TPW Summary: Act III, Scene v - Session 4

Act III: The Olden Days and the Next Generation

Scene v: The Grandmaster's Election

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CW / TW: 

- Graphic descriptions of scarring

- Allusion to severe torture and brainwashing, to the point of being unable to distinguish reality from dreams or lies.

- Brief mention of abuse by a parent

If you wish to skip those sections, they will be written in blue text.

~~~~~

Present Party: Athena, Nytra, and Sylyeras

Setting: The city of Jarna, capital of the kingdom of Saspar.

Athena grabbed the attention of Finn and Nytra as she watched Sylyeras on the other side of the arena. She noticed a tiefling woman approach behind him. Athena didn't see what this woman did, but suddenly Syl was being carried away by her and a human man she didn't know.

Seeing this, Nytra sprung into action and cast Levitate on Finn. She climbed on top of him and Finn picked up Athena as well. Finn used his newfound levitation to propel himself up and forward, running on the tops of people's heads and shoulders to get the party closer to Sylyeras. As people started to notice them, guards were called, and people evacuated the area. The party peppered spells at these two strangers.

Finn dropped the party off to fight, and started to explain the situation to the incoming guards, but not before casting Banishment on the tiefling woman, causing her to disappear. That left only this human man left, and he was a force to be reckoned with. They gathered that he was likely a divine caster of sorts; he'd summoned large angelic creatures with black wings and gaunt faces to aid him. Nytra had used Haste on herself, and healed Syl before attacking this stranger. 

Sylyeras pulled himself up, approached this man... and then turned and blasted Nytra with Witch Bolt.

The man took this moment to turn himself invisible and run, dispelling the angels as well. Sylyeras followed him, listening to the sound of his footsteps.

When the tiefling reappeared, Finn had her arrested. Nytra and Athena were rightfully angry at Syl, but Finn assured them that they would find him, and figure out what was going on. Nytra opted to head back to the house they were staying at. Athena went to find Odette.

~~~~~

Harry
Human Death Cleric of Bhaal
Lieutenant of The Dusk,
Leader of The Bloodied
(Art by AnnaHelme on DeviantArt)

The man's name was Harry, and he and Sylyeras had a history together as childhood friends before Harry dropped off the face of Roglovar, and appeared now as a cultist. Not only as a cultist, but a leader of The Bloodied, a cult for the god of murder, Bhaal, that was operating inside a larger assassin's guild, The Dusk. Sylyeras had been determined to see that his friend was redeemed ever since he saw him in Midtia.

Sylyeras sprinted after the sound of panting and footsteps and finally managed to grab hold of someone that didn't appear to be there. When he did, he felt a fist connect with his face and he let go. Harry stood before him, fist clenched, but with a look of disbelief on his face, as if he couldn't believe he'd done that. Sylyeras stared back, equally shocked.

Harry sighed, "I-I told you not to see me again..."

Syl launched into a speech about Harry, how they'd grown up together, how they'd been friends. He begged Harry to leave and to come home, to come and see Ariel, Syl's wife, who Harry had sailed with when they were kids.

That made Harry stop, and he looked at Syl in disbelief. "I... She's not dead?"

"No... No, Ariel's alive," Sylyeras insisted. He used his wedding ring with a small Sending Stone inside to call her.

Ariel was a little confused at first, but then just went along with it. Sylyeras told her to keep talking to him, to tell him about her day and to tell him stories. He held his hand up to Harry's face, so he could hear. Harry said nothing. He just held Sylyeras's hand with his left hand and gripped the side of the ring with his right. He listened, and cried. Sylyeras stepped closer, and wiped away Harry's tears.

For a moment, Harry stopped and turned suddenly as though he'd heard something. Sylyeras looked, but he didn't see anything.

"What's wrong?"

Harry blinked several times. "I hear the whistles..."

Sylyeras continued to talk to him, continued to have Ariel talk to him, and begged him to come home.

"I-I don't have a home..."

"Your home is with us, Harry," Sylyeras said. "It always has been with us..."

"I-I don't wanna go back to Aloth..." He started to cry even more, and he shook his head.

"They're not going to hurt you. Come with me, I'll protect you."

Harry hesitated, but then gulped and said, "If we're going to go, we have to go now."

