Ah yes, another overwritten 9-post account of a 3.5 hour D&D session.


Previous reports
Session #39
Session #40
Session #41
Session #42

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Player Characters:
Owyn Glydd: gnome trickster
Bernhard: nasty goblin fighter/cleric of Zunail
Vork Barkor: human ranger with a background as a sailor
Ganex Firemane: Elan Psychic Warrior/Psion

Named Non-Player Characters:
Kismet: bitchy Elan "girlfriend" of Ganex. Although she is angry with Ganex lately, she is still devoted to him.
Queen Emerald: One of the four leaders of Karelon. She is known as "the people's queen" for her popularity and goodness.  

(later on)

Shimra (wannabe tough guy)
Gliss, Priestess of Areyl
Reznik - loyal Vartagnan footman
The High Radiant - Elan Cabal leader
Rigel - Elan jerk
Archcleric Parete (that doddering old fool?)
King Otho, one of the four rulers of Karelon, brother to Queen Emerald

The players are zooming back to their old base in Roan from Landimond Island in their airship at this point. Actually they were not zooming but flying back at a leisurely 'cruise speed'. Otherwise it costs double spell points/levels for every hour of flight.

They had Vork's mom with them (newly rescued), as well as the recently abducted Queen Emerald. They had also piled the cargo hold of the ship with chunks of coral from the coral golems which they had recently fought.

There were a few roleplaying scenes aboard the ship, with the queen generally getting in the way, but having a few things to say about the Starrior Kings (I have recently tidied up her character sheet and given that hse had some skills in nobility and knowledge local, I wanted to make the players aware that she could be of use as a knowledge base).

The players are still getting their plans together. The eventual plan (from what i can tell overhearing them talk) is

1) to get the Elan Cabal in Roan reunited with the one on Evander. Ganex and Kismet are still on the outs with the Elan in Roan over their refusal to turn over Queen Joniele's scepter, the Wraith Control Rod. This would somehow involve making some kind of peace with the wraiths.
 
2) Break the curse over the Starrior Tombs (thus liberating Dread Queen Joniele, Ghost King Ymmane). Somehow. They still weren't sure how.

3) Solve the Necromancers Curse in Evander. In Evander- the dead walk at night. The deal here is, ever since the beginning of the campaign, there's been a curse on the city of Evander. Low-level skeletons and zombies (and occaisionally spontaneously animate and roam the city destructively. Evander deals with this by setting up walled off 'grave-zones', and an organized army  of Bremenite-led forces that patrol dangerous-areas at night.

(The real deal: there's a dungeon beneath Evander where some dark presence with a corrupting influence causes all of this, but the Evanderites deal with it by just whomping the skeletons and stuff on the surface.)

4) Somehow get everyone on their side and go deal with Vincent and his undersea temple.

The SETUP:

MY PLANS as a GM are a bit different. As I closed the last session, I had sort of plotted myself into a corner by saying the queen would be declared dead within 3 days, and then I failed to kill her. (Or rather, the PCs successfully stopped all of my attempts). Short of outright cheating, I decided that she would be 'declared dead' on schedule. My original plan was that once the players left the room during the battle with the demons, one would return and kill the handmaidens and the guards, then disguise one of the dead handmaidens to look like the queen. I thought this over and came up with a better idea.

Vincent had an "evil mentor" named Carthag early on in the campaign who mysteriously disappeared. But  before he did, he helped Vincent fake his own death by creating a fake body and disguising it. Carthag had not made a direct appearance since the characters were like 2nd-3rd level. But he'd be the perfect guy for such a plot.

So I had this idea. This guy should be the one. And after going through my notes and stuff, it seemed to make sense that Carthag would have gotten back in touch with Vincent, signed onto the evil plot, then returned to Evander. I decided he had actually killed the old archcleric Pliete, then assumed Pliete's form using a hat of disguise, and an amulet of unknowable alignment.

