Gepp
Session 5 - Faintree
We take a second to reminisce about those close but far away.
I think of my father in the library, my mother talking to and leading the guild members, and my uncle working the smithy.
Kido thinks of his brother and the journey he made to Givzie prior.
Rose has fast and unclear memories.
We discuss and decide on an approach to get to Chiaf. We decide to follow the coast until it curves and then start heading south. It's the easiest way to not get lost.
On the way we cross paths with a person standing on a bridge, asking for help to repair it so we can cross. Kido immediately steps up to take a look at the bridge, Rose notices something is off about this stranger, but before we can react he tries to strike Kido, and more bandits show up to ambush us!
During the battle, Kido is knocked unconscious and I was close to going down as well, but we manage to kill them all in retaliation. In the scuffle we heard them talking about a key, and find one on one of the corpses.
We take it and their valuables, and sit down to take a rest a bit further away.
During the rest Rose speaks to a panther that has begun eating the corpses of the bandits.
After the rest we track the bandits movements to their camp, I scout out and see a single bandit left guarding camp. I bring Kido and we indimidate him to give us what was in the chest the key we found was meant for. We find a lot of platinum and a Statue of Vaas, along with more weapons we can sell.
Cheheri and Rose talk with the bandit, his name is Glanville. Purple gubal with a big nose, balding head and green eyes. Looks pushing on 50 but is actually in his thirties. They invite him to join us to Chiaf, and Cheheri reads his fortune.
We make use of their camp for a long rest. Kido smokes some bane after a long day.
Me and Cheheri take the first watch. She looks sad. She is not used to being around so many people, she has been mostly alone until recently, with only me paying her a visit every now and then. She also reveals the she had been lying to me about the cards she drew when we were about to start our journey. I thought we had to wait until the right card was drawn, but she apparently drew the same card every day for those two weeks, telling her to leave comfort behind. I don't blame her, I wasn't quite ready either to be honest.
We take a quiet watch and stargaze. I still want to draw her in her star form soon.
Kido and Rose take the second watch. They discuss Rose's memory loss, that maybe she should keep a diary in case something happens again. Talk about people from the city, about Kidos ideas for inventions he wants to create, like shield for the wildlands.
At the start of the next day, Glanville asks about us and who we are affiliated with, asks if we are "Black and Whites". Could this be the knight order we heard about back in the Wererats dungeon?
A while into our trek towards Chiaf, we reach an invisible barrier and an illusion around us fade to reveal that we are inside a cave. A tall, slender humanoid figure emerges, a Fey creature. She wants help, but first she want to take one of our dear memories.
Cheheri is entranced by this creature and willingly gives up a happy memory from her childhood. I use my book to get information about the creature. It's a Siren.
They introduce themselves as Faintree, and want our help with two tasks. One, to remind someone of an unwise bargain. Two, help love on the way. If we don't cooperate, we will not leave this cave.
Cheheri promises to do the first one in exchange for pain relief for a friend (Kido). She needs to remind the Earl of Chiaf of his unwise bargain by being given a pouch of human teeth.
She also gets a fey fruit that tastes so good, she only wants more, and more... Until she agrees to help love on the way as well for more fruits.
Two people in Chiaf are former lovers and have now married other people, but Faintree thinks these two are soulmates and wants them to be together again.
After Cheheri agrees to help Faintree, she lets us go.
After that scary experience, I start inspecting the cave to see signs of a Cave Fisher. Kido casts detect magic and spots magical symbols on all of our backs except for Rose. He draws the symbol to me, and I state that it looks similar to this necklace I got from my uncle, although he didn't know what it meant. Rose explains the meaning of the rune to me, but has no memory of it. After some talking, we discover that Kido knows of my uncle Kanun, and that I have most likely seen his brother Borgor in Caz'kar'th.
Deeper in the cave we find traces of a Cave Fisher, and manage to find and defeat two of them! We harvest some of their blood and more importantly, their filament.
Session 4 - Into the Wilds: The Hunt begins!
We wake up after yesterdays hunt and I start grilling some rat meat for breakfast. Kido eats one too. (Plus points)
We then go into town to send a package to Paps. At the post office we meet an older short woman with brown/purple hued skin, white eyes wearing a purple robe and hair in a neat bun. Her name is Kilez and she is a clerk here at the Malo Baridon.
