Session 33 Report

General Summary

Edden 3 Snowdeep 834EA

Tyna Brushgather and Glynna Willowbank stared dumbfounded at Harthe at his revelation. Glynna eventually collects herself and rushes around looking for a book in her library. She eventually found a large tome and pulled it off a high shelf with telekinesis. She put it down on a table in front of everyone and started flicking through, finally arriving on a page on the last royal family of Stagimsia. On the opposite page was a full colour illustration of Harthe's parents who he recognised on sight, with a young infant tiefling boy. The caption was labelled "King Royce Ashby Casvir Mavichar, Queen Nethlaia Lerissa Mavichar and Prince Arthur Arros Rexik Mavichar". Tyna regarded Harthe skeptically and asked him to drop his disguise. He did so and she followed up with "If you're trying to get by on a fake name, you might want to go with something further from your real name... assuming that baby IS you...". Pōtiki asked Harthe if that was really his family and asked how he felt. He said he didn't know. Pōtiki whispered to Selestine Ignasia that they had figured the secret out ages ago. Glynna asked Harthe if he knew if his parents survived too if he had and asked what actually happened. Harthe said all he remembered was being on a ship, fire, then being underwater. He said he didn't know how the fire started because it was dark and he was only a child. Pōtiki said that Harthe also remembered being run out of town by the Shadow Duke. Tyna looked confused and annoyed and asked when and how they knew what the Shadow Duke looked like. They told her about the projection of him they'd seen in the stronghold outside of Maksary and described to her what he looked like. Pōtiki said they probably should have told her sooner and Tyna agreed but that she would get some feelers out. Selestine expressed concern that the Shadow Duke therefore also knew what they looked like but then remembered that she knew he did as she had found them through overhearing his descriptions of them. Selestine shared a bit about her past and deserting from the military in Vikstamas and how she had heard the Shadow Duke talking to her captain and he sounded evil so she stole the artifact thinking it was worth a lot of money and a lot of trouble came from them stealing the artifact so they ran and knew they couldn't go back. Selestine reminded them that they keep saying that they're being watched. Pōtiki confirmed and asked Glynna about it. Glynna looked around with her truesight but could not see any scrying orbs and commented that she'd not noticed any when she's been with them. Pō said that it didn't seem to be all the time and seems to disappear particularly when she looked at it. Glynna told them about scrying magic and said she would see if she could reverse it to identify who was scrying on them next time it happened. Glynna then noted that it was nearly midday and that they should head for the Cleroy Palace. Jodariel Balakin then asked if Taesai Academy was near the palace but Glynna said the academy was on the other side of the temple district from the Palace.
On the way to the palace, Selestine asked the others where the Shadow Duke was based. They theorised that he was overseas but he might be able to move around with magic. Pō theorised that he was based in Stagimsia. Glynna asked Selestine where her military party was delivering the artifact to. Selestine said that they were heading south towards Stagimsia. Pō asked if the deal going on with Selestine's captain was dodgy or above board. Selestine responded that she was simply following orders and that she and her regiment knew they were transporting something but they didn't know what, why or even especially where and all information was on a need-to-know basis and above her pay grade and she didn't know if it was official Vikstamas business but after overhearing the conversation with the Shadow Duke she figured it wasn't legit. She said she wasn't proud of blindly following orders but it was a step up from her old life.
The party arrived at the palace and were escorted into a large throne room with iridescent white marble tiled floors, walls and ceiling. Hanging from the ceiling were large glowing purple crystals that lit up the room. The sun shone through various skylights and the rays glinted off the crystals, bouncing rainbow patterns around the room. Atop a platform at the end of the room was a large but relatively simple carved wooden throne. They recognised Haley Cleroy sitting rather casually in a simple lilac purple robe with silver embroidery. Standing next to her was Athen Cantrill. Haley waved the party forward. Pō awkwardly bowed and half curtsied while Jodi told Haley she looked much better now. She thanked them and asked how they had saved her. The party admitted they weren't sure and Pō asked if she had dreamt and what her experience was waking up. Haley said she first would like to know who they were. Tyna stepped in and introduced them and explained how she had contracted them to help The Silver Whisperers to investigate her illness as her resources had been stretched. She told them they'd gone a bit rogue, leaving town, to which Pō was indignant and a small argument broke out. Tyna calmed the situation down saying it wasn't a bad thing but she hadn't known where they went or why. Jodi explained that it was one of the leads they had been given to try and wake Haley up, that they'd happened to know the location of 'one of the things for the ritual' but Haley had happened to wake up when they picked it up so they hadn't needed to do the ritual. Haley was confused and asked what they meant by ritual and Jodi said for healing Haley because the item would help with healing but she doesn't know much about magic. Haley turned to Athen and asked him to leave, saying she needed to talk privately and that she was perfectly safe. He bowed and left.
