Day 55 (S34-37)

In the morning we find out that those who drank the stuff from Alejandro made us hungover. We have disadvantage on Ability checks.

Those who are sober: all The Valedictorians, the Emperor's Whiskers, the Kobolds who accompany Muk, most of the Tall Tails, the Knights of Light the SuprasUpras, most of the Beasts of Tooth and Claw

Blanke wakes up in a pile of melted cheesecake, along with Gronk of the Salt Slayers. We all decide to go take a bath at the public baths.

Before we are able to leave, Rina is approached by Estella Parstelo, the leader of the Tall Tails - a team of all Tieflings.

“Which one of you is the Warlock?” She asked.

“Um… I am.” Rina replied hesitantly.

“I am Estella, of the Tall Tails. We would like to talk to you after round 2.” She said, “We have… information about devils that you may want to know.”

Rina perked up, “What do you mean you have information I may want to know?”

“With our species supposedly being descended from Devils…” She started, “We figure we know some things you may want to know. We would like to… Trade… information. Since you are one who has a deal with a Devil.”

Rina hesitated, and would not normally take this deal. But with Agronoch and his magic feeling very distant, she’s desperate for anything about him.

“Ok,” Rina said, “I will find you after Round 2.”

“Good,” Estella replied, “We look forward to it.”

Blanke went to the general bath area, Alice and Rina went to the women’s side. Mayoay approached them “Hello, I am excited that you have made it to round 2. Did you have a good night last night?”

“Yeah except Rina just got me drunk and left me!” Alice said.

“I was going to talk to you about that when we were alone…” Rina sheepishly replied.

“Well, then I will leave you,” Mayoay responded, “good luck on the battlefield!” she said as the walked away.

“Alice,” Rina started, “I realized last night when you mentioned that you thought you finally found a friend that maybe I have not  been the friend you deserve.”

Alice just stared.

“So…” Rina began again, “Will you show me how you need me to be a friend to you? Help me understand what you need?”

Alice just rolled her eyes.

“Please,” said Rina, “I do want to be your friend.”

“...fine.” Said Alice.

“Ok, well… Tell me about you. What’s your story?” Rina asked.

Alice began telling her story. She grew up in Northwood, a small village North of Vorovni. She was born during an eclipse and meteor shower, which was a bad omen for those who are superstitious. She was always very connected to nature, and odd natural things would happen when she was around. Her parents were told she was cursed, and were somewhat neglectful of her most of her life. Her family decided to leave Northwood one day, and left her behind without a word. She tried to live on her own, and eventually heard from an outsider named Kin Ray that there was a new coven starting up - the Sprite Light coven. She decided she wanted to join it along with him in hopes of learning more about herself.

“So… you were born cursed?” Rina asked.

“Yeah, that’s what they say.” Alice responded.

“So was my son,” Rina started, “But we never called it a curse in our house - we didn’t want him to feel like there was something wrong with him. Because there’s not.”

“I wish my family had raised me like that…” Alice trailed off as she exited the bath.

Blanke decided to wear his pants into the bath, despite the employee there telling him not to. He, Gronk, and Muk were all in pants.

Muk said to Blanke, “I paid money to fight you today.”

“Well, I hope you get your money’s worth.” Blanke replied.

We all get out of the bath and Rina, Alice, and Neely all notice their clothes are itchy - they have all been laced with itching powder. Alice was able to use Lesser Restoration to get Rina and herself non-itchy.

The itchiness causes disadvantage on saving throws. Neely is still itchy.

½ the teams fight each day - today and tomorrow. We are chosen to fight 2nd today, we are fighting Muk and the Grimers.

First, though, We see the “What the hecks” - Mayoay’s group - fighting the SuprasUpras.

The fight didn’t last long, it was over the water on moving platforms. The SuprasUpras lost.

It is our turn, there were ropes stretched across the battlefield with water below, there was a cage of rope about 30ft across. Muk, one of the kobolds, Neely, Lloyd, and Blanke all went inside. Alice, Rina, and the other 3 Kobolds all hung on to the outside.

Blanke and Muk worked on fighting each other directly, but Blanke fell into the water. Neely charmed Muk and the kobold in there with him. Rina and Alice worked on the outer Kobolds. Alice used her thorn whip and took off the arm of one of the kobolds so we get the extra money. Rina used scorching ray and hit a few of them, but then she fell. She used far step to teleport into the air above the ropes, and pulled out one of her black arrows and aimed a Muk.