I pay for the delivery and material and send a package to Paps in Caz'Kar'th containing a letter, the giant rat skull and the gloves I made from the rat pelt. I hope he will write me back somehow.
While I prepare the package, the rest of the group talk to Kilez and accept a delivery to be made to Chiaf to the southeast, which is where we were going anyway. We receive 10 gold up front and another 10 upon delivery.
We also had a letter addressed to us, from Soff, the Eidefir by the docks. It details the monsters they would like us to hunt.
1. A Mark of the Depths from a Deep Scion.
2. large Bag of Couatl Feathers from a Couatl
3. Filament from a Cave Fisher
I look up the monsters in my book, and find some limited information on the Deep Scion and Cave Fisher, but for the Couatl I find out they are resistant against divine magic and totally immune to mental damage and nonmagical physical hits. This will prove a challenge unless I find a way to enchant my weapon.
With that in mind, we move to the local blacksmith to check if they have anything enchanted that could help with our hunts. The young Dayl girl Miray greets us while her father Jay is working the iron. We chat a bit and say that we are going to hunt monsters, including a Couatl. She asks me if she can get a feather if we kill one, and I say sure. Unfortunately they don't seem to have anything enchanted, so we leave.
We go to the Eidefir settlement to talk about the hunts and say goodbye. They have been in talks with the harbormaster, but he wants 50% of their profits, and 50% of all the profits they have had up until now. Totally unreasonable. They are going to stop their business here and move to some relatives in Uyagh. So that is where we would send the materials they want from the hunts. Before we leave, the craftsman gives me a copy of Hamunds Harvesting Handbook!
We go to Azras a final time to say goodbye, but she seems distressed and embarrassed. It turns out she had mistakenly bumped into the chest Kido had placed in the spare room, and supposedly a part fell off it. Kido tells her it's all right and that it was an accident. When he inspects the damage, he notices that there is no damage at all, but a hidden compartment that Azra has discovered.
In the compartment is a Healing potion, and a bag.
Kido turns the bag inside out, and various items pop out. It seems to be a Bag of Holding!
In the bag:
4 Spell scrolls: Poison Spray, Ray of Frost, Detect Magic, Feather fall
1 Efficient Quiver
1 Emerald Pen
1 Robe of Useful Items
We split up the items. I take the Quiver and the Detect magic scroll, Kido takes the robe and the Feather fall scroll, Cheheri takes the poison spray scroll and Rose takes the emerald pen. We can't use the Ray of Frost scroll so we sell it alongside some other items and then leave Blusheaf behind!
We walk along the coast, and I'm keeping an eye out for tracks or signs of a Deep Scion, since they can be found along the coastline.
A while into the walk, we hear a horrible shriek. No doubt a Deep Scion. We start heading in that direction, but get interrupted by two fishermen trying to land a shark. Cheheri efforlessly uses thorn whip to pull the shark up on land. We kill it, and harvest it to take some meat, some shark teeth and a shark hide with us. The fishermen thank us.
Now with that distraction out of the way, we continue towards the Deep Scion. I see it scurrying about, and manage to sneak up on it. Cheheri launches a Guding Bolt, and I shoot an arrow imbued with an Ensnaring Strike.
After a hard battle where I take quite a bit of damage and fall victim to it's signature shriek, we defeat it. Me and Rose harvest it together, and Rose binds the Mark of the Depths onto her spirit paper. She says that it's interesting that I'm not afraid of monsters despite my age. I tell her it's because of the environment I grew up in, I went on hunts with my family as early as 2 years old. She asks if that means I'm not scared of her? And I ask why I would be scared of her. She is very nice so there is no reason to be scared.
While this is going on, Kido and Cheheri are inspecting the Scions lair, and find 250(!) gold.
We go up and into the forest to have a short rest. I paint a spectacular picture of the dead scion on the beach (Natural 20 for a 25).
A bit into our rest I notice some animals getting closer and closer as to try and ambush us. I alert the others to be ready for combat, and stand up, try to make myself look big and try to scare them away, but they attack us. Two gorillas!
We quickly take care of them, but Rose takes quite a bit of damage in the scuffle. She gets healed up by Cheheri and we sit back down to continue our rest.
