Tombs of Scoria: Episode 29

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== Synopsis ==
After dealing with the magical aftermath of Georg's disappearance, the brothers investigate the dungeon's unusual magical activity. They encounter a prisoner who claims knowledge of "The Frostlands" and his past expedition with Princess Sela. Despite his mundane story, Imrik tries to coax more details out of him, while Anton is skeptical of the prisoner's credibility. Returning home, the brothers face their worried mother, Valla, who questions their frequent absences. They discuss their trust in Queen Vuularia, with Anton fearing betrayal but eventually reassured by his brothers. Tyrael has a crucial meeting with the Queen, addressing concerns and receiving updates on their mission and military information. The brothers engage in various activities, including scrying and experimenting with magical items, and Imrik takes the prisoner Jules into his employ after learning of a powerful artifact he previously encountered.
==Recap==
===19th May, 1512===
The brothers start out in the dungeons after having stone-to-fleshed the statue of Georg, they talk to Arc Sombar, and she casts a spell which Imrik is unable to discern. She then leaves the brothers, complaining about the dungeon having an unusually large amount of magic in it after the disappearance of Georg's flesh.
Afterwards, the brothers stay in the dungeon to make sure that there's nothing strange going on with the magic.
About an hour later a prisoner starts talking with them trying to help them, claiming that he knows the "magic of The Frostlands", and that he used to work with Princess Sela in Suulwikk in a preparatory expedition, getting arrested after blabbing about it in Suulwikk afterwards.
Anton casts the spell on the prisoner, asking him "Tell us the tale of what happened in the Frostlands", upon which the prisoner describes his expedition to Frostlands.
The expedition consisted of the prisoner and two knights, where they met a couple of elves walking over the snow "As little birds", and that they found a hut with a strange person in it that was half-elven in nature.
Anton is annoyed by the mundane nature of the expedition, and the prisoner cowers in the corner afterwards.
Imrik later decides to approach the prisoner in question, gives him some food from the Cloak of Plenty, and tries to coax him to tell "the true" version of his tale, though Anton complains that the prisoner probably didn't have more of a story and his soft behaviour will just make sure all the other prisoners try the same scam.
After staying in the dungeon for a couple of hours, the brothers now decide to leave, and bribe the guards outside of the dungeons 10 gold each to make sure they tell them in case someone were to teleport inside the dungeons.
A while later, the brothers convene at their home and find their worried mother, Valla McGary.
Valla is worried about them due to the frequent "hunting trips" the brothers have been out on, not knowing the nature of their secret mission to take down Scoria.
Anton is suspicious about this behaviour, but Tyrael tells Valla that they are doing missions for her sister, Queen Vuularia.
A discussion breaks out about the brothers' distant behavior to her this last year, though she then leaves the brothers to have their own discussions without her, not before giving them all a motherly kiss and hug, but just before leaving she accuses Tyrael of getting the tongueless-commoner they saved from Kel Mary Golden pregnant, which he vehemently refuses.
Without their mother or courtiers in the room, the brothers start discussing what the Queen will do with them after Scoria is dead. Anton is worried that the Queen will betray them and either kill them or exile them, but the other brothers dismiss it as his Amulet of Velthara just clouding his mind.
Imrik and Tyrael try to convince Anton that their Aunt the Queen is not going to betray them, though Anton ends it by saying "At the end of the day, I know I can trust two people, You and Tyrael" to Imrik.
They decide to scry on the ESP Amulet and the Hat of Disguise through the Crystal Ball, which they see being worn by someone looking like a random hobo sleeping in a barn.
They also decide to scry on their father, seeing that he's sitting on a table, writing a letter which he hands off to some soldier, and talking to an officer in a jovial manner.
The brothers retreat to their own rooms, during which time Imrik goes to talk to his mother, Valla, about their secret mission, though he casts forget on his own mother to make sure she doesn't remember their discussion. He does tell her about his romantic dalliances, and gives her a letter as an example.
===20th May, 1512===
The brothers get some well-deserved downtime, Anton and Tyrael partially spend the downtime to work together to find out the movements of the dragon Azoron, through marking Azoron the Blue for vengeance.
==== Tyrael's Downtime ====
Tyrael meets with The Family, asking about the magical items he requested earlier, Girdle of Giant Strength, Amulet of Health, and a Tiara of Intelligence. The Intelligence Tiara is not something that the contact gained information about and the Girdle of Giant Strength is owned by someone that doesn't want to trade for it without something proper back. Tyrael offers dragonscale armor and gives his contact 100 gold to send a representative of the Girdle-holders people to the mansion of the McGarys, for negotiations. They also have a chat about how one would best be able to hide treasure, and the contact suggests using the pirate method by just burying it deep.
==== 23rd May, 1512 ====
At night, Tyrael has a scheduled meeting with the Queen, but before he gives a sealed envelope to Anton which he says should be delivered to the monks in case Tyrael does not come back by morning.
