Andrew Moreton
Adventurer
You have just given me a very amusing and spoiler full idea for the background of Harkover Lee. Thank You
ZEITGEIST Tizbiz Zeitgeist Campaign
RangerWickett
Legend
I really do like how this team handles its missions. They're a great spy duo. You simply must get a movie poster or something similar commissioned. 
Thanks, and you're welcome! Looking forward to reading about your Lee someday. Our chars are trying to wrap their head around his big secret(s) as well.
Oh and I'd love to get such a poster. But I fear my favourite artist is notoriously busy and it would be quite expensive. What'd be a total dream come true were small illos (even sketches) of our most powerful or emotional scenes. I can totally visualize them, but unfortunately I'm lacking the 10.000 hours of drawing practise.
Oh and I'd love to get such a poster. But I fear my favourite artist is notoriously busy and it would be quite expensive. What'd be a total dream come true were small illos (even sketches) of our most powerful or emotional scenes. I can totally visualize them, but unfortunately I'm lacking the 10.000 hours of drawing practise.
Visions and Prophecies
I've been looking for a good opportunity to give a bit of insight into our crazy theories about the various visions we got during the adventures up till adventure 5. First and foremost, I'm a sucker for cryptic messages, subtexts and hidden meaning and I love interpreting and puzzling and crafting strange theories.
One little thing that always bugs me though when it comes to visions and prophecies in adventures is the fact that they are seldom about the PCs, which is both understandable - you usually don't know every PC's connection to the setting and background when you're writing published adventures unless they have a very specific setting and are a bit on the railroady side – and unfortunate, as omitting your main characters from all cool cryptic stuff doesn't make too much sense from an in-universe standpoint.
Also, and only as a sidenote, this led to some awkward meta-situations when some visions suit your PCs perfectly, but the players know that this cannot be about them because... reasons. Which is why I tried so hard to write additional visions myself in WotBS that do include the PCs. But I know this isn't every DM's schtick (you also have to craft very carefully or your players will notice and be easily able to tell what's your addition and what's from the original) and I don't know how to solve this from an AP writer's perspective, so... yeah
A second sidenote, before finally getting into the main discussion, I guess that ZEITGEIST upped the ante on cryptic imagery compared to WotBS as Tiz himself wasn't 100% sure on how to interpret Nevard's visions when he read them while Darius' prophecy was crystal clear, at least from a DM's perspective. And having all of these visions transplanted into Auryn's brain when Nevard died didn't make his job easier.
So now, on to some crazy stuff (and I guess those of you who know more might laugh a lot over the coming paragraphs. And FYI, we are currently in the middle of adventure 6)
Nevard's first vision:
"I saw a dark figure, standing atop Cauldron Hill, towering over our city. The sun set, and he cast a shadow over Parity Lake, stretching northwest, into the sea, beyond the horizon. He is born in our city, but his ultimate goal is elsewhere. And also things moved in his shadow - indeed, his shadow moved before he did, for while he was mighty, he was controlled by others."
"I saw smoke hiding his face, for he was made mighty by industry. In my vision, a king chased him out to the sea and defeated him by slicing him free from his shadow. But the cauldron had already shattered, and many thousands were drowned and devoured in its roil."
"I saw three birds alight on the peak, the first of black silk, the second of black steel, both weeping blood. But the third was made of stars and it sang many songs."
As we got this vision in adventure 2, we were pretty sure that this had to be connected with “Porter” and the whole Macbannin affair. We knew that Porter/Creed was a Yerasol veteran, so “northwest sea beyond the horizon” could be related to Yerasol and whatever happened there.
We had the impression that the second part could be related to a wholly different person as King Aodhan didn't chase Creed and neither did he chase Macbannin or anyone else to that point. So we guessed that this person could be related to Macbannin (maybe an industrialist who's been “made mighty by industry” like our all-time scapegoats Goodson or Fordren). But maybe “a king” was metaphorical as well...
What's even more confusing is/was the third part (and till this point we still don't know what or who the third bird might be). After consulting some skyseers, we were pretty sure the first bird was indeed Creed. The second one we thought to be our mysterious industrialist who'd be killed on Cauldron Hill as well (“Weeping blood”). For the third bird we thought about a possible connection to Ethelyn's vision of stars falling from the sky, maybe forming a Constellar-like being (Constellars being planar messengers of the Titans from the Warcraft universe who seem to be made of stars). And maybe, after the fall of Srasama, the Stars could belong to a deity that's being killed somewhen in the future, but that'd be unlikely as there is no such named deity anywhere.
"I tell you this: Cauldron Hill is not safe. Twice will danger arise, and twice will we be decieved into thinking it is safe to return, but we must avoid the playe and avoid being tricked. I have arranged shelter in the Cloudwood, where people can be safe until the darkness passes."
Nevard obviously concluded that the first two birds mean danger, so Cauldron Hill should be abandoned until the darkness has passed. This one was pretty straightforward
After the end of adventure 5, we finally realized that we were wrong all along and most of Nevard's vision was, in fact, about Borne. Suddenly it all made sense. Still we don't know what or where his “ultimate goal” is, and can only imagine that it might be somewhere in the northwest in/over the sea.
"A woman sat on a leather couch in a waiting room, surrounded by red curtains. She held a gold coin and rolled it across the back of her fingers. A pick lay against the side of her couch. He asked her what she was waiting for, and she answered in a language he didn't know, saying 'The place I'm going to isn't here yet'"
This one we didn't get at all. The red curtain reminded us so much of Nilasa's appearance atop Cauldron Hill (and Nevard was present during this event, so it made sense) that we thought this was a woman suffering a similar fate: Being dead, waiting for the Bleak Gate train to arrive. We saw the gold coin as an obvious symbol for money and the talking pick made no sense at all. Well, after seeing Xambria Meredith's picture with an excavation pick, I thought this could mean something but wrote it off as being too far-fetched.
After adventure 3 and the revelation of Sijhen and the golden seal it made much more sense. Still... red curtains!
"A trumpeter carried a lantern onto the stage of a darkened theater, and the people gathered for his performance applauded, then lit lanterns of their own. The theater never got bright enough for him to see their faces"
To us, trumpeter could have a figurative or literal meaning, which we discussed a lot during adventure 4 (where there was an actual trumpeter aboard the train). We went with it being a metaphor for a herald speaking to an unknown crowd (never see their faces). The guy could be someone who brings “the light” (of truth? Or rather magical illumination?) to a world of darkness.
After the Ob-Convention in adventure 4, we are/were kind of sure that the trumpeter is Luc Jierre, meaning that the lantern is his Wayfarer Lantern and the darkness would be a stand-in for the transitory plane between Material and Bleak Gate. Still, the crowd didn't have lanterns of their own and their faces were clearly visible, so not sure whether we can call this one solved yet.
“One man tore himself in two, and his twin selves fought over a woman, tearing her into three, who ran away. Mice skittered around them, collecting cheese fallen amid the rails of a trainyard. Then a train roared down the track past him, but it had no one driving it. In the distance it derailed, and crushed two of the women, but which of the three survived?"
This one was totally confusing as well and we thought that most of it must be meant metaphorically. A woman tearing into three is clearly related to Srasama, be that the goddess herself, a follower or a Vekeshi Excoriant with that cool Threefold Presence PrC/PP power. We researched a bit whether there was a male deity with two aspects, but found none. Mice could have been the deities' followers (or henchmen of either the woman or man) while the train... didn't fit in at all. Could've been a symbol for uncontrolled technological progress, but that'd not fit with the Srasama theme.
After the vision of the doe-eyed Kasvarina and during adventure 4, we thought it could be related to her (she's said to be an assassin, so maybe a Vekeshi) who did something that went horribly wrong so she got split into three different personae. The Kas we saw could have been “the innocent maiden” version of herself, which is why she didn't have any clue or powers. The two men would have then been Leone and Grappa who we thought could have been polar opposites of each other.
We also thought that we'd find Kasvarina aboard the Avery Railroad train (the train would have finally made sense!) which would be bound to derail somewhere – possibly in Vendricce. But we had to dismiss this theory when we saw Isobel. Well, not the Kasvarina and Leone/Grappa part, but we still don't know about the mice (maybe Kasvarina's followers?) and the train (maybe Borne?)
Oh and this was one of the visions that could have fit Auryn and Carlyle perfectly with her being a Vekeshi who's torn between her tradition, her life in Risur and her need for revenge and also dedicated to Srasama and him being torn between his old life as shadow guardian and his new identity of protocol-abiding RHC agent.
"A man carrying a bronze staff with three keyholes is assailed by swords and arrows and fire, but nothing kills him. He began to take off his robes, revealing tiger fur beneath them, while stars fell from the sky all around him. He began to take off his robes, revealing tiger fur beneath them, while stars fell from the sky all around him. The sky was dark, and when the sun should have risen, instead a pale glowing cloud floated in the dark."
Another very cryptic vision that didn't happen yet. We instantly guessed that this is somehow related to Ethelyn's vision and the bird of Stars (falling stars). This means an event taking place at a time when the world falls into darkness (which could, again, be meant literally or figuratively). We think that tiger fur could either mean an eladrin warrior's garb or a rakhshasa.
The latter could be meant as a link to the fallen god from the “Arsenal of Dhebisu” legend. Especially as Dhebisu used a “fallen star” to fight the rakhshasa so it could not reincarnate. And reincarnation and “died a thousand times” from Ethelyn's vision would suit up nicely. Also, the “assailed by sword and arrow” could be simply the rakhshasa's DR.
It took a while and I developed a second, albeit very far-fetched theory: If a god could be transformed into a rakhshasa and “Deva” meant nothing short but “god” (as they are infused by Srasama's essence), then maybe a deva who became really corrupted could be transformed (by other deva?) into one of these tiger-demons as well?
The bronze staff and keyholes however? Absolutely no clue.