So after the players disappear with the real queen, I say that Carthag goes ahead, returns, kills all the guards, kills the handmaidens, and just as he did with Vincent, he creates a fake body of the Queen. Then he returns to Archcleric Pliete's room and leaves a clay golem behind to attack the first person there. Left in the back room is the body of the real Archcleric (hanging from the rafters ha). He finishes up by casting a Hold Portal over the door and leaving the scene.

The end result being: The queen is declared dead on schedule, and Archcleric Pliete disappears.

But Wait There's More:

Vincent of course, already knows the queen is not dead. He was able to scry through Vork's cursed bow and see them teleporting away. So he takes it upon himself to hire a few mortal assassins to hang around the towns the PCs normally hang out in, and keep an eye out for her. He needs the queen dead in order to fulfill the prophecy.

Ok, so I have an assassin hanging around Roan (another one in Evander) looking to Meanwhile the queen is declared dead, but she really isn't.

Flags are flying at half-mast and bells are ringing.

The players are flying back into Roan.

They return and hear the sounds of the death-bell ringing and hear the town crier calling out the mournful news: "Queen Emerald is dead". As they coast into the harbor, they see the ships are all sailing with black sails or putting out black flags.

The plan they come up with is to disguise the queen using Dust of Illusion. Owyn convinces the queen this is a good idea, that she'll get a good idea what it's like to walk around amongst her subjects.

Ganex (and Kismet) are planning on heading back to the Elan Cabal to speak with them one last time, try to convince them to return to Evander under the protection of the Queen (this was also established that she would declare the Elan innocent and cancel their exiled status).

Owyn is planning on selling off about a ton of coral from two dead Coral golems. He's going to visit the Jeweler's Guild- a gnomish smuggling operation disguised as an artisans network.

Bernard (being a funny little goblin) decides he wants to vandalize a few places, and also to catch up with goins on in the criminal underworld.

Vork heads to the Temple of Areyl. He had the idea that his mother would be a vulernability, so he wanted to have her put someplace safe. He also wanted to have them destroy the cursed bow. so it's all wrapped up and given to the priestesses of Areyl. He also pays to have a new bow commissioned and built for him as a replacement. The queen goes with Vork since his mission is seemingly the safest one.

Owyn's mission seems to go ok. He asks about his hometown of Jemro and hears the rumor confirmed that the entire town is rubble. Some of the gnomes rescued a few sessions ago will probably return and try to rebuild.
He also does some buying and selling of magic items for the rest of the party.

Vork's mission seems to go ok. They take his mom and give her some nice place to live. They destroy the cursed bow, and the priestess Gliss (who hated him the last time he visited, when he basicly confessed to a murder he had committed under the influence of Zumaloken) is softened somewhat towards Vork. she'll treat him neutrally on the next visit, rather than unfriendly.

Bernard dumps over a few waste-bins and throws rocks at windows for a while, until he is chased by guards. He then attempts to connect to some of the seedier underworld elements he has access to. He hears a rumor that a guy named Shimra thinks the queen is stil alive, and is looking for information.

So Bernard searches for and eventually locates this Shimra- a scarred dark-looking half-elf-- in a place called the Bloody Barrel. He portrays himself as a street urchin who will keep an eye out for the queen. "But she's dead. Everyone says so." Shimra gives him a 50gp gemstone and tells him to keep him informed if he 'sees anything'. Bernard gets a bad feeling about this and goes to report to Owyn.

Meanwhile Ganex and Kismet head to the Elan hideout, deep in the sewers of Roan. They are stopped by a pair of wraiths, who attack them. Ganex pulls out the Wraith scepter and holds them at bay.

"I'm coming to return this to Joniele.. stay back. Or I will destroy it.."

The wraiths hesitate, and Ganex uses the opportunity to roleplay out a temporary truce. The wraiths will accompany the pair back to the Elan base. They will observe the meeting and report back to Joniele. They will not tolerate any tricks.

(next up- Ganex and the Elan)

(there's more, there's always more)

OK. So Ganex and Kismet (as an NPC) head off to try and make peace with the Elan. They have a couple of good bargaining chips: they have Queen Emeralds promise of lifting the exile condition by decree. And in fact Ganex has the wraith control rod (Joniele's scepter).

