Session 10 - Dialogue Options
General Summary
Following the battle with the undead creatures and Dustin, the party staggers to their feet. Bumbleford is the only other person around them, inspecting the remnants of the undead creatures. The ichor left behind is eerily similar to the kind left behind by the displacer beasts—the same ones the party lied about not a day earlier. Eager to leave Bumbleford behind them, the party sneaks away as she inspects the parting bite wound Dustin had given her. As they pass, she acknowledges them with a nod of her head while whispering spell incantations under her breath.
Calum, on the other hand, has successfully reached the castle where Hemlocke and Kettlewyck had been taken. However, the guards are on high alert and appear to only be letting nobles into its walls. After a failed attempt to scale the wall, Calum spots Bond walking into the castle and flags him down for a quick chat. He attempts to convince Bond to let him walk into the castle with him, but Bond is too polite to break any perceived rules and kindly tells Calum that he won’t be able to help him here—but he will gladly find Calum some lodging at the tent grounds. Calum, satisfied with Bond’s answer, leaves to try and find the rest of the group.
On the walk away from the tourney grounds, the party walks off-path so as not to be spotted by any proper guards. After a few failed attempts to be stealthy, Violet is able to spot three circling vultures high above the treetops. She knows that this is a symbol for some type of organization and informs Asha of her intentions to investigate it. After a bit of convincing, Alastor and Celeste agree to take a quick detour on the way back to the castle.
When they reach the clearing, they see a lightly walked path covered in blood. Following the path, their eyes land on the prone form of Dustin. He’s leaning against a tree, unable to stand, and bleeding heavily. As red pools beneath him, he turns his head to regard the party as Alastor leads the charge towards him. Dustin weakly acknowledges them, telling them that if they’re here to kill him, to do him the favor of burning his body.
Alastor begins to interrogate Dustin on what his motivations were. Having nothing left to lose, Dustin informs the party that he was tasked to get a substance that sounds like Ambrosia in everything but name. It seems that word has gotten out about Bumbleford’s miracle resurrection concoction, but it’s unclear how the word got out. All that Dustin says is that there’s eyes everywhere, but he’s no mastermind, just someone given a task. He explains that he underestimated Bumbleford and that he was told that she would be much weaker than she actually was.
Dustin is notably frustrated that the party fought with Bumbleford, but the party explains that they have a responsibility to protect Hemlocke and to their information, that was the best possible way to do so. Eventually, Dustin’s temper teeters off and an unspoken truce is created after Celeste gives Dustin a health potion to drink to recover from his fight with Lady Bumbleford. Once Dustin is stood up, Calum appears from the treeline and reunites with the party. They clean Dustin up well enough to allow him to change his shape again so he could go along with them to the tent grounds.
When the party plus Dustin reaches the tent grounds, Belt is there waiting for them. Calum immediately reacts to Belt’s presence, missing his foster father. He runs up to hug Belt as a greeting and Belt informs Calum that he’s about to head out and to be more careful. While he wanted to help Calum, he had business in the Crownlands. On Calum’s request, Belt agrees to pass along a message on his way out. As he turns to leave, he gives Celeste a fatherly pat on the shoulder and tells her to take care of Calum.
After Belt departs, the party takes a second to breathe. The pressure of constant vigilance is no longer hanging on their shoulders. Dustin is no longer violent towards them and he (alongside Violet) are both able to wade off the Vespon under Bumbleford’s control. While the party does not have a tent, Calum informs them of Bond’s offer to get a space in the tent grounds. This tells the entire party that it’s probably fine if they commandeer the tent which Bond and his retainer were originally meant to stay in. Celeste builds the beds while the rest of the group settles into the tent. When Bond eventually makes his way over to the tent grounds, he greets the party with surprise that the party already stole his tent, but does not protest against it.
During the tent-building process, Dustin starts to slink off. Violet manages to catch him, and questions him briefly. As she turns to leave, he grabs onto her arm and quietly explains that he’s just filling up the flask and getting himself some sustenance. It’s all too obvious that Violet is not the only one with vampiric traits, if the bite wounds he gave Alastor were not proof enough.
He warns her not to tell anyone, and to not be so nosy if she actually wants to eat. Violet, slightly horrified, tells Dustin that she had no intention of telling anyone about his suspicious departure. At that Dustin begins to calm down. He turns a bit more gentle, but still insistent as he tells Violet that he intends to bring back a full flask for her—she obviously needs it more than him. Violet eventually relents, allowing him to run off, not wanting to further inquire on how he intends to get their shared craving.
You need to eat. There’s a reason you’re so pale, animal blood doesn’t work forever.Eventually, the party falls into a comfortable lull. By the time Dustin returns and gives Violet the flask, most of the party has found something to busy themselves with. The warm meal and wine finally fill most of their empty stomachs, sans Alastor who refuses a meal. Violet takes her “meal” outside, taking a few sips of the flask out of sight of prying eyes. She’s only interrupted when Celeste comes out to request a heart-to-heart conversation. Simply put, both women are disasters who keep apologizing for their actions—some of which Violet cannot even remember. They sit under the stars as they speak, enjoying a nice moment and finally clearing out some of the uncertainty which came from when Violet was under the influence of Ambrosia. On the flip side, Calum and Dustin began making use of the free honeywine while Asha decided to depart to perform card readings for the other competitors in the tent grounds. Dustin, slightly tipsy, offers Alastor his bottle to drink from. When Alastor doesn’t give back the bottle, and refuses to give it back when Dustin asks, the two get into a small altercation. Alastor picks and prods at who Dustin is, (slightly delusionally) inquiring about the underlying connection between Violet and Dustin while at the same time insulting the former. Dustin does not restrain himself from responding to Alastor’s goads until Calum interrupts the two. After Dustin inquires if Alastor wants to get hit, the conversation changes tides as both Dustin and Calum inquire about Alastor’s romantic life—which is (unsurprisingly) non-existent. After a few jokes, Alastor storms out of the tent leaving Dustin and Calum to drunkenly enjoy a quaint conversation. Alastor goes into the woods to sulk. At the same time, Celeste and Violet make their return and get informed by a laughing Calum and Dustin of Alastor’s situation and the fact that he had been insulting Violet. They leave him out for a little while before Celeste goes out to give him a gift that she had been making, a little page of pressed flowers she had found while wandering the Meadows. During the time in Bumbleford’s altar to Touarch, she presumed he had taken a liking to the bouquet to have held onto it for so long. Alastor rejected the gift, telling Celeste to burn it. While she managed to break down a few of his walls, calming him down—but she still refused to burn the flowers.
