Adventure 5

**Previous: Adventure 4**

The party is piled with work as the peace summit approaches, trying to find a way into the Bleak Gate and learn more about how the Obscurati operates before the peace summit on top of all the other threats cropping up in Flint. They're in for a very big surprise once they do get into the Bleak Gate...

## Nobody Gets Any Sleep For a Week

### Session 0

With the revelation that the golem in Cleone’s basement is in fact Alexander Grappa, we gather the party and question him. Although he’s bound by a geas and unable to talk directly about certain Obscurati matters, he’s able to confirm things we say or guess or work with indirect references to Obscurati matters. He’s an Obscurati member called the Mind Maker, who escaped a facility in the Bleak Gate and wants to find his son and the mother of his son. He’s able to give life to things and manipulate sentient minds, which is how he ended up in the golem. Cleone makes rebuilding the rest of Alexander’s body a priority, and befriends him in the process.

Pemberton’s name comes up while discussing Alexander and the possibility of building Xambria a new body, and Gatria shares her theories about Pemberton’s shady business in Flint and potential warmongering in Ber, with the ultimate conclusion that he may be trying to build a body for the Steel Lord Gradiax. Hadn’t Ashima Shimtu called Gatria a “stolen soldier” of the same? “I was raised by a cult, IS THAT A PROBLEM?” Everyone agrees to stay away from Pemberton, and the question of a new body for Xambria is sadly shelved for a while.

Hoya gets invited to Gideon’s new play, enough to bring the whole party. Marcel is reluctant, but Hoya forces him by threatening to wear overalls to the opera house if he doesn’t. We also get to watch with Thames Grimsley and baby Clove! The play is about Danor’s history, concerning the original Jierre and his son Finn conflicting over Jierre’s actions during an epidemic. The moral of the play is that democracy is a sham as long as it serves to uphold rulers’ power and not serve the people, though easy to mistake for anti-Danor sentiment specifically. (Thankfully not Cleone, who chats with Gideon later about their respective countries.)

The party watches the New Year’s fireworks together, minus Gatria who takes Antonia to watch them atop her new factory. Very unintentionally romantic, and leads to some decisions!

Eventually we’re summoned by Morgan Cipiano. He’s heard that Kell is our next target - and he can offer his help, as long as we do him some favors.

### Session 1

Marcel agrees to the deal, the rest of his party (minus Gatria, obviously in favor) following his lead. Afterward Morgan asks to speak with Mona individually about Ashima Shimtu and secrets, and offers to be her confidante should she need. Mona declines and confronts Gatria about spilling people’s personal business later, beginning a long personal feud.

Mona checks to see if Alexander knows the “is yours the hand” phrase and Alexander recognizes it from someone he hates: Nicodemus, we can guess. Nicodemus has apparently tried to tell his sons what to think, and considers himself their father rather than Alexander.

As the peace summit between Risur and Danor approaches, we’re summoned for a briefing with Harkover and King Aodhan. Our carriage ride is interrupted when the Thieves Guild ride up in some other carriages to try and kill us, including a bomb that Mona yeets away with a natural 20. Gatria kills the lieutenant in charge. The party does not arrive as presentable as Delft hoped, though he tries.

We pass by Catherine Romana on the way to the briefing. Cleone has a flash of memory: one of her past lives knew her ancestor, Queen Caroline.

The king wants us to figure out how the Obscurati operates between the Waking and the Bleak Gate, including finding a way into the Bleak Gate through Lorcan Kell and the Thieves’ Guild. We need to get this done by the time of the peace summit, especially since his fiancee (Lya Jierre) may be in the Obscurati herself.

Also, Gatria notices that Harkover has a slight Beran accent. That’s…suspicious?

### Session 2

As we leave the briefing, enter Asrabey Varal. He wants a tithe from the king in the form of an assassin for Ekossigan of the Unseen Court. So that’s another item on our to-do list!

Meanwhile, B-team is assembled as an escort for Brakken of Heffanita. On the way to pick him up, they also involuntarily acquire Kyubert as he tails Diana. They take Brakken to a restaurant near Pardwright University, coincidentally where Maeve’s eldest son Connor works as a chef! B team folks are looking out and checking around the place…and then a train derails.

