The Cereal Box:Log: Difference between revisions

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The changeling's home address was determined to be 335 East Emmett Street, as this served the story purposes well.

==Session 27==

A recap was had, given that there had been such a gap in gaming.

A few hooks reminded of:

The box of feels still has two feels that haven't been presented to the ones who are vulnerable to them or understood.

The restaurant has collapsed and needs to be fixed

Sephie needs to find and kill her fetch

Ernie needs to figure out what happened to his sister; and needs to create a beacon to bring her home

Ernie and Nikolai went to visit Jack Strong to look over his files on political day to day of the Freeholds, including minutes from official meetings and records of punishments. They read Lyrissa's file, which had her full true name in it and information regarding her work during the war, which suggested that she was instrumental in ferreting out interlopers from outside the freehold. She was never affected by Bynes' hearthooks.

They found out the hobgoblin Janglejaw was a winter courtier, and that there were three days worth of redacted files on him.

They read the file on Chalkos, which contained margin notes in unfamiliar hand for dealing with Chalkos. His full name Christopher Chalkus, he had severe PTSD after surviving an "unsurvivable" bombing in Iraq. He announced his recovery before the previous Summer Coronation, where he showed up demanding to be Summer King. It was put to a vote and he lost, humiliated, in a landslide. This was especially vexing to Chalkos, who insisted that this was not in any way the correct way to choose the monarch of Summer.

Dahlia Hawthorne's file contained information about her opposition to Matthew Kingman (both political and ideological) and a note that her Keeper was the Sultan of the Dry Springs.

They realized that the files were almost certainly Jack and/or Smith's, but Jack admitted that a lot of the information was just sent to him anonymously and/or was stuff he found out from questionable channels that he just stuck in the files to make them look better.

Alana, April and Sephie went to the Goblin Market seeking seeds and tools for cultivating goblin fruit. They were almost ambushed by the Woodsman, but Alana's warning signal protected them and they escaped without confrontation.

Hestia got a hold of Roper about talking to Wendell. She was able to contact Wendell Baker, and, after a terse and rather unfriendly meeting, he agreed to help with the restaurant and with providing Goblin fruit, but Hestia didn't want access to the orchard.

Nikolai gave up his darkest secret for limited conditional brief access to the files. Upon realizing and understanding what it meant that Nikolai was the Gentry's Gentlman, The Pumpkin King made an agreement with him for a Major Favor in return for "up to half his Kingdom" much to Roper and Holly's extreme dismay. Upon receiving the agreement, he threw up his hands and declared "I WIN!" with a manic laugh of glee.

==Session 28==

===April 20th===

The party woke up, as they frequently do. Morning happened. Mary Kingman said that she was trying to figure out where Metthew was, and was confused and frustrated by the fact that he hasn't pulled ANY of his $13,000 from his account (which she confirmed was still accessible). Mary said she was pleased that Kingman may have been Taken. April was aghast and excused herself.

Alana, Hestia and Sephie all went to clean up at the restaurant and got a dumpster.

April, Nikolai and Ernie went to check on the noobs at the changeling ghetto. They grabbed coffee and donuts for the noobs. They met Celia, Trevor and Skin-and-Bones. Apparently 6 new changelings had been put up the ghetto in addition to the ones that they had assisted against the Woodsman. They talked Trevor, a living shadow, into getting an ID as he did not have one. The others seemed confident that they had everything they needed in this respect.

Nikolai noticed for the first time that his horns are wooden and had memories of being in a desert in search of water with a prince. He had realized before this (whilst with the Baba Yaga) that he had newt eyes, and wondered briefly if he was discovering things about himself that he should have known of changing.

Billy invited the motley to a cocktail party. Alana wore a ladyish romper (the most feminine outfit she had worn to date). Ernie wore his best flannel and blue jeans. April wore a red flared party dress. Sephie wore a black over-the-shoulder cocktail dress. Hestia wore a dress with a tank top underneath and a cardigan on top. Nikolai wore his finest hedgespun suit. Before leaving, Sephie tended her Goblin Fruits.