End session.

Neely and Alice try to hit Muk but fail. Blanke uses the extending sword he got from Phesoi to catapult himself above Muk to get advantage on attacks. He tries to hit him, and gets a few hits in.
Alice turns into a spider to walk along the ropes, just as the ropes start to spin in the same direction as the swirling water below.
Muk shook off the charm, and began fighting Blanke directly again. "It's just you and me!" he said to Blanke.
Just then, Rina released her arrow. This was the arrow she purchased at the web the day before, specifically harmful to dragons and similar creatures. Her arrow hit muk directly through the shoulder, doing as much damage as all of the attacks he had sustained up to that point. Using far step, Rina continued to teleport herself 60ft above the ropes.
Blanke used his trees to try to pull Alice closer to Muk, hoping it would help her attack. She avoided it, not understanding what he was doing.
Lloyd took this opportunity to attack Muk, and finished him off with an impressive flurry.
Queen Loanna Staffon was on the edge of her seat, watching intently and excitedly.
As the final blow was hit, the water slowed and the ropes stopped turning. As Rina fell, she smashed her Rod of the pact keeper against the center pillar, sending magical ice shards across the water and freezing it solid.
The party all landed smoothly on the ice, and Rina gave a deep bow to the queen, maintaining eye contact with her.
The queen noticed, and whispered a bit to to one of her servants.
The Bound's round 2 was over, and they won. As Rina and the girls had walked off the main stage, now covered in ice, Blanke and Lloyd stayed to help the clean up crew break up the ice. After they'd all gathered on the ice, Rina waved her hand to make it all disappear, making them all drop in the water.
Rina may hate chaos, but she's got a little in her regardless.

After they get to the hallway, everyone cheers for them. The Fearsome 5 and the Salt Slayers personally congratulated them.
Muk came up to them, "Good game" he said as people from the medical bay were still trying to treat him - the arrow still stuck through his shoulder from the top down. "No!" he yelled at the people from the med bay, "I want to keep it there, it is a part of the battle scar."
"I like it there, too" Rina said with a smile.
"It is time for the next game to begin!" said the announcer, "Remember, anyone else fighting here today must stay to watch the games - it is mandatory!"
They all went back to the box to watch the next game. It was the Fearsome 5 vs the Logger Champs.
It was neck & neck, the main 3 members of what was left of the Fearsome 5 worked together: Marie and Long Neck on either side of Gunther fought and defeated most of them.
One of the other two armored guys they had hired pulled out a shining sword that reminded The Bound of the weapon held by Alric Ravenwood.
Rina became very hesitant and mentioned it to Alice. They were both fixated on it from then on.
Because of this sword, the fearsome 5 were able to squeeze out the win.
When it was over they ran out to congratulate the Fearsome 5, Rina ran up and hugged Marie, and Gunther made it a group hug along with himself and Long Neck included.
The next fight was announced, the the Valedictorians vs Thundersteps. Everyone went back into the viewing boxes, except the Armored Soldier that had the Shining Sword who helped the Fearsome 5. He started to leave, and Alice decided to follow him.
During the fight between the Valedictorians the Thundersteps, the Thundersteps were definitely in the lead, using their electric magic with their hammers.
One of the Valedictorians then pulled out a scroll and started to read it. One of the Thundersteps approached him to stop him from getting off the spell, but he finished it anyway. Just then, the nearest member of the Thundersteps completely disintegrated into dust, just leaving behind a pile of dust on the battlefield.
The other members ran up and just held a handful of the dust, and mourned together for a moment. The member of the Valedictorians who set off the spell stood there shocked.
Then the thundersteps beat him to nearly oblivion. The other members of the Valedictorians then popped their own blue balloons and the balloon of the man they were beating, "Please, stop! We give up. We don't want anyone else to die!" This stopped the battle immediately, and everyone was told to gather in the meeting area to be questioned.
"This game has rules to prevent death" said Simon, "But someone is guilty of murder here."
Everyone looked around, mostly pointing fingers at the Valedictorians.
"Someone sabotaged us!" one of the Valedictorians said, "We checked the scroll this morning and it was fine!"
Rina piped up, "Where did you get it?"
"The web," he responded, "Just yesterday."
"Then it sounds like someone at the web did this" Rina said, "The specters who work there guide you to what they think you need, after all."
"Now now, let's not start pointing blame there" said Simon, "There's an easy way to solve this - put them under a truth spell."
One of the Knights of Light volunteered to cast the spell on everyone, "You all have the most motive to do something like this," he said, "only the people here would have a reason to want them dead."
"Let's get on with it" another one of the Knights of Light said as the other cast zone of truth on the Valedictorians. "Did you intend to kill that man with that spell?"
"No, no! We didn't want that! Someone had to have changed the scroll at some point!" he said. They were all questioned, then the Knights of Light turned to the crowed. "Ok, who is next?"
A few other groups were questioned, "What connections do you have to the web?" and "Do you know anything about this murder?" were the only questions they asked, until they got to Rina. "Is there anything on you that you wouldn't want us to find?" they asked her. She knew that the End Medallion was in the bag of Colding, and she definitely didn't want them to have that.
"You didn't ask anyone else that," she said, "Sounds like you are trying to sabotage us right now. Like you did yesterday by trying to keep us from sleeping."
"Oh, um..." he started, "No, no, we would never..."
Then Blanke spoke up, also not wanting to let them know that the web is connected to The Syndicate who beat him up in vorovni. "If we all have to be under the truth spell then so do you, that's just not fair!"
These two things caused the rest of the crowd to get fussy as well. "Ok ok," said one of the Knights of Light, "We don't need to do this anymore. We just need to make sure everyone else is still here for those who run the event to determine what to do."
Gunther walked up to Rina, "What's going on?" he asked.
"I don't know exactly," she responded, "But you and I need to talk later about that guy you employed with the sword."
Just then Rina realized that Alice was gone.
"Where's your 5th member?" a Knight of Light asked Rina.
"I don't know..." she said.
"That seems suspicious, too." he said.
"Not everyone is here, anyway." She said, "Maybe she's just using the lady's room."

