The Hundred and Fifth Session

August 3, 2024, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

Last session

Vurguron's family has been kicked out of control of the Third House. His father was the champion of the Third House, and was defeated by the new head of house, The Venerated Sergith.

Vurguron's father has some wounds which healed poorly or oddly, and is seriously scarred from his fight. He advises us on how to win the other Houses' support in the Prima Dominus.

We get an audience with the Second House's leader, Kharnath, who explains the significance of the Orb. The Son of Kharnath breaks in and calls us thieves who have tampered with the orb. He is pushed out of the room. We trade the Orb for allegiance. And Kharnath leads Vurguron through the Ritual Binding, which attunes the champion of the Second House to the Orb, blinding him as a result.

The Prima Dominus contest is how one faction gains control of a House from another. The goal is to whittle down the main person in the part, while trying to protect your own person. King-of-the-Hill tournament elimination rules, with the challenger (Vurguron) at the top. No scrolls, no potions, just raw power.

The houses: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19nk6gDMGAPMjMVPT5kM4rZLJOm8zilRCpn3q8n5bhy0/edit

• The houses are ordered roughly by size/age/prominence. When the Empire was created, there were 5; the others arose organically.
• The division between Major and Minor is significant in terms of influence and clout; the minors don't have political oversight roles or much influence in government.
• The Minor houses are generally allied with the Major house they sprang from.
• The First House is so secretive that they're basically removed from society, but they're highly regarded. They speak only on momentous occasions. The whole house communicate with gestures.

We're trying to get houses to submit champions to back Vurguron. If he loses, he gets executed.

Decrypting the Notebook

We determine that Sieg Hardfell's ledger might have information on how the thieves gained possession of the Orb of Dragonkind. It makes no sense how the Orb or Shield were taken from the Dragonborn, how the Shield ended up with Kerjes or the Orb with the thieves. And it definitely makes no sense that a Green Dragonborn would take control of traditionally Bronze house of Law.

The ledger is encrypted, but Ryltar decides that he can give up a few spell slots in order to decrypt it that night. He hunkers down in the library.

The rest of us hole up in the Magic Mansion.

Ryltar passes his rolls to avoid exhaustion. With a 23 he breaks part of the encryption, finding the key as morning crests. With more time, he'll be able to finish the decryption.

The next morning

Percival wants us to go to the House of Entertainment. Kharnath advises us to wait until evening, to wait for the Head of House to be alert. So he decides to go to the Houses of Arts and Travel in the meantime.

In the morning, then, we go to the houses of Medicine and Harvest, since Ryltar thinks it'll be more productive to convince the lower Houses.

The Fifteenth House: Medicine

We teleport to the House of Medicine, and the nurse who answers the door tells us that the Head of House is over at the hospital, on staff.

So while we wait, we ask about the House's needs They rattle off a list of herbs and other ingredients needed for healing potions and salves and tinctures. We give them 3 vials of Wyvern Poison.

Samite Thaara is the Head of House. She returns after an hour, saying that she had been asked to return to the House to meet with us.

Vurguron introduces himself, and his claim against Sergith of the Third House.

Samite tells us that their house allied with the former rulers of Third House, and when Sergith won, the House of Healing was tasked with reparations: providing healing and battle priests towards the campaign.

Vuguron offers other assistances.

Samite says that if this House were to back Vurguron, and Vururon were to fail, then not only would this House fall, but the people of the city would be further deprived of access to healing through more-onerous reparations.

Jerry suggests that it sounds like the House of Healing does have a strong incentive to make sure Vurguron wins.

Ryltar explains how, if Vurguron wins, the battlemages will be returned.

Samite says that right now, they're working to fulfill the reparations. They were working on that today, and by her account, they would be able to do that by Spring. Until then, they can get by.

Vurguron says that he already has the support of the Second House.

She dismisses her aides, and asks him to continue.

He says that we have retrieved the Orb of Dragonkind, and restored their House's leader's control of it.

She breathes a sigh of relief. We've restored the honor of two houses now, with the shield, and we point out that we got the Shield back by killing a Green dragon.

