#full session

@true0neutral - Hazel, half-elf cleric

@fauxfire76 - Darvin, human bard/sorcerer

@miaaoi - Froseth, dragonborn monk

@hyperewok1 - Remi, human paladin/warlock

@lindira - Clarity, tiefling rogue/wizard

Marion - Ava, human ranger

Brian - Barnabus, minotaur fighter

This session was ... harrowing. HARROWIIIIIIIIIIIIIING. I almost feel like apologising, because that was cruel and unusual, but it was also a masterwork of headfuck and thus my apologies lack at least some level of sincerity because pride.

As the lights went out, Clarity and Barnabus were ‘held back’ - Barnabus by the hand of the ‘human’ child who serves as page of the Archfey Lady of Whimsy and Mischief (and the Archfey Lord of Chaos and Misrule, sometimes) taking his, and Clarity by the hand of the Lady of Whimsy herself. When the lights came up, Hazel, Darvin, Froseth, Remi, Ava and Alisaie were all gone, and Her Majesty explained that while Nai/Eryn was no longer fulfilling his part of his pact with his Archfey patrons, the others had vowed to help Nai meet his obligations to his patrons, so they were still beholden to the whims of His Majesty of Misrule as Nai would have been. So they’d been taken for further tourney challenges, these ones a little more tailored - and that in the case of two of them, a death was called for. The others, she promised she would bring back before anything permanent happened. Then Her Majesty gave Clarity a tiny dragon clutching a gold coin as its ‘hoard’, and sent rainbow-coloured spectral kittens, in an attempt to cheer her and Barnabus up.

Barnabus was so fucking confused and really hating this loophole-riddled indirect twisty-logic Fae bullshit because he is Lawful Good and the Archfey asshole took his friends and he had no way to get them back and made of LIVID.

First, Ava - in a reproduction of her own bedroom at the Vanedar estate - with the sound and heat of flames. There was no ceiling - just a rope leading up into blackness. Then the room itself caught fire, leaving Ava with the options of climbing (she’s afraid of heights) or burning (she’s afraid of fire). She climbed. She did pretty well, considering her -1 STR modifier ... but eventually she fell. She landed in a pile of mine debris back at the campsite area, with slightly scorched boots and rope burns on her palms but nothing major. She was more freaked out than anything else. She got the precis on what was going on. She was not pleased. That ... would be a theme.

Darvin next. He was tasked to sit a dinner party - entertain people without offending anyone, or be burned at the stake. Darvin refusd to play along, and nearly committed himself to dying in it before Her Majesty could pull him out. As it was, he lost half his hit points to the flames before he was dumped back to the mines.

Then, Hazel - back in her Elvenwild bedroom. In place of the door, a tapestry reading “Perhaps a leap of faith - how much does your god love you?”. And the window, looking down onto tree limbs and the ground at least a couple of hundred feet below. First Hazel tried to carve a “F U!!!” into the tapestry but the magics of the Archfey had it so well-protected that it shattered one blade of the double-bladed axe. She managed to fix it with a little extra divine oomph and then, swearing in halfling, yeeted herself out the window. She hit every limb of the tree on her way down, lost about two-thirds of her hit points, but survived the fall.

Froseth had it comparatively easy. A jumping puzzle (which he did fairly well as befits a monk) interspersed with trivia questions ... where he fell at the first hurdle with a particularly bad Intelligence roll. Thankfully he’s not afraid of much in that respect, so again - out of it with minimal physical, mental and emotional scarring ... though he is determined to ask Farideh a few more questions about his people.

Froseth also thought to ask His Majesty what they could do to make this the last damn time they had to go through this bullshit. His Majesty basically said he was still owed, and they’d have to offer him something really good to get him to let go. They’re going to do some research on that - though whether it’s how to placate him or how to kill him ... they’re very much veering to the latter right now.

