Zoom 2024-06-11 21:00

None of the ‘in-the-know’ group want to take up the option of killing Sorlor. They decide to leave it as as option only to be used if absolutely necessary.
Asking a bit more about Sorlor, we find out that she has no spell casting abilities other than her Clerical ones, but she can fight.
The runic leather armour is repaired:
*+3 resizeable	Runic Leather Armour. Requires attunement.
*Stores 15	levels of protection spells (any discipline). Spells can be cast	into the armour by anyone, but when cast from the armour must target	the wearer.
As nobody else wants the armour, Joshua gratefully receives it. (He expects a certain hobbit may want it should he return to the party.)
We receive the list of items the Thieves guild are prepared to sell us - at a 50% discount, due to Raston.
We receive two letters in subsequent days, delivered via TruthSpeaker from the Temple of Perceval.
*One is to	Dougal, and just says “See you in two days”.
*The other is to	the party, and says “Don’t rush till I’ve got there – V”.
We have a good idea who sent the first letter, and in two days time, Thirson duly shows up under a flag of truce.
Thirson is here because of Saratak 1 – he will help us rescue Hentron.
*He has come	from Hightower where he saw Vinmira – who told him we were going	to try to rescue Hentron.
*We are earlier	than Saratak prophesied – he had us coming down from Bristol after	going to the Golden Pagoda.
*Events seems to	have been ‘hurried’.
*When we ask	about Toscin, he says he is still in touch with Ghassan (*), who is	keeping an eye on Vendor.
*He agrees to	restore Dougal’s hand (it will take a couple of weeks) after the	mission if we survive!
Joshua thinks that Thirson is being truthful and is being purposefully open. Dougal is OK, though not enthusiastic (roll of 57) about teaming up with Thirson. So the party accepts Thirson’s offer and agree to work with him.
We tell Thirson about what Garaf scried in Vendor (ie zombified Sahdowclan) and the subsequent divination piggy-back. This worries Thirson, who says that demonstrates that Toscin is ‘out’. Should Toscin reach full power, he will have greater power over divination spells – he can alter/affect their results. We discuss Toscin’s origin: Thirson has heard stories that Toscin might be ‘fractured’, and he knows of ‘The One’ as a ‘belief’ – not quite a religion. However, he has not heard about ‘Of the One’.
Thirson is worried about Ghassan, and says he will go and check on him – he will be back in a couple of hours. When he returns, he is looking ‘battered’. He tells us Ghassan is dead. Toscin is obviously growing in power, though still confined to Vendor, and we must be careful of using divinations – though we are safe inside temples.
Although Thirson met the real Vinmira is Hightower (despite V having possibly gone off with one of the Five), Thirson is now getting worried about Vinmira. We ask if the teleport trap guards could be asked if they might have seen him – but they didn’t.
Thirson says that after the Hentron caper, we must gather all the goblets. We must impress on Hentron the need for the ones held in the kingdom, and get one off the Lizardmen. He asks what we did with the hand of GARM (we don’t tell him) as that could be used to bargain for it. Vinmira has a goblet. He doesn’t think the Trolls of Ghoulagabba gave one. However, the Elves have one – and it is Sorlor who has it! So we must now recover both Hentron and the goblet from Sorlor. (She will know that the goblet protects/defends against the Five, but probably not much more.) We ask about the ritual that is required – Thirson says that simply reforming the goblets should buy us some time.
We give Vinmira a couple more days to turn up, and continue planning. Going through the map:
*The Hospital	area will be most occupied, possibly with high level Elves	recovering there – so we should avoid alerting them.
*There will be	some acolytes in their quarters, but no visitors.
*There will be	quite a lot of servants still around.
*There are	likely to be ‘low’ priests in their quarters.
*There may be	guards in their quarters and definitely guarding the treasury/cells.
*The main temple	will obviously be well attended during a service – there is a	gallery around it (with stairs up from ground floor of the main	temple) with no access/exit to the second floor.
Sorlor is likely to be either in the Priests’ Temple, the Garden, or upstairs (via the big red staircase) in her quarters. As all these areas are at the east end of the temple, it makes sense to enter via the eastern door – which is likely to have quite a lot of ‘servant’ traffic through it.
(*) For Ghassan, see https://get-the-gelf.fandom.com/wiki/Zoom_2022-01-11_21:00