No One Can Know My Secret

Third time was the charm. Session 8 had already survived a Labor Day bye week and a sick call before it finally happened, landing the party two days into a week-long dueling season at court — a tradition with its own house rules for the occasion. No armor, no shields on the sand, and winning raises a duelist’s standing. Losing does not forgive the healers who patch you back up afterward: any spell slot burned on healing during dueling season only refunds at half strength on a long rest. The court does not make its charity cheap.

Magnolia spent much of the week in the infirmary paying that price, stitching duelists back together as they cycled through. One case stood apart from ordinary bruises — a fighter carrying what looked like a poison working in concert with something colder, a necrotic aftertaste that didn’t behave like simple venom. Suspicion in the infirmary settled on one name almost immediately: Vaelith Graveshade.

The dueling grounds have their own hierarchy. The Ravens are the court’s standing duelist faction, and word has it Judith runs with them, whatever her actual membership status. Vaelith Graveshade is not one of them — an outsider even among duelists, which may explain what happened next. Judith drew Vaelith in the ring and won cleanly. Vaelith did not take it as sport. She hissed that no one could know her secret and then went for a kill that had nothing to do with dueling rules. Judith put her down without killing her, and she and a companion named Joshah hauled the unconscious woman out of the grounds and threw her out of court entirely. Whatever the secret was, it left with her, unconfirmed.

Away from the blood sand, quieter business moved just as fast. A young goblin named Amerilis found Aldric and made an odd request on behalf of Princess Vailessia — an eight-year-old ward of the Summer Court currently living in the Winter Palace — who apparently wants nothing in the world so much as a puppy. Aldric and Tam took the request to Kolya, the kennel master they’d already built rapport with over the hunting hounds, and picked the runt of a litter to send along to the princess.

Chasing the errand turned up more than a puppy. Tam picked up court gossip about a Lady Sariel: a moody, black-clad figure who wanders the Winter Palace halls with all the sullen weather of a teenager, in the care of one Count Sammas Hallowgrin — Master Summoner, Royal Standard Bearer and Herald, Master of Fence, Lord of Fallen Archways and Broken Swords, and the same conjurer of hunt-quarry the party already knew as “Count Samus Hollowgrand” — Vargr confirmed in-table it’s the same man and Hallowgrin is the correct spelling. Sariel, it seems, is fixated on the kennel master’s troubles — some slight against the dogs that has yet to be explained. And somewhere above all of it sits Revich, an all-seeing angel said to keep residence in the Winter Palace’s Tower of Light — a name new to the record and untested so far.

Key moments

• Party’s Session 8 finally ran (third attempt) two days into the court’s week-long dueling season
• House rule established: healing spells cast during dueling season only recover half their slot on a long rest
• Magnolia worked the infirmary; treated a duelist with a poison/necrotic-aura affliction, suspected to be Vaelith Graveshade’s doing
• Judith won her duel against Vaelith Graveshade; Vaelith broke dueling conduct and attacked to kill after losing, shouting “no one can know my secret”
• Judith knocked Vaelith out non-lethally; she and Joshah removed her from the grounds and expelled her from court
• Amerilis (a young goblin) relayed Princess Vailessia’s wish for a puppy; Aldric and Tam selected the runt of Kolya’s litter to send to her

NPCs introduced or developed

• Vaelith Graveshade — dueling season opponent, not a Raven, suspected of poisoning/afflicting an infirmary patient; lost a duel to Judith, then attacked her outside the rules over an undisclosed “secret”; expelled from court
• Joshah — helped Judith remove Vaelith from the grounds; relationship to the party otherwise unestablished
• Amerilis — young goblin messenger who approached Aldric on Princess Vailessia’s behalf
• Princess Vailessia — ~8-year-old ward of the Summer Court, resident in the Winter Palace, wants a puppy (now en route via Aldric/Tam/Kolya)
• Lady Sariel — moody, black-clad figure in the Winter Palace, in Count Sammas Hallowgrin’s care, preoccupied with a slight against Kolya’s dogs; not yet met directly
• Count Sammas Hallowgrin — full titles: Master Summoner, Royal Standard Bearer and Herald, Master of Fence, Lord of Fallen Archways and Broken Swords; same NPC previously recorded as Count Samus Hollowgrand — Vargr confirmed Hallowgrin is the correct spelling (2026-09-22)
• Revich — an all-seeing angel said to reside in the Winter Palace’s Tower of Light; first mention, unmet

Open threads

• What is Vaelith’s secret, and does her expulsion end the threat or just delay it?
• Was the infirmary patient’s poison/necrotic affliction confirmed as Vaelith’s work?
• What did Judith and the Ravens’ relationship look like after this duel — does winning against a non-Raven change her standing with them?
• What slighted the dogs, per Lady Sariel — and does resolving it open a path to her or to Count Hallowgrin?
• Revich is named but untouched — what, if anything, does the all-seeing angel see?
• Session 6 (2026-08-03) notes remain unlogged

Loot, XP, character changes

• Court status at session end (DM, at table): Magnolia 13 (infirmary +3, saving the dying Raven +3, goodberries +2), Judith 10 (goblin onlooker duel, then Vaelith), Tam 7 (Kolya’s favor), Aldric received the same bump as Tam for assisting (likely 9, unconfirmed)
• Aldric earned inspiration (recalling Kolya’s name)
• Dueling-season long rest: no HP recovered; Aldric regains only one Portent die; Judith still necrotically wounded, capped at 35 HP
• Magnolia channeled a 4th-level Cure Wounds through her spider familiar His Majesty to save Judith mid-ambush (covert; may count as cheating if discovered)

Transcript details added 2026-09-28

• Sariel gossip (Tam, persuasion 16, insight 9, believed): she is cursed to wander lost in the halls not for having relations with the kennel master but for snubbing his dogs while she did. Kolya says he has never really met her (not insight-checked)
• The dying Raven’s comrades first named “the Crawling Knife,” a roachling, before settling on Vaelith; Vaelith denied poisoning anyone (Judith’s insight was a natural 1)
• Revich was gossip from the ogre butcher in the kitchens; Tam’s insight 25 confirms it true
• Session ended at the ramp up to the Winter Palace gate (steep cobbled passage). Amaryllis was no help beyond “surely a Reader of your status” can pass; party wants all four together to deliver the puppy as their way in
• A puppy (Kolya’s runt) is in transit to Princess Vailessia via the party