The Last Emperor

(The following is a summary of the information that Ellyanna learned during session 28)

The final Emperor of the First Empire was a man named Eventis Khorin, known formally as Emperor Eventis IV. Eventis IV inherited the throne at the age of 19 upon the death of his father, Eventis III, from a mysterious wasting disease that has, to this day, still not been definitively identified.

Eventis IV inherited an empire on the verge of dissolution. Over the last 100 years, the Empire's military and economic might had declined, such that several provinces had already successfully rebelled and others were in the midst of open rebellion. Eventis III had been a skilled and cunning general and had managed, during his rule, to reclaim some of the lost provinces and win back some of the Empire's power. Even so, at the time of Eventis IV's coronation, the Empire was much diminished from its height and most of Eventis III's conquests were still tenuous.

Eventis IV was a very different sort of man from him father. Eventis III was a charismatic and confident warrior, who had risen through the ranks of the legions, and who inspired loyalty in his people and respect in his enemies. Under his rule, the people of the Empire had begun to regain pride and optimism for their nation and. Eventis IV, on the other hand, was a sickly and temperamental man who spurned public appearances. Eventis IV had no aptitude for, or interest in, martial matters and focused his time on private researches. Unfortunately, history does not record what subject so occupied the Emperor - only his most trusted advisors were given access to his research, and they did not record its contents.

So different was Eventis IV from his father that many historians have suggested that he was not actually Eventis III's son, or that some sort of horrible event in his childhood drastically changed his personality. While such speculation is common among scholars, there is no strong evidence for these of these claims.

Where Eventis III had begun reclaiming the Empire's territory through military genius and inspirational leadership, Eventis IV immediately began losing it again through military incompetence. As the situation worsened, the loyalty of the legions began to falter. Unable to motivate them through charisma, Eventis IV instead chose to motivate them through fear.

Eventis IV made use of a secretive group called the Duvan'Ku, composed of wizards and other spellcasters, and gave them the authority to keep the legions (and the general populace) in line through any means necessary. They accomplished this through dark magic such a necromancy, demonology, and mind control. The group were named after their leader, Duvan; the name "Duvan'Ku" means, roughly "Heralds of Duvan" in High Imperial. The secretive Duvan was rumoured to be one of the most powerful spellcasters in the world and a close confidante of Eventis IV. While history undisputably shows that Duvan existed and was an advisor to the Emperor, very few details about him survive.

The Emperor's most puzzling decree was made about two years before the fall of the Empire. For unknown reasons, he decreed that the bodies of all legionnaires who fell in combat should be recovered and sent north, to the (then) uninhabited tundra beyond the Frostpeak Mountains. For two years, tens of thousands of corpses were transported through the mountains, never to return. For that matter, none of the living legionnaires responsible for transporting the corpses ever returned either. "Corpse duty" was considered to be a punishment equivalent to a death sentence. Only the Duvan'Ku in charge of the operation ever returned from beyond the mountains, and no testimony from them survives, if indeed it ever existed.

What Eventis IV hoped to accomplish with this decree has never been determined, although many have speculated that the Emperor gave the corpses to the Duvan'Ku as payment for their services. As necromancers, they would have desired a large supply of fresh corpses. Nothing seems to have ever come from the whole affair, and the corpses of the legionnaires are presumably still lying somewhere beyond the Frostpeaks to this day.

The reign of Eventis IV lasted less than five years, and ended when he was assassinated by Aurilex, a Legionnaire general. In the aftermath of his assassination, the Duvan'Ku were hunted down and killed, although the fate of Duvan himself is unknown. In the chaos following Eventis IV's assassination and the purging of the Duvan'Ku, the Empire collapsed completely.

Session 26: We Finally Accomplished Something

March 1, 118

A few hours pass as the party wait for Severn to assemble his team. The party rest up during this time, and Calanon heads out and buys some supplies before returning.

Eventually, in the early evening, Severn's agents arrive. They are three women, who appear to be a rogue, a wizard, and a paladin or cleric. After confirming the situation with the party, they waste no time in moving forward into the portal. The party follows behind them.

The group makes their way through the rooms that were previously cleared by the party. In the room where they fought the cat-like creatures, the agents stop to take a closer look at them, and Ellyanna joins them. On closer inspection, she realizes that she does recognize the creatures; they are magically-created monsters known as "displacer beasts".

As the three agents approach the final door to the room where Therian is imprisoned, the party hang back safely behind them. The wizard casts a levitation spell on the rogue, who opens the door. The party don't have a good line of sight and can only barely see into the room. They see the rogue levitate up to the ceiling and push herself off, while the cleric hefts her shield and takes up a defensive position in front of the wizard.

A minute or two passes in silence, with the party unable to see what's happening inside the room. Suddenly, the silence is broken by a monstrous roar, and a shout from the rogue for everyone to run. The other two agents begin backing off, and Elvish and Ash-Daughter make a run for it. Ellyanna stays in the room but backs off to the wall, while Dark Star and Calanon move forward to cover the agents' escape.

The rogue comes into view as she propels herself by pushing along the ceiling. A man, presumably Therian, is hanging onto her waist. A monstrous, insectoid creature (later identified by Ellyanna as an ankheg, a type of burrowing beast) leaps towards the pair, spitting a spray of acid towards them, but it only narrowly clips them. When they reach the door, the rogue pushes herself and Therian through, and everyone retreats down the hallway. The ankheg is too large to fit through the doorway and, after a futile attempt to hit them with another acid spray, it is forced to give up the chase.

Everyone retreats back another room before catching their breath, assessing the situation, and quickly letting Therian know what's going on. The decide to leave the ankhegs be and exit the demiplane with Therian.

Once they're out, Severn's agents leave Therian with the party and head off to retrieve the Prelate himself. Severn arrives a few minutes later and dismisses the three women, then turns to the party in order to discuss their next steps.

Although Therian has been rescued, Severn feels that Sahril should not announce her candidacy immediately. He thinks that they should wait until they have the Arch-Prelate's murderer in hand and make both announcements together, in order for them to have the strongest effect. However, they don't know how long it will be until Zorlac has finished erasing the clone's memories, so they don't know how long they'll need to wait. As Gorith will likely be growing desperate, he doesn't want to wait more than a few days.

Eventually, they decide that the party will check up on Zorlac's progress the next day, and they'll decide the best course of action based on what the wizard says. If Kaplan will be ready soon, they'll go ahead with Severn's plan, but if it will take too long, they'll need to come up with something else.

Since they're worried that they might be in danger from Gorith, Severn offers to let the party rest for the night within the Cathedral under his protection. They take him up on this offer.

March 2, 118

The next morning, as the party is eating and preparing for the day, they are approached by Malecar, who wants to leave now that Therian is free. The party agree to keep their end of the bargain and let him go, but Calanon demands to escort him to the gate so they know he's really leaving. Malecar agrees to this. Ellyanna decides to come along as well, to see if she can learn anything from the wizard, and Ash-Daughter also accompanies them, since her knowledge of the city's streets will help them move faster.

While everyone else is escorting Malecar, Dark Star heads to the Salty Locust, the inn where they told their contact in Duskveil to bring the enchanted bed and the remains of the undead from Frosthaven - they are expected to arrive today. Finally, Elvish heads to Zorlac's tower to get an update from him.

At Zorlac's tower, Elvish learns that Zorlac is making progress, but probably won't be done for at least 3 or 4 days. When he returns to update Severn on the situation, the Prelate is not happy with this, and feels that they can't wait this long. He wants to retrieve the murderer and make his move earlier than that. Elvish convinces him to at least wait until the next day, hoping that they can come up with a way to deal with, or at least delay, Gorith while Zorlac is finishing his work.

While Calanon, Ellyanna, and Ash-Daughter are escorting Malecar to the city gates, Ellyanna strikes up a conversation with him, asking about Corsica, the librarian who they encountered earlier. Specifically, she wants to know how they might be able to break Zorlac's control over her. Malecar replies that this type of magic isn't his specialty, and she'd be best off speaking with an enchanter. Unfortunately, he doesn't know any in the city personally.

When they get to the outskirts of the city, Malecar buys a horse from a nearby stable for the journey. Ellyanna, hoping to patch up his relationship with the party a bit, pays a large part of the price and sends him on his way. Afterwards, she lets Calanon go ahead to meet with Dark Star, but stays behind to ask about local enchanters along with Ash-Daughter.

Back at the Salty Locust, Dark Star sees a wagon arrive and goes out to investigate. It is indeed the party from Duskveil, lead by Ellesera, the Elven captain of the watch who they rescued earlier at Frosthaven. They've brought the bed as promised, as well as several chests full of undead body parts, gathered from in and around Frosthaven.

Dark Star asks Ellesera if there have been any further undead sightings or other unusual occurences, and she tells him that there has been a string of murders in the usually-peaceful village, all young women. No one has been able to learn anything of the culprit. Dark Star is immediately suspicious of the two suvivors who they brought back from Frosthaven, but Ellesera tells him that one of the murders was committed while they were both locked in custody, so it could not have been them.

Calanon and Elvish eventually arrive, and they decide what to do next. Hoping they can use the demiplane to transport the undead and the bed, they open it up and step through. Something seems to have changed - the walls are shimmering and wavering, whereas before they were perfectly solid. They decide to store the extra chests inside, but leave the bed and one chest outside of the demiplane, is case it somehow fails or collapses.

Needing a non-suspicious way to transport the bed through the Outer City, they hit upon the idea of converting it into a palanquin and carrying it through with someone riding it. They attach wooden carrying beams for this purpose. While they're working on this, Ellyanna and Ash-Daughter return. They've found the name and location of a local enchanter, but have decided to look into after dealing with more immediate issues.

With Elvish riding the palanquin, the party make their way through the Outer City until they get to the gate. Ash-Daughter gets them past the gate using Undercity tunnels that she used to use as a smuggler, and they continue into the New City. Eventually, they arrive at the same Undercity entrance where they found the necromancer Leravith, and head back down to meet her again.

Session 25: Therian's Prison, Part 2

March 1, 118

The party rest for about 3 hours, in order to regain their strength. By the time they finish, it's mid-afternoon and they're ready to head back in.

Back in the demiplane, they return to where they fought the gargoyle and the magical swords. After listening at the door and hearing nothing, they continue through it. Beyond is a hallway that, after a few bends, ends in another door. Listening again, Calanon hears what sounds like the footsteps of an animal or beast of some kind.

Calanon takes the lead in the narrow hallway and opens the door. Beyond is a large room; at the other end, the hallway continues, but more importantly, both the left and right walls contains alcoves, each housing a large cat-like creature.

