Triphylla, a practiced purveyor of all manner of obfuscation, knew that the best lies had a bit of truth woven in. The trick was deciding which truth to offer.
Dressed in her best presentable costume, the halfling rose from the bench with an easy smile and a slight bow of her head toward the discerning guards.
"Certainly, sir."
She gestured casually toward the stained-glass windows of the Academy. "Among many prominent clients, my associates and I represent the interests of Lord Okerra of Merratt County. Lord Okerra is considering a donation to the Academy. A rather generous one, actually. We were discussing whether supporting young artists would be a better investment than funding politicians. The debate remains unresolved."
She flashed Lope an innocent smile. "Personally, I find artists less likely to start wars."
Her attention returned to the guard. "Of course, if we've inadvertently violated some local custom by admiring the flowers after sunset, we'll happily move along. Though I'd be disappointed. We traveled quite a long way and were led to believe a private tour of the Academy could be readily arranged at the door."
Triphylla folded her hands behind her back and tilted her head. "Now then, officer. Are we being questioned because someone reported suspicious activity, or because we look like the sort of people who *might* engage in suspicious activity? If neither is true, would you please escort us to our destination and announce our arrival?"
Triphylla had spent most of the audience distracted by Taldogis, offering the dog the occasional scratch behind the ears whenever she thought the Princess wasn't looking. At the mention of Carrius, however, her expression softened.
"I'm glad Carrius is recovering. Whatever fool brought him back was playing a dangerous game with a real person, not just a piece on a regicide board."
At the discussion of Maxillar and the border attacks, the humor faded.
"Starting a war to win an election. How depressingly cliché."
Triphylla fidgets. "You said the Lion Blades lost contact with all their people in the city? That feels less like bad luck and more like somebody systematically cutting eyes out of a skull. Do they suspect infiltration, compromise, or simply disappearances? Not that it matters."
After listening attentively to Lope's thoughtful response, Triphylla agrees. "Of course. We've fought too long and too hard for Eutropia to turn away from her now. Even I must admit the Empire is worth saving, although I truly can't imagine it falling apart under your stewardship as you say."
Triphylla spends much of her time split between the dining hall and the laboratory, replenishing her stock of alchemical concoctions and adding a few new ones to her inventory. Often her attention drifts back to the tower room, and a mix of fear and desire pulling her back to investigate more.
Later, when a private moment is available, Triphylla approaches Lope in a place where no eyes or ears are likely to surveil their conversation.
"As you probably know, I don't trust many humans, aristocracy less so, and royalty least of all. But I trust you, my friend. I have some belief in Eutropia's good heart, yet madness is in her blood. If the politics play out poorly, I would do everything in my power to support you as Steward of the Empire, with the child Emperor maintained in a lucid state. I believe we could do a lot of good, Lope, our group, given a chance. Surely, we would rally the lower classes in a way none of the current players is capable of."
Valeria's revelation about her dream causes Triphylla to spit the drink of tea she had just been offered by the familiar staff at Birdsong. An explosion of mist is followed by a cough and a course wiping of her face on her richly-embroidered sleeve. The halfling had been perfectly willing to let Xan slay the Prince for no better purpose than convenience, and it was only the heroics of her companions that saved the day, forestalling destiny.
Placing the tea cup on a serving tray and raising a hand to pass on a replacement beverage, Triphylla clears her throat.
"For what it's worth, your Exalted Highness, the resemblance was never the part that concerned me."
Triphylla stepped forward, her tone becoming more professional. "The drugs were already there."
She glanced toward Carrius. "Whomever engineered this spent years breaking him apart and rebuilding him. Conditioning, chemical dependency, isolation, psychological trauma. They weren't merely hiding a prince. They were manufacturing a person."
Her expression darkened. "And they were very nearly successful."
She looked back to Eutropia. "The good news is that he's stronger than he appears. The bad news is that recovery is not an alchemical formula. There is no tincture for stolen childhoods."
"On the bright side, he survived cultists, conspirators, a psychopomp, several weeks in a carriage, and my cooking."
The humor faded as she regarded Carrius and Eutropia together. "I suspect the important question is one you've been considering since we sent word we had found him: what does his existence mean to the line of succession, and to this civil war. He's still only a child, and a fairly vacant one, but those facts do not make things any more clear."
