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Veils of Deception is the eight episode of the Trials of the Forgotten Relics campaign. The groups flees the basement of the Golden Gryphon Tavern with new information in tow and two unconscious people. As they make their way to the Enchanted Chalice Tavern they make a surprising discovery about its proprietor as they feel twice betrayed.
Synopsis
Recap
In the previous session, you continued on your quest to find Chloe Rowen, the young wizard, helped by Captain Grendar Ironkith, her adoptive father. Your investigation of Chloe's whereabouts led you to the sewers at Wintson's suggestion, in an attempt to reach the undercroft of the Golden Gryphon tavern. After a bit of adventure in the slime and grime of the sewers, you found yourselves in what appeared to be the basement of the tavern where you fought several mimics, a fight that did not go unnoticed. During the fighting you seem to have attracted the attention of certain individuals in the adjoining room, but Ed the idea to temporarily block the door with Mother's magical shield just before it opened.
The barrier, however, did not hold too much to the attacks of the people on the other side, revealing on the other side what seemed to be a torture chamber where a torturer and his mutated friend where holding people. After dispatching the big guy, the torturer, cornered in the room, used several vials to create an explosion, killing himself and injuring some of you. You then started to question and interrogate the three people in the room, getting very few answers. Alerted by movement upstairs you started to make plans to leave with your findings, taking two of the corpses with you. And that's where we left off.
The aftermath of the battle
In the basement of the Golden Gryphon Tavern’s basement, the adventurers prepared to leave the way they came with the new information at hand and with two new people on board: the unconscious prisoner and the torturer. Sarya, with ears attuned to the secrets that lay just beyond their reach, listened intently at the trap door above the stairs, catching fragments of a conversation laced with ominous intent. Lady Althea Starheaven’s voice, cool and calculated, spoke of ancient rituals, a precious book and lost artifacts, her words intertwining with Master Thorne’s trying to justify his failures. The adventurers, then emerged from the sewers to find the the Golden Gryphon Tavern consumed by flames and people in street running towards the commotion.
Planning what to do with the bodies, they headed towards the central park where Ed brought the dying prisoner to life. Questioning him about his involvement, they found out that his name is Caelum Windstride, a book collector in the city, apprehended by the cult for his information about a book previously in his collection. After thanking them for their timely rescue, Caelum leaves for his home.
Seeking refuge and counsel, they ventured to the Enchanted Chalice Tavern, carrying the body of the torturer with them, pretending they are all drunk. At the tavern, Sarya presented the eagle badge to Madame Elara Mistral, asking for a more private place to discuss important matters. Elara, looking a bit distressed, led them into the bowels of the tavern, where her incantations together with an arcane contraption built within, caught the party in a psychic trap laying bare the thoughts and fears of the adventurers . Despite Ed’s brash defiance and Wintson’s silent reservations, Elara discerned their hearts’ true intent, finding no malice within.
Yet trust is a fragile thing, and Wintson and Ed, wary of Elara, chose to leave rather than listen to her. Elara, undeterred, unveiled to the ones that remained, a tapestry of conspiracy that involved the highest echelons of Sagemont with the coils of the Cult of the Serpent. She offered them a tense collaboration if they would solve puzzle that would lead to one of the cult's secret meetings.
A call for help
As the group retreated to deliberate, a Sending spell brought Draella’s voice to Elinor, pleading to come to her laboratory to test the cure for her daughter, Freya. Trying to help Elinor, the party picks Elinor's brother, Gwaindir from the Shrine of Silvanus and head to the Hollow, the district for the poor and the trodden, where Draella’s home emerged as a beacon of despair within the Undercroft. There, in Draella's laboratory, Freya’s life hung by a thread, her fate sealed within a glass-sealed chamber. Draella’s desperate gambit, a mixture infused with the Light of Caeth and her own blood, faltered at the precipice of hope.
In the face of unspeakable loss, Draella’s pleaded for Elinor to give some of her uncorrupted blood, a request that Elinor honored reluctantly. The new mixture, woven with Elinor's untainted blood, finally brought Freya back to consciousness, reuniting mother and daughter. The consequences however did not delay: Draella showed her true intent, betraying the trust of Elinor, as the curse carried by her daughter passed unto her. Moreover, she did not intend to return the Light of Caeth back to her cousin Gwaindir, but opening a new passage through the glass container, fled with her daughter and the vial, with the adventurers not being able to follow immediately.
Feeling betrayed, Gwaindir went into a rage, trying to break the glass window, helped by Wintson, but the aggressive intent of the two awakened the lab’s dormant guardians. Two mechanical serpents descended from the ceiling, ready to do battle with the current occupants of the lab.
Featured characters
The adventurers
Other characters
- Lady Althea Starheaven: revealed to be part of the cult.
- Gwaindir: Elinor's half brother.
- Master Thorne: a spymaster of the cult.
- Master Alendar: part of the cult.
- Maerek: a torturer of the cult.
- Caelum Windstride: a book collector, captured by the cult.
- Madame Elara Mistral: the proprietor of the Enchanted Chalice Tavern.
- Draella Khassad: an half elf female alchemist, cousin of Elinor.
- Freya Khassad: Draella's daughter.