Session 31: What’s Going on in Dhaqi?
Players:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Note: Marxine's player could not be with us for this session
GM - Everyone Else
(Note: This session was held on Discord.)
19 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 110)
After the inquiries and explorations of the day before, it was getting late so we went back to the Inn to read Danrom Orth’s papers.
We learned that Danrom met up with the dwarf paladin, Etta Blackgranite (Tylrok Hammerhammer’s aunt), on a ship to Dhaqi. In the course of some adventures on the ship they started working with the halfling cleric from that city, Sarik Whitesand, and with the human monk from Kiranamakir, Adlawan Gavlura. They had adventures around and in Dhaqi -- which is where they started learning about Rajalmin and his plans.
His cabals there were doing horrific summoning rituals -- with several different cabals working in a coordinated way (though they may not have realized it) to do a bigger summoning than any of the cabals would have been capable of independently. While fighting those cabals, they found clues about Rajalmin having activities in Kiranamakir and they went there.
That’s where they found out about Rajalmin’s thing with sparking duels and creating unrest and worked to put a stop to that. They also learned about the cabal in New Arvai that were summoning him repeatedly so that he was regularly being invited back to Erkonin.
They came to New Arvai and busted up that cabal -- they killed most of the cabalists, but Danrom was convinced that there were some that weren’t at the ritual site when he and his party got there and were therefore not among those who fought and were killed. Danrom believed that the ones that weren’t there perhaps didn’t know what they were doing or that they were summoning a Rakshasa.
Evidence for that fact is that he then lived a long life and died a natural death in New Arvai.
Vinya: So how do you find a cabal?
Elderron: I think they’re near or in the libraries.
Vinya had an idea to try and talk to the researchers who had assisted Elderron and Aldalomiel the day before, to see if they could give a bit of additional information. We went to the Library of School the World.
Vinya, to the desk clerk: Are the researchers who helped my friends yesterday still here?
Desk clerk: One just left for dinner. The one who helped your friend look into that blue dragon is about to leave, I believe.
Vinya: Excellent. We’ll wait.
The research assistant who had helped Aldalomiel was a very young rock gnome, barely an adult, named Trummim. She told us that, like other gnomes, his eyes are two different colors -- one very blue and one very grey. She also told us that he was extremely careful and very willing to tell her when he didn’t know something.
He came out of the library and we all noticed that he was dressed as though he was intentionally trying to look average or non-descript. He was wrapped up in his own thinking and walked right past us without even seeming to notice us.
Aldalomiel: Trummim.
Trummim, startled: Oh! Good evening! Ummm….hi!
Aldalomiel introduced us all around.
Aldalomiel: We’d like to talk for a bit.
Vinya: We’ll buy you dinner. You pick the place.
He led us to a restaurant and bar that he was clearly very familiar with. He pointed out the best items on the menu and on the drinks menu. We ordered food and drinks and sat down with him. He was having some very sturdy barleywine-type beer with his dinner.
Vinya, quietly: How does one find a cabal? Whether to fight it or to join it?
Trummim: Usually when people are fighting them, the cabal has made a move and revealed themselves and then they were backtracked and exterminated. As far as joining, I think they start with people who know and trust each other. Like you guys know and trust each other. So if you started wanting to get extra power from, say, a demon, the others might be willing to assist because they know you and trust you not to be doing anything bad. And then they get sucked in. If you need more people, you’d branch out to other folks that each of you know and trust.
Vinya: If one of my friends wanted to start summoning fiends, that would probably break my trust.
Trummim: Well, criminal conspiracies are a thing, as we know all too well here in New Arvai. This isn’t entirely dissimilar. I’ve known some people who’ve had to abruptly leave the city because they stumbled onto something -- it can be hard to know the full reach of the cabal, who’s in it, who isn’t, who you can and can’t trust. Easier just to leave the city.
Vinya: What’s the point of it -- summoning a fiend can’t be an end game, right? There has to be a point to it.
Trummim: Oh, yes -- they’re summoning a fiend to fight their battles or do things they can’t do to get them money or power or information. Then they hope that they can put the fiend back. If they summon a strong enough fiend, they hope perhaps that they’ll be treated by the fiend as a favored pet or servant. Though that doesn’t typically fit with the personality of a cabal leader. A willingness to be humiliated as a pet or servant doesn’t typically go with the power to summon a demon prince or prince of Hell.
