Chapter 5, Session 3: Scrying for Answers

General Summary

'You'd make the world burn for just a little revenge?' 'I would.'

• Kodo and Fen discuss the wizards stance on slaughtering The Inquisitors.

The session started as the party made camp after their second day of travel, learning their lesson from the previous night, they set multiple watches throughout the night. Firstly, Mimsi and Olympia quietly kept an undisturbed watch with only the light of Eastbourne in the distance being truly visible to them. They kept their watch quick and quiet with a focus on Olympia being able to rest despite her persistent leg injury. Upon ending their watch, Kodo and Fen then took over and, after reminiscing about their murder of Feral Gnomes, they saw a dull, covered light in the distance that was around 200ft away. The light seemed to float and duck from tree to tree though, when Kodo waved to it, the lihgt stopped before swiftly moving on. On the next watch, Anastasia also saw this light and decided to approach it and learn more about it, upon getting close, she learned that the light was actually a Kobold wearing a hardhat with a torch on the end, the Kobold's name was Smeek and they (unconvincingly) explained to Anastasia that they were a local adventurer who 'came' across a variety of expensive items and collected them in a box which he buried... he then forgot where he buried them, knowing it in the rough area he was searching by now. Anastasia decided to help this Kobold though she did not trust them and she eventually found his box, filled with scattered treasures including the cloak from a noble, several sets of clothing, some expensive brooches and a gold signet ring. She gave these items to Smeek and watched as the Kobold skittered away though, moments later, she instructed her wolf companion Blackey to follow them and find out where they were keeping their loot as she went, with dawn breaking, to inform the rest of Persicorum of what she'd found.
Within an hour, Blackey returned and could lead the party to the Kobold lair, with Anastasia, Mimsi and Kodo agreeing to go. Upon reaching the space, a near rabbit hole in size that only Mimsi and Anastasia could fit through. Upon going through the hole, they found a large chamber like lair that held three Kobolds (including Smeek) who had a VERY small pile of gold and treasure which, they explained, was in the hope of enticing a dragon to make the pile it's hoard and thus dominate them.
Anastasia and Mimsi decided that this would not do and wasn't safe for the area if a dragon visited... so Mimsi decided to knock the Kobolds unconscious and take their stuff in order to fix the problem... earning a cloak and signet ring with the insignia of a needle and thread along with some noble clothes and a smattering of gold pieces... meanwhile Anastasia took a globe of emotional echo, a crystal ball that changes colour according to the emotions of the person holding it, though it did not come with a guide to emotion colours.
Whilst the three of them were gone, Fen, Thordak and Olympia stayed with the horses in camp and discussed their plans with Fen stating that he was going to wipe out The Inquisitors in the name of revenge... something that did not sit well with Thordak who viewed the organisation as a group that needed to be fixed, especially due to Temptation and her involvement with them. They agreed to disagree on where to go forward for now though it was clear the two had very different ideas of how to proceed with their interactions with the faction, though notably Olympia supported Fen's decision of putting the entire group to the sword.
The party got moving after that as they were incredibly close to Eastbourne with only a short distance left to go. As they travelled, Thordak spoke to Anastasia a little more and the party began to discuss, more and more, the idea of Dashilla the Dark Queen reaching the Material plane and the potential disaster that could spell for the world. Realising that Alturis wasn't ready for the magnitude of her assault, the party thought of who their allies were and realised that, at the moment, there were precious few of them.
Thordak mentioned the idea of uniting the Horde clans under one banner to bring peace and organised warriors, Kodo made mention of the Monastery of Flowers and, though he agreed that they typically avoided conflicts, he was certain The Petals would be interested if they received the right offer.
The party then wondered about the 'big players' in Alturis, the Aist Mages and the Elected Crown, though Fen vetoed this idea, stating that his revenge would come before the safety of Alturis and, as a result, he would never side with the Elected Crown or Inquisitors... leading to small judgements from members of the party.
As they talked, the party were met on the road by a Rakshasa devil named 'Ipkesh'... though the party had little interest in offering more of their souls as collateral and decided to move on; but not before Olympia and Fen insulted the devil...
With that, the party reached Eastbourne and, after some of them gave fake names at the gate, they made their way into the tiered city and checked a job board for an update on events in the town.
The party paid particular notice to an advert by The Crownsguard stating that their was an exceptionally dangerous Aist Mage named Lancel Barbarios who escaped his execution and was prowling the streets of Eastbourne, citizens were advised to stay indoors at night whilst mercenaries and adventurers interested in the bounty were advised to speak to Head Crownsguard Sharia Plath... they also took interest in an advert posted by a young girl claiming she had a missing cat and was offering a hug and her pocket money as a reward.
