Session 51 - State Inaction is State Injustice

General Summary

We gotta get over to that house! On the way we spot a crowd gathered around jutting out into the road and causing people to have to squeeze through. Everyone’s angry, we try to slink inside but we’re seen by the crowd. We hurry inside as a mob forms outside, Kestor yells at them, but once the door is closed we can’t hear them. It’s spooky in here; we head to the door to the room that Parmenion created. The room is really here, but it looks like it has been completely trashed. Everything is smashed, torn, big gashes in the walls and furniture. The corridor that Parmenion created isn’t there, the wall that would lead to it is unharmed. Kestor finds a smear of blood on the floor underneath some of the rubble, also the books have dream writing, it’s weird and indecipherable.
Kestor collects some of the blood, maybe it is Parmenion’s and could be used as a sympathetic link? Neo casts the dream spell on Parmenion using his oracle powers to determine whether he’s alive and finds that he is awake! Looks like there’s no reason to stick around in the evil house, though Kestor wants to check the deconstruction schedule first. The crowd is really angry though, he dodges a rotten apple while asking the nearby official when the place is being torn down. People with hammers are coming soon! Kestor volunteers to stay and make sure nobody gets hurt tearing down the extension while the others spread the word about Phosidaeus.
Ionessa, Neo, and Xanthos head to the inn where Parmenion is staying to check on him first. They are stopped by an obstinate guard who assures them that Parmenion is juuuust fine, but she’s not being honest. Eventually they get past her and go to speak with Parmenion; he claims that he is perfectly well, he’s already dealt with the curse. He’s lying! Neo notices that he will not stand up, so Neo gets him to stand up and walk, and somehow he seems okay? Something is off though, they notice that he doesn’t smell at all, like their senses are being deceived somehow. Ionessa tries to get him to shake her hand and he won’t do it and threatens to call the guards, so she hugs him instead and finds that he is completely illusory.
When that illusion drops, so too do other elements of the room. It’s messier than you’d expect, there’s blood on his bedsheets, and a thinner, withered Parmenion sits supported by a staff, and his shield guardian looks damaged. He says the curse is gone, he died, but he’s still recovering from the effects of the resurrection. He reiterates that we should all be allies, but doesn’t do much to combat the allegations that he’s never acted in a way that would be helpful to us and usually is doing the opposite. The party leaves. Kestor watches the destruction of his new extension while disguised, all the rubble and building materials are tossed back inside the house. They are most perplexed by how Kestor extended the foundation of the house itself overnight, but there doesn’t seem to be a containment breach of the play’s corruption. Kestor gets the mob to board up the extra door and a few of the windows, also the place is pelted with fruit and the word “Noonshadow” is chiseled over the door frame.
We meet back up and discuss what we’ve learned. Hopefully Parmenion is free of Pairairi’s pursuit now, we’ll need to figure out how to deal with that nightmare. In the meantime, we make a list of people we want to tell about the Panopticon. We should talk to the Basileus, the Polemarch, the clerics of Kaiotim, maybe Learchos and maybe Theages? We go talk to the Basileus first; we tell her about what we found in the Panopticon. She is not as outraged as she would like, she wants to have a bunch of meetings about it while we’re concerned that the prisoners there are being tortured. We make it clear how bad this is, that the people inside are tortured and any who do leave are insane and bound by a Geas and are murdered if they do not keep silence.
She says she’ll call the archons and investigate, but it’s gonna go slowly. We’re also interviewed by a guard-cleric about the murder of Cleo, maybe that’ll lead somewhere. Kestor goes to research the origins of the Panopticon to see if there’s any clue that the city officials made a deal with the monster specifically, and also whether there’s a place underground that might be good to investigate for invasive tunnels under the city. Xanthos goes to talk to the clerics of Kaiotim in the hopes that they will take more decisive action. Neo goes to speak with Nicanda, and Ionessa goes to see Learchos.
Learchos has a message for us from Brigos, he’s examined the seal and found it to be genuine and we can pick it up wherever we like. The Panopticon has been there for centuries, Learchos just thought Phosidaeus was a recluse. She says that simulacrum magic is not something an average monster would have access to. The prisoners inside are typically powerful magical criminals too dangerous to be held elsewhere, releasing everyone is likely to mean releasing someone who is going to take revenge on the city. If the tower itself is designed to hold them, then killing the monster should be fine, but if it is responsible for disabling magic in the area then killing it could cause a lot of problems.
Nicanda takes Neo’s information seriously, she agrees that we shouldn’t be waiting and should take action to save those trapped there. She says she will meet with us in the evening and help decide a course of action. The clerics of Kaiotim say that punishment must fit the crime, torture is rarely acceptable unless the person themselves have committed acts of equal injustice. Xanthos uses this to report the crimes taking place at the Panopticon; they say that there is an ancient agreement between the city and Phosidaeus, the tower is a private institution. They will comply with the investigation, but they’re not about to suddenly take up arms to storm the place even though they now know that injustice is happening there. Xanthos is disappointed in the temple’s response; he draws a picture of the monster and where it is in the Panopticon so they know what to look for and where. He then schools the clerics on what a real Kaiotim worshiper looks like.
Kestor looks into the history of the Panopticon. The land was purchased by the philosopher, Phosidaeus, and he made a proposal to construct the prison tower. He received permission, the city did not pay for the tower but did pay him to house inmates. Phosidaeus was a publicly known philosopher at the time, though he doesn’t have a lot of written works or philosophical talks. He completed his Promatho about a decade before the construction of the tower and he was sponsored by another reputable philosopher. The plans for the building are almost identical, but the central tower no longer has any accommodations for humanoids to be inside there, it was modified for the eye tyrant. There are no records of how they planned to keep people from doing magic. Imprisonment there is uncommon, ten a year is about the maximum, and the sentence is almost always a life sentence. Maybe 20 people have been released in the last 400 years. The Eponymous who was in power at the time of the construction was a man named Spyros, and was later ironically sent to the Panopticon for gross levels of corruption and embezzlement. Seems likely that he gave the go-ahead and then was silenced.
Ionessa heads to the Acropolis to see Brigos and get the seal back, his position will now take into account that Vas does not want war. She then takes a look at the library for information about the eye tyrant, but cannot find any, so she turns to the temple of Apnosis (after desecrating some books!) She gets the same guy from the tadpole conversation to draw a rendition of the monster, and he will look into it and get back to us. We discuss how we actually want to get inside the Panopticon and come to the conclusion that we’ll have to kill the monster and free everybody from its tyranny. We’ll do our best to contain anyone trying to escape with the counterspell scrolls and hunt down anyone who does escape before they can regain their strength.
The cleric of Apnosis brings us a book containing information about the best we’re looking for. It’s got a crystal eye in its center, Ionessa opens it to discover the secrets of the eye tyrant!
The end.

Notes

(∩ᄑ_ᄑ)⊃━☆ﾟ*･｡*･:≡( ε:)

Report Date

04 Dec 2023