Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

Due to conflicts in the real world, the group decided to have a bit of an open chat about the world and mysteries.

Belladonna: Where are you all from and is it important to your character?
Nira: No, we’ve mentioned a few times where I’m from. It’s just kind of war-torn and crummy.
God: She’s from the very North. She;s from a separate continent. We are on the very southern end of the largest continent. Adalia and Belladonna are from one country at the very North of the main continent, and Midna is from the neighboring country that hates their country.
Belladonna: Should we be hating each other?
God: No, you are from smaller towns, so it is more of a large cities hate each other. Common people are ambivalent. It is like Wildcats v Jayhawks (college teams). Some people are really into the rivalry, some people aren’t.
Nira: I didn’t know that. Midna and who else is supposed to hate each other?
God: Midna is from Epaul. Word play joke because I’m a nerd, Epaul is French for shoulder, and Epaulette (Adalia and Belladonna) is the fancy shoulder flourishes on shoulderpad type jackets. Adalia is originally from a large port city, but moved inland, Belladonna is from a smaller Manhattan (KS, not NY) sized city (~60,000 people). Epaulette tends to emphasize trade and culture, so they think they are very fancy. Epaul is a more closed border, almost Japan-like country. Midna’s family lives in one of the forests, like many shifter communities, because Epaul is so secluded and keeps the borders tight. There aren’t usually problems for these communities within the borders, though that doesn’t mean that there aren’t tensions with “normal” citizens. Between these two countries is Wishwater, which is basically the Silicon Valley of this world, it is really technologically advanced and both Epaul and Epaulette owned it at one point or another and would like to own it again.They still fight over it, but Wishwater says “Fuck you, ALl of our technology will keep you out forever.” There is a lot of boring historical squabbles that will probably come up later. Furus/Brad is from Rosary Row. He was abandoned at the temple of Mitzcka (music), but didn’t feel a calling to the faith, so he trained to be a bard,
Adalia: Does he know where he is from?
God: No, he has said he doesn’t want to make finding his family part of his story, he doesn’t care. He just wants to be famous and travel the world. Galia’s family is from the East Fingerlings, she is technically a princess, her parents are the King and Queen. If you met them, you saw the burns. They were deposed/overthrown by the Vishkanya, an serpentine like people that deal acid/poison damage. She wasn’t born there, but here in Wyrmwood Forest. When her parents fled, the fey of Wyrmwood Court let them build a palace in exile in the forest and treated them with respect. She was born about 9 months after they arrived, which is why she is fey-touched, and their kindness is why she defends the fey. Most kitsune have basic magic, but having a lot of magic, or becoming a sorcerer isn’t common, so when she developed a second tail, it was very surprising because it is a sign of strong magic. She would use Charm person a lot, and now that she is aware that she charmed people her whole life, she tries not to, but is really confused as to why people don’t immediately love her. Belladonna is incredibly frustrating for this reason because she is just like LET ME LOVE YOU! She thinks she is chaotic neutral, but in her heart is chaotic good, except her morals are a little skewed due to being raised partially by the fey. Crushing someone to dust who does something horrible doesn’t phase her, but someone doing something horrible will greatly upset her. Glass Spire is home of the high elves. They are very elitist and don’t let many people in unless they are high elves or sponsored by someone.
Adalia: Like Blitherby.
God: Exactly. It is very beautiful, though, almost like Italy/Venice and Murano/Burano. Very colorful houses, stained glass everywhere, lots of twisting canals.Tricreche is very like Ireland countryside, Tuatha de Dannan folklore, people of the earth. Scath Mountain is known as the Mountain of Nightmares and it is where Belladonna was held. People don’t live there, it is filled with all the horrible creatures you can think of, and it only gets worse the higher up the mountain you go. You might find a few tribes of orcs or half-orcs at the base of the mountain, but “civilized” people are exceedingly rare.There are rumors that there is a series of tunnels that run through the mountain, but most people don’t know that. Belladonna can confirm that these exist. She was held by the fey, which are actually some of the lesser terrors that inhabit the mountain despite being really horrible in and of themselves. You guys will get to explore that mountain later when you won’t be so squishy and die.
