Previous Session: 02 Dinner with the Ancuses | Next Session: 04 Infiltrating The Castle Further
Having received some money from Lady Brisienna Magnessen, the gang heads to the King's Garments to acquire some acceptable clothing. They make sure that there's a tail hole for our garments.
Next up, we head to the castle for our meeting with the nobles, in our new and fancy garments. We had to agree to basically be on our best behavior to get in, but we all agreed and got into the audience chamber without too much issue.
In the chamber, we found a fair number of people milling about and discussed how to get the queen by herself to talk to her. While we're discussing this, Kihrazad eyes an ostentatious statue shaped like a cornucopia, 2 ft^3 carved from a single piece of emerald. This awakens something in Kihra, and she has to restrain herself from stealing from everyone around.
Kihra -3 Stamina
Eventually the people who were talking to Abuk-i leave, and Terfir Lif heads right up to talk to her. After some pleasantries, Terfir has to figure out how to talk to the Queen without blowing our cover.
Challenge
### Convince the Queen that we're not idiots [[Terfir Lif]] will make a difficulty 9 `Speech` check with Stamina as a Resource. **Success!** Terfir -4 Stamina.
The Queen tries to tease out what we're attempting to do, and she makes a guess that we're mercenaries and looks to King Gothryd and asks about the thing with the "Pearl". Turns out the pearl is really an Amethyst.
Quest
We have to deliver an amethyst from [[King Gothryd]] to a [[Yaharl]] to do some research on it.
Terfir goes on ahead to the alchemy shop so that Kihra can't get her paws on it. Things go pretty smoothly - apparently he's making a potion for the King. As Terfir plans on heading out, but a ghost comes in through the back wall and just starts chatting with Yaharl.
After establishing that the ghost was Yaharl's brother, we head back to the castle.
At the castle, the Queen gives us another quest to go check on Nulfalga, because she's not been in contact.
Quest
### Go Find Nulfaga and make sure she's okay! She's in a castle named [[Shedungent]], in the Reaches. She'll provide us a carriage to get there and the path is treacherous.
Turns out that our new cover is that we're a traveling band of conjurers, because 3 of us all have conjuration skills. We're going to head out there.
Meanwhile, Kihrazad can't help but to pick some pockets.
Challenge
## Pick some Pockets without getting caught! Success! Kihra was able to pickpocket some gold coins, as well as an unusually cold filled soul gem, which causes -1 health.
We decide to buy some provisions - and then set out in the morning. Now it's time to do several challenges to make it to the destination.
Challenge
## Get there! 4 check challenge - `Survival` * Casts - Success! * Kihra - Success! * Terfir - Success! -2 Traveling Kit * Leanne - Success! -3 Travelers Kits ## Don't get Lost! 1 `Ride` check. Difficulty 11. Traveler's kit - resource. * Terfir - Success! -1 Traveler's Kit. ## Survive the Cold! Adventurers kit for advantage. -4 Adventurer's Kits * Casts - Success! -1 Traveler's Kit * Kihra - Success! * Leanne - Success! -3 Traveler's kit * Terfir - Success!
Eventually we make it to the castle after several weeks, a few stops for directions, and a lot of shivering in the cold.
The castle itself is covered in snow and ice, and there aren't a lot of torches. It's overgrown and looks abandoned. We head into the castle under the gates.
Skill Use
Casts makes a `perception` roll. Difficulty 7. Success!
There seem to be little torchbugs, but they're not normal torchbugs - but the little torchbugs are probably daedra.
Challenge
## Try To Break In! Kihra - Casts - Success!
Casts finds a sewer system that's filled with water, which is easy enough for him to swim under. When heading under the water, he encounters some skeletons. After getting Kihra, the two of them destroy the 3 skeletons.
Challenge
## Sneak past the skeletons! Challenge 7, Stamina Resource, `sneak` skill Casts - Success, -2 Stamina ## Kill the skeletons Casts - 2 Successes Kihra - Success! -1 Stamina
Meanwhile, Terfir and Leanne just go up and knock on the door, but get no response. They find the door locked.
Challenge
## Get the door open [[Leanne]] rolls `security` - FAILURE. She's lit on fire from the trap, but she gets it open.
They find a branching hallway inside the entryway - it's dark in here, and there's a set of double doors to the front of them, along with two halls to the left and right.
Skill Use
Both Terfir and Leanne make `Perception` checks and get identical results
There's light coming from under the door to the main hall. They try to get it open, but eventually Leanne figures out that you need to know the password to get the door open.
Challenge
Casts sneaks up to figure out what's creating the light Success! It's a flame atrinoch.
Terfir decides to try and negotiate with the Atrenoch, but that's an abysmal failure.
Fight
Flame Atrinoch Terfir goes first and gets nuked with fire (trying with `light armor`), but returns a nice `destruction` attack. Leanne goes next and tries to use `one-handed` to attack it (and succeeds -2 health -3 stamina)
Meanwhile, Kihra had fallen into an extra-dimensional trap which manifests as an endless maze.
Challenge
## Escape the Maze! `Perception` - 12. Magicka Resource Success! -4 Magicka
We all join back up and then continue to explore the castle. We come to a smaller door than the main hall, but see lights coming from below the door. Of course the door is locked, but Khira manages to get it open with her birthsign power.
Turns out we made it into the main hallway. We're currently underneath a large balcony which overlooks into the main hall. There's movement coming from up on that overlook - sound like echoing footfalls coming from up there.
Turns out they were clannfears and we fight them!