Calanon and the rest of the party cautiously approach, which attracts the attention of the creatures. They bound out from the alcoves and attack!

Now that they're closer, the party can see that, although they superficially resemble large cats (such as tigers or lions), the creatures are quite different. They have six legs rather than four and a long tentacle tipped with spikes protrudes from each of their front shoulders. Furthermore, Calanon realizes, when he is first struck by one of the tentacles, that they are under the effect of some sort of illusion - the actual location of the creatures is slightly displaced from where they appear to be.

With the illusion protecting them, and their speed allowing them to dodge most of Ellyanna's area-based attacks, the battle is a tough one. In the end, the party emerge victorious, but injured. Everyone survives the fight, but they are exhausted and most of their resources are spent.

Despite their current state, they know that, according to Malecar at least, there is only one room left in the demiplane, so they cautiously continue forward. Continuing through the room and the next passageway, they come to a door. When they can't hear anything, Ellyanna decides to cast a Light spell on an arrow and slip it under the bottom of the door, hoping to see what's on the other side.

The door is well-fit and she can't see much underneath it, but the light does attract the attention of someone from within the room, who shouts out and asks who's there. They respond to the voice, and quickly determine that it's Therian, Sahril's son, or at least someone claiming to be him.

Therian tells them that he's trapped in a cage suspended over sand, and that several large monsters are burrowed in the sand below him. When they party ask him to tell them everything he can about his kidnapping, he largely corroborates what they've already learned. He does give them one new piece of information, though - apparently, a man has been coming by every few days to bring food and water. He uses levitation magic to avoid touching the sand. Based on Therian's description, the party realize that the man is Gorith's butler.

Even though they're close to Therian, the party decide that they're not in good enough condition to face the monsters that he's described. Assuring Therian that they'll return, they make their way back to the portal and leave the demiplane, then find Severn to update him on what's happened.

Severn is concerned that they need to rescue Therian as quickly as possible - the longer they wait, the greater the chance that Gorith will realize what has happened and try something desperate to retrieve Malecar's device. He decides to assemble some of his own underlings and send them in to face the final obstacle.

Session 24: Therian's Prison, Part 1

February 28, 118

With Malecar incapacitated, the group decide to leave Dark Star upstairs to cover for them in case any guards or other servants arrive, while Calanon and Elvish head down to interrogate him. Before untying him and healing him just enough to restore consciousness, Elvish casts a Charm Person spell on him, hoping to get him to tell everything he knows.

Once Malecar is awake, it's clear the spell didn't work, as he is non-cooperative. He refuses to tell them anything about Therian, believing that they will simply kill him once they learn everything they want to know. Furthermore, he thinks that even if they assure him that they'll let him go, he has no way to know if they'll keep their word. He's right to be concerned - Calanon and Elvish are wary of letting him go, worried that he'll warn Gorith of what they're doing.

Elvish tries again with a Suggestion spell, but Malecar shakes this off as well. Finally, Calanon offers to swear in Vorn's name that he will protect Malecar from harm, if the mage tells them what he knows, then never mentions what has happened to Gorith. He convinces Malecar of his sincerity and faith by impressing him with his religious knowledge, and Malecar agrees to the deal.

Now that he's agreed to talk, Malecar explains that the magical icosahedron that they found is actually the entrance to a small, magically-created reality called a demiplane. By touching the runes on the device in a specific order, the portal can be opened and closed. Therian is indeed inside the demiplane, but Malecar doesn't know exactly what he's guarded by. He created the demiplane with four rooms inside, but then handed it over to Gorith for him to stock it with guardians.

Malecar demonstrates his words by opening the portal and taking Elvish inside. It's very dark on the other side, but he can vaguely make out that he's in a small room made of dark stone bricks.

Calanon and Elvish decide that they're best off removing the device, regrouping, and entering the demiplane from a safer location, so they start discussing how they're going to get it and Malecar out of the manor safely. They want Malecar to wait inside the demiplane so they can sneak him out, but he doesn't want to do this, since there's no way to open the portal from the inside. They could easily betray and trap him. He proposes that Calanon go in with him. Calanon agrees.

With Calanon and Malecar inside the portal, Elvish and Dark Star simply hide the icosahedron in a bag and walk out of the manor. At the front gate, they tell the guards that their games are finished and they're leaving for the night. One of the guards asks why only two of them are leaving when three entered, but they claim that Calanon is staying behind to help clean up, and the guard believes them.

Safely out of the mansion, Elvish and Dark Star regroup with Ash-Daughter and Ellyanna, who were both waiting for their opportunities to sneak in. That, of course, is no longer necessary. The reunited party decide to head to Severn's offices at the Eminent Cathedral, where the prelate's men can watch over them while they rest for the night. Since Ellyanna already slept earlier, she heads back to their inn rooms in order to retrieve everyone's gear, intending to rejoin them at the cathedral slightly later.

Severn agrees to provide a watch and the party, along with Malecar, rest for the night. Ellyanna arrives a few hours later with their gear and joins them.

March 1, 118

After all the activities of the last night, the party sleep in and get a late start in the morning. After preparing themselves, they open up the portal and step through into the demiplane, leaving Malecar behind, watched over by Severn's men.

Coming in with a proper light source this time, they see that the first room of the demiplane is small and contains only a single door, directly across from the portal back out. It is quiet and they cannot hear anything coming from beyond the door, so they open it and step through.

The door leads to a passageway, which turns to the left after a short distance and opens into a room after another short distance. This room is larger, with pillars along the walls and a vaulted ceiling. Along the left and right walls, mounted between the pillars, are ceremonial swords, five on each wall. There is a door on the opposite end of the room, and sitting in an alcove above the door is a stone gargoyle.

The party splits up and investigates the room. Concerned that it could be a guardian, Ellyanna shoots a firebolt at the gargoyle. Apparently she is correct, as the impact of the spell causes it to begin moving, preparing to jump down and attack the party. As they get ready to fight the gargoyle, the ten swords lift into the air and swing upwards, moving in to attack as well.

Suddenly under attack by eleven enemies, the party are badly out of position and completely surrounded. Calanon is unable to protect all of the weaker party members, and escape is cut off. The fight turns into a chaotic scramble, and though the party manage to inflict some damage on their magical attackers, they start taking many wounds themselves.

Eventually, with several party members badly wounded, Elvish makes a run for it, heading back through the portal to get help. The rest of the group manage to hold on until he returns with several of Severn's guardsmen, who help them turn the tide of the battle. The manage to destroy and gargoyle and all ten swords with no casualties. However, they are badly hurt and have expended much of their magical power, so they retreat out of the demiplace to recover.

Session 23: Raid on Gorith's Manor

February 28, 118

With the basic layout of the mansion and the habits of its occupants known to the party, they begin formulating a plan. They don't have the complete layout; they know only what they were able to glimpse through windows. They know that Gorith has five servants: a cook, a butler, a maid, a gardener, and a priest. All five of these servants live on the premises and keep to certain schedules. Furthermore, he employs a total of fifteen guards, who work five at a time in eight-hour shifts. At any given time, two of the guards are stationed at the front gate, two patrol the courtyard, and one is inside the building itself.

Ellyanna points out that she has a spell that can change her appearance, which would be extremely useful in this situation, but she needs time to rest and prepare it, as it isn't one of the spells she'd prepared in the morning. She returns to the inn to do so, and because of this, the party decide that they'll strike at night, after Ellyanna has had time to prepare.

Based on what they've learned, they know that the cook leaves the building more often than the other servants; he is generally out and about between meals. They decide to track him down first. Their hope is that he will be susceptible to bribery or perhaps magical compulsion, and could help them sneak some of the party into the mansion.

Once the cook leaves for the afternoon, Elvish and Calanon tail him to see where he's going. Ash-Daughter stays behind to keep an eye on the guards, so that she can help Ellyanna disguise herself afterwards. Dark Star, with nothing to do yet, returns to the inn to study his book some more.

Elvish is nearly caught by the chef as he follows him through the streets, but manages to avoid detection until the man arrives at his destination, which turns out to be an outdoor park containing a skating rink. Elvish follows him inside and rents a pair of skates to join him, which Calanon stays a bit further behind to keep an eye on things.

Luckily, Elvish knows how to skate, and he quickly makes his way to the cook and strikes up a conversation with him. The cook, whose name is Leris, turns out to be the friendly sort and it doesn't take much goading from Elvish to get him to talk about his job. Elvish quickly realizes that, based on Leris's description, the servants are mostly quite lax about their duties, because Gorith is rarely present.

Turning on his charm to maximum, Elvish befriends the man and proposes that they meet that evening to play games, of the card and dice variety. Leris agrees, and tells him to come a few hours after dinner. After securing this meeting, Elvish keeps chatting long enough so that he can gracefully exit the conversation, then excuses himself.

The rest of the afternoon is spent preparing for the game night, with the party procuring the necessary dice and cards, but also buying up several bottles of extremely strong wine, hoping to get the servants completely drunk so they'll pass out.

A few hours before the meeting, night falls, and Ash-Daughter uses this opportunity to scout the second floor of the building, which they know very little about. Using her ability to see in the dark, she climbs the outer wall of the complex and tries to peek into the windows without being seen. Unfortunately, the very first time she tries, she is spotted by a guard and forced to abandon the plan. The party will have to go into the mansion knowing nothing about the second floor.

Finally, the time of the meeting arrives. They feel it would be too suspicious for the entire party to come, so Elvish, Calanon and Dark Star head out to join the servants for games (disguised and using fake names, or course), while Ellyanna and Ash-Daughter stay behind. The plan is for one of the three inside the building to somehow get one of the second floor windows open, allowing Ash-Daughter to enter later. Ellyanna's plan is to arrive shortly after the guard shift changes, disguised as the guard who was inside the building, and claim that she forgot something inside. Ash-Daughter will enter through the second floor window at this same time.

Elvish, Calanon, and Dark Star arrive at the front gates, and guards are clearly expecting them. They are let in and directed to go around back to the servants' entrance. This entrance leads directly into the kitchen. When they arrive, they see that the kitchen has three other doors exiting it, as well as a stairway down to the cellar.

The cook is waiting for them in the kitchen, and when they arrive, he fetches the gardener and the maid to join them (the butler and the priest having declined the invitation). Unfortunately, this means they have no chance to get into the rest of the building and explore before the games begin.

An hour or so passes, and the three adventurers spend this time trying to get the servants as drunk as possible, with great success. At this point, Elvish announces that he needs to use the bathroom, hoping to use this as a excuse to get out and explore the building. Unfortunately, it turns out the privy is directly connected to the kitchen. Declaring that the smell would be too much if he did his business so close to where they're playing, he grabs the chamber pot from the privy and takes it to the basement instead.