That partially because of Remi. Remi was shown Alisaie trapped in a magical prison (briefly, before it went opaque) and told that to see Alisaie or her other friends again, Remi would have to kill the creature they put before her. Remi double-checked - that she and Alisaie would be returned to exactly where they were when they were taken if she killed her challenger - and had it confirmed, so the fight started. The flesh golem which was set to challenge Remi didn’t land a single blow, and Remi brought it down, but paused before the killing blow, asking to be allowed to see Alisaie before she finished it. Unfortunately, she did get to see Alisaie a moment later ... when the ‘flesh golem’ bled out, the illusion that made the opponent look like a flesh golem dropped and Remi found herself looking at Alisaie, sprawled dead at her feet. (Basically, the Alisaie in the magic cage was an illusion to throw Remi off - they locked down Alisaie’s magic, Silenced her, and put an illusion on her, then made her fight Remi, stating that if Alisaie let Remi know what was going on in any way, they’d kill Remi outright. So Alisaie aimed for the shield and the solid parts of Remi’s armour and let Remi kill her, at least knowing about Revivify.) Remi did cast Revivify, but was sent back to the camp in the mines (in their exact previous positions - Remi at a pile of mine debris where she’d been looking for a good rock to cast Light on; Alisaie in front of the tent building a fire bowl) before knowing whether it worked.

It worked. Barely. Ava came out of the tent at Remi’s screaming and tripped over Alisaie’s body (prone, barely breathing, but at least alive), brought her back to consciousness with Cure Wounds before Remi shoved her out of the way to dump the entirety of her Lay On Hands into Alisaie. After a lot of reassurances in all directions, Alisaie got the full story of what happened and why as the party regrouped. Everybody wants the Lord of Chaos and Misrule dead. They’re going to have to earn their way into the right section of the Silver Vault to do their research to figure out how to kill an archfey, or even what one might want in exchange for freeing them from their accidental contract, but if nothing else, they know they need to deal with this guy so he doesn’t interfere with their attempts on, say, the ancient black dragon known as Jain Nerrand III.

Further mental regrouping happened: Alisaie brought out the dinner date in a can for her and Remi so they could rebond and get over the guilt, Hazel and Clarity cooked dinner, Clarity also decided to blow a levitation bubble to stick on Barnabus to entertain Her Majesty ... Her Majesty expressed a certain ... carnal interest in Barnabus and made an offer, Barnabus accepted... So hopefully they’ll be in decent shape to start their purple worm hunt in the morning.

...Well, in two weeks’ time, anyway.

@true0neutral - Hazel, half-elf cleric

@fauxfire76 - Darvin, human bard/sorcerer

@miaaoi - Froseth, dragonborn monk

@hyperewok1 - Remi, human paladin/warlock

@lindira - Clarity, tiefling rogue/wizard

Marion - Ava, human ranger

Brian - Barnabus, minotaur fighter

So they went clubbing. This bunch of lunatics went clubbing at the most experimental club in the most experimental city in the whole game world. Basically this was me throwing toys into the sandbox and letting them play. And they plaaaaaayed.

Alisaie largely avoided the bar and spent more or less all her time on the dance floor, with Remi keeping up as best she could (which wasn’t too bad; she didn’t embarrass herself, anyway)

Clarity and Alisaie both rolled nat 20s for the dancing anyway so they were tearing it up.

Hazel went straight to the bar, to the most intense drinks menu there (which is called “Feywild” for REASONS), and said, “Surprise me”. She got something I called the Faerie Dragon’s Hoard, which had Hazel seeing spectral faerie dragons and had her hair light up gold in streaks. She also gave one to Clarity, who rode it better and at least wasn’t actively hallucinating. There was accidental groping and not-accidental smooches from Hazel, and a rather bemused Clarity.

They found that the “Chill” drinks menu at the club changes fairly regularly and tonight, it was themed on the currently in-town group of adventurers: namely, them. They each had the drinks themed after themselves, and then Remi went for the Clarity-themed drink.

