Session 4 The College of Lore Theatre

General Summary

Day 7

• Dew stopped a techie to ask where Adara Brightriver was. She rolled her eyes and said "of course you guys are here to see Adara." She led the party into the main auditorium room and Adara was watching everyone else set up the stage.
• Selakiir approached Adara first, and they immediately assumed the party was a group of fans. Adara seemed super interested in Wok. My Stage Name Is Dreamcatcher showed Adara the playbooks and the group asked if they remember who the playbooks belonged to, Adara said they sign a lot of playbooks. Dew asked if they remember someone named Moritz, and Adara said that they didn't. Wok noticed that Adara was getting taller, and that they were now standing eye level with him.
• Dew and Wok both asked about it and Adara revealed that they're a changeling, and copied Wok's image. Adara brought back the conversation to autographs, and kept deflecting the party's questions. Selakiir said that something terrible had happened to Moritz and that they were trying to help him. Dew said they want to make sure he was okay. Adara asked what happened and My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher said that the party would tell them what they all know if Adara would tell the party what they knew.
• This was enough to convince Adara that they had good intentions, Adara double checked that no one wanted to hurt Moritz, and then took the party backstage to the costume closet, where Moritz had been staying. Selakiir asked if Adara and Moritz were friends. Adara said they were friends, and also mentioned that other people had been looking for Moritz for the past week too.
• Selakiir asked why Adara told the party where Moritz was and they said it was because the party seemed like they genuinely wanted to help, and that they would cast dissonant whispers on them all if they hurt Moritz. Dew asked if they noticed anything weird about the people that had been asking about Moritz, and Adara said that they seemed sleep deprived. My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher asked if any of them had snake jewelry and Adara said that one of them had a snake necklace.
• The party walked into the supply closet, and met Moritz. He asked if the group was part of the cult, and when the party was confused, he clarified that the cult that he'd been involved in was called The Dying Star Society. Dew asked why Moritz was hiding, and Moritz said that the cult was going to kill him for trying to leave. He said that a bunch of guys from the cult tracked him from Arbordale and are in Veil looking for him.
• Moritz left Arbordale before Trevor Cravence tried to sacrifice Usha, Marta and Ilyanna, which is why the cultists were referring to him as an "oathbreaker". He also was trying to break a pact with a demon, which the cult didn't like.
• My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher asked Moritz to explain from the beginning. Moritz said that his parents made him go to school to be a wizard, he wanted to be a bard. He got a scholarship but had no interest in his classes and ended up falling behind, so he made a pact with a demon to get more magic.
• My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher revealed that he's a bard, and that he thought the rest of the party was also bards. Dew revealed that she thought everyone was a druid this whole time. Selakiir said that having a full balanced party makes the most sense for what they were trying to do. My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher asked Wok if he was a bard, and Wok asked if he looked like a bard. My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher then turned the conversation back to Moritz.
• Moritz's demon connected him to Trevor Cravence through the two's dreams. Dew told Moritz that Trevor was dead, and Moritz seemed relieved, he was pretty sure Trevor sent the cultists after him. Moritz mentioned that he had been asked to get some books for the cult, and Selakiir pulled out the list the party had found, and Moritz realized they had been in his house, Selakiir told him that it had already been broken into.
• Moritz said that he chickened out of getting the books on the list, and that he never showed up to Shadowfen. Wok asked if Moritz was still with the cult, and he said that he's not but he still has the pact with the demon. Dew asked if the pact was with the same demon as Trevor, and Moritz said that Orphidan is Trevor's demon, and that his pact was with Raphet, who offered him forbidden knowledge, and gave him the books on how to play the lute along with extra powers.
• Wok asked if the cultists could do that, and Moritz told him that most warlocks can do it. Dew asked what Moritz had to do in return, and Moritz had to follow orders from Trevor, who wanted books really bad. Moritz was supposed to meet a smuggler from the Underdark who goes by the initials T.S. in Shadowfen to pick up some necromancy books. As far as Moritz knew, Trevor was passing the books on to someone higher up in the cult's ranks.
• Moritz asked why the party was involved in everything. Dew said that they killed Orphidan and Trevor. Dew and Wok explained what had happened in Arbordale. Selakiir watched Moritz's reactions and was able to tell that Moritz knew about what was going on in Arbordale already but was trying to play it off.
• My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher got serious with Moritz, and asked what he knows that he hasn't told them. Moritz said that he lost his scholarship, he can't get rid of the demon, he and Trevor were connected on the Astral plane during their nightmares, which he thinks Trevor enjoyed. From there he joined the cult and was asked to meet Trevor in Arbordale three weeks earlier to deliver the Astrology textbook. Him and Trevor are both part of The Dying Star Society. There's an ancient myth about a constellation that has turned out to be true because it's constantly night. The Dying Star Society wants to give The Serpent orders, but as far as he knew since it's been night time they haven't done so yet. The myth states that the last orders the serpent got before it was killed were to eat the sun.
• My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher asked Moritz to clarify a few things. Moritz said that the demons give people nightmares, that dreaming can connect people to the astral plane, and that most of the warlocks that he knows of are getting their orders this way.
• There used to be a constellation called The Serpent, and in the myth about the constellation, a group of heroes killed The Serpent and locked its body in the stars because the people that made The Serpent ordered it to eat the sun. My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher asked if all the information had anything to do with the rings he'd picked up from the Arbordale Cultists and Moritz tried to run.
