Previously: Chapter 74: Seeking Sanctuary
The Three Knights
Relic, Penny, Thistlethorn, Trixie and Morgan all immediately run out of the tavern in search of trouble, realizing that something bad is about to happen. Around them people are going about their day as normal, oblivious to the danger looming. Penny sends forth Riff to look for any sign of disturbance, but there seems to be nothing amiss at the moment.
Meanwhile, at Kal’s home, Lord Falric steps out the door, staring down her family, telling Kal that she should have taken Malice’s offer of giving her the key, then her family would be spared. Now they will take them from her. Smiling, he takes out his dark blade and begins walking towards Kal, her mother, father and brother, with a dark look in his eye.
Morgan, casts a sending to Kal, asking her where she is, as they sense that something is up. She tells him to go north, up the road, and that there is a death knight after them. Morgan takes off running towards her, Trixie close behind, with Relic yelling at the townsfolk to get to cover. But they don’t get far before they hear another being teleport into the tavern behind them. Stepping out the door, Penny, Relic and Thistlethorn all recognize the deathly visage of Lord Vaelen, holding his soul-stealing axe, moving in to hinder their rescue. He glares at Penny, frightening her, but she manages to ward off his attacks with a shield spell.
Kal tells her family to run to the tavern, before casting an Aura of Life to protect them, while asking Udall for help with his blessing. They all start running, but Lord Falric follows close behind, dragging Ylder back towards him, forcing Kal to stop. The Death Knight rushes up to her, stabbing her with his blade, but she remains steadfast, using her wrath of the storm to send him backwards.
The rest of the party runs towards Kal, away from Lord Vaelen, but another figure suddenly teleports in from a nearby roof. Lady Ar'alani, with her bow in hand, takes aim at the group, managing to restrain a few of them with her hail of arrows bringing forth vines holding them in place, killing a few commoners who were running for safety. Relic uses a Dimension Door to get closer to Kal, but Ar’alani tries to counter it. Relic manages to successfully counter her counterspell, and gets closer. Thistlethorn takes out her bag of tricks, hoping to get someone to help, bringing forth a badger, who takes off running towards Kal. She then Misty Steps after it, escaping the restraining vines that were holding her back.
Meanwhile, Lord Vaelen looms over Penny, ready to make another attack, but she manages to get away from him just as Trixie casts a shatter at him, taking out Riff who had descended to help his mistress. Vaelen glares at Trixie, who also becomes affected by his frightening visage. Morgan casts a Beacon of Hope, to protect Penny and Trixie, before running after Thistlethorn, Trixie and Penny tries to run away, to join the others in order to escape.
Lady Ar’alani misty steps down from the roof, taking a more hands on approach. The badger Thistlethorn summoned runs up to her, trying to bite her leg, but is unable to get a good hold. The death knight kills it with her dagger, before taking aim at Thistlethorn, who disappears, banished for a few seconds. She then takes aim at Relic, who she knows is a dangerous foe on the battlefield, wounding him greatly.
Lord Falric calmly walks past Kal towards her family, who are now in the middle of the battlefield, trying to run away through a side alley. Kal strikes at him as he passes, but he parries it, making a swipe at her as he does, and then goes to do an attack on Relic. He holds up his sword, which begins to glow in a sickly dark energy, before bringing it down on the warforged wizard. The entire chest gets cleaved open, revealing the inner workings, as Lord Falric slays Relic, killing him. He then moves over to Kal’s mother Ilvasaria, hitting her with the pommel of his sword, knocking her out. He then prepares to take her away.
While this is happening, way down the road, Penny and Trixie both tries to deal with Lord Vaelen, who continues to pummel Penny. Penny’s contingency she had put in place goes off, healing the wounds inflicted by the death knight, as they try to run away from him, both out of fear and desperation.
Kal, desperate to save her mother and her friend, Relic, activates her armor, bending time around her, allowing her to both revivify Relic, and heal her mother. Ylder and Indrel both try to drag Ilvasaria away from the death knight, as Kal strikes him with Stormseeker, flinging him backwards, but Lord Falric telekinetically drags her back to him. He knocks her out once more, and then picks her up on his shoulder, getting ready to escape.