If we can promise ingredients, the return of the reparations, and the decreased militarization of the South Haven, then we can get her House's support. Vurguron promises that.

She says that the house will muster their Champion, and adds, "It's good that you are back."

The Seventh House: Harvest

We are directed outside the city walls, to a massive barn complex.

Seeder Drutho, the Head of House, sees us coming, and greets Vurguron by name, welcoming him back. Vurguron asks us to move someplace quieter.

She is resistant to the idea of change; the Seventh House exists to provide, no matter what. The Houses each work together, each contributing to the Empire's strength.

Ryltar and Vurguron push her on this, pointing out that the reparations pushed by Sergith were weakening the Fifteenth House. Ryltar is 22 persuasive, saying that Vurguron returned the Platinum Scale of Bahamut to the Third House because it was the right thing to do.

She's currently mucking out a stall; Ryltar and Vurguron Prestidigitate it clean. She remarks that the Seventh House is a house of hard work; he takes a shovel to help her.

She says that, very well, the House provides and offers support. But if we could, it would be nice if the Eleventh and Eighteenth Houses have been encroaching on farmland that needs to be preserved. The land is needed to benefit the Empire.

But if we can fix that encroachment, she'll back us.

Interlude

We debate where to go from here. Getting the Seventh House to back us will take a lot of political maneuvering and some big promises. It doesn't seem likely that we'll be able to resolve the Seventh House's differences with the Eleventh and Eighteenth. Ryltar takes Vurguron back to the Second House to push for the elevation of the Sixth House. Jerry goes off to the land in dispute between the 7/11/18 dispute.

The dispute land

Jerry goes back to talk to Seeder Drutho to learn more about the specifics of the conflict. Jerry is led to where the mining operation would be. They haven't yet encroached, but that's where they plan be.

The plan is to remove the field and irrigation system, and then build an entrance to a mine. 40 acres of lost field, for a head house and warehouses and so on.

In the Second House

Ryltar looks around, to make sure that no one got disrupted. They're good.

Kharnath is out on business; they've got to wait a couple hours for him to arrive. So they decide to go back out.

They see that the Guards are on alert, more active. Ryltar's 18 insight suggests that the Guards are actively searching for someone.

They eavesdrop from an alley: "he can teleport" "circle back to the Third House" "we don't know where his accomplices are".

Ryltar can teleport, but so can Percival. What did he get up to?

They decide to go to the Fifth House, since that's where Percival was headed.

In the Ffth House, they see a giant lawn, imaculate, with Percival talking to a guard.

Percval has acquired a stack of papers, each with the same thing written on them: flyer!

Have you heard the good news? Vurguron is back in town! Bravest Knight of the Summer Court. Swear him your fealty and you'll not find disappointment. Slayer of dragon, kisser of maidens, and hero of our age. Watch the Hoss from the Cross dominate and win back his house, as well as your hearts and minds.

He's getting a hundred of these flyers, just passing them out. Percival calls the stationer's where he got the stuff "timid". He also went to the Arts performance hall, and he won a small silver laurel. But the House of Arts isn't in our bag for sure.

The guards' interest comes from a misunderstanding, says Percival. The guards were looking for him, asked him what he was doing, whether he was here to apply to be an artist for the Fifth House. He said yes, which was the wrong answer.

The doors open to admit Percival; he brings Ryltar and Vurguron in as his "backup dancers" for the act "Percival and the Stoats". He panicked to get them in.

The Fifth House is a heavily scented, unnecessarily-scented, almost bordello-like dinner theatre hall.

The head of house of Aezu, Toastmaster of the Fifth House.

He asks how Percival came by the hardest-to-get laurels of the most-competitive houses. Percival is modest.

Vurguron removes his ad-hoc disguise. Aezu recognizes him, inquires after his quest, and then calls a toast to Vurguron's success. He drinks from a dragon horn.

