Soul Coinclusion

Soul Coinclusion is a oneshot DMed by Haley that aired live on Twitch on May 2, 2022, the week after the finale of Arc 7, and got uploaded on Youtube afterwards. It is the spin-off oneshot for Arc 7, following the party just a few days later as they try to finally bring Thavius's soul coin to its rightful destination.

## Characters and Players

**DM** (Haley - She/Her)

**Deb** (They/Them) (played by Pax - He/Him) - a pink Tiefling and level 15 College of Lore Bard. They have spent an unknown amount of time in the Feywild, with no memory of that time, and have not adventured a lot since then, but are willing to start again with their friends.

**Hope Lovejoy** (She/Her) (played by Jenny - She/Her) - a High Elf level 10 Life Cleric and member of the Lovejoy Family. The recent arrest of her mother has disrupted her image of her family and self quite a lot, and she still has to learn to be her own person instead of letting her family's power and bad reputation affect her too much.

**Sir Mister Person** (He/Him) (played by Gus - He/Him) - a Human level 8 Samurai Fighter / Oath of the Crown Paladin, who just recently became a knight of the King after falsely believing to be just that for 20 years. He is not yet sure whether he can become an adventurer, since he has made a life for himself as a knight as well as a husband to Eliza Person.

**SK-73** (He/Him) (played by John - He/Him) - a Warforged level 4 Divination Wizard and, most importantly, librarian at the Grand Heritage Library in Summerview. He likes to keep everything in order, and is not the bravest, but after Arc 7 he is willing to join his friends to form an adventuring party.

**Thavius** (He/Him) (played by Kyle - He/Him) - a Shadar-Kai Elf and level 12 Soulknife Rogue that used to be a soulferrier for the Raven Queen in the Shadowfell, but left a few years ago with a soulcoin containing a righteous soul that ended up in the wrong place. After Arc 7, he feels a new sense of urgency to safely bring this soul to its rightful destination. The soul is Lathe Nightrym, who died in hell trying to save the world.

## Plot (Full Spoilers)

After visiting Evelynn Sunbloom, and before reaching Tyle, the party stops by the town of Ferment, a small town known for its beer, to visit the temple of Celestian that is supposed to be close by. Thavius asks his friends to please accompany him as he wants to drop off the coin, because he doesn't know what is going to expect him, and it is important that he succeeds on this mission; they agree to go together. After being told that the soul inside the coin saved the world, SK-73 asks if the soul inside the coin is Peter Diggerson, the hero of one of the 5 original myths, and filler of the world hole. Thavius refuses to answer, and some take that as a yes, some as a no. In Ferment, the party first enters a tavern, where Hope and Deb drink fermented tea, Sir Mister has two ales and beer cheese, and SK-73 asks for crude oil that he can use for degunking, but they don't have it.

As it begins to get dark, Thavius leads the way towards the temple, walking in a weird path guided by the stars that is not written on any map. SK-73 tries to track where he is going, and Sir Mister confusedly asks him if he understands what is happening. Thavius then explains that Celestian is not only the god of the stars, but also of wanderers and the lost, and the temple cannot be found without first getting lost. Sir Mister, who did not know this and hoped to get back to Eliza soon, gets angry, until Hope casts Calm Emotions and his hostility melts away. Once calm, Sir Mister spins himself around to help them getting lost. After the spell wears off, Thavius apologizes again and shares his worries and fears with Sir Mister about failing the mission. Sir Mister, now calm, reassures him. After a moment Sir Mister asks Hope to send a message to his wife to update her. Deb is worried about wandering in the dark but Thavius reassures them that they are all together. He ends up asking Deb to spin and they take a new direction. Soon enough they spot the temple and Thavius instructs them not to look at it or move faster, but instead to just follow the person in front of them, then he leads them towards the temple.

