Session Preface
After another three days of hard traveling through a late winter storm, the weather finally broke for the last few hours of marching, transforming the dreary grey skyline into a radiant, warm sunset across the western horizon across which the spires of the Platinum Temple just barely come into view, silhouetted in darkness and shadow.
"Dinner's ready, folks! Now remember, we only got enough for everyone to get seconds. No third plates this time, eh, Ranarog? You can eat your fill once we're back in the city walls tomorrow."
The savory scent of the freshly charred game and vegetable stew rises over the crackle of the camp fire, a welcome pleasure after the hours of marching through snow and freezing temperatures. As the rest of the selected members fill their bowl and take a seat, a quiet satisfaction settles over the camp. The momentary quiet is broken by a bellowing belch from Beldan who then chuckles to himself, "Sorry to ruin all of your delicate sensibilities with my disgusting noises" to a series of laughter across the camp fire circle. One by one, the members of the Platinum Order finish their meals and eventually depart to other tasks - some getting an early night's sleep to keep watch hours from now. Others polish blades or armor, fletch arrows, or converse amongst themselves in smaller pockets, eventually only leaving you and Beldan at the campfire.
As Beldan washes and wipes clean his kitchenware, he looks over to the three of you, eyeing you curiously. "You finally ready to tell me what happened in those damn caves? What are you planning for when we return to Avraathe?"
Session Summary
After each of the heroes finished their own reading of King Waruk's journal (
AoA.Lore King Waruk's Recorded Thoughts), they quickly summarize the findings for Beldan and discuss the potential hints towards who could be behind the betrayal mentioned within. The party spends the rest of the evening contemplating how to best address the issue and settle on meeting with the war council in addition to as many religious leaders as they can gather and leveraging their alliance with the Talons to have the army bar the doors and lockdown the meeting until the Betrayer is revealed and dealt with publicly.
Upon returning to Avraathe, the party sees much of the city working towards the collective rebuilding efforts from the city walls is disrepair to neighbors in the Garden Ward aiding one another in restoring life to a sense of normality. They decide to stop first at the home of Parathraaj and give him the nearly exhaustive rundown of recent events. Parathraaj initially pushes back against the idea of someone within Avraathe working against the city, suggesting it to be the efforts of the orc king trying to destroy Avraathe from within. But with mounting evidence presented by the party, even the hesitant Parathraaj agrees there must be a corrupt high priest who must be dealt with at once.
During this meeting, the heroes create a connection between Telzoun's assassinations and King Waruk's assault, realizing both parties received payment from someone in possession of the Platinum Gems, a resource only recently discovered in Avraathe and not sold publicly. Knowing those gems have only been discovered in the mine shaft which they cleared for Orin Underfury, the party pays another visit to the dwarven businessman.
Before departing, Parathrax also reveals to his companions his most recent vision (
AoA.Lore Parathrax's Visions) and the full nature of the prophecy which brought all three of them back to Avraathe (
AoA.Lore The Seven Prophecies). With the unfolding recent events, the party reflects on new meaning and potential interpretations of the prophecy and its implications. Vorothruun also notes the important and central role Parathrax will have to play in these events as a prophesied conduit of Bahamut's will, much to Parathrax's discomfort and Vorothruun's own amusement.
In their visit with Orin, the party learns the gems have indeed only recently been unearthed and to Orin's knowledge, have been sent to jewelers and scholars to study so as to learn more about their intrinsic magical properties. Orin shares that his cousin Srindrac has served as the jeweler who cuts, cleans, and processes all of the raw Platinum Gems coming from Orin's mines and that from there, the Scalers see them shipped to the Augurium, where they are transported to various buyers through a teleportation circle. When pressed, Orin also reveals that the only other party who would have access to these gems is the High Council, since they technically own a majority's share of his mines after Orin fell into debt being too stretched thin over his projects in the Workman's Ward. The proud dwarf insists upon the party keeping this detail private so as to not disappoint his family and his employees, but agrees to present what he knows in closed door trial, if necessary.
Learning of the Scaler's involvement, the party visit Justiciar Bronzeroar and share plainly with him the details of their discovery, submitting themselves and the Justiciar to a Zone of Truth to help their case. While under the influence of the spell, Bronzeroar claims no illicit knowledge of these events and shares context of the High Council's workings. According to Bronzeroar, the late High Priest Tedrog served as the most prominent economic voice on the Council and pushed for the purchase of the mines as a way to help prop up the city and create coin for the Temple to disperse through various projects, but from there he believes someone else manages the more detailed operations and setting up the infrastructure for the process. Bronzeroar also shares his suspicion of one of the more conservative minded council members being to blame, given Porath's ascension creating an almost super majority among the seven priests. Specifically, Bronzeroar lists himself and Zagtra as oft opposed to more traditional minds, Celu as likely being too traditional to work against the city, and Helna Summerdrake as being too middle-of-the-road on many policies to be this involved in an underhanded endeavor, leaving Porath, Ozen, and Dradke as his most likely suspects.
The party then makes their way to the Augurium, speaking to Headmaster Chauncer and then the her aide Grellen who plainly states his involvement beginning and ending with receiving sealed crates of the gems and teleporting them via the teleportation circle he oversees and manages as part of his duties as Headmaster's Aide. Grellen does note, however, one of the initial shipments he received was not entirely full as the rest were, but has little else to contribute to the search for answers.
Departing the Augurium, the heroes travel to the Craftsmen Corner and locate Srindrac's Stones, finding the jeweler in his upstairs apartment just preparing for a bath. The dragonborn brothers initially learn little new information from the dwarf beyond his involvement receiving, processing, and sending out the Platinum Gems. When intimidated into opening up, Srindrac shares Orin's financial dealings with the Temple and reveals that the only time a shipment wasn't handled by the Scalers was when a cloaked white dragonborn wearing several signet rings on its fingers arrived and took the shipment personally. Vorothruun immediately suspects High Priest Dradke, given his matching description and the Priest's tradition of wearing rings which represent their position and length of service to the city.
During this time, Endriel observes a dwarf watching the party from a nearby alleyway. Endriel confronts the dwarf, but does not immediately learn anything from him, but instead chooses to scare him off and follow him. The dwarf leads Endriel back into the Workman's Ward, where it uses a trap door in a damaged alcove to descend into a narrow tunnel which leads through several turns to a barred metal door. Endriel returns to Srindrac's about the time the dragonborn brothers conclude their conversation and shows them the trap door he discovered, realizing as he retraces his steps through the cooridor below that it could very likely connect to a a subterranean chamber in Underfury's villa.
As the hours pass, the party realizes they are nearly late to their own war council meeting to present the results of their mission of King Waruk's stronghold. Stopping once more at Parathraaj's home, the party secures the support and trust of Supreme Commander Vergraks and his willingness to secure the premise to keep the betrayer, now collectively considered to be Dradke given the party's new intel, from escaping. On the short trek from Parathraaj's home to the Talon's Barracks, the party discusses their next steps and how to handle this crucial revelation.
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