Chapter 11, Session 1: Trials, Temptations and Tenderness
General Summary
I just need to say it, I don't expect anything from you for this but, I love you Olympia, I have for a long time now and I don't mean that in a brother-sister way, or the same way I love the party... i mean that I LOVE you.The party landed in the resplendent city of King's Bay and, upon docking their skyship, adopted several disguises and discussed their plans, it was near sunset so the party were reticent to commit to anything for the time being and instead prioritised finding somewhere to stay for the night where they could then discuss what to do next. The party wandered for a time before deciding on the Whispering Willow tavern, a giant tree set in the centre of the street and really inconveniencing all the locals... in hindsight the perfect tavern for the party. Upon heading in the party met and immediately made a bond with Ello and Fell, the hobgoblin owners with a real passion for monster based dishes. The party sampled an owlbear steak and two flamefired fire wyvern roasts as well as several drinks before the owners gave them free rooms for the night, overjoyed at being able to share in their passion with a group of people. That night the party discussed plans, Kodo wanted to complete the Moonblade trials as soon as possible, anxious to finally finish his work with a magical item he'd been working on since the party's struggles in A'mlon, Fen and Olympia were keen to help but also then found out about the 'Heroes Marque' taking place the next day, an annual knight'sm tournament style event with several competitions, prizes and games to play, meanwhile Thordak contacted Temptation and agreed to pick her up from Turtle Lake as she was still enroute with Gell. With their plans resolved, the party completed a long rest and woke to the heroes Marque carnival in full swing as they trooped through the town in cosplay style outfits, with knights in shining armour moving through the streets and nobles being carried in Palanquins. The party split up fairly promptly with the goal of meeting up before the events of the games. Kodo left to complete his work with Galas'Var The Moonblade whilst Thordak apprehended Fen and they both teleported in an attempt to reach Temptation, Ez and others left to resolve things in Blackstone whilst Olympia decided to check out the Heroes Marque in advance. Kodo's Trials: Kodo left the party and moved towards The Victory Spirewith Galas'Var tugging and pulling him forward. He felt an urge to climb the tower and did so, notably with The Wanderer at his side soaking in the unique terror held by simply standing in the presence of such a malevolent space. As he reached the top of the tower he saw a single shrine with a relic standing upon it, The God's Chest used 75 years ago to seal away the divines of Alturis and stop their intrusion in the Dread King's reign. Kodo placed the Moonblade upon the shrine and watched it stand upright on it's own before an inky darkness flowed from it, engulfing the space and dragging Kodo beneath for whatever trial the moonblade offered. Kodo had to work through 6 memories of previous wielders of the moonblade. The first memory was of an elven king named Hamartis who assassinated the king before and took their throne, in a despicable state of pride, Hamartis addressed his people without any guards or protection, with the view that none could defeat him. However, on this day, an assassin stepped through the crowd and threw a dagger through the king's chest; killing him. Kodo had to locate the assassin and take the dagger from his hand; he did so, snatching the assassin's wrist and disrupting the memory, gaining the 'Precision' rune for his moonblade whilst doing so. The second memory was of Hamartis' son, Tarartis the Fate-Marker. Tarartis was the son of Hamartis and with a rage unseen before his time, he hunted and dominated the world around him, even fashioning a crown and building a court of madness all around him. Tarartis was killed in a ritual that tethered his soul to the fate of Rasmorae; the ancient world. Kodo watched the ritual take place as Tarartis stood in the centre of the space with five daggers plunged through his chest and 5 mages standing around him preparing to simultaneously cast spells, each mage wore black robes and had a white masks with diamonds set into their forehead, strange as this must have been millenia before The Spectre invented Masked Magicka. Kodo managed to identify several of the spells, including true resurrection, finger of death and planar binding, including one that he had only seen Olympia cast, curse of the primordial plane, at which point he approached the planar binding mage and claspedtheir hands, finding another precision symbol on the palms and claiming it for the moonblade. The third memory was of the daughter of Tarartis, Kalartis the Oath-Breaker, The daughter of Tarartis, she was given an empire by her