Billy's party was fairly intimate, being just the motley, his girls and Dahlia. He told the motley that to once more feel truly himself, he would need them to scour the old Spring Meeting Ground for a Token mirror that belonged to Ivy Justaivy, his lost former lover who left the Freehold before he became the Spring monarch for the first time at 16 (5 years prior). The meeting ground was a place that Billy didn't feel he could return to, and the place was protected by methods meant to keep Solomon from entering the Meeting Ground after he conquered the Freehold.

===April 21th===

April was profoundly hungover. The motley agreed to focus on cleaning up the restaurant. Ernie conducted some pretty incredible repairs that fixed essentially anything that could be fixed. It would be one more day before the work is stuff they need professionals for.

===April 22nd===

The motley completed the work on the restaurant, leaving nothing but work that would require a professional contractor, roofer, electrician, plumber and/or other major professionals. Sephie once again took the time to tend to her small Goblin Fruit garden.

Hestia called Billy about putting the work in, but he admitted he couldn't afford to float the whole amount and cut her a check for two thousand - about a third of what she needed.

Ernie contacted Eric Rowe about getting an ID for Trevor. Trevor was very concerned about not having money or potentially owing money, but Ernie told him to just pay it forward and that he would take care of it. Ernie agreed to work on establishing a branch of an underground cellular network that Rowe was a part of.

Nikolai went into his fetch's dream and had a reminiscence of what he believed might have been his very first time in Arcadia, where he was a soldier working for Good Prince Kindhearted, and whom he helped to rescue The Swan-Cursed Daughter of The Knight Invisible from Koschei, the Deathless. Despite Nikolai firing the shot that saved the maiden, the Prince received the promise of a reward from the knight. Later, Nikolai found a well after traversing into a desert with his charge, the Prince. While the prince was lowered in the well, he threatening to cut the rope and leave him if the Prince did not sign off his Kingdom and Title to him. At that exact moment, a sandstorm kicked up and scoured away Nikolai's vision, but the Prince gave him the writ offering the promise when he rose from the well. Bleary-eyed Nikolai would have gone on, but at this point, the Fetch recognized he was in the dream, and the two locked in combat.

==Session 29==

Nikolai overcame his fetch in the dream, but left feeling exhausted and not at all rested. The difficulty of sleeping at the same time as his fetch on the other side of the world was also problematic the the process of invading its dreams.

===April 23rd===

The motley sought out the mirror at the former Spring meeting ground. They entered the hedge by way of an archway at the Leila Arboretum and had to traverse a hedge maze with truly nightmarish hob minotaurs guarding it. The beasts in question were fully twenty feet long, had a bellowing braying moo, mouths that opened like a horror movie alien, centipede like legs and apparent fury at all living creatures. By the motley's estimation, there were at least five of them.

Once they reached the former meeting grounds, they met a group of hobgoblins that wanted to be recognized as a fifth court - the Court of Leap Day (which Nikolai convinced to change to the Court of Strange Days) which would have domain over Leap Day and the days on a 5 row calendar that are split at the end of the month (typically the 24th/30th, 25th/31st in months starting on a Friday or Saturday with the appropriate number of days). Tibble, who had sold them the feels, was a member, as was an intelligent DigEm named Crowak, three trollish things that called themselves The Bruvs, Bettina (a feathered Naga that was hot for Billy and Nikolai), Turin (a bipedal elephant thing) and Mukkayla (an algae monster tat was also hot for Billy).

The motley agreed noncommittally to present the creatures' case to the monarchs, while April stole the mirror that they had come for. Traversing out of the maze was surprisingly easy, and the Motley emerged victorious.

As night fell, the motley was treated to a vignette in which Craig Weston narrated the events leading up to an attack by Mary Kingman who wanted to know where her husband was taken. Weston told her he did not know, but brought her to Smith.

==Session 30==

===April 24th===

Once the motley realized that Mary was not home, they became desperate to contact her. Mary's phone went straight to voicemail, however. The motley speculated she might be killing Vampires. They tried to call Smith, but got a hold of Jack who explained that Smith had left on business for the weekend and that he was in charge. He said he needed to talk to Hestia about business that somehow involved her cooking.

