Session 18: Fair Ball

Bearsday, 4 Sunfall, 998 Y.K.   A knock at Milli's door interrupted her sleep; it was Giff, Boroman's bodyguard, informing her of a late-night visitor wishing to speak with some urgency. The unicorn stumbled her way down from her room at the Wayfinder's Foundation to see Morran Decannith standing in the doorway, one arm shoved into his coat pocket and flask in hand. Milli invited her friend inside, but the artificer shook his head and said time was of the essence, that he shouldn't have come, and that he could get in trouble for doing so, but he had to speak up.   Morran was direct and to the point; Milli needed to steer clear of his lab for at least the next two weeks, and if she had to visit, she needed to not correct any mistakes she saw. His cousin Jorlanna had only agreed to give him free reign of the labs in the presence of an apprentice. The lanky teen was more than happy to be an extra pair of hands as Morran worked, but her first instruction was to document Morran's work for patent. If Milli was going to see her research be free for those who needed it, she needed to publish, and her work had to be wholly free of anything that looked like his influence. He, meanwhile, was being deliberately sloppy and erratic, hoping to buy her some time. He could likely get her two weeks, perhaps three, but that was all he could spare her. Plus, not having his second hand was beginning to inconvenience him.   On seeing Milli's open-muzzled horror at the idea of losing control of her work, Morran did offer a sliver of hope. The town of Arcanix, on the shore of Lake Galifar, was home to the Arcane Congress, the most prestigious magical academy in Khorvaire. Milli could surely find someone there who could help her submit her research for the official record. Once recognized as hers, she'd have free claim to do with it as she wished, including give it away. With such possiblity -- and such obligation -- hanging between them, Morran finished the contents of his flask and disappeared into the night.   The unicorn's dreams that night were troubled, but gone from her mind with the rising sun. The dawn meant a run on new hooves, and breakfast, and then meeting with Dowser to walk through the Cannith compound. The building in which the meeting would take place was two floors of solid mason-and-timber, with high windows that let in light but shared little with passers-by.   Meeting rooms adorned the front hall past a cloakroom and secure guards' station. A massive ballroom filled the center of the building, two stories with a glass skylight cut to cast patterns of shadows on the floor. A curved staircase swept both sides of the room, leading to a small stage on one side and a lectern on the other, then continuing up to a door leading to the executive suites were Jorlanna's meeting would be held. Behind the ballroom, a well-concealed double-door led to the warehouse attached to the back of the facility, storage for Cannith's workshops and magewrights. The rest of the grounds were off-limits to guests, and to the party, as they were to the meeting itself. Their responsibility would be the safety of the guests in the public spaces. Easy.   The party spent a few hours coordinating strategies and discussing contingencies, then broke for lunch and to retrieve their formalwear and prepare for the evening. Millimax prepared what spells she could, and also a token of renewal for Medya to carry. Bell prepared several shatter vials for Spark and Medya, while Zer refreshed his supply of smoke bombs. Then the party left the Wayfinders' headquarters and met up with Dowser at House Cannith's facilities. As House Cannith's staff finished setting up the banquet, the teams took their places. One of Dowser's crew, the halfling named Tanner, parked his coach behind the warehouse, a secondary staging space in case of emergencies. Gwyr, the elf that had taken the party shopping, took up station near one of the doors to the private areas, to help steer guests away from the sleeping hall. Enna and Bell each took up one of the meeting rooms in the front hall. The dwarf Giri stood near the other, shadowing Cannith's guard. Relic hid in the shadows of the warehouse above Cannith's own forces, while Zer and Dowser stood at opposite ends of the main hall and coordinated. Milli and Medya, meanwhile, watched the dining space. The rest of Dowser's team patrolled the grounds outside.   Dowser's first surprise of the night was to touch Zer's mind in invitation, revealing himself a student of the intimate arts. After a few moments of concentration, Dowser and Zer put their minds together and meshed their telepathic links. Thus linked, the group had to quickly learn to put aside each other's chatter and concentrate. As the Cannith guard stationed near the gate announced the guests, Bell asked if the guard could cue somehow that her gut told her someone was a problem. The guard replied that she could announce them as "highly regarded" before their formal titles, which Bell quickly spread to the others.   