Session 15 Report

General Summary

Upon waking in the morning, Paul comes downstairs late and immediately begins to talk to the group, telling them about where he'd gone the night before - the Assembly had hired him back when they were in the Nexus to follow the group around and spy on their behalf and he had met up to meet with an agent but no longer wanted anything to do with them. They'd also given him a strange golden potion, which the party inspected suspiciously before eventually deciding to taste, one by one, much to Helianthus's dismay.   Most of them felt a sensation of warmth spreading through their body, hotter if they drank more, while Paul felt a physical pain. Cecilia eventually downed the rest and, a moment later, doubled over in pain. Her mind cleared and when she stood up again, she was shocked at her behavior the night before and told the group her own secret - an entity had visited her the night before and instilled anger within her, which explained her furious reaction to the group's shenanigans.   Unnerved, the party left the inn and headed out of the city, taking the long route to Currest from the Reach to avoid getting tangled up with the Assembly. They traveled along the path through the woods and a little over halfway to the town, they encountered something strange.   A beast, about the size of a horse, with ink-black feathers, similar in shape to a hippogriff, but instead of wings were another pair of limbs ending in talons. Its face was, to their horror, human-like, with a mouth that stretched to the sides of its neck. It was attacking a travelling merchent and they swiftly came to his rescue, killing the beast.   The merchant thanked them with one of his wares - a rusted, old amulet that he promised would get them a fair bit of gold, as well as information. He had come from Currest and warned them about a group of Kobold living outside the town walls, as well as a heads up about the security measures at the gate, although he was quite vague. He only instructed them to obey and not try to fight the security.   They traveled along until rustling up in the trees alerted Silas and Helianthus. The latter managed to dodge out of the way as an attack from above sent darts sailing down and into the necks of the party members. Silas and Brian went down quickly while Cecilia and Paul managed to stay on their feet a little longer to wound their attackers. Cecilia managed to kill one of them and a Kobold tumbled from the trees. However, more darts eventually knocked the rest out, leaving Paul the last one standing until he, too, succumbed to sleep.   They awoke in the kobold's camp, all tied tight, with Cecilia outside (as she did not fit in the small branch hut). They struggled to figure out where they had ended up and were eventually joined by two kobold that were identical, save for their bright tattoos, one, named Dragon, with bright blue and red markings and the other, named Imagine, with bright yellow and green. Dragon at first questioned them angrily, shouting at them and demanding to know who they were, why they were at Currest, and where they had "the Queen." Expressing confusion and talking in circles with the angry kobold, Imagine stepped forward to explain - their Queen, who never left their camp, had gone missing and they were capturing and questioning any strangers that came or left Currest.   Understanding that they meant no harm, Imagine had them released, much to Dragon's annoyance, and asked them to please look out for their Queen, as they were lost without her and could not get into the village themselves.   They finished the journey to Currest and, at the gate, when asked their intentions, told them they were looking for cults of Malkuth. The guard refused them, saying that there were no cults around here, but after protesting, a man stepped out, dressed in dark robes. He had each of them touch his hand and used an unknown magic on them to inspect them, one by one, flitting through memories to gauge their intentions.   Both Silas and Paul garnered the slightest reaction and, upon inspecting them all, told them that they had a dangerous item in their possession, specifically Cecilia's. Unable to remember what items they had, they talked, again, in circles for a moment before the man simply searched her and pulled out the dark orb that she'd taken from the Pit. After carefully inspecting it, he explained that this creation could potentially put them in direct contact with Malkuth and Helianthus turned on Cecilia, furious, saying that it explained why she had been visited by a strange presence and given seeds of anger - it had been Malkuth and the orb's fault all along.   Interested in their story, the man invited them into the town and into the Town Hall, where Cecilia told him about the strange dream she'd had and the anger she'd been consumed by, and Paul told him about the potion that had cured her. He was interested in it and understanding Cecilia's plight, as Malkuth enjoyed toying with people and causing strife in relationships. He invited them to stay in the empty rooms upstairs in the town hall before leaving with the orb.   The party, trusting him, hung around, questioning the guards and a random secretary about the kobold Queen, but got no useful information - the people of this town didn't seem to like the kobolds very much. Eventually they ran into the man again, who had introduced himself as Nilanir, and he explained that they kept out of the kobold's business and had no reason to keep their Queen, and the cults in the area most likely would not either.   With no new information, the party retreated to seperate rooms to rest, only to fall asleep for far too long. For the second time in a day, they woke up in a place where they hadn't fallen asleep. A large, open room, dark, with no door and glowing runes crawling along the walls. A figure approached them, a goblin, who said that they kept the others off of 'new meat'. Curious, they asked who they were but the party was initially hostile, believing this to be a guard. But they laughed, saying that they were locked in here with them.   Another figure approached, interested, but as soon as Silas protested, they froze, as if recognizing his voice. Stepping forward just a little more, he came into view and the party was all shocked to realize that they were looking at Colter.

Rewards Granted

An old, rusted amulet given to them by the merchant they saved (in posession of Helianthus)