Belladonna: That’s horrifying.
Nira:Well we will still be squishy and die, it will just take longer.
Venus: [cackles]
Adalia: We don’t have anybody who knows necromancy yet, so we can’t die.
God: I’m just looking at the map, and tell you random things, do you want me to do anything specific?
Group: This is fine
God: The other mountain is Eidur Mountain, if you remember the lore, the earth is actually a woman trying to escape, so these are basically her breasts. This is less horrible than Scath mountain, but it is the fire mountain. Midna’s people live near here, as dragons, fire elementals, fire-aligned things make their home on this mountain, and dragon shifters are obviously friendly with dragon.
Nira: Hear that, Midna?
Adalia?: TAKE US TO THE DRAGONS!
Midna: [laughter]
God: Between the two is Corazon Valley Island Oasis, but most people call it Corazon Island or Corazon Valley. This is where Venus is from. This is a very wealthy city, somewhere between Morrocco and Greece, it is a cultural choke point for food, technology, information. It also has a HUGE criminal underbelly, there is a rumor that they helped build the large walls that fortify the city to protect it from the horrors on either mountain, but left a series of tunnels into and out of the city in case they need to escape during a breech, or if they want to let in monsters from either mountain to torch the city for some reason. The big tourist attraction is “The Heart of the City”, a hug gem that supposedly protects the city. People have tried to steal it hundreds of times throughout history, but never succeeded. Do you want to say anything Venus?
Venus: I’m from the slums, but where people tred to make it better, like gentrification. We weren’t poor, but we weren’t well off. There were a bunch of the criminals who fought with her people (tabaxi), one day she saw them beating up a kitten, Perry. She fought them off and Perry stayed. She still supports her parents who live at home.
Group: Aww.
God: Fegyvyr Slopes are the main area of the Dwarves. Carindrina became a fighter against her family’s wishes, and traveled all over the main continent. She left the army because she disagreed with her commander’s order, which she thought wasn’t honorable. So her big thing is it needs to be fair, it needs to be right, it needs to be honourable. Belladonna do you want to share any of your story?
Belladonna: Did I get freed by rangers or were they the first people who helped me?
God: There was revolt and you escaped on your own but they were the first people to help you.
Belladonna: The rangers took me in and I had a mentor. I knew I wanted to bring peace to the mountain, I wanted justice, but I knew I wasn’t strong enough to do it alone. Now I need to do some stuff so that I can be more than just a ranger in training.
God: The ranger guilds are interesting because they are named for the trees in the area, but you don’t have to join the guild of your mentor. You can join any guild and live somewhere else, they are very connected. There are ways for them to track each other and special greetings, but they are heavily guarded. There are also friends of the rangers, so people who aren’t rangers can get honors bestowed by helping the rangers. So if we find the Abbots, potentially, we could have access as a group to some of the benefits of the rangers as well as belladonna getting help getting officially promoted into the guild. Also, Adalia is on a bit of a quest.
Adalia: Is this the water spirits?
God: Yes
Adalia: As I was meditating by the canal in Thornyside, I saw these glowing jellyfish like creatures, and initially they startled me, so I sort of ran to join you in the church. As we were fighting the drowned maiden, it occurred to me that they were probably benevolent water spirits. They defeated her, and when I thanked them, they asked me to help them clear the water, as you know the water is turning acid everywhere. These are agatheons. We were kind of already on this quest with Furus heading it, with him taking water to the apothecary, and now we have an actual being saying “yeah can you do this for us?” but when something associated with water that isn’t completely evil asks a request, I say yes.
God: Also, Midna is on a personal quest.
