# Arc 4: The Court of Spears ## Sessions Recap ### Session 1 **Ambush in the Alleyways:** The session began with the party navigating through the labyrinthine alleyways of the city, their path lit only by the dim glow of distant fires. They moved cautiously, aware of the ongoing battle between the city's defenders and the invading pirates. The echoes of steel clashing against steel and the cries of the wounded filled the air, creating a tense atmosphere. Suddenly, a group of pirates emerged from the shadows, their eyes glinting with malice. The party quickly formed a defensive line, with Ashe casting Shield of Faith to bolster their defenses. Methe charged forward, her sword flashing in the dim light as she cut down the first pirate with a single, powerful strike. Ashe followed up with a firebolt, setting another pirate ablaze, his screams piercing the night. Methe jumped off of Sparky and managed to kill another pirate. Krinor used his range to keep them at bay. The battle was brief but intense, with the party emerging victorious. The bodies of the pirates lay sprawled across the cobblestone, their weapons clattering to the ground. **More chaos:** The party spots more groups of pirates now being held off by soldiers, but the chaos is too spread out for the soldiers to be everywhere at once, and pirates are looting any valuables they can find. The party continues their way and further on they reach an intersection and see a hill where three pirates are laying in wait for them, they light barrels aflame and kick them down to the party. Only Ashe and Sparky because he can fly manage to dodge. **The Harbor:** As they neared the harbor, the fog grew thicker, shrouding the docks in an eerie silence. The sound of creaking wood and distant voices echoed through the mist, and the party caught sight of a fleet of ships slowly emerging from the fog. The lead ship, with its iron bow glinting in the sparse light, crashed into a pirate vessel with a deafening roar, splintering the wood and sending pirates tumbling into the water. On the deck of the ironclad ship stood a tall figure clad in polished armor, commanding the crew with an air of absolute authority. The party watched as the battle for the harbor unfolded, the city's defenders slowly gaining the upper hand against the pirates. Eventually the party defeats the pirates. However the deeper the party gets into the city the thicker the fighting got. After having killed an enormous amount of pirates the party manged to escape the chaos for now. **Encounter with Captain Loria:** After escaping the burning street, the party found themselves in a relatively quiet courtyard. It was here that they encountered Captain Lorea, a formidable figure clad in shining armor, her sword dripping with the blood of defeated foes. She nodded in acknowledgment of the party's efforts, her expression one of grim determination. "Follow me," she commanded, her voice sterm. The party quickly fell in line, their trust in her apparent combat prowess evident. As they moved through the city, Lorea cut down any pirate foolish enough to cross their path, her sword flashing like silver lightning in the dim light. **Audience with Queen Tenavine:** After securing the harbor, Captain Lorea led the party through the city to a grand set of doors guarded by heavily armored soldiers. Beyond the doors lay the Queen's chambers, where they were introduced to Queen Tenavine herself. She was a regal figure, her presence commanding respect and admiration. She expressed her gratitude for the party's bravery in defending her city and invited them to stay as honored guests in her court. **Life at Court:** The following day, the party was introduced to the complexities of life at the Queen's court. They were provided with courtly attire and informed of the various events they would be attending. Dodson Goodson, their newly assigned valet, was meticulous in ensuring they were properly prepared, his attention to detail both impressive and slightly overwhelming. The party received invitations to several high-profile events, including a dinner with the Queen, a picnic lunch with Princess Reneta, an intimate gathering with the Marchioness of Cabibon, and an invitation to boat races by Viscount Situne Nygunian. *** ### Session 2 **The Dininghall:** The session began with the party arriving at the dinner from the queens. It's a stunning place filled with great chandeliers and large paintings of Madrea's victories. Aside from that the weapon from the Olias family hangs proudly on one of the walls. **The Questionaire:** During the dinner Queen Lilia asks Cedric to tell one of his heroism stories, he tells about how he went into the palace of Dhanmar. Queen Tenavine asks the same to Methe on which she answers with their victory of The Gray Manacle. Nygunian gives the same question to Falner, he tells their victory with Melava and their talk with Falen. Soon after Cedric starts asking all kinds of questions to Magdalana, Azzam and Almainia on which he gets some more suspicion on these figures. He later gets into a conversation with Nygunian over his wealth, family and boat races. Falner asks Nylara about how she came to where she is now