Session 15 - 2026-06-15T00:00:00.000-04:00

Player Characters

Recap

The crew waited at the village for the military to arrive and take custody of the prisoners and facility. Once they did, Purrcival and Gus indicated they would stay behind and review the materials on the Lunatic escapee that had led the assault on Purrcivals Old Village. Once they had all the relevant info they might scout a little, but they promised they wouldn’t engage and would meet everyone back at the Sips later to form an actual plan.

The rest of the crew decided the best next move would be to investigate the strange lead from the dead man back at the abandoned waystation village. They were already out in the wilds after all. They decided to head to the area indicated and it turned out to be a spring some of the nomadic wild peoples would use as a place of trade and for clean water and decent hunting.

While the truck aided them in travel early on, as they headed deeper into the Dust Woods, it became impossible to keep the truck with them. They parked it in a glade near a wolves den, hoping the predators and out of the way location would prevent theft or vandalism. From there they had to make their way on foot under Rhys’ guidance, luckily, he was well versed in the Wilds and other than some complaints about sleeping on the ground, they made it to their destination safe and sound.

When they reached the settlement the Crew was approached by a number of warriors protecting it and their purpose there was challenged. After explaining why they were there and indicating they wanted to help rather than hurt they were then told the 3 rules of the wild folk: Do no harm to each other, do not claim ownership of things that are not yours, and give back to the wilds when you take from it, and allowed access to the settlement. The warriors also indicated that there had been some issue at a hunting camp up north that the hunters of the tribe usually used. It had some signs of violence along with discussion about what to do because of a strange red vine there.

The settlement itself was a stunning mix of modern, manufacturing gear and hand crafted leathers, woods, and metals. The people were also a mix, though where the city was more dominated by Humans, the Dustborn and Celestialborn were more dominant here.

Velvet hung back, keeping an eye on things, while Paul and Pete moved towards an obvious trading pavilion and Rhys spotted the tribe’s elders and approached them.

Paul and Pete both enjoyed a little local commerce, purchasing some of the food, which was surprisingly close to what they were used to eating, just a little gamier or preserved with alcoholic additives. While enjoying food and observing, Pete was able to spot a Faerie weapons trader who was selling ammo to a Dwarven Hunter who was talking about the northern hunting camp. Pete moved in, introduced himself and quickly haggled the sale of a grenade to the weapons crafter to pay for the Dwarves purchases in exchange for information about the clearing. The Dwarf explained what the hunters had found up there, and that the elders had taken ownership of the recovered items. It seems like someone had planted the strange vine, but then some violence of some kind had transpired. There were no bodies, but the recovered items and the blood vine there were something to consider before using the site as a camp again. Paul meanwhile tracked down a pair of thick gloves, knowing that dealing with the blood vine might require such.

Rhys found the elders sharing stories with some of the children by the spring’s edge. He patiently waited for the tale to end before approaching and speaking with them. They were Elder Tharn, Elder Steelwind, and Elder Thargon the Grey. He explained the circumstances and they mentioned that some items had been recovered from the glade, and that they would accept any help the outsiders would offer, especially since they hadn’t come up with a sound way to remove the sharp plants. They also indicated that a different tribe would have been here when the events happened and would have left heading east this time of year. Rhys was brought to a tent by the young honor guard who watched over the elders and there saw a few items gathered, some small shovels, trowels really, a pistol, a pair of knives, and a bag of soil from the city. Sensing magic upon dirt and one of the knives he tried to sense the nature of their magical auras, but instead felt a familiar and intense hunger. He was stopped from collecting the knife by the young warrior, and apologized and explained the items should be kept safe and separate from the tribe’s other belongings, as they seemed to have the magics of a Far Celestial and might even be one’s physical dust, similar to Moon Dust.

With this information in tow, the crew regrouped and decided to head north to the hunting camp location without delay. It was under an hour’s journey on foot and soon they saw the scene for themselves.

A bloody patch on the ground in one area that had not been overrun by Blood Vine yet, along with a hunter’s blind attached to one of the trees, and a patch of Blood Vine that had claimed some of the ground and most of a tree.

Paul investigated the blind and grabbed a discarded spear from there to use as a makeshift quarter staff to avoid touching the blood vine should interacting with it directly be necessary. Meanwhile Velvet set to using her psychometry in the guise of observation and deduction to read the scene for the violence that had transpired here most recently. Rhys meanwhile, attempted to sense magic and while nothing stood out strongly, the areas where the blood was and where the blood vine was indicated at similar aura to the one he had sensed from the dirt and knife back at the settlement.

