lore garden

Session 3

✦ created ✦ updated ✦ 14 min read

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Session Date: 7 March 2026

Short rest

  • Tiel asks Pan about Elin, the Zhentarim boss
    • She’s demanding, fussy; very experienced in fighting though usually she sources others to fight for her and her business
    • Elin went down the Void in a party of four; she loves to find people to follow her
    • Tiel doesn’t know what Elin has on her brother, Daniel (Danny)
  • Tiel and Pan bond over their shared goal of finding (and killing?) Elin
  • Elin’s party members:
    • Luis, a caster
    • Kestrel, a fighter
    • Daniel, a rogue
  • Mal knows about Elin and her party because Pan came to her first for information

Undead lady in the Druid’s Garden

  • After the short rest, we proceed to confront the undead lady
  • Tiel reiterates that the undead in the Void are weird — they’re fixated on memories
  • Fletcher lags behind with Tiel and gives her a warning to be careful, to not give them (Mal, Pan, and Fugue?) anything they could use against her
  • Mal, Pan, and Fugue climb over to the cliff where the undead lady was standing, with her back on us
    • She’s holding a purple rose that drips poison down her arms, whispering to herself: “A gift for His Highness” (King Ronan)
    • There are other chromatic roses in front of her, roses that are notoriously difficult to grow
    • The woman talks about seeking an audience with the King next week. Mal presses her for the date, and we find out the woman is “living” in a snapshot of the day of the Collapse
    • When asked to tell us what she sees around her, the woman says she’s looking at a beautiful sky
  • We decide not to disturb her any further; Fugue utters a prayer for his god to give her peace
  • Back on the first level, there’s a well-stocked herb garden where the pukei-pukei were sleeping
    • Fletcher wants to stock up on herbs, so the party decides on a team effort to help her in gathering
    • Pan & Tiel gathered 3/3 ingredients for a common potion of healing
    • Mal helps Fugue gather 4/5 ingredients for a potion of fire breath
    • Fletcher gathers 2/3 ingredients for a greater potion of healing
  • We go back to the first layer proper, and make Constitution checks
    • Everyone but Fugue passes the check; Fugue feels a bit of tightness in his chest as he ascends back up, but plays it off like nothing
  • We all fail our Perception checks against a contested check of 27 :)

Spider Party

  • We continue forward; there’s an increase of cobwebs in the way, and Pan helpfully swats them away with their sword-on-fire. Fugue helpfully pats the fire away after them
  • There’s a clearing! Ahead of us is a straight path — on the left wall, there’s a quick flash of light off the walls? There’s glowing fungi providing sufficient light
  • To the right, there’s a significant drop off into a courtyard with a fountain and two magically lit lampposts
    • Mal investigates 🔎 — there’s a big estate down below, and broken glass on the floor
  • We have two paths: through broken stairs over a dark pit, or a cave of spiders
  • We choose spiders :) (much to Tiel’s chagrin)
    • We face off against four phase spiders who look beat up already (and also can’t use their teleporting powers, sadly!)
    • The cave looks a little too big for the four of them, suggesting that there were more spiders here beforehand
  • Doesn’t take much for us to dispatch three of them, while one of them goes cowering in a little hole
    • Mal sends a shard of flying ice which embeds in the spider’s eyes, and shrapnel of ice explodes and hits the other spider
    • Pan cuts the spider in half, their sword-on-fire effectively roasting the spider as they slice through the creature
  • Fugue adopts spider #4 after pspsps-ing at it 🥺 (and uses one charge of Knowledge from a Past Life for it, lol)

Lady Camilla’s Estate

1st floor

  • We exit the cave and go out into the courtyard
  • Pan picks up 2 gold from the fountain
  • The house looks kind of fused into the stone wall; the broken shards of glass are from a window broken into
  • Mal’s Shortsword of Warning pulses; something has been disturbed inside
  • Mal and Fletcher peeks through the window from a distance
    • Fletcher sees a moving shadow from her side of the house
    • Mal sees a grand piano, bookshelves, glimmer of broken glass inside
  • Mal sneaks in, opening another window through the broken one
    • Inside: a very nice extravagant lounge, spiders, and spider eggs; the room seems relatively safe
    • In the back corner, there’s a whiskey bottle with a colourful depiction of a man on fire with a label in Infernal. Mal takes it
    • Out in the hallway: at the midsection there’s a tunnel of cobwebs, with doors on either side. Both rooms here are dangerous, as Mal’s sword pulses with warning
    • There’s more spiders in the foyer, and a ballroom in the other
    • The ballroom has big spider eggs, and a sort of shimmering mirage on the far end of the room
  • Mal goes back out and fetches the party; we go inside, Fugue leaves spider #4 outside, tells her to go play in the fountain (she doesn’t understand but she gets the gist!)
  • Before we do anything else, Fletcher gives Pan an elixir of healing and Tiel also heals them back up
  • Mal stealthily locks the door to the foyer
  • Pan smashes any spider eggs they can find

