Session Information

Session Date: 16th Nov 2025
Saga: 6th Saga - Urban Legends
Attendance: Sam Gallon,Rowan Hales,Caleb Hamlet

Session Summary

The session opened with the party gathering in the old councillors’ chambers to decide their next move for stabilising the OFC. With finances dwindling and national plans at risk, Halfbie argued passionately for a raid on the Golden Fort—the heart of the Golden Fleet’s power and one of the wealthiest strongholds in the world. Though initially sceptical, the others were persuaded when Halfbie proposed using the golems from Old Earthgrog as a diversion and launching an aerial drop-in assault via airship. Meanwhile, the alternative option—reclaiming wealth from Fort Molden—was deemed less urgent. The group agreed to split tasks: Halfbie would research and prepare the golems, while Mordecai and Drache sought Robert Thornwood’s military support.

Halfbie’s research uncovered valuable intelligence on both forts and led to a tense but productive meeting with Tereance Witherfeather, the eccentric wizard of the Mage Guild. Though Halfbie refused a spell that would have reunited them with Chenris directly, they secured Tereance’s help for the raid in exchange for the right to establish a tavern of “lusty wenches” afterward. Chaos struck when Agolin Winterbor unleashed another aquatic disaster, transforming the party into cards for an impromptu game of Go Fish—but Halfbie pressed on, later using Fabricate to turn Merek the Wise’s books into valuable stationery stock for Blackwall.

Meanwhile, Mordecai and Drache met with Robert Thornwood, who agreed to act as their general—though his twisted worldview left Mordecai shaken. Their discussion ignited a deeply personal crisis in the tiefling, who later sought privacy to speak with Seifer. Their conversation exposed raw grief, shared fears, and long-buried truths: Seifer’s lost love, her lingering hatred, and Mordecai’s terror of becoming like his father. Yet through honesty and vulnerability, the two reached a fragile truce. Reuniting with Drache, Mordecai returned to find Halfbie knee-deep in wizardly nonsense, card games, and progress toward the Golden Fort raid—a plan now firmly underway.

Full Session Notes

None of the party were ready to tackle the strangeness of Halfbie's sleep-talking from the night before. Instead, they got together in the old councillors' chambers to discuss their next move. The most immediate concern was the OFC's finances; without sufficient funds, they wouldn't be able to pay their staff, let alone implement their plans for the nation.

Halfbie emphatically argued that it could be incredibly beneficial for the party to invade the Golden Fort to the north of the OFC. Their main argument was that it could solve two birds with one stone. The pirates of the Golden Fleet had terrorised the waters towards the north of the Verdant Peninsula by attacking ships and demanding protection money. Because of this, they were known for being one of the wealthiest groups in the material plane.

The others were sceptical at first, as the fleet was an incredibly powerful entity, and suggested that taking on the fleet by docking ships on the nearby island would yield plenty of gold with less risk. Halfbie responded by painting out the real threat that if they didn't cut the head of the serpent, then they would be at significant risk of retaliation once the fleet regrouped. Additionally, if they attached the fort and killed the leader, the fleet itself would become disorganised, making it easier to deal with in the future.

What finally convinced everyone was that Halfbie suggested taking the many golems they found in Old Earthgrog to help with the attack, using them as a distraction while they took out the leadership. If everyone loaded onto an airship, they could then drop in for a surprise attack. Halfbie knew the fly spell would mean they could easily slip in without making a sound or taking any damage from jumping from an airship. Drache thought it was a great idea, and Mordecai was less excited but thought the plan was sound.

The only other option they had at the moment was travelling to Fort Molden and finding a way to take back their previous wealth from the Dwarves. Halfbie said it would be essential to do that, but it might not be worth the trouble at the moment until they solved the rest of their issues. Halfbie suggested they split up; Halfbie could research both forts and prepare the golems while Mordecai and Drache spoke with Robert Thornwood to secure support for the raid.

