The Pantheon War Campaign/Session 19

Last Time
*The Party crossed the mountain and had some rather awkward encounters in the outlying villages
*The Party made it back to A<...indistinct mumbling…> and are told by someone who appears to be a drunk vagrant (creatively named Grimey) to go check out this tent
*We go to the tent and meet Marco Mario XIV (Quay's character) and Pennsylvania Telluride (Wes' character)
**The remaining fools characters meet with Falamar's steward and update him on the mission
**The rest of the party is so confused…
This Time
*"The Bird and The Flame" go to meet the Queen
**They arrive to the Queen's court in a dramatic fashion thanks to Maestro Sunrose's excellent control of the wind to make Elesett look like a hero
**Maestro Sunrose also notices a weird person in the Queen's court.
**The Queen interrogates Elesett about the missing party members
***She plays up her status as a young person to press Elesett about what it means that the Humboldt problem was "contained"
****When Elesett pauses to answer the Queen's questions, she turns to the mysterious person. The mysterious person nods as Elesett answers.
***Tome was killed "by Death" but also sick and under the influence of the City so Haruspex killed him. Haruspex is able to tap into death, but is not a wizard. And also not a necromancer since he has never raised the dead.
**The Queen asks about Amaranthia
***Amaranthia "is in a defensive posture", appears weakened. There are people, but they tend to be concentrated in the capital. Elesett tries to dodge a question about the number of soldiers that Amaranthia has
***The Queen comes out and essentially calls Elesett useless
***What is it about this "City" and "light" you keep mentioning? (Meta: The Queen may very well not know about these things at all)
***Elesett sais that the Queen's forces could defeat the remaining Amaranthian soldier. And while it isn't up to Elesett to say what the Queen should want, the land is not what it once was. The pollinators are dead. The animals are behaving weirdly. It will not sustain human life at a decent quality of life. But when the city leaves, the land would be yours to take.
***The King is alive and "has intelligent advisers". The Queen steeples her fingers and asks for proof of the situation.
***When Maestro Sunrose sings the backing melody everyone looks sad and disturbed, except the mysterious man in the corner who appears to be memorizing the song so he can redo it
****Maestro Sunrose realizes that the person in the corner is possibly angelic, but definitely Valdosian
*Mathys and Ziton in the library
**A saferoom: defensive and protective
**200-300 books, more than in the rest of the city combined
**Mathys wants to invoke FOIA about other contracts in the area – to summon a minor angelic aspect to give him info
***He is unsuccessful in writing the contract he wanted to
***Ziton does his part well by providing exact coordinates for the planet
**Mathys retrieves a contract that he believes is relevant! He doesn't know exactly what it does. He considers whether to activate it anyway. 
***Godlike power has been written into reality via legal contracts for a fire-and-forget tool
***Being a lawyer, he makes the boring and objectively correct decision not to do that.
***Ziton is interested, because there's a fun ritual he'd get to witness
***Mathys wants a trainee license. 
**Ziton is looking for books in languages he doesn't know
**Mathys wants to understand what Amarak is
***Discovers almanacs covering cycles of divine movement between planets – he's very interested in what it takes to come from or leave Amaranthia or Atarkia from another world
***Some describe gates, but as depressions in space, eyes in the sky, etc., even including crafts
***Something like Falamar was expected to arrive on the planet around the time the party arrived
***What's Amarak reading about the most? Banishment, and the art of using divine power to render a location off-limits to other powers
***Ziton's very intrigued, esp. by Amarak ("his history is a mystery") – conjectures that perhaps he's a divine being banished to a mortal plane?
**The City seeks out lonely places: places where there isn't already a strong divine presence. Falamarites wouldn't have come if the planet were susceptible to a Valdosian intrusion – so, a third-party shock?
***Ziton's arrival?
**Mathys signs himself into the Valdosian bar
***He feels a little sick, & the other contracts become literally heavier
***Something happens to him. He's not sure what
***He did this so he could fill out the FOIA request. So he does it again.
****A suspension clause on restrictions of information. He makes himself a living exception
****It normally would be a problem. But he gets really lucky.
***A hand and creature try to drag themselves out of the book Ziton is reading.
***The contracts begin smoking.
***There's a commotion outside the library door. It glides open, and a tall, gray figure descends. Amarak has been thrown to the ground. 
***A second hand from behind covers Ziton's mouth. The creature the hands belong to tries to claw itself out from inside Ziton's body
****Mathys thinks about trying to ban the books.
****The hands are very handsy. He decides to do it.
****The gray figure accepts the contract. It tells Ziton to open his mouth. The handsy things are not Valdosian, but … something else, probably not his patrons.
****Ziton opens his mouth. The angels tells him it will be painful. It is painful. He swallows some flaming contracts, and then another sheath of them, and another. The fourth one is probably just for funsies. There's some permanent damage. His eyes look glazed. He knows a little more about Valdosian contracts, though. 
****The angel introduces itself as Seraphel (the angel of first contacts). It makes a deal with Mathys to get him home if he helps with the Atarkian / Amaranthian mission
*Maestro Sunrose and Elesett go back to Falamar's tent and reports back the status of the mission, including the existence of the City
**Senil is pleased that the mission is done 
**Sunrose and Elesett leave the den to meet up with the rest of the party
**Amarak runs towards Sunrose and Elesett, and though exhausted from the running does not seem to be breathing heavily. He tells the party that he must follow him immediately as Mathys as gone over to the Valdosians.
**The Valdosians will likely kill the Lucky Strikes and the Falamarites position on the planet will be compromised
Category:Session Summaries