Chapter 3: Hallowed

This is the third arc of the Four Keeps campaign. This arc has seven total episodes. Characters are level 3.

Plot Summary:
The party decides that they are filthy after their excursion through the sewers. They go to a bathhouse to clean up. They get to see each other naked. Notable features: Blake has scars all over. Ritualistic scarring down his arms and legs, which is text in draconic. He has a section of malformed scales on his chest, and a large tribal depiction of the symbol of Tiamat across his back. He is unaware of this. Caelum has scars down his back, vertical lacerations that did not heal well. Suggests that he had been whipped at some point. Gwen has a giant tattoo down her back. Very tribal, with various elemental representations. Cori has no notable scars or markings. While in the bathhouse, Cori cleans and braids Gwen's hair. Gwen attempts to swim.

They return to the Zesty Anchor, where they spend time observing. They talk to Off Constantly. Caelum arranges to spar Ferrin. Gwen takes Mugwort up to her room. Ostensibly to wrestle. (fade to black). Cori glares at Prescott. Incessantly. Prescott pulls her aside and tells her how they found Caelum- locked in the burned out Temple of Selune. There were charred corpses around the door he kept barred. Prescott gives Cori the remains of a charred hymnal from the Temple where they found Caelum.

Blake talks to Ven, the red dragonborn (who does not have a tail). Ven is the first to mention that dragonborn come from other planes and were introduced to this world by the elves, unintentionally, during the Sundering. While speaking to Ven, Macoth's assistant Scruff finds Blake, and summons him to Macoth's Oddities.

Blake drunkenly follows Scruff to Macoth's. Once there, Macoth tells Blake that she had been looking into a topic he had mentioned- his intention to seek a patron. She made arrangements for Blake to meet with an interested party, a celestial, who was willing to accept supplicants. Macoth casts magic circle with Blake inside it. And contacts the entity. The archangel Micus answers the summons. He extends a hand down to Blake, beckoning him to complete the pact. As Blake reaches out, a growl reverberates from behind him. “Pathetic.” A large claw pierces through this angel’s back and pins it to the ground. There comes the sound of metal screeching, meat tearing, and bones breaking. The shadow of a dragon’s snout, dripping angel blood, emerges from the shadow, with two yellow, glowing eyes fixated on Blake. This menacing presence offers Blake a pact. To which he says, “fuck you.” This entity ignores that entirely and cements the pact anyway.

Meanwhile, Caelum and Cori try to trance together. They start off on Caelum's plateau. They go through an archway where they can hear a bard's song. This bard, and their song, is one of Cori's memories. She attempts to record the bard song with her canary trinket. The memory withers around them as ravens gather.

During this time, Gwen, having completed her activities with Mugwort, sneaks into Caelum's room wearing naught but a bedsheet. She intends to arrange Cori and Caelum to hold hands. However, she observes Cori's memory of the bard song take physical form as a glass sphere (with irregularities shaped like music notes within). Just as it manifests, a raven flies in through the open window, grabs the gem, and flies away. Gwen tries and fails to grab the raven or the gemmary.

When Cori awakens, she is horrified. When Caelum awakens, he grabs his gear and jumps out of a second story window. He's running. Gwen jumps out of the window after him, still wearing the bedsheet. Cori takes the stairs. They catch up to him and impress on him the importance of friendship, calming him down. They convince him to return to the tavern. Gwen is concerned that Caelum will try something else foolish, so she climbs onto his back and hugs him, and refuses to let go. Cori joins the group hug.

VOD: Hallowed Part 2
Upload Date: Oct 3, 2018

Plot Summary:
In Macoth's shop, Blake is having the worst of days. He said NO. He was trying to avoid this exact outcome. This is why he asked Macoth beforehand! He bursts into tears. Macoth tries to instill a sense of camaraderie, but this did not have the intended effect. Blake shoves Macoth against a wall and notices her eyes as her blindfold slips. Her eyes look like swirling galaxies. He growls at her "you're no friend of mine." and leaves her shop.

