Chapter 4, Part I: Birthday Parties and Necklace Woes

Rix

   Written by MC

Joint bday party for Louie and Theo! The Archon is here! The Hymores! Arianna Grayforge! What a party! Lots of new faces in Wiltspar. DOJO and Raveth live here now. Robert is back and alive thanks to a harvested special berry! Bank, farm, walls are all level 2! We should take a week off more often! Lenny has a pet dragon now. A badger named Tater.

Theo hears a loud roar. Jets of flame dispersing in the sky. Big scaly dragon. Chasing something. Small creature headed toward the tree, but the dragon tries to bite it. Professor Pluveria is fighting off a dragon. It's probably part of the party. Meteor storm bursts the dragon and it becomes glitter wishing Theo and Louie happy birthday.

Man standing in the shadows after Rix has her conversation with the Princess. She is terrified and follows the voice. Onyx skinned looking person. Oh god, it's Jasper.

What a weirdo! I've never had such a long conversation with him. He says he's proud of Rix and tells her that she's always been special. And also they talk about how her connection to the gods is still there, just has a bit of a cage around it. As soon as she feels like he has said everything he wants to say, Rix runs away and tries to find Raveth to discuss this warlock nonsense.

But Raveth is busy talking with Boatie, trying to get some clarity about who the fuck is captain of the Queen Dowager/Void Queen. It's awkward. Boatie is upset that Raveth shared a sending stone pair with Rix, and not himself or Morgan. Raveth says, well, Rix asked lol.

Louie and Miku have a conversation about how she's bored stuck in Wiltspar, and she wants to do more. Octavi stops by and Louie makes sure his mother knows where he is. Louie sees her wearing a necklace. It was a present from the owner of the theater where she had an early successful show. Then she's going to perform at the Wiltspar.

Theo is still drunk in the tree. Thinking about going home, and how he doesn't particularly want to. He tries to jump down to talk to Adriana Grayforge, but Drez grabs him before he falls. Drez hands Theo a "birthday present" that is a letter. Then he tries to do his fancy landing, but he's had a bottle and a half of wine. He manages it.

Kelton's been working on some spy stuff. "Be careful. That's a Brawlmart city." That's where their headquarters are.

Morgan asks Selena about Gray dude. Oh, turns out the grey man is an avatar of the Warden. "You hold my shield, brother." Morgan asks Selena if she can keep an eye on him.

Theo uses his nat 1 portent die, invisible in the corner, to make sure Morgan's fiddle performance is terrible.

Rix has a conversation with Louie about how it's not his fault that whatever happened under the Brio temple happened. They both talk about how they don't want to be a liability to the team while they can't use their powers. And Louie says, maybe we have more in common than we thought we did.

Ziri convinces Chauncey to go dance!!! Chauncey never really smiles, but he is having a good time tonight, even though he's a little sad that Ziri is about to leave for some amount of time.

Theo says that he and Morgan will never be friends. Ouch. Morgan misty steps away and cries.

Louie asks Theo to come watch Miku sing, and Theo agrees, and they bro hug. Best bros forever.

Ford gives the Archon and King Hymore the dog tags of the dead soldiers from the Northreach Glades, and then Hymore asks him about Derrick, and then Ford starts crying.

Theo casts Mirror Image so that there are a thousand Theos in Miku's crowd. She does an amazing job. Sings a special song about missing people, aww. Her singing power makes the tree make a golden leaf! And it lands right in front of her.

Theo is turning 25 and Louie is turning 28.

We all long rest.

Miku wants to thank Theo. But Miku is trapped in the necklace. Oh goodness, it's the same magic that Theo felt in the temple of Brio (*note from later: actually, more like the bad vines in the Northreach Glades)in the vines in the corrupted Northreach Glades**... divine in nature, but bad. Louie immediately calls for Titan's Aid.

Louie suddenly disappears and reappears in a very dark cave. Red glowing eyes. "What is it you want of me?" Louie explains. "You've been working with my father, and we are inclined to help however we can." Hundreds of red eyes. The necklace is too powerful for the Titan to remove, but he will try to suppress it as long as it can.

Louie and Theo and Miku are headed to the ruins under the tree, and Theo messages everybody he comes across to let us know that there is a situation.

Gray dude is giving off Warden vibes. Boatie tries to commune with Phasma, the "goddess of kindness" aka spirits. Or perhaps the goddess of chapel pornography.

100% no shady characters were at the party, according to Morgan's history nat 20.

Maybe her doing a concert without Samir's approval activated it? Or her becoming a guardian of the tree? Lots of possibilities.

We buy some healing potions since Rix and Ford are not coming with us into the ruin.

We make it through the Nihm room! No thanks to me or Ziri, who are both stupid. Now a room of earth elementals.

