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Dramatis Personae:
Celyn, who is perhaps unfortunately in his element (chaos and fairy nonsense)
Robin, who wants to go home
with Greymalkin, who wants his wings back
Izgil, who wants to know things
Viepuck, who was falling back on faking it and improv
When we left the party we were deciding what to do after demolishing a redcap fortress.
We got Greymalkin's wings down off the wall and tried to reattach them, and while we could get them physically more or less affixed to him they were basically dead weight, and while a spell on them kept them alive they weren't under his control. So basically we got the wings on him and splinted him.
We collected the trophies in the hopes of finding out who they could be restored to, if anyone still lived, and brought what we could of the recent kill back down the path it had come up. The goblins were very much of the opinion that trouble lies at the end of blood trails and were unconvinced that the trouble end of the blood trail was where we were starting. Unfortunately, we did not find a village or anything that these remains attached to, but the remnants of a traveler's camp. The only paths leading out were the dragged mess we had followed to get there and a tiny animal trail, that appeared to be footprints and then long leaps away. Izgil dug some graves and Celyn worked on managing respectful care for the dead.
While doing the ritual work, Celyn spotted a small creature spying on them from above, and when he got to a reasonable point in the ritual greeted the critter with condolences, which startled it immensely (it was not anticipating being perceived, but Celyn's passive Notice Shit is unhinged). It becomes clear that this creature— a sort of weasel/raven gryphon— was the companion of one of the deceased. Given the opportunity, she gets a large, perfect pinecone and some sticks as grave offerings and winds up attaching herself to Celyn for security.
We proceed to proceed towards our best guess as to the way to Twilight's Grace (the capital of the Feywild side of Tyrwingha), accompanied by the small crew of goblins and the transfigured goat.
Eventually we see a wall of mist. The options are 'go into the mist on our intended vector' and 'go south, the way we explicitly did not want to go because the known portal there was destroyed and the local Feylord is both ancient and feral'. So we go into the mist, keeping roughly in our intended eastward direction by assuming (crossed fingers) that the fact we've been going crosswise to some roughly north-south hill ridgelines means that the most annoying way is correct.
We soon encounter a little goblin-scale cottage which is immediately and obviously a trap because why would that be there, but one of our goblin entourage charges at it, opening a door to reveal a heap of coins, and then most of the rest of them follow. Viepuck begins to attempt to forestall this by casting a sleep spell and midway through that process forgets that he can do that. He says he's going to cast an illusion of the gold being not in the house, and in the process forgets he can do that.
Izgil says, "Weren't you going to cast an illusion?"
Viepuck tries to cast a more powerful illusion and in the process forgets he can do that. "I can't cast illusions."
We are alarmed. I mean, we were already alarmed because the goblins refuse to go until they count their gold pieces, and the overheard muttering goes, "One... two... three... four... uhhhhhh.... one... two...."
Izgil tries to cave in the floor under the table and that works, but the goblins just climb into the resulting pit and cuss us out for making counting the gold difficult.
Meanwhile, the goat spots a pasture off to the other side of the path and tries to wander that way. Fortunately the goat is tied and so we can restrain it, but we come to the conclusion that we cannot, in fact, save the goblins, and reluctantly lead them to their fate, feeling a bit bad that they're there because we brought them. (Though this was one of the directions they were considering going.)
We carry on. We spot a glint of moonlight through the mist, just off the path. Celyn notes "Just off the path" is in fact the most suspicious of possible locations. Izgil casts his moonlight spell, and sees a building that appears to be a library there. He dithers. We tell him to move along. We also loop a rope around him. He is compelled to try to enter the library. Robin has twice his strength score and a hand on the rope. We leave.
Once we are out of range Izgil acknowledges that yes, that was ... probably a trap. Unfortunately. The books looked very promising for his research.
Robin has taken out his lantern, which is helping us see. He considered casting the daylight power out of it, and was struck with an impression of betrayal: how could one of our allies weaken our defenses so? So we are very sure that this is part of the defense of the realm we're trying to get to but also kind of peeved that if it thinks Robin at least is an ally maybe it should fuck with us less?
Viepuck, upon hearing that there might be some kind of intelligence in play here, attempts to mind probe the environs, and promptly forgets he can do that.
