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25. Bleeding Hearts

July 5, 2026

Early Morning of 24th Sypheros, 998 YK

Tamara is late/absent, so Nerys just got an extra spicy whiff of the yearning flower and is too distracted by the Mountainsoul
Ell does the recap, earning an Improve on Damien's least developed theme
Yashira has just dropped Chantalyn, and they're in the garden at the top of the Allaris Gallery. We joke that Damien sews his name onto all of his things, so his name is on the fucking rope.
I describe the garden, and a bunch of interesting objects within it. They take particular interest in the broken frame of a livewood bench, damaged by fire, and held together by metal scaffolding so that it can grow back in the right shape.
Damien comments that this museum is fascinating, they should visit when it's actually open
Ruckus asks why they broke in, again?
Yashira explains that they're on a time crunch, they can't wait the 7 or so hours for it to be open
"How many crimes have you committed?"
"Like several"
"Name them"
"Impersonating a Karrnathi officer. Breaking and entering. Impersonating train police. Several murders...in self defence, I guess you could argue."
"Wait, are you like a bad guy?" - Chantalyn
"No, that's my point!"
"Oh so you're like a nice guy?"
"I'm just trying to do my best"
"Okay"
Chantalyn goes to look at the tree with a face carved into it. "Oh my god is this like, Oalian?"
Damien finds religion
The sovereigns are unavailable at this time, sorry
Chantalyn identifies that the tree is an artistic likeness of Oalian, it's really good!
Damien comments that Oalian has more defined cheekbones.
"He's a tree, they don't have bones"
Damien just fucking lies and says they met Oalian when they were in Greenheart
"Oh my god right, Drego told me about that!"
Yashira throws him under the lightning rail, and asks Damien to detail the many conversations he had with Oalian
Damien says he's not comfortable doing that
"Oh my god are you scared of trees?"
"No but I am scared of ducks"
Chantalyn points out the duck sculpture that's right next to him
"Why are you scared of ducks?"
"I just don't trust them. Birds don't float, they fly"
Yashira points between Charlie and Damien and goes "So your hypothetical is like a fucking nightmare? Who would you rather fight, a hundred duck sized horses or one horse sized duck?"
Oh my god
They're all going to prison, my god
Yashira says they can admire the art when they're leaving, how about they get the job done?
Damien asks what they should check first?
They probably have ledgers and stuff in their backrooms, the more valuable stuff they don't have on display
Chantalyn suggests going to the reception and getting a map
Good idea! It won't have staff areas, but it'll give them a lay of the land
Ruckus points out they need to be careful of security measures
Books, who is spectating, suggests just kicking random walls
Chantalyn doesn't think there will be security inside, if the door had alarms? You only have to keep people out?
Charlie says to stop thieves who get in without setting off that alarm
"Like people who go through the window" - Ruckus
"Who would do that?" - Chantalyn
Yashira comments on how much she wants to see the Mountainsoul.
"God I wanna go see the Mountainsoul"
They head down the stairs towards the Main Gallery.
From here, they can see the life-like marble statue of an angel, with chains weighing down its wings.
Damien recognises several of the paintings, they're by a famous artist named Bava Bahron. One of them is an original! Ghaash'nena, though there's also copies of Golden Asp and Wild Grapes in Ruins.
Yashira asks if this is all genuine? Did Bava make copies, or is it another artist replicating it?
At least one of them is an original! And it's one of Damien's mother's favourites.
There's also a King of Fire deck on display, with all of the King and Queen cards being stylised to look like Khorvaire's rulers. The King of Fire depicts Boranel ir'Wynarn as a manticore.
"Oh yeah I've heard about this"
Yashira thinks this conspiracy is fucking ridiculous, what are we doing?
Damien says that bad people can be bad without being literal monsters
Charlie isn't sure who would buy such a conspiracy.
Crazy people
A participant in the call has enabled clipping
Wtf???
It was Books, she didn't mean to
The final piece of art is a miniature reconstruction of the Glass Tower, made with material recovered from the ruins in Fallen
Ruckus comments on how impressive that is?
Chantalyn also thinks it's really cool, but could they have made it bigger?
Yashira isn't sure they'd've had enough glass shards for that?
Most of them are aware of the Glass Tower and what happened to it. Damien draws a connection between Fallen and Luca's play, Fallen Angels
Lots of angel based art in this gallery. Hmm.
Yashira wonders if there was going to be an exhibit, maybe some of Wroen's art. She asks the others to remind her about Radiant Idols, do they get stronger with more worshippers?
That wasn't something they were told about when Zae informed them of the idol.
