Chapter 3, Part VII: Stand Down, Soldier

Morgan Wildflow-Duskgazer

    Written by Sara

Dear diary,

It's Morgan; I know, it's been AWHILE.

Aurelius has been our greatest foe yet. Well, I mean, the O.R.C. are our BIGGEST foe. But Aurelius has a face to hate. And oh boy, do I HATE HIS FACE.

But when handling, planning against, and attacking Aurelius it sure did test me; he tested us all; Our resolve, our bonds, our strengths. And I've never wielded such powerful magic. At one point, I couldn't help but think about how proud my parents would be... and then QUICKLY shook that feeling off. But Aurelius has also tested us in ways we just weren't ready for - my Boatswain and our strong tank Louie have now also faced personal hurdles thanks to this jerk! And I just hope they can find a way to heal. Something tells me, the damage done to Boatie and Louie (and let's not forget all that has already happened to Rix and Louie!) during this saga can't simply be healed with a potion or some magic.

We finally won the Aurelius war. The Archon seemed embarrassed and disappointed in how her kin behaved, and rightfully so. To her credit, she didn't stand in the way of justice either. We determine that the rather HUMUNGUS smoke monster thing - (ummmm WTF??) that Theo pretty much pushed across the landscape!! – was really the Archon's kidnapped youngest son. So, with quick thinking on Louie's part, we also saved one of her kin.

Spoils of war, loot and payment, we end up with quite the bounty. Adventure, gold, daring stories, sailing the seas to the unknown... didn't I want this? I can't help but feel conflicted. With every test, becoming a more powerful sorcerer; but with every test, I feel we are also gaining, bonding and losing pieces of our friends along the way. All the innocent people affected by the O.R.C. and its evil... there's a train of thought I also seem to abandon as soon as I can. Do I just run away when it gets tough? Do I just turn my back on people when they need me the most? What kind of captain am I becoming, and what does that say about all my ambitions for adventures? To what end?

We head back to Wiltspar – with the knowledge of Platinum City, the Archon and kin, Solana Shards... we touch base with Aurifer and unload about everything! Louie is going to take a break from us for a while. I guess it is really nice to see Zara again.

After talking with Aurifer for a while, Selena tells us about a weird dude in the ruins named Grey (WTF?), who wants us to hang out (WTF?). Being "The Blessed" is super heavy, I don't blame Louie and Boatie for needing time off. We also find out that Rix's (and Louie's?) wound is a divine corruption. Great! Sigh :/

Theo fills us in (FINALLY) about allll the hundreds of thousands of books I dropped on his head. You're welcome! He found more info while being a nerd and reading all of them. Not gonna lie, kinda impressive, it was A LOT of books.

We follow Selena down to speak with this Grey guy. Grey tells us that to restore Rix and Louie's connections to the gods they need to provide THEIR gods with an offering that will make them happy. Glad it isn't me, that sounds like a difficult puzzle.

Now we are at a crossroads of sorts, lots of places to go and help with some kind of disaster! But not sure where we want to go, together. I really hope we stick together. And I really hope no one figures out that I am faking all of this and have no idea what I am doing! I was a runaway, stowaway and BOOM now I am a captain of a world-saving team? Maybe I need a break in Wiltspar for a while...

Rix

   Written by MC

Morgan and Rix run up, yelling about how they followed a trail of bodies and asking wtf happened.

Big smoke baddie!!! Aurelius has a fancy crystal dagger and mall ninja energy.

Aurelius has deity actions too??? Solana deity action? Fuckkkk.

5 points of Absolute damage. What?? Morgan and Boatie feel this weird out of step sensation. Vulnerability to all damage until the end of Aurelius's next turn.

Louie gets hit with the dagger and I get hit with this dagger.

Van Ricketts is in charge somehow??? Morgan intimidated him into telling us that Octavi is in the house.

A weird hand comes out of the ground and pulls Aurelius down. He is in an inky hand cocoon. Louie spits on the ink and nobody gets erased!

Magical full plate mail. ORC cape. Boots of speed. The Vicious weapon that can be either a polearm or a short sword.

Theo notices that the cape and the boots have a similar* symbol as the circlet he found in the last session. But Theo doesn't know about high end Brawlmart Fifth Avenue. But normally Theo would know expensive things.

