The Church and the Grove

Walnut informs the group rent is due (150 GP paid to Marybelle Hellfang, landlady). The party can keep the gold they earn or find, but magic items should be registered to AI if not already registered with the Ashan Govt, and then sent them to AI. This is the primary form of return AI gets from the party. At the ship, there's a cat hanging around killing rats. Aurelia takes an obsessive liking to it and adopts it, naming it Gorginax. Zelle has cleaned up the ship and wants 200 GP for a workshop. Team Ivy race inside and call dibs on sleeping quarters. The party then head into town and enter a church, the Church of Waukeen, looking for burial wrappings, but are confronted by the strange clergy asking for money, and there's a winged cat too. Bivouac wants no part of the cult nonsense and walks out, but a young priest follows him onto the street. He's flustered, sees that Bivouac is new in town, and asks frantically for him to meet at midnight on the edge of town. Moving on to a fabric store, the party wrap up the fallen hunter's bodies in cloth from Prescott's Perfect Pairings and deliver them to the Church of Torm and Cora Ashglave, parading the bodies solemnly through town. Several townspeople have mixed reactions to the dead hunters, and seem to be disgusted with them or happy they're dead.

At the Church of Torm, Cora and Father Ruscalda are arguing again. Team Ivy report the Bells of Death were involved, who Father Ruscalda says are a corrupting influence in the Grove. Cora's delighted the unicorn, "the Protector of the Fey", is dead. She asks for the Violet Delights to ensure Harps cannot use them and the hunters can coat their weapons with its poison; Bivouac hands over his three spare bundles, concealing the rest. She's convinced and takes them, paying the party 175 GP. Father Ruscalda asks to speak with the party privately. Examining the vial of twilight vine, he says it's not just the fey out there in the Grove, it's the shadowfell too. He says the Prime Material plane sits between the Feywild (mirroring the prime material) and the Shadowfell (twisted reflection of prime material). The shadowfell and the fey are both able to break through in the Grove, who knows how. He says the violet delight blossoms have magic that help the fey travel. He implores the party to seek more information on the phenomena of the different planes. He tells them The Church of Waukeen provide commerce and bounty to Asha, that's their niche. The Church of Torm are protectors, they work closely with the Hunters. Father Ruscalda would love to know more about the fey and the shadowfell.

Meanwhile, Rah-Cerves buys food for a celebratory party and runs into Balsa, the flirtatious proprietor of Prescott's Perfect Pairings. He sets up the spread and invites the party to dig in and celebrate their first victory. V is upset that Rah-Cerves is secretive and independent, and asks him to be more forthcoming. Rah-Cerves shuts it down and goes to his room. At midnight, they head out to the rendezvous. Just at the edge of the Grove, an abandoned stone church is present just inside the foliage. The moon is nearly full and the priest, Zerude, is there, nervous and relieved to see them. He says the church is not taking money and investing it as Waukeen desires, they are filtering it elsewhere, dark rumors in the basement, people coming and going in the darkness of night, masked, the church is not as it seems. Aurelia spies a white winged cat in a corner, the same strange cat from the Church earlier. The cat howls wildly, flies around, and Bivouac jumps up and grapples it. Rah-Cerves strikes it dead and the cats visage fades away, turning from a cat to a long scaly creature - a pseudodragon, a common familiar. V, posted up at the door, is looking out into the forest and is struck by an arrow as a laugh echoes in the distant. Footsteps charge the doors as she closes them. An impact shakes the doors of the church and an eye looks through a gap, a large beast's eye and gray scales. Rah-Cerves probes an attacking Kobold's mind - its overlord is a red dragon, and it wants to stop the information coming from Zerude. The beast beats at the door and attempts to freeze them with its gaze with six eyes. It bursts through and charges in.

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