As she comes back with three bottles of oil and Poppy carrying some alchemist's fire, we end the session with Zeal's disappearance. Important note: SERAFINA HAS THE EGG.

Session 16: LOCKET?!?!

The scene blooms in to Sidna handing Vorach a locket, which he confusedly looked over before glancing inside and freezing at the sight of a human man and a half-orc child. Fortunately, they are dressed in the clothing of northerners, and it cannot be his mother's locket: yet the realisation sinks heavy on him and he morosely tucks it away as he realises that another orcish woman may have been through here recently, meaning his clues towards his mother may not even be his mother. The party continues to pile up the corpses in the corpse wagon (fortunately 8 humanoid corpses fit, and we could even put some more goblins in! Instead, though, we just make sure we have the goblinoid hands, and then Zeal executes the goblin which had surrendered, drawing an immediate offence from Vorach and turning his attitude nasty towards Zeal. There was a brief stand-off between the two before Serafina suggested we head back to town instead of sitting in the forest arguing. The party agrees, and we take another hour or so to leave the woods the way we came in, and then press on to Clearwater through the evening. As we go through the small hamlet between Hesjingmajak and Clearwater, we notice that one of the smaller huts has been turned into a drinking house, and the mood is rather somber - Vorach pauses at the road turning into the hamlet and places down an apple, a piece of hardtack, and two copper coins, quietly saying, "I hope you're not hurting wherever you are now." Back on the cart, Zeal has used his thaumaturgy cantrip to create the sound of an air electric ukelele, creating a terribly awful racket to accompany the smell of corpses. With several people travelling and giving the party odd looks, Vorach hurries ahead, maintaining a distance of about 15 feet before the party. We find a new shrine erected, with Vorach believing it to belong to his god (Ixen) and Zeal his (Ran'efete). Vorach asks about the shrine, and if there are any customs for it that Zeal knows of beyond what he does: a small offering of food/coin [turns out this is lore accurate!]. As the sky goes down, Zeal lights his staff ablaze, with Vorach attaching a lantern to his belt as well, using his special eyes to keep an eye out. We arrive back at the inn and are, thankfully, unmolested as we all begin to wind down. Vorach stables and brushes down the horses before hauling the cart out back and spending 45 minutes attempting to cover it with the tarp, poorly. Zeal finally takes mercy on him and moves out to relieve him, saying he'll keep an eye out for necromancers. This shocks Vorach so much he briefly forgets he's mad at Zeal and incredulously asks with wide eyes, "NECROMANCERES?! Is that a problem around here?!" To which Zeal promptly responds, "Nope!" Completely baffled, Vorach shoves the tarpaulin into his chest and wanders into the tavern to find some food. Taking advantage of the solitude provided by the corpse scent and the darkness, Zeal attempts to meditate and focus on his flame, reaching inwards towards what feels like a small, flickering wildfire. Finding something, he takes a few minutes to step away to the nearby riverbank, taking a seat and a deep breath before resigning himself to give in. He uses his smarts, removing his top so it does not get burned (it was very expensive!) -- In the tavern, Serafina sees Vorach staring out the window into the darkness, saying how he sees a really bright beacon down by the river, like some rutilated quartz. She, of course, can see nothing, so she pats his shoulder and says, "Okay, Connie, let's go sit down." He nods and says, "We should go get some food, and then, y'know, blah blah blah." Serafina misconstrues this as him hitting on her and blushes deeply, and with a 17 insight, Vorach has a grand realisation: She must clearly be into Lucy, the tavern keeper and is blushing at the thought of seeing her. He gives her the sly grin of a confidante and assures her that Lucy and her mum both like him, and he'll put in a good word for Serafina to her. She is...completely stupefied, and the two stumble off to food as the camera returns back to Zeal. -- Zeal's meditations by the river prove fruitful, allowing him grander insight into himself. Why doesn't he remember anything from...his childhood? He should, he knows he should, but nothing of his family, his home, his...anything. He feels himself drawn further and further into himself, a deep, sorrowful chill permeating throughout until he is suddenly jerked back into the warm summer evening he was in. He shivers, getting his coat and putting it back on before also draping on the tarpaulin that Vorach had thrown at him, creating a truly rank scent but allowing him a slightly warmer disposition. Inside, Sidna mutters something in Duasaric before heading upstairs, done with people for the day. At the table, Serafina and Vorach talk quietly, Vorach asking about her languages before Vorach quietly asked her if she was, "Really okay with what Zeal did back there?" She waffled for a moment, saying that in hindsight she could say that it definitely seemed like something that was a little extreme, but she couldn't really say. Vorach nodded, and then continued in the same quiet voice, explaining that there were some lines that couldn't be crossed. What if his mother surrendered, and someone put an arrow through her head because she was "just an orc", or "would have caused trouble later anyway"? This seemed to hit Serafina a little harder, and she frowned before nodding and saying she understood why he was so upset. He asked for her help in talking to Zeal about this, admitting that he almost attacked the man earlier in the moment over his actions, so that way they could keep the peace and find a way forward. She points out that he probably won't listen to her, to which Vorach responds that she's really good at talking to people - at least he thinks so - and Sidna would just kick his ass if he tried to ask her for help. "Maybe that's what he needs," Serafina joked, but agreed to help him if he really thought that of her. He goes to say that it would have been an awkward night in the room with only Beans to keep the two men apart, then realises they have not seen Beans since they got back, and looks around the room. In the corner, Beans is playing Madmen! He seems to be doing very, VERY well and is taking people for their money, so Vorach takes a simple buy-in of 1 silver for a friendly game. Note: a "friendly" game in orcish culture is one that does not devolve into a fistfight. Second note: Monopoly is banned in many orc tribes. He shuffles and cuts, Beans noting his technique before the two draw their cards. Vorach takes the first round with beginners luck, and Beans doubles the bet. Beans takes the second round, and so Vorach doubles the bet for the final hand. Serafina, who had been watching from the side, realises that there are runes carefully disguised within the surface of the cards, and that Beans has an unfair advantage over the half-orc. So, as the final cards are being flipped, her deftly hidden minor illusion turned Beans' winning queen into a 3, which lost to Vorach's six, winning him the pot! Though Beans was suspicious, the two shook hands and smiled at each other, Vorach encouraging the rest of the crowd that they still had a chance if even someone like /him/ could win. He steps over to Serafina as patrons swarm the table with their bags of gold, and excitedly shows her his winnings, thanking her for explaining the rules of the game to him by taking her to the counter and buying her a cup of wine (the bottle is a bit too expensive this time). -- Back outside, Zeal snaps back to reality from his panic attack, the scent of corpses, dung, and more enough to bring him to focus. He realises, as he rubs his eyes, that half of his face is cold - his first instinct to use a fire spell and burn his face is thankfully bitten down, and instead he snuggles against Rubble for several long minutes until he goes and tromps back in. Vorach, meanwhile, handed over some oranges to Lucy when she asked if he wouldn't be having anything to drink saying they had some juice, asking if she wouldn't mind making some fresh juice keeping the extra for herself (she was flattered!). She steps away to make it, and Vorach explains that his dad taught him that trick to help reduce costs during travel - causing her to bite back a sarcastic comment about it. Their next statements are interrupted by the stench, rather than the sight, of Zeal as he enters into the bar and proceeds to induce a round of nausea and retching in those gathered. People start heckling, so Vorach asks Serafina to run up and grab Svenna for help. Carefully, he helps Zeal out to the barrel, listening as the man tries to explain his condition and slowly tuning in as Zeal explains his apparent amnesia. Vorach asks grounding questions, annoying Zeal slightly but ensuring that it wasn't something caused by the days' earlier fight. He asks what the earliest thing Zeal remembers is, and he thinks for a moment before answering: leaving the village he was raised in. He then asks Vorach a haunting question: Do you think memories are tied to the soul? As he asked, his eyes sent a shiver down Vorach's spine - they were dead and lifeless, too close to the eyes he sees in the mirror every day, and so he promptly did the most nonviolently orcish thing he could, and immediately dunked Zeal head-first into the water barrel. This would repeat as he discovered it helped, marginally, with the scent, and the impromptu waterboarding of Zeal began in earnest. Upstairs, Serafina enters the shared room and sees Sidna and Svenna talking, quickly asking for help. They both ask what's wrong, looking slightly concerned, but when it's announced that it's Zeal, Sidna sighs and says, "Not it," before turning and flopping into her bed. Svenna comes instead, and the two venture downstairs to find the tavern empty of their quarry, but fortunately the sound of splashing brought them outside, where they found them. Vorach pulled Zeal upright and smacked his back, causing him to cough up a little water and look around. Vorach explains to Svenna that even though technically she doesn't owe them anything, Zeal got hurt helping end those bandits, and it would be a very big help if she could sew up the wounds after Vorach disinfected them: he's too squeamish to sew flesh. She says that Sidna would be a better choice. Vorach agrees, and warily asks if anyone wants to go wake up Sidna. Svenna thinks about it for a moment and then agrees to help. Serafina takes up Zeal's jacket and takes it inside to mend, even getting some buttons from Lucy to add (Sonny wants to clarify that his jacket had buckles before, so now it has a bunch of buckles and two buttons XD) as Vorach heats up a pail of water and uses cheese-cloth to carefully scrub the grime and dirt out of Zeal's wounds before Svenna closed them - pretty well done, too! He notes a triple-x close and remarks about Svenna signing her name, to which she responds, "...my name starts with an S." He is delighted that she can read, and Vorach leans in and whispers that it's a good thing he's pretty. She asks if he really is? He considers, and then amends: it's a good thing he's got abs. She nods, then says he's not her type, which Vorach agrees to - Svenna discovers that Vorach is bi Together they all carried Zeal in towards the fire to get him warm and fed. Serafina slips off after spying Beans sleeping, drunk, near his winnings and carefully palmed the pouch, noting he won about 100 gold! She took half, and then took twenty of that for herself before giving thirty to Vorach and telling him, "Good job today." She heads upstairs towards bed, but hears Sidna snoring and remembered Willow had paid up for the week, instead taking the empty room for herself. Vorach is taken aback by this, and as Serafina heads up to bed he turns his attention to Svenna and asks about her plans now that she's free of the bandits haunting her past. She explains that she actually got a job here at the inn, helping out Lucy and her mum around. She seems genuinely happy and excited, and Vorach sheepishly admits that much of the bandit camp was destroyed by fire: he couldn't find her pouch to return her belongings to her, but she seemed to think that the wealth within was soured by its unsavoury history, and was happier to start over fresh, even if she didn't really have anything. Vorach considered this for a moment, and then gave her five gold pieces - saying it was a gift, an investment if she wanted, in herself. He explained he knew how hard it could be for someone to leave a bad past behind to try and start something new and fresh, and that he'd rather her have something to fall back on than having to go back to a life of crime. She seems genuinely touched and offers him a hug, and though she doesn't hug Zeal (mostly because of the odour), she also personally thanks him for putting his life on the line for hers. They come to the understanding they'll all be meeting in the morning over breakfast to discuss next steps and keep everyone in the same loop, and all head off to bed. However, Vorach still peeved at Zeal's earlier actions and even more peeved at himself for private reasons, also detoured from his original room to Willow's empty room. It was dark when he entered, but his special eyes were easily able to make out the occupant of one of the three beds, and so he carefully stepped over to an empty one. Thinking Serafina asleep, he quietly cursed in Anuic and worked himself up, to the point of infuration, before promptly casting sleep on himself and crashing for the evening. Turns out, Serafina was awake, however, and it is only after the spell goes off that she quietly whispers, "Have a good night, Connie."

