Session 05 - From Tannith to Roanberg

General Summary

[I didn't quite take good notes in regard to the exact order of events. I will try my best to post up what I believe occurred in the order I believe it happened narratively, not necessarily how it happened during the session. - DM.]
General Overview
Due to the slow nature of deliberations in Cypress Hall, the party has roughly ten days of enjoying the hospitality of the Countess in Tannith Vale. The PCs have a space of time to rest, recover, gather information and access resources in this large city. The PCs have been invited to stay anywhere in the city at the expense of the Countess, though I believe all of them have elected to stay at inns, or in the Tower of the Arcanum. Various goods and services are available here with the permission of not only the documents that were crafted for Morrus, but also with the open consent of the Countess.
Elendros the Druid
In that time, Elendros had two interactions: first with the dwarven artificer, Yendolin Keegermon; and the second with a colleague of the wilds, Naraead the Grey Druid.
The principal investor in the commercial caravan that joined up with the party on their journey to Tannith Vale, Yendolin Keegermon is an artificer who specializes in the trade of raw gems, gem cutting, and finished jewelery. Despite that focus, she is quite widely aware of the lore that affects the field of artifice, and she was able to give some background on the "lead balloons" and the mercury pool that Elendros encountered in the hidden Temple of Urza. Yendolin informs Elendros and whomever went with him that the lead balloon appears to be what she refers to as "liquid clockwork" from the Age of Myth and Legend. She didn't know much about the stuff beyond its mythical capabilities, but did suggest that Elendros seek out the renowned gnomish watchmaker Soren Langer in the southern market district of Brigden Ford.
Naraead is a Druid of the Grey, tapping into the collective wisdom and connections throughout the wilds as created by so-called "grey life" -- mushrooms, fungi, even oozes, slimes and "jellies". Quite sedentary, Naraead is often "planeted" into a fungal bed hidden deep in the wildlands and keeping watch on all the places connected together. He informs Elendros that his vision is troubling but may yet need to be further interpreted. For example, the appearances of rings around the Moon take months to fully form before any sort of major Landfall had occurred. Naraead also states that subjects within a visionary dream may be symbolic and not exact transfers, and that events can be metaphoric rather than literal. He does believe that this vision is very serious, and he has agreed to take this back to the other druids that make up the local Circle.
The local circle consists of a good number of committed Druids of at least fifth level, the senior ones with one or two apprentices. Each of those druids also have networks of their own allies and followers: rangers, barbarians, monks, fighters, and the like. Their primary goal is to protect Creation from outside threats, whether they be mutations and aberrations, roaming and scheming undead, or even outsiders seeping through the cracks in reality. They stay apart from what they see as the "internal" struggles within and between civilized folks and realms, maintaining that their work defends all from the real threats to not only civilization and the people who depend upon it, but life itself on this Earth.
Oswyn the Wizard
In the ten days afforded by the Countess' hospitality, Oswyn spent much of her time at the local Arcanum Tower mostly with the battlemage, Erinna of Abenton; since her interactions with the Tower Chief, Barrinor Lada, have been stilted and awkward due to his overwhelming post-traumatic symptoms, much of the Tower Work and Client Work has been shouldered by Oswyn and Errina. Fortunately, Barrinor has continued his positive interactions with the Countess on an almost-daily basis.
In her time with Errina of Abenton, Oswyn has learned of the chain of events on the Arcanum side of things. The battlemage detailed her background as a fighting warmage, having cut her teeth with the dwarves of the Imperial Remnant, and "making her flames" by helping to fight back the tides of goblinoids. She looks back with distinct fondness for her time with the Imperial dwarves, they had extended to her an honourific name that translates to "Goblin Roaster" in the common tongue -- karadri grobbum. She downplayed her time afterwards in the Port City of Adia, and has since found herself comfortable in a niche as an adventurer.
Before the incident leading to the annihilation of the other Barons' knights and men-at-arms, the battlemage enjoyed a good reputation amongst the Barons and their retainers as a good backup whenever beasts and monsters infiltrated into civilized lands. Now, Errina feels as though she has been thrust into a city-centric and administrative-leadership role that she never wanted. After her interactions with Barrinor, she knows that he's done; and after her 'debriefing' by the interrogator Ansa Greycloud, Errina knows that there are some darker forces at work all around this and adjacent endeavours.
Errina explains that the high tables of the Arcanum are very concerned about how this might affect the guild's reputation within the Free Realms. The very fact that three cultists were able to infiltrate the lower levels of the Arcanum, or that three low-level mages were converted to the cult, is a very troubling development. The interrogator took great pains to scour Errina's memory of events and interactions with these mages to see if there was anything obvious. There was not. "Only in retrospect, now," the harsh voice of the halfling admitted to her upon the end of her debrief. After the traumatic psychic interrogations, both Barrinor and Errina were cleared of any wrongdoing though it seems Barrinor was admonished for lackadaisical leadership.