Sylyeras started leading him away, running, and he asked Ariel to sing along the way, keeping the hand with his ring on Harry's shoulder, so he could hear her too. The two of them ended up at a tavern, far away from The Premiere Academy's arena, and once they got into their own room, Sylyeras pulled Harry into his chest, and the two of them sobbed in each others' arms.

~~~~~

Athena had left Odette with Pharius, and with a quick cast of Sending, she learned that he, Odette, and his girlfriend Minnie had retreated to the library. She found Odette and Pharius looking at an art book together, and let them do that for a while before making her presence known.

Odette Lavinge
Pharius & Athena's daughter
(Original Art by Brandon Dunn
on Art Station)
(Recolored by Athena's player)

When Odette came up to Athena, Athena asked, "Odette, do you like Mr. Pharius?"

Odette looked at him. "I guess so. He's nice."

Athena pulled her into a big hug, and she fought back tears. Athena had always been worried that Odette would meet her father and he would take her away, or worse. She'd always been insecure about the life she was living and providing for her daughter. When she pulled away, Odette stared up at her.

"Mumma?"

Athena knelt again. "Yes, baby?"

Odette placed a hand on Athena's cheek. "You know I love you, more than the whole world, right?"

That was something Athena had always said to Odette, something she didn't know that she desperately needed to hear back. Athena held Odette and cried. Pharius sat beside her, comforting her as best as he could, being nearly a stranger.

Athena invited Pharius and Minnie to lunch, and then said to Odette that she had a present for her, but that Pharius was holding on to it for now, and it was up to him whether or not she got to have it. Essentially, she was giving Pharius the option of being able to see Odette, as her father, if he wanted it. He seemed thankful for the opportunity. 

She also sent a message to Sylyeras, asking where he was. Sylyeras explained as best he could that Harry was an old friend, not a cultist, and that he needed help. Athena also received his location, and went to go find him.

"You didn't see any of that," she said to Pharius as she was leaving.

Pharius nodded. "No, I didn't."

~~~~~

Athena found Sylyeras and Harry at their tavern. She sent another Sending to Finn to let him know, and Sylyeras requested that she tell Finn to bring Simon here. He was worried that a spell of some kind might be affecting him. They knew Simon, Finn's former party member, was a powerful wizard.

For the time being, Athena decided to cast Greater Restoration, to see if it would end any effects on him. While she did, she noticed that Harry was staring at Odette. She waved at him. The spell took effect, but there was little change in Harry's behavior, other than that he seemed more alert and was actually able to form sentences. Athena also removed the dagger that was still stuck in Syl's back.

When Finn and Simon arrived, Simon went to work on spellcasting while Sylyeras explained the situation to Athena and Finn.

Simon shook his head in disbelief. "There's... no magic on him, except for the residual casting of Greater Restoration. There's no curse. There's no poison, and no disease. He's... fine."

~~ CW BEGINS ~~

When Syl tried to ask Harry about what happened, what they'd been doing to him, Harry scratched at his right shoulder, and claimed not to remember. He repeated again that he didn't want to go back to Aloth. Athena asked if she could look at his shoulder, and he nodded.

Athena noticed the beginnings of a scar that was large, old, and ugly. It was a deep groove in his back that had strange markings inside the larger scar itself. They were holes, perhaps like someone had taken some kind of serrated blade to the skin and dug the smaller barbs further in. She couldn't see much just from the shoulder though.

"Would it be alright if I took a look at your back?" she asked him.

Harry shook his head. "Not here... Somewhere else. Bigger and bright."

They decided that taking him back to the house would be the best idea. Finn went ahead, claiming to have an idea.

~~~~~

Finn met up again with Nytra, who was resting after the fight, and explained the situation to her. She wasn't super willing to help Harry, especially after the fight, where he'd given her quite a beating, only to have Sylyeras turn on her too. She claimed that if she was going to help, Finn would owe her big-time, and he was okay with that.

He wondered if, perhaps, there would be any lingering substances in Harry's body, something non-magical and that wasn't technically a poison either. A drug, maybe. He recalled Venus mentioning the name, Aloth, and that The Dusk were rumored to have an alchemist. What he wanted was to see if Nytra had any experience with alchemy, and maybe if she could identify the substances used on the dagger as well as any lingering on or inside of Harry. He also wondered if she'd be willing to play detective; to use this information to either reverse engineer or at least try to understand the alchemist's thought processes. He could get more information on this alchemist if Athena would be willing to contact Venus.

She agreed, but needed the school's alchemy labs, and Finn assured her that he could get her in.

~~~~~

Everyone else returned not long after that, and to keep Harry comfortable, only Sylyeras, Athena, and Nytra were left in the room so they could examine his scars. Harry was hesitant to remove his shirt at first, but he did, and the party stood, shocked.

The Symbol of
The Dusk: an Assassins'
Guild in Roglovar

The scar Athena had seen on the top of his right shoulder extended down, all the way across his back, stopping at his left hip. There were other scars here too, some of which looked like they were made with smaller blades, others like maybe they were from old whippings. The center piece of it was on his lower back, where there was a brand the size of a dinner plate of The Dusk's symbol: half of a sun beside half of a crescent moon. Sylyeras recalled that Harry had once had several tattoos on his back and a half-sleeve on his left arm. The back tattoos, some of them were still there... or, rather, pieces of them were, where the skin was left un-mangled. The arm tattoos were gone. They'd been almost peeled or perhaps flayed off, leaving only long, fine scars in their wake, and Harry's bicep looking thinner than it should have been.

Sylyeras couldn't bring himself to speak. Athena could only mutter a quiet "Holy shit" as her eyes scanned all of the marks.

