Session 55

There are two gaurds in the next to the door that leads to the king's room. Vaan and Thydrom are on their way to explore it. There is a guy sitting there with a horn in his hand. they continue to look around and see these horns all around the kingdom, most likely an alarm system. The guards here are armed heavily except the one off to the side. Thydrom and Vaan discuss what to do. Vaan suggests she change into one of the guards, a newbie gaurd, and Thydrom suggest he makes a sound or some sort of distraction to encourage them to leave. They agree on this plan to get into the room and then it begins. Vaan changes into a guard, clothes and all, and Thydrom makes the lights flicker and change colors and makes a weird noise. This catches the guard's attention and they look at eachother, speaking to eachother and gives a nod while one goes to check it out. 2 guards left. Vaan then comes forward as a newbie guard, very akwardly. She salutes and says in a panicked voice "Sir, there is a lot of commotion down the way and the guard you just sent vanished and I don't want to go down there." The guard is not fooled and asks why she has on the same armor as him and asks for who gave the orders to her. Vaan says it was Valarian which confuses the guard and he ends up pulling out his spear. Vaan is still trying to play it off like she's a new guard and the guard finally asks for her name. She gives the name of Billy and drops down to one knee. The guard puts the spear up to her throat and says "that is not a name we give around here..."
Meanwhile Zandro and Xerrik are downstairs near the jail/armory. Zandro is snooping around for items he can take while he looks for the artifact. He can see cells to the left and the right. He sees a chest with two locks on it in the first area with the open cells and a sleeping guard. He makes a note of it and checks out the other room and sees another cell area. These ones have metal doors that are shut with a lock on the outside unlike the other area of cells which was surrounded by barbs. Again, there is a chest all the way to the back that is double locked. He can also see a spot where they eat The other room has no windows but just a giant grey door. Zandro then tries to open the door but is unsuccseful. So he makes his way back to the area of open cells to try to open the chest. He gets into the open cell area quietly, and the guard is still asleep. He makes his way through and then hears someone in one of the cells "something smells different hear" They don't see Zandro but are aware that he may be there. He says to him "shhhh you little bitch". The person says really loud "Who the FUCK said THAT?!? GUAAARD" The guard wakes up and is at attention and is staring him down. All the other prisoners are now aware of his presence and are banging against their cells making a ton of noise. Zandro scorns them for being shitty prisoners.
Meanwhile in the coleseum, Pippy and Wi Po see this giant creature towering over Raui. The creature's fur markings are very similar to and we both realize that we are staring at Snow. Marge goes over to Wi Po and says "Did you kinow about this?!" Wi Po says that he didn't know about this but can tell that Snow is a werewolf. Marge says that they have to get Snow out of there. Pippy panic speaks to Snoww "Oohhhhh you got bigger, way bigger. I can help make you invisinble but it'll take a while to get to you with my short little legs or I can create a distraction with a hoard of owls. What do I do???" Marge is thinking with Wi Po and Pippy gets a response back from Snow. Snow asks how the owls work and Pippy explains that she can cast from where she is and can make a hoard of 24 if possible. At that moment the King speaks to Snow and says "So you came to protect this creature. I guess I can get my hands bloodier even more." Wi Po turns to Marge and says "Oh bother, bloody hands are so hard to clean." Marge says "Shit shit shit" Wi Po offers to make an earthquake and Marge agrees and points over to where to place it, where a bunch of guards are standing. She then says to not judge her for what she's about to do and starts wringing her hands. Wi Po whispers "earth shaking" and directs his attention to the area with the guards. As this happens PIppy sees in the coleseum Snow runs at the Triton as the ground starts to shake. The King has never seen a beast like this before and Snow gets a lead on him and bites this guys shoulder and slashes at him. The Triton King pushes off of Snow, attacking him twice but it doesn't do anything to Snow since his weapon isn't silvered. He then puts his hand up and cast some magic at Snow, a bolt which hits Snow and pushes him back. Snow is showing signs of injury. The guards are moving around and Marge goes to her bag and says "Do me a favor Wi Po, make sure nothing bad happens". Marge is sweating quite a bit and opens her bag and these purple hands come out, giant purple paws with claws on them. It comes out of the bag and growls. it has the body of the bear and the face of an owl. It has a collar around it's neck with a little heart underneath. Wi PO says "Oh I know how to turn into you, should I do that now?" Marge is confused and WI Po explains that he can turn into any animal he has seen. Marge says go ahead and Wi Po says he can't speak in that form so if there is anything he needs to know now is the time. She said she's going to shoot a signal in the air when it's time to leave. Wi Po then says he can also summon an owl bear if that would help. Suddenly there are now 3 owl bears. Marge points to the guards and says to get them as far away from us as possible. She takes out a bow and arrow and says she's heading towards the other side to ensure no one else gets over there. Wi Po and the other owl bears run towards the guards screetching. Pippy looks at the guards that are closing in on her and says "What is going on?!?" The guards make to grab her and as they restrain her she silently summons 24 undead owls. She sends 12 at the king and 12 at the guard holding her. Raui is on the ground and unconsious but wakes up to Snow shoving a health potion into her mouth and she's back on her feet.
