ZEITGEIST Tizbiz Zeitgeist Campaign

Finally, tyrant and murderer...

Heh, I know. It was quite a coincidence that we got this version of the Crypta, and I'll explain a bit of its background in my comments below (oh my, this sounds like a random youtube video...), even if this means that I'm going to post a shorter chunk of this session which is only the second part of the vault:

---

Next up is a puzzle with numbers and we both guess that this is where most Clergymen would have given up as it requires quite a lot of logic. We solve it after a while, open a door and suddenly stand in front of a demonic blob. The blob attacks us without warning and “bites” Auryn with corrosive slime. We manage to defeat the thing without too much hassle, but Auryn's wound seems quite dire and a close examination reveals that it might be infected with a demonic disease. Ottavia offers to take care of it and she manages to cleanse the corruption with one of her miracles.

Behind the blob we find eight holes in a wall, but six of them turn out to be trapped and only two activate a mechanism that pulls up one wall of the room which reveals a hidden but shattered mirror. We try to fix the mirror and to our surprise, each piece magically reconnects with its counterpart. However, as we work on the mirror-puzzle, we see that our reflections are skeletal versions of ourselves and that the reflection contains a door that doesn't exist in our reality.

As soon as we fix the whole mirror, the skeletons get a will of their own, crawl out of the mirror and start to attack us. And unfortunately, they seem to be direct copies which means that they got the very same abilities that we have. However, they seem to lack our tactical abilities and teamwork. We guess that skeleton!Ottavia might be the easiest one to shatter and Auryn explains that getting her down might need a coordinated attack, so maybe skeleton!Carlyle should be next. We down them one after another and as they seem to re-form inside the mirror-verse, we decide to shatter it again.

As we know that the skeletons just mirrored our motions up to the point when we fixed the whole mirror, we decide to leave one shard out and let our copies open the door in the mirror-verse. This causes an open door to appear in our world as well.

(Tizbiz said that this wasn't really the intended solution, as we should have gone through the mirror, fought the skeletons and run for the door, but he thought the idea was too brilliant to ignore)

Behind this door we finally find Ashima-Shimtu who's hanging on hooks above a pool filled with holy water. Auryn instantly recognizes this figure as the tyrant and murderer she saw in Nevard's vision and guesses that she might have some kind of map that leads everywhere.

Before we can get to her, we are suddenly approached by a strange humam looking figure clad in the tattered robes of a Godhand. He mutters mere nonsense, but when he sees Auryn he calls her the “brood of the whore Srasama” and she's barely able to resist the urge to bury her weapon in the man's chest for this insult of her goddess.

“Calm down. Judging by his mad eyes, his mind is beyond gone.” Carlyle says with a mix of both relief and sorrow while the demoness laughs in amusement.

Between us and the man are more mirrors and as soon as we pass one of them, another skeletal double emerges which we cut down quickly. So we decide to take the careful route and avoid walking in front of the mirrors.

“Oh what a pity, I almost began to enjoy your little show. Now could you please take care of this babbling madman as well? I'm sick of his voice.” Ashima-Shimtu says with a sarcastic undertone. The moment she finishes her request, the mad Godhand charges at us to defend “his mistress” and we beat him unconscious and tie him up for good.

“Well done. Now welcome to my domain, Auryn, daughter of Galadin, daughter of Kaealys, daughter of Launga, daughter of Kasvarina Varal, daughter of Lorpadi Varal, daughter of...” (she continues this for quite a while, kind of alternating between male and female names after Kasvarina) “and also welcome Gabriel Carlyle, thirdborn of house Carlyle, human whose soul was reborn by a dying goddess. I am Ashima-Shimtu, mistress of this forsaken domain, keeper of secrets and prisoner of the foolish Clergy”

“What a coincidence. That'd make us two secret-keepers in one room” adds Auryn, hinting at the meaning of her own name.

When then ask the demoness how she ended here and how it could be possible that she stayed in our world as we know that demons and other extraplanar creatures can stay no longer than 5 minutes in our realm. She finds this question rather amusing and explains that she's been here since the rise of the demonocracy and found herself unable to return to her home plane after their rule ended. She didn't want to die like the legions she once commanded and so she offered Triegenes' followers her wisdom. She adds that she's a potent seer and knows many secrets, even if those Clergy fools didn't really know how to use her knowledge. Still many desperate priests came to her over the years, begging for her insight. Even if she grew kind of lonely over the last century or so.

We take her by her word and ask her about Miller and Kasvarina and their reason for entering this forsaken place. Ashima-shimtu laughs and immediately asks us what we're willing to pay in return for this story. Auryn answers that she'd offer a story for a story which would be a fair trade in her eyes. The demoness declines this offer though and says that she could tell Auryn of her mother's fate and well-being if she'd still be willing to share her tale. Now it is Auryn who declines as she says that she'll visit her mother soon enough and doesn't need petty divinations. She insists to hear the story of Kasvarina and asks Ashima-Shimtu to name her price should she not be satisfied with Auryn's offer.

Unfortunately for us, Ashima-Shimtu shakes her head and says that this tale is a story for another time as she knows that this won't be the last time the three of us will meet. We call this quite a self-fulfilling prophecy as this way she herself is making sure that we will return in the not too far future.

“What a clever lot you are.” she chuckles. “But you should know that my predictions are quite... reliable. And so you should also know that it will be the two of you who will doom this world. Oh the sweet, sweet irony.”

We tell her that we don't put much trust in demonic prophecies or doomed fates and instead prefer to take our fate into our own hands. It seems like Ashima-Shimtu is quite amused by our reaction and so she offers us something truly valuable: A one-way ticket out of her crypt. If we promise to take the crazy Godhand and the priestess with us that is. And if we tell her a secret that no one else knows in return.

“She of all should know how to keep a secret.” Auryn says and agrees. She then thinks about “the secret” for a while and decides to play it safe, walks up to the demoness and whispers her secret into her ears. Carlyle is next and he almost stoically walks up to Ashima-Shimtu, whispers something and returns. Ottavia isn't used to making a poker-face and so she's kind of agitated when she's telling her secret and we can guess that it must be something about Luc Jierre.

Ashima-Shimtu then says that we'll have to wait until noon the next day, so we might as well rest peacefully here. We tell her that we'll wish to travel to a small inn near Vendricce that Auryn knows from her first journey with Zahir. She adds that she knows that no one knows we're still alive – even if that might change soon - and we get that we could use this to gain the element of surprise.

(This whole Crypta Heraeticorum episode was both strange and fun at the same time. I'm usually a bit skeptical when it comes to dungeon crawls, but this was mostly clever traps and puzzles and very light in terms of rooms with random monsters. So that's a huge plus. But let's start at the beginning.

First, Ottavia is a really great NPC. She has a believable motivation as far as we know as she's both ideologically and emotionally bound to Luc Jierre. She was also totally convinced that they're the good guys and we're the bad guys, so much that she's willing to die for her idea of defending Luc. But that also meant she offered a perfect opportunity to win her over. Also, we genuinely liked the pair and got the impression that they are well-meaning, albeit a bit naïve. I hope that we made a strong enough impression on her by trying our best to save her and get her back to Luc despite her suicide-assassination attempt that she'll return as an ally someday. She also knows quite a bit about the two of us now, so... *fingers crossed*

Second, Tizbiz only realized that there was this Crypta Add-on adventure when we just finished the dungeon and returned to Vendricce. So he took quite some time to create his Crypta by combining parts of other Cryptae versions he saw in other threads. Or so he said. He then realized that the actual adventure contained sacred artifacts of Srasama and hooks that would be valuable to us and promised to either use them should we eventually return - meaning the crypt has a will of its own and/or can change its layout - or simply store them in another dungeon of the Clergy. So yeah, looking forward to that as well.

Third, and that's a well-meaning advice from a non-native English speaker who's quite fluent in this language but nonetheless not used to all sayings, limmericks and folk lullabys to all other non-native speaking DMs: Be careful when you integrate word puzzles in English. Your players might not get the point of a puzzle at all when said puzzle plays on sayings. There was one such puzzle in the Crypta, but I don't really remember when or where so I didn't include it in my recap. And we really didn't get it because there was no equivalent saying in German. The – also language-dependant - courtesy door worked just fine on the other hand because this translated well. Just... don't frustrate your players.

