Present Party: Keviks, Lupan, Nana, and Wren.
Setting: Dragon's Valley, in the kingdom of Midtia
After returning to Dragon's Valley from their Dragon Hunt, Nana was the first to decide what she would do with her newfound wealth. Nana's player had created a homebrew spell that had a 24 hour casting time, the results of which the players would see further into the session.
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| Desire Garros Tiefling, age 18 (Art by whalis on DeviantArt) |
Once they completed that, they did some shopping. Lupan bought and enchanted a new greataxe. Keviks paid for an enchantment on his longbow and on Wren's crossbow, as a thank you for saving his wolf, Kindred, during their fight with the dragons.
They also inquired with Lindsey at Hero's Way about any other shorter jobs that they could take, but she said there wasn't anything at the moment, besides the hunts for human traffickers. That quest would take the party into the mountains for a few days though, and they didn't want to take that long, considering they had to be on their way south to Lanti soon. Lindsey did, however, inform them of some goings-on in the town between Dragon's Valley and Lanti: Riverside. The chapter of Hero's Way there had been dealing with a ghost problem. The creature appeared as a monk in a mask, and had been seen breaking into various places and destroying property. He has yet to hurt anyone though. Anyone who's tried to fight him is simply knocked unconscious and left alone. Some are even brought to safer places, like sidewalks and street corners, rather than being made to lay in the center of the road. The party assured Lindsey that they would look into it if they had time.
The party did decide to investigate some of the shadier people they could find in Dragon's Valley, thinking that they may know something about the human traffickers at least. They found a drow gentleman with white hair, stuck up in a mohawk. He wore dark leathers and carried a longbow with him. Wren thought that asking him about local prostitutes could put the party on the right track in terms of where or how human trafficking could be happening. Due to a particularly bad check, the conversation didn't go quite as planned, and this gentleman had laughed at her after he flirted and she, very alarmed, hurriedly tried to get herself out of the situation.
With that lead cold, Lupan and Wren decided to see if they could catch up with Fang. They'd last heard that he was on a picnic with Spark of Summer, a half-tabaxi bastard son of the Summer family, up in the mountains. They found the two of them, and listened in on their conversation.
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| "Spark" of Summer Half-Tabaxi, age 18 (Official Art from "Twisted Wonderland") |
Fang asked, "So you want to travel, yeah?"
"One day, for sure. This village is tiny and I can't wait to get the hell away from my sister." Spark smiled. "At least you're going to be dating the better of the two of them."
"I'm glad for that. I'm sorry about your relationship with your eldest sister though."
"Nothing to be sorry for. It is what it is, I am what I am... I'm surprised you've even considered spending time with me like you have."
"Well, you... you're in their family. We're the same age. Not a lot of people here even know who I am. To be honest, I... I don't want to only spend time with the people I'm meant to date. It gets tiresome, you know? Sometimes I just need to get away from it all. This is my first time away from home. I want to meet new people and all that."
"I understand that... You know, you're the first noble I think I've ever met that hasn't looked down on me."
The prince sighed. "I have... complicated feelings when it comes to... stuff like that."
"Do tell."
Fang hesitated for a moment. "Well, don't take offense-"
Spark shook his head. "I wouldn't. I couldn't, not with how you've treated me so far. I mean... you took me on a picnic. That's the nicest thing anyone has done for me in a long time."
Fang laughed. "Then, you're welcome for that. But anyway... I think my feelings about bastards have a lot to do with family. My dad always says that family is one of the most important things in the world. It's the reason he had four kids; he wanted a big, happy family. Just because... you are who you are doesn't mean that... you're not part of that family. I always hated hearing about families in the past who had bastard kids and who just... sent them away. Like... I don't know. You did that. Take responsibility for what you've done and raise that child like you would any other."
"That's what my mother tried to do," Spark sighed. "Society said no."
The prince straightened his back. "Well, society can change with the right people in charge."
