After Rinn’s birthday, it’s time to try getting home.
Recap
After a few weeks of downtime and rest and study, it’s time to celebrate Rinn’s birthday and head home. Rinn was given presents from his friends, as well as Saffy, the Vonns, Otel, and Llana Krynn. After being totally embarrassed, they went to a brilliant party at the Zemnian Cultural Center and, eventually, all slept well and began their journey.
The next morning, they work up early, packed up, and left for Pyrah. The walk was similar to how the walk to Old Vasselheim had been, only this time there were happy people and kids running around the fields. At every opportunity, the Agents of Numina were stopped and gifted fresh foods (corn etc). When they asked the farmers why all the kids were out now and not before, one of the parents explained that the Empress had persuaded many of them to send their children to the magic school, and to be used as part of an army she was preparing.
It wasn’t hard for them to realize that Lydia was making her own Volstruckers, using those children.
With that food for thought, the Agents walked down to the major crossroads and kept on towards Fort Victor, Fort Pyrah, and Pyrah itself. But their first stop was the village of Balrovo. The small village, best known for it’s apple orchards, was a little worse for wear and not in the way one might expect for a post-rebellion. The guards, captained by a young Gayle, were excited to see the Agents and quickly welcomed them to the home, only for disaster to strike.
Someone named Segner was ‘trapped’ in the barn/hayloft by the villagers, who seemed to expect the Agents of Numina to help. They did, but in their own style, talking to Segner and realizing the ghast was really a person with a soul, not an undead, who used to be a leather worker and after he started seeing past lives, went a little crazy and became a bandit.
Segner gave himself up and explained he worked for Aiden, a wereboar, who had a cursed necklace. When the bandits touched it, they turned into ghasts and ghouls. The town leader, Genid Okenise, arrived by then and let them lock up Segner in his house.
Aiden joined the village as the latest of Genid’s many wards following the destruction of Old Vasselheim. One day, a villager found a mysterious necklace in the woods and brought it to Genid who investigated it and could not place what religion it belonged to, but he didn’t trust the Empress anymore, so he kept it locked up. Being an inquisitive young man, Aiden snuck in the locked room to investigate.
The necklace was the shape of a dodecahedron and when Aiden put it on, his latent lycanthropy awoke, turning him into a wereboar, which wouldn’t be so bad, but as one of the survivors of Old Vasselheim, and as his past lives emerged, his fragile grip on sanity broke and he ran off, eventually taking over the bandits.
The bandits were holed up at a Villa not far from town, so the Agents of Numia went to check it on. Stubby lit on the plan to disguise herself as Segner, which surprisingly worked after they accidentally spooked a couple ghouls.
Arriving at the villa, Stubby kept up her disguise and tricked Aiden, casting immovable object on his armor, and the others swooped in to fight the ghouls. It was a close fight for a while, but once his troupe was taken down, Aiden surprisingly listened to them and, once he believed they could de-curse him, he gave up.
Tāmarai sorted out that what was happening was actually broken Consecution. Aiden, and all his bandits, had past lives from a Luxon, but something had corrupted their connections to their past lives, making them feel insane. Tāmari got Aiden to look into the Luxon, and everyone saw his past lives, from their arrival to Vasselheim shortly after the divergence, to now. He really was that many lives.
The Luxon corrected his Consecution, letting his past lives be accessible and remembered at last, which broke the curse from the necklace/medallion. Aiden reverted to his normal form, a young (18ish) human man, who really was a wereboar still. They then managed to dispel the curse itself, making the medallion nothing more than what it was. Apparently it was a trap made by someone for those who worshiped the Luxon, years ago, and was yeeted out into the world when Vasselheim erupted.
Much to their surprise, when the curse was broken all the ghouls reverted to humans, alive and well, and their Consecutions were all healed.
The Agents ensured the bandits all knew to go to Vasselheim and who to talk to for help understanding who they were. Genid, so happy to have this come to a safe ending, asked Gayle to bring them to Vasselheim tomorrow, and put the Agents up in the nicest inn.
This session is the beginning of Arc Three: The Road Home
Loot Acquired
- None (A free night at the inn, though)
Players
- Rinn Shrike – Half-elf Sorcerer/Rogue (Storm Sorcery)
- Stubby – Half-elf Artificer/Artillerist
- Tāmarai Shikomi – Gnome Bard (College of Lore)
- Fisch – Bear Fighter (regular NPC)