Part 9: The Queen's Game
Session 39: Light Doppels
Afternoon, 12th Low Summer, 498 CE
- The party were separated between the worlds with doppels impersonating their friends.
- Sang and Revana were in the physical world, while Ekhart and Remy were still in the Faerealm.
- The party and the group of doppels began fighting each other.
- The doppels appeared to have the ability to move them and the person they were impersonating between the two worlds.
- After a long and frustrating fight, the party managed to subdue the doppels.
- The party asked about the Light Elemental, who the doppels referred to as Solace, Queen of the Fairies.
- The queen was located in the Court House of Hallowfel.
- They warned he party that they would stand out if they were missing their doppelgangers, and they offered to help them out.
- The doppels introduced themselves;
- The doppels offered to cast illusion magic on them to keep them from being found by Fairwyn.
- They also told the party that the village of Wickon wasn't too far from here, and they could get new clothes there.
Evening, 12th Low Summer, 498 CE
- The party arrived at the small village of Wickon, located on the outside of Hallowfel.
- The village appeared to be built around a large tavern, the Lazing Inn.
- They entered the Tavern, and met the innkeeper, Clara.
- After a short exchange, the with Clara, the party learned of the location of the the tailor, Beatrice Lambert.
- The party decided to get some sleep at the Inn and head out to find clothing in the morning.
Session 40: Hallowfel, City of Light
Morning, 13th Low Summer, 498 CE
- After the party has awoken, the party discussed their new identifies.
- Revana, Lily Taffe
- Sanglant, Michael Crichton
- Ekhart, Arthur Mulligan
- Remy, Sasha Crichton
- they decided to head to Beatrice Lambert's house to get new clothes tailored for them.
- Remy decided to head to the church in town to get new priest robes.
- Traveling a bit out of town, the party met with the tailor and had custom clothing designed for them.
- After a few hours, with their new clothing in hand, they headed back to the town of Wickon.
Afternoon, 13th Low Summer, 498 CE
- When the party arrived back in Wickon, they noticed a large group of villagers gathered outside of the church.
- After asking around, they discovered that Remy had been arrested by guards and taken to Hallowfel.
- Ekhart asked his doppel, Salad, what was happening.
- He said that Remy would likely be put on trial, and that if they wanted to meet the Elemental of Light, they would need to play her game.
- Apparently, Solace the Queen of the Fairies and Elemental of Light, has been running the courts in Hallowfel for a long time.
- The party also found their wanted posters, with a picture of Remy on it, except the Remy on the poster was her new disguised self.
Evening, 13th Low Summer, 498 CE
- After a few hours of travel, the party arrived outside the tiered city of Hallowfel.
- They discussed how they would go about it, but after some blending in, they entered the city without much fuss.
- After looking around the city for a while, they took one of the mechanical lifts to the Uppercity.
- Once in the Uppercity, they split up.
- Sanglant headed to a tavern, the King's Lift Tavern, to find them rooms and get some information on the state of the city.
- Revana and Ekhart left for the Courthouse, to see if they could find Remy and see what they can find out about the trial.
- In the Courthouse, Revana and Ekhart met a new lawyer named Paige Fouler who had been assigned to defend Remy.
- Their immediate assessment of Paige was that she was a grossly inept lawyer, with this being her first case.
- She is obviously being set up to fail in defending Paige.
- Paige explained that the trial is going to be an Open Trial, which means that the decision of guilt will come down to a jury.
- She explained that the jury is made up of members of noble families and is generally considered to be less fair than when the judges run the trials themselves.
- Back in the Tavern, Sanglant discovered that everyone in the city finds the upcoming trial very strange.
- Citizens seem to think this is a stunt being pushed onto the courts by the church.
- And that Paige is doomed to fail.
- Revana, Ekhart, and Paige returned to the King's Lift tavern and reunited with Sanglant.
- There, Paige explained in more detail who the jurors were.
- If they wanted an innocent verdict, convincing the jurors to find Remy not guity would be more effective than gathering evidence.
Session 41: The Giovanni Trading Company
Evening, 13th Low Summer, 498 CE
- Page explained that, of the 5 jurors, 2 were from the majors houses and 3 were chosen randomly from the minor houses.
- The major houses were;
- the Baerd family,
- and the Almamadi family.