Session 15: Oh my god she just ran in

As the smoke stacks soar into the sky, the party (who DEFINITELY ISN'T FULL OF PEE PEE BOYS WE'RE --NOT--) picks up speed to try and rejoin with Willow and Zeal, Sidna charging through the brush whilst Vorach manages to slip through without any danger, both arriving insanely quickly to see goblins attempting to regain their minds in the aftermath of Willow's sneak attack. Zeal attempts to sway the goblins to our side by bamfing his fiery woman echo into the middle of the camp, with the bandits roasting just a lil bit. Not as much as Lord Gir, though, whose skin crackled as he stood up out of the fire before beginning to hoof it back up the cliff. The bandits begin to launch a volley of arrows, Sidna and Vorach arriving a little early as they ran quickly towards the camp. Vorach drops a sphere of darkness to disrupt the archers from Zeal, drawing one towards himself even as Sidna stealthily makes her way the long way around. Willow decimates a goblin that runs forward, dropping it where it stands.

Session 14: B-bandits pwease?

As the adventure begins, the reins are handed over to Willow, who decides that we'll be heading north along the road towards the same fishing hamlet we'd passed by earlier, her ranger's expertise enough to keep the journey somewhat safe. As we traveled, we discussed tactics. From her time spent observing them in the past, Willow knows that they don't really have any super set meal times, instead eating throughout the day and dispersing in small groups. Willow doesn't know that the bandits have a leader, or she'd have already tried to take them out, and she seems just a little out of it to Vorach, but is very good at concealing whatever emotions she might be feeling inside. The plan, tentatively, becomes to have her sneak inside of the camp with an accompanied Zeal shifted into the body of a raccoon, with Vorach and Zeal both making plans to help her escape through means of darkness and...weird fiery echo ladies, respectively. As we begin to pass our way through the hamlet, we see that in the hamlet there's a strange new woman: instead of the mostly hearty fishing folk, there is a new silhouette! A woman in a mostly featureless mask (with tears appearing to stream down its front) is standing there talking to a resident outside of their house. She is a member of the 'Path of the Last Journey', part of the same cult that Zeal is a member of! They're dedicated to a morbid aspect of life, which is the ending of life, and act as executors of people's last wishes. Serafina seems somewhat put off and suggests we keep moving, a slightly lighter reaction than Vorach, who almost goes catatonic upon seeing her. Willow asks who that person is and what they are, but Sidna clamps her hand over the halfling's mouth and hisses a quiet, "Later." Another two hours later, and we're near the place where we found Beans, and where the group previously found Svenna, too! Zeal grabs some mistletoe from his pack and manifests some goodberries, passing them out to the party (Vorach gives his extra one to Willow for Mr. Nibbles). We discuss corpse logistics, trying to figure out the how and why, with Sidna helpfully showing off her botany journal and the page within that describes bloodwort: a healing plant which grows and flourishes in the presence of blood and meat (plus some dragon blood helps, too). We get to hiding the bodies from people and animals alike, with Willow moving the cart into the bushes on the forest side to be less visible and hiding it in the brambles. Making our way into the woods, Willow takes the lead with Zeal and Serafina close behind, Sidna and Vorach just a little bit behind as they are the least stealthy of the group. Willow gets a little lost at first, but thankfully regains herself and keeps Zeal from getting ruined by walking into a trap at the last minute. The two decide to stealth ahead, looking to the party for assurance but instead only seeing Serafina watching Vorach and Sidna loudly discuss how poor the construction of that trap was. Unfortunately, betting that it didn't even close, Sidna took up a branch and set off the trap at its edge (which made an enormously loud snapping noise). With Willow and Zeal gone ahead, Sidna and Serafina hide as Vorach carefully places himself beneath the trap as though he was ensnared. Unfortunately, Zeal managed to make a loud enough noise to scare off something nearby, and the two quickly gave chase; Zeal morphing into a raccoon while Willow stealthily gains ground. Thankfully it's just a boar, and not a goblin, and the two turn instead towards the camp. Sadly, they seem to have gotten turned around and the camera turns back to the others. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "If you can understand me, do a little dance." '.....' "I knew you could understand me, I just wanted to see you do a lil dance. :)" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two goblins approach the trap, where Vorach appears to be unconscious, and the goblins try to put him out of his misery. Unfortunately, he misses his shot, and instead Vorach knocks the two out with a spell. Sadly the cleanup isn't as nice, as we roll min damage and don't just immediately get them in the head. Sidna smashes one's head in as it attempts to crawl away, Serafina stabs the other through the throat, and Vorach is pretty. We cut off their hands, with Serafina and Sidna looting them. Sadly Sidna only gets poo finger beyond necessities, wrapping the hands up in a piece of leather armour instead, but Serafina finds a hidden pouch with a ring! We pile the bodies in a nearby bush and hide again, hoping things are going well for Willow and Zeal. Loot: Two shortbows (dubious), two daggers (mismatched, slightly rusted), a simple silver ring, a pouch with 2 silver, 5 copper. Deeper in the forest, things are not going well for Willow and Raccoon-Zeal (Racceal): they are lost. Racceal uses his cute little fingers to climb up a nearby tree and try to look around, but is only really able to offer their general direction to Willow, scratching messages in the dirt after clambering back down. Willow turns to Nibbles and asks if he can smell the orcs, to which he begins sniffing and snuffling before picking up a scent. Willow grabs Racceal and lets Nibbles take the lead, heading out. As they travel, they notice a druidic style shrine, mostly guided by their nose, which appears to be what may have drawn Nibbles. It smells like...pee. It appears someone's been defiling this shrine, and the raccoon takes off!! Willow carefully follows behind as he trails and carefully manoeuvres, following his nose for the terrible smell that shows alongside some bootprints and bare foot-prints until they start to hear noises. Here, Willow slows Racceal and carefully begins to make an arc to try and intercept/view those who are speaking. Sidna and Vorach take the lead, their shared survival and travel experiences have them thinking they're...mostly on the right track. As Serafina is keeping her eye out, though, Serafina feels something scratching and tickling her back, reaching back to find an enormous (read: tarantula-sized) on her back. She strangle-screams and spins, trying to get it off, and Sidna grabs her to stop her from moving. Vorach reaches out to stop her from smashing the spider before gently taking it off (he almost gets bitten but the spider can't get through his mage armour). It hits the ground a little rougher than it should, and it turns to hiss at the party, but Vorach's shadow springs up behind him like a standing bear and he successfully intimidates the spider away. Serafina thanks Connie, and the three continue on their way. Deeper in the woods, Willow and Racceal have found their way to the camp, and begin approaching from the east, with Racceal carefully sneaking through the brush to spy. He notices a cliff-like drop-off, and sees the bandits gathered around eating. Carefully, he scopes the place out, making sure that there's nothing wild and finding guard positions as well as an overly large orc shouting at a group of goblins on a ledge over the camp. Thankfully, he's a stealth MACHINE as a raccoon, and manages to make his way towards the food supplies, looking for a good place to slip his drugs and ground up glass. Willow manages to find her ground, approaching from the west instead, stealthing about until she hears the same hot, giant orc yelling at the goblin group. At this point, she exits from stealth and walks out into the open, confronting the orc and taking out her shortsword, demanding to know the location of his partner. He asks if she's a comedienne, and she gets angrier, asking if he remembers her at all and demanding a duel with him. She throws a hunter's mark on him and swears when she's through with him he'll remember her, before charging forward and slashing. He manages a lucky strike at her chest with his mace, while she shoves her swortsword into his thigh. The goblins, strangely enough, seem to be respecting the duel. Racceal draws closer, watching as the orc continues to smack Willow about with his mace. Having had enough, he jumps up and throws out a gout of fire, doing major damage to the orc and setting a bunch of their tents on fire. The rest of the group sees the pillar of smoke and start to hurry! Fortunately, the distraction is enough, and as the orc turns to smack into Zeal, Willow rushes forward and headbutts him in the solar plexus, sending him tumbling off the ledge of the cliff into the burning tents below.

Session 13: Last in Japan!

