#Avaar Acosta

[searchpartydnd]

Final Session of Arc 1, Fate Touched

Session 10:

Inveni Domus, otherwise known as The Search Party, is a group of five skilled individuals who are dedicating their time to recovering the Novus Designs. These ancient artifacts were some of the first magical items ever created, only ever brought together once in recorded history by the circle of eight, the founding fathers of modern magic (ie Bigby, Volo, Modenkainen, Otiluke, etc.). Their main goal is to ultimately stop Lady Cecilia, a powerful entity who claims she is a god, from obtaining any of the designs to use for her own unpleasant purposes. 

Current Party Members: 

Avaar Acosta - High Elf Arcane Archer

Calladyne - Half-Elf Glamour Bard

Dixillion Ramada - Human Revenant Champion Fighter

Val Ganderstim - Aasimar Warlock of the Raven Queen

Veir Torunn - Dwarven Gunslinger

Artifacts recovered: 2

Turmoil on the Tundra

It’s the dead of winter up in the icy plains that encircle the peaks of Lyrengorn. The party had just recovered Cepheus, the Shroud of Tears, The Second. The clasp, created by the pre-ascended Raven Queen, is now worn by Val, who has just fucked up.

Like, big time.

The party had been in Bigby’s tower, stumbling through weird gravity, hacking desperately at enormous mimics, and getting stomped on by powerful constructs in bath houses. They eventually reached Bigby’s study, recovering the item as well as the wizard’s personal journal. Reading through, they had found more information about other Novus Designs and one was mentioned to be a bow. 

Most party members immediately looked to Avaar, as she seemed a likely candidate to wield it. However, Avaar expressed her dislike to take on another magical item that was going to attract the attention of undesirables. 

Avaar, prior to meeting the party, had willingly put on armor owned by a man named Lucidious. She soon found out, however, that she could not remove the armor and that the wearer had to obey all of their master’s commands. Lucidious turned out to be a massive evil dick and turned Avaar’s life into a living nightmare, forcing her to do terrible things, making her work for evil organizations.

Lucidious was killed in an attack, leaving Avaar free of him, but not of the armor. She came to Tal’dorei and joined up with Inveni Domus, eventually revealing to her friends the curse she had to live with. In an fight with Hags, Avaar was left greatly injured and mentally scarred, going into a nightmarish coma. Later, after she awoke and helped the party fend of Queen Cecilia’s lackeys, the armor began to break and chip away, finally getting fully removed when the party realized the magic binding it to Aavar was no longer there.

After Avaar had understandably voiced her distaste to take on another magical item, Val, on an rather unkind impulse, had commented “Well, you did wear that armor for a while,” implying that the arcane archer had also attracted unwanted attention and terrible things in her time enslaved to Lucidious. 

Avaar just walked out. Dixie gave chase, while Calladyne followed more slowly. Val stayed behind to help Veir gather the items they needed before heading out into the Tundra. A blizzard was approaching on the horizon.

Calladyne reprimanded Val for the comment, pointing out how the 16-year-old had been rather unkind to the group and really needed to re-examine how she treated her friends.

Val, still desperate to apologize, ran off to find Dixie and Avaar. When she caught up, Avaar snapped at the Warlock.

“You don’t think I don’t know what I have done? I have to live with that guilt every day!” (I’m paraphrasing here) “Is this how you treat your friends? Grow up Val!”

The blizzard finally hit the party, making it hard to see. They discuss whether or not to take shelter in Bigby’s tower or make the trek back to Lyrengorn. They don’t get the chance to decide was a massive form dashed past, scooping up Val in the process.

Two Yetis, attracted by the very loud noises we were making, decided to pay us a visit. 

For the first half of the battle, Val was basically a football, getting thrown about and used as a bludgeoning weapon. 

They were able to defeat the Yetis due to a well timed Hypnotic Pattern by Calladyne. 

Licking their wounds, the party headed back for Lyrengorn, trading their winter cloths for garments more suited for tropical weather. Avaar and Dixie head off together to find out more information from the Archdruid of the main temple in the sanctuary while Veir, Calladyne, and Val head off on seperate business. 

Avaar and Dixie speak with the head ArchDruid, asking about the Winter Court in the Feywilde (of which they believe Calladyne was part of). Yura says it is a nasty topic, and that the queen is the nastiest topic of that court. The Archdruid describes her as cold and vicious, and that she is a dangerous entity to have as an enemy. Calladyne spends time at a shrine to the Archeart, a god that she once worshipped before she was taken into a Fey court. Unsure of her belief in gods, she asks for guidance of some kind. She feels nothing, but she later discovers a new line at the end of her newest song.

