Synopsis[]
A clerk at the Last Pony Inn scribes the agreed-upon details of the altercation in the party's hotel room the previous night, all business. She hands it to an aarakocra errand boy, who carries it to the Observatory of the Righteous Deed, a sprawling complex topped with a glass dome. The letter travels through the Observatory and its functionaries until it reaches Abbess Citron, carried by another functionary, with a concern: the subject of the new Legend, Arianna Floridia Osprey II, does not exist.
Legally speaking, none of the party died during their first encounter. Now, with a stone gargoyle and a mud elemental - a Xorn - under their belt, they return victorious to Lairtown where the fallout of the KDL attack has largely been cleared. Keen to have their deeds recorded posthaste, the party make their way to the Convent of the Fabled Thief.
For Odion, the visit is similarly routine to dropping off laundry, so when Prester Oltengo alerts him that Ramshackle is looking for him, he slips out while the others experience their first Legend-documentation process.
The rest of the party finds the Prester rather enamored of certain mood-altering substances, and (once Cal cajoles Weevil into trying it for the first time and then follows suit), they all partake of a strain of giantsweed which Flo recognizes as the very same that Garry sells.
Oltengo collects everyone's names and the details of the event, asking probing questions to get at the relevant details. Cal seems cagey about any longer name than simply "Cal" (of Ironwater), but - lucky for her - her parents did not register her under her *full* name.
When they reach the portion of the story involving Crawdad Sally, waffling over whether to mention her in the official account, Oltengo squares with them that between the degree of physical evidence they have, their employer, and the presence of *two* Ospreys, they are extremely well-verified - granting them a good deal of leeway in exactly what they assert happened in pursuit of a "clean" story. They decide not to mention Sally.
Once the Legend is complete and the lesson of "not all that glitters is gold" is decided upon, each of them applies their signature. Flo's gun jostles a bit in her holster as she signs, but in the end they all feel the power of the adventure's formalization infusing them.
Odion eventually finds Ramshackle awaiting him in a nearby gambling shack, and learns that they've gained the sponsorship of Old Scratch Capital. Odion tentatively prods at Ramshackle's knowledge of what he was sending them into; Ramshackle insists that he didn't know the full scope of what they were up against. He turns his attention to encouraging Odion, urging him not to undersell himself as simply having been "built for" adventuring - but when he inquires whether the party came across a sort of compass, Odion's suspicions are roused again. He is unable to draw any solid conclusions, but detects a level of nervousness in Ramshackle when it comes to the compass that he cannot make meaning of.
Odion replies that *he* did not encounter a compass, but did find other items - and produces the masks recovered from the Xorn. Ramshackle explains that if they do discover the compass in their travels, he should like to get it back - it was left by one of the scouts that found the elemental in the first place.
Ramshackle hands over a five gold advance to Odion to cover the party's accommodations for the night and instructs him to put any gear they might need on credit. He indicates that he is looking to address the spoils of the adventure more equitably than Odion has perhaps experienced with The John Johnson, and when Odion asks whether the line of credit for their gear will accrue interest, he learns not only that it won't, but that their sponsor has been surprisingly generous overall - unusual behavior, to say the least, from adventure capitalists.
All together again in the Convent, the party receives an unpleasant revelation: the Church's records contain only one Arianna Floridia Osprey, and it's definitely Flo's mother. Even Weevil, raised far away from mortal society, is already recorded - but the note from the Last Pony Inn is the only mention of Flo, and indicates that the recipients weren't sure how to file it. Oltengo is nervous and apologetic about the whole thing, deeply reluctant to suggest that the Ospreys might have failed to register one of their children, but unable to come up with an alternative explanation.
Flo papers over her hurt at the discovery with rage, demanding that the Prester immediately fix the record before storming off. After a few moments of discussion, and a very nervous Prester excusing himself since he doesn't want to have to acknowledge to Flo that he saw her storm into a closet, Weevil goes after Flo. In a moment of vulnerability, she admits to Weevil that all she ever wanted was for someone to care about her, and her lack of registration just serves as further proof that the only people who ever did were paid to. Though still too high to articulate it, Weevil finds that her sentiment resonates with him, too.
Composure recovered, the party goes to have their magic items fabricated by Brother Bruce from the spoils of their adventure. Flo learns that the hairpin she collected from the gargoyle was originally fabricated by Bruce himself some 80 years ago (he has cursed himself with immortality via time travel fuckery), and once he reforges it for her, The Fabled Pin spouts the most vicious (metaphorical) shit possible at anyone who comes within range of it.
