The Directorate Report
General Summary
Starting at Breakfast at The Enchanting Marigold, Dara Riswynn Proudstone decides that she is in with the group. She isn't sure how things are going, or are going to go, but she wants to be a part of this group. Richard Dixon indicates that he is going to be heading out soon, and begins to say his goodbyes. Eles Raagha says that due to some new magics she has been learning, she will be able to communicate to Richard, and he will be able to reply from significantly longer distances.
Mantis Bugbattler opens the kitchen, and begins making Biscuits and Gravy with the venison Dara and Richard....... "collected" the night before. He comes and sits down at the table with the gang sans Richard who is out shopping. He brings up the dream he had the night before, and both Dara and Eles mention that they had similar dreams about horror and death. The gang all go their own way for the morning.
Richard goes shopping, and accidentally ends up hiring Robert the Jewler to come with Richard to the Grippli Village. Eles meets a Raven at her window, and they don't exactly get along together well. It takes quite some time for the two of them to get on the same page. Mantis goes back to the kitchen, and opens the Inn for the regulars who start coming in. Dara meets Johnathon Davies, who is a regular in Cleeved, and starts up a conversation with Mantis and Dara.
Eles returns to the main portion of the Inn, and Dara, Jonathon, and Mantis love the Raven. Mantis learns that the name of the Raven is Guatir, which roughly translates to "Guard". Eles eventually drops her guard, and thee raven draws blood and is able to complete the connection between the two of them. As soon as that happens, Guatir and Eles have a connection and are able to communicate perfectly.
Richard returns from his shopping trip, and says his goodbyes, in an awkward way, to Eles and Dara. Mantis shows him off at the dock once Chandra shows up for her shift at 10 am.
The Gang heads off to meet with the Candlekeep, but Mantis cannot perfect bring them to the tower. Pelk uses the blood magic with them for the first time, and guides them to the tower. After passing through the magical shield hiding the Archives, they meet a Halflings at the dock to bring them over the tide to get to the Tower. Here they meet Al'krist a Dragonborn who defends the front gate. They all turn in their weapons, though Dara is a little bit reticent to, andd meet Ol'gath NPC to be guided through the Library.
Kilgeen Streis NPC is the first Director they meet. He is a Werebat, and shares with them a great deal about She-Guai and the Scaled Mother. Learn that fables say The Scaled Mother is dead, and she was either killed by She-Guai out of defense, or cold blood. He gets interested in the concept that the Lizard-Folk have not been particularly talkative of late, and he didn't really even have a good sense of what they entirely believe. He also said that the Yuanti narative about what happened is the one that he is more familiar with (The Scaled Mother was killed in self-defense, and She-Guai is alive, but disconnected for some reason.)
Here Merrli is introduced. Eles, and Guatir freak out at the sight of Merrli. Manny is totally chill with the situation and is playing a bit of a mediator role. Streis finishes talking about the gods and religions of the area, and Ol'gath shows up to bring them back to Pelk NPC.
The first thing Pelk does, is officially introduce everyone to Merrli, and him to everyone else. After discussing the background of Merrli, Eles and Guatir are more OK with him, and Dara is tentatively accepting. Mantis is OK no matter what.
Next Pelk begins to explain why she brought them together. They all have gotten these nightmares as of late, and they all believe that they have gotten them from their personal gods. All these gods are lesser gods, and Pelk believes that they are seeing something going wrong in Immelion, and want to do something about it to right the world again, and defend this place from Asmodeus.
Pelk then, as any good historian would, explains the through currents and paths that led to the current moment from a historical lens:
The first 3000 years of sentient life is very difficult to track. Primarily do to this long 500 year war that happened directly afterwards. What we do know is that in the year 3017 1A, the Yuanti start to expand. The Religion department believes it is a slight of some kind against the race as a whole, but whatever the reason they expand and cause a large war. There were many small skirmishes, but the important one was on 20/9/2019, when Malakar, (a demi-god/lesser god?), appears, and leads an army that sows extreme chaos. There appears to be the "Mortal Realm" and different religions appear to have an "Afterlife" realm. The gods appear to be able to appear throughout time without ageing whenerever wherever. Do they walk on a different plane? (Think like a 2d object trying to understand a 3d object). Asmodeus seems to be the only major god that created the major races that seems to still interact with the world.
The Lizard-Folk got the brunt of the Yuanti expansionism, many other races got entirely eliminated, demons started to walk the world unharmed. Tieflings come about some time in the 3200 1A. Most of the ruins in this world are from the era of the Demon Wars. This is not knowledge we already know. This is vaguely understanding the Trojan War, compared to actually reading accounts.
This is why [The Directorate] perked up at the name of Malakar, Goblins shouldn't be just roaming around. Demons ought not be walking the Earth, etc.
Then in 3504 1A, there was a massive battle that ended, believed, at Ashmort. The original Paladins claim to be able to trace their art-form and school's lineage to these original Paladins created by the major gods of The Chorus. Over the next few hundred years, the "good" races pushed back the "lesser" and "Evil" races, and seemingly eliminated them from existence, and now there has been 200 years of complacency. The world is seen as a generally safe place.
That is what [Director of the Department of Histories Pelk ] is afraid of, cause if these lesser gods are sounding an alarm, perhaps something is going on.
Pelk does affirm that there are superior beings. Eles Raagha asks Merrli if he really wants to eliminate his powers/god/contract. Mantis Bugbattler mentions that he feels similarly about not really understanding what why he was granted powers. Dara Riswynn Proudstone adds to that.
Pelk mentions that there are many different schools of paladins. Each one claims to be descended from a single paladin of each sect, though sources differ on how many were originally created. But each one claims the original paladin was created by one of the Major gods (Gruumsh, Correlon Laratheon, ect.). Mantis Bugbattler explains how he was battling infernal spiders, and loosing, then suddenly this great golden light covers him, and he has these amazing powers. Now he's a paladin. He didn't learn it, he was just given it. He grew up "worshipping" Yondalla, there are Temples that are secret, but not a huge number.
Merrli mentions it may be a Paladin out of circumstance. But it transformed his whole life. He had the family business. Perhaps, he is now just protecting his family on the world scale. And perhaps he should speak with Kilgeen Streis NPC.
They go to the Directorate meeting after this, and much is discussed, but little of consequence. There is a large debate about whether Candlekeep Directorate should send The Gang out to Miklau or to Ashmort for research into the two different options: find out why the Yuanti are gaining power through chatting the the secluded and non-communicative Lizard-Folk, or to see if we can track down more about Baeloknecht NPC to track down why he may or may not be important.
With The Gang's input, they voted unanimously to send The Gang to Miklau.
Next we will pick up where we left off with The Directorate meetings coming to a conclusion, and The Gang collecting their things at the gate entrance.
Rewards Granted
Will be discussed at the beginning of next session.
1100 XP
Character(s) interacted with
Umdir Silverstone
Neutral Good Hill Dwarf (Folk Hero)
Barbarian 8
Barbarian 8
125 / 125 HP
STR
20
20
DEX
12
12
CON
20
20
INT
3
3
WIS
8
8
CHA
10
10
Mantis Bugbattler
Eles Raagha
Dara Riswynn Proudstone
Richard Dixon
Report Date
25 Mar 2023
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Comments