Chantalyn has been educated on supernatural threat, she confirms that they do in fact get more powerful as their cult grows.
"Everybody feeds off of energy, right? Even if you don't realise it. The people around us can really affect us, but Radiant Idols are really like supernatural beings and they're like literally feeding off of energy. Have you ever been on like a stage and the crowd is hella pumped up and you feel like you can do anything? It's kinda like that"
Charlie says that makes sense
"Yeah you've definitely been in that situation cos you're like a theatre person"
Charlie confirms, the crowd being pumped up is so important
"It's the same thing with the radiant idolly guys, but also like totally different cos they're like supernatural beings and it's like a thing"
Yashira asks if it's possible the artist name hasn't been added to the angel because they want to put the idol's name? They just aren't ready yet, so that people admiring it will feed it?
Charlie and Yashira examine the statue together, they don't trust it. The artistry is insane, impossible even, it's a little too realistic. Charlie has the thought that it might be an actual angel that has been petrified.
He has an internal debate about whether to share this thought or just touch the angel.
The good news is they aren't going to get arrested
The bad news it that they're going to die
Charlie doesn't say anything, and just reaches up to touch the angel's hand. He can feel something when he does, there's something magical going on with it.
"You good, Charlie?" - Damien
"Leave him alone he's working, this is why we came here at night, let him cook" - Chanty
Charlie turns to the others and tells them that he thinks it's an actual angel that's been petrified or something.
"Holy fucking shit"
Ruckus says they're so fucking screwed, and then the door to the reception closed. Hmm.
"Oh great there's ghosts in here too" - Ruckus
Yashira asks Chanty to get out her deadliest weapon from her designer bag, just in case.
Chanty reaches into her bag and draws out a large two-handed sword. The metal has been enameled hot pink, it's got spikes, a cool little hand guard. Anywhere apart from the blade is different shades of hot pink.
She then hands her bag to Yashira so she can wield the sword better. "What?"
Once both of her hands are on the hilt, the blade becomes wreathed in silver flames. Hell yeah.
Damien, not to be outdone, draws his unicorn rapier and it makes a horse whinny noise.
Yashira, at a loss at what else to do, hoists the bag onto her shoulder and gets her daggers out.
Only the reception door closed, the rest of the doors are still open.
Chantalyn goes over to the door that closed and opens it. Where there was once an opening into another room, is now just a wall?
"Hey guys, so the door moved?"
"What?"
"There used to be a room here and now there's not"
What?
Yashira asks what magic could do that? Is it illusion? Can they just walk through it?
Chantalyn walks into the wall
"ow"
Yashira thought she'd just try to put her hand through it or something why would you do that?
"It's full strut or not at all!"
Chantalyn asks if anyone has a pen? Nerys gives her a quill pen.
Chantalyn signs her name on the wall, under where her makeup has been printed on it.
Yashira experiences despair, again
The good news is they aren't dying
The bad news is they're going to prison
Yashira tells them to split up and try the other doors, she's going to try the stairwell
Yashira goes up to the garden, and the rope is missing. The broken window has also been repaired. "Fuck"
Damien checks out the unmarked door, and sees an empty room with a single painting on the far wall that seems to depict that room, but with furniture and works of art?
Nerys goes to touch the painting. It's a nice oil paint. They leave a finger print on it. Nothing else happens. They spit on their finger to try and fix it but Damien stops them
Yashira is not in the room but she just knows they're all going to prison
Ban and Ruckus went into the Exotic Art Gallery and took a look at all of the art in there
Charlie and Chanty go to the Xen'drik gallery. They fully enter the room to take a look at what's going on in here. The titans were so fucked up.
"Oh my god is that what I look like under my skin?" - Chanty, whilst looking into a mirror that shows what you look like under your skin
"Charlie, we're like so fucking hot. You have such toned musculature! With a bit of work you could, you know, be a model"
"Ahh it's not really something I'd be interested in"
"Your calves, oh my god!"
While they're talking, the eyes on the vase of Cul'sir flash purple. Charlie gets really drowsy, and Chantalyn just passes out and falls asleep.
"Chanty nooooo I'm not gonna be able to lift you"
Ban and Ruckus hear the thump of Chanty hitting the floor, as Yashira arrives back in the main gallery. Damien is yelling at Nerys, but their attention is drawn by the others.
"What the hell happened!?"
Charlie tells them they need to get out of the room. He can't lift her. He does a big yawn.
Damien goes and kicks Chanty and tries to teleport her out of the room.
"It's not time for me to get up yet!"
They both appear in the doorway to the room.
Yashira puts her arm under Charlie's arm and tries to move him out of the room.
