25 Cuersaar 837

Heroes of the Netherdeep | Emon (Tal’Dorei) 10/12 Session

• Rodreck wakes up refreshed, and asks Pandora if she read the book he got for her from the Temple of the Raven Queen the day before. Pandora is flippant, remarking she doesn’t know why anyone would ever stay her champion, but she’ll read it soon. Rodreck notices the ruby on her crown, and asks how her night went. She tells him that it was insightful, and she’s more certain than ever that leaving the Matron was the correct choice. Rumis tells them he didn’t dream, which is unusual for him, and he can recall the name Erevan. Pandora advises he discard his past and stop looking into it, but Rumis says he wants to remember a great deal and that is easy for her to say when she doesn’t have amnesia.

Rumis Lore Drop: Rumis’ old name is Erevan.

• Pandora asks Rodreck why he took off the mask, stating he shouldn’t do things he doesn’t want to for the group since the group is temporary. He tells her he was curious about it, and his curiosity was satisfied.
• Aida wakes up in her tent, covered in markings from Dione and Gilmore and feeling pleasantly sore. Oliver is pissed at her for her abandonment of him the night prior and him having to sleep alone. She sends him to the Feywild to fly around for a bit and calm down, covering herself in a cloak. The pendant from Dione is warm, and she blushes at the pleasant reminder. She gives it a kiss, and tells it she’ll talk with Pandora, saying that maybe they can have another night sometime soon. As Aida indulges in her afterglow and leaves her tent, Jon rushes up to her, and whispers that he thinks Paige tricked him, and he might have said something, and he’s very sorry. Aida tells him it is alright, things will be changing, and she is very upset and angry at how Paige hurt Jon and tried to force him to reveal Aida’s secrets.
• Paige scream/sings on the top deck of the ship, playing a song.
• As the group prepares to go into the city, Pandora asks if any of them have a burning desire to go talk to Paige. When no one offers to talk to her, Pandora sighs, remarking that she’ll just piss off Paige enough to draw her back down here. Jon feeds off Pandora’s aggression, and says that Paige should answer questions for a change, and asks if he can watch Pandora yell at Paige. Pandora looks at him strangely, but agrees before Rumis grabs her attention for a moment.

“Rumis, what?”

“Uh, nevermind, go talk to Paige, I can talk to you about it later.”

“No, no, no, no, no, talk about it now. I don’t like this, ‘wait until later,’ that’s what the fucking Raven Queen does, and I’m done with Her, so I’m done with that.”

Rumis, he doesn’t want to use his words but he’s expressing his face and he’s, like, looking at the…the vestige of divergence and he’s kind of asking for permission to wear it but he doesn’t want to ask outright. He’s asking with his eyes.

Pandora sighs, and her voice comes out cold. “I’m gonna put it this way. You don’t owe me anything. We’re not friends. And if you want to seal your fate with the Matron of bitchiness, go ahead. Just know She tends to drop Her toys when they break.”

• Pandora and Jon begin to make their way to Paige, and Rumis begins to put on the armor.

As soon as the clasps clasp the vestige, like, clings to you. Like, it shrinks and tailors itself to you. It feels like the best armor you’ve ever worn. Like it was made specifically for your body. And at that same time, every ounce of memory that Rumis has forgotten, that he has run away from, that he has turned away from, all comes flooding back in that moment. Pandora, as you head up the stairs, before you reach Paige, you will hear the very loud cawing of ravens coming just from where you just left. Rodreck will also hear the ravens, but Aida and John do not.

I think Pandora hears this, and she’s just like, okay, that’s the way things are going. And then I think under her breath, to where Jon can’t hear it, she says, “Praise be Lolth,” and continues walking towards Paige.

Rumis, you are left there to process that for a moment, while Pandora goes up to see Paige. Rodreck, you being the closest, bear witness to the rising of a new champion. The armor fits itself to Rumis, and his eyes, like, bleed completely black until they are just voidless pits, that sit in his skull. You hear the cawing of ravens, and you, who work so closely with the spiritual realm, understand that that’s where it comes from, as a new champion is chosen.

“Wow,” Rodreck remarks. “I guess clothes make the man.”

Rumis dawns the armor:

In an instant, Rumis’ once clear blue eyes are obscured, consumed by a swirling maelstrom of pure white fog. His body involuntarily tenses, each muscle contracting as if under immense strain. His fingers curl into fists, nails digging into his palms, while his teeth grit tightly.

And then, as quickly as it began, his body gives way. His knees buckle, sending him plummeting to the ground. His hands clutch at his head, as if physically trying to keep the tormenting thoughts at bay. But it is futile.

Slowly, he lifts his gaze, the fog in his eyes fading into profound sorrow. When he looks at his companions, but it’s not the glance of the amnesiac ranger they’ve come to know as Rumis, but the haunted gaze of a man burdened with the knowledge of his past, his true identity, and his sins.

His trembling hand seeks the raven-wing pendant around his neck. With a swift, deliberate motion, he rips it off, revealing its hidden function. As the pendant shatters, a swirling, shadowy portal manifests behind him - a dimensional door.

Before stepping into the portal, he gives his friends one last look - a silent goodbye, an apology, a promise. Then, he steps back, his figure swallowed by the darkness.

Heroes of the Netherdeep | Emon (Tal’Dorei) 10/12 Session

• Rodreck summons Pandora and Paige to the crew area, informing them that it is an emergency. Rumis has disappeared, and the party wonders what happened. Pandora immediately shouts at the sky, directing her wrath at the Matron about taking away their help and still expecting them to save the world. Aida recognizes the magic from the portal as celestial, something similar to a cleric or paladin’s magic.
• Aida uses Identify on the pendant Rumis used to teleport away, and it reads as a former holy symbol of the Matron of Ravens with fading strands of conjuration magic. Paige’s Detect Magic picks up the magic leaving the broken pendant, but nothing else unusual. Pandora’s Augury returns woe when she states that they plan to get Rumis back.
• Rodreck casts Divination using the scattered pieces of Pandora’s old shrine, and asks the Matron one question:

“How can we get Rumis back?”

• Squawk flies down from the trees, and answers for the Matron: “You can’t.”
• The party, with varying levels of patience, proceed to interrogate Squawk on what he means, and where Rumis has gone.

Quest Information:

• Rumis is no longer on the Prime Material, but a place known only as Elsewhere.
• Elsewhere is not in the Shadowfell, nor the Feywild, but it tickles something in Pandora’s brain.
• Rumis is the one that left, not Erevan, and Squawk considers them separate people. Squawk later says he does not know which left, so it is possible both are true.
• There are multiple ways to get the Elsewhere, all of them are dangerous: die, eat the heart of a false hydra, the Storm Giants’ ritual, through Nessus, flying there, or the Dream of the Blue Veil spell.
• Sending spell to Rumis recieve no reply, but the caster does not get the impression that the spell failed.

• Pandora suggests her death as a solution, multiple times. Rodreck offers his crowbar. Paige suggests she suck up her pride about the Storm Giants, which Pandora does not deign to answer to. Aida and Rodreck both attempt a Sending, and receive no reply, and Aida’s Planar Ally spell just returns Squawk (much to everyone’s annoyance). As everyone’s frustration boils over, Pandora casts Sending to the Raven Queen, with a vitriol asking for divine wrath:

“Don’t like you but…Does Rumis want to stay away, or are you manipulating him? Is this you?”

• Pandora’s nose begins to bleed as she hears the cries of ravens fill her brain and make her wish for an end, and the only reply she can make out is two words:

“Repent, heretic.”

• Rodreck heals her, and Pandora mutters about showing her what a real heretic is, fuming. Aida, for the first time that morning, notices the jewel upon Pandora’s crown, and whispers a prayer to Dione about owing her another night.

And she looks up at Pandora and is like, “I need you to take this seriously, and I’m being truthful when I say this. Please don’t turn into a joke, or dismiss what I’m about to say.”

Pandora just stiffens, and she looks at you like she’s looking for you to clarify. She’s not grabbing her weapon or anything, but her body language is aggressive.

“The Queen of Ravens wants to believe in you,” Aida says, more serious than normal, “and wants things to work out-“

“No, She doesn’t, Aida-“

“Yes-“

“I’m not trying to make this a joke, I’m being dead serious and She does not believe in-“

“Pandora, see? This is- No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am not done. I’m not done.” Aida just holds a hand up, just to stop whatever everyone’s doing. “I am not done. I am not done. I need you to listen. Listen, and then accuse me of whatever you want. You can throw daggers, throw spells, whatever you want. You can have a fight, but I need you to listen first. Can you listen?”

Pandora crosses her arms, but nods.

“Okay, see? See, this is- Believe me, this is really hard for me to do. But…There is- I don’t know to what extent. You know, I cannot feel the pain that you’re feeling. That a god has, you know, I won’t say forsaken you for another-“

“Abandoned,” Pandora supplies.

“But there is something that’s happening up there that is far beyond. Sure, we’ll go with abandoned. She still believes in you. She wants things to work out. I know what currently is happening doesn’t seem like it. And what you’ve done, you know, doesn’t- Your perspective is that you haven’t done something wrong, and Her perspective seems like, hey, something is up. There needs to be clear communication on what’s going on. You said that She spoke in riddles, which is not fun. Gods need to be clear. But….Aida, focus! I…I wish for things to work out, and I really hope that it does. And how do we get there? I don’t know, but I’ll sure help you with it in any way that I can. Just…If… Oh, jeez louise. Look. Okay. You know…You’re gonna ask where…I’ve got all this, but…I have received a letter from Dione. I can show it to you. But the gist of it is that the Queen of Ravens… I would say wants to make amends, because it doesn’t really say that, but She really wants to have you back on Her team, and She is not really okay with what’s happening between you and the little spider-“

“What spider?” Pandora asks sharply.

“Over there. Orpheus.

“My familiar?”