Thistlethorn, finally back from her banishment, sees her only chance, summoning a bear totem, granting all her allies around her a bunch of temporary hit points, while Morgan heals her of her wounds. Relic steps forth, having been brought back to life by Kal, sees her mother on Lord Falric’s shoulders, and decides to cast a disintegration ray at the death knight. He doesn’t manage to evade it, wounding him greatly. They see now that the death knight is getting desperate, and they realize that they might just be able to win. Ylder and Indrel both see their family being taken, but wisely decides to back away.
Lord Falric looks back at his pursuers, casting a sphere of death and fire at them, before running away down a backstreet. Ar’alani moves over to Indrel and Ylder, trying to charm them to run away with her, but they manage to resist the spell. In anger, she stabs Indrel, but he manages to survive the strike, thanks to Thistlethorn’s bear totem.
Penny and Trixie both manage to shake the fright of Lord Valen’s visage, as he abandons them in order to help the other members of the Dread Enclave, but Penny animates a nearby mannequin that was abandoned by a fleeing citizen, who then attacks Lord Vaelen. Morgan sees the approaching death knight, and in a desperate attempt to stop him casts Vicious Mockery at him. The death knight actually succumbs to this, and begins to laugh maniacally while standing on all fours.
Lord Falric continues to move down the alley, but is stopped as Thistlethorn summons a draconic spirit to hinder his path. It tries to drag Ilvasaria out of his grasp, but the death knight is too strong. He then proceeds to knock Kal’s mother out once more, as the dragon attacks him with its breath weapon, but it is of little effect.
Relic, being greatly wounded and seeing his chance, approaches Indrel and Ylder, telling them that they need to come with him if they want to live, and then teleports away to the grove with both of them. Ar’alani tries to counter the spell, but is unsuccessful. In anger, she instead looks back at Kal and Thistlethorn who is pursuing Lord Falric down an alley. She takes aim with her bow, releasing a flurry of arrows that greatly wounds both Thistlethorn and Kal enough so that they both go down.
Thistlethorn is banished once more, but Kal manages to remain, albeit down. To everyone’s surprise, four giant beasts suddenly appear around them, and they look mighty angry at the death knights. As Thistlethorn is knocked out, her draconic spirit disappears, but a giant elk now stands in its place. Lord Falric takes a swipe at it, managing to decapitate its head from its body, and begins to walk away. Now nothing stands between him and a safe escape with Kal’s mother.
Penny has now taken flight, and told her animated mannequin to leave Lord Vaelen alone, as he is already out of the fight, and instead go attack the other death knights. She flies to a nearby roof, seeing Lord Falric running away, but he is flanked by the elks who are trying to ram him and Lady Ar’alani, who is running after Lord Falric to help. Trixie runs over to where Kal lies unconscious, using a Healing Word to bring her back. Kal, seeing Penny on the roof staring at what she assumes is Lord Falric, uses a reverberating jump to get closer, wounding Lady Ar’alani and a couple of the elks in the process, seeing no other choice.
Lady Ar’alani takes a shot at Penny, blinding her, in order to prevent her from countering Falric’s escape, not knowing that Penny, along with the entire party, has acquired blindsight from Gundraag’s defeat. Penny flies closer to Lord Falric, casts a banishing smite as she takes aim at the death knight, and hits. Lord Falric suddenly disappears, and Kal’s mother falls to the ground, still unconscious.
Morgan, seeing Thistlethorn reappear from her banishment, albeit unconscious, decides to heal her with a cure wounds spell, yelling at everyone to come to him. Thistlethorn gets up, and moves as fast as she can over to where Kal is staring, activating her gift from Faunus, and casts a mass cure wounds. Lady Ar’alani tries to counterspell it, but once more is unsuccessful in this. Kal’s mother awakens, and sees her daughter strike at the Death Knight, who is being flanked by two giant elks, and runs past them to Morgan, after Kal tells her to run.
Back in the main street, Lord Valen has managed to finally shake off the effect of the vicious mockery, and has begun to move towards his companions once more, but is stopped by a giant elk. He takes a swipe at it with his axe, killing it in a single blow, but sees that Lord Falric is gone, and Lady Ar’alani is surrounded, so he reluctantly decides to plane shift away. Lady Ar’alani looks back at Kal, telling her they will see them again soon enough, and also flees the fight. The rest of the group runs as fast as they can towards Morgan, and just as the owls reach them, they teleport away to Port Emerald at Ilvasaria’s behest before Lord Falric gets a chance to return from his banishment.
