[Name Redacted] (Inactive)

Game Master Shadowtail24

Dice Drem. Figures. He was particularly unhelpful, and still hoarding what we need. Ugh. Got to talk to him again.

Gray nodded as though the decision was made. "Let us go speak to the halfling, then, and learn what we might about this specific animagus. If he knows of a way to mitigate or forestall the blackout after the thing is destroyed, that will be worth whatever unscrupulous payment he will likely demand." Unless someone objected to the plan, Gray joined the others on the way back to House Leroung to seek out the man and his knowledge.

Is everyone going?

Antonio nods. "Let's try to find out what else he might be hiding from us."

Yep!

Dice is in his alcove as he has been before. He looks up when you enter, seemed bolt unperturbed by your presence.

“Credit to the elf, he found you fast. ”

Gray approached Drem with a neutral look on his face, arching a brow at the halfling's comment but otherwise letting it go. When the Leroung noble was finished, the inquisitor looked back at his companions as if for confirmation before proceeding.

"Now that we know a bit more about the after-effects of destroying our quarry, we wish to know of possible ways to mitigate. After all, lying unconscious in the middle of a noble's house for minutes or hours isn't exactly the kind of thing that goes unnoticed." Again a slender brow arched up on his disguised, handsome face. "And any other information about the constructs in general would be useful. Let's be a bit more thorough this time, shall we?"

Dice frowns. You’re concerned about constructs? He pauses, looking around. Youre going after more of them?

Edmund waits patiently as Dice equivocates yet again, but he recognizes that Gray doesn't want to play the book card right off, so he allows the inquisitor to keep Mr. Drem wriggling on his hook for the time being. He casts detect magic to scan for scrying sensors.

Ziera says nothing, just waiting for the man to come clean.

Antonio stays quiet. While he has doubts in other areas about Grey, the man seemed an expert in extracting information more... strongly.

Gray looked at the halfling with a hard glare, but spoke evenly when he replied. "Perhaps. If that is what is decided, then we wish to be more prepared for the aftermath. More options to be available. More avenues to explore. You understand, I trust."

The inquisitor looked to the others, as if seeking permission to go further, then proceeded. "Listen, my friend. We have a working relationship with you that grants a certain level of respect. On top of that, I personally would go along with your current plot for no reason other than spite to the recipient. However, it irritates me when I have to continue to delve with question after question when one could just simply convey all one knows, if you catch my meaning. So, I repeat, what additional information do you have on the constructs that each House possesses?"

Dice cocks his head to the side and stares oddly at Gray. He starts to say something, then notes the faces on the others and stops. He turns to the table piled with scrolls and pulls one out.

Yes, i have been looking into the animagus as you requested. Most of the information Is irrelevant, but i did find something you should like to know about. Apparently just over 4 years ago Lady Rosalie of House Leroung successfully transmuted a dying mans memories into a construct. The dying man had agreed to the procedure thinking that it would help him live on. As you likely understand, it did no such thing. This action became the forerunner to the animagi creation.
What i think you’ll find just as interesting is that this was only recategorized to reference animagi recently, prior to that it was a part of the construct reference. Everything else relevant to animagi, outside of basic conjecture, has been removed from the library. Not checked out, removed. They don’t show up on current stock lists but i have my own reference list and it shows that there were several works on the topic.

”Yes, I was there looking for insert name of book Drem has and it was nowhere to be found.”

Just a scroll, not a full book

Dice nods, handing the scroll over. You can review it yourself as well.

”Thank you very much,” he replies and eagerly begins reading the scroll.

”Has your study of the fake contract elicited any insights?”

Dice perks up, Yes, that's why I had Alden go and get you. Before I say it though, can I read through the actual contract? I don't want to set off a false panic.

Gray withheld any further questions at the moment, not wanting to overload their halfling host. It would be better to let one focus reach its fruition than to bounce around. He nodded his assent to Drem about reading the authentic contract, though he supposed Edmund would have more knowledge about it and would withhold it should it be needed.

Edmund isn’t even paying attention, so engrossed in reading the scroll from the library.

What panic are you talking about?

Dice pulls out another scroll and opens it. He points to a line in the contract. “This line is standard contract language for Hell Knights. It’s not noticeable unless you’ve studied Chelaxian contracts before, and that’s something they intend. It basically states that the hell knights have the ability to investigate, apprehend and punish the theft or destruction of this contract, even above the rights of the House. ”

Antonio sighs. "Wonderful. So there's an army with no executive force presiding over it going after these contracts?"

Coming after us, rather, since we are the ones stealing or destroying them.

Dice nods. “After i read that i did find out another piece of interesting news; the Hill Knights have a contract as well. A pretty powerful one too, though it, likes Sarini’s, does subjugate them to Thrune. ”

Hmm. That is interesting. And where do they keep theirs? Seems likea lot of groups should be *happy* for us to take down Thrune.

Dice shrugs. They have seven major fortresses in the city, it could be in any one of those. I would guess the Order of the Gate fortress would contain it, but then somwould anyone with half a brain.

Gray arched a brow at the mention of now being on the receiving end of the pain stick with the Hell Knights. Such a development was rather detrimental, though it was interesting (though not surprising) that they were contractually obligated to both Hell and Thrune. Anybody who was anybody in Cheliax had a devil or three in their pocket, it seemed.

"Dice, any ideas on where these pages of information might have vanished to? It's imperative that we be able to ward ourselves from the backlash of destroying these things, should we decide to." The inquisitor is calm, but the mission to destroy the Sarini Animagi is steadily picking up steam in his mind. After all, Sarini was but a vassal to Thrune, so a weakening of the one would weaken the other in the hierarchy.