Svenna: There's some army that needs to be fought off in the clan lands. Unsure what this means, remember to ask Sidna about it later. --- The story begins with everyone waking up! Both Zeal and Beans wake up with an orange to the face, groggily coming to as they discuss the previous night. Apparently Beans heard someone crying last night, and Vorach scolded Zeal for leading Svenna on (tee-hee). In the girl's room, Sidna woke up early for her stretching as Serafina woke up last with a blistering headache, definitely hung-over. She claims to not remember much, but that *someone* was prying, and it was probably Svenna. Sidna nods and glare-dares Svenna to say anything else. Fortunately this is the moment when Zeal opens the door and apologises profusely to Svenna for ignoring her feelings as Vorach encouraged him to before turning and leaving, with a couple persimmons flying over his shoulder before the door closed. As they eat and ready, we find out Svenna used to be a butcher (a friend of the family, not a family business per se) and had been since she was a kid. This impresses Sidna. Svenna admits she tried to defend herself when she was first taken by the bandits, but stabbing people is much different from cutting up dead flesh. She mentions that this is a SUPER pleasant morning conversation and asks if we're always like this. Kinda, yeah? Down the hall, Vorach waits with fruit for Willow, but she opens and slams the door in his face so he leaves the apples for her and mr. nibbles. All of them head downstairs, where Zeal is the first one down and was already (thankfully unsuccessfully) rizzing Lucy. I never thought I'd say it, but god bless capitalism. o7 He goes to sit down, but there are no open tables, so he ends up sitting next to a dwarf and a rather exotic looking orc. They are wearing clothes more reminiscent of the northern desert than anything local. They're travelling, as are we, with Zeal casually mentioning we're 'caretakers of problems'. He asks if we're an adventurer, or a folk hero. Zeal realises we are more exciting than he first thought! He asks what brings them this far north to trade, and warns that if they're heading towards Hesjingmajak to show caution because of bandits. They say they're not interested in going that far, because Hesjingmajak doesn't have interest in the type of wares they're selling. They're heading off to Mournhaven, actually! Zeal is offered a chance to buy now, though, and he buys "four for four", getting four doses of songbird for 16 gold. He introduces himself as Hawk, Zeal Hawk, and is given a contact name of 'Appa'. Vorach comes down and greets Zeal, offering him some strawberries for his porridge before asking about the hanging bodies and the alchemist's shop, and Zeal thinks for a moment before asking for a hood from Appa. Though no hood, he's given a long scarf to tie a proper head scarf in. It's blue with beautiful gold patterns on it, kinda geometric. Vorach heads out to the stable to get the cart and animals ready as the ladies come downstairs, Sidna catching sight of Appa and the dwarf, who are both wearing outfits similar to what she found in the mermaid's chest. She's skeeved out by Appa calling her a beautiful lady, and she sits down next to the dwarf to be as far from him as possible. Zeal explains they are merchants, and that he bought that scarf. She asks what they sell and he says that they sell whatever they can get their hands on, ingredients, supplies, crystals, tools, and more. Sidna's not interested, though, and Serafina is way more invested in food than anything else. Zeal calls over Lucy, and she gets orders from the girls before returning - though Willow has to put a crate on her seat. Breakfast is served, with Serafina grossly overpaying 5 gold for her breakfast (and no one else's lmao, that's some top tier shit). Appa and the dwarf, whose beard is more porridge than not now, leave as the latter is growing grumpy. As the girls settle in to eat, Zeal stands up to go check on the alchemist's shop with Vorach, noticing Svenna and Beans moving with their porridge to the table. Zeal winks at Svenna, who makes The Face™. She is a bit flabbergasted by this, and Serafina makes a cutting remark that even further flusters her (implying she might be into Zeal). Svenna decides maybe she doesn't like Serafina as much as she thought she did. She does take the cultural difference between them into account, though, and explains her type (Nor'ling men who are super beefy and rugged). She asks about the south, and Serafina says (without specifics) she's from very far south, a place with its own peninsula beyond even Mornhaven and the northern desert. This is surprising to Svenna, but they talk and get REALLY into chocolate. Just as we found out in the cafe, the northern idea of chocolate is a far, bitter cry from the more sweet and rich chocolate she's used to. Svenna realises that she doesn't know much about everyone, and tries to inquire as to where Willow's from, but she doesn't trust that even slightly. She says that Svenna hasn't proven herself worthy of her trust and that for all she knows, she could be waiting to betray them. She doesn't trust bandits, and Svenna may still be a bandit. Until we deal with those bandits, she's going to keep an eye on Svenna, and she will continue to not trust her in the slightest, because she has no reason to. She looks up towards Sidna and Sera and says that she HOPES that they're keeping an eye on *everyone*. Svenna isn't...really shaken by this, she understands why Willow doesn't trust her and is willing to be patient. In our place, she might not be trusting either. Svenna asks if she wants us to lead her there, and Willow quickly says no - saying that if she really wants to come, she can go in first and set off the traps before we go in, but Svenna says that could be a bad idea. Instead, she's allowed to look over Willow's map, and explain where some traps might be based on her memory. She marks a huge log trap, a bunch of pitfalls, and warns them to watch out for snares and bear traps in the main camp. She's seen guards step in them and end up bleeding out, it's not a pretty way to go. Willow is torn between forcing her to go as bait or leaving her behind as she's useless, but Svenna's own insistence to stay solves that issue. Zeal and Vorach move off to collect the corpses hanging near the gate with the Lawkeeper's writ in hand, though Zeal is more invested in removing his armour, removing his shirt, and putting his armour back on; leaving Vorach to do the heavy lifting. Doing so, he discovered an empty bottle similar to the one Zeal was drinking from last night, but Zeal was way too plastered to remember if it was his or not. So, Vorach does the sensible thing and chucks it at a nearby tree, getting yelled at by the guards. Strangely, he seemed to square up with the guards instead of being his normal, meek self and Zeal quickly cleaned up the glass while saving it, hoping to use it offencively against the bandits. Thankfully, we talked them off (though they attribute Vorach's pallor with his work with corpses, which he allowed and encouraged to keep them off his back while also making them less likely to interact). Returning the corpse cart to the Spooky Bird, the party reunites and leaves Svenna to watch over the cart while the rest of us head into town towards the alchemist Zeal, Sidna, and Willow found out about the day before. Vorach briefly pauses to grab a bag of metal shavings from a blacksmith to get a bag of caltrops. Sidna detours to the cafe and tells us to meet her at the alchemist's later, and Zeal briefly splits to change his armour, going from metal to super heavy leather that's been carefully fit to his body. Sidna enters the cafe with a purposeful stride, putting her hands on the counter and scaring the piss out of the clerk, asking for a box of her *finest* chocolate. She says they have cakes and bars, and even lies that they will keep, but Sidna is too desperate and bulldozes ahead, asking even about "flavoured" chocolate, and the clerk offers her a bit of chocolate with dried strawberry pieces. Sidna remarks that she likes it, but that SHE wouldn't. Still, she buys 5 silver worth and even gets the clerk to pull a ribbon from her own hair to wrap around the parcel. Sidna doesn't even wait to hear her say "please come again" (though she doesn't say come again). Sera, Willow, and Vorach arrive at the Shoppe Du Girot, which is overwhelmingly garish and loud to each sense. Lots of doors, hanging spices, vivid colours, dried ingredients, and more. Both Serafina and Willow are familiar with this style of shoppe. A voice calls out, but we can't see it at first. Vorach approaches the cabinet with a till and notices a halfling standing there, about the same height and build as willow but in a long robe with extremely long (proportionally) arms, real nightmare fae type shit. Willow is shocked and comments on his arms, which he is a bit sensitive about. She's abashed, but Vorach thinks those arms are dead useful. He asks Vorach to lean in closer, revealing more of his fucked-up spider arms, and he realises that he's the son of the woman he hired several months ago to hunt a particularly large monster (he's quite giddy at this). He can only offer that he pointed her in the direction of Aujurax, as they have some particularly rare medicines. Stepping aside, he lets Willow up, who remarks that he's a little strange looking for a halfling, but she seems happy to meet another one (even if he looks weird) - he remarks that halflings are a bit rare! She compliments his arms now, and he's quite happy to hear it, and when she asks for help to fix his dulcimer, he's more than happy to inspect with his claw machine hands. As she steps away to browse, he then notices Serafina and compliments her beautiful scale colour. She's not here looking for anything, more here to support her friend. She asks for anything interesting he might have! Zeal and Sidna enter, un-bothered by the cloud of stench that sent Vorach hacking and wheezing, and as the two enter in the shopkeeper's eyes immediately turn to Zeal. Oh god, they're flirting. Zeal somehow recovers from calling him a freak and is implied to get freaky. A chorus of groans arise, and Girot moves his built-in stilts to grab a potion from a high shelf. Serafina has made this before! It's a potion of shape changing (50g). That's an outrageous price, she thinks! He offers us a deal, though. We go out and hunt a beastie for him, he'll pay us and throw in the potion. It's a crumblerock bear, the same thing that Vorach's mum hunt for him. He wants its skull, and is willing to buy more at 25/per. They tend to frequent the northwest part of Hesjing's Grace, so it's unlikely we can detour for that. He is also willing to purchase truffles, however, so Zeal takes a big whiff of an example one to save the scent. Vorach purchases a pound of spicy peppers (1g) and Zeal asks after a pouch that's sized to fit a raccoon, perhaps an empty component pouch? Sidna gets some ingredients while she's here, too, two of bloodpurge (1g/p) and felsoul (2g/p). Bloodpurge is a good antivenom, draws poison from the blood and then forces you to regurgitate it. Felsoul numbs you and prevents you from vomiting, usually used in conjunction. Sidna is annoyed with her explanations, but swallows her pride when she notices things that she doesn't recognise and nudges Serafina in her side, who explains wolfsbane (which is a toxin), balsam (fungicide), blackroot (paralysing agent). Serafina is wigged out by the wolfsbane, though, and excuses herself outside. Vorach, concerned, steps out after her. Girot emerges with the dulcimer and offers it to Willow, but it's sadly out of tune :< Everyone collects their purchases, with Willow exchanging proper introductions with Girot. Outside, Vorach asks after Serafina, who doesn't want to talk about it and really isn't okay, so he very kindly offers her the bottle of wine he bought for her the night before and says he hopes she feels better (he is completely oblivious to her heart eyes). As everyone steps out Zeal moves to get his coat while everyone else regroups at the cart, talking about how Svenna was crying the night before over Zeal and it would probably be best to get rid of her as soon as possible before there's an issue. Serafina agrees, but feels bad for Svenna, it must feel /awful/ to have someone you're interested in completely oblivious. Zeal grabs his jacket, and we'll begin next episode finally leaving!

