DW Session 35: Grettir's Final Trial

General Summary

9/1/897 By the end of the previous session, the Royal Knights Brigade was 2/3 of the way through a tournament fight in the dwarven city of Grettir to claim the Iron Flask for the fight against the Sunken God. The elementals and giants had been defeated with ease, but the party came face-to-face with its greatest challenge yet: Thorvald, the nation's founder, reincarnated in celestial form. The RKB was expected to defeat Thorvald before the rival Sardivelian Brigade of Knights managed to, a king of the hill tournament with high stakes. 
Thorvald displayed his celestial powers early on in the fight, killing a kenku rogue on the SBK's team with a single attack. The SBK tried to hinder the RKB by charming Jax, the party's barbarian fighter. Viola charmed him and ordered him to 'Attack the women', but Jax used the command as an excuse to run up and viciously murder Viola with a handful of well-placed greataxe attacks. Once the slaughter was complete, he rushed over to Thorvald to claim the golden hammer that had been hanging around the celestial's neck for most of the fight. Flora managed to knock it off Thorvald in the second round, a feat that dealt additional damage to the godlike being and gave the RKB the upper hand in the fight against Thorvald. 
But the battle wasn't over yet, the denizens of Grettir rooting for a last man standing scenario. Thorvald, weakened by the loss of his golden hammer, still managed to kill Cereus and Flora with a single shot each. Backs against the wall, Jax and Beleren wore down Thorvald and felled him before the SKB managed to get any attacks in, claiming victory and ownership of the Iron Flask for use against the Sunken God. 
In the battle's fallout Jax tried to make amends with the SKB and apologize for brutally murdering Viola, but the group's remaining adventurers weren't having any of it. Helena checked in on the party after the fight, and together they revived Flora with a scroll of 'Reincarnate' gifted to them by Filip Vikander a few weeks prior. Flora's body was engulfed in a blinding light for several seconds, but when the light cleared she was transformed into living and breathing thri-kreen. A whole foot taller and stripped of her powers of flight, the racial transformation was devastating for Flora as she felt like an alien surrounded by the humanoid members of the RKB. 
Then came the matter of Cereus. During the Trials of Grettir Cereus had noticed that Radovan the Killer, the man who had killed him in Oblast, was in the crowd watching the fights. Psyched out by Radovan's presence, he urged Flora to not revive him should anything happen during the final round of the tournament. Flora consented, so when Cereus was killed in a single shot by Thorvald the RKB agreed to leave him for dead. The death came as a harsh blow to the party: Amara Fireheart and Cereus Quinn-Malum had both been legacy members of the RKB to take up the mantles of their parents, and both had been killed in the party's campaign against the Sunken God. 
Despite the losses, Thorstein the Grey stayed true to his word and rewarded the party with the Iron Flask. A gigantic metal canteen the size of a human head was carried over to the party by a red-haired dwarven woman named Asdis Loderr. Thorstein cautioned the RKB to use the Iron Flask wisely and said that Asdis would be joining the party to make sure that nothing terrible happened to the dwarven relic during the party's journey. As a former tournament fighter herself, Asdis could to hold her own in a fight. Beleren, still bitter from the terrible tournament battles, criticized the nation of Thorvald's complacency in the face of the Sunken God and urged them to take more proactive measures to fight against the sahuagin hordes. Thorstein, offended by Beleren's accusations of complacency and cowardice, ordered the RKB to leave as soon as possible lest they face the wrath of Grettir's armed forces.
The party began packing for the next leg of the mission, a voyage north towards the Glacian city of Poroshenko. The party decided that the fastest route towards the Elflands would be through the Karaga Ocean, thinking they could pick up Adam Divisav in Noggin to help them in the fight against the Sunken God. Jax and Helena moved their relationship to the next level after the tournament, stealing kisses in the city library and Castellan II as they plotted out the final legs of the fight against the Sunken God. Helena updated Queen Astrid on all the setbacks and successes in Thorvald, informing the party that a Gamerian vessel in Poroshenko would escort Cereus' body back home to Catriona in Oftin. 
Before the RKB left Grettir for good, Jax decided to have a meeting with Giovanni Rosso to see what kind of intel he could get about his plans to overthrow Paoli Piedmonte. Giovanni was the SKB's main benefactor, funding their adventurers throughout Pescat while he amassed enough power to challenge Paoli's authority. Jax was ordered by Paoli to stab Giovanni in the nuts the moment he saw him, but before doing so Jax discussed methods of overthrowing Paoli with Giovanni at the Sturdy Stone Cafe with the rest of the RKB and Giovanni's recently hired bodyguard Radovan the Killer. 
The meeting started out promising enough as Jax, Beleren, and Giovanni discussed their mutual hatred for Paoli and his cutthroat control of Sardivelia. Unfortunately before any concrete plans could be made, the meeting turned violent when Jax cut off Giovanni's left hand and stabbed him in the nuts. Jax had already upset Paoli by letting Christopher Isherwood escape, so he needed some kind of physical proof to show Paoli that he was still capable of carrying out his orders. While Giovanni was bleeding out on the Sturdy Stone Cafe's floor, Jax's major mistake came from provoking Radovan the Killer with a quick slap. That slap turned into an all-out brawl with Radovan stabbing Jax to death in Grettir's alleyways before carrying Giovanni away for medical treatment. Flora managed to cast 'Revivify' on Jax in time, but the episode erased any hopes of collaboration between the RKB and SKB to overthrow Paoli. 
Overstaying their welcome, the RKB quickly packed their belongings and boarded the Castellan II, heading towards Poroshenko and beyond for a final encounter with the Sunken God...

Report Date

11 Apr 2020

Primary Location

Grettir