Haley regarded the strange group and told them she felt that there was something they were not telling her. They told her she was correct. Pō cast detect magic to see if they were being scryed on. Assured that they were not, they debated amongst themselves on how much to tell Haley. They asked Glynna and Tyna what they thought and Glynna told them that Haley could be a very helpful ally. Selestine asked Haley if she had any particular connection with the Illusion school of magic. Haley said she didn't personally but her ancestors were adept in that school. She asked why they asked. Selestine said they had found a powerful artifact that was sealed away locked behind some powerful warding spells and that when they recovered the artifact Haley had woken up and investigations demonstrated it was related to the Illusion school of magic. Haley seemed to flash an expression of recognition and asked if it was like a large glass marble. Pō asked how she knew and she explained that there were eight major royal bloodlines in Iklarel history and each was the keeper of one of the artifacts and the artifact was intrinsically tied to the family and kept secret to keep from being used nefariously, but many had got lost over time as did many of the royal bloodlines and empires rose and fell with time. She had been taught about the Taesai artifact as a child but it had been presumed lost. The Taesai artifact was an anomaly as it was one of the only ones that had passed from one bloodline to another when her ancestor Albious Cleroy reclaimed some of Taesai land from Chambon and founded the new country Cleroy. The knowledge of where the artifact was hidden had been passed onto Albious and the connection passed on to Albious before the old ruler of Taesai had died. The artifact had not been able to be recovered though as it was in former Taesai land still claimed by Chambon and the exact location lost. They figured that putting the artifact in a magically sealed box might have severed the connection and caused her illness. They speculated whether they could experiment with that and put the artifact in and out of a box and see what happened. Haley was not keen but Harthe said they could try that with his one, but Jodi pointed out that it was in the middle of the ocean somewhere. Harthe wondered what if they already had the one that's his. Haley asked what he meant by 'his'. Things got awkward.
Harthe, emboldened, said he would like to propose an alliance between Cleroy and Stagimsia, while Tyna facepalmed. Harthe said 'they don't know I'm here yet or that I'm anywhere'. Haley looked shocked and swore before asking 'are you Prince Arthur?!' Harthe said apparently so, but that when he was four he must've had some kind of speech impediment so he'd said his name was 'Harthe' and that was what he got called thereafter and what he'd believed his name was as a result. They told her that they'd only just found this out recently. Haley said she would like to go back into her coma. Pō called Haley 'high majesty' to which Haley told them they could dispense with the formalities and call her Haley as she kind of hated all that shit. Pō finally introduced themselves as Pōtiki and Jodi commented that they'd still not properly introduced themselves. Haley noted that Pō's name sounded celestial and Pō confirmed and the two conversed briefly in celestial, with Pō following up with the fact that they'd come from the Lyushin Wilds. The rest of the party then finally introduced themselves, with Jodi lying about where she had come from saying that she'd come from Maksary, though Haley clearly did not believe this but did not push further. Haley told Harthe that he should be disguised in public as he might be in danger. The party told her they already were and then told her about the Shadow Duke and his plans and Harthe's history with him. Pō pulled out the Illusion artifact and said to Haley that since it had the capacity to make her pretty much die, then maybe she should have it. Haley seemed wary and disclosed that she wasn't sure if it would be safe with her as she wasn't sure if she could trust her Council at the moment. Pō expressed concern that because they already had other artifacts, that if the Shadow Duke found them and dispensed of them then he would have all the artifacts in one go and it would be safer if they could disperse them again for safekeeping. Haley said she could take it and keep it safe but they needed to be sure that their conversation didn't leave the room. They agreed. Harthe asked if she knew which orb was put in the care of his family but she said she didn't know. That for some of the families the school of magic was intrinsically tied to the family's bloodline, but for others they were simply tasked with protecting an orb. Pō asked about whether Emperor Huchon Peletier had an artifact and Haley said no he didn't. Pō then realised that ruled out the Valpinal Expanse as a possible location of an artifact. Selestine asked if Haley knew where any of the other artifacts would be located. She said that she could find the information in her archives as she was taught about them years ago. The party laid out the theories and knowledge they had and Haley confirmed which ones were most likely.

