A Portentous Audition

Political event

The Circle of Six travel to the Audition and face the Trials to Audition for The Troupe.

The Circle of Six decide to make our attempt now through the Cemetery.   Thuniel goes to visit her mother and she is there with the well-to-dos (Agarean House - they have their own box, Presrell family, Sageshine, latter two are minor houses) Thuniel warns her mom that The Troupe might not be done with our family. She asks if she needs to leave and Thuniel says stay in company and leave if anything untoward happens. Maellewyn asks for her parasol from the carriage and Thuniel fetches it for her.   It takes us about an hour to get to the cemetery. We have to look for the entrance. They take some carraiges from Thuniels Family and are tracked the majority of the way. The party decides to bail out of the carriage and see if they follow there tail. An elven woman with a bow, a large man, and an pale gnome boy follow the carriage. Caia’s summons her familiar Ebony in the form of an invisible sprite to follow them.   The cathedral and the large graveyard it littered with mausoleums and statues. Thuniel finds a statue of an old king that has harlequin makeup painted on his face. The area is old. There are brambles coming out of the mausoleum. Alcath sees old footprints, and in the area there’s an off old-looking cat watching the area. It looks suspiciously like the little creepy gnome, greenish fur, pink beard, and funny hair. Gilly goes to pet it. The footsteps lead to a wall. The cat is super curious once we approach the wall. It climbs up Caia’s arm to see over her shoulder. The wall is not trapped, but there’s a button to make something happen. Ebony returns to inform the party there pursuers have stopped following the carriage and are returning. Caia says to take their cat if they don’t want it to die and it turns into a cat-looking bird and flies away. They move the brick and it opens to a dark cavern that smells of death.   Brerenax casts light and we get Febreze oil. Caia brings her familiar to come near her and watch the outside of the wall. Thuniel sets up a little trap of sleepy time gas.   The enter the way leading to the old king’s tomb, with a crypt and a statue of the long forgotten king. A ladder descends down into a featureless room. There’s a linear series of stone crypts that end at a dead end and the walls are lined with slabs. Gilly tosses ball bearings down into the dark without stepping off the ladder, then hears sounds of stirring. She tries to see what is making the noise. Gilly sneaks down to the end of the hall and it’s a flat wall, but nothing happens. Gilly finds the wall is pushable and there’s a revolving door at the end of the hallway and it’s enough room for Gilly to get through. She makes it big enough for most of us to pass.   Six skeletons animate and move toward the ladder. Gilly hides herself in the Shadow of the door. Thuniel damages one with her daggers and then steps out of the way of the ladder and draws her sword. Caia spells several of them to dust and the rest are so damaged they crumble instantly.   Gilly feels wind blowing into the room and sees a long, cavernous cave past the door. We steal the ladder and close the door. We hear someone shouting “What’s going on down there? What happened to the ladder?” Crash “I’m feeling so sleepy.” “Ah, McSwole is gonna get ‘em.” The large man calling himself McSwole jumps down and then passes out.   Alcath finds clear tracks within the last week that lead us somewhere. We wind our way through the cave for a couple of hours. We follow the tracks to another revolving door. It’s weird that there’s a giant cave system under the city. There’s not much evidence of anything besides the footprints. Alcath thinks it was probably carved out by a dragon, centuries ago.   Entering the room is another crypt. It is adorned with four statues of faceless people. They could be any race and are well-carved. They are surrounding a throne where a blindfolded skeleton is sitting. Littered in the rubble are three large braziers opposite the throne. As soon as they enter, his head turns to look. The king lifts circled fingers up to his eye to watch us. The king watches Brerenax and points to the brazier.   