Session 7

General Summary

With a week to go before the Ambassadors' Ball and the end of the Congress of Volscia Mera, the party swings into high gear trying to get their voices heard by the powerful.   But first, housekeeping. Slint finds a stable boy to practice his new fighting skills on. The boy, a young halfling named Cuthbert, seems to view Slint with a certain amount of hero worship and wants to be an adventurer some day. Feng mostly stays in, meditating and mastering the art of calligraphy. Slint, Ludwig, and Mrek meet at the local potion shop; if the apprentice who helps them is to be believed, his master supplies potions to most of Volscia Mera. Slint and Ludwig buy potions of healing, Mrek has the potion he found on the Living Island identified as the same, and Slint has the potion he took from the guard at Lord Humbert's party identified as a potion of frost giant strength. This one also came from the shop, but cannot be easily replicated, as it requires frost giant blood from Lygrany. From there, the party heads to an armor named Lichten, where Ludwig and Slint upgrade their armor.   Ludwig convinces Bishop Akerlind to let him play music at Lord Stephen's funeral; she pays him 2gp. The funeral itself is a solemn and dignified affair led by Edward the Wolf and Bishop Akerlind, until Ludwig begins to play as the pallbearers bring Lord Stephen's casket into the mausoleum. The gusty, wet weather makes Ludwig's hurdy-gurdy impossible to tune, and the screeching of the instrument irritates the mourners. It's almost a good thing that Lord Stephen has no surviving family. Having failed miserably at his task, Ludwig wanders off into the necropolis.   Mrek and Feng approach Edward the Wolf after the funeral, again asking him to support the concerns of the minority races at the Congress. Edward listens, but tells them frankly that Doria's goal is to gain control of the western coast of the Orkhon from the cliffs of Doria to the Aniaran isthmus. Under Edward's advisement, the Ruling Council intends to build military fortifications against any future incursion by the elven empire, whom the orcs of the Orkhon let pass on their way to occupying Doria. Mrek insists that this is both immoral—the lush coastal lands are where the orcs begin and end their year of nomadry, as their food supply relies on grazing their scrofa, foraging and gathering the plantlife, and fishing the coast here—and unwise, as the orcs will not give up this land without bloodshed. Edward says that perhaps the new Dorian settlements could provide food once their farms are up and running, but will not budge on the greater matter.   Meanwhile, Ludwig (still hiding in the cemetery) is approached by a dirty urchin girl who hands him the day's newspaper and runs away. The top story in the paper tells how the Congress voted to end an investigation into accusations by Queen Sigrid of Lygrany that Aniara is still holding numerous prisoners of war from her country. It notes that strangely, Edward the Wolf sided with the elves on this matter.   The party splits up to make various attempts to gain entrance to the Congress. Ludwig finds a goblin who leads him to Queen Agort, who is lairing in an abandoned section of the Volscia Mera sewers, accessed via a runoff pipe in an abandoned breakwater. She seems small-minded and arrogant, but she has a seat at the table, so Ludwig offers to accompany her as an advisor. She tells him she already has advisors—Crunchy and Toenails—but says she'll bring him on if he proves his worth by handling a little matter for her. It seems that she owes the government of Caleria some 6000gp. If Ludwig can get the loan forgiven, Queen Agort will help him out.   @Slint meets a lizardfolk warrior named Hissik, who is a bodyguard for Annite Bashir, the ambassador from the Sand Isles. Apparently the gnome is extremely rich and always looking to expand her business and make loans; the Sand Isles stayed out of the Great War entirely so Bashir seems to be here purely for political and financial gain. Hissik is friendly, but hesitant to tell Slint about the gnome's security arrangements, until Slint slips him a gold coin. Bashir and two other gnomes, her aides, hired a dozen lizardfolk from the southern reaches of the Blackmere as bodyguards for 1sp per day. They are staying at the Far Traveler, a fine inn next door to the Well-Founded Sailor. Hissik agrees to suggest Slint as a replacement for a fellow guard who is a drunk.   Mrek cases Prince Jaren's palace and uses his animal messenger spell to send numerous animals, hoping to catch the prince's ear on his way in or out of the palace. This does not bear fruit. Meanwhile, Ludwig cooks up a scheme to erase Queen Agort's debt. He uses illusory script to create a fake contract for the Halfrigger family to become the exclusive importers of ratskin cloaks by the goblin tailor Fritz of the Blackmere. He meets with Lord Humbert and Maldris; Humbert is champing at the bit to sign what seems to be a promise of easy money, but Maldris is skeptical. Ludwig convinces him the contract is legitimate—he claims to just want a chance to bring some industry and civilization to the Blackmere—but ultimately Maldris cannot envision being involved with an industry so frivolous and faddish as fashion. Unfortunately for Ludwig's plan, Maldris wins the argument with Humbert and the bard is sent packing.   