26th Olarune, 1000 YK
- Lozaal goes to get Kalshana some cheese. He's lactose intolerant, and does not know cheese, so he gets the stinkiest cheese he can find. He spends several silver getting a variety of cheeses.
- He doesn't know anything about what people normally eat with cheese, so he gets some bananas. He then goes to Grauwand and gets a brewery to fill one of his kegs with Karrnathi Ale.
- Lozaal, also concerned about Warden, goes to acquire some polish for Warden. He also gets some painting stuff for Dax, hoping that will relax her and combat the influence of the Fallen entity.
- Leonus asks if the others can get him a skull for a spell. Lozaal says he already has a skull, which prompts probing questions from the others. Lozaal points out that Leonus' entire armour is made of bones! Leonus says not to worry about it. Leonus asks if Lozaal minds gilding the skull. Lozaal pulls out the skulls of Teral and Chyrassk. Warden freaks out a bit at the mind flayer skull.
- Lozaal will gild Teral's skull.
- Warden mashes up a diamond to make some diamond dust (for Greater Restoration). He then goes out and buys a little engraved effigy of a dragon's head (for Summon Draconic Spirit).
- Dax acquires a reliquary for Summon Celestial.
- Leonus washes and then goes to bed. (It's midday but they're tired).
- Dax gives Zedd a good groom to try and cheer her up.
- Kal goes to spend some time creating holy water, but changes her mind after realising it takes a spell slot. Dax has some though, so gives it to Kal.
- Kal reads some of her gnomish poetry before bed.
- Sleepy time.
- Lozaal gets back while they're asleep.
- They get up around 6pm and prep new spells for the night ahead. Leonus sleeps in, until Lozaal bursts into his room to wake him up.
- Lozaal is nonplussed by Leonus' bone pyjamas. Apparently they're standard issue for Bone Knights, but he only wears them when he's had a rough day.
- Leonus requests that Lozaal close the door so he can get ready. Lozaal steps into the room and closes the door, which isn't what Leonus meant.
- Lozaal tries to present his gift but Leonus keeps asking him to leave the room. Lozaal steps out and makes a big deal out of it, waiting for Leonus to signal when he's ready.
- "Do you need help with your armour?" "No" "Are you sure?" "Yes!" "It would be much quicker if I helped"
- This goes on for the 10 minutes it takes Leonus to get his armour on.
- Lozaal presents the keg of Karrnathi ale to Leonus. "Maybe now you'll stop complaining!"
- Lozaal tells Leonus he'll be going to the play, and then leaves to find the others.
- Lozaal finds Warden just standing in the corridor, and comments on it being a bit weird that he just stood there all night. He then presents a bottle of warforged polish. It's a beeswax base and a blend of eucalyptus, rosemary, clove and lavender oils. Lozaal offers to help polish Warden anytime.
- Lozaal goes into Kal's room, wakes her up, and delivers the platter of assorted cheeses. Lozaal also comments on how none of them lock their doors when they sleep, and specifically if anyone is going to be kidnapped it'd be Kal.
- Kal tries the cheese with banana. She likes it, apparently cheese is the only strong taste she likes, even though she finds mayonnaise spicy.
- Lozaal mentions that he's going to spar with Dax and Kal says she thinks Dax will win, which upsets Lozaal.
- Lozaal then goes to find Dax, who is already up and eating breakfast. She's bought meat from a food truck, Lozaal buys some too and then presents his painting supplies for her.
- Dax asks if Lozaal thinks it'd be okay to paint on the walls in Clifftop, and he enthusiastically says yes. They both comment on how the others were still in bed. Lozaal asks if Dax locks her door, and she says no, which further bamboozles him.
- "An unlocked door means I can go in, but everyone has complained about me going in!"
- Lozaal asks when Dax wants to spar, but they can do it later. He also mentions that Kalshana was mean about it, and they theorise that maybe she was challenging him. Maybe challenging him to be better?
- They lament at how often Khorvairians don't just say what they mean, really representing the neurodivergent experience.
- Lozaal then goes to polish Warden. Warden mentions he might need to use a screwdriver to get out the dirt in the seams. Leonus misheard this.
- Lozaal then goes to challenge Kal to a fight, as this must be what she wanted. Kal is very confused, and her voice breaks when she tries to explain she was trying to joke. It was just a prank, bro.
- Kal squirms under Lozaal's scrutiny. Lozaal doesn't get the joke. Kal says she wasn't playing favourites, they're all her friends and she loves them!
- Lozaal is confused. "Love?" Lozaal asks what is love (baby don't hurt me) and Kal kinda tries to explain platonic love. Lozaal is further confused, "that just sounds like friends?"
- Kal and Lozaal talk through their relationships with the others, and the intricacies of communication. As an example, Kal mentions that some people consider gifts to be insulting, for which Lozaal apologises profusely to Kal.
- Kal panicks and explains that she didn't mean she was insulted by the gift!
- Lozaal goes round and asks everyone if they were insulted by his gifts.
- Dax and Lozaal spar in the street. Lozaal feels much better now.
- Lozaal rounds everyone up to go the play and Leonus pretends to be sick, but he can't think of any specific symptoms and just has to go with it. He begrudgingly goes with them.
- They go to the Diamond Theatre in Lower Menthis Plateau, and they get some popcorn chicken, some daritos and drinks.
- Once sat down, Leonus slinks down in his seat and sneakly gets the keg of ale out of his bag of holding. They snuck food in!
- They watch Luca Syara's newest play, Lost in Mourning. It's so depressing.
- When Karrnath refuses entry to the refugees, Lozaal gives him a surprised look.
- Kal's a wreck, bawling at the sadness.
- At the end of the play, the cast give a speech about the conditions Cyrans are still living in, and mention the disaster in High Walls. Staff will be collecting donations to help those affected recover.