I start preparing my hides so I can use them for crafting armor.
Session 3 - The Dorkmaster
I draw a picture of the dead dockworker and Kido writes a notice to inform of where the body was found if it is to be recovered.
We go to the general store Merrows Teet and put up the notice on the board. The clerk is a female Roand with large braids. Her name is Sathu. I buy 5 sheets of paper from her. She seemed to not like Rose, or maybe it was Rose's smell, unsure.
We go to the Ghost docks to talk to the harbormaster about the warehouse where there supposedly would be ghosts. Me and Cheheri split off because I want to ask about ghost hunting and to see if anyone knows of which Chroma guild that specializes in that.
I find a dockworker that tells me that it is the Violet Eyes that specializes in hunting ghosts and specters.
The dockmaster is an Indar/Eldayr named Zehra. They say we could copy their map of South Givzie and give us access to the warehouse if we do some work for them. We say that we will think on it, and start heading back to Azra to tell her about the guards response.
On the way to Azra, I spot some Eidefir symbols on a low wall. Not language, but symbols nonetheless. We can't figure out what it means, but I copy the symbols into my sketchbook.
Once at Azras place we report that the guards wouldn't help for free. She said she will deal with it somehow and gave her thanks. Kido feels bad for her and buys one of her Espiritu flowers for 10 gold which could pay for the cleanup. He gives the flower to Rose, and she and Azra pot it together. I sit down and create a pair of gloves from the rat pelt. Rose talks to the chickens to pick which one to eat for dinner. (Does it matter?)
Once Azra starts to prepare dinner we return to the docks to hear out the harbormaster about their offer.
They want us to inspect some Eidefir business taking place a little bit outside of the docks area. See what they have on offer, prices etc. We should not let them know that the harbormaster is involved and looking into them.
We go to the Eidefir settlement, after some chatting we are introduced to Soff and his store Soffs Inventory. He sells quite a bit of general goods like jewelry, embroidery, pouches, backpacks, herbs, armor and some poisons and toxins. Cheheri buys their studded leather armor that they have. Kido buys a pearl. I ask to see the craftsman that made the armor and he gives me some tips on how to make a similar armor.
It seems from Roses conversation about the herbs they sell that some are not legal to sell, or at the least controlled by the empire.
We ask them about the dead dockworker we found, and if they know him, but doesn't seem like it. Cheheri tells them that the harbormaster is looking into them. They seem disturbed, but ask us to not mention the controlled herbs they are selling. We agree.
We go back to the harbormaster and report. We try to leave out the part about the illegal drugs, but they notice something is off and Rose accidentally tells them some of the drugs they were selling.
We do not get access to the warehouse since we lied to them, but we do get to copy the map. I spend the next hour copying the map.
We go back to Azras for dinner.
Cheheri is feeling bad about us telling on the Eidefirs to the mean harbormaster. She goes outside to write in her journal. Rose follows her, and tries to apologize. Cheheri says its ok and shares some of her past and about how Eidefir have been pushed further and further away from their home and that this is most likely what will happen again. Similar to what I told Kido about before. Rose notices that Cheheri is writing a post for the Druidic Coterie, a paper forum for druids all over. Rose is also an active paricipant, so they talk about that and share their handles with each other. Apparently they are aware of each others post from beforehand.
Before eating dinner Cheheri comes in and is glowing like the stars themselves. It's beautiful. I'd like to paint it!
We eat together with Azra, and decide to go back to the Eidefirs to tell them what happened so they are aware and can plan accordingly.
Once there, they are not present. I jump down into the water to see if they are home in the underwater buildings. I tell Soff to come up to discuss the situation. We tell him that the harbormaster saw through our lies and will most likely take action in some way.
Soff writes a letter and asks us to deliver it to the harbormaster.
We go back, but the harbormaster is not working this late, so we leave it in a mailbox for them to read later.
I need a break from all this, so I say I will go out and hunt. But the others seemed keen to follow me, so we spend the evening hunting. I kill both a tapir and a white-tailed deer and harvest both meats and pelts from them.
We set up camp and go to bed.
Session 2 - A New Rat Record
We start moving towards the farms by the river. The farm we need to find is the Yutree farm.
