Day 68 (S47-S48)

It was nearly dawn as Queen Loanna Staffon stood with Edmond Staffon's sword at Rina's throat.
"Guards!" the queen yelled, "Get them out of my sight, and get that elf out of Asmery - permanently!"
The party was escorted out of the castle, announcements throughout the city began to be heard, "Rina Michaelis of The Bound now banished from Asmery!"
The guards escorted The bound back to their hotel room to decide what their next move would be.
"No worries, Rina!" said Blanke, Lloyd and I can talk in our heads now. If we need news from Asmery, I can just ask that way."
"Thanks, Blanke," Rina responded, not really registering what was said to her as she packed up her things haphazardly.
"What happened to you guys?" Neely asked.
"Rina pissed of the queen and now she's banished, she has to be out of the country by tonight," Alice answered.
Neely rolled her eyes in exasperation.

end session.

"Alice, I need you guys to get some sending scrolls for me from the Web," said Rina, "I'll pay you back, I need at least two."
"Okay, I guess we're going to the web!" Alice announced to Blanke and Neely.
Rina continued to pack up her things as she saw the three of them leave from the window of her hotel room.
Guards were posted outside of the hotel, and a few came inside once they saw the rest of The Bound enter the foyer.
Blanke took out a piece of paper and a pen, "I need to write something."
"Blanke, I thought you couldn't read or write," said Neely.
"Yeah, you hate books - what are you writing, anyway?" Alice asked.
"I'm going to have this letter sent to the Queen telling her that I'm available whenever she needs me!"
Blanke handed to letter to a guard and handed him some of Lloyd's fake gold, "Take this to the queen!" He said with a newly found confidence of being knighted.
"Yes, ser!" the guard said as he tool the coins and the note.

As they got to the Web they were greeted by one of the masked cloaks, as usual.
"Hello, how may I help you today?"
"We need some sending scrolls," said Alice, "and I want to see how my googly eye business is doing."
"Yes, we have sending scrolls, as well as a universal sending stone - which would you like?"
"We will take them all," Alice said.
"I want my stamp to have my title," said Blanke, "Ser Blanke the magnificent of the Queen's guard, royal knight."
"Yes, we can modify your stamp, a few moments, please."
One figure went to get the sending scrolls and the sending stone, another went to check on the sales of the googly eyes, and yet another left to change Blanke's signature stamp.
A few moments later, one of the figures returned with the scrolls and the stone, "That will be 5,000 gold for the stone, and 2,000 gold for all of the scrolls."
"Great, I'll take them all. Rina's paying me back, anyway. Hey, are there any mystery boxes of magic items?"
"Yes, we have one mystery box. It is 5,000 gold. Would you like it?"
Alice paused, then Blanke chimed in, "I want it! Here's the money," he said has he handed the money to the cloaked figure.
Alice sighed, "Well, it's fine. They're getting me the information for the googly eyes."
Many figures were gathered in a corner going over paperwork with Alice's information. After quite a while, they returned.
"We have taken one dozen orders."
"Only one dozen? It took you this long to calculate just one dozen?"
The cloaked mask stared and did not answer for a moment, "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
Alice rolled her eyes and tugged on Blanke's mesh shirt, "Come on, we better get back. Rina has to be out of the city by sundown."
"But... the sun's still up," Blanke replied, confused, as they walked back toward the hotel.

As they were gone, Rina grabbed a small piece of wood she had been carrying around and began to carve with a knife. Trying to carve a mushroom, which is what she intended to carve the heartwood into. It did not look like a mushroom. "I need more practice. I need to remember to grab one of those woodworking books from home next time I leave."

"We got you a bunch of sending scrolls and a universal stone!" Alice announced as they got back into the hotel room, "You owe me 2,000 gold."
Rina happily handed it over, and put the scrolls in her scroll case.
"We should use the universal stone before we burn through the scrolls," Neely suggested.
Rina nodded and opted to use the stone.
"I need to send to Darrian, and Estella Parstelo of the Tall Tails," said Rina.
"We should also tell Valentine what happened," said Alice.
"Alice, I think you should keep the stone to Valentine," said Rina, "You deserve to be able to contact the coven you worked to hard to join."
"...Thanks, Rina," said Alice as she took the stone and used it to send to Valentine.
"Rina's been banished from Asmery, but The Bound is still in the Queen's good standing. Let us know if you need anything - Alice."

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Three of the Queen's guards were there, "We are here to escort Rina Afrisa Michaelis from the city."
Rina walked up to them, ready to go. Alice, Blanke, and Neely all followed behind them.
As they walked the streets, Blanke made sure everyone around them knew that Rina was with them.
"Rina's been banished!" he yelled to random people on the street while he pointed at her.
"Yes, Blanke, they know..." Rina said with her head down as they walked.
They got to the tree park and Alice picked a tree.
"That branch up there looks good," Neely said as she pointed up.
"Don't encourage her," Rina said, "I really don't want to have to climb a tree right now."
"But Alice always does that," Neely replied.
Just then, Alice decided to open the tree at the trunk instead.
"Time to go home!" she said when Castle Frey appeared through the door.
"But... you always do it the other way..." Neely wined as she entered the portal.