Val goes to inform the airship captain that they found what they were looking for, only to instead receive word that the archanist (Allura Vysoren) they were originally going to visit in Vasselheim had shown up in Whitestone. Lord and Lady De Rolo had informed her of the party’s activities and intent, causing the mage to contact the entire Arcana Pansophical and bring the matter to their attention. They are to leave in the morning and head directly for Vasselheim, instead of going to Emon and then charter a ship to the holy city.

Val goes to the hostel where they were staying to inform the group of this new change, but finds only Calladyne (Performing Cherry Wine). After passing along the information, Val says she is going to sleep in the airship for the night, to get out of the party’s way. Calla says the party wouldn’t mind, but understands if Val was uncomfortable. Before Val leaves, Calladyne says she wants to talk later, when everyone’s heads are clearer.

Veir heads off into the city in search of something, but the party does not know what happens until later.

As night takes the sanctuary city, Calladyne performs for the people, garnering many new fans after another stunning performance (and raising her fame stat to 13). Avaar was also able to glean some more backstory about Veir’s past, learning that his drive was to prove the capability of firearms and, by extension, himself.

Calladyne and Avaar (they are an item) share an intimate moment that night and Avaar tells Calladyne that she’s been looking into the Feywilde so that she can help the bard if her past ever comes back. Calladyne sees the effort put in to helping her / saving her and breaks down, recognizing that she might actually be free from the Archfey and Her illusions. Calla tells her lover everything that happened to her while she was in the Feywilde in the court of a sadistic archfey. The full extent of these terrible events are secret for now, but who knows when they may come spilling out.

The party departed on the small De Rolo airship they had arrived in the next morning. For two weeks they traveled, and for two weeks, there were some shenanigans and conversations to be had.

Apparently, on his short trip around the city, Veir had acquired magical eye gear that allowed him to read multiple languages. He needed them in order to properly read Bigby’s journal, which was written in several different languages.

Avaar wasn’t ready to deal with it.

He also made a kite for some reason.

It wasn’t very well crafted.

Calladyne was able to finally pull Val aside for their talk, mentioning a certain incident that had occurred in Whitestone.

Long story short, emotions were running high when baby Vax was taken, so when the council member who had betrayed the royal family refused to answer any questions regarding the organization she worked for, Val had gotten…trigger happy.

After another refusal to comply, even though the warlock was threatening to kill the woman and use her pact of the tome ability that allowed the questioning of a soul, Val shot off eldritch blasts into the Myriad member’s chest, killing the bound captive. She asked her question and through the fast action of Calladyne, the present party members were able to revivify the woman.

Val had never killed someone is cold blood before. She hadn’t even considered it until Calladyne had pointed it out. Additionally, Calladyne mentioned similar things happening to her (being killed and revived) on multiple occasions, though she doesn’t specify further. This led to some very troubled thoughts and inner turmoil for the young Aasimar.

“I’m afraid of snakes.” Those were the first words Avaar addressed Val with since their confrontation outside of Bigby’s tower.

“When my siblings and I would fight, we’d make up by telling each other a secret about ourselves,” Avaar explained.

Val admitted she didn’t like dressing like a goth, which she had been doing since she was twelve. She preferred her current Valkyrie look over the dark aesthetic she had thought all Raven Queen took up.

Later, as the airship neared Vasselheim, Calla and Avaar shared a talk about fate. Avaar refuses to believe in it, not trusting her life in the hands of a god, preferring that her past was controlled solely by her own actions. Calla confessed that she believed the opposite, that they were destined to be on this path. She told Avaar she’d rather die a martyr than live as a survivor.

Vasselheim in view now, the party finds that the artifacts they currently have react in the presence of one another, becoming more active and magically charged. Dixie’s hand has also begun to glow, shining brighter and brighter the closer the party neared the city.

Landing just outside the city, Val is practically jumping for joy, excited to finally officially commune with her patron and show her friends around the city she was trained in not too long ago.

Dixie and Calla head off to the Platinum Sanctuary first, the scale on Dixie’s hand shining brighter as they approached Bahamut’s center of worship.

Dixie met the dragon god who resurrected her, confused and conservative about her true feelings towards her current relationship with the god of justice. 

