I don't really give a fuck. So fuck you Niles and if you come near me it'll be the last thing you do!
Strap in kids, this is gonna be the last four sessions in one recap...
The party left the home of
Da'Shaw Zalnyx after their successful incursion into
The Ruins of Zazzgrad with him and claimed their prize for the mission, his
Sand Speeder to help them travel throughout
Kaechaek.
With their transport ready, the group discussed what they should do next and decided on heading to
The Wheel next due to
Auriel and
Esmerae both having people they needed to see there for differing reasons.
Before the group left they took the time to prepare and
Fionn also took the time to check in on
Mariah Calcus and her 'wife' who told Fionn they followed his advice on ending the dream as quickly as possible and they spoke to
Nashien Calcus for reassurance and their nightmares had reduced significantly. Fionn promised them he would check-in next time he was in
Bloomwiltand left the two of them in the hope he had done enough with his short advice and support.
The party regathered and, powering up their
Sand Speeder, they started the 11 day journey to the Wheel Barony in southern Kaechaek.
They ran into trouble soon after starting their journey as the Sand Speeder was again started with a critical fail and exploded... leading Hermione to take point of driving for the entirety of the journey and finding she had a keen knack for driving sand speeders... despite her apparent loathing of driving herself.
During their travel the group went mostly uninterrupted with two key exceptions:
- The first happened when the party met a strange group of goblins and hobgoblins that were gathering and stockpiling nonsense items like food, shoes, random clothing, plants etc. When the party stopped by them the group demanded tribute for the 'sand god/king/lord'. The party mostly gave small trinkets as tribute which seemed to be doing a reasonable job of appeasing this group before Mallus sang 'the sand god song' for them and earned the party tickets for unsearched entry to the Wheel... a VERY useful gift for the group.
- A few days later, the party stopped by to check an area of undulating sand. At which point Fionn was attacked as the sand itself came to life and formed into two large dune mimics; powerful enemy's that consume their foes using their psuedopod's to drag them below the sand and suffocate them. The party had a few nervous moments as Fionn and Mallus were both nearly consumed before the group managed to use the sandspeeder to escape with some of their number VERY injured.
Despite these encounters, the party managed to make their way through the Wheel and found their first problem as, amidst the row upon row of impaled bodies outside the town they saw the crimes each had committed carved into their flesh; some of the crimes gave an insight into the tyranny the barony was under as it's ruler
Niles Five Eyes made a point of brutally punishing any that do not follow his strange and ever-changing laws, rules and decrees.
With that in mind, the first call for the party (as Fionn left them for a time to catch up with a friend) was to find a place to stay for the time they were in the Wheel. The party soon settled on a building named
The Tavern which was owned by an exceptionally strange woman that gifted Peregrine a minor
Omamori Tokens and claimed her name was
Forewarner and that she was alive when the 'moon danced in the sky'... though the party had their doubts about her due to her seemingly insane nature. Despite this they felt perfectly safe accepting her free rooms and the mixture of incense and drugs she offered them.
The party then did their best to learn the laws in the wheel at this current time and learned that, during the week, there were days in which it was illegal to wear gold... something that unsettled and DEEPLY concerned the gold dragonborn Auriel. Worried about the implication for Auriel, the party decided to take the most direct approach they could and receive clarification on this ruling by visiting the Barony's arena for
Bloodsport; the town's method of conflict resolution.
On visiting, the party were immediately thrust into a concerning level of limelight as they were brought into the centre of the arena and forced to speak to Niles in front of the town. The warforged quickly showed himself to be an aggressive character who was clearly desperate for a conflict in any form and did his best to intimidate and unsettle the party. Esmerae took the lead in introducing the party and handled the negotiations with mixed success as it seemed her political nous wasn't as impactful in a space of blood and barbaric behaviour... however, Esmerae did manage to confirm that Auriel would not be skinned alive and
Peregrine also asked about if the
Cirque Arcadia had visited, to which Niles claimed they had and he had since 'dealt with them' but did not elaborate further.
Lastly, Esmerae requested a meeting with Niles later as, after spying her amongst Niles allies, she realised
Sinnich Uldyne, her target, was in The Wheel. Niles agreed and claimed he would 'find them' during the day. He also notably outed Esmerae as a vampire to the town and the rest of the party during this time.
As the party left however, they noticed a gold dragonborn among Niles court visit the party and apologise for the way that Niles acted. This dragonborn introduced themselves as
Nistal Rennax and Auriel took no time in asking if he was her father.
Nistal Rennax blanched in response and took the party to a nearby drinking hall where he explained that he was a banished member of
The Da'Shaw Clan due to his distaste for combat but that, after the clan were removed from
The Drake his brother
Da'Shaw Calinax had stayed in that area for a time as he was seeing a woman in the town that went by the name
Inora but Rennax knew nothing more about that as he was exiled from the clan soon after.
On hearing the name
Inora Auriel became concerned and panicked and began to shut down from the conversation, seeing this, Rennax assured the party they would meet again and made himself scarce, when quizzed on the location of the cirque arcadia, Rennax told Peregrine Niles had actually given the group protection and allowed them to live a couple of miles outside of the wheel indefinitely in return for constant shows, he also advised the party that if they wanted protection from Niles Five-Eyes they could speak to
Light Bearer Signill as he is known to be a warrior on a par with Niles Five-Eyes.
With time to kill, the party decided to chase down the Cirque Arcadia and they located the group outside of the Wheel. The numbers were reduced and the atmosphere was significantly more sombre than when the party met the circus in
Bloomwilt.