Clarity then went up to the bar and asked the barman for “What do you recommend to someone who’s confused? Because I just made out with my best friend a little bit and I think I liked it but aaaaaaaaaaa!” and there is a drink on their menu simply called “Make Good Choices”. This helped.

Barnabus, after getting a drink in him and finding a room in the multi-roomed place that did moshing and threw himself into a mosh pit. That ended well because he did end up going back later and having himself a bit of an ... *ahem* encounter with a rather large goliath woman.

Darvin had similar *ahem*-encounter with a red-headed half-elf.

Clarity and Hazel had a Discussion about how they looked at relationships and whether they wanted to give whatever they were developing into a shot. Tentative yes; Clarity’s not entirely sure about Hazel’s being poly, but that’s a negotiation. They were more open with each other about things than they had been in awhile. All hail “Make Good Choices” (even if Clarity’s first Con save with it was a nat 1 and she would have skipped the whole awkward thing in favour of dancing).

There was a little bit of weed. That helped break up the awkward when they walked in on Clarity and Hazel having relatively-sober kissing.

Even Froseth got in on the dancing. He did fairly well. Ava also got in on the dancing; she was a little more awkward because she’s used to a very different kind of dancing. Still, they both tried and they had fun.

They blundered their way back to the Riddler’s Stump, stopping for street food on the way in the very traditional “Young People Stomping Home From Club At 3am” situation. They disturbed all of the cats when they came in. Also woke Polly. Polly was nice about it.

They did manage to wake up and Lesser Restoration themselves in time to meet up with Molly Cathay, who’s apprenticing at Toothsome, helping maintain their little waiter-bots and suggesting improvements. They talked about the stuff they were up to at the moment and we wound down the session with her telling them the best places to go for the things they wanted to shop for that they couldn’t get in Belarys.

@true0neutral - Hazel, half-elf cleric

@fauxfire76 - Darvin, human bard/sorcerer

@miaaoi - Froseth, dragonborn monk

@hyperewok1 - Remi, human paladin/warlock

@lindira - Clarity, tiefling rogue/wizard

Marion - Ava, human ranger

Brian - Barnabus, minotaur fighter

Mostly shopping, but not exactly dull, people being ... well, people.

Remi and Alisaie’s day took place offscreen. It was fun.

Alisaie has become a sort of secondary bank for the party, having loaned Ava the equivalent of 30 gold for her personal shopping and Hazel the equivalent of 500 gold for a Raise Dead diamond. The first is just a basic loan but some party funds are going to have to be thrown in her direction at some point.

Froseth had little luck in finding an Immovable Rod. Anything particularly useful is probably going to have to wait until they get to Egref, just because of mercenaries stranded between contracts taking the opportunity to resupply. Then he spent most of the rest of the day getting his permanent Steel Wind Strike tattoo.

Clarity got fanart of the party’s bard ballads, then sequestered herself in the library writing up a contract.

Ava did somewhat awkward shopping and, at one point in the proceedings, turned up at Crestwind’s Bakery to approach Remi’s parents to say, “Help I need gift ideas!” (She did actually get some, so that’s okay.)

Ava and Darvin both ended up in the same jewellery shop as Remi and Alisaie had visited earlier in the day. The younger shopkeepers are still giggling and gossiping about the cute.

Darvin went to send an apology letter to Governor Kreia Bendis over in Al-Zorhai, and got pulled aside by the postmistress because he hadn’t thought that there might be terrorist potential in Explosive Runes. Eventually he got to send his letter because he proved a little too stupid for that kind of thing.

Darvin bought a living plush kitten for Clarity and a meditation mat for Froseth, and then realised he’d have to be carrying around a small squirming plush kitten and a good-sized rug for the rest of the day and went back to the Bravo’s Boast to drop stuff off. He nearly lost Sapphire, the little plush kitten, but Clarity came by to drop off some of her own purchases and managed to get her gift a little early.

Darvin also got Hazel a War Skillet.

