Session 38: A Cheesy Reunion
Woodwatch Tower, as it is, is not the worst to look at...on the first and second floors, and in the basement. The third and fourth, however, are more run-down.Common room and kitchen on the first floor. Tower originally used to store a lot of things, but that has mostly been moved out to make living spaces.
Not hard to get the first floor looking decent for the grilled-cheese party.
Astrafel's party has been around a while and likely seen the tower before the party moved in, so they wouldn't be expecting anything fancy. Clarence makes it his mission to clean the tower to the utmost as a matter of pride.
Clarence put bows on the animals. Cortez gets a bow tie!
Rutana spearheads picking up cider, wine, and food for the party. 1 gold and 5 silver for all the goods.
The Sprite spends half an hour learning Minor Illusion from the scroll he bought from the arcanum in the previous session. Turns out the spell is actually called Figment.
At 5:30, Arabella shows up.
Clarence opens the door. He has a bow tie matching Cortez, so he can be extra pretty and handsome.
Oh welcome! Have a seat!
"Oh this is fancy, I wasn't expecting that." Arabella peeks in. "Ah, but I was expecting to be the first one."
She steps in and just chills. The charcuterie board is waiting in the living area, Rutana preparing dinner in the kitchen.
Arabella assures Clarence he can relax.
The Sprite waves from his nest of books atop a bookshelf by the door.
Arabella is also not surprised. She avails herself of about a fourth of the prosciutto.
Right at 6pm, Astrafel shows up.
Clarence opens the door!
Astrafel is out of his armor. He is wearing a long dress coat, a button-up shirt that looks a little too small on him, and plain sacks and boots. His hair's been freshly dyed. He looks like he'd be right at home as an elder at a punk concert.
Clarence surreptitiously pulls off his bow tie since now he's feeling a tad too fancy. He rolls a 24 on Thievery.
Astrafel rolls a 35 on perception.
"Oh, here." He reaches out and fixes Clarence's bow tie for him. Astrafel then pats Clarence's shoulder, nods, and walks in.
Clarence closes the door slowly, melting inside.
Arabella and Astrafel are professional around each other, until a couple cups of wine, at which point they loosen up around each other, and the party, plenty.
Clarence sits next to Astrafel on the couch.
15 minutes later, after everyone tucked into the crackers and really good cheese, there's a loud crash outside as if something fell from the sky.
Arabella is pinching the bridge of her nose and Astrafel rubbing his temples. Clarence pats his back, and gives puppy dog eyes to the rest of the party.
The Sprite flaps down and opens the door.
There's a mess of flaming wood out in the yard. Not endangering anything, just there.
Zerex comes walking in, a little tuft of her hair on fire. Sartorii pinches the fire out.
"I'm telling you, 3 to 5 more trial runs, and I'll be able to fly!"
"How far did that get you?"
"Here! I'm sure I'll have a talking to later.
"That's a problem for later!"
Clarence offers her cheese. He succeeds magnificently.
Zerex immediately walks up, jumps onto the table, then jumps up and hugs Arabella around her neck. Awww.
These people are exactly the same age. Looking at them, Astrafel looks the youngest, Arabella the middle, and Zerex has gray hair. They then plop onto a chair all their own.
"I never thought we'd all be back together again, yet here we are."
"You're all very food motivated."
"I'm aggravating-Astrafel motivated."
"And you always have been!"
Zerex pours herself some cider, and conversation turns to what have you all been up to lately.
As soon as it comes to Astrafel, "I've had nothing but paperwork since these four started these escapades."
"Tell me about it..." Arabella agrees. "And I think you'll be working for a week over whether or not slaying Besh in his home falls under what you were asked to do by the King."
There are a lot of angry people now, people who won't be receiving any kickbacks for the forseeable future. Over the next few months, every petty criminal and wannabe mob boss will try moving in to fill the niche Besh left behind.
Zerex laughs. "These two shmoes would rather spend the entire rest of their lives filling out paperwork than take a vacation worrying about what's going on. Actually fixing everything is worth it. More than we could ever do..."
A moment of silence.
"Are we going to go see them?" Arabella asks.
More silence.
See who?
"Our friends. They're buried near here."
Near the tower?
There is no cemetery near here. They're buried near a grove to the north. A place of nature and natural beauty. It's what they would have wanted.
Clarence asks if it's near enough that the party could take care of the land.
Astrafel smiles and leans his shoulder into Clarence. He would really appreciate it.
Very important item on the agenda. "Found brewery. Protect grove. Got it."
It does come up that the place they fought the cultists was the mountain just north of the tower.
Before the mood gets too much worse, Rutana finishes dinner. She made the fanciest grilled cheeses, pressed together and the edges sealed!
The party then suddenly panics having realized they didn't know which direction the front door faces. It's the north side of the tower, facing that road, clearly.