Triphylla remained bent over for a moment, hands on her knees, drawing a long breath that sounded suspiciously like a growl. Apart from a bout of typically wild hair, she had emerged unscathed.
"Still standing, yes, and feeling fortunate that you and St. John could handle this thing on your own." She was embarrassed about her contribution and too proud to admit it.
Spellcraft:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14
The halfling wandered toward the pile of scorched feathers, keeping a healthy distance from the abandoned scythe. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the weapon and the place where Xan had come apart.
"The ledger is written in blood..." she muttered. "Wonderful. Cultists write prophecies in blood. Psychopomps write ledgers in blood. Nobles write laws in blood. Nobody ever writes anything useful in ink."
She crouched and poked at one of the oily feathers with the tip of a claw.
"Besides, if fate keeps such meticulous records, it has done an absolutely terrible job of explaining itself."
Rising again, she glanced toward Lope.
"You realize this is becoming a pattern, yes? Every time we get close to understanding what's happening, something larger, older, and more dramatic appears to tell us we're all part of a grand design."
Triphylla sighed. "I prefer the simpler days when people merely tried to talk me to death."
The grin that followed took any sting from the complaint.
"As for your victory, Lope, enjoy it! I'm sure there will be many more opportunities for the rest of us to thump our chests."
She looked toward the river where Valeria had disappeared. Then, after spotting the oracle and recovering the prince, she turned her gaze back toward the road.
Perception:1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27
"Wonders never cease. Another carriage and horses waits for us across the bridge, unless my eyes betray me."
"There it is!" exclaims Triphylla when she notices Xan. She uses her enhanced speed to get between the demon and Valeria, and then aims her horns at its thigh and goes in sharply.
Triphylla moves to flank with Lope, cutting through the cloud behind the carriage to avoid the reach of Xan, then charging at it again with her horns lowered.
Triphylla feels like she's rammed into the side of a house. Momentarily dazed, she shakes it off only to look and see Lope standing in front of her and Xan vanished.
Triphylla can hardly believe they've survived this long against Xan. The psychopomp’s attention seemed to waver lake a candle in the breeze - easily and fleeting.
Her contributions to this fight thus far aligned with her desire not to fight the thing at all, and her personal preference to allow the Prince to be removed from the increasingly complicated mathematics of civil war. But her companions seemed set on keeping him alive, and so now she threw herself into the fray while their foe's attention pointed toward Lope.
She drinks an extract of Expeditious Retreat, the steps forward with all of her Rage, horns screwing out of her skull. She lunges in head first to attack!
With the Prince absconded away and Lope calling for flame, Triphylla steps out of the wreckage of the carriage and out of the mist. She darts to Xan's right, quickly consuming her remaining Invisibility extract in the hopes of sneaking in to attack.
I should probably redo my turn. We're not that far from taking Xan out, but it would take Triphylla a full round to prepare to make a meaningful attack. Not sure the Prince is going to last that long. Maybe that's for the best.
Triphylla had one more trick up her sleeve. Knowing that the carriage was destroyed, she drops down to where the Prince was seated inside. Xan would surely lop the poor boy's head clean off with his next swing, so Triphylla, not knowing what Valeria will do next but hoping it's some powerful spell, produces from her bandolier an extract of Invisibility. With a practiced flick of her thumb she pops the cork from the vial and presses it to the boy's mouth, as she had done several times before with the opium tinctures she had made. (Infusion discovery)
5' step to move from the driver's seat inside the open carriage.
Triphylla is surprised when an impenetrable cloud suddenly engulfs her. She does her best to keep the horses under control and the carriage moving backward away from Xan, which she assumes will keep following.
This is not her fight. Hopeful that Valeria's spell sends the demon back into the abyss, Triphylla wheels her little legs around the back side of the carriage and climbs into the seat. She quickly wrestles the reins away from the gobsmacked driver (?), and proceeds to urge the horses to reverse, at least forcing their foe into tighter fighting spaces, and with hopes of actually turning this into a chase.
Triphylla waits apprehensively for the demon to respond. While she's out in a night's effort to keep the prince stable, it would honestly be less complicated to allow him to be taken. She had no desire to fight this thing.
