Here's the write-up I mentioned in the last post.
Last time, the characters fought some beastmen and a couple of assassins, and then took one of said assassins to the city of Seven Spires for trial. There, they met up with Genevieve, who'd gotten herself to the city somehow (they kind of glossed over that, in what would become a running theme).
They spend some time in the capital city. They do some shopping; Dagmar has some hard leather armor made, several of them bought weapons (Genevieve buys a hand crossbow, which was pricey but came in handy!), and Veni creates a new grimoire, funded by selling magic scrolls. Mayfly buys some parts for shadowsight lenses and tries to have Dagmar install them, but it isn't the kind of work they did and Mayfly winds up needing to pay a crafter to do the work. All is pretty much well. Oballa, the spy for the queen, agrees to have them talk to Queen Moira about demon-related things, the Inquisition, and so on - she wanted them to stay in the city until Mirra (the assassin) is sentenced, just in case their testimony is necessary.
So on a balmy spring evening, the characters are escorted in to a parlor through a pathway in the royal gardens. They're asked to leave their weapons outside, although Dagmar and Genevieve both hide weapons on their person (Dagmar hides a dagger in their beard, and Genevieve is skilled enough to conceal all her stuff). They're sat at a table facing a fireplace, Oballa stands nearby, and two guards flank the Queen herself.
The characters talk to the Queen a bit, and she talks about rulership and the responsibilities thereof. She says that she found a journal written by her great-great-great uncle that talked about the idea of using leadership as coordination, to help people come together and be their best, and she feels that she could aspire to that ideal rather than just be a figurehead for the Church.
The characters listen to all this, and then Genevieve pulls out her crossbow and puts a bolt in the Queen's neck.
The guards, Mayfly, and Bashir are caught completely flat-footed. Dagmar hurls their dagger and hits Genevieve in the arm, but too late, she's already cleared the table and stabbed Queen Moira in the chest, killing her. She moves to the nearest guard and stabs him as well, and Veni throws up a force field spell around the characters. Oballa conjures up fog, and the guards (out of their depth) flee to sound alarms. Mayfly tries to help the queen, but she's beyond magic, so it casts a healing spell on the wounded guard.
Veni and Genevieve flee and the others follow shortly after. The fauns see a gardener motion to them, and flashes the symbol of the Cracked Glass. She ushers them into a shack and tells them to stay put, and not to open the secret door at the back unless it's life or death. The other characters catch up with the gardener and ask if she's seen two fauns. She denies it, but Veni tells her the characters are with them and she shrugs and lets them into the shack.
Some tense words follow. Dagmar, Bashir, and Mayfly take Genevieve to task for her actions, but Genevieve says that this is her job. She's been open about being an assassin and a terrorist this whole time, and Veni backs her up, but does admit that this puts them all in an awkward position. Bashir strongly considers wringing the changeling's neck, but realizes that without his gear (including his hard-won minotaur horn, dammit all), he might not win that fight.
The characters hear guards and alarms outside, and eventually decide that remaining here is unwise. They open the door and descend into a stone hallway overgrown with fungus. Dagmar identifies the fungus; dwarves have various names for it but if you get infected with the spores, you might die and come back as a "fungal hulk." The characters cover their mouths (except Mayfly, obviously) and soldier on.
Up ahead, they hear a shuffling, thumping sound. Dagmar spots the hulk, and it charges. Dagmar tries to roll out of the way, but the hulk bats them against the wall. Veni throws a fire blast at it, and Genevieve runs up and stabs it, but that just makes it release corrosive spores.
Mayfly is at something of a loss, since most of its spells require that the subject can see or feels fear, but Bashir lights a torch and whacks the hulk. Veni throws a rune spell on it and it charges right through, exploding and burning, and leaving itself open for one more torch-bash from Dagmar. Now wounded, the characters move on, and eventually emerge from the tunnel, just outside the royal palace.
Shortly, a carriage pulls up, driven by the gardener/assassin. She gets them in and drives them out of the city, tosses a pouch of money to Genevieve, and moves to leave. Dagmar asks who called in this hit, but the assassin doesn't know and wouldn't tell if she did. They're a guild of assassins, this is what they do.
The characters decide to head northwest, along the Deepings Gorge to the Narrow Pass through the Shield Mountains. They still intend to head for the Northern Reach, because regardless of what else happens, they need to save the world, and they aren't sure if they're going to need Genevieve or Veni (or both) for that.
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