Astvanor Session 104 (2/24)

[cinaed]

There is no sign of what brought Tora’s body to their doorstep, nor the head at Mowria’s, but there is clearly damage to the dwarf’s chest.

Galowen has spent the night at the brothel Tora mentioned, learning about dwarven culture and food. When he opens the door to his bedroom, he almost misses it, except that a nearby dwarf gasps. He looks down to find a heart on the ground, with a note pinned to it with a dagger. It is also an identical note to the ones Hava and the others have. 

He recognizes it as a dwarven heart, stabbed through with the pin port-mortem after the person bled out. He can tell that the carve job is immaculate. Someone who is very used to carving up bodies did this, perhaps a butcher or a hunter. 

He asks the brothel workers if they heard anything, and they all shake their heads. He says he might be back with his friends, and the owner of the brothel nods before Galowen puts the heart in a satchel and heads to rejoin his friends, buying doughnuts on the way. 

Hava reads the note and looks up to see Mowria staring before Mowria shakily whispers that she knew him, they went to the same bar. Hava hugs her and says she knows. Mowria starts hyperventilating and worrying about Hava’s friends. 

Mowria gets a satchel and shakily holds it open as Hava puts Tora’s head inside. As soon as the head is in the bag, Mowria vomits into her sink. Hava tries to be as nonchalant as possible as she carries the satchel through the dwarven town before she spies Galowen also carrying two bags as well. 

Hava asks what is in the bags and Galowen says doughnuts before offering the wrong bag to her, showing her Tora’s heart. Beside her, Mowria starts gagging. He explains he found it with this, and holds up the dagger. Hava shows him Tora’s head and says this sucks. 

Galowen agrees. 

Inside the hotel, the rest of the party recognizes the headless body as Tora’s from the clothes he’s wearing. They go outside to inform the guards, and find two dwarves standing watch but mostly chatting among themselves. When Az tells them that they found a headless body, they ask if they want their money back from The Stone Bed. 

When the party tells them that it was Tora, the dwarves both seem shocked and believe the party must have a case of mistaken identity. In a city where crime is rampant, it doesn’t seem likely for anyone to kill Tora. They agree to look at the body, inform Tora’s brother Torin, and reach out to them within a week as they investigate. 

The party with the guards in tow return to their room, where Hava, Galowen, and Mowria are standing there with their bloody satchels. Galowen is studying the body, realizing that the dagger was used to cut out the heart but not cut off the head. 

Galowen explains he found a heart but at first hands the young female guard the bag of doughnuts. She’s briefly delighted by the doughnuts, which are from a popular bakery, until she sees the heart, and then recognizes the head. Her face goes white. She agrees that it’s Tora but says no one would’ve killed him. 

Diana says someone did, pointing out the head, the heart, and the body. 

The dwarf turns to her companion and says they have to actually investigate this. She says that they’ll take him to people who can investigate this. She sighs and explains that Tora was one of the few decent people in town. 

Yolov agrees that he seemed friendly and welcoming. 

The guards say that this is now an active crime scene and that the party really should get their money back from The Stone Bed. 

Hava suggests that she can try to cast Speak With Dead. She’s not sure if it’ll work from the damage to Tora’s body, but it’s worth a try. Mowria tells the guards what Hava wants to do as Hava begins to put the body back together. 

The party debates their five questions first, and then Hava stretches out a hand. Black ichor, like a boggy sludge, links the torn head and neck together as Tora’s entire body shudders. 

Yolov has his notebook out. He asks Tora if he saw who killed him, and Tora says yes. When Yolov asks what they looked like, Tora whispers, “Beautiful,” a couple times. 

Az asks him what they said before they killed him, and Tora says that she said nothing, and that he watched. 

Yolov asks where exactly Tora was killed and Tora tells them outside the bar. 

Hava asks the last question. “What do you want us to tell your brother?” Tora breathes out a soft, “Stay,” before the spell ends and his head dislocates again from its shorn neck. Hava says brightly that that went better than she expected. 

Diana says she’s going to close her eyes next time. 

The party debates what they should do next. They think they should go to the bar and investigate the crime scene and get some money exchanged to continue further along the dwarven roads. When they briefly consider staying to help with the investigation, Yolov says if this is a warning, then that means Marion doesn’t want them to continue, so they need to keep going as quickly as possible. 

They head to the bar, discussing finding Cassone before they leave, and see her wringing her hands and talking in a low voice to Sola before she spies them and looks relieved. She said that she was a little worried, not knowing what blood they all bleed and who died in the alley. 

The murder scene is in the same alleyway where Hava and Mowria talked. Seeing this, Hava gives Mowria’s hand a squeeze. Mowria says she needs a minute and goes inside the bar. 

Yolov investigates the scene, realizing that Tora was headed back to the bar and never made it inside. He knows that Tora is a smart man who knows this city and wouldn’t have gotten caught by surprise. He steps further into the alley, past the blood stain, and sees an overturned box and realizes that there was a scuffle. He sees that there is a single set of footprints of someone wearing heels. 

Peering closer, he can see where the struggle on the ground took place and discovers a long single strand of red hair. He picks it up and shows it to the group even as he realizes that this scene was staged to draw Tora in, and that Tora was killed and dismembered quickly and expertly. 

Hava pulls out Evie, who asks if she lost another one. Hava says yes and asks if Evie senses anything strange. Evie says it was here, the boundary walker and the trespasser. Hava asks if that was two people, and Evie says just one, she was giving it a nickname like Hava does. 

Hava tells her that Galowen calls him stinky man, and Evie says that she cannot smell and will never experience it despite her eternal life. Hava sighs and fondly says she’s so weird and she loves her so much. 

