Session 85: Missing Seer in Saarmen Report
General Summary
7th of Erntenir 1524 continued After dinner each member of the forged does their own thing. Karl makes himself a new Simulacrum with the wish spell before going to sleep with Erin. Fargrim keeps to him and snacks before heading to bed at 9pm. Lily will sit outside until the sun is set, then relax inside until going to sleep around 10:00. While out there Lily notices a shape peaking over the back fence before ducking back down. When Lily goes to investigate she doesn’t find anything. She warns the darkness she doesn’t like spies. She contacts Xeldarix who encourages her to come inside rather than stay outside. In the middle night, just before midnight, Fargrim is briefly woken up only to be knocked unconscious as he’s stabbed multiple times. Karl and Erin have also woken up to find a figure looming over them as they are attacked and Karl is bleeding badly. Hearing Fargrim’s belows Lily blinks awake and rolls, instinctively reaching for her shield and spear that she keeps handy beside her, calling out for Xeldarix as she then starts heading out of her room. Ohtli stands up as well and whinnies. The simulacrum, Peter, is also awoken. He Misty steps to Fargrim’s room after running to the door. He sees a 10 year old boy smiling over Fargrim's body with two shortswords covered in blood. He calls out for help and about the intruder. Meanwhile the 10 year old girl in Karl and Erin’s room is disappointed they woke up, slashing at Erin. Erin screams in anger and launches herself at the child. Karl sits up in bed and conjures a wall of force to bubble Erin and the child together. The child casts Mirror Image, but with her blindsight, Erin sees through the illusion. In Fargrim’s room the boy complains that his companion has not dealt with “Karl”. Peter dissolves in a pile of snow with a smirk on his face as the boy destroys the simulacrum. He heads back to Fargrim, complaining about wizards. Outside of both of the rooms that the assailants are in, Xeldarix is slowly getting up and takes in the panicked thoughts from everyone in the manor. She moves quickly, flying past Lily, directing her to help Karl as she flies into Fargrim’s room. Lily does so, but sees she cannot help Karl as he has his wall up, so instead she runs to help Xeldarix in Fargrim’s room. Inside Karl’s room, the girl slashes at Erin, shredding her. Thankfully Erin’s toughened skin by her rage is helping stand up to the onslaught. She taunts Karl about killing Erin, hoping he enjoys the show. Karl picks up his belt from the table and drinks a potion from it. He informs the child she is locked in with Erin, not vice-cersa, but appreciates the bravado. Erin attacks the child to prove Karl’s point, trying to stun her, but she keeps resisting the effect. The child smiles and crackles with lightning as it rapidly takes the form of several nightmarish creatures, lashing out at Erin, but she dodges out of the way. Inside Fargrim’s room, the boy is frustrated by all the interruptions. He taunts the group claiming if the Dwarf dies it would be their fault since they keep interfering with him being stabilised. He slashes into Xeldarix. Xeldarix tries to rage, but she can’t seem to access the divine wrath that was always there. Instead she focuses on healing Fargrim before attacking. She gets one hit in, but clearly she is thrown off by being unable to rage as she once had. Lily realises this is likely not a normal child and attacks, getting a few good hits in. Karl watches in his room, as the child carves Erin up and he knows if it wasn’t for her bloodline, she would likely be bleeding out now. The child tries to confuse Erin with an enchantment, causing Erin to attack and try to get in at a moment of distraction but misses as she hardens her mind to the effects. Erin continues to skillfully attack the girl who seems to continue to resist the stunning effects from Erin’s blows. Karl just watches on and waits to see who falls first. The girl mocks Erins anger as she attacks Erin. Fargrim comes to as the boy in his room is attacking Lily and Xeldarix, doing a lot of damage to them. Fargrim stands up and looks around dazed and in pain before healing himself. The boy looks annoyed at the healing taking place around him. It crackles with lightning as the boy rapidly takes the form of several nightmarish creatures, lashing out at all nearby to hit Lily and Fargrim. Xeldarix lashes out with her dagger and heals Lily a little. Lily makes a vow of enmity on the boy and attacks him, empowered for her blows. The figure attacks Lily back, but is clearly struggling to battle three combatants. In Karl’s room, he watches as Erin finally manages to stun the girl. Seeing that