Session 4 - "Gone But Not Forgotten" Report
General Summary
Kona 20, 1246
After Girls' Night, Olena, Micaiah, Seraphine, and Thais have found their way to sleep, when Olena has a dream.
She finds herself in a dark forest of tall, green trees, with a hazy mist that covers the ground. On closer inspection, it turns out that these are clusters of stars, indistinct in their distance and casting the slightest glow about her feet.
A shape in the darkness makes Olena turn, to see the form of a doe bounding away from her. The forest itself suddenly becomes clear in her mind: this is a hunting ground. Flatter ground, well trimmed trees, not a lot of ground hazards - it is made for the stalking and killing of prey. Looking down at her hands, she finds no weapons, but she is in her shifter form.
Olena lowers herself to the ground, stalking silently after the deer. When she finds it in the woods, she leaps for it, but her claws swipe air. The doe leaps in fright, dashing into the woods. Olena runs after the doe, quickly catching up and ending its life with a single bite to the throat.
It is at that moment, that a man appears to her: he is a tall man, draped in a white bear pelt, with scars across his chest visible even through the thick hair on his body. He carries with him an axe. He calls himself Rishar, the White Bear, one of the Urðr.
He (of course) knows about her illness, but councils her not to give in to its death sentence. An animal who gives up on life is dead already, whether it is a rabbit in a snare, a boar with spears in its side, or an eagle in a net.
There is always a chance to survive, even if that means accepting her position until the hunter (Death) comes to retrieve its catch. Strike then, with all might, that you may escape.
Rishar offers her his blessing as guidance, as he sees her as kin. But she is not required to take it - another spirit of the Urðr will come, as they do for all the Valset.
Olena asks for a chance to think about it, which he accepts, and the dream slowly fades away to nothingness.
Kona 21, 1246
The morning dawns cold and grey, with a strong fog and mist hanging in the air. Micaiah being the first to awaken. She takes a bath, then applies her perfume and moisturizer. As she is doing so, she catches a glimpse of Thais from the window, heading out into the city.
Thais, for her part, is tracing the party's steps back to Tenebran Cemetery, where the weeping willow tree grows. She kneels before it, and begins her prayer to Syria:
“I know that I am a wretched thing. Blemished, unworthy, absent of honor. But your eagle eyes pierce through what to me is only deep valleys of shadow. If there is indeed a path, guided by your merciful hands, then I will gather what strength remains to me…and I will walk it for as long as I am able.
Let my closed fist learn to be an open palm. Let my body be a shield to those under my charge, so that their burdens may be transformed so that I may carry them. It is my penance and a worthy retribution. If I must raise my sword, let the cause be worthy. If I must kill, let my hand be quick, my blade be sharp and my strike be true. May they find dignity and rest in my embrace, and so in yours. Let the cruelty be cured from my heart.
This I beseech in your name, Syria: The Compassionate, The Winged One, Angel of Mercy and daughter of the most Honorable Bellatan. If I should fail, I cannot ask for mercy, but only hold hope that you will deliver it.”
She takes out the marigold that was found in the tomb of Arsène Léon, for a moment considering with sorrow how the shade is exactly the same as his eyes, before setting it down and picking up her sword.
Thais draws the blade against her palm, slicing it open in offering to the goddess, and for a moment more still, her prayer seems met with silence.
Then the breeze begins to blow, and the fog clear. A bright and brilliant sun on the horizon, reflecting off the fog and making Thais wince with it's light, shines down on Brillante. She hears a cry overhead, looking up to see an eagle circling overhead. It is the sign she was looking for, and with a sigh of relief, Thais picks up the flower and puts it back within her breast pocket and makes her way back to Filigree's Folly.
Meanwhile, in the garden, Seraphine has just emerged from her cabin, and spots Micaiah in the quickly-dissipating fog. Micaiah, for his part, begins to play a bright, cheery song for the morning times, waking up Olena, Ali, and Foenix from their slumbers.
After the chaos of Boys' Night, Ali and Foenix find themselves in various states of undress and hangovers inside Ali's room. They're also quite beaten up, which is proven when Foenix limps out of his room to head back to his own cabin, fresh bruises and the old scar of the phoenix upon his back visible to Seraphine on her porch.
Ali emerges in their own time, dressed in their finer clothes and ready for a stately breakfast. They ask Seraphine how Girls' Night went, but Seraphine avoids the question, clearly embarrassed.
Though the embarrassment is quickly shared, as Seraphine asks Ali if they and Foenix used protection - misinterpreting Foenix's undress and walk of shame for a more intimate connection than what it is. Ali insists it was just a night of violence, but Seraphine is unconvinced.