Fourth, Ashima-Shimtu and that whole Kasvarina/Miller story. What a revelation. I'm sure that Auryn and Carlyle mirroring the two is merely a coincidence in the original adventure, but I don't know if Tizbiz has anything planned that way as he kind of toys with the fact that Auryn looks very much like Kasvarina in addition to being her direct descendant and as we believe that Miller could just be a Deva who teamed up with his people's mortal enemy. They also seemed to be close, so... maybe all this has happened before and it will happen again)

Obscuparty

During our waiting time, we receive a sending from Chief Inspector Delft who's very worried about the state of our mission as he got word from Margit who couldn't return to the train in Sid Minos as she got caught up in one of the Clergy's routine controls and doesn't know where we or Burton are. He then asks us about our official status and whether we need an escape route. We answer that we're currently faking our deaths, got caught up in a cursed crypt, but still plan to be in Vendricce in time. We also think that Burton is still aboard the train and in deep cover, so he doesn't need to worry.

(Yeah, we managed to get this message to Delft in 25 words. Carlyle is quite a master when it comes to efficient sendings.)

10 minutes later, Delft continues his message and says that everything's fine then. Even if he doesn't know who that strange Eladrin girl might be that got delivered to his antimagic holding cell. He finally orders us to get both the Lantern and Luc and return to him in Flint ASAP.

Before we use Ashima-Shimtu's passage to Vendricce, we take some time to talk about Luc with Ottavia. She explains that his safety has utmost priority for her and she's more than willing to die for him. We try to talk her out of anything suicidal as we'd just like to talk to Luc and don't intend to do him any harm. After all that happened during our journey aboard the train, we truly considered him to be a good acquaintance and a nice fellow on top, so we'll try to let him see that he just joined the wrong conspiracy. We cannot promise that we won't use a bit of force to make him come with us, but we plan to be gentle with him and bring him to her first, so he'd have an incentive to follow us as well.

Ottavia seems okay with that plan and so we all take Ashima-Shimtu's holy water portal to Vendricce once the time finally arises. The demoness still insists to take her cursed Godhand keeper with us, so we force him down the pool as well. We're a bit confused first, but realize that we're suddenly standing in front of a cozy inn in the rural outskirts of Vendricce. There we rent a spacious room and ask Ottavia to just stay inside and keep an eye on the tied up madman.

We know that Luc is about to arrive aboard the train the very same evening and so we decide to check up on the Jierre nephew, even if Bergeron's meeting was scheduled for the 20th and not the 16th of Winter. This way we might get to know where he'll be staying until his eventual convention and have an easier time contacting him.

So we head to Vendricce station and observe the train at a safe distance. When we see that neither Luc, nor Tantalovich or Bree Kaldeckis leave the train, we assume that they might be still aboard, turn invisible and follow the train to a nearby depot. Once we get there, we are more than surprised to see none else but Lya Jierre, dressed up for a ball or similar high society event, who greets her brother with an honest embrace and says that she's glad both he and his package made it to Vendricce in one piece. Luc's mood seems to lighten up a bit when he sees his sister, but as soon as she mentions their trip, he grows quiet and depressed. As Lya leads the trio to a seemingly empty train depot and hands them all rusty iron amulets, Luc explains that Ottavia sacrificed herself for him as they had to shake off some unknown and rather persistent spies.

As soon as they enter the depot, Lya asks Luc to place his lantern on a table, hands him some mysterious material and then lights up the lantern. Slowly but steadily shady figures appear inside the hall and it seems as if they happen to exist in some sort of intermediate plane, brought to our world by the lantern's magic. The figures turn out to be more richly dressed people who are attending some sort of party. And it just seems like Luc is the guest of honor everyone has been waiting for. They greet him with an applause and someone calls the “lantern project” a huge success. Luc isn't really in for a festive mood though as he's still grieving for Ottavia, even if he does his best to hide his feelings.

Lya and Luc talk a bit about the lantern and Luc mutters something about fearing that someone might abuse his technology to use it to gain world domination. Lya tries to placate her brother by telling him that Nicodemus and the Obscurati will surely use his lantern to make the world a better place for everyone. She adds that everything will fall into place once they reach “the palace”. We take a short while to discern whether some of the guests might be people of interest and we do find one man who's busy chain-smoking cigarettes, as well as Lester Grillory, a wealthy Risuri, Dustin Huff, one well-known astronomist from Danor (both wearing silver rings) and the Crisillyiri twins Emily and Anna Davis (who got golden ring) who are working for the government. We instantly remember that Doro was chain-smoking leaf of Nicodemus as well and guess that Lya might be referring to this (maybe possessed?) man when she mentioned “Nicodemus”, who she also called a man who has the wisdom of 500 years.

(Now that's again a rather interesting coincidence... so it seems that whoever Nicodemus is, be it a ghost, a similar incorporeal being or simply a man with the power to enter other people's minds, he was somehow also alive during the time of the Malice. And if he's someone who still possesses a body, there's a high chance that he's either an eladrin, a deva or an undead...)

The smoker seems to be in charge of the whole event as everyone turns silent when he raises his voice to tell everyone that the true party will start in a few minutes – as soon as the lantern finally burns down.

We get the impression that time is ticking out on us and that all of them might switch planes once the lantern burns down. And since neither of us got a corresponding iron amulet, we're pretty sure that we won't be able to follow them to the place of their party. So we decide to carefully spring into action: Carlyle slowly and invisibly sneaks towards the lantern while Auryn plans to take on Luc.

Before we can act, Nicodemus, who'd been gone for a mere moment, returns, walks towards Luc and tells him that he got news for him: Ottavia is still alive, but she doesn't answer his calls which seems rather odd. This causes a heavy turmoil in Luc who's about to collapse at Nicodemus' revelation. We decide to wait until Luc puts himself together eventually. Then Carlyle blows out the lantern, grabs it and a split second later Auryn carefully lifts the amulet over Luc's head.

The menagerie starts fading at an instance and Luc is too baffled to react. We both turn visible again, but the only person to react in time is “Nicodemus” whose face turns into an angry grimace. He immediately hurls masses of magic missiles at us and we have no choice but to take the blows. When he sees that we're still standing after the barrage, he threatens that he knows exactly who we are and that this won't be the last time we'll cross paths. But even he cannot resist being pulled back to the strange demiplane.

The only people who remain in our world are Luc, Lya and Bree Kaldeckis. The two women draw their weapons and are ready to charge at us, but Auryn sings a short lullaby and they both fall into a deep slumber. Luc is very much irritated from what just happened. Auryn excuses her spell against his sister, but she didn't want to harm her, nor would she let her keep Luc from making the upcoming decision on his own.

We explain that yes, Ottavia is still alive and we prevented her from sacrificing herself to a bunch of rabid zombies. She's also very worried about Luc's well-being and we had to promise her to get him out of this alive. We tell Luc that we intend to keep this promise and we won't hurt neither him nor Ottavia, as we have no reason to do so. The only things we desperately need are answers and we hope that Luc can provide us with them. So if he'd like to see his friend again really soon, he shouldn't resist our travel spell.

(That was the point where Tizbiz congratulated us on totally avoiding a really chaotic encounter and a turbulent flight from the Obscurati. Well, we're only two people after all, so brute force can turn quite lethal when you're outnumbered and that Nicodemus seemed rather powerful. Lya and Bree both failing their will saves was a bit of luck on top of that.)

Luc accepts our terms and together we teleport to the inn where we left Ottavia. The two of them fall into each other's arms and they seem both happy to be reunited after their tearful goodbye the day before. We tell Luc about our joint venture in the Crypta Heraeticorum and about our exchange with Ottavia regarding the Obscurati. We explain that we are no enemies of him or his sister, but after all that we heard and saw we guess that at least that Nicodemus guy could be up to something really sinister, like the aforementioned world domination. We promise Luc to show him evidence of our claims regarding the Bleak gate activities if he accepts to accompany us to Flint. We also promise that he wouldn't be our prisoner and will be free to leave any time should he desire to return to Danor.

Luc accepts to travel to Risur on this terms and so Mr. Carlyle readies his teleportation spell to first bring us to Sid Minos to get our partner, Ms. Stenz, who “somehow” got stranded there. Once we arrive at the train enclave in the city, Margit informs us that she, Andrei von Recklinghausen and Rock Rackus all had to endure a lengthy checking of their papers which turned out to be quite troublesome for our white-haired hero. However, she, the Grientos and several other passengers vouched for him, so while they did miss the train due to the delay, they at least managed to prevent Andrei from being imprisoned.

We then take the now rather large group and Carlyle teleports us back to Flint. We lead them all to the RHC HQ and then directly to Chief Inspector Delft's office. Delft is surprised by the colorful gathering of individuals and we promise our boss to explain everything in time. But first, we thank Rock Rackus for his help and then try to shove him out of the office as quickly and politely as possible. Afterward we tell Delft about the mysterious Mr. Mapple, alias Andrei von Recklinghausen. Delft remembers the name to be connected to the Nilasa case and we say that he's the doctor's son. Sort of. Also, he's an acquaintance of the Eladrin girl who was brought here a few days ago, so it would be sweet if someone could lead Andrei to Isobel. Finally, we explain that we found the chained and gagged mad godhand in the vault of heresies and it seems as if something is weird with his memory. Right now, he's a danger for the populace and so it would be safer to keep him locked up, even if we'll try to help him in time.

