Ch 5: Part 1: City of Illusion: Session 79

[15:59] <@Kilarra> *****Second Darkness*****
[15:59] <@Kilarra> ~~~Chapter 5: A Memory of Darkness~~~
[16:01] <@Kilarra> -Session 79-
[16:02] <@Kilarra> The party had a rather cryptic and seemingly unappreciated meeting with the ELven Queen, only to return to their provided lodgings and find a tome that was not there before displayed prominently on the sitting room table.
[16:03] * Kilarra moves to inspect the book first. It had to have been put there for some reason.
[16:03] * Aluthyra moves in behind Kilarra, looking over her shoulder.
[16:04] <Aluthyra> Kahree just leans against a wall, waiting with a frown. Stupid elves...
[16:04] <@Kilarra> The book is large, it's laquered wood cover embossed with silver and the pages were gold edged. The title of the book is in elven, but notably there is a page marked by a single green vine tipped with a violet flower, recognizeable as the same material that composed Telandia's crown
[16:07] * Kilarra frowns, looking to Aluthyra, "Do you read Elven? Or is Kjell the only one of us that can?"
[16:08] * Aluthyra shakes her head. "I do not."
[16:09] <Aluthyra> Kahree sits up, moving to the table. She nods, raising her hand. "Actually, I do too."
[16:09] * Kilarra nods and motions for Kjell to come over. "Mind reading this for us? Might be a hint."
[16:09] <@Kilarra> Kjell nods and steps up to the table, taking the tome. "EMerald Dreams," he orates.
[16:10] * Kilarra wiggles her wrist a bit. "Thing is heavy."
[16:10] <Aluthyra> Kahree reads along, though to herself.
[16:11] <@Kilarra> Kjell opens the book to the marked page. "The Quasit's Promise."
[16:12] <@Kilarra> In brief, this story recounts of an elven princess named Ilaraviana who is captured by a marilith and placed in a prison infested with quasits. The priestess escapes by forming an alliance with one of these quasits (a foul-by forming an alliance with one of these quasits (a foulmoutheddemon named Ochurgund).
[16:12] <Aluthyra> Kahree blinks. "So... the elven queen is... being held hostage?"
[16:13] <@Kilarra> Even though the quasit breaks his promise to the priestess in the end and betrays her, her trust in the quasit to act according to its nature and betray her allowed her to engineer her escape nevertheless—she emerges from the prison wounded but alive.
[16:13] * Kilarra actually starts chuckling. "Damn. SHe's good."
[16:17] <@Kilarra> Kjell raises an eyebrow at Kilarra, "Is there something you get here that I'm missing?"
[16:22] * Kilarra nods, "I think so." She puzzles it out in her head for a moment, thinking about her suspicions. "The Elven Queen was putting on a show in front of the nobles and advisors to make it look like she wasn't actually interested in what we had to say, and even though none of us were proven to be lying, she still didn't commit to saying she believed us."
[16:24] * Kilarra looks to Aluthyra, "However, for a moment, she looked at us with rapt attention, only when the nobles were not watching her. She was trying to clue us in to something then, and this story is clearly meant to be a bigger hint."
[16:25] * Kilarra then notes to Kahree, "I'm not entirely sure if it's a hostage situation, but someone or something is trying to reign in the Queen where the drow are concerned. Strikes me as some kind of coverup."
[16:25] * Kilarra smirks, "You grow up in a city like Riddleport, you see this kind of manipulation everywhere."
[16:30] * Aluthyra nods. "Very well, but... what is our next move? I am sure that we cannot see the queen directly about this, and unless she plans on contacting us further..."
[16:33] * Kilarra thinks a moment on the story that was just read to them by Kjell. "Well, the story must tie into this somehow. It's just a question of who is related to which part of the story. Are we supposed to be represented? Or is it just a metaphor for her current situation, with her wanting us to find a way to help her. She strikes me as someone with a plan, I'm just not 100% sure which part in it we'll end up playing."
[16:40] <Aluthyra> Kahree shrugs. "Well, we could wait a little bit... Then why not do some recon? We'll hafta find out ourselves if she doesn't make it known to us."
[16:43] <@Kilarra> Kjell nods, "I agree. We can't really jump to conclusions in a delicate situation like this. Thus far we've been fighting drow, but if Kilarra is right, then there's someting else going on above the surface as well."
[16:45] * Aluthyra nods. "So then we wait, and perhaps we shall gather information for ourselves. -If- we do plan to wait, if it takes that long, I would suggest a watch at night. If the queen needed to dance around words, then we may be in danger for bringing up the issue as well."
[16:46] * Kilarra nods, "Good idea." She looks around the group, "So who want's to volunteer to keep watch then?"
[16:46] <@Kilarra> wants
[16:46] <Aluthyra> Kahree shrugs. "I've got plenty of sleep... so I guess I can."
[16:47] * Kilarra nods, "I'll prepare a sendign tomorrow to see if I can get any information out of Eviana, although she probably doesn't know much of what goes on outside of Crying Lead. Still, we know we can trust her."
[16:49] <Aluthyra> Kahree nods. "Works for me, well, would work better if the elves would just speak their mind." She groans. "Politics, stupid politics..."
[16:49] <Aluthyra> "Or hostage... situation. Whichever."
[16:51] * Kilarra chuckles at Kahree, "I'm sure once we know -who- we're dealing with, we'll be able to dispense with the subtleties."
[16:54] <Aluthyra> Kahree huffs. "Just hope we don't need to wait very long."
[16:56] <@Kilarra> Kjell changes back into his regular clothes, feeling that his attempt to look presentable had been wasted.
[16:56] * Kilarra removes her armour, but keeps her clothes on (shocker!) for bed. If they were to expect trouble, she didn't want to be caught in just her skin.
[16:57] <Aluthyra> Kahree snickers at Kjell, not wasting her opportunity to remark that she told him so. She then waits, pacing just outside her companions' rooms for her watch.
[16:58] * Aluthyra snuggles up with Kilarra for bed, keeping her monk robes on.
[16:58] * Kilarra enjoys snuggling with those lovely wings some more
[16:59] <@Kilarra> Kjell goes to his room, but sits at the desk awake for the moment, going over his spells and seeing if he might have anything more contributory to their purpose here than blowing things up.
[17:07] <Aluthyra> Kahree patrols between Kilarra and Aluthyra's room and Kjell's room.
[17:15] <@Kilarra> Kahree can hear movement around their accomodations. All around them
[17:18] <Aluthyra> Kahree frowns. Trouble. Not so sneaky though... She quickly makes her way to Kjell, beckoning him to follow. She stays low and quiet, whispering to him as she moves towards Kilarra's room, "Trouble around the house, Kjell. Let's wake the other two."
[17:19] <@Kilarra> Kahree was also able to see, at a glance, that the assailants to be were taking time to qualf potions before their attack.
[17:21] <Aluthyra> Kahree frowns, hurriedly making her way to her other companions' room. She knocks impatiently, then enters. "Trouble. Wake up."
[17:22] <@Kilarra> Kjell gets up, using the enemie's prep time to cast his own shield and enhancement spells.
[17:23] * Kilarra bolts out of bed, having been expecting a disruption, and quickly grabs her mace and holy symbol. She doubted she would have time to put her armour on before they started fighting.
[17:23] * Kilarra is somewhat jealous of the fact that Aluthyra doesn't need any
[17:49] <@Kilarra> -End Session-