"Finally, tyrant and murderer languished in prison, hanging from twelve chains and hooks that pierced her feet, her legs, her thighs, her shoulders, her arms, and her hands. But the thirteenth hook that sealed her mouth swung loose, and it fluttered in the breeze as she whispered a map that led everywhere"
This we didn't understand at all before the Crypta Hereticarum. We thought the hook could be related to the Humble Hook of Triegenes and also that the guy could have imprisoned a powerful plane-traveling demoness. Turned out that this wasn't too far off, even if we don't know whether it was Triegenes who imprisoned Ashima-Shimtu.
Ethelyn's vision:
"A globe spins on its axis, and a steel ship sails off to war on a sail of shadows. The world passes into night, and blackness grips all of Risur as the stars fall from the sky. The king's eyes turn a soulless white, and he moves as a puppet, his strings pulled by a man who has already died a thousand times."
We saw a clear connection to Nevard's vision with the falling stars there, meaning they are both warning about the same event. We doubt that the steel ship is connected to the Coaltongue though as this ship didn't sail to war yet. After what we've learned about the Nicodemus-possession yet, the King could either be directly controlled by the master-Ob (who could have easily died a thousand times by inhabiting different bodies) or indirectly by a deva (who can also figuratively “die a thousand times” and be reborn). We suspected this might be Stanfield (who has a habit of dying), but aren't quite as sure about our initial suspicion of him being an Ob anymore (he didn't have an Ob ring when we got the chance to examine his fingers).
Regarding the pale glowing cloud, this could mean a shift in planar dominance with Vona being replaced by something else (Av?)
As for Ekossigan's poem... this will be subject of the next session's recap
I've been looking for a good opportunity to give a bit of insight into our crazy theories about the various visions we got during the adventures up till adventure 5. First and foremost, I'm a sucker for cryptic messages, subtexts and hidden meaning and I love interpreting and puzzling and crafting strange theories.
One little thing that always bugs me though when it comes to visions and prophecies in adventures is the fact that they are seldom about the PCs, which is both understandable - you usually don't know every PC's connection to the setting and background when you're writing published adventures unless they have a very specific setting and are a bit on the railroady side – and unfortunate, as omitting your main characters from all cool cryptic stuff doesn't make too much sense from an in-universe standpoint.
Also, and only as a sidenote, this led to some awkward meta-situations when some visions suit your PCs perfectly, but the players know that this cannot be about them because... reasons. Which is why I tried so hard to write additional visions myself in WotBS that do include the PCs. But I know this isn't every DM's schtick (you also have to craft very carefully or your players will notice and be easily able to tell what's your addition and what's from the original) and I don't know how to solve this from an AP writer's perspective, so... yeah
A second sidenote, before finally getting into the main discussion, I guess that ZEITGEIST upped the ante on cryptic imagery compared to WotBS as Tiz himself wasn't 100% sure on how to interpret Nevard's visions when he read them while Darius' prophecy was crystal clear, at least from a DM's perspective. And having all of these visions transplanted into Auryn's brain when Nevard died didn't make his job easier.
So now, on to some crazy stuff (and I guess those of you who know more might laugh a lot over the coming paragraphs. And FYI, we are currently in the middle of adventure 6)
Nevard's first vision:
"I saw a dark figure, standing atop Cauldron Hill, towering over our city. The sun set, and he cast a shadow over Parity Lake, stretching northwest, into the sea, beyond the horizon. He is born in our city, but his ultimate goal is elsewhere. And also things moved in his shadow - indeed, his shadow moved before he did, for while he was mighty, he was controlled by others."
"I saw smoke hiding his face, for he was made mighty by industry. In my vision, a king chased him out to the sea and defeated him by slicing him free from his shadow. But the cauldron had already shattered, and many thousands were drowned and devoured in its roil."
"I saw three birds alight on the peak, the first of black silk, the second of black steel, both weeping blood. But the third was made of stars and it sang many songs."
As we got this vision in adventure 2, we were pretty sure that this had to be connected with “Porter” and the whole Macbannin affair. We knew that Porter/Creed was a Yerasol veteran, so “northwest sea beyond the horizon” could be related to Yerasol and whatever happened there.
We had the impression that the second part could be related to a wholly different person as King Aodhan didn't chase Creed and neither did he chase Macbannin or anyone else to that point. So we guessed that this person could be related to Macbannin (maybe an industrialist who's been “made mighty by industry” like our all-time scapegoats Goodson or Fordren). But maybe “a king” was metaphorical as well...
What's even more confusing is/was the third part (and till this point we still don't know what or who the third bird might be). After consulting some skyseers, we were pretty sure the first bird was indeed Creed. The second one we thought to be our mysterious industrialist who'd be killed on Cauldron Hill as well (“Weeping blood”). For the third bird we thought about a possible connection to Ethelyn's vision of stars falling from the sky, maybe forming a Constellar-like being (Constellars being planar messengers of the Titans from the Warcraft universe who seem to be made of stars). And maybe, after the fall of Srasama, the Stars could belong to a deity that's being killed somewhen in the future, but that'd be unlikely as there is no such named deity anywhere.
"I tell you this: Cauldron Hill is not safe. Twice will danger arise, and twice will we be decieved into thinking it is safe to return, but we must avoid the playe and avoid being tricked. I have arranged shelter in the Cloudwood, where people can be safe until the darkness passes."
Nevard obviously concluded that the first two birds mean danger, so Cauldron Hill should be abandoned until the darkness has passed. This one was pretty straightforward
After the end of adventure 5, we finally realized that we were wrong all along and most of Nevard's vision was, in fact, about Borne. Suddenly it all made sense. Still we don't know what or where his “ultimate goal” is, and can only imagine that it might be somewhere in the northwest in/over the sea.
"A woman sat on a leather couch in a waiting room, surrounded by red curtains. She held a gold coin and rolled it across the back of her fingers. A pick lay against the side of her couch. He asked her what she was waiting for, and she answered in a language he didn't know, saying 'The place I'm going to isn't here yet'"
This one we didn't get at all. The red curtain reminded us so much of Nilasa's appearance atop Cauldron Hill (and Nevard was present during this event, so it made sense) that we thought this was a woman suffering a similar fate: Being dead, waiting for the Bleak Gate train to arrive. We saw the gold coin as an obvious symbol for money and the talking pick made no sense at all. Well, after seeing Xambria Meredith's picture with an excavation pick, I thought this could mean something but wrote it off as being too far-fetched.
After adventure 3 and the revelation of Sijhen and the golden seal it made much more sense. Still... red curtains!
"A trumpeter carried a lantern onto the stage of a darkened theater, and the people gathered for his performance applauded, then lit lanterns of their own. The theater never got bright enough for him to see their faces"
To us, trumpeter could have a figurative or literal meaning, which we discussed a lot during adventure 4 (where there was an actual trumpeter aboard the train). We went with it being a metaphor for a herald speaking to an unknown crowd (never see their faces). The guy could be someone who brings “the light” (of truth? Or rather magical illumination?) to a world of darkness.
After the Ob-Convention in adventure 4, we are/were kind of sure that the trumpeter is Luc Jierre, meaning that the lantern is his Wayfarer Lantern and the darkness would be a stand-in for the transitory plane between Material and Bleak Gate. Still, the crowd didn't have lanterns of their own and their faces were clearly visible, so not sure whether we can call this one solved yet.
“One man tore himself in two, and his twin selves fought over a woman, tearing her into three, who ran away. Mice skittered around them, collecting cheese fallen amid the rails of a trainyard. Then a train roared down the track past him, but it had no one driving it. In the distance it derailed, and crushed two of the women, but which of the three survived?"
This one was totally confusing as well and we thought that most of it must be meant metaphorically. A woman tearing into three is clearly related to Srasama, be that the goddess herself, a follower or a Vekeshi Excoriant with that cool Threefold Presence PrC/PP power. We researched a bit whether there was a male deity with two aspects, but found none. Mice could have been the deities' followers (or henchmen of either the woman or man) while the train... didn't fit in at all. Could've been a symbol for uncontrolled technological progress, but that'd not fit with the Srasama theme.
After the vision of the doe-eyed Kasvarina and during adventure 4, we thought it could be related to her (she's said to be an assassin, so maybe a Vekeshi) who did something that went horribly wrong so she got split into three different personae. The Kas we saw could have been “the innocent maiden” version of herself, which is why she didn't have any clue or powers. The two men would have then been Leone and Grappa who we thought could have been polar opposites of each other.
We also thought that we'd find Kasvarina aboard the Avery Railroad train (the train would have finally made sense!) which would be bound to derail somewhere – possibly in Vendricce. But we had to dismiss this theory when we saw Isobel. Well, not the Kasvarina and Leone/Grappa part, but we still don't know about the mice (maybe Kasvarina's followers?) and the train (maybe Borne?)
Oh and this was one of the visions that could have fit Auryn and Carlyle perfectly with her being a Vekeshi who's torn between her tradition, her life in Risur and her need for revenge and also dedicated to Srasama and him being torn between his old life as shadow guardian and his new identity of protocol-abiding RHC agent.
"A man carrying a bronze staff with three keyholes is assailed by swords and arrows and fire, but nothing kills him. He began to take off his robes, revealing tiger fur beneath them, while stars fell from the sky all around him. He began to take off his robes, revealing tiger fur beneath them, while stars fell from the sky all around him. The sky was dark, and when the sun should have risen, instead a pale glowing cloud floated in the dark."
Another very cryptic vision that didn't happen yet. We instantly guessed that this is somehow related to Ethelyn's vision and the bird of Stars (falling stars). This means an event taking place at a time when the world falls into darkness (which could, again, be meant literally or figuratively). We think that tiger fur could either mean an eladrin warrior's garb or a rakhshasa.