Then we turn to Luc Jierre and Ottavia Sacredotte. Carlyle presents Luc's lantern to Delft and explains that both of them came with us willingly. This also means that they are our guests and are free to leave whenever they want. In addition, we told them that we got evidence for Obscurati activities that endangered the citizens of Flint which involved murder, kidnapping, arson and blackmailing.

It seems as if Delft is a bit uneasy at the thought of giving away crucial information to a possible enemy of Flint, so we say that the reports on the collateral damage in the causa Macbannin might suffice (without using specific names of the suspects, of course). Delft reluctantly agrees and so we get the files on the attempted assassination of the High Skyseer Nevard, the Witchoil Jaguar dissection report, the sabotage and staged accidents in the Parity Lake factories, the alchemical analysis of Witchoil (including a possible use as fuel for robots), the evidence of a dangerous mass production of Witchoil in the Nettles, as well as the full report on the abduction of Lynn Kindleton, the murder of her RHC guardian, and the resulting attempted murder of Ms Kindleton, Dr. von Recklinghausen, and the agents of RHC Team C.

We also tell him that one of the heads could be a man named Leone Quintal, but Luc convincingly explains that he never heard this name before. He's also sure that the Silver Cell would never use methods like this or endanger innocents. We kind of believe him, but also note that this Nicodemus sounded pretty much like a very determined fanatic who threatened Auryn and Carlyle directly. We add that we're pretty sure this guy would kill us if he ever got the chance, so it could very well be that this man abuses the idealism of Luc, Lya, Ottavia and the Silver Cell for his own gains. And we again stress out that his ultimate goal might very well be nothing short but world domination.

(And to us, this sounds like a very sound plan for a 500 years old evil mastermind. Who might just be after one of his final puzzle pieces to achieve just that. Who knows how long the Obscurati or Nicodemus have been doing this? The Vekeshi would probably laud him for his patience.)

Luc kind of agrees with our assessment of Nicodemus, but he also points out that his lantern technology is meant to bring harmony and tolerance to the world. And these are indeed noble ideals in a world where war is commonplace, peoples have been wiped out due to religious and territorial conflict and where people suffer from rampart violence. We agree that peace is a noble goal, but also mention that the tribes of Ber were once united under the harmonious tyranny of the dragons. Still no sane Beran would wish to return to the rule of their overlords, even if that meant less inter-racial conflicts.

We get the impression that Luc at least believes that there's some truth in our words and we also offer to take him to the abandoned witchoil factory in the Bleak Gate complex so he might see the evidence with his own eyes. Before Luc can tell us whether he'd like to take this “tour”, he's suddenly struck by a nasty headache. After a minute he explains that Nicodemus tried to contact him and offers to bring him home. He didn't answer the call though and isn't really sure who he should trust. And we get the feeling that he isn't even sure about his own wishes right now.

We explain that we will neither force him to accompany us to the Bleak Gate nor will we keep him from returning to Danor. We do offer him and Ottavia to stay in the RHC HQ should he feel unsafe though. Luc says that he'd prefer to stay in the Danoran embassy though, so we escort him there and secretly ask LeBrix to keep an eye on the sovereign's nephew as we don't know whether someone would want to silence him.

(At this point we both thought that there was a good chance that Luc would wind up dead or disappear under mysterious circumstances. And we knew who the Danorans would blame then. So we thought that LeBrix would be our best bet to ensure that nothing happened to Luc as we knew him to be loyal and with his heart at the right place.)

When we return to Delft, he says that we'll better explain him what he just witnessed and we reply that he'll get a full report the next morning. We hint that he will surely wish to spend some time with Margit now that she's back in Flint, so reading reports will surely not be his top priority.

The Vekeshi would probably laud him for his patience.

Click to expand...

Hm.

A new home for Isobel and Grappa for Cippiano

RangerWickett said:

Hm.

Click to expand...

Oh damn... you're giving me ideas. Now I have to put Vekesh on the list of possible "Nicodemus' true identity" candidates. Even if this would mean a major twist for his character. And I rather thought he'd be Navras' true identity.

Only time will tell...

So now for a rather short part of session 23 as the final entry will be a very long talk and include major revelations about Carlyle's character:

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After their talk with Delft, Auryn and Carlyle part ways as she expresses the wish to talk to both Isobel and Andrei while he explains that he'd like to deliver the news about a certain Capo de Cina to Mr. Cippiano.

Isobel is still in the antimagic holding cell when Auryn arrives in the basement of the RHC. She seems to suffer from agoraphobia and has a hard time understanding what it means to “be free”. Andrei is present as well and he seems relieved tho see her without veils or chains. Auryn explains that the vile woman Elanor and her business partners are dead, so there's no need to keep Isobel sheltered from possible divinations anymore. Also, she explains that, while she's still the same nice woman they met on the train, she and Mr. Carlyle are in fact agents of Risur which is why we had her brought to Flint.

It seems like Isobel isn't used to care for herself though and as she's easily intimidated, Auryn thinks that it wouldn't be the best idea to simply release her to the jungle that is the city of Flint. So she tells the young Eladrin that she's got a room to spare for both her and Andrei (if he wishes to stay near Isobel). She also offers Isobel to teach her about life in Flint and her Eladrin heritage.

“For a start, you are no one's servant and especially no one's slave. You are a very special woman though, which is why you need to learn to defend yourself.” she says and Andrei adds that he will do his best to protect Isobel as well.

Auryn then carefully tries to ask Isobel about the Traverses and her mother. Her answers are pretty disturbing for Auryn though as Isobel has no less than 5 branch-mothers beside her own mother and 16 sisters and branch-sisters. She also says that while she did feel miserable at times, she had just accepted slavery and servitude as the fate of her kin and was prepared to serve a master in the not so far future. Auryn then realizes that Isobel has never heard of Elfaivar and doesn't even speak elvish, so she sings her a short hymn praising the majestic forest and the magical wonders of the lost city of Bharata.

"Were you born in Elfaivar, like I was, you'd not be raised as a slave, but as a future queen. You'd be revered as a beacon of hope for our people, a shining star in a world of darkness. If you wish, I'll teach you everything there is to know about our legacy in time."

She then releases Isobel from her cell and asks her to simply stay close to her on their way to Stray River. As for the Traverses, she plans to make sure that the Vekeshi will know about their crimes soon so they may receive proper vengeance and so that Isobel's family may be freed.

Carlyle takes a cab to Cippiano's boule ground where he finds the Don playing boule with his godchildren's kids. He takes the man aside and offers him a good bottle of Grappa from Vendricce so they may discuss the events in Nalaam in a proper fashion. Carlyle explains that he had a rather unpleasant experience with the Capo de Cina of Nalaam who didn't follow the Familia's honorable business practices and tried to change a contract on a whim. And as he couldn't just let the Capo de Cina get away with such a disgraceful practice, Carlyle threatened him by saying that “Don Cippiano would most certainly not approve of such a behavior”. He then apologizes that he had to use the Don's name without asking him for his approval in advance.

Cippiano brushes the matter off by saying that a lowly Capo de Cina isn't really worth his attention. Still Carlyle put his name on the table and he would risk his reputation if he didn't act accordingly. For all of his troubles, Carlyle hands him the remaining Grappa as a gift and adds that he has something even far more valuable for our dear friend Pietro. Cippiano says that he needs to talk to Pietro about future businesses abroad anyway and it seems as if he just named a good candidate for Nalaam's next Capo de Cina.

Carlyle then presents Pietro the ornate ring he got from the Bravura's cousin and he's really happy to receive the gift. He explains that oftentimes his dearest Venezia isn't very fond of his nighttime job, so he hopes he can appease her a bit with the ring.

(The Familia is using Venezia's patisserie as means of laundering money from time to time and she does seem to be okay with it. She's less enthusiastic about her dear Pietro being an enforcer for the organization though.

As a sidenote, "Cafe Venezia" is a pretty common name for cafes and gelaterias in our area. So I guess that's where the inspiration for her character came from)

Meanwhile, Auryn shows her two new guests around in her home and leads them to their new rooms. She introduces them to Flying Spark and Dr. Meredith and both Andrei and Isobel are a bit confused about the fact that the faerie dragon is hosting an academic in his body. Then she excuses herself as she has some private matters to discuss with her partner and wishes them a good night in advance.

(So yep, Auryn just got herself two new housemates. I joked afterward that she is then holding a small court in her home: A lady's maid with Isobel, a noble guard with Andrei, and a fearsome dragon with Flying Spark)

Seems like a happy ending, all things considered. Maybe not the ideal honeymoon, at least not for normal couples.

