16. July 20, 2014

We tell Elise the truth—that we have multiple half-sisters, all children of our mother. Elise could try divine location of (one or more) sisters, but whatever object is used will be consumed in the divination. We decide to have Elise use the artifact knife to divine the question of “What is the location of our relatives, the living daughter(s) of the elven Duke, and how will we recognize the sister(s).” As the town isn't keen on us trying to kill the water elemental since it's trapped and thus harmless, and Jessa doesn't want to kill it if we don't have to, we decide to sacrifice the artifact dagger to learn where the sisters are. Bel has misgivings, but agrees in the end.

Elise performs the divination; it takes a few hours. When it reaches the climax, Elise spreads blood on the dagger and the blood seems to sizzle; then the dagger explodes in a giant fireball. The house is gone; Shock and Jessa are buried under rubble and barely alive, and nearby buildings are on fire. Elise is gone—all that Bel (who was unharmed) can find is the dagger (unharmed, after all) in the center of a glassy crater, and the front part of a human foot where Elise was standing. Bel drinks the elixir of Giant Strength to dig Shock, Jessa, and other people from beneath the rubble, and binds as many wounds as she can. Shock and Jessa remain unconscious for over 24 hours. All that the townspeople find of Elise are bits of her body, scattered in nearby fields.

Even worse, high in the sky, immediately above the crater, is smoke that looks like a face, if you squint at it hard enough. It remains above the crater for about an hour. Bel guesses it's a counter-divination, perhaps by the individual that the dagger was bespelled to kill. (Jessa later says maybe it was Elise's or our mother's spirit. Bel thinks it's likelier it's an enemy.)

Jessa and Bel are horrified by Elise's death. The townspeople take it in stride, thinking that magic is dangerous and the spell going horribly awry was proof. Bel cremates Elise's remains and releases them on the wind in a funeral ceremony.

Two days later, a boy combing the beach near dusk is stabbed by a mer-person. He says that a creature came from the sea and it stabbed him with a trident. The boy made it mostly back to town, screaming for help, and was brought to Bel for healing. Jessa and Shock are still bedridden, but Bel goes with the guards to the beach. They see about six fish-headed creatures bobbing in the ocean, about 40 feet from shore. Bel asks the guards to back her up, and walks to the edge, calling to them in common to ask what they want. She sees one of them move and sees a blue glow form underwater; unsure of the creature's intent with the spell, Bel moves sideways about 10 feet. A glob of hissing water hits the sand where she had been. The creature casts again, and this time the spell hits Bel, stinging her left leg. She pulls the skull of the Sahaguin (aquatic creature that they found in the mountains) from her bag and holds it high in her hands, and starts shouting that she'll return the head of their ancestor if they leave—and the creatures all start to back away, and disappear.

The wound on Bel's leg where the water spell hit is shaped like a stylized squid. Subsequent investigation (during 8-24 and 9-1 sessions) reveals that the scar is a hex; that it's magical; that it detects as mildly evil.

Bel obtains a small cart for the invalids and we leave the next day, heading inland to look for the nomadic elves. We leave the skull of the aquatic Sahaguin with the town to do with it what they will.