Session 3

[Things written within these brackets denote OOC (out of character) conversation.] We begin at night of the previous day. It is late, we are all exhausted. [A I’m going to say goodnight to Belladonna… Eruption of laughter around the table] Sunny, hangs out at the dinner table for some time just taking it easy before heading to bed. Cass is going to have a bath, tinker a bit with his eye, and then he approaches Nerium. Cass inquires about the academic that was speaking with Nerium earlier in the day. In this conversation, Cass recalls that Keiji was actually one of the few board members who voted not to kick him out of school for his “unusual’’ creations and tests. He assures Nerium that Keiji is in fact, good people. Cass then makes small preparations for some artificing he wants to do tomorrow. After which, he goes to bed.

Sunny, as he sleeps, falls into a very very deep sleep, deeper than usual. His limbs feel like they are sinking through the bed. He is pretty as peace with this whole thing. Time seems to pass infinitely yet, not at all. Sunny looses all perception of time. And just when he feels as though he is going mad, a small yet, oddly familiar hand reaches out towards him. He cannot remember who’s it is. Before hearing his name called from a long distance. Upon opening his eyes he sees a childhood friend Olathe. But, when he clears his eyes and looks at her, he thinks she appears younger than he recalls. But, he believes the dreams may have been playing tricks on him. She asks if he is ok, he seemed to be sleeping strangely, he responds that he’s fine with a poor lie but, she does not catch it. She asks if he is ready, his parents are about ready to leave and he asks if they are at the Wolfbane’s estate and she says no… They’re at his home? She tells him that he is going to check out a tree and he says he will join. As he going to stand, his feet do not hit the ground but, instead are suspend hundreds of meters above the ground. And he hears his friend laughing on the tree limb below him. He has no recollection of climbing this tree but, it does not bother him. She challenges him to a race to the top, he agrees. He sees a crazy purple storm off in the distance. And then, the branch Olathe is on snaps and she falls into the abyss. Sunny chases down after her, but, the branches become brittle and then snap and he falls. He awakes breathless, as though he has actually fallen. Upon waking again, he finds himself in bed at the Wolfbane estate. It is still the middle of the night, and he hears a whispered argument in the livingroom. He creeps out of bed and listens at his door and hears, Nerium absolutely tearing Rehema a new one. She whisper yells at her for not keeping people (the party) safe during their exploration. They go back and forth but, Rehema doesn’t challenge, instead, she apologizes. Nerium does not let up. Sunny slips back into his bed and goes back to sleep, this time, normally.

The rest of the party has “regular” dreams. Like a bunch of fucking nerds, because they’re to cool to touch cursed items multiple times. Sunny wakes up extra early again, and this time gets a handful of flowers and makes them bloom and goes to leave them in front of Belladonna’s door. Only, this time, she catches him. He tries to lie and say that Arty asked him to do this but, she isn’t buying it. She goes on to say that she isn’t “fully available” anyway. Sunny’s jaw hits the floor “tell me everything” he says. She invites him inside and says that the apothecary assistant proposed. But, it was out of business not necessarily love. And Belladonna is unsure if that’s what she wants. She explains that she wants to see the world and explore, and she can’t do that if she’s settling down here. “Well, I know someone who doesn’t live here”, says Sunny. [group laughter again] Sunny says that Arty does travel a lot and that maybe she should join the group and adventure with them. After some discussion she agrees if Nerium is agreeable. The two exit her room and go out to the kitchen for breakfast, where Belladonna thanks Arty for the flowers. He says she’s welcome despite knowing he had nothing to do with them. She asks Cass if he “and his friend” talking about dax slept well. As Sunny inferred he thinks Cass may be gay during their private conversation. Cass not knowing any better says that, yes, they did sleep quite well. Cass then goes to check on the children we rescued from the day before. He says he has a proposition for them. [S: For the CHILDREN? You shouldn’t be propositioning children. C: Not like that] Cass wants to potentially take the children under his wing for training in the ways of artificing if they’re agreeable. Cass goes to find the children, and finds Rehema explaining to them that she will remove the curse and free them from the cursed staff. Cass take this moment to make his case that he wants to “dispose” of this staff himself. Rehema says that, it’s really more of a decision for Nerium, and he should approach her himself later. Cass then goes on to explain his idea to the children. Both of the kids agree to join under his tutelage and stay at the Collective on his dime and study. Cass leaves Rehema and the kids, and finds Arty. He explains that he wants Arty’s help convincing Nerium to relinquish the staff to Cass instead of keeping it in the Collective headquarters. The two appraoch Nerium. [S: We’ll just take the magic, and push it somewhere else] and explain their plan. She agrees to let them have the staff. Sunny chimes in afterwards that he was really impressed with Rehema yesterday and that she did a great job. Nerium says that she must go speak with the scholar again and that we could accompany her to do so or we can hang out around their family home. Sunny suggests that Arty and Cass stick around the house and he will go on with Nerium. The party agrees. Sunny takes a rocky-talkie and then leaves with Nerium. Sunny and Nerim head into town together.

Upon arriving at the tavern, they find that it is unusually lively for the time of day but, with the festival coming up, it is no surprise. Sal is playing music with an unknown tiefling. Sunny and Nerium see the scholar sitting at a table by himself, looking very dapper indeed. He waves us over. Sunny and Keiji meet for the first time. The group sit down and begin discussions. Sunny explains his experience to Keiji in the field to convince him to open that coin purse. He says that he will have to speak with his Wife, the real moneybags in the relationship. Sunny puts slight pressure on him, and he commits some of what he does have on him and he agrees to donate more later. Sunny then goes on to pry a bit about the situation between Nerium and Rehema. He suggests, that perhaps she should let Rehema explore a bit and make mistakes so that she can grow and learn to become the best sorcerer that she can be.

