01 The Wedding Gift Report
General Summary
The Air Genasi Jinx successful fools a family of halflings in Reki Kraya and is paid to “exorcise a ghost". After a stranger approaches her and lets her know that the Hembrooks have been talking to a different Halfling family and seemed to become suspicious of her. The man introduces himself as Viktor and offers her a job in exchange for legal amnesty and protection. He brings her to his boss, a little Gnomish woman called “R” or “Barb”, as Jinx calls her, and she gives her and the Mage Orsik a quest to disturb the wedding of princess Damara. It seems that no one is invited to her wedding with Duke Boric in Astur Halda, at the border between Nedabis and Dragons Cradle.
That is suspicious, as the duke is very influential. He has a lot of power in Dragon's Cradle, but he has also bought a lot of ground in Nedabis. With this wedding the power dynamics in the Empire may shift, which would potentially lead to another Civil War as there are several people with claim to the Throne. The mission "Barb" (or "Ripple " as Orsik calls her) is handing out to Jinx and Orsik is to sabotage the wedding by any means.
The plan foresees Orsik to receive an invitation to the wedding by a small Tabaxi kid in Kadmirana, a small town in Dragon's Cradle, which also locates a shop called "Joe's sandals", which can provide the characters with magic goods. As directed by Ripple, Orsik and Jinx look for a Tabaxi called Khajit in Reki Kraya. Also an Earth Genasi named Caldyr is supposed to meet and help them later. They find the Tabaxi entertaining some street urchin kids with simple magic. He wants to be taken back to Ripple to receive clarifications about the contract. Ripple displays her true Tabaxi form and greets them. As Jinx talks about life on the streets, she shows empathy. In order to sabotage the wedding, Khajit receives a vial filled with foul black liquid; which they are to put on the princess' wedding dress shortly before the ceremony.
The party starts travelling the next day and reaches Kadmirana the following day. The group starts looking for the Tabaxi kid with the invite for Orsik. They spot "Tuma " who is in a quarrel with some local merchants. The group is helping Tuma to escape from the merchants, fighting the following guards with with frozen apples. Tuma hands them the invite, which is for the “Dancing Gryphons”, a group of travelling bard. Jinx feels pity for the street kid, throws him one gold coin and advices him to improve his street game, e.g. by purchasing one of the blue scarves the local merchants are wearing as a badge of their trade.
The party looks for Joe's sandals and after some initial small talk, Khajit has an intimate one-on-one with the store owner, who gifts him a magical butt plug (with decorative tail) in exchange for a lick on his smelly Tabaxi feet.
Slag the Earth Genasi (and old friend of Khajit) arrives. The group stays the night at the tavern, and together they continue their journey to the wedding ceremony.
Austur Halds is a great defensive castle built on a small mountain. Once the group arrives at the castle gates, an old guard at the entry informs them that the invite is not up-to-date and has been retracted. A new act has been hired for entertainment at the wedding: "The Zinnanon Circus”. After Slag convinces the guard, that he is a Dhussin diplomat, the guard calls for Orwellis de Suan, the duke's chief advisor (and wedding planer). But even after trying their best to perform as "The Dancing Gryphons", the party is not allowed inside the castle walls.
Khajit quickly decides to use one of the incoming supply wagons as decoy and hides underneath it, followed by Jinx; Orsik uses his undead followers to create a distraction inside and sneaks in as well. Inside the castle, Jinx starts working together with the castle's servants and tries to get as much information on the wedding as possible. The stableboy tells her about his crush, a kitchen maid, and the whereabouts of the Zinnanon Circus and their “pets”; following his words, she finds the creatures to be in dire condition. Everyone starts snooping around the premises until Orsik, Jinx and Khajit meet in the princess’ chambers. Slag decides to guard the door. Inside the room they see the wedding dress, but a set of colourful gems draws Orsik’s and Jinx’ attention; after some rather unsuccessful attempts (leading to energy surges and an attack of a gargoyle statue), they manage to crack the code and a door, previously hidden behind the wall opens, revealing a stairway down into the mountain. Until now, Slag has been waiting in front of the door, trying to distract a servant who wanted to bring chocolate chip cookies into the princess’ room. Slag offers to put the tray inside for him. Jinx snatches the tray (as well as the gems) and the group makes their way down the stairs - but not after Khajit hid the wedding dress on the roof of the castle.
They hear a noise from below and Slag suddenly finds himself standing in front of the princess, after a quick but very unsuccessful talk, he panics and hits her unconscious. Before losing consciousness, the princess manages to grab on to her amulet (shape of a heart). The group drags her deeper into the mountain, where they find a huge treasure pile. A few moments pass in which everyone gets to look around and loot, then guards, alerted by the princess' amulet, find and attacks the characters. Khajit and Slag kill the torches, leaving the room in darkness, which gives the mixed-race party a huge advantage over the approaching guards. After successfully defeating the two waves of guards and even more looting, the group flees back to the princess’ room. Orsik sacrifices his undead servants as a distraction and the party has enough time to flee out of the window.
Guard spot the party as they flee, and a chase ensues. Using their skills, magic abilities and butt plugs, the party leaves their pursuers behind. After crossing the river Stora Straumur, and entering the marshland, they decide to rest on a little grass hill. Before falling asleep, the characters divide the looted magical items and attune to them. Orsik visits Ripples dreams to ask her for advice/orders.
Waking up, the characters realize that they have been followed, not only by the duke, but by a whole horde of Kobolds and dragonfolk. On the order of the Duke, the Kobolds start to attack. Meanwhile, the dragonfolk soldiers start chanting. Seeing the approaching army and evaluating his chances, Khajiit turns into a raven and flies away. Slag puts the tied up princess on a horse and sends the horse in a different direction. Then he takes a stand and awaits the approaching Kobold army. The Kobolds, while running at full speed, approach slowly on the swampy underground. Shortly before the Kobolds reach Slag, he sees a giant flying beast approach from the West. He realizes it is an undead bone dragon, summoned by the chanting dragonfolk. Seeing this, Jinx and Orsik jump on their horses and flee as well. But they are too slow for the dragon, which attacks Jinx and her horse with his breath of bone shards. Slag, waiting in hiding for the approaching dragon, attacks the flying beast in the air and latches himself firm under the skeletal wing. His successful attack sways the morale of his companions as Khajiit, Jinx and Orsik turn around and start attacking the dragon as well. During the fight, Orsik obliterates the Kobold army as well as most of the dragonfolk AND Orwellis de Suan with three Fireballs, completely emptying his magic resources. Jinx is on the brink of death (after being stomped by the dragon), but Khajiit deals the killing blow to the giant, enormous, what-the-fuck, undead dragon. Duke Boric, seeing his defeated army and dragon, turns around and flees towards the baggage train.
The party decides to catch the princess (on the stray horse) again and keep her for further interrogation. It seems that the royal family once had been cursed, and the curse led to the princess being touched by dragon blood, leading to her slow transition. Her motives for the transition are yet unclear to the party.
