Ep 28: "Brownies and Bootycalls"

GB and Lark spent their morning fishing together and came up with an idea for how Seldanna might be able to use her power over the Nocturne. Essentially, they thought she might be able to tell them to jump off a cliff, thereby destroying them. They wrote this idea into the Tome before they headed to the Beer Forge. Cyl talked with the Maestro about possibly getting Lark a painting job. Meanwhile, Pesk worked at the Divine Foundry and wondered about her new lizardfolk friend, Mezri.

Oisin spent the morning moving things around the tower and attempted to speak with Trey again, but to no effect. His frustration made his efforts go very poorly. Trey even swung at him. Oisin managed to get Trey out the door of the room and yelled out to Mo to get Pinbòl. While waiting for him, Oisin finally got Trey to speak. Oisin revealed that he thought of Trey as family, due to their connection with the Nocturne. Trey seemed to not understand family at first, but eventually accepted that Oisin didn’t want to fight him. Trey listed off the other people he thought Oisin meant as family. He included the members of the party that Trey knew and Pinbòl. Trey also mentioned remembering Aislyn, mountains, a witch, and a troll. Mo burst in and immediately started screaming about Trey being awake. Pinbòl finally showed up to make sure Oisin was safe, which by that point he was. Pinbòl left them to their chit-chat and Oisin eventually left to meet the rest at the Beer Forge.

As everyone arrived at the Beer Forge, they saw Rosie performing with Swazi dancing to the music. At the end of the performance, Swazi landed near Rosie and she poured glitter all over him. Glitter. Got. Everywhere.

Pesk and GB talked about his relationship with Ivy and he explained that they were somewhat like step-siblings — close enough to want to spend holidays together, but not close enough to have long talks frequently. This reminded GB of Matthias’ farm and he talked to Ivy about the slim possibility that Matthias might be Hobbes. She didn’t think it was possible and told him so, but agreed to go out and meet Matthias just in case.

The group also discussed new information on who the Handmaids of the Cord, which Juveha professed to be, actually were. They had learned that four or five generations ago, there was a small attempted coup inside the king’s staff. The queen’s handmaids heard about the attempt and trained to be able to protect themselves and the queen. They successfully foiled the coup and continued on as an organization for one or two more generations. It hadn’t been around since. Juveha had declared herself to be a Handmaid of the Cord and so, was Seldanna’s protector.

Then a human and an elf in dark trench coats, dark gloves, and heavy boots entered the Beer Forge.  They were dressed in the same clothes as the spider garb worn by the men from Matthias’ farm. The party exited, one or two at a time, and slowly in order to speak with Afra and then look for the new goa.

On the ferry that went toward the Divine Foundry, the party discussed Tybalt and why he stole Pinbòl’s ring. They decided to go see Tybalt to talk to him at some point soon and spent time chatting and catching up.

Suddenly, a pillar of light appeared, rocked the ferry, and lifted the back of the ship. Cyl ran toward the sinking front of the ship as GB vaulted off, concerned about being sucked under by the pull of the boat. Cyl found a perfect sphere of boat missing with water filling quickly. Lark, Cyl, and Pesk quickly worked toward getting the  lifeboats deployed for the passengers. A large black object flew through the sky and turned out to be a Nocturne with gunmetal silver trim and the King’s symbol on its chest.

Pesk, Cyl, and Lark saw the Nocturne use magic to cobble together furniture, tools, cooking utensils, and other debris into a patch for the boat. As Cyl began to leave, she noticed the Nocturne reach into a panel in, or under, its arm and bubbles violently shot out of it to quickly remove the water from the ship. The ship righted itself with help from the Nocturne’s magic and, as it slammed its hands together, it removed water from around it.

Lark tried to drive the ship to shore but couldn’t figure out how any of it worked. Rosie and Oisin took a life-vessel together away from the ferry and noticed a dirty-looking cloaked figure. It was short in stature, but adorned with very expensive and very clean boots. Rosie intrusively stuck her head under the hood and saw a gnomish woman with gorgeous eyes. They spoke and the woman, who was attempting to be discrete, rather politely rejected Rosie’s inquiries. Though she did admit to attempting to hide as a cold, unhappy passenger. The mysterious woman tried to cease further interaction.

The nocturne actually responded to Cyl, Pesk, and Lark vocally and removed her helmet. She was middle-aged with brown hair and delicate features. She walked over to the life preservers on the back and found a mark on the ship—four horizontal lines with a single vertical mark. She identified it as “the mark of the five,” a terrorist cell, according to her. GB dubbed her “Amy” and  Amy said that she was built by her “father,” also known as the Keysmith. GB tried to confront Amy with his belief that the King caused this ferry disaster in order to be able to fix it as a dazzling display of the new Nocturne type. Amy acted as if she didn’t understand his implication and flew away.

Rosie was approached by the gnomish woman she’d confronted. The woman revealed that Amy was the only Nocturne that could remember. The gnome also drew on Rosie’s hand the mark of the five and said that Rosie could call her Daisy. Though she was upfront that it was not her real name. “Daisy” implied that, if she had been found by the Nocturne, the entire ferry’s population would have died.

The party arrived at the Divine Foundry to speak to Afra and met Mezrelokk. He was a large blue lizardfolk with teal scaling on his head and wore a toga. GB made friends by asking Mezrelokk to use his deep voice to rumble GB’s chest. Mezrelokk greeted Cyl by complimenting the great painter she was and he invited Pesk on a date to the theater and dinner. He also tried to be considerate of her possible safety concerns and asked if she wanted to take an escort. She declined the escort, but agreed to the date. Mezri dubbed the party Pesk’s adopted clutch and they agreed to meet back up at the Divine Foundry in an hour. and he departed. As he departed, his eyes lingered on Pesk.

Oisin asked Afra about Aislyn, but Afra wouldn’t say anything until Oisin told her how he learned that name. Afra told them that Trey and Aislyn did spend time together, but wouldn’t give much information about her.

Afra warned Oisin to be cautious with Trey due to his power and that they should not move Trey out of the room in Pinbòl’s tower. Afra offered to try to find a copy of Trey’s commands. She theorized that the time Aislyn spent with Trey had grown his intellectual capabilities and, therefore, what his abilities allowed him to do. After Aislyn disappeared, Trey’s abilities were reduced. Afra also warned Oisin that Trey would borrow the life-force of the person controlling it if Trey’s health was threatened.

The group decided to call it a day and went off to their own activities. GB went to make a pie for Ivy. Cyl went to where the Goa were living and found nothing but a broken-down husk of what was once the building. She returned to Pinbòl’s tower to make brownies for Lark. Lark had gone back to his tent at the tower and Mo agreed to have a party, but insisted that it be a costume party. As Lark was pitching his tent, he heard Jastra’s voice. She invited him over and added a sad sounding “please.” Cyl provided Lark with some brownies as he left.

Oisin went back to Pinbòl’s and, after he told Pinbòl about Pesk’s date, they both went off to the Olive Grove to spy on their lizardfolk friend. Rosie attempted to hunt down Tyrell.