Chapter 1, Session 5: Silver, Platinum and Kindness
General Summary
So... are you guys SURE you're not fucking?The Kaechaek Party made their escape from the still-mostly-silent Cirque Arcadia. Leaving behind the sleeping citizens and the dangerous Quori and Nocta Mori that had appeared. The group left at different times and so were left split up in spaces away from the circus, with Fionn and Mallus in the lead as they left the moment they heard The Venator were approaching. During their escape, Fionn explained to Mallus the danger of spellcasters in Kaechaek and how they could not trust the rest of the party yet as the group had only just met and already every member barring Fionn and Mallus showed themselves to be freely using magic with disregard for the consequences. Mallus agreed, until they could be sure the others could be trusted, to keep their distance from the party. With that, Fionn told Mallus they needed to head to Emerald Quick-Wick's Mayoral Housing to get in touch with Emerald Quick-Wick and tell him what had just transpired and it's link to Grand-Daughter Tiana, Mallus agreed and the pair of them started moving to the Bloomwilt Middle Ring to where Fionn knew Emerald resided.
- Hermione observes the strange closeness between Esmerae and Auriel.
As they moved away, Auriel and Hermione were the next two to escape the circus tent where they moved clear and began to desperately look around in a panic, with neither of them knowing what Fionn meant when he told them to 'contact' him, in a panic, Hermione asked Auriel to observe as she, using a nearby toy sword she took from an unconscious child, started to cast message in all directions, hoping to strike a member of their group. Eventually hitting Esmerae who had left the tent and joined the pair of them. Esmerae was not in the tent to hear Fionn mention his Wardstone and she told the others that Peregrine chose to stay behind to help the circus and so the trio decided to move on and not risk being spotted by The Venator. With that, the group agreed it would be wise to move away and try to get in touch with Fionn and Mallus. They soon built a cunning plan to contact them with Esmerae leading the group and Hermione in the middle whilst Auriel used her wings to screen the tiefling as she wildly cast message in all directions in the hope of striking Fionn. Eventually, almost in a miracle-like fashion, Hermione's message struck the spook and they agreed to meet up in the outer ring townsquare to group up and find out how everyone was doing.
With that, the focus shifted to Peregrine who stumbled out of the tent, the last one to leave the circus behind. Dazed and in panic, she began trying to help the nearest unconscious children, losing precious time to build distance from the circus. Meaning Peregrine was a mere few feet away as she heard the music abruptly end in the circus before being overtaken by a cacophony of screams that left her panicked and distressed as she ran away at speed and found herself lost in the outer ring. Eventually, Peregrine composed herself and came across a nearby stall called Bow's Own where the owner, Bo, agreed to give Peregrine a weeks worth of rations and guidance to the town square of Bloomwilt after Peregrine offered them some rare and valuable Dreaming Bark which they happily accepted and fashioned into ear rings. As they walked, Bo told Peregrine of some of the goings-ons of the town. The fact Mine-Off was coming soon, the return of the wailing woman and the recent controversy and criticism surrounding Emerald Quick-Wick due to The Platinum Herald and Investigator Sellix specifically. As she entered the townsquare and left Bo behind, Peregrine saw Mallus in the town centre waiting for the others and she decided to take her time reaching him in order to compose herself and ensure she would not cry or become distressed remembering the circus.
Fionn and Mallus reached the town square first and Fionn placed Mallus above a nearby stall to keep watch for the rest of the party as he took Mallus' greataxe to Sphinx Fur Armourers where he reintroduced himself to the owner and received his silvered manacles before trading Mallus' rusted greataxe and several of his own blacksmiths tools and silver for a new one that would be silvered by the next day. During Fionn's absence, Mallus watched Esmerae, Auriel and Hermione first approached where they discussed what had happened and the absence of Peregrine. During this time, Auriel did a check over the rest of the party to ensure they were unhurt, at this point they were also joined by Peregrine who reassured the party they were unharmed but were struggling with the shock and horror of what they had witnessed take place in Cirque Arcadia. Mallus offered to stay the night with Peregrine to make sure she was safe and comforted but the sorceresss refused, as a dreamer she felt that Mallus wouldn't be safe around her so she felt it was best to keep distance. As they started to talk Fionn left the blacksmith and, seeing the party regrouped, worked on a hunch and used the reflection of their steel pocketwatch to look at Esmerae only to find her reflection was blurred and wavy and hard to make out. Like she was a reflection rippling on the ocean.