Spark raised a brow. "Future king, you're telling me that you're going to change a culture that's been ingrained and intertwined with noble society for centuries?"
He shrugged. "Well if I don't try, then who's going to? I have... a lot of ideas. And maybe some of them are a little naïve, and I probably won't fully accomplish them in my lifetime... but that doesn't mean I can't lay the groundwork. Like my dad is doing for me."
"People are going to call you a mad king, you know that?"
"Maybe."
"Don't let them."
Fang looked surprised at such a brusque statement.
"Don't let them. Don't change your ideas based on... other people's opinions. Change them if they're not logical, or if they need some revision to work, but... in my opinion, you have one of the best mindsets a leader can have, Fang. You want to do what you can while you can. I respect you for that."
"They might call me mad for more reasons than that."
"Are they things you can change?"
Fang hesitated, but then shook his head.
"Then fuck them. Look, if there's one thing I've learned in my very short, very painful life, Fang, it's that we are who we are. We believe what we believe. Sure, when people hate you and they laugh at you or look down on you, and it's terrible. It feels... It feels like you're stuck in one place. Like you've got chains on your wrists and ankles, and you're rooted into the ground. At the end of the day... you've gotta accept that there are people who are always going to be like that... and you've gotta surround yourself with people who won't chain you down. The only time people can warp what you've done and who you are is after you're dead."
"So I don't chain you down then?"
"Absolutely not." Spark smiled. "And I won't chain you down either."
~~~~~
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| Castillian Nana's Eidolon (Art by Danila Kalinin on Art Station) |
When the party all finally returned to the estate they were greeted by a verifiable iron giant: a nearly ten-foot tall creature, clad in armor and holding a shield and spear. He introduced himself very heartily as "Royal Custodian Castillian." He'd been created by Nana to assist in guarding the prince. He was a special kind of companion known as an "eidolon." Nana was going to be busy for the next couple days, copying spells into her spellbook, so Castillian would be accompanying the party for the next couple dates with the bachelorettes.
They were able to complete dates with two of the three ladies: Vendove Reithil and Spark's half sister, Solstice. However, Solstice's date was cut a bit short when Lupan and Keviks noticed that their group was being followed. It was the same drow gentleman from yesterday. He wasn't being sneaky, but he was trying to seem casual. He kept his distance, but both Keviks and Lupan could tell that he was actively following the prince.
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| "Solstice" of Summer Tabaxi, age 19 (Art by u/bazs24 on Reddit) |
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| Vendove Reithil Firbolg, age 35 (physical age 19) (Art by inimeitiel on Instagram) |
The two of them let Wren and Castillian continue on their way with the prince, and they confronted this gentleman. When they asked him what he was doing, he claimed to be looking for a bird. He also mentioned wanting to see the prince. It was a big deal that he was out and about and all; few people have seen him. Briefly, he mentioned that he'd be seeing the party again soon, in Lanti. He wanted a dance with Wren, and had made a snide remark about "Finnegan Pomeroy." That was their friend Finch's real name. Suddenly they were worried that'd he'd been following them for quite some time. Keviks was able to recognize some of the strange carvings in this bow. They were old runes that typically referred to Hodr, the god of darkness and widely known as "The Blind God."
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| "Xade" but without the mohawk Drow Assassin (Art by @artlessmaroon on Twitter) (She's also Wren's player!) |
They tried to contact Quest, but he claimed to be taking a nap and was unconcerned. Instead, the party conducted their own research on Hodr and the bow itself. With the information Keviks recalled as a starting point, they were able to discover the following about Hodr and bows:
- The story starts with Baldur, a beloved god by mortals and other celestials alike. His mother Frigga was so protective of him that she forced everything in the world to swear an oath never to harm him... everything except mistletoe, believing it to be small and harmless. Loki took advantage of this, and crafted an arrow out of mistletoe. He gave it to Hodr, who shot and killed Baldur with his bow. Hodr was considered partially responsible for the death of Baldur, having fired the mistletoe arrow that killed him, but not held entirely responsible. Most of the blame for that fell to Loki.
