Episode 9: Queen of Air and Darkness
General Summary
After finishing the conversation with Leonidas, the group went out into the hallway to briefly discuss what would come next. Dahlia, after being ordered to go home by Leonidas in order to quell some of the rage her mother had generated, actually did. While Leonidas had asked them to escort her back to the Theocracy, Dahlia had other plans. She voted to enlist the services of the Pathfinder to deliver herself immediately, so that the group of Accused would have a chance to investigate the goings on within the rest of the Aurelian Empire.
After some intense discussion outside of Leonidas' office to the audience of a couple very amused guards, the group decided that there is something fishy going on. There had been an increase in changeling violence of the Thunderer's Coast and, spring boarding off of that thought, the idea surfaced that the "Emperor" that paid the Vagabond to assassinate himself could have been a changeling. After further discussion, the conclusion was drawn that Rose Protectorate coin the Vagabond was paid in may have been curated by one individual or organization and given to him as payment. Or, each coin itself was a polymorphed changeling. This drew the group to the Rose Protectorate, and they set out on their way.
On the second week of travel, the group ran into a peddler on the road, one who dealt common magical items or items of chance. They quickly realized that this meant that the this peddler was in the possession of the Deck of Many things. Fives first drew the Fates card, granting him the ability to change any event in history. Scary. Tyra then drew the Moon card, granting them two wishes. And then Fives drew again. It was unfortunate. After several cuts of the deck, Fives drew the Void card, and was whisked off, away from his body and into an imprisonment somewhere within the world.
Tyra, being the good person they are, wished to learn the location of Fives' soul, wherever it may be imprisoned. This led them to the Seelie Winter Court. A blue gem, contained within the crown of Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness, held the soul of Fives. Mab obviously stood powerful herself, but she has at her disposal innumerable powerful knights and guards.
The group agreed that this was not the move. However, upon their next week of travel, they ran into a farmer dealing with a sprite infestation. This farmer, Bryan Conanson, flagged them down and asked them for aid. He was having an issue with an unforeseen assailant. He noticed that if he leaves a saucer of milk out, his floors are swept and clothes stitched together when he wakes up. However, he’s found he’s had to leave more and more milk out or instead his clothes are rent and gouges left on his wall. And his cow is starting to wear out, and he's running out of milk.
Looking into the issue, Tyra, Valeria, and Valan stayed the night in the farmer's house. At midnight, the sprites showed themselves, finding the offering of two saucers of milk unworthy, and deciding to commit chaos amongst the household chores. The party stopped them, and questioned their reasoning. The sprites believed that they were caught in a life debt, the farmer had saved them from the cow when they first arrived, pulling the cow away from eating them when the cat Snuggles traversed into the Feywild and brought them into the world. They had since taken care of the farmer's property, but they felt that he kept skimping on their payment, and thus when they felt they were slighted they would deface his home.
The party brokered a deal, promising the milk cow herself in trade for leaving the farmer alone. Waking Bryan, the group got him to agree to the deal, signing over the cow to the Fae. The sprites agreed to even to show them to the cat in the Feywild, so that the party can return it to the farmer. And they did so, but the did immediately leave with the milk cow once their side of the deal had been completed.
The party found Snuggles in an enlarged wheat field, with stalks of the grain towering over their heads. The grass had been grown into a lattice-like gazebo over their heads while a large grasshopper sat nearby and lamp-sized lightning bugs buzzed overhead. Farmer Bryan's cat Snuggles lounged on a bed of catnip, but she was changed. She had become the size of a tiger and could talk, because this is the Feywild and anything can happen. Originally she was slow to return to the Mortal Plane, but after being reminded how good belly rubs feel, she reconsidered.
While trying to work their way out of the Feywild, the party overshot their target, traveling several days past their target location and instead going all the way to the kingdom of the Winter Court, a realm of ice and hardship. Entering the realm, the party was stalked by a phantom, the Krampus of the Winter Court. In fleeing it, they landed themselves at their surprise target location, the Palace of the Winter Court, which the sprites had been kind enough earlier to point out that this palace was located in reflection of the Mortal Plane at Sylva, the capital of the Rose Protectorate.
The group found themselves in the court of the Winter Queen, given an audience in humor from the guards of the Queen. In her presence, they asked for their friend back, and the Queen offered a trade; a soul for a soul, or their friend's soul for one of their eternal servitude. Valan was struck by the Queen's beauty and began to entice himself to her, offering his services as the Winter Knight to her. Queen Mab introduced them to the former Winter Knight when she moved the Mantle of Winter on to Valan. Sombris, a very tired eladrin, was relieved to have his title stripped of him, and travelled back to Mortal Plane with the party.
Upon arrival, Tyra restored Fives' soul to his body, and the group found that Callisto had taken up residence with the farmer, and as they approached the house as the sun set, Callisto came back and warmly embraced everyone, happy to see that he was right in assuming they would eventually come back. He informed them that it had been nine days, and they had just missed the Autumnal Equinox festival the day before. This reminded them that they had therefore also just missed the Tenebric Founding, the day that the Vanguard was supposed to receive its 2.5 million birthday presents. They checked on their stores to realize that each coin was heating up and was painful to the touch. As they realized this, they took a moment to think about all the places that they had spent their coin; inns and taverns across the content, markets in this land and Myrr, places like Dur Bolduhr where they had entrusted powerful family heirlooms and their ship into their care, and even to certain family members, whom they gifted the coin to. All those places, all across Andali, where coins were now heating up in their pockets.