Yep, I'd consider it a happy ending as well. As for the honeymoon: for them, especially in their surrogate roles, it was pretty much spot on. Besides that whole Elanor returns debacle. But that's from the character's perspective and even this episode allowed them both to grow.

Overall, adventure 4 has been a blast. From the premise of having your characters play other characters (talking about roleplay-ception), the planning, to the various colorful and sometimes outright crazy other passengers to the game of cat-and-mouse to the eye-opening finale.

Some of my/our personal highlights were:

- the supporting cast. We both equally loathed Elanor and Boone and loved the Grientos and Mr. Mapple. Carlyle instantly liked Kov Marik as well. We spent quite some time to find ways to figure out how to stop the machinations of both Elanor and Boone (I don't know how many times I said “I'd just love to just kill them”) without blowing our cover only to find some missing puzzle pieces by chance. I remember that scene when we had followed Elanor to the alchemist's shop, discussed whether we'd try to get Isobel right there, only to see Mapple step in the very same moment.

- NPC interaction. These guys and girls felt like real (albeit pretty strange) people who exist on their own. So naturally, they interacted with each other.

- Our choices were relevant. We both could play on our themes, our character's backgrounds and also our cover identity's background. And it didn't feel as if we'd missed something by not having, say, a martial scientist or a Yerasol veteran.

- Elanor, Isobel and the arena. Because of my character's background and identity, this turned personal very quickly. And that's why we got so invested and challenged by this thread. Besides all the ugliness of eladrin trafficking, I actually enjoyed putting something different at a stake than your usual life-or-death combat. Also, overcoming your fears in such a cinematic way? That's just awesome.

- The Grientos and the Familia. It wasn't that personal for Carlyle, but he's the one with the better contact to Cippiano and it was also his family's name that was somehow involved.

- The “villains” who are not at all villainous. I already talked about Ottavia, but the same holds true for Luc. And maybe even Lya and Bree. They got their own perspective and motivation and we just ended up on different sides at first. And in the end, maybe we'll reach a point where they become allies. Also, a stutterer and a deaf woman who communicate in sign? Whoever came up with this has earned a creativity sticker!

- Many questions answered, even more that arise. Okay, now we have the Obscurati cells, idealistic people who are maybe mislead by a strange chain-smoking figure (who may or may not be a 500 years old ghost). We also know that LYA, the king's effing fiancee is one of them. We know that they have some rather particular interest in anything planar-related and also construction and Witchoil. But what about the whole Crypta madness? What about Miller and Kasvarina and dooming the world? What did Triegenes do that caused Ashima-Shimtu to become trapped here? And what do the Obs plan? Do they want to use Lya as a black widow?

- The very broad railroad. As I stated before, Mr. Carlyle's player isn't very fond of too sandbox-y adventures. Being fully railroaded with very little choice isn't fun either (we played the “time of troubles” adventure and it wasn't fun at many points because we were forced from one scene to another and simply watched NPC doing cool stuff). Always on Time managed to avoid this. Yes, there are scripted events, but you can totally interact with them. And it is up to you whether or not to pursue a certain NPC.

So yeah, we ended this adventure on a very high note character-wise. Auryn just found herself a "young sister" she can train and Carlyle came to terms with his past (more of that in the next post). But there are already shadows looming on the horizon, even if our two constables aren't seeing them yet. And things are about to turn south as the world doesn't always turns out to be the way we thought.

A tale of four butlers

Carlyle's talk with Don Cippiano takes some time though and so Auryn decides to ease the waiting time by relaxing in front of her partner's door. When he finally returns, she's almost fallen asleep and drowsily asks Carlyle for a spare moment as she'd like to talk a bit about what happened between the two during their trip to Vendricce. He's a bit surprised to see her being up this late, but nonetheless invites her to share a glass of wine.

What really surprises her in their initial exchange is the fact that he suddenly addresses her informally and pretty familiarly. She first asks him for his methods of saying goodbye to “Hector Ignacio Fernandez” as she confesses that she's grown quite fond of her Amiranya persona. Carlyle explains that he saw their mission as some sort of strange vacation and now he's just returned to his regular day-to-day life. So to answer her question, yes, being Hector was a pleasant and interesting experience, but he doesn't feel as if he'll have any troubles returning to being Gabriel Carlyle again.

Auryn sighs and states that matters are not that easy for her. She's grown very fond of Amira's carefree nature, and lacking the weight of being a matriarch's daughter almost felt like a blessing. She also enjoyed having a loyal husband and companion in Hector which is why she's having some troubles to let go of Amira's emotions. She understands that she has to return to her responsibilities though, especially as someone needs to take care of both Isobel and the crimes of the Traverse family. Even if it isn't decided yet whether or not she'll be the one to make them pay and to liberate Isobel's family.

“Seems like you have little troubles returning to your 'Vekeshi Avenger' self...” Carlyle jokes and adds that while he can leave Hector behind, the trip nonetheless changed a lot for him. He had to think much about his own morale and responsibility and he felt like being a mere RHC agent and doing what he's been told by Delft just wasn't enough this time.

“Remember when I said that helping Isobel just... felt right? From the perspective of an RHC agent, I was acting extremely reckless and endangered our mission on top of that. But we both couldn't just leave her at the mercy of this Elanor Janette, could we?”

He then explains that “doing the right thing” heavily depends on your perspective and also the role you're currently fulfilling. For him, these are the roles of (Ex-)butler, soldier, constable, deva or just the human being that's still left inside him and who has to play all of these roles. Regarding Auryn, he can see that she's in the very same situation whenever she has to balance her RHC job with her Vekeshi outlook, her Eladrin heritage and her ideas for a better future and the society she'd like to found someday.

So he'd like to play a little game with her: The tale of the four butlers, a game that he and the other students had to play during their lessons in their butler school in Alais Primos. As students, they were presented with four cases where butlers had misbehaved or overstepped their boundaries and it was up to them to assess the situation and tell where the butlers had acted wrongly. He explains that the cases he's going to present her all belong to real people he once knew, so she can be sure that there is no hidden butler bias included. And as Auryn is quite a capable investigator, he'd one-up the situation and present only the very basic outlines of the four cases so she might get additional information via questioning. As an additional rule, he asks her to assess the cases from different points of view: the perspectives of an RHC agent, a member of the Vekeshi, and a matriarch's daughter.

Auryn, being both curious and interested in what Carlyle would call “a game”, agrees to play and asks him to present the cases. So he starts with the simplest descriptions and adds that all of these cases are not only cases of misbehavior, but also small to serious crimes:

The first butler, a woman, forged her master's documents to coerce him to sell a factory to one of his competitors. She then received benefits from said competitor as a reward.

The second butler, a man, committed sexual misconduct against the underage daughter of his master and then murdered a man afterward.

The third butler, a woman, stole money from her household to buy hard drugs she then consumed during her job.

The fourth butler, a man, broke into the houses of his master's competitors and blackmailed them to abide his master's wishes.

Auryn thinks about the cases for a while and says that she has simply too few information to properly judge the four persons. She sees that, even without further information, her perspectives might lead to very different assessments. She explains that for an RHC agent, all cases included punishable crimes, but only the murder case and maybe the forgery could be of greater interest for an agent. For a Vekeshi, it would really depend on the master's and his competitor's characters in cases one and four and she jokes that the last case sounds very much like the stuff Carlyle did himself. So it might just be that this butler was simply helping a very generous master in need. As an eladrin woman, the second case sounds just disturbing and, depending on the additional information, she might just feel the need to properly punish this man. She also could not tolerate any illoyalties from her household.

Carlyle thanks her for her first assessment and then turns to answer further question. As she's reminded of her partner's previous life, Auryn starts with case number four. It turns out that this butler was indeed a secret guardian of his master who turned on his competitors when they started to use dirty tricks to gain an upper hand in their business deals. He didn't interfere in any regular deals or business relationships, but also didn't tell his master about his secret life as he didn't want to get his hands dirty as well.

Auryn says that while the butler did indeed commit a crime, he only acted against those who'd use similar methods against his master, so to do nothing would have been far worse. A Vekeshi would have lauded the man's courage and she adds that by trying to keep his master's hands clean, he also took the blame upon himself. As a matriarch, she would be glad to have staff as loyal as this man, even if she'd prefer to be informed about such actions. Carlyle thanks her again and explains, that the man overstepped his boundaries as a butler because, while he did help, he also put his master's name at risk should his methods of coercion come to light.