Zo and Alais pursue a suspicious man from the restaurant, who they manage to save from a falling statue but can’t save from a suicide frost pill. Zo attempts to use her spirit medium powers to force him to talk, but is unsuccessful. The man had a newspaper dated for tomorrow so we check out the printing press it came from and question one of the employees, who mentions a new dwarven cleaning crew. They ask some of C Team (Serena and Carlao) to search the place.

Just as we’re leaving, the printing press building blows up with Serena and Carlao still inside and everyone hears the sound of gunshots. Maeve sees snipers in the clock tower…

### Session 3

Back with A Team, we find Cat Lady’s familiars. Turns out Cat Lady is none other than Catherine Romana.

The Kell takedown mission begins, and we soon figure out that the police taskforce we’ve been given contains several moles, after discovering some bad intel and instituting a force-wide strip in search of Thieves Guild tattoos. (Zo’s player screams internally, knowing she has a tattoo on her shoulder.) Gatria advises them to reconsider their life decisions.

B team continues to handle the situation at the university, where the snipers eventually use the same suicide frost pill as the first man. Serena and Carlao make it out of the bombed building alive, though Carlao is heavily injured. Evidence leads the team to Soknik Repairs, borrowing Cleone for the day.

Soknik Repairs is a front and contains an entrance to old witch-hunting tunnels, but before they can investigate there’s a gunshot. And once we find the culprit…hey, Alais recognizes this guy.

> **Kvarti:** ALAIS BUDDY! I haven't seen you since–
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> **Alais:** *(Clapping a hand over Kvarti's mouth)*
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> **Alais:** Don't speak of it.
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Kvarti is a fellow Mystic, as it turns out, and in a private conversation tells Alais of some radical eschatologists he’s been paid to help smuggle into Flint. He regrets his involvement with them, and mentions that they plan to kill the governor at an upcoming train ceremony.

Meanwhile the rest of the team finds a ledger of contacts in the shop, including an entry for one Vihan. Recognizing the name, Cleone makes sure to discretely bring it up to Mona later. Maeve scolds the kid running the front desk to reconsider his safety in lucrative yet secretive jobs, and once Alais is back everyone begins to explore the witch tunnels.

They eventually track footprints to the eschatologist hideout and find plans for a large, complex bomb. Cleone’s mechanical/alchemical knowledge enables her to read the blueprints and understand the details, and…it’s pretty bad, with the potential to level multiple city blocks.

## One Very Long Day

### Session 4

Hoya finds out from Alexander that her old guardian Tinker Oddcog is a member of the Obscurati, nicknamed the Gearbuilder. No wonder that vision said he was gonna inconvenience her!

All of A team meets with Asrabey Varal to follow Ekossigan’s trail. Varal gives Mona a ring to protect her from Ekossigan’s influence, since she’s half-fey, and tells the party of a strange murder in the Cloudwood. Cleone asks him about Nathan Jierre, knowing Asrabey was last seen with him; Asrabey is uncooperative, suggesting that Danor has his wife Kasavarina.

Investigation in the Cloudwood goes poorly, as people are highly mistrustful. An examination of the body suggests a curse that spreads paranoia among the victim’s family; a visit to Madame Andromeda yields that the victim was an orphan, and from there they realize that the curse must be affecting all the Cloudwood.

We use a favor to get Harkover to dispel the curse and go on to investigate the orphanage, full of fey forced into Ekossigan’s obedience as well as Gale, who has fallen victim to the same. Using the power of rules-lawyering we’re able to get Asrabey to take her to safety.

Ekossigan plans to sacrifice the orphanage children to open a door into the Bleak Gate, and mentions that Kasavarina is there. We can’t let him do that, so it’s time for a fight!

### Session 5

A team takes down Ekossigan, narrowly managing to save the orphanage children in the process. As he dies, he mentions something in the mountain and the screaming of thousands. In a posthumous conversation with Hoya, he tells of a child named Borne in the Bleak Gate Cauldron Hill who will destroy the Waking if he is released. Kasavarina Varal is with him, her memory stolen by the man without a body. We can guess that this is Alexander’s child, and that Alexander himself is the man without a body…

We tell Asrabey that his wife is inside the Bleak Gate, and agree to let him come with us to the Bleak Gate to find her. In exchange for the information on Kasavarina, he tells us more about Nathan Jierre: he’s being held by the fey willingly, as following the events of Adventure 1 he would be wanted by both Risur and Danor if found. Asrabey is bound to keep him safe from agents of the king…but Gatria is not an agent of the king, and can arrange a favor to see him in the Dreaming.

