Session 24: Hey, Your Husband's Dead... Here's a Steak!! ...It's Not Your Husband... to be Clear...

We head back to town. We come across Tribuvham in human form and walk the rest of the way with him. The town has prepared a communal dinner. They’re sending representatives to the valley, where there’s essentially going to be a festival before they go to war.
 
We head to Liniksha’s home, where she is giving Nyala medicine. We tell them that we killed the necromancer. Liniksha isn’t sure where “the dark” is, in reference to the mask. She says that perhaps it was buried, some cultures do that. She also suggests that maybe it means a cave? But she isn’t sure where “the dark” is. She tells us to follow the ridges to the southeast and meet up with a fellow named Pira, the next town over. It isn’t related to the dark.
 
Liniksha says Maria is the widow with gold earrings. She kept insisting her husband is still alive, and Liniksha accidentally caused a rift by telling her that they’d both be dead if she went after him. We tell her that we spoke to her husband and helped him end his pain. Her husband’s name was Preyitt.
 
Rasmus opens the door, holding a bag full of mushrooms. He’s surprised to see that we’re back. He asks for Nyala’s help in getting the other dwarf down from a tree.
 
“Sometimes I regret fixing people’s legs because then they go and USE THEM.” -Liniksha
 
Wulf asks if Liniksha knows how the pup is doing. She tries to reassure him even though she has no idea. We will check in on the pup after we find Birgirt, the dwarf lady. Wulf says “ok” and turns on his heel to start looking.
 
Rasmus leads us to a very large tree, where she’s huddled. She is annoyed to see us, telling us that she came out to the woods to die. “Because if it takes me, perhaps then it will be satisfied.”
Quell: “Why does it care about YOU?”
 
She and her husband apparently displeased some priests who thought they controlled “it”, but “it” is too powerful. She thought they could run, but “if winter demands a sacrifice, i would not have it be the child.” It’s been whispering in her ears at night.
 
“How long is a time?” -Wulf
 
Cali is pissed, and lets her absolutely have it. We all roast her philosophy, metaphorically say “fuck you”, and eventually she gives up trying to explain and justify this and gets up. We take her back to the town, Cali still silently fuming.
 
We take Birgirt back to Liniksha’s, and she takes Birgirt’s crutch away so she can’t leave again. She then gives us directions to Maria’s house so we can tell her about her husband. Quell takes some flowers from Liniksha’s flower bed for her. Wulf wants to bring her meat, but Quell thankfully tells him not to just yet.
 
“Hey, your husband’s dead. …Here’s a steak! …….It’s not your husband… to be clear…….” -Wulf (except not really thank god)
 
Wulf is being a good boy and letting Quell take the lead on this sensitive conversation. Quell tells her that we found the spirit of her husband, passes on his message, and says that he is gone now. Maria starts to cry.
 
[personal character note] Tears roll silently down Cali’s cheek for Maria. They think back to the first time they shot a deer, and when they went to collect their kill, saw its baby hiding behind a tree and watching in horror and fear. It cowered a bit but refused to run away, and Cali pretended not to see it. They have never seen that kind of loss up close in another person, but in this moment, the similarities are a bit unnerving. They think about how emotions can often make people regress into their animalistic forms. They miss their adoptive siblings. [end]
 
Maria tells us to join in the feast in town, and we leave her be. Wulf has perplexed vibes as we leave. “Why did she thank us after we made her cry?” Quell tells him that sometimes it is better to know than to wonder.
 
[personal character note] Cali wonders if their birth mother felt that way, if she ever actually knew what happened, or if she thought Cali died. [end]
 
Quell and Wulf talk a bit about their pasts and things they’ve learned, and when we get close enough to Tribuvham’s, he immediately veers off topic and asks “can we go see the pup now?”
 
The pup is still hurt but is healing!! He seems happy to see Wulf. Wulf laments over how hard it would be to take the pup with him, even though he really wants to. The pup tells him to not get hurt. Wulf tells him that he’ll come back when the pup is big enough and maybe then he can come with him. The pup is very excited about this. They nuzzle each other a bit and then we go.
 
We go to Liniksha’s and talk about the meeting in the valley. Rasmus plans to go there because there should be enough wizards to maybe teleport him and Birgirt home. Liniksha says the dwarf priests plaguing Birgirt may show up as well, so it’ll be a good opportunity to fight them. There will be enough other magic users there that we should be able to have the upper hand.
 
Liniksha shows us the trail on the map. Nyala tells her not to take us all the way there, because she’s concerned for Liniksha’s safety. She says we’ll know we’ve reached the Shonsteppe when everything gets flat.
 
Liniksha gives us a potion made from the last cloud giant to plague the village. She says if we drink it, it’ll give us the strength of a cloud giant. “And if there’s a world after this, please do write me! I’ve never seen one used.” She also gives us some healing potions.
 
“I don’t carry potions.” -Jade
“Why not? They are very useful.” -Quell
“They get paper wet.” -Jade
 
We decide not to head to the meeting, though, because there will be enough people sent that way that they don’t need our help.
 
Quell figures out that one of the rings she found on one of the undead bodies is a ring of cold resistance. Quell doesn’t need it, so she hands it to Wulf, who asks Cali and Jade if they want it. Jade is like ……did you not take a lot of damage? Why don’t you keep it? “I have never worn a ring before,” he says after putting it on.
 
Cali sits down with some stew and alcohol at the feast, and Wulf goes and catches a deer to add to it. Cali sighs deeply at the sight of the deer, somehow even deeper in thought than before. They sit with Tribuvham, as does Wulf. Tribuvham seems to be drunk. Wulf insists that Tribuvham take good care of the pup, and tells him he’ll come back one day.
 
“You’re going down the mountain? Don’t go chasing… mammoths…” -T
“Mammoths? What do they taste like?” -Wulf
“Big.” -T
 
“We are good at doing the killing.” -Quell
 
Quell leaves a note for Birgirt before we leave in the morning, saying “not all the old gods are dead.”
 
Wulf catholicism: “The moon watch over you.” “And also with you.”
all wolves are catholic.
 
In the morning, we head back out. Jade has a new mask on that looks like the bottom half of a skull with long fangs, maybe that of a mountain lion or sabertooth cat. We follow the path Nyala marked for us without issue. It takes 4 days, and we finally reach the marker Nyala told us about. We find a freshly painted statue that Quell feels drawn to. The view is beautiful from here, but the sign post is shattered, and there are lots of arrows that have been shot into the markers. Jade detects magic, and finds a small silver charm with a small degree of abjuration magic on it. It looks battered, like it’s fallen off of something. Jade picks it up, to no effect.
 
Jade and Cali do a terrible job at investigating the area, and find a set of hoof prints. Wulf finds a little bit of blood and concludes that there was a battle here. He says maybe they took the bodies with them, because although there was a lot of fighting, there are no bodies.
 
We put the sign post back together and find that north leads to the next messenger post, which is where we were headed. The east heads to “traders camp 5”.
 
Quell looks at the statue, which has all kinds of offerings, including ribbons and such. She’s never seen Her Lady before so she can only assume that this is her. She very quietly asks “is this you?” and there is a brief rumble in the sky. Lilybell plays the part of Her Lady very well.
Quell takes one of the best ribbons from her thunder stick and adds it to the statue, and draws Her Lady’s symbol really big in the dirt with the end of her thunder stick. She stays there entranced while we investigate the area and put the sign post back together.
 
EOS