After using the chamber pot, Elvish takes this opportunity to explore the basement. He doesn't have too much time before the servants become suspicious of what he's doing, but he does manage to find something. In the far corner of the basement, behind a large crate, he discovers a secret door. Unfortunately, he doesn't have time to investigate it.

Returning to the kitchen, he convinces Dark Star to go down next; Dark Star claims that he also needs to relieve himself and heads down. He sees the secret door, now obvious because Elvish left the chamber pot right next to it. He slides it open and discovers a narrow passage that goes for about twenty feet before opening into a room. The flickering light of the torch or lantern is visible coming from the room.

Dark Star starts sneaking down the passage, when suddenly a figure steps in from the room at the end. It's Malecar the wizard, and fortunately he doesn't see Dark Star, who is keeping to the shadows. He does, however, clearly notice that the secret door is open. Frowning, he steps back into the room.

Dark Star has only a few moments to prepare, which he uses to summon a weapon and prepare to strike with an Eldritch Blast spell. Malecar steps back into the corridor, this time holding the lantern, and Dark Star strikes. The force of the spell sends Malecar flying back, and he drops the lantern, which shatters on the floor. It does not, however, kill him, and by the dying light of the lantern, he retaliates by summoning a cloud of daggers where Dark Star is standing, as well as shouting out for help.

Up in the kitchen, the servants are luckily too drunk to hear Malecar, but Elvish and Calanon are not, and they start making hasty excuses to go back down into the cellar.

Dark Star retreats back into the main room of the cellar, casting Armor of Agathys to protect himself. He sees a new light appear in the corridor, and Malecar steps out, his staff glowing with a Light spell. Dark Star hits him with another Eldritch Blast, but this time Malecar retaliates with a barrage of five Magic Missiles, which rip through his magical armor and very nearly kill him.

At this point, Calanon and Elvish arrive. Calanon rushes to heal Dark Star, while Elvish casts Faerie Fire on Malecar, illuminating him and making him easier to hit. Dark Star passes his summoned maul to Calanon, then strikes Malecar with a third Eldritch Blast, but it still doesn't kill him.

Now facing three opponents instead of one, Malecar casts a new spell, one which creates a dense cloud of noxious fumes. It covers all three adventurers, leaving them coughing, unable to see or act. Calanon, however, manages to overcome the fumes and stumble out of the cloud towards Malecar. He charges and strikes the mage with a mighty blow, which knocks him unconscious. As he falls, the cloud vanishes.

Elvish immediately heads back up to try to keep the servants from getting too suspicious, an endeavour in which he is aided by the fact that they're extremely drunk. Calanon and Dark Star, on the other hand, tie up the unconscious mage then go to investigate the room that he came from.

The room appears to be a small, all-purpose living area, with a bed, a small table covered in dirty dishes, and a chest of clothing. Most of the room, however, is covered in magical reagents, notes, and other wizardly accoutrements. A door leads out of the room, and into a smaller room, about ten feet square. The only thing in this room is a small stone pedestal, above which floats some sort of magical icosahedron. It is approximately a foot across, and covered in mystic runes. Since neither Dark Star nor Calanon are knowledgeable about arcane magic, they leave it alone for now.

They drag Malecar into the pedestal room, then barricade the door with the chest of clothing, before returning to the kitchen. Luckily, the combination of Elvish's charisma and the servants' drunkenness has served to keep the three servants unaware that anything has happened.

The group continue their games for another hour or so, until finally the servants are completely passed out, drunk. Elvish, Calanon and Dark Star head back into the basement to interrogate Malecar and find out what he knows.

Session 22: Prelude to a Heist

February 26, 118

Calanon and Elvish arrive at the Merry Bowman, which is a small but well-appointed establishment. It's the afternoon, so there's only a few customers around, along with a bartender and a barmaid. Approaching the bartender, they learn that he is actually the owner of the tavern.

They start by asking him if he ever rents out the building, to which he replies that he does, for a price. They discuss the terms and conditions, but as they talk they try to steer the conversation towards the last time he rented the tavern. He explains that the last renter had desired a private evening, so he and his staff left the building for the duration of the rental.

Eventually, Calanon and Elvish cut to the chase and explain that a man was last seen entering his tavern a few weeks ago, and has not been seen since. The owner explains that, when a private rental occurs, he does tend to stay nearby to keep an eye on things, and he did see Therian enter, and never saw him leave. However, he had assumed that he simply didn't see Therian's departure, or perhaps he left by the back door. He gives the two adventurers a short tour of the entire establishment, in order to prove to them that Therian is not here, and therefore he must have left.

While the owner's story mostly just corroborates Emmerson's story, he does let slip one new piece of information. When renting his building out, he requires a reliable reference vouching for the client. In Malegar's case, this reference was provided by a priest of Vorn named Abbar.

Calanon and Elvish are convinced of the owner's sincerity, and figure that, since Malegar is a wizard, he must have somehow magically spirited Therian away. Elvish returns to the Greasy Thatcher with the rest of the party, while Calanon returns to Aralakk's temple in order to ask about Abbar. There, he learns that Abbar is one of Gorith's sub-prelates.

February 27, 118

The next day, the party continue their investigations. Dark Star returns to the Eminent Cathedral in order to update Severn on their progress again. Elvish and Calanon also head to the Cathedral to see if they can learn anything about Abbar. Ellyanna asks around the various magical and alchemical shops in the city to see if anyone knows anything about Malegar. Finally, Ash-Daughter asks around her criminal contacts to see if any of them know anything about Malegar.

Ellyanna and Ash-Daughter are unsuccessful, learning nothing of value about the wizard. Calanon and Elvish arrive at Gorith's headquarters, but they find that his staff are much less helpful than those of Severn or Sahril, possibly because they don't have Aralakk greasing the wheels for them this time. The best they are able to do is securing a short meeting with Abbar in three days' time.

The only person who has any real success in the morning is Dark Star. Severn has apparently become resigned to the fact that the party are going to keep investigating even if he tells them not to, and agrees to share what he's learned. Severn tells him that his agents have also been investigating Malegar and have been more successful than the party. He's learned that Malegar is apparently a wizard for hire, who specializes in Conjuration magic. He has a home in the New City, but in the last month or so, he hasn't been seen in the area; instead, he's mostly been seen in and around Gorith's mansion in the Old City.

The party regroup at noon as usual, where they find a message from Zorlac waiting for them, informing them that he has finished transferring minds between the two Kaplans. They head to the Cathedral to pick up Severn, then return to Zorlac's tower to see the results.

Back down in Zorlac's laboratory, he shows them the two Kaplans, who look the same as when they last saw them, but Zorlac assures them that the minds have indeed been switched. Talking to the two men, they both continue to protest their innocence, and in the end the party are still not able to decide which one to trust.

They have an idea that could finally pinpoint the real Kaplan with certainty. Zorlac previously explained to them that, during the process where the Kaplans switched bodies, the fake managed to copy the real Kaplan's memories, which allows him to lie with perfect accuracy. They ask him whether he could reverse this process, essentially excising the copied memories.

Zorlac considers this proposal, before telling them that he thinks it could be done, but he doesn't know how long it will take, because he's never done anything like this before. It could be a matter of days, but it also could be a matter of weeks or even longer. They ask him to try. Severn agrees to this delay, as this will give them more time to rescue Sahril's son and break Gorith's hold over her. His plan requires her to be free of Gorith's influence once the Arch-Prelate's murderer is returned to them.

For the rest of the day, the party continue investigating different leads. Elvish heads to Gorith's mansion to case the area out, although in such a short time he isn't able to learn much. Calanon and Ellyanna ask around the vicinity of the mansion about Malegar, and confirm Severn's information - the wizard has frequently been seen in this area recently. Finally, Ash-Daughter prowls the streets near the mansion, hoping to run into Malegar, but cannot find him.

Dark Star, rather than joining the rest of the party, returns to Demon's Gift's shop, hoping to patch up their relationship after the fight with Corsica caused so much damage to the shop. He presents his minotaur skull helmet as gift and offers his apologies. Demon's Gift accepts both, and Dark Star spends the rest of the day reading in the shop.

February 28, 118

On the last day of February, Dark Star and Ellyanna continue their respective readings, while the rest of the party head to Gorith's manor and casing out the building. Ash-Daughter, an experienced thief, is particularly successful here, and after spending the morning observing the building, she is able to provide them most of the details they'll need - number of guards and their locations, guard shifts, entrances and exits, and a rough floorplan of the building. With this information in hand, the party begin preparing to break in and find Therian.

Note: Session 18 Posted

Just a quick note that I finally went back and wrote up the report for Session 18, since I still had my notes from that game. I dated it between Session 17 and Session 19 so that everything is nicely in chronological order in the archives.

Session 21: All We Ever Do Is Investigate Things

February 25, 118

The party arrive late at Zorlac's tower; Severn arrives with them to see the results as well. They search the area where they were last admitted into the complex and Ash-Daughter finds the opening mechanism, bringing them into the geography library. There, they meet Eero, the same librarian who escorted them into the building last time, who leads them to Zorlac.

Zorlac is in an adjacent room which is an anatomy library, full of models, diagrams, and of course books. He escorts the party into an underground room which seems to be a laboratory of some sort. Books, notes, and magical reagents are scattered throughout the room, and two magical mirrors hanging on the walls show views of the two Kaplans in cells, presumably somewhere else in the building.

Zorlac explains to the party that he is an expert in magically modifying the mind and body of living creatures, and he has discovered that both Kaplans have undergone extensive magical modification. In particular, the tattooed individual has received very many magical "grafts", which provided him with superhuman and magical abilities. He does not appear to be a spellcaster, but the modifications done to him have provided him with the ability to create magical effects. In essence, it's almost like an arsenal of magical scrolls or runes have been inscribed onto his bones.

The other, non-tattooed Kaplan also shows signs of magical modification to mind and body, but in this case they are much older. While the tattooed individual has been augmented fairly recently, Zorlac estimates that the modifications to the non-tattooed individual are at least ten years old. Because they are so old, he cannot determine their purpose, as the body's natural healing has muddled the evidence.

Finally, Zorlac reveals the most important fact: the evidence in the minds of the two men show that a magical mind transfer did occur, and the mind of the Kaplan that the party know is currently in the tattooed body. It seems that during this process, the other individual was able to copy Kaplan's memories and therefore imitate him with complete accuracy. However, it also seems that all of the latent magical affects bound to that body were expended during this transfer, and no usable magical augmentations remain.