“Mm-hmm. I mean…You know, I won’t delve deep into it, but…She is on our side, believe it or not. She plans to banish Torog, which is quite a feat, but I want to help you to bridge that gap. If you wish, you could just have it, you know…At your own time. But I need you to know that She’s looking out for you, and…Well, I can’t really…I’m not really a follower of Her…Sorry, I don’t really know what’s…Gods! Gods are strange! Gods are…they have particular things that you need to do for them to gain their approval, and their affection and love and whatnot. I really want to talk to her and know why she is in this mindset towards you-“

“Aida, I already know that. I remember our conversation. Whatever Dione might have said, it’s coming from the perspective of he doesn’t want me going down the path I’m already on. It is all tainted by the fact that they want me where they can manipulate me. The Raven Queen brought me back to life, yes, but She remade me in Her own image. She erased everything that was already there and made me look like her. She took what I was and made me different. Now She wants me to be different again, because I no longer suit Her needs. I don’t care if the Raven Queen wants to get back together or wants me to worship at the foot of Her altar again. I’m not interested. I’m not interested in…a god that…holds you accountable for things without telling you. I’m not interested in someone who expects me to be a leader without ever establishing that that’s something…Like any of you even fucking listen to me! I can’t even get one idea out without it being a bad idea! Why she thought I would be the leader is fucking beyond me, but either way…I’ve worshipped two Prime Deities. I’ve switched domains several times. I know enough about being a cleric to know…I don’t care. I don’t care if the Raven Queen wants a reunion, or me to repent like She just screamed in my head. I don’t care. I’m done. I am helping on this mission, and then our paths will no longer cross. I am solving the Predathos problem, and then that’s where our mutual goals will separate. I’m not mad at you, Aida. I don’t have any particular feelings of anger towards you or Jon. Paige I’m angry at because she’s being stupid. Roderick I trust, but…”

“Fuck you,” Paige interjects.

“You’re being stupid!” Jon shouts.

“Jon, you are a child,” Pandora snaps. “I don’t care. Whatever you may think of me…I’m not angry at you, and I don’t want to fight you. I don’t particularly wish ill for you. Any of you. I just want to get this over with, and I want my debt to Her to be fulfilled. The second it is…I’m done. I’m beyond Her domain. I’m beyond Her control. I’m not going to be remade in Her image, or whatever image She wants me to fucking fit. There is no reunion.”

“Whose image are you in now?” Jon asks.

“You don’t even look like yourself,” Paige adds.

“The one I choose to be in.”

“You chose to look like a drow?” Paige asks.

“I accepted it when I found it. And it’s better than looking like her.”

“I don’t really care who you worship,” Rodreck interjects. “I just want everyone to be, uh, well, as relatively happy as they can be. And I think, I think we don’t know about Rumis. He put on that armor, he changed, and he disappeared. And I think that should be our focus.”

“Aida, to end this conversation without you feeling like I’m angry or whatever…I’m not mad at you. You’re a messenger of an unfortunate message. The Raven Queen is a god. And She’s one that doesn’t love. She doesn’t care. She sees you as entertainment, or as a little bug. And the second the bug becomes complicated, she stops liking it. It’s not that different-“

“So you’re exactly the same,” Jon interjects, angry. “You look at Aida like she’s a little bug. You’re talking to her like she’s stupid right now. And I know it because you talk to me the same way.”

“I talk to everyone like that, Jon. And I’m not viewing you as a bug. I’m just annoyed I have to have this conversation, considering it’s over things that are personal to me. My worship is, quite frankly, none of your business. As long as I’m cooperating on the mission, none of you need to know who I worship, or if I worship, or what I worship. I’m having this conversation because Aida initiated it, and I’m doing it as nicely as I’m capable of, despite being incredibly angry. So forgive me if my tone is off. Either way, the reality of it is, I stopped being convenient entertainment, She dropped me, She went for Rumis next. I don’t know what that says. I don’t know what role Rumis had in it. And we’re gonna find out, but quite frankly, I don’t care to hear the Raven Queen’s side. That’s all I need to know. I have had high expectations on me for a long time. I don’t care about those who set them without telling me the requirements. So, Dione might mean well. I honestly don’t know how he’s changed, I just know he’s different. The Raven Queen doesn’t care.”

• Pandora issues a formal apology to Aida and Jon, asking for the conversation to be over and restating her desire to focus solely on the problem at hand, namely, Rumis’ disappearance, rather than her crisis of faith.

• The group refocuses, and Rodreck tries a Sending to Erevan rather than Rumis, to test if it makes a difference. The spell works, but no reply comes. The group also decides that obtaining Dream of the Blue Veil seems to be the most feasible solution, and decide to head to Gilmore’s to try and purchase it.

• Aida casts Sending to Gilmore to let him know why they are late, and apologize in advance:

“Good morning. I apologize that we’re late, but…Fellow party member…Went missing. More details might be discussed further. See you soon.

“Oh, no. I am so sorry. I hope everything is okay. Please take your time. I was up late myself. I’ll be here when you need me. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

• Paige gets the flying carpet ready for everyone, and tries to ask Jon if she can talk with him privately, but gets the cold shoulder (or wing, rather).
• As they head off, Pandora messages Aida to reiterate she isn’t angry at her, only at the message, and to say that she will cooperate if they have to go to the Storm Giants, but she will not speak with her killers.
• The party heads to Gilmore’s Glorious Goods, and Gilmore informs them that Dream of the Blue Veil is ritualistic magic and unlikely to be on any spell scrolls. Only the Cobalt Soul are likely to possess the capabilities to perform it, an answer that Paige hates. Gilmore suggests a rich person mage as an alternative, but Paige likes that even less. Gilmore is unfamiliar with False Hydra hearts, and does not know with any certainty where Storm Giants might be located. Paige asks for Gilmore’s take, and Gilmore states that he’s not a “student of politics” and that it is approaching a civil war with how the upper echelon is aggravating the disorganized rebels. He remarks that they are foreigners - seeing Pandora as a drow - and this isn’t their city. He offers a Crystal Ball of Telepathy (for purchase) as a way to gather information, and Pandora also buys new armor to replace her old set Rumis (or Erevan) now wears.
• Paige asks about elderbrain fluid, and Gilmore states that Pandora could probably lead him to whatever dark hole in the Underdark might contain it. Pandora states that she is from the Feywild, and tries to take the crown off to prove it. The crown has taken root in her skull, and does not yield. She realizes that she will no longer be recognized as an elf of the Feywild, for as long as she wears the crown. Gilmore suggests not hunting elder brain fluid, however, and Paige agrees.

Heroes of the Netherdeep | Emon (Tal’Dorei) 10/19 Session

• Pandora suggests breaking into the Cobalt Soul to obtain the information they need, but Paige points out that she won’t know what she’s looking for and it might not even be at the modestly sized library for the Cobalt Soul that Emon houses (in a long winded discussion on planar travel and books that Pandora largely tunes out). Pandora also suggests contacting either Lolth or Torog for information on Elsewhere, but that idea is pretty immediately shot down.
• Paige reveals a love for Waffle House, and tells Jon they have to go there after partying one night.
• After some discussion, the group decides to at least go check out Emon’s Cobalt Reserve, and makes their way to the Alabaster Lyceum - the largest and most accomplished institution of arcane study in Tal’Dorei - and Transverse Junction. Paige notices that there’s one incoming teleportation circle (Emon) and seven outgoing teleportation circles to several cities - Whitestone, Vasselheim, Rexxentrum, Port Damali, Bazzoxan, Ank’Harel, and Uthodurn.
• The Vasselheim teleportation circle is nonfunctional, for reasons that are not displayed.
• Paige asks a nerdy guard about the Vasselheim circle, and gets an answer she can tell is bullshit about harmonic convergences and mansplained star placements from a junior member of the organization. When she asks a half-orc archaeologist (with lots of muscles) named Jorlund that has been there longer, the half-orc says that they have no clue. On closer inspection, Paige gets the impression he isn’t lying, but his expertise isn’t portals so he might not even know the answer.
• Pandora tells Rodreck to flirt with the guard of the Emon teleportation circle so Paige can study it, and Rodreck proceeds to transform into an old man and put on the most Karen show of his life. Gatekeeper Xanthas

Alright, so Rodreck’s gonna kind of hobble a bit. He’s gonna make himself look older as he tumbles up to the gate. He’s dressed completely inappropriate for travel. And he would have a dagger-like stare at the gatekeeper as he approaches and says, “Excuse me, excuse me, I need to talk to someone in charge.”

“Yes, uh, how may we help you?”

“As you can see, I came from Bazazon, and, uh, it was just the other, uh, last night, and my luggage still hasn’t arrived.”

“Oh, have you gone to the information desk? They can help you with that.”

“I’ve gone to the information desk, and they sent me to you. And then you sent me to the information desk, and I had to come back here again. This is ridiculous. Do you have a manager?”

Paige sneaks around Gatekeeper Xanthas, and manages to memorize the Emon return teleportation circle.

“I was gonna go to Stilben, but now Stilben’s underwater, and nobody’s paid me back for that.”

“Sir, I understand, but there’s not really anything I can do about the apocalypse right now.”

“I mean, sir, if you can give me a receipt, I can probably give you a refund or credit for your next teleport.”

“Receipt? I don’t have a receipt. You should just give me a refund anyway.”

“I definitely need like some kind of proof that you, you know, use our services, something like that.”

“You don’t believe me? What kind of place is this?”

• Paige and Pandora watch for a few minutes, before Pandora intervenes and drags Rodreck away. As the group debates who to ask next about the Dream of the Blue Veil, Rodreck uses his Pipes of Haunting to get the attention of the entire area to ask if there is anyone that knows about Dream of the Blue Veil.

A rather young looking dark elf with black hair and lavender makeup particularly around her eyes and her lips, wearing a cut little purple and black skirt that kind of sways as she, honest to god, flounces up to you. Just so excited. She’s got a big purple tome in one hand, and an even bigger raven sitting on her shoulder. And she wears a brooch on her jacket that is a symbol of the school of the Lyceum, and she says, “Hi! My name is Prism, and I know that spell. I don’t actually know that spell, but I know that spell.”

Paige looks up, about to roll her eyes, but she just kind of freezes.

Prism is completely oblivious to anything. to anything. She heard Dream of the Blue Veil and went on a magical tangent. She’s got some real goth rizz going. She’s got a cute little black collar. Her pointed ears stick out through her hair. Cute boots. She has total indoor kid vibes.

“It seems we find ravens wherever we go,” Rodreck says.

“You don’t have to point that out, we can just not bring that up.” Pandora replies.

