The Hunt for Yuel: Session 42, Obligatory Beach Episode

The hunters appeared on a strange artificial beach of a tropical island. Lorelei was closed off and Percy was guilty.

The Percy and Vazulo spent most of the day exploring the beach, learning the Pillars had become partial humaonids and were there to assist them, and helping the Pillars name themselves

Kinoko got Lorelei to open up and started to process what her memories of her other life meant.

After a day of well needed levity the party agreed they were ready to fight Clause.

Destiny appeared assuring them they'd get their long rest. They gave them the Messengers treasures and the object they had been making before which could get them back to following Yuel.

The hunters slept on the beach, prepared to take on Claus the next day.

Full Recap

The hunters appeared on a beach and been inexplicably dressed in self reflective beach attire.

Their weapons were missing, magic unavailable as well as their other power and abilities. Lorelai sat down in the sand silently, Kinoko panicked over her inability to cast spells or beast shape, Vazulo tried to manifest things to assist with swimming, and Percy went to investigate three huts at the edge of the beach before the tree line.

Percy smelt food cooking and bushed a beaded door out of the way at the entrance of the first hut and stepping inside found a porcelain skinned humanoid with an alligator head, cooking food on a grill in a beachside diner. The figure introduced themselves as Alligator and the two started into a series of mundane but strange conversation about food, their surrounding and object doing magical things cause “that’s what they did”. Alligator told Percy that there were others on the beach. Those included Percy’s companions as well as “bird” and “armadillo” who worked the other two stalls, “Dog” who was on the beach somewhere, and “woman” who was around. Alligator worked on a food order for Percy and suggesting Bird before the order was finished.

Percy went to the next shack and found Bird, another Porcelain humanoid with a bird head. She offered to rent him beach chairs, tables, and umbrellas. Percy was concerned as she knew his and his companions’ names. She also seemed to have met Lorelai “before” but was not forthcoming, but she was insightful because of Vazulo. She tried to call dog to deliver the things to the party, but he didn’t respond so she suggested Percy just walk the beach to find him.

Percy past the last shack which seemed to be selling various beach accessories and chachkis he kept working down the beach.

Meanwhile Vazulo had been swimming and discovered no sign of fish or anything really disrupting the pristine blue water. He did finally emerge from the water.

On the beach near where they had arrived Lorelai sat silently on her feet staring at the sand, Kinoko sitting quietly beside her.

Percy rounded the corner of a large out cropping on a beach and found a porcelain humanoid with a dog head, who he presumed correctly was Dog. Percey explained bird sent him to find Dog and Dog assumed he need to move thing for Percy because that was the job he was given.  Percy trying to figure out what these people were, thinking the party had lost memories, tried to trick dog by asking about how they were before. Dog was good but had never spoken to Percy before and explained he was Smart because of Lorelai.

On the way back to birds Dog explained their bodies were new and were because of Percy. They got back to the shacks and dog collected everything they needed from Bird’s and started to set it up.

This startled Kinoko and Lorelei, but Lorelei seemed far less on guard then she would be normally.  Vazulo approached and they all started to ask dog questions.  Lorelei and Vazulo recognised the head of the dog from on of the pillars in the library. Dog explained Lorelei had wanted them to become a paper they couldn’t become so he had been made. Vazulo asked if there were others dog introduced the other four that were around. Vazulo thought Alligator sounded interesting and headed into the food shack to get more food and meet them.

Kinoko started to catch up on what Percy had experienced thus far and learnt that Percy was very worried about “woman” fearing she would be a whole woman’s body on top of a body at the neck. Dog acknowledged that woman did look different then the rest and she had decided her job was to “be around”. Dog explained that they ran out of faces because of Vazulo, woman had never existed before.

Vazulo spoke with alligator and realize the alligator was a pillar they spoke to. They slowly pieced together that destiny had given the pillars body. Vazulo went looking for woman partially out of confusion.

Dog collected the parties order, Vazulo taking his to go, back to the others and offered them something to drink, including alcohol. Percy and Kinoko looked concerned towards Lorelei who didn’t respond. Kinoko guided Lorelei to a chair and encouraged her to eat.

