AD&D Session 53 - Shadows in the Palace
25th Fessuran 835 PD
The party pushes their feline mounts hard to return to Rosohna late at night. Despite the hour, Koro insists on heading directly to the palace, prepared to wake the queen if necessary. After some persistence, the guards fetch the queen’s consort. The party delivers their urgent report, prompting the consort to organise a support force to aid the departed giants. Due to an ongoing investigation into the earlier incident during their debriefing, the palace is under lockdown, and the party opts to stay the night within its walls.
26th Fessuran – 18th Quen'pillar 835 PD
Over the course of three weeks, the party delves into the mystery surrounding the palace intrusion, piecing together a pattern of subtle sabotage and theft. Several guards recall approaching the earlier debriefing with gaps in their memory, suggesting magical interference or manipulation. A quiet inventory of the palace reveals that numerous items have gone missing—mostly minor magical objects, but notably including a gem designed to store arcane energy and the queen’s own Cloak of Billowing.
The palace wizards, responsible for maintaining magical wards, have been diligent in their daily routines, yet in the aftermath of the incident, it becomes clear that select wards were deliberately disabled. Evidence also points to the queen’s personal guard being manipulated—he remembers tailing a suspicious figure who had been stalking the queen, only to later realise he must have been charmed.
While most affected rooms are missing just a single item, a few show signs of more targeted theft, with entire paintings and clusters of valuables taken. The investigation eventually leads to the exposure of an Empire spy operating within the palace. Near one of the stolen paintings, the party discovers a familiar gold coin stamped with an “S”—the same kind they had encountered before, now serving as a calling card for something far more organised than a simple burglary.