### Session 6

We confront Alexander about what Ekossigan revealed. He doesn’t deny it, but justifies himself and Borne - he raised his five sons RIGHT, but erased Kasavarina’s memory after hearing one of her and Nicodemus’ plans to help her remember who she used to be rather than her current role in the Obscurati. Nobody is able to guess what the plan is, but they ARE able to figure out that Kasavarina founded the Obscurati in the first place. Alexander requests that we don’t hurt Borne or his other sons in the Bleak Gate, though he’s vague about the details.

> **Alexander:** *(Grumbling)* I believe that my son wouldn’t [destroy the Waking].
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> **Mona:** Wouldn’t and couldn’t are two different things.
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> **Alexander:** LISTEN, I will start at the beginning. I raised many sons. Borne was the smartest and the kindest and the bravest of all of them, and so we gave him the blessing of his power.
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Gatria goes to see Nathan in the Dreaming afterward. He tells her more about the circumstances that led to his role in Adventure 1, trying to warn Duchess Ethelyn when he saw Danoran warships being built on Axis Island and seeing Kasavarina Varal with his cousin Lya. As per a request from the Unseen Court to find him a new home, Gatria and Mona are able to arrange for Nathan to live with Madame Andromeda in the Cloudwood. Enjoy your new mom, Nathan! He’s happy to continue his astronomical research there, and can share his findings with the constables.

Meanwhile B team is escorting Brakken and some diplomats, Rosalind Taylor of Danor and Geoff Massarde of Risur, to a bar where Rock Rackus is playing.

### Session 7

Gatria comes to the bar too, since to top off this exhaustingly long day she wants to get Rock drunk and rob him. Rock shows off his new song, Crazy Fans Stole My Gun.

B team catches sight of a man Zo recognizes as Quentin Augst, AKA Kell’s lawyer, AKA one of her bosses. Brakken catches on to her and warns Diana against trusting Zo, while Zo avoids Brakken. When Augst leaves Gatria witnesses an assassination attempt on him, and Brakken learns from his mind-reading that Augst will be at an opera the following day.

Back at the bar, Gatria buys Rock some drinks as “thanks” for his help at the gala. Cross-referencing his claims with Nathan’s findings, Rock’s talk of planar travel…seems to be legit somehow.

> **Gatria:** What are your secrets for visiting the Dreaming?
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> **Rock:** Eh, just ask some fey.
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> **Gatria:** Sounds like a terrible idea.
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> **Rock:** I’m their queen’s boyfriend, they gotta do whatever I ask!
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> **Gatria:** ...You’re gonna die.
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> **Rock:** Well, if I get murdered you guys will figure it out! :D
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The Kell taskforce continues its work, most resources dedicated to taking out some key targets while a few people are assigned to find Quentin Augst at the opera. Unfortunately, Zo is included in the Augst team and once she tips off the Guild he never shows up. The rest of the taskforce operations are successful, however, and enough damage is dealt to the Guild that Morgan is able to call the constables in with a plan to trap and capture Kell using a dimensional lock at early hours the next day.

However, the train station ceremony where the radical eschatologists plan to use their bomb is also early the next day. The constables will have to divide their forces and allied manpower between two fronts accordingly.

### Session 7.5

Hoya recruits Gideon Ambrose to the Kell takedown group, worried because she’ll be participating in the bomb squad instead and knowing the Kell team could use all the help they can get. Because both Marcel and Mona would object to his presence, he’ll stay invisible with the help of his magic - but he’ll still be able to help a bit.

Gideon gives Hoya a key for the case of his death, with instructions to return it the next day if he survives. What the key unlocks is unknown.

## One Very Chaotic Night

### Session 8

Marcel poses as an Obscurati agent using Caius Bergeron’s ring to lure Kell out, and from there the assembled team takes him and his bodyguards down. After blinding him, Gatria and the present constables bring Kell to the Cipiano estate.

Through questioning, Kell tells them that his power base was set up by Leone Quital of the Obscurati and that the Guild was used to smuggle things into the Bleak Gate using iron rings underneath every bridge in Flint - this is the constables’ ticket into the Bleak Gate. Eventually Kell is left to the “mercy” of Morgan Cipiano.