Session 12: Debate and Dinner

People present: WHOLE PARTY! ------ The cafe is super quaint and cozy, Vorach and Serafina enter and are greeted by the cafe's keeper, who is a slightly older dwarvish (?) woman. She's a very nice lady, and offers us a lot of choice, but doesn't know about drinking chocolate. Instead, she orders a tea and is given a basic green trea, which she does NOT approve of (she's very Simon Cowell about all of this). Vorach asks for a double brew because it's a little weak for him. She brings us cake which Serafina ALSO disapproves of the cake, as she thinks it's really poorly made. Vorach, who's never had chocolate in his life, adores it, and happily takes her seconds. Unfortunately the double brew is strong for his first time ever having coffee and chocolate, and when the GM rolls a nat 1 he looney tunes sprints out of the cafe (after paying!) to race for the loo with Serafina helpfully calling out the right door in his wake. Zeal sings happily on his way to the Lawkeeper with Sidna, and after the guards are made squeamish by them waving around the bandit hands, they're ushered in (bullying this poor guard by pointing and patting him on the shoulder with the severed hands of the bandits). The Lawkeeper welcomes them into her office, and Zeal happily announces they're here to claim a bounty (and deal with corpses!) She's a bit skeeved out by this, but after he re-phrases it from "give me your corpses" to explaining the druidic cycle behind it. Now more convinced, she's happy to take him up on that after some paperwork. Now on to the bounty, the party puts four hands on the table, palm up, and while the goblins aren't worth much (only 5 each), the more human hand nets 25, and Zeal collects before divvying up (and collecting his cut, ofc). Zeal mentions we have plans to take out the camp entirely in the end, but it may be a bit. Sidna points out the bandits aren't "that strong" and that if the bounty was more advertised, it would probably be dealt with faster. She says that she can't spare the guard though, and the current state of affairs is a good thing to hope for. Zeal also asks after Vorach's mum for him, but beyond a few raiders, the only orc woman she can remember was about a year ago, when a very large orc woman went through town, with a spear. Sidna asks if the spear was ornate, but the Lawkeeper doesn't know. Apparently this orc got into an argument with a potion seller name Girot. A halfling, apparently! At that moment, the door swings open, and who else should arrive but another halfling with bright red hair: WILLOW HAS ARRIVED! She looks nervous, and stammers out a greeting to Sidna even as Zeal realises a grave social faux pas from ages ago and introduces himself to the Lawkeeper, who introduces herself as Ruthwin. Willow walks around and puts an exceptionally large, green hand on the desk. Willow's worked for her plenty before. She found this while looking for us, apparently! She was doing some detective work and stumbled upon HIM near a bandit camp, which Zeal is happy to hear and wants to get the information about. Sidna mentions how late it's getting and asks a final question, asking for the information that was gotten from the bandits before they died. Rothwin pulls out a map and asks Willow to show her where the camp was, and she agrees (it's not that far away! Maybe a day there and back with Willow leading) before Rothwin starts to give over the info they got from the hanged bandits. The bandits have switched tactics, she reveals. They're starting to use their goblin servants more in fights. Numbers revealed, it looks like they'll have about 16 regular bandits and 20 or so goblins at their disposal. Willow says she can sneak in, but there's not really many who could follow her. Zeal suggests he change into an animal, and as he's pondering Willow suggests maybe a squirrel? There's lots of squirrels in the forest. Zeal tries to flirt and call her a snack, but she doesn't take the flirt right and instead makes him cover up his shirt and hopping on Nibbles. We ask where Willow is staying and find out she's been roughing it, and the two both offer her to come along and stay with them. As they're about to leave, the Lorekeeper calls for them to wait and Zeal turns to see her handing over a writ that will allow him to collect the bodies legally. Making her way back out of town, Serafina arrives just in time to see an exhausted Vorach exiting the outhouse. She offers him sympathy and takes their stuff in, while Vorach moves to the stables to wash up before heading in - being briefly interrupted/met by a homeless man who keeps muttering how the chickens are evil. Heading back in to tell the party, Vorach doens't realise that Serafina was spying on him and saw him do a pseudo-sexy emo boy hairflip out of the water barrel. Scandalous! Inside, we divvy up drinks and food, with Beans unimpressed by the coffee and dumping it out - calling Vorach a wuss when he says he got an upset stomach after having it for the first time. So obviously Vorach cast sleep on him, grumbling. Serafina and Vorach talk for a little bit, with Serafina finding out that Vorach's dad is rich and his mom is awesome, and Vorach finding out that Serafina doesn't think we'll get to the south to have a chance to meet her parents. Beans wakes up shortly after, though, and the two quickly convince him that he passed out eating subpar chocolate. Sera asks after chocolate connections, and Beans tells her that in this area she's likely to get ripped off for any good chocolate, and the best thing to do would be to check the ports. He's got Terminal Sleepy Boy disease, however, and passes out. We decide to get dinner and meet up with the rest of the party entering the tavern! We share coffee and decide to grab food, the party trading information: - Zeal tells Vorach about the potential trail to his mum - Willow's family are a bunch of farmers, she's the first person to get wanderlust! She doesn't know Girot. - Silver Mountains is the furthest south Vorach's been, no idea of what's beyond that - Willow left to take care of some business. It may be the last time. If not, the next will be the last time, and she said it OMINOUSLY. - Feelings SUCK, we're going to eat food instead! We find out that Lucy is Edaline's daughter...mostly because Zeal immediately turned the flirt up to 10. Just like. Naturally. Until he opened a button, then it was intentional I'm pretty sure. Either way, we pay for our dinner and breakfast, and then start talking. Svenna and Willow will talk to share info and make sure that we have a good layout before making any battle strategies in the morning. As food is ordered, Zeal and Willow drink heavily (Willow holding it much better than either Zeal or Serafina), the former drinking wine and the latter drinking ale. We start talking a bit about our pasts as we make sure everyone's on the same page, as Sidna starts to press Willow on where she's been with the latter trying very hard to make her way out of things, and eventually fleeing the table after scarfing down her dinner - assaulted both by Sidna's probing and Vorach's insistence that (despite having only met two days ago) she should rely on her "tribe" and not just her own strength. Dinner both is and is not the place for deep conversation! She gets her own room and hides away, and the party is soon to follow, though Sidna stops Vorach and demands information on chocolate in a strangely passionate fashion, showing more emotion than normal. She also says that Vorach shouldn't call her ma'am, she's not his mother. He hurriedly corrects himself and says "Yes, sir." She is not bothered by this at all, seeming a little bemused, and nods, composing herself and making her way upstairs. With the rest of the party leaving, most to rooms but Zeal to roam the streets, the beer in his head making him strive for chaos. Serafina keeps Vorach trapped upstairs awkwardly flirting for an hour before Beans pushes him inside and slams the door - gods bless grumpy kobolds for saving us! He flops into bed and Vorach writes a note that he slips under Willow's door (he found it by smelling the doors and finding the dog smell). Meanwhile in the girl's room, Sidna has dressed down and is kicking her legs and twirling her hair while she writes furiously in her journal, but Serafina does not say anything because she's sulking over Connie not noticing her. Svenna doesn't notice either, too busy comforting the poor girl and her heartbreak. Sidna comes out of her own stupor and tries to comfort her, but it's Sorrows Sorrows Prayers, and ends up with her asking if Serafina's ever tried women. Unfortunately she's too deep in her feels and it doesn't help. Swapping back to Zeal, he finds himself in an alley with a bunch of ruffians and thugs, still pretty buzzed. He feels right at home! Unfortunately the rest of the people in the bar he enters doesn't seem thrilled at his entrance, starting a brawl and causing him to mouth off, getting him into a fight and causing him to escape through teleporting with his crazy fire lady and hopping over rooftops to get him out of town, blinking past rooftops while being carried over her shoulder. Arson makes a man sleepy! He passes out in the room, scaring Vorach shitless, and we all - eventually - get a restful sleep.

