Berrik starts his day by casting True Seeing before he joins that party downstairs. He wants to check on Nikolai without being obvious about it. Making his way to breakfast, he sees Nikolai in the great hall. Berrik confirms, despite the wounds to his arms and legs, there is no sign of a tattoo on the boy. Berrik greets the party, noticing that Silas and Flynn look especially tired. Nikolai was plagued by nightmares last night, but Silas and Flynn keep that to themselves.
Finishing up breakfast, the party notices that Cade hasn't come downstairs at all this morning. Silas take Nikolai outside to train, hoping to occupy him. Null goes upstairs to check on Cade. He is in a sentry's rest and won't be roused. Null suspects this is a coping mechanism to deal with the disappoint of Nassandrial eluding them again. She offers words of comfort before gathering the research material and returning downstairs.
Null dumps the stuff from Cade's room onto the breakfast table and we start talking about splitting it up. This is too much to complete in one day, so we'll hopefully get to do round two tomorrow when Cade is hopefully feeling better.(😬)
Berrik: Identifies the bronze coaster thing as an Amulet of Projected Image. They come in pairs and project a 2 ft. tall image of the users to the other device, allowing them to communicate. Everyone except Flynn agrees that we should hang onto this but be careful not to activate it. Lotty hurriedly wraps it in cloth and puts it in the bag of holding. Berrik leaves the table and cloisters himself away, intending to spend the day copying spells into his new book.
Null: Not mentally ready to tackle the orphanage records yet, Null decides to study the book from the orphanage basement. It contains a cypher she has never encountered before. She spends all day studying it and manages to learn 1/3 of the cypher - she will have to come back to this later. At least for now she can use the book to discern any future examples of the code she comes across.
Silas: Meanwhile, out in the yard, Silas pushes Niko to train harder. The boy is exhausted and wants to rest, but Silas thinks the exertion will help him. Niko gets frustrated and hits Silas mid-spar, launching him 40 feet back. Silas collides with a tree and is understandably concerned with the powerful show of force from the 11 year old. Niko apologizes and clearly wants to stop. Silas tries to convince him to continue to train to work through his trauma. He uses a shield-wall analogy to emphasize that he's not alone in this and the important lesson that no matter how many times you get knocked down in life you ahve to continue fighting. It does not go well. Niko deals significant emotional damage to Silas by countering that Silas is not Niko's friend, but just a grown-up who feels sorry for him. Oof.
Flynn: In the library, Flynn peruses the Encyclopedia of Monsters until he finds the entry on Green Dragons. He studies hard and learns the following:
- Green Dragons are schemers and have no noted weaknesses.
- Their lairs are often corrupted, even going so far as to raise the dead.
- Many seek ways to bend others to their will.
- They reproduce like all other dragons in Ios, asexually. They pass on their genetic material through their eggs, essentially cloning themselves. Eggs don't usually hatch until the parent has passed.
- Ancient green dragons like Nass are several hundred years old.
- They are extremely protective of their hoards and offspring.
Lotty: Also in the library, Lotty settles herself in to study the creepy book on arcane scrimshaw. She flips it open to peruse the table of contents. Her eyes finding a section about the "Procedures, Implements, and Implications of Arcane Scrimshaw", she starts to feel a sharp cutting sensation on the back of her hand. A letter appears, carved on her skin.
"I"
Scared, Lotty yells for Berrik. He joins her promptly and she explains what happened when she started to read. Berrik is understandably alarmed by this, and casts Detect Magic in order to understand what's going on. With this spell he discerns that the book holds evocation magic. Next, he attempts to dispel it. Despite his skilled execution, it does not work. The magic affecting this tome cannot be dispelled. Perhaps it is cursed? As Lotty and Berrik ponder what to do next, they notice the ink leaving the page of the table of contents. It's now or never! Berrik launches himself at the book and manages to see the location of the section Lotty had previously noted about "Procedures, Implements and Implications". He feels a letter cut into his hand and takes damage. With Lotty looking on, Berrik quickly flips through and starts reading about procedures: "The patient must be conscious for the procedure, and cannot be numbed." Berrik feels more pain on the back of his hand and take more damage.
"I shall"
Gritting his teeth through the pain, he continues reading. The horrific procedure is described in detail: precise drilling into the patient's bones to access the bone marrow. The marrow is then magically transmuted, which allows the arcane runes to then be etched on the surface of the bones themselves. Berrik's hand burns with pain.
"I shall not"
He continues, racing to read the text before it leaves the page. The next section describes how the etching of arcane runes into the patient's bones can grant a variety of permanent abilities and spell effects. He remembers people they have fought before with similar-sounding abilities, like those who could cast without speaking. He wonders about Null's ability to shapechange. More pain, more damage to Berrik's hand. Lotty heals him but he can barely stand.
"I shall not meddle"
And Berrik continues on. The procedure requires the patient to be viable. The text describes the need for an "exalted soul". Once complete, the procedure is effectively permanent. The only known way to undo it is by giving the patient a new body. More words, more pain. Berrik falls unconscious.
"I shall not meddle in the"
Lotty revives Berrik with a Cure Wounds, and turns to take on the morbid task herself. The next section describes the need for tattoos as wards to protect the arcane runes below the flesh. They allow the patient to be scryed on and remotely dominated at will. The tattoos are also layered with powerful contingencies against their own dispelling. Lotty takes 103 points of damage as 6 additional words are carved into her hand, all at once.