this fight is just about over, Karl Misty steps to be able to see into Fargrim’s room, sending a bolt of fire at the boy. In Fargrim’s room, Fargrim complains that no one ever sends people flowers anymore as he attacks the boy before attacking himself a little. The boy attacks Fargrim back. Xeldarix switches to her shortsword to attack the boy. Lily hits the boy over the head with the blunt end of the spear to knock him unconscious. With one of the dangers gone, the group discusses what to do. Karl was going to let Erin kill their attacker, but drops the wall of force so others may do as they please. Though not before accidentally killing her himself with a magic missile. Erin continues to stomp on the body after it falls to the group. Fargrim tries to stop Erin and spare the dying, but it is too late. The girl is dead. She turns into a 40 year old woman. Karl helps Erin to calm down and come back to him. Erin does stop when Karl talks to her. She's breathing quickly and harshly with a bit of a wheeze to it. Growling when fargrim approaches her/ the intruder. Karl guides her away to sit down. They tie up the dead body and the unconscious child. Karl and Fargrim use Prestidigitation to clean themselves up, though it doesn’t clean off a white mark on Fargrim’s arm. This pikes Karl’s curiosity and asks Fargrim about his use of arcane magic. Fargrim tells him that Darghast is helping him out with this. Xeldarix confirms the boy is actually a man. The pair is taken downstairs as the group sets up watches. Karl helps Erin back into bed since her chest is bothering her, tucking her in before making sure everyone else is good for the night. Sadly he finds Peter’s snowy remains in the hallway. Karl casts alarms while Lily takes the first watch with Xeldarix and Fargrim heads back to bed. Karl afterwards heads to bed. Lily searches the bodies during her shift. Boy bodies have a small pouch of coins and gems. Each bag has 50p, 50g and 15 gems. 8th of Erntenir 1524 An hour into Lily’s shift the boy stirs and Lily is quick to knock him back out. Fargrim takes the second watch and there is no issue. He wakes Erin and Karl for the last shift. An hour into their shift however, the prisoner escapes. Karl’s alarm at the front door goes off. Karl alerts Erin who runs after them and Karl tries to slow them. Working together, Erin and Karl knock the person back out and take them back to the manor. Lily flies after them, stabilises the person and they take them back to the manor. They have changed into a teenager wearing clothes that are too small for them. By the time they return to the manor it is 5am. The group debates killing him, but Fargrim says they’re not pirates before apologising to Erin. He heads off to get some guards. Lily has a nap nearby while Erin and Karl keep watch.
Fargrim runs into some guards on the main road while heading for the guard house 20 minutes after leaving the manor. He sends the guards to the manor while he heads to the watch headquarters to make his report. He arrives at 6am. There he requests to make a statement with an officer and is asked to wait while they get one who is available.
At 5:30am there is a knock at the manor door. Upon learning it is the watch, Lily heads upstairs to mediate. Karl lets them in and after paranoidly checking the guards with his star of truesight, he allows them to manacle the man and take him away. They discuss the dead body and agree it would be better wait to move it so they can get a wagon instead of allowing the public see them carrying a dead body. Karl and Erin leave with the guards and head for the watch headquarters.
When Lily comes back downstairs up she finds Karl, Erin, guards and the one alive shapeshifter is gone. Lily comes down and lets Caramela know that we’ll be meeting Simone for breakfast, but that Fargrim may want a second breakfast afterwards. And then she sends a message to Fargrim to ask what time we’re meeting Simone
While in the waiting room, Fargrim gets a message from Lily. He tries to contact Simone, but there is no reply but he will try again closer to 7am. Not long after this an officer comes to interview him about what happened this morning. Fargrim would like to revive the intruder that was killed. This requires permission from the lords of the watch. Fargrim learns that Lord Galloway and Lord Orac are managing the watch as a team. Galloway should be in soon to take his request.
Lily has a brief chat with Xeldarix who will go to her temple while the group goes to have breakfast with Simone. Then she decides to head to the Golden Tankard early. She uses her magic to ritually skywrite in the sky at 6:30am. For an hour the message “Moringsteel killed a unicorn, dooming Muden to famine.”
