Session 44

We're standing around the funeral pyre, watching Lehroth's body burn as the sky above Grandia turns menacing and red. Pippy is standing silently, holding Lehroth's helmet and thinking of all that went unsaid between her and Lehroth. Thydrom is deep in contemplation, mourning the first party death and the fact that he couldn't help. Xerrik speaks up and says that there is a situation that should likely be addressed. Snow agrees. Xerrik suggests we head to Grandia and Yatish agrees and reminds us that Nioza contacted her and wanted Yatish to find us. Yatish explains that Grandia isn't doing too hot right now but she doesn't know the details. Xerrik finds it odd that she doesn't know what is going on in Grandia since she always knows what's going on. Yatish starts walking towards the town with Raui at her side. Raui is silent and walks along. Snow wipes his nose and starts walking. Ra goes over to Lehroth in the fire and puts his hand on his burning body, wincing as he gets singed, and says a prayer for Lehroth and bows and walks off. Pippy still stands watching Lehroth burn, oblivious to what is happening around her. Vaan is upset about all the turn of events, angry at Yatish and wanting to kill Raui. Vaan approaches Lehroth's burning body and finally arm wrestles Lehroth letting him win. She says "you win buddy, see you next time". Vaan sees Raui and Nyla hisses at Raui and says she isn't ok with any of this and storms ahead on Nyla. Snow for the first time ever closes his mouth and doesn't make any snarky comments. Thydrom lingers behind with Pippy as she stares at the burning pyre.
Thydrom feels someone walking towards him and Pippy, they are walking normally but from behind them. He turns around and sees a person with a big grey beard, Keyleth. He comes over and greets us and asks why there was a fire. Thydrom apologizes and introduces himself and explains that we're having a funeral for our fallen comrad and that we are honoring their last wishes. He then explains what a funeral is to Keyleth and explains it as a farewell. Keyleth is confused but explains he came to say hello and make sure everything is alright. Keyleth walks over to Pippy and says he met her before, sees her crying and he just stares and his eyes widen. He says he knows this feeling and that this happened to him and his friends that had met a wizard. Keyleth then says he came to warn about Grandia and that something very bad is happening there. Keyleth says they've always had a bad feeling about there and that there is something bad going on. Pippy reaches out for Keyleth's hand and says he'll remember eventually and he freaks out abot how he doesn't want to remember but says that if we need him we can call out to him with something he gave Wi Po. Wi Po lingers by and says hi to Keyleth. Keyleth explains he wants to remind him that he is thankful for the help with his friends. Wi Po pulls the item out that he gave and reminds him he has it. Keyleth then compliments Wi Po on their flowery mane and Wi Po plucks a flower from it and makes another ring and gives it to him. Thydrom asks Keyleth what is happening in Grandia and Keyleth explains that soething evil transpired there. Thydrom asks about Bethrynna and Hapicord. Keyleth doesn't remember but says he hears the screaming coming from there and no one else seems to notice. Thydrom thanks for the warning and asks if he knows where the screams came from in Grandia. Keyleth explains they are banned from coming to Grandia and that the "old one" the old magic user had blocked him from coming there. He warns us to be careful and to call if we need help. Thydrom comes up to Pippy and asks if she wants to be left alone or if she wants to head to Grandia. She explains she doesn't feel right leaving his body behind until the pyre has fully consumed him. Thydrom decides to stay by her while she mourns.
Vaan and Nyla head towards the city with the intention of going to Denathins, not stopping for anything. She notices that no one is at the gate and just rides by. The streets are a lot less crowded and that there are a lot less people so she is able to easily make her way to the slums where thug denny's is located. She decides to stop at Tedd's place first and invite him for a drink first. She puts her cloak and hood up and takes the shape of Tedd and knocks on his door.
Everyone else, except Wi Po and Thydrom and Pippy, make it to Grandia and also notice no one is at the front gate. It's odd. The sky is still red and thundering and the streets are empty. Xerrik and Zandro debate on if they should head to the castle or to the college. Zandro suggests going to the school first as they may know what is going on. He explains his thinkig is to see Hapicord because of how he freaked out over Nioza's sword. The group agrees and heads towards the School of Aptitude. While walking there they spot Bimp Knoton as they run past them holding a bunch of scrolls and vials. Zandro calls out to her and she is rushing by but turns and sees Zandro and blushes after recognizing his voice. She welcomes him back and brushes the hair away from her face but drops one of her vials. She pays it no mind as she is fully focused on Zandro. She asks how it's going and he explains how they lost a party member and that they died and explains she doesn't know them. She asks if he needs to consoling and Zandro says no cause he was an asshole but necessary. Xerrik scolds him for calling Lehroth and asshole. Zandro is fully focused on the sky and doesn't pay any attention to scolding. Bimp continues to listen as Zandor asks again what is going on with the sky. She explains that she is looking into this at the moment and becons them to follow her to find Hapicord and Bethrynna at the college as well. She then accidentally drops another vial and Xerrik asks if they are important and she starts panicking about them finally but calms herself down. Then she rushes them along. She is flustered and starts speed walking. The group follows and Xerrik whispers to Zandro "I think your girlfriend opened up a portal to hell or something." Zandro says she is not his girlfriend and Xerrik says close enough. She hears Xerrik call her Zandro's girlfriend and stops and whispers "girlfriend?" gets a little flustered and starts speed walking again to the college.