"I shall not meddle in the Marionettist's"
Berrik and Lotty can't take much more of this. They are about to tap out with the information they have when they notice an addition to the text, a loose page containing an experimental treatise that mentions healing. Lotty can't help herself - if there's anything in here that can help save the boy and Null, she must try to learn it before it vanishes. Berrik tries to convince her to abandon the task, but she continues reading. The treatise describes a procedure with roots in Aeonian medicine. It requires the combination of bone grafts and marrow transplants, something unheard of Ios. Lotty's vision goes black as a final word appears on her hand. The pain is excruciating and the damage massive. Berrik looks on in horror as Lotty dies in front of him.
"I shall not meddle in the Marionettist's affairs."
Berrik scoops up Lotty and yells for help. Everyone descends on the scene, except for Cade who still cannot be roused. A minute passes and the party knows that they cannot help her here. Null remembers her last visit with Cade and Lotty to the Divine Pansophical, and describes how to get there. They can help her there. They have to. Flynn takes Lotty's body and burns all his Dimension Doors to get to the chapel as quickly as possible. Null leads everyone else (except Cade), as they rush to follow.
Carrying Lotty's body in to the chapel of the Devine Pansophical Flynn calls out desperately for help, pleading with the healer there to do something to bring Lotty back. Flynn bluntly describes to the healer, St Vienna, Lotty's been dead more than a minute; they don't have the magic to bring her back alone. Vienna explains that she can perform a ritual to attempt to bring Lotty back but she will need the help of Lotty's friends to coax back her soul. A few moments later Berrick, Null and Silas (with Nikolai in tow but taking a seat at the back of the chapel) arrive and the ritual begins.
As St Vienna's magic takes hold the lights in the room grown dim but a mist of lights seem to swirl around Lotty's body; Vienna explains that she will enable three people to speak to Lotty's soul to try to convince it to return to her body, the more convincing they can be the more likely the ritual is to succeed. The Ashen Company look at each other for a moment, each knowing without needing to say that Cade would know what to say to coax her back.
Berrick steps up first, feeling joined in her fate he takes Lotty's hand and tries to convince her that their work is not done and that they have just started to learn new things together and that the journey is not finished. The lights around her body begin to fade and Berrick worries his words have not reached Lotty's soul.
Silas stoically steps up, grasping Lotty's hand and remembering the oath he pledged as a paladin he implores Lotty to return so that she too can continue to fight the fight, defend the helpless and undo the wicked. The mist of swirling lights begin to glow again and Silas feels his words have reached her.
Null is the last to take Lotty's lifeless hand, she tells Lotty that she is the glue that holds the Ashen Company together and the heart of their friendship as Null's emotional pleas stir not just Lotty's soul but Null's tether to the afterlife seems to resonate beyond to other spirits that may be preventing Lotty from returning and the lights go brighter still.
They group step back, feeling they have done all they can to convince Lotty's spirit to return and as St Vienna finishes her ritual the glowing mist of lights around Lotty's body fade and the lights in the room return. Seeing no signs of life the Ashen Company look to Vienna questioningly; she explains that maybe Lotty was unwilling (nobody believes that) or something prevented her from returning, these kinds of magic are never a certainty. Mixtures of grief, disappointment and anger boil inside all of the Ashen Company in various ways; Flynn brings out his jar to take Lotty inside to demand Mordicai's intervention when Lotty awakes, confused and dazed.
After some initial disbelief the Ashen Company embrace as a reunited group, tearful and emotional they briefly begin to come to terms with what has happened as Lotty pieces together what has happened and thank the group for saving her life she soon slips in to her old ways to chaste Silas from bringing Nikolai to the event. That when the group notices a familiar green eyed elven man holding a paralysed Niko.
The Ashen Company does what it always does and springs in to action to, once again, put this bitch down. A hasted Silas managed to dash to Nassandrial and land some blows before she dispels his Haste, growing wise to the Ashen Company's usual tactics.
Nassandrial opens by disintegrating St Vienna as she stands next to Lotty; sending Lotty in a spin of trauma as she's reminded of losing her cousin Arnon in the very same way. Lotty pulls it together long enough to Haste Null who frees Niko from Nassandrial's grasp before she too has the Haste dispelled. Just before Nass creates a toxic cloud covering the majority of the room Flynn manages to hide in his jar with Niko to keep him safe.
Nass holds no punches as Berrick goes down in the toxic cloud, all the while Null and Silas continue to carve in to her. Sensing she's on the losing end, Nass scatters Null and Silas to where a paralysed Lotty had previously pulled Berrick from the cloud and stabilised him and cast a spell creating a magical cage around the four members of the Ashen Company.
For good measure she dropped a cloudkill on the cage.
Thinking fast Silas was about to misty step out of the cage and finish off the latest simulacrum whilst Berrick dispelled the cloud before it could finish off the group. Berrick didn't find himself with the same amount of charm to Dimension Door out of the cage so Null, Berrick and Lotty do the only thing they can and rest up in the cage.
Meanwhile in the jar Flynn keep Niko entertained with giant fruit punches and regales in the stories Niko has of kicking Silas' butt earlier that day.
When Nass' cage finally fades Lotty scoops up some of St Vienna's ashes, with Cade now being the current ranking member of the Devine Pansophical in Sieronna she figures he'll know what to do(Flynn seemed to be reaching from a broom rather than a jar to deal with the ashes). The group head back to the villa thoroughly exhausted; there's light on in Cade's room - he must be up, there's flashes of magic from Cade's room - what's happening?
The villa is surrounded with a green mist; Null, Berrick and Silas recognise the green guard drakes and Lotty recognises the undead creature at the door, Nass has attacked here too, can they get to Cade on time?
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