When they sit down in the uncharacteristically loud restaurant, Briannon takes their order. Foenix asks for a coffee with something stiff in it, pulling out a tooth as he says so. Thais seconds it, having just returned from her quiet meditation.
Briannon is confused and a bit worried at the request, but she acquiesces.
Thais asks about the tooth, but Foenix waves it off as being a half-orc in a bar brawl.
Meanwhile, Micaiah and Seraphine are listening in on the conversations around them, taking note of the heightened excitement in the restaurant this morning. It seems that the River District has flooded, and is in the process of the Diamond River being dismantled to look for problems. Seraphine suddenly remembers Foenix's oar getting stuck in some spout or mechanism for the river, and realizes that it must have been their doing.
Foenix is suitably stoked by his own work in making the Brillantans just a little more miserable, which reminds him of his loot from the Roche estate. He takes out the gems surreptitiously, just as their special coffee (Thais and Foenix), hot chocolate (Seraphine), and regular coffee (Micaiah) arrives. Perhaps it is the foul nature of the coffee-and-wine mixture that Briannon has brought to attempt to satisfy their order, or perhaps Foenix is not as skilled in appraisal as he assumes he is, but he realizes with a critical failure on his good judgement that these gems are made of glass and worthless. Still, he presumes that they could probably get a good deal out of it if they swindled someone into thinking they were worth something.
Foenix suggests this plan as he passes the bag around the table, letting each person take a look into it. Seraphine corrects him as soon as she gets a look: her dad sometimes works with precious materials, and she can tell that these are real stones. She may not be able to identify them or their value, but she knows a real gem when she sees it.
It's a relief to hear that, as all of the party are beginning to realize that Filigree's Folly may have been a comfortable and safe place to stay, but they are quickly running low on funds, and these gems may give them some breathing room. Of course, they should probably look for a more affordable place to stay as well.
They decide to check out, and as Briannon takes the keys from them and wishes them good luck, Foenix waits until everyone is gone to tip Briannon a gold piece for her service. Then he leaves with the others.
The plan to steal the diplomat's daughter - Honey Fire's - writ of passage is still a go, and the plan to create a fraudulent copy to leave in its place is also still on the docket.
The calligraphy set that Micaiah stole from the Roche estate will help, but the paper in there has no guarantee that it will match closely enough to pass scrutiny.
A plan is made to go into the shopping and entertainment district of Gracile and buy better quality paper and ink and use that to complete the forgery. The conversation then turns to who, indeed, should purchase the supplies and arouse the least amount of suspicion.
Seraphine suggests a masquerade as a wizard, looking for paper to transcribe your spells onto could be something fun, while Ali makes the blunt observation that "people here are crazy," and any number of eccentric and bizarre rich people could need this specific type of paper for their strange obsessions. They suggest just sending in Micaiah to do his noble thing and get what they need, which is eventually agreed upon, with Thais and Foenix also coming along as his servants.
The party heads into Gracile, with Micaiah taking a moment to disguise himself as a generic wealthy human before entering into the book and stationary shop they found: Annette's.
Ali stops him before Micaiah enters, and quietly tells him to check his hand. To Micaiah's shock, his illusion includes a left hand that is curled into a bird claw. He thanks Ali for his good eye, admitting he's still used to this "magic thing," and casts disguise self again, which seems to reset the illusion.
Entering into Annette's, they find it run by a dwarven woman - Annette, it would seem - who helps them find exactly what they're looking for. The paper comes at two silver a page, and the ink is more pricy (but will certainly last much longer) at ten gold for an ounce bottle.
Upon exiting, Thais and Seraphine both notice the Imparadise Baths across the street: a bathhouse and brothel. Seraphine is generally nonplussed, but Thais takes a moment to look at the whores in the window, noticing with some amusement that one is wearing a corset embroidered with a unicorn on it. But she tells no one, and the party is soon on their way.
The party decides to descend into Havre-Ordure to find a place to stay that is less pricy than Filigree's Folly and to offload some of the stolen goods in their (really Foenix's) possession.
He takes them to Druk's Junk, a filthy, sleazy little junk shop run by the orc Druk.
As they enter in, Micaiah, who has disguised himself as, well, himself in less ostentatious clothes, is stopped again by Seraphine, who tells him softly to look at himself in the mirror. Micaiah glances into the dirty glass of the window into the shop, only to get a start when his face, but with a glowing red goat eye where his right eye should be, stares back. Once again, he recasts the spell and clears up the hiccup, but continues on apace.
Inside of this dingy shop they meet Druk. Foenix gives him the bag of gems he stole and asks how much he would buy it from them for. Druk offers ten gold a piece, but Foenix counters with fifteen. Druk categorically refuses, but then Seraphine steps forward and suggests a compromise at eleven.
