Crimson Recompense, Righteous Smoke

## Side Quest Obtained

*"Victory breeds hatred for the vanquished is stricken with suffering. To uphold the Symphasian path, forget victory" -- Grandmaster Qutt*

* **The City Group** decides to disguise themselves as Orcs and tell White Widow that Kono Utamara had owned them (a rival criminal clan) money and that's why he ran. They want to kill him/ torture him for crossing them. Since they know white widow was involved, they are coming to her out of respect rather than going to the Admiralty or Arasaka (implied threat)
* Before confronting White Widow, they go to the Chem-Vat region to buy some items from Vulture. Vulture tells them that if the group can steal a religious necklace off of Queen Jabari and sell it to him, he’ll give the group 10k + 15% discount. The necklace is sacred to the Sphinx religion, and due to her allegiance with Arasaka he sees her wearing it as sacrilegious.
	+ The queen is a fan of La Signora, a kenku dancer under White Widow's employ. La Signora will be dancing at the club Purr in a few days, and Queen Jabari is very likely to attend. That is the best time for the group to steal the necklace.
* Kysona and Shadow scout the Underflow tunnels. (Read chat logs here)
	+ They learn that Rogar is the head dwarf of the Admiralty while Vadik is the dwarf that handles contracts for the security at least. Stamps are needed to enter a tunnel. Kysona manages to obtain a book with stamps to all tunnels except etherium mines, admiralty zone, condemned zones
* To get White Widow's attention, the city group goes to a minor White Widow gang hideout (they decide on Bubble's gang), and tell them they have a proposition for White Widow. If the Vermling gang doesn't listen, the city group will rough them up, humiliate them a bit, tell them again to send message up the chain
	+ White Widow recognizes force & strength above all else, which is why she was willing to accept Delphine. However, they will not kill anyone.
* The city group goes out disguised as Orcs and wrecks one of Bubble's hideouts. They let the Vermlings escape unharmed and tell them that they want an audience with White Widow.
* Kysona and Franz go case Purr. Meanwhile, Shadow and Matthias go and buy masks from Savant to help with the poor air quality in the Underflow.
	+ Kysona and Franz manage to get in after using Tongues and paying 5 gold.
	+ There is a lot of security. It's unclear if this is because all of White Widow's clubs have this level of security or because La Signora is performing
	+ The club entryway is a level surface while the main area is a 2 story underground stage. They can't use force (magic or otherwise) to get through the entryway, though illusions can go through. There aren't any windows in the club with good vantage points. There are stairs leading up to higher levels, likely a VIP entrance.
		- They manage to sneak in, making it to the second highest level. There's a magic wall with 2 bouncers beside it. There are also a number of private rooms. Kysona stabs himself to teleport across the wall and accidentally ends up in a room occupied by a female Tygron with 2 twinky tabaxis leaning against her. He barely escapes after running out of spell slots
* Kysona turned Franz into a badger who makes a tunnel from an abandoned building next door into the Purr building.
* The group hits up the potions shop that Kysona finds

## A Leap of Faith

*"If any worthwhile end can justify the means to attain it, a true ethical foundation is lost" -- River Meets the Sky, Founder of the Nymeria Academy of Science*

* Humble Downpour arrives at the Lake Sol monastery and drops off the Dragon Tales group before leaving. Levi can summon her again using a Thunderbolt spell, so she'll come back when they need her to.
* The group first enter a welcome space where they find
	+ A druidic shepherdry set (missing the dragon tooth potion)
	+ 4 Gold, 5 Silver, 6 Copper
	+ A Symphasian Traveler’s Guide on how to reach the monastery, written in an unknown language
	+ Tabaxi hair brush.
	+ Necklace that appears valuable (DC16 Investigation reveals it’s likely cheap, worthless material)
	+ Some monk robes, which Levi, Zhu Li, and Dave put on
* They arrive at a gap between the mountains with no bridge or discernible footpath to the main monastery. There's a little sign that says "Only by a leap from the lion’s head, will she prove her faith."
	+ The group discovers that the thermals are powerful enough to bring them across the ravine.
* They enter a prayer room, which is open to the public. There's a sign-in book for travelers and an alcove with a statue of a monk in prayer. Levi casts true sight, and manages to see Dave’s true form. Levi is quite surprised.
	+ Zhuli opens the closet and accidentally frees a wind elemental which attacks the group. Levi drives it out via the ceiling.
	+ Verinen finds some powder which he snorts. It allows him to heal to the max for all healing spells for the next hour
* The group goes to the library where they find books covered with black ink. They seem to have been corrupted by something. Levi is able to clear one of the books and can now use it to identify where the corrupting force is in the monastery. Meanwhile, because Verinen took random drugs in the cloak room, he is able to connect with shared wisdom there and is able to identify the core Symphasian tenets.
	+ There is also some corrupted message on the white board. The white chalk says: *Victory breeds hatred, for the vanquished is stricken with suffering. To uphold the Symphasian path, forget victory. We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it.*
	+ The black ink says: *Pacifism in the face of evil is itself evil. To not act is to act. The Path does not protect itself.*
	+ The party is attacked by the books. Dave stabs a bunch of them
* They cross a bridge over some necrotic water. Dave wants to drink some of the water, but the group stopps him. They arrive at a dining table and correctly identify that most of the food was fine but not the meat. Since Neko is the first to eat the food, he gets a temporary HP boost while the rest gets some temporary healing.
	+ They meet Flumph, who survived the massacre and is cooking to distract from his trauma. The party notices something strange about the backroom, and enter to discover the partially decomposed bodies of dead monks and Arasaka soldiers. A ghoulish creature emerges from the pile of sludge but they struck it down.

* The party goes upstairs to a room at the top that is for the maintainer of the monastery. They find the maintainer's body there, having slit his throat. He has a journal entry that he wrote just before he died that reads:
* The group decides to finish what they came here to do before anything worse happens. Flumph leads the party to the entrance of the monastery. Each character must demonstrate the tenet of reflection of the self, and has a moment of self-reflection
	+ **Neko**: Questioning whether their desire to heal is selfish and looking for that passion for helping people that they had when they first started out.
	+ **Dave**: be true to himself and make sure that his love for Hagnar is real and trying to be more authentic
	+ **Verinen**: purpose and direction. Will this current quest bring him purpose or is he better off leaving on his own to find Lesrya. Starting to get a tiny sliver of doubt that this is what he should be doing right now.
	+ **Levi**: reflects on who he is as far as storm dragon heritage, follower of the sphynx faith, and own identity.
	+ **Zhu Li**: reflects on her pain - chronic pain from the Etherium in her blood and the emotional pain of the many losses in her life. Feels pressure to do something with her abilities
* The rock splits and reveals a doorway hidden behind them.