Ep008: From Dusk till Don

<<< Ep007 The One Who Sort of Remembers | Ep009 Orcs,Vampires and Mustaches, oh my! >>>

Session Synopsis
The triumphant adventurers return and the Queen hosts a gala in their name where they are to be united for returning her key. Frederica is reunited with her mother and Hum discovers more about "Seren" (The One Who Remembers) from an old tome of Lathander. The wonderful festivities lead to a spectacular dance between Frederica and her potential love interest, a young noble named Don, but the events the turn sour as the young noble lord Don shows his true self to Frederica. Luring her into the basement of his villa the cunning Vampire tries to feast on the naive girl, but not before Walther and Hum's show up and the truth of their bargain with Seren begins to reveal itself/

The Queens Gifts
Upon returning to the city of Altinova already the Adventurers™ could see that the people seemed to be happier, suggested Seren's disappearance had returned everything to normal among the elves. Heading to the palace to return the rift key to Queen Faeria the group were met by guards, wary of Hum, who brought the group to see the Queen at Walther's request. Sir Sandor, Hum's mastiff companion, was left outside with the guards. In the throne room Queen Faeria was seated at a table eating alone, happy to see their return and the return of her amulet. The group, led by Walther in the discussion, tried to keep as vague as possible about the details of what happened in the cavern, making no mention of their encounter with Seren. They implied that they may have stopped the war, to which the Queen informed them she had in fact just received a missive informing her that the generals had stood down, peacefully ending the war, and were returning to Altinova.

As reward for their service to the kingdom the Queen informed the Adventurers™ that she would host a ceremony the following evening where they would be knighted (though it was initially only suggested that Walther would be knighted and that whilst Frederica would be part of the ceremony she could not officially become a knight until she was of age at 15, but would receive a scroll to indicate her honor). Given the option for a festival or a gala Frederica asked for a gala in the hopes that the Queen could invite the young elven noble, Don, of House Sol; a young boy she had developed a crush on and danced with at the previous gala hosted by the Queen.

The Queen offered the chance for each hero to ask anything of her as further reward for their service; Orlyg asked for a magical shield, which the Queen removed from her own throne room that had once been gifted to her by an old lieutenant. Frederica asked for jewels, Walther asked for gold to be sent to his uncle, and Hum asked if the Queen's mages would be able to make him a trinket to temporarily transport his mastiff mount, Sir Sandor, when they were in dangerous locations. As a final gesture the group asked if they could gain a pardon for Frederica's mother Anna, a troubled woman who was innocent of any crime she may be imprisoned for, which was also granted. Given free access to the grounds the Adventurers™ parted ways with the Queen, outside Hum found Sir Sandor with different guards, who had taken a shine to the dog and had been feeding him.

Heading to the cells Frederica's mother was promptly freed without issue, she seemed to be more in control of her faculties and had an emotional reunion with her daughter.The group all returned to Wizard's mansion that the Adventurers™ had been granted temporary ownership of, including a useful staff including Walther's personal servant Donovan. In the mansion Walther got in contact with the Wizard through their sending stones, telling him what had happened, admitting he had acquired power but saying it was from an unknown "sorcerer" called Seren, Walther told the wizards they would be attending a Gala the following evening and would meet with him the day after at 2pm; a meeting that never happened.

Frederica reunited with her mother, with the young girl trying to drink wine at three in the afternoon, promptly being denied by her mother, putting into question the bad influence the rest of the group had been having on her daughter. With no extra bedrooms in the mansion Hum took the Queen up on her offer and said he would spend the evening sleeping in the palace, taking advantage of the experience. Upon Hum's leaving Walther retired to the study to pen letters for friends and rivals back home to keep them up to date with his exploits. Orlyg tried to contact his deity, Odin, through prayer and ask him what the God knew of the being named Seren, but felt little in return other than confirmation he was banished by the gods a long time ago.

The Temple of Lathander
Not heading straight to the palace, with most of the day available to him, Hum intended to do his own research into this banished god and sought out knowledge from the experts. Heading to the main temple in the city, dedicated to the god Lathander, marked as two tall tower of white and gold that had a central door that opened onto a square filled with plants and fountains. Entering unapproached Hum arrived towards the end of a sermon being given by a priest by the name of Anryn, who was giving thanks to Lathander's blessing for ending the war. As the sermon finished and the congregation gave offerings at a forward altar, Hum joined them and left offering of food and a black pearl worth five hundred gold pieces, ensuring the priest saw his generous donation in the hope it would buy him some help.

Speaking in the elven tongue Hum inquired about an ancient deity or being named Seren, and if the priest recalled any information about him or an event leading to his banishment. Priest Anryn vaguely recalled mention of such a being and went in search of the information, returning with an ancient leather bound tome fastened with a chain and padlock. As far as Anryn was aware it was the only scripture they had on the event, written from the perspective of a Lathander priest, and had not been opened in centuries.

Due to his benevolent offering Hum was able to take the tome away with him and a key that unlocked the chains. Making his way to the palace Hum encountered the guards who had been much more cordial with him and who had fed Sir Sandor, trusting them to house his mastiff with the hound master. Hum was granted access to a room for the night where he spent the evening poring over the tome, reading through half of until before he uncovered information about Seren.

