Session 3: The Solstice Ball
General Summary
After defeating their competitors, the party decides to fight the final Teeth battle against the largest shark caught this year, which is rumored to have been captured from Shaetheon, the Plane of Water itself. Everyone gets a potion that resets them to their condition before the previous fight, which restores Eieb's right arm, although it is now badly scarred just above the elbow. Crow and Anteries speak to Verinos to gather tips, who gives them information for the promise of seeing them at the party should they survive. He advises them to move quickly and stay out of the water at all possible costs.
The party plans to set up a barrier of ice spikes and herd the shark into it, avoiding getting into the water, and to take Clever as a performance enhancer. The shark avoids many of the barriers at first and smashes into a flotilla, slicing it in half and nearly casting Crow and Anteries into the water. Seconds later, it breaches through the same raft and shatters it to pieces. The others are caught in the wave, and everyone falls into the water.
The shark swims straight for Anteries and starts swimming gentle circles around her, as if pacified. Anteries stays in the water against her friends' wishes, physically resisting being pulled out by Rickemash. The shark begins to kill itself, side-swiping itself across the ice spikes several times. Anteries successfully mounts the megaladon and guides it to the surface, where Rick manages to kill it by melting its tail off with acid. Narcissa uses wild magic, opening herself to chaos willingly; she feels an interested and proud presence, and becomes permanently more enigmatic. Anteries tells the party that she has been secretly exploring another faith, Shaeth, God of Destruction, Harbinger of the End, and that is possibly why the shark sacrificed itself. Eieb reveals that he also secretly worships this exiled, illegal God, as is common in pirate culture. They agree to keep this under wraps.
The party receives their invitations to the Solstice Ball and head to the market, where they pick up several magical items. Yuan-tan buys a Javelin of Bees and exchanges sexual favors with the shop's crazy lazy-eyed halfling merchant, Lester, for a jester's hat which makes him immune to fear and charm. Rick picks up arrows of flight and a party gown which gives him an illusory costume so long as he's drunk.
They catch sight of a cobble party, a tradition of telling stories to strangers and trying to guess if they're true. Eieb tells the story of how he lost his hand, and none of the Baldari believe him. Crow tells the (false) story of how she acquired her magic and manages to trick a few participants.
The party arrives at the ball and signs a waiver indicating that they will not fault the hosts, Silvershield Estate, for injury or death and that they will abide by the 'Watch Pact' which allows the ball to host illicit activities once a year in exchange for free admission for the city police. The party is introduced spectacularly, with a magically animated fireworks show over the bay depicting Bahamut, God of Fair War, and the hosts Lyle and Tabitha Silvershield invite their guests to enjoy the night.
Inside the party, everyone gets a little toasty off of free, exotic liquors. Anteries finds her mother, Kenyatta Solander, being actively courted by Verinos. Her mother says she attended the ball this year in hopes of finding her daughter, her 'Sun Jewel', as she has not responded to her father's summons. Kenyatta says that Anteries’ father is aging and urges her to return to The Solarium in Procampur to take his place as leader, or to at least visit soon.
Everyone watches the featured 'Origins' performance by the changeling storyteller Seg, who shifts into each character in the story and embellishes the stage with illusionary props as he recounts the origin stories of historical heroes. The party is surprised to see a changeling in its natural form-- anywhere outside of Baldur’s Gate, such a thing would incite fear and likely violence, but the performance is transcendent.
He first tells the stories of Taendor-- the first Priest of Aethon Sol. In his early teens, Taendor went hunting for his family and fell into a ravine blanketed in snow, shattering his legs. He laid there for ten hours, slowly watching the sun move over him, calling out for help to no response. Finally, when the sun began to slip behind the lip of the ravine, he cried out a prayer for the sun to come back to him, to save him from the inevitable frostbitten death brought by the night. Beside him appeared a robin made of pure flame. The robin did not speak, but sat on the man's chest through the night, burning his flesh but keeping him alive and warm enough to survive until morning, when his family found him. This is why many Solar Priests have flaming bird tattoos on their chest. As thanks, Taendor swore his life to preaching the kindness of the Sun God and founded the Church of Light.
Next is the story of Brenna Fint, a warrior who took Bahamut's decree of 'fair war' to its extremes. Eieb’s step father used to tell him stories about this hero regularly. When Brenna was 20, she was conscripted into The Spice War, which had the entire Shining Sea and surrounding cities fighting over rights to the wealth of spices found growing on the Chultan Peninsula. She rapidly climbed the ranks and became a naval captain at 22. However, as she aged and studied the God of War, Brenna became frustrated with the obvious power imbalance between the technologically advanced northern cities and the natives of Chult. After becoming Captain, she stole her ship and turned on her city, becoming a rogue pirate who would destroy her own former naval ships in order to 'balance the odds' and give the native Chultans a fair fight. Because of this, Chult became an independent nation.
