The Wandering Isles: Session 86

With only a week left until the heist, the pressure on the group continues to build. Every conversation, every errand, and every small gamble now seems to carry the same question beneath it: will they be ready in time?

The evening begins quietly enough. Ekdíkisi Tintreach starts by taking a bath, retreating into a brief moment of privacy before the night unfolds. Elsewhere, Dash Heidmann is perched on a rooftop, journaling, when he spots Eldrin Drosk returning from his walk. In typical Dash fashion, he does not simply call out. Instead, he leaps from the rooftop, lands in a cart full of hay, and startles Eldrin on the street below.

Once the surprise has passed, Dash explains that he wants to take Eldrin to meet Aron Cogsworth. Eldrin agrees, but not before deciding he will need a different name for the occasion. The alias he settles on is Derrik Solen, an anagram of his own. It is a practical choice, the sort of quick-thinking adjustment that feels necessary with so much riding on appearances and half-truths.

The two of them head in to discuss how best to grease the wheels with Aron. Dash lays out his idea plainly: he will try to infiltrate the situation as a security consultant, and after the heist he intends to remain behind long enough to help reinforce an alibi. It is a bold plan, but one with a certain logic. They also try to determine how Eldrin might be made to look more convincingly like a guard, and whether there is some way to disguise the area above his goggles. He is simply too recognisable otherwise. Worse still, Eldrin is keenly aware that if trouble follows him, it may follow him somewhere he absolutely does not want it to reach. His glowing eyes remain one of the greatest problems; they have to stay hidden.

At roughly the same time, Amaedrianna Blüdfist asks the others to call her Anna. The group begins to scatter according to need. Anna and Hatsu Toshitsugu go to meet her criminal contact, Vale. Dash and Eldrin head off to find Cogsworth. Eos remains in her room, trying to trance. Weslyn Theiwyse goes wandering on his own.

Dash, dressed in his white suit, accompanies Eldrin into the industrial district. The place could not suit them more differently. Eldrin feels at home there among the clang of metal and the rhythm of hard work, while Dash struggles with the soot, the heat, and the relentless mechanical noise. The district itself is a brutal, efficient thing. It clings to the coast on the port-facing side of Anbudon and spreads inward through the cargo roads, alleys, and canals feeding the docks. The air is thick with soot, salt mist, and hot metal. Hammers, saws, steam vents, clicking gears, and shift bells create a constant low industrial roar. Brick-and-iron buildings dominate the skyline, with sawtooth roofs, skylights, narrow high windows, pulley arms, gantries, and loading platforms jutting into view. Handcarts and drays crowd the roads, cargo “fast lanes” are clearly marked, and widened corners allow wagons to turn. It is a place built for flow and output, not comfort. Guards here care more about preventing theft and keeping traffic moving than about anyone’s ease.

Eldrin helps Dash focus through the oppressive noise and clutter. As they move through the district, they notice its culture as much as its structure. Safety signage and etiquette favour mechanical discipline. Anything resembling spellwork or overt magic is treated with suspicion. Council notices on sanitation, workplace rules, and shipment taxes line the walls, while taverns murmur with something almost union-like beneath the surface.

Eventually Dash spots a large, clearly marked building bearing a prominent cog symbol. It is handsome, impressive, and unmistakably important. He assumes at once that this must be the place. Rather than simply entering, Dash does what Dash does: he climbs into a vent in order to assess the building’s defences from within. The attempt does not go cleanly. He slips, loses control, gains speed, and barrels toward a wall, only stopping himself by slamming a dagger into the vent hard enough to rip into the metal. He slides down and comes to rest behind a man.

Dash introduces himself. The man does not even turn around. He only remarks, “You know there’s a bell. It’s… loud. People use it.”

Trying to recover the moment, Dash fishes for the man’s identity, assumes he is Aron, and drops Mirelle Vaudrelle’s name. He starts talking about possible improvements to security, but his attention is soon stolen by something hanging from the ceiling: a mechanoid, humanoid in shape, yet moving with eerie, spider-like silence, red eyes glowing in the dimness. It is deeply unsettling. Aron himself seems less interested in Dash’s pitch than in Eldrin’s pauldron, his arm, and the metalwork involved. He recognises Eldrin’s Bricksunder guard uniform almost immediately.