On the bomb squad side, Cleone has a dream of her past life Alastor: a meeting with Nicodemus in the Bleak Gate, in which Nicodemus asks a request of him before stabbing him in the chest with a fatherly smile. “I want you to come back to me when you become a better person. I cannot allow a murderer like you to be a part of our ranks anymore. But I hope that I find you in your other, better life.” (Alastor’s ring inscription was, of course, Other Better Life.) Thus begin months of existential dread. ~~Also, Cleone gets the Bleak Gate as a new favored terrain!~~

Hoya hears word of Kell Team’s success and goes to return Gideon’s key to him. Gideon, who saw Marcel posing as an Obscurati agent, asks about the ring before claiming he’d never seen one like it before - but Hoya can tell he’s lying. “I haven’t lied to you, ever. I’ve done nothing but tell you the truth. Why are you lying to me?”

Gideon excuses himself to let in an owl familiar and returns. “Alright, I’ll tell you the truth. What do you want to know?”

### Session 8.5

Hoya and Gideon play a game: within a Zone of Truth, they can alternate asking each other questions. A lie or refusal to answer ends the game.

Gideon wants to ascertain whether the constables are involved with the Obscurati. Hoya wants to know how Gideon recognizes an Obscurati ring, and gradually learns that he is a former Obscurati agent who narrowly escaped through faking his death. He was once Irwin Romana, the twin brother of Catherine Romana thought to be long dead of genetic illness. He asks Hoya not to harm his sister.

> **Gideon:** Now that you know the identity of my sister, I want to appeal to you. My sister is…ambitious. She is easily lured by power. I do not believe she deserves death, though successfully removing her from the Obscurati was impossible. I also knew it was impossible to remove myself from the Obscurati. If time comes to stand against her…if you can’t promise this that’s fine, but I ask that you stay your hand. If not to injure her, then not to kill her.
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> **Hoya:** I don’t really want to kill anybody. I’ll do everything I can not to kill her if there’s a way to spare her.
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> **Gideon:** Alright. You must understand my sister is the most important person to me. I miss her very much.
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Gideon also shows Hoya what the key unlocks: another entrance into the witch-hunting tunnels underneath Flint, where he’s keeping Margaret Saxby prisoner following the events of Adventure 3. Hoya agrees to keep his secrets, and leaves with Saxby’s ring.

### Session 9

Time to find and dismantle a bomb. Hoya is able to track down the location by smelling for the Bleak Gate (and therefore the witch oil in the bomb). Cleone, Hoya, and the rest of Bomb Squad sneak around the train station, navigating traps and stealth-takedowns of posted guards. Soon enough they enter a train car to find the leader, Zubov, and a half-orc sorcerer in front of a steel box. A fight breaks out.

### Session 10

Zubov and the sorcerer are taken down, in no small part thanks to a viper Maeve summoned to help take out the sorcerer and Xambria manifesting to aid the fight. Zubov manages to activate the bomb before he’s knocked out, however.

Cleone, Hoya, and Maeve stay behind to deal with the bomb. Everyone else leaves, and as he’s arrested the sorcerer asks to see Constable Faellen-Brizside - it’s Vihan.

With Maeve and Hoya’s help (and Kyubert’s…moral support, probably), Cleone is successfully able to dismantle the bomb. (DM made me sweat for seven full rounds knowing full well it was literally impossible to fail with her Disable Device numbers. RUDE.) Everyone goes home and crashes, day saved.

Back at the RHC, Mona reunites with Vihan in an interrogation room. He tells her he followed Leo into the radical eschatologist cult and learned some very interesting things while there - the world will end soon, and she can verify it herself by asking the stars. Vihan genuinely believes in the radical eschatologists' cause, and wants Mona to see the truth of what’s coming. “Perhaps when you discover that there isn’t much time left, you’ll decide that you, me and Leo could be together.”

> **Mona:** You’re better than this. You WERE better than this.
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> **Vihan:** When you see for yourself, maybe you’ll change your mind. If this world knew that its days were numbered, that things would soon come to the end, wouldn’t you try to resolve things, live life to the fullest, do things in the proper way? I’m doing what I think is right, as I always have.
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> **Mona:** Unfortunately, that’s where our methods differ, now.
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> **Vihan:** *(Smiling)* For now. Then, consider if you want to spend your end of days here, among strangers. Or, if you’d prefer to spend it with Leo and I. That’s all I had to say to you.
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Zo, meanwhile, is being shady and asking Hoya questions about what happened with the Kell team. Upon learning that Kell was defeated she zones out and eventually goes to see Ottavia Sacredote, still a prisoner at the RHC. Ottavia recognizes her as Bianchi, a girl from the same orphanage Ottavia once grew up in. Zo confesses regarding her role as a Kell mole in the RHC, and her uncertainty as to how to protect her daughter now that it’s been toppled practically overnight. Ottavia gives Zo an offer: break her out, and she knows an organization that can protect them.

