Day 13 (S8-9)

Rina 8
Start blending, end at Tunnel inn
Kin waits for us to wake up around noon (Rina Day 9 - haha oops).

Kin made his way back into the city on the day the Sprite's Lights were intended to meet with Francis the consort king at noon. He went to the Tunnel inn and waited outside on a bench. Sunrise came and went, and the hours ticked by.

Rina, Aurelius, and Alice began to come out of the Blending at around 11:30 am.
"Ugh" Alice groaned, "My head is killing me."
"I need to get some real food" said Aurelius.
"I want coffee" said Rina.
The three of them noticed right away that they had a deeper connection. Not just because they had a religious experience together, but the blending had actually connected their minds in a psychic way. They could now communicate with each other in their minds with three different words: Forward, Danger, and Hold. These could be understood in different inflections, also. So it could be a question, a demand, or simply a suggestion.
The three of them also found themselves to have additional abilities. Alice could now use Legend Lore, Aurelius got Wall of Force, and Rina got Scry.

They all walk out of the inn, covered in dirt and smelly water, and saw Kin waiting for them.
"What took you all so long?" Kin asked, "Our appointment is in like 20 minutes!"
"But I need a bath!" said Alice.
"Yeah, we're smelly" Aurelius added.
"A bath will have to wait" said Kin.
They all glanced over at Rina, whose clothes were perfect and completely clean.
She smiled, "Clothes of Mending, friends. They're a great thing to have when you need to talk to a king."
As they walked, they could feel that the people of the city felt just a little friendlier now that they had done the Blending. Though they were friendly before, now their connection to the people of the city gave them more respect for each person, and each person showed more respect to them.

They got to the inner city just in time for their appointment, the man checking them in greeted them, "Hello, Sprite's Lights?"
"Yes, that's us" said Kin.
"Good," he responded, "please wait here for King Consort Francis."
The waiting room had high ceilings and jet black walls. Small lights powered by the windmills were all lining the walls.
Suddenly the air got cold, the room swiftly developing frost on the floor and chairs.
"What's happening?" asked Alice.
"I have a bad feeling about this" said Kin.
Rina sighed and sunk down a bit in dread, "Oh no... not now..."
"What do you mean not now?" asked Aurelius.
It continued to get colder and colder, the party could see their breath on the air.
"Ok, fine..." Rina said, "I guess I have no choice."
"What do you mean you have no choice!?" Kin exclaimed.
"Come on in, Enoch" Rina said begrudgingly.
The sexy devil then appeared in the corner, leaning against the wall, "Well, it's about time."
"What do you mean 'about time'?!" exclaimed Alice.
"I've been trying to reach her" Agronoch pointed to Rina, "for two days!"
"Sorry, Enoch," Rina answered, "I was doing the Blending and couldn't just come out of it."
"Why would anyone do that?" Agronoch said, "What a dumb thing to go do."
"Hey," started Aurelius, "Aren't you the guy who was in Rina's bed back in Vorovni?"
"Aurelius!" Rina yelled, "Don't just say that stuff to people. It's not like that!"
"Is it not?" Aurelius asked Agronoch directly.
Acronoch shrugged, "Who cares?"
"I care!" said Rina, "And I'm sure he doesn't want people to be thinking that stuff either."
"I don't care what people assume about us" said Agronoch, "It's not like it would matter anyway."
Kin looked at Rina in horror, Rina just stood there with her hand covering her face.
"Who even are you?" Asked Alice.
"You mean she hasn't talked about me?" he asked, "How rude. On my side, I'm basically a celebrity!"
Rina looked up and sighed again, "This is Enoch. He's... my warlock patron."
"So are you two sleeping together or what?" interrupted Aurelius.
Rina just looked at Aurelius with disgust.
Enoch then piped up, "Look, you all seem... lovely... but I gotta go. I'll talk to you" he pointed to Rina, "later tonight - alone."
And just like that, Agronoch disappeared, and all the frost and cold left with him.
Kin continued staring at Rina with a scowl, Alice began laughing hysterically, Aurelius seemed to be sulking a bit - still assuming Rina and Agronoch were more serious.

