Sapphire:Sessions:20220528
The Eastern Realm: -
- Helm's Deep
- Sun Time 11, 2437 (11:00 AM) to Sun Time 11, 2437 (4:15 PM)
- PC Cast
- Chalker Jackson
- Dain Keyfiel
- Intrinsius
- Nia
AUDIO LINKS
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjlrogdatZyFiEMhnd9rf9hBAVHb?e=EddOOE
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjlrogdatZyFiERP16TfY2F1abAX?e=2qLQ54
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjlrogdatZyFiEUD_Eyq_3ci2p8C?e=zIDP3k
Rebellion in Helm’s Deep
Chalker, Nia and Ty are inside the room facing Mr. Chaos and Mr. Order. After a brief discussion with Chalker they agree to leave unless engaged. Walking through the doors, Chalker tells Intrinsius to let them through, but Intrinsius requests they use a different exit as there are soldiers trying to get in the front door.
The bodyguard (Mr. Chaos and Mr. Order) mention a secret passage that can be used to exit. Nia begins to search the Baron’s body finding a bone dagger on him with a fancy sheath. After that she begins to rummage through the room looking for anything else. Dain runs towards the back door to secure it.
Nia finds two magical parchment documents made of what appears to be human skin in a hidden drawer of the desk which she is unable to read, although they seem to be an encrypted version of common. There is also a ledger of some sort which she pockets. Deciding to take quickness over thoroughness, Nia begins to search as quickly (and messily) as possible.
A loud crash is heard from the back of the room and Dain shouts, “Back door is secure”. Intrinsius walks over to the door and casts a heat spell, melting the lock and door knob into one chunk of metal before reinforcing the door with furniture from a nearby room. Intrinsius notices that the mana of the manor seems to be corrupted in some way.
As Nia continues her search, she finds 6 vials of blood of some type of human, elf or halfling. In addition she finds a pouch filled with some type of dirt, which she assumes is graveyard dirt. She also find a locked safe. Casting the Lockmaster spell, she is quickly able to open the safe. She strongly believes that the safe is trapped as the lock spell on the safe was much too easy to counter. Using her knowledge of traps, she figures that the trap will be triggered by the opening of the safe. Ty tries to dispel the magic trap on the safe, but his spell is resisted, with Ty exclaiming that the trap must have been cast by a master mage. Chalker goes to the safe and looks through the walls (after some resistance) to see a vial of what appears to be a magical mana organ from a small animal (like a wolverine) found in the peninsula kingdoms. Chalker informs the group there is nothing in there but the trap and recommends the group leaves right away.
Intrinsius searches all the 4 guards he downed with Dain for weapons and money and share 1/2 the cash with Dain. Chalker calls Dain forward and they follow Mr. Chaos and Mr. Order out the secret passage, passing several traps that have been disarmed and finally letting out into the city of Helm’s Deep. The bodyguards veer off to the right as the group heads back into Helm’s Deep to the store from which they departed earlier to wait for Kray to return.
Sitting in the backroom, they review the items Nia found. Intrinsius determines that the vials are 2 human, 2 elven and 2 halfling. The blood looks fresh and its warded so cannot determine how it is kept so fresh. Both he and Chalker try to get past the encryption but were unable. Nia and Dain were also unable to make heads or tails of it. After a while, Kray returns to the store and they begin to check with him if he has any contacts that deal with code breaking.
Chalker asks Dain to pull the bone dagger from the sheath. Intrinsius immediately senses its magic as the blade is pulled. He thinks it wreaks of everything that Dar hates as well as strongly of Necromancy. Both he and Nia sense that the dagger was used recently. With the blade only exposed by about 3 inches, Nia strongly suggest that Dain return the bone dagger back fully into its sheath before something evil is attracted to them, which he does quickly.
Intrinsius suggests that they make copies of the encrypted documents, Ty casts the copy spell and makes 2 copies of each document. Intrinsius takes 1 copy to search for .. to find a code breaker, while Chalker takes the original and the remaining copy and items to the Temple of Dar.
Intrinsius and Ty head out in search of Ike, finding that they are being followed by a few people but head into the pub where Ike previously saw Ike. He is there per usual, and Intrinsius sends him a drink while ordering him lunch for himself and Ty. Intrinsius has a conversation with Ike in which he provides free information in regards to the death of the Baron, how his head was severed by a sword of fire (cauterized neck wounds), and intimated that the Baron was involved in necromancy. Ike agreed to provide a codebreaker and safe house in exchange for the information that may come out of the broken code.
Chalker, Nia, Kray and Dain head to the temple of Dar. Upon arrival they see 3 dwarves engaged in conversation with a priestess of Dara. At the back of the alter is a mid-level priest of Damarot that appears to not be connected to any one aspect. Upon entering, Chalker heads directly to the alter accompanied by Kray and Nia. As they near the alter, Nia feels the “special" rune stone in her pocket try to dig deeper into the pocket in which it is kept. Kray looks very uncomfortable, so Chalker asks him to go back to the entrance and wait with Dain.
