MAL Ep. 49

1) First, after much planning and debate, the party executed their heist to recover Khirg's axe from the magic shop. It didn't go off EXACTLY as planned-- an animated door briefly trapped Bay and Aler, an ice demon proved to be able to see through Red's Blizzard spell, and a stinkbomb trap injured everyone--but a few more high-level spells and the party managed to extract themselves and escape back to Malachi on the walking hut. The party decided to have Bay play it safe and she stole only one random item, a Deck of Illusions, before she and Aler absconded with the axe.

2) Returning to Malachi, the party learned that the mayor has resigned. The King of Clocks invited Red to dinner where they discussed Invasion strategies and everyone got a much needed night's sleep. The party remembered the letter they had found on the body of the Between Hag and began to examine it, eventually deactivating the intricate puzzle rune on its obverse and unfolding it without it bursting into flame. The inscription contained demonic characters that spelled out the name "Shyra," and the letter was signed "LL," which the party assumed stands for "Lann Lasanta." The text of the letter is appended below.

3) The party arranged security measures for the Summit to protect against Harasket or Lann Lasanta infiltrating the meeting. There was a brief kerfluffle where Lady Aldrayeth was angry at the brothels for spreading rumors about the impending meeting around town, but nothing seems to have come of this.

4) The Summit was then convened. The Mayor was not present, but Petros was. Apparently what happened is that since no one had acquired any information about Tell's murder or the framing of Petros in time, the League of Snakes was able to cause more civil disorder by revealing Petros' innocence after his 'execution.' This was what the Mayor had feared was their plan. He defused the situation by revealing his counter-ruse and producing Petros still alive, but this was also a public admission that he had been lying to the Duke and circumventing the law, so he has now been arrested by the Ducal military, though the Ducal emissary is clearly not happy about it. Jon suggested that the Duke must have the authority to pardon the mayor, and the Emissary responded yes, but politically, he can't do anything till after the League of Snakes is defeated because otherwise it will make the Duke look soft on dissent and the League of Snakes will exploit that.

4) The Summit began to discuss the Invasion. Red had come prepared with a whole power-point presentation to prove the threat posed by Chavalk and persuade the political leaders to take action, but it turned out not to be necessary, since apparently political leaders on Malachi already consider a demon attack to be a big problem on their own, go figure. So instead, Aler gave the assembly a run-down of all the members of the League of Snakes and all the schemes you have found them involved in, which the attendees added some details to as they went along. The allies are all now aware of nearly the whole story.

5) The Summit then began to strategize against the Invasion. Zadkiel proposed his idea about having the High Priest of Tallian use a Miracle spell to recall the angels from the Tallian cult in Averdale to Cloudwatch to fight the invading alliance of demons and devils, which Tallian would surely consider a higher priority mission. The idea is that then the King of Clocks and his rebels could overthrow the oppressive government while the angels were otherwise occupied at the Invasion, killing two birds with one stone. However, the party realized that meant the war machines would also be occupied on Averdale, and they had been hoping the machines might be effective against the illithids. After some discussion the party proposed that the Gnollish company, who are allied with Cloudwatch but are technically mercenaries, could go to Averdale and assist in the revolution there, while the King of Clocks join the defense in Peraine. The King of Clocks and the Gnollish chieftain both agreed to this, and Prince Hassan is good with it because it isn't technically an act of war on the kingdom's part.

6) After some other strategic conversation about strengths and weaknesses of various units and the production of different weaponry using the Forge of Moradin, the problem was raised that no one knows when the invasion is going to be taking place, making it difficult to defend effectively. If the defenders just head to Overthorn and stay there till an attack comes, that commits the PCs and several powerful units to an out of the way location for an indefinite amount of time, allowing the League of Snakes too much opportunity to wreak havoc elsewhere. The summit concluded that the best answer was to send the party to confront a member of the League of Snakes and acquire the necessary intelligence from them either by diplomacy, stealth or force. The party discussed it and decided to find Dayant Arakin, who they considered both deeply enough involved with the conspiracy to have worthwhile information and also more possible to get that information out of than, say, illithids. Naruah said Iscariot would get information to the party about Arakin's location within 24 hours.

7) Next, the party went back to Delsin (using the walking hut) for a meeting with the unnervingly unfazed drow necromancer Thrane Do'Ezzen. He reacted rather dryly to Aler appearing alive at the meeting: "Well, Mr. Rawlins, I don't believe I have ever hired a hitman before who tried convincing me that he deserved payment for bringing in a head still attached to its living body. One can see why the fey like you." XD XD

He was quite receptive to negotiations with Aler on the matter, however. Basically, Aler's father had used ALER'S demonmark, rather than his own, to power the curse against Thrane. The simplest solution from Thrane's standpoint would be killing Aler, but Thrane said it would serve his purposes equally well if Aler gave up his demonmark voluntarily. Jon wanted to know if Thrane would still do the necromantic ritual for Piper, and Thrane remarked he no longer needed to do this to accomplish his goals, but that in the interest of getting the matter taken care of in an expedited fashion, he would be willing to do it if the demonmark were destroyed within the next 48 hours. Of course, that means Aler will no longer have its substantial protection against demons during the Invasion. Thrane told him to go ahead and think about it, he would know when it was done.

8) Aler also asked Thrane if he had a way to contact the spirits of those who had been dead too long for Speak With Dead to work, in particular, his parents. In exchange he offered to pledge on an oathing stone not to resurrect his parents. Thrane'd face was even more inscrutable than usual but he accepted the oath and brought in an associate of his, a woman named Shoshanna, to reach beyond the Veil and manifest the spirits of Aler's parents, with whom he had short heartfelt conversations. Shoshanna gave Aler a talisman to use to summon her when he decided to free himself from the demonmark, since he was rightfully wary of having it done at the Temple of Lolth where someone was likely to hold a grudge against his family. Shoshanna also commented that she and Aler "have an enemy in common," who she identified as "Harasket of the Fatespinners." The group did not have much time to question her further.

9) Leaving Thrane, the group had a quick conversation about Aler's plans. Jon said that he knew he was too biased to give advice, leaving Aler to make his own decision. Aler chose to remove the demonmark before the Invasion in order to secure Thrane's help with the ritual, but stated he was doing this for Piper's sake, not Jon's. The demonmark has now been removed.

And there we left off for the session! There were a few between-sessions developments, such as the sale of the Deck of Illusions, some RP between Jon, Aler, Tanya, and Bay, and the information Naruah gave you about where and how you can find Dayant Arakin allowing the party to proceed to their next adventure.

Onward!