Session 5: Shadow, Rake, and Flame

General Summary

The Foundation found itself trapped in an alley by six cloth masked figures wearing electrified gauntlets. A fight broke out and the party, while able to handle themselves, found the fight more difficult than their last. On top of that, they discovered that Operative V was watching from a balcony above them. Taking a risk, Vax misty stepped to the balcony above but found that V had cast silence on the area, making some spells impossible. Vax managed to stay alive long enough for the rest of the party to kill all but one of the masked attackers. They knocked the man unconscious in an attempt to keep him alive to question him later.
The Operative took the opportunity to leap from the balcony and snap the unconscious attacker’s neck, killing him instead. Despite valiant attempts, the Operative fled, blending into the crowd of Upper Central Sharn. In the aftermath, Marcella and Rasp took two pairs of the electrified gauntlets from the attackers and Vax laid out the bodies of the slain respectfully.
The Foundation then made their way to the Cathedral of the Cleansing Flame where a sister told them they could find Brother Essex in the Hollow Tower in Upper Dura where he gambled. The Hollow Tower was the name of the arena where Skyblades took place, an aerial jousting sport. Taking another gondola, they made their way to the Hollow Tower where Vax talked his way out of paying a ticket. There, they found Brother Essex in the midst of being talked to by several cronies of someone called the Rake, who Brother Essex owed money to. After the cronies left, the party spoke with Essex who told them he owed the Rake 2,000 crown and couldn’t leave the city until his debt was paid. The party told him about their expedition and that Vivienne had sent them to collect him.
Not long after, the Rake’s bodyguard told the party that the Rake wanted to speak to all of them. They followed her up to a skybox where they met with an impeccably dressed male half-orc constantly smoking a cigarette. In the conversation that followed, the Rake negotiated a contract with the Foundation (or rather, the Aurum) where he would allow Brother Essex to leave and forgive his debts for a 25% cut of the Expedition’s profits.
The party took the unsigned contract back to the Foundation’s offices to discuss with Turk and Vivienne. They decided to sign the contract, knowing that the expedition was not likely to end up with a lot of monetary gain, and willing to hold the Rake to the letter of the contract. Vivienne’s manservant, Anton, took the contract to the Rake and returned with Brother Essex later that evening. With the Brother in tow, the Foundation planned to leave for Ghalt, AU the next morning.
In the morning, the party headed to Grand Mesa Station and began their two day journey on the Lightning Rail. On the trip, the party took some time to open up to one another, with Bal telling them all that he is Khalashtar, Rasp talking a bit about his past as a field medic and soldier who had operated in Karrnath, and Vax talking a bit more candidly about being a Shifter and his con work. They also learned a bit more about Brother Essex and the Silver Flame itself, notably, his interest in Tira’s Tomb. According to church doctrine, Tira became one with the Silver Flame in order to defeat the archfiend at the end of the Crusade of Flames. However, Tira’s Tomb apparently exists and is an important location for the rites of High Cardinals and the Keeper herself. So, the question then stands: if she became one with flame, what is buried in Tira’s Tomb? This paradox, and Essex’s interest in it, earned him a demotion and transfer from the Cathedral in Flamekeep to the Cathedral in Sharn.
In the evening, they pulled into the station in Ghalt, AU, in the middle of lush Aundairian wine country, on the beginning of the trail of the Dragonshard Skull.

Character(s) interacted with

Operative V
Brother Essex
The Rake

Report Date

02 Aug 2020

Primary Location

Sharn

Secondary Location

The Lightning Rail