The braziers all hold different things. One has treasure, one is full of magical items, and center one has a single purple velvet box in the bottom. The king holds out two dice, doesn’t respond to speech. Brerenax tries to take just one die, but when Gilly takes the other, it disappears and appears in Brerenax’s hand. Thuniel determines that the brazier’s are there for us to make a sacrifice, but when she tries to give her jewels, they appear back on her hands. The king continues to point at the Dragonborn, who finally rolls. He starts to uncontrollably vomit. He is poisoned and exhausted. The king points at Thuniel, who offers her jewelry, then the king points at Gilly who contributes platinum bars to the brazier, then Aela who contributes a +1 longsword to the pot. Caia contributes two scrolls to the magical items cauldron. Moz adds a her staff of birdcalls. Alcath checks out the box in the center brazier, and discovers necromantic energy. Alcath rolls the dice and feels lighter and more dexterous. A key appears in Brerenax’ hand, a skeleton finger with a triangular toothed end.   The door opens to the next room. In the center of the large, square room is a shallow pool and a huge obsidian skull in the water. A triangular key floating above the skull. Doors face them on each wall. Caia’s mage hand doesn’t work and an arrow can’t knock it out. Thuniel walks to the front of the skull, in the water are cannonball sized gemstones. The skull is grinning. Two cannonball gemstones in the eye sockets. One is red and one is blue. Gems in the water are in a row and they are clear, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and black.   Alcath is looking at the doors, and sees more of the faceless statues and he notices the symbol of The Traveler, and he knows what is going on. He sees the symbol for just a moment, then the pattern on the wall changes. Gilly picks up the purple stone and puts it in the skull, but feels water filling her lungs and she throws up water. Now she is fine and the gem is sitting there. Aela tries the clear gem and the force field flickers out and the key falls on top of the skull. The doors all open.   One of the rooms has intricate carvings on the floor. One has a pillar with a key chained to the top. One has a big pedestal in the middle with a key on it.   The Six go through into a room with a big cavern. There are faceless heads placed around. There’s a cylindrical post with a bronze key atop it. Caia tries to mage hand it and it doesn’t work. Caia looks around and watches the room door shut with a portcullis nearly catching Alcath. The is a black liquid flowing sideways across the floor is actually grease and slippery, looks like ichor. Beneath the flow is a pit.   The moment they enter the room, Gilly hides, Aela dodges, the party hears a grinding sound like something is moving. Holes open in the walls and a bolt hits Caia in the back. Alcath sprints to the edge and immediately falls through floating oil. Alcath Misty Steps back up and is covered in oil now. Caia steps back out of the way of bolt holes. Moz dodges. Thuniel leaps over the gap and sees that the key is very trapped and the pole is forty feet tall and greased up. Brerenax throws a javelin and misses, then comes back covered in oily ichor.   Gilly decides to rope up and have Brerenax toss her over the gap. Aela Misty Steps and then more holes open up. The bolts strike most of the party and Thuniel gets pushed off the ledge into the ichor. Alcath tries to climb the pole and gets halfway. Moz turns into a bird and flies to the pole. Thuniel rises back up swearing and readies to dodge. Brerenax throws Gilly across the chasm and now the rope is covered in oil. Gilly readies a dodge. Aela gets her wings out and goes up to swing at the key. The key falls and all the rocks start to fall as well. The pole starts to fall and the key isn’t being held up and we are all falling. Caia casts feather fall on all of us. Moz grabs the key and we all make it back to the ledge and the door has opened.   Caia casts prestidigitation and cleans the party off. They travel back in the center room and decide to go to the The chamber with smooth stone and a carved relief of a faceless head in the floor. There are intricate carvings dedicated to the Traveler. In the floor relief, multiple arms extend out to statues in each corner of the room. The floor is covered in rubble with nooks and such to hide in. The unsettling wave comes over the party two dead bodies are lying next to the face at discovered. Alcath investigates the bodies and finds they are both halflings, they have a hand crossbow and four bolts, a pouch of sand. One was poisoned. The other died from an arcane death. There seem to be four key-sized slots where things have been set down, but are currently not there.   Investigating the statues, they are obelisks with scenes carved into them and a keyhole in each of them. The four different scenes, hooded figure selling goods to paupers and old people, one has piles of treasure, one has an insect holding a blade in its pincers sitting atop a throne, and a hooded figure stealing from an identical hooded figure. The party finds three keys tossed around the room. One was close to the bodies, the other two seem just discarded.   