Previously: Chapter 53: The Forest Spirit
The Long Wait
As Dandelion has left to visit her forest for a few days, the rest of the party spends some time relaxing and preparing for the upcoming gala that is being hosted in their honor. Kal spends a few days wandering through the city streets of Ravenforge, to see how she can do some good. Coming across a few orphanages, she donates a hefty sum to them, much to the gratitude of the workers there, while the kids look at her in awe, as a true hero. She also heads over to Tempervale to purchase a couple of spell tattoos so that she can disguise herself while still wearing armor.
Penny takes Diamond out for a few rides along with Arin and Wildfire, traveling throughout the valley south of the city along the river, finding a few smaller settlements and inhabitants that seems to be nice enough, but in the end wants to be left alone. Relic in the meantime takes the time to just rest a bit after having had a busy week since meeting the party. During the previous days they get a formal invitation to the gala, with a notice that a carriage will be sent to retrieve them in the afternoon.
On Saturday morning, Dandelion finally returns, and finds that a blizzard is raging across the city. When the rest of the party sees her they notice that she is rather quiet, as she has a lot to think about, but Dandelion doesn’t bother the rest of the party with the knowledge she now has, opting to wait until after the party to ask them for help. Penny takes some time to get ready with her makeup, and as she notices that Dandelion is planning to go to the gala as is, she takes her to the side and forces her to be worked on. When they’re done, Dandelion can hardly recognize herself in the mirror.
Seeing as the blizzard is raging, the owls will have a hard time keeping watch around the castle, so Dandelion opts to give Argus one of the sending stones they have instead, so that he and Ira can give a heads up if anything were to happen to their home while they’re gone. Kal thinks ahead and puts their weapons in the bags of holding, and gives one of them to Dandelion. Arin tells the party to make good choices as the carriage comes to pick them up. Dandelion makes sure to tell the horses carrying the carriage how important their job is, while Relic lends a thermal cube to the coachman to keep him warm. Kal looks at the blizzard, and gets a feeling that it is sent by Udall as a precaution.
Arrival at the Castle
Traveling through the city, they can sense that all the guards seem to be highly on edge, seeing as there is a large gathering of important individuals present, and they can see that they are one of several carriages being transported to the castle. There seems to be few townsfolk in the streets, which isn’t that uncommon considering the current weather. Dandelion sticks her head out of the carriage to tell the coachman that he is doing a good job, but it’s difficult to convey it through the storm.
As the party reaches their destination, they are led by a group of servants to the main entrance, up the main stairs and to the left to reach the ballroom. A large hall with several pillars holding up the roof, and a massive window dominating the northern wall. Towards one of the walls they see a large gathering of sweets and baked goods, whilst the head table meant for the party is right by the king, considering the rather large throne that is put beside it. When they enter, a herald announces their arrival to the few people who have already arrived.
Penny heads over to the table with sweets and is positively salivating over the fresh baked goods. Next to the table she can see Emma Halflight, the owner of Emma’s Sugary Emporium standing proud next to her creations. Penny gives her a compliment, with Emma being quite grateful, revealing that she and her workers have worked throughout the week to produce enough goods for the party, alongside some local bakeries.
Relic makes sure to take note of who the herald announces, but Dandelion isn’t paying too much attention, as she doesn’t see the point since she doesn’t know these people anyway. All the rulers of the various counties, Akadio Zetterlund alongside a young gentleman, Usoa Zeri followed by her elven entourage, Paton Dutari and his wife, as well as Guldar Ironbreaker, being escorted by his dwarven bodyguards. Delphine, who’s first name is revealed to be Thalia, arrives and gives a short nod to the party.
Kal has been rather indifferent to most of the names, but as Thaddeus Ildrex, with his wife Xara is announced, she freezes up and stares at the white dragonborn that just entered the hall. Dandelion can tell something is off, and gets a confirmation when Kal suddenly excuses herself and returns, looking slightly different with a different hair color and some additional makeup on her face, barely recognizable. She refuses to explain when asked about the change.