and also mentions the absence and sickness of her brother Andolin. **Sickening Truth:** Later during the dinner Cedric gets into his role and casts druidcarft, creating the sensory effect to create the sounds of the sea. Nylara starts not looking well and starts running towards the doors behind Queen Lilia, trips and pukes over her. She gets up, excuses herself and continues to leave. Methe wants to get up, but Ashe motions her to stay. Falner goes after her instead. After a short bit Ashe leaves the table as well and eventually Nylara, Falner and Ashe return. Ashe now has a child in her arms. This raises questions for Methe and Cedric, immediately questioning Falner on what he saw. He withholds information and as their discussion continues Silvia gets their attention. She invites them to her party this evening. After the dinner the party walk through the halls, Methe overhears a conversation between Lorea and Andolin, indicating that he was in fact not sick. When Andolin leaves Methe steps towards Lorea saying that she heard them talk. Lorea immediately implies that Andolin is a spy and that he does not belong here. And then she leaves. When Lorea has left, Cedric and Methe confront Falner one more time about withholding information, Falner then throughly explains what he had seen and heard: the child Ashe was carrying was adopted by Ashe and Nylara. When there was some tranquility in the party again, Methe and Falner decide to go to Silvia's party, while Cedric and Ashe take the child named Meryl to a room. **The Party from Silvia:** When Methe and Falner arrive at the house from Silvia, two statues in her garden stand out; Iona (The Lightning) and Wya (The Archer). When they continue further they get greeted by; Agsprat, Dirk and Maldrix. Agsprat, the father from Queen Lilia, complains about Lilia's busyness. Cedric and Ashe arrive evenually and Dirk asks them about Lorea, also explaining who she is and her relation with Tenavine. Methe starts getting bored and starts drinking alcohol with Cedric. Methe seems to stay steady while Cedric gets tipsy and eventually drunk. Methe uses Cedric as a cover to sneak upstairs, Falner follows her out of curiousity. When the two are upstairs they see that multiple rooms are in renovations, including a room with five altars from different gods (from left to right); Hetlia, Minnatine, Torva, Kaia and Meela. The two get slightly more suspicious of Silvia and continue to another room, finding ready-to-go sealed letters, upon opening them they don't find anything interesting, but take them anyway. When Falner and Methe return, Ashe and Cedric have left as he had fallen unconscious of the many drinks he had. The two continue to play some card games and eventually leave to their room. **Blackout:** The party gets awoken by Dodson Goodson who informs them that Queen Lilia is on her way. The party gets dressed in black finery, but Methe does not agree and knocks a servant unconscious. Upon Lilia's arrival she explains about a ball; the celebration of life and the victims of this terrible act, as she called it. When she leaves Dodson Goodson notices the unconscious servant and asks the party what happend. On which Ashe blamed Methe, she got taken to Queen Lilia and she warned her. Falner decides to take a walk in the Madrean gardens. He sees a very beautiful tulip, it's seethrough and has all kinds of colors, it's almost you could see a rainbow in it. He felt like that he should pick it, upon touching it he cuts himself and falls unconscious. Cedric decides to play one of his favorite ballads on the streets of Madrea, earning 200 silver with it, he gets lifted in the air by the crowd. Suddenly he feels a sharpening pain in his thigh, he levitates himself showing a dart in his leg. Causing him to fall unconscious as well. Methe walks through Madrea and finds a delighful store, suited for her, it's filled with weapons. She buys 5 golden shurikens. In the mood to fight she sees a poster for a fightclub, joining it and barely winning it, because during the last round she feels a sharp pain in her neck. She does still win all the rounds and earns 400 silver. When she walks outside of the bar the falls to the ground, unconscious. The session ends with them waking up manacled to a chair, they're blind and Cedric is in pain. *** ### Session 3 **Choose Wisely:** The session began with the guardians and Ashbornian noble tied to a chair. They hear metal scraping the stone walls of where ever they are. When a door opens and closes Cedric and Falner don't hear anything anymore. A non-recognizable female voice congratulates Methe on her win in the fightclub. Methe decides to stay silent. The woman eventually makes the fighter say some things before she gets knocked unconsious. Later the door to where Falner is opens. The same female voice talks to him, saying he's worthless unless he does something for her. So she can make him feel worthy, even for his city. Falner thinks about this for a second and eventually agrees to it. Making a bloodpact with her. The woman then enters the room with Cedric. He immediately begs for mercy. The woman didn't expect it to be that easy and was on her way to make a