C2 Session 11: The Road to Aftane Report
General Summary
32nd of Haelynir 1545 Continued
The interviews finish at 10:30am. Afterwards Margaret will spend some time relaxing in the parlor while Brin and Ana head out to the Hall of Blessed Rebirth.The pair don't talk much on the way to the Hall of Blessed Rebirth. They are expected and take the pair to her office to meet with Mistress Everhand. Ana is served some coffee while Brin is examined. At this stage everything seems fine and she is happy to see them tomorrow for another check up. Rahanntyl is ready to cast legend lore for Ana on the mask before she attunes to the mask. Through this casting they learn: Hakotep I, also known as the Sky Pharaoh, has his ka sealed within this mask. It is capable of doing great things, but good and evil. That depends on the user. Before Hakotep was buried, however, a sect of the church of Vorynn known as the Sacrosanct Order of the Blue Feather stole two items from the dead pharaoh that were infused with different parts of his soul and this is one of them. Through these items, the Sacrosanct Order had hoped to commune with Hakotep's soul to learn the secrets of the magic and technology he used to wage war against the Andu. However, with the pieces of Hakotep's soul separated, bound in physical objects, and unable to rejoin together in the afterlife, the priests discovered they were unable to communicate with the deceased pharaoh. The two pieces of the Sky Pharaoh's soul did, however, empowered the objects that contained them creating two powerful magic items. The pair discuss it a little before leaving. On the way out Brin donates 10 gold.
At noon the pair return to their guild. They meet Margaret in the parlor where she is waiting. They tell her what they learned and discover they forgot to pick up her supplies. Margaret suspects that the Khirdai pirests might be interested in finding this as the lottery is suspicious. Clearly they are looking for something but not telling anyone what. Afterwards Brin heads to check on the Four Lanterns while the girls while. Things are pretty much how Brin left them. Nothing has really changed. Bonsen sleeps and the others play cards. He mentions the fighting pits once Bonsen is up and about and they are agreeable to that. Brin heads back to meet the girls and they all head out to go shopping.
At the Hall Margaret gets 500 gold worth of supplies. Afterwards they head back to the guild once more.
The group arrives back at the guild at 1pm. Ana goes to attune to her new mask, Margaret finishes copying a spell and Brin has a nap til dinner.
After Ana attunes to the mask she wonders around the guild, testing the detection abilities. Jamal's protection against detection fails against the lifesense of the mask. At 4:30pm she runs into Date Palm and Selene in the kitchen. Date Palm is making Selene pancakes, and Selene in wrapped up in a blanket, curled up on the chair. Date Palm reveals she's having a pain flare up. Ana asks about the triggers. Date Palm explains that at times it is unpredictable, but overall a bad fight is a trigger, stress and no moon. He's not 100% on the moon one but there is no moon tonight. Warm baths helps and some special salts they have and will be doing after breakfast. Ana does talk about maybe making the bath area bigger, which Selene likes the idea of. When pancakes are ready, Ana asks Selene a few more questions about her condition. She's always had pain except for a year or two when she lived on the moon. Though there was still sometimes a little hurt like a gentle ache. Date Palm makes Ana a hot chocolate after making Selene one.
By 5pm Margaret has finished copying her spell. She goes to get herself some dinner and take it up to the balcony. While in the kitchen she runs into Ana who has just finished talking to Date Palm and Selene. Margaret and Ana talk about their ideas about the library candidates as they start to sort some dinner for themselves. Margaret is for Whisperwind and Shadowstar. Ana agrees with the candidates as they head up to the balcony to eat. While on the balcony they discuss Xeldarix and Ana gives some background about her angel to Margaret. Throughout the conversation Ana lies a little about her knowledge of the temple to Xeldarix and Margaret sees through her but doesn't push the issue.
At 6pm Brin wakes up. Stretches and heads to the kitchen. There he runs into Kuroom and Ustrad. He learns Bonsen woke up briefly but not as long as they would have liked. They're cooking Beef Bourguignon and will make Brin up a plate as he goes to look for the girls.
As Ana and Margaret finish their discussion on the balcony, Brin comes out onto the balcony. He asks them about their thoughts on hiring people as he puts his feet up on the table they just finished eating at. It's brought up they forgot to interview a gardener and will need to fix that. When they're done talking Margaret goes to spend some time with the Four Lanterns, Ana goes to work on a spell and Brin goes to get his dinner and check in with Ubek before bed.
Margaret plays cards with the four lanterns and learns a little more about them. They all met through Bonsen and Ustrad has been with Bonsen the longest. They also discuss what happened with the necropolis. Just before bed Margaret prays a little is rewarded with a nice dream and will wake feeling warm inside even she didn't exactly get what she wanted.
Brin finds Ubek in his room. He just does a general check in with the Grimlock. Brin has a few ideas for his storeroom and selling on Ubek's wares. They agree the guild needs to expand a bit and then Brin heads to bed.