Elama: Aren’t there spells that let you control whatever it is that you summon?
Trummim: They’re not as perfect as people think they are.
Elama: Within my own skill set I have knowledge of spells that will keep something like that contained.
Trummim: Those circles are definitely an important thing. I can’t understand why anyone would summon a fiend without having prepared a circle first. Unless you want it to get out and cause problems.
Vinya: It still seems really stupid…
Trummim: I don’t think it’s intelligent or sensible. People do it because they’re desperate or greedy and think it’s a short cut.
Elderron: Who might be desperate and greedy here?
Trummim: That’s a fair question. The wizarding schools are magnets for greedy and lazy people looking for a shortcut. There are almost always people who need or want something badly around them. People who are desperate for something. If a cabal can find them and dangle that thing they’re desperate for in front of them like a carrot…
Elama: Like those priestesses with The Enthroned.
Trummim: They are the best thing that’s ever happened to their congregation.
Vinya: I agree with you there.
Trummim: I believe that they believe in what they are preaching. I believe that the higher ups in The Enthroned believe in the extra money they’re getting in donations and tithes.
Vinya: I agree with you on that as well.
Trummim: I’ve been dragged to a few of those sermons. Once by my boss after a long night spent drinking very excellent beer here -- I went into work and the most expensive thing I owned was my hangover and he dragged me off to a sermon on moderation and controlling yourself.
Vinya: I’ve had days like that. Who benefits from this change in habits from a whole swathe of society?
Trummim: It’s better for the church, for the nobles themselves, for their underlings. Everyone but the Green Hand.
Vinya: Okay. Who benefits from the Green Hand losing power?
Trummim: The other gangs benefit from the Green Hand having less of a hold over the elites. Maybe if you backtrack these priestesses up the river to Auriqua and then to Tash you could make sure they followed the path they said they followed.
Vinya: Good idea. They’ve been here two years. They said they spent a little while in Auriqua and came down the river from there. From Tash to Auriqua is months and then from Auriqua here is also months. So you’re probably looking at three or three and a half years ago. But we don’t know how long they stayed in any of those places.
Trummim: That sounds about right.
Vinya: We could Send to people we met in Tashimeet, Urlocka at the caravanserai. And to the Captains of the Guard in both Erlin and Lonoj.
Elama: I can do that. Tomorrow.
Vinya, to Trummim: Thank you so much for taking your dinner to help us understand. I’m one of those people who have stumbled over a cabal, and even I can’t understand it. Why were they meeting and how did they meet and what the hell were they trying to do? I can’t even really explain how I stumbled over them.
Trummim: If it makes that little sense to you, you might never understand it.
Vinya asked about the other schools of magic in New Arvai. The School of the Mind mostly focuses on illusion and enchantment. The School of the Body has a lot of transmuters and healers. Even some druids among the students and teachers.
We thanked him for the information and left him to his dinner.
After we left the bar, we walked and talked.
Vinya: We don’t even know that anything’s happening here at all. We think there is, because Rajalmin is vindictive and plays a long game. But we don’t know anything at all.
We strolled around the town, listening for screaming or chanting or strange noises.
Elama: I think that any cabal worth its salt would do their summoning in a protected room or a cellar. Not where they can be heard, but it doesn’t hurt to be listening.
Elderron brought out his owl, Oda, and had him fly around with his keen hearing.
But even with Oda listening as well we heard nothing unusual. Sigh!
We went back to the Inn and rested for the night, which passed without incident.
20 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 111)
In the morning, Elama prepared Sending and used it to talk to Urlocka from Tashimeet.
Elama: We were there on Feast of Stars. Did two priestesses from The Enthroned come through from Tash three to five years ago?
Urlocka: They came through almost 4 years ago.
Vinya: Maybe they are just a coincidence and a dead end. I’ve got nothing else there -- at least not until their sermon in a few days.
