Ep 14: "Farmily Reunions"

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The City was in the middle of a two-week celebration to commemorate the Rising and the Cleansing. There was much celebration for the anniversary of Lady Ennith’s death, but it more for the anniversary of the revelation that King Goodsbury was a vampire. Loyalists to the crown had flooded the streets from around the kingdom.
Rosie had been having a hard time earning money playing bars, so she attempted to perform in the street, while picking pockets of nasty people milling about.
Lark wandered the city, people watching. GB picked out some bouquets of flowers, tried to find Cyl but found Lark instead. He joined Lark in wandering the city, still looking for Cyl.
Nathan spent time in his archives to investigate the revelation that trade routes were being specifically left out of his family’s maps or marked as more dangerous than they were, while Lannoch tried to research the eirshale blight further. Neither had much luck. Lannoch’s one success for the day was working on getting a cold-box to work for the Beer Forge.
Cyl spent her morning repetitively painting and washing and repainting her face, uncertain of the best way to present herself to her new Goa brethren. She finally decided to go without paint. She then hung out in the park with the poet named Whatever.
Beer Forge:
As the party gathered, they found the bar full of rowdy orcs and gnolls, and seedier folk. The crowd was intermittently singing songs of King’s triumph over the revolution. GB presented a small bouquet of yellow and purple flowers to Cyl, to give to the new Goa she was going to try to meet today.
Rosie and Nathan led the party to the Tea Garden as an alternate meeting place, since the room was clearly full of loyalists to the king. On the way out, Lannoch gave Lark and GB popsicles that had a meaty, strawberry flavor. The hint of meat came from the sticks being old meat skewers.
Tea Garden:
Much of the normal clientele from the Beer Forge were at the Tea Garden. We joined them to avoid the rowdiness and authoritarian singing. Rosie paid for the party to eat and grabbed a ton of sweets. Nathan took sandwiches for himself and GB. As the party enjoyed the snacks, GB asked if they could go to the farm meet the new goa. Cyl was nervous, but anxious to get to her family ‘reunion’.
On the way, Rosie stopped at Hottie’s Haberdashery to pick up a hat that would match her sundress.
Mathias’s Farm:
The farm was a two-acre property with a fence enclosing it. There was a cow, as well as a few goats who GB recognized as prior residents of his owner Hobbes’s farm. GB spent his first twenty minutes talking with them. They sadly did not talk back.
Cyl headed to the house. It was a little run-down looking, in need of stripping and repainting. The door was replaced recently, with a newer paint job. There was no answer from the house. Lannoch opened the door as Cyl and Nathan try to call inside. It was modestly furnished inside. Lark stood outside staring at the paint job, picking at the old, flaking paint.
Cyl headed outside trying to find Mathias. She found him in an out-building. He had unkempt grey hair, big bushy mustache; he’s missing teeth and smoking a white pipe. The party converged on the man and talk to him. He claimed that he hadn’t seen anyone like Cyl yet but acknowledged that he’s got three new people-things around. He made a distinction between Cyl’s color and the trio he was harboring.
GB connected with the old farmer Mathias over both knowing Hobbes.
Cyl investigated the “Horse House” on the property but was dilapidated and empty. She saw two figures approaching the farm as she neared the barn.
Lark, Cyl, and GB opened the barn to find only various farm tools. Lark tossed GB up into the loft to see if anyone was up there. Cyl caught GB as he came down, but he hadn’t seen anything. Cawrl (GB’s raven familiar) flew up but still didn’t see anyone. As they left the barn, a figure made of stone dropped down from the roof. He introduced himself to Cyl as First. Her nervousness faded some as she warmly observed that First didn’t have any hair, just like her. First explained, unnervingly, that his hair was “fragile and weak.”
He proved to be disinterested in asking questions about goa and said he didn’t remember anything before becoming one. He had dreams but didn’t understand them: he saw “light” in them along with his fellow goa Might and Wit. Cyl told him that she also dreams of other goa and eirshale and that it was comforting. It reminded her of her purpose: protecting fellow goa and eirshale. Cyl explained the traditional means of producing a new goa—days or weeks of sculpting to what the maker envisions, prior to a long awakening ritual. First explained that he sculpted Might and Wit in mere moments to be as they were meant to be. GB gave First a bouquet to match the ones he gave Cyl. First saw it as a gift of death. Cyl explained the value of temporary beauty.