"So what do you guys plan to do now that you're nobility?"
"Now that you're Fancy!" Zerex adds.
Probably going to be traveling, Rutana profers.
Clarence mentions the homeless shelter. Not his thing but it's a thing we're going to work on. Sartorii can go into details! It'll be a brewery/church!
Arabella brings her hands together. "Oh! You've actually found religion!" Not taken aback, but impressed. She puts a hand on Sartorii's knee. She's proud of her, and very happy with what she's doing for this city. It'll be a big investment, but it can only pay off after that. She knows a few people who provide official religions wines and such, she could put them in contact and make sure they get accurate information. Surely they wouldn't lie in front of the High Judge. Sartorii is absolutely tickled.
Zerex is disappointed that the king got his hooks into the party before the pathfinder's society could. Just know there'll be a time when you wanna do something but it'll be against your new rules!
Well that's what friends are for, right?
Hm. Maybe there are good nobles.
Clarence asks if maybe there's a list of these new rules.
Just don't commit treason!
They're friends with Labeda, and he's been accused of treason recently.
Arabella just sighs, and Astrafel keeps silent.
Orlovsky hasn't sworn fealty to the crown, either, since the Vanishing. He's performed the actions, but never explicitly sworn fealty to Surtova.
Some discussion about the Vanishing follows.
Discussion about how the party knew to go after Besh, Clarence flirting with Astrafel.
Ser Dori pops in to wave and say hi, having rested from his ordeal. Remarks on Besh's supervillain trap door.
Discussion of the garish stained glass in the manor. The Sprite suggests replacing it with a stained glass of the House Sylva crest. Zerex knows a glassblower they could commission.
The evening goes extremely well. The guests are courteous (except for Zerex, but they're handled well). After a while, they want to share adventuring stories.
Clarence very intentionally skims over the fountain bit of Greenwall. Salt was clearly plan A.
A while back, Astrafel's party had to go down to the Underdark, an entrance near the border to the river kingdom. There was a group of dark elves who had started raiding topside with some giant fucking spiders. An austere, even-tempered women was their leader. She kidnapped him and Leonardo in attempt to court the both of them as concubines, but they were super gay. They planned along while Zerex set every single one of the webs in that base on fire, and they made sure she saw them gay kissing on the way out.
Arabella talks about a hobgoblin war machine that came out of the east from Numeria. They moved through the west side of Brevoy, taking out town after town. Arabella and Co set up at a church of Abadar. At the time she was just a general paladin, but at this temple they held their own. Zerex mentions an ally dropping some hobgoblins into a pit.
"No, that was Kelso..." Astrafel corrects.
Silence.
Rutana changes the subject to her home, a lovely place in the woods, but there wasn't much to do so she had to move out into the world.
They ask about her home, there aren't many Kitsune out in the world.
It's not a fully Kitsune village, her family immigrated there.
That gets everyone talking about their homes.
Zerex's family had eked out a life in Numeria. That's where she learned to tinker and got into alchemy! There, they could barely rub two rocks together to get a spark, but Zerex makes an art out of her sparks! She joined Arabella and Astrafel when they went out there to deal with the hobgoblins. I never really said this, but it's you're fault Arabella!! You're the one who transed my gender!!!
"Well if it was all the silks I had, we know a really good tailor in town, we could hook you up!"
Clarence asks if it's Glory & Gold.
Yeah!
Astrafel comments the party looked great during the merry mead festival. Clarence is cat-blushing, his tail flicking.
While everyone's chatting, Rutana whisks empty plates away.
Arabella is actually from pretty far south. Epsilon, the City of Lost Omens, where the Starstone Cathedral is. She was 23 and fancied herself taking the Starstone Trial. The reason getting across is not the hard part, many people know spells to fly, Astrafel can fly on his own even with his considerable bulk! Astrafel starts to stand and defend himself, but a button pops off his shirt as he leans forward. Clarence hands it back.
Arabella had seen too many people die doing this; the Starstone would fuck you up if it doesn't want you to succeed, no matter how good your spell is, and drop you into a potentially-endless pit.
Astrafel explains he was raised in a really religious institution. Human mom, angel dad. Too many expectations were placed upon him, so he dipped and moved far away. He met Leonardo when he moved out here, who was also away from home. They made this place their home together. Leonardo is from Taldor, a country in decline, where the Common language was invented.
The only one of them who was from Brevoy in the first place was Scerin, and he was from a little spit of land that didn't have a claim to fame until now. He was from Greenwall.
The Sprite rolls intelligence. He knows there is a Paladin of Arastel there, Glory, heartthrob heroic woman who helped the party. Her last name is Marigold. His daughter. The Sprite shares that information.
Astrafel mentions he left her with an orphanage when she was born, because he didn't care to be tied down to one village. Clarence bristles at the abandonment bit.
