Picking up EXACTLY where we left off
- The gang is back on the Fogstrider!
- Erin Thorne’s ship is turning towards us, preparing for pursuit
- Cal is still on the other ship (we don’t know this)
- It is PISSING rain rn
- Erin Thorne’s ship is turning towards us, preparing for pursuit
- Quén says that we should get away and figure out where Cal went
- Kaya uses the Sending Phone to message Cal: Cal, I swear to god if you’re not alive. Please fucking answer.
- Kaya’s like “Which one of you fuckers was talking to me during that fight?”
- Everyone is like??? we were dead silent
- Kaya curses and says that she better not be entangled with some god right now
- Quén casts Control Water to create a whirlpool in front of the enemy ship
- The enemy ship, which was turning towards us, continues to turn and is now facing the opposite direction
- We decide to regroup somewhere where it isn’t raining, so we go belowdecks
We Regroup
- Now out of the rain, we ask Kaya about her newfound water powers
- She’s like “I don’t know what’s happening”
- Quén asks Cordelia to use her “magic eyes” to look for any residual magic
- Cordelia is like “I can’t 😶” and we’re like ‘WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE CAN’T”
- TL;DR
- Cordelia reveals to the party that she can’t cast magic anymore
- Quén reveals to Vallen that they made a deal with the Father in exchange for a piece of the Pyramid and the Orb, but didn’t get a chance to elaborate on the details of the deal beyond that
- Vallen gets overwhelmed and upset (at EVERYONE in the party) and tells them that he’s going to go to his room, alone, to process everything he just learned, alone.
Decompressing
- Kaya says that she needs a drink, and extends an invitation to the rest of the party to join her
- Quén does, but does not want to drink
- Cordelia declines, and secludes herself
Kaya calls her mom
- Kaya takes the Sending Phone and dials her mom, asking her about her water powers and about the voice she heard in her head
- Kaya receives a message back, and is UPSET
- She’s distraught about something about “trials” and her mom having “much to prepare”
- Kaya tells Quén that she has “trials to complete” and that her mother will “get back with [her] soon”
- Quén mentions that the Father did mention something about trials when looking at Kaya, and pauses before they mention the “losses” when he was looking at Cal
Quén casts Scrying on Cal
- Quén scries on Cal
- Big picture, they see the other ship
- Their vision zooms in on the bottom of the ship, and they see Cal sitting in a cell
- Cal looks a little beat up — he has a busted lip, and a few bruises. He isn’t bound, but the bars of his cage are glowing blue
- Their vision pans to the side, and they see Erin Thorne standing outside of the cell, hanging onto the bars
- The quicker you tell me where she IS, the quicker you get to leave
- Cal wipes the blood off his face, going “Oh fuck” and then spits the blood in Erin Thorne’s face
- Erin Thorne is like “We have more work to do” and Cal is like “Yeah, you still hit like a bitch”
- Are they gonna fuck???
- Side note: we talk about the cock and ball torture scene in Casino Royale
- Erin Thorne takes a drag from a cigarette, and flicks the half-smoked bud at Cal
- Cal flinches, picks it up, and smokes it
- Erin Thorne tells Cal that he’s not going home then
- Erin Thorne tells Cal that his friends have pieces of the shapes
- Cal is like you know I don’t have friends
- Erin is like “you had a village full of them a long time ago.” AND THEN HE MENTIONS STABBING VALLEN (he’s fine tho. stabbed but alive.)
- Cal is like “who HASN’T stabbed Vallen”
- Erin Thorne asks Cal how he contacted the Raven Queen
- He reveals that he knows that the Raven Queen offloaded his contract onto The Outsider
- He tells Cal that - since The Outsider owns Cal’s contract now - he owes no allegiance to the Raven Queen, so Cal can tell him what he needs to know
- Erin Thorne wants to know how to get to the Shadowfell
- Erin Thorne tells Cal that - when they get to their destination - he will talk, or he will die.
