Session 13 - Meetings and Mattresses

The session started started with the long-anticipated meeting inside Lyceum. We gathered inside one of the classrooms of the school and Simeon, the leader of Lyceum, started the meeting. Simeon summarised two goals going forward: driving back the Ragesian armies, and dethroning Leska. One by one, different key figures in the city were called to speak about concerns and possible plans regarding the war.

* Lorb Votberd stayed true to his previous stance and expressed concerns about the influx of refugees into the city. Votberd wishes to tighten the grip of law to keep order in the city.
* Lee (Torrent's old mentor), responsible for the safety in North Harbor thinks the wisest course of action is to be patient, wait, and gather strength.
* Xavious Foebane, a former commander covered in medals, wants to lend spellcasters to other nations to help fight Ragesia. He has also identified a number of key strategic targets for raids. One of the most pressing targets would be finding The Torch. For this specific task, he already has a task-group in Dassen in mind.
* Laurabec is a drow elf who worries about the situation in the city. The refugees needs shelter, food, and water. She is concerned that the lack of these, combined with cultural and religious differences in the influx of refugees, is a recipe for disaster. She also worries that the citizens of Seaquen see the refugees as outsiders to be exploited and not as fellow brothers and sisters fleeing a war.
* Giorgio is the dwarf who invited Evelyn and Tiajin to audition at The Wayfarers'. He told us that The Wayfarers are working on a solution to The Burning Sky. Although they have always remained neutral in the past, Shina Larkins (their leader), may be willing to break that neutrality. Giorgio invited everyone present to come see their play in three weeks.
* Keifer Numhaut came as an ambassador of King Steppengard. She didn't really contribute anything, except to express the King's anger at Lyceum for calling out for aid and possibly angering Ragesia.
* Ambassador Snord is an old gnome and ambassador of Sindaire. He came to offer a possible alliance with Seaquen, but only if Seaquen actually has a chance to win the war. In order to win Sindaire over, Seaquen would need to win a large skirmish against Ragesia.
* Kazha Lonam came as an ambassador from Ostalin. She was very witchy and had long, black, pointed nails. Ostalin is willing to lend their armies in an alliance. In exchange, they want 1/3rd of everybody else's territory. Everybody was very outraged and upset about this demand.

The meeting was interrupted by a young man named Johund to warn about the arrival of a group of Shahalesti soldiers. The meeting was adjourned and everybody rushed outside to meet the elves. A group of 7 elves dressed in silver armor with blue mantles had arrived, carrying the flag of Shahalesti. At their peak, princess Shalosha herself had come to offer an alliance. However, it wasn't much of an alliance, but rather a demand and a threat. They asked for too much (occupation of Seaquen) in exchange for their help and were refused. 17 Shahalesti ships have now surrounded Seaquen and formed a blockade.

After the meeting we were invited to speak to Simeon in private. We told him of our very impressing deeds and delivered the Case of Documents. Using divination magic, he was able to tell us additional information regarding the documents. They had been written by a man named Kreven, second in command of the Inquisitors. The book had been magically altered and later both read and approved by someone immune to divination magic (heavily implied to be Leska). Simeon could confirm that the documents were somehow heavily connected to The Scourge. He was also able to discern that The Scourge also has another meaning that has previously been unknown. Simeon could also tell that Trilith was connected to all of this.

Simeon is keeping the documents until he manages to decode them. He said that he would have a mission for us as soon as he had dealt with the Sahalesti. The next item on our schedule was thus the Wayfarers performance, so we had some time to kill. What followed was mostly inconsequential. We are on schedule to finish the interior of the house at the end of the three weeks. Silveril won an obstacle course race and gained some potential allies or sources of information. Louie failed to find any additional information regarding Trilith.

During this time period, Louie and Marxiros went fishing. Encouraged by Louie singing about his fishing ability and exploits, Marxiros transcended mortal fishermen and grasped at the very threads of divinity. With a fishing rod as his tool, he wove these threads into a net and used it to haul countless of fish out of the sea. Rows of fishermen wept with awe at the scene and will surely tell their grand-children about the day they basked in the glorious presence of Marxiros, Flayer of Fish. All of this epicness ended though with a fish soup not even worthy of rats or beggars. Apperently fish entrail soup isnt as good as fish soup...

We also went to a magical tattoo place that is only open during the nights! The place was cool and definitely deserves its own creepy theme music. A lady inside told us about how she could create magical tattoos and imbue them with the effect of any magical Wondrous or Ring item. The tattoos are a lot quicker to make than a magical item, at a rate of 1h/100g. She claimed to be the only person to be able to remove one of her tattoos.

The session ended partway (2 days?) into the second week of downtime. Silveril and Marxiros had just spoken to Lee about the legality of ambushing people in the South Harbor and were on their way home again as we ended the session. Next up we're planning to investigate the mysterious elf Nelebekus who had been trading with the witches in the swamp.