Act III: The Olden Days and the Next Generation
Scene iii: The Summer Cotillion
Present Party: Boris, Sylyeras, and Venus.
Setting: The Summer Palace, the Feywild (Summer Court)
The party continued their shenanigans at the Summer Cotillion - a ball held by the archfey known as The Summer Queen to celebrate the Summer Solstice. Boris was sticking close to Finn, to protect him from anything that might try to harm him from the dreams he'd been having.
As Boris and Finn went around the party, they crossed paths with a familiar face: Barnabus Shay - the grandmaster (essentially "executive leader") of the country of Medego. They'd met him about half a year ago. He'd signed their Concordia and agreed to add Medego's impressive magical forces to the fight against the cults. He is also an Archfey Warlock, of a being known as The Unicorn Princess.
Finn asked Shay, "Have you received any strange dreams lately?"
Shay thought for a moment, but then shook his head. "No... Have you?"
"Lately, yes."
"Are they..." Shay pointed to The Summer Queen, high up on her bed of flowers. "... from her? Have you asked?"
"I don't ask many questions of her these days. Not since a few decades ago. I'd had a... bit of a fiasco."
Shay nodded. "I understand. I can ask some of the other warlocks. I know you don't quite keep in touch with many of them, but I do. I know some are here."
"Would you? I'd appreciate it."
"Of course, of course."
They continued on their way.
~~~~~
Sylyeras and Venus were taking their time, exploring the party. After leaving Lady Sunshine, they made their way to the mermaid pool, where several mermaids were sitting and chatting with other fey and humanoid creatures. Along the way, they'd picked up Finn's daughter Aurinia, who wanted to tag along.
Sylyeras recognized a mermaid that he knew from his time at sea as a pirate captain - Sereia (preferably "Reia.") She offered to let him down into the party "under the sea" so to speak, but that required a kiss. Sylyeras and Venus politely declined, and Sereia offered to bring up her friends so that they could visit too. These friends were three other mermaids that the party had met previously: Meimadeline, Halia, and Cleodora (preferably "Maddie," "Hally," and "Cleo.")
An interesting conversation was pursued where the mermaids spoke about seas on the material plane that they don't visit. The Handia Sea was the only one that they never dared to go. Venus asked why.
Sylyeras, with his extensive background knowledge about pirates and Pirate Lords, informed her that a human-trafficking Pirate Lord they'd only heard about and peripherally angered - Daphici - sailed the Handia Sea. That was only one reason why the mermaids didn't go there.
"I passed by Daphici's ship once and her crew basically hunted me for sport..." Hally told them. "It was scary."
The mermaids also informed both of them of a large, very hungry, and rude kraken that lived in the sea.
Cleodora said, "I've met a couple krakens before in the Xanden and some of them are fairly relaxed as long as they're fed, but that one? He's always in a bad mood."
Maddie added, "He totally tried to eat us once."
After that, they met back up with Finn and Boris. Before they left for the night, Puck found them all again, and introduced them to his boss: the Summer Queen's consort, The Green Lord. He was an archfey standing 8 feet tall with green skin and dark green hair. He had a huge pair of fairy wings on his back, and wore only a long, white skirt around his waist.
Finn brought the party up to the Queen to meet and say goodnight to her, informing her that they would all be turning in for the night. She gave them permission to go, and thanked Finn for coming. Boris, Sylyeras, Finn, and Aurinia all retired to the rooms they were given to play some games and get some rest.
Venus, on the other hand, went to find Lady Sunshine again, hoping to see her happiness collection. She'd thought of a memory that she would be willing to part with. The archfey led Venus up to a tower, filled with little trinkets, toys, and whatever else - lost things, she called them.
"Sometimes people lose something they care about, one way or the other. I collect those things because of the joy attached to them."
Venus traded a memory from her youth - from before she'd been kidnapped - of her climbing a tree for the first time. That memory faded from her mind. She spent considerable time in that room, touching various objects and experiencing second-hand joy. For her, it meant a lot, coming from 20 years in a gladiator ring in the Underdark.