She then turns to the third case. The stealing butler turned out to become addicted to drugs after suffering a heavy loss after the death of a loved one. She couldn't deal with the pain and nonetheless wanted to continue doing her job, so she used the drugs to numb her feelings and simply function as an employee. When she became addicted, she quickly craved more and as she didn't have enough money to buy her daily dose, she began to steal. Also, she became negligent in her job as the drugs took their toll on her and so the master's family found out about her situation eventually.

Regarding this case, Auryn explains that while the case of this butler is tragic, it is pretty irrelevant for an RHC agent as theft as a crime is dealt with by the police. It also doesn't touch injustice or exploitation, so the Vekeshi would shrug it off as well. However, as a person and future matriarch, she understands the woman's need to continue doing her job while being in pain. She knows exactly what it means to lose someone close as she's still suffering from Zahir's death even today. Still, the woman should have tried to talk to someone about her troubles instead of harming herself and her master's family in the process. She adds that she's used to talk about her emotions with her fellows as eladrin of the same enclave regard each other as family (and are very often related by blood) which is why she kind of pressed Carlyle into talking to her in the past.

The second case turns out to be the most complex of the four cases, at least for Auryn. Bit by bit Carlyle unfolds the story of a man, a Yerasol veteran, who tried to find peace with a new occupation after years of war. He had a healthy relationship with his masters, a very nice couple who had small kids, including one curious daughter who soon followed the butler everywhere. As she grew older, her feelings for the man intensified and as he didn't know or realize what was happening, he also didn't put a healthy distance between them. And she found excuse after excuse to be close to him, like breaking her own stuff to make him repair the items. When she was sixteen, she confessed her love and the two entered a forbidden relationship, a relationship her parents turned a blind eye to. This continued for a few years until they had to break up as the woman was to be married to the son of one of the master's business partners. But the marriage ended soon in a tragedy as one day the woman was found dead after being horribly abused by her husband. After having heard what happened, the butler decided to take justice into his own hands and killed the man slowly and painfully.

Auryn is a bit shocked at the conclusion of this tale. She says that, from the perspective of an agent, criminals are to be punished by the officials, not individuals. Still a Vekeshi would understand the man's need for revenge, especially in such a brutal case like this. As an eladrin, the woman's husband had committed the worst possible crime, abusing his privilege as a husband and also harming, even killing a woman. So he'd be executed in public anyway after being properly shamed by his community. By killing the murderer himself, the butler would have circumvented this judicial process, but as he acted out of love, compassion and devotion to a woman, he'd be easily forgiven, maybe even seen as an exemplar.

Regarding the relationship, the daughter entered it willingly and she isn't sure whether this age difference is considered immoral for humans. She also doesn't know whether a sixteen year old human is capable of making her own decisions. But she adds that she herself was once in a maybe similar situation: 30 years ago she had been in a relationship with the veteran Meloreen, a man 500 years older than she was. She adds that while having a hand-picked veteran as first husband isn't unusual for a young woman, they are not really considered appropriate for first experiences. Still she was attracted by this man and didn't regret choosing him as her lover.

In the first case, the butler had changed financial reports of one factory as she deemed it to be a bad investment that threatened to financially ruin the whole family. As the master had been really enthusiastic about the new project, she felt as if she had no choice but to force him to sell the bad apple. The master's competitor didn't know about the intricate details of the project and thought it to be a rather good catch, so the butler sort-of conspired with the competitor to get her master to selling the factory for a rather low price. Which is why she got a provision for her “help”.

Auryn says that forgery is a crime, but this case would be hardly matters for the RHC. And a Vekeshi would most likely be more concerned with the question whether or not the master and competitor would be unjust or cruel. As both were fairly regular businesspeople, this wouldn't concern them at all. She herself can understand the butler's motivation, but she'd judge the butler as being disloyal, even if she had only the best intentions for her master's business in mind. And her final, selfish act to get a provision only made her actions look even more grey. She explains that, were she in the master's shoes, she'd not be sure whether she could trust her butler ever again. Auryn finally concludes that the butler was right to try to convince her master to sell the factory and warn him about the bad investment, but that's it. Making the right decisions and bearing the consequences for failures is the job of leaders, like masters, kings, queens or matriarchs after all.

Carlyle thanks Auryn for her analysis of the four cases and then explains where these four people failed in their job, even if the human side to all of their decisions is truly understandable: The first butler had no reason to intervene in business decisions as this was, as she correctly points out, neither her job, nor her place. The second butler failed to put a professional distance between himself and the daughter and the murder endangered the good name of his master's family. The third butler did not only steal, but also failed to continue doing her job properly because working in such a sensitive position while being on drugs is rather dangerous. The fourth one, again, endangered the good name of his master and being a secret agent isn't really part of a butler's job description.

“Unless the butler's name is Mr. Carlyle and the masters are the Vantrys family.” Auryn adds with a knowing grin.

Carlyle laughs softly in response and adds that he now knows her a tad bit better and maybe she'll be able to reflect her different mindsets more properly. Auryn thanks him for putting his trust in her and sharing these stories of his (most certainly long-dead) colleagues. Still she isn't really sure whether she can get over her own turmoil as she isn't sure at all about her, or even their, future. She explains that whatever happened in Nalaam was the result of an emotional roller-coaster and that this day, she truly saw an esteemed husband in him when the lines between Carlyle and Hector started to blur and fade. After all, he just turned out to be worthy of her deepest trust and had helped her in times of need, so she knows that she can rely on him no matter what.

Auryn adds that she doesn't regret spending the night with him, even if she fears that it could have a negative impact on their friendship on the long run. She's also a bit hesitant right now when it comes to their future relationship as she's been used and told to take more than to give. At least from a Risuri's perspective. So she's not sure whether she's been fair to Carlyle at all and whether her companionship means anything to him in return.

Carlye seems a bit surprised at this question and he returns that Auryn does not only mean much to him, but also lightens up his everyday life and inspires him to be more than a mere butler or agent. He confesses, that even if he didn't want to see it, his life was kind of lonely before he crossed paths with her. Also, she's maybe the only person in all of Risur who can help him fully understand his destiny as a being touched by Srasama.

“Isn't it a funny coincidence how that divine aspect, that magic inside me had lain dormant for five hundred years, right until you came into my life? For me, this is no coincidence at all. The two of us meeting was meant to be. It had always been meant to be. Call it destiny or fate, but I believe that all of my existence has led me right to this point in time. This is just the right time, my time to be. And whatever has been put into motion in this world, I feel like I have a part to play in what is yet to come. As do you.” Carlyle explains.

Regarding her affection, he understands how Auryn must have felt, but he's not much interested in a purely bodily relationship. It is not like he would object to being in a relationship with her, but he won't make compromises in this regard. He adds that he'd also not be really comfortable with “sharing” Auryn with possible future husbands as long as they're together (in a relationship, not as RHC partners), even if he knows that this would violate her enclave's tradition.

Auryn answers that matters like these are really difficult for her. Then she smiles mischievously and adds that now that her pact with Ashima-Shimtu is fulfilled, she can share her “secret no one else knows about” with Carlyle: That she does have feelings for him, even if she lacks the experience in this case to fully understand them.

Regarding her people and traditions she explains that he's right: While being in a continuous relationship doesn't mean a woman should take additional partners, a true marriage would usually include more than one husband. And as serious as he sounds right now, there's also the fact that eladrin cannot have children with other races and she surely won't let her bloodline come to an end as this would mean violating everything she believes in. This, and her rather irritating feelings are therefore putting a heavy weight on her decision.

Carlyle says that he truly understands her and he doesn't want her to make a rushed or forced decision. After all, time is the one thing they both have plenty to spare. Even if he doesn't feel the need to exist for all eternity – which was, in fact, his “secret” he told the demoness. He then asks Auryn to show her one more thing, a secret she needs to know if she's really about to make such a profound decision.

He then leads her to his attic and brings forth an old, dusty chest. Inside are four different sets of objects: A black mask, a syringe, binding, spoon and burner, a small, broken jewelry box, and a contract about the sale of a factory.

“Now you know everything there is to know. This is my moral compass, the periods of my life I left behind. Reminders of the acts I committed.”

(This episode was really unusual in many kinds of way. First, Mr. Carlyle's player isn't very into too much prep work for his character. He does write and play great characters, but tries to keep the workload minimal. The tale of the four butlers was something he did write in advance, even without Tizbiz' knowledge – Tiz was just as surprised as I was.

Second, this was the end of a really long session and it took us more than two hours in pure dialogue. So we, like our characters, were both a bit tired, but nonetheless wanted to play through it all. In the end, Tizbiz feared to have lost some detail and when he asked “So... will they or won't they?”, Mr. Carlyle's player and I laughed and simply said “They don't know. It's complicated.”