Session 11: Languages and Legwork

We started off by finding out about languages! Check #peens for up to date notes, pinned. -- Sidna may have a teacher? What the fuck is up with that. Potion maker? Svenna has a pouch in the bandit camp we can loot to make up some of what we've lost on her. Zeal called me Vorach the Pale and that's a really cool name --- As Zeal heals Vorach, burning his wounds closed, both are shocked: the former remarking to Sidna that he'd said he wanted to be able to do that this morning while the latter was shocked that he didn't just get burned to death. His mind racing, Vorach made himself useful and went to inspect the bandit's body while Zeal turned to the strange fiery woman without a face [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1086927670178238486/1121755715661467658/elemental_of_the_frenzied_flame.png] that he had summoned. A comforting cinnamon scent lingers near her. Vorach loots a scimitar, a bag of Beans', and gives a gold to Zeal to make payment on his debt. Beans pipes up and is happy that his bag was recovered, and Vorach hands it over. Though some were broken inside, he reveals some potions! One's a potion of healing, but only Serafina notes the other to be a potion of growth! (It's a potion of enlarge person, I think) Beans is a trader, Sidna asks about where he got the potions, and he answers that the healing potion came from Moonspring, the other from Burakrin. He confirms that this isn't made by Sidna's...teacher? Interesting. Investigation reveals that it's someone named 'Poppy' who made this, and her eyes widen and she asks for it. A little bartering (with help from Vorach's lie) later, and Sidna is offered 100g for the potion. Sidna is aghast at this, and continues to haggle - wagering her own connections with the supplier as an upper hand, and Beans says if she can get him a discount with her, she'll get a discount. 100 gold. Then 90. 80. She refuses to budge, and Zeal attempts to help, saying that he can help get Beans into town without an entry tax. "Man with open shirt make good point." Beans is willing to trade, though, so Vorach offers to sell a scimitar, dagger, and a holy symbol of the Dragon of Fire. Serafina also realises she has offers to make, so she lines up, ready to sell as well. As they do business, he comments that the goblins robbed him and he hid, and the goblins came back the second time (which was when we found them). Sidna asks how long it took them to go and come back, and Beans guesses it was about 10 minutes. Beans pays 11g1s for the lot, and starts spit-shining the symbol as he turns to Zeal, who tries to get his fire lady to haggle. The price gets to 3 gold, freshly spit shined, but Zeal refuses and Beans put it on himself instead. Serafina steps up next, and Beans remarks he's never seen a purple dragonborn. She remarks they come in all shades, and he says he's shady, too! She pulls out a particularly fancy flute, and she pauses when he asks her for a price, she says she believes it to be worth about 200g. Unfortunately, they can't seem to strike a deal, so we decide to start moving out. Vorach helps Beans load up, though Svenna is quite irate at first that we helped the person who called out for help. We talk plans and agree to move on to Clearwater before taking out the bandits and goblins, then heading on to Moonspring from there. Heading out, Serafina takes shotgun (lancepost) from Vorach and sits in the front while the half-orc promptly curls up in the wagon, spooning the overlarge egg, and passes out. Beans asks if Serafina laid the egg, and then she gets so annoyed she successfully tricks him into playing the quiet game. Sidna is *very* appreciative of this. Two hours pass and we reach a small fishing hamlet, passing through some houses and people just living. Continuing on, they find a new hole in the path that wasn't there after some more time and Svenna recognises this as a bandit trap and warns us to just go around after Sidna spots it and pulls to a stop before. Fortunately, it's easy enough with Serafina hopping down to provide a visual deterrant as we make our way around and then continue on. Greg takes the scenic route. Zeal knows that he once had a romantic love affair with a narwhal. We get to Clearwater, and Zeal immediately looks out to see a poor homeless person sitting on the road, someone who he feels he might recognise, but they continue on past an outer stables and inn (the Spooky Bird). A human and orc corpse both hang at the side of the road, and Sidna takes a closer look to see that it's the one Willow interrogated in prison. Both of their hands have the inner scar of the bandits, thankfully, and means it wasn't the orcish trader that Sidna met in the tavern. Sidna glances over at Svenna, who's giving a very clear 'good riddance' look. We continue on towards the gate, Serafina waking up Vorach who was absolutely a teenager who just woke up and groggily pointed out the guards who were starting to notice the carts. Especially since one is an open air corpse cart. We stop, and the guard asks what our business is. Zeal explains in a bit of a mockery of his accent that they're the bandit/goblin corpses they're here to turn in the hands of, though Zeal intends to mulch the bodies for life. There is a disagreement, and the guard bans the bodies from the town - it might spook the guards! We decide to stay at the inn just outside of town and keep the carts in its stable so that way Zeal can head into town and discuss getting the hanging corpses for his mulch garden with the Lawkeeper. Vorach buys a ratty blanket from the stablehand to put over the corpses on the cart, and we head into the Spooky Bird, which is a bit more rundown than the Measly Hag was. Svenna abashedly admits she's a little broke at the moment, and the entire party assures her she's covered. We approach and figure out rooms: the group will chip in for shared bunks, anyone who wants their own room has to pay. We all pay (Svenna covered by Sidna and Beans by Vorach), and find out we have to buy our food at the adjoining tavern. We ask about nearby things to see after finding out the Lawkeeper keeps late hours (the innkeeper is VERY impressed with Vorach's attitude and insistence on politeness and manners). Serafina asks after local landmarks, and we learn that cafes have been opening! We agree to check it out after (or on the way) to town and make introductions with the innkeeper (her name is Edaline!). Svenna and Beans stay behind, Sidna and Zeal team up to go talk to the Lawkeeper (since they already know each other), and Vorach and Serafina head to check out the cafe (getting drink orders from everyone, black for Sid/Sven and sweet for Bean/Zeal). As we leave the inn, Sidna suddenly stops, turning bright red and clutching her chest where her family crest is. She whispers a response that only Zeal can hear, as Vorach turns awkwardly away and quickly walks to give her space. Unfortunately, she runs to get her space, and they just end up woman chasing kid meme until she speeds past him when he stops at the cafe. She finds an alley to compose herself while Zeal catches up to her, and Serafina shows up after 10 minutes, finding Vorach looking at his feet and apologising for not grabbing her when he ran. They head into the coffee shop, and that's where we'll pick up next time!