Rix takes two magical daggers. Dagger of Many Poisons and the Porous Dagger. Leather armor +1. Ziri's going to get lots of presents.

Aurelius left the plane.

Dagger was a shining golden color, and now it's faded. But Rix remembers the day we first met each other at the Coliseum and that spear created a rift in the space time continuum.

With our help, the Archon calms smoke monster Octavi down. Rix, Louie, Theo, and the Archon go inside the house that was at the center of the smoke monster. We go inside and it looks like everything bad happening was just Octavi playing. Cool rock is under the table. Smaller than a football, black rock charred like the branches. Molten red core inside.

Louie trades Octavi his dragon tooth for the rock. Archon gives us 1000 gold each, and takes Octavi out.

Louie finds 100 more gold for each of us. Also a note about Octavi taking the essence and changing. Theo finds another 3500 gold and two notes that were in a bag that looked like it belonged to Aurelius.

Theo realizes the warhammer symbol is the same one on the Brawlmart Fifth Avenue, or at least similar.

I still feel no connection to Korzo. Sad. Rix remembers that they found small pieces of the shards, but that the larger pieces hold more essence and thus are harder to dispel. Shards were always a problem to deal with, but Zephyra* was the only one who was able to melt them down. She disappeared some time ago.

Woods are okay now. Typhon says to talk to Aurifer, but Tali says to go to Korzo's temple. Secret passage that only Typhon, Drez, and Charles LeChance from Rathaven know about. Password is "on the rainy day, it is time for all of us to have chocolate pudding."

Louie is crying. Boatie is trying to cheer him up. Totally flat ears.

As my wound is healing, it seems to be forming a brand. Theo wants to use the essence extractor and Rix is like, lol no. But he is going to try it on Louie. He gets a frail essence of Louie. He plunges it back in.

King Hymore* recognizes Brawlmart Fifth Avenue logo and says that in the past, Brawlmart has approached him to discuss supplying the Evervalian Army.

Gray is a dude in the ruins under the tree. He made the deal with Selena after she died.

Aurifer touches the stab wound. "This is divine corruption." Okay thanks?

Murdermoss grows in the desert of Centra, and that is possibly what van Ricketts wants to use to make Elixir of Death. Murdermoss was part of the poison used at the peace talks.

Rix sees the window of Aurifer's window open and a gust of wind comes in and suddenly Drez, Typhon's captain of the guard, is suddenly in the room. He is here to give us a scouting report.

Zephyra has been gone for 200 years. She got into a fight with Lysandra.

Rix and Morgan head down to the ruins. Others follow. Also Selena. I can still activate the door. Gray materializes. How do I fix this? If I want to restore the connection to the gods, I am going to have to provide Korzo with an offering that will make him happy. Whatever I, Rix, believe is my deepest connection to Korzo, materialized.

_{*DM adjustment}

Louie Dahlia

    Written by Sean

We finally caught up to the fucker. He was there with some other kid who was kicked outta the Wiltspar but he was a total fuckin' nobody. What stood out was that they were standing in front of a burning cabin and the smoke formed a humanoid shape that was flailing about, wasn't aggressive but not entirely innocent either.

As much as I hate to give that bitch Aurelius any credit, he was far from being a pushover. Turns out the reason for that is that he was blessed like us, just by Solana... He could do a lot of the same kinda shit we could do but it all felt so bitter and hateful. During the fight, he got a good hit in on Rix and I with this dagger that was like charged up with Solana's power and after he hit us with it, it felt like a thread had snapped and I was cut off. Not just from Nocturne but all of them. We can normally give those gods a quick prayer for a little boost but Rix and I were entirely cut off from it.

The whole fight this fucker kept talking about how much he hated us but it was just so childish. I wish he hadn't even have said anything because I almost started to feel bad for him, like we were beating up a little kid who just wanted people to notice him. All he talked about was how mad he was at us for making things difficult for him and it just made it painfully obvious that his emotional growth has been completely stunted since childhood and he never really grew up. We still killed him though, maybe there was a chance for him but he was too far gone. Theo turned the kid's brain into a smoothie and when his body hit the floor, I took all of his shit and then inky black hand things came from the ground and pulled his body down to somewhere very far away according to Theo. I don't know enough about this kinda shit to say for certain but I've just got the feeling that we haven't really seen the last of him.

