2.2 Meet the Outlaws

This recap covers Badice, Haliah, and Lyca's trip to speak with the leaders of the Outlaws and their brief stop in Qianzhou.  

Renegade Lovers

After the descended trio met with Kemena, they swiftly followed through with her invitation a embarked on their own journey concurrently with the dwarven expedition. They were to travel northwards, past Torrbei's Expanse (historically orc territory), across Lake Zhongyan, and into the unknown (into the uknoooooown!). There were two challenging events that happened on this trip. First, they were being actively pursued by a giant orc lady riding a massive demon horse thing in Torrbei's Expanse. Second, and perhaps even more horrifyingly, they were stuck on a boat with two annoying kappas who talked their ears off in their terribly squeaky voices. The party did note that they had that descended aura about them.   Whether they liked it or not, the kappas would tell them all about the Strange Ones (or the Outlaws, the name was still in dispute) and its origin story. Apparently, the leaders were members of the Court of Heaven, three of the All-King's Twelve Lovers: the Passionate, the Wise, and the Whimsical. Several decades ago, these three Lovers uncovered some nasty corruption from within the Court of Heaven, and specifically, with the All-King himself. Members of the Court were somehow clandestinely stealing the power from lesser celestials en masse. Feeling betrayed, the three Lovers caused a huge hullaballoo and ran off to the mortal realm after they learned an extremely valuable secret. Now, they planned to utilize their newfound secret to create a paradise on Tian Wu Yan for all celestials, and eventually confront the Court themselves.   Then everyone got attacked by a flying fish manta ray thing and the rest of the boat ride was much less eventful. After hours on the waters of Lake Zhongyan, the party finally reached dry land...except it was only a pitstop. Daemon's retreat was the name of the island, at least, according to its current resident population of monsters-turned-mortals. It was a summer camp of sorts and completely bizarre. What's more, the island itself used to be orcish territory, and well, not much of its original appearance remained.    Things were getting weird, and the party was chock full of questions. Many of which they hoped would get answered once they reached their final destination - Renewal. That was the name of the ramshackle swamp town of spooky creatures and spirits. The kappas then took the party into the largest building in town where a blue-green orc and a bald dwarf were having a lively discussion.    They were apparently debating names and when the party arrived, they were haphazardly thrust into the debate and asked for their opinion. Strange Ones, or Outlaws? Badice, Haliah, and Lyca unanimously agreed on the latter. Finally, after that rather petty squabble, the three 'leaders' of this group introduced themselves. The blue-green orc with glorious tusks and a blazing chest tattoo was Dumante, formerly known as the Passionate. The brown-skinned bald dwarf with her eyes always closed was Makrong, formerly known as the Wise. And the third person who hadn't spoken until now was the tall, wispy and aloof elf Fancy, formerly known as the Whimsical.  

