Present Party: Keviks, Lupan, Nana, and Wren.
Setting: On the road heading west from Kystad to Dragon's Valley.
The party continued on their journey to Dragon's Valley, alongside another party of four who had a small child with them. Kressa, Arcta, Boomer, and Finch kept mostly to themselves as they traveled and tended to the child, Casper. As they walked, Nana took the time to cast Detect Magic to see if their new companions had anything of note on them or about them.
- Arcta had a strange aura all around her that seemed nearly necromantic in nature, but not quite. The magic was there, but it was more like a residue, or like it was currently inactive.
- Boomer also had a magic aura around him, but being a warforged and a wizard, that was almost expected. His pack had one item that seemed to hold several types of magic powers, and another item that had a heavy aura of illusion magic.
- The violin on Finch's back was magical.
- Kressa and Casper did not have any magic auras around them, or any magic items on their person.
At one point, in their travels, they came across some large stones that had fallen into the road and cracked. Keviks and Kressa scouted ahead. They found a large, circular stone foundation off to the right side of the road. It looked as though these stones had fallen from it. As the rest of the party approached, (with the exception of Boomer, who stayed further back with Casper) they saw strange markings on some of the stones: several knots and lines, all weaving together. There was also a very large, very green bush on the other side of the foundation. One of Keviks's favored terrains was mountains, so he knew that a very lush, healthy bush was a rather odd thing to see in a mountain valley like this one.
Finch and Arcta relayed to the party that there used to be a shrine to Heimdall on this road. They hadn't traveled this way much, so they couldn't be sure With some successful checks on the parts of Wren and Nana, they recalled that Heimdall was the god of protection and loyalty.
Keviks decided to investigate the bush by reaching out to rustle it. When he did, a bird's talons reached out from the top and grabbed his arm. Keviks was able to free himself, and he stepped away. A fox head poked itself out of the bush, but the head was about the size of a human's. The eyes looked at Keviks, blinked once, and then a sharp-toothed grin spread across his face. He rose up out of the bush, in purple robes. His body was that of a fox with one tail, and his hands and feet looked like bird's feet with talons. He did not blink. He simply grinned.
When the party asked who he was and what he was doing here, he was loath to answer the first question but did tell them that he lived in the bush. Nana asked if there was something they could call him, and he chuckled.
"You may call me Kalicosio," he said.
Nana recalled some folk tales from her studies about fox creatures, almost always portrayed as tricksters. However, she'd never heard of one with bird hands.
They asked Kalicosio for information, to which he replied. "Information isn't free. I take payments in time, body parts, and gold."
Nana had questions, and requested that the members of the other party who were present - Kressa, Arcta, and Finch - step away. She claimed it was a matter pertaining to the royal crown. They politely left, though Finch lingered for a short time. Fang seemed incredibly surprised by this revelation, and Nana forgot that the prince hadn't been informed and apologized. For the sought information, she offered Kalicosio time, operating under the logic that she was a taskforged and essentially immortal. For 22 years, she asked Kalicosio to tell her everything he knew about an assassination plot against the Midtian royal crown and anything on an assassin (whose image she'd received from Hugo DeMarco and conjured using Minor Illusion) who shot down her raven in the middle of the night in Kystad while she was searching for the rest of the party.
Kalicosio told her, "An assassination plot. There are many, many pieces... and they're not all in place yet. Many, many pieces. The one you seek, he was here. He did this." He gestured to the stone in the road. "He and others."
"How many others?"
"Oh... nearly a dozen."
"Where did they go?"
"Different directions. Here, there, this way, that way." He pointed west, towards where they were going. "The one you seek, he went back down the road that way."
Lupan also had questions, and asked Nana if she would be willing to pay again, in years. She gave five more years, at Kalicosio's request, under the one requirement that Lupan tell her what he needed it for after. Lupan requested to be left alone with Kalicosio for a moment.
He asked, "What do you know about The Spring Lord? What does he want with me?"
"You... You are part of something much, much bigger," Kalicosio foretold. "A destiny. He is the first part of four. And he will help you reach it."
"And all of this... where does it end?"
"Why... where all good stories do. At the beginning."
The party returned. Keviks was the last one who had questions. He offered to pay in gold. For only ten gold pieces, he requested the specific location of one person: Nithea Keenstalker. Kalicosio ate the gold.
Kalicosio laughed. "She... She is in Lanti. Staying with Baron Reginald Mulcaster."
"For how long?"
"The date has not been set."
"Would it be the same price - 10 gold - for more locations?"
"Let me guess..." Kalicosio's eyes gleamed. "The other two, right? Yes, same price. Twenty for both."
Keviks paid.
"One is in the place you call Lakeside."
"Which one?"
"Grisdain. And the other is in Rockland. Both of them are staying with friends."
After that, Wren pulled Keviks aside, and asked if they could speak together soon too. She claimed to have a vested interest in the Mulcaster family, and the fact that Keviks was looking for someone who was staying with the baron made her incredibly suspicious and curious.
With no other questions to answer, Kalicosio walked over to the shrine.
Lupan asked, "Are you friends with him?" - referring to Heimdall.
Kalicosio laughed. "No, I hate this fuck... but I like the town over west, yes I do."
With a wave of his hand, the rocks clicked back into place and flew into the air, coming to rest on top of the stone foundation. On the large stone, they could see very clearly now, a symbol: a sword, pointing up. Behind it were seven circles, each one inside the other. Once it was fixed, Kalicosio sank back into his bush.
