Session 49: Thronehold Tour, Part 2

or, KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BULL

 * We are all sitting at the dinner table with von Pappen toasting his "honored guests".
 * He says it's very important to get Lenore; Queen of Aundair is young and apparently influenceable, and has 2 factions courting her: the Control Faction seeks to retake the Eldeen Reaches, Redemption Faction wants Thaloist (old former capital of Aundair that is currently under Thranean control). We need to figure out which direction the queen is leaning.
 * He starts launching into the history behind this and after about an hour, Cornerio is yawning. Von Pappen notices and Mogen passes it off as a cultural sign of respect for gnomes. Sam goes along with it because apparently he also gets bored.
 * Sam starts bringing in dinner, which includes a savory mystery jelly. Mogen asks about it and apparently it's made from stuff the butcher sells for cheap like gelatin. Vikrit loves it; Mogen slices off a piece to see how it decays. Then we have some anise-flavored liqueur.
 * Von Pappen takes "our leader", Tork, aside to explain more to him. Then, our cube starts vibrating--Yanger is calling. We squabble about what story we're going to give him, and it stops ringing; then we pick up when he calls again.
 * It's Kalti, hiding in the bathroom. He asks if we're in Thronehold and we don't confirm. He says we're staying in the Aundarian royal compound. He says they're "permanent guests" for now, held by Lord Darro. Yanger has a daily constitutional in the mornings - by 10 am. 1 escort guard by the entrance. We discuss whether it's a trap. Some of us are more suspicious than others. We think about leaving him a secret note.
 * Meanwhile, von Pappen speaks with Tork. He asks him to keep anything untoward out of his home, and if we need to burn our identities, we are responsible for clearing them. He adds that he'll need to make a report to Central Control. He then says he'll need to be undisturbed for the rest of the night.
 * Tork comes back in and we update him. Vesun recalls that Lord Darro is the 2nd in command of the army (high ranking member of government), heads the Redemption Faction (First Warlord Adal is in charge of the Control Faction.).
 * Darro was the one riling up the students way back at Fairhaven University (he was in league with Miriam).
 * Tork asks about the Placid Gardens, and Sam says it's not really well-maintained but some area. There's only 1 way to get in.  We discuss a plan to have Vesun invisibly hand Yanger a Stone of Farspeech, then decide to hide the stone and give him a Sending message where to pick it up and where to find it. It'll be easiest for us to cross over at the Brelish crossing.
 * Going from Aundair into Karrnathi Quarter main prejudice was keeping out half-elves like Sarienne.
 * Cornerio goes to the pool room and messes around with the pool table, making a lot of noise. Vanesse comes in and immediately does much better than him.
 * The next morning…
 * Sarienne crosses into the Aundairian Quarter and then into Freeport to go scout in the Thranean Quarter. The border guard asks if she's nervous about half-elves being press-ganged (House Deneith is apparently neutral but the guard isn't a fan). She heads from Freeport to the Thranean Quarter… and she rolls a natural 1.
 * Sarienne fucks up giving her first name and tries to claim it's her maiden name. The guard says he's going to confiscate her ID, he tries to put it on his desk and she manages to grab it without him noticing.
 * She heads to the other Freeport-Thrane border and successfully gets across. She heads to the Lost Egg. There is a spindly man there (Arnold).
 * The rest of us head to the Brelish Quarter. The border guard is suspicious that Tork lives with someone like Cornerio, but lets him through. Vikrit encounters a little trouble going into the gardens from the Brelish Quarter, but the guard lets them off by telling them not to let him eat the plants. We head into the maintained area of the gardens.
 * Cornerio climbs up onto a roof for some reason. We debate hiding the stone of farspeech or dropping it invisibly into Yanger's pocket. A human noblewoman comes up to Vanesse and asks if the park is open; she says no and to leave but rolls poorly, but then starts a religious spiel and she quickly leaves.
 * Mogen rolls ridiculously well (38) creating a cradle of wire for the stone of farspeech that can be manipulated with a magehand. Everyone hides; Vikrit in a tree, Cornerio on a roof, Mogen hiding behind a wall, and Vanesse walks out to distract anyone else coming in.
 * Yanger and the guard arrive.
