When last we left our heroes, Ryker’s head was wrapped in magical weaves. After a burst of light and a gasp from Ryker as the magic dissipated, the group stood in momentary silence.
“Is there anything else you wish to tell me?” The High Rector Rena asks. Various mumbled negative statements followed from the Derailers. Nahtan starts to ask a question and is met with a retort of “I’m asking the questions here…”
As the crew makes give their thanks and leave, Rena sends Leomund out, who locks the door behind him. “Oh no, you can’t leave” she says, as purple magic blossoms around her hands. Suddenly, the furniture is mobile and chaos breaks out.
Ryker lets off an arrow in a surprise attack and dives into the shadows behind her desk. Arunak rushes Rena, but just as he reaches in to hit, the spell she was weaving begins to take form. Yevin sees the weave solidify and counters it with his own. Her spell dissipated, Arunak strikes true, stunning the aggressive mage. And then the furniture joins the fray; a large table in the middle of the room lumbers over to slam into Nahtan, while a lit candle jabs at Arunak’s ankles. Ryker is cornered by the animated desk and chair while Havayla dodges an angry side table.
Rena’s pet, a large winged and feathered serpent in shades of orange and scarlet, flies across the room and wraps itself around Wander. Havayla casts Moonbeam on Rena, shining a damaging ray of moonlight on her stunned form. As the light touches her, the features of the high rector melt away revealing her true form; a changeling. The team continues to unload on both mage and office chair when Wander casts calm emotions. While the spell does not affect the feathered snek or the high rector changing, the furniture suddenly stops their rampage. She attempts to convince the angry feathered boa to release her so everyone can talk, but it just squeezes tighter. Nahtan grabs the snek by the scruff and is able to pull it off. It escapes and wraps itself around Rena. Looking to the door, the snake’s eyes flash and sand begins to pour out the cracks in the frame.
Arunak grabs his ankle biting candle and throws it at Rena, followed by a set of the magical bonds they retrieved from Azuke’s forces. He throws a second set around the snake. Restrained, but no longer stunned, Rena scoffs at the crew. Havayla turns to the door, calling for her brother and dispelling whatever was causing the sand. Wander suggests to Rena that she should cooperate. Influenced by the spell, she explains that she is an agent for Skulldrinker, here to keep Hearthollow out of the conflict and unaware of his plans. After sharing that much, she speaks an incantation and begins to fade away. Again, Yevin undoes the weave of her spell, making her corporeal again and causing her to reenter the moonbeam. The damaging rays are her undoing and she melts into a puddle of strange flesh-goo and bones. The remaining furniture cease their aggression and become inert.
Meanwhile, Ryker attempts to unlock the door, but isn’t as fast as Nahtan simply knocking it down. In the distance they see Leomund’s fleeing figure. Ryker wraps himself in his cloak of dimension door and appears right behind Leomund, grabbing him by his robes. The terrified wizard retaliates with an icy grasp, but Ryker is still able to drag him back towards Havayla and Arunak. That is until Leomund casts hold person and escapes, throwing up a wall of sand behind him while Havayla casts moonbeam in an attempt to get his attention. Concentration on the hold dropped, Ryker rushes the forming wall as Havayla calls out once more to her brother. Using his innate air genasi levitation, Ryker leaps over the wall and runs around the corner to find Leomund, wounded and tripping over his feet as he considers his sister’s call. Ryker is able to calm him down and assure him that Rena is dead, the Derailers can help, he isn’t in danger now. The sand wall drops and the group walks back to the high rector’s office as Leomund explains how Rena controlled him through fear and used her snek to speak to him in his mind. He’s very sorry for what he did, but he didn’t know what else to do.
Back in the office Nahtan, and Yevin attempt to interrogate the snek while Wander digs through the desk. She finds a letter referencing a large sum of money gifted to the queen from an outside donor and promised to the university. Giving up on the snek, Yevin goes over to the other door in the office. Studying the door, he casts dispel magic. With a pop, the revealed magical trap vanishes and he open the door to find a round room. Around the edges of the room are boxes of spell components, specifically chalk, both standard and gemstone varieties. In a chest he finds a scroll of teleportation, the components to go with it, and a mysterious deck of cards that Wander identifies as a deck of illusions. The room appears to be used for teleportation, but there is no evidence of a permanent circle here. Good.
Ryker, Havayla, and Arunak return with Leomund in tow. They relay the information he gave while Wander gives him one of the non-detection amulets and a healing pat. Arunak intimidates the snek into communicating and they begin to learn some things. To make sure they learn accurate things, Nahtan casts Zone of Truth, which happens to encompass a few of his fellow Derailers. After promising to release it, they learn from the snek that:
- Rena came to Hearthollow about 30 years ago when the previous High Rector Retired.
- She started moving Leomund up the ranks quickly. His willingness to learn and desire for approval made him an ideal pawn.