We carried on. There was an area where the mist got thick enough that it seemed to be raining, and the raindrops each appeared to have a reflected scene in them, green rolling hills and trees and the fields below and people that Celyn might recognize if he looked just a little bit closer. He refused to even entertain the idea (and made his save vs. the compulsion).
Viepuck becomes suddenly convinced Es*tiaslos— which is wrapped around his neck as a scarf— has vanished. Izgil manages to determine that he is mistaken, and it is the illusions of the mist fucking with him. Viepuck takes a deep breath and carries on dubiously, basically.
We came over one last ridge and into a flatter area where there was a path between what might have been barrows. We heard sounds as of someone coming in to attack, and refused to pay them substantial mind. Then a four-armed headless monster reared up out of the mist, and our last remaining goblin fled back down the path.
Robin becomes increasingly convinced that a dragon or some other flying creature is going to dip down and snatch one of the party members. Operating under the prayer that this, too, is a trap, he asks Celyn to watch the sky, Celyn agrees immediately, Robin struggles with the effect but resists doing something foolish, and we carry on until it passes. Finally we emerge into a thinner part of mist.
At this point a cumulative effect snaps into place and it becomes clear that Celyn is the only party member who fully remembers what the fuck is going on. Robin has lost a day. Izgil has lost six months or so. Viepuck remembers... being alarmed by Celyn being in the same place he was (is that guy following me?!) and fighting some spiders, and has thus lost a year and a half or so and the memories of like seven levels. (Including Es*tiaslos's hatching.)
Everyone is reasonably relieved that Celyn knows what the fuck we're doing here. (If only one party member can remember what the fuck we're doing with holes in our memories in faerie, best the fairy specialist.)
Robin, upon determining that Viepuck— who has been his squire/herald for some time— can't remember who he is, loses his temper, fires up the daylight effect, and proceeds to start marching forward out of the mist.
Fortunately we are near the end of it, and can see trees on the far side. Lounging languidly in one of those trees is a silvery-pale fey being, who greets us with, "Approaching intruders?"
Celyn endeavors to play diplomat before Robin storms far enough to cause an Incident, and notes that we have come from destroying the Gloomshaper's portal and, having done so, could not use the portal to go the fuck home. They, reasonably, want to know what bona fides we can provide, and Celyn says that he was the one that a particular squire of this court was sent to keep an eye on. That made someone in the background start laughing prodigiously, because her sister would love to hear the gossip about that. So, okay, we have verified something to these people.
After a bit of backing and forthing Robin says, "We can talk there", indicating a spot outside the mist, and we regroup to find several similar-looking people who are clearly the border guard.
Robin is asked to explain how he came by that lantern, which is of fey make from a realm that has since fallen, and does so. It is apparently the particular light of the Cloudspinner, a fey lord who has vanished and thus her light no longer appears save in these rare artifacts.
We talk a little more, attempting to establish generalized amiability, until the lady says, "THIS IS BORING. Come to our campfire."
"Is this an invitation of hospitality?" asks Izgil.
"It is what you make of it," says the fey. Which we interpret as 'hospitality unless someone does something stupid'.
We go up to the nominal fort on the ridge, which appears to be mostly a wall with a bonfire behind it and some tents set up. And encounter several more similar-looking siblings, one of whom is having a conversation with a dead boar, something to the effect of "That was a good hunt, we'll have another go tomorrow after the feast!" A woman rides up apologizing to the turkey draped over her mount's withers with a, "Sorry the killing blow was so rough today, tomorrow will go better."
On the way up Celyn tries healing Viepuck to see if that helps his memory, which does not work, but his madness-alleviating ritual prayer restores Viepuck's memory of his skills, if not the last year and a half. ("I figure this is just 'whatever's related to your patron uploads faster!") Doing the same prayer for Izgil restores his memory up to the fight with the Hunter where the Queen of Tyrwingha and Sembara tasked us with the current quest we are on, and he exclaims, "We killed the Hunter!" The same prayer for Robin restored his memory aside from a few blips from the mist.
The various creatures of the hunt are roasted. Every one of the fey seems to have some sort of animal companion, larger than average. The peacock struts at Greymalkin in a very 'my feathers are shinier than yours' way. We do introductions. The five siblings have very similar names, and very different personalities.