We talked about what we wanted to do next. We wanted to be on a crossroads outside of town in eight days (28 Plantarin, Day 119) to try to talk to the Walking Man about his cousin The Lingering Silence, who has an ongoing beef with Sossonatissis, the Blue Death, the dragon that Aldalomiel has been researching.
Elama: Do we know where a crossroads is?
Vinya: Good question.
She went to the person who was taking breakfast orders from the inn patrons and asked about roads out of New Arvai. She was told that the road north from the city becomes a road that parallels the river all the way up to Lonoj and beyond.
Bartender: What are you looking for?
Vinya: A village. We’re thinking it would be nice to take a break somewhere small and quiet.
Bartender: Well, it’s a couple of days to get to the road paralleling the river. There should be a branch road that leads to some villages pretty shortly after that.
Vinya: Perfect! Thanks so much!
She went back to the party. It’s four days to the priestesses’ sermon at The Enthroned and nine days to the full moon. So we have plenty of time to listen to the sermon and then leave and get to a crossroads by the full moon.
19 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 110) - 23 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 114)
DOWNTIME MONTAGE
At some point during the next four days, Vinya had the thought that maybe Rajalmin was doing something in Dhaqi right now. So she, along with Elama and Elderron went to talk to the tiefling, Brightwater, we’d rescued from the Aboleth’s domination, the one with the heavily pregnant wife, Sunrise Clear.
He was surprised to see us. Sunrise Clear was also there, still heavily pregnant.
Vinya: You just arrived on a ship from Dhaqi, I believe. Is that correct?
Brightwater: Yes.
Vinya: I don’t know if you got off the ship or away from the docks much. I’d really like to talk to someone from there. Was there someone from Dhaqi traveling on the ship perhaps? I’d really like to ask someone about what is going on there.
Brightwater: I don’t know anything about the city -- I was gone for months, but I just sailed there, helped with loading and unloading, then sailed back. I was on the Ocean’s Blessing. It goes between here and Dhaqi and sometimes between Dhaqi and one city or another in Mahassar. I could introduce you to Captain Tarim Bultar. I don’t think the baby will come in the next half-hour.
Brightwater took us to the Ocean’s Blessing. He got some earthy greetings from other sailors, who knew he’d been worried about getting home in time for Sunrise Clear to have her baby. He joked back with the other sailors and introduced us to the Captain.
Captain Tarim Bultar was a human male with long curly hair tied back and a beard. He was in his mid-30s but his skin was weathered and tanned.
Captain Bultar: What can I do for you?
Vinya: Are you from Dhaqi? Or was someone on the ship from there?
Captain Bultar: The Ocean’s Blessing is my home, but I was born and raised in the Queen of Cities.
Vinya explained a bit about the long term, subtle type of vindictive revenge that Rajalmin might be looking for there. And a bit about what he’d been up to in Dhaqi a hundred years ago.
Captain Bultar: My grandfather told me about that bunch of cabals doing stuff at the same time. The word at the time was that they were trying to pull Dhaqi into the Hells. Or maybe bring part of the Hells into Dhaqi in a permanent way. A bunch of cults and cabals were coordinating efforts.
Vinya: Can you think of anything weird going on now?
Captain: We weren’t there long, but the city was definitely tense. Something weird was going on. We left quickly. I have not often been there where the hair on the back of my neck was on end for a week. Not anywhere. There’s certainly something amiss there. Extra tension. There were some people at the docks who wanted to get out of the city and didn’t care where they were going. It took us a little while to get a cargo so those people all left on other ships.
Vinya: If we obtained a couple of dragon pages, could you help us send a message to someone you know there. You’d be giving us an introduction, so to speak.
Captain: Definitely. I’ll also ask around other people who might be in town that I know are here from Dhaqi.
Vinya, to Aldalomiel and Elama: We might be going to Dhaqi, y’all.
Also during this downtime montage, Vinya tried having her messenger butterfly take a message from her to Aldalomiel, in hopes that it would flitter around the party for hours and hours. Unfortunately, it took the message very quickly, just a few minutes.
Elama suggested that the butterfly could be used to find someone -- it has a 10 mile radius and if you set it off with the message and began to follow it you could find someone. It’s like a very slow, long-range find person item.
