Session 19 13/09/2025

General Summary

Astraday 23/05/2345

The Iron Pit

A tall, lanky Elf runs into the pit that the group recognises as Joey Swiftarrow who rings the bell to summon Nyx who speeds over in a blur and Joey proceeds to talk to Nyx, seemingly frustrated, waving his arms and pointing at the board and Nyx shrugs and zips away leaving Joey looking defeated
M yells out "Joey, you missed the show darling!" and joey lets out a loud groan and says, "Luck is not on my side today" M gives him a wink and he slumps into a chair, raising a hand to get the attention of a server
M walks to the Kobold and thanks him for the support and that it's been too long since she got to play with someone else, he smiles and bows
M asks for his name (16 persuasion) and he whispers “Axyl Belbridge” M says it's a pleasure to meet him and introduces herself
M asks if he would know where she could get a drum and he walks over to his drum and walks back holding it up to her. M asks if he's sure and he nods and M says, "let me give you something for it at least" he tilts his head, and she reaches into her pouch and pulls out 10 gold pieces that she places in his hand and says "Thank you kindly. If you ever feel like having a jam, we're at Genevieve's Inn" and gives him a wink, he winks back and turns to head out
M can see as he turns that he has hand crossbows and a heavy crossbow across his back (15 perception)
M heads over to Todd, linking her arm around his and says, "Shall we go have a word with Nyx?" and gives a nod to X to say she's welcome to join if she wants
Todd groans and says "I swear you just use me, ok" M says "I can go without you if you'd prefer" Todd says "I don't care, if you need me, I'll help"
M asks if there's somewhere private that they can have a word and he points to a door and says "there's nobody prepping in there, we can go there"

Talking to Nyx

X, M and Todd head into the room and M rings the bell that summons Nyx who appears quickly after and greets them, M says "Hi, I said I wanted to have a word with you, if now is a good time?" He says it is and asks what's up
M says, "First I wanted to talk about getting this letter sent." Nyx says "not a problem. You just want to leave it with me? Yeah. Perfect. All right. all the details on here?" M says yes and casts Illusory Script on it before handing him a Letter to Wellyn
Nyx asks where it's going again, and M says Rosewood and Nyx says "All right. Rosewood. Rosewood. All right that doesn't seem like it would be too hard of an ask. How about this one's on the house?"
M asks if he's sure and he says "Yeah, I don't mind Rosewood. I know I'm a Quickling but trust me I've lived longer than the average quickling" M looks like she wants to ask more but doesn't want to get distracted
Nyx notices her interest and says "Honey, we'll talk about it at a time when you got less on your plate." M says she hopes such a time comes and he adds "Trust me, I love telling my story. You got to have time to listen because I don't want to be interrupted. And trust me, everyone likes to interrupt me." M says he does seem in high demand
M says "So, what I wanted to talk to you about, couple of things actually, the big one. Well, there's a certain mutual acquaintance of ours." Nyx looks curious and tells her to go on and she continues "We have learned that he is in the process of putting plans in place to destroy Ravenswood, and you may have noticed the increased attacks and stuff around here recently" Nyx says "Yeah, yeah, you know, I I have I have"
M can't quite make out what his motivations are, but he seems a little more indifferent than would be expected (insight 10)
M continues "Well, it occurs to me that it is probably be in your best interest business wise if the town wasn't destroyed" Nyx ponders for a second and X says, "You do like working here, don't you?" M adding "You seem to have a good thing going, it’d be a shame to have to pack it up and start somewhere new"
Nyx smiles and says "You're going to hate this but packing up and leaving ain't such a bad thing, but I do understand your plea about uh not having innocent people killed in the town. I do understand this."
M says "I'm not going to ask you to spy on him or anything like that, just we are currently trying to make sure there's a little bit more protection around the town for the average folk and your team here seem plenty capable and I just wanted to ask if you could maybe lend a couple to do you know the odd patrol around town just in case."
Nyx says “I mean more than half the team are kind of off right now. Some went back way back to the ship and others are, you know, have their day off. But, uh, you know, I don't mind really leaving this place. I've been here a little too long, I think.” Todd says, “What the fuck?!” and Nyx says “This ain’t about you Todd”
Todd exclaims “I can’t do anything right” and attempts to storm out of the room, but M is still holding him by the arm, he tries to break free, but M maintains her grip on his arm (2 vs nat 20)
M gives his arm a sympathetic squeeze before letting him go. X goes to try and touch him but instead clenches a fist and resists the impulse

Iron Pit Main Area

G is sitting at the bar with Billy who bemoans how the other pirates took his chest that had 98 silver coins that he had collected, saying that M did deserve it, but he’s just the cook and for all he does for them all he gets in return is bullied
From behind them Dreadnaught Dorian says “Stop your lolly gagging blubbering. Ya be treatin’ the fine miss ‘ere right” Billy apologises
Dorian says there’s something familiar about G and asks if she’s a celebrity, she isn’t
K is heading over to talk to B and gives a quick nod to Axyl who turns to bow and then heads out
K excitedly talks about the Bone Naga before telling him about how there’s supposed to be a big fight in two days in the pit that she assumes is run by Nekros and B says it sounds like they need to be making another trip to the pit and that he at least wants to get another look at Nekros before the week is up and it could be a chance to get Lunae without having to try chase her around

Talking to Nyx Cont.

