Session 24: Bookkeeping Report
General Summary
-------------------------
DATE: Vamendour 8/625
-------------------------
The party awakes the next morning after a restful nights sleep. There is a bit of dry food left in the kitchen, mostly oatmeal, but there is a small pack of eggs that are freshly there, though they look more like duck eggs than they do chicken eggs.
Ayame wakes up with a stretch, and makes her way down to the kitchen, her tail swishing as she makes breakfast.
Naomi wakes up, feeling exausted, but makes her way down to the kitchen table, munching on some stale cookies from her everlasting rations.
Ragia makes her way downstairs as well, covered in thick blankets and muttering something about being squishly.
Eleanor comes out of her room looking a bit tired and frazzled, probably hung over. She finds her way to the rest of the waking party, taking a deep breath to try to push down the off feeling and greeting everyone "Mornin', looks like everyones real energetic already."
"Mmh, I'm not sure I'd say I'm energetic, but these cookies definitely help." Naomi says continuing to nibble.
Ayame ends up making bowls of oatmeal, with a fresh egg, and a cup of coffee that is surprisingly good given the limited supplies within the kitchen. While being served Eleanor looks to Naomi.
Thems the ones from the undead, or actual food this time?"
"These are from my magical bag of everlasting sweets!" Naomi says looking at the food placed before her. "Mmh...breakfast looks good Ayame~ Can't have a good sweet without something else to pair it with~!"
"Oooh...seems like a usefull bag..." Ayame says as she sits down happilly eating her fresh rations.
Naomi giggles and munches on another one "Weeeelll... I won't last long without having my sweets"
Ragia eyes the bag of sweets while gnashing on her egg before swallowing and looking to Ayame. "Don't forget the initiation, they don't like late people."
"That does sound like a very useful bag. Probably great for hangovers too" Eleanor says, thinking aloud. She finally stops looming over Naomi and takes a seat, "Oh yeah that.. test thing is happenin, we all going or?"
Ayame slams her hands on the table, and jumps up, seemingly almost unhinging her jaw to eat her food all in one go! "Aaaaaah your rightIHaveToGo!" Ayame says, running off to the test, sebastian following close behind.
"Good luck!" Ragia calls after her.
"Thanks~" Ayame says as sebastian closes the door behind her.
Ragia returns to her breakfast, slowly eating it while trying to decide what to do with her free time in the city.
Eleanor gets to eating breakfast while watching Ayame bolt out, chuckling a bit with a mouth full before properly swallowing her food and looking between the party, "So she's doin that, what're we up to today while waitin?"
Naomi reaches into her pocket and takes out the beautifully crafted compass she acquired -- the Pathfinder. She opens it, and there slotted into the lid is the cracked vibrant purple prism she had also purchased.
"I think i might check up on my long term traps and jokes, gotta make sure they haven't deteriorated in my absence" Ragia says.
"Wait what?" Eleanor says looking at Ragia with a surprised amusement.
"Need to decide what magic would be appropriate to store in this Ioun Stone. It can store Lesser blessings." Naomi says, ignoring Ragia for a moment.
"Well I didn't take them all down when I was expelled, didn't have the time really, so it's probably a good idea to make sure nothing bad happened to them while I was gone, specially since the city doesn't seem to want my neck anymore for some reason." Says Ragia.
"Ragia you sure are somethin' you know that..." Naomi mumbles as she stares deeply into the flawed surface of her ioun stone.
Eleanor lets out a snort of laughter, nodding, "Yknow what, I'll help you with that. Nothin else to do today for me, besides Nao's thing which I don't think is for a while, right?"
"Not until evening, correct. But, I do have a question for you two." Says Naomi.
Ragia nods. "Sure, shoot."
"What should I cast into this stone? The Goddess' Divine Healing, something to get us out of a bind, or a spell that brings forth the Goddess' Divine Wrath?"