The latter could be meant as a link to the fallen god from the “Arsenal of Dhebisu” legend. Especially as Dhebisu used a “fallen star” to fight the rakhshasa so it could not reincarnate. And reincarnation and “died a thousand times” from Ethelyn's vision would suit up nicely. Also, the “assailed by sword and arrow” could be simply the rakhshasa's DR.
It took a while and I developed a second, albeit very far-fetched theory: If a god could be transformed into a rakhshasa and “Deva” meant nothing short but “god” (as they are infused by Srasama's essence), then maybe a deva who became really corrupted could be transformed (by other deva?) into one of these tiger-demons as well?
The bronze staff and keyholes however? Absolutely no clue.
"Finally, tyrant and murderer languished in prison, hanging from twelve chains and hooks that pierced her feet, her legs, her thighs, her shoulders, her arms, and her hands. But the thirteenth hook that sealed her mouth swung loose, and it fluttered in the breeze as she whispered a map that led everywhere"
This we didn't understand at all before the Crypta Hereticarum. We thought the hook could be related to the Humble Hook of Triegenes and also that the guy could have imprisoned a powerful plane-traveling demoness. Turned out that this wasn't too far off, even if we don't know whether it was Triegenes who imprisoned Ashima-Shimtu.
Ethelyn's vision:
"A globe spins on its axis, and a steel ship sails off to war on a sail of shadows. The world passes into night, and blackness grips all of Risur as the stars fall from the sky. The king's eyes turn a soulless white, and he moves as a puppet, his strings pulled by a man who has already died a thousand times."
We saw a clear connection to Nevard's vision with the falling stars there, meaning they are both warning about the same event. We doubt that the steel ship is connected to the Coaltongue though as this ship didn't sail to war yet. After what we've learned about the Nicodemus-possession yet, the King could either be directly controlled by the master-Ob (who could have easily died a thousand times by inhabiting different bodies) or indirectly by a deva (who can also figuratively “die a thousand times” and be reborn). We suspected this might be Stanfield (who has a habit of dying), but aren't quite as sure about our initial suspicion of him being an Ob anymore (he didn't have an Ob ring when we got the chance to examine his fingers).
Regarding the pale glowing cloud, this could mean a shift in planar dominance with Vona being replaced by something else (Av?)
As for Ekossigan's poem... this will be subject of the next session's recap
RangerWickett
Legend
The red curtains are really just because I like Twin Peaks, and so they're meant as imagery for being separate from your body, but not able to pass on. Like a waiting room.
Depending on your budget, you might want to look at fiverr.com. there are several character art artists available there.
Asrabey's return
Okay, now it becomes clearer. I admit, I haven't seen Twin Peaks yet, but it is still on the to-watch list. (Love cryptic shows, but I grew up with 90's anime and Gargoyles, so yeah...)
Also thanks Tormyr. Though I'm tempted to try one myself first. Oh, this will take some time...
---
Session 27
After showing Ekossigan's poem to all of us, Asrabey calls upon the pact of King Kelland and asks for permission to go after the fugitive fey lord. He reminds Aodhan that he may not strike down a member of the Unseen Court which is why he needs the assistance of Risur in this matter.
We are a bit baffled by this ancient protocol, but Aodhan grants Asrabey the permission and then asks us to heed the eladrin's call for support by helping him take down Ekossigan. He adds that he knows no one else who'll get along that well with the Dreadnaught and a fugitive fey lord is one of these things that might turn the peace conference into a catastrophe.
We agree to take this mission of course, but remind those present that someone will need to take care of Brakken Heffanita and operation Fallen Curtain as well. When all these basics are settled, Auryn takes a quick moment to show her honest joy of seeing Asrabey again while the seasoned warrior seems pretty glad to see his wife's descendant alive and kicking.
(yeah, that's exactly what Aodhan was hinting at. As Auryn was/is wearing Kasvarina's brooch which she got from Asrabey all the time, he was quite happy about that fact as well.
Also, Auryn was so positively surprised because Asrabey could probably provide her with the much needed insight into general Elfaivaran culture and politics beyond her enclave.)
We ask Asrabey to wait a tad bit longer as we still got another issue for our dear monarch. Then we hand Aodhan the armor scrap we got from Cippiano and call it a gift from our Crisillyiri friend. Aodhan examines the item for a while and comes to the very same conclusion: That the person who wore this armor could have been a Guardian, a designated successor of his or her period's King or Queen of Risur. He confirms our suspicion that it could be 500 years old and stem from the Malice War. We add that it could have been in the original Stanfield's possession as he is a very unlikely deva, feeling such a strong connection to Risur that he'd serve the country for centuries. We also add that, even if he was named successor, he'd have been that in his past life and his new incarnation would have technically been a different person.
(yeah, we are quite sure that his reason to come to Risur is pretty unlikely to be the same as Carlyle's: Hearing the whispers of the dead and fearing to lose all sanity)
Speaking of Stanfield, we suggest that he could give a speech when the conference starts. After all, we still don't know if he's an Ob or not and seeing him in public might help us getting clues on the elusive governor. We then say goodbye to King and Principal Minister and turn to Asrabey.
We accompany Asrabey to a quiet room first and then try to make sense of Ekossigan's poem. He explains that Ekossigan, Lord of the Seasons and Widdershin's Prophet is a tricky one and he doesn't quite know whether this poem was meant as a prophecy or as a warning. Being a servant of the Unseen Court, he knows a bit about the fey lord. Ekossigan has four incarnations, one for every season (of the Dreaming, as Risur knows only rainy and dry seasons) and that he's cycling through these incarnations in the opposite direction (hence widdershin's prophet). We see that this puts far more sense into “spring” returning to “winter”, as this might be linked to the fey lord's incarnations.
Once we say this, Asrabey's eyes widen and he calls this very bad news. He says that while Ekossigan of Spring is a playful, intelligent person, his Ekossigan of Winter incarnation is cruel, merciless and quite mad. We guess that we'll just have to find the fey lord before he “turns to winter” and be fine.
Regarding the Cauldron, we believe that this could be related to Cauldron Hill and we tell Asrabey of Nevard's vision regarding the danger of this haunted hill. We know about one witchoil factory there (which we shut down) but suppose there could be another complex deeper down in the Bleak Gate which we, unfortunately, weren't able to reach until now.
(we had rusty amulets from Macbannin but they didn't work on anything besides Macbannin's own metal rings in his estate. Meaning that “Leone's portal” through which the metal mage took Kasvarina was not working at all)
We then carefully explain that we are pretty sure that Kasvarina might be inside this Ob facility which is another reason why we so desperately sought methods to travel to their hiding spot in the Bleak Gate. (Gale's friend Ellik, the metal rings, and the Lantern experiments)
We also believe that the “fire bride” might hint at Lya Jierre while the “green adorned” could be linked to Aodhan's habit of dressing in green garments. We aren't really sure about the vintner and the steel, as Grappa isn't really known to be a vintner and steel could mean Leone. For the cauldron-born, we believe that this means great danger and the spark, silver and arc could be related to some source of electricity.
(we thought a bit about the creation of Frankenstein's Monster – metal version. Silver is a damn fine conductor and spark and a lightning arc would fit in. Tiz told us a bit later about the arc of Reida and this part being a popular saying which still didn't make much sense to us)
Auryn then makes hidden gestures to signal Carlyle that there are more clues she'd better not share with Asrabey yet. The Dreadnaught doesn't take notice, but he does notice the strange markings on Auryn's and Carlyle's forearms and asks them about the meaning of this as he's never heard of a non-eladrin Sahodar Mitra. Auryn promises to tell him the whole story over a good cup of tea.
She then grins slightly and explains that as Asrabey is in Risur now, we'd ask him for a favor in return for our help with Ekossigan. She quickly adds that she's pretty sure he'll help us out without hesitation once he hears the whole story: We need to exterminate the Kell Guild. We tell Asrabey that we know that these criminals are in league with the secret society member who abducted Kasvarina, so chances are high that we'll find clues on her whereabouts with Kell or his lieutenants. The eladrin shows us a grim smile and agrees to help us with this pest as soon as this Ekossigan matter is done.
(Checkmate, Kell. We've seen the massacres of Axis island. And this time he's coming for you...)
Carlyle then realizes that Auryn would like to have some private time with Asrabey, so he declares he'd need to make preparations for their search for Ekossigan and excuses himself. Auryn takes the opportunity to invite her distant relative to said tea. An invitation which Asrabey gladly accepts.
On their way to Stray River, they talk a bit about Auryn's family, friends and Elfaivar. Asrabey explains that he didn't mean to belittle her choice of Sahomi. On the contrary, he sees Carlyle as a fitting companion and holds him in high regard, despite his heritage.
“I guess the Risuri would call a man like him a 'Knight' or 'Gentleman' and I know you'll be safe with him.” he says with an eerily honest smile.
Auryn agrees with Asrabey and adds that she'd go even further: She'd call his attitude worthy of an esteemed husband, even if he is no eladrin. She guesses that this might be linked to the part of Carlyle that has once been Srasama who holds a certain amount of influence on her partner. Regarding the ritual, she explains that she plans to visit her home in the not so far future and granting him this status will help getting him acknowledged by her community.
After that, they discuss the current situation in Elfaivar. Asrabey says that he won't be able to help much as he hasn't returned home for a very long time. Still, he realized that no enclave was like the other as all matriarchs had very distinct and individual personalities. He explains that Kasvarina has always been upset and somewhat bitter about the situation in Elfaivar. But this intensified when she found her daughter Launga murdered, an event after which she left Elfaivar for good and sent him, her trusted husband, to serve the Unseen Court. Auryn is shocked to hear about the death of her great-grandmother as she didn't really know what had happened to her after she had vanished.
