My Brother's Keeper

Session was played during season 4: the Whitehorn Revolution on 3/29/18. It dealt with some of Draken's history and some character development for him

## Summary

As the guild is taking a moment to catch their breaths from all of the recent battles, Riva, Duncan, Fenli, Caen, Daeravon, and newest guild member Liwen are all hanging out in the center square of Estempul. Liwen is weirding out the rest of the guild, who have not actually met her yet. As the group interacted, they hear the sound of Draken's mount, the fire Griffen Flamey McFlamerson, flying towards them. The group realizes something is wrong, as Flamey is riderless, and seems to be struggling to stay airborne. Crashing into the ground, the group discovers that Flamey has several bite marks, and has some kind of frost covering part of his feathers (which is concerning as ordinary frost should not effect a Fire Griffen.) The group discover Draken's lute, with a note tied to it. The note reads the following:

I must be quick. He is coming for me.
He knows what Quentis did to me and wants to use that to force me to
join him. I don't know why. I don't know how much longer I can fight
his influence. Look for the tree that shines upon the silent lake.
Please. Help.

Concerned, the group decides to first send Flamey to the stables to be treated. They then head to where a makeshift hospital had been set up for the Rebellion Army. Draken would sometimes visit the hospital to visit the sick and the injured, and try to play for them to lift morale. The group met Rin, a young sorceress who was playing a lute. Rin had at some point met Draken, and told him that she had wanted to be a bard, but her family had pushed her into studying sorcery. Draken had begun teaching her to play the lute, saying that she had a lot of natural talent could make an excellent bard one day. The group had shown Rin the note from Draken, and Rin revealed that a few days ago, Draken had come in and shown Rin a letter she had received, which was an invitation to meet someone named Daravose and a nearby landmark called Lion's Rock. Dravose had offered to help Draken try and rid himself of the brainwashing Quentis had done to him back at the end of season one. Draken had told Rin that he was going to meet Daravose alone, but that if he didn't return in a few days, then to send someone after him.

Rin, wanting to help, introduced the group to a druid named Shaw. Shaw told the group that the beast who had attacked Flamey sounded like a winter wolf, but there had yet to be a sighting of a winter wolf in Teol. Shaw also told the group that the tree sounded like it was an Everbloom, a tree of myth. According to the legend, the tree was supposedly said to grow from fruit that fell to the earth from a tree in the garden of the gods. The tree is said to always be in bloom, and that it emits some kind of glow. The tree is also said to empower druids, making there spells even more powerful.

Setting out on some beasts that were definitely not Chocobo's, and arrived at Lion's Rock. Finding evidence of some kind of struggle, and a trail of footprints that led into the woods, the group followed it to a cave. Heading into the cave, the group explored it and came across some chests, and fought some mimics. The encounter proved to be somewhat difficult for the group.

After beating the mimics, the group finished exploring the cave and found an caved in exit. Blasting through it, they came to a hidden grove that housed the Everbloom tree. Standing underneath the tree was Daravose and the winter wolf. Draken lay on the ground breathing, but not moving. The group noted that Daravose looked remarkably like Draken

Duncan attempted to talk to Daravose to distract him while Fenli and Daeravon attempted to sneak around to get to Draken. However, the attempt failed and resulted in Daeravon being captured by a treent, and Fenli being repulsed by some kind of barrier that was protecting the tree and Daeravon.

Daravose did not reveal why he had captured and tortured Draken but he seemed to indicate that he had plans to build an army of some sort and attack civilization. A fight then broke down between the group and some Treents, Daravose used the power of the Everbloom to protect himself and summon some bears to join the fight, as well as control the treents.

Partway through the fight, Daravose choose to send Draken into the fight, speaking Draken's command word (broken drum in celestial). Draken was then forced to fight his friends. However, thanks to Riva yelling at him, Draken was able to briefly snap out of his trance. Daravose, however, yelled the command word, pulling Draken back into the trance. The group picked up on this, and Caen was able to cast zone of silence on Daravose. This cause him to loose control of the Treents, who had been under his power. They immediately turned on Daravose and began to attack the barrier to try and get to Daravose. Duncan was then able to speak Draken's command word, bringing him under Duncan's control. Duncan then told Draken to reveal his phrase that snaps him out of it (broken bard in celstial). With this new knowledge Duncan was able to fully snap Draken out of his trance, just as the Treents broke through the barrier.

As everyone was rallying to kill Daravose, Draken suprised everyone by shouting for them to stop. Rushing back into the zone of silence, Draken confronted Daravose. The two exchanged a few words, though the rest of the guild couldn't hear them. A dimension door then appeared, and Daravose escaped with the winter wolf. When the group questioned Draken as to why he had done this, Draken stated that Daravose had revealed he was his twin brother, and that Draken was actually adopted. Draken was unsure of what to think if this, but believed he may have been telling the truth.

Half of the group believed Draken was telling the truth while the other half was unsure if Draken was fully in his right mind. As the group was preparing to leave, Duncan pulled Draken aside and told him that he knew Draken's command words, but that he would never use them, not even to save his own life. Draken was appreciative of this, and told Duncan that he would have to trust him now more then he trusted himself. The group then returned back to Estempul.

## Major plot points:

* Draken was revealed to still have to sleeper agent programming that Quentis had instilled in him back in season one
* Draken was revealed to have someone claiming to be his brother, and that Draken might be adopted
* Daravose was introduced as a new villian, though his motives were not made enirely clear
* Duncan discovered Draken's command phrases to put him in his sleeper trance, but revealed that he would never use them against Draken