Session 3

### Summary

A group of would-be criminals attempt to ransom a town's children in exchange for a murderer being held prisoner, but fail to leave their rendezvous location in the ransom note, leading to chaos. Also, Travis and Caeli have their second date.

## Setting

### Locations

Grat, Feviss's Hut, Modale, Ruby Ring's Headquarters

## NPC Appearances

### Met

Eris

The party hid outside the orc-village, Grat, while they planned a way to get Eris back. When they decided upon kidnapping local children, Mavka decided to send Takal to find a river the group could use to escape the orcs' hunting dogs when things went south.

Bethel charmed a group of children and had them follow her out of the village, whilst Gossamer shot a ransom note attached to an arrow into the village, saying they could have the children back if they gave up Eris. However, the party forgot to include a location for the exchange on the note, so it was of little use other than enraging them.

Most of the orcs left the village in a fury to find their missing children and hunt down their captors. They spotted Mavka and Jasper at the top of a hill, with the children in tow. Mavka shifted into a hunting wolf, like the ones the orcs had, and entered the village from another route so that she could aid Gossamer, who was tasked with stealthily freeing Eris. Unfortunately, at that moment, Gossamer tripped, and the bear's pelt of invisibility went flying off onto the ground somewhere. While Gossamer and the few remaining orcs in the village were occupied, Mavka began chewing through the restraints that Eris was bound by.

When Eris was freed, she went inside the chief's hut to retrieve her belongings. When she re-emerged, she immediately cut down one of the orcs in front of the seven children, who had been freed from Bethel's spell. Most of the party was on their last legs at this point. With Eris free, the party made a mad dash for the forest. Gossamer passed out, so Jasper carried her, and Mavka dragged the bear pelt through the woods.

Eventually, the party caught up with Jibow, who had found Takal and a river for them to escape in. The party had no more issues making it back to Feviss's hut, where Mavka healed Gossamer and left the bear pelt for Feviss, who was asleep. They then departed back to the Ruby Ring's Headquarters through Feviss's mirror.

Eris began studying some kind of symbol, a skull with a purple sunburst behind it. It seemed familiar to both Mavka and Gossamer, and they discussed their experiences with it. After Caeli started a meditation circle, the party saw flashes of Gossamer's life, and she told them that her aunt had been the leader of a rebellion against an evil cult that they had been fighting. Mavka said that she had seen that symbol the day she found her elk, Ara. On that note, the party retired for the night.

The next morning, Agile, Caeli, and Mavka made biscuits for breakfast. After that, Mavka went with Caeli to supervise her second date with Travis, at a flower shop. It went about as well as could be expected. With Gossamer's help, Mavka managed to get Ara back from the inn she had stabled him in previously, despite some shenanigans involving city guards.

While Travis languished in the spare room of the inn, the rest of the party tried to decide what to do next. They had learned that the coup attempt on Queen Sophya would happen by the end of the week. To gain more information, they decided to infiltrate the Gray Manor, using the servants' tunnels that they escaped from. They dressed up as old men to go get supplies in preparation for their day.