Asrabey tells Auryn that Kasvarina had been a warrior for all of her life, fighting for a brighter future for her people. When she asks him about Kasvarina's possible connections to Miller, Asrabey confesses that he doesn't know much about him. He knows that his wife had a certain fondness for this human and had great hope for the heretic's community of Pala, only to be disappointed again after his murder at the hands of the Clergy. He doesn't know anything about a forbidden Crypt though and Kasvarina never spoke about such a complex. Still he's grateful that Auryn promised to bring back the stolen relics of Elfaivar, calling her a preserver of their ancient culture.
(and yeah, she's totally wearing that general's crown of conquest she found in the Crypta)
Auryn expresses her compassion for Kasvarina as she says she kind of understands her feeling of bitterness after all she's learned recently. She explains that she grew up with the belief of shaping a stronger, new, flourishing Elfaivar and becoming a part of that cycle. An Elfaivar that has learned of its past mistakes. Still she fears that her dream of Elfaivar might be shattered by the harsh reality of what she's seen and what she's been told by Hana.
Auryn says she's but one of far too few women who came into a world she doesn't understand. A world which follows different rules and which sees her as a trophy at worst. And now she's been told that she and her views could represent a mere minority in her own homeland. And then, shivering to her very core, she adds that she's learned only recently that her worst nightmares, the Mad Kings, might have survived the aftermath of the Malice and still possess a certain amount of power and influence.
Asrabey doesn't have much to soothe her fears. Still he urges Auryn to continue dreaming and following her vision. He confesses that he knows a bit about the ambassadors of the elfaivari Kings who came to the Unseen Court, even if he'd surely love to remove their heads. But alas, he's bound to his oath to Kasvarina, so he has to abide to the Court's bidding.
Auryn reminds him that this puts him in a dilemma: For as long as Kasvarina is held captive, she cannot release Asrabey from his oath and command. And as long as he's bound to his oath, there is little he can do to free his wife. Asrabey sees reason in Auryn's words and he utters his hope of finding legal loopholes that help him free Kasvarina without failing the Court.
Auryn then talks a bit about her exchange with Hana. Asrabey reacts with a certain amount of curiosity when she talks about “Gale's” flying powers as he believes it to be a part of Ekossigan of Summer's portfolio. Auryn supports this theory as she explains that Hana escaped captivity with the help of a mysterious stranger. A stranger who could totally be Ekossigan. Asrabey nods and adds that this incarnation of Ekossigan is a very benevolent and charming individual which is why helping an eladrin wouldn't be too far off.
“Seems like we got our first clue: Maybe Hana knows more about her benefactor's whereabouts.” Auryn says and adds that she'd also try to ask the local fey for any recent changes in their environment.
They finally reach Auryn's home and she asks Asrabey to take a seat and relax a while while she's busy preparing traditional self-grown tea. She then says that she'd like to introduce her student Isobel to him and heads upstairs where she finds her young companion acting all nervously while another white-haired person is about to jump out of the window. Andrei von Recklinghausen is far too fast for Auryn to reach him, so she just shrugs about her friend's erratic behavior.
“I didn't do nothing wrong, I swear!” Isobel defends herself in a bird-like voice while Auryn musters her with a certain amount of curiosity.
Auryn then laughs quietly and explains that she's indeed sure that Isobel did nothing wrong. But she also doesn't need to hide her growing affection and relationship with Andrei. Auryn says that both Andrei and Isobel are her dear friends, that she's really happy to see their mutual affection and care and that there is nothing Isobel needs to be ashamed of. She adds she's quite sure that Andrei will treat her with the gentle respect she deserves which is why he can come to visit her whenever he'd like to.
Isobel is glad to hear that, even if she seems a bit unsure about this whole relationship stuff. Auryn then asks her to join her and her relative over a cup of tea. But when Auryn leads her to her kitchen and tries to introduce Asrabey Varal, the esteemed husband of Kasvarina Varal, Isobel turns white as a sheet.
“He's a Nightelf! Auryn, you brought a Nightelf to your home!” Isobel screams in terror, then turns around, rushes to the bathroom and locks the door tightly.
Auryn and Asrabey look at each other for a few moments of awkward silence.
“I'm so sorry, I don't know what has gotten into her. I can only guess that it has something to do with her past.” Auryn apologizes before sitting down again.
She then carefully explains the circumstances of Isobel's journey until she got freed by the Constables and Andrei and adds that her family is still held captive by the Traverses, a noble danoran family. Auryn adds that she'd love to free them as well and to put the guilty slavers to justice, but she needs to gather more information and find the spare time to travel there.
Once this initial turmoil is settled, Auryn's gaze falls upon a gorgeous gown standing in her corridor. As she's quite curious to know where this may come from (her dress for the royal wedding isn't finished yet), she takes a closer look and finds it to be elaborately worked and closely resembling an elfaivaran style. It is decorated with a similarly beautiful card from Morgan Cippiano who sincerely apologizes again for missing her birthday and who wishes her all the best for the coming year. So it's time to fill out these forms again...
(Honestly, for a moment I feared that it might have been a gift from Fordren. He's the sort of guy who would do that. But, fortunately, the same applies to Don Cippiano, who's just a very generous fashion enthusiast)
When he realizes that everything is fine, Asrabey finally explains that there are preparations he needs to do as well, so he bids Auryn farewell. He leaves her an address should she need to contact him though.
Okay, now it becomes clearer. I admit, I haven't seen Twin Peaks yet, but it is still on the to-watch list. (Love cryptic shows, but I grew up with 90's anime and Gargoyles, so yeah...)
Also thanks Tormyr. Though I'm tempted to try one myself first. Oh, this will take some time...
---
Session 27
After showing Ekossigan's poem to all of us, Asrabey calls upon the pact of King Kelland and asks for permission to go after the fugitive fey lord. He reminds Aodhan that he may not strike down a member of the Unseen Court which is why he needs the assistance of Risur in this matter.
We are a bit baffled by this ancient protocol, but Aodhan grants Asrabey the permission and then asks us to heed the eladrin's call for support by helping him take down Ekossigan. He adds that he knows no one else who'll get along that well with the Dreadnaught and a fugitive fey lord is one of these things that might turn the peace conference into a catastrophe.
We agree to take this mission of course, but remind those present that someone will need to take care of Brakken Heffanita and operation Fallen Curtain as well. When all these basics are settled, Auryn takes a quick moment to show her honest joy of seeing Asrabey again while the seasoned warrior seems pretty glad to see his wife's descendant alive and kicking.
(yeah, that's exactly what Aodhan was hinting at. As Auryn was/is wearing Kasvarina's brooch which she got from Asrabey all the time, he was quite happy about that fact as well.
Also, Auryn was so positively surprised because Asrabey could probably provide her with the much needed insight into general Elfaivaran culture and politics beyond her enclave.)
We ask Asrabey to wait a tad bit longer as we still got another issue for our dear monarch. Then we hand Aodhan the armor scrap we got from Cippiano and call it a gift from our Crisillyiri friend. Aodhan examines the item for a while and comes to the very same conclusion: That the person who wore this armor could have been a Guardian, a designated successor of his or her period's King or Queen of Risur. He confirms our suspicion that it could be 500 years old and stem from the Malice War. We add that it could have been in the original Stanfield's possession as he is a very unlikely deva, feeling such a strong connection to Risur that he'd serve the country for centuries. We also add that, even if he was named successor, he'd have been that in his past life and his new incarnation would have technically been a different person.
(yeah, we are quite sure that his reason to come to Risur is pretty unlikely to be the same as Carlyle's: Hearing the whispers of the dead and fearing to lose all sanity)
Speaking of Stanfield, we suggest that he could give a speech when the conference starts. After all, we still don't know if he's an Ob or not and seeing him in public might help us getting clues on the elusive governor. We then say goodbye to King and Principal Minister and turn to Asrabey.
We accompany Asrabey to a quiet room first and then try to make sense of Ekossigan's poem. He explains that Ekossigan, Lord of the Seasons and Widdershin's Prophet is a tricky one and he doesn't quite know whether this poem was meant as a prophecy or as a warning. Being a servant of the Unseen Court, he knows a bit about the fey lord. Ekossigan has four incarnations, one for every season (of the Dreaming, as Risur knows only rainy and dry seasons) and that he's cycling through these incarnations in the opposite direction (hence widdershin's prophet). We see that this puts far more sense into “spring” returning to “winter”, as this might be linked to the fey lord's incarnations.
Once we say this, Asrabey's eyes widen and he calls this very bad news. He says that while Ekossigan of Spring is a playful, intelligent person, his Ekossigan of Winter incarnation is cruel, merciless and quite mad. We guess that we'll just have to find the fey lord before he “turns to winter” and be fine.
Regarding the Cauldron, we believe that this could be related to Cauldron Hill and we tell Asrabey of Nevard's vision regarding the danger of this haunted hill. We know about one witchoil factory there (which we shut down) but suppose there could be another complex deeper down in the Bleak Gate which we, unfortunately, weren't able to reach until now.
(we had rusty amulets from Macbannin but they didn't work on anything besides Macbannin's own metal rings in his estate. Meaning that “Leone's portal” through which the metal mage took Kasvarina was not working at all)
We then carefully explain that we are pretty sure that Kasvarina might be inside this Ob facility which is another reason why we so desperately sought methods to travel to their hiding spot in the Bleak Gate. (Gale's friend Ellik, the metal rings, and the Lantern experiments)
We also believe that the “fire bride” might hint at Lya Jierre while the “green adorned” could be linked to Aodhan's habit of dressing in green garments. We aren't really sure about the vintner and the steel, as Grappa isn't really known to be a vintner and steel could mean Leone. For the cauldron-born, we believe that this means great danger and the spark, silver and arc could be related to some source of electricity.