### Halfbie's POV

Halbie travelled to the Library in search of information. The Library was filled with sleep mats and families who had been sent to the grand room after the recent attacks. Viktor also sat in one corner at the table piled high with books, deep in research. Halfbie went straight to the long rows of shelves and quickly found encyclopaedias and historical manuscripts on the forts.

Fort Molden, as they already knew, was the final bastion of the Dwarves after the fall of the Grayfall Empire, found to the north of snowport. However, not much else was known about the fort, as anyone who tried to get close was told to leave or was shot on the spot.

There was a lot more information available about the fort. It was, of course, the leadership of the Golden Fleet. Much of its food came from the fleet, which reserved a certain number of its ships to fish and gather food from the forests found behind the fort. Notably, the fort was literally golden, and many of the large stones used to build its structure were gold-plated. Incised on its walls was an entire city.

The golden fort was incredibly difficult to attack, primarily because of its high walls and limited entrances. The primary entrance was found at sea and could only be used by boat. There was also a rumour of a small side door used when residents needed to go hunting in the woods, but it was presumed the door was heavily guarded. Importantly, it was noted that the fort typically uses only seafaring ships and doesn't have, or typically uses, airships.

With more information in hand, Halfbie went to talk to a golem. They quickly found one who looked to be a higher-ranking or more battle-experienced soldier and approached with a salute. They tried their best to make it look serious and greeted the golem in Ancient Dravish. It did not respond but turned its head to face Halfbie. Their smile faltered for a moment when they didn't get the reaction they'd anticipated.

Halfbie began to explain their plan for the golem, telling it to get the rest ready for combat and to meet at the airship hangar in a week for further instruction. The golem did not respond verbally, and Halfbie could only hope their instructions were understood and would be followed. As they turned to return to the rest of the party, Halfbie spotted the mages guild out of the corner of their eye. From an outside perspective, it looked like their entire body froze for just a moment before they whispered to themselves, "hmmm maybe we could make use of him again," before heading towards the guild promptly.

They quickly made their way over and knocked on the open door politely before entering the reception, where the receptionist greeted them with a tired glare before retiring to her crossword. Halfbie approached and asked if Tereance Witherfeather was around. Still, as they got closer, Halfbie watched a single tear roll down her face. They asked if she was ok, and she just looked up and said, "Oh.. wizards, eh?!")

"We are a little bit of a wild bunch..." replied Halfbie. "Hey, are they being particularly mean to you, or is it just loads of weird stuff happening?"

"Not me, they're assholes, all of them. Fucking try to get one to have a shower."

"Is that so? Well, you'll be pleased to know, I had a shower last week. So we're all good on that front!"

The receptionist let out a heavy sigh before answering the wizard's original question, informing them that Tereance had an office upstairs where he presumably was working. Halfbie thanked them for their help and climbed the stairs to find the man they were looking for. Halfbie wrapped their knuckles against the door 3 times before being beckoned in.

"Hi, I'm Halfbie. I'm not sure if we've had the opportunity to meet each other yet properly", said Halfbie, and they poked their head into the room.

"Yes, yes, I've heard all about you, young Halfbie," he responded, looking up from his desk filled with very curios and old-looking books. The rest of the office was much the same, with many artefacts and strange books.

"Oh? good things, I hope!" Halfbie replied with a coy smile.

"Oh, apparently, you're batshit crazy." stated Terence with an almost proud smirk plastered across his face.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. I don't know where that comes from."

Terence offered the young wizard a chair, and he brought one, sitting down on it, revering in front of him, and asked Halfbie what they wanted. Halfbie, shifting uncomfortably on the seat, began to explain why they had come, but was quickly cut off by Terence, who had been inspecting him quite closely.

"Yep, you definitely have two souls in ya", he said as he sat back. "Do you hear voices sometimes?"

"Not for a while"

"Do you have someone else speaking, someone else acting instead of you?"

"yeah... that happens a sonserning amount actually..."