Midna: As part of my community, being dragon shifters, you have to find your hoard. So all dragons have a hoard, whether it is jewels, or money, or books, or food. So I’m on a quest to see what the world has outside of my small home. My character wants to find friends and family and build those relationships.
God: So, also, she was the only one who woke up when you were being stolen by the fey in your sleep. I kind of panicked because the creature that is kidnapping you is very very powerful, but I don’t want to “God in the Machine”, but I also don’t want to smite someone 30 seconds into the game.
Nira: Talk about setting a tone.
God: But immediately she decided “I’m going to be friends with it.” And I thought that was so cool.
Belladonna: Good thing I didn’t wake up.
Group: [laughter]
God: YEAH. Belladonna would have had a very different start to the game.
Nira: This is Meladonna, Belladonna’s twin sister who didn’t wake up.
Group: [laughs]
God: I found it really interesting that she immediately was like I’m going to be friends with this. You, as a person [oog], have a huge heart and are always really sweet, but I loved that your character was like “I love everybody, and I’m going to be nice because being nice is right.” So I am probably going to keep throwing small cute creatures/beings at you. They don’t have to be your hoard, but they will probably show up and you can befriend them and try to help them. Like you have already promised a favor to Sweet Shimmer (the sleep fairy).
Nira: Which I am STOKED to fulfill like I cannot wait for that quest.
Midna: Me too! I can’t wait to help her.
God: Ok, good. I wanted to clear something up about that. You took the doll from Sweet Shimmer.
Midna: Yes
God: The doll will allow you to scry on Adele and see her on a map. You asked Sweet Shimmer to watch her and she said that she could watch in the evenings, but she isn’t strong enough during the day. If you promised her a favor, she would find a friend who is strong enough during the day to watch Adele. If someone attacked Adele, you wanted them to bring her to you?
Midna: Yes, that was my understanding. Sorry we made it confusing
God: We went back and forth on whether to bring adele to you, the attacker to you, or you to her, but she is only strong enough to carry one person.
Midna: Yeah I’m not strong enough to go alone.
Nira: Don’t worry, I’m with you.
Adalia: NONE OF US are strong enough alone.
God: Does Belladonna know in game that we made a fairy bargain?
Belladonna: I did! I tried to warn them.
God: That’s right, they said oh she’s short and ignored you.
Midna: Ugh, those people from Epaulette, they’re so annoying.
Group: [laughs]
God: So the fey in Tricreche in general are benevolent, but they are almost maliciously benevolent. They are very good to the people in their community, but if anyone messes with the people in the community, that person will die a horrible death. They care very deploy about the community, and if you hurt one of their charges, they will kill you.
Belladonna: I have been really conflicted about this, and haven’t filled out the journal for that reason. In my room in Iron Key, they left me something that said if you write down the names of the fairies that hurt you, they will come to horrible ends. I’m just like...doing the horrible thing to a horrible person..I just don’t know.
God: Can you be a good person if you torture someone? What if they are a horrible person?
Belladonna: I can be a good person if I let someone else torture them.
God: Moral dilemmas! Those will come up a lot. I love the Trolley Problem. [me being an idiot]
NIra: The trolley problem is not a problem to me, I know what I wanna do.
God: Do you want to talk about why you are in the south?
Nira: I’m on a personal quest, but the only reason I stayed was because there are kids involved and I want to help them. When I get pushy, I’m just am frustrated that I’m not getting anywhere. Also, I am used to mainly getting things through intimidation because I am a ganzi and people are naturally afraid of me. Getting what I want usually has to involve pulling teeth literally and figuratively. Part of my character development can be learning to be more patient.
God: Galia is 100% not afraid of you because she is too stupid.
Nira: Ha! That is great. I think the more interactions Galia and I have, I will like you for you.
Belladonna: I would like you to know I am actually very charismatic to everyone but the fey, because I *hate* them.
