4.2 Calling Home

General Summary

This recap covers the Cradlers' trek to the Pools of Seeing, their brief call home, and a small summary of what transpired in Cradle.

An Unexpected Escort

Biggles, Vrinill, and Umeiri had planned to help the yetifolk return to their homeland of Janokk, and now was the perfect time to kill two birds with one stone. The Pools of Seeing were on the way to Janokk, and the Cradlers could not let this opportunity slip by their fingers, even if the circumstances surrounding it were dubious. What did the Court of Heaven want from them? How did they figure out that they were not of this world. These questions raced through their minds as they made their preparations for this journey.
Accompanying the Cradlers would be the two chiefs of the surviving yetifolk tribes - Yawash and Nubush. Yawash, with her face painted blue, represented the Stonesmith Tribe, who specialized in crafting weapons. Nubush, with his face painted yellow, represented the Stoneshaper Tribe, who specialized in masonry and architecture. Both chiefs expressed a mixture of hope, fear, and excitement in anticipation for the journey to come. The survival of their species rested on their and SKRUNGUS' shoulders. 
The plan for this expedition was to head along the west coast of Lake Zhongyan, which meant both avoiding Torrbei and making a direct route to the Pools of Seeing. Once the Cradlers got that resolved - and they had a plan for keeping it a secret to their yetifolk friends - the group would continue northwards and arrive at Janokk. From there, the Yawash and Nubush could take the lead and they would soon arrive at the Duunsch where the chiefs could plead to Janokk for assistance.
One major bump in their plan was that the west coast of Lake Zhongyan was never explored before. What horrors might lurk in that mysterious land? 
Well, fortunately for the group, an escort had been prepared to take them all the way to the Pools of Seeing. The Loyal. The Lover was the embodiment of beauty whose appearance was determined by what each onlooker considered "beautiful." Beauty was literally in the eye of the beholder. Yawash and Nubush both perceived the Loyal as a graceful, stalwart yetifolk, but the Cradlers only saw a shining star. Before they could point out that discrepancy, the Loyal took the reins and explained that they would take the group past the "vile land with no name" by encasing them within their Crown of Protection. This shimmering dome of light would move with the Loyal and prevent anything from moving through it, including magic. Creatures within could be designated to be able to move freely in and out of the Crown.
While the protection from the monsters was welcome (and boy were those monsters freaky), the addition of the Loyal only amped up the tension for the group as a whole. Well, not really for the chiefs, who were starstruck, but certainly for Biggles, Vrinill, and Umeiri. Oh, and Jesa too! Don't forget about him - he'll be there as long as Biggles brings Reverence. But yeah, Jesa was aware that his divine soul was missing and that the Court was looking for it, so he didn't really want to get whisked away or interrogated by one of the Twelve Lovers.
After a week or so of mostly silent, uneventful travel, the Pools of Seeing finally came into view. 

Reconnecting

A terrace of white stone, each step a shimmering pool of clear water. These were the Pools of Seeing. Otherworldly was the only appropriate word for them. 
The Loyal and the chiefs gave the Cradlers their much needed privacy as they moved to the edge of a pool. They had already prepared the object they wanted to sacrifice - the Shifter's Medallion. A priceless artifact in their world, the medallion only now held sentimental value in Tian Wu Yan. Those sentiments, however, were key to making the Pools act as a means of communication between worlds. Biggles, Vrinill, and Umeiri called out to Ibu Melati, a silver dragon who had become a close companion, and dropped the medallion into the water.
Almost immediately, the pools glowed and swirled, and the party's own reflection was replaced by that of a dragon in flight. The ritual worked, but the timing was a little inconvenient. Surprised, Ibu Melati came to a screeching halt, throwing off the group of people riding atop her. Fortunately, Fly was casted and three figures emerged onto frame - Miggles Cristo (Biggles' mom), Pilli (a close friend and ex-god), and Yurikaiya (queen of Umeiri's people). 
For the first time in months, there was contact. Joy spread through everyone as people got to see the faces of those they thought they would never see again. However, the Cradlers knew they didn't have all the time in the world to simply revel in the moment. They had to get down to business.
Within this 30 minute exchange, both parties provided each other with new information that could have only been gleaned from the worlds they had resided in. Since we already know what Biggles, Vrinill, and Umeiri were up to, that meant that for this recap, we can just talk about what Miggles, Pilli, Ibu Melati, and Yurikaiya had to say.
To sum everything up (the details will be in Acquired Lore as per usual), the big bad that the Cradlers fought in well, Cradle, was the same as the one that they are probably going to be facing in Tian Wu Yan. It's name is the Propagator, and it had been driven away but not killed by the Cradlers during their previous adventure. In its escape though, portals opened up between the two worlds, and they have only become more violent as of late.
Ibu Melati and company were on their own mission to learn more about the Propagator, and were determined to complete it with even more fervor knowing that their friends and family weren't dead. Both groups were adamant and hopeful about reuniting in the future, and it was on that good note that the 'video call' ended.

