The Note (S2E1)

The Note was the first session in the second season of Bridges.

Blurb
Llygoden and Raul return with Kontor, Sabiya and Malaria to Bridges after their vacation to the Crescent Isle to find strange happenings occuring in The City. Meanwhile, Garrick has received a package from his new friend, The Curator.

Present PCs

 * Garrick
 * Llygoden
 * Raul
 * Deliliah (First Appearance)

Synopsis
Llygoden, Raul, Kontor, Sabiya and Malaria step down off the gangplank of an unnamed vessel (each of them still in their holiday garb) to find some mild consternation happening on the docks. Two Nythan iyari guard are attempting to direct people away from the charred and smoking remains of a person. Some stealthy investigation by Raul reveals that there has been no spellcasting and a quick chat with a nearby sailor reveals that the man seemingly spontaneously burst into flame. At this point whilst overhearing the conversation between Kontor and the guards the party learns that their iyari friend now goes by the name The Hydra. Without anyone noticing Sabiya sneaks off.

Whilst riding the funicular down to Terran the party witnesses an elven gentleman by the name of Sorin mutate slowly into a tree, his skin slowly turning to bark. Raul attempts to save the man but he is beyond help. The road back to the Hydra's Head is no less harrowing where the party witness a mournful group of civilians helping tear down an incinerated house.

The group arrive home at the Hydra's Head to find things normal and Garrick sitting with Thea at the member's only table. Garrick has a package sat in front of him that he has waited for the others to open, everyone catches up first and the two new additions are introduced. Garrick opens the letter addressed to him and reads:

My dear Garrick and Thea,

''I hope this letter finds you well and ready for a good puzzle, as I know you two love dearly. I shan’t waste time as time is of the essence and if there is little essence left untainted by fates grimy hand. ''

''We have discussed much in these few weeks but nothing fascinated me more than your zeal to discover the cause of the shift, I tried to play it off as much as I could but guilt (I fear that guilt is still an emotion we immortals still feel) has lead me to a dark path. I felt it too, I saw it happening, indeed the timeline has split, something has changed and I, once again, fear I know the answer to the riddle all too well. ''

''It was the shudder of the cosmos waking up, a timely scalpel coming to finally cut out the tumour. The gods have finally opened their eyes, it seems. It has been five hundred years and I have not whispered a word but it would not be befitting of my title to let a story disappear with me. ''

''I am going to tell you the true story of how the iyari came to be and what exactly the City means. Brew yourselves some of that tea you always liked me making (I have included some in the provided parcel). ''

Consider this my final gift to the cosmos,

''Five hundred years ago the four Prime material planes collided and created the demiplane you are reading this on now. In the crucible of such immense power many souls were destroyed but some were forged into wholly new beings, unnamed to begin with but eventually united under the title iyari. Without memory or purpose we fought each other without care and wandered the new world, like all the little sparks of a fire thrown free eventually cooling in the dirt. ''

''   It was then, when the forge had calmed, that our lord arrived accompanied by a maelstrom of dark and light. They loved us and bestowed us many gifts, dividing us to fulfil their wills and whims. They stoked the flames of the conflict once more and watched us dance. For an eternity they watched. But the cosmos was bored of our games and was tugging at the edges of the plane, asking politely for the energy we had borrowed back. This panicked the lord, to which they lead armies of our kind out of the plane and into others to conquer. It is in this time that the Bulwark rose and incited the rebellion that would strike down the lord and tether him under our command. Returning from war weakened they were ambushed by our best and brightest and bound, transmuted beyond flesh and kept as energy. The Locksmith took this material and smithed it into the very elements of existence, staking our lord as a dagger into the earth, locking Bridges into place and stopping nature in its tracks. We did not know at what cost this would come but we were scared. ''

''And thus The City was formed as a prison for this anchor and there it sits to this day, brooding. This is the ultimate truth of Bridges that few of us learned in the years following it’s birth: The City is a cancer through which the entire cosmos is being infected with the lords pure will.''

''My friends and I, once we knew about this truth, sought a way to slow the curse and each stole a small shard of the anchor to keep in imperfect and from setting completely. You will find my shard in my office at the museum. We, the unaligned, seek to return the cosmos back to its proper state but as our state is still under some influence by the City and the anchor we cannot approach to end this for fear of returning the shards and cementing Bridges truly at the centre of the universe. So, I turn to you and your proven friends. Search for the other holders of these shards and reunite them and then shepherd them to The Hammer, they will know what to do. ''

''First, fetch my shard. I am sorry for what this entails but it is essential for keeping my enemies at bay. I have left further instructions there. ''

''What about me? Well, there is still much I want to see before I meet my end and I intend to see some old friends. ''

''I wish you all the best and again I am sorry. The Curator. ''

The party discuss for a short while before the front door slams open to reveal the beaming Sabiya who is accompanied by another Genasi who is revealed to be Delilah, Sabiya's adoptive sister. Delilah is looking for work and wants to assist the Hydra's Head.