Blake makes his way back to the Zesty Anchor, drinking heavily from his wineskin. He is very drunk. Blake comes upon the rest of the party in their group hug. It is obvious he is intoxicated.

The party decides to retire for the night. Gwen refuses to let go of Caelum. Still. She insists on staying up all night, to make sure he does not attempt another escape.Cori tries to guide Blake to his bed. Blake tries, drunkenly, to draw a magic circle on the floor of his room in chalk.Not understanding what he's doing, Cori hoists him into bed, and makes sure there's water by his bed.

Cori meditates in the common room.

That night, Caelum sleeps instead of meditating. He finds himself in a library. But this one is occupied. He meets Brother Moonbow (an acolyte of Selune), and the Silver Quill. They are seated on cushions around a symbol of Selune. Each figure has a book. There is an unoccupied cushion and book for Caelum. Brother Moonbow invites him to sit. As Caelum opens the book, a fountain of raven feathers spews forth.

While Cori trances, she normally recalls memories, either from her life or from her past lives. In this meditation, Cori does not recognize these memories. In the first memory, Cori comes upon a field of flowers in peril. She must save the flowers! She does so, revealing the first tenant of her paladin Oath of Ancients.

In the second memory, Cori must save a family who are being pursued by a lycanthrope. She succeeds, but the father is bitten. Cori must make the choice to sever the father's arm, to prevent him from contracting lycanthropy. The father is a bard; without him arm, he will never play again. Cori makes the difficult choice, and severs the arm, saving the man.

In the third memory, Cori is wandering through a field of snow and ice, adjacent to a crevasse. She comes upon her friends, Caelum, Gwen, Blake, and Fang Zest. They are all quite upset, mostly at each other. None of them recognize her- Cori realizes in this memory, she is wearing a different face. Fang talks to her. He reveals the party is mourning the death of a fellow party member. Coriander fell. Into the crevasse. They could not save her. Cori must give her own eulogy.

In the fourth memory, Cori is beside a river which is populated by mallard ducks. There is a bench to the side of the river. A single figure is seated there. After a moment, Cori recognizes this figure as her deity Corellon Larethian. They feed bread to the ducks. Cori reminds Corellon a little of themself, in the old days. Young, enthusiastic, driven to take on the world. Corellon mentions, "You know, they used to call me Cori once too."

Upon awakening, Blake does not remember the events of the night before. Gwen did not sleep, and while is not exhausted, she is tired. Caelum is having an existential crisis. And Cori is in a religious fervor.

This is the day Caelum is to spar Ferrin. This happens on a hill, just outside the city proper. Caelum gets two hits in on Ferrin. It is a best of three match. Ferrin lands a sweep and lays Caelum flat on his back, securing victory.

After that, Ferrin spars Gwen. Gwen applies herself with all her usual gusto. She is completely unaware of the glow of her tattoos or the large spectral figure that manifests behind her. Gwen wins. Ferrin is appropriately freaked out by the mysterious spectral figure. Later, Gwen introduces her idea for the party's name: the Four Keeps.

VOD: Hallowed Part 3
Upload Date: Oct 10, 2018

Plot Summary:
Blake and Cori go shopping, quickly. Blake visits a tailor to get buttons added to his hood. His blood hunter friend Ilne made it for him. He is loathe to rip it, but it does not account for his horns, so he can't take it off. As the elderly gnome tailor lady installs buttons on his hood, another customer walks into the shop. This is a human male, mid-30s, dressed rather well. He is here to pick up a large order from the tailor. This man is personable. He introduces himself as a barber. He is fairly new in town. Cori blushes. Or, does the eldarin equivalent of blushing, which is to start turning pink and creeping into Spring form. This man is Orjhet Ravenholt. Orjhet Ravenholt looks kindly on the party and offers to pay for Blake's buttons.

