Episode 4 Part 2 "Regicide and Retribution"

Session #19: 11/3/2019

 26th of Ibn'Lagar 2350 of the 5th Age

Recap

 * The session began with Vendrin sitting alone in the cultivated fields outside of the Ould'Inoshowan Centaur Reservation, attempting to translate the journal the party had taken from the Ash Reminder.
 * Suddenly, Vendrin found himself somewhere else. Alone in a field of everchanging grass, blowing in the wind that endlessly shifted its colors through the spectrum.
 * Vendrin found a black tree with silver leaves and in it, a serpent of onyx with silver eyes. The serpent greeted Vendrin and asked him what "True Power" is. To which Vendrin replied that power is only a tool.
 * Satisfied with Vendrin's answer, the serpent offered to answer one question. Vendrin could ask to know literally anything and the serpent would tell him.
 * Vendrin asked how he could free Tyri from her binding to Titania. The serpent told Vendrin that to save Tyri, he would have to remind Titania who she is, though didn't clarify precisely how to do that.
 * Lastly, the serpent told Vendrin that his path lay with his friends and that when Vendrin was ready to rejoin them, he needed to only whisper The Serpent's name.
 * As Vendrin was rocked back to the waking world, Savacool Vesparian hurried to tell him that the comatose boy they had saved from the Ash Reminder was awake.
 * The boy told them his name was Karth and he desperately wanted to know where Orion Alivaur was. Claiming that Orion was the only person who cared for the feybound children and that the people behind the experiment were the "blonde ones." He also told Vendrin that he had once heard the person he knew as the Torturer, say his journal was written in both Celestial and Infernal.
 * Vendrin took a horse from the Centaurs and hurried off to join his friends, upon passing Valirain he was flagged down by the wereraven guardsmen who told him of the explosion. Vendrin whispered the name of the Serpent and rejoined his friends.
 * The rest of the party was already in the sewers beneath Elberneth, having just survived the gas and an encounter with an Efreeti. Vendrin appeared and they hurried off to find Eartaker Thokk and his terrorist cell.
 * The party found Eartaker and his orcs hiding among Horned Alliance agents in an ancient wizards complex beneath the city. They spent several hours battling their way through the dungeon, killing dozens of orcs blessed by Gruumsh and negotiating dangerous traps left by the wizard.
 * The most dangerous encounter the party had in the dungeon nearly left Thokk dead. A Mirror of Life Trapping trapped Kandra and released a Beholder before being smashed and releasing all twelve of it's horrid prisoners. Thokk sacrificed himself, detonating two gnomengarde grenades to kill the beholder, demons, and destroy the mirror. Thokk was left with a single hitpoint, still standing.
 * The party eventually found their way to a hidden portion of the dungeon where a portal to one of the frozen layers of hell was whirling, letting its cold seep out into the world. Thokk confronted his brother Eartaker there and, with the help of the party, was able to best both him and all of his compatriots.
 * The party found two more bombs in the underground complex and threw them through the portal along with the only remaining terrorist, freezing all three solid.
 * Thokk took his unconscious brother over his shoulder and the party left the dungeon by going up through the Horned Alliance bar known as the "Slice of Cania."
 * The party took Eartaker back to the Kingmaker and put him in the brig. They rested up briefly before heading back into the city to find their animal companions who they left waiting on the surface, outside the sewers.
 * Before leaving the Kingmaker, the party instructed the crew to head to the Centaur Reservation and pick up Rain, Savacool, Tyri, and Karth. They were instructed to return to shore in 5 days time and that if the party did not return to them in 10 days, to assume they were dead.
 * They found Hermes and Tennebris bounding over a barricade that the Savit Cel Ru had put up to cordon off the Still-Fey market. Hermes and Tennebris had, apparently, spent the last several hours slaying every Savit Cel Ru agent they had come across.
 * The party captured an agent briefly and interrogated him, discovering that Orion Alivaur was likely up at the Twilight Citadel watching over the Emperor and that Loray Sirothian was at the Ash Reminder.
 * The party decided they needed to spend the night somewhere safe and went to Cloud's shop, hoping to find it abandoned. Instead, they found Cloud there. But Cloud, being uncharacteristically generous, allowed them to stay the night with him in his own private demiplane, that he keeps in the back room of his shop.
