SESSION FIVE - Sanctuary
[Tulistar, 17th day of Sigen]
Caira comes sprinting into the fight at town hall last minute, and using a cleverly shot enlarge/reduce, she manages to shrink Lorenzini down to a harmless size.
Picked up by Ross, and unable to free himself from the grip, he succumbs to the damage dealt when Yak delivers the final blow, (Edenberry first telling him not to use lethal force - but the Caira reveals she can stabilize someone who's dead and try to revive them, so it's fine if he uses lethal force) bonking one of his big mits over the shrunken triton's head and knocking him unconscious.
Miguel utters appreciation for Caira, hearing her statement out loud, entertained by by her tenacity.
Once he's out cold, Miguel picks up little Lorenzini like a rat as the group heads back to his office to interrogate the man. Murphy meanwhile, is feeling particularly drained, and heads back to the ship, leaving Yak to keep playing Detective on his own.
On the way over, Caira and Edenberry bond over Caira's collection of bells on her dress, and the fey gives the fox a little bell of her own to ring. Then also offers a round of healing to those who need it. The conversation divulges into Caira, Edenberry, and Ross making grand plans to rewrite magic by changing a bunch of spell names. Miguel is bemused by it all, and more focused on getting his little suspect inside. Meanwhile, Yak just quietly follows, taking everything in and having fun with his new friends, oh won't the Captain and Babs just love to hear all these stories when he gets back.
Caira offers to carry Lorenzini, pulling off a whole dance number with him after Edenberry pranks her by saying when she went down during the fight, the gods told her that Caira would die in five days if she didn't do a dance in front of everyone right now.
It takes a bit, but they all get into the detective agency building and look around, exploring it like excited children exploring their first hotel room stay with fervor.
During their antics, Caira gives a lil smooch to Edenberry, who responds by ringing the little bell she was given by her, much to Caira's enjoyment, and Ross continues exploring on his own.
Miguel meanwhile got the still shrunken and conked out Lorenzini into one of the jail cells. Caira decides to wake him up, splashing a cup of water on him, and then proceeding to slap him awake, in his smaller state, the backhand from the fey sends him tumbling across the cot Miguel placed him on. It's at this moment he comes to, and it's shortly after that the spell eventually expires and he regrows to to his proper height.
Within the confines of the cell, the interrogation begins, Caira and Edenberry pushing the blame of their actions onto made up strangers. But Lorenzini quickly catches on when the two won't stop giggling about it.
Miguel steps in, getting down to business, asking Lorenzini what the fuck was everything they just went through, why was he floating, why was he attacking the clocktower, just, why?
Lorenzini informs that he was fueling the clock face with magic, burning hands just happened to be one of the most convenient spells for him to do so with, given its range. He goes on to explain that he was present and responsible for the clock face's construction. Rather than using the correct oils to render its magical properties inert, the triton instead fortified it to absorb and release magical build up. He fueled the material with his magic, and it expelled it as visions and dreams of his patron entity to those within range of it. While some of the more adverse reactions he's been hearing about were not intentional, it certainly served to get more word out, have this entity dwelling in the minds and on the tongues of the commonfolk.
Ross is intrigued, announcing that he too had a piece of shellrock, which leads Lorenzini discovers that his shop had been broken into by this group. As frustrated as he was, the deed of taking care of his dear Benjamin, and circumstances around his current predicament seemed to outweigh need for a proper reprimanding.
When Miguel asks for the name of this entity, Lorenzini denies bringing it forward in any capacity, to use its name, envokes its presence, and should the detective wish Lorenzini to stay compliant, he urges not to ask further for this name. Caira tries to get some sort of clue, by asking if the triton can reveal where the entity is from, and if it has a classification by any sense. To which Lorenzini is able to reply that it is an aberration from the outer spheres, deep within the astral sea, beyond any known worlds.
Jumping back for a moment to the land immediately surrounding them, both Edenberry and Miguel question if there will be any more attacks, anyone who will pick up where Lorenzini left off, and this turns out to be exactly the case as the triton reveals where the cult he belongs to is hidden, turns out it's completely in plain sight! Invisible to the common eye, an invisible tower built around and above the light house residing on the edge of the Duskmire Community College's campus.
