Session 50

We are making our way to Castle Rainfall with Q who is really hurt. Zandro sneaks away back to Bimp Knoton and Vaan is still searching for Tedd. The group heading towards Castle Rainfall makes it to the top of Castle Rainfall to Bethrynna who is pacing back and forth at her desk. She appears nervous and deep in thought. She is the only one there. Raui appraoches first, slowly and asks if she is good but Bethrynna pays no attention. But suddenly she tilts her head as she catches us out of the corner of her eye. She asks if we did it, if we succeeded and we say that we did. She thanks us and turns jovial that we took care of this. Raui asks if she can go back to being a bitch cause seeing Bethrynna nice was strange. Pippy asks if she ewas concerned about us or if she was more concerned about the outcome and she just simply says "Yes". She then thinks about how to reward us and states that maybe she can prepare a feast for us in a few days. Wi Po is excited at this but Pippy steps in and reminds them that we're on a time crunch to get the artifact. Bethrynna then talks about building a statue in our honor and we decline that as well. Pippy then speaks up that maybe instead Bethrynna could help them reach the next stage of their journey to which she asks where we are headed. Thydrom says we are heading towards the Tritons and Wi Po states he wants to head to where it's cold to find Cri Ro. She starts rummaging through her things and she finds her speaking stone and summons Soj, but Soj was there all along.
Soj asks us what we are needing and Pippy speaks up that we need a way to get to the Tritons cause that's a long way to swim. Soj then thinks about this and pulls his robe up over his mouth and speaks into it. He then says someone will be here shortly that can help. We suddenly hear a rumbling around us and suddenly Uraim appears with his honey badger. Uraim flies off his badger and lands ungracefully. He asks how his face looks and Thydrom says it's decent but could be better. Raui is confused by this as she doesn't know Uraim's true nature yet. Uraim says he can get us on a Triton boat but he needs an exact headcount. He explains that the Tritons protect thier homeland fiercly due to the artifact that is there. He needs a headcount now and are unable to wait for Vaan and Zandro. Snow then offers to message Yatish and steps back and he asks Yatish about Vaan. Yatish is angry cause she asked Snow not to go after the artifact and tosses her speaking stone at Vaan. Snow asks Vaan if she is coming with or not. Vaan says that she is not going and says to not call again and that she'll call him when she needs them. Snoe then says we shold just put Zandro as a yes and the party then says that we should try to get his response cause he may be mad at us. Thydrom offers to cast sending to inquire if he will come or not. Zandro says he will come along but he has to tie up some lose ends in town, should only take about 24 hours. Thydrom says we're on a time crunch, until morning - 12 hours. Zandro says he'll make it work and meet us in the morning. Uraim then turns to Raui and asks if she wants to see something cool and he turns his head and breathes fire. Raui is confused by this and Uraim says he'll tell her more later, or rather the party will. Uraim then hops on his sleigh and takes off again.
Snow asks if we're done here and Wi Po mentions we need to talk to Skywatcher. Snow then asks Soj for his special coffee drink and Soj offers to make a "Snowball" for everyone in the group. Snow explains that this drink will take you from a 6 to a 12. Wi Po asks Ra how much he should drink and Ra explains that we should just take a shot. Ra is going to have a glass. Wi Po then makes his way to Skywatcher. Skywatcher is sitting there with his head down, heads clasped, staring down and sitting. Wi Po knocks politely and Skywatcher beckons them in. He thanks him for saving Grandia and asks if this is what we came to tell him. He explains that he doesn't want to hear about what happened and Wi Po says that "then that didn't hapen". Wi Po explains that he wants to find his friend Cri Ro is somewhere in the north where it's cold and asks if he knows where his friend could be found. Skywatcher says there is aplace up north, over the mountains, like a ringed city in the mountains. He starts rummaging through his maps and pulls one out to show Wi Po and asks him to grab a pen. Wi Po brings back a handful of them. Skywatcher starts to draw on the map and points out where on the mountain to go to find this city. It's the only kingdom up north. Wi Po asks if this is anywhere near the Tritons and Skywatcher just says that it takes many days to get there, it's a treacherous journey as well due to how secluded it is. Wi Po explains how he really needs to find his friend as this is why he left home in the first place. Skywatcher then pulls something else out and asks if Wi Po knows anything about the kingdom of the Tritons and Wi Po says that he doesn't. Skywatcher says they are ruled bya king, the name escapes him, and he pulls out a painting of the Triton king. He explains he found this painting a long time ago and that this is who we should speak to but be wary of. Skywatcher asks about his friend Cri Ro with the hope of learning what Cri Ro was doing up north. Wi Po explains that he is a druid and that he disapeared one day. Skywatcher says this makes sense and then explains that there are creatures unique to that area that aren't recorded anywhere in this plane, such as Pancerborns. Wi Po explains that we need those claws for something in the fey. Skywatcher then thanks them for coming by. He then pulls something out of his pocket and hands Wi Po a key to his room and explains he is welcome to come in whenever and not to tell anyone outside of the group.
