Session 20211227 Report
General Summary
New Charms
Mathias Stormcrow learned Ghost-Eating TechniqueMarag-ang learned Eagle-Wing Style
Sunday 15 Ascending Wood 768 (Calendar)
Their guide hires two ghost porters (so they have enough food and water if the trip takes longer than expected) and they head off to the Raiton Academy, on the direct cross country route (faster but more physically demanding). The land is less desolate than towards the Grey Hermitage and they pass the occasional nomadic flock of goats (with a goatherd). Overhead are large striped raitons, roughly twice the size of a common raiton. Mathias can see that the white "stripes" are actually protruding bones, though the birds appear to be breathing. They skirt a river valley with terraced farms growing ghost peppers, and reach a plateau on the first real mountain, where they see the academy.
Someone in stereotypical all-enveloping necromancer robes (thick robes, heavy cowl completely hiding their face) welcomes them and is eager to take them to Hallow, who has already started annoying people here with his religion. They witness the end of a demonstration in the surgical theatre, and learn that the bodies are re-assembled by the slab. The Senior Lecturer in Anatomy answers many of their questions and takes them to the (restricted) library to arrange for answers to the Spymasters list. A librarian quotes them a price for the questions, which the resources provided by the spymaster are enough to pay for. Mathias sells them the right to copy his A Scholar's Aide to Ancient Burials of the Southern Reaches of Creation, which gets them resources 3 worth of other information from the library, they make rough notes when the skulls are speaking (not enough time for them to scribe an exact copy). Exact list still to be determined, out of game but it covers the Art of the Dead and some Necromancy spells.
Moonday 16 Ascending Wood
Day spent in the library getting information and taking notes as above, Hallow spends his time attending some classes (while an education is too expensive and long term for either Hallow or Matthias to be interested the academy staff seem happy to have Hallow audit classes while he is here, mostly to keep him occupied without proselytising). Matthias uses money with a distinct odour (to him) to determine the strongroom is through the locked gate at the top of stairs in the library, Raven recruits Gertrude the mouse to go through and confirm it is the Manse control room and a locked sliding door she cannot get through would be the strongroom. Matthias considers stealing The Book of Bone and Ebony but after discussions with Raven decides to only go for things less likely to be quickly spotted as missing.
Marsday 17 Ascending Wood 768
Another day in the library, but that night Matthias breaks into the control room and the strongroom, 2 probable artifacts, a small clear sphere with jade concentric freely rotating rings and a thin transparent slab of crystal (A Hearthstone compass and a Translation Crystal) which he ignores in favour of jade he replaces with his own silver in order to conceal the theft for longer, hides the loot outside their room for the night.
Mercuryday 18 Ascending Wood 768
They collect their answers and then have an uneventful return to No More, try to obtain the painting for their clothing plan and after an initial rebuff Raven schmoozes and hires (for the opera) members of the clan in question and then arranges to rent the painting Reflections of a Lost Age in exchange for a ridiculously small ownership stake in the clothing enterprise (and gets his own ownership stake as a fee) - don't try to play hardball with a Solar unless you like getting their attention for long enough to be completely bamboozled (victory by 15).
The Passing Glory had made the arranged night fishing trip and came back with damage (to be repaired in the shipyards this night), the fish and fish adjacent items don't seem like a good choice for export, Matthias makes two necklaces from the weirder teeth.
Jupiterday 19 Ascending Wood 768
Marag-ang tries garum & Empresses' Tears outside the effects of the shadowland, the former is tasty and hot the latter is too hot to have much of a market, he buys as much garum as possible (not all that much) and a small amount of tears for their restaurant and trade.
The repaired Passing Glory starts out for home.