Criminal Quandaries - S35
They stepped through the portal to an empty room. They explored upstairs for a while- Yeet found a false panel into an attic space. In here, he found an old, dusty oil painting of some abstract black and red shapes. He went back into the room, and immediately went to a secret compartment to find a mostly empty notebook with one entry from Clarissa- "I HATE IT HERE". Bastle explored outside of the room, finding a trap in the form of a thin arcane beam at the first skeleton.
Kaige opens the door to the next room and happens upon a wizard concentrating on a spell, so the party lined up outside the room, trying their hardest to be quiet. Yeet went invisible with his lyre, then went inside to dispel the spell. His spell fails, and the wizard engaged. Gus managed to break the wizards concentration on the Control Weather spell. In retaliation, she erupted in a burst of Lightning, but in a flash, Kaige threw her to the floor, and forced her to tell what she knew.
The wizard was nervous, and pleading, but with no other choice, said all she knew. After spending time in his office, Krennick told her to create a storm over the city to create a distraction for the city so that the warforged could take over. She started at noon and was supposed to stop at 8. Currently they found it was just past 6.
The continued their exploration, and Yeet beat Gus to the Secret room, where he found a unicorn horn, which functions as a superior healing potion. Bastle went to look outside, and found strangely empty in the wake of the storm having been dispelled.
The party makes their way to the office after Yeet determined the door itself was no magically trapped. They went to Krennick's desk to find a purplish pink crystal containing Blade's Soul as far as they could tell. They tried to shatter the soul shard with magic to no avail, but Kaige's strength was able to do it. They shattered the soul shard, scattering the still-glowing pieces across the room. The second they did, they were thrown into the ceiling as the floor was obliterated by Aura Khidol.
They engaged with Aura, but the shadowy form of Karina showed herself once more. Aura said "why don't we all calm down" then asked them to "Drop your weapons and stand against the back wall for a Bit"
Gus tried to command Aura with a Geas spell, but it mysteriously failed. In Karina's Rage, she ran over to Kaige, regardless of Aura's control spell. In doing so her Dragonmark turned more from green to red. Kaige action surged to turn invisible, and picked her sword back up. Another spell of Gus' failed against Aura.
Bastle Managed to do a number to Aura, but got dealt the same in return. The party called for Gus to heal them, but he dealt damage too, like a true cleric. Kaige used her vigilant Guardian to swap places with Bastle, but Karina's turn was next, and cut down Bastle. Shadow Karina slowly brought down Yeet. Kaige, in a wild rage, decapitated Aura, and continued to swing on Karina.
Yeet and Bastle were brought up by Gus saying "Not Yet", but Yeet nearly went down again. Thankfully a whipser from Gus brought him back up (it was a nat 20 death save).
A Deluded Karina ranted at Kaige, completely misconstruing what happened all those years ago, and Kaige had the last word, saying she was not afraid anymore.
The party short rested. They explored the house to ensure it was cleared. They went upstairs to pick up the shattered soul shard. In doing so, Bastle tried to connect with a piece of it. He saw a few snippets memories. From both Tiberius and Blade.
Yeet went to the Library, to find Clarissa sitting in there alone. She reached out to Yeet for a hug, and Yeet nearly felt himself planeshifted, but Clarissa fainted in his arms.
