Okay, I'm not sure if people would be interested in these, but! I wrote detailed recaps of some recent sessions because I was very hype about them pfft.
Around 30 sessions ago when we were in Vesperiya, the capital city of Ambariya and the place where Vito once went to University, Vito killed professor Flátfucq. He found out then that Callista would come back to Vesperiya for the traditional wrestling championships that happened at the turn of the year. Her brothers were competing, like they always did, so her family insisted she'd come. And thus, Callista became the next target on his kill list. Back then the turn of the year was far away, so we had time to do a fruit quest and some other quests while we sailed around the great island of Ambariya. Now it was December, and thus we returned to Vesperiya.
There were some things that needed to be taken care of first, like getting paid for completing our fruit merchant quest (hell yeah) and going skinny dipping in the harbour of the very fine city (Vito and Emris had made a bet). Emris had some personal business in Vesperiya, since she'd lived there for a very long time. Things happened on the 13th of December and she got to meet her family, although the reunion wasn't very happy... Some Very Cool moments, but I'm trying to focus on Vito here! And I’m not the best person to tell Emris’s story.
While taking care of her business, Emris also had the time to find out when Callista was arriving in the city. Apparently, it would be on the 14th of December. We had some more waiting to do, and Vito was getting incredibly bored at this point – being fleshwarped did boost his ADHD and his risk-seeking behaviour, so he actually started taking penalty if he didn’t do something risky or interesting. But he tried to spend his time just hanging around the city, going to too-expensive cafés and working on some crafting projects in his workshop on our ship.
The 14th of December came. Despite the unfortunate events that happened on the 13th, we were ready in the morning. Varis, who didn't need rest, went to the harbour to keep an eye on the ships. Our target arrived on one small inconspicuous ship.
Varis followed her. Our plan, for now, was to figure out her movements in the city and if she was staying in her family's mansion or not. Varis was our man (or robot) of choice for this, because he was small and very good at these kinds of things, and also affiliated with Vesperiya's police force. He rolled very good stealth, but soon when Callista disappeared behind a corner, he lost her, only to find out that she was suddenly behind him. A short conversation happened. Varis managed to hide his true intentions but asked her about... robot sex. She was not impressed. But alas, Varis couldn't follow her anymore, and came back to us. We got to planning.
Back when Vito was in the University, he was allowed to live in the University's clock tower for free, as long as he kept the clock running. You see, the clock was of Gnomish make, and although it was very impressive, it was also way too complicated for its own good. Vito never completely figured it out, but he learned its mechanisms well enough to make his own adjustments to it. He absolutely loathed professor Tharania Arborius (who was later a part of the research group and now on Vito's kill list), so to mess with her, he programmed the clock to slow down and malfunction on the days when she usually held her final exams. The meticulous woman she was, she insisted on having the exams on the same dates, year after year. Vito's intention was to give the students an excuse to be late and more time to study ("oh I still have 15 minutes! I could swear the clock was ten past eight just a moment ago, but guess I was wrong!"). Vito was the only one who knew how to fix it back then, but he taught his best friend how the clock worked. And thus, Callista was the only one besides him who could fix the clock. And it so happened that the mighty clock would malfunction on 15th of December. (Funny enough, this was just a random note with a random date in my Facts Masterdoc – it ended up being really important!)
There was a good chance that, being in the city, Callista would have to go fix the clock on the morning of the 15th. Assuming she hadn't undone Vito's little programming and that she (or someone) cared enough about punctuality that the clock should be fixed. Our plan was to have Emris, disguised as an innocent noble girl that had come to Vesperiya to watch the wrestling competition, just happen to bump into Callista and ask her for directions to a place that was on the way to the Ballista family home. We had thought about having Emris talk to her in a cocktail party as someone interested in the Ballista family's oldest daughter or following her when she’d inevitably go to the wrestling arena, but in the end, Vito remarked that if we wanted to trick her, our best chance was to appeal to anything but her status. So, we agreed on the “innocent noble girl who didn’t even know who Callista was” plan. If Emris managed to get Callista to show her the place she was trying to find, we would ambush her. If not, Emris would just try to shadow her and find out whatever she could. The plan had some holes, like the fact that Callista was a very cold and busy individual unlikely to help a lost girl in need, but it was the best we had.
But for now, it was still the 14th, and Vito was getting incredibly bored. Emris had intended to keep him out of trouble, but the events of the 13th had shaken her, and she went to see her brother. Vito was free to roam. He spent most of the day in his workshop, but come evening, he was more restless than ever. After all those years, Callista was here, and he was supposed to wait? He failed a Will save to resist his restlessness. It was strange, the way his arm felt like it was melting, and the ringing in his ears that seemed to be urging him to do something about the situation.
He headed for the clocktower. It wasn’t difficult to get in: he had always been good at picking locks. The stairs were familiar, and he remembered all the times he had climbed them in his youth. Memories merged with his perception of reality. He thought he looked like he used to when he was still young and foolish, and he hallucinated a conversation with his memory of Callista. It ended with two shots fired into the clocktower wall and a very quick escape from the clocktower.
The morning of the 15th came, like all mornings eventually did. We ordered our ship to be ready to go if things got messy, and Emris headed to the University while the rest of us set up our ambush.