In response to the news, Errina believes that the High Mistress of the Arcanum in Eos intervened directly in the assignment of Oswyn to troubleshoot the Tannith Vale Tower. The battlemage hopes that Oswyn can stay longer than her understanding of how long any troubleshooter tends to stay, but that's admittedly a very selfish desire given her distaste for bureaucratic and client focused work. Thus far, it appears that the two mages have gotten along quite well, and Errina agreed to show Oswyn the secrets of the sites of power in the Tannithi Forest in order to empower the summoning of natural familiars. This culminated in Oswyn successfully summoning a mustelid familiar by the name of Veeka (or Viika).
Brongar the Fighter
It's likely that Brongar has split her time to spend most of it with Oswyn as per her contracted position, but also with the warrior woman from Roanberg. The Countess has been quite hospitable generally, but she has been particular in her favour for both Torra and Brongar, both of which she perceives as potential allies due to their tolerance or adherence to the Old Faith and potential compatibility with her wood elven cultural lifestyle. As a result, it's likely that Brongar need not worry for any mundane items and has been gifted items of elven magical quality.
Torra Hirna Brigidsdottur has a lot of respect and admiration for the trio of women who saved her life from the hathaz ghul predators. She did not expect that it would be stalwart Brongar, fiery Oswyn and brave Gordia to show up in her darkest hour, but she has been very grateful since that time. Torra has contracted the services of Tannith Vale's finest armourer -- a half-elven artisan who has agreed to not only replace her broken helmet, but to upgrade her entire harness to become the equivalent of mithril half-plate armour. As one of the Chosen Warriors of Baroness Lovisa "Cold Eyes" Daradana, she is equivalent in rank to a Knight under the conventions of the Divine King in the Free Realms and Lakelands. As a result, folks in Tannith Vale have taken to calling her either Sir Torra or Dame Torra, though it seems as though she hasn't taken to it herself as her people don't have as much of a stratified society. Of all the folks, it has been Torra who has seen the most hospitality due to the circulating tales of her betrayal and recovery. There's consensus that the potential her story has in shifting the balance of power between the Countess and the remaining Barons is compelling-- and all without intervention by the Throne itself. Much to her amusement, there has arisen a bit of a rivalry between the Dame and Sir crowds within the city -- with the larger number believing she should be referred to as a Sir like any other Knight -- since Dame tends to be what one calls the wife or betrothed of a knight.
Brongar has her own renown within the city, with plenty of folks recognizing her status as the prize fighting champion in the Kingdom as being equal or even superior to the status of a local Baronic knight being a champion in the tourneys of the nobility. What more, that she took part in the recovery of Sir/Dame Torra has added to the mystique. This has seemed to have rubbed some of the establishment the wrong way, and the "Dame" crowd has taken to referring to Brongar as a foreign, brutish hireling of a city-dwelling magician. Despite the relatively egalitarian nature of wood elven culture, and the markedly matriarchal nature of the Old Faith, many of the established nobles who fall into the Divine King culture are very much threatened by the emergence of all these troublesome women.
Morrus, Agent of the Throne
Morrus was key in ensuring each of the other characters interacted with one-another, and generally kept the party cohesive and on-track. From taking the first steps to help integrate Elendros into the party to managing the regional politics to protect the interests of the Throne, Morrus ensured that the appropriate resources were applied in the right place to have the best effect.
First off, Morrus helped connect Elendros to the dwarven artificer, then agreed to help take Elendros to meet with the watchmaker, Soren Langer, when she suggested the connection. From there, he decided to avoid any detailed interrogation of the captive-knights from the other Barons, but discussion was had in regard to what would be done with those captives: (1) give them over to the Countess of Tannith Vale, or (2) give them over to the Baroness of Roanberg Castle.
Morrus then met with Oswyn and Errina at the Tower of the Arcanum. After some discussion, it came to light that the Arcanum was not at the center of the massacre at Cypress Hall. Rather than covering up the massacre, the Arcanum sent their own agents to figure out what had happened and act appropriately. It ended up being the trio of Arcanum mages were new, and they had been corrupted before their assignment to Tannith Vale. They had no clue that the agents sent were going to figure it out and were more than capable of executing their brand of justice so quickly. At that stage, the question becomes whether and to what degree this would or should affect the relationship between the Throne and the Arcanum.
From that point the party traveled with the prisoners to Roanberg Castle, which will be its own post.

Character(s) interacted with

Naraead, Druid of the Grey


Karina Whitewind, Druid of the Sky

Report Date

02 Feb 2021