Session 126: Hold Horse

General Summary

30th-31st Brussendar 836PD   30th Brussendar   As Zeni contemplates the revelation that Eva and Sabali are both now captives of Zolar, Raphael persuades Captain Rawson and Major de Moubray to seek out and warn the others on the collection list.   The party begin to make their preparations to face Zolar in advance of the 4th, heading to the Cobalt Soul to find out more. They find out that there are 16 Kord Temples, with 3 as possible locations that could match the descriptions from Arthur’s scrying of the lair.   Their researcher at the Temple of the Mentor, also found an ancient proto-draconic script that mentions the Kord Shackle. Arthur and Zeni manage to translate it, although find one word is interchangeable, “Kord Shackle is placed in [location/person/creature/community] of strength and power”.   Zeni uses her innate sorcerous connection to the Storm-Lord, Kord, to ask through a divination if the J’mon Sa Ord was the holder of the Shackle, “Devossa [J'mon's Dragon name] held the key, tis true, but the burden’s now passed to the one in blue”. Seemingly confirming the Key to Shackle is now with Zolar.   As the group leave the temple, they hear a town crier announce that famed chef, Isolde Glorybuff, was kidnapped. As Isolde was one of the targets on the bandit’s list, the party rush back to the Fort to try and cut off the kidnappers, but none appear.   They wait for some time, and eventually Simeon spots a lone rider in red travelling across the desert. Raphael disguises as a guard and intercepts her before the fort, the human woman in Monk vestments, introduces herself as Anastas, and is looking to speak with the Bandit War Chief.   Raph invites her into the fort, where the rest of the party await to ambush her. But as soon as she enters, she recognises Nodrog and quickly runs away, resisting Raphael’s magic to Hold her and ducking Nodrog’s grapple.   The monk dashes across the sands to her horse, but Arthur is quick to hold her horse with a momentary stasis. Orlando tries to wing her and slow her down, but the monk’s quick reflexes catch his bullets! It’s only when Enessa surrounds her in a spike growth, does the monk show slight panic and dimension doors with her cape out of the party’s chase range.   As the held horse unfreezes from Arthur’s chronal magic, Enessa speaks with animals to find out more about the rapid rider. Talking to ‘Joe’, a horse with a cotton eye patch, the pleasant but simple horse relays where did he come from in the city and where did he go was just to here. The lady was also with a white dragonborn.   Later that night, another lone rider appears, a messenger boy, with a note from the lady in red. Offering to meet at the ‘Gilded Dragon tavern’ at noon tomorrow.   As the party bed down, Raph casts Dream with Eva that night. Whilst her premonitions had shown her meeting with him, she was still pleased to see the filled out “Hollow Man”. She recounts that she was captured by a woman with platinum hair, presumably Latara, when travelling to Westruun.   Her nanny was killed and in a wave of magic she woke up here. Raph asks her to describes the lair and the layout, revealing that Sabali is a petrified statue by the dais, and another individual (J’mon) is chained in back. Worryingly, the lady in platinum, Latara, is also at the Lair as well as some other entities she has heard but not seen yet.   She shares that Zolar is interested in her dreams, with her helpful insights she agrees to be a spy and relay each night what more she can find out when she dreams with Raph.   31st Brussendar   Past midnight, Raphael dreams again with Anastas. She confirms that she was seeking the Bandit leader as he commissioned her and her party to collect Isolde. Raph raises the prospect of letting her go, but Anastas refuses any further discussion until she’s with her party tomorrow. Raph ensures to leave on good terms with pleasant dreams.   In the morning, the party travel into the city to run some errands before their meeting at noon. Making several purchases across the magical bazaars, 6 potions of healing, 7 resistance potions (1 psychic, 1 lightning, 3x fire, 1 thunder, 1 cold). Zeni gets a scroll of dimension door and Arthur a scroll of mirror image.   Come noon at the Gilded Dragon, they arrive and see Anastas waiting at a private booth, and Enessa spots a White Dragonborn, as cotton eye Joe described. The Dragonborn introduces himself as Syrreth and a rogue gnome, Trigani, also sneakily appears and join the table.   The group introduces themselves as the Crimson Shields, an adventuring party who had been misled by the War Chief in his commission to capture Isolde, as a runaway niece. But when they questioned her after kidnapping her, they realised they had been lied to, and so they promptly released and compensated her with their apologies.   Those with keen insights in the Unbroken sense the others are sincere, and relax when realise there’s been a misfortunate misunderstanding between two adventuring groups with good intentions. The Unbroken offer to use their connections with the Hand of Ord to smooth things between them and the Crimson Shields.   The Crimson Shields are aware of Zolar, and also heard whispers of the Lock-Breaker cults, but do not wish to involve themselves with that level of adventure. The two parties, take the lunchtime to drink and bond over shared tales, Enessa playfully lulls Trigani into buy her a drink. Arthur and Syrreth swap spells and notes, whilst Orlando admires and examines Anastas’ escapable cloak.