Session 12 (4/18/23)

After a short rest, the group goes out for a little fact finding before talking to Larvon. Shomari finds that there are dark dealings going on. Many people enter the auxbatali and are never seen again. Azora notices the people she interviews briefly get a blank look on their face before answering questions. After, they make a plan for Garnet (as Shacha) and Azora to talk to Larvon while Harly (as a spider), Shomari (invisible), and Shacha (as a stone sugar gluider) sneak around to find things. Then enter.
 
The arena has a depthless mote around it, and a fight is going on when they enter. Shomari (before becoming invisible) convinces Lem that they are here to see Noctia and goes back down further underground. Garnet and Azora also go down the same way after finding out that that is where Larvon is.
 
Team Shomari finds an open door. Shomari turns invisible and Harley (spider) enters. There is relief of a woman on the opposite wall with her hands over her eyes. There is a phrase over her that says, “Reveal only secrets.” After Garnet and Azora arrive, they all enter, and the door closes behind them. Shomari looks at the books, they are journals of people who fought in the auxbatali. Azora uses detect magic and finds transmutation magic around the relief. Garnet finds cracks around the form as if it were a door, but there is no evidence of a way to open it. They keep searching the room without much success. Garnet, frustrated, tries to open the door. When she touches the handle, she is electrocuted and flung across the room. They decide to try telling truths with their eyes covered.
 
Garnet – I actually want to save Noctia.
 
Shomari - My family was royal and murdered.
 
Azora – My mom is lost.
 
Sacha – My family has secrets they won’t tell me.
 
Harley – I am afraid of falling asleep.
 
They find out that they just needed to cover the other words to reveal “secrets.”
 
They go back to the original plan (except Shomari stays visible) and enter. Sounds of moans of torture surround them as they proceed. At the end, they find Noctia with half her face removed, among other wounds. Azora agrees to heal her a little. Azora then approaches another woman in the room. She is surprised that they are here and says they shouldn’t be here. “It’s all connected.”
 
Shomari walks in and recognizes the woman as someone from the church of Anwyn, Katrina Petrescue. She is someone who helps everyone she sees. Azora asks what path lead here. “The for’stigia.” Some who go to the church for help are tricked, brought here, and made into for’stigia. Flesh is an important part of the creation of the substance. She was looking into disappearances and landed here.
 
Garnet is telling them that they should get out of here when she is pinned to the wall next to Noctia. They fight another invisible creature that looked like (for those that could see it) the one before – curly ears, long arms, very creepy. After it’s defeated, again, some can remember, and some can’t. Also, they all forget about Noctia, and she is gone.
 
They free the elf woman, Shomari turns her invisible, and she leaves to meet them back at the Inn. Garnet askes Nickelknight to go down one of multiple holes in the floor of the room, and she refuses. Garnet looks down the hole, and an ever-present droning (that only Harley hears) stops and there’s a wooshing sound. Garnet moves, the wooshing stops, and the droning returns.
 
Garnet sends Nickelknight ahead to look into the remaining rooms. Nickelknight enters the room on the left to see the green dragonborn they previously saw at Mahala Academy. Nickelknight looks in the room on the right, and immediately closes it before anything can be seen.
 
They go to see the dragonborn. He says he came here as an unofficial representative of Mahala academy to procure for’stigia. He was held captive and was going to be forced to sign a contract. He sees Azora and knows she’s a rune child. He also recognizes someone she is related to, Viconia. Garnet frees the dragonborn, and they leave the room. Harley looks into the room on the right and sees a large hole with something tentacular inside. The droning sounds very loud inside. Shomari looks in and sees the same thing. Harley sends a humanoid dancing light into the hole. It is consumed by a giant human head. Harley leaves the room, and the whole group quickly leaves. They tell Lem that they are insulted that Larvon never showed up, and they are leaving. As they head home, Harely relays the info that he saw.
 
Shomari mentally conveys that he could find nothing about the symbol that Garnet asked about, and he is worried that his means that his contacts are no longer active.
 
They reach the Inn and see Katrina enjoying some arcoiris. Shomari talks to her. She has been doing research about the crystal stolen from the church of Anwynn (Soul of Kador) (Kador, the evil god of fire). She could feel there was something wrong with her superiors, and the source of her magic felt different than theirs. She has also seen the tree symbol (on Prisma’s ring) on documents. She met someone who was good with codes and found a connection to auxbatali and for’stigia. People were disappearing and they were forgotten.
 
Garnet enters the conversation and asks about Lady Lisbelle. Katrina immediately says she is the worst. The changed hearth was noted, and she dispelled the magic that Lisbelle placed which was being used for observation. Katrina admits that she was forced to sign a contract. Shomari happens to have grabbed it while they were in Larvon’s torture chambers earlier.
 
Katrina dubbed the information she gathered as the secret cult of Anwynn files. She notes messages about the Soul of Kador, the Zephyr Dagger (somewhere in Mahala academy), and a child wandering the streets who may have stolen a mermaid skin (something from the lake) that lets her blend into the city (makes her hard to find). The secret cult of Anwyn stressed, “she’s not here, we must have patience.”
 
Garnet asks about Fa’te. Katrina has seen the name all over her research. “The mistress of Fa’te.” From a linguistic origin, “Fey’t.”
 
The group questions Sabal’s intentions sense he may or may not have sent Lady Lisbelle. Katrina knows nothing of him.
 
Harley asks if she knows a name, “Gxer’xes.” (the faced hydra, a name he had trouble remembering before, it brought up an image of a mouth)
 
Garnet goes to her room and talks to Nickelknight. She asks if there is anything else she can tell her about Fa’te. Nickelknight says that “You and your mom are connected to Fa’te.” Fa’te was tracking Prisma, but they lost track of her. All that was left was a symbol (Nickelknight draws the symbol on Garnet’s arm). Garnet asks about her powers.
 
Nickelknight: They increase the more you use them.
 
Garnet: Where does the power come from?
 
Nickelknight: Fa’te
 
Sacha awakes in the dark expanse. He hears, “You’re back.” The voice says that she needs to be protected. She says she’s the soul of Mount Vai. She also mentions that there is a soul stone girl who is hiding in the streets. She is hiding by using something she got from the water. She may be near undead.