#((Naoka's dad is....a piece of work))

[springvaletales]

Once a year, around the changing of the seasons, Haaruma sits down with a quill and parchment and pens out a letter in her best handwriting.

She'll write about Naoka, and her accomplishments that year, and how proud and lucky she is to have someone so amazing in her life. She'll then seal it with the fanciest wax she can convince Vashael to let her 'borrow', stamp it with her own scales, and send it off with the Tabaxi Postal Service to the estate of Lord Rii'Shyrria, of Tavar.

Lord Rii'Shyriia has never written back.

[quaxorascal]

Fyf and Mhel for worldbuilding. (Please :p)

Of course! (I bugged Kelsey into sending me an ask for this, and I’m still happy to take them!)

Fyf:

B A S I C S

full name: Fyf Antoon, not that they know what their last name is. If asked, they’d respond with Fyf Brosca

gender: agender

sexuality: aroace, though into dudes still

pronouns: they/them

O T H E R S

family: biological parents (status unknown); adoptive older sisters Naoka and Rica, adoptive children Romero and Cato. Stellio is also in here for sure but he’s becoming less of a son and more of a brother

birthplace: Docca, a city in the country Grom

job: revolutionary-turned-adventurer

phobias: a lot actually! Cliffs, irrelevance, and powerlessness, to name a few

guilty pleasures: buying earrings, starting shit™, and cuddling their people

M O R A L S

morality alignment?: chaotic good All The Way

sins - lust/greed/gluttony/sloth/pride/envy/wrath

virtues - chastity/charity/diligence/humility/kindness/patience/justice

T H I S - O R - T H A T

introvert/extrovert: extroverted!

organized/disorganized: surprisingly organized when it’s stuff that matters to them, though it’s really only surprising to the adventuring crew

close minded/open-minded: closed-minded without really meaning to be but uh. They are. They’re getting better

calm/anxious: waaay more anxious than they let on

disagreeable/agreeable: they genuinely try to be agreeable, they really and truly try

cautious/reckless: completely and utterly reckless

patient/impatient: patient for their friends, impatient for themself, for events they want to happen, and for enemies™

outspoken/reserved: if there’s one thing that’s multiuniversal about Fyfs beyond love of knives, it’s being outspoken about opinions while keeping their feelings locked up

leader/follower: a leader if I had to pick!

empathetic/unemphatic: they’ve got a whole lot of empathy in their fuzzy body and it’s kicked their ass more than once this campaign

optimistic/pessimistic: ehhhhh

traditional/modern: modern but upholds the traditions they take comfort in

hard-working/lazy: Fyf is the champion of what they believe in and they will see it through to the end. Their current problem is that they’ve been torn away from what they believe in, and they have no idea what to do with themself in light of that and have thus screeched to a halt

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

otp: Fyf/Duncan

ot3: as a brot3, Fyf/Duncan/Kathrett have been a trio of mine since their inception

brotp: Fyf/Stellio!! Also Fyf/Naoka ofc, Fyf Loves their sister

notp: eh

Mhel will be under the cut!

Shuvermhel:

B A S I C S

full name: Shuvermhel Hlall, né Ire

gender: genderfluid

sexuality: gay, also possibly ace?? But he wants kids

pronouns: he/him

O T H E R S

family: father Valas (status unknown); husband Nalinyon, clade (husband’s husband) Nowhere. Mhel loves them all a whole lot!!

birthplace: Wryn Shiralath, a small Underdark city settled by drow who wished for a life outside of Llolthian influence. It’s maintained mostly by the agriculture made possible through the efforts of local druids and nature clerics, and the city itself is less than a day’s walk away from the Ashen Woods

job: local druid and undead hunter

phobias: his family being hurt, never being able to return home

guilty pleasures: you know that stereotypical hick/ farmer thing of having a piece of wheat or grass in your mouth? That. Also pretending not to understand Common in order to not have unpleasant conversations

