Session 32 - "The Straw" Report

Venen 4, 1247

Micaiah Louvre wakes in the evening, seeing flickering firelight that creates shadows marching along his bedroom wall. Rising, he glances out the window to see a massive crowd in the street below, carrying torches and talking quietly amongst themselves.

Guessing that something is going on, he throws on a nightrobe and begins to wake the others (except for Foenix, who hears Micaiah's footsteps and opens the door before Micaiah can knock).

The Fate-Steppers agree to check out what's going on, with Foenix, Olena, and Jacob heading out now (since Thais Argyri needs time to put on her armor, and it will take a few minutes even with Micaiah's help).

Dharma, for his part, works to armor up on his own and waves on the Fate-Steppers, telling him that he will catch up.

Outside, it's immediately evident that the streets are crowded to the point of being claustrophobic. Foenix and Olena decide to climb onto the roofs to make their way towards the front of the crowd, while Jacob makes his way through the throng on the ground.

Meanwhile, Thais and Micaiah have finished suiting Thais up, and they begin to make their way through the crowd to the front. It takes Thais' intimidating presence and voice to get them there, but they eventually do, as Olena and Foenix find their way on top of the old jail.

Jacob is able to see both Thais and Micaiah as well as Olena and Foenix, and sets up a message relay between the three groups, to pass information between the entire group.

Thais, having the best vantage point, describes what she sees: Wishbacker, with a group of people, in front of a bonfire. The gallows from the courtyard behind the old jail has been dragged out, and most worryingly there are four people with hoods over their heads sat behind Wishbacker and his people with their hands bound. Thais recognizes a buckle that one of them is wearing and whispers to Jacob through her message response the troublesome truth: all of the captured people are Bannercrushers.

Wishbacker steps forward and begins to give a speech to explain why he and his followers have chosen to take the law into their own hands and ensure the safety of their community, but Thais immediately speaks up to argue with him.

Micaiah slips away into the crowd, using disguise self to mimic many varied Vakwarans that support Thais and doubt Wishbacker's goals, but it doesn't help much after Wishbacker clocks Thais as a Cactsian, which introduces enough doubt that the crowd cannot (or will not) intervene.

As this is happening, Foenix turns himself invisible and begins to sneak down the building and behind Wishbacker, setting himself up if some immediate action is needed.

It's a good thing he does, as Jacob notices and whispers to the others through message that the city guard is on their way. Jhota is leading them, with varied guards fanning out to try and disperse the crowd while he tries to talk Wishbacker down. Among them is Brimo, Alimony Symphero's sister (though Micaiah's lover Shale Adama is not).

Wishbacker is not willing to back down, and Foenix decides that enough is enough, and his invisibility melts away as he grabs Wishbacker and putting a knife to his throat, demanding that he let the Bannercrushers go.

In that moment, everything goes wrong.

A citizen in the crowd lashes out, beheading Jhota in one swift moment - even he seems surprised that he did it. Wishbacker, meanwhile, throws Foenix over his head and puts the halfling into an arm bar to hold him down.

The crowd erupts into chaos, with Wishbacker's men turning to their prisoners and attacking them haphazardly with hammers and knives, killing the plague to their home before the city guard can stop them. The guard begins trying to disperse the crowd and arrest Wishbacker's men, and the citizens are torn between a few different motivations: support Wishbacker, support the guards, or get the hell out of the way.

Micaiah grabs out for Brimo's arm, begging for her to stay hidden, but she refuses and pushes out into the crowd to do her duty.

Foenix misty steps away from Wishbacker, appearing behind him and free of the gnome's grasp, and then just begins to stab indiscriminately.

Micaiah, in the crowd, is almost immediately knocked to the ground, trampled and jostled until she loses consciousness, and Thais is forced to use thaumaturgy to make her so intimidating as to make a way through so she can grab Micaiah and give her enough magical healing to bring her back from the edge of death.

Thais barks that they have to get the hell out of there. He agrees, and when Olena grabs Foenix, putting him up on her shoulder as they run, the Fate-Steppers begin to wade through the panicking crowd.

Pop, pop, pop!

Olena flinches, her canine instincts flaring up at the loud sound of gunfire. It's a sound she's never heard before, and the panic takes her. She begins to run for the nearest hiding place, taking Foenix with her, but thankfully Thais is paying attention to her unit, and whips around to command Olena to follow.

Jacob casts blade ward to protect himself, but he is still separated from the rest of the Fate-Steppers. They are fleeing, leaving him behind, and in a moment of desperation he uses a thunderstep to reach them. Six people collapse in his wake (dead?), but there's no time to think about that. He casts shield to protect himself as the riot waves bump and jostle them, but Olena takes a solid strike to the back of the head that leaves her bleeding.

They get back to their house, and Thais yells at everyone to pack their shit and get ready to leave. At first there are protestations, but when a window breaks upstairs and they rush up to see Thais's room on fire, the rest of the party agrees it's perhaps best to heed her leadership.

Dharma is not at the house, and Thais decides to leave him behind - he's a fighter, he can take care of himself.

Foenix rushes out to saddle the new riding horses while Thais psychically summons Arkeo. Everyone mounts up (Thais and Foenix on Arkeo, then Micaiah, Olena, and Jacob on their own horses), and they begin to ride hard for the city gates.

The chaos has only grown, but with horses now at their command the party is able to continue pushing through the crowd. It's a hard time doing so and they surely trample over a few people, which is proven as one of the poor souls trapped in the streets grabs Jacob's foot and begs for his help, blood pouring down her face.

Jacob is about ready to shake her off when Olena stops him, pulling the woman up behind her as they continue to ride.

Micaiah suddenly remembers the Symphero family and turns her horse to go and warn them, but Thais refuses to let her break rank, and even commands the warlock to stay with them.

Fires are burning all across the city, and with no one able to quench them, they've grown out of control. Thais orders Foenix to take out the decanter of endless water and to use it to put out the flames as they ride out, which he does, as the Fate-Steppers duck underneath the still-smoldering archways and shield their heads from the hot debris.

The party makes it to the city gates, which are closed. Foenix begins yelling for all the civilians to get back, while Micaiah begins to form a fireball in her hands, then lobbing it at the front gates, blowing them apart. They ride out into the night, where Olena lets the woman down and they ride away south into the night.

They ride for a long time, and as the sky begins to lighten the ground shakes with an earth shattering boom.

Turning back, the Fate-Steppers see a plume of fire and smoke, peppered with fireworks, rising from Vakwari. Foenix grimly suggests that the fire had reached a gunpowder or fireworks warehouse. With nothing else to do, they continue on through the plains.

When they finally choose to stop and rest, it's mid-morning, and Jacob spotted a burrow in the ground, similar to a rabbit burrow but made by something the size of a young dragon.

Thais begins to set up defenses while the others bed down to rest. She watches as the sun arcs over the plains, only noticing a snake's nest about 20 feet away, which she points out when Micaiah rises to take the second watch. While Micaiah recognizes it from a taxidermied specimen he saw in a Brillantan explorer's house, but doesn't remember much more than that.

Olena recognizes the snake as a banded serpent, and that its eggs have healing properties. Jacob uses magic missile to kill the snake, and the eight eggs from the nest are retrieved.

Olena skins the snake, gaining enough snakeskin for a wallet, coin pouch, or maybe the handle of a dagger. Foenix attempts to harvest the venom from the snake, but is unfortunately not able to.

Meanwhile, Micaiah sits by himself, contemplating his own changing morality. A shift towards true neutrality...