They got to their little tree on the outside of town, and headed home to their manor.
Rina then used the universal stone to send to Darrian: “Hey kid. I pissed off Queen Staffon, I’m banned from Asmery. You may want to secure your western borders, SO sorry. Be safe, Love mom.”
There was a long pause with no answer, she knew he got it, but he took a while to respond:
"Message... received, Mom. Thanks for the information. Um... You be safe, too. Please don't piss off any more queens."
Then, Rina used another sending with the universal sending stone to Estella:
“It’s Rina. My son, Darrian Deepcut of BastaThrope, may be in danger. Hoping you can send military aid if needed. Asmery no longer protects them”
Estella answered pretty quickly: "Rina! I am not affiliated with the military, but I will speak to a friend about this. Thank you for the warning! Hope you are well."
"One more sending left for the day," she noticed, "I'll send to Sullivan Frey."
"I've been banned from Asmery, the others are still in good standing. I will help you in any way I can, Rina."

Sullivan was in a meeting with members of the Church of Luminus, asking them for help with healing potions and spell scrolls.
Since the death of Therius, the clerics could not heal the people, and the Three Fangs were all working toward a solution. Drake and Godfrey were firm in their decision to kill Therius, but Sullivan was angry. He was angry at Therius for not choosing to stay alive to help the people of Pennislovica, and angry at Drake and Godfrey for attacking Therius without permission or discussion.
Due to their connection with The Kingdom of Bolgroth, they were working on sending components for weapons and armor in the new trade deal.
He finally responded to Rina: "I already heard. Excuse me, but Drake, Godfrey, and I are all working to clean up this mess."

As she sat in the dining room with a cup of tea, Rina began to spend her time on an alter-ego to disguise herself as, she fully intended to still enter Asmery.
She started writing up fake spell scrolls in elvish to put them into her Ritual book - everything in there was in elvish, and it was an uncommon language for the common folk to know.
"Now... to come up with a fake name," she thought to herself. "What's a common Pennislovican name..."
Rina looked through the books in their home library for inspiration. As she skimmed the books, she noticed an odd trend amongst the dirty books that Rosa left behind.
"At least five of these are about... a blacksmith Vampire?" She continued to look through them, and a handful were even about devils and therianthropes.
Rina smiled, "Girl after my own heart."
Rina took a few of the books into her room and put them on her shelf, then decided on a name, "Anastasia. Anastasia Marcov." The last name being Drake's late brother's name.

Daria began making dinner, and asked Blanke if he wanted a cheesecake.
"Of course! Cheesecake is my favorite."
Everyone gathered in the dining room to eat as Daria handed them each a sandwich and a cheesecake slider.
"Oh, no cheesecake for me, but thank you," said Rina.
"Please," Daria said sternly, "Eat."
Rina smiled, "I'll definitely take the sandwich, but the last time I had cheesecake it upset my stomach."
"If you do not eat, I will be offended," Daria said again.
"Daria... If something as simple as a spare piece of cheesecake can upset you this much, maybe we should talk about what's really bothering you."
Daria just stared, "No."
"Why do you need this so much?" Rina asked her.
"Because, I made it special for all of you. It hurts me if you do not enjoy something I made for you."
Rina smiled again, "I really appreciate you, Daria, but I don't think anyone wants me eating dairy."
"Yeah, that's why you live in the basement," said Neely, "Just eat the cheesecake, Rina."
Rina sighed deeply, "Why can't I just say 'no'?" Rina spoke louder and louder with each phrase, "Is 'no' not a complete sentence anymore? I can't even say 'no' in my own damn house?!"
Everyone in the room went silent for a moment while Daria continued to stare at a now-standing Rina.
"This is... not about cheesecake... is it?" Neely asked.
Rina looked around, realizing she'd been unreasonably aggressive,. This small encounter had reminded her of the encounter with the queen earlier that day. "Fine. I will have one of the smaller pieces." She popped one of the pieces in her mouth and ate it.
"What... what's in this?" she said as she grimaced.
Neely, Blanke, and Alice had each eaten a few pieces before Daria answered, "They are stuffed with mushrooms and smoked."
Blanke's eyes got wide, "Mushrooms?! NO!"
"Neely, please get Blanke's medicine," said Alice.
"Why... Why is this my responsibility?"
"Because you're in charge of moneys, appointments, schedules. It just makes sense."
"Yes, I know I'm in charge of those things but... this?"

Rina sighed once again, picked up all her papers, and went into the library with her wine - the others followed.
"Where did the books go?" asked Neely, "It looks more bare than usual in here."
Both Alice and Neely looked at Rina.
"What? I'm... I'm still studying woodworking."
"Right..." both Alice and Neely said in unison.
"I'm surprised you haven't begged to go see Drake," said Alice.
Rina looked up from her wine glass, "After that sending from Sullivan, I think trying to talk to any of the Three Fangs would be difficult. Besides, I need to actually get some rest tonight."
"Why would you not rest if you saw Drake?" asked Blanke.
No one answered him.
They all retired to bed, and planned to head to the Giant Hills the next morning.