MAL Ep. 39

1) After much debate, the party, still having difficulty agreeing on goals, voted to return to rescue the sacrificial baby after their meeting with the drow matriarch, when they ran less risk of suffering serious consequences.

2) When they entered the audience room, they found not only the matriarch Talisha Ken'rae, who Adriel has been communicating with, but also the matriarch of the other House based in Ellenun, Sar'talo, and her brother, from the House De'Afin. They had come to discuss the attack on the drow windship, which belonged to House Sar'talo (the sailor killed by Adriel had been a member of House De'Afin.) Turns out everyone in Ellenun already knew about the illithid attack and would have even if the party had made it straight there without being attacked by dragons, because the captain of the ship magically contacted his House immediately. (This also explains why you overheard townsfolk wondering if there's going to be war with the illithids.)

3) The drow nobles were unexpectedly not that concerned about the death of the sailor--the Sar'talo matriarch had already come to the conclusion that the party couldn't have actually been in league with the illithids with only one casualty. Instead, she was pissed off that the party, identifying themselves as enemies of the illithids and acknowledging that the illithids had been following them, had not warned the captain about this before embarking on his boat, giving him no chance to prepare his marines for such a battle (or to refuse to carry the party, which she maintains should have been his decision.) She warned the Ken'rae matriarch against allying with those who would exploit the Sar'talo for their own ends, saying "That did not end well twenty years ago and it will not end well now." Jon offered a diplomatic apology and Talisha said she would take responsibility for the consequences of any alliance.

4) The Sar'talo matriarch, her brother and the priestess exited. Realizing that the priestess would probably take the elven captives, Zadkiel broke off from the party to tail her, joined by Bay and Tanya. They clandestinely followed the priestess and her captives to the Temple of Lolth, which they staked out from a distance.

5) Meanwhile, the rest of the party entered a secured conference room with Talisha Ken'rae (encased in two inches of solid lead, which the matriarch said seemed to be proof against telepathic intrusion.) Adriel described her intelligence that the illithids would be joining in the Invasion on the surface and her suggestion that this would be an opportune time for the drow to hit them while their attention was elsewhere. Aler recalled the name of the Illithid faction, Hrin Fhtamgali, that was engaged with the League of Snakes, and Talisha immediately recognized them as an illithid group near Ellenun. The party then shared their information about the illithids' vulnerability to magic, and Talisha said that if the party gives her advance notice of when they are about to engage the illithids on the surface, she can see to it that they will be unable to bring their full resources to bear, giving Adriel three pearls she can use to contact her with such information. Adriel was pleased.

6) The party reconvened near the temple of Lolth and resumed their argument about whether and how to help the elven captives. Eventually Adriel brokered a compromise no one liked but everyone accepted: having Jon and Tanya sneak up to the cage invisibly and spirit the baby away to the Fey lands, leaving the mother behind to die. At the last minute, somebody realized that the drow priestesses would be able to extract your identity from the remaining captive, and that it would thus be too dangerous to leave her behind. Zadkiel burned a Miracle spell to create a high-level illusion of the captives remaining in the cage, and Jon brought both to the Fey lands.

7) Meanwhile, Adriel and the other party members created an alibi by walking around the shops, ending up at the New Face Shop where Adriel paid to have her human face restored.

8) Meeting some nymphs frolicking in a pool in the Fey lands, Jon tried to give them the baby, to the hysteria of his mother, but Tanya managed to get things sorted out and Jon left the plane without answering when the nymphs asked who he was. Tanya then led the two elves away in search of a safe location

9) The group decided to go in search of the sibyl Tanya had told them about, but first, Zadkiel's discern location spell had tracked the previous owner of the amulet Angara found in the mana drill to the address of a duergar named Sydora in Ellenun. When the party went to speak to her and showed her the amulet, she turned out to be Aler's childhood nanny Dory. Aler revealed himself to her and she told him more of his family backstory, including how his parents had come to rule House Vel'sharren after a string of assassinations, what their plans were to unite and restore Vel'sharren and Do'Ratha using magics his father had found while adventuring in the Abyss, and how betrayal by a sister, blasphemy charges by the Church of Lolth for allying with her demonic archnemesis Orcus, and ultimately civil war amongst the drow spoiled their plans and ended with their deaths and the destruction of House Vel'sharren.

10) Aler asked whether he had any siblings, to which Dory said no, and then whether any other Vel'sharren had survived the purge, to which she said she didn't think so, but since Aler was still alive, it was not impossible. Aler explained his inability to free the genies, suggesting he was not the highest-ranking member of House Vel'sharren. Dory pointed out that Aler didn't have ANY rank in House Vel'sharren, because he was an uninitiated minor and also male (apparently drow men hold rank in the House of their wife, like Aler's father did.) She was unable to answer any further questions about how the drow get initiated ("something to do with the Church of Lolth, I assume?") or how it might be possible for an unmarried drow male to gain rank in his house. Nor did she know anything about the mark Vanessa had left upon Aler. Dory is very loyal to Aler's mother, who she also raised, but she is really just the nanny and doesn't know much about drow secrets nor anything magical.

11) Dory did tell the group about a vault used by Aler's mother just outside of town, so the group went to go find it. No sooner did Aler touch it, though, than an impossibly black, nearly invisible eel-like creature shot out to attack him.

And there we broke for the night. Onwards!