(we thought a bit about the creation of Frankenstein's Monster – metal version. Silver is a damn fine conductor and spark and a lightning arc would fit in. Tiz told us a bit later about the arc of Reida and this part being a popular saying which still didn't make much sense to us)
Auryn then makes hidden gestures to signal Carlyle that there are more clues she'd better not share with Asrabey yet. The Dreadnaught doesn't take notice, but he does notice the strange markings on Auryn's and Carlyle's forearms and asks them about the meaning of this as he's never heard of a non-eladrin Sahodar Mitra. Auryn promises to tell him the whole story over a good cup of tea.
She then grins slightly and explains that as Asrabey is in Risur now, we'd ask him for a favor in return for our help with Ekossigan. She quickly adds that she's pretty sure he'll help us out without hesitation once he hears the whole story: We need to exterminate the Kell Guild. We tell Asrabey that we know that these criminals are in league with the secret society member who abducted Kasvarina, so chances are high that we'll find clues on her whereabouts with Kell or his lieutenants. The eladrin shows us a grim smile and agrees to help us with this pest as soon as this Ekossigan matter is done.
(Checkmate, Kell. We've seen the massacres of Axis island. And this time he's coming for you...)
Carlyle then realizes that Auryn would like to have some private time with Asrabey, so he declares he'd need to make preparations for their search for Ekossigan and excuses himself. Auryn takes the opportunity to invite her distant relative to said tea. An invitation which Asrabey gladly accepts.
On their way to Stray River, they talk a bit about Auryn's family, friends and Elfaivar. Asrabey explains that he didn't mean to belittle her choice of Sahomi. On the contrary, he sees Carlyle as a fitting companion and holds him in high regard, despite his heritage.
“I guess the Risuri would call a man like him a 'Knight' or 'Gentleman' and I know you'll be safe with him.” he says with an eerily honest smile.
Auryn agrees with Asrabey and adds that she'd go even further: She'd call his attitude worthy of an esteemed husband, even if he is no eladrin. She guesses that this might be linked to the part of Carlyle that has once been Srasama who holds a certain amount of influence on her partner. Regarding the ritual, she explains that she plans to visit her home in the not so far future and granting him this status will help getting him acknowledged by her community.
After that, they discuss the current situation in Elfaivar. Asrabey says that he won't be able to help much as he hasn't returned home for a very long time. Still, he realized that no enclave was like the other as all matriarchs had very distinct and individual personalities. He explains that Kasvarina has always been upset and somewhat bitter about the situation in Elfaivar. But this intensified when she found her daughter Launga murdered, an event after which she left Elfaivar for good and sent him, her trusted husband, to serve the Unseen Court. Auryn is shocked to hear about the death of her great-grandmother as she didn't really know what had happened to her after she had vanished.
Asrabey tells Auryn that Kasvarina had been a warrior for all of her life, fighting for a brighter future for her people. When she asks him about Kasvarina's possible connections to Miller, Asrabey confesses that he doesn't know much about him. He knows that his wife had a certain fondness for this human and had great hope for the heretic's community of Pala, only to be disappointed again after his murder at the hands of the Clergy. He doesn't know anything about a forbidden Crypt though and Kasvarina never spoke about such a complex. Still he's grateful that Auryn promised to bring back the stolen relics of Elfaivar, calling her a preserver of their ancient culture.
(and yeah, she's totally wearing that general's crown of conquest she found in the Crypta)
Auryn expresses her compassion for Kasvarina as she says she kind of understands her feeling of bitterness after all she's learned recently. She explains that she grew up with the belief of shaping a stronger, new, flourishing Elfaivar and becoming a part of that cycle. An Elfaivar that has learned of its past mistakes. Still she fears that her dream of Elfaivar might be shattered by the harsh reality of what she's seen and what she's been told by Hana.
Auryn says she's but one of far too few women who came into a world she doesn't understand. A world which follows different rules and which sees her as a trophy at worst. And now she's been told that she and her views could represent a mere minority in her own homeland. And then, shivering to her very core, she adds that she's learned only recently that her worst nightmares, the Mad Kings, might have survived the aftermath of the Malice and still possess a certain amount of power and influence.
Asrabey doesn't have much to soothe her fears. Still he urges Auryn to continue dreaming and following her vision. He confesses that he knows a bit about the ambassadors of the elfaivari Kings who came to the Unseen Court, even if he'd surely love to remove their heads. But alas, he's bound to his oath to Kasvarina, so he has to abide to the Court's bidding.
Auryn reminds him that this puts him in a dilemma: For as long as Kasvarina is held captive, she cannot release Asrabey from his oath and command. And as long as he's bound to his oath, there is little he can do to free his wife. Asrabey sees reason in Auryn's words and he utters his hope of finding legal loopholes that help him free Kasvarina without failing the Court.
Auryn then talks a bit about her exchange with Hana. Asrabey reacts with a certain amount of curiosity when she talks about “Gale's” flying powers as he believes it to be a part of Ekossigan of Summer's portfolio. Auryn supports this theory as she explains that Hana escaped captivity with the help of a mysterious stranger. A stranger who could totally be Ekossigan. Asrabey nods and adds that this incarnation of Ekossigan is a very benevolent and charming individual which is why helping an eladrin wouldn't be too far off.
“Seems like we got our first clue: Maybe Hana knows more about her benefactor's whereabouts.” Auryn says and adds that she'd also try to ask the local fey for any recent changes in their environment.
They finally reach Auryn's home and she asks Asrabey to take a seat and relax a while while she's busy preparing traditional self-grown tea. She then says that she'd like to introduce her student Isobel to him and heads upstairs where she finds her young companion acting all nervously while another white-haired person is about to jump out of the window. Andrei von Recklinghausen is far too fast for Auryn to reach him, so she just shrugs about her friend's erratic behavior.
“I didn't do nothing wrong, I swear!” Isobel defends herself in a bird-like voice while Auryn musters her with a certain amount of curiosity.
Auryn then laughs quietly and explains that she's indeed sure that Isobel did nothing wrong. But she also doesn't need to hide her growing affection and relationship with Andrei. Auryn says that both Andrei and Isobel are her dear friends, that she's really happy to see their mutual affection and care and that there is nothing Isobel needs to be ashamed of. She adds she's quite sure that Andrei will treat her with the gentle respect she deserves which is why he can come to visit her whenever he'd like to.
Isobel is glad to hear that, even if she seems a bit unsure about this whole relationship stuff. Auryn then asks her to join her and her relative over a cup of tea. But when Auryn leads her to her kitchen and tries to introduce Asrabey Varal, the esteemed husband of Kasvarina Varal, Isobel turns white as a sheet.
“He's a Nightelf! Auryn, you brought a Nightelf to your home!” Isobel screams in terror, then turns around, rushes to the bathroom and locks the door tightly.
Auryn and Asrabey look at each other for a few moments of awkward silence.
“I'm so sorry, I don't know what has gotten into her. I can only guess that it has something to do with her past.” Auryn apologizes before sitting down again.
She then carefully explains the circumstances of Isobel's journey until she got freed by the Constables and Andrei and adds that her family is still held captive by the Traverses, a noble danoran family. Auryn adds that she'd love to free them as well and to put the guilty slavers to justice, but she needs to gather more information and find the spare time to travel there.
Once this initial turmoil is settled, Auryn's gaze falls upon a gorgeous gown standing in her corridor. As she's quite curious to know where this may come from (her dress for the royal wedding isn't finished yet), she takes a closer look and finds it to be elaborately worked and closely resembling an elfaivaran style. It is decorated with a similarly beautiful card from Morgan Cippiano who sincerely apologizes again for missing her birthday and who wishes her all the best for the coming year. So it's time to fill out these forms again...
(Honestly, for a moment I feared that it might have been a gift from Fordren. He's the sort of guy who would do that. But, fortunately, the same applies to Don Cippiano, who's just a very generous fashion enthusiast)
When he realizes that everything is fine, Asrabey finally explains that there are preparations he needs to do as well, so he bids Auryn farewell. He leaves her an address should she need to contact him though.
An explosive welcome
As Isobel is still hiding inside the bathroom, Auryn decides to calm her young friend down. She tells her that Asrabey is gone now, so she might just wish to come out and tell her what happened. Isobel explains that the Nightelves are a bunch of men who look like Asrabey. They came infrequently to her home to take her little brothers away. Also, her mothers and aunts had to meet them occasionally in another building and they wept much afterward. Auryn can only guess that these Nightelves could be the missing link in the Traverses' breeding program, meaning they'd be the “fathers” of Isobel and her sisters. She also realizes that Isobel has next to no knowledge of topics like procreation, sexuality, consensual relationships and motherhood which is why she decides to add yet another topic to Isobel's ever-increasing lesson plan.
(So, more people on her to-punish list. She'd seriously hoped that they'd just be male prisoners who are pumped with aphrodisiacs or something like that. The thought of killing one of her kind had always been an abstract possibility. Now it felt all too real.)
Auryn then carefully explains to Isobel that Asrabey is not a Nightelf, but rather a distant relative who wouldn't dream of harming either of them. She touches her brooch and tells Isobel that she got this family heirloom from Asrabey to remind her of her heritage. And while it is true that the dreadnaught is a dangerous warrior, being dangerous is a kind of required quality to be able to defend himself or others.
Auryn then leaves Isobel and heads to the RHC to meet up with Carlyle where she shares the one chunk of information she hid from Asrabey: That she's pretty certain about the “wheel-woven dead man's” identity and that it has to be Mr. Grappa. Which means that bringing him to the Bleak Gate might just be the catalyst for the catastrophe Ekossigan hinted at in his poem. Auryn explains that while she does want to trust Grappa and sees no malicious intent in his plans, we don't know anything about the golem-maker or his affiliation. So we simply need more information in this case.