"I See", said Terence, matter-of-factly, "I'm going to try something"

Halfbie excitedly asked if they could be fixed as Tereance got up and placed a huge book on his bookshelf, as he muttered to himself, which Halfbie was unable to hear. Instead, they had a look at the book the wizard was reading from. Although they didn't recognise it, Chenris instantly recognised it as a Strixhaven reference book. It was an ancient one that Haldir Heleyarus himself wrote while still lecturing. The martial arts cover was incredibly advanced, so much so that Chenris hadn't managed to study and understand the foundational concepts that were used in the book. The elf was practically salivating at the sight of such a book.

Halfbie pointed out that they had actually met Haldir Heleyarus, explaining that it was as strange an experience as Haldir had cast a spell on the party, leading them to meet the other soul in their body. Terenace laughed and explained that was actually the spell they were going to cast, and asked Halfbie would like ot meet the soul again.

Halfbie went ghost white at the thought, asking if that would be a brilliant idea, since in the past Chenris had been... divisive, to say the least. Tereance let out a hearty belly laugh before expelling that the two of them were good friends and would love the opportunity to meet the brilliant young wizard again. In the end, Halfbie polity refused the spell. Internally, they didn't feel ready to meet them so soon after learning the truth of what was happening to their body.

They quickly changed the topic and asked Tereance if he would be willing to help them raid the Golden Fort. Halfbie escaped. They had books about how Terenace helped the party win the war for the ofc's freedom by manipulating the weather. They wondered if he could do the same during the raid to support the effort. The wizard chuckled and explained that he wasn't actually responsible for the weather; he was only there to keep Agolin Winterbor in check and focused on the spell.

"You know, I went down there the other day, and I tell you, he was doing very inappropriate things with a deck of playing cards. I have no idea where he got the cards from. He told me a fish sold them to him."

Halfbie resisted the urge to ask more questions about the cards and instead asked if the wizard would be happy to join them and cast some large area distraction spell, like mass hysteria or hypnotic pattern, to make the raid a bit easier.

After paying the wizard a large number of complaints, he agreed on one condition; he could open a tavern filled with lusty wenches if he could do that in the fort, then he would be more than happy to help with that. They shook on it, and Halfbie began to get up and leave before the receptionists burst through the door in a panic.

"He's done it again!!" she screamed at Tereance.

Who quickly nooded and ran with the receptionist down to the basement, where it was flooded with water flowing out of Agolin Winterbor's room. As soon as they open the door, they are met with a large torrent of water and a powerful fishy smell. The force of the water knocks all of them to the ground, and for a brief second, Halfbie could've sworn there was a large human-sized fish in the room. It quickly opened a blue portal behind it and disappeared from the room.

Agolin Winterbor looked at them and suddenly let out a crazed laugh as he inverted them all into playing cards. The receptionist quickly left them alone with the madman, and they joined in for a game of cards.

### Mordecai and Drache's POV

Mordecai and Drache made their way up the black tower to where the old councillors' officers were. In one of the rooms, they found Robert Thornwood sitting at a desk in a well-lit room. There was a fire lit before it, which clearly also burned out. Near the fireplace, two Fruit cutters stood hand on hilt, glaring at the outsiders.

Mordecai, without removing their gaze from Robert, shot a fire bolt at the fireplace, reigniting the fire. Robert let out a shuddering laugh and sarcastically thanked his son for helping them, stating that it was starting to get cold. "Maybe that's suitable for your reading hairline." hissed Mordecai.

"Robert we've come..." Drache quickly cut off.

"You will address me as Mr Thornwood", said Robert, violence flaring in his eyes.

"... Mr Thornwood", Drache continued, "We wondered if you could help us with an expansion we had planned."

"Again? Let's hear it."

Mordecai bit their tongue and began explaining their plan to raid the gold through, and they hoped they could utilise Roberts' skills to take over the fort. Drache tried to help by explaining that there would be a lot of money available if the raid were successful; however, Robert did not care about the money.

"What do you want? we need someone to lead the army," said Drache, trying to put on his diplomatic face.

"Fine, I'll be you're general, I don't need anythin' for you lot." replied Robert, practically spitting each plosive.

"You five... what do you call yourselves? The Fatebreakers?!?"

Mordecai sighed, "Yes, that's what they call us"

"Do you know what I call you? Butchers. All you want is to kill and murder and claim riches... I love it."