Triphylla folds her hands together and takes a slow, steady breath before speaking, her tone calm and deliberate, each sentence carried on a measured rhythm.
"Patience and precision must prevail, Valeria, for this poor prince has been pushed into a perilous dependence, and pulling him free will require balance rather than boldness, and care rather than haste."
She arranges the tinctures in a careful line, each vial aligned and labeled, her fingers pausing briefly as if committing their order to memory.
"He has been kept in a cycle of sedation, and if we strip that from him suddenly, we risk replacing one harm with another, so instead we must guide him gently, reducing each dose in turn, measuring each moment with care, and watching for the signs that his body is struggling to follow."
Her gaze shifts to the boy, then returns, focused despite the fatigue behind her eyes.
"If he begins to tremble or sicken, or if he cannot keep food or sleep, then we hold steady and do not press further, for this is not a problem to force, but one to manage with restraint."
When St. John speaks of rest, she nods once, thoughtful rather than reluctant.
Her sleep is brief and uneven, but she rises anyway, packing the tinctures with quiet care, wrapping them among more ordinary remedies so they draw no attention, and dividing what remains so that nothing appears excessive.
At the carriage, she climbs inside and settles near the boy, watching the slow rise and fall of his breathing with quiet attention.
"As you say, Lope. And pray we are not ambushed on the road."
A pair of wonderful posts, Lope and DM. It's a shame we haven't been able to keep everyone consistently active. I have enjoyed this game more than any other that I have played in this platform. It is a well-written AP and has been carefully executed by our DM.
I admit my desire to play games has waned in recent months as I've battled stubborn rl challenges, but the storytelling here has my enthusiasm renewed.
With her backpack and sack full, Triphylla groggily heads back to the Inn. She needed sleep, but there wasn't time for it. She knew they had to get on the road back to Oppara immediately to avoid suspicion around the Prince.
Once she returns to the Inn she immediately calls for her things in the room to be brought down. For once, she isn't a mess of blood and gore after a fight, so she can skip the customary bath.
Instead, she orders a large breakfast and explains what she knows about addiction to the others. Go ahead and check the spoiler in DMs previous post.
While I'm sure the town council would like us to present ourselves for a full report, I believe our work in Yanmass is done. If any of you want to do that, I can ready the carriage and the Prince for the start of our journey home."
Triphylla spends the rest of the night making tinctures with opium. She makes as much as she can, reducing the opium ratio with each successive batch in order to ween the Prince from the addictive effects and give him the best chance to free himself from the cycle of dependence.
Make as much as she can and worry about how to carry them later.
"I'll go in and talk to her myself, but maybe she has already fled with the rest. Either way, I need what's in that lab to take care of the Prince here. It's the easiest solution that does not raise questions we do not want to answer."
Triphylla will do just that, venturing across the hall to the alchemy lab.
Triphylla frowns. "It's not that simple," she says, replying to Lope. "I will need to continue to administer regular doses of this mind-numbing agent for the foreseeable future. To deprive him of it would cause more harm than good. He may eventually be weened from it, with great care. We need to escort the, ah, Prince back to Oppara, with great haste and secrecy. No one can suspect his identity is true.
"But before we leave we must revisit the alchemist across the hall. I think we should dispense with disguises at this point. Allow me another minute to fortify myself." She finally allows the disguise she had been wearing to drop, that of the risen Prince standing only paces away.
When the group is ready, she leads the way to confront the dwarf, if she has not fled with the other cultists.
Triphylla decides that explaining the last part about the chemical dependency is not important right now. Clearly, the dwarf in the other room would still need to be engaged, hopefully without violence now that the cult was beheaded.
At St. John's urging, Triphylla ambles to where the collection of
K Arcana:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20
Reading through passages of the first book on the cultist's desk, she directs her voice to Lope and Valeria.
"Recall the trompe l’oeil of Veleto Lotheed we found in the tower room at the Lotheed estate? I believe this book ties a bow on that bit of disturbing artwork. Coincidence? I think not!"
K Arcana:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14
She can make no more of the books and so picks up the notes on the table. She turns the diagrams round in her hands to make sense of the mechanical renderings, then her brow peaks. She reads the note again, carefully.