M looks back at Nyx and says “one last thing I wanted to ask you about. You seem like the kind of person who's in the know about important people coming and going.” Nyx says “Not to mess with your knowledge there, miss, but it's more so I know every single person who comes into my purview aka down here into the town, not so much. But I can tell you every I can tell you everyone who's come here past few days at least.”
M says, “Would any of them happen to be of any noble type station?" Nyx says, “yeah we get nobles all the time, but you'd be surprised that a good chunk of them actually don't aren't the ones who live here.” M is not at all surprised. Nyx continues “they like to come in with some pseudonyms like, oh, my name's Bob Parker or whatever, but clearly, it's not the case.”
M asks if anyone interesting has come by lately, Nyx says “Besides Nekros himself, I mean, not really.” M decides not to ask any further questions to avoid raising any suspicion on why she’s asking. She thanks him and heads out

Iron Pit Main Area

M sees Todd at the bar and goes to take a seat next to him
As B and K are talking K feels a tap on her shoulder and turns to see X who says, "What are y'all talking about over here?" K asks, “How do you mean?” and X says, “I mean, I feel like I've just been on a bit of a whirlwind and it's a lot on information to process” K says she understands that, and X says “I don't know how you do it. I mean, like, I have employees that deal with most of the stuff and all I have to remember is names.”
B is staring down the bar
X gets serious and asks, “Is it really as bad as she’s letting on?” and nods in the direction of M
K says, “From what we know it very well could be, but that's what we're trying to stop.” X says, “It’s not just a madman and his friend, right?” B says probably not, and X replies “Troubling. Well, I'll lend my help in any way I can, but like I've said in the past, my sister was the fighter of the family, and I just have different gifts.” and pouts
K says “Sometimes the best way to take care of things is with multiple different types of gifts. You have been incredibly helpful. Just make sure you're not overdoing it. Okay?” X puts a hand on her waist and just smiles at K. “Okay. Anything for you, darling”
M gets the attention of the bartender and slides a gold piece to them, saying Todd’s next drink is on her, the Harengon takes the coin and gets a top shelf red wine and pours a glass, placing it before Todd who says “I don’t even care that it’s almost noon” and starts drinking
M puts a hand on his upper back which he doesn’t seem to react to at all
Todd takes big gulp and almost slams the glass down and says “You know what? That prick...” And points up to the events board that shows a sponsored night, M puts a hand on him to try and get him to keep his voice down but to no avail and he continues “You know Kelsin just fucking let him book again! That’s fucking insane! And you know what? You know, last time he just had Lunae, right? He had the girl, the woman, the crazy one with the shadow puppet things, you know. And you know, this time he signs up two. He signed up two. Do you believe that?”
M says that is concerning and he continues “Now we're going to have two. He's going to have two of those things probably with a bunch of little shadow freaks. It's Lunae and some other guy. Kelsin has the names” then finished his drink and bangs the table
B has a moment of realisation in that the person he just killed bared some resemblance to the “Rock holder” that Zalthea had mentioned and in thinking back remembers him bearing the robes that are similar to what you would expect to see on an apprentice (15 history)
M remembers that when they walked through The Jolly Jackalope this morning that she could see a light on in Kelsin’s office but didn’t know if he was in there or not
Todd goes to get a refill on his drink and M quietly asks the bartender to also get him some water and they instead pour water into the wine glass and dyes it red with some food dye, M then takes the glass to had to Todd, using prestidigitation to flavour it like red wine and slips 3 gold to the harengon when Todd is not looking
M turns to Todd and says, “Everyone just seems to walk all over you, don’t they?” He replies Yeah." And I let them. I don't know why. I don't know why” then takes a drink, stating that it tastes interesting
M says “Well if you ever want to fuck with your brother, it was fun messing with him, so I’m always down for more” Todd’s ears perk up, and he says “Maybe we’ll get him someday”
M puts a hand on his shoulder again, trying to get him to make eye contact with her (20 persuasion) and he looks up to meet her eyes and she says, “I'm sorry if it ever seemed like I was also trying to walk all over you.”
Todd closes his eyes and tries to kiss her
M goes to put a hand up to stop him as B sees this from across the way and throws a boot at Todd (nat 20 strength) and hurls the boot at an alarming speed. M sees this as it is happening and reaches up to try and stop the boot before it hits Todd and is able to catch it (21 dex save) taking 2 damage as the sheer speed at which it was thrown caused it to heat up
M looks at the boot, then at Todd, then B and back to the boot, taking in the series of events that just happened with shock and confusion because she has to drop the boot due to the heat remaining in it still and just stares daggers at B who is entirely surprised that she managed to catch it
M looks back to Todd and says “So, I'm still kind of figuring this out, I don't know. But I think you should probably know that I think I'm a lesbian.” Todd replies “Oh, what? What's a thespian?” M says “An actor. It's someone who does stuff on stage. But that's not quite what I said. I mean, I am that too.” Todd says “All right, hold on. You're a thespian and you're a lesbian. Yeah. So, you're like the thespian lesbian.”
M can tell that he’s definitely a bit drunk, but he’s continuing to drink the “wine” she gave him
M says, “Do you know what that means?” and he says “I still don't even know what a thespian is. I know you just told me, but I’m really drunk” M says, “It means that I like women” He sawys he does two and she says that they have that in common then and Todd says "Listen, I get it. I'm sorry. I'm, I don't know, stupid. Next thing you're going to tell me is you're a chameleon?" M says, “Not that I’m aware of, but I could be so good that I'm fooling myself.”
Todd says “Or maybe you're like an equestrian lesbian. I don't know.” M says she has done horse riding before, and Todd continues to keep trying to find rhyming words
M stands up, putting her arm around him and says “Alright, let’s get you home” and walks up to the rest of the group with Todd, kicking B in the back of the leg and showing him the burn on her hand and she walks by and he reaches out with one finger, touching her hand and uses lay on hands to restore 2 hit points
Everyone starts walking up the tunnels that lead back to The Jolly Jackalope, filling each other in on what they learned along the way

