Session 8 - New Horizons

VOD: https://youtu.be/zVIyqzhd3K4 Tavern Therapy: https://youtu.be/rfb4TDHdMG8
Previous Inspiration Awarded: Kriss Keeton for some behind the veil things going on with the character.
*Due to timing issues the events in this episode took place outside of direct timeline order*

Thursday, March 25th, 764

The same evening Brand arrived at Ehlonna's Nursery where he was able to meet Archdruid Irocha Yithlez, a yaun-ti woman who he recognized from the initial bloom of the festival. She was able to show him the care needed to grow a good berry and gave him the supplies to do so. While conversing Brand took a keen eye to what she was able to do and had hoped to come back in the future.

Friday, March 26th, 764

First thing in the morning Brand headed to Obad-Hai Arboretum in the Sunrise District to meet with another Archdruid, Lafren Alderbeam. He is a rather large stoic firbolg gentleman. Archdruid Alderbeam then proceeds to bring Brand rather deep into the swamp and show him many of the native flora of the Bollothglade Swamps as well as their native uses and cultural significance.

Tuesday, March 30th, 764

Late at night and under the full moon, Scarlet Nichols, Tatho Wildheart, Yaros Loubert, and Kriss Keeton leave their room in search of Veiyanitara Lero. As they leave they bump into Brand who had been working to the point of fatigue on the inspiration given to him by the mysterious woman in the swamp. He agrees to help them find her and head to where they had last seen her before they split directions to train. Using their various skills they are able to track her down, where they find her asleep up in a tree. They awake her and she agrees to join them back at the fort where they sleep for the night.

Wednesday, March 31st, 764

The next morning they all make plans to train as they had the day before to gain mastery of the skills they touched upon the day before.
Tatho and Yaros go into the swamps where they continue doing what they had done the day prior. Tatho waited through the waste-deep swamp waters, and Yaros fires arrows at him. They both train to the point of complete exhaustion. When Tatho feels as though he can no longer move, he pulls upon a wellspring of strength and uses the force of willpower to get an action surge and dodge out of the way of the next few arrows. Yaros similarly gets to the point where his arm trembles in exhaustion as the lactic acid burns his arm, but instead of willpower, he pulls from his special bloodline as his arm turns hairy and muscular and is able to nail another bullseye. Now knowing what they are really capable of, they believe they can now draw upon this at will.
Scarlet goes by herself into a deep meditative state to try and reach this wellspring of power. She focuses on letting down her barriers and addressing the traumas and anxieties that keep her from reaching her true potential. As she does this she lets down her 'facade' of scarlet and comes into her true physical self. When thinking back to the incidents that had happened to her in her past, she focuses and goes into this deep mote of stars where her power comes from. In that place, she manifests herself as a young girl. The girl is scared, emotional, and fearful of herself. Adult Scarlet tries to reassure her that she is powerful and able to control herself. The young girl spirals into anxiety and says that she's not like other people, and everyone is afraid of her. Adult Scarlet is resolute and reaches her arm to her and says that she is not like anyone else and motions out to the sea of stars and says "this is us" and calms the younger version down. And as the girl grabs the others hand, she turns into starlight herself and is sucked into scarlet's self. She thinks about how those fears and anxieties never go away, but in confronting them and handling them, she can move past and dive into those great powers inherent in her. She once was afraid to use these powers because of the incidents where she hurt others in her past, but now she can access them and get to them when she needs them.
Vei continues to mess with her star map and unravel how it works. Last time she was able to align the stars to the map to make it work for a moment, and she spends time contemplating the item when she comes to a revelation. The stars never move, it is us on this planet rotating and moving that is what is changing. She is able to make it work again as the previous day for just an instance, and when it kicks out she finds another part of the device that is able to wind and keep track of the movement of the earth. After this revelation, the map is then in full working condition. Vei then works to understand the power of the device and what it is able to do. She thinks about how in her tribe the druids say that their power is derived from the nature around them. So she tries to channel the stars through the device and eventually is able to see that individual constellations light up as she tries to channel it and realizes that there are many combinations and secrets to be discovered on the star map. And for the first time in the conscious world, she is able to speak with her Quori. He congratulates her on step one of understanding things, but she has far to go. He is still foggy and doesn't understand many things, but shows her a series of constellations that cast his guiding bolt, and says there will be more in the future.
Brand during this time is back in the laboratory continuing to work on the peculiar jug that he received from the man in the desert tavern. He believes he is right on the cusp of a breakthrough. He works with some of the animals he collected in his trap, as well as some of the plants he learned about during the Red Bloom Festival. He doesn't make far headway when Romero "Shepherd" Theriot arrives to offer assistance. Brand calls him out as a genocider for killing all of those townspeople in The Shadowed Canyons during the battle with Shomei Tamashi. Shepard scoffs and says that he must have not heard that they had a giant cannon pointed at his head. They trade remarks for a while and Shepard says either he can take a bit of help, or Shepard can schedule it so they never run into each other. Brand frustrated with his lack of progress gives in. He shows Shepard how far he's gone and his goal to make the jug continuously produce different liquids. They spitball for a while when Shepard realizes that his thunder gauntlets aren't dissimilar to this in how they produce a product. They work together on the jug bouncing ideas off each other until something clicks and the jug begins gushing out gallons of water, much more than the vessel itself could actually hold. Brand thanks Shepard and they have a moment where they both talk about their deceased fathers who were inspirations.
The party all reconvenes late that evening at the mess hall at Ford Marshope for the first food since breakfast. Brand shows off his new jug and many of the liquids it can produce. They all also talk about what happened to them that day and some of the breakthroughs that they were able to make that day. They then head back to their quarters and go to sleep.