With a heavy sigh she starts, "We may have a very big problem. These Twilight Child cultists believe that their Carrius is in fact the risen Prince. If that's true, well, I don't need to spell out what is obvious. This high cultist, Vaddrigan, controlled the boy and created the cult so as to perpetuate the, erm, truth of the boy."
Triphylla suddenly realizes she's been fighting nothing at all, and she feels a fool. The energy drains out of her in a rush and she turns to see what's become of their mind-scrambling foe. She sees Valeria approach with a dagger and throws up a hand.
"No. Wait!"
But she is too late to save the cultist, who might otherwise have been subject to interrogation to learn why all of this cult nonsense was necessary, and who benefited from it.
The halfling sits heavily and pours a vial of holy water over her own head to snuff out the burning and soothe her scalp. It will take a while to grow her hair out again, and she would need a good hat in the meantime. She looks over to see that Lope and St. John are similarly recovered.
Too tired to exert herself further. She sits on the floor and waits for the others to decide what to do next.
I thought that was a fun encounter. It exposed our weakness. Valeria saved our bacon this time but it would be great to recruit another full caster. We should also be looking for alternative ways to cast Dispel Magic.
Triphylla shrieks and lunges at the shadow, fangs and claws bared. She intends to send it back from whatever abyss it crawled out of, or die trying! Snarling, the halfling tears at the darkness, terrified and desperate to rid it from this world and every other. She's still burning, but disfigurement by fire is of no concern whilst the horror exists.
When the cultist moves two steps closer, Triphylla goes to plan C. Her rage powers are exhausted, leaving her fatigued, and shaken from the spell, and when her hair catches fire she pats her head almost hard enough to giver herself a headache. All the while she presses toward the cultist, attempting to lock him up, half-climbing up the man's torso to try to prevent him from casting any more damned spells.
Triphylla frowns at the cultist's taunts, but looks at her companions, all now acting chaotically.
"I gave each of you a potion to drink. Use it now!"
This is a reminder that before venturing downstairs Triphylla handed to each member of the party a dose of Essence of Independence.
When ingested, this thin serum awakens your potential for independent action. If you are under the influence of a mindaffecting effect, you receive a new saving throw with a +4 alchemical bonus to break the effect (you can gain this benefit only once per day).
Triphylla shakes off another attempt against her wits, but she's beginning to wonder how long her luck will hold. With the cultist feeling queasy, she takes a step away from St. John and then lobs another alchemical attack in the direction of their foe.
Throw Anything:1d20 + 14 - 4 ⇒ (16) + 14 - 4 = 26
She lobs the Cytillesh stun vial at the cultist, hoping the combination of effects puts him out of action for a short time, long enough to get in a solid attack.
When broken, a cytillesh stun vial releases a flash of blue light consisting of bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light in a 20-foot radius. All creatures within the flash area must make a Will save (DC 20). Creatures that fail are stunned for 1d2 rounds if they're in the area of bright light, or are confused for 1 round if in the area of dim light.
Dex Mutagen, Dex Rage, AC 27, Rage Rnds Remaining: 0
@DM, Triphylla is now out of Adaptable Luck uses for the day, and any Will saves going forward are at +6, although she does also get +3 vs Charm and Compulsion, which I have been forgetting.
The mirror image causes Trihpylla to fight against illusions, but she lands one solid hit. This cultist is proving a terrifying foe, moving with great speed and throwing charms out like bombs at the party. At least her mind is steeled against these attacks, and now the cultist has flown clear of the group, which allows the halfling to change tactics.
She pulls a Ghast retch flask from her bandolier and tosses it in the direction of the cultist!
Throw Anything:1d20 + 14 - 2 ⇒ (13) + 14 - 2 = 25
The target is nauseated for 1 round and sickened for 3 rounds after that. A successful DC 12 Fortitude save prevents the nauseated condition, but not the sickened condition. Creatures within 5 feet of where the flask hits are sickened for 1 round.
Dex Mutagen, Dex Rage, AC 27, Rage Rnds Remaining: 1
No sorry he moved away on his turn. I've moved Lope and St John back, they can move their tokens if they like. I assume you will defer to set up a flank, since you're all going in one block there's basically no downside.
Yes, Triphylla will wait until Lope and St. John move in and then move to flank, if available.