Ban and Nerys also entered the room.
All four of them are hit by Cul'sir's enchantment. Charlie gets the rest of the way to sleep. Damien and Nerys are both hit with drowsy-2. Yashira is fully asleep too, in a cuddle puddle on the floor with Charlie. Ban is totally unaffected by it, he's never slept in his life. He's done long shifts in the restaurant!
Nerys starts to investigate the room but Damien tells them they need to get out of the room. He starts trying to move Charlie and Yashira.
Nerys yells that this isn't reflective of their love of art, puts their helmet on, and runs full speed into the vase. The vase collapses on them and cuts them up.
But it does wake up the drowsy ones! Those who were fully asleep remain asleep.
Yashira mumbles in her sleep that they're going to jail. She's dreaming of them being interrogated.
Damien yells "what the fuck!?"
A siren goes off.
They're going to prison
But the alarm is loud enough that it wakes those that fell asleep.
Yashira sleepily mumbles "what's going on?"
"We're all going to prison. Nerys smashed the vase."
"What? How long were we out?"
Ban says that Nerys was just trying to help
Yashira now has the opportunity to explain that their escape route is gone.
"WHAT!?" yells Ruckus
"Look, I came downstairs and then collapsed. I didn't have time."
She explains what she found at the top of the stairs.
Chantalyn hopes this means the vase will be fixed too.
"Can someone switch that alarm off?"
It switches off on its own, and then a woman's voice emanates through the room. "Who do we have here? Breaking and entering House property is a serious crime."
Chantalyn comments "do you live here? That's really weird if you do"
"What?"
"Don't worry, just sit tight until the authorities arrive. All of the exits are sealed."
"Okay cool, have you seen any hot models or like a cult?" - Chanty
No response
"Fucking rude"
"So what did you guys find? We found a sleepy room"
"Other than Nerys destroying two priceless works of art, nothing" - Damien
"Oh what was the other one?"
The painting
Chanty wants to see the painting. "The authorities are gonna take fucking forever, it's fucking Sharn, I wanna see the painting"
They go back to the empty room, and all together, notice that the furniture and art pieces in the painting are found elsewhere in the gallery.
"Oh my god it's like an interactive exhibit" - Chanty
Damien tells them all to go get the stuff in the painting and bring it here
As they exit the room, all of the other doors have shut
Yashira comments aloud, "how are you doing all of this?"
"I don't have to answer anything, detective"
"Oh my god she knows we're detectives" - Chanty
"Yashira's a detective, you're not"
"No, Yashira said I was a detective so now I am!"
The mysterious voice thanks them all for saying their names out loud
Yashira despairs
Nerys asks if they know there's a super evil angel guy (or girl or non-binary), do they know that?
No response
Damien says they did break in but they're here for a reason, not crimes!
Yashira tells them all to please stop talking
Charlie says he wanted to speak to Damien in private
They step aside from the rest of the group. Charlie's facade falls and he looks really scared. "Look I don't know what's going to happen or if we're going to go to jail or something, but I just..."
He stares at him
"I can't say it, sorry. I'm just being weird."
Damien grabs him and tells him to say it. He can handle it, they won't go to prison. "We'll figure it out, we're together. We can explain the scenario, I might have to raid the family coffers to pay for that broken vase, but we'll figure it out. What did you want to say?"
Charlie sighs, and says "I am so in love with you, Damien. I just couldn't...what if we die or get arrested and I...can't be separated from you without telling you that. Just...sorry"
Damien puts a hand on Charlie's cheek and turns his head towards him. "I kind of knew this. I kinda, I uhh, ah fuck it"
They kiss!
The voice comments "Oh, how sweet."
Books yells "SHUT UP SECURITY GUARD! DON'T SPOIL THIS MOMENT!"
Damien reiterates that they're going to get out of this. "Now, help me with this bench"
They start carrying the bench down from the garden. While they try and chuckle brothers that down the spiral stairs, Yashira goes to check one of the doors.
She opens the door to the Exotic Gallery, and she didn't see it before, so she doesn't know it's weird that the stone tree is fully sized now.
She asks the others how they're gonna move the statue? Of the tree?
Ruckus asks what she means and then goes to check it and goes "oh Sovereigns it grew"
"Yeah, that's what trees do" - Chanty
Ban doesn't think they grow that fast. Chanty asks if they can shrink it?
"Do you know how to?"
"Maaaaaagic?"
Hmm
"How did they get the big ships in the tiny glass bottles? We can do that"
Ban says he's always wondered how they do that. It has to be magic, right?
They can't think of anything else
Ban doesn't think they use full ships though?
