Homecomings

Summary
Flamerule 11
After three days of heavy rain and several more days of windy travel, the party arrives in Surcross. Surcross is a fortified town, a keystone in Thesk's border defenses against Thay. The town is filled with a mix of Thesk national soldiers and the mercenary units they keep on long term retainer. As a result, the town's night life is… active. The party looks for an inn away from the military garrisons. They settle in at the Thrown Dagger Inn, most of the party is resting upstairs and Kiri is performing downstairs, with Mirag keeping an eye on her. Caeli receives a spell message asking her to come downstairs and meet, it's Jaerlethket, the silver dragon who saved her from her brother. When Caeli comes down, he is in the shape of a middle-aged human, with silver blond hair the same color as hers. She sits and he orders them wine. He explains that he has been doing research about her family since their last meeting and tells her he is her grandfather. He has been to visit the elf woman he loved and confirmed with her their family bonds. He brings her greetings from her grandmother and asks Caeli to pass them on to her parents. But, that is not the real reason he is here. Dragons sleep a great deal, he tells her, which is fortunate since it lets them conserve energy, other wise dragons' appetites would put an even greater strain on their surroundings. But when they sleep, they dream, and for older dragons, these dreams can be prophetic. He has seen magical danger in her future confrontations which will call on her to fight alone with her magic. Therefore, he has come to train her. He gives her two large magical texts, these will help her learn to analyze and identify an opponent's spells and how to counter them. In addition, he will arrange meetings with her to practice magical combat one on one. It is one thing to fight a wizard as part of a group, with companions to aid you, it is quite another for two spellcasters to duel one on one with only their own resources. He will be in touch with her again soon and departs.
Kiri and Mirag come to her table and ask Caeli who that was and she explains it was her grandfather, who is the source of her magical bloodline, implying but not saying out loud that he is a dragon.

Flamerule 14
The party has continued their journey and arrives at Risa's monastery, the Temple of the Potent Vintage. The monastery is surrounded by fields and backs up to hills terraced with vineyards. The sentries welcome the party warmly, passing around hip flasks. One gives Andre a dwarven whiskey he has never had before. They are escorted to the monastery and given rooms. The monks bring in extra cots for Andre and Mirag and tie the legs together to make wider beds. After they have rested, they meet with the monastery's leader, who is Risa's old teacher Jeng Dua, and the senior staff including their dwarven brewmaster and orcish armsmaster. Since the revelation of what was behind Qah Laing's activities, they have reconstructed his researches, he was looking for powerful objects that can cleanse a curse or remove magic. The most potent of these is the Unravelling, a piece of fey cloth made by three hags of great power. Since the Nagpa who controlled Qah is under a fey curse by the Raven Queen, who is an unaligned fey lord of great power, it makes sense that the Nagpa is looking for a fey cure to a fey curse. The Unravelling can remove any curse or destroy any enchanted item, even an artifact.
Thorn notices that the conference room has many maps and asks about maps of Thay. The monks will give him a copy of one of their maps. They discuss entry into Thay and the difficulties of doing so. The shortest route would mean crossing the heavily patrolled border, either by stealth or disguise, and travelling through populated lands with frequent patrols. The next shortest route would be entering Rashemen and travelling south through the mountains, a route very difficult to cross physically. Last would be crossing the mountains on the Golden Way and travelling south along the eastern side of the mountains, before crossing the mountains again to cross directly into Thay near their goal. The third route is much longer, but also easiest. Caeli mentions travelling the Feywild. That would be very short, but Caeli is the only one with any knowledge of the Feywild and that is very limited at best. Also, the Feywild is dangerous as it is and the Thayans are sure to have defenses in the Feywild to discourage intruders from circumventing their border defenses. Also, the party lacks the skills to cast Fey Portal spells; they would need to buy several scrolls with the spell or pay for a magic item to cast it. Caeli suggests a bargain with a fey to buy access to the Feywild, that would mean taking service to the fey as a warlock.
The monastery elders invite the party to dinner, but say they plan a celebration of Risa's return, tomorrow will be a festival day. The monastery has a pig roast and breaks out a staggering variety of alcohol, it is a day of feasting and good natured drunken brawling. When the party leaves the next day, Kiri is quite hungover and flinches at every crack of thunder from a nearby storm.