God: [not-game related for a bit picks back at 41:28] The people we have met in Thornyside--Well outside Thornyside we met Merchant Maurice, he is important because he was helping the Abbots to collect blessed iron bars for the cage, but he needed to travel north to Rosary Row to get strong enough magic. He didn’t know what they were trying to catch. He got Furus to take a skull to deliver to a boy who wants to be a magician in Weatherby because he didn’t want to travel around the Roueda again. I feel like Furus/Brad just looks affable and trustworthy. Like this kid won’t screw someone over. Nira also has a reason to go to Weatherby, so it would be good to move all the storyline along to travel there eventually. When we got inside Hightown, we met Nell Bund, we helped her escape, her sister had been kidnapped. Her mistress had been turned into some sort of thrall. We got into the castle after the drowned maiden. You know that drowned maidens are very hard to kill, and she will likely come back. The trolley problem with drowned maidens is that the only way to set their spirit free is to bring them their murderer, and then they kill their murderer, and they go to heaven or wherever.
Adalia?: They move on…
God: Yes, they only become drowned maidens by having horrible, violent deaths where their loved one drowns them. So they are definitely a victim, there is no other way to create them. Not a happy, not a random, evil creature. This was created.
Nira: Sad. I want to help her.
God: You want to help her, but she DID try to kill you.
Adalia: [sassy mmmhmmm]
Nira: True.
God: They appear as people you know, so that is why she appeared as Quinn, you guys have all met her.
Adalia: Oh the drowned maiden was supposed to appear as quinn?
God: originally she was going to appear as someone else, but i couldn’t find her character, so i switched to Quinn because you all know her. That is also where you met the water spirits, they helped you, and they asked you to help clear the water. So now you know that the water, while not as bad as under the manor, is beginning to be corrupted and spread around the area. When you were exploring the Abbot’s house, the well swelled up and it was all evil too. Since we had a couple visions about water, these are things we need to look into. Oh--also, when we let Nell into Lowtown, we saw clusters of like 2-3 people in really long, all black robes, mixed into the crowd. They weren’t trying to hide, and no one seemed to pay any notice to them. Lowtown is not really the slums, just lower class, though it does contain the slums in one area. I think Midna came up with the idea of finding robes and dress up like them to try to figure out what is going on.
Midna: Yup, that was me.
God: Definitely a plan to keep in the back of our mind. We haven’t found any of the Tanglewoods in the castle yet, but the castle is enormous and vacant.
Adalia: Does someone have a revelio like spell?
Midna: I can track, but I don’t know that works inside the castle.
Galia: Juniper has scent, which can track creatures, but I have to have something of theirs to find.
Adalia: We don’t have that letter do we?
[?]: We mailed it
Galia: No, but we are in the castle and could find something to use.
God: Nira, you weren’t in-game during the church, right?
Nira: Yes.
God: You were wandering around and found a sewer grate system, so you knew you could probably travel under the city, but it would be risky. The streets had a lot of blood, giant dead rats, you decided to go inside the church and make a plan. The church looks really bizarre and it has this symbol that Belladonna had seen under the mountain and you also saw it on a deck of cards in the corrupted Shinze temple under Stoneblood Manor. Belladonna has sketched this symbol and shown several people and no one has known what it is. None of you know what it is. There have been some small weird signs, one to keep in mind is Blitherby had a yellow braid with black beads, Shinze usually has a yellow braid and yellow beads. Shinze paraphernalia would absolutely not have anything black on a religious item. You guys haven’t been to any temples in town except this kraken temple, but there are temples in all the towns. You decided not to go to the ones in Balvonier because you could perform the ceremony for the baron on your own.
Nira: I don’t have any idea?
God: No.
Nira: Interesting.
Adalia: Is it related to the Tanglewood crest?
God: Here are the two crests. [ with help from Adalia]
Adalia: No one has any idea what it is?