- When the donation bucket gets to them, Leonus donates 2 gp. Kal donates 5 gp. Warden donates 5 gp, locking eyes with the staff member and asks if it will go to the families. The staff member doesn't know, stating that they think Luca plans to use it as a pool of resources to distribute as needed.
- Lozaal does not donate, he already gave his time and energy to those people. Dax also doesn't donate, as she has no way of guaranteeing the money will reach the refugees.
- Lozaal notices someone walk past him, but nobody was there! He raises the alarm in the mind link. Wee woo wee woo.
- They get up and follow the invisible person, and Leonus uses his Divine Sense. He detects a fiend, uh oh.
- They rush the figure and she pushes into the backstage area. Lozaal calls her out and she materialises in front of them.
- Oh shit it's the elf! The sexy one with the danger! She laughs at them and tells them she isn't here for them, she's here for the playwrite.
- Lozaal asks if she didn't like the play?
- She said the play was a bit preachy and Leonus agreed.
- Unknown (the elf) says that Luca isn't what she seems, and prompts Leonus to "do his thing again." He does, and then she laughs at him and points out the door to Luca's room is closed, moron.
- Altogether, the elf baited 3 divine sense's out of Leonus, and she was the only thing to ping on any of them.
- Leonus goes up to the door but waits. Lozaal says he'll go in and talk to Luca, and tells the elf to wait.
- The elf flops down into the chair behind her, lazy but elegant. Lozaal wants verbal confirmation that the elf isn't going to hurt anyone in the interim and she laughs and says "no promises."
- That'll have to do, Lozaal goes into Luca's room. Fuck, she brings the mood down in a room. She's very depressing to be around.
- Lozaal tells Luca that someone is here to kill her. She seems almost resigned to it? She says that other people shouldn't get hurt for her sake.
- Dax gets people out of the way.
- Once everyone is out and Dax has signaled Lozaal, he says the coast is clear and Luca gets up to face her death. He asks that she warn him before she does something dramatic. She looks into his eyes and he notices how profoundly sad she is, but she says "okay."
- Lozaal knocks on the door to go out and Leonus opens it.
- Luca steps out into the backstage area, and everyone gets a bit sad. She tells the party to leave, they shouldn't get hurt for her.
- Leonus stays where he is, between Luca and the elf.
- Saila asks if the bone man is committing to this, and he nods. She shrugs and says okay.
- Then Luca gently pushes Leonus aside and casts Chain Lightning, which the elf dodges flawlessly. Fuck.
- As Luca cast the spell, her disguise slipped away, revealing that she's an Eladrin!
- Initiative!
Lost in Mourning
Lost in Mourning is a heartrending tale of Cyran refugees surviving the Mourning, and the danger and trauma they faced both during that event and in its aftermath. It depicts people panicking in the wake of the explosion that set the sky alight, and then fleeing their homes as the mists encorach.
One scene depicts a 7 year old girl, a half-orc, escaping via House Orien Teleportation Station in Whitehearth. As the child is loaded up onto the teleportation circle, before her parents, she is alarmed by shouts behind her and catches glimpses of the station erupting into violence just before she is whisked away to another location. No more groups arrive via the teleporter, and the girl is taken in by a woman she recognised from Whitehearth and her own children.
Another scene depicts workers in a Cannith manufactory, who become trapped in the factory after the explosion messed with the enchantments on the equipment and sealed the doors. The workers, unable to escape the factory, take shelter inside a dragonshard-lined industrial kiln. The workers survive the blast and the coming of the mists, and eventually manage to make it out of the factory. Many of them then die on their way out of the ruins of Cyre, attacked by living spells and other horrors.
Another scene depicts the lightning rail station in Kalazart, becoming swarmed by refugees fleeing the incoming disaster. People mob the trains in their desperation to escape, and the station falls into a state of chaos and pandemonium, with some trains leaving with empty carriages, hijacked by desperate people, and others become stuck and don't leave at all. One train driver makes an effort to ensure that they get as many people onto the train as possible, filling every carriage. The driver looks out and sees the mists approaching, and with tears in his eyes, yells that he is sorry before plunging the train forward, into the desperate crowd that are crowding the conductor stones and trying to grab onto the side of the train.
The last scene of the Mourning itself is on the Field of Ruins, depicting the armies of Breland, Thrane and Cyre clashing, before the explosion rips through them and all three armies are torn apart. Few survive, and are forced to throw their national allegiances aside in the interest of survival as they try to escape. Much like in Luca's other play, Five Lives, they realise that there is more that unites them than divides them, and that this tragedy goes beyond the borders of Cyre, even as the mists don't.
The next part of the play is dedicated to exploring the immediate fallout of the disaster, showing how the refugees were received in each nation. Breland welcomes them with open arms, and sets aside land for the refugees to call their own, camps like New Cyre, High Walls, and Threshold, but that seems to be the extent of the aide provided. Thrane takes the refugees in and sets them up in temporary camps whilst permanent homes are found for them, but this also results in the splitting up of communities, though families are kept together. Aundair and Karrnath both refuse entry to the refugees outright, Karrnath citing an inability to feed them given their own famines and Aundair refusing to elaborate beyond ordering the refugees to leave.
Cyrans spread around the continent, with some even travelling to distant Xen'drik and the city of Stormreach.
The play then dramatically shifts, depicting groups of salvagers going back into the Mournland in search of treasure, and other groups going back in to find lost family heirlooms or search for survivors who didn't manage to escape.
The play ends on a somber note, with the cast lining up on stage and delivering a speech about the current state of things, that for many Cyrans, conditions haven't improved much in the last 6 years. Staff go through the audience with buckets asking for donations to help those in High Walls.