CoS Session 25: Arvyll's Betrayal

General Summary

3/4/875

• A couple weeks since High Priest @Ovewas arrested
• Oakengaard’s on edge, rumors of invasion abound
• Sebastian accidentally killed Bessie
• That magic elixir he got from a merchant really messed Bessie up
• She starts coughing up blood, growing demonic wings/horns
• Sebastian calls Roland in to put Bessie out of her misery
• Rest of the party throws a surprise party for Sebastian and gifts him a new cow!
• Her name’s Belle, and hopefully she won’t die
• Sebastian thinks of ways to get vengeance for Bessie
• Nikolaj steals blood from a dying man for Assaj, Elan does some sparring
• Roland talks with Theron about the future, retiring from adventuring
• A messenger comes into the tavern, Prince Refn wants audience immediately
• They head to the palace, Refn says he’s received word that Fairouz is in Oakengaard
• He’s worried they’ll try to win over Arvyll to their side
• He tries to give them leads, but he starts coughing/vomiting/dying
• Party has to leave palace, go find leads on their own
• They hear word that Avicennan fleet is on its way to Oakengaard
• City’s on lockdown
• Party heads to Handgun HQ, convinces guard to let them pass
• Adrien tells them that they’ve seen Cella in town, went to Three Fingers HQ
• That might be their best lead, but be careful
• The Three Fingers hideout is a in a tavern in the southern part of town
• Nikolaj stealths inside, Elan turns invisible
• Elan finds Cella’s room upstairs, avoids being killed
• Sebastian and Roland arm wrestle outside, Roland breaks Sebastian’s arm
• Once it’s mended they decide to go inside and make diversion
• Sebastian hits on girl at the bar
• Doesn’t work, but girl does say there’s somebody who’d want to see him
• He’s guided up to Cella’s room
• Boss Fight: Cella Vivaldi and Wanda (girl from the bar)
• Wanda locks Sebastian inside with Cella
• Cella explains goals for Coven and new pantheon, poisons Sebastian
• Sebastian escapes by magic missiling the door
• He runs into rest of party on the stairway
• Nikolaj and Elan are still hidden
• Cella and Wanda fire off shots at Sebastian and Roland
• Cella casts poison beam that murders Sebastian
• But thanks to Elan’s bardic inspiration, he barely survives
• Still got a blast wound, his squirrel Pierrot was vaporized
• Eventually Cella is defeated, she escapes (of course)
• Elan puts Wanda to sleep, binds her up
• Party hears movement downstairs, has to escape
• Nikolaj jumps out of hallway window with Sebastian on his back
• Elan escapes through window with Wanda on her back
• Roland rifles through Cella’s letters
• Jumps out window, pant leg snags on window
• He breaks free after some wiggling around
• Party flees into night, escapes Three Fingers with minimal harm
• The party returns to palace to speak with Prince Refn
• Roland’s documents he got from Cella’s room are very informative
• Traces Cella and Fairouz’s budding relationship
• Sounds like their plans involve making Fairouz Arvyll’s new priest
• One of the advisors, Stroheim, tells them that Refn is still sick
• They give Stroheim some of the intel from Three Fingers
• Party wants to go to prison to check if Ove is still there
• Stroheim advises them to rest in palace for the night
• They just had a rough night, and it’s dangerous outside
• He sees Avicennan invasion as the more imminent threat
• Prince is still very sick, by the way
• Party decides to drop Sebastian off at Temple of Erivo and visit Ove
• Sebastian is left in the care of Erivo’s priestesses
• Sebastian’s not that religious, but he listens to their spiel
• Gets a long review of miracles and history
• Rest of the party checks the prison for High Priest Ove
• A letter from Stroheim grants them access to the prison
• They drop off Wawnda in a cell, go to Ove’s solitary confinement
• Ove has been working out in his cell, not that thrilled to see party
• They ask him what Fairouz has planned
• He says there’s a process for appointing a new high priest for Arvyll
• Usually it’s a title held for life, but it can be renounced at temple
• Party asks what they can do stop Fairouz, Ove says it’s too late
• Elan notices spiders in the room, Fairouz's spiders
• It’s an illusion, the cell’s back wall has been blasted out and Ove is missing
• Party runs over to Temple of Arvyll to stop Fairouz
• At the Temple of Arvyll they all sneak inside
• Elan and Nikolaj take the back entrance, Roland walks up front steps
• They find Cella, Morrigan, and Fairouz all there
• Ove is prostrate on the floor, Fairouz is chanting at statue of Arvyll
• She says Ove betrayed him, he deserves a better priestess
• Roland casts guiding bolt at Fairouz, distracts her from the ceremony
• Fairouz turns to him, says it time to prove to Arvyll who’s worthy of his blessing
• Final Boss Fight: Fairouz
• Morrigan blocks exits off with vines and ivy, turns temple into arena
