Session 034 - Who Did It?

General Summary

Date 26^th Savor (9) 720TR (Autumn)

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The story so far

The party has travelled to Quimen Keep, the headquarters of the Sisterhood of the Crimson Dancer, with a collection of the valuable artifacts. The Khamar Copper Plates and holy books, recovered from a long lost temple.

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Map of Quimen Valley

Part 1 - Arrival at Quimen

The heroes arrive in Quimen, just in time to see an Ivinian warrior angrily leaving the Keep. Athena recognizes his shield belongs to Clan Jahaal, a family who pays tribute to the Sisterhood of the Crimson Dancer.

Athena knows one of the guards at the gatehouse, Borhilda, who warns her that the Grandmistress Baliela Shernath is angry, having just dealt with Rothgar Jahaal, head of Delmon Holding. Apparently, his daughter, a Crimson Dancer recruit, Synne Jahaal, has been recently murdered.

Athena meets with Grandmistress Baliela Shernath, receiving some praise for her accomplishments to date. However, after viewing the holy books and especially the Khamar Copper Plates with the high-priestess Marene Tusyne, Baliela declares that the artifacts must, for the moment, be kept secret. Otherwise, the politically dominant Order of Mamaka, Master of Steel will go to any lengths to get these back.

While the Grandmistress is considering what to do with these artifacts, she asks Athena to investigate the recent murder. Synne Jahaal's, daughter of Rothgar Jahaal, throat was cut while sleeping in a barracks with three other recruits. An augury cast by a Priestess reads, "The Murderer shares the room with the victim." Athena collects Quazzy and Yureb and starts investigating.

Part 2 - Gambling Incident

While Athena is speaking with the Grandmistress, Yureb decides to retire to the Inn of the Valley and engages in a few games of the dice. He chooses to use his weighted dice and cheat further with a little magic. Unfortunately, his luck is appalling, and all of his cheating attempts were noticed, and he was accused of witchcraft. The Crimson Dancer guard overseeing law and order in the Inn confiscates his dice and was about to arrest him, with a grim fate expected. However, the other gamblers at the table convince her otherwise provided Yureb makes a 200sp payment to the victim.

Part 3 - The Suspects

The investigators learn what they can of the prime suspects, the recruits who shared the room with the victim.



Part 4 - Crime Scene

They travel to Brenlyn manor and meet with Deputy Grandmistress Lyleth Nechtan. Lyleth, who is well known to Athena from her days as a squire, is responsible for training recruits who agree to assist in the investigation as required. She takes the party to the crime scene, and on examination, they find further evidence of a poison gas use as well as a suspiciously placed rather blunt dagger.

Part 5 - Interviewing the suspect

The party begins interviewing the suspects, with Quazzy using her mind-reading magic to a varying degree of success. Karianne Aakre resists the mind-reading, acts suspiciously, so Athena arranges for her to be put in a cell in the keep, followed by Quazzy's invisible familiar.

The mind-reading of Vibeke indicated she is somewhat superstitious, still influenced by her old tribal ways, but appears innocent of the murder. However, they also learn that the victim and suspects have been sneaking off at night to practice at the Dance of Death, a dangerous training obstacle course to break Athena's record time through it.

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DM's note
A retrospective check was made to determine what Athena's time was during her training. She rolled a natural 20 and holds the record for the best time through the Dance of Death as a recruit.

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Helle Setle resists the mind-reading magic, but Deputy Grandmistress Lyleth Nechtan walks in during the interrogation. Athena immediately notices she has a strange, cold, emotionless look. She is under a charm and immediately attacks Quazzy, who is forced to use magic to escape. Athena's old sword mistress had not lost any of her fighting ability and required the entire party to knock her unconscious.

Part 6 - Follow the trail

Quazzy's invisible familiar observes Karianne in her cell cast a spell, creating a magical portal and disappearing. Her familiar is immediately dismissed and resummoned outside and is just able to see Karianne escaping into the woods north. The heroes intercept and attack.

Karianne is severely injured and transforms into a yellow and gold serpent, a Tave, one of Ilivir's Ivashu, which is capable of shape-changing into humanoid form. The Tave is eventually killed, and on her body, the party finds an amulet, the symbol of the Heroic Jara. Clearly, she has been working with this band of Jarinese freedom fighters.

Part 7 - Blood Magic

After reporting the result of the investigation and delivering the Tave's Head to the Grandmistress, she suggests that they take a sample of its blood to Zoen Garavania, a Wizard (some say Witch) who lives in an old watchtower nearby. Zoen is a powerful renegade spellcaster specializing in Blood Magic and can sometimes psionically see into people's past.

After reading on the blood, Zoen learns that the real Karianne Aakre was killed a few days before, and the Tave took her form, using mind reading to assist with the disguise. However, Synne suspected something was amiss and was murdered as she was thinking about voicing her suspicions the next day. The Tave had a long-term plan of infiltrating the Crimson dancers and assisting in a rebellion, led by the Heroic Jara, when the bulk of the Orders forces were deployed elsewhere, likely next year.

Missions/Quests Completed

Solved the murder of Synne Rothgar.

Yureb loses his weighted dice in a gambling game. Athena was able to retrieve these with the promise of good behavior.

Character(s) interacted with

Borhilda - Quimen Keep gate guard.

Baliela Shernath - Grandmistress of the Crimson Dancers.

Marene Tusyne - High Priestess of Agrik's Quimen Temple and Grandmistess of the Order of Kukshin.

A small number of Tradesmen and Merchant gamblers.

Karianne Aakre - a Tave masquerading as a recruit. Killed.

Helle Setle - A recruit from Lorkin.

Vibeke - A recruit from the Kath barbarian nation. Quazzy has some success in gaining her friendship.

Lyleth Nechtan - Deputy Grand Mistress of the Crimson Dancers and responsible for the training of recruits.

Zoen Garavania - Mother of the Crimson Dancer Knight Dame Lyesa Garavania, named renegade for experiments on peasants. She studies blood magic and Psionics.

Created Content

Quimen Keep.

Order of Mamaka, Master of Steel - a secretive Clerical Order of Master Weapon Crafters.

Kath Barbarians.

Related Reports

Sisterhood of the Crimson Dancer - Updated.

The Khamar Copper Plates

Heroic Jara - Jarinese Freedom Fighters.

Notes

Players Character Status

Athena the Banshee - Level 10 Paladin of Vengeance - gained a level.

Yureb - Level 10 Arcane Trickster - gained a level.

Quazzy - Level 5 Necromancer and Level 5 Warlock Disciple of Desridaen - gained a level (Necromancer).