After breakfast, Hestia and Jack made an agreement regarding her making him meals to take home (and ended up inviting him over and, after determining that all his friends were people he worked with, gave him a hug). Jack insisted his tears were caused by a condition he made up called "optobliga." In return for the agreement, Hestia was "blessed with the wealth she would need to rebuild the restaurant." Jack was overjoyed with the arrangement and explained that having a home-cooked meal every day would always give him something to look forward to. Hestia prepped several days' worth in advance to ensure she wouldn't miss a day.

Ernie did some work for Eric Rowe on the network he requested.

The motley went to Sephie's fetch's house, where they saw a black cat. They found no security or occupants, and the house was full of medical charts and books, with no evidence of anything for any sort of non-academic pleasure, nor any proof that the fetch had - or acknowledge having - children. They saw a picture of Arcadia in the seldom-used study that caused all who saw it to despair. The cat scratched Nikolai viciously, but the blood got cleaned up perfectly. While they were there, they stole some paperwork so they could look into the fetch's finances.

The motley had ice cream in BC when they went home to plan. They looked into Fetch Sephie's finances and determined that the home has been through 5 years of mortgage. They discussed the fact that they didn't see a litter box and, further, that they might help Sephie to go into her fetch's dreams if they don't just kill her.

Jack came over for dinner and it was vaguely awkward, but he was vary pleased and took home a doggy bag.

Sephia was able to make it into Cadence's dream. I0t was a vast library / auditorium full of books with Cadence studying in it and looking at pictures of her mother(s). When Sephie confronted her daughter, the women asked, "Is this some Corraline bullshit?" and Sephie sheepishly admitted that it was, in fact, some Corraline bullshit. As they had a heart to heart (with Sephie's familiar, the black cat - manifest as a great beast in the dream - looming over them) Other Mother appeared and viciously slashed Cadence's throat. They defeated her, but not before Cadence was seriously injured and the dream dissolved.