Back at the castle, Vaan has a spear up to her throat and Thydrom can see this. He says into her mind that he can cast darkness on Nyla and have Nyla run in and grab her and run out to the hallway on the other side. As she does Vaan casts mage hand to grab the horn from the guard. The guard grabs his spear and starts running after the darkness, screaming something in Triton. Vaan was able to grab the horn as the other guard starts booking it after Nyla. Thydrom touches himself with tongues. Meaning he casts tounges by licking his hands and rubbing himself down and now he can understand what the Tritons are yelling. Thydrom takes the opportunity to open the door that is now ungaurded. The Triton is close to catching up to Vaan is now only 10 feet away. Thydrom is now looking inside the throne room which is empty. He cautiosly walks in. He sees a giant throne and paintings of all the old kings. He looks off to the side and sees the king's living quarters with his name enscribed on the door and the door has a lock on it. The throne has carvings on them, names written into it (ametuerly done with a knife). This room is pretty barren but he notices underneath the throne cushion there is a key. Thydrom takes the key and before going to the king's room, he looks at all the paintings to see if there are any similarities between them. He notices with every single one that they have weapons except this King's paiting is without a weapon and is just him commanding the sea. He then makes his way to the King's chambers and unlocks the door. The moment he opens the door he gets hit with a disgusting, rancid stentch. He sees exactly what he smells and his stomach drops.
Meanwhile Zandro is in the middle of this prison area, Xerrik who was standing guard comes in to investigate what the noise is, and the guard is readying to attack. Xerrik runs up and swings with his switch axe at the guard, hitting him. Zandro takes this moment to make his attack, the first attempt misses but swings back with his dagger and hits. The guard then swings back at Zandro, making contact and hitting him. Xerrik swings at the guard twice, hitting him both times and the guard is now starting to bleed. As he's bleeding he goes to grab at his side towards the horn. Zandro, sinks into himself and calls upon the artifact for the first time. He holds his arm out and he feels the ground under him start to shake. He feels something as he starts glowing as the artifact moves through him, the guard looks at him and sees his eyes start to glow. He holds his arms out instictively then puts his hands together, causing the two doors to either side to fly off their hinges and smashes the guard instantly killing him. The prisoners see this and quiet down and stay in their cells. Zandro hears a voice inside of him, very faintly, and all he can make out is "tonight".
Back in the colleseum, Snow igoes up to the King and tries to swipe at him but dodges both times as he realizes he can't attack Snow normally. He goes to send a lightening bolt at Snow but Raui, back on her feet she counters his spell and flips off the King. He glares at her and says "how are you standing?!" Raui says "Don't worry about it". Just then 12 undead owls come into the King's vision and he takes in the chaos that has errrupted around him. He says "I've had enough of these shallow threats" and he raises his hands and the undead owls get swiped up in a current and tosses them into the air and throws them against a wall oblitterating them. He then turns his attention back to Snow and says "let's get back to the matter at hand". He puts his hand out and a tornado starts to swirl around him as he says "Time to get rid of this wolf so we can make this a fair fight.". Snow looks at Raui and says "I'm gonna do something, ok?" Raui says "Don't be stupid." Snow says "i'm not going to be able to take another hit, neither are you." Raui says "Get out of here". Snow runs at Raui full speed and grabs Raui to run away. The king says 'Fine. Let's have fun with this." He slams his trident on the ground, holding one hand out towards them and one towards Pippy who is still in the stands. We are both pulled into these tornados in his hands, sucking us in. Sparks are coming from the King's palms and he's adding lightning magic to this. Pippy and Snow both take some massive damage, so much so that is now floating towards the king unconsious. As Snow is hit he looks down at Raui and says "I need you to get out of here now." He uses his last bit of strength and tosses Raui out of the whirlpool and falls unconcious as well. The King looks at Raui and says "This is really what was trying to protect you?" He still has his arms out pulling them towards him. Wi Po sees this as does Marge. She fires one of her arrows in the sky signalling that the coast is clear to get out of there. It's just the King and Raui staring eachtoher down. The king takes a step towards Raui and says "The only thing I wanted was to kill you and these creatons wanted to ruin that for me." and he takes another step towards her while dragging Pippy and Snow with him. Raui, is a bloody mess, looks down at her hands for a split second and sees her missing arm and her scars on her good arm. She raises a hand to the king and blasts him with a lightening bolt while screaming "DIE". The King gets hit