Thursday, April 1st, 764

The next day they headed to The Neighborhood Barbershop to speak with them as they said to after the festival. Brand speaks first to Xavier Bennet, the human gentleman who he spoke to before the festival, and told him to come back. They exchange a greeting when he introduces him to the other members of the barbers. They talk about how they had heard a lot about him and his work during the The Crying Death. Brand dismisses any praise stating how he didn't actually help people. The gnome of the group, Siegfried Heathertoes who is rather excitable, then reveals that everyone in the group has a nickname based on their work. He himself is the wastemancer, who works with stool samples. Xavier is the pharmagician and works on medications. The Dwarf Tharbom Amberspins is the gastronomer and works on healthy foods. Dawn Calypse, a tabaxi, is the hemawitch and works with blood samples. The Surgeoness, is Edna Tixiong a red dragonborn who works on surgery procedures. And finally is the triton gentleman Wade Cyros, the Dermizard who works with ointments. They state their goals are while many people use magic for healing, they want to push science and knowledge to produce medications that any person can take and administer. They say in order to admit him to the order, he needs to show off a skill. He shows him his new alchemical jug and what he hopes to do with it and they are impressed. They then take a formal vote to see if they will admit him. With a 5-1 vote and the surgeoness being the only neigh vote, Brand is officially brought into the organization. Now being a member Xavier finds it wise that he sees what everyone is working with and schedules for him to go to each member's residence to view and learn.
The Investigator S.Q.U.A.D. then decide to head to the conservationist's office to continue to work on Operation Rougarou. When they arrive they hear two people yelling at each other. When they knock they relay that they talked to Stepinov Antonovich during the festival and said they would come help with the conservationist efforts. They are let in and they find that the people who were yelling at each other were Alya Harris a female human who leads the conservationist and Alro Morris the head of the distributors while Stepinov just sat watching. The investigators find out that they were both upset about a group of individuals who had taken advantage of everyone's Rougarou fears and set up shop in the swamps to both poach the Bollothglade Howler and distribute illegal alcohol. In addition, Arlo lets the group know that he had sent out a young triton worker named Arlo Lavarath to go spy on them the previous night but he never came back. The party lets the others know that they are with the military and will help them out finding these individuals, bring them to justice, and retrieve Nathan.
The Investigator S.Q.U.A.D. then decide to head to the The Alcohol Brotherhood to see if they can get any leads on these people living in the swamps with their illegal alcohol operation, however, when they reach the Divetonk Saloon all of the members are intoxicated beyond belief having completed their fermentation and are not able to be of any help. The party then decides to retire at their quarters for the night.

Friday, April 2nd, 764

The Investigator S.Q.U.A.D. wakes up and decides that they want to go find the poachers first thing. They take some time to discuss battle tactics before leaving, then dress in their military uniform and head out to the area in which Arlo had described the previous day in the Westglades.
Once they believe they are in the general area they begin to look for tracks as well as use their knowledge of howlers that they had gotten during the festival to begin to track them down. They are successful and the party decides that Scarlet and Tatho will approach from the front to talk, and the others will hide amongst the trees for battle if things go bad.