Chapter 2, Session 9: Wedding Crashers

General Summary

You know, I'm always looking to reach the peak of my career... so it makes sense I go for a job with him.

• Bree Applebottom explains her reason for travelling to The Kaechaek Party.

As the party travelled, Esmerae noticed they were being followed by something that kept a constant 30ft from them out of sight. Deciding not to worry for now, Esmerae, Mallus Somnium and Auriel soon spotted a small figure by a campfire muttering to themselves - Bree Applebottom! 


After stopping, the party invited Bree to join them, learning she’d left the employment of Emerald Quick-Wick to aim for a better job, with Emperor Honour! Esmerae and Peregrine gave names for Bree to speak to when arriving in Sanctuary to help her with this (The House of The Celeste Family and Honour Blade Xanthir). On their journey, Malus realised the lights never change in the Shadewoods, and reminded the party not to eat anything from the woods, as everything inside is caught in a constant state of dream and waking - keeping the river/lake on our left is a very good idea! Malus attempted to help the Sand Speeders with stealth by putting blinkers on it, with Bree assisting with survival to help camouflage the car. Peregrine attempted to use deception by creating visual and auditory distractions away from the car, and Sigholdt used his driving skill to keep the car steady, while Auriel micro-managed with medicine. Not long later, Peregrine decided to message the creature still following the party. The voice that responded was female, telling Peregrine not to worry or mind her, that the party was far too capable. When asked if it was hungry, the voice said no, that the party left enough in their wake, and when asked its name, stated it was Sister Abutre. Peregrine and Esmerae agreed to leave it for now, and the party continued until it was time to sleep. In their dreams, Sister Abutre appeared to some of the party. In Auriel’s dream, Auriel stated she looked like she needed to eat more. Auriel saw a range of emotions on Abutre’s face: absolute rage into a weird smile/hunger into crying miserably into her hands, into jealousy and envy at what Auriel is before Abutre vanished. In Peregrine’s dream, Abutre stated she was conflicted, saying the “role of a sister is to let no challenge go unanswered”, implying one of the party had insulted her. Abutre promised Peregrine would be ok, that she liked her. When Peregrine informed the group of this chat the next day, Auriel was confused about how she’d insulted the Sister. Sigholdt used Detect Good and Evil to find where Sister Abutre was, confronting her quickly. The party learned Abutre was very changeable in her emotions, going from threatening to sobbing, to happy in seconds. Eventually, they agreed she could continue to follow as long as everyone kept 30ft away from her.
An encounter during their travels was at the Red Velvet Gambling Hall, where the party arrived in time to watch Sewastian the Gamer fall out of a window, winning his bet that it wouldn’t hurt. He and Esmerae began to size each other up for their most mysterious competition, ironically acknowledging Peregrine was the most mysterious by not knowing herself. Sebastian tried to challenge Esmerae and Auriel on who could be the most relaxed but was rejected. In turn, Peregrine offered a juggling competition, agreeing to juggle with his knives as long as he agreed to no fire. Sebastian summoned 5 knives, with one being on fire, causing Peregrine to refuse to play. Malus and Sigholdt both agreed to compete, but both lost. Esmerae and Peregrine goaded Sewastian into removing the fire, but Peregrine also lost. During the conversation, the party learned that the owner of the Red Velvet Gambling Hall was called Cousin Cathildra, who had chosen not to be a mother. The Hall is supposedly like a ‘Lotus Casino’ once someone goes in, they never want to leave. Finally, Malus challenged Sewastian to a breath-holding competition. Sewastian agreed and held his for 6 minutes before passing out and fading away into mist, leaving behind a mysterious key Malus had chosen as his prize. Hermione identified the key to be a magic key of unlocking - she tried to prank the party by lying and saying it did nothing, so Sigholdt whacked it on the side of the Sand Speeder to test if it was magic or not. The Speeder dented, and Hermione came clean with her prank (perhaps she was a little salty about Malus wagering the Speeder).
During the journey, Hermione finished the first stage of reading her book, gaining new spells: Aether Lance and Eyes of Aether. Sigholdt chatted to Hero and showed off his gunblade - Hero was not impressed as it wasn’t gold enough for him. Sigholdt noted that both Hero and Crumble had been off since the Spooks, though they claim nothing had happened as far as they remember. They stated they felt alone, an unpleasant feeling but how Quori/Nocta Mori are meant to be. They wanted no part of Malus, Peregrine and Auriel’s fuckery, and would rather be lonely than deal with their dreams. Auriel asked them to stop as they admitted to seeing the party’s dreams - they apologised and avoided eye contact. Sigholdt took time to connect his weapon to the gunblade, merging the two.
