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Cyl woke up next to Might, Wit, and First with her feet still itching. She checked her Hobbes’s Tome of Transcription and found handwriting that she has not seen before: “Where are the nocturne?” She realized that we haven’t seen any nocturne in the city for days. Cyl demonstrated her morning routine by face painting gold lines down her face. First was disinterested; Wit enjoyed the painting and adds a painting of the bouquet GB gave her to her face; and Might mixed some paints together getting browns and face-plants into it. Cyl adds some gold lines to make it a little more stylish. Cyl offered to answer questions. First just wanted to know if there are more people with symptoms from the Daydream. Cyl promised to get clothes for the goa and return with that and news.
Upon seeing the Tomes, Lark painted “missing nocturne” posters and put them up around the city. GB reacted to the news by wearing his collar with the not-quite-disguised arcane-focus crystal dangly and trotting over to the safehouse where Cyl and the other goa were sleeping. Pip fished in the morning. Seldanna headed out with her travel-sac, changed at her private apartment into more adventurous gear, and headed to the Beer Forge. Saxi met up with her boss to collect her weekly wages for sign spinning and headed to the Beer Forge.
Beer Forge:
The celebration week for the King’s take-over was dying down a little, less full and rowdy, although the party expected it would get more busy as the week came to an end. The crowd obviously made it unsafe to speak openly. The end of the celebration is the 14th of Trellaris.
Pip brought his fish to the bar and helped himself to the Forge’s fire (and bar staff) to cook them. The party discussed getting clothes for the new goa and trying to figure out what’s going on with the Nocturne, as mentioned in the Tomes.
An orc stole one of the fish skewers as they came off the forge. Pip chose to overlook the offense and just asked what kind of fish they were—water fish. He gathered the rest and headed back to the table. The orc bought him an iron ale. As we leave, Pip introduced himself to the orc, Bryn.
Cyl purchased some clothes in a shopping montage.
The party returned to the safehouse to find Wit painting the table and Might having put handprints on the walls in brown. Cyl delivered the clothes: yellows and purples for Wit, browns for Might, and a royal blue Henley shirt for First. None of the other goa have experienced itchiness. Cyl’s feet looked normal despite her altered sensation. Seldanna attempted to see if there is any magic affecting her feet but did not find any magic in the room other than the Tomes carried by the party.
First, Might, and Wit seemed to exhibit some form of mental communication. First then expressed some knowledge of the city, possibly from his past life? First asks for the secret to birthing new goa, and ask Cyl and the party to tell them immediately if other goa are being born at Owen’s Clinic. To say goodbye for now, Cyl low-fived Wit, high-fived Might, and grasped hands with First. She promised to find out what she could.
The party left for Owen’s Clinic. They walked to the river, swam/trudged through it, and got to the shanty town outside the city.
Owen’s Clinic:
The clinic was very busy; three patients exhibited Daydream overdose symptoms. Cyl introduced herself to Holly. Holly pointed at an entire wall of patients that had taken Daydream.
Seldanna suggested that the lesser restoration spell that was cast on the three people that turned into goa may have been the cause of turning. Seldanna began to feel guilt over having a hand in the death of the original person that turned into First. The party tried to make her feel better, explaining that she did not know what would happen and that we still don’t know that this theory is right.
The party debated what to do next—talk to Pinbol about his research into the drug? Find the supplier of Daydream?
They overheard Holly talking about a person that laid down in Bed Three but doesn’t have anything wrong with him. He merely reported experiencing “feelings of existential dread” and Cyl immediately turned to look for Whatever among the patients. She found him under a sheet, arms crossed over his chest dramatically. He expressed that he’d been writing poetry since he was four, when he first learned of the existential dread of the universe. Whatever explains that he came here looking for Cyl, and he read a new poem to us, despite it not “really being for” Cyl:
“The ivy of death grows along my spine
Stretching to eternity over my discarded wood
Infecting and writhing within my blood
ten long and ten wide, the monoliths fixed
motionless, the obsidian hall broken by day
awaiting the grip moribund direction”
Whatever thanked Cyl for leaving him with his pain. Lark laid hands on Whatever to cure any disease or poison that might be affecting him. Whatever told Cyl that he thought that she’d find what she was looking for “there”.
Saxi checked in with Holly before the party left, and donated two crowns to the clinic.
The party walked south, following the river to a grid-like planned neighborhood. We took a bridge over the river, then walked through the guildsman’s district to the Pearl District and Pinbol’s Tower.
Pearl District: Pinbol’s Tower:
Lark rang the front bell. Mo frantically asked who it was and the party responded “us”, confusing him briefly. When Mo let them inside, he was wearing a pink bow from Rosie. Lark prepared drinks and sandwiches for the party, and Mo appreciated the help.
Pinbol entered, adorned in flowing black satin robes with raven feather pauldrons. He explained that Daydream is not made of rotted eirshale. Pinbol claimed that the Daydream was relatively harmless, but with eirshale, the drug’s intended effects were enhanced, and its side effects made worse. He couldn’t find any more samples from any of the sources all around the city. He couldn’t explain why there were so many suffering in the clinic other than presuming that there is some source out there that was adding the corroded eirshale.
Seldanna revealed to Pinbol what happened with First, Might, and Wit (without naming them). She explained her theory about lesser restoration having something to do with the transformation.
GB revealed that they have some sort of group empathy. Pinbol asks if goa ever have any sort of similar empathy and GB have realizes that they do have that sort of empathy while they are asleep. Being on Daydream when they transformed must have caused them to permanently have the effects of lucid dreaming while awake. (Logan gave GB inspiration.)
Pinbol agreed with Seldanna’s theory, that there may be a disease that cannot be cured in any way through divine or arcane means, but if they do use magic to try to cure it, the diseased person dies and transforms.
The party and Pinbol discussed with Cyl whether she would tell First, Might, and Wit about what we’d learned and separately whether she’d tell her people. She remained conflicted.
Lark, Pip, and GB went down the slide several times, with Lark and GB trying to see if anything seemed odd about the alchemy set on one of the floors. GB wasn’t able to determine anything out of place.
The party poured over Whatever’s poem and concluded that the ivy of death might be poison ivy or poison oak. Discarded wood probably pointed to a dilapidated portion of the city: the temple district. We conclude that the temple is the one to Golfimb, the deity of plague and disease.
The party headed to the temple district.
Abandoned Temple District:
The party found a partially collapsed wooden temple to Golfimb, the god of plagues and disease. Lark determined that the temple has been desecrated. We sneaked toward the back and found two horses. GB went over to smell them to see if he could tell if they were the spider/investigators. GB smelled burned spell components and heard a voice. He thought it was the two of them from yesterday. He reported that back to the party.
The party checked the stairs on the other side of the building. Pip sneaked up to the Temple window and saw uniformed individuals moving around and long, tall statues. He poked his head and found that the statues are a 10×10 deep group of still, inert nocturne. 100 in total.
Very, very cautiously, the party snuck away and fled back to their safehouse.
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