The woman who was hunting is the one who had apparently dated the fey who had been tasked with watching Celyn, and so was glad to hear all about what he'd been up to and mock him. She did not, however, want to gossip about the de Brunes (a woman of that family was who he had been with when we met him face to face) in a way that suggests More Going On. Celyn made a note.
Celyn: He threw acorns at me.
Her: Rather silly of him.
Celyn: Well, I was trying to decide which road to follow and I went down the one that didn't get acorns thrown at me.
Her: Rather wise of him!
But she agreed that he had a nervous disposition and that is probably why a relationship with a woman who is clearly carrying at least twenty knives might not have worked out.
One of the fey, to Robin: You're so serious.
Robin: These are serious times.
The fey: You don't seem like much fun.
Robin: I can be plenty of fun, right now I'm just tired.
At which point the fey ply him with wine.
Viepuck, who has been identified as a storyteller, is asked if he knows any good stories to share, and allows as how he's sure he does but right now he doesn't remember them all. This is among other things a sign that he is potentially fun.
The party is full of dares and challenges.
The boisterous fey challenges Greymalkin to race his deer mount. After some dithering about terms (Greymalkin wants to know if he gets to eat his opponent if he wins, says of course he would not want to be eaten but also he would not lose) the racers go off. Greymalkin has a haste spell, a ring of jumping, and the ability to misty step; the deer can phase through the trees in the way of the course. Greymalkin wins, and the deer has to compose an ode in his honor. There is a brief aside in which the fey confirms that the wings are currently a sore spot.
One of the women wants to know who will play a dance game with her, and Robin (quite tipsy) declares that Celyn will dance. (Possibly he just wants to see his boyfriend show off.) The challenge: copy what the other ones does. The woman begins an acrobatic fire-leaping dance that Celyn is studying up until her peacock struts in the way and spreads his tail. There is a little flailing to get Celyn able to see what's going on, which has Izgil casting invisibility on the peacock. Fortunately, the fey woman thinks this is the funniest damn thing she's seen in a decade or so, orders the peacock to stay invisible, and finishes the dance.
Celyn, after a small false start, successfully copies, and is told "Now I have to copy you!" After some laughter and perhaps a suggestion from Viepuck (who may have established telepathy to try to convey dance moves), Celyn summons his illusory duplicate and does a dance where he is largely facing himself— not as complicated as the lady's, he doesn't know any complicated dances— but amusing. She cracks up, goes to her sibling and demands assistance, they mutter, "I should've just let you lose," but there is a pair who do the copy.
Then the boisterous one wants to know if Celyn can race himself, Celyn says he would win. How would we know the difference? "Give me a token." Celyn finesses this a bit to be a show but it's obvious at one or two points that he's puppeting the illusion, but he does the thing, and when the illusion pops it drops a token, at which point the boisterous one laughs and is "Ah! That's cheating!" Celyn takes it in good humor, and then goes to sit with Robin.
Viepuck gets into a tall tales conversation but can't remember our exploits to brag about them so has to fall back on old standards. Izgil notices that the sibling is tossing things into the fire that are artfully made up to look like herbs and are in fact alchemical, and gets into an intellectual conversation with the fellow. The other sister is throwing knives and the little gryphon that has been clinging to Celyn occasionally tries to steal one.
Eventually we all go to sleep, and wake up in the— well, the time of day doesn't change here, so it was the last glimmering before sunset all through this but it felt later. We slowly start gathering ourselves and one of the fey appears from his tent and basically goes, "Okay, you won a few of my wagers, I'll escort you to the border if you like." We accept the offer. One of them offers to take the goat off our hands but Robin is still seeking a cure for him, so we decline.
Then we hike to the border, and see the shimmering wall of the Sunset Gate, the line between day and night, which was not, as we had been told in one old story, composed of fragmented shards we would have to navigate through. Instead it's a solid wall apparently of gleaming yellow-and-orange glass, with a fortress of similar composition that we are brought to. At which point our escort peaces out.
We do somewhere note that everyone seems to have an animal companion that reflects something about them. Possibly when we meet the plane, though it might have been before.
We go and talk to the party at the gate, saying we have news from the west. The fella there is pretty sure we don't have any news he doesn't know already, which Celyn agrees is most likely. But when asked our news I say we have destroyed the Gloomshaper's portal and slain Ianto. The latter of which he visibly does not care about. We catch a local plane (by which I mean a giant black swan which has to carry Greymalkin in its beak because he does not fit even in business class) to the capital, and there meet with Ethlenn, True Ruler of Tyrwingha.