Velvet saw a vision of three men, two digging holes, one minding a cart. The two wore fairly regular clothes for city folk out in the wild, the one by the cart wore a long jacket. The trio discussed the nature of their job, being paid to plant some plants out in the wild was a little weird, but they weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. As the discussion neared its end the jacketed man pulled knives and killed one of the men with one, the other managed to catch the knife thrown his way with his shovel and charge the jacketed man. As he swung with the shovel the man caught it with a blackened hand which ate away and condensed part of the shovel head. He then slapped it aside and grabbed the man, both his hands turning dark and crushing the man's head into a marble with magical force. The vision closed with the jacketed man starting to drag the corpse near him towards a nearby tree.

As Velvet pointed out signs from her vision that were obvious, she spotted the shovel amidst the Blood Vines, and tried to carefully grab it. They cut her a little and pulled the shovel into themselves more. Not having it, Velvet cut into the vines, shredding some away, but awakening them similar to how they had in the sewers several weeks ago when all this started. The crew fought and damaged the vines until they died, decaying away, but not before Pete was dragged into them and hurt and Velvet was struck once or twice by the one she’d agitated.

With the battle over the crew set to investigating the rest of the scene. As the Blood Vine withered they were able to both retrieve the shovel and find a body without a head propped up against the tree, now desiccated. They also dug through the bloodied dirt and discovered a set of bones that looked like they belonged to a Lunatic, but instead of the off-white of Moon Dust deposits, it was a darker grey. This lent credence to Rhys’ growing theory that a Far Celestial’s Dust was involved in all of this.

Pete decided to try to call on the spirit of the body to answer questions, but unfortunately it immediately turned violent, causing the crew to swiftly beat it to a pulp of grit and dust. Still wanting what answers they could get from the former skeleton, they collected the bits in a bag from the hunter’s blind that had previously held some canned goods.

With the investigation as complete as possible they collected their evidence and returned to the settlement at the spring. There they spoke with the elders, were offered proper introductions, and were thanked for their aid by being provided the items the tribe had from the camp along with permission to keep anything else they found. While gathering the items Rhys had a realization that there was a logo on the bag of dirt and after taking a moment to piece it together realized it said Welch's Realty.

Their new information and leads in tow the crew returned to the truck, lucky enough to find the wolves not in their den again and the truck intact and were able to head back to the Celestial Sips without further incident. There they found envelopes with pay from Naomi along with hearing from the other staff that Purrcival and Gus had been by, but were currently out taking care of something. They got a little rest and arranged to hand over some of the evidence from the hunting camp over to Naomi.

The crew then decided to dig into Welch's Realty a bit. They dug up a list of properties that had historically been owned by Welch's Realty. Rhys then cross referenced the list of properties they could dig up against locations where the village lab had sourced their Lunatics. They found that all the human Lunatics had come from a clinic in Paul’s neighborhood. Paul knew the place, it got in legal trouble occasionally, but mostly related to its pay system. It tried not to turn anyone away, and arranged for trade or services in exchange for those who didn’t have the money. Doctor Constance Fowler was the lead physician, an old Faerie who resembled a luna moth.

First the crew decided to collect a sample of soil from a recent apartment building that had been built in the area. They found the soil had fairly low levels of magic, but that magic was very similar to the energies in the soil and knife they found.

The crew then decided to look into the clinic and since Pete had been a bit wounded during their encounter with the Blood Vines, he decided to act like he’d been attacked by a Lunatic and needed help.

Vaughan, a human assistant to the lead doctor, helped him, looking at his wounds and taking his statement, taking interest in the Lunatic attack and its location. Dr. Fowler then came in, observed that his wounds looked too clean to have been a Lunatics, Pete played it off that the Lunatic had had a sharp knife, Fowler didn’t seem to buy it, but treated him anyway, stitching up his wounds after Vaughan had cleaned them.

Then came the matter of payment, Pete had intentionally removed all his displays of wealth and left them behind. He played it off like he didn’t have money, or the time to pay with service. Vaughan leveraged the report about the Lunatic attack to convince Pete to pay him with information about the attack and the location as payment. He loosely hinted that someone should report it to the police. Pete agreed somewhat reluctantly, and soon the two were leaving the clinic.

Velvet, Paul, and Rhys were waiting outside keeping an eye out, and when they saw the two leave decided to follow, at first Vaughan noticed them and they had to divert in another direction after Vaughan insisted on using a phone booth to call the police while Pete kept an eye out, but once they did he lost track of them and they were able to circle back around to follow. Pete showed Vaughan to the address he’d half made up from spotting street signs on the way to the clinic. After asking a few more questions Vaughan told Pete he could go, and that he’d wait here until the police arrived for both the original report and the Lunatic.

Pete regrouped with the rest of the crew and they returned to the truck parked a few blocks away. Pete was feeling great, even if he didn’t get a full picture, as he distractedly shared what he’d learned while opening the driver’s side door, he accidentally ripped it clean off. Slightly shocked he gathered his senses and realized why he felt great and what had happened, he’d been dosed with Moon Dust during his medical treatment.

What does the dosing mean? What exactly is happening at the clinic? What will the crew do about it? Where were all these leads going? And just how were they going to repair the truck’s door?