• Statue of Arvyll crosses its arms and observes
• Nikolaj gets some hits in, and his stealth attacks deal a lot of damage
• He even rolls nat20 and avoids massive Fairouz attack
• Roland makes some hits, but he misses a lot too without vow of enmity
• He burns through those divine smites like there’s no tomorrow though
• He misses his attack so bad once that he chops off one of Arvyll’s arm
• Elan frightens Fairouz and makes her roll disadvantage on attacks
• She vicious mocks Fairouz, but not too viciously
• Fairouz has some spider-themed attacks
• Whether that’s spider slash attacks, flooding them with spiders
• A big wave of reddish-grayish energy KO’s Roland Elan
• Nikolaj revives, they pretty much defeat Fairouz
• Right before killing blow though, time freezes
• The Arvyll statue is now Arvyll, god of time, in the flesh
• He’s observed the fight long enough, and he knows who the winner is: Fairouz
• Party calls foul, saying the Coven are evil and ruining world
• Arvyll says they have vision of future to stop Avicenna
• He says party is working for foolish gods with no plan
• Rexfur shows up to defend his good name, Arvyll says he stands for nothing
• Rexfur sputters, tries to show all the work he’s done over past half year
• Arvyll’s not impressed, he wants a new direction with the Coven
• Roland tries to kill Fairouz, Arvyll stops him
• Roland ages eight years in mere moments
• Fairouz, the Coven and Arvyll all vanish in a grayish-reddish haze
• Frustrated and pissed off, the party leaves
• Elan sets temple on fire as they leave
• A palace guard sees the fire, they tell him that Arvyll’s abandoned them
• Guard said Refn died of illness (probably Cella’s doing)
• And the Avicennan fleet will arrive in Oakengaard by morning
• The party retires to the tavern after a long and difficult night
• They wake up close to noon to the blare of an intercom
• Aldo, admiral of the fleet, says that the city has 24 hours to surrender
• The mood is miserable in Oakengaard
• People are leaving city now that Arvyll abandoned them
• City’s in mourning for Refn and imminent invasion
• While party’s goving over last night’s events, Rexfur shows up wild-eyed
• He has crackpot plan to get people to like him again
• They talk to the kraken that killed Nikolaj and get him to destroy the fleet!
• Everybody will like him now, right?
• Roland’s burned out from all the god shit, passes on the plan
• Elan agrees, Nikolaj reluctantly goes along with the plan
• Before then, Elan and Roland go to Temple of Helm
• Roland’s mad at Helm for all the radio silence
• Elan prays at altar saying Helm needs to talk to Roland, Helm’s reluctant
• When she starts a fire in the temple, Helm shows up in the flesh
• Probably for the first time in a century
• Elan calls him out on passiveness, says that the least he can do is talk with Roland
• Helm takes Roland to private cloister to talk
• There’s a mural there of an ancient battle between the deities of Ekal and the monstrous deities of the Far Realms during the Ostry Apocalypse
• Helm explains how he’s learned that there’s only so much you can protect
• He says Roland’s protected as much as he can, he must accept that
• Settle down with Theron, accept his victories over Court
• Roland doesn’t like that answer
• The Helm he knows would be out there defending everybody
• Not making excuses about ‘tending one’s garden’
• Helm doesn’t budge, Roland challenges him to wrestling match
• Roland loses, bad
• Helm says he’ll protect Oakengaard, but he doesn’t promise more
• Elan and Roland leave, not too happy with meeting
• Second, Elan and Nikolaj sail into the Largas Ocean to speak with The Kraken
• Nikolaj has stripped down to skeleton suit and cloak
• Elan makes the dinghy invisible to sneak past Avicennan fleet
• Nikolaj ties rope around vertebrae, plunges into depths
• Before long the kraken appears
• He admires Nikolaj’s audacity, but he’s not interested in destroying the fleet
• Nikolaj calls on Rexfur to help convince the kraken
• Rexfur and the kraken come to an understanding
• The kraken will destroy the Avicennan fleet
• However, Rexfur must go on a voyage across the planes of reality
• It’s a dangeorus voyage, but Rexfur will obtain wisdom and vision
• Hours later the bay erupts into a massive fight between Avicennans and the kraken
• It’s terrible and chaotic, but the fleet is routed
• Less than 90% of fleet survived, Hard to tell if Aldo survived or not
• The kraken, visibly injured, sinks back into depths of the ocean
• Nikolaj and Elan spread whisper campaign saying Rexfur saved Oakengard
• Rexfur receives a popularity boost with Arvyll gone
• The next day Nikolaj gets note from Rexfur to meet him at docks
• He finds Rexfur loading a sailboat full of rigging and equipment
• Rexfur says his goodbyes, thanks Nikolaj for his faithfulness and work
• The two hug, Nikolaj says he’s thankful for giving him 2nd chance at life