Suddenly a voice from the other room began to boom, "Announcing, King Consort Francis of Pennislovica."
A young Dhampir appeared in the doorway.
"Good afternoon!" Francis greeted them, "I heard you were sent here by Drake - this must be important!"
"Yes," started Kin, "We are the adventuring party who handled the Riverbend issue with the Disappearing people."
"That was you?!" Francis said excitedly, "Well that is great news. We may actually want your help with something, then."
"The king wants our help? Already? How do you know you can trust us?" asked Alice.
"And how do we know we can trust you, Vampire?" asked Kin.
Francis smiled, his fangs showing on either side, "If Drake trusted you enough to send you here, then we trust you. As for you trusting us - Castle Frey has been ruled by my husband, King Sullivan Frey, for nearly a thousand years."
"A thousand years?!" exclaimed Alice, "And I thought Rina was old."
"Hey!" Rina protested, "300 is actually not that old for an Elf."
Francis laughed, "So, you have seen a few centuries, that's older than even some of the Dhampir here."
"How old are you?" Asked Rina.
"Oh, I just turned 37!" Francis answered, "I actually just recently became one of the Dhampir, I'm still getting used to these" he grabbed at his pointed ears, "and I keep almost biting myself with the new fangs, too."
"So what would the king of the vampires" want with us?" said Kin again.
"Ah, yes!" Francis started, "You see, we had a similar incident nearby. No one got hurt, thankfully, but a strange monster appeared in Youngru about a week ago. We intended to send someone to capture it, but some mercenaries got to it first. They're staying in town at the Floppy Hat Inn on the west side of town by the river, and they are asking the crown for payment for killing it. We want to see the body before agreeing to any payment, but they have been very unwilling to show us proof of their success."
"So..." started Alice, "You want us to steal the Bodak body?"
Francis smile and pointed at her, "Exactly."
"We're stealing a monster body?! Cool!" celebrated Aurelius.
"But they cannot know we sent you" said Francis, "It would not look good on he crown for us to send someone to steal something. We would like to have the body in our possession within a week - few things are worse than a body that's been sitting over a week."
"We can do that!" said Alice.
"So you all agree?" Francis asked.
"Sounds good to me!" said Aurelius.
Rina and Kin looked at each other a moment, then both nodded at once.
"Great!" Francis started, "I will be watching the north tower from my window - when you are ready for my men to get the body from you, light the fire there. I will make sure the guards there know that you four have clearance."
"By the way," Francis continued, "Why do the two of you smell SO bad?"
"We just did the blending" answered Rina, "Well, except Kin."
Kin looked away haughtily.
"You three did the blending?" said Francis, "That's just wonderful! It is lovely to see new people joining the subconscious connection of our people."
"I'm honored to have been a part of it" said Rina, "experiencing other cultures is one of my favorite things to do."
Francis smiled again, "Thank you, friends. But unfortunately I have to go. Oh, hey! Check this out!" Francis then changed into his bat form, a very small creature, barely able to fill the palm of a hand. He tried to jump, but it seems bats do not really have the ability to jump.
Rina activated her Beastspeach and Alice used speak with animals to speak to him, "You nee help?" Rina asked.
"Heh, yes please" he said, "Like I said, I'm still getting used to this."
Rina went and gently scooped him up.
"I'll make sure your exit looks extra cool!" Alice said.
Alice created a swirl of fog around Francis as Rina tossed him in the air.
"Thank you!" he squeaked to them as he flew away.

