Chronicles of the Realm Walkers: Session 49

Lee, hearing the note pushed under his door went over to open it, telegraphing his intent. When he opened the door he spoke with his sister. The two caught up, somewhat awkwardly, on their past three days and each of their major developments. The discussion became focused on tricking the three strangers or how to handle the "treasure" they were looking for.   Theren woke from a nightmare, and yet another night of subpar rest.   Ranrus rose and when passing Lee's room heard what he was fairly sure were the voices of Rhy and Lee. He posted up in front of the door waiting for the twins to come out.   Theren made their way out of their room looking disheveled and searching for some sort of morning stimulant.   The Realm Walkers managed to all meet outside Lee's room at about the same time. There was an awkward pause as the party returned to each other after three day apart for the first time since they got back together outside their voluntary separation to fight Mavrin.   The party briefly discussed Theren's dreams and their ongoing frustration with sleep.   Before heading down for breakfast Lee informed them all about his run in with the three strangers and what the strangers wanted. The group continued Rhy and Lee's discussion on how to approach the interaction. There was some confusion over the nature of the different pieces of the broken blade which led to Ranrus communing with Onatar. Onatar cleared up the confusion as he had been interested in the blade and the skill that went into it, noting there was an element of the blade forging he could not replicate or help Ranrus replicate. The blades first piece, the hilt and enough blade to act as a short sword ,was where the magic lay and that the remaining 4 pieces( referred to as second through fifth moving up the Blade) all matched and any complete set of pieces one to five could be re-forged no matter which sword the pieces originally came from.   Confirming that they could do without the duplicate second piece, they planned to meet the strangers and if necessary give them the duplicate.   The Realm Walkers headed out to The Black Eye. Rhy positioned herself like she was getting ready to join another fight while Pip spied invisibly on the strangers. Lee approached the strangers and Ranrus and Theren tried to look inconspicuous around the bar. Lee placed the king chess piece sneakily by the leg of the chair he sat down in. The leader introduced herself as Olivia. Lee was also introduced to a talking skull, Theodore. As the discussion continued the skull appeared to be some sort of guard of the treasure. Lee explained he believed the shade had been killed by the Jester. Olivia tried manage the group who had figurative loose lips. The skull mentioned they were part of an organization, which Olivia openly scolded him for. The relic Olivia was looking for turned out to be a sword. Lee convinced Olivia that he hadn't seen or taken a sword. Tensions subsided quickly and the other Realm Walkers who's sneaking had been seen throug, were invited to join Lee and the strangers. The other strangers introduced themselves, the Human Tristen, and the Drow Tariel. The name Tariel put Rhy in a panic, though she quickly concluded Tariel showed no signs of being an Archfey. Tariel explained it was a Wood Elf name but it wasn't that big a deal for him to have it as a Drow. Ranrus cast detect magic when he arrived at the table and determined that the only magical thing on the srangers persons were their tattoos and the skull was, surprisingly, not magic.   Olivia excepted that the party was of little immediate help as they did not appear to be responsible for the missing sword. Tristan ordered drinks and appeared to push the group interaction in a social direction though the party continued to ask questions.   Theren asked about the "black artifacts". After a brief clarification, Olivia responded with a brief description of Destanna Argwin and her work. Theren wondered why they had their completed blade hidden away. Olivia explained she was the only one capable of wielding the blade and she didn't have permission to wield it so they simply protected it. More specifically that they did not have a broken blade but a complete blade, named Maiden. The party continued to try to coax the name of the organization out of Olivia to no avail.   Tristen asked about what the party was doing in the city for, Theren went over their time in Kemmera. Tristan was excited and let slip that he wanted to invite the whole party, not just Lee. Olivia explained party didn't meet the qualifications. Olivia gave the belt to Lee encouraging him to keep it. When asked what the symbol was she simply gestured at Tristan's exposed belt which had a similar buckle.   Theren asked if they could help with finding Maiden and Olivia showed a minor illusion of a fine black bladed shortsword. Ranrus and Lee immediately recognized the blade as the new sword Elanor Lind had when they met her in Dark Mound. At the time she had said that she had found it in The Living Caverns.   Tristan had a brief fight with Rhy where he suggested he might help her be qualified to join their group. She resoundingly beat him and he rejoined the tables.   