Session 010: Gritty Plans

We open on our group of intrepid adventurers as they decide to trust their friends Oswin Shoreditch, Sathi, and Malo, the Grit and the Grind, the ones that started them down the path of the trials even if they didn’t quite lead our group to where they are now, so deeply entangled in the politics of this town. With no small amount of apprehension, the North Wind follows their friends through Ivaran, down past the docks, to a little alcove worn into the shoreline where the sound of the waves wraps around their voices.   Here, Oswin asks for an explanation of what the North Wind has gotten themselves embroiled in. He doesn’t seem too encouraged by what he hears, but he listens intently, without any hint of betrayal. Once the story (most of it anyway) has been poured out in chaotic streams, Oswin offers a possible solution: lure the two antagonistic forces into dispatching one another. Get the Thonemanys and the Raywalkers to take one another out. What follows is an involved planning session as they hammer out the details of a complex plan. One so crazy, it just might work.   At a certain point, a question arises: how did Oswin just have this idea sitting on the tip of his tongue, ready to roll? He reveals that the Grit and the Grind are part of a network of people paid by the Quintessence to oversee the Trials in secret. They were recruited by Qu Kai, the right hand of the Quintessence, and the 1000g per trial and 10g per diem certainly makes it an attractive gig…   Eventually they solidify the plan and part ways to rest before they set it in motion in the morning. The North Wind heads toward their original destination: the Hooked Tower. Zenith has a promise to fulfill. He heads to the top of the tower, immediately drawn to a particular brick. When he slides it out with surprising ease, he sees a void of stars beyond it, of a kind that has been known to occur when spells go wrong. Zenith takes the brick with him to the base of the tower, leaving it at the entrance as he was instructed.   It is as they are leaving that a few of the group notice a figure stoop down at the entrance to the tower, then move on as though nothing had happened.   They move on.   Ever closer to the plan that will determine their fates...