Fargrim sees Karl enter the watch headquarters with two guards and their prisoner. Erin waits outside. Karl greets Fargrim and it is revealed to the watch that their prisoner can do magic. This means he needs different manacles. The guards take Karl to show him as they change the manacles to different ones, strip him and put him in different clothes. Then dump him on the cot in the same cell Daffodil was in. Karl then returns to Fargrim. They discuss raising the dead intruder as Fargrim is informed that the body will be removed from the manor in the next few hours. During this conversation at 7am Fargrim tries again to contact Simone. This time he is successful and he requests the time of 9am. Simone promises to move things around to make that work. Fargrim tells Karl about this. Afterwards Karl and Erin head out.
Karl and Erin head to a cafe to get some coffee while Karl prepares his spells for the day. They discuss how to best protect Simone from their association and how Karl could turn a dragon permanently. Afterwards they head out, talking about Lorenah as they walk to the inn where Wave and the crew are staying to check on them.
At 7:30am Lily puts a new message in the sky. “Spread the word. Morningsteel’s famine must end.”
At 7:30am Lord Galloway comes in and the guard member that spoke with Fargrim approaches him. They have a quick chat before Galloway approaches Fargrim. They discuss the ordeal that Fargrim and his friends suffered overnight. Fargrim learns a little more about the partnership between Galloway and Orac. Orac gets in a little later in the morning and will also need to agree with bringing the criminal back to life. Fagrim is invited to come back at 10 to meet with Lord Orac. Afterwards Fargrim heads back to the manor to support the guards that have been sent to collect the body. He arrives at 8:15am. Seeing them off he armours up and heads to the Tankard. He messages Lily to arrange for breakfast ahead of time.
Karl arrives at the inn. Wave and the crew are already downstairs enjoying themselves. Wave has a lady on his lap and Kosines is hiding in the corner. Erin arranges that Wave will arrange for the sale of the mundane items this morning while Erin will take Karl to her contact for the sale of magical and rare items. They tell Wave the plan where Erin will be going back to the ship to guide it around the Kraken safely and how Wave will sit tight here and keep the crew out of trouble. Afterwards Erin and Karl leave at the inn at 8am and head off to the mage guild, spotting Lily’s sky messages they go.
At 8:30 am Lily put her first message back in the sky. She orders Fargrim some breakfast and tea so it would be ready when he arrives.
Erin and Karl arrive at the mage guild. They go up to see Master Barnes and have a quick chat with her. Karl asks for the book Master Barnes offered once Karl had a place of power. She promises she will give it to him after he attunes to the place, but not beforehand. Due to the complex nature of the magic it will take a month to continue to expand what he can do with the place of power. When the pair leave the mage guild they discuss themselves as an elderly Brecht couple.
At 8:45am An elderly Brecht couple enter and so does a fully armoured Fargrim. They see Lily sitting at a table. The group spends a little bit of time catching each other up as they wait for Simone. A short time later Simone and a Brecht man come into the inn at this point when Fargrim's first breakfast arrives. She sits with them as the man stands behind her. He is introduced as Josh. His job to is to keep the Lady Dread safe. Karl isn’t sure about Josh and takes time to try size Josh up. Josh looks to be silent and ever vigilant. Chances are he's had a hard life, but he looks lean and ready for a fight. However any time he's interacting with Simone he's more gentle and there are lingering touches. Lily uses her blood ability to detect lies coming from Josh but he doesn’t seem to be lying. Once she’s satisfied shifts the focus to Simone. They had a light discussion, but due to the public nature of their meeting neither Simone or the group goes into much detail about the incident a few days ago and where Karl will be disappearing to for a month. As a result Simone invites the group to her manor for lunch where they can talk more openly. Simone tells them about the next festival due to happen on the 11th of Sehnir. It’s a mini event and Karl promises he’ll be back by then. At 9:40am Fargrim excuses himself to go and meet with the Captains of the Watch. At this point the whole group also takes their leave. Lily heads for a jeweller while Erin and Karl head off to visit a pet shop.
Karl and Erin summon their familiars as they walk to the pet store called Madame Wheatwood's Animal Emporium. It's a very large pet store. There is a wild variety of animals here. She requests to tickle the dragon and have tea with the Madame. They go through the sign in process before heading upstairs to a waiting room that has tea waiting for them. A symbol appears on the back of their hands which acts as a tracker should someone try to steal something, hurt the animals or attack the Madame. After a short wait, am older human woman comes for Karl and Erin. She looks like a lady who would own one too many cats and is very gruff when talking to the humans in the room. However the familiars see a softer side of the Madame. The woman leads the pair to a sunroom that has a water feature, a garden and many roaming animals. They range from cats, to dogs, to birds and all sorts. There is a couch with a coffee table to the side.
