004.008 Session 47 - Gifts

We open in Euon's study (it's not his library, it's his study!) with all of the party present except for Scotty, Yendaya, and Danior, who all went downstairs to the sleeping area. Euon has informed us that today is 28 OCT 3024 Ǎ12 36288 Ê1 and it is 9 AM. We are in his fortress in the island city of Synterra.

Scotty has disappeared after leaving Danior with a sleeping Yendaya in the sleeping area. Yendaya wakes up and Danior explains to her that they had been in Euon's pocket dimension and met the maiden, Imravan. He says that she was unconscious for a day but kind of also for over a month, because of the weird time loop.They rejoin the others upstairs, minus Scotty. Euon is wearing special magic glasses that let him see extra things (types of magic?) and he apologizes to Yendaya for being curt and difficult before. It's been a rough time. He tells us that he'd be happy for us to use his home as our base while we accomplish our goals, but also understands if we'd rather stay elsewhere. He tells us how to get in and out of the tower and warns us not to go to the lower levels. The population of the city is 65,000, mostly halflings and humans. The rest of the island outside of the city is heavily forested. Trying to make peace, Yendaya gives Euon the 20 bottles of wine she had taken from his home in Leh Teh village. He says she can keep it but asks her to "be a dear" and take a bottle to the kitchen to share. She polymorphs into a deer (ba dum tss). She also gives him the two mystery bottles/potions that she found. We go to town. Ranmin follows his nose to a bakery and everyone else follows him. It's called the Jolly King Bakery and the owner is a pleasant bald fellow named Baird. Ranmin buys rye bread and sourdough and makes a bread sandwich. Yendaya gets 12 crepes because she is super hungry (probably from being dead, that's rough buddy). Atlia gets bread and stops by a butcher for some meat to make a normal sandwich. Vaela gets a yummy baked good too.Talia gets croissants and crepes like a French stereotype ha We head to city hall and take a look at the bulletin board. There are wanted posters for criminals, job postings, and event fliers. We talk to a very complicated 18 year old kid named Nupoon (or something like that). He tells us that we should check out a local tavern called the Water's Tooth for a talent show. We check a list of guilds in the area and find two merchant guilds, an adventurers guild, and secret thieves cant ads for a mercenary guild and two thieves guilds (unless that was just a joke, but I thought it was fun).

Yendaya admits that she has to fill in her eyebrows with prestidigitation every hour because they've been singed so many times!

We head toward the merchants guild to get a list of local businesses but end up finding some places on our own. Talia hears whispers over her shoulder that no one else can hear. I find fried hedgehog and wait in line for it for a while, it's worth it.

Talia sneaks away and follows the disembodied whispers down side streets until she finds herself in a courtyard. There are sheets hanging on laundry lines, arranged in a maze-like pattern. She sees a humanoid shadow in the sheets and it beckons her forward. She goes into the sheet maze and hears the voice by her ear. Turning, she finds a god- Onar the god of dreams, thieves, and trickery! He says that he misses her and wants her to be his follower again, maybe even something greater. Talia plays hard to get and says she's trying to change and feels that the goddess of love is good for her. She also says she's not sure just one god can do it for her anymore (polyamory or polytheism? haha). He says that she's too good at thieving to follow a love goddess and deserves to be powerful. He says that she can rob from the rich and give to the poor if she wants to be a good person but she shouldn't waste her talents. He gifts her a magic item, a cloak that refracts light. Talia says she'll stick with him through the end of this mission, then she'll have to consider her options. He disappears and she leaves to rejoin the group.

Atlia goes shopping and buys some clothes that aren't quite so bulky and hot. Vaela also goes shopping. Alessia tries to study at the library but the best she comes up with is a list of local festivals.

Ranmin rents space at a forge and the smiths geek out over seeing a Dwarf master craftsman. He gets started on the weapons Talia requested.

Yendaya has never seen the sea, so she heads to the beach. Danior tags along and tells Yendaya that he had lied about being sent by Seren.

