Teemin screams, “Rash! Noooo!” and stabs himself in the thigh. He casts Life Transference and Rash comes back to full health. Teemin is badly hurt.

Liadon yells, “Yelprik! Help!”

“Argh. Gimmee some room to work. A bit o’ chicken soup and he’ll be right as rain again.” And he is.

Idadrey turns to Asha.

“Hey, Mom. … What are you doing here?”

“I was on my way to check out the Temple. I saw these idiots dragging that thing in the bucket there and who should I run into but my darling daughter.”

“Why were you going to the Temple?”

“I told my idiot cultists that they had to do the ritual at the Temple because I thought that would be funnier. I mean, I wasn’t going to let them finish the ritual. That would be awful. But you wouldn’t believe how much money they had. We have a really nice house now. Several, actually.”

Idadrey pauses to absorb this. Rash lies on the ground, faintly smoking. Smoking jackets are de rigeur.

“I’ve never had the end of the world scam work so well before,” Asha concludes. Idadrey blinks.

“That might be because it really could be the end of the world. But why were you looking for me?”

“Well, it occurred to me that cultists who are looking for someone with a connection to another realm to sacrifice might find you.”

In the meantime, Liadon has wandered over to the bucket and is peering inside. It’s full or water and a really big glowing fish. Teemin pokes it. It swallows his hand. Liadon grabs it behind the head and forces its jaws open. It keeps glowing.

“Um, ma’am, do you have any idea what this thing is?” asks Liadon.

Asha looks in the tank. “Well. It’s a magic fish. Could be from the elemental plane of water. The idiots sometimes get it right.”

Liadon and Teemin take a closer look and conclude, yes, it really is from the elemental plane of water. It’s a baby leviathan. After we confirm that leviathans aren’t smart enough to talk, Yelprik butchers it for breakfast.

“So, I’m assuming you’re here for the Temple?” says Asha.

“Yes. Do you know where it is?”

“Sure. It’s that way.” She points vaguely off to the left. “I can lead you there. I’ve got what I need out of these guys now. Plus, I can keep leading them on if I need to. Tell them the apocalypse has been delayed.”

“How long have you been running this scam?” asks Idadrey.

“Two years or so.”

“But I thought when you left us the last time you were leaving this plane. Did you stay here?”

“Look, kiddo, just between you and me, your dad’s a bit clingy.”

“What about your KIDS? Were we a bit clingy, too?”

(Idadrey was 8 or 9 when her Mom left home. Her sister was younger and it was harder for her. Her brother is younger still.)

“I’m not good with people made of skin. I figured I’d let you grow up and then come back and see if you were interesting.”

“I’m … not sure how I feel about this, so I’m going to focus on our mission to stop the Convergence.” Idadrey heads to bed. Her mother wanders off, saying she’ll be back in the morning.

We all settle in for the night again, except Rash and Teemin who keep watch with Barktholomew and Owlfonso. Barktholomew chews on a troll. Ew.

Owlfonso turns his head back toward the teleportation circle. He grabs Teemin’s ear and points him in that direction. Teemin gets the sense that Owlfonso heard something that sounded like a bell.

Owlfonso goes to scout. Teemin looks through his eyes. The teleportation circle is encircled by toadstools. Teemin thinks long and hard, and concludes this is some fae bullshit.

Rash: “Fuckin fae.”

Teemin realizes someone from the Faywild has claimed this portal as part of the Faywild.

Owlfonso lands on a mushroom and claws it. The mushroom tears and immediately repairs itself. Owlfonso does NOT go inside the circle.

Teemin asks Rash if he can levitate Asha into the circle. It’s a new spell and he’s been dying to try it.

“No.”

“Rose?“

“No!”

“Mirya? She’s a cat. She has nine lives.”

“She’s not exactly a cat and NO.”

Teemin takes one of the cultists’ bodies and levitates it into the circle, then watches to see what happens. About 20 minutes later, the corpse’s eyes light up bright green. The corpse sits up and says, “Oh god, this thing stinks! Oh, no, fuck this.” The lights go out and the corpse collapses.

Rash does not see any of this. They hear some conversation and the thump of the body hitting the ground. Rash swivels to look at Teemin.

“What the hell have you done?”

“They don’t want to be friends.”

“No. Not everyone wants to be friends.”