father and chased diplomacy, building oaths and agreements with other spaces to ensure peace and prosperity, she paid for her naivety when Tarartis returned and broke her neck to reclaim his crown. Kodo found a musician in the throne room of this murder and played the highest pitch note that he could in order to claim the final precision rune. The fourth memory was of the returned Tarartis, Tarartis the God-Forsaker, Tarartis began his second reign by bathing the world in domination and shadow before losing his life by passing his blade through the End. Kodo watched as a mage wearing a purple mask with a ruby set into the forehead stood with Tarartis on a mountaintop, the mage splayed their hands and a door made of pure iron materialised and began to close and lock to the screams and misery of 6 creatures that are dragged through it, Kodo felt the wanderer trembling in fear as he realised he was watching the event in which The Scribe of the Dread King locked away the entities for millenia. Only one remained; set in a deep and endless black and riddled with stars and constellations, the figure doesn't speak; he only stands there as Tarartis slams his blade into the chest and Tarartis is no more. Kodo watched as, from this, a snowstorm set about the space and Kodo found the 'wealth' rune written on the snowflakes in the storm. The fifth memory was of Semartis the Land-Digger, Semartis, a Dwarf claimed the crown of Tarartis and renamed him 'The Dread King' in the hope his legacy of old wouild be lost to time, Smeartis spent centuries searching for the lands lost behind the old gods until they, along with he, faded into old age and myth. Kodo watched as Semartis rests in his deathbed; content and happy with what his life and legacy became before his family wilt into shades and rot as Tarartis destroys the room and claims their crown once more. Kodo then saw the door explode into hundreds of shards that built the shape of 'Elemis'. The final memory was of Tarartis the Dread King as he bathed the world in shadow and ruled over it for 2 years, Kodo watched as the true Heroes surrounded Tarartis and slammed the Betrayer Blade through his chest, destroying his body. However, there was a member of this fight unseen by the party. The Scribe of the Dread King hid in this space and, in their desperate attempt to flee, left behind their mask. Kodo recovered the purple mask and saw, written on it's inside were the words 'Truth', the final sigil for the Moonblade. The visions receded and Kodo returned to reality, with very little time passing, and he claimed the moonblade, made an offering of some platinum to the shrine of the true heroes and set off on his way to rejoin the party where he found them in the eastern Drahz district for the Heroes Marque. Fen and Thordak: Thordak and Fen attempted to teleport to Turtle Lake to reach Temptation and Gell, however, having never been to or seeing Turtle Lake before, Fen struggled to remember the space and, as a result, he botched the teleportation, instead accidentally teleporting himself and Thordak to the The Isle of Erathis, the closest thing he associated with Turtle Lake.. but still over 100 miles from their destination goal. Fen used his arcane battery to try the teleportation again and managed to get within 40 miles of Turtle Lake and so, Thordak used his robe of useful items to create two stallion horses and the pair of them rode to meet Temptation and Gell. Temptation was playful with Thordak, congratulating him on killing Vraxan and expressing very little sympathy as she believed 'it is the duty of a child to sometimes be the hand that slays their sires', Thordak then reached Gell and saw that the orc was left broken by their decade long torture and mind control at the hands of Vola and Vraxan. Temptation revealed that she had seen this effect on soldier's before and that Thordak would be wise to get help for Gell from a therapist... luckily Thordak knew one who could help. With their group gathered, Thordak embraced Gell and Fen gathered the group together and teleported back to King's Bay a little early... Temptation left with Thordak so that she could 'freshen up' and Fen dropped Gell off at the tavern they were staying in before using his telepathic spell to tell Olympia he was on his way and that, with time to spare, he wanted to take her on a date... Olympia: Olympia had time to kill and so she headed to the Heroes Marque and signed up some of the party for events, signing up Thordak for the battle royale event and signing both herself and Fen up for the Mage-Off event. The organisers she was speaking to stated that she needed to give titles and epiphets for each person signing up, leading to Olympia giving the following introductions: Thordak Moonbrook, Captain of the Radiant Peach, Tribal Chief of the Utrunks Clan, Hailing from Lakefort, grandson of the one, the only, Nirya Moonbrook, son of Shagthok Utrunk and Inelda Moonbrook Fenbalar