Session 53 Report

General Summary

Triple's Log

More planning. But it kinda payed off this time. Kinda. Swift managed to convince this turncoat kobald named Drunkle to work with us. Dunno how, but that's Swift for you. Drunkle gave me a ShipCo Model lock and told me to unlock it. It's such an easy model to crack, he probably doesn't think much of me! But anyways guys, he must have felt bad for me because he needed me to come along. So I did, because I knew I couldn't just keep sitting things out without getting in trouble with Moon Planter. It was okay though, because Swift helped us distract the kobalds! He ultimately manage to get Seelah back!.... in exchange for aetherstone. But to be honest, I'm just glad she's out. She's really cool. Meanwhile, I think I lost 10 pounds. This was the scariest thing I've ever done in awhile, because while Swift was talking to that Kobald Leader guy, I had to go back with Drunkle and get rid of all the traps! So I disarmed them, then when I was done, I moved the traps over so the Kobalds would trip it if they chased us. Me and Drunkle slipped them behind the camp faster than a magic student slips Fayleaf into his dorms. Not going to lie, he's actually kinda smart and cool. Then I peeked under one of the tents, and wouldn't you know, Sister Ash and Shabaka were there, just totally brutalized. I couldn't watch, so, since no one but Drunkle was looking, I used some magic. I made a little distraction right outside the tent so I could break Sister Ash and Shabaka out. "Trap Master" I hate that name! But it's the best we could come up with. At least we got out. But they heard us, so we had to get out of there. Me, Shabaka and Drunkle made a run for it, then all the traps started going off, giving us a great distraction to make a clean break! I... I think I did it! Wait, did I do good!? Well, one other thing, Sister ash went dragon form while me, Drunkle and Shabaka were high-tailing it. She... She... (to be continued next session)

Swift's Log

It was an anxious wait back at camp for the party to execute the plans I had arduously put together… but I believe in teamwork and trusting your mates. It was insisted that it could be done and I decided to stay back with Ord as to not risk blowing our cover. I got as good of a view as I could from the camp, and all seemed quiet until it wasn’t. Son of a bitch. In the case that a full fight was to break out, I grabbed my gear and went to catch up only to meet most of the team halfway as they were retreating without the captive, Shabaka, Sister, OR Seelah. I couldn’t believe it. A mighty rage built within me that I had to subdue as they pointed out the unicorn captive was saved, but set free in the desert and invisible. We managed to find her after the spell wore off, the Kobolds in camp taunting us and leaving us be. We assured the lass named Lisa that she was safe with us, the Bannermanes! She seemed well assured in that fact. I was clued in on the mission to a sinking heart. Not one, but three of our brothers and sisters were now entrapped in the camp. That only made things that much trickier. I spotted a stray kobold who was being excommunicated from the camp and acted fast. Anyone in the vicinity was either on our team, or in the camp. Easy as that. I gave the lad, Drunkle, a talking to and he agreed to help in exchange for being given control of the camp. Well he’ll have plenty of fun running the camp with 30 dead bodies around him I’m sure. Nevertheless a much needed ally was brought back and planning started over once more. It was looking like we’d have to brace for war while undermanned. We instantly put Cher and Tangent to rest while we devised a way to interrupt their rest… the ultimate best we could come up with being for me to fly around with a torch, alone, to somehow intimidate and get their attention… Well I can’t say I don’t like a challenge. Triple and Drunkle were to take out some traps in the meantime. I started with a confident smugness that I’m so effective with, hoping to draw out some fireballs, only to earn a giant arrow from the ballista scraping my pelt. I rather quickly realized it was a pointless affair and we’d have to reassess. My last attempt… well I’m not really sure what I was thinking, but I saw it as an opportunity to pull out the Aetherstone I’d been holding onto since Weldstone with the mushrooms. They knew what it was and it sure as shit got their attention… however my negotiation tactics proved rusty as they sure as shit had the leverage. They wheeled out Seelah, I didn’t turn back and pretended not to notice until a much louder shout was made that I couldn’t ignore. Turning my head I found Seelah’s detached tail and my heart SANK. I realized just how deep of a shit storm I was in and had to think fast. They squeezed the stump of her tail to earn a blood-curling mewl of pain and my time for thinking was up. In the most stressful moment of my life I somehow managed to negotiate, 1 bulk of Aetherstone for my life and Seelah’s as well. I had to approach the camp, alone, and deliver it. My veins were ice cold as I landed, and perhaps only the inclination that there was more where that came from was able to save me and Seelah’s life. The trade was made and I began to fly off, silently apologizing to the sedated Seelah for her lost tail. I was sure Triple and Drunkle had disabled plenty of traps, but what I hadn’t expected was for the lad to sneak in and set Shabaka and Sister free at the same time! At least that’s all I could assume happened as a roar of flame and anger erupted from the camp behind me. A turn of my head saw a large winged creature, most certainly Sister, flying away from the camp. War may be breaking out, I need to get back to camp and alert the team!