Teemin checks the circle periodically until the morning, when the rest of the party wakes up, all having had a nice long rest. By morning, the inside of the circle is the same. Outside the circle, the greenery and fungus has expanded a bit.

Rash asks Yelprik for salt. “I’m thinking of drawing a salt circle around the fairy circle around the teleportation circle.”

“Excuse me? The what?” says Liadon. “Did you say there’s a fairy circle?

“Oh, yeah, it popped up last night. I put one of the cultists’ bodies in it last night and someone came and inhabited it for a while but they didn’t like us so they left.”

“Well, that’s a hell of a summary,” says Yelprik.

“Thanks. For letting us know,” says Liadon, non-plussed.

“I have kept an eye on it. Nothing else has happened.”

“Okay, I totally agree with Rash. Yelprik, can we please have the salt now?” asks Liadon.

Rash takes a barrel of salt, goes to the circle, pulls out the bung and walks a salt circle around the fairy circle around the teleportation circle, carefully watching where they put their tail to avoid making a mess of the salt.

Idadrey searches out her mother. She finds Asha passed out with an empty battle of whisky. Fireball, of course. “Okay, I guess I’d better sober up,” she mutters. She turns away and belches blue flames. “Okay, good to go.”

We all eat fishysoisse with fennel, which tastes a bit watery, mashed squash, cider and a bit of fruit pie. Yelprik uses the mending cantrip to take four 50-foot pieces of rope and make them into one 200-foot piece. We pack up, loot the cultists and head toward the Temple. We get 3 cultists’ robes (having abandoned the one in the circle), 1500 copper pieces and 20 electrum, which all go in the bank of Yelprik.

The day is uneventful until we come around a curve and see three sabertoothed tigers.

Liadon yells at them and waves his arms. Mirya yowls blood-curdlingly. The tigers appear threatened; their hackles go up. Teemin and Yelprik try animal handling. What they know about animal handling is this: “Don’t handle tigers.”

“This does seem like a ranged weapon situation,” murmurs Idadrey. She pauses, then races up to one of the tigers and attacks it with her rapier. She does a bit of damage and disengages.

Mirya pulls out her short bow and hits the same tiger, then hides between a bush and a rock.

“You kids have got this, right? I’ll be over here. Have fun!” says Asha.

The other two tigers close with the group. The first one pounces on Idadrey, bites her and gets her with a cross swipe. Idadrey staggers, but manages to stay on her feet.

Yelprik tries to put the other two tigers to sleep. No luck. He gives Liadon bardic inspiration, waxing poetic about tiger steaks.

Liadon hits the tiger that’s menacing Idadrey with a chaos bolt.

Owlfonso looks around and finds another sabretooth tiger behind a rock on the other side of the clearing.

Teemin tries to slow down all four tigers, and manages it with the second and the third.

Rose flies over to the tiger that’s menacing Idadrey. She lands on its head and stings it; it’s hurt badly enough that it falls unconscious. Rose spreads her wings and preens. Idadrey sees a smiley face in her mind, and sends back a feeling of gratitude.

Rash dashes past one of the slowed tigers (which can’t get an attack of opportunity against her because its swipe is too slow) to the one Owlfonso found at the far edge of this plateau. It’s also moving slowly. Rash hits it with repulsion breath. The tiger teeters on the edge of the cliff, scrabbling with its claws. It just barely manages to hold on. Rash chucks a hand axe at it, but the axe hits the big rock behind the tiger and lands next to it.

Idadrey looks at the tigers that are menacing her friends, then turns back to the unconscious tiger behind her. Her hand wavers. In her mind she hears a voice, “Kill it. Kill the one that hurt you.” She wastes a perfect attack to stab the unconscious tiger through the heart with her rapier.

Rose screeches and lifts off. Liadon yells at Idadrey: “What the hell are you doing?”

“What? It’s dead!”

“It was unconscious. Focus on the ones that could hurt us!”

Idadrey nods and runs over to a tiger by the bridge. She thinks about creating a flame blade and attacking the tiger. But in her head she hears, “No weapons but me.”

So, she does nothing.

Nothing.

Mirya joins Idadrey between the two tigers by the bridge and gives her a quick look. Mirya attacks the tiger closest to the bridge, and leaves it bloody. It tries to bite Mirya, but misses, tries to claw her, but she’s too fast for it. The other tiger slowly moves to bite Mirya while she’s distracted. She sees it coming at the last moment and makes an uncanny dodge, but is still hurt.