“Don’t worry about her. This is just Mother,” Prism says cheerfully.

“Mother?” Pandora asks, looking at the raven with disgust. “You know, I think I have something the exact opposite way. We’ll meet up later, guys. I’ll see you in a bit.” And Pandora’s gonna walk off. Away from Mother and ravens and symbolism of the Raven Queen.

Rodreck immediately pulls out the skull. “This is my Mother.”

“Oh! This isn’t actually my Mother. I just called her Mother. Uh. Is something wrong with your cute friend over there?”

Paige starts coughing. Like she has a hacking fit.

Well, they have very similar styles. I don’t know what you want.

“Oh! Should I have Mother go keep her company?”

“Maybe,” Rodreck replies, as Paige just stares. This is all Prism needs, and so the raven lands on Pandora’s shoulder.

• Paige begins to ask Prism about the spell, and what she knows whilst avoiding looking at her (because Prism is a hot goth and Paige can’t handle it). Paige asks if she knows how/where they can cast it, and Prism replies that she knows it is a spell from the school of conjuration, and that she could cast it (probably) if they find it in a tome or on a scroll. Upon finding out that Paige is a wizard too, Prism excitedly asks if she can see Paige’s spell book, offering her own in exchange. Prism tells them that Jorlund is a spirit speaker (like Rodreck) as she examines the chaos of Paige’s spell schematics.

“I too see dead people all around me,” Rodreck says. “They never stop.”

“That’s. That’s sad.”

“Like my mother before me.”

“That’s. That’s incredibly sad. Are you okay? Do you need a hug?”

“Uh. Sure.”

Prism gives Rodreck a hug.

“Yeah,” Rodreck says after a moment. “We’re looking into the spell because a friend of ours managed to vanish into a portal after putting on a magic relic from the Raven Queen. And we want to find them.”

“Yeah,” Paige agrees, refocusing after the gay panic calms. “Do you know anything about Elsewhere?”

“Elsewhere? I. Isn’t…” She kind of looks between Rodreck and Paige and is like, “I am not surprised that your friend got into trouble messing around with the Matron of Ravens. I…Elsewhere. That feels poetic, almost.”

“What do you mean?” Paige asks.

“Well, I mean. Where are you trying to get to, right? Like you’re trying to get to a place which is the where. Um. When you’re not trying to get anywhere, you’re going nowhere. Uh. So to get to Elsewhere. I mean you’re constantly going Elsewhere, right? So we just have to go somewhere else. That would be how I would read it.”

• Paige, at this, gets the idea for an Uncertain Teleportation Circle, meant only to send them Elsewhere, but understands the inherent risks in such a thing. Like leaving them split between planes, or at a random destination on the Material Plane if they are lucky.

Yeah, Paige is just kind of like thinking and she like passively turns a page. “Holy shit. Is that summon greater demon?”

“Yeah, it sure is!”

“Ha ha ha. That is…Metal as hell.”

Prism just grins at you. Kind of blushes a little bit.

“This is some…You… I thought you’d be way more preppy than you actually are, shit.”

“Oh! Thank you?”

“Alright, um. Cool, um. Yeah, thank you.” I’m gonna like hand her spellbook back to her.

Yeah, she hands yours back to you and kind of holds hers like tight against her chest and, you know, uh fidgets a little bit.

“Uh, thanks. Um, I’m Paige, by the way.”

“Oh, uh, yeah. I’m Prism. Prism Grimpoppy if you ever want to message me, or something.”

• Paige asks Prism to check out the Rexxentrum Cobalt Soul if she gets the chance as a wizard favor (at Prism’s comment that they might be the only ones with the Dream of the Blue Veil, as it is a rare piece of conjuration magic. They awkwardly exchange words about Sending to each other, while Rodreck’s face is pushed back by Paige and says she could also cast Sending to hang out with Paige.

• Aida hangs back from the group at some point during their plans with the teleportation circle, hanging (presumably) outside of the building with Jon.

• The party discusses what to ask with Divination, and Pandora suggests going back to the ship. Paige and Rodreck decide to do the ritual nearby so they avoid the long walk back. Pandora remarks she’s already been nearly assassinated twice in alleyways, so it probably won’t happen again, to which Paige replies they should go back to the ship. Rodreck remains stubborn, and casts Divination in the alley they are in. Pandora casts Message to Aida and Paige, telling them if she can get something of Tully’s, they could listen in on a meeting, potentially, and get a better idea of what she is planning.

“Where is the elsewhere that RumIs or the elf formerly known as Rumis has gone?”

What you all see is Rodreck have a grand mal seizure right before your eyes. Kinda like he’s being beamed up but there’s no beam. He just goes stiff and starts trembling a little bit eyes roll back up into his head. Rodreck, your consciousness gets fucking snatched, right? At first it seems like all the spirits in the whole of Exandria are coming for you all at once but, uh, it only seems that way because Exandria is falling beneath you. It’s a very Doctor Strange kind of montage like you’re yanked through the fucking universe. Soon you lose sight of Exandria, you lose sight of your solar system, you lose sight of yourself in this infinite starline. Then even the stars start to wink out and soon there is only blackness, only the darkness. You can see yourself but you are not sure of anything that is real, and then you get like this - it’s like lightning strikes, right? But it works with your Duergar darkvision, and gives you these kind of lightning flashes of things moving out in the infinite blackness and one of those things feels very familiar and takes the shape of three shadow appendages - tentacles, each of them bigger than the galaxy you came from, and they’re just reaching out to envelop you.

And then it’ll snap you back and your body and you’ll fall to the ground, shaking and sweaty.

As Rodreck snaps out of it, he just yells, “Tentacles!”

• As Rodreck explains what happened, Pandora again suggests asking Torog directly. Paige and Rodreck both point out that the Betrayer Gods getting involved isn’t a good thing, and will only cause more problems. Paige wonders aloud if Vasselheim holds the answers, since weird religious shit keeps cropping up every time they try to do anything. After a bit more back and forth, Paige suggests they leave the city with Wind Walk to check out rebel camps and opinions, which the others agree to. They grab Squawk, and make their way to the city’s outerwalls, passing through the House of Discipline to, essentially, tell them to hold tight while the group investigates.
• Paige dirties Pandora’s armor with bullshit runes just to fuck with her, and casts Wind Walk to allow the party to travel to a rebel area. They use a smokestack as cover to land in an alley, and get strange looks when they exit it because of their attire. Pandora and Rodreck work to disguise themselves and the group as a whole, specifically Jon - who garners a lot of attention for his looks.
• The newly disguised party enters a tavern and orders drinks, with Jon and Oliver waiting outside the bar. Rodreck goes to ingratiate himself to the bartender, Paige begins to listen in on people, and Pandora takes notice of an aarakocra that formerly lead the Kymal cell of the Myriad - Sylker Uttolot - with a queue of people trying to talk to them. Pandora bribes all of them to move, and recalls that the Millionaire started as an underling for the Shady Creek Crime families before rising to leadership in the Kymal cell of the Myriad. Pandora also recognizes that the Millionaire being her is essentially them slumming it, and trying to rebuild their base of power (since Kymal is so crime friendly).

Pandora would say, “You know, it’s not often you see a former Myriad member alive.”

They just look at you with raptor eyes, their lids kind of narrow, and say, “What would you know, mermaid?”

“Is that supposed to be an insult?”

“It’s not supposed to be anything. What are you doing at my table?”

“Curiosity. I used to run the Myriad in Stilben.”

“Yeah, we all know. Nobody cares.”

“Well, I mean I’m interested in knowing why you are here.”

“I bet you are. But it doesn’t mean I’m gonna tell you anything. You don’t have any power anymore.”

“Oh, I know that.”

“You lost-“ Uh, and they just kinda, like, wave- wave you off.

I sit firm. I say, “I may not have power, but I can still be an annoyance.”

The Millionaire scoffs, “I can feel it working on me now. It’s like magic. What the fuck do you want?”

“I told you. I’m curious. Why are you here?”

“You know how this works. You make me an offer, or you get the fuck out of my way. You don’t do one- you don’t do one of those two things then in the next five fucking seconds I’m gonna have Louis over here bash your brains in and leave you in the alley outside.”

“What do you want me to offer?”

“I don’t want anything from you. You better have something interesting to be bothering me.”

Pandora knows, as a former leader of the Myriad, that the best thing you can get is useful information. The second best thing you can get is weapons, and the third best thing you can get is gold.

“So, I’m going to ask you a question, and then I will make an offer based on that. What do you know about who’s pulling the strings here? What do you know about that?”

“What do you know about that?”

“I asked first,” Pandora replies, smirking.

“Fucking elves. Well, I know that Tully is the one holding it all together. Now, what do you know? I swear to god, if you turn this around on me, Pandora, I’m gonna…I’m- you’re gonna end up in a ditch.”

“Okay. I’ll offer an answer, and then you offer an answer to my question. What I know is that the Clasp and the Myriad are working together-“

“That’s obvious. That’s obvious, of course. Why do you think I’m even here?”

“-in alignment with rebels.”

“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, careful with that rebel talk, huh? You keep that down in here. They’re- they are freedom fighters. They are heroes.”

“Freedom fighters, then.”

“So what? Tully got you roped into this too? Is that- is that what’s going on here?”

“I’m not decided yet. We stopped in, and have some other business going on. Stopped to see Tully, see what was going on.”

“So you’re a fucking tourist, then? Oh, well, thank god you’re here. Uh, hopefully the fucking water doesn’t start rising.”

Pandora slaps her Dagger of Venom (rare) on the table, and says, “I need to know what else you know about what’s going on here, and I would like to know why you are in here when you’re not associated with the Myriad anymore.”

“I need you to stop using that kind of language around me, you understand?” *But they’re gonna reach across the table and take the dagger, kind of appraise it, toss it to one of their underlings off to the side, and say, “Look, I’ll give you the lowdown, because I want to get rid of you, and nothing else. You mention my name, my name leaves your lips. I’ll cut them off, you understand me?”

“I do know the deal.”

