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  1. Journals

A hero's return

Session 75
2022-05-26

On the morning of Irdien's birthday, Sirona is making her way to meet up with her before class to hand over her gift. Meanwhile, Rose has similar plans. He has spent the early hours of the morning etching a picture of a spider upon a piece of leather. Then, thinking it is not enough, Rose spots a real spider on the wall and attempts to catch it. But unfortunately, instead, he squashes it right before the eyes of Irdien. The drow shrieks and cries at the sight of the killed Arachnid, making Rose follow suit as he realizes his terrible blunder. Around this moment, Sirona sees the pair crying in the hallway over the curled up spider corps in Rose's hand. She quickly steps in and casts heal, but the spider is already long gone from this world. Realizing she cannot take it back, Sirona hugs Irdien and tells Rose to go on to class and save them seats. She comforts Irdien, reminding her about Morena's guiding light and the innocence of animals who needs no redemption to be welcome at the shores of Vele's. After making sure that Irdien is calm, she presents her with her birthday gift in the hope of distracting her further. Irdien is happy about the cookbook but still sad over the spider and angry at Rose even though she understands it was a mistake.
After class, Adrian finds Irdein and gives her the acquired pet spider. It's a sizeable female huntsman. Irdien thanks him and takes it to the dorm, where she shows it off to L. She asks if L wants to hold her, but the spider scurries away from the dragon spawn, hiding in its terrarium.
Sirona and L then ask Irdien to go to the tavern in Tarkett for some celebratory drinks, and Sirona pulls out the glow paint she's saved from when they celebrated L's birthday in Shadow port. The girls have fun, and eventually, Roses's act is omitted.
Two weeks later, it is time for graduation. Rose has made up his mind and decides not to graduate, but Irdien, L and Sirona do. Irdien is called forward and recognized as the honor student she is. The Grand Master gives her many kind words before presenting her with a Monster hunter medallion all of her own. It depictures the head of a goat. To add flair to the distinction of Irdiens performance at the school, Rose tries to shoot off some celebratory force bolts but gets nervous and loses control of them. Luckily enough, Pearl quickly steps in and disburses them. As the commotion settles, Irdien is also presented with a newly uncursed dagger.
After L has been given a Moster hunter medallion with a hound's face and Sirona, a medallion depicting a nightingale, Pearl suddenly receives a message. She tells the Grand master that a portal is about to be opened from Ghiz. Hearing this, Irdien runs, followed by the rest to climb the walls for a better view. West of Tarkett, portals are opened with soldiers, mainly from the dwarven kingdom and hunters exiting, heading towards the school. She spots Ertherin lying on a stretcher and immediately jumps down and starts running in his direction. Zach sees him and tries to mimic the swashbuckling stand, only to fall flat on his face. However, he barely notices as Sirona quickly heals him, and he takes off running. The rest stay behind on the grounds. Sirona immediately starts preparing to receive injured soldiers with the assistance of L and Adrian, helping her and, most importantly, make sure she takes breaks to regain her strength between giving heals.
When Irdien is about to reach her brother, one of the returning masters intercepts her. The drow grabs her shoulders and spins her around, asking if she is the famed sister of this hero and tells her that Ertherin is alive but sedated. He also says that Erthering will be fine but that he ate something evil and, in so doing, saved the master's life. Zach, who has caught up by then, weeps and sobs at the sight of his first friend's condition.
The Grand master is still out in the courtyard with Pearl as Ertherins stretcher arrives. He asks for a report, and a Hunter named Merthin starts explaining that something seems to have taken control of the young man. They encountered a rare monster that nobody could identify at the time, but that must have been a Gernichora, A reversed vampier. When feeding its blood to servants, they are infused with empowering abilities. When a group of hunters got surrounded, Ertherin managed to get a fist full of liches and, by eating them, got empowered enough to save them all. Afterwards, he started acting strange, saying that he wanted to go back to get more blood. The Drow master wants Pearl and Jaz to look at him, and they take the stretcher down to Nicodemuses' lab. Irdien and Zach refuse to leave its side but are asked to wait outside the laboratory. Irdien says that if anything happens, she is holding Pearl personally responsible. While that threat is noted, Rose sends his familiar inside to spy on what's going on.
The two masters start examining Ertherin. Jaz identifies the problem as blood addiction but can't isolate the toxic. At one point, they send for Nicodemus to help, but after hours of futile work, they exit the lab telling Irdien and Rose that the only way of getting rid of the addiction is if they can have a clean sample of the vampire's blood. Irdien immediately says that she will go and wants to do so directly. Pearl tells her that it will be dangerous and potentially life-threatening and that Irdien shouldn't go alone, although they can't, in good conscience, force anyone to join her. Instead, she should ask her friends for help. Alone she will surely perish. Rose says that he will come with her.