Vinya sent the butterfly off looking for a cultist like the Zariel cabalists she’d encountered at the monastery. It was carrying a message that said “I know what you did.” The butterfly flittered all over town aimlessly for fourteen hours and never found anyone. The next day she did a better test -- she went to a distant part of town and tried to describe Elama in general terms (as the item requires) that were nonetheless specific enough to describe Elama and no one else. She sent off the butterfly and followed it. 14 hours later it found Elama. So it does work as a find person item -- just a slow moving, and very pretty one.
Any remaining time during the downtime montage, Vinya spent at the Chiaroscuro Temple practicing with her radiant sunbolts. Elderron spent the downtime copying spells.
24 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 115)
All of us went to the temple of The Enthroned to listen to the sermon. Marxine opted to remain at the inn, because she knew that the sermon was just doing to piss her off.
We stayed at the back of the temple and listened to the sermon, The elf woman named Galinaori Thianthe was the one of the priestesses who gave the sermon. It was not a fiery sermon, but it was a convincing one. Given the premises of The Enthroned the message that if one is to have authority over others one must have control over oneself was very powerful. She spoke about being in control of your pleasures and not the other way around.
Vinya tried to get a sense of whether people were being mind controlled or if something weird or creepy was going on. Elama used the helm of telepathy on the priestesses and random people in the congregation, just skimming their surface thoughts.
Among the random people there were: A well-dressed man sitting with his whole family was thinking about the sermon and what it meant for his kids; another man was sleeping and trying to fake being attentive; an older woman was looking around thinking about what people were wearing. A couple of people wondered why someone was wearing a helmet in church.
It seemed that the older people were less interested in the sermon and more interested in the other people in the church.
While we were listening to the sermon, Vinya realized that there was another group of people being hurt by this new message from The Enthroned -- the suppliers and distributors of the drugs and other physical elements of the various vices provided by the Green Hand.
After the sermon was over, Vinya got into the receiving line so that she could talk to Galinaori Thianthe, the priestess who gave the sermon.
Vinya: That was an excellent sermon. Thanks.
Galinaori: Thank you.
Vinya: Do you and Tirla have any plans to go elsewhere? This message could do great good all over Erkonin.
Galinaori: If the Church hierarchy thinks I or we should, I have not heard of it.
Vinya: If you can make suggestions up the hierarchy, this would be a good message to spread far and wide.
We left and walked back toward the Inn to get ready to leave the next morning to get to a crossroads by the full moon.
Vinya: Where’s the central hierarchy of The Enthroned? Like their mother-ship?
Elama: Their headquarters on Urnod is about three days travel from Tash in the direction of Anestri. They are also in Mahassar -- but the different orders work differently there so that’s not exactly relevant. There’s a big temple of The Enthroned in Dhaqi, but it doesn’t have the reach to have control over the order on Urnod or in Mahassar.
After the sermon, we went to Tralot’s, the magic shop in Stormyside that we were told was known for having very moderate prices, in order to make their goods more likely to be affordable. Vinya wanted to buy a few dragon pages.
With four dragon pages in hand (two for immediate use and two for the future), we went to the Ocean’s Blessing, still in port, to talk to Captain Bultar and to send a dragon page letter to someone in Dhaqi.
Captain Bultar: Top o’ the morning!
Vinya: How’s finding a cargo going?
Captain: We expect to have something in a week or ten days.
Vinya: We have some dragon pages. Is there anyone in Dhaqi we can send a letter to?
Captain: I talked to the Kotimanovs over there (he pointed to a large ship docked nearby) and haven’t heard back about whether they know of anything. It’s best not to push Kotimanovs too hard, they can be touchy.
Vinya: Should we talk to them? Or are they a last resort?
Captain: If you’re going to be fighting fiends, they might be a valuable resource. There are a number of aasimar among them.
We all wrote the letter with the Captain giving us a written introduction. We asked about strange things that might be going on in Dhaqi and what seemed like was going on in the city. We enclosed a blank dragon page with our names on it, so that if there’s a reply it will come to us.
We spent the rest of the day hanging out.
We’ll commence the next day ready to head out by road to get to a crossroads by the full moon.
Unless we decide we want to book passage on the Ocean’s Blessing and head to Dhaqi.
