Alescia, the Shower Scene (11/15/2022)

## Alescia's Back

The party is dumped out of a portal from the hellscape, most of the members landing in a heap painfully on top of Talek. After a bit of discussion, the party agrees that the first stop ought to be Alescia so they can do some investigation about the claims made by Sanguen. A cart full of rubble driven by a few men drives up and halts, asking the party if they need some help. They are carting rubble from the ruins of Abbington, trying to save what they can of good materials. Talek decides to try and convert them to Avandra's ways and they quickly depart.

As they make their way on foot towards Alescia and approach the main gates, they can see a large crowd is formed outside with a line waiting to enter. Towards the front, there is what appears to be a priest dressed in white robes with green trim. Talek immediately recognizes this as a priest of Avandra, spreading the good word, and barges his way to the front. The priest offers Talek a place to stay and clean up in the temple of Avandra. Ryafyrie, Kizzik, and Fen follow along to get a good look and can see this occurring. Leaf, always dutiful, holds their place in line. Dandelion, having never seen Alescia, is awestruck and stays behind accidentally. Xophren barges straight up to the front and demands to be let in, letting the guards know of his royal heritage. They are definitely suspicious, but eventually let him pass. All of the party crosses through the gates and then realizes that Dandelion was definitely left behind. They can see a group of people forming around her, clearly having never seen a Fairy before, and are starting to get rowdy. Ryafyrie quickly creates a distraction, hyping up the crowd so Dandelion can escape and join the party as they all cross through the main gates.

## Stinking of Blood

Once inside, a number of options are discussed as to where to begin: Avandra's temple, Apothecary for potions and a gilded lily, Druid's grove, and the main library. As they are travelling though, it becomes clear that people are noticing them and there's a mention that they kind of reek of blood which is drawing unnecessary attention. Fen and Ryafyrie also notice that they are being followed by some guards and decide to divert from the original plan and immediately duck into a somewhat seedy tavern.

Once inside, they order some dragon ales and two whole chickens and a single room that rents by the hour. They proceed to take turns showering off in the single room to get rid of the scent of blood. While Dandelion showers (she's never showered before), the room fills with steam. She realizes that she's no longer in the tavern but is somehow in a steamy forest. She hears a whistle and Winston goes running off. She eventually encounters a Fae named Oberon, lord of beasts. He presents Dandelion with a gift and also asks her for two favors: find a gilded lily so that he can project himself into the physical plane and to also protect Winston (and Scott). The gift he presents is the ability to "store" Winston in the form of a tattoo on her arm. She accepts the gift and promises the fa(e)vors.

After the whole party has showered (including Talek) and finishes up their meals, they sneak out the back of the tavern ducking the guards and continue on. They visit a potion dealer and an apothecary quickly, determining the nature of some of the potions that they received from a man in a cart (forget his name) and also get a lead on a gilded lily, but realize that no one has enough gold to procure one so they may need to find one instead or find another source of gold.

## Post Shower Adventures

Their next stop is the druidic circle to visit Xophren's grandfather and ask him about Inquisitors. They ask many questions about origins of Inquisitors and how they are created, but the old council member had more dealings with politics and other day to day council issues and didn't have answers to provide unfortunately. He was, however, much more receptive to the party now that they were no longer branded as criminals.

They press forward and make their way to the library in the highest tier of Alescia. Once inside, the party devises a way to get into the restricted area of the library looking for information about how Inquisitors are created and anything else to do with blood magic and realm shards. They attempt to cajole the primary Gnome librarian but are met with heavy resistance. Xophren is able to sweet talk the Gnome's bird into helping out and the bird retrieves a single Inquisitor journal. The journal described the creation of the Inquisitor Graves and also indicated that the method for creating an Inquisitor resulted in many failures where the victim was killed. While in the library, a man carrying a very large stack of books bumped into someone and dropped a note. The note detailed a meeting place so the party followed this lead.

The note led to another tavern, a bit seedier than the first. Ale was had. Waiting at the table, the party ended up meeting Fast Tony who was very fast. After some discussion, he described to the party a location where once a month 3 Inquisitors would enter and 3 different Inquisitors would leave. This description sounded like a guard change and could indicate a location where a new blood bank was formed or something else nefarious. Fast Tony wanted information in exchange as he was an information broker by trade (all legal of course). The party provided some information about Inquisitors at Abbington and some of their travels.