Zoom Sessions April/May

Following on from this, and as we finished quite early on Tuesday, I decided to watch the recording from the Saratak II session afterwards.
 
 In addition to the points Steve has noted, he also said:
 
 - Sallahan - "You will need to be there once" - be, not go; also sounds possibly a bit non-linear-time-ish.
 
 - "You are right to distrust those you do not trust" - do not rather than cannot, if it makes a difference.
 
 - "The death of the elf has made me start to change"
 
 - "Saratak was a True Seer, Saratak will be a True Seer" - He isn't at the moment. The storm at Torgan wasn't enough to make the change. The cracks of doom will be enough.
 
 - Before we get further into that, Saratak interrupts with (edited highlights):
 
 Saratak: "How many players on the stage are you aware of? Major players, powers" e.g. The Empire, not Rasten
 S: "How well are the players doing?" 
 Party: "Not very well?"
 S: "Or there is another player." 
 P: "Which we haven't seen?"
 S: "Oh, you've seen"
 S: "Wyldwood is not a player, Wyldwood just ... is. And always will be". 
 P: "The original religion?"
 S: "Nearly"
 P (Dougal): "Barosa?"
 S: "Barosa what?"
 
 Saratak then possibly deflects - Joshua may have noticed if he did.
 
 P: "Does the hidden player have a base, a physical manifestation?"
 S: "One day I may be able to tell you that. As a physical manifestation you've met it .. or part of it. I know that"
 P: "The Five?"
 S: "The Five are tools. Unwilling tools" - also the lizardmen believe the Five serve them.
 P: "What's the aim of this unseen power"
 S: "Ask them when you find them"
 
 Steve name-drops Vinmira
 
 S: "Do you trust him?"
 Caradoc - yes(ish); others - no
 S: "You have your answer"
 S: "I gave you the indication earlier"
 
 I wonder about a possible (inverse?) correlation between the natty dwarf and the scruffy Vinmira. When we see him, is he always as scruffy as when we first met him?
 
 At our last stay in White Beach, when Vinmira left the Diamond Fort during the night, when did the natty dwarf take ship for Sallahan?
 
 Where else have we heard of the natty dwarf being? Wasn't he (or maybe she) spotted at the siege of Willston?
 
 When Vinmira no-showed in Wingsport, did that coincide with any significant event elsewhere? Did he no-show another time as well?
 
 I can't immediately find the bit where Vinmira describes getting a runic spell from a scroll (and I can't remember which spell it was), I wonder if that explanation was a load of Johnson, and it's some innate power he has (or an item he didn't want to talk about). I don't remember if we got anything from our research on runic spells.
 
 Fake Vinmira didn't drink Hightower brandy. Do I remember bottles of Hightower having runic script on them. Did we ever do a Comp Lang on it? I wonder if it does anything else besides getting you drunk? And, of course, it come from Hightower, like dwarves.
 
 Garaf will talk to Bazin about any myths, fairytales etc about dwarven origins, deities, heroes etc.
 
 I also note that Percevel was a dwarf before he was a god, and he's keen on balance.
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No combat last night, and several days have passed, so full HP & spell lists
We met a giant who appears to be the nameless mad giant from near Torgan, and also is/was/will be Saratak. He was suitably cryptic.
We have reached White Beach. Let DAP know any individual (as opposed to party) actions you want to take there.
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So we have met a mad giant with many cheerful facts about the death of Eliazure etc. He seems to have received a mission, possibly from Saratak I, or even channelling Saratak I, since he seems unclear where his personality begins. However, he does state that Saratak said that meeting the party was important. On being quizzed by the party, he gave us a number of snippets of information (eg the slice of pie to go to THE slave - we'll know them when we see them - or that the party needs to go to Sallahan once).
However, he does make one statement unprompted by the party. Taken together with his two later questions we get the following:
"You are right to distrust those you cannot trust." (ugh, er, yes, clearly but ... )
"Do you know how many powers are in play?" - and suggesting there are unknown or undeclared powers acting against some or all of the active powers.
"Do you trust Vinmira?" and seeming pleased when he heard that some didn't.
This brings us to a number of further questions about Vinmira and about dwarves. Dwarves are not listed among the elder races or the newcomers, but play a significant role in many of the legends we have uncovered. We do know that Hightower is a major school of magic, but, given dwarven knowledge of runic magic, we may also suppose that there is an esoteric school, which may or may not be known to the general dwarven population, and which may possess political or religious aims, which again may or may not be known to the general dwarven population. Also, we do not know why the dwarves joined William's kingdom.
 
Thid brings us back to Vinmira. He knows (some) runic magic, and is a shapeshifter of sorts. He appears to work with Alveran intelligence, but we do not know his real position. He has been the closest contact we have to the Alveran leadership, or so he would have us believe. We have no independent evidence. We have tried to send reports to other intelligence operatives such as Grohde, and we do not know if that worked, but Vinmira seems to satisfy local military commanders of his credentials (rather like Dr Who?).
 
Finally, Vinmira was so well known to the Five that one was able to imitate him almost perfectly. At least he tells us the beer-drinker was not him, but the beer drinker was able to slip seamlessly into the second meeting.