- Hodr's holy symbol is that of a blind man holding a longbow.
- It is rumored that Hodr's bow actually exists, but none of their texts said where or who had it.
- They also discovered the location of the largest known church of Hodr in Midtia, in the village of Nightvale. Sadly, the party was currently on the other side of the kingdom.
Upon receiving this information, there was the sound of glass shattering in the library at the noble estate. An arrow came whistling through the room from the other side, and flew towards Mond, sitting perched on Nana's shoulder. Nana threw up the Shield spell. The arrow stopped for a split second in midair, just before the shield. Then, the shield shattered, and the arrow continued on its course, striking Mond again and causing him to dissipate. It was an impossible shot; the estate was surrounded by walls. There was a note tied to the arrow that read: "I'm a great shot."
Keviks gave the arrow to Kindred, who used it to track Xade further into town where they caught him trying to make a getaway. A cast of hypnotic pattern from Wren stopped Xade in his tracks at one point, but out from the shadows another familiar face to Nana appeared. It was one of the people Quest described as being with Xade: a human man with color-changing eyes. He grabbed Quest and they teleported away.
With Kindred's expert nose, they were able to find them again. While they were unable to catch Xade, a Mind Spike from Nana followed by Entangle from Lupan brought down his associate. With the help of the church of Heimdall, the party captured him and were able to interrogate him in the walls of the church.
Wren and Lupan led the charge, using very successful intimidation tactics that got them the following information:
- This individual went by "Jack."
- He has a wife and children who are in danger, and he's loath to talk because of it. He claimed to fear losing them more than anything the party could do to him.
- He said that Xade was on his way to Lanti on orders from "the general." When asked for the name of that general, he said, "Keenstalker." General Nithea Keenstalker was a person of interest for Keviks; he was looking for her and discovered she was in Lanti two sessions ago.
- Keviks had briefly mentioned Vekea, and Jack told them that Vekea Keenstalker was the general's daughter. She was a paladin, who'd "trained directly under The Great Leader."
Keviks asked if the rest of the party would leave, and although Lupan hesitated at first, he did concede. Keviks showed Jack his Erdian insignia, and claimed to be on his side. He said that he was on orders from Nithea Keenstalker as well, to keep an eye on the prince. On a successful Deception check, he learned the following information:
- Jack has some kind of telepathic ability. This whole conversation, for the sake of privacy, according to Jack, happened telepathically.
- Xade was going to Lanti for extra security to protect the general, her daughter, and "their assets."
- Jack doesn't know how, but he said that they have "the boy under their thumb" and that he's been giving them money. Keviks presumes that this is Orion Mulcaster, Wren's older brother, who's engaged to Vekea.
- Jack asked Keviks if he was "responsible for prince at the end" and he admitted that "Xade has dibs on the little princes, and Terrowin is responsible for the king."
- "Terrowin" is a known alias for Alaion, a member of the Riot Guard in Kystad who the party rescued once. Keviks knew that Alaion was formerly a soldier in Erdia, but didn't know he was active anymore. Jack claimed it was because he, much like himself, is worried for the safety of his wife and daughter. One wrong move, and Jack was sure they'd be killed. Alaion is also on his way to Lanti.
- Keviks convinced Jack that he had successfully infiltrated the prince's Selection party, and that they trust him. He told Jack that, if he could, he should get a message to Xade and tell him that Keviks could be trusted. He also mentioned finding a way to get Jack out, but Jack claimed that he had a plan already.
To play up the interrogation angle, Keviks struck Jack across the face, and returned to his party.
~~~~~
ART LINKS:
https://www.deviantart.com/whails/art/Ephestra-Efe-692643261
https://twisted-wonderland.fandom.com/wiki/Leona_Kingscholar
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lxnKoV
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/a8se8i/art_anchor_wizard/
https://www.instagram.com/inimeitiel/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/artlessmaroon/status/1367309807204655108
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