Bethrynna is hanging out with everyone out and asks if we need anything else. Raui asks if they can duel sometime and Bethrynna says that she doesn't want to see that. Raui explains she is still curious and Bethrynna asks if she wants to go now but Bethrynna changes her mind cause she's too happy to fight. Raui says she'll come catch her on a bad day. Pippy shyly creeps up to Bethrynna and then whispers "do you know anything about how to bring someone back from the dead?" Bethrynna says resurection but Pippy reminds her that it doesn't work right now. She states that she's interested in learning how to bring someone back, a person, and Bethrynna says to come back to chat with her about this tonight. She then loudly says , "So.. anything else?" Raui reminds her that she was going to tell her how she got her magic. Bethrynna explains she learns and experiments through trial and error to create new things. Raui then points to Q and says we brought her back, Q is expressionless and staring forward. She's a little tramatized by the events that hapened. Thydrom feels bad for Q and offers her some comfort and offers to listen to her talk about it if she wants to. She tries to talk but no words come out, she's too distraught and sadness is the epression in her eyes. She wipes away her tears, takes a deep breath and just pats him on the shoulder and walks downstairs. Thydrom says he's going to go shopping then and walks out.
Snow then goes to find Soj, some of the group follows but Xerrik decides to head to bed. Soj starts pouring out these shots, it smells of a very strong vanilla. Raui, Pippy, and Wi Po get a shot, Snow and Ra get a glass. The drink taste really well, like an iced coffee with a hint of alchohl in it. However it is pure alchohl. Pippy takes the shot and she feels invigorated, ready to take on the world, like she is moving without moving. She is ready to go balls to the wall. Wi Po and Raui just feel more awake. Snow and Ra take theirs and Ra is fine. Snow however is as effected as Pippy, he leans into Pippy and says LETS GO. He jumps on the table and starts dancing and Pippy climbs up and shows him how to do a little gnome dance. While those two go crazy, Ra explains that Snow used to be a regular at the bar and that this gives him courage when he isn't up to performing. It's a special concotion that Soj came up with specifically for Snow.
Meanwhile while all this was going on, Zandro was back at the castle ruins. He appraoches Bimp Knoton's body and loots her corpse. He takes her invisibility cloak. As he searches her pockets he finds some clumped up notes of her school work, a pendant of an owl, and notices that she doesn't have any weapons but does have a vial of the strange necromatic fluid next to her. He does find a note however. The note is written by someone other than Bimp and it seems more elgant. It says "Bimp Knoton, meet me at the cathedral. We need to talk about what's going on. Please don't do anything rash. I know that this means a lot to you but there are some concerns. Meet me at this time (in one hour)." It has a handprint on the back of it in red. Zandro is unable to determine who wrote the note. He decides to leave the ruins and make his way to the cathedral to see who Bimp was going to meet. Maybe they are an ally of hers?
