Session 13 - "Family Dinner" Report
General Summary
Kona 32, 1246
Picking up where we left off, the kitchen group of Olena, Jacob Sterling, and Foenix Stolnent are cornered by the Brillante guards. Jacob is currently shackled, but he still tries to talk down the guards, explaining that they were invited to the estate.
Most of the guards are not really willing to listen, having already been told by the de’Louvres that the party was not invited. Two, however, quite badly beaten up by Jacob's magical outburst, decide that enough is enough and choose to abandon their posts. Jacob uses the opportunity of the guard he is interfacing with becoming frustrated with the deserters to plead for a chance to talk to the de'Louvre, which the guard begrudgingly agrees to.
Meanwhile, Foenix has been using the opportunity to create a lethal trap in the laundry room where he has been kept, ready to spring on the first person that opens the door. But upon hearing Jacob's negotiations, he quickly dismantles the trap before the door is opened. He exits the laundry room, the picture of a meek, flinching and scared peasant.
The three "servants" are lead into the dining room, and sat down with the rest of the party, the de'Louvres, Babette Louvre, and Beauson de'Bete. Aglaia takes the opposite head of the table to Pierre de'Louvre, who begins to speak to the party, but is cut off by de'Bete. He turns to Micaiah Louvre, sitting next to him, and begins to speak.
He offers three solutions to the current circumstance. The party could fight their way out of here - and they probably could, but not without losing one (or more) of their number. They could leave in peace, or they can stay and take part in the ceremony that is about to begin. He says that there is now no sacrifice, but the de'Louvres will make do.
Again, Pierre tries to speak up, but de'Bete says with authority that they will not force Micaiah to choose from his own number someone to be sacrificed, which shuts up Pierre.
Micaiah asks in confusion why they would just let them go without complaint, and de'Bete states simply that he wants Micaiah out there in the world. Why else would he have given him the gifts that he had?
Eventually, the decision is made by the party to leave. As they are escorted out, the doors to the ball room are open just enough to see the circle drawn on the floor in chalk, but not to get any more details on it (save for one party member).
As they are heading towards their wagon to leave Brillante, Thais mentioned that her divine senses picked up a decidedly fiendish aura from de'Bete, and she confronts Micaiah on taking deals from an unknown entity. He doesn't have much of a defense except to say that de'Bete offered him an escape route out of that house.
The party gets to the wagon, guarded by the Glowbug at Jacob's request, and begin to head out of town. As they do, they interrogate Jacob - specifically on whether or not he has a will, and when he says that he doesn't, Foenix makes it clear that the party needs one so they know what to do with his body and possessions, should he die.
They make it about an hour outside the city, into the fresh shorn fields, and make an encampment a bit off the road. It's pretty late in the evening, so there are only two watches: Aglaia and Olena, and Micaiah and Foenix.
Aglaia and Olena's watch is fairly uneventful - except when Aglaia notices a white (almost luminescently so) horse in the distance. She almost immediately recognizes that it has a horn, and is so excited that she and Olena run over to the last place they saw the unicorn before it vanished, leaving the campsite unguarded.
There is no unicorn, but they do find a patch of beautiful flowers growing completely out of season that Aglaia collects and distributes to the party upon dawn coming.
Micaiah goes to wake Foenix, disturbing the fox kit that had been curled up next to him for warmth and it goes streaking into the dark.
The two sit and watch the sun rise, and Foenix confronts Micaiah on lying about being a bard.
Micaiah admits that he lied about that, and then asks if Foenix would do for her what the party is doing for Ali. Without hesitation, Foenix says yes - Micaiah is one of his people, and he wouldn't abandon her like that.
Kona 33, 1246
The party gets up and gathers themselves, heading down the road again. They follow the path through farmer's fields, brown and dead, until they reach a standing rock that is absolutely crawling with insects like a black cloud.
Micaiah lobs a fireball at the insect swarm, with Aglaia picking off the remainders using her sacred flame.
As they get closer to the rock, Thais reaches out with her divine sense and gets a brief ping of some desecration to this spot. As they get closer, the party can see a hole in the rock, and within a coffin.
The bugs have already eaten through the lid, and within is not a body but a handkerchief covering a variety of smaller items.
Foenix uses his mage hand to remove the handkerchief, revealing ninety silver coins arranged to form a crude triangle. Inside the triangle of coins, there is a lockpick made of silver, a small golden padlock that looks as if it were meant to be worn hanging from a necklace, and a carved brown crystal feather.
The debate as to which god or goddess this could be a shrine to is discussed at length, with everyone from Engenii to Venebri to Politia being thrown about, but none of the iconography or method of worship lines up exactly. In the end, the party takes the objects (including the feather, which Foenix is able to determine is non-magical - as is everything else in the cairn - but it is flawless, showing no sign of damage or wear and made of smoky quartz, meaning that the color fades to clear if exposed to the sun for an extended time).
The day closes out with the group finding refuge under a large tree that has dropped all its leaves.
Aglaia forms Leomund's tiny hut around the party, and they settle in for an evening's rest.
Micaiah and Thais take the first watch, with Thais helping to stretch out Micaiah's sore muscles after a long day's ride (she's had much practice herself, and is sympathetic to the spoiled pet). After some time, the smell of cooking meat and smoke from a nearby campfire catches their attention - about half a mile away and shrouded from sight by the gently rolling hills. The two remain vigilant, but decide not to investigate further.
Foenix and Aglaia are next, with a rat scavenging for food spooking and nauseating the cleric before they fully settle down.
They discuss Micaiah's secret, but Aglaia refutes that it was ever a secret, as she knew all along that bards could not do what Micaiah does. Foenix acquiesces the point.
Unlike the first watch, Foenix becomes too anxious with not knowing who their camping compatriots are, and sets out to investigate the campfire in the distance, leaving Aglaia to guard their own encampment...
Rewards Granted
- six biset blossoms
- a lockpick made of silver (4 gp)
- a small golden padlock (31 gp)
- crystal feather (51 gp)
Character(s) interacted with
- Beauson de’Bete
- Pierre de’Louvre
Notes
Quotes of the Session
Dawnie: "I don't know how I feel about being used as a biological weapon."
Rachel: "It's fine, we're calling my daddy and we're starting a war."
Micaiah (to Foenix): "I don't think I'm going to poison you anymore."
Biset
Trade Good
Uncommon
The infusions of this pretty plant with bright blue flowers and thin purple stems enhance a creature's natural dexterity. For the minute following its absorption, the biset infusion gives a +1 bonus to hit and to Dexterity checks. Be careful however, the absorption of more than one biset herbal tea between two short rests causes vision problems and can even make you temporarily blind in case of excess.
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