October 14, 2026

Hook

[MAIN COTSS] A First Lesson in Philosophy S5-6

Plot Synopsis

[Session 5 - Boat Game]

The party flees the festival on the next boat out. All is well at first with the party going to get drinks at the bar only to find out that the layout of the boat has changed significantly since their last voyage. Wardkeeper and Fara split off to draw some runes all over a broom closet as the rest of party enjoys themselves. After getting bored, Wardkeeper mixes random chemicals from the closet together to get some sort of noxious gas and promptly leaves. After regrouping they notice that everyone is gone from the boat. Reason told them that someone still had to be steering the boat (hopefully) so they head to the bridge where they meet the captain. He is another one of the pirates that entered the vault who is searching for their captain. He is certain that "where it all started" refers to the place where he and the captain deserted their post and embraced piracy, in the cold reaches of Pthora's taundra, only he has found himself stuck in a loop unable to steer the ship anywhere other than where he is told to go.

Just then a small kraken hits the side of the ship threatening to sink them. The party acts fast and grabs Wardkeeper's bucket of unknown chemicals, broke the lock on the life boats, and then shipped the chemicals directly into the kraken's mouth. The drugged kraken was then beaten to death by Wardkeeper and his stick. After defeating the kraken, a swarm of people burst out from below the deck as the boat once again filled with life, only that the people dawned the cloaks of the cult they just escaped from. After conversing with some of the figures they were invited to come witness their ritual to summon their messiah which the party politely declined and headed to bed for the night. During the night several of them (all but Wardkeeper) had a dream where they were on the deck in the ritual as a woman appeared before them, bending the laws of physics wherever she could. The party woke and headed to the deck to confront one of the passengers. They explained that their ritual was a success but the messiah did not seem to care for any of them, dropping the name Khepri. Here they also gave a bit of insight into why they prayed to her, citing that the "dark ones" promised "eternity" to all claiming that they meant no harm to anyone reguardless to whether or not they were believers. The party seemed curious especially in Khepri and wondered how they could get in touch with her directly but the cult would be unable to summon her for another moon cycle. Only an offering of sufficient knowledge could bring her out again. Finally after the long day of sailing they could see their destination, Maendour, Vervand, which seems to have switched places with Southam Geleia, the childhood home of Arwen.

[Session 6 - Homecoming]

Arwen is not stoked about being home, but of course, something has changed. The city is desolate, people seem to duck in and out of buildings in a hurry. Wetherill stops a random passerby for more information only to learn that a rogue fae (yes I know that they are techinically called dreamt but not in Vervand specifically so we are running with it) has been harassing the town every night for the past month. The party continued on to a general store to see if they could get more information but beyond a couple rumors they came up short. Biting the bullet the party continued on to the upper class area and Arwen seems to have less stokes than before. The party first went to the home of one of Wetherill's college friends who happened to live nearby named Fredrick "Fazzbear" Douglass. Fredrick had little new information, being holed up and disconnected from the woes of the common people. He did attempt to sell Wetherill on some NFTs but one polite decline later the party found themselves headed towards Arwen's old home. They met with her mother who revealed that they had there was a logging company that they had been investing into before the fae attacked. Through the whole exchange she just seemed distant as she just could not care less about what was going on.

After not much success talking to the townsfolk the party went boots on the ground to the mouth of the forest where the fae emerged finding the new lumbermill which had been ransacked with traces of humanoid blood and some sort of reality distorting black blood. Concerned the party headed back into town to investigate the company. They found the headquarters abandoned and Fara entered through the chimney giving the party access inside. They looked through some paperwork left behind locating records of a second plot of land deeper in the woods being purchased just before the attacks started so the party decided to check out this second site.

The woods were odd, the further the party went in the more ordered the trees seemed until they formed unnatural rows which would be a sign of some sort of tree farm if the only lumber company wasnt shut down. At a cross roads the party went left and encountered the first puzzle, a patch of mushrooms and instructions telling them that to proceed they must consume a mushroom, with slightly different wording for each mushroom. After several failed attempts at locating the least ambiguous and several annoying curses, the party made it through to find an injured dog. For healing the dog they were given a deer bone as the dog joined the party. Finding themselves once more at the crossroads the party went right and engaged in a dance battle with some skeletons and proceeded onwards to an old man. After asking him how to proceed he explained that only the creatures of the forest know how to navigate it and even their remains seem to be able to find the way. With this information Wetherill created something like a compass out of the deer bone they got from the dog and found that the correct path is to go straight through the center of the crossroads where they would encounter the fey. The fey had no name after losing it somewhere along the way and so the party named him "Daddy Long Legs" due to his stretched out features. Daddy explained that he only ever wanted to explore the world but the town stood in his way. Given powers by some mysterious dieties he made his dream a reality by summoning beasts to clear out the city for him so that he could explore in peace. The party offered to give him a guided and protected tour of the city if he agreed to leave them alone and he agreed. Upon completing the tour Petrikov recommended that he should explore the sky, to which he immediately fell in love with the idea and just floated away. The party returned to the city to have dinner with Arwen's parents who thanked all of them, especially Arwen for saving the city, giving each party member their 300 gold and as a special gift for Arwen, she was presented her tattered and bloody cloak by her long departed childhood friend.

[To be continued]

Noteworthy Postgame Events