Leoris, the greatest modern mage, Chaos Incarnate, wrecker of your shit Olympia, Lieutenant of the Radiant Peach, Frontman of Olympia & the Machine, Bringer of Friendship. With the titles done, Olympia learned that the mage-off was a magical competition of artistic expression in which mages had to use three spells (concentration ignored) in sequence to create an artistic piece that amazed, wowed and awed the judges and audience. Once signed up, Olympia waited at the stall belonging to Ello and Fell and advised them to go to Lakefort when they next travel in order to meet Momma as they would appreciate the prosthetics the orc woman offers. Thordak and Temptation Thordak and Temptation freshened up after 'freshening up' and talked about their futures and lives together after this adventure was over; Temptation expressed her wish for marriage and kids and 'normalcy' whilst Thordak expressed his love of adventure and, more deeply, his love for her. They talked about marriage again and Temptation admitted that she wanted to marry Thordak but it had to be romantic; she then expressed that she felt a battlefield marriage was the most romantic marriage one could do and Thordak agreed. They then discussed the oncoming threat of Dashilla the Dark Queen and Thordak revealed he had a plan, he wanted to take The God's Chest and use it to seal away the crown of the dread King if/when they defeat Dashilla as, by Thordak's logic, if the chest could contain the god's of Alturis, then it should be able to contain the crown. Temptation explained she would gladly support in whatever way she could but she also admitted she understood Xan Prayerkeep and his desire to simply lock the doors of Alturis and keep them safe, it made sense in a pragmatic way to ensure Dashilla and Proto could never lay siege to the nation but Thordak revealed he was uncomfortable with closing the door as it felt unnatural to do so. Temptation and Thordak then discussed what was to be done with Xan, discrediting him would only work so far as, even without his political influence, he remained the strongest mage in Alturis by a stretch (though she surprisingly admitted that she believed Fen and Olympia were close to his level) and even if the party defeated him, that just meant they were choosing to fight Dashilla and her forces without one of the most powerful allies they could have at their side. Thordak and Temptation agreed to relax and stop worrying for a moment as they had a knight's tourney to take part in and so they walked to the Drahz district together, with MANY people staring in shock and adoration as Temptation was truly loved by the people of King's Bay (leading Thordak to remark that this gave him hope for the Inquisitor's in the future if people like Temptation could prove it worked). Thordak and Temptation met Kodo in the centre of the Drahz district. Olympia and Fen Olympia had to run to follow Fen as he sprinted through the streets, desperate to find a date destination. Eventually, he managed to reach a restaurant called the 'Gilded Goblet', a fine dining establishment with a white collar policy and security out front. Fen picked up some stones from the ground and went in with Olympia. The waiter in charge of seating at first was rather snobbish and unwilling to seat Fen and Olympia as they were apparently 'booked out', that was until Fen bribed the man with a platinum key worth a single platinum. It was soon after that Fen and Olympia were seated with meals and drinks and Fen finally admitted his love to Olympia as he awkwardly explained how deep his adoration for her was, expressing that he saw Thordak and Temptation and didn't want their relationship, physical intimacy with Olympia would be lovely, but Fen loved her inside and out and simply wanted to be with her, irregardless of the capacity and definition of what their love would mean. Hearing Fen's admission, Olympia admitted she loved Fen too, but not as much as he loved her... but before wholly shooting him down, she agreed that she didn't really know what relationships and love were but that, with Fen, she would be willing to try and figure it out. So, the two of them agreed they would give a relationship a try and see how it turned out before, and after they saved the world. With that, Fen and Olympia, hands interlocked, rejoined the rest of the party and they prepared themselves for the knight tournament!
- Fen finally admits his feelings to Olympia on their date.
Rewards Granted
Kodo completed his moonblade quest and gained the moonblade, an incredibly powerful and potent magical weapon.
Fen and Olympia officially became a pair (this is a reward for me dammit!)
Notes
During this session, I allowed Fen to use an additional spell slot to teleport again... this wasfor roleplay reasons and is not a conversation we will have mechanically speaking about future use of spell slots.
Report Date
08 Jun 2024
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