Return to Auromia
With one of the players from The Ruins of Auromia returning to Auckland briefly before moving overseas, we had a catch-up game where we revisited what those characters were up to now! We did, however, run out of time, so the end of this was extremely rushed.
Two and a half years had passed since a group of adventurers defeated the arch-fairies who had pretended to be gods in Auromia, and Sorrel Acetosa had become the new genius loci of Auromia. In that time, Dova the cat-head had become first mate on the Coral Claw under Capitano Giuseppe la Fenicottero (a flamingo-head wizard) sailing with the pirate fleet of Capitano Giovanni Bramare, a brass dragon. The three ships under his command fought against the imperialist bronze dragons of Staglia and the capitalist red dragons of Selenizia. Recently, a Staglian fleet had stopped at the island of Santa Severina and demanded its surrender, and then plundered the port when it was refused. The Coral Claw and the other ships set off in pursuit. It turned out to be an ambush to lure out Capitano Bramare, but after a daring battle, the pirates were victorious, and the treasure was returned to Santa Severina. That night, Dova had a dream she had not had for three and a half years - the fairy forests of Auromia were calling for her to return. After discussing the dream with Capitano Bramare, she left for Auromia, accompanied by Giuseppe la Fenicottero.
Meanwhile in grimy, corrupt Kymaiopoli, enforcers for the Benevoli were evicting a family from their home, so that the land could be seized. Suddenly, one by one, the thugs disappeared. The fabled Uomo Ratto was there! After defeating the thugs, Uomo Ratto left their mark behind, the 'Segnale di Ratto', to show that the people were under their protection. The Uomo Ratto was in fact Noke, the one-armed street druid, who now had strange powers after dying in Auromia three years earlier and making a deal with the fairy Ilaria to avoid passing on to the afterlife. As Noke went to sleep in the attic of an abandoned theatre, the old dreams of Auromia returned again. The next morning, the druid departed Kymaiopoli and headed west.
When they reached the ruined outskirts of Auromia, it was as poor as they remembered, but things had changed. The inhabitants of the slums around the old city walls now had a beneficial relationship with the fairies that lived inside, leaving out gifts for them in exchange for magical favours. Dova, Giuseppe and Noke met again outside the old gates - not far from the ruined castle where they defeated the Cavaliere Rosso. There, they were warmly greeted by Fomo the satyr, who was now Sorrel's majordomo.
Inside the city walls, everything had changed. The city was now called Canzonia, the City of Song. There were still massive fairy trees that blocked out the sun, causing an eternal twilight below them, but they were now decorated with banners and bunting, and fairy wisp-lights glowed in their boughs. The tops of the trees were now hollowed out, with rope bridges and platforms for flying fairies connecting them. Around their roots, the old marble paving-slabs had been replaced with colourful mosaics. Wooden driverless carriages flew between them. The ghosts that once lived here had gone - guided into the afterlife by the death-fairy Ilaria. At the old forum, the heart of the city, stood the largest tree of all, the Eversong Tree. Soft music drifted down from it. Around its trunk were set tables of food and drink, and many fairies feasted and celebrated - but all seemed to be mourning as well; their hearts were not in it.
Soon Sorrel appeared to greet her friends. She was now over six feet tall and her skin was green. Unlike her predecessor Tellaia, she had decided to lock the largest part of her powers away from herself and maintain her old persona - she was first amongst equals, not a goddess. She was flanked by two others - Gorag, a battle-scarred unicorn who served as her majordomo, and Micia Piumata, a black and brown griffon whom Ilaria had sent to help her old friends.
As Sorrel was about to explain what was going on, the centaurs present at the party suddenly began to attack the other party-goers and overthrow tables. As they did, they chanted in unison.
Cold is hearth and dark is door.
Friends shall fail and peace be war.
Flesh withers unto bone.
All go to the grave alone.
The heroes sprang into action and attacked the centaurs. Noke and Sorrel raised up a mass of vines to entangle some, while Micia calmed the emotions of others. Dova slew the leader of the centaurs, Gorag brutally killed others, and Giuseppe used his magic eyepatch to see into the aether and summon purple blasts of energy to strike down the remainder. Before very long, the centaurs had been defeated.
Sorrel gestured with one hand, and the Evertree shrank down to become a leafy quarterstaff in her hand. Noke questioned the centaurs that had survived and found that they were confused and upset, with no memory of what had happened. Giuseppe looked into the aether and saw the lingering remnants of demonic enchantments upon them. Looking further, he perceived that the demon was still present, but had shrouded itself in the aether. Sorrel flung forward a handful of leaves, and a gust of wind swept them in an arc, dispelling the demon's magic. It was the ancient demon DISCORDIA, who personified envy and hatred. She appeared as an unnaturally tall woman, born aloft by shadowy wings, and with hair that turned into sharp horns, surrounding a face with two black eyes which cast shadows where her gaze fell. There was a brief battle, but Micia used her magic to drive DISCORDIA from the mortal realm and back to Damnatio.
With DISCORDIA defeated, Sorrel announced a great celebration. Fomo performed a sea-shanty that he had written in the heroes' honour (he had just learnt of sea-shanties from Giuseppe and wanted to try them. Part way through his song, he vanished, and DISCORDIA returned. She had kidnapped Fomo, and dared Sorrel to come after her. Giuseppe unfolded his magical boat to bear them through the aether to Damnatio, and Sorrel planted the Evertree in it to serve as a sail on the other side.
The companions set off through Purgatorio, past the souls waiting to be reincarnated, the realms of the arch-fairies, braving aetheric storms and whirlpools. A terrible monster surfaced to swallow the Coral Claw whole, but it was driven off by a masked-face spirit - their old deceased companion Accluso the hunter. The world grew darker as the aetheric currents bore them into Damnatio, where they were attacked by the hateful souls of those who had gone there upon their deaths.
Finally they reached a fortress without windows or doors. Giuseppe fired the Coral Claw's cannons and then rammed the fortress to make an entrance. Inside, the palace was dark and dreary and filled with DISCORDIA's memories - every time she drove a friend away, every time she was shunned, every mistake that she made. The group began to feel sorry for her, but knew that redeeming a demon was impossible. Finally they reached her throne room, where Fomo was imprisoned in a cage of thorns, and DISCORDIA sat upon a throne. After a failed attempt at negotiation, battle was joined. Finally, Sorrel seized the Eversong Tree from the Coral Claw and turned it into a staff again, then impaled DISCORDIA with it before turning it back into a tree. As DISCORDIA's nature rippled and fluxed, Micia cast a mighty spell to calm her emotions, and with it, bestowed upon her a new name: Serenità. With this, the fortress toppled and fell, and the heroes returned once more to Canzonia, accompanied by Sorrel. Serenità decided to remain on the other side of the Aether, to discover who she was now.
With the situation finally resolved, the interrupted feast was held at last, and the companions decided what their futures would be. Giuseppe and Dova decided to leave the pirates for a while and explore the world, and Sorrel renounced her title as Queen of Canzonia, leaving Fomo in charge, to accompany them. She felt that she had been too inwards-looking while the world suffered. Micia returned to help her mistress Ilaria with her duties once again, while Gorag retired as head of security. Noke decided to return to Kymaiopoli with a new mission - instead of fighting the agents of the Benevoli, he would take the fight to the dragons themselves...
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