Players:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Note: Marxine's player could not be with us for this session
GM - Everyone Else
(Note: This session was held on Discord.)
19 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 110)
After the inquiries and explorations of the day before, it was getting late so we went back to the Inn to read Danrom Orth’s papers.
We learned that Danrom met up with the dwarf paladin, Etta Blackgranite (Tylrok Hammerhammer’s aunt), on a ship to Dhaqi. In the course of some adventures on the ship they started working with the halfling cleric from that city, Sarik Whitesand, and with the human monk from Kiranamakir, Adlawan Gavlura. They had adventures around and in Dhaqi -- which is where they started learning about Rajalmin and his plans.
His cabals there were doing horrific summoning rituals -- with several different cabals working in a coordinated way (though they may not have realized it) to do a bigger summoning than any of the cabals would have been capable of independently. While fighting those cabals, they found clues about Rajalmin having activities in Kiranamakir and they went there.
That’s where they found out about Rajalmin’s thing with sparking duels and creating unrest and worked to put a stop to that. They also learned about the cabal in New Arvai that were summoning him repeatedly so that he was regularly being invited back to Erkonin.
They came to New Arvai and busted up that cabal -- they killed most of the cabalists, but Danrom was convinced that there were some that weren’t at the ritual site when he and his party got there and were therefore not among those who fought and were killed. Danrom believed that the ones that weren’t there perhaps didn’t know what they were doing or that they were summoning a Rakshasa.
Evidence for that fact is that he then lived a long life and died a natural death in New Arvai.
Vinya: So how do you find a cabal?
Elderron: I think they’re near or in the libraries.
Vinya had an idea to try and talk to the researchers who had assisted Elderron and Aldalomiel the day before, to see if they could give a bit of additional information. We went to the Library of School the World.
Vinya, to the desk clerk: Are the researchers who helped my friends yesterday still here?
Desk clerk: One just left for dinner. The one who helped your friend look into that blue dragon is about to leave, I believe.
Vinya: Excellent. We’ll wait.
The research assistant who had helped Aldalomiel was a very young rock gnome, barely an adult, named Trummim. She told us that, like other gnomes, his eyes are two different colors -- one very blue and one very grey. She also told us that he was extremely careful and very willing to tell her when he didn’t know something.
He came out of the library and we all noticed that he was dressed as though he was intentionally trying to look average or non-descript. He was wrapped up in his own thinking and walked right past us without even seeming to notice us.
Aldalomiel: Trummim.
Trummim, startled: Oh! Good evening! Ummm….hi!
Aldalomiel introduced us all around.
Aldalomiel: We’d like to talk for a bit.
Vinya: We’ll buy you dinner. You pick the place.
He led us to a restaurant and bar that he was clearly very familiar with. He pointed out the best items on the menu and on the drinks menu. We ordered food and drinks and sat down with him. He was having some very sturdy barleywine-type beer with his dinner.
Vinya, quietly: How does one find a cabal? Whether to fight it or to join it?
Trummim: Usually when people are fighting them, the cabal has made a move and revealed themselves and then they were backtracked and exterminated. As far as joining, I think they start with people who know and trust each other. Like you guys know and trust each other. So if you started wanting to get extra power from, say, a demon, the others might be willing to assist because they know you and trust you not to be doing anything bad. And then they get sucked in. If you need more people, you’d branch out to other folks that each of you know and trust.
Vinya: If one of my friends wanted to start summoning fiends, that would probably break my trust.
Trummim: Well, criminal conspiracies are a thing, as we know all too well here in New Arvai. This isn’t entirely dissimilar. I’ve known some people who’ve had to abruptly leave the city because they stumbled onto something -- it can be hard to know the full reach of the cabal, who’s in it, who isn’t, who you can and can’t trust. Easier just to leave the city.
Vinya: What’s the point of it -- summoning a fiend can’t be an end game, right? There has to be a point to it.
Trummim: Oh, yes -- they’re summoning a fiend to fight their battles or do things they can’t do to get them money or power or information. Then they hope that they can put the fiend back. If they summon a strong enough fiend, they hope perhaps that they’ll be treated by the fiend as a favored pet or servant. Though that doesn’t typically fit with the personality of a cabal leader. A willingness to be humiliated as a pet or servant doesn’t typically go with the power to summon a demon prince or prince of Hell.