Then there's Carlyle's story. Remember that moment when Hector lashed out against Boone? And none of us understood what the heck was going on with Carlyle? It all became crystal clear after his tale of his lost love. So this is one of the topics where even stoic Mr. Carlyle cannot hold back his emotions and stay calm.

For the acts themselves, Carlyle kind of let Auryn judge him from different perspectives and besides the forgery, she didn't really condemn him. However, the second story did disturb her to the core, even if the reasons for that were different ones than she'd initially expected. For in her society killing your wife is just as much of an anathema as eating babies. So she didn't inquire too much further, fearing that she might tear open old wounds. But yeah, this was what the mysterious “Vantrys daughter seeking comfort”/”the woman he had to leave behind” was all about.

Also, Carlyle cleverly used male and female butlers so that Auryn couldn't simply extrapolate from that one case that was very obviously Carlyle's own story. Which made his final revelation a truly big surprise. Well played, Mr. Carlyle.)

This leaves Auryn really surprised. She thanks him for sharing this darkest of secrets with her. Then she says she feels sorry for his loss as she now understands why “butler number three” would have started taking drugs. And also why he wasn't able to talk to anyone about his troubles. Carlyle explains that he owes the Vantrys family much in this regard as they did find out about his “habit” eventually, and then didn't just fire him but sent him to a rehabilitation clinic in the countryside. Regarding his feelings for the Vantrys daughter, he didn't really realize what happened to him or her until it was too late. Had he been more experienced, he'd have recognized the development and put a safe distance between them, but this time his perception had utterly failed him.

Auryn says that she kind of understands what he's talking about, especially as she lacks experience with such feelings herself.

“For an eladrin woman like me, romantic love isn't necessary to fulfill my duty. To help my people grow strong again. So I never learned much about it.” she explains.

She then goes on and says that she'll definitely need more time to understand her own feelings. Especially if she's about to make a decision that might change her whole life. And specifically if that decision could change their – very successful - partnership forever. She adds that, no matter what, she won't want to live as a pariah, torn away from her family, her traditions, rites and values. So she asks Carlyle whether he'd be willing to join the Eladrin community should they eventually accept him.

Carlyle, again, acts a bit surprised at that question. He says that he knows enough about his partner to have this figured out in advance. And yes, he'd follow her to Elfaivar, meet her family and ask them for approval. When asked about his own feelings for her, he says that besides finally understanding who he is, he also stopped merely existing thanks to her. He explains that, after his death during the assault at the Vantrys estate, his connection to Nathaniel Vantrys and the household loosened so much that he'd rather consider himself a relative of the young man. In contrast, his connection to Auryn is growing stronger day by day. So not only does he feel as if he'd finally belong to someone again, he also feels the desire to care for her.

Auryn thanks him for all of his honesty as she knows that he usually isn't very keen on talking about private affairs. She says she's now got a lot of things to think about and also needs to gather much more information on top of that. Before she bids him goodbye, she makes a final turn and asks him how she should address him from now on as an informal address and “Mr. Carlyle” sound really weird in combination.

“Well, as long as it is in private... call me Gabriel.”

(So in hindsight, these two just managed to simultaneously discuss possible means of a theoretical marriage – meeting the parents, having kids, etc. included – while also totally beating about the bush regarding the rest. And yes, this is pretty weird, but not that unnatural for two people who are pretty old and capable of understanding the full scope of decisions, but also kind of emotionally handicapped in some regards.

Also, the means of address thing... yes, they had that night in Nalaam and still stayed formal. That's why Carlyle's sudden switch came as a real surprise. Regarding Auryn's last question, using informal in combination with a formal surname – Mr. or Mrs. - is something you'd see young kids do in kindergarten or primary school. So it would be really weird to combine that as an adult)

That was complex and surprisingly . . . healthy, I think. Good for them.

A growing city

Healthy indeed, but that doesn't mean they both know what they truly want

---
Session 24

After Auryn saying 'good night', Carlyle spends a few moments on his balcony to contemplate. In the warm night breeze, he suddenly realizes two new buildings that certainly weren't there when he and Auryn left for Reo Pedresco. One of the two is a rather blocky, stout complex near Pardwright and the other one seems to be a really tall twin tower in another part of Central district.

Auryn sees the two buildings on her way home as well and mumbles “Flint, you ever-changing city...” to herself.

The next morning, Auryn takes her two new house-mates on a trip through Stray River, including Venezia's patisserie. She introduces the two to her favorite baker and Venezia seems unsure whether the new beauty in town would be a competitor or just a potential future friend. She then asks Andrei to take a long stroll with Isobel and get to know their new home district as she herself has to go to work.

It seems as if both Carlyle and Auryn then got the same idea, as both meet up at the closest of the new buildings, the stout cuboid complex on Pardwright campus. We take a peek at the construction signs to get the inevitable confirmation of our first, instinctive guess: the company involved in constructing and erecting this building is none else but Fordren industries. Well, that guess wasn't too far-fetched in the first place as both of us saw a man looking pretty much like Michael Carlyle walking around the site and who simply replaced his fashionable hat with a safety helmet.

We also get from the sign that this building is hosting the new quarters for the arcanoscience labs of Pardwright University and so we get that Carlyle the younger managed to establish a connection with the officials of Flint. So we greet then man in our usual, friendly manner and ask him all about Fordren industry's newest investments.

Michael Carlyle explains that this building is part of a cooperation with Pardwright University and that his company is glad to be able to offer the brilliant minds of the Uni a place where they can conduct their research. He himself is currently on a field visit and is tasked with checking the construction progress of both the Pardwright building and the Aurum building, his personal favorite, which carries a lot of prestige.

When we ask him about the Aurum, he enthuses about the eleven-story twin tower building that was originally designed by the halfling architect Oweia. Michael Carlyle then goes on to elaborate on the details of the Aurum, such as the sky bridges connecting the two towers and the ornamental, high-class interior. Oh, and that building is going to host the upcoming peace conference between the king of Risur and the sovereign of Danor as its grand opening event. Now these are news that tingle our trouble-senses and we ask Carlyle the younger whether we may accompany him on his inspection as we wish to make sure that everything is alright in the Aurum. Especially as we know that our RHC building got sabotaged by someone who had metal rings placed inside our walls.

(On top of that, Oweia could be read as negative foreshadowing as this is a “sigh” word like “Oh my”, “Ouch” or “My goodness”. It turned out to be one of Tiz' jokes though)

The businessman doesn't object to two additional pairs of eyes trained for spotting clues and so he's glad to have us with him. On our way through the Pardwright complex, he talks about the rather bad luck of Fordren Industries' logistics as they fell victim to cases of theft and some of their workers got pressured by members of “the Guild” lately. We instantly link this to the methods of Kell's thugs and ask Carlyle the younger whether he has heard of the name “Kell” as well. But he just shrugs and says that he doesn't really know the names of each and every criminal in Flint.

We get the impression that everything is fine in the Pardwright building and then head to the Aurum. Its really impressive exterior reminds us of a mixture of danoran and beran architecture and we're really keen on getting up to the eleventh floor to see what Central district looks like from such lofty heights.

Once we enter the construction site, we are quite a bit astonished to see it guarded by an elite eladrin security guard. Auryn says that she has heard of these exiles who came to Risur after the Malice, but she has never seen them in action. The eladrin, all men, seem surprised to see us as well and their short, still gallant reverences in Auryn's direction indicate that they are not used to seeing an eladrin woman. Auryn performs an old, respectful greeting gesture, then smiles and says “Now I know the Aurum is in good hands”.

(This was Tizbiz' nod to a short conversation we had regarding numbers and representation of eladrin men and women in Risur. I said it was kind of funny that there should be so much more guys than girls in the outside world, still we only encountered one man, Asrabey, and several women with Sokhana, Gale, Isobel, Kaea, and Kasvarina (although only in a vision). We later agreed to change Kaea into an elf as her being an eladrin isn't really relevant to the plot and Tiz didn't want her to be a guy. He also added said guards/mercenaries for a more fitting representation.)

Michael Carlyle doesn't really seem to understand what is going on between the RHC agent and his security staff, but Gabriel Carlyle explains that this is just a polite, foreign exchange and everything is fine. Carlyle the younger then leads us into the building while saying that, for the peace conference, the risuri delegation will be places within the west tower, being the more mundane of the two which is later destined to contain housings and is meant to be a public place. The danorans will take the opulent, luxurious east tower which will become a high class hotel after the conference. Last but not least, he reveals that there is actual magic in this building as its name, which was originally chosen by the late Guy Goodson, has the same teleport blocking effect as actual gold.

He guides us towards a highly technological elevator system and shows us around in the fancy rooms which will be used for the conference (Unfortunately, the piano isn't in tune yet...). Meanwhile, we try to warn our associate that there might be forces at work who'd try to disturb the peace conference, so the company and the security staff should be always on alert.