While siting in their beach chairs, Percy started discussing Lorelei with Kinoko trying to figure out exactly what triggered this state. It was quiet, but not so quite as to prevent Lorelei from hearing it.

Percy moved over to Kinoko and started to talk about what his worst-case scenario memories from Destiny would have been. His bleak and mundane life with a few moments of good luck. He told Lorelei he was a hypocrite and a liar and had tried to make a deal with destiny to take her memories so that they would be able to fight the fights they still need to fight. He kissed her cheek and walk to get more food and give her space.

Vazulo was walking up the beach and suddenly a porcelain woman on a beach chair appeared.

She and Vazulo started talking, her facing him, but her eyes not opening and her hair moving as a solid mass. She was Woman and was the result of Vazulo making so many pillars the “repository” ran out of animals and so it made her. She was the one who had explained to Vazulo that the pillars were construct that were manifestations of their personalities designed to deliver information to them about the infinite truth.

Woman had limited knowledge from Vazulo and the temple. She also explained that the pillars made by the party were more malleable and that’s why destiny had employed them to assist with the beach. She the other pillars had remnant personalities of other they had been created by.

Vazulo wanted some workout equipment and woman suggest he go see armadillo. He also learnt the pillars didn’t have names and were simply using descriptors. Vazulo gave woman the idea of a name and as he walked away with her agreeing he heard a cracking noise.

Vazulo found armadillo. Who was butting out things for “sale” Vazulo pointed out he only had an armadillo head and Vazulo quickly learnt that the pillars thought their head were entire creatures this excited armadillo who immediately pulled Vazulo in a made him keep it secret.  Armadillo seemed to plan to leverage this knowledge for profit. Vazulo brought up names with armadillo and armadillo eventually chose the name YaBoy Jr.  He went into a chest and pulled out work out equipment for Vazulo. Vazulo also brought up kids in naming conventions which armadillo did not understand, But Vazulo suggested talking to Woman, “because she probably had the required parts.”

Back with the others Lorelei, got up and walked into the water. Kinoko quickly followed confirming with Lorelei that she could swim and getting the first words out of Lorelei since they arrived. Lorelei didn’t know how to swim, specifically in her other life where she enjoyed it. She opened up about what destiny had shown her. How she met someone, been with her family, found love, and used to swim and swimming made her happy.  The two were swimming when Vazulo arrived back with the others, he joined them and started a water fight. Percy joined soon after. As they played more pillar’s started appearing and were walking up and down the beach.

Vazulo encouraged YaBoy Jr to join them and he did.  Other pillars started moving into the water as well.

Vazulo updated the others on everything they discovered. Mentioning woman concerned Percy. YaBoy Jr came over and offered to get Woman for them and ask her about parts.  This triggered a conversation concluding with dog collecting the required materials for Yuel to draw diagrams for YaBoy Jr.

They discussed why Destiny sent them here which was confusing to Vazulo because they weren’t really affected by their memories. Vazulo explained his and he and Percy focused on the migration which Vazulo didn’t really understand.

Vazulo had the most confusion over there being so many Moonfolk when there were none in his timeline.

They named Duck Piper. Percy and Vazulo continued fighting in chaos. When Armadillo returned with Woman, they saw she had opened her yes which had cracked their eyelids unevenly. They also learnt that all the pillars would cease existing when the party left.

Woman had gone with the name, Aphrodite.

Aphrodite spoke briefly with Vazulo about understanding the baby thing and not wanting to have anything to do with the pillars for reproduction.  Aphrodite did approach Percy who politely declined.

Vazulo explained family trees to YaBoy and got him to get water balloons.

Meanwhile outside that chaos, Kinoko had moved off with Lorelei. The two moved out of the water to get more food from Alligator. Kinoko ordered two of everything. A bunch of Pillars came and help take their food back to their chairs.  She an Kinoko tried everything and seemed to be genuinely enjoying trying all the options.

More pillars continued to arrive, adding up to around 30 and they started exploring the beach heading up and down it but not into the forest.

After some time, Lorelei asked Kinoko what makes her happy. Lorelei had quick reality check that Kinoko tended to be happy. Kinoko decide to share a specific example, her first meeting with Yana and how it opened up the world to her. She focused on how life brought her joy sometimes just from surviving. Lorelei started to show some sign of joy herself as the two talked and joked. Lorelei learnt that Kinoko default is things are friendly.

