Chapter 9: The Fox Force Five

## Saturday, July 28, 2351

On this day, our heroes were dead. Unbeknownst to them, someone reached Neverwinter, and someone tried messaging one of them, but received no reply.

## Sunday, July 29, 2351

On this day, our heroes were dead. It was Numil Shaleback's 23rd birthday. Unbeknownst to them, someone reached Baldur's Gate, and someone tried messaging one of them, but received no reply.

## Monday, July 30, 2351

On this day, our heroes were dead. Unbeknownst to them, someone left Mohkinstsis. West of Mohkinstsis, a Niitsitapi ranger came across a strange sight: a silent man with vitiligo sitting beside six dead bodies: three human, one gnome, one dwarf, one bugbear. Backup is requested.

## Tuesday, July 31, 2351

On this day, our heroes were dead. Backup arrived for the silent stranger, the concerned ranger, and the pile of dead bodies. With Pigeon as the nearest settlement, it just so happened that some of those reinforcements recognized the three dead humans, and the bodies were moved back to the village in question to attempt resurrections.

## Wednesday, August 1, 2351

### Session 68 (cont)

Alja was resurrected by Iskri, Jahzara, and Silas — the last two only recently resurrected themselves. She learned that they had happened upon the aftermath of the battle, their attention drawn by the sounds of the initial clash, and Zara's attention solidified by the sight of Greg amongst the horses. They had attempted a daring rescue and... it had not gone well for them. Like Alja and the rest of our heroes, the pair had been thoroughly robbed. Alja was informed that no more resurrections could be performed for the evening, but that resurrections could be attempted for... two of her companions at any rate. The third, Samsok, was missing his heart.

## Thursday, August 2, 2351

### Session 68 (cont)

Rorrik was resurrected, then Seth. Silas took a very creative approach to contributing to one of the rituals. The silent stranger who found the bodies joined the group for Seth's resurrection, drawing her back with what seemed to be Gibbeth's arcane power. The news was shared about Samsok's missing heart, and it was agreed that the escort quest was a set-up. Alja discreetly sent a message to Tshering. Word was put out through what connections Pigeon had, seeking someone with the kind of magic it would take to restore life to a body despite its missing vital organs. They rested.

## Friday, August 3, 2351

### Session 68 (cont)

More rest. Rorrik put in an order for chainmail and a shield. He and Seth also requested some copper wire, beginning a saga in the life of local blacksmith Johan that would far exceed anyone's expectations of difficulty. New druidic foci were found and crafted.

## Saturday, August 4, 2351

### Session 68 (cont)

More rest, and the approach of the close of the ten-day window for Samsok's resurrection by normal means. That evening, a knock at the door revealed salvation in an unexpected form: a group of five beautiful women with brightly coloured hair, bearing a large, rotting, dirty heart.

### Session 69

The group — who introduced themselves as Iris, Idella, Rani, Varsha, and Milka — asked if any of our heroes had been having nightmares lately. They were, as it turns out, hunting down a Night Hag named Della, who had killed their friend Ella (ella ella ey ey ey). They had a crystal in their position that led them to where they'd need to go to find her, but it tended to take roundabout routes. That crystal had led them to Samsok's heart, then to the group in Pigeon. Iris suggested they join forces and seek Della out together, before she had the chance to hurt Rorrik or anyone else any more.

Rorrik, Seth and Alja resurrected Samsok, with mysterious paladin of Domagoj, Nadeem, leading the ritual. It was agreed that they should work together with the girls, and soon, but first: rest. For most of them, anyway. For Rorrik, the nightmares returned.

## Sunday, August 5, 2351

### Session 69 (cont)

A day of rest and resource-gathering. Samsok attempted to come up with a name for his druidic focus but kept getting distracted by naps. He sought out a branch that he could turn into an improvised greatclub. Seth went in search of spell components and passed several hours in the cluttered home of a charming old person named Frieda, who has a thousand stories to tell and tries to tell them all at the same time. Rorrik attempted to make copper wire with Johan, and discovered how much harder it is than it should be. He settled, instead, for customizing his shield, using the opportunity to reconnect with his god, hearing that divine voice in his mind as he finished his work for the day. Alja, running around town with Zara to help the others as needed and gather supplies, caught up with her friend. That evening, Rorrik sent messages to Ref and Buhle both, receiving little reply from the former but some news from the latter: when they returned to Mohkinstsis, there was someone they should meet. Seth got her grimoire back, with some free paranoia!

## Monday, August 6, 2351

### Session 69 (cont)

Our heroes set off, the girls in tow, to hunt down Della in the Ethereal Plane. The journey took much less long than anticipated — about two hours in total. While Samsok got his flirt on and Seth tried to figure out if Idella was secretly evil, Alja and Rorrik focused on their mission along with Iris, finding a particularly gray patch of mountain on Ribbon Peak. Climbing — with some difficulty in some cases, and like mountain goats in others — to the spot, they passed through and... immediately found themselves scattered in a starry abyss, great glowing stars shedding light on the chasm separating them, as they perched precariously on floating bits of rock and massive chains.