The party are not completely sure whether they can trust Zorlac's information, although Severn informs them that he doesn't think the wizard is lying. They interrogate the apparent impostor in the non-tattooed body, but he continues to protest his innocence. The party ask Zorlac whether he is able to undo the mind swap, and he says that he can, although it will take him several days. The party ask him to do so, figuring that while they wait, they can investigate Sahril's son's kidnapping, as well as decide what to do about Kaplan.

As the party leave Zorlac's home, Severn tells them that he has something else to discuss with them, and invites them to the headquarters of the Inquisition. When they arrive, he explains that he's had an idea. As he's previously stated, the only candidate for the Arch-Prelate that he would support is Sahril, but she would not be able to win without the vote of a third prelate. However, they could use the same strategy that Gorith planned to use to force the other prelates to vote for her. If they claim that Sahril, with her knowledge of magic and magical threats, was the one who captured the Arch-Prelate's killer, they should be able to drum up enough popular support that the other prelates will essentially have to vote for her, or face riots in the streets from the common people.

Severn, of course, is not aware that Sahril is being blackmailed by Gorith, but Ellyanna accidentally lets this information slip as they discuss his idea. The party try to dissuade Severn from investigating this himself, but he insistent, assuring them that the Inquisition can be very subtle when necessary. Eventually, he convinces them to provide the list of names of Therian's friends, and tells them that he will handle the investigation himself.

At this point, it's past midnight, so the party rest for the night in quarters provided by Severn.

February 26, 118

The next morning, the party split up and pursue various aims. Ellyanna returns to the College and continues studying there, while Dark Star returns to the Greasy Thatcher and studies his book as well.

Calanon, Elvish, and Ash-Daughter decide to run interference for Severn, making very public inquiries about Kaplan in order to attract Gorith's attention away from his investigation. Calanon and Elvish do this among the common people, while Ash-Daughter does this among her criminal connections, reasoning that Gorith probably his criminal contacts that will pass this information along.

Around noon, a messenger arrives at the Greasy Thatcher and hands Dark Star a message. Opening it in his room, he finds that it's the list they provided to Sahril, with a single name - Emmerson - circled. A note underneath simply says "works for Gorith" and provides the location where he works.

The party regroups at the inn, and decide to investigate for themselves rather than waiting for Severn. They head out to the location given by Sahril, which is a large administrative building used by Gorith's branch of the church. Dark Star and Elvish disguise themselves as an old Orcish man and his young page, and go to the door.

They convince the doorman to send for Emmerson, and when he arrives, they discover that he is a well-dressed, well-groomed, and overall clearly well-to-do young man. He doesn't recognize them and doesn't want to talk with them, but when they mention that they're here regarding Therian, he reluctantly invites them up to his office on the second floor.

Arriving at the office, they note that his title is listed as "Senior Administrative Scribe" on the door as they enter. Once inside, Elvish opens the door and Dark Star conjures an illusion of Gorith storming into the room, furiously demanding to know where Therian is. Emmerson protests that he doesn't know, and when the illusionary Gorith presses the issue, he realizes that the figure is not real, and breaks the illusion.

Emmerson demands to know what's going on, but Dark Star and Elvish switch tactics and intimidate the man, claiming that Dark Star (under the fake name "Vanderheim von Regulus") is a powerful wizard, and demanding that tells them everything he knows about Therian. Emmerson cracks under the pressure, and tells them all he can.

He explains that he received a direct order from Gorith to invite Therian to a certain tavern at a certain time. He did so, and at the tavern he met a grey-robed wizard who, according to Gorith's orders, he should obey unconditionally. The mage went into a back room and ordered him to lure Therian into said room, then leave immediately afterward and say nothing to anyone about the matter.

Emmerson followed his orders, luring Therian into the room then leaving the tavern. He has not seen Therian since. Although he is worried about his friend, he is too terrified of Gorith and the potential consequences of disobeying his direct orders to investigate what happened to him. Satisfied that they've learned all he knows, Dark Star and Elvish intimidate Emmerson one last time, claiming that they'll kill him if he speaks of this meeting, then leave.

The party spend the rest of the afternoon following up on what they've learned. Dark Star returns to Severn to update him on the situation. He is not happy that they disobeyed him, but the fact that they gathered such useful information makes him reluctantly accept their actions. Ash-Daughter continues her work from the morning, making very obvious inquiries about Kaplan in order to attract Gorith's attention and distract him from their true investigation.

Ellyanna returns to the College of Celestial Thaumaturgy, but instead of studying as usual, she asks around about the wizard from Emmerson's story, using a sketch of him that Elvish drew based on Emmerson's description. She finds out that, although he is not a member of the College, several members do recognize him, having seen him around the city or in various magical reagent shops. She learns his name: Malegar.

Finally, Calanon and Elvish decide to head to the tavern from Emmerson's story, the Merry Bowman, and check it out directly.

Session 20: Negotiating and Investigating

February 24, 118

As they make their way down the stairway, the party are surprised by someone else making his way up the stairway. They encounter a man dressed in lavish and comfortable-looking robes heading up the stairs with a stack of books, and immediately surmise that the man is Zorlac himself. The wizard is middle-aged, with fairly dark skin, black hair, and a close-cropped beard. He is not happy to find intruders in his home.

Demanding that they explain themselves, the party explain to Zorlac the basics of what has happened to Kaplan and why they need his help. Zorlac is unmoved, and doesn't see why he should care or get involved. Switching tactics, they tell him that they have been sent by the church to get his help, and if he doesn't help them, the church will cause a fuss. It will be easier for him to just help them now than to deal with the consequences of not helping. Zorlac considers this argument, then invites the party into the sitting room to discuss the matter at greater length.

The group explain everything they can to Zorlac, including everything they've tried so far. They also show him the copy of the tattoos that Elvish made. Eventually, they are able to persuade him to help, but he has two conditions. First, he never leaves his home, so they will have to bring the two Kaplans to him. Second, once he has determined which of the two Kaplans is real, he wishes to keep the other one in order to study him.

Given that the fake Kaplan is most likely the Archprelate's murderer, the party aren't sure whether they really have the authority to hand him over, so they tell Zorlac that they must consult with the Church of Vorn. They set up a meeting with one of Zorlac's librarians later in the day so they can relay the Church's decision, they head out to talk with Severn.

Once they've arrived at the Prelate's office, they explain the situation to him, and Severn is not particularly pleased by either of Zorlac's conditions. He feels it could be unsafe to transport the Kaplans across the city, and does not wish to give up the fake once he has been identified, as he should instead face justice. Severn decides that, given how important this issue is, he'll go meet Zorlac and negotiate himself.

Severna and the party meet with Zorlac's librarian, who guides them in near-silence back to the tower. He reveals to them a secret entrance that is much lower than the ones they'd previously identified, requiring no climbing to reach. This entrance leads them into another library, and a secret passage hidden behind a bookcase takes them into the same set of stairs where they first ran into Zorlac.

They make their way back to the sitting room, where Zorlac awaits them, and Severn attempts to negotiate more favourable terms. Elvish helps out by trying to support Severn's arguments while distracting Zorlac. In the end, after a long negotiation, Severn manages to wring only one a few small concessions out of Zorlac: he agrees to allow the church to keep the fake Kaplan for a few days before turning him over, and he agrees to accept the fake dead or alive. While not thrilled with these terms, Severn agrees.

Severn and the party return to the Eminent Cathedral, discussing how they will handle transporting Kaplan as they go. They ask Severn about what magical protections they have, but Severn explains that the anti-magic devices they have are not mobile; they are fixed enchantments in particular areas. If the fake Kaplan is a spellcaster, they can prevent him from casting spells by gagging him and binding his hands, but if he is some sort of innately magical creature, this may not be sufficient.

Eventually, the settle on the low-tech solution: in addition to binding and gagging both Kaplans, they knock them both out with blows to the head before transporting them across the city, the idea being to heal them back up once they arrive. This idea works out, as they successfully transport the two men across the city and into Zorlac's home without incident.

Zorlac goes to begin his investigations, but the party have one last request: they want to leave Dark Star with him to keep an eye on things, and so he can notify them when Zorlac is finished. Although the wizard isn't happy with this idea, they convince him to allow Dark Star to stay. Since it's nearing the end of the day, the rest of the party return to the inn to rest for the night.

February 25, 118

In the morning, Grrrr Yip tells the party that, as a Druid, she can no longer stand staying in the city. She also feels that she needs to expand her knowledge of nature in order to be of any real use to them, and to grow as a Druid. She wishes them luck, and leaves to pursue her own mission.

Since they need to wait for Zorlac to finish his investigation, the rest of the party decide to pursue their own investigation of Sahril's son's kidnapping while they wait. They have the list of Therian's best friends that they got from the temple where he worked, so Ash-Daughter heads to the streets to find out if any of the names have underworld connections. Elvish and Calanon head to the Reliquary of Vorn in order to ask Sahril herself about the list. Dark Star is still watching over Zorlac, and Ellyanna decides to leave the investigation to everyone else, while she returns to the College of Celestial Thaumaturgy to continue her studies.

Ash-Daughter spends the entire day exhausting all of her sources, but in the end she is forced to conclude that none of the people on Therian's list have any sort of criminal connection.

For Calanon and Elvish, getting an audience with Sahril turns out to be much more difficult than getting an audience with Severn, probably because she doesn't want to be associated with them. They spend the morning fruitlessly attempting to arrange a meeting. In the afternoon, they change up their strategy and instead focus on getting a meeting with Xanavar, the sub-prelate who they met previously. They are eventually successful, and they pass on the list of names to him. Xanavar agrees to give the list to Sahril and let them know anything that she can tell them.

In the evening, everyone returns to the inn as usual. There, they are met by Dark Star. Zorlac has finished his investigation and he's ready to announce the results.

Session 19: The Hunt for Zorlac

February 23, 118

The party awaken the next morning and begin making their plans to contact Zorlac and gain access to his knowledge. Ash-Daughter knows a bit about the secretive wizard and she shares her knowledge with the party. She tells them that he lives in a large complex that consists of five towers, with no obvious entrances anywhere near the ground. The only visible doors are high up the towers, where bridges link the towers together. Zorlac himself is rumoured to never leave the tower; instead, he employs several librarians, who seek out and acquire new tomes and knowledge for him. She doesn't know who the librarians are or how they get in and out of the building. The party decide to split up and pursue several different avenues of investigation.

Ellyanna returns to the College of Celestial Thaumaturgy and spends the morning asking the various wizards and scholars whether they know anything about Zorlac. Unfortunately, she is not able to gain any useful information - the people she talks to don't seem to know much about him.