Session 10: Bandits and Bullshit

Present characters: - Vorach - Sidna - Serafina - Zeal --- Vorach throws Serafina an apple, and offers her an open ear to talk about her curse, if she wants to (acknowledging that it would probably be weird to do it that night because they just met so she doesn't have to). Zeal can't seem to get comfy and when he does sleep he seems to be having bad nightmares with dark moving shapes and snowstorms. The party wakes up and Vorach starts roasting pomegranate seeds. Svana wakes up Sidna, boasting an unfortunate bulge on her forehead from last night's antics. She's ready to go because she really wants those bandits that want her dead dead, but Sidna wanted an extra hour of sleep. Svana asks about Zeal's many holy symbols and he explains that he doesn't deny other people's worship despite what he does himself. He explains that he has a mantra which keeps him under control most of the time, with his concentrated, chaos-like state in his battle stance. He gets pains in his sleep because of his inner rage/frenzy that helps provide this power of his. He shares this mantra with Sidna, and she asks if he intends for her to say it if he should ever lose control in battle. He's unsure. She remarks on how vulnerable and open he's being with her, and he explains that if she'd do the same he'd be there for her, but she's reticent to share so much of her past with someone who she's known for so little (she hasn't known him that long, apparently!). Zeal and Sidna remark they aren't afraid of each other. He forgets she's an orc, apparently, and that wasn't meant to be a compliment. Svana then points out that she asked if they were going to go and Sidna states that not everything is about her, this was a conversation that had to be had - show some patience, we already promised to help you! Sidna and Zeal smell smoke and go discover Vorach cooking while Serafina's gone absolutely feral on a non-roasted pomegranate. The party convenes back in Sidna's room. Vorach introduces himself and gets the low-down on the current situation. Svana calls them Jackasses. Bandits had her pretend to be dead in the road so people would stop their carts and could be robbed. This plan failed against Sidna and Zeal, because Zeal shot her with fire. She explains bandits have a bounty in Clearwater, can be collected with bodies or hands(?) and that's where Vorach says we should leave her for safety while we take care of the bandits. We go to collect Willow, but she's already left, so we go back to meet Rasmir, the half-scale priest. She winces and mentions that a fire was started, and Vorach says that wouldn't have happened if he had a brazier, they should provide one. She is so thrown off that she agrees. Win for the working class! We go through the shimmering stained glass hallway. Vorach waits outside while the rest of theparty ventures in and collects what appears to be an ornate egg that Ulharst pulls out from the water, about 30 cm tall , which Serafina takes - it's about 50kg heavy, which is heavy as FUCK. It may not be comfortable, as it was originally designed to be a prison, but this should still be more comfortable than Jingahar's current situation. Ulharst is reticent to share too much more information about the technique that will be used to put the soul in the egg, as it's an ancient, powerful magic. He offers us transport, and we decide to take him up on that. The party bids him farewell and agree to meet up at the tear. Svenna, not Svana, is absolutely aghast at the fact that that was a real life dragon. We move out to gather our transport and Zeal casts speak with animals. The new horse's name is...Greg. Oh god, he's so awful he's getting D&D horse'd. Rubble, Windblaze, and Greg. Sidna and Vorach take the larger cart with Serafina in the back. Zeal drives the other cart. While he undergoes horse therapy using his ritual speak with animals. the rest of the party discusses curses, with Vorach explaining the difference between an active curse and one that's more passively picked up (through being born or secondary infection). During this, Serafina offers to get him in touch with a powerful wizard from her past, which he accepts - though he specifies he will only do so as a last resort, because this person seems to have beef with Serafina. While they discuss the fire test that's used on cursed (black) blood/bile, the party begins to hear weird sounds. As they come up on a large bend, Vorach and Serafina spot goblins swarming over a cart. That's all Zeal needs to hear, and he cocks his shillelagh before we all cool guy walk up to start combat. Serafina viciously mocks one goblin, shortly before Vorach puts him and another goblin unconscious, while a kobold falls from the cart as well (presumably a victim)! Two are left standing, and Sidna charges forward, launching a javeling that barely grazes off of the gobin's thick head. He bolts while the other goblin moves to shake his one of his remaining buddies awake. Zeal advances and darts a bunch of bolts out of his chest, striking the one that's fleeing as well as the one that's shaking his buddies awake. Fortunately Serafina is quick, and uses her crossbow to take out the one that had been woken up. An arrow flies at Vorach, but shadows catch it and snap it in half. Another goblin charges from the bushes towards Zeal, who just holds out his shillelagh and lets him run into it. Another charges Sidna, but these goblins are kinda...pathetic. Zeal draws closer and recognises the kobold as a travelling merchant: Beans. Someone that Sidna (or at least Jess) knows about. Serafina steps up and "steals" a kill from Sidna with her rapier, but takes an arrow in the shoulder. Fortunately she sees the goblin that did it hiding up in the trees. Sidna rushes up and kills the goblin that had just slashed Vorach only moments after his blood congealed and stabbed it in the throat, causing its head to fly off and smack him in the nose. Ouch. Inspired by this, Zeal goes for the hills and golf swing coup de grace's the goblin he was next to and sends ITS head flying into the bandit's head, who is HORRIFIED. As the rest of the goblins begin to flee at this, Serafina levels her gaze at the one who shot at her and pulls the arrow from her shoulder and send it back at the goblin. causing it to shatter in her crossbow but still launching the arrow head at the goblin. As they all flee, Zeal smashes the bandit's chest and causes a sickening crack with his shillelagh. He slashes back, which causes Vorach to retaliate, stabbing him in the back with his black blood and killing him. He scolds Zeal, saying that it was unnecessary and he could have been useful, but Zeal disagrees, instead saying that he was useful: his hands would provide a bounty. While Vorach leans against the cart for support, Beans is woken up by Sidna and Zeal, who is excited to see customers! The party negotiates a deal with Beans, agreeing to escort him into town for some discounts at his store. He's also seen Vorach's mum recently, recognising her spear and saying he'd seen his mum no less than two months (moons) ago! Vorach excitedly invites him to sit in the wagon to chat, and Beans turns to get his secret chest (no looking!) while Sidna investigates the corpses and ends up taking a goblin hand, though Zeal carted off the bandit's body. Apparently Zeal's met Beans before, but can't recall asking a favour, though Beans seems to remember differently. He reveals a delicate looking sphere, admonishing Zeal to be careful as it's "very breakable" before handing it over. It looks like crystallised fire.The rest of us seem to see this stone disappear into his eyes, like the energy siphoning off of it and into him. He heals Vorach's wounds with this new power, and that's session!

