Session 3: Master of Evil
General Summary
Session nr.3 05/01/2022
Wednesday, 5 January 2022
19:01
After Ruyi scolds Quill for not helping, she picks up the unconcious Haarin and carries him on her shoulder. Dust checks the scythe man's body and finds a letter in an unfamiliar script. He passes it around, but none can read it. They continue deeper into the cavern, only to see a pinkish barrier slowly fade away in front of them. Around the corner sits an old man, bruised and scarred, leaning against a pink blossoming tree. The man cough up some blood, then tells the party they must be good as "she" has lowered the barrier. Upon asking who he is, he introduces himself as Mayor Keehis, once mayor of Crane's Hill. He tells the party "she" wishes to thank them, and gestures to the tree behind him. "child of Joran, sister of Suuth'Kallos" the mayor says, which prompts Yfirge to walk up to the tree. "The K'llalla tree" he says, upon which six golden round fruits begin to grow on the tree's branches. He plucks one, and Lucién does as well. They take a bite, the fruit having a temporary addictive nature. After finishing it, they all feel incredibly invigorated. Ruyi though sceptical at first, does eventually feed one of the fruits to Haarin, who regains conciousness. Lucién wishes to have more, however the mayor tells him she is unable to create such fruits again as it requires a large amount of energy to produce them, let alone six at once. Dust shows the letter he found to the mayor, however he too does not recognise it. Dust wraps the mayor's arm around him, and carries the wounded old man outside.
As the party exits the Crane's Hill Mines, they are greeted by 9 corpses of Frostbite thugs on the ground. Looking up they catch Guy slicing two more down with his claw weapons. He continues running down the streets, as the party tries to get to the centre of town to secure the Mayor's safety. They get ambushed however by a muscular, Red female tiefling and a few thugs. As the battle commences, Guy shows up out of nowhere and takes out her backline. While Lucién, Ruyi, Silvio and Dust take out the ones who tried to ambush them, Guy and Yfirge manage to knock out the red tiefling, as Guy mentioned the rebellion wished to interrogate her as she appears to be the one leading the Frostbite attacks. Guy grabs her and drags her with him towards where Argento was, the final few remaining Frostbite now defeated.
They do find him, and hand over the tiefling. Argento thanks the party for their help, and signals two guards to carry away the tiefling and lock her up. Dust shows Argento the letter, and he recognises it as Ho'ruushi scripture, however he can't read it. He suggests Dust hands it over so he can show it to The Glaciers' leader, however Dust declines, wishing to hold onto it himself. Yfirge asks about the Glacier's leader, and Argento explains it's currently an arcanist woman named Naiell Treffor, who was once a star student of The University of Snowcake. Ruyi remembers her somewhat. Argento suggests the party take a rest for now, and that they may interrogate the red tiefling tomorrow if they so desire. The party agrees, and heads off to the inn they met Argento in before. The inn is now mostly used as a refuge to take care of the casualties made in the battle. There are only two rooms available, and so the party will have to share them. Dust and Guy however stay downstairs. Lucién plops down on one of the sofa's and quickly falls asleep.
Ruyi walks downstairs to get some plates of food for everyone. While there, she spots guy and Dust sitting down, Guy sharing stories with the Glaciers and remaining guards. She walks over to them and offers the two a plate as well, and they take it (though Dust misunderstands at first). Guy invites her to stay, but she says she first needs to bring the food to the rest. She does as she says, giving Yfirge and Haarin their share, then tells Haarin she will stay downstairs with the others. She goes downstairs again and joins the two, Dust lending her his weavers tools so she may work on the scarf she promised Silvio. Dust staying perceptive, overhears how Guy pretty much carried the fight above ground, taking out a lot of the Frostbite. At one point there were a few rangers who had situated themselves atop the broken buildings and were difficult to take out, until at some point a large group of Shriekers came our of nowhere and picked them all off one by one, then dropped them from high up in the sky, killing them instantly. Dust of course, recognises this as Chewy's family. Ruyi requires a lot of Dust's help weaving the scarf. She asks Guy if he wants to try it too, and much to her surprise he does. In fact, he manages to pull it off flawlessly and knits a cool snake plushie. Ruyi eventually wishes to go back upstairs to rest, and as she leaves Guy gifts the snake plushie to Dust.
