Introductions to the two new characters:

Spoiler: New Recruits
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The group remains in Plum Tree while they recuperate from the numerous wounds that they suffered in the underground; but it is slow healing, and injuries both physical and psychological remain when they begin their search for a new recruit.

Valentine sends the innkeeper’s niece Sonya to spread the word that they are looking for a healer or a priest. Sonya is a bookish teenage girl, short and stout, cute but not beautiful, hardy but clumsy. She has tan skin, dark hair, and large brown eyes, with a brilliant mind and an enchanting voice.

When Sonya returns, tasks completed, she asks if she can herself apply. Her father was an adventurer who died under mysterious circumstances, and she has had a keen mind and an acute sense of the supernatural. She spent her youth reading books about all the places she wished she could visit, and thinks that traveling with the mercenaries could be her ticket out of this quiet existence.
To her surprise, Valentine agrees, although her lack of practical skills means that Sonya will start as an unpaid intern. When Sonya asks to be allowed to study Anani’s spellbooks and artifacts, Valentine doesn’t think much of it, but what she does not tell Valentine, however, is that in the last few weeks her shadow has begun to speak to her, and it is teaching her to perform small magical tricks, and that she has been plagued by dreams about the coming end of the world.

Still, they will need a proper healer if they are to survive, and eventually, they find it in the form of a wandering half-elven restorer by the name of Yllrora.

Yllrora, called Aurora by humans, was born on Avalon almost a thousand years ago, although Feur can sense that she is only nineteen years old. She is of average height and build, but with the unearthly grace and beauty that only fey blood can provide. She has long black hair and coffee-colored skin, unusual amongst the nocturnal folk of Avalon, but common enough amongst the gray elves and those who, like her, have a good deal of mortal blood.

Her mother was an elven witch, her father likely a human slave. She ran away during the chaos that resulted in the banishment of the dark elves, and eventually fell in with the court of Oberon and Titania, and made her way to the time-lost realm of Tir-Na-Nog. There, she was a handmaiden to the fairy queen, and refined her knowledge of the healing arts; be they magical, mundane, or alchemical. In the end, she found Titania no less overbearing than her own mother, and escaped from the magical realm in a time and place that was totally unfamiliar to her. She had heard tales of a dark elven embassy in the city of Nightholm, and had traveled there searching for information about her family, but when that proved to be a fruitless endeavor; she instead took to looking for work in the region.

Valentine is impressed by her story, and tells her to introduce herself to her coworkers while she prepares a contract that is scarcely more generous than Feur’s. Feur is pleasant, Quincy is distant, and Kim is overly curious with a thousand questions about Avalon and the Sidhe. Krystal, on the other hand, refuses to engage with her at all, instead cloaking herself in shadows and remaining apart.
After the interview, Valentine begins to chastise Krystal for her anti-social behavior, but Krystal lights into the Nephilim in turn, asking how she can take the moral high ground after agreeing to lead a little girl into what is, in all likelihood, going to be her death.


Sarah will be playing Sonya. She is taking Anani's death in stride, helped by the fact that she will be carrying forward much of the same character's abilities, personality, and history, as the same entity that was possessing Anani is now possessing Sonja; it survived the death of its host and attached itself to the nearest suitable vessel, and has persuaded her to take up its old tasks.

Aurora was created by a new player named Patty. I am very impressed with her, so seems to be taking a lot of initiative, having created her character, including a backstory and illustration, without anyone's help, and has taken to voraciously reading the game rules, setting information, and campaign journal. I hope this goes well!