God: Furus is has the closest idea, he thinks it is a symbol from a new religion, or maybe a splinter group of the old gods (similar to catholics, baptist, lutheran, etc) they usually keep the same tenants and symbols, but may change if they change alignments. It doesn’t really look like any of the other gods, there are no others with krackens.
Adalia: I was wondering if it was like an inverted Liguaquide? But looking at them, they aren’t really the same. The upside down square makes me think it is the inverse or opposite of something already established.
God: [links to religions page to show all symbols] There are also the Dwarven Gods, they have their own god system that is not really related to any other on this world, they are from their own plane of existence.
Adalia: If crests or religious symbols look similar, is it because they are from the same generator or are they related?
God: They are related, but they are a little limited. I tried to link things so that similar colors/patterns went to a group
Adalia: So if I look at the background of Oure and the background of the kraken, are those linked?
God: That is a wonderful question God will not answer.
Adalia: Ok I am putting things together, the darkness can be Oure, the lines can be Shinze, the blue may be Liguaquide.
Nira: The problem that vexes me is that the watery void opened and starting sucking things to the deep.
God: I suggest, not that you sit and do research, but you will have quests with scholarly people and you ask/learn about the history of the world.
Nira: so the rift isn’t growing at an exponential rate?
God: No, I will tell you as God, the rift closed once it wasn’t being fed.
Nira: oooookkkaaay.
Adalia: Alright, Nira, you’re fine.
Belladonna: It is nice when God tells you those sorts of things.
God: It will come back up, you will encounter more rifts.
Belladona: The flood we released?
God: Yes, the flood, and the weird mist that Carindrina stuck her arm into.
Adalia: That may or may not have caused the baron’s death?
God exactly. I tried to keep images consistent to leave clues. Let’s go through mysteries and see what I missed.
Nira: Vampires!
God: You know more history now, the one vampire shares the name of the last Stoneblood heir who was promised to a Glasserune.
Adalia: Oh shit, that isn’t coincidental, right? She is the heir?
God: Yes.
Nira: But he isn’t marrying her, he is in love.
Adalia: He’s engaged to Elaine Tanglewood
God: Exactly. So Blethela, survived as the Glasserunes killed her entire family, her mother’s dying magic was used to curse them to always turn to vampires when they died. Their God abandoned them and the old gods promised to protect them if they worshipped them and promised to never betray anyone.
Adalia: If you all your vegetables and don’t kill any more whole families
God: Exactly. You don’t know the name or any identifying features of the male vampire, but Blethela is the only known surviving heir to the Stoneblood family. So the whole conversation with her about this is her home, she wants everyone out..this was her home first. She said she isn’t turning anyone into vampires.
Nira: She also said she wasn’t stealing the kids, right? I mean, right now, she isn’t doing anything and is not really our problem.
God: Yes
Adalia: She did say she wanted to drive everyone out of the land, though.
God: She said she was coming home. Whether that is the manor, the ton, the land, you don’t know. You aren’t really sure what she wants.
Nira: I’m down for figuring it out.
God: I know this is a rough moral proposition, but if you could marry her into the Glasserunes, that might help, but you would screw over Elaine and James and James’ lover.
Nira: But isn’t that how you break the curse, would she become human?
God: It wasn’t a curse, the family was vampire-touched like draconic bloodlines, so some were full vampires, she became a full vampire when she died. Not so much a curse, but a familial trait
Nira: no, the Glasserune curse.
God: Yes it could, theoretically they would remove the curse and no longer be indebted to any of the gods.
Nira: So do we bring it up?
God:I can see Belladonna is dying.
Belldonna: Do they believe in divorce? Could we marry them and be done?
Nira: Congrats, you are married, there are no rules, if you want, monogamy is just a concept.
Adalia: I feel like he wouldn’t lie and be dishonorable.
Nira: We’re not lying! We are married but not into each other, so we are seeing other people.
Adalia: I feel like this is a world where consummation is really important.
