Campaign 3 Session 79
The party is reunited with the rest of the Fourth Act, allowing them to begin their journey once again.
Summary
As Walnut pulls into the airship dock, the party greets them with their normal levels of enthusiasm. Talthis has been extra worried about them, while Cecily is rather reticent. Ward finds Leonora, who is quite excited to go to the beach for the first time; moon werewolves almost never leave the moon. Ward proceeds to update her on everything regarding their research into the shard portal, ranging from the potential deal with Princes Haziz to Acererak potentially already knowing how to do this already to the potential abundance of colorless mana at the place where Nox died. Leonora complains that she wants to go to the beach first. They debate some pros and cons of agreeing to the contract from Haziz, prompting Ward to consider approaching Bahamut about a similar contract.
All of the Fourth Act head to the beach for a day of fun and chaos. Obeliskball is played and ridiculously large fish is caught and grilled. Cecily does not participate, opting instead to see old friends—Vera labels her as Moping. Everyone ultimately splits up, either sleeping on the beach in tents, finding somewhere to sleep, or going back to the palace with the party. Alibi in particular seems to be familiar with the place, up to and including speaking with Haziz like an old friend.
The next day, Dorean is taken shoping by Invicta, acquiring a new wardrobe for herself and Dorean. Eck and Abernathy catch up, Eck having the opportunity to dump so much new information on him. Ward requests a meeting to discuss the terms of the research grant with Oceanside. Ward invites Leonora and is surprised to find Alibi and an older grim-faced changeling also in attendance. Ward suggests forming a coalition of governing bodies to fascilitate the inevitable discemmination of information that they discover. Everyone's Twin, the changeling with Alibi, says that Wolis would be quite interested in such an arrangement, as most other governments likely would. Twin points out that Orologia will need to be dealt with, as they cannot be trusted with the information. A new contract is created and signed. Twin also appoints Alibi in charge of protecting Ward, including giving her his special knife.
Ward rounds up the party to speak with Cecily. Alibi leads them to a dingey tavern called the Leaky Tankard, and after a series of secret signs, handshakes, and knocks, they find Cecily in a secret room with several other people. They inform Cecily that Cassitus has been removed from power and everyone in Hullbreach has been released, leading her to nearly break down crying. She had been operating on incorrect information, and discovering that had she had the correct information, would have made different decisions. Ward announces that he is annoyed that she made the objectively correct decision in sending them with Cassitus. He wants recompense: she has to give their group a better name than the Gophers. She agrees to his terms, and decides to go get very drunk in the prince's bath.
Talthis knocks on Ward's door, a bottle of liquor and two glasses in hand. He thanks Ward for going easy on Cecily. He explains that Cecily didn't know anybody on the ship when she was caught by Cassitus the first time, and that she had been seventeen. Being faced with the possibility of losing everything she had built since then, everyone she cared for, and having to make that decision nearly broke her. He gives Ward a firm handshake and leaves.
Invicta asks Dorean about her adventure in Hullbreach. She says it's reasurring to know that Dorean is likely to return to her, but tells her to be somewhat more careful as Dorean's butt is at least partially hers now. Despite her teasing, her concern and worry are genuine, if not seriously expressed.
Oceanside was one of the places that she ended up with during her initial adventures with Cecily and Talthis. She is also Everyone's Twin's neice and had been training to be his replacement; she hadn't been doing particularly well until after she traveled with Talthis and Cecily. She also shows off the knife, how it can turn into smoke and various accessories.