WE ARE BAT MEN
Written by Kyle
The Platinum Talons (minus Xerxes) visited Lady Morgana for a spiritual and eye-opening night of fortune-telling. Our fortunes were as follows:
Tagg: There is a great destiny for you or for one of your loved ones. To walk toward your destiny, you must trust in those you love. To walk away from your destiny, beware of the stewards of your enemy. Let it be known that one of these stewards can be trusted.
Vance: There is a moment of great luck in your future. To achieve this moment of great luck, you must embrace the calling of your destiny. To find yourself unlucky, you should trust the stewards of your enemy. These stewards will attempt to earn your trust by tempting you with your hopes and dreams.
Nohki: A future journey is in peril. To prevent the loss of one of your own, you must help a friend find a place where a creature is hiding. And when darkness sets on the voyage, you must find a way to shelter those in light that you do not wish to lose.
Unaware of our mysterious fortunes, Xerxes finds himself wandering around town and eventually heads over to the local bar. After chatting with the interesting bartender he orders a drink that has a reputation for killing people, known as Death Wish. Unafraid, Xerxes pounds down the paint infused bourbon and heads over to the ocean to majestically watch the sunset. While heavily under the influence, he decides to reach out to his father. His father said that he is safe in the palace and that our next stop should be Rehoth Landing. Xerxes then cast sending on Karissa Goodchild and asked for a status update and if there is a good spot to meet up. She replies with a muffled response warning him to not come to the lake or you will fall victim too. Her message ends with a few words that sent sharp pains into his head, "Forget about me and Grimm". However, those sharp pains turned out to be the overly powerful drink that he had consumed just minutes before.
The Talons shared their fortunes with one another in hopes of helping each other as much as possible. As per his fortune, Drez accepts a new quest within his Kraven Guard journey which brands his mind in a searing pain. The best sharpshooter's eyes begin to go blurry and as he snaps out of it, Drez realizes that his vision has been drastically impaired. Regardless of his hindered sight, his new quest was certain. To hunt down a new creature known as the Somdilos. Heading to the AGI to learn more about the Somdilos and its habitat, the Platinum Talons bump into a conveniently located eye-witness of the creature. Insane Ivan, who is just as crazy and surprisingly enough, related to Crazy Carl. It turns out that they are cousins, in a large family tree of nutjobs. Insane Ivan explains his traumatic encounter with the Somdilos. He explains it as a large flying creature that creates a black void in its wake.
Intrigued by this story, Vance plots on entering this poor man's nightmares to learn more about the creature. As night approaches, Vance enters the dreams of Insane Ivan where they are in a boat along the shore of Port Sacura. During his dream reconnaissance, Vance learns about the creature, but more importantly, Vance reveals more lore about Insane Ivan and his family. As the dream ensues, Vance begins to freestyle a song about the Somdilos to lure the creature. As the song continues, Vance and Ivan see a large rippling across the water with a large soaring shadow in the air. Vance jumps in front of Insane Ivan and drops to his knees, praying to Lumi to shed light on them to defend against this unknown darkness. A pillar of light gleams down onto the boat and protects the two of them as the shadowy creature appears to by sliced through by the beam of light. Vance awakens from Insane Ivan's dream and informs the group on what had occurred. Based on the description, Drez concludes that it is not a singular creature, but rather a swarm of smaller creatures. And the way that Lumi's light dispersed the darkness reminded Nohki of the lantern used in the Northern Glades.
The Platinum Talons took off towards the cove, but with the normal navigator visually impaired, luckily, Vance had been training to drive the wagon. As we enter the cove, Vance begins to sing his song to attract the swarm. As the swarm engulfs everyone within the cove, Xerxes lifts open the lantern to reveal hundreds and hundreds of bats flying around. As the battle ensues, each member of the Platinum Talons do their fair share of lethal blows to the scattering swarm of bats. Able to save one unconscious bat, Drez puts it into his bag for proof of completion of his quest.
After returning with his prize to Morgana, Drez reaches into his bag, but there is no bat inside. Instead, he pulls out a golden arrow, and the mark on his leg begins to fill in as his vision returns slowly, marking the completion of his second Kraven Guard quest.