Meanwhile upstairs Yfirge and Haarin eat their food in silence, until Yfirge suddenly stops. "It doesn't make sense..." he says under his breath. "What doesn't?" Haarin asks. Yfirge tells him he finds it strange that the K'llalla Tree was located here, underneath Crane's Hill. He tells him he has heard legends of the tree from his tribe, and expected it to at least be located near Suuth'Kallos, not here in the south. He then follows it up with asking how Haarin came to learn and understand the draconic tongue. Haarin gets a pained look on his face. He tells Yfirge he had to learn it some time ago for something related to his friends. "You look hurt when you mention them" Yfirge says. "I'd rather not talk about it" Haarin says. "I see, you must have your reasons" the lizardfolk replies. Haarin is glad he respects his privacy. Yfirge then brings up he hopes everyone in Snowcake is fine, and Haarin says he hopes so too. Yfirge takes their now empty plates and walks downstairs, however as he does just for a moment, all the sound around him cuts out. Ruyi passes him and says something, but he doesn't hear it at all. Yfirge however, doesn't notice. He places the plates back and spots Guy who motions him over to join them, but Yfirge declines. He goes back up to sleep.
The next morning, Ruyi awakens before the rest in her room. She hears a message: "Meet me in front of Impala's ice cream parlour within 15 minutes". She recognises the voice, it is Doctor Hasnar. As she gets up to get ready, she sees Haarin is also up. She explains she has to be off for a bit, and tells him that if anyone asks where she is, she'll just "be back soon". She takes quite long to get ready, and then is about to leave the front door when she hears a voice behind her. "Where are you going in such a rush?" she turns around to see Dust, who was already awake and downstairs practicing his sword stance. "Oh, just going to meet someone!" she says. "You're off to meet someone, early in the morning, the day after the city was under siege? That's a bit suspicious. I'm coming with." Ruyi doesn't protest much, and allows the monk to accompany her, though she does say its simply a family matter. Together they do reach the parlour, and she spots the doctor tapping his fingers on the metal parts of his body. "You're late, do not keep me waiting next time." The doctor says coldly. He then turns to Dust. "You trust this man?" he says. Ruyi says yes at first, but the moment he begins about her "affliction", she quickly asks Dust for some privacy. He does as she wishes, and walks out of earshot.
As soon as Dust is gone, the doctor continues. "You are the same as your sister? Show me your teeth". Ruyi struggles for a bit. "Teeth." The doctor repeats, now with more force. Ruyi opens her mouth, revealing her unusually pointed canines. "You don't vile them down?" he notes, revealing Ruyi's sister apparently does. Ruyi closes her mouth, telling the doctor she and her sister have different views upon this "affliction". She then asks if he has spoken to her sister recently, and he pauses for a moment. "A little" he replies. "Do you know where she is? Its been too long since I've seen her" Ruyi asks, but the doctor swiftly replies with a "No". He continues, and brings up how her father's "affliction" is improving. He then notes that Ruyi is a somewhat different case. He asks her for her symptoms. "I'd rather not talk about it" she says. "Too bad" the doctor replies. Ruyi uncomfortably explains her sudden cravings for blood, and how she has nightmares that she can subdue if she performs a certain ritual, but only temporarely. "You won't tell anyone about this?" Ruyi asks. The doctor nods. "This is all simply to back up my hypothesis" Hasnar replies.
"My mother told me blood was a good conduit for magic" Ruyi continues. Hasnar tells her to go on about her mother, but Ruyi tells him all she knows is that she was a well studied elven woman (probably), and doesn't know where she is as of now. Hasnar frowns a little, showing his displeasure. Ruyi then thinks for a moment before she continues to say her mother insists they were of royal blood, and therefore must have been special. Ruyi, remembering Haarin's words (see session nr.2), then asks the doctor what his relation is to her parents. "Business" he says, not really answering the question. Still curious, Ruyi asks him why he's after her mother. "A favour" he replies. Ruyi gets a little annoyed at this point. "I'll share your mother's location, once I have found her." the doctor says, turning his shoulder. "Is that all the questions you wished to ask?" Ruyi says. The doctor stares her down. "No, but I'll save the others for later. Goodbye." Ruyi then takes a respectful bow. "Ah, well upon the Bloodworthe's name I wish you..." but as Ruyi looks back up, she sees no trace of the doctor. After standing still for a few seconds to process what just happened, she begins to yell for Dust, who appears after some time. He hadn't heard anything, nor does he ask about her meeting at all. Together they go back to the inn to get breakfast.