_{**DM Retcon}

Louie Dahlia

    Written by Sean

Kinda feels weird writing these letters now but I also kinda don't wanna stop. Anyway, I had a lotta fun with you during the party. Seeing you smile like you used to was exactly what I needed to keep going, I can't think of a single that makes me feel stronger than you do. I thought a lot about what you said about you going out on missions like we do. It's not fair of me to let my fears dictate what you do, it's just like you said, it's only fair. I just want you to be careful, that's all. You're not afraid of anything, you always wanna do the right thing, and that's what's fuckin' terrifying.

It was amazing seeing you perform again. That last song... it really was something. Didn't know what to say in the moment, I thought it was beautiful, just like all of your music. You can probably see why Theo is such a good guy, I really do love the kid to death. I really don't know what I did to deserve being surrounded by such good people. I spoke with Rix too, finally got to tell her how much I appreciate her, her friendship, and everything she does for us all.

I know you told me not to blame myself for what happened to you, I heard you, I really did, it's just hard not to think that if I weren't in this position, none of this woulda happened to you. We'll figure this out, we'll get that necklace off of you, and you'll be safe again. I know you believe me, I know you trust me, and I know you believe in me. I just wish I had the same faith in myself that you do. We'll figure this out, I swear.

Theodore

    Written by Justin

41st of Blooming, a few hours after the sunsets, desert is lit up with motes of light, banners and streamers (it's a dual birthday party for Theo and Louie)

Archon and the Hymores* are here, as is Ariana Grayforge and Kelton Abernathy

DOJO and Raveth live here now

I'm trying to stay unnoticed, hear a noise coming from the distance, outside the walls, big dragon, chasing something, whatever it is chasing is shooting spells back at it. Professor Pluveria is fighting off a dragon

Successful gambling and scavenger hunt

Morgan is WOOing, Theo flies away

Rix talks to the Princess

Rix's patron approaches, onyx (literally) skin and yellow eyes, "you're smart and cunning, I'm sure you'll figure out what's going on with your powers very soon"

Patron refers to the gods as "aunts and uncles"

Light/spark inside Rix is caged

Raveth chats with TB about what he's gonna do, TB is gonna join them on the boat

Bit of a chat about who is actually the captain now

Louie talking with Miku, Miku seems to be bored in such a small town

She wants to help the cause

Drez gives me a letter from my mother, containing some info about a book that someone from Azphaleia needs to help figure out the swamp scenario

I drop out of the tree and talk to Arianna Grayforge, she has taken the Sentinels back from Platinum City. Veruna has won the election but has not been inaugurated yet. PC is a "Brawlmart City" according to Grayforge, and that is something we should be aware of and careful about

I use my nat 1 portent to make Morgan fail at her opening act for Miku as revenge for drawing too much attention to me at the party

Morgan uses See Invisibility to find me and I am very honest about my distate for her

Louie finds me and asks me to show up for Miku's show and I agree

I use Mirror Image to make the crowd at the show appear bigger

Miku plays a new song, about what it's like to miss somebody and be doing something on their own when they don't want to be doing it on their own

Miku's show seems to pump magical energy into the Wiltspar tree, and a golden leaf falls down in front of her

Long rest

Portent are 5 and 6

Miku's necklace can't come off

Louie and her find me hungover and ask for my assistance

Detect Magic reveals that the magic coming from the necklace is similar to the magic under the Brio temple where we lost Rix in the vines in the corrupted Northreach Glades.**

I try to Dispel, no luck

Louie attempts TItan's Aid for the second time, ends up in a cave with glowing red eyes, asking what they want

The red eyed thing claims to be a child of the Warden? (Not sure I believe it)

We head down to the ruins under the Wiltspar to try to solve Miku's option

As Grey touches the necklace his arm flings back

To restore his power enough to affect the necklace we need to get to the bottom of the ruins, which we aren't prepared for

It sounds like the various floors of the ruins will unlock powers or items or something related to the deities

Phasma hears TB's call and if we clear the first floor we may be granted some help

I let Louie know he should probably tell Miku how much danger she is in and he agrees to do so

Sameer gave Miku the necklace many years ago

Sameer doesn't have the foresight to set something like this up

But maybe he does?

Maybe a weird possessive thing where her doing a concert without Sameer's permission activated it

Each floor of the ruins consists of a set of trials, 2 combat, one non-combat, 5 player maximum, if we switch someone out the floor resets

We went into the shit, Nihm hitting us with mud

We figured it out and got through the first room

Second room, three big earth elementals, I'm going second, CAST HYPNOTIC PATTERN AND USE PORTENT??!!??!

_{*DM adjustment
**DM retcon}