Chapter IV: Burn Like a Star and Then You Disappear

Ai says the organization in the Empire she works for is weird about communication, so that's why she wasn't recieving Cecil's letters
She's been waiting for him since he left when they were forty; he asked her to marry him when they got older around then
She's very obsessive and fixated on marrying Cecil; she refuses to listen to reason
She has a magical aura around her warding the ability to tell which magic is on her, and an elemental in her shadow
She's a part of the Fallen Hand, a dangerous group involved in Empire politics, and tracked us here after the events of our time in the League through divination and remains of cultists; she's also called Ocelot
We try to get her to leave, but she won't, so Cecil teleports us to Kala'il to Melora and Lilly Ann
Cecil tries something on Lilly Ann, and giving part of his soul seems to work somewhat
We head out on horseback up towards Cloudfall, and find an abandoned horse near a dead rider
That night, Cecil Dreams with Gretchen and warns her about Ai
On her watch, Noon secretly brings out the Starman Spectacles and watches the flow of magic
In the morning, we head out

We get some fish for dinner, and replace a broken bridge across a river
We eventually find ourselves at Qwadavra'ai, a bustling town that exports lots of fish, lots of stone and wood construction, some old ruins with very different construction style, some houses use ruins as a base foundation, large harbor with fishing vessels, predominently wood elves but also lots of light and twilight elves
We try to secure passage on a ship from a wood elf named Jenavind, but they say the Ashwind (ash blowing over from the volcano) prevents travel over water and air
We go a witshop looking for trinkets from Cloudfall; we learn about a necklace that may have come from there, but Sumeyer Ai has it
We also meet a hawk avian who might have trinkets from Cloudfall
Cecil hides while the rest of the group frantically try to distract and mislead Ai; she has some of Cecil's hair that she uses to track him, and we unsuccessfully try to take it and the necklace from her

Cecil casts nondetection and sprints out of town to the south before teleporting to Indi
The rest of the gang try to distract Ai; we take her to the tower and drop ice cream down her shirt
Cecil scrambles around Indi towards Gretchen, obtaining a curtain from his boss to cover himself on the way
Thawsayer and Noon make their escape and go to see a man about a sword
Vergil slips into the bathroom while Ai is bathing and steals her necklace and Cecil's hair
Ulima comes to fetch Cecil, and he explains the issue; she says that she will convince Gretchen to move in with her
Thawsayer and Noon fish off the pier, and Thawsayer catches an unusually strong fish with a hard head

Noon and Thawsayer investgate some avian ruins on the way back to the tower
Cecil convinces Gretchen to move in with Ulima
Vergil and Noon burn Cecil's hair
Gretchen tells Cecil she's pregnant, and Cecil learns the gestation period of elves
He tells her she needs to think about it more and that he needs to go, but he'll be back
Ulima scolds him and he returns to the others
Cecil gets advice from Noon and attempts to bluntly turn Ai down, which upsets her, and then works all night
He puts the necklace in his chest

We get breakfast and go down to the docks to meet the hawk avian, Rec, who gives us a pair of bone d4s
Vergil and Thawsayer go to the smith to upgrade Thawsayer's weapon, pick up Noon's sword, and sell some stuff
They board Dumpling and Grapes and sell Floro, Rudra, and The Pisshorse
Cecil and Ai talk a bit about wards and her being scary
Vergil and Thaw return

We go to sleep, and Cecil casts Dream on Gretchen and they make up and make plans for the future
Ai and Cecil talk a bit, and Ai mentions that she meant to give the necklace to Cecil; she looks like she's craving something
In the morning, we head out to Jeriqo's location, which is a reddish badlands with footsteps leading to a pine forest to the far east
Cecil turns into a harpy eagle and flies over to the forest base to get her
Jeriqo says she can't travel with us while we are with Ai, but she can give us "Hunter" (a spider ring) and "Assassin" (a bat bracelet which she can switch places with in a pinch they are magical and can "become" when their names are called with intent
Jeriqo leaves and we teleport to Skylan, in Cloudfall
We have trouble communicating with the locals

We find out that Draconic is mostly understood, and that more people who can understand us are down at the docks, so we go there
An onion seller tells us to check the top of the hill for the big houses to find the sailors, and gives us some jelly cubes as currency (Thawsayer eats one)
We land in the courtyard of a large castle, and a guard approaches us and asks if we are here for contract work; we say yes and he leads us inside

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