10: Crossroads

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## Summary

### All that Glitters

The party emerges from Mitro’s Arkspring to find the Wetlands changed. The Sabre is gone, replaced by a stony platform rising up from the marsh; the water, now pristine, shines with Ark and the light of fireflies flitting around the surface; and, like the beacon in the Wilds, the Arklight from the pedestal now towers into the night sky.

Keller returns with a skiff for the party to take back to the mainland, but not before they question **Pombo**: what is his connection to Lillet and Garris, and who are they, really? What are they doing in the Highlands, and where is Lillet going next? As Cat sits on his chest in a somewhat adorable intimidation tactic, Pombo tells the party what he knows about the pair and his rise to fame and fortune.

### Rags to Riches

Pombo divulges that three years before the party met, a man named Garris came to his casino to make a deal. He isn't sure how, but he knew that the casino sat atop a sort of Ark well. He proposed a trade: Ark from the Wetlands in return for Cascan crystal, the only known material that can contain it. Seeing an opportunity, Pombo and his crew began storing and selling Ark as a power source, and while the city profited initially, the people of Samsara began to use it as a drug. While Pombo had sold other drugs before the Ark trade began in earnest, he claims Ark to be in a league of its own, and tells the party that the city's need was outgrowing the spring's supply.

Pombo reached out to Garris, who sent Lillet to deliver a message: Garris and his men had found a new hotspot in the North Highlands, and he was willing to sell to Pombo. Meanwhile, Lillet is headed south to the Malabar region to look for laborers to help their operation in the caves up north. Pombo gives the party a name: Peeks, his contact in K'nafay, and says that he may be able to tell them about what Lillet gets up to in the south.

Finally, Pombo asks the party a few questions of his own, and does a little ruminating about what life might have been like had he known the truth about the Arkspring. Feeling sympathetic to Pombo’s humble origins, and recognizing that he’d harbored his own regrets about the outcome of the Ark trade, Mujie decides to let him go with no resistance from the rest of the party.

### Fortuna Revisited

After a night at the bathhouse, the party makes plans to take Pino and Palani to Fortuna, and Keller voices her intentions to tag along until Lhoam. After an afternoon of travel on foot, Dabo welcomes them at the church, and gives the party some bad news: the acolyte they left with him a few days back has died. When Dabo cast Remove Curse on him, the curse that was lifted seemed also to be the only thing sustaining his mortality, and without it, he passed on. Dabo next mentions that he remembered seeing a book in the church’s library about the history of Balaayt, but that it is likely in storage, and he’d have to spend some time searching for it.

He allows Cat to enter the storage shed at the back of the church grounds to try his luck. Cat uses a spell to reveal magical items, but all it shows him is two penguin tokens, a fancy dinner suit, and two paired tablets that can send messages between them. Cat returns to the party frustrated, but uses his spider familiar to bring one of the penguin tokens to Pino.

That evening, the party discusses their next move, and finds themselves facing a decision—should they follow Pombo’s tip about Garris to the Highlands, or make their way east to the Kkora Desert, where the farsight water suggested they’d find the next Arkspring? And what about Lillet, traveling south to Malabar? Remembering Mitro’s words, Mujie flips his coin, and when it shows heads, the candles and oil lamps in the room flare up for an instant before dying down again. Luca takes this as a sign to make for the desert, and the party thinks to kill two birds with one stone, planning a route through Ashta and K’nafay on their way. Plans made, the party turns in for a long rest.

## Quotes

### *SO HOW DID YOU TWO MEET?:*

> “About three years ago, this guy came to my casino. Garris. Said I had something he wanted, and he was willing to make a trade. I still don’t know how he knew—who told him, or how he figured it out—but he knew the casino was built on some kinda ark well. I mean, it’s obvious if you’re right next to it—you could see the shit in the air in the High Roller Room, the ship kinda glowed, y’know, but I’d never seen this guy before, how was he supposed to know?
>
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> Anyway, he wanted Ark. I thought he was crazy, cause it’s like air, what are you gonna do with fuckin’ air, but next thing I know, he’s got it trapped in some crystal thing like lightning in a bottle. Long story short, he sold me a bunch of Cascan crystal, and I let him take as much Ark as he could carry back to Lhoam. We started selling it, and the city really profited at first. I won’t pretend I get it, that ain’t my game, but some people were able to fix some of the ancient machines left lying around, the water mills were working twice as hard, and some of the gates in the canal opened up. But Garris told us we could use it like a drug, too—showed us—so people started using it that way. That’s when shit really started getting out of hand. Before Ark, I was pushing magic mushrooms, pixie dust, mistleaf, you name it, but Ark’s a whole other game. The withdrawals, or whatever it is, can kill you. I don’t know the specifics, but if you use it and get unlucky, it’ll turn you into an empty shell.”
>
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> “I don’t know the specifics, I swear. I just know at some point, if you keep taking Ark, your own lifeforce won’t be enough for you anymore. And if you can’t get more, it’s over, you’re just gone. Eventually, your body withers. Whether it’s months or years, it’s different for everyone. People with weak constitutions, sick people seem to have it worse.”
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*—Pombo on Garris and the Ark trade*

### *HE KILLED THEM, IN CASE IT WASN'T CLEAR:*

> “There were these guys, though, in dark robes, from somewhere up North. Maybe from the Barrens, if there’s anything out there. I heard they’d come to the city saying they could cure Ark sickness, they just had to take the sick with them. Let’s just say some of them ended up in the canals, and the others took the message back home. A little Samsara hospitality.”
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*—Pombo on the Illumined*

### *WHO'S THAT LADY:*

> “She’s Garris’s right-hand, uh, elf, I guess. I don’t know much about her. We got in contact when I started buying Ark off Garris. Recently, this well, or whatever—it couldn’t keep up with how much we were taking anymore, so Garris sent Lillet to give us a message. He said he could supply us, ‘cause he’s got a hotspot up there.”
>
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> “Anyway, I know she was heading south to Malabar, said something about Garris looking for workers to help up at the caves in the Highlands. But if she’s looking south, I think that just means she’s on the market for slaves.”
>
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> “I know a guy in K’nafay. Name’s Peeks. He used to sell for me here in the Wetlands, but now he’s doing his own thing down there. Not sure what. Maybe he can tell you more about the situation in Malabar, you could see if he hears anything about Lillet.”
>
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*—Pombo on Lillet*

### *YOU ARE BAD GUY, BUT THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE BAD... GUY:*

> “Look, don’t get me wrong. I was born in this city, and I’ve always known I’ll die here. I’m no good guy, but I never thought it would turn out this way. Before Garris, before all this Ark shit, my casino and the drug trade were keeping the whole city afloat. People don’t come all the way out here from the coastal cities for tea time and a hot bath, they come to gamble and trade outside the scrutiny of the cops. I built the Sabre from the ground up, and maybe I bloodied my hands in the process—but without the casino, without the Snakepit, Samsara would starve. Hell, I’m even floating money out to Amerós and that church. No one knew what taking Ark would do until it was too late, and by then we had to work twice as hard just to keep our people’s heads above water. So don’t get it twisted—I know I’ve been the bad guy, but somebody had to do *something*.”
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> "Looks like Samsara will be just fine without me...”
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*—Pombo*

### *MUJIE GOES TO CHURCH, PT. 2:*

> “Ah, I was hoping our God was a beautiful woman…”
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*—Dabo*