Session 96: 31st May 2022 - “Come join me”

They leave the witches tower, hastily wrushed out into the garden. In the chaos it seems that Braz has got lost. Or taken?

Within second Braz thumps down into a lotus flower bush, groaning.

“Why didn’t you come the way we came?!” He groans, and starts to rummage through his bag. He pulls out a glass vial and hugs it close to his chest.

“She showed me the forgotten seas… it was typhon island. A way to end the curse.” Braz’s curse. Xan suggests they add it to their to-do list. 

They travel back through the flowers and return safely to camp with the Aresians. Discussion on bonds goes on for longer than Xan ‘s attention lasts and her thought wander back out to sea.

She thinks of her dear mother, trying to conjour up the image in her mind again but not able to get the details. She can’t force her shape, the dimples and her long wavy hair. It is too long since she saw her and all she sees is the waves. And Pythor for some reason swinging wildly into the water as if in battle with imaginary foes.

Before they left, Xan challenges Cy to one last race up and down the beach. She wins of course.

On the boat Alke tells a chilling tale of a bard who basically murdered hundreds of people. Xan enjoyed it but Calliope didn’t seem to be convinced.

That night Xan speaks with the group about the information that the Lotus Witch told her, about how she thinks they need to visit the island, despite the fear she holds for her home. She tells him she thinks her grandmother is there and may have been there the whole time. She needs to know more about her past. 

They speak about the vast navy of the Messias and that there may be an opportunity to bring them on side to help with their campaign - although the last time she spoke to them she was fleeing the island. As they bring their conversation to a close they hear a song calling out over the water.

“Come join me, jump into the sea

Swim to our reef and enjoy time with us”

Splashes of crew jumping into the sea - Bana has tied himself to the wheel. Calliope waves her hand and casts an effective counterspell to stop the rest of the crew jumping over the side. Pythor grabs the rest of the crew and holds them down. Loreus begins to play a panpipe, drawing the remaining crew in to Pythors arms.

They jump into a boat, chasing after their crew. She won’t lose another of her crew.

“There is no denying the beauty of the songs of the sirens. They can be heard miles from shore, joining with the din of the ocean waves to create haunting melodies. Sailors are always blaming them for shipwrecks, of course, but I imagine that’s a convenient excuse when you crash your own ship on the shoals.”

“On the Saviour of the Seas, it was late at night, and there was a beautiful song reaching out across the waves. I was lying next to Tiap Ca and Am Silverbranch, members of the crew on my sub-crew. Am woke up in a panic, he had heard this type of song before. He shouted out to his brother, Frath, who was on watch.

Tiap threw a blanket over us, slamming our heads down onto the deck but Am fought him. He yelled out to Frath, demanding he answer but the only thing we could hear was the song. And a splash. In the days following Am was silent and didn’t, we dropped Am off at the next town and never saw him or his brother again”

Xan dives into the water and swam towards the ship, putting herself between her crew and the ship, but something weird happens. The water gets deeps and the waves higher, she loses her ability to swim quickly and begins to be thrown about in the sea. She can only think of angry sharp things and pinching.