Ep 30: "The Hangover"

The group prepared for the special dinner with the famous Zeknar Feddles, and the King, on the evening of Trillaris 27th . Saxi had invited Owen to be her plus one for the event. Her knowledge of Lamina Island was limited due to memory loss, so Owen agreed to go with her in case anything happened that required a smooth talker. Pesk was invited as a representative of the clergy and Nathan, who had been invited as the Royal Cartographer, invited Rosie to be his guest for the night. Seldanna, as one would expect, was expected to be there as the Queen of Soldahn.

Everyone was picked up by a royal carriage and they all arrived at the castle together. The group chatted and greeted each other outside as they prepared themselves for the evening. Those less versed in noble protocol agreed to follow Owen’s lead for when to bow or kneel. Juveha had also joined Seldanna and went to fetch drinks for everyone. Owen decided to request whatever Zeknar was drinking.

As they waited, the group saw a Dwarf with a grey dutch style beard and a twill stetson approach them. He appeared fixated on Saxi, but was also interested in Pesk and Rosie. He introduced himself as Zeknar Feddles and greeted Saxi with some sort of “traditional” Chiton greeting. Luckily, he did not seem to think anything was strange when she did not return the greeting. The group was seated for dinner and a strong, oddly green, mead was brought out for Owen and Zeknar.

Everyone was seated for dinner and the King arrived for dinner. He said little and everyone let Zeknar dominate the conversation. Something that Zeknar seemed more than happy to do. He told the group about three very rare creatures that he saw in Lamina Island:

• Necrobilius Vellias are nocturnal creatures that spend their days motionless with eyes half open. One of only a handful of naturally occurring undead creatures, it blends perfectly into a very wisely chosen stump where they house a single stolen egg. Their innate necrogenic energy draws the life from the egg. This sustains the creature while also turns the egg into its offspring.

• Aranierus Cyclantum has nearly a 4ft leg span and its webs can span over 100 feet. The webbing is like glass, you can barely see it. The most fascinating feature is that they use the webbing to build sculptures of small humanoids, usually farrosh children. They build them in the center of the web, so it appears that there is some sort of meal there and creatures come to attack only to get stuck in the web. They cover the sculptures in fur from their own body.

• Reptila Boadratum Inmanis is the largest monstrous creature Zeknar ever studied, maybe the largest on earth. The male of the species is no larger than an adult anaconda and are scattered around the island. The female, however, is unbelievably large. They only caught a small glimpse of its midsection while on the boat early in the day as it crested the water with the “grace of the wind blowing against silk boxers on a line”. It was larger across than the King’s dinner table.

As dinner began to wind down, the group learned that Zeknar was seeking funding from the King and Queen for another expedition to Lamina Island. Seldanna was definitely interested in acquiring more information about the island. The King then asked Seldanna for her selfish request. She contemplated for a moment before she told him that she wanted her friends to all be safe from the Nocturne, not above the law, but not a target of the Nocturne. The King became agitated and left the table, while an unusually confident Seldanna followed. She confronted him about his reaction to her request and he argued that it was not a selfish request. He insisted she give him a truly selfish request and Seldanna asked him to never put her in the spotlight again. To her surprise, he agreed.

The group left and went back to their respective houses. On the way home, Saxi thanked Owen for his help and he began to feel the strange alcohol he had drunk at dinner. He suddenly began to slur his words and then passed out as they got to Saxi’s house. She and the footman got him into the house and Saxi put him to bed in her room. She curled up on her hay bed in the corner and went to sleep.

In the early morning of Trillaris 28th, Owen awoke to find himself dressed in a Barrel Run guard’s uniform and he was curled around a spear. There was a man, possibly the owner of the uniform, beaten unconscious and hogtied at the foot of the bed. Owen began to assess the situation and, while he tried to get the man into the uniform, the noise woke up Saxi. She was understandably stressed, but helped him get the man dressed and got Owen some of Oisin’s clothes to borrow. Once they had the man dressed, Owen dragged him outside with plans to put him in an alley and hope he didn’t remember anything. Then, Holly appeared from down the alley and around the corner.

Holly didn’t see the unconscious guard, so Owen left him in the street and lead her away to keep her from seeing him. When Owen got back, the man was gone. He went inside to fill Saxi in on the situation and then left to go back to the Brell Estate where he was living.

That same morning, Pesk worked at the Divine Foundry and invited Mezri to join the group for lunch. Nathan and Rosie wondered at Owen’s late arrival, but didn’t question it too much when he said that he had passed out and slept at Saxi’s house.

At the Beer Forge, the group met for lunch and everything seemed normal. Then they saw a firbolg walk in wearing Owen’s clothes from the night before. Owen managed to purchase the clothes back from him, but it took some effort. While Saxi had a very stressed expression, she stayed quiet on the strange occurrence and Owen refused to give any details or explanations to the group.

Mezri walked in and joined the group for lunch. He talked about his tribe and how they travelled with their entire city everywhere they went. He also showed the group some of the strange and rare spices that his people trade in. He pulled out things like Ursali’s Touch, a rare herb that can improve a healing spell or potion. He also showed the group Fire Root, which can change elemental damage to fire instead, and Sky Berry, which can make a spell do radiant damage. He gave some of the Ursali’s Touch to Nathan.