Outside they spot Guy and Argento having a friendly sparring match, the rest of the Glaciers and guards around them. Dust joins the crowd to look on. Ruyi, who is not at all used to things like sparring, doesn't enjoy it all that much and excuses herself, whishing to go back inside and upstairs. As she's about to enter however, she sees Argento getting defeated and knocked onto the ground by Guy. Worried, she runs over to assist him, but he just looks at her confused. Not only him, but all the Glaciers and Guards are now looking at her baffled. "That's so you." Guy says, as he and the rest burst out laughing. Ruyi becomes red as a tomato and looks to Dust for help, but he too is laughing at her. She runs inside the inn. She grabs a few plates of breakfast, then goes upstairs to the room where Haarin, Lucién, Silvio and Yfirge now sit awake. "Why are you so red?" Haarin asks. "Oh, it was just... Another Guy incident" she replies, only for Guy and Dust to have followed her upstairs and explain what happened to everyone, holding back their laughter. This pushes Lucién to begin to laugh as well, while Ruyi goes to the corner of the room to try and hide her embarrassment. Haarin walks over to her and puts a hand on her back to try and comfort her.
Once done laughing, they bring up what their next move should be. The closest location on the list would be Pyeerest, a similar town to Snowcake. However they still have the tiefling they caught yesterday to interrogate. Yfirge brings up that perhaps they should rest in the city for a day considering how badly they got hurt during their last fight. He claims Crane's Hill to be a safe location, which would give him time to make a potion and give Silvio some time to spend with his brother. Dust declines however, saying they have time to make potions on the way. Guy begins to sing a song, and Lucién joins in as they make their way out of the room, Dust following after. Haarin tells Ruyi again how she should stand up for herself more, and shouldn't let the Goldians push her around. She collects herself and tells him she will soon give them a piece of her mind. "If you need a dagger, I can lend you one" Yfirge says, jump scaring Ruyi who didn't realise he was still in the room. She declines however, claiming she will have a rational adult conversation with them, the way the Bloodworthe do things. They go downstairs, noticing Guy standing on a table, the entire inn now singing along with his and Lucién's song.
On their way towards the red tiefling's holding location, Yfirge asks what they should ask her. Dust says he doesn't know yet, but Yfirge insists they should ask her why the Frostbite had a letter from the Ho'ruushi, and maybe what it says if she can read it. Dust notes interrogations are hard, but Yfirge says he's done them many times on Brjalao dragonborn, usually with his dagger pointed at their throats. Lucién notes how that probably won't work most of the time, and Yfirge admits he usually didn't get much info since most of the time he'd simply kill them if they said anything or not. Once they arrive, they overhear Argento talking to a few angry civilians. "We can't move to Snowcake!" and "You don't even live here!" are heard, as Argento backs away. He then spots the party, and looks relieved. He leads the party to where the tiefling is held. "She hasn't been willing to talk, but maybe you'll be more succesful". Lucién is handed the keys to the tiefling's room, followed by him and Ruyi both being pushed inside, with the rest standing back. Lucién attempts to cast suggestion on her, but he fails, then immediatly gives up. Ruyi makes an attempt, and does get some information. She gets the tiefling to introduce herself as "Red", and reveal that no, she is not in charge of The Frostbite. "You really don't know anything about what is going on here, do you?" Red says, as she leans back in her chair. After some more back and forth, Lucién notes how Red is leading the conversation, jokingly suggesting she and Ruyi should swap. This upsets Ruyi more that Lucién expected, and she is now genuinely angry with him.
"You know what, I'll tell you something" Red suddenly says. "Have you heard... Of duyuanalic?" Lucién notices Guy's eyes widen somewhat, as if recognising the name. "Do you?" Lucién asks, but Guy does not respond. "No, I haven't" Ruyi says, and leans in closer. "What can you tell us about it?" followed by silence. The whole room is quiet, as Red looks between Lucién and Ruyi. "...Do you wanna lick this dick?" as she begins to smirk. Guy bursts out into laughter, and Lucién and dust join in. Ruyi is now absolutely seething, but does a good job at hiding her frustrations. Yfirge... does not get the joke. Lucién, now impressed, takes out some wine, pouring a glass for both him and Red. Unfortunately though, despite taking the glass, she is still not willing to share anything. Lucién then looks to Dust, who despite his chuckle earlier has mostly been standing in the back staring at Red. "Do you want to ask anything?" Lucién asks. "Give me a few minutes with her" he replies, urging the others to leave the room. They do so, and close the door behind them. Inside Dust grabs a chair and places it right in front of her, staring her dead in the eye. He asks her if she enjoyed it, killing, burning, the whole thing. She tells him the Glaciers did the same thing to them, and are no better. Dust, thinking to himself that he can't get anything out of her, takes his blade in hand and stabs her in her side, knocking her down to the floor. She is bleeding, but alive. He then turns to leave the room. "I'll find you, I'll get out of here and chase you down, I'll kill you!" Red says, placing her hand on her wound to stop the bleeding. "I'm sure you will" Dust says, as he opens the door to leave. The rest of the party look confused, and Lucién looks inside to see the tiefling bleeding on the ground. They then take their leave, forgetting to lock the door behind them.
