Session 11: Playing Time!

22cnd Of Snowmelt

General Summary

Having dealt with the problems inside of the old home of the United Order, the party attends the play they had previously bought tickets for. Accompanied by some nice food and drinks, they have a nice view of the podium from their private booth. The party spots a few other attendees, such as Rae, Xydra Aavindir, Imaris Barlow, Lady Juliet and even their runaway from earlier that night. Uthal starts putting pieces together and finds out that the floor plans they had found in the mansion earlier today are of the theater, putting the party on edge. They decide to keep a close eye on the runaway, and inform the staff of the theater that a dangerous person might be inside of the theater. Despite their worries, they settle in and try to enjoy the show.
It starts with the owners announcing the play, while also thanking the anonymous benifactor who paid for this play. They play itself is descent, though a bit boring. It tells the story of a fat dwarf, Lord Am, whose beard covers his entire face. He holds a feast for his 300th birthday, but manages to initially get himself stuck in his observatory after being joyous about his favorite star getting closer. He does eventually get free however, and the feast starts as several characters clearly mimmicing actual important people on the continent join the stage. The play takes a dark turn however, when a creature in a black starry cloak enters the stage and starts murdering some of the guests, while driving others insane. Rather worrying, Leaf spots that the cloak is leaving behind a black oozing trail, reminding the party of the black paint they had seen but hours before. This eventually leads to just Lord Am remaining, who walks up to the front of the stage, and bows.
After an akward amount of time, some people start applauding, but this stops once the creature with the black cloak reemerges on the stage, covers the actors who are playing dead on stage with a similar black cloak, and gives Lord Am a mask that looks like it is made of dried, wrinkled and broken skin. Things start going from bad to worse very quickly, as the beard of Lord Am drops, revealing a face devoid of any normal human features. He puts on the mask, and with the loud sound of breaking bones, his posture and figure transforms into that of a masked yellow cloaked creature, with bone-like arms and hands. The creature raises its hands towards audiance, and time seems to freeze for everyone but the party.
The creature turns towards LUKI Four, telling the party that it is about time they meet, considering that they have been annoyingly complicating his intricate plans. This creature, who the party now asumes to be the Feaster From Afar itself, makes some disturbing comments about having Knuc among a few other people within the prison in its home, which is apperently a starry room inside a mountain. It then goes on to make the party a very confusing deal: it offers them knowledge, power, and guidance in their personal goals, and all they have to do is grow stronger, cleansing the island of all they percieve as evil. The party discusses out loud that it might include killing the Feaster, but the creature seems unmoved by their conclusion. As an additional remark, the Feaster points towards a magical item on Lady Juliets head, telling the party it will simply give it to them if they agree to the deal. Though the party is scepticle at first, they quickly agree once the Feaster starts to threaten with the motivation of destroying thunderpoint by releasing the Herald of Destruction, seeing no other option than to grow stronger regardless of whether they side with the Feaster or not. Killian shakes the hand of the Feaster, whose proportions and body throughout this interaction seemed to move in ways that are impossible, appearing both small and large, close and far away.
Being pleased with the progress it made, the Feaster gives the party the magical item, and folds in on itself as it dissapears, leaving only the mask behind. It does leave the party with an additional parting gift, a whole batch of ink-like monsters like they fought when the first met in Gildenwharf emerge within the audiance of the play as panic ensues. Additionally, a few winged black inky creatures appear, which start pulling down a black covered canvas from the rafters. Sensing trouble, the party along with Rae and Lady Juliet combat the creatures, nearly preventing them from pulling down the canvas and summoning a four armed behemoth to the fight as well. In the end, they are victorious however, though a spell cast by Leaf nearly caused a fire to consume the theater in the progress. Also, a Unicorn joined the fight, with nobody having any idea where it came from, aside from maybe Killian.
During this fight, the person that had fled from the party in the United Order Mansion turns invisible, snatches the masked that the Feaster dropped, and starts running away. Bent on not letting the person getting away again, Leaf gives chase. Uthal decides that it is not safe for Leaf to give chase alone, and runs after her. Though they do not manage to catch up to the 'thief', they do eventually manage to reach a clear view of the reason reïnforcements had not joined them at the theater. A few hundred more black ink-like creatures approach the city from the United Order mansion, with the city guard preparing to defend the city!
Next session: Session 12: Chaos in the Crossing

(Noteworthy) Characters Interacted With:
Rea, Second in command of the Griffon Knights,
Lady Juliet of Maurkin,
The Feaster From Afar?

Report Date

07 Nov 2022

Primary Location

Brothers' Crossing

Feaster From Afar?