Day 2 5/18/2022
The Audience Chamber
We stare at Azazel. The queen leans forward and looks at him, asking for an introduction. He does so. She wants to know what he thinks can be done. He says that their god is probably pissed at them. He says there are ways to get back into the good graces of their deity, but the easiest way would be to decrease the goddess’ power. The queen tells him to sit. The queen looks at the priests. Azazel asks them if they have any ideas. No one responds.
Felix wants to conjure a capybara and have it run through the chamber, but he wants to conjure it stealthily. He does so and says we could sacrifice that. The queen watches it, then says someone should get that animal out. The priests look at it, then at her. Three of them rush forward. Felix makes the capybara disappear, and the three priests ram their heads together at breakneck speed. A sickening crunch as one of the other priests tells them it’s an illusion. The queen covers her face. The three are dead and she says to take them out to the water. Six priests go grab the bodies to take them to the water.
Felix joins the group as she says we are the least incompetent people in the room and asks what we think she should do. Azazel says that their city is probably lost. He says there are temples in Sypetia, sites of power. Felix steps away from the group. Azazel continues, saying they could make the temples no longer sites of power and that would reduce the deity’s power so she would stop causing problems in the country. Hawthorn wants to know what will stop the other gods from doing anything if Sypet (the goddess) gets knocked down a few pegs. Azazel says she has a monopoly on Sypetia and the gods will do nothing. He absolutely has ulterior motives.
The queen is glaring swords at Azazel. She buries her face in her hands. She starts lecturing. She has started two wars. She says she cannot condone shutting down the temples to Sypet, unless it works. She says she can’t give us permission to do so, but unless any of the priests has any other options, she will let us leave the room alive to do as we wish. Azazel says that we’re with him after Gwyneira asks what we would get for helping. Hawthorn decides to do a backflip from his chair and goes a row back, nicely landing in the seat behind him. Idham asks if we can get her blessing to travel her country and at a yes, he asks for it in writing. She yells for a scribe, and a slave in manicles comes out with a piece of paper to hand to Idham. Idham slips him a silver as he takes the paper. On the paper, it says: under the order of queen Sypet the 63rd, the bearers of this paper are granted safe passage across her land. Idham asks if Azazel knows where the temples are and he says he knows where three of them are, but we will have to dig for the fourth and there are likely eight. She says the resources of the city are available to us. Felix asks for the library. Records would be there as well. Azazel sassily says goodbye to the queen and Gwyneira kicks him, and follows. We all leave the room. As we step out of the door, Azazel grabs a pack, and we hear the distinct sound of his armor clinking.
The Library
We make our way to the library. We ask Azazel questions, he’s from Delet. None of the rest of us know anything about these temples. We ask the tree all kinds of questions. Idham asks to read Hawthorn’s journal. We come up to the door of the library. The library is huge and we don’t see the bookkeeper. Idham asks Felix to call for him as he’s the loudest, and Felix agrees, taking his staff out to pound on the floor. We hear nothing, so Gwyneira just asks where the records are. A voice sounds out giving directions. Gwyneira and Hawthorn go to the records. Felix just walks off to the right. Xander asks if they have anything on stopping gods, and the voice says the gods are not meant to be stopped. Idham asks for the restricted section, and the voice says no. He says that the queen has given leave to use the resources as he wants. The voice directs him to the restricted section. Felix goes to the 34th row. Azazel goes with Idham and Xander. We go separate ways.
Felix asks for information from his staff, the Staff of Fangar. It gives weather information. Gwyneira and Hawthorn arrive at the record section. Hawthorn looks into census data and it has it for the last 1842 years. He looks for the year 970. He goes to reach for the book, and it’s there, and it’s quite thick. Gwyneira asks for current slave data. It’s in the ninth row, but it’s a very long list. So is Hawthorn’s list. Hawthorn is reading very intently.
Idham, Azazel, and Xander go to the forbidden section. The door is chained and locked, but it opens in front of them. Azazel says his main goal is to kill the queen when Idham says that this is what you get for being nice. Idham is reading stone tablets that are promises from Sypet and commands from Sypet. He puts the stone in his bag, and moves on. The next tablet.
Back to Felix, he looks up and asks for information about the Staff of Fangar. The library says it’s unknown. He says it is a sentient item, and the library tells him where to go.
Hawthorn asks for info on Sophia Everglade, and it just tells him where to find the info. Gwyneira and Hawthorn start scanning books. Gwyneira asks where to find more specific knowledge. It says to ask the record keeper, and when asked where he is, the record keeper is floating in the water. He was the priest who drowned. Gwyneira gives up and heads back to the entrance. Hawthorn takes the book.
Idham is passing tablets to Xander to put in his bag, and Xander stacks them to the side instead. He finds nothing that he’s looking for, but Xander finds a listing of temples elsewhere. He takes it to Azazel. He can’t read it, so Idham translates the language. The last bit is torn out.
Felix is still looking for the right book.
