Renewal Fest

The party fight several rust monsters and a feral Gnoll they found caged deep in the Hanscoff Mines. The fight is heated but the party are triumphant.

At the end, Moss takes 3 small flasks of ichor from the Gnoll corpse, to study. They also find a small journal which is a functional ledger for the mine, with 5 delivery dates from the mine to "Hanscoff's Jewels" in Zadash. The party recognise that this is suspicious, as the mines should have no need for cages, or caged gnolls? Moss briefly got caught within the gnoll's cage, freaked out, turned into a weasel and escaped it.

Komani locates a flask with a note in it inside a water barrel in the mine - the note suggests that a worker in the mine intended to report what was happenng there to the Myriad. Moss grabbed the note. So far nothing appears to connect to the code discovered last session.

The party leaves the Hanscoff Mines to return to the celebrations in town.

Aside from Korvok and Llunet, everyone decides to join Hartmut in racing up the stairs to the Idlework Shelves. He explains the rest of the year follows what you achieve on this day. Moss and Hartmut have an easy time, Komani and Morrigan, maybe tired from the earlier fights, struggle. Hartmut inspires an elderly dwarf to make it to the top, and he begins following the group. Aggaro introduces himself as part of the group now, and appears to be having a rough time so no one argues overmuch.

Komani enters into a "dragon eating contest" after running into her new contact from last week's carousing, Miki Billowpitch, who apparently works at the bakery and makes the 'dragon' pastries. The party attempt to bet on her but do not successfully find anyone else to compete against. Komani wins!

The party follow a somehow already drunk Hartmut to the Submarine. The Submarine is designed to look like a pleosaur named Bess.

## Renewal Fest; Part II

13th Dualahei

The majority of the party take turns participating in Zendsa's diving game - to grab potions she's planted at the bottom of the lake. They have mixed success, with Komani throwing up on herself after her first dive. The dives leave Komani and Hartmut with two levels of exhaustion, and Moss with one. Korvok does not participate. The party retrieve a large pile of potions (including a Potion of Englarge, Hill Giant Strength, Resistance to Poison, 2x Greater Healing, Climbing & Animal Friendship). Moss successfully retrieves a potion that Llunet had overheard some teen boys discussing, and is mildly distressed to find out it's a Philtrum of Love. The party are discussing whether to give the potion to the kids, or whether it's impossible to use such a potion ethically at all, when Hartmut holds out his hand for it and Moss passes it over.

He skolls the bottle with no warning, and becomes instantly infatuated with Komani. Komani dives again to avoid it - and doesn't find any other potions. The party split to separate the two, as they were *just* talking about how love potions are problematic.

Group 1 goes for a ride on Bess, the pleiosaur robot. Hartmut, Llunet and Moss manage to mess up a proposal between a dwarf and human onboard. They chat with Rissa, who is piloting Bess, a creation of Clef.

Group 2 wanders the markets. Komani, Korbok and Morrigan find a vendor selling origami paper birds that will carry a message for you. They try them, but it's unclear how effective the enchantment is. The vendor turns out to be Zendarsa's sister, who reveals that Zendarsa talks about Morrigan *a lot.*

The groups reconnect and head towards where Bango Skank is performing. The potion has worn off, but Komani is still mostly avoiding Hartmut.

At the theatre, the curtains rise to reveal Linok, under attack from a monstrous giant Troll-Gnoll.

## Bedlam in Hupperdook; Part I

13th Dualahei

   Linok cuts the hands off the Troll-Gnoll, but they regrow shortly afterwards. Belrond uses his turn to heal Linok - which is lucky because the Troll-Gnoll hits her again. Llunet and Komani are also hit hard, more gnolls are coming in to the theatre. They're absolutely slaughtering the guards. The Troll Gnoll is covered in sores which are revealed to be packed with blasting powder after Moss uses a Bonfire to attack him. It stops him from regenerating, but the resulting blast briefly knocks down Llunet. The gnoll is beaten, Llunet is revived, and more guards appear to help take down the extra gnolls.

After the fighting, the guards won't let the party leave the building for their own safety. Korvok goes to the roof to see what's happening outside. The Idleworks Shelf is overtaken. There are fire elementals and gnolls chasing the villagers through town. The party meet up inside the theatre and Belrond creates a portal to escape out onto the streets. The party land in a quiet section, away from the Idleworks.