Port Emerald
Morgan manages to safely get them to the coastal city of Port Emerald, and they are met with the busy port, ships approaching and departing, with a lot of activity on the harbour of goods and shipments being offloaded and loaded onto various ships. Everyone looks worse for wear, and so they get a few looks at passing citizens wondering what has happened to them, but more importantly, they’re safe.
Kal asks her mother where her brother is, but her mother is unsure. The only thing she knows is that she works for the Cain family, who is working with the administration of the city itself. Kal and Penny both recognize the name Cain from Ansgar, and assume that she is referring to Owyn Cain, a local politician who has been working to oppose the rampant corruption in the city.
Penny stops a random passerby, asking if he knows where the Cain’s family residence is. The elderly man says he knows not where they live, but their offices are to the south, pointing to a large building taller than any surrounding it near the coast. Penny thanks the man with a gold coin, and so the man expresses his gratitude, before hiding the coin before any cutpurses sees it. They then begin to move towards the offices.
Getting there, they find a large building, maybe a repurposed temple, that appears to be open to the public. Inside they are greeted by a large entrance hall filled with visitors, and in the center, by a desk, Valerion Merwen is working on some parchments. Not looking up, he asks how he can help them, but Kal just says his name, prompting him to lift his head, coming face to face with his sister after several years. He is surprised to find her there, and even more surprised to see his mother with several bruises on her face.
Kal quickly tries to explain the situation, and that they have to leave as soon as possible, but Valerion tells her that he can’t just abandon his post, as people need him. Her intense glare is enough to convince him otherwise. He tells the party that he just has to talk to Owyn about the situation. Kal tells him to be brief, as he walks back to a chamber, approaching an elderly man who the party immediately sees must be Ansgar Cain’s father. Thistlethorn can read lips, and sees that Owyn understands the importance of what is happening, allowing him to go, but not before embracing him in a hug, wishing his pupil good luck. They sense that Owyn and Valerion trust each other, so separating him from his duties is hard, but necessary.
He then returns to the party, asking where they are going, but Kal is unwilling to divulge this in front of everyone. Penny, just to be sure, takes out her monocular, looking at Valerion, finding that he appears to be himself, but looking around the offices, she sees that a single changeling is posing as a young woman, cataloguing a bunch of books. Penny gets solemn for a moment, remembering Fie, but says nothing to the party, other than that they’re clear. Valerion leads them outside to a back alley, with Morgan teleporting to the grove by using the small rock he got from Thistlethorn.
Safety
The party emerges from the teleport on the outskirts of the grove, near the river where they rested before venturing into the woods. They make their way through, with Penny doing her best to calm Ilvasaria and Valerion to the best of her ability, assuring them that they are safe now. After a few minutes, they see the grove appear between the trees, with Relic sitting with Ylder and Indrel, assuring them that the others will be back. They spot the arrivals, and run over to embrace each other as a family, dragging Kal into it as well.
Penny sees her mother and father there too, who also comes running over, with Thistlethorn’s tribe also having safely arrived there. They all gather with their loved ones, happy to know that they are all safe for now. Eventually Brónach comes wandering over, standing next to Relic, saying that he has truly found a loving and caring group of adventurers to travel with.
Brónach tells the party that the spell that Rootspeaker had over them has vaned, and wanted to extend their gratitude to the party. They all say that there is nothing to apologize for, as they couldn’t help their actions. They decide to take the rest of the day to rest in the sanctuary, before heading out the next day, as they have a shrine nearby that needs cleansing. Morgan offers to teleport them there, so that they don’t expend too many resources before they have to.
During the day, Sprig, the son of Starblossom comes to each of the party members, offering a flower, saying that his mother is sorry for her outburst, and see now what has happened. They all forgive them without question, much to the joy of the young firbolg. Thistlethorn at one point takes Penny’s arm and goes to Brónach, asking if he has a way of removing the effect they are plagued with, referring to the incident with the arcane experiments of Leshanna Lathalas, leaving Penny and Thistlethorn both vulnerable to psychic damage. After examining them he regrets to inform that he is unable to reverse it, but assures them that it is temporary, and if they really want to be rid of it, they do have a cleric in the party, and a god touched place where a divine intervention would be more effective. They reluctantly come to terms with their situation, thinking about what they should do. They then spend the rest of the evening taking things easy in order to prepare best for the next day's activities.