Between peace and poison

Convinced that House Canith would continue sabotaging any peace talks in order to retain its control over the region, Mystery Inc began planning our own ways to sabotage Patrice. Jeeng would campaign for Lady Justine in the Clouds while Darren, Penelope and I visited the Sahagin. Upon arrival I noticed the traces of necrotic-infused dragon shards, possibly cases of it recently removed from the audience chamber. After Darren pleaded our case, the Sahagin countered our proposal with their own in the form of a combat trial against their recently acquired dragon shard powered armor. After buffing Darren, Penelope and I could only watch and advise from outside the ring while he dueled this suped up Sahagin. Darren barely passed the combat trial but played it off well, and we could more or less confirm where they got this prototype armor. His victory convinced them to reconsider investing in Justine's weaponry expertise, however they still scoffed at our push for peace talks. With nothing further to gain, we regrouped at home and shared out findings.
 
Eventually we had to split up again to tackle several fronts. Jeeng would speak with the bard to arrange cover for us to steal the Soul Engine; Darren would scout the lizard tribes who were still reluctant to the Silver Flame's cleansing as part of the peace conditions set forth by the settler's council; Justine, Penelope and I would prepare the rest of the materials needed to gain access to the Engine, specifically Patrice's password and key card. The ladies and I were successful in retrieving Patrice's password and I forged a near perfect replica of her card. Penelope thought it might be a good idea to have a few decoy engines as well just incase. Darren reported that the Herb tribe was planning to sacrifice their own kind on a summoning gate to return the Mist Serpent to this world. In a maybe-not-so-surprising twist, Lea, who joined Darren on his recon, discovered evidence that the bard might also have his hand the summoning circle. Regardless, Jeeng's conversation with the bard provided disguises for our heist.
 
The most pressing matter now was to rescue the lizardfolk being held hostage for sacrifice. In order to tackle this mission we spread ourselves again to recruit help. Jeeng would see if Asta and her dwarves would be an asset or hindrance; Lady Justine would try to mend the fences with Lady Maria; Darren once again called upon his friends the scions whatever that meant; Meanwhile I enlisted the Silver Flame with Jeanette's assistance. Jeanette assured me the Flame would help but would probably want to purge the sickness that consumed the cultist by any means necessary. I only asked that they minimized the trauma for the innocent hostages. Jeeng, Justine, and I made one more attempt to negotiate non interference with the Bard but he countered with the demand for another hostage in exchange to completely nullify the Mist Serpent. We couldn't in good conscience oblige so we had to take our chances at the Herb Tribe. On the way, we made preparations with Penelope's natural gift of gab and recruited the help of a spider friend to locate the Shamans, whom we suspected were held underground. As we neared the Tribe camp, I was able to guide everyone in their stealth but sadly failed in my own attempts. Thankfully the rest of the party was able to cover my clunky stumbles. Thus began our second attempt to thwart this cult.