Summary of February Session: To the Steel City!
Topic: Session Summaries
Axel, Patrick, Jour, and Riley parted ways with Marcellus and Golda and discussed maximizing loot value potential on the road toward the city of Three Points. Choosing to travel through the Empire rather than Vargild, the party made its way across the marshy landscape of the province of Bevane.

Coming upon the small town of Thorpton, hoping to catch a bath, a bite to eat, and a bed, they instead found a village rapidly abandoned, the ground covered with bodies of fallen residents, some mangled with nasty bite marks, others apparently having died of severe frostbite. Immediately desirous of knowing what had befallen the poor townsfolk, Patrick used his outdoorsmanship to determine that a cryohydra had attacked the village; Axel found the body of a priestess of the dark aspect of Sefana, who had not been killed by the hydra but by the town guard. She bore grin on her dead face, as if she'd died pleased with her work.

Further investigation revealed that the town had a church of Sefana, tended by one priestess who focused on the "light" aspects of the Goddess of Passion, called Sefi, and one who focused on the Dark, called Ana. The priestesses' names were Serena and Eileen, respectively. Eileen had apparently been jealously plotting against Serena and the townsfolk for some time, becoming dangerously obsessed with the reliquary kept at the church. The party believes she discovered the cryohydra in the moors and lured it towards the city so that it would hunt down the townsfolk.

During their investigations, Axel liberated a box of Empire official stamps and sealing wax and some "food stamps," the latter of which were given to Jour for him to hand out as he was wont, being told that if they were left behind, looters may steal them and sell them on the black market. They also found an unsent letter from Serena to her brother Jamian, and uncovered the writing on the wall in Eileen's house. They then tracked the hydra to its lair and valiantly destroyed it, to be sure it could not prey on any of the locals again. Jour was critically injured during the fight, but the rest dispatched it and healed him quickly before he could succumb to his near-fatal wounds.

Within the lair, the party found a glove from an old-school crusader's guild, a gold ring, and some other things which Eli wrote down.

Hoping to figure out where Serena of Sefi went, the party continued towards Three Points, stopping at the manor of Lord Gentry, who ruled over the local area. Reporting they'd killed the beast that slaughtered Thorpton, Lord Gentry offered them hospitality. Though he himself did not make himself known to his guests, the party met with the Chancellor of the village and some guardsmen and they reported the death of Eileen (as well as the beast) and warned the Chancellor to be more wary of how the local Church of Sefana is run. They were told Serena was alive and had likely sought refuge with her brother in Three Points. A guardsmen who noted Axel and Riley speaking to each other of mischief in a Caravanners' Cant, warned Jour that he may be keeping company with unscrupulous, possibly dangerous folk.

The party continued on to Three Points, located where the Telsey, Stonefall, and Gildfall Rivers meet--and moreover where the borders of Vargild, Zweidor, and the Empire meet. It is a prosperous trading town, with a prominent academy in the center highlighted by a massive, impossibly tall tower dedicated to Aurit in the center. An outpost across the Telsey, called the Norbakk, is a valuable source of dwarven steel and craftsmanship.

The party sought out Jamian, and found that Serena had survived relatively unharmed, if shaken and a bit guilt-ridden by the massacre in the hometown. She very gratefully received the unmarred reliquary the party had recovered. Her brother Jamian, being a knowledgeable man-about-town, referred the party to good sources for getting good prices for some of the art objects the party had collected.

Jour reported into the Church of Pirs, and asked them if they could dispose of the dark necromantic artifacts once belonging to Darkstride. They had an artificer who would be well capable of disposing of the objects and reforging them into something good. The priest talking with them, Paul, also recognized Patrick, seeing something of his mother in him, and Patrick's origins as a son of a Priestess of Pirs and a Free Coast lordling came to light, much to Patrick's embarrassment.

A younger acolyte asked Jour to help train some would be temple guards if he had time. She also directed Patrick to the Red Light District.

The party then made its way towards the Vargild border, where the Caravanners' Campground is located. Many clans of Rovers, Halflings, and mercantile groups were gathered for a summer celebration and trading. Riley found her uncle Riordan's tent, where he was having a drink with one of the leaders of the O'Hanrahan Clan, Porric.

Porric riddled at Axel and all had a good stiff drink. They were invited to the festival of Shadows to be held that evening; Porric is to be the MC. The group later found their Carnie friends and chatted with them. Axel was invited for a private chat by Porric, and Riley interrogated Riordan about Yelir. Riordan said he hadn't known about Yelir, but he said he and Porric could cast some divinations to see if she is legitimately Riley's sister.

The afternoon grows warm and hot and the shadows long, and songs carry the party into the evening...