Chapter 8, Session 9: A home, A Lord, A Negotiation
General Summary
But what if I do have something wrong with me?! Either I'm the fool or I am making all of you look like fools!With the events of that night still fresh for the party, many of their number found sleep hard to come by and Kodo, Ez and Thordak completed night time activities.
- Olympia expresses her distress to Persicorum after her tarot reading with Mary and Sue goes awry.
Firstly was Kodo, unable to rest easily and order his thoughts after the dramatic ending to Xan Prayerkeep's ball. He could not bring himself to return to Xatannah's Gifts and instead he rested for the night in a park within the city of Blackstone called The Greenstone Fields. It was a busy and large space of nature with chidlren's play areas and forestry dotted across it's landscape... finding an undisturbed spot on the ground, Kodo chose to meditate there for the night.
Ez meanwhile, chose to take up a small amount of star gazing to take his mind off of recent events and so, turning into a bird, he flew to the nearby rooftops and returned to his water genasi form to watch the stars. Despite the light pollution from the city below Ez managed to make out a variety of constellations in the sky... though they did notice that The Serpent constellation had a star rearranged, making the creature look bisected. This was not an extraordinarily rare sight but many soothsayers believed this symbolised a change in the world that had recently happened... this symbology left Ez unnerved and afraid before he returned to the shop to take a long rest.
Finally, Thordak could not get over his concern for Temptation as he did not see her leave the ball with the party. As a result, he climbed onto the Xatannah's Gifts rooftop and took in the scents and sensations of Blackstone in an effort to find Temptation within the city... in an incredible display of memory and precision... Thordak's plan succeeded and he managed to home in on the scent of Temptation in the distance.
The two reunited and briefed eachother on what happened during the ball... with Thordak revealing that he had learned about Xan Prayerkeep and his affairs with others as well as his association with a place called 'The Dumping Grounds'. Temptation flew into a rage at this, kissing Thordak passionately and calling him an idiot for not telling her about the dumping grounds sooner before storming away to get back to King's Bay ... apparently learning what she needed to learn.
The next morning brought reflection and a chance to really think back on what had happened during the ball. The party regathered (after Kodo led an outstanding park session of yoga and meditation for locals in the area) and discussed what they could do next. The party came to the realisation that they would need to accept Xan Prayerkeep's proposal of a meeting as otherwise they would need to leave Blackstone without completing their objectives of learning about Prayerkeep or of saving Lyren Killian. However, Kodo took steps to reassure the party that Anastasia definitively acted in self-defence as it was clear that her victim attempted to force himself on her and that, being as Xan Prayerkeep is defined by his pragmatism, this would go a long step to repairing the trust with the two groups. With that, the party agreed to meet Prayerkeep that evening in The Greenstone Fields but, before that, Olympia had her fortune read by Mary and Sue who gave her the 'Fool' tarot card and led Olympia down a path of excessive doubt and uncertainty about herself... making her question if she was the fool; or whether it was everyone else that she was treating that way. With that in mind, the party went in their seperate directions to prepare for meeting Prayerkeep. Anastasia, Ez and Thordak went as a group to Deepest Desire to use their black card for a meeting with The Mirrored... seeing an opportunity to possibly build an alliance within Blackstone away from Prayerkeep... as they used their black card, they were ushered into an office above Deepest Desire and were again acquainted with Lord Alastair who revealed himself to be a rather high ranking member of the Mirrored with a unique view on the organisations role in Blackstone. The Lord expressed his desire to remove the corruption and bureaucracy in Blackstone and instead usher in a period of anarchy, freedom and opportunity for all... an idea that would certainly line the pockets of the Mirrored as well. With Alastair expressing this wish he revealed the first person he wished to remove was Xan Prayerkeep and gave the party a key he had forged that would allow the party to bypass Prayerkeep's initial defences and allow them the opportunity to infiltrate his home once more. The party accepted this offer and, before leaving, Thordak asked if Alastair and his men could help locate an orc named Gell for him... Alastair expressed that he could but Thordak would be expected to offer a bounty that would be worth the time of the agents of the Mirrored. During this time, Kodo and Olympia went for a walk together in the hope that Olympia could visit her parents whilst she was in Blackstone. However, when they retraced her steps, they found that two strangers lived in her home and claimed they had lived there for the last 20+ years. This confused and greatly upset Olympia before Kodo managed to usher her away and they decided to check the Alturis record keepers rooms for a record of the 'Virrell' family. Upon visiting the pair of them found record of the Virrell's but saw the information was redacted and the Virrell name was trademarked. When they asked the librarian for a non-redacted copy the librarian explained it was a magical blank on the document and would need to be dispelled to check the information. With that in mind, Olympia resisted the urge to dispel the info in that moment due to her status as an Aist Mage and the large security presence in the building and so the pair of them decided to head to meet the rest of the party for their negotiation with Xan Prayerkeep.