Dining room

  • We investigate the break-in first (or presumed break-in) into the dining room
  • The room is absolutely swamped with cobwebs. There’s a maid dazedly sweeping one corner; as she moves to another corner, the spider starts building cobwebs again. This cycle of cleaning cobwebs goes back and forth, and it seems like this has been happening for quite some time
  • Perception checks!
    • The maid is shaking, muttering to herself like the other undead: “The mistress wasn’t invited. She’ll take it out on me. I have to make this place spotless.”
    • The spiders aren’t hostile to the maid or the party
  • Pan asks her: “Wasn’t invited where?”
    • The maid answers: “The Royal Gala tonight. Lady Camilla wasn’t invited, she was turned away. Captain Kivia was out of town, so she was looking forward to this gala specifically.”
    • We know the Dzemaels throw parties but not as extravagant as the King’s galas
  • Lady Camilla and Kivia Rosenz are sisters-in-law; Lady Camilla is Kivia’s brother’s wife
  • Mal asks about the Lord of the house; the maid says, “he’s a pushover who does anything Lady Camilla or Kivia says.” He’s out on business in the city.
  • When asked about Kivia’s whereabouts: “She and the Crownguard were sent out to the east where there was a lot of chaos.” (Rebel activity)
  • Meanwhile, Pan kills the spiders and their eggs, and Fugue helps sweep out cobwebs
  • Mal asks Fletcher about the history of Halia
    • The entire chain of command disappeared after the Collapse, and the economy got fucked
    • Crownguard picked up after the Collapse
    • Tragedy brought tourism, and tourism brought people and business
    • The Dzemaels were minor nobility outside of the city, then moved in after the Collapse and became a prominent House
  • Fletcher moved to Luden’s Rest when she was 15
  • A big coincidence that everyone in the chain of command died; perhaps a ritual gone wrong?
  • Fletcher wants to try using the Sending Stone to contact Vera, possibly get information from aboveground

2nd floor

  • We go up to the second floor, and we all make Constitution saves. Everyone succeeds except Tiel.
  • The first room we enter looks like it’s become a hatchery for the spiders. One corner relatively clean, where there’s one undead guy holding a scrap of paper
  • Mal approaches and he jumps. Pan grins; he’s scared of Pan’s teeth lol
    • His name’s Vincent, and the room we’re in is the servants’ quarters
    • The paper he’s holding is a note of stuff he’s supposed to do… allegedly.
  • When asked about the broken window: He doesn’t know. On Insight checks, we find out he really doesn’t know. His face turns from horror to manic amusement; he is now freaking out!
    • “She’s gonna kill me!” (‘She’ = Lady Camilla, the worst boss in the city Pre-Collapse, apparently)
  • Mal says we’re doing a health inspection (Deception check succeeded!)
  • Vincent, upon hearing this, talks about a bloody circle on the floor of the basement
    • “The Lady does all her freak shit down there when she’s consulting with devils.”
    • There’s a magic door where she speaks to it in Infernal to open: “All are welcome where devils dwell.” (Vincent tries his best to emulate it; Mal and Pan figure it out)
  • Fugue commits a microaggression against Pan: “Does the devil look like them? *points at Pan*”
  • Lady Camilla is obsessed with killing Kivia; probably has a pact with a devil
  • Fletcher, who’s still invisible since the spider fight, expertly plucks the scrap of paper out of Vincent’s hand
    • She passes it to Malachi because it’s in Thieves’ Cant

Quote

Keep an eye out and your head down. Something big’s going to happen at the Palace tonight.

Your friends, H & E

  • H & E are members of the revolution (and so is Vincent)
    • Revolution against the bastard king (“bastard” here being metaphorical, I think!)
  • It was fairly well-known that there was an insurrection happening Pre-Collapse. People were not happy with the king being boldly greedy. That’s what Kivia’s doing in the east, stomping out the rebellion.
  • After the Collapse, sentiments of revolution disappeared
  • Vincent isn’t cooperating, doesn’t want to say who H & E are
    • Well, he does: it’s Hal & Ellion (sp?)
    • They’re big shots in the revolution; they were trying to lure the Crownguard out of the city so they could move in while security is low
  • Vincent got involved with the revolution when he was a bartender at the Honeybee Tavern. He got himself hired as a servant to get close to Lady Camilla, but she didn’t even end up getting invited anyway.
  • Insight check (from Fugue): Vincent is still not saying everything. Fugue confronts him about this, and Pan intimidates the hell out of him: “You wouldn’t want to know Fugue’s idea of mercy.” 🩸
  • Vincent tells us he got in because of the royal artist (Lady Cordelia’s pet artist), Lady Venus Nerelle.
    • Lady Cordelia is the King’s wife
    • Venus got Hal and Ellion into the Royal Palace
    • Vesta is also involved, helping the Revolution with her powers of foresight
  • The Honeybee Tavern is in the north side of town; that’s where he would get in touch with the members of the revolution.
  • Mal returns the note to Vincent

