🗓 Session 5 – ⚔️👑 Final Duel

📅 Date of Session:

7/27/2025

The party reunites just in time for the final fight of the Champions' Ball: King Waldren vs. the Raven Knight.
King Waldren enters in green-and-gold regalia, carrying a twisted oaken shield and a longsword.
His opponent, the Raven Knight, drags a massive sword, face hidden by a helmet.
During combat, roots sprout from the king’s shield, encasing him in bark and enlarging him to nine feet tall.
The Raven Knight lands the first blow and ultimately defeats the king.
She removes her helmet, revealing herself as Queen Alyssa, Waldren’s first wife and the mother of his only son—long thought dead.
Accusing him of kinslaying, she plunges her sword into his chest, killing him.
Black fire erupts around her as she vanishes, leaving stunned silence before panic sweeps the crowd.

The party stocks up on supplies and travels to their newly acquired Blackthorn Manor.
Voss knocks on the front doors, which swing open on their own.
The manor’s exterior, once beautiful, now bears crumbling walls, overgrown grounds, and broken fountains—yet inside, a fire burns in the hearth and the floors are clean.
Mordain, the vampiric steward, greets them and confirms he will remain in service.
The party spends the night there.
HOMEWORK: Begin collaborative bastion design using DungeonDraft, DungeonScrawl, or Theater of the Mind.

Over a full English breakfast, Mordain cryptically asks Zane about a “night walk,” which Zane denies.
A messenger arrives with news: the king is dead, the city is in mourning, and Lord Signmonder requests their presence.

The party travels through mourning-filled streets: black banners, flags at half-mast, and nobles with armor dusted in ash.
Brandina, the muscular barmaid from the Leaping Lion Tavern, is seen among the mourners.
Lord Signmonder tasks them with guarding the queen and princess during the funeral ceremony.
Rumors about the queen include:
- She may be undead.
- She could be a devil.
- Possibly even an Erinyes.
The princess is said to be cruel, enjoying others’ suffering.
The king is to be buried between statues of Queen Alyssa and their son.

Glaive strikes first, slamming into Nelvax.
Xaniver summons Spirit Guardians, radiant forms swirling in defense.
Nelvax launches a Flurry of Blows, but the glaive is incorporeal.
Harlekk fires Eldritch Blasts, which pass harmlessly through.
Voss seizes the Spriggan Shield and, invoking divine magic, creates a duplicate of himself.
Zane, realizing force and steel fail, casts Fireball:
- Arcs the blast to avoid Voss.
- By fate’s twist, it strikes the statue’s glaive—revealing it as the true possessed threat.
Voss, standing amid embers, delivers a divinely inspired speech to Lord Signmonder, who solemnly allows him to bear the shield until the danger is ended.