Next, we head to the RHC to hand our full report to Delft. All in all, he seems to be pretty satisfied by our progress. Now that Luc Jierre is absent, he also discusses the documents we got from Cardiff and explains that they have great value to the risuri secret service, no matter the outcome of the peace conference. We add that we're doubtful whether it would be wise of king Aodhan to stick to his plan of marrying Lya Jierre, now that we know that she's a member of the Obscurati. Still we all agree that the final judgment in this matter does lie solely in the king's hands. Which is why we'd like to give our monarch a direct report immediately. We add that while we do know that yes, he can read our written report or be briefed by Delft or Price-Hill, he might want to talk to those who have first-hand experiences in this case.

Delft returns that just because king Aodhan is attending to the peace conference, this doesn't mean that he's bound to marry Lya. And it would mean nothing short but a diplomatic disaster if he'd suddenly cancel the negotiations with Danor. He agrees though that we could all report directly to Aodhan. After all, we're some super secret special personal agents of the king or something like that. (Is he being jealous?)

Delft adds that there might be some other problematic development regarding the peace conference as well: He just got news from the police HQ of Flint that the Kell guild has increased their activities and rampant, organized crimes are really no flagship for an international conference. We take his hook and say that “international” might just be enough of a justification to get the RHC involved in this matter. After all, the success of the conference is of utmost interest for Risur and we all know how fearful diplomats can be when it comes to criminal activities.

“Just the words I wanted to hear from my constables.” Delft says and asks us to gather as many information about the guild and their recent activities as possible over the next couple of days.

As we already tasked Flying Spark and his rookie team with a recon mission regarding the fake reporter who charmed one of our secretary girls, we head to our office and look for reports or memos. We do find the faerie dragon in one of the RHC's common rooms where he's busy lecturing other rookies on proper investigation and the careful handling of evidences. He's happy to see the three of us again after our weeks of absence and says that he (or rather, they, as he's still hosting Dr. Meredith) is starting to like this RHC job.

He accompanies us to our office where he tells us all about his investigation: That man is often hanging out in the “black Rose” brothel and the “clean Sailor” pub where he's winning more money in gambling than the math says he should (says Dr. Meredith). Someone taught him that this could be a secret means of payment. He also met with a rough guy named Hammerton who's said to be a higher up in the Kell guild. He got curious and dug a bit deeper and then realized that this “guild” has spread all over the city like a bug infestation. Flying Spark also heard that the police is having troubles as well, especially around Flint harbor.

This sounds troubling indeed and Carlyle decides to pay his Familia contacts a visit again to discuss the recent change in criminal clime.

Then Auryn asks for the purse of Elanor Janette as she wishes to take a closer look at the woman's contacts. Most of them seem to be regular clients for her matchmaking service, but she also finds the names of two eladrin kings who Auryn originally thought to be long dead. She's a bit disturbed at the sight and doesn't know whether the contacts are genuine or whether someone else is using them as a pseudonym.

Before we can start our investigation, Luc Jierre and Ottavia Sacredotte return to the RHC as they decided that they'd wish to see the Witchoil factory in the Bleak Gate with their own eyes. So we take half a day to show them around in the almost destroyed complex and mention that we found evidence that Nicodemus (or simply another chain-smoking OB member) must have been here after we shut the whole thing down. Both Luc and Ottavia are surprised and a bit shocked once they realize the threat such a factory could pose to Flint should it go haywire.

“More specifically, to the Nettles. Where the poorest of the poor and the factory workers have built their homes. We're really lucky that we didn't suffer any more casualties.” Carlyle explains.

Luc believably comments that he didn't know of any of this. He says that we gave them a lot of facts and ideas to think about. The young Jierre then decides that he'd like to return to Danor to talk to his sister about all he's read and seen during these two days.

“Then find your courage and don't be afraid to speak your mind, Luc Jierre. You are a scion of a grand family and there lies power within your very existence. Use it, and use it wisely.” Auryn says.

She then remembers him that he had asked her during their breakfast in Nalaam what the heck happened in the arena. Luc nods and she goes on to explain that everything he's seen there had been real: She had been abducted and nearly sold by Elanor, and both Mr. Carlyle and Andrei von Recklinghausen had been unjustly sentenced to die at the claws and jaws of the flaming tiger. She says that while there was no way for him to prevent the auction, he could have stepped in and could have tried to prevent the flaming tiger incident. Power, she explains, comes in a variety of guises: Physical might, like in Andrei's case, intellect, money, or a well-known family name. But power also comes with the need to use it responsibly. A fact even a naïve man like Andrei had internalized when he tried to do what was right.

Ottavia seems to see truth in our words, even if Luc is a bit hesitant when it comes to acting by himself. We add that he and Ottavia may return to Danor, as we promised. However, the lantern has to stay in the RHC as we cannot let it fall into the hands of Nicodemus and would like to understand it ourselves. Luc seems content with this prospect and explains that the Obscurtai will surely build other lanterns now that they know the prototype does work as intended. They might need quite a bit of time though.

We then guide them to the danoran embassy and wish both good luck and a pleasant journey home.

(And if you're ever going to marry for real, we're here to pick up your invitation!)

Looming shadows

When we return to the RHC, we take the rest of the day to read through all files that could be relevant to the recent Kell guild activities. As the sun sets, Carlyle says that he'll try to contact Cippiano or some other Familia officer to collect more information about the Familia's competitors. Meanwhile, Margit and Auryn stay a bit longer to test the functionality of the lantern. With a bit of luck, they muse, they might be able to find a way to the Bleak Gate and the other Obscurati hideout where Leone might have brought Kasvarina. So we fill the lantern with a sample of Witchoil and wait. Unfortunately, we seem to be getting deeper and deeper into the Bleak Gate which feels like falling into a bottomless pit. Before anything nasty can happen, we prematurely end the experiment.

Carlyle decides to head home to change his clothes before going to the nearby boule ground. There, he runs into a young employee of Lord Vantrys who's about to deliver a message from the Vantrys heir. A closer look reveals an invitation for a drink as the Lord has some rather important news to share. He decides that the Familia matters can wait a tad bit longer (he really doesn't need much sleep either, thanks to his ring of sustenance) and then takes a cab to the Vantrys estate. He's a bit astonished to see Vantrys' guard Jack (who's also the man Auryn suspected to be his boyfriend) instead of Vantrys' kind of new butler (the one who came after Carlyle left) and Jack explains that these days security measures are more important than proper representation. At least at night.

Jack leads Carlyle to Vantrys' salon and asks him to wait a short while. When Carlyle asks Jack whether he can offer him hints on what this conversation might be all about, Jack shrugs and says it must have something to do with dresses or the like. At first, Carlyle fears that Nathaniel Vantrys could be into cross-dressing now, but as soon as the young Vantrys heir enters the salon, smiling all over his face and wearing no dress, but rather common gentleman's garments, he feels a pleasant relief.

“Can you believe it? She agreed to my proposal!”

“She who? I fear I don't understand...”

“Cecilia Fordren. I... I asked her to be my bride and she gladly accepted.”

Now it is Carlyle who's completely stunned for a moment. His eyes widen in a pleasant surprise and then he hugs Nathaniel in a friendly but overjoyed manner and pats him on his back repeatedly.

“That's wonderful news indeed! My heartfelt congratulations.”

Lord Vantrys says that he got even more to discuss with his trusted friend and then reveals that he'd choose him to be his best man. At first, Carlyle is a bit hesitant as he feels that this honor is above his station, but he understands that he's the one who is still closest to Vantrys and so he happily agrees.

Lord Vantrys then reveals that there is one more thing that's looming like a shadow over the otherwise happy occasion. He fetches a fancy letter from Danor, written by none else but Francis Fordren. In this letter, Fordren offers Vantrys the chance to invest in his newest project: the Aurum building in Flint. He goes as far as offering a 50% share for a more than fair price. Before he ends his letter, Fordren then hints that Vantrys and Fordren might wish to shape their business relationship in a more familial way, thus hinting that Vantrys might wish to marry his niece.

“So he's trying to barter her away again? He doesn't know about your proposal, does he?”

Vantrys shakes his head softly and so Carlyle guesses that Fordren is using the Aurum, the absolute top prestige object in the Flint real estate, as a bait to hook Vantrys up with Cecilia. Carlyle sees this as a rather fortunate occasion and a perfect opportunity for Vantrys' own business. Still this deal could endanger Vantrys' relationship with Cecilia who doesn't know about the letter and who could feel like a pawn should the truth be revealed. He advises Vantrys to show Cecilia the letter and to explain her that he received it after he already proposed.

