Session 2: The Stone
General Summary
Upon returning to Vael’s Rest, the group walked past a house where people were gathering, but paid it no heed as they made their way to the Church of the Platinum Flame. There they were met by clerics who led them to abbot Ruvin Gleamer once more. They told him everything that happened before asking first about the name Moorbrand, then about the possibly cursed lockbox that Jane now carried. Concerning Moorbrand, the abbot knew only that it was a name commonly evoked by undead in the area. When it came to the lockbox, he needed to do some preparations, and for safety’s sake asked Jane to keep the box on her person. The group then decided to recuperate in one of the taverns whilst they waited for the abbot to finish.
Geneviève and Ki’tor decided to head down to the Argent Bough, which was supposed to be a bit fancier than the Saviour’s Shadow. Jane on the other hand wished to reconvene with her companion, and Pierre-Pascal came with her as he wished for nothing more than to rest. Never before had he been confronted with such gruesome scenes, and he needed time to process the ordeal. But as the two approached the Saviour’s Shadow, Jane noticed that the gathering of people had grown and that there was a considerable presence of town guards. With her interest piqued, she asked Pierre-Pascal to go on without her as she wished to investigate.
Jane approached one of the guards and asked him what was going on. The guard, named Dustin Bronn, didn’t divulge much. Only that something had happened and that they had the situation under control. He then urged her to go back to the inn, but if she came across anything they ought to know she could find him at the Triune Council Hall. Discontent with this interaction, Jane moved on to one of the bystanders watching the crime scene from afar, a baker who seemed extremely flustered over the whole situation. She approached him and tried to match his level of worry at the same time as she tried to act as if she already knew more about the situation than she did. The baker, who seemed incredibly well informed, told her that it was the Magister himself that had been murdered. Citing a young towns guard as his source he told her that his throat had been slit during the night, as he layed in his bed. A false observation since his throat was actually punctured in several places by a spiked chain. He also pointed out the fact that he believed the magister was involved in some illegal activities and through them had brought this upon himself.
She then returned to the Saviour’s Shadow where she swiftly found Zalia, the shapeshifting witch, reading in her magical book. There was also a table of locals who were lamenting the recent events. Jane decided to talk with them first to try and get a wider picture of what might have happened. All she found, however, was that this event was unique and unprecedented in Vael’s Rest. She also found that the young town guard, sired by Old Brannick, was a real blabbermouth. Zalia also decided to join the conversation. She tried to correct the notion that the magister’s throat might not have been slit, but they would hear none of it. In the end, Zalia and Jane left for the Argent Bough instead. As they passed the residence of Hesk Orlin, they noticed that the crowd had grown, and that the investigation was well under way.
Down in the tavern known as the Argent Bough, they met up with Geneviève and Ki’tor, the latter of which had managed to get excessively inebriated during the short span of time since they parted. They began to converse with Zalia, who introduced herself as Jasmine, a ruse that didn’t hold for long, since Jane had mentioned her name before. Zalia divulged what she had found out as she eavesdropped on the magister and his two associates the night prior. She told them that he believed the abbot had sent Geneviève and Pierre-Pascal after him. He had also talked about the stone, which Dorian had held before his death, and how it had made him lose his mind. Although the magister believed that he would recover. Zalia never explicitly mentioned the fact that she had killed the magister, but instead focused on the fact that his associates were possibly the ones that found the body.
In the end Zalia and Jane would go to try and talk to the associates of the magister. Geneviève would in the meantime bring Ki’tor down to the river in an attempt to sober him up. She would soon find that his level of inebriation was highly overexaggerated. A tactic he often employed to make people drop their guard. When Jane and Zalia reached the crime scene they found their path blocked by town guards, and their quarry on the other side. They decided to try and lure them away to another part of the courtyard, where they would be able to converse more freely. In order to do this, Zalia projected a magical message into their minds urging them to part from the town guards in order to discuss what had happened. The two men seemed intrigued and walked over to a more secluded part of the fenced courtyard. Jane then took over, walking over to them and striking up a conversation.
The samsaran pretended to be part of the magisters gang, but as a secret contingency that he supposedly had kept secret from the others. With all the details she could provide regarding the group's plans, she managed to make herself believable. It turned out that the two nobles had no idea about the fact that their cavernous lair had been found and ransacked. They also revealed that in fear of being found out they were about to leave in order to meet up with the crew stationed in the cave-hideout at a discussed rendez-vous point. When Jane expressed that she was unaware of this part of the plan, the nobles grew a bit suspicious, and when she asked them about the location they were headed to they disregarded her inquiry. Whether this was because they didn’t trust her or because they saw an opportunity to cut her out of the deal, she didn’t know.
Zalia and Jane reconvened and discussed these revelations. They then spent the rest of the morning preparing themselves before heading back to the abbot to deal with the lockbox and the stone. Outside the church they met up with Geneviève and Ki’tor, who seemed to have sobered up significantly. Together they entered and were led to a secluded chamber where abbot Ruvin had prepared for a ritual to take place. Along with two of his closest disciples they did all they could to ensure that there was no curse laid on neither the box nor Jane. After which, they allowed Jane to part with the box, confident that she wouldn’t face the same fate as Dorian. And they were correct. They then decided to finally open the box.
Abbot Ruvian insisted on being the one to open the box, claiming that should anything go wrong he’d rather see himself lost than any of the people he dragged into this mess. As the lid flew open a radiant energy filled the room. The stone actually appears to be more of an outline than anything, with all but the center part of it being partially invisible. In the “center” of the stone was a swirling mass of wind filled with multicolored flowers. The abbot seemed stunned, before he shared his theory of what this artefact might be. A Planestone. An ancient item believed to have been used during the creation of the outer planes surrounding the material world. At the mention of this Jane remembered a meeting of her kind that she had attended many lifetimes ago, in the Age of Dragons.
During that meeting, as they discussed ways to escape their cursed lineage, the matter of the planestones had been discussed. But even if they were to believe in the rumours of the stones existence, the same rumours described them as faded and powerless. Jane had never believed them anyways. Yet now she was looking at one, and one brimming with power no less. As the group discussed what to do with this stone, the abbot interjected with a request. He explained that these stones were powerful beyond measure, and if this one had awakened then surely there were others. Nine others according to the legends. He also believed these stones to be way too powerful to fall in the hands of political forces and rulers of nations. Therefore, he urged them to bring the stone to the High Cardinal of the Church of the Platinum Flame in Nova Aera.
Geneviève suspiciously asked him how he could trust a group of adventurers with such power, to which he answered that the damage these stones could reap was limited by the resources the wielder held. A bandit could do little, but a nation could end the world. Therefore he found himself having to put his trust in the goodness of the people. His hands were tied, the nation of Scaelor could easily take the stone if they found it in his possession. Hence, he put his hopes on the shoulders of the group before him. And they accepted.
They decided that their next course of action was to follow the two nobles who had worked for the magister. The abbot, who was abhorred to find out about the magister’s corruption, agreed to let the nobles flee the city and allowed the group to once more deliver proper justice. From what they had heard it would be two days before the nobles would depart, enough time to properly prepare themselves for the journey ahead.
Rewards Granted
- A Planestone, in a Magical Lockbox
Missions/Quests Completed
- Killed Magister Hesk Orlin.
- Unveiled the Magister's involment as the leader of the bandits.
- Recieved information about the nature of the Stone.
- Accepted new mission to bring the Stone to Nova Aera.
Geneviève Frankling
Ki'tor
Zalia
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