Nana felt something tug at the very back of her mind, pulling and then ripping. Her mind went blank. She heard a chuckle, as if it had come from the back of her mind. She realized what had happened. She had never specified whether or not the 27 years she'd paid came from the end of her life... or the beginning.
Nana had no recollection of the first 27 years of her life.
Still, the party, unsure of what had happened and reuniting with their other five companions, pressed onward. They stopped to make camp for one more night, and when Nana made her lighthouse, she invited the rest of her party inside as well. She said that all of them had much to discuss.
Fang went straight up the trap door to his bedroom. Nana brought Lupan, Keviks, and Wren to the table on the first floor dining room.
Lupan offered to speak first. He told them about who approached him at The Old Fashioned Teacup in Kystad: The Spring Lord, the monarch of the Spring Court in Alfheim. He also explained why. Lupan is from a war-like tribe of elves in the forests to the east of Isverden. About five years ago, they went to war against another tribe. Lupan watched his father die in battle, and it sent him into an uncontrollable rage. In that rage, he was unable to distinguish friend from foe, and he killed everyone on the battlefield including members of his own tribe - allies and friends. The Spring Lord wants to redeem him, and what he has in store for Lupan is only part one of four.
From there, Keviks spoke, but only in vague terms. He claimed that the people he was looking for were old friends from Erdia, where he was from. Nithea was a goliath. Grisdain - Dalkom Grisdain - was a dwarf. He mentioned nothing else about the third, and no one asked in any direct way. Nana could tell that he was still hiding something.
Wren seemed particularly interested in Nithea, and why she was staying with Baron Mulcaster. She told the rest of the party that her last name, in fact, wasn't Keenstone. Baron Mulcaster was her father, and her real name was Wren Mulcaster. She was especially worried about what Kalicosio said about "the date not being set." Wren asked her party if they thought it sounded like a wedding or engagement party, but they couldn't be sure.
Then, Lupan and Wren turned their attention to the trap door, where they heard something very odd. It sounded like crying, but it was faint. The two of them reached up and knocked on the trap door, and were invited up by the prince. When they found him, he was standing in his room, rolling up his sleeves, not facing them.
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| Steel "Fang" of the Mountain Crown Prince of Midtia, age 18 (Made by me on Heroforge) |
Lupan and Wren took the time to console him, reassure him, and share what little they did know about the situation. As angry as Fang was - especially at Nana - he was thankful. They even convinced him to come downstairs and hear everything.
Wren said, "We're all downstairs, basically sharing our secrets since we're all going to be traveling together for a while."
Fang chuckled a bit. "Sharing secrets... You know... I think I might need to join that conversation. I have a few secrets too."
When he arrived, Nana filled him in on a few more of the details and they talked a bit about Hugo again. As much as Fang was familiar with Hugo (he'd met him two years ago), he didn't seem to trust him as much as King River did, which was a relief to Nana specifically.
Then, Fang decided that he should tell the party two things.
- Firstly, he wasn't attracted to women. He never had been, and he'd never told anyone. The party responded with a resounding "We know," considering that each of them had come to realize it at different points in time.
- Nana knew before the campaign had even started. The player and I had actually had a conversation beforehand, where Nana had been worried about Fang and used Detect Thoughts.
- Wren and Lupan had figured it out when they'd first met Charlie, as he swooped in to save Fang from the conversation about his ideal wife.
- Keviks found out after overhearing the conversation between Fang and Charlie.
- Secondly, Fang wasn't a virgin.
The last piece of news shocked everyone, but Nana especially. She flew off the handle a bit, causing Fang to hide himself behind Lupan rather anxiously. Nana charmed Lupan and forced him out of the way. Wren intervened, and after that, Nana left the lighthouse to calm down.
Wren and Fang had a short conversation about what The Selection would be like after this, what they should do, but they came to no concrete answer. Not today, anyway. Lupan was snapped out of his charm, and incredibly angry. He stormed outside to go to sleep. Keviks also turned in for the night. Fang went back up to his room, and Wren joined Finch at the fire for first watch, not entirely wanting to sleep.
"Have you and your party ever had a fight?" she asked him.
He admitted that they had had a few, and Wren wondered how they dealt with them.
Finch advised, "We... Most of the time we just... make our decisions for that night, we sleep on them and we come back to it in the morning. With a clear head. Fresh eyes and minds. When you're with a group... communication is your best bet. Right now, there's... really no use worrying about it. The day is over. Everyone will sleep on it, and you'll come back to it tomorrow."
~~~~~
After an hour or two, Nana returned to the lighthouse and asked to be let up into the prince's bedroom. He invited her up, and they talked. She apologized for her actions, for hiding the information she did. Fang forgave her, and as angry and upset as he had been (and still was) he could understand why she'd done it.
He told her about his eighteenth birthday party two months ago, about one of his good friends, Sky Aeris, and how he had made Fang feel so incredibly safe and loved. Nana knew Sky Aeris - an air genasi playboy noble with a cocky attitude, but someone who'd been among Fang's closest friends for years. He was kind to his peers, but very rarely respected etiquette or formalities.
The prince told her, "Nana, if anyone looked at you and said that you didn't love me or my family, they'd be stupid."
"But, being what I am, it's rather hard for me to express." She removed her mask. "It is not as though I can change my face as you humanoids do."
"You don't have to. You show it in what you do, and in what you say."
She left him to get some rest, and as she descended the ladder, she called, "I love you."
When she reached the bottom step, she heard back: "I love you too."
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