Elama: Aren’t there spells that let you control whatever it is that you summon?
Trummim: They’re not as perfect as people think they are.
Elama: Within my own skill set I have knowledge of spells that will keep something like that contained.
Trummim: Those circles are definitely an important thing. I can’t understand why anyone would summon a fiend without having prepared a circle first. Unless you want it to get out and cause problems.
Vinya: It still seems really stupid…
Trummim: I don’t think it’s intelligent or sensible. People do it because they’re desperate or greedy and think it’s a short cut.
Elderron: Who might be desperate and greedy here?
Trummim: That’s a fair question. The wizarding schools are magnets for greedy and lazy people looking for a shortcut. There are almost always people who need or want something badly around them. People who are desperate for something. If a cabal can find them and dangle that thing they’re desperate for in front of them like a carrot…
Elama: Like those priestesses with The Enthroned.
Trummim: They are the best thing that’s ever happened to their congregation.
Vinya: I agree with you there.
Trummim: I believe that they believe in what they are preaching. I believe that the higher ups in The Enthroned believe in the extra money they’re getting in donations and tithes.
Vinya: I agree with you on that as well.
Trummim: I’ve been dragged to a few of those sermons. Once by my boss after a long night spent drinking very excellent beer here -- I went into work and the most expensive thing I owned was my hangover and he dragged me off to a sermon on moderation and controlling yourself.
Vinya: I’ve had days like that. Who benefits from this change in habits from a whole swathe of society?
Trummim: It’s better for the church, for the nobles themselves, for their underlings. Everyone but the Green Hand.
Vinya: Okay. Who benefits from the Green Hand losing power?
Trummim: The other gangs benefit from the Green Hand having less of a hold over the elites. Maybe if you backtrack these priestesses up the river to Auriqua and then to Tash you could make sure they followed the path they said they followed.
Vinya: Good idea. They’ve been here two years. They said they spent a little while in Auriqua and came down the river from there. From Tash to Auriqua is months and then from Auriqua here is also months. So you’re probably looking at three or three and a half years ago. But we don’t know how long they stayed in any of those places.
Trummim: That sounds about right.
Vinya: We could Send to people we met in Tashimeet, Urlocka at the caravanserai. And to the Captains of the Guard in both Erlin and Lonoj.
Elama: I can do that. Tomorrow.
Vinya, to Trummim: Thank you so much for taking your dinner to help us understand. I’m one of those people who have stumbled over a cabal, and even I can’t understand it. Why were they meeting and how did they meet and what the hell were they trying to do? I can’t even really explain how I stumbled over them.
Trummim: If it makes that little sense to you, you might never understand it.
Vinya asked about the other schools of magic in New Arvai. The School of the Mind mostly focuses on illusion and enchantment. The School of the Body has a lot of transmuters and healers. Even some druids among the students and teachers.
We thanked him for the information and left him to his dinner.
After we left the bar, we walked and talked.
Vinya: We don’t even know that anything’s happening here at all. We think there is, because Rajalmin is vindictive and plays a long game. But we don’t know anything at all.
We strolled around the town, listening for screaming or chanting or strange noises.
Elama: I think that any cabal worth its salt would do their summoning in a protected room or a cellar. Not where they can be heard, but it doesn’t hurt to be listening.
Elderron brought out his owl, Oda, and had him fly around with his keen hearing.
But even with Oda listening as well we heard nothing unusual. Sigh!
We went back to the Inn and rested for the night, which passed without incident.
20 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 111)
In the morning, Elama prepared Sending and used it to talk to Urlocka from Tashimeet.
Elama: We were there on Feast of Stars. Did two priestesses from The Enthroned come through from Tash three to five years ago?
Urlocka: They came through almost 4 years ago.
Vinya: Maybe they are just a coincidence and a dead end. I’ve got nothing else there -- at least not until their sermon in a few days.
