Session 68: Gerald and Elenor (November 21, 2024)
Last session, our heroes found themselves face-to-face with their most frequent and dire challenge: meeting parents. But while previous meetings—Heph bringing home a naked Rormir or the party breaking in to Maho’s home—were faux pas on the party’s end, this time they caught Elias’s dad corn-cobbing a raw fish and found themselves in the rare position of having the social high ground.
You caught up over a meal with Mathias and Victoriias and learned that they had been led to this royally-furnished cave not long after Elias’s disappearance by a mysterious cloaked figure. Here they’d stayed for close to a year, living off some combination of the preserved food in the larder and a rather inexperienced approach to catching and preparing fish. Elias browsed the bookshelves and found notes in a familiar handwriting: that of Petunia Ashlyn Mistwall. Vicki led the party deeper into the cave to show them her board, a mess of parchment, drawings, and yarn constructed from months of her trips up to the surface. From it they learned of supply issues with Kogar’s military, and of secret tunnels leading into the Old Palace. They also learned that she had remained undercover on the surface through an innate magic that seemed to just manifest when needed, similarly to Delilas’s but in contrast to that of Elias, who had to study to get the spells he had.
Taking some time to themselves while Mathias and Victoriias cleaned up, Heph inspected Rormir’s old staff, and while the staff itself seemed mundane, the feather on the top held a piece of Karrl’s soul, allowing Heph to summon him back, slightly smaller to better fit on Heph’s shoulder. Maho, however, looked at the staff and recognized the wood from Cryptop, her home.
The party left Salty with Mathias and Victoriias to keep an eye on them and then began to head back to meet up with John Wick. Upon leaving the cave, however, they saw two armored individuals on the cliff face above, inspecting the rope and looking down. Heph failed in an attempt to recruit a siren to their aid (although with the help of Maho he wasn’t drawn into the sea), so instead Karrl transported a card from the Deck of Illusions to the top of the cliff and summoned a Frost Giant. The soldiers fell off the cliff in surprise (with Maho helping one of them along), but not before Heph accidentally shot a Fire Bolt like a flare into the sky above the hidden cave.
The party met up with John Wick, who said he convinced Order of Steel officials of the ruse, but didn’t find any sign of the Root Stone in the Ministry of Unity. They decided to head towards the secret tunnels to make their way in to the Old Palace.
- The group heads to The Indecent Prince, the tavern with the entrance to the
secret tunnels
- Elias explains that the tavern has a lot of history, and says it’s a place for nerds, giving Heph a meaningful look as he says it
- Delilas asks about a plan, and Elias explains it’s hard to plan ahead without really knowing what we will find
- We discuss that the King may be on our side, as he is pretty much imprisoned in the palace and is a figurehead to keep people in line
- Arriving at the tavern, Maho and Heph decide to hang back outside since they are very conspicuous, and let Elias, Delilas and John Wick head inside and scout ahead
- John is nervous about being seen with known criminals and Heph suggests he can hang back, Elias suggesting in a pinch he can arrest one of them
- Elias expresses his complete confidence in Heph and Maho to stay out of sight, which seems like they are unlikely to do very successfully
- Walking into the bar, Elias sees the bar isn’t super busy, as it’s
fairly early in the day
- There is a staircase leading to the basement, it is pretty in the open and there is no great reason why a patron would be near it
- Elias decides to distract the bartender, and asks Delilas to come get Heph and Maho and try to sneak them in
- Outside, Maho wants to head into a greatsword shop, but Heph explains to her that they want to be seen as little as possible
- Karrl notices some guards approaching, and Heph and Maho decide to duck into the bar and try to disappear before the guards get there
- Running into Delilas on the way in, the guards start speed walking to catch up, and the group sees Elias at the bar, sobbing and pouring his heart out to the bartender, clearly crying about Ash even though he isn’t naming her directly
- Maho starts moving quickly to the bar, and Delilas tries to catch up to explain to her that Elias is trying to be a distraction so we can sneak down
- Heph starts walking to the basement stairs with a purpose, trying to look like he belongs there, and encourages Maho to go with him
- Heph messages John to let him know there are more soldiers coming, and he responds that he is on it
- The bartender is entirely distracted by Elias, and as the guards enter the tavern, John Wick intercepts them and pulls them aside, and asks them what brings them to the tavern
- He huddles up with the guards, and tells them the emperor thanks them for their service, but they have spies everywhere and interfering with what is going on would be tantamount to treason
- He thanks them for their service and sends them on their way, and they nod and salute and leave
- As Heph, Maho, and Delilas sneak to the basement, Elias is hugging the bartender and thanking her for her help
- Elias suddenly stops crying and asks her for a room, she collects the money for a room, and upon request leads Elias to his room, down a hallway
- Instead of following, Elias ducks away as she goes down the hallway and heads into the basement, although still is still talking out loud thinking Elias is with her, talking about how it’s important to focus on yourself after a bad breakup