Cal turns over the pale green gem retrieved from the Xorn, which Bruce converts into a necklace for her - the aesthetics of which Cal solicits Flo's input on. The Xorn Seal Necklace promises to be of great use in finding the treasure Cal so keenly desires.
Weevil produces one of the masks collected from the Xorn, which Bruce fashions into a ring that Weevil names Pain Point and slips onto his pinkie.
Odion's item is crafted from another of the Xorn's masks, becoming the Magic Coding Mask. Odion holds up the mask and asks Weevil to shoot some fire magic his way as a demonstration. As Weevil's firebolt hits the mask, its expression changes from neutral to a surprised "O" and it turns red. Work done, Brother Bruce excuses himself to the nonexistence of being off-camera, and the party returns to Lairtown.
As they wander the streets toward The Bizaar, Weevil and Cal discuss teamwork and their roles in the party, and Weevil apologizes for piling on earlier when the party was yelling at Cal about her magic. She expresses that she doesn't actually mind the yelling, and is willing to hear feedback - though they agree that perhaps yelling can be saved for when someone's life is in immediate danger.
Weevil and Flo also hatch a plan to magically investigate her Gun, since Flo's mother seemed rather tight-lipped about it. When they reach the Bizaar, Weevil guides Flo to a tiny cafe down an alley that only exists for those that already know about it. As they begin, Flo warns Weevil that she's observed The Gun sometimes seems to have a mind of its own before he begins his grotesque magical inquiry. Rubbing a mix of chili and broken glass in his eyes, he draws a circle of his tears around The Gun to Identify it - and senses a resounding absence of magic.
Flo urges him to try again, and he initially encounters the same result, but then - fueled by a fear of failure - he pushes, rending and tearing viciously through the abjurations around the item.
We flash back to the first time Weevil went too far with magic. His Grannies had begun teaching him the magic of illusions, but in stories, wizards always wielded energy - lightning, fire - and much as he loved his Grannies, he felt like they were trying to steer him away from his humanity. Feeling he needed to connect with that experience if he ever hoped to leave the Wood of Woe, he sat with a single unlit candle and a burning match. He held his hand over the match, seeking to transfer that fire - through pain - into the candle wick.
After a time, he was successful - the candle flared to life, and the fire spread throughout the room, filling it with smoke and overwhelming him before he could make it to the door to seek help. He woke some days later, his hand heavily bandaged. He recalls that his Grannies seemed more concerned about how he had made the fire than about the physical injury he'd sustained.
Now, he watches this scene again, dispassionately - and a thing with a sunken chest pushes out of the flame, drinking in the smoke which pools in the corners of its eyes and streams down its skinless face. It has one horn curling up like a corona, the other horn broken. Weevil reaches for the creature's arm, feeling his fingers wrap unsettlingly too close to bone - a sensation he is familiar with only through butchery. Then, its hand is around his throat and he is lifted off the ground. It pulls him close and intones, "The dragon yet lives."
Flo, across the table, reaches for the gun without meaning to. It transforms into the shotgun and she bashes Weevil upside the head with it. He falls to the ground, and she jams the barrel into his second shadow, pinning it to the ground. Frantically, she looks down at Weevil, asking what he did - what she did? She brokenly says she cannot put The Gun down - it won't let her.
Weevil turns his focus to The Gun, saying he's not trying to take it away - he's trying to help it work with her. The Gun does not respond instantly - it ensures Flo has several agonizing moments to consider that it has the power to take people away from her - and then it goes lax in her hand.
Shaken, Flo helps Weevil up, insisting that wasn't her - a fact of which Weevil is well aware. He suggests that The Gun may be less of an object and more of a relationship, tied to something very big and very old. He says that they will need to figure out what it wants - and Flo, fortified by the solidarity in his statement, agrees and adds that once they do, they'll also figure out what her mother knew about it.
Elsewhere in The Bizaar, the crowd of passing children chatter - Cal doesn't catch what they're saying, but Odion notices they're clamoring about Ironwater, and asks if Cal would like to check in at home. As they approach in the fading daylight, they see an unusual level of activity - people moving ruined furniture, children helping to distribute meager rations, a neighborhood putting itself back together in the wake of a flood.