Dandelion tries to look around for shady behavior, and can see that a few of the guests seem to be highly on edge, looking around nervously, some fiddling with something in their inner pockets. Delphine seems to be quite calm, with Thervan, who resides at the same table as the party, looking visibly tense. Bertram sits next to him drinking wine. By the wall, alongside the other guards, she can see Raven keeping watch. Dandelion points out a few of the suspicious looking people to Penny, and asks if she can take a look with her monocular, recognizing it as the same one Lady Kree used to check for imposters.
Penny steps over to the side to get a quick overview of the gathered people, and looks through the monocular. She sees that there are a few guards posted high above, invisible, with loaded crossbows, looking at the gathering. She sees that Kal is wearing her armor, and also notices that Ildrex seems to be wearing armor, with a glamored dining suit disguising it. She doesn’t see any drow or hidden assassins present, but with over 200 people present it is hard to pick out anyone who is particularly suspicious. As the spell runs out, she returns to her seat, telling Dandelion about what she saw.
The Gala
Suddenly, as all guests have arrived, the sound of trumpets can be heard ringing throughout the dining hall, and everyone goes quiet, as the king, Triston Bouchard finally arrives, accompanied by his young daughter, Satine, who helps him get to his throne. They are accompanied by a few knights, and a couple of highly decorated soldiers in shining armor, who place themselves behind the king’s throne. Satine takes her seat next to the king, sitting between him and the party.
After the king has gotten comfortable, he, through great effort, stands up again, and gestures for the gathering to quiet down, which they quickly do. He then goes on to give a brief announcement, that clearly takes a lot out of him to do.
“Friends, dignitaries, citizens. We are gathered here today to honor the heroes who brought the possibility of a peace treaty between the Empire of Moroxia, and the Thax’ning orcish tribes to the north. Penelope Roxley, Dandelion, Kalyssandra Merwen and Relic. We honor you. I also have been told that another hero, Fie, gave his life in the protection of our country. Thank you for your sacrifice.”
The king seems quite exhausted by the effort of speaking to the gathered crowd, who gives an applause in return, as well as raise their glass to the fallen. The party notices that Ildrex is glaring directly at Kal after her name was mentioned. Dandelion, who can read lips, sees that he tells his wife “I know that name from somewhere”. At the conclusion of the speech, the food is brought out, with a wide array of various cuts of meat and vegetables, something for everyone, and quite delicious.
After people have eaten they start mingling with each other, and the gala goes from being a dinner to a party. The other regents make their way up to the king one by one to show their respects, kissing the ring of the regent. Dandelion can feel that while most people seem to be honored by this, the rulers of the counties appear to be very reluctant when doing so. Dandelion realizes that the regent isn’t very popular amongst the other rulers. She quietly mentions this to Kal, who tells her that the Bouchard family conquered the lands around 850 years ago, and subjugated the other rulers underneath them. They probably want things to go back to the way they used to.
After showing his respect, the king under the mountain, Guldar, walks over to Relic, asking him if he is from the old times, referring to the conflict between the dwarves and the drow that happened almost 4000 years ago. When Relic confirms that he is, Guldar gestures for his guards to bring over a stool so that he can sit with the warforged. Relic recognizes the family name of Guldar, and tells him that he fought alongside one of his ancestors, and tells the king about the time, which for Relic was but a few years ago.
Penny, who goes to pick up some more desserts, gets approached by Usoa Zeri, the countess of Elvenroth, who recognizes her as a member of the Bows’n’Roses, asking her what happened when they took a hiatus. Penny reveals the story of her mentor Morgan and her quest to find him, with Usoa being quite intrigued by the tale, and jokingly suggests having Trixie assassinated for taking her place. Penny assures her that it won’t be necessary, but joins the gathered crowd with tales of her party’s adventures so far.
Ildrex makes his way over to the king, to offer his respects. Dandelion, who has noticed Kal’s tenseness, asks if they have history, and if they are on good terms. She tells her to pretend that they do. Ildrex gives a bow to the king, kissing his ring like the others have done, and says to the king that queen Alynna Venra regrets that she was unable to make the journey. The king replies that he is honored to have someone of Ildrex post to come in her stead, asking if he is still a general, but Ildrex replies that he has been made a lord now.