- Elias Mage Hands a fine bottle of alcohol from the bar, and gestures for John Wick to join as well
- Heading into the basement, it seems set up as a private party space, with a
woman behind the bar, absentmindedly cleaning the bar
- She is surprised to see us, and says she is surprised to see us, she didn’t know there was an event scheduled
- Maho declares we are there to inspect the pool table, which confuses the lady as they don’t have one
- Maho asks Heph how they can host an event if there’s no pool table, and Heph walks towards the table and says maybe we can turn this into a pool table
- Elias comes down the stairs with John and Delilas, and tells John he’s up, it’s his turn for a distraction
- John walks up to the bar and tries to hit on the bartender, she is a bit perplexed, but then Maho jumps in to explain that John did a really brave thing earlier and we are setting up a party to celebrate him
- Elias claims it is also John’s birthday, and uses Minor Illusion to make a cake on the shelf behind the bartender
- She turns around and looks at the cake, and suddenly seems very confused and overwhelmed, and tells us to inspect the room
- Heph starts walking along the wall of barrels, looking for a tunnel entrance, and one of the barrels has scuffs and scratches around the top, like it’s been pried open
- Heph asks the bartender what is in the barrel he noticed, and she says it’s empty and nailed to the floor but the owner doesn’t want it moved
- Elias yells out that we forgot the party hats, and gives Loriel some gold and asks her to help out, to run to the party store and pick up some party hats for us, which she seems more than happy to do, and she runs out to pick up the stuff Elias asked for
- The group pops open the lid of the barrel, and spots the tunnel, and before leaving we tell John to hang back and make up some story about where we’ve gone
- Elias gives John 10 silver for drinks, and Maho chips in 10 gold
- Crawling through the barrel, we end up in a tunnel that gets taller as we go,
and we approach a stone door with a gold sculpture of a sphinx poking out from
it
- The sphinx starts talking to give us a riddle, and Heph, remembering back to the last time the group encountered a sphinx, immediately launches a Fire Bolt at the door
- The door asks if we want to hear the riddle, Heph says no and asks someone else to hit it, Elias pulls out a hammer, but Maho pulls out her maul and absolutely smashes it to pieces
- The sphinx asks to be propped up, and Heph props it up against a chunk of rock, takes its ring, and leaves it to chew on a chunk of stone
- We exit the tunnel into a basement storeroom, which seems to have had a wall plastered over it, and it has been a long time since someone has passed through, according to the sphinx
- Maho investigates the room, and finds it is dusty in a way that store rooms normally are, but there is still something off about this room
- The ladder out seems to head to cellar doors, and Heph looks in some of the less dusty crates, and finds some fairly new looking linens
- Elias climbs up the ladder, opens the door a tiny bit and peaks out, seeing an outdoor space enclosed by a fence, and the palace in the distance
- It is really odd that there is a cellar in the middle of a field, and Maho feels weird about the whole thing
- Elias pokes around the walls, but isn’t able to find any cracks in the plaster
- Heph looks at all the boxes near walls, but doesn’t find any scuff marks
- Maho starts moving boxes around and opening them up, searching for anything hidden
- Elias and Heph head up to the fenced in area, Elias looking around but finding nothing, and Heph sends Karrl up to scout out the area, and after flying up fairly high, Karrl seems to hit some sort of barrier
- The palace seems to be a constant distance away, even if he tries to fly closer, Karrl senses something almost like a dome around this fenced in area
- Elias shoots an arrow, and the arrow seems to slow down and stop in mid air, then suddenly falls to the ground
- The group ventures back down the tunnel to see if it still leads to the same place, and it seems that the tunnel still leads back to the basement of the tavern
- The dome seems to center on the tree, so Elias climbs it and
Heph tries to message it
- Getting no answer, Heph tries to smack the tree with Rormir’s staff, but misses
- Elias takes a look around the top of the tree looking for squirrels, and doesn’t see any animals, but looking down he notices the roots of the tree seem to emerge a decent amount, and there is some dark space under the roots
- Elias drops down from the tree, and peering under the root sees a pair of eyes, and he asks it if it’s a rabbit, and it seems offended
- A duck wanders out from under the roots, and introduces itself as Gerald
- Heph apologizes for intruding on his space, and asks him about the dome
- He explains that none of what we’re seeing is real, and we are closer to the palace than we appear
- Gerald seems excited about the prospect of having the sphinx to talk to, but needs us to draw the crest from above the King’s bed in his bedroom
- Maho plants the katana and calls on Heavy #4 from the Order of Steel, and asks him if he knows of the seal in the King’s chamber
- He explains he guarded the King’s chamber, and he can’t draw it, but he manipulates his form into the shape of the seal
- Elias pulls out his calligraphy set and draws the seal, and showing it to Gerald he seems satisfied and offers to lead us to the palace
- He explains he was best friends with John Wick, and his name is Caleb Heavy
- John was going to be his best man, and also he was going to maybe object to his own wedding to tell John his feelings?