We talked about what we wanted to do next. We wanted to be on a crossroads outside of town in eight days (28 Plantarin, Day 119) to try to talk to the Walking Man about his cousin The Lingering Silence, who has an ongoing beef with Sossonatissis, the Blue Death, the dragon that Aldalomiel has been researching.
Elama: Do we know where a crossroads is?
Vinya: Good question.
She went to the person who was taking breakfast orders from the inn patrons and asked about roads out of New Arvai. She was told that the road north from the city becomes a road that parallels the river all the way up to Lonoj and beyond.
Bartender: What are you looking for?
Vinya: A village. We’re thinking it would be nice to take a break somewhere small and quiet.
Bartender: Well, it’s a couple of days to get to the road paralleling the river. There should be a branch road that leads to some villages pretty shortly after that.
Vinya: Perfect! Thanks so much!
She went back to the party. It’s four days to the priestesses’ sermon at The Enthroned and nine days to the full moon. So we have plenty of time to listen to the sermon and then leave and get to a crossroads by the full moon.
19 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 110) - 23 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 114)
DOWNTIME MONTAGE
At some point during the next four days, Vinya had the thought that maybe Rajalmin was doing something in Dhaqi right now. So she, along with Elama and Elderron went to talk to the tiefling, Brightwater, we’d rescued from the Aboleth’s domination, the one with the heavily pregnant wife, Sunrise Clear.
He was surprised to see us. Sunrise Clear was also there, still heavily pregnant.
Vinya: You just arrived on a ship from Dhaqi, I believe. Is that correct?
Brightwater: Yes.
Vinya: I don’t know if you got off the ship or away from the docks much. I’d really like to talk to someone from there. Was there someone from Dhaqi traveling on the ship perhaps? I’d really like to ask someone about what is going on there.
Brightwater: I don’t know anything about the city -- I was gone for months, but I just sailed there, helped with loading and unloading, then sailed back. I was on the Ocean’s Blessing. It goes between here and Dhaqi and sometimes between Dhaqi and one city or another in Mahassar. I could introduce you to Captain Tarim Bultar. I don’t think the baby will come in the next half-hour.
Brightwater took us to the Ocean’s Blessing. He got some earthy greetings from other sailors, who knew he’d been worried about getting home in time for Sunrise Clear to have her baby. He joked back with the other sailors and introduced us to the Captain.
Captain Tarim Bultar was a human male with long curly hair tied back and a beard. He was in his mid-30s but his skin was weathered and tanned.
Captain Bultar: What can I do for you?
Vinya: Are you from Dhaqi? Or was someone on the ship from there?
Captain Bultar: The Ocean’s Blessing is my home, but I was born and raised in the Queen of Cities.
Vinya explained a bit about the long term, subtle type of vindictive revenge that Rajalmin might be looking for there. And a bit about what he’d been up to in Dhaqi a hundred years ago.
Captain Bultar: My grandfather told me about that bunch of cabals doing stuff at the same time. The word at the time was that they were trying to pull Dhaqi into the Hells. Or maybe bring part of the Hells into Dhaqi in a permanent way. A bunch of cults and cabals were coordinating efforts.
Vinya: Can you think of anything weird going on now?
Captain: We weren’t there long, but the city was definitely tense. Something weird was going on. We left quickly. I have not often been there where the hair on the back of my neck was on end for a week. Not anywhere. There’s certainly something amiss there. Extra tension. There were some people at the docks who wanted to get out of the city and didn’t care where they were going. It took us a little while to get a cargo so those people all left on other ships.
Vinya: If we obtained a couple of dragon pages, could you help us send a message to someone you know there. You’d be giving us an introduction, so to speak.
Captain: Definitely. I’ll also ask around other people who might be in town that I know are here from Dhaqi.
Vinya, to Aldalomiel and Elama: We might be going to Dhaqi, y’all.
Also during this downtime montage, Vinya tried having her messenger butterfly take a message from her to Aldalomiel, in hopes that it would flitter around the party for hours and hours. Unfortunately, it took the message very quickly, just a few minutes.
Elama suggested that the butterfly could be used to find someone -- it has a 10 mile radius and if you set it off with the message and began to follow it you could find someone. It’s like a very slow, long-range find person item.