Meanwhile, the furthest tiger slowly paces toward Rash. It pounces, but clumsily. Its claws rake Rash’s shield.

The tiger closest to Mirya roars and shakes itself and begins to move more quickly. The one by Rash remains lethargic.

Yelprik charges up toward the tiger that just roared. Flames pour from his hands over the sabretooth. So much flame! When the fire dies, the tiger looks crispy but is still alive. Yelprik turns to Mirya and grins, “While I don’t think you want tiger stakes, we still have fishysoisse!”

Liadon reaches for his wand at his hip, but grabs the wrong one. “Oh! This is a wand of magic missiles!” He sends two missiles to the tiger next to Mirya and two at the tiger who roared. The each stagger.

Owlfonso flies back to Teemin, who casts Toll the Dead on the tiger who roared. Sadly, it is too wise for him.

Rose flies over to the slow tiger Rash is battling. It escapes her sting but she hovers over it, waiting for her chance. Maybe she distracted it a bit, though, because Rash manages to hit it with an axe, twice. It’s bleeding a lot.

Idadrey listens to her rapier and attacks the tiger in front of her with it. That tiger is looking really rough. Mirya tries to polish it off. For a moment, it looks like the tiger has escaped her (natural 1) but then Mirya gets really lucky. The tiger trips and falls forehead first on her blade, impaling itself up to the hilt through its eye.

The remaining tiger by the bridge bites Mirya, but misses her with its claws. Mirya’s uncanny dodge leaves her with only a bit of damage from the bite.

Rash’s tiger attacks Rash again. Its bite misses, but it gets a claw on Rash for a bit of piercing damage.

Yelprik looks over the situation and casts a cloud of daggers at the tiger menacing Mirya and Idadrey. There is no avoiding it. The knives start butchering the poor tiger while it’s still alive. Liadon puts it out of its misery with a ray of frost. The meat is completely frozen and gradually being ground to chuck.

Owlfonso hoots approvingly. Teemin cures Idadrey’s wounds.

Rose lands on the remaining tiger, scrabbles around a bit, trying to sting it. She misses, but it’s too slow to grab her as she flaps away.

Rash loses all patience and chops its head off.

Yelprik grabs some tiger for the larder.

We look around to see if we can find the tigers’ den or any evidence that someone has set these tigers on us (rather than simply bad luck). We find nothing.

Asha looks at Idadrey, who’s covered in her own blood. “You know, kid, maybe you should stay further away from the things that have claws. You’ve got a bow. Why don’t you use that?”

“I like using my rapier.”

“Or, you know, fire? Fire’s great. I love fire. I thought you liked fire, too. Why not fire, Idadrey? Isn’t everything better when it’s burning? I’ve always thought so.”

“I’ve used fire once or twice but, you know, my rapier works for me.”

“Yeah, that’s clearly working out for you. I mean, I guess it’s your choice.” She mutters: “You really do take after your father,” then raises her voice again. “Anyway, the Temple’s this way.” And she saunters off. Barktholomew has found a spinal cord of a deer or ox or something in the bushes and is gnawing on it.

“Aaah, bad – ah. Uh. Nothing,” says Teemin, who looks a little green.

We make our way through the woods, over rocks, through rocks and tree and trees and rocks and water. We arrive safely at our next campsite and settle in for the night. Teemin and Mirya take first watch with Owlfonso. Owlfonso finds a mouse and eats it.

“Dude, that’s not – awwww. The crunching! Ick.”

Liadon and Idadrey take second watch. They look out into the darkness with the campfire behind them. Eventually Liadon says, “So. Your Mom, huh?”

“Yeeeah. I don’t know her very well. She left a long time ago.”

“Must’ve been pretty rough.”

We look over to the edge of the campsite. Asha has somehow managed to find another bottle of bourbon and drink the entire thing.

“It’s … unexpected. I don’t KNOW her. I don’t who she is, or why she’s here, really. She’s been gone so long. It was worse for my younger sister. She was devastated the last time she left. I’d gotten used to her coming and going by then. But – yeah. Yeah.”

“Parents are rough. My parents really wanted me to go into government and be all focused on … finances and how you make people do things and stuff.”

“That doesn’t seem very you. I mean, I may not know you that well, but that doesn’t seem like you at all.”