The Jolly Jackalope

The group arrive outside of The Jolly Jackalope to find it still raining but less so than earlier
M tells Todd they should get him to bed and ask him where his room is, and he points inside the jackalope and leads her up the stairs to the top floor, past Kelsin’s room the floor below and Todd says “Can you believe he gave me the top bunk?”

Todd’s Room

Todd’s room is sparsely decorated with clothes strewn about but quite large
M places a glass of water down beside the bed and sites down next to Todd as he gets into bed and M says, “You’re allowed to stand up for yourself, you know?” He says he’ll do it tomorrow and M says “I’ll hold you to that”
Todd closes his eyes and says “Ok, I’d like to see you tomorrow” M says “We were planning something in the town square at noon tomorrow” he says ok and M leaves the room

Jolly Jackalope Main Area

Having heard that Kelsin has the name of Nekros’ new ally, B, K and G try to find Kelsin (B & G 10, K 5 investigation) they can see there is a room behind the bar that looks like it could be some kind of office
B heads towards the door, seeing it slightly ajar with a faint light glowing from inside, peeks in and sees the space where Todd does all the bookkeeping for the pit and jackalope and another door further on that is shut
B enters, heading towards the far door, finding it locked, K and G following behind. B looks to K and asks if she can give him a distraction so he can kick the door open and she exits the room, G follows to watch
K, desperately trying to think of something to do just starts singing a song from her village (5 performance) and sings it perfectly but everyone around her is giving her looks of unfamiliarity and confusion
At this point M comes downstairs to see this, slightly confused and asks where B is and what’s going on, X is clapping along with K, but G enods in the direction of B right as he kicks the door (10 strength) The door splinters a little but does not break in any meaningful way and he can hear something keeping it locked on the other side but no one seems to notice
K gives K a quick wink as she passes, giving her a bardic inspiration
M walks into the room and puts a hand on B’s shoulder, gently pushing him aside and says “Let me” he steps aside curious to see what she does
M pulls out a couple of hair pins and bends them into a couple makeshift lockpicks and tries to pick the lock (20 sleight of hand) which she is able to do and opens the door enough to reach it and undo the chain keeping it from opening on the other side
The room is dark, with only faint light coming in from behind the curtains covering the window
K continues sing (9 performance + 8 bardic) and the patrons seem to be getting into it now
M looks around and sees a closed book on the desk as well as a chair behind it and a cabinet off in the corner but no sign of Kelsin
M walks around to look under the desk but finds nothing and turns to look at the window, trying to see if it’s open of if there’s any sign of anyone having climbed out of it recently but finds it closed
She does notice what seem to be fresh handprints on the book (11 investigation)
M says that since it was locked from inside that would mean that either there’s a hiding place or that someone left through the window and B and G starts looking around, M telling G what kinds of things to be on the lookout for, giving her a bardic
B does not find anything (nat 1 investigation) but G goes to look at the cabinet and opens it to find an umbrella in the middle that she accidentally drops and when the end of it hits the bottom it makes a hollow thudding sounds and when she knocks she can hear that it is definitely hollow. Feeling around she’s able to find a small semicircle hole and opens it to reveal a ramshackle ladder that leads down
M picks up the ledger and puts it in her bag as G waves her and B over
M looks at them and says, “I’ve got the ledger, we don’t necessarily need to go down there now” B says “Well we’re already here, I may as well take a peek” before realising he won’t fit
M says “I don't think this is necessarily the best time to be doing this. But we've got the ledger. We can come back. We know where this is. Do we need to be going down there now?” B is pouting because he can’t fit, G says she thinks they should come back later
As they are talking about what to do, they hear raucous applause from the other room as the patrons of the bar cheer and throw coins at K
B says, “Well since I can’t fit in the fucking tunnel...” and leaves the room. M rolls her eyes and puts everything back the way she found it and follows
B casts mage hand and has it lock the door from the inside and M uses mending on the door to make it look like nothing happened there
X is standing with her arms crossed, full of coins, some in her cleavage and K is picking up the coins people have thrown at her
X leans over and says “You gotta get these, honey” and bats her eyelashes at K. M walks by and takes a coin from her cleavage without saying a word and keeps walking, X seems to be a fan of that
K gathers a total of 6 gold and 80 silver pieces
The group start heading back to Genevieve’s and as they do so, M walks up to X, who has linked arms with G, and says “Remember that potion I gave you?” X releases G’s arm, much to the relief of her shoulders and turns to M and says she does remember it. M asks if she still has it, she says she doesn’t have it on her, but she can go get it and meet back at the inn then turns to leave, giving M a kiss on the cheek as she does
M tries to hide that she’s blushing and X smiles, skipping off, before catching herself doing so and walks normally.