The group heads to the Celestial Wheel Curio Cabinet to complete whatever task The Curator had prepared for them. Garrick leads the party through the exhibits until they reach the private office where upon the turn of the doorknob by Garrick the party is transported to a strange space.

The party finds themselves in a circular room that appears to be at the top of a tall tower, a tower Garrick recognises as belonging to one of his old arcane tutors. The walls are comprised completely to bookshelves, a domed ceiling reveals a roiling cosmos above and in the centre of the room sits a dusty table with the shape of a book out of the dust. The party spends their time collecting as many books as possible whilst bypassing the puzzle by loading each book systematically into the spaces left. Eventually a tower of books sits on the table featuring the books By Way Of Feasts and Foundries: A Journey Along The Spine, To Whom It May Conserve: The Story of Jam Throughout the Ages, Pi: The New Theorem as Proposed by Fipagarus the Wellfed, A Scholar’s Guide to Navigating Courtship: How to Get yourself a Ball and Chain. As a doorhandle appears in the room Garrick notices that the first word in each title spells out Bytopia, ancestral home plane of the gnomes and an important part of his past.

Llygoden grabs the doorhandle and the party is transported to a cramped, dark office built for mousefolk. Llygoden recognises this as the day of his graduation from the Mischief College of Nestleton, before his service. Gianttripper Alwyn, a mousefolk warhero, sits chained to his desk and chides the young Llygoden before pulling out the Whisker Cradle Wishstone and posing a question to his student: 'How would you get this out of the City without getting caught'. Llygoden struggles with his answer for a while whilst Alwyn is frozen in time, his friends chipping in with suggestions before he remembers his original answer. Alwyn is less than satisfied but comments that Llygoden's scores are so good everywhere else that he would be a fool to fail him over this. A doorhandle appears from the desk and Raul grabs it.

The party find themselves in what seems to be an oddly shaped chamber made solely of metal. In the centre of this chamber sits an immense pile of broken objects. Raul sets about fixing objects left and right before coming across an axe in two pieces which he fixes too. In response to this the room shakes and reveals a table holding a partially finished model ship to which Raul finds the mast of in the pile. When the ship is fixed the doorhandle reveals itself. Sofia grabs it this time.

The party wakes up at a table in a small, rustic tavern. Around them farming folk are drinking and behind the bar is a beautiful golden haired young woman with a huge smile. Sofia reveals that this is the tavern of the village she grew up in and begins to sing a song in a dialect the others do not understand. The rest of the tavern joins in. Raul plays his electric fiddle much to the joy of the tavern goers. Garrick heads over to the bar and has a conversation with the bar maid who seems fond of Harriette. After this the bar maid singles out Delilah and tells her to smile more after sensing some sadness in her. Llygoden gets up on the table and stuns the tavern with a traditional mousefolk song. As each party member smiles the doorhandle appears behind the bar and they head to it. Sofia embraces the bar maid completely and sheds a tear or two, the bar maid hands Sofia a copy of the necklace she is already wearing and Delilah grabs the doorhandle.

Everyone comes to in a viewing box in a bloody arena somewhere in Gibbet sat next to a flabby, gorged figure of some import. Delilah reveals it to be her father. In the arena stand three warriors, head to toe in silks and blood, all wearing masks. Three naked, malnourished figures are forced into the arena and chained to poles. As one of the warriors raises their weapon Delilah leaps into action and casts lightning down from the sky, killing the prisoner. She continues this for all prisoners and the three warriors are all dismissed by their respective lords. A doorhandle raises from the sand of the arena and Raul asks Seus to take it.

They awaken in a cavern seemingly completely built inside of a giant forge. In alcoves all around figures like Seus can be seem, dormant. In the centre of the room, hammering at a molten rock of crystalline green, is a humanoid whose body is now more machine than man connected to the very forge itself by pipes, wires and gears. Raul approaches and the man notices Seus, commenting that it wasn't one of his. He is Ambrose Pierce and he is busy working. Seus, with something that resembles assured sentience, takes Ambrose's hammer and taps the crystal. The doorhandle appears.

The party finally find themselves in The Curator's office, confronted by another note that tells them to speak the clues to find the Shard. Each party member speaks a clue they think might reveal a location of one of the remaining shards to which the correct locations light up a map above the Curator's desk. The locations revealed on the map read: Nestleton, Gibbet, The Vault of the Gold Mother and Bytopia. When all are spoken the map begins to burn revealing the first shard behind it which Garrick picks up.

In the shard Garrick sees iconic locations from his past refracting in the facets of the crystal and as soon as he touches it he can hear what sounds like roaring in a long lost language.

The party head home with their first shard and decide to hunt the shard in Gibbet first. When they arrive they find Sabiya, Malaria and Thea drunk, much to Garrick's displeasure. The party and all their new members share an evening drinking and telling stories before settling down for the night, preparing for whatever awaits them in the floating city of Gibbet.