Session 15: The Wedding

General Summary

This session opened as the party met up following a shopping spree before the wedding of Silvia and Sebastian Bolivar. Beginning at noon, organisation for the after-party and wedding itself commenced through Santa Bella. White banners with the Bolivar sigil were put up throughout town, decorations went up in The Crimson Club, and people in masks paraded through the streets and along the canals.
Together, the group made their way back to Moses' apartment in the outskirts of town and dressed themselves in various disguises. Nydyr adopted a servant's wardrobe, Frar attempted to extort jewels from Moses, and Balasar dressed up in robes slightly too small for his enormous frame.
Deciding a brief reconnaissance would be productive as the wedding approached, Nydyr sent off Heschbleh to scout out the Bolivar estate and the high-class villas along the canal. After failing to detect Heschbleh's presence nearby, the party returned to The Crimson Club to consult Aries about invitations for the wedding. Upon arrival, they discovered the after-party would be held there. Both Blasco and Delilah were present, though neither were keen to oblige. Aries had previously arranged Frar to be the ring-bearer, and the group appealed to her apparent softspot for the dwarf, to get information out of her.
Aries revealed that she, as the priest who would wed the couple, was an employee of the Bolivar family, and by extension, Dante Bolivar himself. She informed the party of some basic information about Dante; his speculated affair with a woman at The Crimson Club (later revealed to be Delilah), his general cruelness and his disdain for just about everyone. Aries stated that she had a tumultuous relationship with him. Whether this was that of an employer or a lover was unclear.
The group then decided, with Aries, to visit the estate of the Bolivars. Upon approaching the sun-bleached limestone villa, they persuaded the guards, one whose name was Jimmy, to allow them inside. Aries declined to enter despite Ekxus and Moses' pleas. Inside, Moses assumed the form of Balasar and pulled down a tapestry from one of the door-frames in order to appear more intimidating. As they ascended to the upstairs parlour, they were presented with three doors, the central one guarded by two men, an elf and a human, and the left guarded by a bored-looking gold female dragonborn. They entered the middle room.
Within the central room sat the darkened figure of Dante, a gaunt and elderly human man, in the middle of composing a letter, and lit by two ablaze fireplaces. Ekxus attempted to utilise her feminine wiles to gain his favour, which was moderately successful. Claiming to be bodyguards for his daughter, they obtained invitations to the wedding. As the rest of the group left, Nydyr and Balasar stayed behind to locate the source of a purring coming from within one of the other rooms. Balasar entered the right room, and Nydyr the left.
In the far left was Silvia Bolivar, a young and virtuous - if slightly naive - girl of fifteen. In the midst of trying on wedding dresses, she expressed her adoration for Heschbleh. Nydyr took a liking to her, and after reclaiming his cat, he slipped a note under her door warning her of imminent dangers. He signed it 'Heschbleh'. In the other room, Balasar met Dante's wife Eleanor. Bedridden and 'sick as fuck', she expressed a longing to attend her daughter's wedding, and a resigned attitude towards her husband. Balasar came to the conclusion, after discussion with the rest of the party, that she was likely being poisoned by Dante. He expressed sympathy for her condition.
Worrying that Nydyr and Balasar may be in trouble, the party rejoined them in the upstairs parlour. They discussed their moral predicament. Moses transformed to resemble one of the guards he had seen downstairs and entered Silvia's room. He managed to persuade her that he and a group of friends would take her to the docks to review a shipment of wedding dresses, as Dante disliked her current selection.
The group therefore made their way towards the docks. At this point, the implications of killing Silvia were becoming difficult to manage. Devis and Frar expressed a desire to kill her and claim their reward from Kallodark, not wanting to make an enemy of the powerful half-orc, and Ekxus and Aries suggested cutting off her fingers as evidence of their deed, but secretly leaving Silvia alive. Nydyr, Moses, and Balasar were opposed to such a thing, making them the unlikely moral compasses of the group.
The group decided that they would head down an alley on their way to the docks, presenting it to Silvia as a shortcut. There, Frar attempted to knock her out with her axe, but failed. Aries and Silvia had a little moment, as they knew each other vaguely, and eventually Nydyr revealed their whole circumstances to Silvia. Ekxus presented her with the choice of being handed over to Kallodark or having her fingers cut off and joining them on their mission to Viso. Silvia took the latter, and willingly drank some of Ekxus' psychedelic wine. Ekxus removed two of her fingers and held them for safe keeping.
While discussing all of this, Tao and her forces found the party and threatened violence if they didn't hand over Silvia. Tao had evidently been tasked by the King and Queen with killing the girl, to prevent the Bolivar's power spreading. Kallodark interestingly had the same reason for wishing the young couple dead.
The party escaped through the sewers following a pragmatic use of the Darkness cantrip. They encountered a Grick, but managed to escape its tentacle-like appendages. They emerged near the docks, where Moses took Silvia back through the alleys to his place.
The final scene occurred as the party (minus Moses) headed to the main street, where the wedding was taking place. The bride's absence was noticed. Nydyr disguised himself as a waiter, while Devis and Ekxus climbed the pillars of the nearby townhall to gain a vantage point on Sebastian and Dante. On the podium, Frar assumed her position as ringbearer, and Aries as priest. Balasar watched from nearby.
From her position on the balcony, Ekxus shot a bolt directly into Sebastian Bolivar's chest. The resulting chaos surmounted in the reveal of Delilah as a succubus, Aries being knocked unconscious for the first time, and the deaths of all three villains; Dante (by three arrows fired by Ekxus and Devis), Sebastian (by a messy beheading courtesy of Balasar), and Delilah (via a classic Eldritch Blast by Frar).
The party fled the scene, and aim to make their way up the west coast towards Lessos and Viso.

Report Date

17 Jul 2020

Primary Location

Santa Bella