Session 7: Until their last breath
General Summary
Session nr.7 26/01/2022
Wednesday, 26 January 2022
20:06
Upon the revelation that The Glorious Hand are behind the attack on Pyeerest, the party stops all hostility. Dust asks Red if the man she was waiting to ambush uses a unique chain-based weapon, and she confirms. This means the one that betrayed the Frostbite was the black armoured goldian they faced back in Snowcake. She explains he was part of their broader mission, including the attack on Crane's Hill. The party asks who she and, by extention, the Frostbite work for. After looking at Till a few times for confirmation, she tells them the name of the leader of the Frostbite is an orc by the name of Kraask. "Dre's father" Finn mumbles. Dust wishes to kill Red right there and then, however she tells him she won't go down until she's defeated The Butcher. Ruyi then suggests a temporary alliance, as she has noticed Dust's reaction on hearing about The Glorious Hand. Dust does not wish to ally himself with The Frostbite, seeing them as criminals. Ruyi tells him they themselves have murdered plenty, and although it was in self defence, murder is murder. Furthermore, Lucién and Ruyi point out that thanks to Dust's recklessness, both Guy and Haarin have gone unconscious. Despite his wishes, Red agrees to them working together if either party faces The Glorious Hand.
As they're about to leave however, Till suddenly stands up. "I've seen you all now, you went against great odds of all sorts. But you know the best way to see how a person truly is, is to see how they fight when death is imminent." He then teleports in front of Finn, forms a scythe in his hand, and with a clean cut decapitates the lizardfolk. He then places his hand upon the headless body and reanimates it, ordering it to attack the party. The body with blade in hand flies towards Lucién, striking him. Lucién explodes in a ball of fire, then stands again and smirks, calling Till a bastard. Till then calls him "fucked up" for smiling after seeing his ally die. And so, they try to fight off Till as he manages to one by one kill, decapitate and reanimate the party members. Ruyi sees her friends fall one by one, eventually reaching a point where she can only tell herself it isn't happening, that it's not real. Silvio attempts to gain distance, but is taken out as well by Till yet again teleporting. Only Dust remains, and he looks over to Red, who is motionless. Dust takes one of the darts Finn made for him and throws it over at her, striking her in the back of her head. She however, does not move or flinch at all. As Till is about to swing his scythe and Dust accepts his demise, suddenly everything returns to how it was a minute ago.
Everyone is alive, but they all remember the event that just took place. Till reveals it was a trick that he uses to craft a fake reality, and used it to test how capable the party members were. He is satisfied, and agrees to the temporary alliance. As the party takes their leave, Finn turns to Red and asks when The Glorious Hand attacked. She claims it was over a week ago, and adds that the traitor she was wishing to ambush should have appeared already, but hasn't. As they all exit, Dust hears Demise speak to him, telling him the power Till used to craft that simulation is familiar to him. He asks Dust to tell him everything about what he saw in there, but Dust says he'll first need to get everyone to safety. They exit Pyeerest, and begin to walk northward.
As they leave, Silvio opens up to the group how he feels this trip has begun to take a toll on him. He wishes to return to Snowcake and see how his family is faring, and if his brother has made it back. The group understands, and they bid him farewell. Some with a handshake, some with a hug. With one ally down, the party continues walking until the sun begins to set. On their way Dust and Lucién argue more about the morals of an alliance between them and the Frostbite. After setting up camp, Guy notices Ruyi's distraught expression. He confronts her about it, but she insist she is alright, and will take first watch. She sits quite far away from the rest as they gather around a campfire.
Finn goes out to hunt, wandering the woods until he finds an elk. After some time he finds the half eaten corpse of a yak. He looks around but doesn't spot any footprints, and upon inspecting the bite marks he concludes it was a Morkaeas, a creature consisting of a basilisk within a carapace harness much like a crustacean, yet its outer layers are made of thick ice. The corpse is still fresh, so Finn takes extra care on his way back to camp. Halfway however, he slumps down and sits under a tree for a while. Dust notices Finn is missing and asks around if anyone saw him, but no one has. Dust goes out to look for him but can't find any tracks, eventually returning to camp. Lucién assures him he's probably out hunting and will return by himself soon.