With that stated, Hermione quickly asked the party to roll call who has recurring dreams and found that Peregrine and Mallus lifted their hands but the others did not. Fionn arrived and also stated that he did not dream (out of game, the players know this to be a lie). With the party now regrouped and returned, and with Hermione lending Mallus a black dagger for him to use until he got his greataxe back, they agreed to make their way towards Emerald Quick-Wick in an attempt to warn him of what happened with the circus. On their way, the party stopped and grabbed a copy of the Platinum Herald and read the stories on the front pages of it. One story by Investigator Sellix expressed the danger Bloomwilt was in with The Drifters coming into more and more power in the town whilst Sellix further criticised Emerald's seeming weakness amid also complaining they have refused to interview thus far to defend themselves, Sellix also called out Severn, the leader of the Drifters. The party also read a story about a character known as 'The Witch-Princess' who escaped a prison ship due to reach Grim Hallow, notably, Vallea seemed to be in the midst of a civil war and Queen Agliai Vallea has refused to comment further on the witch-princess' disappearance. However, as the party continued reading they were shocked to see the newspaper suddenly take an impact and split as though hit by an invisible force. Looking closely, Peregrine saw a strand of light purple hair caught on the newspaper and, after checking it didn't belong to anyone in the party, gave it to Esmerae to keep after they asked for it. Esmerae tested the hair and found it to be entirely non-magical and mundane.
With that, and with one less platinum herald newspaper, the party reached the strange estate of Emerald Quick-Wick, a top heavy terraced house with a huge and loud belltower atop it that audibly ticked as they approached it and were ushered in by two Drifters that were standing guard who seemed to study the group with disinterest apart from settling their eyes on Esmerae and Fionn for very different reasons. Upon entering, the party were escorted in by an exceptionally reluctant secretary and they navigated the hoarders nest-like main room of Emerald Quick-Wick and saw him sitting behind a desk and completing stacks of paperwork alongside Kindness, a tiefling who seemed to act as his advisor and assistant. The party introduced themselves and, most importantly, Fionn explained that he was sent by The Spooks as it seemed Emerald had sent a request to them for support.
At first, Emerald was dismissive of Fionn due to his heavy set build and his own admitted lack of experience despite his age, however, he soon become frustrated and near-enraged when Fionn revealed what the Wailing Woman had managed to do to the Cirque Arcadia and the butchering by The Venator that took place as a result. The source of Emerald's rage became clear as the fire genasi revealed that last year a similar event had taken place as a Wailing Woman haunted the town and caused alot of death and a spook in alabaster robes with a black Wardstone solved the problem and claimed the reward. Emerald explained the man was named Spook Kerouak but Fionn had never heard of a spook with that name or style and also revealed to Emerald that The Unwaking Coven were involved, though he failed to mention Grand-Daughter Tiana being contacted by a mysterious group that commanded her to kill Quick-Wick. As a result, Emerald took the time to discuss with Kindness and they agreed to hire the party and, more importantly, they agreed to Fionn's conditions that the party each receive a Dreaming Bark necklace to ward off The Quori and The Nocta Mori as well as a regular potion each and Emerald's agreement to imprison Grand-Daughter Tiana until Fionn could return to bind her with a spook's ritual. However, Emerald and Kindness stated their condition for this agreement as they revealed adventurers and vagrants had taken advantage of their kindness already for this job and so he assigned the secretary (named Bree) to chaperone the party and ensure they completed their job in a 48 hour time frame, after they spent a night resting in Emerald's rooms.
With that, the party left and spent a night resting in Emerald's home. They decided to sleep in groups of three, with Fionn, Mallus and Peregrine in one room whilst Auriel, Esmerae and Hermione shared another. In the first room, Fionn set up a ticking stopwatch in the centre of the room and spoke to Peregrine and Mallus about their dreams, with Peregrine explaining that she experienced her dreams most nights and they always involved fire and a voice commanding her to remember her duty, though she admitted she wasn't interested in chasing her 'destiny'. She also told Fionn about how the circus performers eyes were identical to her own and Fionn admitted he found it concerning but he could not explain what that meant for her as he could not sense anything to do with the Quori or Nocta Mori about her. Peregrine then explained what Stretched Ink had told her during the circus attack, in regards to Stretched stating that Whispering Light(person:7274444e-40fc-4e6e-9a33-09f7b1f36e2f) had taken a piece of the king's crown. This put Fionn into a panic as he immediately linked it to the myth of @[The Sleeping King who was a figure that was believed to be linked inherently to The Long Night and the disaster it would bring upon Kaechaek, Fionn expressed disappointment when Peregrine revealed that Whisper likely escaped but he had mentioned moving to The Wheel but the circus assumed he was joking when he announced that. With that conversation completed, Fionn revealed he had really asked for Dreaming Bark in the hope of giving it to Mallus to see if it would protect him from his recurring nightmare but he had not received it yet. At which point, Peregrine revealed she had 18 gold worth of Dreaming Bark, a large rock like chunk of the purple wooden material. She happily gave this to Mallus as she had found it did not help her dreams and so Fionn asked Mallus to try sleeping with the dreaming bark in the hope it would make a difference for him.