We are told that she is pleased we have succeeded at the quest we did not know we were on. Celyn notes we knew some bits (and the last bit was indeed a quest we were specifically tasked with).
Apparently Ethlenn had nudged a number of her people to go try to deal with some doom she had foreseen (including but perhaps not limited to the death of her chosen mortal queen) and that Celyn and Robin were the ones who did not drift away from their path or otherwise fail. Izgil asked if he and Viepuck had been so nudged, and they had not been, they were chance encounters.
There is discussion of boons. Robin asks for Greymalkin to be restored and for the goat to be restored, and Ethlenn is like, hmm, I can't/won't revoke the curse, but I can grant him the choice to be any shape he likes within my realm. At which point the goat turns, not into a goblin, but a tall vaguely Robin-looking human that escapes in embarrassment that is probably only surpassed by Robin's. Izgil gets an item that will help him craft powerful magical items, until its light fades, and the option to take a vow of service to Ethlenn later. She declines, however, to explain why his research into the moon occasionally crosses her path. Viepuck asks if she is willing to have a chat with his patron, and she declines, but grants him a personal boon (slightly under debate at the moment).
Celyn asks if she can remove the curse that was placed on him by the Hag. She says that she can give him the same boon that the goat was given, but that she thinks it may not suit him. There is some discussion about whether or not the Hag had jurisdiction to curse him in the first place, Robin arguing that she should not and her curses should be null and void, but Ethlenn basically says, "There are rules," and reiterates what she is willing to do. Celyn, rather mournfully, says that his home is no longer in Tyrwingha— he and Robin had literally just talked about this at the campfire, actually— and thus he thinks something else. At which point she says the little gryphon used to be bonded, and asks if he would accept that bond, and he asks the creature if she wants that, she agrees, and now I have a new friend.
Viepuck tells Izgil that he can't stay in Twilight's Grace forever to do research, because he doesn't have a pet. (Unlike the rest of the party.)
And we have completed the first major narrative arc.
Celyn, who is perhaps unfortunately in his element (chaos and fairy nonsense)
Robin, who wants to go home
with Greymalkin, who wants his wings back
Izgil, who wants to know things
Viepuck, who was falling back on faking it and improv
When we left the party we were deciding what to do after demolishing a redcap fortress.
We got Greymalkin's wings down off the wall and tried to reattach them, and while we could get them physically more or less affixed to him they were basically dead weight, and while a spell on them kept them alive they weren't under his control. So basically we got the wings on him and splinted him.
We collected the trophies in the hopes of finding out who they could be restored to, if anyone still lived, and brought what we could of the recent kill back down the path it had come up. The goblins were very much of the opinion that trouble lies at the end of blood trails and were unconvinced that the trouble end of the blood trail was where we were starting. Unfortunately, we did not find a village or anything that these remains attached to, but the remnants of a traveler's camp. The only paths leading out were the dragged mess we had followed to get there and a tiny animal trail, that appeared to be footprints and then long leaps away. Izgil dug some graves and Celyn worked on managing respectful care for the dead.
While doing the ritual work, Celyn spotted a small creature spying on them from above, and when he got to a reasonable point in the ritual greeted the critter with condolences, which startled it immensely (it was not anticipating being perceived, but Celyn's passive Notice Shit is unhinged). It becomes clear that this creature— a sort of weasel/raven gryphon— was the companion of one of the deceased. Given the opportunity, she gets a large, perfect pinecone and some sticks as grave offerings and winds up attaching herself to Celyn for security.
We proceed to proceed towards our best guess as to the way to Twilight's Grace (the capital of the Feywild side of Tyrwingha), accompanied by the small crew of goblins and the transfigured goat.
Eventually we see a wall of mist. The options are 'go into the mist on our intended vector' and 'go south, the way we explicitly did not want to go because the known portal there was destroyed and the local Feylord is both ancient and feral'. So we go into the mist, keeping roughly in our intended eastward direction by assuming (crossed fingers) that the fact we've been going crosswise to some roughly north-south hill ridgelines means that the most annoying way is correct.