After some intense discussion outside of Leonidas' office to the audience of a couple very amused guards, the group decided that there is something fishy going on. There had been an increase in changeling violence of the Thunderer's Coast and, spring boarding off of that thought, the idea surfaced that the "Emperor" that paid the Vagabond to assassinate himself could have been a changeling. After further discussion, the conclusion was drawn that Rose Protectorate coin the Vagabond was paid in may have been curated by one individual or organization and given to him as payment. Or, each coin itself was a polymorphed changeling. This drew the group to the Rose Protectorate, and they set out on their way.
On the second week of travel, the group ran into a peddler on the road, one who dealt common magical items or items of chance. They quickly realized that this meant that the this peddler was in the possession of the Deck of Many things. Fives first drew the Fates card, granting him the ability to change any event in history. Scary. Tyra then drew the Moon card, granting them two wishes. And then Fives drew again. It was unfortunate. After several cuts of the deck, Fives drew the Void card, and was whisked off, away from his body and into an imprisonment somewhere within the world.
Tyra, being the good person they are, wished to learn the location of Fives' soul, wherever it may be imprisoned. This led them to the Seelie Winter Court. A blue gem, contained within the crown of Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness, held the soul of Fives. Mab obviously stood powerful herself, but she has at her disposal innumerable powerful knights and guards.
The group agreed that this was not the move. However, upon their next week of travel, they ran into a farmer dealing with a sprite infestation. This farmer, Bryan Conanson, flagged them down and asked them for aid. He was having an issue with an unforeseen assailant. He noticed that if he leaves a saucer of milk out, his floors are swept and clothes stitched together when he wakes up. However, he’s found he’s had to leave more and more milk out or instead his clothes are rent and gouges left on his wall. And his cow is starting to wear out, and he's running out of milk.
Looking into the issue, Tyra, Valeria, and Valan stayed the night in the farmer's house. At midnight, the sprites showed themselves, finding the offering of two saucers of milk unworthy, and deciding to commit chaos amongst the household chores. The party stopped them, and questioned their reasoning. The sprites believed that they were caught in a life debt, the farmer had saved them from the cow when they first arrived, pulling the cow away from eating them when the cat Snuggles traversed into the Feywild and brought them into the world. They had since taken care of the farmer's property, but they felt that he kept skimping on their payment, and thus when they felt they were slighted they would deface his home.
The party brokered a deal, promising the milk cow herself in trade for leaving the farmer alone. Waking Bryan, the group got him to agree to the deal, signing over the cow to the Fae. The sprites agreed to even to show them to the cat in the Feywild, so that the party can return it to the farmer. And they did so, but the did immediately leave with the milk cow once their side of the deal had been completed.
The party found Snuggles in an enlarged wheat field, with stalks of the grain towering over their heads. The grass had been grown into a lattice-like gazebo over their heads while a large grasshopper sat nearby and lamp-sized lightning bugs buzzed overhead. Farmer Bryan's cat Snuggles lounged on a bed of catnip, but she was changed. She had become the size of a tiger and could talk, because this is the Feywild and anything can happen. Originally she was slow to return to the Mortal Plane, but after being reminded how good belly rubs feel, she reconsidered.
While trying to work their way out of the Feywild, the party overshot their target, traveling several days past their target location and instead going all the way to the kingdom of the Winter Court, a realm of ice and hardship. Entering the realm, the party was stalked by a phantom, the Krampus of the Winter Court. In fleeing it, they landed themselves at their surprise target location, the Palace of the Winter Court, which the sprites had been kind enough earlier to point out that this palace was located in reflection of the Mortal Plane at Sylva, the capital of the Rose Protectorate.
The group found themselves in the court of the Winter Queen, given an audience in humor from the guards of the Queen. In her presence, they asked for their friend back, and the Queen offered a trade; a soul for a soul, or their friend's soul for one of their eternal servitude. Valan was struck by the Queen's beauty and began to entice himself to her, offering his services as the Winter Knight to her. Queen Mab introduced them to the former Winter Knight when she moved the Mantle of Winter on to Valan. Sombris, a very tired eladrin, was relieved to have his title stripped of him, and travelled back to Mortal Plane with the party.
Upon arrival, Tyra restored Fives' soul to his body, and the group found that Callisto had taken up residence with the farmer, and as they approached the house as the sun set, Callisto came back and warmly embraced everyone, happy to see that he was right in assuming they would eventually come back. He informed them that it had been nine days, and they had just missed the Autumnal Equinox festival the day before. This reminded them that they had therefore also just missed the Tenebric Founding, the day that the Vanguard was supposed to receive its 2.5 million birthday presents. They checked on their stores to realize that each coin was heating up and was painful to the touch. As they realized this, they took a moment to think about all the places that they had spent their coin; inns and taverns across the content, markets in this land and Myrr, places like Dur Bolduhr where they had entrusted powerful family heirlooms and their ship into their care, and even to certain family members, whom they gifted the coin to. All those places, all across Andali, where coins were now heating up in their pockets.
Rewards Granted
Fives: Fates Card
Tyra: Moon Card, one wish remaining
Valan: The Mantle of Winter
Tyra: Moon Card, one wish remaining
Valan: The Mantle of Winter
Missions/Quests Completed
Operation Rescue Fives
Created Content
The Mantle of Winter
Notes
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Report Date
10 Jul 2021
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