Act III: The Olden Days and the Next Generation
Scene iv: Golden Boy
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CW / TW: Brief mentions of Substance Abuse and Recovery from Addiction.
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Please note that these plot points were cleared (and actually suggested by) the player involved. This section was not done with the full party present, but rather as part of a mini-session for the player's satisfaction and the development of her character.
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Present Party: Athena, Boris, Sylyeras, Venus, and Yera.
Setting: Aldea, mostly the cities of Veerport and Rugathore, as well as the Erog Sea.
After Romeo was born, Venus was sure to check in with Finn. She wished him goodnight, and asked him why he hadn't used Scarlett when they were in the Feywild. Scarlett was a fey foxling companion that Finn had always had; she was a gift from The Summer Queen, as part of his pact. She had the ability to teleport any number of people to any place that Finn had been to before.
Finn informed Venus, very sadly, that Scarlett had died. She had come with him to the Winter Court, and had been killed by the Lady of Darkness. Venus didn't push him, seeing that the conversation was difficult. She knew Finn had had Scarlett for decades. He assured her that he would he another, but... it wouldn't be her. So until then, they would have to travel the old-fashioned way.
In the morning, the party discussed their next move. Finn informed everyone that he had plans to go back north, to either Erdia or Saspar. He hadn't decided which yet. Either way, he was hoping to sail to the Erdian city of Audacity, and they would decide once they got there, since Audacity was so close to the Sasparian border anyway. Finn still wanted to go back to Rugathore quickly though, to visit his family and assure them that he was alright after his ordeals in the Feywild.
Syl informed Finn that he intended on staying at sea for a time, to help Ariel take care of Romeo, and to get his crew accustomed to their new home in the western Xanden Sea. However, since Audacity was on their way, he would be willing to sail the party to the port, at least. Venus also admitted that she wasn't ready to come back to the group full-time yet. She was still learning what it meant to be with her family, and wanted to stay with them. Finn assured her that she could at least come along with them over to Audacity. Vesnurk was the neighboring village, just over the border into Saspar. It would be an easy walk for her.
Venus, Finn, and Boris set out for Finn's home in Rugathore. They were also accompanied by Lars - the changeling warlock they'd rescued from the Feywild, who was now in service to one of Cthulhu's kin. He wasn't sure which one though. Sylyeras suggested that, for the time being, the party take him with them to Rugathore, where they might be able to find more information on his new patron. Sylyeras also sent Vishara - Vy - with them, thinking that the young warlock of Cthylla might be able to help. She was happy to oblige. Lastly, Venus invited Kiln, Yera's fire genasi boyfriend who worked for Sylyeras, to come along since Yera lived with Finn and his husband, Cal. They managed to sneak him away without Sylyeras noticing.
While the rest of the party was traveling, Sylyeras stayed with Ariel, his wife, in Veerport, aboard their ships. He knelt beside her, and she took his hands when he said that he had something to tell her. Sylyeras told her everything that happened in the Feywild that had to do with the deal he made with Cthulhu. It boiled down to: once a month, for 24 hours, for the rest of Syl's life, Cthulhu would be allowed to possess him. In return, Cthulhu would do two things:
- Never speak to or harm Ariel, any member of Sylyera's kin, or anyone who Sylyeras considered a friend. Additionally, he was never allowed to make a pact with any of Sylyeras's children.
- Free Lars from his pact with the Lady of Darkness, and grant him to another of Cthulhu's kin.
He claimed to have done it for Romeo, since Cthulhu had expressed interest in him before, and that terrified him. Ariel recalled that he had spoken to her about that. Still, although understanding why he'd done it, Ariel was still very visibly frightened. She moved to sit with him on the floor, and she held his face in her hands.
Her voice was thick with tears as she asked, "Do you know what he could do to you?" She hugged him. "Sylyeras... You are one of only two good things in my life... Please, do not let him take you away from me..."
"I'll fix it," he promised. "I-I don't know how yet, but I promise you, I'll find a way."
~~~~~
On the way to Rugathore, the party stopped by Quette - the capital of Aldea - where they caught up with old allies for a very short time. Finn explained that Quette was where all of the nations they'd been going around, creating an alliance with, were meant to send representatives here. The only two nations that hadn't yet done so were Isverden and Midtia - the two newest nations to join the Concordia.
In addition, they also made the acquaintance of the president of Thalnotia: a halfling named Mira Myng. They hadn't met her when they were traveling through Thalnotia, due to the fact that the cult of Loki - Trickster's Flame - had been up to no good. Finn had done the diplomacy for them while they dealt with the potentially world-ending problem of Loki returning to the material plane. President Myng was very thankful, and informed the party that someone they'd met - a former governor of Thalnotia named Brahm Stormsworn - had joined the Rams of War (the cult of Ares) again as a spy. The party knew that he used to be with them and that he was an aasimar of Ares. She also said that he would be back soon, with new intelligence.
Boris requested to know when Stormsworn came back. The Rams of War and Boris had a history; he wasn't called the "Ram Butcher" for nothing.
The party arrived back in Rugathore the next day, where everyone was surprised to see Athena and her three-year-old daughter Odette staying with Caldor.
~~ CW BEGINS ~~
Athena had not had a particularly easy life. Up to this point, she'd been traveling and performing along with Sylyera's crew on board The Bastard Prince. Her life - even before then - had been one filled with alcohol, drugs, and sex. And then there was Kelemvor: the god she derived her cleric powers from - a god of death that had granted her the blood domain. She had been an independent practitioner of her faith for as long as she'd known the faith.