Belrond and Linok are leaving. The debate in the party gets heated - Hartmut refuses to leave, and Komani grabs him, ready to physically drag him away if needed. Unfortunately for her, Moss also wants to stay and runs off into the streets, shouting about how they "know they don't die here" after their visions. "We saw the future - I know where I die". The party decide to follow Moss into danger. Belrond and Linok walk off, holding each other up. The party follows Moss into the burning streets, back up to the shelf. Not far into the Idleworks, they're trapped by a Fire Elemental bursting through a building wall.

## Bedlam in Hupperdook; Part II

13th Dualahei

The party take on the fire elemental, and attempt to save nearby villagers from Gnolls and a Giant Hyena. Shortly into the fight cultists appear. They are immediately familiar to Korvok, and call out to Mara Jezebeth that he is here. One of the civilians the party are trying to rescue is a gnome child named Kenna, who is in the company of a member of the Hupperdook Crownsguard named Helaine. Helaine's gear is slightly *off* for a member of the Crownsguard. The fire elemental grabs the child, which Helaine seems strangely fine with. Several party members attempt to pull the child free from the fire elemental, but are unsuccessful. Reinforcements keep arriving, including Mara herself, who immediately trades places with Korvok, attempting to trap him with the cultists. He races forward, dodging them, to threaten Mara, but she seems intent on punishing the party. The party successfully kill the giant Hyena, one of the cultists and several gnolls, but Mara and her fire elemental are too strong. One by one they're struck down, each thinking of the failings that lead them to this point, and blacking out. [bonus points to hartmut for thinking they wouldn't be dying if his brother was here instead of him, extreme ouch]

Komani is the first to come to, and sees the team stripped of weapons and magic items. Morrigan appears to be missing, replaced by a green halfling sized fey creature. It has the same braided hair that she wears, albeit messier, and crows wings spring from it's back. Moss and Korvok (??) wake, in time to see Mara affixing faintly purple spectral chains to one of the guardsmen. Kenna the child is also awake, struggling in the hold of the elemental.

Under Mara's control, the chains rise into the air, a guardsman dangling from them. Mara is chanting low, and the party see as the guardsman is bent and broken by an invisible force.

Korvok remembers Mara saying she'd found something in Xhorhas which would expediate things. There's a purple glow eminating from an amulet on her chest. It is covered in confusing Xhorhassian markings. She turns to the party and allows the guardsman's corpse to crumple into the ground.

She crouches down in front of Moss and restarts the process, chanting [if anyone noted the chant contents that would be amazing here]. Moss feels an immense pressure as she rises upwards, pulled by the chains. Just as it becomes too much to bear, the pressure lifts. Mara seems surprised by this. The chains release Moss, dropping her unceremoniously. Mara leans in over her, inspecting her closely. Mara tells Moss that she is a vessel, she will save the Savalirwoods, and in doing so will free the Chained Oblivion. She presses a purple stone dagger with the same symbol as her amulet into Moss' hands. Moss barely reacts, sitting in shock and in pain.

Mara moves to Komani and restarts the process. Kenna, the child, is complaining more and more loudly, clearly terrified. There's a pressure building in the air. The chains are affixed to Komani and she begins to rise, as the remainder of the party wakes. The unbearable crushing of the chains begins, but this time there is no sudden release from it. Komani's wrist snaps inwards, other bones following swiftly behind. The squalling child gets louder and louder. Komani can feel her life force being sapped by the dreadful presence behind the chains.

Suddenly there's a rushing sound, and flames explode outwards from the gnomish child. Mara's accomplices are instantly burned away, and she is hurt badly enough to drop concentration. Komani falls to the ground, critically injured. Korvok (?) rushes over to heal her, as the fire has demolished the bonds holding the party. Morrigan immediately runs, grabbing her circlet and staff from the group's piled equipment. She disappears into the streets. A newly healed Komani gathers the tiny gnomish child into her arms, and thanks her. The party collect and distribute their things, moving into a burned out house nearby to try to think. They decide to continue forwards to the Palace, to find Watchmaster Bram. Moss hides the dagger in her bag, it appears no one else has seen it.

Moss tries to delicately call out in Sylvan for the creature she and most of the party assume was Morrigan. There is no response. Most of the party move on, but Moss and Llunet stay by the building, where a poorly hidden Morrigan sits on the roof. After some less delicate pushing from Llunet, Morrigan rejoins the group as they walk to the palace.

There they find Watchmaster Marcus, who informs them that Bram did not make it. Komani introduces the group as The Iron Lot. Marcus tries to remove the child from the party, but after their recent experience with Guardswoman Helaine they are reluctant to let her go. After arguing for a minute, he allows them to leave to the recovery station with the child. He gets a guard to note the child's appearance and name, and whispers to also note the descriptions of the party. Only Korvok and Moss hear this, as the party walk to hopefully rest.

