Session 34 - Tegissa Ain't Got Nothin' To Do With It

General Summary

The Fathomkeeper and Idressi have been taken back to the temple for treatment. Ionessa goes to talk to Halina, she doesn’t know exactly what’s happening, but she hadn’t noticed anything strange with the Fathomkeeper. The temple is trying to understand what happened while avoiding a panic. We ask if we can have access to the Fathomkeeper’s room now that she’s been implicated in a criminal conspiracy, and we are allowed to go in there and snoop around. That one nosy priest tries to stop us because he’s a big racist but we’re allowed in with his supervision anyway.
Ionessa and Kestor look through the coded notes and can’t quite crack the cipher, though they do find one of the books about the southern continent that she had taken from the library. Kestor takes the “book” and Ionessa copies the notes from the coded material so we can decipher it later. There are no other clues in here, but Ionessa suspects maybe there is an accomplice or some other place where we might search. After all, where is Idressi’s golden arm? Where is the other book about the southern continent? We go harass some priests.
Ionessa explains to Xanthos why her people don’t like surface dwellers, it’s because they come down, take something and leave without contributing to their community or showing respect. Xanthos agrees that he can do something to improve their standing, but then he calls Idressi “seagull guy,” he can’t even SAY HIS NAME! Ionessa calls him out, Xanthos can’t understand why Ionessa doesn’t hate that guy, but she actually just hates it when the two start bickering. Kestor and Neo have a brief discussion about pettiness, and then go asking around about Idressi. The Fathomkeeper took him away to perform the rite on her own and nobody knows where he ended up.
During her questioning, Ionessa runs into one of her mums! Her name is Celandia and she’s kind of a religious devout, she’s surprised to see Ionessa here but happy and the two of them catch up a little. She then harasses Halina with a million questions, and she’s a little suspicious of Xanthos because he’s a surface dweller, but the two of them bond over Xanthos and Ionessa being named after relatives. We then head to the militia and after a little more racism we are directed towards recruit Oktios, who was responsible for disposing of the merrow bodies. On the way the surface-dwellers bring up that they are getting tired of being treated so poorly by the people here, to which Ionessa responds by saying they are just not used to us. She says we can leave if we don’t like it here, but obviously there are important things going on and Kestor says it would be nice if she stood up for us on occasion.
We head further into the militia spot and find that there is some kind of arena fighting ring with people cheering. Oktios is getting beaten up in there, we speak to him and find that he brought the bodies of the merrow over to the temple of Thalakyma. He brought about ten or so bodies from several fights there, they were all crusty when he took them there. He seems to think there’s some kind of infectious STI from the merrow that makes em crusty, Xanthos thinks there might be some truth to it, Ionessa mentions that Kovu’s father might be afflicted by the same crusty disease.
We go speak to the rumormonger, Cephalon, who is the reigning arena champ. He won’t talk to us until we wrestle him, so Xanthos beats him in a wrestling match. Xanthos asks him about the STI story, it’s made up but it sounds like someone actually did get banished. The elders or the clan leaders would know more. We go find the Tidecaller who has finished talking to the elders, the Fathomkeeper is being cleansed and seems to be more herself now. He says the person who was banished was part of clan Nyima.
We go to a clan Nyima party and Kestor is able to find some people who are inebriated who might be more willing to talk about sensitive topics. One person reveals that Heidi was broken up about it when Iris was banished for being involved with Tegissa within the city, she had constructed a hidden shrine to Tegissa and was not repentant about it. They didn’t have any crust on them, but she did get in trouble for interfering with the militia’s investigation. She was making a nuisance of herself after merrow attacks, showing up where the attacks had happened and asking questions.
We find Heidi, Iris’ mother. She tells us that Iris thought the church was to blame for the merrow attacks. She suspects her husband is still bringing her food, though, so he’d know where she’d be. He gives us a location once we get him away from his wife, so we have a new lead. She’s outside of the city, though not in merrow territory. We head out to find her, she’s about an hour north of the city by a purple coral crag. On the way, Ionessa takes Kestor aside and apologizes for snapping at him, the two of them have a heartfelt conversation about discrimination and acknowledge that they could both be better friends to each other in dealing with that. Kestor promises not to deliberately antagonize her kin as well. They hug it out!
We find Iris and give her a gift from her father. She’s not very trustful of us. We tell her what we found underneath the temple, she tells us that the infected merrow are not acting under the will of Tegissa, and in fact it is hard to reach Tegissa at all in or around the city. She recognizes Kestor’s connection to Tegissa and this helps her open up a bit. Tegissa is not a god of evil but a god of outsiders, those who do not conform to the roles forced upon them by those like the elders. She was trying to understand the merrow attacks, she knows that Tegissa was not involved in those attacks. The bodies seemed to be disappearing into the church, but she managed to get her hands on one and offers to show us.
She has dissected the merrow and discovered a leech/tadpole creature inside its head. The tadpole is likewise coated in the strange crust, maybe the crust is caused by these creatures? She was going to bring what evidence she had to the elders, but her shrine was reported by a family member before she could do so and this led to her banishment. She doesn’t know if she wants to return to the city even if we can get her pardoned, and suggests that we leave her name out of it if we do talk with them about any information she has given us.