Ash-Daughter heads to the area around Zorlac's home, accompanied by Grrrr Yip, and asks around with some of her contacts to learn about the Undercity in this area, as she is not familiar with this part of the Undercity. Specifically, the party are wondering whether the entrance to the towers is actually somewhere in the Undercity. The two adventurers spend the morning asking around, but learn nothing of value.

Calanon begins canvassing the city's bookstores, asking if any of them know about Zorlac or his librarians. During the morning, he does not learn anything more than what Ash-Daughter told the party, but many more stores still remain to be investigated.

Finally, Dark Star and Elvish decide to set a trap for Zorlac. Elvish heads out to the streets of Vornheim and starts spreading rumours about a powerful tome of eldritch knowledge recently acquired by Demon's Gift. At Demon's Gift's shop, Dark Star places the book that he traded to the shopkeeper earlier in a prominent location and keeps an eye on it. A few customers do come in and take a look, but none of them decide to buy it. Dark Star memorizes their faces just in case.

During the afternoon, most of the party continue the same avenues of investigation, except for Ellyanna who decides to return to studying Kaplan's tattoos at the College. Elvish continues spreading rumours, and Dark Star continues keeping watch at the shop, but there are still no bites.

Ash-Daughter and Grrrr Yip are more successful in the afternoon, eventually learning about the layout of the Undercity in the vicinity of Zorlac's home. They learn that the area directly underneath the tower, spreading about 100 meters in every directly, does not seem to contain any Undercity tunnels, except for very deep ones. Essentially, there seems to be a roughly hemispherical area underneath the towers with no Undercity. This supports, but does not confirm, their theory that Zorlac has his own tunnels that he uses to enter and exit his home.

Calanon also manages to gain some potentially useful information. Asking around some of the more minor, obscure shops, he talks to a herbalist who sells field guides and books of herb lore, who mentions that several similar stores have been robbed recently. The shopkeepers compared notes and discovered that the same woman was seen in the vicinity of the burglarized stores shortly before each was robbed. He describes the woman to Calanon as a tall, thin human who is always seen in the company of a white cat and goes by the name of Bridgit. Calanon realizes that this is potentially one of Zorlac's librarians.

Finally, in the evening, shortly before the store's closing time, Dark Star and Elvish's trap yields results. As he has been doing all day, Dark Star is lounging in the store near the book that they're using as bait, keeping an eye on it. Suddenly, he hears quiet footsteps moving across the room, even though he sees no one but himself and Demon's Gift in the store. Realizing that this is most likely an invisible thief, he makes his way towards the source of the sound and lunges towards it.

He manages to grab hold of the figure, which seems to be humanoid, but it slips out of his grasp and runs for the book. When the figure grabs the book, it vanishes as well, but Demon's Gift casts a spell which dispels the thief's invisibility. With the spell gone, they see that the thief is a young woman, dressed in a hooded cloak. Dark Star and Demon's Gift attack her, and she responds with a spell directed towards Dark Star. The effects of the spell cause him to become tired and drowsy, but he fights it off.

Dark Star realizes that the woman will most likely attempt to flee, so he moves to block the door, using his Eldritch Blast spell to knock her away as she approaches. Realizing the she can't get past him, the thief switches tactics, and pulls an alchemical concoction out of her robe and declares that, if they don't let her out, she'll burn the whole place down.

Dark Star and Demon's Gift both try to talk her down, Dark Star by intimidating her and Demon's Gift by reasoning with her, but she is unmoved. She lights the top of the flask with a match and reiterates her threat. Dark Star shoots another Eldritch Blast at her, hoping to knock her away from the flask before she finishes priming it, but he's too late. As the woman goes flying back from the force of the blast, she drops the flask, which hits the ground and shatters, spreading flame all over the room.

Demon's Gift screams and runs forward, attempting to save his books, while the woman vanishes once more. Dark Star holds his position in front of the door, reasoning that, even invisible, the thief will need to get through him to escape. He casts Armor of Agathys on himself, anticipating a coming attack.

Dark Star is correct; the woman reappears in front of him with a dagger in hand, and thrusts it into his chest. Fortunately, his spell absorbs a large portion of the impact, but from the part of the knife that does manage to get through, he feels a numbness radiating throughout his body. However, he manages to fight through it and remain standing.

Demon's Gift finishes casting a water spell that puts out the flame, as the thief, incredulous that Dark Star is still standing, flees towards the shop's back room, hoping to find an exit there. As she fumbles with the door, Dark Star and Demon's Gift keep attacking her with magic, and finally, badly hurt, she drops to her knees and surrenders.

Dark Star ties up the woman and sends a message back to the Greasy Thatcher, requesting that the rest of the party come to the store. Several hours later, once they've returned from their various tasks, they join Dark Star and interrogate the woman.

With her hood off, they realize that the woman she is actually very young; a teenager, in fact. She introduces herself as Corsica Nyne, one of Zorlac's librarians. She pleads with them to let her take the book, as Zorlac is extremely intolerant of failure and could very well kill her for her failure and capture. The party suggest various ways she could avoid his wrath, but she explains that all of the librarians are placed under a series of spells that allow Zorlac to control and monitor them, and she doesn't think she'll be able escape or trick him.

Finally, the party decide to let her return to Zorlac with a book of lesser value in return for her help. Corsica is still worried that Zorlac will be very upset with her, but given that she's the party's captive, she has little choice but to agree. She explains to them that she doesn't know much, as Zorlac's spells cause her to forget any details about the other librarians. She only really knows how to get into the library that she manages, which is Zorlac's magic library.

The party agree to release her, and in exchange she will show them how she gets into the building. She leads them across the city, back to Zorlac's tower, then begins climbing, explaining that her entrance is not on the ground floor. She climbs about 100 feet up and opens a secret entrance, which the party make a note of. She disappears into the entrance and closes it behind her, and the party head back to the inn, intending to return the next morning.

February 24, 118

The next morning, the party return to Zorlac's complex and prepare to enter via the secret door that Corsica revealed. As she is the best climber, they send Ash-Daughter first, who ties ropes behind her as she goes so that the rest of the party can climb more easily. Grrrr Yip doesn't want to climb and stays behind, but the rest of the party make it up without difficulty.

Through the secret door, they find themselves in one of the towers, in a huge cylindrical room that's about sixty feet from floor to ceiling. The walls are covered in bookshelves and books, and a giant rolling ladder allows access to them all. The center of the room contains a desk and some chairs. They see Corsica in the room; she is huddled against a bookshelf and seems to be moaning in pain.

They talk to Corsica, and she is able to respond, though only slowly as she is clearly in great pain. She explains that she is being punished for her failure to return with a tome of value. They ask her how to leave the room and find Zorlac, as there are no obvious exits, but she reiterates that Zorlac's spells cloud her mind and prevent her from remembering anything except how to get into this specific library. They decide to investigate for themselves.

Elvish tries making the loudest possible noises that he can, in order to attract Zorlac's attention, while the rest of the group search the room. Eventually, Dark Star discovers a switch on the bottom of the desk. When he flips it, a section of the bookshelves slides open, revealing a secret door. The secret door leads to a brief passage that opens into a different tower in the complex.

In this tower, they enter what appears to be a lavish sitting room, furnished with fine chairs, tables, rugs, and other furniture. A reading desk near one of the chairs holds a few open books. Two doors exit the room; one of them opens into a spiral stairway that leads up, which the other opens into a passage that connects to yet another tower. They decide to follow this second passage.

This passage leads to a large entrance room, mostly bare except for a few coat racks, hat racks, and floor mats. There are three exits from the room. One of them is an exit from the entire complex, although just as high up as the spot the party entered from. They mark the outside of the building with chalk so they can find this entrance from the outside if they need it. The other two exits lead to stairways; one goes up and the other goes down. They decide to take the downward stairway.

Session 18: Too Many Kaplans

February 22, 118

The next morning, the party split up to pursue various goals. Dark Star stays at the inn and continues reading the tome he got from Demon's Gift. Ellyanna heads to the College of Celestial Thaumaturgy and continues her researches as well.

Calanon, Elvish, and Grrrr Yip decide to start investigating the disappearance of Sahril's son. They head to temple where he worked in order to ask around. When they arrive, they speak with the High Priest of the temple, but he is uncooperative. He tells them that Therian is not available, and he doesn't know when he will be available. Although he clearly does not wish to speak of the matter, the party eventually convince him that they are acting in Therian's best interests, and he invites them into the back of the temple to speak in private.

There, the High Priest explains that Therian went missing several weeks ago and has not been seen since. He simply stepped out of the temple one day and never returned. The priest doesn't know exactly where he was going, but he tells the party that Therian frequently went out, whether to go for walks, to visit friends and acquaintances, or for various other reasons. There are no signs that Therian was expecting to be gone for long; his quarters are undisturbed and he wasn't carrying extra supplies when he left. Although they've tried to discover what happened to him, he seems to have completely vanished. The High Priest has tried to keep this news quiet, in order to avoid alarming the congregation.

The party ask if Therian had any friends among the priests of the temple, so the High Priest brings in Yhiri, a priestess who also works in the temple who is a friend of Therian's. She knows even less than the High Priest - just that Therian mysteriously vanished several weeks ago, and that no one has been able to find him since. At the party's insistence, she is able to provide a list of Therian's friends in town and where they live. Since Therian is usually visiting a friend when he leaves the temple, this list provides his most likely destinations.

When the party regroup at noon, Dark Star informs them that Severn has send him a message, asking the party to visit him as soon as possible to discuss an urgent matter. Everyone gathers their gear and heads to the Eminent Cathedral to find out what this is about.

At the Cathedral, Severn explains what happened. Last night, Kaplan had been sleeping within the Inquisition's headquarters. However, in the middle of the night, he somehow arrived at the front gates, demanding to be let in. But, when he was brought to the Inquisition headquarters, they discovered that he was also still in the room where they had left him - somehow, there were two Kaplans!

Interrogating both of them under Severn's most powerful truth-detecting magic, they both claimed to be the real Kaplan, telling a different story. The Kaplan who arrived at the front gate claimed that, during the middle of the night, he awoke to find a doppleganger of himself standing over him. The doppleganger grabbed him, and he found himself feeling faint, disoriented, and unable to resist. Somehow, the other Kaplan ejected him through the wall and outside of the building, where he fell to the ground. Upon recovering his senses, he returned to the front door of the Cathedral and demanded to be let back in.

The other Kaplan has a much simpler story: he spent the night sleeping, and absolutely nothing unusual happened. He doesn't know who the man who arrived at the front gate is, but he claims his story is a complete fabrication.