> **Zo:** I love [my daughter] more than anything. I want to give her the best life I can, but… I don’t know what to do anymore.
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> **Ottavia:** *(Thinking)* Bianchi, do you know why I’m in this cell?
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> **Zo:** No, they never told us.
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> **Ottavia:** I apologize for what the clergy did to you. I know, firsthand, that there is a lot of evil and corruption in that organization. I’ve been working to take down all the corruption and evil in that state, and I was arrested for that. I know people that will keep us safe, but I need to escape from here.
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> **Zo:** *(Without hesitation)* I’ll do it.
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With most of the cast is sleeping off missions or otherwise distracted, Zo is able to use her authority as a constable to break Ottavia out; the two of them grab Zo’s daughter and flee the city. The RHC, predictably, is thrown into panic.

As if all that weren’t enough, it’s also the day of the peace summit! The constables are personally invited by Lya Jierre, who makes a point of quelling attempts to stir up trouble by either Risuri or Danoran attendees.

## Party in the Bleak Gate

### Session 11

Backdated conversations: Hoya talks with Saxby just before the peace summit, learning that she was misled and under the genuine impression that she and McBannin were working on a project for the king. She was unaware of the larger organization or its goals. At Cleone’s house, Alexander wants to come to the Bleak Gate with the party but Cleone suspects he may do something rash and endanger himself while there.

At the peace summit, the politics continue. Marcel and Cleone are super invested in this going well, but none of the constables are really politically savvy. Brakken intervenes when things start to get tense…

And then comes Asrabey Jenkins busting into the summit yelling at the king about a plan to enter the Bleak Gate with the constables. When Han and Lya Jierre excuse themselves, Brakken telepathically contacts Gatria about his empathic abilities and lets her know he has some important information with the king.

In a meeting with the king and Harkover, it’s decided that the party will head into the Bleak Gate three hours ahead of schedule. Brakken informs them about a messenger Han sent to warn the Ob of what Asrabey said, and Gatria intercepts the messenger.

> **Gatria:** Look, you stuck your neck out to be in that room with us. Just know that what you know now may put your life in danger.
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> **Brakken:** *(Eyes flick away)* I know. That is the nature of my job.
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> **Gatria:** So long as you know that all this cloak and dagger stuff will put a target on your back.
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> **Brakken:** I am aware.
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Gatria also arranges for Brakken’s protection, and asks him to verify Alexander’s claims regarding his trustworthiness should he be brought along to the Bleak Gate. Alexander means well, but he’s also stretching the truth in regards to what he’ll really able to influence…

### Session 12

Despite some doubts about bringing Alexander to the Bleak Gate, the party eventually decides his knowledge makes him useful enough to bring along. Mona and Gatria chew Asrabey out for his indiscretion, but unfortunately he’s also useful enough to bring along too.

The party use the iron rings underneath the bridges to pass into the Bleak Gate, and Alexander is able to help them navigate the vent system in the Ob facility. And while in the vents, Hoya hears…Tinker?! Evidently he’s in the walls themselves, having made himself a tunnel for safety.

> **Tinker:** Yes yes yes, I can go anywhere I want. I’m just afraid I–when I try and leave that someone will catch me on the outside. I, um, I’m waiting for something to happen so I can run.
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> **Hoya:** You don’t have to leave.
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> **Tinker:** No no, I can’t go there, I can’t go there, that’s where THAT is!!! That big terrible thing that I made is there!
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> **Hoya:** Okay. That’s where I’m going.
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> **Tinker:** *(Gasp)* Fijit, Fijit, you've always been a friend, I’ve always cared for you. Please make a distraction. I'm gonna go south south south, and then I'm going to go around the world, that’s how far I'm going to go.
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Tinker stays in the walls. Alexander hesitates to bring the party to the construction area, but eventually they arrive and find…a 300-foot metal man.

