2025/12/19: Exploring Rael-Aestra Part 2
General Summary
Aetheril, Buzz, Knight, Malakai, Kal'vus, Union, Everett
Malakai went through the same interview and testing as the rest of the party had last session. He managed to land a crit against Zarl with Torbrance, which normally means vorpal and instant death effects come into play. Zarl pushed back and shrugged it off, but he still looked mildly impressed. He was similarly impressed by Malakai's immunity to blunt damage, which meant Zarl would need to get creative if he ever had to fight Malakai.
Malakai was then allowed to do spellcasting testing, and much conversation about crafting and repairs followed.
Zarl mentioned that there's a big guild meeting coming up. "The bossman" is on his way in. ("Trust me. You don't want him to test you." Apparently the boss is one of the few people in the city who can hurt Zarl with a plain hit.)
According to a hound archon that Everett summoned during his own guild testing, it appears that various wards around Rael-Aestra are being destroyed. Those just went up, and they're being torn down already. Everett passed that letter (hastily scrawled, but with impeccable angelic penmanship) to the dwarf, who handed it off to a subordinate and told him to get it to the boss immediately. In any case, having heaven on speed dial definitely proved his usefulness to the guild.
Union was also tested, doing sneak attacks against a dummy. He was the first stabby psion they'd seen. His damage wasn't amazing, but he also drained a level from his target, and they found his overall build intriguing.
Arkus and Zarl went to do adventurer-wrangling to get everyone into the meeting, so the party was left to its own devices in the meeting room.
The guild members trickled in. Most of the members were human, but a 9 foot tall goat man was one of the first to come in. Picture a barbarian with the typical beefy build, then make him 9 feet tall, give him ram horns, and put him in a wool sweater three feet thick. Probably the fluffiest barbarian the party had ever seen. He is one of the lieutenants of the guild.
The second in command of the guild is a very social woman who aggressively greeted everyone in the group. Her name is Merrily(sp?). Looks mostly human but with an orange cast to her skin, and gold-white hair. She runs the guild's scouting group and is also sort of the morale officer. You have problems, go talk to her. If she can't help you, she knows someone who can.
Turns out Arkus Winsley is the adopted son of the guild master. The guild master has been trying to retire for a while and is old, and killing his son might have killed the guild master out of heartbreak. And Arkus just had kids of his own.
The Cerulean Shields are generally nice and more organized than most. Trying to keep everyone safe and keep the community okay.
Guild master is Sapphros(sp?). "The Last Hope". He's getting old in the tooth for a human. He's kind of best known for not giving up. When an evil overlord invader to the city who was ridiculously powerful (dark wizard, undead army, blood magic, all that) was trying to take over Rael-Aestra (he'd been one of the council members, then decided he should be in charge because no one could stop him), the guilds teamed up against him, but it wasn't going well. By the end, Sapphros was the last (good) fighter remaining who knew how to use the giant anti-magic sword all the artificers and mages put together to get through the wizard's defenses. Since then, Sapphros has been sort of the last line of defense for the city when things get really bad.
A great man, a good guild master, a little on the strict side. "The Sapphire Shield of Rael-Aestra." That title got distorted and became the guild name. He made the guild to try to train more heroes to succeed him. They do good and also make money.
Other leaders:
Other notables:
More adventurers made their way in. A rootlike treant with shapeshifting aspects was among their number.
Sapphros is an elderly gentleman about 7 feet tall. Used to have long, flowing black hair, but now it's mostly grey and barely holding on. 87 years old. Wears exceptionally ornate full plate made of orichalcum and adamantium, with arcane runes all over it. A giant sword (a flamberge, to those with a keen eye) is sheathed on his back, and the sheath itself is hideously magical and covered in warding runes. Those who can see magic can see magic pulsing off the man. His paladin aura is less warm and fuzzy and more like instead of having a shoulder angel and devil, your inner soldier stood to attention and saluted him with a tear in their eye. An aura of respect, almost.
"Looks like things might be getting rough in the city." The shoe hasn't dropped yet, but it's on the edge. Business as usual for now, but stay alert and be ready. If you see anything unusual, report it to both the guild and to the city as a whole. And given the decentralized power structure, that means report it to everybody.
No missions too far from the capital. No milk runs, we still want to make some money, but no high challenges either. If you're in the city, stay in contact. They're working on better comms gear to help with that. If you're resting, rest like you're in a combat zone.
Right now there's no violence in the city, but that may not last.
The standard teams are being kept, but with an old, experienced adventurer (some of them coming out of retirement) joining each of them for safety.
The guild master came to talk to the visiting party and thank them. Malakai proposed a solution to the communications problem (i.e. his communicators). Sapphros mentioned that investigation of the soul-destroying arrow was now being done by a sneaky archmage who's the most powerful mage in the city. She's an old friend of Sapphros.
Kelsey and Vrex caught up at around this point. Kelsey had bought Vrex new gear. Introductions were made, and it was mentioned that she was slightly evil now because of the crystal, and that fixing that was part of the reason the party was here. Sapphros said he might be able to do something about that. The party evacuated all magic items from the room and Kelsey held the paladin's hand.
Sapphros slowly drew a crystalline blue flamberge. It's literally solidified hope. Was made by literally hundreds of mages and artificers in less than 24 hours in a desperate struggle for their lives. To this day, they're not sure how they made it work. This is not a graceful art piece of a sword. It exudes antimagic. It's like several archmages worth of magic-sundering specialists put everything they had into this aura. The sword is also encased in rich blue flames.
He pressed the sword to her skin, and leaned in, chanting something under his breath, and she felt something release and suddenly felt a lot lighter. He commented that that seemed like a piece of a demon, or a fallen angel. Kelsey agreed, and further outlined the cause.
The party decided to bring the paladin in on the real reason they were in the city. It turned out that the guild master knew of the Animus Society, but they typically didn't cause problems in the city and thus had been low on his list.
The guild master's archmage friend mentioned that one of the favors she owed him had been used. Likely she was responsible for Doyle knowing about the assassination attempt.
After considering dungeon options, the party opted to go visit the minotaur dungeon. It would apparently give the favor of Ares, which might be useful in upcoming crises. They rested overnight to get spells swapped out, restore spells, and also get set up with the resurrection and safety teleport items required by the guild charter. The guild master was able to get the party guild discounts on the resurrection crystals.
Rewards Granted
1 xp
Notes
NOTE: Zarl normally has dark hair.
NOTE: Ril has an intelligent sword who can turn into an elf and has her own equipment. She's quiet. She still counts as a sword while in elf form, so all her effects still apply.