Eleanor thinks for a moment really hard, "Well I dunno much about any of that stuff, I'd rather you be able to protect yourself in a fight though so maybe the wrath one."
"That's...Well that's fair I suppose. And you, Ragia?" Naomi says looking to her other companion.
"Hmmm, i think you can never have too many of your strongest healing spells." She replies.
"Hmm...I'll take that into account." Naomi says, snapping the compass shut, not having made a decision yet. "So, aside from Ragia's plan to check her traps, are you doing anything Eleanor?"
Eleanor points to Ragia, "I'm going with the lil fireball, nothin else for me in this city anyways."
"I see...Well I'll have to go to the local temple by myself then." Says the cleric.
Eleanor thinks for a few moments, "well why not we all go together? We could stop by the temple first."
"That sounds good to me! Why, it'll make a fun trip!" Naomi says with a bigger dash of excitement in her voice.
"Sure, i'll show you two the way, unless you already know the way when you were visiting with your family."
Eleanor gets her things, adding, "I don't care who leads, both've y'all are more familiar with this place than myself."
"I trust that Ragia knows the backstreets and such better than I."
The party make their way to the shrine, practically absent save for a offerings of paper and ink at the monument to Venichis. The holy symbol, a hand pointed sideways with an eye in the center, is emlbazoned in silver upon the shrine, and several sticks of insense waft lazilly through the air while giving a peaceful serenity to the area. Around the party this appears to be a busy neighborhood, with a couple storefronts and one magic item store at the corner.
"Hmm...I had hoped to confront another cleric to ask them about their connection with their gods, but I guess that wasn't in the cards. I might as well leave a small offering despite that." Naomi says.
Eleanor just idly follows Naomi around in the shrine, "I can't remember if I've been in many temples. They always this.... scented?"
"Some Gods prefer it more than others...One moment let me leave an offering..." Naomi says, writing down a spell, folding it and tucking it away in the shrine. "O-ooookaaay, let's get moving!"
From the magic store, a man carrying bits of jewelry runs out before taking a pearl off of a necklace, when from inside, the party can hear someone shouting "THIEF! THIEF!" before the man throws the pearl into the store, causing a massive explosion rocking the foundations of the street itself, as glass windows around the building shatter from the sudden impact. The man is completely unaffected but begins to run at full speed away from the scene of the crime.
Ragia throws a fireball at him, to which he escapes from the blast of flame unharmed and runs down the street.
"F-Fuck!" Naomi cries out while running to the exploded building, as a few mages fly overhead, dousing the building in some water while others chase after the thief. Inside she finds a man who looks fairly singed but allright, save for him shouting that he can't hear anything. She is unsure of what to do, but feels shellshocked as she goes up to him and heals his wounds.
The man blinks. "T... thank you miss..." He says, looking shellshocked himself at the surrounding buildings.
Eleanor follows in after Naomi, looking around the destroyed shop, "This city deal with this stuff a lot? That was a lot of explosions for one thief."
Ragia follows in as well, casting mending on anything that she can find to help pass the time.
"That...that...What happened?" Naomi says, looking to the man.
The man looks back to Naomi. "I... I couldn't believe it. He came in, grabbed a few magic items and just as I realized what was going on, I called out for the thief.... and he..." He says looking to a few crumpled and destroyed items within the shop. "Did... this... I had an item preventing magic from activating in the store to prevent this but... but it didn't work..."
Ayame ran the entire way to the college, stopping only to catch her breath, and let Sebastian catch up with her. She looks around the college for where to go, spotting the massive 15 foot tall doors to the college, with students coming and going already this early in the day.
Ayame clenches her fists in nervousness and goes inside the college, scared, but excited.
Ayame sees before her a receptionist in a grand hall. she has several tomes around her and she flitters away with a quill pen. The receptionist looks up to Ayame than nods. "Prospective student?"
Ayame nods and smiles widely "Y-Yes I am!" she says, clearly very excited, with a little bit of nervousness shining through.
