Session 18: Footsteps of the Dead Report

Last we left off, the group had made a swift exit from the den of the root mother and found themselves just outside of Nilulum where the Cyst family had been made whole once again. After some brief words, the group decided that it was best to turn in for the night and start fresh in the morning. Ray had decided that he would no longer follow the path of technology and progress and decided to go back to something much older and natural; perhaps his brother had been right all along. Ray began his training with Narci Cyst, shucking away Bhita's blessings and bringing in the sanctity of nature and natural flow. <Insert Training Montage Here>. Ghost on the other hand decided to be somewhat selfless and took Liora Cyst to Lindorthell with hopes of finding her a position doing more supervisor or virtual engineering rather than hands on due to the curse placed on them by Bhita Goddess of Art, Commerce, and the Modern World. Klaus decided that he was going to raise Amahri Rhea the right way and there were going to be no more magic in this family and strength was all that mattered. They trained. Day in and day out. Ghost was able to find somewhere for Liora to restart her life and decided to head back to the mansion where she had been just a little over a week ago to check in with her siblings. They all seemed find. In fact, she received a note from the hat that implored her not to seek vengeance on the Fervalkin family. For a moment, she could have been a princess with a bugbear to wipe her ass. She could have everything she ever wanted and more...but something kept her from taking that offer. She left and headed back towards the group. At the end of it all though, Narci told Ray the story of the root mother and why he was so shaken when they had stood before her.

As the story goes, a group of tribes from the days of chaos and back before magic had even been gifted to the world, tribes' people from all over the territory came together by divine decree to stop a sliver of chaos that had broken away while the gods were attempting to seal it in the The Feywild. The warriors fought bravely, and they were able to stop her, but many lost their lives; in fact, there was only a single halfling that survived the encounter and managed to live to tell the tale. Somehow the root mother must have come back or perhaps she wasn't destroyed. Outside of the scope of the story, the players learned that it was a betrayal where the halfling ran away, fearing for his life while the charmed goliath assisted the root mother in taking down the elven hunter. The goliath was presented with a nectar, binding him to the root mother and not so much growing bark, but scales...where he became the first of the Yuan-Ti race that worship her and tend to her needs.

Now one with nature, Ray, Ghost, Rhys, and Klaus had Narci portal them away to Afiya which is where two threads of fate coalesced together. As they entered the city, Ghost noticed that it was extremely packed and busy; however, the rest of the group noticed Ghost dodging air. Spirits had gathered here for some reason, and they were seemingly trapped. The group found their way towards an inn and grabbed a few rooms. There were also fliers out for a grave keeper and someone that can wrangle spirits as well as fliers for the wayfarer's guild as well as wanted posters for a few members of the party. Klaus pocketed these. Following the thread of fate that led them towards a cemetery in the city, passing by murals of Ilmos God of the Hunt and Nature fighting a giant leviathan the group ran across one of Ghost's old acquaintances, Twixie...Trixie? Hard to tell. The first thing she did was slap Ghost in the face for abandoning her brother whose spirit had been propelled, and she was able to find. After some apologizing, the owl spirit succumbed back to his sister where he rested for now. Twixie explained that there was an influx of spirits here that couldn't get across to the other side for some reason and they were all being attracted here, and she was investigating it as well as a darkness that seemed to be hovering over the sea where the merchant ship went down a few days ago which in turn cause a flux of Wayfarer's guild members to get called to attempt to go bring up the cargo. Those dastardly Wayfarer's guild members. It was time for Klaus Gruber to do some investigating! Entering the belly of the beast, the guild building itself here in Afiya, Klaus met his old "Friend" a man by the name of Arjan who had come from the city of Blale after the fat girl and goliath had taken over and some man wearing a pointy hat had shown up and started rebuilding things. Arjan said he needed to get out, so he joined the Wayfarer's Guild and moved his family out and that this was his first actual mission/quest/request from the guild. Arjan did question Klaus's history and motives behind all this, having tried to drag him out for dice and drinks one night only to find him sitting in a chair staring at a wall in a filthy house, drooling all over himself. No family. No wife. But Klaus told Arjan that he'd been on the sauce for a while too and it all made sense; Klaus had been blackout drunk the whole time and made all this up in his depression of fighting his demons. Arjan reached out and placed a hand on Klaus's shoulder, telling his friend from Blale to be strong. But enough of those Wayfarer's guild lies. Klaus showed Arjan the documents with his party's pictures on them and pressed for more information, Arjan had none...so he told Klaus. The Wayfarer's guild was trying to get out to sea to salvage what was left of the merchant ship; what evil and dastardly things were they doing? What were they hiding? Klaus needed answers. Returning back to the ground, he informed them of the goings on and so the group decided that the next morning they would head down to the docks and go see for themselves what was going on. The docks were busy, and a ship was being loaded that morning, preparing for another attempt out to ride out into the storm that seemed to be ever circling over where the merchant ship had gone down. Klaus found Arjan again and the group ended up talking to him for a bit; Arjan wasn't ready for an adventure on the high seas, but he had gathered materials, tools, food and water for his companion's journey. Heading back towards the guild, the group following talking to Arjan where Klaus had made it up in his mind that he would have to be interrogated, perhaps even killed; it was the least he could do for his friend. Ray ended up talking to Klaus, questioning his motivations and debating on if Arjan had been brainwashed or had magic used against him and was innocent in all this, but unaware. Who knows what tactics the upper echelon was using to control these child traffickers? The group headed back to the docks, getting a little more information on what was going on and signed up as independents and began boarding the ship to get to the truth of what was going on as a dark, ominous cloud loomed off in the distance, obfuscating their fates.

However, before this while the group had some downtime, Amahri Rhea, did a little investigating of his own where he had a conversation with Thalra, one of the members of his group in the Wayfarer's guild. And that morning Aeren Grimvein had come back to this town after some "reconditioning" in the hells. So, taking a step back, Rhys, you enter the Wayfarer's Guild...