Ep 86: "Skip a Beat"

Fimaris 14, 1199

Morning

Kali spent the morning having tea with Vasafra. Saxi checked on Seldanna like she had been. Seldanna expressed her interest in going to see Earl, but she didn’t want to go alone. Saxi agreed to go with her and they left for the Birchfield ship with Juveha in tow.
Pip had decided that he wanted to work on a group of food carts. It would be a tube network, because the egg tube crucibles were easy to transport. He looked for a craftsman that could build the carts to his specifications. He wanted 3 crucibles with burners and an insulated section to keep ingredients cold.
Finkoo worked at the Greasers’ Union and then went looking for Rosie. He wanted to check on her and see how she was doing after the recent news about Haley. She was still not feeling like herself when he found her wandering around Barrel Run, she wasn’t even up to cause some mischief. He walked with her and kept her company until she went to work at the Beer Forge.

Birchfield Seekers’ Ship

Chibs greeted Saxi, Seldanna, and Juveha as they got to the ship. He threw down the ladder and sent word to the captain that they were there. Maerryl greeted them and seemed to be in better spirits than a few days before. Seldanna and Juveha introduced themselves, then the group explained that they had come to see Earl. Maerryl went to speak with Earl to make sure he was willing to see them and came back a few minutes later. Earl had agreed to see them.
Maerryl lead them down to the officers’ quarters and to a closed door. Seldanna took a deep breath before she knocked on the door and Earl called out for them to enter. Seldanna walked in, while Saxi waited near the open door and Juveha chatted with Chibs, who was standing guard in the hallway. Earl was next to a stove, seeming to still be in a little pain as he moved carefully with a cane.
Earl said that he missed Seldanna and he was glad to see her. He understood why she had killed him before and why she had believed him to be evil. He forgave her and asked if she could forgive him for what mistakes he had made.

Seldanna said that he didn’t have anything to apologize for and that she was sorry for what she had done. He said he wasn’t, because he was not a vampire anymore and he was truly himself again. He said that he wished he had told her the truth before, but he hadn’t known what she would believe.
Seldanna admitted that her guilt brought her to him rather than a desire to see him. He stated bluntly that he didn’t want her pity or her guilt. An awkward silence was broken, when Seldanna acknowledged the black gauntlet on the table and said she was sorry about Amy. As she turned to leave, he asked if she would come back again and she admitted that she wasn’t sure.
Saxi squeezed Seldanna’s hand as she passed by, a silent reassurance that Seldanna had done well even though it was hard. Saxi hung back for a moment and gave Earl the holy book that had belonged to Helia. She had gotten it from Nyx a few days earlier and felt that Earl should have the book that had belonged to his long time friend, confidant, and spiritual advisor. He thanked her and Saxi told him that he could let the group know if he needed company or to talk. They knew the whole truth, something that very few did, and were around if he needed them.

The Beer Forge

Rosie was performing in the Beer Forge with Daisy and Finkoo cheering her on. Kali and Pip came in a little later, discussing different ideas for the tube carts and tube products. They were still discussing food when Seldanna, Saxi, and Juveha came in later.
Finkoo, seeing her again for the first time, got up and hugged Seldanna. Both being rather uncomfortable with the display, it was a short hug, but they were happy to see each other. The group chatted and discussed what to do for that day.
The adventuring guilds were mentioned and Kali said she wanted to speak with Cyl first. The group agreed that Cyl should be consulted, especially since the Sub Rosarium option seemed to be favored by most of the group. As this discussion continued, Cyl walked in and joined them. They chatted for a while longer and also discussed Mo’s upcoming party on Friday night.
Daisy mentioned that she was looking at joining one of the Steel Syndicate groups and had also been approached by a private group. Though she wouldn’t say which one.
Cyl said she didn’t want to hold the group back from joining with Vasafra’s offer, but she did have questions. Kali told them that Vasafra had mentioned feeling upset that the group avoided her and Cyl admitted that she was not worried about Vasafra anymore. Cyl had realized that she would be around a lot longer than Vasafra and didn’t want to waste time worrying about old grudges.
The group tried to figure out what else to do and Cyl mentioned wanting to talk with First and the other New Goa. No one knew what they had been doing all this time, so she was curious and optimistically hopeful. They decided to go to Kali’s temple, since it was in the Temple District where they had last been seen, and start looking into the New Goa.
As they got ready to leave, the door opened and Mo came in. He had a bag full of envelopes which were sealed with a custom seal that looked like Mo’s eye. He was inviting everyone he had ever met, but so far only 2 people had said yes. The group assured him that most of them would be able to make it and he handed out their invitations before leaving to hand out the rest.