He makes his way to the cathedral and walks in to the big empty room. He wraps himself in the cloak before he enters the church and hangs out to wait and see who comes. He sees someone come in with a hood on, a large hood. They are tall and go to sit down in a pew. In their right hand is a staff. He asks "are you here for Bimp Knoton?". The figure asks who is asking. He recognizes the voice, it's the voice of Hapicord. Zandro steps out and takes off his hood as well. Hapicord asks to talk and Zandro agrees. He says that the note he found on her body stated that he had concerns. Hapicord asks how she died and Zandro says it was the party. He explains he asked the group not to attack and that he hasn't asked the group much of anything before but just outright killed her anyways. He then mentions Pippy in particular and Raui were the ones bent on killing her. Hapicord says he doesn't blame any of us and that he understands it was a lot and that what she was doing was a lot. Hapicord explains that he tried to stop her but couldn't, and failed her as a teacher. He says "Zandro, if you take anything from this, it's ... I can't even come up with a moral of the story." He goes on to explain he was worried. Zandro says that when she died she warned to watch out for Bethrynna and to take her out. That she is not who she seems. Hapicord asks what he feels like doing. Zandro says that he needs to fulfil the wishes of a dead friend. Hapicord says to do what you need to do as Bimp Knoton did. Hapicord then says that he has nothing to hide now. He's been cut off from his magical source and that he is a warlock. He gained his powers from something else and he disobeyed his patron the moment he told Bimp Knoton the truth. Zandro asks what that truth is but Hapicord says he can explain that another time. He says he made a promise to Bimp Knoton not to involve him but says that the answers he seeks are around here. He suggests talking to someone trustworthy to him and Hapicord will tell them, working through a loop hole. Zandro then asks if Hapicord knows what Bethrynna is working on. Hapicord explains that he is the one that took Bethrynna's notes but can't explain it to him due to the promise he made to Bimp. Oaths are big to him but he can tell a close friend of Zandro's instead. He asks that Zandro not be too hard on the party and to try to see it from their perspective as well. Context is key. And he wishes him luck.
Thydrom meanwhile heads out to do a little shopping before our trip. The marketplace is pretty bare compared to the last time he shopped but there are some that are open. He's looking for some magic items and potions of healing. The potion shop is really refined but the magic items booth is pretty beaten down. Thydrom grabs some potions and then goes to the magic booth. He picks up a few magical trinkets as well, a necklace and things of that nature. They also try to push on him a bag of "seeds". Thydrom wants to test the seeds but the shop keep says he isn't allowed to do that. Thydrom tries to talk him into a demo and the shopkeep agrees. He grabs a seed and throws it. Suddenly the ground shakes a little bit and out sprouts a geyser, not of water, but of vinegar. A vinegar geyser. Thydrom talks him into trying out another one to see what it does, the kid agrees and tosses another one on the ground. The ground shakes again and out comes a bullet who immedietly starts attacking. The creature goes to bite Thydrom and takes a chomp out of him. Thydrom then casts banishment on it and makes it disapear to a nother dimension. The kid is stunned by this and asks if he wants to buy any potions and then hands Thydrom a random potion and says it's on the house as long as he doesn't say what happened here. Thydrom then buys the seeds and the ring of spell storing as well. The geyser is still going and smells awful. They both wonder when it'll stop. Thydrom suggests collecting the vinegar to sell.
Pippy and Snow are still raging when everyone else goes to sleep. Pippy then suddenly remembers that she was supposed to talk to Behtrynna and asks if Snow wants to come along. She grabs Snow by his face and says "I'm gonna bring him BACK". Then skips off. Snow then picks her up and runs to Bethrynna's room. She needs a book, it's located in a desert area and Bethrynna doesn't know the name of it, but it's hard to get to. Skywatcher may know of it's location. The spell book there has an incantation to bring them back. You'd need an item from that person - an equilivent exchange - a soul for a soul. Skywatcher may know where this desert city is located. They immedietly run to Skywatchers room and Snow knocks super fast and hard. Skywatcher comes to the door, moping, and Pippy rambles about how she needs to go to the desert. bethrynna overhears this and explains which desert Pippy is asking about. We notice a lot of empty potion bottles in Skywatcher's room that weren't there originally. He comes back with a map and hands it to us. Pippy and Snow clocks the empy potion bottles and Pippy brings them up and Skywatcher says he's dead inside. Pippy tries to console him but is unable to. her and Snow go back to having fun in the library after obtaining the map to the desert. Skywatcher explains to wait on opening it until she sobers up.
Zandro comes back and sleeps in a room near Wi Po's. Zandro meditates and Wi po sleeps and as they do they have a joint vision. Their artifacts are communciating with eachother. The vision says that they have more control than they know. A creature in blue appears, a giant turtle. There is a howl where the silver light is and a growl where the golden light is. The silver light holds the dragon that Zandro saw before and Wi Po sees a sunflower in their light. Both entities state something but the message is muddied. They feel stronger and that they'll be able to control the artifacts soon. Wi Po when he wakes up explains the vision to Ra who he had shared his room with.
