The great hall was transformed into a ball honouring Lathander’s and Chauntea’s love / alliance.
The gang (minus Maree) cavorted on the dance floor. Then the nobles, led by House Marielle arrived. To Redspear’s horror, his stepfather appeared with his mother… and another brother..? Maree was presided over the event as the Queen of Love and danced with the scion of the three noble houses (dressed as bear, raven and snake). Theren Sylvaranth charmed her with devout discussions on the greatness of Lathander.
Rae spotted her mother so at the end of the ball went up to speak to her, mentioning the name, Tristan Moonflower. Tristan would only say that they would speak later. They returned to their rooms to change. Rae’s Fabio thought that she was changed to attend the parade celebrating the Feast of Love. Rae was led to Redspear’s room and they discuss what had transpired. During the discussion, a note was slipped under the door: “Come to the Heartbreaker on the docks, tonight after the parade. Your questions will be answered.” They gathered the rest in the room. Maree, on hearing of the parade, commanded Fabio to bring her to House Marielle’s float. The rest stayed and discussed how they would approach the meeting. They left as the parade ended.
They made their way to the docks through throngs of masked/costumed people.
Rae split from the group while Redspear followed behind through his raven familiar. Maree had gotten there first and made herself conspicuous by lighting up the stonework floor and handing out chunks of chocolate to children gathered around her. Two Fabios watched over her. After a Fabio found the Heartbreaker, Rae and Maree boarded the ship which seemed to hold exotic animals from the parade. On the aft castle, they found Lady Sylvaranth aka Tristan Moonflower.
Maree was only interested in the two-headed death dogs and Lady Sylvaranth asked someone to give her a tour of the animal pens. Tristan was confused as to why Rae was here and not in the Feywild. Rae told her she had come to Faerun to bring her back to the Feywild. Tristan revealed that she had another child while in Faerun and was searching for Aspr, her son. Rae revealed that she had already found him — she signaled to Redspear’s raven for him to come on board the ship. Mother and son were reunited. She asked if Redspear had decided to return but he said no. She told him it was too dangerous for them to be here. Redspear asked if Lord Sylvaranth was here and she said no. Rae urged Tristan to go with them but she was reluctant to leave without her other son, Theren, too. Tristan told them the Heartbreaker crew can pass on any messages to her and said it was safe for her to visit House Marielle to speak with Rae and Redspear again. She was quite overwhelmed and did not know what to do, asking for time to think.
The next day, Redspear and Bree went to the House of Knowledge to conduct research, while Kavier waited outside.
Redspear learned more about controlling dragons — it is difficult to do by strength alone though giants have been known to have tamed dragons; it is dangerous but slightly more likely to succeed to command dragons with spells — dragons are known to be resistant to spells that attempt to compel them; dragons, especially chromatic good dragons, have been known to make pacts to serve great wizards though the wording of the pact must be carefully made. He also put in a request for a blueprint to make a ballista. Bree had less luck with her research on raising the dead and undead. Kavier wandered around and bought fireworks from Mr Grumble the Alchemist Gnome and some herbs to make potions/antitoxins.
Oohye went to the Hall of Justice to petition for Neverwinter’s help to fight the orcs and the white dragon, giving a good account such that the magistrate pushed up his case to urgent. At the end of the day, he found that Neverwinter had posted for 20 adventurers to help Phandalin. Afterwards, he went to see if he can find any jobs but the pay was disappointing. Rae went to the marketplace and attempted to sell portraits for 1gp each. Unfortunately, she did not get any business and only a child laughed and pointed that her face was melting. A group of six drunken halflings invited Rae to celebrate the birth of their newborn family member — it was a halfling tradition for the newborn to meet a variety of people. They kept her well fed and she drew a family portrait to commemorate.
During all this, Lady Angelica kept Maree at home for her wedding dress fitting. By the time everyone came back, she was sulking in her room and only reluctantly came down for dinner. She petulantly whined that she will be going to the Temple of Lathander the next day. After dinner, Maree went to find her mother who said that she needs to be around tomorrow for her second clothes fitting. If she wanted to pray so much, she can go to their private chapel — to which Lady Angelica dragged Maree.
The rest went to Redspear’s room conspired to leave the city and plan ways to get Maree out (if she wanted). They avoided the eavesdropping Fabios by casting the silence spell. To be continued…