1st of Anarire 1545
Brin is up first at 5:30am where he gets some breakfast and goes through some exercises. He then goes to check on Consen to see Kuroom in the middle of praying. Brin waits patiently for that to come to a conclusion. Brin confides in Kuroom about what he has been going through and about the void concerns which naturally alarms Kuroom. Brin gets Kuroom and himself some oatmeal for breakfast. While getting breakfast Brin takes note that the kitchen looks to have been freshly restocked overnight. Afterwards Brin just wanders around the guild for an hour or so.Ana gets up at 6am to continue scribing and finishes at 8:30am. At 8am Margaret gets up and gets ready for the day, coming out of her room at a similar time to Ana and they run into Brin as he wanders around the guild. They decide to go as a group to the Hall of Blessed Rebirth. They arrive at 9am. On the way Ana tries to gauge the state of the city, but it's difficult. There is no obvious danger at this stage. They meet with Mistress Everhand and chat a little before she examines Brin. This time she finds something and when she tells Brin, he accuses her of putting it in there. She is calm and gentle with him as he rides out his anger stage of grief. Ana causally suggests murder which alarms Brin and that idea is suggested to be used as a last resort for now. Mistress Everhand gently reminds the group that reviving someone is always a risk of the soul not returning to the land of the living. At this point Ana reveals some of his history and what she knows of people being touched by the void. She confesses she has lied about a lot of her background and her parents are alive and well. Her full name is Anastriel Lamvin Moller, Sapphire of the Bay, Princess of the Pirate Nation and heir to the throne of Grabentod. Her mother is void touched and has been for longer then she has been alive. Afterwards they move their discussion onto hirelings and who they want to hire such as Darvin Stonegrow, Thorne Blackwood, Elara Shadowstar and Lysandra Whisperwind, while arranging for gardeners to be interviewed. Successful will arrive at 8am to begin work tomorrow while interviewees for the gardener posotion will arrive at 4pm today. As they head back to their guild, Mistress Everhand suggests they move their checks to weekly or monthly to keep on eye on how things progress for Brin.
They arrive back at the guild at 10:30am. Oryn is studying a map of the continent and reveals this is the awnshegh map they had requested from the main guild. He is currently looking at a risk reward calculation in term of guild hire costs for them.
The girls return at 4pm as the gardener interviewees arrive with Jamal is tow. They are invited one at a time up to the balcony for their interview. Margaret stays downstairs to try and send messages with her bracers. Their first gardener applicant is Thistle Brablethorn, a female halfling. Very rosy cheeks and a happy go lucky attitude. She doesn't bring a resume. Instead she brings a basket of fruit and vegetables for the group to keep as a sample of her work. Brin grabs a zucchini to examine and puts it down in front of himself once he sees he cannot fault it without trying it. Ana uses her magic to peel a mandarin and eat it. Thistle is surprised at the magic but is heavily focused on the action rather then the magic. The second applicant is Bran Oakheart, a male Anuirean farmer. He's much more quiet and reserved. He has a long history of being a farmer. He started on a family farm, but has moved from job to job over time as he slowly makes his way across the desert. He quietly waits for questions. It's been about a year since he left his hometown. He's been in town since just before the city fell into peril and will be leaving in a week if there is no work to be found. The biggest job he has had was about 100 acres in size. A rooftop garden wouldn't be too little. Work still has to be done. He flows with the seasons. Brin can tell he is guarded and isn't fazed about the idea of working or not working here. The final applicant is Willow Greenleaf, a female wood elf. She wears elaborate silks that have a practicality to them. She smiles as she sniffs the air and notices mandarins were eaten here recently to the group, which they confirm did happen. She came to be in Shoufal by following the roots. They told her to come this way and help was needed in Shoufal or all the plants would die. She's from Innishiere and followed the water here. She's asked what is her favourite thing to grow and she compares it to selecting her favourite breath to take. She has never understood why there have never been many traders coming through the Innishiere. Brin and Ana know that if you are not a high or wood elf you are best to avoid the Innishiere as it is an elven community that doesn't allow others inside it's boarders. Brin believes the fact that Brin and Ana are half elves, and one of them being blue who are sitting with two supposed humans is just going over Willow's head. As they wrap up the interveiw, Willow wishes that Brin enjoys his zucchini and leaves. After Willow leaves Brin votes to not hire Willow but to keep an eye on her as what she said about the plants seems ominous. They're not sure about Bran as his skills could clearly be put to better use on larger projects. Thistle seems to be the way they're leaning.
Meanwhile Margaret uses her bracers to cast Sending to the leader of the Listeners. She tells the leader about the pending information coming and how Margaret has discovered something here that is bad about the void and how the moon might have fended it off before. The leader, also known as the Highest Light, is concerned and wants to retry the past failed ritual again to seek the power of the moon to aide them against this threat. Margaret is concerned about Jamal and what might happen if they try the ritual again. It will depend on how many shades the moon has. She follows up by sending a message to Evelyn Rainer. A friend from the community she left. She mentions she's worried about the ritual. Evelyn notes that there is a strange desperation around the failed ritual as they gather new supplies. As she finishes Willow comes down from her interview. She makes an odd comment to Margaret about her glow before leaving. Margaret goes up to find her friends.