Nytra took the lead and inspected the scar Athena pointed out to her. She didn't know much about medicine, but she knew a lot about chemicals. The circles Athena had seen inside of the scar itself weren't from a blade. They were more like pock marks, like one would see from acid. However, even coating a blade or other weapon with acid wouldn't have this... little or precise of an effect. Nytra was reminded of only one type of acid that, if weaponized, might be able to produce such an effect: acid from oozes, such as gelatinous cubes. That acid was congealed. It could be placed and forced to sit somewhere without running down the back like liquid acid would.

They told Harry he was all set, and Sylyeras took Harry to his room, where the two of them could have lunch.

~~ CW ENDS ~~

Athena offered to use the spell Commune, and see if she could contact her god, Kelemvor, the god of death, about any of the information they'd learned, to see if he had more insight. She and Nytra brainstormed three questions. When Kelemvor spoke to Athena, the holy symbol around her neck was cold, but grew lukewarm after a few seconds. His voice was calm, but deep and rumbling.

- "Is the brand the thing that's hurting him?" to which Kelemvor answered, "Partially."

- "Does the person who hurt him have the ability to congeal acid?" to which he answered, "Yes."

- "Is he still suffering from any lingering effects?" to which he answered, "He always will."

Just before the spell ended, faintly, Athena heard Kelemvor say, "I will be seeing you soon. Just to talk."

Athena sat, both afraid and excited. Kelemvor had never reached out to her before. What could he want?

~~ CW BEGINS ~~

Sylyeras brought Harry back to his room, and the two of them, over lunch talked about what Harry remembered.

- Firstly, Harry wasn't sure if this was real. He wasn't even sure if the Sylyeras he was looking at was the real Sylyeras because Syl was so far from what he knew... or thought he knew.

- He remembered what he believed to be dreams about himself, Ariel, and Sylyeras being on a ship together. Sylyeras said that it was true, but that they hadn't sailed all together. Harry had sailed with Ariel.

- Harry also remembered a woman, very tall with brown hair, who used to hurt Sylyeras. He remembered how much he hated her. Sylyeras said that was his mother, Isabelle Ashglade.

- Sylyeras mentioned that Ariel was a Pirate Lord, and that seemed to confuse Harry. He thought she had joined the Hegovan Mafia, but Sylyeras insisted she hadn't. He reminded Harry that she hated the mafia; they'd killed her parents, which led her to piracy.

- Harry seemed to think that Pirate Lord Astra - Ariel's former captain - had died because her ship sunk, which wasn't true as far as Syl knew. 

- Harry had been told that Sylyeras wanted him dead. Syl insisted that wasn't true.

~~ CW ENDS ~~

Sylyeras told him everything that he remembered. They grew up together as pirate kids. Sylyeras got his own ship. Ariel and Harry's captain - Pirate Lord Astra - died, and Ariel took over. Ariel told Sylyeras that Harry left the ship to pursue other things, and then... he hadn't heard from Harry again. Harry paced a little, to process all of it.

Then, Sylyeras told him about what he'd been up to, and that he and Ariel had been married. Harry stopped, and looked at him. He didn't seem particularly shocked, but instead... he was heartbroken.

Sylyeras stood up. "You look like you want to say something."

Harry turned. "No."

"Please... You can tell me. You're upset, I see it. Whatever you're going to say, it's not going to change my opinion, Harry. I love you."

Harry looked at Syl over his shoulder. "No, no it won't. And that's why I won't say it."

"It won't change it negatively, I mean." Sylyeras walked up to him. "Please..."

Slowly, Harry pulled Sylyeras closer. He held him under his forearms, the tips of his fingers by his elbows. He studied Sylyeras for a moment, and sighed, "Do they still call you the bastard pirate prince?"

"Yes..."

Harry chuckled. "That's funny... because to me, you were never a bastard. You were rarely even a pirate... but you were always a prince."

Sylyeras blanched. "What?"

Harry held Sylyera's hand, the one with the wedding ring, and asked, "Can she hear us?"

"No... not now. Why?"

Harry stepped a little closer, and placed one hand on Sylyeras's shoulder, and the other on his hip. He asked, "Would she kill me if I kissed you?"

Sylyeras stood, completely stunned by the remark. Harry, seeing the expression, stepped away a little. Sylyeras's mind raced, pulling up moments from their childhood, thinking how he could have missed something like this... but he did. The more he thought about it, the signs were all there. He'd just been so in love with Ariel that he'd missed them. He remembered how Harry would wrap arms around Sylyeras, pull him close, and how they would say they loved each other.

Sylyeras remembered one night, when the two of them were tipsy and Ariel was performing, and Sylyeras said to Harry, "I'm in love with her."

He recalled perfectly how, in that moment, Harry had smiled at him. He'd lifted his glass in a silent cheers, finished it in one gulp, and immediately ordered three shots.

Sylyeras teared up. "I-I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, I..."

Harry approached him again, and pulled him into a hug. The two of them sank to the floor, with Harry's back against the wall. Sylyeras cried.

Harry sighed, "You know... Even if this is real, I think I always thought of you as a dream."

When Sylyeras had finally managed to collect himself, he looked up at Harry. He'd fallen asleep.

~~~~~

ART LINKS:

https://www.deviantart.com/annahelme/art/Rikko-858753094

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/A9obLN