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Families & Fish

Last week, the party made their way out of the mountains towards Whitefall. Chort's impressive wilderness survival ability kept them safe from danger and random encounters until they reached the river that led to Whitefall, and Ayala confidently proclaimed to the party that nothing bad would happen to them if they followed the river to reach Whitefall. The rest of the party was not entirely convinced, but they followed her advice, and they managed to reach Whitefall without incident.

As the party approached Whitefall, a young man named Omar ran up out of the town to bestow a bouquet of flowers on Ayala, which she pleasantly declined. His ambiguous wording when welcoming her back led the rest of the party to the conclusion that he was betrothed to Ayala, which both Ayala and I found hilarious, but Ayala clarified that he was just one of her many would-be suitors in town. When they entered the town, another eligible young gentleman named Clarence approached the party and offered to escort Ayala to her mother's house. She gracefully accepted the offer despite its obvious superfluousness. He led the party to Ayala's mother, Virginia, and left.

Virginia was a beatiful middle-aged woman who looked about 35. She welcomed the party eagerly into her house and offered them all tea and brownies. Ayala regaled her with tales of the party's adventures into the outside world while the rest of the party marveled at the expertly crafted chocolate. During the conversation, Ayala's brother and his wife and kids stopped by to say hi. His name was Barry, and he was a pretty ripped ranger in about his 40s. Ayala retold many stories to catch him up and keep the kids entertained, this time with a more action-oriented emphasis. The kids were very interested in Millie's tail and asked a lot of questions about it, and she let them play with it which may or may not have been a mistake. The party peer pressured Gregory into trying a small bite of a pot brownie that Virginia made, which eventually made him a bit more chill than normal. Eventually, the conversation wound down, and the party went off to see Whitefall, Ayala's grandmother and the namesake for the town. According to Virginia, Whitefall was waiting for them by the waterfall in town.

When the party walked up to the waterfall, the dancing foam and rushing water coalesced into the form of an ancient hag. It screeched at the party and demanded that they drink from the water of the river or else they would never leave the town alive. Chort and Camilla dutifully complied, and were rewarded for their obedience by a fish that leapt out of the water and into their mouths. Chort swallowed his without complaint, Camilla was horrified, Charlie stepped up to the river and dutifully ate his own fish, Mikolash fled in a panic from the river, Gregory eyed the river suspiciously, Ayala rolled her eyes, and the hag cackled maniacally until it collapsed into the water again. From the water rose a beautiful young woman of about Ayala's age who introduced herself as Whitefall, Ayala's grandmother.

What followed that point was a series of increasingly absurd shenanigans, involving confusion about time travel as it related to Ayala's ancestry, dangerously clean water, difficulty noticing sarcasm, and Whitefall taking great joy in tormenting the party and playing mind games with them. Eventually, a few things were clear. Whitefall (the person) was a true naiad, Ayala's biological grandmother, and the guardian spirit of Whitefall (the town). Being a naiad, she was blessed with eternal youth and immense power, especially over water. A portion of that blessing was passed down through Ayala's family line, especially on the female side, causing them all to retain their youth for far longer than humans. That meant that, to the surprise of some people in the party, Ayala was not fully human, which is how she has been able to do so much weird water stuff this whole time.

Eventually, Ayala asked Whitefall if she knew about any surges of magic nearby that might be relevant to the Forced Fruition project that people like Dorcas were working toward. She explained that there were indeed powerful magical pulses that seemed to come from the Expanse, where a wizard named Alistair was performing dangerous magical experiments that relied on the newly arrived magical power. She hadn't gone to fix it herself because she doesn't like going into the Expanse, but she was confident that the party would be able to handle it.

In addition to dropping cryptic hints about future plot developments and unrevealed secrets, Whitefall decided in her ineffable wisdom to grant each party member a gift. To Camilla, she granted a small stoppered vial that would wreak catastrophic destruction around her if ever opened, with the advice to use it against her family if and when it became necessary. To Gregory, she granted her blessing, which caused him to uncharacteristically blush very slightly and avoid eye contact with anyone. Later, he would blame the pot brownie if anyone asked. To Chort, she granted a magical circlet that would allow him to talk with her magically, and she promised that she would give him advice to help him convince everyone to just get along when the time came. To Charlie, she pointedly gave no gift at all. To Mikolash, she gave a magical ring that would apparently allow him to have experiences by proxy so he could learn things without being in so much danger all the time. To Ayala, she gave a mysterious blessing via bathing in the waterfall. After the gifts were given, Whitefall bid the party farewell, and they went back to a house that Virginia had prepared for them to rest.

Join us this week to tragically part with Whitefall and journey into the Expanse!

Stupid Awards

Mikolash: Chort: Camilla: Charlie: Ayala:
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