Feng is still intrigued by the newspaper and wants to dig into the issue with Queen Sigrid's captive warriors. He and Mrek agree that she might be an ally against giving away parts of the Orkhon, which Mrek wishes to build up with the orcs still in charge. Feng's attempts to find Sigrid's whereabouts by asking on the street fail miserably, so Mrek calls in the favor owed him by Bishop Akerlind. She informs him that while the church cannot get involved in political matters, she can personally make introductions between friends: Queen Sigrid is a pious woman who comes to the temple each evening to pray alone.   Mrek and Feng wait by the altar that night, and soon, six northern warrior women in all white furs and white facepaint arrive. Their leader, Frost, accuses Feng of plotting to kill the queen—she caught wind of a yak folk aggressively asking for Sigrid's location—but as Mrek and Feng argue their case, Sigrid herself appears and tells Frost to stand down. It seems that Sigrid sent the party the newspaper, having heard of both their adventures thus far and their sympathy for the downtrodden. Sigrid is willing to advocate for the Orkhon at the Congress, and in return, she wishes the party to look into the matter of her missing warriors. She is suspicious of how many men simply disappeared during the war, and suspects that the elves have some dark use for them that relates to their technological prowess. She is disturbed to learn that Aniara was interested in collecting samples from the gargantuan that attacked the harbor. She also makes Feng and Mrek an offer: once the Congress has wrapped up, perhaps they could head west to Aniara to find where her men are held and free them.   The next day, Hissik and Annite Bashir approach Slint while he is training. Bashir is impressed by his obvious martial skill, but pushes hard on his reasoning for wanting to become her bodyguard. Ultimately Slint admits that he is looking for allies who can help his tribe, the lizardfolk of the northern swamp on the border with Lucania, survive and battle against the gargantua. Bashir is receptive to hearing the truth, which she likens to a jewel in the sands of her homeland that must be dug for, and offers Slint the job: 12-hour shifts, as well as being on call for 8 hours while sleeping, with 4 hours off, all for 1sp per day. Slint agrees, and Bashir tells him to come to the Far Traveler at 6am the next day to start.   Determined to speak with Prince Jaren, Mrek and Ludwig attempt to talk their way past the guards at the front gate of the palace, but are rebuffed. Mrek realizes that the many animal messengers he's sent to try to find Jaren have made the guards unsuspicious of squirrels, so he himself becomes a squirrel and hastily explores the outside of the palace. He finds the royal suite just in time and makes it off the grounds before he changes back into a half-orc. Returning to the Ruddy Fishwife he immediately sends another messenger, this time to Prince Jaren's room specifically. It does not return.   The next day, Slint spends 12 boring hours guarding Annite Bashir as she manages her business in the morning, attends the Congress during the day, then returns to the Far Traveler to handle more business at night. During the closed-door sessions of the Congress, Slint is made to wait outside the council chambers with some hundred other bodyguards, who have built up a sense of camaraderie during the long, boring days; they gamble, swap war stories, gossip, and wait. Finally the day ends, and as Slint slumps wearily into the Ruddy Fishwife, he holds the door for a young man in the livery of a page of Prince Jaren's palace. The page drops a letter on the bar and hurries away; Zed waves the party over. The note is sealed with Jaren's royal seal, and says only "I got your message. Meet me at 10pm."   The party arrives on time, to be admitted by the same guard as the night before, who sullenly lets them pass. Clearly he has been told of their visit. They are greeted in the grand entry hall by Coveri, Prince Jaren's advisor, who leads them deep into the palace to the royal suite as two dozen guardsmen dog their steps. Coveri hopes they will attend the Ambassadors' Ball; he wrote their invitation personally.   Prince Jaren himself admits them to his sitting room, an incredibly opulent space with a marble fountain of color-changing water, leather sitting chairs, and a plush carpet three inches thick. The prince is as charming and handsome as rumor holds, and he seems thrilled to greet the party. He professes sympathy for their cause and is willing to sponsor them to speak before the Congress, but he has a few requests in return. First, Mrek must speak to the chieftains of the Orkhon on two matters: first, that they acknowledge Jaren's claim as High King of Caleria, and second, that they return the bodies of a cavalry troop Caleria lost in the Orkhon on an ill-fated mission to take the fight to Aniara. Mrek agrees. Second, Jaren describes the dispute he has with Midmare over the city of Brymrad. In short, Midmare lost control of the city to Aniara, and it took Calerian soldiers to win it back and hold it for the rest of the war. As Jaren tells it, his soldiers fought and died for Brymrad, and wish to make their homes there while remaining citizens of Caleria. In other words, Caleria is claiming ownership of the city despite it being across the Dragon Bay and historically a part of Midmare. Apparently there is a rising resistance among the Midmareans of Brymrad that Jaren fears will turn to "terrorism and rebellion," and he hopes he can call on the party in the future to put down any revolution, with or without bloodshed.   The party is uneasy about this job, but agrees in the moment in order to win over Prince Jaren. With that, he invites them to address the Congress at 1pm the next day, April 25th.