God: I personally wouldn’t want to tell a vampire that I was seeing other people while we are married. We can certainly give it a shot.
Adalia: Roll for survival check.
God: Belladonna would have seen vampires on Scath Mountain, at least in passing. You do know that recent history, vampires have not been neutral, they have been evil, unlike the past. The likelihood she will do something bad is high, especially since she has good reason for a grudge against the town and family.
Nira: I think she was dead and she was the lady in the crypt and they put her soul in a new body.
Adalia: I thought she did survive.
God: Interesting theories. I’m not going to tell you if any are right. [laughs about the tunnels]. The phrase “star of the forest” and mark of the star of the forest has shown up several times: ranger’s house, iron key house. You have no idea when Sweet Shimmer will ask for a favor, or what she will ask. You did not set any limits on how long she has to ask, how long you have to complete the task. She seems good, but...
Belladonna: FEY!
God: Also the shadows that attacked you and the merchant. You also find the fact that Thornyside, which is a large metropolis has been shut down for 3 weeks and no one has noticed. Nell did mention that 3 weeks ago, there was a party and after that, people turned into thralls.
Adalia: I want to know why that aligns with the Abbots, and it also happens to be a festival.
God: yes, the festival of luck. You know a kid went missing at the festival of light, but have only seen a picture.
Adalia: Yes, but the seer said that two kids went missing during the festival of luck.
God: You did get a small clue when talking to the merchant, he said more than those kids have gone missing, like 7 or 8 kids have gone missing.
Adalia: That lines up with one a festival. Except for the Abbots, who make me mad because I don’t know what happened there.
God: You could think about the vision from the seer, it wasn’t part of the vision, but she was giving answer/non-answers. She talked about the circle: the festival circuit is a circle, the roueda is a circle, time is a circle… and she said that the circle is broken in thornyside.
Belladonna: What? Did we share this?
God: Yes, in the group inventory for Wyrmwood Forest/Balvonier.
The circle is round, but also broken, things end up not where they've come from, but they all end up returning.
There are many more missing than you know. The family you seek is closer than you think, but much much farther from life than they should be.
What changed at the festival of luck? She says nothing changed, a child went missing, but they might say that two went missing as they are looking for another child
The Tanglewoods are drowning in darkness and drowning in sorrow
Adalia: who went missing at the festival of lights? Seer: "He was a child of music and the forest" Adalia: Do you know his name? Seer: I can only see in pictures, but I can show you his face.
Seer:Nothing changed, a child went missing, but they might say that two went missing as they are looking for another child. They went separately yet together. Adalia: Was Mrs. Abbot pregnant? Seer: I can't tell as Mrs. Abbot is too close to death. They have one more question before she must leave.
God: The family that you seek is farther from life than they should be..focus on that as an alternate meaning.
Adalia: Hold on. When did we see the seer?
God: [looks through notes] It was episode 8
Nira: So we go back to maybe with the vampires? Closer the death? Back in time because of the history with the vampires? Anyone else?
Group: [concentration engaged]
God: Here is the picture of the child. You know that with the horns and affinity for music, plus being called a child of the forest, probably part fey. Part satyr.
Adalia: I’m really stuck on who went missing on the festival of luck and i asked what changed, why was it a whole family? She said nothing changed, but they are looking for another child. Who is she talking about?
Belladonna: Maybe the parents are missing because they went after the child? But then why are there two children that went separately yet together. So one is missing but not from the same thing? Not the same place?
God: Did you just say fuck the fey? It didn’t come through but I was trying to read your lips.
Belladonna: No, I said this is why we don’t trust the fey.
God: To throw another wrench into this, the first episode when you met the Fey king and Queen, you asked why they didn't look themselves, but they told you the seer said they would die if they left, but saw you coming together and saving the kids.
Belladonna: How do we do that?
Adalia: We asked her, she didn’t say.
God: Adalia asked if Jolie Abbot was pregnant, and the seer said she couldn’t tell because she was too close to death.
