Ep 45: "Aloha"
Pesk felt heartbroken and betrayed after learning that the VKTR members had been the real culprits of the atrocities 17 years before. Her worst fears about what to expect from people that weren’t lizardfolk had, seemingly, been confirmed. She packed up all her things and went to see Mezri. She asked him if she could leave Cinderhaven with the Rekuma Tribe and he admitted that he didn’t really have a job in town. He had pulled strings to be able to stay for a couple weeks more to be with her. She made sure to say goodbye to Primeheart and wrote a note to those she did not see before she left with Mezri. She also sent a letter to Afra before leaving:
Owen had spent a lot of the time in the Dawn District. He consolidated the hospital supplies and the new guard into one spot. People kept stealing things so he had to post guards and having everything in one spot was a lot easier. He also worked himself to exhaustion, and he even fell asleep standing up in the clinic. He was attempting to keep both the hospital and the district going. During the first week after everything happened, Holly told him that the clinic was seeing fewer incidents of Nightmare overdoses. A little before Renaris 7, he talked with Holly about the changes that had occurred since the King’s death almost two weeks before. Some changes were good and some created problems for the newly established district. Owen said it was like having to re-break a leg in order to reset it, and hope that it heals better the second time around.
Owen gathered together the people with influence in the Dawn District to discuss working together to keep things going. He spoke to them about trying to make the district thrive rather than just having the people survive. He urged them to make it a real district and not just a place where they all barely got by. There was no large reaction at the time, but people seemed to be actively working to solve disputes more peacefully, policing each others, and talked about redistributing land/territory more evenly.
Saxi went to see Pinból a few hours after everything happened. There was no sign of Mo. Saxi found him working at the desk in his lab. Pinból admitted that he knew the group was aware of the truth about VKTR and the King. Jastra had warned him she was going to tell the party and he had agreed that she should. Saxi assured him that she did not hate him and was not writing him off, but needed time to think. She admitted that, of everyone in the group, she and Oisin were uniquely suited to understand what it was like not to know your past. The difference was that Pinból was having to come to terms with his. Pinból asked her what she would do if she suddenly got back her memories, and discovered she had been a horrible person that did awful things. She told him that she would spend her time trying to atone for her past. Much like he was with all his efforts for Cyl.
Saxi asked him if he had known that Afra infected Cyl on purpose. He’d had no idea and even asked why Afra would do such a thing. Saxi told him that it had been to get Pinból to help find the cure. He stopped, looked slowly around the lab that filled with his efforts to find a cure, and admitted that Afra had been right. It did make him work on it.
Saxi asked him to tell her the name of the Keysmith, or at least whatever name they knew him by before. He was afraid to tell her. He said that the oath to the demon had already been broken by Tyrell and he was afraid that, if he spoke the Keysmith’s name, the demon would come for him.
He wanted to speak with Jastra first, so Saxi had to tell him that Jastra might be dead. He told Saxi his concerns instead. Every time he thought of the name he heard the demon’s voice in his head and it terrified him. He promised that he would tell her if he could bring himself to say the name. She asked him about scrying for Mo as she left.
Rosie went to speak with Daisy about things that had happened and whether the Five were still active in town. They talked about being friends now that the issue between their two groups was gone. Rosie felt bad about withholding the truth from her new friend, and admitted that the party had been the ones to steal the crate from the Five. Daisy, in turn, admitted that the leaders of The Five had left town to work on a project elsewhere. She was only going to be called on if needed. Daisy also asked about Finkoo. She had thought he was cute when the party was raiding the Five’s safe house. Rosie also told Daisy that she wanted to find some property and Daisy told her that she knew someone who might be able to help. They met with Daisy’s realtor friend.
Yoth was upset that he had not gotten a chance to really prove himself to the others before everything happened. He spent a good portion of the two weeks drinking and taking Nightmare. Toward the end of the two weeks, he took so much Nightmare that he came close to overdosing. Zreet found him and took him to a safe house to finish coming down from the high and sober up. When he woke, he thanked her and also apologized for naming her when Aldion had tested him.
She admitted that, had he named anyone else, Aldion probably would have killed him. He also asked her to apologize to Aldion for him.
They discussed the fact that there are too many people in town and not enough money coming in to support them. He admitted that he had nothing now and that he wanted to stay in Cinderhaven. He wanted to help. He still sought power, but now he also wanted to seek power for the group as a whole and not just himself. They discussed his addiction to the Nightmare and he told her that it had to do with assuaging a need that his people had. The Nightmare was a substitute. She offered him alcohol instead and took his vial of the red drug.
