The Collective - Session 61

This is the sixty-first session in The Collective campaign and the fifth session in the Freedom Fighters storyline of the Current Arc. Player feedback ranks this session at an 8.67.

Notable Events

 * Rosanhi learned that her mother was alive and well in an occupied fort outside of Magnolia.
 * The party received a new assignment from Levin to perform diplomacy with a group of Elves outside of Magnolia.
 * The former crew of the Barchetta was given several assignments by Badger to complete in his absence.
 * Calhoun confessed his love to Rosanhi to her seeming reciprocation with a kiss.

Summary
MONDAY, MAY 21, 1001: After finishing up her work duties at the church of Arabella, Rosanhi found a quiet back room to perform some scrying at the end of the night. She began by scrying on Evangeline and found her sneaking out in the middle of the night to get into adventuring trouble, seeming more comfortable after receiving guidance from the members of the Collective. Ending the spell, Rosanhi prepared herself to cast it once again, this time with the target being her mother. She discovered her mother speaking with another Elf regarding a group of Elves who have made their way across the border to a familiar fort outside the town of Magnolia. Rosanhi's mother, Eliyen, insisted that she take her group of elves back into the forest, but the man did not agree. They concluded their conversation and Rosanhi continued to watch her for some time before ending the spell. Overwhelmed by the knowledge that her mother was both alive and relatively close-by, Rosanhi broke down into relieved tears before retiring for the night at the church.

Back at the estate, Gorrn retired early because he was "really tired" and felt like everyone explicitly needed to know that. Badger and the rest of the table had a short argument about drinking wine that’s already been opened, but ultimately decided to wait until the planning of Calhoun's date was done to crack into the wine. Hearing that the discussion had turned towards food, Gorrn returned back downstairs and joined the table after retrieving some warm milk.In an effort to compose a meal that fit the dietary restrictions of the couple to be, Roscoe led the table on putting together the dinner for the evening, which was pretty much all sides and no entrees. OTIS surprisingly provided some fat culinary knowledge to Gorrn before Gorrn got bored of the conversation and decided that he would plan and assemble the entirety of the meal by himself. Roscoe quickly established that he would provide the entertainment for the dinner, but after a short discussion about whether or not women find juggling impressive the table decided that a juggling routine by Flynt would also be featured. When the topic of a driver was brought up, Kevril was volunteered by Gorrn to use Fast Cabbage to retrieve the couple for the date. The group also decided to put two chairs in the back of the wagon, displaying once again that The Collective’s mechanical ingenuity is matched only by their tactical prowess. Kevril, very lost in the conversation, reluctantly agreed to act as the driver. While table was trying to figure out what OTIS was going to for the date, OTIS dropped one last bomb of dating knowledge on the party and suggested he “open the door”. Upon further discussion, it was decided that he would also close the door.

With the planning complete, an elite dating lineup was formed. Gorrn would cook, Roscoe would provide music, Badger would be the waiter, Flynt would juggle, Kevril would be the driver, and OTIS would open the door. The party went to sleep soon after the plan was settled.

TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1001: Shortly after waking up the next morning, Badger discovered a pair of messenger balls hidden in a broken bottle of wine. The Collective (minus Rosanhi) gathered around the table and listened to the message from Levin.

Unfortunately, Levin did not lead with good news. The Collective, caught up in debate on purposefully letting Harald go, forgot to provide a mission report on the second ball and return them. This prompted Levin to send Sergeant Eric to retrieve the messenger spheres from the party. (Doesn’t really seem like he gave them a whole lot of time to report back on that to me but hey, what do I know?). After stressing the importance of clear communication, Levin then gave the party details on their next assignment. A group of Elves had taken up residence in an abandoned fort just outside of Magnolia. The Collective was to travel to the fort, make contact with the elves, discover why they are there, and come to a diplomatic resolution with them. To avoid the communication issue in the future, Badger announced that he would handle the mission reports moving forward.

While the party discussed the details of the mission, Badger went downstairs to speak with the members of the pirate crew. After polling the crew for ideas, it was decided that Raymond would lead a crew of 3 in stealing crates of apparel off a merchant ship, and Fennel would lead a group of 3 in going around and searching for leads on future jobs. The gang decided that snapping was a thing they were going to do, and Badger returned to the party upstairs. At the table, the group realized that due to the urgency of their mission that the date must happen that night. Calhoun arrived at the door as the party was splitting into search parties, and had the news broken to him that the date would be tonight, causing him to panic and crush the flowers he had brought for Rosanhi. The group then spent a painfully long amount of time debating the logistics of picking up Rosanhi, whether or not Calhoun should ask her out himself, and who should ride the tail horse that picks up Rosanhi if she rejects Calhoun. Gorrn decided to stay at home and prepare the meal while Flynt and OTIS stayed at home to practice their tasks for the evening. Kevril, Roscoe, and Badger took the wagon (and the chairs) to the church of Arabella to find Rosanhi.