Venus returned to her friends. Aurinia's dryad mother came to pick her up, and the group turned in for the night. They insisted on taking up defensive positions around Finn's room, just in case. Sylyeras decided to sleep on the couch outside. Boris slept by Finn's door. Venus insisted on staying awake in Finn's room.
~~~~~
That night, Venus felt her eyes get a little heavier on one particular blink. But they shot open when she heard a noise, and she jumped in that general direction, attempting to tackle whatever the noise had been. She screamed for Boris. Boris kicked the door down and Syl came running in behind him.
Venus succeeded her tackle. It was Finn, getting out of bed.
Syl and Venus argued for a moment about her overzealousness in tackling Finn, and as they did, Boris noticed Finn reach over and grab something shiny. Then, he stood up again. The party performed Insight checks to determine whether or not this was Finn. As far as they could tell, he appeared to be the real deal. They noticed that he wasn't using their names, and couldn't tell them about any of their personal information.
Boris restrained him, tying him up with rope. Venus ran for the door and finding that it was jammed, Sylyeras Eldritch Blasted the door open. Boris threw Finn over his shoulder, and they ran out into the palace.
The further they moved in, the more they realized that the palace was under attack by several winter eladrin, displacer beasts, and massive blue ogres. The forces of the Summer Court were fighting back with all they had.
~~~~~
Venus sent out her swarm of spider familiars to get a better view of the action. She noticed a young changeling man with purple marks around his eyes appearing suddenly, as though he was invisible before, and running as fast as he could away from the fighting. She turned invisible and pursued him.
She saw that he was running towards two winter eladrin. He had a pouch on his hip. She activated her mage hand to open it, and saw a large diamond inside. She snuck up behind the changeling to attack. He looked at where he presumed that she was, and mumbled "Sorry..." before encasing himself in ice.
Two huge beasts - Yeth hounds - leapt from one of the side halls and were able to sense Venus with their keen ability to smell. The eladrin started hacking away at the ice around the changeling. She left one of her daggers (which are able to teleport to each other) and ran back to get reinforcements. The hounds were distracted easily by the other members of the Summer Court.
She saw Barnabus Shay, and called to him, telling him that she needed help. He started running up after her.
~~~~~
Sylyeras ran back towards the ballroom, concerned for Finn's daughter Aurinia, especially after he'd found Prince Snow's body in Midtia during an assassination attempt on the royal family. Boris stayed and interrogated "Finn." With a successful Intimidation check, the creature revealed their true face: one that looked vaguely half-elven, save for the pitch black eyes and sharp teeth.
From this creature, before he killed it, Boris asked why they wanted Finn and where they were taking him. Turns out, they were taking him to the Winter Court because "she wanted a new pet."
Afterwards, Boris went after Sylyeras, and found him in the ballroom. They helped out there for a while before heading back to find Venus. They saw Shay upstairs who waved them in the right direction.
Venus attempted to fight the eladrin. She also managed to steal the diamond in the pouch, which had a very tiny Finn trapped inside. With their winter spells, they knocked Venus out quickly after, and freed the changeling boy.
Boris and Shay arrived on the scene first. Shay healed Venus while Boris went after the changeling and eladrin. The changeling grabbed the diamond again and allegedly passed it off to one of the eladrin, who teleported away and started to run. Boris and a newly-healed Venus pursued.
Sylyeras arrived last, and attempted to slice up the changeling and remaining eladrin with Cloud of Daggers. Just after that, the changeling said another "Sorry!" and disappeared with the other eladrin.
Boris and Venus caught up to the last one and dispatched him. However, when they searched his body, they found no trace of the diamond and realized that they'd been tricked. The changeling probably never let go of the diamond to begin with.
Boris declared, "I'm going to the Winter Court, and I'm going now."
Venus interjected, "You? Oh no, we're all going."
"Then let me help you," Shay said. "I know someone who can get you there fast, who knows how to travel through these parts."
"That's perfect." Venus looked at herself, with only 8 hit points left. "Do you uh... have any clerics?"
"No," said Shay. "But we have Lady Sunshine. C'mon. Then, we'll see about getting you over to Winter."
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