We talk to one of the farmers (Orange baboon Gubal) but he is not the one that put up the note. He is upset that his farmhand Fortress has left without notice and left him with a bunch of work.
Fortress is a young male Dayl with long hair in a bun, workers clothes and linen tunic. We say that we will keep an eye out.
We cross the bridge to the other farm. We meet a Dayl woman with golden hair. She seems to be a new owner of this farm and she was the one to put up the note about the rat problem. He name is Azra.
She says they are in the barn. Strange noises and smells, they attack her crops. At night there are lower grumbles as well.
We start inspecting the barn, and we find a hole in a crate. Rose feels a breeze coming from underneath, and after we move the crate we find a trapdoor to a basement. I also spot tracks towards and from the door, concluding that the rats have their nest downstairs.
We open the door and a terrible stench fills the room. We can hear the rats downstairs.
I light a torch and we descend... Until we are attacked by two swarms of rats!
We defeat them and I managed to kill 18(!) of them, bringing my total rat kills to 78.
We continue down the cellar, the smell getting worse. We find a dead Eidefir, middle aged, looks like a dockworker from the clothes. They have been here a few days.
While inspecting the body and the room, we are ambushed by two giant rats and one talking "rat person".
"Old friend..." it says. Kido replies "New friend...?". That was not the answer they were looking for, and they attack us!
The wererat is immune to non-magical damage so me and Kido can't damage it. Luckily Rose can use her necrotic spores to kill it. I take care of the large rats and bring my rat kills up to 80(!).
Kido knows that the wererats blood could be valuable, so he and I harvest three vials of blood from it. I also harvest one of the rats and take some meat, its skull and the pelt.
After the fight we can see that the wererat slightly resembles the missing farmhand, Fortress. While inspecting the body, an owl swoops in an drops a letter on the body.
Some of us investigate the room while the others read the letter.
"Knight Fortress
The Rooks report "Exodus" a success. You and the other Knights' mission can continue.
Visit the flaming orb in the summer grass. Head to where the sister slumbers on bones of the past.
-The Jeweled General"
Kido finds some loot in the chest and other places, I didn't that much attention from being occupied by the body and the letter.
Kido takes the chest with him up to Azra when we are going to report to her.
She is understandably shocked, but we get 50 gold for our work and Kido gets access to her spare room for some reason.
I jump into the river to clean up, Kido also washes up but not Rose. She really should, she smells a bit.
We go back to the guards to inform them of what happened and to see if they can help Azra with the cellar.
They don't seem interested at all or worried that there was a wererat in town. And they don't want to help Azra.
They would only help if a guard was involved or if the empire were to gain from it somehow.
We show the letter that was delivered to Fortress. They seem interested in that at least, and take our notes.
I talk to Kido about my distaste for how the empire operates, that they are selfish and only help others if they stand to gain something from it.
Session 1 - A new adventure begins!
Me and Cheheri arrive in Blusheaf, in the Apple Docks. It is used for seafaring, while the other docks, the Ghost Docks are used for trade.
After we get off the boat we hear some commotion. Some "wares" have escaped from a ship in the Ghost Docks.
3 Crimson birds and 2 dogs have made their way down the docks and started attacking people. Before we can intervene a person is killed.
-Initiative!-
Cheheri: 19
Gepp: 16
Kido: 14
Rose: 8
I look expectantly at Cheheri. She draws a card from her tarot deck, and springs into action and I follow suit. We start clocking the dogs.
There are two other travelers that are attacked by the some of the birds. One looks like a rulan with green hair, and he has a metallic arm that magically produces a gem that starts floating around the other person, she looks to also be rulan.. or maybe Queni. They both seem to use magic.
While fighting, the merchant who's "wares" have escaped come screaming that we should not kill them because they are expensive.
While the other travelers are struggling with the birds, while me and Cheheri deal with the dogs and knock them unconscious.
Cheheri then grabs a net from the docks and throws it over the birds to weigh them down. So cool!
Metal arm ran and got two guards, one of which stayed and help deal with the birds, and one who ran over to the Ghost Docks to later return with a cart and cages for the animals. While this happened, the female traveler was knocked unconscious.
We manage to cage the animals and end initiative.
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The guards thank us and tell us to come by the barracks close to the Pearl Wharf, its just down the coast.