Alice had been following the Armored Soldier all the way back to Tower 4, trying to sneak. Just inside the door of the tower, he noticed her and approached her. "I thought your party fought well" he said.
"Thanks" she started, "I saw your sword, and also wondered why you left." she said.
"Oh..." he said, "Do you want to see more about the sword? I can show you."
"Sure!" she started to follow him.
He lead her to a different kind of room. It looked much more customized than their room, with lots of different armor and furnishings.
She watched him for a moment when they got into the room, he began to take off his helmet.
Suddenly she felt the tip of a sword at her back. She slowly looked, and over half a dozen other robed figures were there behind her.

End session

Not far away in a small restaurant, The bound - sans Alice - left the arena. Rina pulled out the Cylinder of Liquid that she'd been carrying on her since Mt. Ivatim. She had been curious about it for a while, especially since Drake could not identify it. She begins attunement to it as they walk to get lunch.

The 15 robed figures at the hotel seemed to be lead by an older man with a long, grey beard. The robes looked familiar, but Alice couldn't place exactly where she'd seen them before. They were dark blue, with red and gold on the edges.
"We just need to talk to you" he said, "we have been watching you and the rest of The bound."
"Ok, it's not like I really have a choice" Alice replied, "So, get on with it, what do you want to say?"
The hooded people surrounding Alice begin all casting the same spell, and chanting "No one shall witness this cleansing, no one shall witness her pain!" as they summoned dark spheres of magic that began to encase her.
"What's going on?" yelled Alice, "Why you gotta do all that if you just want to talk?"

"Don't you think we should find Alice?" asked Neely as she sipped on a cup of coffee.
"Yeah I'll use my blending connection to find her." replied Rina.
Rina asked "Danger?" in her mind directed toward Alice, but got no response.
"I can tell she's in our hotel and she's alive" said Rina, "but she didn't answer. As far as I know she could just be taking a nap. She does tend to do that after a fight."
"But don't you think we should check on her?" Neely asked again,
"Few things scare me more than Alice after she's woken up from a nap" replied Rina, "Let's just wait and see if she contacts us."