Next, with Anastasia as a guide due to her familiarity with the city of Eastbourne, the party moved to the top tier of the city and found the Crownsguard offices and requested a meeting with Head Crownsguard Sharia Plath, the one who put out the notice and bounty for Lancel Barbarios. The party learned that Lancel was a crazed Aist Mage necromancer who swore revenge on the city of Eastbourne, specifically their leader Imbros Verity. He has been hiding in the day but, at night, is targeting young drunk and imposing individuals to kill and raise as part of an undead horde he is building somewhere in the city. The party also learned that Lancel had a Grimoire which was deeply interesting to Fen. Finally, the party were told that the reward for bringing Lancel back alive was 2500gp whilst the reward for him dead was only 500gp as they wanted to return him to his execution to make an example of him.
Mimsi then enquired about Bazzle Strum-Strum and Sharia Plath revealed that she had someone visit matching his description and he enquired about individuals matching the description of Mimsi and Kodo specifically, though he claimed he would return for me information in a week... but he never did...
With this in mind, the party decided to locate The Hook and Knife Foundation building, on the top tier of the city of Eastbourne. It was a sterile, white building with a very clean exterior and Thordak confirmed this was the same space he saw Bazzle standing in in his Isle of Erathis vision. With that, Olympia, Mimsi and Thordak walked into the offices whilst Kodo and Anastasia found the lost cat and delivered it to a very grateful girl and Fen went shopping for a new magical cloak to upgrade his current one.
Upon entering the building, the party were met by a teenage human receptionist and very quickly realised they were being lied to as the receptionist claimed to not know who Bazzle is before accidentally revealing that he knew the Goblin was a Grinner, knowing that, the party accused the receptionist of lying and intimidated him into calling his manager, a blue tiefling named Hook.
During their meeting with Hook, the three members of the party encountered very similar resistance and lies as the tiefling continually claimed that Bazzle had visited but stormed out and wasn't seen since, though Olympia saw through his lies and noted his satisfaction in stating that Bazzle wasn't seen since, upon confronting Hook with their knowledge of his lies he became far more business minded and quick to anger, explaining to the party that he knows their names and that he knows they are travelling with Fenbalar Leoris, a wanted criminal by The Inquisitors and so their option was to leave his bjuilding of their own volition, or The Crownsguard will be notified of their presence... with that, the party angrily left before Kodo, Fen and Anastasia had a chance to join the meeting and they gathered back outside to discuss what to do next. 
Mimsi was frustrated at the lying and confusion in this space and was unsure of what to do, the party were also aware they intended on trying to capture the necromancer that night and that this complicated things. Anastasia pitched the idea of waiting for the young receptionist who had initially lied to the party to leave his work that evening and see if they could corner him for questioning, but the group agreed that it could easily go downhill (especially with Kodo and Thordak highlighting how out of hand things got in A'mlon for the party when they attempted to apply force to innocents). The group decided to find an Oneiromancer in the merchant level instead so that they could find out who had been scrying on them and hopefully receive some answers there.  With the pre-tense of not being interested in the group finding an Oneiromancer, Anastasia decided to stay on the top tier of the city on her own to have some time to think. 
As soon as the group left, however, Anastasia took Pine and climbed onto the roof of the Hook and Knife building and removed slates from it in an attempt to eavesdrop on Hook and the secretary conversing to see if she could learn anything. Instead, she found herself landing on the top floor which seemed like a staff room at first which she managed to sneak through; taking the stairs down to the second floor.  This floor seemed like a hospital ward with leather tables and benches set in rows across the floor with various magical and medical accoutrement dotted around the space, Anastasia was also mindful of the fact that there were four Crownsguard soldiers standing guard and wandering the space, though they were admittedly a little lackadaisical as she managed to sneak through the rows and follow the signs to a place called 'The Observation Centre', deciding to not bother moving downstairs and instead check out the space, upon reaching it however, she was greeted by a locked door and could hear someone working on the other side.  
Anastasia waited for around 15 minutes until, finally, a red tiefling opened the door and moved away, Anastasia ducked through the door with Pine holding it open and found the room contained five large font like bowls with notepads attached to each, the notepads had the following names:

• Mimsi
• Memsi
• Mamsi
• Mumsi
• Momsi

Anastasia saw each bowl had a button titled 'start observation' and so Anastasia started observing Momsi, not wishing to potentially hurt Mimsi, she watched as the bowl cleared and displayed a silent vision of a goblin with flames wreathing their arms, a pyromancer who was clearly a member of an Inquisitor Masked Brigade which made their face difficult to identify as they had the same gem touched mask that the party had seen Lyren Killian wear in A'mlon. Concerned by this, Anastasia took the notepad for Momsi and left the building, sneaking out the same way she came in where the party were outside looking for her. 
Whilst Anastasia started her break in, the rest of the party found an Oneiromancer  called Xanderossa a dragonborn who owned a store in the city and agreed to complete Oneiromancy rituals on the party in return for them not buying anything from his shop due to his hoarder tendencies.
The party each had Oneiromancy performed on them. 

• Thordak discovered that the Utrunks were scrying on him, specifically his aunt Vola to which Thordak used his sending stone to threaten her after she claimed she was 'keeping an eye' on him. 
• Kodo discovered that he was being scryed on by an individual named Daedric Marx whom he did not know but Thordak knew him as a former Monastery of Flowers monk who tried to assassinate Xan Prayerkeep but was imprisoned after failing, he managed to escape from King's Bay prisons soon after without using any magic and this put a lot of pressure on Temptation who was training to become Arch-Inquisitor at the time. Kodo found it troubling that he was scrying on the firbolg as monks did not use magic... though Xanderossa explained that there are many items that allow individuals to scry. 
• Fen discovered he was being scryed on and watched by Xan Prayerkeep and decided to flip birds in every direction in an attempt to frustrate the arch-inquisitor.
• Mimsi discovered she was no longer being scryed on by Bazzle but was being scryed on by her dagger and she discovered her mystery observer was a red tiefling in a laboratory who was named Knife. Though Mimsi did not put together who that name might allude to. 
• Finally, Olympia was scryed on despite her warnings that this was not a 'normal' scry. As Vanderossa completed the ritual he went quiet for a time before his hand slowly started to slip to Olympia's throat as he continually muttered 'Why does the sun shun the dark?' seemingly affected by The Chaos by completing the ritual. Before he could cause any real damage, the party intervened as Olympia misty stepped away and Vanderossa fell back with Kodo luckily there to catch him. In a sweat and panic he revealed that Olympia was being scryed on constantly by an insane and jealous Archania Weave but that she was within a strange surrounded by some other 'personality' that felt a deep, feral and obsessive love for Olympia... this love made Archania exceptionally jealous. Vanderossa expressed their fear at what took place but seemed to pity Olympia and the rest of the party and insisted that, if they need anything else, the party get in touch.