This was not the Ethereal Plane Seth and Rorrik knew. But it did feel like the Ethereal Plane in some ways — though the keen sense of gravity beneath their feet was unusual, as was being able to see anything past 60 feet because of a light source.

As dark chuckles and strange shapes lurked at the edges of their vision, the group prepared for battle.

### Session 70

The two groups found themselves in battle on a massive scale, scattered so far that some of them never saw some of their allies through its entire course. Idella, in particular, found herself single-handedly holding off a Sea Hag, while Seth and Alja ran afoul of an Annis Hag, and most of the others focused on Della. All the while, the baffling abyss they fought in shifted, the stars that provided the scene's only light shifting and coalescing into a pair of burning eyes, a rocky, loveless face forming in the distance. Massive hands of stone reached up, crushing what little terrain the group had to operate on, sending people scrambling, and Milka fell off the precipice when she was knocked unconscious, spiralling into an infinite nothingness, the others unable to save her. Samsok and Iris managed to fell Della, but by that point both Seth and Alja were in danger, largely alone with the Annis Hag, and far away from any helpful allies.

### Session 71

Seth and Alja survived the fight ‚— as did the others, though by the end it was only Samsok, Idella, and Iris still conscious. As soon as the last hag was defeated — falling to Idella's sword, like her companion had before — the group found themselves in a swirling, grey, misty space much smaller than it had seemed before, the illusion dispelled, the true face of the Deep Ethereal presenting itself. They waited for their companions to recover... and once Milka was up, Iris informed Samsok that he should probably come with her now, and Samsok, under the force of a Suggestion spell, said yeah sure, fair enough. With Idella gently knocking Seth back out just as she came to, the group carried the remaining unconscious members, and Iris led them through the Ethereal Plane, to a gate to the Feywild.

There, she took them to a compound where it seemed they were well known, and Iris told Samsok his friends would be taken care of by Milka there, given time to rest and recuperate. She encouraged him to relax with Rani in the meantime, promising a great feast soon.

The others awoke when the feast was ready, roused by Milka, and somewhat bewildered to find themselves both alive and in the Feywild — particularly Seth and Rorrik, for whom being on this plane was a new experience, though they'd glimpsed it through portals and through the grey shadows of the Ethereal Plane. Samsok, at least, was in a fine mood, having passed the hour enjoyably with Rani.

The feast was presented, obviously magical in nature, and though all of them partook, only Samsok fell prey to the feast. By the time the food had been thoroughly picked over, he was — unbeknownst to the party — utterly She's, under the effects of a permanent *dominate person* spell, the same as Rani, Varsha, Milka, and Idella. As Samsok happily passed the night in ecstasy with Rani and various others, the rest of the party took up watch outside the building, on alert after Rorrik reached out to Sam via Sending and was told to stay put and wait for her.

When Sam arrived — in a new body, with a lot of manic energy — they were not particularly impressed with the party for having ended up in the clutches of a hag. As they informed the three not currently under Forever Charm, neither they nor their husband were really in a position to interfere — fairy politics, you know — but they needed to get their friend the hell out of her clutches. Maybe kill her, he didn't know. Unfortunately, the choice of strategy was taken away when Sam was hit with a burst of cotton candy pink webbing, with Iris having clocked a hostile stranger in her lair. She shifted to reveal her true form — that of a massive pastel spider-like hag — and battle began.

### Session 72

The battle was a difficult one, with Samsok repeatedly trying to kill Sam — and succeeding in knocking her to 0, at least — his friends trying to kill She, and the Fox Force Four trying to kill his friends. In the end, Alja took She down, with Seth checking for a pulse with Eldritch Blast, and Samsok, the Fox Force Four, and many, many others found themselves abruptly freed of her charm and back in control of their will once again. For Samsok, it had been a matter of hours — for some of those the group freed, it had been decades.

Much of the group dispersed, and after a time the group followed, meeting the Stranger in the surrounding woods — also in a new body, though for Samsok and Alja this was the only one they knew him in. With Sam and the Stranger leading, they walked a long time, eventually finding an isolated little cabin, where they were given the opportunity to bed down for the night.

The following morning was an eventful one. With the group waking to find Sam and the Stranger already up and waiting for them, an array of food on the table — also probably magical in nature, though none of them had to make Wisdom saves while eating it, so that's probably fine — and they began to catch Sam up on what they'd been up to. It was agreed that Sam and the Stranger could get them to a portal reasonably close to wherever they wanted to go, and that above all they had to figure out what to do about the Sabina situation. Sam, at least, could make them three doses of holy water that day.