Barnabus came out of Arcane Ink, bewildered at the very thought of having a tattoo but being happy enough with the effects, and then realised he had absolutely no idea what to get any of these people as holiday gifts, and that they were all going to gift him so he’d have to think of something. His one idea was kind of a bust, so he went to the Book, Bow, and Dragon for a drink and a think. Darvin found him there and they had some discussion about potential ideas.

Hazel immediately went to Sweetwater and Sisters to see if poor Edvar needed any help after the incident the day before. The place was a shambles as apparently Alli Sweetwater called out the Fuzzy Army in her defense when the guard showed up, and all Edvar wanted to do was just be left alone to clean before he bailed his adopted sister out of jail. Hazel left him alone.

Hazel is looking for stat-increase items - strength in particular. These are in short supply in Belarys at the moment because mercenaries. Hazel is going to look in Egref instead. Because Hazel apparently wants to be the fastest, strongest, and everything-est. (Hazel’s player is going to have to make a choice about Hazel’s focus at some point. *AHEM AHEM*)

Most of them gathered at the Book, Bow and Dragon but Hazel and Barnabus went to the library to drag Clarity out. Hazel bought a bag of sweets for Clarity as a lure.

Clarity came out with a book about the Feywild and a book about ‘dimensional stuff’ and Hazel immediately put it together what Clarity was planning to do. Hazel had a bit of a fit.

They had a long discussion over dinner about the nature of pacts with Archfey, the nature of Warlock pacts in general, whether Clarity wants to approach it with a demonic-style contract when that sort of thing isn’t exactly how Archfey engage, and ... well, not trying to discourage her from doing it at all because of the importance of what she’d be asking for, but giving her a different perspective on some of the requests to hopefully make it easier for her to deal with.

@true0neutral - Hazel, half-elf cleric

@fauxfire76 - Darvin, human bard/sorcerer

@miaaoi - Froseth, dragonborn monk

@hyperewok1 - Remi, human paladin/warlock

@lindira - Clarity, tiefling rogue/wizard

Marion - Ava, human ranger

Brian - Barnabus, minotaur fighter

New splash screen - getting all the mileage out of the commission from @ladyzolstice - to go with the adorable etc that is this party.

Going on down the Mining Consortium corridor, Alisaie got hit in the side of the head with a pumpkin pie ... courtesy Alli Sweetwater, who apparently is doing community service under heavy guard, having been booted out of Belarys for awhile after the recent Incident. Alisaie actually suggested sending her up north to learn some caution from the People. Alli Sweetwater was not happy with this idea. Her attempt to escape was thwarted by Darvin later.

They finally met the manager of that particular area of the Kobrea-Val Mining Consortium - one Mr Denebri - a dwarf of very little patience. Mr Denebri offered them a choice of how to get to the Salt Gate, through which they apparently have to pass to get to the dragon’s lair - go through the kobold encampment and deal with the behir that’s lurking in the area, or go through the deep gnome encampment and deal with a purple worm, which ... well, they generally like having something that basically naturally makes mining tunnels, but there are a few too many and that one’s getting mean and too close to habitations, and they need to do a cull. The group decided to go through the Up-and-Under, deep gnome territory, and deal with the purple worm ... as much to refill their personal and party funds as anything else. They may go for the friendly kobold encampment and the behir on the way back, assuming they can put themselves back together after the blue dragon well enough.

The mining cart ‘stations’ have vending machines. That was fun.

They also got to chatting with some of the locals. Barnabus got the Mom Friend sitting next to him. He got cookies. Hazel and Darvin got to hear a bunch of halflings placing bets as to what those adventurers were going to be killing. Froseth had a whole conversation with one of them. That was equally fun! He learned that the natural scientists that study the purple worms in the area have named them. The one they have sent to kill is named Bitey. The others are Squirmy, Digger, and Sue.

Their first stop was Cofferkey, a sort of mining town/city about an hour into the under-cliff territory. It was a bit of a marvel; a sort of art deco situation carved directly into, and out of, the rock, with high-rises carved to double as support pillars and enough light to at least be getting on with. They had a wait for the mining cart to the Up-and-Under, so they decided to stop for lunch and see if they could get some intel.

