Act III: The Olden Days and the Next Generation
Scene v: The Grandmaster's Election
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CW / TW: An intense conversation about addiction relapse.
If you wish to skip that section, it will be written in blue text.
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Present Party: Athena, Nytra, and Sylyeras.
Setting: The capital city of Jarna, in the kingdom of Saspar.
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| Pharius Veladorn Drow, Odette's Father & Candidate for Grandmaster of Saspar (Art by Shinyno on Tumblr) |
Minnie, Pharius's girlfriend and Venus's younger sister, offered to show Nytra to the workshops that The Premiere Academy had to test explosives. Sylyeras took Odette to get ice cream. Athena and Pharius were left alone.
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| Odette Lavinge Pharius & Athena's Daughter (Original Art by Brandon Dunn on Art Station) (Recolored by Athena's player) |
"You're a noble though... won't this affect you?" Athena asked. "Especially since you're... running for this?"
"It will... but... if I win the title of Grandmaster, then there's not much anyone can do about it, is there?"
His family finding out would be the worst possible scenario though, so they'd especially have to hide it then. Pharius admitted that his parents were cruel enough to try and "make the problem go away." Athena also insisted that Pharius tell Minnie, and he agreed that he would.
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| Simon Cleves, the Chroma Conqueror Aasimar of Oghma, Conjuration Wizard (Made by me, using Heroforge) |
After that, they all reconvened. Simon offered for the party to stay at his home on the outskirts of the city. It was a very nice home, but not particularly lived in. Throughout their whole stay, Simon didn't come home once but Finn didn't seem to think that was odd in any way. Nobody questioned it any further.
Over dinner, they looked at the list of twenty candidates that Finn had received from Simon, and noticed something startling. "Ego LaFontaine" was on the list; a high-ranking member of the Dusk, and master spellcaster. How he'd gone from Royal Court Mage of Midtia to Grandmaster candidate in Saspar, the party was unsure, but they knew that letting him win would be a terrible thing for their Concordia.
~~~~~
The next day, the party spent their time going around the city, and asking about each of the candidates, essentially trying to conduct their own poll. They wanted to see which candidates people tended to like, and how much people actually knew about Pharius, given how many candidates there were. They discovered:
- Divia Vakume, a goliath Echo Knight, was the overall most popular candidate, according to who they asked. She was an accomplished adventurer from the area as well.
- Many other folks seemed to like Horace Undersong, a halfling warlock with a celestial patron. He was called "a man of the working people" by many that they talked to.
- Xamyra Cassius was brought up as one of the more experienced spellcasters of the upper class, and her reputation as Helena Cassius's - the Chroma Conqueror - gnomish niece.
- Pharius was popular amongst the youth of the city and he was well-known among them. However, whenever anyone else asked who Pharius was and heard his last name - "Veladorn" - they didn't seem to respond well to the idea of him as a grandmaster.
The party invited Minnie and Pharius over for dinner that night, and discussed these results with him. He wasn't incredibly surprised. Around the city, they'd also been hearing about a "tournament," and Pharius explained that the first part of the election was actually a magical tournament. The Grandmaster of Saspar was required to be an expert arcane caster (no druids, clerics, or paladins) of some kind, or a martial fighter with arcane capabilities and abilities. The tournament would weed out half of the competitors, leaving only ten.
"Do you think that you can make it into the top ten?" Athena asked Pharius.
"I was in the magic dueling club at The Premiere, when I was completing my undergrad," he explained. "Team captain, and I hold the record for the most wins in the country. Not to mention, we're using The Premiere's arena. I'm not that worried. The only person I'd really like not to fight is Divia Vakume. She could overpower me pretty easily, I think, just with brute force."
Pharius also spent some time with Odette, casting Bigby's Hand, and letting her fly on it for a short time. She had a lot of fun. Athena asked Pharius afterwards if he'd told Minnie yet, and he admitted that he hadn't, but that he would soon.
After bidding Pharius and Minnie goodnight, Sylyeras asked to talk to Finn for a moment. They stayed in the dining room while everyone else dispersed.
Sylyeras confessed everything that was going on with his patron, Cthulhu, and how he'd made a deal to be possessed by him, for 24 hours each month. He'd taken some precautions, forbidding the creature from hurting his family or anyone else who he considered a friend. The last time he'd been possessed, he actually recalled some things.
Sylyeras believed that he was converting people, helping them to join a cult - or maybe "mind controlling" was the better term. He recalled an elven woman, who he touched and she just... disappeared.
Finn was troubled by this, and he told Sylyeras that he might want to reconsider his relationship with Cthulhu. It might be better to break ties. However, Syl still had Lars and Vishara to worry about, who were warlocks of Cthulhu's kin, and he was responsible for them. Still, Finn told him that if he could find a way, very few things could hope to combat the Old Ones... but celestials were one of them.
Sylyeras left after that, but stopped after watching someone turn the corner, down the hallway a ways. He followed and Nytra, apparently lurking it seemed. When he asked what she was doing, she responded that she was simply trying to find the baths in the new house they were in. Sylyeras left, still suspicious of her.
Athena had also asked if Finn could stop by her room, where she informed him of Pharius and his relationship to Odette. Although Finn had started to talk about it in an emotional context, Athena insisted it was purely political. He accepted that, and they both agreed that for the sake of the election, it was better to keep it as far under wraps as possible.
~~~~~
The next morning was spent getting ready for the party and doing some light shopping. They also grabbed a copy of the local newspaper, which was a printed document - the first of this kind that they've seen - so they could see the brackets for the tournament.