Saving Cradle

So what exactly did happen back in Cradle, and why are we just now covering it? Well, chronologically speaking, this was the point in which my players and I were finally ready to talk about 'the other campaign' in slightly more detail. But also, the call home was a turning point in the story, as the true big bad was finally namedropped.
In any case, let's talk Cradle! 
Around five or so years ago, Biggles, Vrinill, and Umeiri met each other for the first time and partnered up with a good-natured silver dragon named Ibu Melati. She was the child of a now deceased elder silver dragon that lead a group known as the Shifters.
A couple hundred years ago, the Shifters had saved the world once before by freeing much of Cradle from the golden grasp of the now-defunct Illuminant Empire. Unfortunately, the end of the empire was cataclysmic, and an entire city-state had been swallowed underground, burying thousands of innocents in sand and rubble. The Shifters, having been accomplices - intentional or not - quickly dissolved as the sheer trauma of the atrocity brought out the worst conflicts between the group members.
Fast forward to the (near) present, and Ibu Melati needed to reunite as many of the Shifters to deal with a new threat that was upsetting the balance of nature. For Cradle, 'nature' was a loose term that described several different planes, and I really don't want to dive into that mess, so we'll just leave it at that. In any case, for the next couple of years, Biggles, Vrinill, and Umeiri traveled all around the world, collecting allies, magic items, fond memories, and nasty enemies. 
Eventually, they managed to take down the Big Bad - an alien, almost eldritch abomination that was actively consuming Cradle, hence, "upsetting the balance of nature." Soon after its defeat, a portal appeared, signaling that something was not quite right, even as the world seemed to stabilize. Believing that this portal was the key to ending this abomination once and for all, Biggles, Vrinill, and Umeiri stepped inside. 
And well, you know the rest.

Acquired Lore

• Janokk is the name of the Yetifolk homeland, a vast snowy mountain range in the northern hemisphere of Tian Wu Yan
• The Loyal of the Twelve Lovers has a form whose appearance depends on the observers ideal of beauty
• The Loyal specializes in powerful protection magic
• The Loyal knows that the Cradlers are not of this world, but the how is still unknown
• The Loyal somehow knew of the Pools of Seeing, how it worked, and that it would work
• The region that the party passed through on the way to Janokk had never been mapped or fully explored because of all the scary monsters that lived within
• The Big Bad the Cradlers fought was the Propagator, and it was an unearthly consumer of worlds
• The Propagator was weakened and driven off from Cradle, but not destroyed, and it must be en route to Tian Wu Yan
• More portals have been appearing in Cradle, with people disappearing through them
• Ibu Melati and the Shifters are actively working on their own mission to learn more about the Propagator
• Biggles, Vrinill, and Umeiri had recently completed their adventure in Cradle before they leapt into the portal to Tian Wu Yan
• Friends and family in Cradle are okay

Report Date

02 Apr 2022

Acquired Items

• Minus one Shifters' Medallion
• A temporary party member
• So. Many. Happy. Tears.