@@ Line 572: / Line 572: @@
 The changeling's home address was determined to be 335 East Emmett Street, as this served the story purposes well.
+==Session 27==
+A recap was had, given that there had been such a gap in gaming.
+A few hooks reminded of:
+    The box of feels still has two feels that haven't been presented to the ones who are vulnerable to them or understood.
+    The restaurant has collapsed and needs to be fixed
+    Sephie needs to find and kill her fetch
+    Ernie needs to figure out what happened to his sister; and needs to create a beacon to bring her home
+Ernie and Nikolai went to visit Jack Strong to look over his files on political day to day of the Freeholds, including minutes from official meetings and records of punishments. They read Lyrissa's file, which had her full true name in it and information regarding her work during the war, which suggested that she was instrumental in ferreting out interlopers from outside the freehold. She was never affected by Bynes' hearthooks.
+They found out the hobgoblin Janglejaw was a winter courtier, and that there were three days worth of redacted files on him.
+They read the file on Chalkos, which contained margin notes in unfamiliar hand for dealing with Chalkos. His full name Christopher Chalkus, he had severe PTSD after surviving an "unsurvivable" bombing in Iraq. He announced his recovery before the previous Summer Coronation, where he showed up demanding to be Summer King. It was put to a vote and he lost, humiliated, in a landslide. This was especially vexing to Chalkos, who insisted that this was not in any way the correct way to choose the monarch of Summer.
+Dahlia Hawthorne's file contained information about her opposition to Matthew Kingman (both political and ideological) and a note that her Keeper was the Sultan of the Dry Springs.
+They realized that the files were almost certainly Jack and/or Smith's, but Jack admitted that a lot of the information was just sent to him anonymously and/or was stuff he found out from questionable channels that he just stuck in the files to make them look better.
+Alana, April and Sephie went to the Goblin Market seeking seeds and tools for cultivating goblin fruit. They were almost ambushed by the Woodsman, but Alana's warning signal protected them and they escaped without confrontation.
+Hestia got a hold of Roper about talking to Wendell. She was able to contact Wendell Baker, and, after a terse and rather unfriendly meeting, he agreed to help with the restaurant and with providing Goblin fruit, but Hestia didn't want access to the orchard.
+Nikolai gave up his darkest secret for limited conditional brief access to the files. Upon realizing and understanding what it meant that Nikolai was the Gentry's Gentlman, The Pumpkin King made an agreement with him for a Major Favor in return for "up to half his Kingdom" much to Roper and Holly's extreme dismay. Upon receiving the agreement, he threw up his hands and declared "I WIN!" with a manic laugh of glee.
+==Session 28==
+===April 20th===
+The party woke up, as they frequently do. Morning happened. Mary Kingman said that she was trying to figure out where Metthew was, and was confused and frustrated by the fact that he hasn't pulled ANY of his $13,000 from his account (which she confirmed was still accessible). Mary said she was pleased that Kingman may have been Taken. April was aghast and excused herself.
+Alana, Hestia and Sephie all went to clean up at the restaurant and got a dumpster.
+April, Nikolai and Ernie went to check on the noobs at the changeling ghetto. They grabbed coffee and donuts for the noobs. They met Celia, Trevor and Skin-and-Bones. Apparently 6 new changelings had been put up the ghetto in addition to the ones that they had assisted against the Woodsman. They talked Trevor, a living shadow, into getting an ID as he did not have one. The others seemed confident that they had everything they needed in this respect.
+Nikolai noticed for the first time that his horns are wooden and had memories of being in a desert in search of water with a prince. He had realized before this (whilst with the Baba Yaga) that he had newt eyes, and wondered briefly if he was discovering things about himself that he should have known of changing.
+Billy invited the motley to a cocktail party. Alana wore a ladyish romper (the most feminine outfit she had worn to date). Ernie wore his best flannel and blue jeans. April wore a red flared party dress. Sephie wore a black over-the-shoulder cocktail dress. Hestia wore a dress with a tank top underneath and a cardigan on top. Nikolai wore his finest hedgespun suit. Before leaving, Sephie tended her Goblin Fruits.
+Billy's party was fairly intimate, being just the motley, his girls and Dahlia. He told the motley that to once more feel truly himself, he would need them to scour the old Spring Meeting Ground for a Token mirror that belonged to Ivy Justaivy, his lost former lover who left the Freehold before he became the Spring monarch for the first time at 16 (5 years prior). The meeting ground was a place that Billy didn't feel he could return to, and the place was protected by methods meant to keep Solomon from entering the Meeting Ground after he conquered the Freehold.
+===April 21th===
+April was profoundly hungover. The motley agreed to focus on cleaning up the restaurant. Ernie conducted some pretty incredible repairs that fixed essentially anything that could be fixed. It would be one more day before the work is stuff they need professionals for.
+===April 22nd===
+The motley completed the work on the restaurant, leaving nothing but work that would require a professional contractor, roofer, electrician, plumber and/or other major professionals. Sephie once again took the time to tend to her small Goblin Fruit garden.
+Hestia called Billy about putting the work in, but he admitted he couldn't afford to float the whole amount and cut her a check for two thousand - about a third of what she needed.