“Tully’s working some kind of deal here. She brought- she brought in a bunch of the big shots from the Myriad and the Clasp, brokered some kind of deal. Says there’s, you know, more money in cooperating than in fighting. That’s the basics. There’s a whole lot of bullshit around the fucking moons aligning and bringing on fucking curses or blessings or who the fuck knows. But that’s how they bought it, and that’s how they got the Freedom Fighters on board. ‘Rise up, it’s time to overthrow our oppressors,’ you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, so,” and I will drop my voice lower, “This whole thing…is Tully’s intent for the council to change?”

“I mean, Pandora, you did this job, you know what it’s like. You try and set the board up in your favor, you stab someone in the back if you can get away with it, but you wait for the opportunities. You don’t drive towards a specific goal. That’s a good way to get killed, you know? The way I see it, Tully is walking a real thin line trying to keep everyone playing nice while she works some kind of other deal or something. But she keeps promising that once everything, once the dust settles, we’re all going to be rich.”

“I think the only thing is - just a friendly warning - the guards all know about this whole thing. Like, her. Not her, but the involvement of everything. And so if this doesn’t go this way, there isn’t- she closed off the path.”

“Wait, what do you mean the guards know? Like the city guards?”

“Yeah, and other people.”

“Like the city guards, the guards who fucking work for those cloud-top pricks?”

“Yes.”

“They know everything?”

“They don’t know everything. I don’t know if they know Tully in particular, but they know the Clasp and the Myriad are working together. It was literally the first thing we learned when we got here.”

“No fucking way…”

“They know. They’re literally talking trash about the Myriad and the Clasp publicly in a way that normally we are very against.”

“No fucking way.”

“Yeah, Tully’s not being subtle in some way. I don’t know if it’s her slipping up or someone else, but they fucking know.”

“No, if they know, it’s because Tully knows that they know, and it’s because she wants them to know, because she’s gonna stab us in the fucking back and like they’re gonna raise her up as some sort of fucking duke or something. I guarantee you whatever is going on, this ends with Tully in some kind of better position, and the rest of us in a fucking shallow grave. I fucking knew. I should have never come here.”

“That’s why I asked if you knew if she intended the council to change because they know. Paths are closed. So…”

“The plan, as it’s been fucking dictated to me, because who the fuck am I, right? Is to get the Freedom Fighters and the guards to clash until one of them gives up, and then there has to be an amnesty, and reconstruction, and then in the reconstruction business we all get fucking rich, you know what I mean? Same thing we’ve been doing in Kymal for-fucking-ever. It’s like part of the culture now. But here, with all these uppity rich pricks, it’s turned into a goddamn war.”

“Another thing, I don’t know. Tully has business with Gilmore as well.”

“Gilmore? The shop?”

“The Gilmore.”

“So that’s how she’s fucking getting in and out of here. She’s always showing up right when you don’t expect her, and we never could find the fucking mage that she had on staff. I bet it’s him. Well, you better not show none of them. In fact, none of you. You know…” and they kind of stick a finger in your face. “This doesn’t mean that we’re friends. This doesn’t mean I owe you.”

“No whole fucking shit. I asked for information, I gave information. That’s how it works. We’re not in each other’s pockets.”

“That’s right. It’s fucking people who know how to do actual business. Alright, well, I’ll tell you what. Since we’re in a sharing mood, I’m getting the fuck out of here. I suggest you do as well. I don’t know for sure what Tully is up to, but I’ve had a bad feeling since I got here. I’m going straight back to Kymal. I don’t even care if-“

“Do you know what my assignment from Tully was?”

“What?”

“You know the House of Discipline?”

“The ninja school, yeah.”

“Yeah, I’ve been working on that. Didn’t give instructions.”

“To what? To, like, flip them? They’re, like, guard wannabes.”

“Yeah well, I don’t know. She just sent us in that direction. I think she just wanted me off her trail.”

“Well, you know, with that one, everything she does has three other fucking meanings. Uh…Hold on. Let me think about this for a second. So she wanted you to infiltrate a fucking school for wannabe guards. Uh… Is it, like, an incursion point? Is she trying to start an actual fucking war?”

“That’s what I thought, she didn’t fucking give instructions. She was just, like, ‘go there!’”

“Well, okay. Let me ask you this, and I swear to God, I’m getting up from the seatand I’m leaving this city in five fucking minutes. What do you think about her, like, tactical mind? Right? Because that school’s in the military district, which is all, like, walls and guards and shit. These Freedom Fighters are really, like, they might get into, but they are not coming out of. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah. Exactly. I think that there’s a couple of different possibilities, and one of them is she wants to keep playing the line, and if I flip them, they can go to other training camps and demoralize them to some extent, but the possibility that she’s setting up some kind of backstab makes it even more difficult to understand. I don’t know…everything in Stilben was simpler. The Clasp was dead to us, and everyone else was there to make us money.”

“As it should be. Well, it’s not exactly how things are in Kymal, but you know, it’s better than fucking here. And, uh, I…You got, like, two minutes left. I swear to gods. But…I can… Friendly advice. And not friendly advice. Fucking acquaintance. That’s all we are. Uh, acquaintances. Uh, but fucking acquaintance advice. You’re already playing a game. You’re already in it, and uh, I cannot recommend that. Uh, whatever she wants you to do, you’d be better off doing the opposite.”

“I don’t know. I have…I have some ways of doing some stuff. You don’t need the details. Especially not if you’re leaving in a minute.”

“I don’t want the fucking details. In fact, I’m not even quite sure why you’re still talking to me. I’m getting up from this table in 30 seconds, though, I tell you that.”

“Well, it was a pleasure doing business.”

“It was not a pleasure, but I am glad that you sat down, and that’s as close to a compliment as you’re getting from me.” And they fucking push themselves up, and with three other rather large beings, they walk the fuck out of this tavern, and straight out of the city.

Heroes of the Netherdeep | Emon (Tal’Dorei) 10/26 Session

• Pandora tells them all about her conversation with the Millionaire via discrete Messages

“Hey, just spoke with a person that used to be a part of the Myriad. Didn’t know that was an option. Normally we’re sold into slavery when that happens. But that didn’t happen, so weird.” And she says this super casually. Like, Rodreck’s probably the only one that understands what the fuck that means. But I think to everyone else, it’s like, what the fuck, Pandora? And then she goes on. And she just, like, immediately barrels on. And it’s messaged, so you just kind of get it in, like, a big ramble.

Yeah, Paige absolutely goes to comment on that. But you keep barreling through the conversation and just roll over her chance to say anything about that. And she just doesn’t question it. It’s just, like, another weird Pandora thing. Like, ‘Jesus fucking Christ, no wonder you are the way you are.’

• The party discusses killing Tully, and Pandora and the Millionaire’s theory that Tully’s planning to double cross the rebellion. Paige says they need to investigate, and, prompted by Squawk, mentions the word detective. A dark-skinned, pointy-eared, immaculately-dressed gentleman with a cigarette holden between his teeth and in an ostentatious purple fedora greets the party, asking if they need a detective. He introduces himself as Adrian Fox. Pandora and Paige both voice a what the fuck in sync when he interrupts their discrete conversation, and analyze him. Paige realizes he’s here for work and information, the same as they are, and Pandora does not recognize any Myriad or Clasp affiliation.
• Pandora asks his opinion on the Matron of Ravens, and his response is that he’s not a fan, noting that humans are untrustworthy but gods are on a whole other level. Pandora says he can stay, and when Paige asks if that’s her only criteria, she remarks that the rest can happen along the way.
• Pandora asks for his portfolio, and he tells her that he worked on the case of Harlock James, and the disappearance of Emily Breyer. None of them think these are real cases, but cannot discern if they are books or local legend type things.
• Paige suggests taking Adrian somewhere quiet to discuss things, and Pandora has to take a minute to discern that Paige is not suggesting killing Adrian, but means “somewhere quite” and “discussing things” literally. Pandora suggests they camp out in the woods, but the party looks for a shelter near town instead. Jon and Aida stay back a bit to hold hands and talk about their feelings (presumably), as the rest of the party scouts a nearby farm.
• Rodreck uses Tale of Beloved Friends to give Pandora temporary hit points, as she jumps at shadows and wonders about assassins and driders coming for her should she have displeased Lolth in some way. Adrian walks near Paige, smoking as he watches Pandora carefully to make sure this isn’t an ambush for him. Paige looks down the well, and gets a flash of memory of Orcus reaching up from the infinite blackness to grab her, before glancing at the trees while Pandora searches the house. Pandora talks to Rodreck about her paranoia.

“Rodreck, don’t you get the feeling something is watching you?”

“Constantly.”

“I know, but right now, specifically-“

“Like, completely and utterly constantly.”

“Oh, is this normally what you feel like?”

“Yes.”

“I do get the vibe that you guys are haunted by something,” Adrian remarks.

“What makes you say that?” Paige asks, giving Pandora a side-eye.

“Oh, I meant metaphorically,” Adrian says.

“I’m not haunted by anything, Paige,” Pandora says sharply. “Except your tragic fashion sense with those flip-flops. Why do you keep wearing flip-flops?”

“They’re comfy. Shut the fuck up. What’s it like having leather stuck to you 24-7?”

“Wonderful.”

“What’s it like getting out of that?”

“I-It’s fine.”

“Is it a fun time getting out of that?”

“Yeah, it’s insulated. It’s not just leather on the inside.”

