Conspiracy Against the Senate

## Retreat, Regroup, Reevaluate

### A Turning Point for Eli

* Mother's death means that Ada takes over as head of the Shadow's Hand. She's incredibly angry with Eli and locks her in the basement as punishment and protection. Eli overhears Ada talking about taking revenge against Ivan and ordering Hal to create a weapon that can do the job.
	+ Eli's father, Finzirick, comes to visit her. He has a form of dementia, but appears to be more lucid than usual. He gives Eli a magical puzzle box, telling her that no one has ever managed to solve it, but he believes that Eli can.
	+ Eli does indeed manage to solve the magical puzzle box, and out pops what claims to be a djinn. He takes Eli's name (pronounced "ee-lie" instead of "Ellie") and helps her escape the basement by giving her invisibility. Eli takes her weapons and magical items, as well as the magical gun that Hal had been working on and some silver bullets.
* Eli goes to talk to Lianne Thorpe at the Sigil embassy. Lianne explains that the SCE is an apolitical organization dedicating to identifying, containing, and combating extra-planar entities. They had been tracking the party because they believed that some party members had been infected by the Nihilanth (which it turns out Yazmin had been).

### Whiteboard Session

* The entire party meets at Franz's mansion to go over what had happened, review the information they had uncovered, and decide their next move.
	+ Eldon is there. She felt an obligation to come back to Sirex and finish her investigation. The party catches her up with everything they learned about the Court of Owls.
* Because the party has been exposed to and often interacts with extra-planar entities, Lianne lends them a specialized Sigil construct dedicated to combating extra-planar entities like the Nihilanth. Its name is T0L30 (the party nicknames it Tolbo).
* Franz gave Delphine's black book to Vigilance to decode.
	+ Rengad (council member) is mentioned in the book as a client
	+ Ellaka, Aelis's hometown, is also mentioned
	+ Other high ranking people are mentioned, but the party is unable to get full names

* Aelis takes a closer look at the maps that the party retrieved from the Court of Owls bunker.
	+ They are energetic dimensionality maps, which is a science from Sigil. Aelis has limited knowledge of the subject because she dropped out of artificer school before she could take higher level classes on the topic. However, form what she can tell, they show the existence of other planes.
	+ There are planar energy hot spots across Arcadia: one in Silverhearth, a brief one in Sirex around a decade ago, one in the Anvil Islands (near Sirex), and one in the Forest of Bombyx Mori

* Eldon observes that the bomb that collapsed the warehouse would need expert and special materials. She has been keeping tabs on Rengad and discovered that a bomb materials expert named Alexander Clawson recently visited Rengad's house. She interrogated Clawson about his activities, but he was killed by a poison arrow before she could get too much information out of him.
	+ Clawson is a materials expert from the Felm Institute of Science. He has a Checkered history involving terrorists and explosives in Nymeria. He was Contracted by the Court to build two bombs: one was the warehouse bomb while the other, larger bomb hasn't been used yet.
	+ Clawson used a very rare magical element named Etherium to build the bombs. He said that the court is led by a divination wizard, which as far as anyone knows don't exist outside of legend.

* Jaque, who is from Nymeria, describes the political situation in Nymeria. The country is functionally governed by the mega-corporation Arasaka who run and employ most of the country. The Tyger Claws are a rebel (or terrorist depending on who you ask) group that opposes the Arasaka Corporation. Given his background and history, Clawson might have been part of the Tyger Claws.
* Jaque and Tolbo provide information about Etherium.
	+ Etherium is a very rare and valuable magical element formed from the plant Ithraxia (colloquially known as Phoenix Weed). When a Phoenix Weed has completed it’s life, the Ithrax bulb explodes and the flaming Ithrax fluid reacts with soil and dirt and rock to form Etherium.
* Given the turmoil and violence that have occurred in the city recently, some politicians have begun to demand a vote of no confidence against Mayor Opal Mallor. The Sirex Senate, driven by Rengad's demands, has agreed to meet to discuss the events of the past few weeks.
	+ The party believes that the Court of Owls will plant the second bomb under the Senate building and set it off during the Senate meeting, taking out the country's leadership and creating even more chaos. To thwart this plan, the party concludes that they need to plant their own, less dangerous bomb to force an evacuation of the Senate building.
* Eldon and Barnabus will go stake out Rengad's estate to see if they can find any other information regarding his connection to the Court of Owls. The rest of the party will go enlist the help of the Shadow's Hand.
	+ Barnabus sees his husband Duncan, and approaches for his husband to turn into a Doppleganger. The Doppleganger and Damien Roark take down Barnabus and Eldon, and the Doppleganger infiltrates the party as Eldon.