Pippy meanwhile is so hungover that the room is spinning on her. She hasn't thrown up yet but explains to Snow what she is feeling. She asks Snow for "uppies" so she dosn't have to walk. Snow tries to find anyone else to carry her but doesn't. He agrees but says that if she throws up on him he will stab her, she agrees and rests her head on top of his head as he gives her a piggy back ride. They make their way to the group and Soj offers the group coffee. Everyone is there except Raui. Zandro decides to go wake Raui up. The door is locked and he sneaks in, unlocking the door with little effort. He approaches Raui and inspects their arm while they sleep to get a closer look at it and the writing on it. Raui is fast asleep and doesn't notice his presence yet. Zandro inspects the runes on the top of her metallic arm. He then kicks her and jumps out the door. Raui is suddenly awake and lightening bolts him as she attacks whatever woke her up. The bolt misses him. Raui is half naked in pursuit after Zandro. The rest of the group sees this and Soj stops the chase and asks whats going on. Zandro states that he was attacked by her lightening bolt and Raui says that if she finds him in her room again she'd put him on a fucking pike.
We start to discuss how to breathe underwater and how our weapons work while eating breakfast. Wi Po then explains how he wants to find Cri Ro and produces the map he got and then explains the dream he had. Zandro explains that the dream was shared between them due to the artifacts. Raui comes out fully dressed and asks Zandro to not do that again as she doesn't want to burn another place down. Wi Po then shows the painting of the Tritons and Zandro determines they are a warrior people. We decide we'll figure all this out when we need to and head towards the dock.
There are no other boats around but we see a boat coming in from far away. We are on the pier waiting for the boat. Raui feels a hand on her shoulder and she whips around to see who is touching her. It's a hooded figure and their hand digs in deeper on her shoulder, digging their nails in. It's the same hood she's seen before. She hear's "What did I tell you?!?! I told you not to come. I told you to stay away from the Tritons. You need to be taught a lesson, all of you." She turns around and sees Astral put their hood down. Astral then speeds over to Wi Po and stabs him with a sword for massive damage. He says "I told you once before and someone now must pay". He pulls back to swing again and a trumpet noise comes from Ra and Ra runs fulls force at Astral trying to shoulder push him away from Wi Po. Wi Po pulls out a flare gun and aims it at Astral and shoots then wildshapes. Thydrom casts chaos on Astral. the flare gun goes off and Astral says "I want you to fear me, you haven't really started to. I need you to understand my power." He takes a few steps back and a voice screams "Get away from him!". It's Soj and is 15 feet away from Ra and Wi Po now, about 5 feet from Raui. Astral puts his sword back into it's sheath and utters some words and we can't quite hear them. However we do hear a noise and suddenly there is a hole through Ra's chest. Astral didn't move, not even an inch. Thydrom runs to Ra as he falls back with no response. Thydrom tries to stabilize him and resusitate him. But there is no pulse, no movement, nothing. Astral steps over away from us all and smirks and says "I've waited so long to do that." Thydrom casts guiding bolt, aiming for his face. Astral asks again if we fear him and if we understand what he can do now. Wi Po is full of rage. Zandro says that he agrees to not go to the Tritons. Zandro agrees and promises not to go after the artifact and shakes on it. Raui casts telekinesis on Zandro to prevent him from shaking Astral's hand. Wi Po, now in angry owlbear form, is charging at Astral but he brushes it off. Astral says "fine, don't shake and don't give me your word, but I hope you know your comrade's blood is on your hands. And don't forget I can take another one of you whenever I want. Do you understand?" Wi Po curls up next to Ra and shrieks mournfully. Astral then leaves us, opening up a portal. Snow is collapsed next to Ra, crying, Pippy tumbled off his sholders hungover and confused. She takes in the scene and offers to preserve his body. Snow is asking for someone to bring him back. She mentions that is why she needs to go to the desert, to get the book to learn how to bring someone back. She mentions that it is complicated and requires a soul for a soul but the book can tell more. She starts to cast the protection spell on Ra's corpse. Soj comes over to the body, Snow is crying as Pippy does her ritual. At that moment Uraim pulls up in the boat, happy and oblivious to what took place. Zandro fills in how Astral did this and told us to not go to the Tritons. Uraim asks what specifically he did and Soj says that the only one who would know what type of thing Astral did to Ra would be his kin. Thydrom asks Soj what he isn't telling us. Soj explains that Astral has a family and that we know one of them, Yatish. She is his daughter. Soj explains that Yatish won't talk to him and Snow pulls out his communicator and starts screaming into it at Yatish, yelling that her dad killed his friend. Thydrom also pulls out his sending crystal but says more calmly that we need to talk and we need to talk soon. They are both met with silence for the time being. Thydrom casts scrying to contact her and he sees her and two other individuals with her and his heart drops.