They sit side by side by the fire, talking about death. Dust says his teacher once said warriors must face death once in their lives, then follows it up with saying he was full of bullshit. "If you start feeling like a warrior, let me know since you've gone too far." Dust tells Lucién. Lucien gives him some rum from his last bottle. Dust says he still can't ally himself with The Frostbite, but if Lucien feels like he's at his limit, he should make his own decision; not follow those around you. Lucién explains while it seemed he didn't care about the wreckage in Pyeerest, in reality he does, but he will choose himself over the dead. Dust explains he understands his point, and once again tells him not to follow him into such dangerous places in case this happens again.
Guy is looking into the moonlight. Dust asks Lucien who Guy really is, as he noticed he backed him up in Pyeerest. Lucien says he's an old sailor. Dust tells him he'd have pictured him more as a soldier. Lucien says he's been noticing oddities since he went to Pink, but whatever happens he's still family. Dust looks at Ruyi, who is still sitting further away unresponsive. He tells Lucien he's going to have a talk with her, and walks over. Ruyi doesn't response to him approaching. He sits next to her for a good while, and after a good few minutes she finally notices Dust. Ruyi says shes alright and is keeping watch. Dust tries to comfort her by telling her its alright to "lose it" in these situations. Ruyi says she appreciates his words, and will keep watch. Dust offers she comes sits with them instead by the fire, but Ruyi declines. Failing to convince her, Dust says he'll leave her to her means, but tells her its best to speak to others about such things, not keep it to themselves. Dust returns to the fire, and Lucien says he'll check up on her in an hour.
Guy once again sits next to Ruyi. He speaks of the "shaming" from the past. He says that he finds that when stuff happened to him, the best thing he could do is to prove them wrong. Ruyi asks if Guy saw what she did before the fight, to the man in black. She asks him if he thinks she's a monster. Guy tells her he himself could be seen as a monster for how many people he slaughters without a second thought. Ruyi tells him about her past, how only one other had seen her do that. Why she was so angry at Haarin. Guy smiles, and tells her she is what she is, and shouldn't feel ashamed. Ruyi tries to get Guy to go back to the fire, but Guy stays to tell her one last thing. "Trust me, its better in times like these not to be left alone with your thoughts". He then lets her be and returns to the fire, where Lucién is making two swordsmen dance in the flames.
Dust asks Finn why he knows about The Glorious Hand. Finn tells him he only knows of them from Kemmis' stories. Dust sighs, as if he initially though Finn had a greater connection to them. He explains he rode with them for half a century. He was picked up from his home village after his parents were killed by bandits. He swore vengeance to their killers. After a year or so The Glorious Hand showed up, but they were a different gang back then. He was taken in at the age of 13, and was taught in combat. They used to have something of a respectful code, as opposed to their village raiding ways of now. As time went on, the gang began to change. Thier leader, Relas Rainwinter, the most. He'd get into people's heads, toy with them. "If we find Realas, he's mine". Dust says with anger. Realas offed the original leader himself at a young age.
Lucién looks back at Ruyi sitting alone, and takes it upon himself to get her to sit with them. He walks over and throws a coin on her lap. "A penny for your thoughts?" he asks, and Ruyi looks up. She asks if guy sent him, but Lucien says he didn't. He tries to get her to talk, but she acts difficult. She tries to give the coin back, but Lucien refuses. After some more prying, he manages to get some words out of her. She will speak to Haarin about something, but is insecure. Lucién smacks his hands together and tells her to pretend he himself is Haarin. She says thats difficult, so Lucien gets up and does an impersonation. Ruyi tells him to sit back down, and begins to speak about how to haarin, she would offer a choice to either go back to Tharkos, or continue travelling with her. Lucien suggest they have a good talk about it first, but Ruyi says after seeing his reply to her outrage before, it'd be for the best. Lucien asks why she doesnt believe Haarin, and Ruyi now says she has begun doubting herself and her mother. She finds its cruel of her to say Haarin was wrong for accusing her mother for killing his family. She then continues about her bite. Lucien calls it a little party trick again, which makes Ruyi annoyed. "It's really not that bad" Dust says, who had now walked up to them. "I appreciate your words, but it still weights on the conscious" Ruyi says. She fears the others would keep their distance from her since her "gift". They tell her she need not think as such, as they themselves are guilty of more horrid murders. Ruyi thanks them for their words, and goes to join them at the campfire, where Finn hands her some food.
