I have to go now. My planet needs me.

Barty steers the ship, following alongside the skyswimmer. The crew marvel at the majestic beast and KB thinks about maybe reasoning with it. Unfortunately it has no language. Rho then approaches KB and asks whether he would come with her to visit all the islands and warn them about the Duchess Serena. But KB rebuffs her and says that he must fulfill his mission.

After failing to convince anyone to turn to her side, Rho takes a chance on Paloma, who decides that this is her purpose: to thwart the Duchess and align with Rho to subsequently reform the current Nistora Kingdom after the Duchess’s threat is removed. They hop on the skyswimmer’s back and head on down to the islands to warn everyone of the Duchess’s nefarious plan to colonize the islands and take the throne of Nistora from King Almsbrood.

What did I miss?

Meanwhile on Lemba, Baltsaros and Abraham discover that the Archdruid’s Fountain has been restored. They decide to steal away on a fey boat, and in their haste, they are tailed by a pair of fey. Abraham butchers one of them and the other wisely backs off. They witness the skyswimmer fly through the air as they reach the PS Admirable Effort.

Abe reunites with the party! Baltsaros is here too. Everyone catches him up on what’s gone down. Basically just a quick recap on:

• Embara where Mallory tried to betray the party, everyone got doppelganged, and Hobbes kept talking about worms or something
• Jolos where Mallory was promptly banished to hell, Livius made a necromantic faux pas, the gang got poisoned and unpoisoned
• Iskos where they found four cubes, met a new ally provided by the kodama (kind of a passive-aggressive move on their part), fought a giant goat monster, met three incels in one, melted an igloo full of corpses, liberated two villages, met an Ambassador prototype, and ate blubber
• giant drama! Spill that giant tea

Abe is disappointed that the party no longer has a wizard after they let Mallory get plane-shifted to hell and made no effort to get him back.

Nahk and Sora have a heart-to-heart after Nahk and the others were deceived by the Duchess. They acknowledge each other’s differences of opinion when it comes to the Duchess and bond over their difficult relationships with their mothers.

I swear this never happens

Various people chat with the Alchemist, but only Abe takes the plunge and has the Alchemist make a device:

The Alchemist uses some sirablood to enchant Cas’s fascinator (and adds a jaunty seashell) to make it a waterbreathing cap. Abraham tries to have the Alchemist enchant his weapon and she starts a couple of fires instead. Whoops.

With his waterbreathing cap and water-walking ring, Casimir has what we call in the biz a “magical conflict of interest” and holds a contest of skill (who can be the most considerate and nice) for the winner. Good luck.

Maybe those are just tiger masks

The gang heads to Charatos! They arrive at a ship wreck and learns from the notes that the ship came from Quebra. It is completely ransacked. Owlicious spies two ships in a nearby cove sporting the flag of Hespero: not the one you remember from sailing with him, which is a bunch of grapes next an amphora, but the crossed slash marks flanked by crescent moons: his secret sign. Displayed so prominently and openly, the heroes begin wildly speculating: is Hespero here? Did he ever leave? Are we the bad guys? Owlicious also confirms that yeah, the sailors on those ships? Definitely rakshasas. Aw shit.

The heroes return to the Admirable Effort and sail close to the cove, only to be spotted and pursued. Barty flies the ship up above the clouds to evade them and you leave their line of sight.

Forget it, Nahk; it’s Chinatown

Late at night, you are dropped off over the hills of Charatos. It’s not subtle but luckily Barty is able to fly the PS Admirable Effort out of sight above cloud cover. Hope tomorrow’s not clear.

The gang runs into a group of bugbears and Nahk is like, “Hey friends,” and they’re like “Grrrrrrr” and a tussle ensues. They soon discover, upon trying to talk to a captive bugbear, that they are not as eloquent as their pal Nahk. They seem to be affected by something, sick even.

The gang passes without a trace into the ruins of a village to investigate. Not like a temple ruin or something. Or like a mansion. I just mean like a village that isn’t being used anymore. Like a ruined village. Cas rolls a 45, so no one’s even ever heard of him. The bugbears have made camp here and upon further investigation, the heroes realize a few things

• the water appears to be tainted with sirablood
• the sickness that this inflicts is fatal (after finding a dead bugbear without any wounds)

and they jump to the conclusion that the tainted water has driven the bugbears mad.

The heroes stoneshape a cover over the village well and call it a day. For the water to have been tainted, the heroes who have been to hell know that either

• a devils ore vein crosses where the well was dug or
• pure sirablood got into the water system some other way

It is late night on day 33 since the Battle of Aurochs Island, the first engagement in the Argoti-Mineosi War.

The heroes are on the ground in Charatos in an abandoned village.

Three islands left: Nistora, Dorost, and Charatos.

All three keys have been retrieved.

The dogs are on the ship.

Malory is on the material plane with Hespero

Rho is with Paloma and the Skyswimmer.

You have four solid cubes with keyholes and a ring of seven keys:

• KB has one of the pine wood cubes
• Livius has the cube made of bone found in Iskos Valley Village’s elders’ hut
• The Alchemist has one of the pine wood cubes, the obsidian cube found at Natalya’s tomb, and the ring of seven keys

You are on a demiplane, and Zulon has been on the material plane for two full days.

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