Much of the text in the book was cryptic, or the true meaning had been forgotten and couldn't be interpreted accurately, but reaching a point where there were several mentions of Seren Hum discovered that he'd had his powers stripped by some of the older and more powerful deities who had banded together against him, such as the Moon Goddess Selune and to a lesser extent Lathander. It read that these gods believed that in their eyes they deemed Seren to have an unhealthy influence on the world and believed that if he was left with the same divine powers as the rest of the Gods the entire Prime Material plane could have been either destroyed or completely corrupted and turned dark. Whilst a large majority of Gods banded together there were certain gods that were opposed to Seren's banishment (such as Selune's sister Shar), but they did nothing as they didn't want to suffer the same punishment. Throughout the book there were few details of Seren himself, his powers or the domain or the domain he had command over.

The Gala
Through the day the group prepared themselves for the gala, with Frederica and Anna spending most of the day getting ready, and Hum spending another black pearl to have tailored the finest and most garish outfit he could buy. At the gala the group began to mingle and small talk, with Walther speaking to Matron Gaelwyn of House Tariel who informed him her son and Don of House Sol had gotten into some sort of argument with each other.

As the ceremony began Hum entered the ballroom in time to hear the Queen's announcement of the hero that has apparently won the day on his own with support from his companions, disgruntling the goblin. Each of the Adventurers™ were called up and bestowed upon them a blue rose amulet that glowed faintly, and the Queen knighted them "Keepers of the Rift". As wine was brought around to toast the heroes Frederica tried to sneak a glass for herself, and Hum too tried to fool Walther by adding an illusion to the wine he was trying to give the girl, but it was quickly seen through; Walther in turn ended up with both glasses which he promptly drank and the effects quickly went to his head. Upon the raised dais the group made talk with the Queen before departing individually, with Walther himself remarking "I'm very perceptive" then tripping up down the steps descending the dais, embarrassing himself in front of the guests and the Queen.

Meanwhile Frederica had tried to slip away and bumped into Don, keeping an eye on the girl and curious of the boys full intentions and used his detect thoughts to read his mind, which was filled with awkward boyish ramblings. The two shared a dance, that initially Don appeared to be the far superior of the pair, but with a little assistance from Hum, his spider familiar, and some magic, he transformed Frederica into a magnificent dancer. The pair of lovers put the ballroom to a standstill with their elegant dance, accompanied by some prestidigitation fireworks, then once it was over they sneaked away to talk to each other and share some wine.

Hum took to the bandstand and took charge of the music, getting everyone into an excited fervor whilst Walther and Anna shared an awkward exchange on how much the girl had changed in the brief time she had been under Walther's guardianship. In their discussion Walther also found out how Anna and her husband had been separated on the Grey Islands when the family had been captured, they had been separated and taken away on separate ships and she had no idea where he was. Meanwhile the discussion between Frederica and Don turned to an invitation for Frederica to come and see the stars from the roof of Don's villa; trying to sneak out of the gala they were spotted by Walther and Anna shouted at her daughter from across the room, making a scene but not enough to stop Frederica and Don from running away.

Don
Upon reaching the villa belonging to House Sol it appeared that the building was empty and that Don lived here alone. Entering Don led Frederica into the basement, closing the door behind her and plummeting her into darkness. The smell of blood filled Frederica's nose and as she cast her light spell she saw a vision of blood stains along the walls of a small cobblestone floor room. As she turns she sees Don, his fangs bared, showing his true vampire form he told her "Ever since I first laid my eyes on you, I knew you would be a delicious prey". Frederica began to fight with Don, trying her best to fend him off, and calling for help over her sending stones to Walther.

Out of range Walther was able to pick up a faint voice of Frederica that sounded like she was in trouble, Hum used his magic to try and locate the whereabouts of the jewelry Frederica had been wearing; the two of them separated from Orlyg (logged off) and Anna made their way to Don's mansion on their flying carpet. Entering the villa and realising they were ill-prepared for whatever incident had arisen, being dressed in their finery they took two crossed rapiers from the wall and descended into the basement following Hum's magic, where they confronted Don.

A quick skirmish had Don cornered, but suddenly the creature backed into the corner and scrambled up onto the ceiling at first seeming to try and get to Frederica, but then Hum quickly realised Don was not hysterically scared and as Walther turned around noticed that the mans eyes were now blood red. As if instinctively Hum also began to notice that his wide brimmed hat had become considerably more ill-fitting. Knocking the creature to the floor Hum approached and tried to detect his thought and confronted the cowering vampire, asking who he thought Walther was, then sensing a similar incoherent fear towards Hum himself. Their failed intimidation tactics resulted in Don turning into a mist and trying to escape from the room, initially through a crack in the wall which was blocked off by Hum's spells, then beneath the crack in the door.

Escaping the room Hum ran ahead of the mist and taking a chance, removed his hat revealing horns that he had suspected he'd suddenly sprouted, and using his talented acting abilities mimicked the voice of Seren, commanding Don to take his humanoid shape or be cast down into oblivion where he would find an endless existence of torment. The ruse paid off and Don reverted to his humanoid form, after a brief questioning the group discovered that Don was the last of his clan, and not actually in service to House Sol. Walther skewered the vampire from behind, turning him to dust, ending the clan once and for all.

A search of the mansion the group looked for clues on Don's dealings, to try and get an idea of who else he might have been working with; in the desk of his upstairs bureau the group discovered a ledger.

<<< Ep007 The One Who Sort of Remembers | Ep009 Orcs,Vampires and Mustaches, oh my! >>>