Session X: Revenue and Doppelganger

17 Resting, 1304 AM

  Being left beneath Kurigalzu's Garden by the Robed King, the party made some deliberations. Del'Gado wished to commit a little bit of nocturnal burglary, and decided to head towards Cresthall, where he once again fought an epic battle of skill against Enkitan's window. Also, whilst there, they noticed that all indication of the Society of the Red Mask had vanished from the location. Though Del'Gado was successful in his endeavour, the noise attracted the attention of a Hammerite patrol, who, after having received vague and suspicious answers from the strange constellation of apparent thieves, were moments from drawing their weapons. Fortunately, Del'Gado defused the situation by flashing his Twilight Advocate badge, and the patrol left without further incident. As Enkitan's office was indeed empty, further confirming the absence of the Red Masks, the party continued towards the Elven Kiss.   Imaros unlocked the front door, and a sleepy Aegis made his way down, taken somewhat by surprise by these late-night visitors. He and Imaros had a brief conversation, accompanied by weak alcohol, whereby Aegis forwarded a letter that had reached him from Imaros' family, dating to the 10th of Dawning, and which informed Imaros that two of his brothers, Kelenos and Falios, had ventured to a large city located in the Shadow Plane in search of fortune. Jacqualine could recall stories told by her parents of a mythical city and its dark counterpart, Azrentell, that could correspond to this description. Aegis also claimed to never have been apprehended by the Order of the Vice, and instead told them that he had been persuaded to transfer ownership of the Elven Kiss to an unknown party. After instructing the group to leave on the quiet, Imaros' cousin returned to sleep.   Standing near the teleportation base of the Diplomat's Refuge, maralictor Baldur Ironfist of the Order of the Vice was waiting for the party at 6 o'clock. The two sides exchanged information about the Red Masks and their financiers, but also about the Advocates' recent encounters with the Robed King. They told Baldur about the challenge that was issued, and he expressed an interest in joining them on this journey, which would take them outside Akk-Ur. They agreed to meet at the Builder's Arms after conducting some business of their own: Baldur went to the Ennead Embassy to report in, and the Advocates began to walk to Morrowfall Redoubt. However, before they arrived, Varkallin contacted Jacqualine and arranged an impromptu meeting outside the palace. She relayed information she had gathered from the court, which was evidently very loose-lipped with rumours. She told them that the king had sent his presumptive heir Roxana to investigate the missing NAA officers in the northwest, that the Karapanate had upset local economies by purchasing massive amounts of bookbinding equipment and paper, and that one of the members of the Elysian Court, Illinyn Greenfallow, the Master of Ceremonies, had suddenly died during a council deliberation. Varkallin speculated that he was probably not responding to resurrection magic since he was still absent. Before leaving, she also told them that the king was temporarily suspending income taxation in the crownlands for the rest of the year as a way to deal with the unusual executions that had taken place yesterday.   Back at the Builder's Arms, the party linked up with Baldur, but were quickly joined by a well-dressed nobleman who brought payment due to Imaros, Del'Gado, and Caerlin on behalf of the Red Masks. He introduced himself as Kadaron Hoymat, and offered the party a proposition, and if they were not interested, they would never have to speak again. The party agreed, and they went to one of the rooms that Kadaron had booked in advance. He gave the Advocates some legal background: that their position as Twilight Advocates were more akin to that of an extraordinary mercenary contract than one of personal devotion to the king; that they ultimately serve the realm, not a singular person. Only after this did he give details of his proposition: to have a look at the kingdom's revenue accounts from 1289, the year that saw the end of noble oversight of the Noble Alliance Army. In return, he was going to give the party 9999 gold crowns, including a bag of holding. As they report to the treasury, the group gained access to the accounts without incident. There was a lively discussion about the meaning of the 'architectural investment fund' that had been allotted 50 billion gold crowns, half of the crown's total revenue, in funding in 1289. Del'Gado did not wish to disclose this information to Kadaron, but Jacqualine believed that the noble already knew that something was off, and had