S2E8 Session Report

plan: bring in mizzix. research the history of the signets. dream wants to check on the book requests she made (history/whereabouts of the gauntlet and the ring), and she wants to pull some azorius strings to get some of the books back to essan. theo wants to look at the details of how orzhov life debts work, and how her and de'har could be freed. she also wants to look into pact magic. sylas wants all info that essan has about nassius ven. gustavo was nassius ven's contact in the dimir and was paying him off so that nassius could get more clout and power within the guild pact. the party also wants to look into how to talk to the leader of rakdos, and theo wants to see if there are any old freespars that may have been around for the guild pact's creation.
Dream casts Magic Aura on the signets daily. As she gets to know the magic signature of them, she finds that they bend the rules of magic a bit. it is like "prime magic." it is fundemental to our conception of magic and reality itself. It is a binding sort of magic. Feels like magic that is higher than the weave but also being filtered through some sort of other "will" (similar to magic that comes from a warlock). It feels alive.
Haku says that the source of the magic is probably coming from the Dimir. Dream disagrees, but would consider the possibility.
Sylas remembers that this reminds him of something from his childhood, something that his dad use to bring around.
Da'Har (w/ Theo) finds Mizzix drunk in a pub. He tells him that we found Asan, and that she is safe and we can take him to her. Also asks for his help. On the walk, Mizzix says that his life has gone to hell since Asan stole from the lab and since Gustavo left. The rival twins took over the lab. They black bag Mizzix the first time in, but then he joins the team after talking to Asan. Asan and Mizzix start bringing their lab equipment to the safe house.
Library: Armand Écarlate - only one reference to this person in the library. No tie to the 10th district. They couldn't find anything about the nature of the guild pact magic. All theories are still without evidence or data. there's nothing about the history or origin in an arcane way. Valtara - (look at that page for reference) Orzhov debts - in the library, there is only theoretical knowledge about how the orzhov life debts work. nothing has any substantial proof or explanations of the arcana. but there are certainly rules and restrictions. the way that it seems to work feels valid, as in people make informed decisions before agreeing to the deals and debts. the rules seem sensible, not arbitrary. people take ownership or responsibility or fault, and that is what the orzhov use to insight the indebtedness.
Theo speaks with an old ghost named Sarmanor Freespar III. She has seen him around a lot in the daytime and in the gardens (which is unusual for the Freespars, even in death). He transcended in 5050 ZC. Theo asks if he knows anything about old magical items that were used to make the pact, and he says that there were lots of legends about old magical items. He'd be happy to share them with her. (FOLLOW UP ON THIS).
Sylas goes to Gordy to ask about where his dad might be. Gordy says that someone fitting his description has been in the Rakdos underground asking about the staff and cube. Gordy asks Sylas to keep anything bad out of his fighting pits, and Sylas pays him off.
Sylas goes to the Place of Pain's Pleasure to see Ophyira.
Theo and Haku have a conversation about why he owes her one.
Flashback to when Theo gets betrayed - she is a new security guard at the Freespar, undercover for the Dimir. She meets with Callen, her Dimir contact. They're caught. She is questioned (unsuccesfully) by Nuemeror. Tries to escape and impresses him. They put her in solitary for a few days. He brings her back and makes the deal with her over her soul. -end of flashback-
Haku tells Theo that he almost got caught coming to visit her, and that's why she got caught that night.
Sylas goes to the Guild Pact and puts out an APB out on his dad and on Gustavo.
Thoughts on a plan: Dream thinks we should turn in a fake staff to the Azorius. Theo thinks we should ensure that the signets we know of are safe, and worry about finding the others. She doesn't think we should be holding onto all of them at once. returning the fake staff will possibly clear dream's investigation. sylas still has to clear nassius ven's name. asan's name probably can't be cleared.
for next time: they decide to take the triskellion back to ophyiras and tell them that the simic (their enemy) are looking for it. we'll tell them that we need a duplicate of the staff made, and we'll recommend that they make a duplicate of the cube too.
sylas to the room about the tension between haku and theo: "yikes" the to the room after sylas tells us about his dad: "yikes"
mathius benzani is probably dimir.
sylas' dad is actively looking for sylas. our cover was blown by the dimir when we were attacked, so he probably knows that we're all working together. we'll have to be aware of him and mathius as we go to speak with ophyiras. if we can, we need to turn ophyiras against mathius.
dream's uncle sent her a letter asking for them to catch up. she'll visit him before we travel.