- Valra, upset at having discovered that a devil was promoting her “live and let live” credo, cast Divination to ask the spirit of nature what she should do. Ardwyn tried to quickly dress up as Mother Nature to answer, but Valra saw right through the disguise. The true answer came through a whisper on the wind: “Look to your friends to guide you.” The druid took this to mean that she should mimic her companions, and she started by acquiring a short sword and scale mail, hoping to imitate Tessel’s look.
- When Valra cast the spell, she sacrificed some of her silver arrows as spell components, which were collected by a bold raccoon. However, Adamir set some traps and was able to recapture the raccoon with one of the arrows later.
- Adamir received a Sending from the devil Balthazar, stating: “Wonderful news! Mephisopheles has revoked his pact and stripped Baldric of his powers. He has done you a favor. I hope you’ll respond in kind.” After consultation with Tessel and the others, he sent back a response: “Sorry, new Sending, who dis?”
- After passing some commoners who seemed to recognize them (mostly fans), the party decided to follow Ralnur to a path further away from the main road. Unfortunately, they ended up running into a very lost Peacekeeper named Putnam. He shared their fire, made small talk with Tessel, and got a lovely song from Ardwyn and Ralnur (“Caaaaamping! I wanna camp with you! And we’re gonna drink some tooooo!”). Eventually, though, he remembered that he was supposed to deliver a warning about the band of outlaws who had kidnapped the Duchess of Cindre, and he realized who he was speaking to. Tessel helped resolve the issue by casting Zone of Truth, including some of her companions, and telling him the truth. Though he was at first wary, he was eventually convinced and allowed to go free.
- Ralnur confronted the rest of the party about letting Putnam go free. The half-orc was worried that they had let someone go who knew their identities as “Bigboy and the Adventurers of the Past”. “They’re eeeeevil!” he said. “They’re peeeeeople!” countered Ardwyn. “They’re both!” Ralnur concluded.
- They (mostly Tessel) spent their free time opening the extra lockboxes they had looted from the Treasury. They found some jewelry, a deed to a manor, some insurance papers, some papers written in an obscure shorthand, and a set of diaries full of scandal. Ardwyn helped pick the lock on the smaller box, and inside they found a stack of terrible poems.
- As they approached Thordan’s shrine, they were surprised to find Cedric there. He shared some news with them:
- Emmon had succeeded in taking over Revo and was now making a slow procession to the capital.
- Avisha sent word that the Peacekeepers had abandoned their encirclement around the Elfwood and were heading north and south in two main groups. Fearing that her hideout might be discovered, she warned that she might need to abandon it and go into hiding elsewhere.
- A hot air balloon had landed in Cindre and the strange gnome who was piloting it was asking for the party.
- Downstairs in the shrine, Thordan and Anna were having tea. The whole group sat down to decide what to do next. They decided:
- The Highrock hideout was no longer safe, so Thordan should take the Duchess to Cindre, where she could do some good until it was time to meet with the other Dukes in the capital.
- Cedric should take Lorwyn to his hideout in Revo and take care of her there.
- A message would be sent to Avisha and the Outcasts in Wayport, instructing them to head north and investigate Valen in pairs. Specifically, they were told to look for devilish activity and anything possibly related to the Soul Sickness or the Mantella.
- They teleported to Cindre, where Perrin and Anna got to work re-asserting her rule. The streets were crowded with refugees and victims of soul sickness, but the citizens were of high spirits, and it looked like the Regency’s power was negligible here.
- The party found Jilbin with her hot air balloon in the middle of a plaza. She was irate that they had taken so long to find her after she had put so much work into making custom items for them. They bought the Tugger Huggers, Stone Cold Bat Axe, Tubic Send-A-Bleater, Portable Ram, Quaker Oaks, Earmugs, Eye Pod, and Smellcaster. Adamir snuck off to sell their extra equipment and buy some Half Plate armor. Valra also left Jilbin with 350gp to upgrade her Collar of Prettiness.