The Lady of the House

  • On to the next room!
  • The master bedroom is huge, and free of spiders and cobwebs. The bed and rug is torn apart, like a creature took a bite out of it, trying to sustain itself and failing.
  • The Lady of the House stands inside with her back to us, gazing at a portrait. She has messy hair, and her hands grip her dress tightly
  • Under the desk: a hairy spider leg is seen peeking out, before promptly disappearing, eaten by the desk mimic.
  • The portrait depicts Lady Camilla and another lady with scales under her eyes → Lady Cordelia
    • Lady Cordelia is King Ronan’s second wife. His first wife died normalstyle
  • Upon approach, Lady Camilla doesn’t say anything. Then we ask why she wasn’t invited, to which she has a couple ideas why, though she doesn’t seem entirely sure
    • She and Cordelia are in lesbians with each other :3
    • Mal: “Some people might call it treason.”
    • Camilla: Is that a threat?
  • Roll initiative :) The mimic also joins combat!
  • We uhhh kill her. Without letting her get a spell in 😭 Thanks very much to Tiel’s legendary Hold Person and everyone else just absolutely sending it.
    • Pan summons their echo and flanks Camilla on both sides :)
    • Camilla gets absolutely pissed off at Fletcher shooting pebbles at her LOL
    • Fugue uses his Spirit Guardians also ^_^ absolutely bad vibes spell with Necrotic damage. Yayyyy!
    • Mal walks over to the mimic and uses her knife as a lever to unhinge the desk into nothing but a pile of wood
  • Pan kills Lady Camilla’s undead image, their sword-on-fire cutting across her. They make their way to Camilla’s body and it melts into a puddle of voidmatter, slowly seeping through the floorboards.
    • The puddle has tiny wiggly worms of voidmatter
  • Fletcher takes out the vial and finds that the voidmatter inside reacts to voidmatter!Camilla, wiggling in its direction, like it wants to follow
    • She scoops it up, and with a successful Dexterity saving throw, a bit of it brushes her finger, trying to wriggle up her arm, but she manages to put it inside an empty flask.
  • Fletcher Arcana-checks the items:
  • We find letters written in Celestial, Fugue reads it:

Quote

My dearest Camilla,

My husband forbids your attendance in the gala

  • The letter implies that Camilla’s relationship with Cordelia is the reason why she can’t attend

Basement

  • The entrance is in the first room we entered
  • Mal and Pan force the door open — there’s a quick spark of red upon doing so
    • Mal investigates 🔎 — a summoning spell was triggered, but it doesn’t work since we’re in the Void (phew!)
  • In the basement, there’s a bloody rune circle and a dead mimic :(
    • Inside the dead mimic, there’s paintings and sketches of Cordelia. Camilla’s a bit obsessed with her.

Camilla had extensive notes on the background and interests of the king’s wife, Cordelia du Vorros. She is a silver bloodline sorcerer, an elf from a distant nation, the youngest of a handful of siblings in a powerful family, but still over a century old. She came to Halia to grasp her own future, tired of waiting in a long line of succession, and Cami has notes, questions about this — if she wanted to, in Camilla’s eyes at least, Cordelia could have any king or queen of any nation at her feet. So why Halia, a country so tied up in royal blood as the signifier of power, a country whose leader’s partners are thought of as little more than an accessory? She’s expressed a keen interest in Halian history and consequently the magic tied to the land, and Camilla thinks there’s something there and is trying to dig deeper. She writes about trying to become close to Delia and to learn more about her, a gruelling task under the watchful eye of her sister-in-law, who was only a few years ago promoted to captain of the Crownguard. Delia is cunning and clever and has Kivia at her beck and call, and while Camilla’s writing insists this is part of Delia’s play for power, it still burns with resentment.

  • On one side of the wall, there’s a painting of a younger Kivia used as target practice, a knife dead centre on her face
  • The summoning circle is for a devil, and has been used multiple times

1st floor, Ballroom

  • On the stage, there’s a weird heat haze, a mirage shifting a little bit. It’s in the shape of a spectral dagger.
  • There’s a big spider on the ceiling, which comes down after we roll initiative
  • Pan kills it!
  • We go to the stage, and upon approach, we see that the dagger is infused with cloaking magic.
    • Pan pulls it out and the dagger evaporates.
    • The cloaking magic disappears, and reveals a severed leg!
  • Mal investigates 🔎 — the wound where the knife was stabbed is healing. It’s not undead, and also it’s moving! Trying to get back to its other body parts, presumably.

On to base camp

  • We leave the estate and we can see the night sky
  • We make our way to base camp, and after ten to twenty minutes, a tabaxi woman approaches. Her name is Miette!
  • We all give our introductions, and also Fugue names spider #4 Myla :)
  • At base camp, there’s a young drow with silver hair: Kaylin, the head researcher.
  • The other team hasn’t arrived yet! Yippee!

Note

To do: Fugue should cast Detect Thoughts on the leg :) Never mind, it won’t work 😔

✦ created ✦ updated ✦ 14 min read

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