Game Session 2/1/2012--Street Brawls, Sages, and Sky Ships, Oh My!

Note: Apparently my writing style changes based on what mood I'm in. When I took notes, I must have been feeling like a smart ass. So don't expect any wondrous prose or heart-wrenching literature, ha!

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We begin at Oosla Dawn after Kain recovers from his latest battle. He is a bit more torn up than usual, but under Twink's gentle care, he soon resumes his customary gruffness and vitality. After discussing their options, the party decides to go to the storm god's pillow so Kain can get his little sword enchanted. And of course, by discussing, I mean Sultrani and Kain talked about their various options while Twink bounced from the kitchen to the gardens, then happily agreed to whatever the two decided.

They use Twink's tarot card to transport to Talismonde's town square. Unfortunately, they end up in the middle of a military funeral--the funeral of the five mages Tai-Kyrie killed. As the group awkwardly, painstakingly passes through the Marines, Twink protests Tai-Kyrie's guilt, claiming that he would never do such a dishonorable thing. However, she learns from a friendly Marine that the five mages supposedly jumped Tai-Kyrie at once. (He must certainly be a bad ass, if he took them all down, eh? Twink has the coolest friends.) Twink, in true Twinkie fashion, rewards the kindness with homemade cookies.

As they are almost out of the depressing--and monotonous--military funeral, a message is pressed into Twink's chubby little hand that says, “I'll be at your restaurant in three days for the dinner you owe me for this.” (He speaks, of course, of interrupting the funeral and getting them out of there.) The message is from the House of the Grey Stallion.

As our heroes finally enter the safe and homey-smelling Twookery, Aurie--a blast of sunshine in the form of an executive hobbit assistant--quickly waylays Twink, telling her all the things they have to do. As Twink gets pampered and pressed, Sultrani stands guard over her. Kain goes in search of information, meaning to seek out a library and begin plans for his upcoming quest. Twink begins her evening at the restaurant and is soon overwhelmed with all there is to do.

Soon, Kain gets lost in search of a library. After travelling for a time, he realizes he's underground. It's getting dark, and he decides to cautiously approach a light source up ahead--and in doing so, becomes acquainted with a goblin-human mix who introduces himself as Havisham, to which our hero responds, “They call me Kain.” (Insert bad ass hero music here, or maybe some old spaghetti western melody.) He then proceeds to ask Havisham for directions, since he is hopelessly, stupidly, and miserably lost. Kain then plays nice and makes friends with the hobos, which is quite a sight. He even *almost* gets Havisham's name right. (Happersnatch? Hindenstitch?) They have a small area that is lit, and a shaman drew a circle around it to protect them from things that go bump in the night. However, as they were eating, several pairs of glowing red eyes shimmered menacingly in the darkness. Havisham, his eyes glowing crimson, explains that those eyes belong to the wolves of the night, who probably smell Kain's--uh--wolfiness(?) and perceive him as a challenge. Kain goes to meet them, and instead of challenging the leader, as he planned, the leader offers to let Kain hunt with them. Kain agrees, and the two share blood. Kain can now (temporarily) see in the darkness. Together, they hunt.

In the meanwhile, Sultrani follows a disguised fey descendant to find out his business. She was eyeing him suspiciously as he came into the Twookery, disguised. When he confronts Sultrani, however, he explains that he just “observes.” They have tea together, (I smell a date night!) and Sultrani hears from him that after the five mages were killed, a couple of things were stolen from the royal treasury, and there is much talk of political intrigue. He also tells her that the “purple mage” has been spotted in Kurahane. She gets a crap ton of information out of him, because he also warns her that the head of tarotteers—Maaton Quill—probably isn't happy with Twink's blatant use of the tarot cards. It tends to be a secretive thing. (Wait, what—Twink isn't covert?? No way.) She also, very subtly and usefully, discovers that a ship named the Dixie often flies to the storm god's pillow—you're welcome, Kain—and he'll also have to deal with lightning, rain, and wind that tears you to pieces. There is supposedly a sphere in the middle made of ariculum. You're doubly welcome, Kain. Yeah, that's right—while you were playing with wolves, Sultrani got business done. BAM!

As the sun shines once again over the city, Kain awakens with his face pressed against a hard surface. He's on top of a shattered tower overlooking the city. There are a lot of bird feathers around... and no birds. Hahahahahaha! Kain ate some birds. Mmmm. And he reeks. He tries to traverse down the tower, but he trips and falls, careens into a doorway, and interrupts the awkward lovemaking of starstruck teenagers. Mortified, they scramble to cover up and he exits the tower... but not before locking the door shut behind him on the poor, now-trapped lovers.

