About a week or so has passed since you returned to Orcus Bloom, and life has been relatively quiet, apart from the monastery being gloomy and full of mourning drow people.
On the dawn of the 9th day since your return, you all receive letters. All of your letters request your presence before the king that afternoon in the throne room, as he would like to have a formal audience with you. The letter does not say why nor whether or not you're still under arrest, but it did come in a royal red envelope, have the Holloway family seal on it, and they all have the signature of the king at the bottom which emits authenticity within the letter.
What would you all like to do?
~~~
BITCHES GOTTA GO TO THE CASTLE
~~~
Once at the gates, you are greeted by a royal adviser and escorted by guards into the castle. They don't handcuff you, or even grab a hold of any of you. They just walk alongside you all. You walk through what appear to be main hallways in the castle, unlike when most of you were dragged into the dungeons. You are brought forth into the throne room where you see King Indulf Holloway sitting upon the largest throne upon the dais. Upon your entry, The King stands and greets you all.
[his voice is a bit gruff and in adam's apple]
[the king will basically just apologize for mistaking you for the murderers. He says that you were suspected because you were the ones who fought the Ettercap. A royal adviser had suggested that maybe you put the magic ettercap egg within the ambrosia and that you all killed it in an attempt to try and clear your names and remove suspicion. He also wanted to apologize to people who weren't arrested for making them live in fear of arrest or repurcussion.]
~~~
AND THEN A WILD PRINCE APPEARS
~~~
As you are being led out of the castle, you see someone else walking down the hallway. Who here has a dice app on their phone? Okay, so can one of you roll a d5 for me using the dice calculator?
[doesn't matter what they roll, it's always going to be Nicolas. Make them feel like they have agency haha. Could have seen other people in the hallway].
You see a young human man walking down the hallway with four high ranking royal guards around him. He has blondish hair, a small white owl on his shoulder, and he is dressed in all black. Would anyone like to roll to see if you can figure out who he is?
DC7 WISDOM/MEMORY So you are able to recognize him as one of the royal children. His name is Prince Nicholas, and the bird on his shoulder is his hunting companion.
DC14 WISDOM/MEMORY You know his owl's name is Pov.
You approach one another in this corridor and Prince Nicholas stops his band of guards as well as your party, and he asks, [smooth, a tad British, Adam's apple] "Are you the group that slayed the Ettercap?"
[part way through, roll a d[PLAYER COUNT] and have them make a perception check. (ON SEPARATE PAPER) DC13 they notice that Prince Nicholas has been sort of eyeing/paying extra attention to. Aelar Amastacia
[2 options here depending on what the children have done]
[the gist is that Nick will ask the group to help him find some goat killers out on the edges of town. There are some bits of forest up north near the outskirts of town. They are a goat trade farm, and they help maintain the goat livestock and goat economy around the northern shores of the Great Lake of Hajim, Hajim's Sailing Goats. However, their livestock have been beginning to disappear with bloody trails leading away from their pastures. He would like a group of able-bodied peoples to help him find the killers and bring them to justice. Also he really needs to get out of the castle.]
go to 10 - The Beast in the Clearing
[if asked about his mother nick will get quiet and not wish to speak of it. While his intentions are good, he moreover wishes to get away from his family and distract himself from the gruesome murder of queen Luciana Holloway-Verill]
[nick tells them to meet them by the gates of the castle tomorrow morning, and he will lead them to the goat farm as well as into the forest following the trail. He moreover just needs the party to help him fight whatever is murdering the goats, since he is a long-range hunter and this beast could be really strong at melee. he doesn't want two royal deaths in a week.]