Session 9: Knighty-Knight (teehee :3)

Serafina - is apparently upset with something she crossed off on a list, presumably related to healing?. a wizard with hate in his heart cast something on her using a death curse. Sidna - recognised mum's spear somehow, didn't react much visibly Zeal - goes crazy when using magic, super chaotic instead of his normal calm demeanour. Serafina owed 20 g Zeal owed 200 g ------------ The fight begins! The casters peel off and start throwing out attacks while Sidna runs up. The armoured knight threw a halberd down at Sidna and Serafina, doing some pretty bad damage to the latter. Sidna was the next to get hit with the weapon, though as she was impacted, she reached down and gripped onto it tightly, preventing him from recalling the halberd. Serafina managed to lodge a bolt in the creature's visor while Zeal's fiery magic took on the shape of a wild crown of chaotic energy. Vorach took a hit to the face by a Captain America shield. Sidna took cover and the knight lept down to try and hit Zeal, but was unable to get through the flame, so it threw its shield into the air and it began to hover and self-animate even as more fiery bolts jump out from Zeal and smash into the knight. Vorach's shadowy magic begins to take on the appearance of serpents, biting down on his targets. He rushes over and grabs hold of the halberd, careful to not interfere with Sidna's range of motion, and she gives him a look open to interpretation. SThe party watches as lightning gathers in the room before striking at shield and halberd, which begins to flat as it tears itself out of Sidna. The knight tries to punch Zeal but he just can't get through the fire! It's unfortunately hot. Serafina continues to throw out inspiration (through crazy hand gestures) as Vorach draws a wicked looking orcish spear and moves into a tactical position to aid Sidna in her fight against the halberd. However, the halberd gets a massive slash against him, splattering his black blood all over the ground, which Sidna takes note of. He steps back and coughs up more black blood, which bursts into flame and launched back at the halberd. Fortunately Zeal manages to smash his shillelagh into the armour, and crumples it, leaving only a sparking mote of energy in its place. The shield tries to smack his head, but he's only mildly peeved by it. Serafina turns the pillar and launches a bolt that shatters the halberd's handle and causes it to fall and shatter! Sidna is pissed (shocker) and rushes after the shield to take out her frustration on it, managing to shatter it with her flail. She then slaps Zeal in the back of the head, healing him with her lay on hands even as Vorach is cauterising his wounds in the corner before Serafina helps him hobble over to the party. Sidna forces him to drink some holy water, which doesn't seem to do much at all and he coughs some back up that sizzles and burns against the blood on the ground. Zeal then moves to the larger splatter from the halberd splash and pours fire onto it, doing a blood test to see if he was too far gone to save. Fortunately the doors in the back of the room opened up, drawing everyone's attention to where Ulharst bathed in an enormous pool, with Sidna and Zeal entering while Vorach and Serafina lingered outside (Vorach looked uncomfortable at going inside). Ulharst explains that they can rest and enjoy the temple's hospitality for the night, he now trusts us to take on the mission. When we reach Jingahar, Ulharst will fly out to meet us and take their place, allowing us to transport their soul back to heal in the temple. The dragon reaches down and taps Zeal on the chest, stating that he has quite a lot of guts. Ulharst doesn't know how much time Jingahar has left, so we should hurry. He seems uncomfortable with the idea a flower would feed on a dragon's body/essence, though. He doesn't seem to think that's part of the Founder's great design. Attempts to cultivate bloodwort have happened before, but didn't have a lot of success, so mulching the bandits might not work. Zeal somehow has the stones to ask Ulharst for a vial of his blood. He agrees to give it over when the party reaches Jingahar again. He then asks if anyone else wants something, even those "hiding in the back like children behind their mother's skirts", causing Vorach to curse at him in Orcish. Sidna asks for holy water, and is granted a vial of the holy water that gamer boy Ulharst is currently sitting in, which is apparently super potent as it's the source of the rest of the watered down holy water. Vorach asks if he's seen Garna, his mother, using his shadows to make an image of her (tall, 7' orc woman with huge muscles in a simple tunic, sleeveless vest, leather trousers, and hiking boots, with the same spear in her hand that's on Vorach's back), but Ulharst is as clueless as his priests were. Serafina asked if he could help her with her curse, but he said he could not - it was something beyond his capability but in draconic he promised that should she carry this task out he would help look for a cure to her curse. Zeal steps forward last, and in Primordial asks if the dragon speaks the language, to which it nods. Zeal is asking after a woman as well. He wants a clue for where to start his search for this person. No more details recorded since he asked in a language none of the party asked <3. He covers by lying, somehow, that he's got a missing shoe. He then insinuates he might get some hookers for his room and Sidna marches over to give him the Orcish Ear Wrangle before dragging him out. We make our way back through the stained glass hallway, where a female dragonborn meets up with us to lead us to our rooms. Sidna says she's rooming up with Zeal, and Serafina claims Vorach, who also asks for extra sheets, towels, and water to go to their room. As we arrive at the rooms, everyone splits off (Willow gets her own room, with Nibbles!). Serafina and Vorach tend to his wounds in their room, and she gently offers him a healing word, "Good boy," to which he flusters as his shadows start to knit together his wounds. She moves to take a top bunk as in the other room Sidna finally releases Zeal's ear and scolds him for his behaviour. She says he has some explaining to do once they're done resting. They both take bottom bunks. Willow hears a knock at her door! She hops off of bed and comes face to face with Svana! "Where did you guys go? You left me behind in the bath!" Apparently she asked the priests where the fuck Willow went. Willow talks her way out of sharing a room, thanks to a very stinky pig with loud farts and the power of awkward eye contact. A few moments later Sidna and Zeal hear a knock, and Zeal thaumaturgies the door open, smacking her in the face. This apparently knocks her on her ass, and neither of them really wanna get out of bed, but Zeal begrudgingly rolls out of bed to faceplant. Editor's note: This did 6 of his 10 hit points of damage. He crawls towards Svana and pulls her in enough to...Garry's Mod ragdoll her in by thaumaturgy'ing the door closed. Sidna finally stands and helps Svana, only to have Zeal ask her to throw him up to his bed. She refuses and he has to crawl up onto the top bunk in pain and agony.

