Session 5: Lead and Leali

Bearsday, 16 Seeding, 998 Y.K.   As the party unloaded from the skyfreighter, Lead Design made a not-so-subtle claim on the case of alchemical reagents, stating that the Brelish military was the rightful owner of its contents. Bell, however, retorted that the crew was tired and in no shape to negotiate. She said once the group had had a chance to rest and recover, they'd consider Lead's words, preferably in some place with fewer possibilities of being overheard. Lead at first made an offhand comment about d'Tharashk Alora not needing any more enemies, but they acknowledged the group's need for privacy, and they passed Spark a business card: an engraved piece of thin sheet metal stating only, "Lead Design, Operations and Logistics," as well as an address in Mid-Central, quite well-to-do for a Forged. Having given the group means to reach them, Lead then took their leave and left the group to make their way back to Bell's tent.   However, peace wasn't to be had at Bell's forge just yet. d'Tharashk Xena was waiting for the group at their home base, with a warning against going to see Krayg until "he'd had a chance to cool down." She told the group that Alora and Krayg were really worked up over some interhouse tension, that she'd heard her mother talking about the Canniths not paying them what they were due for their services, and that the party wasn't the first group of adventurers Alora had tried to stick between she and the House of Making. She advised the party to take whatever they found on that fool's chase Krayg sent them on and bury in a hole in the desert so they'd have less to fight about. Bell thanked the orc for her insights, and Xena left the group to ponder their next steps together.   Spark used House Sivis' services to send a message to Krayg letting him know that they were back and had word, while at Bell's tent the group discussed their next steps. Handing the materiel to Krayg would no doubt enrage House Cannith against them, but not doing so would invite House Tharashk's displeasure. After much discussion, the group decided to empty the case of its contents, hiding the metals in a pocket dimension of Zer's creation, and return the case to Krayg, claiming it was empty when they found it. Krayg invited the group "at their convenience," strongly implying now would be most convenient, and Spark and Bell delivered the empty case. Spark tried to include a tip for Krayg's help, but Krayg returned the forged's money, along with just barely enough silver to cover the boat ride, and suggested that the party find themselves a new source of odd jobs for a while.   Thus freed of their one standing obligation, Millimax declared that it was time for her to pursue Ploughshare's suggestion of heading to Morgrave University. There, the team found the Department of Secondary Research, a small cluster of buildings deliberately separated from the main campus by a pair of bridges, as if to provide plausible deniability for the rest of the school. Within, the party met Leali Stormreach, seemingly a dervish in the body of a Khorvaran woman of diminutive stature and boundless energy. She saw in Milli and the others signs of fascination and eagerly agreed to find work for the group, provided they were willing to brave the dangerous of the Mournland. She pressed into each character's hands a copy of a prospectus titled "Eston: Untapped Opportunity," followed shortly thereafter by employment forms for the whole group. Milli and Medya needed transit papers as well, but the doctor agreed to provide those as well. She said if the party was amenable, she could have a mission together in two days' time and hoped to see everyone at Sharn's lightning rail station for the trip eastward.   After leaving Leali's office, the party gathered in what amounted to the campus quad to fill out paperwork. Milli was practically beside herself with excitement at the prospect of forward progress towards her mission, as employment with the campus gave her access to the library. She was so distracted, in fact, that when a goblin student at the university asked her if she was Hellebore, she said only she didn't know the name and went back to employment forms. The goblin, for her part, seemed to realize her question was ill-timed, and she made a hasty departure from the quad after having asked it.   Paperwork sorted, Milli, Medya, and Relic went in search of food and a chance to chat about the events of the day while Spark, Zer, and Bell followed up on Lead's offer to talk. At the forged's office in Mid-Central, the group found Lead shuffling through mountains of paperwork and information crystals, sorting everything into rows of filing cabinets stacked against the walls. The forged asked the group about the case, but when Bell informed them that it was empty, Lead favored the group with a wan smile and said only it was a damned shame they'd sent others to their death for no reason. The secret thus safely entombed, Lead went on to explain that they were looking for someone -- or someones -- to take on a number of missions off the books, missions hoping to bring House Cannith to justice.   In the later days of the war, House Cannith began to experiment on even more extreme methods of empowering the Forged to use them as shock troops for Cyre. To that end, high-ranking members within the House took on unauthorized and morally questionable experiments to augment a small group of Forged with enhanced abilities. This experimentation broke most of the victims, but a few survived and even escaped their captivity. Unfortunately, that meant that somewhere in the world were a number of emotionally unstable Forged in possession of overpowered weaponry that were still acting out their trauma and might not even understand that the Last War was over. Lead wanted the party's help to track down these lost souls and bring them back, to help ensure their stories could be told. Bell and Spark both said they would think on Lead's request, and they would get back with them about it later.   The next two days were a whirlwind of research and investigation, as the group sought to prepare itself for the trip, unsure of what anyone would find on their first visit to the Mournland.