Redsands
On packing to leave discover that Chicory has wandered somewhere overnight. We talk with one of the owners of the inn and start wandering the lagoon to look for her, when Evangeline begins to hear singing in the distance that nobody else can hear. She leads the group in following it until they discover a grotto, as well as a pseudo-cavern with Chicory sleeping inside. Evangeline consults the small gods for direction, and she and Valerie follow the source of the singing and go deep into the cave. Meanwhile, SUPERB talks with an eel outside the cavern, who is interested in a coded message fae're carrying with them and teaches them a song that also sends them to sleep to steal it. Evangeline and Valerie return with Chicory after realizing the cave was larger than was possible in the nick of time for Valerie to wrestle with the demon eel (who we learn is named Shimmer), who discusses the nature of longing and who we bargain with to wake SUPERB and Chicory up. Valerie gives her a song in exchange. Evangeline also learns about the encoded scroll and recognizes the style of code from her time in the rebellion, and lets on that she knows a lot more about the rebellion than she has in the past.
The tyrant king
He builds his towers tall
But when he hears us sing
It makes him feel so small
He arms his men with swords
We arm ourselves with hammers
For breaking down his doors
And dismantling his castleStone from the castle
Stone from the castle
We’ll pave our roads
With stone from the castle
Stone from the castle
Stone from the castle
We’ll build our homes
With stone from the castle
-The Poet Valerie Adamant's adaptation of the folk tune "Stone From the Castle"
Mistcrown Peak
In the Ironwrought Mountains,
where dream and gods do meet
who is to say
what is real?
Six travellers meet-1
The Merchant of Fervor2
The Swordbearer3
The Roadside Blossom4
The LITTLE MAGNIFICENT5
The Wishing Flower6
The Loquacious Scholar7
Under a peak crowned in mist, beside the forge of the Skyward Smith who long ago passed into legend, in the domain of the one who made herself a bride and married the mountain, they meet in the storms of Monsoon, and dine and feast in halls of mirage and shifting mists.
The Blossom finds herself separated8, as is the nature of the mountain; others discover the Skyward Smith's forge, and her endless labors past even death.
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As is the idiom of mirage, faces and names are uncertain- instead there are the roles and masks we play until the curtain rises and the sun burns away the mists; until then, certainty is concealed and identity obscured and reflected back at oneself
-
Evangeline of Dragon's Well
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Valerie Adamant
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Chicory
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SUPERB
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Dandelion
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we were all drinking, she got depressed, the Merchant was comforting her and asked if she could do anything to help her, and Blossom is falling for the cool hot milf who she's traveling with. we also joke about the Mommy of Fervor.
tfw you're drunk off your ass on kitsune(?) liquor and the first stranger to ever be kind to you who's also a cool older woman WRAPS YOU IN HER SOFTLY FEATHERED ARMS and ASKS WHAT SHE CAN DO FOR YOU
and you puff-up blush super intensely1, panic, and bolt so hard that you cross back over the veil between realms.
we've all been there!!
- How does a stoatgirl blush? We determined that it's like when an embarrassed/surprised character in a Studio Ghibli film has their hair briefly puff up around them. 😌