They walk over a large stone mosaic of a star map before reaching a wooden door with silver trim and filigree, which Thavius opens to reveal a small living room with a man siting in a lounge chair and knitting. Sir Mister, Hope and Thavius begin bowing before the priest, a tall man with blue-ish green skin and drapey black clothes. Thavius tells him that they are looking for an alter, and the priest, impressed that the party intended to be here and did in fact arrive, informs them that they first have to pass a test. He goes to another door and tells them that they have to find something they have lost and reclaim it as theirs, and then warns them that they can only reclaim something they themselves have lost, nothing else. If they fail this test, they cannot arrive at the altar.

Skeventy already begins searching in the room they are in and finds some pouches with copper pieces under a loose floor board, but the priest tells him that they belong to him, and that they have to search in the other room. Through the door, they can see a dark room, but as they enter it, feeling a sensation like missing a step, the room is no longer dark, but well-lit and incredibly big. Inside the room, there are glass cages all holding a random lost object and a name plate, but every name plate they can see is censored.

Thavius tries to sense where to go, and gets pulled into a direction by Lathe. Sir Mister begins walking around and just searching for anything that looks cool. He finds a beautiful crystal, opens the glass cage to touch it, then puts the glass back and goes to look for another cool object. Hope casts Commune as a ritual to ask Celestian where to go.

SK-73 is the first to find the item that belongs to him, in the only glass cage with a name plate he can read, carrying his name: it's his jaw, which he reclaims by putting it back on his face. He still, however, continues wearing the paper plate.

Hope finds her object next: it's a beautiful necklace with gems all across it that she got from her mother when she turned 100 years old. It was a coming of age gift, and Hope had sent the necklace off to be cleaned a few decades ago and hadn't seen it sense. She doesn't want to reclaim it, though, and has a bit of an issue with it. Sir Mister stumbles across her and helps her reclaim it in a way that is comfortable to her by making fun of it together with her.

Impatient about how much time it takes to find his item, Thavius sends out a bit of his soul to find it, believing that whatever he lost must still have remnants of his soul clinging to it. He finally finds his glass cage, with his surname added to his first name on the plate. Inside the cage is a necklace with orange, teal and yellow beads that was gifted to him by a little girl he saved, and that he lost while dismanteling the assassin's guild: during the killing blow, the assassin's guild leader aimed for Thavius's neck and cut off the necklace, and it fell into the sewers. At first, Thavius is unsure whether he is still deserving of the necklace after he has lost it, but then he puts it back on.

Sir Mister's object is a single pressed flower, a carnation, sitting in a small case waiting for him. It's the first flower Eliza ever gave him, and he gently puts it in a book that he requests from SK-73. He is sure that when he comes back with this flower, which he had lost when moving from his knight's quarters into Eliza's apartment, he can come back however late he wants without her getting mad at him.

Deb cannot find their object until they run into Thavius, who reassures them and tells them that it might be time to accept whatever happened in the Feywild, instead of desperately looking for Phoebe's rolling pin. Shortly after, Deb stumbles across their glass case, inside which is a rolled up canvas. They start to unroll it and see a portrait of themselves wearing their armour, and additionally some blue and white garlands. Two Elf-adjacent figures stand next to them, one in gold, one in muted silver, both looking inhumane, but smiling. Deb cannot remember the painting, or anything about it, but is sure that it's them and tries to start accepting it.

Suddenly, they see a wall of the room again, and on it a bright door. Once they step through it, they are in a simple space with no roof, just the night sky above them. There is a calming and comforting quiet around them. In the center of the room sits an alter. Thavius grabs the coin and sets it on the ground, hoping that Lathe might be able to appear in a spectral form because of where they are. Lathe appears in front of them in a silhouette made of twinkling lights, his features can't be made out but a silhouette can, long hair, a cloak, and a broom. Thavius gives a bit of his own soul to help Lathe, taking 2 levels of exhaustion. The rest of the party can now see Lathe better, almost like a physical form. Skeventy confirms it's not Diggerson; he and Sir Mister actually recognise Lathe from the posters Fey painted and spread around Hyranor.