offered them this task as a chance for them to see this for themselves. Upon returning, Del'Gado assured Kadaron that nothing was wrong and that his suspicions were unfounded, to which the nobleman encouraged the rogue to lie better; he stated that the crown's surplus is by covenant and tradition distributed to the noble houses, and ever since 1289 this sum had gone from being a net positive to practically non-existent. After rebuking him, he gave the party one last out: an exchange, where he would give information about the Red Masks as additional incentive. Baldur asked Kadaron if he was willing to speak truthfully under the eye of the Gods, something he did not mind. The maralictor also utilised his ability to detect good and evil, and he found that Kadaron possessed an aura of goodness. He asked him what his intentions on a grand scale were, and Kadaron answered that he represented a faction in the realm that wished to alter the present course of Akkon's policy; namely by strengthening bilateral relations with Akkon's traditional allies, to stop pursuing hegemony as an instrument of policy, and to release the Helvatian clans from their enforced vassalage. He implied that this faction was inspired by the more visionary ideals of the old Brass Pact. After these questions, and after some back-and-forth talking, Baldur disclosed his allegiance as a Hellknight as he shook Kadaron's hand, during which he also slipped him the exact numbers and purpose of the revenue accounts. Finally, Kadaron told them that House Antecedent Hoymat patronised the Red Masks mainly as a way to restrain them from pursuing their more radical ideas. After this, the meeting concluded.   Back in the common area, the party spoke about the coming days. Jacqualine had arranged for Asaramanitra, the Junior Arcanist, to bring them into the First College tomorrow morning. Caerlin, realising that he could probably send a message to the Robed King, did so: he wished to inform him that they would probably be a day late for the challenge. After some time, the group noticed that time itself seemed to have stopped in the tavern save for their table; the machination of the Robed King, who appeared in front of them. Asked if he had nothing better to do, the villain replied in the affirmative. Before leaving, he said that if they decided not to follow their own time constraints, he would bring them to the crossroads. He dematerialised, as he had done before, and time resumed at the Builder's Arms.   During the later evening, the members split somewhat. Baldur went back to the Ennead Embassy, Del'Gado visited his adoptive mother in the Dawnsprawls, Imaros haggled for paper, Jacqualine came to distressing realisations about the accursed chest, and Caerlin drank copious amounts of alcohol, later going to sleep. Before he could do that, someone knocked on his door. For some reason believing it was Jacqualine, he rushed to meet her; however, a fellow knight in the Order of Hyron was the originator of the knock. He introduced himself as Anton, and apparently had information that related to Caerlin's assignment from the Grand Paladin. This was little more than a ruse, as he quickly hypnotised Caerlin, rendering him temporarily incapacitated. Still, even in this state, his attacker only struck his plate, which alerted Jacqualine in her nearby room. Caerlin overwhelmed Anton with psychic damage. Jacqualine arrived, but a second psychic attack from Caerlin brought the attacker down, whose form visibly changed into that of a grey, featureless humanoid; Jacqualine could easily identify this as a doppelganger. She brought him back from the brink and tried to use magic to charm him, which was ineffective. However, she managed to 'suggest' that he answer their questions, and this yielded results, probably owing to self-preservation, as a result of Caerlin's unsubtle implication of lethal violence. They managed to uncover that the doppelganger was supposed to render Caerlin unconscious, drop his body in a bag of holding, and replace him. The doppelganger also revealed that he answered to knight superior Geran Tenhammer, another imposter in the Order, and that he was going to meet him outside Hyron's Advance to give him the bag. Through an act of uncareful query, Caerlin asked the doppelganger what he could tell about him; the doppelganger took his appearance, and replied that he could deduce that he was not human. Jacqualine demanded answers, and "Caerlin" told her that he was in fact called Zsaksash, a Yuan-Ti Pureblood who deserted from the Greenwater Hierophants after the failed raid of New Teratera. They then made a plan of how to proceed, and picked up Imaros along the way. The plan was for Imaros to spy the doppelganger's contact, confirm his existence, and sketch him.