 * In the night, Vendrin was able to translate the journal and discovered that it was a book kept by "The Torturer" it detailed his rise to power and the subjugation of Alivaur. The emperor and this torturer used children in the feybound experiment and forced Alivaur to work alongside them by using his true name.
 * The party stormed the Twilight Citadel together and had a brief fight with the Sword of the Seelie, but were able to convince him to let them pass.
 * The party confronted the emperor, Orion, and the vampire Dorethau in the throne room. Vendrin outright accused the emperor of murdering children for power and produced the journal as proof. What ensued was a mad power play, wherein Vendrin used the Eye of Vecna as leverage to keep Dorethau out of the fight. The Sword of the Seelie also stayed out of the fight, content to let the heroes do as they will.
 * The emperor, however, didn't go down without a fight. Using a scroll with Orion Alivaur's true name written on it, he forced the powerful wizard, now revealed to be Oberon, king of the Seelie fey, to attack the party. Oberon, however, was able to signal to the party to get the scroll away from the emperor, freeing him from his sway.
 * The party was presented with a decision. Oberon warned the party that if they let the emperor live, he would just pardon himself of all these crimes and then have them executed, he suggested they slay the emperor and let the line of succession do its work. After talking it over, however, they realized that because both of the emperor's only living family are ineligible for the throne, the next in line is the eldest elf in the court: Savacool Vesparian!
 * After interrogating the vampire Dorethau, and negotiating for her freedom, the party decided to have her kill the emperor and make it seem like they fought her off. The Sword of the Seelie even lent them his aid in selling the story, having Alivaur stab him through the chest and bleeding by the emperor's side.
 * Dorethau feasted on the emperor and fled, leaving Saria Lamoth behind.
 * The party had Skitter, the pixie herald, lure Loray Sirothian to the Twilight Citadel and jumped him in the throne room. Thokk and Lio held him down while Vendrin showed him the journal. Lastly, Oberon cast Feeblemind on him, shattering his mind before driving a sword through his chest.
 * What followed next was a whirlwind. Thokk and Kandra accompanied Oberon to the Ash Reminder to kill the treacherous agents of the Savit Cel Ru, essentially cleaning house and razing the fascistic organization to the ground.
 * In the next week, Oberon (back to his ruse as Orion Alivaur) convinced the imperial court that Savacool Vesparian had indeed been framed for the murder of his friend and that he was the rightful heir to the throne. Savacool was crowned emperor and took up residence in the Twilight Citadel.
 * The Kingmaker returned to Selunim with Tyri and Rain and the group set about their business, preparing for what was to come next.
 * After Savacool's coronation, the party had a drink with him in the imperial apartments, where Kandra finally confronted him about the scar on his ankle. Savacool admitted that he was indeed her father and had recognized her the moment he met her, but was unable to tell her the truth because of the deal he had made to save her mother's life. He told Lio and Kandra that they were indeed sisters and told them the whole truth.
 * Thokk mentioned that he was friends with the trickster god, Dolos. To which Savacool replied that Dolos was a dead god, and whatever was helping Thokk, was not divine.
 * He warned the party that more than one powerful entity seems to be interested in their souls and they should be extremely careful moving forward, a war was fought over Kandra before her birth and Lio walking into Elberneth with her secret sister in two was anything but a coincidence. Cosmic forces are at play.
 * Despite the fact that he was dismayed at the party's plans to enter hell and save both Ver, Kander, and Vendrin's soul, he pledged his help to them in any way he can. After all, he is the fucking emperor!
 * He gave them a writ to the treasury, allowing them to bill the royal treasury for any equipment they might need for the journey.
 * Lastly, in his research to reclaim Kyorlin, Savacool discovered that an archfiend lived in Sigil. He was once the lord of one of the layers of Baator and may offer aid to any who could aid his return to hell. Savacool advised them to tread carefully, but seek him out.
 * The session ended as the party retired to their rooms in the Twilight Citadel, anxious to begin their next adventure.