Shakily, Lathe stands up, using the broom to help him stand, and Thavius introduces his party to him. When he gets to Hope, he just introduces her by her first name. Sir Mister touches Lathe, which feels a bit like static, and as Deb offers him carrot cake the cake dissolves when he tries to eat it, but Lathe can talk with them, and see them, and as he and Thavius say goodbye, they can even hug. A last time, Lathe warns Thavius to not come in contact with his old friends, especially Annie, because she would not take it well that he lingered in the soul coin for so long. As they are finished with their goodbye, Thavius places the soul coin on the altar, and the spectral lights that made up Lathe break apart and float away.

The quiet around the party suddenly feels more unnatural as the coin begins to darken and the world around turns a little grey scale, and they feel a numbness rise in their fingers and toes. Thavius tries to yell, but there is no sound, and as he grabs the coin, his friends see him collapse while his soul is being separated from his physical body. For a moment, he faces a giant person with black feathers and a skull like a raven, who tilts her head, then he is back in his own body, no longer holding the coin, but a long black feather: a blessing from the Raven Queen. Instantly, his friends are by his side to comfort him as he suddenly feels very alone.

The party leaves through the door they came through, but instead of getting back into the room of lost things, they directly land back in the first room together with the priest. SK-73 folds a paper hat, sticks the feather in it, puts it on Thavius's head and says "macaroni" (in reference to the song here). Sir Mister thanks the priest, who introduces himself as Thimble, for being able to view the lost things. Hope and Sir Mister agree to become Thimble's pen pal.

Thavius, who misses Lathe, asks if he knows about the plane of Celestian, and Hope tries to cast Sending to Lathe: "It was lovely to meet you, hope it's nice there. Thavius is worried it's not, but I am certain it is. Sir Mister Person says Hi." Skeventy asks about someone named Bono or something like that. The party has soup with Thimble and spends the night, during which Hope casts Legend Lore and tells the story of Bono.

In the morning the party leaves and goes to finish wife tour with Eliza finishing preparing the house for the party.

## Items

* **Beaded Necklace** - a set of carefully chosen beads in orange, teal, and yellow on a string that were gifted to Thavius shortly after Arc 1. During the mission after the one in which he saved Evelynn, he was saving a ten year old girl and got dangerously wounded during that. At this point, he decided that adventuring was not for him without the party by his side, and would have just brought back the soul coin without taking any other jobs, but the girl gave him the necklace and told him that she would be cheering for him through it every day. Since then, he always wore it, until he took down the assassin's guild in Tyle: during the killling blow, the leader's knife caught on the necklace while aiming for Thavius's neck, and it ripped and skittered down a drain into the sewers. He searched for hours, but never found it.
* **Crystal** - a beautiful, yellowy orange crystal about twice the size of an average human's head. It sparkles and reflects, and is probably worth really much.
* **Hope's Necklace** - a beautiful, ostentatious necklace with green and yellow gems set into gold plating. Over 100 years ago, Hope got it as a gift from her mother to mark her official coming of age. She sent it off to have it cleaned a few decades ago and hasn't seen it since.
* **Portrait of Deb** - a large canvas, taller than Deb and about 2.5 to 3 feet wide. It shows Deb in their armour, and decorated with white and blue flower garlands, but their face shows mild uncomfort. On either side of them is an Elf-adjacent figure, one painted in gold, one in muted silver. While they both look elegand and friendly, smiling down on Deb, they also look very inhuman. The paint is wearing away as though the portrait has been stored very carelessly for a long time.
* **Pressed Flower** - a single pressed red carnation, the first flower Eliza ever gave to Sir Mister. He kept it safe in a book for a long time, but lost it when he moved out of his knight's living quarters into Eliza's apartment. It means a lot not only to him, but also to Eliza.
* **SK-73's Jaw** - the dented jaw that is missing from SK-73's face and has been replaced with a paper plate.
* **Soul Coin** - a golden coin containing the soul of Lathe Nightrym for transportation to his rightful afterlife.

## Trivia

* Before leaving his house, Thavius has written six letters: five of them dictated by Lathe, to be sent to his friends, and an additional one he wrote himself to give some more explanation. For the $2 tier and above on Patreon, Haley published the letters in written and audio recorded format throughout the week following the livestream, and Kyle published the sixth letter as well.