It seemed as though Pharius would not fight until the second day, and the newspaper explained that some candidates and their families had paid for such treatment. Others received it due to their popularity. The winner of the matchup between Verona Oberham (a Sorcerer) and Razura Montague (an Artificer) would go on to face Pharius on the second day.
The party went to a debutante ball, which was a type of ball held by noble families in Saspar that celebrated a young girl's sixteenth, seventeenth, or eighteenth birthday. It was a huge affair that was typically filled with drugs, drinking, and sex among the adults in the party. Students from the universities of Jarna fought, bought, traded, and forged invitations to these types of parties. The only reason the party had an invitation was because Pharius and Minnie had given them their invitation, and Finn was able to procure a second one for a third person. They'd intended to go and poll the rich, as well as meet some of the other candidates.
Once they'd arrived at this grand house, surrounded by women in large gowns and men in bright colorful coats, Nytra and Athena set about partying. In that time, they'd seen and Athena even managed to dance with one of the candidates. There were even some candidates that had engaged in other, more risque, escapades with both Athena and Nytra at this party.
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| Harry Human Death Cleric of Bhaal, Lieutenant of The Dusk, Leader of The Bloodied (Art by AnnaHelme on DeviantArt) |
He turned to see an old friend, recently turned enemy: Harry. He and Syl had grown up together, and Harry had sailed on Ariel's ship before she became the Pirate Lord. He left not long after that to pursue other things. Sylyeras hadn't seen him in years, until suddenly he turned up in Midtia... as a leader of a cult.
Although shocked at first, Sylyeras attempted to strike up a conversation with Harry. A few times, he even caught Harry stifling a laugh. Sylyeras also offered to go on a walk with Harry around the garden. Even there, Sylyeras caught moments where Harry attempted to hide smiles.
"I missed this," Sylyeras admitted. "I missed you. What the hell happened? What made you into this?"
"I wanted to be important."
"In your cult?"
"In my faith... In my religion."
"You were important! You were important to me! I..."
"You're trying to stop me. You realize that you are a fourth side, coming into a three-sided war. Gods versus gods. Something like that... could end everything. The world is a terrible place. There are people like these, who thrown lavish parties for attention while orphans like me - like Ariel - turn to piracy to survive. Life is a terrible thing. All we want to do... is end it faster. Everything would be so much better off."
Harry left not long after that, leaving Sylyeras in the garden. On his way out, Harry warned him, "Don't find me again. I might be tempted to kill you."
Sylyeras stayed outside to contemplate their relationship for a short time before going back in and casually socializing. He discovered that Pharius was missed at the party. Not long after that, he received a Sending message from Athena. He retrieved his very drunk traveling companion, and Athena also checked in with Nytra, who opted to stay longer. She wouldn't come home until later that night.
~~~~~
~~ CW BEGINS ~~
Athena woke up the next morning, hungover. Breakfast was brought to her room, and Finn was sitting in an arm chair by her bed. He'd assured her that Odette was on her way to the tournament with Sylyeras. Nytra hadn't woken up yet.
Finn was the only other person Athena had been traveling with that knew she had an addiction. She'd been sobering up for several weeks before joining the group again, with help from Finn's husband, Caldor. Seeing her come in last night, drunk and high as he knew she didn't want to be, Finn had been very disappointed.
Unkind words were exchanged, including a dig from Finn: "We all make mistakes. We all fall sometimes. But... if you're going to keep doing this, then this must be more important than the reasons that you want to be sober."
Athena stormed out of the room, letting that sit in her brain, wondering if it might be true.
She wondered if everything she feared about herself, about the kind of person she was, was true.
~~ CW ENDS ~~
Nytra woke up not long after Athena and Finn finished their talk, and Athena went ahead alone. Nytra and Finn walked together to catch up with Sylyeras and Odette, who'd gone ahead to The Premiere to watch the tournament. The Premiere's Arena was huge, and had the capability to change terrains and create obstacles. Sylyeras had saved some decent seats for them. Pharius and Minnie has also joined them, though Pharius was temporarily disguised so that nobody would connect him with Athena or Odette. Minnie, Nytra, Finn, and Syl placed bets on the matches.
The artificer, Razura Montague, won the first match, which meant that she would face Pharius tomorrow. Pharius clearly considered her to be a tough opponent, but with the proper preparations, he believed he could win.
Ego's match was the third. During it, Sylyeras looked around for Harry, to see if he was present. He found him about four sections away, in the first row. During Ego's match, he could be seen waving his hands a bit and muttering. He was subtle, but Syl could tell what he was doing: casting spells to interfere. Ego won the match handily, in only a few seconds.
Sylyeras stood, and made his way over to the other side. Athena watched him go and kept her eyes on him as the next match ensued. Sylyeras sat next to Harry, and Harry didn't say anything or resist. This next match was a close one, and the victor was one of the more popular candidates: Horace Undersong. The crowd erupted into cheers, and Harry stood to leave. Sylyeras stopped him by standing on the step above him in the aisle.
Harry shook his head and reminded him, "I asked you to stay away."
Sylyeras felt a knife enter his back. The wound burned... and he slowly fell unconscious.
~~~~~
ART LINKS
https://shinyno.tumblr.com/post/168555192674/commission-for-stelera-of-their-dd-oc-cropped
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/A9obLN
https://www.deviantart.com/annahelme/art/Rikko-858753094
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