S1 E23: Confronting Elsinore
General Summary
In which Elsinore confesses to more than a murder attempt, but a bargain is also offered...
As Ambassador Piket came in, his unlikely porter turned out to be a Bronze dragonborn in armor named Zalock, another adventurer he found at the entrance to the upper Bailey and brought along mostly to carry his lovely wife's extensive luggage.
The gang discussed the matter with Piket, who advised them of some of the legal complexities, seeing that the incident involved a member of the true nobility, a distant blood relative of his own, and to whom the laws did not evenly apply. He gave advice but passed no judgement, and set to work on his report from the meeting with the diplomats from the Empires of Silk and Spice that he had met at a neutral city halfway between the two borders, in the Wild Wastelands; the keep is his first stop within the relative safety of the Border Marches of the Realm.
The gang poked around in Elsinore's discarded clothing, which her chambermaids had been instructed specifically to watch for fear of tampering. Lorfel persuaded her of his credentials and found a ring of spell storing within. he did not have time to determine what, if any, spells it currently held, and had no obvious way to determine what spells it may have previously held, despite his divination powers.
Searching the study's writing desk they find a sheaf of papers with indentations suggesting a heavy hand had pressed through and left a mark on the sheets below. They identify what looks like sums from a ledger, but more tantalizingly, also the opening part of a letter in a large, looping, feminine hand: "My dearest Anna -- It is time to call in that favor..."
As the Castellan, Elsinore, and Annabeth are right there in the room, the gang presents the evidence to the Castellan. He repeats the major points aloud while looking at his wife: "Someone with knowledge of the creatures of the Shadowfell, who also removed the mirrors in the whole castle...” Repeating it, with intent, while looking at her, she moves into a fight-or-flight stance and there’s no fleeing from this room…
Luckily (thanks to the randomness of Initiative) Elsinore and Annabeth are both captured in a Hold Person spell effect before anyone suffers any damage - Elsinore is attacking and Annabeth’s loyalties are uncertain enough that the spell s extended to her as well.
The Ambassador had suggested perhaps a telepathic link to the Skulk to get some answers, and while Keebler is unable to do that, he is able to create a connection between the held Elsinore’s still active mind and his own. At first all he gets is a wave of threats and frustrated curses. But eventually she begins to admit - or at least accuse her husband - of some very dark things specific to his insistence that she never become pregnant. Also, that he has been blackmailing the Serene Mistress. ((More insight checks along these lines may clarify what was being said or telepathically communicated to Keebler in this regard)).
As the fight seems to have gone out of them, the gang drops hold person, and the Castellan is extremely careful with his following action and words. he says that he loves her, and can forgive her of what she did, but he only wants to understand what drove her to it. She clams up ((though the psychic link is still active)), having perhaps no words to even start to explain; or perhaps she thinks he should already know exactly what drove her to it.
Annabeth, for her part, is freaking out - evidently she had no inkling that Elsinore was in any way involved, let alone the main (and perhaps only) perpetrator of the almost-murder. She claims to have just been drunk and flirting and is now thoroughly chastised for her wandering eyes, which led her into a great deal of trouble by association. She says she isn’t the Anna in the letter, and as the town dyemaker could certainly not owe the Castellan’s wife any meaningful favors even if she were.
The Castellan seems more disappointed than angry, and well in control of his emotions despite his wife literally compelling some planar creature to decapitate him only a half hour or so before. He admits to nothing that Elsinore has claimed, but asks that everyone consider the unpleasant fallout of any of this getting out to the public - not just what Elsinore did, but also what she accused him of doing. ((The gang has not spoken to the Serene Mistress about any of this, however - she could obviously confirm or deny whether the Castellan was really blackmailing her)).
The Castellan admits that, in return for helping to keep rumors from spreading about what they heard, the gang is certainly deserving of a more proper reward than a banquet and a hearty pat on the back/shell. So - what is it you would like, within his power to give?
Missions/Quests Completed
- A Murder at the Banquet
Report Date
06 Sep 2022
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