This being the new normal, we did some Legends of the Elements online last night. Last time was like a month ago.
Anyway! The characters trek back to the village of Jasmine with the until-recently angry mob, and also carrying the old man that Ember inadvertently set on fire. They take him to the healer's hut, and Khatun notes that the healer's hut is full of herbs and objects that she doesn't recognize - they don't seem to be typical of the village people, and they don't look like they're from the Steppe, either. The village healer is a very young man, barely an adult, and he sees the man's burns and kind of panics.
Ember, who's pretty familiar with burns, finds some herbs and preparations in the hut that should help, and Khatun adds water to make a salve. They spread the stuff on the man and he falls asleep, and the shapers talk with the healer in a bit more of a relaxed way.
The healer, Crell, tells Khatun that he came from across the Western Sea and wound up in Sand Port, but then was driven out by the flood and wound up in Jasmine. He had some training as a healer, but not much, so he's kind of learning on the job. The previous healer died without training an apprentice (she was...difficult) and, at her insistence, was buried with all of her materials.
Ember considers this. The healer of Marn, her home village, had notes and wisdom that he'd written down, and his home was in the cliff wall above the village, so it might have survived the conflagration that destroyed Marn.
Meanwhile, Feng looks around for other shapers. He sees a few small tattoos - folks who are learning how to use shaping powers - but the only full-fledged shaper he sees is a hard-looking woman with blue and black tattoos that mark her as a Metalshaper. He approaches her and she tenses into a defensive stance. He assures that he's not there for her, he just wants to know how she trained as a Metalshaper. She tells him that training one's will to be like iron and reshaping literal iron aren't so different, once you figure out how. He asks to train with her, and she scoffs - she knows him, and she hears the spirits whisper his name. She tells him, though, that if he goes to where the Small Dog River empties into the Western Sea and finds the spirits there, he might have the will he needs to learn what she can teach.
Ember convenes the group and says that she wishes to go to Marn to find the wisdom of the healer, Laird, and asks for their help. The characters agree, but decide they'd like to build a boat and travel up-river to the village (which they can do with Khatun's help). They take a couple of days to construct a raft, and Gerde takes a trek around Red Rock back to the village of Senda to let everyone know they're alive and get some provisions. She returns, and they climb aboard the raft.
Khatun's watershaping propels them easily up the river, and they beach it as they hear the Dog Falls in the distance (where the Big Dog river crashes over the cliff; it sounds like a whole bunch of dogs growling). Ember remembers that sound well; she grew up here.
The characters walk into what's left of the village. It's been 10 years since the destruction of Marn, and the huts are mostly empty shells. The whole place is covered in rich, black, loamy earth, and green moss and plants. Ember finds the remains of her home, now barely visible, and falls to her knees, weeping. Khatun tries to comfort her, but feels heat coming off of her and backs off. Gerde approaches her and helps her meditate and find her pace. Feng, meanwhile, not really equipped to do emotional maintenance, pays attention to the spiritual landscape - and feels a disturbance.
Branches burst up through the loam and grab him, pulling down into the dirt, tiny tendrils wrapping themselves around his body and caressing his tattoos. He calls for help and Khatun tries to pull him loose, but the branches grab her, too. Gerde earthshapes, turning the ground harder so that the branches can't pull them as easily, and Ember, trying to learn a lesson about rash action, observes the plants and realizes that they aren't multiple organisms, but rather one big one.
Khatun freezes the branches holding her and gets free, and Feng Mindwarps the plant-creature into freeing him, but is infected with a maniacal hunger. He grabs the pack of provisions from Gerde and starts gobbling their provisions, and Gerde, taken aback, watches, trying to figure out what's going on.
Ember realizes that there's a mound of loam growing, cutting them off from escape. She yells at them to run, and heads for the cliff wall. She and Gerde climb right up and head into a cave; Khatun and Feng both reach for the same handhold, but Khatun gets it first and makes it in. The plants grab Feng and try to pull him back down, but Gerde grabs him and yanks him into the cave.
The plant creatures whisper, calling Ember's name, and saying that she burned them to ash and sent them into the loam. Feng finds a tunnel in the back of the cave, so at least they're not trapped, but Ember starts to break down. The others try to keep her grounded, but she loses control, and flames erupt from her body...just as they did when Marn was destroyed.
Next session, we'll see what happens next!
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