- Cal tells Erin Thorne that he will have to kill him in this cage, because when he escapes, he will kill Erin Thorne first
- Erin Thorne tells Cal that “the Bloodhunters will have a field day with you”
- Erin Thorne threatens to turn the ship around and go after Cal’s friends
- Cal is like “lmao bet” and ragebaits Erin Thorne so bad that he goes “FUCK you, Cal” and walks away
Cal continues to be imprisoned
- Cal tries the bars — they don’t budge an inch
- He - and Quén - notice that the bars are made of mithril. They pulse with blue light
- Cal’s belongings are outside of the cage, but he still has his magic armor and special ring
- Cal contemplates using his Shadow Step ability on some interconnected shadows to let him just walk out of the cell
- He attempts to Shadow Walk — he becomes enveloped in darkness, and as he tries to walk through the bars, they glow and buffet him back
- He tries to call his Daggers of Recall
- They ping off the magic bars and fall to the ground
- He reaches through the bars (he has to take off his ring to do so) and grabs the daggers, but can’t bring them through because the daggers are magical
- Quén watches Cal try to escape for like, 5 minutes 💀
- At some point, Cal looks at a corner of the cell (like he’s on The Office) but looks in the exact opposite direction of the censor
- Cal realizes that Quén is probably scrying on him, and attempts to communicate
- He uses sign language to say “Erin Thorne is here”, but Quén both knows this already and doesn’t understand sign language 💀💀💀
- They try to memorize the hand signs so they can pass the message on to Cordelia
Cal prays to the Raven Queen
- Cal closes his eyes to pray to the Raven Queen, and when he opens them again, he’s in the Shadowfell
- The Raven Queen is walking nearby, holding a black book and reading
- He looks around, and realizes that he’s in a stone room with a desk and books/shelves
- She’s like “Cal, how did you get in my room??”
- Cal tells her that he doesn’t know how much time he has, but he tells her that Erin Thorne is here and he’s been captured
- She goes to sit on her bed, and Cal moves to sit at her feet. But when he tries to approach, he bumps into an invisible wall — likely his mithril cage
- The Raven Queen asks Cal where he is: he tells her that he’s on a ship, separated from his friends
- She’s like “how did you get separated from your friends so fast???” and says that she will try to look for him
- Cal fucks around and asks her what she’s doing tonight 😏 she doesn’t super respond
- The Raven Queen says that she’ll reach out to The Outsider, to see if he can find and help Cal. She tells him that he’s in a pickle :(
- She gestures and tells him that he can go now
- Cal is like “I don’t know how :(”
- In the distance, Cal hears his name being called
Cal returns to the real world
- Cal awakens to find himself face to face with the bars, and Erin Thorne is in the room
- Erin Thorne smirks, and says “So that’s how you do it”
- Erin Thorne chides Cal after he realizes that Cal asked the Raven Queen for help
- Erin Thorne comments on how they’ll be busy, and calls for Thraxxus
- Quén’s vision begins to shake as Thraxxus’s thundering steps approach, and the vision ends
- CJ ASKS CAL TO ROLL A STRENGTH SAVING THROW. HE ROLLS A NAT 1 😭😭😭😭😭😭
The Scrying ends
- Quén looks at Kaya and tells her that they fear Thraxxus will “have his way with Cal”
LILY NOTES START HERE!!!
Ozwin asks Delia why her aura is different. She says, “I went a different direction.” Kaya then updates him on basically all the dumb shit we did. Quen goes into further detail about the deal they made with the Father, their motive behind it, and the pieces of the shape we have now.
Ozwin = super not happy with us right now. He is visibly shaking. He asks Quen what they gave in RETURN for the pieces of the shapes. He says you could have just NOT taken the deal. Goal now is survival
Delia seems incredibly lackadaisical about everything. Ozwin says “Delia… all that hard work…” Her lip quivers, and she steels herself. “I do not regret my decision.” “I know, which is why we need to figure something out in the meantime.”
Ozwin suggests we find land and regroup in an effort to find Cal, who is currently being assfucked brutally by a chain-smoker and Kaya’s alien uncle.
They discuss finding an island closer to where Cal’s ship may end up—and we have no way of contacting him.
Ozwin is so fucking hot and sexy, he’s aura farming right now and taking charge I need him to take his shirt off and drench himself in honey butter so I can lick it off his nipples god damn. Not a dry seat in the house.