When Chalker removes the dagger, a priest appears as if teleporting. The priest looks at them both with a soul penetrating gaze. He points each index finger at each of them and says under his breath “Silence the area”, after which a nearby acolyte who had snuck up behind them whisper, “These are highly blasphemous items that have served against the realm of Dar and are an affront to Dara. Damarot is united in its disgust of these items. Why are they here?”.
Chalker reaches over and clasps hands with Nia, and focuses his willpower on the priest. A startled Nia goes along with Chalker’s hand-holding with a distinctly puzzled look on her face. Chalker then proclaims, “We confronted a necromancer in your City today that was using these items. I being me, have decided that since you didn’t know you should know and brought them here rather then destroy them myself.” The priest looking mollified responded that they were wise to bring them to Dar. The priest takes a step away while raising his hands in placation asking if they would like an audience with the temples High Priest. Chalker answered in the negative and just asked that they destroy the items and ask what they are doing about the necromancers, stating that this Necromancer was Baron Dozel, to which the priest reacted in a very visible note of surprise. Chalker inquired if the priests of Dar were aware of what the necromancers in the area are after, to which the priests required they did not know but are working on find out with their Death Dancers. Chalker proclaimed that he had never heard of Death Dancers before to which the priest responded he shouldn’t have. Chalker asks for some direction, saying without it he is afraid more people will die.
Nia feels the rune stone move again in her pocket but rather than cower it felt relaxed. At the same time, there seems to be some force trying to search her mind to which the stone gives her the power to control what feedback is returned to the caster. Nia initially stalled the interaction, but eventually let the force into her mind. The priest was definitely surprised and with a note of respect asks if they would like to speak with the high priest in private chambers. He does note that he would like to know that if Chalker is here as an official capacity for Mensep or not, to which Chalker replies that he is not knowingly here on Mensep’s behalf.
Chalker suddenly feels the power of Roo emanating from Nia’s pocket, and he also feels that the objects on the alter have somewhat been dampened. The priest politely requests the party to follow him to the inner sanctum with body language that implores Chalker and company to accept the invitation. Nia sees a vision of a regal image of the priest turning and walking into the inner sanctum.
As they walk to the inner sanctum, everyone around them seem to be frozen in time including Dain and Kray who still stand near the entrance. They enter a well lit room with torches ensconced on the walls. The room seems to have some impressive guards posted at each entrance but show little interest in watching Chalker and Nia as they enter. Both of them walk quietly into the sanctum overcome by the ever increasing feeling of holiness to the rooms as they move deeper into the sanctum.
Meanwhile, Intrinsius and Ty reach the warded room provided by Ike, who shows them how to attune the room to themselves. Ty inspects the location and Intrinsius asks Ty to attune the locking mechanism to himself. The two of them then walk around the city until Intrinsius bumps into a random bigger, acting as if he was retrieving the copied encrypted documents. He then searches for some street kids who he hires to watch the back entryway to the safe house for a copper each payable after Intrinsius leaves, and buys each of them fireworks to setoff in the event that armed people attempt to enter or surround the back exit of the safe house. The street kids looking excited are eager to watch. After that, Intrinsius and Ty return to the safe house and wait inside.
Chalker and Nia enter the inner sanctum, to which they see the high priest who looks exactly as the image that Nia saw in her mind earlier. The priest speaks directly into Nia’s mind proclaiming it is an honor to have her here. Chalker notices the priest checking them out and assumes by his pointed looks he is speaking directly to Nia via her mind. Nia advises to include Chalker (the envoy of Mensep) into the discussion. The High Priest wants to know if the discussion should be mental or physical, to which Nia responds physical.
The priest then proclaims, “Greetings current and potential future Envoy of Mensep, greetings envoy of Roo. It is an honor to welcome you to the sanctum of Dar.” Nia keeps the mental channel open (to be polite), but continues the verbal discussion. Thanking them for the necromancer artifacts, the high priest explains what they are doing to deal with the items. The High Priest offers refreshments during their discussion. Chalker and Nia both refuse food.
Chalker brings out the documents on human skin parchment and asks the High Priest if he can read. The priest handles the documents and says that he believes these are contract documents. He also says that the current struggles are a manifest of the struggles between Santash and Assaraah, and he would like to know if there are surrogates of either involved in the struggle for Helm’s Deep.