Rending in Renewal

Once introductions were over with, it was time to dive right into some juicy conversation. It was so juicy, in fact, that you will probably see several points I make in this section be reflected in the sidebar section 'Acquired Lore.' So juicy, that one might be able to dump all this lore into a blender and make a lore smoothing. Thankfully, I don't pull this shit again for a long time because man was it a slog to run through and prep for.   Moving onto the actual topic at hand, Badice, Haliah and Lyca just met three of the most influential people in the entire world. And they were extremely underwhelming as a first impression. So underwhelming that they questioned the validity of their claims. However, their specific tattoos and Lover-associated powers quickly dispelled those doubts, but not the gajillion questions racing through the party's minds.   They first began with the question of how. The descended trio, well, descended, and that practice was virtually unheard of prior to the Court implementing the program only months before. Admittedly, the exact details of descension were not quite understood, but it had been explained to them as a sort of death and rebirth kinda ordeal. It was like how mortals would die and go to the celestial plane in the afterlife, except in reverse. Makrong, who was quick to answer more technical and metaphysical questions, explained that they utilized a technique known as Rending.    Now pay close attention my dear readers, this was some important ass shit. Every being has two souls - the divine soul and the mortal soul. The prominence of one soul over the other determined the type of being you were: mortals had dominant mortal souls, celestials had dominant divine souls. As beings moved from one plane to the other (usually from mortal to celestial), their two souls would always stay intact, but the less dominant one would simply be dormant.    Makrong then continued by proposing the following question, "What if the two souls were to be severed from each other?" The Outlaws' answer?    One soul stays, the other one is destroyed.    This was the core of Rending. As far as the practice is concerned, a special ritual was needed that centered on drawing out one of the souls and driving it away from the creature being rended. As far as the Outlaws were concerned, this meant expunging the divine soul from within celestials, rendering them completely, utterly mortal but still retaining certain traits from their once-supernatural personas. Furthermore, this is what the Outlaws apparently did to themselves.    The next major question was why. Thankfully, the kappas already answered much of that question as the Outlaw leaders basically corraborated those claims. Dumante, Makrong, and Fancy did indeed rebel against the rest of the Court for their egregious mistreatment of lesser celestials and for keeping major secrets like Rending and potential others from them. The three of them seek to create a better, safer life for celestials by searching for ones who have crossed into the mortal plane (as spooky creatures are wont to do to spook the mortals) and Rending them. WITH CONSENT. Dumante in particular really wanted to drive that point home, as he always asks for his allies to have an honest conversation with Rending candidates. After all, becoming a full mortal with no connection to divinity means that death is permanent permanent.   These two revelations were the most major, and any slightly smaller ones will be put in the sidebar. With that long conversation out of the way, it was now time for our descended trio to aid in their very first Rending! You see, 'driving away' the divine soul usually means defeating it in combat, so that is exactly what the three of them did. After the process, they realized that a large sum of qi was left behind, which wasn't lost to Fancy who was performing the ritual itself.    Badice, Haliah, and Lyca didn't stay in Renewal for much longer, and after staying for a night, they ventured across the lake once more. And this time, they got to choose their ferryperson and got someone much, much, much less annoying.  

Getting Brick-Bugged

Upon arrival at the southern coast of Lake Zhongyan, the party opted to take a shortcut through the majority-halfling city of Qianzhou in human territory as opposed to going across Torrbei's Expanse a second time. Which, you know, was understandable. After trekking through some forest and a long tunnel, the party eventually reached the ruined city and did some exploration while they were there.   With a little bit of snooping and digging around, the three realized that they weren't alone. They could hear skittering and...grinding? As if stone was being rubbed on stone? The atmosphere grew tense and everybody was on high alert. It wasn't until a wall was touched in an abandoned sawmill that the party even knew what they were up against. Bugs. Brick bugs. You heard me right, walking bricks instead of walking sticks. And walking shingles instead of um, normal shingles. The buildings were alive! Unfortunately for them, the bugs were the least of the party's problem as a large earth elemental was roaming about and hunting them down.    Once Shatter and Lyca got some better reconnaissance through flying, they figured out that the best strategy was not brute force, but removing the source of these elementals' power - the portal from whence they came. Soon, they closed the portal from within a large dilapidated manor and realized that whoever once lived there was like, rich rich.  So rich, that they were essentially the ruling family of Qianzhou - members of the prestigious halfling Su clan. Living descendants of the clan were still present in Fengqi, so the party figured that bringing back some valuable heirlooms and records was a good idea. In looking through one such record, a tattered journal, they discovered that Qianzhou's connection to the element of earth was not mere coincidence. You see, hidden within the large statue in the middle of the market square was an artifact known as the Earth Key. However, when they went to retrieve it, they were stopped in their tracks after seeing that the entire market area had been transformed into a grung (frog people) habitat. The statue was large, yes, but was situated inside a deep pit that was now filled with water (if only Umeiri were here).   Verbal communication was impossible with the grung, but Lyca brilliantly devised a ploy to get the grung on their side. By making the statue shimmer eerily, she was able to make it seem like acquiring this key would drive away this bad omen. And once done, Haliah left a parting gift of food so that all were on good terms by the end of it. A nonviolent solution that made everyone happy, yay!   Armed with new knowledge and even a new artifact, Badice, Haliah, and Lyca returned to Fengqi.