The receptionist places a page of velumn on the desk in front of her. "Fill this out." She says offering her a quill and ink as well. It has some basic information such as age, place of birth, and a boring questionaire.
it doesn't take very long to fill out, and ayamehand it in to the receptionist who looks it over with a nod. "go over there." She points to a waiting area where four people are already sitting, one of them reading a book from the nearby bookshelf also sitting in the waiting area. "I will call you when they are ready for you." she says going back to work, continuing to write things down.
Ayame makes her way towards the waiting area, but pauses to look at the different books on the bookshelf. She finds numerous books of various types of studies, from cooking, to practical application of magic, to theories around different elemental magic. She grabs a book on air magic, and sits down to read.
Ayame reads for an hour waiting for her turn, and several students have already gone before her. But it is just as she is halfway through her book, giving an interesting philosophy of the air and its connection between elves that she hears an explosion from far away outside of the college. Several people in robes and one or two of the people sitting in the waiting room start running outside. The receptionist looks a little concerned by the loud noise, before two more exposions go off in succession from outside.
Ayame stands up at the sound of the second explosions within the city, looking to one of the students next to her. "I-I'm going to go see whats going on and see if I can help...could you save my spot in line for me?!" she says as she starts heading to the door, sebastian following her as always.
Outside, there is a bit of chaos at the college as many a wizard is flying towards the city at top speed. Three plumes of flame can be seen throughout the city going up into the air, though one of them looks like white smoke instead of black from this distance.
Ayame jumps up onto sebastians back "There! Go towards the smoke!"
Its at this time that a few more mages are in the streets, their voices augmented magically. "Citizens, stay in your homes, there is a suspected crime spree within the city, and the criminals are yet to be aprehended. If someone breaks into your home, call for the guards immediately. The army is here to help apprehend the criminals as soon as possible."
Naomi holds her stave close to her body and shudders "M-maybe we should get back to the house."
"yea, probably a good idea." Ragia nods in approval.
Eleanor thinks for a moment, looking to the shop keep, "Hey uh, is that magic preventin thing still active?"
The shopkeep points to a pile of ash in the center of the room. "Nope."
"Unless you two wish to chase after those criminals?" Naomi says, looking to her companions.
Eleanor clicks her tongue and sighs, "Well there goes that idea then." She looks to Naomi, shrugging, "I don't care about some thieves... though I think we should be safe if we stick together. If it turns out otherwise, we can go home."
"No thanks, i'm not made of spells." Ragia says as Ayame appears, riding on Sebastians back, and waving to the group.
"Oh Ayame, thank Goodness!!!" Naomi says with a sigh of relief.
"ayame? Aren't you supposed to be at the test?" Ragia questions.
"W-Well I heard explosions! So...I asked her to hold my spot!" Ayame says with a pout. "Did you see who did this?"
Eleanor shakes her hand and head in a negative way. "Sorta but they were far away by the time we saw em running. Lil' one here threw a ball of fire but no dice. Figured the guards will be on top of em real soon though"
Ayame pouts "W-Well...Good on you" she says, patting Ragia on the head "Well...lets try and find them then...any ideas?"
Eleanor hums, "Well the shopkeep here said they had a magic nullin sorta device that didn't work on them. That's about the only lead I got, though it was said that it was a crime spree, so maybe we can find em' again if we search around."
"Then it was probably just a mundane bomb" Ayame says with a sigh.
Eleanor rubs her chin in thought, "I suppose that's probably the case. Forget that those're a thing sometimes, usually see those in mining. Considering all the checks we went through to get in here, I'm surprised that got through."
Ayame blinks "I didn't remember being checked for anything like that...but fair enough" she shrugs "So..you guys didn't chase them...didn't get a look at them..."
"We also weren't expecting the store next to us to explode either..." Naomi says quietly.
"Well, which way did he run?" Ayame says with a sigh.
Naomi sighs "I saw his face. We should probably go to to the authorities."