To say this meeting was a tense exchange would be an understatement as the two long time enemies finally stood face to face from one another; Prayerkeep had notably brought Lyren Killian with him for this negotiation as proof of good faith but, before talks could start, there was the matter of the murder of Hook to resolve.
Using a zone of truth, Prayerkeep got the party to tell the whole story of how Hook had abused his position and tried to take advantage of Anastasia in a vulnerable moment and that she only killed him because she could not escape. With this information in tow, Prayerkeep was not happy with the outcome but felt he could at least tell Knife with good conscience that he would not seek vengeance on the group.
With that resolved, the negotiation began with Xan Prayerkeep explaining that his goal was, in full, to close away the 'great door' that allowed the other planes to seep into Alturis and so, in his mind, save the world from the litany of dangers that faced it in terms of otherworldly threats.
Hearing this, Fen immediately countered that the party knew the person that summoned the door to the outer planes was someone in Xan Prayerkeep's employv as they did it within his offices in Blackstone. Xan appeared shocked at this and assured the party that, whoever was responsible, would be found and punished brutally for their treason.
With that, Xan explained to the party what he requires of them, he knows that at least two members of Persicorum act as 'keys' for The Entities; the otherworldly forces that hold the great door open and he requires the keys in order to close that door for all time. He knows the location of a variety of the keys and stated that he wants Persicorum to, practised mercenaries and adventurers that they are, find these people and bring them to Blackstone so that they can fulfil their role in closing the door.
The party were unsure of this in general, with Kodo expressing concerns about whether it was their right to close this door whilst Fen requested his father, Magus Erolith Undergaige be freed and with Thordak and Ez both feeling uneasy about trusting a man like Prayerkeep. However, when the party asked for more information or favours; Xan explained that they were not in a position in which he could trust them with more information. As a result, the sides agreed that Persicorum would be given 24 hours to make a decision, if they agreed to the job then they were to meet Prayerkeep the same time, the same place, tomorrow and he would also give them Lyren Killian as a travelling companion... however, if the party refused this, then he would officially treat them as enemies.
With this agreement in place, before the groups split, Fen used this as an opportunity to quiz Prayerkeep on The Grimoires and the rumour that he had many completed grimoires. Xan confirmed this rumour and even gave Fen The Gifted Grimoire, a completed grimoire spellbook that Fen could almost not believe he was seeing. With that, Prayerkeep told Fen he could keep it and both he and Lyren left the group behind.
The party had a relatively long conversation about what they were going to do next, they all agreed that Prayerkeep had been passive until now but they did not want to deal with him actively hunting them as it would make their lives exceptionally difficult. The addition of Lyren Killian was also helpful here. However, the group had to consider that Prayerkeep was an exceptionally dangerous individual either way but at least if they were seemingly on his side, they would have the opportunity to research more of this situation and possibly be able to escape or double cross him before he could do the same.
With the group mostly agreed, they decided to take the time now to productively use their day before agreeing to work with Prayerkeep. Olympia told the others what she had found in the records tower and asked if Fen could dispel using his mask to avoid detection... the group agreed a plan to block view of Fen whilst he worked and began to move away to the tower.