Mad props to our DM @its-okay-to-yowz​ because he made one hell of a scary dragon god when he began screaming “DON’T LIE TO ME DIXILLION!”

Through a bit more prodding, The Platinum Dragon was able to get his revenant to embrace her desire for vengeance. They rounded out their conversation almost like coach psyching up their player for a game.

Dixie is now a Champion Fighter with one level in Paladin.

Veir ventured off to go gather supplies while Avaar was dragged along by Val to the Duskmeadow. 

Upon approaching the steps, the doors are opened for the pair and Val’s raven flies off, leading them to the pool of blood deep in the temple. Val won’t shut up, voicing her previous frustration that the priests wouldn’t let her into the communion room before. Avaar is visibly nervous about the whole process, despite Val’s assurances that everything is going to be fine.

Shedding some clothing, Val tells Avaar that things might get wonky with time and she may be going for a while before practically swan diving into the pool of icy blood.

Val still has to come to very cusp of death in order to see her patron, so it takes her a moment to work up the will to actively drown herself. Avaar watches as the surface where Val disappeared gets violently disturbed after a minute, showing obvious signs of someone drowning, but she holds herself back as the blood eventually stills. No body floats to the top.

Val finds herself in the same dark space she usually sees in her dreams, her Raven on the floor in front of her. Normally, it would either speak as her Patron or become her Patron, but this time it transforms into a man. It’s Vax.

He beckons the warlock and she follows excitedly, heading into the blackness, seemingly going nowhere.

Eventually, the ground becomes smooth obsidian granite and a doorway appears. Vax turns to Val.

“No matter what happens, you should know that she is so proud of you.” He presses a simple black bracelet of woven thread into her hand before Val steps inside. 

Val enters the Raven Queen’s throne room, a chamber made of shifting shadows. The Goddess herself is in her smaller form, appearing more humanoid as she welcomes Val. 

(The order as to what was said here is a bit wonky, but the details are there.)

The Matron of Ravens tells Val that she is glad to finally speak with her, noting how Val is wearing her clasp, and that she and the other gods have seen something on the horizon that they can’t make out. The strings of fate have blurred. She explains that in her desperation to find a candidate to enforce her hand in the conflict to come, she chose the young Aasimar, much to young at the time to be burdened with such a task. She apologized to Val for how things were, but Val just replied “I’m used to it. This is what I want to do. I chose to follow you on my own, it was my decision to make.” 

The Raven Queen removed her mask at that point, revealing her true face to a now crying Val. She whispered her name to her warlock, locking the secret into the back of the teenager’s mind. Val knows the name, it’s within her, but she doesn’t actually have to means to recall it or speak it. She just carries with her the knowledge that she knows the name.

Val finds out from her Goddess that there were five fate touched that the Gods were scrambling to get a hold of, Val among them. It is implied that the others are the members of Inveni Domus.

Val apologized for not upholding the values she was supposed to embody in Whitestone, to which the Raven Queen agrees that it was a most undesirable action that should never occur again. 

The Raven Queen warns again that there are dark times ahead, that she is fearful of not being able to see where the threads are leading. Val tells her that she’ll shine some light on the matter. RQ tells Val to go get ‘em (or something the writer will be editing this later) to which Val says “You know I will.” 

Feathers.

Cut to six hours later. Avaar has been worried sick, curing fate and the Raven Queen, afraid for the youngest party member. Val bursts out of the pool, yelling for Avaar. Helping the teen out of the pool, Avaar asks what happened. Val tells her all about the meeting (leaving out certain, more private bits), trying to dispel Avaar’s worry.

Avaar, however, is not convinced, still apprehensive to trust a God who chose a 16-year-old to be her champion. Val tells her that she doesn’t think she is her goddess’s champion, that the man she met in the meeting was the holder of that title.

Avaar asked what happened to him. Val’s response was not comforting. (bottom right corner doodle in previous picture.

So we close, zooming out from the five fate touched as they attend to their various activities. 

A Fate Forged in Iron (Veir)

A Fate of Vengeance (Dixie)

A Fate Embraced (Calladyne)

A Fate Looking Ahead  (Val)

A Fate Redeemed (Avaar) 

 author’s note :The crazy thing is, we all developed our backstories and characters separately, having no knowledge of what anyone was planning. @its-okay-to-yowz wanted us to all be fate touched from the very start, even before we created characters, as we had all been brought together by chance at GenCon and through a couple of chance meetings and well timed inquiries. 

