- so the players were in the Scarlet shield tavern.
- they started discussing everything that was going on and happened.
- Bixby gave them the painting that he had forgotten to give them when he first arrived. It’s a painting that Brenlan Kael made of the party at Rusty’s tavern in Southhaven.
- The thistles revealed their next bit of research with three possible locations of Vel Seryn
- they decided to send team of scouts to the Blackridge vaults to see what they could find.
- with that, the party decided to go to bed and wait for the Queen’s summons tomorrow
- they woke up the next morning and decided to give Bixby some of the cocktail ingredients they had found on their travels. He made them cocktails (so early!). Momeline drank hers and her skin started glowing immediately. She knew this would be bad for stealth.
- The party went to the shopping district and sold some of their things.
- they saw Bixby take over a corner of celine’s bakery, The Velvet crust.
- they never got summoned by the queen so they were worried that something went wrong.
- when they went to the the castle they ran into Elarin Vess, The son of the woman who was murdered. Momeline returned the family heirloom that she found at their estate. It pained her to give up a 4,000 gold item but she did it. He was very grateful. He told them that the Queen was last seen going into the verdant reliquary, but nobody can get in since it’s magic and can only be opened with one of two keys. The other key was stolen from his mother.
- Velara told the party that the jail seemed oddly full of cultists. They got the idea to interrogate the other two ambassadors in the prison.
- they went to the jail and convinced a guard to leave them alone with the ambassadors.
- they put Serelion to sleep and questioned Irielle..Dravencoles cast Zone of Truth, but she wouldn’t answer questions. Momeline shot her in the foot and she screamed for the guards. Lirielle and Ferinthria told him the Queen was in danger and convinced him to leave them alone. She still wouldn’t answer and dravencoles shot at her again, just missing. Afraid for her life, she said she didn’t know where it was and that Serelion had it. Just then, Serelion woke up. The party similarly intimidated him and he said he would tell them if they got him out of there. He said they could keep Irielle. Momeline yelled and told Irielle he was willing to betray her, she screamed and told the party she knew the key was in a tunnel with a secret passage in Serelion’s cell and that she would show them if they freed her. She silenced Serelion before he could speak and the party agreed to help her (she said she was raised in the cult and wanted out).
- The party picked the lock, Lirielle paralyzed Serelion with hold person, they tied him up. Ferinthria got the guard to let Irielle out. They put Serelion in her cell and then Irielle opened the secret passage in Serelion’s cell.
- They found tunnels and cultists talking about how “a boy thinks he’s in charge now, just because the old master liked him.” the other said “well he seems to be doing well with blood magic.”
- Ferinthria turned Momeline invisible so she snuck past them and through a side tunnel, where she found a stash with the key they were looking for.
- The rest of the party approached the cultists, they recognized Irielle so she vouched for them and they left the tunnel without need for violence.
- The tunnel let out in the Arboretum, where they found Talan drinking. They suspected Talan was the “boy” the cultists were referring to, but he just seemed like his normal nervous wreck self to them.
- Velara led them to the Verdant Reliquary entrance she saw the Queen go through when she was spying on her.
- when they entered they saw a room glowing purple with beautiful plants on their right.
- they went down to their left and ran into a locked door.
- momeline tried to pick the lock and in doing so suffered a moment of ethereal slip. Luckily it worked out because the door was impossible to break but her ethereal slip allowed her to walk right through it and let the party in.
- lirielle recognized the tree in this room as the heart tree.
- they went into the next Room that looked like the purple one but it was Green. There were birds chirping and flying into and out of a portal in the center. Lumbling touched the green mosaic and experienced a memory of her brother, they were hunting board together.
- when the real touched it she became overwhelmed with a sudden longing and nostalgia.
- they followed the hall up and ran into a red room it looked very similar. In this room the Queen lay fainted. Draven calls used to lay on hands to heal her.
- when she awoke she told them about the ring of verdant stillness and how it was crafted during the first war to help heal the land. She has been using it way longer than it was intended for though to keep the land beautiful and perfect. Her soul is down to the ring and she uses it to drain life force from The Groves of Faeren, the nature God to sustain Vel Enweir. She showed them the fountain that she uses and as she was talking The Groves became corrupted and she fainted again. She said the girls were being attacked and that the party needed to go through the portals to save them. Irielle and Velara stayed behind to help her.
- the party went into the Grove of the morning. When they arrived they saw cultists controlling a large Barlgura with magic chains. They defeated the first group they saw, with lightning bolts, assassinations, and divine smites. Ferinthria experienced a wild magic surge and caused Momeline to fly.
- Momeline, flying high above the trees, saw another cultist/Barlgura group cornering a beautiful elk. The party ran over in similarly defeated them. Draven calls delivered the killing blow on the Barlgura, and the elk came over and bound himself to him in thanks.
- the party went back through the portal and into the verdant reliquary. They ate a fruit from the heart tree to regain health. Velara noted that the fruit did not help the Queen.
- As the party was getting ready to go into the Grove of Twilight, they found the note that the queen had intercepted and not given them previously, presumably from lyrian, and looked at it. It was encoded though and they haven’t been able to decode it yet.
- before going in they touched the purple mosaic in this room to hopefully suffer its beneficial Magic. All but Draven calls got the ability to ask one question and receive a cryptic and poetic answer. These were the answers they got:
- Momeline asked “where is my brother” and got the answer “while you are destined for water, your brother is with the dry sand.”
- Lirielle asked “will Blacksoul Silas fail” and got the answer “While the future is uncertain, Blackstar Silas misinterprets Prophecy.”
- Ferinthria asked “where is the ring of silver water in Vel Seryn” and got he answer “In a deep dungeon, yet under the stars, you will find the ring.”
- now they’re ready to go into the Grove of Twilight and continue their defense of the verdant reliquary.