We soon encounter a little goblin-scale cottage which is immediately and obviously a trap because why would that be there, but one of our goblin entourage charges at it, opening a door to reveal a heap of coins, and then most of the rest of them follow. Viepuck begins to attempt to forestall this by casting a sleep spell and midway through that process forgets that he can do that. He says he's going to cast an illusion of the gold being not in the house, and in the process forgets he can do that.
Izgil says, "Weren't you going to cast an illusion?"
Viepuck tries to cast a more powerful illusion and in the process forgets he can do that. "I can't cast illusions."
We are alarmed. I mean, we were already alarmed because the goblins refuse to go until they count their gold pieces, and the overheard muttering goes, "One... two... three... four... uhhhhhh.... one... two...."
Izgil tries to cave in the floor under the table and that works, but the goblins just climb into the resulting pit and cuss us out for making counting the gold difficult.
Meanwhile, the goat spots a pasture off to the other side of the path and tries to wander that way. Fortunately the goat is tied and so we can restrain it, but we come to the conclusion that we cannot, in fact, save the goblins, and reluctantly lead them to their fate, feeling a bit bad that they're there because we brought them. (Though this was one of the directions they were considering going.)
We carry on. We spot a glint of moonlight through the mist, just off the path. Celyn notes "Just off the path" is in fact the most suspicious of possible locations. Izgil casts his moonlight spell, and sees a building that appears to be a library there. He dithers. We tell him to move along. We also loop a rope around him. He is compelled to try to enter the library. Robin has twice his strength score and a hand on the rope. We leave.
Once we are out of range Izgil acknowledges that yes, that was ... probably a trap. Unfortunately. The books looked very promising for his research.
Robin has taken out his lantern, which is helping us see. He considered casting the daylight power out of it, and was struck with an impression of betrayal: how could one of our allies weaken our defenses so? So we are very sure that this is part of the defense of the realm we're trying to get to but also kind of peeved that if it thinks Robin at least is an ally maybe it should fuck with us less?
Viepuck, upon hearing that there might be some kind of intelligence in play here, attempts to mind probe the environs, and promptly forgets he can do that.
We carried on. There was an area where the mist got thick enough that it seemed to be raining, and the raindrops each appeared to have a reflected scene in them, green rolling hills and trees and the fields below and people that Celyn might recognize if he looked just a little bit closer. He refused to even entertain the idea (and made his save vs. the compulsion).
Viepuck becomes suddenly convinced Es*tiaslos— which is wrapped around his neck as a scarf— has vanished. Izgil manages to determine that he is mistaken, and it is the illusions of the mist fucking with him. Viepuck takes a deep breath and carries on dubiously, basically.
We came over one last ridge and into a flatter area where there was a path between what might have been barrows. We heard sounds as of someone coming in to attack, and refused to pay them substantial mind. Then a four-armed headless monster reared up out of the mist, and our last remaining goblin fled back down the path.
Robin becomes increasingly convinced that a dragon or some other flying creature is going to dip down and snatch one of the party members. Operating under the prayer that this, too, is a trap, he asks Celyn to watch the sky, Celyn agrees immediately, Robin struggles with the effect but resists doing something foolish, and we carry on until it passes. Finally we emerge into a thinner part of mist.
At this point a cumulative effect snaps into place and it becomes clear that Celyn is the only party member who fully remembers what the fuck is going on. Robin has lost a day. Izgil has lost six months or so. Viepuck remembers... being alarmed by Celyn being in the same place he was (is that guy following me?!) and fighting some spiders, and has thus lost a year and a half or so and the memories of like seven levels. (Including Es*tiaslos's hatching.)
Everyone is reasonably relieved that Celyn knows what the fuck we're doing here. (If only one party member can remember what the fuck we're doing with holes in our memories in faerie, best the fairy specialist.)
Robin, upon determining that Viepuck— who has been his squire/herald for some time— can't remember who he is, loses his temper, fires up the daylight effect, and proceeds to start marching forward out of the mist.
Fortunately we are near the end of it, and can see trees on the far side. Lounging languidly in one of those trees is a silvery-pale fey being, who greets us with, "Approaching intruders?"
