Session 39: The Warfront Report

General Summary

Recap: Standing in front of the infamous Blackwater Castle, the party enters, lead by Frictimen. The corridors of this bastion of stone are winding and confusing, much like the cityscape itself. Frictimen explains that the path to the throne room is shown by a line of what looks like dried blood on the floor of the corridor. On the walk to the throne room, the party sees that Trinum's more 'important' individuals are denoted by some kind of color amid their garb, while the common foot soldiers seem to just wear bland, neutral colors. Not only that, but slaves of all races seem to be a common sight here, especially within the castle walls.   At the throne room itself, a large inscription above the door reads "There are no rules in my kingdom, only consequences." Entering in, the party gets a glimpse of the imposing figure that is Trinum's king; aptly named "The Bloody King." It appears as though the court is in session, and a man pleads for his, trying to convince the king that the escape of a prisoner was not his fault. The king quickly tires of the man pleas, and makes him explode in a burst of blood, seemingly just out of sheer will. With that intimidating display, the king shifts his focus over to the party, curious about the new blood in his throne room.   The king seems happy to see Frictimen, and even happier that he's managed to secure Northal's, and by association, Secrix and Lessou's allegiance to the Bloodfire Compact. As such, the king holds a small buffet in celebration, while the rest of the party tensely introduce themselves. This king, seemingly keen to take the opportunity to have new allies handle his dirty work, quickly offer the party a job to help capture that said escaped prisoner he'd just killed a man over. The party, out of either service, perhaps fear, or even the offered reward of a ship accept the king's mission, and take to learning as much as they can of this prisoner's escape. They're quickly told to check the prisoner's former cell, where they can confer with the current person investigating this trail, Adelina Cromwell; Celrin's former superior officer.   Adelina seems surprised to see the party, and maintains her disdained attitude towards them, especially given their association with Frictimen. Regardless, she understands that they're now working together, and gives them her theory as to what'd happened. While it's unknown how the escapee, Celvern Salia, who also was Celrin's father and prolific general of the Salia military, managed to break free, Adelina believes the current trail is far too obvious, and was an intentional misdirection away from his actual path towards the Kingdom of Mistril. Adelina tells the party that they are to chase after her hunch, while she pursues the more obvious trail through Begolia.   Wanting to catch up quickly, the party buys a couple of horses, and sets off southward from Blackwater Castle. They eventually come across the signs of Celvern's passing in the clearly hunted carcass of an elk. As such, they continue their trail, and set up camp during the night. While Sha's on watch, she's caught within a trap set around the perimeter of the camp, waking up the whole party. Some of them are reluctant to believe her being caught, which frustrates Sha, but regardless it seems like they should be careful from hereon in.   Another day of travel goes by, and the frequency of traps is beginning to become alarming. Additionally, Sha notices an errant crow that's been following them, and asks Thornelius to shoot it down, which he does. Going to bed for another night, Sha begins to have a nightmare of what she's been fearing for the longest time; the pursuit of the Shadar-Kai. A menacing elf assaults her within her dreams, telling her he's hot on her trail, and preventing her from restful sleep. Sha begins to create a backup plan for hiding what she knows, reciting it to the talking doll she'd acquired, and burning the traces of it within her book. While she tried to sleep once again, hours later, herself and Thornelius were hypnotized and charmed by Mauwkus, while he dispatched of Thornelius' Steel Defender. Searching through Sha's belongings, Mauwkus found her book, but seemed unsatisfied that he couldn't find anything within its contents. Sensing that his charm was soon to fade, he skulked off back into the night.   Thornelius and Sha escaped their stupor, and began to wake up the rest of the party; letting them know what'd just occurred. Now it seems like they're going to have to try to capture this prisoner while also being harassed by an old, yet menacingly clever antagonist.

Notes

In Game Date (dd/mm/yyyy): 12/15/1196—13/15/1196