To our surprise, Callista did come to fix the clock. It didn’t take her long and when she was leaving, Emris approached her. Thanks to some very good rolls and Emris’s masterful skills in Deception and Diplomacy (and Emris’s ability to change her shape), Callista believed her and even agreed to show her to her destination. In fact, Emris’ act was good enough that Callista seemed almost amused. When Emris insisted to stray off their path to take a look at a little park, Callista followed. It was here, when she held a flower in her hand, that Vito shot her.
It wasn’t a killing blow, of course. She was always prepared, always too alert to be completely taken off-guard. Their eyes met, and the fight was on.
It was a tense fight. After the shot, Callista quickly closed the distance between them. “Hello, Vidas” was all that she said. “Did you miss me?” was Vito’s response. Vito changed his weapon’s form, trying to use the reach of his polearm to his advantage in melee combat. However, Callista’s sword extended into a sharp whipsword, matching Corruption's reach.
Some angry words were exchanged between strikes. Vito managed to land some heavy hits, but so did Callista. Phaedon had cast a spell on Vito to make him faster, and some of his other party members tried to aid him, too. However, when they got too close, Vito barked at them to stay away and Callista fired some well-aimed pistol shots at them.
One such shot was aimed at Vito’s heart, however. This shot was laced with terror and death, and so it landed true, stopping his heart. It should have killed a human instantly. Vito stood back up. He had pulled himself back from the brink of unconsciousness before, but this was different. This was death.
He had no time to think about the possible side effects of his accomplishment. When Callista saw him get back up, she simply said: “Good.”
It was at this point that Vito’s party members started to interrupt a bit more. Emris tried to get between them, and despite Vito’s (and Callista’s) orders to stay away, Bruno even grappled Callista at some point. She escaped, but slowly Vito’s hits were starting to wear her down, and when he saw her stumble, he knew she was barely holding on.
Phaedonel cast a curse of blood to improve Vito’s strikes. It was with this strength that Vito managed to impale Callista with Corruption. At this point, he had forgotten he had made the weapon nonlethal, and it could not kill her. It pierced her side, however, and when he held onto her shoulder to pull it back out, the hooked blade tore her flesh. Then she fell against his chest.
When he was trying to lay her down, he heard her voice in his head. She looked into his eyes. “Is this where it ends, Vidas?” As if sharing a strange, inhumane bond, their minds were linked to each other. Then she blinked slowly. When she opened her eyes, her scleras were black and her irises glistened an odd violet. The blood dripping from her mouth turned black. Two of a kind, he thought.
Some more charged words were exchanged: Vito called her Barros’s dog, which seemed to anger her quite a lot. Her radius and ulna morphed into jagged blades of bone, ugly and brutal, and she stabbed him. Vito wrapped his hands around her throat and started choking her.
The moment felt like forever, her tearing into his abdomen with inhuman strength and his equally monstrous grip tightening around her throat. It was simply a matter of who fell first.
It was Callista who lost. Before her consciousness left her, she could see Vito’s expression turn softer and almost frightened.
Vito proceeded to vomit black ichor onto Vesperiya’s fine cobblestone pavement. The party shoved their unconscious prisoner into a barrel and headed for their ship, but not before healing Vito. He spoke very little on the trip back.
Varis and Bruno decided to stay behind in Vesperiya. Varis had dealings with the corrupt police force, and Bruno wanted to participate in the wrestling championships. The rest of us, however, got on our ship and quickly left Vesperiya before anyone found out about the whole “the heir of the Ballista family was kidnapped” thing. This, however, put us into a curious position: for the time being, Callista was in our cell before Vito would kill her.
Alone, he waited for her to awaken. He had some questions to ask.
When Callista finally awoke, her answers did not please him. She was insistent that the fleshwarping had been a good thing, although she didn’t like that Vito was of a “previous strain.” She seemed very bitter of her status and responsibilities, and she insisted that she was working with Barros because she thought his plan was fair. However, she was surprisingly willing to share information with Vito (although he could never tell if she was lying or not). She said he wouldn’t have understood back then, and Vito barked back that she had never tried to explain.
Callista’s bitterness and twisted ideals surprised Vito. She was still herself, but there was something a bit off. He thought of a pack of cards that had been shuffled – he knew how it felt, and he realised that she had not been spared of the side effects either. However, what surprised him even more was the softness and familiarity that still lingered around her sometimes.
When he asked her why she had abandoned him, she could not find an answer. Vito had never seen her cry before.
He knew then that he could not kill her.
Now, Vito and Callista both had certain expectations of how things were going to go. Vito thought that killing Callista would solve most of his problems, including the fact that a part of him still, despite everything, loved her. Callista knew what had happened to Flátfucq, and was prepared to fight her old friend to death. But whatever it was that she was expecting to happen, it was not this.
Vito wasn’t any more prepared. If he couldn’t kill her, what was there left to do? He couldn’t just let her go, he didn’t want her to help Barros and he still didn’t trust her. But more importantly, what had all his anger been for and why was he still so angry? What was left of his purpose? What about all the problems that were left unsolved? Why did he want to hold her and never let go?
And so, the strangest of ceasefires began.
It was interrupted by Emris’s very sharp tongue and later, a strange conversation about herring sandwiches.