They found a saloon. Remi asked for drinks. That was it. Just ‘drinks’. She was given drinks. They all did something silly but overall harmless, as Remi noted when her hair started sprouting flowers. Hazel had to try one and turned into a ferret. Clarity followed suit and became pixie-sized. All three of them only had to deal with that for about an hour. Ava was still really pissed and kind of sharp about it, though she did subside when reminded that they just tripped over a cultural irregularity specific to Kobrea-Val; that Egref tended to cater to people not used to the “science is not the answer; science is the question and the answer is always yes” mentality of most of Kobrea-Val because they’re used to tourists but everywhere else, they were going to have to try to follow local customs. That has given Ava much food for thought.

They did finally get to the Up-and-Under, and met the mayor of the deep gnome territory. He guided them to the local saloon where there were apparently scientists who would have more information on them about the purple worm.

They went to the saloon and found two of the natural scientists - a very upright half-orc and a dwarven woman, both dressed in the kind of Steampunk Victorian Dashing Adventurer gear - arguing, with a halfling woman judging their arguments like an Olympic judge, a gnomish gentleman topping up their drinks while they weren’t looking to keep the argument going, and a drow woman who noticed newcomers in the saloon and immediately hid behind a book. They tried to interrupt the argument, and paused it briefly, but every time they brought up ‘purple worm’, the argument started up again. So now they have two weeks to think about how to make them stop arguing or at least aim some of the basic information behind the arguments in a Cupcake-ward direction.

@true0neutral - Hazel, half-elf cleric

@fauxfire76 - Darvin, human bard/sorcerer

@miaaoi - Froseth, dragonborn monk

@hyperewok1 - Remi, human paladin/warlock

@lindira - Clarity, tiefling rogue/wizard

Marion - Ava, human ranger

Brian - Barnabus, minotaur fighter

Last day of faffing silliness. And they knocked it out of the park.

There were pictures of their adventures in nightclubbing on display outside Basal Cell. None of it was too damning. It was okay.

There was a trip to a local candy store. That was worth a lot of bullet points in and of itself

Hazel went straight to the “Eat At Your Own Risk” section and after figuring out the dos and don’ts of what can be mixed with what the group already had, bought ten candies that add five feet to your movement speed for a minute and just handed them straight to Alisaie.

There was a thing about boiled sweets that change the colour of your skin, hair, and eyes. The gnome who runs the Eat At Your Own Risk stall had been unable to test to see if it worked on scales or fur. Clarity got Froseth and Barnabus to be test subjects for it.

Froseth decided he wanted to give Hazel an ‘experience’ as an Aurilmas gift and got a red-hot sort of candy that would be uber-spicy and also have steam coming out of the eater’s ears for ten minutes.

Barnabus, similarly inclined to troll Hazel, asked a staff member to put together an ‘interesting’ selection of jelly beans whose flavours include things like pizza, jalapeno, turnip, kale ... it’s basically Bertie Botts multiplied by me.

A lot of them got sweets for the kids.

Remi and Darvin were actually fairly sensible and just got themselves chocolate selections

Clarity got a lollipop the size of a gnomish child and gave it to the Archfey Lady of Mischief and Whimsy as a gift.

They got bracelets and treats for the Faerie Dragon Jamboree, so they made friends with local faerie dragons by offering them treats in exchange for riddles, jokes, songs, stories, and shopping advice.

Before departing on errands of her own, Alisaie offered Clarity a flight around the city, same as she did for Farideh. She also admitted that she’d like to do the same for Ava, just because of how incredible the view is, but wouldn’t offer because she knows how uneasy Ava is with heights.

She also suggested that they do their Aurilmas dinner and gift-giving early so they weren’t having to do it in an underground cavern - and also, though she didn’t say it, because some of the things they were getting might be useful in their upcoming combat and she didn’t want them to miss out.