The first guest of the evening of note was Esteemed Scholar Emmer Sykes, Professor of Alchemy at the Arcane Congress, a well-groomed spectacle of a wizard in his late fifties, sporting a cloak and suit and surrounded by a small cloud of bells that from time to time rang to attract his attention. He was accompanied by his entourage, a well-muscled and handsome half-orc named Gent, clearly his bodyguard, dressed in dyed leathers and visibly sporting a morningstar on his belt; his half-elven lab assistant Lina, and his human secretary Dover. As soon as they arrived, Dowser warned the party that was a bad sign; Sykes, according to the forged, worked for the Aundairan military, and notoriously reclusive. If he'd left whatever sanctum he'd built for himself to come here, it meant trouble was almost sure to follow. Sykes, however, seemed far more interested in getting plates full of food for himself and his clique, then discussing magical theory over appetizers and spiced wine.   The next guest that the guard announced was the highly regarded Senna Redeker, Knight Arcane and member of Queen Aurala's court. If the first announcement made Dowser uncomfortable, this made him actively concerned. Redeker was a highly regarded member of Aurala's wider circle, a voice of reason and clarity that had served on several Thronehold tribunals dispensing military justice. Her presence meant that someone would hear of anything that happened. Redeker took note of Sykes' presence immediately, her expression taking on a scowl that seemed only to set more firmly as the evening wore on.   However, when the highly regarded Tanashtavakri, Attache to the Ambassador of All Sarlona to Aundair, arrived. Redeker's demeanor switched as though someone had lit a lantern. The decorated knight of Queen Aurala's court practically fawned over the other woman, somehow completely ignoring the presence of the three hulking "puppets" that made up Tanashtavakri's entourage, their faces masked by black veils marked only with the seal of the Eternal Kingdom. Zer struggled to restrain himself as he carefully kept watch for any sign that the Inspired was doing more than soaking in the knight arcane's awkward attentions.   Soon after the Riedran attache arrived, the band stilled and d'Cannith Jorlanna took to the lectern to a smattering of applause. As a resonant crystal projected her words, the matriarch of Cannith West spoke of a great new day of innovation and partnership, of newfound alliances and mutual support, of the need for strong allies and common goals. It was an halting speech, full of forced posivity and linguistic vagaries, and Jorlanna visibly fought not to stammer as she made her way through the platitudes of partnership to scattered applause. After she finished speaking, the band picked up a lively step, and the dance floor began to fill.   It was then that Relic heard the first noise in the darkness. A muffled groan, then a thud, like a body hitting the floor.   Immediately, the team was on alert. Zer projected a wall of storm between the warehouse and the ballroom, while Relic crept towards the sound of the interlopers. His eyes scanned the darkness and picked out five shapes, moving against the shadows, and a sixth where one of Cannith's guards had fallen. As soon as the psion acted, one of Tanashtavakri's puppets screamed "traitor" and charged, hurling a psychic lance and sending pain riveting through Zer's thoughts. Spark leapt into the fray, with Giri close behind. From behind where Jorlanna had just stood, a small squad of black-clad figures burst in the door, while a second group closed from the front of the building.   While Relic slipped through the darkness, dispatching invaders with quiet efficiency, Spark and Dowser were doing anything but, the one with her flames and the other with a pair of waterwhips controlled via thought. Milli snapped a force trap into place behind the lectern, locking all but one of the intruders down while Medya lobbed a vial of shatter at them. As Enna began outlining more guards in faerie fire, Bell took the opportunity to light her hammer and discourage the puppet attacking Zer from repeating his mistake.   While Zer struggled for composure, Relic silently dispatched the team that had sought to sneak in through the back, though one guard did escape the monk's notice long enough to stumble through the concealed door and into Zer's stormwall. The peal of thunder sent them staggering into Spark, who threw them back into the psionic field. That, in turn, sent them crashing through Emmer Sykes' table, though the wizard had already vacated it, his entourage rushing him through one of the secured doors. Jorlanna made her escape up the stairs to the meeting room, while Cannith's guards protected them from the rear. Then Tanashavakri sent Zer running with a bout of hideous laughter, shattering the mesh between Dowser's team and the party, forcing them to call out to each other.   