NICK IS AT THE BAR (OF COURSE). DRUNK (OF COURSE).
Cal sits down next to Nick with a full bottle of alcohol, puts his guns down on the table, and spins them so they’re facing Nick
Nick is bragging AGAIN!! He calls Cal “Jack”, because that’s the fake name he was given back in Holden
Cal pries for answers from Nick, asking who contracted him to hunt down Cal
It was a group of people — “Thorne was his name… What was the old man that was there? A doctor of sorts…” (He eventually remembers Dr. Pope’s name after some prompting from Kaya)
Cal asks how to get into contact with these people (lying and saying that he just wants to get Nick his full payment)
He was told to go to Iron Forge, but he couldn’t because the entire place was obliterated
They were working with the thieves’ guild in Clover
The code word was “Tall man, little shadow.” or “Little man, tall shadow.”
Nick passes tf out
Cordelia rests
Cordelia goes to the deck, finds a quiet spot to settle down, and starts to read a book
She sees Kade on one side of the boat, looking up at the stars. Julian is doing the same thing on the other side of the deck
Cordelia - doing the exact opposite of what she did the last time she had a similar choice - approaches Kade (instead of Julian)
Kade greets her, and upon getting her name, says that Cordelia is a nice name
Cordelia asks what the name Kade means around here, and he says that he chose his own name
Cordelia asks him if he’s running from something — considering how he mentioned people were following him and how he dropped everything to follow a suspicious group of people on an adventures over the sea
He’s being chased by the thieves’ guild, to whom he owes money
Most other ships were military ships, so he couldn’t hitch a ride on any of those
Kade asks why we didn’t stay in Eldoria
Cordelia responds that we’re looking for a few people, and that we were kinda “thrust into this situation” — in reality, she doesn’t really know why we’re out here, she’s just following along
Kade observes that
Kade asks why we didn’t stay with Balthazar
Cordelia responds that he’s the “meanest motherfucker” that she knows
Kade observes that - between a mean motherfucker and a completely unknown world - we chose to take on the unknown world
Cordelia asks where we’re going
The Solmaran Capital! But to get there, we need to pass through a port town first to get there
He’s surprised that we trust him so readily, when he could lead us into danger. Cordelia says she’d like to see him try.
Kade asks what Julian’s deal is
He learns that he’s currently our “pack mule”, and was once Cordelia’s fiancée. He says that he’s “been there”
Kade learns that Julian made a terrible mistake
Kade tells Cordelia that Julian’s making eyes at her. She says that Julian will need to do something about that
Cordelia tells Kade to “behave”, or she will kill him. He’s chill with that
Cordelia returns to her room
Quén in their room
They take out a piece of paper with some kind of notation written on it, setting it down on their vanity. They ponder over using the paper, but decide against it (at least for now)
They try to contact Vallen via Sending
“Vallen, are you alive? If so… where are you? Please respond.”
“Quén?? I can’t talk but I’m alive but I’m in the middle of uncovering something big, I’ve been told this city is called Langston. I’ll be in touch soon”
Back to Cal and Kaya
Cal draws some dicks on the unconscious Nick’s face: they’re anatomically accurate
When he’s done, he swings by Foo and grabs a tart (elderberry tart, Cordelia’s favorite)
Cal talks to Cordelia
Cal goes upstairs, and finds Cordelia
He tells her that we need to track down the thieves’ guild, to which she agrees and says that we should kill them
Cal realizes that they’re talking about different thieves’ guilds, but Cordelia does not
Cal says that the thieves’ guild is our best lead on Thorne and Dr. Pope
Cal gives Cordelia the tart!! I love friendship :]
Kaya talks to Julian
Kaya rocks up and goes to talk to Julian
She asks Julian how he’s liking the new world — he points out that the stars are different here. They’re brighter, and there are new ones he’s never seen before
Kaya observes that Julian hasn’t spoken to anyone
He says that he thinks that actions speak louder than words, but Kaya encourages him to say something to the group — “I’m sorry”, “I miss you”, etc.. What we need now is action, she says
Julian asks where Cordelia went, with the intent to talk to her
Kaya tells him that he went downstairs, so Julian says he’ll also go downstairs
She warns him that Cordelia “will be mean about it”, but he can come to Kaya’s room if it goes wrong
Julian talks to Cordelia
Cordelia hears a knock on her bedroom door (she doesn’t realize it’s Julian)
When she asks who it is, Julian tells her that it’s him. She reluctantly tells him to come in
Julian opens the door, but doesn’t walk through
“Listen, I know you don’t want to talk to me right now, but I have this… I’m sorry. And, I miss you. And… I don’t know what else to say, but I know that. I did something wrong. And I’m trying to pay for it- RE-pay for it. I don’t need you to respond at all, I just need you to know that I am incredibly sorry.”