Genevieve’s Inn

As the group come up outside B notices the smell of blood on the cobblestones (perception 15, M & K 10, G 9) and concludes that a fight happened there recently, within the last 10-20 minutes most likely
B tries to see where the blood is coming from and finds no bodies but gets the feeling there were humanoid bodies
B mentions it to the rest of the group who hadn’t noticed, and M suggests they go talk to Genevieve to see what happened
As they walk in Normal greets them enthusiastically, K asks how things are, and he says they had some commotion earlier
M tries to look around for any sign of Gen but can’t immediately see her
Once they all get inside and try to assess the situation, K notices out of the corner of her eye sees 2 or 3 leeches slithering around the corner towards a table
Norman pulls G aside and says that a letter arrived for her and he slipped it under her door, G says it’s probably from her uncle and goes to check it (nat 1 perception)
K points it out and follows the leeches. M says she didn’t notice (12 perception) and that she’s glad she didn’t, B also didn’t see them (11 perception)
B pulls out his flail, and the group turn the corner to see in the corner booth, an obscured figure in dark clothes sitting with Genevieve who is laughing with him
K notices a leech go towards him and up his pant leg, seemingly vanishing
M sees Gen and says, “Something happen out there?” Gen gets up and steps aside, revealing the other person to be a battered and bloodied Jazen Milano and Gen says “Oh, hey, you're all back. You know, the tavern was almost under attack." K says she heard and asks if everyone is ok.
Gen says “Well, everyone except our lovely two saviours here” The group look at the table Jazen is sitting at and sees it is currently set for 3, but only Jazen is there
M sits down at the table across from Jazen leaning his head back, not having looked to take the group in and says “I was hoping to run into you actually” he hears M and says “Oh! I can’t remember if you were mean to me”
M says “You know, that’s why I was hoping to run into you, I feel that I owe you an apology. I was having a bad day yesterday and I took it out on you and for that I am sorry”
Jazen looks like he’s about to come out with some retort but is surprised to hear M’s words and says “Oh, that’s actually very kind of you. Um, you don't happen to have any of those magic spells that...” and he just kind of points at his blood covered armour and clothes
M gestures for K to come over, before asking Jazen if he means cleaning or healing, he says he’s completely healed but asks if she can help with the clothes and M uses prestidigitation to clean him up
K notices a spot in Jazen’s armour that clearly looks like he was impaled and can see his armour slowly fusing itself back together in that spot
B says, “So what they hell is up with the leeches?” Jazen sits up straight, grabbing his cloak and covering the lower half of his face with it so only his eyes are visible and says “Under a full moon, I turn into a leech monster, it’s my secret” in a very dramatic manner before adding “No, it’s just one of my familiars”
Jazen explains that he has 3 of them, one of which got killed in the fight with the Blackthorn’s men, which catches M’s attention, and she interrupts, saying “Blackthorn's?” He says “yeah, they're not a big fan of me or my friends” M says they’re not really a fan of anyone and asks him what he did to piss them off
Jazen continues “Well, when you steal when you steal from them, like right from under their noses, but you know, it's for a good cause, so I don't really feel bad about it at all.”
Gen steps back and leans to whisper in B’s ear “This one’s a good egg” and winks, B thankful people struggle to read his expressions because is really not happy about this situation, but M can tell without even having to look at him
M asks Jazen what he stole and Jazen makes eye contact with B with a very serious look on his fac, very unlike anything he’s seen from their previous encounters, then looks back at M and says “I don’t know if you know this, specifically, but the Blackthorn’s have...”
M interrupts and says, “Are horrible people?” Jazen looks like he’s about to say something, but M continues “Keep sex slaves?” and he says “Oh, yeah, that’s the one. Sex slaves. I freed a couple, and I have all their contracts.” M says that saves them a lot of work
Jazen looks to b and says “Yeah, well, the whereabouts of a certain Blackthorn are unknown” B narrows his eyes at him in a “don’t be talking about my business” kind of way
B looks at both of them and remembers what she was talking about with X earlier, about arcane security and looks at Jazen saying, “If they were tracking you...” then looks to B and says "They're probably tracking you too” B says “The were tracking me” and M says that they will have more
Jazen looks at M with that same serious look from earlier and asks, “In your world, is there a way to track someone without putting a curse on them?" M says “Scrying?” and he says, “That exists here?” M nods and he continues “Is there a way a magical entity can follow someone from a distance? like an alarm system that follows.” M says “I think we had something along those lines. I'm not sure. I wasn't really allowed near that stuff”