with this, loosing his concentration, dropping Pippy and Snow. He smirks and says "Still got some fight in ya? I like that. Now let's see what happens when your friends actually die." Wi Po tries to run in and grab Pippy and Snow. Marge is also heading in there with the owlbear. Raui, has an emotion come over her, she's not only standing her ground but she feels her legs starting to move. She is running full force at this Triton King and she grabs him. He turns off to the side, Raui is behind him holding him. The Triton King is trying to attack Pippy and Snow once more as the whirlpools start again. Raui then hears a voice, a ladies voice, it sounds so familiar. It's the voice of the lady, the same voice of the lady she dreamed about when she was chosen for this journey. She hears "My child, I am so proud of you. You have walked this bloody path and done some horrible things, fought with other but mostly yourself and I shall lend you what power I can as you try to help those in need I will help you as your final action. Do you accept this? Probably not. But we both know that deep down you cared about these people and I'm going to help you protect them." Raui says back "I would do anything for my friends". "So be it" says the voice. Raui's body starts to shake, a storm cloud rises above her in a thunderous burst, surrounding her. Wi Po and Marge manage to make their way in to grab Snow and Pippy. Raui knows that they have to leave. Raui turns to Wi Po in Owlbear form, Marge is right by. Raui says to them "Wi Po, I know... I know we never got along. Deep down I loved you as a friend, you always watched over me even I was bad. You need to get them out of here. This is the end of the line for me. Make sure he never hurts you guys again." Wi Po in owlbear form gives a mournful squawking response. Marge looks at Wi Po and says "We need to get out of here". She helps get Snow and Pippy onto the backs of Wi Po and his Owlbear. They all bolt for the exit leaving Raui there. The King's demeanor changes as he crosses glances at his daughter, Marge, stunned to see her there. He is no longer paying attention to what is happening. Raui is starting to float up into the air, her eyes go white as lightening crashes around her. She's calling upon the storm within herself as she calls out one last time "I am Raui Stormcaller, you will feel my storm." Her body gives in to this power and she explodes with the king in hand, deals a massive amount of damage, the coleseum around them also explodes.
Zandro, Xerri, Thydrom, and Vaan feel this explosion happen around them and they get the sense that something bad just happened. The only thing left of Raui, is her mechanical arm and a pair of gloves as they fall to the ground. Wi Po and Marge are runnign down a corridor as the colleseum crashes around them, cutting off the entrance to the colleseum.
Thydrom meanwhile was above the colleseum in the king's quarters. He sees corpses and bones all over, a body on a plate. There are Triton bodies mostly and an area where a bunch of items are tossed off to the side as if they are nothing to him. He spots a black book on the table next to the corpse. He casts a spell to speak to the dead Triton on the table. He asks "Can you read this book?" The Triton says "Yes". He then asks "What does this say?" while pointing to the book. The Triton reads it out loud and it talks about how a person was better off to not have existed to at all. Basically the book has a name and a date and information of where the individual was from and what they tasted like and what he gained from them. Thydrom gets the sense that these were not random killings but people that he knew. Thydrom then asks "Where is the artifact that the King carries?" The corpse does not know but says he only ever has his Trident on him. Thydrom then asks "Why were you killed and eaten?" The corpse is confised by this and said that him and the king were in battle with one another, a sparing match, and he was able to get him on his knee and blacked out. The corpse doesn't know it was eaten. The final question is "When does the king return to this room?" and the corpse says at night then the corpse goes back to resting. Thydrom makes his way to leave and hears the loud rumble.
Meanwhile Vaan and Nyla are running around like crazy trying to stay away from this dude that is on their heels. Vaan, having a little lead she transforms back to herself, races down the stairs on Nyla and casts vines at the top of the stairs to slow the speedy guard down. She continues down the stairs as she feels the loud rumble.
Zandro is shaking after seeing what he did and Xerrik is just staring at him with a look of "what the fuck?!" and Zandro says "Lets open the chests and see whats inside. He makes his way over to the one chest and opens it up, sees a pearl and a stone that looks like a cats face with a missing eye, and shield, and a pack of cards. Zandro takes it all. He goes to leave and feels the ground shake and says "clearly things went to shit upstairs" and he runs to find the quickest exit with Xerrik in tow. He gets to the hallway where the court was and he sees a lot of people starting to run out of there. He spots a ball of darkness roaming around. Chaos has not quite errupted up here but people are running towards the colleseum to see what took place.