Finally, Seg tells the story of Balduran, whom the city they are in was named after. When Balduran was young, his parents moved him to a remote farm against his will, where he found himself bored out of his mind most days. At 9 years old, he discovered a whistling hole in the ground which led to Wazanta, the Plane of Earth. There, he made friends with Dao, or earth genies, who gave him shiny rocks to play with. Balduran collected these shiny friendship tokens for years before realizing that they were diamonds and other precious gems. At 15 years old, he used his amassed wealth to build a giant wall around the property, protecting the portal. Over the years Balduran opened his property to refugees which settled permanently, and Baldur's Gate was born. Some say that the portal to the Plane of Earth is still somewhere in the city, the secret of its location taken to the grave by Balduran.
"Encore!" the crowd shouts as the performance ends. After a few minutes of this, the curtains draw back once more. Seg appears and sits casually on the edge of the stage. "I had not prepared anything else tonight, but… I suppose I could tell you all my own origin story?" The crowd whoops. "Excellent, a chance to practice my improv." With a wave of his hand, all the lights in the room go out at once and a small glow appears in the performer's hand, casting long shadows on his face. "Mine was a birth of circumstance…"
Seg does not perform as extravagantly as before, but his words are just as enthralling--- and surprisingly intimate. It is apparent that he struggles with how much to tell his viewers about his personal history and that speaking of it is painful, but he gains confidence as he goes on. He speaks of a twin sister and a humble childhood. Promises of fun and adventure, and travel. He explains that one day, some strange men came to the door and told him that he was heir to some great responsibility, though he won't say what. He says that he cast that responsibility aside, that he was born to travel and explore, to collect and share stories. And so he left. He wandered Faerun for some years before landing performances in Baldur's Gate, where his true identity was accidentally discovered by Lyle after his performance one night. "But Lyle is no stranger to the realm of Change," he says with a sly wink in the vampire's direction, and explains that the Silvershields encouraged him to come 'out' as a changeling-- that they would protect him. And well, they have. He ends in a grateful tear, and Lyle Silvershield approaches the stage and embraces him. The pair of them, and many of the patrons, cry in appreciation.
Later, the party attempts to sell Clever to a group of guests doing Sharpsugar, a stimulant drug, in the reading room. The sale falls through when Rick lies about reduced addiction rates. Yuan-ton participates in the rare drug Faerie Dust right from the source: a fae dragon's breath. This dragon, Dyonisis, was befriended by the elf Lythandril in the Faewild, the Plane of Life. Yuan-ton experiences hallucinations and boundless knowledge for fifteen minutes, but unfortunately does not recall his experience.
Narcissa meets Lyle and his friend Venda Briarwind in the 'Red Room', which is a feeding room for vampires filled with willing ‘blood servants’ dressed in wine-red. Lyle invites Crow to partake but she declines, and he instead leads her to the Dungeon. There, she meets a black dragonborn, Tiefel, who trades one dose of the torture chemical Agony in exchange for five hits of Clever, under the condition that Crow takes both to demonstrate the ecstasy is causes. She is strapped into a vertical table and, after giving full consent, is administered both drugs; the crowd looks on in awe as she appears to experience unimaginable pain followed by pure ecstasy, and after an hour she must be escorted to a plush couch to recover-- though she clearly enjoys the comedown. Several of the onlookers seem eager to try Clever as a sexual stimulant.
Meanwhile, the others go to the back garden, where Rick challenges Verinos to a brawl and wins, earning several partygoers gold through betting. Yuan-ton disappears into a hedge maze and finds a statue of the Exiled Five Goddess, Selune, who reigns over the domain of Change. Yuan-ton leaves his disguise kit in the offering bowl and the statue begins to cry. Yuan-ton feels slightly different, but can't place the source.
Everyone parties into the night, each waking up in a different location with unexplained circumstances, except for Eieb and Anteries, who wake up naked together in the stable outside of the city, Vlatigor watching them placidly as they scramble to find their clothes. The two of them immediately agree to pretend this never happened.
"He speaks of a twin sister and a humble childhood. Promises of fun and adventure, and travel. He explains that one day, some strange men came to the door and told him that he was heir to some great responsibility, though he won't say what."
Report Date
13 Oct 2018
Primary Location
