Present Party: Keviks (Zephyr), Lupan, Nana, and Wren. Keviks was late to session 22.
Setting: The city of Lanti, in Midtia. Also, the Xandan Sea - not far off the coast of Lanti.
Wren, having made a plan with her siblings to get Orion back to their house for a day filled with music, also sought out Lupan, Mirabelle, and Fang to accompany them. She was tasked with retrieving Orion from his room after their conversation last night. She convinced him to come along, and the group went back to the Mulcaster Estate without alerting Baron and Lady Mulcaster.
They arrived at the Mulcaster's music room, which had several types of instruments inside, a bookcase of sheet music, and some sofas for an audience. Those who could play their instruments did, and there was dancing and merriment to be had all around.
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| Orion Mulcaster Human, age 25 Wren's older brother (Art by Tina Yeh on Art Station) |
Orion could sing, and quite well. He could also play the cello. While it took some convincing to get him to do it, he gave in. Wren was glad to see her brother genuinely enjoying himself for the first time in what seemed like a long time.
Fang also spent some time dancing with Mirabelle and Cassandra, but mostly spent his time talking to Sebastian at the piano. The two of them seemed to get along incredibly well. Fang admired Sebastian's musical talent.
Their joy was briefly interrupted by Baron Mulcaster and his wife, who could hear all of them from downstairs. He was rather upset with the noise and also disappointed in the lack of propriety from his children.
Orion defended them, "I... Father, this is the happiest I've felt in months... please."
The baron sighed, and looked at Wren. "My dear, you're a terrible influence... Keep it to a dull roar."
He shut the door behind him. Although that moment had stopped them for a short time, they played on together, and quickly got their rhythm back. They stayed at the Mulcaster Estate until well into the afternoon.
~~~~~
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| Crown Prince Steel "Fang" of the Mountain Tabaxi, age 18 (CUSTOM ART by @WtfdoIdraw on Twitter) |
She and Keviks spent the morning, into the afternoon, playing chess. They got to know each other a little better. Nana admitted some of her insecurities regarding the royal family. She felt such a connection to them, as if they were her own family, and her position in the court was very new. Keviks, now with nothing to hide, spoke freely about his life, growing up in the Erdian military. He even allowed Nana to use Detect Thoughts, so she could see and feel everything he'd been through. It had been difficult.
He asked, "Nana, do you have magic that can... see into old memories? Like... memories that even I don't remember?"
"What do you mean?"
"I saw my parents once before the army took me away. I had to have seen them at least once," he reasoned. "But I don't remember them. Could you... use your magic to call that memory to me, so I can see it? Just so I can... see something of a different timeline. What would have happened if... you know."
Nana didn't know of a spell that could do such a thing... but now she had it in mind to find one.
~~~~~
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| Lt. Lysander Soriena Wood Elf, age 102 (appears 18) (Art by @Sonnet_Form on Twitter) |
The enemy ship was smaller than theirs and in worse condition, but still remained afloat. To their surprise, it also had cannons that shot grappling hooks and pulled their ship over. On board, they found the canoloth and merrenoloth.
While the latter was killed quickly, they found that once it had died, it caused the canoloth to heal itself. With that type of ability on a devilish dog that could deal a lot of damage, the fight became a bit more difficult. Lupan and Wren had both been grappled by canoloth's tongue and pulled onto the other ship. Wren was downed, but Lupan finished the canoloth quickly after, and Quest healed them both up.
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| Natalia Misogi Kalashtar, age 22 (Art by Phong Ahn on Art Station) |
- The first item was named "The Fall of Seitise." This is a painting of a ruined city, from the perspective of someone standing on a major or main street. There appears to be a palace or church of some kind in the middle of the painting, further at the end of the street. There are still torn banners hanging from the window that Lupan did not recognize. The building itself is only half there. You can see directly inside it, and there appears to still be fine furniture inside, abandoned. The other buildings are either crumbling, cracked, or severely damaged. The road, which was cobblestone, appears to have been completely dislodged, leaving loose stones everywhere. The whole city appears empty. There is no one to be seen, dead or alive.
- Natalia explained that "Seitise" was the first capital city of the kingdom of Thalnotia, further south across the Xanden Sea. At the end of the second empire, it had been destroyed. Nobody knew how or why. A messenger had actually been the one to discover it. They sent heroes and knights of all kinds into Seitise to try and discover what happened... but none of them ever came back. She wagered that something like this wouldn't fetch much around here because not many people on this continent know what Seitise is. She, however, offered to pay "the southern value" for it.
- The second was named "Nerrain's Student." This is a painting of a tiefling princess with red skin, dark hair, and ram's horns. She is sitting in a grove or garden of some kind with her feet inside a body of water. Her dress is pulled up, and tucked under her thighs. She has a book in her lap, and she is reading it alongside an enormous golden dragon who is seated behind her.
- This was based in an old folktale, according to Natalia. Admittedly, it wasn't one she was too familiar with, but she knew that the gold dragon was a staple in that folklore. "Nerrain" was a common name used to refer to the golden dragon.
