Session 21 - "Walking the Wilds" Report
General Summary
Kona 38, 1246
It is the last day of the month, and Thais Argyri is dreaming.
She dreams of a boy of her own age - 15 at the time - and the start of basic training. While she was busy saying "yes sir" and following commands, this young man with sandy blonde, curly hair and eyes the color of marigolds was actively arguing with a superior officer - and, of course, was forced to do 100 push-ups as recompense. He obeyed, but with every upward motion stuck his ass out towards his superior as though silently telling him to kiss it. This earned the young man both a chorus of laughter from the on-lookers as well as another 100 push-ups. He made it to 120 total before collapsing on the ground.
Unfortunately, when she opens her eyes, this first moment of meeting Dimitris is gone - wiped away as if it had never been. The worst part is, she doesn't even realize there's a hole missing in her mind (critical failure). But what she does notice is that the small plant dragon wyrmling she was keeping hold of has eaten its way out of the cloak wrapped around it, and is sunning itself peacefully in the corner of the sunroom/master bedroom.
Thais sits up, picking up the wyrmling (which protests this extremely), and carries it into the kitchen with her.
Everyone is gathered in the large dining space, with Foenix in the middle of making breakfast. They note Thais with her dragon entering into the space and, as she goes to set it down, Jacob stops her just long enough to close all the doors and windows. It's a good thing he does, as the wyrmling begins to run absolutely crazy around the kitchen, requiring the party to pick up their plates and bowls as it comes zooming past them so that their food and drink doesn't spill.
Jacob asks Thais what she's going to name the dragon, and after some debate she lands on Kona. It was born on the last day of the month, and the wyrmling's mother clearly venerated the goddess Kona-Karr. The nickname KK does stick, however.
A sex is not determined for this wyrmling, but in an attempt to travel safely with it (and continue to gestate the other embryos), Foenix takes a large clay jug and fills it with a diluted solution of the nectar and water, with a plate of glass from one of the greenhouses over top of it. The embryos are placed inside, and the terrarium is placed in the cart.
Similarly, KK is given a wooden crate with a plate of glass on top of it to sun itself in, and Thais fashions a harness to keep it from flying off, should she take it out of the crate.
Finally, the party (who have decided on the name "The Fate-Steppers") heads out from the garden and into the swamp beyond. They travel for a good few hours, just cresting out the other side into grasslands when they see a young child standing in the grasses.
As they get closer, they realize it's a little girl. She immediately proves herself to be a nuisance, tossing pebbles with such precision and strength that they cause Foenix to bleed whereever she pelts him, and when Thais dismounts from Arkeo to try to talk to her, grease underneath the paladin's feet nearly send her sprawling. It's very clear this girl is more than she seems, and when she impishly tries to lead them to a circle of stones a little distance away, everyone agrees it is a trap - particularly when the girl vanishes in front of their eyes. They track her invisible movements through the grass, and Foenix, trying to staunch the blood flow from his head, comments that she's too powerful to be left alive if she's this blase about people's lives. A peasant would have been killed by one of her pebbles.
Thais agrees that this little girl is most likely fey, which is only further confirmed when she resists hideous laugher from Foenix, but manages to make him irresistibly dance.
They follow her to the circle of stones, where a large stump of a tree sits in the middle, with a gem embedded in its very center. The girl appears again, laughing, and gloating that she knows something they don't. Micaiah Louvre asks her if it has anything to do with Beauson de'Bete, which she mischievously confirms. She'll only tell him if they go somewhere more secluded, because "he's always listening," and gestures to the gem.
Micaiah doesn't give it a second thought, and as the others yell for him to stop, he touches the gem, sending them flashing into... another reality. The air is greenish, glowing with magic and strangeness, with motes of light that are like the will o' wisps but... not.
The girl disappears quickly, laughing that they had better be quiet. Micaiah and Foenix quickly realize what she means: a goat-creature with clawed hands and three eyes and large as an elephant, making its way towards the stones.
Foenix thinks quickly, throwing up a silent image to hide them all as it comes closer and closer. It's a good strategy, but a silent image is, by its nature, silent, and the party is not as quiet as they would hope to be.
The creature hears, then smells the intruders, and Foenix doesn't wait for it to act first, darting in to stab it and tumbling through its limbs to the other side of it.
The creature is confused enough by this sudden attack for Foenix to hit it a second time, then Thais runs in to flank it. Her sun blade blazes to life as she attacks twice, cutting into its flesh.
With a roar, the creature flails out. It's claws glance off of Thais's armor, but its eye, when it turns to glare at Foenix, make him double over, retching, as some foul illness takes hold in his mind.
Micaiah orders Jonquil to attack, landing a critical hit on the creature - though Jonquil is not able to successfully poison it. Micaiah, for his part, lobs two eldritch blasts at the creature, with one hitting its flank and the other one hitting one of the stones behind it.
Jacob immediately backed up as soon as combat became inevitable, and now calls on his own sorcererous potential to cast mind sliver and shatter in quick succession. The creature manages to shake off the cantrip, but takes the thunderous blow to its chest.
Meanwhile, Olena rages and draws in close, maneuvering the creature so that she and Foenix can flank it. Her two reckless attacks hit, one biting deeply into its shoulder and bleeding red as she works her blade out (critical hit).
Foenix takes the opportunity to stab into its back again. The third eye on its forehead as it turns jars his mind, making him blink black spots, but he shakes it off as Thais comes in with the finishing blow, stabbing her blade into the third eye and dragging its body down onto the ground.
As they sit there, catching their breath, the little girl appears again, disappointedly quipping, "aw, you killed it."
Foenix demands to know how to get home, and she innocently points at the gem.
"You could always go home."
Micaiah touches the gem, and sure enough, they shift slowly back from the Feywild into the real world.
The entire party circles the young girl, who finally introduces herself as Belascia - "Bella" for short. She says that she lives in the town down the way with her "mama."
In turns, each of the party members attempts to coax her towards less painful mischief, which eventually she agrees to reluctantly.
Foenix and Micaiah gift her a plant dragon embryo and a lyre to give her some more constructive ways to focus her energies, and send her on her way.
As she leaves, Micaiah reveals the little he's been able to glean: that Bella is a godling. Her village in winters past was starving and desperate, and her mother had left the sickly infant in the woods where the fey had taken the baby and in return gifted her a fey child with a similar appearance to her own baby.
He warns the party that Bella is only an innocent - if somewhat thoughtless - prankster because she has been raised with love and kindness. If she was neglected, she could become a much more malevolent creature known as a bucka.
The party agrees to come back and see how she is doing at a later time, and with that continues on.
Character(s) interacted with
- Bella, a godling child
Thais Argyri
Paladin (Oath of Redemption) 7
18
13
16
10
11
18
Foenix Stolnent
Rogue 3
Arcane Trickster 4
14
18
19
18
13
13
Micaiah Louvre
Warlock 7
7
18
14
12
15
20
Jacob Sterling
Sorcerer 7
9
8
16
12
12
19
Comments