### Session 73

The group continued to discuss, Sam critiquing their strategies as they talked through plans out loud. Various discussions were had — should they go back to the city? If so, how and where? How long should they stay? What should their goals be while there? If they shouldn't go back to the city, or if they went and then left, where should they go instead? Pigeon? Somewhere else entirely? Samsok volunteered the use of the metal box he'd been previously living in, though Rorrik suggested it might be a little cozy for four people. Sam offered what advice they could, but after a time asked Rorrik if they might be able to speak privately for a moment.

Outside, Sam asked Rorrik: how was he feeling about the group he was travelling with? Did he think they might be worthwhile recruits, seeing as Gulo already was? It might make some topics easier to speak freely about.

Rorrik affirmed his loyalty to them, and said he thought they might well be interested in the Keepers' mission. If he were still travelling with Vyre, he said, he'd think twice about it — if he were still travelling with Vyre, Sam replied, they likely wouldn't have offered.

Sam asked him: you know the risks, if they take the test and prove wanting. Do you trust them enough to risk that?

Yes, Rorrik said.

And so, the pair returned to the room, and Sam made the offer to the other three. He had a test for them. If they passed the test, she'd be able to speak more freely. If they failed, the consequences would be dire.

The group agreed to take the test. So Sam produced the same ceremonial iron dagger they had presented to Gulo in front of Rorrik some weeks before, and asked the same three questions of each of them, while the dagger spun faster and faster before each of their faces in turn, ready to fly right between their eyes should they answer untruthfully, or in a way that indicated a lack of suitability for the mission ahead.

Each of them passed the test. So each of them became, that Feywild morning, a Keeper.

Sam explained the Keepers' mission to them: to oppose the tyranny of the Nine and those who benefitted from that tyranny. They operated in secrecy, most Keepers only knowing a handful of others, so that if one person or even a dozen people were compromised the organization could survive. They were each given a coin, enabling them one use of Sending to Sam per day. Now, Sam said, it would be easier to speak openly, and to give them access to resources a little more freely.

In response to a question from Rorrik about communities less friendly to the Nine, Sam advised that such knowledge was best left unspoken, and that it was preferable to learn how to spot allies even in the most hostile environments. To this end, he gave Rorrik a small iron spider figurine, telling him to show Shamash and only Shamash, and to say they were friends of the Web. He also reminded Rorrik and Seth of the key Gulo had once brandished to summon the Stranger, advising that monks bearing such keys could be trusted. Finally, he mentioned Ini Topaztwister as not a Keeper but a friend to the organization, giving Seth a minor nervous meltdown in the process.

Regarding battles against vampires and werewolves, they said, there were tools available — but none better than a magic weapon. They were less conspicuous than a silvered weapon, and a silvered weapon would do nothing against a vampire. Magic was good for wounding vampires, but only certain types of magic or the light of the sun were useful for killing them — you needed to be able to stall their natural healing, The holy water would help, but if Rorrik was their only source of radiant damage, they needed to have other options for healing on hand, so he could focus on that.

After a brief exchange, Sam and the Stranger agreed they might be able to take the group to get spellwrought tattoos, loading all of them up with one-use radiant spells, to help them out — provided the group was willing to stay another night in the Feywild. They agreed, and while some of the group remained behind while Sam created holy water, Seth went with the Stranger to find a new arcane focus at a nearby fey market. While she chose a new ring, the Stranger managed to acquire some Potions of Healing and a +1 dagger for the group's use.

Back at the cabin, Sam spoke with Samsok, speaking of some of his own past experiences with charm effects. After, while Sam continued to work, the other three began a discussion of new potential group names — one that was still ongoing when Seth returned. The group as a whole discussed rebranding for a time, before the Stranger approached Seth with a new offer: he had a friend who might be able to advise Seth about her pact, who was willing to meet, but would only meet Seth. Seth agreed, and so the Stranger transported them to another area of the Feywild, near a cave alive with strange, sickly light. Inside, Seth found a woman — pale, freckled, with dark hair and piercing blue eyes, beautiful but with the appearance of having been sick for a long time — who introduced herself as Maeve. This was, Seth knew, the strange girl she had seen in her dreams before, when she had deepened her understanding of her more wizardly magic. Maeve offered Seth a choice: she could free her of her tie to Gibbeth, if Seth agreed to bind herself to Maeve instead. All she would require in return was that Seth continue to serve her — which she had already signed up to do in joining the Keepers — and... be interesting.

These were terms Seth could agree to, so in the depths of that cave, high on mass expenditures of magic, Maeve and Seth severed her old pact and formed a new one instead. Finally, giddy with the power she'd just been exposed to, Seth returned to the Stranger with two scrolls of Teleportation Circle, one of which he used to return them to the cabin, and the rest of the group.