Previously on Lost in Navir...

[lurkingcat]

The party settles down in Scjaarn for a few weeks in order to upgrade equipment and do some planning. Drenak, Jaic and Laura all rent apartments in the Old Keep area. Carl decides to stay at the Deathsgate Guild's inn, The Red Blade. Beth and Rachel gain admittance to the same exclusive ladies lodgings that Cast Shayla is staying at. Everyone donates goods or services to the Clifftop Adventurer's Charity Auction.

Drenak calls on Cast Shayla and they discuss the murder of a Holtese scribe in Grey Wall.

The party meets briefly at the auction house to gaze hopefully at the charity auction items of their desire. A number of other auction hopefuls are also present as is Alex Peachtree who has decided to go into politics.

Meanwhile, Carl has prevailed upon Rachel to attempt some kind of Polymorph spell in order to solve his issues with being a Half Orc bard. Having decided that Drow are generally good looking he asks to her to turn him into "a pretty, pretty Drow". Rachel delivers, exactly as requested, a transformation into her idea of a pretty Drow. And thus it is that Carl becomes Carla...

Our bard does not handle this turn of events especially well to start with, particularly since whichever Harbinger was overseeing the spellcasting session thought it was funny to make sure that Carla's period was just about due to start. There is some shouting. The Gnome notary is confused but does his best to remain polite and calm and tells the pair of them that he hopes they will be very happy together. Rachel is utterly mortified at having her psyche so publically on display and goes and gets cake. Carla fails to be grateful for this.

Carla uses an Alter Self spell to return to her Half Orc look before meeting up with the rest of the party at the Lucky Nines Casino. At least her singing voice is still damn good. Rachel nervously explains to everyone else why the bard is in such a foul mood. Reactions range from merriment to sympathy and Drenak plies the hapless singer with so much wine that she gets drunks and forgets to renew the Alter Self spell mid-evening. Carla accepts a date with an over-friendly Bugbear and Laura, with the best of intentions, starts the process of accidentally terrifying the new girl with things that she ought to be aware of now that everyone thinks she's female.

The following morning Carla has mellowed out a bit and Rachel and Laura take her shopping. They do not find any cursed items of gender changing during their search but at least Carla now has some clothes that fit, some sanitary supplies, and some herbs in case of emergency.

Beth hangs out at the auction house and has lunch with a Deathsgate Guild Gnome. Drenak meets Cast Shayla for lunch and they do not discuss getting married at all. Really. Because that would be un-Dwarvish.

That evening the Charity Auction takes place. It is compered by Kessler the Bard who is clearly enjoying himself. Beth's dragon's tooth is bought by the university and Carl's gnomish stage costume is bought by a middle-aged gnome lady. Drenak wins a tour of the House Solderak vaults and House Solderak buy Laura's services for a Glyph of Greater Warding for some extra vault protection. Jaic's Seven are mostly successful in their purchase attempts although Carla is a little put out when Jaic bids on, and wins, the pair of silver rings with dragon shards.

The following morning the party meet up for an argument a planning session. The outcome of this is some downtime for assorted people to read their Tomes of Stat Increase and a trip to see the Colonel for everyone else.

The Colonel is positively chatting and is only offended by Jaic's Holtese loyalties getting in the way of his information gathering. Fortunately Rachel is more diplomatic and Drenak is his usual honest self. They learn that the Princess Haydeth and the High Inquisitor have been positively shocked by a Changeling rebellion against the High King. Rachel and Drenak are just honest enough about the party's intentions for the Colonel to agree to release the Professor's bits of Dragon Gate into their custody.

Drenak and Cast Shayla take a trip to the temple of Dol Dorn to mumble some vows at each other and exchange wedding gifts. At no point does Drenak mention to the rest of the party that he is now married. Because that would be un-Dwarvish. This is possibly just as well or Laura might have alarmed poor Rachel by providing funds and a request to be Polymorphed into a Dwarf in order to avoid a much more public wedding.

As it is, Carla sells Intrepid Girl Reporter Cloud Zakynth a wedding exclusive and then the party teleport out to Neveriven where Jaic and Laura get married in the temple of Irrasha. The Ilel officiates and there is a wedding arch of flaming swords provided by the Exorcists of Irrasha. Carla performs a couple of ABBA songs that are perhaps aimed more at Rachel than at the happy couple and the party stays at the caravanaserai of Reeds overnight teleporting back to Scjaarn in the morning.

There they discover that Cutter Drago has been deposed by one of his generals. Maybe. Drenak goes to see the Colonel who tells him that there is chaos in Sungiven and that Cutter Drago has not been seen at all. He thinks that there is something odd going on and that things aren't as straightforward as the reports coming out of the Autok Empire might indicate (!). Possibly there has been some body swapping going on due to the instability of the planes and the Divine Flame.

Not wishing to jump blind into a situation on which the survival of Navir depends, the party discuss information gathering tactics. These most boil down to Laura attempting to scry Cutter Drago and Laura maybe trying to ask Irrasha a few questions via a Commune spell.

Last chance for people to suggest yes/no questions that Laura might want to ask Irrasha as I need to email a list to ankaret soon (or possibly last week. That sort of soon).

Comments

[k8bush]

Beyond playing 20 questions to try and locate dragon gate amulets in the Empire, the only question Rachael would add, quietly and not repeating it if no-one heard her would be "Will re-starting the Sacred Flame be a course of action that will lead to more death and destruction than not doing so?" The war is much on her mind, and though she is duty bound to do the job anyway she worries...

[lurkingcat]

That's a good one - thank you.