S9

After their meeting with Francis, the Sprite's Lights went to scout out the Floppy Hat Inn.
The Floppy Hat Inn is a 5 story tall tower in the east side of Castle Frey. On one side of the building is the river Isely and the other side is a busy alley. It has lots of windows, and the majority of the tower is still under the cover of the stone roof of the castle.
"We should get a room at the Floppy Hat inn" said Kin, "It would be easier to figure out where the body is and how to get it if we are close."
"Well, most of us are kinda gross," said Aurelius, "We need a bath and I'm pretty sure there's a public bath on the southeast end of the city by the river."
"I need a bath and a nap" said Alice.
"A nap?" questioned Rina, "We basically just slept for 3 days."
"You clearly don't understand sleep" responded Alice, "a mushroom trip is exhausting."
"Yeah" responded Aurelius, "tell me about it."
Kin went into the Floppy hat in, "Excuse me" he started speaking to the woman at the check-in counter, "We would like your biggest room."
"Oh, ok that would be the penthouse suite, it's the entire top floor. It will be 100 gold per night."
"Great," Kin said, "We will take it for 7 nights."
Kin then pulled out the party fund chest and pulled the gold from there.
"Thank you sir!" said the lady at the counter, "Will you need assistance with your things?"
"Oh, no" said Kin, "It's a working man's life to do his own job."
"Oh, you're doing a job while you're here?" she asked.
"Yes, I'm going to be working a lot in the city with my wares and I'll be needing to move boxes and barrels to the penthouse this week."
"So you're a trader, then! Wonderful, I hope you enjoy your stay."
"Thank you, my friends out there" Kin pointed at the rest of the party just outside, "they will also be in and out."
Kin came back outside and told the group what he'd done.
"Great work Kin!" said Alice, "Now I can go up and nap!"
"The room has a private bath, too" Kin said, "We could get that going for you two" he said to Aurelius and Rina.
"That's the first thing in my agenda" said Aurelius.
"Actually..." Rina paused, thinking about the drawbacks of being naked in a room with Aurelius and a bathtub, "I'll just go to the public baths after we all get a game plan."
"Oh, then me too!" said Aurelius.
"...to the women's only side" Rina added.
"Oh. Never mind" replied Aurelius.
They all went up to their penthouse suite to plan.
"I think we should spend the next 3 days scouting the place" said Kin.
"We can figure out who these mercenaries are and learn their pattern of behavior" added Aurelius.
"We can also establish a pattern of our own" said Rina.
"And make the plan to actually steal the thing, while having a few days to spare" said Alice.
"I need to get barrels or boxes to bring up here" said Kin, "I want it to look like we are constantly moving goods in and out. Eventually, maybe we can hide the body in a box to get it out of here."
"Sounds good to me!" said Alice as she jumped into a bed and passed out.
"Is that all you need from me?" asked Aurelius, "I'd like to bathe, eat, and go to bed."
"That's it I think" said Kin, "We can talk about more in the morning when we all get up."
"I won't be here immediately in the morning" said Rina, "I want to get a room to myself at the Tunnel inn - a regular room this time."
"You mean you won't be here?" whined Aurelius.
"No," Rina responded firmly, "and you have your wandering eyes and loose lips to thank for that. Never again will I be in a room with windows so long as you are around, Aurelius."
"You just want alone time with that devil guy." Aurelius replied.
"I would actually like to be alone for that, thanks for the reminder" Rina then left with all her things to head toward the baths.
Her trip there was peaceful, and the bath was uneventful - finally, a small moment of peace. Despite a few other women being in the baths, too, Rina finally relaxed a little.
Some of the Druce women there stared a bit, but they were all friendly. Rina realized that they were all looking at her teeth. Nothing had changed about them, so she wondered why they'd look at her like that.
Then she remembered - Elves and the Dhampir both had pointed ears. Though hers were longer than a Dhampir's, it might be easy for someone to confuse them for each other in this city.
Rina smiled nicely to them and said, "I'm an elf."
They all had a wave of realization on their faces.
One woman said, "We have never seen one of your kind before, forgive the staring."
"It's no problem," said Rina, "have there ever been elves here that you know of?"
"We have heard that the elves left about 70 years ago," another woman responded, "but almost no one in this city is that old. Except for some of the Dhampir, of course."
"We can tell you have done the Blending," a third woman said, "it is wonderful to see outsiders experience our culture."
Rina smiled, "Thank you, it was an honor to participate."
The women then went back to their own conversation, leaving Rina to decide to get out of the baths and go about her day.

While Alice slept, she had a dream that felt like a warming. A deep, dark cold swept over her. Salt filled the air, then her lungs. Reflections of blue and white and subtle green flashed in her eyes. Then a tar-black, blacker than anything she had ever seen, began to stick to her skin. An large yellow eye, then another, turned to look at her. Then the memory of the Mirror Stone in her pocket awoke her.

Rina decided to go back to the library to get the books she wanted. She passed the Floppy Hat inn on her way, so the decided to talk to the rest of the party before going.
"I'm all clean and heading to the library" she said, "anyone want to come with?"
"I'll go!" yelled Aurelius.
"Of course you will" responded Rina.

The two of them get to the library and Ida greets them, "Ahh, I see you have blended! Wonderful!"
"Yes" started Rina, "I am excited to get the books I really want!"
Aurelius waited outside as he was not allowed to go into the library anymore after last time, "You may be blended," said Ida, "but I will not tolerate disrespect in my library! You are prohibited from entering for another week."
Rina went upstairs and looked through the books in the blocked off section. Now that she was blended, she could enter without issue.
 She found 3 books of interest: one about folktales of the area - the Knight of Longshadow being one that looked interesting, one was details on The Kingdom of Bolgroth, and the last one is what the Fearsome 5 had checked out before their trip south - Niktalia Eternal.
 "Ahh I see you have found the book" said Ida, "I hope knowing what the Fearsome 5 were studying helps you on your journey to find them. CheepCheep and Marie were both very kind people."

Rina left the library and met back up with Aurelius.
"I'm hungry" whined Aurelius.
"Yeah, we haven't eaten today, have we?" Rina answered, "Let's go find a restaurant to get food and take some back to the others."
They found a small, nice cafe called the Withershroom, and a small coffee shop called the Blackblood coffee shop.
"Mmmm... coffee" said Rina as she sipped a small cup.
"Mmmm... food" said Aurelius as he had a small sandwich.
They got a few more sandwiches for the others, and Rina got some candied mushrooms. "These are our specialty!" said the girl working at the Withershroom, "They are cooked and coated with withersalted caramel. Don't worry, the cooking takes out anything that would make you trip like the blending!"
"Thank the gods" said Aurelius.
"I'm excited to try them" said Rina, "Thanks very much!"