 * The guard leans against the wall and looks in his pack for something. Yanger moves forward and sniffs the air. Vesun sends him his Sending message. Then a telepathic message returns: ARE YOU SAFE? Vesun isn't able to answer. The guard is smoking and not paying attention.
 * Yanger goes over to the bench but doesn't seem to find the stone. Tork mage hands the string so the stone drops on the ground. Yanger grabs it and makes sure the guard didn't see. He packs a pipe and moves to another bench to sit.
 * Yanger puts the stone up to his ear and Mogen checks if he can hear/when we can meet up again; he says he's only free once a day but should have more time. The guard yells at Yanger to get going. He says "I need to do a minotaur thing in the woods" to the guard, who is skeptical but he makes up some bullshit about needing to scrape his horns on trees. He says "it's been a while since I've expressed my glands…" and the guard steps out of the park.
 * He sits on a bench and talks with Mogen. She says we have eyes on him, he asks what the hell is going on since we were supposed to meet him months ago. Mogen says she'll explain later; he says, "you should know I'm technically a member of The Twelve and of the Directorate of Arcanix"… he's on an "extended sabbatical slash involuntary leave depending on your perspective of the situation". He says the Aundarian government is really preparing for war. Something really strange is happening--Jana was with someone else and Darro knows something about Stargazers and the gates.
 * He says the next seal is deep in a volcano in the Mror Holds and leads to Fernia, the plane of flames… and we're going to need a Royal Warrant in order to get in to the country. He says they're not really captives of the Aundarians, they have a room at a fancy hotel but they haven't seen it in ages. Vikrit sneaks to the other tree next to him so he can join in (and chimes in that Yanger is in a gilded cage).
 * Darro wants Yanger to work on the magic plans for the war machine and that's the only way he'll be free; the war is obviously a significant threat now. Vikrit warns him that the guy with Jana is a mindflayer. He also says Darro knew everyone's real name but Tork's. He doesn't know what Darro wants, but Darro would be able to get us into the Mror Holds. We tell him we'll use the same bench as a dead drop.
 * Vanesse notices the guard is about to go back in and intercepts him, but he heads back to Yanger and they leave.
 * Meanwhile, Sarienne arrives at The Lost Egg.
 * She introduces herself as Eleanor, a friend of Sam's. He says to tell Sam he'd feel more comfortable with "another sack". He says to watch her feet since he hasn't finish mucking the stalls in the back.
 * Sarienne looks around and asks Arnold for directions to the Officer's Club. He says the officers like hanging out there and they occasionally send a priest in to "calm them down" but they reject the clergy. He says he's just "a simple man with a simple vice" and wants to make sure he gets "a sack" sooner rather than later. Sarienne gives him a bag of coins but he hands it back and says "make it 2" instead.
 * She then heads to the Officer's Club to scout. There's not much foot traffic, and she can see one guard at the entrance. She sneaks past the guard easily; there's a blacksmithing area but no obvious weapons. She goes and listens at the door at the back.
 * Sarienne hears someone say: "I heard that the Diet of Cardinals is preparing to give up one of ours over that stupid thing." "From what I heard, it's complete bullshit; at most that regiment was a dozen strong, how could they have killed 40 people?" "Yeah well, not like that's gonna help Yaris now." (One of the officers thinks that Yaris is going to be thrown to the wolves and it doesn't make sense that a group that small massacred that many people, but they're going to cover it up regardless.)
 * She sees a way to get in--climbing up a tree onto the awning, then breaking a window. She also didn't see any obvious prison or cell, so she's not sure where Lenore is.
 * The party reconvenes in the Brelish Quarter outside the garden.
 * Sarienne updates us on the rest, and Mogen fills her in.
 * Cornerio suggests that a continent-wide war would be good because it'll cause chaos for our enemies too.
 * "So we have to extract the target and then get Yanger out, without causing an international incident?" "Just another day in the life-a of-a the Ghost Sharks-a!"
 * We start heading home. 3 half-orc hunters kick a half-elf kid out of a bar (The Horn and Cider) and a gnome who helps him up… Sarienne recognizes her cousin Jerome and his friend. She puts her hood up, and hears Baylock say, "Don't worry, we'll get Giggs back… remember when we pulled off that thing with your cousin? We just need another brilliant plan like that."