He created a Novas Design made by the Raven Queen even he knew that Val was going to be a Warlock of hers. Our character colors all match up. Tony was able to take elements of our backstories and weave them together. Calla and Avaar both went through similar stories of trauma and abuse, bonding over their shared struggles. It was meant to be the whole time, and we had no idea. Tony just sat back and watched us flounder about and struggle to grasp how perfect our stories were and how well everything fit together.

Thus the first arc as named Fate Touched.

[searchpartydnd]

Session 11: A Medusa and a Hard Place

Inveni Domus, otherwise known as The Search Party, is a group of five skilled individuals who are dedicating their time to recovering the Novus Designs. These ancient artifacts were some of the first magical items ever created, only ever brought together once in recorded history by the circle of eight, the founding fathers of modern magic (ie Bigby, Volo, Mordenkainen, Otiluke, etc.). Their main goal is to ultimately stop Lady Cecilia, a powerful entity who claims she is a god, from obtaining any of the designs to use for her own hellish purposes.

Current Party Members:

Avaar Acosta - High Elf Arcane Archer

Calladyne Lanathir - Half-Elf Glamour Bard

Dixillion Ramada - Human Revenant Champion Fighter/ Paladin of Bahamut

Val Ganderstim - Aasimar Warlock of the Raven Queen

Veir Torunn - Dwarven Gunslinger

Artifacts recovered: 2

Last session we left Dixie standing in front of the Altar of Bahamut, having just come out of a vision with the Platinum Dragon. Calla approaches, asking what happened. Dixie turns to her, passionate and angry, and declares that she’s going to follow Bahamut’s command, to seek out and destroy the evil in the world. Dixie mentions how her family didn’t deserve to die and that she’s going to get them justice (by slaying the dragon that took their lives and destroyed her town). Noticing how shaken Dixie is, Calla steps forward and provides a comforting hug.

As they part, someone approaches the pair. A man asks to speak with Dixie alone. Calla is escorted outside to wait while Dixie is led into an office. The man introduced himself as Platinum Knight Balder.

He tells Dixie that their god had said she was coming and that he has been briefed on her situation. He seems troubled and confesses he would have liked that Dixie be properly trained under the ways of the Platinum Sanctuary, but her time is short and can’t be wasted if her only job is to slay a dragon in the last few months of her life. He does impart the main teachings of enacting justice and destroying evil wherever it may lie.

Dixie leaves the office and heads outside to find Calladyne doing handstands and reciting children’s poetry to the two sentries outside, attempting to entertain them. She was pretty successful, since she left the female guard blushing as the two adventurers descended the steps of the temple.

Veir has been wandering the city in search of a certain black powder merchant. Unfortunately, all he finds is a crater. To his luck, there are still merchants that sell the highly explosive powder within the city and he is able to purchase more than enough for his guns. Not having many errands to run, the gunslinger pops over to the Slayer’s Take to wait for the rest of the party. He meets Mertin, who has not seen anyone else come by yet and doesn’t believe that Veir has a letter from Lady Vex’ahlia that legitimizes their possible entry into the Take. However, the halfling does agree to a game of cards and the two play until the rest of the party arrives.

Avaar, having just waited for six hours within the temple for Val to return from her near-death communion with the Raven Queen, inquires about what the aasimar plans to do next. 

Val wants to find her old mentor, so she leads Avaar to the kitchens to find Matron Georgina, an aging elven woman who oversees the housing quarters within the temple. She is very happy to see that Val is back quickly provides food for the pair.

She doesn’t know if Val’s mentor Threnn is in and hesitantly suggests that Matron Emmanuel would probably know.

Val is…not particularly liked in Vasselheim. She is an arcane caster, but her patron is the Raven Queen. Others find her to be an unholy amalgamation that shouldn’t really exist. Val never trained as a cleric, she never followed the Raven Queen prior to the contract being made, and hadn’t worked to gain her abilities like most people do. Nobody knows why the Raven Queen supposedly broke all the rules and granted someone magical abilities, but it is frowned upon by many throughout the city.

This is just one of the many reasons Matron Emmanuel does not like the loud-mouthed teenager from Tal’dorei. Before entering the Matron’s study, Val makes herself look a little less…loud. Emmanuel isn’t very happy to see Val. She tells the warlock that Threnn isn’t around. Avaar takes up a protective position behind her party member, staring down the Matron as Val inquires about three necromancers Threnn has been hunting.

