That Athory Session

[lathany]

Before beginning the actual session, a round of stat increases took place. This seemed to go down rather well ;-)

Having finished off the giant ten-legged spider, Lady Bryanna (quisalan), Lord Roland (ao_lai) and Taronus (chrisvenus) searched the remainder of the dormitory looking for Elias. There was no sign of the King's spymaster, but Bryanna had to act quickly to stop one of the sleeping boys from strangling another.

Gref (bateleur), with Tengeth (chrestomancy) following at a safe distance, scouted ahead. He found a room with pictures of the three ages of humans and a large stack of papers relating to each picture. Whereupon Tengath had to explain that the first picture was not a gross depiction of an infant burrowing into a woman, but actually a relatively realistic portrayal of childbirth.

Beyond the room of ages were the courtyards.

* One was set with a single O and a dying girl in the centre of it. As Taronus cast healing upon her, she urged him to help Elias then vanished.
* Two had two Os side by side and a mask with an accurate picture of Athory upon it.
* Three had three Os in a row and a man stood in the centremost one. When Roland approached him, he divided into three people. The first of which said "I wish to hide", the second "I follow the King", the third "I follow the Duke-Mage Lawrence". Then the three became one again and said "Together we are the most powerful force on Athory".
* Four had four Os positioned as two rows of two. The whole courtyard was filled with children wearing crowns playing and fighting. As the Lathanians stepped into the courtyard all those children disappeared.
* Five had a central O and the other four Os around it. It held a 3D jigsaw of an Athory city house and the archway to the sixth courtyard could not be accessed until it was completed.
* Six had two rows of three Os (or three rows of two) and held a dancing figure of clothes. As the party approached the figure turned to smoke and then to flame.

Beyond the courtyards was a replica of the assassins' ship of the seventh marketplace. On board were seven master assassins which the party fought and destroyed. Beneath in the hold was a box containing Elias and six of the fourteen royal jewels. Upon finding Elias the Lathany party returned to the real world.

Meanwhile, upon Leonides Island, the inhabitants were facing a long a difficult fight against the Lirrisorn. Half-way through the night, the empathy mages detected that a large magical effect had taken place far to the north. Probably in the vicinity of High Island. The news worried everyone, but with the battles upon the shore, there were more immediate problems to face.

The Lirrisorn were finally repelled at sunrise when Heleth (venta) joined the fray and killed a handful of the tougher ones. This broke the line and sent the others back into the waves. After that there was an uneasy calm; the Ordiriss patrolling the coastline whilst the injured humans tried to recover.

Back on the main land, the Lathany party took a ship to Chir Shrine. There they separated into two groups with Gref and Elias headed for Star Castle and the Treaty whilst the rest returned to Leonides Island.

Back on the island, Taronus attended to the injured whilst Bryanna put on the Ring of Fortune and challenged the Legendary Warrior Valerie of the Blades to combat. Despite the differences in training, Bryanna was almost successful; but could not quite finish her opponent. She left the challenge and returned home, already planning a rematch.

After a couple of hours, Gref and Elias returned with the Treaty. The entire group read it and decided that, if Athory were to be saved, it needed to be replaced.

This agreement is binding to the Human inhabitants of Athory and to the Lirrisorn inhabitants of the waters of the Empire. The Human inhabitants agree to the conditions set by the Lirrisorn Mage. Humans will not alter the path of magic from the planet to the land of Athory. Humans will leave the Lirrisorn nation in peace. Humans will abandon the practice of reality magic, which is also known to them as the ninth path. The main land of Athory will be divided into ten Human Duchies and ruled by ten separate Human leaders. No descendant of King Zalanthus II will ever again make claim to the rulership of Athory or any other part of the former Empire. The lands of Lathany, Zair, the Kiris Isles, Floating Sands and the Kry Lands will be regarded as independent countries and not as part of Athory. The Lirrisorn inhabitants agree to the conditions set by the Human King. Lirrisorn will not alter the path of magic from the planet to the land of Athory. Lirrisorn will leave the Human nation in peace. Lirrisorn will abandon the practice of empathy magic, which is also known to Humans as the sixth path. Lirrisorn will drop all claims to the Duchies of Athory. Lirrisorn will allow trade between Athory and other nations over the waters belonging to them. Upon any breech of the conditions listed, the nation responsible has a moon cycle to reverse the damage. King Zalanthus Mage Epella

As ever, let me know if anything is missing, incorrect, etc.

Comments

[venta.livejournal.com]

If any of the other PCs are passing, can they comment on which bits of all this courtyard/strangling children/jigsaw house nonsense they're going to pass on to arch-sceptic Heleth ? Or whether they won't bother, on the grounds she'll just think it's mystical rubbish :)

(Bryanna did try to talk to her on their re-arrival on the island, but Heleth wasn't really listening on account of having just been severely thwapped over the head by a cross Lirrisorn, and not slept properly in ages.)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Gref will probably mention the paintings at least, since he's still vaguely suspicious that Tengath was having him on about the childbirth thing.

He'll also mention how weird it was that Taronus told him the whole thing wasn't real, but that when they escaped from it Lady Bryanna still had the mask she'd picked up.

[chrisvenus]

Taronus, after healing all those people, is not really thinking too much and will definitely assume that somebody else will have told you if he even thinks that hard...

[quisalan.livejournal.com]

I thought the jigsaw and the dancer were reversed in order?

That could just be me being mistaken though

[chrisvenus]

the kigsaw was definitely third ot last scene because I remember that I estimated two more courtyards beyond the one with the blocked door (the jigsaw one).

[ao-lai.livejournal.com]

I think it was Bryanna who approached the man in the third courtyard...