Nira: She could be in a cemetery or something like *close* to death
Adalia: [mind blown noise]
Belladonna: Or like the things we found in the prison, they are close to death, but not dead.
Adalia: They could be in the castle as thralls, then? I don’t know that there is a cure for that.
God: You can cure a thrall if you kill their creator, or if you keep them apart from the blood for long enough and do a lot a lot a lot of healing magic.
Adalia: So it is possible
God: yes, you as a group would not be able to cure more than one person on your own. You would have to call in a witch, a healer, or someone. You could call upon the rangers, the shamans. Adalia has a way to get ahold of the Shamans (the conch shell). You could call upon the fey, you have the bell, however, Belladonna carries it so maybe someone who would use it should carry it. Belladonna could be bleeding out and not ring it. Also, another predicament for Belladonna, if she met someone worse than the people under the mountain, do you write their name in the book? Also, they offered to bring them to you.
Belladonna: If I wasn’t so squishy. Also I don’t want to murder them, I want to raze it to the ground.
God: Another reason to join the rangers guild, she could lead a not really platoon, but a group who could take the mountain if she was respected and part of the guild.
Adalia: How old is Hannah Abbot again?
God: She is 11.
Adalia: Oh, nevermind, stupid theory, I though maybe she was pregnant.
Belladonna: How many are missing?
God: Maurice told you somewhere between 7-9.
Adalia: It started at Balansera.
Belladonna: Is it important that they are all 11 year olds? Is 11 significant? Do they need 11 of them? I don’t want more to get taken, but what happens if they get 11?
Adalia: There are only 9 festivals. I don’t know, that is interesting.
Belladonna: maybe they only need one from each?
Adalia: Would they need to go one more to get the next festival of balance?
Belladonna: Why 11?
Adalia: That is right before puberty.
Belladonna: Is there any special ceremony at 11?
God: No, but kids who are going to develop a strong magical affinity usually come into power near puberty, hormones are high, emotions are high..
Belladonna: Maybe trying to pick them up before they get powerful?
God: Also, both girls you know of did compete in the festival. Eva developed her own strain of magic roses and while Eleanor wasn’t really magical, she was training her dog to ride her pony.
Adalia: Was it a magic flower?
God: When Midna was in their house, the seeds had magic on them, so maybe not innately magic, but used magic to create them.
Adalia: I want to go talk to Adele’s mom about what she is good at.
God: Adele makes flower hair pieces and sells them at the competitions for allowance money/pocket change.
Adalia: Did she compete?
God: She did not. Galia kind of babysits her, but she is also kind of a child herself.
Belladonna: How old was I when I was captured by the fey?
God: How old are you now?
Belladonna: I am 37, which is young adult. In The Hobbit, 30 is when they come of age.
God: You have only been escaped for over a year. Pretty recent trauma.
Adalia: that makes so much more sense.
God: You were pretty young when this happened.
Belladonna: How old is your character?
Galia: I’m twenty-ish. I met Furus when I was 16, he is a little older, he was 18. My family travels around, dancing, singing, telling stories, a gypsy-ish life. My uncle was old and wanted to retire, he told Furus he could travel with them and learn their songs.
God: Galia doesn’t know this, but her uncle promised Furus wood from the Jade Tree to make a new blessed instrument if he agreed to watch out for Galia because she is really naive and has magicked everyone into liking her.
Nira: He’s the smart one! That is sad.
Galia: I’m clever. He’s the smart one, but I’m clever.
God: Adalia, Furus, and Galia are pretty young. Midna is a full elf, dusk elf.
Adalia: Are they different like they live longer?
God: No, more like a dwarven, family first society. Not like the high elves where it is about the aristocracy and everyone else is left for themselves. Tabaxi live a fairly long time. How old is Venus?
Venus: She is a young adult.
God: Carindrina is older.
Nira: How young am I?