Kestor offers to give her his claw amulet as she seems far more deserving of the blessing, and perhaps it was destiny that we found her. Tegissa likes pieces of sea creatures, monster or otherwise, and things taken from shipwrecks. We go searching for suitable offerings and Ionessa finds a shark and a squid that died locked in mortal combat with one another. If that ain’t an omen, I don’t know what is! We bring them back to the shrine for sacrifice, and Kestor prays to Tegissa to allow his gift to pass on to Iris. Tegissa speaks through Neo in response, but instead of words, shadows pour out and shut off all the light in the cave. We hear something moving nearby, something swimming in the water. A woman’s voice steeped with power and slightly rattling says, “it is not often that I hear the words of those of the surface, but I am not like my siblings. I have no ire for the surface, and I know of your deeds. You wish to gift my blessing to my servant, so be it. I permit you to share it with her. But is there more you would ask, children of the surface?”
Kestor asks for information about the merrow and how they came to be corrupted. “My children sought old power as I once did, but woe their small minds allowed it to consume them and they became something old. They would share this gift if permitted, but woe to those who would accept it. There are those whose worship of me remains, though many have been convinced to accept this dark aid, but it is not simply the merrow who turn. Any who seek this power or have it forced upon them will suffer a similar fate. This gift is older than myself or my mother or even the sea itself. If it can be stopped, I know not the way.”
Kestor asks if there is a connection between the play and what is happening to the merrow. “Ancient things fester at the edges of the world, by sea and sky and earth. If you would learn more of them, I would ask their warden. I have gifted you much, philosopher. If you wish for more, you need only ask. Devote thyself to me and I will grant you the knowledge you seek.” After careful consideration, Kestor declines the warlock pact and piety change, he feels there is value
“You need not fear, philosopher, I am not like my siblings. I would not punish you simply for not accepting my gifts. I am certain that in time, should you further entertain my offer, we may speak again.” The darkness fades and Kestor is able to remove the amulet, though his arms and claws remain the same. He gives the amulet to Iris, who is amazed by what has happened here and thanks us profusely for what we have done. We pass on that her father misses her, and thank her for the information about the tadpole, then we head back to the city.
The Fathomkeeper is awake and we are allowed to speak with her. She apologizes to us but thanks us for helping her. She was clearly bewitched in some way. She remembers taking out the books about the southern continent, she began to read one and the others were delivered to the prophet. She remembers writing but not what code she used or to whom she was writing. She thought the prophet was a servant of Thalakyma, that her voice in her dreams led her to him. The gold from Idressi’s arm was also given to the prophet. She thinks the prophet was “slipping back into the dreams when I first heard its voice”. She’s not aware of anyone else in the temple who was involved with the prophet.
It sounds like Idressi has busted out from the temple, so we go to inspect the bodies of the merrow. Ionessa performs an autopsy, it has black blood and she gets into its skull. Attached like a remora to the brain of the merrow is another tadpole, this one is deceased. Tendrils are burrowing into the brain itself. Kestor keeps the dead one and Ionessa lobotomizes the other corpses to make sure the parasites are dead. Ionessa tells the Tidecaller that these creatures do not belong to Tegissa. He will relay this to the elders, though they likely won’t believe it.
We head back to Ionessa’s home and we all meet both of her parents, Aura and Celandia. We are introduced to them and they want to know everything that happened on the surface. Kestor puts on a show telling a story with the drum backing track, and wows the whole family with his storytelling prowess! He leaves out a bunch of extra scary or secret stuff, and he hypes up Kovu as a person who has his own agency. Celandia is a little concerned about the parts where we’re in danger in the story, but very intrigued by times in the story when a god shows up. Aura seems more proud of her than concerned.
When Kestor is done, he is swarmed by children who make song requests. He makes them collect shells for him as payment, the winner is Iphis, Gord’s son! He starts playing the one underwater song that he knows, distracting the masses long enough for Ionessa to have a private conversation with her parents. She tells them that she isn’t planning on staying in Oiakis, which is hard for her parents to hear. They are supportive of her, but it all seems quite dangerous. She can stay if she wants, she could come back to the farm. Celandia is the main offender here, she lays on a bit of a guilt trip, which Aura seems a bit miffed at. Ionessa says there is stuff happening out there in the world, and she doesn’t want to bring it home.
Celandia asks if there have been any changes with “that thing” referring to Kovu. She gets called out a little and relents, saying that she is sorry and that she is happy Ionessa is safe and home for now. Celandia retires for the night, and Aura checks that Ionessa is actually okay. She says she can tell her anything that was left out of the story, she’s okay to hear it. Ionessa asks her what she thinks of her friends, and then asks what she would think if one of them was more than a friend. She looks out over the collection of goofs from the surface and correctly identifies Xanthos as the man whomst is the most Ionessa’s type. She offers to give her an honest assessment of this ruffian after getting to know him better. Celandia isn’t going to be so happy about that, she likes Akatios and has been planning her kids’ lives since childhood.
It’s a nice conversation, but next up is Xanthos’ TRIAL BY COnversation, which is honestly probably worse for him overall.
The end!

Notes

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Report Date

03 Jul 2023