• Yvas/Vikstamas from the long since passed royal bloodline from before Yvas and Aloyoia fractured into separate countries (collected)
• Grech, and that it was entirely plausible that they would have hidden it in the Lyushin Wilds
• Taesai ruins in West Chambon (collected)
• Vol Darum an ancient dwarven city in Sieron beneath the Sondheim Mountains was a plausible location for the Sieron family
• Stagimsia
• Agren
• Vanimaldine (collected)
• Hvammstanya

Harthe commented that there was a lot of travel in their future. They speculated chartering an airship. Haley said there were airships in Grechia but they were very expensive. She then presented them with rewards for their service to the empire, and gave them each 500 platinum pieces including to Glynna and Tyna, and 20,000 gold pieces for the Silver Whisperers. She then knighted Tyna, and presented Glynna with a key, stating that she could claim ownership of the abandoned tower outside the walls of Rouvray. Pō then asked if they could get a pardon for Willie Wiley. Haley asked what he'd been imprisoned for. She said she could consider it if they could attest to his character and upstanding and if they did so, they would be held responsible for any further crimes he committed as if they had committed it themselves. Harthe was not prepared to do so but asked if he could instead have a more comfortable cell. Haley said she could see if that could be arranged.
Haley then asked about their investigations of the Supreme Council of Cleroy and what they'd found. Pō said she needed a new Education minister and Glynna said that she was going to check that out after their meeting. Selestine asked if there was anyone on the council she didn't trust. Haley said she had trusted them up until she fell ill and now was unsure but that maybe her distrust was unfounded given the artifact connection. Pō said they had wondered about the defense gisir but they had not got around to questioning him and that they had also wondered about Emperor Peletier but then found out he was in love with her and concluded he had been thinking with his dick rather than his brain. Haley thanked them and commented that she had no intention of returning Peletier's affections or anyone's. Pō then told her she needed to have a succession plan in case she suddenly died. Haley did not seem interested and rolled her eyes seeming to have heard it before. Pō suggested she just adopt someone off the streets and she said she'd think about it. The party then asked her about places to get stuff and she told them about various shops in Rouvray. Selestine asked if she had a royal boat they could commandeer to complete their quest. She said she did not but that she would write them a writ to present to a ship captain to commandeer their ship and crew. Harthe then cast disguise self with his hat of disguise and turned himself into a voluptuous woman in a barmaid outfit. They eventually left the throne room and they left the palace as Harthe struggled with containing his boobs.
Outside, Glynna told them about specific shops they should visit and told them she would go see Amnestria Lanlee to check what was up with her. Tyna said she would go with her. They first visited Athavas' Armoury, then Teiasiga's Magical Arsenal, then Flor's Fantastico, then Harthe went ahead of the others to The Sphinx's Scrolls and lied about being there to buy a scroll of waterbreathing for 'her master'. The shops' shelves were mostly empty and the halfling shopkeeper Ibrac seemed to be busy with stocking the shelves again with a crate full of scrolls. He went digging for the scroll of waterbreathing in the crate and while distracted, Harthe stole a scroll from the shelf. He then agreed to work for Ibrac for the rest of the day for a discount on the spell scroll of waterbreathing. The others then went to Westmarket Alchemy then back to Flor's Fantastico where Pō bought some bracers.
Jodi, Pō, and Selestine then headed off to the Temple District. Selestine asked Jodi if she had been a soldier and Jodi shared about being a town guard. Selestine then asked Jodi about how she kept saying she'd be leaving when her goals were complete. Jodi said she couldn't go home until all her goals were complete as she couldn't go home 'like this' so she would stay working and helping the group. Jodi asked if it was hard for Selestine to rest with all the voices in her head. Selestine said that some were noisier than others but agreed that it could make it hard to rest. Selestine asked Jodi if she thought her bow could be enchanted at the temple too but Jodi didn't know. As they arrived at the central fountain, they spotted the imposing building of the Taesai Academy beyond. They decided they would meet back at the Academy after they visited their respective temples. Pō went into the Temple of Kuzmjir while Jodi and Selestine went into the Temple of Unnia.
In the temple of Unnia, Jodi and Selestine were greeted by a half-elf priestess in high ranking priest robes. Jodi asked about adding radiant magic to her glaive. The priestess, Arivaye said that this could be done but it would take a number of days depending on how powerful she wanted it and a fee of 50gp per day, discounted due to Jodi's status as a servant of Unnia. Jodi agreed and handed over the glaive asking for 3 days worth of work.
Pō meanwhile entered the temple of Kuzmjir and Indona which had a few acolytes and worshippers. Only one priest seemed to wear the symbols and colours denoting service to Kuzmjir. Pō awkwardly walked in and knelt at the altar and summoned their pact weapon, whereupon they were flooded with a barrage of emotions attached to various flashbacks and dreams they had experienced since they'd last used the weapon. They swore loudly and were rebuked by one of the priests. They apologised but somewhat unrepentantly. They then dismissed the sickle, ran out of the temple and threw up in a small alleyway. When they eventually felt a bit better, they went and waited in front of the Academy and waited for Jodi and Selestine.