The Faerie Dragon Jamboree held Froseth in good stead because he was looking for something for Remi and/or Alisaie, figured that a good gift for them both would be something that would have Remi less likely to die in combat, and wound up befriending a faerie dragon named Casse who pointed Froseth at his person, a dwarf who sells slightly more martial things. There are effectively Gauntlets of Orcish Constitution.

Bragen’s Big Eats was fun - special of the day was Al-Zorhai-fried roc.

They also went to Toothsome, the chocolate speciality place, for dessert. Clarity was charmed by the little robots (which Molly Cathay had improved a little). Barnabus ate five gold worth of dessert.

Darvin’s gift to Ava was decorating the gift-giving area in Cedargrove Aurilmas tradition for her, as well as providing the sweet plum cakes that are another Cedargrove Aurilmas tradition. Because he figured she missed home.

From Remi and Alisaie (who were combining gift-giving) - Froseth got some very dragonborn-specific foods. Ava got a sort of Quiver of Infinite Ammo (it’ll only work on standard arrows, but as long as there’s one regular arrow in it come the dawn, it will refill magically). Hazel got needles, yarn, and a book on how to knit - so that she can learn something that Miranda can do, since she enjoys cooking so much becuase Twilly. Darvin got a book of Belarys legends and a stack of staff paper. Barnabus got local whiskey, local spices and a 'flavours of Equitas’ cookbook - “since we know you’re going to get home eventually but you like the food here and the reminder of us through food won’t hurt”. Clarity got her horn jewellery back in Belarys. For each other, Remi got Alisaie a pretty cuff bracelet, while Alisaie got Remi a guide to the glyph sets for every teleportation circle in Equitas that Alisaie could get hold of.

From Darvin - Hazel got given some cookware and a skillet with a balance of the average mace - the War Skillet. Barnabus got a chain to connect his pince-nez to the filigree on his horns. Clarity had already got Sapphire the living plushie cat, and Ava had the holiday decoration. Froseth got a meditation mat with a pretty landscape on it, though he’s okay with Froseth not using it because he wants to be in contact with the earth, being Way of the Four Elements monk and earth being an element. And Remi and Alisaie got an Egref-creation of “dinner date in a tin”.

Clarity gave everyone their fanart. That got so many laughs.

From Froseth - Barnabus got fudge. Remi (and Alisaie) got the Gauntlets of Orcish Constitution. Clarity got a book on smaller creatures of the Southern Lands and started reading it right away. Darvin got a book literally titled: “Idiot’s Guide to Bahamut Worship”. Ava got a harness leash for Butterscotch. And Hazel got her candy, which had her steaming and flailing and HOTHOTHOT-ing for awhile.

From Barnabus - Froseth got a sort of canteen set. Ava got a pretty lacquered box for her jewellery or little treasures. Clarity got a guide to the care and feeding of faerie dragons, Darvin got a sturdy case for his viol. Hazel got her weird combination of jelly beans (her three test flavours were jalapeno, parsnip, and pomegranate). Remi got a scarf. Alisaie got the most unsuited-to-her sweater in the world (which was actually really good for Remi, so Alisaie just gave it to Remi).

We had to leave Ava’s and Hazel’s for next session because we were running over time.

@true0neutral - Hazel, half-elf cleric

@fauxfire76 - Darvin, human bard/sorcerer

@hyperewok1 - Remi, human paladin/warlock

@lindira - Clarity, tiefling rogue/wizard

Marion - Ava, human ranger

Brian - Barnabus, minotaur fighter

We were missing a @miaaoi yesterday but that’s okay! We had more than enough to do, a lot of it to do with Clarity Getting Some Attention.

Alisaie discussed some plans for when they first arrived in Egref - specifically the first night, which will involve a quick clothes shop, dinner at Harley’s Surf and Turf, and an evening at Basal Cell, the Academy-run nightclub. They did mention the Flaming Floor courtesy Hazel. Mentioning the Cult of Rakdos to a Ravnican was about as amusing as you’d expect.