"Is that not what you see in yourself?" asked Drache.

"Exactly! Is that not what you see from everyone on this godforsaken rock? Everyone just wants to benefit themselves and beat others."

"But there are so many others that care for others and work for others"

"Are you saying that i didn't? I cared for many, doesn't mean i didn't also kill"

"Look, well put our hands up and say we're not angels and we're not high and mighty. Unfortunately, our people can't survive." Saidf Mordecai, barely holding back their frustration.

"No, Mordecai, you are not an angel; you're my blood, and you're a butcher like me. You are doing what is right. You are doing what is good, and you are spilling blood like I love." Robert said with a grim smile.

"There is a difference between a butcher, an angel and an imperfect person. You can be imperfect without being a butcher, that doesn't mean you do not care, Butchers kill, slice and cut indescrimantly. " replied Drache curtly.

"Exactly, do you think everyone in that little fort there is evil?" He smiled, "I never said there was anything wrong with it. I think what you're doing is right. What you're doing is beautiful. Those people deserve to die. They've done wrong."

"Do you deserve to die?"

"I deserve to die." he replied with grim determination.

"Yet we catch you alive."

"What a Sick and twisted mistake that was, you kept me alive as your butcher. A general to lead your armies. You kept me alive because you were sorry."

"No. Absolutely not. I kept you alive so that you could see that I will never stoop to your level." Spat Mordecai.

Robert beckoned Mordecai closer with a scared finger and leaned forward to whisper in the tiefling's ear. "Mordecai you are already lower than me." He then got up from his desk. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a war to prepare for." As he left the room, his guards followed at heel.

Mordecai, visibly shaken, for the experience turned out to be Drache, stated that they don't know if they can do this anymore. Drache comforted Mordecai but was unable to fully coax Mordecai back to a better mental space.

"Do not get the fire in your soul every single time that something takes over. The smell of the blood on the battlefield. I hate it. I hate it with my entire fucking soul. But it's still there. It's still inside you. You can't stop it because it's just Fucking Human nature." Mordecai exclaimed, almost in tears.

"Trust me, I understand. There are feelings inside of you that you can't fight. Sometimes they get a better"

"But why can't I just cut it away with a fucking scalpel?!?"

"You can take out your brain if you want. You could remove your organs. You could get rid of everything inside of you. But then you'd just be a hollow shell. You wouldn't be you." Drache said, his eye filled with knowing sorrow, " You can try and fight it. But it's part of you. That anger, I tried to get rid of it, hide it, ignore it, but it's a part of me. I can't get rid of it. You have to accept who you are and what you've done and try to be better, thats all there is."

"...Simply butchers..."

"One has to be. THe blood is on our hands so the people stay clean."

"If that means doing things that we're not proud of, then so be it, I guess" There was a brief pause before Mordecai spoke again, "I'm not going to lie. I haven't spoken to Seifer since the incident. I get the feeling she's giving me the cold shoulder."

"Might not be such a bad thing."

"I don't want to ever end up like Aiden"

"I don't think anyone wants that; it's a hell of his own that he goes through. He's going through hell of his own. I trust you, Mordecai. I know you'll do the right thing."

"Thank you, I should probably talk to her, shouldn't I?"

"I can go find Halfbie, if you want o be alone while you do?"

I'd like you to be here, just in case."

Drache stood to the side and gave Mordecai some peace as they spoke with Seifer.

"I don't know if you're ready to talk About It. If you are, I am listening." said Mordecai.

The silence in Mordecai’s mind was a fragile thing, broken by the soft, echoing voice of Seifer. She began not with a demand, but with a memory and a reason for why she wanted fried chicken. It was a scent, a taste that transported her to a long gone world, a time when her father was alive, when she was safe, and when happiness was not a memory but her reality. That world, she explained, her voice thick with a grief that had not faded, was ripped away from her. And the only other time that specific, profound happiness had returned, she revealed, was when Mordecai had found her, a furious and doomed spirit trapped in a Tiefling’s body. He had picked her up, and in doing so, had given her a semblance of family again, a cruel comfort given her eternal imprisonment within his own mind, forever severed from any afterlife reunion with her lost loved ones.

