I'm Not Saying It Was The Fey...But It Was The Fey--Belladonna's Inner Monologue

As the group wakes up in the morning, the smell of breakfast greets them. They gather around the table and eat. Carindrina was outside earlier than everyone else, she asked Buttons if he could find some dummies to fight for a bit. Belladonna stands on the steps, greeting the morning, but doesn't notice the Brownie's house. She went in and starts immediately telling the group that she was contacted to search for a ranger family, a mom, dad, and their 11 year old daughter. Nira, sleepily eating breakfast, snarks, "Allrighty, then. Good morning to you, too." Venus jumps in, "I have information to share, too!" Belladonna is mildly annoyed and Nira tells her to wait her turn.

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Belladonna continues, telling them the family was looking into the missing children, and disappeared 3 weeks ago, but that when she searched the house it looked like it had been abandoned much longer and when she tried to go through the garden, the plants attacked her.

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Venus waits to be sure she was finished, then started telling them about meeting the inn owner, saying that she offered to open a tab for the group, but Venus told Maria that since they hadn't discussed it, she would just take the money. She then passed out the money and began talking about her adventure at the stables. The farmhand had told her that Eleanor was really into training her pony (Muffin) and her dog, she was trying to train the dog to jump on the pony and ride it, and that some kids used to come help. In the stables, Venus found a training journal/diary that detailed the sessions she had trained the animals. It mentioned a few names, so she went to the tavern and asked Adele if she recognized any of the names, but the only one she knew was Hannah. Adele gave her directions to the house, but when Venus looked, the house was really abandoned and overgrown.

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Adalia asked if the two houses were maybe the same, and Belladonna said she knows they are the same because she saw Venus there, but couldn't get her attention before she walked off.

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The group debates for a minute and decides to start with the brothel and James rather than the home, as they feel that a fight is going to brew in the home. The group gives Nira and Carindrina a bit of a hard time about wanting to visit Emily, Quinn, and Karkov instead of finding more information from James. After a bit of razzing, the group goes to the Black Poppy. On the way, Adalia brings up that the intervals between the disappearances seems pretty strange and coincide with something, maybe the lunar cycle. Belladonna says it isn't quite long enough for a lunar cycle, but after a bit of debate, Venus and Adalia both announce that they think it is linked to the festivals. They realize the ranger family went missing at the festival between the disappearance of Eleanor and Ava. After trying to find another connection, Belladonna realizes from the pictures they have seen, the families and girls have all been fey-touched.

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As they arrive, Avery is outside gently playing music as the sleepy town begins the next day of festival. Furus says hey and asks if it is ok to let themselves in, Avery nods and replies that he will see them later. Inside, Carindrina steps forward to take point, "Thank you for finding the time to meet with us, we want to share some things about our adventures yesterday, but weren't sure if Blitherby would be a good person to include." He smiled sadly and admitted he wasn't sure about that either. She asked if he had looked or noticed any of the odd things that they had told him about yesterday. He said he didn't go looking, but he didn't notice anything obvious. It appears that James is still really untrusting of the group, and as Midna looks around, she realizes the workers are almost all near the door to the White Poppy, especially the Pebi Brothers. Furus asks if James would feel more comfortable in the basement, "chasing the dragons". James smirks, but hesitates, saying that he doesn't really use pixie dust, but he loves the dragons. He says they are occupied, but they could go in a room, but it might be a tight squeeze.

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Adalia tells him they are worried about him, they saw some really scary things at his house and want to make sure he is safe. Nira asks if there is anyone he cares about that he is worried for. He takes it as she thinks he is selfish and doesn't care about the town and not that she is implying they know he has a girlfriend. He tells her he cares about everyone in the town, that is why he has been upset. Adalia tries to steer him back to the dangers in his house, but he admits he was too upset to go home and wandered around the town last night. Adalia consoles him, telling him she understands that the ceremony was very disturbing. He tells her that he was upset but nothing had been written down so he just hopes they did it correctly. Nira tells him that he needs to write it down in case his kids need to know. He tells her he usually takes good notes and he will write everything down assuming they don't have a vampire rise in 5 days.

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Carindrina steps in again, and asks about the book she gave him from Lady Caltain, saying she hoped it gave him some peace in the midst of this uncertainty. He says it dodn't give him any peace, and if she read it, she would know his secret is terrible. He is worried that he brought the curse down because of a request he refused from his father. He asked him to reconsider something they had promised to do, it affects everyone, the gods, the fey,his family, the other families and all of Tricreche. Nira goes "Holy shit, dude." and Carindrina glares her into silence.