Severn's magics did not detect either one of them as liars, which must be impossible, since their stories contradict each other. The only physical different is that the Kaplan who arrived at the gates seems to have a series of elaborate tattoos on his hands and forearms, while the Kaplan who was found in bed does not. Unable to determine the truth, Severn summoned the party who, being more familiar with Kaplan, might be able to figure it out.

The party travel with Severn to the cells where the two Kaplans are being held and begin interrogating them. Unfortunately, they both seem to be able to answer questions that only the man who was with them at Frosthaven could answer. They know that the Kaplan they've been travelling with does not have tattoos, which the non-tattooed Kaplan claims proves that he's the real one. However, the other Kaplan claims that the imposter must have used magic to switch their bodies, in order to mislead the party.

The party try everything they can think of, such as placing one of the Kaplans in a lead-lined container, theorizing that one of them is using a telepathic link with the other to be able to answer questions, or cutting one of the Kaplans and seeing what effect this has on the other. Ellyanna studies the tattoos and finds that their patterns have arcane significance. She sees patterns related to essentially every school of magic (minus Necromancy), but is not able to discern their purposes. In the end, they simply aren't able to determine who is the real Kaplan.

Having failed to determine which one is the real Kaplan, Severn gathers the party and tells them his plan. He is fairly confident that the fake Kaplan must actually be the Arch-Prelate's murderer, and he cannot risk letting such a dangerous individual escape. If the party cannot determine who is the real Kaplan in the next two days, he will be forced to execute both of them, in order to ensure that they get the murderer.

The party decide that they need to get help in order to solve this mystery, so they split up in order to pursue separate possibilities. Calanon and Elvish, along with Severn, go to find Sahril and ask for her help. Ellyanna, armed with a sketch of the tattoos done by Elvish, heads to the College of Celestial Thaumaturgy in order to see if any of the scholars there can tell her anything about it. Dark Star heads out to find Demon's Gift to see if he can tell them anything, or if he has any books that might help them.

At the Reliquary of Vorn, Severn's presence gets them in to see Sahril immediately. However, Sahril quickly informs them that she will not be of much help. Based on the tattoos, the magic that was used is clearly of Arcane origin, while she and her organization are specialists in Divine magic.

At the College, Ellyanna runs into the wizard who she met at the tavern when she was originally trying to get in, Viria. Viria studies the drawing of the tattoo and is able to tell Ellyanna a bit about it. She only really understands the Divination part of the magic, which seems to be a very specifically tailored scrying effect. It is focused on one specific individual, and would allow the bearer of the tattoo to scry upon that single individual. Because it is so focused, it is extremely powerful, and would likely work at almost any distance.

Finally, at Demon's Gift's shop, Dark Star learns that Demon's Gift is unable to tell him anything about the tattoo, as the magic is beyond his understanding. He also does not have any books that concern this type of magic. He tells Dark Star that there is only one place in the city where he might find the knowledge he seeks: the library of the reclusive wizard, Zorlac.

In the evening, the party regroup again at the tavern to discuss their options. They decide that Zorlac is indeed the most promising option, and they decide to begin their search for him the next morning.

Session 17: Meet The Prelates

February 20, 118

Prelate Severn's offices are located within the Eminent Cathedral, the other half of the building that contains the Palace, so that is where the party head. They leave Kaplan behind, as they feel it would be too dangerous to bring him so close to the Palace. Ash-Daughter also stays behind, so that Kaplan is not alone, but also because she is a criminal and it might be dangerous for her to visit near the Palace as well.

The Cathedral is just as maze-like as the Palace, but fortunately the offices of the Inquisition of Vorn are within a well-travelled section of the building, so the party have no difficulty in reaching their destination, which turns out to be about halfway up the spire.

When they arrive at the Inquisition, they see the front gate, a massive iron double door that is decorated with the symbol of a watchful eye, the sign of the Inquisition. Two heavily armed and armored guards demand that they relinquish all weapons and magical implements before entering, and inform them that any acts of aggression or spellcasting while within the offices of the Inquisition are punishable by death. The party surrender all their weapons and magic items.

Inside, a doorman leads the group to Severn's office and they step inside, where the Prelate is waiting for them. Severn is a stern-looking man, about 40 years of age. His head is shaved and he is wearing fine and elaborate robes as befits his station. He welcomes the party and informs them that the entire room is under a powerful truth spell - he will know if they speak any falsehoods.

They begin by discussing the subject of Kaplan. Severn informs them that he has already sent his own agents to investigate their story, and confirmed that they were nowhere near the city when the murder of the Archprelate occurred. They repeat their story while under the effects of the truth spell, which further confirms that they're telling the truth. So, Severn does believe that Kaplan is innocent, but unfortunately he cannot help them clear his name. Generally, as the Inquisitor, his role is to inform the Archprelate of crimes and let him take action. With the Archprelate's position vacant he has no power over the other Prelates.

They discuss the mysterious "Guild of the Twinborn", which Severn doesn't know anything about. However, when they tell him everything they know about the Guild, he becomes concerned, particularly about the fact that they claim to be from beyond the mountains to the south. He believes that they could be the actual killers behind the Archprelate's death, working on behalf of the Second Empire, trying to destabilize Vornheim before their next invasion. He agrees to dedicate some of his resources to investigating the Guild.

The party also ask him what he knows about the actual murderer of the Archprelate. He isn't able to tell them very much. He confirms what Ellyanna learned earlier - that he fled directly from the city and hasn't been seen since. They have tried powerful divinations to locate him, to no avail, so he must be protected somehow. They have no real leads on where he might be.

During the conversation, they try to get Severn to explain why he has yet to support any of the other Prelates in the election. While he is reticent to talk about this, eventually they convince him to open up. He tells them that he does not want to support either of the candidates, Gorith or Thaalia, who have put themselves forward. As the Inquisitor, his job is to monitor them and their underlings for wrongdoing, and he is convinced that both of them are corrupt and act only in self-interest. He feel the same way about Eljarn, and would not support him if he did step forward as a candidate. He refuses to step forward himself, for several reasons. First, as the youngest prelate he does not feel he has enough experience. Second, as the Inquisitor, he is generally disliked by the other Prelates, since his entire job is to spy on them and report their misdeeds. He is certain that Gorith, Thaalia, and Eljarn would never support him, and so he would have almost no chance of winning.

The last thing they discuss is what to do with Kaplan. Severn is convinced of his innocence, but he is still in danger from Gorith, and possibly other factions as well. Severn agrees to protect him, and says he will send his men to collect Kaplan and bring him to a safe place as soon as he can.

Their meeting concludes, so the party bid farewell to Severn and return to their inn rooms (or, in the case of Calanon, Aralakk's temple) and rest for the night.

February 21, 118

The next morning, the party once again split up to accomplish separate tasks. They need to wait for their meeting with Sahril, so they might as well try to get things done while they wait. Specifically, Ellyanna, Elvish, and Ash-Daughter head out into the city, while the rest of the party lay low in their respective locations.

Ellyanna returns to the College of Celestial Thaumaturgy, where news of her previous visit has spread. She learns that there is a scholar within the College who is interested in meeting her and sponsoring her admittance. She is allowed into the college, where she meets Theogrim, a Dwarven scholar who studies the constellations. He is interested in comparing the positions of the stars as seen from Vornheim to their positions in Ember, and quizzes Ellyanna about this information.

Ellyanna, however, is an Evocation specialist, and is not able to answer Theogrim's questions satisfactorily. Theogrim is disappointed, until Ellyanna shows him a magical scroll that she possesses, which allows her to write back and forth with her master back in Ember. Ellyanna's master is much better able to answer Theogrim's questions, so he works out a deal with Ellyanna - for as long as he can borrow the scroll to converse with her master, she can use the College's libraries to perform her own research. Ellyanna ends up spending the rest of the day studying in the library, trying to learn more about the undead they faced at Frosthaven - specifically, who could have been responsible for their creation 1000 years ago and why.

Elvish returns to the Eminent Cathedral in order to ask around about Sahril and see what the priests think about her. He spends the morning doing this, and he learns that she is generally respected and considered to be good at her job, but since her job does not include being in the public eye very much, most people don't know much about her. The biggest topic of conversation is why she hasn't publicly supported either of the candidates.

Ash-Daughter spends her day as before, asking around with her contacts to try to learn more about the Guild of the Twinborn. Unfortunately, as before she is unable to learn anything of value.

While Ellyanna, Elvish, and Ash-Daughter are out and about, a contingent of Severn's soldiers arrive and deliver a message for Kaplan, to meet them in a nearby warehouse. Kaplan goes to meet them, taking Grrrr Yip and Dark Star with him in case this is actually a trap of some sort. When they arrive, the soldiers provide Kaplan with a suit of armor and uniform, which completely covers his face and hides his identity. He gets changed into the armor, and the whole group heads back for the Cathedral. Once they leave, Grrrr Yip shapeshifts into a cat and follows in order to keep an eye on Kaplan. The group march through the city and into the Cathedral, dropping Kaplan off at the Inquisition's headquarters for safekeeping.

At midday, everyone (except Kaplan) returns briefly to the Greasy Thatcher to check in. There, Calanon informs them that Aralakk has secured them an audience with one of Sahril's sub-prelates, a half-elf by the name of Xanavar. The meeting will be in the evening. Elvish decides to spend his afternoon learning about Xanavar.

Ellyanna returns to the library at the College,  Ash-Daughter heads for her contacts on the streets, and everyone else lays low, while Elvish heads for the Reliquary of Vorn, where Sahril's branch of the priesthood is headquartered. There, he asks around about Xanavar. He learns that the sub-prelate is generally considered to be aloof and arrogant, but a gifted scholar and researcher, who generally focuses on the lives of saints who lived about 400-600 years ago.

When evening arrives, the party regroup and head out; this time, it's the whole party minus Kaplan. They arrive at the reliquary and are guided to a small office, where they meet Xanavar. Xanavar, however, tells them to wait before beginning, as one more person will be attending the meeting.

A few minutes later, a cloaked and hooded figure arrives in the room. Removing the hood, it's revealed to be Sahril herself, who orders Xanavar out the of the room. She explains to the party that she wanted to meet them but could not be seen doing so, so she arranged this slight ruse. She tells them she has a request for them, which she'll get to after she answers their questions.

The party ask Sahril most the same questions that they asked Severn, and in most cases she is not able to provide any more information. She doesn't know where the real murderer is, but she trusts Severn's belief that it's not Kaplan. She doesn't know anything about the Guild of the Twinborn, nor does she know anything about the undead from Frosthaven. However, she does have access to a legion of scholars and one of the best libraries in the city, so she promises that she'll dedicate some of them to investigating this threat, trying to determine how large it is and how it compares to the threat of the Second Empire to the south.