This worries Anton, which asks Velthara if Tyrael will survive this day, after the answer he opens the letter that Tyrael had written and reads it. (The contents of the letter is kept hidden from the viewer)
During the meeting between Queen Valuuria and Tyrael, Tyrael talks about the crazy thoughts the brothers have been lately, about which the Queen consoles him about. He asks her about the trust between them and wants to have a discussion with a candle of truth between the two to make sure they both can have a clear conscience between each other. The Queen says that this would be possible, but only after identification of the candle that would take about 2 days. After finding that the candle idea would be too much of a hassle, Tyrael just asks the Queen about their worries that the Queen would "get rid" of them after Scoria has been defeated. At this one of the guards in the room roars an insult, but the Queen stops silences them with a wave of her hand, to let Tyrael finish. Tyrael then brings up misgivings he has had about his mother, Valla, being used to spy on them, due to her seemingly strange questioning of them. The Queen says that she loves her sister very much and that she would at least never use her as a pawn for anything. To this Tyrael says that he is just ridden by paranoia by their travels in dangerous lands with enemies all around them, and just wants some confirmation to soothe the minds of him and his brothers, to prove that she is indeed on their side. The Queen responds to this by saying that Tyrael is loved by her family, and describes that there are other people that could be just as capable as the brother by partially stabbing one of the guards with a dagger through the palm of the hand, but that the brothers are specifically chosen because the Queen trusts them, enough trust to give them an extremely powerful write of the Queen, which if it would fall into the wrong hands could ruin the kingdom. Tyrael seems soothed by this and asks the Queen if their mission to attack Azoron is a wise move. She says that they are the best ones to decide what to do. The conversation goes over to the information that the Hat of Disguise and Amulet of ESP has given the war effort, and she briefs Tyrael about it:
Some military information that's not that interesting to the brothers:
*There are lair guards outside the lair of Scoria,
*One of Scoria's inner servants is Zhartan the Dwarven Cleric of Voraci.
Just before leaving after this, Tyrael eavesdrops on the queen but gets no interesting information.
Tyrael comes back to the brothers and says that the queen is nothing to worry about, and Anton concedes to his brothers' judgment in this matter.
====Anton's Downtime====
Anton goes to the dungeons again, and has a chat with the head of the dungeon guard, who hasn't seen anything unusual happen lately. He gives the head guard 1 platinum for the trouble.
He then walks to Clertis, casting just beforehand, the discussion with Clertis about Azoron and if he has any minions / retinues. The answer from Clertis is that there's very little information that Anton doesn't already know.
Clertis does try to divulge some information about the monsters in the Drakken ridge, but Anton stops him, saying that they'll teleport directly to Azoron's lair.
Anton reads a book of dragons in Clertis' room, trying to find out information about dragon lairs in general.
====Imrik's Downtime====
After deciding to start learning , Imrik goes to meet Arc Sombar, the court mage of the Queen
He asks Arc Sombar about their magical items, to see if they are identified, to which Arc Sombar replies that they are indeed identified.
But she is also worried that the Imrik and the rest of the brothers can't get further with only the help of Clertis, so she offers her assistance to Imrik which he gladly accepts.
She describes the history of the +5 magical sword, Moonblade, describing that it's probably thousands of years old, and warns Imrik to not take the +5 sword into other lands due to being too dangerous in case it would fall in the hands of the enemy.
Imrik gives her a luck stone so she can try to divine more about the +5 magical sword, and Imrik puts on Georg's Robe. (Two magical daggers +1 and a ring of protection +2.)
Imrik also asks Arc Sombar about spells of the fourth circle, she shows him a book about 4th circle spells in general, agreeing that he should learn and that she will try to find a copy of the spell.
Afterwards, Imrik decides to go to the dungeons and finds the prisoner they talked with earlier, which insists on being freed before he tells him any story. Imrik is convinced by this, and shrinks him, and puts him in one of his pockets. He goes back to House McGary, gets inside his own room, locks the door and interrogates the now shrunken man.
He gives a more detailed description of his expedition, the main information being that the half elf that they found was in possession of Orb of Winter that could control the weather.
The prisoner gives his name, Jules, and Imrik takes him into his employ as part of the staff of the house, to try to make sure he doesn't run away.
Imrik tries to scry on the half-elf in control of the orb, named Pharis, after a description from Jules, but to no avail.
Afterwards, he goes to Woster, the head of the staff of the house, to introduce Jules as a new member of the house staff, which takes him under his wing to make him more presentable.
===21st May, 1512===
The brothers do an experiment with the lightning axe, finding out that the axe needs to be charged with at least 1 charge to absorb a lightning attack, and that it seems to be able to absorb two different sources of lightning.
===22nd May, 1512 to 1st June, 1512===
Imrik tries to learn the spells and , but he only learns .
===2nd June, 1512 to 15th June, 1512===
Imrik tries to research , but fails the first two weeks with his research. The session ends during this research.
==Experience==
No experience given this episode.
Category:Tombs of Scoria Episodes