That was, with the exception of Kodo who received a message from Lyren Killian asking to meet in The Greenstone Fields as Lyren had information to give him. Kodo met his old friend on a nearby bench and the two shared a moment of awkwardness with one another, with Kodo explaining that he would like to work with Lyren again but would understand if Lyren couldn't forgive Persicorum for their accidental abandonment of him in Edmonton. Lyren replied by stating that he did not know if he could forgive them but that he understands they did not have the power in the situation to help him but that he had been scrying on the party and watching them often and could not help but feel something akin to jealous bitterness when he saw them going everywhere BUT Blackstone to fix the world's problems. Kodo then made a disclosure that had been haunting him for a while now, he revealed to Lyren that, beneath it all, he was not a good person. Kodo described himself as self-absorbed, non-committal, disloyal and he then revealed that he intended on leaving the party when he found Lyren and wandering to a new place to escape the problems he had found the party dealing with in the world... however, he felt that was not an option anymore with the new situation the group have found themselves in. Hearing this admission, Lyren admitted that, perhaps, everyone had changed fundamentally on this adventure; further stating that Kodo, Thordak and Olympia were fundamentally different to when they started this journey almost two years ago and that Lyren, himself had changed in this time too. Lyren then revealed to Kodo that he was the one who opened the gate to the other planes and released The Terror Chimera. When Kodo asked why, Lyren explained that he tried going through The Mammoth Peaks alone to find The Spectre but could not handle the weather and the threats and the navigation and so he gave up when he watched Olond Talthanryl die from the cold. He cursed Persicorum, and the Spectre and the Inquisitors and all that wronged him and, as he shouted his curses... a voice replied and revealed themselves to be Dashilla the Dark Queen who offered Lyren a deal. He would be given power, freedom and gifts if he could create a door that allowed her to enter the material plane once more. When Lyren agreed he asked to be sent to Xan Prayerkeep to get inside his ranks. But, over time, Lyren got 'swept up' in Prayerkeep's work and instead focused his efforts on forging this spell. He soon finished and, using the equipment in Prayerkeep's tower, he decided to build the portal in Oar's Rest as he knew it would act as a small petty revenge to build that door in a town Persicorum valued and loved... he did not expect that they would be there to stop it however. Lyren did not go into detail and reveal the intricacies of the spell but his admission to Kodo helped show just how much Lyren had changed. Lyren admitted he would happily work with the group again but then stated that he did not envision a future where he would sit in The Monkey's Paw and play games with Kodo again as they were different people back then. Lyren then gave Kodo the information he claimed would help the party. Lyren described an individual named Thulian Seranos whom he claimed used to be Xan Prayerkeep's partner in research into this doorway. Thulian is not a fighter or a spellcaster, he is just an incredibly gifted academic with an exceptionally sharp and keen mind. Prayerkeep and Seranos worked together for a couple of years before they had a great disagreement over this research, with Thulian questioning Xan's morals in this and also questioning how they viewed something called 'The Grand Mix'... though Lyren did not know what this meant. He then explained that Thulian left Prayerkeep's emply and Xan acted like he was in grief for days afterwards, the same way that someone acts when they lose a lover. With this information handed over, Lyren stood up and walked away from Kodo, leaving the firbolg alone with their thoughts and doubts. Meanwhile, the rest of Persicorum went to the records tower and Fen finally dispelled the records of the Virrel family and found their address was in a warehouse in the industrial sector of Blackstone. With that, the party jumped on the first train they could and starting traveling in that direction, arrival in the smog covered and dense factory district of Blackstone. They wandered and eventually reached the address for a warehouse called 'Virrel's Home' but saw that it was burnt out and destroyed and looked to have been that way for several years. Whilst Ez, Olympia and Fen searched the warehouse, Thordak spoke to a worker passing by and they revealed the fire happened around a decade ago and that it caused alot of frustration as everyone knew Sindarae Pollet and Leora Pollet were both involved in the warehouse creations. However, no one has bought it since as it is kept as a memorial by the Pollet's and there are rumours of it being haunted. Thordak went to the party with this knowledge as they found a basement level going down below the warehouse. The group agreed it was worth it to investigate and so they delved beneath to find a cleaner and non burnt laboratory with up to date electricity. Within this laboratory the party noticed and found several things:
- They found several fresher bodies in the room, two had been killed by a power word kill and one had been shot through the forehead.
- The ceiling were filled with limbs and body parts that looked half doll and half organic (something Olympia and Ez could not help but realise was similar to Olmypia's body)
- They found bags of plasma and oil mixed blood that, when identified, gave the identifier the item description for Camile's Betrayer Blade. A cursed weapon from ages past.
- Thordak and Fen meanwhile, found the place had been clearly searched with Thordak identifying that it was likely an outside party who searched the space as they have clearly searched for specific documents.
- In a false bottom in the desk of draws however, the pair of them found an account by someone signing their documents 'SPV' in which they described their attempts to make 'imprints' or 'blank canvasses' for 'him'. They detailed out their findings until revealing they managed to forge three of them... naming the third Olympia and claiming they 'loved her as only a mother could'.
Report Date
11 Jun 2023
Primary Location
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