She makes her way to the college and they go see Hapicord. There are people running around all over in the school, clearly there is a panic there. She rushes up the stairs to where Hapicord usually resides. Bimp says that there has been a lot of strange happenings lately but right now the main focus is what is happening with the sky. She says she'll get into it more at a later time and that the sky is most important.
Back at Lehroth's body and Pippy summon's Bob to go into the fire and gather some of Lehroth's ashes. The three start to head back to town, Pippy still holds Lehroth's helmet and Thydrom asks if she is ok and she shakes her head no and sticks Lehroth's helmet on her head and starts crying. As she does this she feels a hand on her shoulder, she reaches to touch it but there is no hand there. This causes her to cry even harder as they walk back to town, her tears echoing through the helmet. As they get to town Thydrom asks why there are no guards and Pippy muffles through the helmet that the guards Geomafrey and Tedd are usually there. Thydrom can't understand her so she tilts the helmet back and finally takes in the scene of Grandia, reexplains herself, and then suggests they find the others and puts the helmet back on. Thydrom then casts a spell to detect magic to see if he can figure out any magical elements that is contributing to what is going on. Pippy then takes the helmet off briefly and asks if Thydrom has ever been there before. They decide to head towards the college and Pippy puts the helmet back on as they walk. Thydrom as he walks notices a strange puddle with two substances mixed together with glass shards in it (the vials Bimp had broken). He sense necrotic energy coming from the puddle. He calls over Pippy and asks her if she knows what this is. She takes the helmet off and sticks it in her pack, remembering the final words of Lehroth to do what she can to help the group, and starts to examine the puddle. She notices that it's two different liquids that are mixing together, that they are explosive in nature, like a necrotic explosive. Thydrom doesn't want to leave the puddle and Pippy starts kicking dirt over it. She explains that she knows of one necromancer in this town but doesn't know if they would be able to create potions like this. She then explains how this town is friendly towards necromancy and suggests continuing to the college.
Vaan knocks on the door of Tedd's house and inside she hears someone sigh deeply. The door opens and she is greeted by Geomafrey who sees right through her disguise and he is begging her to come in. He then asks what "that" is as he points to Nyla and Vaan explains its her weasel. Geomafrey then explains that he is allergic to weasels and that Vaan will need to pick up after her and they enter the house. Geomafrey then calls Tedd down but Tedd isn't budging thinking that Geomafrey wants him to do something for him. Vaan just goes up the stairs to Tedd's room, still looking like Tedd, whistling up the steps as she goes. She approaches his room, the door is open, and she leans on the door frame and asks "what's shaking bacon" and finger guns him. She is still dressed in Vaan's outfit (with a cloak on) looking like Tedd. He exclaims "DAMN I look fantastic!! Pop out that hip, UGH I look like perfection!!". Vaan poses for him. He explains that he is very sad and Vaan asks if he wants a drink and he explains he doesn't have any money cause he hasn't been working due to no event in town. Vaan also mentions that it's probably because of the sky and he is confused by this. Tedd is very clearly depressed at this moment, his room is trashed and he is disheveled. Vaan says that she will buy him drinks anyways and they can fill each other in. He explains he doesn't want to go to Denathins cause he doesn't want to put a shirt on and Vaan yells at him. He then asks if she is back with the group and she says yes and no and that she's upset with them right now for letting traitors back into the group, Yatish and Raui. She explains that they joined up into evil forces and Tedd is concerned cause Yatish isn't evil. Vaan starts to explain everything that has gone down with her and Yatish while she was away. Tedd is upset when he hears that Vaan shot his sister and Vaan tries to blow it over and calls Yatish hot which just confuses Tedd even more. Tedd asks her to change out of his skin and she changes back into herself. Tedd asks why she came back and Vaan explains it wasn't a choice and that she has no idea why she's there. She explains her group is here, Raui and Yatish as well, and that Vaan didn't want to deal with any of that and just wanted a drink instead. Tedd says fuck it and asks Vaan to slap him to help him snap out of it. She slaps him but as she does she smacks over a vase in his room by accident, overshooting her shot. They then head out to go drink. Vaan mentions again about the sky being red and Tedd says that likely means Behtrynna is upset and Vaan says "Ugh I don't want to talk about Bitch-rynna" getting a chuckle out of Tedd. Tedd and Geomafrey follow her to Denathins. As they go outside she starts to hear rain falling. However she notices something weird about the rainfall. The rain is red. Vaan exclaims "Oh great, blood is falling from the sky and I'm hungry, let's go". When they get in the bar Sally the bugbear is busy cooking. Vaan is excited to see her and calls out to her. Sally smiles and waves at her and goes back to cooking. Vaan looks over and sees someone sitting in the booth.