[[Yendaya and Danior's conversation summary: When they met up on the road and she assumed he had been the one Seren had sent word to he just went along with it. Really he had gone to look for Yendaya and found her on the road. He had scried on her and determined that she was adventuring and decided to try to find her. She thinks that's a bit creepy haha He says he's worried that Yendaya is losing her sense of who she is: the annoyingly good person who always made him return things he stole when they were kids. He says if she loses her moral compass then he's really fucked because his conscience has always sounded like her. Yendaya says that she was upset about all of the orc things because orcs killed her mom. She was also set off by Alessia/Clara coming back and acting like everything is fine when Yendaya felt really abandoned by her. She suspects that she probably collapsed and was unconscious due to all of the emotional stress and probably the trauma of dying and not seeing her mom or anything. She doesn't remember anything about being dead. She's hoping that being here on the island and having a base to come back to can help her heal. Danior used the nickname he had for her when they were kids, "Kocho", the Banjaara word for button. Yendaya notices that the amphora is missing and Danior says she should talk to Alessia about it.]]

Talia goes to the tavern that had been recommended, the Water's Tooth, and asks if they have any kind of talent show or if they hire performers. She says that we're a traveling troupe with many talents. She puts up a tightrope and does some really impressive tricks on it, finishing by dangling from a length of rope and doing aerial acrobatics. The tavern keeper is blown away and says they'd be happy to pay for our act if we're all as impressive as she is! Suddenly, the tavern keeper's face and voice shift a bit and she starts "negging" Talia, saying oh yeah, you're probably like the second best I've ever seen. It's all very mischievous. Talia knows Onar well enough to see through that! As soon as the tavern keeper's visage returns to normal, Talia says "yeah, like you said I am number one" and the woman agrees wholeheartedly. Talia is very good at playing this god haha We all go back to the tower. Danior threatens to lock Alessia and Yendaya in a room if they don't work on their issues and they immediately lay into each other.

[[Alessia and Yendaya's argument summary: Yendaya brings up the fact that Alessia stole the amphora from Yendaya's pack when she was unconscious. She says that Alessia and Atlia must be great friends now if she trusts her more than Yendaya. Alessia says she's the only original party member left that made the promise to Skotas to fill the amphora in exchange for the return of the elf stone and she can't afford for Yendaya's feelings to get in the way of fulfilling a promise to a god. Alessia also says if someone is going to refuse to give Skotas the amphora and she has to fight them, she can't afford to hesitate. She would hesitate with Yendaya but wouldn't with Atlia. Yendaya also says that Alessia deserted the party and hasn't even said sorry for it. Alessia says she can't apologize because she doesn't remember most of what happened in that time, so she wouldn't really mean it. Yendaya says that Alessia might live longer than she will but her songs and stories will outlive Alessia.]]

Ranmin feels incredibly awkward with all of the interpersonal conflict and goes outside to chop wood haha

Atlia also needs some air and space and goes to look around the tower. She finds a monument dedicated to Euon's late family with statues representing his sister, father, and mother.

Vaela also leaves the awkwardness of the room (after taking a jab at Danior for trying to have Yendaya all to himself. That joke may have been out of character but I choose to believe it was in character because it was funny).

Danior has very little self-control when it comes to the promise of a creepy basement, so he asks Euon what is in the dark lower levels of the tower and why they shouldn't go there alone. Euon doesn't even know what's down there but promises he'll go down and check it out with him after we complete two missions. This is like torture designed specifically for Danior. He says he's trying to be a better person and promises to wait to go into the creepy basement. He also asks if Euon has any cool shit he can use, specifically a cool spear. Euon tells him where he could find a cool spear and Danior goes to find it. After a bit of searching, he finds it. It's pretty baller. Once he picks it up he is under the geas spell and can't sleep, eat, or even pee until he gets the spear to his patron! He pets his cat, Kesali, to summon Oleran. Oleran appears and is glad to be reunited with his spear. Geas is lifted, no worries, but dick move Oleran. He instantly creates a copy of the spear for Danior to weild. Danior asks what Oleran wants him to do with it and he says "kick some god ass." Danior asks which god and Oleran says Hesh Ra Ahn to start. Danior says he'd be glad to kill Hesh Ra Ahn, she's bad at her job and needs to be replaced. Plus, she's trying to take Yendaya's soul and he can't have that.

Talia approaches some of the party members to see if they'll perform at the tavern with her. Yendaya and Danior are totally in but Ranmin and Atlia don't seem interested. She goes to Vaela to try to talk her into being the rabbit that pulls itself out of the hat or some other unique rabbit-based act. Vaela seems amused by the idea and says maybe she'll join next time, but the first time she'd rather just watch the show.