Emmanuel won’t give any more information, saying that it is confidential and only for the eyes of her and the paladin’s of the Raven Queen. Val becomes frustrated, trying to argue that the information should be granted to her because the necromancers are still actively hunting aasimar, which means that she and her brothers are still at risk of capture.

This doesn’t change any of Emmanuel’s previous statements, so Val and Avaar decide to do some snooping of their own. They end up at Threnn’s quarters and sneak inside. Val is able to find a notebook with her name on it and discovers that Threnn kept a journal about her interactions with the warlock. Val reads through and comes across a section that describes Threnn tracking the necromancers down to Val’s home. Apparently, Threnn knew about the aasimar family and had written that “the bait was too good.”

Val doesn’t judge too much.

The pair hear someone approaching and scramble to find a place to hide. Val decides to use the tried and true method of turning into a raven when things get hairy.

They avoid detection and head out to meet up with the rest of the party at the Slayer’s Take. Huntmaster Vanessa is introduced reads the letter from Lady Vex’ahlia. She promptly tells us that we are to be here in the morning for our initiation task.

The next morning, the party arrives to find Vanessa yelling at a man covered in gore, berating him for something. She dismisses him and gives us our contract.

She calls the man we had seen earlier back and tells him that as punishment for failing to bring in the Medusa, he would have to be our chaperone. He introduces himself as Victor, a plain looking human with a longsword on his back. He is the only surviving member of the previous hunting team.

Dixie is impatient to get going, so the party heads off and finds a map and potions (one that cures petrification) before leaving town.

The party singles out three ruins within the area that could house the Medusa, heading for the largest first. They encounter statues that Victor claims to be his party members before they come upon the ruins. The area is filled with statues, and the party warns that they should all stick together.

Veir apparently didn’t hear this and heads off on his own to where the statues are the densest. He finds a familiar face among them. Veir turns away from a petrified Victor to find a fey woman standing behind him, giggling as she discards the illusion she was maintaining. The Medusa suddenly appears, sidling up to the fey. They embrace, clearly an item and in cahoots.

Veir starts screaming obsentities as he unloads ammo into the Medusa, injuring her significantly.

The Fey, enraged by the assault, fire-punches Veir to into unconsciousness. The party descends, trying to reach their friend in time and draw fire away from him, but they are too late. The fey kills Veir before anyone can get close enough. The Medusa is slain and the fey is incapacitated via Polymorph. Calla manages to get to Veir in time and uses Revify to bring him back. The party descend on the fey, unleashing an onslaught of attacks. The fey dies, still giggling.

Calla, who had recognized the fey creature from her time in the feywilde court, spends some time on an unpleasant trip down memory lane before being brought back to the present by the team. The party use a rub they purchased in Vasselheim to unpetrify the real Victor and explain to him what had happened. Val, curious and wanting to lighten the mood, asks the dead fey’s spirit via her book if the sex was good.

It was. Obviously she didn’t read the room. The timing for that information wasn’t the best.

The party returns to the Slayer’s Take after harvesting the required organs. Vanessa reveals the contents of Vex’s letter, which says “They are just like us. They need to speak with her.” The huntmaster leads the party down to meet Osysa.

The Sphinx brands them and gives them free reign to ask for any information they need to aid their quest. Two more items and their locations are revealed to the party, Equuleus, the Aegis of Ages, hidden under the sands around Ank’harel - capable of manipulating time itself - and Cassiopeia, the Crown for Dreams, previously owned by a Herbert Fleetfoot, who was located in a town called Forthinar.

The party inquires about Queen Cecilia. Osysa looks in on her for them and comes out of her vision visibly shaken and with a nosebleed. She relays that Queen Cecilia is a Hollow One. Once a warlock, Cecilia’s patron was Arch Duchess Zariel, Mistress of Pain in the Nine Hells.  Cecilia’s soul was taken from her body and a shard of her mistress’s soul was placed within the empty vessel. Now the avatar strides around the material plane, searching for these ancient artifacts.

The party leaves, mulling over the new information they had gathered. Many members had noticed that Dixie appeared shaken at the mention of Forthinar. She tells them she knows the town. It was where she and her family were killed by a red dragon. If The Crown of Dreams remained in Forthinar, then that means it is now in the clutches of the dragon Dixie is bound to destroy. It slowly dawns on the party that if they go and face the dragon now, they would most definitely be losing one party member.