The party meets up with Argento and Mayor Keehis, who is happy to see them and thanks them once more for their help liberating Crane's Hill. He then informs the party that he shall take his citizens and move them to Snowcake, where it is safer. Yfirge asks him to relay a message to the Mayor of Snowcake, telling him they are doing well on their journey. He then brings up how he finds it strange how the Ho'ruushi seem to be associated with not one, but two individuals not from Kinnorath. He wonders why the North and the South are teaming up like this. Argento notes that it is indeed strange. Nonetheless, the Mayor is glad the party was there to help. Ruyi wishes him well in name of her family the Bloodworthe from Tharkos, but upon hearing her mention that, she gets a few head turns. The mayor however nods and smiles at her. "It's nice to see you clear up some bad blood between our countries." Ruyi smiles back "Yes, well it's good to not sit on events from the past". "And of those to come..." the mayor says, his smile now faded. Silvio and Argento make their emotional goodbyes, as the party now leave Crane's Hill behind them.
On their way out, Ruyi speaks up against Lucién and Guy, noting how them laughing at her during the interrogation was inappropriate and unprofessional, making her out for a fool, mostly focussing her stare on Lucién. Guy and Lucién note she shouldn't take it too personal, and that it was genuinely a good joke. Ruyi dismisses this, repeating how it was unnecessary. They tell her that taking the piss out of one another is normal for Goldians, and how again it isn't anything personal. Still, Ruyi tells them she feels targeted nonetheless. Lucién then makes a sarcastic apology, calling upon his Velisk name, making a bow and everything. Guy then gives him a correcting tap against the back of his head. Guy suggests that if they'll be travelling together, these two should make up and stop fighting between eachother. They unwillingly shake hands without looking one another in the eye. Afterwards Lucién uses his fire magic to "burn" his hand, cleaning it of Ruyi's "filth", while Ruyi smears her hand off on Haarin's armour. Haarin, Guy and Dust all facepalm, Yfirge joining after despite not knowing what it indicates. Let's hope things don't get worse, as they continue their path towards Pyeerest.
That night, Dust goes out to hunt and manages to score a deer, bringing it back with him. Ruyi compliments him, and goes on a tangent on how amazing he and hunters as a whole are. Guy leans over to whisper to Haarin, asking if this is normal for her. Haarin nods sadly. Dust begins to cut out the meat and prepare it, while Yfirge begins to brew up a potion. After dinner however, they notice the snowfall begin to pick up. It becomes more and more, heavier and heaver. A snowstorm is coming, and they must find shelter of some sort. "We should look for a cavern to hide in!" Ruyi says, which makes Yfirge suddenly shiver. Dust notes caves are probably not that easy to find around these parts, but nevertheless they begin their search. Unfortunately the snowstorm catches up to them, and they find themselves in the middle of an icy whirlwind. After some trekking through the snow, they spot a figure waving at them in the distance. Dust splits from the party to hide, in case the figure turns out malicious. Once the rest come close, they can make out it's simply a man covered in woolly and leather-enforced clothing. He leads the group to a shed, and they all enter.
Once inside, the man takes off most of the clothing covering his face, revealing himself to be young, most probably a mere 20 years old. He introduces himself as The great lord of evil Durrthanyan, shortened to Dre. His real name is Bill, but no one calls him that. After introductions are made and he has offered the party some evil cookies, he shows off a device he wears on his wrist, and asks the group what they were doing out there. They tell him they were on their way to Pyrest. He then asks them if they've ever seen a moth-headed flying creature. The party tells him they have indeed. "The child of Suuth'Kallos" Yfirge says. Dre looks excited. He explains how the device on his wrist is a compass that can track the creature. He wishes to find it's nest, to maybe find the origin of its powers and take them for himself, so that he may become an evil lord and save Snowcake. Confused, Ruyi asks him why he wants to be evil. "It seems cool" he says, and tells them his mother told him how his dad was an evil orc, his name being Kraask. He is out here hoping to find him as well, but he last saw him 15 years ago. When asked how long he's been here, he tells them its been 4 years since he's been living in these parts. He doesn't see people often, only recently did he see a little hooded guy who waved back. That was three weeks ago.
