Session 39: The Day of Great Rejoicing
General Summary
The Vandals of Fate find themselves being delivered to the palace in a carriage being pulled by four trolls. The carriage itself is well put together and is made of expensive materials. Inside are upholstered seats and decanters of wine for our Ratcatchers to enjoy as they travel. As midday passes the Vandals arrive at Prince Zeech's palace. Inside they find a decent size group of nobles and others of high class. After 20 minutes of waiting Prince Zeech himself along with his fool, and a small army of deformed servants greet the guests. At this point the gifts meant for Prince Zeech are presented. Afterwards multiple padded seats are brought out for the guests and The Fool gives a play using his wand of animated dead to animate skeletons. The play is light hearted at first but it quickly becomes apparent each skeleton is acting out their own death. Most of these deaths are accidentals that don't appear to be that accidental. After an hour of the play the Fool wraps it up and then leads our party goers to the next event. This event is located on a balcony overlooking Lake Redhand. The event is simple those who can outshoot Prince Zeech will get a thousand gold. Eliana attempts this challenge and she is even successful. In doing so they manage to kill multiple Corollaxes. The next event the Fool leads the party goers into the palace and down into the basement, where Prince Zeech has a mini arena located. Here the Fool offers a challenge those who can defeat Prince Zeech's champion will win a prize. This battle is different however each contestant is given a silver ring in which they use to control a cockatrice. Using this monstrosity they are to petrify a dozen feral cats. The winner is the one to make the most ornaments. However our ratcatchers are not told of this part and Fedi is quick to learn of this as the battle begins. Despite her misgivings Fedi quickly wins the battle and vows one day to save all the feral cats. After the cockatrice fight the fool leads our party goers to the garden where they play one final game. Prince Zeech is to throw a skull and whomever gets closest to his skull is the winner. Masari is the winner on this event. With that the games are finished and the dinner bell is rung.
Our Ratcatchers and the rest of the party goers are led towards a dining hall where they are fed multiple courses of food. Here Lashonna arrives and takes her seat at the table. From this point our Vandals manage to scrape by their meals with the majority of them not having a clue on how fine dining works. Fedi who has had some training manages to lead our Ratcatchers into not embarrassing themselves to much. The first course is known as the Feast of Worms. Alhaster has a tradition that dates back to the very early founding of the city that a washed up sailor in need of food finds a large green worm. He believes that this worm is a gift from the gods and consumes it. This tradition is passed down that any feast is Alhaster is opened with the consumption of a large scrub grub. The colour quickly throws our Ratcatchers off given its green and have been dealing with Green Worms of Kyuss. However on closer inspection it is determined it is just an innocent worm. The Vandals eat it and surprisingly it tastes pretty good. The second course is a black bird pie with programmed illusions to send a dozen black birds flying about the dining hall. Prince Zeech instructs his Fool to play a song, after the course Prince Zeech offers the same to the group of diners. Masari manages to sing a small tune that out does the Fool and Prince Zeech awards Masari the winner. The next course to arrive is known as a Tojbasarrirge. A dish of Prince Zeech's own design. Tojbasarrirge is a curious dish involving an entire tojanida, stuffed with numerous gritty basilisk steaks, which are in turn stuffed with tangy arrowhawk breasts, which are finally in turn stuffed with an entire boned stirge with three olives impaled on its proboscis. The dish is actually quite fowl but luckily after Prince Zeech has a few bites he declares this course is over and sends the dish away. Next course that is brought out is Purple Worm Aspic. A dish if not prepared correctly can contain the poison of a purple worm! Thankfully our Vandals of fate are quite brave and take the first bite, finding the dish very safe to eat, and sweet in a good way. At this point some of the party goers begin to tell stories of great deeds they have done, Masari tells a great deed she accomplished and does so in such a way that Prince Zeech declares her the winner. Finally, as the last bowls of purple worm aspic are cleared, the smell of cloves, honey, and cinnamon wafts through as a single manticore enters with a nearly eight-foot-tall cake. The cake itself is shaped like a ziggurat but crowned with a marzipan figure of Zeech surrounded by light and with angel's wings. Unfortunately as the cake is placed upon the table it begins to fall apart, the marzipan of Prince Zeech's head falls off and lands in Masari's lap. However the Fool manages to tell a joke that lightens the mood. However the damage is done and Prince Zeech spends the remainder of the dinner and after dance in brooding silence. Eventually he excuses himself and returns to his quarters. As the dance is underway Xan manages to partner up with Lashonna. He tells her that they wish to speak to her about Balakarde. Lashonna informs Xan that this is not a good place to have this discussion and instead invites the group to her manor three days from now at midnight. As the dance wraps up the party goers all leave and return to their own lodgings.
Three days later our Vandals of Fate are picked up by an expensive carriage. They are then brought to Mistwall Manor. Lashonna's personal estate. When asked what she knows about the Age of Worms and the wizard Balakarde (who went missing years ago in search of the secrets of Kyuss), she offers pages from Balakarde's journal and reveals that Kyuss' chief agent on the Material Plane is an undead Dragon named Dragotha. Destruction of this dracolich may be the only way to prevent the Age of Worms, since without his general, Kyuss' armies and cults would quickly disband. In order to destroy Dragotha, Lashonna explains, the Vandals must first recover his phylactery, and to do that, they'll need to find out where it has been hidden, since it was stolen away from the dracolich hundreds of years ago. Although the last of the ancient druids responsible for this feat have long since died off, legend holds that they hid their knowledge in the Library of Last Resort.
Lashonna reveals that this repository of knowledge is hidden somewhere on Tilagos Island, the final redoubt of these druids. Lashonna also informs our Vandals that they have competition from one of her ex-retainers. Lashonna offers to cast scrying magic that allows our Vandals to see who he has partnered up with. The Vandals discover that the retainer has partnered with none other than Darl Quethos, the current wielder of the Hand of Vecna. Darl notices the scrying magic and kills Heskin in cold blood. With this the Vandals travel to this mysterious island, where they discover a strange ruin. However as they reach the beach the Vandals are attacked by a group of Orc pirates. Our Ratcatchers quickly overwhelm them and make beach fall. Now they must explore the island, for somewhere within the answers they seek lie.
Report Date
21 Nov 2024
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