The door across the room is closed. All of the footprints over there are headed INTO the room, none, going out. All of the keys we found correspond with one of the obelisks. One is gaudy and gold, one is worn and old, one is insectoid. We are missing the one relating to The Traveler stealing from himself. Caia casts detect magic and sees that the keys have the same magic as the related obelisks. The footprints have at least five or six distinct patterns and sizes. Thuniel thinks maybe this room has been accomplished already. Someone has taken the key.   The party heads to the final room and look for the other group. There is a ten foot ledge all around the room, statue in the middle, braziers, and rubble. Brerenax gets a familiar feeling as it looks like an arena or fighting pit. A magical vault door towers at the far end with 5 triangular key holds. . As The Six enter, the door seals, a bright light permeates the space. Dazed from the light, a cobra-like dragon appears, shining brightly. It sits and looks expectantly at the group. Alcath knows it is not very common type of dragon, but not exactly what it is. Gilly starts to sneak around the front and she sees there’s a key hanging from the statues front.   Alcath asks "What the dragon is doing here?" The Dragon replies it is charged to guard the treasure and will blind us with its brilliance. Alcath asks if it will let us through without a conflict and it says it needs to protect the key and it will let us go if we don’t want the key. Alcath indicates we might want it, and it says no. In a whirlwind of motes of starlight starts whirling around the dragon stretching ten feet out from her. Thuniel tries to hit it and the arrow disappears in the light. Dragon jumps up and flies over to hit four people with an icy breath weapon. She lands in the middle of a group and the light incapacitates many members of the group. Caia heals with her cannon. Alcath can’t look at the dragon without saving again, so he leaves the aura and tries to battle it. The dragon moonbeams Alcath.   Brerenax tries to look at it to get in position to flank and the light takes hold an he is incapacitated. Gilly climbs up the statue to the key. The key is attached by a chain that cannot be removed. Aela also looks at the Dragon and she falls. Moz summons a totem of the Diplodocus. Thuniel tries to shoot the key off the statue and damages the chain, but misses the second shot. The dragon summons a huge collection of energy and shoots it toward Thuniel, with luck and skill the blast misses. Alcath shoots again. Caia casts reduce and shrinks the statue, the chain and key stay the same and can now be grabbed off the statue. Brerenax pulls out the lute and casts inspiration on Thuniel with a song written about here called "Thuniel XXXXXX" and moves in and grabs the key.   Gilly tries not to look at the dragon and runs toward the vault, out of the radiance. Caia gets moonbeamed and she is instantly changed to a true changeling form. In the commotion Moz suddenly sees illusionary windows and people watching and makes Gilly aware. Moz cast enlarge on BrereMAX. Aela finally hits lands a blow on the shining dragon. Gilly attacks it and sneaks and gets a great hit in. The dragon starts to emanate more light and tries to knock out most of the party.   The dragon soars past Thuniel and Gilly and attacks with it breath weapon, Thuniel’s blade absorbs some cold breath the Elf and Halfling fall unconscious. Alcath heals Thuniel and then Gilly epic saves, and Aela gets knocked out. The dragon dims and tells us we can have the key and planar shifts away. The watchers at the windows are gone. Caia discovers the door blocking the room closed is an illusion.   Alcath investigates where the dragon disappeared. Brerenax gives Gilly the key. Caia takes on the appearance of one of the dead halflings. The party rests for about an hour an try to heal.   Alcath hears “They’re all just sitting around,” and Caia gets up and does a “come at me bro” motion. They were freaked out by the halfling form. One guy in particular says “He’s a devil”   A group of five approaches. An elegant dragonborn woman, an unarmed elven woman with a fan, a fully armored figure, a battle-hardened dwarf (duergar), and are led by a handsome half-elf with a harp and a badger at his side. “This is our chance, they have some of they keys.”   Thuniel recognizes the lady with the rapier and knows that she’s a master swordsman and a merc for hire that goes by the name Angela.   