Ildrex turns his attention over to Kal, asking her if they know each other, as he seems to find her familiar. She reveals that she is the cleric of Udall, and that she has never met Ildrex before. He seems to buy it, surprisingly, but insists that he has seen her before. Kal tries to play it off with the fact that a dollmaker in Tempervale has made dolls using her likeness, so he might have it from there. Ildrex doesn’t push it further, and leaves the matter be, before giving a final gesture of respect to the king, before returning to his wife.
Delphine walks over to Penny who is sitting with Usoa, asking if everything is alright, with Penny telling her that they have noticed a few shady people, but neglects to tell her anything about the invisible guards in the ceiling. Delphine tells her that she feels something is off, and moves on to Kal, Dandelion and Relic. Dandelion is obviously still not trusting of Delphine, and makes sure to show it. Delphine asks how it is going, with them giving the same reply as Penny. Kal asks Delphine if she knows Ildrex, with Delphine replying that he was a general in their armies, but she doesn’t know him personally. Kal gets the impression that she is not telling the whole truth here, and seems to have a certain interest in the Lord, but it is difficult to gauge exactly what type of interest it is.
Return of the Drow
Penny, uses her one charge of the Songbook of Sorcery to subtly cast a detect thoughts-spell, and wanders around the room to listen to the various people who have gathered to see if she can pick up any suspicious thoughts. As there is quite a large gathering of people, it is difficult to make out exactly who is having the thoughts, and most of the gathered crowd seems to only be focusing on the festivities, but a few voices say that it is almost time, and that it’s almost here.
She goes over to the others, and quickly tells them that something is about to happen. Thervan, having noticed her concerned demeanor, quickly makes his way over to them to ask what they have learned. Penny tells him about the thought she has overheard, and so Kal suggests that they bring the king and princess to safety. As the words leave her mouth, they can hear a massive explosion in the city, and the horns of the city walls blaring, as the city is being invaded.
The guards in the room quickly make a wall between the royal family and the others, with Thervan pointing out that the party is on their side, allowing them to stay. A guard comes bursting in from the main doors, saying the drow are attacking the city. Chaos ensues, as the guests make their way to the exits, to try to find safety. Ildrex has dropped his disguise and is heading towards the city along with his wife.
The massive window on the northern wall suddenly gets smashed to bits, and a lone figure is hovering in the center of it. Malice. She laughs maniacally, and tells the king that his line ends tonight. The king looks at her, and, with a renewed vigor, tells his guards to “kill this fucking bitch”. The guards loosens their arrows at her, with Malice casting shield to deflect them, but a few manage to get through, striking her. She laughs, and flies away. Penny casts protection against evil and good at the king, with Kal starting to concentrate on Aura of Life.
The king tells Thervan and the party to protect his daughter. Satine protests, but is led away by the knights in the shining armor, followed by Thervan, Raven and Delphine, who offer to help. Relic and Kal follow orders, give a short bow to the king, before following the princess. Penny decides to stay behind, as she doesn’t want the king to die, after seeing him in her dreams. Dandelion doesn’t want Penny to be alone, so decides to remain at the king’s side, to protect him.
Protecting the Princess
As the princess is being led throughout the hallways to a safe location, Relic casts Mage Armor on her, and makes sure to look out for danger. With screams and fighting surrounding them, they are eventually led towards the chambers of the princess, but outside her door, a figure awaits, being accompanied by a few drow. The group turns around to retreat, but notice that several drow have made their way up behind them, trapping them in the hallway. The lone figure, with glowing red eyes, dead skin, and a glowing red dagger smiles at the group.
Kal quickly throws a chair out of one of the windows, and tells the group to take her hand. Thervan, sensing that they are too many, tells Kal to bring the princess to safety. Kal hurls herself out the window, and uses the storm to transport herself, the princess, Relic, Delphine, Raven and the four guards to their home on the outskirts, as Thervan is left behind. They emerge by the shrine of Udall next to their home, and quickly lead the princess inside, with the guards taking up a defensive position within.
In the distance, they can see lights from the city being on fire, with screams of people dying as large figures stand on the walls attacking the guards and the citizens. Several of their neighbors are standing outside of their homes looking at the horrific scene. Kal and Relic spend a few seconds staring at the invasion, before entering the home.