Arabella wanted to go see her, but it always felt like...
We wouldn't be looking for her. We'd be looking for whatever piece of her dad was left in her, and that wouldn't be fair.
Astrafel finishes his fourth cup of tasty drink. So! I have... A few months worth of leave saved up. I think I'm overdue a vacation. My assistant's been trained, my second-in-command's been trained, you've dealt with all current threats to this city that matter in any way. I want to go with you south. It's been... It's been five years since we've seen each other. And this evening, I realized how unacceptable that is. None of us are getting any younger. I want to find Kelso and put an and to this, put an end to this shadow he's cast over us so we can all get back to our gods-damned lives. And when I get home, I want to visit his grave, go meet Scerin's daughter. I want to listen to music again, to live my life again, something that none of us seem to have done for the last ten years.
The Sprite tosses a piece of cheese to Zerex and holds up the hairbrush he'd been holding onto. They've got work for Zerex.
She takes it, twists it in her hands for a second. "Astrafel, I don't think you should go."
Astrafel looks up all incensed, but Zerex holds up a hand.
"10 years, he never once left a trail. Not one time, not one hair out of place, and now he leaves a brush full of them. He wants to see you, Astrafel."
Astrafel stares at the brush for a minute. "Then I'll make sure I'm the last thing he sees."
"But is that a good thing?" Clarence interjects. "Is it what you want, or what you need?"
"In a perfect world I would never see him again. He broke us. We were standing where you are now, figuratively. We did our best to help the people around us, did everything we could, and we put our faith in the wrong person. And it broke us, down to nothing. It has do end. We have to close this book, it can't just keep going while we wonder when it's going to happen again. There is no peace until I deal with him."
Arabella slams her mug against the table and looks at him. "You can't."
Astrafel says nothing, but glares at her.
This conversation has happened before.
"If you want to go, then go, but I saw what it did to you. You buried yourself in that hunt, and then you buried yourself in that hunt. You think I wanted to never see you again? Astrafel, you started never seeing anything else but him. You only just started coming away from that, and now you want to dive back in? I can't... You can't do that. If you want to go, then go. But go to see the river kingdom. Go to try the food. Go to explore. Go to work the job that they're hired to do there. But you can't be part of that again. It'll kill you. You might walk out of there, but it will kill you."
Astrafel can't meet her eye.
"You don't have to go. We can do this," Clarence assures him. "I think we've proven we can do this if we have to."
Astrafel takes a breath. "I know you can. Of course I know you can. There's never been any doubt in my mind about that. ...Fine. I'll take my leave, but I'll do it elsewhere. The second you're back, the second you have him, I do need to be there to see him die. Otherwise I'm not sure I'll ever believe it."
"We'll make sure you know first."
The Sprite suggests since Astrafel's taking a vacation, go see some place new! He starts giving some very specific instructions to his own home, but as he gets further along he realizes oh wait, that's the wrong plane. Uhhh Greenwall's really nice this time of year.
They think about that for a bit. Arabella could probably take some time off too, and Zerex isn't tied down...
The three decide they'll go check up on the kid! But Astrafel does take down very detailed notes on the Sprite's first directions.
Rutana shows off Cortez's cute little suits, meanwhile Clarence (in his mind) fail-flirts with Astrafel for the rest of the night. Clarence also shows off Kimber, and Astrafel loves her!
Kimber still has her bow on, there's shredded bow all around Sweet though. Sweet's building a nest with the corpse of her bow. (The party is determined now to bring her shiny things for her nest.)
Astrafel eyeballs Sweet, though. Mmm that's a big fuckin bird!
She'll get bigger!
What do you MEAN she'll get bigger?!
Arabella catches Sartorii about midway through clearing dishes.
"Listen, it's...not my place to muscle in on a good thing being done by someone else and I promise it's not just for clout, but if you need any monetary aid during the setup of that shelter, that is something the church could help with."
"We'll see how much it costs and all that, but we might take you up on that. One of the reasons we want to set up the shelter is to relieve you of that burden."
"The places the people you saved are staying are meant for priests, mostly ascetic. We tried to help them find work, but the only one who really had any success is Isharaem."
Meanwhile, Rutana and the Sprite are approached by Zerex.
(Good luck!)
Zerex hands Rutana a Wayfinder and a little baggie containing tiny little braids of hair in small woven ropes.
"I've been spending about the last five minutes mixing that up. It'll work, but you only have a limited number of charges. It'll last for about a day, but... Well, I was only able to get enough hair for seven days of charges. That juice doesn't run out so you don't have to use them concurrently. And Sprite. Did you just try to send Astrafel to the First World? Cause if so, that was really funny."
"I wasn't Trying to, I just forgot we're somewhere else! I haven't been here that long! ...Do you think he's gonna try?"