bloodpact as well until Cedric started to cast a verbal spell. The woman didn't want that at all and decided to kiss him, so he would shut up. Cedric still managed to cast a somatic spell which made a copy of the bard and make him invisible. The woman "kills" the copy and tries to find Cedric again to create the bloodpact but fails miserably. She screams in frustration and walks back to Methe. **Controlled:** After the woman is back with Methe, the fighter has regained consiousness again. The unknown woman tries to speak to her again, but Methe refuses. Even after the woman brings up that one of her friends has chosen to help her, Methe still refuses. As the faceless woman gets frustrated again she decides to make Methe regret her decisions by beating her up. Meanwhile Falner and Cedric get the need to slay someone. They break themselves free from their chair and walk towards this unknown woman. She ordered them to beat up Methe for her. And so they did. But the woman is just only more frustrated when she only sees Falner and not Cedric. When Methe goes out again she stops the both of them and orders Falner to find the bard. Only to find nothing and the monk to snap back to reality. He quietly returns to Methe's room where he coordinates the woman's steps and tries to grab her. But the woman noticed the dragonborn and kicked him down. Ordering him to leave, without any reaction she kicks him in his stomach, in response Falner tries to knock her down with his tail but fails. Cedric cancels his spell and tries to curse the woman, but the woman notices him as well. Groaning in anger she turns into smoke and disappers around the corner. **Healing:** Cedric notices Methe unconsious and tries to heal her, but there isn't much movement as her breathing gets shallow. Falner now stand up and tries to help as after a bit Methe jerks up and falls unconsious again. Falner checks her pulse and eventually lifts her up trying to find a way out of here. Cedric follows but first go the wrong way. After praying to Farrah (The Guide), they found their way back to the court. At the end of the hallway Methe slowly wakes up and the three continue back towards their room where both Krinor and Ashe heals them. **Breaking Bones:** Ashe mentiones they got a new invitation, this time from Koqiun. They decide to go her. She leads them through the city of Madrea eventually entering the docks. Ashe, Methe and Cedric slip, but regain on track quickly. Koqiun leads the four Estrans and Ashbornian to a cave and brings them inside. Telling the four about bringing a dragon back from the dead. A young girl places a big bowl with foods in front of the dragon and bows before it, then quickly leaving. As curiousity kicks in, Cedric follows her, accidentely slipping. As Koqiun mentions to not touch the bones, Cedric slips right through it creating a spectacle and getting them kicked out. Out of anger Falner tries to push the bard in the water, but falls in himself. **Books with History:** Upon returning to their room, Dodson Goodson asks Ashe if she would like to go to the library of memiors. Ashe begs Cedric to come along in which he agrees. When they both arrive Queen Tenavine was waiting for them, explaing a little bit about her family history. Cedric asks about Silvia's history and asks if he could take some books. Tenavine grants him the book, but that he cannot take it. After reading it they walk past a check-out list which says that Renata and Azzam have been borrowing a lot of books about the two families that have ruled over Madrea. Wanting answers Cedric goes to Reneta's room, but with no answer he tries to break in. When Azzam walks past he shoos him away. **Boats and Nobles:** Krinor, Falner, Cedric and Methe eventually walk towards the docks together to get to the boat race. There are only a few teams attending; Magdalana, Lord Andolin and Duchess Nylara, Viscount Situne Nygunian, Princess Renata and Prince Azzam and the guardians themselves. Having a great start, they rule over the second place. But upon reaching the reefs they make a huge mistake. As they steer in, Lord Andolin and Duchess Nylara hit their boat against the guardians' boat; causing both boats to sink. Viscount Situne Nygunian picks up the guardians and with their help his crew wins. After talking for a bit they notice something off. Dodson Goodson, who is usually never outside, is panicked and running towards the guardians. Pleading them to help him. They agree and run after the gnome, when they reach Silvia's house, there was a party as usual, but everyone was panicked except Silvia. Dirk Helmshire, who was unconsious on the ground, had been poisoned. *** ### Session 4 **Poisoned:** The session began with the guardians searching for clues about Dirk Helmshire's poisoning. Some guests at Silvia's party think it's the champane they drank, so Cedric chugs a bit down, realizing it was poisoned. Falner and Ashe check Dirk's body, while Methe investigates the front garden. Cedric asks a few servants and Silvia questions, which led him to the kitchen. A young boy and the chef tell Cedric about a young figure leaving the house. The moment Methe arrives, she finds tracks leading out in