Sister's Log

*rewind noises* "Yep, that's me. you're probably wondering how I got into this situation..." *taps memory mushroom* "Is this thing on?" "It's been several days since we've embarked on our journey to Wati, and as we draw closer to the city, I can already feel the scars upon the landscape... Everything has been.. silent... Not peaceful though. The children of the desert, who've lived in rugged peace beneath the barren sun for so many moons, have all vanished from the plains. Silent, hiding, sheltering in place. The desert, that once teamed with life and wonder under the gentle moon, has fallen silent... Tense, painful, agonizing silence... Wrens do not gather at dusk to share their stories, having chased the Sun towards the coast of the western gods.. Rodents do not wander out into the moonlight in search of sustenance, and in their absence the kites and owls have vanished as well... The brazen lizards who'd emerge from their little homes in the evening and lick the dew off of their backs in the morning now shelter in place, preferring hunger to whatever awaits them on the surface. The crickets do not cry out to one another in the night to decry their romances, instead choosing silence and solitude, clutching the weeds for semblance of safety. The venomous serpents who'd proudly race across the dunes in the day confident in their deadly spittle, and prowl the silt at night in search of prey, now lay coiled in their dens, as if waiting for a a great storm to pass. Even the grasses, cacti, and shrubs are silent, bowing their heads wordlessly, as if in mourning.. And mourn they do, for only weeks ago they heard the screams of their sisters to the north, but now, only silence, and the scents of loathesome ash of defiled earth, scorched to glass by fires that burn it harder than the sun... The desert, which was so inspiring in bearing life in the most subtle places, has fallen silent... A wordless requiem, of Silence..." *hands mushroom to Leshy on back while flying north east from the camp* (this recording works in Dragon form cuz muh Green Empathy) "Now hold onto that one tightly, I might not get the chance to do another one... Now, where was I... Oh yes, the sounds of silence..." "It was the silence that stirred me... It felt so... lopsided. Scarred, ruined, defiled; lie the very balance of nature had been disturbed... In my years of training, my circle taught me to hear the whispers of children of the earth wherever they were, even in the places that those unknowing would consider barren... For those of my profession, listening has always been the center of our practice. To sit still and wait for the voice of the world soul to grace us with her blessings... I've had to listen a little harder than usual lately. Every day, my prayers seem to take longer, waiting for her to speak back to me. I'd wait and listen, keening my ears to bless the silence, reaching out, asking, pleading for an answer..." "But, as one of my old masters once said, it's not right to ask questions that you're not prepared to hear the answer to..." "It was perhaps just a couple weeks ago that I first heard it... The screams. The screams that resonated from the horizon. Screams of pain. Screams terror. Screams of spiteful anger and primal fury. Once I noticed them, I realized that they were always there, I had just been ignoring them... It shook me. I had always taken a humble satisfaction in my ears; the spirits of the earth had always been so hospitable and kind with me, sharing so many of their secrets. I had heard their cries many times before; in fact, I made it my whole life's work to follow their voices, to ease the pains of the world and her children, to which I gave up my everything. By the end of my training, I almost felt like I could feel the pain of others as if it were my own. But this... This is something I might not have been ready for... Something that I had either willfully ignored, or something that the spirits had kept from me... I'm not so sure of anything anymore, but I can't deny that I've been feeling *it* now... The Fury. Something that I thought I hadn't felt in such a long time..." "Anger. Pain. Resentment. Spite. Bitterness. Rancor. Enmity. The fury that froths at the mouth... During my daily prayers, I couldn't help but feel *it* creeping over me... When I let the world's bounties flow through me in my prayers for healing and guidance, another voice pleaded for calamity; for searing heat, bitter cold, ruinous tempest and bolts of lightning; it was a voice that desired destruction, and petitioned for disaster. And the world-soul satisfied, filling me with ruinous might. I remember it now, and I remember it well... For the past half-century, I've been so focused on listening to the voice of the earth, and denying myself in pursuit of godliness, I'd forgotten the voice that cried out from within me... Tied up within that mangled knot where my heart used to be... No, I hadn't forgotten. I knew it well all these years, and I