Avatars
Characters
What Happened
A chance meeting?
After a hungry angry giantess chases a small dragon-kin past a hiding halfling into a bandit ambush, as a young confused half-elf is guided to aid someone in peril by a strange shape-changing yellow-skinned man who recently whisked the crossbreed from his razed hometown, the party meets as they nurse their wounds. Feng then guides the party back to Cormire where Gyanne the ice princess pays the city entry tax, as the halfling has a chance encounter with an apparently wealthy blind old man who needed assistance picking up a spilled purse. Once within the city walls, Geffin notices the elaborate market with many curiosities, but follows Feng to a small hut.
As they approached the small round hut that seemed to rise up from the earth seamlessly and has a strangely green grass thatched roof. Grass that somehow yet seemed alive. They noticed the hut being surrounded by lush green grass in a ring of various trees each seemingly older than the city they reside in. A couple of the party members noticed a large raven atop the hut, keenly eyeing the group approaching. Within the ring of trees smelled musky and earthy like a well watered garden. Inside the hut seemed larger than possible from the outside appearance. The interior of the hut smelled strongly of teas and spices, but not unpleasantly so.
In the center of the floor of the hut sat an ancient woman, the color of the earth with flighty white hair and eyes the color of the ocean which seemed to fluctuate between the green of the pirated Salton seas of the south and the dark brooding blue of the untamed freezing depths of the far northwest. She emanated magical power in an aura previously unseen by the mages of the party. Feng, having previously met the woman knows her as Eingana, but knows little else.
Upon the parties arrival she spoke. "Welcome, all of you. I'll not mince words and weave tales as my time is soon to pass. I've gathered you here in hope that I could sway you. I hope to sway you to the greater good so you can hopefully reach your potential, as I have."
As she says this she moves one of her hands from her lap, to her chest and Geffin noticed countless strands apparently running from her fingers down into the ground where they apparently vanish into the worn dirt floor. They seemed to shimmer for moments then fade as if never there. Geffin, somehow you maintain vision of one of the strands as he was staring in wide-eyed amazement, he noticed two additional things. One, was that it seemed the strand he could still see hanging from her hand dipped only slightly to the ground before arching upwards directly at him and connecting to hi chest. The second thing he noticed as you look to his left and right to see if the others in the room had similar ties is that the pleasant aroma had changed slightly to smell more earthy and planty, similar to the smell outside.
Eingana continued, drawing the party's attention, like an irresistible force of nature. "It is possible I will soon be replaced. It is possible we are on the brink of another cataclysm. You each have a role to play, and a very important role it can be."
She shuddered violently and more of the party could momentarily see the strands shimmering and as the shudder passed each person in the room felt a coolness deep within them, not simply a physical chill, but something more, something powerful and afflicting what feels like the very core of his/her being. Along with this shudder some felt a sadness, "My end is coming, as is your beginning. Some of you have already begun as others have ended. I drew you here from afar (pointing to Feng) with the hope that you can help them define themselves and choose their correct paths. There will be others who choose separate paths. There will be others who choose opposing paths."
Again she shuddered and again they felt the cold weakening sadness deep within. Some faltered and dropped to their knees.
"I had hoped there would be more of you. I had hoped for more time. I've drawn this out too long. I suspected it unfair to challenge the fates, but it is what we (she points around the room and glares shrewdly at each visitor) must do, lest we act only as pawns in their games."
Some in the party felt her great sorrow and great pain.
"Ceraph, you seek your father and adventure. You seek your past and your future. Sadly, you must choose. I can tell you only that he went in your place to another meeting such as this.
Gyanna, your journey will be like no other your race has ever experienced. Through trial and error you will learn to find what you seek, and what others seek."
Eingana shuddered again, so violently that she sagged down to support herself on her hands. "Geffin, you must follow that which guides you. Do not second guess yourself as the consequences could be veery undesirable."
Again Eingana shuddered immensely, the suffering she felt apparent on her face and almost palpable, even to the ice princess. As the final shudder subsided, she opened her ancient leathery eye-lids to reveal her eyes, now the darkest blue of the distant horizon on a moonless night, which then faded to a cloudy cataract gray as her final words were
"I'm sorry my children. Never lose hope."
When she faded, the mysterious spiderwebish sinews from her fingers fell to glittering dust which fell only slightly before whisking off out one of the windows.
Leaving Cormire?
After leaving the hut of Eingana, the party went to the Cormire market. Geffin tried to dance and critically failed and fell off of the cabbage stand. Gyanne having her pride hurt by such a botched display, took to the makeshift stage and danced and sang to the market goers merriment while Geffin worked the crowd, pan-handling, while Tomwise lap-slapped and a nearby lute salesman closed up shop to play along.
After realizing the people were focusing primarily on her, Gyanne hurried out of the market to a dark alley slum-bar to get away and have some alone time as well as to get an ale and some meat in to her gullet. The rest of the party was convening at the Gray Dog Inn, when Feng was approached by two of Cormires red-garbed guards. The guards were ordered to escort Feng out of the city walls. Feng talked the guards into letting him discuss the matter with one Matthew Alebroad, self-proclaimed adviser and overseer of the city’s militia. While Ceraph and the hobbits took the long way to the inn, Feng negotiated with Alebroad and Gyanne killed some barflys after they refused to give her information for free. She did so with a small knife and a bestial pounce. Eventually, the giantess, half-elf and hobbits met up outside the Gray Dog in and followed Feng to ‘the place where they met’, dubbed Bandit Rock by the party. Feng had negotiated with Alebroad to take up the bandit’s post in their place in order to investigate the possibility of a greater criminal conspiracy in or around Cormire. Part of the negotiation was that Alebroad would send some faux travelers past the rock to supply Feng and his group while playing up the ruse that they were actually bandits. After a near-combat situation with a small family passing the rock, it turned out that the ‘contact’ sent was one Balkar the Golden, whom Gyanne was seeking for information regarding a great white cat which she pursues. He shared some stomach stew with the party before departing off to the west to investigate rumors of a large dragon-kin harassing the locals due to the recent perishing of a younger kin…that killed by Gyanne in the first session.
Other notes: - Feng began to tattoo a great cat on Gyanne. - Guards were Lucas and Thug #2 under the command of Captain DickSmack