Traversing through the forest, the party approach a figure standing in the road dressed in white, with a veil and long blonde hair, bleeding from a hole in her chest and hovering above the ground. Esmerae sensed she was not a living creature. While debating whether or not to follow her as she appeared to want the party to do so, they learned Abutre couldn’t see the figure. Eventually, the party sent Jolly off in the direction, finding a large open space that appeared very alive, with beautiful cherry blossoms. Hermione described the space as being very pin, with a marble-like enclosure, 100ft wide and twice as long. In the centre, there were chairs on either side of an aisle, a platform and two ponds/platform structures, with more steps leading up to a massive tree. Hermione could see a scary demon figure and a woman, overhearing the woman saying they had been there for 3 days, asking where the ‘girl’ was and stating the ghost couldn’t stop them forever. They were attempting to break into a chest that appeared fully locked. Hesitantly, Hermione sent Jolly down to test if the two were friends or foes - Jolly was promptly destroyed. After relaying the information, the party believed the ghost was asking for help. They debated if they should help or not, with Sigholdt asking Malus what a Kae would do. Malus replied they would Face the Foe, prompting Sigholdt to start to drive toward the ‘wedding’, Peregrine getting into the turret.
As they arrived, the woman seemed surprised to see them, demanding where the ghost was. Malus asked if the woman was a threat, stating the party was ‘here to help in the wedding’. The party realised the woman was an Unwaking, and that the demon was a summoned Nocta Mori. Deciding not to initiate combat, Esmerae got out of the Speeder to sit in a chair for the wedding. Hermione sent a message to apologise for the party crashing in - she heard in response: “Intruders on a very old site - well blood is blood, who am I to be picky”. In response, Bree Hunter’s Marked the Unwaking, taking the first shots. Peregrine missed with a turret as Auriel cast Beacon of Hope for the party. Sigholdt used Vow of Emnity on the Unwaking as he Eldritch Blasted her, driving the Speeder closer. The Unwaking shot at Bree as Malus leapt out to hit her, successfully killing her! As Esmerae shot an Eldritch blast at the demon, the party watched in horror as the Unwaking began to return to health, remembering they could not be killed. Hermione missed with her Fire Bolt as the Demon summoned a cube of horrors on the car. Bree found herself restrained by the horrors after being sent through a nightmare of being underground.
Peregrine resisted the nightmares, hopping off the car to Guiding Bolt the Demon, before ducking behind a bench for cover. Auriel healed Bree and cast Chill Touch on the woman as Sigholdt ploughed forward, slamming into the chest the Unwaking was attempting to break into and nearly hitting Malus with the Speeder, before once more casting Eldritch Blast at the Unwaking - Daughter Raven. Daughter Raven  consumed a little of Malus to heal herself in a very eldritch-horror style, then failed to put him to sleep so bit him some more. Malus ignored her to kill her Nocta Mori demon instead, as Esmerae teleported through Hermione’s blood and veins to jump into Daughter Raven and damage her on exiting. Mouths began to form all over Daughter Raven as they chewed up the ground around her, creating difficult terrain. Hermione whiffed a chromatic orb as Bree also missed her shots. Peregrine analysed Raven, learning that in their Unwaking State, the Unwaking Witches are immune to charm and mind control (after she failed to mind control Raven), and instead told Malus to grab the chest. Auriel failed to blind Raven but healed Malus up as Sigholdt hopped out of the car, hunters marked Raven, slammed his weapon into her with a critical hit and used SMITE! Sigholdt killed Raven, cutting off her head and punting it far away from the body, knowing she would come back to life in 4 days with the two separated. However, it was clear the lair actions were still continuing, as an Earth Elemental began to form. Malus grabbed the chest and got into the car, as did other members of the party. Esmerae and Bree shot at the elemental with great success as Peregrine and Auriel missed. Esmerae cast a Branding Smite into the turret before firing off a shot, as Hermione takes a couple of attempts before getting the car properly going. With careful aiming and skilful driving, she picked up Sigholdt before speeding away from the Earth Elemental, getting the party off to safety.
Using his new key, Malus discovered 3 strange potions, a bouquet of perfectly preserved flowers, and a letter. Esmerae took the flowers as Malus gave Peregrine the letter. On reading it, she learned it was a sad letter about not regretting love addressed to ‘H’ from someone called Celwydd Harold - a name Sigholdt recognised as belonging to an angel. As the party finished reading the letter, the ghost/angel appeared on the road, nodded to them, and vanished, leaving a bead of red. Suddenly the red bead shot forward, hitting Peregrine through the chest and vanishing. Meanwhile, Malus learned the three potions were: Draught of Ergot, Witch’s Bane and Veneficium of the Mantle (the only potion of its kind). After a long rest, the party finally reached the lake, seeing on the other side of it the last road to Sanctuary, and their escape from the Shadewoods…

Report Date

01 Nov 2023