Session 9 - Undercity Fireball

NOTE – It was OOCly decided to put the arrival of Oksah off for the time being, as the group had a lot on their plate already and we’d decided to pursue the Feymoor problem with speed as it was the most pressingly urgent of concerns to address. Oksah will be reintroduced at a later date when the group has less pressing matters.  

Two days pass, during which;

  Deltair went shopping and decided to visit his wife back in O’erwood. While usually this process would take longer, he enlisted the assistance of a mage who could shorten the trip.   Tatil returned to the dojo she visited earlier and was trained to focus her senses, by fighting three opponents while blindfolded. It transpires that Fen followed her and offered a sparring match. To begin with Tatil treats it as simple, but after Fen knocks her down with a large, lucky shot she takes things more seriously. Throughout that, Fen learns how to knock opponents prone when he presses the advantage in a fight, and how to at least strike a blow which will sting when on the backfoot, as well as how to batter shields to one side for others to take advantage of the opening. Peiskos and Tris head to the public library and familiarise themselves with the local fauna of the area, with Tris showing Peiskos illustrations and explaining the entries alongside them.   Niranen takes some time to visit the Temple of Sehanine, reconnecting with her priestly contacts and meditating on Sehanine’s will. Maks investigates Faulty Empty’s for any information she can find about Trall, and at the same time makes connections with the Junction arm of her Brotherhood.   Bryn and Marty went out into the arcane district of the city, with Bryn assisting Marty with finding a magic shop, where she finds a scroll of Hold Person that she copies into her spell book. He also assists her in gaining access to the resources in the Arcane University, where they research the causes for non-sea-based undead plagues and the portals, to gain information they might be able to use in Feymoor. While unfortunately the restricted portals aren’t well researched, there is some raw data that suggests correlation (though not enough evidence to support causation) between Portal 7 to the ruins of Thelaris opening and the undead appearing at roughly the same time 256 years ago. No other portals have such a correlation.

After that, it’s time for a change

  The group converges as the time for Wren to revert from Sister-Wren to Brother-Wren approaches. The group offer friendly goodbyes, and Tris goes so far as to hug Wren – right at the moment of change. She backs away as Wren’s brother emerges. There’s a tense, terse silence as Wren reads up on his sister’s escapades, and attempts at conversation die until he’s up to date. Nira thanks him for his time and says he is a final thread in the investigation, just to tie up loose ends – did he see Pascal, does he know of Trall, or is he aware of any contacts in the temple who seemed to know them or seem shifty? Wren is initially insulted by the question, as if she’s accusing him of being wrapped up in the goings-on, but Nira says that no, it’s a compliment, that they are seeking his keen eye in rooting out evil under his nose. While this mollifies Wren, he can’t provide any information. Neither will he commit to helping Feymoor, even with his sister’s vow – Chauntea dictates where he goes. He may honour his sister’s vow if he’s able to.

A short visit

  After Wren leaves, Fen has a visitor, a tiny gnome with twigs in his hair, who greets the large minotaur with “You’re Fen, right?” This is Zoric, who was sent to speak to Fen by the druid at the grove in Junction. He talks with Fen about the undead in Feymoor, particularly how they die in the daylight. He makes some mystical gestures while deep in thought, perhaps scrying, or mindmapping… and theorizes that Feymoor is an incredibly weak area in the weave of the world.   He can teach Fen a ritual to gain information on the nightly breaches, but for best efficacy it should be done near to Feymoor. Otherwise there may be interference from other sources. He demonstrates the ritual for Fen, evoking the four elements within a dirt circle, with candles at the points of a pentacle – the ritual reveals a scattering of mud and dirt that points towards Feymoor.. and a smaller, fatter one that points off in a different direction. Fen talks with Zoric about the meaning of this, and it’s possible that this may be the drawing force that calls the undead. Or it may simply be interference. He then says that Fen will still need to deal with the portal somehow. He suggests that talking with people in Junction about closing portals may be seen as tantamount to conspiracy to commit terrorism, but there may be people in seedier areas of Junction that may be able to help. Perhaps in the undercity below the streets.   Zoric leaves, having taught the ritual to Fen, Peiskos and Tris – and having impressed Tris quite a bit with a little appearance of a hatching butterfly chrysalis.