He suggests we need to get Vallen and fill him in on everything. Kaya volunteers, since he is the LEAST angry at her. Ozwin says “I’m going to go find Kade and drink with him +fill him in.”
He essentially says if anything else happens, tell him ASAP. We are all fucking up royally. Kaya says she is going to try to test her new powers while she waits on a reply from her mother.
Quen and Delia stay behind, in ‘Vallen is mad as fuck at us’ jail.
Quen decides to go on a walk, Delia stays behind in the bar and shuffles through her cards silently.
As Quén goes up to the deck to walk in circles and process their situation, they realize the rain has stopped and the sun is beginning to rise
Kaya speaks to Vallen
- She goes up to the bar, grabbing a drink for herself and Vallen
- Kaya knocks on Vallen’s door. Vallen tells her that the door is open.
- She gives him her offering (the drink) and he responds by saying that she wants to talk. She nods.
- Vallen’s room as a bed off to the side, and a window currently covered to block out the sun
- Kaya apologizes for taking up Vallen’s entire night, and for us being “so high-maintenance”
- Vallen is like “to be honest, you’re not” (REAL AS FUCK KING)
- Vallen mentions that she learned a new ability, and Kaya hopes that it will be useful
- Kaya says that family can be complicated, and that she hopes to beat Thraxxus’s ass one day
- SIDE NOTE: CAL BURPS SOMETHING FIERCE (normal burp)
- Vallen asks Kaya if we need to plan a way to get Cordelia’s magic back/our next steps, or if HE needs to plan it
- Kaya says that - being separated from him for so long - we kinda had to get our shit together, so he doesn’t need to plan everything
- Vallen says that - after we get Cal back - we need to find the Doctor (Dr. Pope)
- He’s baffled by the fact that he’s involved in all of this — he was initially just supposed to be a handler for us
- He’s not upset about being around us, but he knows that the longer he’s with us the more he learns about how he’s intertwined with everything
- Vallen admits that he’s siding with Cordelia in her opinion on the gods — he agrees that we should probably kill them
- Vallen says that he feels that we’re getting more disorganized as time goes on, and that we’re handicapping ourselves
- Kaya says that maybe it will allow for even more power
- KAYA PERCEPTION: 11
- While she’s talking with Vallen, she sees - under his bed - a bag that is FILLED TO THE BRIM, with his bag of holding sitting next to it. Almost as if he’s preparing to leave.
- He tells Kaya that he will leave everything in her capable hands
- She asks if he means permanently
- Vallen looks at her, at the bags, and looks back.
- “Well I, for one, am going to get Cal. But now I have to wait until nightfall.”
- Kaya says that she will NEVER allow herself to be on a team that will allow Cal to be taken permanently. However, she admits that we’re dealing with forces that we aren’t familiar with, and that we need to think things through. She urges Vallen to come talk to us before making any big decisions, and he agrees to.
- As they go to regroup with the gang, Kaya tells Vallen that she contacted her mom and that she’ll figure out her stuff — which will take at least one thing off Vallen’s plate
- Kaya and Vallen return to the bar
- Cordelia is still there, shuffling through her cards. She and Vallen do not address each other.
- Kaya tells Vallen about our plan to stop at a nearby island
Quén cries
- In the middle of their pacing, Quén is hit with the reality of their situation and what they agreed to do
- They find a quiet corner of the deck, behind some boxes, and cast Silence around themself
- They have some privacy, since people are going back to bed after dealing with the terror of having to flee in the middle of the night
- They’re frustrated at their situation, at their friends for making them feel like they had no choice but to take the deal, and like they’ve been backed into a corner. In response, they crouch down and cry.
- They cry until Silence ends, and then they return to the party.
The Party Reconvenes
- Quén returns to the bar and to the party
- Kaya sees Ozwin filling Kade in in the corner
- We hear a THUMP on the floor above us
- THE GANG RUNS UPSTAIRS
- We see Captain Seamus standing over a prone Cal, with a white raven flying away
- Cal struggles, climbing back to his feet. He seems angry and animated
- He sees us and smiles, relaxing. As soon as he does, he collapses.
- GROUP PERCEPTION: we all pass
- As we run up to help Cal, we see that the armor he normally wears - his Armor of Convenience - is glitching a little, because his left arm is gone. Ripped off above the elbow.
