The party is trying to determine what to do now that Johann has gone on without them. Torin decides that there is no point in continuing and finds a caravan returning to the Violet City. Mortimer, Sylverse, and Aliya meet in Your Life Burns Faster in This Place to discuss their next plans.
The Porcelain Guard comes by, asking questions about the destruction of the Polybody facility. The group can persuade them that they are unaware and uninvolved in the incident. Eventually, the Guard decides that Johann and his followers were responsible. They learn that the planned route was the road to The Last Serai and send a team after him, though the party has no idea if he went that way or not.
The party decides to continue on to the Black City; Sylverse has her followers to worry about after all. They then start quietly asking around to find other travellers that might join them.
They manage to find several.
First, they encounter the Tiefling Horshoohn. He is surprisingly skittish for a Tiefling, but they eventually get out of him that he is a Warlock and wants to travel to the Black City because he is trying to learn as much as he can. There is some question as to if he is acting for himself or his Fiendish patron, but the party welcomes him anyway.
They also find the Dragonborn Bard Lok “Skysong” Lovass. Skysong is quite gregarious and more than happy to join with them. He is trying to record as much of history as he wants to immortalize it in song, and he wants to travel the grasslands to uncover what he can from there. The party readily welcomes him.
With the party back up to full strength, they rendezvous back with Woger and prepare to set off again. Before they do, Syruss finishes teaching them his fashion tips. As long as the party has time to appropriately dress and compose themselves for the encounter, they will now get a +1 on all interaction checks.
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The Caravan sets off towards The Last Serai. Most of the journey is along a sometimes-dry riverbed in a small canyon, and they make good time.
After a few days, a static charge starts to build up in the air and dust. Even small bits of debris start hovering in the air because of it. Still, the main effect seems to only be a minor irritation of everyone’s eyes and skin.
Then, they come to a place where the road forward is blocked by much larger stones and even boulders floating in the air, all with electrical discharges occurring between them.
As the Caravan discusses how to continue, a pair of figures emerge from the trees along the road and offers to clear the way through the stones for them. If the Caravan leaves one of their wagons behind as payment.
Mortimer can tell that several more people are in the woods, and Skysong notices that the “spokesperson” keeps glancing at a ruined tower on the edge of the canyon but can’t see anything up there himself.
The party’s spellcasters decide to try knocking out the rocks and manage to hit two of them, causing them to fall to the ground. The two people they talked to object to this and draw weapons and the party prepares to respond.