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Carindrina says she understands that she has had to make hard decisions in battle and she knows how difficult can be to defy orders. Nira asks him what decision was so monumental that he couldn't go through with it because of his heart. Adalia was trying to hold her back, but Nira pressed on. Carindrina interjects that she doesn't think the other people in the group knows how heavy this responsibility is and asks if they can help ease the burden. He asks them to swear on the Dumbraava, the heart of the forest, that they will not tell anyone what he says. Galia whispers to the group that local legend is taht if you break an oath on the heart of the forest, the fey will kill you in a horrible manner. Galia then swears, and Adalia follows her lead. Belladonna begins to walk out. Carindrina asks him to swear on the heart of the forest that the promise they make won't harm the people in this village. James agrees. Carindrina, Furus, Venus, and Midna all agree to swear. Galia goes to Belladonna, and begs her to help. Furus tries to help, telling her that if the fey come to kill her, it is her chance to stab their eyes out. Adalia shakes her head and says, if we don't break the oath, there isn't a problem. And the unlikliest of friends, Galia is the one who finally gets through to her, telling her that she can tell that Belladonna is an honest and noble person who would never break and oath she takes, if she doesn't feel comfortable ytaking the oath, the group will try to guide her towards decisions that will help the community. Galia explains that she made a promise not to force people to do things, so she is asking as someone who cares very much for the people of this town, if she would please help them. Belladonna agrees to come back and makes the oath.

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James thanks them for taking the oath, and explains that his father had wanted him to marry the daughter of another noble family, The Tanglewoods. Her family follows Liguaquide and his family follows Shinze, which is how his family has operated for centuries, and now he knows thanks to information from Carindrina, that it is actually important for his family to be set up with that worship. However he doesn't love her, he loves someone else. He is worried that now that he knows this, he should end his relationship so that he doesn't inflict the curse on the town. His father hadn't made a decision when he died, they were going to talk about it in the morning, but in the morning he was dead.

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Carindrina says she understands the need for secrecy. Adalia asks how involved Blitherby was involved. James explains that Blitherby is instrumental in organizing meetings between the families, as Tricreche is run as a council of the families and not a king, but Balvonier is the capital so Blitherby does organize many of the meetings. Adalia tells him they found a letter from Blitherby to Elaine Tanglewoos sayings "This was not in our agreement. Where did you put it?". James says he doesn't know why she would need aletter from Blitherby since her parents run the town, unless she was beginning to take over. They didn't have any agreements other than their engagement, which while it has been in motion for several years, wasn't officially announced.He asks when Blitherby mailed the letter. Adalia tells him that they knew the sword was missing. but initially he didn't tell Blitherby, he only told him just before he met the group. He has only seen Elaine a few times, but he didn't feel anything for her.

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Furus asks him to clarify why it weighs so heavily on him. James said it wasn't weighing so heavily on him until his father died, and now he feels that he needs to follow through with his Father's final wishes, and now that he knows the religions and the promises are so important and tied to the curse. They also need to keep agreements with the other towns on the Roueda or the roads can be dangerous and peopel can go missing. Carindrina asks if he has made a promise to the Tanglewoods or the girl he loves. He says he has to the girl he loves. Cardrina says she understands that, but thinks he needs to honor his promise. He is unsure because if his father made the deal for him, he needs to honor it, and he knows that if he asked his love she would let him go for the safety of the town. Carindrina says she thinks honor comes from within. He asks if they will go talk to the Tanglewoods and ask them to release him from the engagement.

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The group agrees, but asks if he thinks the Tanglewoods could have kidnapped the ranger family if they knew he was going to back out of the engagement. Adalia asks if he could see a noble family hiring someone to kidnap a family. He says his family wouldn't, but yes, they could. Carindrina asks him to look at the letter they believe has half of the Tanglewood crest from Blitherby's fireplace. He examines it and asks if anyone has holy water. Adalia blesses some water she created and he poured it over the paper. some writing appeared, "I agree something must be done." He asks where they found it, and Carindrina explains it was in Blitherby's fireplace. James admits that it is odd that he would burn official correspondence.

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Belladonna asks if he knows about the Abbots, and he says he doesn't really know them, the rangers guild is really large and they don't really report to the local government.