When they eventually reunited, Selestine could see that Pō was not looking too well and asked if they were ok. Pō shared how when they were a child they didn't really have emotions and felt the same all the time but recently things were going a bit funny with finding out their patron was maybe a bit evil and that they'd been trying to worship Kuzmjir directly instead of the spirit that had raised them because he'd been supposed to give spirits to Kuzmjir but hadn't been, so Pō had been trying to skip the evil part and go directly to Kuzmjir. But then they had been given a new sickle and it was a bit magical and every time they'd been using it they'd got a lot of things that hurt their head and heart and now they felt lots of things all the time 'like you're really pretty and so are you Jodi! and that's kind of weird I never noticed that before'. The others were taken aback but Selestine thanked Pō. Pō said that when they went to pray they got a lot of feelings. Selestine gave Pō an awkward shoulder pat and they then proceeded to go to the academy.
They hunter around all the walls of the academy but they could not find an entrance. Eventually they found a gathering of guards but no door to guard. One of the guards stopped them and asked what they wanted and they shared about how they had a message for the headmaster about a request for enrolment for Rowan Martin who was a sailor. The guard said that was funny and Pō launched into a laughing fit. They gave the message and magical stone to the guard who then turned and phased into the wall behind them. They thanked the guards and left. They started to head back to Westmarket when they got a message via communication pebble from Glynna telling them she was at the Rouvray Library looking into ship routes and asked if they wanted to join. They agreed and headed to the library while Harthe said he would catch up with them later as he'd be working at the shop until well into the night.
They arrived in the library and found Glynna in a reference study room walled in with glass. She waved them in and she shared what she had found and some reading to do. She told them that she had been to see Amnestria and found that she was under a weak feeblemind spell and they had neutralised it and discovered that Nym Quineiros was responsible as he had been having an affair with the spymaster of Chambon and Amnestria had found out so he had feebleminded her. Tyna was now interrogating Nym to find out the extent of the treason and how much Chambon now knew. Pō asked if there was likely any secret ears in the throne room but Glynna said she didn't think so as she hadn't seen anything when she was in there. She then looked up and said 'it's back!' Her eyes clouded over and she wrote down that they were being scryed on but it was not the Shadow Duke. She wrote a description and did a rough sketch of a man that looked like Arryn from Dve Chashki inn in Grechia. Pō recognised the description. When Glynna said it was gone, Pō told her who he was and where he was, with anger that he was a traitor since they had saved him. Pō told them about how they knew them and Jodi was very interested to know about the thieves guild operating under the inn. Glynna said that she could send Tyna to go deal with him. Jodi said no she could do it after they had finished their tasks. Glynna disagreed and said he needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later and they needed to find out how much he knew and how far that knowledge had gone. Pō agreed.
Glynna then shared how she had investigated shipwrecks of the last 20-30 years but there was too many to count, but that around the time of Harthe's reappearance, the standard shipping route between Stagimsia and Nuvar changed. She said that a ship had disappeared and when others had tried to investigate, their ships kept getting attacked by something. Rather than sending more people to their doom, they shipping authorities changed the route to give the area a wide berth. They concluded that something caused the ship to go down and was still there, or someone knew where the ship was and was protecting the area. Jodi said it was a good lead. Glynna pulled out a map and an overlay of weather and current patterns that demonstrated the location to be the most plausible with currents dragging Harthe toward Nuvar. She drew a 500m radius area. They all agreed it was a doable lead to follow. Jodi also commented they needed to find unconscious monarchs, but Glynna reminded them that Haley had said that most of the original bloodlines had died out. Pō expressed confusion about how the Cleroy bloodline was recipient of the artifact ties. Glynna then passed them a writ from Haley for commandeering a ship in Nuvar. Selestine also said it could be worth going to talk to Wiley to find out about how he'd got his hands on an artifact.
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Over the following few days, Harthe had two ornate chests made by a local carpenter, and spent time transferring the scrolls into his spell book. Jodi collected her armour and glaive, Selestine worked on some herbalism and the party went and visited Wiley who had been transferred to a more comfortable cell in the Cleroy palace dungeon with nicer facilities. Harthe was still disguised as a barmaid, which immediately took Wiley's interest until he realised it was Harthe in disguise. Harthe asked where Wiley had got the artifact from. Wiley said he'd acquired it from one of his contacts who had intercepted it from a bandit camped in western Chambon near some old elven ruins about two years ago. He wasn't sure how'd they'd got it but they brought it to him because it seemed interesting and they wanted it identified. Wiley had realised it was powerful so kept it and was investigating it over time when he got arrested and he'd managed to lock it away with wards in time before being taken away, but he'd never figured out what it was. They told him not to worry about it but it could cause the end of the world. Pō asked him about his contact. He said he was just on some work collecting information and he found the bandit camp who were very drunk celebrating their find and the contact killed them and took their loot. He thanked them for his transfer to nicer facilities but acknowledged he deserved to be in prison. They thanked him for the information and left. Harthe also requested an audience with Haley.
Glynna and Tyna meanwhile had left town to deal with Arryn and returned by the third day. They told them that he had not been feeding information anywhere, he was simply bored and used a ring of scrying to scry on any patrons of Dve Chashki that took his interest. Tyna said she'd killed him anyway. Glynna seemed resigned and the party got the sense that Glynna didn't necessarily condone the killing but had not made any moves to stop it.