Ruyi then takes Haarin a few feet away from the fire and apologises to him for not believing his words, stating how she felt the only stable thing in her life crumble at that point. She looks beyond Haarin back at the group, where Lucién gives her an enthusiastic thumbs up. Ruyi looks back to Haarin and says she doesnt know what he now thinks of her, and wouldn't blame him if he'd think lowly of her, but she still thinks highly of him, like a family member. Haarin them apologises back, and tells her he remembers the day it first happened, and says he apologises for bringing that day back to her. He insists that no matter what, he could never hate her, and nothing would stop him from his duty of protecting her. At that point Ruyi brings forth the choice she was wishing to give, saying she feels cruel about making him protect the daughter of a person he hates so much. He however stops her, and tells her she is not her mother, and that he is doing this on his own accord, not because he is tasked to. Haarin says no matter what, he will stay. Ruyi gives him a big hug, but Haarin's eyes are still somewhat hollow. Ruyi begins to cry a little, but composes herself.
As they return, Guy says someone still needs to keep watch. Finn brings up how he found Morkaeas tracks when was hunting earlier, and warns the party how an adult one can be more than dangerous. Upon hearing this Ruyi is a lot less keen on keeping watch, and goes in her tent to sleep, something she desperately needs. Lucién and Guy sit outside and drink a slight bit more. Lucién asks about the "Fucking nobles" comment Guy made back in Pyeerest, and Guy says the surroundings made him act the way he did. Guy says it was his job to keep him alive, but Lucien tells him he should value his own life more. Guy says he'd probably do it again, and Lucien says if he does, he'll pull him out of the fire. He then goes to his tent, and Guy realises he now needs to do watch as Lucien didnt do it. After a few hours, he heads back to his tent, as he claps Dust on his back.
The next day the group awakens and decides on their next destination. After some discussion they decide to go westward to Treff, a tribal town that has recently begun to become more civilised. A small town by the name of Zefari is nearby, and is where Dust hails from. According to Finn the caves that contain the Crystals Ruyi seeks for her machine are the other way towards Furanei in the east. The group however still votes for Treff, as there is a possibility of trading items they could use for their trip (mostly armour for Haarin). As they pack up their belongings, Dust explains to Demise what happened during the confrontation with Till, and Demise claims he and the Scythe Till used are forged from the same metal; he wields a cursed weapon. They were once people, but are now bound to blades. Demise claims he became a sword around 100 years ago. Dust asks how to destroy a cursed weapon like Till's. Demise says he must remove the magic first, then destroy the weapon. He also says Till must have had his weapon (referring to it as a her) for a while. He explains that the longer they are with a wielder, the better they become.
Dust: "You're not very useful for a sword."As they are packing up, Lucien continues teasing Ruyi about her dreaming about old people, referring to Jim. Ruyi dismisses him, and after some time she begins explains her gift to the party. She tells them she is plagued by nightmares, which can affect her overall performance in magic. The nightmares only go away if she conducts a ritual she can never do, for it requires blood. They continue walking, and as Finn and Dust look around for herbs, Ruyi is making a new stuffed animal. Lucien looks at it, and makes another quip about her liking old men. Then Ruyi says she's aware boys tease girls they like. Guy cringes heavily, noting they sound 12 and as if they've never spoken to a person of the opposite sex before. Lucien says at least he didnt faint last fight, but Guy quickly reminds him how often the sorcerer falls during battles of past. After some more walking, suddenly a man appears next to them. He has some fairly average, but ever so slightly noble looking clothes. His eyes are a deep, watery blue, with no iris. He's tapping his foot, swaying his head left and right. Dust immediatly gets ready to fight, but Ruyi and Lucien tell him to calm down. The man introduces himself as C, and claims to be from The Astral Sea. Lucien asks if he could teleport them to the other town, but C explains he is unable to "control" himself in such a way. He can instead get some gifts from the sea to give to them, along with a tip. Ruyi asks if C knows about Saan, and he does. Within the blink of an eye, C dissapears, then reappears with some stuff in his hands. He walks over to Finn and gives him a dagger once owned by a Hendrick Woodworth, and his tip is "In a fight, I wont do much. If you get him, he'll recon he'll go down pretty easy, but getting him is the hard