Vinya sent the butterfly off looking for a cultist like the Zariel cabalists she’d encountered at the monastery. It was carrying a message that said “I know what you did.” The butterfly flittered all over town aimlessly for fourteen hours and never found anyone. The next day she did a better test -- she went to a distant part of town and tried to describe Elama in general terms (as the item requires) that were nonetheless specific enough to describe Elama and no one else. She sent off the butterfly and followed it. 14 hours later it found Elama. So it does work as a find person item -- just a slow moving, and very pretty one.
Any remaining time during the downtime montage, Vinya spent at the Chiaroscuro Temple practicing with her radiant sunbolts. Elderron spent the downtime copying spells.
24 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 115)
All of us went to the temple of The Enthroned to listen to the sermon. Marxine opted to remain at the inn, because she knew that the sermon was just doing to piss her off.
We stayed at the back of the temple and listened to the sermon, The elf woman named Galinaori Thianthe was the one of the priestesses who gave the sermon. It was not a fiery sermon, but it was a convincing one. Given the premises of The Enthroned the message that if one is to have authority over others one must have control over oneself was very powerful. She spoke about being in control of your pleasures and not the other way around.
Vinya tried to get a sense of whether people were being mind controlled or if something weird or creepy was going on. Elama used the helm of telepathy on the priestesses and random people in the congregation, just skimming their surface thoughts.
Among the random people there were: A well-dressed man sitting with his whole family was thinking about the sermon and what it meant for his kids; another man was sleeping and trying to fake being attentive; an older woman was looking around thinking about what people were wearing. A couple of people wondered why someone was wearing a helmet in church.
It seemed that the older people were less interested in the sermon and more interested in the other people in the church.
While we were listening to the sermon, Vinya realized that there was another group of people being hurt by this new message from The Enthroned -- the suppliers and distributors of the drugs and other physical elements of the various vices provided by the Green Hand.
After the sermon was over, Vinya got into the receiving line so that she could talk to Galinaori Thianthe, the priestess who gave the sermon.
Vinya: That was an excellent sermon. Thanks.
Galinaori: Thank you.
Vinya: Do you and Tirla have any plans to go elsewhere? This message could do great good all over Erkonin.
Galinaori: If the Church hierarchy thinks I or we should, I have not heard of it.
Vinya: If you can make suggestions up the hierarchy, this would be a good message to spread far and wide.
We left and walked back toward the Inn to get ready to leave the next morning to get to a crossroads by the full moon.
Vinya: Where’s the central hierarchy of The Enthroned? Like their mother-ship?
Elama: Their headquarters on Urnod is about three days travel from Tash in the direction of Anestri. They are also in Mahassar -- but the different orders work differently there so that’s not exactly relevant. There’s a big temple of The Enthroned in Dhaqi, but it doesn’t have the reach to have control over the order on Urnod or in Mahassar.
After the sermon, we went to Tralot’s, the magic shop in Stormyside that we were told was known for having very moderate prices, in order to make their goods more likely to be affordable. Vinya wanted to buy a few dragon pages.
With four dragon pages in hand (two for immediate use and two for the future), we went to the Ocean’s Blessing, still in port, to talk to Captain Bultar and to send a dragon page letter to someone in Dhaqi.
Captain Bultar: Top o’ the morning!
Vinya: How’s finding a cargo going?
Captain: We expect to have something in a week or ten days.
Vinya: We have some dragon pages. Is there anyone in Dhaqi we can send a letter to?
Captain: I talked to the Kotimanovs over there (he pointed to a large ship docked nearby) and haven’t heard back about whether they know of anything. It’s best not to push Kotimanovs too hard, they can be touchy.
Vinya: Should we talk to them? Or are they a last resort?
Captain: If you’re going to be fighting fiends, they might be a valuable resource. There are a number of aasimar among them.
We all wrote the letter with the Captain giving us a written introduction. We asked about strange things that might be going on in Dhaqi and what seemed like was going on in the city. We enclosed a blank dragon page with our names on it, so that if there’s a reply it will come to us.
We spent the rest of the day hanging out.
We’ll commence the next day ready to head out by road to get to a crossroads by the full moon.
Unless we decide we want to book passage on the Ocean’s Blessing and head to Dhaqi.