Back at the college Bimp leads them to Hapicord. Zandro and Xerrik open up the door to Hapicord's area and sees the old tournament area is currently filled with desks. Hapicord is rummaging through a giant desk that's almost 20 feet long and 30 feet wide. He is on top of it just searching through papers and tossing them aside. He pays them no mind. Zandro suggests getting his attention since he's focused on whatever papers he's sifting through. Zandro and Xerrik call out and ask if he needs help with something or knows why the sky is burning. Hapicord scolds Bimp for bringing them into the office without his permission. Zandro explains that they would have came in anyways as no one was there to stop them. Hapicord explains that he is busy trying to figure out the sky and that it is one of three issues he's trying to solve. He says he's fairly sure this has to do with Bethrynna. He then asks to step outside to discuss further. He rushes them out and walks with them. Zandro asks why he thinks it Behtrynna and Hapicord explains that she's done it before but in different colors but this is the worst he's ever seen it, that there is a different feeling to it. That the sun feels different. He says that he knows that Bethrynna taught some of that magic to her, pointing to Raui. They run into Pippy, Thydrom, and Wi Po. Pippy is dragging her feet so Thydrom suggests she crawl into her pack and he will carry her. She agrees, takes the helmet back out and puts it on and crawls into her pack as Thydrom hangs the pack from his war hammer, causing Pippy to sway with every step he takes. Hapicord and the group make it outside and he looks around and says he needs to be as transparent as he can be and begs us to listen. He says something very wrong is going on, someone is not who they say they are and is causing strange things. Xerrik mentions that Astral said to watch out for an imposter in Grandia and Thydrom says that Xerrik didn't mention that at all and explains that there is an imposter who is out to kill us. Xerrik is creeped out that Thydrom knows all this and Thydrom explains that he will explain that later. Hapicord gets their attention back and says something is very wrong here and that we can't trust everybody and he doesn't know who to trust. But something very wrong is happening. As he explains raindrops come down, red rain. The rain looks like blood. Hapicord says he is unsure where the traitor is, in the college or outside of the college. He says he knows Bethrynna does this type of magic but that's his only lead. Thydrom can tell that it's illusion magic being used. Pippy chimes from the backpack "what a fitting night for it to be raining blood" and Thydrom reaches back and rocks the backpack in the hopes that it calms Pippy and puts her to sleep. He explains to Hapicord that she's had a rough day. Hapicord mentions that the group seems to be missing a few people, Nioza and the Orc. Zandro explains that we don't remember the Orc and explains what happened in Pakadia. Xerrik explains we have a picture of the guy and Thydrom pulls the picture out of his pack that shows the Orc. Thydrom explains it was a false hydra. Hapicord explains that if the false hydra was killed we should have gotten our memories back and Pippy explains from the backpack that we set it free from it's master. Hapicord is confused by this and tries to explain details without giving details about what is going in the city. Zandro and Thydrom explain the fake Soj and our travels through the Feywild and how Fake Soj killed Lehroth (Pippy starts to cry from the backpack again) and Zandro continues to explain the differences between the fake and real Soj and that the real Soj is not on the material plane. Hapicord asks what the Fake Soj is like. Yatish is staring forward and piecing things together and realizes that the person she's been mad at is the Fake Soj and not the real Soj. Thdrom explains that she should know this cause she was at the bar when we learned about the Fake Soj. She's messing with her necklace as he says this and it jogs her memory. Hapicord puts his hand on Zandro's shoulder and says that we need to go now to the castle. The group starts to leave and as they do Hapicord is sweating profusely. Bimp stays behind with him.
The group makes their way to the castle and again there are no guards outside. Xerrik is concerned and says that this is all weird. Thydrom knows Borbirik as the king here but the king has fallen sick and he doesn't know that. He asks yatish about the king and she shrugs her shoulders. Thydrom heads to the castle to find the King, Pippy still dangling from his war hammer in her pack. The rest of the group walks in as well. Zandro is sneaking ahead of the group to scout.
