07 Political Mishaps

General Summary

The whole party goes downstairs, sans Aramys, who seems to be missing. Sadly, since the group is going to meet the King today, so they don't have time to look for her.   As they are walking to the castle, they pass a darker-skinned human man, who says: "Do you get to the Cloud District very often? Oh, what am I saying, of course not."  

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  The castle has walls surrounding it, with guards carrying bows on top of it. When Belladonna gets to the guard, she asks for access to the castle. The guard's eyes go white for a moment, and after they go back to normal, he gestures to a guard on top of the wall, who then lowers the drawbridge.   Inside the walls, there is a beautiful garden with trees that seem higher than the wall itself, although from the outside, they cannot be seen. The trees have vines growing from them, animals jumping from one tree to another, there are bushes and flowers and saplings on the ground, it all looks very beautiful and fairytale-like.
As they keep walking, they step over a bridge. There's a small river with fish jumping up, turtles swimming around, and many other small, beautiful creatures.   When they reach the castle, the guards' eyes go white again - Elzador realizes, that this is a means of communicating between the castle guards. Using Detect Magic, he also notices that the guards' bracers glow with Evocation. The guard lets them inside the castle, but urges them to leave their weapons outside.   Inside the castle, they see a small halfling lady, waiting for them there. She asks for the group to follow them, and leads them to one of the castle's towers, inside a "conference room".  

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  The King enters the room. She is a tall Elven woman, her hair is in intricate braids, shes wearing a royal blue dress with golden details, a golden necklace, and a wooden royal scepter, which kind of seems like a druid staff, since it seems to have been naturally carved from wood. It is a long staff, at the top, the wood branches out, holding in it a glass ball.   She steps sits down across from Belladonna, and asks the guards to leave them. Belladonna introduces herself and Chip, who immediately presents her with the vase he brought. She thanks him, accepts the gift, and assures him that he has no need to be nervous. She then introduces Elzador. The King makes a comment connecting him to the Petlynn family.  

We have some very sobering news regarding the overthrow of my father's kingdom.

— Belladonna

  The King immediately says that, as she understood, her father never had a kingdom, per se. Bella answers, that for a brief moment they did, and during that time they managed to decentralize the mining operations, spreading it across the clans, making it more profitable. She says that, even though the "kingdom" was overthrown, she wants to bring it back, saying that it would be very beneficial not just to the dwarves, but to other kingdoms as well, with creating trade routes and similar projects.   The King says that she has diplomatic alliences with the actual Kingdom of Wirenth. That her father did not have a kingdom, they were the rulers of a clan of dwarves. A clan of rebels.   Belladonna offers an alliance, that she and her friends would help the King find the local doppelgängers who mean harm to Killahead, and in return, the King would support the Blackstones and help recreate the Dwarven kingdom.  

I already know there are doppelgängers, and I know who they are. They're refugees.

— Kloran, the King of Killahead

  She tells them about the doppelgänger society of UnderTown, where politically things went bad, so some of them came up to Killahead to ask the King for help. She gave them new lives, to help them hide from their own society. They were accepted into the populous of Killahead after vigorous mental capacity tests, to make sure they would not turn on the Kingdom.   She asks why she should help Belladonna, considering that she already has diplomatic ties to the Elves ruling Wirenth. Belladonna answers this question by saying that the dwarves have been treated badly. The dwarves could make the King much, much richer.   The King says that she already has trade routes with the Elves, who control the Dwarves, who control the mining operations. Bella tries to counter this by saying that Dwarves ruling over Dwarves was more productive and more profitable.   Elzador makes a comment saying that he does not believe the King has a watch on all of the local doppelgängers, since the group has evidence of one of the doppelgängers murdering someone.  

And you believe I am not aware of these things? That doppelgänger has been caught and tried and found guilty.

— Kloran, the King of Killahead

  The group then starts questioning the King's capabilities, which makes her snap at the group. She slams her scepter on the ground, at which the doors to the room open, and guards come rushing in. With the guards, a few noble-looking Elves enter the room as well. Belladonna recognizes them as members of the court of Wirenth.   Chip starts apologizing to the King, trying to persuade her to let them leave, saying that the information that they were given was false. That they did not intend to insult her in any way.
Elzador tries to persuade her as well, saying that, as the sole heir of the Petlynn estate, he has influence. At which the King snaps at him, saying that the Petlynn estate is nothing, it has demolished, and he is not a part of that family anymore. At which Elzador makes a veiled threat towards the King.   The Elves of Wirenth announce that Belladonna is now arrested and will be brought to justice in Wirenth. The guards have now manacled the three party members, who feel their magic being dampened, and Bella's connection to her ancestors is waning.   They are led to a room on the first floor of the castle, where Elzador notices sigils on the ground. This is a teleportation room.  

Take her home. We're going to execute her there.

— and Elf of Wirenth

  They step through the portal and are now in Wirenth. They are led to the dungeon of the castle, and thrown in a cell. Their manacles are removed, but the party members still feel their magic being dampened, guessing that it is an effect of the cell they are in. They also took Flaskie from Belladonna.   Inside the cell, the party members are now panicking and throwing blame on one another.  

We should not have trusted that turtle man!

— Elzador

  In the cell, Elzador fesses up and lets them know that he has some truth serum tea in a flask with him, since they may find a use for that.   Elza tries to ask the guard if there has been anyone by the name of Petlynn in the dungeon before, and gets an answer from another cell. Belladonna recognizes the other person's voice, but doesn't know where from. When asked who he is, he says he is Nobody. Bella asks if he knows a dwarf by the name of Felix, to which he answers: "Felix? Haven't heard that name in a long while."   Chip lets the man know what day and year it is, and he answers saying that in that case, he's been there for two years at least. When asked about the Blackstone family, he says that as far as he knows, they were all killed. The guard then snaps at them to stay quiet.   Belladonna figures that she could probably find the keystone of the cell wall, the one stone that holds it all together, that, once removed, would bring the wall tumbling down.     Stone wall scene transcription    

I knew dwarves were into rocks, but I did not know it was on that level.

— Elzador

  Belladonna finds the keystone and yeets it out. The wall opens up to another cage, but this one is empty, and thus, the door is open. They run out, and on the way, they find a chest with flaskie in it, Bella immediately grabs it. Elzador sees a royal blue cape in the chest as well, and decides to take that with them. They run up the stairs and come across five guards.   Elzador casts Fear on them, making three of them drop their weapons, and jump out of an open window. Belladonna picks up two swords, and they keep running. Elza uses some more illusion spells to slow the guards down.   They reach the room with the portal to Arcadia, where Elza turns Chip and Bella invisible, and uses his Disguise Self necklace to make him blend in. They leave the castle, go to the top of the wall, and climb down with the use of a rope on the other side, jump over the small river, and run away.
Before Elzador goes down the rope, he creates a big illusion of a giant dark red creature with huge horns coming from the ground of the garden.   They run to the one place they know nobody would look for them - Namys' home.

Notes

The rude human dude's name is Meezan.
In this game we find out that Belladonna was never actually a royal.