The plan of getting into this tower starts to sprout, but Lorenzini quickly advises against it, for the whole thing is heavily guarded, even back entrances would be difficult for someone to slip through. Caira asks about how easy they'd be to bribe, or seduce.
Lorenzini hesitates to say anything, for if his order finds out about his betrayal, he is a dead man. He pleads to Miguel for sanctuary first, before proceeding with any more information.
Ross then books it back to Lorenzini's shop to re-break in and procure Benny, bringing him back to the agency so pet and master can be reunited once more.
Edenberry jumps in asking the triton what the end goal is for all of this, Lorenzini explains that the entity he follows demands of it, that his order wishes to enable this entity entrance to this world. When asked what would happen when it arrives, he guesses for those who follow it, they're blessed with life in the new world this entity seeks to create, but for everyone else - well he's not even sure he could imagine what horrors they might be subjected to.
Miguel then asks about the college, if anyone can gain access, Lorenzini answers that visitors passes can be procured by most, but it's much easier if you are student or scholar of some sort.
That's when a plan starts hatching, Edenberry offers to go into the college, get what information she can, and try to break the rest of the party in during the night, since she's a student of a magical school, it would be easier for her to gain access to the campus grounds.
Caira then laments about how it'd be so much easier if Lorenzini was still small, and Miguel remarks it would've been nice to keep him in their pockets. Against better judgement, the triton can't help but share some of his own magical knowledge. He goes on to explain the properties of shellrock, and how in its raw state, it can replace the need for various magical components, but when refined and mixed with other ingredients, the shellrock can absorb and amplify magic, like he had done with the face of the clock tower. He informs the party that he paired the shellrock with Moth Resin, collected from Mothwing Sanctum.
Wanting to prepare for the possible shitshow they might be walking into at the college, the party convinces Lorenzini to use his current stock of shellrock to create amplifiers for them. After getting a bit more information, including the identity of Lorenzini's supplier for shellrock, a Minotaur by the name of Brenvis Orina, and where to get the other materials he'd need, and Edenberry striking a deal to run the shop in Lorenzini's stead, the party splits up. Ross and Edenberry heading for the college, but make a quick stop to gather Edenberry's things from the hotel she had been staying at. Caira and Yak head for Mothwing Sanctum, and lastly Miguel escorts Lorenzini back to his shop and house to gather materials, some of the triton's belongings, and Miguel also strikes a deal on a pair of magic daggers, one to keep for himself and one to give to Edenberry upon regrouping later.
Caira and Yak talk each other's ears off about anything and everything on the way over to the sanctum, a massive library containing journals, books, and records, down several huge corridors, and in the middle of it all is an indoor garden with large trees that shade a group of horse-sized moth like creatures known as the Eldermoths, beings with immense knowledge that the sanctum has dedicated to procuring the stories from, and continue doing so after talking with one of the monks that work there, and procuring a jar of moth resin. Caira gets attached to a book she discovers, and after receiving the resin, she also gets a library note to take it out. Finding out that there's a week allowance for borrowed books, and the consequence for bringing them back late are a nominal fee, and mental threats from the Eldermoths, wanting their books returned.
Meanwhile Ross and Edenberry have made it to the college after taking a short rest detour to grab Eden's belongings from the Wayward Hotel she had been staying in. They arrive at the visitor's center first, talking to the lady at the desk and procuring a tourist map, Edenberry then inquires about enrolling, and they're directed to the main office. Where they come face to face with the minotaur that Lorenzini had mentioned earlier as his supplier of Shellrock, working the front desk.
Edenberry is very flustered at first upon talking to him, but gets some information about the campus. Brenvis asks to see Edenberry's student ID, and the clever fox uses a minor illusion spell to make her ID look like it's from Duskmire Community College, rather than the magical institute she studied at. The minotaur falls for it, and welcomes Edenberry in as he would any usual student, and Ross as her assistant. The duo make it to the campus, observing where the light house is, not seeing but knowing the invisible structure that surrounds it, then proceed to the campus library. Looking for books on aberrations to see if she can't try and pinpoint what this thing is, she skims through the more minor creatures, through the various sections until she gets to the section on aberrations of the astral sea, when it appears the page she would've been looking for has been ripped out.