Chalker asks about Trask Loadbreaker’s observances. He seems to be equally visiting Santash, Assaraah and Aaoo, although it is obvious he is a separatist of the empire. He recently visited the temples of Santash, Assaraah, and Phor. The High Priest exclaims that he thinks Helm’s Deep is at the eye of the storm. He also claims that Roo should be able to give you more specific guidance as to why you are here, to which Nia proclaims that Roo’s guidance isn’t always clear. The High Priest says he can give no specific guidance, but that they will spend their effort hunting down every necromancer in Helm’s Deep.
Chalker tells the High Priest that if he has anything further to say he will go above him and speak directly with Dar, to which the priest mentally asks to Nia if this guy is serious or if he has been touched by the lips of Aaoo. Nia just responds, “Yes”. Chalker stands up gives a bow and makes his leave, Nia does the same. As they walk to the door, the priest says there are at least 4 people waiting outside the temple for them and gives them the choice to leave unnoticed or meet them.
Meanwhile, a firm knock at the door on the safe house leads Ty to look expectantly at Intrinsius as he stands up. Intrinsius affirms him to answer the door. In walks an elderly human man introduce as Tiberius. Intrinsius negotiates the rates with Tiberius 2 hours 40, 4 hours 20, 6 hours 10 gold. Intrinsius takes out the travel book and shares the rates with Chalker and ask what he learned about the parchments, learning they are contracts. Intrinsius negotiates the rate to 10 gold for 2 hours. Intrinsius gives directions to the closest pub to the safe house for Chalker and company to wait.
Chalker, Nia and party move to the pub for lunch while Intrinsius sends Ty to update the team. Ty meets up and update the team before returning to the safe house.
After a meal, Nia and Chalker head to the home of Baron Mandall accompanied by Dain and Kray. The manor is roughly 1/2 the size of the previous baron’s estate with roughly twice the amount of guards stationed throughout along with 3 large war dogs. Obviously, the manor is on alert after the death of Baron Dozel.
Chalker approaches the gate and says, “Hi, how you doing? Did you hear want happened to Baron Dozel?”. He continues to give detailed information about the state of each body and how they were found. After further discussion, he leaves after receiving an invitation to meet the Baron in person, making an appointment to meet him tomorrow at the same time, saying “I hope nothing happens to you tonight!” As he walks away. As they walk away, Nia gets a message from the stone to “Be diligent”.
Returning in the direction of the safe house, Nia notices the group is being followed by some of the guards. Whispering to Chalker a warning, the group eventually finds a nice dark alley way to hide in. Upon entering the alley way, Nia notices immediately that she can climb these walls quite easily.
At the safe room, there is a knock at the door. The guard outside tells Intrinsius about a low-level mage that is asking about a person in the description of Chalker, and even says the name Chalker Jackson. Intrinsius mentions that he once met Chalker in Malprin and proceeds to describe Chalker using his memory of the front desk at the Mercenary Guild in Sapphire. When the guard says this doesn’t match the description he was given, but was likely someone impersonating the real Chalker Jackson, Intrinsius says that it must be the famous assassin Ahn-lee Gad, to which he gives a close description of Chalker. The guard gulps as this matches the description he has exactly and says, “so a master assassin from Sapphire is here in Helm’s Deep!”.
Back in the Alleyway, Nia takes to the walls and roof to await the following guards. Chalker takes up a position behind his “meat shields”, while Dain hides behind a nearby crate. As the guards enter the alley, Chalker senses various metal on their persons to prepare for combat. As the guards walk down the alleyway, Nia casts Grease on the path in front of them. Chalker swings the flat of his blade at one of the guards to try to knock him out, hitting him in the head as he slipped and fell to the ground hitting his head hard on the ground. Both guards entering the alley way have slipped on the grease and get pulled into hiding by Chalker and Dain. Chalker does first aid on the one he brought down and then proceeds to question him. The guard, Doug, told Chalker he was following them back to where they came from to decide where to strike him.
The contracts when translated says that the blood will bind these Barons to the contract to Dozel. The binding by blood is quite important, while Dozel was the primary it is obvious that the Second is Mandall and the 3rd is Ziel. Intrinsius gives the Translator an extra 1gp and asks him to not mention Ziel in his report, and asks him to wait 1 minute after he leaves before going.
Intrinsius and Ty leave and pay the street kids before taking a long walk and eventually going to the pub to meet the team where he hands the letters to both Chalker and Nia with the greeting, “Here you go Ahn-Lee”. Chalker and Nia realize that the contract seems to be a binding loyalty spell to the one they were writing the contract with. Intrinsius realizes that this is more than a loyalty spell than a contract but Chalker and Nia think it can be transferred. Intrinsius realizes that with blood and the appropriate spell this could be transferred to someone else soon.
Ty says he can transfer the spell, and Intrinsius asks Chalker to put his hand out. When he does he slices Chalker’s hand as Ty casts the spell to transfer the Loyalty to Chalker, however the spell fails due to the time since the death of Dozel.
After much discussion, the team decides to go to the top and go after Trask.