Meanwhile, the other members of the party are looking around the shop at the curiosities: Micaiah picks up an ancient arrow of some elven make; Seraphine finds a parchment with some complex machine blueprint on it that reminds her of her dad's work; Thais finds a scroll of some magical quality that she declines to break the seal on and open (what would have been a second-level spell scroll Foenix finds a potion with a strange bead of ink that expands and contracts (a potion of growth, that when he asks Druk the price is given at 750 gold pieces and Ali finds a potion of healing. Ali takes a moment while Druk is distracted to pocket the potion they found, and Druk is left none the wiser about the theft.
Druk seems baffled by Seraphine's presence, asking her questions about herself and why she's down in Havre-Ordure. Foenix fields most of the questions, saying that she's traveling with him and that's all Druk needs to know.
Still, Druk asks Foenix to wait a moment, and once the others have left he tells Foenix that Seraphine doesn't belong down here, and that she's too good for the kind of people and life that live in the undercity. Foenix counters that she'll do just fine - even if Seraphine cracks a little bit, she won't break. Druk seems to think even that is too much tarnishing of her spirit, but he lets it lie, and Foenix exits to join the others.
Foenix leads the party to a nice(r) tavern and inn in Havre-Ordure known as the Bitch's Rest (the bitch, in this case, refers to the dog resting next to the fireplace on the sign out front).
After paying for their rooms on the second floor, everyone gathers in Foenix's room. Seraphine calls upon the elements of nature to enhance Foenix's dexterous fingers as he begins work on using Élodie Roche's writ of passage to forge a copy that they can replace Honey Fire's with. It is well done, and to the best of everyone's examinations, it should pass undetected.
During this time, Thais corners Olena. She confronts the barbarian on what she's been hiding, grabbing at Olena's hands, which Olena tries instinctively to pull back on.
But Thais is undeterred, unwrapping Olena's bandages to reveal the raw, peeling skin. She clasps the wounded hands and whispers a prayer to Syria, wincing as the skin knits itself back together on Olena's body, but tears open matching wounds on her own skin before fading completely.
Olena is flabbergasted. She doesn't understand how Thais is unaffected (both emotionally and physically) by dreyra, as infectious and deadly as it is. She has no fear to touch Olena, or be near her. Thais explains that Syria protects her from such afflictions, and asks if Olena worships "the old gods."
Olena doesn't really respond to that, but admits that she contracted dreyra after being bitten in a bar brawl. Thais, still holding Olena's hands, assures her once again she has nothing to worry about.
The conversation ends when they both leave Thais's room, and Seraphine, waiting in the hall, gives Thais a look of knowing.
Meanwhile, Ali and Micaiah have their own private conversation, where Ali confronts Micaiah about his out-of-control magic, and how Micaiah admitted to being new to it.
Micaiah is truthful, saying that he is new to magic, and that studying arcane magic is not well-valued in Brillante, so his actual workable knowledge is slim. But to prove a point that he's fine, he casts disguise self to mimic the "wrong" cast from earlier, adding the goat eye in himself. Unfortunately, before he drops the illusion, Ali notices that there are fish scales on Micaiah's neck in the illusion that he presumably did NOT intend to add.
Ali takes the cue, and says that Micaiah should stop trying to pretend to be someone he's not - that Micaiah ran from the fight with the spiders in the lower levels of Havre-Ordure, but showed no signs of fear for it. Micaiah counters that showing emotions in a place like Brillante is bound to get you into trouble, and he is just acting in his own best interest.
Then, he stuns Ali with one important question: "Ali, who are you?"
When Ali stammers and says that they are just looking for someone to make them pay, Micaiah presses. What does that payment look like? Finally, Ali admits that they don't know. Maybe a few broken teeth, for starters, but they just want to find this person first.
Micaiah lets that lie as the answer, casting disguise self once more to mimic Ali's form (with an unplanned lizard tongue for good measure), which makes the tiefling laugh, and they both depart from one another's presence.
Seraphine, upon seeing Olena leaving Thais's bedroom, stops Olena, and apologizes for using magic on her, but she was curious after Olena's strong negative reaction to being touched during Girls' Night. She used detect poison and disease and is ALSO aware of Olena's illness. She's sorry that she can't help Olena more, and when Olena admits she was looking for a healer in Brillante, Seraphine laughs and says somberly that she doesn't think the people of Brillante are smart enough to have a cure.
Seraphine once again asks if Olena is okay, and when Olena reassures her that she is, Seraphine goes to take a nap in preparation for this evening's heist.
After Foenix finishes with the forged writ, he seeks out Thais's room, knocking before he enters.
The paladin is in the middle of a work out, and pauses her push ups when Foenix comes in and locks the door behind him.