God: You weren’t allowed to leave home until you were 18.
Nira: That also explains some of my behavior.
God: Yes, it leads to your impetuousness. [random bullshit]. Hopefully you have a letter waiting for you back in Balvonier, at the Bloody Baron, which was not a Harry Potter reference, but a reference to how the baron murdered an entire family. I wanted it as not a red herring, but almost a red herring. Other things...The note in the Abbot’s house, they mention Khan and Bjon helping them search, Belladonna would know that many rangers take animal companions. That may be helpful because we can tell Juniper and Aquilla to try to search for another animal.
Adalia: What if Hannah Abbot went missing but she wasn’t taken until another festival?
Belladonna: I need a map of this child was taken at this festival, this child was taken at this festival.
God: Ask and ye shall receive. There is a page called missing children. [this is now updated to include the half-satyr boy]
Belladonna: Do we have the holidays?
God: Under “Lore” there is a page “Tricreche culture”. It starts at Luz, which is at the beginning of the year. They are all tied pretty closely to the fey.
Adalia: Did you name Hannah Abbot after the Hufflepuff?
God: Not intentionally, I named her after a girl I babysat because she was a really sweet kid.
Adalia: [Shared list of festivals and kids] Balansera: Unknown child
Cadea: Unknown Child
Fomhar: Unknown Child
The Black Hunt: Unknown Child
Grimmur: Eleanor Ford
Luz: Satyr/fae child
Orastava: Eva Mills
Adh Mor: Hannah Abbot (Adh Mor: They might say that two went missing as they are looking for another child. They went separately yet together.)
Samrah: To be Adelle

Belladonna: Well if Jolie Abbot was pregnant, we wouldn’t be looking for the fetus because it is inside of her. It wouldn’t have gone missing. And not the right age. But then who went missing?
Adalia: They went separately yet together….I hate the fey!
Belladonna: Join me in my hatred.
God: To be fair, if you saw all pasts, presents, and futures at the same time, it would be hard to make a coherent statement.
Nira: All seers have attention disorders, they can’t pay attention to one time at a time.
Belladonna: I’m wondering if the Abbots are connected to another child that went missing earlier, and the family went looking for them, but only after the festival of luck.
Adalia: they were trying to find one of the girls before they went missing?
God: They were stationed by the rangers after the first girl went missing because they were in town and the hope was they were there and would have better luck finding clues.

[change tactics to talk about game plan]
Belladonna: I have flaming arrows.
Nira: Holy oil!
God: You are shooting through a bar, so difficulty is going to go up a bit for arrows, but you can stick things that are not arrows through the bars.
Galia: I have several throwing daggers, punching daggers, darts, and a blow gun.
God: Their DC is 14 to hit, if you are outside the cage with a ranged weapon, you need to hit with a 16.
Nira: At this point, I should just stand back and hit them with energy.
God: How many spell slots? You have 2 higher level spell slots left.
Belladonna: I might use one of my panache points. I can turn a ranged attack to a touch attack.
God: Touch attack is 11 to hit.
Adalia: I have the hellish chains spell, so that could help for one of them.
Galia: I have a spell that creates a weapon and follows someone around and attacks them when they attack someone. I also have unarm foe which knocks weapons out of their hand, we didn’t see any, but may be handy.
God: There was a well of holy water when we came into the castle but it was draining into a portal.
Adalia: I can make holy water, have we tried that?
God: Vampires are strongly repelled by religious symbols that are held with strong convictions. So if i have a symbol and i don’t believe in it, it won’t work, if Nira shows a symbol of her god, it would.
Belladonna: Could you just shield the whole room?
Adalia: I could cover one person. I am worried about opening the cages. Would it weaken you enough that you have to sit out?
God: Yes, it would weaken you, it would depend on how many people gave blood. The people in the cages are all pretty weak, but potentially could help out. The theory that vampire blood can open it can be tested by the three vampires we now have.