Gwen plays her flute. She talks to Chua, the Skywatcher and wise woman of her tribe, about her goliath spirit, her ancestral guardian. Gwen meets her goliath spirit. He is Greyskull, the Runt.

The party decides to seek employment as mercenaries or caravan guards to go north. Cori, Caelum, and Blake go down to the stables of Shroudport and ask around. They meet Parnell. Parnell is a grey-skinned tiefling with six fingers on each hand. He has a bad-tempered quasit familiar that masquerades as a cat. Parnell is intending to go north to Silt Creek. He is willing to pay the party well to protect him along the way. They agree to depart the next morning.

Meanwhile, Gwen returns to the Zesty Anchor after training with Greyskull. Gwen spends some time at the bar. She talks to a regular customer, the red dragonborn Ven. She gets bored, and decides to rifle through Blake's pack. She finds his writing kit, containing letters he is composing to Ilne. Gwen also finds his plushies- an owlbear and a werewolf. She entertains herself for a while. Gwen notices, but does not mess with, a sealed letter lying on Blake's bed. The seal bears the initials M. O. with a flourish.

VOD: Hallowed Part 4
Upload Date: Oct 24, 2018

Plot Summary:
Back at the Zesty Anchor, Gwen catches up with Cori, Caelum, and Blake. Blake reads the letter. It is from Macoth. She regrets what happened, and felt her failure viscerally when she had to clean up splattered archangel bits out of her shop. Because she understands what it means to be trapped in a pact shes doesn't want, she chooses to help Blake now.

Blake reveals the circumstances of his pact with Tarlaen to the party. Blake remembers that when he made the pact, the malformed scales on his chest, over his heart, had glowed. Looking at it now, his scales are just as he remembers them.

Some dragon lore: there are no more dragons on the Material Plane. Well, there's one dragon on the Material Plane. Arasthk, the Bronze Baron. And that's it.

Caelum sleeps. He meets Brother Grune, a stone giant. The Great Contemplator, and constellation of Daniir. Brother Grune starts teaching Caelum the Language of the Lost.

The next morning, the party departs Shroudport with Parnell. Parnell has a cart full of goods pulled by an old nag called Ol' Bess. They travel north, towards Dawngrass.

One day's travel north of Shroudport, there is a waystone. Parnell knows of another waystone in the Gated Glen (where he claims to be from), and of another in the Hollow Locks. The party makes camp at the waystone. Around the campfire, Parnell tells of his ambitions to establish a bakery when they reach Silt Creek. He is considering running a fiend-themed gimmick shop that sells pastries.

Gwen spots three riders approaching in the distance. The party attempts to be cautious. Gwen scooches away from the campsite and hides in the mud.

Blake notices Whiskers, Parnell's quasit/ cat, shatter the glass vial in which he had kept the black worm from STEN FIZZENO's garden.

The three riders arrive at the waystone. They are the human bard Harv, half-orc fighter Garen, and female half-elf rogue (no name). The Four Keeps welcome these newcomers to share the warmth of the fire. Harv pulls out a lute and sings a sea shanty. Ingratiates himself to the party. They share a meal. Then Harv reveals himself as a debt collector for the Lord of Ravens. Parnell objects to this. The party, having been hired to protect Parnell, do their jobs.

Combat! Towards the end of combat, 4Keeps subdue the bard and Cori charms the half-orc with her Fey Step ability. The half-elf rogue disengages and runs. She gets away. The Four Keeps tie up the unconscious bard to the waystone. The half-orc saves out of the charm effect and Gwen punches him out. They tie him up too. Both unconscious, yet very much alive, bad guys are left at the waystone, on top of where the black worm escaped. The party debates stealing horses. Cori is lawful good and dissuades Parnell, who was intent upon doing so. Cori casts speak with animals and tells the horses to go home by exchanging a long meaningful horse-girl stare with the animals. The party leaves a note with the bad guys, explaining what happened.