Aron wastes no time with pleasantries. He asks what they want. Dash explains that he is looking for security work, but Aron is not interested in hiring him for that. What he does offer instead is an alternate task: a search for Calibre Automata. The automaton is described in distinctive detail, impossible to mistake if found. Its head is oversized and round, made of worn brass plates with visible seams and rivets. Two huge glossy black lens-eyes, set in thick brass rings, give it an owl-like, curious look. On either side of its head are circular housings like capped turbines or speaker drums. Its body is compact and sturdy, formed from brass and steel segments joined at shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. It is dressed almost like a pilgrim, with a brown scarf at the neck, crossed leather straps, a belt at the waist, and a bulky weathered backpack. It carries a walking staff and cuts a strange, memorable figure.

Dash accepts the job, but as he and Eldrin leave, he privately judges the whole thing a failed mission. He did not get close to Aron in the way he had hoped, and that matters.

Meanwhile, Anna and Hatsu meet with Vale. Anna asks for enough toxin to make twenty guards sick, along with six men to replace them. Hatsu gives her a look when she speaks too casually about expendability, but the negotiation itself remains efficient. Vale charges her two aurems. She flicks him the coins. The toxins, he says, will be ready that afternoon. The men can be arranged whenever needed.

Before leaving, Anna asks where she can gamble and enjoy the nightlife. Vale flicks her a card for The Captain’s Flask and tells her to look into it later. Outside, Hatsu makes certain of one important point: she does not actually want harm to come to the people they hire. Reassured on that count, he offers her a warning all the same. If you play a role too long, you become that character. Anna answers that she keeps him close to keep her honest.

As they walk, on the night of the 24th, they notice how empty the streets feel. In that relative quiet, the conversation turns personal. Anna admits she wants to do good, that she wants to be better than her father. Hatsu tells her that this is precisely what sets them apart from people like that. They will always try to leave the world better than they found it. The exchange becomes soft and intimate, each of them recognising painful parallels, shared hopes, and the strain of trying to remain good in a world that keeps testing them. Anna only says that she hopes they will have that luxury.

Weslyn, for his part, spends his time looking for anything familiar in a place he once knew long ago. He finds nothing. Whatever connection he once had to this city, it no longer truly exists. The place feels divorced from who he is. Its values are different. Its shape may remain, but its spirit does not ring true to him anymore. He also notes the notable absence of Chicken the Fox, though he reflects on the fact that they are their own creature and cannot be expected to remain by his side forever.

Later, Anna announces that she is taking everyone out. Weslyn says he is heading to the museum instead, but for the others, the night turns toward cards and gambling. Before things properly begin, Anna poses a question to the group: is giving to charity selfish, if the act also makes the donor feel better and improves their image? The debate moves back and forth, never settling into anything simple. Intent and outcome clash, as they often do.

The discussion is interrupted when Dash asks whether anyone has seen a small robot. Hatsu, who does not even know what Dash means by that, questions him, and the whole thing spirals briefly into a debate over whether Eldrin counts, given the armour over his arm and the metalwork involved. Hatsu then asks the more practical question: do they really have time for a job like this? Dash replies that it is likely the sort of problem they would take care of gradually, rather than all at once.

The crew eventually moves into the back end of a gambling hall, effectively a casino. Dash immediately manages to bump into a waitress while scanning for cheats and receives a cocktail stick in the eye for his trouble. Eos, meanwhile, accidentally downs half a glass of Dragonfire Whiskey and becomes intensely drunk with alarming speed.

Anna and Dash take seats at a table to gamble. Albi, Anna’s familiar, now in spider form, crawls onto another gambler’s shoulder to get a look at their cards, while Dash makes his own attempt to influence the deck. The first round goes Anna’s way, and she wins ten moons. Encouraged, she raises the stakes in the second game. She puts down five moons. Dash puts down six. Anna raises to six. Another player follows. Eldrin matches as well, and the table becomes suddenly serious. During all this, Eos tries to borrow money from Dash. He refuses. She keeps asking anyway, now thoroughly and unmistakably drunk.