• Wok grabbed Moritz, and he started crying. Dew tried to calm him down, Wok said that he killed Trevor and Moritz used his warlock pact to check that they were telling the truth. Adara came to check in on everything just as Moritz relaxed. Wok said that he's just hugging Moritz and Dew said that they were having an emotional moment because Moritz was sad about his house. Adara accepted it and left again.
• Dew asked what the rings were for and Moritz said that the cultists like snake jewelry because they associate it with The Serpent, and they treat it as an indicator of their affiliation with The Dying Star Society. Selakiir asked if Moritz knew the people who created The Serpent, or the heroes that killed it. Moritz seemed really unsure, but thought that the legendary Cleric, Marillon was one of them.
• Wok asked how all of this could be stopped or reversed, Moritz said that The Serpent would have to be killed and locked back up. Moritz didn't know that much about the cult because Trevor didn't trust him. Selakiir asked how long Moritz had been in hiding, and Moritz said he'd been there for just under three weeks. He had tried to leave the cult after Trevor made plans to kidnap and sacrifice three women in Arbordale, and had been hiding ever since. Selakiir asked where Mortiz's family is, and he said that his parents live in Aramería.
• Selakiir asked if he would be safe in Aramería, and Moritz said no, Selakiir asked if he feels safe in the theatre dressing room, and he said that he felt safe with Adara. Selakiir said that Adara is only a college student, and Dew pointed out that Adara let the party know where he was. Moritz tried to argue that he was safer staying in the College of Lore Theatre, and that Adara had already told the cultists to leave before.
• Selakiir asked Moritz to translate the note My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher found, and Moritz said he was supposed to meet T.S. in Shadowfen at a table in a tea shop with a stain shaped like a boat, to get the books on the list. Dew asked if T.S. was still expecting Moritz, he didn't know.
• The party tried to leave and Moritz was disappointed that they seemed like they were going to leave town, he said that he thought the cultists were hiding in the faire grounds at Poet's Plaza. After they said goodbye and tried to leave, Adara followed the party and tried to pay them to help Moritz.
• The party huddled together and Adara tried to eavesdrop on their conversation. Adara and Moritz left with the party to go fight the cultists. Wok showed Moritz how to sheath a longsword on the way there. The faire grounds were dark, but Wok was able to spot the light of a campfire at the back of the faire grounds. Adara shapeshifted into a Goliath to look over the fence, Adara saw a fire, and a light on in the building behind it.
• Selakiir tried to open the gate, but it was locked, Moritz pulled out a key. The party was instantly suspicious. Selakiir grabbed him by the shirt and accused him of setting the party up, Moritz handed him the key. The key had "Moritz Tilvur Lifetime Pass Holder" inscribed on it. The party unlocked the door and decided to sneak alongside the faire ground buildings to get to the fire. Adara disguised Moritz.
• While they were trying to sneak, someone opened a window, and cast a light on the spot where Selakiir was standing, but he jumped out of the way quickly, and helped the rest of the party get around the light, he also noticed someone in the window of the building by the fire. Everyone started watching the building, they could see people moving around inside. As they got closer, someone came out of the building and looked at the place where the light showed up. Moritz confirmed that it was one of the cultists. My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher's coin purse fell on the ground, and the cultist tried to look past the fire, but had trouble seeing because he was a Dragonborn.
• Selakiir shot the Dragonborn, and the other two cultists ran out of the building, everyone else joined in combat. Moritz lost his disguise, and the cultists focused their attention on him. Selakiir put himself between one of the cultists and Moritz. Moritz summoned his demon and used its power to heal himself. One of the cultists ran off and hid in the building. The party killed the first two cultists. Wok looked into the building and saw that the other had used two healing potions. Wok handed Dew one of his health potions.
• My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher had a bad feeling about leaving the cultists behind, so he talked to Raphet and suggested that she can leave since the cultists were dead. Raphet said that she was going to collect the cultists as slaves. My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher used Suggestion to persuade her to leave and let the party take care of it.
• Selakiir doused the bodies in oil, and they lit the bodies on fire. My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher kept an eye on the bodies to make sure they didn't get up, everyone else waited for the cultist to leave the room. When he tried to leave, everyone attacked at once, and killed him.
• Selakiir yelled at Moritz for being reckless, and he whined at the party.  Wok checked the cultist's body and found a pill capsule, a list of names and two silvered longswords decorated with intricate snake metalwork. Wok took the list and the longswords. The list of names was: Moritz Tilvur (circled), Alfie Ventamigla (crossed out), Declan Nousanbam, Germana Hilton, and, Nitton Kumar. Wok gave Dew the pill capsule, and she identified it as a capsule of poison. Selakiir poured more oil on the bodies, Adara seemed traumatized.
•  As they were leaving the faire grounds, they were stopped by the city guards, who thought they were college students being mischievous. My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher seduced the officer and convinced him to leave without investigating further.
• The party went back and Selakiir had the idea to have Adara cast invisibility on the fire so that they could leave the bodies burning. Dew put the fire out and took the assassin's swords and snake necklace, and a snake bracelet. Adara cast invisibility on the new fire as a ritual, and the party headed to Dionysos for coffee and food.
• Wok asked Moritz about the list that he found. Moritz was able to tell him that Alfie is dead because he was a warlock and that Germana lives in the city of Judron, and he thinks that she makes potions. Moritz said that Trevor had a nightmare about Alfie drowning, he's pretty sure that's how Alfie died, and that he's pretty sure that the list of names is people who tried to leave the cult.
• Dew comforted Adara. Selakiir suggested Moritz find a church to help break his pact. Moritz said that he could go to the temple of Lathander in Solaris, and Selakiir said that it was a long walk, Moritz mentioned that the druid students sold horses that would make that walk shorter. Adara decided to channel their issues with the events into their art.
• The party went back to My Stage Name is Dreamcatcher's family villa to take a rest. Moritz and Adara returned to the college campus.

Report Date

09 Jun 2022

Primary Location

Veil