Ruyi sits down with him and asks why he didn't study at The University of Snowcake, but he claims that wasn't his style. Then Ruyi offers him a chance to look in and cope some of the spells from her spell book, which he happily does. She follows it up by asking if he'd like to try knitting as well. She asks him his favourite animal, and he says it is a cat, pointing at his pet cat Doomguy who just came down the stairs to see what the commotion was about. With that, she (with Dust's direction) knits a plush cat for him, showing him how to knit in the process. Guy and Lucién sit on the couch, drinking whiskey to warm themselves, while Yfirge sits by the fire petting Doomguy. He wonders if he too will have to search for over a decade to find those he seeks. Dust looks saddened at Dre. Ruyi, while explaining how to knit, drops her guard and smiles wide at Dre, accidentally revealing her pointed teeth. "Whoa, your teeth look evil!" Dre says. Ruyi then realises what she had done and quickly tries to cover up, stating they aren't real but artificial. " They're artificial?" Yfirge suddenly says, Ruyi concluding that she may have accidentally shown them during their drinking party at Silvio's Place (see session nr.1). Lucién leans forward curiously and smirking, mockingly asking more questions but Ruyi quickly excuses herself and goes upstairs to Dre's room to sleep.
Haarin goes to sit next to Guy and Lucién. He tells them off, mostly Lucién. Eventually he goes as far as to ask him "Are all Velisk this petty?" which prompts Lucién to end the conversation. He closes the bottle of whiskey (Guy looking at him like, wtf?) and hands the bottle to Guy. He then walks outside into the snowstorm and sits on the porch, surrounding himself with his flame cloak to keep him warm. Soon after Guy joins him, brining the whiskey. He brings up how their allies are acting like babies, how they simply can't take a joke. Lucién agrees and turns off his flame cloak. They both take another glass, and Lucién admits that he's happy Guy is on this trip with him. Guy tells him he's happy to be here with him as well, and together they continue to chat.
Inside Yfirge has gotten up from the fireplace and sits next to Haarin. "Did... Did they just go outside into the snowstorm?" Haarin nods. Yfirge asks what that was all about, and Haarin brings up how he feels Ruyi needs to stand up for herself more and not let people walk all over her again, considering how she is. Dust says he understands, but Yfirge has a bit of trouble getting it. Upstairs Ruyi is in Dre's room writing a letter, and since the shed is made of wood, she can overhear the conversation downstairs. Hearing Haarin's words, she crumbles up the letter and takes out her journal to write about the day. That is, until she overhears Yfirge say "What's the obsession with the teeth anyways, are hers not normal?" She gets up and opens the bedroom door, calling over the rest that they need to talk. Dust and Haarin tell her she needn't feel forced to tell them anything, however Yfirge notes that he's still curious. Ruyi invites him upstairs, and as he goes Silvio gives him a worried look. She closes the door behind them. In a hushed voice, she tells the lizardfolk that her teeth are the result of an "affliction" related to the source of her magic, and asks him to no longer think of or mention it at any point. Yfirge apologises if he has offended her, and promises he will drop the subject from here on out.
He returns downstairs to Dust, Haarin, Dre and Silvio. Dre brings up how Ruyi has sort of taken over his room, and so says he will rest downstairs with the others. He'll make hot coco, and the rest join in with him. After some time Lucién and Guy come inside again. When Dre again brings up how he wishes to follow in his father's footsteps, Dust approaches him. "Listen, I have spent a long time following somebody and thinking it was the right thing to do, but now I realise it was wrong. You should live your own life. You should do what interest you, not your father. I've done that once before, and it led me down a dark path." The rest look on, surprised at this sudden showing of emotion and revealing of his past from the usually reserved monk. "Can, can I do something real quick?" Dre asks. Dust says he can, and then he gives the monk a tight, long hug. "Id hate for you to repeat my mistake" Dust says, as he pats Dre on his back. After the heart to heart, Lucién leaves 2 gold on the table to reward Dre for his hospitality, and guy leaves the bottle of whiskey. Lucien asks if he has ever drunk before, and Dre says no. They peer pressure him into drinking despite Dust and Yfirge's warning.
And so, they spend the night at Dre's Evil Shed.
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