Dark Star decides to ask her about Xargon, hoping she can give him some information about the entity. Not wanting to reveal his own powers to her, he tells Sahril that he learned about Xargon from a traveller (Vaelac, but no provides her no details about him). Sahril is greatly concerned by what Dark Star tells her. She explains that Xargon belongs to a pantheon of deities, called the Outer Gods, who existed long before the universe was created. Both the Outer Gods and the current Gods had their own, mutually exclusive, ideas of how the universe should work. They battled to determine who would get to create the universe, and the Outer Gods were defeated and cast out of reality. If they were ever to return, it would be disastrous for all, as they would seek to unmake reality itself so that it could be recreated according to their own wishes.

Dark Star tries to change the subject, but Sahril is so concerned with the possibility of the Outer Gods returning that she feels it takes precedence over of the other concerns they've raised. While Dark Star doesn't want to give any information any, eventually Sahril persuades him to reveal Vaelac's name and name of the inn where he's staying.

Throughout the entire conversation, Sahril has been avoiding any questions related to the election of the Archprelate. Finally, she explains to them why she has been staying out of the election: Gorith, worried that Sahril might vote for Thaalia and cost him the election, has kidnapped Sahril's son, Therian, and is holding him hostage, in return for Sahril's non-involvement in the election process. He has threatened to kill him if she involves herself at all, or if she tries to rescue him. She's too afraid about what might happen to her son to do anything at all.

However, the party's visit has given her the chance she's been waiting for. She didn't contact them; they contacted her, and as far as anyone else knows, they met with Xanavar, not her. The party are already Gorith's enemies, so if they're seen snooping around investigating his activities, it will seem perfectly normal. In short, the party are the perfect group to investigate Therian's kidnapping without arousing Gorith's suspicions. In return for their aid, Sahril promises the party her full cooperation and a great reward.

The party agree to help Sahril, but she is unable to give them any information. Due to Gorith's threats, she's been too afraid to investigate the situation at all, so she has no idea where her son might be or how Gorith might be guarding him. They'll have to investigate starting from zero.

The party leave, but Dark Star splits from the rest of the group, racing through the city to reach Vaelac before Sahril's agents can reach him. His urchin upbringing serves him well, and he makes fast progress through the city, quickly arriving at the Evening Shade Inn. Meeting with Vaelac, he explains to him the situation - he is not safe, because Sahril's agents are most likely coming for him. Vaelac is obviously upset about this turn of events, but begrudgingly thanks Dark Star for the warning. After briefly pondering what to do, he decides that he will depart for the nearest city and continue his researches there instead.

Session 16: The Bakery Fiasco

February 20, 118

The party awake later than usual after their previous late night; it's nearly noon by the time everyone is up and moving. They decide to split up and have everyone handle separate tasks. Kaplan continues to stay in hiding, and Dark Star stays with him, continuing to read through the book he purchased from Demon's Gift. Back at Aralakk's temple, Calanon questions Aralakk about the Guild of the Twinborn, but the priest doesn't know anything about them. The rest of the group head into the city. Ash-Daughter starts making the rounds of her contacts, trying to discover if they know anything about the Guild of the Twinborn.

Ellyanna asks around to find where the biggest libraries are in Vornheim. She learns that they are the library of Zorlac, the library at the Reliquary of Vorn, and the library at the College of Celestial Thaumaturgy (an association of mages). She decides not to bother Zorlac, for the same reason they didn't look for him before - he is known to be extremely jealous of his knowledge and never lets outsiders in. She also decides against going to the Reliquary, as the party will probably be going there later once Aralakk gets them an appointment with one of Sahril's sub-prelates. Thus, she heads for the College. However, once she's there, she finds out that access is only for members of the College. She can become an associate member if she shares with them some new and interesting lore, but as the College focuses on Divination magic, and Ellyanna specializes in Evocation magic, she has nothing of interest to them.

Finally, Elvish and Grrrr Yip decide to head to the location of the Guild of the Twinborn's hideout, which they learned from Sadrith. They arrive at a busy commercial district, and find that the location corresponds to a bakery called the Decadence Cupcakery. Casing out the building, they determine that it is two stories, with a large storefront in the front, narrow alleyways on the side, and a small door in the back. Except for the large windows of the storefront, the only windows are on the second floor.

They decide to split up and watch the two doors. Elvish blends into the crowd near the front and watches the main entrance, looking for any usual customers or patterns. Grrrr Yip shapeshifts into a rat, skitters into the alleyway, and takes up position near the back door.

About an hour passes, during which time Elvish doesn't notice anything unusual, until someone arrives at the back door, coming from the opposite alleyway. He knocks, then whispers the passphrase "the chimera turns", at which point a man on the other side of the door opens it up. Seeing her chance, Grrrr Yip skitters through the opening in rat form.

However, the doorman sees the rat coming in and stomps on it. This does enough damage to knock Grrrr Yip back into her Lizardborn form, and the two men are shocked by her sudden appearance. They start shouting cries of alarm and draw their daggers, and Grrrr Yip decides to make a run for it. She takes several wounds as she flees past the two men, and as she runs out the door, one of the two men chases after her, while the other stays to guard the door.

The commotion catches Elvish's attention, but Grrrr Yip flees in the opposite direction from where he's waiting, and his short halfling legs make him a slower runner. As Grrrr Yip and her pursuer emerge onto the street, bystanders see the chase and start calling for the guards. Before Elvish can catch up, the man catches Grrrr Yip and stabs her in the back, dropping her the ground, badly wounded.

Elvish finally arrives, and he attempts to use a Suggestion spell to force the man to flee, but he resists. However, he independently decides the idea is a good one - seeing the commotion around him, he decides to flee anyway. Elvish reaches Grrrr Yip and heals her, and they decide to wait for the guards to arrive.

A squadron of a half-dozen guards arrives after about 10 minutes, and demands to know what's going on. Elvish convinces them that they were attacked by a man who came from the bakery - which is true, although he leaves out the part where they were staking out the place. He convinces the guards to let him and Grrrr Yip join them as they investigate the building.

At the bakery, the guards enter and declare that everyone inside is under arrest, and start rounding up the bakery workers. While they're doing this, Elvish and Grrrr Yip make their way to the second floor and look around. There's no one there, but they find many signs that it has been hastily vacated. The only sign of the Guild they find is a closet full of dark red robes. Acting quickly, Elvish plants a fake note in one of the robes, which reads as follows:

"Dear Sadrith,

The plan is working. The archprelate is dead and they believe Kaplan did it. We just need to tie up the loose ends and kill Kaplan before they figure out we're behind it. Take five brothers to the Undercity and take care of it."

He includes the name "Guild of the Twinborn" at the top and invents a sigil containing two daggers. His intention is that this fake note will lead the city guard to start investigating the Guild, possibly solving the problem for them.

Before they leave, the guards demand to know where they can contact the two of them in case their testimony is needed. They tell that they are staying at the Evening Shade Inn (which is actually where the elf Vaelac is staying).

Everyone regroups at the Greasy Thatcher, where Calanon informs them that Aralakk has managed to secure them an audience with Prelate Severn himself in the evening. Thus, they have only a few hours before they need to go.

Once again, the party take this time to accomplish separate goals. Kaplan and Dark Star remain at the inn as before, and Grrrr Yip joins them, recovering from her earlier ordeal. Ash-Daughter continues asking around about the Guild of the Twinborn but uncovers no new information. Calanon spends the time cleaning up and preparing himself for the audience.

Elvish and Ellyanna, however, head back into the city, hoping to find a member of the College of Celestial Thamauturgy and get a glimpse of his or her membership credentials so Elvish can forge credentials for Ellyanna. They eventually track down a member at a tavern in the New City. Striking up a conversation, they steer it towards the topic of the College, and get her to show them her proof of membership. She explains that each member who joins picks a contellation to represent himself or herself, and is given an enchanted card that is essentially a magical window that points at the constellation in question. Unfortunately, it's impossible for Elvish make a forgery of an enchanted card, so their quest ends in failure.

As the time approaches, the party once again regroup and prepare to meet with Prelate Severn.

Session 15: Intrigue in Vornheim, Part 2

February 19, 118

The party have a few hours left before nightfall, and Elvish decides to use this time to try to get the "word on the street" about the various prelates and the election, hoping to corroborate what Aralakk told him and Calanon. The best place to chat up the priesthood is at the Eminent Cathedral, which is directly attached to the Palace Massive, where the party was imprisoned not long ago. This makes Elvish going there possibly dangerous if he's recognized.

Elvish decides that it's worth and risk, so he disguises himself and makes his way to the cathedral. He manages to avoid being recognized and gathers some information about the prelates. He learns that the main topics of conversation are Severn and Sahril - specifically, why they have yet to publicly proclaim support for anyone. In Sahril's case, many believe it's because she's generally shown little interest in politics in the past, but in Severn's case opinions are divided. Some feel that, as the head of the Inquisition, he has information that incriminates all of the candidates, making him not want to vote for anyone. Others feel that he must have information that he's using to blackmail the others.

The other big topic of conversation is Gorith. After his very public proclamation of having captured the Archprelate's killer, rumours have started to get out that the killer has since escaped, which is starting to look very bad for Gorith. Elvish begins to understand why Gorith is so desperate to find them, as Kaplan's escape will be terrible for his reputation if word gets out to the common people.

Eventually, night falls and everyone returns to Ash-Daughter's hiding place in the Undercity, except for Calanon, who stays behind at Aralakk's temple. Mindful of the fact that several groups have managed to find them already, they decide to set a watch, with Grrrr Yip taking the first shift.

Only about an hour has passed when the door suddenly bursts open, and six dark-cloaked figures wielding daggers flood into the room. Grrrr Yip is caught by surprise, and several of them run up to her and attack. She manages to regain her senses before they take her down, and she shapeshifts into bear form, letting loose a roar that immediately awakens the rest of the party.

The rest of the group pick themselves up off the ground and join into the fight; the battle quickly devolves into total chaos as a dozen combatants battle in the small hiding place. During the fight, Elvish catches one of the figures with a magical Suggestion spell, which he uses to "suggest" that the figure go stand in the corner and not fight.

Eventually the party defeat the other five figures, although not without sustaining some major wounds themselves. As the party's healers take care of these, they investigate the corpses.

The figures turn out to be a group of human men, wearing dark red cloaks over leather armor. Each is carrying two elaborate (but still practical) daggers and a small coinpurse, which they loot. Only one of the sets of robes remains in decent condition, the others mostly destroyed by magic and weapons, so they take it. The men don't seem to be carrying any sort of identifying mark.