When she first met Caldor Lihtaur, he'd been a comfort to her. Typically, she found it hard to open up to people. Maybe it had been the fact that they were both clerics (albeit very different clerics) or maybe the fact that he somehow seemed to understand her and how she felt.
Athena and Caldor had been writing to each other, and finally she admitted to him that she thought she might have a problem. She believed that she was an addict, and was worried about how it would affect her daughter. It didn't help that the two of them were also always on the road because they had nowhere else to go. Athena didn't know Odette's father, and she didn't want to. She was afraid he would take her from Athena, or worse, try to kill them - especially if he was nobility.
Caldor offered to let her stay with him in Rugathore for a while, to help her get sober. Additionally, he introduced her to the local Kelemvor temple. The head priest - an aasimar of Kelemvor named Azriel - helped Athena cultivate her powers a little bit more. He told her what being a blood cleric meant to Kelemvor: she was the tether between body and soul. Athena really liked Azriel, and the two of them had actually slept together in her time in Rugathore. However, nothing was serious.
Athena worked really hard - both on getting better at being a cleric and on recovering from her addictions to drugs and alcohol. Over the month or so that she stayed with Caldor, she'd been in a lot of pain - some physical, some emotional. She'd had several bad days, but Caldor had always been there for her with love and divine magic to help her through it. She was at the point where, yes, she was no longer experiencing extreme withdrawals. However, she could still very easily relapse if she wasn't careful.
~~ CW ENDS ~~
While the party settled into Finn's house, Boris decided to head down the street and visit Jeremiah Grey - the half-drow that he and Venus had taken away from his abusive family in Isverden. He was sixteen, but his parents had been rich. He stole quite a large sum of money when they left, and he was living on his own. Both he and Boris had paid for the house he lived in. Boris had also left his owlbear, Auroch, with Jeremiah to protect and help him get around. Jeremiah also had little to no use of his right leg, due to an injury his mother had given him several years ago. He used a wheelchair to get around with very little pain.
Jeremiah was glad to see Boris, but informed him of something strange. A letter had come for Boris to this address about two weeks ago. Jeremiah gave it to him.
It was a letter stating that Boris had just come into an inheritance of some kind, granted to him from one Senator Harold Raspitanian. Boris had never been informed of this... apparent relative. The inheritance was coming from the nation of Erdia. It seemed that Boris had an opinion on where they would be going next.
The party all reunited for dinner, where both Athena and Yera agreed to join the party again for their next mission. When Boris spoke to Finn about going to Erdia, Finn was all for it. They'd just have to have a short discussion before arriving.
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| Mother Hydra Great Old One, Lars's new patron (Art from the Monster Fandom Wiki) |
The last thing that happened before leaving Rugathore was that Finn took Venus and Yera to the Feywild again, with the intention of bringing his dryad daughter Aurinia back to the material plane. They'd already received permission from The Summer Queen, thanks to their cleverness in dealing with Kalicosio's time shenanigans. With the help of another Chroma Conqueror, Irienne, (one of Finn's former adventuring pals) they were able to sever her connection to her tree. When they brought her back, Caldor assured Finn that he'd help her find another one while he was gone.
~~~~~
The party ventured back to Veerport. The Bastard Prince set sail with the party on board. For the first time, The Bastard Prince was not flying Ashglade flags. Instead, they were Taldin's: a fire-breathing bronze dragon on a solid red field. Ariel's ship - The Dragon's Delight - escorted them, since they were going in the same direction. Ariel was of the mind that nobody would mess willingly with another Pirate Lord unless they had a death wish, even if she was out of her home sea.
However, that didn't mean that another Pirate Lord wouldn't.
Pirate Lord Jughragh Dreamslayer intercepted them - the Pirate Lord of the southern Erog Sea, where they were sailing through. His ship was The Cry of the Damned and decorated with humanoid skulls all around the edges. He requested Parlay with both Sylyeras and Ariel, which was an odd move on his part. Sylyeras knew Dreamslayer. He was violent, war-mongering.
He stopped them only to deliver a decree - a decree of war on Pirate Lord Ariel Taldin for her lack of performance in her duties and for "endangering the system of Pirate Lordship" by marrying the son of two Pirate Lords. His signature was only one of five on the decree. The others were:
- Pirate Lord Leo Bluffs, who Syl and the party had gotten on the wrong side of during their adventures in Midtia.
- Pirate Lord Felicia Daphici, who was the only Pirate Lord with a virtual monopoly on the slave trade. She and Syl had had disagreements in the past, and the party had sunk one of her ships before.
- Pirate Lord Isabelle Ashglade - Sylyeras and Yera's mother.
- Pirate Lord Tristan Morningfall - Sylyeras's father, though he had never once claimed Sylyeras as his son, despite the fact that everyone knew he was and the two look almost exactly alike.
Dreamslayer let them go for now, on account of the fact that they were in Parlay, but insisted that if he saw either of them again, he'd kill them.
Ariel split off from the party, heading north, to see about gaining allies in this new apparent war that had half the Pirate Lords against her. Sylyeras continued to bring his party to the city of Audacity. Afterwards, he'd meet up with her in the Xanden Sea.
Still on the way to Erdia, the ship stumbled upon a castaway. The party had saved castaways before, and this time was no different. This was a sea elven man, suffering from heat stroke most likely. Yera and Athena, both being clerics, rushed to help him, but Yera stopped.
Yera knew this man... and the last time she saw him, she'd been sixteen and just given birth to his child.
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ART LINKS:
https://monster.fandom.com/wiki/Hydra_(Mother_Hydra)
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