part". He gives dust a bag of seeds, and his tip to Dust was "I like the summer time". He gives Lucien a picture of two smiling dudes, one with a big gun, both doing the peace sign. His tip goes as follows: "The Sequence, they ain't the good or the bad guys, its all a matter of perspective". He gives Ruyi a blue potion. She asks what it is, and he stops. He looks her dead in her eyes, Ruyi's vision darkening before she regains sight. Without a word, he moves on to Haarin, whom he hands a flute. "That poor jester, split in two. If they re-join who knows what will ensue". Lastly he gives Guy a frog. "You know, The Raven isn't too happy with the Drafkir right now. There you go, I hope that was helpful." With that, he dissapears. The party looks at their items, and discuss the "tips" they got, how none of it made any sense. Ruyi says she has an odd request, and wishes to ride on someone's back so she can identify the items they got, while they keep moving. Dust says they can just stop for a few minutes, then begins to laugh at the fact her first suggestion was piggy-back riding. Guy hands his frog from over to Lucien, and Haarin too wishes to give the flute away. Lucien takes it as well. After a short break, Ruyi succesfully identifies the items and... nothing special. The flute is just a flute, and the frog just a frog. Lucien hands the frog to Finn, who places it on his head. Ruyi completes her magic checking, finding out her blue potion is one of astral connection. A few days go by, and they come across a sore sight; a carriage, turned on its side with a young Morkaeas biting down upon the corpses of its riders. As they approach, the party spots there is still someone alive; a young girl sits shivering and terrified, looking up at the monster that took her family. The party jumps into action and as Dust and Finn engage the young Morkaeas, Ruyi and Lucién rescue the girl from the carriage remains. It being young and not yet having its shell, the young Morkaeas dies quickly. The girl holds onto Ruyi and is fully traumatised. Lucién tries to talk with her using his telepathic magic, but she seems to be afraid the moment he speaks inside her mind. They investigate the carriage, and after looking around they find it was a wealthy, though very small trade family. They also find a small chest in the back, containing 50 gold pieces. Ruyi finds the trading license and shows it to Lucién, who had heard the family name before: "Vallos". The child, now orphaned, is taken in by the party. Finn gives her the scarf he got from Kemmis to keep her warm. He asks Ruyi if she could make the child a scarf that'd actually fit her, but Ruyi tells him he could try to make it himself, so he does. It turns out horrid, and the child wishes to keep hold of the scarf he gave her before. Finn understands and turns his gaze forward, but the child grabs his finger. Finn looks to the others for guidance as he has no clue what to do, but Ruyi insists he walks with them, and so he does. After some walking, Finn asks Ruyi if people enjoy being carried. Ruyi says as a kid she did, and then hears Yfirge ask "Do you want to?" She becomes surprised and turns to him, but then realises he was talking to the kid. He places the child on his shoulders, and carries her around. After some more travelling, they reach one of the spots on the map that Frath had marked for them (see session nr.4). After replanting some of the herbs, they tread onward until the party begins to notice they are being followed by... Something. Ruyi asks the party that if it is hostile and human, if she could use some of the enemy's blood for her ritual. After some more walking, Demise on Dusts back notices something is in the bushes. Dust runs towards it and engages with; a dog. As the party is distracted by the canine however, they are approached from the back by what Finn had feared; A fully grown adult Morkeas. The creature had been following them all for days on end, waiting for the opportune time to strike. Swiftly the party engages, while Finn brings the child to safety. The creature grabs Lucién and holds him down, followed by the monster opening its icy shell to reveal its snaky mouth, a fiery breath shooting out. Dust runs up to counter it, but it grabs him as well. Dust however manages to get free and cut its claws multiple times, helping Lucien break free. Lucien creates a fire spear, and is able to strike it and melt away a good chunk. As Dust chips away at the beast, he manages to break off a big block of ice. As it breaks however, a gust of cold air comes out, which freezes him. The basilisk's head comes out of the hole and pierces him with its flaming glands, however as Dust is about to lose consciousness, he is surrounded by the flames, almost like an armour. "You're welcome" Demise says. Haarin then does his best to fend off the monster, but unfortunately the Morkaeas gets the best of him due to him still missing his armour. He falls unconcious. Ruyi calls out his name, and in rage