- Skulldrinker reached out to her very early on. She taught him the secrets of both teleportation and the necromantic magics he uses to bend and possess others.
- She agreed to keep Hearthollow quiet while he quietly moved his Preymongerian forces across Zandoria.
- Most of Rena’s influence and power was social, rather than magical brainwashing.
They also find out that the snek was bound to her and really doesn’t have and connection or care for this plane of existence now that she is gone. Various threats follow as Wander protests that the snek was promised freedom. The crew begrudgingly agrees, Arunak releases the Feather Snek, and it floats back to its perch. Realizing that Ryker and Havayla are both in the zone of truth, the crew takes a moment to prod at their relationship, specifically Ryker’s feelings about following her for 70 years. Havayla jumps in on the questioning and there is a lot of verbal dancing around before the question of “do you love her?” Is answered with “no.” Somewhat deflated, everyone follows Yevin into the teleportation room to investigate while Ryker stealths away to a corner. Kneeling, he prays to Moonbow, pledging his fealty and asking that she does what she can to keep Havayla safe, as he continues to do the same.
After determining that they have found everything that could be found, the Derailers decide that Havayla’s mother would be the best person to talk to next. There’s a knock at the door. “High rector? Um, I have those papers to turn in?” Ryker manages a convincing “Yes? Just slide them under the door.” A student’s papers are slide under the door and retreating footsteps follow. As they prepare to leave, Wander scoops up the scull from its puddle of goo while Ryker pours a bit of the liquified remains into a bottle. They stuck a sign to the door saying the High Rector had left town and would be back soon.
With Leomund in tow, the Derailers make their way to the castle, doing their best to be inconspicuous. At the castle gates they are met by the same clockwork automaton that kept the sneaky bois waiting for 4 hours. During the short two hour wait, everyone takes a bit of a rest and discusses their next steps. The automaton returns and leads them in the castle gates, across the grounds, and into a great hall. They are escorted through a grand door, through layers of red curtains, and into a barely lit amphitheater. In the center of the room, on a platform at the base of the surrounding steps, is a raised pool of red colored liquid. In front of the pool is a massive golden automaton. Seated in a throne on the automaton’s chest is the Queen.
The Derailers are beckoned forward with a wave of the automaton’s hand. Every movement the Queen makes is mimicked by the massive automatic throne. Yevin starts to use his sorcerous abilities to brighten the candle flames when he hears a warning voice from the Silvershield behind him. The voice is familiar… didn’t he hear her singing with the band last night? The crew continues downward and takes various postures of respect before the Queen as Havayla’s mother joins the welcoming party. There is a tense exchange between Havayla and her mother, establishing to everyone her mother’s disdain for the gods and celestial matters.
Ryker starts to explain to the queen about High Rector Rena and reveals the vial of goo. The Queen questions if they are confessing a murder and Wander offers up Rena’s scull and her ability to speak with it. The Queen tells her to go ahead and Wander shakily casts speak with dead and questions Rena’s remains. It is quickly and quite neatly revealed that Rena was an agent specifically targeting the queen, entrusted by Skulldrinker to keep Hearthollow out of the conflict. Taken aback by the long standing deception within her own court, the Queen thanks the Derailers for their revelation and promises to them anything that they need. Ryker immediately takes the opportunity to request Animus crystals for an airship he may or may not know of. He goes on to inform her about Kane, telling of Durian’s death and Kane’s involvement with Skulldrinker. Matron Gresta is stricken by this news and the Queen names the Derailers her agents in removing him from her city.
Havayla asks about the Moonbow festival and is told that her mother has been working to have Hearthollow abandon the old ways and replace them with new. There would be no festival. Havayla tries to reason with her mother and is shot down. Turning to the queen and reaching out to Moonbow, Havayla momentarily becomes the vessel for Sehanine as the god herself comes down to talk with the Queen. Thoroughly persuaded by the display, the Queen not only states that the festival will continue, but declares that with Rena gone, she is in need of a magical advisor. The Derailers collectively nudge Leomund forward, but she instead turns to Havayla. Stunned, Havayla asks to have a huddle with her group to discuss. They encourage her that it’s a good idea, they have a chance to stop running, they could actually have a home base. For once, they haven’t been run out of a major city, a new and unfamiliar feeling. Havayla takes a moment to asks Sehanine herself, who responds affirmatively, but weakly, as if having just exerted herself.
Returning to the Queen, Havayla accepts her offer. The Derailers are given leave to recoup and plan as the Queen sends out spies and works to undo the damage done by Rena. As they leave to meet Syrin at the gates to receive the Animus crystals, Yevin is held back by one of the Silvershields. Everyone else continues on, meeting a disgruntled and empty-handed Syrin. The animus crystals are gone, taken by what looked like two children, straight out of the forest. And that is where we left the session.
What does this advisory position mean for Havayla? Who took the animus crystals? When will they be ready to go against Kane? We’ll find out next week…