"Yes!!"
"Can't wait to get a letter from dear ol' dad when Astrafel shows up on his doorstep."
Your family sends you letters??? Rutana asks. You never mentioned them.
Yeah, well, we're usually busy sticking our noses in goblins' asses, ghosts...
Zerex goes What.
Then ensues discussion of the goblin grease, and a promise for Zerex and the Sprite to celebrate Kelso's death with their own trial of the goblin grease.
Before ending the night, Clarence very awkwardly mumbles, heyyy you wanna see each other again soon?
Why yes, we will, Astrafel responds with a winning smile. Clarence gets those big ol' heart eyes.
Astrafel is pretty drunk by this point and needs to be helped home, which Clarence volunteers for.
The Sprite makes sure they all have trail mix for their trek home.
Clarence rolls a d100, gets 92.
He'll be waking up at Astrafel's.
Astrafel's home is pretty nice, in an old-town area where the city looks to have been founded.
(It's where all the gay people live. Not beating those allegations!)
And then the next day!
Sartorii, Rutana, and the Sprite all have plans for the day.
Sartorii wants to plan out her homeless shelter.
Clarence wakes, and realizes he's not at home. He takes a moment to look around to see where is and how he's dressed.
In order; under silk sheets, and not.
Astrafel is very asleep, next to him, and over and under; the man's got a vice hug on that cat.
After the confusion clears, Clarence returns the hug.
Astrafel's home is pretty spartan. Tapestries of solid color just to break things up grace the wall. There are mostly-empty shelves and the furniture seems to have come with the house. This is a place he sleeps, but not truly lives.
Clarence sneaks his way out of Astrafel's arms and tries to make breakfast. There's just one pan, one bowl, one set of silverware. He eats his own out of the pan and brings breakfast to Astrafel in bed. He tries very gently to wake Astrafel, and succeeds! And also succeeds a perception check!
On the way back to the room he sees just one personal item, laying flat on a shelf in the distance. It's a picture frame, face-down against the shelf, with a dusty back. Clarence lifts it slightly to peek. It's a picture of Astrafel and Leonardo, a sketch. Astrafel looks so much younger, with really long hair, and with his arms draped over Leonardo's shoulders and clasped at his waist. Clarence tries to set it back as carefully as he can.
The two have breakfast together, and Astrafel apologizes for being untoward last night. Clarence was surprised Astrafel brought him here.
"You walked me home."
"Yes, well, I didn't want to take advantage, and, I don't know..."
"It's okay, I know."
Astrafel starts getting dressed for work, and Clarence gets a moment to see his tattoo.
Clarence asks if they'll get to see each other, maybe have dinner, before they both leave for their adventures.
They'll see each other at the knighting party!
They part with a kiss, though Astrafel is kind of not entirely holding him at arm's length.
Meanwhile, the Sprite goes to the Arcanum.
He buys Dream Message and Prestidigitation.
He succeeds in learning his spells, spending about 40 minutes.
Sartorii heads to a library. (Determines she has three siblings, a pair of twins, Arata and Asahi, and an older sister, Brunnhilda.)
There, she spots Arata. He walks up and flumps down a book on old houses in Brevoy. "Oh my god, Sartorii, I didn't know you could read!"
"It took me a long time to get ahold of."
He leans over her shoulder to see what she's doing. He doesn't want to ask, he wants to discover. After staring for a minute, "Y'know, if you wanna make alcohol, why not just ask Shadee?"
"Does he make alcohol?"
"He has the Shadee Select, and he imports a lot."
"Well, I wanna learn a variety of methods, y'know?"
"Well if you ask me...."
"You want me to ask you?"
"Yes."
"Okay, I'll ask."
"We don't have any decent meaderies."
"So you wanna know my plan? You know Besh's place?"
"Yes, unfortunately."
"I'm taking it over. I'm making it a sanctuary."
"You'll have to kill him first."
"Oh, he's dead. Turns out he was super involved in the cult situation. We're gonna make it a church too, so it'll be self-sufficient."
"Since when were you religious?"
"About a month, since I met Asmodeus."
"We let you out of the house, for less than a year! And you are dancing with demons and killing landlords! Gods I'm glad you're my sister."
"Man, you're really out of the loop. Since we killed Besh and chased the cult out of town, we're gonna be nobles."
"You're gonna be sooo bored, I can see it now. Just keep a firm lock on your coffers. I might have to pay you a visit."
"Well if you're bored and need stuff to do, I could use help with this."
"Huh. Well, I wish you luck sis. I've got some work to do of a second-story variety. It's best if you don't know, m'lady."
She blows a raspberry. He laughs as he walks off.
Rutana's turn.
She has a couple stops to make, and a werewolf to be, with 7 minutes left in the session. She'll start next session.