The four of them meet up and as they do they see three Owl bears running out of the coleseum towards them, carrying an unconsious Pippy and Snow and Marge is in tow. The guards are behind them confused and in general there is confusion all around. The group is back together and Wi Po screetches at Marge in a questioning manner. Marge nods and says "follow me" and she starts to ride her Owlbear and piulls out her bow, shooting some arrows to incapacitate guards. Zandro says "I see this shit went sideways" and Wi Po screetches at him, beckoning him to follow. They all start to run as people in the streets see 3 owlbears, a ball of darkness, two almost dead people, and the rest of the group rushing by. They get to a crappy house and Marge opens the door and she hurries everyone in, owlbears included. She turns around and takes in the whoel scene and says "I mean this in the most sincere way possible... what the fuck?!?" Wi Po unshifts, releasing his summon and casts a mass cure wounds. Snow, getting healed gets back up and says "Shit, where are we?" Pippy also asks where Raui is and Wi Po explains that Raui exploded and that she's dead and the king is dead. Zandro says "oh, we did that? We really killed the king?" Nyla stops being a ball of darkness. Snow is trying to wrap his head around what happened. Pippy makes her way to the fdoor to go get Raui and Wi Po explains that Raui exploded and all that is left is her arm and a glove. Pippy is in disbelief, Snow is shocked, the rest of the party says this is Pippy's fault for attacking the day before anyways. Pippy then turns on WiPo and says that this is his fault for not lying just this once. Snow is chanting in the background "can we all just shut up and stop" Vaan casts mage hand and slaps Pippy to shut her up. Zandro asks why we were unconsious and what happened and Pippy starts to explain what took place and when she got to the part where Snow transformed into a werewolf, her eyes get big and she says that Snow turned into a thing.. a werewolf. Vaan spits out her whiskey, Thydrom lights his beard on fire. Snow talks about how the king had the artifact on him but in an item. Pippy suggests along with Zandro that we should go back and get the artifact and PIppy begins again saying we need to go back for Raui. Marge kneels down next to her and says that there was nothing left, truly nothing left of Raui just her mechanical arm and a glove. Pippy asks if there was a hand in the glove cause she can do a lot with a body part and Wi Po shoves a very strong hot toddy into her hand to drink.
The party continues to discuss the situation and what happened to the King and if he is dead what we need to do to get the artifact. Zandro keeps bring up also grabbing Raui's mechanical arm. Wi Po recalls that he didn't see any sign of the king so he isn't sure what happened to the King. Zandro thinks that the artifact may have protected the king fro mthe attack. Wi Po asks Thydrom to scry to see if he can see the King. Wi Po is still handing out hot toddys and Marge's owl bear nudges him as if he's begging for food. Wi Po casts speak with animals and gives him some food and asks how he's doing. The Owl responses "Toge is good, very good. Toge is happy to be out of his bag so people aren't afraid of him." Wi Po says that he wasn't scared of him and that his animal companion also likes him and gives a scratch on the head.
Snow stands up and says "i guess it's time to have a talk. The cat's out of the bag... I'm used to having Raui says shut the fuck up after a bad joke like that." Vaan then yells "shut the fuck up". He then talks about how he can turn into a werewolf and that it hasn't always been that way. He says he doesn't remember how it came to be, he just agreed to it and has regretted it ever since. It happened while he was with us and he said that he needs to be open about stuff and that Bethrynna did this to him. She isn't a werewolf but she did it for a spell as she needed the blood of a willing werewolf and was intimidated into doing it for her. Pippy starts rapid firing questions off to Snow about being a werewolf and Wi Po comes up and shoeves an even stronger hot toddy into her hands to shut her up again. Wi Po goes up and hugs him and Snow says that he made the deal to keep Ra safe. Vaan says "I thought you made one with Yatish to keep him safe" and he explains that he made deals with them both. He explains that Bethrynna's was more forceful and made him do this. He explains that Bethrynna was threatening to hurt Ra which is why he made the deal but now that Ra is dead he can come clean about it all. Pippy remembers that she has Bethrynna's papers and can figure out what she's been working on. Zandro suggests getting back to the topic at hand and Vaan turns on Pippy and says that we need to decide what is going on with Pippy being in the group cause she doesn't trust her being in the party. The party begins to argue and then Snow stops and says " we need to figure out what our intentions are and see if we are all on the same page and that this all needs to be on the table and fuck Bethrynna."
We then hear from behind us "yeah fuck her" and behind us is Yatish standing there with her arms crossed. Wi Po offers her a hot toddy. She says she has to introduce us to someone and she steps to the side and says that Yalda has decided to help us out and offer one of our teammates. Out walks another female tiefling, they stand side by side and says "what is this about you being a werewolf?".