fires off a large fiery chromatic orb digging deep into the monster's cold hull. Blast after blast are fired from Lucién and Ruyi, and combined with all the strikes from the blade masters, the Morkaeas eventually loses its balance and tumbles over, with its back to the ground and crabby legs to the sky. As they come over to inspect it however, they see the snake inside had begun burrowing down into the ground. Dust enters the shell and the hole, wanting to finish it off. Not willing to risk it striking from down below, Guy goes down after him. Ruyi stabilises Haarin, then also enters the tunnel. Seeing Guy go down on his own, Lucién goes in as well to save him. Finn noticing the monster is now underneath them, runs back to the child and lifts her back onto his shoulders, ready to dodge any attack from below. Dust manages to do a flip and land on the creature's head. He stabs it twice in the head with Demise. The creature blows out its dark smoke, then moves its head backwards, followed by a blast of fire through the entire hall. Ruyi falls, but Guy is able to resist it, and stabs the Morkaeas in its face. Lucién manages to strike the creature thrice with a Scorching Ray (as lightning). Dust throws the potion he has towards Lucién, motioning him to help Ruyi, then continues to jam his blade into the Morkaeas' skull. After getting pummelled, it manages to throw dust off and bits down into him, with blood emerging from the wound Demise left. As it attempts to swallow, guy punching down onto it. Lucién grabs the potion and uses it on Ruyi. She gets back up, and looks on as Lucién walks forward, turning his flame on again to light the cavern. With this, Guy is able to see again and gets a good few hits in, followed by Ruyi, now enraged with her eyes reddened, shrieking through the tunnel, which causes the walls to start shaking. She walks onto the ceiling, towards the monster. Outside Finn feels the trembling of the ground, and places the child down further up. He runs back and drags Haarin away from the entrance of the hole. Ruyi lets out another screech, which actually makes the Morkaeas retreat in fear of its life. It goes further back and then burrows downwards, with Guy jumping after it. The tunnel however, is beginning to crumble. Lucien yells out to Guy to return as the cave is crumbling, but is returned with an "arrgh!". Lucién jumps down and explodes in fire due to the fall causing him pain, then sees Guy with both hands deep into the Morkaeas' brain. Lucien scolds him for his recklessness. "aye, lets get you out of here". As the creature tries to get up, Guy plunges his claws deeper into it, killing it for good. They look up, now more than 100 feet down underground. "Do you think we have a chance?" Lucién asks. "To be honest kiddo, I don't know" Guy replies. He then pulls out a drink, and Lucien puts his back to the wall. Guy tries to climb up, but his claws sink through the loose dirt. Lucien takes a sip of his drink. They toast, then hug, as they realise this might be their end. Ruyi calls out to Finn, however he cant hear her. She hastes herself, and brings Dust to the surface, then walks back towards the hole. Finn runs over to grab Dust, and asks Ruyi where the others are. She tells him they're trapped, and says she'll try to save them. Down below, Lucien asks Guy what he asked Pink back at the Snowhill Founder Ruins. Guy tells him that if he makes it out, he should ask his dad about "The Wraith". Lucién knows a little about that name, as it belonged to someone who lived like a vigilante, an anonymous hero who took down evildoers back in Goldian. It was a big thing for a while, though recently he dissapeared. Lucién reassures him they'll both make it out alive. Ruyi is dashing downwards, able to keep her footing despite the very loose ground. She calls down towards the Goldians, telling them to hurry up as she throws down some rope to help them. Down below Lucien tells Guy to grab the rope first, but Guy orders him to fuck off with that and grab it himself. Lucien is pulled, and as Guy pushes him up, he spots that Guy was wearing a second pink bracelet. Lucién is pulled up and quickly turns around to throw the rope down again for Guy, but as he does, the roof right above the hole where Guy is begins to crumble, as a large set of dirt drops directly where guy would have been, burying him alive. Lucién calls out his name, and yells to Ruyi they need to save him. Ruyi however realises the gravity of the situation and grabs Lucién, carrying him to the exit. She is able to hold him down and pulls him outside, as Lucién yells to let him go. "He'd want you to live, this is better than both of you dying!" Ruyi yells, as she manages to reach the surface just in time. With Lucién calling out to his forsaken ally, they managed to escape the crumbling halls of the Morkaeas.
Demise: "You're not very helpful for someone with legs."
Report Date
28 Feb 2022
Primary Location
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