Kinoko described her grove and Lorelei asked if it was dangerous, and Kinoko confirmed. “Do you like that its dangerous” Kinoko, looking at Lorelei, replied with a smiling shrug, “Its beautiful”.

Lorelei went on to ask how many time shad she almost died. Kinoko did remember but it seemed her near death experiences were much more recent, her scars were from childhood and other saved her from greater issues.

Kinoko started to pick up on what Lorelei was trying to figure out. Kinoko asked about Lorelei’s actual death. Kinoko asked and Lorelei explained that when she died there had been nothing and would always be nothing. Kinoko got a much better understanding of Lorelei’s relationship with death. They discussed Grimheart and how using Barovia was one of the ways to get to fixing it. Lorelei was struggling with her new memories being in contrast with her experiences. With this new view she wanted to try returning to Barovia with Kinoko because she seems to be able to find beauty in everything she sees.

Vazulo and Percy discussed in the water why they were on the beach to begin with. They pondered destiny’s motivation with Claus. Vazulo thought this space might be for training to prepare to fight Claus.

Yaboy Jr did emerge with a barrel full of facsimiles of water balloons. The two started recruiting the pillars to aid them in ambushing Lorelei and Kinoko with water balloons. They waited till the two returned to Alligators hut. Vazulo and Percy and the pillars snuck up, but Lorelei picked up on the ambient noise of people having stopped and no one was in sight. Instead of using the door they use the open side of the shack. Vazulo and Percy noticed the change and Vazulo screamed attack. The two were bombarded as they try to escape into the woods. Percy reloaded and pursued, but none of the pillars did.

Vazulo stayed to ask the pillars why they weren’t going into the woods. They didn’t say anything but the way they looked at the ocean and the way it changed unlike the green wall of forest was clearly what drew their attention.

As Vazulo noted the setting sun he went to armadillos telling the pillars to start a fire. Vazulo got a loot and a pocket watch and returned to the beach to sing song about forest and other locations to inspire the pillars and help give them names.

Lorelei and Kinoko managed to cross the forest onto another beach on the opposite side of the island. They ran to the water and used their hats to scoop up water, running back to the tree line to ambush the pursuing, Percy. They successfully doused him, and he pelted Lorelei with two balloons.  Percy sped by into the water and the other followed starting another water fight in the ocean. As it started to get dark a squeal fills the air, followed by a large booming bang and a spray of green light appeared in the sky as Yaboy Jr and Duck started to set of fireworks.

The tri o returned, and everyone just sat and enjoyed watching the fireworks. Yaboy went into his shack and handed out sparklers. As it got later all the pillars except the original five left.

 The party lay down on the beach staring at the beautiful but artificial starry night sky. As they seemingly prepared to sleep on the beach, they started discussing fighting Claus.

Percy considering this asked if everyone felt up to fighting Claus. Everyone seemed confident if they were physically 100%. Kinoko asked how Lorelei was specifically feeling. Lorelei wasn’t fully recovered but she no longer looked at the memories as loss but instead of something gained. She was happy to go fuck up Claus.

With that Percy spoke allowed, trying to communicate with destiny, that they were ready. Alligator brought them each a cup of hot coco and before he left a fifth cup appeared and the starry hand of Destiny picked it up.

Beside destiny was Blue wearing a big straw hat. Vazulo tackle hugged Blue. Vazulo introduced Blue to Kinoko and Lorelei and bleu awkwardly told them he saw in their heads. He went onto say it was confusing to tell which of their heads he was in because they were both in each others’ heads. Before he could be clearer destiny signal to him to be quiet.

Destiny explained that Oedric was still asleep and drank their coco revealing in the movement that their other arm was oddly limp. Kinoko asked about it and Destiny told her they would be fine.

Destiny gave Kinoko the intersecting cubes. Destiny told them it would let them find Yuel again. Destiny gave Percy the Messenger’s equipment and let him identify the.

Destiny offered to let them get their rest and stay as long as they want. Destiny and Blue left, destiny and Blue would be spending some time in the sea.

The party took their long rest on the beach.