Jazen asks, “Can those things be invisible?” M says she assumes so and immediately casts Faerie Fire, snapping her fingers and highlighting everything around them with a dim purple light
Jazen says “What did you do?” and M says “It can detect things that are invisible” he asks what an invisible thing would look like and she says it will be outlined, he asks what colour they should look for and she points to herself and says “Purple”
B walks closer into the area of the Faerie Fire and once he gets to the edge of the table a dim outline of an orb can be seen floating about 10 feet behind him. Jazen points up and says he’s also got something
M recalls having heard about something called an Arcane Eye in the past that once activated it all it does is go invisible and is easily scryable and will follow a target (11 arcana, B 10, K 6)
M looks at them and says “Arcane eye, I think” Jazen asks what that is and she explains, Jazen asks how they get rid of them, if they have any cool spells that would work
B pulls out George and sends him to identify the object and all he says is “Anomaly! Anomaly! Magical presence detected” and flies right through it
B says “Well, I guess I gotta go torture a guy” M says “I was going to suggest something a little bit more simple, going to see Maratha or potentially the paladins though I would worry if you go there and they follow you and they scry and see who was there, that puts them at risk and we don’t need them to be a target too”
B says “Isn’t Moritha a shopkeeper?” M says She’s a magic user; she’s a wizard I believe she's the one who helped us do the ritual with Sylvara, the one who's helping us figure out the memory shards. She is skilled in magic”
M pauses for a second before exclaiming “Oh wait!” and pulls out a Talisman of Dispelling and hands it to Jazen, B says he has one too
Jazen passes it back to M and says, “If this thing was affecting me physically, it wouldn't work." As the arcane eye keeps a 10-foot distance from whoever it is following
B casts mage hand, gives it the talisman and sends it to the arcane eye which immediately becomes visible and corporeal as the talisman is touched to it
Seeing this M immediately throws a dagger at it, hitting with a 14 and killing it with 4 piercing damage
Jazen sees this and says Ooh, me. Do me next, please." M gives her talisman of dispelling to K who flies up to the arcane eye that it is floating above the roof outside and the same thing happens, and she stabs it with her trident hitting with an 8 and destroying it with 5 piercing damage
Jazen says “I don't feel any different but thank you. Thank you very much.”
Meanwhile G is in her room reading a letter that is not from her uncle but actually a letter and poems from Garrin
M stands up to pick up her dagger as Giuseppe brings some plates of food to the table
G comes back down and joins the group
Not long after a young girl of about 12 and a young elf women walk out from where the washrooms are who looks over at Jazen and says "Are you making friends again? Do you need me to rescue you this time?" Jazen says “these lot are unfriendable. Except for that one” and points at K
Jazen looks at the elf and says, “Also Nara, this one can turn into a cat, it’s crazy” and she says “Oooh show me, show me, show me” and the younger says she also wants to see
K turns to the rest of the group to see what they think
The younger girl looks at B and goes “Oh, he’s so cool!” Jazen replies “He’s not that cool”
K wildshapes into a cat and the young girl gets wide eyed and squees loudly, Jazen says “Rebecca not so loud please, I got walloped in the head” Rebecca apologises before trying to K who stands on her hind legs in the uppies position
Rebecca picks her up and nuzzles her saying “That’s so cool Jazen. Why can’t you turn into animals?”
Jazen starts eating and the Elf pats K for a bit before saying “Hi! I don’t know any of your names! I’m Lilinara!”
B crouches down and holds out his hand and says My name is Bruzrik. It's a pleasure to meet you." She shakes his hand and says “Wow! You’re really big! I bet you could pick me up in one hand!” and B does just that, Lili is delighted and gives him a kiss on the cheek causing B to blush a little
Jazen between mouthfuls of soup says “I could lift you up one handed”
Lili goes around and shakes everyone’s hands while Rebecca is still patting K
G notices marks and scratches around her wrists and neck, as well as a locked metal collar around Lili’s neck, as well as a slight flicker to Jazen’s shadow (perception 16) the rest of the group don’t notice any of this (B & K 11, M 10)
M looks at everyone and says “"Well, we weren't supposed to be all meeting back here to discuss plans. It seems our interests are somewhat aligned. Would you like to join us?” Jazen says "Yeah, you know, I was going to do a little self investigation, but uh you know, I think working solo hasn't been the right choice.” And he looks to Lili and then back to M and say, "If you guys have a plan, I'm all ears." M says that’s what they were going to work on
M goes to Gen and asks if they can use the private dining room again and Gen tells her to wait one moment and runs off
A bit later Norman can be seen ushering a bunch of disgruntled older ladies with card decks out of the dining room
At this point X, J, S and V have rejoined the group

