The Autumn Harvest Festival, Chapter 3

General Summary

party goes down under floorboards to follow lady in purple. They are met with darkness, winding tunnels lined with treasures and loot and weapons, and an entourage of guards, kobolds and innocents tied and imprisoned by them. Lady in purple is flanked now by bodyguards and joined by a large hulking half-dragon.
"this has been a successful night so far..." blue guy "well... shit." Jamna
Kitrick and others try and figure out what blue guy is and come up with some sort of dragon mix breed, vaguely humanoid but not dragonborn. Too large, hunched and feral, giant tail, big spines but no wings. Looks like he could easily get on all fours and run.
blue guy jerks his head and demands that the group comes with them. Jasttor's gaze is fixed on the woman the blue dragon man is stepping on, seeming conflicted. The party is alert and ready to draw weapons as they follow. Relentless reads his surface thoughts, gathering that he's been ordered to get the party to a safe room for questioning. Kitrick finds it hard to read the blue dragon's face, used to his dragonborn friends, but knows that if they make a wrong move, one of the prisoners might get hurt. Kitrick notices that the dwarven woman is one of the prisoners, glaring angrily at her captors with a cut across her face. People with masks and several kobolds get behind the group, one kobold poking Medericus with its crossbow and making him move forward.
"stop it. stop it." "make me." *pokes harder*
Relentless tries to gather the surface thoughts of the woman in purple, finding that she's the one who seems to have given the orders. Crawler moves towards blue guy first, leading the party as they are taken down into the underground network of tunnels. Medericus murmurs everything to Heshan through the Stone of Far Speech and leaves it tapped on.
The woman in purple attempts to use magic to get the group lost in the tunnels, but a few members keep their bearings so the party refrains from getting lost as a unit, keeping track of where they are in the tunnels. Some of the party does become disoriented, however. More guards bring two bound prisoners in from the opposite side. Tally notices the mysterious woman from before, recognizing her clothing--but her claws are visible and her face is elongated, shaded by darkness and the hood pulled low to hide her features. She also sees a half-elf (the same who was with Medericus, before).
The party discerns that the woman in purple is one of the Wearers of Purple, a leader high in the ranks of the Cult of the Dragon. The cult is organized in cells, and trying to try and bring Tiamat back from the Nine Hells, slowly infiltrating the governments of large cities in the world. Relentless relays this into his Stone of Far Speech, to which Heshan replies an affirmative after Relentless says where they came into the tunnel's entrance.
The guards begin separating the party out of touch with one another in single file, taking their treasures, patting down for weapons and binding their hands in front of them. Medericus loses his dagger, which Kitrick takes from the kobold who takes it away. Relentless's rod gets taken by a human guard. Some party members try to keep their hands apart enough for easier escape later. Little stays quiet against Crawler like a scarf, quietly waiting for her companion's signal. The half-elf gives Medericus a Look to make sure he doesn't say anything to give them away.
Jasttor takes the lead at the front of the line of prisoners in the party, Crawler taking the back with Medericus in the middle Tally sticks to Jasttor and Kitrick stays behind Medericus. They're taken to a room where the non-adventuring prisoners are put on the opposite side of the room, lined up with guards at each person with weapons at the ready. The party are led in and forced to kneel on the opposite side with guards as well, everyone kept separate from one another. Medericus notices a Harpers symbol on the mysterious woman as a pin on her cloak.
The Wearer of Purple says "Cyanwrath, bring each of them to me. I want to talk to them."
Cyanwrath "Who wants to volunteer?"
Medericus "Dibs."
Cyanwrath manhandles Medericus and shoves him out of the door where the woman in purple waits, flanked by her guards. "Who are you?"
Medericus "Who are YOU?"
A guard tries to jab Medericus but he moves. The woman glares and asks again, and Medericus mocks her. She nods to Cyanwrath who punches him hard in the face.
"Who. Are. You."
"Wanna find out why they call me the Silver Tongue?"
WHAM. Another punch from blue guy.
"Who are you."
"I'm the guy who's gonna break out of this shit!" Medericus struggles against the rope and fails to break out of it. "Medericus. I'm Medericus."
"Good. Now. Where did you come from?"
"Well, we were upstairs... first we walked down this tunnel, but I'm not really sure where, it got a li'l foggy and--"
WHAM. Cyanwrath punches Medericus really hard, and Medericus tastes blood in his mouth at this point. He spits out blood. "Well we were in the servants' quarters, and then I came down here..."
"Perhaps we should try a different tactic." The woman nods to a guard who cuts the keytar off of Medericus. "This looks valuable. I wonder if you're attached to it."
"Well, I was, and then one of your guards cut off the strap so now it's not--"
She raises it above her head as if about to destroy it. "I suppose you don't care about it then."
"That's actually *completely* incorrect." He interrupts her before she causes harm to the instrument.
"Then tell me where you came from."
"I, the person, came from Oceanfaire. I, the person with friends came from Zhayeria."
She puts the keytar down, leaning it against the wall. "Oceanfaire? That sound familiar..." She looks behind her at one of the prisoners who are being led into the room, one of which gives Medericus a wide-eyed look of recognition. A man named David that Medericus knows from the orphanage in Oceanfaire, wearing symbols of the Foxbards as if he's a servant.
"We have more than one from Oceanfaire. He didn't talk about you much."
"I'm easily forgettable."
"I find that hard to believe. Now. What are you doing poking about our business?"
"I'm gonna be real. I do a lot of drugs and don't remember. I think we signed something?"
The woman looks exasperated and has Medericus taken away. Cyanwrath throws Medericus back into the room, looking roughed up and missing his instrument.
"You need to use more aftercare after BDSM," he mutters, and Cyanwrath steps on his face to push him down to the ground when Medericus comments on Cyanwrath's tail lashing back and forth with eagerness like a dog.
"Shut up."
Relentless tries to volunteer going next in questioning, with Jasttor and the mysterious woman also vying for attention to do so. The mystery dragonborn wins out and is taken out for questioning. Relentless hears that she gives a name--Vafenire. She also says that she is working for the Harpers. She's tossed back into the room.
A loud boom is heard

Report Date

27 Feb 2018