“No. All I ever really wanted to do was magic, but I didn’t really have the skill for it. What do you want? What do you want to do?”

“I like… I like what I do now,” Idadrey laughs. “I like traveling the world. I like seeing new places. I’ve never had any real urge to stay in one spot. So, I just … I don’t know that I have long-term plans. I just like traveling around. And I like figuring out puzzles, which is why I like the whole, y’know, Liberating Things. People put interesting puzzles around interesting objects all the time.”

“Figuring out the way in. Figuring out the way out?”

“Yeah,” Idadrey agrees. “Out’s half the problem.”

“I’ve got some long-term goals. I want to learn more about magic and …” Liadon cuts himself off. “Well, I’ve got some other long-term goals. Short-term, what I would really like is to stay alive. I’m enjoying working with this group.” He pauses. “And I would like it if we were all working towards the same goals. I feel like sometimes you … aren’t. Y’know, when we first got together, you used your bow all the time. You fought smart. What I saw today was not smart. … What’s going on?”

Idadrey pauses.

“I really like using this rapier,” she says softly. “I do, I like using it. It comes to my hand very easily.”

“But it’s more than that. You attacked that tiger today when it was unconscious. Instead of going for the one that was menacing your friends.”

“It just… It seemed the right thing to do, it’s what the sword wanted to do.”

Liadon pauses, lets Idadrey think about what she just said.

“You’re not the sword,” he says quietly.

“What the sword … wanted to do,” repeats Idadrey, slowly.

“How do you feel about doing what the sword wants you to do instead of what YOU want to do?”

“It usually works!”

“Yup.”

“It gives me extra ability.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“If there were a way to keep the extra ability without keeping it in charge of you, how would you feel about that?”

“I don’t know if we can do that.”

“I think that when we get back to the University, we should maybe look into that. If there were a way to do that … well, just think about it. Because I think… I think I need someone I can trust at my back. And not someone who’s going to do what they’re told, by someone who doesn’t have the same plans and goals. I haven’t talked to the others about this.”

“I will think about it,” says Idadrey, dubiously.

“You think about it.”

“I wouldn’t let it hurt any of you.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“You can trust me at your back.”

“What I saw today was not what I need to see. When we’re being attacked, you need to be dealing with the attack. Not with someone who’s prone on the ground, unconscious. Think about it.”

“I will.”

She turns and looks out into the night. Eventually, they’re relieved by Yelprik and Rash.

Yelprik butchers the other tiger carcasse. Rash asks him if he has any scrap cloth, from a flour bag or something. Rash wants to work on some embroidery to deal with this raggedy armour situation.

“There’ll be a tiger pelt fairly soon.”

“I’d like to try it out on some scrap fabric to see how it turns out.”

Their watch passes quietly.

One more day of travel, no interruptions. As it’s starting to get dark, we look up a rise that has cliffs dropping off to each side and, at the top, the ruins of a temple. We can see where the road used to go up the side of the hill. When we get a bit closer (at most a kilometer away), we suddenly see a light streaming from the Temple to the sky.

Mirya asks Asha if the light is always there or if something’s happening that means we should rush.

“Oh, that’s the whole planar convergence thing. When they turned it on, whoever did that. That’s what it does. You should, y’know, maybe turn that off, I guess.”

Mirya and Idadrey reconnoiter. They sneak up beside the road and get up to the top of the hill without getting attacked. They find old crumbling walls with shrubbery growing up through the walls. As they get closer, they can see through cracks in the walls, as well as windows. They see a big magical ritual circle with all sorts of glyphs and mystic doodads generating the big magic stream into the sky.

Around that, there are six obelisks that look new.

“Huh.”

[Norah asks: how many planes are we converging with again? Mid: Well, we can only converge with one. But there are the elemental cultists, the demon guys, the raven guy, Liadon’s patron, and whatever Dr. Paggatt is doing.]

No sign of any people.

Mirya and Idadrey set up a subtle trap to let us know if someone disturbs the entrance during the night. They sneak back to camp and let us know what they’ve done.

“You know, I could set an alarm on the door. It’s a ritual,” says Teemin. “Then I’ll hear it in my head if anyone opens the doors.” They sneak him up and he does that.

We set watch for the night. No fire.

Now, we wait and hope we’ll make the right decisions tomorrow. We hope we'll be in time.