Session 19-20: River Ride; Into the Mouth

On their travels to Elyse, the Harmonious Hunters recover from their time in the illusion storm. After another day of walking, they happen upon a jovial village called Tresdon Township. They live in the swamp at the mouth of the river and celebrate every noon with song. The party is wary of their jolly nature after what they had previously been through, but they manage to find a man who sells them a small flatboat equipped with a sail.

After conversing with the fellows of the town--with Gab and Justice taking centerstage of their celebration--the Hunters learn that this town follows the High Alietan Order. Gab proceeds cautiously, Vordia scares children, Toni inspires young adventurers, and Patch steers clear of the attention. The troupe hop on their new watercraft and begin to sail east.

Amidst the night of their travels they are attacked by a massive demon spider that had been lurking in the woods nearby. They slew it easily and tossed it aside. Another night, Vordia communes with the Voidfeather Queen and they hold a rather tense conversation about business versus commitments in their marriage. Patch and Onika share a moment under the starlit sky about the nature of emotions and man versus machine.

The days fly by and the party finds that their river flows through a large hill of some sort filled with bioluminescent water. They get an eerie feeling as they start to see piles and piles of gold and riches all around the cave surrounding the river. Vordia sees a slumbering adult green dragon atop the pile and the group remains as silent as possible yet moving as fast as they can. Despite their efforts, the dragon senses them and stops their boat. It demands either a month of service to it or a 500 gold toll to pass through. The party tosses over the gold begrudgingly and continues forth.

During a watch, Justice approaches Vordia who is keeping busy studying the constellations. She reveals her druidic powers to have further quirks. She transforms into a star-like form with a variety of constellations on her forehead. Vordia explains that she has some sort of blessing from a minor deity known as Thrasha Leiunete. Justice asks for Vordia's tutelage who says she will see what she can do. Later, Vordia asks Myrcia about it and she explains that Thrasha keeps to herself but does choose individuals on rare occasions to have her blessing for an unknown reason. Most bear one or two parts of her constellation and almost none boast all three the way Justice does. These folks have held great powers at the cost of their own knowledge of their flesh as the starry form takes precedence over their fleshly form. Vordia withholds this information from Justice.

The party continues downstream, running into a few hurdles here and there. They mostly spend the time talking with one another and learning more about each other. Near the coast, they find a dam closing the river, manmade. In a previous scuffle where Onika had floated the flatboat over some fallen trees in the river, they had passed in flying colors. They move to do so again here, but the dam is much bigger. The boat crashes and lay in ruin as the party swims to a small, muddy beach to the north. They recuperate and move into this spacious clearing fit with few trees and some boulders before the whole party is suddenly locked to the ground by a large graviturgical field. A blue tiefling donning a dress made almost entirely of scale mail steps out, accompanied by a red-headed boy and girl who all draw their weapons and rush in.