Episode 19

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## Plot Summary

The group receives a summons to a war council with Queen Sleekrun, Eldin, Lynch, Minnow, Snips, Hush, Klaxxon, and Wisp Walker.  Ora and Starheart go to her cousin’s house to get some copper wire.  Bubo goes to Klaxxon’s shop to retrieve his new swords: Sword 1 and Sword 2.  Nitsuj follows him and then they get breakfast.  They all meet up at Billa’s potion shop to buy some potions.  She gives a potion of diminution as a gift to Kab.  Ora trades a poison vial for a potion of haste.  Bubo buys three healing potions, a potion of moon essence, and a fire breathing potion.  Ora buys three greater healing potions.  Nitsuj buys moon juice and a bloodlust potion.  Starheart attempts to steal a potion but is caught and kicked out the store.

Late for the meeting, they distribute the potions and convince Starheart not to get a drink.  Before entering, Ora drinks her haste potion.  The Queen’s throne room now has a long table at which the dignitaries are sat.  The Queen eyes the vampires angrily.  Hush and Snips sit near each other and exchange pleasantries.  Klaxxon tinkers with something at the table.  Wisp has all his maps and notes out.  Lynch and Minnow stand against one of the walls, but sit when the meeting begins.

Wisp informs the group that the orcs will attack within the week.  Snips has been working with the Steamfang dwarves and they will send a mercenary army to assist.  Hush has his assassins ready.  Minnow, Lynch, and the remaining Forgotten will fight for their freedom.  After the war, all prisoners who assist will be freed.  Eldin and the vampires will help in exchange for a hundred prisoners.  Starheart is horrified.  Half of Klaxxon’s machines are at the crest, the rest are at the front gate.

Wisp details his plan to defend the city, but he’s not optimistic about their chances.  Nitsuj gives him the book he found in the library of the history of Copperforge that might give them an advantage.  Wisp gets to work reformulating his plan and suggesting hiding the civilians in the dungeon tunnels.  Snips was responsible for getting extra rations from the dwarves, but they have not arrived.  Starheart is asked to talk to the Flintbornes about the tunnels.  Starheart tries to leave, but is given an escort.

Nitsuj brings up his plan for the worst case scenario; if the orcs take the city, they should destroy the mountain.  The center seed could be ignited.  Ora suggests that if that were to happen, the gnomes could perhaps go to Raufel.  Throughout the entire conversation, Snips is sweating.  Nitsuj, knowing that Snips had earlier offered him a job to kill Governor Urit Syle, says that it is important to protect those that could help them after the war, and Snips agrees.  Nitsuj also suggests rigging the mountain with traps, much like a boy who was left home alone in a fiction novel he once read.  Klaxxon gets very excited about this.

Hush reminds them that Kurluk is an exceptionally smart orc.  Hush gives Ora a pointed look.  She finds a piece of parchment under the table that reads “Tonight.”  The council continues to debate the worst case scenario and where the gnomes would go.  One coast is blocked by the orcs and Raufel is two weeks away.  There is also a tunnel to the Steamfang dwarves.  They decide to weld the main gate shut.  As the meeting wraps up, Nitsuj helps Wisp Walker and Klaxxon develop plans.  Ora makes plans with Eldin to make an early deposit.  He will shadow her until needed.

During the meeting, Starheart went to buy garlic to make necklaces.  She goes to her family and tells them about the orcs.  She tells them that the Queen wants their help, but Starheart is worried for them.  They are willing to help to defend their country.  Starheart forces them to wear garlic necklaces.

The group reconvenes at the Tequila Mockingbird.  Starheart give Houn a garlic necklace and then sneaks off to speak with Elder Cabe Erta to get more knowledge about Kelrek.  She asks what would happen if someone made a deal with him and didn’t follow through.  Erta explains that either the person succeeds and Kelrek rises, or the person fails and Kelrek rises through the person.  Kelrek was bound to the book seventeen years before by Hortiel.  Either way, the deal will break his chains.  The only way to prevent it is to kill the person.  If Kelrek is released they need to find Hortiel.

