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Dunmari Frontier - Session 83

Pyravela on Vindristjarna: in which the party gains knowledge and hosts a party

Featuring: Seeker, Delwath, Kenzo, Wellby
In Taelgar: Dec 30, 1748 DR to Jan 01, 1749 DR
On Earth: Wednesday Aug 23, 2023
Tollen

During the Pyravela festival, the Dunmar Fellowship attends celebrations, hosts a party, and acquires information.

Session Info

Summary

Timeline

  • Dec 30, 1748 DR, afternoon: Attend Dyer’s Guild party
  • Dec 30, 1748 DR, evening: Host Pyravela party on Vindristjarna
  • Dec 31, 1748 DR: Everyone experiences the final day of Pyravela in their own way
  • Jan 01, 1749 DR, early morning: The sun rises on a new year in Tollen

Narrative

We begin on Dec 30th, the second day of the Pyravela festival, as the party heads to the Dyer’s Guild guildhall, where the guild is hosting an elaborate Pyravela party. It is crowded, and much more explicitly religious than the parties yesterday, with priests of The Wyrdling wandering around, giving blessings and asking for donations to various charitable causes. Several familiar faces are at the party, including the tattoo artist Cecilia Lister and Escobar Garavito, the student on a Dyer’s Guild scholarship.

Cecilia Lister introduces the party to Delios the Sage, an old man wearing plain white robes, not in costume like most other people, who is a member of the Ancient and Honorable Guild of Philosophers. He seems fascinated by the amount of magic the party is carrying around, and asks where they got so many magic items, which leads to a discussion of Grimbaskal. Delios reveals – apparently gleaning information from a scroll he carries – that Grimbaskal is one of the seven dragons that hatched from eggs that grew from Cha’mutte’s destroyed body. They discuss Frankar, and Rai (who Delios says flew over Tollen in a flying castle before the Great War), and the fey. Delios and the Ancient and Honorable Guild of Philosophers do not particularly get along with Caelynn, it seems. Delios also speaks of Agata, finally making the connection that the party is the group that killed her, and reveals that she has always wanted revenge on Dunmar for their role in the Great War and the defeat of Cha’mutte. Agata, according to Delios, wished to see Dunmar destroyed from within, leading the party to relieze that nobody hired her to kidnap Sura, it was her goal all along to sow discord for her own reasons (as Hralgar said long ago, she was motived by revenge). Finally, they discuss Mashtu the Corruptor, a demon, but it is hard to know if what the party killed on Vetta was, indeed Mashtu or simply Mashtu’s servant. At this point, Delios does not answer more questions, saying he must circulate, but does tell the party the Ancient and Honorable Guild of Philosophers is always interested in trading information, especially the lost and hidden kind, for magic items, if they wish to visit after Pyravela.

Still at the Dyer’s Guild party, Escobar Garavito then introduces the party to Jane Chapman, a captain of a trading ship, and one of the people in Tollen who has been to Ursk. From Jane, the party learns that Ursk is a strange, magical place, a place that does not welcome foreigners, and where no one speaks Common, much less Sembaran or any of the languages of the Western Green Sea. Although she does not have a ton of information about what is beyond the walls of the closed city, she does suggest that if the party wishes to go there, approaching from the empty northern wastes might be easier than the guarded ports. As the conversation ends, the Dyer’s Guild fireworks begin, and the party stays to watch for a bit, before leaving to prepare Vindristjarna for their own party.

The Vindristjarna party draws an eclectic crowd, with many people who are not part of the Mos Numena religion and perhaps often feel a bit out of place at many Pyravela parties. This includes the elves, Melindir and his guest Elwis, who he will introduce at dinner in a few days; the Skaer Iskra and Kaupa; many halfings, including Wellby’s cousins Chenna Goodbarrel and Harriet Goodbarrel; the centaur Aurelia; numerous Kenku; as well as many Tollenders curious about this strange party.

Kenzo and Wellby are putting on an acrobatics show; Delwath plays host, wandering the crowd; Seeker is engrossed in the pinball machine he made, when an old dwarf, who walks with a limp and cane, walks straight for Seeker. He introduces himself as Faldrak Bronzehammer. He is a tinker and crafter, curious about the ship, because he is looking for someone to take him to a place called the Edge of Echoes, where elemental planes are close, he believes. He wants to get there because it is, he thinks, only their that he can finally finish animating his pet stone bird. He is ready to leave now - or, at least, once he learns the exact location of the Edge of Echoes from the Ancient and Honorable Guild of Philosophers, and makes plans with Seeker to meet for breakfast on Saturday (presumably, at least in Faldrak’s mind, to then leave for the Edge of Echoes). In exchange for a ride, he will fiddle with Seeker’s Glove of Crystalized Magic. The two of them then begin to fiddle with Seeker’s mostly-functional pinball machine.

While Seeker has been talking to Faldrak Bronzehammer, Delwath is circulating, picking up little bits of information. He learns that the Holy Well of Parmo, mentioned in Urgall’s scroll, is a holy site on a small island of the coast of Cymea, presumably visiting by Urgall the Black, based on Wellby’s reconstruction of the logs of the Flaming Tempest. He learns rumors of the empty spaces west of Ursk, and the empty northern wastes beyond Ursk.

Wellby, as the acrobatics show ends, finds himself talking to some Kenku, about the Kenku he met far to the east, the history of the Kenku, how they found themselves hiding from the world after the Great War, and how maybe it is time to reintegrate a little bit. Wellby also hears about the huge monsters that lurk in the northern wastes, giant snow worms that hunt based on vibrations on the snow pack; but he grabs the interest of some Kenku, and if the party ever decides to travel to Ursk across the far northern wastes, Wellby now has connections to find a Kenku guide to come along.

Kenzo, after the show, finds himself mostly spending time with Iskra, who has spent most of her time watching the show, Kenzo in particular. In the early morning hours, Kenzo and Iskra leave together, as the party winds down.

The next day is the most spiritual day of Pyravela, when The Wyrdling grants prayers and visions to those who pray to them, and the festival ends with bonfires. The party each handle this day in their own way. Kenzo spends the day with Iskra, talking to her about Tollen, and about Kaikkea, and walking with her, together but apart from the worship of The Wyrdling, as neither Kenzo nor Iskra are part of the Mos Numena faith. Wellby spends the day as halflings normally do, gathering and telling stories and being together with family, not concerned with the gods of humans, but relishing the quiet space to create halfling traditions. Delwath wanders, listening to the Tanshi and hearing their perspective on the festival; for the tanshi this all seems too big, too grand, too impersonal and distant. Seeker also wanders a bit, just observing.

We end as the sun rises on the new year, 1749, and the party gathers to plan their last days in Tollen, before heading south to speak with the elves of Orenlas, and eventually return to Riswynn and the Orcs of Xurkhaz, defending Uzgukhar from Grash and his undead army.