Session 52 - Unlikely Allies

This is the 52nd session of Ashes.

## Summary

The party talks with Elm and Vivas after the fight that just took place, and Joni and the Menagerie's reasons for killing Autumn. The two talk about how the Menagerie was just a dirt-poor gang from Churn, and had no interest in shaking down Autumn since he was surrounded by powerful people. That was until Joni arrived on their doorstep and offered to track and kill Autumn. The Menagerie then traveled all the way to Coldport on the trail of the party. They met with Zillian who they made a tenuous deal with, and snuck them onto Naline, they mentioned that Zillian booked two ships for travel, but sent them to Naline after the deal had gone in Zaun's favor.

The party learned a little more about Revenants and that they were undead creatures wronged in some way, and wished vengeance on the person who caused their death, that they had one year to complete the task, and that they can assume a new body when they die to continue the hunt. The party suspected that Joni himself was not the Revenant but the new form that Korak's spirit had taken over. But knew that Autumn had to keep looking over his shoulder for this Revenant for the next 4-6 months approximately.

The party learned from Othen that all of Zillian's men sent with them on the Naline mutinied, and Othen only had three shipmates left (Dudley, Pops, and Brook). The Ogre named Beef was supposed to turncoat but refused out of genuine stupidity. Othen would need to use the former Menagerie people (Elm, Vivas, and Rian) to replace his dead crew if they were to continue to Palakros. Elias said some words over the bodies of the dead, and the party tossed them overboard. They took the body of Joni and kept it super secure to see if it rose the next day as the Revenant again.

At night Emeran went to speak with everyone, starting with Acaelus. They discussed the killing of the surrendering Menagerie member, and that they both became different people because of the war, and that they didn't have to still be those people. Emeran spoke with Elias about how he's feeling about leaving behind his task of visiting Kaen Caelore, and Elias feels like it doesn't matter when exactly he visits, just knows that the path will lead him there some day.

The next morning Autumn spoke with Fenny, and she talked about feeling the Feywild so close, looking out towards Kaen Caelore, and that where they were heading had much darkness around it, before Autumn returned her to the necklace. The next day at sea went by with no issue and the party had the opportunity to have some downtime. They discuss over breakfast with Elm and Vivas what they wanted to do next. Autumn suggested that they return to the Feywild, and both wanted to start over with Autumn possibly in Kronstrad. Elm discussed seeking out the Grove of the Singing Soul, a place they had heard about long ago where you can speak to the entire world at once, and they wanted to sing a song about their home so that is remembered forever.

During the next day the party rested on the boat, discussed some things, and Elias attempted some casts of Scrying. When trying to Scry on Gregor Strauss he seemed to resist the effect. Elias then Scryed on Joleen finding nothing wrong with her. After confirming that it had been 24 hours since the death of the Revenant and seeing that Joni had not come back to life, they realized that the Revenant must have found another form to take. The party then decided to arrange a burial at sea for Joni, and Autumn played a song in his honor. The crew of the Naline decided to stay up through the night so that by daybreak the party would be close to Palakros.

The party awoke the next day among the seas surrounding the Shadow Isles, and were treated to odd and strange sights. After passing between ruins floating in the waters they finally approached Palakros via the ships rowboat. They can see more ruins and a thick bramble forest, along with several ships at port, one of which stands out as the ship Strauss came in on. Acaelus used Shawn Hoose to scout out ahead, and saw two figures atop of Strauss's ship, wearing robes that are unfamiliar. Themus and Acaelus approached the ships invisibly, while the rest of the party approached as if they were just shipwrecked. The trio of Elias, Emeran, and Autumn get within shouting distance and begin to interact with the two atop the boat. It turns out that the people on the boats are a group of Medusa who oppose Xerena and her cult, and call themselves the Severed. They are lead by a Medusa woman named Vusa who saw through the party's initial lies, and discovered that they share the same goals on the island.

Vusa tells the party that they captured Gregor Strauss and have him below deck, and they were trying to get information out of him. They learned that there was a bright green glow deeper into the island, that Xerena and her army of Yuan-Ti had traveled deep into the island to attempt to resurrect Vescea, that the bramble forest was actually a complex maze, and that Strauss had arrived late and they caught him.

The party got an opportunity to interrogate Strauss. Underneath the spell Zone of Truth he divulged a fair bit of info. He never believed the cult would actually get this close to their goals, and that his progress towards Soul Gem research was pushed upon him by his mentor Dieter Van Horn. The party learned, in Manson-esqe fashion, that Van Horn has a reputation for bending the rules of the Arcanis and encouraging his students to go well behind the intended practices of the Arcanis guidelines, and he gets to keep plausible deniability.

Strauss also revealed to the party possibly the biggest held Arcanis secret, telling them, "The Lodge is not a place." Explaining that the fabled prison for Arcanis enemies is actually just a prison of the prisoners own mind, and that the building blocks for the Lodge are created during Processing. Strauss implies that there are countless citizens, and potentially higher ups, who have been influenced by the Arcanis, should ordinary people need to be controlled. Acaelus asked if he knew a way to reverse the process, but Strauss didn't know of any solution.

This information, coupled with Strauss's hatred for his former mentor, gave the party reason enough to free Strauss and have him help them traverse the maze ahead, and decide what exactly happens to him after the fact. They learned that Strauss's spellbook was being held by Vusa, and would continue to in the journey into the maze. Both parties made their way into the maze and with Strauss and Acaelus direction skills make headway in the first hour.

Eventually they come upon a divergence that was a little too long to investigate, and so Vusa and the Severed decided to go one way, and told the party to meet them at the Acropolis since that is where Xerena was no doubt heading. With the Patrons going alone with just Strauss they continued down the other path. Eventually they ran into some kind of mystical charm effect that forced Autumn to run headlong into the bramble, getting damaged. And Autumn was able to Countercharm the effect a second time.

The session ended when both ahead and behind several metal and stone Minotaur's found the party and began a headlong charge towards them.