• Paige wanders over to investigate the grain silo, and finds a Clasp Enforcer and Clasp Spireling across a bridge. They spot Paige at the same time she spots them, a purple-skinned tiefling with slick black horns, and a human with a large scar across one side of her face and a knot of red hair on top of her head. The human is mostly concealed by her cloak, and makes a movement to stop her companion, raising her hand in a gesture that Paige can guess is friend or foe. Paige copies the gesture, and uses minor illusion to warn Pandora and Rodreck of the people up ahead. Rodreck and Pandora both turn invisible as they read the warning, understanding the need for stealth and failing to inform Adrian of what they are planning.
• The human is hostile right off the bat, threatening Paige with a dagger and grinning maliciously. Pandora, invisibly, asks Paige if she can just kill her, but Paige asks for a moment to work on them. Adrian joins Paige, and the women get into ready position to attack. Pandora poisions her rapier, and Paige uses Extract Name to obtain the redheaded humans name - Zilloa, Spireling of Shadow - which Pandora recognizes as Clasp. Zilloa announces her name in a threat, stating that Paige had better start making sense, or they’ll kill her. Pandora makes the executive to strike first before they get the chance to strike, felling the kind of cute Clasp Enforcer in a single stab.
• Paige laughs at Zilloa’s name until the enforcer drops dead, realizing they are Clasp, and two golems are dropped from Zilloa and the dead enforcer - one is a mage hunter golem, and the other is a platinum golem. Pandora strikes at the platinum golem, dealing some pretty hefty damage with necrotic (seemingly the only damage that does real damage) but getting fucked up by its radiant explosive abilities. Rodreck summons an army of scarecrows, and Zilloa runs away with a smoke bomb and order for the golems to bring Pandora to her alive or dead.
• As Pandora does some blood magic, she comes to the realization that she still hasn’t recovered from the blood ritual, and not letting her body recover was a mistake.
• Adrian uses his magic hexblade guns to damage one of the golems, and Paige casts Mislead to conceal her position and move away from the golems. The mage hunter activates an antimagic field that downs the scarecrows and Paige illusion, before grabbing Pandora and beginning to fly away when Pandora fails to evade the grab. Pandora manages to escape shortly after, using Fey Step to teleport to the ground so she doesn’t take falling damage, realizing, blind and bloody, that she might need to start being more careful as Paige screams.
• Rodreck has the scarecrows move closer, and casts Vicious Mockery on the mage hunter golem - “Tin man, you have no soul.” - but the golem is immune to psychic damage, only suffering the disadvantage of the next attack roll. Adrian webs the two golems together, but the platinum golem immediately breaks free and begins to move towards the group (not reloading the radiant explosion feature). Paige summons a water elemental to get all up in the platinum golem’s business, pushing it away from Pandora and Adrian.
• Aida and Jon realize a concerning amount of time has passed, and go to search for the party.
• Aida and Jon arrives as the mage hunter golem stares down at the party, antimagic field taking out the elemental and the scarecrows once more along with Pandora’s invisibility. Aida launches a 3rd level fireball, but the mage golem absorbs it automatically and heals from it because it isn’t a high enough level spell to damage it.
• Pandora, seeing the mage hunter golems tank a fireball (immune to and absorbing it), uses Thaumaturgy to project the voice of Spireling Zilloa telling them to return to base, as their mission has failed. With an incredibly theatrical performance, they return to base, and Pandora collapses from exhaustion. She casts Cure Wounds on herself to regain some hit points, and grounds herself in the moment.
• As Paige begins to lecture her, Pandora searches the enforcer’s body, finding Half-Plate Armor of Poison Resistance, and a Vicious Warhammer.
• Paige is furious that Pandora attacked, feeling that she could have de-escalated the situation. Pandora is pissed about how condescending Paige is being, and remarks that they don’t trust her judgement even when it is directly over matters of her expertise. She insists that they were going to turn hostile, pointing out she’s been around those types her entire life, and Paige comments that her face is now known and fighting the Clasp might get her into shit with the Myriad. As the conversation gets more hostile, Pandora pulls a spider-silk rapier with a black hilt and pommel made of a ruby spider from the corpse. Pandora examines the weapon worshipfully, and pockets it with wonder. She ignores Paige’s comments, delighting in the knowledge that her goddess approves of her and speaks to her. Rodreck remarks that they should get going, and she agrees, before noticing the sword’s jealousy of the Alyxian figurine. As she takes it off to examine it, Paige questions what she’s doing. Pandora rambles about her goddess or the sword or both not liking it, at which point Paige has the water elemental carry her and says that they need to get some blood in her.
• They elaborate on what they need from Adrian, and Paige threatens Adrian with Pandora should he double cross them. Pandora remarks that she “likes it when they take longer” and that she can bring him back to life as many times as she pleases to kill him again. Pandora offers 20,000 gold for Adrian’s help, and Adrian accepts.
• Pandora asks Aida to continue their conversation, and they leave the others to the campsite and wander into the woods. Pandora lets Aida lead, which makes Aida wonder what direction they should go. After a brief silence, Pandora asks to see the letter, and Aida shows her Dione’s Warning via Minor Illusion.

So Pandora sees this, written in cascaded gold script on linen parchment.

Pandora’s not able to hide it, because I think this is also still a very deep wound for as much as she’s pretending that she’s totally fine with everything. She does tear up. It’s not like, she doesn’t cry, but it’s like, there’s some genuine, like, deep feelings there, and she’s just kind of reading this and, like, squinting, and just is very confused, and turns towards Aida.

Aida would almost like, reach out to hug Pandora, but like, freezes. She’s just making eye contact with Pandora, and you just see, like, Aida’s ears sort of fold down. Which is in a state of when Aida is, like, worried, or upset.

“You-You’re confident this is real?”

“Um, Dione would, you know, never lie. I fully trust him.”

“This-This- When did you get this?”

“Two days ago.”

“I don’t know. I don’t understand Her. The…I managed to recover some memory of what happened when She pulled me from the ship, but She was…The only times I’ve ever seen Her before was when I fell and didn’t get back up, and when She summoned me on Her ascension day. Well, the anniversary of Her ascension, rather. She was inscrutable. I couldn’t get a read on Her, and the only memories I have of Her when She pulled me were angry, and raging, and disappointed. But…I think…I have another source that disagrees with the reasoning that Dione is giving. It…the way the puzzle pieces are fitting in my head right now, it’s not that She wants to believe in me. She wants me in a place I can be controlled. And right now, I can’t be. And that’s an issue.”

“And now you’re settling with?” And I point at her crown.

“Lolth?”

“Who’s this new friend?”

“I prayed to her, and she sent a sign.” And then I, like, tap the ruby. “This is the sign.”

“She being?”

“The Queen of Spiders.”

*Aida’s staff immediately, like, flares up. And there’s this bright orange ember that surrounds the staff. And there’s, like, a swirl of fire that just surrounds her as her hair swooshes up. She immediately casts Presti to have a scent of lavender surround her, takes a breath to calm down, and turns away to launch and counterspell a fireball.

“Pandora. Pandora. You, you’re really funny. You, yeah. She is…Pandora. You really went with Her, huh?”

“I don’t have a lot of choices, Aida. I’ve already gone with Ioun, and that didn’t work out. I went with the Raven Queen, and She fuckin’ threw me away. Just because a god is a Prime Deity doesn’t mean they’re great.”

“No, no one’s great. No one’s perfect. Everyone has their flaws. God or not but look. The Raven Queen, from what I’m seeing…You know, both of y’all have the same… Wavelength, in a sense, where y’all just don’t know how to communicate with each other. I’m sorry. Like, the Raven Queen could, you know, strike me now, and…I’m, I’m, look, I’m, if I can be, you know what,” I shout to the sky, “Raven Queen, if you can hear me, I allow you to possess my body to communicate, I will be a conduit, you can, you can communicate with Pandora clearly, you know, I’ll take exhaustion points, all of that, but please, please, be clear in your words, and your intentions, and your goals, and how…”

“Aida, no. Don’t. That’s a bad idea right now.”

“No, that’s not a bad idea, that’s an idea where you can finally get to talk to Her, and you don’t get, you’re not stuck with this, Spider Queen. I am not okay with this.”

“I’m not stuck with this. I embraced it, Aida. I could’ve backed out, but I can’t take the crown off.”

“Did you? No, because She, She wants you, She wants you to think that, you know, everything’s gonna be okay, then one day, She is gonna betray you, and have, you know, it’s the same thing, it’s gonna happen.”

“And is that somehow different from the rest of my entire life?”

“Pandora…“

“I trusted the Raven Queen and she backstabbed me. Backstabbing is inevitable. It’s always going to happen. Even you and Paige…I know if I go too far you’ll betray me. It’s not a matter of if, it is a matter of when. I know it’s the same thing with Lolth. If I stop being amusing, if I stop doing what she finds fun she’ll throw me away, so I just gotta keep dancing. And that’s fine.”

“Okay, if you think, if you think that I am gonna leave you to die, and betray you, why are we having this conversation? What do you want to get out of this conversation?”

“I’m trying to resolve this because I want to have a working relationship with the group, and to get this over with, because we are all very different people. I don’t want there to be anything lingering, and I didn’t understand what…I don’t know why They think I want to be healed, when They’re the reason I’m not healed in Their eyes in the first place. Not Them, but Her. Like…I’ve never felt that weak, except for once. And I don’t have to say when, because I think you know. And I told myself, when I came back, I’d never let anyone make me feel that way again, no matter how stupid I was, no matter how reckless. And She did that. And She knew what it meant. And I prayed to Her for a year for answers. I asked every day. I asked what She wanted. I asked what She meant. I asked why She chose me. And She never answered until She needed something. I don’t need to go back to that. Lolth has done more for me, in my short worship, than the Raven Queen ever did, and probably ever would. The Raven Queen’s afraid. Orpheus said of me, but it’s probably something around me, or what I can do, or what I will do, or something. Probably with the whole fate-touched thing that Dione mentioned, I don’t entirely understand it. But She’s a path that She closed. I tried to reach out, and it never did anything. She replaced me the second She could.”

“Okay, here’s my thought. Why don’t you want Her to speak through me? Hear what She has to say. You don’t like it? Go ahead with your new life. You don’t, you don’t…Here’s the thing. She doesn’t know how to talk. Okay? I don’t think you’re gonna accept this, but give Her a second chance. Let Her speak. Let Her speak as much as it might gross you out. Let Her speak. If She doesn’t, you know, communicate clearly why all of this happened, then so be it. She lost. I’ll just have to see what you and Lolth cook up in the future. And I am not entirely-“

“Aida, I understand that you have some sort of relationship with Ioun, in terms of the arcane. I don’t entirely get it, but I get there’s some level of cleric-light, kind of. At the end of the day, it’s difficult to articulate how… I… I was bound to the Raven Queen to some extent, a bond I chose myself, just as She chose me. She severed that, and I latched onto something else, and… I mentioned this to Paige, but it might have been multiple somethings, and that’s not something I can take back. I can’t just un-choose, and I don’t think it would do anyone any good for me to un-choose. She’s already given me a second gift,” and I will show the rapier. I won’t, like, let Aida touch it, but I will show the markings.