As for that smoke monster thing with the wacky waving and flailing arms, it was controlling lines of fire that woulda been a real problem if Theo didn't like throw it across the forest with the same spell that little shit used on me back in the temple of Brio. When Aurelius was dead, I got a real scary thought that the smoke monster was actually the Archon's youngest son, Octavi, who Aurelius had kidnapped. I fuckin' hate having good intuition sometimes cus it turned out it was Octavi cuz it responded to me. We reached out to the Archon to tell her about the situation and she was there faster than we could blink.

It was honestly kinda funny, the moment she got there, and we caught her up to speed, she just knew that thing was Octavi and said "Stand down, Soldier!" and the monster just shrunk down, totally disappearing back into the cabin it was billowing from. When it did that, all the thorny vines and flames that were consuming the cabin just went away like they were never even there. No damage to the structure of any kind, it was really odd. Stranger still was that Octavi was just there, in the cabin, like nothin' even happened. Just bein' a kid and fuckin' around with the O.R.C.'s war map of the area but there was also this molten rock in the room that was likely what turned him into the wacky waving billowing arm flailing smoke man. I traded him my dragon tooth and I wish you coulda seen that kid's face when I offered it to him, his eyes lit up like Frostwane morning, fuckin' adorable.

The Archon paid us a fat stack of gold, we scavenged even more from the cabin where we found a buncha letters to Aurelius that might implicate Brawlmart with all of the O.R.C.'s bullshit. Can't say I'm surprised, always got a bad vibe from that place. We also learned that Aurelius really only rose though the Order's ranks cuz he was blessed by Solana cuz it was clear no one else in the order really liked or respected the fucker, they tolerated him cuz he was special. We probably did them a favor by killing him.

We're heading back to Wiltspar now. I'm gonna take a break... I need to not be blessed or special for a while. I miss you and I miss mom. I think I'm gonna finally come clean when I see you. I can't keep going like this without telling you how I really feel. I can't keep risking my life like this without you knowing that I love you. I really do love you and I'm so fuckin' nervous to tell you for real but I'm just gonna do it. Zara can take it from here for a bit.

Theodore

    Written by Justin

Smoke monster is emanating from a house, I moved that shit across the map

Aurelius is fucking DEAD let's GO

Arty mentions van RIckets when we threaten to kill him

Octavi is the smoke monster according to Arty

Louie loots the corpse of Aurelius

Hair is standing up on his neck, feels like the Brio temple

Weird hand comes up and grips Aurelius' body and pulls it down into the earth

Aurelius Loot:

     Boots of Speed (Brawlmart+)

     Magical Plate Mail

     Cape of the Mountebank (Brawlmart+)

     Vicious Weapon (any)

Arty Loot:

     Dagger of Many Poisons

     Porous Dagger

     Leather Armor +1

LEVEL UP!!!

Portent are 9 and 16

We save Octavi! The house that was under the smoke monster is unburned in spite of looking like it was on fire. Archon gives us 1000 gp

The Archon says if we ever need her just name drop the Moonlighters and she will owe us

We get the Solana Shard of Ruin

Louie finds a note and 500 gp

I find 3500 gp and two letters

Hammer logo on the second letter is similar to high-end Brawlmart logo

Whatever is blocking Louie and Rix is related to the shards

Way directly from Rat Haven's entrance directly to the CItadel that is only known by Typhon, Drez, and Charles Lachance. Potential "secret" way into Platinum City. Password is "On the rainy day, it is time for all of us to have chocolate pudding"

I try essence extracting Louie but fail

The King has seen the high-end brawlmart before

We jump back to the Wiltspar

Louie is gonna take a break for a little while

We meet up with Zara before going to see Aurifer

We break it down for Aurifer

Selena lets us know that Grey in the ruins wants us to come hang

Aurifer refers to Rix's wound as divine corruption

I finally let the group know about what I found in van Rickett's books

Drez comes to provide us with a scouting report

Zephyra* got into a fight with Lysandra* and took off

We go to talk to Grey, to restore Rix and Louie's connections they must provide their gods with an offering that will make them happy; what their deepest connection to the god is and what that looks like materialized

Grey referred to us as "his blessed" when we entered, sus af

Must decide what we're doing next

_{*DM adjustment}