The players sincerely want to make peace with the wraith leader Joniele at this point, and to do that, they need the support of the Elan. (They foolishly attacked her at one point earlier in their careers, and were nearly overwhelmed. Only a quick-thinking Ganex and a psionic dimension-door got them out alive).

So upon arrival the Elan were unfriendly. "We have turned our backs on you, Ganex Firemane and Kismet. For we wish to maintain relations with the great Wraith Joniele.."

Ganex made a fairly eloquent appeal. It amounted to this: "I have spoken with Queen Emerald, and the exile has been lifted. I have the control rod to return to the Wraith Joniele. I believe she is being tricked by our former companion, and she will be betrayed. We can return the scepter to her, lift the curse of the Starrior Kings, and return you all to Evander where you will be allowed to live openly.."

Ganex's Elan rival (an Elan called Rigel, who had attacked him in the past) showed up to challenge him, but Ganex used some smooth diplomacy to blow him off. Ganex ended by doing something I thought was kind of slick. "Kismet will stay here, entrusted to your safety. If I am mistaken about this, then only I deserve to be exiled. "

Basicly he was giving up his NPC henchman.

I had Kismet protest this decision, but weakly, since I had already determined that she was loyal to the cabal and was seeking a way to reconcile. The Elan leader, Radiance, accepted her back in, and had the Elan prepare their teleport circle for a return to Evander.

Whats left? The group reunites, and takes care of the would-be assassin.

So once everyone had taken care of their individual missions, we got all reunited. Ganex, Owyn, Bernard, and Vork all head to the Bloody Barrel. Bernard will go first, and try and trick the assassin (Shimra).

This seemed to go off.

Bernard goes in, finds Shimra, and starts roleplaying a bit. "I have the information you seek.. but it's  going to cost you.."

Owyn and the rest of the group entered quietly, from the rear. Unfortunately, the assassin (actually a ranger/rogue/scar-enforcer) noticed. So he immediately made to attack Owyn (that's who he had a description of).

Owyn beat him on initiative and used a resilient sphere on Shimra. Shimra failed his save (he rolled a 1).

Pretty much, the encounter was over at that point. (Yup, just 1 round in).  They circled him, and as Owyn lifted the sphere, Ganex telekinetically grappled him. Bernard stealthily snatched his pouch of gems. Guards were fetched, and he was arrested after a brief interrogation by Owyn 9as psionically assisted by Ganex).

They learned that Vincent had hired a couple of assassins under the cover of a false name he had used extensively as a PC. There would be one in Evander as well, and another back in Azenmir.

After this was taken care of, they gathered up the queen (safely protected by Vork), and headed back to where their airship was docked.

Next up, "return to Evander"

(forgive me, this is still all updatey stuff from that same session)

So the PCs return to Evander by airship. They have decided that dragging the queen around is too much of a liability. Plus they have now been implicated in the abduction and murder, so let's shut that down before those rumors gain traction.

And the Elan go back to Evander as well, via their own teleportation circle.

Fast forward a bit, the PCs arrive at the palace with the queen, who reveals herself. Otho summons the court wizards to verify that this is indeed the queen and she is verified.

Archcleric Parete fails to show up. He has been "distant" since he declared the queen dead, some days earlier. (my clue is dropped!)

That's the only other 'prepped' encounter I had.

They go and check out where the Archcleric lives and find the door magically held. (hold portal scroll!)

Ganex dispells the portal. They break in.

There's a clay golem! Battle! The PCs win. Ganex tries to disintegrate the golem, and that slows it down. After that, it's a matter of just hammering away at the thing.

Afterwards, they explore the chamber and find the Archclerics bound body hanging from the rafter in the back bedroom. He's been killed a week or so ago. (Just over a week, actually).

GM secret: the killer was Carthag, an npc from Vincent's past! Also the dread necromancer who kicked off the Undead Curse of Evander somehow.

They find some other clues and figure out that there's a big corrupting influence under Evander, so next session (and probably next few sessions is)

The big dungeon!

This concludes last session of the Aedorea game.