Meanwhile, Rosie, Nathan, and Lannoch got to say hello to the two figures who had just arrived on the property. They wore very nice uniforms, from some unknown group, and the older one with a beard introduced himself as Thamen. They said they were investigating three murders caused by the use of Daydream. It appears they view the new goa as murderers for the deaths of the drug users. Mathias ignored the investigators. Thamen and the other investigator began walking around. They quickly saw First on the top of the barn drop to speak with Lark, Cyl, and GB. The investigators stayed back and watched momentarily.
Nathan’s owl flew over and pecked at Cyl to warn her. Cyl, GB, and Lark noticed the investigators. Cyl suggested taking the conversation elsewhere. First asked about the ritual to make Goa again and she explained what she knows. First looked down at his hands and did something to alter the color of his skin on his hand, and clenching them into fist, he said “We’re superior.”
The investigators ran toward First. Rosie ran after them and told them off for racial profiling. They continued to approach.
Cyl asked First if her opinion holds any weight with him. First didn’t answer. Cyl tried to convince First that goa are not superior to the other sentient races and that they need to realize and account for the fact that there was a person in his body before it was transmuted and before he awoke. He did not react initially but says multiple times that there was nothing before him.
Investigator finally got to Cyl and First and the rest and demands that Cyl and First come with them. Investigator said that the dead people are Daenles, Dorem, Einda We tried to convince the investigators that the new goa did not commit any crimes. We were not successful. They appeared to have some sort of metal object in a holster on their belts. They refused to specify who’s authority they were operating under. First said they won’t go with them. First’s eyes gloss over with color and said that there are eight of the new-goa now. This freaked out the investigators.
Thamen revealed the holster and they appeared to each have a handheld firearm. Arcane runes were etched on the handles of the guns. GB misidentified the runes as being attuned to the wielder and that anyone other than the owner would explode upon touching it.
Cyl perceived something that the other party members do not: the emblem of a vicious spider She called out “Whatever says hello,” and the two investigators do not understand. The investigators grow impatient but then notice that the last goa. They initiate combat.
Fight at the Farm:
First held out his hands and touched Cyl to manipulate her innate abilities (reduced her Constiution and Intelligence in order to raise her Strength). She rippled with power and went into her glowing rage.
The investigators run in complete unison and fire magical darts out of their pistols. Lannoch and GB recognize the smell of spell components and recognize darts of magic missile. Lark takes a massive blow from the missiles and is downed. Nathan lifted his eyepatch to reveal an amethyst in his eye socket as he cast magical attacks at them. During the combat, GB was able to strike one of the shooters with a Hold Person spell, and both of them merely slow, rather than only one becoming paralyzed. They are somehow connected in action and effect via these runes.
First, Might, and Wit disappeared during the fight, running off through the literal fog of war. The investigators teleported away by shooting the ground using one of their runes. Nathan did not want to be touched when Lark tried to heal him. The three goa returned to the field. First touched Cyl and returned her abilities back to normal. It appeared to take a lot out of First to do so.
GB had Cyl give Wit and Might GB’s last two bouquets as a welcome gift and Lark improvised a vase out of an old milk glass to keep the flowers fresh. Wit and Might seemed more receptive to our request of friendship than First. But, even First agrees to come back to the city to one of the Resistance safehouse. The party and the three new goa friends went to thank Mathias before they left.
Mathias whispered to GB that Hobbes had spoken about him, and that Hobbes was right, GB really was “a wicked Good Boy.” GB promised to visit the farm again to talk more.
Cinderhaven:
The party got the three goa set up in a safehouse in the Abandoned Temple District. Cyl stayed with them for the night. As Cyl went to sleep in their presence, she felt a new unfamiliar sensation: the bottom of her feet had begun to itch.
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