- There are singed white feathers on the ground. Cal is also a little singed.
- Quén drops to their knees, grabbing Cal and shaking him awake. As they touch him, they cast a fourth-level Cure Wounds and expend a hit die, giving him 22 hit points and 8 temporary hit points
- Cal is joking about how he lost his arm - clearly coping with humor - and how he was able to see the Raven Queen again
- He tells us that
- Vallen calls out from below deck - being unable to go out into the sun - and asks what’s happening
- TL;DR
- When Quén calls Foo to inform him of the situation, he whips up a MAGIC ARM in a matter of MINUTES (big spike) that is shoved into Cal’s stump to create a new arm for him
The gang speaks to each other (finally)
Lily took notes!! Thank u pookie <3
- Vallen is like “I had a great convo with Kaya, but I haven’t talked to either of you two (Cordelia and Quén)”
- Quen asks what Vallen would like to know. Vallen says he is more upset as to why everyone else wanted to take the deal.
- Quén maintains that what’s done is done, and now all that’s left is to deal with it.
- Vallen asks what we are doing gathering the shapes in the first place. Quén says it is to keep them away from the Father—he counters that the Father not wanting the shapes spells more trouble than him wanting them.
- Everyone except Delia maintains they have no idea what they are doing via a ‘raise your hand’ situation.
- Kaya chimes in that the next best choice would be finding the Doctor.
- Vallen essentially says we have no actual path right now and lowkenuinely he is being a fucking prick.
- He says he is not upset that a contract was made, but that it was Quén.
- Quén says “I did not want to make the contract, I just didn’t want anyone else to.”
- Vallen asks what we do when we find the corpse—then asks where the hell it would even be since it is ancient and fucky. Also, what are the consequences of all of this? What if the world explodes? FUCK.
- Vallen is just very exasperated with us and maintains that he isn’t anyone’s parent, but he is a part of this and does not know what to do next. We are not ready and he happily reminds us of that.
- He continues to double down that we are not ready to take on the father, to find the Doctor, to find the corpse, to fight Thoraxis.
- Vallen posits that the Father has power over words—Quén backs this up by explaining the whole ‘kneel’ thing.
- Vallen says the only time he ever felt like he could hurt the Father was during the final battle—but even then his blades were not enough. Which is why he felt the need to develop these new powers.
- Kaya mentions that the Father has a way of leading us to where he wants us to be, while painting it to look beneficial for us. There is no actual way to know what his plan is. Quén mentions that the next best idea is the trials with her mother.
Vallen speaks to Cordelia
- Vallen looks at Cordelia, and says her full name — not calling her “Delia”
- He corrects himself, calling her “Delia”
- Vallen: “I do not understand why you would put yousrelf in such peril. I do not think it was the greatest idea, and I feel like you put us in danger because of this. But… I do believe that this is the path you need to go down. And I’m very proud that you-”
- CORDELIA INTERRUPTS HIM.
- Cordelia admits that what she did was the worst thing that any mage could do. She says that she has her reasons, but she isn’t willing to share them now.
- She admits that that was probably the “least prudent choice [she] could have made”
- She says that Vallen is not a child, but neither is she. In the same way that she shouldn’t belittle Vallen, he shouldn’t belittle her.
- Cordelia goes on to say that she will deal with the consequences of her actions - and reap the benefits of them - on her own, and that if her decisions get her in trouble, Vallen should not help her
- Vallen counters and says that her decisions affect the party, and that the consequences of her actions also inadvertently affect us. He says that he’s not angry with her, but says that we’re concerned with the way she’s going and the decisions that she’s making.
- The gang generally agrees that Cordelia should keep us involved and try not to make decisions like she’s alone, because we care about her
- We also say that she’s different from Balthazar in that she has us, while he’s alone in his shack. She should lean on those differences instead of turning into him and turning into a new version of his Celeste
- Cordelia admits that she probably should have thought her decisions a little more, but she admits that she did it in part to test a theory
- She can still feel magic, despite being completely stripped of her magic. It feels almost innate, not connected to her cards
- Vallen learns that Cordelia’s Tarot Cards are made of Ihy’s skin
- Cordelia admits that she’s scared because of this feeling, but also deeply liberated
We plan (before Cal wakes up)
- Vallen says that we should probably come up with a plan before Cal wakes up
- We agree that Cal will immediately want to kill Erin Thorne
- We agree that we should probably scry on Dr. Pope — we need to find closure with him, but he’s probably in the Capital
- Quén can try to do so, but we’d have to wait until tomorrow since they JUST scried on Cal
- Vallen is like “btw I can cast magic now???”