know it know... That ruinous and destructive filly who'd caused so many pain because of her selfishness, because she wanted nothing more than to watch the world burn... Of course I know her, she's me." "For all these years, I had the audacity to call myself an apostle of peace, a disciple of the soil, a devote ascetic casting aside pretty things and selfish pleasures in pursuit of easing the pains of the world.. but was I doing that for the world, or just for me? I gave the earth my everything in pursuit of true selflessness, but perhaps I was only giving away what I didn't want... I believed in what I did, and denied myself in the name of godliness, to become one with all and nothing, but I'm still that fiery little filly, scorching he soil with her flames like all those years ago. I've come so far, but I wonder now, how did I get here? What exactly was the point of me becoming Sister Ash?" "Since I first took up temple life, my own faith has always bee that of self-discipline... For my kind, faith is our way of quelling the fires that ravage our beings, in life and in death. Temple or circle, the faith of my homeland has always been about keeping peace in pursuit of inner harmony... It was why I was given to the order, a spoiled and hysterical problem filly like myself causing fewer problems in the mountains than she was setting fire to the province at home. At first, thought it was only another formality forced upon me, but by the gentle words of my first master, I began to learn... I became so accustomed to temple life, I decided it was my calling; so much so that after less than a decade of practice when my own brother, by the a mighty Swordsage, came to retrieve his beloved Sister at the request of our father, I sent him home, for I had grown content in banishment. So content, that I stayed behind even when my fellow monks left to practice elsewhere... The monks of my order only assembled in circles every few centuries to nurture our solidarity, to protect the world from both ourselves and the nameless horrors of the beyond. Our circles were once made up of magi, who bound together to fight evil and ugliness wherever it stood.. but the temple that I trained in is no more, for it stood where it was not needed, and thus drifted away. For a few years, I stayed behind as a hermit, turning my family's servants away whenever they came to retrieve me, until eventually I too drifted away, in pursuit of godliness...To become one with all and nothing, or so I believed..." "I knew it then, and I know it now... Like so many monks before me, I too sought out faith to quell the fires within me as well, fires that blazed and blistered until they threatened to destroy me from within.. I wasn't always such a patient mare; no, I was wild as I was naive.. In the past I made mistakes; I've broken many things, and lost many things, and so now I've chosen faith to guide my path. I spent many years alone looking for faith, learning from what the trees told me.. At one point, I believed that I was growing callous, but as I wandered across the continent alone, I found that I could hear things that others could not. I can hear when creatures are suffering, struggling against illness, evil, and destitute. I had endured the most excruciating tortures in my training as an ascetic, to where the pains of the flesh felt like little more than inconveniences. I had myself taught myself to live without wealth, joy, security, shelter, or even love, but the creatures of this realm still struggle; and thus can only I offer up my body in service. When I comb my mane and brush over the jagged scar nestled beneath my chest fluff, I remember the moment that I had became a Druid. The shackling thorns... The bitter froth of white gull on my tongue... The frenzied howling all around me... The cold, hard granite scraping across my scales... The bite of obsidian... The moment I offered my heart to that tree, and gave up my life, my name, everything... I've never regretted it even once, because what the briers took from me was never something I really needed. The services I offered, were their own reward... Deep down, I know I ever only wanted to become something other than myself, even if that meant being nothing... But even as a master of shapes and changes in hue, I am only but myself: the ghoulish blue flames and blackened fur upon my being are the only proof I need to know I've yet to tame the dragon in myself..." "...I've done some regrettable things recently.. I resorted to violence when none was due, and pursued power actively instead of letting it come to me, not unlike those covetous and destructive dragons... I soared over the battlefield clad in my wicked flames, relishing in the fear inflicting on those puny creatures, vengeful for the pain behind the silence... I broke my own standards, regressing to that violent little filly I was all those years ago, and given my current situation, it might be my undoing... It's ironic: old habits really do die hard..."