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Monday, April 8, 2024

Emirikol: Notes from session 1, planning for session 2....

Asking the players what they wanted to do past the obvious clearing out Vulture Point, Dave wants to know more about the ghost, Jim wants to locate the people he’s targeting, Tom wants to settle into his house in Emirikol and Bec wants to wander the city like a gawking rube. Good to know.

Alejandro of Stormcliff Manor left just the right impression on the PCs, he won’t be back for a bit.

Re the Ghost: Since Hiram has claimed the Translator’s Ring if he encounters the ghost again in Ambleer manor Lady Lorell will be able to explain her predicament – the general location of her body and the need for water burial – but only to him. Changing from Elf in the House, Lorell is Roland's twice great grandmother, murdered stashed by a kinsman when it appeared that Lord Ambleer I had died on his 2nd southern mountain campaign.

The servants, if questioned, tell him the ghost appeared only to those with a musical or dramatic soul, and that if someone were to re-create the seeming of the events that killed her than she might be freed. This is them yanking Hiram’s chain. They don’t know who the ghost is or why she’s here, she’s just always been here. Her family portrait was by a bad painter of a much older her then her self-image ghost. Even Roland, Lord Ambleer IV doesn’t know who she is; family legend is that Lorell eloped with a lover when Lord Ambleer I was campaigning. Roland has never connected the ghost with his family’s hereditary ailment.

Apparently, the southern mountains are a constant source of uprisings, rebellions, and battles; Roland's twice great grandfather apparently fought there twice, the first time winning the family a new title and lands inside the greensward (the land on either side of the Rheel river heading to the capital). File that away.

No other threats until they reach Emirikol, where I need to describe the quadrants of the city seen from elevation and the differences between Ferrantino and Serin on the way to Dietrick's house. I suspect that Dietrick will offer up his manor to his fellows until they can find places of their own. At his manor they’ll meet his lawyer, a typical halfling bourgeois in the republic. He is Rudolph Eisenwald, the younger partner in the law firm employed by the Von Eisenwald's as business agents in the city. He's legit and efficient, the house is in good repair and has a wine cellar (apparently a big thing for Melas and Cybele) and in a good part of town.

If the PCs go out on the town to wander like gawking rubes, someone has to insult them. By the law of limited NPCs they're the de la Bellasteros family, the ones Melas is tasked with bringing down. Specifically, they are

·       Raul de la Bellasteros (F2, Ar2 due to inherit, proud and insulting at times),

·       Florian de la Bellasteros (Ar 3, charming wastrel, younger brother),

·       Donato De La Bellastros (C2, Ar1, close cousin, levelheaded fire priest) and

·       Victor d'Berangere (Ar1, F3, more distant cousin, full bore jerk who gets the others into trouble, holds grudges, likes to duel).

It is up to the PCs as to whether this is to the death or first blood, but with two healers on site it should be possible to do this without killing anyone so these guys can be long term NPCs. They might surprise me and go find a judge on these matters, but I somehow doubt it. More likely it will be a duel to first blood, though Victor and Raul wouldn't mind a little death-duel action.

The Vulture Point adventure also has awesome treasures: specifically, one set of saddlebags holds a cockatrice feather and a vial of green dragon blood. These are evocative without meaning anything. But… their saddlebags bear an unknown wizard’s mark… someone who might want them returned. If the PCs choose to follow up on this it will lead them eventually to Aslan Nightshade, bringing him into their orbit on their own recognizance.

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