Sessions 17-18: Aftermath and Murder; Past Conversations

In the morning, the whole group gathers once more at Greenhall where they meet up with Justice and Sila. They inform their new companion that they plan on leaving around noon. Justice takes the chance to go say goodbye to family, while the Harmonious Hunters move to turn in their quest with Gaelen.

Upon entering the gang's hideout, they find Arraz disguised as Justin conversing with the mission leader who gave them the original task to fight the ice worm. They are allowed to ask questions about Patch and the automatons, and the Gaelen folks inform them that the seeming power crystal inside of them in fact leads somewhere as if it were a gateway. Patch is curious as to the timespan between themself and the other automatons and the original mechanic who talked to Patch gave them a once-over. Upon inspection, the mechanic tells Patch that they were the first one created. The mechanic tries to touch the power crystal during the inspection and it shoots off a beam that takes out the shoulder of the mission captain. Moments later, Patch looks around to see their own ancient siblings' body parts embedded into the walls and armor of the gang and its members around them. They lose control as a few memories from that time flood back to them.

The next thing they see is a giant crater around them with dozens of the gang dead. A force kicks them in the back and Patch sees once more Miranda Qifall in her unchanged form. Toni blinks recognition from just outside the blast radius. Most of the party makes it out unscathed from the blast, but a wall of gang members start rushing them. Arraz dropped his disguise at some point as he runs telling the party to follow him.

A chase ensues. The whole party start running after Arraz, fighting gang lackeys and Miranda along the way. With Onika's help, they speed away from the lackeys, but Miranda is harder. They dart into a corridor and arrive before a staircase and engage in a brief skirmish. Miranda nearly kills Filtar, but Gab rebukes her attack which sends her flying backwards. Before Miranda fades to unconsciousness she mutters "Rin, my daughter, I will have my revenge," reaching a hand toward Toni who had been her primary target.

Arraz leads the group up the stairs and Gab retrieves Miranda's limp form. They break outside through an abandoned restaurant and Gab summons a spectral rock-lobster-cow. He ties Miranda tight and makes off with her to a packaging warehouse. There he purchases a barrel and nearby some soporific flowers, before taking as much of Miranda's weaponry as he can. He ties her once more and puts her inside the barrel, sealing it tight with a few bangs. Gab then instructs his mount to ride off with the barrel as far west out of the city as possible. He himself buries the two poisonous daggers in separate locations outside of the city before going to track his friends.

Meanwhile, Arraz leads the rest of the troupe to apparently his own parents' house. Inside, they meet his family and Vordia hits on Arraz's mom. Patch goes nonverbal and the rest of the party asks Toni what the heck happened. Toni gets emotional and says that her best friend back at the orphanage she is from was killed in a freak accident that she blames herself for. She did not know that Rin's mother was actually alive and expresses hatred of her because of it. The party takes a moment to relax when Gab finds them. They all then head out as Arraz proclaims he is leaving Whitebloom. As such, he tells the Hunters that they are broken into three groups within the organization: Crawlers, Hunters, and Seekers.

As the Hunters and Arraz go separate ways, the party heads back to Greenhall a final time where they meet up with Justice and leave the city. Filtar stays behind to hold the fort for them when him and Vordia share a moment together.

The group travels east, heading for a river that will take them to the Mouth: the large gulf between the Eye and Uzky Jungle. After a few days of travel, the party finds themselves caught in an illusion storm. Quickly, the whole party except for Gab find themselves chasing illusions which mostly end up being one another just with the visage of people from their pasts. Patch sees Vordia as a spark of light, sees Toni as the soldier who killed them from their memory, sees Gab as the original body of Vow. Vordia fails to see any of them, but briefly perceives Patch as Myrcia. She also comes to see Filtar appear before her, whom her hand phases through before the image shifts to Myrcia again bleeding out in her arms as Vordia stood there stabbing her. This broke Vordia and she began sobbing in the veil of mist. Toni sees Gab as Miranda and Patch as Rin and begins to fight Gab. Justice and Onika are nowhere to be found. After a bit of exchanges between the whole group, Patch snaps out of it with Gab's help. Gab hugs Toni tight and Toni eventually snaps out of it as well. Patch moves to find Vordia and helps her realize that the corpse of a god in her arms is actually just a rotting log of some kind. They all rejoin and find Justice kneeling over a shivering, huddled Onika who sits sobbing violently. Justice takes Onika's hand as the Harmonious Hunters band back together and proceed in silence toward the direction they think they are supposed to be headed.