Meanwhile, Hermione was finding staying in Auriel and Esmerae's room to be rather awkward as her two companions were acting strangely and more than a little awkwardly in front of her. Hermione for her part, tried to mind her own business and play with her tinkers tools but could not help but notice Auriel especially acting exceptionally awkwardly... leading Hermione to ask if they were sleeping with eachother (and forcing Hermione to break down what sex was to Auriel in another display of the dragonborns naivety) when the pair of them denied that accusation and Auriel became increasingly flustered Hermione and Esmerae had a conversation in private in which they exchanged secrets with one another and seemed to have a new understanding of one another. With that, the group started their long rest... however, this did not go smoothly for Auriel who was woken up in the middle of the night from a sending spell from a man she did not recognise. The man stated that he knew who Inora was and that Auriel had someone he needed, if she would tell him where she was at the moment then he would help her with Inora. Auriel curtly told the stranger that she 'did not negotiate with terrorists' and refused to reveal her location... she did not receive any more sendings after that point.
In the other bedroom, Fionn was supervising Mallus and Peregrine as they each took a long rest in the room with him. After an hour of them both sleeping, Fionn felt an onrushing of extreme cold that nearly immobilised him for a few seconds before both sleepers started to toss and turn, experiencing nightmares as one. Urgently, Fionn uncorked a bottle filled with smelling salts and held them under Mallus' nose in an attempt to wake them up, only to find they had no effect and so instead he rushed to Peregrine to wake them up with the salts, stopping her dream. With the two of them continuing to watch Mallus toss and turn, Fionn resolved to hit him to wake them whilst Peregrine tried to cast message to coax Mallus to consciousness, upon casting the spell Peregrine did not hit Mallus but, rather, felt something intercept the spell and fill Peregrine with such a deep sense of grief and loss that she started to bleed from her eyes and fell unconscious, at that point Fionn managed to wake Mallus but the damage had already been done as Mallus shot to consciousness.
Mallus had that same dream as they swam in the endless and voidlike ocean to the same mists of Thornden, desperate to touch it. As he reached out, he again felt that tentacle wrap around his ankle and start to drag... only now something changed, the tentacle pulled but Mallus felt resistant to it as it tugged hard and, for a moment, he did not move. Mallus took this time to turn and look at the creature, seeing the tendril spilling out of the ocean but, when he tried looking closer, he couldn't make out anything in the darkened depths. In that moment he then returned to his standard dream as Mallus' Nightmare dragged him beneath the ocean and he noticed the creature's eyes had now taken on a purple hue matching the Dreaming Bark rather than the sky blue they were the previous day. With the nightmare over, Mallus woke up with Fionn's strike and saw Peregrine unconscious on the ground. The pair of them stabilised her and made her comfortable before Mallus told Fionn nothing changed despite his possession of Dreaming Bark and Fionn apologised for forgetting Mallus did not need to breathe... making gases useless against him.
Mallus told Fionn he wasn't going to sleep tonight and so, as a result, Fionn was to take a long rest... but first he went downstairs to Emerald Quick-Wick to see if anyone new had entered, hoping to find a source of the deep cold he experienced upon Mallus and Peregrine beginning to dream. Fionn moved downstairs and saw that Emerald was asleep behind his table, Bree was still completing her shift as well but Kindness was also still awake and was rhythmically flipping a large gold coin and catching it repetitively. Fionn noticed the large coin's head side was a hooded smiling face whilst the tail side was a wolf's head.
Fionn immediately entered a war of words with Kindness, during which he accused her of being an unwaking witch but she rebuffed him and denied the accusation put against her. Though she then would not elaborate on who she was, instead admitting she knew Fionn, Peregrine and Mallus were all dreamers and that she knew Spook Killian and Spook Raskol would kill and bury Peregrine and Mallus and exile Fionn for all time for his crimes.
Frustrated, Fionn returned to his room and completed a long rest with Mallus watching over them. The next morning the party came to after their long rests and Auriel explained to Esmerae and Hermione what had happened and that they were scared of being returned and the voice delivering on their threat. Esmerae and Hermione reassured her that she was safe (whilst Hermione also tried to reassure Auriel by explaining that she was also an exile but would not reveal where from). Meanwhile, Fionn continued his work from the previous night and spoke with Peregrine and Mallus, admitting he was not sure yet what their dreams were like but was coming to some conclusions.
With that, the party heard a knock at their door and found their magic items waiting for them. Knowing it was time to start their hunt for the wailing woman.
With that, the party heard their door knock
Rewards Granted
- A dreaming bark necklace each
- A regular healing potion each
- A silvered greataxe (Mallus
- Silvered manacles (Fionn)
Missions/Quests Completed
Escape Cirque Arcadia
Report Date
25 Oct 2022
Primary Location
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