Celyn endeavors to play diplomat before Robin storms far enough to cause an Incident, and notes that we have come from destroying the Gloomshaper's portal and, having done so, could not use the portal to go the fuck home. They, reasonably, want to know what bona fides we can provide, and Celyn says that he was the one that a particular squire of this court was sent to keep an eye on. That made someone in the background start laughing prodigiously, because her sister would love to hear the gossip about that. So, okay, we have verified something to these people.
After a bit of backing and forthing Robin says, "We can talk there", indicating a spot outside the mist, and we regroup to find several similar-looking people who are clearly the border guard.
Robin is asked to explain how he came by that lantern, which is of fey make from a realm that has since fallen, and does so. It is apparently the particular light of the Cloudspinner, a fey lord who has vanished and thus her light no longer appears save in these rare artifacts.
We talk a little more, attempting to establish generalized amiability, until the lady says, "THIS IS BORING. Come to our campfire."
"Is this an invitation of hospitality?" asks Izgil.
"It is what you make of it," says the fey. Which we interpret as 'hospitality unless someone does something stupid'.
We go up to the nominal fort on the ridge, which appears to be mostly a wall with a bonfire behind it and some tents set up. And encounter several more similar-looking siblings, one of whom is having a conversation with a dead boar, something to the effect of "That was a good hunt, we'll have another go tomorrow after the feast!" A woman rides up apologizing to the turkey draped over her mount's withers with a, "Sorry the killing blow was so rough today, tomorrow will go better."
On the way up Celyn tries healing Viepuck to see if that helps his memory, which does not work, but his madness-alleviating ritual prayer restores Viepuck's memory of his skills, if not the last year and a half. ("I figure this is just 'whatever's related to your patron uploads faster!") Doing the same prayer for Izgil restores his memory up to the fight with the Hunter where the Queen of Tyrwingha and Sembara tasked us with the current quest we are on, and he exclaims, "We killed the Hunter!" The same prayer for Robin restored his memory aside from a few blips from the mist.
The various creatures of the hunt are roasted. Every one of the fey seems to have some sort of animal companion, larger than average. The peacock struts at Greymalkin in a very 'my feathers are shinier than yours' way. We do introductions. The five siblings have very similar names, and very different personalities.
The woman who was hunting is the one who had apparently dated the fey who had been tasked with watching Celyn, and so was glad to hear all about what he'd been up to and mock him. She did not, however, want to gossip about the de Brunes (a woman of that family was who he had been with when we met him face to face) in a way that suggests More Going On. Celyn made a note.
Celyn: He threw acorns at me.
Her: Rather silly of him.
Celyn: Well, I was trying to decide which road to follow and I went down the one that didn't get acorns thrown at me.
Her: Rather wise of him!
But she agreed that he had a nervous disposition and that is probably why a relationship with a woman who is clearly carrying at least twenty knives might not have worked out.
One of the fey, to Robin: You're so serious.
Robin: These are serious times.
The fey: You don't seem like much fun.
Robin: I can be plenty of fun, right now I'm just tired.
At which point the fey ply him with wine.
Viepuck, who has been identified as a storyteller, is asked if he knows any good stories to share, and allows as how he's sure he does but right now he doesn't remember them all. This is among other things a sign that he is potentially fun.
The party is full of dares and challenges.
The boisterous fey challenges Greymalkin to race his deer mount. After some dithering about terms (Greymalkin wants to know if he gets to eat his opponent if he wins, says of course he would not want to be eaten but also he would not lose) the racers go off. Greymalkin has a haste spell, a ring of jumping, and the ability to misty step; the deer can phase through the trees in the way of the course. Greymalkin wins, and the deer has to compose an ode in his honor. There is a brief aside in which the fey confirms that the wings are currently a sore spot.
One of the women wants to know who will play a dance game with her, and Robin (quite tipsy) declares that Celyn will dance. (Possibly he just wants to see his boyfriend show off.) The challenge: copy what the other ones does. The woman begins an acrobatic fire-leaping dance that Celyn is studying up until her peacock struts in the way and spreads his tail. There is a little flailing to get Celyn able to see what's going on, which has Izgil casting invisibility on the peacock. Fortunately, the fey woman thinks this is the funniest damn thing she's seen in a decade or so, orders the peacock to stay invisible, and finishes the dance.