## Storming Carthage

* The party approaches Ada offering to help the Shadow's Hand gain control over Mendez territory and resources in return for flash bombs. Ada agrees and has the party join the Shadow's Hand and Valisco raid on a Mendez-controlled Bay.
	+ Ada demands that Eli stop pursuing the Court of Owls, but Eli refuses. Ada says that so long as Eli continues to put herself in danger, the Shadow's Hand cannot continue to stand by her. Eli leaves, effectively disowned.
	+ The party and some Valisco and Shadow's Hand men will sneak into the Mendez's port and raise the sea gates. They must then ensure that the gates are raised long enough enough for a Valisco ship to enter the port, steal as much cargo as possible, and get out without getting caught.
	+ The mission is generally a success
* Eli steals some magic mushrooms from one of the Mendez cargo boxes and has a drug trip. She wanders through a fae forest and meets a fae dragon god who gives Eli her Trickery Domain powers. To maintain her powers, Eli must perform a prank or do something chaotic every other day.
* Hal makes a set of small flash bombs for the party.
* Vigilance decodes more of Delphine's black book
	+ Delphine was looking into different elvish villages to see which ones are easy to attack. Kendal Rays (druid) and Liluth Naemer (Aelis’s childhood friend) were taken from Aelis's village and passed to Olivia Basser, the Mendez's Arasaka contact.
	+ Duncun Henderbenderson used to work for Mendez trafficking people before being handed over to Rengad on Rengad’s request

## Rengad's Party

* Rengad is having a party at his house and all the famous people are going to be there. Franz will be attending as himself, and taking other members of the party as his guests. Eli sneaks in as a serving maid.
	+ Hezak and Tolbo's jobs are to create a distraction when given the signal (no one knows what the signal is). Aelis scopes out the house by pretending to wander around drawing interesting architecture.
* Franz sees Commodore Norrington and blackmails him into supporting Franz.
* Sarovar and Jaque meet a priest named Damien Roark at the party. Damien hypnotizes Jaque in order to have a private conversation with Sarovar. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Damien strikes a deal with Sarovar.
* Hezak stabs someone in the foot and is removed from the party and brought to the police station.
* Franz and Sarovar are given a private meeting with Rengad, who thinks that he is having a meeting with Chestington's nephew. In his office, they find a suspiciously empty bird cage. Franz manages to incapacitate the guards and charm and tie up Rengad. Franz and Sarovar interrogate him about what he knows about the Court of Owls. They discover the following:
	+ Damien Roark, also known as the Great Seer is a supposed Divination wizard in charge of the Court. Damien Roark approached Rengad and convinced him to join the Court after accurately predicting that Rengad's mother would die in at sea in a giant storm.
	+ Court of Owls operations in Sirex is coming to a close, and is moving to another location
	+ Work on the Void Project has moved south, which Arasaka has confirmed, so that the Project can be closer to thing of interest. The Void Project was used in Silver Hearth, but did not perform as expected. The Void Project is still unfinished, to Rengad's knowledge.
		- The Void Project is means to control the way creatures are brought to this world
	+ There is a canal system underneath Sirex which the Court uses to move throughout the city unnoticed. The Court's base is located within these underground tunnel, and it's impossible to find the base without a special navigational device. Rengad's navigational device is hidden in the bird cage.

* Guards discover that Rengad has been captured and try to detain Franz and Sarovar. Franz grabs Rengad and jumps out the window into the water below, using Feather Fall to soften his fall.
* Sarovar grabs the empty bird cage and races down the stairs to a large room containing various stuffed animals, including a stuffed owl. He puts the owl into the cage, and a hidden compartment opens to reveal a clock. He grabs it and Eli helps Sarovar sneak out of Rengad's mansion via the servant's back door.
* Tolbo sees Sarovar running down the stairs and takes that as the signal. He breaks the floor with a lightening attack, causing Paladins to come racing over to detain him. Tolbo realizes that he cannot beat a coordinated team of heavily-armed Paladins, and escapes out the window. He walks underwater until he is far enough away to reach the rendezvous point.
* Jaque and Aelis manage to escape with the rest of the crowd.