## The Departure

13th and 14th Dualahei

The party are directed to a campsite on the grounds of the Primator Palace.

Korvok picks a spot outside the tent and feigns sleep. Llunet guards the tent, patrolling nearby and with Llunet's Owl circling above. Komani takes Kenna into the tent and finds a spot to hold her and rest. Morrigan slinks into the same tent. Hartmut rests in the other tent, solo.

Moss approaches Korvok and asks to talk to him. They limp a little way away from the group to talk. Korvok tells Moss he doesn't know the chained oblivion. Mara seems much worse than when he knew her. Moss asks about the Amulet with the markings matching the Dagger. Korvok says he's seen the amulet before, she's always had it. Moss stalls for a moment and then caves, showing Korvok the dagger. He's concerned, says she should show the group. Moss is hesitant but says she'll follow his lead - she's done being pushy. She puts the dagger away for now.

Korvok finds one of the girls he'd played with earlier, sitting with a woman at a nearby campsite. The pair look awful, they've visibly been crying. There's no sign of the other girl.

Kenna starts speaking in her sleep - Desirat Mentiri. Zemnian which Hartmut translates, ducking his head through the tent door to see what is happening. "Destroy Monolith".

On the way back into camp, Llunet asks Korvok to spar with her. No magic, just swords. The sparring is interrupted by soldiers passing by - claiming to be carrying Bram's body. Llunet gets close enough to confirm, and immediately turns back to the tent.

The party go to sleep. They're woken early by the campsite being taken down. Llunet is up and sketching the sunrise over the city. Hartmut sleeps in, but goes straight to the temple once he's up. Moss wakes up being licked by Wes, the dagger has moved into her hands overnight. She hides it again. Komani swaddles Kenna and goes searching for food. Morrigan is standing listless at the edge of the camp and Moss asks her what she wants to do next - Morri thinks we should find who Kenna belongs to, as we can't just steal a kid. Moss "oh so that's just a stereotype then?" Morri [in sylvan, smiling] "fuck off"

The group try to check in on Kenna. When she seems healthy but unresponsive Morri approaches the local children to ask about her. Using druidcraft and corvid, she charms some gnomish kids who are destroying the palace gardens. They've never met Kenna, don't know her. Their parents, however, know her as the little gnomish girl who never leaves the house. They say her parents are 'Atalia and Elethar' (check Ian's spelling for this) and they live in a house they built themselves in the idleworks shelf. Their family seems quite fancy.

By the time Hartmut has returned from the temple, the others have agreed to take Kenna and check on her family. Korvok takes the time to hunters' mark Kenna before departure, clearly concerned someone will grab her. They follow the information Morri gathered, and find an elven home in the Idleworks Shelf, covered in Bysaes Tyllian carvings and woodwork. It is severely burned, although there's a lot of that in the surrounding streets as well. Morrigan goes to knock, and the door swings open.

Hartmut stays outside, uncomfortable with illegally entering the house. The others investigate the home, finding a plethora of paintings and imagery of what appears to be Mount Mentiri, and artwork of a Phoenix. There is even more fire damage inside, but it doesn't match the explosion they saw from Kenna previously. There are two elvish corpses inside. They have single gunshot wounds to their heads - reminiscent of the weapon Guardswoman Helaine had with her the night before. Moss checks for Kenna's room and grabs two of her toys to take with them later (a wooden bird and goat).

In the study, Llunet uncovers a strange passageway hidden behind shelving. Calling Hartmut in, the entire party descends. At the base is a shrine to Asmodeus. A crown with goat horns. More of the plain silver necklaces Kenna and her parents wear are dangling from it. The party depart, unsure what to do next.

Moss is the last to leave the shrine. The dagger suggests she should destroy it, so she dallies until the group has passed and then casts Bonfire on it. No one notices at the time, but she tells them what happened later on.

Hartmut wants to alert the guards, but the others are concerned about Helaine and the (in their opinion) shady behaviour of Watchmaster Marcus. The party come to a messy agreement to leave - with everyone except Hartmut assuming they must, and failing to explain why adequately. The energy amongst the group is not good. They take the time to buy supplies before heading to their Worn Carriage to depart at noon. It's gone. Moody sits alone in the stables, having been left by Belrond Seaclay and Linok, in favour of stealing the mechanical carriage.

Next up: The Road to Felderwin