Argus, who has at this point asked Dandelion what is happening, and gotten a vague response that she is in the middle of something, tells Kal that something is wrong, and they feel that they might need help. Kal walks outside, ready to run back to the castle, but returns, asking Delphine to teleport them to their friends, as they can protect the king. Delphine scry on Penny, sees them all in danger, and casts teleport to bring Kal and Relic to the fight.
Cornered
Penny and Dandelion follow the king and his guards, surrounding the regent, heading towards a safe spot where they can put up a defensive position. Dandelion has summoned a cave bear to help protect them, which follows them from behind. Running down a hallway and turning left, they see a massive skeletal figure with a glowing red greataxe staring back at them. They retreat, to find another place to stay safe, but before they are able to turn the corner, another figure emerges, this one holding a glowing red sword, and mocks the king for running away.
The second figure, who introduces himself as Lord Falric tells the group that they are only here for the king, and would rather not kill anyone else if they don’t have to. Dandelion says that they cannot have him, with Falric remarking that his rule will soon come to an end, with or without their help. She replies that even though the king is old, he seems like a good person, and so they want to protect him. The king tells them that he doesn’t want anyone else to die for him, and tells them to stand down, but neither Penny, Dandelion or the king's guard seem keen on that idea.
The massive axe-wielding figure to their rear seems to be rather impatient, saying they should just slaughter them all and take the king's head for themselves, but Lord Falric tells the man to have patience, referring to him as Lord Vaelen. Penny uses animating performance to awaken one of the statues, to help protect the king. At this point, Argus has made contact with Dandelion, asking if she is okay, as the city is on fire. Dandelion replies that she is in the middle of something. Lord Falric tells them that they can have it their way, and moves in to strike.
The first guard proves no match for the sword of Lord Falric, who quickly slices him down, while at the same time tries to intimidate and frighten the others. Dandelion and Penny seem to be resistant to this at first, but Penny is not as strong willed as Dandelion, so becomes frightened of the death knights. Lord Falric tries to hold a few of the group in check by casting hold monster, but only manages to hold the summoned cave bear, effectively removing it from the fight. Dandelion summons a bear totem, in order to give some extra protection to the group.
Lord Vaelen casts haste on himself, to be even more dangerous in the fight, and manages to take down another guard as well as the animated statue that Penny brought in to help, moving closer to the king, while slicing down guards left and right. Lord Falric teleports closer to Penny in order to attack her directly. Dandelion, having been forced to maintain concentration and so hasn’t gotten the chance to attack the death knights, summons a draconic spirit, who attacks Lord Valeen, making him lose concentration on haste, and so is knocked out for a round.
The death knights have had several opportunities to strike the king directly, but have neglected to do so. Penny figures that the only thing protecting the king at the moment is the protection from evil and good spell that she is concentrating on, and so does whatever she can to keep it going. Dandelion quickly breaks the window, and commands the draconic spirit to pick up the king in order to bring him to safety.
The spirit grabs the king by the shoulders, and flies out the window, being struck by the axe of Lord Vaelen, but it is not enough to bring it down. It tries to fly away, and has nearly disappeared in the storm. Lord Falric smiles at this, and calmly walks over to the window, allowing himself to be hit as he passes by the guards, and tries to dispel the draconic spirit. Penny tries to counterspell it, but he simply counterspells her in return. The dragon suddenly vanishes.
Demise of the Crown
The king plummets to the ground below, and is luckily saved by the extra vigor that the bear totem provided him. Lord Falric laughs, as he teleports down below to the king, but doesn’t strike him yet. The knights, who have now been reduced to half, run over to attack Lord Vaelen, who still remains inside. They get in a couple of hits, but he just retreats slightly, allowing himself to be struck by the knights, as he casts a hellfire orb at everyone in the hallway. Two of the knights succumb to their wounds, with a final knight still standing strong.
The king, now alone, faces down the death knight. Dandelion can see that he rises up, and speaks to the death knight, before taking out a small blade, and strikes the death knight in the neck. A final act of defiance from the regent. Penny, who took the brunt of the hellfire orb cast by Lord Vaelen, loses concentration on the spell protecting the king. Lord Falric feels this, and so strikes at the king. Dandelion sees that he cleaves clean through the shoulder and down the side, slicing the king in half. She tries to heal Penny, herself and the remaining knight, and as she does, Kal and Relic are suddenly teleported into the hallway. Seeing the danger, Kal tries to lie, saying that the princess is dead, but she doesn’t convince the remaining death knight.