Back at the hotel Alice begins to freak out as the men continue chanting. She then begins to wildshape into a titanothere - a giant beast wit horns and tusks, one that would almost certainly destroy the room if she decided to rampage.
"No, no please!" the leader yelled, "We aren't going to hurt you, please just hear us out!"
Alice pinned the man against the bar area of the room with her tusks and huffed.
"Sorry, we weren't trying to scare you, this was all for show!" he said, "We're being watched and the spell is just to hide us!"
Alice reduced herself back to being a Halfling, "Ok, on with it then" she said again.

Rina continues to attune to the Cylinder of Liquid, writing in her journal at the same time while in the corner of the booth.
Blanke was eating more sandwiches than the kitchen could handle, and Lloyd was throwing silver coins out everywhere.
"Another!" Blanke yelled at the waiter.
"Um, are you sure?" the waiter asked looking at the pile of sandwich crusts at the edge of the table.
"Just keep them coming" said Rina, "it's keeping him out of trouble."
"Uh, ok as long as you're paying." the waiter replied.
"Haazaah!" yelled Lloyd as he threw more silver, "No amount of sandwich money is too much for my good friend Blanke!"
"You want one?" Blanke asked Neely.
"Um, no thank you, just another coffee for me" she replied.

In Tower 4, the leader of the robed figures began to explain things to Alice, "I am Elder Conrad," he started, "We are the Eyeless Kindness. We are members of the Eyeless Cult and we believe you may have something that belongs to us."
"What is this thing exactly?" asked Alice.
They all hesitated for a moment, unsure if they should speak. One of the more powerful wizards of the group nodded once to him.
"It's something that's very important to our religion," Conrad continued, "Something that I believed you picked up in Mt. Ivatim."

Rina finally attuned to the Cylinder of Liquid, and the Cylinder itself begins to glow. She can now open it to get the the liquid inside, but decides not to. "Hmm" she said, "I feel like this is something I shouldn't just be opening." She looked over at Blanke and Lloyd still bugging the waiter for sandwiches, and Neely trying to apologize for their odd behavior while paying way too much for yet another coffee.
She sighs and puts the Cylinder back in her backpack.

"I need to know more about this... Thing... you think we have" said Alice.
"It's a small Cylinder of Liquid" he said, "it contains something very important that we cannot let Luminus find."
"I don't have anything like that" said Alice, "But maybe someone in my party does. I honestly can't remember."
"Please do ask them," Conrad replied, "Luminus has been watching us for quite a while, and we have tried to keep this secret from them. If that liquid ended up in the wrong hands..." he trailed off.
"I'll talk to them" Alice said, "but I can't guarantee anything."
"That's good, that's all the reassurance I need for now, I will contact you in a few hours to get your answer" Conrad continued, "Now, we need to cast another spell on you to make it look like we beat you up, then we need to take you back to your own room. If a member of Luminus sees you, they need to believe this was a ruse to sabotage you. We must do it before the Private Sanctum spell wears off."
"Cool, I'll just pretend to be asleep" Alice said as she laid down on the floor.
They cast one more spell on her to make her appear hurt, then carried her back to her room and threw her in her bed.
As she landed on her pillow, she heard the familiar sound of clinking coins - a small bag of platinum was under her pillow with a note, "For the arm" it said. She opened it and found 35 platinum, she smiled, then actually laid down for a nap.

The rest of the party began heading toward Tower 4, Blanke getting confused by the revolving door while Neely and Rina were just trying to get in.

Out of the corner of her eye Rina saw a very familiar looking set of cat-like ears stand above the crowd, and a familiar swoosh of a cat's tail. "S... Sebastian?" the thought to herself.
Though she didn't truly think this was Sebastian, she was reminded that Darrian intended to come to Everhelm if the Beasts of Tooth and Claw won their 2nd round fight. Though they had not fought in the 2nd round yet, that was not in the front of her mind. She had not seen Darrien for over a decade - perhaps he was looking even more like his dad now.
She ran toward the tall, cat-like figure, who looked back at her briefly. They then began walking away from her quickly. She ran toward them faster, they ran faster.
She then activated far step to get closer to them even quicker. They lead her down a back alleyway near the docks where boxes and cargo lined the narrow walls.
A dead end. Rina looked up, expecting any cat-like person to be able to climb. While her back was turned the felt a sharp stabbing in her side. She now realized this was an assassination attempt, and she fell for it.
Upon this realization she reacted with Tomb of Levistus, encasing herself in ice which took all of the damage of the knife. She yelled "Danger!" to Alice in her mind.