- The minor houses chosen were;
- the Giovanni family,
- the von Trappe family,
- and the Blackwater family.
- Paige only knew, for sure, two of the jurors and would find the others by the next day.
- Dallon Baerd, cousin to Duke Renys.
- Eugenia Giovanni, head of the Giovanni family and the Giovanni Trading Company.
- The party decided to visit the Riverdock and ask around to get more information on Eugenia.
- At the riverdock, the party met a few employees of the Giovanni Trading Company.
- They learned that the company was becoming quite wealthy from the war.
- The GTC has been smuggling contraband goods and selling them to people.
- They also learned of Balor, the foreman of the Riverdock and one of Eugenia's high ranking employees.
- The party found Balor and began questioning him about Eugenia.
- He implied that he would be able to get the party an audience with Eugenia, but he wanted something in return.
- It turned out, he wanted his brother busted out of the dungeon. The party refused.
- Heading to the GTC headquarters, they party decided to visit Eugenia without an appointment.
- They arrived at the headquarters and were stopped by the guard.
- Looking around, they decided to break in through one of the balconies in the back.
- They snuck around the office until they found Eugenia's office, they knocked and entered.
- Eugenia did not appear to be intimidated or concerned about the party breaking in.
- They asked about the upcoming trial, and she implied that she hadn't decided how she was voting yet.
- They asked if there was anything they could do to convince her to vote 'Not Guilty' and she agreed.
- She asked them to go to one of her warehouses and prevent a burglary.
- Apparently, thieves have been stealing her wares and killing her guards.
- The party agreed and left for her warehouse.
Night, 13th Low Summer, 498 CE
- The party arrived at the warehouse Eugenia told them was likely to get raided tonight.
- They entered and setup for an ambush.
- They began to hear noises of a group of people approaching.
Session 42: Dockerly Keep
Night, 13th Low Summer, 498 CE
- The party began combat with the thieves attempting to rob the Giovanni Trading Company warehouse.
- After a quick and decisive battle, the group managed to kill all the robbers.
- They looted their bodies, finding a belt of potions and a pistol.
- They also found a strange broach on one of them, which they also took.
- While looting the bodies, Sanglant also heard a strange laughter in the distance.
- The party returned to the GTC headquarters to meet back up with Eugenia.
- In her office, however, there was a man asking if they had completed their mission.
- They said they had, and the man, who revealed himself to be a captain of the guard, told the party they were under arrest.
- Fleeing out the window, the party ran from the building.
- Before heading back to the King's Lift Inn, the party decided that they were going to see if they could find a way into the prison where Remy was being held.
- They headed to outside Dockerly Keep, the castle of Hallowfel.
- Using his Wraps of the Master, Sanglant turned the party into wind.
- They took to the sky to see if they could break into the castle.
- Looking around, the party found an air vent in the side of the mountain that appeared to lead into the castle.
- Sneaking through the castle while still under the effects of the Wind Walk spell, the party eventually found the dungeon where Remy was being held.
- They reunited, and asked if she was okay.
- She said she was, and that she thought it would be best to stay for the trial, so that they can get close to the Light Elemental.
- Going into his Tiny Traveling Laboratory, Ekhart found Remy a metal holy symbol she could use to cast magic if she needed it.
- The party bid their farewell, and left through the window.
Afternoon, 14th Low Summer, 498 CE
- Having stayed up so late the night before, the party did not wake up until the afternoon of the next day.
- They met Paige Fouler at the Inn, where she told them about who the other juror's were.
- Dallon Baerd, the Duke Renys' loyal cousin. He is usually the juror for the Baerd family.
- Fara Almamadi, Niece of the head of the family. Known to be very intelligent.
- Eugenia Giovanni, Head of the family, known a ruthless enrepreneur. Likely bribed her way onto the jury.
- Lukas von Trappe, head of the family that owns the majority of the mines in the Lowercity.
- Leynard Blackwater, that shitty knight the party met back in the Loridael.
Session 43: The Rogue Doppel
Afternoon, 14th Low Summer, 498 CE
- Ekhart, Revana, and Sanglant made their way to the Lowercity of Hallowfel, looking for Lukas von Trappe.
- They followed allong the mountain wall south, until they reached the Mining District.
- They entered an office and talked with an employee of the mine.