Temple District

The party got to Kali’s temple and discovered 96 Nocturne helmets all throughout the temple with the undead heads still inside. On the far wall there was an 8 foot stylized spider, clearly a message from The Cylinder. Kali was understandably upset by the defiling of her temple.
Cyl and Saxi immediately started gathering the helmets while Pip went outside to look for soft earth to dig up, so that they could bury the heads properly. After Pip came back in, the group heard two clicks and then the temple was filled with fire. Two trenchcoat wearing individuals had fired at the group through the windows and taken off running. The group was able to defeat the two Cylinder members and then inspected their equipment. Finkoo and Pip both grabbed the cloaks which appeared to be Cloaks of Displacement and they grabbed the guns as well. When Finkoo grabbed one of the guns, it felt strange and he had an odd desire to not hand it over for Seldanna to Identify it. He wanted to give it to her to look at, but also did not at the same time.
Pip picked up the other gun and felt a strange tingle go up his arm. His skin in the area where a bracer would normally be had darkened in some sort of design or pattern, but it was obscured by his fur. Kali and the others worked on cleaning up the temple, while Seldanna cast Identify and Finkoo stayed near her.
The magic on the gun was chaotic. It had multiple types of magic and each piece of the gun was enchanted individually. It could cast different spells, but the arcane marks were not ones she recognized. She could also tell that it might be dangerous, for someone who didn’t understand it fully, to actually fire it.
Seldanna realized that the gun was extremely dangerous, with some sort of hold on Finkoo, and cast Dispel Magic on it. She was able to get rid of some of the magic on it, but Finkoo was still affected.They debated whether to speak with Vasafra about the guns and decided to look into the New Goa first since they were in the Temple District already. They found out that the New Goa left for the guildsman district a couple weeks prior.

Guildsman District

In the Guildsman’s District, they learned that the New Goa bought a cart from someone and left town to go to the north to the mountains of Cinderhaven. They had purchased mining gear and were going to “carve out a place of their own”. The merchant also told the group that there were about a dozen of the New Goa that had left town.
Cyl asked Seldanna if she could cast Sending to communicate with Al and sent a message :

“Hope you are well. Cyl would like to see you. If amenable, where are you in the mountains? Thank you.”

Al responded:

“Hello Seldanna, it’s been so long. We miss all of you very much. We’d be glad for some of you to come and visit. Just look for our symbol.”

After that, the group headed to the Divine Foundry to speak with Vasafra.