Hawthorn and Gwyneira go to the front and find half an inch of water. Gwyneira tells the library to tell the rest of the party. Xander runs back to the section he got the temple book in and grabs random books. As Idham turns around, he sees the tablets stacked behind him. He wants the library to tell him where the last 40 pages of the book is; it says no record exists because of powers beyond its control. Any priest of Sypet or ruler had access to the book. Azazel asks when the room was made. 147 years ago is the answer. The current ruler’s father had access to the room. The room has a list of who entered the room. Book was published 402 years ago. Idham asks for a complete list of the visitors to the room. Then a scroll floats through the air, five minutes later. Idham sticks the scroll in his bag. Azazel addresses the library, asking if the current queen was ever in the room as well as the last high priest. Yes. Anyone who would want books damaged. Yes. How long is that list? Unavailable. Idham asks for the list of those that wouldn’t want to damage the book and it’s 342. Azazel asks if anyone isn’t on the list that should be. Yes, but information is unavailable. The person is an elderly gnome, with white hair and gilded robes, with a symbol of Sypet on his robes. Is Sypet the 62nd on the list? He is not on the list. Information available, as is any info on him. When asked if there is a Sypet the 62nd, the library says there is no Sypet the 62nd.
Felix is still looking. Gwyneira and Hawthorn are at the door, and the water hasn’t gone up the steps to the library yet. They wait. Felix asks the staff where the answers are. It says the answers aren’t there yet. Felix makes note of where he was and heads back to the front door.
Idham knows that Sypet the 62nd did exist. Idham heads back to the front of the library, planning to head back to the audience chamber. Xander follows.
The Audience Chamber
They say get the front and say they are going to talk to the queen. They pass the info back to the rest of the group. We head to the audience chamber. There are only ten priests alive, the rest are dead. They are bleeding from their throats with a bloody knife in their hands. Felix decides to try to be “noble” asking for her hand saying he was discourteous last time, but she declines. He uses a pocket dimension to try to get right above her head, and tries to use charm as he reaches through, and he is able to touch her head and succeeds. As his hand withdraws, a shadowy figure appears on the throne to bring a sword down on his wrist. Now, a cloaked figure stands at the top, staring down at us as he is in front of the queen.
Idham asks to speak to the queen, the guardsmen will allow it but says he will stay there. He brings up the book's missing pages and the missing record of Sypet the 62nd. She does not know, but she knows her father was in the library before she became queen. She’s never seen the book and doesn’t think her father would remove pages from the book, so she thinks there is something wrong with the library. She says she’ll have the record keeper check the library. Idham says he’s dead and she replies that she will replace him and points to the third in line and tells him he will. He just nods. Idham asks, if her father was to harm the book, where would he take the pages? She says anything of his that was left, she either kept or threw away if she didn’t want it. She wants to know why we would ask this. Idham responds by telling her what the book is about. Idham asks if maybe her father had put forth a false idol above Sypet. As far as we know, we would believe from what she says and what her priests put forth, we would believe her. But Idham knows that she is telling the truth as far as she believes and he catches on to the fact that she emphasizes that her father wouldn’t do it, and not saying that nobody could have and only that he could have. Felix is checking to see if there is a spell that may be brainwashing her. She does have multiple spells on her right now, but he can’t tell how many or what kind. She does have more than three ongoing spells affecting her right now. Idham wants to know why the logs would be wiped of Sypet the 62nd, if maybe someone had wiped them to place false blame on him? She says likely. Who might have hated him so? He would, yes, anyone in power does. Nobody since she was a young child had despised her father.
Xander asks about the name of the high priest who recently drowned himself so he could check the log. Sevar Justicar. His name does appear quite a bit. The queen’s name appeared 84 years ago for the first time. Idham passes it over to Azazel. He asks if she loved her dad very very much. She says yes, very much. Felix changes shape into Sypet the 62nd. Idham wants to know about the guard in front of the queen. The guard, who is female, used to be a slave before she was a guard and had no name. Felix moves to be in view of the queen and disguises his voice to sound like her father as well. He tells her to give us the information we seek, as she knows the answers. She says she burned him herself and put his ashes into her locket. Gwyneira puts a misty look around him and Xander turns to a fairy and casts daylight behind him. Idham tries to bluff saying it’s his honor to be in his presence. She says she thought it was going to be the right thing for her people. She is the first queen in 50 generations. She says she is Sypet. Idham says look around her and Hawthorn puts forward that her priests are dead. Several argue that she’s in the wrong. She still thinks she’s Sypet, the goddess, and doing this to try to save her people and the sacrifices are to increase her power. When Gwyneira asks if she’s Sypet, why is she doing this to her own city. She replies that her power is too weak. Felix tries to convince the guards and priests to leave as the last king. 11 more cloaked figures appear around her and 12 guards walk away and seem to vanish under the stairs. The priests all walk out the main doors.
Idham attacks her. She is knocked up and over the throne, landing on her back right behind the dais. Gwyneira attacks and says, “You are not a god.” She starts stuttering in confusion but still believes she is the goddess. Felix as the father slams down his staff and says you are not a god and you were not ready for the throne. She says she tried and he was gone. They hated him so much and she killed all of them, all but one. 107 from the time she was six. She was his sword. He asks which one she let go, and she says the one that killed him but he’s in the sea right now. Does she know anyone who might be causing this, but no. She is likely the one who is causing this by believing that she is the goddess. Idham walks up to her to attack.
Hawthorn walks up to her, takes the crown, and says you don’t deserve this and watches the execution. Felix drops his disguise and says, I told you you would remember the name Felix Thandor. Idham pulls out his ax and hears, “Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine,” as Azazel rushes forward, wings out and he starts to reach for his sword and rethinks it before stretching his hand out, a knife popping out of his wrist and skewers her head. Idham still crushes her head. He cleans his hammer off on her robes and pauses to wait for lightning. After we wait, it does come, but further away. And the next one is even further away. And then the sun comes out.
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