They’re actually going to look for barbecue-flavoured boot polish.

Hazel had to course-correct about her recent “Let’s use Alisaie as an adjunct to the party funds” thing. Mostly by asking others. Froseth’s response had to be largely held off, but was a little NPC’d. Barnabus just gave her, “Do I look like a bank to you?” There was meeping.

A little while ago, Alisaie gave Hazel some of her more extreme spices. Hazel added some to her eggs. Managed the necessary CON save well. Barnabus did not. Also, Clarity tried burn-lichen and enjoyed it.

Barnabus finally managed some shopping. That was fun, if brief.

Darvin decided to go to the Library. He probably just wanted to read for awhile, which he could have done, but instead he asked how to get a card. Unfortunately, he asked the person that Clarity had asked for a card, and so got, “AN ADDRESS HERE”. Thus he left without seeing what reading privileges he had at the Library, and also in a bit of a grump.

Clarity decided to try an ‘alternate approach’ which had Ernesto the panther, Brandon the dire wolf, and Norman the badger dancing around the market, and grumpy!Darvin being accosted by illusory geese. Also puppies trying to puppy-eye Clarity out of trouble with the guards when they showed up. Her Majesty the Lady of Mischief and Whimsy, for whom that display was intended, will get back to her at a quieter moment.

Tea at the Crestwinds was ... shorter than expected because the gossip about Remi getting what are effectively enchanted promise rings managed to get to the Crestwind parents, and Corri did a Hazel - basically took it and ran with it. This embarrassed everyone so badly that Remi was reduced to, “Oh my gods, motheeeeeeeeer” and Alisaie had enough and very much spoke her mind before popping the wings and nopeing out, and tea ended early with the Cupcake Coterie leaving with Aurilmas gifts and all of the leftovers.

Ava talked Remi into talking to Corri, basically going, “Don’t leave that as your last encounter, just in case it really is the last” (one imagines Ava’s own parents were very much on Ava’s mind in that moment). Remi did so. It was adorable.

They went back to the Bravo’s Boast and Remi (a little more like Corri than she cares to admit, just quieter) decided that 5-10 minutes was quite enough decompression time and traced Alisaie through the promise rings. That was also adorable.

The Crestwinds gave everybody personalised tin mugs and ginger snaps. Remi and Alisaie got the extra addition of truly awkwardly ugly hand-knitted sweaters.

@true0neutral - Hazel, half-elf cleric

@fauxfire76 - Darvin, human bard/sorcerer

@miaaoi - Froseth, dragonborn monk

@hyperewok1 - Remi, human paladin/warlock

@lindira - Clarity, tiefling rogue/wizard

Marion - Ava, human ranger

We were absent a Barnabus this session because of scheduling conflicts, but we absented him for some of it and had him stay largely quiet for others and it worked out more or less okay.

After the Horrible Sweater Incident, Flitty perked up and dragged Barnabus, with Hazel as translator, out into the hallway. After that, Barnabus stuck his head back in, went, “I’m really sorry about the sweater, I’mma go make it right” and then left with Flitty as a guide. He came back rather a lot later with a rather fantastic dress for Alisaie.

From Ava: Froseth got a sketch of him and Farideh in a folder, the inside cover of which read: “To second chances”. Darvin got a viol maintenance kit. Hazel got a bright green ribbon with “Hearthheart” embroidered on it in gold thread and the names of Twilly, Miranda, and all the Hearthheart kids done in very tiny halfling runes along the outer edge. Barnabus got a new notebook for all the new things he’s going to be taking notes about. Clarity got a new quill - fancy blue elegant quill that never runs out of regular ink (which she will still need to use magical ink for in order to copy new spells). Remi got a belt picked to match a dress Alisaie got Remi during their date-day-out thing. Alisaie got an anklet of angel wings. Alisaie is made of bling now.