The Divine Foundry

Kali went up to see if Vasafra was able to meet with everyone in the conference room. Vasafra came downstairs and asked Cyl if they could talk. They walked over to a corner to speak to each other and Vasafra admitted that she often let her work get in the way of people. She didn’t like that she did it, but work was all she felt she had left.
Vasafra said that she had seen an opportunity to get Pinból on her side and made a poor judgement. She admitted that she really did like most of the people in the group and felt bad about what happened. She said that she would have taken Cyl to the boat lift anyway, because Cyl wanted to go, but she took her for the wrong reasons. She also admitted that the boat lift wouldn’t have turned if she had not taken Cyl there to become infected. She apologized to Cyl for what she had done.
Cyl said she appreciated the apology and chose to move forward rather than focus on the past. They chatted a bit and Vasafra said that she might go back to Afra, it was what her parents had called her. Cyl asked Afra for help with dealing with the Nocturne helmets and they agreed to “Make something pretty out of all the ugly”. Afra offered to teach Cyl how to work with metal if she wanted to learn and they shook hands.
Afra admitted that she had the tendency to push people away and to say things that would push them away, because it was easier. She wanted to stop that though. With the portal closed she didn’t know how long she had left. She felt weaker and older than ever before and she didn’t want the church to be empty the day she died.
They came back and spoke with everyone else in the conference room. The party asked Afra about the eirshale projects and she explained that the Sub Rosarium felt that their future was to work with eirshale. They had no current eirshale projects, but they might be working with only eirshale in the future. She also told the group that the Sub Rosarium knew of 3 veins of eirshale. One was in the mountains 3 weeks away, one far to the north, and one in the Undermyst. Cyl asked if she could talk to her people about coming to an agreement regarding the eirshale and Afra said that she hoped they could maybe work together in some way.
Afra admitted that Aurum was a bit crazy. He had told her that he felt that his ability to merge eirshale was holy and the Goa who added bronze to themselves were blasphemous. She was happy to not have to deal with him more than necessary.
The Sub Rosarium would be willing to trade larger pieces to the Goa in exchange for the small pieces left over from making more Goa. She did admit that they might introduce new mining techniques in that future that would result in no more large pieces. The Goa would need to make a deal quickly though.
Afra wanted to make sure that the Sub Rosarium didn’t wrong anyone, but she only had so much control over that and wanted the group to know. There was a strong feeling of tradition in the current Sub Rosarium, so if the Goa established a relationship with the Sub Rosarium now, they would be more likely to upkeep good relations later. Things would move forward with or without the Goa, but getting a good relationship going now could help the Goa create a couple hundred more Goa over the next few decades.
Pip asked Afra if she was going to Mo’s party and the group told her that she should go. Pip then showed Afra the gun and asked her about it. Afra responded by leaning out the door and calling out “Code Red!” People showed up and blocked the door as she asked the group what had happened earlier and they filled her in on the ambush. A priest with a special box came in and had two vials with him as well. They had Holy Water in them and Afra offered them to Pip and Finkoo, who drank them readily.
The desire to hold onto the weapon faded from Finkoo for a moment and he happily handed it over. The others left the room with the guns and after a few minutes the desire to have the gun came back. Afra asked for the coats next and they handed them over.
She said that the guns had originally been designed by the Sub Rosarium. They were designed to be desired and wanted, but once they took hold of someone the person would be controlled by the weapons. She recommended avoiding the guns in the future and that Pip’s tattoo would fade in 2-3 days.
Afra said that the Sub Rosarium was looking into creating a public face and showed the group a mini scale version of the guildhall that the Afra said that the Sub Rosarium was looking into creating a public face wanted to build for the group. It was in the Guildsman’s District, in an older building that would be renovated. It would be three stories tall with the first floor for socializing, the second for housing, and the third for training. They had made it incredibly detailed and had even fabricated little figurines of each member of the party, including the familiars and animal companions. Afra let Cyl have the miniature guildhall so that she could paint it.

To Do List

• Go see the “new” Goa in the mountains
• Make a decision about the offer to form a guild sponsored by the Sub Rosarium.
• Possibly look into Ash to find out more about the Champion.
• Look into the Keysmith.
• Find the components for unicorn horn wand.
• Investigate the goliath city in the mountains.

Broadcast Date

December 18, 2018

Party

Saxi , Seldanna , Kali , Cyl , Finkoo , Pip , Rosie

NPCs

• Vasafra
• Juveha
• Daisy
• Ivy Gilgrim
• Chibs
• Maerryl de la Vez
• King Earl Goodsbury
• Mo the Modron
• The Bonded Goa

Locations

• Arasys Estate
• Barrel Run
• The Birchfield Seekers Ship
• Temple District
• Guildsman's District
• Lightsmiths, The Divine Foundry