Session Six: Old Dwarf Way continued

General Summary

Very late Midsummer, 1495
Closing out the fight, Sikander jumps onto Anya's back (in bear form) and attacks with Wibbles from her back, while she takes her own attacks. Stefan comes out swinging and nearly lays waste to the werebear and as he tries to run for the portal "Beary Potter" Anya swipes a claw out at him, ripping him in half as Stefan grabs the torso. (He and Sikander are certain Stefan finished him off). Anya shifts back, indignant the boys didn't give her credit for the werebear, dropping Sikander from her back as she does, while Stefan starts drinking the blood from the werebear. He suffers no ill effects, but doesn't care for the blood as much.
Checking their pouches, Anya finds a silver broach with a cherry blossom on it. With a worried look, she calls Sikander over to show him, and he explains to the others about the Cherry Blossom Society (worse than a gang, more widespread than he realized). She also finds 25 gold on each of them and a love letter. As she finishes searching, a comment about the Cherries infiltrating Cloudhook prompts Anya to take a closer look at the Admiral's medallion, not recalling anything in his office. Instead, she finds the symbol of Moradin etched onto the back. Finding this odd, she starts to show Sikander and the others, but in her irritation, she shoves it back into her pack then stalks off with Tal to meditate, telling them boys to do as they will.
Like kids free in a candy store, they start walking down the dock, just "checking things out" before heading to the Pentacorn and Fin. They hear strange crying from creatures heard in the sky along with spotting activity on the Defiant, otherwise all is quiet. Ahead, they notice Admiral's place has a single light on, but decide against a visit, and swing toward the various small skyships docked for the night. The spot on with dwarvish engraved on the side saying, "Tᚺᛖ Pᛖᚱᛊᛖᛈᚺᛟᚾᛖ" (The Persephone). Stefan decides to go in for a closer look and enters the ship, finding the dwarven proprietor passed out and in the buff, a bottle of Scumble on the floor near him. He snags the bottle of scumble without waking the dwarf, but while stopping to check the chest, Nico Adondidas rises and starts "dual wielding" at Stefan, thinking he is someone called "Relick". They eventually settle their differences once Sikander's name is brought up. Stefan calls him and Piper in and Adondidas is over the moon to meet the Sikander Steelestone, and to get his autograph. Once he is inside, and Adondidas explains he is part of the "Sikkie's" - a small but growing fan club focused on none other than Sikander. He starts pulling out pamphlets, a statue, and even copies of "Sikander's Dwarven Book of Wisdom". Flattered, the little group sits and enjoys scumble and conversation.
Meanwhile Anya, having taken her leave of the boys and Piper, went off to a quiet rise with Tal and to meditate under the full moon. Eventually, a vision of a young woman appears in the moonlight and asks her, "Are you the one will guide me?" Confused, Anya tries questioning her only to be told, "He is gone and he dead". She follows the vision to the edge of the cliff, finding a cairn of stones and watching in surprise and shock as the vision, arms outstretched jumps from the cliff. Wanting to help the girl, Anya starts checking out the cairn, but much of the dwarven writing has been worn away. As she and Tal stand alongside it, there is a strong sense of melancholy and connection - that something needs to be done and Anya is the only one who can do anything. While trying to decide what to do next, the sounds of Sikander's laughter echoes across to her. With a sigh, she starts back to the others.
As Anya returns, a figure is watching the ship closely, raising her internal alarms. After chasing him down, Relick introduces himself as a rival of Adondidas, accusing the other dwarf of cheating and piracy. After letting him go on for a moment, Anya cuts Relick off with a warning that if anything should happen to that sky ship while her brother Sikander is on it, then Relick would have hell to pay. Taking her leave, she heads over and finds the others drunk and singing songs, some honoring Sikander. She finds images of Sikander printed on pages, and the statue before Adondidas greets her as "Eny".
Pretty quickly, she realizes the stories Sikander has been telling across the Sword Coast, the ones painting him as the solo hero, are now accepted as truth by a small group of fanatics. After a few attempts at correcting some of the stories (most emphatically her name and status within the stories), Anya joins the conversation as it shifts toward Adondidas giving them a ride out to the Cloudwalk and his tall tales about the muskie that attack the ships. He explains the differences between "The Persephone" and the larger ships, as the smaller ones don't rely on the ley lines, but a special crystal fuel instead. He agrees to fly them out to the Cloudwalk tomorrow and drop them at the last point he saw the missing group, as well as let them spend the night aboard "The Persephone". Sikander takes the extra room (Anya sends Tal in with him), while Adondidas offers hammocks to the others. Anya opts to spend the night outside atop the ship, setting her alarm spell to alert them to any danger that may approach.   1 Eleasis, 1495
Up early, Adondidas makes breakfast for everyone: a special blood pudding for Stefan, a musky dish (tastes like rock bass) for Anya, a specialty cut of moon calf for Sikander (Anya doesn't care for it), and offers them a bite of a 250 year old bread his grandmother made (Sikander has fond memories of this bread), but they all decline. While they eat, Anya and Adondidas discuss her vision and learns about a woman who was promised to an airman, but before they could be wed his airship went down, supposedly killing him. On hearing the news, she went to the cliff and leapt off. There are rumors he didn't die and lives somewhere out among the mesas. He goes on the the woman was thought to be mad as she would often yelled at him, tell him what to do, and wore pants. Confused at some of this, Anya shares she felt a great depths of sadness and wanted to help if she could.
Finishing breakfast, they head out, with Anya keeping watch, Sikander helping steer, and Stefan on the ballistae as they head for the large valley. Ahead of them, the cliffcats jump and glide around, getting Adondidas excitedly singing with Stefan about them. Needing to get crystals going for fuel, Sikander goes below and loads the odd, dwarven machine up and watches it sputter to life and lifts the ship into the air. As they get going, everyone take a set of special bracers that act as a life vest.
The travel without issue for an hour or so, before another ship is spotted and they find Relick chasing them down, spiraling into an air fight. Stefan connects the two ships with a rope while Anya sends her arrows flying across, taking out both hired orcs. Stefan shimmies across and obliterates Relick, while Sikander takes to the rope like a tightrope walker, falls and hangs on with style and almost gets to the other side. Anya comes to offer a hand, which he waves off, then slips and starts falling. Casting her spectral rope, she grabs ahold of him while Stefan starts pulling them up. As he slips again, Anya shifts into an anaconda but isn't able to wrap around him and watches him fall. Sikander activates his life vest as a massive muskie comes up, mouth open as if to swallow the dwarf whole.

Character(s) interacted with

Adondidas Relick (deceased) Female ghost Muskies

Notes

Long rest completed aboard Adondidas's ship before taking off for the Cloudwalk
Stefan, Sikander, and Adondidas are impacted by Scumble until late 1st of Eleasis
Everyone is wearing the "life vests"; Sikander's is deployed
Anya is still an anaconda on Relick's ship
Tal is with Adondidas on "The Persephone", which he is lowering to get closer to Sikander
Report Date
17 May 2023
Primary Location
Related Plots


Cover image: by Doug Craven

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