the backyard, going through the fence and eventually vanishing somewhere on the streets. After a long discussion and investigating the come to the conclusion that it might be one of the people Dirk Helmshire dislikes; Koqiun or Lorea. **Worse Incidents:** When the guardians leave, it's late. They decide to go back to the court to take a rest as long the night may last. But once at the court, a panicked servant takes the guardians towards Dodson Goodson. Dodson Goodson has avery worried look on his face as he tells the guardians about other incidents around the city. He mentions a few nobles, thinking they wouldn't know them. But when Viscount Situne Nygunian's name drops, the party is worried. They decide to take a visit to Nygunian's family instead. Guards are protecting his house, luckily Ashe is able to command the guards to move so they can check up upon Situne Nygunian. There's an older man hanging over Situne, he had been weeping for a while. His face is red, his eyes bloodshot and swollen. Ashe immediately checks up on Situne, and realizes he's still alive. After the panicked father of Nygunian is taken away, Situne's valet comes to help the guardians, leading them to the stables. **Handsome Job:** After arriving at the stables, they learned that there was a young boy who helped for a few days, who had just left today in a hurry. The stable hand mentions a cleaning crew nearby, but nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. When the guardians go back to Ashe, it looks like she's trying to heal Nygunian. Her hands glow golden, but it doesn't seem to work. The front door clatters open and a very handsome man runs in, he kneels down next of Ashe, while she's saying she doesn't have enough power. Cedric decides to help Ashe, and the man, who's Lord Andolin, grabs Ashe's other hand. Lord Andolin looks pained while he does this, but it seems to be enough to wake Nygunian with a loud gasp. Lord Andolin doesn't look well as he talks to Situne. When Nygunians dad throws himself onto his son, Lord Andolin runs outside. Cedric follows him, just to see him puke inky black stuff. When Cedric calls out for his colleagued, Lord Andolin has disappeared. When the guardians return, Lord Nygunian keeps thanking them. Offering them anything, they would want. **Dark amidst sunlight:** When The guardians decide it's time to go back, they first clear their heads outside in the city of Madrea. Where eventually both Methe and Cedric get lured into an alleyway. Ashe and Falner decide to just go back. When morning rises, all guardians and greater animals have their quick moment. Methe explains what happened two days prior in an allyway, saying that she met Falen who's asking to help nobles as best as they could to create an army against Torva. A loud knock catches their attention as the cook from Silvia's house is at their room. She explains that she had a date but finds the man extremely suspicious. So she asks the guardians to go this afternoon. They guardians agree. Before afternoon, the guardians decide to check up on Nygunian. When they arrive they ask some things about Lord Andolin. Where Nygunian replies at first that he's a very close friend and fourth son of the House of Andolin, North of Madrea. When the guardians look confused and ask him some more details about Lord Andolin, he says that he was supposed to keep this a secret. He tells the guardians that Lord Faye Andolin is actually Falen, The Betrayer. So neither a lord or an Andolin. **Prisoners Or Poisoners:** When the afternoon hits Madrea, the guardians decide to go towards the cafe where Silvia's cook had the date. They find a halfling with a big bouquet of roses. Methe leans against a wall when Falner slams his hand on the table, causing a ruckus. The man almost immediately admits he's from Sparrow Island, and if they're searching for the person who send him the orders they should go there to fetch Captain Florence, a pirate from Sparrow Island. *** ### Session 5 **Boat trip:** The session begins with the party leaving from the cafe towards the port of Madrea. They ask the ship dealer about the usage of boats but he refuses to give any without a seal. The party then decides to prepare everything to go to their destination, and take Krinor and the greater animals. After they prepared they ask Dodson Goodson about Loria's whereabouts. When they go there, they start informing Loria Dalasie about their trip to a deserted island. Loria isn't happy with the party interrupting her meeting but gives Methe a seal so they can borrow her ship and crew. They board it and start going to Sparrow Island. Cedric and Methe start messing around with playing a wresting game. Methe loses and falls into the water. Luckily for her Cedric levitates her out of the cold deep Later the guardians start to notice that there's dense fog ahead. Cedric tries to push it away with thunderclap, but fails. Falner tries to see if there's anything in the fog with his dragon breath, but doesn't see anything. The fog seems like it's magical as it doesn't move and only gets thicker and thicker. **Seems fishy:** Falner, Methe and Cedric are on deck and everything around them is eerie. Suddenly