Realms S1E16 United Together

As the group reunites with Ted to face down the Orc invasion, they are hit with a devastating betrayal.

Player Characters Present
Jeidobii, Torq, Denahi, Burakubuu, Guest: Ted

Synopsis
The party have set out for the Keep. Denahi has a ludicrous amount of rolls on hand and shares some with Jeidobii as they walk. Jeidobii pulls Denahi aside and asks her to accompany him to the temple. The pair splits off and heads that way while Burakubuu asks Torq if they might have some time to check in with a leatherworker. Torq is agreeable to the proposition.

Torq and Burakubuu engage with Sylcan at The Creeping Tree where Buu finds a potential upgrade to his fist wrappings. The price is just slightly outside his means, however. Sensing a kind soul in the leatherworker, Burakubuu asks if he has been troubled by the Trevyll. Like all of the city’s denizens, he has. He explains that he is a monk of the Honored Palm and battling the Trevyll, and will put Sylcan’s skills to good use in the fight against them. The leatherworker expresses familiarity with The Honored Palm, and concern about their sudden disappearance. This is news to Burakubuu, but there is no time to investigate right now. Buu procures his new and improved fist wrappings and with Torq they head off to see if they can rouse Ted for the coming encounter.

Meanwhile, Jeidobii and Denahi visit the temple. There they find Hasan preparing for the morning. Jeidobii explains the nature of his special gemmed bracer to Hasan, and of Aros himself. He implores Hasan to try anything to bring Aros back from his silence. Hasan doesn’t fully keen the situation but gives it his best healing spell to no effect. He apologizes and admits to Jeidobii there is nothing more he can do. Acquiescent, Jeidodii and Denahi continue toward the Keep.

Torq bangs mightily upon Ted’s door. Their scrawny ally answers, bleary eyed and in his underclothes. They give him a brief recap on recent events and ask if he’ll take up arms alongside them once more as they face whatever may come. Calling back to his oath to protect the Duke and Duchess, despite his meek nature, Ted accepts and readies himself, though Buu does have to remind him to get dressed.

The two groups converge at The Keep and reunite as one party. Denahi shares some rolls with Ted, who skipped breakfast, and everyone expresses general elation to see him again. They approach to find Dorius checking off the guest list. He ushers them inside and points out their places. As Dorius is instructing the team a figure enters the hall; a tall, tanned elf with green eyes. He cuts an imposing figure and approaches the party and Dorius showing no hesitation in his stride. When he speaks... it is Romyn’s voice!

Dorius greets his old friend and sometimes rival. He expresses surprise to see him here, in this form. Romyn responds that there was no way he’d miss the opportunity to make the Trevyll pay for what they did to Aneko, should they show their ugly beaks this day. Jeidobii greets Romyn, happy to see his true face finally. Burakubuu asks whether Trine has accompanied him, but she has not. The party spots Reezo, the Duke’s spy, as well. The Duke and Duchess enter the hall. The Duke sends his children off with a guard to a separate and secure area. Jeidobii consults with Dorius on exit strategies, making note as he does of the lack of any skyroof or openings in the ceiling. He moves to greet his sister and assure her that he and his friends will be at hand should anything happen. The Duchess Rene thanks him and asks that everyone take position now so the Duke may speak to the gathered crowd.

The Duke steps forth and immediately commands attention from the assembled masses. He gives a rousing speech, citing his own past and marriage, and calling for unity in these troubled times, regardless of background or race. He admonishes the cowardly Trevyll Cultists and others who would seek to destroy the city from within, asking that all come together to strike down this evil once and for all.

At the moment of his call to action, the air is sucked out of the room, much like when the party was deep below the mountain pass. The doors slam shut, immovable. A number of Trevyll Cultists appear all around the hall and strike down the guards and archers. They make their way into the crowd, vanishing and reappearing in a flurry of fatal blows. The party takes action and begins engaging the Cultists. They find them slippery but dispatchable once locked down.

Amid the fracas, Jeidobii rushes to protect his sister. He sees his friends have things well in hand, and even the Duke, Dorius, and Romyn have entered the fray. Jeidobii readies himself for any who might approach with intent to harm the Duchess, readying a powerful spell and summoning his bark armor. Just then an imposing Cultist appears in a burst of smoke and lunges. Jeidobii’s spell misses and cries out, throwing himself in harm’s way between his sister and the cultist, ready to take the deathblow when suddenly, the glaive appears from his hands, blocking the Cultist and knocking him back. Aros has returned!

“Where have you been?!” Jeidobii asks. “Now is not the time,” Aros replies, and with that the glaive strikes to the side, shattering the club in Jeidobii’s other hand. A white energy spreads up from the gemmed bracer and recolors Jeidobii’s bark armor to an ashen gray. With newfound power, Jeidobii lashes out at the Cultist. Elsewhere, Ted has fallen, surrounded by Cultists. Burakubuu rushes to peel the attackers away and the Duchess Rene takes to Ted’s side, healing him.

The party is making short work of the Cultists, having finally gained ground. Even the Duke is proving himself to be a formidable warrior and it seems the ordeal is coming to a close. Just then, silence. An all-consuming silence that seizes the hall. A lone frail voice cries out, “Jeidobii!!!” The party turns and time stops. No one can move, only observe. A slow, wicked cackle fills the space as Ted pulls a dagger from the Duchess’ breast. He turns and rises to face the party, growing in size as his once-gleaming armor turns black, feathers push out from beneath his pauldrons, and his helmet takes the form of a blackened beak. He pulls from his breastplate a necklace, a gleaming evil gem set within it.

“You fools,” he addresses them. “You made it so easy...” Jeidobii cries out but cannot move. Ted explains that he had played them all along. It was he who killed his crew upon the ship and took the gem for his own. He who replaced it with a false gem that now sits at the ocean’s floor. Upon the loss of his dear wife, with no explanation and no chance to undo it, he had joined the Trevyll Cult, seeking answers, strength. Now Jeidobii would know the power of and strength of loss, as he did, and as did Torq, he inferred.

Whether by nature of it’s potency or because Ted allows it, the spell holding time to a standstill breaks. Jeidobii surges forward with unquenchable rage but Ted knocks him aside with ease. Torq and Buu look to aid their friend but first must remove the Cultists engaging them. The Duke himself lashes out at Ted and knocked unconscious in one fell swoop of Ted’s powerful, dark-magic imbued axe. Next down is Dorius as Ted maneuvers himself to a staircase to create a bottleneck against his attackers.

Jeidobii dives for his sister but finds her unresponsive. Burakubuu looks to attempt to heal The Duke but just then a bright glow surrounds them all. It’s Denahi, summoning a powerful healing spell and reviving the fallen and injured warriors. Romyn appears suddenly behind Ted but is bested by the dark tower of a man’s reflexes. Burakubuu extends glowing wings and takes flight, swooping down to unleash a flurry of attacks on Ted. They find their mark, but show no effect in stunning or stopping the man.

Torq leaps across the hall to bring down terrible fury upon Ted and finds himself knocked aside, unable to move. Jeidobii unleashes a raging torrent of powerful spells against Ted, using up the entirety of the charges from the wand Zin had left him. Ted stands tall, unfazed still. Just then, in the distance orcish war horns sound. Ted cackles and disappears.

Jeidobii rushes back to his sister, putting everything he can into a healing spell. Rene opens her eyes for only a moment, reaching out to touch her brother’s face as the life fades from her. He looks down and Jeidobii sees the blackness coursing across her skin, through her veins. She is lost.

Guards break through the door and rush in, as do citizens who had gathered outside. They tend to the fallen.

Edayk is under siege, and there is no time to mourn.