Shortly before midday, Roscoe, Badger, and Kevril drove the cart to the church of Arabella with the intent to look for Rosanhi. With Kevril deciding that he was going to look after the horses outside, Roscoe and Badger entered the church to look for their friend. A clergyman noticed them on their arrival, and walked over to ask what they needed. After asking if Rosanhi was there, the man brought them to the room where she was reading a book to some children. She told them that she needed to talk to everyone, but upon trying to leave to go back home, Roscoe lied that the estate was in disarray with potatoes everywhere, hoping she wouldn’t want to go home to that. Rosanhi insisted that what she had to say was important, so they settled on having a party meeting at The Teetering Horseman Inn. The group exited the church to ride there with Kevril, and he went along with the starchy house lie, although giving Roscoe a disapproving look while doing so.

The four arrived at the Teetering Horseman Inn and decided that they didn’t all have to go back to the estate to gather the rest of the group. Rosanhi, Roscoe, and Badger all waited at the Inn while Kevril went back to the estate. When he arrived, Gorrn was gathering all the rope in the house to go fishing, OTIS was practicing opening the door, and Flynt and Calhoun were waiting for Roscoe, Badger, and him to get back. Kevril went to Flynt to explain what was going on, and Flynt went outside to convince Gorrn that they needed to put the fishing plan on hold. Gorrn continued with his plan to scale the cliff for fish, saying that he had more than enough time to get the fish before leaving. OTIS joined them as Flynt tied the rope around his waist as an anchor for Gorrn. Trying to be helpful, OTIS grabbed Flynt with one arm and shoved the other arm as far into the ground as he could. Before Kevril could make it outside to see what was going on, Gorrn began his descent. Flynt and OTIS told Kevril what was happening, and that they were unable to convince Gorrn to come with them.After finding and killing a sufficiently sized mackerel for the dinner, Gorrn started scaling the cliff with the fish stuffed in his pants. Flynt and OTIS saw him start to climb, and began to heave him up, consequently smacking Gorrn against the rock face a few times. Kevril stopped Gorrn before he could walk away, asking if there was a place he could keep the fish so it didn’t go bad. Gorrn insisted that if he didn’t cook the fish now, it would taste very bad. Kevril then asked Gorrn if he considered the party his friends, with Gorrn responding that they were more like family to him. Kevril then brought up the point that he was more invested in cooking a fish than listening to his so-called family when they have something very important to say. Finally getting the importance of the moment through to Gorrn, the group made their way to the Teetering Horseman, with Gorrn bringing the fish along to cook.

With the Collective finally together, they sat down in the empty tavern at a table, Kevril sitting farther away at the bar. Rosanhi called him over to them before beginning her story. She revealed to the party how she grew up in the forest with her family, but one day over 10 years ago her mother disappeared with no trace of where she went, after which Rosanhi eventually left her home and arrived inParadeen. Rosanhi explained that she hadn’t ever had proof of her mother even being alive until the night before, when she scried on her. Her vision showed her mother in a ruined fort outside of Magnolia, and Rosanhi said that she had to leave to go see her again. The rest of the party then informed Rosanhi that Levin told them to go to Magnolia as a diplomatic mission to the elves that were taking up residence in the fort there. The group quickly realized that these two locations were one and the same and resolved to go there together.

Realizing that the date probably shouldn’t happen at that point, Badger raced back to the estate to bring Calhoun back to his house. Once there, Badger gave Calhoun a quick slap and few strong words about getting his life together. Calhoun took it to heart very quickly, deciding that he didn’t want to continue lying to Rosanhi and demanded that Badger took him to her. They raced back to the tavern, Calhoun asking Badger to slap him again before going inside, which Badger complied to, adding some mud under his eyes as well. Walking inside and jumping atop of a table, Calhoun poured his heart out to Rosanhi about all of his trauma from their journey on the sea and ended with confessing his love for her. During his rambling, Rosanhi quietly walked over to him and then hopped up onto the table to join him. After confirming that he had finished his speech, she wiped the mud off from under his eyes and then kissed him.