Fargrim arrives at the watch headquarters just before 10am. He is directed to the waiting room. About 5 minutes after 10 someone in a similar garble to what Galloway wears stumbles in. He has tan skin and blue eyes. He has medium-length thinning, curly light brown and grey hair. He has a thin light brown and grey moustache. He is tall, athletic, and graceful. Looks to be approaching his 40s. Fargrim notices that to his face the guards treat him like Galloway, but as soon as he's moved on there is a rolling of eyes and shaking of the head. At 10:15am someone takes Fargrim to Galloway’s office. Though it doesn’t seem to be an office anymore but is instead a meeting room. Galloway and the man Fargrim saw come in are sitting at the table. Orac is defensive and combative through the entire conversation with Fargrim. In the end Fargrim withdraws the request to raise the criminal and Orac walks away feeling victorious. Afterwards Fargrim and Galloway talk about Simone. He was delighted to hear the group had breakfast with her, since he knows his goddaughter would have enjoyed it a lot. This confuses Fargrim and the confusion confuses Galloway. They both part ways confused. At 10:45am Fargrim contacts Lily before heading back to the manor.
Lily gets her gems appraised before heading to her adventuring guild. There she gets the latest report from the guild and the caves. Lily then goes back to the manor to chill and put up messages in the sky until it’s time to go to Simone’s place. At 10:45am Fargrim contacts her to ask where she and Karl are. Lily says she’s at the manor. At 11am Xeldarix returns dramatically and is in a bad mood. There are the faint sounds of meows outside. Xeldarix is upset that the cats keep scaring away the birds and are following her everywhere. Xeldarix tellings cats to leave her alone doesn’t work since the city is so big and there are so many cats. Lily confesses that breakfast was weird and feels bad that she’s suspicious of Simone’s new independence. She’s worried about Simone. Xeldarix heads up to her room and Lily contacts Karl to confirm he will meet them at Simone’s for lunch instead of coming back to the manor.
At 11am Karl and Erin leave the Madame’s shop. Though not before Karl asks the Madame about the animals at her shop. She has all sorts without restriction. She rotates them between the shop and her ranch. Karl questions if there is a creature she has wanted but never had, but the Madame isn’t that sort of woman. She doesn’t hunt animals to sell. Her stock are all rescues that would be better in a home instead of in the wild. She would prefer animals be in the wild unless they cannot survive and thrive. Karl was going to magic up her a creature, but she turned out to be a good person in her own gruff way. After hearing from Lily, Erin and Karl walk around while waiting to head to Simone’s. Erin shares a few interesting tales about the Madame and how she is a tough individual. He picks up some scribing supplies during this walk.
At 11:15am Fargrim arrives at the manor. He asks Lily about the over abundance of cats in the neighbourhood. They discuss Xeldarix’s issues and how Fargrim went with Orac. Then they head off to Simone’s for lunch.
At noon the party meets up outside Simone's estate. They are greeted at the front door by a butler and are escorted up to the balcony which is set up for lunch. Lily uses a spell to detect magic and sees the area is covered in abjuration magic. Not long after they sit, Simone and Josh join them. They are both also covered in Abjuration magic, but Simone also has Transmutation magic. As they talk they learn that Simone was attacked on the way to the group's manor. Abigail and Elliot are looking into this and Josh has stepped up in their absence. Apparently everyone was hurt when it happened but they recovered. Throughout the conversation they discuss:
- Josh has experience bodyguarding.
- The Chanty being in Blackgate.
- Stealing the bell from Saarmen.
- Karl’s place of power and Karl leaving to go take it.
- Talking Erin back to her ship which was left at an island.
- Josh and Simone met at a festival when she snuck out and there was an incident from before the group met Simone.
- Josh does not like to talk about himself.
- The attack on the group last night.
- Karl having a simulacrum.
Xeldarix runs into Lily on her way to the manor. She explains what has happened to Xeldarix and gets within a mile of the mansion so Ohtli can come and pick her up. After that she heads to the mage guild.