With their Oniromancy session complete and answering a small amount of the party's questions, they went back to the top tier of the city to find Anastasia as she was escaping from the roof of the Hook and Knife foundation.
Anastasia told the party what she found and saw within the building and this left Mimsi deeply concerned for her own security and Bazzle's safety. Anastasia gave Mimsi the notebook she had recovered but the party asked if she could avoid reading it until later as there was a chance she was being observed as they spoke... though Anastasia reassured the others that the scrying was silent as far as she knew. Eventually the party put together a fast plan; Mimsi and Grendel would wait in the Worn Penny for the rest of the party to return, Kodo and Fen would act as distractions and Thordak would remain on lookout whilst Olympia and Anastasia went back into the Hook and Knife observation room to take the rest of the notebooks. 
Kodo and Fen decided to make a large display of them fighting one another in the street with Kodo throwing Fen all-too-dramatically into walls and bins to draw a large Crownsguard presence to stop them disturbing the peace, with Thordak caught in the mix of this. 
Using this distraction, Olympia and Anastasia climbed onto the roof and broke back into the building, with Anastasia casting Pass Without a Trace and Olympia using Invisibility on both of them to ensure they were both incredibly stealthy. Moving with relative ease, they quickly reached the Observation room to find it locked again, Anastasia stood watch as Olympia attempted to pick the lock, using her new found Artificer's abilities to muffle the sound of her lockpick and massively reduce the chances of them being found out. During their lockpicking, they also heard the sound of Hook having a loud and angry argument with another individual. They entered the room and quickly investigated it, choosing to prioritise packing the notebooks and searching the room where they also found a large and heavy set of keys and pocketed those, they chose to leave the room as they heard footsteps moving upstairs to meet them. 
In a rush, the pair packed their bags and decided against damaging the scrying fonts as it would break their invisibility, as they left the room they came face to face with the red tiefling called Knife who, though he couldn't see them, saw the door suddenly close. As he drew the attention of the Crownsguard to the point where the pair of spies stood and looked as though he was preparing a spell Olympia acted first and used dimension door to teleport away with Anastasia at her side, teleporting as far as possible, leaving them falling in a heap in the merchant level of the city where they met Kodo, Fen and Thordak who quickly escorted them to Mimsi and reunited the party. 
Whilst comfortable in the tavern and left alone to their own devices, the party read the notebook reports to Mimsi. Turns out she was part of an observation program of a group called The Talented and that she was in this group with Bazzle Strum-Strum who's real name was Memsi as well as other goblins, one of whom Kodo knew as an inquisitor in Aria. The notepad detailed observations that had been taken throughout Mimsi's life and explained that she was channeling a power known as the 'green scale' which gave her psionic abilities, meanwhile Bazzle was channeling the power of the 'red scale'... these scales apparently came from something called 'The Source' and this source also gave them exceptional skill and expertise in their chosen professions... though it admittedly came with several drawbacks such as an inability to empathise and a reliance on alcohol (notably Mimsi was described as defective due to her abundance of emotion). The party also learned that Bazzle had been apprehended by the guards in the Hook and Knife foundation and was being kept in their laboratory for observation.
Rocked by these revelations, Mimsi wondered if her experiences were real or manufactured... along with her own identity, though the party assured her she was real no matter what the notepads said. The party then agreed they needed to save Bazzle but that they also needed to be very careful in doing so as they could not risk making an enemy of another city so soon after A'mlon , especially as there were inquisitors throughout Eastbourne which also meant they had to be careful with their spellcasting.
The party then discussed whether they should capture the necromancer to gain favour with Head Crownsguard Sharia Plath and possibly be able to work on those favours or whether they could reason with the criminal and get him to help cause a distraction so they could save Bazzle and remain under the radar. With these different plans in mind, the party waited for nightfall before they went hunting for Lancel Barbarios.

Rewards Granted

The party gained several notepads with details on 'The Talented' whilst Fen gained a new magical item.

Report Date

13 Nov 2021

Primary Location

Eastbourne

Related Characters

• Archania Weave
• Hook
• Knife
• Lancel Barbarios