Together we head to several offices to gather information on Alexander Grappa. There, we find out about his old home in Flint and decide to pay his old landlord a visit. The old man man tells us all about this nice fellow who came from Bole and studied fine mechanics at Pardwright. He then opened up a workshop in Patity Lake, no big business, but rather a very specialized shop. Five years ago, he suddenly closed his shop and gave the keys to his family. He disappeared shortly after and everyone who knew Grappa just guessed that he tried to make a fortune in Ber or something like that.
We assume that this could have been around the time when he joined the Obscurati. Still, none of the info we get is incriminating or pointing at some kind of obsession or secret agenda. Auryn still wants to keep this a secret from both Grappa and Asrabey for now as she doesn't know whether the eladrin might try to act against the potentially dangerous man.
As time progresses quickly, we realize that we do have to move to the harbor lest we'd wish to miss the arrival of Brakken Heffanita. There, we meet our backup team of Serena, Carlao, Dima and Gaethan. It appears that we're not one minute too early as the ship is already towed and the crew is about to lift a big cage containing a dire bear from deck to dock. Turns out that flinter cranes aren't really made for lifting giant bears, so the crane breaks in the process and both bear and cage plummet down to the dock. This causes the cage to spring open and the massive dire bear to get a sniff of freedom.
The dock workers panic at the sight of this ferocious looking beast, but Auryn seizes the moment to cast a friendly charm on the bear and approaches it fearlessly. She then fondles the massive animal behind its ears and asks the others to maybe stop their screaming as this animal won't harm anyone.
“Didn't know the Risuri knew how to handle a dire bear like my Feroz!” Brakken exclaims in positive surprise before climbing down the ship.
(Uh, there's a spanish movie called “Feroz” that we did watch in school. It is about a man who turns into a bear and I really hope that this bear didn't share the same fate)
When Brakken approaches us, we officially welcome him to Flint and introduce ourselves. Auryn then says that she had quite the time to perfect her bear-taming abilities after her initial, clumsy attempt during their trip with Brakken's niece, Wolmi. The minotaur utters a heartfelt laugh as he's heard that story from his niece about her expedition to find the tomb of her ancestor to finally claim adulthood and independence.
We are then a bit surprised to hear that Brakken is keen on going the way to the Beran embassy by foot (and, of course, in the company of his dire bear companion). We decide to accompany him and try to keep the panic levels among the nearby citizens at a minimum.
Brakken takes quite the time to gather “the spirit” of several places of interest in Flint and we kind of get the impression that he's actually able to sense the vibe and thoughts of nearby communities or single people. When we come across Dawn Square, he takes a break for a few moments and utters a long sigh.
“Such... tragedy. Whatever happened here, I hope it didn't claim too many lives” Brakken says quietly while looking to the place where Nevard's stage had been.
“This is where our last High Skyseer died while trying to warn us of a potential catastrophe. It was old age and a weak heart that claimed him in the end and the memory of him... dying in my arms is still fresh”
Auryn then, too, takes a moment to contemplate and continues to tell the story about the attack at Dawn Square where, fortunately, no one else lost their life. We continue our trip through the city and Brakken is all curious about these protesters he spots here and there. He muses whether they are just rabble rousing kids or legitimately upset about their working condition and we claim that it is a mix of both. Protesting, we explain, has become an integral part of our city's culture and is also a key element in improving conditions. And while we can definitely see the charme of installing Executores dola Liberta to punish industrialists who abuse their employees, the Risuri believe in a more lengthy process of law which includes a lot of regulations. We also explain that our mayors are mostly elected, so getting rid of someone who screws up is both possible and rather easy.
Regarding the dockers, Auryn explains, they are a colorful bunch of artists, dock workers and free spirits who enjoy each other's company and who formed a union to get closer ties to each other. She doesn't hide her own affiliation with and sympathy for the movement, even if they can get overzealous from time to time.
After a long time of marching we finally reach the embassy of Ber. There, we are greeted by consul Gerax and Wolmi Heffanita who's really eager to welcome her uncle and show him around. Once Brakken got his baggage stowed and Feroz is fed (they really got an impressive stable there...), we're ready to accompany the minotaur to his scheduled meeting with Steffan Eberhard from Drakr.
Auryn releases her inner guide yet again as she shows the two men around Pardwright Campus, explaining the features of the different buildings and complexes, including a lengthy monologue about the greenhouse and Pardwright's botanical research. As soon as we realize that both Brakken Heffanita and Steffan Eberhard would rather need a good meal to continue their sightseeing, Brakken invites us all to an extensive lunch in a cozy bistro.
Our meal is then suddenly interrupted when loud detonations shake the whole building. We ask the members of Team B (or rather... Team A? We're still C, aren't we?) to stay with our guests and guard them with their lives while the two of us try to get a grasp on the situation.
Once we're outside, we see that the explosion we just heard took down a connecting bridge between two buildings. And from the looks of it, the falling debris crashed into a train which must have passed by just the moment the detonation took off. Everyone around is panicking, screaming and running in different directions. Keeping a clear mind amidst all that chaos is no easy task and so we take a few breaths to re-focus and make a plan.
Instinctively we're keeping our eyes open for victims of the disaster, trying to heal those who were injured and getting people to safety. We spot one dwarf nearby who appears to be taken down by a fallen gargoyle statue. So we lift the gargoyle off him and manage to stabilize the guy. While we're doing this, we notice some strange items on his body: One newspaper that seems to be scheduled for release on the next day and a broken pocket watch that has traces of magic on it. What's even stranger is the fact that this dwarf, unlike many others, is completely shaven and bald, revealing some eerily pale skin underneath.
Putting these pieces of information in place, we get that this man might be a member of a rather radical sect of Eschatologists which is keen on bringing the world to an end. The newspaper, we remember, is kind of affiliated with the philosophy of Heid and therefore an ideological enemy of the radicals. As shocking and unlikely as it may sound, but this dwarf could just be the one behind the explosions!
We quickly return to the bistro to get Serena and Dima to aid us. We ask Dima to care for the wounded and tech savvy Serena to help us with determining whether or not that watch was the trigger for whatever kind of bomb was used to set off the explosions. We then tie up the dwarf and heal him up as well as we're keen on getting some quick answers. But that guy isn't really in for a dialogue. He mutters about the end of the world and how we're all going to die soon and then tries to kill himself with some sort of magical frost poison.
We're both quick to react though and so we prevent the dwarf from freezing to death by administering him an antidote and warming him through magical fire.
“Think you can choose how and when to die? Guess what, that choice isn't yours anymore.” Carlyle says grimly, causing the dwarf to look nervously at his damaged watch and the newspaper.
The guy takes a moment and then regains his countenance. He laughs in our faces and claims that this doesn't change anything as we'll never find all of the other bombs in time. The moment he utters this, the watch starts functioning again and shows some sort of count-down. We fear that there might be some truth behind this madman's words and so we leave the tied up dwarf in Dima's care, take Serena with us and head towards the publisher building.
There, we make haste to evacuate everyone who's still inside while searching the building for areas that are vital for its structural integrity. Fortunately, we are able to find the bombs hidden in there in time and Carlyle and Serena use their combined technical and alchemical knowledge to disarm them before any of them can detonate.
We hope that the times of terror are finally over, so we can take the time to give proper aid to the injured and offer means of security until the police finally arrives. But before we can finish this thought, we suddenly hear the sound of fired shots coming from the direction of our bistro...
As Isobel is still hiding inside the bathroom, Auryn decides to calm her young friend down. She tells her that Asrabey is gone now, so she might just wish to come out and tell her what happened. Isobel explains that the Nightelves are a bunch of men who look like Asrabey. They came infrequently to her home to take her little brothers away. Also, her mothers and aunts had to meet them occasionally in another building and they wept much afterward. Auryn can only guess that these Nightelves could be the missing link in the Traverses' breeding program, meaning they'd be the “fathers” of Isobel and her sisters. She also realizes that Isobel has next to no knowledge of topics like procreation, sexuality, consensual relationships and motherhood which is why she decides to add yet another topic to Isobel's ever-increasing lesson plan.
(So, more people on her to-punish list. She'd seriously hoped that they'd just be male prisoners who are pumped with aphrodisiacs or something like that. The thought of killing one of her kind had always been an abstract possibility. Now it felt all too real.)
Auryn then carefully explains to Isobel that Asrabey is not a Nightelf, but rather a distant relative who wouldn't dream of harming either of them. She touches her brooch and tells Isobel that she got this family heirloom from Asrabey to remind her of her heritage. And while it is true that the dreadnaught is a dangerous warrior, being dangerous is a kind of required quality to be able to defend himself or others.
Auryn then leaves Isobel and heads to the RHC to meet up with Carlyle where she shares the one chunk of information she hid from Asrabey: That she's pretty certain about the “wheel-woven dead man's” identity and that it has to be Mr. Grappa. Which means that bringing him to the Bleak Gate might just be the catalyst for the catastrophe Ekossigan hinted at in his poem. Auryn explains that while she does want to trust Grappa and sees no malicious intent in his plans, we don't know anything about the golem-maker or his affiliation. So we simply need more information in this case.
Together we head to several offices to gather information on Alexander Grappa. There, we find out about his old home in Flint and decide to pay his old landlord a visit. The old man man tells us all about this nice fellow who came from Bole and studied fine mechanics at Pardwright. He then opened up a workshop in Patity Lake, no big business, but rather a very specialized shop. Five years ago, he suddenly closed his shop and gave the keys to his family. He disappeared shortly after and everyone who knew Grappa just guessed that he tried to make a fortune in Ber or something like that.
We assume that this could have been around the time when he joined the Obscurati. Still, none of the info we get is incriminating or pointing at some kind of obsession or secret agenda. Auryn still wants to keep this a secret from both Grappa and Asrabey for now as she doesn't know whether the eladrin might try to act against the potentially dangerous man.