When Galloway arrives at the Dread estate Fargrim and Karl bring him up to date with what has happened. When they are done Fargrim leaves with Josh and Galloway for the watch headquarters while Karl stays to search the manor with Erin.
She heads downstairs to go and see Steve. After checking it is Steve through the gem Lily tells Steve about what has happened to Simone. He suggests asking Sunnis for aid since they won’t be able to muster aid from the guild. Afterwards Lily heads into the alchemy lab to buy more potions of Dragon’s might. Then she heads for her guild.
As soon as Karl and Erin are alone they check in with one another. Erin a little panicked thinking about Yura and the fact that this means they’re going to have see that horrible creature again. Karl is feeling furious at the whole situation. They start to search the estate to see if they can find anything helpful. Karl is really struggling with his anger so Erin keeps giving Karl subtle touches as she searches to try and help him ground himself. They find a diary, some hidden documents and the remainder of Simone's items, including her tent all packed away in boxes. As they look, they talk about possible people to help with saving Simone and what Karl needs Erin to do with getting the ship back to port. When they investigate the basement Karl finds a pile of dust that looks like it was stone and is the same colour as Karl’s tablet of teleportation. Then he contacts Fargrim and Lily when he has an idea for a new spell that could help them before heading to the mage guild. While at the mage guild Karl buys Detect Thoughts and Dream. Erin helps him buy these.
Fargrim arrives at the Watch Headquarters and they start to interrogate Josh at 2pm. Fargrim learns:
- Josh’s name is Josh Madden and he’s from Muden.
- Josh travelled a lot when he was young with his family but he settled in Brechlen as a teenager.
- He resided in the Dread estate when Keith Dread was there and before that he rented in middletown.
- The plan was to take over the role of the Lady Dread and to continue her duties in her place.
- Josh is very focused on Kate and her being happy.
- Josh and Kate were at the Golden Tankard when the attack happened.
- Josh legitimately believed Simone to be ill and unfit for her role.
- As long as Kate’s future is a life behind bars, Josh is unwilling to share more than is necessary.
- Josh tells Galloway a little more about he met Kate a few years ago.
- A little about their time in black gate though no mention of location or who they talked with.
- His plans to serve whatever sentence he is given.
- Kate planned to do some construction to a few buildings in Timest Road to give them sewer access before waiting to get a higher position with a more notable area.
- Kate was to give false prophecies to confuse people or to try and lead them into traps.
- Kate was to monitor the forged and report to Saarmen on their movements.
- The Chanty possibly not returning to Brechlen anytime soon. No details but things he heard with Kate.
When Lily arrives at the guild, she checks to make sure Flux is Flux with the gem. There is something black and wriggly just behind/below his ear. Lily flicks it off and makes Flux sad and Lily returns that. It is something from his patron. With an apology the pair get down to business. The people at the mine were sent to River’s End. About half a day’s ride SW of Brechlen. With this information Lily leaves to do a bit of shopping for components before going to different oddity stores to see what items are available for sale that could help them. She enters the first shop at 2:45pm. During the shopping trip and going shop to shop, Lily buys a frost-covered silver locket that's frozen shut and Dust of disappearing. Upon finding the Planecaller’s Codex she contacts Karl again at 3:45pm and she buys it. Lily sells a potion of longevity to buy the primer and gets some extra spending money.
At 3:45pm Karl and Erin arrives at the manor. Fargrim had arrived a bit before and quickly saw Caramella and updated her on the situation before grabbing some bread and butter. Karl and Fargrim in the dining room discuss Josh and what Fargrim learned today. Fargrim is passed Kate’s diary to start reading. Erin arranging her finances to pay out people before helping him. Meanwhile Karl is spending four hours copying a spell. At 4pm Lily reaches out to Fargrim with the stone. She learns everyone is at the manor. As they wait for Lily, Fargrim reads about Kate’s trivial life and her training to take on Simone's role. She complains about Simone a lot. It seems like she really does believe Simone is sick and crazy at this stage.
At 4:30pm Lily returns to the manor with Xeldarix though she heads upstairs to her room. Lily comes in and sits down at the dining room table, taking out a quill and some paper. Erin also gives her some coin and gets. Lily, Xeldarix and Fargrim get:
- 1000g gem x8
- 500g gem x4
- 256 gold
- 4 silver
- 1 copper
- Sending people like Raiarr and Khee to cause a ruckus in Saarmen.