Zer's collapse also took down the route through the back, and as Relic came through to announce all clear, Spark and Dowser began to escort the rest of the partygoers out the back, shielding them from the raiders storming from the kitchen and front hall. Bell found herself the target of a pair of snipers, at least until Feder and Orett removed them from the fight. That left a trio of fighters that hammered at Bell's defenses, knocking the battlesmith back but not out. Pinned, Bell pressed back, holding her own until reinforcements arrived. Zer, back in control, worked with Giri to drop the Riedran attache, her quori "guest" fleeing as she collapsed. With the puppeteer fled, the puppets dropped, and though one invader did manage a lightning bolt that stunned Milli, the regrouping party was too much for the remaining forces.   In the stillness that followed the ballroom blitz, Senna Redeker stormed, arms waving and shouting of impropriety and inappropriateness. She demanded the unconscious to tell her their names and, when they failed to answer, she took illusion-stills of their faces for later interrogation. She stomped up the stairs to the meeting and demanded entrance, but even she was rebuffed by the Cannith guards, who said their orders had come from Jorlanna herself. Stunned by the audacity of refusing her authority, she threatened to reveal all these machinations and left to report her findings to her superior.   It was then, however, that Spark revealed having seen Gwyr tap the Cannith guard near their post on the shoulder, catch him as he fell, and then slip through the door into the restricted areas. She had tried to call out to Dowser, but the forged had been too busy trying to reach the intruder that had escaped Milli's trap, and showing off his wings in the process. Dowser swore in response and asked if anyone had seen them, but no-one had. Dowser then explained that Gwyr was once a member of House Phiarlan, but had left their family, the mark giving them the power of shadow. The elf had likely already disappeared.   That was when d'Cannith Veora, who had been present at the meeting, said, "it's gone."   It turned out to be a relic that Jorlanna and several members of her personal team had crafted, a "skillshare" as she called it, for training new recruits for the army in a hurry. Aundair's military had been decimated in the Last War, crushed between Thrane and Breland with Karrnath taking potshots where they could. Trained soldiers were in short supply, but with no shortage of farmers and children of farmers eager to defend their land. Sykes had approached her with the idea of a relic that a skilled fighter could share with a willing student. Jorlanna hadn't merely succeeded, they'd triumphed, a headpiece and a collar that could be shared between trainer and trainee, moving in unison as the trainer commanded, to the limit of the trainee's endurance. Aundair could churn out soldiers as the foundries made swords.   Jorlanna had never considered that Emmer Sykes -- or anyone else -- might try to do more with it, or how it might work on someone who wasn't willing. They'd asked her for a skill-training tool, and she'd obliged. There was no need to get angry at her; her boyfriend Palor had sworn to her that it would be okay, that he'd arranged the meeting himself and said it would be fine! Her voice cracked, tears starting to stream down her face. He'd sworn to help her become the next Grand Gorgon, and he'd told her this was the path to achieving it. And she was terrified of what might happen if she failed. Veora then said she was more terrified of their successes, now that Sykes had the schemata for the device.   At that, Milli and Bell both realized that Jorlanna's nervous tics were more than just guilt; they were shame and fear, and that meant Jorlanna might be at the mercy of still larger forces. They asked her if she were safe, and she nervously looked around and shook her head before motioning the party to follow. She led them back through the private halls of House Cannith to her personal workshop, where stood her first husband and child, d'Deneith Cailan and Elsabet II, frozen in time as they had been for the past thirty years. When her father had banished her family to save face, she'd dropped to her knees and begged the universe to give her back her family. He'd been her rock, and she Jorlanna's wings, through the war, through the fraying of House Cannith as her parents fought with increasing rancor, through Merrix I's descent from firm traditionalist to steel-eyed autocrat, until the day the Old Man banished them to the ends of Eberron for daring to "mix houses."   She'd have done anything to get her family back. Anything. And in the dark and tortured heart of the world, the fiends had heard her offer, and they'd accepted. They'd given her back her family, just as they were when she'd lost them, forever frozen in time until the Bleak Council was done with her. Two years ago, they'd sent Palor to her and told her he was to be her new boyfriend. Follow his instructions, become the Grand Gorgon, reunite House Cannith, and her family would be returned to her. Refuse, and Cailan and Elsabet II would stay as they were until every star fell from the sky.