Session 59: Riding the Seaward

General Summary

With the summon circles destroyed and Malthus fallen down the chasm, the party is able to dispatch the last couple slaad. As the final enemies fall, the party sees several cranium rats scattering and hiding.
  With the battle over, Rieta explains that after she found herself with the hags, she went back to Eastbridge where she, Kaal, and Not-Levi were sent to deliver a message. Kaal traveled on from Caer Cenwyn and when Rieta returned to Eastbridge, it was Malthus who helped her out and ultimately convinced her to assist with his plan. Malthus wanted the concepts that the gods hold to be freed to the people and Rieta thought that it was not a bad idea and agreed to help him.   When Rieta had mentioned the Metatext to Malthus, he knew immediately what the final book he needed was. Rieta did not want the party to die, so Malthus sent someone to fetch them. Several Drow expeditions had come down to The Arcane Lock, but they were dispatched and replaced with Red Slaad. This is where the guise of Elkantar came from and he was sent to bring the party to the lock. Ideally, they would talk and agree to assist, but a battle ensued instead.   Rieta agrees to lead the party to the drow of House Teken’duis, but then takes her leave, stating that one of the things that Malthus had done was give her information about her birth parents and she takes leave of the party.   Nhylcyria of House Teken’Duis meets with the party, stating to Bolvaic that the number of his clan’s trespassing onto their lands has surprisingly risen. Bolvaic tells Nhylcyria about the red slaad posing as members of the drow expedition forces. He excuses himself to check on the situation and returns later, thanking Bolvaic for the information. He then offers hospitality in the form of dinner and a place to rest and he also offers a reward to the party. He offers them gold, a control wand which can cast dominate monster three times a day, but only on drider and spiders, a Greater Pifwafwi cloak, and five spider grenades–glass spheres that when broken, a swarm of spiders appear.   Finally, he offered each of the party an Insignia of House Teken’Duis, marking them as an ally, but also carrying magic within them. The insignias could only be attuned with the help of an elder member of House Teken’Duis, and attempting without such aid would fail and cause harm. Each of the insignias were crafted with a specific spell placed inside of them, chosen by the recipient. Having the insignias attuned, however, means that the elders of House Teken’Duis will know where they are at any given time.   The party then returned to the League Hall with help from Tertius’ portal. Once there, they found that Obedieh and Jorrunde had begun recruiting people to help with their plans. Levi witnessed the Fox trying to charm a vixen, stating that Tertius was his familiar and he could get him to perform magic for him, but the vixen ran. The fox then lamented that intelligence is a curse. However, he is happy to have the big bed all to himself and the chicken bell once again.   Jorrunde met with the group heading to try to free the Leviathan and introduced the party to Zadock and Millie, both of whom she recruited to travel with them. Arelmeni is also present, stating that she has taken time from being Lady McGowan’s lady maid and wishes to travel with Bolvaic. Donk and Snirk agree to break up, and Donk joins the party with Jorrunde.   Jorrunde goes over the information that she has:  

• At the edge of the bay outside of Paraetonium, huge maelstroms sometimes appear, but it does not attract negative attention to the ships whose native port is in Ilfor.
• The Oleander navies are bringing bigger and bigger ships, including warships to Ilfor as most of the High Queen’s navies have been dealing with the exposed Northlander raiders since the fogs of Niflheim have gone.
• The Oleander navies have started to police the waters outside of Paraetonium, turning away outside ships that try to dock at port.
• It appears as if there are great fires outside of Paraetonium as thick smoke rises from along the inland edge of the city.

  Before heading out, Bolvaic and Millie decide to test their prowess against one another in a wrestling bout and find that they are both fairly evenly matched with one another. After that display, Jorrunde asked Zadock if he wanted to wrestle, then invited him up to her room to do so in private.   An hour later, the party set out. Jorrunde took the party to her longship named the Seaward where the party and her crew began their travels. Along the way, the group got to know one another a bit more, and Donk realized that Zadock was also a paladin of the same order as him, but was surprised to find that Zadock’s mentor did not get lost in the Feywild and that he is not on a quest to retrieve him.   As the Seaward neared Paraetonium, they were approached by a large Oleander warship. Jorrunde laid out options, including fleeing and trying to take over their ship, to which the party agreed, despite there likely being a crew of at least fifty. The Seaward approached the Oleander warship and Zadock lept overboard and swam to the other side of the Oleander ship. And when the Seaward was turned away, Millie made a convincing plea that her aunt was in Paraeontium and she needed to get to her because of the fires. Moved, the captain allowed Millie onto his ship to try to get more information about her aunt, but when the others started to climb on board, a battle broke out.   Zadock burst up on the opposite side of the ship with his grappling gun and others scrambled onto the decks. Once there, the party saw that beyond just sailors, there were beings that looked to be made of lightning and Ilbryen recognized them as living spells–spells which have been given a rudimentary intelligence, though these are more advanced than any that they have heard of before. One of the living lightning bolts fired a bolt through the party, but before it could take effect, Millie absorbed it, ending up crackling with stored energy.