In the mean time, Cass and Arty are back at the estate, Rehema is about to remove the curse. Cass is asking fun questions and loosely involved in the curse breaking and putting the item in the storage box. However, after breaking the curse, Thelana is left with a kind of fucked up hand with a magical scar. The three discuss ways to potentially remove the leftover cursemark on the girls hand. And then Rehema gives the staff to Cass who stores it in his bag. Afterwards, Cass begins work on the shield. And while Cass works, Arty heads into town to collect his two potions from Belladonna. Sunny bolts from the bar and is glued to the window on the outside watching inside as Arty and Belladonna interact. Belladonna mentions that Sunny invited her to join the party on the next adventure, and Arty says he thinks that would be good. Sunny is very excited watching this exchange. Arty leaves and see Sunny glued to the window. Sunny attempts to lie and Arty does not question it. Arty asks Sunny if he wants to join in on a potential side quest and Sunny agrees! Arty and Sunny return to the bar. Arty has his eye caught by the tiefling girl who is performing with Sal. Arty and Sunny grab a table and hang out for a bit, as Arty scans the room. Cass’s foxmunculous approaches the tip jar and vomits 5 copper pieces into the jar. The tiefling girl seems to like this very much! Arty appraoches a masked figure, Sonne, sitting on their own and strikes up a conversation. She tells him that she will trade him information. And he begins to tell her all about the adventure they went on the day before. Sonne tells him about some priests in the north who’s church bells have stopped ringing. He seems intrigued. Cass’s foxmunculous joins Arty and Sunny at the table and explain that the kids needs a cleric anyway and Sunny agrees that it sounds like it’ll be a fun adventure. Sunny and Arty approach the tiefling performer, Veloure, as her performance ends. Sunny drops a silver into the tip jar, as does Arty. Arty and Veloure talk about where she is from. And Arty discovers that Veloure’s father is his brother. Arty leaves after learning this as he’s shocked that she was never told about her Uncle Arty. Arty leaves feeling overwhelmed by this revelation. Sunny and Veloure grab a table and talk about their upbringing. Arty returns and kind of grills her a bit about her upbringing. He asks kind of weirdly personal questions. Veloure asks if he knows her father as she is vaguely curious about his questions, and he tries to play it off. Sunny watches this very closely. Arty says he wants to stay in touch. She seems a little startled by this but, takes it in stride. Sunny sticks around and buys drinks and they continue to chat. They chat until the night when Sunny departs briefly for the meeting.

The party, Wolfbanes, and other fellow collective members all assemble in the Wolfbane estate for this meeting. Nerium starts the meeting off and quickly yields to Rehema who explains what she recorded in the underdark. She explains that she found writing from a cult that relates to an evil Deity who seeks to end all life on the planet. After explaining what she found the floor is opened to the group at large. Arty explains that he always sees a mission through to the ends, and Sunny wants to work for the Collective full time. Cass is curious regarding the priests in the North. And thinks that it could help with what Rehema found in the underdark. The group also discusses attempting to squeeze more funding out of the rich folks tomorrow at the festival. Cass and Arty seem to have ideas regarding getting the Lords to crack their purses open. Cass creates two Ersatz eyes. One for himself, and one to use as bait for the lords to bid on to get more funding out of them. The group also discuss having Belladonna join the party and everyone seems to be agreeable if she so chooses.

After the meeting, Sunny pulls Arty aside to ask what that was at the bar earlier with Veloure, and why his reaction was so weird. He continues to be weird about it. Sunny thinks Arty may be Veloure’s father or something. Arty gives Sunny a very stern talking to about treating Veloure “right” and things. Sunny feels weird about that and leaves for the Inn to meet back up with her tonight. Night time activities ensue.

Cut to the next morning, it is the day of the Festival! While at the festival, Arty can’t seem to help but feel nervous. He thinks that something bad may happen. He is keeping his head on the swivel looking out for threats. During his time searching, he sees aa woman who seems similarly nervous. She is armored and seems to also be keeping her head on the swivel. Arty finds a drink cart, grabs a drink and posts up, keeping his head on the swivel endlessly. Sunny is rather smitten with Veloure as she is his first girlfriend of sorts but, as she is setting up to perform during the festival, he leaves her to it to go meet back up with is party. Cass is going to search for Sonne, and Sunny decides to tag along! Sonne takes this memory that Cass has prepared for her and says that he met someone that Cass may be interested in, and describes meeting Cass’ mentor some months back. Sunny purchases a waterproof cloak from Sonne, and Cass purchases a waterproof cloak and the Idol of Seikkah. In the mean time, Arty goes to arm wrestle at the festival. In his first round he faces Dax, and absolutely destroys the poor little guy. In the second round he faces Hemlock, and does win once again. For the third round, the mysterious lady approaches and sits across from Arty. They lock hands and seem evenly matched for some time before she seems to swell with a wave of strength before slamming his hand down. She introduces herself and Arty takes the loss graciously as Caliape. Arty asks flirty questions. It turns out they were both in the war together. Arty then asks if she would be amenable to helping them after the festival is over, and she agrees. Cass and Sunny approach and Cass explains why they need a Cleric and asks directly if she can help. She says she can’t but, she knows some who can. “What about a boyfriend??” Sunny asks boldly. She turns red and is embarrassed but says that she does not. The moment passes awkwardly. Cass is interested in her. Caliape tells us what little she knows about this temple in the north that Sonne told us about the night previously. There is playful flirting between Arty and Calaipe but, nothing comes of it. When Veloure finishes performing, she takes Sunny to play a skill game of arrow shooting, he does well and wins three prizes. He gives the stuffed toy to Veloure, they split the apple pie, and he save the rock candy for later to share with the party. They enjoy this very sweet innocent romantic moment.