Session0061

Episode 0061 - One Down
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**Setting:**

Sigil - June 17th, 211 AW
**Synopsis:**

* At the Quorum banquet in Sigil, the party devises a plan to expose Granite Vashar's ownership of Mercury Company slaves, by using magic to reveal the brand on one of his servants while all of the Quorum members are gathered for a toast and a musical performance.
* The brand revealed, Granite Vashar attempts to blame the slave ownership on his chief of staff, Suda. However, when the party attempts to question Suda in a *zone of truth* to corroborate this, Granite attempts to kill him before he can answer.
* The situation growing increasingly tense, an *antimagic field* created by another Quorum member reveals Granite Vashar to be the demon lord Graz'zt in disguise.
* His plot foiled, Graz'zt attacks the party with the aid of his cohort of demonic supporters, while the other members of the Quorum flee from the ballroom.
* When the battle begins to turn against his favor, Graz'zt teleports away, attempting to escape Sigil via the Outer Gate into the Abyss.
* Following secret doors known to Gregarian Advantis, the party catches and subdues Graz'zt before he can escape.

## June 17th

The party continues to socialize at the Quorum banquet in Sigil. Falgron spends some time making paintings of various attendees, as meanwhile XVIII goes off to a side room to rest, and a few other party members search the venue for any more clues regarding Granite Vashar.

Odell telepathically informs the party of his discovery that at least one of Granite Vashar's servants is a branded with a Mercury Company brand. The party suspects that the servants are likely all similarly branded, and thereby mind controlled based on what they know about the *soul brand* that was stolen from Zolgun by Ravaasta. Telepathically, the party discusses a way to expose Granite's secret ownership of soul slaves. Eventually, they decide that Louche will put on a musical performance to get all of the attendees together in one place, then afterwards Gregarian Advantis will call for toast to bring all of the servants to the floor, at which time Odell will use telekinetic magic to expose the Mercury Company's brand that he spotted on a servant.

The party executes the plan as devised; after Louche completes a performance of a ballad about the party's adventures in the Material Plane, Gregarian Advantis calls for a toast, and Odell successfully exposes the servant's Mercury Company brand in dramatic fashion. Granite Vashar, standing nearby, calls for his chief of staff, Suda, the individual responsible for organizing and managing his servants. Granite accuses Suda of using slave labor without his knowledge, apologizing and assuring the Quorum that he had no knowledge of the slave labor being used, and promising to ensure that the slaves are freed and Suda faces justice. Frog asks one of the celestials in attendance, whom he knows is capable of detecting lies, if Granite is telling the truth. The celestial confirms that he is. Jack, suspecting that abjuration magic might be obfuscating the celestial's ability to sense lies, tries to *dispel magic* on Granite, but finds himself unable to overpower a strong magical effect on him.

The party asks the celestial to redirect her attention to Suda, rather than Granite Vashar, to detect if he is lying. Jack asks Suda to confirm if what Granite has said is true. Suda stammers, reluctant to answer, before eventually attempting to flee. Jack grabs Suda and prevents him from fleeing, and once again asks him to tell the truth of the matter. Before Suda can answer, Granite casts a spell and attempts to mind control Suda, but Jack successfully *counterspells* the spell. Granite says that he is attempting to protect the rest of the Quorum and prevent Suda from fleeing or harming anyone, but the crowd largely starts to turn on him and mistrust him, especially when Preston Reeve begins railing accusations at him.

Suda, at last, says that the soul slaves belong to Granite Vashar, not to him, and that he has only acted on what Granite told him to do. The celestial confirms that this is true.

As the tension of the situation begins to escalate, most of the Quorum attendees begin to leave. Notably, Ravaasta is among those that begin to depart the banquet.

Melius attempts to teleport away with Granite Vashar, as a cohort of other demonic Quorum members surround them, but Malkoth successfully *counterspells* the attempted teleportation. With some persuasion from XVIII, the beholder Malaxar activates a field of antimagic surrounding the demons and Granite. With magic disabled, though Granite's form does not change, creatures in the room with *truesight* recognize that Granite is shapeshifted, having apparently been disguising his true form with magic. One of the angelic entities in attendance recognizes Granite's true form as Graz'zt, a demon lord of seduction and temptation.

Meanwhile, XVIII runs to the exit and attempts to apprehend Ravaasta, but she successfully teleports away.

With his identity revealed and his plot ruined, Graz'zt takes his true form, and attacks the party, accompanied by his cohort of demons. The remaining Quorum attendees flee as violence erupts.

As combat begins, Gregarian Advantis takes Suda out of the ballroom through a secret magical door, which takes them to the Lady of Pain's Fortress. He deposits Suda with the dabus there, briefly explaining what's happened before returning trough the door to the banquet hall.

Graz'zt offers to let the rest of the party leave peacefully, stating that at this point he's only interested in killing Louche, but the rest of the party stays and continues fighting. During the fray, Malkoth uses a *dispelling stone*, and successfully ends the mind control effect on the Mercury Company slaves.

After some combat, Graz'zt is badly wounded, and teleports away. The other demons, including Melius, surrender, claiming to have been manipulated and used by Graz'zt.

The party scries on Graz'zt, and sees him running through the streets of Sigil toward Plaguemort, the Outer Gate to the Abyss. Gregarian Advantis knows a fast way to get there through a series of secret doors, and the party rushes to try to catch up with Graz'zt before he can escape Sigil. They arrive at the Outer Gate just as Graz'zt is trying to pushing his way past some guard and through the portal to the Abyss. The party successfully stops him, Gregarian knocks him unconscious, and Louche places *dimensional shackles* on him.