GoCorral

This session was attended by Trajan, Avery, Will, and Ben. It was held using Skype for voice and Roll20 for the the tabletop. Tyler took a break from playing with us for awhile, due to issues from his move to California.

Dead End Leads

In the morning the King, his entourage, and the party met once more in the war room. It was quickly decided that the King and his family would sleep in the magnificent mansion each night until the assassin was caught. Hektor would sleep in there with them. Tracer, the Queen’s bodyguard, would guard the royal family within the mansion while Clank kept watch outside wearing Torin’s goggles of true seeing.

The assembled group also attempted a few methods of tracking the assassin down. Torin, having seen the murder weapon previously, tried a locate object spell on that. The spell failed, meaning the rapier was either out of range or warded from divination somehow.
Hektor tried a scrying spell, but was unable to hone in on the assassin with the limited information available.

A final magical attempt to find the assassin was made by Amalius with a divination spell once more. A new answer came back,
“The assassin seeks to replace someone soon
Either one with a blade or one with a loom
Carefully go with eyes open wide
The assassin will be the one who secretly rides.”

The party immediately suspected all the women in the King’s court. Earlier the Queen had insisted that her two handmaidens join her in the mansion as their help would be needed to alleviate the discomforts of having to sleep in a new place. The group suspected that the assassin would replace one of the handmaidens, the Queen, or Tracer. The party hatched a plot and didn’t tell anybody in the King’s entourage.

The day passed normally otherwise. No more assassination attempts and no great pressing business. Hektor attempted to find a suitable wife for himself. He was approached by Lady Badiana, the daughter of a count with small holdings similar to Lakatia. Hektor talked with her, but in the end rejected the lady. Her conversational talent didn’t quite match his own, she wasn’t particularly pretty, and marrying another small lord presented no chance of advancement for himself.

False Alarms

That night after the royal family and handmaidens were escorted into the mansion to sleep the party set their plot into motion. They left the mansion and waited about half an hour for everyone inside to go to sleep. They then returned to the mansion’s entrance. Clank met them there.

“Hello, did you forget something inside?”
Hektor said, “No, but we think the assassin may have gone inside while masquerading as one of the family or handmaidens. We want to go in and check.”
“Seems unlikely with the passwords and brain scans that Amalius is doing, but lets take a look.”

The group entered the mansion and took a look around. Torin and Hektor watched the door while Clank, Amalius, and Eathirilu went to examine everyone’s rooms. The king and queen were a little miffed at being woken up and the handmaidens were frightened out of their wits. Prince Staynard didn’t even wake up. After clearing everyone again, the party left.

Eathirilu, still suspecting something, changed into a fly and buzzed back into the mansion. He flitted around. Everyone was asleep except Tracer and Staynard. The prince had gotten up and was looking around the mansion in apparent amazement. Eathirilu flew back to the door to the king’s room where Tracer stood guard.

Unfortunately for Eathirilu, Tracer’s senses and intuition were at their peak. A fly shouldn’t be buzzing around a supernatural mansion cut off from the rest of the world. Tracer screamed an alert, “Assassin!” and drew her sword.

Eathirilu instantly changed back into his elf form, fell to his knees, and put his hands up. “It’s me! I was just providing extra security!”

The king came out of his room, upset at being woken up once again. Hektor came out of his room as well. The king ordered Hektor to go get Amalius to examine Eathirilu. He might be the druid or he could be the assassin in disguise. Amalius confirmed Eathirilu’s identity. Eathirilu’s extra vigilance was also allowed to continue, now that the royal family knew about it. He walked around the mansion as a cat, smelling for anything out of the ordinary.

The Prince’s Day

The next day at breakfast Prince Staynard and and his small friend, Shasta, asked a lot of questions about the mansion and how it worked. Hektor answered them as best he could without getting into the specifics of extradimensional theory.

After breakfast the party had a little interview set up with Kinderax, the court dragon that King Ballard rode into battle like his father before him. Eathirilu acted as a human lie detector while Amalius led the questioning, “Who rides you Kinderax?”
“The King.”
“Anyone else?”
“Well, Prince Staynard and Ballard’s brother Valen have both ridden me in their lifetimes. Valen rode me when he was growing up. Willard had thought it best that both of them get training in case one of them was rendered incapable in an unfortunate accident. Staynard is training to take his place when Ballard dies.”
“And no one else besides them?”
“Ballard has occasionally brought Queen Traliya on flights with him.”
“No one else?”
“No one.”
“And the others always ride with King Ballard?”
“Valen has not ridden in many years. Staynard and Traliya always ride with King Ballard. That is correct.”
“Thank you, wise Kinderax.”
“You are welcome.”
Eathirilu detected no lies in this statement. If the “one who secretly rides” referred to riding Kinderax she was either a good liar or the divination meant something else.

King Ballard took Prince Staynard on a dragon riding lesson alone for the rest of the day. They didn’t fear an assassination attempt while with Kinderax and away from the castle where the assassin was.

Upon returning Staynard felt energized asked Hektor to show him and his friends the mansion. Hektor agreed and Amalius tagged along. They gave the young men a tour while explaining the basics of how the mansion worked. Hektor left, giving the men some privacy. Amalius lingered for a moment. Should he leave Merlot behind to keep an eye on them? He decided against it, suspecting that the men were going to engage in some sexual experimentation and not wanting to witness it. Amalius left, bringing his psicrystal with him.

Murdered Again

That night the royal family entered Hektor’s mansion once again. The handmaidens, Hektor, and Tracer followed. Everyone went to sleep except Tracer and Clank. Tracer watched the king’s door and Clank watched the mansion entrance on the outside. Eathirilu transformed into a bear and slept in front of the inside entrance. His supernatural hearing and smell would pick up anybody entering or exiting. Amalius wafted through the halls in a misty form, extending his mental senses for anything out of the ordinary.

Clank ran into the mansion and tripped over Eathirilu. He shouted, “The assassin blew by me out of the mansion. Everyone is looking for him in the castle grounds, but he could’ve teleported away. He looked like Staynard. We have to search the mansion!”

Eathirilu leaped up and they combed the premises. Staynard was gone. Tracer hadn’t noticed anything, but when they went in the king’s room, well…

The bed was covered in blood. The king was nowhere to be seen. Queen Traliya lay on the bed, still asleep, with blood splashed upon the side that the king normally laid next to her.
The handmaidens were still asleep.

A search of the castle grounds turned up nothing. The queen could not be woken. Torin cast a heal spell on her and she returned to consciousness.

She exclaimed, “He was here! The assassin was here! I didn’t see him, but I felt him. He touched me and I couldn’t move, or open my eyes, or even scream! Then he went to the other side of the bed and I heard him stab my husband. He dragged him off the bed, but I didn’t hear him hit the ground. Then he left the same way he’d come.”
Hektor asked, “And which way was that.”
“I don’t know!” The queen began crying and her handmaidens went to comfort her.
Clank said, “It ends tonight. We’re finding that assassin and bringing the king’s body back.”
Torin said, “I think I might have a way.”