The Kingsmoot Report

General Summary

After five days of anxious waiting and preparation, the Kingsmoot was about to begin. The six adventurers made their way to Turin's longhouse to meet with him and Brella to discuss their game plan. They all agreed to keep an eye out during the Kingsmoot and have each others backs in case everything went south. With that, the party made their way to Bulwark's courtyard, where the mass of the jarls and their entourages had already gathered. The adventurers joined them and waited for the true festivities to begin. Not long after the sun had set, and lanterns been lit, massive bonfires had been constructed outside, tables and chairs brought out along with a feast for the many warriors assembled there. Kaizzt, along with the other jarls, was invited to dine inside the keep, while the rest of the party joined the numerous warriors outside, socializing and partying. Inside, the jarls sat at a long table where they were given fine food and drink. At the head of the table was King Hungered Ralfson, and a man next to him, who could only have been Zurs, the head of the Brotherhood operation in Krakenheim. Before the eating had begun, Kaizzt introduced himself to Hungered, an energetic and charismatic man who was pleased to make his acquaintance. The warm feelings were not shared by Zurs, who rebuffed any attempts Kaizzt made at pleasantries. Sitting back down, he joined in the feast. As things were drawing to a close, Kaizzt spotted Jolund, the king's advisor, skirting along the edge of the room, talking to guards and performing other duties. He motioned to him, and the two began to discuss anything suspicious that Jolund might have seen. Jolund hinted that he had some valuable information, but that the Kingsmoot was not the place to do it. The two agreed to meet by the docks after the moot to exchange information. As the feast died down, it was announced that the Kingsmoot was to reconvene tomorrow at noon to talk about business. With that, the party gathered and made their way to the docks to meet with Jolund, but Naelen quickly noticed that the party had an onlooker as they were walking along. Acting quickly, they rounded a bend, while Sylvan scaled one of the nearby buildings. As their follower passed beneath him, Sylvan dropped down, using his momentum to bash him over the head, knocking him out cold. As they got a better look, they saw he was one of the monks that served the Scarlet Brotherhood. Seeing this an an ample opportunity Dream, Naelen and Sylvan dragged him to an abandoned warehouse to beat some information out of him, while Kaizzt, Clarimund and Martin continued their way to the docks. In the warehouse, the three tied the man to one of the wooden beams supporting the roof and gently woke him. Initially he didn't respond to any of their questions, and was still unresponsive to physical force, stating he "wasn't afraid of death" as he had "died once before". Darkening their methods, Sylvan threatened to send him to the River Styx and flashed him his short sword. The Brotherhood agent took this threat seriously and told the three of them that Zurs planned to use poison to kill Hungered. Figuring they wouldn't get anything else out of him, Dream took hold of Sylvan's sword and plunged it into the man's chest, killing him. At the docks, Kaizzt, Clarimund and Martin found Jolund waiting with a few soldiers at his side. Jolund informed them that based on his sources, he suspected that the Scarlet Brotherhood might make a move tomorrow, that Kaizzt's arrival and warm reception from King Hungered had expedited the Brotherhood's scheming. Not wanting to tarry long, the party left quickly after their exchange, regrouping with the other three. With the information they had both gathered, they had constructed an outline of the Brotherhood's plans for tomorrow. Thought they had gathered all the information they figured they could, Kaizzt was worried about Jolund's well being, and asked Sylvan and Dream to go check up on him while the rest of the group returned to the WInded Sail. Though the two did not find Jolund, they found a small sack, inside of which was a tongue and a finger, alongside a note, which read: "Jolund got what he deserved". While Dream and Sylvan assumed that Jolund had met his final fate, they didn't want to leave him at the hands of Brotherhood agents if there was even a chance he was alive. So the two tried to make their way to the Brotherhood ship for one more sweep, unfortunately, they triggered a magical alarm, which alerted those on deck.  Waiting a moment to see what would happen, a man with a staff exited the captain's quarters, casting a spell, and immediately locked eyes with the two.  Realizing he could see them, they bolted, but not before they were struck in the back by an arc of arcane lightning.  Fleeing the scene, they made their way to the Winded Sail, and licking their wounds they told the party they weren't able to learn anything from the ship. Showing the tongue and finger to the rest of the group, an air of somberness hung over the party, as they felt that they had put Jolund to close to harm's way.  At this point, it was two past midnight, so the party decided to rest and recuperate so that they would be ready for the meeting in the afternoon.  When they woke up, Sylvan prepared a hearty meal before they stopped by Jarl Turin's longhouse for one last meeting with him and Brella.  