They ask Caia what she’s doing there see her in the from of the dead halfling and she says “You killed me” and they say, no, we found you there.   The Six ask if they have a key and they retort with the same question. Alcath starts to cast Fairy Fire is counter spelled. Thuniel notices and immediately fires at the Fan dancer who countered the spell. A fight ensues.   The Half elf named Augest casts a spell on himself and then takes out his harp and uses it to fire an arrow at Thuniel in cover. The Dragonborn lady attacks Alcath, then Aela takes some names. Brerenax does his breath weapon. The Duergar shouts and seems to give his companions an extra attack. The Warforged grows big and hits Brerenax hard. Moz becomes an Allosaurus. Halfling fires at Alcath. Angela, comes and attacks Thuniel. She gets a hit in, but Thuniel asks if her companions know the prize doesn’t split five ways and hits her twice, knocking her off the wall. Alcath lays down an AOE for temp HP, and the Dwarf gives his team some more attacks. Caia does a cone attack that knocks out the big ol’ Dur. Augest hurts Brerenax with Vicious Mockery and an arrow too.   Brerenax does his best but the Warforged is not easy to hit. Gilly pursues her vendetta against the Fan Dancer and knocks her out. Allosaurus Moz picks up the Dragonborn in her mouth and she passes out. Augest tries to run, and gets hit on his way out but gets on the other side of the wall. Aela pursues and runs into him inside the illusionary wall. She attacks him inside the wall. Thuniel tries to get the Warforged to yield, but he doesn’t. She attacks. Brerenax goes through the door and grapples Augest. Alcath knocks out the Warforged. Brerenax is holding Augest when he Dimension Door’s away.   Thuniel interrogates the remaining members about keys. Angela says, “What key? I just got hired for a job.” Then she says Augest is gone and we’ll never see him. She reiterates that the halflings were dead when they got there and they didn’t find any other keys. Augest was going to pay “enough”.   Angela seems interested in Caia as a changeling and she asks what Caia is offering. She says she can’t help us because there are too many complications, but Caia gets her to agree to leave without getting in our way in exchange for drinks later.   The vault door is very, very trapped. We can see very clearly which key goes in which lock. The key we’re missing is the first on the left and it’s a plain keyhole. But it’s also super trapped. Caia sends her familiar to look at the bottom of the pit and it takes her thirty minutes and she still hasn’t reached the bottom. Suddenly the familiar drops off the plane. She is able to summon it back.   After two and a half hours of searching, the key is nowhere. Alcath starts to follow that someone came in the dead halflings room and then left through the other entrance we didn’t come through. It’s on the other side of the pit. We have to get across the pit and follow that lead out of the Gauntlet and get the other key.   Moz takes a rope across the 85 ft chasm as a swan. Caia tries to find/finagle the door open with a wand of secrets and sees where to push to open the door. It is dark. Dark vision peeps see it’s like the catacombs from before and then there’s a cylindrical opening 20 ft across, of hard dirt, super tall. Moz flies up as an eagle, carrying some rope. The bottom of the rope dangles about ten feet above the floor.   Brerenax tries to climb the dirt walls with his claws, but the dirt wall crumbles away.   Caia and Thuniel start to slip, but catch ourselves. We eventually get to the top and see we are in the Dragon Stables. There’s a single set of footprints leading into the city. It’s a smaller set of footprints than Augest has. Caia takes on Charlys Liamephoscas look again.   This area is pretty abandoned. The people gawking at us if they’ve seen anyone else come out of the hole recently. There was that little guy who came out, all by himself. This little boy says the little blonde guy came out and went down that road.   Thuniel asks what he was wearing. Dressed in black, tailored nicely. Small and wiry, happy, and scampering off. He was skinny and short for a human. The kid propositions Thuniel and she refuses.   Alcath takes Thuniel to a place where the person rested on a bench, he was a human. Thuniel casts Locate Creature and keeps it up as we head back up to the Courtly Ring, toward The Sylvan Theatre it is now vacant. Moz and Thuniel head over to The Commoners Fortune and the spell sees their target. The Six suspect Neville Sinclair might have something to do with this.