M O R A L S

morality alignment?: ?? rn I’m thinking maybe lawful good??

sins - lust/greed/gluttony/sloth/pride/envy/wrath

virtues - chastity/charity/diligence/humility/kindness/patience/justice

T H I S - O R - T H A T

introvert/extrovert: he has a small circle of people he loves more than anything and he can enjoy the presence of others outside of the circle but he Will tire of them eventually (I can’t wait to put him in a party)

organized/disorganized: he’s a planner but he’s also a druid and they can only be so organized, between animals and plants

close minded/open-minded: he’s less closed-minded and more not the type to have it occur to him that things are different outside of his city

calm/anxious: calm calm calm

disagreeable/agreeable: quite agreeable! I made him with the intent of having a high-CHA druid so he knows how to talk to people

cautious/reckless: he’s a risk-taker for sure!

patient/impatient: his patience has limits, at which point he adopts the “do it yourself” mindset. Those limits do take a while to reach, though

outspoken/reserved: more on the reserved side until something goes wildly against what he knows, at which point he will make his opposition clearly known

leader/follower: a leader who doesn’t want to be the sole leader of anything

empathetic/unemphatic: he’s very used to looking out for others at the same time as himself, he’s a bit of a team dad tbh

optimistic/pessimistic: definitely an optimist!!

traditional/modern: modern by necessity, as his city has only recently gotten its feet properly on the ground

hard-working/lazy: very hard-working, but definitely an advocate for the occasional lazy at home

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

otp: Shuvermhel/Nalinyon naturally

ot3: eh?

brotp: Shuvermhel/Nowhere, and I’m sure he’s gonna hit it off with at least one person in his future party

notp: eh??

[springvaletales]

((Session nineteen is wrapped!!))

Bagelby’s Player went for a walk after work and almost got lost, so we started a little late (he got home safe though!).

Ena’s Player, talking about a campaign-related art piece I shared after I realized I forgot to draw the legs and had re-uploaded it: “Are you sure you didn’t just amputate them to hurt this poor boy more?!”

Me:

Me:

Me: “See, I can’t answer this without spoilers. Why do you put me in these positions?”

The party started off at the edge of the forest outside of Springvale, and was immediately met with a tiny Tabaxi Postcat looking for Ena of the…*spins massive spinner wheel of party names*…Bedlam Bards, with a letter back from Radiant, whom Ena had written to in the prior session.

Ena’s hair started to flair up Disney’s Hades-style as she read Radiant’s response letter. Oh boy.

Everyone wants to fight Captain Astaroth. He kind of deserves it tbh.

Ena, stuffing an acorn in her mouth: “Dad, prepare the bail money, I’m about to get arrested.”

Thiori, excited: “I can help you get arrested!”

Ena also wants to punch Velenna for not mentioning the lich bit, so there’s that.

Bagelby’s Player: “Wait, can you have your memories taken without your consent?”

Me: “Yeah. It’s a much more pleasant process if you’re willing, but you don’t have to be.”

Back to punching Astaroth.

Bagelby’sPlayer: “Why are these memory stones scattered all over?”

Thiori’s Player: “Don’t question RPG mechanics.”

Ena rolled high on a perception check to realize that the magical tracking statue keyed to Michael got a little bit warmer when near the strange locket with the lock of hair from Redfeather City.

Thiori: “Let’s just punch everyone to cover our base.”

Asahi: “Except for that lady at the bar.”

Me: “She might punch you, actually.”

Asahi’s Player: “What? Why?!”

Bagelby’s Player: *starts cackling*

The party went straight to the guard station, but upon hearing that Astaroth was at the Palace, due to the assassination attempt, immediately left.

Babelby stopped at the station’s Lost and Found to drop off Bethany’s stolen earrings, and get them off of his person.

He also couldn’t resist stealing something, so I had him roll on a trinket table and he found a tame little mimic baby in the form of a music box.