The party told the two what they had learned, that Zurs planned to poison the king at some point during the meeting and both agreed to have Kaizzt's back during the proceedings, no matter what happened. They then set to planning, as everyone wanted to be two steps away from the meeting in case anything happened. Martin and Clarimund decided to wait outside Bulwark's walls, while Sylvan had the crazy idea to pose as a female chef from the Great Northern Kingdom, and bring Dream as his bodyguard, hoping that they would be able to search the kitchens and ensure no poison made it into the food. There might have been protest to his idea, but he opened his argument with an impressive disguise, which stunned everyone because of how convincing it was. Naelen and Kaizzt wanted to enter the Kingsmoot openly, hoping that the guards might allow it since he was a cleric, and one of Procan no less. Now that everyone knew what they were doing, they enacted their plan. With Naelen in tow, Kaizzt made his way to Bulwark, and after some smooth persuasion, the guards allowed Naelen to attend. Sylvan and Dream both made their way to the kitchens, and though they were stopped by a guard, Sylvan's faux fiery temper was enough to intimidate the guard into leaving his post. Making his way into the kitchen, Sylvan began shouting orders at servants and mocking chefs for their terrible work at preparing the food. Being shocked at this sudden and unexpected entrance, many of them made their way out of the kitchen, frightened and confused. When the two were sure that the staff had left, they tore up the kitchen, but unfortunately, they found no poison, and had to cook food for everyone at the Kingsmoot by themselves. Back at the keep, Kaizzt had been seated at a large round table along with the other jarls and Zurs, while Naelen stood by the wall, patiently observing. As the meeting began, King Ralffson asked if anyone had anything they would like to bring up before they moved onto the matter of Kaizzt. There were requests from a few jarls asking for the king's permission to go on raids to the south, some were granted it, some denied. A few other issues came up, such as reports from the northern border, but not much else. It was at this point that Sylvan and Dream had made their way up to serve food to the jarls. King Hungered was immedately enamored by Sylvan's appearance and greeted him with a kiss on the hand, not knowing his appearance was a disguise, which tickled Sylvan. King Hungered then moved on to the issue of Kaizzt, and asked the jarls what they thought of him. Though a little more than half of them had no strong opinions of him, those who he had met spoke strongly in favor of him, such as Brella, Turin and Tamain. Aemar and Willeim both seemed to agree with these sentiments though did not speak up. King Hungered, seemed to want more support before he made a decision, but it was at this point that Zurs spoke up, strangely speaking in Kaizzt's favor, and proposing a toast in his name. This seemed to clear the air of uncertainty and brought focus to the food and drink at hand. Acting quickly, Dream took to pouring out drinks, ensuring that there was no poison in the bottle, and to the best of his abilities, he couldn't find any. At this point, now that all had their drinks and began to lift their cups to their lips. Naelen noticed an anomaly of sorts, as if time had skipped a beat. Knowing this was the time to intervene, he shouted at the top of his lungs for everyone to drop their drinks as they had been poisoned. This caused a bit of shock among those there, who either spilled their drinks in surprise or put them back on the table. Kaizzt went one step further by standing atop the table, throwing the finger and tongue that more than likely were Jolund's at his feet and accused Zurs of killing him. Though the jarls stood still, mouths agape, and not sure what to say, Zurs flew into a panic and a frenzy, screaming at Kaizzt in rage, and cast Finger of Death on him. Though the blast of necrotic energy threw him to the ground, it did not outright kill him. Those of the party there flew into action, Dream trying to hold Zurs still while he threw bolts of arcane lightning at Kaizzt and Naelen, who were both doing their best to survive, while Sylvan went to work slicing Zurs into ribbons. Though he put up a fight, we was outnumbered and backed into a corner, not a good place for even a wizard as powerful as he to be, and was slain by Sylvan's blade. As the panic in the room died down, the jarls one by one saluted the party, and declared their support in naming Kaizzt the jarl of the Horseman's Valley. Immediately moving onto the next order of business, King Hungered commanded the castle guard to descend onto the Brotherhood ship in town. The group made their way there, but by that time, the agents had either been slain or subdued. Searching the ship one more time, this time entering the captain's quarters, they found a large sum of gold pieces, and a letter written in a foreign language. They also found a strange lanky creature that had been killed in the fight, though no one had any clue what it was. Returning to Bulwark, King Hungered awarded the party the ship, and offered to have it fixed and fitted with new adornments. The next day Kaizzt attended his oath ceremony, and was given a silver arm ring, binding him to his station, finalizing nearly a year's worth of effort.

Rewards Granted

• 8400 XP divided six ways
• 2100 gold pieces
• Elixir of Health
• Sailing ship

Missions/Quests Completed

A Crimson Plot: Complete!

Notes

Started on 15th of Ready'reat, 600 CY
Ended on 16th of Ready'reat, 600 CY