- Started since he was teleported to Solmara — he can cast Lightning Bolt and Dispel Magic (both of which are 3rd level spells). However, he hasn’t experimented with it very much.
- Quén is like “aight bet” and hands him the silver mirror they got from the black market and start walking him through the steps of Scrying
Vallen casts Scrying on Dr. Pope
- As Vallen casts Scrying, and the vision of Dr. Pope appears on the mirror
- DR. POPE FAILS HIS WISDOM SAVE. DUMB BITCH!!!
- We see the outside of the royal capital, but the backside of it (where the trees are, rather than the ocean)
- We zoom in, and see Dr. Pope with a hiking bag and walking stick, walking around the mountain
- It looks like he’s going away from the capital, and he looks a little banged up
- He’s muttering to himself: “I have to find the Seekers… they will know what to do” (we don’t 💀)
- He looks over his shoulder, and continues to mutter to himself
- “Cal,ven… Cal Corvo, is alive. Yes, Cal is alive, yes. Vallen… Vallen. Vallen. Vallen. Vallen. Vallen Vallen Vallen. What was I supposed to remember about Vallen?”
- He continues to quickly hobble away
- He arrives in a clearing. He reaches into his bag, throwing out a device which lands and expands, creating a portal
- He looks over his shoulder again, going through the portal
- The scrying eye follows him, but before it does we see the portal close and the device explode
- The portal itself has crackling electricity around the edges, red and blue energy.
- The scene shifts, and the new location is unfamiliar to us — its architecture is unfamiliar
- He’s surrounded by pink-blooming trees (what we in real life know as cherry blossom trees)
- “Yes, yes, perfect… Vallen. Vallen… Vallen… Ah, whatever.”
- Dr. Pope walks for a distance before arriving at the back of a building
- He reaches down and pulls an obviously fake plant out of the way, revealing a trapdoor
- He enters the trapdoor, closing it behind him. The plants around it magically grow back over it.
- Dr. Pope flicks on a light, and he sits in a little laboratory (not nearly as big as his former lab when he was originally building the warforged)
- There’s a warforged in the lab, which looks very similar to the most recent iteration of OSIRIS
- “So… Vallen. The trials. The trials are next… Where’s the Father?”
- He looks around
- “The Father does not know… But Vallen.”
- Dr. Pope opens up a schematic, but before we get to see what’s in it, the vision ends
What is Vallen?
- Quén brings up the Axio Steel knife that they got from FAFO’s island, and they ask Vallen to cut his hand just to check if he’s a True Changeling without realizing it
- He cuts his hand. It hurts, but nothing happens.
- Vallen is like “where did Axio steel come from?”
- Quén summons Ozwin to cast Legend Lore on Axio Steel
- Ozwin learns that Axio Steel is made using a special compound that they have (Axio) and combining it with mithril
- Calling it Axio Steel is mostly to disguise the fact that it’s something mixed with mithril
- Ozwin wonders what FAFO is doing making Axio Steel, and Quén wonders why he didn’t trust us enough to tell us about it
What are our next steps?
TL;DR
- One by one, Ozwin, Foo, and Kade are all summoned to Cal’s room
- We need to go to the deep south, because that’s where pink trees are (according to Foo)
- The deep south is full of elves who are famously racist
- The elves are slightly less racist towards those who can speak their language (Elvish)
- Sylvan also kind of works, but it’s an older form of Elvish that not everyone knows (more common with OLD elves)
- BUT! ☝️🤓 they have rlly good noodles
- The deep south is full of elves who are famously racist
- We’ll refuel and restock at the island we initially met Kade on
- We’ll have to pay our initial docking fee plus interest, which Kade calculates to be about 1,152 GP
- It’ll take around 2 weeks to reach our destination