NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 1720509" data-attributes="member: 3448">Session 15:5/25After an uneventful week of river travel, the group arrives back in their home city.  Lir Sanek's sprawling, crowded cityscape is a welcome change from the wilderness and small towns that they have been in for the past several months.  The group immediately splits up to take care of the various tasks of returning to the city.  Lhovrik and Ginara head straight home, while Dove and Sister Aurora each decide to attend to their professional stations before having to deal with seeing their family.  Melania has the different issue of needing to find a place to live, since she was forced to abandon her old apartment and had yet to rent a new one.As they get off the riverboat, Ginara hires an urchin to deliver a short note to her uncle Kinric, telling him that she's back in the city.  Lhovrik chastises his sister for insisting on contacting Kinric so quickly, before they have even been home to see their family, but Ginara pays him no mind.When they arrive home, their mother is overjoyed to see them safely returned.  Ginara is somewhat relieved that their mother greets them instead of their father, but they quickly start catching up."How have things been here, Mother?""Tumultuous, I'm afraid.  Everything's fine with the family, but the city has had some troubles.  The religious troubles that were just starting before you left-- the looting and rioting and such have broken out periodically.  There have been some priests beaten, and a few clashes were the city guard has had to put down a mob in the docks area.  Things are still tense, and some of the young priests have been stirring people up, while some of the guard patrols have been looking for trouble."Lhovrik pipes up, "But if there are Vergdunians causing trouble, surely vigorous guard patrols are the right response.""Oh, I don't question the response, dear, but the troubles are still unfortunate.  Oh, did you happen to see your cousins in Lir Galdra while you were travelling?  There have been some worrying rumors.""No, it wasn't the sort of trip that allowed us to spend time visiting family, Mother.  What seems to be the matter?""Oh, I don't know for sure.  There have been some stories about a magical mishap-- some quite unpleasant stories.  I was hoping you might know the details.  You know I've never been close to those cousins, but I was still wondering." Lady cath Kalissar brightens as she changes the topic.  "Have you heard the big news?  The Emperor has appointed a new governor."Ginara looks up with interest.  "Who is it?""Sir Korel cath Sanek.  His installation is scheduled for the first of Sixmonth.  It should be quite festive."Lhovrik thinks for a second about what he's heard of Sir Korel.  A member of the most important family of Lir Sanek, he has spent the last several years as governor of one of the southern colonies, where he's earned a strong reputation.  He was dubbed a Champion for his heroism during the Kobold War, before he left the military for civilian appointments."What's happening to Governor cath Varish?" Lhovrik asks."She's been recalled to the imperial court to serve as an advisor.  It's hard to say what to make of that.  Sometimes that can mean a position of even greater importance, swaying policy throughout the Empire, but sometimes that means being put out to pasture.  You need to know the ins and outs of the court to figure out which, and I've never spent much time in the capital court-watching.  There are some who think that the Emperor wanted to make sure that the governorship didn't become an ancestral seat, but I don't think that's likely; Governor cath Varish has been in power for 10 years, but we've had longer serving governors, and while her father was once governor, that was 20 years earlier and there were three governors in between."Lhovrik pauses for a moment.  "Could I speak with you about something, Mother?  Perhaps in your workshop?""Of course, dear.  If you'll excuse us . . ." Lady cath Kalissar smiles at Ginara."Fine." Ginara resignedly heads off to her room and resumes her habit of throwing daggers at the door.Once they are in the scrying proof workshop, Lhovrik begins talking seriously to his mother.  "Is Kaelat cath Sallen still in the city?""I'm not sure, dear.  Your father hasn't spoken with him since their fight just before you left.  He was always more of your father's friend than mine, although I liked him well enough.  Loraton never did say what they fought about, and I didn't want to press him...""I think I know what they fought about.  Kaelat was opposed to the mission we were on and wanted it to fail.  I think he wanted to recruit Dad, or at least me through Dad, to try to make sure it failed.""Why would he want to do that?  Kaelat served the Empire loyally for years.  He fought in the Kobold Wars with us...""That's why I think he wanted the mission to fail.  We were escorting a cargo of kobolds as part of a negotiation with a dragon in the North.  I'm pretty sure he was plotting against it, and Father refused to have anything to do with it.""I see." Lady cath Kalissar pauses.  "I would be careful when talking to your father about this.  He lost a lot of friends during the war.  He'll take losing more friends because of it very hard.""Some of Kaelat's agents may know that we played an instrumental role in making the mission succeed.  They may try to get revenge on us.  Do you think you could find out from friends in the Inquisition whether a Talin Cralith is still in the city?""I can try.  I've never had a lot of contacts among the Inquisitors, but I'll see what I can do."Lhovrik heads to Ginara's room.  Hearing the familiar "thump" of daggers striking it, he's careful to knock before entering."Who is it?""Lhovrik.""Oh, c'mon in."Lhovrik enters her room cautiously, holding his familiar Misty out as a shield.  Ginara's expression brightens on seeing Misty, only to sour when Lhovrik flings the cat over his shoulder and down the staircase."I'm going to tell Mom you weren't treating your familiar well.""I just wanted to make sure that you weren't going to throw a dagger at me.""I've only thrown a dagger at you a few times.  And most of those were accidents!"Lhovrik closes the door.  "Ginara... I want to talk with you a little about Uncle Kinric and about the trip."Ginara smiles.  "I think that's the first time you've called him uncle."Lhovrik thinks back to when he was a small child, when Kinric often visited the family and was always introduced to him as Uncle Kinric.  Of course, Kinric stopped visiting more than fifteen years ago."That's not important right now.  I don't think you should tell him the details of the trip.""Why not?""You know how Father had a big fight with his old friend Kaelat before we left?  I think it was about the trip.  I think Kaelat was plotting against it.""Uncle Kinric wouldn't do something like that.  He encouraged me to go on the trip and works for the Empire.""Kaelat worked for the Empire as well.  This turned someone who has been a friend of this family for years against Dad.  And Kinric hasn't been a friend of this family for a long time.""He's been a friend to me!" The hurt tone in Ginara's voice makes it clear that she thinks that not many people fall into that category."I'm just saying it could be dangerous to talk to people about what we did..." Lhovrik gives up and returns to his room to study before sleeping.</blockquote>

Verification