He demands an explanation for Thais's strong reaction to the painting of the unicorn that he stole from the Roches, but Thais refuses to tell him.
Disappointed and feeling slightly betrayed, as he felt that he and Thais had a stronger connection than that, Foenix leaves. He is stopped by Micaiah at the door, who thanks both of them for their help with the forgery.
He does, however, have some notes for Foenix. See, at Annette's, Foenix had been the one to spot the correct ink, and pointed it out to Micaiah. Micaiah informs Foenix that, unfortunately, servants do not speak as Foenix did to him, and that in the future if they pull that ruse again that Foenix would do well to remember not to speak.
Foenix stares at Micaiah for a second before truly walking out. Bemused, Micaiah also departs.
It is while Foenix is packing his bags that Seraphine stops by his room. She asks him what Druk wanted, and if he started acting weird because she's drow. No, Foenix assures her tersely. It's because she's soft.
"Well, that's sexist," Seraphine snorts.
Foenix explains brusquely that no, it's about her demeanor. Her kindness. She'll get eaten alive down here if she's not careful. He thinks she can take a few dings, though, and he tells her so.
Seraphine accepts that explanation, but then demands an explanation for why he's packing. Foenix shrugs. If the heist goes badly, they need to jet fast. But she can also tell something else is bothering him. She's insightful enough (with a critical success) to know it's about Thais.
He admits that he does feel betrayed by her curt refusal to open up to him at all, and when Seraphine suggests just asking Thais why she won't talk about it, Foenix is reticent.
They argue about it for a bit, before Seraphine decides to prove to him that Thais will answer if you ask her directly.
She walks over to Thais's room and knocks on the door, entering after the second attempt to get Thais's attention (the first gets silence and the second a terse "what?"). Seraphine apologizes to Thais for last night, but Thais puts up her hand, stating that Seraphine did nothing wrong.
Still, Seraphine pries a bit, asking about why Thais responded so negatively to Seraphine's statement that Thais was "a good person forced to do bad things." Thais coldly responds that Seraphine is not entitled to know anything about her.
Seraphine agrees, but reaffirms that she does think Thais is a good person. She asks about the unicorn painting, to which Thais finally opens up slightly, admitting that it's a tribute to a god of domination and subjugation, and that she isn't surprised a middling family such as the Roches would be looking for something that could elevate their position.
She reluctantly reveals the brand on the back of her hand: a gauntlet holding a crown. Everything clicks into place for Seraphine. She remembers (with a critical success) a riot in Karasi where a coalition of Skatr's followers attempted to overthrow the government - or at least, intimidate/persuade them forcefully that the new invention of gunpowder could be used to take land from Cactsia or the other nearby nations. That they could be the conquerors instead of the defenders.
The riot was quelled, but she still remembers some that tried to beat down her father's door because of her presence in the house.
Even with this trauma, Seraphine still takes Thais's hand, and softly explains that her circle is about balance. Good and evil. She overcompensates for the good because she knows how much evil she could do if she just let herself go.
Thais shakes her head, telling Seraphine that she's not evil. She knows evil, and that's not Seraphine. Seraphine smiles, still holding Thais's hand, and thanks Thais for telling her about her past. She once again tells Thais that she is a good person... who's done bad things.
She offers to get Thais a drink, which the paladin accepts, so Seraphine heads down to the tavern and orders an ale. The pint that comes back she refuses, insisting on something bigger. The barkeep gives her a confused look, glancing up and down her thin, slight form.
Foenix, who has already taken a seat and is on his second drink, vouches for Seraphine, and so the half-drow is given a cup like a bucket of grog to take back to Thais. She thanks Foenix, and after a pause says that he was right: Thais didn't tell her anything.
She takes the drink back upstairs and Thais gratefully chugs it. Somehow, her Cactsian constitution prevails, and with a bit of a buzz to her finger tips and brain, she has nothing else of drunkenness to impair her on tonight's heist...
Rewards Granted
- 44 gp in exchange for the gems taken from the Roche estate
- potion of healing
Character(s) interacted with
- Annette, dwarven proprietor of the book and stationary store Annette's
- Briannon, a waitress at Filigree's Folly
- Druk, orc proprietor of the junk shop Druk's Junk
Notes
Quotes of the Session
Seraphine: "I'm gonna crack you one day, Micaiah."
Ali: "Boys' Night - completely platonic."
Foenix: "Yes! Down with the patriarchy."
Everyone: stares "This... isn't the patriarchy we're talking about."
Micaiah: "Continue being lovely, Ali."
Foenix: "I'm good at reading people."
Thais: "Read this: go away."
Seraphine: "I cast detect bullshit.."
Beau: "Yes, our special child killing pillow."
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
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