21 - Revelations, Royal Drama and Regicide

Loyal reappears and we run down a quick summary so he's able to follow what's happening, and he passes the Otterish rite, to be able to speak to the Domefolk too.
Sir Tonq will follow us in our quest, and be the liaison and presents us on the behalf to facilitate the discussions, but won't engage in combat as he's still recovering from the White Dragon attack.

Before our next move, our current options are the following:

• We can check one of the four other tribes.
• We can search The Platypus.

Looking for The Platypus seems the most optimal, then checking the Ducks would be the next optimal backup move as they don't take a side, which seems strange with that war context.
The party is unanimous to search for The Platypus.

Sir Tonq leads us to where the shrine for The Platypus should be.
[Perception - Pass ✔] There's a trail that glitters with different colors. Nesvalyn senses that the energy here is weird.
[Insight] The energy feels familiar to Nesvalyn.
We finally approach a part where the forest is more overgrown.

[Survival - Pass ✔] We find the shrine pretty easily.
A moss covered shrine shaped like a little hut, with a kneeling stone in front of it, and from its state, it looks like it wasn't visited for a while.
The structure is 4ft tall.

[Investigation - Pass ✔] One of the kneeling rock has the grass around stomped down on one side, with the same shape as the stone.
Reylynn tries to move the stone.
[STR Check - Fail ❌] She doesn't manage to move it.
[STR Check - Pass ✔] Balnorin manages to move it.
A 3ft circular hole is revealed, that goes deep down down.

Sir Tonq is getting nearby, shaking, then backs away.

Persy tries to get into it until his shoulders, and gets stuck, as there's nothing below it. After a while, Persy is about to react that nothing happens, and at this moment, he is sucked in the hole.

And on these words, Loyal jumps in and is sucked in.
Willum follows close by.
Balnorin gets in without second thoughts.

Nesvalyn gets in after double checking with Sir Tonq.

We're travelling at high speed within this tube, see a few crystals through that glass tube, to finally arrive into a big cavern. We notice a light glass around us, as we're individually in a tube. In front of us, we see a huge crystal formation.
That familiar feeling of Nesvalyn intensifies.
After 90 seconds, each party member drop one after the other, where we all drop 5ft down inside a pool harmlessly, but all wet now.

On that, we decide to climb out this small pool and start to dry ourselves.

We hesitated too much before answering and Sir Tonq took the lead.

Once getting in, we discover the Duckfolks being slightly bigger than their animal counterpart. Most of them are unarmed, nicely dressed, but also loud and fancy. The armed ducks wear javelins and helmets.
We head directly towards the Duchess Platyri. Once at the palace, we ask for an audience, and we wait for a while.
Some butler greets us, and presents us:

We notice a duck with a long feathery hair, wearing a proper tiara on her forehand, and really nicely dressed.

Sir Tonq explains the situation, then let us speak.

[Persuasion - Pass ✔] Duchess Platyri reflects on this idea.

She picked a scroll and started to write her terms, then presents us a sealed scroll.

Sir Tonq blushes and looks away, not wanting to answer.

[Insight - Pass ✔] She's really being awry, it really seems a normal piece of paper with a wax seal.

Nesvalyn picks the letter, and we leave the court and the village. He asks Persy to check if the letter is magic, as he may fear that it's warden with a curse or something else, in the idea of "An eye for an eye."
[Detect Magic] The letter is not magic.
As we determined it was really just a simple missive, we're heading to the Cat kingdom. After how it went, Nesvalyn also suggests that we play a bit more by the etiquette, as any nobility works in a different way.

After walking for a bit, we arrive at the Cats' village.
We get announced the same way, except they're much more excited and interested (in a more sensual way).
Most of the cats we met are more armored than the Ducks, equipped with crossbows and leather armors.
We're heading to Lady Felisia directly.
Upon arriving in the palace, it smells heavily of burned catnip. Sheer fabrics are present everywhere, where we can notice some claw marks, but not enough to have it destroyed. A small band is playing some music.
When getting deeper in the room, we see the fattest cat we have ever seen, dressed in a big royal clothes, appearing to take a catnap. One of the intendent clears their throat to wake her.

Lady Felisia wakes up and sits up, revealing she's 6ft tall and would weight 400lbs from what we gauge.
She gives a sniff to us, gauging us back.

She gives a sinister look when she mentioned having some fun.
Nesvalyn presents the missive, and she is trying to reach it, and even with Nesvalyn trying subtly to help her reaching it, finally a butler takes the letter and gives it to her.
She opens it, and starts reading it, commenting what she's been reading.

As we sense the bloodthirst of Lady Felisia along not being able to make further progress, we decide to leave.
We hear in the distance, her calling a servant.

Once outside Lady Felisia's palace, Persy raises a question.

They laugh to their joke, then leaves, leaving the group a bit perplex and Nesvalyn slightly more desperate after that.
But nonetheless, it won't stop the group in their attempt to settle the peace within The Dome.

After some travelling, we're hitting midday, and the Beavers' city appears in our sight.

Sir Tonq goes backwards and hides, waiting there for our return.
Before going, Nesvalyn asks a favor to the party:

We're getting to the gate, and we're asking to see Longtooth the Eldest. They open the gate, and we're escorted by two full plate armors.

We navigate through dark tunnels and rooms until we reach the biggest leader's room we've seen in The Dome.
Sitting in a rocking chair, we notice an elder beaver with two long teeth passing down his chin. His brows are greyed out.
The knights announce us.
The elder figure keeps going rocking.

Upon this revelation, he started to ramble about his past, and no one wants to hear the wisdom of the eldest. Each party member leaves silently, until Nesvalyn realizes that the party left, bid goodbye and we're all heading towards the Capybaras.

After a walk in the swamps, we see mud huts, and we're also seeing stone huts, seeing stone being used for buildings for the first time in The Dome.

Sir Tonq once again retreats, leaving us between ourselves. We're quickly discussing on which angle to discuss with that Lord Mistophus. Once we have a general idea on how to deal with the discussion, we decide to head towards this settlement.
We're approaching the gates... getting closer to the gates... being near the gates... and nothing happened. A big brown nose pokes out.

[Persuasion - Pass ✔] The guard seems to believe us.

The gates open and there's a bataillon of 6 Capybaras greeting us.
They all wear intricate full plate armor, without anyone struggling to wear it. Along this strange armor, we notice these shining metal swords mentioned by previous leaders.

Upon progressing, we notice that village contains mostly mud huts, along a surprising amount of forges, all creating a bunch of these interictally carved metals pieces. We're led to a bigger mud hut. As we're heading in, there's a total of 10 guards wearing this heavy "good" gear in the room.
Sitting in the middle of the room on a metal throne, a very old large Capybara, who looks sickly, but also pretty overgrown, as he's about 11ft tall. He inched towards us.

[Divine Sense] Willum is feeling fiendish energy all around, like the area has been tainted, but there's no fiendish presence at the moment.

We're turning to leave, and we're stopped as the two guards guarding the entrance cross their spears.

The guards' armors and weapons are glowing red, we'll have to fight our way out.

Once he's dead, we hear a woman voice from behind us.

We see a woman with a hellish red skin, with an armor and weapons made in a dark alliage, while wrapped in chains, along two horns.

[Nature - Pass ✔] Reylynn has dripples coming from her neck, as it's not from Wundera. We're currently engaged with a devil, who are more lawful and following rules, compared to Demons, more chaotic and blood thirsty.

Next session: 22 - Dome & Devil