Ep 62: "Bluebarians"

The group went about their mornings before meeting up. Kali got up with Primeheart, listened to his dawn prayers, and went to her Dragon Mother shrine. She was working on instituting the Prime Pantheon within the city.

GB showed up to the Beer Forge early. It was packed. Cowboy and Cloaked Figure were sitting at their usual table. GB and Ivy caught up with each other and GB tried the new breakfast sushi. The Cowboy lured GB to him with pets and a bone, only to be surprised to find that GB talked. Their conversation stayed light and short.

Nathan spent the night with Mari. Nathan kissed Mari on the forehead that morning and then walked home. Cyl worked on an art project in her studio, painting a mural that had the word “heal” on it. Dub hung out with her. She also orchestrated Dub and her mother meeting (see downtime).

Nathan went to Cyl’s workshop to chat. Nathan told her that he lost his family’s company—his aunt and uncle sold it. Nathan expressed that he wasn’t as broken up by the sale of the business as he thought he would be. He had realized that the party was his real family now.

Dub drew a charcoal drawing of a monster-demon thing with long curved goat horns, pointed ears, a wide open mouth, and a terrifyingly lined or wrinkled face. He named it “Secrets.” It was significantly more detailed and lifelike than he normally sketched things. He did not remember drawing it when questioned afterward.

Pip was upset to find the Tomes of Transcription had been wiped in a ritual to re-bind them to the newly formed group. Oisin went to the Garden Keep, a nature temple, to explore what natural gods exist other than Quarra so he could try to find one that fit a little better. A man spoke to Oisin as they helped the man rake leaves. He pointed Oisin toward Malikki (nature, fertility, birth) and away from Belon (commerce). He also mentioned Golfimb (disease and plague), Atloxtli (arcana and tempest), Sulrayne (“Aegis of the Wood” over nature and war).

At the Beer Forge, Binxie appeared on the end of GB’s bone. Binxie informed GB that the Cowboy and the tiefling he was chatting with had gone after Nathan. Cyl showed the party the “Secrets” art and Nathan immediately reacted. Binxie said that it was their master, the King of Secrets, who VKTR had made a deal with. The party took it as a portent of the King of Secrets coming back to punish VKTR members. Oisin rushed the group back to Pinból’s to warn him.

Red showed up while the group was walking and took Pip’s arm. She answered some of their questions. Red was married to the Cowboy; she could cast spells; she didn’t know if she liked egg tubes; she didn’t really understand GB’s question about where her magic came from (nature, diety, books, blood, etc). They left her outside when they got to the Tower.

Mo came down to meet the the party and Oisin headed into the backdoor to go upstairs. Oisin explained Dub’s drawing and the King of Secrets. Pinból made a big deal of the fact that the door that Oisin came through didn’t have an alarm on it, though it should have, but didn’t need to be locked. Pinból requested that Oisin stay out of it if the King of Secrets showed up, because he did not want to risk harm coming to Oisin.

As Oisin walked back around the Tower, they saw a young, pale, petite woman dressed in all black with black hair. She introduced herself as “V.”  V asked for the opportunity to speak with Oisin’s friends: Cyl, Nathan, Primeheart, Pinból, Pesk, and someone she couldn’t remember the name of. Oisin didn’t want to invite her into Mo’s Tower, but V didn’t want to give up on speaking with Oisin’s friends. V seemed to agree to speak to Oisin’s friends at the Beer Forge and Oisin deftly avoided making any sort of deal beyond asking their friends .

Oisin returned inside Mo’s Tower and told everyone about the interaction. Nathan believed that V was the vessel, of the King of Secrets. Nathan pushed for the party to go to the Beer Forge to meet her. Oisin left to go back upstairs, following Pinból’s instruction to not get involved with the King of Secrets.

As soon as Oisin left, V appeared in an armchair inside the tower. She asked about how Nathan had been using Binxie. Nathan explained that Binxie was his own person and that Nathan merely asked Binxie to aid him. V told Nathan that he could get his prior familiars back as soon as he had earned it. V said that Binxie liked to heal people, which was a punishable offense for them. V told them that Pinból used to keep her in the closet hidden behind the closet , which she pointed to inside the tower.

He allegedly held her for a few years, 50+ years ago. He used her as a conduit to talk to the King of Secrets. Pip, GB, and Cyl all realized at the same time that V was Imelda, though Pip didn’t specifically remember her name. Imelda summoned a Nocturne through the tower door.

Imelda was intangible. Pip jumped onto the Nocturne to hold it in place, with GB helping with a hold person. Pinból cast Disintegrate on the Nocturne. Imelda tried to block it with Counterspell and GB used the same spell to block her. Pinból eventually got the spell off. Cyl pulverized bone inside the Nocturne’s armor through the dusted portion. Kali climbed the Nocturne to spew lighting in through its helmet, then jumped off, and landed blows on the armor as she launched herself off. Oisin threw the Nocturne out of the tower. Nathan stalked after it as it slid away. He held his hands against the armor and released a Burning Hands spell. Mo freaked out chucking various melee weapons around ineffectually from a closet of weapons. The Nocturne grabbed at Kali’s chest, piercing it and took hold of her clavicle. Imelda somehow exploded the Nocturne and the party was thrown back.

As the party woke up from their brief bout of unconsciousness, they assessed their injuries. GB had a broken paw. Cyl had a piece of Nocturne armor embedded inside of her and it was sure to leave a painful scar. Oisin had a piece of the torso armor hit them in the head, causing a concussion and a fractured skull. Pip had his shield shattered into two pieces. Kali received a minor scar that was permanent. Nathan  had a large thing hit him and cause his hip to have a massive, purple bruise. He was nauseous and the immediacy of the bruise indicated a possibility of internal bleeding. He also received a permanent scar. Pinból had a piece of armor sticking out of his chest, piercing a lung. It would have to be removed before he could be healed.

Imelda was gone.

GB cast Fly on Kali and laid out two healing potions. Oisin grabbed a healing potion as well. Pip pulled the piece of armor from Pinbol. Kali rushed to the Goa ship to look for Cyl’s mother.

Kali flew to the Goa ship in the harbor at top speed. The entire ship was made of eirshale. She was met by very odd looking Goa who demanded shew halt. She requested to see Cyl’s mother. She was able to convince Eiress Kyne pretty quickly that Cyl was badly injured and needed her mother’s help.

Eiress Kyne teleported Kali and herself to Cyl. Eiress Kyne was slightly annoyed at the rushing around, since no one was close to death when she got there. Eiress Kyne expressed kindly “These people are corrupting you.” She also objected to Cyl referring to “we” when discussing the sentimentality of removing the Nocturne armor because of the nature of the Nocturne.

The group split up to go and recover. GB walked with Nathan to Mari’s place to sleep. Cyl and Eiress Kyne teleported back to the Goa ship to get Cyl’s shrapnel removed. Kali went back to her shrine and then to Primeheart’s camp to sleep. Oisin went upstairs to be with Pinból. Pinból said V/ Imelda did not look anything like the Imelda he had known.