"Yeah that would make sense cos the cannons would break the glass"
"Maybe they just try not to fire inside the bottle"
They go check the Xen'drik Gallery, the vase is still smashed
The chuckle brothers are really fucking up getting that bench down the stairs, and it's making so much noise.
Ruckus says at least they can't make this situation any worse
"No, we absolutely can" - Yashira
"Do you know how much that bench fucking cost? What the fuck are you doing!?" comes the mysterious voice
Nerys suggests (whispers) they can try to distract the guard while the others get all of the things?
The bench is in such a bad condition, but it's fine in the painting. Yashira wonders if they can smudge the painting to make it match?
"What's another priceless artifact? We've already messed up 2"
Three, Yashira. It's three now.
Chantalyn wonders how the painting of the half orcs is fucked up? It's fine actually
She gets it, it seems fine, and puts it in the room on the left-hand wall. She thinks the painting is a mirror, as it has the doorway in it.
Ruckus goes to investigate the tree with Yashira. They finally get to experience a piece of goblinoid history, as it's actually a grieving tree!
Ruckus has read about these in that book Damien got him!
The tree reaches for both of them. Ruckus deploys his exosuit and tries to retreat, and he manages to avoid getting grabbed but still takes a hit
Yashira ducks and manages to avoid getting grabbed as well, but it drags a spike across her back
Ruckus yells that they have a problem!
Yashira says it's a fucking grieving tree!
Damien yells back "a what!? This is not good"
"Yep" - Ruckus, the goblin of many words
Charlie asks if there's any way they can stop it?
Ruckus thinks, if he can get close to the base, he can disable it. But that means they have to stop it from grabbing him, which means they all need to probably get within grabbing range of the tree.
Damien says he can get him to the base, but once they're there...it's an issue
Chanty says they can keep it off of him while he does what he has to do
Damien says from what he understands, if they get caught by this, they're dead.
"And it won't be quick" - Ruckus
Chanty flips her hair and says "At least I'll be a pretty corpse"
Yashira says she appreciates the bravado, but she doesn't want her to die
"Oh my Flame you care about me that much?"
"Mostly we just don't want Drego to come after us" - Damien
"Wait, are you afraid of Drego?"
"As much as I am any vengeful family member"
"Oh don't worry, he's as fierce as a kitten, and about as dangerous"
Mhmm
Damien asks if Charlie can make like, snowmen or something to distract it?
He's never tried!
He tries
He summons a bunch of static snowmen in the room with the tree. It worked! They don't like, move or anything though
Okay
Damien is hoping the tree isn't that smart, it should go for them right?
"Unless it's movement based?" - Yashira
The tree doesn't seem to be going for the snowmen
Fuck
Books asks if they've tried throwing snowballs at it?
They haven't
Chanty can fireball it maybe?
Yashira gets out a spindle from her sewing kit, and tosses it into the room to see if the tree moves. The tree doesn't respond, so it's not movement based
Chanty has an idea! "Okay so Yashira just established that this thing only attacks things that are alive, right? We have something here that is technically alive, that's not us."
"You mean the guard?" - Ban
Ban, oh my god
Chanty points at the angel statue
"If Charlie's correct that it's an actual angel" - Damien
"I trust Charlie, unlike you" - Chanty
"I also trust Charlie" - Yashira
Yashira tells them not to fight. They could try to use the statue, but if it's petrified and they're using the exhibit to wake it up, she's worried if they put it in danger it might unleash it? What if it breaks the statue, or removes the petrification?
"Then we'll really be in trouble" - Yashira
"Okay, or Damien teleport Ruckus and I'll keep the big evil tree thing off of him. We're losing time, and standing here talking about ten foot poles and meat on ropes isn't helping" - Chanty
"Nobody mentioned those things?" - Yashira
"Come on, you're adventurers, let's go!"
Damien gets down on one knee and tells Ruckus to hop on. Ruckus climbs onto his shoulder, and then Damien teleports both of them to the base of the tree.
The tree immediately tries to grab Damien. He does what he always does, and tries to teleport away. Runes flare up on the tree, and the teleportation fails!
The tree grabs hold of Damien, hoists him up into the canopy, and spikes immediately start to burrow into his skin. He screams. He tries to teleport again, and it fails again. He's fully panicking.
Red veins start to form down the length of the branches back towards the trunk, as the tree begins exsanguinating him.
Damien makes eye contact with Charlie, who doesn't know what to do! He's also panicking.
Ruckus tries to ignore that Damien has just been yoinked from on top of him, and starts trying to work on the tree. Damien yells out for him not to worry about Damien, deal with the fucking tree!
