Session 19: On the Straight and Narrow Report

General Summary

On their journey back from Elgen Isle, Averel is once again contacted by his patron Vess, whom he hasn't spoken to since the death of Marko Turei in Holdenglade. Vess tries to make a deal with Averel but he refuses, deciding to cut off all ties with the source of his power and leaving him unable to progress without the help of a new patron. Travelling along the Wilkrhook branch, the party are ambushed in the middle of the night by a gang of vengeful Meverith Gnomes who somehow tracked down Tony and want his blood spilled for the misdeeds of his people back in Dereg'mal. Rostliem suffers a close brush with death as the gnomes all pile on him at the start of the battle, but the rest of the party take out the gnomes with relative ease, quenching Tony's bloodlust for the while.   After a further week or so of travel, the Masters of the Nine Elements finally rendezvous back to the captured city of Holdenglade, where the newfound revolution thrives. Sir Lerog the Gnashed has been appointed regent of the city in the absence of the party, and reformed his Guild of Champions into the city guard. When the party approaches him enquiring on the tax collected from the city, he replies in steadfast that all of the geld is to fund the garrison and pay for reparations in the city. Whilst the party had been gone, Lerog had been visited by envoys from the Imperial cities of Wildemoth and Tilbrinter, both threatening that if Holdenglade didn't surrender to the Empire in the next 60 days, Barontyne would take back the city himself. Left now with just over 20, the party decide to stay in Holdenglade to convince the revolution to stay strong whilst Lerog leads his men to Osgrove in search of a solution.   Averel and Tony visit their old friend Ablio Nickelbraid, who had helped broadcast news of the initial revolution in Holdenglade a few months ago, and convince him to allow them on his talk show and create Stalinesque propaganda that could be spread around the city. Whilst Ablio was busy at work promoting the campaign, the duo spent the rest of their time leading an embassy (consisting of a well-dressed man, a skull and a rat) to the High Harbour, which they eventually bribed to increase imports to Holdenglade in effort of defending the city.   Rostliem learns how to cook.   Following a meeting with Anton earlier in their visit, the party learns that Mother Idal and her entire tea house in Greater Withering had mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night. Heato, still perturbed by her betrayal of the party some weeks ago decides to prove if Anton's word was true, wandering the streets of Greater Withering alone at night. Much to his dismay, the wretch is nowhere to be found, leaving just an empty spot at the corner of the street. Starved of information, he forces a vision to try and reveal more about exactly where she went, learning that she was taken by members of her coven to be tried in front of Grandmother for her insolence. Satisfied, Heato attempts to leave the vision, but finds that he can't, triggering another manic episode of his friends in Terren. Chiyo is once again being tortured, this time by André Calixis as he attempts to find information on the whereabouts of the Masters of the Nine Elements. On the brink of death she eventually caves and gives up that Heato's parents live in Val T'loré - Calixis might find the fighter there. Petrified, Heato leaves for the City of Gold that night, deserting his party in an attempt to save his loved ones from the wrath of the Empire.   Pressured by Ax, Donevan is forced to uphold his side of the promise by building his church to the God of War and Fire. Though, now only left 20 days, he realises that with the manpower he currently has, there's no chance the church will be built in anywhere close to 20 days. To combat this, he decreases the scale of the church and rests the weary souls who began the construction, instead employing volunteers collected from Tony and Averel's 'Rise Up' campaign. However, halfway through the construction, the project hits a roadblock. Donevan is approached by a safety inspector who tells him that, from orders of the chief health supervisor of the city (very clearly Mesilist), construction is prohibited to continue. Later that day, Donevan meets with the supervisor and reaches an agreement that allows the church to be built as long as it increases residency in the district of Greater Withering. By the end of the 20 days, the church is complete.   During this period, Donevan also tries to get a lead on where the fragments of the Astral Key could be hidden, gaining access to the archives of Holdenglade from Lerog. There, he discovers that the hilt of the blade was put in the hands of Captain Davy Drax of the Harbinger II shortly after the Wars of Xandria had subsided, though in the years that followed, the starship had crashed somewhere north of Holdenglade.   Through a sending stone from Osgrove, Lerog informed the party that the city was willing to take refugees from Holdenglade, and so an evacuation procedure was to be put in place. There would be a slim chance that some of Holdenglade's infrastructure could be salvaged before the attack, which would aid the revolution in beating out the Empire later down the line, though this could only be done with the help of the party. On the other hand, there should be no time to spare in finding the hilt of the Astral Key, as if Barontyne were to seize it before them, there would be no point in trying to fight at all.   What an ultimatum, huh?