Dining Room

M leads everyone in and uses the Doodle Ring to draw up her conspiracy board on the wall again and fills everyone in on the information they have so far and puts the ledger down on the table saying that they can probably find who the new person is from the ledger
M turns to K and asks, “what did you say the names were that Zalthea gave you?” K says “I didn’t get any names, just kind of some descriptors. There was the stone holder there was the machine lord and then there was the poisoner.”
Hearing the last one M goes pale and K says “That's always a good reaction. Care to elaborate on that at all?”
Jazen says “Those are the worst super villain names I’ve ever heard” Lili lets out a little amused snort
M sits down putting her head in her hands and saying “I hope that’s not who I think it is. Okay, so backstory. And for those of you new here, I don’t normally look like this, it’s basic disguise. It's kind of sloppy if I'm honest, but
you know, six months of it, you kind of get over it. But um yeah, I am on the run from my ex-husband “and she looks at Jazen and says, "You'll have no idea who this is." He says “Yeah, try me”
M says “Lord Blen Mildmore” Jazen says “I knew it. I don't know. I'm sorry.”
Lili doesn’t recognise the name (10 history) and neither does Rebecca (3 history)
V says “Mildmores, they are from New Dawnsbrooke yes?” (21 history) M confirms and he says he has been there one
M says “You may have heard of his reputation for suspicious deaths of his wives” V says “That man has had many wives. Wait, you were one of his wives?” M says yes and he says “should we be bowing to you? Are you royalty or something?”
M says, “Please don’t, I’ve had enough of that for one lifetime” M opens his mouth like he’s about to say something but decides not tom M notices, looks at him and says “I can take it”
Jazen says “Oh, no. I was just wondering if we could call you princess.” M looks at B and says, “Do you have any more boots?” and he pulls off a boot, dropping it on the table and M waves him off and says, “I’m joking” he says he’s not
M says “not princess. Just Lady Micarafae, but please do not call me that.”
Rebecca says “I kind of like Lady Micarafae” M says “okay, maybe you can”
M continues “So yeah, I as far as I'm aware, I am wife number three. There may have been more before me. I'm not sure. The first one I know, he’s of done a pretty good job of hiding. I had to do a lot of digging to figure it out. Second one, he had more of a public image at that point. Um yeah, both of them disappeared, got suspiciously ill, and well, he had a personal physician that he brought on after my first m... Health issues” She pauses for a second before continuing “Um, yeah, just minor health issues, nothing major. But I got a really weird vibe from him. So, I did a bit of digging around and turns out he's a specialist in poisons, quite deadly ones.” (12 deception)
S asks “Like a collector, or did he trade in it? Like did he sell them?”
M says “I don't know if he sold them. It was definitely an interest of his and he did a lot of dabbling in them, and I suspect he'll have needed to test them on something.” S gets a little antsy and quiet
M continues “So yeah, not a good guy. Really hope that it is not the same person because, no, I Not a part of my life I wish to relive”
Everyone gets a little quiet, B bowing his head in silence. As this is happening the door opens and Norman steps in and says there’s a lot of people and says he brought water, putting a pitcher down on the table and says he also got some for the kitty and puts a bowl down for K who starts splashing the water with her paw
M is standing in front of her conspiracy board trying to block it from view, Norman does not notice and says he’ll be back in back in 30 minutes to check in
K does a kitty first pump
M starts silently looking through the ledge as Jazen leans over and says “I know
something worse happened and I know you don't know me, but if you need a third party here. I'm open.” M gives him a very slight nod and continues as if nothing had been said
Looking through the ledge M sees some hastily written notes about Nekros sponsoring events, Lunae and shadow creatures, as well as the name “Riordan Zawisza”. Written under that is “Crossroads” and “Black Crest Guards??”
