Sixty-Second Session - A Cat's Tail

Session resumes with the party having spent hours fighting fires and saving people in Ueramos, and the worst appears to be over. The party regroups at the main square, dominated by a big tree, stone pillars, and very tired people. Ishaq also steals some new clothes.

Markoris gets involved in distributing relief supplies, encounters an Espiral providing potions and other stuff, offers to help them hand out potions to survivors. Alana also helps, and by rolling very well on their Medicine checks they are able to help many people.

Celia spots the Espiral and goes to talk to Max, Max talks her out of harassing the snail-man with salt. Max and Celia then go to seek out the person in charge to ask about what happened in this city. They find Rainen, a Goliath baker, talking to an armoured Elf lady with a tree sigil on her chest.

Celia overhears that things appear under control, with a lot of casualties in poor districts, 'I can't believe he managed to hit us right now' says the Armour-Elf -they say that 'he has some kind of power behind his army'. Max recognizes the tree sigil as the symbol of the Green Man, warns Ishaq to expect god stuff. Celia tells them what she overheard.

Max tells the guard, Captain Symara, that the party wants to pursue the raiders that attacked the city, free of charge. Symarashares: they know the enemy leader as 'Marvos', favoured by the All-Chief of Allaevi, the country across the nearby border. ‘Marvos’ came out of nowhere five years ago, but suddenly became a much bigger problem in the last six months. Symara believes he's positioning himself for a coup against the All-Chief.

When Max describes Cyrus to her, she confirms that ‘Marvos’ is just Cyrus’ new name. Cyrus struck today during ‘The Lady’s Night’, when half the guard was away preparing for the festival. Symara suspects a mole. An insight check confirms the Captain’s honesty, and the party is deputized to hunt the mole and defeat the raiders… after Rainen the baker feeds them.

As the party heads to lunch, they see a lot of animals around the ruined city, scavenging. Most of them appear to be winged cats. With the help of Ishaq making her hands smell like meat, Alana starts making friends with them. She casts Speak with Animals and asks if one of them wants to come with the Keepers. It turns out they understand Common and a lot of them want to help the party for food. The party now has the following pet Tressym:

1. Swiftfoot Bigbelly, Alana
2. Fightyclaws, Max
3. Mistweather, Celia
4. Sliver, Markoris
5. Tremblepaws IV, Ishaq

During lunch, the party plans their next move. They find out from Rainen: the Allaevi have their own pre-Raith tongue with a distinctive chanting warcry- Alana has heard it before. Most of Ueramos speaks at least a little of their dialect, as the Allaevi used to be trade partners and neighbours before they turned aggressive. Previous raids used to be bloodless extraction of tribute, but Marvos sheds blood with enthusiasm. Rainen doubts anyone from Ueramos would sell them to the Allaevia, and Max perceives he’s honest.

Max states his intention to discover Cyrus’ next target if possible, then ambush him, rather than invading Allaevi on their own. Gathering evidence to warn the All-Chief about their imminent overthrow could be a backup plan. However, Symara is only \*assuming\* there's a mole, but the party knows from Max’s vision that Cyrus has divine intervention from the Dark Whisper on his side. Cyrus’ advantage could be from magic, not treachery.

Ishaq suggests contacting Cyrus via Sending and letting Max provoke him into coming into a trap. Max demurs, preferring to maintain the element of surprise and not knowing if Cyrus even cares enough to come kill him.

Celia points out that \*Marvos\* Dunham, the city of the dead, is where the Lady of the Lasting Embrace told her to seek ‘Tristan.’ It seems an impossible coincidence that Cyrus also took Marvos as his nom de guerre. It’s decided that rather than spend time hunting for a possibly nonexistent mole, the party will go to Marvos Dunham to seek Tristan and any connection to Cyrus. Fortunately the cats can fly and ALANA CAN TURN INTO A GIANT PTERODACTYL so the party does not have to walk.

The party transports Rainen’s wares to hungry survivors, then decides to check out the Lady’s Night events tonight and go to Marvos Dunham tomorrow. They find four trials set up in Ueramos’ Coliseum. They are:

1. The trial created by the children of the city
2. The trial of self-reflection
3. The maze of misfortune
4. The maze of the dead

After meeting the unsettingly ancient Elven woman who administers the trials, most of the Keepers head into the children’s trial, while Markoris stays outside to take care of the cats. Inside, they find standard gross-out tricks, like peeled grapes that feel like eyeballs. But there is also a telepathic voice that mocks them as ‘scaredy-cats’ when they don’t participate.

Moving into the trial of self-reflection, the party has to split up as they proceed into a hall of enchanted mirrors, in which they are confronted by the images of the dead in their lives. Celia is confronted by the people she’s killed, but makes it out after making a WIS save to understand the true nature of the mirrors’ magic. Ishaq is confronted by Felix, but tells him off and reunites with Celia to commiserate about the very rude mirrors.

Alana and Max enter together, and are confronted by the many, many people Max has killed or witnessed the deaths of in his violent career. Max yells at them to go away and defies his guilt, only to fail a WIS save and vanish into the mirrors, beyond Alana’s reach. Session ends with Max trapped in a parallel realm, encountering a smiling elflike spirit that serves the Lady of the Lasting Embrace, suggesting that Max could use some self-reflection.