- He mentioned that Lukas was inside one of the mines, and directed them towards it.
- He also mentioned that the mines have been dangerous lately, as some people have been going missing.
- When prodded further about it, he told them to talk to Lukas about it.
- Traveling into the mine, they met Lukas von Trappe, head of the von Trappe family.
- After a brief discussion, he told the party he would vote for whoever they wanted in the trial if they helped him.
- His nephew Edward had gone crazy and was killing people inside the mine.
- Lukas asked for the party to put a stop to it, hopefully saving Edward's life.
- After donning some protective helmets, the party when deeper into the mine.
- Inside they found Edward muttering to himself in a large mine.
- He had drawn a giant mural of an angel on the wall.
- Sanglant traveled to the Faerealm to see if something had happened to his doppel.
- Inside the faerealm, he descovered that Edward didn't seem to have a doppel.
- A voice asked them their names, and when the party lied to it, Edward attacked them.
- During the fight, Revana used Greater Restoration on Edward, snapping him out of his mind control.
- A giant angel-like being revealed herself.
- This was Edward's doppel, Tongue.
- The party fought and destroyed the doppel.
Session 44: The Debutante's Ball
Afternoon, 14th Low Summer, 498 CE
- Ekhart, Sanglant, and Revana returned to Lukas von Trappe with his nephew, Edward.
- He was thankful and told the party that he would vote for how they wanted in the trial.
- He also gifted the party his invite to Lady Lilania Almamadi's debutante ball.
- Having some time before the party, everyone spent some time in the city.
- Ekhart and Revana explored the courthouse records.
- Sanglant walked around the canal district and talked with Ezu a bit about what her first time in the city was like.
Evening, 14th Low Summer, 498 CE
- As the evening approached, the party headed out to the Almamadi Estate.
- While at the party, they talked to several party goer, including Leynard Blackwater and Fara Alamamadi.
- Through successful arguments, they were able to convince both of them to vote in favour of Remy at the trial tomorrow.
Session 45: The Trial of Remy Dane
Morning, 15th Low Summer, 498 CE
- In the morning, Revana, Sanglant, and Ekhart left to attend the Trial of Remy Dane.
- Revana left early to get a spot in the balconies to get a better view during the trial.
- Sanglant and Ekhart sat in the front, behind Paige Fouler.
- As the trial started, the party looked around and saw many familiar or important faces.
- Brother Daedrin Falstani, the emperor's older brother.
- The Inquisitor from Riverpond.
- As well as Duke Renys Baerd, current King Reagent of the Northern Naverian Empire.
- The Judge wasHigh Judge Myron Baerd, Renys' father.
- With all the important people around the room, Ekhart cast Trueseeing to look for the Light Elemental.
- While looking around, Ekhart noticed that no one in the room was a Doppel, they all appeared human.
- The only exception being Daedrin Falstani, who Ekhart immediately recognized as the demon that possessed Cardinal Redrose at the The Crimson Temple.
- Just as the trial started, the party, including Remy, found themselves being transported to the Faerealm.
- The large statue of Talena which has been in the physical world had been replaced with Solace, the Light Elemental.
- Solace and the party began to talk about the Queen's Game.
- She has been using Hallowfel as her own person playground for hundreds of years, judging humans for their actions.
- Solace had been judging them the entire time they had been in Hallowfel.
- She told the party that they had been found wanting, and if they want to prove themselves, would have to present their truth.
- They began to fight.
Session 46: Lenna's Journey
Afternoon, 15th Low Summer, 498 CE
- Ekhart, Revana, Sanglant, and Remy had a harrowing fight with Solace, the Light Elemental.
- During the battle, Ekhart managed to capture Solace's Illusory Dragon spell in his Umberwood Staff.
- After a difficult fight, Solace claimed that their truth was stronger than hers and she yielded.
- Solace named Ekhart his champion, and gave the party some boons.
- Now in the faerealm, Ezu and Solace told the party the truth about Lenna's journeys.
- Using the Teleportation Circle inside their Tiny Traveling Laboratory, the party teleported to Tol'Enay.
Evening, 15th Low Summer, 498 CE
- Ekhart, Revana, Sanglant, and Remy arrived in Tol'Enay.
- They reunited with Cidmuir, where he told the party about the spell to close the void.