> **Gatria:** Is that…?
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> **Alexander:** That’s my son Borne.
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> **Gatria:** How the *fuck* do you expect us to work with that?
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Borne and his brothers were all built as tools for the Obscurati, as it turns out. As the party stares in shock, Asrabey takes the opportunity to bolt off in search of his wife. Leone Quital is here with reinforcements, but the reinforcements take off to pursue Asrabey.

> **Leone:** You fools, stop! It’s obviously a distraction! My dear constable friends, you can come out now. I commend your efforts making it this far.
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> **Gatria:** *(Realizing Asrabey’s antics can be worked to their favor)* Really wish we could take credit for that, but he’s not the distraction. We are!
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> **Leone:** … :/
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> **Gatria:** Yeah, that guy's gonna leave a loooot of bodies behind, you know.
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The party proceeds to heckle Quital into skipping a cheesy villain speech and getting right down to trying to kill each other.

### Session 13

Quital sends out three of Alexander’s sons to fight the constables. Alexander insists he can talk them down but is slow to do so - about two seconds later, Colin takes out half of Cleone’s HP in one hit! Eventually he succeeds by invoking their memories with him, barely just in time to save Cleone from getting knocked out. Cleone and Gatria manage to take out Quital himself, but he releases Borne’s bindings as a final screw-you gesture.

Borne makes a pancake out of Alexander’s metal body in his confusion, and goes into a panic. Asrabey shows up again, having kidnapped his amnesiac wife. (Cleone gets a memory seeing Kasavarina’s face: in a past life she was kneeling in front of Kasavarina.)

Agitated, Borne tears a hole through Cauldron Hill and the planes and steps out from the Bleak Gate into the Waking. Out in Flint, Alias and Kvarti drink to the end of the world before going out to do what they can to get people to safety. Maeve and Diana help evacuate the Cloudwood.

### Session 14

On instructions from the party, Captain Dale and men distract Borne with flares while they figure out a plan. Borne is a threat if he starts to run amok, but he’s also not malicious - due to his lost memories, he’s roughly at the mental stage of a very, very, very large toddler. We meet with the king and Harkover to discuss a plan.

The king is able to banish Borne to the Dreaming, but he’ll need 30 minutes for the ritual. Harkover insists that the king conduct the ritual while on the water for his own safety and escape route should things go badly, which should necessitate luring Borne out through either Bosum Strand or the Ayres. The party points out that TECHNICALLY the Stanfield Canal is just barely in range of Cauldron Hill, so the ritual can be done without luring Borne at all.

The party enlists a terrified Kasavarina to help sing Borne to sleep using eladrin lullabies we can guess she once sang for him, and the plan proceeds successfully. Borne falls asleep long enough for the king to complete the banishing ritual, right at Cauldron Hill.

Then comes cleanup. Hoya finds a note from Tinker saying he’s gone to Ber. Leone Quital’s body is gone; Alexander’s body lacks a soul. We suspect Alexander has taken over Quital’s dead body and fled (what a deadbeat dad). Also they arrested Rosalind Taylor for basically being the highest ranking Danoran left after Han and Lya Jierre sailed off. ROSALIND DESERVES BETTER, and we argue that she should be helping to clear up the evacuation traffic at sea.

Meeting with the king again, we debate what to tell the public about Borne. The king believes that putting out the truth about the Obscurati would be showing our hand too early, and that instead Risur ought to blame Danor for the Colossus and declare war accordingly. In that case, Cleone would have to give up her Danoran citizenship and become a Risuri citizen under the king’s jurisdiction…

The party takes some time to debate. Cleone is torn, but in the end she can’t in good conscience stay in the RHC if they declare war on Danor and so that option is taken off the table. There’s the option of blaming the radical eschatologists, which isn’t even remotely true but doesn’t put anyone in impossible positions. Except…oh wait, that means Vihan will be executed. Mona is Stressed and eventually comes clean about Vihan; we decide to ask the king to not execute him as a favor.

We meet the king and he agrees not to execute Vihan, then asks us to come up the roof and KNIGHTS EVERYONE WTF (except Mona, who refuses as she’s foreseen her execution by someone in a crown). We’re heroes for the Flint public now, with responsibilities and pressures accordingly.

Flash forward: months later, Delft calls in Hoya and gives her a Beran newspaper. Tinker’s there doing military research, and he’s got a history of *troubling incidents*...

**Next: Adventure 6**