Flamerule 17th
The party is halfway to Two Stars, and passing through some rocky hills scattered with patches of trees. Mid-morning, a group of Rashemen berserkers ambush them from the left! There are four barbarians up close, one is the woman who led the kidnappers in Telflamm, there are also two archers, one ahead and one behind. Andre is taken by surprise, Caeli hits one with Chromatic Orb, but misses with Ray of Frost. A warlock appears from Invisibility BEHIND them and casts Enemies Abound on Mirag who raises his hammer to strike Andre from behind. A barbarian rages and attacks Andre hitting him with his greataxe. Kiri casts Dispel Magic and clears the spell from Mirag. Mirag charges the warlock and swings two handed, but misses. Thorn draws his bow and shoots the leader with Hail of Thorns and wounds the two with her. The archers shoot from the hill, hitting Kiri and Mirag. Risa dashes in and deals a volley of blows to the first wounded barbarian and drops him. no one has attacked Caeli, and the reason becomes clear as her brother appears from Invisibility and attacks her, yelling "DIE ABOMINATION!"
Caeli ducks away from Mephisto, but he hurts her badly. Andre casts Divine Favor on himself and his mount, and leaps from his horse to begin an axe duel with a barbarian while his horse attacks another. Kiri uses her Wand of Paralysis and freezes Mephisto. One of the archers shoots Risa and she charges and lays into him. Thorn steps up beside Andre and takes on one of his opponents. Caeli circles around and lets fly with Lightning Bolt down the barbarians facing Thorn and Andre, killing one. The warlock tries driving Mirag off with Fear, but it fails. Mirag goes into rage for the first time, but as he does, the demon stone in his warhammer lights up with the glyphs and an evil voice in his head shouts "Who has my stone! It's one of the stupid bearfolk! Do you know how many bearfolk I have killed and taken the souls of? Listen" In the background are dozens of bearfolk voices screaming in agony "I will find you!" Time returns to normal and Mirag hits the warlock in rage.
Mephisto shakes off the Hold Person. The warlock hits Mirag with Eldritch Blast, but can't Hex him. Kiri casts Cure Wounds on Caeli, Andre attacks the leader. Mirag swings at the warlock and misses. Thorn and Risa continue battling barbarians. Caeli casts Shatter on her brother and drinks a Potion of Extra Healing. Kiri tries the wand on Mephisto again, but misses and Mirag misses the warlock again. Thorn and Risa kill their opponents (she caught his arrow and threw it back at him), he charges Mephisto and she goes to help Andre. Caeli hits Mephisto with Chromatic Orb and kills him. Andre finishes the barbarian leader. Thorn stabs and kills the warlock and Mirag barely restrains himself from turning his rage on Thorn beside him.
All of the barbarians are down, Kiri calls the party together and plays a restful musical hymn to let them catch their breaths and wash away pain. Kiri turns to Caeli and ask if she's okay and Caeli breaks down and cries in Kiri's arms at what she had to do to her brother. The rest of the party gathers the barbarians weapons, gold and finds their horses. They ask Caeli if she wants her brother buried or just do a funeral pyre for all the dead? She decides on burial and they move the bodies to the hilltop where the archers stood and Mirag uses Mold Earth to dig and fill in the graves. After a brief rest, they gather the horses and move on. There is a discussion about how did they find Caeli? Someone must be using magic to track her and guide the attackers. Caeli has an idea, but keeps it to herself and realizes why her grandfather is trying to train her to fight wizards.