- Gerald starts to lead us into the flower patch, but Maho quickly grabs a spoon, and tries to bend it with her mind
- It doesn’t seem to be working, but Elias uses his invisible Mage Hand to bend it, seeming to convince Maho she did in fact bend it
- As we head into the flower garden, following Gerald, the flowers grow taller
and taller, until massive redwood trees are towering over us, and we emerge
through some crates into another cellar
- Gerald cocks his head, explains we are in the palace, then heads back into the crates
- Heph sees the boarded up door, and blasts it with a Fire Bolt, and as it starts to catch on fire a cold breeze seems to blow it out, although the door is quite damaged
- A voice from behind us says “That’s not a door opening spell”, and turning around we see a translucent ghost of a young girl, around 12, in servant’s garb, half-sitting half-floating on the boxes
- Elias asks her name, and she introduces herself as Elenor, and Elias introduces the group
- She explains she can’t leave the room until her unfinished business is dealt with, and Elias asks what it is, and she asks if we like gladiator contests
- Elias explains we are a big deal in the material plane, and Elias and Heph pull out their ACE costumes and put them on
- Elenor just wanted to see a gladiator fight, but was killed by an epic tombstone piledriver before she was able to travel to Shaenor and see a match
- It also erased her memory of who killed her
- Heph and Elias put on a show for Elenor
- Heph swings at Elias with his costume hammer, but misses
- Heph climbs the piles of crates, and not knowing which pile of chairs Elias is under jumps off, landing an elbow on Elias, who manages to dodge it partially
- Heph pushes the box Elias is in off the stack, and it falls to the ground and smashes, leaving Elias laying on the ground
- Heph picks up the crate, and not seeing Elias figures
he’s hidden, puts the crate back down and blasts it with a Fire Bolt
- Maho runs over and tells Heph to finish him and throws a chair, Elias taking advantage of the distraction to hide again, and Heph can’t spot where he goes, but takes the chair
- Elias runs around behind Heph, pulls out Jarles, and jumps off the crates to attack Heph, and lands a shot, knocking Heph down
- Heph launches a couple of bolts of lightning, but misses both while Elias stands posing on top of him
- Heph rolls backwards, firing off two shots at Elias, but missing both, Elias forming a new pose with each flash of lightning
- Heph blasts out a Thunderwave, the priest and acolytes are unaffected, and Elias resists the blast and stays in place
- Heph struggles out of the assault and kicks the cards, but being
unable to find Elias he yells for him to come get him
- Elias blasts Heph with an arrow, sending him flying across the room, where he falls into a heap
- Maho counts down, and Elias is declared the winner of the fight
- Elenor is super excited, and she dives into a box, and flies out holding a WWE-style belt (well a belt with a largish gold buckle), which she gives to Maho to present to Elias
- Maho declares the winner to be the quick and adept Mace Windu
- Elenor is really excited about the incredible gladiatorial show, and she seems to be slowly fading from existence, looking forward to seeing more shows in heaven
- As she dissolves into mist, she just asks us to remember her in our next gladiatorial fight
- Being able to leave the room now, Heph once against blasts the door
with a Fire Bolt, despite Delilas’s objections to proceed
cautiously
- The group finds themselves in a hallway, and we can hear the sound of metal footsteps on wood from a room at the end of the hall