- Lily has the crystal from Morningsteel’s place of power. She can use that to lure some of the forces (and hopefully Yura) away from Saarmen.
- Have a group invade the temple of Ela to get the prisoners.
- Additional things that could be included are skywrite messages above Saarmen, giving people alchemist fire to throw around, casting divination for more guidance, maybe learning Simone’s guardian angel’s true name.
At 7am Fargrim comes downstairs to find his friends gone. Thankfully Karl left a note. After breakfast he goes back to reading the diary.
At 7am Karl arrives at the watch. He requests to see Galloway about talking to Josh and waits in the waiting room. After Twenty minutes Galloway comes to take Karl to his new office. A converted cupboard space. The assassin from the other night will not speak with them. Josh is happy to talk but will not give any meaningful detail at this stage. They discuss using magic to aid in Josh’s interrogation. Galloway is against it since it could be the final straw that gets him sent to the Western Front. Galloway will allow it if it means they get Simone out. He will happily go to the Front if it means that they get Simone home safely though. Karl reveals he can use his magic to tell Orac to leave and he would do so, which does scare Galloway. Galloway leaves to go get Josh and ready him for interrogation.
At 8am Lily arrives at the caves. The entrance is gone and Lily knocks as she was instructed to. She explains to them what has happened when she is allowed inside. As things are being told, Molly asks about Vuru who was also looking after Simone. Khee advises that they want to help but this shouldn’t be done around the 17th as they lose control. They will not be helpful. Lily offers support for Khee with their condition. Bailey and Lulamin do not want to go to Saarmen but doesn’t mind acting as home base defence. Molly, Khee, Raiarr and Laura are happy to go to Saarmen and Lily will take them there first. They need to spread rumours and suspicions around town. The signal to the town that change is coming is a Dwarf at the temple of Haelyn. There are also pirates in the port. If they could find out that overthrowing the city could be exciting and a plan is already in the works for them to join in, then all the more fun. If they need to flee, head to the forest to the East. Emilia will be part of the infiltration team with Karl. The third group will be with Lily. She wants Godwyn and Gummy with her. They will be acting as base and then killing hopefully two high members of the Unchained, Morningsteel and Yura. Molly might be brought into this team later if needed. After a discussion of this, Lily takes Molly, Khee, Raiarr and Laura to Saarmen. She will drop them off about an hours walk away from Saarmen.
Josh is brought in to talk to Karl. Karl before leaving Galloway’s office he enhancing his charisma with a potion. Josh is manacled to the table as Karl talks to him. Karl explains Simone’s condition and her blessing of sight that she has, and how this was twisted by her Uncle to make it seem like she was a very sick girl. Karl explains Josh can either help and Karl will ensure he does everything he can to make sure Kate comes back alive. Josh, while appreciating Kate being alive, doesn’t think this is enough for him to help. He doesn’t want her to return only to be locked away for the rest of her life. Josh reveals Kate did not lay the enchantments on the estate that hurt Erin. That was done by someone who has been giving them letters from Kate’s father. Karl says a prophecy mentioned that that wasn’t Kate’s father. Josh is sceptical. Karl mentions that he has one of the crystals but won’t take it out of his haversack. Josh argues with him on this, saying if they were attacked as a result it would just give most to Karl’s argument. He wants more then pretty words. He wants certainty before he is willing to help. Karl tells Josh about his star of true sight and allows Josh to look through it at the crystal. This seems to have shifted Josh’s mind on the situation. Josh reveals Kate thought it was a social club for select nobles. Karl tells Josh about the devil that was hunting lord Galloway and the murders that happened that way. At this point, Josh reveals that Galloway had been doubling his efforts to take custody of Simone and was likely one of the many reasons he was targeted. Josh is willing to help on the condition that Kate pay for her crimes in the way most nobles do. Without a day behind bars. She pays a fine or does some community service. He will not help if she is to be locked away. Karl leaves to talk about Josh’s request with Galloway. Karl and Galloway agree to Josh’s conditions and discuss how they can ensure Orac doesn’t blab about Simone not being Simone to the council. Josh is happy to hear his condition has been agree to. He is happy to give information and to get messages to Kate. Kate is in Saarmen in a safehouse. She cannot remove the disguise of Simone’s face currently. She is stuck in this form, since it need to be removed by the mage who put it on her. Josh’s concern is now Kate would make an easy dead body of Simone to throw off most of the people looking for Simone. Karl tells Josh to pass on the names of Wade and Anita and Kate should go there. Anita will help her get out of Saarmen. Josh makes it clear that if this is sending Kate to her death, everything will change between him and Karl. They reach an understanding and Karl leaves. He heads back to the manor.