Celyn, after a small false start, successfully copies, and is told "Now I have to copy you!" After some laughter and perhaps a suggestion from Viepuck (who may have established telepathy to try to convey dance moves), Celyn summons his illusory duplicate and does a dance where he is largely facing himself— not as complicated as the lady's, he doesn't know any complicated dances— but amusing. She cracks up, goes to her sibling and demands assistance, they mutter, "I should've just let you lose," but there is a pair who do the copy.
Then the boisterous one wants to know if Celyn can race himself, Celyn says he would win. How would we know the difference? "Give me a token." Celyn finesses this a bit to be a show but it's obvious at one or two points that he's puppeting the illusion, but he does the thing, and when the illusion pops it drops a token, at which point the boisterous one laughs and is "Ah! That's cheating!" Celyn takes it in good humor, and then goes to sit with Robin.
Viepuck gets into a tall tales conversation but can't remember our exploits to brag about them so has to fall back on old standards. Izgil notices that the sibling is tossing things into the fire that are artfully made up to look like herbs and are in fact alchemical, and gets into an intellectual conversation with the fellow. The other sister is throwing knives and the little gryphon that has been clinging to Celyn occasionally tries to steal one.
Eventually we all go to sleep, and wake up in the— well, the time of day doesn't change here, so it was the last glimmering before sunset all through this but it felt later. We slowly start gathering ourselves and one of the fey appears from his tent and basically goes, "Okay, you won a few of my wagers, I'll escort you to the border if you like." We accept the offer. One of them offers to take the goat off our hands but Robin is still seeking a cure for him, so we decline.
Then we hike to the border, and see the shimmering wall of the Sunset Gate, the line between day and night, which was not, as we had been told in one old story, composed of fragmented shards we would have to navigate through. Instead it's a solid wall apparently of gleaming yellow-and-orange glass, with a fortress of similar composition that we are brought to. At which point our escort peaces out.
We do somewhere note that everyone seems to have an animal companion that reflects something about them. Possibly when we meet the plane, though it might have been before.
We go and talk to the party at the gate, saying we have news from the west. The fella there is pretty sure we don't have any news he doesn't know already, which Celyn agrees is most likely. But when asked our news I say we have destroyed the Gloomshaper's portal and slain Ianto. The latter of which he visibly does not care about. We catch a local plane (by which I mean a giant black swan which has to carry Greymalkin in its beak because he does not fit even in business class) to the capital, and there meet with Ethlenn, True Ruler of Tyrwingha.
We are told that she is pleased we have succeeded at the quest we did not know we were on. Celyn notes we knew some bits (and the last bit was indeed a quest we were specifically tasked with).
Apparently Ethlenn had nudged a number of her people to go try to deal with some doom she had foreseen (including but perhaps not limited to the death of her chosen mortal queen) and that Celyn and Robin were the ones who did not drift away from their path or otherwise fail. Izgil asked if he and Viepuck had been so nudged, and they had not been, they were chance encounters.
There is discussion of boons. Robin asks for Greymalkin to be restored and for the goat to be restored, and Ethlenn is like, hmm, I can't/won't revoke the curse, but I can grant him the choice to be any shape he likes within my realm. At which point the goat turns, not into a goblin, but a tall vaguely Robin-looking human that escapes in embarrassment that is probably only surpassed by Robin's. Izgil gets an item that will help him craft powerful magical items, until its light fades, and the option to take a vow of service to Ethlenn later. She declines, however, to explain why his research into the moon occasionally crosses her path. Viepuck asks if she is willing to have a chat with his patron, and she declines, but grants him a personal boon (slightly under debate at the moment).
Celyn asks if she can remove the curse that was placed on him by the Hag. She says that she can give him the same boon that the goat was given, but that she thinks it may not suit him. There is some discussion about whether or not the Hag had jurisdiction to curse him in the first place, Robin arguing that she should not and her curses should be null and void, but Ethlenn basically says, "There are rules," and reiterates what she is willing to do. Celyn, rather mournfully, says that his home is no longer in Tyrwingha— he and Robin had literally just talked about this at the campfire, actually— and thus he thinks something else. At which point she says the little gryphon used to be bonded, and asks if he would accept that bond, and he asks the creature if she wants that, she agrees, and now I have a new friend.
Viepuck tells Izgil that he can't stay in Twilight's Grace forever to do research, because he doesn't have a pet. (Unlike the rest of the party.)
And we have completed the first major narrative arc.