Nira brings up the papers they stole from his room, asking why he had papers with information about the missing girls. He smiles a bit. He tells her he had been speaking with the guards about it and thought he might be able to help because he was a judge and remembered the girls, and when he was younger he really wanted to be a detective. He said he just wanted to be helpful, but doesn't seem to be able to do that lately. Adalia is sympathetic, but Nira continues, asking why he had a note saying he wanted to see his two favorite girls. He says they aren't related to the same girls, these are the two reasons he is so conflicted about his arranged engagement. She tersely nods, asking how he was going to fix it and who was suspicious. He says he was working on getting his father to agree to release him and he was getting suspicious as to why he was pushing so hard. She asks who wanted to go to the castle and he says his girls wanted to live with him. She said she assumed he didn't mean dragons, and he laughed.

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Adalia asked how official the engagement was. James explained that the initial agreement for arbitration was signed by the families, lady Elaine, and himself when they were younger, probably 5 years ago, because the agreed engagement date wasn't until he was 21, which would be this year. Carindrina says she understands his dilemma, then peers around him to smile at Karkov. She then tells him before going to the Tanglewoods, they need to go investigate an abandoned house and asks if he knows of it. He says that most houses are at least a little bit taken by the wilds, but he doesn't really know of a specific house. He asks if it is related to the rangers and the group explains it is the rangers and also the other disappearances. He asks if he can do anything to help? Carindrina rounds the group up and says they will be going, but first she tries to seduce Karkov. She makes an awkward wink/blink and he smiles and pats her on the head. Embarrassed, she turned and left.

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The group decided to do a quick split. Furus, Carindrina, Belladonna, and Nira went to the Bubbling Candle to talk to Yvaine about the weird waters Furus collected from under the manor. Belladonna warns them to be very careful dealing with the fey.

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Adalia, Venus, Midna, and Galia head to seek out the Faerie Seer in the forest to see if she had any information. They find her meditating and sitting quietly. Her eyes are silver like mirrors and she is holding a silver mirror in one hand. Galia goes up and bows, asking for access to her sight so they can help the forest. She has a very thin whispery voice that echoes inside their minds, asking what they would like to ask. Adalia begins with where have the missing people been going? She says " The circle is round, but also broken, things end up not where they've come from, but they all end up returning." Confused, Adalia asks specifically where is the Abbot family, Eleanor, and Ava. She says" 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." Adalia and Venus give eachother a knowing glance, whispering that she is making the fey seem really guilty. Adalia asks if other people disappeared at the festival of light. She says yes. Encouraged, Adalia asked who went missing at the festival of lights. She says that she doesn't know the name, "He was a child of music and the forest" and she can show her his face. She explains she can only see in pictures. Adalia asks Galia if it ok for her to allow the seer to show her a picture in her head. Galia said it was fine, but asks the seer to share with everyone in the group. The seer nods and sends the vision. It is a young boy and he looks part-satyr. Venus asks if she knows who will go missing next, she says she does and they will recognize her, showing them a vision of Adele, the tavern owner's daughter. She says that " We hope to stop it, but sometimes in stopping one, another takes it place." She then asks if they have found the children, as she has seen the group find them. Adalia asked if any children went missing for the same reason before Grimmur. She says she can't see what takes them, and she can't see the reason, but it is something evil and dark that is blocking her vision, and it starts breaking the circle of the Roueda in Thornyside. Adalia asks again if any other children mysteriously disappeared before Grimmur. She says as the seasons go, one child has gone missing every festival starting at Balansera one year ago, at the festival of balance children have been going missing. Adalia clarifies, "Just one?" She says, yes. Adalia asked 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. Adalia is very confused. The seer says they went separately yet together. Adalia asks if Mrs. Abbot was pregnant. The Seer says she can't tell as Mrs. Abbot is too close to death. At a loss, the group sits for a second. The Seer says they have one more question before she must leave. Venus asks if she can sense any darkness or deceit from the Tanglewoods. She says the Tanglewoods are drowning in darkness and drowning in sorrow. The seer offers to let them look in the mirror before they go. Galia warns them that looking in the mirror can be dangerous as some people can get lost when they are looking through time and it can take you a few days to find your way back.

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Adalia and Midna look in the mirror with no issues, but Galia and Venus stand transfixed. Adalia grabs Juniper and gives her the command to defend Galia. Juniper bites her arm and drags her away from the pull of the mirror. Galia sinks to her knees and hugs Juniper tightly. Looking over and seeing Venus, Perry is lightly tapping her legs, but she isn't responding. Adalia and Galia call to her, telling her that she must return, there are things they need to do now, and she needs to return to the present. Venus looks horrified and tells the group she saw many terrible things. Galia nods solemnly. The Faerie seer disappears and they are transported back to the edge of the forest and the town limits. The group quietly walks to the center of town to meet the group at the apothecary.

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