Evie says that his presence was tremendous in this place. Hava says that this sucks. 

Yolov carefully tucks the red strand away in case they can get someone to Scry on her later, perhaps someone from an Araylan temple. He goes to ask Cassone her advice on the quickest way to the peak and is told the northern road, which is more winding and has shittier towns.

Hava asks Cassone if that’s the one Maeve would have taken and is told yes, before she asks if Cassone knows that Maeve stole something expensive from a rich family. She gets impatient when Cassone expresses concern that Hava might get upset that Maeve is a criminal and says that she doesn’t care about crime, just about Maeve. 

Cassone asks who Maeve robbed and when she’s told the Crestiana, sighs and says it was a dangerous job that she didn’t want Maeve to take. Maeve took the job to get a member of her crew back after they were killed, despite Cassone warning her against it. When Maeve wants something she gets it and does what she wants. 

When Cassone admits that she and Maeve have been divorced three times, a situation that usually only lasts a day or two before they reconcile, Hava says that makes her feel better about introducing her partner to her parents. She watches a flicker of emotion go across Cassone’s face before she says Maeve told her that her parents were dead. Hava says they’re not and Cassone softly says that she believes her. 

Hava adds that they have a little sister as well. 

Cassone says that’s good to know. Then she says she’s sorry that Maeve isn’t here, but warns that every other word out of her mouth is a lie even when it’s true. She’s been pretending to be someone else for so long she can’t help herself, but she’s good at heart. 

Hava says she believes her, or wants to believe her, but is just getting a bad feeling about what she thought was true for a really long time. Cassone asks her what she thought was true. Hava admits she’s worried now that Maeve left her behind. 

Cassone reaches up and puts a gentle hand on her elbow. She says the people we love can hurt us and be selfish sometimes, and knowing that maybe someone was doing something for their own good doesn’t make it hurt any less. Regardless of what happened, with Hava staying on the island, her sister loves her. In all her make-believe stories, Maeve never got rid of Hava. 

Cassone says they should probably go, since there’s no way that guy is alive, pointing at the blood. The party says they know, they put the pieces together. Cassone says that’s something Sola does sometimes, which surprised many of the group after his distaste for being messy earlier. Sola remarks that he’s very careful.  

When Yolov asks for elaboration on who offered the job to steal the item from the Crestiana family, Cassone tells him that they were hired via Mother. The people were shady, but offering money for resurrection, so Maeve took the job. There isn’t any body to resurrect, which means it will be expensive. 

Audacity expresses surprise, and Cassone admits she didn’t know people could do that before the job offer. 

Hava has heard of this spell, which is extremely difficult and requires twenty-five thousand gold. She says that stealing from the Crestiana family could get Maeve killed and asks Cassone why she isn’t more worried. Cassone asks what she is supposed to do. 

Hava says she should have stopped her. Cassone says that Maeve wants Aria back. Hava says that maybe she shouldn’t get what she wants. Cassone tells her to tell Maeve that. 

Something about this argument feels familiar to Hava, though she can’t place it. She says that they should leave. Cassone says when she finds Maeve, she should help her, not stop her. When you lose one of your crew, you’ll do anything to get them back. 

Audacity puts an arm around Hava and pulls her away as Hava says she gets it more than Cassone thinks she does. Cassone tells her that she knows what she should do then. Hava says she doesn’t, which freaks her out, but she’s glad she met her. 

Cassone says she is too. 

Yolov asks her if there’s any message to pass along when they find Maeve. She tells him to tell her to meet her at sunset, she’ll know what that means. She adds that if it was anyone else she’d plant a kiss on him and tell him to pass that along, but he doesn’t seem the type, making him blush. She asks him to tell her that she loves her, which he promises to pass along. 

Then he goes to Hava and reminds her that no matter what they’re going to Iceclaw’s lair. There might be enough treasure to replace the price of the artifact.

Hava agrees and then goes to Mowria in the bar. She tells her that she’s brave, which Mowria says no one has ever called her before, then explains that Hava and the others have to go save Yolov’s not mom, his professor, and deal with shadowfell stuff. She gives Mowria a kiss before seeking out Cassone one last time. Hava asks her to have someone keep a watch on Mowria, earning a pinch of her cheek and cooing that someone has a crush. 

The party briefly stops at a bank to exchange some money before they take the northern exit. 

The dwarven roads are much like the first set, albeit less crowded. Primarily it is just their party as they follow signs that Diana reads, traveling up towards the mountain surface. They can feel a chill creep into the tunnels as they climb the increasingly ragged road to a great, wide entrance to the surface. 

They first spy the peaks of the mountains, closer than ever. They can see the purple haze and feel the chill down their spines as they stare at it. 

The second thing they notice as they step out into the crunching snow is a twitching little shadow, clinging to a nearby tree, seconds before it jumps into Hava’s shadow. 

They now have to choose between taking the dwarven roads to get to the peak faster or stick above ground to try and find Maeve on their way to the peak, following the caravan route. They decide to stay above ground and keep an eye out for Maeve. 

Diana looks up and sees the purple haze shimmers and darkens for a second, as though it’s moving and undulating. She doesn’t have much time to consider it before a voice in thick, heavy dwarven accent calls out, “There’s another fucking troll incoming!” as an enormous frost troll bursts out of the nearby treeline. 

It is a hulking creature, almost seeming made of snow-covered fur, as it barrels towards them in a hurried, violent pace. The dwarves look at the party, beginning to close the doors and shouting for them to choose in or out. 

When Diana translates, Audacity remarks that he’s in the mood to punch a troll and the dwarven guards close the doors as the troll barrels towards the party.