Methe turns towards the side as she gets called by Buddy. He looks like he hasn't eaten in weeks and calls out for his pupil to give him food. Cedric sees Shaion, the Quokka god, tangled up in seaweed. He begs the guardian for help. Cedric throws himself off the ship to get to him, while Methe starts throwing fruits towards Buddy. Falner sees all of this happen and tries to jank Cedric back on the ship but fails. Around him he hears splashes, screaming and cracking of bones. So the dragonborn ties a knot in a rope on deck and captures Cedric to knot the other end to the boat. He runs towards Methe to help her but she throws him in the sea. As Falner opens his eyes in the water he sees a lot of certena. They're swimming around him, until a familiar certena swims up to him, hissing at the others. She places her hands on Falner's ears and everything turns back to normal. There's no fog, just a school of certena. Falner immediately knows what to do and climbs back on the ship, he runs up to Methe and places his hands on her ears. Methe sees everything turning normal, and together they do the same to Cedric. **The Myth "The Echo":** After the long day with the certena, they go to the hammocks to rest for the night. The girls with the greater animals and the boys in the hammocks. In the middle of the night Methe and Cedric hear an Estran voice cheering themselves on. Both Methe and Cedric are very wary of this so Cedric places a trap I front of the door. They both switch watch for the night. The next morning the party is slowly being awoken. No one is allowed to go to the trapped door by Cedric. Falner, who's still tired after the day before, yawns and Krinor pats him. On which they both get embarrassed. The bard removes the trap while he explains what he and Methe heard that night. The rest of the party looks a little uneasy but they all go to the deck anyway. Falner, Ashe, Krinor and Methe start helping the crew while Cedric walks towards the captain. He seems frightened and Cedric asks him why he is. Then Methe appears behind Cedric. The captain starts explaining about "The Echo". He tells the two a myth about a figure that steals bodies. **Murder Clone:** Methe calls the whole party together as she feels something isn't right. Cedric isn't acting like Cedric and the captain is constantly scared. So the whole party starts questioning each other. Trying to figure out if the myth of "The Echo" is real. All the answers are genuine. But Cedric keeps acting weird. He smiles creepily towards Falner and laughs about emotional stuff. Sooner or later they figure out "The Echo" is real and stole Cedric's body. Cedric dissappears through the ground. Methe, Ashe and Falner run after it and have a small conflict with; two Cedrics. Eventually Falner kills off "The Echo". **Sparrow Island:** The guardians catch their breath and they are closer to Sparrow Island. Once they arrive near the port of the island they see Torvaic flags and ships. They notice that Torva has a great influence on this island. The party has left Krinor behind with the greater animals when they go on land. Falner slips and falls into the water. Cedric tries to cover it by pushing a barrel into the water, but a guard comes up. Cedric makes Ashe invisible while Methe sneaks off and Falner climbs back on the dock. The guard find the guardians suspisious and takes them to a cave, leaving Ashe behind. The guardians get thrown in a cell made out of baboo, a lot of cells are filled with bones. *** ### Session 6 **The Making:** Whilst the guardians are in their cell, Cedric takes his time to look around and find a book named: The Making. It tells the grand story of how Avelis was created by the forces. They silenced three giants; Rok, Berun and Volla, and created them into the continents we know today. The forces who worked on this are: Rayel, Certis, Talliah, Fen, Ayul, Avari, Odila and Yovia. On which Yovia pleaded the forces to protect the mortals on the plane from Avelis, Avari, Rayel and Odila didn't listen or stayed silent. **Prison Break:** Once Cedric is finished with the book he hears a man scartching his throat. Cedric looks towards the man, who's also in a cell. They get caught up in a small talk about who they are and who the man is. They eventually fall onto the topic of Falen and eventually the Madrean Navy. Eventually the man tell the guardians he's Captain Carr and that he really wants his hat back. Methe is the first one who tries to break ou of the cell but fails horribly. Cedric casts a spell onto it and manages to almost break it. Falner gives the last blow and breaks it. When the guardians step out Cedric feels a tap on his shoulder on which the bard screams very manly. When he then turns around Ashe slowly appears as her invisibility runs out. Methe, Falner and Ashe are either chuckling or laughing. Eventually they break Captain Carr out as well. **Escaping fights:** Once the guardians leave the cave they find themselves at the docks again, they see a few storehouses. WIth one duo of pirates. As they fail to sneak past. Cedric tries to distract them with a song, on which Methe takes the opportunity to take them out. But she loses her grip and the