The merchant approaches us and introduces himself as Yuba Reshnik. We berate him a bit on how he could let this happen. He the cages were well secured and blames dockworkers for not handling the cages properly. Yuba gives us 100 gold as thanks for handling the situation, and wants to bribe us another 100 gold to not mention him to the guards. We take the money but are all quite set on telling on him anyway.
Me and Cheheri start walking to the Pearl Wharf, and tell the other travelers to join us. They seem a bit shaken but walks there with us.
We are stopped by a gubal guard called Karen that tells us that the barracks are off limits for non-guards. But are quickly greeted by the guard that helped us at the Apple docks. He introduces himself as Ponzu and invites us to join him for lunch.
We give him our testimony and mention that Yuba tried to bribe us to omit his involvement. Ponzu gives us 52 gold to split as thanks for our bravery. He asks a bit about us, what we are doing here, where we are going etc.
We now get the other travelers names. The man with the metal arm is called Kido, and his companion is called Rose. They are looking for herbs and plants of some kind. Apparently they were going to Caz'kar'th(!)
I tell them that we came from Caz'Kar'th and wondered what they could possibly want to do there. It's not a place where you go unless you are to deal with the Amber Eyes.
They are a bit unclear on this, Rose says she has a contact in Caz'Kar'th but doesn't know their name and can't describe them. She seems to have lost some of her memories maybe.
Cheheri says that we can help them find these plants, since we don't really have anything specific to do right away. They seem to think that two locals from Caz'kar'th whereas one is part of the Amber Eyes is good enough for them and saves them a trip up north.
-Party is formed!-
Apparently (at least part of) what they need the plants for is for Kido's arm. It hurts and he needs some serious medication. He sought out Rose to help him since she has good knowledge on plantlife. One drug that works is Bane, but it is illegal to own or produce without a prescription.
We start going around town to see if we can find a lead.
Marrow's Tit - General Store:
Cheheri tries to find armor, but they had nothing like that.
Drug Store:
Manned by a red Eidefir called Alen. We mention we are looking for painkillers or herbs that can help, and he has nothing to that degree. He asks us if we can help him collect some herbs for him, and we accept. I ask what the store is called. "Just Drug Store". I think that's very uncreative and ask what he would name that store if he could call it anything. "I suppose 'Alen's'?". I draw a pretty quick and shitty logo for 'Alen's Drug Store' and hang it outside the store.
Blusheaf Inn: We didn't walk in.
Bitten Tail: Tavern.
We read a notice board:
Ghosts in Ghost Docks no. 7 Warehouse.
Farmer wants to kill rodents eating their crops.
Pirates spotted in North Gnok Bay.
Highwaymen on the road to the Imperial Celebration in Wat.
There is an Imperial celebration taking place in the capital Wat. we hear some excited voices about it. A big celebration for the emperor and empire.
Kido gets a reading from Cheheri.
We each take a little time to scope out the city.
Cheheri does reading for the people and earns some coin.
I draw a picture of the epic battle at the Apple docks. Not my best work, tried a more dynamic style (9).
Kido takes a rest on a bench.
Rose tries to talk to a rat and gain information about the farmers place. It doesn't go so well and the rat pukes.
We hear that a new mother president has been elected in Bes.
We start moving out of the city towards the farms, and decide to camp out under a tree and bushes that I find.
Rose gets a reading from Cheheri.
We make a fire and Rose serves us tea made of Blackroot. We get stupidly high. Kido and Cheheri get nauseous.
We talk about various things and I tell them about my mission to kill a dragon. I assure them that this is a long term goal and I'm in no rush to do it. I'm looking to get stronger and find strong allies that can help me. I think they are to high to realize I mean them.
Cheheri talks about the stars to our new companions and how they always show the way.
Kido has pretty recently lost his arm and got this replacement prosthetic. He can't really remember exactly what happened. He used to be a musician but it's hard now with the prosthetic.
Rose seems to have lost part of her memory. She says she has a "Big mask to fill" whatever that means.
They ask me what is the coolest monster I've killed. A manticore I was part of the expedition and shot a few arrows at it, so I was more part of killing it and not the only one doing it.
After some drunken jabbering we fall asleep except for Rose, who goes out into the woods and comes back bloody.
We take long rest, and wake up the next day, ready to deal with some rats!
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