M gestures for B to come over and points to the book who leans over and starts reading, his eyes going wide, recognising the name, but more surprised by the mention of the Black Crest Guard
B remembers the Black Crest being deeply feared by everyone is town (history 8)
M has heard stories of The Black Crest but doesn’t have the lived history that B does (20 history)
Going back further in the ledger there is less of note other than a couple of other mentions of Lunae
M says, “I know of the Black Crest, I don’t know much, but they’re not good” B lets out a soft growl and says “Oh, I know The Black Crest” and is clearly agitated, M places her hand on his and gives it a soft, comforting squeeze
B closes his eyes, taking a deep breath as he sets the ledger back down and says “I have to be there that night”
S says, but what if other things happen? What if they call us away? What if they put an attack on the other side of town?” M says they’ve got multiple people who can help, V adding that they can form a second team
M says “We’ve got multiple people here, multiple people in other places, hopefully more if my flyers do any good, and we have more on the way. Besides, I have a bit of a plan”
M says, “Is everyone ok if I nap for an hour? I have a Half Elf to try and rescue from the realm of a war god”
G notices Jazen looking like he’s talking but can’t make out anything as his shadow flickers as she is working on writing a letter back to Garrin
M turns to Jazen and Lili and says, “I know you’ve only just met me, but would you trust me to hold on to the contracts?” Jazen looks at Lili and says “You know where I'm keeping them, and you know nobody can get them but me currently. Do you want to give it to this person?" Lili says “Yeah, why not” Jazen signs, looks sullen and says, “I mean, I feel weird holding on to these anyway” and he reaches into seemingly nothing and pulls out a stack of papers saying “there are contracts in there for mostly women, a few men. Some might still be at the at the Blackthorn Estate, Rebecca's and Lili’s are these ones” and reaches in again, pulling out two more and putting them to the left of the stack
M has a look through them, sees a lot of legal jargon but can make out a lot of entrapment, basically stating that the person will be in service for a period of time but with many clauses that seem to extend the time, essentially keeping the person in perpetuity
M says, “I may have gotten in touch with a journalist” Jazen says “Oh, they would really like that” and M continues “That’s why I wanted to hold onto them
As M is looking through them, she notices on Lilinara’s, at the very bottom of the list of signatures is the very crude signature of Zalthea, saying that she sold Lili to the Blackthorns.
M looks at B then back to the contract then looks at everyone else who has met Zalthea. B picks up the contract with a shaking hand, M points it out to X who crosses her arms and nods knowingly
B looks through the contracts and finds the names of the two girls he rescued from the Blackthorns the previous night, he picks them up and stares at them angrily, M notices the tension says “Keep them intact. I don't know if damaging them will have any adverse effects. Let's let Sparky look over them when he gets here. He would have a better idea of what to do and would be very interested in publishing the contents of them.”
B sets them down calmly and says, “you know, I have an idea of someone who might know how to break them and by all of the gods if he doesn't tell me.” M says, “Does he necessarily need to tell you if I can get inside his head?” B says, “I mean, I still need to uh exact retribution on him for all of his numerous crimes.” as he thumbs through the contracts
Jazen turns to Lili and says, “Did she just say get inside their head?" Lili says she wasn’t listening and Jazen sighs, pats her on the head.
M uses message to say to X that they should talk to Lili and make sure she’s ok
G and B are connecting some dots in their heads and both think if it’s actually Riordan or if it’s related to what the clown prince said and that the nightmares can be resummoned (B 17, G 22 history) K is too busy being a cat (nat 1 history) and M had already had the thought but hadn’t said anything yet
B does wonder how Kelsin would know of The Black Crest Guards