Relic, seeing the death and destruction around him, twins a spell and casts a disintegration beam at both Lord Falric and Lord Vaelen. The latter manages to avoid it, but Lord Falric takes the full force of it, being hit directly by the beam, tearing away some of his flesh. In return, he casts another hellfire orb into the hallway, and starts walking away, as the crown falls from the head of the deceased king as he is dragged away. Dandelion goes unconscious from this, but Kal manages to bring her back due to her Aura of Life still being active. They hear a pop outside, and see that Lord Falric has plane shifted away.
The final knight makes a last stand against the remaining death knight, and runs at him, wanting to avenge his fallen king. One of his strikes misses, allowing an opening for Lord Vaelen to slice him clean in half. He then walks around the other corner, and they hear another pop, as he too escapes the scene, their task being finished. The party stands amid the corpses, exhausted. Dandelion sits by the window and stares blankly at the remains of the king.
The Aftermath
After a short while, as the party heals themselves up in case of another attack, they hear movements throughout the hallway. Guards start appearing and immediately surround them, taken aback by the death that fills the hallway. They are at first very suspicious of the party, but Penny manages to convince them that they tried to protect the king. Dandelion points out the window, and so the guards walk over to see their deceased ruler. Many guards start crying, but get some hope back when Kal tells them that the princess is safe.
They decide they should check on Thervan to see if he made it out alright. Dandelion is still sitting by the window, staring out. Kal tells her that there is nothing more they can do, and so they should make their way back. Dandelion protests, saying that it was her actions that directly caused his death. She feels that she failed him. Penny tries to tell her that the death was not their fault, they did what they could. Kal takes Dandelion’s hand and brings her with her to the main hall.
As they get there, they find that most of the tables have been overturned in the chaos, but luckily, a single table with candies and sweets remains. Kal is about to cast a sending to Thervan, but he emerges just before she has the chance. He tells them that he managed to hold back the death knight and the drow, but they suddenly retreated as if being called back by something. He tried to reason with the knight, as he recognized her as a changeling that he had worked with before, but it was not the same individual any more. Kal tells him that the king is dead. Thervan seems to take the news in stride.
Thervan asks where the princess is, with them telling him that she is safe at their house. Thervan tells a few guards to accompany him, as he teleports them all back to the house. Relic goes over to knock on the door, and is greeted by a couple of guards asking who it is. Thervan tells them that it is safe, and to let them inside. They carefully open the door. Satine sits on the couch in the living room, accompanied by Delphine, Raven, and a few guards. Satine looks up at the party, and as she doesn’t see her father among them, she quickly realizes what has happened.
The princess, nay, queen, drops her head into her hands and starts sobbing. Dandelion quickly moves over to her, and is not held back by the guards, as she sits on the floor in front of her, saying how sorry she is. The queen falls to the floor into the arms of Dandelion, screaming at the news. Penny and Kal both go over to comfort her, being joined by Argus and Ira. Relic, not being the best with situations like these, moves to the kitchen, where he finds Arin looking shocked at the news standing with a few guards who have removed their helmets and gloves, looking distantly with teary eyes.
Relic starts writing down in his book what he remembers about drow tactics, and recognizes that they haven’t changed much from his time, using a tactic of quickly moving in, doing as much damage in a short time while the enemy is surprised, before retreating just as fast.
After a while, the queen apologizes to the party, saying that she didn’t mean to intrude into their home, but says that she cannot bring herself to return to the castle tonight. Penny says that it is not an issue, and that she should take her room. The queen is quite grateful for this, but continues laying in the arms of Dandelion, still crying uncontrollably.
After some time, the queen collapses due to the exhaustion, and so the guards carry her carefully up the stairs to Penny’s room. Penny takes Fie’s old room, with Dandelion and Kal still sits in the living room. Dandelion just sits staring into nothing, before she too eventually collapses due to the exhaustion. Kal carefully carries her up to her room as well, before returning downstairs where Delphine and Thervan are still holding watch, alongside a few guards. In the distance, as the storm has subsided, Kal can see the city still burning, but the screams have died down.
Next: Chapter 55: Mending