Starheart goes to find Hush.  She finds him with the ghost of his heartbeast: Eel.  Starheart asks how he died but Hush ignores her question.  Starheart wants him to find Hortiel.  He will let her know if he sees anything.  Hush gives her a book about Hortiel.  He tells her to help her friends kill Snips.

Ora hires Houn to deliver casks of ale to the mercenary’s guild.  Nitsuj looks up vampires in his book of knowledge.  They formulate their plan to kill Snips.  Ora and Nitsuj turn invisible and Bubo waits as a backup outside.  It is a busy afternoon.  Snips is behind the counter and the mercenaries are drinking the ale.  Bubo sends Dumeril into the mercenary’s guild to help scout.

Nitsuj finds Snips office and enters.  It is a simple room with an ebony desk and chair, two bookcases, and a small portrait of Snips.  Ora discovers hidden pages in an unknown script.  Nitsuj sees that one book is much older than the others: it is a history of Kloht, as if written by the god himself.   Ora sends Eldin (who has been her literal shadow) to lure Snips into the room.  Bubo sees most of the mercenaries flee as Starheart walks up.

Snips follows the vampire to the office and an invisible Nitsuj stabs him.  Snip’s skin starts stitching itself back together and he blasts Ora with an eldritch blast.  He tries to cast another spell, but Nitsuj counterspells it.  Starheart rushes into the building, while Bubo smokes his pipe outside, but gags on the smoke. Snips cast a wall of fire and Nitsuj goes down, but Ora heals him with a potion.  Starheart, Bubo and Eldin join the battle.  As Snips is about to fall, he changes his form into a demon and lashes out at all of them.  Nitsuj finishes him off with Kelrek’s dagger: soul five.

Ora searches Snip’s body and finds a scroll, a smooth stone, a ring, and a spell scroll.  The scroll contains a hand thrusting out of the ground and arcane runes that no one can read.  Nitsuj detects celestial magic on it.  The starheart glows bright when brought near the paper.  Eldin’s vampire compatriot has another man trapped and ready for Nitsuj to kill.  Starheart is adamant that Nitsuj should not complete the deal.  They travel back to Bubo’s house to regroup.  Nitsuj tries to copy the scroll, but is only able to copy the picture; the script eludes him.  He tries to write the script in his other book, but it cannot handle the information.

Ora identifies the objects she found: the stone is a cursed luck stone, the scroll is a soul cage, and the ring is a ring of spell turning.  Nitsuj has a conversation with Kelrek, trying to ensure that after the deal is complete that he will be spared and granted the power he desires.  When Kelrek agrees, Nitsuj asks for a further deal: if Kelrek spares him and all his compatriots, Nitsuj will serve him.  Kelrek will think about it.

Starheart returns to Hush and asks about Kelrek.  He is an agent of chaos and wants to supplant his father.  He is adamant that he needs the scroll.  Starheart gets some incense and heads back to Snip’s body, but decides to get Ora first.  They head to the mercenary's guild and cast speak with the dead on Snips.  They ask five questions and then he slumps to the floor.

1. Did he make a deal with Kelrek?  No, he made a deal directly with Kloht.
2. Do the gods fear Kelrek?  Yes, even Kloht is afraid of his own son.
3. What does the scroll they found mean?  Seventeen years ago he cut the arm off of a Sahlite, but Hortiel banished it away.  The scroll shows its resting place.  Kloht could use it to create instead of destroy.
4. How can they find Hortiel?  There are sightings of him with crops, near roads, taking care of people.
5. Is there any way to separate Kelrek from a host?  If Kelrek has already possessed a body, then the only way to separate them is death.  If it is a contract, it is unbreakable except with consequences.

## Fun Moments

Deva tries to figure out what emoji to use to advertise the show in a tweet and Haley suggests dragon, sword, heart, heart, eggplant, to which Danny adds splat.

Andrew goes cricket hunting.

This is the first instance of Justin aggravating Danny with not one but two counterspells!