Session needed some more help with fleshing out the NPCs and making their desires more apparent, otherwise good
The party started off in their rooms, being interogated one at a time by Renald de Vichy of Templars of the Balance, a former elf now turned Kenku who was having trouble speaking in his new body due to needing to hear a full vocabulary. Renald attempted to have them give him the letter from Malad Duson that was intended only for the actual Grandmaster of the Templars, Bernard de Blanchefort. The players refused and kept the letter with Raime.
They sat down to speak with Arnaldus de Villa Nova, a gnome of the same order, who was a kind host and explained some things as they encountered an elven spirit bound to a gold coin, these coins belonging to a relic known as Vonaya's Ransom, a powerful artifact that allows a user to harness its magic as they please to perform whatever their imagination can conjure, paying the price of 77 initial souls to sacrifice and 7 more souls for each night the relic's power remains in effect. (7 the first night, 14 the next, 21 the next, etc etc)
They witnessed the "Collector" a skeletal reaper, collecting these souls from the sick outside the walls and encountered Pauline von Hindenberg of Blücher House house, here posing as a merc to buy the relic from Renald. They went down to help Renald stop the effects of the relic only to uncover that this was all due to him casting only about 1/4th of the actual ritual due to his inability to speak the ancient elven words needed.
The players caught on to his plan to complete the ritual, which would send the coins hurtling all over Europa and whenever a human touched one it would flip, on a heads that coin could never hurt that human again, on a tails it summoned a wraith to kill them. This "fair and balanced" method of culling the excess human population was intended to bring them in line with the racial populations of the rest of Europa.
The party thwarted this by refusing to speak the elven worlds and fighting off the Templars long enough to escape, uncovering that Renald had killed those templars left behind by Bernard who did not follow in his schemes. Arnaldus seemed to know a great deal less of this plan and Hughes de Paynes, a dwarf templar feigned insanity (which was not hard as he was a very odd dwarf) in order to avoid being slain as well. Hughes helped the party escape through a secret tunnel down to the river Vistula and helped them catch a barge down to Belarest, as well as gave them 100gp due to the party being forced to leave their cart and horses behind in the rush.
If you tell me the word "suck" at the start of the next session you will get an inspiration, the first person to say it gets it.
Unknown to everyone but Adamah, Adamah found a coin and kept it, meaning that even if Renald finds someone who can say aloud the ancient elven ritual words, the ritual cannot be completed until the coin is returned to its chest. On the note of someone who might be able to speak it... Maria Skolodowska of the The Votek House house was at the Fortress and is likely now captured by the Templars as she was left behind.
The players encountered Antonio the bargemaster, a friend of the fey due to the old man always paying proper tribute to the river he rides on. It was on this river they encoutnered a nyaid named Odra, sister to Vistula who they met in Krakwa. Odra warned them that Solstice, the unicorn they helped Abshaloth torture, has ratted them out and the fey arent happy about it, she warned them to sleep with one eye open.
The players arrived in Belarest, finding the city adorned with the bodies of Astrasani soldiers and citizens on stakes, Michael Sobieski of The Sobieski House is here, attempting to prevent Vlad Von Paelor of The Paelor House from starting a war with Astrasan due to the issues they had at the Red Reunion. Many other nobles are gathering here now as well to watch the fireworks and help or hurt one side of the other, alongside many mercs and adventurers.