“Gross. Please, Pandora! Jeez Louise,” Aida casts another Fireball and Counterspells it, both of those are 4th level. “Oh goodness, jeez Louise.” I call out to the sky again. “I’m doing my best, I’m really doing my best. I’m doing my best, whoever is listening up there. Raven Queen, Dione, Ioun, sorry, I love you so much. I know, I know, I will study your ways, but I’m just…The gods, the gods, I love you so much. Jeez Louise.”

• Aida attempts a Sending to the Raven Queen, but it does not go through, and her Planar Ally only summons Squawk. Aida warns the Raven Queen that she is running out of ways to convince Pandora, and is angry when Squawk appears rather than anyone else. Aida casts another Fireball that she Counterspells, and asks Squawk to leave, annoyed.

“Could you please leave?”

“Yes? That’s a weird question.” Squawk flies off grumbling about rude people calling and then telling him to go away.

Aida’s gonna yell again at the sky. “I give you a chance…And you messed it up! Okay? This is not funny. This is…No, Squawk won’t do it. You really are a coward. You really are a coward. You know what? I’m glad Pandora left. I’m not glad that she went to Lolth. But you know what? You know what? It’s for the best. It’s… You’re not here to talk? Next time you meet with Ioun please get some pointers. Ioun could teach you a thing or two. Or maybe ten. Twenty. A hundred. Ioun is the best god there is, and you can’t match Her. You were once a mortal. Just remember that. So you wanna be on that high horse? Get on that high horse. Let’s see how many followers you have by the end of the year. See if I care, you know? See if I care. I don’t care. Dione can come back. What am I gonna do? I-I-I did it. and she sent Squawk. What is Squawk gonna do? Nothing! So…You’re welcome. I tried.” And Aida gives a Katniss Everdeen bow.

• Pandora, feeling both touched at Aida defending her, concerned about the way Aida spoke to the Matron, and confused about the Dione comment and everything else that happened, asks Aida what her spell was meant to accomplish. Aida explains that she was trying to give the Raven Queen the opportunity to speak directly and clearly with Pandora, but the Matron blew it by sending Squawk.

“Well She’s gone. And you got Lolth. I’m going to have to deal with both. Because that’s really bad. So now I’m not doing this for the Raven Queen. I am going to keep my eyes on you because I don’t trust… No matter what she does. Gives you gifts. What not. This is going to bite you in the butt in the future. I am really tired. So many spells. So many… I don’t like this. I don’t like this.”

“Aida,” Pandora says, seriously. “I’m not going to renounce the only good thing that’s happened to me this week. But I will do my best to make sure that the consequences fall solely on my head. As they should. I don’t expect you to approve. But I do expect the group to cooperate. I’m going to have a conversation with Paige again whenever I calm down enough to process that. But…”

Aida shudders when she says Paige.

Pandora stops, and stares at Aida. “Did…What was that?”

“What was what?”

“Are you mad at Paige? Because I know I am. But that’s because I literally just got in a fight with her.”

“I am mad at her.”

“You guys are normally in like a cult circle talking with Jon. Since when are you two fighting?”

“Well… You know what? That stays between the three of us.”

“Fair enough.”

“So back to your earlier point. Do you want to get along with the group? I am trying to figure out why we went on this walk. My thoughts are mostly Raven Queen thoughts. When we did all of this. But what’s your idea of, you know, discussion.”

“You mean why I brought you out here to talk?”

“Yeah.”

“Just to resolve this. I don’t know. I normally just…I don’t normally have to deal with conflict. I mean, I’ve been in charge for a year and that kind of went straight to my head because I could just tell people to fuck off if they were annoying me, and then I’d never have to see them again. Because they’d probably be dead, or I’d send them to another city and then they wouldn’t be my problem. So this whole…conflict resolution thing? It’s not my strong suit. As a boss I’m more of a ‘crush their will until they do everything you say’ than a ‘nurture their spirit and support them and apologize and all that fucking shit’. And honestly, I was really annoyed when the Raven Queen told me I had to do this whole thing, because I was like, well, I have a whole life here, what about that? And She was like, well, you can go fuck yourself because you’re my champion, and oh yeah, I’m not gonna tell you what your fucking purpose is, even though I’m going to judge you for not fulfilling your fucking set role in my mind. So I don’t…She…She doesn’t care about people. I don’t know if Ioun does, I never got close with Her, but the Raven Queen-“

“Oh, Ioun does care. A lot.”

“I like that for you then. But the Raven Queen…I’ve said it before. She just views us all as different toys on Her little fucking chessboard. She held Rodreck’s deal with Zantras the Kingmaker and Rumis’ deal with Torog…She holds me responsible for both of those. That was the reason She cut me off. And then I went and found an alternative source of power because She fucking left me with nothing and She knows who I am and is surprised that Betrayer Gods came sniffing, which, She never even warned me about Betrayer Gods. I didn’t get a fucking lick of…Oh yeah, you know how you’re my champion? Some of them might be interested in you. Not a fucking disclaimer. So I don’t know why She’s surprised. Oh yeah, I am definitely gonna know better than fucking beings that I can barely comprehend that have lived for millennia. Yeah. For sure. But regardless…I tried. I went to her temple. She fucking shut me out. I cast Sending to her to try and find Rumis and She fucking wouldn’t answer and She just told me to repent. Lolth is going to ask a hefty price. And if Lolth was Orpheus and if Lolth…Then it’s one price. But if Lolth wasn’t Orpheus then I’m gonna have something else sniffing around me asking for a price. I’m not sure. I don’t even know if my powers are connected to Her entirely or if they’re partially connected to… I haven’t thought about it in depth. And don’t tell Paige because if Paige blows up on me again I’m gonna go nuclear. But…”

Aida just rolls her eyes.

“What?” Pandora fully stops her rant, processing Aida rolling her eyes as she’s never seen her do that before. “Okay, that’s almost concerning. My point is that we don’t know much of anything about this mission beyond what Dione told us. We know about Ruidus. We know about Celestia. We know that allegedly the Raven Queen’s helping Ioun and I think the Changebringer and the Platinum Dragon could be convinced. But all the Prime Deities are split on what to do and whether or not to help us. And we don’t even know if the Betrayer Gods are necessarily against the Prime Deities in this singular instance. Would They want to let Predathos consume the world? She could be helpful. And She’s currently the only reason I’m able to be of use. Her and potentially something else. I still haven’t figured that out. But…I can’t just go back. I can’t just reject this. I’ve…” And I think I’ll smooth my hair back around my crown and I still have not healed besides the one cure wounds I did on myself. Like, there’s just blood around that crown and it’s fucking dug into my skull and I’m holding this sword. “This isn’t something I can just un-choose. I took this on willingly, knowing the consequences. And I think that the benefits outweigh the risk in this instance. This is the end of the world. And if I’m gonna have to draw my power from someone a little less loved in terms of goodness and light and hope and all that…I just have to do it. I understand why you tried. And I get that Dione asked you to. But…I’m not your responsibility, Aida. I’m…I’m an adult.” Pandora, like, cocks her head, like, technically. “And…I can handle myself.”

“It’s not about responsibility, it’s about…difficulties. Because…you know. Wait. Where did you get your crown?”

“Rodreck. The mask.”

“What?!” Aida throws another Fireball and Counterspells it

“Don’t be angry at Rodreck, he was only trying to help me.”

“I’ve been angry at him.”

“What has Rodreck done? He hasn’t even, like, killed anyone.”

“Had he not given you that crown…there would have been a chance.”

“I already…I already made a deal before I got the crown. The thing that spoke through Orpheus spoke to me when I went down to the cargo bay. It told me that…the Raven Queen…was afraid of me. And… I can’t remember the details, I fucking don’t have keen mind, but…essentially, the Raven Queen was afraid. She was trying to control me. And…if I wanted my power back, I just had to say so. And I did.”

“And you just let some animal convince you, like, hey, you know, do this, and it’s all gonna be good?”

“I don’t have…Aida, you are a person who garners a lot of affection. I’m a person who garners a lot of aggression. We’re very different in that way. I don’t have a lot of people that I can rely on. And… I had just been abandoned by something central to who I thought I was. So yeah, I fucking took the first deal I could out of that. I don’t want to deal with being weak. I know exactly how that goes for me. And the answer isn’t happy ever after playing fucking patty cake with Myriad again.”

“But instead of going to people that you knew for a while, you went to a guy that was under your command, and then you went to this familiar, or whatever this thing is, and was like, I was like, okay, I’m gonna go with these guys. I’m not gonna consult with these people that I’ve known for more than a year.”

“Aida…”

“Why? Why? Here’s the thing. You said that you don’t have attachments and all of that. Why? Why? Oh boy. Oh boy, oh man, this is gonna be hard to say, but…Ioun, please. Oh my goodness. I don’t even have the power to, I’m gonna go with nothing. I don’t even have the power to cast magic. Ioun, please.”

“Maybe if you say it over a Message and cover your mouth, you won’t be able to cast a spell?”

“Pfft. You’ve had trust issues. All your life. That is correct, yes, that is why you do not trust in anybody.”

“I’m an assassin, of course I have trust issues. People try to kill me regularly.”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes. That is, yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure. But then the people who were with you from the start in Ank’Harel, before all of this happened, before you were… all of this. All of this. What happened to those people? What happened to the trust in those people? You may say, well, I don’t trust them. Then, why, how come we fought side by side? How come we fought in that big final battle side by side? How come we kept each other alive?”

“Because we had to.”

“All these, all these battles. With the dragons… No, it’s not that we had to, we cared for each other, Pandora. Open your…! Open your eyes. Open your freaking eyes. Okay? Open your eyes.”

“Did Paige get to you too? Because we literally just hashed this out. I don’t know why we’re trying this again, but…”

“Pandora. Pandora. You…She…Okay, okay. You were saying that Paige tried to have a talk with you?”

“Yeah, I don’t know. She was…She apologized.”

“And is this how you…Okay, whatever advice she has and whatnot, is this how you dealt with her? Is that your response? Being sarcastic with her?”

“I mean, I was not sarcastic the entire time, but yeah, I don’t…I mean, Aida, you…”

“Why?!”

