Players’ Handbook

Livius pores through the pages of Grandmother Nervepeeler’s spellbook:

You find among the spells letters written in three different hands. Upon further inspection, you can read that these are love letters, written in an archaic form, but still intelligible. They are from three different men, signed Temarian Yoldo and Sull. Each pines for the subject of the letter, Natalya. There is seemingly an order to these letters, each more desperate and maddened than the last, and they all seem unrequited.

KB-180 makes an ember-log. Pretty cool.

The heroes venture into the valley, with Cas and Sora acting as a vanguard on the broom. They gain a bond with each other, what with all the cat-bagging. They draw the attention of some people at the lumberyard and when they come back with the rest of the gang and all the dogs, the people there start freaking out.

Talkin’ bout climate change, sudden weather stuff, also the Players’ Handbook, which in this world is a PUA manual/religious text. The lumberboys are all ready to fend off the strangers, but they are pretty intimidated by the sight of them. I mean, have you seen you?

I’ll fuck a yak to that

You come upon a village in the valley. On two sides of a creek two structures dominate this village: a tall pillar and a windmill. A humble wooden bridge connects the two sides.

The heroes arrive at the village in the valley. Mayor Wistopher chats them up, tells them to go down to the tavern to get a drink. The barkeep, Kittle, tells them that their strongest liquor is Everfuck, which is like everclear but stronger, and that their signature cocktail is a shot of Everfuck dropped into fermented yak milk.

Wistopher mentions the big monsters in the mountains who are picking off the miners. They both mention that Aramestes lives in the mountains and he hasn’t visited in centuries. The elders haven’t seen him in a few years either.

Everyone glares at Casimir when he mentions yak jerky. Big foe paw.

The dogs are not fans of all the people. KB’s weal and woe says woe to leaving the dogs alone in this village. Casimir keeps an eye on the dogs.

It’s not for you

The heroes head to the monolith in the middle of town. It is some 30 feet high. The stone pillar has the face of a goat carved on it, at eye height. Three rings of stone surround it, like wells. Each of them is six feet tall. One is damp from water and covered in moss and its bottom is all stone. One is black on the inside from ashes. The other is piled with dirt to the rim of the well.

Livius and Sora poke their heads into the elder’s hut and are greeted by a small man. A group of large (correction: they are large) creatures are shrouded in darkness with their faces turned away, but the man does not let you all in further. He answers your questions politely, but does not agree to share the mysteries of their religion. “It’s not for you,” he says and tells you that Aramestes is in the mountains, in his castle, and has not been seen in five years. “He looked like shit last time. We could not even see his face, he was turned away and hiding himself.”

Since the castle is two days up the mountains, the heroes debate whether to continue on or to go after the final beast to unlock the Demiplane Engine due to Zulon’s imminent arrival (and due to the fact that the Argoti-Mineosi War has started and you guys are still trapped here).

Before they do, however, Sora asks after the elder’s companions’ names; they flash their eyes at her and Nahk sees, with his special eyes, that they are all yak-faced.

Woo!

The heroes decide to do some investigation before deciding what to do.

Sora detects thoughts and finds naught but yak noise in Kittle’s head. A nearby person, named Quark, however, seems a bit more conscious in his head. Sora chats him up and discovers that Everfuck isn’t the real name of the liquor and that Kittle was messing with him.

Rho goes and helps out with the efforts to combat climate change. The town workers are happy for the help.

Meanwhile Livius, Nahk, Hobbes, and KB-180 all conspicuously investigate the pillar. While Livius does not detect any magic on the pillar, he does sense that several of the populace are possessed, prompting KB to go apprehend the possessed people. Livius, fearful of the impact on the heroes’ continuing investigation, banishes KB for a full minute.

Hobbes vamps for a full minute with a magic show, which Cas (watching the dogs) eggs on from the back as a mixed crowd of excited onlookers and creepy weirdos watches.

Sora chats with Quark by the river. They smooth over their initial awkward introduction and Sora discovers a couple things:

1. A yak turned into a person?
2. The yak people are possessing the normal people!
3. The yak people are real mean
4. Been going on for like two years
5. The yak people have been forcing the youths to sacrifice themselves outside of the midsummer ritualistic sacrifices, just for fun and cruelty
6. It’s really not for you
7. The yak people can hop out of a body and hop into a new one. “I might not be the same person the next time you see me.” But they often only do that after sacrificing the first body (so there is no one alive who can speak to what it is like to be possessed).

KB-180 returns from the pocket dimension. Hobbes takes KB aside and diffuses the situation, preventing KB and Livius from popping off.

The heroes find themselves in a tense situation. The mountain of Aramestes looms above and they are surrounded by strangers, some of whom may have been possessed by the capricious yakfolk.

It is midday on day 28 since the Battle of Aurochs Island, the first engagement in the Argoti-Mineosi War.

The heroes are on Iskos, having dissipated the white wall, in the village of the valley.

Four islands left: Iskos, Nistora, Dorost, and Charatos.

One beast left: The Skyswimmer.

You are on a demiplane, and Zulon is arriving on the material plane in three days.

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