Julian begins to shut the door, but Cordelia tells him to wait, and tells him to come in
Cordelia is sitting at her desk, and Julian stands awkwardly near the bed (5-10 ft. away from Cordelia)
Cordelia asks Julian what he ACTUALLY remembers
He remembers everything until we entered the Underdark
He doesn’t remember going into the Father’s realm — he just remembers the door. After that, he remembers being punched in the face, falling to the ground, and the rain.
Everyone’s told him that he fucked up, but he hasn’t gotten the full story yet
Cordelia tells him that she doesn’t hate him! Her attitude right now has been borne from a responsibility to avenge a friend that was killed, and to find someone that she loves.
She tells him that the thing Julian did - for her sake - wasn’t needed (even though she understands why he did it). Which is where her anger stems from
She’s not angry that he made the deal, he’s upset that he didn’t have faith in her
Julian says that she’s a competent mage, and that she’s stronger than most people in the Capital. But he didn’t know that at the time
Julian says that if he could go back, he probably would have made the same decision (not that he remembers it). Knowing his feelings towards her, he probably would make the same decision over and over again
Julian says that all he wants to do is atone for his sins and help Cordelia find Vallen
Cordelia stands up, and gives Julian a hug
Vallen is alive!!
Quén tells the gang about Vallen’s message!
Upon learning that Vallen is alive, Cal’s hands drop to his side and he begins to cry
Quén goes to hug him, and Cordelia places her hand on his knee
The party goes up to the deck to talk to Kade
We ask him what he knows about Langston!
It’s the human capital of the world, and is filled with half-humans
It’s also the HQ of the thieves’ guild, and his logic for going to the Capital is that they won’t expect him to be in their home
Cordelia observes that he hasn’t thought this all the way through
Kade asks what our deal with Vallen is
Quén asks Kade if he’s ever had someone he cares about more than anything. He responds yes, and they say that Vallen is just about that for us
Quén walks to the back of the ship, and the rest of the party follows
They tell the party that they haven’t tried something like this before, although Balthazar told them they could do something like this
They raise their hand, feeling the Weave between their fingers. They pull on it, and the ship LURCHES forward as the current changes to flow in our favor
EVERYONE HAS TO MAKE DEX CHECKS
Cordelia almost falls over, but Julian catches her, pushes her upright, and falls over instead
Cal does a solid frontflip
Kaya does a SICK-ASS BACKFLIP and lands Spiderman style
The ship is SAILING through the water — a lot faster than Quén thought it would
There are a few groans below deck
Quén goes downstairs, back to their room,
Sailing Downtime
3 days pass!
Cordelia and Julian are talking again!!
Cal tinkers (one of the rolls is a NAT 20)
Cal notices that Quén is more cheery and energetic lately, while Kaya notices both that and that there are moments when Quén’s accent slips and they sound a little more like Camille
Arriving in Ashborne
We pull up to the port town (Ashborne) that we have to pass through to get to Langston
As we dock, a tabaxi walks up to us with a clipboard
Since Kaya’s the first to disembark, they approach her. They look her up and down, writing stuff down on their clipboard
They ask her what our purpose here is
Traveling and seeing the sights!
Do we have a pass?
No, but we’re able to purchase one
How long are we planning on staying in town?
Not very long, we’re just passing through
Kaya receives a slip of paper containing our ship’s information, when we arrived, and roughly how long we’ll be sticking around
FLASHBACK: Quén casts Engrave on the side of the ship to engrave the ship’s new name
Walking into the city, we see types of people that we have NEVER seen before: dragonborn, goliath, genasi, loxodon, aarakocra, githyanki
There are a few githyanki about, but they appear to be ambassadors
Kade joins us on the dock. He says that he will “acquire” a pass for us
Quén asks him if there are places they can buy a magic item/spell component worth 1k
Our gold is marked and doesn’t look ANYTHING like the Solmaran gold — so if we’re to buy something, we’ll have to barter like crazy
Kaya, Cordelia, and Quén
Salespeople keep trying to get our attention!
A red tiefling child walks directly up to Kaya, holding a fancy looking vase. He’s wearing rags. He keeps trying to push it into Kaya’s hands
The price is originally 20 GP, but when Kaya doesn’t give in he drops the price to 15 GP
The kid does a magic trick, wearing a tarnished silver ring. He pulls out a Solmaran gold coin and does the BG3 coin flip trick (implying that the ring gives you good luck and lets you predict heads or tails)
TL;DR: the kid tries to fleece us just like in BG3, but Kaya catches them before they can pickpocket us. She tries to give the kid a gold coin, but it gets tossed aside (kid assumed it was a fake) and picked up by Quén
Kaya gets pulled aside by a shady figure, who invites us to buy some contraband. To enter costs 100 GP or a service (Kaya and Cordelia pay the 100 GP, and Quén says they can dispel curses on magic items)
Quén is looking for a silver mirror that they can use to cast Scrying
WE GET IT FOR FREE??
