(Due to Philomena's player being gone, her character is doing a side-tangent away from the party, as per her player's wishes)
Starting off, the Agate Seekers resume their watches as they return to camp. Mikhail immediately heads to bed, still reeling from the argument he and the party had. After waking up for his watch however, he seemingly felt a lot better already... only to fall asleep on his watch. Thankfully, nothing else happened that night, except... Philomena Snapdragon disappeared, leaving a not that she found something interesting, and that she'll meet back up with everyone later. This left Mikhail quite annoyed. Volk Lesnoy noticeed her presence fade in and out of The Material Plane, making him silently theorize that she found a Fey Gate.
Nonetheless, the party soldiered on through the forest north of Svantmiirik. An encounter with a trio of Centaurs, who were attempting to hunt, where Dareth Lion'el Griffmane needed Mikhai, revealed to the party that SOMETHING in these woods has been killing a lot of animals, but not eating all of them, leaving large parts of their bodies untouched. The centaur asked if they had seen any creature doing something like that, which the party sadly denied. The centaurs then said that they'd look for new hunting grounds, and would likely return to The Feywild.
As the party continued travel, they did start noticing several dead animals; both small and big, herbivores and carnivores. A small argument about splitting the party broke out again, after Zora noticed Sooty continued to be saddened by it, but eventually, the party continued, until they noticed a hand peeking out from one of the bushes... Dareth investigated, finding the corpse of a rather unassuming human man. Dareth couldn't help but notice the hole in his chest and side... His heart and liver were missing. Concerned, the party pressed on, as Sooty summoned his eagle to look for things above the canopy of the forest. By sundown, he noticed a light in the distance... and found a Log Cabin in the middle of the woods.
The party investigated, finding what appeared to be a Safehouse of the Liwilai Adventurer's Guild, with a sign saying "Svantmiirik Bard's College - Liwilai Adventurer’s Guild Safehouse. Healing services and lodging inside! :)". Remembering that Nax Skyscale established and manages several safehouses for guild members in and near the city of Svantmiirik, the party went inside, only to find it empty, with a whistling kettle currently steeping tea on a stovetop, which Mikhail promptly removed, noticing the oversteeped tea inside.
That's when he and Dareth noticed a metallic smell. A harp under one of the beds in the cabin did catch Dareth's eye, and as he crouched down to retrieve it... he noticed the a dead, blue Kobold under the bed, wearing bardic garments, as well as a Support-Tier pin of the adventurer's guild. The name on the back of said pin was "Riggu Skyscale". The party decided to store the kobold in the bag of holding for now, intending to bring him back to Nax for a proper burial. Dareth and Mikhail then also went outside to investigate the area for magic. After doing a few rounds around the cabin, however, both of them noticed a woman in a leather cloak, approaching the cabin. Using his Detect Magic, Mikhail was able to see that she was practically overflowing with Transmutation magic.
While Mikhail warned the others through a window with a spell, Dareth decided to act as a distraction, threatening the woman with a sword. While she was momentarily intimidated, she simply smiled at Dareth and said "Put the weapon down, dear". And he did. Dareth was charmed by her. And as Volk rushed to open the door, blowing the hood off her face revealing two fox-ears, a fight began, as several other foxes, all with nine tails, emerged from the woods.
After thinking of encounters he had with people from the east while under Countess Evelyn Nightfall's employ, Mikhail remembered stories of Kitsune... but also of a type of nine-tailed fox that is native to their current client's homeland of Choson; the men-secuding, heart-and-liver eating Kumiho. A fight ensued, and the charmed Dareth ALMOST had his heart ripped out at least 3 times, leaving him bleeding and reeling from pain; they were not able to do the same to Volk, though, but not for lack of trying. And even though the encounters was scary and a little touch-and-go for some, the party was able to overpower the evil fey creatures (leaving two that never transformed alive, as Zora thought, in her naiveté, that they were merely foxes), finding the missing club of Seo the Dokkaebi in the cloak of their leader; it seems like these creatures stole the club from the restaurant.
It wasn't long before another argument broke out between Zora and Mikhail, as Mikhail, rather annoyedly, told her that these were intelligent creatures that can't be tamed, as well as murderers, while flinging a Chromatic Orb at one of the ones left alive, killing it. The last remaining Kumiho alive was questioned, and revealed that they stole the club in order to use it to better seduce men, so that they could eat enough livers and hearts to become human; or at least human-passing. However, they greatly overestimated its abilities. She was then unceremoniously knocked out by Zora, and then had her head caved in by Dareth.
The party then went back into the cabin to sleep for the night, so that they can return to Svantmiirik.
SESSION END