“You honestly might care about me, but that’s not for your own benefit. Like, it’s not a good idea, first of all. And second of all, I think it’s just…”

“Pandora, I am trying to help you. Before the gods, you are my priority. Before the gods, I need to help you with what you’re going through. I am not okay with what happened back there. Obviously, I am mad. I don’t like what Rumis did. And…”

“Rumis…Rumis just took his spoil. The Raven Queen made it his.”

“No. No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. I am barely just there, you know? I’m glad I’m… All of this energy, all of this magic is gone. Because I would have turned into a giant ape and just wreaked havoc in this area and brought attention to us and maybe danger. But I am just absolutely just lost on what to do. Because if, you know, I’m just wasting energy talking and I’m just, you know, this is just funsies. This is just, you know, okay, let’s have Aida. Let’s hear what Aida has to say. Uh-huh, okay, good. Yeah, you know what? I’m not gonna consider that. Then what am I here for? I can be back in Nicodranas. I can be back…Or I can just split. I can just be somewhere else. I can be somewhere else and help with whatever because the group is just in shambles. It’s just…It’s not like back in Ank’Harel. It’s…It’s worse. It’s far, far worse and… I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m trying to make this a professional working relationship. That’s what my intention was with Paige. Like-“

“What the hell is a professional…?! Pandora, do you even hear yourself? Pandora, we’re not acquaintances. What the hell are you talking about? Pandora we are not strangers. What the hell is a professional working relationship? What the hell? Did you just forget what happened back in Ank’Harel? What does it have to be professional? No. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. There’s nothing professional about this. We are gonna unleash all of our emotions, and… You know… We have to fight through it, so be it. But we need to get our points across.”

“What points?”

“You wanna listen? Listen. Don’t wanna listen? Fine. You wanna consider? You wanna consider? Consider. I will take consideration over anything. You don’t have to, you know, follow it. Instantly. Consider. Consider. But… I mean, as for me…I’m done. That’s, uh, I did my part. Raven Queen sent Squawk. I did my part. She could visit me via dream. I could attempt a dream spell. I don’t know. I could cast dream. But…I just… I tried. I tried. I just don’t want the same thing to happen… When everyone split off at Ank’Harel. Now we’re just… It just feels like we’re back to zero. It’s just strangers meeting again. As if, Ank’Harel meant nothing. As if fighting those dragons and…Dying, reviving, grieving over someone meant nothing. What the… What the… The Myriad has… Has…Has being in the Myriad… Well, maybe that’s…That’s probably obvious. Oh my gosh. It…changed so much. I mean, good for you being the leader and all, but… We stood by you first. We fought next to you. We were your equals.”

“You still are, I’ve never implied you weren’t but you…I said this to Paige, and I don’t…I know…okay. How do I phrase this? I think that you care about me, but it is a version of me that does not exist, and the group…I don’t know anymore. You all are very confusing. Honestly, Rumis was the last person I would expect to do what Rumis did, and it’s fucking fine but…I’m not your responsibility, Aida. You’re here on this team because you’re strong and powerful, and you’re a great wizard, and if you repeat any of that, I’m gonna be upset. And that’s the same reason all of us are here. It’s because we have a skill set, and we’re useful. That’s why…That’s honestly probably the only reason why the Raven Queen didn’t fucking kill me. Is because I’m currently useful. The second I stop being useful, She might, you know… But hey, what else is new? Someone wants to kill me. That’s…I don’t… I don’t know why they put us in a group. I thought this was a done thing. I…I know you were hurt by me not responding to you, but I thought it was for the best. I mean… You don’t… This isn’t a diss on you, but you don’t fit in with the Myriad. You’re not a criminal. You don’t like death. You don’t like murder. You don’t agree with torture. And that’s fine for you, but…That’s my entire life. That’s what I’ve grown up in. That’s what I’ve made myself into. That’s what I’ve led for a year. You don’t condone that either. You’re very…morally righteous, and sometimes it’s a pain. Sometimes it’s endearing, but…it can’t fit. I mean…I know you want me to be a better person, but…I never have been. I’ve always been…Like this. Even when I was a weak, pathetic thief.”

“I mean…If you think that you didn’t do good by the world, then…What the hell was Ank’Harel? You could have just left it be. Left us.”

“The world was ending, and Alyxian was screaming in my head, and then we released him because I thought Paige saw the truth, and she didn’t. Which…whatever. None of us did.”

“But what about prior to that? What about the fights with the dragon? Why’d you join the fights with the dragon? They were wrecking havoc in the city. They were a problem.”

“I wanted the gold. I wanted the glory. I wanted the fun. I wanted to help kill the dragon, cause… Fuck, killing a dragon’s cool. And what the hell else am I gonna do while we try and figure… While we were trying to figure out where the fuck Alyxian was, and how to shut him up? I was just running around like a little idiot. That’s what got me killed in the first place. And…I’m still similar to that. Don’t always make the best decisions, but… I’ve gotten a little bit better with it. I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“You don’t…Wait. Why did you speak up to Tully back there, back at Gilmore’s, when she was trying to recruit me?”

“You have morals, and Tully does not, and neither do I.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll believe that. Sure.”

“I mean, it’s simple math. If you got involved with her, you’d just be in for a whole lot of misery. I mean, the pay is good, but you’re not one to take blood money, and that’s all she’s got.”

“Yep. Well, time spent. I did it. I did it.” I look up at the sky. “I did it. Okay? I did it.” I hold onto the necklace I was given by Dione, and I’m like, “I did it. I tried.”

“Aida, you were given a mission that wasn’t fair, honestly. Dione shouldn’t make me anyone’s responsibility in the first place. If the fucker wants to do something, he can get his stupid holy ass down here himself, but… He’s your friend, so I won’t speak too ill of him. I don’t know, I’m… right now the f… I just want to resolve this. I…I’m always going to be a little tied to the Matron for as long as the world is ending, which might not last much longer if fucking Predathos eats us, but, you know. Ideally, we fix this. And then I’m done with Her. And that’s kind of my focus right now.”

“But what do you mean, we fix this? What do you mean, we fix this?”

“We have to go to Vasselheim. We have to do whatever this stupid mission is.”

“Okay, yeah, yeah, okay. Just the mission.”

“I don’t know what you want from me, Aida. You know who I am. You know what I do.”

“Okay. Well…I’ll leave you to rest.”

I think as Pandora kind of heads back to the tent area where the others are, she’d say, “I got the shiftweave before I got mad at you. I just thought you’d like it. It doesn’t have to be for missions.” And then she’s gonna go back to the group.

“You just have to say that, Pandora,” Aida like says that out loud. It’s like, “darn it. Darn it. Ugh. You’re testing, you’re testing me. Ugh. This is tough.” Aida just like, because she can’t cast spells, Aida just falls to her knees, and punches the ground with her plus two strength.

• Pandora and Aida separate, with Pandora returning to the camp and Aida remaining behind. Pandora recalls the entirety of her meeting with the Matron on the way back, and returns to camp pensive.
• Back at camp, Rodreck and Paige discuss being concerned about Pandora, quieting when Pandora returns. Paige apologizes to Jon about her manipulation of him, and he says he’s not ready to forgive her yet.

“I wanted to apologize for last night. It was really inappropriate of me to dig that out of you. You know, like it was… Like, I didn’t just, like, try to push it out of you and you said no. I pushed, like, I plied you with alcohol and tried to push it out of you. And that’s just, it’s really fucked up. And…definitely not what I should have done, you know. And I’m sorry, man. I…I should have assumed that you made a promise and I made you break that promise.”

You get to watch Jon just, like, deflate, right? Like, he’s all stiff and like, stood up, perfect posture. And then you make your apology and he just kind of, like, sags a bit. Like, it was the thing he wasn’t prepared for. He kind of, like, starts looking away from you and looking around like, what the fuck do I do now? And he says, just very earnestly and in a much smaller voice, just says… “I’m still mad at you. And Aida says I don’t have to be nice to you when I’m mad at you. So, go away.” But, like, at the end of it, it feels very pouty. Like, it feels very childlike, right? Like, he’s got big feelings and he doesn’t know what to do about it. So, go away.

Paige is just gonna kind of put her hands up, defeated, and then just kind of, like, look at Jon. “You wanna…You wanna take some of that anger out on me? Not physically, just…You know? Be angry. Because I definitely deserve it.”

“Yeah, he’s gonna give you, like, a real quizzical look and, like…Then his eyes kind of glaze over like he’s looking inward. And then he’s like,* “I’m not sure how.”

“Yeah,” I just shrug. “I mean…how did I make you feel, you know?”

“Angry.”

“Mhm. And…Can you go into a bit more detail, or was it just anger? Are you comfortable going into more detail?”

“No. No, I’m not. Okay. That’s perfectly fine. You don’t have to forgive me. It’s…absolutely in your right. But, you know, I…I’m recognizing what I did wrong. I’m saying that to you out loud. So that, you know, you can… Know that I…I fuck up. You know? And I try to do better. And I am trying to do better.”

You see a lot of emotions play over his face, right? In the space of that time. When it settles, he’s…He’s just kind of that standard, you know…Maybe a little too cocky. Maybe a little too, quote unquote, woke. But…generally good-hearted John. And he…Very carefully. Like, very carefully. And you can, like, feel him swell with pride as he says these words. He says, “I understand. You have given me an apology. And I’m not sure if I want to accept it yet. I will let you know. When I know.”

• When Pandora returns without Aida, Jon heads out into the woods to find her. Aida hides all the signs of her upset with Presti and Cure Wounds. Jon sits next to her carefully, and when she cues him up to talk about what is on his mind, the conversation with Paige spills out, and he tells her everything.

Honestly, after the day you had, it’s probably a little exhausting. But then, you know, after he’s, like, poured all of his emotional guts out on the ground at your feet, he’s kind of, like, looking to you for advice. “Like, what do I do? Do I accept her apology? Or do I stay mad at her?”

Aida is now facing him, but her right hand is closed in a tight fist, and she cast a second-level magic missile just aimed at one tree. And she just smiles at him. “I’m happy for you, you know? What do you think is the right path? Don’t let me decide. I have my own opinions on this.”

“Well, that’s… that’s… that’s what I want. You’re…You’re the smartest person I know.”