Ayame pouts "We should go after them ourselves!"
"I hope this doesnt make me late later..." Naomi mutters awkardly.
"T-The heroes who saved the world wouldn't just...tell the authorities! They would chase after them and catch them or kill them or something!" Ayame says excitedly "O..Or I think they would...and it would look good for my admission if I...we...caught them"
Eleanor chuckles, "Well I'm willin to give a shot at it if you want to that bad then Ayame. Any ideas then?"
Naomi frowns... "Thats the issue. Im not sure how we'd track them."
"Uuhm...did you notice anything about his outfit at all?"
Naomi suddenly lights up! "Wait! I have an idea!" She walks back over to the shop keeper. "Do you have anything he stole, as in another copy or somethin'? I can locate the item to find the thief! Or can you describe what he stole for me?"
He thinks for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, he grabbed some common trinkets, I can describe it pretty well to you."
After a few moments of talking, naomi wrote the entire description down, a ring that staves off hunger. "If you get it back then I can use it to help rebuild my business, but good luck to you all."
Ayame nods "Thanks!" she says, before looking to Naomi "If this works I will buy you...so many sweets...like...so many"
Eleanor chuckles, "Well sounds like we're on a hunt then. Especially with you sayin that, pretty sure Naomi wont give up now"
"Mmh..The spell has a limited radius, so we need to be picky about where I cast it."
Ayame nods "Yeah...lets go!"
The party follows down a path of destruction that the mages had made along the way, from a distance the party can actually see a few fireballs being flung at someone in a lower ring, but too far away to actualy do anything about it, especially since its on the other side of the city. But the party travels for another 10 minutes when the path of destruction on the streets stops.
"looks like a good place to cast it." Ragia says looking around.
"Yeah no closer place to the action besides in it it seems." Eleanor agrees.
Naomi casts her spell, and noticing that the trail has gone cold for most, she catches the faintest wiff of the magic item pointing almost straight down from her location, under the earth. Naomi sighs very dramatically before looking to the rest of the party. "They're underground."
"Oh well..." Ayame says.
Eleanor snort laughs, "CLASSIC thieves! Where's the nearest sewer entrance?"
After a very quick look, the party manage to find a manhole cover, and get it open, granting them access to the sewers.
"W...why?" Naomi says nervously.
Eleanor, with an alarming lack of hesitation, almost like she's done this before, pulls off the manhole cover, looking to the group, "Well in we go then?"
The rest of the party look in a bit nervously. Eleanor sighs and jumps in first before anyone else, shouting up, "If yall wanna be so called heroes, somethin like this shouldn't be an issue."
Ragia follows behind, then Ayame and sebastian, and finally Naomi.
Eleanor looks to Naomi as they all make their way down, "Any sense of direction of those items? This's your spell that lead us down here."
"We need to keep up...God I'm gonna have nightmares about this place.." Naomi sighs and leads the party deeper into the sewers of Orzhov.
Meanwhile far away, viewers from the street below see someone running along the rooftops, with a few pieces of jewelry as he leaps from roof to roof, avoiding numerous blasts of energy from mages flying as they tail him. The man hops into a fireplace just as one of the mages tries to catch him using a paralyzing spell, but he successfully evades it while a few coins fall just shy of the fireplace. The mages quickly blast in the windows of the house and start searching inside, while the man hops back out from the fireplace above with a chuckle, continuing to run away. He makes a short run towards another building when his fingers, then toes are cut off and he starts to fall to the ground screaming. Another flash of blue, and suddenly, he is nothing but a pile of meat laying in an alleyway, with a woman standing over him, an arcane hand holding onto a large black scythe as she pulls it onto her shoulder. She tisks. "Today of all days... what am I going to do with you." She chuckles as the meat slop slowly migrates towards her, and gets absorbed into the skin of Violets feet, onlookers looking away from the grotesque violence before them.
Notes
This was the final session for Lacy Lovebind, though they do not appear in the story.