NAT 20 INSIGHT CHECK: the salesperson says that - once one joins the thieves’ guild - one learns that there are certain things one learns to “let go” if it doesn’t involve them
Kaya and Quén are confused, but decide to take the mirror and skeddadle
Cal and Kade
Kade tells Cal to let him do the talking, AND THEN TRIES TO FRAME CAL FOR THEFT??
CAL GETS ARRESTED 💀💀💀😭
As Cal gets pushed into the warden’s office, he flashes Kade a look like “I’m going to kill you” (Kade 👍😃👍)
Kade also gets brought in for questioning
As the officers turn to fill out some paperwork, Kade ducks behind a desk covered in paperwork. He grabs a piece of paper off of a pile, and casually walks out the door, leaving Cal behind
30 minutes pass, and Kade returns
Kade says that he wants to drop the charges against Cal, focusing on rehabilitating him at the church rather than imprisoning him
The guard thanks Kade for wasting his time, tearing up the paperwork that was meant to process Cal
Cal is let out to follow Kade, and as he leaves he fistbumps the other criminals that he’s made buddies with during the time he was waiting
Cal is mad at Kade, but is reluctantly NOT mad at him
Cal takes the pass that Kade stole and puts it in his Ring of Holding
Cal asks Kade what he’s running from, since Kade technically owes him a solid now that Cal played along with his plan
Kade used to work for the thieves’ guild, and got into a little of trouble with the guild because he stole something for them but refused to kill someone they wanted him to
Because he didn’t kill the person he was asked to kill, they ratted out the portion of the thieves’ guild that Kade was a part of
The prisons that the thieves’ guild burned down, and those that escaped warned the thieves’ guild that Kade was a snitch
Cal says he understands and appreciates Kade sharing, since it makes it easier for us to keep an eye out for danger
Cal asks if Kade knows the thieves’ guild well — the response is yes, and Kade agrees to teach him some things about it
Reconvening at the ship
We set sail towards Langston! (we don’t pay our fee again 💀)
As we approach Langston, Cal’s Ring of Holding begins to burn and tighten around his finger
He dumps EVERYTHING out of it, and the pass Kade stole floats into the air and burns away, signifying that it has been used
Arriving in Langston
The place is MASSIVE. The city is roughly the size of the entire Diamond Kingdom
As we dock, a few other Eldorians disembark and explore (sticking nearby the ship)
Kade welcomes us to Langston!
There are a TON of humans and half-humans
He says that there’s a bar nearby that he wants to take us to - for both pleasure AND business - so he can introduce us to some people
There’s also a job board there!
The King’s Hand Bar
The place is HUGE! Similar to Foo’s bar, but larger in size. It’s filled with barmaids and shit
There’s an empty table that Kade sits us down at
Kade tells us that:
This bar was one of the first in the city, and makes a joke about how the king has a right-hand man and the left hand is for beer
One of the people he wants to meet is coming soon!
He can get us a job after this!
Quén asks why Kade is so willing to help us — he says that we’ll find out soon enough (their response to that: “ominous”)
Alexios tells us that it’s about time that we understand what we’re dealing with, and for Kaya to understand the city we’re in
He gets up and leaves through the door that Kade left through. We follow him.
The door leads to a cavernous room: the sewers. It’s lit up by torches, with a big table. Alexios leans against the wall and gestures for us to sit.
As we sit, a few people - some cloaked - walk into the room and lean against the walls like Alexios does
A woman - tiefling woman with blue skin - sits at the head of the table
Alexios is waved over by the woman. He walks over, pulling out a gold needle and holding it out, gesturing for Kaya’s hand.
When the needle pricks Kaya’s finger, her blood - usually red - is gold
The woman asks Kaya what her name is. She tells her it’s a beautiful name. She tells Kaya that The King’s Hand is the bar’s name, but it’s also the name of the organization she works for
She promises that she will explain everything in due time, but she first wants to welcome Kaya home
The woman pulls her hood back AND INTRODUCES HERSELF AS KAYA’S MOTHER??????
KAYA’S NOT HER NAME??? KAYA’S TRUE NAME IS MERIL ERIN SOLMARA
SHE IS THE ROSE OF SOLMARA
KAYA’S LITERALLY THE PRINCESS OF THE ENTIRE WORLD 💥💥💥💥💥💥