pirates want to call out for alarm. The pirates go for an attack, on which Methe acts quickly, cutting them with her karambit. Ashe stops the pirates with her spell; Charm Person. Both Falner and Cedric dissemble the bells with freezing and kicking it off of the ceiling. After that they tie up the pirates and go away. **Investigation:** The guardians go up to the second tier, they get some pirates clothes, Torvaic literature and Cedric gets a little information about the attack in Madrea. He also get's to know more about; Captain Florence, Captain Elwin and Captain Relator. Eventually Ashe and Falner continue their investigation in a church. Later Methe and Cedric arrive and find out the church was build for the beast god; Ava, god of songbirds. **Stealing isn't bad:** On the 4th tier, the guardians find a house on which they investigate. Falner goes into a room filled with jewlery and paintings, he doesn't take anything. Cedric goes into a room willed with weaponary and naval strategy and its history. Later he find a few books from the library of memiors which he takes. Methe on the other hand sneaks into a room on where she finds a journal. When she opens it she find some crucial information about the one who had been setting everything up in Madrea, Lorea Dalasie. Once they leave they find Captain Elwin who shoos the guardians away. They quickly huddle to the 5th tier. They see a apratatus of destruction. A few men are manning it. One of the crew members is wearing Carr's hat. With some slick moves they manage to get the hat and leave back to the bottom tier. **The Three Musketeers:** Upon their arrival they see that Captain Carr is tied up, the boat they arrived with is gone and Krinor and their companions are swimming towards the docks. Cedric, Methe, Falner and Ashe get into a fight with Florence, Relatar and Elwin. Which they luckily win. When they're finished, Falner frees Captain Carr and gives him his hat back. He offers the guardians to get them back to Madrea, they all agree since they have one more thing to deal with. **Back to Madrea:** When the guardians arrive at the gates of the castle Dodson Goodson greets them with a relieved tone. He suggests the guardians to change for the ball as he's really excited for them to wear their outfits. **Confrontation:** The guardians arrive in the ballroom, their suits and dresses aren't as tight as the ones from the dinner. The floor is filled with dancers and lots of nobles. They're either talking, dancing or sitting at one of the few tables around the room. The queens sit in the back on their thrones with Lorea behind them. There is also Duchess Nylara with her adopted daughter who seem to be enjoying their time. Lorea wears a dress that the guardians have seen before, a dress they have seen in Torva's Jaws before. A dress that makes it clear who Lorea actually is. The guardians try different ways to get Lorea's attention, but fail. Until Methe walks up to Lord Andolin. She whispers to him that she knows about Lorea. He just cracks a smile and throws a dagger at Lorea, pinning her against the wall. Falner points at Lorea and tells her that they all know. Lorea doesn't even deny it. She eventaully takes a turn on Falen. And they blame each other on a lot of stuff. But then Falner runs up to Lorea and starts the fight. While the guardians fight, Ashe sends the left over squads of people out of the ballroom. Falen does his best to help the guardians. Eventually when Lorea wants to attack Cedric, a small girl skips through the big doors and jumps in front of Cedric, taking all the damage, which kills her. Ashe tries to push her emotions away but fails, as her adopted daughter; Meryl, has died. The guardaisn try to kill Lorea, but Falen finished it, grabbing her. He sighs deeply, wihses the guardians luck and vanishes in black smoke. *** ### Session 7 **After the battle:** The party decide to check up on the queens. Asking if Tenavine is okay and if they want to talk. Both queens give short answers Eventually the two woman ask the guardians to meet them at the warroom. After a nice night Falner rings the bell in the foyer and Dodson gives the guardians directions to the warroom. Both queens are a little busy in their minds. They have small talk until Dodson arrives witha purple banner with a broken tower on it. Saying he found it in the Temple of the Bronze order. **Armies:** After the queens explained they want to stop Torva, the party has to convince a few nobles. A few guards from the city explain that they saw the Dragonborn from The Bornze Order making everything ready to leave. Eventually Almainia bursts in with a thin elven boy who had came here to beg for aid. It's explained that the two main roads to Ilfrah are blocked due to wars between gods. Tenavine suggests the guardians to go through the red caves past the tower of Pavia. As four nobles arrive; Magdalana, Silvia, Nygunian and Dirk, the guardians get Nygunians, the queens' and half of Dirk's army. After that they go to the caravans from Koqiun. **The Spear:** The party confronts Koqiun on her actions. But she gives short answers on which the party gets no information. A guard with a spear steps forward, a man they all recognize as Minnatine; The Spear. Ashe asks him why he's working with Torva and The SPear just shakes his head. Saying that she's too young to understand eternity, saying his brother will end it. He then unleashes a devastating attack of spectral spears. Ashe protects her guardians but Minnatine is trying to break her shield. Ashe stumbles and falters. Falner, Cedric and Methe try to help Ashe so the shield keeps up. Minnatine presses his hands against Ashe's shield warning her about Ashe having no name and then disappearing. **Journal:** Duchess Nylara runs up to the party when they packed their stuff and are on their way of leaving. She hands the party 3 letters. 