Summary: The party discovers the location of the Scorpion Sanctum is very far to the north so decide to travel to Bodrov to obtain passage on an airship. In Bodrov they visit a chirurgeon shop and get one of Cook’s mutation reversed, then stop by Gore’s parents’ home. Next they go to see Countess Tymora, Gerard’s aunt. They speak with Tymora and offer to help with the vampire threat in the city they had caught wind of. Tymora accepts their help, the party investigate a bit and then return to the manor for dinner.
_______________________________________
The party divides the spoils from the Syndicate’s vault as they review the documents leading to Cook’s parents again. Cook’s parents are at a place called the Scorpion Sanctum, but the party has no clear indication where that is. It appears the Syndicate reach this location by the use of other locations. Gore utilizes a datasphere tap cypher and asks the location of the Sanctum and is shown a bird’s-eye view from his current location to the Sanctum deep in the Cloudcrystal Skyfields north of the Naverene. Since it would probably take over a month to ride there overland on chocobos and it seems that experiment subjects tend to burn out at some point the party decides to travel to Bodrov in an attempt to get an airship to take them there faster. They finish up in Shallamas, bringing the powercore to the church and then leaving the nearly drained trogdor in the square in front of the church. Petra will finish up all the details in the city, but bids them to check out the third skyfall just northwest of Bodrov if they have the chance.
They travel uneventfully to Bodrov and Gore meets Jim, one of Gore’s old buddies, working on guard duty. Jim and Gore catch up briefly and he warns them that there is a threat of vampires in the city that have been draining people’s blood. In the city the party meets Green who is promoting his father’s chirurgeon shop. The party are convinced to go there to try and reverse Cook’s negative mutation to his strength. Pensler scans Cook and says he can help. Cook pays 100 shins and an oddity for the procedure which removed the strange hairy lumps on his body which were also draining his vitality. The procedure works and Cook’s strength is restored (+1 to Might Edge). Cook unfortunately loses his sense numenera ability and his hedge magic ability is slightly decreased. They then travel to Gore’s parents’ Curiosity Shop/Pawn and Oddity shop. Gore catches up with his parents and they all have lunch. The woodsman is tired from travel so takes a nap after lunch.
The rest of the party then travel to the royal manor house to see Countess Tymora (Gerard’s aunt) who Gerard is surprised to find looks much younger than when last he saw her. The party offers to help with the vampire threat and the Countess agrees to have her consort Olan, the lord captain of the guard, fill then in on the situation. The party gets details on the attacks and two deaths so far; that they’ve been going on for a few months now, occur only at night, only young adults have been attacked, and attacks have occured only on one side of the city. One of the deaths occurred just a few days ago so they go to the morticians parlor and see the body. The body is of a young woman who has a puncture wound in the neck and is very pale. Bumble scans the body and finds that she was drained throughly of blood and fluid and there are metal particles in the puncture wound.
The party then returns to the manor for dinner with Tymora, Olan, and Gerard’s cousins. Gerard’s cousin Olivia is uncomfortably interested in him and her younger brother Zander is a bit immature and overly excited about the party wanting to know all of their adventures. Over dinner they are able to ascertain from Olivia that Tymora looks younger because of a numenera pod that aeon priest Lyra restored for the countess that she occasionally sleeps in overnight. At the conclusion of dinner Donnie, Lyra’s acolyte, comes in to present Gerard with a flight pack artifact in thanks for their help recovering the skyfall artifact days earlier. Tymora plans to use the recovered artifact as an air conditioner. At Olivia’s urging Tymora invites her nephew and his friends to stay the night at the manor and has servants prepare the guest quarters for them.