Talking with Lilinara

M pulls Lili aside and asks if they can have a word and they head off to a quiet corner with X to talk
X turns to Lili and goes to start talking and Lili says “You’re very pretty” X says “So are you, darling. I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your past.” Lili asks if she means all of it and X says just the highlights
Lili says “Well, I mean I like I don't remember a lot of it.” X asks what she means by that, and Lili says “Well, I mean, I know that I went to Everly Academy of Dance” X says “Ooh, prestigious. I've never had the pleasure, but I've heard of it.”
Lili continues “Yeah. And then at some point I ended up in Ashvale and I was working at a club and like the owner of the club was like really in debt with one of the like gangs there and so...” X leans over to M and says “Everyone’s in debt is Ashvale” Lili resumes, saying “"Yeah." So, like the guy that he was in debt with was like, I don't know how that stuff works, but like that they had it so that if he couldn't pay back the debt that then the leader of the gang would take ownership and then he like killed the previous owner and then he really liked me and so he like decided that I would be his so he would like take me traveling and stuff and cuz I'm like um well my specialty in dance is that I'm a tempress. So y’know I seduce and charm people and then convince them to give Master Vantonio what he wanted. And so that that was like my job.”
X says “Darling, you could come work for me. I'm kidding. I mean, you could have you could have a spot. I have some, but you'd actually fit in. You'd fit in quite well.” M can tell she’s getting a little side tracked and gently nudges X with her elbow
Lili starts talking again, "Yeah, so that was like I think, it was like 10 years ago and then like two weeks ago we were like going to be traveling through Ravenswood or something and like we were just like outside of Ravenswood and this big mean Minotaur lady, she attacked the carriage and so Master Vantonio was like if you let me live, you can have the girl. And so, Zalthea was like, "Okay, that sounds good." And then so they like signed the thing and then she took me and then killed him anyway. And then it was like a week with her, but she said like she got bored of me, which I don't... I tried. I don't know why she got bored of me. Um, and then yeah, she gave me to the Blackthorns and I was there for like a week and then yesterday Master Shall took notice of me and he took me to the baths and then I think he put something in my drink and Jazen told me that that's not a thing that's supposed to happen and it's not good.”
X says “No, it’s not. So, wait, you were at the hourglass yesterday. How did I miss you?” M says “You were probably resting”
Lili says “And then we got back, and I snuck off to see Jazen um cuz I ran into him and he's weird and I wanted to know more about him. So, I snuck out and then snuck back in, and I was trying to sneak back into my room so no one would notice, and I stood on a rat twice. But then, yeah, I was like getting ready for bed and then there was like this big crashing and banging and stuff and all the guards like left. So, I was sharing a room with Candace and so I told Candace to pack her stuff, and we ran and we went and saw Jazen and then today we went and we were trying to find the contracts and we found Rebecca and so I picked the lock in her cuffs and brought her with us and now she's my little sister.”
M connects the dots between the banging Lili mentioned ad B’s late-night antics and X says “Right. Well, you are taking this very well, Lilinara” Lili says “Thanks?” and X says, “I asked earlier, but I think you may have misheard, but are you staying anywhere?” Lili says she’s staying at The Stockpot Inn with Jazen X says “that's probably nicer than anything I could offer. I have a few spare beds at the hourglass. Usually, I use it for staff who are running away from boyfriends, girlfriends, customers, and we deal with them. But I do have another space if you need it.”
Lili says “I think we’re ok at the moment. Thank you though” X puts her hand on Lili’s and says “Ok dear. If you do need anything...” and gives Lili a wink
Lili stares at her for a moment, thinking about how pretty she is because looking at M and X together and asks, “Are you two together?” X lets out a slight laugh, looks at M, running a hand through M’s hair and says “She hasn’t really tried anything” M remembers that no one has really touched her hair like that since her dad did when she was a kid (21 history)
M is blushing and flustered and feels a bit of that warm comfort, but also sadness that she hasn’t seen him in a while, as well as feeling a little overwhelmed and turns to X and says “I um, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that” X says “We can talk whenever you want to” and M walks away to fill in the others on what she learned from Lili

Debriefing In The Dining Room

G finishes her letter to Garrin (charisma 12 + 1)
M walks up to Jazen and says, “You do good by her” He looks up at her smiles and says, “Thanks Fae” M stares daggers at him and he immediately stares at the floor.
M says, “Please don’t call me that” He says “Oh, sorry. It’s kind of my thing, I kind of nickname people. Did I touch a nerve?” M nods and Lili yells from the corner “He likes to be unique! He likes to be different”
Jazen says “Unique New York. It's from my other world. Don't worry about it. Sorry. I apologize."
M is grateful for the change of subject and says, “You’ll have to tell me about that sometime” and he replies “I've never actually been to New York. I'm actually from Australia, but we can talk about that later.”

Report Date

22 Sep 2025

Primary Location

Ravenswood

Related Characters

Session 19 13/09/2025

General Summary

The Iron Pit

Talking to Nyx

Iron Pit Main Area

Talking to Nyx Cont.

Iron Pit Main Area

The Jolly Jackalope

Todd’s Room

Jolly Jackalope Main Area

Genevieve’s Inn

Dining Room

Talking with Lilinara

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