1 for Cedric and Methe, 1 for Ashe and 1 for Krinor. Ashe takes all of them and hands them out. When the guardians leave it will be days before they arrive at the tower of Pavia. The guardians notice it has started to become fall. Everything from around the continent is visible, from Farrah's mountain to Torva's Jaws. Ashe asks about what her guardians will ask The Goddess of Truth and they all share their questions. After a few days Cedric opens Kai's Journal. Again he's sucked into that weird space and he learns about how Kai and Torva met. Walton explains that Kai only wants Cedric to know certain things and not everything. Kai instead says that she has her reasons. Ashe looks worried at her Quokka Guardian and asks if he's okay. **Nightmare:** Methe has that night another nighmare. This time of the same golden man and a wolf. Between them is Ashe. The golden man and wolf are fighting each other. Methe tries to help Ashe but fails miserably. The golden man smashed his fist on her and gets killed in the dream. But as she reforms, she sees a woman, as pale as bone. Not only her skin, but also her hair, clothes, everything. It's Pavia, Goddess of Truth. When Methe sees Pavia sticking out her hand, she tries to take it, but it dissolves. "I can't show you the truth if you're not willing to see it." And then Methe wakes up. Ashe is also awake and Methe asks why she's awake only for Ashe to explain her dream. So does Methe. Falner recognizes the explaination of Pavia. Knowing that she's neither dead nor alive, and that her secret order is killed. **Not so nice Duchess:** That same morning they see a young elven boy be dragged along the roadside. He;s being followed by a woman they all know, Duchess Nylara. Duchess Nylara suddenly attacks the party, not stating anything at all. It doesn't take long or Cedric notices that Duchess Nylara does not have her warm blue eyes. Instead they're inky black voids. They continue fighting, knowing that the noble woman is posessed, but not knowing by who or what. Eventually she shapes into a songbird, telling each party member a final whisper. Cedric: You are next Methe: You haven't changed since Estra, have you? Falner: Traitor Krinor: She never cared about you Ashe: You should've never trusted me *** ### Session 8 **Aftermath:** After the battle the party continues their way towards Ilfrah. But to get there, they have to go through the town called Banfel. The town Lord Greenspire is from, Banfel is a town filled with gnomes and halflings. Falner decides to buy an apple pie and share it, especially since a harvest festival is coming up. **Restock and the road:** The party decides to take a rest in this town, and since The Red Fields are poisonous, they decide to get goggles and masks to protect themselves. Together with some food they continue their path, towards the tower of Pavia. It takes a couple more days to get to The Red Fields. Besides from each other, they hadn't seen anyone going up north, further than Banfel. No one would dare to go there, especially with all the monsters and poison. And once they arrive. they notice that there's red pollen everywhere. **The Red Caves:** Once the party arrives inside the pitch black cave, a smell hits their nose. Methe can't stand the smell. As they venture further in they find a drawn map on the wall and it shows the route travelers are supposed to take, it shows dangers like falling rocks and monsters. Even because of the warnings, the party decides to go the opposite way. Soon enough they realize it's darker than expected, so Krinor decides to walk in front. Eventually the guardians find a jelly-like wall, realizing that is a gelatinous cube. Falner yanked Krinor back and the guardians decide to venture another way. Eventually they find a nest of centipedes. It takes them hours to reach another space, the cave is filled with water like an underground pool with luminescent fishes. They rest for the night and the second day in the caves arrive. The guardians venture further and they find pearl like structures on the cave walls. Methe decides to lick it but find out they aren’t as tasty as they look. They crawl further and have a horrible attempt at fighting a cloaker. The ground shakes and they fall, Cedric saves them all with featherfall. Everyone has to crouch Everyone has to crouch to make sure they won’t touch the cave walls. And as it seems like hours they finally find daylight. **The Red Fields:** The guardians venture over the red fields. They have to cover