Alice woke up in their room in tower 4, and ran in the direction of the call.
At this point, Blanke, Neely, and Lloyd had made it to the lobby. Blanke began to play the piano - albeit poorly - and Neely and Lloyd sang along.
"For we are jolly good fellows, for we a jolly good fellows!"

The hooded figure who stabbed Rina in the alley stopped, mouth agape. Rina could not move for a moment, and did not see exactly who it was that almost killed her.
The hooded person stabbed again, this time breaking the ice. For a moment Rina couldn't react, and the person then went for her backpack - cutting the straps and opening it, only taking one thing: the Cylinder of Liquid.
Rina, mostly unharmed thanks to her powers from Agronoch, decided to not let this person get away so easily. No one on this continent had ever known Sebastian, so how could they disguise self to look like him?
She far-stepped in front of the person as they ran, and threw 6 scorching rays at their direction. Three hit, and blew back the hood from their face in the process. One of the Fingers of Luminus, Anna Talley, the Pinky finger, stood before her. Anna then began to fight Rina in the alley.

Alice could see the two of them a few hundred feet away through the window. She opened the window, jumped out, and wildshaped into a Giant Eagle to get to Rina as soon as possible.
Blanke and Neely saw Alice, and began to run in the direction she was flying.

"I hate doing this," Anna said under her breath as she went to stab Rina again.
Rina dodged it as she had far stepped away too far for Anna to try and stab her with one of the Finger's Weapons she had tried to use the first time. Instead, Anna threw a different dagger at Rina, hitting her in the side where she began bleeding profusely.
Rina continued to run and far step closer to Tower 4, while Anna pursued her. Rina tried to use Toll the Dead to damage Anna, but missed.

Alice saw Neely and Blanke running below her, and swooped down to pick them up. "We're coming Rina!" yelled Neely, though Rina could not hear her.

Anna then paused for a moment, clutching the Cylinder of Liquid closely, she turned back, and disappeared again where Rina could not see her. Rina didn't need to know exactly where she was to hit her, though. Rina used her icy Fireball in Anna's general vicinity, doing more damage than expected. Anna was visible enough for a moment - it was now obvious to Rina that she was running away.

Alice and the others finally arrived, but it was too late - Anna had escaped with the Cylinder of Liquid. Rina decided to Scry on Anna, which was made easier since Rina had attuned to the Cylinder. Rina saw Anna running through alleys, then down into the sewers. She then pressed a stone on a wall which opened a door to a secret room.
"What happened?" she heard another - familiar sounding - voice say to Anna.
"It's all fucked" Anna replied, "they saw me, they know who I am."
The familiar voice spoke again, "Well, at least you got it."
The man with the familiar voice then came into view of the scry, his face barely visible for a moment, then much clearer as he looked directly up at the scry.
Alric Ravenwood the Grasping Finger of Luminus - now with a large scar over his left eye, said, "You keep watching, The bound - and enjoy the show."
He then crushed the scry in his hand, and Rina's mind was pulled back out.

