Session 14 - The House of LIES

General Summary

We awake the next day ready to keep sailing to our destination. Ionessa didn’t get a full night’s rest and is still suffering from the vampire attack, Xanthos slept on the mast like a bat! We pass by more ink and destroyed ships, then a floating platform with buildings made of dried seaweed and wood with little bridges going between them, clay pots out on the deck, and the skeleton of a large fish proudly displayed as a warning or trophy. There are figures, one is fishing, a human man, triton/sea elf woman, and children running around the deck. They’re fisherpeople! Ionessa doesn’t eat fish tho so we buy fruit and veggies. They haven’t seen any ships from Iroa, but they have seen ships from just about everywhere else. He and Ionessa discuss leaving the old behind and exploring new places. The human’s name is Niklos, he sells us some kelp and seaweed arts and crafts (a dreamcatcher and a doll) that his children made. It’s very wholesome. Ionessa asks if they know any communities that might be able to take care of Pearl but they don't know anywhere that would be appropriate besides maybe Oiakis, Ionessa’s home city.
We head off again, Kestor makes disguises for himself and Ionessa but Kovu may need to stay behind. We arrive in Limpani! There are flags from all over save for Iroa. We see one sail that doesn’t fit with the others, a big red sail painted on with a scale surrounded by laurels, the flag of Rheo, which is very surprising given Limpani’s relationship with Rheo. We dock and tell Eryxo the plan, she’s okay with being a getaway vehicle so long as we keep things quiet and so long as it is justifiably a part of bringing back King Bion. Ionessa convinces Kovu to stay behind by telling him he’s important and protecting the boat.
Limpani is bustling! Neo needs to buy some spell components so we head to the agora, it’s a wonderful wealthy place full of excess. Neo buys some diamonds and an eyeball for his spells. Aga finds the prison is run by Parmenion, beneath The House of Justice (a temple to Kaiotim and Pole) is The House of Chains where prisoners are kept. Prisoners tend to be kept because they are valuable in some way rather than because they committed a crime, usually people are exiled or fined. Ionessa finds that her captain’s ship is not in the main docks and has been moved.
Kestor dissociates while wandering the docks asking questions; shadows get longer, it becomes dark quickly, clouds roll in overhead, rain falls, the pristine white stone of the city is replaced by haphazard cobblestone. He is no longer on the docks, he’s in another city surrounded by tall shoddily constructed buildings, it’s claustrophobic, Kossic architecture, he feels he’s being watched. There’s nobody here, eerily quiet, something makes a noise, a shadow of something large and cloaked atop a roof. He’s clutching a bundle close to his chest, tightly bound in a lot of cloth; the shadow has disappeared and something is approaching with a tac-tac-tac noise (maybe talons? Maybe that kenku I was scared of). My hands are pinky-brown, shifting between tones, but seemingly human. The figure drops down from the roof cloaked in shadows, clutching a curved black knife, Kestor shouts at it to stay back but he’s unarmed!
Aga recognizes the more detailed description of the giant Kenku in Kestor’s vision this time. Their name is Pairairi, one of the Kenku from the olden times from when Mourionoss was still present, would have been present in the heavens. Aga used to argue with him, he had fervor and intensity about their shared work, collecting things for Mourionoss. Interesting… Xanthos finds that Parmenion keeps all impounded ships in his private shipyard. Kestor absolutely botches the attempt to ask about Rheo, he bumps into Tidas who is going to Parmenion. He blames us for getting Iros and his entire fleet killed by the kraken, apparently Parmenion has the biggest fleet and was organizing a summit with the other demarchos, and now Iros is dead which has really messed everything up. He invites Kestor to plead his case.
We discuss whether it’s a good idea, it seems like letting Tidas give the whole picture is bad. Aga, Kestor, and Neo go while Ionessa and Xanthos hang back. Tidas makes Kestor promise not to speak until spoken to. We go to Parmenion’s Estate! It’s lavish, it’s gold, it’s full of trinkets and silk, built around a spiraling staircase going past very high ceilings. We are led up the staircase to Parmenion’s office!!! It’s full of valuable things, a balcony looks out over Limpani where we can see the port, temples, well out into the harbor, the best view in the city. Parmenion is there.
Tidas gives his account of what happened, then Kestor gives his perspective. Ultimately Kestor seems to win out and Tidas is asked to leave. Parmenion believes that we are all controlled by fate and that the party may be agents of fate, we certainly seem to be destabilizing the region. He’s putting together a summit of the demarchos, and now Iros is missing in action. Korymour has been invaded and Vas may be coming to him for help. He’s unsure whether these upsets are beneficial to him yet or not, but he asks for our perspective on fate. He tries to cast a spell on Neo who resists it, which seems to be taken as a sign. We keep answering his questions and dancing around what exactly we are here to do. He asks us a series of questions.
“Do you know who is on the Rheon ship?”
“What do you know of the upper echelons of Limpani?”
Dorien is a member of the upper echelons, a noble that has been acting against Parmenion. He wants to be assured that we are not working with her and that we are not seeking to harm him. Kestor explains that they are not and that their actions may appear to be against his interests but that they may be in his favor in the end. He decides to let us go with the following words of wisdom:
“In the morning and evening if one were to step out into a field one would notice their shadow particularly long, but i should think weak diluted by light just a pale thing stretched and gangly but if one were to step into the same field at noon they would notice naught but blackness at their feet, an impenetrable void. I am more interested in the latter.”
We leave and cut back to Ionessa and Xanthos. Ionessa thanks him for saving her life and suggests he may want to go look up the vampire family that Nikaia belonged to. She asks him to look after Kovu if she ever doesn’t make it out of a dangerous situation. Xanthos says that he will but that he’s more likely to sacrifice himself to make sure everyone else makes it out alive. They strategize how to gather info on the prison. Maybe Xanthos can go in as a worshiper of Kaiotim and ask for the charges and evidence against Captain Mikola. They go inside the House of Justice to speak to a priest.
The priest (Justice Meton) explains that justice is meted out democratically, any citizens who attend the trials vote to determine the sentence. They give him the name Mikola Leos but there’s no prisoner by that name, maybe Leos did not pass through the system properly. They summon the jailor and Ionessa describes him, but the jailor doesn’t recognize the description either. BUT HE’S LYYYYING! LEOS IS DOWN THERE! He did not swear oaths to Kaiotim, he swore oaths to chains. Ionessa accuses him of lying out in the open, Justice Meton agrees to conduct an investigation into those charges.
We meet back up and discuss next steps as well as how we feel about Parmenion. He was going to turn Neo to stone, not great. We’re going to try to follow the jailor and see what he gets up to! We have to stake out the House of Justice to see if anyone tries to get a message out. That’ll be next time!

Character(s) interacted with

Justice Meton
The Jailor...

Report Date

29 Aug 2022