Flamerule 18th
The party arrives at Two Stars, a city on the crossroads of the great Golden Way and the north-south Cold Road. It is a trading city full of goods from East and West. Kiri worked here as a nanny for a noble house and her sister still works for them. While the rest of the party settles in, Kiri visits her sister Rai and meets her new nephew Zaan, named for their father. Kiri explains about her visit to their parent's and Nyvana's visit to them and the lies she told, but Rai does not remember Nyvana more than vaguely and doesn't understand. Kiri goes to visit her old employers, Lord and Lady Mecek. The door guard recognizes her and greets her warmly, showing her to a guest room and bringing refreshments. Household staff pop in to greet her with hugs and tears. Eventually Lord Shaumar and Lady Tammith and their oldest son, Ralm, stop in to see her for a few minutes. They cannot talk long, but invite Kiri to dinner tomorrow. Kiri asks if she can bring her friends, but the Meceks would rather see her alone. Kiri departs, promising to return tomorrow.
The rest of the party makes some stops. Caeli checks in with the local Harper contact, he has a message from Rafael. It's mostly a 'hope you are well, please write soon', but he mentions that he sent letters for Andre and Kiri to their respective churches here and in Mulsantir. Andre visits his church and receives Rafael's letter. Some of the Black Peak dwarves have escaped the giants, telling tales of slavery and oppression; many dwarves were killed as examples. Kiri's letter starts as a shy flirtation, but moves onto business, no more word has been received of the missing Sune paladins or the ship they took passage on.

Flamerule 19th
Kiri has a pleasant dinner with the Meceks, but no one remembers Nyvana or has seen her. They don't remember why Kiri left, they think she was looking for a missing cousin. Kiri does not challenge their false memories and gets invited to Ralm's wedding next year, maybe the local church will let her assist in the ceremony. After dinner, Jaerlethket contacts Caeli and comes to meet her. He says he wants give her training, he takes her hand and they teleport. They come out in eastern Damara at a small farmhouse. Jaerlethket explains that he encouraged the owners to go on a trip and is compensating them. He pours her wine and they have a discussion of magical dueling techniques. He explains his prophetic dream showed her in a ritual, organized magical duel to the death. She will not be able to use enchanted items, but neither will her opponents. referees will make sure the duel is fair. Caeli's success will have unexpected positive consequences. They then go and practice, with Caeli trying to predict his spells and casting Counterspell if the situation needs it. After practice, they sleep in the farm house. In the morning, they practice some more, with Caeli practicing using her sorcerer abilities to cast spells without allowing him to block them. When they finish, he prepares to teleport them back to Two Stars. He warns her that the trip will take some measurable time, she will be in a cold darkness and unable to feel his hand, but he guarantees her safety. He casts the spell and she is lost in a cold, void. It goes on several seconds and she emerges holding his hand outside her inn, but it is night. Have they teleported through time? Jaerlethket explains dragons do not perceive time the same way other species do, that may be why their dreams can be prophetic. He discovered this ability by accident, and almost scared himself to death. He uses it sparingly. He wishes her well, and will be in touch with her for more lessons.

Silly Quotes and Smart Remarks
Talking about the innate magic of sorcerers
Nick "The magic is in you already"
Brittany "Your magic is the friends we make along the way"

Talking about Caeli’s training
Jack "I keep hearing Palpatine; 'Your training is almost complete' "

What did Mirag and Kiri think about Caeli’s meeting?
Jack "I wasn't too concerned"
Brittany "Then I don't tell him shit"

Visiting Risa's monastery, the Temple of the Potent Vintage
Jim "I almost named it the Temple of the Two Drink Minimum"

The monastery produces wines and whiskeys
Jim "They have a well rounded bar menu"
Brittany "Because of the grapes…"

Summer is starting and Mirag's fur makes him warm
Sam "Does he need to be shaved down?"

Caeli’s brother shows up to kill her
Brittany "Oh, fuck!"

Andre is having his warhorse attack the bad guys
Nick "I tell my horse the bad guys taste like apples"
Jim "The horse says 'These guys don't taste like apples; they taste like chicken!' "

Discussing plans to infiltrate Thay
Jim "You can be circus performers. Andre is the strongman, Caeli the psychic medium, Kiri is a minstrel, Risa is an acrobat, Thorn is a trick shooter, and Mirag is the dancing bear."

The other adventurers aren't invited to Kiri's dinner with her former employers
Jim "They're afraid Mirag and Thorn will shed on the furniture"