The party is now all up on the balcony. Margaret asks about Willow and Brin's leading theory about her is she grows drugs and samples her own wares. Margaret tells them about the sending messages. She warns Jamal about they're going to reattempt the ritual. The group believes the ritual will empower one of them to be an instrument of the moon's will and Jamal is an unforeseen occurrence according to what the Listeners seem to know. Ana shares a bit about her conversation with Xeldarix when they spoke about the moon. There is a bit of chat about the gods before Ana catches Jamal up on her status of not being an orphan and is actually a princess. Brin questions Margaret about why she doesn't tell the listeners about Jamal and she confesses she doesn't feel like that would be a good idea. Jamal does not want to Listeners to know about him as he is digesting this information himself and what this means for himself as a summoned creature of sorts. Jamal changes the conversation to what the Hall of Blessed Rebirth found out for them. There is a tomb to the East in the Black Spear Tribes area. Specifically the forest of Ras Ghul. There was a city or place there that is said to frequently visit the Tephu library before and after it disappeared. Maybe there is information there about it. They discuss how to get there. There are a few options to try and get around the awnshegh's in the area. They know the following about the awnshegh's in the area:
- The Basilisk was once a man of the Khinasi, but he retains little of his original appearance, being almost entirely reptilian in appearance. Green scales cover his body, a fan-like crest runs along his back spotted with red, and he has a long prehensile tail. He walks upon his eight legs, only the first two legs could be used as arms and hands, each hand/foot has but two powerful claw-like fingers. Strong red-brown plates of armor cover the Basilisk's chest and run down the center of his back either side of his fan-like crest. The Basilisk's mouth is large and full of sharp teeth. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the Basilisk is not however his entirely bestial looks, but, in the words of Cidro bin Ariya the noted explorer; 'his ungodly smell'. The Basilisk can be smelt for miles downwind and on a calm day his scent lingers for weeks - the smell is a caustic reek that unnerves animals and is deeply unpleasant to any human with a functioning nose.
- El-Sheighül, the Lord of the Ghouls, is one of the Lost. He is connected to the shadow world. El-Sheighul's close ties to the Shadow World and utter lack of sayim proved him one of the Lost long ago, so far the wizards of the Khinasi have feared engaging him in a grand magical battle in case they free him from the Shadow World rather than condemn him to it.
Brin has a chat with the Four Lanterns after dinner. He sees that Bonsen is awake. He tells him to get some rest before updating everyone on what the party will be doing. He leaves the Four Lanterns with 500 gold. They can take the coin and leave town, or do as he asked a few nights ago and look into the fighting pits. Ask if Brin is blacklisted or if they might have nefarious ideas about what to do with Brin if they ever see him again. He wants to know as much as he can about the fighting pits and all that entails.
After dinner Jamal returns with information they need for travel. The camels can be rented for 50 gold each and are given 1 day feed. Upon their hand in to the correct location the person would receive the 40 gold deposited back. If the camels are not returned the deposit will cover the price of the camel. About half way there is a caravanserai that they can stop at.
That night Margaret prays again and this time her dream is full of golden feathers and fun laughter. She wakes up the next day feeling warm inside again.
2nd of Anarire 1545
Ana is the first one up with the sun. Margaret gets up at 7am and Brin last up at 8am. The new hires are here at 8am and Jamal makes sure to show each of them to their area where they can get acquainted with their stations while waiting for instructions.- Brin tells Darvin to do trade while he's gone.
- Margaret tells Thorne to Craft and sell focuses, tells Lysandra and Elara to look into the ritual until they run out things to find and devote three research points to it as a combined effort.
- Ana tells Thistle to harvest for guild purposes, and tells Lysandra and Elara to look into the library when they run out of things to look into about the ritual.
- Jamal has Oryn in maintenance mode where they are taking mission as their focus.
At 7pm the group heads out of Shoufal. Margaret casts Dark vision on herself as they leave. They head out the Sorthern exit to the town before it slowly starts to head South East. At 10pm they stop travelling to put up the dome off the side of the travel and makes it sand coloured. As they rest Brin can hear strange sounds nearby. Like metal being torn and a strange dog like laughter. He tells the group and he's worried about the camels that couldn't fit in the dome. Ana, Luna and Brin sneak off to see what the possible problem is. As they approach they see a pack of 9 gnolls tearing apart something. They head back discuss it with the group and agree they need to take out the gnolls before the gnolls smell the camels. The party sneaks up and gets a surprise round off on the gnolls. Ana makes short work of many of them by calling down Xeldarix's radiant light on them. Margaret tries to cast fireball but instead calls down a stink cloud. Jamal and Brin work together in close quarters with the remaining gnolls to put them down. Ubek supports from a distance. After the fight settles, Brin goes to look at what the gnolls were destroying and as he does the Alpha's body bursts into flames as a blood burst in unleashed. Most of it is absorbed by Brin with Jamal getting minor parts of it afterwards. After the fire settles and is absorbed from the body, the night is dark once again.