On reaching the Cirque, Peregrine asked around and soon learned that
Whispering Light(person:7274444e-40fc-4e6e-9a33-09f7b1f36e2f) and @[Stretched Ink had left the circus days ago in one of the caravans and
Madame Precision had been left in charge of the running of the circus.
However, when the party found Precision Peregrine realised something was very, very wrong as Precision was in an addled and confused state. She seemed aged, older, stressed and lifeless. Staring into space and going over jumbled memories.
Peregrine spoke to the performers and they revealed that when the attack in Bloomwilt happened something snapped in Precision and she didn't eat or drink for days, though she is slowly recovering since then.
Peregrine then spoke to Precision and the woman talked to Peregrine as though it was her first day of training, instructing her to correct her technique and posture if she ever wanted to make it with the gymnasts. During this conversation the party took the papers Precision had been clutching and saw that they were encoded to reveal messages from Whispering Light in which he expressed his of 'Her' and his goal to return to a place to return something he had taken from 'them'... and that he had gone north to do it.
With this news, Peregrine took one final gamble and whispered 'The lyars' again and again to Precision who reacted in a frenzy, aggressively scratching Peregrine's face and calling her a curse before banishing her from the Cirque Arcadia.
In a state of shock and grief, Peregrine agreed to leave with the party and they returned to the Wheel to await their meeting with Niles.
The party then waited for the evening when, unexpectedly, Niles visited the Tavern to see the party himself. With only Rennax at his side. This immediately troubled Esmerae who wanted the excuse and chance to see where Sinnich was staying but now wouldn't get that chance. During their negotiation Esmerae revealed her desire and what she was willing to pay to earn that right.
Esmerae wanted to be able to meet and kill Sinnich Uldyne, in return she offered the support of
The Celeste Family in order to aid Niles in his political actions as Niles wished to expunge all non
Kae from the country and so would start by giving Niles support in destroying the
Valleans in
Siridome. Niles questioned this promise as it was clear Hermione was not a member of the Kae to which Esmerae revealed Hermione was a Vallean and that she was banished for the practice of witchcraft in the nation. Upon hearing this, Niles offered Esmerae a very simple choice; if she killed Hermione here and now then Niles would give her what she wanted...
Upon hearing this Hermione spoke up for herself and aggressively insulted both Niles and attacked Esmerae for her willingness to exterminate Hermione's people to achieve her own goals. This response from Hermione seemed to have impressed Niles who responded well to those that challenged him and so he offered Esmerae an alternative.
In truth, Niles' interest in destroying Siridome was simply due to his desire to fight anything that could be fought and so instead he offered the party the chance to battle Sinnich in Bloodsport. Niles would give the party 18 seconds (3 rounds) to fight Sinnich and, if they hadn't killed her in that time, then he would intervene and fight alongside her more in the name of his own interest and entertainment than for any other reason.
The party found these terms agreeable and Esmerae struck that deal. With that, Niles left along with Rennax, who had done nothing to stop Niles pressuring Esmerae into killing Hermione, and Esmerae was left asking the party to help her: with Peregrine and Auriel agreeing though Mallus was unsure, Fionn was still missing and Hermione angrily walked away from Esmerae; warning her against using the Valleans as a bargaining chip in the future.
The party took a long rest after this and, in the night, Fionn found the group in the Tavern and (after dismissing the owner of The Tavern as insane, especially after she called herself several different names), Peregrine and Mallus caught him up on what had transpired and Fionn reluctantly agreed to help Esmerae and the others fight Sinnich Uldyne but warned them that his skills didn't transfer to creatures like vampires.
That night, Peregrine also chose to speak to her nightmarish flames once more and told them she would travel north as they asked if they agreed to ensure Stretched Ink and Whispering Lighht were protected. The flames were evasive and difficult to speak to but seemed to agree to hold the pair of them in the 'centre jewel'.
That morning, Esmerae took Hermione aside and apologised for the night before... Hermione seemed to forgive her for the most part and agreed to help her fight Sinnich Uldyne as well, giving Esmerae all of her allies for this fight.
With that, the party prepared themselves and went to the Bloodsport arena where they challenged Sinnich and, learning she was something known as a '
Teneted' vampire, they flew into combat.
Sinnich was a powerful creature with mythic actions, magic and a blood vial weapon that was eerily similar to Esmerae's and the party desperately assaulted her in an attempt to kill her before Niles could involve himself.
As they assaulted Sinnich she went into a more feral fighting state and used the party's own bodies and teleport around the battlefield. Things became scary when she managed to knock Esmerae unconscious but, mere moment later, Mallus managed to score the killing blow and end the fight before Niles could involve himself.
In the moment of victory, the party turned to heal Esmerae only to see her feeding on Sinnich's now dead body to the point of deflating her as though Esmerae sucked EVERYTHING from the vampire. Upon consuming Sinnich, Esmerae received a vision of Uldyne speaking with a red eyed individual who looked like a spook named
Tarniq Seraf and so Esmerae realised who her next target was.
In the immediate aftermath of the fight, Niles congratulated the party and gifted them a token to visit a space called
The Wheel Spoke Scar claiming he wished for the party to take something as the spook who left the wheel wanted to visit. Niles then explained to the party that if they were travelling north who would have work for them either in
Sanctuary or
The Diamond and he also wished to speak to Esmerae privately after choosing to call her
Viktor.
With that, the party left behind the Bloodsport arena and began to prepare themselves to leave the Wheel. With Peregrine insisting the group go north next to chase down Stretched and Whisper.
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