Kin was gone, and Alice was still napping when Rina got back to the Floppy Hat Inn, so she just left their sandwiched and candied mushrooms on a side table before leaving.
Aurelius flopped down onto his bed and nearly immediately fell asleep.
Kin had gone down to the bar in the basement of the Floppy Hat Inn. Kin didn't drink, but he figured the mercenaries did.

Rina got back to the Tunnel inn and got a normal room. It was still underground, but it was much more comfortable with a bed and a small table and chair to sit at. She began to look over the books she had gotten.
She started by looking at the book that the Fearsome 5 had checked out. She looked at the authors of the book, and saw a few familiar names: Sullivan Frey, Godfrey Frey, Drake, and Therius god of knowledge. The date of it's writing was over 600 years before the current date.
"Hm..." Rina said to herself, "So the king and someone related to him, that I can understand. But the god of knowledge? A god helped write this? And why doesn't Drake seem to have a last name listed?"
She began reading it and writing notes in her journal about it:
Niktalia Eternal is about the planes and where souls go after someone dies. The “Niktalia Plane" is where souls go and wait to be sent somewhere else.
It is believed there are giant Shepherds that protect the souls in Niktalia, but no one living can enter and survive.

Alice woke up from her nap to find her food, and ate two of the three sandwiches. She'd had enough of mushrooms, so left those alone.
"Aurelius!" she yelled to wake him.
"Huh, what?" he yawned as he answered.
"I left you a sandwich and some mushrooms. We also should get the bath going," she said, "You cool going after me?"
"Only if the bath gets cleaned in between" he answered.
She rolled her eyes and went downstairs to the lobby. She asked the concierge to fill their bath upstairs.
"Can do, but it will take a bit of time" he answered.
"That's fine," she said, "my friend also needs one, but doesn't want to go after me."
He grimaced as he breathed in his nose, Alice did smell a bit since not bathing for over 3 days, "I can see why. We can only do it once a day for free."
"How about you do it twice, or I'll jump on this counter and throw my cloak over your head?"
"Uh... yes ma'am" he said, "Just please don't do anything like that. I mean anything."
She smiled as he ordered a few of the men to get warm water going to get upstairs.
"Did you see my other party members, by the way?" she asked him.
"The elf brought food then left a while ago" he answered, "and the other guy, I can't remember much about him, but I think he went to the bar downstairs."
"There's a BAR?!" she exclaimed, "I know what I'm doing while I wait for a bath!"
Alice went downstairs to have a few drinks and met up with Kin.
"Find anything out, Kin?" she asked.
"I think I found the guys" he answered, "Those three over there keep bragging about doing something great for the country, but complaining that they haven't gotten payment yet."
A fighter and a barbarian both sat at the bar talking with the bartender.
"They also ordered some food up to the 4th floor," Kin added, "so they're right underneath us, and there might be another member."
"Good work, Kin" Alice complimented, "Now I'm going to get a drink while I wait for the bath o be ready upstairs."
Alice hopped down from the chair, "Oh, I think I ate your sandwich - sorry."
"Sandwich? What Sandwich?" Kin seemed surprised.
"Rina apparently got us food, but Aurelius and I were asleep when she dropped it off. She's gone, again, too."
Kin shrugged and ordered an sandwich at the bar.

Once the bath was ready, Aurelius took the first bath since Alice wasn't there.
An hour later, when he was done, the staff emptied and cleaned it. Then began to fill it again. It was late in the day now, and the sun was down. Kin and Alice finally made it back to the room, and Alice finally got her bath.

Back at the Tunnel Inn, Rina then picked up the book on The Kingdom of Bolgroth. There was no author or date but she intended to read it next.
Just then, Agronoch appeared on Rina’s hotel bed, once again.
“Finally! You’re alone” he exclaimed.
“Yes,” she answered, “Finally, indeed.”
“Well, look, Rina…” Agronoch started, “I really don’t have much time now that we had to postpone speaking yet again.”
“Yes, Enoch” she answered, “I’m sorry I wasn’t available on day 7 - I was actually doing the Blending in order to make progress for our contract.”
“Well good! Glad to hear it! How did that… Blending… aid in progress, exactly?” he asked.
“I was able to get this book,” she answered as she picked it up to show him. “I could not get it without doing the blending, but it has information on Bolgroth’s founding and royal family.”
Agronoch smiled, “Good enough for me. And… don’t worry about being late. The weekly reporting is more of a guideline.”
Rina sighed in relief, “Thanks for not being mad.”
“Well, got to go!” Agronoch said, “I'm very busy on the other side working on this, myself. Have fun reading that… enormous book. See you in a week!” he then disappeared in a puff of frost, as usual.