To My Dear Friend Discussion Thread

But what do those icons do?

I mean, specifically. Does the Princess of Dreams govern dreams? A land of dreams? Does she make dreams? Or is it like a metaphor?

What makes the Beast Prince different from the Savage Lord or whatever he's called?

And why is Monkey D. Luffy one of the icons?

So she's a Caster Druid while he's a Shifter/Animal Companion Druid?

This is pertinent.

It's never too late! P R O P E R summary~

-WE'RE ON A BOAT ft. T-Pain
-Velka takes Lucca and teleports back to her tower. Promises to meet back up after some preparations for a ceremony are made.
-Since we just finished the sewer escape, Demonia encourages us all to wash and provides a bucket and change of clothes while she washes ours. (Demonia is PRECIOUS.)
-"Accidentally" forgets to supply Adam any, which leads to her seeing some kind of green mark which he still prefers to hide. He tells her about it, but leaves everyone else in the dark.
-Mosernet throws some bird seed, after which Voyage gets a new pet shitbird. (I really can't deal with this accent right now, Punk, I'm so sorry.)
-Demonia tries flirting with Tanith, but Tanith blips out.
-Over dinner, she flirts with Greil too. He rejects her, citing still being sore from his time with the Red. Now she's jealous of him. Has to take a brief break.
-Voyage asks Greil if he's really OK with whatever they may be in for on this path, which causes Greil to reaffirm his resolve about fixing the Tarrasque situation.
-Adam also checks in with Fenia, asking her if she's still in shock. She says that she feels calm, but thinks she must still be in shock because she never has an appetite and can't sleep. He reassures her and tries to get her to find a way to calm down, which helps her decide to find some kind of project to work on in order to calm her stress.
-Over the course of the next night, Fenia has taken to giving Rat King her rations so that Mosernet will think she's been eating. The next few days, she's in her helmet and refuses to remove it.

-WE'RE IN A SHANTYTOWN ft. this isn't related to any songs
-We dock at the last refuge of the demons after the bulk of their forces were defeated and their main base was captured. Demonia explains that most of what we see is who's left, and the town is sparsely populated.
-There's a girl demon in a cage. One "Astrid" had her there, as she "means well" but doesn't realise that she isn't supposed to petrify people. Not very talkative. Her name's Alice. She owns a shop which, obviously, is closed.
-Mosernet tries to hunt aligators, but isn't able to outswim them. She barely escapes, after the Rat King fetches Voyage. Alice kindly petrifies the gator. She gets it as a pet.
-Greil stops at the arena, where he sees the dancer from Alistar's party play fighting a bear. She's pretty good.
-Fenia picks up some stationary from Sherk at the general store. Voyage gets a collar and food for his new shitbird, which he dubs Sherk after the store owner.

-WE'RE IN VELKA'S TOWER
-Demonia leads us in to show us to our chambers and we're introduced to Priscilla, the peppy and mischievous assistant of this Astrid.
-Demonia immediately enters her room and slams the door, but we get a brief sight of her bed. It's quite interesting, to say the least.
-Priscilla shows us each to our own rooms, pies Adam in the face and tries to get people to interrupt Demonia's "rest" and butt in on Astrid.
-Voyage bathes in the nude, Mosernet washes the Rat King, Adam scopes out the audience chamber and tries to assess Lucca's situation, Greil gets beer and does something secret, Fenia pranks the prankster Priscilla by showing her Featherfall... and unintentionally making her nosedive into a tree.
-The next morning we go to attend Velka's ritual, Tanith is there and so is Lucca. Also this Astrid we've heard of. People are happy to see Tanith, and Fenia gives away her identity. It doesn't matter too much, however, because Lucca has taken on the role of Velka's "pet" for now and has agreed to cooperate.
-The ritual begins and Lucca is prostrated over Velka's throne. All the demons attend, and Tanith over all others is called upon to assist Demonia in beginning her bonding ceremony as Velka's servant. Astrid follows. Velka then formally declares and affirms her position as the Dark Mistress again. The demons slowly pour out and Lucca is allowed back down.
-Velka offers us each a magic item. Some choose to attune right away, others hold off on it.
-We then get down to details, as are outlined fully in Crow's session notes above.

-Lucca can be exchanged for another icon to serve as protection while the Dark Mistress' forces get back on their feet. Although Velka seems fond of her, her purpose is to deter the Empire from attacking again.
-Astrid, who is Velka's torturer, is quite jealous of her fondness for Lucca. Only the Arcanifex really perceives her changing mood, generally, however.
-Another option is to create icons. There are several icons of a bygone era which only the demons still remember. If their artifacts are recovered, someone else worthy could take their power.
-The Tarrasque totem will indeed call upon another Tarrasque, the dread destroyers of civilisations, one of which nearly obliterated Axis relatively recently. And, apparently, was instrumental in the ending of the 2nd Age. To stop it, it would have to be defeated, re-bound into a totem, or prevented from being summoned by (presumably) the Blood Knight should we preempt whatever it is he intends to use it for. Greil is aware of the threat they pose, and would even allow Lucca to be tortured to identify the ones who may be behind stealing it. Regretfully.
-Velka promises that this was merely a test, and tells us that the one who signed off on Alistar's killing was seemingly the elder princess, Josephine.
-Worse still, this Tarrasque totem was apparently created by Aimie's use of secretive binding magic. A female one. That could attract the male Tarrasque which still dwells beneath the earth and even mate with it. And if just one Tarrasque means the destruction of the empire or the death of an icon...
-Velka used the same type of binding magic to make Demonia and Astrid her servants. This same principle is also behind the collars which have developed around Fenia's and Tanith's necks, that will soon subjugate them to the Deathless One.
-She offers to remove these collars, though she's unsure she can. Fenia hesitates, unsure if she can deal with losing the collar and no longer feeling any obligation to stay with the party, admitting that she feels greatly overwhelmed by this threat to the world, but Tanith accepts.

-Before the process of removing this collar can begin, the Grand Oracle and her cadre bust in, offering help. The church's corruption runs deep, and she wishes to rectify this Tarrasque situation too, and the rot within the empire that we seem to have uncovered. However, it would be quite a bad look with this church corruption going on if she were to be found assisting the Dark Mistress.
-She and Tanith do seem to exchange some Fateweaving, however.
-Ultimately, the help Velka, Alice and Astrid attempt to remove Tanith's collar. However, at the very last minute, Velka reveals that the best she can accomplish is to bind Tanith to her instead.
-Unfazed, Tanith continues with the ritual.
-She seems to like this new arrangement much better than the one she had with Velka's predecessor, the former Dark Master. As it turns out, Tanith had been his apprentice.

Pretty development-packed session!

Um...! I do not think that word means what you think it means...!No, just very normally hung up on display. Velka even asked if she was comfortable and promised to have Astrid install some footholds for the next time.

Lucca spent most of her time in a pillow fort. Doesn't even have to wear her ankle chain anymore. Velka knows she won't run off.


Jeez more happened than I realized. I didn't mean to give you that much work, Cheese.

Is the Prince of Beasts who I think it is?

If it is, I'll PM you about it this afternoon once you've napped if it at all .

I think we should go back to Axis for the time being the Josephine thing is our biggest lead and there's half a dozen other things we can accomplish in the city and that's just the stuff we know about it'd also be good to speak with Towa in private at some point to suss out exactly what her angle is what's going on in the church ect.

Is it cool if we retcon some reactions from Adam in? Like being kinda cheesed at Tanith being a former apprentice of the old DM. And asking to meet with Velka and/or Lucca in private to discuss some things.