4/2/875

• Sebastian gets payback on the merchant that killed Bessie
• He buys sticks of dynamite from the Handgun, feeds it to a goat
• He leads the goat to merchant’s stall, blows it up safe distance away
• Merchant destroyed, a customer is killed in shockwave
• Sebastian gets away scot-free

4/3/875

• Fallworth and Queen Astrid arrive in Oakengaard
• Things have stabilized in city, but it’s still on edge
• Fallworth is glad to see the party again, first time in-person in months
• He gets them paid for all the work fighting Coven/Avicenna
• There is some uncomfortable news
• He takes them to the Oakengaard Palace to speak with Queen Astrid
• Theron is there with them
• She thanks them for all their work assisting Gameth’s war effort
• However, she has received disturbing visions from Erivo
• Erivo has told her that the party’s been working for Rexfur
• She’s seen his following grow in Gameria and Hakon
• She can’t have people with mixed loyalties working for Gameth
• Their work for Fallworth is finished
• Roland however, receives a promotion
• Astrid wants him to join the Royal Council
• The representative from Helm’s Paladins died of old age recently
• His experience on the road adventuring will be invaluable
• Roland agrees, so long as Theron can come along
• It’s an emotional goodbye, Roland’s crying the most
• Elan tells him to say hi to Catriona for them
• Nikolaj thinks about going to Gameria for odd jobs
• Doesn’t want to make the 2.5-mo journey though

5/3/875

• Nikolaj, Sebastian, and Elan have been working in the outskirts of Oakengaard
• They moved into treehouses, cheaper than the tavern downtown
• They do odd jobs, etc.
• One day, Azrael shows up at their house
• He’s been looking for them for a while
• Without gainful employment from Fallworth, he offers them jobs with The Handgun
• Avicenna’s planning some crazy schemes
• The Handgun can get agents behind enemy lines to investigate
• The party agrees, especially Nikolaj
• Azrael says that Roland ran into him on his trip to Gameria
• Says he wanted somebody to join the party
• Azrael introduces them to Medraad Le Fey
• He's a well-dressed man with black hair and piercing green eyes
• He has a gray pocketwatch he checks religiously
• Once introductions are out of the way, the party begins trip to Oftin

Report Date

09 Mar 2019

Primary Location

Oakengaard

Featured Characters

• Elan Quinn 
• Nikolaj Baratov 
• Roland Fireheart 
• Sebastian the Character