The rest of the party finally arrived, but it was too late.
"What happened?" asked Alice, "Are you ok? Do you want healing?"
"No I'm not ok" Rina said, "but I also don't want healing. I want to immediately take this issue to someone of power, and I want the wound to be obvious."
"What issue?" asked Blanke, not understanding anything that just happened.
"One of the Fingers of Luminus just tried to kill me" said Rina, "First she tried to stab me from behind, then she got me during the fight."
"Someone stabbed my friend in the back!?" exclaimed Blanke, "This will not stand! We need to take this to Simon!"
Rina didn't want to take it to Simon, but started hobbling that way anyway.
Along the way, Rina and Alice shared their stories.
"Anna Talley took the Cylinder of Liquid that we got from the Shepherd, the one we learned belonged to Gabrielle." Rina explained.
"Oh... oh no..." said Alice, "So the guy with the flashy sword who I followed - he said he's of the Eyeless Cult and they really need that Cylinder for their religion or something."
"Well, they're going to have to fight Luminus to get it" Rina said, "I've had about all I can take of them today."
They get to the arena where those who lost their fight in the 2nd round that day were all staying to be cared for by medical staff.
Blanke immediately approached Simon, who was in the same general area. "Someone related to the Knights of Light just tried to kill my friend!" he yelled, "Killing in this is illegal, right? You need to do something."
Simon responded quickly, "Woah woah, hold on. Who tried to kill you?"
"One of Luminus' pawns" said Rina, "one of the Fingers of Luminus."
"The Fingers of Luminus are not in this competition" he said, "Anything that happens unrelated to the competitors outside of the arena is out of my hands."
"But the Knights of Light are related to them!" Blanke yelled, "They both represent the Church of Luminus, therefore they're related."
"Just because the Knights of Light follow Luminus, that doesn't mean they had anything to do with this." Simon responded.
Rina could see that this was not going anywhere, and began suggesting to Alice that they go to the Great Pyre to talk to the witches instead - they were there to balance out the Church, after all.
"How much do I have to pay you for us to fight them in round 3?" Blanke asked.
Simon covered his face with his hands, "Listen," he mumbled, "they're paying a LOT of money to fight people in a certain order, okay? You would owe me so much if I did that."
"How much, we will pay it" replied Blanke.
Simon thought for a moment, clearly flustered,
"90,000 gold," He said, "Luminus likes a good show! And it's my job to give that to them."
"Well if they like a good show, we will give it to them - you saw us out there, right?" Blanke answered.
Rina interjected, "Oh, so they're related to Luminus when it comes to your little arena, but not when it comes to one of the Fingers almost stabbing a competitor to death? That's a double standard if I've ever heard one."
"Fine, fine! 50,000 and that's the best I can do" he said, "and I'll even let you pay in installments. You just have to let me know by end of day tomorrow if you're going to commit to it."
Rina and Alice had begun walking away and were loudly protesting Luminus, Rina being sure that everyone knew that her still-bleeding wound was because of them.
Blanke stopped by Muk and said "Luminus just tried to kill our friends!"
"I tried to kill you, too." he replied.
"Yeah but they stabbed her in the back!" Blanke yelled so everyone could hear.
"I prefer if people stab me in the front." replied Muk.
"Exactly!" said Blanke, "Luminus and their people have no honor!"
Blanke and Neely then catch up to Rina and Alice who had continued walking slowly toward the Great Pyre. Rina still refused healing for the show of it, "It will do us much less good if we arrive at the Mother Witch and her people with just a story" she said, "the visible wound helps with convincing."

On the way there, one of the hooded men from Tower 4 came out of the shadows, his Blue, Red, and Gold cloak covering most of his body and face.
"Get back!" Blanke yelled, "My friends have been attacked enough for one day!"
The man took off his cloak, it was one of the younger members of the Eyeless Kindness, "No worries, I have no intention of hurting you" he said, "Alice, do you have what we seek?"
"Well... not exactly" Alice responded, "We DID have the Cylinder but..."
"But what?" he said, "What do you mean you DID have it?"
"Luminus took it" Rina interjected, "They attacked me in an alley and they stole it from my bag."
The man began crying, "Oh no! That's awful... what will we do? I can't... I don't..."
"What's it even for?" Alice asked.
"It's the key" he cried, "It's the key that breaks the seal!"
"Breaks the shackles of domains?" Rina asked.
He didn't answer, he just cried harder.
"I'm sorry" Rina said, "We are on our way to try to get help with the Fingers of Luminus, come with us."
Blanke picked him up by the cloak and carried him with one hand, "Uh, ok" he mumbled through his cries.
As they approach the Great Pyre at the edge of the water, the smell of the docks and fish fill the air. The Pyre looks larger than expected from a distance, and more intricate - small wooden pathways surround it with many entrances and exits along the large wooden dome.
Rina and Alice walk in together, Blanke and Neely behind with the Eyeless Kindness member still dangling by his robe in Blanke's hand.
Blanke and Neely enter through the mysterious front door, and suddenly appear on the outside of the dome on the other side.
"What?" said Blanke, "What's this? How'd we get all the way up here?"
They walked down one of the outer pathways and entered another hole, appearing - again - somewhere completely different on the outside.
"Oh no!" said Neely, "It's magically keeping us out! What do we do? I don't even see a way down!"
"Let's just try another door!" said Blanke.
They continue for a while, but have no luck. It seems magic only lets in those who have completed the Witch Trials.
Alice and Rina walk in to find a nearly infinite-looking forest with trees and small bonfires with circles of Witches of different Covens surrounding each of them.
Inside they see the WhatTheHecks, Mayoay's group, who come up to speak with them.
"Oh my goodness!" Mayoay exclaimed, "Rina you are bleeding so much!"
"Yeah, a Finger of Luminus attacked me in the street" Rina responded, "I know you all are supposed to balance the Church - and hopefully would not let an assassination attempt on coven witches go unnoticed."
"Yes, of course!" Mayoay responded, "We certainly can't just let this go. We must take the church to trial in front of Queen Loanna Staffon for this."
Another witch of the WhatTheHecks came over - someone who appeared to be a black void full of stars. They did not say any words, but Mayoay responded to them, "Yes, please heal our friend" she said "and if someone could help clean up all the blood..."
Rina looked back, she had a trail of blood all across town, and was very low on health at this point.
The witches all used magic to clean up the blood cross the city from the alley to the arena to the Pyre.
"Please my friends," Mayoay said to Alice and Rina, "Rest here for the night, we will make sure no one will harm you here. The Magic of Music keeps us safe here."
The witches questioned Rina a bit more about the details on what happened, "Would you be willing to have your memories projected in a trial?" Mayoay asked.
"Absolutely" Rina replied, "I want the world to know how out of hand they are."
The Mother Witch was there and had heard the commotion, so she spoke with Rina, "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. This is the last piece we need to really bring something against the Church of Luminus. The first, small domino to make a chain of change."