As time progresses quickly, we realize that we do have to move to the harbor lest we'd wish to miss the arrival of Brakken Heffanita. There, we meet our backup team of Serena, Carlao, Dima and Gaethan. It appears that we're not one minute too early as the ship is already towed and the crew is about to lift a big cage containing a dire bear from deck to dock. Turns out that flinter cranes aren't really made for lifting giant bears, so the crane breaks in the process and both bear and cage plummet down to the dock. This causes the cage to spring open and the massive dire bear to get a sniff of freedom.
The dock workers panic at the sight of this ferocious looking beast, but Auryn seizes the moment to cast a friendly charm on the bear and approaches it fearlessly. She then fondles the massive animal behind its ears and asks the others to maybe stop their screaming as this animal won't harm anyone.
“Didn't know the Risuri knew how to handle a dire bear like my Feroz!” Brakken exclaims in positive surprise before climbing down the ship.
(Uh, there's a spanish movie called “Feroz” that we did watch in school. It is about a man who turns into a bear and I really hope that this bear didn't share the same fate)
When Brakken approaches us, we officially welcome him to Flint and introduce ourselves. Auryn then says that she had quite the time to perfect her bear-taming abilities after her initial, clumsy attempt during their trip with Brakken's niece, Wolmi. The minotaur utters a heartfelt laugh as he's heard that story from his niece about her expedition to find the tomb of her ancestor to finally claim adulthood and independence.
We are then a bit surprised to hear that Brakken is keen on going the way to the Beran embassy by foot (and, of course, in the company of his dire bear companion). We decide to accompany him and try to keep the panic levels among the nearby citizens at a minimum.
Brakken takes quite the time to gather “the spirit” of several places of interest in Flint and we kind of get the impression that he's actually able to sense the vibe and thoughts of nearby communities or single people. When we come across Dawn Square, he takes a break for a few moments and utters a long sigh.
“Such... tragedy. Whatever happened here, I hope it didn't claim too many lives” Brakken says quietly while looking to the place where Nevard's stage had been.
“This is where our last High Skyseer died while trying to warn us of a potential catastrophe. It was old age and a weak heart that claimed him in the end and the memory of him... dying in my arms is still fresh”
Auryn then, too, takes a moment to contemplate and continues to tell the story about the attack at Dawn Square where, fortunately, no one else lost their life. We continue our trip through the city and Brakken is all curious about these protesters he spots here and there. He muses whether they are just rabble rousing kids or legitimately upset about their working condition and we claim that it is a mix of both. Protesting, we explain, has become an integral part of our city's culture and is also a key element in improving conditions. And while we can definitely see the charme of installing Executores dola Liberta to punish industrialists who abuse their employees, the Risuri believe in a more lengthy process of law which includes a lot of regulations. We also explain that our mayors are mostly elected, so getting rid of someone who screws up is both possible and rather easy.
Regarding the dockers, Auryn explains, they are a colorful bunch of artists, dock workers and free spirits who enjoy each other's company and who formed a union to get closer ties to each other. She doesn't hide her own affiliation with and sympathy for the movement, even if they can get overzealous from time to time.
After a long time of marching we finally reach the embassy of Ber. There, we are greeted by consul Gerax and Wolmi Heffanita who's really eager to welcome her uncle and show him around. Once Brakken got his baggage stowed and Feroz is fed (they really got an impressive stable there...), we're ready to accompany the minotaur to his scheduled meeting with Steffan Eberhard from Drakr.
Auryn releases her inner guide yet again as she shows the two men around Pardwright Campus, explaining the features of the different buildings and complexes, including a lengthy monologue about the greenhouse and Pardwright's botanical research. As soon as we realize that both Brakken Heffanita and Steffan Eberhard would rather need a good meal to continue their sightseeing, Brakken invites us all to an extensive lunch in a cozy bistro.
Our meal is then suddenly interrupted when loud detonations shake the whole building. We ask the members of Team B (or rather... Team A? We're still C, aren't we?) to stay with our guests and guard them with their lives while the two of us try to get a grasp on the situation.
Once we're outside, we see that the explosion we just heard took down a connecting bridge between two buildings. And from the looks of it, the falling debris crashed into a train which must have passed by just the moment the detonation took off. Everyone around is panicking, screaming and running in different directions. Keeping a clear mind amidst all that chaos is no easy task and so we take a few breaths to re-focus and make a plan.
Instinctively we're keeping our eyes open for victims of the disaster, trying to heal those who were injured and getting people to safety. We spot one dwarf nearby who appears to be taken down by a fallen gargoyle statue. So we lift the gargoyle off him and manage to stabilize the guy. While we're doing this, we notice some strange items on his body: One newspaper that seems to be scheduled for release on the next day and a broken pocket watch that has traces of magic on it. What's even stranger is the fact that this dwarf, unlike many others, is completely shaven and bald, revealing some eerily pale skin underneath.
Putting these pieces of information in place, we get that this man might be a member of a rather radical sect of Eschatologists which is keen on bringing the world to an end. The newspaper, we remember, is kind of affiliated with the philosophy of Heid and therefore an ideological enemy of the radicals. As shocking and unlikely as it may sound, but this dwarf could just be the one behind the explosions!
We quickly return to the bistro to get Serena and Dima to aid us. We ask Dima to care for the wounded and tech savvy Serena to help us with determining whether or not that watch was the trigger for whatever kind of bomb was used to set off the explosions. We then tie up the dwarf and heal him up as well as we're keen on getting some quick answers. But that guy isn't really in for a dialogue. He mutters about the end of the world and how we're all going to die soon and then tries to kill himself with some sort of magical frost poison.
We're both quick to react though and so we prevent the dwarf from freezing to death by administering him an antidote and warming him through magical fire.
“Think you can choose how and when to die? Guess what, that choice isn't yours anymore.” Carlyle says grimly, causing the dwarf to look nervously at his damaged watch and the newspaper.
The guy takes a moment and then regains his countenance. He laughs in our faces and claims that this doesn't change anything as we'll never find all of the other bombs in time. The moment he utters this, the watch starts functioning again and shows some sort of count-down. We fear that there might be some truth behind this madman's words and so we leave the tied up dwarf in Dima's care, take Serena with us and head towards the publisher building.
There, we make haste to evacuate everyone who's still inside while searching the building for areas that are vital for its structural integrity. Fortunately, we are able to find the bombs hidden in there in time and Carlyle and Serena use their combined technical and alchemical knowledge to disarm them before any of them can detonate.
We hope that the times of terror are finally over, so we can take the time to give proper aid to the injured and offer means of security until the police finally arrives. But before we can finish this thought, we suddenly hear the sound of fired shots coming from the direction of our bistro...
bombing mission
Session 28
As we fear that the whole bombing might be just a distraction from an assassination attempt, we use a haste spell to try to return to the bistro immediately. While we are running westward, we are suddenly shot at from somewhere higher up. We manage to pinpoint the locations of possible sharpshooters quickly thanks to Carlyle's eagle eyed vision and ask Serena to move ahead while the two of us take care of the attackers.
Serena insists to not play prey on display while we are busy climbing a high building, so we both use a fly spell (ancient eladrin artifacts seem to not make much fuss about flying as an exotic quality) to get up there the most direct way possible.
(Well, the most direct way would have been short-range teleportation, but Pardwright campus is sort of teleport-beaconed. So nope. Damn these Ragesians and their experiments)
We make good use of a sleeping spell and a few old-fashioned kukri hits and knock out the dwarven sharpshooter. Then we signal Serena to move ahead while we follow her up in the air.
Meanwhile, Gaethan and Carlao hear gunshots from outside. Gaethan spots a person atop the bell tower on the other side of the street and warns his colleague and the VIPs of a possible assassination attempt by a shooter. Just when he's about to get out his own sniper rifle, the bistro is stormed by a group of bald, shaven dwarf terrorists. Carlao jumps off her seat immediately, draws her weapon and places herself between Brakken, Steffan Eberhardt and the attackers.
“Get down and stay down unless I signal an all-clear!” she shouts and calls Gaethan for backup. The constable whirls around and proceeds to shoot at the dwarves. Thanks to their good coordination they are both able to fend off the attacking terrorists after a few minutes.
(As we both outlevel the adventure by a good margin and Tiz adjusts his encounters here and there, he asked me to re-build our B team and get them to level 6. So I tweaked them all a bit and ended up with a pretty well-rounded team:
Gaethan is a fighter who specializes in rifles of all kind, so he got lots of ranged feats and good perception and stealth skills.
Dima is a pretty straightforward cleric who's good at healing, buffing and knowing things.
Serena is leaning a bit towards pirate mechanic, being proficient with both rapier and pistol, engineering, sneaking and disabling traps. Oh and she can be scary.
Carlao gave me a bit of a headache first, being a cavalier who's all about riding and banners and stuff. But then I found the – haha - constable archetype which even grants a badge feature instead of a banner and more tactical options instead of the mount. That was a really perfect fit. Besides being the tank and the face, she's also the team's tactical leader.)
While we are flying towards the bistro, we are suddenly being shot at again. This time, it seems as if the culprits are four dwarves who are hiding at the bell tower. What's even stranger is the fact that they seem to be accompanied by an icy elemental creature. Carlyle decides to draw their flak at himself and approaches their hideout. The ice elemental takes this as an invitation to charge at him by doing a gigantic leap, trying to bull rush him in midair. Unfortunately for the elemental, it somehow forgot that Carlyle can fly while itself can't, so it crashes down as soon as it fails to even touch the constable.
Carlyle raises an eyebrow, looks down on the smashed rubble of ice, then takes a quick look at the dwarves.
“It seems as if your friend miscalculated. Now let's find out whether you'll do the same mistake.”
The dwarves do not follow the elemental's example and continue shooting at Carlyle, but he turns out to be too much of a mobile target. We repeat our sleep-knockout procedure and do a quick search on the dwarves. To our shock, we find another detonator on one of the dwarves, set up for detonation in a few minutes.