Fargrim reads the diary. Kate is upset a nicer room then she was given is being given to the Chanty for her stay. During a dinner and conversation with the Chanty Kate learns that the Chanty was helping Simone “Recover”. Kate sends this information in a letter to her father. She gets a letter back from her Father claiming he will deal with this. A few days after the letter, the Chanty disappeared. After that another letter from her Father tells her to return to Brechlen. She will be rewarded by the Unchained for her information. This has Kate feeling put out. She feels weird that her father was passing on things from her letters to him to them. She’s happy she will be getting her position back, but before she felt like she had earned it through dedication and study. Now it just feels… not as earned. At this point it is 10 am. Fargrim contacts the High Paladin via the ring. He learns the temple has not had much contact with the Chanty, but that’s not unusual. He advises them to try and contact the Chanty. Caramella comes up when Fargrim yells and after a realisation of roles should have been better assigned for the days activity, she gets him some tea and cookies.
At 10:30am Lily drops Molly, Khee, Raiarr and Laura off. She gives them directions. Then she does a divination with Xeldarix. How can the true name of the celestial who was supposed to protect the Seer, Simone, be found? Xeldarix reveals “The one who holds the true names of all creatures that have been in their service as he works for the Lord of watches and rules over Saarmen. Unless the celestial gives it willingly.” This makes Xeldarix realise she probably isn’t going to be very easy. She wants to rename the group “The Problems”. Lily shares a few ideas to help in case they try to use Xeldarix true name. The earrings and bursting her own eardrums. There is also the idea of Xeldarix not being there. Xeldarix hates all of this. Lily and Xeldarix get a mile away from Saarmen, watch and wait.
Fargrim reads the last few entries. Kate is excited to go back, a little worried about Simone and annoyed that people set her up to fail like that. Kate meets with an older woman who is a wizard. She gives Kate a necklace to make Kate look like Simone. Kate doesn’t want to take the role as Simone but is bullied into it by the wizard with threats about her father. She has been given instructions:
- Pretend to be Simone.
- Report whenever she engages or interacts with the Forged
- Get information about Forged movements and location
- She needs to keep tabs on Lily’s guild and on Xeldarix’s temple.
- Try and get close to the mage guild and their Masters.
Karl arrives at the manor as Fargrim finishes the diary. He nearly runs into Karl on the way out. Karl tries to calm Fargrim down, but High Paladin Salma messages Fargrim and confirms the Chanty has been taken. She is trapped in a cave underwater. She cannot access her magic. Karl starts to brainstorm with Karl what they can do and if they should call on the dragon brothers. High Paladin Salma says she is going to see the Lady Topaz about this. Karl tells Fargrim about what he founds out from Josh and the fact they are going to try and get Kate out of Saarmen. When Fargrim tells Karl about the mage, Karl suspects it’s Wellmore and that causes colour to drain from his face. The pair walk to the temple of Neira. Karl is sending messages as he goes with Fargrim. He starts with Lily and updates her on Josh and Kate. Then after that to Anita, advising her about Kate and asking her to help in getting her to Brechlen. Lastly to Calluna about Abigail's plight and a request for help. At this point a magical book tent appears and Fargrim refuses to go inside. Karl heads inside and Fargrim goes onto the temple.
After waiting a while, Lily notices something is flying above Saarmen but can’t see what exactly. She skywrite the message “Lord Morningsteel killed a unicorn in his vanity. The famine this brought has hurt you.” She watches and waits to see how long it is up for before it is dispelled. Two minutes later a bell rings, the message is destroyed and their boat falls out of the sky. Xeldarix, Lily and Uqaviel pull out their wings to slow the landing of the boat. They then start walking South with Uqaviel carrying the boat.
Notes
| Name | XP | Running total | Level at end of session |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fargrim | 5,275 | 248,170 | 17 |
| Karl | 5,275 | 248,170 | 17 |
| Lily | 5,275 | 248,170 | 17 |
