The Inter-College Games
Following up on an advert for the ‘
Inter-College Games’, the party visited Dana Kirkgard at the College of History. They were given temporary studentship of the College in return for their participation, which Agnes used in part to access the research library and try to find out more information about
The Fallen Alliance.
The games took place over three days, consisting of three challenges: one-on-one combat, animal handling, and an obstacle race. Mal was the overall winner, with Rae in second place, and the top four participants going through to the final event taking place in
Cannis City in a month’s time.
Festivities marked the end of the event, with the party celebrating late into the night.
Lanna Yorga & Jaro Adelin, claiming to be fans of Mal in particular, joined them for drinks, gifting Mal a magical pearl for protection.
The Folly
Returning to
Master Sorrell as promised, he requested that they try and locate
Alric Kota. The party accepted the job, choosing to call themselves ‘the Folly’ when he requested a name for his records.
They travelled to the College of Magical Research using the transportation circle offered to them by Master Sorrell, and questioned
Master Thorne about Alric Kota’s disappearance. He pointed them to a former researcher at the College,
Orla Garrib, who lost her job after refusing to disclose Alric’s whereabouts. The Folly travelled through
Cannis City to Orla’s home, which they found in the process of being burgled by a cambion and his lackeys. They foiled the burglary, but lost Rae’s magical axe when the cambion teleported away to escape them with it embedded in his body.
That night Lizzie fell unconscious and was only wakened with the use of Agnes’s magic.
Orla offered to exchange information about Alric Kota if the party helped her steal a jewel from the theatre where she worked. They agreed, and after scoping out the theatre (including attending the show), they descended into a series of rooms beneath the theatre which was populated by old theatre props and costumes, the jewel, and a number of very protective ghosts. After some close calls they emerged victorious and returned to Orla with the gem. She gratefully told them Alric’s last known destination - the village of
Annbrook - and provided them with the text of a spell that could potentially locate the cambion who had Rae’s axe.
Annbrook, Thain and Duris
In
Annbrook they discovered that Alric Kota had moved on several years before, but they chose to stay and investigate the issue of sheep being slaughtered by an unknown creature. On their first night in the village they all experienced strange dreams, all apart from Agnes’s featuring a being called
Fierna. She seemed especially familiar with Lizzie, revealing that it was Lanna Yorga who had caused his unconsciousness that first night in Cannis - a failed assassination attempt.
They eventually discovered that two residents of the village were attempting to open a portal to the Nine Hells under the direction of
Pharika/Fierna, and it was an escaped howler which had been slaughtering the sheep. After successfully closing the portal and killing Fierna’s cultist,
Greshorn, they managed to explain the situation to the villagers and left Annbrook with impressive reputations.
They continued to the town of
Thain, finding Alric Kota’s home but getting no answer when they knocked. Deciding to return later, they returned to their inn where they were employed by
Feylis Flint to find out what happened to her trade contact in the nearby dwarf settlement of
Duris. In Duris they sneaked into a newly opened tunnel which ultimately appeared to link to the Underdark, where they defeated a hydra and discovered the body of Feylis’s contact, along with some pre-Flood ruins and some duergar who had been worshipping the hydra.
They left Duris having made an enemy of the local thieves guild, the
Duris Unders, but a tentative alliance with Duris’s leader, Derra Emberback.
Alric Kota
The Folly returned to Alric Kota’s house and still finding no response, decided to break in. They located a ring of memory, which Master Sorrell had requested they take if they could, along with an old letter which appeared to be from Sorrell himself. They subsequently found Alric in his study, in a state of astral projection. When they brought him out of it and explained that Orla had sent them, he agreed to perform the location spell for a price, if they gave him a day to prepare.
After this successful deception, they left and Lizzie secretly viewed the memory in the ring. Finding it to be a seemingly mundane memory of Master Sorrell’s of him and Alric discussing their research, Lizzie regretted the invasion of privacy and the party decided to return to Alric to confess their real reason for seeking him out.
They returned to find him already packing his things, having discovered the ring and letter missing and guessing who had sent them. Though they confessed and apologised, he dismissed them, telling them to keep the ring as he had no further use for it.
Return to Ulna
On their journey back to Cannis City, they encountered two hunters,
Erin Forlani and Ivis. Erin revealed she had formerly owned an inn on
Tolsta, but had chosen to leave following recent civil unrest.
They returned to Ulna and reported their findings to Master Sorrell, who paid them and agreed to perform the location spell - revealing that the cambion’s True Name was
Ezzomath, and that he was currently located in Phlegethos in
The Nine Hells.
They took a few days of downtime before deciding their next move, with Agnes researching herbalism, Lizzie researching runecasting, Rae going to
Zella Snowpeak for information about cambions, and Mal befriending a cat.
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