Session 26, Arc III

Clouded Truths (Part I)

Played 29 June 2025 Watch the session

The party awoke on the second morning of the holidays in their tavern room, with Bones rousing everyone with rooster calls. After discussing their plans, they decided against attempting the dangerous tower again and instead focused on investigating job opportunities and gathering information. Yomidrogo began working on modifying a ring of tracking using marina armor as a power source, a process that would take about a week to complete.

A halfling named Robert arrived to serve breakfast, nervously explaining it was his first day. The party ordered various items including toast, eggs, and an expensive stew, with the total meal costing 40 gold pieces. After checking the food for poison and finding it safe, they established a party fund with contributions from each member.

The party traveled through the bustling holiday festivities in Silverleaf and the Temple District toward the Gilded Plaza. Along the way, Bones and Cyrran successfully pickpocketed a pearl necklace worth 70 gold pieces from the crowds of performers and vendors. At the job board near the bridge entrance, they discovered several lucrative opportunities, including investigating a missing woman named Prihana for 1,500 gold and retrieving bodies from offshore waters for 1,400 gold.

While some party members planned to investigate the missing person case, Cyrran and Arraphesu decided to break into a closed gem store during the holidays. Using thieves' tools, Cyrran successfully picked the lock and removed the chain securing the door. Arraphesu disguised their activity by pretending to be a worker with a toolbox. Inside, they discovered numerous valuable gems including diamonds, rubies, lapis lazuli, and quartz worth approximately 300 gold total.

Their heist was interrupted when a tiefling employee unexpectedly arrived at the store. Arraphesu quickly improvised, pretending to be a victim of theft and claiming everything had been stolen when they arrived. The employee offered to help and suggested bringing a guard to examine fingerprints, but Arraphesu convinced her to leave. After she departed, they completed their theft and escaped with the stolen gems.

Meanwhile, Bones, Yomidrogo, and Kailyn visited the Solex Temple to investigate the missing woman Prihana. They spoke with Jonathan, an elvish priest who revealed that Prihana was a regular visitor with unusual behavior - she only washed her hands at the basins and never engaged in other religious activities. Jonathan mentioned that another priest, Father Jakorin, occasionally spoke with Prihana, but he had left for Droshdech a day earlier. The priest also noted that Prihana was last seen heading northwest toward either Rivergate or Silverleaf.

While traveling to the docklands, the group overheard two well-dressed men discussing Prihana. An elven shopkeeper and his half-elf companion revealed that Prihana's name appeared multiple times in their ledger over the past two weeks. They learned she had purchased an expensive bouquet of flowers worth 200 gold for delivery to someone with the same last name - Southland Zilwen - and that she lived in the Silverleaf district.

During this conversation, Yomidrogo's wild magic surged catastrophically. A small candle appeared in his hand and immediately exploded in a 10-foot radius, dealing significant fire damage to everyone nearby. Multiple bystanders were injured, including the two informants, with the half-elf suffering a severe gash across his neck. Kailyn quickly healed one of the injured men while Yomidrogo used suggestion magic to convince the arriving guards that he was a victim of faulty fireworks rather than the cause of the explosion.

The party regrouped at the busy docklands, where Yomidrogo traded a necklace and bat guano to a drug dealer for a jar of various magical substances. They met Ribs, a massive half-orc dockmaster with distinctive blue-green skin and a glowing tattoo on his chest. After some persuasion and a demonstration of water magic by Kailyn, Ribs agreed to let them take on the dangerous body retrieval job immediately rather than waiting until the next morning.

Following the address they had obtained, the party traveled to Prihana's townhouse in Silverleaf. The nice two-story building appeared empty, with shoes scattered by the door and no response to their calls. After Bones checked for traps, they entered the dark house and used magical light to illuminate the interior. They found photo frames showing a half-elf woman and man together.

Upstairs, they made a horrifying discovery. In the first bedroom, two bodies hung from ropes with severe lacerations from forehead to groin. Their guts had been pulled out and their faces carved with random knife wounds. Cyrran recognized the woman as someone they had previously interrogated in Black Wine Alley. The party realized these deaths were connected to their earlier investigation, as the man had warned that talking to them would result in their deaths.

Bones attempted to cast speak with dead using grey flowers but failed the arcana check. Kailyn found a mysterious glass-like rock shard in the corner, similar to previous magical shards they had encountered. After finding 25 gold pieces in a drawer, they reported the discovery to local guards, claiming they had smelled something strange from the house. The guards confirmed the deaths and provided documentation, allowing the party to claim their 1,500 gold reward.