Elvish turns his attention to the man standing in the corner. Using two Charm Person spells (the man resists the first), he magically gains his trust, and asks the rest of the party to leave the room while he interrogates him.

The man is very reluctant to speak, even under the influence of the spell, but Elvish's charisma eventually convinces him to open up. He gives his name as Sadrith, and tells Elvish that he's a member of a group called the Guild of the Twinborn, a guild of assassins. He isn't able to answer too many question about them, as he claims that the group is very secretive and lower-ranked members are only given information on a need-to-know basis. Membership apparently pays extremely well, which is why he joined.

Sadrith doesn't know where the group is ultimately based, but he tells Elvish that he personally is from the south, in the Second Empire, and that he and his companions are here on a job to kill Kaplan. He does know the location of their temporary hideout in Vornheim, which Elvish manages to wring out of him - it's a building in the New City, the middle layer of Vornheim. Elvish also convinces Sadrith to tell him the current password, which is "the chimera turns". The group change their passwords every week, but the last change was earlier this day, so this password will still be valid for nearly a week.

Finally, Elvish asks him if he knows anything about the assassination of the Archprelate, but Sadrith replies that he does not.

Having learned everything of value that he can, Elvish steps outside to discuss what to do with Sadrith with the rest of the party. While some of the group want to spare his life and let him go, they eventually decide that it is too dangerous to leave him alive, as he could report back a great deal of information about them. Ash-Daughter enters the room and runs him through with her rapier, killing him instantly.

The party next discuss where they will spend the night. Ash-Daughter's hiding place is clearly not safe, but they're not sure if anywhere else is any safer. They discuss returning to Leravith's home and seeking her protection, but they eventually decide that it's too far out of the way from the surface of the city, plus they're not sure if she would agree to take them in in the first place.

Eventually, they decide that, since their enemies seem to be able to find them anyway, there's no point in hiding down in the Undercity. Elvish and Dark Star do their best to disguise Kaplan so that no one will recognize him, and they head out to the Outer City to find an inn to stay at. They eventually settle in at an inn called the Greasy Thatcher, and Ash-Daughter heads out to the temple to update Calanon on everything that has happened.

Session 14: Intrigue in Vornheim

February 18, 118

Having struck a deal with Leravith, the party decide to head back to Ash-Daughter's hiding place in the Undercity and plan their next move. The tiefling leads them back through the winding corridors of the Undercity, and eventually they find themselves back at the hiding place's entrance. However, before they open the door and step through, Kaplan spots a trickle of blood running under the doorway.

They stop to listen at the door, but hear nothing. Elvish cautiously opens it, and inside he sees three corpses. One, right next to the door, is a cleric of Vorn, while the other two, a bit farther away, seem to be guards or soldiers of some kind.

A quick inspection of the hiding place reveals nothing else out of the ordinary, and no living people hiding in wait for them. They investigate the bodies as well as they can in order to try to determine what happened.

They deduce that the guards and the cleric fought, as the cleric has wounds from the guards' swords and the guards have wounds from the cleric's mace. It seems the cleric fought and killed the guards, but then succumbed to his wounds. The guards bear the insignia of Prelate Gorith, while the cleric has no particular identifying marks. He does, however, have a rolled-up scroll.

Dark Star takes the scroll, and upon unrolling it he discovers that it contains a short message preceding instructions for a magical ritual. The message is addressed to Kaplan, so Dark Star passes it to him. There is no signature or other clue regarding who wrote it, but the writer indicates that they are not necessarily displeased with Kaplan's killing of the Archprelate, and in fact wish to hire him. The message claims that Kaplan's escape from Gorith's men's custody has been a serious setback to the Prelate's chances of becomes Archprelate, and that he will spare no expense in tracking Kaplan down. In return for Kaplan's services, the writer offers to provide Kaplan with protection from Gorith's men.

Ellyanna studies the ritual underneath, which is some sort of spell of communication apparently intended to contact the writer of the scroll. The party decide that Ellyanna should study it thoroughly before they consider using it, since they need to know exactly what the spell does.

Discussing the implications of this, Ash-Daughter points out that she's most concerned about how these three people found her hiding place, as she never revealed it to anyone. No one is able to give a clear answer, and the possibility that someone is using magic to track them is brought up.

The party decide to head back up to the city, leaving Ellyanna behind to study the scroll and leaving Kaplan behind because it's too dangerous for him to go up. Dark Star and Elvish head to Demon's Gift's occult shop to respond to his message from the morning, while Calanon and Grrrr Yip head to the markets to sell their accumulated treasure. Ash-Daughter waits at the entrance to the Undercity to guide them back.

It's nearing nightfall as Dark Star and Elvish reach the shop, arriving just before Demon's Gift closes it up. He tells them that he was visited by an elf, hiding his face beneath a hood, who was asking about Zargon. When he told the elf that he had recently sold his only tome containing information about Zargon to someone else, the elf asked to arrange a meeting with this person. Not wanting to give out Dark Star's personal information, he asked the elf to leave some contact information then magically contacted Dark Star.

Demon's Gift tells Dark Star and Elvish that the elf is staying at the Evening Shade Tavern and Inn, located nearby. They head there immediately, and a bit of coin persuades the innkeeper to call down the elf to meet them.

The elf, after identifying Dark Star as the person who bought the book from Demon's Gift, invites the two adventurers up to his room. There, he introduces himself as Vaelac. Removing his hood, they see that he is a White Elf from up north. He explains that, until recently, he was the shaman for his tribe, but about two months ago, he began experiencing strange dreams and visions. Eventually, he grew to understand that the visions were from a being called Zargon, and that it was commanding him to free it (from what, he is not sure).

Along with the visions, he began to develop strange powers, similar to those possessed by Dark Star, and eventually this was noticed by his tribe. He was forced out, and decided to come to Vornheim to see if he could learn more about Zargon and find anyone else who had experienced the same things. While Dark Star had a broadly similar experience, he never had any sort of dreams or visions, instead learning of Zargon through a book he found. Vaelac tells Dark Star that he hasn't had any visions since coming down to Vornheim.

Knowing that the White Elves live to the north, and that the undead army went somewhere northeast from Frosthaven, Dark Star and Elvish ask Vaelac if he saw any unusual activity before leaving his tribe. Vaelac relates that he did see a mysterious, black-robed figure visit the tribe's chief shortly before he was driven out, but he was not party to the meeting and does not know who the figure was or what he wanted.

Vaelac tries to convince Dark Star to sell or lend him the book, but Dark Star is adamant that he wants to study it himself. The only concession that Vaelac manages to wring out of Dark Star is that the half-orc will report in to Vaelac if he discovers anything of use.

Their business concluded, the party members meet up with Ash-Daughter and she guides them back to her hiding place. There, Ellyanna has finished studying the scroll. It does indeed seem to be a spell of communication, and she cannot detect any harmful magic woven into it - it seems to do what the message claims it should. Regardless, the party decide not to risk using the scroll for now. Instead, they settle in to rest for the night, setting a watch in case the hiding place is attacked again.

February 19, 118

The next morning, the party split up once again. Kaplan stays back in hiding place for his own safety, and Ellyanna stays as well so that he isn't alone. Calanon and Elvish head into the city and try to find Aralakk, the priest who met with Calanon while he in jail, to learn more about the various prelates from him. Dark Star and Grrrr Yip head into the city to investigate their various options for retrieving the bed and an undead sample from Frosthaven for Leravith. Finally, Ash-Daughter acts as a guide back to the city once again, then waits at the Undercity entrance for everyone to return.

It takes a great deal of searching for Calanon and Elvish to track Aralakk down, but eventually they find the mid-sized temple where he is head priest, and he agrees to speak with them in private. They request a run-down on the prelates of Vorn, which he provides. He tells them of the five prelates:

 - Prelate Severn heads up the Inquisition of Vorn, whose task it is to monitor the clergy and keep them in line. All of his agents are secret and ostensibly serve under one of the other prelates. He does not seek to become Archprelate, as he feels he is too young and is not ready. Aralakk is an agent of Severn.

 - Prelate Gorith is in charge of all temples of Vorn outside of Vornheim itself. He is also in charge of the outer gates of Vornheim, and it's his men who have been pursuing the party. Aralakk tells them that he has a reputation for being ruthless and cruel. He seeks to become Archprelate, but currently has the support of none of the other prelates.

 - Prelate Eljarn commands the military wing of the church of Vorn, including its paladins and crusading clerics. He currently supports the bid of Prelate Thaalia to become Archprelate, but Aralakk tells them that rumours say that he actually wants the position for himself and could change his allegiance if he thought he had a chance.

 - Prelatess Sahril is the Loremaster of Vorn, in charge of relics, rituals, and research. She is in charge of the various religious scholars who study the nature of Vorn, and set and updates the rituals used in religious services. She does not publicly support any of the other prelates, and Aralakk doesn't know much about her ambitions or loyalties.

 - Prelatess Thaalia is in charge of the temples of Vorn inside Vornheim itself, and therefore has the most influence inside the city. She was the runner-up in the last election for Archprelate, and feels that she is clearly the best choice to rule. She is also the only prelate who currently has the support of another prelate; if she can secure the support of one more, she will most likely win the election.

After discussing the various prelates, Calanon and Elvish eventually decide that they'd most like to speak with Sahril, as she seems most likely to know something about the undead threat they faced in Frosthaven. Aralakk tells them he'll attempt to get in contact with one of her sub-prelates. In order for him to be able to contact the party, Calanon decides to stay at the temple.

Meanwhile, Dark Star and Grrrr Yip are considering how they will hold up their end of the bargain with Leravith. A trip to Frosthaven and back in winter conditions will take nearly three weeks, which is time they don't necessarily have. They investigate several possible solutions, before realizing that they already know a way to instantly contact Duskveil - through the same magic that Demon's Gift used to contact them.

At Demon's Gift's shop, they ask him about the spell, and he tells them that it will indeed work over any distance, but the caster (in this case, Demon's Gift himself) must be personally familiar with the recipient. It turns out they're in luck - Demon's Gift does have an acquaintance in Duskveil who he can contact. The spell is limited to 25 words, so after paying him a 90-gold fee, Dark Star and Grrrr Yip compose the following message:

"Tell mayor - urgent: send soldiers to Frosthaven crypt through coffin staircase, bring many undead and the bed to Salty Locust, Vornheim - Elvish Parsley, reply immediately"

The "Salty Locust" in the message is the Salty Locust inn, a small establishment that is located on the very outskirts of Vornheim, which they feel will make an ideal meeting place. Demon's Gift receives a one word response - "okay".