Sx26 — How Do You Like Your Eggs in the Mourning

***How Do You Like Your Eggs in the Mourning*** is the 26th session of the campaign. It is preceded by Sx25 — Anteus' Revenge, and followed by Sx27 — Keep a Level Head.

This session takes place over a single day the 19th of Akhamentes. Notable moments of this session are the group learning of the effects of Anteus' attempts at ascension. Checking on the NPC's they now in the city and consoling each other after this struggle.

## Coming to terms

Leoven uses their divine sense to make sure that Anteus is deceased, the results are that he is most certainly dead. The group go on to look around the palace, discovering large groups of dead bodies with people cowering away from them, fearing that they will rise to attack them once again. It appears that the undead creatures were a mixture of skeletons, zombies and ghosts, from the ways that these civilians have been killed.

Khantos and Oto head to the tavern Heroes Rest, to check on their friends, on the way they are confronted by the masses of dead, that were slain during Anteus' Ascension. The metallic smell of blood almost completely dominating the air. As they approach the tavern though they note that the smell of saltwater began to mix in, and they noted quite a few streets covered in a thin layer of seawater. When they arrive at the tavern they see two figures standing outside of the tavern alongside quite a large mound of zombies and skeletons. The two people are Odysseus and Miteus, both look healthy and fine, Odysseus in armour for the first time, holding a helm with a blue plume. The two find that Heroes Rest is fine. And so they head on to check if Petros' Bookshop was okay. They find that outside basic defences have been set up and that quite a lot of the undead being defeated with arrows sticking from their remains. Upon entering, they discover Petros to be safe from harm as his bookstore was defended by a winter eladrin ranger who introduces themselves as Cyaro. They had been staying under Petros for a while when the undead began to attack. Curious about this legion of undead, she accompanies Oto and Khantos back to the Palace.

Leoven and Adrasteia have a conversation were Adrasteia expresses her worry and how much she cares about the party, in these situations. This is met by very little emotional intelligence from Leoven. *"I thought you were gone. I thought you were both gone!" - Adrasteia, "Well... We were" - Leoven.* They then head to each of their rooms for a well deserved rest after such an ordeal. As they head there they find dead servants who weren't able to escape, they even find a dead servant who was attempting to hide inside of Leoven's room. Both Rigani and Leoven stayed in the same room. Adrasteia investigates the ring after noticing something strange in the fight with Anteus, she notes the effects of the speed and toughness that the ring is bestow (Dexterity and Constitution Bonus), however they are able notice a presence within the ring that is for sure not Adrasteia, all they can gather is that the presence is like a ferocious wild animal. As Leoven and Adrasteia were going to sleep they were plagued by intangible ethereal voices that sounded like they belong to something that shouldn't exist. They were too old, too different, too far away.

## Final Conversations... Maybe

The next morning Adrasteia goes to the jewellery store they got the ring from to try and find out more about the ring. They find the shop with it's doors and windows smashed in. The smell of blood in the air, she quickly finds the body of the dwarven shopkeeper, she has been killed. There is a lot of jewellery missing. Asking a guard about it they are very little help, citing that the undead emerging from the ground had been the major problem at the time, and many specifics had been misplaced. The magic shop was also investigated, whereupon they found the teenager that had sold them pieces before, it seems that his parents had become undead and he was forced to kill his parents, in self defence. Investigating further they found claw marks that weren't indicative of the undead that had been raised, whatever the creature was, it was ginormous, bigger than a bear and was heading towards the bay.

Leoven wakes up and goes to Stellina's room to visit her and make sure the events of the prophecy are finished, Stellina doesn't seem to beleive they are and fears the meaning of the "Grey Flood". Leoven then goes to visit one of the many places where people are taking shelter, a shrine to the goddess Soteria. There she communes with the Goddess saying *"Soteria I made a promise I could not fulfil, I would like to enforce it under you, I would make an oath that I would protect him" - Leoven.* She promises to protect Khantos, due to their guilt over letting him die in the fight against Anteus. (This later causes so many, SO many issues).

Returning to the Palace, Cyaro senses an awful presence within its depths. Following it they track it to the Palace prisons. That are lightly guarded after the attack as the guards are trying to get things back under control. The only person alive in the cells is Eltin Burrowheart, having been arrested recently for her scheme against the King. What Cyaro senses, however, is actually the now dead body of Anteus. Somehow they sense a dark magic fading from the body and into the earth.

Rigani and Adrasteia go to the Palace kitchens and cook. Adrasteia asks Rigani questions which she avoids and Rigani asks about Carban and whether he lives, Adrasteia admits she does not know whether he is alive or not. Rigani while cooking comments that fried eggs were Vassilious' favourite, when questioned about the past tense Rigani tells Adrasteia that her son had passed away despite all attempts at healing him, even revivify was ineffectual.

*"I don't know how much more death I can handle" - Rigani*

She goes on to say how the death brought strain on her and her husbands relationship and that they have since split up. There is a conversation about things Vassilious loved, such as the pigs from the nearby farm.

Cyaro runs into Leoven who is doing their unique brand of helping with the rubble after the incident, they ask Leoven if they can get a meeting with the Queen as they must tell her about what they saw in the prison. Through this conversation Leoven and Cyaro get along quite well despite Cyaro speaking a much older version of elvish that Leoven doesn't know, something Cyaro is not afraid of calling out. This conversation also gathers the group together again so that they can all go visit Anteus' corpse in the prison to cast speak with dead and ask him some questions. Firstly Adrasteia casts detect magic, and sees the necromantic energy draining from Anteus' body and that it's almost entirely gone. It is going down into the earth, and is sinking further than the range of the detect magic spell. They then cast Speak with Dead on his corpse. He immediately starts to spew mist from his corpse as they rise to a standing position and his out their answers to the questions.

*"Who is your God" - Oto*

*"The Lady of the Mist" - Anteus*

*"Who is Mother?" - Oto*

*"My mother is dead, her name is Philareth" - Anteus*

*"What is her goal?" - Oto*

*"Your demise" - Anteus*

*"Why did you do this? - Oto*

*"For my ascension and the people of the Continent" - Anteus*

*"How did you get your Magic?" -Oto*

*"Research of things forbidden and The Lady was generous." - Anteus*

At this point Anteus' body dissolves into mist. Leaving behind only his heart still wrapped in that grey mist and a single string. At the time this was theorised to be the String of Ariadne and thought to be proof that Anteus had killed those people in Furtherton. Khantos takes the remaining heart and later casts identify on it. It is revealed that the holder of the heart gets revivified once if they are holding it when they die, as the heart beats one last time. This information is not shared with the group as Khantos elects to not tell them.

Adrasteia and Khantos go to the throne room and try to destroy the string, to no avail. Khantos then casts identify on the string, upon which he fails a wisdom saving throw and is confronted with all the ways he could die, this includes being run through by a weapon not dissimilar to the one Leoven wields. They do discover though that what they are holding is a cut string of fate. Nothing is known about the working of the Fates however and so little is concluded. Khantos then goes on to cast identify on the Ring of King Lykaon at the behest of Adrasteia, when he does he gets attacked by something, as claws slash him deeply across the chest, he then refuse to have anything to do with the ring. They try to get rid of it, but the Ring seemingly magically always finds its way back to Adrasteia. This is also were Adrasteia admits to Khantos quite devastatingly for her that it was her healing spell that resulted in his death, this emotional confession was met by Khantos' typical unemotional reaction and indifference.