Session 8, we got more orcs baby

Begin writing your story here... Serafina - is apparently upset with something she crossed off on a list, presumably related to healing? Serafina owed 20 g Zeal owed 200 g Not much of a nightlife in this city, Hesjingmajak. Sidna wasn't feeling well and was able to retrieve a (temporary?) relief of her ailments by a potion made by a cleric utilising the most holy water in the lake. Sonny and Sidna are holding a...captive? Prisoner? In the basement. It's someone who was trying to ambush the party on the way. Callskar raiders need to be gotten rid of? Vorach was in sick bay where I overheard mention of a 'poisoning' of an orc woman who was very thick, an actual orc woman with faded skin colour. He trails her, getting very easily caught in the act, but she doesn't quite seem to show that she noticed until she turned a corner and stood still, causing him to run into her. She didn't quite seem to take to him, seeming to mistrust his awkward social tendencies. When he asked if she could help him find the person he was looking for, an orc woman named Garna, she said 'no thank you' and then left, despite Vorach's shadow puppets following her on the wall and trying to help. She went back to the room and told Zeal and Willow about her tail (Zeal was holding Willow underwater to see how long she could hold her breath), disregarding him though Willow pointed out they had a contract to take out a number of bandits. Sidna seemed adamant against the idea, but was quickly side-tracked as Zeal asked about her health. Turns out slime dropped out and poisoned the area, and Sidna may have ingested some. Zeal asked what type of magic Vorach might utilise, and when Sidna couldn't answer, he went to ask. Talking, he convinced Vorach to join (and later pay his 200g entry fee, which is marked as owed to Zeal Hawk), and brought him back inside to the bath. Sidna seems disappointed, but Vorach wins over the party by explaining where he's from (near Woodside), a little bit about who he is (the son of an orcish warlord and a human merchant), and then providing them with some fruit. Knock at the door is a dragonborn priest, who requests we follow him. Everyone gets dressed and we go along, pausing only when Vorach has a mini heart attack and senses something nearby, whipping his head to see an amethyst dragonborn. He goes over and immediately starts pestering her, asking if she knows about shadow creatures, and she quickly gets fed up and leaves. We continue on our way to an enormous set of doors that takes like four guards to open. Through the giant doors is a long hall, a ceiling of stained glass like sparkling water, end of the hallway is a second set of doors. We're asked to wait, and then the head priestess comes in. Head priestess is a half-scale, half human/dragonborn, with silver/blue scales. introduces herself as Rasmir. She heard that we were bringing important news this way. Zeal talks about the dragon closing the rift, and Sidna pulls out a weird bug thing in a jar to hand over, explaining how it was seeming to eat life essence. It gives off a terrible, awful Shadow energy that Vorach can sense. Apparently the forest is flooded with them. This particular sample is not alive. Concerned, the priestess takes the party to talk with the dragon of water, whilst Vorach decides to remain behind and wait for them to return. Serafina attempted to gain access, with Vorach helping her for unknown reasons, only to storm off and wait to talk with the head priestess herself. In the room, Zeal and Sidna shared information with Ulharst, an absolutely huge blue dragon, saying that Jingahar was dying, holding on to a portal in the world and trying to keep it closed. Relieved the portal holds for now, he explains how the dragons came to be and that because their creators never allowed them to leave, they were unfamiliar with gates to other worlds beyond this one. He explains that he is not guarding a gate when Sidna asks, but instead guarding a fountain of magic left over by the Founders. There's a False Founder???! Uh oh. The dragon can only think of one solution, and says that he will need help to do so. He will take the place of Jingahar, allowing them to come here and hope that transporting their soul will allow their body to recover. Willow points out that this seems to be something that would delay the inevitable: what if he turns into a skeleton dragon? Ulharst responds that Jingahar is currently on the ruins of a lost civilisation, and that a war there in the past had caused them to be slain some hundreds of years ago, he believes. Ulharst is concerned if he leaves he'll be noticed. He can provide a vessel to transport Jingahar's soul, but it needs to be escorted there and back. He cannot send the soldiers out that far, so the city remains protected and orderly. Zeal apparently is some sort of dragon nerd, and he also flirts with everything. Willow and Zeal both would like to share a private word with the dragon. Willow mostly just needs holy water, which he's happy to provide. Before we can fully accept, we have to pass a test: our group facing off against one of Ulharst's guards. Most of the party leaves while Willow stays behind to privately ask Ulharst about a dragon scale before rejoining the party. We make our way to the fight, totally ignoring the part where Sidna and Vorach collapsed because he cast sleep <_<;. He'd absolutely never met an elf before, though, to be fair. We proceeded on to the zone where we would fight, and found that there was a guard, about 7 feet tall, standing atop the door with a bardiche and shield. We readied up, and will be there to fight next episode! ------------------ Shadow Slayers (colloquially known as Slayers) are adventurers who dedicate their life to fighting Shadow creatures. Vorach is somewhat familiar with them.

Vorach "Constantine" Briar