As we cannot find any signs on where to find the other bomb (the magic is too faint to actually follow its trail), we cautiously retrieve all of the dwarves' poison capsules, use our hats of disguise to turn into two bald dwarves and place a charm spell on one of the guys. We then wake him up and tell him that we'd need to hurry as the bomb connected to this detonator is malfunctioning and we need to repair it in order to keep everything according to schedule. By and by the dwarf spills enough information that we conclude that the bomb has to be hidden inside the evidence archive of the judicial building.
We know that time is pressing now and also fear that someone might try to explode the bomb manually should the detonation not occur in time. So we do a quick check-up on the situation in the bistro where Carlao tells us about the shooting, thanks us for knocking out the sharpshooter and says she's got everything under control now. Then we ask Serena to help Dima with the wounded (we'll return later as soon as this whole mess is cleared) and make haste to get to the judicial building.
To keep the panic levels at a minimum, we ask the guarding officers to perform a routine alarm exercise to get everyone out of the building as quickly as possible while we head inside to search for the bomb. We find a time fuse connected to several barrels of flash powder which are marked as being confiscated by Flint police. There are also recently painted walls, so we fear that the Obs might be behind this attack and got a metal ring placed inside the wall.
Carlyle defuses the bomb without too much hassle. We then examine the wall and are relieved to see that there is no metal at all inside the stones and that the walls have simply been refurbished. We do find it outrageous though that someone was able to simply place a bomb in the evidence chamber without anyone taking notice, so we ask for the names of those who were guarding the chamber during the renovation procedure.
We get the names of Mr. Bill and Mr. Gates who tell us that the renovation was done by the Soknik company, who had indeed employed mostly dwarves. They also give us the name Zubov as this was the foreman of the group. Then we drop the ball and tell the two that these dwarves, who they should have been watching all the time, somehow managed to set up a bomb with their own flash power evidence, so good job guys. Being confronted with so much incompetence, we don't even try to ask them why they were keeping dangerous materials inside the chamber while outsiders were working inside...
We explain that we defused the bomb though and made sure that they are not in for any more nasty surprises, so the people working there are free to return to their offices. Carlyle, who's always easy to be angered by people who screw up at work while being in positions of responsibility, needs to be calmed down a little by Auryn, even if she can totally understand his anger. Had we not found this bomb in time, the flash powder could have destroyed the whole building, possibly killing a lot of judges, attorneys, bystanders and other officials as well as our good old acquaintance Starke.
We return to the rest of our team to inform them of our success. Serena, Carlao and Gaethan agree to escort Brakken Heffanita and Steffan Eberhardt back to the beran embassy while we team up with Dima to heal and comfort the wounded. Once again, Carlyle calls upon the grace of Srasama while Auryn uses a soothing elegy to care for the victims of the bombing. Before we return to the RHC, we ask the local police officers to search the area for more evidences and send a report to the RHC as soon as their work is done. We also ask Dima to take her team and pay that Soknik company and the dwarf named Zubov a visit the next day, as we'll be busy searching for a Fey Lord gone missing.
Session 28
As we fear that the whole bombing might be just a distraction from an assassination attempt, we use a haste spell to try to return to the bistro immediately. While we are running westward, we are suddenly shot at from somewhere higher up. We manage to pinpoint the locations of possible sharpshooters quickly thanks to Carlyle's eagle eyed vision and ask Serena to move ahead while the two of us take care of the attackers.
Serena insists to not play prey on display while we are busy climbing a high building, so we both use a fly spell (ancient eladrin artifacts seem to not make much fuss about flying as an exotic quality) to get up there the most direct way possible.
(Well, the most direct way would have been short-range teleportation, but Pardwright campus is sort of teleport-beaconed. So nope. Damn these Ragesians and their experiments)
We make good use of a sleeping spell and a few old-fashioned kukri hits and knock out the dwarven sharpshooter. Then we signal Serena to move ahead while we follow her up in the air.
Meanwhile, Gaethan and Carlao hear gunshots from outside. Gaethan spots a person atop the bell tower on the other side of the street and warns his colleague and the VIPs of a possible assassination attempt by a shooter. Just when he's about to get out his own sniper rifle, the bistro is stormed by a group of bald, shaven dwarf terrorists. Carlao jumps off her seat immediately, draws her weapon and places herself between Brakken, Steffan Eberhardt and the attackers.
“Get down and stay down unless I signal an all-clear!” she shouts and calls Gaethan for backup. The constable whirls around and proceeds to shoot at the dwarves. Thanks to their good coordination they are both able to fend off the attacking terrorists after a few minutes.
(As we both outlevel the adventure by a good margin and Tiz adjusts his encounters here and there, he asked me to re-build our B team and get them to level 6. So I tweaked them all a bit and ended up with a pretty well-rounded team:
Gaethan is a fighter who specializes in rifles of all kind, so he got lots of ranged feats and good perception and stealth skills.
Dima is a pretty straightforward cleric who's good at healing, buffing and knowing things.
Serena is leaning a bit towards pirate mechanic, being proficient with both rapier and pistol, engineering, sneaking and disabling traps. Oh and she can be scary.
Carlao gave me a bit of a headache first, being a cavalier who's all about riding and banners and stuff. But then I found the – haha - constable archetype which even grants a badge feature instead of a banner and more tactical options instead of the mount. That was a really perfect fit. Besides being the tank and the face, she's also the team's tactical leader.)
While we are flying towards the bistro, we are suddenly being shot at again. This time, it seems as if the culprits are four dwarves who are hiding at the bell tower. What's even stranger is the fact that they seem to be accompanied by an icy elemental creature. Carlyle decides to draw their flak at himself and approaches their hideout. The ice elemental takes this as an invitation to charge at him by doing a gigantic leap, trying to bull rush him in midair. Unfortunately for the elemental, it somehow forgot that Carlyle can fly while itself can't, so it crashes down as soon as it fails to even touch the constable.
Carlyle raises an eyebrow, looks down on the smashed rubble of ice, then takes a quick look at the dwarves.
“It seems as if your friend miscalculated. Now let's find out whether you'll do the same mistake.”
The dwarves do not follow the elemental's example and continue shooting at Carlyle, but he turns out to be too much of a mobile target. We repeat our sleep-knockout procedure and do a quick search on the dwarves. To our shock, we find another detonator on one of the dwarves, set up for detonation in a few minutes.
As we cannot find any signs on where to find the other bomb (the magic is too faint to actually follow its trail), we cautiously retrieve all of the dwarves' poison capsules, use our hats of disguise to turn into two bald dwarves and place a charm spell on one of the guys. We then wake him up and tell him that we'd need to hurry as the bomb connected to this detonator is malfunctioning and we need to repair it in order to keep everything according to schedule. By and by the dwarf spills enough information that we conclude that the bomb has to be hidden inside the evidence archive of the judicial building.
We know that time is pressing now and also fear that someone might try to explode the bomb manually should the detonation not occur in time. So we do a quick check-up on the situation in the bistro where Carlao tells us about the shooting, thanks us for knocking out the sharpshooter and says she's got everything under control now. Then we ask Serena to help Dima with the wounded (we'll return later as soon as this whole mess is cleared) and make haste to get to the judicial building.
To keep the panic levels at a minimum, we ask the guarding officers to perform a routine alarm exercise to get everyone out of the building as quickly as possible while we head inside to search for the bomb. We find a time fuse connected to several barrels of flash powder which are marked as being confiscated by Flint police. There are also recently painted walls, so we fear that the Obs might be behind this attack and got a metal ring placed inside the wall.
Carlyle defuses the bomb without too much hassle. We then examine the wall and are relieved to see that there is no metal at all inside the stones and that the walls have simply been refurbished. We do find it outrageous though that someone was able to simply place a bomb in the evidence chamber without anyone taking notice, so we ask for the names of those who were guarding the chamber during the renovation procedure.
We get the names of Mr. Bill and Mr. Gates who tell us that the renovation was done by the Soknik company, who had indeed employed mostly dwarves. They also give us the name Zubov as this was the foreman of the group. Then we drop the ball and tell the two that these dwarves, who they should have been watching all the time, somehow managed to set up a bomb with their own flash power evidence, so good job guys. Being confronted with so much incompetence, we don't even try to ask them why they were keeping dangerous materials inside the chamber while outsiders were working inside...
We explain that we defused the bomb though and made sure that they are not in for any more nasty surprises, so the people working there are free to return to their offices. Carlyle, who's always easy to be angered by people who screw up at work while being in positions of responsibility, needs to be calmed down a little by Auryn, even if she can totally understand his anger. Had we not found this bomb in time, the flash powder could have destroyed the whole building, possibly killing a lot of judges, attorneys, bystanders and other officials as well as our good old acquaintance Starke.
We return to the rest of our team to inform them of our success. Serena, Carlao and Gaethan agree to escort Brakken Heffanita and Steffan Eberhardt back to the beran embassy while we team up with Dima to heal and comfort the wounded. Once again, Carlyle calls upon the grace of Srasama while Auryn uses a soothing elegy to care for the victims of the bombing. Before we return to the RHC, we ask the local police officers to search the area for more evidences and send a report to the RHC as soon as their work is done. We also ask Dima to take her team and pay that Soknik company and the dwarf named Zubov a visit the next day, as we'll be busy searching for a Fey Lord gone missing.
...it's just a preview
So, after I decided to make a full-body/movie poster of our characters myself, here's the first preview sketch of Auryn:
I still need to get the face right for Carlyle, so he's not yet presentable. They both need to be cleaned up and scanned before the digital process can even start. So yeah, that might take a lot of time
So, after I decided to make a full-body/movie poster of our characters myself, here's the first preview sketch of Auryn:
I still need to get the face right for Carlyle, so he's not yet presentable. They both need to be cleaned up and scanned before the digital process can even start. So yeah, that might take a lot of time
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