Nathan checked on Tybalt to make sure he was alright and offer support if it was needed. He spent much of the two weeks adjusting to a decrease in funds, now that the king was not commissioning maps. He wrote a letter to his uncle, filling him in on the situation and assured him that Nathan was doing what he could to uphold the family name and business. He also had a talk with his new familiar, Binxie. Or, Mr. Binx, as he had told Nathan to call him.
Nathan had already gotten acquainted with the fact that Binxie was a bit of a complainer and did not like having to walk everywhere. Nathan asked why his patron had sent Binxie to him. Binxie pointed out that Nathan had not been appreciative of the gifts he was given. He asked Binxie if Mags not coming back had been meant as a punishment and Binxie confirmed it. Binxie also pointed out that all the tattoos, which Nathan had received over the years, had been his patron’s way of telling him to “get his ass in gear” and learn his powers. Nathan argued that, it was so vague a message, he had not understood and Binxie reminded him that the patron was not necessarily going to spell it out for him.
Finally, Nathan asked if Binxie had been sent as a message from the patron. Binxie said that he had been sent as a punishment. He also let slip that Nathan’s patron was known to be a “secret keeper.”
Kali came to the city after the fall, literal and figurative, of the Vampire King. She had been part of a monastic group that worshipped the Dragon Mother, but had lost faith in the group’s way of worship. She still had her faith, but did not feel their organization was right for her anymore. She was drawn to Cinderhaven by her friend, and fellow monk, Eriss.
He had written to her about the town and that a Queen had given him an apartment. He invited Kali to come stay with him when she left her order. She arrived in town and he greeted her warmly as he offered her a place to stay in town. They talked briefly about her wanting to look for her own truth, rather than the one told to her by the leaders of her former order. Eriss said he wanted to introduce her to a half-elf named Aldion. He felt that Aldion, and the people he worked with, could use an even tempered person like her.
She went with Eriss to meet Adion at the Tea Garden and they hit it off right away. Aldion told her about an amazing group of people who could use some new blood that was not “broken” by recent events. The group needed a morale boost and Kali agreed that she could help with that.
At the Beer Forge around midday on Renaris 7th, was the first time that a lunch meetup happened after the downfall of the king. Members of the Phoenix Dawn had been in and out during that last two weeks, but no large groups had gathered. When Saxi walked in, Rosie was on the stage and Yoth was disguised sitting at the table. Ivy asked Saxi about GB and Saxi admitted that she knew GB was alive because of the books, but had not seen him herself. This made Ivy feel better and she asked Saxi to let GB know that Ivy wanted to see him.
Since he was disguised, Saxi did not recognize Yoth at first and started to politely ask him to leave the “Rezerved” table. He dropped the disguise briefly and seemed to actively be trying to be pleasant, so Saxi proposed they start over and reintroduced herself. Nathan arrived with Binxie and met Yoth for the first time. Saxi also met Binxie for the first time.
After Owen got there, the group talked more and Yoth asked Owen if he had experience dealing with drug addiction patients. Yoth asked for help with his problem and Owen agreed to help, as long as Yoth would volunteer a few hours a week to be in the guard in Dawn District. Rosie came to the table and told the group about her meeting with Daisy. Nathan was visibly displeased by the idea of being friendly with anyone from The Five.
Aldion walked into the bar with a female half-orc in tow. They greeted Ivy and then joined the party at the table. He introduced her as Kali and let them know that she would be joining their group. Kali said that she was from a nowhere town up north which she had left when she got tired of following orders and dealing with the hypocrisy. Aldion told the group that the city was trying to put together a District Council to get things running again. It would have one representative from each district.
Kali asked if the temples would be involved and the group had to explain that there were not really any temples to speak of. She was confused and asked about the forge clerics and started asking about temples to the old gods. Saxi, being from a very different culture herself, realized that it must be due to cultural differences that Kali’s people still followed the old gods. She explained, briefly, why there were no temples in town.
The group decided to go to the Chalice and headed out of the bar. Across the street, the realtor that Daisy knew was beckoning to Rosie. His name was Elton and he had found a good property for Rosie. It was just down the road and had movers carrying boxes outside. The woman who owned it was named Lorna and she was leaving town.All she wanted was for someone to keep up the building maintenance in exchange for leasing the building. There would be no rent. She gave Rosie the keys as she left.
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