From Hazel: Darvin got vignettes about the Hearthheart kids so he could write songs about them. Froseth got an extendable quarterstaff. Clarity got a book of pranks, jokes and riddles, and a reminder to reclaim the Deck of Illusions from Froseth’s Bag of Holding (also a kiss). Barnabus got a new pencil case with a pencil sharpener of the sort that we in our world have, and a coupon booklet of “One meal of ‘you tell me how to cook and I will cook it for you’ so you can have food from your home”. Ava got boots in the style of the People of the northern wastes (with help from Alisaie - they decided they wanted Ava to have a token of Alisaie claiming Ava as her ‘Rikka’, or clan-sister). Alisaie got this weird hair-goo elixir thing to get her hair back to its original length. Remi got an in-depth book about Pelor which also contained some information about his right-hand Solar, Ziriel - thus, Remi’s patron ... and the source of Alisaie’s being-aasimar.

After that, and Froseth happening to notice Alisaie glancing at the clock, the doorbell rang. Alisaie suggested that Hazel get it. Hazel did so, hearing a group of kids start singing Aurilmas hymns when she switched the hall light on. Those kids were seven of the Hearthheart kids, along with Twilly and Miranda. See, Hazel had asked Alisaie to let Twilly know what was going on, since Alisaie had Sending, and Alisaie kind of kept in touch enough to let them know that she was suggesting they celebrate Aurilmas a little early. So Twilly grabbed Miranda and seven of the kids (since eight plus her is all she can manage in a teleport) and thus brought Skylar, Farideh, Candor, Lissi, Oskar, Zanna, and Dawn - and the traditional Hearthhome Aurilmas cake, and presents - to join their celebrations so that Hazel didn’t have to spend an Aurilmas without her family. There was much squee.

Skylar underlined that if Froseth gets hurt or killed fighting the Big Bads, she’s taking the Oath of Vengeance and hunting down everything connected to that which took him away from her. Farideh added that she hadn’t been planning on focusing on attack magics but if bad happens to her big little brother, she’s learning attack magics to back Skylar up. No one told them that Froseth volunteered to be taken to be tainted with black shit or tortured by Tiamat rather than letting that happen to Alisaie. No one wanted to deal with that.

Present exchanges, and some news - apparently the Hearthhearts are coming back to Hearthhome soon and they may take the Cathays with them because scout-readable signs indicate that the wood elves and half-elves are evacuating the Elvenwild and given what they saw at the palace before they left (the corpses and everything), they have concerns. But they’ve decided to deal with the blue denying the deployed mercenaries reinforcements, then deal with Blackcrown, and then sort out the Elvenwild.

Alisaie fixed her hair and tried on the dress. With the wings and halo. She got stares.

After that, and saying good-byes to the family (who were going to be staying at a Honeycomb and taking a day to meet Quickflight cousins and shop), Hazel pulled Alisaie aside and apologised for yanking that much of her saved-up “rebuild my life” money on that resurrection diamond without even thinking that was a party fund item. They reached an understanding. It was sweet.

The next morning, they got ready for a big day heading underground. First, though, they had to go up - back to where they first went for the bottled lightning. Alisaie offered Ava a ten-minute flight around the city, saying that she’d wanted to offer before but knew Ava was afraid of heights, and then thought that maybe she was underestimating Ava so she’d at least make the offer. Ava, currently determined to face her fears, accepted the offer and got the Deluxe Air Tour in the just-coming-sunrise light from the city ... and also the sight of a gigantic copper dragon waking up, realising that people were awake and needed to get back into their humanoid shape again, but stretching his wings in a greeting display for the two flying women first.

After landing, they had to go down - as in, below ground level down. They had a corridor to navigate when they finally got to the level they needed and Hazel decided to knock on a door behind which she’d heard explosives. The door got answered by a little gnome woman who got them to agree to test some explosives (which seemed relatively safe, surprisingly enough; just she wanted to prove that they had the explosive yield she claimed they did).