Bagelby, returning to the party with the mimic in his pocket: “Hey guys I totally didn’t find a new pet or anything wow wouldn’t that be crazy HEY I think I saw that lady’s earrings in there! Weird huh??”

The rest of the party: *presses X to doubt*

The mimic’s name is ‘Maritza’. I love them.

Next stop is Velenna’s house, but along the way, Ena pulled Asahi aside and asked to see the one memory stone the party hasn’t yet viewed, as they were keeping it away from Bagelby.

This memory is the one where Michael is getting his memories stolen - the last one in line, so to speak.

Ena learns that there are 16 memory stones in total, related to Michael, and Asahi and Ena both catch a glimpse of the lich.

Vashael, Haaruma, and Naoka were all waiting at Velenna’s house when the party arrived. Naoka offered everyone tea after nearly getting clocked by the door Ena kicked in.

As soon as she got down into the basement, Ena punched Velenna square in the nose. She took one point of damage for spoiler reasons.

Velenna, shaking off a direct punch to the face: “My, that hasn’t happened in a while.”

I got a little too caught up in the roleplay to take my usual notes, so here’s what I managed to remember after the wrap up.

Velenna Silenced the entire room to get them all to stop speaking at once, but missed Bagelby, who never actually entered the room, and just shouted down the stairs.

Velenna promised to answer the party’s questions, so long as they spoke on eat a time.

In a last act of spite, Ena chugged her tea, and dropped the 400 year old teacup from antler height.

Thiori tried to catch Ena’s dropped teacup, but rolled a Nat 1, and crushed it instead.

Velenna managed to herd everyone back upstairs to the living room, and sat them all down like toddlers for some tense exposition.

Ena’s monologue about how many siblings she’s seen die and how she refuses to let people be cryptic and withholding while Michael may be dying legitimately made me cry and it took me a full minute to compose myself.

Velenna wasn’t supposed to be this cryptic, and that’s entirely my own fault for not scripting out how the lore was supposed to be fed out, but I want to see where this story goes.

In her defense, however, Michael absolutely would NOT want any of them talking about his curse and his origin story to what are, essentially, strangers to him. He’s not going to be happy to find out about it.

Lore drop: The amulet the party found in Redfeather City is an ancient tool of liches used to extend the functionality of their undead minions. Typically, it required ??. Knowledge of their creation was supposed to have been lost with the falling of the previous empire.

Lore drop: The “Blessed Curse” is basically immortality with an increased percentage of fatal fateful encounters. Also thought to be lost knowledge.

You really shouldn’t antagonize a dragon who chooses to take on a mortal form.

The party asked Velenna to cast a spell to track Michael, even though she warned them that the spell would not differentiate between Michael himself and any pieces that may have been in the amulets.

She left for the Palace first, supposedly to set up the spell ahead of the party, and Bagelby - upset that everyone else had had their questions answered except him - ran after her.

He vanished at the threshold, and is about to have one heck of a time. He’ll be fine, though, so don’t worry!

The party hung around Velenna’s house for a few hours, calming down, crying, and group hugging Vashael (to his intense dismay).

Bethany Herself came by the house to drop off a delivery of Strongjaw Ale (haha, see what I did there? I only vaguely understand CR but I love it) and - having already gotten all of their angst out of their system - the party immediately pivoted to simping over a 10ft orc woman.

The party still needs to get to the palace relatively quickly, and I don’t want the Taker of the Lost to become the party taxi, so Bethany offered to let them ride along on her own delivery of goods to the palace.

Ena, to Vashael, as they’re climbing into the wagon: “I’m gonna fuck your sister.”

Asahi is actually trying to be nice to Vashael, rather than bullying him lovingly. It’s….nice, but not exactly working.

Half of our party needs to work tomorrow morning (me included) so we wrapped up with the party approaching the Palace City. We’ll pick up again in two weeks!