Anna wins the second hand as well, collecting a pot worth three aurems and earning an invitation to a higher-stakes table. She accepts and moves over. There, however, her momentum breaks. She loses both hands. The losses frustrate her, but she has enough discipline to cut them there and walk away before pride makes things worse.

Elsewhere in the room, Eos and Eldrin share chicken wings. Dash notices two higher-ranking guards in service to the king. In another time, his instinct would have been daggers first and questions never. This time, though, he stops himself and speaks to Anna instead. She reminds him that they are here to be anonymous, to build alibis, not to create wanted posters. It is a necessary correction, and Dash takes it.

Eos, deep in her drunken haze, asks Eldrin whether he thinks Virelya of the Broken Glade is single. Eldrin does not even remember who that is, prompting Eos to clarify that it is “the bird lady”. He asks if she has a crush on Virelya, but Eos dodges the question. She then turns to Dash and asks him instead. Dash, entirely unhelpful and entirely direct, simply answers, “yes”. Eos blushes purple almost at once, making it very obvious that she was lying about not having a crush. Anna clocks the truth immediately.

Hatsu sees that Eos is no longer herself and worries that Ekdíkisi, her alter ego, might take over if this continues. He channels his power and places his hands on her, stripping the intoxication from her body in an instant. One moment she is wildly drunk; the next she is stone sober. Afterward, he takes a walk with her.

On that walk, Eos offers a shortcut. By the time they are within roughly five hundred feet of the inn, she uses her newly discovered spell, “Eclipsing Sands,” opening a doorway through space. The two of them step through and return directly to the inn. Hatsu asks how she learned to do it. Eos explains that she has studied it for a long time and only recently felt ready to perform it properly, thanking him for helping clear her mind.

Hatsu then gives her a stern reminder never to eat or drink anything she did not serve herself. More than that, he tells her plainly that she is powerful, and that he does not think she should ever willingly give up her mental capacity. She accepts the rebuke. He leaves her with another warning, and perhaps a promise as well: “the world is not ready for us, yet”.

Their conversation turns to Boreal Paleclaw, Hatsu’s adoptive brother, an owl-humanoid hybrid. Eos asks after him, and Hatsu says that Boreal is trying. He is training. He is working on balance, especially where his emotions are concerned. Hatsu believes Boreal’s emotions are tied to his magical ability in the same way Hatsu’s own emotions are bound to his blade. The weapon is not merely steel, but a vessel, and emotions will always shape how power moves through them.

At the same time, Dash, Eldrin, and Anna are still making their way back. Along the walk, Dash asks after Weslyn and wonders whether he is all right at the museum. Anna asks Eldrin whether he is any good at being fast and quiet. Eldrin answers that he is willing to find out.

So they race.

Anna arrives first. Dash reaches the museum just behind her. Eldrin comes in last and, despite his efforts, noticeably louder than the other two. Anna mentions using Albi, still in spider form, as a way to silently signal Dash about where they are positioned.

When they reach the museum, the mood changes at once. It is heavily guarded. Not by the usual complement, either, but by something more like fifteen to twenty guards clustered around the place. The sheer number makes it immediately obvious that something important is happening inside.

And inside, Weslyn is already there.

He is in the archive of the Lore Keepers with the curator when their meeting is interrupted by an important early arrival. Left alone in the archive room, Weslyn peeks outside and sees the curator in conversation with a man of long golden hair and a large golden crown. It is simply the king.

The king is there to discuss an exchange involving the museum. A gem-like egg is to leave with him in a few days. In return, the museum will receive one of the king’s historical crowns, one said to have belonged to his grandfather.

It is a striking revelation, and one that only sharpens the tension surrounding everything else already in motion. With the heist drawing closer, the group’s plans are becoming more complicated, not less. By the time the session closes, the feeling is unmistakable: every path is converging, and what waits next may be larger than any of them first realised.