“Oh, Johnny boy. No, no, no, no, no. In smart in terms of magic, yes. In terms of feelings?” And Aida like, looks at the camp and squints her eyes and looks up at the sky and squints her eyes.

Jon will start to suspect that maybe Aida is upset about something else. He would just be, like… “Is something wrong? It’s so late. Should I go set up your tent?”

Okay, Aida doesn’t cast the second magic missile. “Jon…Jon, it’s… it’s…Let’s say things are gonna be maybe fine. Maybe. I tried my best. I had a conversation with Pandora. It didn’t go how, you know, I expected.”

“It didn’t? Well, how did you expect it to go? Okay. Alright, yeah, no, of course, of course, of course. It was…Honestly, it’s rude of me to ask. I just want, you know, to help.”

“Yeah, I know. I know. That is… that is… I know.” She, like, takes his hand. “Oh, look at that. I can’t even see my other hand. See? It disappeared. Where did it go?”

“I don’t know.”

“See, you can do magic. You can do a little bit of magic.”

“I think of them more as tricks. But, I mean, if I understand the metaphysics correctly…If I understand the metaphysics correctly, my power actually comes from you.”

“Huh? Huh? Huh?”

“Well, so…The order of devotion is…”

“The order of devotion?”

“…Is such that, you know, my magical abilities, my powers, stem from the object of my devotion, which would be you.” And to, like, try and diffuse the awkwardness of the situation, he’s going to lift one hand and give you a little boop on the nose.

A little Firebolt goes off.

• Jon gives an explanation on his abilities as an Oath of Devotion Paladin, and informs Aida that Paladins typically take Oaths to deities, but his is to her. Aida is overwhelmed by this, but very happy.

Aida hugs his head, so he’s basically squished against her chest. His head is squished against her chest, and she, like, looks up at the sky and yells out, “I have a champion, and you can’t even keep one!”

AK Note: Aida is, essentially, beefing with the Raven Queen.

Not really knowing the proximity, she just, like, holds both hands on the sides of his face. And because she’s lifting his face. His chin would pop away between her chest. But yeah, I think she’s just praising him at this point. And is just really happy. And is just…is nervous about the whole order of devotion. But is also like, hey, if you wanna… If this is okay, if this is your way, then so be it. “I will do my best to help power you up, I think.”

“I don’t think it quite works like that. I think it’s more of… You know, the more faith and belief that I have in you, the more powerful I become. More than, you know, I’m, like, stealing your power.” Jon tries to tickle Aida, in a friendly way.

“Oh, stealing my powers, are we? Johnny boy. Gonna betray me?”

“Whoa. Where’d that come from? The whole point is devotion. Like, did my… Maybe it is me. Maybe I don’t…Maybe I’m not explaining myself well.”

• Jon tells Aida he doesn’t feel ready to dissect the topic of devotion yet, wanting to do more research after they save the world. He makes a reference to Gilmore, and Aida talks to him about the way he left.

“No, no, no, because…Well, here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. Here’s the thing, Jon. I’m sorry. Well, you left in a hurry. And I need…I…Apologize for not checking in with you. But Jon, Jon, listen. I apologize for not casting Sending the moment when you rushed out. Um, I should have checked in on you. Well, I mean…For once, this wizard just got lost. Just was like, oh boy, I can’t see all the plans. I can’t see the plans. I just… It’s just this one plan that was in my head. And I didn’t have any other thoughts. And it was scary. It was really scary.”

“Oh, man. I’m not sure if most non-wizards find this to be true or if it’s just me and I am wildly misinterpreting people’s reactions. But I think that most non-wizards have to just, day to day, go through the world not having a plan. Um, that seems to be…uh, the truth. It’s certainly the truth for me. Like, I…I do what you taught me to do. I do my best every day. And I hope that I get a little bit better every day. Um, and that so far has led me down a pretty good path.

“Oh my god. I’m proud of her. Wow. Well, I’m proud of you too. That still doesn’t really, you know, assure me that, you know… Were you okay…with that happening?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know, cause…I mean, for a long time, it was just us two, and then…I’m, you know… I mean…Going out and exploring.”

Jon stutters, and he gets real embarrassed. Like, he starts blushing, even through his, like, really dark skin. You can see, uh, like a really…crimson tone, especially in the cheeks, and across the collarbone. And he gets, like, really embarrassed, but then he, like, straightens his back, and he’s like, No, you gotta say this. You gotta say this, Jon. Just say it out loud, no matter how embarrassing it might be. And he says, “I…Wait. I can’t…Okay. I don’t think that I am ready to process sex. I sometimes have those feelings, but it’s all mixed up with all the other feelings, and it’s difficult to, like, separate and think about, which I feel is important. And so…I also understand that people, especially exceptional people, have needs. And I don’t think that I need to subscribe to any of the, frankly, strange hang-ups that I’ve seen people have around sex. I just cannot be ready myself, and that’s okay. But I certainly wouldn’t, like, feel or act possessive over you. Devotion doesn’t mean possessiveness. It means something else.”

“Hmm. Um… Look. Yeah. Look, it took me…9 to 10 years to get to this, you know?”

“Do you think it’s going to take me that long?”

• Jon panics over the rude question, cursing and then panics about cursing. Aida does her best to comfort him, hugging him and discussing her own experience with the subject.

“Oh, okay, nobody…Well, look, here’s the thing. mean, to each their own. It just took me this many years, because… I didn’t find the right person to be comfortable with and engaging with this act, because, I mean, some people, you know, um, go for it, whether they’re this person or not. They’re just like, oh, wait, I’m gonna have fun for one night, and then never see you again, never call again, and as if nothing happened. And I do not want that, because this act is very, um, intimate, and, um… It’s…You really have to trust the person that you’re with, and be comfortable with them, because this isn’t…It’s…It’s much better if you find someone that, you know, you can be comfortable with, to trust, because it’s more fun. Um… But, um…I mean, if you ever have that thought in a week, in a month, in a year, in a couple of years, I mean, good on you! You don’t have to follow my path. You can be with someone that, you know, you probably just met, but it’s just that it’s safer, and much more fun when, you know, you’re with someone you can feel vulnerable with, and you can be honest, and you can express your wants and needs, and… Oh my goodness, Jon you have to be with someone experienced. Oh, I cannot stress this enough. I cannot stress this enough, and…Oh, howdy!”

Jon starts blushing again.

“Yeah, I’m not gonna get into detail, but yeah, experience is key.”

And he’s, he’s gonna stare at the ground directly at your feet, and he’s gonna say, “Well, I was hoping that my first time would be with you. Just…not yet.”

Aida casts a second-level magic missle at a tree.

• Aida and Jon both ramble, Jon saying they need to wait until he’s ready and until the world is saved, and Aida saying she should be experienced at that point. They are both very blushy and adorable, with Aida stating that she accepts and hopes she’ll be able to help him the way Dione and Gilmore helped her.

“It’s always good talking to you, you’re always so helpful.” And then he’ll just, if you still have his head buried against your chest, he’s going to wrap his arms and his wings around you, and like, pick you up, and hug you real tight, for a good long minute.

• Jon ruins the moment by asking if he can beat up Pandora because she hurt Aida’s feelings. Aida changes the subject, and Jon offers to set up her tent, telling her he learned in Zephrah that acts of service is his love language.

“This is another thing that I learned in Zephrah. They’re called love languages. And one of them, apparently the one that I tend to is acts of service. So if you let me set up your tent, that’s like my way of saying that I love you.” And he kind of gives you like cartoon puppy dog eyes. He means it. But he is kind of looking at you like it’s obvious. Like, like he said it before. He doesn’t realize that this is a momentous occasion. This is the first time he’s saying it, not the first time he’s feeling it.

While Aida tries to process this, as it is the first time someone not in her family has told her they love her, Jon tries to scamper back to camp, but she Vortex Warps him back. He stumbles, and Aida holds him by the collar and just says, “I appreciate you.”

• Aida casts the Tiny Hut and tells Jon she’ll use his thighs as a pillow.
• Pandora has a brief conversation with Paige before Jon and Aida return to cast Tiny Hut.

When Pandora gets back to camp she sees Paige, and she’s gonna walk up to her. And, it’s gonna be just a very short conversation. Pandora’s gonna say, “I was mad at you. I’m mad at you. You’re mad at me. I don’t know what the situations are. I barely know in my own head at the moment. But, we gotta get this resolved. I’m gonna give you tonight to gather your thoughts. Tomorrow, we can talk and figure out how we can work together. Because, I don’t want to constantly be fighting. And, this needs to stop. I need you guys to trust my experience and my expertise to some extent. And, it doesn’t feel like you do. And, you might not mean it that way. But, I don’t know. Just…We’ll talk tomorrow. But, we’re getting this resolved. And, I will do my best to be less impulsive.”

• Pandora remains outside of the Tiny Hut for the entirety of the night, trancing with her sword stabbed in the ground as she prays to Lolth and remains alert to danger.

Rodreck’s Poem

The scarecrows guard the night.
The moonlight above our head
The Tinman wants to fight
Pandora has bled

Straw is no match for metal
A deception wins the night
A fight to test our mettle
But our relations are in plight.

Rodreck’s Poem

On a cold night at the farm
Dark cold metal means us harm
A city burns with fiery passion
Daggers seek throats with no compassion

One side cries for freedom
Is someone trying to mislead em?
One side cries for order
But they are fat hoarders.

The people then suffer
Their voices we must usher

Excerpt from Dione’s Letter to Aida: Dione’s Warning

The Queen of Ravens is furious that her chosen is falling for the Betrayer’s machinations. She screams that Pandora has lead her compatriots to their own dark dealings and forsaken the Queen of Ravens for the Spider Queen. Her rage is felt throughout Celestia.

Aida, I implore you to reach out to Pandora and seek to understand her motivations and actions. The consequences of her deeds extend far beyond Exandria, and we must work together to mend the bonds that have been strained. I believe that with your guidance, and with the strength of your friendship, the Queen of Ravens can be appeased and our divine alliance set on a path to healing. Just as the Knowing Mentor believes in you and I, the Queen of Ravens wants to believe in Pandora.

Until then, she plans to banish Torog and claim Rumis as her new chosen. It may have happened already.

Paige’s Setlist

• Paige in the morning

Aida’s Adventures in Romance