Regarding the Aurum, Carlyle is pretty sure that the building will be the focus of all upcoming news coverages in the next weeks as it is the chosen place for the peace conference. So it will be known in all of Lanjyr. Still, he got a strange gut feeling that someone might wish to disturb the conference and attack the building. He adds that this “risk” might be solely based on his own paranoia and he doesn't have any evidence for any upcoming disaster, not even a strange Skyseer vision. So he'd just insure the building by every trick in the book and it'll be fine. Vantrys thanks him for his valuable feedback and concludes their talk by saying that Carlyle just gave him a lot to think about.

(Yeah, Carlyle's gut feeling was a bit meta, but when almost every major event in your recent past almost turned total disaster, then your paranoia is somewhat justified.

Also did I mention that I love these small moments? The whole Vantrys/Carlyle storyline reminds me so much of Downton Abbey and all of its societal and emotional ruckus on top of that)

Meanwhile, Auryn pays the Dawkins a visit and is instantly invited to dinner. Milena is overjoyed to see her friend return without a scratch after her surely scary trip to Ber. Auryn thanks her for her concern but says she's been faring well and she also got a really attentive partner with Carlyle. Auryn takes the opportunity to ask Milena whether there are employees of Governor Stanfield that are heavy chain-smokers and Milena answers that she knows of two: One of them is a cleaner and one is Stanfield's treasurer. She accepts to introduce Auryn to both of them should the opportunity arise.

Once Morris returns, Auryn almost flies into his arms and she seems very happy to see him all well again. After dinner, the two discuss more secret matters in Dawkins' cigar room. Auryn thanks him for all he had done for her, including his presence in Nalaam. He explains that he was able to find her thanks to an old acquaintance and was relieved to see from the distance that Carlyle had done such a damn fine job to free her. He's glad to see her unharmed and Auryn tells him all about what happened in Nalaam. She talks about Isobel, Elanor, Carlyle, Andrei and their fight in the arena. She then confesses that bringing Elanor down was quite a dirty affair, even if killing her and the mages felt... strangely satisfying.

She then tells Dawkins about Isobel's family and the 21 eladrin who are still prisoners and being abused as breeding stock for the Traverses. Morris thanks her for this report and promises to hand the information to some of his contacts abroad. Regarding Isobel, she explains that she plans to give her a new home, to train her, care for her and to teach her how to get along in Flint. And also to educate her on what being an eladrin really means.

Last but not least, she decides to ask her friend the rather intimate question on how he got hooked up with Milena. Morris smiles at her question and then talks in fond remembrance of a spring ball event and some rather intense emotions that struck him like lightning when his eyes met hers for the first time. They danced the night away and the rest is history. Auryn thanks him for sharing this with her, even if she doesn't think that her own state and experience would be remotely comparable.

“Well, this, my dear, is something you'd have to figure out on your own. I'm sure you'll handle it just fine.” he says before saying goodbye.

After his talk with Vantrys, Carlyle returns to Stray River and heads to the boule ground. Don Cippiano is absent (and Carlyle guesses that he might be on his way to Nalaam) and so he asks some of the Bravura he knows about the recent developments concerning the Kell guild. Unfortunately, it seems as if there's trouble ahead. While the Familia managed to gain some ground in Flint and still hold their deal with Woodsman and his companions in Cloudwood, the Kells somehow either eradicated or swallowed up all smaller guilds and gangs, especially around the harbor area, the docks, and Parity Lake. They also got hold of areas in Bosun Strand and Central and, what's even more troubling, seem to have gained mechanical fighting devices and high quality firearms.

Carlyle asks them a bit about the “mechanical devices” and gets the impression that these automatons could be nothing short but witchoil-golems! He tries to discourage the Bravuras from also arming themselves to the teeth as a full-fledged war between two large criminal organizations is the least thing Flint would need in times like these. He promises that the RHC will keep an eye on the Kells and take measures in time, even if he cannot go more into detail.

(Now that's intriguing. Either Macbannin's staff had some spare golems to sell as well or the Kells could just have teamed up with the local Obs. Either way, this is scary as hell.)

The next day, we task Flying Spark with guarding the Aurum invisibly for an indefinite time and to report any suspicious action directly to Delft or us. Not that we don't trust the eladrin, but our friendly neighborhood faerie dragon can get to places where regular humanoids can't.

In the mean time, we receive a message from the king's office in which king Aodhan requests our presence in Slate for a personal report on our mission. He asks us to bring the captured lantern along as well. Good agents as we are, we take the next train to the capital. During our trip, Auryn continues working on her super-secret special opera project. When asked by Carlyle, she just explains that she'll take the Dirge of Vekesh to a whole different level in addition to making it easier to contextualize for the common risuri and that she hopes to finish it before the start of the peace conference.

In Slate, we are received in the usual manner and meet the king in one of his offices. We are surprised to see him sans Harkover Lee, but nevertheless tell him all about what happened on our trip to Vendricce. We especially mention our shock when we saw that Lya was part of the Obscurati and that she seemed to know more about this chain-smoking Nicodemus guy we formerly knew as Doro. We also mention that she was concerned about abusing the lantern as well and that she seemed to be genuinely interested in making the world a better place. We also share our latest news concerning Luc Jierre even if we don't know what route the young tiefling may take.

The king has a hard time making sense of the Obscurati's actions and plans. Especially our reports about the silver cell and their philanthropic aims don't seem to match the conspiracy that's still looming over Flint. We partially agree with him and point to their cell structure which means that the “silver cell” might live up to their ideals of loyalty and altruism while the “golden cell” of Leone has less needs for these virtues and makes use of all dirty tricks, including the deception of loyal risuri like Macbannin. Ultimately, only Nicodemus or similar higher-ups in the Obscurati might know the truth and the ultimate goal behind all these actions.

Lastly, we hint at one further problem surrounding the development of a certain criminal guild during our absence. We state our suspicion that the Kells could have made contact with the Obscurati and gained some of their resources. For their reasons, we suspect that the guild's goons shall keep us and the police occupied during the peace conference so the Obscurati can conduct whatever they have planned for the event. Now these are troublesome news indeed and Aodhan asks us to keep an eye on the Kells and take measures if we deem them appropriate.

Then we say goodbye to the king and return to Flint to report the king's orders back to Delft. Our chief inspector seems quite happy to get into action as the guild has been a thorn in his side for many years.

We use the next couple of days to gather information about the Kell guild, their actual structure, manpower and enterprises. At the same time, Auryn and Carlyle do their best to reconstruct both Tantalovich's map and the lighthouse map and make sense of them. The dwarf's map contains info on all RHC HQs in Risur while the lighthouse map shows several lighthouses in Drakr and parts of Danor. We suspect that the lighthouses could be used in combination with Luc's lanterns to spread whatever effect the Obs desire with their wide-range illumination.

Auryn also uses her magic to carefully tend to the imprisoned mad godhand to set his memories straight and maybe help him recover his old self. Even if she's certain that this procedure might take months.

(In both cases: Modify memory:recall. Yay!)

Regarding the guild, we find that they kind of exchanged a lot of higher-ups over the last year. The new lieutenants are unfortunately far more efficient and less stupid brutes than the former ones and even Kell himself is more or less simply a figurehead for their organization. Hammerton, the man we know to be one of the fake reporter's contacts, is among the new leadership and said to be especially cunning. They also must have some sort of financial genius as the guild now creates a lot more revenue which was used to buy the new weaponry. What is even worse is the fact that we can now count more members of the Kell guild than police officers in Flint. Many of the latter are currently being stationed around the Aurum to protect the upcoming peace conference, so they cannot really investigate against the guild either.

We are pretty outraged that Slate didn't bother to send additional police to Flint and still expected our city to take care of the conference all on its own. Which is why we suggest Delft and the chief officer of Flint police to request more officers from other stations all over the country. In addition, the RHC shall gain permission to aid the police in dealing with the imminent threat of the ever-growing Kell guild.

During these days, Auryn helps Isobel and Andrei to apply for naturalization and therefore acquire a risuri citizenship. The whole process is resolved much quicker that it would under normal circumstances and she suspects that there might have been a friendly hand speeding up the process. Isobel decides to take her mother's name as her surname (just like Auryn did) while Andrei would stick with his father's name von Recklinghausen.

She also continues to work on her opera project and seeks out other Dockers for review and asks them for participation.

(I actually have a quick draft on the opera's synopsis flying around in my documents. Because of the events that happened later during adventure 5, we obviously didn't have the opportunity to premiere it yet, but it is still on the to-do list.

We also talked a bit about Navras and whether there was a a chance that he'd actually be Vekesh himself. Both men simply vanished, so it is possible. Plus, Mr. Carlyle casually mentioned that he was actually present at Navras' performance of his legendary Dirge of Vekesh. Needless to say that Auryn envies him for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity)