Session 24
Fact sheet: surprises in Yaruda & on The Spine
Players present: Ecchima, Marty, Meinhart, Tuur and Vinnie. Dins was our GM.
Date: 05-07-23
Date in-universe: we went to bed in Yaruda on Thursday night
Major developments:
- Fyllion saved us from continuing the fight by spending 100 gold
- Gladiola appears humbled and reassured by our loyalty: she revealed
- Her magical powers
- The true nature of Chalcedony
- Her agreement with the Weavers who oppose yet another war, further complicating Ezra’s position
- Her grandfather’s decision to fight on the Kharkhorin side in the previous war, because of his connection to a magical academy in Kharkhorin (the only magical academy in the world?)
- Her suspicions that Nargyle (the headmaster of the magical academy at the time & the advisor to the Kharkhorin king who pushed for the war 50 years ago) was a paid agitator, since her (very well-connected) grandfather had never heard of him & since her own research into Nargyle didn't bring any results
- Ezra repeated Captain Magpie’s strategy of intimidation and bluffing so we can avoid killing as much as possible. Surprisingly, it was El(drin) who needed the reminder most of all. Was it really only 19 days ago that they thought someone exclaiming “fucking sand” meant that person desired fornication with the desert??
- We found Yaruda empty & Baaloo very worried, probably by the cluster of fleshy vines and veiny roots that look filled with blood and appear to suck up all the water and moisture out of the forest
- We met Bella Swan
- We saw The Wandering Isle slam into The Spine in the middle of the night
Previously: session 23 a gilded blade in the dark
Next: session 25 worlds collide, with Virgil and Eluviel and körperwelten
Notes
On the way to Yaruda, in the middle of the night, the fight between the Gilded Blade's bandits led by Satine and Sahir and our crew continues. Gladiola is clearly panicked by the idea of someone taking her strongbox: she even revealed her magic in order to save Chalcedony.
- El(drin) casts healing light, followed by an El(drin) blast. It rips off the bandit's arm & he dies in the bushes.
- the bandit and his hawk are shocked by our resistance, but it only strengthens his resolve. He shoots his crossbow at El(drin). It hits El(drin) who responds with hellish rebuke. The bandit on the scorpion figures his beast has Storm in his claws & swings blindly with a wicked looking dagger. He misses! Sahir attacks Storm and rams his blade between Storm's shoulder blades, with a grunted question why we’re fighting for a “bourgeois whore from the North" when we’ve clearly all chosen the fringes of society. Storm pretends to faint, but the scorpion isn't fooled! The last bandit figures Hali summoned that moonbeam, so she shoots at Hali! She repeats Sahir's offer of a deal: she aims at Hali's legs, clearly offering to spare us.
- Aqueel sees the lioness stalking Gladiola & launches a jet of water from our barrel onto the giant cat! The lioness is pushed away from Gladiola, and Aqueel hurries over to cling to Gladiola, staring wide-eyed at the fight. Chalcedony jumps down from the cart where Gladiola’s transportation spell deposited her & takes position in front of Gladiola. Gladiola draws another sigil in the air & draws Storm away from the scorpion and puts him on the carpet, which is still flying towards Hali. When Storm gasps his thanks, the carpet curls over a corner to pat him kindly.
- Fyllion's beautiful Arch Fey trickery changes his voice to Satine's voice and calls out to Sahir: the beautiful Elven guy has his blade on my throat, please call everyone off! Thanks to a NATURAL TWENTY, Sahir totally buys it.
- Storm asks the carpet to return to Sahir. He dive-bombs on top of Sahir, with stomping damage & fall damage (for a NATURAL SIX). Sahir is looking very bad. Storm asks the carpet to head over to Hali.
- Ezra shoots the bandit who's trying to hide in the bushes, despite the fairy fire. They manage to pierce the bandit's shoulder, rendering him unable to use his crossbow. Ezra joins Gladiola, who's instinctively protecting Aqueel
- The lion jumps back out of the moonbeam with a yelp and swipes and bites at El(drin) with a NATURAL TWENTY. Then it runs away from the moonbeam. The vulture attacks Fyllion with a NATURAL TWENTY but only does a NATURAL ONE damage. Fyllion squeals in pain, still in Satine's voice. The lioness decides to pounce at Ezra: there can only be one! But its leap misses & Ezra can pick a new position. The scorpion stabs at Storm 3 times, but with a gargouillade he manages to dance out of the way every time!
- Hali taunts "pick on someone your own size" but Storm is as tall as the scorpion. She still throws a guiding bolt on the scorpion. She also looses a starry arrow. Blood starts to drip out of the plate-joints of the scorpion's exoskeleton. Hali takes a new position.
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1. El(drin) launches an El(drin) blast with a NATURAL TWENTY and adds a lance of lethargy, limited the lion's future movements. El(drin) hides between some rocks.
2. Sahir growls more threats at Storm & then turns to the other bandits "hold on, let's talk first - no one else needs to die, especially not this one (with his blade on pointed at Storm)".
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Ezra leads the negotiations, pointing out we've got Satine as a hostage, with a NATURAL TWENTY for their intimidation! Sahir lowers his dagger: "let's just gather around the campfire, we'll exchange Satine and Storm, and we'll talk - I'm offering you 10% of the sapphires"
Fyllion drags Satine over, while Gladiola whispers to Ezra: "I don't have any sapphires, I packed the strongbox full of spell books! Please don't sell me out"!
Hali asks the carpet to pick up the unconscious bandit.
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The negotiations start:
- Sahir insists the Gilded Blade is just looking to survive, and he's got us pegged as similarly self-serving scum. Shouldn't we just band together?
- Ezra: our word is our bond, we can’t abandon lady Faraday
- Fyllion: I'll pay you 100 gold to leave us be & spread the word that the prince of the Spring Court is generous beyond measure
A beat of silence. Everyone gives Fyllion a criminally offensive side eye, can you believe this guy? Sahir looks at his battered crew & with a sigh, he accepts. He also promises he'll keep hush about our magic use.
El(drin) offers to bury the killed bandit. Sahir grits his teeth in anger, but he prefers to take the body with him. Ezra asks the carpet for help again. Seeing the state of the body, they all realize how badly this fight could have gone. The scorpion prepares to carry its colleague home.
With a sneer, Sahir advises us to be less trusting of strangers. He implies some unsavoury things about Fyllion, is there anything he wouldn’t do for or solve with money? Surprisingly, it’s El(drin) who explains the subtext that Sahir just called Fyllion a whore. With a grin, Fyllion shrugs he’d probably be great at that. He’s never gotten any complaints when he takes a fan backstage. Heh, “takes”.
Flustered, Gladiola hurries to compliment him that he’s also great at negotiating. Ezra seizes the chance to forcefully remind us Captain Magpie taught us our strategy is to frighten our enemies instead of just killing them! Fyllion nods in El(drin)’s direction: “what happened to the person who put others to sleep with me”? Ezra compounds the stark reminder by mentioning how El(drin) got upset over even the idea of handing over Saatia to the justice system in Koh’Shar… El(drin) simply shrugs it off: “either way, I told you so, they were bad news”.
We squabble for a while, luckily Storm keeps an eye out that the Gilded Blade is really leaving. We start to patch each other up, Gladiola treats her wounds and thanks us again, she didn't expect such loyalty.
Ezra: “you can rely on 2 things, honour and family, so our crew is the family we honour”
Gladiola explains she's not carrying gemstones, she fled south when the conscriptions started (with her grandfather's spell books and her own) because she is the heir to the Faraday magic. She’s the first lapidarist in 2 generations who’s able to cut diamonds and gemstones with magic. Now she's travelling north again because the crown is bleeding her family dry. She feels she needs to support her mother. After all, what use is an heir to a family empire if there’s no family business left?
Fyllion winks that we forgive Gladiola for her obfuscations: “a little lie never killed anyone, not that I'd know”. Ezra gives him a bombastic side eye with a DIRTY TWENTY and Fyllion’s grin turns a bit sheepish. Hali also reacts very sarcastically to Fyllion’s declarations.
As we head back to bed, Ezra will keep watch. Storm checks with Aqueel, who's a little shocky from the fight but also quite proud he was able to help. He's a marid from the court of the King of Storms, after all. Violence is the order of the day there. Storm promises to teach him the gargouillade in the morning, a beautiful sequence of steps, which is also useful to evade a scorpion sting, apparently. First Aqueel has to sleep some more in between Hali and Storm.
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Nothing else disturbs our rest. The next morning, we wake up to a balmy day, ready for travel. It's day 5 of our travels. Hali and Gladiola discuss the removal of bloodstains and the use of prestidigitation. Gladiola is a little thrown by last night's violence, but she's determined to keep travelling north, even if that means she's at risk of conscription!
Gladiola no longer hides her power - with a snap of her fingers she starts a fire to prepare breakfast. Ezra shows her how to cook eggs for breakfast: sunny-side up is the most basic version. While they're cooking, she asks about that captain we've been talking about... are we in the navy, or is it a pirate thing...? Ezra tries to distract her, that it's just a running joke.
Gladiola is a little humbled and grateful for our protection and our help with the cooking lessons. As she's eating, she leans in towards Ezra: "when you asked me about the weavers the other day, did you know I could use magic"? Ezra sighs that an elf travelling alone is always going to raise questions...
Gladiola goes on: "my protector does look like a dog, right"? Ezra wonders if their eyes can stare any wider. Gladiola explains Chalcedony isn’t really a borzoi, but rather a Cù-Sidhe. These Elven dogs can grow as big as a rhinoceros, so at her size and age of 15 years, Chalcedony is still very very young, though already a great travel companion and protector. She drops the illusion on Chalcedony. (SEE IMAGES BELOW).
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Gladiola plans to return to Royal Rosaria & use her political power to try and avoid the war. Gladiola speculates that Ezra's mother believes, like Gladiola herself, that there’s more to the war than meets the eye. Couldn’t there be an unseen third party, who actually benefits from this confusion and bloodshed?
Gladiola explains her grandfather fought for Kharkhorin’s side because he felt compelled to support the magical academy where he studied. Supposedly, it was the headmaster of that academy who wanted to reclaim. This Nargyle wasn’t headmaster when her grandfather studied there, but her grandfather still felt loyal to his school. Nargyle died in the war, but when Gladiola looked him up, she’s never found anything about his bloodline. This leads her to suspect he was a paid instigator! If that’s the case, small wonder Aashvi Saree and the Weavers work to stop the war…
Ezra figures they could send a letter to mee-maw who also fought for Kharkhorin. They haven’t seen their grandmother in a very long time, but more information is always useful, right? Storm introduces Bella Swan, his familiar, who could carry the letter. Gladiola offers a replacement for the necessary incense for this casting. Ezra is worried: they've only seen their mee-maw 2 or 3 times, how do you broach treason... Fyllion offers his help.
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Before we all settle for the night, Storm demonstrates the gargouillade to Aqueel during their language lesson. El(drin) brushes Madonna, who is supremely unbothered.
Storm and Ezra talk about their family: how do talents run in the different generations, what different traditions of mentoring are there? Storm explains the Reinsinger Finnilash is quite strict, but everyone does get to choose what’s their talent and which craft or skill they want to develop. Gladiola interjects with a musing if Aashvi pushing Ezra out of the nest was a good thing "because that's how birds learn how to fly", but Ezra disagrees: even if they weren't made to sit on a silk futon and sew dresses all day, Aashvi's actions were painful.
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We plan to spend this Thursday on the road as well. The landscape has changed enough that we no longer need a siesta in the noon heat, but the woods are becoming denser: a canopy develops, underbrush cuts short our sight, ...
The sandy track is a clear indication no one has travelled here in a while. Storm (with a DIRTY TWENTY) and Fyllion remark that the forest is not doing well: several dead patches of grass, shrivelled trees, unhealthy looking carpets of lichen strangling trees, here and there an animal just collapsed and died.
Ezra notices Baaloo is perceptibly unnerved and shivering in the gourd where they keep their sand snake. Ezra checks with Baaloo, what's up? Though it can't talk, it indicates its attention is drawn to the north-east. Something over there is causing Baaloo to cower away... Ezra figures it's the village of Yaruda. They warn the others. Fyllion mentions he's been casting druidcraft to put flowers on the dead animals.
Gladiola repeats Satine's info: the druids appear absent since they're not maintaining the woods here. We decide to send Bella Swan to scout ahead. Storm can see the forest is getting pretty dense, then she's out of range. After half an hour, she returns, seeming calm. Ezra casts "talk with animals" and Bella Swan reports there's nothing out of the ordinary to see:
- there are some houses on poles
- under the houses, there are nests for the druids’ familiars and pets
- from the air, she couldn’t see any hostile presence.
Storm kneels down to hug her, and though very awkward, she allows it <3
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Near the end of the day, we see a side path branching off. At the end of the side path, we see the silhouette of several log cabins. Gladiola pulls over & arcanely locks the cart, we're ready to explore the village.
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Ezra leads the party, stealthily, towards the cabins. There's about ten of them, with a larger gazebo with a communal table in the middle. Each cabin is quite small, no more space than an average bedroom. They're all on thick wooden stakes with weird nests under them, just like Bella Swan had reported.
About half of the cabins look fully packed up, while others seem abandoned in a hurry. We can see personal belongings in 3 of them: cooking equipment, drying meat and herbs, books, messily made beds, cutlery and personal letters on the tables, windchimes with Taurillon's symbol (SEE IMAGES) ... did these people just get up and leave? Everything is covered in dust.
Ezra keeps scouting for tracks or more clues, but all they notice, is the coat hanger and weapon rack near each door: they're all empty. There are no signs of violence though.
Next to the gazebo, there's a central bonfire. No fire has burned here in about a week.
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Ezra gets the rest of the party. Hali also checks the houses, were they empty for longer than the central bonfire? She determines the packed-up houses were empty for months. The abandoned ones look more recent. There are signs that someone walked in to look around, perhaps to loot. Are these the traces of Sahir and Satine’s visit?
Ezra checks with Baaloo. The snake remains nervous & keeps cowering away from the north-east. Ezra
Storm asks about the nests: Ezra thinks it's a very Disney-like scene where the druids befriend the animals of the forest, but Storm asks Chalcedony's input. Chalcedony replies in Silvan that she's never smelled anything more BEAR-like, these are clearly the druids' familiars. Not everyone wants a swan, some familiars have great big rows of teeth.
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Ezra and Fyllion creep through the forest to check out what's got Baaloo so rattled. As dusk is settling in, they hear the forest is alive all around them, with animal noises they don't recognize. Suddenly they step on something soft and rubbery rather than the twigs of the underbrush. They see that bloodred veiny roots and rubbery vines are twining through the forest, like an intrusive presence in this ecosystem. Baaloo is ever more nervous.
The roots didn't react when Ezra and Fyllion stepped on them, so Ezra tests them with an arrow. The root is very resilient, but when the tip finally pops through, it bleeds. A ripple of pain and alertness travels through the root, deeper into the forest. They hear something stir and flutter.
Ezra dips a cloth scrap in the "blood" and tries to hustle Fyllion back to the village. Alas, with a NATURAL ONE they kind of stumble around for a while. We hear them bicker "who's in charge of navigation here". Luckily El(drin) can spot them & calls out, just as Storm casts dancing lights to guide them.
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Ezra and Fyllion report their findings. Gladiola is worried that the god of the earth would be worried about plants... Gladiola studies the cloth and licks it. She figures it's not mortal blood, but it does have the same function. If it bleeds, we can cut it and kill it, right? Ezra and Gladiola grin at the same time: "with FIRE BOMBS"!
Hali, ever in tune with the water around her, warns us: “the forest is too dry, that might be dangerous”! Gladiola has a back-up: her diamond saw can cut diamonds, so those vines don't stand a chance.
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As we start to settle in for the night, Storm convinces Gladiola to cook a mushroom stew from the plants he forages from the overrun gardens. Her knife skills are impressive: her brunoise is mathematically precise, much more than is needed for a stew. Soon the secret is revealed: she uses a sigil with a series of mirrors: this is how she cuts diamonds and gemstones, as the first magical lapidarist since her grandfather and probably the only one in the world. With herbs and seasonings, she’s a lot less confident.
As the stew is stewing, we look around the village again:
- Ezra gathers the books they can find storybooks, general history, a poetry collection... most of them in Elvish, this is an Eladrin village after all.
- Ezra found a letter to someone in The Vale, promising to help with the growing season to grow wood for the war effort by supplying the shipyards
- Storm also checks out the nests, it's a wide range of familiars from bears to rabbits or other herbivores.
- Storm and Fyllion spot the names of the inhabitants carved over the door "Frauki, Teagan and Johnnie the bear, Dolwin, Lutile...". We hear Fyllion gasp in amazement, followed by his shout someone carved over their door: “All hail Fyllion Springcrest”! But then he grins, he's only joking.
- Hali checks out the drying herbs in order to supplement her herbalism kit. Most of the herbs look like Fey Wild plants... she can now make a healing potion!
The stew is delicious.
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Storm and Aqueel have a quiet language lesson.
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Fyllion takes first watch. Ezra works on their letter to their mee-maw. The roaring fire keeps everything away from the clearing around the village. After a few hours, Gladiola gets up, she's having trouble sleeping after her first fight with bloodshed and personal threat and harm. A few minutes after she goes out of sight, Fyllion and Ezra hear a glass shatter. Chalcedony is barking like mad.
Fyllion and Ezra hurry after Gladiola, she's staring transfixed at The Spine, the peak of the mountain looming over the forest! A beam of light pierces the sky and a ring of runes forms. Slowly a pearlescent moon appears to form. As the light brightens, they see the silhouette of three spires in the glow of the moon. The magical mist descends towards the top of The Spine.
As the others of the party join Gladiola, Ezra and Fyllion, we all feel an ominous sense of recognition: this is the Wandering Isle, wandering again!
Fyllion hears a whip crack, and Virgil appears on top of the cart: that dumb motherfucker dares show up here. I'm going to kill him & you're better off without those memories anyway. Count this as a blessing - Fyllion I should count you as a blessing too, because you didn't take the deal and I'm free now. When I reach demi-god status, maybe I'll let you beg me for a deal. When I see your boyfriend in hell, I'll put in a good word for him.
Fyllion casts dissonant whispers, destroying the projection. He stares at the darkness where Virgil's image disappears, hesitating to look up at the rest of the party.