”How long after you found us was it before we regained consciousness, or did you wake us somehow?”

"I don't know the timing. I had smelling salts with me to wake you. I keep them on me to stay focused when I'm researching. Based on the scroll there, he points to the one Edmund is reading, I would bet it would be several hours. The theory on memory modification in that scroll describes the time of unconsciousness varying depending on the depth of the memories. Your mind cannot handle the new information flooding it, so it shuts everything else down and focuses on the memories. You experience it, so there might be some other notes in the document but I didn't find anything else particularly useful. That particular work was also recently categorized to animagi, though it seems to not have been taken with the rest of the libraries contents."

Edmund you can make a check to study the scroll, or spend an extensive amount of time studying it.

Quick note; so you have a few options to pursue: Alana, Hell Knight contract, other contracts. I will also note that before you spend a lot more time conversing about your options there will be a plot update the next morning (in game) that might make you re-hash anything you talk about now. I can jump there to save some repetition.

Knowledge something: 1d20 ⇒ 2 not sure which skill
Arcane 19, Planes 17, Nobility and Planes 14

Hmm. "Plot update" sounds ominous, but I suppose we could jump to it and see what it is, since we seem to be getting nowhere here. Of course, I am in favor of going after the Sarini animagus as well if you guys prefer. If so, though, we need to get the word out so that everyone knows to stay indoors (or make sure we kill it at night when everyone is already asleep).

I'd rather not make any decisions yet, since we're about to get another apparently juicy piece of information. Ready for the morning, I suppose.

It looks like Edmund is puzzling over the scroll for the rest of the evening, meaning he won’t even hear the discussion. It also looks like we just too sleepy to make much sense of it.

Gray would also be in favor of continuing along the Sarini animagi plot effort already in the works, but am willing to wait for the morning mash-up hash-up before we make any final decisions. I'm good with fast-forwarding to the next morning.

It is now he morning of Pharast 6th. Ziera and Edmund both have some new information. I will assume you are meeting to discuss.

Edmund certainly shares what he learned, specifically that they will not be able to trust the details of their missing memories when they get them back.

Ziera meets up with the group (the smaller group, not the whole group), and shares some information that Sydney was able to unearth:

There’s an escape tunnel in Alana Thrune's outer chamber; it leads to the basement of Sarini’s Triumph.

When she hears what Edmund has to say, she becomes incensed.

So, we are trying to recover memories that could just have holes in them or be wrong anyway? When I find out who did this, they are DEAD.

"I'll take any part being wrong over nothing. And if it can't be done intentionally, we can be sure any mishap in our memory wouldn't be done in order to trick us." Still, it was troubling. Even if he got his memories back, Antonio realizes, he'd have to second-guess them for the rest of his life.

Gray becomes very aggravated by the new revelation that Edmund has, though it is tempered somewhat by the fact that the capture and assassination of Alana Thrune might be accomplished with the group's new found knowledge. If the memories could not be trusted, they were a much lower priority. The inquisitor shifted gears and focused more intently upon the goal of bringing Thrune down one noblewoman at a time. He did take the time to nod grimly at Ziera's proclamation, however. If the group ever discovered who was behind all of this, Gray would be sure to visit much pain upon them before sending them off to face judgment for their life.

"Perhaps we should abandon the goal of bringing down the Animagi for now, then? Let's gather some information on the layout of Sarini's Triumph and its basement and set our ambush there."

I don't think we should necessarily abandon it, but I agree that we should act on the information about Alana now that it seems we have a workable way in.

This might be overambitious, but if we have the information for both, we could actually kidnap Alana and bring her with us to fight the Animagus. She can die in battle rather than by an obvious assassination, and if we get away clean, they will find Alana's body and everyone (including hopefully the Hellknights) will think that Thrune is behind it.

Anything i can do to push this along?

Ziera (and whoever wants to come with) goes over to Sarini's Triumph, and searches the basement to see if she can find the presumably secret door.

If someone asks where we're going or why we are down there, I have no idea. We could tell them we are thinking of renting the basement for a party, blah blah blah, but honestly I have no idea what to do next... and I know we are unprepared for this. Just a stab in the dark to get things going.

Having no better ideas, Gray accompanied Ziera to Sarini's Triumph, attempting to assist her in smoothing things over should anyone question why they were snooping about. Though it seems a long shot, any shot at all at payback to Thrune was worth the effort to the inquisitor.

What is Sarini’s Triumph? I’ve search the thread, but I can’t find anything.

Edmund follows Gray and Ziera. He’s still trying to decide if he likes this adventuring and intrigue lifestyle, but he has to admit its better than sitting around growing old.

I was assuming it is some random inn, since that is how they have been named in the past, but definitely a good clarification question.

I also assumed it was an Inn, based on the prior naming convention.

Edmund doesn't know what it is because he didn't read the spoiler.

Ziera explains on the way that Sarini's triumph is an inn or tavern that must near near Thrune's complex because it had a secret passage into Alana's rooms. Some quick asking around reveals that Sarini's Triumph is no longer called that, and that is it now called Sarini's End. The tavern has seen better days, and stands out among a the much nicer buildings in the area surrounding Thrune's estates. It still manages a strong trade though, and it's simple enough to distract the bartender, slip through the crowd and get into the storage door heading to the basement. A thorough search of the basement reveals a secret door in one of the walls. The secret door opens, but behind it is a locked iron door.