Aezu thinks about this as a sort f narrative. He thinks the idea of the returning young conqueror, challenging his father's challenger, would be a nice story. The pageantry is a given, but Aezu is enraptured by the idea. Vurguron says that he thinks the usurper was responsible for the loss of the Shield, and for the loss of the Orb. But we returned that too, says Vurguron, and Aezu spittakes. He didn't know that it was lost, couldn't imagine that it would be returned. But Vurguron sells his story, and Aezu pledges his support.

But what will Aezu win? Aezu supported Vurguron's father in exchange for good stories to tell. Ryltar provides a quick overview of the campaign against Kerjes, and Aezu is enthralled.

He asks us to wait in the wings for a bit, while he talks to someone else, and they're escorted off.

Jerry

Having heard the 7th House side of things, Jerry goes off to the Mining House. She gets directed to the bigmarble quarry, and finds an office. She finds a mining supervisor at the marble quarry, and asks him a lot of questions in a touristy mode. He doesn't have much in the way of details for her; she isn't very Persuasive since she isn't looking for a job.

She goes off in search of another source of information.

Back in the Fifth House

Ryltar is getting worried. He thinks that the powers that be might be opposed to their treasonous attempt to influence things with pamphlets.

Ore mine

Jerry goes to another mine. They don't have any other information, so she asks after the House's head offices. She gets directed back to the city, and so she goes.

How to get back into the city?

She goes back to the main gate, waits in line, and when she's asked why she's there, she says to visit a friend. Who? Rathkan, of the Seventeenth House.

She gets in.

Back in the Fifth House

Ryltar decides to calm down by doing some translation work. He has an idea, but it doesn't play out.

After about 15 minutes, an assistant comes and retrieves the party from the waiting room.

Aezu looks up and says, "So it looks like we've made some friends, have we?" He beckons the party over. "If I want to tell a story, I need to know the whole story."

"Which story would that be," asks Ryltar?

"Inner City Guards are running around the city, knocking at my door, saying that people against the Empire are running around the Highspires."

Ryltar explains that we're not opposed to the Empire; we're just for Vurguron to champion the Third House.

Aezu asks Tenzin the harpist her opinion. She trills the harp. "If I had to choose between Sergith and Vurguron, I would choose Vurguron," she says, and looks at Vurguron.

Aezu says that Sergith has called for Vurguron's arrest.

Ryltar says that Sergith is trying to prevent Vurguron from invoking Prima Dominus at tomorrow's Open Session. Ryltar and Vurguron pitch it as a battle of the century, an underdog with the support of two major houses against the current ruler.

Aezu likes the odds.

He casts Seeming on the party so that they look like Fifth House employees. And he says to go tell the other houses that the Fifth House will support Vurguron.

Next session

• Jerry is heading to the Mining House. She will be ambushed!
• Percival needs to retrieve the remaining 80 fliers from the printing shop
• Vurguron needs to get to the Open Session tomorrow
• Percival's Treasure Map.
• Visit the library in the desert; departing from Quadroads, departing on the morning in 4 days.
• Aid the Magister with the Spring Equinox in ~3 months.
• Investigate the Temple of Ioun at Cannerock, Bugfood's hometown. East Haven is completely offline; Cannerock is intermittently present.
• Grand opening for the Irregular Inn, pending construction work on expansion
  • When is that expected to be done?
  • Do we want to hire the barmaid Maddie from Maymoor?
• Check in on Salris and his brother: They're tied to Belladonna/Nightshade, the sister and poisoner of the Mother of the Forest. Is she their patron?
• Find more keys for the Thieves' Chest:
  • lead
  • copper
  • iron
  • gold
  • platinum
  • adamantine
• Shopping list:
  • healing potions
• We know how to trap the Jester, with Magic Circle.
• What's going on with the stars? Are Ryltar's theories about colors and significant plot-relevant things' colors correct?
  1. Red: Burning Blood
  2. Blue: Ice Heart of Winter
  3. Green: Kerjes or Percival's Bracer
  4. White: Not the Platinum Scale of Bahamut?
  5. Fading to Black:
  6. Missing:
• Our castle?
• Meet Zelrathi at the World Spire at the Autumn equinox