Character(s) interacted with

• Tyna Brushgather
• Glynna Willowbank
• Haley Cleroy
• Athen Cantrill
• Eongorn
• Teiasiga
• Ibrac
• Flor
• Turbrin
• Arivaye 

Created Content

• Nethlaia Mavichar
• Royce Mavichar
• Athavas' Armoury
• Eongorn
• Flor's Fantastico
• Teiasiga
• Teiasiga's Magical Arsenal
• The Sphinx's Scrolls
• Ibrac
• Flor
• Westmarket Alchemy
• Turbrin
• Arivaye 

Notes

Shopping:

Athavas' Armoury

• Jodi commissioned some basic plate armour to be enchanted with adamantine and blue edged customised trim. She traded in the adamantine splint mail armour they'd found at the stronghold in Maksary and her chain mail armour. The final fee was 1,000gp and would be ready for collection in three days.

Teiasiga's Magical Arsenal

• Selestine bought a slingshot for 5sp

Flor's Fantastico

• Selestine bought a bag of ball bearings for 1gp
• Selestine bought alchemist's supplies, a forgery kit, and a poisoner's kit for 115gp
• Selestine bought bracers of archery for 1,500gp
• Pō bought bracers of defense for 6,000gp

The Sphinx's Scrolls

• Harthe bought a scroll of waterbreathing worth 1,800gp for 1,300gp and the rest of the day's worth of labour in the shop stocking shelves
• Harthe stole a speak with animals spell scroll and an expeditious retreat spell scroll

Westmarket Alchemy

• Selestine bought recipes of Soothing Salve and Antitoxin for 2gp and rowan berries, sourgrass and red amanita mushrooms for 30sp

Temple of Unnia

• Jodi commissioned for her broken glaive to have radiant damage added for 3 days of work and 150gp

Campaign

Venturers of Iklarel

Protagonists

Selestine Ignasia

Pōtiki

Jodariel Balakin

()

8 / 8 HP

STR

DEX

CON

INT

WIS

CHA

Harthe

Report Date

16 Oct 2021

Primary Location

Glynna Willowbank's home

Secondary Location

Rouvray

Previous sessions

• Session 0 Report
• Session 1 Report
• Session 2 Report
• Session 3 Report
• Session 4 Report
• Session 5 Report
• Session 6 Report
• Session 7 Report
• Session 8 Report
• Session 9 Report
• Session 10 Report
• Session 11 Report
• Session 12 Report
• Session 13 Report
• Session 14 Report
• Session 15 Report
• Session 16 Report
• Session 17 Report
• Session 18 Report
• Session 19 Report
• Session 20 Report
• Session 21 Report
• Session 22 Report
• Session 23 Report
• Session 24 Report
• Session 25 Report
• Session 26 Report
• Session 27 Report
• Session 28 Report
• Session 29 Report
• Session 30 Report
• Session 31 Report
• Session 32 Report

Following sessions

• Session 34 Report