Rhy discussed hiring them to assist with Eragis, and while Tristen announced he was once an assassin and Tariel used to be a mercenary, Olivia reminded them they needed to look for Maiden. Before the trio and the skull left Olivia asked them to not to raid any of their other stashes and asked for them to return Maiden if they found it. Theren questioned their right to the blade. Olivia and Tariel left silently, but Tristen whispered as he passed "because the one who made it gave it to us."   The Realm Walkers returned to the discussion about what to do next debating over how to exit The Underdark, whether or not they could, Caleroh's ultimatum, and taking down Eragis.   Since their end goal was to reach the King of the Dragons they started trying to decode what Abigail had told Rhy the day before and together the party remembered one of the three mentions of Mutta in Bolo's which mentioned fog to the east of Ithasia that may of contained Mutta. With this Rhy and the party concluded, assuming the king had not moved, that he was somewhere between Ithasia and the western side of the Dragon Spine Mountain Ridge.   Serendipitously Lee-Ester sent to Ranrus, requesting he and the Realm Walkers come to Tideguard Castle at their earliest convenience for a meeting about the current situation with the Mindflayers and the library.   They arrived and were sent to the Queen's meeting chamber. Queen Telanna, Arlon and his party, Abigail, Desmond, Ysir, and Rasephar were all present. They waited for the arrival of two others, Elaguard Umberhall and Jalynnet Umberhall (the current matriarch of the Umberhall family).   The Queen proceeded to brief everyone present to the current status of both situations and made clear the nature that everyone present( an Archfey potentially outstanding) were allies. The Mindflayers had been dealt with; a small encampment had been found and everyone present had been eliminated. The city was putting into effect strategies to better monitor purple worm movement and their tunnels to identify and prevent future vulnerabilities.   As for the library, after the Seers, Desmond, and others attempted to divine the culprit, the lack of results to this divining, pointed to one reasonable conclusion, the Chosen of Vecna must be the culprit. For the indefinite future there would be no public access to the Library of Kemmera. The queen apologized for Rhy's treatment, as even though she was a suspect the disrespect she received while under suspicion was not within her expectations. She offered to retain the Realm Walkers services in the investigation and the ongoing attempts to disrupt the peace by the Mindflayers or the insurgency. As things appeared to be winding down. Theren gave Desmond a strange look. he responded by asking if they were upset that he had slept with Lee. There was surprisingly no outrage from the queen, just an embarrassed frustration. Apologize were made. Rhy suggested her concern that the targeted material seemed potentially linked to Oddi. Telanna was not ignorant to the potential connection but noted Kemmera had no capacity to contribute or assist and so she could not extend their resource to that but she promised to keep them abreast of anything that learned via Lee-Ester.   The queen departed to return to entertaining the remaining Fae procession.   Abigail approached Theren and asked them if they would like to spend the afternoon together. Leaving Abigail told Rasephar she would keep an eye out for something for them and told Rhy that she "figured it out and they should talk later". Rhy replied she had also figured it out and Abigail seemed annoyed. Theren and Abigail faded to black.   Rhy asked Ysir to get a drink and that she had a "proposition, a business proposition". They prepared to depart. Lee, asked where Aryn was, after getting directions Lee departed. Rhy and Ysir headed to The Black Eye to catch up on her proposal and the business proposition.     Lee caught up with Aryn before fading to black. Lee learned that Arlon seemed to have been able to deal with the insurgents base all by himself; Ysir's party didn't really need to be there. Arlon's ability to summon the sun in the Underdark, gave him an incredibly unfair advantage over those who born there. He also noted that during their debrief it seemed like they might actually be being proactive in the near future instead of just reacting to the actions of the insurgents.   Ranrus had Lee-Ester set up a drafting table for Ranrus and would be speaking with him about their reward house and its modifications.   Rhy caught Ysir up on the past few days, the assassination attempts, the temporary engagement, Desmond being the ancient Dragon Caleroh and that they'd pissed him off (too which Ysir continued to be dumfounded and the Realm Walkers ability to piss off the worst people). Rhy explained Eragis and freeing him and requested Ysir's parties aid in killing Eragis. Unfortunately they couldn't all go since "the party" was on retainer form the queen. but that they could probably hire one of them. The decision appeared to come down between Rachel and Ysir.   Date: The 22nd of Sithala, 1437 DC 27 days to left in Caleroh's ultimatum.