Twink meets with Kalabar to discuss the upcoming adventure, and on his way back Kain gets into a street fight with some motherfucker. He kills the poor SOB outright, and soon is arrested and chained. Luckily, the guards that came to arrest him are Hyrkallen, so they try to resolve the situation as easily as possible. However, he is taken into custody. Soon, a hobbit comes into the cell with him (from Kalabar) and offers him a deal: he keeps Twink safe, and Kalabar helps him out. In a moment of rare compassion and solemness, Kain swears, “God help those who harm her, because you won't kill me before I get to them.” So the hobbit (a big, burly fellow named Nike) helps Kain escape. (You're welcome. Again.) Kain trims up, changes his appearance, and gets a tattoo on his head. I'm sure it increases his already debonaire appearance.

Sultrani, in the meantime, goes to see Simik, who owns a bad ass sky ship made from the Yggdrasil tree. He offers to have dinner with her so they can discuss possibly taking our lovely heroes to the storm god's pillow. She also wheedles out of him some information on equipment that would help them with the lightning. (Takin' care of business, it's all right! Takin' care of business, and workin' overtime...)

In the preparations for the journey, our group (with the help of Kalabar) learns about the storm god that used to reside at the storm god's pillow. He was put to sleep, supposedly, and some say the northern god Eru and Borius came together to birth the storm god. It was an old elven god originally, most say. There have been dozens of attempts to fly through, but most are utterly destroyed. Watchers of the Mist is an organization that has humans that can sense their way through the heavy fog of the Misty Sea. There's one of the Watchers that has reputedly traversed some of the storm god's pillow, and his name is Abdopale.

Through gathering information, we discover the beast we're looking for has four wings, flies quickly, and eats lightning, and it is one of two beasts: either a relquin, which is pale blue hairless creature that uses tech to absorb lightning and attacks ships, or a singular being known as the Fifth Reaver. It eats lightning, and it's a mix between a draconic being and a plumed bird. We need to retrieve the artifacts, some rods of the Ho'Hanari, that the creature stole. We decide it's basically the Fifth Reaver, and go searching for the sage named Aegan to give us more information on the beast.

Kain travels to the home of Aegan to set an appointment, and is waylaid by the stuffy doorman--who we discover later is actually Aegan's son. He tries to prove that he is interesting enough to see Aegan, and bribes the doorman with information about Mearoc and one of the firstborn of the dwarves. He agrees to let Kain see the sage under the condition that he brings proof of his tales, and that he brings his two companions.

Twink keeps arranging things in the shape of a horn or a shell, and she also forms dessert into a mountain range. Clearly her visions are speaking to her subconsciously.

In the morning, Twink happily and busily bakes some muffins while Sultrani slurps her tea, and the group travels to Aegan's tower. As they climb to his room, Sultrani's little secret friend tells her that every element is present in the room, guarding the sage. The sage tells us that the visions Twink has been having are signifying the Schorchar Horn over the Prismatic Mountains, which delights Twink as she absentmindedly fondles the pure golden strands in her hair. Kain tells the sage his stories, and he in turn tells us of the Fifth Reaver. It is very individualistic and fickle, and takes trophies to remind itself of historical events it was part of. While he learns of the creature, Twink goes to look into the two mirrors, which are the Time elemental. They show her possible futures of herself. In one, she has an eye patch and is surrounded by brownies.

(The brownie pirates be very feared in some parts of the world, arrr! Eat me brownies—I made them with me booty! But 'twas so hard to bake with me hook!) Ok, so wrong brownies. Twink kind of has a one-track mind when it comes to food.

Aegan tells them each about something important. To Twink, he gives advice to find all the metal waters; she may be surprised when she does. To Sultrani, he says, “The steps of Vritz are in the north, and follow the path that is only apparent to you.” He also says, “Do you know that your mother betrothed her firstborn as a pledge to someone?” Sultrani raises an eyebrow and sips her tea. She refuses to look into any of the mirrors in the room.

Twink asks Aegan about Dead Elf Hill, and how she can help. She needs to remind the ghosts of war and battle what it is like to be home. Yet, she needs to improve her skills before she attempts this quest. She sulks a little at this, but is making plans to research these ghosts and find a way to help them.

Aegan also explains to Kain that soon, he will have a tough decision to make--to walk on the path destined for him on his own feet, or keep the marks of the gods...

After many thanks, they leave and prepare to board the ship. They take a couple of days and fly to the storm god's pillow after some heavy preparation, and Twink spots a web-like pattern of lightning in the clouds...