Davin's diary - Session 47

The following is an IC summary written by Davin's player.
---

A Meeting and Some Mayhem

I have realized that we need to name our delving party.

Not only would this allow an acceleration in the growth of our fame and reputation, but it would also be rather handy to have a shorthand indicating the group.

It currently consists of Miao, Jenkins, Warien, Llandor, Miriam and myself, now that Sir Yvor is off on the Baron's Own Service (with Happy disappearing into his shadow).

This leaves us a bit short on numbers, but I've heard that my old friend Bert- an enterprising locksmith, skilled with traps and all kinds of mechanical devices- is out of work and looking for a job. We met back when I was at the arcane university in Phessio, I've invited him to come along and be introduced to the others. I'm sure they'll get along.

I'm happy to vouch for Bert's skills and capabilities, less so for his honour and integrity, but he always has the back of his companions and I do think he'll have a knack for this line of work. I'll have to have a word with Jenkins on the quiet about increasing our food budget though.

I also uncovered Miao and Miriam's little conspiracy, in a most unexpected way.

The long and short of it is that they were hiding some prophecy the High Priest had had that indicated someone would try to steal the keys to the Liche's Lair.

I only found this out when we were either elevated in the Baron's esteem so much that he invites us to Council or drafted by the Baron to run his errands on an unpaid basis.

It amounts to the same thing- dangerous work for no pay- but I'm rather offended the Miao and Miriam though that they needed to keep this upcoming theft a secret from me.

First if I wanted to talk to the liche, I wouldn't need to 'free' her to do so- a simple scroll could provide magical communication without needing to crawl through sewers and filth to get to her.

Second if I wanted to free the liche- which I have no particular reason to do- I wouldn't need to steal the keys to do so - there are plenty of spells capable of bypassing or breaking a stone barrier. The idea that I'd need to resort to such mundane methods is insulting.

Third I'm not sure she is actually imprisoned, she's probably just researching. And likely knows spells that could break the barrier the same as I do.

There are certainly times I'd like an isolated underground lair to pursue my research without clerics spilling booze on my books or catfolk getting fur everywhere.

And fourth, what kind of idiots decide to hide the fact they expect to go up against a certain type of supernatural foe from their allied Wizard?

There are at least half a dozen useful spells I could have been studying over the last week that would be useful in a battle against a liche or cult of necromancers.

If someone had bothered telling me what was going on, I'd have memorized them. As it was, I barely had enough time to grab a scroll of protection from evil and I don't have the Sense Evil spell I'd need to understand it fully.

I'm really shocked by the lack of trust they've shown here and it's a lack of trust that's put their own lives in danger.

Anyway, the entire meeting was stupid, filled with stupid things that don't make any stupid sense.

• The prophecy apparently prevents us from moving the keys out of town to a place of greater safety or splitting the four keys up so they can't all be stolen at once.
• It's really, really important that the group with experience dealing with the liche and protecting the town be send to the very edge of the county instead of sticking around to investigate who might be involved.
• According to the priestess we would be wasting our time searching the town for the thieves as the theft is divinely determined to occur and we'd therefore be angering the Gods if we were to stop the criminals before they tried to rob the temple.

Miao slept through most of it but the long and short of it is they want us to march a week through the wilderness, away from the keys we know to be the target of the theft, in order to investigate a group of Necromancers that the High Priestess thinks is Evil.

She has a 'hunch' they may be involved, even though when asked she has no evidence of their involvement and they aren't mentioned in the prophecy that is our only clue.

If I didn't know better, I'd think they wanted us out of the way so this theft can go off without our interference.

But Warien and Samar both trust the temple and I trust them, so, I don't know, I guess I'll just go with it for now.

There might be some useful tomes, magics and information about how to deal with the liche in the necromancers' lair.

On the bright side, after the meeting, Bert was formally inducted into our group (and promptly made Quartermaster) and much drinking and celebration occurred. I wanted to investigate how to stop the liche just in case it all goes pear-shaped in a month's time, but apparently it's too important we rush out of town unprepared.

Oh! And it's barely worth mentioning, but a group of thugs tried to assassinate us as we were leaving the pub today.

Quite adorable really, a bunch of ruffians with rusted swords and optimism attacked us. Or rather, slightly bruised a surprised Bert.

Unfortunately for them, three seconds later, three of them had been carved up by Miao, Jenkins had set one of them on fire, Bert had one in a grapple and the rest were fleeing, deafened and reeling from Miriam's intimidation and my Thunderclap spell.

Llandor is rather more handy with his Quarterstaff in close quarters than I had previously realized, as well.

Unfortunately, I was rather restricted in my options, given we were in town, I didn't want to bring out anything too destructive for fear of bystanders or setting the city on fire.

I suspect if this was some random mugging, they would have picked an easier target than a noble swordwoman and her manservant, an anti-social ranger radiating hostility to the town in general, two members of the clergy and a future archmage - and that's assuming they didn't know Bert was with us.

It does suggest that someone who is aware of our intentions to stop this theft doesn't want us around to succeed in doing so - but on this occasion they vastly underestimated us.

We have a day to get ready, then we leave. I'll be picking up the new knives I ordered and seeing what scrolls are available in the guild then spend the day in the library, maybe I can gather some information on either killing the liche or the cult in the meantime.