Returning to the docklands, the party prepared for their underwater mission. Kailyn cast water breathing on all members, granting them 24 hours of underwater breathing ability. Cyrran attuned to a ring of swimming for enhanced underwater mobility. They traveled about 40 minutes in a rowboat to reach the deep water location two kilometers offshore.

Diving underwater, they established hand signals for communication and descended into the unnaturally cold depths. The water was much deeper than expected, leading into a cavern system that continued far below normal ocean levels. Kailyn's arcana and history checks revealed this was a magical creature's lair, prompting warnings to retreat. However, they spotted two bodies floating below a mysterious figure emitting sickly white light.

The creature revealed itself as a sea hag, surrounded by seaweed and hair, floating in the water. She telepathically communicated with Kailyn, creating an illusion of her dead lover Rayne and offering to bring her back in exchange for Kailyn's ability to breathe underwater and a promise never to see the ocean again. At the last moment, Kailyn realized the illusion wasn't real and pulled back from the hag's grasp.

Combat erupted as Cyrran attacked the hag with his rapier, dealing critical damage. The hag retaliated by attempting to drain Kailyn's soul, causing her vision to go black and leaving her incapacitated. Arraphesu struck multiple times with martial arts attacks and successfully knocked the hag prone. Yomidrogo cast hex on the creature and used twin eldritch blasts while attempting to pull Kailyn to safety. Ribs, Bones' skeleton companion, delivered the killing blow by swimming over and slashing the hag with his short sword before grabbing her skull and finishing her off.

After the battle, they retrieved the two bodies they were sent to recover and returned to the surface. The dockmaster paid them 1,750 gold pieces for completing the dangerous job. Bones harvested materials from the sea hag including an eye and lock of hair for potential magical uses. Yomidrogo carved the rune he had seen in his vision into the dirt, which matched a rune Kailyn had drawn earlier.

Using dangerous psychic magic, Bones delved into the minds of his companions to uncover connections to their enemies. Despite causing significant psychic damage to both Kailyn and Yomidrogo, he successfully accessed buried memories. In a vision guided by a figure of light, Bones witnessed young Yomidrogo observing a conversation between an elf named Tassarion, a dragonborn, and an older elven commander. Tassarion reported that "the people of Newsland will not see the light of day," and was promoted within "kingdom circles" for his work in what appeared to be a massacre.

The next morning, the party received an urgent letter summoning them to meet with the High Council of Arakcadia by midday. They noticed increased guard presence throughout the city wearing red and blue colors, and heard a town crier announcing the death of Captain Max in Easthills, suspected to be a Veurim assassination. The party traveled to the massive Kamatel castle complex and waited in the marble foyer before being admitted to the council chambers.

In the formal council meeting, Mayor Clairebane Falis oversaw the proceedings as Yomidrogo presented their evidence about the Veurim Empire's advanced weapons and proximity. Despite Tibbin's support and the party's detailed testimony about their first-hand experiences, the council unanimously dismissed their motion on grounds of viability and feasibility. The deliberation was unusually quick, lasting only minutes instead of the typical 15-30 minutes.

After the rejection, Tibbin spoke privately with the party, expressing suspicion about the rapid decision. He offered an alternative approach - access to a Zilaphelian ambassador's party that evening where council members and possibly Madame Tremzum would attend. Tibbin provided a ticket and promised disguise robes, warning them not to approach Madame Tremzum directly but to gather information discreetly. He revealed that several council members had left for the Zilaphelian Kingdom two weeks earlier.

As the party discussed purchasing disguise kits for their infiltration mission, a horrible scream echoed from the northern edge of town. About 50 gnolls rushed toward the city walls while guards responded with crossbows and scopes. Instead of attacking directly, the gnolls suddenly turned parallel to the wall and jumped off the cliff into the ocean. Many died from the fall, but survivors began swimming desperately toward Awen island in the middle of Arakcadia Lake.

Yomidrogo cast fireball, obliterating more than half of the swimming gnolls. The remaining creatures appeared panicked and desperate as they continued toward the island. Upon reaching Awen's shore, the surviving gnolls collapsed from exhaustion. Kailyn flew to the island to investigate and made a perception check, spotting something approaching in the distance. The session ended with this mysterious threat still unidentified, leaving the party to wonder what had driven the gnolls to such desperate flight and what new danger was approaching Arakcadia.