The Entrance Exam
Opening:
The session opens with Kate and Moki entering the top of the encampment. They see Angarth standing up from the chair in the middle of the room, preparing his axe. Katrina drops from the roof, placing an arm around both Kate and Moki, telling them that she told Angarth not to hold back, and heals them slightly, before leaning backwards over the ledge and falling into the room below.
Moki notices he's in a rage, but he's holding back a step above. He immediately closes the distance to make an attack on Moki. Kate attempts to interrupt him with an attack, but her sword practically bounces off his skin. He backhands Kate, knocking her prone and continues to make an attack on Moki, slamming her with the back of the axe. She retaliates by swinging her sword back at him with a smite while Kate gets up and uses eldrich blast.
The radiance practically bounces off his skin as he resists some of its effects.
Angarth makes an attack on Kate before attempting to grab Moki, but failing.
Kate uses Eldritch blast once again, and Moki swings again, attempting to use a searing smite, but fails to affect him.
Angarth disengages and makes an attempt to run to the opposite end of the room. Kate stops him with sentinel, Moki adds on a divine smite to Kate's attack. Angarth retaliates by attempting to bat Kate out of the space with his axe, but fails to knock her out of the room, only getting knocked back to the wall.
Kate runs up to melee range but is stopped by Angarth making a time-out pose.
Moki holds her action to heal Kate if he attacked. But he ends the fight, having seen all he needs to.
The group hears what sounds like cathedral bells, as they look down at the man they escaped before, who's shield was now caved in, and what should have been a broken arm. Katrina helps him up and casts greater restoration. The man lets out a hearty laugh.
Angarth moves to Katrina and the knight, he exclaims that it's nice to be hit so hard again.
Katrina and the knight laugh, and are much more calm than either Kate or Moki. They laugh and jest to Angarth, asking if he went easy on the pair.
He dismisses their comments.
Katrina introduces Wilhelm, the Shield to the Queen, and trainer of the Knights of the Round. Kate and Moki know Wilhelm as the Shield to the Queen in Britannica, and the reason the war broke out as he and the princess escaped with the sword of Excalibur.
Wilhelm is excited to see some new knights. Moki asks if this is because they have shards. He says yes, and follows up saying that the last time he had knights was when Katrina had put one of them in hospital. He asks why, and Katrina smiles and responds, subtly casting "Gift of Gab" as she says "They were going to use me and my girlfriend as reagents", which gets re-translated after 6 seconds to "I needed a better parking spot." After the statement gets re-translated, nobody remembers it. In the brief moments everyone heard it, both Angarth and Wilhelm have a look of horror on their faces.
With the task done, the group leaves, they get temporary permits and are told their licenses will come in the mail.
As Kate and Moki leave, the memory of what Katrina truly said is returned. The two freak out as they drive out.
Moki makes the comment about this being about Katrina being a chimera. Kate catches on and asks Moki if she's okay with Usagi being around. Moki responds that she's worried, since Usagi's been through a lot and that she had tried to avoid putting Usagi in a position that exposes her to this part of the world.
Moki accepts that it's not fair for them to have been disconnected for so long, and understands that Usagi may not want to go back or into asylum through the guild.
They keep talking, eventually Katrina explains that since Kate and Moki wanted to know. Moki mentions she's sorry about what might have happened to her and her girlfriend, learning about the truth. Moki also asks if this is about what Katrina truly is, as she feels some fear that the same could happen to her and Usagi.
Kate and Moki feel the car stop -- having not paid attention to where they were driving to. Katrina hands them the Coven keycard, and tells them to go in and find out.
The same pale elf from before stands in front of The Coven stands outside. He tells Kate and Moki they have a reservation to room 413. Once they arrive, they look around the crowd. They see a woman with a long blue dress, white feather boa, a flapper tiara, and red hair with purple tips. Kate realizes this is Audrey, she hears Audrey say "He's such a good listener". Kate asks who as a collar wraps around her neck and pulls her closer to Audrey, who replies "Someone you will never have. Run along little mouse." before she bolts to the elevator.
The pair head to the fourth floor and head to room 413 -- Katrina's room. Moki knocks, and the door opens. Kate and Moki head in to find a kind of safehouse there are weapons and other items littered around, in the center of the room is a pool -- they recognize this as a scrying pool. As they approach the pool, the stand of hair Katrina gave them glows.
Kate realizes that she holds a thought strand. She puts it in and reveals the memory.
They see from Katrina's perspective, a girl who has pale skin, red eyes, and red hair, and dragon horns coming from her head. The pair of them are having a moment together, enjoying the sunset before a sword juts out of Katrina's chest. She turns to deal with an attacker and is immediately shot in the leg, removing it. Katrina falls to the ground.
The other woman is attacked as well, and one of her horns is ripped off her head. Time fast forwards and the memory shifts to the two of them tossed in a dump, presumed dead.
Katrina is in a dark corner of the room and lays it out. There's a black market pailing which requires reagents. One of which is a dragon's horn. This pailing grants the caster immunity to all forms of damage. The ingredients to craft it require exotic reagents all of which show the mark of a good hunter. The more exotic the reagent, the more potent the spell.
She mentions she won't be seeing Sylvia for a long while. Katrina also mentions that she learned about her own regenerative properties. The two made it out alive, and Sylvia can regrow the horn, but it will take a long while before she wakes up from that.
The spell was used by the Monarchy's finest, but after the last perished, not many know that spells like these can be cast.
Moki knows that Dragon horns used to be a common magical item and held immense magical power. Moki also gathers that the ingredient they wanted from Katrina was the hero's blood.
On the way back to the mall, Moki sits in the truck bed, holding her minor illusion of her regular self. Her thoughts filled with a view from Usagi's perspective, seeing the same thing that happened to Katrina, happen to herself.