- Then there was a tapestry with a signature and name stitched in the back: "Senator & Mrs. DeMarco, and their children by Fenmyse Klaxac." This is a tapestry that has had the top left corner ripped off. It appears to have been purposefully burned at the edge of the tear, to prevent the art from fraying and falling apart. As a result, the rest of the tapestry is preserved. Judging from the number of legs in the art, it appears that there were once 5 people in the picture. Now, there are two and a half. There are two half-elven children, a boy and girl about 12 and 10 years old respectively. Both have brown hair, the boy has brown eyes, and the girl has green. Both are frowning. The "half-person" appears to be a half-elven woman, with long red hair. She has green eyes. It is difficult to discern her expression.
- Natalia was unfamiliar with the artist and subjects, but knew it was very common for the wealthy of Thalnotia to have tapestries made depicting their families. The party knew the last name "DeMarco" belonged to a certain lich guildmaster they knew in the capital city: Hugo.
- They also found a vase with an art style similar to that of a Grecian urn. It depicts a humanoid playing a game with a dragon. They didn't give this to Natalia though; it had been given to Quest, because they believed it to be one of his predecessors, Myren.
- The last thing they'd uncovered was a bronze circlet or small crown. It looks as though it may have once held a gem in its center but no longer does. The inside is engraved: "Our Warrior Queen Josephina, First & Always."
- Josephina was the first queen of the second empire of Thalnotia. Her king was Emmanuel.
Additionally, they'd also found a golden cage. Inside appeared to be some sort of construct about 3 feet tall, made of silver and brass, and wearing pointe shoes. Nana took the creature back to her room and attempted to fix it. It appeared to be alive, but very limited in its functions and missing parts. She didn't have the means to repair it. She inquired with Hero's Way about contracting an artificer, but none appeared to be available. Nana still knew, however, that Veers was on his way with his party, and therefore so was their artificer, Liam.
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| Quest Copper Dragon Demigod |
Later that same day, Queen Wisps arrived in Lanti, coming from Dragon's Valley where the party had asked her to go. She checked in with them and her son, where she was informed of everything except for Keviks actually being alive. She met him as Zephyr, under the amulet of disguise, the new hire.
The queen also pulled Nana aside for a short conversation, where she assured her that these were troubling times and she felt as though Nana had been doing a great job. She just wishes it was easier.
Wisps assured Nana, "You are just as much of a mother to my children as I am. You've raised them just as I have. I know you want the best for them, I know you love them. I know, even through all of this, you'll do your best by Fang."
Nana confessed, "There is one thing that we're keeping from you... but you have to trust us. It's for your safety. I've asked you to trust Fang, and he is one of the few people that also know about this."
"I'll speak to my son about it then, and we'll go from there."
~~~~~
The next day marked the arrival of King River in Lanti. He arrived with a rather large party of escorts and members of the royal court, who'd be here to assist in the upcoming political meeting. Riot Guard Captain Eli Hawks was here as well, who the party knew they wouldn't be able to trust.
Veers, Elicia, and Liam were also among them, and they split off to speak to the party privately.
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| Veers Changeling Hugo's Associate (Art by Claparo-Sans on DeviantArt) |
They also informed the party that there were three adventurers who came with Eli: a goliath woman, a changeling woman, and a golden dragonborn. None of them could be trusted.
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| Liam Human Artificer Friend of Veers, works for Hugo (Art by NoFlutter on DeviantArt) |
Liam was also informed of the construct they'd found. The party led him upstairs to see if he could fix it. He assured Veers and Elicia that he'd catch up with them later. When he saw the creature, his eyes widened.
"This is a Stonebridge model," he gasped.
He explained further that Stacie Stonebridge was a halfling artificer from Saspar who'd made the very first taskforged. His construct beetle, Hannibal, was originally a creation by Stacie Stonebridge.
This creature, although small, was a taskforged. After some repairs, Liam actually managed to get the creature to speak.
She introduced herself as Dancer, as that was her function: to dance. She knew that she was on board the ship because she'd been sold, but she wasn't sure to whom. The idea seemed to disgust Liam. He spoke very briefly about how taskforged and warforged were treated in Saspar. In short, poorly. Many were in the process of falling into disrepair and very few people had the skills required to truly maintain them. Older models couldn't get parts very often anymore, and many were killed or replaced in favor of newer models.
The party offered for Dancer to stay with them in the Cromdor Estate until she decided what she wanted to do, now that she was in Midtia. Nana also asked Veers if she could undergo a check-up herself. She'd been able to keep herself maintained for the time she'd been alive, but had never had an artificer look her over. Perhaps that would also be able to tell her something about her past that she'd forgotten, thanks to Kalicosio.
Liam said he'd be happy to perform a quick check-up.
~~~~~
ART LINKS
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4blGw4
https://twitter.com/wtfdoidraw
https://twitter.com/Sonnet_form/status/1074747966949224448
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/E2XEq
https://www.deviantart.com/claparo-sans/art/Punk-789871089
https://www.deviantart.com/noflutter/art/Steampunk-Han-Solo-678695197
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