"I'm gonna fucking die if you don't do this!"
Ruckus starts working, and manages to disrupt the tree to slow it down. It shudders, jostling Damien and making him scream again. Ruckus yells that he needs more time, someone needs to get in there.
Nerys begins to recite a story about a scrappy little goblin who everyone is mean to and nobody pays him attention, he sleeps among the trash, but he takes that trash and turns it into great inventions. The city he lives in gets attacked, and using his smarts and ingenuity, he saves the day and is praised as a hero. It's super inspiring!
Ban, the most heroic of us all, rushes into action.
Ban's player asks how many people the tree can handle at once. Let's find out together!
What kind of amateur makes a mass torture device that can't handle masses?
Ban charges into the room and starts running around it, swinging his frying pan, to try and avoid getting grabbed but still get its attention.
They get a success with consequences, I offer a bargain: Ban gets injured, or the frying pan does.
Ban, no hesitation
Ban gets speared through the shoulder and slides across the ground, but he's not been grabbed!
Chantalyn charges in head first with a giant flaming sword.
"Please god don't let Chanty save me" says Damien's player, he'll never live it down
She's magnificent and terrifying, and parries the branches, which Ruckus' exosuit failed to do. Hair blowing, the wind is a paid actor (how? there's no wind!?), it's hot as fuck
So hot
The tree, which is not sentient and cannot have thoughts, decides that Chantalyn is a little too spicy and stops trying to grab her.
"Yashira! Finish it! Help us, oh my gosh!"
Yashira hates being put on the spot, but it spurs her on in this moment. She rushes in, noting the hesitation in the branches as they fight with Chantalyn. She calls out "give me a lift!" and uses Chantalyn as a springboard to jump up into the canopy to try and get to Damien. It's extraordinarily reckless for her, maybe the most reckless thing she's ever done, but she gets into the canopy and gets to Damien. The branches start reaching for her, but they don't manage to restrict her.
Charlie has an idea, and summons a suit of icy armour around Damien, staunching the bleeding and pushing the spikes out of his body, but it's fucking freezing
"Shit I'm cold now"
"Better than bleeding to death!"
Damien, now with a bit of room, takes his rapier and tries to slide the blade between the plates on the tree and try to force it open to free himself. This was ill advised, and the blade of his expensive rapier shatters with the sound of a distressed horse.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Why the fuck did they build that into it?
Damien looks at Yashira for assistance, more than just physical pain in his eyes.
Yashira reaches into Chantalyn's bag, and is stunned by how many fucking weapons she has? And each of them is so girly pop, it's crazy
She pulls out a mace from the bag, apologises to Damien for what she's about to do, and tries to pull him out of the branch.
She pulls him out of the trees grasp, running the spikes down his body. It hurts so much, but he's free.
Yashira looks down the tree and yells "Ruckus I don't wanna put any pressure on you but any time now!"
Ruckus has been working on the tree this whole time, interfacing with it magically and trying to disrupt the flow of energy through it. The veins in the tree begin to glow, and Ruckus cuts off their connection to the branches, causing the tree to stop moving.
Ruckus has shut down the tree! And nobody died!
The tree suddenly shrinks down to its original small size, leaving Damien and Yashira suspended in air for a split second before they both fall. Chanty rushes to catch Yashira, while Charlie tries to catch Damien.
Charlie catches Damien and they're both dragged down to the floor together, but nobody's hurt
Yashira panics while falling and tries to avoid falling into Chantalyn and hurting her. Chantalyn catches her, but it's significantly more awkward as they both get tangled up in each other and fall to the ground. Yashira has her eyes closed so tight, and then opens them and makes eye contact with Chantalyn.
"You've got really well built legs" - Chanty
"...thank you? I scale a lot of buildings for my job. Why did I say that?"
Yashira stammers and tries to disentangle herself from Chantalyn. "Thank you for catching me"
"Oh, yeah, no problem. It's what I do. Hey, so is anybody concerned that an art gallery would have a giant killing monstery tree in it?"
"Oh and also that vase? That's not great planning"
Ruckus thinks they might need to have a word with that security guard.
"Hey security guard, why does the gallery wanna kill people?"
No response
Ruckus picks up the small grieving tree. The branches start reaching for his face, but he can just hold it out. He walks back into the main gallery with it.
Damien is in so much pain. Nerys asks if they can try something?
"No, don't you fucking touch me. I have a potion."
Nerys is upset, why doesn't he trust her?
"Given your track record today, this is not the time for experiments, let me do something that works."
"...okay"
Nerys returns to the others, a bit crestfallen.
We're half an hour overtime now, so we call the session there
They're going to prison next session.