Investigations begin

  The group meet around the table to discuss their actions for the day. While Bryn and Marty decide to talk to one of the faculty members of the university, Maxima volunteers to descend into the undercity and get the lay of the land and gather information on who to talk to about closing portals – at this point, also, the group agrees that it would be better to refer to the Feymoor phenomenon as something other than a “portal” to try and avoid people getting the wrong idea. They decide that “Rift” is a good term to remove the charged language. Marty notes that if they do go to the undercity, she will do her best to be quiet. During this time, Fen performed the detection ritual a couple of times in different areas around the common room, finding the second, smaller arrow pointed in a different direction each time. Peiskos took notice, and the three triangulated the second point as… Marty.   This raised immediate questions, and Marty admitted that she’d felt something from the evil object lodged in her hand. An echo of the ritual as it had been cast. Fen drags her outside into the light to see if the object evaporates under sunlight like the undead in Feymoor, but it does not. The situation grows a little tense until Niranen mediates, and suggests that dealing with the rift in Feymoor and the object in Marty’s hand might be one and the same thing.   The group splits to perform their initial investigations – Bryn and Marty (Now shadowed by a scowling Fen who will not let her out of his sight) approach a faculty bar and Marty makes a connection with a senior necromancer named Karthus, who seems interested in her theories. And who has, Bryn and Marty both notice, clearly noticed her hand. Marty also snags herself a student ID, albiet with a picture nothing like her. Maks goes undercover as a barmaid in a seedy undercity tavern, managing to gather an address for some sort of magical item tradeoff site.

Fire underground

The group are led by Maxima to a dilapidated, half-ruined building. They investigate and Niranen pokes her head past the threshold only to find a crossbow bolt skittering to her feet.     Bryn and Nira begin to negotiate, and a figure emerges from the shadows. Marty notes that it’s an illusion, and Peiskos throws a torch through the image of the warrior, disrupting it. The light reveals a weaselly-looking mage within, who is almost instantly criticised on his casting form by Marty. In response and clearly insulted, he launches a fireball at the group.   In the ensuing explosion, Bryn and Niranen both fall unconscious, Gwyl is forced to dematerialize his corporeal form, and Maxima is also blasted off her feet and into unconsciousness, dropping her disguise and appearing simply as Maks.   Peiskos is quick to get Maks back to consciousness, and then moves to bring Nira back to consciousness. Tris evokes the healing energy of Spirt Noodle to bring Bryn back to consciousness as he complains about his clothing being on fire. On seeing Maks fallen and beginning to get up, Niranen notices the change in complexion. Mistaking it for some kind of trauma she moves to check on Maks, at which point Maks realises she is undisguised. She tries to escape, scrabbling backward on hands and knees, but Nira catches her and uses her cloak to hide her from the rest of the group. Unfortunately by this point, everyone but Marty and the mage have noticed her change.   While all this was transpiring, Fen had grasped the mage by the neck, and Spirit-Noodle had moved around to heal Nira further, and Fen somewhat. During the ensuing shakedown of the mage, Marty recovered his component pouch and spellbook, as well as a book of necromancy authored by one Karthus, that the mage indicates has some chapters on portals within. She also retrieves a stash of a dozen healing potions.   Niranen mentions the name Trall, and this terrifies the mage, who mistakenly assumes they are with him. She smoothly leans into this, getting passcodes from the mage. Tatil riffs on this idea and manages to learn the location of Traill’s current safehouse, an up-market tavern called the Pearl and Button. With everything they can glean from the mage and a perhaps-not-benevolent crowd beginning to gather, the group withdraw to the brownstone with an eye to taking a short rest to recouperate and perhaps pursuing this new lead on Trall.