their mouths and noses so they don’t breath in the poison. And everything is painted red by pollen. The grass, the stones, the trees, and in the distance, a red tower. There are many rumors going around how these fields became red, some say it’s because of all the blood that’s shed, some and some say that it was Torva opening Bav’s bag of planting into the mouth of the volcano. Either way, you cannot live here, it’s a place of death. As they continue to the tower, Falner and Krinor get grabbed by vineman and grappled to the ground. They get freed by Cedric and tey start running towards the tower. They keep running and completely miss a cliff in which they fall. **Tower of Pavia:** The tower is not actually on the same level as The Red Fields. It’s sunken into an overhang and there is a narrow set of stairs leading to the broken doors. Around it are many rusted away weapons. As they enter the tower they realize it’s silent and completely white. Around them are dead bodies, wearing two different clothes. One set is purple with a broken tower, and the other is black with a white eye. All the way up they see a door, but no stairway. A voice speaks: “The speaker of truth awaits the listener”. As soon as Methe speaks a stairway appears and the guardians follow her. When they open the door they found a trail of bodies that lead to a bed, on it lays a bone white bone body, dressed in white and soaked in blood, and skin as white as milk. There’s a wound in the stomach, but no head. Ashe’s eyes flash golden and then collapses, Methe soon after follows, while the others feel sleepy. **Forah Glan:** A woman dressed in a black cloak with a white cloak is sitting across from Methe, who was now sitting at a campfire. All she says is: “Are your friends coming? It’s alright, they can go to sleep here too.” All Methe asks about who she is, but the woman gives no answer. When Methe wakes up she orders everyone to go to sleep. It isn’t that hard for everyone and once their eyes open again, they’re at a campfire, with that woman. She introduces herself as Methe’s mother; Forah Glan. She walks away and everyone follows her. She shows visions that Cedric has gotten about Kai and Torva, how they met, and with the sword of Bellius. **Goddess of Truth:** Before the guardians arrive at Pavia, Forah gives Methe a hug, and when she slowly dissolves gives her a white eye necklace. Meaning Methe is the last listener from Pavia. A door appears and the guardians go through it, there they are met at the sight of Ashe looking in the distance and Pavia. One by one Pavia extends her hand to the guardians to answer their questions. *Methe:* On who’s side is Falen and why? *Answer:* Falen is on anyone’s side who’s against his father *Falner:* Is Neelia still alive, if so where is she? *Answer:* She’s alive and somewhere in Farrah’s Mountains *Cedric:* Was Walton ever real? *Answer:* That’s for you to fill in *Krinor:* Unknown *Answer:* Unknown *** ### Session 9 **Pavia:** The Goddess of Truth takes Methe aside to tell her to face the truth of this world. Especially after Kai has died. She tells her that Methe's parents were her listeners and that she is her last. And then the guardians wake up. **New Abilities:** **Spilling Secrets:** The caves are dark, it smells awful, but at least they're together. Within the caves they make a small campfire. Ashe asks the party if she could talk to them about her question. She tells them that she's the daughter of Kai and Torva. She's a nameless goddess and if it will stay that way for longer, her power could consume her. She wouldn't die, but it was worse. She asks the party for ideas for a name, but she keeps them in mind. The others share what they have learned: *Neelia is no demigoddess, but a goddess.* *Walton was Torva, but no one knows for how long.* *Falen is so far on our side.* Eventually Falner asks Krinor what his question was, and he only tells that Axilya is alive in the future. **Rough Night:** When Methe and Cedric switch watch, Cedric notices she has a rough night. Methe's tossing and turning. Methe sees all kinds of flashing images, they're all true but Methe can't make any sense out of it. But then she vision stops she sees her father. She sees him protecting Pavia, cutting her head off, and giving her with Forah to the Griffin Clan, where she was taken in by Buddy. **Cave Diving:** The next few days are long and dark, they've found an easier way. During rests they notice that Ashe is finally having good dreams. One night she wakes Methe and tells her about a cheese contest. On after a few days they find a small gallery. They find some frankenstein'd bugs and a tall sculpture. The rest of the days are quiet and peaceful. The guardians know the days with Ashe are numbered, but they know there's a lot waiting for them, and they'll face it together. Eventually the horrible smell fades to fresh air. The party arrives in a forest, the crisp autumn breeze flows in their faces. Sounds of a town are not far off. And ahead, a new journey, a new adventure. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://tranquility.wena.one/arc-4-the-court-of-spears.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.