Back at Denathins, Vaan is at the bar with Tedd and Geomafrey, Nyla is inside by the door. Tedd raises his glass "Here's to... fuck if I know anymore". Vaan says that she will explain what she can and asks them to ask questions. The first question is why did she shoot Tedd's sister, Yatish. She explains that it had been a minute before she had seen Yatish and that she was hanging out with someone that was considered to be our enemy and that he was trying to kill a close childhood friend of Vaan's and that yatish didn't know at the time it was Vaan cause she was shape shifted at the time and that she shot her with an arrow to get her to stop killing her friend. She then asks for the next question. Tedd needs time to process that information and doesn't have any other questions at this time. She then asks if Geomafrey has any questions for her. He asks if she has done any cool things since she left. She explains that she went to the feywild and was almost murdered for throwing trash on the ground. She explains her weasel has returned to her. And then she says she murdered a Pumpkin King. Geomafrey is unimpressed at her slaying a pumpkin. He then asks where she is staying, She asks if she can stay with them and Geomafrey asks about her friends but Vaan says she doesn't know what is up with them and doesn't really trust that situation right now. He suggests that Vaan should warn her friends to stay somewhere safe and off the streets tonight. Geomafrey says that people go missing at night - unknown why if they are running away or being kidnapped. He explains that there is a lot of stuff happening at the castle right now with a lot of unrest with civilians. Him and Tedd were fired, along with Pandjed and that there were new recruits brought to the castle. No one knows where Skywatcher is right now. School of magic is no longer allowing people to go inside unless they are a magic user or have been in there before and that Hapicord seems really stressed about something. Yatish hasn't been around for a long time either which has Tedd down cause she asked Tedd to not be out and about by himself. Vaan comforts Tedd as he's down about not being able to be social and Tedd asks if she actually likes him or if she's just there for his sister and she explains that she really enjoys Tedd (and being Tedd) and that Geomafrey is growing on her. He asks if Vaan and Yatish are a "thing" and she says that she'd like it to be that way but they have some things to work out. She then asks Sally for bread sticks and they shrug their shoulders and start to make bread sticks. Vaan then says she wants to check with Geomafrey on something and asks if he thinks Tedd is in danger. Geomafrey states that whatever happens to Tedd, Yatish has threatened to do the same and then some to Geomafrey. Vaan starts to think and decides that Tedd has to stay in his house so she can walk around as Tedd so she can talk to Yatish. He gets up from a stool and leans over the bar and grabs a bottle, upset with the idea. He then says she can pick out any clothes she wants except the red suit and pants. Vann presses why and learns that those are his "date" clothes. Geomafrey asks if Vaan was done talking and then explains the final piece he remembers, the fifth piece of info - 100% make sure that if you are Tedd, do not go to the college. Vaan states that she doesn't like the college. She promises to be careful. Vaan then buys a few bottles for Tedd and they head back to his place so she can change and dress as him.
NOTE FOR VAAN: Down to 92 coins
Back at the castle, Zandro is sneaking ahead to check things out ahead of everyone else. He is able to make his way all the way to the top of the tower. As he goes he sees some bodies laying around on the ground, knights and nobles. He sees on one side a giant sword sticking out of an individual that is stabbed against the wall by the stairs. He sees them moving. He checks to see if the bodies are alive or undead. He notices that there is no warmth to any of the bodies on the ground but the one stabbed by the sword he recognizes, Pandjed. They are barely alive, just barely breathing, and are unable to move their head. They see Zandro and look at him and he says through struggled breaths "So... you made.. it..." Zandor says yes and asks if he brought everyone here and Zandro says most. Pandjed says to be careful up there and that a group came in and slaughtered. He asks Zandro to go and protect those that he couldn't. He asks if Xerrik is still alive and is pleased to hear that he is still alive. He looks up and says "protect" and Pandjed's body goes limp and has died. Zandro heads back to the group and fills the group in on what took place. Thydrom goes up to the sword sticking out of Pandjed to see if he can find any identifiers on the sword to determine who or what is waiting above. He notices that this sword is an older sword and the markings on it are in goliath. He wakes Pippy up from her pack and asks her if she can cast a spell to understand the markings on the sword. She explains it takes some time to cast but then inquires as to where they are and what is going on. After they fill her in she offers to summon some undead minotaurs to act as bait and to protect the party. The party agrees that this is a good idea and so Thydrom sets her pack down so she can summon two undead minoataurs and orders them to act as a vangaurd. Thydrom then picks her pack back up and holds it from his shoulder and asks her to start casting her comprehend languages spell so she can read what is on the hilt of the sword that is now sticking out of his bag of holding.
The minotaurs go up the stairs ahead of the group and they start running and start attacking at the top of the stairs. There is clanking and shattering ahead of us. As we get up there we see that there is a group of undead goliaths up there that the two undead minotaurs have begun to engage with.