A flicker of hope crossed Mordecai’s thoughts. “Is there no way?” they ventured, suggesting the possibility of a spell, a plane shift to a realm where she might find them again and say hi. But Seifer’s sorrow curdled into a sharp and focused bitterness. She dismissed the idea; her peace, she insisted, was not to be found in some afterlife. It was tied to vengeance. The one who had destroyed her life, who had torn down her noble house and now profaned its legacy, needed to suffer the same depth of pain she had been forced to endure. She spoke of her past power, of a great house that once bent to her will, now occupied by those who used its comforts to inflict hurt upon others.

Mordecai’s soft, single-word rebuttal, “No”, hung in the air between them. Seifer was quick to clarify it was not a plea for them to act, but a statement of her own tortured conscience. The true source of her anguish in that moment, she confessed, was their conflict. She was fighting with him, the one person who had become her reluctant family. When Mordecai whispered an apology, she challenged it, forcing him to admit that his life was no longer just his own. They were bound together. Seizing on this, Mordecai steered the conversation toward a fragile truce. Trust, they stated, had to be the foundation of their forced union. He proposed a path forward: transparency, and the help of his own friends, his chosen family. If they worked together, he assured her, perhaps they could all find a sense of belonging again.

The offer of transparency seemed to unlock a deeper, more guarded part of Seifer’s heart. “I lied,” she admitted, the words a heavy confession. There was another person, a man named Kaelen. With halting words, drawn out by Mordecai’s gentle prompting, she revealed the truth. Kaelen had been the love of her life, her husband. And he was gone. The old guilt, a familiar poison, seeped into her spectral voice as she delivered the final, devastating blow: “He died because of me. Because I wasn't strong enough to help and save those around me.”

The raw admission hung in the silence, a shared wound. In turn, Mordecai found their own voice, his own fears rising to meet hers. He spoke of his hometown, a place shadowed by a pervasive military presence that taught him a deep-seated mistrust of authority. He saw the same self-serving nature in everyone around them, and most terrifyingly, he saw it in himself. The fear of becoming like his father was a constant spectre, and every choice he made felt like a step closer to looking into a mirror and seeing his father’s face staring back. It was his deepest terror, laid bare as an offering of mutual understanding.

A strange, quiet calm settled over them. “Very good. We've been transparent,” Seifer said, her tone softened, the sharp edges of her anger momentarily smoothed away. When Mordecai, in a final gesture of peace, asked if there was anything she wanted, she declined. “I think it's time I thank you,” she said, and then she began to recede. For the first time in a long while, the constant pressure of another consciousness in his mind gently eased. Mordecai was left alone with the lingering echo of her presence, a sensation he likened to an unwanted guest in a room, choosing to sit in perfect silence, a tentative, fragile, and hard-won peace.

Returning to Drache, Mordecai explained that they felt sorry for Seifer, but that they now seemed to have a truce and could move forward. Mordecai didn't want to talk about the details of the conversation, instead changing the topic ot finding Halfbie, stating that leaving them alone for too long could be bad.

In the basement of the mage guild, they found Halfbie slightly damp, smelling badly of fishing, playing card games with Terence Witherfeather and Agolin Winterbor. Terence was playing solitaire while Winterbor did unspeakable things with a deck of cards, and Halfbie slammed cards on a desk, shouting, "GO FISH!"

Mordecai and Drache shared a look of bewilderment before grabbing Halfbie and rushing out of the room before Winterbor could get to them. Halfbie later explained how it all happened and explained the preparation they had done while more and Drache were away.

They also showed them. One of the things they had been working on while playing card games with Winterbor. They escorted them to the council rooms where Merek the wise had left his books. The pile remained untouched because no one knew what to do with it. Halfbie retrieved their spellbook and began casting Fabricate, using the book as material to create canvas and umpty paper that the town could use as stationery and stock to sell. With that done, they started to prepare for their raid on the golden fort.