+Ernie contacted Eric Rowe about getting an ID for Trevor. Trevor was very concerned about not having money or potentially owing money, but Ernie told him to just pay it forward and that he would take care of it. Ernie agreed to work on establishing a branch of an underground cellular network that Rowe was a part of.
+Nikolai went into his fetch's dream and had a reminiscence of what he believed might have been his very first time in Arcadia, where he was a soldier working for Good Prince Kindhearted, and whom he helped to rescue The Swan-Cursed Daughter of The Knight Invisible from Koschei, the Deathless. Despite Nikolai firing the shot that saved the maiden, the Prince received the promise of a reward from the knight. Later, Nikolai found a well after traversing into a desert with his charge, the Prince. While the prince was lowered in the well, he threatening to cut the rope and leave him if the Prince did not sign off his Kingdom and Title to him. At that exact moment, a sandstorm kicked up and scoured away Nikolai's vision, but the Prince gave him the writ offering the promise when he rose from the well. Bleary-eyed Nikolai would have gone on, but at this point, the Fetch recognized he was in the dream, and the two locked in combat.
+==Session 29==
+Nikolai overcame his fetch in the dream, but left feeling exhausted and not at all rested. The difficulty of sleeping at the same time as his fetch on the other side of the world was also problematic the the process of invading its dreams.
+===April 23rd===
+The motley sought out the mirror at the former Spring meeting ground. They entered the hedge by way of an archway at the Leila Arboretum and had to traverse a hedge maze with truly nightmarish hob minotaurs guarding it. The beasts in question were fully twenty feet long, had a bellowing braying moo, mouths that opened like a horror movie alien, centipede like legs and apparent fury at all living creatures. By the motley's estimation, there were at least five of them.
+Once they reached the former meeting grounds, they met a group of hobgoblins that wanted to be recognized as a fifth court - the Court of Leap Day (which Nikolai convinced to change to the Court of Strange Days) which would have domain over Leap Day and the days on a 5 row calendar that are split at the end of the month (typically the 24th/30th, 25th/31st in months starting on a Friday or Saturday with the appropriate number of days). Tibble, who had sold them the feels, was a member, as was an intelligent DigEm named Crowak, three trollish things that called themselves The Bruvs, Bettina (a feathered Naga that was hot for Billy and Nikolai), Turin (a bipedal elephant thing) and Mukkayla (an algae monster tat was also hot for Billy).
+The motley agreed noncommittally to present the creatures' case to the monarchs, while April stole the mirror that they had come for. Traversing out of the maze was surprisingly easy, and the Motley emerged victorious.
+As night fell, the motley was treated to a vignette in which Craig Weston narrated the events leading up to an attack by Mary Kingman who wanted to know where her husband was taken. Weston told her he did not know, but brought her to Smith.
+==Session 30==
+===April 24th===
+Once the motley realized that Mary was not home, they became desperate to contact her. Mary's phone went straight to voicemail, however. The motley speculated she might be killing Vampires. They tried to call Smith, but got a hold of Jack who explained that Smith had left on business for the weekend and that he was in charge. He said he needed to talk to Hestia about business that somehow involved her cooking.
+After breakfast, Hestia and Jack made an agreement regarding her making him meals to take home (and ended up inviting him over and, after determining that all his friends were people he worked with, gave him a hug). Jack insisted his tears were caused by a condition he made up called "optobliga." In return for the agreement, Hestia was "blessed with the wealth she would need to rebuild the restaurant." Jack was overjoyed with the arrangement and explained that having a home-cooked meal every day would always give him something to look forward to. Hestia prepped several days' worth in advance to ensure she wouldn't miss a day.
+Ernie did some work for Eric Rowe on the network he requested.
+The motley went to Sephie's fetch's house, where they saw a black cat. They found no security or occupants, and the house was full of medical charts and books, with no evidence of anything for any sort of non-academic pleasure, nor any proof that the fetch had - or acknowledge having - children. They saw a picture of Arcadia in the seldom-used study that caused all who saw it to despair. The cat scratched Nikolai viciously, but the blood got cleaned up perfectly. While they were there, they stole some paperwork so they could look into the fetch's finances.
+The motley had ice cream in BC when they went home to plan. They looked into Fetch Sephie's finances and determined that the home has been through 5 years of mortgage. They discussed the fact that they didn't see a litter box and, further, that they might help Sephie to go into her fetch's dreams if they don't just kill her.
+Jack came over for dinner and it was vaguely awkward, but he was vary pleased and took home a doggy bag.
+Sephia was able to make it into Cadence's dream. I0t was a vast library / auditorium full of books with Cadence studying in it and looking at pictures of her mother(s). When Sephie confronted her daughter, the women asked, "Is this some Corraline bullshit?" and Sephie sheepishly admitted that it was, in fact, some Corraline bullshit. As they had a heart to heart (with Sephie's familiar, the black cat - manifest as a great beast in the dream - looming over them) Other Mother appeared and viciously slashed Cadence's throat. They defeated her, but not before Cadence was seriously injured and the dream dissolved.