Outside, Blanke and Neely had found their way down the Pyre.
"You want more coffee?" Blanke asked Neely.
"Um, no thanks" she said, shaking from all the caffeine she'd already had that day, "I've had at least 4 cups now an honestly I really just need to eat something."
"I tried to give you a sandwich!" Blanke replied, "how about whiskey?"
"Um, I don't know if that's such a good idea..." Neely responded.
"We're going drinking!" Blanke yelled, still holding the guy from the Eyeless Cult, "You want some?" he asked.
"Nope, I'd just like you to put me down" he said.
"Where's the fun in that?!" Blanke replied as he walked to the nearest bar.
Neely followed reluctantly and had a few drinks with Blanke at a pub.
"Have another!" he said, barely buzzed.
Neely was both shaky from the coffee and sloshed from the 2 drinks. "Hiccup - nah I wanna talk to that - hiccup - guy over there..." she slurred.
She walked over and tried to flirt with a few guys. One of them tried to hit on her, but Blanke stepped behind her and intimidated him away - Neely was far too out of it for consent.
"This guy has fallen asleep already" said Blanke as he gestured to the Eyeless Cult member passed out in the booth, "we should head back to the hotel."
Blanke left the guy in the pub and took the very drunk Neely back to Tower 4.

Back at the Great Pyre, Alice had used plant growth to make herself a leaf hammock in a tree and fell asleep fast.
Rina had found a somewhat isolated area to be alone. She still had not heard from Agronoch in weeks. She didn't expect to at this point, but felt desperate for him after the events of the day.
She wrote yet another letter, telling herself that this would be the last one for the week:
"Agronoch,
Today I was attacked by one of the Fingers of Luminus in a back alley in an assassination attempt. I am ok, but I ache to know that everything's going to be alright.
Yours,
Rina"
She didn't want to bother him with "too much paperwork" as he had put it before. In fact, she didn't even burn it. She just held it tight to her chest as she cried a little.
The paper began to get cold, colder than the ice she had been encased in earlier that day, it then shattered in her hands - disappearing into dust.
"Soon, Rina" she heard Agronoch's voice in a reassuring tone in her soul, "I promise... soon."

That Blanke and Neely we plagued with bad dreams.
Blanke dreamed that he was in the competition - the final round. All his foes were slain around him, he had won. The crowd and the Queen were cheering, and they all look like muscle men just like him. They were all cheering "Victory! Victory!"
The crowd then comes into the arena to celebrate victory.
They approached Blanke, leaned down to pick him up. Then... they picked up a small stone that was at his feet instead.
"Rock, Rock, Rock!" they all cheered.
"But, I did it" Blanke said, "I was the one who beat them!"
Blanke then tried to grab the rock, but found that all his muscles were gone. He jumped for it, but could no reach. The crowd left with the rock and Blanke woke up.